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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-11-26 Transcription November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page I November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators 5:35 P.M. COUNCIL PRESENT: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Elliott, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn COUNCIL ELECT: Hayek, Wright STAFF: Karr, Dilkes, Helling, Fosse, Davidson GUESTS: State Senator, Bob Dvorsky; and State Representatives Vicki Lensing, Mary Mascher, Dave Jacoby (arrived at 5:45 P.M.) Welcome and Introductions: Wilbum/ Okay, well, welcome everybody, and thanks to our area Legislators for coming tonight. We really appreciate the time that, uh, that you give on our behalf in Des Moines and here and everywhere else you have to be, especially this time of year. We've done this for the last few years, uh, joined by our new Council Members Elect, and I want to welcome them both to the table here. What we typically do is go around for introductions, and even though we likely know each other, it helps us do the microphone check, so we'll do that here as well, and uh, if, uh, if it's all right with the Legislators if we could just work our way down the list. I invite any Council Member or staff member, if we get to a particular item if you wish to chime in with any thoughts about that, just to, uh, let our representatives, our delegation, know, urn, what your particular perspective or concern is. It would be helpful for them to jot down some notes, and it might be helpful for them also if we just kind of work our way down the list, and then, urn, as we do that I guess maybe just make this more conversational, rather than a presentation type thing, and we could go from there if that's okay. So, I'm Ross with Iowa City Council. V ollandJ I'm Abbie Volland. I'm the City Council Liaison between the University of Iowa Student Body.. . and City Council. Champion! Connie Champion, City Council. O'Donnell/ Mike O'Donnell, City Council. Helling! Dale Helling, Interim City Manager Bailey/ Regenia Bailey, City Council Lensing! Vicki Lensing, State Representative. Dvorsky/ Bob Dvorsky, State Representative.. .I'm sorry (laughter).. . State Senator. Yeah (several talking) State Senator from Coralville. I was, uh, just on the phone with Representative Jacoby and he's going to be a little late so.. .he was hoping we'd get through most of the agenda before he got here. So.. . (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 2 Mascher/ State Representative Mary Mascher, House District 78. Hayek! Matt Hayek, City Councilor to be. Wright! Mike Wright, City Council Elect. Correia! Amy Correia, Iowa City Council. Vanderhoef/ Dee Vanderhoef, City Council, soon to retire. Elliott! Last.. . and least.. .Bob Elliott, lame duck (laughter). Wilburn! And he says it with pride! Elliott/ Yeah. Iowa State Housing: Trust Fund Appropriation: Wilbum/ We doing okay with the microphones? Okay. Urn, let's see, the second thing on the list is the Iowa State Housing Trust Fund appropriation. As you all are aware, that, uh, Iowa City Council has been working to try and address, uh, affordable workforce housing issues in our community, but we also had commissioned the study that is soon to be, uh, released, not only on Iowa City in terms of housing, uh, availability and housing stock, but issues associated with, and uh, the, uh, appropriation funding for, uh, one component of that, in terms of the, uh, trust fund, and any appropriation that come for that would be appreciated. Amy, I know this is an issue that you in particular are fond of. Did you want to add anything to... Correia! There's been an effort...I know, Bob, you're really familiar with this, urn, to have an annual dedication of funds to the State Housing Trust Fund, which is located in the Iowa Finance Authority. There was an allocation, urn, to the State Housing Trust Fund during the last session, I think, of about $2 million, but that's been up every year. I think the statewide advocates last year had been working on trying to get a dedicated source of funding through the real estate (unable to hear) looking at (unable to hear) dedicated source of revenue. Most housing trust funds are defined by their dedicated source of. . .of funding. Urn, so it's hard for stability, urn, if.. .if it has to wait every year, what's the allocation going to be. To fully fund all of the State Housing Trust Funds, urn, it would take about $6 million, urn, estimated last year, urn, and there have been more, which is good, there have been more housing trust funds coming online. Linn County just established a housing trust fund. This year they received their first State allocation, urn, the Johnson County Housing Trust Fund provided some technical assistance to them, so that was a nice effort in the corridor, urn, to support each other. So.. . and there have.. .there is efforts nationally to create a national housing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 3 trust fund and legislation did pass, urn, the House of Representatives a few months ago, and the dedicated revenue there would be proceeds from Fannie Mae or, urn, something like that, so not taking money away from other tax dollars. So, that potentially could also be a source of funding to states and local housing trust funds, as well. Wilbum/ I guess I should ask the three of you, is.. .would you just want us to run through this and then at the end give you a chance to respond. Is that.. .would that work best for you or. . . Mascher/ I think that'd be fine. Otherwise we might get bogged down in one area and... Wilbum/ Sounds good. All right. Thanks, Mary. Utilitv Prog:rams That Promote Energ:v Efficiencv Appliances and Other "Green" Initiatives: Wilbum/ Let's see. Anybody else have anything they want to add to that? Utility programs that promote energy efficiency appliances and other "green" initiatives. I know that, uh, urn, there's an effort, an interest, in the county, both from groups like the Sierra Club, the University, uh, ofIowa, several departments there. Environmental Engineering comes to mind, and uh, the County Supervisors, Iowa City Council, and I think some of the, uh, advocate groups have been talking with some ofthe other communities in Johnson County to try and get us looking at green initiatives, and if! recall correctly, I think, uh, the Governor, uh, had talked about a, uh, I don't know if it was a power fund or a green initiative fund. Maybe if we could get kind of an update or status on that, but, urn, I know that we have a, uh, practice, a daily practice on staff in terms oflooking for, urn, cost savings, energy efficiency, energy savings, but, uh, ifthere's any work, any.. . any, urn, potential funding or credit type, uh' initiatives that are going to be on your dockets in.. .during the next session, that, uh, not only be beneficial for city or local government, but in terms of some of the, uh, some of the area businesses, small business, or on the household level. That would be helpful to know. Anyone else want to add to that? Bailey/ And... this specifically refers to a third party, uh, group, urn, looking at the programs that the utilities have, Alliance and MidAmerican. For example, in the area, energy efficient appliance programs are very different, and that.. .this comment was raised when we had franchise agreement discussions, and so just looking at that possibility. I know Senator Bolkum has looked into this a little bit and I think it would be beneficial for the entire state, is one of the ways. It allows consurners to have a little bit more motivation to, uh, purchase energy efficient appliances, and I think that's something we can all support. Elliott/ We've run into specific concerns about that. People saying you get this rebate if you live in Cedar Rapids and you don't get that rebate if you live in Iowa City, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 4 and it seems to me that, uh, there's some commonality that would be beneficial, if what Regenia was talking with, could be at least encouraged. Champion! On the other hand, weren't those rebates passed on to consumers? (several talking) Correia! But, I mean, I think that's the.. .the issues in, if you. . .if it was an Alliant-run program, you could get so much, and then MidAmerican was different, so I think that the hope is that if there was a third party administering it, the program, across the state then you have a consistency of options in every community, and not only.. .good for you if you live here, not if you lived somewhere else, they didn't offer that. Bailey/ Yeah, and it's not something that the energy companies aren't already doing, so it would be an initiative that the State could take on to become greener, with little cost actually to the State, besides the administration of it. Wilbum/ And I think the focus and benefit was primarily towards consumers, at the household level. . . Bailey/ Absolutely! Wilbum/ '.' that they all would have, uh, access and opportunity. Correia! Incentives. Bailey/ Yeah! Property Tax Credits/Condos: Wilburn! Property tax credits, condos. Refresh my memory on this one. Champion! Our usual, every year (laughter). It would actually provide us enough money to staff the fire station. (garbled) condos whether they're rented or whether you live in them, are taxed at the residential rate, and so we're seeing a proliferation of condos being built, and I don't think those rent savings are being passed on to the renters, urn, seems like a very logical thing to me, that if you're renting, you pay commercial property tax. Wilburn! And ifthere's resistance to that, it would be helpful from your perspective who might be some of the groups working on it. I guess we can. . . we can guess who some of them are, but if anything comes to mind, you could let us know. Uh, and some of these are pretty straight forward. Increase the Funding: for Microenterprise Development: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 5 Wilburn! Increase the funding for microenterprise development. Bailey/ Currently we fund a lot of microenterprise development out of our CDBG Funds. Urn, we use those economic development (garbled) loans for small businesses. I think it would be helpful, urn, if there were additional funds that these businesses could seek. (garbled) worked with some, some businesses that of course are getting State funding, but they're typically the larger businesses. So that would be a nice opportunity. They typically get support from the Pappa John Entrepreneurial Center, so that.. .that kind of support is helpful, but, urn, small business needs funding, and urn, those are the kinds of businesses that grow and stay in a community and hire locals and reinvest in the community, and I think that that's a good investment. Vanderhoef/ I think there's, uh, possibilities in looking at how our Economic Development Fund is being used. It seems that it is used only for the very, very large groups, and not only the microenterprise kinds of folks are not eligible, but what we hear from our local citizens is that I wouldn't qualify to get a.. . any kind of incentive, even though I'm a mid-size, perhaps a 50 or 60 employee kind of business and they want to know how they can, uh, also qualify for some economic development kinds of monies. Bailey/ I think Culver has expanded a lot of the program available, that this could be another expansion. Wilbum/ Welcome, Representative Jacoby, and if you'd stopped and gotten a pop or something, we might have made it all the way through the list, and you wouldn't have to (laughter). Jacoby/ I'll be right back then! Wilbum/ Thanks for coming, Dave. Expand Iowa Earned Income Tax Credit: Wilbum/ The.. . expand the Iowa Earned Income Tax Credit. I think, urn, urn, Amy, I think you brought this one up, but I think just general, uh, again, this is more consumer in a particular, providing support for low-income folks here in the community. We, as a Council, Iowa City's one of the few communities that will allocate part of our General Fund towards the human service programs, and so, again, this is just anything that would be helpful and beneficial for lower income folks to.. .public money in their pocket, and any other opportunities that they can have. Correia! I know the State did create a refundable credit this last year. Before we didn't have, Iowa didn't have a refundable credit, and other states have, and urn, so this is just, we support your efforts to continue to expand that. The City is involved in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 6 a multi-agency collaboration to make sure that folks that are eligible for the federal and state earned income tax credit are seek.. . are accessing the, urn, free volunteer income tax assistance program, urn, there's an effort that includes the Housing Authority and the Iowa City Public Library, the University of Iowa, Johnson County, the Neighborhood Centers and the Schools, to bring those student volunteers out into the community to help, urn, get those taxes filed for free, urn, that's for folks that make $39,000 households and below, urn, last year was the first year of that effort, and urn, there were twice as many folks received that free tax assistance, urn, and quite a bit of earned income tax credit, the federal, last year, so we'll be working on that. Mascher/ ...a family of four for $39,000. Correia! No. Households (unable to hear). Chang:e in Iowa Code 562A.12 (wrondul retention of landlord deposits): Wilbum/ Next up is change in Iowa Code 562A.12, wrongful retention oflandlord deposits. I know this is one that the, uh, University students had brought up, uh' Abbie's our third generation representative, so I guess I'll let you... V ollandJ Sure. This, uh, passed in the Senate last year, but didn't pass in the House. It was stalled and had amendments added to it that kind of ruined the integrity of the Bill, and so we're just looking at basically language to change so it doesn't have to be intentional wrongful, so that people can still get money back, even if it wasn't intentionally done wrong, and also increases the amount of money you can get back. That was written I believe in 1974, and so rents and deposits have increased dramatically since that time. So, we're just looking to change the language to make sure that people aren't getting predatory things happen to them by rental associations. Elliott! I've lived through this with a daughter and a grandson. It is real. It is very frustrating, and it's very irritating, and it should be stopped. Maintain Local Control Over Cable Franchising:: Wilburn! Maintain local control over cable franchising, uh, Dale, did you want to, did you have anything from the Commission related to this, or. . . Helling/ Not anything specifically from the Commission, but you're aware the cable legislation, or the.. .that passed last year, urn, and there's been some discussion, at least, and we can talk about it, maybe some legislation this year that might reverse some of the scope of that, in terms of particularly. ..in terms of, uh, whether or not it will result in effect a competition, which was the.. .was the, uh, sort of the upshot of what, you know, the Bill was about. Uh, we certainly don't believe that it will, and uh, that it does go a long way to erode the franchises that we've This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 7 negotiated with cable companies. Urn, so, our position would be that ifthere's any legislation that, uh, could mitigate some of.. .some ofthe harsher effects on the locals of that. . .ofthat legislation last year, that we were hoping you would support that. So... Tax Restructuring: (rollback. etc.): Wilburn! Tax restructuring, rollback. This is our annual plea to allow cities the, uh, opportunity to those of us that do experience growth to be able to, uh, realize the fruits of our labor, uh, in particular helping with our.. .our General Fund. Urn, I think there also.. .there were also just some concerns about general property tax reform relief associated with this. Vanderhoef/ It goes, uh, even further, that as you probably recall last year, towards the end of the session, in the last week - I can't remember which day it was - uh, the rollback floor was, uh' being offered to cities, but at the same time, uh, they tacked on the, uh, the whole idea of the condos and making them all residential, uh, which would have been disastrous to large cities, uh, some of our small cities didn't understand that, uh, piece of the legislation and couldn't understand after having, uh, lobbied for years to get, urn, either a floor or, uh, a freeze on it, but this was not going to help them out in the long run, and they probably don't have the understanding of how much rental they actually have, uh, in the condo, uh, opportunities. So that's one of them. Certainly in the tax restructuring, we need to continue to look at some of the tax that has been, uh, taken away from cities over the years, and one of them that, uh, several different groups have targeted, uh, is the real estate transfer tax, that used to come to cities and then was taken over by the state. I think that's one of them that, uh, housing groups have looked at, uh, of taking a percent of that. Certainly cities could, uh, use that same kind of thing, and it is a cost to us here to, uh, keep changing and rolling it over. So, urn, that's one I'd really like you to take a look at. Elliott! I'd be interested either now, or at.. .at the, after we run through this, if you could just give us a couple minutes of what appears to be the most reasonable approach to doing something regarding the rollback - freeze, change, percentages - that sort of thing. Enable Local Government to Reg:ulate Smoking: in Public Places: Wilbum/ Next up is enable local government to regulate smoking in public places. Urn, you recall Iowa City was one of two communities that established locally, uh, had passed a smoke-free ordinance. Uh, Ames may have left theirs on the book. We... we took ours off the books, but, uh, if, urn, there is general support on the City Council to at least allow cities and counties the authority to decide, uh, for themselves, uh, I guess a local home rule issue. I had, uh' a meeting with the statewide coalition of, urn, urn, the (unable to understand) organizations, urn, advocates against, urn, against smoking, and uh, they seemed to have pretty good This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 8 energy, pretty good support there. If you all need some support letters, contacts, urn, then those advocacy groups would be, uh, interested in. . .in working with you, urn, my conversations with some of the mayors from the top ten most populous communities all seemed to be, in general, supportive of the idea of the local control concept. Bailey/ Although last week I heard at the legislative forum that there might be some interest in passing a statewide smoking ban, and... Wilbum/ Which if we could join Illinois and Minnesota and etc., etc.. . Bailey/ .. .we could probably (laughter). Vanderhoef! Ames is out there right now with, uh' a look.. .they're looking at an ordinance just for the city to make the, all their parks, urn... Bailey/ Right, I saw that... Vanderhoef/ .. . smoke-free, so there's more and more push on the health issue of.. .of smoking, which, uh, we need to address somehow or another in this, uh, day and age. Support Passeng:er Rail Transportation Initiatives: A. Development of Local Commuter Rail B. Extension of Amtrak Service Into/Through Iowa Wilburn! Support passenger rail transportation initiatives, development of local commuter rail, and extension of Amtrak service into/through Iowa. I know with, uh, staff Jeff Davidson, uh, and I particularly had conversations related to the extension of Amtrak and, urn, you know, they have the study that's going, bringing it from Chicago through Illinois and into.. .into Iowa, and uh, one of the Amtrak representatives, urn, seemed to be hoping for some type of, uh, movement, initiative, some type of interest from the state. They said that that's helpful in terms of their effort, urn, with, urn, with the Feds related to Amtrak, urn, someone else wanted to speak to.. .Regenia... Bailey/ .. .letter from JCCOG in support of the study that's currently...is currently undertaking. This is something that's very. . . there's a lot of interest in the corridor, as you well know, and we'll be taking it out to the, to D.C. again... Wilbum/ Yep! Vanderhoef! National Amtrak, uh, study that, uh, was done, it's complete on the, uh, run from Chicago to Galena to, uh, Dubuque. Uh, sometime in the month of December they are expecting the complete the Amtrak study from, uh, Chicago to Davenport. Last year in the Illinois State Legislator, there was movement on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 9 putting, uh, direct funding from state coffers into upgrading the existing tracks, and getting that Amtrak over to the river. I think Iowa should be talking to the.. .the river cities, should be looking at doing some sort of funding. What the Amtrak studies are showing is that these routes that are 500 miles and less are very cost-effective and environmentally, uh, effective for, uh, transportation, both of freight and cars. As we well know through our own corridor of380 and 80, we are overloaded with, uh, trucks traveling to and from Chicago, as well as.. .as the locals, and it would behoove us to start, uh, looking in a big picture way of how we can move people and goods, and get rid of some of the cost of, uh, fuels and expansion of Interstate. When we look at, uh, our local CRANDIC route, uh, that is a possibility, which actually that, uh, CRANDIC goes all the way down to Riverside, very close to the casino. There's a piece ofthe track that has been removed, but the right-of-way is still there, between Hills and Riverside. Uh, when you look at the CRANDIC study that put out, uh, the dollar amount of, uh, $70 million to upgrade the CRANDIC, uh' you compare that to $400 million to add two more lanes of traffic onto 380 and it doesn't seem like, uh, a very hard question. What the question is is, in my mind, is whether the communities all the way along the route will, uh, take up land-use planning in that when you look at the successful rail, uh, routes, uh, across the nation, uh, I've ridden several of them. This summer I did all of the Portland, uh, routes, uh, everything from their downtown trolley system to their 17 -miles that goes way north and new communities that they're building out basically in corn fields, and uh, big industry that is going out there to be near, but we still have to keep in mind what the, uh, rail study of the early to mid 90's was that we needed a corridor with half a million people, which is a large nurnber of people, but if you count ridership, uh, to and from, uh' both business and pleasure, which is the model that they have used both in, urn, Bloomington- Minneapolis area and in the Portland area, uh, people get rid of their cars totally. I don't see that happening in our area, but certainly, urn, to keep corridors for expansion of multi-family housing and, uh, services, commercial services and large, uh' business opportunities with high, uh, employment should be kept in mind, and put into the economic development package, because we know that it will spur more and more economic development. Iowa City City Council and Iowa Leag:ue of Cities Shared Priorities: A. Alternative Revenues 1) Increasing the hotel/motel tax up to 9 2) Implementing a sales tax rebate for specifically defined economic development B. Infrastructure Funding 1) TIME-21 Committee a) Pickup truck registration fees b) Statewide sales tax and/or gas tax increase 2) State funding for water/wastewater infrastructure C. Economic Development Initiatives This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 10 1) Preserve or expand initiatives such as Vision Iowa, Great Places and Community Attractions 2) Prevent changes that would impair use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF) as an economic development tool D. Limit costs imposed on local government for police/fire pensions. 1) State support ofMFPRSI System Wilbum/ The next, uh, all of the items under 12 are, uh, priorities that, uh, we, uh, share with Iowa League of Cities, and I suspect you will be, if you haven't, you will be hearing those again at the meeting with the, uh, the, uh, East Central Iowa Forum in Coralville, urn, I'm just looking at time just to be respectful of your time, but if there are any particular one or two items with, that we share with the League that anyone wanted to emphasize or highlight. Several of these are related to, urn, finance related items that, uh, impact our ability to conduct, uh, our day-to-day business, or fund programs here locally in terms of the hotel/motel tax, the statewide sales tax, urn, even the economic development initiatives there. I think we all feel that these are important, urn, and in particular with cities, and our larger cities being the economic engines, uh, of the state, that the.. . that all of these items will greatly impact our ability to both, urn, not only be an attraction, but to support our.. . our fundamental infrastructure here, but if anybody wants to add to these. Vanderhoef/ I would just give you an update on the TIME-21 Committee meeting. They have set one more meeting for December 19th, 9:00 at the Supreme Court, uh, office in the Capitol. Uh, they are going back to their constituents and looking at, uh, four primary, uh, things that could bring them up to an income of, uh, the $200 million that they are aiming for, and that is increasing, uh, registration fees on vehicles, a gas tax of four cents, which would bring in $88 million; driver's license fees and increase on registration fees on pickups, uh, couple more that they're looking at, uh, that don't figure into that $200 million are raising the truck registration fees and a $3.00 surcharge on all driver's licenses. Wilbum/ Okay. I hope that gives you a flavor of what we're looking at. Urn, and then... Vanderhoef/ Can I add one more? Wilburn! Sure, go ahead. Vanderhoef/ Uh, something that isn't on our list, but we have talked to, about it in previous years, and it. . .it just pops up in the paper right now on the bottle bill, and I suspect this Council, I'll speak for myself - not for them, uh, but I suspect they might support this. The whole idea that we want to keep the bottle bill in place, uh, if it means getting another penny or a larger deposit. I think that is the way to go to make sure that we don't have to try and do it at the curbside, because only the large cities are going to be involved, I think, in much curbside recycling, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page II and I think we can water it down so much that it will be terribly ineffective. (several talking) Mascher/ No, what we were starting to do, Dee, was generating a list of all of the things we accomplished last year, and it was a pretty phenomenal year, legislatively, if you think about all of the things that we tried to do, where we have been met with brick walls and not been able to accomplish anything. So I started with a list, and I thought it might be nice to begin with reminding you of some of those things, that have an enormous impact on this community, and not that you don't remember, but it was an amazing time to be in the House and Senate, and to work with a Governor who had a vision of getting things accomplished and getting things done, and really being able to set our minds to it and get it done. So, I'm going to start with the increase in minimurn wage. We have worked and worked to try to get that done for literally.. .was it 20 years, Bob? How long's it been? (laughter) And haven't been able to get anything accomplished there, so to have that happen was phenomenal, and it wouldn't have happened had we not had control of all those branches. So, teacher's salaries to 25th in the nation. Urn, again, we slid down to 42nd and we were on the way to the bottom, and that has been something, again, that we have tried to reverse, and it's taken a lot oftime and effort and energy to accomplish that. Elliott/ It's unfortunate to brag about we're being adequate. Mascher/ Yeah. Elliott/ We're mediocre. Masher/ Well, and... Elliott! And brag about it. (laughter) Mascher/ And, Bob, the other thing is is that we used to be 20th in the nation. So to say that 25th is unrealistic, or you know, for a small state like Iowa we shouldn't be there, you're right. We should be in the top ten! Just because I think that's what education means here. We fully funded the General Fund for the University of Iowa, and the salary bill. That again has not been done in literally years. Dvorsky/ 1996. Mascher/ Thank you, Bob! I knew you'd know the year. Urn, increase the tobacco tax. That was something that, I know sitting in those chairs, again, we had people come to this chamber and ask us to do that, for literally.. .as long as I've been in the Legislature and longer for Bob, who's been there, he's our Senior Member, so, again, something that was monurnental in getting that accomplished. Urn, increasing funding for treatment programs for tobacco cessation programs. That's again something that we've said, if we're going to increase the tax, we're also This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 12 going to increase the opportunities for people to be able to quit smoking, and again, that ties into, urn, the whole issue of local control and being able to pass that. I would rather pass a statewide ban, and... thank you, we will work on that, and it's something if we, ifI had my druthers, but I'd rather do a local control issue if we can start some place. Dvorsky/ We did $1.00 cigarette tax, so I think the view was sort of in Des Moines was, we did the dollar tax, we're not going to do others. So that was an enormous step forward to all public health. Mascher/ I'll keep going. Stem cell research, we lifted the ban. That has an enormous impact on this community, in terms of research dollars. And again, something that I think has long-lasting impact on Iowans, in terms of being able to not only have the research occur here, but also to get the treatment here, because what we were able to do was to do the research, but you couldn't apply it to the bedside. Urn, ill Center for Stem Cell Research, uh, we fully funded that particular building, and uh, again, I think it's going to have an impact on this particular area. The four-year-old preschool bill, urn, we're already seeing some very positive effects of that, for kids in this community who wouldn't have had those opportunities otherwise, and we know it has an enormous impact on them when they get to school, in terms of their ability to learn. Urn, Bob, with Bob's help and the help of, obviously, our House Members and the Governor, we balanced a State Budget, and again, I think that's an enormous accomplishment. We are required to do that by law, but we did that and had money left over, so, urn, and are able to carry monies into reserve accounts that we have been unable to fulfill in a long time, whether it's a Senior Living Trust, uh, the tobacco monies, you know, all ofthose have been monies that we've been taking dollars from, and not re.. . you know, putting money back into those. Urn, the Power Fund, the Civil Rights Bill, the bull, the Anti-bullying Bill, all of those are things that we have talked about for a long time, and I think are important to people in this community, as well, and then, Amy, in terms of that, urn, the whole issue ofIowa Earned Income Tax Credit. That, again, was something that never would have seen the light of day, had it not been for those who have been advocating for that for a long time, and obviously will work to continue to, uh, move in the right direction with helping more Iowans who, uh, obviously aren't aware of it. So, uh, I think those are things. . . the rest of you, if you have others to add. Dvorsky/ I have a couple more things on these other initiatives, 'cause, uh, Senator Hogue likes to make a list of things, and he has these 77, I believe, uh' initiatives we passed this year. That's just the start of what we did. I mean, it was really phenomenal what we did this last year, and I think a lot of people don't understand totally what we did, because a lot of it was in appropriations bills at the end of the session, and the press missed it and other people missed it, and now it's sort of dribbling out, but if you take it in total, it's the most productive session I've ever been in in 20-plus years, and the more and more you hear about it, I think more and more people should be impressed and know about it. So, but on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 13 your questions here, there are four or five ofthese we did do initiatives this last year. Not maybe to the level everybody wanted. That's what I'm sort of amazed at, after the session. You know, we did the biggest increase, I think, in the earned income tax credit, ever, but that's not enough, I guess. So, I mean, we need to move forward. Well, I mean it. I don't...I don't know what... Wilburn! I think it goes back to Mary's comment about education. You know, you had a certain threshold that you're proud of and to drop below that, it's frustrating to. . . Dvorsky/ For years, but I mean, this is, we gave the Regents the largest increase they've ever had, $25 million. That, you know, and then the other.. .the other areas that, uh, where buildings are being built in, uh, well, one in Coralville, and I guess the, two in Coralville, and the rest in Iowa City. The College of Public Health is going to be built. The new. . . new Campus Recreation and Wellness Center. These are all kind of groundbreakings I remember. The Center for Biomedical Discovery, which is one with the stem cell research. Those are three right there that are going to be going on. Enormous construction projects, in Iowa City, to bring jobs in Iowa City, and it will bring people working here, and then the two in Coralville will be the Hygienic Lab and then this research facility that's part University and part private research facility. So there's enormous amounts of construction and things going on, and fully funding the salary bill is an enormous thing for the University of Iowa and everybody that works for it there. So any increase in salary, they'll get the legitimate increase in salary they were entitled to, that they haven't gotten in several years. That will also benefit all our other employees, like people at the prison, at Oakdale, that haven't been able, some of them who've been there several years haven't been able to take off vacation because there's not enough staff there. Now we fully funded salaries so they can hire enough FTE's so they can actually take a vacation. All sorts of things that went on because of the initiatives we did. Uh, but, to your questions here, the uh, State Housing Trust Fund they've been working on for years, uh' I think that there are a couple things structurally that should help this time, and we did go up, uh, half a million dollars this year, uh, from previous years. So, we are moving forward on that, but they've hired a lobbyist and he's also a lobbyist for the City of Coralville, so that should be helpful to work together on moving forward on that. So, that.. .that should help, and this is...a lobbyist should actually be able to get some things done. So that's.. . that' 11 be helpful. Utility programs to promote energy efficiency, uh, Senator Hogue is moving forward, uh, and Senator Hogue grew up in Iowa City, so people know.. .will be moving forward on global warming and other energy efficiency things. So that's another one of his 29-point programs, but... but he, if you can send him information, it might be really helpful, because he's the one who's really spearheading those efforts to make everything green. Uh, and a lot ofthe energy efficiency and other things too. Uh, we expanded the Iowa Earned Income Tax Credit, made it refundable. That was an initiative Senator Bolkum and I have been promoting for a long time. Finally got that in place, and it was actually signed here. It was signed at the.. .at the Senate Chamber in the Old Capitol with the Governor, so that's.. . uh, support This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 14 passenger rail, transportation initiatives. For the first time, I don't ever maybe, we signed the Midwest Rail Pact, which is really important. It's a minor amount of money, but ask Elliott Keller if you want to know how important that is, uh, to move that forward, and Elliott's on a statewide group with DOT talking about railroads. I also suggested they appoint Josh Schamberger to that group, that he can really add a lot to there also. Uh, let's see, other things, other initiatives that we did do. Urn, the other initiatives, I do have a question at the end of the legislative issues, but some of these things we have dealt with and are moving forward with, but so, anyway, and the smoking. ..status ofthat, the.. .the Senate sort of messed up the preemption a little bit. We exempted, uh, fraternal organizations, somehow that amendment got on, it shouldn't have got on, but, and then sent it over to the House and so the bill's in the House right now on, uh, getting rid of the preemption on regulating smoking (unable to hear). I hope, don't know what'll happen in the House, I hope if it... we can get something back that's a decent bill, or maybe it'll change again in the Senate. Wilbum/ I'm sorry, Bob. Is that a, is that a local or is it a statewide? Dvorsky/ No, it's (several talking) Wilbum/ Okay, yep. Mascher/ But the problem we've got in the House is that we've got Members who are starting to tack on all of these exemptions. Wilbum/ Right. Mascher/ And as soon as you do that, the weight of that, I mean, some of us may not support it because of that, and one of them's casinos. You know, they feel like if they eliminate it from casinos that it will completely shut casinos down, which is (laughter) which is not true, but at the same time, there seems to be an addiction issue going on with both smoking and gambling together, and I don't know, the alcohol seems to come in there too because (unable to hear) Tama doing alcohol too? Elliott! That's three for one! Mascher/ I know! I know. Three addictions in one there, right. Lensing! Urn, some of these, and I'm trying to remember, the landlord deposit that got stuck on our side, I think came through Judiciary, and I'm trying to remember Rick Olsen's argurnent against it. I mean, how he was trying to change it. We held on as long as we could to that, so we'll be glad to take it up again, but I almost think it needs to go through a different committee. Because we've got, we've got too many attorneys on that committee (laughter and several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 15 Jacoby/ ...I thought we had him moving forward, but apparently.. .maybe he moved in the wrong direction, but anyway, he was, he had a lot of questions, and they talked to him. Actually, Representative Palmer, Palmer's another attorney, uh, has the bill in the House and that subcommittee, so you might want to see where he's at. He's very helpful on that. Wilburn! You say Palmer? Jacoby/ Yes, Representative Eric Palmer from, uh, Oskaloosa. Lensing! Urn, that cable franchise bill, I don't think.. . any of us voted, oh, maybe you did. Jacoby/ Joe did. Lensing! I was going to say, I don't think the four of us did, so I don't know how we can, and I mean, and I'm sorry it got through and I'm sorry it got signed, so I guess I'd be interested in what you'd like changed and how we could maybe even tweak it. Helling! Probably the most extensive thing is the option the cable companies have when competition comes into the community. They're issued a state franchise, which is much, much weaker than any of the local franchises. It's not clear, and we've sent some information to the IUB about the rule making, but essentially if somebody comes in and says they're going to go into business and offer competition, and they apply for a state franchise, then the local, urn, franchisee has a certain amount of time, they can come in and ask for the same thing, and it basically negates the franchises. Urn, it's more complicated than that even, because it's coupled with all, everything that's going on at the federal level, in terms of the FCC and.. .and the way they're approaching things, but the FCC has, at least in some cases, urn, given up jurisdiction for.. .over those franchises that are covered by a state agreement, like we have. So, we're not sure of the total impact, but the.. .the impact right now, and the primary one, is that a lot ofthe things that we've negotiated in our franchise, particularly, uh' the things in favor of customer service and that, are.. . are in jeopardy, along with some ofthe funding that we get from the cable companies. Uh, we don't have anybody here (coughing) but when that happens, uh, Mediacom locally could opt for that same type of franchise and it would make a huge difference. Dvorsky/ Frankly, there's got to be some way to get support in the rest of the state, because I think the second time the bill came over to the Senate we had most votes against it, can't remember how many it was, but the rest of the state just isn't.. ..you know, I have a lot of cable operation in my district, so that was...I mean, the people paid attention and sent letters and that, but I don't think that was true at all in (noise on mic). Mascher/ And, Dale, what we kept hearing was that Iowa City had the Cadillac, in terms of the best of cable, local cable programming, and channels. We had more This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 16 channels than practically anybody else too, and that I think, I don't know that that worked against us, but a lot of people don't have that kind of quality to compare it to, which is what Bob's talking about. And so they don't know what it's like to have a government channel, and a...a library channel and to have all of that available to you. They're just happy to have cable, right! Helling! No, that's right, and a lot of... Mascher/ .. .kind of spoiled, and at the same time, we value that. Helling! Yeah, and a lot of them don't have, or enforce the customer service regulations that we've got. Lensing! Urn, the bottle bill. You know, we worked on that. We have a study going on, but urn, and I'm sorry. The, it was a watered-down version because, urn, we don't have a lot of support, but there are other local groups that I have met with that. .. that feel like you do about the bottle bill, and I don't think anything will happen next year, but you know how slowly things move, so I think, you know, we've got to plant those seeds because we're up against some strong opposition on that. Urn, so we'll keep working on it. So it's out there, and I don't think the study will come back with anything truly revealing, but it was what we had to settle for to at least get something going, and keep talking about it. Vanderhoef/ Thank you. Jacoby/ I also think it was a tremendous year, in looking through some of the list here, there's some things we'd like to work on. One thing bout the microenterprise development, uh, one of the people I talk to often is John Lohman from the Corridor Business Journal, and his frustration years ago is when he started up, was the fact that it didn't fall under one of the platforms, it wasn't the top five, so he was kind of edged out of any, uh, help directly from DED. MyselfI'm a business startup this year with my brother, and because we're not a biotech business we're not on the radar screen. So I can, I understand that directly, it kind of frustrates, well, we're trying to start something up. We're going to hire some IT people, but, uh, if it doesn't fall under biotech, then they kind of shrug and walk away. So, if you're not going to hire eleven to fifty people over the next two years, then you're not in that upper peninsula, where they're going to say, 'If you hire a hundred people,' there'll be headlines in the paper that we're going to help you, but, I.. .the future of what we do for health insurance, for jobs is going to be the microenterprise. It's going to be people that are self-employed or small employers. So Tyler Olsen and I are working on a couple things to avert some of the dollars to help microenterprise on a larger scale. Changes in the code for landlord deposits, of interest, recently a Coralville gentleman who used to be the ticket manager for the University of Iowa, and moved to Florida to be the ticket manager there at the University of Florida, went through holy heck with his landlord when he left. As a matter of fact, it's nice to have, no offense to students This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 17 who are very important to us, but also some other people who have gone through this, where he gave his notice, his house.. .because his daughter and my daughter are friends, was spotless. I mean, it was in my humble opinion, better than the shape he moved in a couple years ago and he went through the same wrestling match for his deposit. I mean, it was an awful wrestling match, and.. . and those are the kind of people we want to team with, but there's also some good landlords, locally, that we want to team with them too. And I've talked to a couple of them, and they're very willing to sit down if you haven't talked to them already. Uh, the cable bill, no, I didn't vote for that. 1...1.. .well, there's pieces of the bill that I saw could increase competition. I don't know about anybody in this room, raise your hand if your cable bills gone down? That's what I thought. At least as of yet, cable bills have not decreased. My concern is the local government channels, but also, uh' an access to start some of these government channels, that many of our smaller communities do not have, uh, it's.. .as people at this table would know, and people that are participating today, a lot of people watch those channels. And it's very informative for them, and that's how they become informed on what's happening in local government. I think, uh, we have a good local company, uh, South Slope out at North Liberty, that will, once the rules go through rules review, will see, uh, some real effect. Whether or not that that's going to help our communities or not. I know North Liberty will be the barometer, but I think they're eager to do some good things, and level out some rates, so we'll see what happens with South Slope out of North Liberty. It was.. .Bob did mention about the Midwest Rail Pact. My name has been on that bill since I've been in Des Moines. It was exciting this year to get it through with everyone's help here. I think it'll... Dvorsky/ Kind of interesting that one of the reasons it actually got through in the Senate was Senator Kibbie who's President of the Senate, from a rural area up in Northern Iowa, was promoting it, and the reason is they have a bunch of ethanol plants and they need the rail service. So I thought that was kind of interesting that that's what.. . all of a sudden he's interested in that. So... Lensing! We haven't talked about property tax. Don't we have an interim committee? Jacoby/ We do have an interim committee working on the property taxes and suggestions. I mentioned it at our.. .at our, uh, League of Cities meeting that there's.. .there's a little, well, people aren't getting real excited yet because this has been on the table since 1947 or whatever. I think it's 1947 (several commenting).. .so 1937 (laughter).. .however long Wally's been in, but I think around 40.. .well, whatever it is, uh, I don't think.. .I think there will be some significant help for commercial from this commission. It will not result in a freeze of residential rollback. I don't think it will result in the decoupling of Ag and residential, and I don't think you'll see an incremental decrease in commercial, in terms of setting it at 92 or 94, uh, I'm still interested in working on that, making some larger scale changes, but whether or not it gets any movement, we'll have to wait and see. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription ofthe November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 18 Mascher/ Dave, can you talk about specifics, in terms of it doesn't push it on property owners. J acoby/ Correct. It...it absolutely does not push it on residential property tax owners. In fact, it's.. .as I understand it, I've only seen some ofthe ideas coming from it, is based on new, and new commercial, and helping them grow, expanding the business base, and then keeping the rollback in place. Now, I struggle with rollback too, but in our areas, everyone knows here, uh, our growth offsets some of the rollback every year. The frustration is that we deal with it year to year. I wish there was a way that if we could even freeze or hold rollback for two or three years, it helps you plan your budgets much better. Also what we're.. .what I've heard a lot though too is more people are paying attention to their property tax bill. They're actually looking at the lines on there, saying well.. .you know, I'm sorry, I'll say it again, the one thing that rolls back when you talk about residential rollback is people's eyes, because no one thinks that they're not paying enough residential, single-family home, uh' but whatever your situation is, but it's that tax stacking that we kind of have in our area because we have a surtax for K- 12, the levy for community colleges, uh, all the communities pass bond issues for pools, libraries, uh, once you start adding those on, then suddenly that tax rate does take a little jump over just the residential rollback, nonfloor if you will, so I think.. .you know, with that tax stacking we have to keep, be mindful of that when we're looking at those too, that each one of those items, hell yes I voted for it. I wanted the new library, I wanted a new pool for the kids, I wanted good schools so I'll pay the surtax, but then when you get your total bill, then it's a little tougher sale to say, 'hey, Jacoby family, you need to pay $500 more a year.' I think that would be a little difficult down the line, and... Mascher/ On that point, haven't there been more appeals than ever, in terms of both at the city level and the county level, on people's property tax assessments? I thought they were.. . (several talking).. .just commercial? 'Cause I thought it was residential too. Helling! I'm not sure. Jacoby/ Yes, I heard from Linn County that residential is up, and one thing I've actually heard more this year than ever before is, heck yes I'd sell for that price. Most of the time people have said, and I think the valuations are close, but that's one thing I've heard this year, more than previous years on the Coralville Councilor at the state level, is people saying, you know, before they'd say, 'great, my house is valuating.' Now they're saying, 'whoa, ifI could sell it for that right now I might do that.' So that's part ofa concern I have too, but I think this commission that's working now is.. .before we've always gone in, there's no losers. Well... Wilbum/ I'm sorry. Are you on that interim committee? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 19 J acoby/ No, Tyler Olsen is. It meets parallel with a couple other committees I'm on so I sneak in there and listen for a little while. Mascher/ But isn't that a 2-year commission? So they probably won't do anything big this year, because we won't have their... Dvorsky/ The one thing they may do this year is they're talking about, and this is an initiative from Mr. Prosser who is the Administrator of Cedar Rapids, that he has this, what do they call it, David? Smart Growth Initiative, or some such thing, and at least the Linn County.. . some of the Linn County representatives, uh, think this might go through. It would be sort of a pilot program in maybe some larger cities, and I assume that Iowa City would probably be eligible under that, but I think you might want to see what they're talking about, see if you have an opinion on it, on what they want to put in place. Cedar Rapids really feels they're in a bind and they really need to move forward on some of these things. One of the big property owners in Cedar Rapids that took Cedar Rapids, or took the county to court on their assessment was Rockwell Collins. And they had to cut a deal there. And you know Coral Ridge Mall did that here too, so there're apparently a lot oflaw firms out there now that that's one of the jobs they're doing (laughter) taking these counties and cities on. J acoby/ But, on that note, those really hurt the school districts. Because what happens is it's retroactive, so the school may have already had obligated funds, or encumbered funds, that are spent and have to go back. That happened in, with College Community School District, and ADM, and so it meant a different of a quarter million that they had to go back. So it's one thing to contest it. It's another thing as we all know with school budgets and local budgets to have to go back. Elliott/ All that's right, but it's tough to swallow when the state tells you, or the city tells you, your house is worth X-more dollars, when you've had it up for sale for lower than that for six months and it isn't moving. Jacoby/ Well, we're talking about commercial, but I agree on the, and that's what I was referring to earlier. It might be the first time I've heard neighbors say, you know, for years, 'oh, I'm glad it's valuating.' They're saying, 'I'd sell it for that, if! could get that, I'm gone today.' So... Dvorsky/ The other thing they're looking at on property taxes, and David could probably explain this, so I'll just throw it out there and he can explain it. It is that in, what three or four years, there's going to be this bubble when Ag land starts creeping up and it's going to be... they would call it a "boondoggle" in city government. Some people would, I wouldn't, but.. .might want to look at that, because various groups have thrown that around and are saying that's why you have to have something structured in city government. Probably didn't realize you were going to get that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 20 Vanderhoef/ The land, uh, prices in northwest Iowa, at least, uh, the sales over the summer, uh, look much higher. Some areas saw as much as ten percent increase in land price because of the corn, and uh, corn suitability. Jacoby/ My theory is after the Farm Bureau sees this for a while they're going to come to the table, which I don't think will be until 2009, but if you're going to change the property tax system in Iowa (several talking) need the Farm Bureau at the table. Maybe in 2009 they'll be there. Mascher/ Are you still looking at local option sales tax? Is that, because I thought I had seen that in the paper recently. Wilburn! Well, probably what you saw in the paper was, uh, I had asked for.. .or a couple had asked for it to be put on a work session, and uh, one of the newspapers, editorial boards, said, uh, it's okay to discuss it, but don't spend more than six minutes with it. (laughter) So that didn't really get us anyway, and we haven't had an opportunity to sit down with the new Council to talk about whether or not, so it's a pending future, perhaps a pending future work session item. Ifnot, one of the (several talking) I wanted to make sure we got, uh, Eleanor brought up an item with the committee that I think - interim committee that you're on, Vicki, related to open meetings, open records. Is there anything you wanted to comment on with that, Eleanor? Dilkes/ No, Ijust wanted you to be aware of the bill that Professor Bonfield had drafted, particularly the walking quorums issue, because I think that's...I just wanted you to know that's out there because I think it would significantly.. .if it would become law, would significantly impact how, whether you can talk to each other outside of. . . Mascher/ Eleanor, explain that a little bit more, because I know Vicki's on that committee. Dilkes/ Urn, the walking...I think there are states, some states, that prohibit this already, but the walking quorums issue is, urn, you know, right now we'd always tell you you can't be in a group of.. .ofmore than three of you talking, unless we've noticed a meeting, and the walking quorums issue is, you know, Connie talks to Ross alone, uh, Ross then talks to Mike, Mike then talks to Matt, Matt then talks to etc., and if there is an intent by that transaction to create a consensus on an issue, and there's different languages. There's a couple different proposals that Professor Bonfield has given, then that's a meeting and is prohibited, because obviously you're not going to notice that meeting. I don't' think... this is not Professor Bonfield's recommendation. It's what I understand to be his direction from the committee, to draft a walking quorum proposal. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 21 Lensing! His suggestion was, a way to get around that, would be that when whatever body it was that took a vote, they had to explain why they were voting, each individual had to explain why they were voting that way, so that you would understand, even if there were conversations, everyone got there by whatever method, and I don't the committee, not everyone on the committee, was supportive of, and I think.. .we have our next meeting in two weeks? Or in one week? Dilkes/ I think December li\ maybe. Lensing! To go over all ofthis again, and.. . and I said to Regenia, you know, part of this was that bad apples, urn, some local, who were cited. You know, it was interesting, because a lot of the poor examples are how the law had been abused, urn, was either the University or the Board of Regents, and so you could really see how the law didn't work, urn, but then in trying to fix that, but keep it broad enough, because when you're talking about, for example, urn, a county board of supervisors that's only three supervisors. What does that mean? You know, how does it impact them, so I mean, I think the discussions are still going on, not to make it too tight, but also to make sure we reign in where there has been problems. So.. .so I would say if you have suggestions or concerns, please let me know. Wilburn! I guess the example you gave, what you might have been discussing, but there's no support essentially would like an Ex-Parte communication, if those type of conversations happen, as long as it was disclosed at the vote that I spoke to Connie. Is that what you're getting at? Lensing! Yeah, the example that Eleanor was using. He was trying. . .Professor Bonfield was trying to, well, if this is what you're going for, maybe this is how we can get to an end. Uh, but I think that the idea. . . the example you gave is exactly right, because what happens is, sometimes.. .what's the point of having a meeting if it's all been decided in these conversations. Not that that happens here, but in other communities that has happened, so it was well, how do we kind of, you know, reign that in, and so, but that was one of the pieces of that bill that he had the hardest time drafting. Dilkes/ Yeah, he gave two versions. He gave two versions of it. I think it would be a really, I mean, I think you would be.. .as your legal advisor, I think I'd be in the position of having to say you need to be very cautious about communicating with one another outside.. .because it's based on whether your.. . you have an intent to try and form a...a coalition, so to speak, when you're having that communication. At the same time, it's going to be really difficult to enforce, I think, urn, but.. .but I just wanted you to be aware of it, so you knew it was... Wilburn! Thank you, Eleanor. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26, 2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 22 Vanderhoef/ How is this different than the sunshine law that, uh, prevails in California and Arizona and Texas, New Mexico? Dilkes/ Well, I'm not familiar with those specific laws, but I know there are some states, like Florida, I think particularly, where they have very, very broad open meetings and open records rules that have few exceptions. Vanderhoef/ Well, the California, Arizona, Texas ones are very strict, is my understanding of. Only speak to, uh, three so if you are out as an individual councilor and you're trying to, uh, influence your Council, or get them up to speed, you.. . you look at all of them, and in this case in Iowa City, uh, I could talk to two total, so if I were trying to push something, I would talk to two people who I didn't think would support, uh, the initiative, and work with them to give them more information trying to sway them, and you wouldn't ever talk to the people that you would, uh, hopefully have for your supporter. Wilbum/ We'll have to give that some more thought. We're kind of run...I want to be respectful of your time, but uh, maybe make a note of that and we can take a look at that ourselves. There was one other. . . Dvorsky/ I just had a question. I understand that the ten largest cities in the state are going together and have some sort of an organization to sort of, I hope sort of assist the League of Cities in their operation. Wilbum/ Yeah, in fact, we have a work session item later on. The concept, uh, that the mayors and city managers have been talking about is to actually form a non- partisan organization that's sort of structured after, I think there's some groups in Minnesota and some other areas, but there's two things that are actually written into, there's a draft agreement that, uh, I had hoped to have a final copy of, but the Des Moines City Attorney wasn't able to make our modifications to it in time. He hopes to get it to us by this weekend, but urn, it. . .it involves the ten most populous, uh, cities, and for the purpose of trying to work together on issues that are, uh, perhaps unique to the larger cities. The other. . . the other part of that is that you have to be.. .have to be a member of the Iowa League, because no one wanted to be perceived as people pulling out of the League of Cities, so that... that was another thing that you have to be a member, and then to look at trying to hire a lobbyist, and again, to work in collaboration with. . . Dvorsky/ I think it would be helpful if you worked with the League of Cities. I mean, they're hiring two new lobbyists, and a new executive director, as you all know, and, you know, even with two lobbyists, there're so many issues and there's 953 cities or whatever it is. Trying to represent all of those is difficult. But... work together with them, that would be really helpful, because two people that are (unable to hear). Urn, it's almost impossible for them to cover all the regions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators. November 26,2007 City Council Meeting With Legislators Page 23 Wilbum/ Right, and that's.. . and that's the intent, in fact, there have been conversations about, uh, about if this comes together, to perhaps lease some space, some actually physical space, uh, from the League so that they are all together and working together. Dvorsky! There is an analogy, maybe to the urban education network, but I'm not sure that's a good analogy. Mascher/ Well, the other is our chambers. . . Wilburn! That was the other thing that came up. Mascher/ .. . and has been for, how many years, I don't even know, but they come together and have a unified agenda and a unified, urn, I'm not saying they're always successful, but they have been able to accomplish some things, and... Wilburn! And.. .that was part of the conversation too (several talking) that was part of the conversation, to walk with the Chamber Alliance, but in particular there may be some issues that, uh' some ofthe larger, uh' chambers that represent some of the more urban areas, uh, to, uh, help, uh, lend emphasis and support to that, but, uh, again, I'll be talking about, to this Council, about the concept later on, and I'm supposed to go back and let, uh, the rest know whether.. .how, if Iowa City would be willing to consider a resolution in support, but we'll keep you posted. Dvorsky/ I would suggest.. .or recommend that you keep my Mayor (unable to hear). Wilbum/ I had a conversation with him last Wednesday, at our, uh, at our radio show. And I told him, as soon as we, and again, I had hoped to have a coy of the final proposal, but, uh, urn, he and I had a conversation last week and then had an initial conversation back in, uh, September, so I'm keeping him up to date. Mascher/ Just to let you all know when we sit down together as a legislative delegation, and also invite Cedar Rapids - it's a corridor group - and we oftentimes work with the chamber in doing this, but we often go through and identify each and every one of these issues, and look for where do we put that and which committees and how do we get that accomplished, so we'll take these back, as well, and sit down and kind of dole out responsibilities, because we're all on different committees and all have different expertise in terms of where we can actually get something accomplished. So, just to let you know, it doesn't end here, and uh, we will be doing that, and we meet on a regular basis to talk about those issues and to try to get things done. Wilburn! Thank you all very much. Really appreciate, even the walk through of where we've been the past year is very helpful, a good reminder. So, thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the November 26, 2007, City Council of Iowa City Meeting with Area Legislators.