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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-09-17 Transcription September 17, 2007 City Council Wark Session Page 1 September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Elliott, O'Donn~ll, Vanderhoef, Wilburn Staff: Dilkes, Karr, Davidson, Helling, Fowler, Logsden, Boothroy, Grier, Hennes, Jensen Other: Volland, UISG Rep; Carole Peterson, UISG PLANNING AND ZONING: Wilburn! Mr. Davidson. Davidson! Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Wilburn! Planning and Zoning items.. .c, d, e and f. Davidson! Yeah, we'll go through a and b tomorrow. c) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE VACATING COURT STREET, WEST OF MADISON STREET AND FRONT STREET, SOUTH OF BURLINGTON STREET (V AC07-00004) (SECOND CONSIDERATION). d) AUTHORIZING CONVEYANCE OF THE VACATED PORTIONS OF COURT STREET WEST OF MADISON STREET, AND FRONT STREET SOUTH OF BURLINGTON STREET TO THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. Davidson! Item c is second consideration of the vacation of one block of. . . urn, one block of Front Street and one block of Court Street, in the vicinity of the... you can see them here. Actually, I'm sorry, it's two blocks of Front Street and one block of Court Street, in the vicinity of where they'll be constructing the new University Recreation Center, and then Item d, urn, should you chose to collapse the readings, which the University has requested, should you chose to do that then Item d is the conveyance of those vacated portions, which you see here. Urn, there's a photograph of the portion of Court Street, and there are the two blocks of Front Street. Any questions? Elliott/ I have no questions on that, but I. . .I think, Eleanor, you'll probably tell me that this needs to be in discussion with another item, but this brings up, I think something that De'e had brought up in the past, and I have been, and Jeff, I believe I talked with you briefly about this, I have long supported that the City needs to cooperate with the University, but in recent months it seems to be a one-way street. When we wanted our property to...for the McCollister Boulevard, we are indebted to pay them somewhere between a half million and three-quarters of a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 2 million dollars, and some other things, and I wonder if it hasn't become a one- way street of us cooperating with them, but when we want something, we get charged for it. And I just thought it needs to be said, and if anyone would like to discuss it at a future session, I think it's worthwhile. Vanderhoef! I certainly will. Wilburn! Okay. Bailey! You see that we have options here? Or are you. . . Elliott! I'm not sure, but I think. . .I think we need to take a look at the recent history of whether or not the University is sharing the load with us. It seems to be that we're carrying a lot - when we want something, we pay for it, and when they want something, we give it to them. Champion! Well, maybe if you trade them the Campus Theatres. They're buying it. (several talking at once) Davidson! Yeah, when Bob mentioned this to me I did have a discussion with the University. Bob mentioned he was likely to raise it at the meeting tonight. Urn, you know, they do see the Mossman Building issue as a apples and oranges kind of a thing. Their feeling on, urn, this type of a vacation is that they've done some of this sort of thing for us. We've done this sort of thing for them. There's been this at least de facto arrangement that there wouldn't be.. .would not be money changing hands in those cases because it's just taking from one pocket of taxpayers, another pocket of taxpayers, but they see the Mossman.. . you know, they felt that the Mossman Building was diminished in terms of what their plans were for that building, creating a financial necessity then to go out and find other space that they were going to use, and that is the distinction that they make. Now, I'm not going to speak any further to them. They will, I believe, have a representative here tomorrow night, if you do have any questions to ask of them, in terms of this issue. Champion! It is apples and oranges basically. Wilburn! I will say that, urn, I'm.. .President Mason has expressed a willingness to have, urn, at a minimum, a semester meeting with myself and the University Vice Presidents, and I had planned on the first one being including Jeff, and so whenever that gets scheduled, I'll be glad to make.. .uh, partnership concerns and what that means - a work session prior to that meeting, and then I can carry those concerns to that meeting. But are there any other questions related to this particular item? Okay. e) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE VACATING 102 FEET OF THE 20- FOOT WIDE NORTH-SOUTH ALLEY RIGHT -OF-WAY LOCATED This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 3 IN BLOCK 102 SOUTH OF BURLINGTON STREET AND EAST OF CLINTON STREET (V AC07-0000S). (SECOND CONSIDERATION) f) AUTHORIZING THE CONVEYANCE OF THE VACATED EAST- WEST AND NORTH-SOUTH ALLEYS IN BLOCK 102, IOWA CITY, IOWA, TO HIERONYMUS SQUARE ASSOCIATES. Davidson! Item e then is the portion of the north-south alley that is integral to the Hieronymus Square development. Again, this is a vacation. They have requested expedited consideration, so if you chose to grant that request then, we have the conveyance as Item f. Any questions about either the vacation or the conveyance? (person speaking from audience asking if the microphones are on) I will speak more directly into the microphone. Any questions about either the vacation or the conveyance, uh, for Hieronymus Square? Correia! So, just to confirm, with this conveyance, the Hieronymus Partners will be maintaining that, what was an alleyway, and it will remain public access, so it will.. . Davidson! Yeah, to the public there will appear no change. Correia! No change. Davidson! Uh, it's just that we did not want the maintenance responsibility of maintaining and alley, over underground parking, so we basically suggested - it was our suggestion in fact, to vacate it, and then have a public access easement over it that is the same as if it were a public alley. Correia! Okay. Davidson! They will have all the maintenance responsibility. They will do snow plowing off of it. They will also snow plow the small part here that remains a public alley, uh, and so for that reason, and with all those encumbrances on the property, again, we are not proposing any money to change hands, because it really does not have any value to them. The value is still as a public alley. Vanderhoef/ Will you be bringing us a... a plan to show exactly how that is going to work for cars to enter. . . uh, from Court Street? Davidson! The way Hieronymus Square is going to work, Dee, I can just tell you real quickly right now, is...is that, you know, this is the property here. There will be an entrance, here, through the Court Street Transportation Center to subterranean parking, okay? Uh, they had at one time proposed an exit-only onto Burlington Street. That went away when they decided to have.. .at one point they had a ramp that went down this direction. That went away, in lieu of something coming in here, uh, and there's, I believe, 80 spaces down there, and the exiting and entrancing will be through this location. We've worked out all the details of that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 4 in terms of the structural stability of our. . . that's all part of the agreement between the two entities. Urn, and that's how it will work. It actually kind of cleaned up what they'll be doing... these' 11 just be at-grade, alley, and an L-shape here, uh, and there'll be a courtyard then in the middle here that this alley will serve, to the rear of the building. Any other questions? That's photograph of it, I think you've seen that. Thank you. COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS: Wilburn! Council appointments is the next item. We have one, two.. .both with one applicant for each. One for Historic Preservation Commission, which is... Elliott/ Both look good. Bailey/ Is there any concern about partners of City staff being on commissions? Dilkes/ Who's the partner of the City... Bailey/ Urn, I think William Downey is (unable to hear). Dilkes/ Oh, no. Bailey/ But that's not a problem? Okay... Dilkes/ Urn, no, that, not on that particular issue. We have worked that out. Bailey/ All right, thanks! O'Donnell/ I think all three are fine. (several talking at once) Wilburn! The other one is Hannah Green on the Youth Advisory Commission. Sounds like there's agreement. Correia! And it's great to have a representative from Regina. (several talking at once) Wilburn! Okay, we'll make those appointments tomorrow, formalize them. MID-AMERICAN FRANCHISE: d) Setting a Public Hearing. 1. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OCTOBER 2,2007, TO CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE GRANTING TO MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS, THE RIGHT AND FRANCHISE TO ACQUIRE, CONSTRUCT, ERECT, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE IN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, A NATURAL GAS This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 5 SYSTEM FOR A PERIOD OF TEN YEARS, WITH A TEN YEAR AND FIVE YEAR RENEWAL THEREAFTER, TO FURNISH, DELIVER AND SELL NATURAL GAS TO SAID CITY AND ITS INHABITANTS. 2. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OCTOBER 2, 2007, TO CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE GRANTING TO MIDAMERICAN ENERGY COMPANY, ITS SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS, THE RIGHT AND FRANCHISE TO ACQUIRE, CONSTRUCT, ERECT, MAINTAIN AND OPERATE IN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, AN ELECTRIC LIGHT AND POWER SYSTEM FOR A PERIOD OF TEN YEARS, WITH A TEN YEAR AND FIVE YEAR RENEWAL THEREAFTER, TO FURNISH, DELIVER AND SELL ELECTRIC ENERGY TO SAID CITY AND ITS INHABIT ANTS. Helling! Mr. Mayor, urn, you have in your packet the copies of both the gas and electric franchise ordinances, as well as a memorandum from the City Attorney and myself, highlighting some of the things that were expressed as points of interest, prior to going in to the negotiations. Uh, Ivan Webber is here, who is the City's legal consultant through the process, and uh, we're here, as well as, urn, Dee Vanderhoef and Regenia Bailey who were on our committee, and urn, I think we're here mainly to answer questions at this point. Wilbuml Dee and Regenia, was there any particular piece of information or summary you wanted to present before I open it up for general questions for Council for either? Vanderhoef! I would say that it's pretty explicit, uh, in the agreement. I haven't found, what number is it? Bailey!3.d. Karr!3. d. (1) and (2). Bailey/ And I think we tried to carry in, urn, what you all indicated for important points. I'll just highlight the community support aspect of it, which took us a while to get to, but you can see the clause in there, and determine if that was the intent. Vanderhoef/ The one thing that.. . that we tried to, uh, work around were the electrical boxes that are sitting in people's front yards, and that has terrific expense to move them to the back yard. So, we ended up dropping that particular request. Correia! Was there any conversation around the community support, or negotiations, related to specifically assistance for persons who are having challenges paying their bill, because of limited income? Because I mean. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 6 Bailey/ Yes. Correia! Is that part... Bailey/ We did talk about that. Webber/ Yes, we matter of fact went through Mid-American's representative. We went through their program, and how it worked and how it was administered, to make sure that there were funds available. Correia! So is there...I know that their program includes funds from.. . customers who donate through their bill. What type of. . . Webber/ Fund is actually state-regulated, it's part of their tariffing process, and the City has no jurisdiction over tariffing, so all we could do was review it, uh, and discuss it with them and discuss the views of the people ofIowa City, but ultimately it's the Iowa Utility Board that controls it through their tariffing power. Correia! That's the project aid fund or something, is that what you're talking about? Webber/ Yes. It's...it goes through the Utility Board, which is missing a member at the moment. Dilkes/ I think the information we receives was that they, um, make a match to the funds that are donated by their customers in.. .25% is...I don't have that in front of me, but.. . Correia! The 25% match? Dilkes/ That's my recollection. Correia! Currently? That's what the current match is? Webber/ As a matter of fact, I think we're sort of encouraging to them because we discovered that we were actually ahead of their filing when we were looking at their documents. So... Correia! Ijust know that's a really big need in the community, so...! mean, because community support...a wide range of community support, to you know helping to sponsor an event, to maybe increasing their match into project aid or whatever the name of it is called, urn, I guess I would see those things being weighted in my mind differently, in terms of community... Bailey/ Well, as Ivan said, we were concerned about any kind of influence we could have on... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 7 Correia! Well, they could match higher. Bailey/ Sure, and that could be listed as part of the community support, I think, is what you're saying, right? Webber/ But you cannot, because you don't have jurisdiction, (coughing) excuse me, you don't have jurisdiction over that. You can't mandate it. Correia! Oh, I see what you're saying. You can't mandate the match. Webber/ That's right. That's in Des Moines. Correia! Okay. (laughter) Champion! And what happens if people can't pay their bill. I know they can't shut it off ifit's 20 below out. Correia! Yeah, in the winter there's a moratorium, but they can get shut off any other time. Webber/ And again, that's under the jurisdiction of the Iowa Utility Board. Champion! Right. I mean, there was a time when they could shut it off any time of the year. So... Correia! But if you got shut off in September or August, they're not required to put it back on again. Dilkes/ Can I make a suggestion, urn, I think Ivan was just.. .was very helpful to us at the beginning of the negotiations for.. .before we got into specific items, to have him kind of give the framework for what can and cannot be accomplished in a franchise, what the benefits are to MidAm, or not. What the benefits are to the City, or not. So, I think that's a nice framework to have.. .before you get into the... Wilburn! Are you prepared to give that.. . framework again, or... Webber/ Let me see how quickly I can do this. Urn, franchising's really a very sort of ancient thing. It goes back to the middle ages with the British kings, and it has to do with. . . Bailey/ It'll take you a long time then. (laughter) Sorry! Webber/ I'll try to miss the details to get us there. The.. .basically it has two aspects- one is the right to conduct some business that requires special permission, and the other is to use the public right-of-way when we're talking about utility franchises. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 8 From the point of view of the utility, let's just take that very quickly, this franchise is important, I think, for one underlying reason. It helps them financially, because it proves that they're going to have customers for some number of years. Under...it' s a contract under the Constitution, therefore, its obligations cannot be derogated, and the second thing is (coughing) that explicitly, sorry, I'm just getting over a cold. . .my throat. Wilburn! That's all right. Webber/ (coughing) The second thing is that explicitly under Iowa law you cannot create a municipal utility in regard to gas or electric, as long as there is a franchise, which means to their bond holders they can say for this number of years we have a right to conduct business and you can be assured that we have some sort of economic flow. From the City's point of view, franchises are an alternate way of regulating the use of the right-of-way, either limiting the use or assuring that the use is done in some fashion. That's sort of the first primary point. In this particular case, there is a limitation of use, that is that.. .thank you, sir.. . (unable to hear) gentleman through all ofthis, and continues to prove it. Urn, there's a limitation because you could allow them to use all sorts of public property. This is very narrow, ifit keeps to just the alleys and other public right-of-ways. Uh, it also allows you to do some regulation that you might have some difficulty doing, just by straight ordinance. In this particular case, the limitation on the use of how they trim trees, uh, how they'll cut into the right-of-way, what sort of notices they'll give if they do cut into the right-of-way, how they'll do the restoration. The, uh, the other thing that you can get out of a franchise are additional sorts of rights. There are two important ones, I think, in this case, and we start with what you might see as one of the very important. In the long run as maybe a lesser right, that is to require them to do things they wouldn't ordinarily do. For instance, give you a list of what they're doing in the community. Uh, but, you also have here a reserved right to charge a franchise fee, and since at the moment we're not quite sure what franchise fees mean in Iowa, but we do know you can only charge one if you require it by franchise.. .as a part of a franchise, you have reserved to yourself whatever rights the Legislature finally gives cities to receive franchise fees, and the only way you can secure that is through a franchise. Wilburn! Is that amount still in the court? Is that still a court case right now, or... W ebberl Yes. Wilburn! Yeah, uh... Webberl As a matter of fact, Thursday I'll be arguing one of those motions in. . .in a Scott County. Wilburn! Okay, and I thought I remember a conversation with the Des Moines City Attorney that they thought maybe in the end, if it's allowed, maybe in the range of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 9 2 to 5%, something like that. That's just a comment, and that's something that would most likely get passed on to consumers, if the. .. Webber/ I think it's pretty clear if it does go through the present. . . well, first of all, cable went through the last session, and I wanted to do a quick footnote on that. Cable is different because the way this Legislature changed the statute in this session. That is cable must have a franchise. You can't have a gap in cable franchising. And in cable they went to a 5% retroactive statute. It's quite possible that they would do some different percentage for gas and electric, but there is a great deal of pressure, and I don't know how far I want to get into this because I have had conversations with a number of lobbyists, but there is a good deal of pressure to go 2, 3 or 5%, and do it retroactively for those cities that have been charging fees for gas and electric. Wilbum/ I wasn't going around, Eleanor, I just happened to bump into him one day and was asking. So... Elliott! Did you hurt him? Wilbum/ No. Elliott! Okay. Webber! That.. . generally I think is the quick overview. Not sure I did it in two minutes, but those are.. . (laughter). Wilbum/ Council Members have any questions about the, uh, the timeframe, the phase timeframe for reconsideration of the committee? Correia! What was the.. .what was the, I guess it's longer than I thought it would be. And I see that we have the 10 and the 20, so what was the thinking about that? Or how did that come about? Webber! I think that was actually a bargaining position. Remember the first thing I said is the difference between their interest and the City's interest. Correia! Uh-huh. Webber! Their interest has to do with getting a franchise that they can show to their, to their bond holders, their creditors. Ifwe can't give them a franchise that gives enough to the creditors, uh, there's not much more that we can push them with. These terms are acceptable. I think these are probably the most minimal terms you're going to see around, uh, in any franchise at the moment in Iowa that's not a cable franchise. Cable is also economically different than gas and electric. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17,2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 10 Wilburn! And refresh my memory, urn, after the initiative, was there a certain period of time where another one couldn't be reconsidered, urn, a citizen-led initiative, related to, urn... Webber/ You can only have a municipalization election every four years, so you've got a period of.. .you're not there yet. Wilburn! Yeah, and we're one year into it? Dilkes/ Well, but.. .right. I think we're about one year into it, somewhere like that. That's in the absence of a franchise. Wilburn! Right, and I guess what I was getting at, if someone's concerned about timing, there's a certain period oftime anyway, where if some citizens wanted to start an initiative petition, urn... Elliott! In other words, are those option periods a loop hole, when there is... Wilburn! No, no, what I was getting at, if someone's concerned about getting to the ten years before, and essentially the ninth year would be the period where the Council could reconsider, urn, there's going to be a, urn, if we.. .if Council goes forward with accepting this, it would be nine years before Council, a future Council, could consider, 00, terminating the agreement. Uh, there's going to be a period oftime anyway if we didn't do it before, if a group of citizens were interested in trying to start the initiative process anyway, it would be three years, I suppose, before they could, so there's going to be a certain period of time before that could happen anyway, barring Council. . . Webber/ And you do have a right, go back to something I said and correct it so 1. . . you have a right to presently charge a franchise fee, but you would risk any.. .if you charge, you would risk a challenge if you charged anything more than the cost of administration, in the franchise fee. In other words, you can't do it, cannot do it as a revenue raising measure, under the authority ofthe Cragness case. So, but if that changes, and you don't have a franchise, you cannot charge a franchise fee. Wilburn! Right, and I wasn't necessarily getting into that area, but I was just, if someone was concerned about.. . yeah, uh-huh. (several talking) Elliott! You have to wait 25 years. Wilburn! No, no. Elliott! That's what I was getting at. Dilkes/ Marian and 1.. .just to, I want to make sure we know when that was.. .we think it was two years ago. (several talking) So you're two years into that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 11 Wilbum/ Right. Okay. Correia! Urn, but at the ninth year, the majority of Council would have to vote not to continue the franchise? Wilburn! I think that's correct. Webber/ Yes, you have that entire year to do it. Vanderhoef/ To give notice. Webber/ To give notice. You get to think about it during the entire ninth year. It's not you have to do it 180 days.. .it's not more than one or less than two, so you have a full year window. Dilkes/ Ivan, can an election take place, but.. .ifthere is a yes vote on the municipal power, then it can take effect at the end of the franchise term, or must the election wait till the end of the franchise term? Webber/ You've just asked one of those lovely questions where the Code is in fact very ambiguous. The safer thing is to wait until the termination, because you know you're on solid ground. There is an argument that you could make, have the election before the termination. I think all you would probably buy is a lawsuit. Wilburn! We're used to that! (laughter and several talking) Correia! .. . start a municipal if there was a franchise? Webber/ As a franchise, you cannot have. . . Correia! .. .maybe, that's what you're saying. Webber/ Yeah, and I. . . that's what I'm saying. You cannot start one without, if the franchise is in existence. That's clear. Correia! That's clear. Webber/ It's when you can have the vote that's not terribly clear. Correia! That's not clear, okay. W ebber/ You're certainly safer after the franchise expires. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 12 Correia! Was there...I think at some point we had talked about negotiating or something, the moving of the big thing over there that's part of our campus behind Wilson's. Was that.. .part of the negotiation, but it's not? It's not in here. Webber/ It was discussed, but we put it on the side because you're going to have to deal with that on other issues. Correia! So what are the positives in here, what are we getting for access, what are we getting related to our right-of-way that we don't currently have...in that franchise agreement? Webber/ Well, a lot of repeats, authority you've had in the franchise agreement which you can still exercise. One of the odd things about franchises for electric and gas is they continue once they've expired, until they're either directly terminated or replaced. In other words, if you kick them out of the right-of-way or until you pick a new franchise. Correia! So.. .the old agreements under the old franchise are currently in place? Webber/ That's right. Correia! So what's different in this? Webber/ This actually does add to you a number of right-of-way controls. It gives us a...a more strict version of how and when they will cut into the right-of-way. It gives you tree cutting control. People.. .people, you know, when I talk about this from time to time, and I've been representing cities for 33 years, let me tell you some of the bloodiest council meetings ever been to were when people are upset about how a utility cuts trees. (laughter) Urn, you have.. .you've got MidAmerican agreeing to national standards, enforceable national standards, and objective national standards, so at least you won't get into the tree looks ugly or not. You'll have a standard to look at. Urn, you have, uh, the limitation down to simply the right-of-way, not public places, which is in your present ordinance. One of the things, right over here this place called Coralville, maybe you've heard of it? It (laughter and several talking) it had a general franchise in which, uh, a utility company, which we needn't discuss at any great length, wanted to actually run a line right through the middle of a park, which was bothersome to some people. You wouldn't have that problem here, but oddly enough the way we've written this, if you thought the park was the best place for it, we reserve the right to you to tell them they may use the park. So it's not, we haven't taken away your policy discretion in the future. Uh, we've also allowed some right to the City to say where future growth, future uses will be of the right-of-way, urn, and, uh, we have some relocation costs for the overhead lines, which are all the tariffs will allow you to do to be absorbed by the company. And, and we've got a lovely reservation of the franchise fee, which I think was in the other one too, but you need to have it preserved. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 13 Champion! Well, I'm not really interested in a franchise fee. I don't think it's necessary as utilities, but I am disappointed there wasn't some negotiation or some resolution to that big box on City property over here. Urn, was there any future decision that they would. . .I mean, when we were first talking about public utilities, I was told by MidAmerican representatives that that could be part of the negotiation package, moving that. . . that box. So that just came to a standstill, a total standstill? Webber/ I think it has to do with MidAmerican. It has to do with MidAmerican's planning more than anything else, and how do we actually enforce that as part of a regulatory ordinance, because that's what we're really talking about is regulation, as opposed to specific land use, and that's.. .that's the problem with those sorts of single items. Correia! So, that box currently is in our right-of-way? Vanderhoef/ No, they own the land. (several talking at once) Webber/ And that raises another issue, in this franchise.. .um, MidAmerican will not be able, under this franchise, to acquire...I think Dale noted it. Third page of his memo, uh, the company has to have City approval now to acquire private property, by use of eminent domain, so they would not acquire additional property, unless you approved of the use.. .they wouldn't acquire additional property by eminent domain. They're free to purchase it by negotiation. You can't stop that, but you can stop their use of eminent domain without your penmsslOn. Correia! And that's new? Webber/ I don't recall if the present one was with or without permission. This is always one of those gray discussions, because you can argue this case both ways, if it should be with permission or without permission. Dilkes/ I think the permission is new. Yeah. Webber/ I think they had the right. . . yeah, that's right. Iowa law allows the City to take an option. I think we've changed your option. The option used to be to simply grant you, simply grant the right of eminent domain generally, so that anytime they want to use eminent domain, they can, or you can say that they can only get the eminent domain right on a case-by-case basis. Presently you have a general grant. This is now a case-by-case grant. Correia! And that would have to go before the Council? Webber/ That would have to come to the Council. So if they want to condemn... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 14 Correia! Right, they'd have to... Webber/ They have to get your okay. Correia! Okay. Dilkes/ Ijust want to.. .with respect to the substation. My recollection of the substation, and I think MidAm and Dale probably have more information on this, but it was an issue of timing. The City didn't know what our plans for the property in that area were specifically. MidAm didn't know what theirs were, and there was some indication that that might be phased out anyway, and so it was really, as I recall the discussions, difficult to come to any conclusions right now, other than to say we need to keep discussing it. Helling! Now that's actually been discussed, prior to any of these negotiations, and MidAmerican's indicated that they do intend to phase that out at some point. Were we to try to get them to do that ahead of time, the cost would be substantial to the City. Probably not worth it based on what we, any immediate plans we would have for that piece of property, and also, I'm confident that once they do abandon that, or phase that out, that that small piece of property surrounded by City property, uh, I'm confident we'll be able to negotiate something to acquire that. And I think that's their intent, as well. Webber/ On the question of substations and right-of-ways, it's now in Section 12.15, there's something that may look odd to you at first, and that's this 15,000-volt question. Fifteen thousand volts is the residential, it's the distribution system, and what this really is doing is separating the distribution system from the transmission system. They have a right to use the right-of-way for the transmission system, without additional approval from the City. If they want to use it for the, for the distribution system, that is to serve the City, they have a right to do that without additional permission. If they want to go above it and use some of the right-of-way for the, for transmission, that is above 15,000 volts, then they've got, then they've got to come outside the franchise to get that permission. That also, the 15,000 volts, also as another sort of thing that's maybe too subtle to appear in the franchise and wouldn't appear to anybody, they actually have to upgrade some of their service to get to 15,000 volts, and they will be upgrading the service. Dilkes/ Let me back up to the condemnation for a minute, because I misspoke. The existing agreement requires City Council approval. The reason why I was, was confused about that is we had a lot of discussion about this issue and I think one of the issues that Ivan raised with us that the approach that some cities, correct me if I'm wrong, Ivan, the approach that some cities have chosen to take recently is they want MidAm, if they're going to exercise that authority, to take responsibility for it, as opposed to that responsibility being, urn, on the shoulders This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 15 of the City or, and so we had a lot of discussion about that. We ended up deciding that it was more, as I recall, Dee and Regenia, jump in, urn, my recollection was that you all were comfortable with having that public process occur in front of the City Council, and that that was an important thing to do, even if there might be some responsibility that the Council would take. Champion! Just a follow up question - I'm sorry. Did you want to... Webber/ I was going to say the issue has to do with whose sole responsibility it is, and I think what your two Council Members, Dee and Regenia, took the position is that if somebody is to take public property, or private property inside Iowa City, that should be reviewed here. There's some city councils take the view as if the company wants to do it, that's the company's problem and people who want to complain can go to the company and the Utility Board, which by the way has no jurisdiction, over that particular question. Champion! (several talking) Let's say they were going to move that station, which they're not going to because they're going to outdate it. Let's say they wanted to move it. We would have no control where they moved that, if they could negotiate with the private property owner? So they could put it on the comer of Jefferson and Clinton, if they could negotiate a building purchase? We have no control where they would. . .if they were going to move that? Webber/ They would still have to comply with whatever your zoning ordinances were for public use, or for private use. Urn... Elliott! In other words, if...if they want to move it and deal, and purchase from a private person, if it meets the zoning requirements, we can't do anything. Webber/ That's correct. Elliott/ It's between... Webber/ If they needed to use eminent domain (several talking at once). Elliott! We take that hot potato! Correia! So where does the zoning code address utility substations, or whatever they're called? How... Davidson! Uh, Amy, I assume that's in the public zone, the P-l zone and the P-2 zone. Correia! Okay. Davidson! Uh, the P-I zone is the one where we actually have some things in there to regulate entities, the state and federal government are in the P-2 zone and we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 16 cannot regulate them. I'm sorry I can't tell you exactly what those regulations are, but that's where it would be done. Wilbuml Can you dig that up by the public hearing? Davidson! Pardon me? Wilbuml Can you just get that before the public hearing? Correia! But we don't have land zoned P-l that's currently not being used as...is that right? Davidson! Has to do with the ownership. Correia! Right, so that if they want, if MidAmerican wanted to purchase land, they'd have to go through a rezoning in order to be able to do that. Dilkes/ Let us find the.. .let us get the reference, let's look at the code before we speculate too much longer about that. Correia! Okay. Champion! Okay, other...1 don't have any other problems. Vanderhoef! No. We moved the one from the island on Iowa Avenue over onto the sidewalk, but those were both public owned. Correia! Oh, in the right-of-way, right. Wilbuml Any other questions? Bailey/ I don't have a question, but I do have another, a comment about timing to a more specific. 1 have been approached that many of the citizens feel that it would be appropriate to have the public hearing and the first reading separate, because this has been such a discussed issue and I agree with that, so I would like to either talk about that tonight, or I'll just make a motion to defer the first consideration, and keep the public hearing open. Wilburn! We're not in a, we're not in a meeting to make a motion right now. Bailey/ Right, but.. .no, but I will do that on October 2nd, but ifthere's a general agreement 1 think that would be good so the public know what to expect. Elliott/ Why? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Wark Session Page 17 Bailey/ Simply asked for because it's been such a discussed issue that, and we've discussed this with the budget. The appearance of making a decision and having a public hearing, and you've even indicated this as well, Bob. Elliott! Oh, yeah. Bailey/ The same... Elliott! We had a referendum, and clearly the public has spoken. Correia! Well the referendum wasn't about franchising. Bailey/ Yeah, the referendum wasn't about a franchise agreement. Elliott! Well, this is your typical franchise agreement, and the public says we want MidAmerican. . . Bailey/ According to what I've heard, Bob... Champion! You could make the motion and we'll vote on it. Elliott/ I don't, I don't care, it's no big deal, but Ijust think it's unnecessary. Bailey/ But I thought it would be helpful to let the public know what to expect, if it was going to be the same night or different night. Wilburn! Well, there've been times when we have not had on other items not had first reading, first consideration. Bailey/ Right, absolutely! Wilburn! So if the Council wishes to hear.. .when Dale and I go over the agenda we can just make sure that it's... Elliott/ We've been waiting for this for years. Another couple weeks won't make any difference. Wilburn! Yep. All right. Thank you. Webber! Thank you. Helling! Mr. Mayor, will need clear direction from you on that because we'll be putting the agenda together, if majority of the Council doesn't want the first reading on, we will leave it off. Typically we put them on at the public hearing, in you know many cases, so.. . (several talking at once). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Wark Session Page 18 Champion! .. . controversial issues after a public hearing. The fact that (unable to hear)... Karr/ Connie, I can't hear you. I'm sorry. Champion! The fact that we even vote on issues after public hearing is fairly new, Bob (unable to hear). Elliott/ My only concern is saying this is a controversial issue - it isn't! Champion! Oh, I think it always is. Elliott/ We had a vote! Clearly the public has spoken. Let's get on with it! Champion! It wasn't about the franchise. Elliott! We can delay, but don't call it controversial. Champion! Well, I'm not going to delay, I'm going to vote for the franchise. I think people, I think it's fine. Elliott/ Ijust object to calling it controversial. Wilburn! Well, if we take the language out of it. . . Bailey/ I will remove the word controversial from my comments. Dilkes/ Whether we call it controversial or not, the Council policy is that, currently, is that the first ordinance goes on with the public hearing. If you don't want that to happen, you need to give us that direction now so we know. Elliott! That's fine with me, I don't care. Dilkes/ Or you can have us put it on as (several talking). Wilburn! If everyone will give me the chance to ask that question (laughter) then I will ask right now how many of us are willing to... Bailey/ Regardless of how you feel about that. Wilburn! ... to have first consideration on the subsequent meeting, as opposed to the same night as the public hearing? Bailey/ Let's just have good public process. Wilburn! It's Regenia, Amy, Connie, me.. .that's enough to... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 19 Elliott/ I don't care! Wilburn! Okay. So, go ahead and, Dale, we will not have first reading on October 2nd. We'll plan on it the next, uh, formal Council meeting. O'Donne11l Thank you. Wilburn! Okay? Bailey/ Thanks, Ivan. CDF (CONGRESSIONALLY DESIGNATED FUNDING) (lP3 OF 9/13): Wilburn! Uh, congressionally designated funding project priorities. Davidson! Just a couple of things to go through this evening briefly here. Uh, we've been contacted by the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Chambers of Commerce about essentially starting to get things ready, 00, for the delegation to go to Washington again this winter. Ross and Regenia were representatives, uh, last year of the delegation that went, and I'm sure will want to offer some insight to the discussion, uh, this evening here. So, one of the things we want to do this evening, and I guess we can take it first, is what priorities we want to have, uh, for the upcoming, uh, trip into Washington. Urn, it will go through some type of a prioritization process by the corridor delegation ahead of time. My indication is, and Ross and Regenia please elaborate here, but that, uh, by the time the delegation goes into Washington, there is sort of a Three Musketeers, all for one, one for all aspect to it, but then people do also subsequently do their own lobbying in Washington, uh, as part of that deal as well. Urn, and just to clarify for everybody, this is what we used to call special earmarks. We don't use that term anymore. We use congressionally designated funding. It is the same thing. Urn, these are the special projects that through our two senators, or representative, Loebsack, get marked into the Transportation Bill for special consideration, or I should just say the federal government bill. Typically we've requested transportation projects, but they aren't all transportation projects, uh, but these are special projects. Uh, we all know about the controversy that there has been. That is certainly reflected in the two bills that are out there right now - the Senate version and the House version. If you see them, there is a drastic reduction in the amount of, uh, projects that are in there. Now my own personal opinion is that's right now and that by the time it gets into the Conference Committee to discuss the actual bill that there's going to be a frenzy of marking. ..1 think we need to be prepared for that. Urn, so, couple of things then. Let's.. .let's prioritize projects, and I've outlined here for you as you can see, urn, five projects. The only difference from the proj ects that we had from last year is that the, urn, the pedestrian bridge for the Iowa River Corridor Trail at the Butler Bridge along Dubuque Street has been deleted. That proj ect is going to be funded through JCCOG. So that project's off, uh, the First Avenue railroad overpass project, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 20 which everyone's very familiar with and is obviously a high-priority project for the City, right here, that is still on. The Sand Lake, if I can get the mouse thing to work, right down here, uh, what this is, a $5.7 million project. We've carved out about a $1 million project for the trail connection up to Napoleon Park, as well as establishing a trailhead area. This would now be the south trailhead, uh, for the Sand Lake complex, and then the Willow Creek Trail will also, once McCollister Boulevard is constructed across the river, the Willow Creek Trail will, oops, will tie in down here, as well. Urn, so that'll be a great place for a trailhead. It is just the trails aspect of that. . . approximately a $1 million project that we would have CDF funding. A couple of new projects then. You see Phase 1 passenger rail excursion service. Excuse me, this is not a new project. This is one that we went in with last year, in conjunction with Coralville. Wilburn! That was the Three Musketeer part. Davidson! Yeah, that was the Three Musketeer part there. Urn, so that was one. What it would do is establish between the Iowa River Landing neighborhood, and the near-southside...I don't have enough room here. There we go, the near-southside neighborhood down here. Upgrading of the trackage, additional infrastructure, purchase of a trolley car type car. That's the Phase 1 aspect of it, of a longer project that will then eventually connect to North Liberty, and then the long-range project is to get up to the Eastern Iowa Airport, and then possibly into downtown Cedar Rapids, although that's a little bit further out. Correia! So where. . . Vanderhoef/ The Crandic Line. Davidson! Yeah, it's the shaded kind of. . . Bailey/ ... the UI Library. . . Correia! Oh... Davidson! There's River Landing, and you see the linear thing here? Linear thing here? (several talking) Well, I can see it just fine. (laughter) At any rate (laughter) if you would like, if you'd turn the lights up, Marian, we can just, uh, well, yeah, that's fine. You've got the diagrams in your written materials here, so.. .at any rate, the final projects then, uh, that are new are the Dubuque Street and Dodge Street pedestrian bridges. These are bridges, uh, that would be pedestrianlbicyc1e only, that would connect sidewalk system, uh, between the two. Oh, we're back in business. Okay. Urn, would connect the sidewalk systems out here and allow north-south movement. We feel that Dodge Street is particularly critical. There's a lot of people using that already to get out to the employment center out there, but Dubuque Street also, uh, just in terms of trying to make the most convenient, direct bike routes between Iowa City and points north, uh, would also. . . we would This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 21 propose to do both of these at the same time, and we have proposed that to Iowa DOT as part of the Interstate 80 reconstruction project that's ongoing. You know, they've just been frank with us and said, you know, we don't think there's going to be money for those two projects available through the Interstate Project, but if you can find money for them, we're glad to incorporate them. They would be done in the last year of that project, which is right now scheduled for 2011. Urn... Correia! This Dubuque Street ped bridge, that's the overpass, that Dubuque Street over 80? Davidson! Dubuque Street over 80, yes. Correia! Okay. Davidson! Yeah, we've had bicyclists express to us that going through the Peninsula and water plant, yeah, it's a nice connection, but it's not terribly direct, and, you know, they feel.. . and both of these are consistent with the JCCOG pedestrian and bicycle plan. So, urn... Vanderhoef/ What year did you say? Bailey/ Eleven. Davidson! 2011 is right now, you know, subject to funding availability, how fast, you know, that project's been elongated because in any given year we haven't been able to get enough funding to do as much as we would like to do. Urn, so we need to know your thoughts in terms of what our project priorities are going to be. Now, I think the other thing we need to be prepared to do is if you saw the newspaper yesterday, urn, I can't remember which one it was. Wilburn! It was the Gazette. Davidson! There was an article.. .the Gazette? Okay, there was an article about CDF projects in there, particularly notable were the fact that there were none from Johnson County in the ones that were culled out by Senators Harkin and Grassley, and Representative Loebsack. And that's a concern to all of us, and I think what we need to be prepared to do is get with those folks between now and when the conference bill is, starts to get hammered out, uh, and we need to focus on the number one and number two proj ects, and I am here to recommend to you this evening that those by the First Avenue railroad overpass and the two pedestrian bridge projects. I think in terms of how they fit into CDP funding, those are our best bets. They're projects with a beginning and an end that we can design and go out and build, and that's what they're looking for, just things that are ready to go. Obviously the First Avenue railroad overpass is one that we're, we've stated our commitment to, you've got the local match budgeted in your budget. I really This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17,2007 City Council Work Session Page 22 think that should be the first priority. The other thing that's.. .that's appropriate about those two projects is that they're safety-related projects, and those are the ones that I think you're going to see a lot of on the CDF list, not the projects that anybody's going to be embarrassed by, but the ones that have a clear safety tied to them, pedestrian and bicycle safety, uh, as well as, uh, motor vehicle safety in terms of our Fire Station #3 and the ambulance service and that sort of thing, and what I would suggest is that, you know, I've got a list here of six people - the Mayor, the Mayor Pro Tern, Superintendent of Schools, the Principal of Southeast Junior High, the Fire Chief, and the Ambulance Director. Those six people have all gone on record already with our folks in Washington as endorsing the First Avenue railroad overpass project, and I think those six people need to contact our folks in Washington specifically about the railroad overpass project, and also the ped bridges, should you decide that those are the first two priorities, and begin the process of contacting them and lobbying them and building those projects up. I really think it needs to be at that level, not at my level. Wilburn! Also, I agree with your, with Jeffs assessment, also in looking at those projects, urn, you know, that was the first round of the congressionally designated projects and no one wanted to, I mean, just the amounts of those were all sub-400, $500,000 with the exception of one, which was, urn, a little over a million, and it was related to a, essentially what ends up being a military-type support project, and so when they come back to round two, what you're saying makes perfect sense to me that, uh, regardless of, of the price, ifit's ready to go, ifit's safety, public safety related, then you have a better opportunity of doing it. Davidson! First Avenue railroad overpass is that. Wilburn! I've also got, uh, I've, urn, couple of the, of the parent groups affiliated with some of the schools have said in addition to that group reaching out to some of the congressional people, that, uh, they, a quick call... they'd be willing to help flood them with letters of support from parents. So... Davidson! I think that's what's needed, and we've also had, I've had discussion with a couple of you about is there a need for us to maybe enhance these with additional local funding, or with some of our STP funding through JCCOG, right now I don't think that's critical. Urn, Joe Fowler and I like to tell the story about what the Court Street Transportation Center for three or four straight years we asked for $3 million for that and didn't get it. In the fourth or fifth year we asked for $12 million and we got it, so (laughter) you know, I really think that in the terms of how Washington thinks, the difference between $3.5 million and $5 million, you know, that's the same amount of money, in the numbers that they work with, and so if I get a read from anybody that that is something we should be thinking about, I'll let you know, but I really don't think it's critical right now. I think these dollar amounts that we have here are very reasonable projects, in terms of ones that our folks in Washington can defend. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 23 Champion! Well, I agree with you with the three. Vanderhoef/ I do too. (several responding) Uh, it just makes perfect! y good sense, and we get First Avenue going and that will make it a safer place down there, even for the bicyclists to come through that area, and they're going to go to work, all the way up to ACT and Pearson's, and now we are building more, uh, businesses out in that Park, so there's more people going out there to work. Elliott/ I would be very supportive and there are some of the bike trails that I'm not terribly supportive about, but to me, I look at those extensions on those two bridges as a safety measure. I think we're courting, we're flirting with disaster, if we don't do it. Vanderhoef/ No, I think they have a lot of people that don't ride because they're afraid to drive.. .ride over there. Elliott! I sure wouldn't! Davidson! I'm hearing concurrence. Anybody care to comment about any of the other projects, I mean, clearly those are still projects we're going to be hearing about in the future, but... Wilburn! Right. Champion! I think the passenger rail excursion service is something that's going to have to be done as the whole corridor. Bailey/ It'll go out there, I think. Davidson! Yeah, there's also some things in the Iowa State Legislator, Legislature, that we need to get through, in terms of the operating funding for something like that, that I think is a step that needs to be there, before we go after CDF funding. Okay, well, we'll go ahead and prepare materials then for the corridor delegation. I'm going to contact those other four folks and say it is the will of the City Council if you don't mind, in terms of (laughter and several talking) Vanderhoef/ Light a fire! (laughter) Davidson! Okay, great, thank you. Wilburn! That add an air ofomnitions to it or something? You don't need to comment on that. TRANSIT FUNDING FORMULAS (lP4 OF 9/13): Wilburn! Here comes Joe. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 24 Champion! Was a good memo. I think for the first time 1. . . Correia! It was a good memo! Loved the memo. Vanderhoef/ Did you like the results? The bottom line? Correia! I highlighted part of it. Vanderhoef/ To pretty it up? (laughter) Elliott/ Little color. Wilburn! Joe? Fowler/ Urn, in the last funding year, urn, the JCCOG Board was asked by Cambus to change the funding formula, urn, to reflect, urn, more on, more to their benefit. Basically they're back at the table this year asking for the same thing, and what it would amount to is a loss of $75,000 to the City ofIowa City, and that breaks down to 13,000 hours of transit service for the City ofIowa City, that we would lose. And so Ron and I wanted to take just a couple minutes to give you our opinion that you would take that into consideration when you make your votes on the JCCOG Board. Urn, first of all, the University of Iowa relies on Iowa City Transit and Iowa City Parking to help them regulate their demand for parking at the University, and that's not a negative. We participate in that. We sell them student monthly passes at $16.00 a month, as opposed to the $25.00. When we sell them their employee passes at $23.00 instead of $25.00. They then discount that down to faculty, staff, and students to $10.00 a month. So, they're paying $6.00 a month for a student to, uh, use our system, and urn, $13.00 a month for an employee to use our system, and one of their arguments is they pay our system a lot of money. But what that, if you look at it from the other side, if they build a parking structure to take care of these people that we're moving for them, 12% of their employees use either the bus or van pool. If they built a 600-space parking ramp at $12 million, which is, urn, pretty conservative number, and they got a 4% interest rate for 20 years, each one of those parking spaces they would have to build for the students, the faculty, or staff would cost them $121.00 a month, and that doesn't include their maintenance and their operating costs. So, even though they are making significant contribution to the City for transit service and renting parking spaces from us, they're doing it at a lower cost than they could provide themselves. So, we do feel that the money they pay us is a benefit to them, in addition to being a benefit to us. Urn, the other thing that I wanted to point out was that when we did our last, uh, route study, what we were spending at that time were the Transit Intensive Funds, and the way we designed those routes were that we worked with the University of Iowa, parking and transit department, we took the demographic information that was provided by them, and then we designed three routes that we put into service that serve University ofIowa This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 25 student, faculty, and staff, densely-populated areas and we have the additional benefit then of other members of the community that aren't directly going to the University of having that service available to them. So we do think in that situation the University benefitted by the service that we put on the street, which was put out there with Transit Intensive Funds, urn, which are part of the funds that are in question at this time. So, I'll let Ron take over from here. He's more into the federal funding. Logsden/ Urn, I contacted FTA because it's been over the years stated that Carnbus is the only, urn, university-run, that's not connected to a municipality system in the nation that gets federal operating assistance. Urn, I contacted FT A. They thought that, uh, in Springfield, Missouri, uh, SMU also got federal operating assistance. I contacted them and they do not. They get, they are a direct recipient of federal funds for capital so they've gotten two parking structures from earmarks basically, from the federal government, but they do not get any operating funds. So, to the best of our knowledge, Carnbus is still the only university-operated transit system in the nation that gets these funds. Urn, you know, the decision was made a long time ago to include Cambus. Urn, I guess our, I think the memo sort of speaks for itself and would be happy to answer any questions about that, but our contention is that we feel that, yeah, we think that they should be receiving some funds from that, but we also feel that because they are a student-run system, they pay much less in wages, which is about 71-72% of our cost, our operating costs, is our wages and benefits, and they do not pay benefits to their employees either. They have a competitive advantage. I think the formula was designed to take those factors into account. I think it does, to some extent anyway. Urn, the.. .the fact that they don't charge a fare, is a big cost for us to.. .if we were looking at upgrading our fare box system that we currently have so we could use a proximity card, try to speed up the boardings, but right now somebody has to get their pass out, put it in the fare box, it goes down, it reads it, it pops it back up. We have problems because it gets dust down in the system and everything else, so it takes a while. Urn, you could get a proximity system, where the person could kind of just wave their purse or wallet or whatever near the.. .near the fare box and it would automatically enter that into the fare box system. The problem is that's about, between $350,000 and $450,000 to upgrade our system. That part's expensive. We have to count our fares daily. We have to have somebody that maintains the fare boxes, does preventative maintenance on those. Things of that sort, but it also takes time. If Cambus, I worked for Carnbus for seven years myselfback in my undergrad and graduate school days, and rm pretty familiar with their system. If their passengers on their 30-minute reds and blues, for instance, had to show a fare card, it would increase their boarding times by ten to fifteen minutes, so their 30-minute routes would probably have to change to a 45- minute route. And that's reflected in the formula, in that they get more revenue miles per hour than we do, because their boarding times are so much less, so I think there's things in the fonnuIa because I know Cambus is going to point out some other things that they think we have a competitive advantage in, urn, but those are some of the factors that, uh, I guess we will that, uh, the fact that they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 26 get money when no one else does in their category as a university system. They also have some benefits, urn, to.. .regulations are stiffer on a municipal system than they are on a university system, as far as the things that we have to meet, as far as federal regulations, and we just feel that the current formula, I guess, is.. .is fair and should be maintained. Elliott! Federal funding is based on ridership numbers? LogsdenJ Federal funding is based on population, and population density. Elliott! Not ridership? LogsdenJ Not ridership, and this federal operating assistance.. . state. .. Elliott/ The state funds are because we were told that the free bus system near the campus increased our ridership numbers; therefore, got us more funding. That's state funding? Logsdenl Let me back up, because the transit intensive communities' formula does take that into account, but the 53...the numbers don't mean anything, 5307 federal operating does not take it. It's population, population density. Elliott! But the more riders the more opportunity for greater funding, is that correct? Logsdenl In the state level and the transit intensive, yes. Correia! You're not on the federal.. .you're talking about the federal. Elliott! But that. . . that ridership, the two systems are totally different? Their riders, the Cambus ridership does not count towards our ridership, or does it? Logsdenl The state money comes directly to each system. It doesn't come to JCCOG and get split up. Just the federal operating assistance. Elliott! No, but do we benefit financially from having a lot of ridership on Cambus? LogsdenJ For the transit intensive communities fund. Elliott! So we benefit from having Cambus be free, and have extensive ridership? Bailey/ For a small portion of our funding. Logsdenl For about $500,000 of the $1. Fowler/ Just as they benefit from us because if we weren't in the system, they wouldn't qualify. So we compliment each other to qualify for the funding. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Wark Session Page 27 Correia! Then you're saying with the transit intensive dollars that... that, last year, the year before, is what you were saying earlier, that we used those funds. We were looking at changing routes and worked with the University to benefit the needs of their staff, students, and faculty. Fowler/ Yes. Correia! Is that right.. . okay. Wilburn! Any other questions? Correia! What I really, I liked that operating costs. I thought that was pretty significant, that the Cambus operating costs, because of the primarily the wages, right? Is that...is the $39.00 an hour, where Iowa City is $72.00, because we pay benefits and higher wages because it's a full time professional, so.. .that was, those are good numbers to have, as well as the other information in here, in your memo, so thank you. Wilburn! Okay, thank you. Fowler/ Thank you. Wilburn! We're going to take a ten-minute break. (BREAK) BUILDING CODE CHANGES: ITEM 7. AMENDING TITLE 17, CHAPTER 1, BUILDING CODE, BY ADOPTING THE INTERNATIONAL BUILDING CODE, 2006 EDITION, AND THE INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL CODE, INCLUDING APPENDIX F RADON CONTROL METHODS, 2006 EDITION, PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL AND PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN AMENDMENTS THEREOF; TO PROVIDE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HEALTH, WELFARE AND SAFETY OF THE CITIZENS OF IOWA CITY, IOWA. ITEM 8. AMENDING TITLE 17, CHAPTER 2, OF THE IOWA CITY CODE OF ORDINANCES, BY ADOPTING THE 2006 EDITION OF THE UNIFORM PLUMBING CODE, WITH CERTAIN AMENDMENTS, TO REGULATE THE PRACTICE, MATERIALS AND FIXTURES USED IN THE INSTALLATION, MAINTENANCE, EXTENSION AND AL TERATION OF ALL PIPING, FIXTURES, APPLIANCES AND APPURTENANCES IN CONNECTION WITH VARIOUS PLUMBING SYSTEMS, TO PROVIDE FOR THE ISSUANCE OF PERMITS AND INSPECTION OF PLUMBING INSTALLATIONS AND THE This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 28 COLLECTION OF FEES, AND TO PROVIDE PENAL TIES FOR VIOLATIONS. ITEM 9. AMENDING TITLE 17, CHAPTER 4, MECHANICAL CODE, BY ADOPTING THE 2006 EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL MECHANICAL CODE PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL, AND PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN AMENDMENTS THEREOF; TO PROVIDE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HEALTH, WELFARE AND SAFETY OF THE CITIZENS OF IOWA CITY, IOWA. ITEM 10. AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 17, ENTITLED "BUILDING AND HOUSING,: CHAPTER 13, ENTITLED "FUEL GAS CODE," BY ADOPTING THE 2006 EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FUEL GAS CODE PUBLISHED BY THE INTERNATIONAL CODE COUNCIL AND PROVIDING FOR CERTAIN AMENDMENTS THEREOF; TO PROVIDE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE HEALTH, WELFARE AND SAFETY OF THE CITIZENS OF IOWA CITY, IOWA. ITEM 11. AMENDING TITLE 7, CHAPTER 1, FIRE PREVENTION AND PROTECTION, BY ADOPTING THE 2006 EDITION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FIRE CODE TO REGULATE AND GOVERN THE SAFEGUARDING OF LIFE AND PROPERTY FORM FIRE AND EXPLOSION HAZARDS ARISING FROM THE STORAGE, HANDLING AND USE OF HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES, MATERIALS AND DEVICES, AND FROM CONDITIONS HAZARDOUS TO LIFE OR PROPERTY IN THE OCCUPANCY OF BUILDING AND PREMISES IN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND PROVIDING FOR THE ISSUANCE OF PERMITS. Wilburn! Okay. Building code changes. This is regarding Items 7 through lIon the agenda. (several talking) Boothroy/ We were afraid you wouldn't come back after break. (laughter) Vanderhoef! Why do you think we took a break when we did? (laughter) Elliott! You were afraid we wouldn't, or would? Boothroy/ Would not. Elliott/ I see, I see. Boothroy/ Both, I guess. Urn, we did meet with the, some housekeeping things before we talk about the ordinance. We did meet with the Historic Preservation Commission tonight, and uh, just before this meeting, and they have recommended the Code forward. The, urn, the one thing that they raised at the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 29 meeting that we'll need to talk about, urn, maybe not with this Code, but they would like to see the City waive certain fees for, urn, urn, historic preservation zone applications. There are a couple requirements that they put into place that are not required anywhere else in town. One is, uh, a building permit for a, for replacing siding, and the other is a building permit for replacing windows that are not egress windows, and so they are interested in...in urn, uh, not penalizing the, those folks any more than they're restricted at this point in time, by waiving those fees. Now those fees are typically, and we mentioned it to them, those fees are typically minimal fees. We're looking at usually $35.00 fee. Urn, so we're going to have to come back to you with that, that item, urn, and talk about it. I don't think it's necessarily appropriate to talk about it tonight, because it's kind of off the subj ect, but... Wilburn! .. . future work session. Boothroy/ Yeah, or.. .or we'll come back with a recommendation, a memorandum, and you can take a look at it and.. . Wilburn! Decide where to go from there. Boothroy/ .. .we can go from there. So anyway, the.. .they've recommended the.. .uh, there was no real change in the Building Code as it affects the historic structures, and so, uh, they were fine with that. Let me just say that the, uh, this is recommended by the Board of Appeals and uh, uh, also included a letter from the Johnson County Livable Communities for Successful Aging Policy Board, one long title, uh, they support it, uh, but with regard to the local amendments, we do have a disagreement with the Home Builder's Association, and that's probably going to be the heart ofthe discussion, uh, here tonight and.. . and tomorrow. But as far as everything else in the Code changes, uh, we're here to answer any questions with those changes, but I just wanted to let you know that, uh, the Home Builder's Association, uh, and all the other folks that we've met with are on board, with the exception of.. .ofthis, what we call "usability standards." Urn, I should also like to make sure that, uh, it's understood that with regard to the usability standards, urn, this only applies, to put this into perspective so it's not misunderstood, it only applies to new homes, and it only applies to first floor, ground floor, as far as the requirements, so therefore it does not apply to remodeling; it does not apply to room additions; it does not apply to second floors or other floors that are not the ground floors. So, I wanted to make sure that.. .that you understand where we're going with this. Urn, we, uh, want to go through these requirements briefly with you. Uh, these requirements, uh, deal with the basic premise of housing, uh, and it deals with one's ability to, urn, get into your house and uh, pass through the doors within the house, and uh, urn, it's a standard that, urn, is addressed in part by the Uniform Code. Right now we do have a minimum standard for getting into your house, urn, in terms of door width, and that is that has to be 30, and we do have a minimum standard for getting to your bedrooms or bathrooms. You must have a minimum hallway width of 36 inches, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 30 but once you get beyond those passageways, uh, there really isn't any requirement for a door width. So it could be, I think technically it could be no door. Um, so in, as we talk through these tonight, um, um, we'll want to talk about some of the issues that are raised a little bit by the Homebuilder's, about cost, about life safety, about, uh, uh, some of the other things that are going on with this, but let me give it over to Tim for a moment and he'll talk about specifically the standards that. .. that we're talking about, and also the exceptions that are built into this particular Code. Oh, and before, one last thing before Tim starts, urn, did, I did meet with a subcommittee with the Livable Communities Policy Board, and these standards are a result of, of talking with that committee, as well as working with a particular member on that committee to come up with what we thought would be, uh, acceptable to the Homebuilder's Association, so, uh, unfortunately it wasn't, but, urn, I worked with Glenn Siders and.. . and we felt that these would be most cost effective and doable, uh, without adding significant costs to housing or any costs to housing, in most cases. Tim. Hennes/ Okay, the, there's four minimum usability requirements that we're looking at, uh, introducing into the Code, and I think it's easiest to start with no-step entrance and we're saying that there shall be at least one building entrance that complies with the Building Code for Accessibility, um, entrance on an accessible route from the public sidewalk, or from the required off-street parking. Now, there is two exceptions to that, and the first exception is if a proposed design is submitted showing a no-step entrance can be provided without encroaching into that required off-street parking, a no-step entrance is not required to be installed at that time. So we do have a design that shows a no-step entrance can be provided. The other exception is that the building official may waive this requirement, based on the determination that strict compliance is financially or environmentally impractical. So, the first requirement is a no-step entrance. Second requirement is that interior doors accessed at that no-step entrance level have doors that are a minimum 32-inch clear width opening, the exception there is closet doors are not, would not be required to be, uh, unless it'd be a walk-in closet for a master bedroom, that you would need to gain access through, but other closet doors - coat closets, linen closets, those type of closets would not. The third requirement would be, uh, that there shall be at least one restroom containing a water closet, a toilet, and a lavatory, uh, on that same level of the no-step entrance, and that you shall provide minimum 30-inch by 40-inch clear floor space in front of those fixtures. Um, and the fourth, or there's, I guess two exceptions to that is we get into situations where like a split foyer where they don't want to finish the basement off right away, and technically that would be the level at the garage, so the house to garage door is a level entrance, no-step entrance, and they don't necessarily finish that space off right away. We're saying that you don't have to finish that space, but if you rough in for a bathroom or lavatory, and a lavatory for that, on that level, that would suffice. Uh, the other exception is the building official may waive this requirement, based on a determination if strict compliance is financially impractical. The fourth requirement is, uh, switches and outlets and temperature control devices, need to be placed in the wall in a zone 15 inches off This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 31 the floor to 48 inches off the floor, urn, that's for ease of plugging in, turning on switches, reachability of switches, things like that. So, again, just a quick overview, the four issues are no-step entrance, the interior door widths of32 inches, the sanitation facility, of a water closet and a lavatory, and then the urn, switches and outlet requirement within the wall. So those are the four.. .usability requirements that we're proposing to put into the Code. Elliott! Does that mean you could not build a split foyer home? Hennes/ No, that specifically allows for the split foyer, and allows the split foyer... Elliott/ What would a no-step entrance be worth if you had to go either upstairs or downstairs, once in the home? Hennes/ The entrance could be, in a split foyer, urn, mostly it's the, the ones we've been seeing lately, you drive into the garage, you enter the lower level on a no-step entrance and you have a family room or a bathroom. Elliott! There are a lot of them. I've lived in a house like that since 67, where even if the entrance were from the garage, it would take several steps to get up to either, because the garage is on street level. Street level means you go in at street level, to go down.. .you have to go down stairs, to go up.. .you have to go up stairs. Having no-step entrance would be worthless. Boothroy/ Then I think...I don't agree, Bob. The, uh... Elliott/ Come out to my house! Boothroy/ I don't agree that it's worthless, uh... Elliott! But if you can't go anywhere once you're inside... Boothroy/ Let me finish what I was going to say. The.. .the, for three and a half, four years I delivered Meals on Wheels and there are situations in split levels, that I'm familiar with, which is similar to a split foyer, except it's got more levels, uh, where, uh, and I can think of one example where they were in the process of selling their house, but the gentleman was living on that level, uh, in a hospital bed while they were searching for a nursing home or something to put him in, and the, uh, they had to have people come in and, uh, carry him up to the main floor because there was no bathroom at that level. So, while that he could get in and out from the, they could get him in and out of the garage, they couldn't get him to a bathroom, and so they set him up in that room and then made a, accommodation. You know, this doesn't go to the level that you're possibly talking about. I mean, you're suggesting that if we're, we should have the main floor also, uh, zero step, and our approach here is to try to get the house minimally accessible for visitability, uh, so that people can come into the house This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 32 and use a bathroom, have a place that they can visit. It's not ideal, no question about it, but we also believe that, uh, by having this requirement, you're taking a step in the right direction, plus you're also doing planning to deal with this issue, you're thinking about it, you're being forced to, uh, think about what it means to have a zero step entrance by having them either frame it out or put in the groundwork. So, I don't think that that is a waste of, of effort or energy, and right now, uh, uh, that dialog simply isn't occurring, uh... Elliott/ Well, you haven't answered my question though. To get into my house, you can get in and there's a level. And once inside the door, you either have to go up about eight steps, and or go down about eight steps. Boothroy/ And in some houses, it.. . you can't retrofit. There's no question about it. Elliott/ No, but then you would be eliminating that style of house. You would be eliminating a style where my daughter has a house, many of them have probably six or eight steps to get into the front door. Boothroy/ Not necessarily. It doesn't... Elliott/ Go out to the Peninsula, look at all the steps going into the houses in Peninsula. Boothroy / This doesn't.. .what this would say is that if you're building your house new, you.. . and you don't want to eliminate those steps, as you suggest, then, uh, maybe what you need to do is plan your closets such that you could have a lift inside, or some other way to maneuver those steps without actually using those steps. Elliott! You're getting into me... telling the City how.. .how me to design my house. I don't like that! Boothroy/ No, I'm not saying that you have to install it, Bob, I'm just suggesting that you have to use planning and thinking ahead in terms of what you might need at some in your life where you want to stay in your house but you're no longer able to. Elliott/ I don't.. .it's just important to me... Boothroy/ Let me, let me just give another historical perspective on this. In 2002, uh, we proposed the requirements that are now just applied to, uh, public housing and low-income housing, which is they all have to have zero-step entrances. Dh, and, uh, at that proposal was initially more extensive than what you have before you, uh, but as a result of a conversation with the Homebuilder's Association, we decided that, uh, we would, urn, try education, and try, uh, a program of trying to bring people around to... to planning ahead for the eventuality, the normal course of events, of people having disability issues, and, uh, over the last five years, while there are some examples, there has been very little change in the status quo This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 33 as how houses are built. I personally, I'm 61-years-old and I've personally been thinking about, I live in a house.. .I've got too many steps. It was a terrible mistake on my part to build it that way, and I admit that, but now I have to move. Now I have to think about what my future holds, and I've been shopping for a year, and I have not been able to find many choices. Uh, if I'm going to look at a new house, I'm going to have to probably build that, uh, from scratch, because, uh, every place I've looked, they're putting in 24 doors or 26 doors, which, uh, the logic defies me. There is no rationale for those door widths. Elliott/ What's a 24 door? Boothroy/ Well, a 24 door is a 28-inch door, and a 26, it's 2 foot plus 6 inches, and a 26 would be, uh, a 30-inch door, door width, rough opening. It'd be actually less than that after you get it framed and all trimmed out and stuff like that. So, that was five years ago, and.. . and we decided that... that education, while it's a critical and important to this process, it is not changing the status quo or moving it forward, and everybody in this room will have mobility impairment at some point in their life, ifthey age, uh, gracefully. That is to say, if you age to be in your 70's, 80's or 90's at some point it's normal to have mobility impairments. In my family, I've got two parents that are 84, and I've, which don't have any mobility impairments at this point except the fear of steps, and a mother-in-law who has fallen and broken her hip, and uh, is basically a prisoner in her own house, even though she can still maneuver steps because her fear of using steps, and so it comes to us all, whether we like to accept it or not. I gave the story at the Board of Appeals that I'm 61 going on 15, because you know, I still like to go out and wake-board behind a boat, but this summer when I fell and cracked two ribs, I suddenly realized that maybe I'm not 15, uh, because I don't bounce anymore. I actually fall and crash, and it's hard to, hard to get that into perspective in terms of your own aging process, because you think well as long as I'm mobile, everything is good to go, and what we find is is that it's not until there's a sudden event that occurs, there's an accident or there's some change in your health or whatever, that, uh, you begin to think about this and if that happens when you're elderly, the chances of you making that change is significantly reduced because of the hassle and the difficulty of, of getting a contractor in, taking care of those things. You're more likely to.. .to withdraw or be institutionalized, and those are the issues that.. .that, uh, uh, uh, we need to deal with. Uh... Elliott! I guess I would just say, I'm not going to support anything that. . . that eliminates a very popular style of housing in Iowa City. Wilburn! If I could...if I could just make a quick comment here and then just open it up for general Council discussion. I think there are some Council Members who have made it clear that they are not in favor of design standards or mandating, um, something that a builder, urn, um, you know, regardless of the, this may be too harsh, but um, regardless of the intent, and staffhas put forward a proposal that will, um, allow, um, that will, you know, require addressing something that the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 34 market locally is or is not doing. So, rather than having the debate, the banter back and forth that, urn, you know, urn, I guess what I'm getting at is, if you're.. .if you're not inclined to have this mandated, urn, go ahead and you can restate it tonight, but let's not back and forth, urn, you know, have the ping-pong match back and forth. (several talking) Yeah, let's get. . . Boothroy/ We have a public hearing, so I guess... O'Donnell/ We're in the process now oflooking at spending a great deal of money on the southside because of water problems. Every time it rains, we have houses that are flooded out, and it's going to cost... Boothroy/ Are you talking about Sandusky? O'Donnelll Yeah. And this in my mind just opens the door to problems. You know, I understand accessibility issues and I support them, but you know, if you have a no-step entrance, aren't you likely, in the event of a four-inch rain or six-inch rain or backed up storm sewer to be flooded out? Boothroy/ Well, you know we have this requirement for multi-family and commercial, and you know, I don't know that there's that problem, because you have to have no-step entrances in a lot of other types of structures in this community already. O'Donnelll But these aren't commercial down there, these are... Boothroy/ No, I understand. What I'm trying to address is that I don't, I don't know that they're having problems with water coming under the door, where we have no- step entrances in commercial or multi-family buildings. Urn, so I don't know that that's a problem. I haven't heard of any issues with that, but we have no-step entrances on all of our houses, and uh, we've not had any complaints, uh, about water coming under the threshold, or through the door. So, and we have several houses, either in Whispering Meadows or urn, that even Longfellow, that face north or northwest, which I think is the worst direction you could face a door. If it's facing east, I think it's more sheltered. So...1.. .my experience has been that that's not been a problem. Now, ifit's not properly installed, you know, that could be another issue. Champion! Can I ask you another question? Urn, I'm not going to support these because I think we're not getting into safety issues, and I know we have zoning to control where a house is placed on a lot and I can even understand us trying to control garage doors, because of the way we keep the city aesthetically pleasing, but I have problems with, urn, telling people what they can do on the inside of a house. Did you talk at all about incentives to get this done? I mean, some of these things would be nice to have done, but did you talk about incentives, like you know, urn, certainly when somebody's doing a planned development we can ask that 10 or 20% of the houses have these requirements. Did you talk about any other This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 35 encouragement we could do, like reducing the number of the cost of the permit or other things you could do to encourage people to do this without mandating it. Boothroy/ Well, no, we didn't get into those cost figures. I think if you're going to waive fees or reduce permits, uh, I mean, we'd have to talk more about that. When we're talking about, urn, I mean the costs are so infa...I mean so small. We're talking, urn, the difference between the 26 door that we talked earlier and the 30 door, uh, at Menard's, it's $10.00 difference. So a house, a smaller house that may have three bedrooms and a bathroom and another door on the first floor, five.. .you're talking $50.00 additional cost. It's not a huge, urn, that's not a lot of money in terms of.. .of affordability. Connie, all of the houses that we've built, have to have zero-step installed at the time, and it has no impact on the affordability of those houses. It is not a cost factor. So, I understand that.. .that's why I don't think we looked at the incentives because the way we've got these phrased.. .we've taken cost pretty much out of the equation. This becomes more of an emotional issue in terms of, do we have additional regulation, and it's not about this is expensive, because it's not expensive. Champion! It's not about the money with me. It is about how much regulation should a city have. I mean, we have a lot of regulations, and I think it's very strict. I think it should be market driven, but I would also like to see some of this done and how do we get this done without regulating. Bailey/ And that's what I wanted to ask about too. I mean, you're right, this is an emotional issue and you corne at it from a very personal values and experienced point of view, which I certainly respect, and I think all of us can understand that whether we want to think about it or not, these things may be issues for us, but urn, (several talking) or not. I mean, depends upon when you go, I suppose. Urn, so.. .well, (laughter and several talking).. . depends upon when you go. Wilburn! No, I was just kind of. . . Bailey/ I was going to finish. Wilburn! Go ahead. Bailey/ So, we jump right away to mandates, and Connie asked about, you know, what about incentives. What else did you look at, I mean, I know that education you didn't think that that worked, but did you talk about percentages of subdivisions, and I think part of the challenge too is the retrofitting is so expensive, and.. . and there aren't people who do it, and so what this means is that only certain areas of our community will, and most of them will be on the outlying areas, will be the appropriate places for elderly people to live, and that, that brings up another isolation issue, so from a 50,000 feet policy planning perspective, urn, this may be good in this setting from your perspective, but it's not getting to the kind of community that we're interested in building, which is integrated with a lot of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 36 diversity of housing stock and diversity of neighborhoods, and 1 think that that's the more important question, is...1 mean, isolation is a critical part of aging, urn, and if we're only doing this in new subdivisions, there's isolation because those are on the edges of our town, and so 1 mean, 1 think that this is a bigger issues than Building Code, and what else did you look at? Boothroy/ Well, we didn't look, we were looking at the Building Code so the mandate to have a certain percentage of properties in the subdivision would have to come under, in my opinion, would have to come under either zoning or subdivision regulations. Bailey/ 1 think this discussion is more, is more appropriately placed in zoning because it has huge implications for homogenization of neighborhood, not only who lives there but how the houses look. 1 mean, I'm going to agree with you, Bob, 1 mean, you know... Elliott! Wait a minute! Bailey/ 1 know! Be scared, be very scared! Urn, you know, the neighborhood 1 live in, 1 like the way the houses look, and my house has too many steps. 1 mean, you have to climb steps to get to the house, urn, but we like diversity of housing, and what will this mean to how our community looks, and who can live where, and it creates other isolation problems. So 1 think this discussion is a more appropriately, is more appropriately in a zoning discussion rather than a... Boothroy/ We didn't want to... Wilburn! Excuse me for a second, Doug. Urn, urn, it's interesting where you're going with this, because what 1 was going to, and excuse me for interrupting, what 1 was going to get back with Connie's comment, uh, because 1 was kind oflooking at, urn, at the sheet that came from the Johnson County Consortium on Successful Aging, it points out for different cities that are, have made some of these changes, but 1 was looking right away at Bolingbrook. They're moving from a voluntary program to a mandatory ordinance, and 1 remember a discussion back further, we got an information sheet about, uh, uh, slightly different topic - what you're getting at, the planning, the inclusionary zoning policies, communities that had voluntary ones in place were moving to mandatory because the market was still not responding and providing, urn, the desired options. Champion! ... part of the subdivision code, 1 like that. You can get a percentage. Bailey/ Well, yeah, Ijust think that this does affect how our community is. You know, not only how it looks - diversity of housing stock, but where people are able to live, and I think it merits a broader.. .if we're really concerned about building an inclusive community, a place where people can age in place or whatever This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 37 community values we want to live out, sticking it in a building code is not going to get us to the community we're interested in. I don't think. O'Donnelll And they're making it mandatory, and the first thing, well the second thing that pops into my mind, Doug, is you can require a restroom lavatory on the first floor when we have a mobility issue, well, why in the world wouldn't you require a kitchen there? I mean, you can.. .you're confined to an area and you can have a restroom, but you.. . you don't have access to.. .to a kitchen. Boothroy/ Well, we were looking at it more from a visitability. . . O'Donnell/ .. . split foyer as Bob was talking about. Hennes/ Yeah, it's a visitability standard, where you have the elderly parents coming over to see you and your kids. You can provide that dining service on that accessible level. It's not all about accessibility. (unable to hear) Urn, I want to go back to your question about the.. .the flooding issue and all of that. Got to remember that the zero-step entrance is not required to be installed. You just need to show a plan, that ifit's ever needed, that it can be installed, without taking. . . O'Donnell/ By means of an elevator. (several talking at once) You know... Hennes/ .. .have one garage stall, only one required off-street parking for our zoning. You could use one of the garage stalls to provide that ramp up to the no-step entrance into the house. Wilburn! So what you're saying is that the option is there in the future, that it would be less cost to install because the capacity is there to put it in. Hennes/ Exactly. We do get people coming in.. .there's a $50,000 remodel going on down by Sandusky, where it's being totally retrofitted for handicap accessibility. These little.. .these four minor issues that we're asking to impose would help to reduce that cost. Elliott/ I think what Ross, what Ross said, it shows that, uh, the market did not respond. Hennes/ Exactly. Elliott/ And I say, the people have voted. People vote.. .yes, the people are not interested in it. Boothroy/ I don't agree with that. Bob, because.. .the market right now, the market is, uh, those folks that are in their 70's and 80's, and they don't have the same... Elliott! I'm in my 70's! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 38 Boothroy! But they don't have the same type of.. .ofpush that the younger set does with regard to driving the housing styles. They're also working against status quo, uh, I can tell you that. . . that people that are, that usually get into these situations about, as I said earlier, have mobility impairment issues. They don't think about those as being issues, until it happens, and when it happens, it's usually late enough in life that it's too late to make those changes, and, uh, and when we did that universal design on B Street, time and time again, people came up to me and said, 'Why didn't anybody, anybody say anything to me? Why are they building houses with these narrow doorways?' Nobody, that was just the way the plans came. Nobody advised us on that. Elliott! And I'm saying the market has spoken. Boothroy! Well, I disagree. Correia! I was just. ..I've been a member of the housing committee that Doug had spoke of, and, and one, the Homebuilder's have been very active in that housing committee, and we've been talking about education, I mean, I think that sometimes it takes amount of time for things to move, so in 2002 there was this usability in the publicly financed, urn, I know that the Home Builder's have been very active in trying and marketing universal design, which this is not universal design broadly. This is one piece of it, and last year in the, or just this year in the Home Show, urn, they had a spec home that was a universal design. They've been really supporting their folks getting trained on universal design, urn, techniques and things like that, and I know in the, in the remodeled parade of homes, there's going to be a remodeled universal design home. So, the Homebuilder's have been a really fabulous partner in these efforts, and I think there's movement. There has been talk about creating a voluntary certificate program to try and do more to move the market, urn, have talked with building departments about that, urn, and, so I think that there has been some movement. I think with this, the document that I, urn, passed out to all of you was something that a group of social work graduate students had done a survey, uh, looking at where other communities that have some type of universal design policies, what have been some of the outcomes and so I just wanted to share that with you, just to have that information, urn, from Bolingbrook and Arizona, and some (unable to hear). There have been, I asked Tracy Hightshoe, Steve Long and Tracy Hightshoe pulled the data on the number of homes that have been built since 2002 when the ordinance went into effect, urn, impacting only the publicly supported homes. There've been 77, urn, total, 24 home ownership, and 53 rental with some of the Housing Fellowship homes on the Peninsula being part of that, and so I think that there is some.. .you think that no-step entry means the front door, which it doesn't have to be the front door. It can be the garage, or the back door, urn, and then the plan.. .when you talk about the exception for.. . for not being financially feasible, if a plan comes in for a standard home that's a split foyer, or split level home, urn, and so it would be very expensive to, I mean, what type This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 39 of.. .because it seems very much discretionary in here. It doesn't really give you a sense of how much financial burden, you know, how do you... Boothroy/ Well, I have made that waiver for the Fellowship duplex in the Peninsula. Correia! Okay. Boothroy/ And, uh, it wasn't a split-level, if you will, but it was a, as you know those lots are very narrow. Correia! Right. Boothroy/ And the price of the lot was, oh, $55,000 or in that area, and it was built on the premise that they could build a duplex, but they can't, they're so narrow they can't build side-by-side duplexes. They can only build one above the other, and so, uh, that I saw as a financial hardship, because they would lose the other unit that they paid for, and an elevator, I thought, was too expensive, so the first level, the duplex on the ground level, is 100% accessible, zero-step entrance, uh, it meets all the universal design standards that are in our ordinance. The one on the second floor, they use the same doorway widths and hallway widths, but it's not accessible, because they used the same plan up and down, they just didn't have the no-step. Champion! I think the point that Regenia brought up was interesting too, about how we're going to kind of stereotype homes. Urn, you know, I mean, what you're basically saying about.. .some homes are not going to be allowed to be built . anymore. For instance, you'll never be able to build my house with this, because you can't get a zero entrance, and you can't get into the house anywhere without a step, so you can't get out of the house without steps. Where as a lot of the houses in the older part of town, the average floor is also being duplicated because they were economical to build space-wise, but they're not going to meet the standards for this. So I think by making these mandatory, you are eliminating a lot of basic home designs that have been very popular. My house is 105 years old. But I mean, if you can come up with some kind of an incentive to help get this done more often. Not everybody is going to grow old, not everybody's going to become infirmed when their old, so I don't think 100% of the houses have to be... Boothroy/ Well, it won't be 100% because we've already got a lot of houses in town. Bailey/ Yeah, but who's going to be able to live in them is my point, and so you're going to have neighborhoods that aren't diverse. Boothroy/ Well, you know, the, I look at where I built in 1980 had this been in place at the time I built, uh, those, at that time new houses, are considered old houses today, and uh, we would have been farther along had we started, uh, and so, you know, this just says you need to make the effort to deal with these issues. If...a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 40 house is going to last 100 plus years, and let's assume that.. .that that turns over every seven years. Well, you're going to have quite a number of families with different skills, levels, groupings, whatever go through that, so a house is not just the first owner. It's a community resource that's there for a long, long time, and as you said, we need to be, you know, all housing, encouraging sustainability, whether it be in a neighborhood that was built in 1980 or today's neighborhood. We're planning for that same.. . same issue. People, when they buy the home, that they move into, they expect that they're going to have that home there for them when they need it. They don't expect the home to be a barrier, they don't expect the home to require their institutionalization, uh, they don't expect to have to put in thousands of dollars to change. As I said earlier, if you put in a 30 door at this point in time, it's costing you ten bucks more. If you do it to retrofit, it's going to cost you $450 to $500. Bailey! And I appreciate the fact that you're thinking of those people, but is it our job to think of what they aren't? Boothroy/ Well, the Building Code by its very essence regulates. . . Bailey/ Safety. Boothroy/ Regulates safety, but it regulates public welfare and housing. There are a number of standards, uh, that I can list for you that don't necessarily go directly to life safety, whether it be the location of the toilet from the vanity, it's got to be certain number of inches, or whether you have to have so much light in a bedroom. Those are not necessarily safety issues. And there's quite a myriad of those standards. It's about public welfare. It's not just about life safety. Bailey/ And are we going to go through other parts of this, as well? Wilburn! Well, what I was going to ask, can we, uh, maybe focus on questions of what's being proposed, because we do also, and there is the public hearing and Council Members can make general comments about philosophical stances, uh, after the, after the public hearing when Council deliberates it, but we have some other items on the work session tonight. Elliott! Well, I'd like to hear from the Home Builder's tonight. We've heard from staff. I'd like to hear from Home Builder's. Bailey/ They'll be at the public hearing tomorrow. Elliott! Yeah, but it's not.. .it's much better tonight. Tonight's... Bailey/ It's actually much better when it's televised. So other people can hear the discussion. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 41 Boothroy/ And the ordinance has three readings, I assume, so.. . there' 11 be, if the first one passes, another opportunity. Wilbum/ Any other questions about what's been presented? Elliott! No, except the cost has been underestimated. You say the cost for a door, but if you're doing a development, you take that times a hundred or two hundred. Boothroy/ I did 33 units down in Whispering Meadows, and I know what you're talking about. Elliott! . ..two at a time, and ifit's a development that's 70 houses. Boothroy/ I did 33 at one time. Elliott/ Yeah, if it's a development with 70 houses, then you take that $10.00 a door, times the number of doors in the house, times the number of. . . Wilburn! Are there questions about what's being presented, and people can make philosophical comments? Elliott! Those are not philosophical comments. Bailey/ In other areas of the code changes, or just. . . Boothroyl Are there other questions about code? Wilburn! .. . questions about that. Boothroyl Move on to something. . . Wilburn! I'm just trying to allow us to get to other items that are on tonight. That's all I'm trying to do. Correia! So just to.. .not segway but piggyback on... Bailey/ Damn, segway, please! Correia! I'm sorry. You can segway next. (several talking and laughter) While you didn't, aren't presenting incentives as part of this, that there is a possibility for having incentives, built into the Building Code, if we want to achieve moving our housing stock, instead of. . . that would be a possibility? Boothroyl I assume that you'd be looking at, urn, reduction of fees, which.. .it's not part of the Building Code, the fees. It would be a separate... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 42 Vanderhoef/ Ordinance. Boothroy/ Well, it's by resolution. Right. Yeah, right. (several talking) Bailey/ I guess I only have one other question that pertains to the things that you proposed. Why is it that we have no penalties if you proceed with work without a permit? You just have to pay essentially for the permit. Hennes/ It's a municipal infraction, we issue a citation. It's a $250.00 fine. Bailey/ It's a fine, okay, got it. Hennesl That is we can charge that as a municipal infraction, and then we can also double the permit fee. Boothroy/ Which can be quite sizeable for some projects. Bailey/ Right, thanks. That's all I have, actually. I have questions on the fire part. Wilbum/ Okay. Boothroy/ Roger? Wilbum/ Anyone else have a question on building? Okay. Tough issues, but important ones to consider, and again, we do have some other items on tonight. Go ahead, Regenia, with your fire question. Bailey/ Well, Ijust want some clarification about, uh, the, urn, it's on page 2, it's section 104.1.1, urn, about.. .yeah, it's on the fire part. That's why we've got the guys in uniform up here. Of the powers of a peace officer, can you give me an example or times that.. .I just want to understand that part a little bit better and what would that enable you to do that you can't do now. Jensen! Uh, it would be the power of arrest. Bailey/ Okay. (several talking at once) Jensen! Actually, that's been in there for quite some time, Regenia. Bailey/ All right. Jensen! At least two code cycles. Bailey/ Okay, Ijust wanted to.. . and then down at the bottom, the prohibited burning. We had a discussion about this the other night when I (unable to hear). Is that, that's not a change from our current ordinance about being able to have outdoor fires. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 43 It's just ifthere's.. . you can prohibit them if they're offensive, or the smoke is too.. . Jensen! That's correct. Bailey/ And it's complaint driven, right? Jensen! It is. Bailey/ Okay. That's all. Jensen! And that actually comes from the model code. It's a new section in the model code. O'Donnelll Are you talking about the chiminea, or the... Jensen! Yes. Vanderhoef/ Talking about which? Bailey/ Fire pits. Elliott/ That chimney-type thing. (several talking) Vanderhoef/ Okay. Champion! It's complaint driven, it's not illegal to have it. Jensen! Correct. Bailey/ .. . find where it starts, that's the problem. Vanderhoef/ Your definition and comment about a crowd manager, uh, would you allow the bouncer to be the crowd manager at the same time, or are you, uh, talking about another specific employee for that business? Jensen! Most of the owners have chosen to, uh, either designate a, a manager or themselves to be crowd managers. It's possible for any employee of the facility to be a crowd manager. Vanderhoef/ So you're saying it is not a specific, uh, person and they may have other duties besides being crowd manager? Jensen! Dh, absolutely! So it could be a bouncer, urn, most of the owners have chosen to designate, urn, somebody that's been with them for quite some time to be crowd manager, because they're investing, they're sending them to our training sessions This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 44 and it's their expectation that they'll be with them for a period oftime. So, it's typically the, people that've been with them for a while. Bailey/ And this is a new section? Jensen! This is. Bailey/ Okay. Elliott! And, you can check periodically, walk in, 1'd like to speak to the crowd manager. Jensen! Absolutely, in fact we have a list of trained crowd managers. Correia! And how often do you offer the training? Jensen! So far it's been once a year. We've done it in the fall, just at the start of the term, urn, Fire Marshall John Grier is, uh, compiling a list, and uh, this year for the first time, we'll be actually asking those questions when we visit. Uh, last year was kind of a, let's do the training, let's get the people in place, and let's begin to reap some of the benefits and understand the wisdom as to why we're doing that, but this year we'll be asking the question, urn, who's your trained crowd manager that's present, and so we're anticipating there may be a request for some additional training. Bailey/ And is that the person who also, I mean, are they generally responsible for occupancy, or keeping an eye on that, or is that just the door person? Jensen! They have special training and they have.. . actually, Regenia, every employee is required to be trained. So, so every employee is required to understand the fire safety plan, the fire evacuation plan. To have a concept of how to manage the crowd numbers. And it basically becomes the responsibility of the crowd manager, at least this is the way many of the owners are doing it, to provide that training to all of the employees. So they have, you know, a little better understanding perhaps than the standard employee. Champion! So they don't have to be trained by you, per se. Jensen! The crowd managers do. The crowd managers do. Elliott! You train the trainer. Jensen! Yes. Champion! You train the trainers, okay. Vanderhoef/ Okay, the, uh, the installation of the amplification... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 45 Bailey! Could you say pages when you're talking? Vanderhoef! This is on page 2 of the memorandum. Is this a, something that you're putting in now because we didn't address the automatic, uh, noise cutoff and announcements and so forth? Jensen! Is this section 5-11? Wilburn! Yes. Vanderhoef! 5-11. Jensen! Okay, what this has to do with is, uh, there's a requirement in the Building Code that requires built-in hard-wired fire department connection. Urn, basically it's in high-rise buildings, or buildings below grade, parking structures, urn, basically high-rise buildings, where in elevators, in stairwell towers, uh, you'll find hard- wired jacks, where we can go to the command center, grab these telephones, plug the jacks in, and then we can go about the building and have a, a guaranteed method of communicating. Okay, now that's been the traditional way of providing fire department communications. This concept has evolved, oh, in the last five to ten years. Started on the west coast and it's moving east, uh, whereby you build in an alternate system that provides fire department communications, without the built in hard-wired system. Essentially it becomes a...a bi-directional amplifier that assures that the signal that our 800 MHz radio system is broadcasting, uh, can penetrate the building and makes its way throughout the building. Conversely, when our firefighters push their key to talk button, uh, it assures that that signal can make it to our communications tower. Now, it's a.. .there's a cost savings in terms of they don't have to.. .when they do this, they don't have to put in the hard-wired system. Okay? And it really becomes a performance based, uh, requirement. The only time we would require that additional equipment is if they didn't comply with the performance of our 800 MHz radio system. Is that. . . clear? Vanderhoef! But... that part is clear, but I'm trying to figure out. You say primarily high- rise, so where is this, or where isn't it required? Jensen! Okay, well, it's currently being built into the plans for the University's new rec building. Urn, it's been talked about already with the construction company that will be building the, uh, Hieronymus building. So both high-rise buildings with lots of steel, impediments to the radio signal. Dilkes/ Roger, is this an alternative that the builder can choose, to the hard wiring, or is this something that you impose? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 46 Jensen! This would be a new requirement. It would be an imposition that how our radio system, urn, needs to operate. Urn, for years this hard-wired system has been in the codes, but no fire department that I'm aware of tests that, trains with it, has the ability to, uh, make it functional in the event of an emergency. What we train with and use every day are the 800 MHz radios, the portable radios, and so that's kind of the backbone of it, is that the equipment that we use day in and day out should also be applicable to a high-rise building. Grier/ It also allows us to get away from the hard-wired jack areas. Everybody carries a radio so you'll always be able to communicate. Vanderhoef/ Then why don't we, at the same time, if we're going to go to this which you deem as safer and more effective and all of that, why are we not taking out the hard-wire requirement that you say is in the Code? Jensen! Uh, actually we would. It would.. .we would not require both. Okay? With the passage of this, the hard-wired system will go away, and all that will be required is that that building perform and allow us to be able to use our hand-held portable radios, and have the signal penetrate. Vanderhoef/ But you said it's in the Code. Jensen! Which? Champion! Yeah. Vanderhoef/ The hard-wire. Jensen! It is. Vanderhoef/ Okay, so why don't you make an exception out of the Code, to take that out if we're going to be using this system only? Jensen! Actually this will replace it. It's already in the Code. It says, uh, there's language in there that says, urn, other systems approved by the Fire Department. Yeah. That's already in there. Vanderhoef/ So then this really isn't new. (laughter) Jensen! It is for Iowa City, yes. Correia! And it's for new, it's not... Jensen! That's correct. Actually.. . actually the provision would apply to any existing buildings. I'm not aware of any existing buildings where we aren't able to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 47 penetrate with our portable radios, but.. .if we did have a problem, we could apply this to existing buildings. Elliott! This enables and guarantees that the people on the inside can talk unfetteredly, if that's such a word, with the people on the outside, or vice versa, which is really a prime safety need. Jensen! I believe that, yes. Champion! I don't have any problems with that one. (laughter) Vanderhoef/ No, now that I know what it means. Wilburn! Any other questions? Sure. Jensen! I might just add for your edification that for a little over two years now we've convened a committee in Iowa City, it's called the Iowa City Fire Prevention Committee, and it's made up of users, end users of the Fire Code, uh, a lot of, uh, installers, contractors, urn, industry safety people, school district safety people, and we spent a great deal of time with them, with these codes, before the Board of Appeals ever did see them, to make sure that the language was just appropriate to where, uh, it could be usable in the field. So, urn, very happy to report to you that they have endorsed all of these items. Wilburn! Uh, I think we can take on one more before taking a break. SMOKING REGULATIONS LOCAL CONTROL RESOLUTION: ITEM 18. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF STATE LEGISLATION ALLOWING LOCAL CONTROL OF SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES. Wilburn! This puts into resolution form essentially the, urn, policy position that we've taken for the past couple of years, in terms of asking the State Legislature to give local control. Elliott/ I don't think anybody disagrees, do you? Vanderhoef/ Just go for it. Do it again! (several talking) We've done it before, let's do it again! Elliott/ One added at the joint meetings, we pretty much had agreement that we will all be in it together. Bai1ey/ And will we inform our counterparts around the County that when we pass this resolution? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 48 Wilburn! Uh, I suspect it'll be in the newspaper, but I can (laughter and several talking). Bailey/ Hey, they're busy people! Wilburn! Does Council want to take a break, or keep pressing on? Vanderhoef/ I'd like to take one real quick one. Wilburn! Okay. Elliott! Let's do it quickly. Wilburn! All right, quick break. (BREAK) UISG WOMEN'S SAFETY FORUM: Wilburn! Abbie? V olland/ Yeah, I'm going to introduce the UISG Vice President Carole Peterson, and she's going to give you an update on how the forum went, and then we'll go from there. Peterson! Hi, I'm Carole. Urn, I'll make this really brief. We had a women's safety forum last Wednesday, Student Government sponsored it, and Rape Victim Advocacy Program, the Department of Public Safety, Domestic Violence Intervention Program, and Health Iowa all presented on different areas related to women's safety, in the hopes of raising awareness, and teaching.. . empowering women on how to protect themselves. So, we had an awesome turnout, actually better than expected. We had more than 300 people come, so that was really, really exciting, and another exciting thing was that it wasn't just University students. Also we saw members of the community trickle in, which was really great. So, that was that, and we also have, we're working on a bunch of initiatives really related to safety right now. We also have, urn, a safety grant application program, urn, with the money left over from when Safe Walk ended. Weare going to distribute this money in a grant to different University-affiliated organizations that come up with a safety program. Urn, so also Ijust would like to say that as students we really do feel that we're a part of the Iowa City community so we would like to collaborate with City Council in any way possible on specifically this issue, but also any other issues that arise throughout the year. Wilburn! Thank you very much for coming tonight, and for putting the forum together, and I. . . in terms of future collaboration, I would encourage you all to, uh, I mean, obviously this is an issue of concern now because we haven't apprehended the, uh, perpetrator, but, urn, you know, other issues related to, urn, violence against This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 49 women, urn, I mean, since the majority of, uh, assaults occur between someone that they know, as opposed to a stranger or stuff. . . Peterson! Right, uh-huh. Wilburn! .. . any of that, I'm sure, you know, the City'd be willing to work together. Peterson! That's great! Well, I also have my business card so I can pass it out to you guys. Wilburn! Great, thank you. Volland! Then the only other thing I had is in the DI today. I don't know how many of you saw it. There was.. .members of the Iowa community, and I have copies for you all, and it's all men supporting women in this issue, specifically, so I brought you all copies so you could look at it. Champion! That's good. Vanderhoef/ And thank you, Abbie, for giving us, uh, the notice on the forum in the packet. Unfortunately, I was already booked that night, but it was like, okay, this is still good because people read our packets, so, uh, whether we get there or not, it's not because we don't care. Elliott! I should have heard it. Many, many people knew about the.. .the meeting, and I should have known about it, but it just escaped me, and then I read it in the packet about 9:00 Thursday night. The meeting had started several hours before that. So that was my fault for not knowing. (microphone noise, several talking) V ollandl Yes, absolutely. Correia! Well, I don't know, Abbie, if you want to mention, urn, I had had a call from Monique DeCarlo, who had been approached by Abbie, and I believe Carole, about wanting to do, urn, something as a response between, with the University and community, urn, an idea had been having a community meeting that would bring together law enforcement, the Police Chief, urn, the, uh, University Public Safety Director, urn, as well as any members of the Council, University Relations, urn, Women's Resource and Action Center. Urn, I had spoken with Dale about that to see, urn, about pulling in the Police Chief, urn, and he was supportive of that. So I had talked with Sam, urn, and urn, there is going to be a planning meeting on Wednesday to plan something to occur in the next week or so. That would be, urn, not so much as an open forum, urn, but, urn, not a press conference, but a chance, urn, for Sam and Chuck, urn, Janet Lyness has also been invited, urn, as part of the Sexual Assault Response Team, our local team, to apprise the community about how folks are working together. Have an opportunity to answer facilitated questions, really focusing on the police are doing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 50 what they need to be doing, and we're supportive of that and there are things that can be shared with the public and there are things of investigations that can't be shared, so not to be a, you know, what can sometimes happen. A lot of people are feeling frustrated about situations, not to be a, urn, negative type of a thing, but a real, urn, strong message to the community about this is what we're doing, and to generate ideas, as well. Something that I had mentioned and would be interested in talking more to the Council, and I had mentioned.. .or asked Ron and Joe as they were leaving about the possibility of Iowa City Transit partnering with Cambus to do some type oflate-night bus service, ifit's participating with a safe- ride program, urn, or, you know, working with Cambus to operate bus service on the east side of town where they're currently not, urn, because we know how expensive it is for us to do that. So... Bailey/ And I think it's really important that we begin to hear from people on campus what they want, urn, would a late-night bus system help, urn, you know, exactly what it is that would not only make people feel safe, but help people be safe, and I think that that's going to be an important part of our conversation going forward. So, Carole...I think Carole had a comment. Can she come back up here? Elliott! Need the mic! Peterson/ Thank you. I was just going to say, we have been in conversation with University police about establishing a safe-ride program, and they have a plan in the works, and right now funding is a huge issue for them, and I know we've, Barrett and I have been discussing it with basically every student we get an opportunity to discuss it with, and there's been an overwhelmingly positive response to the idea for a safe-ride program. So, right now like logistics have to be ironed out, but... Elliott! I think that points out there are two parts to the situation. . . to addressing it. One being safety, and the other being investigation/apprehension. Now they're both very much related, but the community can share a large role in the safety aspect, what can we do to help...there's an education and...and there's a lot of things. And then the police bear a brunt of the work on the investigation/apprehension aspect. Correia! And when I did speak with Ron and Joe outside about, you know, can Iowa City Transit funds be used to support something like a safe ride, that some other entity is operating, and he said that. . . that it could, be similar to how the City contracts, sub-contracts with SEATS to provide that, urn, the para-transit.. .so... Vanderhoef/ The 28-E. Correia! Or something, yeah, something, so there is a way for the City to be able to participate if the University starts a safe-ride or.. . (several talking). The other thing, urn, that I was wondering about is if there is the possibility, and I don't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 51 know who would do this, uh, of having a lighting survey done of certain streets. I know there are some folks, and I mean, I have walked up College Street and after a certain part it was really dark. Jefferson Street, I ride my bike home occasionally, I have bike lights, urn, but it feels really dark on the sidewalk, and I don't know if that's. . .we do an audit, ar does the Streets Department, Public Warks, like how do we sort of do an audit of streets for whether they feel dark? Vanderhoef/ Well, some of the things. . . Helling/ We have a lighting policy, and it does conform, so it would be a matter of whether they want to change the policy to put in more lights. Correia! What's the policy? Helling! Uh, I can get that for you, but it's so many feet you have a light, and at the intersections, urn, one of the problems you run into, of cours~, is that the trees. In the summertime particularly when they're leafed out. Correia! .. . feels really well lit, you know, but like Jefferson, and maybe there are more trees, then those lights don't adequately provide... Elliott! The trees that are beautiful in the daytime because they provide things, make it dangerous at night. Vanderhoef/ And it's interesting because, urn, when the first lights were put up at College Green Square, uh, we had so many complaints that we had to totally change those lights and put, uh, filter things on them, and it's the complaints from the people who live there that the light spills over into their homes, particularly their bedrooms, and it was... Champion! Those were really bright lights, Dee. Vanderhoef/ They were really bright lights, but if it's someone like myself, uh, that I don't adjust as well anymore going from light to dark, so it does seem different until you, uh, get focused in in a shadier area. I know there's some of that that goes on when you pass under a streetlight and then go back out, it seems pretty dark until you adjust, but, uh, this would be a place where I would look to get the neighborhoods themselves involved in it, because any change in what the lighting is in an area, uh, we've got to bring them in on the ground level to, uh, get them enrolled into a safe neighborhood situation, no matter how it looks for brightness. Bailey/ Well, and I know that this isn't the same, but I know that some areas, I think even if neighborhoods began to leave their house lights, outside, would begin to help a little bit. I mean, and.. .we could also have a program that indicated if the house light was on and if you were in trouble, if you came to that door somebody would be there, I mean, it would be a safe.. .I don't know how you would do that or how This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 52 you would indicate that or check that. (several talking) But I know that other groups in other communities do do the light the night, keep your house light or your porch light or whatever, yeah. Elliott! Well, if you're concerned about energy also, uh, one of the things we just talked about requiring, it wouldn't be doing a whole lot to require that everyone have light sensors on their outside lights. Vanderhoef/ How about a program of the new light bulbs that are super-long light, and low energy, that if we would do a program, this would be one of those grant kind of things. Buy x-number oflight bulbs and pass them out to anybody who will... Elliott! Light the night. Vanderhoef/ .. . light the night. Peterson! The other thing that would be a possibility with this grant program we have $18,000 and I don't know if this is feasible at all, but ifthere was some way for the City Council to match our funds, and provide it to city organizations that wanted to have programs? It's just an idea. Wilburn! It's a very rich discussion, and urn, maybe this can be just the springboard forward to having further discussion on somehow to go about working together or those type of programs, so.. . Bailey/ ...1 think we have to identify what people need and what works. O'Donnell/ I like the safe-ride idea. I think any time that you deal with lighting, you're going to have a certain group. As soon as you get a light up, they're going to be after you to turn it down or buffer it, make the light go down, and you still have dark areas. Safe-ride sure seems, sounds like something we should pursue. Champion! I also think education of women in town, I mean, that are walking alone at 4:00 A.M. I mean... Elliott! Or anyone. Champion! Anyone. Elliott! Yeah, there... there are some males, I mean, there was one. . . a male who was recently walking down an alley at 2:30 in the morning alone. It just.. .people need to understand, that's not a good thing to do. Bailey/ We need to have a safe city so people can walk. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 53 O'Donnell/ Yeah, that's a big part of it, you should be able to walk anywhere you want. Unfortunately, you can't, but the idea... Elliott! But there needs to be an awareness. O'Donne11l You don't take necessary.. .unnecessary chances. Correia! I mean, I do think there are general awarenesses, and I think some of it is having options for folks when they don't have anybody to walk home with. I mean, what are they going to do? (several talking) And they don't have a car and they don't have money for a cab, and they, you know, who knows the whole host of reasons that people are walking home alone, whether they think it's a good idea or not, they might not think it's a good idea, but that's... Bailey/ They don't feel like they have a lot of choices sometimes. Correia! Right, and I think we need to create a wide variety of options that feel safe to walk, because it's well lit or whatever, and there's options like the safe ride. Elliott! Well, it's, I think we have to realize, we're half-way between Chicago and Omaha, Minneapolis and St. Louis, with Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and everything, we're a community of260,000 people or so, and we just have to realize that there are things that can happen in Iowa City today that never would have happened 30, 40 years ago, and I think lighting, free rides, a number of things we need to look at. Wilburn! Thank you. (several talking) POLICE CITIZENS' REVIEW BOARD - 2-YEAR REVIEW - BALLOT ISSUE (lP6 OF 9/13) Wilburn! This is the two-year review that's required by, uh, Code. Uh, I'll just throw this out to get the discussion going, and we've got, uh, you know, the couple year reports there too in the packet, but uh, you know, initially the piece here will be started here with, uh, the sunset clause, and then the two-year review was put in there. Urn, in my opinion, you know, there's.. .it's been valuable to have the PCRB, uh, even ifthere's been years where there's, uh, been no, uh, sustained complaint, but there have been recommendations from the PCRB in terms of, uh, some certain police procedures, and even validating, you know, certain things, like, uh, or a reminder, urn, the example, the two examples that were in there about, urn, you know, officers need to turn the recorder on, that can clear up some of the, you know, what happened during the complaints, but it seems to me it would be a natural progression to, uh, again, it went from sunset to two-year review, urn, you know, this is a second review to just remove the, urn, review, and give it the same status as our other, urn, boards and commissions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 54 Vanderhoef/ I would support (several talking) that, if we continue to get our annual report, which I presume we will. Wilburn! That.. . yeah, I don't think.. .we get those with other boards and commissions, so... Champion! I think it's a very valuable service to have, and I support that. It'll be fine with me. O'Donnell/ Yeah, like it or not, there are people that are always going to be uncomfortable talking with police officers, and this is.. .this is that interim spot that I think has been very important to the community, so...I don't see a problem. Elliott! I find it surprising and disappointing that those recording devices are not just second nature, because it's just necessary. Wilburn! Yeah, so... Karr/ .. .prepare the ordinance for your next meeting, if that's what you'd like to do, just. . . Elliott! Pardon me? Karr/ I can prepare the ordinance for your next meeting, deleting that two-year review. O'Donnell/ That's good. Wilburn! Okay. Sounds like, yeah, there's consensus. All right. Karr/ Could we also just briefly, Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind, I'd like to just distinguish a little bit, and we did add it to the agenda, urn, the two-year review and just a clarification of the ballot issue that's coming before you, uh, for the voters in November, because you really haven't had, many of you on Council were not here for that. Wilburn! Oh, that's true, yeah. Karr/ And, urn, Eleanor and I attended the last PCRB board meeting and just gave a...a very brief difference, if you will, between, urn, the review as you've just had it, and what we've been experiencing on the PCRB, and the initiative proposal that will be on the ballot. Elliott/ And...in 30 seconds can you review that initiative proposal? Does that make it a part of. . . Karr/ If you give Eleanor a minute I'll bet you can. (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 55 Dilkes/ Urn, I did go to the, or Marian and I went to the PCRB meeting the other night. Urn, and I kind of just familiarized them with the ballot language, urn, so they were aware of it. I was hesitant to get into much detail about the subpoena power, for instance, because they have their own attorney who advises them and who I assume will advise them if they are given subpoena power. So, but let me just, urn, so I'll review it maybe in just a little more detail with you all. Urn, the language as I told you when you put it on the ballot is exactly the language that was proposed by citizen petition. Urn, it has, it establishes a police citizens' review board as a permanent board in the City Charter, and says that it must have at least the following three powers: the first is to hold the community forum each year for the purposes of hearing views on police practice, policy, procedure, and giving recommendations to the City Council. The existing ordinance already gives them the authority to review policy, practice and procedure and make recommendations. It does not have a provision for a community forum, urn, so that would be new. (unable to hear person) Could they have a community forum right now? No, I don't think there's anything from stopping them from having that. This would require that they have it. Urn, the second is to investigate citizen claims of misconduct and issue independent reports - that mechanism is essentially in place in the ordinance. Urn, and the third is the authority to subpoena witnesses. Urn, subpoena power is...is a fairly commonly used investigatory tool, which allows you to get testimony or information from a person or entity who doesn't want to provide that testimony or information voluntarily. Our Human Rights Commission has subpoena power. 1...1 don't think we have any other boards that has subpoena power, but we don't really have any other boards that do investigations, of this nature. We have boards that hear issues, like the Board of Adjustment and that.. .but we don't really have ones that do an investigation. The current PCRB, as you know, urn, the way the ordinance is set up is that there's an investigation done by the Police Department, urn, and then that report is given to the PCRB, who can accept that investigation or choose to do their own more detailed investigation. So, urn... Wilburn! Even if that passes, urn, you can't compel an officer to, to uh, testify. Don't they have Fifth Amendment rights? Dilkes/ Well, with respect to subpoena power, and I did just touch on this with the PCRB is you can subpoena somebody, but the next issue becomes whether they have to give you the information that you're seeking, and there's all sorts of reasons somebody might not have to give you that information. Very clear example is if someone subpoenas me to reveal my confidential attorney-client communications, I'm going to ask the court to what they call "quash" that subpoena, so that I don't have to do that. You...um, if the PCRB, and again, I don't know if they would chose to use it to compel, urn, officer testimony, but if they did, there will clearly be the Fifth Amendment Constitutional privilege against, urn, incrim.. . self- incrimination. Urn, and if you look at the existing ordinance today, you can see that there's a.. .that the, uh, there's a reference in there to the court cases that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 56 establish the rule that says that, a police officer can be compelled to testify by his or her superior, if they're granted immunity, and for the purpose.. .or in other words, if the, urn, Police Chief is doing an internal investigation of one of his officers. He can require that officer to talk to him, but must give him immunity from criminal prosecution. PCRB is not in that same position, so there clearly will be issues, urn, if...if.. .ifthey want to use that with respect to police officers. They may not. I don't know, and again, they've got their own lawyer who will advise them about that. Urn, there.. . you may have a bystander that witnesses an incident that, urn, you may want to issue a subpoena to because you believe their testimony is critical. Urn, and they won't talk to you voluntarily. Uh, the police do not have the power, currently, to compel that testimony. Urn, so, urn, that's kind of the. . .but, one good thing about it is that the law is pretty, is clearly established in Iowa, the District Court has the authority to enforce, uh, an administrative subpoena. In fact, that was case law established with our Human Rights Commission. Urn, so there is a forum to address those issues, those issues about.. . Elliott! But basically there are three things that are, that it would change? Make it a part of the. . .ofthe Charter, require the public forum, and subpoena power. Those are.. . okay. Dilkes/ Right.. .now, just, in terms of making it part ofthe Charter, urn, it's not that it can't be changed - it can be changed. It certainly makes it more difficult to change it, because it has to be done by an amendment. Elliott/ Oh, yeah! Dilkes/ ... the Charter, and just briefly that can only be done by citizen petition, by the Council making... the Council can change it by ordinance, but it's subject to reverse referendum, where they can put it before the voters, so and ifit doesn't, if it passes it's part of the Charter, and it trumps any ordinance provision. Urn, ifit fails, nothing changes with the ordinance, unless Council chooses to make a change. Wilburn! Okay, thank you. AGENDA ITEMS: ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. e) Resolutions. 1. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT WITH IOWA REALTY COMMERCIAL TO SELL AND/OR LEASE PROPERTY IN This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 57 AVIATION COMMERCE PARK TO CHANGE THE PRICING MODEL. Bailey/ Urn, I have a question about, on page 4, it's Item 3.e)3 - it's this, urn, the Aviation Commerce Park. Elliott! Item 4? Bailey/ Three, page 4. Elliott/ Page 4. Bailey/ We were missing an exhibit in the packet, for one thing. There was.. . Exhibit E, with the new language missing. I don't understand the nature of my other notes, so I'm sorry. Elliott! (laughing) You do that too? Bailey/ Yeah, a lot! Especially when I'm reading late, so go ahead wit somebody else's question. Wilburn! Someone else have an agenda item? Vanderhoef/ Yeah...l flipped over then when Regenia started. (laughter) Bailey/ Sorry! ITEM 17. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE INSTALLATION OF SPEED HUMPS ON KIMBALL ROAD BETWEEN N. GOVERNOR STREET AND N. DUBUQUE STREET. Correia! On Item 17, the, urn, speed humps at Kimball Road, there's some correspondence about, from folks that are supportive of the speed humps, but the question about the lower part of the. . .hill, in terms of when the, when the weather conditions are bad, having trouble getting up the hill? Elliott! Oh, it slows you down too far, too much at the base of the hill, not enough momentum to get up the hill. (several talking) O'Donne11l If you go the speed limit these aren't supposed to affect you. They're a hump, not a bump. (several talking) Correia! ...I think about an additional barrier when the streets are bad. Champion! Guess we'll wait and see what happens this winter. Might not be a problem. I don't...I don't think it would be a problem, if you're going the speed limit. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 58 Bailey! Probably should ask somebody who knows, like a transportation person. Helling! We have priorities in terms of where we put sand and salt. Correia! Okay. Helling! And, uh, if that's, if that proves to be a problem, then obviously that...it may already be a fairly high priority if it' s a hill of any certain grade. Yeah, so it's probably will get sanded pretty early on, but I know that early on in a storm or something there have been some problems with people.. .we'll have to keep an eye on it. Correia! Okay. Helling! There's problems lots of places. Vanderhoef! And Rochester and First Avenue. Wilburn! Also because of the new, urn, slurry that is made initially when that goes down on the ice and snow, it's a little slicker and so people may complain about that. If it is a priority area, and it may not be the speed hump, it may actually be that slurry, that.. .melts it faster, so... Vanderhoef! Okay (laughter and several talking).. . slurry? Okay... Wilburn! Other agenda items? ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. 1) Correspondence. 6. Kate Wade: DTV transition speaker at Iowa City City Council meeting Vanderhoef/ .. .one of our correspondence, 3.f.6. Uh, Kate Wade and the DTV speakers' bureau. I wonder ifthere could be a public service announcement kind of thing, created that we could run on our government channel. Helling! Yeah, we.. .I've talked to Drew about this, because we knew it was coming. In fact, originally it was going to be in, I think, February of 08, and then they pushed it back, and so we're thinking of a lot of different ways that we can use our ability to communicate over cable, and some other ways over the web site and so forth to try and get this information out so it's not a surprise to anybody, because when it happens, you don't have a digital receiver, you're out of business. Vanderhoef/ Yeah. . . (several talking)... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 59 Helling! Or a converter. And your TV, or a converter. Whatever it takes to.. .to, uh, pick up that digital signal. It could be converted to analog.. .Mediacom has those now, I think, but... Champion! But you have a dish, you're already on digital. I mean... Helling! Should be, should be. Any TV you.. .you've bought in the last year or so, any TV you bought in the last year or so is digital. They can't sell analog TV's any more. Vanderhoef/ I was just wondering if, when we take a break at Council meeting, if the public announcement could be run during that break. That might hit a lot of people who are not typically watching some of the other, but do watch Council meetings. (several talking and laughing) I hear too many people who watch Council meetings. Bailey/ I don't think anybody watches it, they see it. They... Vanderhoef/ They tune in and tune out on their own recorder. O'Donnell/ Couple years back we had, we had better ratings than Seinfeld. (laughter and several talking) Wilburn! Other agenda items? ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. f) Correspondence. 5. Andrea Rauer: Trash in downtown area Bailey/ This correspondence that's right about the, the trash in the downtown area. I know we talked about this about a year and a half ago and cleaning up on Sunday mornings. Do we have specific regulation that require people to keep their outdoor cafe areas clean? Elliott/ Oh, that was one of the letters talked about the massive trash. Champion! It was pathetic. Bailey/ I agree, I mean, it's.. .it's terrible, and our, we have a 24-7 downtown, and it should be reasonably presentable during the times when people are using it. Elliott! It seems to me that if we approve them having an outdoor cafe, that if they don't keep it clean they lose it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 60 Bailey/ Yep. Helling! It may depend too. One of these that was talked about is actually it's an outdoor service area, but it's recessed back from the public right-of-way. It's not on the sidewalk. (several talking) We would probably have differing authority there, versus a sidewalk cafe that's on the street right-of-way. Bailey/ Well, we should use whatever leverage we have to make sure that our streets are presentable. Champion! Maybe could be part of litter control, because even ifit's on private property, ifit blows into the street, it becomes our thing to pick it up, so.. .maybe that's littering.. . (several talking). Dilkes/ I can't hear what you're talking about. Something about littering... Champion! I was making up a new ordinance for you. Correia! She was wondering if the littering ordinance might apply if there' s litter left... Elliott! Even on private property. Bailey/ No, if it blows onto the public... Dilkes/ You gotta see the litterer. O'Donnell/ That's right. Bailey/ Ifit's a restaurant that's left trash in their outdoor service area and it blows in there, do you fine the restaurant? O'Donnell/ How do you know where it was when it blew in there? Dilkes/ ... where it blew from. I mean... Wilburn! So an officer would have to observe it happen. Correia! Eleanor says no. (laughter) Dilkes/ I think littering is not going to work for that. (several talking and laughing) Vanderhoef/ Okay, but there just needs to be a standard down there, uh... Bailey/ Even on Sunday mornings. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 61 Vanderhoef/ On Sunday mornings...I know our business has ,a hose with running water that is right up by our front door, but in side, to go out and just plain hose off the sidewalk. Bailey/ Well, would you take care ofthe rest of the block, please. (laughter) Vanderhoef/ Would you like to come down on Sunday morning and do it? (laughter) Bailey/ No (several talking) Champion! Well, I like that letter because my husband came home from church that afternoon, seeing these same things. He said this is disgraceful, Connie. Bailey/ It is! It is.. .if it's a 24-7 downtown, it needs to be presentable to people who are using it. Vanderhoef/ And it is some late-night activities down there, and it just takes a few people to make a place look really crummy. Elliott! I think it's interesting that Regenia and I have agreed on, oh, two, three things tonight. (several talking) O'Donnell/ I haven't agreed with you, Bob. Wilbum/ (several talking) That would be three signs, three horse.. . (laughter). Helling! .. .our downtown crews are out early mornings on weekends, and they do get a lot of it, but it takes more time than just a couple hours in the morning to... Champion! This was an enclosed area. Helling! Yeah, and that's what catches. . . Bailey/ Even if we can't enforce, can we just send a letter that it's disgusting, and... O'Donnell/ That's not a bad idea. Karr/ And it is part of the ordinance, and you're absolutely correct, as they're up for renewal, for those repeated offenders, that can be taken into consideration. They do have to also, urn, City property, stowaway tables and chairs and things, so that, I hate to say it, but debris keeps blowing, but it doesn't. . . Bailey/ Like a hedge? Karr/ ... yes, yes, so that is part of the current ordinance. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 62 Bailey/ But ifit's their property, like, I think the Summit was the example, they can leave it as they choose, right? Karr/ Well, I think it's a little bit more problematic. Dilkes/ Well...I don't think littering ordinance would work. You'd have to write some type of specific ordinance about. .. Bailey/ I mean, can't we just write a letter like.. . clean up your act? O'Donnelll Is that in the agreement for.. . (several talking) Vanderhoef/ How about part of our lease, uh, for next year, to state that the leased, uh, property must be hosed off, uh, at the end of service period. Champion! Or cleaned, it might not need to be hosed. Q'Donnelll Swept. I mean, you can't hose it off in the wintertime. Vanderhoef/ When you've got a lot of food that drops off of plates and so forth, it also is encouraging more critters and birds to stop in and.. .you know, I think it ought to. . . we ought to have something in there, in the lease, that says you got to clean it up at the end ofthe service period, not the next morning. (several talking) Ifit does, then that's when (several talking). Wilburn! Why don't we give it some thought - the staff give that some thought ifthere's some ideas, and Dale, can you get a letter out asking them to clean it up. Other agenda items? ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. d) Setting a Public Hearing. 3. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR OCTOBER 2,2007 ON A PROPOSAL TO CONVEY A STORM WATER MANAGEMENT DRAINAGE EASEMENT AND A STORM SEWER PIPE EASEMENT AT THE IOWA CITY MUNICIPAL AIRPORT. Vanderhoef/ I am just curious, and Dale, I'm sure you won't know this on the top of your head, but under, uh, this resolution to set a public hearing where we've been asked, on page 3, number 3, to, uh, sell, uh, some public land, first just easements along the southwestern corridor of the Airport for storm water management drainage and so forth, uh, and we have an assessed value. I'm just curious, is this the same land that the City bought from the same family, uh, at quite a different price? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17,2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 63 Helling! You're right, I don't know that off the top of my head, but I can find out. Vanderhoef/ I'm curious. Bailey/ And do those funds go to the Airport then, yes? Helling! Urn, probably, yeah. Wilburn! That's Airport land, probably. O'Donnell/ Should go to the Airport. Bailey/ Can you check on that too? Dilkes/ I'm looking right here - it says the FAA does not object to.. . (several talking). Vanderhoef/ Well, the FAA helped pay for the land that we had to buy. Dilkes/ The FAA wouldn't have approval authority if it... Wilburn! Other agenda items? COUNCIL TIME: O'Donnell/ Just one quick thing. That bowl really bothers me sitting there. It looks like it was left there by accident. It looks like it's going to fall or...I think somebody's going to bend over and hit it when they're picking it up. Karr/ It's in a plexi-glass frame. The plexi-glass frame is glued, is screwed to the railing. It won't fall. O'Donnell/ Looks terrible that...I think it should be.. . (several talking). Wilburn! Before, uh, before we go here, urn, we're going to need to, Council, we're going to need to get some dates, potential dates to Marian, related to. . . so they can try and sync up calendars with the PAR Group for, uh... Karr/ If you just let me know October and November dates that won't work. That would help tremendously! (several talking) 1.. .we just, again, we're just trying to coordinate your schedule with his schedule in the next couple of months, so we're just trying to see blocks of time. (several talking) Well, if you like, I could just get, again, dates from. . .I just thought if we could somehow come up with some (several talking) Elliott! Days, evenings, weekends - what are you looking for? Or, Council, what are we looking for? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007. September 17, 2007 City Council Work Session Page 64 Vanderhoef/ (laughter and several talking) Calendar coordination! (laughter) Champion! Well, I think...I think if we can find a day at least when we'd all be available. I mean, I think (unable to understand) interviews start those at night. So... Karr/ Well, I don't know we're going to do interviews. There may be a need to meet once as a group, and then from there. I mean, I'm just trying to look at blocks of time that you're going to be available, or gone. If some of you are gone a whole week, then let me know because it would take out the week. (several talking) Wilburn! And, if we could do that by, uh, by Friday of this week. The sooner we do that, the quicker we can get those, whatever those blocks are and you don't have to hold those times in perpetuity. Okay. See you tomorrow. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of September 17, 2007.