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Home My WebLink About2011-11-22 Info Packet= 1 CITY OF IOWA CITY --Aff irffnv Arn CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION PACKET November 22, 2011 NOVEMBER 29 SPECIAL WORK SESSION IP1 Council Meetings and Work Session Agenda IP2 November 29 Strategic Planning Materials IP3 November 29 Orientation Agenda MISCELLANEOUS IP4 Email from City Manager: Report from Peter Fisher re Johnson County Examples Illustrate Problems with TIF IP5 Memo from City Clerk: KXIC Radio Show IP6 Chamber Annual Banquet Email DRAFT MINUTES IP7 Human Rights Commission: November 15, 2011 IP8 Planning & Zoning Commission: November 3, 2011 IP9 Police Citizens Review Board: November 16, 2011 IP10 Telecommunications Commission: October 24, 2011 � = 1 City Council Meeting Schedule and CITY OF IOWA CITY Work Session Agendas November 23, 2011 www.icgov.org TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE ♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Beckwith Boathouse 1:00P -5:00p Special Work Session — Strategic Planning Terrill Mill Park 5:00p -7:00p Orientation (current and incoming Council) ♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 IC School District 4:00p Joint Meeting Administrative Offices ♦ MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 Emma J. Harvat Hall 3:15p -6:30p Special Work Session — Strategic Planning ♦ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6 Emma J. Harvat Hall 4:30 -6:00p Reception for outgoing Council Members Lobby Conf. Room 6:00p Special Work Session 7:00p Regular Formal Council Meeting (continue work session if necessary) IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 1 IP2 L Issues, Concerns, Trends, and Opportunities Budget questions • Heavy reliance on property tax for revenue • High property tax rates and fees compared to other cities in Iowa and locally • Lack of willingness to stand up for the value of services provided by taxes, so there is pressure on policy makers to minimize taxes and therefore constrain services that a city can provide • Effective response to reduction in federal funding and commercial property tax revenues • State budget cuts • Increasing number of federal and state unfunded mandates • Expansion of property tax exempt entities within city • City absorbing greater proportion of costs for shared public facilities and programs • Flat /declining value of tax base o State mandated contributions to police and fire dept. retirement funds • How to lose the image of being a city that is not pro- business o Changing the culture (perceived or real) within city hall as it relates to customer service, business development • Inspection and Planning Depts. - work together to streamline process, change of attitude to work with developers and contractors to help them, not discourage them from building in Iowa City • Glass half empty thinking • Commissions - how many and which ones can be consolidated. Make up of commissions • Lack of pride among leaders about who we are, our accomplishments and opportunities for future • How large (geographically) can the city be and be sustainable. o Development at edges and expectation of city services o Rec facilities on west side o Additional fire stations o Important that economic development efforts be integrated with efforts to mitigate and adapt to long -term environmental threats • Numerous projects that provide great opportunities, but must ensure to sustain momentum • Towncrest redevelopment • Riverfront Crossings - high quality design • Downtown activities (with SSMID) • Flood recovery • East side industrial park • Neighborhood preservation • Future of Animal Shelter • How to maintain all the parks and trails and add to each? • Continue to wait on rail IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 • More owner occupied housing downtown • Respond to Coralville's aggressive use of TIF. Don't try to out - compete them; don't run away from the fact that we are different - treat that difference as a strength • Considerable social tension over arrival of lower income African Americans. Need to invent better ways of making newcomers feel they are part of the community while ensuring that all residents feel safe in their neighborhoods • Need to work with ICCSD to ensure that older schools and neighborhoods help one another thrive and that new elementary school forms part of a neighborhood designed for long -term sustainability • Increasing elderly population needing more and different services • Expanding capital for small business • Need to improve economic development activities with goal of increasing commercial and /or industrial tax base, which will also help create jobs o More coordinated, results- oriented and effective • Ongoing focus on public safety as it relates to crime prevention and neighborhood safety • General support for south /southeast neighborhoods with development /redevelopment where possible • Targeting creative -class employers for location of facilities downtown and elsewhere IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 H. Issue Areas Communications /Image /Perception Budget /Finance Economic and Community Development Intergovernmental Relations Technology Downtown Governance /Organizational Facilities University Public Safety Cultural, Social and Recreational Services Public Works Rail Infrastructure /CIP Housing Demographics Human Resources Airport Transit IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 III. On -Going Commitments (from Dept/Division Directors) Space needs study Flood recovery and mitigation: • Buy -out program • Levees (3) • North wastewater plant • Gateway (North Dubuque St and Park Road bridge) • Replace animal shelter • Rocky Shore flood gate and lift station • Miscellaneous flood projects • State and federally funded projects: o Lower Muscatine Road reconstruction • Airport parallel taxiway • 1St Avenue railroad grade separation • Dubuque St pedestrian bridge • Terry Trueblood Recreation Area • Highway 1 trail o Court St trail — Phase 3 • Riverfront Crossing Redevelopment Project o Multi -use parking • Towncrest Redevelopment Project • Downtown retail market analysis • Continue advocacy of passenger rail service to Chicago • Make decision regarding red light cameras • Develop new legislative strategies incorporating services of new paid lobbyist o Include cultivation of closer working relationship with area State legislators o More direct communication with others on certain issues they may be closely tied to o Maintain strong presence in Metro Coalition IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 IV. Significant Initiatives, Programs, Policies, or Actions • Talk about sustainable growth and what it looks like for Iowa City • Continuing current programs o Riverfront Crossings o Towncrest • Flood recovery • New parking facility o Downtown and Northside initiatives • Look at stronger regional partnerships • Re- evaluate funding for community programs - consider stronger alignment of funding and partnerships with area nonprofit organizations with city's strategic priorities o Consider public /private partnership opportunities as we look at space needs and facilities • Provide some attention and economic strategy and planning to existing commercial areas outside of downtown and Towncrest o Integrated urban design o Scott and Rochester o Benton and Mormon Trek o Increase commercial property tax revenues • Find ways to continue UniverCity program o Expand in near - campus neighborhoods • Stronger links between what boards and commissions are doing and what we want to accomplish annually • Use of GIS for economic development purposes - would help provide pertinent market information, especially in the area of retail • Develop comprehensive marketing /public relations plan • All city depts. use same logo and tagline • Be more proactive about providing information and developing connections with businesses, citizens and public at large - beyond press releases • Upgrade city website to make it more intuitive and user friendly (see City of Coralville's) o Upgrade how it comes up in a Google search • Continue redevelopment of older neighborhoods - Longfellow, Northside, Goosetown • Improve southeast side by buying and selling rental housing to qualified buyers • Update Rec Center activities to attract families • Seek assistance to resolve conflicts with Coralville at regional scale • U of I could sponsor effort • Chamber of Commerce, ICAD and Convention and Visitors Bureau could play important roles IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 • Explore merits of selling G.O. bonds to fund new initiatives for long -term challenges • Support renovation of older buildings in older neighborhoods - i.e., UniverCity Neighborhood Partnership Program • Support construction of lower -cost housing in new developments o Enable businesses and residents to save money and create new jobs by reducing use of coal -fired electricity • Create city -wide climate action task force • Help residents and businesses save money, create new jobs and reduce carbon emissions • Created jointly with other governmental entities throughout Johnson Co. • Explore possibility of providing time - limited property tax reduction to small locally -owned businesses that facilitate reductions in carbon emissions • Could be coupled with fee on electricity and gasoline consumption with revenues used to support such businesses • Task force or advisory group to generate sustainability indicators that enable us to track economic, social and environmental variables /trends • Provide financial support for start -up businesses that focus on long -term sustainability and /or web -based technologies and applications o Empty storefronts on S. Linn St between Burlington and Court would be great site • Building "Museum of the New Midwest" near new Amtrak station o Would strengthen community identity o Attract tourists o Could be part of regional network of sites connected by cultural trail • Create advisory group consisting of people know and trusted by lower income African - American newcomers o Increase ability of Office of Neighborhood Services to work with those newcomers • Explore innovate ways of including lower -cost housing in new developments • Explore with ICCSD possibility of jointly announcing mutual intentions to invest in upgrading /improving older schools and neighborhoods and ensure new elementary school forms part of a neighborhood designed for long -term sustainability • Regional approach to economic development • Revitalize central business district • Eliminate perception of lack of parking in central business district • Maintain positive relationship with University • Continued investigation of rail system • Evaluate city organization and staffing to identify changes and efficiencies which would benefit the community • Deploy more savvy approach to government relations - be more engaged on statewide level with peer cities, be more strategic with state and federal delegations IOWA CITY GOAL SETTING SESSION - 2011 • Review student housing saturations downtown and near downtown - pursue more balance • Examine city -owned property that might be attractive for private development V. Organizational Effectiveness • Figure out schedule that meets needs for efficient meetings without making them so truncated that items are left without thorough discussions or no time to deal with topic in a timely manner • Invest in areas that provide direct benefit to citizens and businesses before building administrative structure • Organization communication continues to operate in silo fashion - slows responsiveness and creates unclear messages • Operate in a team environment • Create a more innovative and responsive environment in area of economic development • Streamline operations • Flowchart processes and procedures, remove unnecessary steps • Coordinate staff response to private sector projects o Examine commissions - could merge or eliminate certain ones • Combine departments for efficiency • Look into out - sourcing some services • Evaluate staff structure in depts. and update for efficiency • Facilitate users' ability to navigate through the various departments • Better customer service /public relations overall o Address "city hall culture" issues • Show more hustle as an organization • Reward creativity and innovation on the part of city staff • Learn to use new social media far more effectively • Conduct quarterly listening sessions in diverse parts of city (no formal decision making) • Communication between council and staff to be clear on impact of policies the council is considering • Departments have yearly goals and succession plans • Employees have yearly goals and evaluations City of Iowa City Strategic Planning /Goal Setting Summary Report — Line Staff Input September 13 -14, 2011 Facilitated bv: Jeff Schott Institute of Public Affairs University of Iowa CITY OF IOWA CITY STRATEGIC PLANNING /GOAL SETTING SUMMARY REPORT - LINE STAFF INPUT SEPTEMBER 13 -149 2011 Introduction The City of Iowa City requested the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) to assist the city with strategic planning /goal setting. The first step in this process was to solicit input and comments from line staff representatives who volunteered to participate in this activity. IPA prepared questionnaires for the participants to identify key issues and potential initiatives to be reviewed and discussed in meetings with the participants. IPA tabulated and organized the responses from these questionnaires. The responses from the questionnaires were then reviewed and discussed with the participants in sessions held on September 13 and 14, 2011. The participants were advised that their comments would then be forwarded to the City Council and department /division directors for their consideration as part of the strategic planning process. The following individuals participated in these meetings: Kris Ackerson (Planning and Community Development), Simon Andrews (City Manager /Intern), Jim Baker (Police Department), Barb Black (Library), Marcia Bollinger (Planning and Community Development), Craig Buhman (Senior Center), Michelle Buhman (Senior Center), Terri Byers (Library), Joyce Carroll (Parks and Recreation), Maeve Clark (Library), Tim Dingbaum (Public Works /Water), Matt Eidahl (Parks and Recreation), Wendy Ford (Planning and Community Development /Economic Development), Sondrae Fort(City Clerk), Eric Goers (City Attorney), Tom Hansen (Public Works /Equipment), Bob Hardy (City Manager /Cable Television), Doug Hart (Police), John Hefley (Public Works /Equipment), Sara Hektoen (City Attorney), Tim Hennes (Housing and Inspection Services), Tracy Hightshoe (Planning and Community Development), Karen Howard (Planning and Community Development), Roger Jensen (Fire), Jen Jordan (Public Works /Landfill), Lucy Joseph (Housing and Inspection Services /Housing Authority), Michaeleen Kaeser (Parks and Recreation), Ron Knoche (Pubic Works /Engineering), Stan Laverman (Housing and Inspection Services), Kara Logsden (Library), Robin Marshall (Finance /Accounting), Shannon McMahon (Document Services), Bob Miklo (Planning and Community Development), Elyse Miller (Library), Steve G. Miller (Transit), Ed Moreno (Public Works /Water), Kumi Morris (Public Works /Engineering), Brenda Nations (Public Works Landfill), Jerry Nixon (City Manager /Cable Television), Eric Nurnberg (Fire), Liz Osborne (Planning and Community Development), Brian Platz (Fire), Ben Pothoff (Housing and Inspection Services), Steve Rackis (Housing and Inspection Services /Housing Authority), Jann Ream (Housing and Inspection Services), Tracy Robinson (Personnel), Branden Sobaski (Fire), Axel Swanson (Fire), Kellie Tuttle (City Clerk), Julie Voparil (City Clerk), Sara Walz (Planning and Community Development), and Chris Weinard (Finance /Purchasing). Issues, Concerns, Trends, and Opportunities The participants identified the following issues, concerns, trends, and opportunities that they considered would affect future city services, policies, finances or operations. It should be noted that the intent of this process is to solicit input and opinions from a broad range of city employees. As such, some of the comments may be contradictory or individuals may disagree with statements made by others in this process. This purpose of this report is to transmit to the City Council and department /division directors the full range of diverse opinions that were expressed. Budget /Finance • Shortfalls affecting the General Fund, especially the recent Iowa Supreme Court "co- op" housing property tax decision • Impact of reductions in interest earnings to city revenues • Increasing city contribution rates for IPERS and Police /Fire ( "411 ") pensions • Trying to maintain quality of services while reducing costs • Result may be reduced or altered services • Impact of budget cuts on quality of life in Iowa City • Potential for budget cuts • Potential for staffing reductions /employee layoffs • Difficulties in replacing departing employees • Continue to utilize interns, work study students and volunteers as cost effective way to complete special projects or to maintain programs /activities • Reduced services • Maintaining acceptable level of training • Seem to have ultra conservative approach to budgeting - important to prepare for the future and expect poor returns, but have to maintain some practicality o Disagreement expressed regarding the term "ultraconservative" • Impact of federal and state budget cuts, especially to departments, programs or activities very dependent on such funding such as Housing, Community Development, Transit. • State budget cuts affecting county mental health budget and services and impact on IC residents - resulting in increased calls for various types of city services, use of certain city facilities and programs • Despite budget issues, requests for new /better programs are still made • Need to prioritize and wisely allocate limited resources • Increasing number of federal and state unfunded mandates • Need to plan for economic sustainability • Need to prioritize city services rather than failing to provide finances /tools for key services • Habitually making cuts to fire and police • Need for a strategic plan to guide budget decisions 3 • Across - the -board cuts are unfair to highly efficient, "lean" departments; targeted budget cuts based on strategic priorities are more responsible o Disagreement expressed to the "targeted" - how are those decisions made? Who and how are priorities determined? • Potential loss or compromise of non - essential city services o Develop strategies /alternatives before cuts occur • Property taxes • High property tax rates • Southeast side development could enhance property tax base • Downtown development could enhance property tax base o Loss of commercial to Coralville • Commercial Property Tax bill pending in legislature for next fiscal year o Could result in significant loss of property tax revenues to local governments - including the City of Iowa City and Johnson County • Fee and charges should reflect costs of service; review and establish fees accordingly • Expansion of property -tax exempt entities within city • City absorbing greater proportion of costs for shared public facilities and programs - Animal Shelter, Senior Center, Landfill and greater proportion of allocations to non - profits (CDBG) • Due to overall economic conditions, more non - profit organizations requesting city funding; currently funded groups requesting more funding • There may be opportunity to apply for more grants Demographics • Changing social composition • Reaction of community to growth of permanent residents of color and ethnicity • Perceptions issues • Increasing population and demand on all city services • Socio- economic changes, especially in SE Iowa City, and impact on city resources • Providing services for growing Hispanic /Spanish speaking and other non - English speaking communities • Increasing elderly population needing more and different services Economic Development • Attracting quality jobs that provide livable wages o A lot of the jog growth in Johnson County was at lower wage rates • Maintaining quality of life as an important component of economic development • Expanding capital for small businesses • Micro - incubator for small businesses • TIF issues: • Not using TIF financing to the extent we can o Disagreement expressed as to whether Iowa City should try to match "generous" application of TIF as used by neighboring cities • TIF prevalence to subsidize private sector El • TIF subsidized competition for commercial development from Coralville and North Liberty • Potential changes to TIF by the Legislature • Encourage economic growth /development to increase commercial property tax revenues • Public perception that economic development focused on downtown and not throughout city • Need for a regional approach to economic development o Need for regional guidelines for use of economic development incentives • Need to position city to capture new employers who will add jobs - education, health care, technology and increase tax base for long -term • Need to be sure to use all of the creative financing tools available • Concern that Coralville seems to be benefitting from University - money to hotels, restaurants, mall, UIHC - without sacrificing their tax dollars • Iowa City needs to more strongly embrace tourism initiatives as an economic development strategy Downtown • Continue to work on ways to make downtown attractive and safe destination; enrich downtown • Have opportunity to revitalize central business district and create more family friendly atmosphere • Implications of shifting /expansion of University facilities to downtown • Downtown vendors and stores • Downtown has lost its ability to attract families - need more family - friendly and affordable attractions and businesses o Disagreement expressed about family - friendliness of downtown • Need more activities /events downtown • Perception that downtown is unsafe and dirty • The "21 "ordinance has had a positive effect on downtown • Need another downtown hotel - long -term suites • Get upscale or nicer /big name stores downtown • Rental rates increasing downtown making it difficult for small businesses to survive or locate downtown (except for bars) • Perception of lack of parking in central business district that restricts development o Need more parking for elderly and disabled - we meet guidelines, but not satisfactory with aging population • Downtown driving is cumbersome • On- street parking and bike - friendly are good ideas but too hard for drivers • Streets too narrow o Gilbert St bike diet not a good idea Disagreement expressed - some felt current downtown parking, bike diet is working well and should not be changed On- street parking is a positive for downtown o Disagreement expressed - on- street parking should be eliminated to enhance traffic flow 5 • Invest in downtown maintenance • Dingy parking ramps • Steps by old Wilson's store chained and now blocked off • Garden beds look good when planted, but seems to be no follow -up - another case of lack of follow up by volunteers resulting in adding additional duties to city departments without additional resources • Seems to be a disconnect between Downtown Association, Downtown merchants, Farmers Market, Summer of the Arts; need to work together better Housing • Over- building of single and multi - family residential property • Esp. low cost rental "student housing" • Concerns about quality of construction of this type of housing • Disagreement expressed that increasing standards may discourage development in Iowa City • Concurrent loss of historic /neighborhood mini - communities • Encourage more single family residence • Lack of affordable housing for middle income people • Don't qualify for low income housing but can't afford to buy in IC • Results in singles and families to settle elsewhere, changing IC demographics • Need for diversified housing types • Make sure subsidized housing is not concentrated in one area o Perception issues about location /concentration of housing participating in city's programs University • Relationships with UI, its mission and resources, will keep us dynamic and vibrant • University flood recovery projects will result in large investments in new buildings and facilities • Student enrollment creates need for more housing, straining and creating conflict in established neighborhoods • OUI owns a good percentage of land in IC which doesn't generate a tax base but puts strain on all city services • UI results in money being put into local economy by students and parents • Vital part of identify and brand of IC • On -going problems caused by college student population o Drinking issues o Downtown issues o Demand on city services, esp. Police and Fire • If city and University work together more often, may be better opportunities to put some good projects together • Currently excellent working relationships between city and UI o But University can be quite demanding - expect city to drop everything and then have to wait a considerable time for UI to make a decision o UI can sometimes put on "blinders" regarding issues (e.g. Melrose Ave vendors) 2 Inter - governmental Relations • Effectiveness and efficiency of city's relationship with county and state gov't bodies • Sharing resources with surrounding communities and UI and reciprocation o Lack of partnership - are we doing our part to extend a hand? • Relationships with ICCSD, its mission and resources • Look at partnerships between City and schools with regard to recreation facilities and programs • Public /private partnership initiatives • Relationships with County and adjacent cities could be enhanced • County policy leaders may focus just on rural residents • But it's a two -way street - city needs to engage in county projects such as the justice center • Landfill could do abetter job of communicating to all jurisdictions in the county • Need to figure out how to more effectively lobby state and federal govt's. Infrastructure • Infrastructure maintenance and rebuilding and funding thereof, especially sewer and water mains • Street conditions • Opportunity to promote healthy living through infrastructure planning o Trails • Bike - friendly • Improved rec facilities • Rec partnerships • Rural water may be a profitable enterprise o Concern expressed about whether providing rural water may stimulate rural development to the detriment of Iowa City • Dubuque Street gateway project /Taft Speedway • West side levee • Sewer /water rates relatively high due to recent major projects • Fiber optic cable is an economic development asset but there may be issues with broadband capacity in certain parts of the city, esp. industrial /business areas Public Safetv • Minimizing effects of gangs and drugs on community • Need to establish strategies to free up Police Officer time to increase community policing presence o SE substation needs funding for more hours of staffing • General trend of more violence - SE side and downtown o Improvement noted since 2009 • Outlaw panhandling city -wide • Public perception of downtown safety • Fire truck response on EMS calls - is this necessary? Does it addto unnecessary costs? • Fire Dept. expansion 7 • Fire Department is considerably understaffed • Rumors exist of reducing staffing further • Would diminish operational capabilities, accepting much higher level of risk for community • No city council person has ever attended a Fire or Police Dept new -hire badge pinning, promotional ceremony or retirement reception o Not required, but demonstration of appreciation would be well- received • Relationship between IC and Coralville Fire Department on mutual aid seems one - sided o Disagreement expressed that this is an "apples to oranges" comparison and mutual aid works very well • Coralville Fire Department provides fire protection service and response to University Heights yet Iowa City has a fire station literally on University Heights' border and thus can provide response much more quickly. • IC Police Dept working very well with University Police - esp. downtown patrols • Concern expressed about why UI does not hire Iowa City police for football games - UI uses outside police agencies instead • Perception about issues with problem landlords and problem tenants • Perception about correlation of crime with subsidized housing Rail • Future rail system - Iowa City - Chicago o Foreseeing plan to incorporate future rail system that will provide businesses that pay taxes o What is the economic benefit to Iowa City? • Can city really afford excessive costs? • How much can we expect from federal and state govt? • Opportunity for passenger rail between Iowa City - North Liberty - Cedar Rapids Public Works • Recycling - Providing service for multi- family properties: o Recycling o Yard waste o Overall service? • Streets Dept hasn't grown to match the growth of the city • Storage of Public Works vehicles outdoors is a problem - hydraulics /diesel • Citizen complaints about alley maintenance Parks and Rec • Parks and Rec is important for quality of life and economic development • Pursue expanded rec facilities for families with young children • Capital purchases and projects (ball diamonds, park land, new equipment) o Expansion of facilities also results in need for additional staffing and maintenance costs • Expand Farmers Markets o Need for staffing • Recreation rental fees do not cover costs, especially for organizations renting facilities • Limited number of garden space • Maintenance of garden spaces by certain renters • Need to improve public outreach /solicit volunteers • Coordination between Parks and certain departments (e.g., Water dept regarding Trueblood site) Airport • Airport and its required FAA approach/ clearance zones can greatly affect future development /height /density requirements as far away as downtown • As city continues to develop and grow, airport restrictions will become greater hindrance Transit • Provide continuous transportation from UIHC to downtown • State /Federal budget cutbacks will significantly impact transit • Park and Ride programs • Need for additional bus shelters in some locations • Improve public outreach • Need better mass transit system • Smaller buses • More routes Greater frequencies • Sunday service Facilities • City Hall too institutional looking • Paint other than white & gray • Add plants • Make more inviting • Space needs analysis underway • Many facilities are outdated • Equipment repair building • Solid Waste o Fire Station 1 o Police Station • Streets Department equipment storage • Landfill equipment storage o Rec Center o Senior Center o Disagreement expressed regarding condition of senior Center. Senior center is in very good condition structurally and mechanically. • More and more property to care for with no staff or equipment • Responsible green building where economically viable (LEED certification cost /benefit analysis) 0 Planning and Development • River areas enhancement - keep development going o More urban mid- to high -rise residential development Several key commercial corridors are languishing and need targeted investment o First Ave o Riverside Drive /Hwy 1 o Gilbert Street south of railroad • Dubuque St • Dodge St • Highway 6 /Pepperwood Plaza • Dubuque Street gateway - mobile home park area • Need more commercial areas, especially to attract more national franchise businesses o Disagreement expressed as to whether recruiting national franchises is advisable • Higher oil and gas prices may affect urban pattern • Outlying areas more costly due to travel costs • More urbanization of core neighborhoods • All future development (commercial, industrial, residential, etc.) should be accessible by more than just motorized vehicular modes of transportation. • West side growing - need additional commercial service center in that area • ICCDS decisions regarding maintaining existing schools and /or new schools will have significant effects on preservation of older neighborhoods. o Northside, College Hill and Longfellow need Horace Mann and Longfellow schools open • Should use the Planning Development (PUD) process - allows for more creativity and commission approval rather than staff review /rejection • Disagreement expressed - this process is currently available and used • Process not well received by some developers Human Resources • Dated and inflexible union contracts that cause hiring, firing and promotion /reward constraints o Disagreement expressed that contracts are result of mutual agreement after collective bargaining Each department and city as a whole would be well - served by developing and implementing succession plans; plan for loss of institutional knowledge and experience o Need to do better job of identification and development o Better evaluation instruments • More specifically- targeted development opportunities • Mentoring program • Obtaining opportunity to hire replacement staff Recruiting and hiring from diverse applicant pool 10 • Entrenched staff and /or management - some just waiting to retire • Bureaucratic nature of city support staff o Disagreement expressed to previous two statements - vast majority of city employees are dedicated and committed to serving the city • Trend of temporary city employees and move to privatization /out- sourcing of city jobs • Privatization of city services not welcome o Disagreement expressed to the tone of this statement • Need incentive to provide next generation of workers to entice them to stay and take pride in providing excellent service o Disagreement expressed that next generation of workers are not motivated or present special supervisory challenges • Residency requirements /incentives for city employees - establish sense of community o Disagreement expressed - also pointed out that affordability of housing in Iowa City may present an obstacle, especially for entry -level workers • Examine structure of city personnel, look for redundancies, increase efficiency and effectiveness with emphasis on high paid personnel with evaluations and work product • City's philosophy about labor management relations is archaic • Little or no dialogue between administration and labor on any issue of importance • Employees are not consulted /given responsibilities related to job recruitment of top positions, making key hires or promotions within city • City's approach to collective bargaining is insulting to employees. • Outside attorney hired by city is patronizing and rude • Increasingly difficult to have profitable dialogue, especially with go- between • Have some of best and brightest public servants in Midwest, and demand higher education, but no tuition reimbursement program /do nothing to support attainment of that goal, then cut or eliminate training budgets o Should never strive to achieve a standard of mediocrity • Social and economic changes in tghe future will necessitate a huge transition in expectations from both managers and employees • Need to provide supervisory training and mentoring, especially for those recently promoted Technology • Need for upgrades • Replacement of ERP mainframe and software • GIS needed for many city departments • Integration of IT throughout city departments /divisions • Why does ITS Dept. get to charge "charge- backs" to other departments, making their budget look good and other depts. take a hit? Governance JOrganizational 11 • Make Strategic Plan and use it - set goals, action plan, evaluate progress, review • We have many "legacy" things - evaluate how we do things and plan for a better way to move forward • Trend to do more with less in some departments - lack of staff • Communication could be improved between some city staff /departments • Staff need to have opportunity to be proactive rather than reactive • Attitude that status quo is good enough o Disagreement expressed that this attitude does not prevail • Level of willingness to spend money on untested /unproven technology /projects (hybrid cars) • Level of willingness to spend short -term for projects with long -term paybacks • Ability to see environmental costs /benefits in same light as financial costs /benefits • Competition with other community organizations for funding • Perception of internal competition for money among departments o Perception that some can spend whatever they want and others under microscope for every penny - gives those depts. an air of arrogance /importance o Disagreement expressed that every department feels "under the microscope" with respect to budgeting o Lack of teamwork o "Silo" mentality in some departments • Sacred cows within city that prevent growth and development o Disagreement expressed that there are any "sacred cows" • Are city /council /leadership /depts. encouraging high performance, "setting the bar "? • Encourage public involvement in community decision making • Too many regulations - enforce laws already in place and don't create new, unenforceable ones (e.g. no smoking on ped mall) • Too many permits /licenses o Disagreement expressed to the preceding two comments • Appears to be focus on special interest programs /issues with some essential services taking a back seat • Strategic planning is long overdue • No demonstrated planning initiatives for city council members, becomes especially apparent at budget time. • City seems to be largely reactive rather than proactive • Seems to be great deal of cronyism at highest levels of city administration and government - progressive city with leaders who have old -timer attitudes o Disagreement expressed to this statement • Seems as if governance model in IC is inverted - City Manager gives direction to Council rather than receiving it o Disagreement expressed to this statement • Need to stop tabling initiatives, projects and priorities; need to do the requisite work and pull the trigger, even if it seems like taking a risk 12 Communication '/Image /Perception • City has negative image issues: crime, not business friendly, inefficient and overpaid employees - can begin to fix with this process • Need for more proactive communication approach • Anti -gov't sentiment on national and local level • Negativity toward public sector and misunderstanding of benefits by public • Negativity of value of public sector by public • Need to better inform public of city accomplishments /assets through traditional and social media - can be complacent • Community outreach has not always been a priority of the city • Perception that IC is not visionary • Perception by public that city employees are lazy /entrenched • Improve PR and marketing with centralized information center • City website is confusing • Too many links per page • Poor design structure • Aesthetically unappealing Other • City continuing land acquisition results in additional maintenance and upkeep issues • IC is the Mecca /Athens of state and has great citizens and gov't, respectively - use opportunity • Changing weather patterns resulting in more flooding and greater snow falls putting burden on infrastructure, services and affecting neighborhoods in and near floodplain • New energy markets • Need to look at keeping construction contracts awarded local - keeps money local and allows for more accountability o Statement expressed that public improvements contracts are governed by Iowa law - city may not have legal authority to undertake 13 Prioritization of Issue Areas Each participant was requested to select what he or she considered the five most important issue areas on which the City Council should focus in the next two — four years. The following is the tabulation of that voting (parentheses refer to the number of votes received — a total of 52 persons participated): Communications /Image /Perception (40) Economic Development (37) Budget /Finance (30) Technology (2 1) Planning and Development (18) Intergovernmental Relations (16) Public Safety (15) Parks and Recreation (13) Downtown (11) Infrastructure (11) Facilities (10) Public Works (8) Governance /Organizational (6) University (6) Transit (5) Human Resources (4) Rail (2) Housing (2) Airport (0) 14 Significant Initiatives, Programs, Proiects or Policies The participants were requested to identify potential significant initiatives, programs, projects, programs, or policies for City Council consideration for the upcoming two — four year period. The following items were suggested: Budget /Finance • Review and revise procurement policies by Departments /Divisions o Make less cumbersome and maintain some legal protection o Reduce paperwork /red tape • Incorporate real cost saving measures into every day functions of city government - smaller buses, necessary for fire truck to go out on every EMS call? • Establish a designated grant writer for the city • Investigate the feasibility of establishing a local construction contracting system • Develop a strategic plan to guide budget decisions: • Establish budget goals and priorities • Identify targeted programs /services /activities • Determine appropriate staffing levels to effectively provide targeted programs /services /activities • Determine the actual costs of services provided by the city to other cities, agencies, organizations and non - residents • Conduct financial/ cost - benefit analysis of all proposals under consideration • Wage freeze Economic Development • Encourage commercial development /business growth for property bordering I -80 • Develop economic development strategies: • To keep economic growth green • Incorporating quality of life and parks and recreation • Establish a regional approach to economic development • Conduct a study to determine Iowa City's strengths and weaknesses for economic development • Consider business model to flow U of I visitors to Iowa City, not Coralville (increase hotels available, tax revenue) • New economic development initiatives: • Buy local programs • Creative zoning approaches • Create incentive programs to recruit national business franchises as well as new business start -ups • Establish a micro - incubator center • City acquire properties for redevelopment /re -sale to have more control over future development • Adopt a more generous approach to use of TIF and other incentives to maintain competitiveness with neighboring communities • Offer rebate incentive (five years) to any large new employer for every employee they hire who lives in Iowa City 15 Downtown • Re- creation of downtown to become more shopper and family friendly • Continued strengthening of downtown • No more bars downtown • Downtown businesses who are willing to tax themselves to improve area (SSMID) should be rewarded with city incentives • Serve as facilitator to bring different groups /businesses together that have vested interest in downtown • Free weekend parking to make downtown more consumer friendly • After 5 PM, enforce parking meters after 5 PM and reduce parking ramp rates • Ease up on the rules for outdoor eating so they can be more attractive and appealing • Bring movie theater back downtown • Regulate number of student housing buildings in downtown area • Locate micro - incubator downtown • Enhance appearance of downtown alleys - emphasis on dumpsters and recycling Housing • City to develop housing, using local contractors • Continue efforts to balance housing opportunities for families and University students • Investigate creative affordable housing solutions • City or Housing Authority to purchase foreclosed properties and offer to sell as affordable housing • Develop program to encourage improvement of quality of student housing (non - University owned) • Encourage the University to rehabilitate /upgrade University -owned student housing • Adopt Residential Fire Sprinkler Ordinance for new construction • Work with University to encourage sprinklers in cooperative housing projects University • Continue to work with University to address binge drinking /party school issue • Work with the Alumni Association to market Iowa City for alumni to return to live and work • Encourage /expand internship and work study opportunities with the city • Initiate greater working relationship with University in terms of post flood construction plan o Ensure that new proposed buildings fit into overall plan for growth in IC and concept plan for River Front Crossings 16 Inter - governmental Relations • Identify regional government service opportunities to minimize and /or eliminate the silo mentality of local city government • Develop GIS with Johnson County • Work with ICCSD to improve and maintain neighborhood schools • Examine use of shared spaces with ICCSD and /or County • Improve communications /coordination between the city and other local governments - ICCSD, County, and neighboring cities • Explore a way for labor and the city to jointly lobby legislature on important issues Infrastructure • Complete 1St Ave project to alleviate trains blocking traffic • Flood mitigation initiatives: • Dubuque St /Taft Speedway • Normandy Drive area o De- commission North Waste Water Plant and relocate city facilities located there • Develop a plan for public park at North Waste Water Plant • Determine if there are infrastructure issues related to economic development • Develop a detailed asset management program for public works infrastructure Public Safety • Establish a City Council Public Safety Committee to facilitate discussion with primary concern of citizens and build relationship between council and public safety departments • Determine management and staff needs associated with traffic signal camera enforcement program (if the program is implemented) • Complete conversion to TAC10 Police Records Management System and provide adequate training to officers to properly utilize the program • Police Department • Fund replacement of all vehicle cages and equipment which will become obsolete when old style Ford Crown Vic is no longer available • Secure funding for replacement of one K -9 • Secure funding for retention of and expansion of services offered at sub station • Limited or restricted access to an approved firearms range • Keep up to date with equipment and training for computer related crime • Expand intelligence information access (crime mapping, data analysis) • Police presence at Mercer /Scanlon and Rec Center • Get rid of vagrants sleeping on Ped Mall • Outlaw panhandlers • Parking machines - good ambassadors to the city? • Merge services of Johnson Co Ambulance and IC Fire to provide emergency services in more cost effective manner Fire Department 17 • Reinstate Captain of Inspection program • Develop plan using designated trigger points to incrementally increase service to meet community needs - esp. where public safety is concerned • Reinstate ICFD travel /training budget • Explore lower cost options for purchases of Fire Department vehicles from Iowa - based companies (such as Toyne, Inc. of Breda or Simon Fire Equipment of Farley) • Have Housing and Inspection Services conduct commercial /fire inspections (instead of Fire Dept) • Provide annual training to city employees regarding public safety /emergency management - safety training, MSDS, weather emergencies, etc. Rail • Passenger rail service between Iowa City and Chicago • Passenger rail service between Iowa City - North Liberty - Cedar Rapids Public Works • Provide tipper carts to residents for curb side leaf pick up • Eliminate leaf vacuuming service • Continue and increase reuse /recycle initiatives and education programs • Implement Environmental Management System for Public Works • Feasibility study for a materials recovery facility • Expand curbside collection: o Multi - family recycling o Yard waste collection o Overall solid waste services • Include food scraps with curbside yard waste collection • Overall environmental education plan • Environmental Educator position • Implement recommendations in Bicycle Master Plan to achieve Gold level Bicycle Friendly Community status • More and better lighting for residential and business areas Parks and Rec • Pursue /market youth sport tournaments actively (with Convention and Visitors Bureau) o Share UI and IC facilities • Encourage lodging /meals in IC • Market packages to families coming to IC • Build upon growing local foods movement and partner it with Farmers Market and new downtown market to create bigger /better market with artisanal foods, crafts, etc. and house in new indoor /outdoor location with opportunities for longer market seasons • Increase programming for at -risk youth - redefine at -risk; find community partners • Full -time city employee in Special Events to include T Trueblood Area and Ned Ashton 18 • Full -time city employee at Farmers Market • Establish payment options for memberships to Rec facilities • Merge Parks and Rec and the Senior Center • Staffing for Grant Wood gym • Rec Center offer more programs (Boys and Girls Club model) • Senior Center offer more programs • Add staff for the Senior Center • Embrace community events /festivals - provide more funding and support • Evaluate fee structure for parks and rec programs to cover costs incurred • Bid out the leasing of parks concessions • Flower boxes - need more • Identify alternative funding sources for parks and rec programs and facilities Airport • Investigate options with airport - o Relocate airport o Phase it out o Expand usage • Conduct economic impact analysis of airport Transit • Promote projects that provide intermodal transportation (buses, bicycles, foot traffic) o Get people downtown without having to drive - shuttles • Expand hours of service for evenings and weekends • Update buses • Investigate feasibility of using smaller buses • Redesign route system • More ongoing training for drivers • Expand library bus for kids program; expand to Rec Center, Pool, etc. • Expand Ride and Read program • Regulate rates /establish uniform rates for taxis • Enhance marketing /outreach for transit; enhance branding • Coordinate routes /schedules between Iowa City and Coralville transit systems • Provide inter - operable communications systems between Iowa City and Coralville transit systems Facilities • Complete facility needs assessment • Hire city -wide City Facilities Manager • Shared public spaces for library satellite locations at elementary schools, Rec center and other public facilities etc. • Improve physical appearance inside City Hall and other city buildings • Partner with venues that provide community gather space (community center ?) • Improve access to facilities by all citizens (transportation /economic issues) • Satellite locations for rec and library services 19 • Community Center on West Side (Pay Station, Rec Center, Library, Outreach) • Remodel Rec Center • West Side Rec Center • New Farmers market facility • Upgrade transit facilities • Golf course • Outdoor city swimming pool /build water park o Install splash pad o Families leaving IC for Coralville, North Liberty, Washington for family - friendly amenities o Zero entry swimming pools, play equipment o Possible CDBG funds in low income census tracts • Replace Public Works buildings • Need for space for storage of office and othercity equipment, records, etc. • Bike library facility • Work with management and staff to develop a long -range plan for new police station • Complete Police Station building maintenance needs, including remodeling of Crime Lab, StationMaster room and break room • Plan to build and staff Fire Station #5 • Plan to build and staff Fire Station #6 • Plan for construction of new Fire Station #1 • Secure parking lot for emergency vehicles • New animal control facility • Plan long -term property acquisitions for public amenities in areas of projected growth (public utilities, ground storage reservoirs, fire stations) • Explore complementary functions /uses of facilities Planning and Development • Riverfront Crossings Plan o Use river to our benefit • Would clean up some of the property along the river and make city more attractive • Provide urban residential neighborhood option • Relocation of ICFD Training Center to hybrid Station #5 /Training Center • East Side revitalization - recruit more retail to Sycamore Mall area • Riverside Drive /Hwy 1 revitalization • Redevelop Dubuque St gateway near interstate; create simple park and ride transit in conjunction with raising of street • Improve appearance of all entrances into the city, not just the "Gateway" • Promote and pursue energy efficiency, sustainable building practices, reduction of municipal fleet emissions, recycling and waste reduction strategies • Maintain /improve progressive planning and zoning policies for community (through- streets, connecting neighborhoods, rec trails, parks, etc) • Create programs for sustainable development at the gateways • Reclaim and promote those things that set IC apart - branding 00 • City should be leader in fostering sustainability - energy and economic • Encourage homeowners living within 500 year flood plain to purchase flood insurance • Move everyone out of the floodplain or tell them they are on their own • Adjust zoning policies to make areas of city more desirable for development and commercial activity • Stabilize and enhance older neighborhoods near downtown and campus - should include historic preservation, better code enforcement, maintenance of public streets and parks • Reserve interim development areas for commercial development - refrain from permitting residential development • Dolphin Lake Point Enclave /Town and Campus (Lakeside Apts area) - improve quality of housing and still help those most in need • River cleanup throughout town Human Resources • Consider residency requirement /incentive for most if not all departments • Establish tuition /education reimbursement for employee improvement to prove that city values education • Exceptional Employee recognition o Reward those who go above and beyond o Reward those who work to eliminate barriers for citizens and fellow employees • Customer service training for staff • Negotiate more employee friendly labor contract in regard to temporary employees • Employee discounts for services, particularly rec /wellness related • Free parking for employees • All city employees should pay for parking • Provide incentives for employees to participate in Employee Wellness Program - especially for those using city facilities or programs • Develop and institute Labor /Management Initiative Technolo�v • Complete transition from legacy mainframe (ERP) system and integrate throughout city; involve personnel from all departments • Provide GIS for all city departments that need it • Consider the "one voice" concept for a single citywide Facebook and Twitter account • Develop plan to scan all city documents • Reduce paperwork through researched software that allows for submission of payroll, budgets, inventories and forms electronically via City intranet • Fulltime city employee to market and coordinate all city -wide social media • Provide training and encourage employees to make full use of capabilities of IT systems • On -line registration system for Senior Center 21 Governance /Organizational • Promote more and better cross - functioning in and within city departments /divisions • Designate the role of city government with respect to private sector in a way that promotes value and partnership for both • Encourage public partnerships - landfill recycling program with high schools for example • Better way of agenda preparation • Don't be afraid to cut back on some services to provide fewer, more efficient services • Evaluate city's collaboration with NGOs and other organizations that provide entertainment, social services and community development • Look at programs to improve efficiency across all departments through technology, cross - department information sharing, manpower allocation strategies, budget savings • Eliminate the Youth Advisory Commission to save funding, staff time, reduce legal liability and "cronyism" • Provide more transparency as to the use of city funds • Partnerships with private sector • Community building • Community promotion • Development /permitting process could be better - address deficiencies that hinder the process, cause significant ill will & create perception that city goes out of its way to make process difficult • Quit passing unenforceable ordinances (no smoking in Ped Mall) • Define what we are going to do - can't be /do everything for everyone • Be accountable. Performance measures should be encouraged and should reflect contemporary services • Incorporate training and development component as part of the implementation plan for priorities • Conduct citizen surveys on a periodic basis • Promote community volunteer initiatives • City -wide health programs for citizens • Re- instate city employee leaf raking program for elderly /infirm • Senior Center offer more programs • Add staff for the Senior Center Communication 1Image /Perception • Establish /hire centralized PR office to implement creative, unified and professional public involvement /public relations initiatives in order for citizens to better understand and appreciate city government services and improve city communication strategies with public 22 o Improve or new efforts to keep community informed of relevant government issues and opportunities o Better use of mass and social media • Do better job of celebrating our successes or even potential successes • Do better job educating and promoting services that the city provides • Show that we are trying to spend taxpayer money wisely • Undertake branding initiative o Become Home of the Hawks again - name a street for Dan Gable • Develop mobile website and /or citizen feedback app for smart phones • Develop strategies to increase citizen participation in local government • Marketing initiative to attract business & industry • Promote those things that set IC apart Or anizational Effectiveness The questionnaire requested the participants to identify items that City Council or staff could do in the future to improve organizational effectiveness, decision - making process, teamwork and the ability to accomplish the city's stated goals and objectives. Due to time constraints, these items were not discussed at the meetings on September 13 and 14 but are listed below as input to the city council and department /division directors. • Actually develop goals and objectives • Each department should develop its own strategic plan that will align with the city's vision and plans • Use committees such as CIP and joint Staff committees to ensure that departments are aware of and have input regarding projects being implemented by other departments so that concerns of all affected departments can be considered • Implement Labor/ Management Initiative • Succession Planning • Increase dialogue between council and department heads, particularly relative to future planning initiatives • Take this process very seriously • Develop budget process that funds the needs of identified critical services first, then uses remaining funds for collateral services and programs • Do away with across the board budget cuts. Services are not all of equal importance and budgeting philosophies should reflect that reality • Identify key talent, develop and use it. Identify areas where mid -level supervisors can be more involved in planning • Develop a Mission, Vision and Values that drive everything we do • Facilities should be constructed for longest life span, least maintenance, aesthetically pleasing o Short cuts on mechanical systems, cheap construction ultimately cost more over time • Maintenance should have a division of staff: maintenance, housekeeping - different level of understanding of building systems and needs 23 • Each department should not decide on appearance of their offices - lack of cohesiveness in interior design and has unprofessional appearance • PR for departments and divisions should be handled professionally by a single department • Involve employees - city's greatest asset • Research what works well in other communities to see if it fits ours • Solicit, listen and respond to employee input, especially when new projects /programs /policies are implemented • Create culture that encourages employee's individual contributions (recognition, incentives, new opportunities, future challenges) • Provide education incentives to employees • Council needs to be open and receptive to new, broader ideas for downtown - get out of the 21 drinking age rut • Paperwork sent outside the department for approval or processing slows things down drastically • Janitorial staff is stretched thin at City Hall, so some areas of care are neglected • HR take on role of a unifying force fostering teamwork between city departments and divisions. Organize and promote inter - department /division activities • Increase expectations of staff - need to be more customer friendly • Communication between department directors and staff • Look at rearranging staff within departments or re- organize departments for better staff efficiency and customer service. • Investigate central permitting center - one -stop permit /signature • Economic Development staff under City Manager • Have City Manager meet periodically with supervisors and line staff to present direction; unfiltered by department directors. o Town hall meetings o Emails o Periodic newsletter o Gain staff buy -in on any changes that may occur • Make sure there is enough staff in place to maintain a new project • Consider more Indians, fewer Chiefs • Make stated goals and objectives visible and known to the public • Electron plan submittal to building inspection would save costs and streamline process • Streamline commercial building inspection, fire alarm and sprinkler certification by re- allocation of resources and /or staff so that all building inspection activities are administered from one office • Improve website - current is hard to navigate • Need access to information for mobile devices • Improved intranet - currently hard to navigate, very busy • Internal computer systems - Legacy systems do not always provide tools we need • Commitment to Strategic Plan • Opportunities to learn about other departments and collaborate • Tell City's story in new venues - promote staff, share good news • Involve Union reps in decision - making processes 24 • Improve communication between city council and staff out in the field • Improve communication between city departments • Council could meet throughout the year instead of only once over the summer • Council needs to begin to view departments as the people who work in them and not just the service they offer • Employees need to begin to view themselves as the service they offer and feel pride and ownership in a job well done • Sometimes we try to fix things that aren't broken (Farmers Market) • Council should listen to employees, look at the big picture and be careful of catering to needs of self- serving organizations • Employees should have opportunity to purchase city apparel, such as polo shirts, t- shirts, that can be work on special casual days • City council should be more full -time and paid more. System we have now limits the type of individual who can run for city council • Overall I think the city and the council are pretty effective • Remember that we are on the same team • Use challenges we face to make this a better organization • Review process for managers and directors should include anonymous reviews by those who report to them - creates additional opportunities for improvement and effectiveness • Streamline development process • Review all regulations - make sure they reflect desire of entire community • Create culture where mistakes and issues can be brought forward to be solved without fear or retribution. • Review processes for development review • Make sure there is an understanding of the goals and objectives • Establish an evaluation process to determine if goals and objectives are being met • Willingness to restructure or modify • Clear performance expectations • Don't be afraid to look outside the box for effective use of staff. Sometimes crossing territory from one department to another is beneficial • Parks /Forestry work with other divisions • Look at what we contract out and compare what could be done in -house using 2 or more divisions labor force • Establish process to inhibit persistent tabling of issues - address them and move forward • Council and staff stay current on strategic plans, goals and objectives • Encourage department heads /representatives to regularly attend council meetings • Where can I find any past goals or objectives? Not on city website • Implement the principles of Lean to promote efficiency and customer satisfaction • City should have one logo and all departments should be required to use it. Will promote teamwork and unity • Open work session to public • Contact those affected by any changes before the changes are implemented • Develop method to clarify individual or departmental responsibilities for general rooms, equipment, etc. 25 • Develop a policy index qualified by location, policy maker, etc. • Develop a FAQ section on employees' resource site • Provide annual training sessions for employees on decision - making, teamwork and how to determine success • City is on the right track with the MPO of JC and multi -city and U of I meetings • Department heads need to be more aware of what happens in their department - deadlines missed, sloppy work practices, overall efficiency and effectiveness • Council should consider work load that will be placed on staff and line staff when passing legislation • Council should micromanage less • Have interdisciplinary teams to resolve /problem solve issues • City Hall staff name tags would imbue a sense of teamwork and branding that could be beneficial Jeff Schott Institute of Public Affairs University of Iowa September 15, 2011 ► .. City of Iowa city Strategic Planning /Goal Setting Summary Report — Department /Division Directors Input October 19, 2011 Facilitated by: Jeff Schott Institute of Public Affairs University of Iowa CITY OF IOWA CITY STRATEGIC PLANNING /GOAL SETTING SUMMARY REPORT - DEPARTMENT /DIVISION DIRECTORS INPUT OCTOBER 199 2011 Introduction The City of Iowa City requested the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) to assist the city with strategic planning /goal setting. The first step in this process was to solicit input and comments from line staff representatives who volunteered to participate in this activity. These sessions were held September 13 and 14, 2011. A summary report of these sessions had been forwarded to department /division directors and will be provided to the City Council. The next step in the process is to solicit input and comments from department /division directors. IPA prepared questionnaires for the participants to identify key issues and potential initiatives to be reviewed and discussed with the participants. IPA tabulated and organized the responses from these questionnaires. The responses from the questionnaires were then reviewed and discussed with the participants on October 19, 2011. The participants were advised that their comments would then be forwarded to the City Council for their consideration as part of the strategic planning process. The following individuals participated in the department /division director session on October 19: Planning and Community Development Director Jeff Davidson, Airport Operations Specialist Michael Tharp, City Clerk Marian K. Carr, Public Works Director Rick Fosse, Parks and Recreation Director Mike Moran, Library Director Susan Craig, Assistant City Manager Dale Helling, Administrative Assistant to the City Manager Adam Bentley, City Attorney Eleanor Dilkes, Police Chief Sam Hargadine, Fire Chief Andy Rocca, Transportation Services Director Chris O'Brien, Senior Center Coordinator Linda Kopping, Finance Director Kevin O'Malley, Personnel Administrator Karen Jennings, Housing and Inspection Services Director Doug Boothroy, and City Manager Tom Markus. Pj Issues, Concerns, Trends, and Opportunities The participants identified the following issues, concerns, trends, and opportunities that they considered would affect future city services, policies, finances or operations. Budget /Finance • Heavy reliance on property taxes and potential of significant revenue loss from property tax rollback • Budget constraints, esp. related to loss of revenue from "co -op" decision - impacts on funding of existing services • Constricting budgets due to fewer revenue opportunities and financial constraints at state and federal level • Tax base increasing but at lower rate than in previous years; rate of increase is not matching the increasing cost of operations o Limited future income streams translate into limited growth patterns • Funding - need to be diversified and continue to grow to keep up funding needed to maintain good city services • Should be making plans now for renewing Local Option Sales Tax (LOST) when it expires and investing money in quality city services and infrastructure • Need to assure fiscal responsibility; use service levels /performance- outcome measurement to promote fiscal responsibility • Evaluate the financial consequences of city projects, activities, operations under consideration • Need to evaluate city services and funding levels in light of state, federal and other local government budget; hold other jurisdictions accountable for the impact of their funding cuts • Need to look at ways to improve organizational effectiveness and efficiency • As dept. budgets get tighter, a "not my dept" mentality could prevail. We are a City, not individual depts. • Continued strain on existing resources as state and federal budget issues trickle down to local levels - e.g., mental health system, highway funds, state commercial /industrial property tax rollback push • Need to stick with adopted budget and goals described therein and not get sidetracked during the year • What is our risk tolerance level as a city with respect to budget /finance? • Need to review services and fee schedules with respect to actual costs; what should property taxes pay for versus what should fees pay for? • City tax and fee rates compared to neighboring communities • Unfunded mandates • Impacts of increasing employee wages, health care, pension /IPERS and related costs while revenues have plateaued or decreased • Concern that less essential services will experience changes that ultimately will diminish quality of services offered; do not stop investment in creative economy types as budget gets tighter - increase resources in that area and make them work for us (arts and cultural offerings) 3 Demoirauhics • Significant demographic changes are occurring in our community - diversity, age, etc. - impact how city services, programs, activities are provided • Need to consider demographic changes when planning how future city services will be provided. • Increasing number of elderly in the community who will possibly rely on social services and other city programs Economic Development • Need to attract businesses, industries and good - paying jobs to Iowa City • Need an economic development strategic plan o Need to better define economic development roles, responsibilities, strategies for Iowa City • Need to have a clearly defined vision • Relationship with ICAD should be evaluated • Remain focused on retaining existing business and industry • How to do better job of capitalizing on I -80 and Hwy 218; U of I • Need to understand global marketplace and where we fit in • Iowa City and its neighbors have different philosophies on TIF and other related assistance packages; could be disincentive to develop in IC; uneven playing field in terms of competing for development opportunities with competing communities • Need to improve relationships with associations - DTA, SOTA, etc. Community Development • What is vision for commercial areas outside the downtown? Have we done a good job of visioning for Towncrest - extend this to other commercial areas? • Need to streamline the development approval process - may require zoning changes • Given size of major dept stores, where would they locate in IC? • Need to identify retail /commercial needs /gaps 4 Downtown • Downtown area is intimidating for many people at certain times and limits pedestrian traffic volumes in the area • Need more diversified /balanced retail downtown • Perception of lack of activities for non - student population in downtown • Need to strengthen public /private effort to preserve and revitalize downtown. • Reliance always rested on the City • Adoption of SSMID ordinance should provide opportunity for City to redefine its role as partner with private interests • Do downtown rents encourage diversity in businesses? • Establish plan for downtown - who is doing what, responsibility and overall management • Need more activities that keep people coming to downtown Housin • Inadequate supply of affordable housing; need for workforce housing • Need a regional approach to the affordable housing issue University • The University of Iowa is a tremendous economic asset and offers myriad opportunities for the community • The relationship between the City and the University has significantly improved and needs to continue to be mutually beneficial • U of I taking more and more space downtown -how do we capitalize on this trend? • Restriction of taxable properties due to U of I increasing its presence in downtown Inter - governmental Relations • Need to maintain and enhance intergovernmental relationships - Coralville, North Liberty, ICCSD, County • Providing services to other communities at expense of IC taxpayers - is the city receiving fair compensation? • Need to explore regionalization of selected government services • Goals, responsibilities and costs should be shared regionally - with other cities, county, and University Infrastructure /CIP The current priority on flood recovery projects subordinates other maintenance and growth capital projects City has an effective process in place for prioritizing and programming capital projects Public Safetv • Evaluate the role of the Fire Department with respect to Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and transport (ambulance) • Continue transition into new dispatch center - effect on operations • Implementation of new Police Records Management System • Increased usage of police substation and how to staff • Funding replacement of Crown Vic squad cars and replacement of specialized equipment needed to outfit the new cars • Need for Police Department access to nearby approved firearms range • Maintaining a community policing presence with limited staff and increased demands • Monitoring new red light camera system if approved • Continue to focus on gangs and drug dealers to limit their effect on the community • Securing funding to replace K9 • Need for secure parking for emergency vehicles Rail • Continue advocacy to secure passenger rail service to Chicago • Lack of state support for passenger rail service Public Works • Need to broaden availability of recycling Cultural Social and Recreational Services • Need a policy relating to use of flood recovery /buyout properties acquired by the city; maintenance of these properties impacts utilizes resources (personnel and funding) Airport • Need to continue to evaluate the role, location, and impact of the Airport 0 Facilities • Comprehensive space needs study is underway; when completed, there will be a need to prioritize projects and develop funding plans • Disposition of city properties • Need improved /additional city facilities on west side of town - there is no rec or library facility; just some basic parks and the landfill Human Resources • Several Dept. Directors approaching retirement age - succession plan in place? • Reducing staff size through attrition does not address where cuts should actually occur Technology • Antiquated software applications needs to be replaced • City web presence needs to be enhanced • City needs to expand use of social media as a communications tool • Need to use technology to enhance city services and effectiveness Governance /Organizational • Current lack of clear priorities for sustainable services the city provides; Lack of true direction for city as a whole - too many individual directions • Lack of strategic plan; • Lack of true direction for city as a whole - too many individual directions • Need for process improvement and organizational effectiveness; streamline internal processes to maximize efficiency • Emphasize a culture of customer service, customer orientation • Organizations continually turning to City to solve all issues • Evaluate alternative methods for providing selected City services • Consider enforcement issues before an ordinance is adopted • Encouraging culture not afraid to try new things Communication /Image /Perception • Perception /reality of how "business friendly" City is • Need to improve marketing /public relations and general communications • Opportunity to promote City as one that supports healthy lifestyles throughout lifespan - rec dept and senior center, trails, bike friendly, etc. 7 Prioritization of Issue Areas Each participant was requested to select what he or she considered the six most important issue areas on which the City Council should focus in the next two — four years. The following is the tabulation of that voting (parentheses refer to the number of votes received — a total of 17 persons participated): Top Priorities Communications /Image /Perception (15) Budget /Finance (14) Economic Development (14)* Intergovernmental Relations (11) Technology (10) Downtown (8) Others Community Development (5)* Governance /Organizational (5) Facilities (4) University (4) Public Safety (3) Cultural, Social and Recreational Services (3) Public Works (2) Rail (1) Infrastructure /CIP (1) Housing (1) Demographics (1) Human Resources (0) Airport (0) Transit (0) *Subsequent to the vote, the group decided to combine the "Economic Development" issue area with "Community Development" issue area. On -Going Commitments The participants identified the following significant programs and projects which are currently underway or are otherwise committed to or obligated by the City Council: • Space needs study • Flood recovery and mitigation: • Buy -out program • Levees (3) • North wastewater plant • Gateway (North Dubuque St and Park Road bridge) • Replace animal shelter • Rocky Shore flood gate and lift station • Miscellaneous flood projects • State and federally funded projects: o Lower Muscatine Road reconstruction • Airport parallel taxiway • 1 st Avenue railroad grade separation • Dubuque St pedestrian bridge • Terry Trueblood Recreation Area • Highway 1 trail o Court St trail — Phase 3 • Riverfront Crossing Redevelopment Project o Multi -use parking • Towncrest Redevelopment Project • Downtown retail market analysis • Continue advocacy of passenger rail service to Chicago • Make decision regarding red light cameras • Develop new legislative strategies incorporating services of new paid lobbyist o Include cultivation of closer working relationship with area State legislators o More direct communication with others on certain issues they may be closely tied to o Maintain strong presence in Metro Coalition 0 Significant New Initiatives, Programs, Projects or Policies The participants were requested to identify potential significant new initiatives, programs, projects, or policies for City Council consideration for the upcoming two - four year period. The following items were suggested: Budget/Finance • Establish financial sustainability metrics for the various city funds • Conduct analysis of city fee policies and schedules • Consider sponsorship and naming policies as alternative revenue sources Economic and Community Development • Produce an economic development strategic plan to include: • Clarify vision and strategy for implementation • Commercial (existing /additional) areas outside downtown - what is the vision /strategy? • Aggressive recruiting of businesses to the community • Continue to work with existing businesses for retention /expansion /relocation within Iowa City • More hotels, near downtown but outlying as well • Work with local organizations to help get new businesses • Establish economic development policies and forms to review prospective businesses and to assist in determining appropriate levels of incentives • Continue to fund initiatives and provide appropriate staff resources - Towncrest, Riverfront Crossings, downtown, industrial park, Moss Green • Develop plan for redevelopment of transit facility corner to higher /better use that it • Develop plan for Gilbert /College northeast corner Downtown • Conduct a tenant mix analysis for downtown and then develop a plan to diversify the downtown retail mix Housine • Develop program to provide more non - student housing in the downtown area • Continue funding of UniverCity program Inter - governmental Relations • Work with legislature regarding TIF statute • Develop initiative for working with neighboring communities and intergovernmental agencies on services that can be provided jointly 10 Public Safety • Evaluate feasibility of Fire Department -based EMS /transport Public Works • Expand recycling program Cultural Social and Recreational Services • Expand Farmers Market to resemble markets in cities such as Des Moines • Hold off developing new public parkland until financial situation is more stable • Promote health and wellness program (Blue Zone) • Loosen rules on alcohol use in city buildings - especially park facilities o Allow alcohol to be served at fundraising events sponsored by the Library, Rec Dept., Senior Center, their Boards and Commissions and their Friends groups o Individuals renting larger rooms for personal events • Build on library outreach efforts that are planned at Pepperwood Police substation o Access to computer /intranet is an essential basic service many people do not have Facilities • Provide improved /additional city facilities on west side of town - there is no rec or library facility Technolo�v • Software application upgrades • Citywide GIS Governance f Organizational • Establish a customer- service - oriented environment as a top organizational goal • Operate departments on approved performance based measures, consistent with Strategic Plan • Investigate programs for process improvement and enhance organizational effectiveness • Analysis of ability to provide additional enforcement /maintenance should be done prior to passage of new ordinance /resolution • Invite members of city boards and commissions to an annual meeting of the City Council to discuss council's goals and priorities and to recognize contributions of board and commission members 11 Communication JImage /Perception • Employ a public information specialist to develop and implement a program to improve the image and perception of Iowa City, market city services, and enhance communications with the public • Develop and implement branding strategy o One logo - one direction, one vision, everyone on same page • Increase community outreach to educate and gather feedback; multiyear initiative to modify stereotypes and encouraging more positive and realistic views of all community members • Address perception that city is not business - friendly: o Disseminate information, especially in cases where the perception is inaccurate o Change our behavior in cases where perception may have some validity Organizational Effectiveness Participants were requested to identify items that City Council or staff could do in the future to improve organizational effectiveness, decision - making process, teamwork and the ability to accomplish the city's stated goals and objectives. These responses were then categorized based on whether they could be addressed at the council or administrative level. Council Level • Council commitment to goals and priorities of the Strategic Plan • Regular evaluation and review of City's stated goals and objectives with modifications based on changing circumstances and community dynamics • Link budget to City Council and community goals • Invest in and utilize technology to streamline processes and provide alternatives for customers • Limit consideration of matters involving expenditures outside the context of the budget • Think globally together with the University • Recognize there is some cost to new legislation 12 Administrative Level (* signifies further discussions to be held at the administrative level) • Effective use of performance measures addressing both individual and dept /division objectives and performance • Continue policy of joint and /or cooperative arrangements between City and University should be regularly addressed in meetings and communications among City, University administrators and planning staff • Use staff meeting time to discuss not only agenda items but highlight what is going on in each department. May help build team environment. • Develop a succession plan for all departments • Examine service delivery models to make sure they are efficient • Instill customer service, strategic thinking, and LEAN processing /Process Mapping throughout the organization.* • Build a budget process that stresses performance consistent with Strategic Plan • Prioritize City's goals and objectives • Feedback on whether goals and objectives are being met • Continue to perform metrics to enhance understanding of level /quality of services provided • Conduct training on City policies and procedures* • Establish a service quality team to focus attention on service issues, make recommendations to City Manager on how to implement new programs and /or strategies that emphasize service and carry new programs to people in the organization. * • Include customer service as part of overall evaluation of city services and programs. • Communicate objectives /goals of Strategic Plan to all employees • Offer Lunch and Learns for staff to become familiar with broad city initiatives and goals as well as activities of specific depts.* • Use City logo for all depts and divisions. • Encourage opportunities for supervisors and managers to improve skills through networking, discussion groups, mentoring and training • Clearly identify role and intended purpose of staff committees, e.g., ITAC, ERP, Social Media Policy committees. Where are lines of responsibility, authority, etc.? • Management team at top of city organization needs to be able to draw upon resources of the city to manage services. Less compartmentalization and more horizontality Jeff Schott Institute of Public Affairs University of Iowa October 20, 2011 13 SWOT Analysis Council and City Staff Comparison Comments received by Incoming City Manager Tom Markus at individual meetings with Council members and staff— October 2010 CITY COUNCIL COMMENTS Strengths Competent City staff People — staff including Dept Heads and Division Heads Cohesive staff Strong Clerk's Office Good Police Department Competence of the staff and our people Dept Heads — knowledge background of staff Cohesive nature of staff showed through during flood disaster Genuine concern for moving Iowa City in the right direction Cronyism is gone Elements of community are responsive Very good staff Very capable staff Very responsive to community Plenty of social services Significant infrastructure Good City Council Weakness Sometimes a lack of hustle Never had adverse (economic) conditions to contend with Customer service is at times too complacent Staff entrenchment Sometimes a silo mentality in departments Entrenchment of longtime staff Permit process is overwhelming Resistant to change by long -term staff Customer service needs to be enhanced Law enforcement needs to be more customer friendly — not so hard line in all circumstances Complacency — need to work on customer service like keeping cashier open until 5:30pm Customer service Clarity of permitting /development process Lack of Strategic Plan Limited financial resources Lack of meaningful cooperation between governing agencies Opportunities Redevelopment of various areas of City reinvestment To have more outside the box thinking Continue to innovate and be more creative Rebuild downtown and close in neighborhoods Iowa City residents are loyal Economic Development potential Increase Tax Base Lessen stringent permitting process and rules Uncertainty resolved with new manager hire Keep the downtown vital Strengthen core neighborhoods around downtown Riverfront Crossing project New train service Improved University relations Explore connections to school of Urban /Regional Studies Creative population Engaged citizenry Strategic Planning Economic Development Infill Economic Development Increased cooperation with other entities Threats Crime and changing demographic Being complacent Over - managing versus letting it seek its own level Competing cities We are not competing or we are not as aggressive Environment - weather Potential to not carry out our plans Lack of a succession plan Environmental threats Tax rates go higher causing too much pain for the tax payers Economy Environmental 2 CITY STAFF COMMENTS Strengths Accountable Staff Financial stability Relationships with others Good infrastructure Anticipate- Proactive -Plan- Respect Open and transparent Library Weakness Technology: GIS, Hazardous Material, Payroll, Accounting, Agenda Prep, Innovation Facility management - space needs Public Relations Long process Tax exempt property Management influx Opportunities University growth City and school growth Technology Intergovernmental New management Retirements Sales tax Threats Retirements Potential changes in property taxes Regional competition Environmental Global economy Legislative Politics IP8 CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM Date: June 14, 2011 To: City Council From: Thomas M. Markus, City Mana�er�� %�,/h Re: Strategic Planning /Goal Setting The attached survey report prepared by the Thomas Group is the first step of our planned strategic planning effort. The survey serves as a method to gain stakeholder input into the strategic planning process. The survey included a statistically valid sample of registered voters in Iowa City's 25 precincts and a survey of fifty businesses located in Iowa City. The next phase of the strategic planning process includes focus group sessions with City staff and the City Council. The outcomes of the survey and the focus group sessions will be compiled and distilled into a strategic plan for City Council review. I believe the report speaks for itself. It is expected that the Thomas Group will be invited to a future strategic planning session to be conducted by Jeff Schott, Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Iowa. At that meeting, a summary of the survey will be made and a question and answer session can be included. Any specific comments about the survey should be directed to: Thomas W. Pickering of the Thomas Group, tom .pickering @thethomasgroup.com. Iowa City Survey Report June 11, 2011 The Thomas Group Iowa City Survey June 2011 Executive Summary The Thomas Group entered into a contract with the City of Iowa City to perform a survey of residents and businesses regarding city services and community priorities. The results of the surveys will be analyzed by the city and used as input to the strategic plan being developed. Results may also be used as benchmarks of levels of customer satisfaction with specific city services. A citizen survey was prepared with City staff participation and approved by the City. It was conducted by telephone for a statistically valid sample of registered voters in Iowa City's 25 precincts. Names of registered voters with land line or celiphone numbers were provided by the Johnson County Elections Office. Fifty businesses were selected from current information provided by the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce and US DEX Yellow Pages. Participating businesses represented finance, social services, retail, building trades, manufacturing, legal, medical, and food service. Survey respondents were owners or managers of the businesses and ranged from sole proprietorships to offices of national organizations. Survey data was recorded by gender, home ownership, age, and years of residence or in business. Detailed data can be found in the appendix. University students are a significant portion of the population. in order to identify their interests and experience with city services, their opinions are compared to other ages which represent rest of the population. Citizens who contacted the city in the past 12 months reported the highest levels of service satisfaction with garbage removal, housing assistance, local bus service, the public library, and water and sewer services. Business respondents ranked parking, the public library, and street repairs as the highest for customer service satisfaction. Citizens ranked fire protection, garbage and recycling, police protection, the public library, snow removal, and water and sewer as the services with the highest importance. Businesses identified fire protection, police protection, economic development, snow removal, street repairs, and water and sewer as the services with the highest importance. Citizens and businesses expressed the highest level of support for increasing the number of downtown retail businesses. Citizens and business respondents' opinions indicate they feel safe in their neighborhoods or business locations. Approximately 36% of business and citizen respondents indicated they do not feel safe in downtown Iowa City during night time hours. Citizens ranked Economic Development and Public Safety as the highest priority issues for Iowa City. Businesses ranked Economic Development, Public Safety, and City Government as the most important business issues for Iowa City to address. Participants of both surveys offered positive suggestions. Many expressed their gratitude for having the opportunity to participate in the survey. The Thomas Group Page 2 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Table of Contents $wmvew Methodology ......°,°..°.~~,_,°,~_...,__~`,._~,~,^.°~._^_,_.^..~°_,_,_,.~,°°,.__~,,,, Business Survey 4 ...................... .~.~~.~..°.-,-~.~.~~.~°--.~-~~~~..^°°~..~.~.°°°°°.~.°°.°.. CitizenSurvey 4 ............................................................................................................................................ Contact with the City .... .......... .-.9 ServiceAssessnnents. ............................................................................................................................... 6 Overall Service Satisfaction ..................................................................................................................... 12 ServiceImportance bo Precinct ............................................................................................................... 13 Overall Service importance ..................................................................... ............................................... 20 Support for Projects ~...........~,..-°°~.,.,...°.~,.^"°°°°,,°^~-,...~~^.°~.°°°°.°~—..°~~~22 Overall Support for Projects ....................................................... ..~~.~^~°^~..~^°°-.^-^°..~^.,.~^,~°23 Safety........................................................................ .............................................................................. 24 Phorities~ Gender ...... Years of Residence .......................................................................... ..~~~.....~.,,..~.........~2@ ....................................°..~......26 ......................................................... 26 AgeRange ................................ ° .............................................................................................................. 27 BusinessSurvey Findings ............................................................................................................................ 28 Contactwith the City ............................................................................................................................... 28 PrimaryContact Method .~....,~°.~,°,`.°"°°^°°°°°."°°°°~..°°°°°^,^°,.°...°^°.^~_°,°°°^°°°°°^28 ServiceAssessments ................................................................................................................................ 29 Support for Projects ......... .^.,^,,~..~.~°.~....~..~~....~.°.^.^°°.,"°^,.°^°°°°...,°°°^°°^^-^~^°,... 31 safety....................................................................................................................................................... 31 Priorities..................................................................... ............................................................................ 32 Years Business hm Iowa City ..................................................................................................................... 33 Own/Lease nrRent Business Property .................................................................................................... 34 AgeRange ................................................................................................................................................ 34 Observations....~.°^°°°°°.^°~..°°^.~~°......._^.~..~...^..°..~°°.^°.°°.~~,..,..,~~~.°~..°35 Citizen Survey .....~~.°°°^°.°°°°°.~.~..~.~.~°°,°°.°,°°~-~~_.°.°°°°°°°°°^°,°°^.~...~.°.35 BusinessSurvey .................................................................................................... .................................. 36 Appendix..................................................................................................................................................... _. IowaCity Precinct Map ............................................................................................................................ 37 CitizenSurvey Form ................................................................................................................................. 38 BusinessSurvey Form ....... .................................................................................. ................................... 39 CitizenSurvey Data .~~~°.-~.~--°°.-,°°°°~~..~.~.°..~---..-~~~~~~~~~~~.-~~°~^'~~^~~~~~40 TheThornas Group Page 3 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Background The City of Iowa City issued a Request for Proposal to identify and articulate a shared vision and set of values and design a strategic plan to guide the Council and the City staff in their work over the next two to four years. The proposal included three parts: 1. Execution of a survey of residents and businesses regarding City services and community priorities. 2. Facilitation of focus group work sessions with City staff and the City Council. 3. Compilation and distillation of the outcomes of these sessions into a strategic plan for City Council approval. The Thomas Group, an Iowa City based public opinion and research firm, was selected to conduct telephone surveys to collect information to be used in parts two and three. Survey Methodology The business survey gathered data from 50 randomly sampled Iowa City businesses. A similar telephone survey was prepared for residents and conducted to achieve a sampling of registered voter opinions with a +/- 5% level accuracy. Business Survey The 50 survey participants represent Iowa City businesses ranging from sole proprietorships to local offices of large corporations, and include for - profit and non - profit organizations. The businesses represent finance, medical, building trades, legal, transportation, retail, manufacturing, and social services. Those who participated were either owners or managers of their businesses. Business respondents were asked to reply to the questions from a business perspective. Respondents were randomly selected from current information provided by the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce and US OEX Yellow Pages. This selection was identified as the best combination of sources because there is not a single source for all Iowa City businesses. Businesses were contacted between the hours of 8:30 am and 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Citizen Survey Registered voters are considered an excellent source of public opinion for local government issues. The current records of the Johnson County Elections Office revealed there were 29,093 registered voters with a telephone number pand line or cell, within the city's 25 precincts. A total of 380 registered voters were needed to achieve an accuracy of +/- 5 %. Precincts vary in number of registered voters. The number of respondents needed from each precinct was determined by relative percentage of the 29,093 total. A map of Iowa City's 25 precincts, prepared by the Johnson County Elections Office, is included in the Appendix. Calls were made between the hours of 10:00 am and 8:30 pm, Monday through Friday, and on Saturday from 9:00 am to noon. Opinions were recorded by precinct. The Thomas Group Page 4 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Citizen Survey Findings The University of Iowa student population represents a significant segment of the community. Many students are registered voters concerned about various issues. To better understand the opinions of this group we prepared an age group analysis and identified those in the 18 -24 age range to be representative of university students. Data is presented for the 18 -24 age range and all other Iowa City residents where there are significant differences in survey findings. Contact with the City Contacted city in past 12 months 14 T— 12.� 10 8 i 4 ! 2 - — -- OS. _._- ._- :- TT_Y_- ^_(_i__.. _._'TTT .7.- r- f_�".'�S�t• -'1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516171819202122232425 Primary Contact Method Primary Contact Method 2% • Telephone • City's web site .i In person /face -to -face in Written ■ Other t:, Prefer not to respond The Thomas Group Page 5 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Sen ice Assessments Service satisfaction ratings were provided by respondents who said they had contacted the city in the past 12 months. 0 %_ Airport Animal Services 0% G • Very Satisfied • Satisfied Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion • Very Satisfied • Satisfied Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion Building & Housing Inspection ax o% • Very Satisfied • Satisfied Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion The Thomas Group Page 6 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Fire Department 1 I ' - - - Zemoval • Very Satisfied • Satisfied • Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion ■ Very Satisfied i ■ Satisfied Unsatisfied ■ Very Unsatisfied ■ No Opinion Housing Assistance Programs ova 0% o% • Very Satisfied • Satisfied • Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied j • No Opinion ! i The Thomas Group Page 7 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Leaf Removal s% 5% 0% o% Local Bus Service • Very Satisfied j • Satisfied ss Unsatisfied in Very Unsatisfied I ■ No Opinion Parking 0%5% • Very Satisfied • Satisfied s, Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion The Thomas Group Page 8 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Parks and Recreation 0%0% Planning & Zoning 5,/. cic Police Department 2% • Very Satisfied ■ Satisfied x Unsatisfied ■ Very Unsatisfied ' • No Opinion • Very Satisfied • Satisfied Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied ■Very Satisfied • Satisfied Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion The Thomas Group Page 9 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Public Library - - - - - - -_. -_- -- ---- _ -- - 0%� Senior Center Snow Removal 6%3% • Very Satisfied • Satisfied • Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion • Very Satisfied • Satisfied • Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion • Very Satisfied • Satisfied a Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied • No Opinion The Thomas Group Page 10 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Street Repairs ar • Very Satisfied • Satisfied i • Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied ! • No Opinion IAA- &- -'C -•- Er Services • Very Satisfied • Satisfied n Unsatisfied • Very Unsatisfied i • No Opinion The Thomas Group Page 11 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Overall Set-vice Satisfaction Overall citizen satisfaction with city services for all precincts is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 — Very Satisfied 4 — Satisfied 3 — Unsatisfied 2 —Very Unsatisfied 1— No Opinion Overall Satisfaction e c 4.6 4.6 • c 4.7 4.6 4.5 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 i 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0 City services providing a 100% level of customer service satisfaction were identified by combining the Very Satisfied and Satisfied responses. These service areas are: • Garbage Removal • Housing Assistance • Local Bus Service • Public Library • Water /Sewer Services Five city services had less than a 90% level of customer satisfaction. The data displayed represents the ratings provided by the 18 -24 year old age range and all other Iowa City residents. The Thomas Group Page 12 18— 24 Age Group All Other Age Groups Combined Average Street Repairs 75% 79% 78% Building & housing Inspections 89% 75% 80% Snow Removal 59% 77% 63% Planning and Zoning 80% 57% 63% Parking 43% 67% 53% The Thomas Group Page 12 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Service Importance by Precinct Numeric values In the following charts correspond to survey responses as follows: 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 5 -Very Important 4-Important 3 - Somewhat Important 2 - Not Important /Not Needed 1- No Opinion i Affordable Housing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 14 Airport i i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 13 Iowa City Survey June 2011 5 - 4 I 3 I 2 Animal Services V TTT-T --fir -T ��TT -�Tf' 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3011 12 13 14 15 161718 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Building & Housing Inspection I4.5 -- — — - - - -- — -- 4 i -- 3S — — 3 2.5 2 — IS 1 0.5 O 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 5 4 Fire Protection 3 - 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 14 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Garbage & Recycling 5 4 3 2 �`- 1 0 F 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Housing Assistance Programs 4 3 2 1 0 - I , . 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Leaf Removal The Thomas Group Page 15 1! Iowa City Survey Jule 2011 Local bus transportation 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 4 3 2 �1 0 i Parks and Recreation 4 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192D21 22 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 16 Parking i i 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 30 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 1 Parks and Recreation 4 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161718192D21 22 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 16 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Planning & Zoning s _ 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Police Protection 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 121314151617 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Public Library 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 1617 1819 20 2122 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 17 Iowa City Survey June 2011 5 4 3 2 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Economic Development Senior Center 4.5 4 1 3.5 3 2.5 — 2 — 1.5 1 L - -- 0.5 Q .. __. ___.rr,.T___._. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 5 4 3 2 1 0 Snow Removal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 18 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Social Services Support 5 4 3 --- 2 I- 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 2415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Street Repairs 5 4 Ole i 13 i 2. i i i 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 20 1112 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Water /Sewer Services s-- -- - -- - -- — -- - - I. 4 i 2 ` — -- i o 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 91D11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 The Thomas Group Page 19 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Overall Service Importance Overall service importance for all precincts is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 - Very Important 4 - Important 3 - Somewhat Important 2 - Not Important /Not Needed 1- No Opinion Overall Importance 5.00 - 4.50 4.00 '--- - - -- -- 3.50 - - — 3.00 -- - 2.50 2.00 1.50 - 1.00 - -- _- ___.- __- - -- D.50 `oc ` °o `�� ¢ �a �`' `oy .`oo a° ° b 2F 'b c �i -,ot ¢c o Qa ¢st q SQ °a. ¢Gy a``'te sF °oa Qa `�¢ '1,° oae C, �oQ kt' ¢F ,P 10N¢ .tea& �\,c i � 6� BPS ¢aQ 0¢ .`� e s o�� ¢A¢ ¢K *$ o -# Ca\ �¢¢� ate¢ The Thomas Group Page ZO Iowa City Survey June 2011 Following are the combined Very Important and Important responses for city services for the 18 -24 Age Group, all other Age Groups, and the combined average for both groups. - Recruiting/developing new business /economic development The following city services had the highest percentage of responses for Not Important/Not Needed: 18 —24 Age Group All Other Age Groups Combined Average Affordable Housing li0% 61% 66% Airport 18% 24% 22% Animal Services 45% 58% 54% Building & Housing Inspection 63% 70% 68% Fire Protection 79% 95% 91% Garbage & Recycling 73% 86% 82% Housing Assistance Programs 52% 47% 49% Leaf Removal 23% 37% 33% Local Bus Service 79% 82% 81% Parks & Recreation 77% 75% 75% Parking 80% 58% 64% Planning & Zoning 42% 67% 60% Police Protection 69% 94% 87% Public Ubra 72% 86% 82% Economic Development* 77% 68% 70% Senior Center 52% 71% 66% Snow Removal 76% 88% 84% Social Services Support 53% 62% 59% Street Repairs 67% 84% 79% Water /Sewer Services 74% 91% 86% - Recruiting/developing new business /economic development The following city services had the highest percentage of responses for Not Important/Not Needed: The Thomas Group Page 21 18 — 24 Age Group All Other Age Groups Total Airport 37% 38% 38% Leaf Removal 41% 21% 27% Houzin Assistance Pro rams 14% 18% 17% Affordable Housing 6% 13% 11% The Thomas Group Page 21 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Support for Projects Overall service importance by precinct is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 — Very Supportive 4 — Supportive 3 — Somewhat Supportive 2 — Not Supportive 1— No Opinion Chicago /Iowa City Passenger Rail Service 6 I 4 _. - - - - - -- - - -- _.. _ j 2 «l, 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161; 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Increasing Number of Downtown Retail Businesses 5 - - - -- - -- _. —__..- -- - - — 4 --`' -- ' —_- 3 2 '— 1 2 3 4 _ 5 6' 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 Increasing Owner Occupied Housing 4 in Downtown Iowa City 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1122 23 14 15 16 17 19 19 20 2122 23 24 2S The Thomas Group Page 22 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Overall Support for Projects Overall project support for all precincts is shown In the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 -Very Supportive 4 - Supportive 3 - Somewhat Supportive 2 - Not Supportive 1- No Opinion Overall Support for Projects 4.00 -�-- 3.50 '- 3.00 2.50 - - -- -- i 2.00 1.50 1.00 - -- - 0.50 0.00 — - Chicago /Iowa City Passenger Rail Increasing Number of Downtown Increasing Owner Occupied Service Retail Businesses Housing in Downtown Iowa City Following are the combined Very Supportive and Supportive responses for city projects for the 18 -24 Age Group, all other Age Groups, and the combined average for both groups. The Thomas Group Page 23 18 -24 Age Group AII Other Age Groups Combined Average Providing Chicago /lowa City 53% 46% 4896 passenger rail service increasing the number of downtown 57% 57% 57% retail businesses increasing availability of owner 53% 25% 33% occupied housing downtown The Thomas Group Page 23 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Safety Overall agreement with statements about safety by precinct is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 4.5 4 3.5 5 — Agree Strongly 4 — Agree 3 — Disagree 2 — Disagree Strongly 1— No Opinion I feel safe in my neighborhood 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 101112131415161 71819202122232425 I feel safe in downtown Iowa City during daylight hours 6 - - - - - -- 4 1- 2 0_�� r T 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10111213141516171819 20 212223 2425 I feel safe in downtown Iowa City during night time hours 4 3 2 1 ---- -- D 1 2 345678910111213141516171819202122232425 The Thomas Group Page 24 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Overall Opinions of Safety Overall agreement with safety statements for all precincts is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 - Agree Strongly 4 - Agree 3 - Disagree 2 - Disagree Strongly 1- No Opinion S.oa 4.50 _... -_- 4.00 - 3.50 - -- 3.00 - -- 2.50 -- 2.00 1.50 1.00 - 0.50 0.00 — Overall Safety Neighborhood Downtown Daylight Downtown Night Following are the combined Agree Strongly and Agree responses for safety for the 16 -24 Age Group, all other Age Groups, and the combined average for both groups. The Thomas Group rage v 18 -24 Age Group All Other Age Groups Combined Average I feel safe in my neighborhood 96% 95% 96% i feel safe in downtown Iowa City during daylight hours 100% 92% 94% I feel safe in downtown Iowa City during nighttime hours 84% 45% 56% The Thomas Group rage v Iowa City Survey June 2011 Priorities Respondents identified the following top five priorities: 1. Economic Development 26% 2. Public Safety 18% 3. Affordable Housing 7% 4. Student Issues 5% 5. Balanced Budget 4% Gender Gender < 1% xr Female r. Male Unknown Years of Residence How many years have you lived in Iowa City? (All Precincts) ■ <1 ■1 -s N6-10 I ■11 -20 ■ >20 ■ Prefer not to respond The Thomas Group Page 26 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Home ownership _ _ Are you a homeowner? Age Rangi Age Range (All Precincts) 16 -24 25 -35 36 -49 50-64 >65 The Thomas Group Page 27 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Business Survey Findings Contact with the City Contacted city in past 12 months 0% Primary Contact Method k Yeti No arelcr not to r"pcnd Primary Contact Method ■ Telephone • City's web site • In person /face-to -face • Written • Other • Prefer not to respond The Thomas Group Page 28 June 2011 Iowa City Survey Service Assessments overall business satisfaction with city services is shown in the following graph for businesses that had contact with the city In the past 12 months. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 — Very Satisfied 4— Satisfied 3 — unsatisfied 2 — Very unsatisfied 1— No Opinion 6.0 - 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.0 1.0 -- — Overall Satisfaction 0.0 __ _.. _., ._..I - _. -_, . ��5p¢� ¢Qart' P¢�s¢a 0 F Qa2�' Qa ��ti eQar �c O Q� Qo The Thomas Group Page 29 aid 4b\ a\cS �¢i ek Fo ¢4 5¢ 5 Page 29 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Service Importance Overall service importance for businesses is shown in the following graph. Numeric values correspond to survey responses as follows: 5 - Very Important 4 - Important 3 -Somewhat Important 2 - Not Important /Not Needed 1- No Opinion Overall Importance 5.00 _-- - - - - -- 4.50 - - - -- -- - - - -- 4.00 - - -- - - -- — -- 3.50 - .�� -- - ....---- - - -- -- -- 3.00 -- — 2.50 - — 2.00 -- — 1.50 - -- - 1.00 - - - -- 0.00 •O" •oc 6c�' cue ova` coS �cQ a� °c BOA °C a(y o� yes °a\ `e5 a`� es ��e(t csQeQso~ebQ �StPeF �o�a� Qa2teiea �oQ`o�yo\`ovose\oQC os�ecQesc \Se��eQeQ �s�ye� k`s�`�a6 �oJy\cy, yea Qa`�S�\acc`cQo``z Qo�`�ae, yam Scoff 5°��a Sys¢ �a C+ Q VI; The Thomas Group Page 30 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Support for Projects __..... - . . Overall Support 4.50 - 4.00 - 3.50 -- -_ -- 3.00 - - -- i j2.00{j —_ - 1.50 } 1.00 0.50 -- -- -- - - - -- __.._._ 0.00 - Chicago /Iowa City Passenger Rail Increasing Number of Downtown Increasing Owner Occupied Service Retail Businesses Housing in Downtown Iowa City Safety 5.00 - 4.50 f 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 150 1.00 7 050 1 1'A Overall Sa Neighborhood Downtown D The Thomas Group Page 31 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Priorities Business respondents identified the following priorities, grouped by subject 1. Safety • Police and fire protection • Bridge improvement • Street repairs • Clean up the east side and southeast side of Iowa City 2, Economic Development Including Downtown • Improve downtown retail and offices • Develop more business areas — proactive like Coralville • Attract affordable and retail restaurants downtown • Attract new businesses to Iowa City • Increasing downtown businesses including retail services • Money saving initiatives like transportation and economic development • No growth available in the city • Attract new businesses throughout the city— not just downtown • Increase economic development to assist in jobs creation • Having a viable downtown with appropriate business mix 3. City Services • Improve the streets • Finishing Oakdale Blvd • Planning and Zoning opinions need to be more consistent • Snow removal in a timely manner • Maintain services at present level 4. City Government • City government needs to be more pro- business • A common sense approach to government • Stop spoiling downtown Iowa City with bars —clean it up • Dealing with flood issues to eliminate the problems caused by flooding • Government needs to be streamlined with fewer employees to maximize productivity and control costs • Explore outsourcing services to reduce expenses - private sector should handle garbage, snow, leaf removal • Focus on reorganizing downtown district for improve safety • Reduce bureaucracy in city government • Getting the budget together— controlling expenses The Thomas Group Page 32 Iowa City Survey June 2011 S. Other • Lower rents in and around downtown • Program to assist small business owners — writing business plans, grant proposals • Taxation on housing needs changing • Reevaluate low income programs regarding supplying services; those who've lived here a long time and have jobs can't afford to pay for private services • Programs for elderly who have worked their whole life in Iowa City without support or benefits workers have today • Insuring seniors have a life in Iowa City • Do not offer housing assistance to low income people who create problems for the city and our school district Gender Gender Years Business in Iowa City Years Business in Iowa City os; ■ <1 xl - S ■6 -10 ■11 -20 >20 The Thomas Group Page 33 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Own /Lease or Rent Business Property Own /Lease or Rent Business Property Age Range 42% O'.:. Rent 25 =5 tc 3u 49 -50 -E4 >65 The Thomas Group Page. 34 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Observations Citizen Survey The following observations are based on comments made by respondents to the interviewer. • There is concern about the crime rate on the Southeast side, also the number of homes built that are Habitat homes or otherwise labeled as affordable housing. The common view seemed to be that the city is encouraging people, primarily from Chicago, to move to Iowa City and that the people who then relocate do not havejobs and drain the city of services. • There are mixed feelings about the amount of police protection. The students seemed to feel that the police must have better things to do than "over- patrol" them. Several residents also said that they felt the police spent too much time focusing on the students and not enough time in the neighborhoods. A few residents who had called the police, mostly for excessive noise in the neighborhood, felt they had been treated too casually by the police and a few said the policeman who showed up was rude or did nothing about their complaint. There were a number of comments about the police. • Spending too much time patrolling parking spaces, usually coupled with the remark that parking fines are a money -maker for the city so that's why they spend so much time writing tickets. • Both residents and students said that the "21 Rule" had forced the students into having house parties instead of drinking in the bars and students and residents alike thought that was probably more dangerous than being in the bars because there is no supervision at the house parties and the neighbors then had to put up with the traffic and noise from the parties. • Many people commented on the fact that they thought it was too late for downtown Iowa City to be revitalized and that Coralville has already captured that market. Other related comments were that the city Is not friendly and /or helpful to small business owners who do want to be downtown. • Several wanted the city to offer some incentives for small businesses to locate downtown and commented that the city taxes on small businesses are too high. • Many of the people who agreed to the safety downtown said they did not feel completely safe. They think something needs to be done that will change their minds. • Several people complained that snow removal was less effective than it used to be and that the people who plow the streets plow in the driveways, making is necessary for the people to shovel themselves out and several said that leaf removal ended before the leaves stopped falling. • There were several people who complained about the city planner. A few people felt very strongly that the city/city planner shows too much favoritism for developers. A few said they have been entirely ignored by the city planner when asking for assistance. • People expressed their appreciation for being able to participate in the survey including a former member of the City Council who said the survey was a good idea. • Comments also included a better working relationship between the city and the university and another suggested the university take over all the downtown property. • There was concern expressed about the amount of their property taxes that they say must be based on the loss of revenue from tax exempt organizations. • People had praise for the Public Library and all the programs they have — especially those for children. • Elevating Dubuque Street and the First Avenue crossing were also mentioned. Traffic flow across the city doesn't satisfy some people. • People freely admitted their concerns and some spent up to 25 minutes talking about the city. • One person when called asked how much time it would take to complete the survey "About 3 minutes" was the response. When we reached the final question he said, "We've been doing this for 23 minutes and I haven't minded a bit" • Many people said they love the city and have lived here for many years. They understand that it will always be a city whose heart is The University of Iowa. But the residents do not want to be in second place to the students and want more attention focused on them and less on the students, most of whom are here only temporarily. The Thomas Group Page 35 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Business Survey Business owners and managers were willing to participate and welcomed the opportunity to voice their opinions which they did openly based on their opinions and experiences. They all seemed to want to help the city with their suggested priorities. Some had more than one priority, so all were recorded. Afew had no priority recommendations for the city. Comments from business respondents are included in Priorities. The Thomas Group Page 36 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Appendix Iowa City Precinct Map The Thomas Group Page 37 Iowa City Survey June 2011 Citizen Survey Form The Thomas Group Page 38 Iowa atV Reghtwed voter Survey I. Have you contacted the city In the past 12 months about any of their services? Yes (ask Question 2 No (skip to CluestIM 3 Refer not lb 2. What was the primary method of comnxmiotion you used to contact the city? PCT: 3. Have you had any interaction with the city In the past 12 moths? Yes ask oueslion 4 No (sIdD to miestion 5 Prefer not to resDond 4. Based on your personal experience with the city's customer service in the past 12 months, please rate your customer service experience for each area. ELI - - - -- Tin S. The city is seeking your assistance in developing next year's budget. The city operates with limited revenue and must priorkhe its resources. Please indicate your opinion of the priority for each of the following services. The Thomas Group 6. Please indicate your level of support for each of the following projects. Please indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements: 7. 8. M Disagree Prefer rwt to enem ce.....a.. e..... w... �� I feel safe in downtown Disagree R Prefer not to Iowa Gty during daylight Agree 5 No nigh hours. Iowa City during night time Increasing the number of downtown retail businesses Please indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements: 7. 8. M Disagree Prefer rwt to enem ce.....a.. e..... w... �� I feel safe in downtown Disagree R Prefer not to Iowa Gty during daylight Agree 5 No nigh hours. 10.. In your opinion what should be the cry's highest priority in the next two years? 11. Gender: _ Female _ Male Refer not to respond /unknown 12. How many years have you lived In Iowa City? 13. Are you a homeowner? _ Yes No Prefer not to respond 14. What is your age range? The Thomas Group Disagree R Prefer not to Agree 5 No nigh I feel safe In downtown Iowa City during night time hours. 10.. In your opinion what should be the cry's highest priority in the next two years? 11. Gender: _ Female _ Male Refer not to respond /unknown 12. How many years have you lived In Iowa City? 13. Are you a homeowner? _ Yes No Prefer not to respond 14. What is your age range? The Thomas Group Iowa City Survey June 2011 Business Survey Form The Thomas Group Page 39 Iowa city Business survey 1. Have you contacted the city in the past 12 months about any of their services? Yes ask ouesUon 2 No (s1dp to question 3 Prefer not M 2. What was the primary method of communication you used to contact the city? PCT: 3. Have you had any interaction with the city in the past 12 months? Yes ask guesUon 41 1 No ski to uestbn 5 Prefer not to respond 4. Based on your personal experience.with the city's customer service in the past 12 months, please rate your customer service experience for each area. 5. The city Is seeking your assistance in developing next year's budget The city operates with limited revenue and must prioritize its resources. Please Indicate your opinion of the priority for each of the following services. very Satisfied Satisfied Unsatisfled Very Unsatisfied No Minion Prefer not to respond Airport Animal Services Building & Housing Inspection Fire Department Garbage Removal Housing Assistance Programs Leaf Removal Local Bus Service Parks and Recreation Parkin Planning & Zoning Police Department Public Library Senior Center Snow Removal Street Repairs Water Sewer Services 5. The city Is seeking your assistance in developing next year's budget The city operates with limited revenue and must prioritize its resources. Please Indicate your opinion of the priority for each of the following services. The Thomas Group Very Important ImDartant Somewhat Important Not Important Not Needed No Opinion Prefer not to respond Affordable Housin Airport Animal Services Building & Housing Inspection Fire Protection GarbaQe & Recycling Housing Assistance Programs Leaf Removal Local bus transportation Parldn Parks and Recreation Planning & Zoning Police Protection Public Ubrary Recruiting /developing new business/economic development Senior Center Snow Removal Social Services Support Street RepaIrs Water Sewer Services The Thomas Group 6. Please Indicate your level of support for each of the following projects. 7. 6. Please Indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements: Very SMeVrhat Not Prefer not to Supportive Supportive Supportive Supportive No Opinion res and Providing Chicago/Iowa City passenger rail service Increasing the number of downtown retail businesses Increasing the availability of owner occupied housing in downtown Iowa City Please Indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements: 10. In your opinion what should be the CWS highest priority in the next two years? 11. Gender: _ Female Male _ Prefer not to respond /unknown 12- How manv vears has vour business been in Iowa City? 13. Do you own /lease or rent your business building? _ Own /Lease Rent _ Prefer not to respond 74 what is vour aae ranae? The Thomas Group Disagree Prefer not to A Stroh Ag ree Disagree Strongly No Opinion - respond I feel safe in downtown Iowa City during daylight hours. 10. In your opinion what should be the CWS highest priority in the next two years? 11. Gender: _ Female Male _ Prefer not to respond /unknown 12- How manv vears has vour business been in Iowa City? 13. Do you own /lease or rent your business building? _ Own /Lease Rent _ Prefer not to respond 74 what is vour aae ranae? The Thomas Group Disagree Prefer not to Agree Strongly ree Disagree Stronaly No O inlon and I feel safe in downtown Iowa City during night time hours. 10. In your opinion what should be the CWS highest priority in the next two years? 11. Gender: _ Female Male _ Prefer not to respond /unknown 12- How manv vears has vour business been in Iowa City? 13. Do you own /lease or rent your business building? _ Own /Lease Rent _ Prefer not to respond 74 what is vour aae ranae? The Thomas Group IP3 2011 -2012 Council Orientation AGENDA November 29, 2011 5:00 PM Beckwith Boathouse / Terrill Mill Park A. INTRODUCTION 1. Open Meetings /Executive Sessions /E -mail 2. Special Functions /Travel Policy 3. Posting and minutes 4. Voting procedures 5. Ordinances /Resolutions /Motions Consult policy with Planning & Zoning 6. Contact with staff B. ORGANIZATIONAL MEETING 1. Election of Mayor & Mayor Pro tem 2. Appointment to Committees 3. Between January 2 and noon on January 6 C. WORK SESSION 1. Purpose /Procedure /Fairness 2. Day and Time; reduction 3. Scheduling of upcoming special work sessions Budget- January and February D. FORMAL MEETING (set by resolution) 1. Currently 1St & 3rd Tuesday at 7:00 PM; Continue or change 2. Order of items 3. Special meeting procedure E. COUNCIL PACKETS /AGENDA PREPARATION 1. Agenda Prep /Distribution iPads 2. Deadlines 3. Late items 4. Board and Commissions applications /gender balance F. TECHNOLOGY 1. Microsoft Word, E -mail, etc 2. Laseriiche 3. City Website (bio info) 4. General Communications Policy Council Orientation Agenda Page 2 G. MISCELLANEOUS 1. Payroll forms /Insurance 2. Business Cards 3. City Code 4. Tours 5. Parking sticker/bus pass 6. City Vehicles /Travel Policy 7. City Attorney Assignments 8. Resolutions 83 -223 — Serving on governing boards of agencies funded with city funds 00 -117 — Abstention when not required by conflict of interest O1- 169 — Appointees voting in accordance with Council Policy s /councilmembertransition /orientation 12.doc Open Meetings, Open Government o° 81111 IOWA LEAGUE ° -f CITIES 2 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Table of Contents Introduction........................................ ............................... 3 Questions & Answers MeetingsGenerally ......................... ............................... 4 Public Notice and Agendas ............ ............................... 7 Meeting Procedures and Minutes ... .............................11 ElectronicMeetings ......................... .............................13 Closed Meetings Generally .............. .............................15 Procedure for Closing a City Council Meeting ............18 Closed Meeting Procedures and Minutes ................... 20 Closed Meeting on Personnel Issues ........................... 22 Enforcement................................. ............................... 24 About the Iowa League of Cities ..... ............................... 28 AU -2- Iowa League of Cities 1 3 Open Meetings The purpose of this publication is to provide general guidance on the Iowa Open Meetings Law, Code of Iowa Chapter 21. This law requires meetings of governmental bodies to be open to the public. Cities often have questions about the applicability of this law to day -to -day city business. The information contained here is designed to be general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. If there are specific legal questions about open meetings requirements, the city should contact the city attorney. The Iowa Open Meetings Law favors openness, so situa- tions where the applicability of the law is unclear should be resolved on the side of openness. Al -3 4 Open Meetings, Open Government Meetings Generally The Iowa Open Meetings Law applies to gov- ernmental bodies, including city, county and state governments and others, such as some nonprof- its. Governmental body refers to a "board, coun- cil, commission or other governing body." The law also applies to "an advisory board, advisory commission, advisory committee, task force, or other body created by statute or executive order of this state or created by an executive order of a political subdivision of this state to develop and make recommendations on public policy issues." For cities, this law applies to the city council, as well as entities such as the planning and zoning commission, the board of adjustment, library board and the park and recreation commission. The law also applies to any entity organized un- der Code of Iowa Chapter 28E. [Code of Iowa 21.2] A meeting is "a gathering in person or by elec- tronic means, formal or informal, of a majority of the members of a governmental body where there is deliberation or action upon any matter within the scope of the governmental body's policy- making duties." [Code of Iowa 21.2(2)] ki -'f Iowa League of Cities 1 5 To conduct a meeting, a quorum (or majority) of the governing body must be present when there is discussion or deliberation on city business. Vacant positions must be included when calculat- ing the number of council members that must be present for a quorum. [Code of Iowa 21.2 and Code of Iowa 380.4] Examples. If a five- member council has two vacancies, it needs a majority of the five (all three current members to be present in order to conduct a meeting. If a regular meeting is held and only two members of a five- member council attend, business cannot be conducted for lack of a quorum of the council. A gathering of members of a governmental body for purely ministerial or social purposes when there is no discussion of policy or no in- tent to avoid the requirements of the open meet- ings law is not a meeting. [Code of Iowa 21.2] Example: Three council members of a five - member city council attend the same high school footballgame. They do not need to avoid each other, but should notget together during the game to discuss city business as this could constitute a meeting. AJ -5 6 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Q: Are committee meetings that include the mayor and several council members required to be open meetings? Ordinarily committees that are created by a city council are covered by and subject to open meet- ings law requirements. Example: A city council operating under the Mayor - Council form (mayor and five council members) passes a motion to establish a budget committee, consisting of the mayor, two council members and the city finance officer. It may be argued that this committee would be subject to open meetings requirements and an opinion should be sought from the city aftorny on whether or not that is the case. At -(v Iowa League of Cities 1 7 Q: Are work sessions or retreats where the council discusses, but does not take any ac- tion on items, subject to the open meetings law requirements? Yes, if a majority of the council is present and they are discussing or deliberating on city busi- ness. The fact that the council is deliberating on city policy is sufficient to make the gathering an open meeting. It is not necessary that the council take action or vote to make the gathering into a meeting under Iowa law. Pubic Notice and Agendas Meetings of governmental bodies must be pre- ceded by public notice. Public notice is given by delivering a copy of the public notice to those in the media who have requested it and by posting the public notices in a prominent place in the city office. Many cities post notice on a bulletin board in city hall or on the door. If the city does not have a city hall, they can post notice in the build- ing where the meeting will be held. A-1 -7 8 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Public notice must give: - Time, date and place of the meeting - The tentative agenda for the meeting Public notice must be given at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. [Code of Iowa 21.4] Q: When posting the agenda, what needs to be listed and in how much detail? The agenda should list the items the council intends to discuss and intends to act upon. There is no clear definition on what is enough infor- mation, therefore, if in doubt, give more rather than less information. Whether or not the detail provided in a tentative agenda is sufficient must be viewed in the context of surrounding events, therefore exhaustive detail is not required. Example: An agenda item of "water" may not be enough information to tell the public that the council will be discussing an amendment to an ordinance increasing water rates On the other hand, it is not necessary for the agenda to include the wording of the entire ordinance. Iowa League of Cities 1 9 Q. Can cities hold meetings with less than 24 hours notice? Yes, if it is not possible or practicable to give 24 hours notice. If an emergency situation requires a meeting with less than 24 hours notice, give as much notice as can be given, but in any event, give at least some notice. The city must justify its reason for not giving 24 hours notice in the minutes of the meeting. The city must also justify its action if it holds a meeting at a place not reasonably accessible or at a time not reasonably convenient to the public. [Code of Iowa 21.4] Example: A levee breaks and the city is being flooded, the council may need to have an emergency meeting to hire a contractor to come in and repair the levee immediately. The minutes of the meeting need to explain the nature of the good cause avhich justified holding a meeting without providing 24 hours notice. Al -R Iowa League of Cities 1 11 Meeting Procedures and Minutes A meeting occurs when a majority of the council gathers to discuss city business. If a quorum of members of the governing body is not present, a meeting cannot be held. Q: Can a council member who will not be present at a meeting send in their vote with another council member or tell the clerk to record their vote a certain way? No, although state law does not explicitly prohib- it proxy voting, it is not advisable for a council member to vote by proxy. Sending in a vote and not participating in the discussion at a meeting denies the public access to whatever information or discussion led a council member to vote in a certain way. Additionally, had a council member attended the meeting, they may have been pre- sented with information that would have caused them to vote differently. A1_11 12 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Q: The minutes have to record the vote of each council member. Does this mean a roll call vote is required on each action of the council? The procedure to record the vote of each mem- ber is to either take a roll call vote or to deter- mine each member's vote in some other manner. The method is not as critical as the fact that each council member's vote is recorded. Example: Some cities may use an electronic voting system that records each council member's vote. Some mayors or clerks may be adept atpicking up on how each council member voted during a regular voice vote or may request that council members raise their hands to vote. Q. Do citizens have to be allowed to partici- pate in a meeting or can cities have rules regulating the public attending a council meeting? The public can use cameras or recording equip- ment to take photos, movies, recordings, etc. of any open session. Although many cities provide time for public input, it is not a requirement of Al -12 Iowa League of Cities 1 13 council meetings. Many cities provide a time for public comment in order to allow citizens to give feedback and have input in their city government. There are specific situations that require the city to hold a public hearing (prior to adoption of the budget, for example). The purpose of a public hearing is to solicit public input on the proposed action, so receiving public comment is a require- ment. Cities can make rules of conduct for their meetings to ensure the meetings are orderly. The rules can permit the council or presiding officer to establish time limits for public comments. The mayor or presiding officer is ordinarily respon- sible for enforcing these rules. Example: A city might offer a `public comment" agenda item and limit each person to five minutes, requesting that they state their name and address, etc. Electronic Meetings A city can only hold a meeting by electronic means if conducting such meeting in person is either impossible or impractical, and then only if the city complies with all of the following requirements: A[-IS 14 1 Open Meetings, Open Government - Public access to the conversation of the meet- ing has been provided to the extent reasonably possible. - Notice is given of the meeting time, date, place and tentative agenda as soon as reason- ably possible, pursuant to Code of Iowa Section 21.4 - Minutes are kept of the meeting and must include a statement explaining why a meeting in person was impossible or impractical. Council members who are unable to attend a regular council meeting may participate electroni- cally but must be connected by a means that allows them to hear and be heard. Q: Can e-mail communication between city council members be considered a meeting under Iowa Open Meetings Law? A "meeting" under Iowa law means a gather- ing in person or by electronic means, formal or informal, of a majority of the members of a governmental body where there is deliberation or action upon any matter within the scope of the governmental body's policy making duties. At -14- Iowa League of Cities 1 15 No Iowa appellate court has specifically ruled on the application of the Iowa Open Meetings Law to simultaneous electronic communication between council members. City officials should keep in mind that the Iowa Open Meetings Law is intended to require that the city's business be conducted in open meetings. Closed Meetings Generally A closed meeting is a meeting of a governmental body that is closed to public access, meaning that neither the general public nor the press can be present at that meeting. A city council or other body can close a meeting only for very specific reasons described in law. The law favors open- ness so before closing any meeting, the city should consult the city attorney. Code of Iowa Section 21.5 provides specific rea- sons and procedures for closing access to a pub- lic meeting. The most common reason cities hold a closed meeting is to evaluate the professional competency of an individual whose appoint- ment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered when necessary to prevent needless AI -►S 16 1 Open Meetings, Open Government and irreparable injury to that individual's reputa- tion and that individual requests a closed session. Other common reasons a city would close a ses- sion include the discussion of strategy with legal counsel in matters that are presently in litiga- tion or where litigation is imminent. In addition, the purchase or sale of real estate is commonly discussed in a closed session where premature disclosure would adversely impact price. The qualification with this exemption is that the min- utes and the recording of a session closed under this paragraph need to be available for public examination when the transaction discussed is completed. Q: Are there any meetings of a governmen- tal body that are exempt from the open meet- ings requirements? Yes. A meeting to discuss strategy in matters relating to employment conditions of employees of the governmental body who are not covered by a collective bargaining agreement under Code Chapter 20. A city considering holding a meeting of this sort should seek the guidance of the city attorney. AI - I(e Iowa League of Cities ( 17 Note: This exemption is only for the purpose of discuss- ing strategy. Therefore, action involving employment conditions must be taken at a meeting that complies with the open meetings requirements. For this purpose, "em- ployment conditions" means areas included in the scope of negotiations listed in Code of Iowa Section 20.9. Q. Does the city clerk have to be present during a closed session to take minutes? No. If the clerk is not present, the governing body must appoint someone to perform this function. Q: Can persons other than members of the governing body be present during a closed session? Yes, provided that governing body authorizes their presence. However, particularly when meet- ing with the city attorney, caution should be used to avoid potential problems in exercising the attorney -client privilege. AHI 18 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Q: Do persons other than members of the governing body have a right to be present at a closed session? No. Procedure for Closing a City Council Meeting The council meeting must begin in open ses- sion with a call to order and a roll call. In order to go into closed session for a specific reason authorized under Code of Iowa Section 21.5, there must be an affirmative vote by two- thirds of the members of the body or by all those present. The minutes must record the votes of individual council members on the question of holding a closed session. In addition, the motion and minutes must state the exemption that permits a closed session. No business can be discussed during the closed session that does not directly relate to the spe- cific reason for the closed session. Ad -(8 Iowa League of Cities 1 19 Upon completion of the closed session, a mo- tion and vote must be taken to end the closed session and return to open session. Final action on any matter must be taken in open session un- less another Code section specifically allows such action to be taken in closed session. Q: Does a closed session have to be listed on the governing body's agenda? If a closed session is anticipated, the fact that there is to be such a session should be made known by setting forth the topic for the closed session and the fact that a closed session will be held on the agenda. However, if during an open meeting a topic comes up which may be con- sidered during a closed session and which could not reasonably have been anticipated at the time notice of the agenda was given, then it would be appropriate to proceed to closed session from the open meeting following the procedure out- lined in Code of Iowa Section 21.5. A1-1q 20 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Closed Meeting Procedures and Minutes When holding a closed session, the governmental body must keep the following: - Detailed minutes of all discussion, persons present and action occurring during the closed session. -An audio recording of the entire closed ses- sion. The minutes must be sealed and shall be kept by the governmental body for a period of at least one year from the date of the meeting. Q: Is there any situation which could re- sult in the sealed detailed minutes and the recording of a closed session becoming unsealed? If a lawsuit is brought to enforce provisions of the Iowa Opening Meetings Law relating to a closed city council session, then by an order of the court, the detailed minutes and audio record- ing must be unsealed and examined by the court in chambers without the presence of parties to /k1 -2D Iowa League of Cities 1 21 the lawsuit. The court then must determine what part, if any, of the minutes shall be disclosed to the party seeking to enforce the law. [Code of Iowa Section 21.5(4)] Q: If a member of a governing body is ab- sent and the governing body holds a closed session, can that member listen to the audio recording of the closed session? Yes. The member who is absent still remains a member of the governing body. The member has a right to be informed of discussion and action that occurred during his or her absence. The fact that the detailed minutes and audio recording of a closed session are not open to public inspection does not preclude a person who would other- wise have been privy to such records, except for an absence, from later listening to the audio or reviewing the minutes. AI -21 22 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Closed Meeting on Personnel Issues A frequently used reason for holding a closed meeting is to evaluate and discuss the appoint- ment, hiring, performance or discharge of an individual, when needed to prevent irreparable injury to the individual's reputation. In order to hold a closed session for this reason, the person or persons being discussed must request a closed session. Q: If a person who may request a closed session makes such a request, must the re- quest be granted? No. The law provides that a governing body may hold a closed session for certain specific purpos- es. It does not require that such a session be held. Q: Can job interviews be conducted during a closed session? Yes. However, the person being interviewed must request the closed session. kl - 22_ Iowa League of Cities 1 23 Example: The city plans to hire a city administrator. The city has narrowed their list of candidates to three they plan to interview. The city may alert the candidates that they may request a closed session. If the candidate requests a closed session for the interview, the city could proceed to conduct the interview during a closed session. Q: When a closed session is held to dis- cuss the competency of a specific employee whose appointment, hiring, performance or discharge is being considered, is the city required to allow the employee to attend the closed session? No. The council determines who can attend a closed session. Q: Can a closed session be held to discuss salaries in general for the upcoming year? No. There is no authority in the Iowa Open Meetings Law to discuss salaries in a closed ses- sion. AJ - 23 24 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Enforcement The Iowa Opening Meetings Law is enforced through the courts. Any aggrieved person, the at- torney general or the county attorney can bring a lawsuit to enforce this law. The burden is on the city to prove they complied with the law. Q: Can a person charged with a violation of the Iowa Open Meetings Law claim they did not know the provisions of the law? No, ignorance of the law is not a defense. Q: What happens if the court finds that there has been a violation of the open meet- ings requirements? The following judgments may be entered when the court has found a violation of the open meetings law: 1. The court must assess each member of the governing body who participated in the violation an amount not less than $100 and not more than $500, or for knowingly par- ticipating in the violation members must be k(- 2L� Iowa League of Cities 1 25 assessed not less than $1,000 and not more than $2,500. 2. A member of a governmental body who violates open meetings laws has a defense to the assessment of damages if the member (a) voted against the closed session, or (b) be- lieved with good cause facts that would have indicated compliance with open meetings law or (c) reasonably relied on a court decision, formal attorney general's opinion, or opinion of attorney for the governmental body, given in writing or memorialized in the meeting minutes, or a written advisory opinion by the attorney general or attorney for the govern- mental body. 3. All costs and reasonable attorney fees will also be awarded by the court to the party who successfully established in court a violation of the law, and will be assessed against the members found to have participated in the violation. 4. The court must void any action taken in violation of the law if the lawsuit for enforce- ment is brought within six months of the violation and if the court finds that the public interest in enforcing the policy of the Iowa Al - 25 26 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Open Meetings Law outweighs the public interest in sustaining the validity of the action taken in the closed session. However, the court cannot void the issuance of bonds or other evidence of indebtedness of a govern- mental body if a public hearing, election or public sale has been held regarding the bonds or evidence of indebtedness. 5. If a member of the governing body has engaged in one prior violation of the open meetings requirements for which damages were assessed against such a member during the member's term, the court must issue an order removing the member from office. 6. The court may also issue a mandatory injunc- tion punishable by civil contempt ordering the member of the governing body to refrain for one year from any future violations of the open meetings law. A - Ve Iowa League of Cities 1 27 Q: What are the defenses for a member of a governing body for violations of the Open Meetings Law? 1. Voting against the closed session. This dem- onstrates the importance of recording the vote of each council member. 2. Had good reason to believe and in good faith believed facts which, if true, would have indi- cated compliance with all the requirements of this chapter. 3. Reasonably relied upon a decision of a court or a formal opinion of the attorney general or the city attorney. The opinion of the attorney for the city must have either been given in writing or memorialized in the meeting min- utes at which a formal oral opinion was given. Al -27 28 1 Open Meetings, Open Government Q: Do members of governing bodies need to be provided with information about the Iowa Open Meetings Law? Yes. The appropriate commissioner of elections must provide this information to the elected members of governmental bodies. Also, the authority that appoints members of governing bodies must provide this information. Example. The county auditor mustprovide this infor- mation to mayors and city council members Wlhen city councils make appointments to boards or commissions or to fill a vacancy on the council, they must provide this information to their appointees About the Iowa League of Cities The Iowa League of Cities serves as the unified voice of cities, providing advocacy, training and guidance to strengthen Iowa's communities. The League provides guidance. Through membership services, research, pub- lications, trainings and other collaborations, Iowa League of Cities 1 29 the League provides guidance and serves as the resource for member cities. The League leads a grass -roots advocacy ef- fort for local government. The League promotes excellent government, effective public policy and Home Rule among members as well as state and federal law makers. The League keeps cities informed with a constantly updated slate of workshops and publications. The League provides education and training for elected and appointed city officials through workshops, publications, the Web and personal interactions. • Monthly Cityscape magazine •League Wleekly e- newsletter • Weekly Legislative Link during the state's legis- lative session • An annual listing of New Laws related to cities after each legislative session •An annual series of workshops on several dif- ferent topics • Action Calls on immediate legislative concerns at the state or federal level AI -29 30 1 Open Meetings, Open Government • Special Reports on topical issues, including Budget, Home Rule and Law Enforcement • Biennial Directory of League member cities in Iowa • Annual municipal salary survey of city officials and staff The League is a resource for insurance and investment needs. The League consolidates common city needs enabling group purchasing power and specialized assistance. Programs created by or sponsored by the League provide cost - effective quality ser- vices to cities. The League's affiliated programs offer health, workers' compensation, liability and casualty coverage as well as a prosperous, liquid asset investment program. Other programs assist cities in developing services to better serve their citizens. A( -30 Open Records, Open Government 0 IOWA LEAGUE °f CITIES 2 Open Records, Open Government Table of Contents Introduction........................................ ............................... 3 Questions & Answers Public Records Generally ............... ............................... 4 Right to Examine, Copy and Publish Public Records.. 6 ConfidentialRecords ....................... .............................11 Enforcement .................................... .............................18 Iowa Fair Information Practices Act ........................... 20 About the Iowa League of Cities ........ .............................21 A 1 -32 Iowa League of Cities 1 3 Open Records The purpose of this publication is to provide general guidance on the Iowa Open Records Law, Code of Iowa Chapter 22. This law gener- ally provides that every person has the right to examine and copy public records and to dissemi- nate these records or the information contained therein. Cities often have questions about the applicability of this law to day -to -day city busi- ness. The information contained in this booklet is designed to be general in nature and does not constitute legal advice. If there are specific legal questions about open records requirements, the city should contact the city attorney. The Iowa Open Records Law favors accessibility to public records, so situations where the applicability of the law is unclear should be resolved on the side of openness. AI -33 4 Open Records, Open Government Public Records Generally The Iowa Open Records Law applies to gov- ernmental bodies, including city, county, state government and others, such as certain nonprofit corporations. "Governmental body" includes any branch, department, board, bureau, commission, council, committee, official or officer of the fore- going or any employee delegated the responsibility for implementing the requirements of the Iowa Open Records Law. [Code of Iowa 22.1(1)]. Govern- ment records in the possession of persons outside of a government body, including city board and commission members, remain government re- cords, governed by the Iowa Open Records Law. Q. What are Public Records? "Public Records" include all records, documents, tapes, or other information stored or preserved in any medium, of or belonging to the govern- mental body. They also include all records relat- ing to the investment of public funds such as in- vestment policies, instructions, trading orders, or contracts, whether in the custody of the public body responsible for the public funds, a fiduciary or other third party. [Code of Iowa 22.1(3)] A( -3q- Iowa League of Cities 1 5 Q. Are e -mail messages and other electronic communications public records? The definition of public records is broad enough to encompass e -mail messages and other elec- tronic correspondence. Cities are encouraged to adopt their own records retention policies and to follow them consistently. If the message remains recoverable then the city would be obliged to provide it upon request, though the requester can be charged a reasonable fee for retrieval. Cit- ies should also be cautious regarding e -mail and other forms of interactive electronic communica- tions in respect to open meetings law. [Code of Iowa 22.1(3)] Q. How long must public records be kept by a city? There is no one rule which governs all types of records and situations. Some records are required to be retained permanently while others may be subject to a shorter recommended retention schedule. A( -35 6 Open Records, Open Government The Iowa League of Cities, the Iowa Municipal Finance Officers' Association and the Office of the State Archivist have developed a Record Retention Manual for Iowa Cities. This manual, available on the League's Web site (wwwiow- aleague.org), is intended to assist officials in the management of records created and received in the conduct of city business. The manual also provides model record retention schedules. However, the advice of legal counsel should be obtained when establishing a records retention system. Right to Examine, Copy and Publish Public Records Q. Who has the right to examine, copy and publish public records? Every person has the right to examine, copy and publish public records. The examination and copying must be done under the supervision of the custodian of the public records or a person authorized by the custodian. The custodian may adopt and enforce reasonable rules to protect AI - 3 (o Iowa League of Cities 1 7 the public records. The custodian must provide a place for this work in the custodian's office unless this is impracticable, in which event the person desiring to examine or copy must pay the necessary expenses of providing a place for the examination and copying. [Code of Iowa 22.3(1)] Q. Who is the "lawful custodian" of re- cords? The "lawful custodian" means the governmen- tal body currently in physical possession of the public record. Each governmental body must delegate to particular officials or employees the responsibility for implementing an open records policy. In many cities, the city clerk or an individ- ual in the clerk's office performs this function. In larger organizations, there may be an individual located in each department. The law requires the governmental body publicly announce the par- ticular officials or employees whom are respon- sible for implementing the open records policy. [Code of Iowa 22.1(2)] AI -37 8 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. When may public records be examined or copied? Public records may be examined or copied dur- ing the customary office hours of the custodian. If the custodian does not have customary office hours of at least 30 hours per week, the records may be examined or copied at any time from 9:00 a.m. to noon and from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding legal holidays, unless the custodian and the person seeking the records agree to a different time. This may be the case in very small cities where there are no regular office hours. [Code of Iowa 22.4] Q. Can a person be required to sign their name or state why they are requesting a pub- lic record? No. am- Iowa League of Cities 1 9 Q. Can a city charge a fee to examine public records? No, the city may not charge a fee to examine a public record as long as the public record is in the physical possession of its custodian. The cus- todian may charge a reasonable fee for supervis- ing the examination and copying of records. The lawful custodian may adopt and enforce reason- able rules regarding the examination and copying of the records and the protection of the records against damage or disorganization. [Code of Iowa 22.3] Q. Can a city charge a fee to copy public records? If the custodian has copying equipment available, the custodian may charge a fee for the cost of the copying. However, the cost is limited to the actual cost directly attributable to supervising the examination, copying and providing the records. Cities are specifically prohibited from including costs such as employee benefits, depreciation, maintenance, electricity or insurance. [Code of Iowa 22.3] LEI -31--1 10 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. Do requests have to be made in person? No, requests may be made in writing, by tele- phone or by electronic means. [Code of Iowa 22.3] Q. Can a public record be photographed? Yes, as long as the public records remain in the physical possession of its custodian. Q. Are there exceptions to the right to exam- ine and copy public records? Yes. The first exception is the right to access a geographic computer database, except on terms and conditions acceptable to the city. How- ever, the city can establish reasonable rates and procedures for the retrieval of specified records which are not confidential. The second exception is data processing software developed by the city. [Code of Iowa 22.2] Iowa League of Cities 1 11 Confidential Records Certain public records shall be kept confidential unless otherwise ordered by a court, released by the lawful custodian of the records or by another person duly authorized to release them. The Open Records Law identifies 64 specific records deemed to be confidential. The complete list can be found in Section 22.7 in the Code of Iowa. Several examples include: 1. Attorney work product which is related to litigation or claims made by or against a city. [Code of Iowa 22.7(4)] 2. Peace officers' investigative reports, if part of an ongoing investigation, subject to certain exceptions. [Code of Iowa 22.7(5)] 3. Appraisals or appraisal information concern- ing the purchase of real or personal property for public purposes, prior to public announce- ment of a project. 4. Confidential personnel records of govern- mental bodies, except the following shall be considered open: • Name and compensation, including any written agreement • Date the individual was employed by the kl - LH 12 1 Open Records, Open Government government body • Positions the individual holds or has held • Educational institutions attended by the individual, including diplomas and degrees earned • Names of previous employers, positions held and dates of employment • Any final disciplinary action taken that re- sulted in discharge [Code of Iowa 22.7(11)] 5. Library records which would reveal the iden- tity of library patrons. [Code of Iowa 22.7(13)] 6. Records of owners of public bonds or obliga- tions. [Code of Iowa 22.7(17)] 7. Communications not required by law, rule, procedure, or contract made to the city or its employees by persons outside of the city government to the extent it is reasonably be- lieved that such persons would not make such communications if such communications were to become available to the public, with certain exceptions. [Code of Iowa 22.7(18)] 8. Examinations including but not limited to cognitive and psychological examinations for law enforcement officer candidates. [Code of Iowa 22.7(19)] A�J - 42. Iowa League of Cities 1 13 9. Data processing software developed by a gov- ernment body. [Code of Iowa 22.7(33)] 10. Information concerning security procedures or emergency preparedness information devel- oped and maintained by a government body for the protection of governmental employ- ees, visitors to the government body, persons in the care, custody or under the control of the government body, or property under the jurisdiction of the government body, if disclosure could reasonably be expected to jeopardize such employees, visitors, persons or property. [Code of Iowa 22.7(50)] 11. Information in a record that would permit a governmental body to hold a closed session in order to avoid public disclosure of that information, until such time as final action is taken on the subject matter of that informa- tion. [Code of Iowa 22.7(61)] Note: This is not an all - inclusive list; the confidential records exception contains numerous exclusions that are not covered here. Legal counsel must be consulted in regard to public record questions Al -43 14 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. Are settlements of legal disputes public records? Yes. When a government body reaches a final, binding written settlement agreement of a legal dispute where monetary damages or equitable relief are sought, or a violation of a rule or statue is claimed, the settlement agreement is a public record. If requested, the governing body must also prepare a brief summary of the resolution of the dispute, indicating the identity of the par- ties involved, the nature of the dispute, and the terms of the settlement, including any payments made by or on behalf of the governmental body and any actions to be taken by the government body. However, the summary need not be pre- pared if the settlement agreement includes the information required to be included in the sum- mary. Any summary is also a public record. Q. Are records of investment transactions made by or on behalf of a city considered to be a public record? Yes. This is true whether the records are in the custody of the city, a fiduciary or a third party. M Iowa League of Cities 1 15 Q. Is a letter from a citizen to the city on a specific matter confidential? Generally, these records are not considered con- fidential. Some communications of this nature can be confidential under Code of Iowa 22.7(18), which allows a communication to be confidential if it is not required by law, made by someone outside of government and if the disclosure would result in people being discouraged from making such communication if they were avail- able for general public examination. Q: Are notes taken during city council meet- ings or other city meetings considered public records? Yes. Al-4-6 16 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. How much time does a city have to respond to a request to examine a public record? Records are required to be made available at any time during the customary office hours of the lawful custodian of the records. The law does allow the custodian a good faith reasonable delay for the following reasons: - To determine whether the custodian is entitled to seek an injunction preventing examination. - To determine whether the record is a public record or a confidential record. - To determine whether a confidential record should be made available for inspection and copying. A reasonable delay for this particu- lar purpose cannot exceed twenty calendar days and ordinarily should not exceed ten business days. [Code of Iowa 22.8] All -4�0 Iowa League of Cities 1 17 Q. What legal remedy can be sought if the government body and a person seeking records do not agree as to whether a public record is confidential under Iowa Law? The district court may grant an injunction to re- strain examination or copying of public records after holding a hearing upon reasonable notice as determined by the court to the persons request- ing access to the records. Before the court can grant the injunction, it must find that the exami- nation would clearly not be in the public interest and that it would substantially and irreparably injure any person or persons. The court must take into consideration that it is the policy of the law that free and open examination of public records is generally in the public interest. [Code of Iowa 22.8] Ai -`f-7 18 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. Who may bring an action for such an injunction? The lawful custodian of a government record, or another government body or person who would be aggrieved or adversely affected by the exami- nation or copying of such a record. [Code of Iowa 22.8] Enforcement Any aggrieved person, any taxpayer to or citi- zen of the state of Iowa or the attorney general or any county attorney can bring a lawsuit to enforce the Iowa Open Records Law. A lawsuit would be filed against the lawful custodian of the public record and any other persons who would be appropriate defendants. Q. What happens if the court finds that there has been a violation of the Iowa Open Records Law? The court is required to issue an injunction or- dering the lawful records custodian and other ap- propriate persons to comply with the Iowa Open UM Iowa League of Cities 1 19 Records Law. The court shall also assess damages of $100 to $500 against the persons who partici- pated in violating the law, which can be increased to $1,000 to $2,500 for knowing violations. The court shall also order payment of costs includ- ing attorney fees against persons against whom damages were assessed. The law does provide a defense against the damage and cost assessment under certain limited circumstances. The court will also order the removal of a person from of- fice if the person has been assessed damages for a prior open records law violation. [Code of Iowa 22.10] Q. Can a person charged with a violation of the Iowa Open Records Law claim they did not know the provisions of the law? No. Ignorance of the law is not a defense. AI -' (q 20 1 Open Records, Open Government Q. Can the Iowa Open Records Law be en- forced in other ways? Yes. The law can be enforced not only by injunc- tion but also by mandamus. Mandamus is a legal proceeding that seeks to require a governmental body to do what it is lawfully required to do. Rights under the Iowa Open Records Law may also be enforced by an action for judicial review according to the provisions of the Iowa Admin- istrative Procedure Act. [Code of Iowa 22.5 and 22.10] Iowa Fair Information Practices Act This act requires that the information policies of state agencies are clearly defined and subject to public review and comment. Q. Are cities required to adopt the policies mandated by this act? No. However, a city may choose to adopt such poli- cies. If it does choose to adopt such policies, it must follow the procedure specified in Code of Iowa 22.12. Al-150 Iowa League of Cities 1 21 About the Iowa League of Cities The Iowa League of Cities serves as the unified voice of cities, providing advocacy, training and guidance to strengthen Iowa's communities. The League provides guidance. Through membership services, research, pub- lications, trainings and other collaborations, the League provides guidance and serves as the resource for member cities. The League leads a grass -roots advocacy ef- fort for local government. The League promotes excellent government, effective public policy and Home Rule among members as well as state and federal law makers. The League keeps cities informed with a constantly updated slate of workshops and publications. The League provides education and training for elected and appointed city officials through workshops, publications, the Web and personal interactions. AI -51 22 1 Open Records, Open Government • Monthly Cityscape magazine • League Weekly e- newsletter • Weekly Legislative Link during the state's legisla- tive session • Annual listing of New Laws related to cities after each legislative session • Annual series of workshops on various topics • Action Calls on immediate legislative concerns at the state or federal level • Special Reports on topical issues • Biennial Directory of League member cities • Annual municipal salary survey of city officials and staff The League is a resource for insurance and investment needs. The League consolidates common city needs enabling group purchasing power and specialized assistance. Programs created by or sponsored by the League provide cost - effective quality ser- vices to cities. The League's affiliated programs offer health, workers' compensation, liability and casualty coverage as well as a prosperous, liquid asset investment program. Other programs assist cities in developing services to better serve their citizens. AEI - 52 City Council Meeting Schedule and CITY OF IOWA CITY Work Session Agendas November 3, 2011 www.icgov.org TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE ♦ MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 5:30p Special Work Session ♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22 7:00p Special Formal Council Meeting Emma J. Harvat Hall Emma J. Harvat Hall ♦ TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29 Beckwith Boathouse 1:00P -5:00P Special Work Session — Strategic Planning Session Terrill Mill Park 5:00p -7:00p Orientation (current and incoming Council) ♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30 IC School District 4:00p Joint Meeting Administrative Offices ♦ MONDAY, DECEMBER 5 Emma J. Harvat Hall 3:15p -6:30p Special Work Session — Strategic Planning Session ♦ TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6 Emma J. Harvat Hall 4:30 -6:00p Reception for outgoing Council Members Lobby Conf. Room 6:00p Special Work Session 7:00p Regular Formal Council Meeting (continue work session if necessary) 1,I -53 _m��'t� CITY OF IOWA CITY q7o' MEMORANDUM , Z--� = Date: November 22, 2011 To: Council and Council Members Elect From: Marian K. Karr, City Clerk � #- Re: Distribution of email correspondence The attached Resolution # 04 -117 is accurate with respect to correspondence. The computer issues related to laptops and printers are in a state of flux and staff will need your direction to proceed as outlined or make changes to the resolution. Ad -5+ Prepared by: Marian Karr, City Clerk, 410 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 (319) 356 -5041 RESOLUTION NO. 04 -117 RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A POLICY FOR COUNCIL MEMBER USE OF CITY LAPTOP AND PRINTER; ESTABLISHING PROCEDURE FOR E -MAIL CORRESPONDENCE AND DISTRIBUTION OF WEEKLY COUNCIL PACKETS; AND ESTABLISHING A STIPEND FOR SUPPLIES AND DEDICATED PHONE LINE FOR INTERNET ACCESS OR HIGH SPEED INTERNET SERVICE. WHEREAS, the City Council of Iowa City wishes to establish a policy for use of City laptop and printer to provide that current members of Council may request a laptop and /or printer for access to weekly council packets via Internet and/or use of City e -mail address; and WHEREAS, the City Council of Iowa City wishes to offer weekly Council packets via Internet or hard copy, replacing the current distribution by CD; and WHEREAS, the City Council of Iowa City wishes to establish a stipend for supplies and dedicated phone costs associated with accessing electronic packets and /or e-mail via the City address. NOW, THEREFORE, the attached policy is established for Electronic Access to City Information and E -Mail policy. Passed and approved this ?nth day of Apri 1 12004 4A"YOR Ap ved by ATTEST: CITY LERK City Attorney's Office It was moved by Champion and seconded by E11 i ott the Resolution be adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: X X —x _x X X — y clerk/reslcounci I -e pol icy. doc NAYS: ABSENT: Bailey Champion Elliott Lehman O'Donnell Vanderhoef Wilburn JkI - 55 COUNCIL POLICY REGARDING ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO CITY INFORMATION AND E -MAIL April 2004 1. Council Members accessing the weekly Council packet may request hard copy weekly packet and /or access the weekly packet via the Internet. 2. Council Members may request a City -owned laptop computer to use for accessing the weekly packet or other City business. If a Council Member chooses a hard copy packet and does not utilize City e-mail no computer or printer will be provided. The City will provide and service only City equipment. 3. Council Members may also choose to use personal home computer for accessing their weekly packet via the Internet. Council Members using their personal computers for e-mail communications should utilize the City e -mail address provided to conduct City business. 4. Upon request Council Members maintaining a City e-mail address will be provided a monthly stipend to cover the cost of a dedicated phone line to Council residence for Internet access, and supplies (printer supplies, paper, etc.) for their personal printer. City ITS staff will not service personal home computers or printers. Internet service (whether on dedicated phone line, Cable Modem, or DSQ is an agreement between the Council Member and service provider. Contracting for installation and monthly recurring charges for Internet service is the responsibility of the Council Member. 5. Council Members should confine their City related business to the City e-mail address and NOT a personal e-mail address. 6. The City will distribute individual City Council Member e-mail address for those receiving City stipends, and a larger amount of a -mails may be received. 7. Council Members should advise constituents communicating via e-mail that the correspondence could be public information. 8. The City will distribute e-mail correspondence addressed to "Council" in the next Council packet. Staff will not receive any copies of a -mails sent to individual Council Members unless "Council' was indicated by the sender or later by a Council Member. 9. A monthly stipend of $60 dollars ($50 for a dedicated phone line to their residence and $10 for supplies) will be paid to each Council Member using either City e-mail or accessing the weekly packet via the Internet. 10. If a personal e-mail address is used for City business a -mails regarding City matters may be subject to open records requests. For those a -mails a Council Member chooses to retain, it is recommended that a separate file (either electronic or hard copy) be kept for City business. clerk /resJcounci ke policy. doe �� -5CP City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM DATE: October 22, 2007 TO: City Council and Council Elect FROM: Eleanor M. Dilkes, City Attorney V)J RE: Advice Concerning Council E -Mail Communications (Update of November 22, 2005 Memo) My advice regarding your e-mail communications is given in consideration of the following: 1. Communications via e-mail to or from the City Council or a member or members of the City Council may be public records subject to disclosure. Generally, the subject matter of the communication rather than the location of the communication will dictate whether the communication is public or personal. 2. E -mail communications between members of the City Council raise issues under the State's open meetings law. 3. City hardware and software should be used for city, not personal business. My advice is as follows: A. Only the city e-mail address will be disseminated by the City (e.g. on directories, business cards, etc.) B. Council members should confine their city - related business to the e-mail address provided by the City. If a personal e-mail address is used for City business, e- mails regarding City matters may be subject to open records requests. For those e -mails a Council member chooses to retain, it is recommended that a separate file (either electronic or hard copy) be kept for City business. C. Council members should avoid providing any personal /private e-mail address for city - related business or encouraging its use for city - related business. D. Council members replies to a -mails should advise the senders that their e-mail communications and Council's reply to those communications may be public information. E. You are discouraged from using e-mail to communicate with each other in any manner whereby a majority of you are discussing an item at the same time. To determine whether a violation of the open meetings law has occurred any occurrence would have to be examined on its own facts. However, due to the instantaneous nature of e-mail communication use of e-mail to communicate among yourselves is problematic. Al-_67 October 22, 2007 Page 2 F. If an individual Council member chooses to reply to an e-mail sent to the Council, a copy of the reply should be provided to the City Clerk for dissemination to the entire Council. G. You are reminded that any hardware or software provided to you by the City are owned by the City. They are not your private property. You should not consider any communication via the system to be personal and /or private. See attached City policy. I will be available to answer questions at your work session. Cc: Dale Helling, Interim City Manager Marian Karr, City Clerk Gary Cohn, Information Services Coordinator E lean or /mem /councilemail.doc 27 City of Iowa City INTERNEVINTRANEVELECTRONIC MAIL POLICY The following represents a policy regarding access to and disclosure of activity conducted on the City's internet/intranet /electronic mail system. 1) The City owns and maintains an internet/intranet /electronic mail system hereafter referred to as "system." This system is provided by the City for the purpose of conducting City business. 2) The system hardware and software are owned by the City and as such are City property. Additionally, all messages composed, sent, or received on the system are and remain the property of the City. They are not the private property of any employee, and employees should not consider any communication via the system confidential, personal, and /or private. 3) The use of the system is for the conduct of City business. Personal business or other non -job related activities should be minimized. Supervisors may further limit or restrict personal use. 4) The system shall not be used to solicit or persuade for commercial ventures, religious or political causes, outside organizations or other non - job - related solicitations, except for items posted to the City's intranet bulletin board (bulletin board guidelines and regulations are explained at the bulletin board site). 5) The system shall not be used to send (upload) or receive (download) copyrighted materials, trade secrets, proprietary financial information, or similar materials without specific prior authorization. 6) The system shall not be used to create or retrieve any offensive or disruptive messages or files. Among those which are considered offensive are any messages or files that contain any comment that offensively addresses someone's age, color, creed, disability, gender identity, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation. 7) The confidentiality of any activity or message should not be assumed or expected. Deleting a message may not fully eliminate the message from the system. Further, the use of passwords for security does not guarantee confidentiality. The system automatically records information such as origin, destination, content, and amount of time used. The City Manager or designee may direct Information Services staff to monitor sites accessed. The City Manager or designee also reserves the right to access, review, and audit all messages and files created, received, or sent over the system for any purpose, even after said message or file is deleted. The contents of any electronic mail or file may be disclosed without the permission or prior notification of the employee who sent or received the message or created the file. The City is not responsible if "hackers" retrieve, and make public, employee system activity. Thus, privileged or confidential material shall not be communicated via the system due to potential monitoring. 8) Employees shall not use a code, access another employee's messages or files, or retrieve or modify any stored information, unless authorized to do so by a supervisor. All computer pass codes must be provided to supervisors upon request. have read the Internet/Intranet/Electronic Mail Policy and agree to abide by the terms and conditions listed above. understand the system is a privilege, not a right, and that if I violate this policy or attempt to use the system for improper purposes, I shall be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge. Employee Name (print) Employee Signature Date Updated 11/22/11 Al— l q City of Iowa City MEMORANDUM Date: November 19, 2003 To: City Council and Council Elect From: Eleanor M. Dilkes, City Attorney Re: Types of Measures and Voting Procedure This memo will summarize the types of measures addressed by the City Council and voting procedures. 1. Motion vs. resolution vs. ordinance. Attached you will find an August 2000 article in Cityscape, a publication of the Iowa League of Cities, which discusses the differences between motions, resolutions, and ordinances. 2. General passage requirements. a. Simple majority I. Motion requires a majority of the quorum Resolutions and ordinances require a majority of "members of Council" "Members of Councir' includes all members of the Council (including vacant seats and seats where the member Is absent) but does not include a seat where the Council member declines to vote by reason of a conflict of interest. A Council members statement that he or she declines to vote by reason of a conflict of interest is conclusive. b. Ordinances require three readings. Ordinances must be voted on at three meetings unless this requirement is suspended (i.e. readings are "collapsed ") by vote of three- quarters of "members of council" c. Supermajority or extraordinary majority votes are sometimes imposed by statute (e.g., protested zoning per Iowa Code §414.5 requires three- quarters of the members of Council; Iowa Code §21.5 requires two- thirds of the members of Council or all present to dose a meeting; §380.3 requires three- quarters of the members of Council to collapse ordinance readings. d. City Council Resolution No. 00-117 dated March 21, 2000 adopts a standing rule regarding the effect of a Council member's abstention when not required by a conflict. The resolution is attached and provides that an abstention for reasons other than a conflict of interest is deemed a vote with the majority or, in cases of a tie vote, a vote in the affirmative. 3. Rules of procedure. Per City Code 1 -5-6, Roberts Rules of parliamentary procedure govern sessions of the City Council in all cases where they are applicable and not inconsistent with the standing roles of the Council. Attachment cc: Steve Atkins Dale Helling Marian Karr How to use motions, resolutions and ordinances Q: What is the difference between a motion, a resolution and an ordinance? A: A motion states that the council intends to take specific action on a routine matter. It is a statement of direction rather than a statement of policy. Motions are used to handle routine business of the city at council meetings and are recorded in the minutes. Actions typically addressed by a motion include approval of the minutes, claims, licenses, permits and giving direction to city staff on a particular issue. A resolution is a statement of policy that has an impact beyond the immediate circumstances and which is best preserved in written form. Examples include setting council rules and procedures, setting wages and salaries, establishing rules of conduct for public hearings and establishing investment and other financial policies. A resolution may also be used for official statements of the council when the use of an ordinance would not be ,ppropriate.In certain cases, the .,assage of a resolution is required by statute. Examples include entering into contracts, approval of the city budget, setting up special assessments, accept- ing audit and financial reports and purchasing and selling property. A resolution must be passed to spend public funds in excess of $25,000 on any one project or to accept public improvements and facilities upon their completion. Resolutions are usually numbered and kept in a special resolution book. An ordinance is a city law of a general or permanent nature. It is the most authoritative act the council can perform. An ordinance passed in proper form and not in conflict with any state or federal law has the same force as a state law within city limits. Because they are the city laws, ordinances should be kept in the city code book. Ordinances cover all areas of municipal authority from setting speed limits on city streets to establishing water and sewer rates. Q. Do the requirements fur passing a orlon, resolution or ordinance dyer? A: Yes. In order for any action to be taken on an issue, the item must be on the tentative agenda posted prior to the meeting. Motions require a majority vote of the quorum at the meeting to pass For example, if the city has five council seats, but one is vacant and one is absent from the meeting, two affirmative votes from the three members present will pass a motion. For resolutions, ordinances and amendments, affirmative votes representing a majority of the total number of seats on the council are required for passage. For example, if a city council has five seats, but one seat is vacant and another person is absent from a meeting, all three of the remaining council members attending the meeting must vote for a resolution, ordinance or amendment in order for it to pass. However, there could be an occasion where a resolution or ordinance passes without a majority vote of the total members. For example, in the event of a justified conflict of interest by two of the rive council members, a matter could pass on a vote of two to one. The vote is calculated on the basis of the number of council members not disqualified by reason of conflict of interest. Motions and resolutions can be passed with a majority of votes at one meeting. Ordinances and amendments to ordinances must be passed by the majority at three council meetings before becoming final. However, under Code oflowa Section 380.3, if at least three-fourths of the council seats vote to suspend this requirement, it may pass in one or two meetings. If the ordinance or amendment fails to pass at any consideration, the ordinance or amendment is defeated We help our cllonts Cap#oRze on oppottunifes and minlmtze 6oWdles. ANolbn • C nrmck* t kx, uimd - MXktpd R orm , c � ' ' v '' and the whole process must start over. If the council makes substantive changes to an ordinance or amendment on any consideration, it is recom- mended that the council start the process over so the public has a clear understanding of the law being passed by the council. All official council action on measures must be recorded in the minutes. Code Chapter 21, the Open Meetings Law, requires that enough information be included in the minutes so the public can determine how each council member voted. Q. Do council actions take effect Immediately? A: A motion does not need to be signed by the mayor and becomes effective immediately. A resolution becomes effective after the mayor signs it+ Ordinances and amendments take effect after they have been signed by the mayor and have been published, unless a subsequent effective date is provided. If the mayor does not sign or does not veto a resolution, ordinance or amend- ment, a resolution becomes effective 14 days after passage and an ordinance or amendment becomes effective after 14 days and publication, unless a subsequent effective date is provided. Q: What veto authority doffs the mayor Ravel A: The mayor has no veto authority over a motion, but the mayor can veto a resolution, ordinance or amendment within 14 days after passage. The majority of cities In Iowa operate under the mayor - council form of government with an odd number of council members. Under this form of government, the mayor never votes, not even in the event of a tie vote. Under those forms of government where the mayor does vote, he or she may not veto a resolution, ordinance or amendment upon which he or she was entitled to vote on at the time of passage. The mayor is required to give the council a written explanation of the reasons for the veto at the time of the veto. Within 30 days after the veto, the council may repass the resolution, ordinance or amendment with a two- thirds vote of the council. For example, if the city has a five- member council, four votes are needed to override; on a seven- member council, five votes are needed. A EIMEVE August 2000 7 4 �- a-, G� RESOLUTION NO. 84 -39 RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A CONSULTATION POLICY FOR THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION WHEREAS, the City Council of Iowa City receives on a regular basis recommen- dations from the Iowa City Planning and Zoning Commission; and WHEREAS, the City Council may from time to time reach a different conclusion from that recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission; and WHEREAS, the City Council believes that the best interest of Iowa City is served by a complete and open discussion and a full understanding of the Commission's recommendation on any issue, prior to final action being taken by the Council. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that: In those instances in which the City Council has reached an informal consen- sus on a planning or zoning matter which is contrary to the recommendation of the Planning and Zoning Commission, the City Council will defer formal action on that matter until a discussion has taken place between the Council and representatives of the Planning and Zoning Commission. It was moved by Dickson and seconded by Strait the Resolution be adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: X Ambrisco X Baker X Dickson X Erdahl X McDonald X Strait X Zuber Passed and approved this 28th day of February 1984. OR ATTEST: ih �x2ti� CM CLERK Rereivesl & kPFrovM By The L^ pl CS z: P��a / /rt)yr e ilt X9. N \ M I N .-i N N a .a O V c3 O Z C3-1 s } r } ML } LC) m LL 7 4 3 N M O N N Q p N D 2 H C)N::. N N p cn LL +- . L w Z v N `Q r- CY) W M L 1j) O 7 a O Q 0 rn In i 3 'CO L1J - o ff 0 V v c3 0 3 m � 0 +� U U 0 r • . i O � M N M m E a� m CL a in Q N NO .-4 M N O M N \ M I N .-i N N a .a O V c3 O Z C3-1 I Q LL M O I, I' � T-4 N Q N 2 H -. M N � O� .-st .:;.�• N V_ V � N 6. W 3 p w L N O\ �--� 00� N . CO +- Q -. �' N W , Q d cs ca O !— to V s O U- �--� 00 cn N N a� E o a D m to 0 H cn m O O O LB f� O I� -10 � N N c3 -j I I 1 1 1 1 I I Q i LL I I 1 1 1 ' M O N N M 1 1 I I I 1 QI 1 D ' Z � 1 1 1 1 N O� ;1 I T � I 1 N U) I ,=t t W 1 1'. L � � (Q W I C C � I 1 1 1 1 r 00 N; N . I 1 1 1 Q Q O O O rn N c c>3 W ' 1 1 j L. LL. I LL 1 =3 �p 1 N N � E H LL c cn N D � Q o I Y o vi W 0 w V) O a o� 0 CY) Lid VI L. LCD LO N In rn N SO c3 -j Prepared by: Marian K. Karr, City Clerk, 410 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 (319) 356 -5041 RESOLUTION NO. 00 -102 RESOLUTION REPEALING RESOLUTION NO. 98 -310 OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND APPROVING A NEW RESOLUTION SETTING FORTH RULES OF ORDER FOR THE CONDUCT OF FORMAL COUNCIL MEETINGS. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, that said Council does hereby repeal Resolution No. 98 -310 and, in its place, approve Rules of Order for the Conduct of Formal City Council Meetings as follows: A. Order of Business The business of the City Council shall be taken up for consideration in substantially the following order, except as otherwise ordered by the Mayor or City Council: 1 . Roll Call 2. Mayor's Proclamations 3. Consent Calendar 4. Community Comment (until 8:00 P.M.) 5. Planning and Zoning Matters: hearings, recommendations, ordinances and resolutions 6. Other Public Hearings 7. Other Ordinances 8. Other Resolutions 9. Community Comment (continued if necessary) 10. Council Business 11. City Manager, City Attorney, and City Clerk Business 12. Adjournment B. Content of Consent Calendar Those items on the Agenda which are considered routine will be listed under the Consent Calendar and be enacted by one motion, with a roll call vote. If the Mayor, a Council member or a citizen specifically requests that any of the items be considered separately, these items will be removed and considered later on the Agenda. Passed and approved this 21st day of March 2000. OR ATTEST: 291�a� CIT LERK clerk\res \order.doc Resolution No. 00 -102 Page 2 It was moved by Vanderhoef and seconded by Champion the Resolution be adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: X X X x x_ X X NAYS: ABSENT: Champion Kanner Lehman O'Donnell Pfab Vanderhoef Wilburn Prepared by: Marian K. Karr, City Clerk, 410 East Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 (319) 356 -5041 RESOLUTION 02 -243 RESOLUTION REPEALING A RESOLUTION PASSED JUNE 15, 1965, ESTABLISHING A PROCEDURE FOR CALLING OP A SPECIAL MEETING AND ADOPTING A NEW RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING PROCEDURE FOR CALLING OF A SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETING WHEREAS, City Ordinance No. 2342, codified as City Code Section 1 -5 -5, provides that the procedure for the calling of a special meeting shall be set by resolution, and WHEREAS, the City Council expanded from five (5) members to seven (7) members in 1973; and WHEREAS, it is in the interest of the City of Iowa City that the City Council establish a procedure for the calling of a special meeting. NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF I OWA CITY, IOWA THAT: 1. Said resolution of June 15, 1965 is hereby repealed. 2. Special meetings of the City Council of the City of Iowa City, Iowa may be called by the Mayor or three (3) Council Members. 3. Notice of the calling of a special Council meeting shall be in writing and shall include the time and place of said meeting, the business to be conducted at said meeting, and the person or persons calling said meeting. 4. Notice shall be served on each Council Member at least twenty -four (24) hours prior to the time of said meeting by delivering a copy thereof to the Council Member in person or to the Council Member's place of residence as shown by the records of the City Clerk. City Clerk in consultation with the City Attorney will document service and make record of the same. 5. Provisions for the call, notice, or time of service may be waived if the entire Council shall consent in writing thereto. 6. Provisions of the method of service may be waived by the individual Council Member affected thereby. Passed and approved this 2nd day of July, 2002. Passed and approved this 2 day of J u 1 y , 20 _n? AYOR ATTEST: y CITY-CLERK Clerklres /special meeting.doc A oved by CI y Attomey's Office 0),3-)` Resolution No. 02 -243 Page 2 It was moved by O'Donnell adopted, and upon roll call there were AYES: and seconded by Vanderhoef the Resolution be NAYS: ABSENT: x Champion x Kanner X Lehman X UDonneli X Pfab X Vanderhoef X Wilburn COUNCIL PACKET GUIDELINES - October 2011 (Schedule reflects distribution week guidelines: EARLIER submissions are always accepted) NO AGENDA (excluding Consent Calendar items), INFORMATION PACKET ITEMS OR SUPPORTIVE MATERIALS WILL BE DISTRIBUTED OR INCLUDED WITHOUT APPROVAL BY CITY MANAGER 1. Items* electronically sent to City Manager by Dept. Head. [Consent Calendar, electronic items and comments may be sent directly to the City Clerk] 2. City Manager approves and copies Dept. Head, City Clerk, Adm. Asst. & Asst. CM. 3. Department routes documents (electronic or hard copy; along with CM approval email) to CA for approval no later than noon Friday. 4. Department sends WORD item and comment to City Clerk no later than 3PM Monday (to allow inclusion on draft agenda for CM & CA review Tuesday). 5. Once items are approved by CA, CA office will email "author" to pick up and deliver to City Clerk. Departments are responsible for delivering hard copy original materials+ to the City Clerk for packet by 9AM Thursday. * Includes: Memo Ordinance /resolution (w /setting of public hearings) Agreement/contract Item and comment + includes CA approval, and initials on memo Reminders: • All memos should be addressed to the City Manager, on City memo paper, and in City format form (attached) • Numbered Pages • One -sided • Font size 10 point or above • Font type easy to read (Times New Roman, Courier New, Univers, Arial recommended) • DO NOT USE shading (even in blank areas) -- instead use underlines, strikeouts, bolding, italics, or asterisks in the margin to signify special text. • All documents should print to 8' /z" x 11 • Include agenda date in subject line • DO NOT leave in internal mailbox NOTE: All items submitted are permanently retained and archived per State Code requirements. DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION TO COUNCIL Bound Reports and Booklets: Provide electronic version to the City Clerk by 5PM on Monday for inclusion in Council Thursday's packet. Large documents, used repeatedly by Council such as the budget, should be printed and provided to the City Clerk for distribution to Council. A "Hard Copy to Council and available on the City website" notation will be included in the agenda /information packet. Provide 15 (7 for Council, UISG Rep., CA, CM, ACM, Public Works and 3 for PCD) copies to the City Clerk by noon Thursday. Wiclerk/ CouncilPacketGuidelines- 201 1.doc El-) ;=#I,-- -r,. =I CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM Date: March 22, 2011 To: City Manager From: Delmrtment Director Re: Subject — Agenda or information Packet Date Introduction: History/background: Discussion of Solution: include options, alternatives, coats, factual data Recommendation: CITY OF IOWA CITY COMMUNICATIONS POLICY GENERAL COMMUNICATIONS POLICY City of Iowa City communications equipment and services are owned and/or provided by the City for conducting legitimate City business. As such, City communications equipment and services are not to be used for non - business, personal, or private purposes, except as otherwise provided herein. Further, all communications made through the use of City equipment and services are City property and subject to review, audit, interception, and disclosure by the City without permission of any individual employee. Thus, employees should not consider any communications via City equipment and/or services confidential, personal, and /or private. In addition, wireless communications are subject to outside monitoring and interception; confidential, privileged, sensitive, or personal material should not be discussed or communicated via wireless service. The misuse of any communications equipment or service in violation of these policies is prohibited, and any employee who violates these policies, attempts to use, or uses City communications equipment or services for improper purposes shall be subject to discipline, up to and including discharge. Department Directors are responsible for: 1. Determining the type of communications equipment (i.e. radio, pager, cell phone) is needed to conduct City business. 2. Determining which communication service and social media outlets will be most effective to meet that department's goals and objectives. 3. Administering any social media outlet utilized or designating an employee or employees to do so. 4. Periodically analyzing usage to determine if any changes in communications equipment and/or services are appropriate. 5. Review monthly call detail for long distance and wireless communications for excessive or improper use. 6. Allow for limited use of such communication equipment for non - business, personal, or private purposes where such use will not and does not interfere with the performance of an employee's job duties. LONG DISTANCE PHONE SERVICE The City's long distance service is provided for official City business ONLY. If a personal long distance call is necessary, the employee should use a personal calling card, call collect, or bill the call to the home phone number. Collect long distance calls will NOT be accepted unless clearly dealing with official business. WIRELESS COMMUNICATION Employees who believe wireless communications equipment and service (such as a cell phone) is necessary to perform his or her job functions may make a request for such to his or her Department r4 , / IA Director. The Department Director will determine whether and which communications equipment is necessary and appropriate for that employee's use. The Department Director reserves the right to review the use of such equipment and withdraw authorization for such at any time he or she deems the equipment is no longer necessary or appropriate. If it is determined by the Department Director that wireless communications equipment is necessary for an employee, the Director may authorize one of the two options detailed below, or a combination thereof: Option 1: City- Provided System • The City provides and maintains the equipment, selects and administers the service plan, and receives and pays the invoice. • City cell phones are not to be used for personal business. • Department Directors shall provide a departmental list of cell phone numbers to the City Manager's Office. Option 2: Allowance System • The City provides to the employee a $25 monthly allowance to assist the employee in purchasing his or her own wireless communications plan and phone. (This is a taxable benefit.) • The employee is to purchase his or her own plan and phone. • The employee is responsible for maintenance and/or loss of the phone and for payment of invoices. • There is no restriction of calls and no City audit of charges. However, if there is a performance issue or concern of illegal activity arising out of use of the equipment during work hours, the City reserves the right to review personal cell phone statements. In some situations, personal cell phone records may be considered public record and may be subject to public disclosure. • All cell phone numbers must be supplied to the Department Directors, who in turn shall provide a departmental list to the City Manager's Office. HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS REIMBURSEMENT POLICY City employees may be required by their supervisors to carry out work assignments that justify high speed Internet service from home. The City may reimburse employees a maximum of $45 per month for such service according to the following terms and conditions: • High -speed Internet access must be necessary to meet regularly- assigned responsibilities, as determined by the employee's supervisor, in consultation with ITS staff, and subject to approval by the City Manager. The convenience of home access or the occasional need for high -speed access alone is insufficient justification for the City to reimburse employees for high -speed Internet access. • Upon the Department Director's receipt of an employee request for such reimbursement and upon the expiration of a previously- approved request for such, the Department Director or designee shall make a request to the City Manager. That request shall include a statement of the assigned work responsibilities that clearly demonstrate the necessity of high speed Internet home access and specify the budget source to be charged for reimbursement. The City Manager will only approve such requests where the funds to support such access are available. Such approved requests are valid for up to two (2) years from the date of the approval. • Service installation costs will not be reimbursed unless approval is obtained prior to installation. • Employee selects the high -speed Internet access provider of his /her choice. The City will not act as an agent for the employee during interactions with the provider. Employee assumes responsibility for all contacts with provider. • This is a taxable benefit to employees. Taxes and other fees are the responsibility of the Employee. F� -a 3 • The Department Director shall review such reimbursement authorization upon the expiration of the City Manager approval or at such time that the employee's job description or responsibilities change. • Employee's eligibility for reimbursement ceases with separation from the City. SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY Purpose This policy sets forth guidelines for the establishment and use by the City of Iowa City of social media sites as a means of conveying City of Iowa City information to the public. The intended purpose behind the use of City of Iowa City social media sites is to disseminate information from the City, about the City, to the public in a civil and unbiased manner. The City of Iowa City has an overriding interest and expectation in deciding what is "spoken" on behalf of the City on City social media sites. For the purposes of this policy, social media means any facility for online publication and commentary, including without limitation blogs, wiki's, content hosting sites such as Flickr and YouTube, and social networking sites such as Facebook, Linkedln, and Twitter. This policy is in addition to and complements any existing or future City of Iowa City policies regarding the use of technology, computers, smart phones, e-mail and the internet. General Policy 1. The establishment and use by any City department of City social media sites are subject to approval by the City Manager or his /her designees. All City of Iowa City social media sites shall be administered by the Department Director or his /her designees. 2. City social media sites shall make clear that they are maintained by the City of Iowa City and that they follow the City of Iowa City Communications Policy. The City logo or branding shall be used on all social media accounts to confirm authenticity of the site. City social media accounts will only join a group or become a fan of a page if it is related to official City business, services, and events. 3. Wherever possible, City social media sites should link back to the official City of Iowa City website for forms, documents, online services and other information necessary to conduct business with the City of Iowa City. 4. The Department Director or his /her designees will monitor content on City social media sites to ensure adherence to both the City of Iowa City Communications Policy and the interest and goals of the City of Iowa City. 5. Users of all City social media shall adhere to applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and policies. 6. The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of the City of Iowa City Communications Policy or any applicable law. Any content removed based on these guidelines must be retained by the Department Director or his /her designees for a reasonable period of time, including the time, date and identity of the poster, when available. 7. The City of Iowa City's website at http: / /www.icgov.org will remain the City's primary and predominant Internet presence. 8. Freedom of Information Act and e- discovery laws and policies apply to social media content and therefore content must be able to be managed, stored and retrieved to comply with these laws. 9. City of Iowa City social media sites are subject to State of Iowa public records laws. Any content maintained in a social media format that is related to City business, including a list of subscribers r�, 3 4 and posted communication, is a public record. The Department maintaining the site is responsible for responding completely and accurately to any public records request for public records on social media. Content related to City business shall be maintained in an accessible format pursuant to City policy and practice so that it can be produced in response to a request, Wherever possible, such sites shall clearly indicate that any articles and any other content posted or submitted for posting are subject to public disclosure. 10. Employees representing the City of Iowa City via social media accounts must conduct themselves at all times as representative of the City of Iowa City. Employees that fail to conduct themselves in an appropriate manner shall be subject to the Disciplinary Action Procedures outlined in the Personnel Policy Manual. Comment Policy 1. A comment posted by a member of the public on any City of Iowa City social media site is the opinion of the commentator or poster only, and publication of a comment does not imply endorsement of, or agreement by, the City of Iowa City, nor do such comments necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the City of Iowa City. 2. Comments containing any of the following inappropriate forms of content shall not be permitted on City of Iowa City social media sites and are subject to removal and /or restriction by the Department Director or his /her designees: a. Comments not related to the original topic; b. Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or mental or physical disability; c. Defamatory or personal attacks; d. Threats to any person or organization; e. Comments in support of, or in opposition to, any political campaigns or ballot measures; f. Solicitation of commerce, including but not limited to advertising of any business or product for sale; g. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law; h. Encouragement of illegal activity; i. Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems; or j. Content that violates a legal ownership interest, such as a copyright, of any party. 3. The City of Iowa City reserves the right to deny access to City of Iowa City social media sites for any individual who violates the City of Iowa City Communications Policy, at any time and without prior notice. The City reserves the right to restrict or remove any content that is deemed in violation of this social media policy or any applicable law. 4. The following verbiage can be used to warn individuals about their content: "Your recent post is in violation of the City of Iowa City Communications Policy. Please refrain from posting inappropriate content in the future. If you do not refrain from posting such content, we will block you from this forum. Thank you for understanding." 5. Departments shall monitor their social media sites for comments requesting responses from the City and for usage in violation of this policy. 6. Department Directors or their designees, shall determine how employees must identify themselves when participating in the social media forum. 7. These guidelines must be displayed to users or made available by hyperlink. Ff�?' Rev. 02/03 Rev. 02106 Rev. 08108 Rev. 04/11 APPRO D BY: Thomas M. Markus, City Manager Date 5 r� -�5 ATTORNEY ASSIGNMENTS (Effective May 10, 2011) Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney Supervision of and Consultation on all matters as necessary City Council City Manager /Assistant City Manager City Clerk Sarah Holecek, First Assistant City Attorney City Council, City Manager, City Clerk Board of Adjustment Parks & Recreation Planning Dept. (including Transportation Planning but excluding Community Development and JCCOG Human Services) PCRB Police Department Personnel /Civil Service /Pension Litigation as assigned Susan Dulek, Assistant City Attorne Community Development and JCCOG Human Services Housing & Inspection Services /Code enforcement Public Housing Authority Cable and Cable Commission Human Rights Commission Airport Animal Control Senior Center Property Acquisition as assigned Litigation as assigned Eric Goers, Assistant City Attorney Finance Department Library Fire Department Parking & Transit Cemetery City Assessor/Tax Assessment Appeals Magistrate's Court (1/2) Property Acquisition as assigned Litigation as assigned Sara Greenwood- Hektoen, Assistant City Attorney Planning & Zoning Commission /Planning Dept (including JCCOG Transportation Planning but excluding Community Development and JCCOG Human Services) Property Acquisition as assigned Public Works and Engineering Magistrate's Court (1/2) Litigation as assigned 67 RESOLUTION NO. 83. -223 RESOLUTION ADOPTING A POLICY REGARDING SERVICE BY CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS ON THE GOVERNING BOARD OF ANY AGENCY FUNDED BY THE CITY OF IOWA CITY. WHEREAS, the City Council is often requested to appoint a representative Council member to serve on the governing board of various local organizations, service agencies, and similar bodies; and WHEREAS, the City of Iowa City annually allocates funding to assist in the operation of such agencies; and WHEREAS, it normally occurs that the various agencies requesting funding must compete for a share of limited available financial resources; and WHEREAS, such funding is allocated by decision of the City Council as a result of a direct voting process; and WHEREAS, it is in the best interest of the City Council and all citizens of Iowa City that Council members remain unbiased in their decision- making processes and avoid situations which might foster such bias. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, that it shall be the policy of the City Council that no Council member shall be appointed by the City Council to serve as a member of the governing board of any human service agency which is funded by the City of Iowa City or which agency anticipates requesting such funding. It was moved by Lynch and seconded by Dickson the Resolution be adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: x_ Balmer Dickson _x _ Erdahl g Lynch X McDonald X Neuhauser R Perret Passed and approved this 5th day of July , 1983. ATTEST: 7y/ �,� 2e 7KZ2AA CITY CLERK A B71 The Legal `:;apai:n'tent Prepared by: Eleanor M. Dilkes, City Attorney, 410 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 (319) 356 -5030 RESOLUTION NO. 00 -117 RESOLUTION ADOPTING A STANDING RULE REGARDING THE EFFECT OF A COUNCIL MEMBER'S ABSTENTION WHEN NOT REQUIRED BY A CONFLICT OF INTEREST. WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 380.4 of the State Code, in the absence of a conflict of interest a Council member who abstains is included for purposes of determining whether a measure has passed; and WHEREAS, legal significance or effect must be given to a Council Member's abstention when the abstention is not required by a conflict of interest in order to prevent frustration or abuse of the legislative process; and WHEREAS, in order to assure that a Council Member must vote "no" in order to defeat a measure and may not do so by inaction, the City Council desires to adopt a standing rule that abstentions not due to a stated conflict of interest shall be deemed to be a vote with the majority or, in cases of a tie vote, a vote in the affirmative. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, THAT: 1. The City Council of the City of Iowa City hereby adopts a standing rule that an abstention for reasons other than a conflict of interest shall be deemed a vote with the majority or, in cases of a tie vote, a vote in the affirmative. For purposes of this rule, the statement of a Council Member that the Council Member declines to vote by reason of a conflict of interest is conclusive. Passed and approved this 21st day of March , 20 Q_Q YOR , p roved b ATTEST: /J.r .�� 9S // LJ CITY 'CLERK City Attorney's Office Eleanoftslabstent.doc Resolution No. 00 -117 Page 2 It was moved by Champion and seconded by Vanderhoef adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: the Resolution be X Champion X Kanner X Lehman x O'Donnell x Pfab X Vanderhoef X Wilburn G 6 -3 Prepared by: Eleanor M. Dilkes, City Attorney, 410 E. Washington St., Iowa City, IA 52240 (319) 356 -5030 RESOLUTION NO. 01 -169 RESOLUTION REQUIRING THAT CITY COUNCIL APPOINTEES VOTE IN ACCORDANCE WITH CITY COUNCIL POLICY AS ESTABLISHED BY MOTION, RESOLUTION, OR ORDINANCE, AND ESTABLISHING THAT FAILURE TO DO SO SHALL BE JUST CAUSE FOR REMOVAL FROM SUCH APPOINTMENT. WHEREAS, the City Council appoints council members to serve as Council's representatives to other organizations or entities; and WHEREAS, such City Council appointments are currently made to the following organizations or entities: Johnson County Council of Governments, Emergency Management Commission, Iowa City/Coralville Visitors and Convention Bureau; and WHEREAS, the City Council expects that as a representative of Council to said entities the Council appointee will vote in accordance with the formal action of the City Council as expressed by motion, resolution, or ordinance; and WHEREAS, failure to vote in accordance with City Council formal action constitutes good cause for removal of the City Council appointee; and WHEREAS, a procedure should be established to provide notice and an opportunity to be heard to the City Council appointee whose removal is sought pursuant to the terms hereof. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, THAT: 1. City Council members who are appointed to serve as Council's representative to other organizations or entities shall vote in accordance with formal City Council policy as established by motion, resolution or ordinance. 2. Failure of a City Council appointee to vote in accordance with such formal action of the City Council shall constitute just cause for removal of the City Council appointee from such appointment. 3. A City Council appointee who fails to vote in accordance with the formal action of the City Council may be removed by the City Council. Said removal shall be by resolution of the City Council, shall give the reasons for the removal, and shall be sent by certified mail to the person removed who, upon written request filed with the City Clerk within thirty (30) days of the date of mailing the copy, shall be granted a public hearing before the Council on all issues connected with the removal. The hearing shall be held within thirty (30) days of the date the request is filed, unless the person removed requests a later date. Following the public hearing the Council will either confirm its earlier decision of removal or reinstate the removed Council person to the appointment. Passed and approved this 12th day of June , 20__Qj___. ATTEST: _ Cl1k CLERK Eleanoftws councilvote -res.dx 4A�Y lovecihy City Attorney's Office Resolution No. 01 -169 Page 2 It was moved by Vanderhoef and seconded by O'Donnell the Resolution be adopted, and upon roll call there were: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: Champion —X x_ Kanner X Lehman X O'Donnell X Pfab X Vanderhoef X Wilburn 66-5 Marian Karr From: Tom Markus Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 2:51 PM To: Marian Karr Subject: FW: IFP TIF report Attachments: 111118 - TIF- JC- appendix.pdf; 111121 - TIF- JC- release.pdf; 111121 - TIF- JC.pdf Please add to info packet From: Mike Owen [mailtoJowapolicy @gmail.com] Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 10:36 AM To: Kelly Hayworth; Janelle Rettig; Rod Sullivan; Tom Markus; Matthew J. Hayek; R Bailey Subject: IFP TIF report Hello folks: Peter Fisher asked me to get you all a copy of our report and supporting materials. It will be up on our website yet this morning. Kind regards, Mike Mike Owen Assistant Director The i PONCV Project 20 E. Market St. • Iowa City, IA 52245 (319) 338 -0773 • (319) 331 -1287 cell ipp Lcom. net www.iow. policypro'ec1 t.or� GET UPDATES 1 f DONATE NOW ... Iowa Fiscal M Partnership FOR RELEASE 10:45 A.M. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2011 CONTACT: Mike Owen (319) 338 -0773, ippa,Lcom.net NEWS www.iowafiscal.org Johnson County Examples Illustrate Problems with TIF New Report Recommends Statewide Reforms to Stop Abuses IOWA CITY, Iowa (November 21, 2011) — Poorly understood, hotly debated and often abused, tax - increment financing (TIF) has become a tool of choice for cities' economic development strategies, frequently to the detriment of schools and counties, and at great cost to both state and local taxpayers. A new study delves into examples from Johnson County, where a controversial project in Coralville is only the latest example of how state law does not protect other local or neighboring jurisdictions from an abusive use of TIF. "Johnson County is a good case study for this report," said Peter Fisher, research director for the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City and author of the report for the Iowa Fiscal Partnership. "But it's a statewide issue. TIF has been allowed to degenerate so that many cities view a TIF area as a perpetual cash cow to finance city operations that have nothing to do with economic development. "That cities have been permitted to do this for decades is an abuse in itself that demands correction by the Legislature." Corrections, Fisher suggested, could include severe limits on TIF involving residential property or to promote retail activity, and prohibiting the rollover of a TIF from one project to another. Fisher's case study of Johnson County TIF uses — available at www.iowafiscal.ore — finds: • Four cities in Johnson County have over one -third of their tax base in a TIF "increment" — the portion of property tax base designated for diversion of revenue to the TIF project. • In three cities — Shueyville, Tiffin and Oxford — TIF revenue accounts for over three - fourths of property tax revenue. • Coralville accounts for 68.4 percent of the TIF valuation in the county, followed by North Liberty with 14.6 percent. Iowa City accounts for only 3.3 percent of the TIF value but has more than half of the urban value of the county. What is TIF? Tax - increment financing, or TIF, is a mechanism to finance projects in an "urban renewal area" established by a city. The city then is permitted to divert taxes on the increased value in that defined area from school districts and counties to the city's TIF fund. The diverted taxes are spent on projects within the so- called "urban renewal area." What Is the problem? TIF has changed from a tool for redeveloping blighted areas to a means of subsidizing development projects of all kinds, often with little or no public benefit. Only loose guidance from state law has permitted a myriad of uses of TIF as the purpose has strayed. The costs to taxpayers can be substantial. The Iowa Policy Project Child & Family Policy Center www.iowapolicyproject.org www.cfpciowa.org The report examines impacts of Coralville's merged TIT district that includes areas along Highway 6 and the Coral Ridge Mall. It holds more than half (54 percent) of the total TIF valuation in the county. Specifically, Fisher found that the Coralville TIF this year drew $12.8 million — including $5 million from the Clear Creek -Amara and Iowa City schools, $2.7 million from Johnson County, and $4.7 million from the city's own general fund. The school diversion is offset partially by state aid to the schools, which means state taxpayers also are paying for Coralville's choices. But school property taxes also are higher due to the Coralville TIF, by 56 cents per $1,000 taxable value in the Iowa City district, and by $2.83 per $1,000 in the Clear Creek - Amana district. "Iowa City residents and businesses need to understand that they are effectively being taxed by Coralville," Fisher said. "They are paying higher property taxes for Coralville's projects — and those projects are designed to compete with Iowa City hotels and to lure Iowa City businesses. We're seeing that with Von Maur's move from Iowa City to the Iowa River Landing project. "It's no better for Clear Creek - Amana school district residents. Their schools are forced to give up property taxes from the Mall area and those taxes will be used for the Iowa River Landing project, which is in the Iowa City school district. "As you can see, TIF pits a local community against its neighbors. It's not healthy either socially or economically." Coralville, he noted, is not the only locality using TIF to shift the cost of its decisions to others. What are the costs? The average residence in Johnson County, with a market value of $200,000 and a taxable value of about $94,000, pays an extra $373 a year because of all TIFs in the county if it is located in a rural portion of Clear Creek Amana. A small business with $250,000 in taxable real property would pay an extra $991, and an average 1,000 - acre farm would pay an additional $2,489. In the rural part of the Iowa City school district, the corresponding effects of TIF are an extra $140 for the average residence, $371 for the small business, and $1,038 for the farm. Five small towns — Swisher, Shueyville, Oxford, Tiffin and Lone Tree — use TIF mainly to retire debt for water, sewer and street projects that could be paid for through a city levy or water charges. Shueyville is shifting 62 percent of its property -tax bill to taxpayers outside the town; Tiffin is at 49 percent, Oxford 48 percent, Swisher 42 percent, and Lone Tree 31 percent. "Without serious reform, we can look forward to a future in which increasing numbers of cities TIF all or most of their city for the primary purpose of shifting taxes to nonresidents," Fisher said. "More cities will join the incentive wars in retaliation for the piracy of retail and other businesses by their neighbors. "The result will be a local property tax system that is increasingly unfair, and a serious erosion of revenues. That will threaten the ability of cities and counties to finance important public services, many of which are part of the foundation for future economic growth. It is ironic to think this will all have been done in the name of `economic development.' In most instances it is just `economic displacement' that, among other things, distorts the free market." The Iowa Fiscal Partnership — www.iowafiscal.ore — is a policy analysis initiative of two nonpartisan groups, the Iowa Policy Project in Iowa City and the Child & Family Policy Center in Des Moines. r i; ; : Iowa il Fiscal Partnership EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Tax Increment Financing: A Case Study of Johnson County By Peter S. Fisher Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is poorly understood, yet hotly debated. Cities tout it as an important tool to promote local economic development, yet often its principal effect is to shift taxes from business to residential taxpayers, or from one city's taxpayers to residents of neighboring towns and rural areas. In other cases, TIF has been used to entice businesses to move from one city to another with no economic benefit to the region. Some cities use it very selectively, while other cities have placed most of the city in a TIF area, or are well on their way to doing so. TIF is a financing mechanism whereby cities establish an "urban renewal area" (URA) and are then allowed to divert taxes on the increased value in the URA (the tax increment) from school districts and counties to the city's TIF fund. These diverted taxes are spent on development projects within the URA. These diversions, in fact, can be direct payments back to those who do the development within the URA, in effect rebating the developer's property taxes. This report illuminates how TIF has changed from a tool for redeveloping blighted areas to a means of subsidizing development projects of all kinds, often with little or no public benefit, and a device for shifting the costs of city infrastructure to taxpayers in rural areas and neighboring cities. The report focuses on the experience with TIF in Johnson County. Key Findings • Countywide, $759 million worth of taxable property, representing nearly 15 percent of the county urban tax base, is now part of a city TIF increment. • Four cities now have over a third of their tax base in a TIF increment: Coralville (39.7 percent), Oxford (50.7 percent), Shueyville (55.4 percent) and Tiffin (56.7 percent). • The City of Coralville accounts for 68.4 percent of the TIF valuation in the county, followed by North Liberty with 14.6 percent. Iowa City, with 56 percent of the total urban value in the county, accounts for only 3.3 percent of the TIF value. • The City of Coralville's Merged Highway 6 /Coral Ridge Mall Urban Renewal Area (the Mall /6 URA) is by far the largest in the county (54 percent of the county total TIF valuation) generating $12.8 million in property taxes diverted to the city's TIF fund this year: $5 million comes from the Clear Creek Amana (CCA) and Iowa City Community school districts, $2.7 million from Johnson County, and $4.7 million from the city's own general fund • Of the $5 million in school property taxes diverted because of the Mall /6 URA, 44 percent is offset by increased state funds through the school aid formula. The remaining 56 percent is recovered through higher school property taxes. The Iowa City district levy is higher by $0.56 per $1,000 of taxable value because of the Mall /6 TIF, while the CCA levy is $2.83 higher. • Through higher school and county tax rates, Iowa City residents and businesses are effectively being taxed by Coralville to build facilities that compete with Iowa City's hotels and to lure Iowa City businesses, such as Von Maur, to Coralville. The average single - family residence in Iowa City pays an extra $80 per year because of the Mall /6 TIF. A small business with $300,000 in taxable property pays an extra $254 per year. The Iowa Policy Project Child & Family Policy Center www.iowapolicyproject.org www.cfpciowa.org • Clear Creek Amana school district residents forgo most property taxes from the Mall area, and these tax dollars are being used to redevelop the Iowa River Landing, entirely within the Iowa City Community School District. The average homeowner in CCA pays an extra $319 per year in property taxes because of the Mall /6 URA. • In five cities, TIF revenue now exceeds regular property tax revenue. TIF revenue accounts for 83.8 percent of Shueyille's property taxes, 78.0 percent of Tiffin's, 75.4 percent of Oxford's, and 59 percent of Swisher's and Coralville's. • TIF revenue diverted from the county and school district forces higher property taxes on county and district taxpayers residing outside the city, and higher state taxes through the higher school aid payments. Among the eight heavy TIF -using cities in Johnson County, Shueyville leads the pack with 62 percent of its property taxes exported to non -city taxpayers, followed by Tiffin at 49 percent, Oxford at 48 percent, Swisher at 42 percent and Coralville and Lone Tree at 31 percent. • Five small towns (Swisher, Shueyville, Oxford, Tiffin and Lone Tree) are using TIF revenues primarily or exclusively to retire debt for water, sewer and street projects that otherwise could be retired entirely from a city debt service levy or from water charges. • All of the growth in the number of school children in the county over the past 10 years has been in the eight communities that have placed much of their new tax base off limits to the school districts through the heavy use of TIF. • The average residence in Johnson County, with a market value of $200,000 and a taxable value of about $94,000, pays an extra $373 a year because of all TIFs in the county if it is located in a rural portion of Clear Creek Amana. A small business with $250,000 in taxable real property would pay an extra $991, and an average 1,000 -acre farm would pay an additional $2,489. In the rural part of the Iowa City school district, the corresponding effects of TIF are an extra $140 for the average residence, $371 for the small business, and $1,038 for the farm. Conclusions TIF promotes local government spending by lowering its perceived cost. When 50 percent of TIF revenues are exported, the effect is a half -price sale on public projects and TIF incentives. In the process, spending priorities are skewed in favor of incentives, buildings, and infrastructure, and away from services such as mental health, recreation, police protection, library acquisitions, and others. TIF has been allowed to degenerate to the point that many cities view a TIF area as a perpetual cash cow to finance a wide range of city operations that have nothing to do with economic development. It is used to build hotels that lose money and compete with unsubsidized hotels in the same area, to entice retail stores to relocate from neighboring communities, and simply to get other people to pay for a community center or street improvements. Without serious reform, we can look forward to a future in which increasing numbers of cities TIF all or most of their city for the primary purpose of shifting taxes to non - residents, and more and more cities join the incentive wars in retaliation for the piracy of retail and other businesses by their neighbors. The end result will be a local property tax system that is increasingly unfair, and an erosion of revenues that threatens the ability of cities and counties to finance important public services, many of which are part of the foundation for future economic growth. Ironically, this result will have been arrived at in the name of promoting "economic development" Peter Fisher is research director of the nonpartisan Iowa Policy Project, part of the Iowa Fiscal Partnership (IFP). /FP is a joint public policy research and analysis initiative of IPP in Iowa City and another nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, the Child & Family Policy Center in Des Moines. Reports from IFP are at www.iowafiscal.org. r i Io wa i Fiscal f=1, Partnership Tax Increment Financing: A Case Study of Johnson County By Peter S. Fisher Tax Increment Financing, or TIF, is poorly understood, yet hotly debated. Cities tout it as an important tool to promote local economic development, yet often its principal effect is to shift taxes from business to residential taxpayers, or from one city's taxpayers to residents of neighboring towns and rural areas. In other cases, TIF has been used to entice businesses to move from one city to another with no economic benefit to the region. Some cities use it very selectively, while other cities have placed most of the city in a TIF area, or are well on their way to doing so. This report illuminates how TIF has changed from a tool for redeveloping blighted areas to a means of subsidizing development projects of all kinds, often with little or no public benefit, and a device for shifting the costs of city infrastructure to taxpayers in rural areas and neighboring cities. The report focuses on the experience with TIF in Johnson County. How Does TIF Work? Under Iowa's TIF law, cities are allowed to designate portions of the city as "urban renewal areas" and then to divert future increases in taxes within that area to the city's TIF fund.' This is an extraordinary power, for it allows the city to claim part of the tax base from new development exclusively for a designated TIF project as the city sees fit. Tax revenues are diverted that would normally flow to all local governments to help pay for their share of the additional costs associated with development: to the school district Figure 1. How a TIF Increment is Established and Grows to help pay for public schooling, to the county for TIF Created in 2006 for $2 Million Private Investment health and social services, and to the city general $0.000.000 fund for police and fire protection, streets, parks gp�mmam,n and recreation, libraries, and a host of other $2.500,000 value services. To make up for the lost revenue, counties •ease valuabon and school districts must raise their own property tax rates. TIF thus provides a mechanism to shift $zo0o,ao0 costs to county and school taxpayers outside the city — and to state taxpayers, through state aid to $1.500,000 { local schools. This feature, combined with the looseness of Iowa's TIF law, creates strong $1,000.000 incentives for cities to overuse and abuse TIF. When an Urban Renewal Area (URA) is first $500.000 established, the assessed value in the URA as of the preceding January becomes the base value. All M increases in value after that represent the M M W M M " increment in value, as illustrated in Figure 1 for a hypothetical TIF created in 2006 for a $2 million private project z In future years, total taxes on properties in the URA are the same as they would be outside the URA, but where those taxes flow is altered The Iowa Policy Project Child & Family Policy Center www.iowapolicyproject.org www.cfpciowa.org dramatically. The schools and the county collect their full tax rate only on the base value, and get to collect only debt levies (to pay off bonds) on the increment. All other taxes on the increment flow to the city's TIF fund, as illustrated in Figure 2. The flows in Figure 2 are based on typical FY2012 Johnson County tax levies on the 2010 valuation shown in Figure 1, ignoring the much smaller tax flows to Kirkwood and other jurisdictions for simplicity. Figure 2. How TIF Diverts Property Taxes to a City TIF Fund City Tax $40,000 County Tax $20,000 $10,000 . $10,000 No- $ 5,000 `M= $15,000 $15,000 It is important to understand that TIF is not School Tax synonymous with economic development $45,000 $30,000 incentives. TIF is merely a financing mechanism. Cities can and do promote economic redevelopment and job creation in a variety of ways; cities can build facilities to accommodate private projects, they can provide tax abatements for both residential and non - residential property, and they can issue bonds to finance infrastructure, all without TIF. But TIF has become the mechanism of choice to finance economic development incentives in part because TIF creates the illusion that such incentives are costless, and in part because TIF in actuality shifts costs to other taxpayers. Furthermore, much (perhaps the majority) of TIF revenue is not used to incentivize development at all, but rather to finance routine city infrastructure spending that otherwise could be financed with city bonds, retired entirely by city taxpayers, or charged to developers. It is often asserted that TIF is costless to taxpayers because the increment in revenue would never have happened without TIF. The taxes that are diverted are taxes that would not have existed but for TIF, so goes the argument, so no taxpayer is the worse off. This is the TIF illusion. It might be true that the development project would not have occurred without some city investment; most projects of any scale require city investments in streets, sidewalks, water and sewer extensions and the like. And it is probably the case that some private investment projects would not have happened without tax rebates or other incentives (though this surely occurs much less often than public officials commonly believe). But none of that requires TIF — which, remember, is just a way of financing such things, an alternative to city bonds or ordinary tax abatements. Thus it is rarely true that TIF is costless to non -city taxpayers; it is the financing mechanism of choice for many cities precisely because it does spread costs to others. Some might counter -argue that without TIF the city wouldn't have chosen to finance the project at all, depriving the schools and the county of future tax base. Would the City of Coralville have forgone the opportunity to have the Coral Ridge Mall if the city investment in roads and other improvements had to come from city bonds instead of TIF revenues? Of course not. The Mall would have generated sufficient new property taxes to repay such bonds in a short period of time, and it was a very viable project needing no incentives. Would a city provide incentives to a private project that can't obtain private financing and is not viable without city subsidy, if the city couldn't use TIF? Perhaps it would, but if not, that would be for the best. In such cases, the financial market has determined that the project is not viable, and taxpayers would be saved from paying for a losing deal. Perhaps most importantly, much TIF revenue is used not to incentivize development in the first place, but simply as a cheap way to finance city infrastructure such as streets and community centers How is TIF Used in Johnson County? Practices with regard to the use of TIF vary widely among cities and towns in Johnson County. The largest users are Tiffin, Oxford, Shueyville and Coralville, all of which have about 40 percent of the city tax base or more within a TIF increment. (The increment, remember, is the portion of the taxable value in the URA that represents the increase in value since the base year.) Figure 3. Three Cities In Johnson County Have Over Half of City Tax Base within a TIF Increment , FY2012 Tiffin Shueyville '- Oxford " Coralville 39.7% Swisher 27.4% Lone Tree 24.0% North Liberty i1.6% Solon illm Iowa City 0.9% 1 9% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 50.7% 56.7% 55A% 60% Countywide, there is $759 million worth of taxable property that is within a TIF increment in FY2012, representing nearly 15 percent of the urban property tax base in the county. Although Iowa City contains 56 percent of the total urban property value in the county, it accounts for only 3.3 percent of the TIF valuation. Both North Liberty and Tiffin, much smaller cities, have more value under TIF than Iowa City. On the other hand, Coralville, with 26 percent Figure 4.OverTwo-Thirds of Johnson County of the county's urban property value, accounts for over two- thirds of the TIF TIF Value is In Coralville value in the county. Percent of Johnson County TIF Increment Valuation by City, FY2012 When a city establishes an urban renewal area, all of the future increase in taxes from that area (except for debt service and the school PPEL taxes) are available for diversion to the city TIF fund.3 But a city does not necessarily claim all of the taxes that it could. For example, once the Iowa City TIF for Plaza Towers had repaid the city costs of that project, the city allowed all potential TIF revenue to flow instead to the county and the school district, just as it would if there had been no TIF. The increments referred to in Figures 3 and 4 reflect the increments actually drawn on by the city, not the total available increment. The graph below shows, for each city, the percentage of the available incremental revenue from the TIF areas that is being diverted by the city. The figures range from a low of 12 percent in Iowa City, to a high of 100 percent in Coralville, Oxford, Shuevyille, Swisher and Tiffin. Coralville, for example, has continued to divert all available incremental revenues from the Coral Ridge Mall long after the original city expenses associated with the Mall were recovered; the Mall TIF now finances projects in the Iowa River Landing area. Tiffin North Liberty Iowa City Other 5 Cities Figure 5. The Drive to Keep Diverting TIF Revenue in Johnson County Percent of Available TIF Revenue Diverted, FY2012 Tiffin Swisher Shueyville Oxford Coralville Lone Tree North Liberty Solon Iowa City 9% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% How Does TIF Shift Taxes? The tax shifting effects of TIF are best illustrated by examining in more detail what is by far the largest TIF district in the county, in terms of both land area and property value: the City of Coralville's Merged Highway 6 / Coral Ridge Mall Urban Renewal Area, which we call the Mall /6 URA for short. This area extends from the eastern city limits with Iowa City at the Iowa River, to the western city limits with Tiffin at I -380 (see Figure 6, next page). The expanded URA resulted from the joining of the older Highway 6 URA (now the site of the Marriott hotel and the Iowa River Landing project) with the Coral Ridge Mall URA in 2002 by including the 1 -80 right -of -way between the two districts.4 The combined URA includes $411 million in TIF valuation, 54 percent of all the TIF valuation in the county. The combination allowed the city to use the enormous TIF revenue from the Mall ($10.5 million in FY2012) to finance projects in the Iowa River Landing area. Of the $19.7 million in property taxes collected within the Mall /6 URA this fiscal year, more than $12.8 million (the increment) are diverted to the City of Coralville TIF fund. Table 1 shows where these diverted taxes come from — that is, where they would otherwise have gone, were it not for TIF. Almost two -fifths comes from the two school districts represented in the URA: Clear Creek Amana, and Iowa City. Note that 36 percent comes from the City of Coralville's own general fund. Thus $4.7 million that could otherwise fund police, fire, roads and other city functions is diverted to the TIF fund for spending on economic development projects. Of course, to the extent that some of this economic development spending is for streets and other infrastructure within the URA Table 1. Property Taxes Diverted to Coralville TIF Fund by the Mall /6 URA that would have come out of the city's general fund, this is not a loss to city taxpayers. Cl From City of Coralville General Fund 4,681,329 36% Total TIF taxes diverted $12,860,690 100% Property Taxes Percent Diverted of Total From Johnson County $2,674,268 21% From School Districts 4,988,624 39% From Kirkwood Community College 327,808 3% From Other Governments' 188,661 1% Total from Other Governments $8,179,361 64% From City of Coralville General Fund 4,681,329 36% Total TIF taxes diverted $12,860,690 100% Figure 6. Coralville's Mail /Highway 6 Urban Renewal Area is Largest TIF District in Johnson County / . • no ANN ■ 4 ..... to - to ••...r • �... P+ • I 7 • s ■ o Clear -Creek Amana ■ /% %fj .'• " School District �✓�'L! ♦. •. •.. •♦ • �f i s Iowa City School District 0 0.5 1 2 Miles 1� Map Key go • • ♦ . . No Municipal Boundary School District Boundary Roads j. Coral Ridge -HWY 6 TIF District Other TIF Districts Data sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata.org) and Johnson Co. Planning 8 Zoning Figure 7 shows how the property taxes collected within the Mall /6 URA would be distributed if there were no TIF diversion, and how they are in actuality distributed .5 The City's share of total taxes collected (taxes going to the city general fund, the TIF fund, and other city Figure 7. Property Taxes from the Mall /6 URA With and Without TIF funds) rises from 34 percent to 75 percent. The Mall /6 URA diverts $4.99 million in property taxes from schools this fiscal year, nearly evenly divided between the two school districts: Clear Creek Amana and Iowa City Community. The existence of TIF does not directly affect how much either school district spends, however. The Iowa school financing formula dictates allowable per pupil spending each year for every school district Furthermore Kirkwood 8 Other a School Districts ■ City of Coralville Johnson County through the aid formula, the Without 71f With TIF lower tax base per pupil resulting from the use of TIF produces greater state aid. However, this higher state aid offsets only about 44 percent of the lost revenue in these two districts; in order to maintain allowable spending, the districts must raise their tax rates. Table 2 shows that the Iowa City district rate must be $0.56 higher because of the Mall /6 TIF, while CCA must levy an additional $2.83. The Mall /6 URA also diverts $2.67 million in property taxes from the county. Unlike schools, however, the effects are not so straightforward. If all of the property now part of a TIF increment were fully available to Johnson County, it would enable the county to finance exactly the same level of services it does now with a lower tax rate. However, the larger tax base would also allow some increase in services. Table 2 shows that the county tax rate is $0.45 higher because of the Mall /6 TIF; however, this is the maximum effect on the rate. Some of the TIF diversion may have reduced county services instead. Thus the dollar impacts of TIF on the average property owner in the county can be interpreted as services forgone or higher taxes, or some combination of the two. The Mall /6 TIF also reduces the tax base available to Kirkwood Community College, Agricultural Extension, and the County Assessor. Table 2. Coralville Mall /6 URA Affects School and County Tax Rates, FY2012 The overall effect of the Mall /6 URA is a tax rate that is $1.07 higher in Iowa City, $3.40 higher in the CCA school district. For an average home worth about $200,000 on the market, this translates into an annual cost of $80 in Iowa City, $319 in CCA. Residents of Iowa City are paying that much extra per year for School District Iowa City Clear Creek Amana Increase in levy rate ($ per thousand) School district tax 0.33505 2.83494 County tax 0.45124 0.45124 Other countywide taxes' 0.06106 0.10950 Total 0.84735 3.39567 Additional Property Taxes on an average ($200,000) home $80 $319 'Kirkwood Community College, Ag Extension, and (outside Iowa City only) the County Assessor Note: Figures for Iowa City Community School District are for property located within the City of Iowa City, the tax rate and average taxes would be slightly higher for residents of the school district outside the city because of the higher county assessor levy. Coralville to develop the Iowa River Landing, including spending about $18 million to lure Von Maur to Iowa River Landing (IRL). Also included in the $80 are the payments on Coralville's debt for the Marriott Hotel. Iowa City residents and businesses are therefore being taxed by Coralville to build facilities that compete with Iowa City's hotels and to lure Iowa City businesses to Coralville. Clear Creek Amana district residents are paying much more for the Mall /6 URA because the Coral Ridge Mall area properties within CCA represent a very large share of the district's tax base. Those residents are now foregoing taxes from the mall, which no doubt has stimulated growth to the west of Coralville within CCA and added to school population, and these tax dollars are being used to redevelop IRL, which is entirely within the Iowa City Community School District. It is important to remember that tax base enhancement is the rationale for allowing a city to divert a school district's property taxes. Yet any development in the IRL that ends up generating significant tax revenue in the future will provide no benefit whatever to CCA. What are the Overall Effects of TIF in Johnson County? Revenues flowing into city TIF funds have become a very large share of the total property taxes received by many cities in the county. In fact, in five cities TIF revenue now exceeds regular property tax revenue flowing into the city's general fund, employee benefits fund, and debt service fund combined. TIF revenue accounts for 83.8 percent of Shueyille's property taxes, 78.0 percent of Tiffin's, and 75.4 percent of Oxford's (Figure 8). The ultimate tax shift produced by TIF is from city to non -city taxpayers. Some of the TIF revenue, of course, is diverted from Figure 8. TIF Revenue is Large Share of City Property Taxes, FY2012 Shueyville Tiffin Oxford Swisher Coralville Lone Tree Solon North Liberty Iowa City 1.7 %I University Heights 0.0% the city's own Hills 10.0 ° /. I general fund to the 0.0% 10.0% 20.0°/. 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% IM 90.0% TIF fund. Furthermore, city residents themselves are paying a portion of the higher county and school taxes required because of the city's own TIF. But the remainder of the diverted TIF revenue is paid by county and school district property taxpayers residing outside the city, and by state taxpayers through the higher school aid payments, which offset about 44 percent of diverted school taxes.6 Figure 9 shows how much of a city's TIF revenue comes from taxpayers residing outside of the city, including state taxpayers. Among the eight heavy TIF users, between 23 percent and 62 percent of their property taxes are exported to non -city taxpayers. Residents of Shueyville and Swisher, in fact, are able to export some of their taxes to residents of Linn County through higher College Community School District property tax rates. Smaller towns are Figure 9. Percent of all City Property Taxes Paid by Taxpayers Outside the City, FY2012 actually in a better position to export Shueyville —�- taxes because the Tiffin town's tax base is a very small share of the Oxford county or district tax Swisher r base; thus the effect of Coralville higher school and county tax rates is felt Lone Tree primarily elsewhere in Solon the county or district. Iowa City, on the other North Liberty hand, has much less Iowa City 0.6% ability to export taxes because city taxpayers 0% 10°/. 20 8k 30% 10% 50% 60% 70% will pay the lion's share of any higher county or school taxes. This is perhaps why small towns have put such a large share of the town in a TIF area. (The appendix to this report contains maps of all the TI F areas in the county.) Swisher, Shueyville and Oxford show no refunds, rebates or other TIF incentives in their FY2012 budgets. For Shueyville, 100 percent of TIF revenue is used to retire debt, and that debt was issued for a new community center /city hall and for a major street project. In Swisher, the TIF revenue has been used to retire sewer improvement bonds, though recently much of it has simply been allowed to accumulate in the TIF fund. Oxford has used TIF revenue primarily to pay for water and sewer projects. Lone Tree in FY12 spent $4,851 on incentives, but $136,947 on general obligation debt service, for city infrastructure. These small towns, in other words, are diverting TIF revenues to the city's debt service fund to retire debt for water, sewer and street projects that otherwise would be retired entirely from a city debt service levy or from water charges. In this fashion, they are able to shift infrastructure costs from city to rural taxpayers. Sheuyvillle, for example, has used TIF to get rural Johnson and Linn County taxpayers to pay for the majority of their recent projects — we saw above that 62 percent of Shueyville's TIF revenue comes from non -city properties, including Linn County residents of College Community School District. Some smaller towns have created TIFs that capture nearly all of the new residential growth that occurs. Since growth in Oxford, Swisher, Solon, Lone Tree and Tiffin is largely residential, it brings with it increases in population and school children. Yet the tax base that accompanies those children is largely unavailable to the school districts that must educate them, the exception being the school debt levies. Instead, that revenue growth is captured by the cities themselves to pay for infrastructure and other city projects. The six small towns that rely heavily on TIF, plus the larger cities of Coralville and North Liberty (the other heavy TIF users), together accounted for more than 100 percent of the growth in school -age children in Johnson County from 2000 -10. The total population age 5 to 17 increased by 1,959 in the county, but by 2,534 in these eight communities that have come to rely heavily on TIF, while the number of children in that age range declined by 575 in the remaining four cities (Iowa City, Hills, University Heights, West Branch) and in rural Johnson County. The bottom line is that all of the growth in school children in the county over the past 10 years has been in the communities that have placed much of their new tax base off limits to the school districts. What is the Effect on the Average Home or Farm? What is the total effect of all TIFs in Johnson County on the property tax bills of typical residential or farm properties? The largest effects are for properties within the Clear Creek Amana or Iowa City Community school districts, which include 87 percent of the taxable valuation in the county. The effects can best be estimated for properties in the rural portions of the CCA or Iowa City districts, and are shown in Table 3 below. The average home in the county has a market value of around $200,000, which translates into a taxable value of $94,000 after applying the 2010 rollback and the homestead exemption.? We also consider a property with a taxable value of $250,000, which could either be a high -end residence (market value approaching $500,000) or a small business owning $250,000 in commercial real estate.8 Finally, we consider the effect on a farm of 1,000 acres, including a farm home valued at $107,000. The tax impacts range from $140 per year for an average home in the rural portion of the Iowa City district, to $2,489 for a large farm in CCA. Table 3. Potential Property Tax /Public Service Cost of All Johnson County TIFs, FY2012 The impacts are best interpreted as a combination of higher taxes and lower public services. In the case of school districts, we know that the effect is to raise rates. (In CCA, 75 percent of the effect is through school taxes; in Iowa City, it is only 35 percent.) Most of the remaining effect is through higher county property taxes. For example, of the $140 for the average home in the rural portion of the Iowa City district, $74 represents either higher county taxes, or $74 worth of county services forgone, or some combination of both. (In the absence of TIF, the higher tax base would enable the County Board of Supervisors to lower taxes, to finance improved county services, or both.) The effects on property taxes for properties within a city relying heavily on TIF are difficult to estimate. We provide estimates only for Iowa City, because the city's own TIF revenue accounts for only 1.7 percent of city property tax revenue? For the remaining cities, where TIF revenues are a third or more of total property taxes, TIF could either raise or lower the taxes on city properties. This is because the city's own TIFs divert taxes from the general fund, which could produce higher general fund tax rates if the TIF taxes are used for incentives. But if TIF revenues merely substitute for city general taxes in financing city infrastructure, then the net effect of TIF is to substantially lower the city tax rate. Consider Shueyville, where 62 percent of the property taxes come from taxpayers outside the city. Thus the effect of TIF on Shueyville taxpayers is to drastically lower the city tax rate, or to finance a much higher level of city services. For cities such as North Liberty and Coralville, the gain to taxpayers from the city's use of TIF to finance routine city projects is counterbalanced by the increased school and county taxes due to their own and their neighbors' use of TIF, making the net effect difficult to sort out. It should be emphasized that these tax impacts represent the potential effect of TIF. They are based on the assumption that in the absence of TIF, cities would have found other ways of financing projects financed by TIF, or that TIF incentives had no effect on development. Thus TIF, as a financing mechanism, has not been the cause of tax base growth. These are reasonable assumptions, though they are very much at odds with the claims of TIF proponents. First of all, only a portion of TIF revenue is spent on development incentives to begin with. The remainder finances city infrastructure, for the most part. Constructing infrastructure to accommodate growth is what cities do; in the absence of the TIF mechanism, the costs are paid from city property taxes, often the debt service levy to retire bonds that were issued to pay for the new roads or other improvements. Without the tax shifting benefits of TIF, cities would still perform these traditional city functions, financed in the traditional fashion. Property Located in: Clear Creek Amana Iowa City Iowa City Taxable School District— School District— School District— Inside Value Rural Johnson County Rural Johnson County Iowa City Average home $ 94,000 $ 373 $ 140 $ 132 High -end home or small business 250,000 991 371 352 Farm of 1,000 acres with farm home 822,000 2,489 1,038 The impacts are best interpreted as a combination of higher taxes and lower public services. In the case of school districts, we know that the effect is to raise rates. (In CCA, 75 percent of the effect is through school taxes; in Iowa City, it is only 35 percent.) Most of the remaining effect is through higher county property taxes. For example, of the $140 for the average home in the rural portion of the Iowa City district, $74 represents either higher county taxes, or $74 worth of county services forgone, or some combination of both. (In the absence of TIF, the higher tax base would enable the County Board of Supervisors to lower taxes, to finance improved county services, or both.) The effects on property taxes for properties within a city relying heavily on TIF are difficult to estimate. We provide estimates only for Iowa City, because the city's own TIF revenue accounts for only 1.7 percent of city property tax revenue? For the remaining cities, where TIF revenues are a third or more of total property taxes, TIF could either raise or lower the taxes on city properties. This is because the city's own TIFs divert taxes from the general fund, which could produce higher general fund tax rates if the TIF taxes are used for incentives. But if TIF revenues merely substitute for city general taxes in financing city infrastructure, then the net effect of TIF is to substantially lower the city tax rate. Consider Shueyville, where 62 percent of the property taxes come from taxpayers outside the city. Thus the effect of TIF on Shueyville taxpayers is to drastically lower the city tax rate, or to finance a much higher level of city services. For cities such as North Liberty and Coralville, the gain to taxpayers from the city's use of TIF to finance routine city projects is counterbalanced by the increased school and county taxes due to their own and their neighbors' use of TIF, making the net effect difficult to sort out. It should be emphasized that these tax impacts represent the potential effect of TIF. They are based on the assumption that in the absence of TIF, cities would have found other ways of financing projects financed by TIF, or that TIF incentives had no effect on development. Thus TIF, as a financing mechanism, has not been the cause of tax base growth. These are reasonable assumptions, though they are very much at odds with the claims of TIF proponents. First of all, only a portion of TIF revenue is spent on development incentives to begin with. The remainder finances city infrastructure, for the most part. Constructing infrastructure to accommodate growth is what cities do; in the absence of the TIF mechanism, the costs are paid from city property taxes, often the debt service levy to retire bonds that were issued to pay for the new roads or other improvements. Without the tax shifting benefits of TIF, cities would still perform these traditional city functions, financed in the traditional fashion. Second, much of the TIF incentives are provided to residential and retail development. These are activities driven by the local market. Incentives are generally unnecessary because these activities cannot be anywhere else if they are to serve the local market. Where they do affect location, it would be better if they did not, because they only shift retail activity around within the market area, or induce development that the market cannot support. It is certainly possible to provide sufficiently generous incentives to make a commercial project viable that otherwise cannot be supported by the local market, but this merely allows the subsidized project to compete unfairly with existing businesses, drawing their customers away and creating vacancies. Vacancies, in turn, reduce rental income to property owners, which will translate into reduced assessments, offsetting the gain in value from the subsidized project. Consider that largest example of retail TIF in the county. The Mall /6 URA in Coralville, by far the largest TIF area in the county, derives most of its revenue from the Coral Ridge Mall and peripheral retail development. The City is on record saying that no rebates or other incentives were provided to General Growth, owners of the Mall,10 and the peripheral properties were developed because of the magnet effect of the Mall. If no incentives were needed or provided, it can hardly be claimed that the TIF is the cause of the Mall being there. Putting residential property in a TIF area is generally not done to provide incentives for developers to build single- family homes, because this is hardly necessary. Instead, it is done to siphon property taxes from the new development and shift tax costs to nonresidents. At the same time, it pulls taxes away from the school district that must educate the children in those homes. It is hard to see any justification for allowing TIF for such purposes. Incentives granted to manufacturing or other "footloose" export activities may bring tax base to the region that otherwise would locate elsewhere. Still, research has shown that taxes have no effect on the location decision even of industrial activity in the majority of instances, because taxes are such a small share of the total costs of doing business." Furthermore, only 4.6 percent of the Table 4. Most of TIF Increment Is in Commercial, Residential Property valuation within a TIF increment in Composition of Property within TIF Increments, 2010 Taxable Values the county is industrial property (Table 4). Most is residential (21 percent) or commercial (74 percent). Of the commercial, probably over half is retail; the Mall /6 URA makes up nearly half of all the commercial TIF value in the county. A significant share of the TIF valuation in Iowa City, North Liberty, and in the 12th Street TIF in Coralville is also retail, though the exact amount is difficult to ascertain. How Should TIF he Reformed? Tax Increment Financing is sometimes described as Iowa's largest economic development program. In FY2009, over $250 million in property taxes was diverted to TIF funds, an amount well in excess of the annual cost of all of the state's business tax credits in recent years.12 The state's share of TIF - through higher school aid payments, costing the state $46.8 million this fiscal year - is larger than many business credits 13 But there is one problem with this argument: it is not clear that the majority of TIF spending can really be characterized as economic development at all. 10 Residential Commercial Industrial Coralville 5.4% 90.6% 3.9% Iowa City 16.3% 75.9% 7.8% Lone Tree 86.7% 12.6% 0.0% North Liberty 26.5% 67.2% 6.2% Oxford 68.6% 30.8% 0.0% Shueyville 98.7% 1.1% 0.0% Solon 72.0% 26.4% 1.4% Swisher 85.9% 13.8% 0.0% Tiffin 71.2% 28.6% 0.0% Total Countv 21.0% 74.3% 4.6% Tax Increment Financing is sometimes described as Iowa's largest economic development program. In FY2009, over $250 million in property taxes was diverted to TIF funds, an amount well in excess of the annual cost of all of the state's business tax credits in recent years.12 The state's share of TIF - through higher school aid payments, costing the state $46.8 million this fiscal year - is larger than many business credits 13 But there is one problem with this argument: it is not clear that the majority of TIF spending can really be characterized as economic development at all. 10 TIF was originally conceived as a kind of bootstraps financing method, where a city could undertake a redevelopment project in a declining area, in the hopes of catalyzing private development and reversing a decline in property values. The increased tax base in the area would, it was hoped, generate enough revenue to allow the city to recover its costs; to encourage cities to undertake risky projects in low income and blighted areas, the city was allowed to scoop off the additional school and county taxes as well until its investment was repaid. Then the school and the county would benefit from the increased tax base. TIF as used in Iowa no longer bears much resemblance to this model. It has been allowed to degenerate to the point that many cities view a TIF area as a perpetual cash cow to finance a wide range of city operations, from lawn mowing and street repairs to hiring lobbyists and consultants. In most cases it has nothing to do with revitalizing low income or declining neighborhoods. It is used to build hotels that lose money and compete with unsubsidized hotels in the same area, to entice retail stores to relocate from neighboring communities, and simply to get other people to pay for a community center or street improvements. Created as a tool to lure private investment to revitalize blighted areas, it is being used instead to put shopping malls and single- family homes on farmland. A strong case can be made to prohibit or severely limit the inclusion of residential and retail activity in a TIF area, with the possible exception of such uses that are incorporated into a larger commercial project, or for the creation of low- and moderate - income housing. Businesses that serve the demands of local markets for housing or for goods and services are driven by local market conditions. If demand is sufficient, firms will build more stores or houses to meet that demand, and financial institutions will provide the financing. In most cases in Johnson County, residential property is not included within a TIF area for the purpose of subsidizing that housing, but simply to capture the incremental taxes to finance projects unrelated to that housing. The capture of these incremental taxes is made even more problematic by the effect of the residential rollback, which can result in the base valuation in a TIF area being driven to zero.14 Allowing retail activity to be part of a TIF area and to receive TIF incentives provides a strong incentive for cities to use TIF not to augment regional economic activity but simply to entice a retail business from one location to another within the same market area. This provides no benefit to the region, and in fact may operate to its detriment, creating vacancies in shopping areas that make it more difficult to lease the remaining space. In the long run, such a beggar -thy- neighbor use of TIF invites retaliation and can produce a downward spiral in commercial property tax revenues for all local governments, jeopardizing public services or necessitating increased taxes on remaining properties. There should be no perpetual TIFs, even for blighted areas, and a 20 -year time limit is much longer than needed to recover project costs in most cases. A number of other reforms would limit the overuse and abuse of TIF. But the most important single reform would be to convert all TIFs to project TIFs, where the TIF diversion ends as soon as the initial project is paid for. The TIF area could remain, with new projects financed in the same area, but the base year for the new project would be re- established when the new project is undertaken. A project -based TIF (which is the way it was originally intended to be used, and is still the way it is used by some cities) would also make it more feasible to eliminate the anti - democratic provision in TIF law that exempts TIF from public referendum requirements that otherwise would apply. As a result of this provision, a library bond issue must be approved by a majority of the voters, a school bond issue must be approved by a 60 percent supermajority, but a hotel financed as a TIF project need not be put to a vote at all.15 Serious consideration should be given to other limitations as well. There should surely be a limit to the portion of a city's tax base that could be included within a TIF area, and a limit to TIF debt as a share of total taxable value. While the latter limit was thought to exist because the courts had declared TIF debt to be general obligation debt, and GO debt is limited to 5 percent of the city's taxable value, this has been circumvented by the creation of "annual appropriation debt;' which appears not to be debt at all and does not count against the GO debt limit. The law should be changed to prevent such a subterfuge. The City of Coralville has used such annual appropriation debt heavily; though its total GO and TIF debt is over twice 11 the $93 million GO debt limit that total includes $130 million in annual appropriation TIF debt, and of that amount only the portion due this year counts against the debt limit.16 There should be serious consideration of size and contiguity limits. When TIF is justified as a means of enhancing a school district's tax base in the long run (when the TIF expires), it is absurd to allow a single TIF area to encompass more than one school district. The Mall /6 URA, which would violate any sensible contiguity rule, creates the spectacle whereby Clear Creek Amana, with 49 percent of its tax base under TIF, is denied property taxes that are going largely to create development in the Iowa City school district. Most obviously, the anti - piracy provision in the Iowa Code needs to be given some teeth.17 As it stands, it is ineffectual, because a business that expands in the process of moving (and it is safe to bet that this would include the vast majority of business moves) is not classified as a relocation. There should be no exemption for expansions, period. A move is a move, and cities have plenty of other tools to resort to in such a case; they need not have TIF as well. It needs to be recognized that TIF is a strong driver of increased local government spending, and no doubt skews priorities in the process. TIF financing effectively lowers the price to a city of projects, and when you substantially lower the price of something you tend to buy more of it; it's called the law of demand. When 50 percent of the cost of a city hall or a fire station, for example, will be shifted to taxpayers outside the city, then what we have is a half -price sale on public projects, and we can expect more and fancier city halls and fire stations as a result. We can also expect incentive deals that far exceed what is reasonable and necessary. In the process, spending is skewed in favor of TIF development projects and less revenue flows into city and county general funds where it supports services like mental health, housing assistance, library acquisitions, recreation services, police protection — everything that doesn't involve new buildings or infrastructure. Without serious reform, we can look forward to a future in which increasing numbers of cities TIF all or most of their city for the primary purpose of shifting taxes to nonresidents, and more and more cities join the incentive wars in retaliation for the piracy of retail and other businesses by their neighbors. The end result will be a local property tax system that is increasingly unfair, and an erosion of revenues that threatens the ability of cities and counties to finance important public services, many of which are part of the foundation for future economic growth. Ironically, this result will have been arrived at in the name of promoting "economic development." ' Technically, the city creates a "TIF area" after establishing an Urban Renewal Area; the TIF area could be smaller than the URA, but usually is identical with it. We use the term "URA" to be synonymous with "TIF area" in part because most of the TIF areas in Johnson County are named URAs. x Figure 1 assumes that the TIF was established in 2006, so that the base value is the total valuation in the TIF area as of January 2005, or $500,000. A $2 million commercial project is completed during 2006 and goes on the tax roles as of January 2007. A small increment exists for 2006 because of inflation in the value of the base value property. We assume annual inflation of 4 percent. 3 The debt service levies of the city, the county, the school district, and the community college district are exempt from the TIF diversion because they are legally obligated in their entirety for the repayment of debt. In addition, the school district's physical glant and equipment (PPEL) levy is not subject to TIF diversion. The Highway 6 URA was established in 1992 (and later expanded) as a blighted area TIF, and that portion of the combined URA remains a blighted area TIF with no expiration date. The Coral Ridge Mall URA was created in 1997 (and expanded in 2005) as an economic development TIF, which means that it expires at the end of 20 years. Thus the Coral Ridge Mall portion of the combined URA will cease to exist in 2018, whereas the remainder will continue on. The city will therefore no longer receive what is now a $10.5 million revenue flow into the TIF fund, representing 65 percent of the city's total TIF revenue in FY2012. 5 Figure 7 assumes that the total property tax rate in the TIF area is the same with or without TIF. In actuality, the rate could be a little higher or a little lower. TIF forces school tax rates up, and will either force county tax rates up as well, or force a reduction in services. At the same time, to the extent that the city uses TIF revenue to substitute for general fund revenue, the city's own tax rate could be lower with TIF. The net effect could be total property taxes collected that are higher or lower with TIF than without. 12 Included are higher Kirkwood and other countywide taxes. We do not include the share of increased state taxes paid by residents of the city because any one city's share of the state total would be very tiny. The 44 percent of diverted school taxes offset by state aid is the average for Johnson County's five main school districts: Clear Creek Amana, Iowa City, College, Lone Tree, and Solon. Small portions of six other districts extend into Johnson County but are unaffected by Johnson County TIFs. r The average market value of a single - family residence in Johnson County (not including Iowa City) was about $200,000; the average value of a single - family residence in Iowa City (excluding condos) was also about $200,000. The homestead credit, funded at 63 percent for FY2010, has the effect on the homeowner of exempting the first $3,056 in taxable value. 8 According to the abstract of assessment for Johnson County for January 2009, the average 100 percent value of a farm dwelling was $107,000, and the average "actual value" of farmland was $1,115 per acre. Since property is reassessed in odd - numbered years, these figures would have been virtually the same in January 2010. This translates into a taxable value of $52,659 for the home and $770 per acre for the land, after rollbacks. We assume the farm benefits from the family farm and ag land tax credits, which in effect rebate a portion of the general school taxes on farm land above the $5.40 levy. These credits are pro- rated; for FY2012 the two credits combined offset 27.2 percent of the general tax rate above $5.40, which in effect means that the farm pays 72.8 percent of the increase in the "additional levy" due to TIF, and all of the increase in the management levy. 6 The tax effects are slightly smaller in Iowa City than in the rural portions of the Iowa City school district because Iowa City residents do not pay a higher county assessor levy due to TIF; the city has its own assessor. 10 See Commentary by City Administrator Kelly Hayworth provided on Eye on Coralville, May 23, 2011, "Tax Increment Financing: Perception and Reality," http: // blip .tv /coralvision /eoeville -tif- 5201252. 11 See Peter Fisher, Corporate Taxes and State Economic Growth, Iowa Policy Project, February 2011, at " See Iowa state auditor's presentation on TIF at http: / /auditor.iowa.gov /tech updateslTecTIFUpdate2008.pdf and the Dept. of Revenue's Contingent Liabilities Report, October 2011, Table 9, for data on tax credits, at http: //www.iowe ov /tox/taxlaw /1011RECReport.pdf. r See Iowa Association of School Boards, Excel spreadsheet on impact of TIF for 2012, at http: / /www.ia- sb.om /Finance.aspx7id =4980 This feature of TIF law is explained in detail in the above cited presentation of the State Auditor. "Tax Increment Financing is part of the urban renewal statute, Chapter 403 of the Iowa Code. Chapter 403.9(2) declares that "Bonds issued under the provisions of this chapter are declared to be issued for an essential public and governmental purpose." While a simple majority vote in a referendum is required for "general corporate purpose" debt (which would include Frarks and libraries, among other things), for "essential public purpose" debt a referendum is not required at all. s Emily Schettler, "Cities' debt varies across county." Iowa City Press- Citizen, Nov 3, 2011. 17 Iowa Code section 15A.1(2) states (underlining added): "2. Before public funds are used for grants, loans, tax incentives, or other financial assistance to private persons or on behalf of private persons for economic development, the governing body of the state, city, county, or other public body dispensing those funds or the governing body's designee, shall determine that a public purpose will reasonably be accomplished by the dispensing or use of those funds. In determining whether the funds should be dispensed, the governing body or designee of the governing body shall consider any or all of the following factors: a. Businesses that add diversity to or generate new opportunities for the Iowa economy should be favored over those that do not. b. Development policies in the dispensing of the funds should attract, retain, or expand businesses that produce exports or import substitutes or which generate tourism - related activities. c. Development policies in the dispensing or use of the funds should be targeted toward businesses that generate public gains and benefits, which gains and benefits are warranted in comparison to the amount of the funds dispensed. d. Development policies in dispensing the funds should not be used to attract a business presently located within the state to relocate to another portion of the state unless the business is considering in good faith to relocate outside the state or unless the relocation is related to an expansion which will generate significant new job creation. Jobs created as a result of other jobs in similar Iowa businesses being displaced shall not be considered direct jobs for the purpose of dispensing funds." 13 APPENDIX CORAL VILL E Coralville's MalllHighway 6 Urban Renewal Area is Largest TIF District in Johnson County (Figure 6 in report) @........ �j ma. ✓ • , /e/ am #♦ sea 2 •• am• is •.a. as •. ■.•.. ■ ■.. mamma moo 1 so s• • •mama• ■ mama* mea■s . r a• Clear -Creek Amana .'/�%% �.• 7 School District "y a ... * • J as (##( •mama.• .� . 0.5 Iowa City School District 2 i Miles Map Key ,...• ' a • •. Municipal Boundary School District Boundary - Roads Coral Ridge -HWY 6 TIF District Other TIF Districts Dala sources: Iowa GIS Repository (wwwiowagisdata.org) and Johnson Co. Planning & Zoning IOWA CITY 0 0.5 i z 3Miles Map Key ...... Municipal Boundary - roads TIF Districts Data Source. Iowa GIs Repository (www.iowagisdataorg) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning �. I- ao ' 85` • O ' N tl • • �'�j� � m Muscatine Ave • O • - • 0 0.5 i z 3Miles Map Key ...... Municipal Boundary - roads TIF Districts Data Source. Iowa GIs Repository (www.iowagisdataorg) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning LONE TREE State Hwy 22 W N a_ Y =• • • � 6 � J J aYV t • • Ci Y a • Taylor Or • • • WJ yneS ,:•,`,deg °dM • H E Elm St -� N • 620th St SE W Pioneer Rd Co Rd Gig .620th St SE Y B W i1 Pte Or ' • an St ........ 0 750 1,500 3,000 Feet Map Key Municipal Boundary • •; A Buildings Roads TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning NORTH LIBERTY G Clear -Creek Amana .. 3 s School District t 2 N� e E a i . L/ . u St NW W Pienn St: • Co I d C . N O N Y St NW D 270th St NE m J��7TJ Ijj • N r • i c r N W Z d O •' ., • • y Z i � V K d d d A N Q y Y • d W Forevergreen Rd d • o ................... m n I School District I I F28 r t Lyy d� • N r • Z • W Z i � V K 0 2,000 4,000 8,000 Feet Ma Key Y .... Municipal Boundary School District Boundary Roads TIF Districts Data Sources. Iowa GIS Repositroy (www.iowagisdata.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning Lyy L • �I Z G^ W Z d T Q 1 • d \, 6 R • 0 2,000 4,000 8,000 Feet Ma Key Y .... Municipal Boundary School District Boundary Roads TIF Districts Data Sources. Iowa GIS Repositroy (www.iowagisdata.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning OXFORD ■ ■ ■ ■ : ■...... ■...... ■....1 ■•■■■., sr ■ ■ 1� ik•wrc2�wwr i e a e� • 0 0 0 600 1,200 2,400 Feet 295th St NW E 2 U Map Key r • ■: Municipal Boundary — Roads L _ Buildings TIF Districts Data Souroes: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagis.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning •Mons■■■ • ••■• .. S O • • U Z •• l t St •ww Wilson St • N I 4'{p • Su mil St �J a1 295th St awk ye. , ■ ■ ■ ■ : ■...... ■...... ■....1 ■•■■■., sr ■ ■ 1� ik•wrc2�wwr i e a e� • 0 0 0 600 1,200 2,400 Feet 295th St NW E 2 U Map Key r • ■: Municipal Boundary — Roads L _ Buildings TIF Districts Data Souroes: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagis.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning SHUEYV /L L E Hoosier Crook Rd I ■ E 140th St NW FWI( • 4 T emir Woods Dr Nil, .................i 0 750 1,500 - + m 3.000 = Feet Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata org) and Johnson County Planning and Zoning Ct Map Key ••• •• • � Municipal Boundary Buildings — Roads f TIF Districts .........••...• ■ • 1 ■ w ■ g ' • � o • Water St NE ' _ m ■ • a ;F ■ y • Co 12kh St NE Fa Far War i ■ 1 'off ■ • ce1F ■ E 140th St NW FWI( • 4 T emir Woods Dr Nil, .................i 0 750 1,500 - + m 3.000 = Feet Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata org) and Johnson County Planning and Zoning Ct Map Key ••• •• • � Municipal Boundary Buildings — Roads f TIF Districts o Aso 1.500 3,0Feet 1 Map Key :.... Municipal Boundary Buildings — Roads TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (iowagisdata.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning SWISHER 0 600 1,200 2,40eet Map Key y • • • Municipal Boundary Buildings Roads TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning a v a d • A St• Co Rd F12 120th St NW Co Rd Fit ' 1st tS 1st t E _ 3 2n St SW u — x > 3rd St W A 3rd t SE c � q C i .......... > Q LU w ' > N > ` a U •..• C d A 0 d M /p n o� &21 St NW 140th St 140th a 0 600 1,200 2,40eet Map Key y • • • Municipal Boundary Buildings Roads TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIS Repository (www.iowagisdata.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning TIFFIN 0 1,250 2,500 5.000 moocz:�Feet M8 Key y Municipal Boundary Buildings Roads f TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIs Repository (www.iowagisdala.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning � d o � � . W revergr en Rd d Q = d N A W Q• 1 •• C d Oakdale lyd N N x • • � F y °m • p N Q • � W _ N _ • • y K a N U k US H 8 W Maren o Rd N arengo Rd x ' • N "s4 Jasper Ave W ��0. 3 z > > i I -BO •� • e .. d • ' • 3 • ' N 740th St SW I ............. m A N C A Y 0 1,250 2,500 5.000 moocz:�Feet M8 Key y Municipal Boundary Buildings Roads f TIF Districts Data Sources: Iowa GIs Repository (www.iowagisdala.org) and Johnson, Co Planning and Zoning r ��i�,;, ®r CITY OF IOWA CITY IP5 .._75;Zr� � MEMORANDUM Date: November 22, 2011 To: Mayor and City Council From: Marian K. Karr, City Clerk Re: KXIC Radio Show At your November 21 work session meeting the Council Members agreed to the following schedule: December 7 - Mims December 14 - Dickens December 21 - Wright December 28 - Wilburn January 3 - Hayek U:radioshowappts.doc Marian Karr From: Iowa City Area Chamber of Commerce <chamber @iowacityarea.com> Sent: Monday, November 21, 2011 1:24 PM To: Marian Karr Subject: Save the Date: CHAMBER ANNUAL BANQUET Save the Date! Annual Banquet Guest speaker: Dan Buettner Mr. Buettner is a world - renowned explorer, writer for National Geographic and New York Times best - selling author on longevity and happiness. He assembled a team of researchers to seek out "hotspots of human health and vitality," which he calls Blue Zones, and to figure out what they do that helps them live so long. Thursday evening, February 2, 2012 More details to come... Premier Sponsor: Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield Gold Sponsors: Oaknoll Retirement Residence and P & G / Oral B MINUTES HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION PRELIMINARY IPi November 15, 2011 Lobby Conference Room Members Present: Orville Townsend Sr., Dianne Day, David Brown, Diane Finnerty, Harry Olmstead, Connie Goeb, Howard Cowen, Martha Lubaroff. Absent: Wangui Gathua. Staff Present: Stefanie Bowers. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: None. CALL TO ORDER Commission Chair Day called the meeting to order at 18:00. PUBLIC COMMENT OF ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CONSIDERATION OF THE MINUTES OF THE October 18, 2011 MEETING: Commissioner Olmstead moved to approve. Commissioner Brown seconded. The motion passed 7 -0. (Cowen not present for vote) OUTGOING COMMISSIONERS & NEW APPOINTMENTS Commissioners Day and Lubaroff were recognized for their outstanding contributions to the Commission. Day is the outgoing chair who has served for three years. Lubaroff served 2 terms for a total of 6 years. Henri Harper, Kim Hanrahan and Shams Ghoneim are the newly appointed Commissioners and begin their term in January of 2012. 2012 CHOICE EVENT Bowers will follow up with the planners of the Choice Event to inquire as to: 1) whether there will be a keynote speaker and if so, whom; and 2) if there are any educational aspects of the event that are related to human rights. AWARDS BREAKFAST Commissioners felt overall the Breakfast was a success but did note the sound system was not the best. YOUTH AWARDS ADULT HONOREE The Commission decided to create an award for an adult who works with youth in the area of human rights. The award has been loosely labeled the Youth Ally or Youth Advocate Award but Commissioners will defer to the subcommittee to come up with a few award titles as well as award descriptions to be presented to the entire Commission at a later date. A subcommittee (Commissioner Olmstead and Commissioner Cuttell) will work on the specifics of the award. Bowers emphasized that all matters relating to the award will need to be completed by January 31, 2012. Commissioner Olmstead moved Commissioner Cuttell seconded. The motion passed 7 -1. (Townsend in the negative) IMMIGRATION SUBCOMMITTEE Commissioner Finnerty expressed her disappointment in the fact the Commission has not heard back from the Council re: letters sent to Council over the last few months. Commissioners will be in attendance at the Council work session scheduled for November 21, 2011. FACES OF IOWA CITY Bowers will send out the flier as well as do a press release advertising the program. Human Rights Commission November 15, 2011 Page 2 of 3 JUVENILE JUSTICE Commissioner Finnerty and Commissioner Townsend will contact soon to be Commissioner Harper to meet in the near future to plan upcoming programs on the topic for the spring of 2012. COMMISSION REPORTS Finnerty reported on a series of programs being hosted by the University of Iowa commemorating the anniversary of the Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Lubaroff reported on her time of service on the Commission and wished everyone well. She also stated her and her husband are expecting their 6th grandchild. Day also reported on her time on the Commission noting it is a great group that has always worked well together for the common good. STAFF REPORTS Bowers reported there are currently 18 complaints on file in the office. ADJOURNMENT Commissioner Townsend moved to adjourn. Commissioner Brown seconded. The motion passed 8 -0 at 18:45. Human Rights Commission November 15, 2011 Page 3 of 3 I I Dia Wa Ga Ma Lul Ho j Co j Co Go Ha Olr IILA Or, To Sr. Di. Fir Human Rights Commission ATTENDANCE RECORD 2011 meeun uaie VAME TER M EXP. 1/18 2/15 L3/15 4/12 5/17 6121 7/19 8/16 9/20 10/18 11/15 12120 nne Day 1/1/12 X X X X X X X X O/E X X ngui thua 1/1/12 O/E O/E O/E O/E X O/E X X X X O/E rtha )aroff 1/1/12 O/E O/E X X X X X O/E X O/E X hard even 1/l/13 X X X O/E O/E O/E X O/E X O/E X nstance eb rry nstead 1 -2010) 1/1/13 1/1/13 X O/E X X O/E X O/E X X X X X X X X X X X X X X X /ille Nnsend, 1/1/14 X X X X X X X X X X X ine nerty 1/1/14 X X X X O/E X X X X X X vid B. )wn 1/1/14 X X X O/E O/E O/E X O/E X X X i KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting /No Quorum R = Resigned - =Not a Member PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION PRELIMINARY NOVEMBER 3, 2011 — 7:00 PM — FORMAL EMMA J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Carolyn Stewart Dyer, Charlie Eastham, Ann Freerks, Elizabeth Koppes, Tim Weitzel, Michelle Payne MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Karen Howard, Sarah Holecek OTHERS PRESENT: James Clark RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: The Commission voted 6 -0 to recommend approval of REZ11 -00009 application submitted by Apartments Downtown for a rezoning from Low Density Single- Family (RS- 5) zone to Low Density Multi - Family (RM -12) zone for approximately .88 acres of property located at 2218 Rochester Avenue. The Commission voted 6 -0 to recommend approval of CZ11 -00001 an application submitted by Robert & Doris Swartzendruber for a rezoning from County Public (P) zone to County Residential (R) zone for .93 acres of property located at 3920 Kansas Avenue SW. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN ITEMS: Public hearing to amend the Comprehensive Plan to change the land use designation from Private Institution to Low to Medium Density Multi- family Stabilization for property located at 602 E. Washington Street. Freerks asked for a motion to defer until November 17, 2011. Planning and Zoning Commission November 3, 2011 - Formal Page 2 of 7 Eastham moved to defer until November 17, 2011. Payne seconded. Freerks asked for discussion. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. REZONING ITEMS: REZ11 -00017 / VAC11- 00002: Discussion of an application submitted by Hunter Properties for rezoning from Low Density Multi - Family (RM -12) zone to Neighborhood Stabilization residential (RSN -20) zone for approximately .79 acres of property located at 602 E. Washington Street and the vacation of a portion of the alley right -of -way located east of Johnson Street, south of Ralston Creek. Freerks asked staff if there was any more information. Howard stated the applicant has asked for a deferral until November 17, 2011. Freerks opened the public hearing. Freerks closed the public hearing. Freerks asked for a motion to defer until November 17, 2011. Payne moved to defer until November 17, 2011. Eastham seconded. Freerks asked for discussion. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. REZ11- 00009: Discussion of an application submitted by Apartments Downtown for a rezoning from Low Density Single - Family (RS -5) zone to Low Density Multi - Family (RM- 12) zone for approximately .88 acres of property located at 2218 Rochester Avenue. Howard told the Commission that there was a memo included in their packet addressing the number of concerns that were brought up in a previous meeting. The property is located on the corner of Rochester and First Avenue. The request is to rezone to RM -12. The original concept plan was for a 12 -plex of three - bedroom units. The new plan has been changed for nine three - bedroom townhouse style units facing First Avenue. There would be two buildings - a five unit building and a four unit building with access from Rochester Avenue. There will be visitor parking and each unit would have its own parking garage underneath. The plan addresses the lack of pedestrian access by adding some sidewalks to the eastern frontage on First Avenue. The plan includes a 12- foot -wide landscape buffer between the guest parking spaces and the western edge of the parcel. The Planning and Zoning Commission November 3, 2011 - Formal Page 3 of 7 new plan also provides decks and a screened porch for each unit in the building. Staff is recommending approval subject to the following conditions; vehicle driveway and access to the multi - family structure be provided from /to Rochester Avenue, as close to the southwest corner of the property as possible with no access or driveway allowed from or to First Avenue. An easement for residential use is added to the west border of the property to allow for a shared driveway with the RS -5 property to the west and general compliance with the concept site plan. Howard stated that the Commission had asked how this would line up with the single - family housing to the west. Howard showed a superimposed photo showing the property fitting close to the house. Eastham asked about the recommended easement to allow access and where it would be located in the buffer area. Howard confirmed that it would be along the property line so that if the neighboring property would redevelop they would be able to share the access. Payne asked if the access that would be provided would totally be on the easement and if in the future the area is redeveloped on the property to the west would they put in new access. Howard confirmed that was correct and that it would need to be designed to share the current driveway. Payne stated that the easement would then need to be thirty feet to cover the driveway that is being proposed in the site plan. Howard stated she was unsure of what has been agreed upon and asked for the applicant to speak about it. Eastham asked if the easement area is eventually occupied by a driveway then would there be no buffer between the two. Howard stated it is typically what a shared driveway does. She confirmed that a buffer would not be required because it is a driveway. Payne stated that the intent would not be for the house that is there now but for in the future if it gets redeveloped. Koppes asked for elaboration on the design review for the property and what it would need to go through. Howard stated that it is located in the Central Planning District and any new multi- family or duplexes in the district will have to go through the staff design review process. Typically an applicant submits a plan and they decide the historic style that would fit into the neighborhood and staff would review it against the standards in the zoning. Eastham stated that one of the proposed conditions states that there will be general compliance with Concept Site Plan. He stated that what he sees on the plan are nine dwelling units in two buildings with the front face being staggered with a nine foot dimension in depth between units. Howard stated that there is not a dimension listed and that would be a question for the applicant. Eastham stated that the plan proposes 13 visitor parking spaces and the location of the access onto Rochester Avenue. He asked if the staff's recommendation is accepted would the concept include all the features, characteristics and dimensions. Howard stated that was correct and it gives a general footprint. Eastham asked if all the building heights are the same level. Howard stated she thought they would be staggered because of how the ground slopes down. Freerks opened the public hearing. James Clark, 414 E Market Street, Iowa City, IA, is the applicant for REZ11- 00009. He stated they put buffers in to make sure the house next door does not receive any light from the cars going in and out. The setbacks are around two to three feet and there is a step up into the buildings. They did do a major change to turn the design into condos. Clark showed the Commission what the new elevation might look like. Planning and Zoning Commission November 3, 2011 - Formal Page 4 of 7 Dyer asked that since the land slopes would it be possible for any one of the units to have zero access. Clark stated that there is a possibility on the front off of Rochester. Dyer asked if the intent was to make the units rentals. Clark stated they would prefer to sell the units but would rent out if needed until the unit could be sold. Freerks closed the public hearing. Weitzel moved to approve REZ11 -00009 Apartments Downtown for a rezoning from Low Density Single - Family (RS -5) zone to Low Density Multi - Family (RM -12) zone for approximately .88 acres of property located at 2218 Rochester Avenue with the staff recommendations. Koppes seconded. Freerks asked for discussion. Koppes stated that she likes the new design plan better. She stated that she is trusting staff to make sure nice buildings are put up in that location because it is a gateway into Iowa City. Koppes stated she will support the rezoning. Eastham stated he thinks the new plan is a nice change. The appearance is more compatible with what is in that general area now. He stated that he appreciated the applicant was willing to work with the staff and make the changes necessary. Payne stated she agreed with Koppes and Eastham and appreciated the applicant's willingness to change his original plans to make the design better. Dyer stated that she feels that it is more fitting for the neighborhood because the neighborhood looks like a family area. Freerks agreed and said it fits in the lot better. She stated that she hopes that along with fitting in, the general layout and design ensure that the light doesn't shine into the buildings. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. REZ11- 00018: Discussion of an application submitted by Prime Ventures Construction, Inc. for a rezoning from Commercial Office (CO -1) zone to High Density Multi - Family Residential (RM -44) zone for approximately .47 acres of property located at 821 E. Jefferson Street. Howard stated the applicant has asked for a deferral until November 17, 2011 Freerks opened the public hearing. Freerks closed the public hearing. Freerks asked for a motion to defer until November 17, 2011. Payne moved to defer until November 17, 2011. Weitzel seconded. Planning and Zoning Commission November 3, 2011 -Formal Page 5 of 7 Freerks asked for discussion. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. COUNTY ITEM: CZ11- 00001: Discussion of an application submitted by Robert & Doris Swartzendruber for a rezoning from County Public (P) zone to County Residential (R) zone for .93 acres of property located at 3920 Kansas Avenue SW. Howard stated that this item has been forwarded to the City from the County because the property is in the Fringe Area and there is an agreement with the County to jointly review applications for rezoning. This particular case is outside the City's growth area in Fringe Area C and is zoned for agriculture. The applicant wants to purchase it from the City and currently it is zoned public because it is a part of the landfill property. The City would like to sell to them because the land is a part of the applicant's septic system. Staff is recommending that Commission forward a letter to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors recommending approval of an application submitted by Robert and Doris Swartzendruber to rezone 0.93 acres of property located immediately south of 3920 Kansas Avenue SW. Additionally, staff recommends that the letter indicates approval for a boundary line adjustment to facilitate transfer of ownership from the City to the applicants. Freerks opened the public hearing. Freerks closed the public hearing. Weitzel moved to approve the recommendation. Dyer seconded. Freerks asked for discussion. Koppes stated she felt it was a reasonable request to have your septic system on your own property. Weitzel stated that it seems to be in the City's interest. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: October 17 and October 20, 2011: Eastham moved to approve the minutes. Weitzel seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. ELECTION OF SECRETARY: Weitzel volunteered. Planning and Zoning Commission November 3, 2011 -Formal Page 6 of 7 Payne nominated Tim Weitzel. Dyer seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. OTHER: Freerks thanked everyone for attending the City Council meeting on Tuesday. Weitzel stated that there is a Green and Main project happening in Sherman Hill Historic District in Des Moines. It is a two story building with a rental above and commercial below which could be an example. Payne stated that the Pagliai's building doesn't look like a three story building from the front. It is the same height and it doesn't look massive. Howard stated that the idea is if Mr. Allen could, he may decide to change or adjust a few items. The City attorney had stated that because it was approved that it would not need to go back through P &Z, if there were changes it could go directly to Council as an alternative. The Commission discussed changing the start time of the Informal meeting from 6 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. ADJOURNMENT: Eastham moved to adjourn. Weitzel seconded. The meeting was adjourned on a 6 -0 vote. z O V1 N 0 O� Uw Z O Q N N 06 z W z ~ 2 z Q J a z H W LL 2 0 o X X X X O I X o X X X X X X X v-XXXXXXX X X X X X i X 0 CP X X- X X X X X co X X- X X X X co X X X X X X X N X X X X X- X ti X X X X X X X ti X X X X - - X X X 0 X- X X 00 O X X O X X X T-- X X X X X- w X i ~ LO I O X X X X p X I X- X X X X ti XXXX\OX X X X Lij X N i M: X X X X X X I- _' N 1 XXX X X - XX X +i N; X X X X X X WG.U-)LO Lo 0nnLo X o 0 0 0 0 0 0 �wGOCOMNLnLoM w M U-) LO LO Lo Lo U-) n X o 0 0 0 0 0 0 W J W J Z N = �- 0VawUYp W J J Q fn m z J raZawa = W W W w13E J = Z N X =N V Q W--- a>- z QL(n a�OaJw w W Y EzJ a �S U= IX W W W wlo�i -waz =N LLJ a z0WU. >- < w eCLCL 3: z H LL LL 2 E 7 O -0d N p U) z U 0) X LU � N c O c N E vOi N O Qz CL Q �� n n n W 2E XOOz w Y - X X X X X i X o X X X X X X V- N X X X X X X X CD CD N X X X X X X X co X X 0 X- X X 00 I co X X X X X w X i ~ CN O X X X X X X Lf) 1 co N X X X X X X N -' M X X X X X X I- _' CD N r 1 X X X X X X �wCO(OMNtoLoM WG.U-)LO Lo 0nnLo X o 0 0 0 0 0 0 W W J H w �- Paz W _5 J J 2 Z N = 0VawUYp Q fn m z J U = W W W w13E wo- z =N a>- z 0 a�OaJw w W Y a a �S E 7 O -0d N p U) z U 0) X LU � N c O c N E vOi N O Qz CL Q �� n n n W 2E XOOz w Y DRAFT IP9 POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD MINUTES — November 16, 2011 CALL TO ORDER: Chair Donald King called the meeting to order at 5:30 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT: Melissa Jensen, Peter Jochimsen, Royceann Porter (5:32), Joseph Treloar MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Staff Kellie Tuttle and Catherine Pugh (5:36) STAFF ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Captain Rick Wyss of the ICPD RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL Accept PCRB Report on Complaint #11 -01 CONSENT CALENDAR Motion by Jochimsen and seconded by Jensen to adopt the consent calendar as presented or amended. • Minutes of the meeting on 10/25/11 • ICPD Bar Check Report (PAULA) — October, 2011 Motion carried, 4/0, Porter absent. OLD BUSINESS Community Forum — The Board agreed to table discussion until the December meeting. Board Packet Distribution — Tuttle stated that some of the members were having trouble opening and printing the electronic version of the packet. She will attempt to send the packet electronically a different way and the Board will discuss again in December. NEW BUSINESS King announced that applications were being taken for the 15th Annual Citizen's Police Academy. The Board's budget will cover the cost for any member that would like to participate. PUBLIC DISCUSSION None. BOARD INFORMATION None. STAFF INFORMATION None. PCRB November 16, 2011 Page 2 EXECUTIVE SESSION REGULAR SESSION Motion by Jochimsen and seconded by Jensen to adjourn into Executive Session based on Section 21.5(1)(a) of the Code of Iowa to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that government body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds, and 22.7(11) personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including but not limited to cities, boards of supervisors and school districts, and 22 -7(5) police officer investigative reports, except where disclosure is authorized elsewhere in the Code; and 22.7(18) Communications not required by law, rule or procedure that are made to a government body or to any of its employees by identified persons outside of government, to the extent that the government body receiving those communications from such persons outside of government could reasonably believe that those persons would be discouraged from making them to that government body if they were available for general public examination. Motion carried, 5/0. Open session adjourned at 5:36 P.M. (Porter left executive session due to a conflict of interest — 5:38 P.M.) Returned to open session at 8:02 P.M. Motion by Treloar, seconded by Jochimsen to forward the Public Report as amended for PCRB Complaint #11 -01 to City Council. Motion carried, 4/0, Porter absent. TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE and FUTURE AGENDAS (subject to change) • December 13, 2011, 5:30 PM, Lobby Conference Rm • January 10, 2012, 5:30 PM, Lobby Conference Rm • February 14, 2012, 5:30 PM, Lobby Conference Rm • March 13, 2012, 5:30 PM. Lobby Conference Rm ADJOURNMENT Motion for adjournment by Treloar, seconded by Jochimsen. Motion carried, 4/0, Porter absent. Meeting adjourned at 8:03 P.M. 7�OyC zz��ro o c. y d z • O r n n I�1 S v u 5 7Q ro r� N A rE. N C x x x N r y d z • O r n n I�1 S v u POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD A Board of the City of Iowa City 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 -1826 (319) 356 -5041 November 16, 2011 To: City Council Complainant City Manager -{ ;7-, Sam Hargadine, Chief of Police < -, Officer(s) involved in complaint From: Police Citizen's Review Board Re: Investigation of PCRB Complaint #11 -01 This is the Report of the Police Citizens Review Board's (the "Board ") review of the investigation of Complaint PCRB #11 -01 (the "Complaint "). BOARD'S RESPONSIBILITY Under the City Code of the City of Iowa City, Section 8 -8 -713 (2), the Board's job is to review the Police Chiefs Report ( "Report") of his investigation of a complaint. The City Code requires the Board to apply a "reasonable basis" standard of review to the Report and to "give deference" to the Report "because of the Police Chiefs professional expertise ", Section 8 -8 -7 B (2). While the City Code directs the Board to make "Findings of Fact ", it also requires that the Board recommend that the Police Chief reverse or modify his findings only if these findings are "unsupported by substantial evidence', are "unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious" or are "contrary to a Police Department policy or practice, or any Federal, State or local law ", Section 8 -8 -7 B (2) a, b, c. BOARD'S PROCEDURE The Complaint was initiated by the Complainant on June 24, 2011. As required by Section 8 -8 -5 (B) of the City Code, the Complaint was referred to the Chief of Police for investigation. The Chiefs Report was filed with the City Clerk on September 20, 2011. The Board met to consider the Chiefs Report on September 27, 2011, October 12, 2011, October 25, 2011 and November 16, 2011. At the September 27th meeting the Board voted to review the Chiefs Report in accordance with Section 8- 8- 7(B)(1)(b), Interview /meet with complainant and 8- 8- 7(13)(1)(c), Interview /meet with named officer(s) and other officers. At the October 12t` meeting the Board voted to review the Chief's Report in accordance with Section 8 -8 -7 (13)(1)(e), Performance by Board of its own additional investigation. BOARD'S PROCEDURES (Continued) At the October 12th meeting the Board granted a request by Chief Hargadine to present a power point presentation of his investigation findings. The Board invited the Complainant to appear before the Board if she desired and to contact the Chief to review his findings. At the October 25d' meeting the Complainant appeared before the Board. The Complainant was asked if she had reviewed the Chief's investigation and she stated yes she had. The Complainant was asked for any additional information that she felt needed to be added to the investigation. It was determined by the Board that further follow -up investigation may be needed, and it would be undertaken by the Board itself. FINDINGS OF FACT On March 26, 2011, the Complainant held a birthday party for her daughter at the Saddlebrook Clubhouse on Heinz Road in Iowa City. Juveniles from Cedar Rapids came to the party of which several were reported members from "Hardbodies ", "All About Money" and "Money of Anything" gangs. Some of the juveniles from Iowa City were members of the "Broadway Goons" gang. It is well known that there is a violent history between the gangs from Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. In her written complaint the Complainant acknowledged that problems began to mount at the party and that she had to turn up the lights and turn down the music at least three different times and threatened to end the party. Complainant appeared to minimize these problems in her statement referring to the juveniles as "singing in harmony ". After about 45 minutes a large fight broke out resulting in one juvenile being injured. A total of nine 911 calls were received by the Johnson County Emergency Communication Center. (JECC) The first call was received by the JECC at 23:05:41. The Complainant in her statement indicated that she called three separate times. The Complainant's first call at 23:07:27, (JECC times are used throughout the fmdings by the Board) stated that there was a large fight, someone was hurt and "they have guns." Many of the responding officers searched the area looking for suspects with guns. No weapons were found and no arrests were made that night. The Complainant had direct contact with four officers. Of the four officers near the Complainant, only one officer's (Officer A) audio unit appeared to malfunction, however their conversation was recorded by Officer B. The Complainant was charged with Disorderly House and a warrant was obtained through a Judge. The Complainant filed a complaint with the PCRB alleging improper actions and false reports by Officers A, B, and C, relating to the disturbance and fight at The Saddlebrook Clubhouse and the follow -up investigation by Officer D. hJ CV Y _ �J ALLEGATION #1 Officers did not respond in a timely manner after her 911 calls for assistance. Complainant asserts that officers arrived almost 20 minutes after the shift change of 11:00pm. The first call to JECC was noted at 23:05:41 and not dispatched until 23:09:22 and first officer was logged arriving at 23:12:42. The Board notes the lag time between 23:05.41 and 23:09:22 is a concern, however this is not under the control of the Iowa City Police. Once the officers were dispatched it was only approximately 3:20 until arrival. Even from 23:05:41 it was less than the 20 minutes alleged. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #2 No audio /video from in -car cameras from responding officers. Video and audio was available from most officers. One officer who had contact with the complainant had audio problems, but another officer in the vicinity was able to record for the both of them. Some officers who responded were in unmarked vehicles and did not have the capability to record video or audio. The Complainant was unfortunately led to believe, by her attorney, that there were no in -car recorders being operated by officers that night. The attorney representing the City advised the Complainant's attorney that he could request copies of recordings from the Iowa City Police Department. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #3 Officers made untrue statements in the submitted written reports. The three officers who had contact with the Complainant that evening wrote reports. All three reports matched the audio portions of their contacts. The Complainant felt statements were made in retaliation for stating she was going to call the Chief that night. Further written statements made by officers that the Complainant felt were inaccurate will be addressed individually later. = — NOT SUSTAINED _t 4 `J ALLEGATION #4 Improper conduct/treatment by responding officers during interaction with her. After reviewing audio tapes and talking with the officers involved the Board found the Chiefs findings were reasonable. During contact with the Complainant one officer had to ask the Complainant to let him finish with his comments and that he was not going to talk over her. This was not presented in an offensive tone or attitude. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #5 The Complainant stated that Officer C was untruthful in telling her that three guns had been recovered. Although not recorded, Officer C denied ever telling Complainant that guns had been recovered He believes there must have been some miscommunication when they discussed the presence of guns during the incident During the initial 911 call from the Complainant, she stated guns were involved NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION 96 Officer C made false statements in his report. The report stated the Complainant used profanity when referring to the Cedar Rapids juveniles and was more interested in cleaning up the mess in the clubhouse than speaking with officers. When reviewing the video and audio portions of the initial units arriving at the scene, the Complainant is observed running to the police vehicle pointing the vehicles leaving and using profanity. Comments written by Officer C in his report of the Complainant being more concerned with the cleaning of the clubhouse and her overall demeanor were based upon his observations and his opinion based upon her behavior. NOT SUSTAINED r� l�� ALLEGATION #7 Officer C inquired of her personal information while a possible suspect was seated in the back of the patrol car and overheard the conversation. When asked about logging personal information about the Complainant while inside the car with the juvenile in the back seat, Officer C conceded that he could have handled it differently. The Board understands the Complainant's discomfort, however there is no violation of police policy or regulation. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #8 Not being told by Officer C that she was going to be charged with Disorderly House and questioned why a warrant was issued for her arrest. Officer C reported that it was not until a few days later when he completed his investigation that he believed a charge was appropriate for Disorderly House. He applied for an arrest warrant which was reviewed and signed by a District Court Judge after determining probable cause existed There is no policy violation in obtaining an arrest warrant. Officer C stated there was no malicious intent on his part in obtaining the warrant. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION 99 Officer C called A &M Management apprising them of the damage and telling them that he was going to charge the Complainant for the damages. Officer C's report also involved documenting the damage at the Saddlebrook Clubhouse. It is customary for the owner or management to be contacted regarding damages. Officer C advised that he did not tell A &M Management that he was planning to criminally charge the Complainant for the damage. NOT SUSTAINED t..� ALLEGATION # 10 Officer A had made false statements in his report. Report indicated that Complainant had yelled at him and that he made the statement that he was not going to speak with her if she continued to yell. The Complainant asserts this remark was in response to her asking for his name and badge number to report him to the police chief. Officer A advised that during his interview with the Complainant she became upset when she believed officers let a female involved in the fight leave the area. The Complainant interrupted him and he asked her to wait until he was done talking, that he was not going to play the game of talking over her. The audio does portray the Complainant's voice elevated and her statements and tone accusatory. Officer A's voice remains calm. Officer A's impression was the Complainant was yelling at him. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #11 Officer B made false statements in his report that the Complainant made remarks and comments about the police being worthless. Complainant denies making this statement and asserts the officer did this to get back at her since she was calling the chief of police for how she was treated. Officer B's recollections of the comments made by the Complainant were similar to "what good are you, you're good for nothing, and you took too long to get here." Officer B clarified that his use of "worthless" in his report was meant to be a summarization of the Complainant's comments. He advised his only response to the Complainant was "that maybe you should not be out here fighting." It was this comment that Officer B believed prompted the complaint. Officer B denied this was a personal attack or that he used inappropriate language when he spoke with the Complainant. His statement to the Complainant appeared to be neutral (Ad non - inflammatory. ;:Z, NOT SUSTAINED -- ... ALLEGATION 412 Officer D called the Complainant's employer with the intent of getting her fired. Officer D advised he was initially contacted by the Human Resources Vice President of Four Oaks. Officer D advised his first conversation was on 3- 30 -11. During the ICPD investigation it was confirmed that she had contacted Officer D first. The Complainant initially brought up the matter to Four Oaks on 3- 28 -11. The Human Resources VP confirmed that Officer D did nothing to compromise the Complainant's employment. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION # 13 Officer D contacted A &M Management in an effort to get them to file charges and informed them that charges were already pending against her. Officer D advised he first spoke with the officer manager at Saddlebrook on 3- 31 -11. He was told that damage was done to a table, piano bench and piano estimated at $350.00. Officer D advised that when he met with her that the Complainant had already been charged with disorderly house. Officer D advised that there would be no other criminal charges that would be appropriate in this case. The manager was first contacted by Officer C via the after -hours line. She further reported that Officer C said nothing negative about the Complainant, nor did he attempt to influence any complaint of criminal charges against her. She advised she has been contacted in the past after hours by police officer of other issues. NOT SUSTAINED ALLEGATION #14 Officer D interviewed and questioned juveniles at the schools about alcohol and guns without parent consent, a violation of school board policy. In reviewing the policy it is apparent that it was followed by Officer D and school officials. The police department did not receive any complaints from school officials or parents. Police Citizen's Review Board followed -up with the Iowa City School Superintendent who was very emphatic that Iowa City Community School District policy was not violated In follow up the City High School Principal said the police did not violate the policy. The officer asked to speak with the students and the school gave permission. The Principal said the staff did discuss what happened afterwards, and he felt the school had an opportunity to improve how situations like this were handled in the future. The school understood the students who were interviewed were not under investigation or in trouble and the students were being helpful in providing information. There is no violation of state law or policies, procedures and general orders of the Iowa City Police Department in regards to Officer D's follow -up at the schools. NOT SUSTAINED 60 L� ��aJ av U 4' \J IP10 IOWA CITY TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION DRAFT MONDAY, OCTOBER 24,2011--5:30 P.M. CITY CABLE TV OFFICE, 10 S. LINN ST. -TOWER PLACE PARKING FACILITY MEMBERS PRESENT: Laura Bergus, Alexa Homewood, Nolan Klouda, Hans Hoerschelman, Saul Mekies MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Mike Brau, Bob Hardy, Ty Coleman OTHERS PRESENT: Josh Goding, Beth Fisher, Michael McBride, Kevin Hoyland RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL None at this time. SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Goding reported that the PATV's annual membership meeting would be held November 17 at 8 p.m. PATV's mortgage for their building was refinanced at a lower rate. It had been 5.25% and is now 4.5 %. Fisher reported Matt Butler has resigned and taken a job with University Libraries. McBride reported that UITV would be very busy in October. Twenty -one programs are scheduled to be recorded. Hoyland reported that the school channel recorded a forum on Governor Branstad's education reform plan. It is anticipated that installation of new equipment at the new administration building will be complete by the December 6 school board meeting. Hoerschelman reported that he has started a Grouple site, iowacityelecom.com, to serve as a resource to develop information on broadband in Iowa City. He has put the list of questions to be addressed on the site as well as a list of broadband providers. The next task will be to identify speeds and pricing. It is hoped that by next meeting a set of question to ask the community and business can be developed. Hardy said the Commission should discuss the goals and objective of the survey. Hoerschelman said the survey should try and determine if consumers are getting a good value from those providing broadband services, if the city is where it should be with regard to the level of service, and what future needs might be and how to get there. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Bergus moved and Hoerschelman seconded a motion to approve the amended September 26, 2011 minutes. The motion passed unanimously. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF COMMISSIONERS Klouda announced that he would be resigning his position on the Commission effective after the meeting as he has taken a job in Alaska. SHORT PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS None. CONSUMER ISSUES Hardy referred to the complaint report in the meeting packet. All complaints have been resolved. The City Legal Department does not wish to pursue the issue regarding the rights a subscriber has in obtaining what information Mediacom keeps about them. Mekies said that consumers get their issues resolved because the City is available to intervene on their behalf. MEDIACOM REPORT No representative was present. Hardy said Grassley has informed him that Mediacom is interested in working with the City on a consumer service survey. UNIVERSITY OF IOWA REPORT McBride reported that UITV would be very busy in October. Twenty -one programs are scheduled to be recorded. November is not expected to be as busy. KIRKWOOD COMMUNITY COLLEGE A written report was provided. PATV REPORT Goding reported that the next board meeting would be Oct. 27. The annual membership meeting will be held November 17 at 8 p.m. PATV was Hills Bank business of the week and will have a display at the downtown branch. Goding participated in a panel discussion at the ICON Science Fiction convention and discussed the use of public access facilities in the production of independent feature films. The "I Love Iowa City Film Festival" submission deadline has been extended to the end of the week. Judging and screenings will take place November 6 at the Mill. New staff assisted programs include "Talking with Yale Cohn ", "Education Exchange ", "Frame ", and "Sports Beat ". New staff productions include "Live at Prairie Lights ", "The Smartest Iowan ", and "Community Spotlight ". In November PATV will record a symposium on civility in political discourse that will be held at the University of Iowa. PATV's mortgage for their building was refinanced at a lower rate. It had been 5.25% and is now 4.5 %. SENIOR CENTER REPORT Light was unable to attend but provided a written report. LIBRARY REPORT Fisher reported that two author talks were recently recorded. Matt Butler has resigned and taken a job with University Libraries. The deadline for applications is today. A program on the Iowa presidential election caucuses will be carried live November 16. The production will be done by the Community Television Service. ICCSD REPORT Hoyland reported that all the home City High and West High School football games are being cablecast on the school channel. A forum on Governor Branstad's education reform plan was recorded. The schedule of school board meetings may be moved so they are not at the same time as the City of Iowa City Council meetings. Installation of equipment at the new facility is proceeding well. It is anticipated that installation will be complete by the December 6 school board meeting. CITY CHANNEL REPORT Hardy reported that Ty Coleman's position has been upgraded to reflect the additional responsibilities he has assumed. Mary Bryant was hired as the Special Projects Assistant to replace Katie Roche. The video on demand service to be carried on channel 5 is still in development. BROADBANDSURVEY Hoerschelman reported that he has started a Drupal website, iowacityelecom.com, to serve as a resource to develop information on broadband in Iowa City. He has put the list of questions to be addressed on the site as well as a list of broadband providers. Hoerschelman said he found 17 providers in Iowa City, the majority of which are dial -up providers. There is one fixed wireless provider. The next task will be to identify speeds and pricing. It is hoped that by next meeting a set of question to ask the community and businesses can be developed. Hardy said the Commission should discuss the goals and objective of the survey. Hoerschelman said the survey should try and determine if consumers are getting a good value from those providing broadband services, if the is city where it should be with regard to the level of service, and what future needs might be and how to get there. ADJOUNMENT Klouda moved and Bergus seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion was approved unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 6:36. Respectfully submitted, Michael Brau Cable TV Administrative Aide