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ITEM 2. STUDENT LEADERSHIP AWARDS — Hoover Elementary
Hayek: Would our student from Hoover Elementary please come forward. (several
talking off mic) Are you James?
Tinkham: Yes!
Hayek: Hi! I'm Mayor Hayek. Nice to meet you!
Tinkham: You too.
Hayek: So, uh, stand right here and why don't you look out at the audience.
Tinkham: Okay.
Hayek: Um, so, uh.... James, we're ... we're really thrilled to have you here and we just kind
of explain how this works. At every City Council meeting during the school year
we get student leaders from the various elementary schools in Iowa City, uh, who
are identified by their schools as leaders in those schools and get to bring 'em
down here and show you off a little bit and brag about you a little bit, and I know,
uh, I think it's Jocelyn, uh, is ... was also supposed to be here but ... but couldn't be
here and we'll make sure we ... we get to her as well. So it's just you that we get to
shine the spotlight on. Um, but, uh... uh, the way this works is I've got an award I
want to read to you. Um, but first we'd like to hear from you and I see you
brought your piece of paper, so that's the first thing! So if you want to just read
into here I'll kind of hold it and tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tinkham: Okay! Hello, my name is James Tinkham and I want to thank the City Council
for recognizing student leadership at our school. I was surprised to be
chosen... chosen by my teacher, Mr. Kosier, because so many of my classmates are
great leaders and nice people too. My teacher says that I work hard and that I am
helpful to others. I participate in band, soccer, and ELP. I am grateful to have
gone to a school ... to school at Hoover, where I've had many great classroom
teachers, all seven years. I would also like to thank Zac Wedemeyer from
Taproot; Mr. Machalski, my band teacher; Ryan Ben ... Ryan Bentzinger and Tony
Carter, my art ... art mentors; and my soccer coaches, Jose Melendez and Geraldo
Garza for giving me so much encouragement to be a more confident and creative
person; and to Mary Palmberg, who has taught me about generosity and
compassion by taking me to volunteer at Free Lunch and other programs that
serve our community. Thank you for this award. (applause)
Hayek: Well that was great and one of the, uh, we are continually amazed by when young
people come to the City Council meetings like you are is how much you're doing
as a sixth grader. I bet I speak for everybody up here when I say you are doing,
and leaders like you, are doing more than we ever did, uh, back in the day. It's
just incredible how you keep up with everything and do all the things you do for
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your school and for your community. Um ... this is a special one for me — two of
my, uh, kids are at Hoover now and I see Principal Harnack out there, and uh, he's
a great Principal. It's a great school. Um, I know your ... your family's here and
uh, the people who support you, some of the names you mentioned, maybe they're
here, but if not I know they're.... they're probably watching and eager to hear how
this goes. Um, but it's a real honor for us and that's why we have these awards,
and so I'm going to read this award for you, James, and it reads as follows. It's
called a Student Leadership Award and it says: (reads award). James, I'm going
to hand this to you and let me shake your hand and congratulate you, and as I say
to everybody — you're welcome to stick around or you can go home and do
homework. (laugher and applause) Congratulations! (applause)
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ITEM 3. PROCLAMATIONS ITEM
3a National Native American Heritage Month — November
Hayek: (reads proclamation)
Karr: Here to accept the proclamation is Human Rights Commissioner Joe Coulter.
(applause)
Coulter: On behalf of our native community here in Iowa City and our native students at
the University, uh, wanted to thank the Commission for this proclamation
recognizing National Native American Heritage Month. Uh (mumbled) language
we say native american. Thank you, thank you very much!
Hayek: Thank you, Joe Dan. (applause)
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ITEM 5. COMMUNITY COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA).
Hayek: This is the opportunity at each City Council meeting for members of the audience
to address the Council on items that are not on the agenda. If there's something
that is not on tonight's agenda that you would like to bring to our attention, we ask
that you come forward. We ask that you sign in, verbally give us your name, and
please keep your comments to five minutes or less.
Gravitt: As usual I don't have any luck with this, uh, thing. My name is Mary Gravitt and
I'm here ... to ... to speak about the presentation that Dennis made, Dennis
Bockenstedt made last week, and everybody hopped on it and uh, used it becau...
he talked about the ... the, uh, triple-A rating that Moody's gave the City. Now, it
was very interesting, the presentation was very interesting in that he went
through ... the whole spiel. But it came to part in the ... in the speech where there
was some challenges, and the challenges were from Moody's, and the Moody's
challenges were that the smaller tax base, and the lower socio-economic
indicators relative to sim... similarly rated entities. Now when he was talking
about the lower socio-economic indicators, Dennis was showing this ... this was
Moody's idea. He was al ... that is code for the Chicago people, and I saw ... I
wanted to, uh, we make a lot of emphasis on the downtown, but we don't notice
Lower Muscatine where you got Oral-B, P&G, and all of that, those factories out
all the way to 420t` Street, and those peop... those factories send for these so-called
Chicago people that seem to bother everybody. But ... it's about race and
economics, and this is what we have to get along here, because those factories
cannot operate without the Chicago people. Because when they ... they, if you ... if
you ride the Mall bus, you understand what I mean. When it goes down Lower
Muscatine and it parallels with 6, you go all those industries and those people are
needed, and so we have to figure out how we going to get along, or we just going
to talk about those people? And how they're going to be counted out, cause those
people are black people and they're new and they're from Chicago! Like I said, I
can't get this ... the ... I wanted to demonstrate on here, but I can't get this thing to
operate. So you ... when you go down Highway 6 and you start going all the way
down the street, you go up on ... on the, on 6 itself where there's a bus stop, but no
bus shelter. It's very scary out there when you go down Highway 6. I forgot the
name — it's a housing, uh, development out there. And these people didn't get here
by accident. They were lured here. Section 8 lured them here, and the City's
Section 8 is five, ten years. Here it's every six months. And they were lured here
and promised social amenities and so forth. I know all ... everybody is no angel.
Some people I don't want living next door to me, and I know some people don't
want some of them living next door to them. I'm saying 'them.' I am part of
'them,' although I'm not from Chicago. I'm from Philadelphia. These people,
these job creators in those factories wanted a semi -literate work force that
wouldn't unionize. So ... this is why they lured 'em out here! And it ... like Hillary
Clinton said, the ... the capitalism created the middle class. No! Unions created
the middle class, the weekend, and the 8 -hour work, uh, day. So that we have
to ... make adjustments cause they're not going anywhere, and you need those
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people. Downtown is glitzy! But out on Highway 6, that's where the money is.
Those people have put down their roots here. And you don't have to worry about
everybody living up in the sky and the bottom line full of empty space. So, if you
want to increase the tax base, there's a lot of things the City's gonna have to do —
affordable housing, that's one thing. Gotta have affordable housing. And that
will increase the tax base because if you own a house, I'm sure you payin' real
estate taxes, and then you have to ... have appropriate public space, and in the
public schools, clean up, fix up, paint up campaign because some of these people
believe it or not lived on the 20'h floor and they didn't know what the ground
looked like. So that they don't understand certain things. You pick up your trash.
You start from K to 12 and, uh... and you need affordable housing, and you make
investigations, and we ... and we need each other. We're gonna have this triple-A.
We need each other and we need cooperation. And we need a police athletic
league for the youth, because the youth are always gonna be troublesome, if they
have no place to go and nothing to do. And then we have to have some free
membership to the Rec Center, especially in the summer. The City did it one
time; they can do it again.
Hayek: Miss Gravitt, you're at five minutes. I'll need you to wrap up, please.
Gravitt: Okay! My thing is ... the Chicago people ain't going nowhere. You need them
more than you need to develop downtown, because you need jobs. There's more
to triple-A than glitz, and by the way, I do not dislike Marc Moen. I like rich
people. Nobody is mad with Marc Moen. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments.
Adams: (mumbled, noises in background) Okay, my name, uh, is, uh, Adil Adams, owner
of American Taxi. Uh, first I would like to, uh, congratulate new Members of the
City Council who elected, uh, last week. And also 1 would like to thank the
Mayor for respond to my letter last time and today have another issue. Uh, this
issue (mumbled) company's as taxi driver, which is the Night Ride. Uh, Night
Ride is mini -buses operate, uh (mumbled) on this Night Ride, perhaps in
downtown where we stand and pick up passengers and drop (mumbled) no pay.
Uh, many company like my company, they affected with this service because it's
free. Uh... Night Ride can operate as the buses, we don't mind to operate as a
buses, like, uh, Compass bus, blue route and ... red (mumbled) red route. They
have route. This Compass, I think they done by midnight. Why not this, uh,
many buses operate on the same route of the Compass, they close ... rather than
bothering us as a taxi driver and ... park in the same area we park and pick up the
customer. So any student ... (mumbled) you gonna pay and here is free, so
definitely go to free ride. Uh... uh, this Night Ride can use them at night to pick
up the student who's special needs, that's okay. Special needs, they need these
rides. They can pick up them free. The blind people, the handicap people,
because, uh...SEAT...Johnson SEAT they also done by 10:00 P.M. So is good
service. We need it for this ... uh, people. But ... um, just (mumbled) after they get
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drinks they go eat (mumbled) then come (mumbled) and here this is not fair. And
this also hurts our competition. We can't compete between taxi with different
rates, but we can't compete with free. If somebody said I will give you ride for
free and this one say they give you ride with one dollar, they're gonna go with the
free. So is hard to competition. So (mumbled) like to, the City Council to stop
this service, because we have enough taxi, safe taxi, and all the drivers ... they
check their background and nobody can get worried about not safe. So this
service, we don't need it now. I know the students they ... (mumbled) they need it,
but to ... as the companies, it's hard to our competition. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments.
Beadleston: Good evening, my name's Joy Beadleston and um ... I'm just gonna hopefully
(laughs) talk really briefly. Um .... and I'm gonna make ... have a quote from John
Muth, um, and it's..."It's easy to believe that we are each a wave and forget that
we are also an ocean," and the reason I have that quote is because you know I
want people to ... understand that as a community, we always have to also
remember the individual and their needs, and so ... saying that, um, the Mall and
the Eastdale Plaza bus are going back into the malls to really give a great service
to the people that are patrons of those malls, that were having to walk through a
dangerous mall parking lot to try to get to Sycamore's, um (laughs) only outlet to
get on the bus ... to go downtown and to their jobs and school and things. So, um, I
wanted to particularly thank Mark Rummel who worked with me really, um,
closely to try to get all the community, um, businesses and the transit system to
work, to get those, um ... businesses, especially where the Eastdale Plaza was doing
construction and nobody was working on it for a while. So it was really great to
have that opened back up, and a lot of patrons are very happy about it, and it was
a really, um, hard situation for many people, especially the people who are
disadvantaged maybe by disability or some, um, invisible disability that makes it
hard for them to carry groceries (laughs) You know, all the way up some hill, and
it's dangerous, of course, for people that are vulnerable to predators, you know, at
night walking to a dark area to sit at a bus stop. Um ... and that's ... this area's lit up.
So we worked, um, with Lucky's, who's really happy to have the bus service back
in the mall cause it helps their business, along with others. The malls, um, we
worked with both the malls, and of course the City Transit. So I just want to say
that Mark did a fantastic job (laughs) of working with me and getting back to me
and um.. just a really great person to work with, and as ... I don't know, can I
comment on what the gentleman said just a second...
Hayek: You can talk about anything you'd like!
Beadleston: Okay! And the ... if I have time left. I do want to say that the ... um ... the buses that
the City bought, they had one bus, um, Night Ride, and they added another bus
at ... actually I requested it. I was one of the people that went to Sally Mason's,
um, event, uh... to talk about the sexual assault on campus and around the city, so
the safe ride is in place to try to give su ... survivors and people that do not feel
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safe, women par ... in particular, especially college campus women that are trying
to get home from jobs, school, you know, and events safely. But if he wants
to ... or anyone else that's a cab driver wants to make money, there's the ... the Night
Ride only goes to Summit. So it leaves the whole eastside of, um, the city, uh,
people who are women, vulnerable, to have to walk all the way from Summit to
god knows maybe Scott Boulevard (laughs) I had to walk one time, uh, all the
way from Summit to Scott Boulevard after studying for finals one time, cause I
did not know that they did not take you home (laughs) and also of course the
buses stop running normally between 6, 9, and 10, depending on the route. Um,
it's a really important service, especially if you have a predator that you're trying
to prosecute and they're still out there (laughs) um .... plus there's predators we
don't even know about that are out there. So it's an extremely important service.
It's a known fact that in the past we haven't always been able to trust the cab
drivers, you know, in our city. We've had incidents where cab drivers, not all of
them, just couple times it's happened where they've assaulted a person, a woman,
who's vulnerable and ... we as a city and the University of Iowa campus, we all
need to work together to do everything we can to make women safer, and if it's
free, that's needed (laughs) 1 know you mentioned that several times. It has to be
free. The women can't worry about not having the money to get home safely.
They need to be protected by our community, and our community needs to be a
bystander when they see anything going on, and we have to have safe ride. We
also, I would recommend, lighting up the city, especially the Pentacrest, and um,
First Avenue and other areas where it's very dark and you're left vulnerable. So
you can go ahead and pick up people (laughs) from those areas, you know. Just
talk to the campus and they'll tell you where they leave people and you can't take
them any further. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments.
Knight: Again I forgot my Stretch Armstrong arms so ... sorry (laughs) My name is Roger
Knight. I've been here a couple times so ... (laughs) Um ... first of all ... Night Ride,
Safe Night Ride, definitely needed. Unfortunately in this time of day ... or I mean
just time ... it's needed. I don't know if it's the Police Department's not doin' a good
enough job. We can talk about why that is so many times. But ... as of right now,
it's needed. So ... sorry, bud! Um ... I'm here to talk about the wrongs of this city,
that ... seems to happen more times than what's needed. I hope you guys help
ImOn, you know, get some competition and we need to start goin' that way. No
more being loyal to ... those who have the money, like Moen. I'm not ticked off
with Moen, but I challenge him ... he says he cares about this city. Let's see how
much he does. He has all of this money ... let's see if he's gonna build a low-
income housing. I betcha he won't! He has the money. He got it from the City!
You guys know that. So ... next time he comes up here for a project ... do exactly
what needs to be done. Slam the door in his face! Just hurts the city because
someone doesn't have enough money, is appalling that it's happening so many
times before. Three of you just got voted out for your votes. I'm not gonna be...
real nice about it ... because I shouldn't have to be chased out of Iowa City because
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I'm low-income. You guys had your chance. Well maybe the next set will...get
the right things done and stop the wrong things that shouldn't be even looked at.
So I challenge this City Council ... on ... for next spring! No more of these sidewalk
cafes! How much sidewalk do they need? They keep going out more, more, and
more! And they're pushing people over the unsafe grates of downtown or the
vaults or whatever they're called! I don't care! Call 'em deathtraps! I'm callin' it
how it is. How bout you guys? You know the thing is is ... look at everything
that's going on. I challenge all of you to go over to the Police Department some
time. I'm sure they have some department in there. Put on a disguise. Go ride a
City bus. Go downtown, start just talking to people. You'll hear over and over
and again, you guys don't care! Oh it's whatever Moen wants! And I've said it
before, it's ... let's be honest! This is not Iowa City anymore. This is Moen's City!
You guys go with whatever he wants anyway. So ... I don't know. I hope you guys
can start putting in some big votes to help us out. And ... I'm challenging... on that.
You know, start showin' who cares. So ... that's what I wanted to say. Thanks.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else during community comment? Well,
Miss Gravitt, someone else is getting up here to speak and .... and we don't have
people come back for second times. If there's something on the agenda you'd like
to speak to, you ... you absolutely can speak to ... that agenda item. Sir!
Landry: Good evening, Mayor, uh, Council. Doyle Landry, Positive Vision Ministries.
As a Marine Corps veteran, today is our Marine Corps' birthday and tomorrow is
Veterans Day. I want to bring attention for those of you who have been
wondering, okay, what's the agenda with regard to, uh, the former property on
Dubuque, that there's now public hearing for, as you said, for December 151'. We
need to do a better job of...those who have served. They ... we are not included in
the city, and I say collectively. I'm able-bodied, but ... but those who are not able-
bodied, who have served, for those who ... um, may be operating with one or more
senses diminished... we don't do a collective job, and I say'we' collectively. We
don't. It's something that we don't think about until it hits close to home. So I
was reminded of it today because for those of you, again, I like McDonald's. Um,
today I noticed on Riverside the veteran with prosthetic legs and I felt guilty, felt
ashamed because he's standing in front of McDonald's begging for change two
days before Veterans Day in Iowa City, where... projects that get developed, and
commerce is necessary, for those of us who run businesses. Again, miracles take
money and it's got to come from somewhere. So not until you put your blood,
sweat, and tears into a business and you understand, um, the beauty that comes
with entrepreneurship, that would be a conversation that can be best be
understood when you get into the game, when ... when you put your skin into the
game, but for us as veterans ... the City doesn't do a ... the best job it can, and I say
that because although, um, Council changes in January, it's my hope that it's a
collective conversation that continues because... again... we're getting ... older as a
community, as a ... as a ... as a city and ... for those that we give tokens to on
November 111i, what about the other 364 days of the year? So in closing, it is my
hope that ... the agenda in terms of the property on Dubuque, which could have
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been a veterans center if we thought creatively, and I understand there's no ill
intent in terms of what it will eventually be, but ... after this meeting's over and you
drive home and you think about the next day or so in terms of the free stack of
pancakes and everything else that businesses are giving on tomorrow, what does
Iowa City do for those who have served, and what could we do better? Because,
again, freedom isn't free. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Okay. We will end Community
Comment and move on to Item 6, which is discussion of the, uh, downtown self -
supported municipal improvement district. Terry Dickens and I, uh, have
business interests downtown so therefore we're going to have to recuse ourselves.
I will hand the gavel over to the Mayor Pro Tem!
Mims: Thank you.
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ITEM 6. EXTENSION OF IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN SELF -SUPPORTED
MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (SSMID) A/K/A IOWA CITY
DOWNTOWN DISTRICT - ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 3,
"FINANCE, TAXATION AND FEES" CHAPTER 7, "IOWA CITY
DOWNTOWN SELF SUPPORTED MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT" OF THE CITY CODE, TO REESTABLISH THE IOWA CITY
DOWNTOWN SELF -SUPPORTED MUNICIPAL IMPROVEMENT
DISTRICT (SSMID) PURSUANT TO THE PROVISIONS OF CHAPTER
386, CODE OF IOWA; AND PROVIDING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF AN OPERATION FUND AND THE LEVY OF AN ANNUAL TAX IN
CONNECTION THEREWITH. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Mims: This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. (bangs gavel) Wendy!
Ford: Good evening, Council. My name is Wendy Ford and I'm the Economic
Development Coordinator for the City. On September 110', a petition was filed
with the City to re-establish and expand the Iowa City Downtown District Self -
Supported Municipal Improvement District, or SSMID, as it's known inter-
changeably with ICDD. A SSMID is a self-imposed taxing district that levies a
tax on commercial properties within the district, and as you know, we have had
one in place for nearly four years now. The petition met the requirements of
containing the signatures of at least 25% of the individual property owners in
downtown Iowa City, representing at least 25% of the total value, uh, for City
Council to initiate proceedings. In other words we needed a certain amount of
signatures. We have them in the petition. We had more, in fact. They exceeded
the thresholds needed by quite a distance. Um, and that, uh, triggered the next
step in, um, con ... in your consideration of the re-establishment, renewal, of the
SSMID. You can see in the map here there are two, uh, areas of crosshatchings.
The, uh, the larger area in the center was the original, uh... uh, SSMID district.
The organization is expanding because they have had, uh, inquiries from
businesses on the fringes that would like to be within the ... become within the
district, as well, and I will have, uh, Nancy Bird, their Executive Director, address
the ... the two questions that Jim asked. One, some of the specifics about the
boundary changes, and two, more specifically about the ... the timing of, um, the,
uh... the submission of the petition. Um, so the next step after, uh, ensuring that
we had enough signatures was to ... to forward it on to the Planning and Zoning
Commission who is then charged as ... with looking at the merit and feasibility of
the, uh... of the petition and, uh, then returning back to you an evaluative report
with their findings on whether or not this would be an appropriate ... uh, an
appropriate thing, an appropriate petition and uh, would, uh, would have an
ordinance that would follow, that would work well for us. The final step then in
this whole process is the public hearing and the, uh, three readings of an
ordinance, yet to come. Uh, so the SSMID petition itself for the renewal and
expansion of the district proposes to extend the district for another 10 years,
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beginning July 1St, 2016, and ending 10 years later on June 30th, 2026. It also
proposes to levy an annual ... or to levy a tax upon commercial property, defined in
the Iowa Code, that would exclude residential properties and those properties
exempt from tax anyway. Uh, from July 1St, 2016, for five years, they propose the
maximum levy would be the same as it has been for the first four years and that is
$2.00 per $1,000 of valuation. But for the second five years, that is from July 1st,
2021, to June 30th, 2026, that maximum levy rate would not exceed $2.50 per
$1,000 of taxable value. State code allows for a SSMID levy to be used for three
purposes within a SSMID district — operations, capital improvements, and also
debt service. However, the current SSMID has only had a levy for, uh, and the
renewal actually is ... is only requesting a renewal for operational, uh, tax to be
used in the following ways: um, to continue to develop and manage activities in
support of marketing, business retention and attraction, uh... uh, which include
business support services, establishment and promotion of special events,
festivals, and the like; to also engage in activities that make physical or other
improvements, designed to enhance the image and the appearance of the district,
such as lighting improvements, decorative enhancements, landscaping, and public
art; to also employ an exect ... executive director and staff who work for the board
to manage the work of the district, to fulfill the intent of the petition establishing
the district. The City currently has an operating agreement with the SSMID. The
current petition proposes to continue this operating agreement between the district
board of directors, which is a 501(c)6, non-profit. The district board will have up
to 24 members, representing property owners of different values, businesses of
different sizes and types, members from the northside, a non-profit, uh, or cultural
entity, a University of Iowa member, and up to four other stakeholders of the
district, and up to seven ex -officio members. So well represented by the entire
community. This board also serves as an advisory body to the City Council
regarding the annual levy and the budget that the district, uh, puts together,
because by law, the ... the City Council has to approve those ultimately. The
petition also expresses the intent that the SSMID tax will be used for new,
additional, or enhanced services within the district and that the City will not
diminish the type, uh, or, uh... uh, extent of any governmental service that ... that it
currently provides. And in addition, because part of the district is located within
the boundaries of a TIF district, it is also the intent of the petition that the City
would reimburse the district for any SSMID levy captured against TIF properties
within the district. In other words, the amount of funds that would have been
derived from, uh... uh, a TIF project, uh, would be, uh, refunded essentially back
to the TIF district. However, the City Attorney has advised that these decisions
are ultimately those to be made by City Council and that neither the petition nor
the ordinance can actually bind a ... a future City Council on that particular item.
As noted in the letter from Executive Director Nancy Bird, the first four years of
the SSMID have given a unified voice to members of the district and to improve
the stewardship of the area. She notes that together with the City and the Iowa
City... together the City and the Iowa City Downtown District have improved
safety, developed a plan for enhancing retail, strengthened urban design
principles, improved communication on a process to update downtown
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streetscapes, and they are working on a way to make the downtown more
environmentally sustainable. All the statutory requirements have been met for
expanding... for renewin ... renewing and expanding the Iowa City Downtown
District, uh, and staff is recommending the adoption of the SSMID ordinance.
And I'll take any questions, but also as I've said, Nancy Bird is here to answer, uh,
your questions as well!
Mims: Any questions for Wendy at the moment? Okay. Thank you, Wendy!
Throgmorton: Yeah, I ... I might want to ask a question, but not right at the moment, I think.
Mims: Nancy, did you want to speak?
Bird: Good evening! Um, let me first start by thanking City Council and City staff for
all the support you've given us.
Mims: Nancy, excuse me. Could you just introduce yourself for the audience?
Bird: Oh yes!
Mims: Thank you!
Bird: Uh, I'm Nancy Bird. I'm the Executive Director of the Iowa City Downtown
District.
Mims: Thank you.
Bird: Um, so I'm ... I'm primarily here to answer any questions. Um, but I do think it's
really important to, um, express how, um, the support from the City is critical in
the communications in making the Downtown District work, and I really also
want to make sure and point out, um, without Geoff Fruin and Wendy Ford and
Chris O'Brien and Officer Dave Schwent we really, um, wouldn't be as far along
as we are today, and that's purely communications, having good listeners, having
staff that is trying to solve problems. So, I thank you for all that support. Um...
so I want to make sure and, um, highlight some of the key pieces of this
ordinance, um, in that the amount of support that we have in the second term...
the first four years was a real, a learning process for a lot of us but, um, the
amount of signatures we were able to garner, um, has far exceeded the threshold,
the 25% threshold the signatures needed. We received 76% of signatures for the
total assessed value, that's three times the amount that we needed, and we
received 56% of the total signatures of unique property owners. So that's an
indication of the, um, the trust and the efficiency that we've, um, that we've been
working under, trying to target these investments, and I think it's really also
important to ... to note, and I ... I think you all probably know it but just for the, uh,
the community here too that these are private funds. This is an assessment upon
private property owners that have asked to be taxed, because they want that
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funding to go back into their geography. So it's really a huge private sector push.
So we're, um ... I think this is the way that the private sector should come together
and say 'we know that we're part of this investment downtown,' to make sure that
things are ... are going better. Um, so to get to a few of the questions I think were
around the boundary, if I'm not mistaken. That was one of the questions.
Throgmorton: Boundary was part of it, but ... but just in general what specifically is being
changed by this relative to the way things are right now and Wendy's already
summarized some of that.
Bird: Okay. Um, the first is the boundary. We've expanded, um, the boundary for this
term, the next 10 years, uh, primarily, um, as a request from the University of
Iowa, the Voxman School of Music and University of Iowa Art Museum are, um,
incredible additions to downtown Iowa City. If we were to not change the
boundary, we would not say that they're downtown and I think everyone knows
they're downtown. This is really about right sizing, um ... what the general
community already calls downtown. City Hall is another, you know, important
example. City Hall is downtown. In our district, you know, one of our key values
that we bring is the marketing, um, support, uh, that we collectively can market
ourselves much better if we do it together. Um, so therefore we do not market for
anyone or even talk about, um, you know, we certainly partner with other people
in the community, but we don't talk about locations that are outside of our ... of our
district. So it's ... it seems ... it was uncomfortable, really, to say City Hall is in
downtown when we ... when we boast about the other things that are. Um, so the
University of Iowa requested that they be included. We talked about, uh, the
corridor along Burlington Street and making sure to include both sides of the
street when we're talking about Burlington. Um, and then, you know, along, um,
Gilbert, those parcels are very wide. They go right to the other side of the street.
So we ran the boundary straight up. Um, on the northside, Jesse Allen and the
Northside Commons wanted to be a part of the northside. Clearly they are. At
the time of the first term of the, uh, SSMID petition there were homes there. So
that's changed. Um, so that's the primary reason for the... expansion. It's really ... I
feel like it's a right size of the downtown. So that's the first piece. Um, an option
to increase the levy rate was a big one and we ... we talked about that. I think it's
important to state that in the next five years, every year it's up to the Downtown
District members to come and ask Council for, uh, the maximum levy rate or less,
and in five years we have that option to increase, um, 50 -cents, uh, from what the
current levy rate is now at...at $2.00 per, uh, assessed value. So we have an
option to do that. Clearly this is a tax upon ourselves, the businesses. If no one
wants to do that, we won't make that request. So, it's possible the ... the levy rate
stays the same, but it gives us the option to see where our costs are after five
years, if we need to increase it. So we'll do that. Urn ... and a more inclusive
board, I think, is another piece of it. Um. ... we don't have really any of our cultural
entities on our board of directors. Um, there's probably some community at -large,
uh, folks that should be on our ... our board, so we're talking about that ... we'll talk
about that and refine that in our by-laws, but, um, in the ordinance, that's one of
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the things we can... consider in the petition. It doesn't show up in the ordinance.
But that's what we agreed to with our property owners under the petition and
that's what we want to carry forward, um, so that's another key element.
Otherwise our services will pro ... continue to provide the same. Um, it's ... it'll be
more of the same, but I think we're ... we're being more strategic in what those
initiatives are, um, I think we've ... we've been before you, uh, talking about design
guidelines and improving our ... our policy and regulatory environment, as well as
just initiatives to make it clean and safe. It's very important.
Mims: I think one of the other questions Jim had was the timing, and I think this renews
as of July 1St and so the timing in terms of getting it done now (both talking)
Bird: Right! Um, at the very ... the first year of, um, the operation of the SSMID, uh, the
Downtown District, the way we were doing our budgeting was on a calendar year,
not a fiscal year. Um, at the time, and this was before I was hired, but the board
decided to get onto the City's, um, planning cycle, fiscal cycle, so it was switched
to a fiscal year of, uh, July 1 to June 30. So when we did that, um, it sort of...it
made it a little bit challenging to do our books for a little while, but we've got that
straightened out, but what we were anticipating is that we would need to have this
all done by the end of 2015 to operate in 2016. Um, and as we looked into it, it's
really six months into 2016 when we had to have all this done, but I think it's ... it
speaks to our efficiencies (laughs) We want to get it done. We didn't want to
spend, you know, um, all year talking about signatures. We wanted to get it done
and bring it before you. So wouldn't go into effect until July.
Mims: Any questions for (mumbled)
Payne: Um, originally if I remember right the University was putting in a certain amount
per year.
Bird: Uh huh.
Payne: Are they still doing that or have they increased or decreased the amount that
they're (both talking)
Bird: They have. They've, um ... um, they're adding properties in, um, but they've also,
um ... they understand that the ... the needs to ensure that downtown Iowa City
reflects well upon the University and, um, is worthy of their additional support, so
they have increased their financial support.
Payne: Well they're not taxable so....
Bird: That's right.
Payne: ... that ... that was really where my question was going since they're not taxable how
would they ... (both talking)
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Bird: That's right, and ... and it's something that, um, we had to work out and we, um, we
asked it of them and we had a good conversation and, um, David Keft is our
University of Iowa representative on our board of directors and, um, it was a ... it
was a voluntary, um, arrangement and we're pleased to have it.
Payne: Great!
Throgmorton: Nancy, I'd like to ask you a ... a different question. Kind of like, uh, it's a
(mumbled) question, kinda like you and I are chatting over coffee at one of our
nearby coffee houses. Uh, I wonder if you could, uh... answer this, uh, question.
Is the downtown better than it was four years ago, and if so, how specifically has
the District helped make that happen?
Bird: Okay. Um, well I should have brought all my annual reports so I could go
through and look at every initiative that you can actually see that's tangible out
there on the street, but I would say, um, without a doubt, I ... I believe it is. Um,
I've been in this community for three years, so my history doesn't go as deep as
many of...of yours. Um, anecdotally we get that input all the time. Um, I ... I do
believe, um, and maybe Karen Kubby would be a better person to speak to on
this, but the amount of collaboration that we have and the amount of, um, really...
well, one of the things that I wasn't anticipating on this job. I was a little nervous
about cause I was coming in fresh. I moved my whole family here to really work
on, uh, work this position. I was excited to do so, but there was a lot of unknowns
about it, um, and whether or not there's in -fighting or nobody gets along or, you
know, business owners are very independent people and um ... it has not been my
experience at all. It's a great group of people and um, I could point to the
northside lights. That's a really easy one that people love, you know. I mean, we
had a City match from, uh, related to streetscape updates, so we appreciated that
support, but that was a ... going, you know, property owner to property owner to
property owner and we do that on numerous initiatives. Um, it's ... now pet -
friendly. We have Officer David Schwent, which I mentioned earlier, who, um, I
think has been a huge impact for the entire community. His, um ... uh, ability to
work with people and meet people and ... he's not there to ticket. He's there to ... to
really be a resource for everyone. I think it's made a huge impact. Urn ... I could
go on, but I ... I know we do a lot of events, clearly, and events are ... are, um,
they're a lot of work, but people seem to enjoy them. They're growing in
attendance. They're growing in interest and, uh, we've made some great hires.
Betsy Potter is an amazing marketing and events. She does our operations. Um,
Annette Kading has brought a ton of energy, um, and is really attracting some
new interest around our retail development, and so I ... I really think that without
this interest and support of downtown, and passion for downtown, um, we may
not have had that. So, um ... I mean I'm biased, clearly (laughter) That's my
thought!
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Dobyns: Nancy, I assume that, um, your board came up with, um, some measures, um,
some outcomes that they wanted to have. I assume it periodically is the director,
uh, you go back to this board and say'okay, this is what we were aiming for;
how've we done,' what has your board, I mean ... the question Jim asks is a good
one. I can only assume that internally your board has (mumbled) whatever
measures you came up with, urn ... what do they say?
Bird: You know, I think that when we go for ... we have strategic planning coming up
ourselves for the next 10 years, what is our organization going to look like in 10
years, but for the first four, um, the metrics that I've been going by that are quite
simple is ... um, are there more people living downtown? Are there more people
visiting downtown? Are there more people employed downtown? Um, and those
are simple, but ... play, shop, those things are happening. They're all up. So, um...
there's actually more people parking downtown. That's another huge one. Um,
but those are some of the measures. I think over the course of time we need to
tighten what ... tighten those up. Um, a lot of what we do is marketing, and
marketing I ... you know, I've never done that, um, my past career I did some
marketing, but not like this and marketing is incredibly hard to measure. So, um,
a ... a lot of it we hear from ... that's anecdotal, but we try to measure those things in
a annual report that goes to the City and the community every year.
Mims: Other questions for Nancy? Thank you, Nancy.
Kubby: Good evening. Hi, my name's Karen Kubby and I'm on the board of the Iowa
City Downtown District and a I'm a downtown business owner. Um, I think
there's a couple other things that I wanted to add to Nancy's answers. One, about
the ... the geography changing. Um, the other piece of it is being able to be part of
the conversations about major corridors. So Gilbert Street and Burlington Street.
Those are challenging as the community grows, especially to the south with, um,
the ... the south of Burlington plan and making sure that it's safe, that there's easy
pedestrian crossings, and we want to be part of those conversations, as well. The
other advantage of our ... of being so efficient (laughs) in our timing is that we
can ... once the Council assuming that you approve the ordinance, we can move
forward with recruiting for this expanded board and we can have the current
board and new board members do strategic planning together; in a timing that
allows us to do the strategic planning, formulate our committees and our work
plan and our budgets so that when the new board go ... comes on board July 1,
they're ready to go. So I'm looking forward to that part of that, as well. I've
worked with a lot of organizations in the community, and this is one that I made
some assumptions about. I'm not used to working with economic development
groups, although I am one of those independent cusses that Nancy was talking
about, and ... but this group has figured out a way to have very different process
and content, and come together around a mission and a set of goals, and to make
them happen, and I've never really worked with such a concerted group. And I
think one we hired well, but two we're ... I ... this is a lot about self-interest that's the
larger picture of a better community and a stronger local economy, but it's also
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about how that affects my particular business as well. So I'm motivated to work
for those larger goals as well as my smaller, independent goals, and it's a great
combination to create positive hunger and constructive programs in the
community. So another part of what I think is better about downtown is that
parking, I think, will forever be a challenge. If it's not, we're not being successful
downtown. It's not to dismiss issues that I say that but it's to say whatever we do
to alleviate parking concerns, there will just be more parking concerns, and I think
that's an okay and a good thing. So I think the first hour free, um, is one of those
accomplishments of taking the risk to do that and doing away with the park -and -
shop and the bus -and -shop program, and doing the first hour free in the ramps has
really alleviated some of the on -street parking where people just want to come in
and out, but they're not spending a lot of time downtown. Um ... so those folks can
go into the ramp and feel better about it. So I think that that was a risky thing and
we were supportive of it and that ... I would count that as an accomplishment. So
tonight we do ask you to, um ... vote affirmatively for the SSMID ordinance, but
we also ask you to, uh, direct staff to begin discussions about a new operating
agreement, and there'll be lots to that. There are some things that are in the
petition that aren't in the ordinance, and certainly there are things about how our
board is structured, that it's most appropriate to be in our by-laws, not in an
operating agreement or in the ordinance, but there are those two sections, um, that
may need some discussion to be included in the operating agreement, uh,
specifically the not reducing the level of City services so that costs for services
aren't shifted to the district. The purpose of the district and this private
investment through taxing is to expand services and expand programming
downtown, and then secondly the TIF issue, so that as assessments rise because of
those investments, the SSMID is asked to do more work for those properties. We
need the funds to be able to services those properties. Thank you.
Mims: Thank you, Karen.
Payne: I have one more question, but I'm not sure who the right person is.
Mims: Okay. Go ahead!
Payne: Um, the question is is we ... so the district is expanding, but it's for ... this is for 10
years. So what if something happens south or north or wherever of where this is,
can this be opened back up so that you can expand it again within that 10 year
period or does that constrain you to that area for those 10 years?
Bird: Oh, it's a good thing that Kitty Gurloch, who's been a great support to us at
Meardon Sueppel is here in case I get this answer wrong (laughter) But,
um ... basically I think we have to re -petition. We would have to re -petition for
those properties. We'd have to go through the same exact, um ... uh, you know,
process that we went to to get these pe ... these property owners to sign the petition.
So we would have to go through the same process, if there was any movement
south. So we don't know what the future will bring and we talked about that, you
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know, is there an opportunity there, but there was, um, at this time, you know, I
guess it was really fall of last year, there was a concerted notion that it's the
maturity of the businesses and the collaboration that we have with one another
that really makes this engine go, and without that, um, really business interest and
property interest south of Burlington, um, that we would just leave ... leave things
alone and keep doing what we're doing. So...
Payne: I would agree, it doesn't make sense today, but ... in five years (both talking) it
might or ... before the 10 years is up, so that was what kind of drove my question.
Mims: Go ahead, Karen (both talking)
Kubby: I need to answer that question, because the board certainly thought about that and
we wanted to be foresightful but we didn't want to grow too fast or have to service
properties that weren't really needing to be serviced or ... or wouldn't pay for this
service that they were getting. So ... we like that people are knocking on our door
(laughs) and we want to grow as the demand is out there, and so one of the things
that we thought about is say that five year scenario, there... there's a cadre of
business that want these kinds of services, they could do their own short-term
SSMID and have their end date be when our end date is. They could contract out
with our employees, so we could actually ... uh, even maybe have the same
board... during that interim and then at the 10 -year mark, we could re -petition to
continue with a larger geographic area. So we had talked about those kinds of
scenarios.
Payne: So there are options. It'd just have to wait ... it's a wait and see thing.
Kubby: Yeah. People will need to decide that they want to collaborate, cause this doesn't
work if all you want to do is fight. Doesn't really work very well, and so when
people are ... when there's enough businesses that are expanding and wanting
to ... to ... to collaborate in this way about marketing, about services, about
programming, um, certainly we will be helpful to them in figuring out how they
can do this for themselves and then coordinate at the 10 -year mark.
Payne: Thank you!
Mims: Thank you, Karen. This is a public hearing. Are there others who would like to
address the Council?
Adams: Again my name Adil Adams. Uh, I would like also to talk about this issue, the
parking issue. Every time I talk, usually I talk about taxis. I know that
(mumbled) but I talk when I said American Taxi. That mean all other taxi. So
also we have problem with parking. Now the taxi companies are organized. They
have same colors and they have, uh... much (mumbled) The only thing now we
don't have is stand in downtown. So sometimes we come, drive our taxis around,
around, just to find parking, so why not the district make stand (coughing,
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difficult to hear speaker) a company come to find one or two parking, rather than
just to drive around (mumbled) by the police because they park illegal on the
street and this make problems with, uh... with the police and the drivers, cause
there is no where to park. All the other people that park on the ... the, on the
parking lots and the ... there is no stand for the taxi. So (mumbled) future, I would
like (mumbled) put their mind (mumbled) and put sign, stand for taxi. Nobody
park, only taxis. (mumbled) just one or two parking. The other drivers, they can
drive around. Thank you. (mumbled)
Mims: Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to address the Council during
public hearing?
Gravitt: My name is Mary Gravitt and what the gentleman said, I don't know his name, is
true because we want this a city, but we don't seem to have any kind of plans.
You need ... if you gonna have a city, you need taxi stands. You need a lot of
things. You just...it...it boggles my mind. We got all these plans and our plans
just lead us to be a town and not a city. A city is an expensive thing. We have 82
policemen. We have to make plans. And you have to have a taxi stand, even
though I don't ride in taxis, I use public transportation. My thing is bus shelters,
but I agree with him per ... he has a point. Thank you.
Mims: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else who would like to address us during
the public hearing?
Beadleston: Hi, um, my name's Joy Beadleston. I did want to ask, um, the ... Karen Kubby, uh,
possibly, uh (noises on mic, difficult to hear speaker) where they gave, um, bus -
and -shop or something (laughs) They had a program and they got rid of it and
actually I thought it worked really well and I just ... she mentioned that they don't
have that anymore. I was wondering why because it seemed discriminatory, um,
to not allow the people who are bus patrons to have a chance to bus -and -shop, and
I believe what I remember, they gave a person, um, a bus ticket, uh, to get home
or get ... you know, they'd bring a receipt and get a ticket from the, um, business,
uh, for buying something at their shop and then in turn the business would give
them a free ticket home. And it was, you know, really helpful for people that are
on a limited income, um, I'm sure so ... that would only help business. So I did
want to ask one of the ladies that talked, um, probably Karen or Miss Bird, right?
If they ... could tell me why they did get rid of that program, because it seems
beneficial.
Mims: I mean if you want to discuss with it later, we're not ... we're not really set up in the
public hearing to kind of go back and forth between everybody who is here but
more to ... to present (both talking)
Beadleston: That's fine, I just would like that, um, maybe brought up cause I thought that was
a successful way to get everyone downtown, whether they park or ride the bus,
and so ... that's all.
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Mims: All right! Thank you.
Landry: Urging your passing of the ordinance...
Mims: Excuse me one second. Could you please reintroduce yourself? Thank you.
Landry: All right. Doyle Landry, Positive Vision Ministries. In support of the ordinance,
uh, some people may not be aware that, um, cause not everyone receives the
emails, that there has been ongoing hard, uncomfortable, um, head -scratching
conversations about race. Um, and in that I applaud the courage and specifically
seeking out Miss Kubby because it takes a lot to put up with me and ... the
insistence that diversity is more than just one ... fill in the blank. I put that out
there because I keep hearing, and I don't come to every City Council meeting,
about ... the Chicago folk. And so just want to remind you as you are talking about
a 10 -year plan, the downtown area is the face of Iowa City. You can't get around
it because it's where the University of Iowa is. If you look at what has admir...
admirably and successfully occurred in a city in Missouri when enough is enough,
money ends the conversation. As we ... plan for the next 10 years and specifically
a previous City Council meeting where a 12 -year-old Hispanic boy was honored
for ... his success in school, where do you see him at 22? Is he a downtown
entrepreneur? I only want to put that out there because who knows what the City
Council will look like in 10 years, but it starts with hard conversations, and I want
to put that out there is because not everyone may have the means to come to a
City Council meeting and advocate, and again, and allow the hard, fast deals that,
um, take place because of who knows who in this city, if we're going to change
the conversation about ... um, an inclusive downtown and not excluding the other
parts of Iowa City, but again, just like for those of you who may be familiar in
Chicago, with the University of Chicago, Hyde Park is the face of that area and
it's the same type of conversations about them folk, and them folk aren't of color.
Them folk are those who have not the means to take care of themselves. So
again, in support of the ordinance, again, appreciative of Miss Kubby, her board,
and Miss Bird and her staff in being open and ... uh, dealing with being
uncomfortable. Once again, the 12 -year-old who you honored, in 10 years where
might he be? And ... as we are planning because ... as Miss Gravitt said, planning is
important, where are we going to be as it relates to a truly racially inclusive
downtown? Thank you.
Mims: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else who would like to address us during
the public hearing?
Knight: Hello. Um ... I'd say ... before you vote yay or nay, I'd like to just have everybody
kind of think about what everybody's said. Too many times it's where's the
money? Where... where's the money, that's what we vote for. And ... you know,
it's ... sad that we don't see everyone as red, white, and blue. You know, the
disabled, the low-income, the black, white, orange, polka dotted, by the way, if
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you're polka dotted, please see a doctor, um ... you know, that's what I think we
need to get at and ... to kind of go on with this. I think this is something that could
be good. We need to do what we can to protect the downtown from anything,
Walmart, Target ... you know these big chains, Moen, urn ... and get it back to
making sure that they have a fair vote. They have a fair say, and make sure that
residents have a fair say, and ... there's maybe a cause where ... if, heaven forbid
something goes wrong and all of a sudden they ... however possible, abuse the
power, it can be broken or something. Just a thought. Thank you.
Mims: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else who would like to address us during
public hearing? All right. (bangs gavel) Close the public hearing.
b. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE
Payne: Move first consideration.
Throgmorton: Second.
Mims: Moved by Payne, seconded by Throgmorton. Discussion?
Botchway: I would just like to make a couple (clears throat) statements, or a statement. Um,
you know, Karen, I would agree with you. I think you ... I think the group or the
Downtown District, uh, specifically hired well. Um, you know, another thing,
Jim, from ... I guess to answer your question is the new thing I think Nate did was
first hour, to kind of a group of 30 -somethings and I mean just...
Mims: I've been there! (laughs)
Botchway: Well I was (laughing) seeing you there (laughter)
Mims: I didn't know I was so young! (laughs)
Botchway: Um, but there ... it was just a ... it was a great opportunity to see, um, you know,
folks coming together, collaborating, um, and thing ... and doing things that you
see in other spaces, you know, where we throw out, you know, Denver and some
other places, so that's been great, and you know, um, just in kind of anecdotal
conversations that have come about from the election, um, you know, folks are
wanting to move back in town, and I think a lot of it has been because of the work
that you've been doing, and so, um, you know, Nancy and I went to the same class
together and so I just, you know, get so excited because she's doing some
wonderful things and that was ... kind of in the infancy when you got the job, um,
and you've just done wonderful things and I'm happy about the University's
partnership and everything that they're trying to do because I do see it as
connected in some way that we have, you know, the, um ... the music and
everything else is a part of it, and so I ... I'm just overly excited and I know in the
past, especially, um, in becoming on Council, um, you know, I was openly
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critical, the Downtown District and everything and having those conversations
with you and other folks, um, has really helped me see, you know, its importance
and kind of the fabric of Iowa City and I just ... I applaud you in everything that
you've done, and ... and all your staff and everything else. So, thank you.
Mims: Other comments?
Throgmorton: Uh, a few days ago I was walking downtown at night and I saw a, um, what do
you call it? A skill saw band, it's my term for it. Two guys cutting ... tree trunks
on stage in front of the Sheraton Hotel, and ... and it turns out that that was part of
the 'witching hour' event, uh, and ... then just today I watched a video that has just
been produced a ... about ... I can't remember the name of the group. It's
Painter... Painteresque?
Mims: I saw it but I don't remember it either.
Throgmorton: Yeah, yeah, and it's a really vivid video about this effort of a group of artists to do
some really creative, collaborative work in the downtown area. So I ... when I ask
myself the question is the downtown better off than it was four years ago, I
answer yes, and I think it is in large part because of the work of Nancy and Karen
and all the members of the Downtown District's board, and the businesses that are
collaborating downtown. So I see good reason to support, you know, the, uh, the
proposal before us and, uh, certainly will vote for it and I am very optimistic that
it will result in continued improvement over the next 10 years. So, bravo!
Payne: I think four years ago when this was originally proposed, it was very ... seemed
very ... not quite sure whether it would succeed and I think it's ... we have seen that
it's ... far exceeded expectations in my opinion, so bravo to everybody and I think it
will ... last long past the next 10 too.
Mims: Other comments? Rick? Rick's going to save his voice tonight (laughter) Um, I
would just echo the comments that have been made. Um, I think that the
Downtown District has come a long way and, um, for all the ... the criticisms
sometimes that we get about putting too much money and emphasis on the
downtown, it is, as people have said, it is the face of Iowa City, and particularly
with the University and the close proximity, and the thousands and thousands of
students and parents, um, who come and see our downtown as they're deciding
maybe are they going to come here and so it's vitally important, not only for our
economic development as a whole city, but it's also vital to the success of the
University and their ability to recruit not only students but faculty and staff. Um,
the improvements over the last four years, I think if you went back and really kind
of did a checklist of things, I think people would be, um, actually pretty
astonished. I think when it happens just incrementally over time it's easy to kind
of forget about what ... what it was and what it looked like and some of the
activities that were going on are not going on, depending on whether they were
good or bad, and how those things have changed. Um, I would echo, you know,
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your comments, Kingsley, on staff. Um, it ... number one, Karen, you were
absolutely instrumental in getting this started, um, and I think convincing a lot of
people, of property owners, at the beginning that this really, uh, was a viable
organization that could bring benefit to downtown. I know you put a lot of hard
work into getting it started and uh, you weren't the only one but you might have
been the ... might have been the key face, certainly, that we saw of it and I certainly
appreciate those efforts, and uh, would echo the ... the good hire with Nancy Bird
and your staff, and ... and the fact that you've been able to put together a really
good, uh, group of business owners who do want to collaborate and do.....really
do want to work together for the betterment, um, not only of themselves, but see
that the betterment of the whole is bettering it, uh, for themselves, and ... and again
to emphasize the importance of this is that these are people, these are business
owners and property owners who are voting to tax themselves. I think that is an
absolutely key part of this, that sometimes people don't necessarily, if they're not
involved (coughing, unable to hear speaker) or understand or focus on. They are
voting to tax themselves for the betterment of the whole downtown area with
programming, with property improvements, with, you know, lighting and various
things, um, to help the community and help obviously their bet ... their bottom line
so, um, just really happy to ... to approve it and uh, and happy that you guys got
such support for 10 -year, uh, renewal, so I think that's great! Roll call, please.
Passes 5-0; uh...
Dilkes: (both talking) I'm sorry! Go ahead.
Mims: (laughs) ...with Hayek and Dickens, uh, abstaining for conflict of interest.
Karr: Motion to accept correspondence. (several talking)
Botchway: So moved.
Payne: Second! (laughter, several talking)
Mims: We'll say moved by Botchway and seconded by Payne. (laughter) All those in
favor say aye. Opposed.
Dilkes: I just wanted to get your direction, um, on the final two readings. Do you ... are
you interested in collapsing those on December 15th9
Mims: I would be very comfortable collapsing on December 15th.
Botchway: I would as well.
Payne: Yeah.
Throgmorton: Yeah, I don't object.
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Karr: Mr. Mayor, uh, if we may could we go back and accept correspondence from, uh,
Miss Gravitt and from Mr. Adams on Item #5, please?
Botchway: So moved.
Payne: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Botchway, seconded by Payne. Discussion? All those in favor say
aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries.
Karr: Thank you!
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ITEM 7. IMON COMMUNICATIONS LEASE AGREEMENT (SECURE SPACE) —
RESOLUTION APPROVING A LEASE OF SECURE SPACE LOCATED
IN THE IOWA CITY DATA CENTER TO IMON COMMUNICATIONS,
L.L.C.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Hayek: This is a public hearing. The hearing is open. (bangs gavel) Hearing is ... closed.
(bangs gavel)
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION
Mims: Move the resolution.
Botchway: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Discussion?
Throgmorton: Do ... do we need to clarify what this really entails? What (both talking)
Hayek: I think a staff, uh, explanation would help on this and ... and (several talking) might
as well lump 7 (several talking)
Fruin: Um, I think it's page 344 of your packet. There's a memo (laughter) I'm sure you
guys got to that, uh... but that ... that tries to give a synopsis of the three items in
front of you. Um, but to back up a little bit before we get to those three specific
items. I think many of you know that we have been talking with a ... a number of,
um, service providers who have been evaluating, uh, our market, uh, looking to
deploy a fiber infrastructures for businesses and ... and residents and we've been
very open, uh... uh, to, uh, having those conversations with ... with just about
anybody who was interested. Um, I think you've all in the past received, uh,
constituent concerns about the current, uh, level of service that's provided, the
reliability of the service, the cost of the service, uh, and um, we've ... for a long
time thought that some competition, uh, into the market would ... would help
greatly and so, uh, ImOn contacted us about, uh, six to eight months ago and uh,
indicated that they too were interested in evaluating our market. Um, we, uh, of
course knew a little bit of, uh, background on 'em as they're... they're just up north
in the corridor and based in Cedar Rapids, but the ... the more that, uh, we've
learned about them and their operations, the more excited that, uh, we've become
for them to enter our market. Um, and it takes a ... a lot of...a lot of work for a
utility company to do a market analysis and go through the engineering and
whatnot, but they've really, really hustled, uh, to try to get down here and, uh,
serve the Iowa City market. So in front of you today are ... are three items that will
really facilitate their entry, uh, into the market. Uh, the first one is a lease of a
small portion of our existing data center in the Plaza Place parking ramp. We are
asking, uh... uh, recommending to the Council that, uh, the City lease, uh, to them
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120 -square feet so they can put a ... a small communications hub, um, to ... to
facilitate service in the ... in the downtown area. Um, there probably are other
options for ImOn to consider but ... but we feel this is the best one. Uh, any other
option would ... would likely be to try to find, uh, limited right-of-way, uh... uh, in
the downtown and put some, uh, type of hub structure, uh, on .... on a property,
which we don't feel is the best, uh, use ... use of ground in the downtown. So, we
have extra space, um ... we can, uh, we can afford to ... to lease some of that space
and ... and make a little bit of money, uh... um, off rental income. So that's the first
item that you're considering and that's what the public hearing is open for. Uh,
the next item, uh, would be a similar type of arrangement, but instead of focusing
on our data center, focuses on ... it focuses on our existing fiber network, City -
owned fiber network, uh, so we have, um .... uh, City -owned fiber that connects
public buildings and traffic signals and ... and other equipment, and often times
when we build those, uh, we ... we build those with extra capacity, not knowing
what our future needs will be. Uh, in ... in the cases, A ... um, before you there's
three, um, arrangements that we have discussed with ImOn where we would lease
them some of the extra capacity. We don't feel that we'll be needing that extra
capacity, uh, certainly any time soon, and uh, again, it will just speed up,
um ... ImOn's ability to enter into the market, because they won't have to construct
underground infrastructure, uh, in those particular locations. So those are ... those
are three areas that, uh, we identified with ImOn, uh, just through cooperative, uh,
cooperative planning efforts with them as they looked at our market, and finally
the ... the last one is a standard agreement that you've, uh, seen on Council agendas
in the past, related to other utility companies. Um, the ... the third agreement is
just .... gives them the ability to actually build out their infrastructure network, uh,
in our right-of-way. So it allows them onto our property and gives them the right
to ... to build out the property.
Hayek: Thanks, Geoff. Any questions for Geoff?
Dobyns: Geoff, I ... question, um, going forward, what is the extent of this and will this start
in the downtown area then move out (mumbled) availability, um, as an option for
the citizens?
Fruin: I ... I cannot answer that question. We don't really have the, you know, ability to
direct the ... the schedule of build -out but Patrice Carroll's the CEO of ImOn and
she is here and I'm guessing would ... would be able to answer that question.
(several talking and laughing)
Carroll: Um, yes, my name is Patrice Carroll and I'm the President and CEO of ImOn
Communications. Um, our intent is to start in the downtown area as well as, um,
along the river, all the way down to just south of Highway 6. Um, is our first
build. Um, we intend over, um ... the next period of time to expand into other parts
of Iowa City. Um, and ... you know, it's all kind of success -based. You ... you
build, you ... you, um, gain your customer base, and then you expand on that. Um,
it will take us approximately five equipment sites to give you, um, a sense, um,
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bringing up, you know, what Geoff has helped us, um, do, gets us one of those
equipment sites and we're in the process of, um, acquiring space south of
Highway 6 that will be our main, um, equipment site. Um, and then it's just
building out, lots and lots and lots of fiber.
Payne: So if you build out the whole city, would it be a five-year project, a 10 -year
project? Do you have a sense of how long the project would last?
Carroll: Yeah, um, it will be between, somewhere between five and 10 years. Um, we've
been in business nine years, um, in March, um of 2016. Um, we started operating
in Cedar Rapids and have grown into Marion and Hiawatha. Um, one thing I'm
adamant about is moving at a pace in which we can be successful in meeting our
quality, um, requirements and ... our profitability requirements. So, um, we intend
to be in business for a long time and, um ... I want to make sure we don't get out in
front of our headlights.
Hayek: Thank you! If someone else were to ... if...if other players were to try to come into
the market, is there anything that...
Markus: It's non-exclusive.
Hayek: It's non-exclusive. I think that's important to ... to understand. So ... any further
Council discussion?
Mims: Are we still in the public hearing?
Hayek: Well we're ... we closed it for lack of interest. I'll open it back up (several talking)
All right. Uh, you know what, we'll (person speaking from audience) No, we'll
open up ... we'll open up each one. Okay? Um, is there anyone here who still
wants to speak to Item 7? Okay. Uh, let's complete Council discussion on Item 7
before we vote. Anything else on that?
Botchway: Real quick I will say that, um, it just ... really talking with Eleanor I didn't even
think about it at the time, um, and then I just text Bethany now so I do apologize
if it seemed like I was texting while I was listening as well, but ... Bethany's dad
works in sales but I didn't even think about it. I just asked her what the company
was and I just don't like how it looks. I mean we hadn't had a conversation about
it or anything, but I just... newspaper reports this. I don't want it to .... people to
think anything of it, so I'm going to recuse myself (both talking)
Hayek: Fair enough! I'm supportive. I ... I know staff, uh... uh, did quite a lot to ... to ... to
get this done, um, and ... and there has been, uh... uh, community sentiment in favor
of more competition, more choice, um, and I think that's good, and we're using up
excess capacity, uh, this is a low-risk situation, I think, for the City. Uh, and
the ... the is are dotted, the is are crossed on this, so I'm supportive. Further
discussion? Roll call, please. Passes, uh, 6-0; uh, Botchway recusing.
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ITEM 8. AGREEMENT WITH IMON COMMUNICATIONS (SHARED USE
PROJECTS) - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A MASTER AGREEMENT FOR
SHARED USE PROJECTS BETWEEN THE CITY AND IMON
COMMUNICATIONS, LLC, AND AN AMENDMENT PROVIDING FOR
THREE SHARED USE PROJECTS.
Mims: Move the resolution.
Payne: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Uh, anyone from the audience
wishes to address us, now would be the time.
Grassley: Good morning, Mayor, Members ... good evening! I'm sorry! (laughs) My clock's
a little off here! My name is Lee Grassley. I am the, uh, Regional Manager for
Government Relations and Public Affairs for Mediacom, and uh, the current
incumbent provider here and urn ... you know, when we get an opportunity when a
new, um ... provider comes to town, um, I always like to, uh, take a look at kind of
what's going on here, and Patrice, welcome, okay? We're looking forward to
competition and ... and Council's absolutely correct. Competition makes you
better! And ... and that's... that's the whole of it. You either get better or you get
worse. You never stay the same. But, uh, this portion of it, uh... uh....kind of
made me wonder, um, a couple things and I have like one, two, three, four, five ... I
have six questions and I know they won't be able to be answered tonight, but I'm
looking for places, um, for them to be directed, and this has to do with the
availability of fiber. Um, a couple of weeks ago my boss, Tom Larson, was in
town to, uh, talk with you about community -wide wifi projects and things of that
nature, and we were looking to, uh, at that time maybe, uh, piggyback on
your .... on your, uh, on your fiber networks and things like that in order to bring,
uh, community wifi to various places here in the city and um, to that end, we have
just as a little background on us in the state of Iowa we have 185,000 miles of
fiber and any time we can get an opportunity to expand our footprint in a
community, it...it allows us to ... uh, you know, bring more and better services and
uh, to the community and ... building fiber, as Patrice'll tell ya, it's not cheap.
Okay? So any time we have an opportunity maybe to lease it, it becomes more
financially viable for us to, uh, expand our, uh, plant, uh, to uh... you know, make
the plant more efficient and things like that. To that end, I have these questions,
uh, about...about City -owned fiber and that's kind of where I'm going with this.
Hayek: Let me jump ahead of you here. I ... I, we may or may not be able to provide
answers to you (both talking)
Grassley: I understand.
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Hayek: ... typical ... our format is for people to provide input for the City, and it's hard for
us to have a, much of a back -and -forth, but...
Grassley: I understand!
Hayek: (both talking)
Grassley: I just want to make Council aware of (both talking)
Hayek: Fair enough! And we'll ... we can try to get you answers from staff afterwards
(both talking)
Grassley: Here's the thing, I could communicate (coughing, unable to hear speaker) email
and get these questions answered, but I want you to know what we're looking at,
and we're looking at it .... as, you know, a way to expand our footprint in a ... in an
economical manner in order to hold the line on costs with programming and
everything going the way it's going. Um, my first question is how much excess
fiber capacity does the City have? Okay? And where are they ... where are these
fibers located? Um, third ... is the, uh, City's, uh, excess fiber, uh, available for
lease by anyone, or is this, uh, going to be, uh, an exclusive deal just for ImOn?
Um ... and thirdly, uh, we'd like to know, you know, um, how much, uh, the lease
will cost and uh, how are ... how you determine your rates, as far as what you
charge, uh, for, uh, leasing excess fiber? Those are my questions, and uh... you
know, if somebody would, uh, let me know where I need to send stuff to, um, to
get these questions answered, because we are certainly, uh, like I say, wanting to
expand our footprint, fiber footprint, here in, uh, in Iowa City and if this is an
economical way to do it, uh, then everybody will benefit.
Markus: You can send it to the City Clerk's office.
Grassley: Send it to Marian?
Markus: Yes.
Grassley: Okay.
Markus: She'll make sure (both talking)
Grassley: Marian and I, we get letters back and forth (laughs) Okay. Thank you now.
Hayek: Those are fair questions and we'll try to get you some answers. Anyone else from
the audience?
Knight: Sorry for being a pest is what I was saying! (laughs) Um ... I was just going to say
real quick, um, I hope ImOn .... I'm trying to (mumbled) I hope ImOn does come,
uh, competition's great and, uh, Mediacom has shown themselves to not be great.
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Urn ... so I hope the City can do ... whatever to help ImOn or anyone else who wants
to come, just to hurry up and get some competition because as we know, those
who don't have access to ... good internet, slow down and you know, we were just
talking about small businesses. I'm sure they would love to ... you know,
potentially have even better internet or whatever downtown and ... across the rest
of the city. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments. (person speaking from audience) Well ... yeah, I
need to be consistent. (person speaking from audience) I need to be consistent.
Okay. Uh, anyone else from the audience? Council discussion?
Mims: I'm definitely in support of all three of these. We've been talking for a number of
years about, urn ... wanting to attract, as Geoff said, um, other providers into the
community and getting competition, um, and, um, I have confidence in staff and
will obviously get the answers to these questions, but that we're doing it in a way
that's ... you know, been open and fair. They've been trying to get people and
couldn't and I'm assuming the capacity's been there and nobody's asked for it
before, so ... urn ... I'm looking forward to having another opportunity, uh, provider
in the community.
Hayek: Agreed! Further discussion? Roll call, please. (several talking) Jim, we're
taking a vote on Item 8. Um, sorry about that! (several talking) Okay! Passes 6-
0; uh, Botchway recusing.
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ITEM 11. WAGE THEFT DISQUALIFICATION FOR CITY BUSINESS -
RESOLUTION DISQUALIFYING PERSONS WHO HAVE ADMITTED
GUILT OR LIABILITY OR BEEN ADJUDICATED GUILTY OR LIABLE
IN ANY JUDICIAL OR ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEEDING OF
COMMITTING A REPEATED OR WILLFUL VIOLATION OF THE
IOWA WAGE PAYMENT COLLECTION LAW, THE IOWA MINIMUM
WAGE ACT, THE FEDERAL FAIR LABOR STANDARDS ACT OR
COMPARABLE STATE STATUTES OR LOCAL ORDINANCES FROM
ENTERING INTO CONTRACTS WITH THE CITY AND FROM
RECEIVING ANY DISCRETIONARY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ASSISTANCE.
Mims: Move the resolution.
Dickens: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Dickens. Discussion?
Eastham: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. My name is Charlie Eastham, uh, 953 Canton Street in
Iowa City. Uh, really want to commend the Council and the, uh, the City
Attorney for taking this step, um ... and considering, um, making wage theft a, uh,
a reason for disqualifying, uh, persons or entities for ent ... entering into City
contracts or receiving, uh, discretionary economic assistance. Um, I just ... three or
four points I'd just like to ask the Council .... ask to be considered, when the
Council gets to the point of actually adopting an ordinance. Urn .... one, uh, it's
not clear to me from reading the material that's presented in the packet that, uh,
actual payment of stolen wages is going to be a condition for an entity or a person
for having, uh, the ability to get the government contr... or uh City contract or
receive discretionary assistance. It may be this ... the City Attorney knows and can
correct me on that. The other thing, uh, another point is, uh, the ... the language
proposed includes a ... a ... a, talk about willful violations, urn ... again, the City
Attorney may have some reassuring, uh, comments on that, uh... my inclination
would be to have any violation, whether it's willful or not, since willful may be a
little bit difficult to prove. I'm not sure about that. Uh, the other, uh, matter
would be whether or not these, uh, a person or an entity would be disqualified
(clears throat) if they're using a temporary agency to provide labor, uh, or, uh,
people working at their ... uh, business or whatever it is. We've seen a lot of
temporary agencies providing, um (clears throat) workers for, uh, hotels,
restaurants, that kind of thing, so ... I would hopefully that these ... these provisions
would reply ... would apply to an own ... to an owner or person, even though the
actual violations may be ... maybe, uh, made by temporary agency. Uh, and the
other thing is whether or not the, uh, if...if a, uh, if a person or entity (clears
throat) is, uh, found to have violated the ... the relevant wage ... wage ordinance, and
to have committed wage theft, and that person or entity has received TIF funding,
which is a continuing, um ... uh, form of assistance over some period of time, uh,
say they .... say their violation occurred after five years of TIF funding and the TIF
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provisions extend for another I O....five or 10 years, does that mean that the rest of
the TIF financing is in jeopardy? I would hope it would be, because I think that
gives the entity receiving TIF funding a lot of motivation to make sure that they
don't, nobody enga... no one engages in any kind of wa... wage theft for ... for that
TIF project. Um, and given the amount of software, um ... uh.... that's available to
everyone now, I don't think there's any reason whatsoever for anyone to be
engaged in wage theft. So, just hope if we keep those ... issues in mind as we go
forward. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for the comments.
Dilkes: Uh, couple clarifications. Um, there ... there isn't going to be an ordinance. The
resolution is what you are adopting. So there's not an ordinance to come. I think
I explained that in the memo, is that ... this was patterned after the Cook County,
um, ordinance, but in Iowa the appropriate, um, form in my view is a resolution
because we're not dictating the behavior of third parties essentially like we do
with the general law, but rather are saying as matter of City policy we are not
going to enter into contracts or provide TIF assistance. So the resolution is the
(both talking)
Hayek: Okay!
Landry: Again, Doyle Landry, Positive Vision Ministries. Being very familiar with what
was ... what occurred in, um, Cook County, I simply ask what is ... the ... why the
inclusion of the contract, um, entering into contracts of...excess of $25,000 with
the City. If you just simply do a Google search, um, there are previous, um, law
violators in Cook County that passed numerous contracts of $24,999 and built
back up their businesses to find that they were eventually... again, people who are
adamant about not paying fair wages find a way to skirt laws that are on the
books. So I just want to ask why... because... why in excess of $25,000 because it's
possible... Iowa City economic development assistance, there's a way to skirt the
law and, um .... put some dents in a well, um, well-timed resolution. So I just
wanted to put that out there, because again, being very familiar with what
occurred in Cook County, it would be ideal if that was even struck. Meaning, you
get cut off from the City completely. Thank you.
Dilkes: I can comment on that too. I think I explained in the memo why staff is
recommending the $25,000. I would also say that both as a matter of the public
bidding law and the state of Iowa, and our purchasing policies, we are very strict
about splitting contracts into ... pieces to avoid requirements. I ... I think that's less
likely than it is in Cook County. It could be a problem. We can always address it
if it is.
Hayek: Anyone else from the audience? Okay, Council?
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Payne: When we first started talking about wage theft, I was really naive and thought
how could some ... how could an employer not pay what they're supposed to pay?
And then through out discussions and stuff, I'm like, okay, I get it, and then I was
talking to my sister and ... she is required to work and not be paid for it, even
though she's an hourly employee, and that to me is wage theft al ... also. So I'm
like there's an issue here. There really, truly is a big issue here! So I ... I think that
this ... this is an issue and bigger than ... than what I realized that it was. She doesn't
live ... she doesn't work in Iowa City, so it's not an issue here (laughs) but
someplace else.
Hayek: Got our first enforcement case here! (laughter) Haven't even passed it! (laughs)
Botchway: I really just appreciate Eleanor's work on this and I also appreciate, um, CWJ,
Misty, for kind of, you know, not only possibly bringing up an issue, voice that,
but also, um, presenting some type of workable example or solution that we could
look at as far as what we could do in our city. Um, so I ... I'm just excited about it
and so, um ... um, not ... well, shouldn't say that! (mumbled) excited about wage
theft occurring. I guess I'm just (laughter) excited that we're putting practices in
place to make sure it doesn't occur, and um, just excited ... errr...
Hayek: Let's just move on. We got it! (laughter)
Throgmorton: (mumbled) very happy to see this.
Hayek: Further discussion? Roll call, please. Passes 7-0.
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ITEM 12. SNOW EMERGENCY PARKING FEE CHANGE - ORDINANCE
AMENDING TITLE 39 "FINANCES, TAXATION, AND FEES",
CHAPTER 4, "SCHEDULE OF FEES, RATES, CHARGES, BONDS,
FINES, AND PENALTIES", SECTION 8, "PARKING VIOLATIONS", TO
ADD A $50 PENALTY FOR SNOW EMERGENCY PARKING
VIOLATION. (SECOND CONSIDERATION)
Hayek: This is second consideration. Staff has requested expedited action.
Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for
passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally
passed be suspended, that the second consideration and vote be waived, and that
the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time.
Payne: Second.
Hayek: Motion to collapse from Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Audience?
Council discussion?
Throgmorton: I ... I wonder if it would be, um, helpful to have a staff member just kind of remind
us all about why we're going to this $50 thing.
Markus: Yeah, Mark Rummel's here in the audience. This was a mistake. I think it got
dropped from the ordinance. We're just resurrecting it at this point, but ... if you
may add.
Rummell: Hi, uh, Mark Rummel, Transportation Research Management. Um, we had
changed some fee structures a couple years ago and at that time this ... uh, fee of
$50 for the snow emergency, um, was ... omitted accidentally. Um, so we're just
looking to get it put back on the fee structures.
Hayek: Clean up!
Rummell: Yeah, just a clean up item.
Hayek: Thanks! Further Council discussion? Roll call, please.
Mims: Move final consideration at this time.
Payne: Second.
Hayek: Pass and adopt moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Roll call,
please. Passes 7-0.
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ITEM 13. HOUSING CODE - ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 17, ENTITLED
"BUILDING AND HOUSING," CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED "HOUSING
CODE," TO SUPPORT NEIGHBORHOOD STABILIZATION BY
PROHIBITING FURNITURE ON ROOFS, ADDING STANDARDS FOR
EXTERIOR BUILDING AND FENCE SURFACES, REQUIRING
SCREENING OF DUMPSTERS ON MULTI -FAMILY DWELLINGS AND
UNDER CERTAIN DECKS/PORCHES, LIMITING THE STORAGE OF
LANDSCAPING/CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL, AND REQUIRING
GFCI PROTECTED OUTLETS AND CARBON MONOXIDE
DETECTORS. (PASS AND ADOPT)
Mims: Move adoption.
Botchway: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Botchway. Discussion? First anyone from the
audience on this item?
Gravitt: My name is Mary Gravitt and I notice that you said screening of dumpsters. What
about those dumpsters on Linn Street, the old Library. It looks like it's dumpsters
on the sidewalk, even though there's dumpsters ... there's room up the alley for it.
Now I've, uh, I've spoken about that before, and this is part of the downtown
situa... uh... uh, community. How come he can have those dumpsters on the
sidewalk? Now I know with zoning, you get half of the alley ... that, you know,
what your property covers, but his ... those dumpsters are almost on the street itself.
It doesn't seem like he ever wants to do anything about that lawn. Looks all like a
(mumbled) whatever and ... but nobody, or at least the City Council has never done
anything with ... about those dumpsters on the sidewalk. So I ... I'm just curious
why can he have 'em on the sidewalk? Right here it says you gonna do something
about it, but we'll see. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else?
Throgmorton: Matt, I, um, I'm ... looks like Roger wants to say something.
Hayek: Yep!
Knight: I was just going to say real quick, um, I hope you guys can also add banners.
Know we've heard the things about cat -calling, you know, um .... well ... politely
way of like 'show us your boobs,' things like that. Um, that shouldn't be allowed
in this city, much less in any housing area, and um, loud music. Know, there's
kids anywhere in this city, uh, I could probably throw a dime and ... tell you where
there's at least 10 kids, which is cool. I'm glad, but ... we need to be able to allow
them to do their homework in peace and ... sorry! I just thought that'd be funny
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(laughs) um ... just something to think about, as well, into this ordinance.
(mumbled)
Hayek: Thank you for the comments.
Throgmorton: Matt, I ... I'd like to ask, uh, Stan and Tracy, uh... a question, or at least (both
talking)
Hayek: Sure! Sure!
Throgmorton: They're both very good, and so, anyhow... you... you gave us a memo that, uh,
defined various activities, outreach efforts you've made over the last, uh, couple
or three weeks, uh, and your efforts to answer questions that have been raised by a
few of our residents. I wonder if you could summarize what those outreach
efforts have been, and ... maybe give us a ... sort of a broad, uh, stroke kind of,
urn ... image of the questions that were asked and how you answered them.
Laverman: Sure, so, uh, about three weeks ago we started realizing there was some
misconceptions out there and some chatter on social media, on different sites, that
the City staff members belong to, uh, on a personal basis, uh... at which point we
decided that we needed to address some of those questions that were being, um,
asked, um, either through the ... the Facebook sites of different neighborhoods or
through the ... the Nextdoor, uh, social media app. So ... uh, working with the City
Communications, uh, staff, we developed a web site, urn ... that had all the
documents that had been presented to you and to the different, uh... uh,
Neighborhood Council organization and also the Greater Iowa City Apartment
Owners Association, um, just so there was one concise place where all the
information was at. Um, along with that we looked at some of the questions that
had come in. Uh....uh, also we had a member of the public come to the Council
meeting, uh, lives in Deweyville, uh, and had asked very specific questions, so,
uh, wanted to make sure that those questions were answered specifically. Again,
we responded back to her. We made sure that she had all the information that was
out there, including answering those questions in there. So, urn ... as a highlight,
uh, you know, one of the questions was why, why are we doing this. Uh... uh,
started out that, you know, it's ... part of it deals with the goals of the strategic plan
and what we want to see for our downtown and our University -impact areas.
Um ... from there it was also issues that have been raised by, um, neighborhood,
uh, associations in the near -downtown area, uh, over the past few years about
increased enforcement and issues that they're seeing in their neighborhood. Um,
part of what we're looking at is also a policy change in how we enforce in those
neighborhoods, that not only will we systematically inspect rental properties but
on the exterior properties, in the University -impact areas, specifically Goosetown
neighborhood, Northside neighborhoods, College Hill ... College Green
neighborhoods that we will systematically inspect the exterior properties to make
sure they're in compliance with our housing code. Urn ... first one that we
addressed was, uh, there was a question — well don't we have an ordinance about,
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uh, furniture on rooves, and we don't, uh, and it's to a point where, uh, we do need
an ordinance about furniture on roofs, unfortunately. All furniture. Um ... you got,
uh, we have our ... an ordinance that says you can't have indoor furniture outdoors
and, uh, we live in a very educated community. Our students are very educated,
and the next thing that we saw was, uh, outdoor lawn chairs on rooves, uh, in
certain areas, so obviously they ... they read. (laughter) Um ... will paint color be
regulated by this ordinance? No. It will not be regulated. The issue is we're
looking for uniform color consistent in complete fashion. Uh, I think we brought
a PowerPoint of...of several examples of...of paint schemes that were appropriate
and then also where we've seen temporary paint jobs that, uh, would not comply
with this, uh, increased enforcement. Uh, the question was raised — who would
enforce these standards? Would it be, uh, volunteers or neighborhood, uh,
members, but it's not. It'll be City staff, specifically me and a couple of other staff
members. How does the City determine when a property needs to be painted?
Um, the primary reason we're looking for surfaces to be painted is to protect
against decay and deterioration. So as soon as we start seeing paint peel off and
chip and, uh, in areas that are visible, uh, we know that we ... we have to work on
getting those surfaces painted. Uh, there was a question about do we really need
to have dumpsters screened on existing multi -family sites and we really feel that
we do, that we do have ordinances that deal with, um ... trash and litter, um, but
when those dumpsters are floating out a little bit, that, uh, there's a collection of
trash that's able to blow through the neighborhoods and it's ... if we can get those
screened in and contained in a little bit better, that it'll improve, uh, our ... our
residential areas. Question was asked, who determines when the storage of
landscaping and construction ma ... material is a violation? The ... the amendment
reads that it...it has to be a substantial interference with the use of the property.
Um ... and the permanent storage of trash ... trash bags, landscaping, and
construction material, compost material — when it's visible from the street, it is not
permitted. Uh, again, City staffll be the ones that enforce that, urn ... you know,
and it ... and it has to be over a long-term period, where we're working on that. So
if you're ... got a couple week or a month long, you know, landscaping project,
we're not gonna be out there hurrying you along. Uh, GFCI protected outlets,
carbon monoxide in ... in owner -occupied properties, uh, we'll handle that the same
way the ... with the new increased requirements for smoke alarms that we've had
since 2008, where ... where you pull a building permit. Uh, that'll be a requirement
that those issues are taken care of in owner -occupied, and rental properties, we're
in those every two years and we'll handle those during our ... our systematic rental
inspections. Uh, there was some confusion of why we were ... the question was
asked, uh, why is it being amended to include owner -occupied properties. Uh, the
housing code and the housing code has actually always included owner -occupied
properties. We were just clarifying that, just because of our change in policy in
our University -impact areas of how we are inspecting the exterior properties.
Um, there's always a concern with finances, um ... we're working on ... a plan for
low to moderate income, uh, and even homeowners up to 140% of median
income, uh, where funds will be available, uh, details of that are not finalized.
Uh, obviously we're not going to start enforcing some of these exterior items until
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spring, uh, and by the time we start enforcement, we'll have that, um, those
programs in place and we'll be able to, urn ... kind of broadcast what we're doing at
the same time as we do enforcement. There's a question about fencing. Um ... and
there ... the amendments in that we were exceeding what we had, uh, in the past
and we looked at it more of a clarification of what we were doing, uh... uh, and
just kind of cleaning up the language so it was clear what the expectations were.
Um, and there was a question that if...would there be unintended consequences,
and uh, would it require or push people to side quicker, and urn ... for us we .... we
feel there's a lot of factors that go into, um ... when people decide to side their
homes or to paint their homes. Uh, we didn't really feel that the regulation's going
to change that. Last question was why haven't we heard about these changes
before now and ... um ... we brought it to key groups, uh, usually the Apartment
Owners Association is, um .... ones that are a little more vocal on ... when we
change the housing code. Uh, when we brought this to their attention they looked
at it and regarded it as, um, more clarifications and um .... the, probably the
substantial change with the screening of dumpsters, urn ... wasn't a concern at
the ... at the meeting we brought it to. Uh, we brought it to the neighborhood
association meetings and honestly these are some of the changes that they've been
asking for for a long time, so it was readily accepted. That's ... a brief overview.
Hayek: Go ahead, Jim!
Throgmorton: Uh, so thanks for reaching out to the public to try to make sure they knew what
was going on and trying to respond to the questions, uh, well not trying to.
Responding to the questions (both talking)
Laverman: Sure!
Throgmorton:... that were asked, uh, so thank you for doing that. Uh, I want to tell you that, uh,
I ... when I read the memo I thought, okay, well I'll go to the web site, the City's
web site, and find the responses to questions. So I had to do some digging. You
know, it was like three layers down and I have a feeling that if I, uh, didn't know
how to do that, I wouldn't have been able to find it. So...
Laverman: Sure. So on...on the, the web links that was pushed out to social media, on
Twitter, uh, on Facebook to the different neighborhood association Facebook
pages, to Nextdoor, had the direct link that took you right to the page (both
talking)
Throgmorton: Great, yeah, that's what I was wondering about.
Laverman: Yeah!
Throgmorton: Great!
Hayek: Okay! Thanks, Stan. That was very helpful.
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Botchway: I had one quick question, just about ... you were talking about the plans that are
going to come up, cause nobody's going... necessarily make changes until spring.
Are you going to come back before Council to talk about those plans?
Laverman: We'll talk about the policy and also present what our financial, uh, plan is for that.
Yep.
Hayek: Thanks, Stan! Further Council discussion?
Mims: I just want to say I am very supportive of this, and I know we've had, um, some
concerns expressed by some people in the public and particularly, um, potential
financial, um, concerns that they have as they might have to repaint their house or
whatever. I think with what we're doing with putting together that financial
assistance, um, for people who need it, I think, is a really important part. I think
the fact that the initial, uh... inspections basically are in the University -impact area
and outside of that it's by complaint, and I think for ... for everybody, you know,
including homeowners who may have some concerns about this, you know, if you
own your house, you should want the other houses ... you should want your house,
but you should also want the other houses in your neighborhood to be well-
maintained because that affects your ... the value of your own house, and so, um,
you know, we've had discussions with staff and we certainly do not expect, uh,
nor do I think we will, uh, support any draconian, um, enforcement measures by
our staff. Um, we really want to do this to make the community look better.
There are some safety issues, obviously, in this as well, um, but again, it protects
everybody in terms of the investment that they have put into their property, and
just a final comment — I would say is if people ... find themselves in a situation
where they, you know, really don't feel that this is being done the way that we
have intended, then obviously get a hold of staff and/or get hold of Council
Members and we will come back and readdress it if we need to, but I think it's a
good move forward.
Payne: Well I ... I think there's such thing as too much government, and we have to weigh
that with neighborhood stabilization, and what's best for everyone as a whole. I
think this is a ... an example of almost too much government, but neighborhood
stabilization is very important.
Mims: Especially in that northeast Northside.
Hayek: You know I ... I'm ... I'm supportive of this. I, and I think we have a long ways to go
before we would get to the point of too much government on something like this.
Frankly I think we've been very lax with respect to our expectations of housing,
especially in the ... in the rental market, in the ... in the near -campus area where tons
of wealth is being extracted every year from, uh ... formerly beautiful homes, some
of which are still beautiful. A lot of 'ern are long in the tee ... tooth, um, and a lot
of wealth is being made, and not a lot of reinvestment is incurring ... o ... occurring,
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um, you know obviously the (clears throat) the .... the secret to this or the ... the
essence of this will be, um, judged by the ... the discretion of staff and the ... and the
interpretation of...of...of the ordinance relative to the situation. You know,
the ... the house situation, the discretion used by staff, and I have a lot of
confidence that staff s gonna, you know, use the right touch, uh, to ... to, uh, to ... to
take this up, but you know we ... we have for years as a city been making major
investments in the public infrastructure in these neighborhoods, um, you know,
parkland, green space, open space, hard infrastructure, uh... uh, and ... and the like,
and frankly we've been expecting more of ourselves as ... as .... as a city in terms of
our assets in these neighborhoods, and I ... and I think it's appropriate to expect
more, um, of privately held assets, um, in particular because in these
neighborhoods, so much of the housing stock is rental, um, and we know, all of us
know just how, um, lucrative, uh, that can be in a community like this. Um,
I ... these are reasonable, um ... uh, standards. Um ... uh, and ... and you know, I .... I
think it is appropriate to have some aesthetic expectations of our housing stock,
especially as we pour money through our neighborhood stabilization strategic
priorities into these places, and the things I've mentioned. The nei... the
UniverCity, um ... uh. partnership program, uh, is ... is a ... is a good example, so I
think this is good. Uh, we'll see how it plays out. Obviously it'll get tweaked
with time. Everything we pass seems to at some point or another, um ... but ... but
it's high time we do this and I'm glad to see it come together and I ... I appreciate
staffs, uh, work on this. Further discussion?
Botchway: I just had a question about some of the comments that were made, especially
about the lewd, um, like posters and things. That's not a part of this, but is that
gonna kind of come up with our other discussion as we talk about street
harassment and things?
Dilkes: I think that's on the list and it's being looked at by (both talking)
Botchway: Okay!
Dilkes: ...PD.
Fruin: ...the Police Department's looking into that. That would be outside of what you're
considering right now.
Dilkes: Yeah.
Botchway: All right. And then the other dumpster. Isn't that a part of a multi -family
dwelling?
Fruin: I'm sorry, what did you say?
Botchway: (mumbled) across from the Library, like in that back parking lot, right by the
Mason's building, Masonic building I mean.
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Fruin: Yeah, that would be private property. I'd have to check with our ... with our staff
to see what exactly that problem is.
Hayek: Roll call, please. Passes 7-0.
Karr: Motion to accept correspondence.
Botchway: So moved.
Dickens: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Botchway, seconded by Dickens. Discussion? All those in favor say
aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries.
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ITEM 14. HUMAN RIGHTS ORDINANCE AMENDMENT - ORDINANCE
AMENDING TITLE 2 OF THE CITY CODE, ENTITLED "HUMAN
RIGHTS," TO ALIGN WITH THE FAIR HOUSING ACT AND TO
UPDATE AND CLARIFY ITS GENERAL PROVISIONS. (FIRST
CONSIDERATION)
Payne: Move first consideration.
Mims: Second.
Hayek: Moved by Payne, seconded by ... Mims, I think. Discussion?
Gravitt: My name is Mary Gravitt and I'm trying to ... to get back to what I wanted to say,
uh, before. We were talking about human rights and I'm assuming that bus
drivers are human beings, and it was very nice of the transportation company to
run the bus back into the Sycamore Mall, but there's .... but I have had complaints
from three drivers that ... two of the spaces need to be removed. That was part of
the promise, of two of the spaces. I know I'm wasting time on this.
Hayek: Well I'm just ask... does... does your comment address Item 14?
Gravitt: Yes! As you have human rights, right, and I'm talking about human rights. I'm
talking about trying to prevent the City from being sued and somebody from
getting killed in Sycamore Mall, and I want to get out of here and get my bus. I
got on bus 70 today. Smelled like kerosene. I mailed the letter to the City and
they say they'll get back to me in 10 days. So if anybody dies from that, that's on
them. But, the two spaces in Sycamore Mall need to be removed, or there's gonna
be problems there. That's all I want to say. Thank you.
Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Anyone else? Council discussion? Roll call,
please. Passes 7-0.
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ITEM 19. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION
Hayek: Kingsley, why don't we start down with you?
Botchway: Uh, guess the only thing I was going to say was, uh, it was fun winning, and
participating in the, uh, dodgeball tournament put on by (both talking)
Throgmorton: Sheer luck!
Botchway: .... um ... (laughter) Um, the Iowa City Police Department, um, they did a
wonderful job. It was a ... I didn't know it was a first kind of inaugural event and it
was kind of well-managed, um, as I would expect from the ... our police
department, um, and uh, unfortunately our Iowa City Police Department did lose
to North Liberty Police Department, but then we beat the North Liberty Police
Department to make sure that Iowa City (mumbled) (laughter)
Mims: Competitive!
Botchway: Sorry, the point was that we raised $5,000 for, uh, Special Olympics, so apologies
(laughter)
Hayek: And you've been complaining about your hamstring ever since! (laughs)
Throgmorton: Uh, I can't say anything about dodgeball or volleyball or anything, but uh, I'd like
to mention that on the 2nd of November I attended a State of Research Address by
the University of Iowa's Vice President for Research, Dan Reed, and Dan did a
superb job of summarizing the range of outstanding research being conducted by
University of Iowa faculty. President Harreld was in the audience along with
about 150 or so other faculty members. Uh, I look forward to meeting the new
President and trust that he was as impressed as I was by the quality of the work
that University of Iowa faculty are doing. It was very impressive! That's it!
Mims: Okay! I was there, as well. I know Tom was there, um, it was and his, the way
he connected things was very interesting, as well, in a way that I think lots of
times a lot of us don't look at, and the value to the whole state and the nation, um,
with a lot of the research that's done and how we have to really look at things
long-term. So it was ... it was very interesting (both talking)
Throgmorton: Can I pick up on that?
Mims: Sure!
Throgmorton: ... just a second. So a ... after the presentation, you know, there was that meet and
greet or whatever outside, and I was talking with another faculty member who
said that he is the, uh, the... the... the lead official of EPA's, Environmental
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Protection Agency's Scientific Advisory Committee. So I said, what ... why didn't
Dan Reed mention you, and he said well, he probably doesn't even know. So
what that told me is there's a huge amount of other research and really high level
work that's being done. They can't all be expressed, even in one 45 -minute
presentation.
Mims: Yeah, it was ... it was very good. Um, I would just like to say congratulations to
Jim and the others who, uh, were successful in the election and we'll have a
chance to say good-bye to the ones that are leaving as we finish out the year. Um,
and otherwise, you know we've ... we've changed those clocks and people be very
careful driving home — people on bicycles, make sure you got lights on and
reflectors, um, it's dangerous out there if you're going home from work, so be
cautious.
Dickens: I'd just like to, uh, I dropped some material off to Marian today. It's from, uh,
Troop 212, which had built a new suspren ... suspension bridge in, uh, Hickory Hill
Park, and they designed it and built it. Uh, they got private funds (mumbled)
that's why we got a note back from 'em, but they tried to design it to match the
new bridge on ... on Dubuque Street. So it's a mini -replica of a new bridge. It's got
the suspension. So if you get a chance to walk through Hickory Hill Park. I
know Marian will distribute the pictures. It'll be in the next packet I'm sure, but
uh, they did a great job of...of building this and uh, and they repaired quite a few
other bridges there, so ... this is what our youth of Iowa City is doing. So, it's great
to see!
Payne: I just want to remind everybody that tomorrow is Veterans Day and please honor
the veterans in your life and in the city of Iowa City.
Hayek: (laughter) No voice! (laughs) Uh, three quick things. Uh... uh, first, Jim,
you ... you had mentioned President Harreld. Uh, Tom ... Tom and I had a very
good meeting with him, uh, the other day, um ... uh... and uh, I want to welcome
President Harreld to the community and .... and his wife Mary. Um, my sense is
that he, uh... um, has great promise, uh, for the University and for this community.
I think he will be an ally to the City, um, and.... certainly there is controversy
around the arrival and the ... and the process, but I think we need to give this, uh,
man a chance and support him, um, and I think he, uh, could do great things for
the University and for the City of Iowa City, and we look forward to a strong
partnership, uh, with him going forward. Um, secondly, uh, gotta give a shout out
to my old football team, uh, City High made the quarter finals at the state
tournament and uh, I still have my t -shirt from back in the day when we, uh, made
it to the quarter finals, um ... don't worry! I didn't break any records back in the
day, but uh (several talking and laughing) but I'm very proud of the football team
and, uh...
Dickens: Didn't you used to be Matt Hayek (both talking and laughing)
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Hayek: Yeah, exactly! Um, glad to see them do, uh, do so well. Uh, and congrats to
the ... to the coaching staff, and then finally, uh, it ... Veterans Day has come up
several times, uh, tonight, as it should. Tomorrow is Veterans Day. We should
remember those who have, uh, put on the uniform in ... in defense of our country.
Um, the ... the annual Johnson County Military Affairs Association dinner,
banquet, uh, is ... is being held. Um, it's been held for, uh, 35 years now. Um, it
started in 1981, um, the last few years have been across the border, down at the
casino in Riverside. Uh, they made a deal that just couldn't be passed up (laughs)
so the Johnson County Military Affairs dinner is in Washington County, but the
food is great, uh, and tickets are still available for that. So...
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ITEM 20. REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF
a) City Manager
Markus: Matt's probably too, um ... reserved to mention it, but I think the award at that
dinner is named after your grandfather?
Hayek: Grandfather, yeah.
Markus: Grandfather. Uh, I was going to echo what Jim and Susan said about the research,
uh, presentation by Dan Reed. I thought it was outstanding. Um ... the one thing
I'd point out is that Dan was very candid about the opportunities that we still have
to explore that we haven't concentrated on, so he kind of focused our direction
there too. And I think he gave us a pretty nice shout out to the City of Iowa City
for, uh, the efforts with the University, ICAD, and the ... the city itself, so...
Fruin: Nothing.
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