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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-08-22 Transcription August 22,2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page I August 22,2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd. 4:30 P.M. IC City Council: Wilburn, Elliott, Vanderhoef, Correia, O'Donnell, Champion, Bailey North Liberty City Council: Wilkerson, Wozniak, Kuhl, Bahl Coralville City Council: Fausett, Herwig, Lundell, Weihe JC Board of Supervisors: Harney, Neuzil, Meyers, Sullivan, Stutsman Iowa City School District: Klouda, Leff, Cilek, Fields Others Present: IC City Atty. Dilkes; IC City Clerk Karr; Interim City Mgr. Helling; JCCOG Asst. Transportation Planner Neumann; JCCOG Ex. Director Yapp; IC PCD Director Davidson; Coralville City Adm. Hayworth; NL Asst. City Admin./City Clerk Mulcahey; ICCSC Superintendent Plugge; JC Facilities Director Kempf, JC Sheriff Pulkrabek, CAFE rep. Fisher; JC Attorney Lyness; CVB President Schaumberger; Sierra Club Rep. Baker 3. Presentation on new HHS Buildin2: (Johnson County & Iowa City): Harney/ I would like to note, Ross, this is Dave Kempf. He's our Facilities Director for Johnson County. Wilburn! Okay. Thanks, Dave, for coming down. Kempf/ You bet, and I will keep this short. I'm just going to go through it pretty quickly. If anybody has any questions later on, they can feel free to contact me and I'll be happy to talk to them. Uh, this just real quickly shows a site plan of the, thank you, a site plan of the proposed Health and Human Services Building that we're working on. It's, uh, short version is, it's a 90,000 square foot building, 30,000 per floor, and we are finishing off 60,000 square foot, leaving 30,000 for future expansion. Um, the.. .you can note the entrances into the parking. It's going to be connected to the Administration Building by a skywalk. Um, main entrances will be on the, uh, northwest end of the building. That's the short version. Uh, this just kind of gives you a.. .this is the floor plan of the first two floors that we'd finish that we've gotten broken down. Each color denotes a different County entity, or State entity, as a couple of the cases may be. Um, took quite a bit of work, but we had great support from the different department heads, um, in pulling this all together. So we've moved past that hurdle. This shows the Department of Human Services space, uh, like I said, I'll be.. . feel free to answer any questions later on. I don't want to keep anybody here any longer than. . . um, Veterans' Affairs, Juvenile Probation - this is actually on the east end of the building. They will have their own entrance into their space. They asked for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 2 separated entrance from the main entrance on the building, so they will have a secure entrance coming in at this point that will service their offices. Uh, this is a portion of the Public Health component. This will serve the WIC programs, urn, that type of. . . that type of functions will take place in here. This is the HIV Clinic. It will be located in this portion. Uh, the rest of the Public Health functions will be on second floor, um, second floor that will be the east end of the building, primarily Environmental Specialists and ~dministrative functions will take place up there. This is Mental Health and Developmental Disability, MHDD. They are in the core of the building on second floor. They seem to fit.. . that just seemed to be where they fit. Um, this is G.A., General Assistance, um, they graciously allowed us to place them not next to a window. One of the features that we will have is this common cafeteria space that will stretch out the second floor. There will be kind of a link to service both halves of the building. This wall will be a resin, or colored glass-type structure so it allows the southern light of the building to flow on in to the interior of the building. Should be a real nice, fun space. That would be the Facility Manager's luxury suites (laughter), for those of you who have seen my office, you know! Information Services - our plan is to move, uh, Information Services, which is currently located in the Administration Building, into the new building, give them a little better functional, updated space and it'll also allow us to recapture, uh, square footage within the current Administration Building that we can reprogram, and uh, use for our needs there. The green just kind of denotes, um, the common space, what I call the common space within the building. Some of the, real quick, some of the features that we have. Course this is the long cafeteria space that will have.. .we're going to have a couple large meeting room areas. This one will be a meeting room that'll seat 125 to 150, uh, will be able to divide it in half. Our hopes are to have data projector and all the current, um, technology in that room. We have another one located at this end of the building, which is essentially half the size of this one, which, again, could be split in half. We'll have technologies for both half. Um, we're excited about having some of that space available to the County. Weare kind of short on large meeting room spaces, and if we have large meetings, we have to take them outside, uh, to an outside location, like the Library or Southslope or something like that, and we're excited about having the opportunity to get that. This is just kind of a conceptual drawing that will give you the feel of what it will be like when you walk into the building. This would be coming in the northwest entrance, walking to the south, um, elevators immediately there, stairway going upstairs. This is just kind of a view of looking out across the reception area of the Department of Human Services. Um, this is kind of just what a typical office will look like. All the offices in the building, except for a couple of supervisors' offices are 10 by 12. That enables us to see some efficiencies when weighing out the design of the offices, allows us to move people from one place to another, just makes it a much more functional, usable space. Couple of things to note: we are going to use daylighting. We've got daylighting shelves that'll be in each one ofthe offices. There'll be occupancy sensors and light level sensors, so the lights will only be on if they need to be. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 3 Urn, just kind of gives you a quick look at what one of the offices will be. I'll stay right here so I don't get any phone calls. This is not the furniture that we will be selecting for the.. . (laughter). I skipped over one.. .go back. Um, in the building, instead of having rooms that are storage rooms, work rooms, what we've done is we've taken advantage of some of our large hallways that we've had and we've taken that workspace and stretched it out along the hallways. We have various locations throughout the building to have these 24-foot long banks of, you know, universal workspace. It'll be storage, it'll be cabinets, um, mail slots. Some of the cabinetry countertop will be removed and that's where your standup coffee machines will go. What it does is it just enables it to get it out into the building, into the circulation of the building, and uh, so you don't have people who are crammed in to a space sorting mail and stuff like that. We want to get it out, we wanted to make it as friendly a space as possible. And now I seem to be going the wrong directiop. Um, this just is conceptual to give you a feeling of what that cafeteria space will feel like on the second floor, as you're looking out to the south, we'll hopefully have a combination of soft seating and table seating, just a very pleasant environment. This is just kind of what a view will look like coming out of our Nutrition Center, which is where we'll have microwaves, refrigerators, um, things like that will be in a room so we can have the proper exhaust that's needed so we can get the smells out of the building in this area, and then people would come out into this space and have their lunch or have their break period. Um, this is just a real quick view of the, the east.. .uh, east end of the building. What this is, there's.. .to show you the daylighting practices that we're going to use. We've got vertical shading because of the orientation of the sun during them summer. We need to have shading to kept the UV rays out, to keep the solar gain down. We've got them in winter months - it allows us to get as much light into the building as possible. This is how the building is shaping up to look like. It's essentially a 90 by 300 foot building. We're breaking it up by using these large banks of windows so we don't have, aren't overwhelmed by the size of the building. Here are daylighting shelves will be on all the windows, plus larger units will be on the bank, large banks of windows that face, uh, to the south, and also on the north. This just kind of gives you a conceptual view of what those daylighting shelves will looks like on the exterior of the building. We're going to use the same size of brick, same style of brick, colorization so it ties in with the Administration Building, and uh, that's the short version of it. I couldn't talk any faster, so... Elliott/ Are all of the offices going to be permanent.. .permanently built, or do you have some plans for temporary? (unable to hear response) Wilburn! I think we need you to move closer to the microphone. (unable to hear response) Closer to the microphone... Kempf/ I'm sorry, I don't. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 4 Wilburn! That's all right. Kempf/ ... urn, some of, limited amount of this space will be using modular furniture and stuff, but for the most part we're going to use fixed walls, um, the construction plan that we're going to use though is a continuous ceiling grid that brings the wall up to the ceiling, allowing the space above the ceiling to be open, which does allow.. .it's much easier if we have to come in and move walls, but all the offices are the same size. So, hopefully, we're not going to have to renovate a whole lot of space in there. As the different departments ebb and flow in size, we'll be able to just reallocate those office spaces, because if everything you had fit in this office, it's going to fit in this office when we go to move it. Elliott! It's just that usually in a situation like that you run into, uh, over the years, having different numbers of offices, different designs, different sizes, different locations, and it certainly helps if they're going to be able to be changed. Kempf/ We'll be able to change the amount of space that's allocated to the different departments. Um, but we've been, um, very clear up front that all the offices are the same size, and they're all the same size for the same.. . same reason, so that's.. .we do have a couple Directors' offices that are essentially double offices, but all the offices in the building are 10 by 12, and... Elliott/ Thanks! Kempf/ ... then within those spaces we have small meeting rooms and stuff that they can use for whatever functions. Bailey/ You're using a lot of natural lighting features. Whatever green building features are you incorporating into this? Kempf/ Um, we're.. .we're really trying to take a good sustainable design approach to this, um, if you look. . .if I had a little bit more time I could show you. Like one of the building features that we're doing, all the windows, the walls.. .the windows, instead of being in the center of the wall in the office, they're all off to one side, connected to the wall. That enables us to take one window opening and service two offices. Um, the number of.. .the number of openings in your building envelope now is cut in half by doing that. The less material you use. The more money that you save. By using the continuous wall, or the continuous ceiling gird design, bringing the walls up to meet the ceilings and allow it to be open, um, reduces the amount of materials that you need to use to build it. Um, we, um, it's money savings there. We're partnering with the White Group out of Minneapolis, which is connected with Mid America. They're working with Novak Design Group and on our HV AC systems within the buildings, they're going to come up with selections of options for us, you know, and depending on, you know, the dollar and savings and stuff, we'll weigh the pros and cons of those and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 5 Wilbum/ In the interest of time, 1'11 ask that if you have any further questions, please follow up after the meeting, or later on. Kempf/ I won't be here after the meeting, so I would say feel free to give me a call at the office. I'd be more than happy to take some time, sit down and visit with anybody about it. Wilburn! All right. Thanks for the presentation. Kempf/ You bet. 4. New Bussine (lCCSD): Cilek/ Yeah, we just wanted to put this on the agenda. I think you've probably seen the buses driving around, the new buses. We have a new fleet of buses, a new contract with Durham, and so far, what...I haven't talked to Lane today, but it's (unable to hear person responding; laughter). Wilburn! I'm sorry, Lane, you're not hooked up to a microphone. If you'd like to say something you'll need to come up here. Cilek/ Yeah, why don't you.. .I think that, yeah that's fine. If you have any situations or issues with any of your constituents that come up with the busing, please be sure to let us know, because we've been working really closely, not we but Lane and Paul, and um, they seem to be very amenable to feedback and excited about the new contract, so.. .hopefully it will continue to improve. Plugge/ Yeah, we're at day three. If any of you can do anything about the humidity and the heat, I'd appreciate that. (laughter) Uh, the buses themselves, we had some typical first-day problems, as we always do. Our regular ed routes, we're in good shape with, because those remain the same. We can put children on them. Our Special Ed routes are always more challenging, because of people moving and. having to get them from their neighborhood to a school that may be across town, so.. .uh, certainly we've seen a great deal of improvements. We think we have a great management team working with, and certainly the phone calls that we've had, really the first week I spent on the phone talking about busing last week, or last year, that's not the case now. Cilek/ I don't think we have any more students actually telling the bus drivers where to go. (laughter) Plugge/ We actually have enough drivers. That's was one of the problems before. We did not have enough drivers. We have enough drivers. Seven of them still are This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 6 going through the qualifying status. You brought me down here just so I could get by the cookies, right? Cilekl Right. (laughter) Thank you. 5. Proposed ioint firin2: ran2:e (Iowa City): Wilburn/ I presume this is basically an update that.. .uh, not at the proposed site. I don't see anyone from law enforcement here, but you've probably.. . (several talking at once). Lonnie, would you like to...is that a correct assumption that, uh, not at the proposed site? And you'll have to come forward to a microphone, otherwise you can say yes and.. . okay, no, that's fine. Whatever you'd like, but you need to say it to a microphone. Pulkrabek! It's no secret. There is a need for a firing range. Cedar Rapids' range... we are scheduled actually for this fall, but there is no guarantee that the Sheriff's Office will have the ability to use the range next year, and so there is a need for all of the area law enforcement agencies, and this is a local issue that, that all of us have a responsibility to make sure that we meet the State guidelines of training our police officers, and shooting twice a year is a necessity, so we will continue looking for a site, but urn, really, Chief Hargadine is kind of on the point on this, and I wasn't prepared to talk about this issue today. Wilburn! And that's why 1. . . what I meant was there's no one from Iowa City law enforcement here, since Iowa City had this item on, so thank you for.. .uh, coming forward. 6. Local control of smoke free ordinances (Coralville): Wilburn! Who's going to speak to that? Lundell/ I think I am, Ross. Wilburn! Okay. Lundell/ Um, I think we all, at least the County and the local governments have perhaps by now been approached by the local Cafe organizations in support of smoke-free businesses and so forth, and they are asking each of us to go on record as supporting a resolution that encourages our State Legislature to allow the local control of smoking in our communities and in the County, and um, we thought that it would be just perhaps useful to put this on the table and see if we can reach a consensus here to start with, that we are in support of this. Um, I think there are a couple representatives, at least two or three, of Cafe here, if people would like to hear from them. Wilburn! I guess I just have a question about, uh, what's the intent of asking the final resolution that this, uh, policy statement be included as an appendix to the City's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 7 Administrative Code. What's the desired effect of that? Would someone from Cafe please... Lundell/ That's their language, not ours. I don't know if... Wilburn! Just go up to the podium up there. Lundell/ While Eileen is making her way up there I suspect, Mayor, that some of this language can be adopted, or adapted or changed. Wilburn! I understand. I was just kind of curious what the.. .what the desired impact of having included the, in the City's Administrative Code. Fisher/ This is language that was adopted by the Statewide Coalition because they're asking the local coalitions, all across the state, to adopt this resolution, or to support local controls. So, I'm not sure really what the purpose of.. .ofhaving it as an appendix to the City's Administrative Code is. I think the intent is just to show our Legislators that the cities and counties ofIowa want. . . support local control. So... Wilburn! Okay. Fisher/ ...I don't really see any, uh, particular significance to that last sentence, other than that. Wilburn! Okay. Fisher/ ... want the cities to show that they support local control, whether or not they would, uh, you know, pass a resolution if they had that local control, but they support having the.. .the cities at least have the ability to do that. Wilburn! Okay. Thank you, Eileen. Elliott/ Did we decide at the North Liberty meeting informally that the various communities would go together on no smoking? Did we have an informal survey on that? Wilburn! Um, I think, um, my recollection was just to check to see who would be.. .who's willing to, uh, it wasn't necessarily a resolution, but who's willing to proceed with trying to lobby, encourage the State to take it up again. Elliott/ In other words, I would never be in favor of Iowa City alone doing it, but if Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty would do it, then.. . and I think this is a good group to just informally see.. .can we work together on that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 8 Wilburn! Someone from.. . anyone? Any thoughts... N euzil/ I think that was the intent of it, and of course first things first. We have to have the Iowa Legislature to allow local communities to actually make this kind of decision, which is very much a local issue. It'd be a good start. V anderhoef/ Well, I certainly see the... the County as being part of that community, shall we say, so, and I suspect that that might be the more difficult, uh... Neuzil/ Well, again, we would have, potentially anyway, some jurisdiction. Our understanding is, is that if the County did pass a particular ordinance and a city disagreed, a city could override us. That's our understanding, so.. . you know, we wouldn't necessarily have final control over Solon, North Liberty or anywhere else that's an incorporated city. We'd have jurisdiction over a non-incorporated. Vanderhoefl So it would be an opt-out situation though, rather than a... Neuzil! That's how we were informed.. .at least a year ago on... Vanderhoef/ Okay, that's good to know. I wasn't aware of that. Wilburn! But as you were saying, Terrance, this resolution basically just says give, allow local control or decision to be made. All right. Vanderhoef/ Certainly I can support local control, uh, from my perspective. I can't speak for my whole Council, so I'm just one person sitting here. Harney/ This is on our Board agenda for tomorrow to discuss. Wilburn! Okay. O'Donnelll Well, Iowa City's already tried this, and we were told we couldn't be more restrictive than they are at the state level, so if this is a matter of just encouraging our Legislators to.. .to change what they've not changed at this point, I think that's the only thing we have to agree on right now. Wilburn! And I think that, uh, we. . . the City of Iowa City, included it as part of our Legislative interest... this is just a request we don't want to put in the form of a resolution to have the same intact, and 1. . .I would be in support of that; I suspect a majority ofIowa City may be. Lundell/ We'll certainly discuss it in Coralville too. Wilburn! Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 9 Vanderhoef/ North Liberty? Wilkerson! I'm sure we will also. (laughter) Yes, I'm speaking for us. Yes', I'm sure we will also. Vanderhoef/ Just want to be sure to hear from you folks, too! (laughter) Bahl/ Well, I personally think that any time you promote local control over these type of ordinances, it's better. 1...1 think all of us have this chafing when we hear somebody from Des Moines trying to tell us how we should be running our own cities, and.. . and this is certainly a situation where I think we could handle this ourselves. Wilburn! Okay. 7. SEATS/Secondary Roads Facility (Johnson County): Neuzil! This is an issue where the Board of Supervisors is moving forward with a new facility for our SEATS and Secondary Roads. This would be two different facilities. One would be administrative office. The other would be a garage facility for the SEATS para-transit buses, as well. The location has been determined to be at Secondary Roads, which is on Melrose Avenue, or across from Chatham Oaks. Site has been located. In addition, the idea would be a collaboration with both departments, the SEATS facility and also the Secondary Roads, the shared services would include some administrative function, the potential of maintenance that could be used, of course fiber optics, radio towers, and a fuel station, as well, could all be located at that particular site. In addition, we are looking at a number of green initiatives. This particular facility would include geothermal, some dual heat pumps, light sensors, lighting efficient windows, water efficiency, etc., so this is going to be a very green building, as well. Will be going out for bid mid-September. We do have some initial designs, as far as this project. Neumann Monson Architects is working with us on this, and right now the total cost projected is between $1.6 and $1.8 million. 8. Treatment Court (Janet Lyness) Presentation (Iowa City): Wilburn! Is Janet here? Oh, there she is. Lyness/ (laughter and several talking) Um, the whole treatment court idea came about because we've seen our prisons in Iowa become increasingly filled with people who have substance abuse problems who are committing crimes, who are getting sentenced to long terms of imprisonment because of substance abuse issues. Also, we've seen where mental health issues, and you've probably seen even in the national news, where we have a lot of people who previously maybe were institutionalized. As we got rid of the institutions, we really didn't come up with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 10 good, local alternatives for them. They end up being back into the prison system, because it's kind of the place oflast resort, where we can't refuse them. The idea of a drug court is really what came about first, which was the idea of having a really intensive program where you are dealing with people with very serious substance abuse problems, who are going to be in prison or are going to prison. We put them in a very strict kind of regiment, and we really work as kind of a team approach, so we have a judge who's involved with it, we have a probation officer, we have somebody from the treatment program, substance abuse treatment, we have a prosecutor and we have a defense attorney, all working together as a team, and the individual who is selected to go, to get into the drug court because they've been convicted of a crime that involves drugs or involves a crime that occurred because of their bad substance abuse problem, or in our case what we're developing in the 6th Judicial District, it may be a substance abuse problem that's very clearly related to a mental health issue, as well. That we put them into.. .that the judge basically sentences them to the drug court, or what we're going to call a treatment court, and then they're going to have to meet regularly, like weekly initially, with this whole team as the court, and the judge will have the authority if somebody is supposed to be meeting with their substance abuse counselor and they're not, there could be a consequence as much as going to jail. If they're not doing that, it could be some other consequence, of doing community service, things like that, but it's a very rigid, structured program where in the first approximately month, maybe a little bit longer for a lot of people to get through it, people are going to be monitored very closely on a day- to-day basis with their probation officer. They're going to be meeting with treatment people. Weare hiring, and the reason we call it treatment court is that we have, as part of our team, somebody hired just to do mental health issues and mental health treatment. So they're going to be part of this team, as well. So we'll meet with them, set out a real strict plan. This is what, you know, where you have to go for your treatment for substance abuse. This is who you have to meet with for getting referrals, or for mental health issues. This is what you have to do as far as getting ajob, if you don't have one. This is who you're allowed to live with, who you're not allowed to live with. Very, very structured program. Um, it's set in phases, so the first phase is extremely intensive, where people are going to be meeting weekly with the court, or this treatment.. .the whole team. As they go further along in the program and are successfully completing each stage, they'll have less time that they have to meet with the court, and maybe every week or monthly or quarterly, and there'll be different requirements at each stage. The whole goal of it though is that we're keeping people out of prison. We're dealing with substance abuse treatment. We're dealing with mental health issues. We're getting them to be productive members of society, and if they have, you know, failures - they start drinking again, they start using again, maybe we can do something less than send them to prison, but we can get them into an inpatient program for a few days. Maybe they're, you know, hanging out with the wrong crowd, that's always getting them into trouble. We can get them some kind of a smaller sanction, but something that's immediate, because kind of the findings This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 11 that they have in the Correctional Services area is you really want to deal with people immediately. If they've done something wrong, give them consequences right away. Having the team approach, they really feel like is a lot of people working for them, is something that's also been very successful. We are the last judicial district in Iowa to have a treatment court. Uh, it used to be, several years ago, there was a lot of federal money for starting a drug court or something like this. That's gone. It's been gone for several years. So last year we worked very hard in lobbing the Legislature, and I appreciate all of your help in doing that, and we're allocated funds to the Department of Correctional Services to start a program in Linn County, as well as in Johnson County. The Linn County program, we agreed, they could start first, and they are starting actually in the next few days. So within the next couple of weeks they should have their first referrals, their first meetings within a couple of weeks. We agreed we'd start ours in January, so we're going to get all the kinks worked out in Linn County, and then in January we'll run smoothly, we're sure of it! Um, our... we're awaiting, I'm not sure which District Court Judge is going to be assigned, but it's going to be the same judge every week. We're going to have.. .I've allocated and said one particular prosecutor is going to be working with the drug court. The Department of Correctional Service has hired away from MECCA, who we were a little upset about because she did our jail alternative programs, substance.. .or she did our substance abuse evaluations at the jail, but they hired her away to work in the drug court. So...I forgave the Department of Correctional Services for stealing her, but she's been coming to the meetings for the last year and a half. She's gong to be working in both Linn and Johnson counties. I'm not sure who has been hired for the treatment person, but they were working on doing that, and were working then on hiring a defense attorney for it, as well. So we're really excited about it. It's kind of, feels like it's the right thing to do. We're going to deal with people's problems. We're not just warehousing them in prison. Our goal is to really get people who would otherwise spending lots and lots of money housing them in prison back into the community being productive members. It's something we're excited about. One thing I'll just put in is that there's been a lot of talk about wanting to try and do something more in this area in the juvenile system, and that's something I think we can look at, but that takes a lot of resources, more judges, more prosecutors, more probation officers, um, so it's just something that...down the road you may hear about in the future, but at this time we're really excited about January, um, coming and getting things going. Do you have any questions? Elliott! Janet, you didn't mention it, but I hope you're planning for longitudinal data for accountability purposes. Lyness! Yes! Yes, we're definitely going to be doing that. I mean, the studies, and what we've talked to when we've talked to other programs around the State, their success rate of people going into the treatment court is anywhere usually from 60 to 80%. So, you know, if you put somebody in there, it's...it is, it's an intensive This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 12 program and it took us getting an allocation from the State to do it, but getting somebody into a program for 18 months is going to be a lot cheaper than housing them for 10, 15, 20 years in prison, and likelihood of committing more crimes when they get out, being no better off, not really having the skills they have, but, yeah, we will definitely be monitoring that. So... Pulkrabek! Janet, this will have impact on the County Jail, as well, not just prisons, correct? Lyness/ Right, and I think, you know, one of those things like people who are going to be going into the treatment court are going to be people who are really looking at prison time, but one of the things that I think we'll probably see a pretty quick impact on the jail is that people who may be waiting for probation revocation, who might be going to prison, we could put them into the program, as well, and they're likely to agree to that quicker than sitting for three months until they have their. . .or two months, until they have their probation revocation hearing, and then maybe get some Contempt time, maybe have more time in jail, or just be sent to prison then. So, we think that will expedite it, plus people who are going to be sentenced, if right now they're looking at they're going to be going to prison, why not wait until we have a trial, continue it as long as possible, stay in the community, in the jail before you actually have your trial- I think we're going to get more people who are going to plead early because they want to get into this program and recognize that this is a way of really trying to get their lives turned around. So, we may have.. .we will have some people sentenced to jail as a consequence of not following the rules in drug court, so we will use jail as a.. .as a punishment, like a Contempt time, if they aren't following the rules and things like that. Our hope is that we won't have to be putting a lot of people in jail for that, that they'll be able to get with the program pretty quickly, and that's part of the reason for meeting with them weekly, when they start, is it's kind oflike, yeah, we're really serious about this, we don't want you in jail, but you have to follow all the rules. So... . Vanderhoef/ Janet, can you, uh, talk a little bit about how the support services, if the judge rules that they have to do certain things, number one, can they afford to pay it, and number two, if they can't afford to pay it, what.. .what resources are there to make sure there's a place for them to get their treatment. Lyness/ Right, and we've been looking at all of that and making sure that they get hooked up with any kind of services, or whether we have to get them hooked up. If it's a mental health thing, getting them to Community Mental Health, getting them hooked up with MHDD to make sure that they can get any funding they need. If it's through...ifit's substance abuse, MECCA has a sliding scale. We'll work on trying to get that paid. I mean, that's one of the things they are going to have to pay for the treatment, but we have.. .the person who's really kind of in charge of the program, that's part of their job is to make sure this person has the resources This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 13 to get into the programs, because we don't want somebody to get into it and they then can't get to the treatment because they can't afford it. We'll make sure that there's.. .we're working with agencies that have sliding scales, and we'll figure out ways of getting it paid. I mean, that's going to be.. .we'll continue to monitor that, but that's part of the funding that we have, as well, from the Department of Correctional Services. Bailey/ And we're assuming that we have the capacity for treatment in our County? Lyness/ Yes, yes, and actually, like the person that they hired away from MECCA who's been doing our substance abuse evaluations has been going to the meeting for the last year and a half, so MECCA's been working very closely in all of the planning, and making sure that we will be able to get people into treatment programs for substance abuse. Um, the Department of Correctional Services actually in the process of building a facility for mental health within the Department of Correctional Services, so that's going to be a resource when that is actually completed, too. Um, I mention they stole Mindy Lamb from Johnson County to run that (laughter).. .that will be a really good resource too, but working with any kind of mental health providers too. That's the one area that we haven't had somebody consistently involved in our meetings, and in the next few months as we are getting the Johnson County program really going, we'll be working more with local providers. Wilburn/ Thank you, Janet. Sounds like, uh, it's good that you are getting into this, and for those of you who don't know, Janet has a history of being willing to consider alternatives. I was reflecting back on alternative to.. .in-home detention alternatives to youth detention 15,18 years ago with you. So... Lyness/ Good memory! Wilburn/ There you go! Thank you. Lyness/ Okay, thanks! 9. Add'l Elementarv School Site needed - Van Allen enrollment (ICCSD): Cilekl We just wanted to make everyone aware of the fact that we still are just busting at the seams in the north corridor, and still looking for a site to build a new school, as soon as possible. Um, we are putting two new temporary classrooms - two, right? In VanAllen already, already full, and there is no space to move any of those students to any of the other.. .Penn, Wickham, um, all of those, Coralville, Kirkwood, all those schools are what we now call our "hot spots" in terms of overcrowding, and only growing, so we're looking at alternative.. ..we're going to have to probably do something as early as next year. Hopefully tentative.. . temporarily, but we still desperately are searching and we've got a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 14 couple places, alternative places, we're looking at now. So, Lane would be the contact person for that. Anything else? O'Donnell/ Want to come down and get another cookie, Lane? (laughter) Anything else, Lane, that you wanted to mention about that? Okay. 10. Joint Communications Center (Johnson County): Harney/ I'll touch on that one. First I want to compliment Jeff Davidson and Regenia Bailey. I know Jeff's been Coordinator for Johnson County COG and Regenia's been Chair of this committee since we appointed that, and they've really kept this moving and on track. There's a lot of ground to cover, lot of details, and it's been working very well. First we went through a site selection, and then went through several selection locations that we did, and that came down to a site selection up next to the Iowa City Water Plant on north Dubuque Street. We're getting some property from the City there, we're going to be building a facility at that location. Um, we've gone through a lot of process in looking for architects to design the facility. We have.. .we're still negotiating those contracts, but we have narrowed those and hopefully they will meet the criteria. If they don't, we'll move on to someone else, but right now we're working with Neumann Monson for the building design, and then we'll also be working with Alert Associates out of Stillwater, Minnesota. They're radio system design consultants and there is none in Iowa that we could utilize, so we're using a firm out of Minnesota, provided a deal can be worked out and the contracts negotiated. So we'll be working with those and moving right along. That's our next step in working with that. Um, there's a lot of things we need to do right now. Emergency Management Levy bill was approved by the Legislature this last year, which allows counties to, um, institute a levy under Emergency Management to support the operation and building of a communication center, combined communication center. Um, in that we have to have a 28E agreement between the Communications Commission that we would be developing, and with Emergency Management, and these...it gets kind of complicated because we need to get this Commission.. .we need to have a Director in order to get this 28E agreement going, and we run into some time lines with that 28E agreement because we need to get that in place, get these commissions in place, get the 28E agreement, then we have to decide how much money this facility is actually going to cost, you know, we have a general idea, but in order to institute a levy, we need to have that laid out in order to get that on the next year's budget, when we start our budget process here come December we'll be working on that, and we'll have to have that approved in April. So that means we need to have some type of an idea what that levy should be to provide the dollars for building that facility, if we're going to do that in our 2009 budget fiscal year. Ifwe don't get that done within this next year, that puts it back another year and we certainly don't want that to happen if we can avoid it. The money that's actually being put into the facility between Iowa City and Johnson County, I think we're each putting.. .Johnson County is putting in about $800,000 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 15 and the City is nearly a million. With that money actually comes off the tax rolls and would roll back in with this emergency levy, off the Emergency Management. The advantage of doing the Emergency Management Levy is it spreads that cost throughout the county and the townships, fire trucks and so forth, they don't have ways of providing dollars to buy their radio equipment and so forth... that's furnished under this, this levy, so all of those would be furnished, their proper equipment and their radio communications and so forth, so that all comes under one. Got so many projects going on it sounds like a lot of dollars, but hopefully that'll level out. It's not necessarily going to be a cost savings, but it's going to be better communication for all the emergency services in the county. It creates some problems for the local agencies, such as Iowa City Police, uh, Johnson County Sheriffs Department. Once this communication center.. .individuals move to the communication center, they need to have someone at the front doors to meet the public that might be coming in for emergency situations and coming in for routine business. Their.. . or, what do I want to say? Their, um, receptionist at this point when someone comes in, and if they're not there, then they have to have someone in that particular place. We're going to get some options with the Sheriff and we'll be working with him, and the possibility of even moving his booking services downstairs ifsomebody's there. If that would work. If they have space issues and they need space for further operations, as well, so those are things he's going to have to work through and we'll work with him on those. Um, the big thing is now it's very complicated in getting the Commission together and getting the Director hired and so forth, and one step further that we really need to do and that's Board of Supervisors and the communities that's involved in this, given the funds to go this far with this, now it's up to the County and the communities to make that commitment, through their own councils and Board of Supervisors, and say we are going to join together to do this, or we're not going to, and now's the time we have to make that decision. Wilburn! Sure. Thanks for the update. 11. Update on Lh!ht Rail Service (Coralville): Fausett/ Yeah, basically we asked that be put on to give you an update. I have Josh Schaumberger and John Yapp are here from CVB, and John is here also to bring you up to date on that. Josh. . . Schaumberger/ Yep, we're happy to provide an update. Uh, as President of the Convention and Visitors Bureau the last two years, I've also served as Co-Chair for the Cedar Rapids 15 and 5 Project that they launched about three years ago, and I serve as Co-Chair of the Idea No. 15, which was to determine the feasibility of resurrecting light-rail service between the corridor on the Crandic Line, which as some of you may know, ran as a pretty popular mode of transportation up until 1953, when the last train left Cedar Rapids to Iowa City. The rail is still sitting there today, and if you were to put rail between our corridor, as a transportation This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, an<;l School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 16 alternative, you'd put it exactly where it sits today. So, it's a terrific opportunity for the corridor. It's one that really in the corridor we would never even be considering if the track wasn't there and in place, and also not being used. The Crandic is currently serving as a back-up line for Alliant Energy. Their main line runs through Amana. The Crandic is used on an average about an hour a week, between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City. So, we went through, along with Jeff Davidson and JCCOG, 15 and 5 Committee, we went through a year-long study that's available on the JCCOG website, and I'm sure you've seen it, to determine the feasibility, and in fact, the study reported that there is feasibility to implement rail service today. There's enough demand to implement daily commuter service today between North Liberty and Iowa City, without a lot of upgrades to the track. You can get from North Liberty to Iowa City, based on current track speeds, in about 15 minutes on the rail. Uh, and also there's feasibility down the road, not today, to the Eastern Iowa Airport, and then to Cedar Rapids. As part of an ongoing review of this particular rail, and the opportunity, this Saturday we're going to run trains on the Crandic, and the tickets went very fast, within the span of a few days. There'll be over 2,000 corridor residents that are going to ride the Crandic on the Hawkeye Express, thanks to a great partnership with the Iowa Northern Railway, and the Crandic. We're going to leave Iowa City from the University Libraries at 11:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M., and we're going to leave Cedar Rapids from Hawkeye Downs at 9:00 A.M. and 1:00 P.M. Lori has tickets for all of you that I have seen are not currently on the list - we brought those today. So you need to be on this train, because it is for no other purpose than to provide you, and our transportation officials, a real, first-hand look - you can get on and taste and feel the.. .the opportunity, envision where depots are, could be for the future. We're not saying in any way, shape, or form that rail is going to solve all of our long-term transportation needs, but based on the study, it certainly needs to be part of the discussion. It'll cost over $400 million just to put another lane in 380 between our two communities. To upgrade all of the track, procure equipment, signal systems and bridgework, it'll cost $70 million for the rail. So it needs to be part of the discussion. And with that, I know John and Lori, our Communications Director, have done a lot more rail at the state level. Elliott! What's the day and date again? Schaumberger/ It'll be this Saturday, the 25th, two trains. It's three hours roundtrip. And the reason it's three hours is because nothing's been upgraded, and we're... Elliott! And you promise to bring us back? Schaumberger/ I promise to bring you back! (laughter and several talking at once) Yapp/ Thank you, Josh. John Yapp with Johnson County Council of Governments. Um, with the completion of this feasibility study that shows the services feasible.. .we're nearing the point of advocacy for funding for the infrastructure This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 17 upgrades to allow the train to be a little faster, which makes it even more potential for ridership. I wanted to fill you in on some related passenger rail items that are occurring locally and regionally. Uh, there's a lot of excitement for passenger rail potential in the Midwest in general right now. Amtrak is in the middle of a study to bring Amtrak from Chicago, well, it's already from Chicago to Rockford, but from Rockford to Galena, and then to Dubuque. Amtrak is also studying, uh, and they want to get a handle on the specific infrastructure costs for Chicago to the Quad Cities, and then the Quad Cities to Iowa City on the Iowa Interstate Line. There's been Amtrak representatives studying the track, uh, this summer, and as recently as yesterday. Dovetailing with that is the light-rail service between Iowa City and Coralville initially, Iowa City and North Liberty, and then eventually Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. We've recognized some of the infrastructure costs for that, and that currently there is no State funding programs specifically set up for passenger rail infrastructure costs. We've started some of those discussion with Iowa DOT, and in the next month, we'll have a better idea of what kind of funding bill or funding appropriations we might be looking at, asking you to help advocate for with Iowa DOT, and we'll get you that information through both the JCCOG board and this group. Um, there's the issue of other passenger rail services to Dubuque and to the Quad Cities, for example. There will be x-amount of dollars, and while we are cooperating with those cities for advocating for a funding source in general, uh, we hope to be able to access it first. (laughter) Elliott/ Are you going to be presenting information to the representative councils, because without appropriate bus service at either end of the Crandic, it ain't going to work! Yapp/ Yes, that's...Josh? Elliott! And I don't think we've ~iscussed that yet. Yapp/ We haven't gotten to quite that point yet, but yes. Schaumberger/ I believe Jeff Davidson did give a recap of the feasibility study some time in winter, or spring. Is that correct, Regenia? Um, to the Iowa City Council, but you're right. Cedar Rapids has significant challenges because they're not as centrally employment based as we are down here. It's likewise at Amana Colonies. It's not set up for commuter service out there because they have absolutely no public transit system. The report identifies opportunities not only for connection to inter-modal facilities, like Coralville's, which has a stop. Also, when you all years ago, when you designed the bridge there by the V.A., it's designed with a rail platform. That could serve as a depot today. Uh' all.. .those are identified in the study. Also what's called transit-oriented developments are identified in the study, and there's a perfect transit-oriented development opportunity here, down in the City Carton area, which is something that needs to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 18 be reviewed when you look at residential planning. Transit-oriented development is a livable community that can utilize rail as their mode of transportation. Fausett! You might want to tell them, Josh, where they can board the train Saturday. Schaumberger/ You can board the train at the University of Iowa Library parking lot. We're going to board on the east end. The train is going to be pretty, uh, fantastic to see coming into Iowa City. It's freshly painted - has a brand new black and gold coat. All the cars are painted, and it'll be pretty sharp to see it coming in on the Crandic, which is a different line than it normally sits on. That's the Iowa Interstate Railroad, but to see it coming in on the Crandic and to have it come right over the bridge there at, um, Iowa Ave with the dome in the background'll be pretty sharp! So, if you're not going to ride it, just come see it pull in! It should arrive about, what time, Lori, about 10:30 on Saturday, it'll arrive from Cedar Rapids, and then we'll load at 11 :00 and go back north and then come back a couple more times. O'Donnelll When did you say that the, um, train made its last run? Did you say in 1953? Schaumberger/1953. And it was actually one of the preferred, popular modes of transportation back and forth. Leff/ I'm perhaps the only person in this room that actually rode it, and it was nicknamed the "Vomit Comet." (laughter and several talking at once) Schaumberger/ Sure was, and Mike, it has to.. .there's speed ordinance and zones on the rail right now, which is why it takes three hours. The fastest we're ever going to get up to on Saturday is 22 miles per hour. For the most part we're going to be about 10 miles per hour. O'Donnell/ That's just really exciting! (laughter) Schaumberger/ Ifwe get it upgraded to Class 3 standards, we'll move to 55 mile an hour speed. Wilburn! Any other questions? All right. Thank you, and thank you all for your work. Elliott! I'd forgotten about that, Jan. I remember that. O'Donnell/ I heard that...I heard that before! 12. Animal Control (Johnson County): Wilburn! Someone from the County ask for this? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 19 Stutsman! Well, we did put it on. (laughter) Wilbum/ Does that mean next, or. . . Stutsman! And basically what we wanted to talk about is that Johnson County has made some changes in our policies concerning animal control. Previously we took responsibility for all animals in the County, and brought them into the Iowa City animal center, and now we're saying that we are just going to be responsible for the animals in the unincorporated area, and the individual cities are going to have to assume responsibility, and cost, for their animals. So that is basically what the. . . the big change, that is, and we've talked to all the smaller cities and informed them of that so that they could plan that in their budget. Our cost for our animals in the rural areas is just escalating, and so this was, um, a chance for us to try and get some handle on that and evaluate where we're at. Lundell/ Will those small towns still call the Sheriffs Department, except that there'll be a charge for it, or who will do it for the small towns? Stutsman! Well, we're assuming, or hoping, that they will assume that responsibility themselves, and a lot of times what happens is that individuals take the animals in to the shelter, and now they will track where the animal came from and bill accordingly. Pulkrabek! The Sheriffs Office doesn't transport any animals, just for your information. We're not properly equipped, trained, etc., so what we've done in the past is exactly what Sally said. Harney/ And actually what they were saying is the small incorporated communities will have to do their own contracting with the Iowa City Animal Control, or with a veterinary clinic or whatever to take care of their animals. It's not the responsibility of the County to take care of incorporated communities. The others we, unincorporated we will do as we have done in the past. We also are in the process of writing an animal ordinance for the County. Looking for input in that, uh, Lonnie's got some ideas, Mike Sullivan's been working on that for us. He's off for a couple weeks yet and then he'll be back, but we're looking at doing that, and controlling vicious animals and some of the other animals that are coming into the area, as well. Exotic animals, I guess basically what they call that, and whether people know it or not, uh, counties in Iowa have, are becoming pet factories. It was, they were in Missouri very strong before Missouri did some legislation and changed that. It's very difficult for a pet factory to be in place down there, so I think it's time we really take a look at it, as well. Kuhl/ Tracy Mulcahey, our Acting City Administrator, I see is in the audience and she is writing a vicious animal ordinance, and that is on our agenda for next Tuesday night. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 20 Stutsman! We may want to see a copy of that, because we're going to get Linn County's and.. .it's not an easy ordinance to write, so any... Kuhl/ I think Tracy said ours is coming from Washington or Oregon? Washington she tells me. Pulkrabek! And I think that may be similar to what Misha Goodman was speaking about, because Linn County's policy, according to Misha, is not really a good policy. They've had some difficulties with enforcement for multiple reasons, and.. . and so one of the things that, this week actually sent out an email and talked to some people about is adopting a standardized vicious animal ordinance. By standardized I mean countywide, where all the individual cities adopt it, as well as the County. One of the things that has come up recently is the fact that ifthere is an animal bite, um, that is reported, ifit's off-hours, at least what happens out in the County, is the Sheriff s Office will go and take an animal bite report, an initial report, and have the person sign a confinement agreement and sort of investigate it to see if the animal has its rabies shots and is current in that way, and then that's forwarded to the Johnson County Health Department, and I had a conversation with Director Wilmoth who is here today to talk about.. .what is unfortunate is if you have an animal that commits multiple bites, really the Health Department is the only ones that knows there's multiple bites, but there's no mechanism to deal with that animal, which I guess I wasn't clear on, didn't understand, so if we have a dog that is out there actively bit two to three times, there's not really a good legal mechanism to deal with it, and what.. .what Misha explained to me is that a...a good ordinance would actually have different levels, or um, um, levels of naming, you know, what type of animal or what type of action should be taken place on the animal, and so I think Misha will continue working with the County on it, but I guess what I'd like is the cities to actually consider looking at this, as well, and I think Iowa City, ifI'm not mistaken, you guys are in the process of rewriting or working on your animal ordinance, as well. Is that not true? Wilburn! I'm not. . .Dale? (several talking at once) Pulkrabek! Okay, well, I was under... Wilburn! I know that we were getting some type of update from some concern expressed by Council Members, so I don't know if that's part of this. Pulkrabek! Maybe that's what I heard, but anyway, it's something that I think needs to be considered, because, um, and I don't know if you have any questions for Ralph, but he is here as well, with the Health Department, and keep in mind, their main interest, as he explained to me, was just disease related issues, and after that, you know, they're not really involved. So... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 21 Wilburn! All right. Thank you for the update. 13. Trails (Johnson County): Stutsman! Okay, I will talk about this. The County has now a Trails Advisory Committee. They're a very enthusiastic group, and off and running. Janelle Rettig is the Chair of that committee. They have applied for a grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation. The trail that they applied for would be the completion of the trail along Dubuque Street, from West Overlook to North Liberty. So we're hoping that we hear positively that grant application, and they have already started making plans for applying for additional grants for trails. So... Wilburn! That's great! Stutsman! It is great! Wilburn! Yeah, yeah! Very good. 14. Justice Center (Johnson County): Neuzil! This is the discussion that the Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, which is made up of members of the Board of Supervisors along with Sheriff Pulkrabek, our County Attorney Janet Lyness, the court system, City ofIowa City has a representative. A lot of different entities continue to work on identifying our issues with our overcrowded jail. Uh, we've come to a point where we are, have hired a professional, uh, group if you will, who's going to come in and really help us identify the issue of our overcrowded j ail, and provide the Committee a comprehensive justice needs assessment, as well as site evaluations. So the Durant Corporation, if you will, they are the ones that are going to be coming in. Durant is going to be coming in as our consultant. They're going to be providing the, uh, Committee with a number of different areas of concerns that we have. They're going to be providing the Committee with a space needs assessment, justice center facility site evaluations, and then also master planning recommendations, and some of the work has already been started here, even though we're just getting underway. The final product will be done this coming December, but some initial thoughts already brought out has to do first and foremost with kind of the infrastructure or visioning the kind of facility that we're going to need. Again, the Justice Coordinating Committee has determined that we have a need, not only in our jail system, but also in the court system. We're out of space in both ends. So they are looking at first the projections of population, and given that the current projections are showing, well, at least right now we have 118,000 people in our county. We have ajail facility built for 46 inmates, even though we do some double-bunking and things of that nature. By the year 2020, they have the projection of just over 153,000 people for our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 22 county, which would mean we would need a facility roughly the size of about 250 beds, and then the projection of 2030 has a potential anyway of beds of as many as 450. So, right now we're looking at least at a facility that would house 256 beds, just on the jail side of this. That doesn't include a number of other areas that they'll be identifying, including a lot of the operational parts of this project. Also, things like location, size, flexibility, access to service, suitability, availability - I mean, all of those things that we've kind of reached that point in our Committee where we have identified treatments, we have identified alternatives, we have gone through a long list of different areas in which we needed to really, really look at before we came to this point, but we're now to that point where we need this professional look. Um, so we'll also be, they'll be looking at a lot of the programming, particularly for those alternatives. They'll be looking at staffing projections. They'll be looking at incorporating court services within this kind of facility, this justice center, and again, provide professional direction to where we need to go from here. Um, so that's kind of where we are. Uh, if you didn't know, we are really out of space, but because of really, I think, two things have happened. Number one, we've been able to ship prisoners elsewhere. If you didn't know, so far we've spent just over $2.7 million to ship prisoners out of the County to help alleviate the overcrowding part of our jail. Obviously that's an expense that's going to become even harder to swallow. Another real important thing that's happened so far is we've been able to at least (digital recording ends here) Another real important thing that's happened so far is that we've been able to, at least at this point, find space in other communities that have space in their jails. One of the key places for that is Linn County. I talked to Linn County Supervisor, Jim Hauser, today. He warned me, today, that's not going to be available much longer, and when that happens, we are in a very difficult situation, because, again, the State Jail Inspector is not going to allow us to hold prisoners in our current facility, which means we have to ship elsewhere. Ifwe can't find Linn County and we start running out of space like I know Sheriff Pulkrabek has been scrambling, even at times to find space for inmates, we're going to be in a situation where we potentially might even have to look at out-of-state, uh, or at least, you know, 50, 100,200 miles away to house prisoners, which of course the expense is going to go way up. So we're in a situation right now where we're still holding, uh, we're still I think in a situation where we're managing, but it's a situation that's not going to be around much longer, and it's going to become more and more difficult. That's why we're taking this professional approach. By the end of December, we'll have, I think, a real good professional look of where we need to go from here, as far as, again, site, suitability - all of those issues. Elliott/ Terrance, I think it's important for us to point out that it's.. .we're talking about more than just jail. It is a justice center. Wilburn! Okay, thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 23 Harney/ I would note on that, what Terrance was talking about, as far as the Johnson County Courthouse goes, one of the things the study has pointed out already is that there's a lot of stress on that second floor of the courthouse, the weight from all the records in the Clerk of Court, and they're going to have to move some of those. Eventually they'll be using electronic filing will take care of some of those, but for now they're going to have to move some of those. It's a good old building, but it's an old building. (unable to hear, several talking) Wilburn/ Okay, thanks for the update. 15. Cool Cities Initiative (Johnson Countv): Sullivan! We've got a number of people here from the Sierra Club that I think would like to address the group, so.. .you guys want to introduce yourselves. Baker/ My name is Jim Baker. I'm the Conservation Chair for the local Iowa City area group of the Sierra Club. I'm accompanied by Mike Carberry, the Chair of our group. If you're half as hungry as I am, uh, I want to get out of your way really quickly (laughter) so I'm going to be very, very brief, and there's a lot of detail provided in the handouts. I encourage you...if you have colleagues who might want to see a copy or you have staff you want to hand it to, by all means take extras. We have plenty of them. Last year the National Academy of Sciences ended the scientific debate about global warming. It's real, and it's largely man- made, but the Bush administration in its wisdom has failed to act on global warming. Throughout American history when the Feds have dithered, it's fallen to local governments to provide the leadership on crucial civil issues, and that's going to be true of global warming. Nearly 600 local governments across the United States have signed up for the Sierra Club's Cool Cities Program, pledging to reduce greenhouse gases by 7% over the next five years. Weare pleased to.. .that Iowa City, Mayor Wilburn, signed the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement last April, and I would describe the Johnson County Board of Supervisors actively considering doing so, and we respectfully urge, uh, Coralville and North Liberty to get in on the Cool Cities Program. Carbon reductions to prevent and retreat from global warming mainly come in three areas _ fuel efficient vehicles, fuel efficient buildings, and renewable energy sources. In the 600 communities across the United States that have signed up for Cool Cities have been emphasizing those first two energy efficiencies. Well, energy efficiencies, as you know, not only reduce global warming gases, but give government to cut costs, and reduce tax payer burdens over the long term. There are four steps in the Cool Cities Program. First, we ask jurisdictions to sign the U.S. Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement; secondly, to conduct a carbon audit so we know where global warming emissions are coming from in your jurisdiction; three, to write a plan to reduce greenhouse gases; and four, to implement that plan. A couple weeks ago Mike and I had an opportunity to sit down and talk with the Johnson County Board of Supervisors and they tasked us This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 24 to answer two questions for you today. First they were interested in possibilities of jurisdictions going together to conduct the.. . the energy audit, or the global warming audit. Typically jurisdictions are turning to the. .. this is a mouthful.. . the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, the ICLEI, usually pronounced "Ickly." Johnson County was asking whether several jurisdictions, for example, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty might go in together to get that audit done by ICLEI. Uh, I have to tell you no - that's not a possibility. ICLEI asks for two things in order to assist local governments with their local warming audit. The first is to pay dues, and secondly to assign one staff person from the government to serve as the designated liaison with ICLEI. So, if the entire county went together for one big membership, uh, we would have a real problem, I think, finding one staff person to be designated to work with ICLEI. The other question that the Supervisors raised during our discussion was whether a. . . the governments in the, within Johnson County in the Cool Cities Program could come together and appoint a citizens' task force to, uh, shepherd the process toward reducing greenhouse gases. The answer from us is an enthusiastic yes. We think this is a great opportunity to avoid duplication and redundancy, and such a board that is shepherding the process throughout jurisdictions within the county would make for the best qualified and most experienced citizens on that panel. Clearly, I need to stop talking, and give you a chance to go to dinner. We would welcome any questions or discussion. Wilburn! Well, I would just encourage, you know, I know the Supervisors are interested in the task force being formed. I would encourage the other cities to do so, and if there were some overall, um, monitoring group to work with the Committee, then JCCOG might be the appropriate body. I know that, um, we had at an Iowa City Council work session we had a discussion about, there was an interest in seeing what the task force could look like for Iowa City. It makes sense that some of the people that would be serving from the community on that would also be the people in other towns in the county, um, but you know, Iowa City continues to do and implement things that are environmentally friendly, but it would make sense to me to have some type of coordinated effort. Not just for monitoring, you know, the reduction in our carbon emissions and footprint, but also the flip side, the group that I met with was very interested in trying to help educate the public about what it is that we're doing. For example, sometimes, you know, the media and people will pay attention and pick up things like "Iowa City recently purchased six low-rider buses." which, you know, are easier, not only easier for people in wheelchairs to board because it's not a lift. It's just a gradual ramp, but they're the first buses in the State ofIowa that meet the 2007 EP A guidelines in terms of particulate matter emissions by 50%. You know, that was picked up, but something that mayor may not be picked up, just a subtle thing, is that, you know, many of us, our communities do like our allow people to pay their utility bill online, you know, without the paper, but Iowa City's been looking at trying to work with the company that does our online billing to allow people to be billed electronically. You know, that's something that's possibly going to be rolled out This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22,2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board. August 22, 2007 Joint Meeting - County, City, Coralville, N. Liberty, School Bd Page 25 here in October, November, but helping to get the word out, because you know we always get asked by different groups, what are you doing, or a lot of the students will get assignments from their teachers, what are you doing. That is helping save the environment, but uh, you know, education is a big portion of this, uh, in educating the public and getting the public to, uh, to.. .um, do things in their own home, and so I think this type of committee would be helpful. Neuzil/ Ijust wanted to add, for North Liberty, for Coralville, and for the Iowa City Community School District, um, I would certainly encourage you folks to invite the Sierra Club to come in, to give, to have them give you the presentation of what the Cool Cities Initiative is. I'm sure you've seen that through your municipalities or for the schools, again, it's just a good opportunity. I'm sure a lot of the things that are already on the list are things you're doing, and again, the whole idea is if your local governments can find ways for efficiencies for fuel or anything else when it comes to their buildings, their cars, uh, I think the citizenry is going to follow as well, and again, I know you folks are doing a lot of those things. You might as well go and get credit for what you're doing, and then learn from ways we can actually do more to help the environment. So, again, I encourage you to allow the. Sierra Club maybe just to come in, make a presentation during one of your meetings sometime. (male)/ We'd be happy to do that, and I would add to Terrance's list, and save a lot of money! Wilburn/ Very good. Thank you. Well, that's it. (several talking) What's that? We don't have to, unless.. .you're welcome to stay! Karrf Do you want to set another meeting? Wilburn! Uh, that's right. I presume we don't want to meet in December, or do we? (several talking) Coralville's next. Jim, do you have any idea what would work out for Coralville's schedule out there? (several talking) I'm sorry, Jim, what was that? December.. .Jim? December... Fausett! 19th too late? Wilburn/ That's a Wednesday, December 19th. Okay, let's start with that - December 19th, same time. Okay, we are adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the August 22, 2007, Iowa City City Council and Joint Meeting of County, Coralville, North Liberty, and School Board.