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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-12-10 Transcription December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page I December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Elliott, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn Council Elect: Hayek, Wright Staff: Karr, Helling, Dilkes, Yapp, O'Malley, Rocca, Hargadine Other: Volland Council Appointments: Wilburn! Okay, let's get going. (coughing) Going to make it? Elliott/ I think so. Wilburn! Okay. (several talking) Council appointments - we have several. Elliott/ I said to Amy, you know, there for a while we didn't get anybody. Now, my God! They're coming in by the carload. Vanderhoef/ But just for two commissions, and then we have blanks on a whole bunch of others. Elliott! Also... Bailey/ Steve always said that he would do one of these Airport Zoning Commissions. It might be time to give him a call. (laughter and several talking) Champion! I think he said that out of. . .just to be nice. Bailey/ I think we should call him! O'Donne11! Give him an opportunity! Wilburn! Okay. The first one... Elliott! Board of Appeals. Wilburn! ... the Board of Appeals. Elliott/ Andrea French. Vanderhoef/ Andrea. Wilburn! Andrea? O'Donne11! I like that too. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 2 Wilburn! Okay. Elliott! That was easy! Wilburn! We're not done yet. O'Donne11! That's your last name, Bob. Wilburn! Human Rights Commission. We have three vacancies, three-year terms. We have two males and four females currently serving. (several talking) Vanderhoef/ I like Corey (several talking). Elliott! Yolanda was on a commission, served only a month or two. Correia! She had a conflict. Bailey/ She had a conflict. Elliott! Was that it? Okay. Vanderhoef/ Um. . .Marian Coleman, I think, would be very good on this commission, and I liked what Andy Willard had to say. Champion! There's a lot of good people. (several talking) Elliott/ I like Pat Schnack, as a person who brings a lot of ideas to the table. (several talking) Champion! Dealt with kids, dealt with diversity. Elliott/ You're right, uh... Bailey/ Like to get some men on this though. Vanderhoef/ I would too, that's why I was looking at Corey and Andy. Champion! We all support Dell. (several talking) Wilburn! There were lots of. . . Vanderhoef/ 1. . . Wilburn! Lots of buzzes for Dell. Vanderhoef/ Are there four? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 3 Champion! Yes. Bailey/ I just like his realty background. I've worked with him on other projects. Wilburn! One, two, three, four, five, okay. Elliott! I also think that, uh, you're right, Marian Coleman has a lot of experience in the field. Pat Schnack is... Vanderhoef/ And Andy Willard...I think he's the one that, uh, had long conversations and hadn't known about the commission until he met Stephanie and... Elliott! Who was that? Vanderhoef/ I think it's Andy Willard. Bailey/ Oh, until Stephanie came to his class? Vanderhoef/ Uh-huh. And he's actually been working in the area and teaching along that line for a number of years, and I thought he might be kind of interesting to... O'Donnell! .. .see Marian Coleman appointed... Champion! Well, we'd be foolish not to appoint her. O'Donnell! She's a tremendous... Vanderhoef/ Uh-huh. Okay. Wilburn!Y ou looking for something on Andy there? Dee? Vanderhoef/ Yeah, and he's...I found it. Uh... Elliott! Experiential Learning Coordinator at DI. Vanderhoef/ ... with international, uh, students... teaching and studying international and national and local efforts to achieve human rights. He's published articles, uh... Correia! I'm interested in Yolanda. She.. .you know, with her work at the School District (unable to hear) background... Elliott! And the last time you said it was conflict of interest, was that right? (several talking) O'Donnell/ I thought we already decided on her. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 4 Correia! Oh we did? Vanderhoef/ I didn't know that. O'Donnell/ I thought there were four. Wilburn! I would support you on that. Elliott/ Okay, we've got Dell Briggs. Wilburn! Dell Briggs, Yolanda Spears. Vanderhoef/ A male then. Volland/ Nathan, he's a student. He's a law student. I don't know the age ofthe current. . . Vanderhoef/ Well, I would take either Corey or Andy, 00... Correia! I like Corey, urn... Vanderhoef/ He's, uh, younger age group. He's National Guard. Urn, NAACP. Wilburn! I would go with Corey. (several responding) Vanderhoef/ Okay. Wilburn! One, two, three, four. So, Corey Stoglin, Dell Briggs, and Yolanda Spears. And... Elliott/ Parks and Rec. Vanderhoef/ This is really tough. Bailey/ Well, Judy had contacted me months ago about this commission. She is very enthusiastic about serving. Vanderhoef/ I know! Bailey/ And I was glad to see her follow through with an application, so I would support Judy. Correia! Yeah, I think we need some. . . Vanderhoef/ Well, the only thing is that.. .that, uh, Jerry has had less than a full term, and Marty is just finishing her first term. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 5 Elliott! We have in the past said that we would give consideration, strongest consideration, to someone who hasn't yet had his second term. Margaret Loomer would be a much-needed female. Jerry would serve out an unexpired term. Vanderhoef/ And there'll be, a year from now, there will be one, uh, vacancy, on a female. Elliott/ I don't know where they get seven males and zero females, when one of the applicants is serving. Vanderhoef/ They don't.. .this is a nine.. .it's a nine... Karr/ Nine-member board. Vanderhoef/ .. .so they subtract out.. . (several talking) Elliott/ Oh, is that (several talking) they leave off the people that are currently serving. Champion! So I think we ought to, I mean, because it's been our general policy and, um, Margaret is just serving her first.. .just finishing her first four-year term, and Jerry is just serving an unexpired term (several responding) we should allow them to complete our usual process. Wilburn! Margaret and Jerry then? O'Donne11! I agree. Vanderhoef/ Uh, I agree. Correia! I'm not... Bailey/ No, I want to get some gender balance on this commission. I really do. Correia! I mean, I understand... Bailey/ I understand what you're saying. Correia! .. . consideration, but it's not a policy. It's been a practice. Champion! No, it's not a policy, but I still support it. O'Donnell/ It's been our practice, and I'm...I support it. Wilburn! Well, how many would like to see Jerry? Elliott! Yes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 6 V anderhoef/ Yes, I think so. Wilburn! And I think there was.. .Margaret was the other one. Champion! Margaret. Vanderhoef/ Uh-huh. And I would strongly encourage, uh, Judith to come back one year from now when there will be an opening. Bailey/ She's been waiting over a year to apply. Vanderhoef/ She missed it, when there was a mid-term.. ..there. Wilburn! Last one? (several talking) Elliott/ What's an Ex-Officio? That's usually by nature of the position. What position? O'Donnell/ Honorary members? Champion! Ex-Officio just means you don't have to be, that you don't have to be a... Elliott! No, but I mean, it says by nature of the position. That means that by the nature of the position you're automatically put in. It doesn't make sense to call it Ex- Officio. Champion! I think it means that the art and design professionals are all filled, and you're an art, or a design professional. You could still qualify to be an Ex-Officio member. O'Donnell/ Non-voting member. Correia! Usually Ex-Officios have served before, and then they move... Elliott! Ex-Officio means by nature of the. . .I'm saying, it is... Bailey/ He's right. He's translating the Latin correctly. Elliott/ It is...it is improperly identified. Champion! Well, we're not perfect. Elliott/ (laughter) I guess that lets us out, doesn't it? Vanderhoef/ I'm not sure when they started doing an Ex-Officio. Karr/ I can let you know tomorrow night. Dilkes/ We'd have to look... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 7 Bailey/ I would support Jan Finlayson. Wilburn! I'd support Jan. (several talking) That's three for Jan Finlayson? Four? So, Jan Finlayson will be the art or design professional. Vanderhoef/ Well, I don't know where this Ex-Officio spot came in. Uh, we've got someone that's. . . (several talking) Elliott! No. That does not mean non-voting. (several talking) But the current Ex-Officio is serving second three-year term, so one would assume.. . Barbara Nicknish would be the good one. (several talking) Wilburn! That's it. (several talking) 4th Avenue and Court Street: (lP2 of 12/6 Info Packet) Wilburn! Go ahead. Yapp/ Uh, staff is recommending a, and I brought a color version to pass out, uh, state law yield to pedestrian signs at, uh, the 4th Avenue and Court Street intersection. Uh, the impetus for this study occurred in September when a, uh, a high school student was hit by a vehicle at this intersection. Uh, the student was in the crosswalk, uh, and was hit by a vehicle traveling on Court Street. Uh, several, uh, parents subsequent to that event asked for, uh, for us to consider all all-way stop at that intersection. We wanted to review the intersection closely because an all- way stop in an incorrect location can result in more collisions than it solves. For example, typically an all-way stop will result in more rear-end collisions, and at a location where there is very little side street traffic, uh, can result in a. . .in a failure to yield, which is where someone just rolls through the stop sign, uh, and might, again, hit somebody in the crosswalk. Uh, we took traffic counts and pedestrian counts throughout the fall, and uh, quantified that there is not enough side street traffic to warrant an all-way stop at this location. Uh, this state law yield to pedestrian sign was just adopted by, uh, the State of Iowa in 2005 to specifically address locations where an all-way stop is not warranted, uh, but there is some desire to call more attention to the crossing location. Uh, it's been used on Newton Road for several years, on the Health Sciences campus on the University campus, with some success. We've done a lot of observations at that location this fall, also, and estimate 60 to 70% of vehicles do fully yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Elliott! John, I'm over there into that building probably once a week anyway, and... Yapp/ What's been your experience? Elliott! ...I noticed that invar.. .I've never seen a car that approaches that that doesn't slow down, waiting to stop. It's extremely meaningful over there. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 8 Correia! Over there though, isn't there a raised.. . (several talking) Yapp/ There is a raised crosswalk at that location also. (several talking) Certainly could. Right now, it's your policy to not use traffic calming device, which is a raised crosswalk. It's similar to a speed hump on an arterial street, because those are the emergency response routes. Elliott! All I know is whatever they do it.. . and it has to do with repetition of the same cars going over the same street, but it is...it is really effective there. y app/ Yeah, I agree. Urn... Correia! It seems like in this, especially in this travel area with Hoover and City High, in that close proximity, it seems like there's additional safety concerns, even though it is an arterial. I don't know. I mean, what's over on the Health Sciences is a bit different than the speed humps that are on. . . Yapp/ It's a little bit wider, and it's.. .it's flatter at the top. That's correct. Correia! Acts more like a pedestrian walkway. Champion! Those are quite common in cities.. . (several talking)...I don't know why we don't.. . (several talking). I think that's a very busy intersection, at certain times of the time. O'Donnell/ But the concern was emergency vehicle traffic. Yapp/ Yeah, we can certainly, I would like to get the input of the emergency response staff, as well as transit staff. O'Donnell/ I'd like to hear their response. Correia! Yeah, exactly, I'd like to continue exploring it. Bailey/ But I think given that we have a lot of young drivers in the area that added difference in the pavement would be an additional reminder, besides the signs. They'll stop seeing the signs, you know, we all stop seeing things that we see over and over again. So... Elliott/ Ifwe were to experimentally try it on one of those through streets, that would certainly be a great place to experiment. Wilburn! You want to go ahead and check with, uh... Yapp/ Be happy to. (several talking) Sometimes it's called a speed table, uh, and sometimes a raised crosswalk, because it is (several talking) it is flatter at the top. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10,2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 9 Uh, the other thing we, uh, learned, uh, and as someone who has a high school age student certainly drive by there every day, but just haven't noticed it. There is no sidewalk on, uh, F ourth Avenue, south of Court Street, and this is. . . this has led to many pedestrians who cross at that location to be walking in the travel lane, urn, especially this time of year when the snow is piled up, uh, on top of the curb. Db, we do recommend that a sidewalk be installed, as part of the sidewalk in-fill program, at that location. Elliott! It seems like that would be a priority next step for that program. Vanderhoef/ I don't believe Fifth Avenue has a sidewalk either. Yapp/ Fifth Avenue does not either. Most, you know, another thing we noticed with.. .with a lot of these in our observations, many pedestrians don't cross in the crosswalk. (laughter) They.. .they, uh, they, as soon as there's a gap in traffic, they... they cross at several locations throughout Court Street. Urn, we are setting up a meeting with City High to both educate, uh, both to the students as well as to parents through the newsletter, urn, how these yield to pedestrian signs work, uh, the importance of crossing in a consistent location, uh, for pedestrian, and.. . and again, there's always going to be issues, but uh, we hope to do some education as part of this also. Bailey/ And 1...I noticed that you don't, um, have encouraging greater enforcement of this particular sign. Are we also. . . Yapp/ I have met with, uh, one of the police captains for some targeted enforcement when the sign is first installed, as well as periodic enforcement. Bailey/ Because that's a great reminder because this is a problem throughout our community. Yapp/ It is on the JCCOG work program to test these signs in a variety of situations, urn, North Liberty and Coralville are also interested in testing them, and it's our goal to develop some criteria for their use. Uh, and I think you just noted, ifthey're used too often around the community, their effectiveness starts to become limited. But we would like to develop some criteria, and believe that because of the high volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic in a short period of time, uh, at the Court Street and Fourth Avenue intersection, it's a logical place. Elliott! As a person who has lived here a long time, you talk about a lot of people don't bother to use the crosswalks. It is much better than it used to be. I can remember when Iowa City used to be known as people walked around the streets like a herd of cattle. It just... they were everywhere. So, it is much, it is...a great deal of improvement has yet to be done, but it's much better than it used to be. Bailey/ But this law is not particularly well known or observed. We had quite a lengthy discussion in our household about if it was. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 10 Vanderhoef/ Certainly when you are on Market Street, uh, when you get to the Ann Cleary, uh, pedestrians, students don't even make eye contact. They walk right out in front, and there are painted crosswalks there. So it isn't, it isn't "their fault," but that is my experience and because that's my regular travel lane, they certainly stop the traffic there. Likewise down... Bailey/ Well, the traffic doesn't stop for them always. That's the spooky thing, and the same .... Vanderhoef/ ... but. . . Elliott! The students are pretty good there about using common sense to let some cars go by and.. . (several talking).. .well, if you stopped until everybody was across, you would never get.. .but the students have been pretty good about it. I've seen... Yapp/ There's no collision history at those, at that location. Elliott/ ...I think the cars do pretty well there. Yapp/ Thank you. (several responding) Metropolitan Coalition: ITEM 13 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A METROPOLITAN COALITION AGREEMENT. Wilburn! In the envelope that you had sitting on the desk when you came in here, uh, or some of you may have picked it up before, there's a memo from Dale with, uh, three minor changes to the Metropolitan Coalition Agreement. Uh, Dale and I met again with members of the proposed coalition.. .last week? It seems like so long ago. Helling/ Yeah, last week, and Eleanor was also there telephonically. Wilburn! And, urn, it would appear at least by those who were present that, again, pending approval by the individual councils that, um, eight or nine cities, at least to our knowledge at that meeting all but Waterloo was interested and willing to participate, uh. Question? (several talking) Waterloo, the Mayor of Waterloo has had some, um, concerns along, I believe he is going to be taking over as a.. .as the Chair Elect.. .President Elect of the. . .ofthe, uh, Iowa League of Cities, and since he was hearing some concerns, urn, addressed by some of the members and/or staff there, um, a concern about not wanting to put himself in a.. .that's part of it. The other piece of it was just some concerns about fiscally where they would come up with the... the, uh, funding for this, in terms of...is that fair, Dale? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10,2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page II Helling/ Yeah, that's a fair statement. Vanderhoefl I think so. That's a... that's a "working mayor" form of government up there, and he's had some concerns, and we still don't know what fiscal responsibility is, and that's something that I think we all should know before we vote on this. Elliott/ You bet! Correia! Well, and I had a question about, I see that the Executive Director title has changed to Director of Governmental Affairs. Um, I guess when we talked about it at the last meeting, my understanding was that we would be forming this coalition for the purposes of having a body that would hire a lobbyist during a Legislative session? Wilburn! That's correct. Correia! So is this Director of Governmental Affairs a lobbyist, that would be... Wilburn! Yes. Correia! So not a 12-month position? Wilburn! The, um, that position will need to, will be doing lobbying, but will need to, um, operate, pay the bills, that sort of. . . Correia! What sort of bills? Wilburn! Well, uh, to make sure that himself is paid - him or herself is paid - to make sure that the, uh, any materials that need to be produced to.. .to do, I mean operating costs, uh, affiliated with having that, um, the concept that's on, uh, is being discussed with the League staff now is to actually have that person housed out of the League offices and so rent would need to be paid. So, that's.. .that's why. Correia! Because that's different than what I was understanding the coalition to be. Bailey/ I have to...I had the same response, and perhaps, um, perhaps I just hadn't been listening, but I was listening I thought because this was very interesting to me. t..I thought that this was going to be much.. .this is very established. It's going to have an office, it's going to pay rent, urn, my interest was really joining together with these other cities with common interests and hiring a lobbyist. I'm not interested in building another organization. I'm interested in, urn, the largest cities in Iowa, um, putting forth their Legislative agenda in a little bit more aggressive, assertive, and clear way to the Legislator. And, you know, I'm a big proponent of non-profit organizations and all that, but... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 12 Wilburn! I don't...I don't... Bailey/ .. . seems like there's a lot of attention and will be a lot oftime and expense spent on building an organization, which mayor may not, I mean, we may come to find that that will be necessary, but... Wilburn! The intent isn't to go beyond the lobbyist, but to try and address the concerns about working together with the Iowa League of Cities, uh, that's why have the person housed there. Also, yes the idea and the concept is the larger cities are going to get together, meet, the board will be voting on policy and.. . and directing this lobbyist on what to do; however, realistically and logistically, you have to have some space to operate out of. You have to be able to contact, get all of the.. .whatever this coalition directs that lobbyist to do to, on the issues that he or she will be focusing on is going to have to.. .it's going to take effort to keep communication going. So you've got to have someone brokering that communication. Bailey/ So, I anticipated that we were getting a piece of a lobbyist, and not a full-time lobbyist. (several talking) Urn, and so I also made an assumption by that extension that the lobbyist would be operating out of his or her office, where, you know, she or he also serves other clients. Wilburn! The concern.. .it's not a full-time lobbyist, but they wanted to get, uh, there was a concern about having someone "addressing two masters." Bailey/ Right, but every.. . almost every lobbyist in Des Moines has multiple, um, clients. Vanderhoef/ It's a little bit more difficult when you're doing for multiple cities, versus a single issue, and certainly that came up this past year, that there was a terrific conflict of interest within an office of three, uh, attorneys...or lobbyists. What. . . what I don't see here is what I tried to make clear, uh, when we talked about it last time, is the fact that the League is in the process of addressing this thing, this whole idea, and that it can be done from within with a budget set aside specifically for the ten largest cities, or whatever grouping, uh, they choose to have in there, and it can be done within that. . . that total organization, without all this other and the concerns that we're seeing right now, and certainly with.. .with more, uh, funding capabilities within the organization, uh, we probably will get a whole lot more bang for our buck, and what I had envisioned personally was, as you well know, there is a League legislative policy committee that has functioned for years, and it has rotating members on it that comes together in the summer months to put together the legislative policy that is then voted on at the, uh, State Conference. I would envision the same kind of legislative policy committee for the ten largest, to.. .to set their policy and then make sure that there isn't the conflict or a super-direct conflict. Uh, usually what they, what the concern is for the largest cities is that their issues don't affect another, uh, 850 cities in the state, and so they do have special issues, but it can be done without doing all of this, and the additional expense, just doing a lobbyist. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 13 Elliott! You're suggesting (several talking) Wilburn! The, um, the participants in the conversations that, um, felt strongly that, um, that this is the nature of. . . wanting to more formalize, uh, a relationship and a concerted focused effort towards issues which, um, impact the larger cities, that, urn, urn, they felt because of some of the. . . the nature of the larger entity of the League of Cities with its vast diverse interests that in order to focus on, um, some of those issues that, uh, more greatly impact the larger cities, um, that it was important to, uh, have that arrangement, that agreement, amongst themselves, as opposed to working within the existing structure.. .at the League. Bailey/ And I don't disagree with that approach. Um, you know, I think the League has probably been well aware that the ten largest cities haven't been completely served in their interests through the League's activities. I mean, I don't think that this is a new issue. The question. . .. Wilburn! Well, there also. ..there are also issues that come up, uh, you know, in Des Moines on a half.. .day, half day notice that a decision needs to be made... Bailey/ Right. Wilburn! .. . and need to focus on... Vanderhoef/ We dealt with several of those last year. Bailey/ The other question that I have though (several talking) bylaws... Wilburn! Excuse me.. .there's some disagreement amongst the participation of this, whether or not, um, there were some issues that were seen in the interests of the larger cities, urn, they can be handled, and there can be a consensus agreement, but it's not necessarily, urn, a similar result or consensus that would have been, had it been part of the Cities. Go ahead, Regenia, sorry 1. . . Bailey/ Well, and these bylaws, I mean, how things are handled. The process...I mean, everybody gets one vote. How are the legislative priorities determined? I mean, that's something I expected to see more clearly outlined here, because that's once again a concern. Any time you come to the table with other people who have other interests, um, you know, some of these cities have the opportunity to have gambling revenue. We do not. I mean, so our interests are naturally (coughing, unable to hear) among other things. Um, how.. .it's not clearly outlined, and I have concerns about that. I mean, first and foremost I'm an advocate for this community, and.. . and I would expect that our investment here would insure that our vote was amplified. Iowa City's voice, not necessarily, I mean first and foremost that's what I care about. Um, and so I was surprised that that wasn't outlined a little bit more clearly, and surprised that other people haven't asked about that. Other communities haven't said the same thing. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 14 Wilburn! We.. .at one or two meetings ago, we had, um, and I'm trying to remember if you were in that meeting or not, uh, Dale. We had conversations about some of those issues, um, the focus shifted away from the issues to just trying to address the concerns being addressed, uh, politically with the.. .with the League and trying to talk about how things would go, in terms of decision making and all of that. Uh, we got away from the nature of deciding upon the exact issues to be agreed. The next meeting, I believe, would kind of set out those. Some examples of some things that came up, uh, were some things that, uh, specifically related to some ofthe Horne Rule concerns, urn, I know smoking came up. Some of the tax, taxing reform concerns came up. Dale, were you at that meeting, or do you know some of the examples that... Helling/ I think that's the one where I came in late. I was in another meeting. Urn, just by way of first some information that you asked for the last time, in terms of our dues to the Iowa League of Cities and the.. .some of the costs, the obvious costs that cities are experiencing. Our dues to the National League of Cities is, uh, $8,765, at least for the current year. That tends to bump up just a little bit each year. Uh, in addition to that, from the cities that we could talk to that do have lobbyists, and generally they're not, with maybe one exception, they're not full time. Um, they pay anywhere from, uh, about...in the range of $20,000 to $50,000 annually, depending on how much of that lobbyist time they buy and, uh, urn, yeah, just the arrangement on how they work with them. Dee, one of, I'm sorry? Vanderhoef/ Say that again - how much? Helling/ $20,000 to $50,000. There's a wide range, depending on, um, how much of that lobbyist's time they... Vanderhoef/ That's low! Helling/ Well, that's the range. Wilburn! That's what was reported to us. Helling/ Yeah, and the larger cities typically are in the higher end of that range. Vanderhoef! . H( coughing, unable to hear) over a hundred. Helling/ Well, that... that would. . . Bailey/ How many have full time lobbyists, compared to part-time? Helling! I think most ifnot all of them are part-time. Vanderhoef/ .. . lobbyists. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 15 Correia! (several talking).. .have multiple clients. They probably do make more, because they have multiple clients paying them. Vanderhoef/ But, to each client. Some of them. Champion! I'm just. ..1 mean, I appreciate, Dee, what you're saying, but you're talking about something that might be perceived, and I don't see it happening. I, and I know this would not be politically correct, but I'm going to say it anyway. I would drop out ofthe League of Cities. And I would form this coalition of the ten largest cities and get ourselves a lobbyist, who will only deal with our issues, because that's what happens. I mean, that's how you get things done. And I wouldn't worry about the political consequences of it. They have not served the big ten cities very well, and they may be talking about it now because they feel threatened. I say dump them! (laughter) Wilburn! That's...in order to... O'Donnell! I think you have to quit holding back! (laughter) Wilburn! Urn, it was decided in effort to, urn, not appear or be threatening with some concerns brought up by some of the League members that, uh, we included the, uh, requirement that you be a member ofIowa League of Cities. So... Champion! That was a political decision. Bailey/ Of course it was! Elliott/ It seems to me, uh, what Dee is saying, that the, uh, the ten largest cities could be a, uh, just a subcommittee of the League, which would save administrative, and particularly clerical costs, uh, because the people who do the lobbying work certainly have to have a lot of materials and a lot of clerical work being done, but the other one would operate, am I correct, it would operate somewhat the way the Downtown Association and the Chamber of Commerce operate here in Iowa City, but in a much more informal way. This would be a little more formalized, is that what you're looking at? Wilburn! Well, um, more so than the Downtown, the Chamber of Commerce may be somewhat more of a similar, um, analogy, but the Chamber has the Chamber Alliance that they are a part of, uh, I believe the schools have a similar, the Urban Schools Coalition or whatever has a similar lobbying entity, and um, part of the reason that this has evolved into this agreement over the years has been, um, some ofthe, urn, larger cities and some of the, certainly, some of the longer-serving mayors and/or city managers, uh, than myself have participated, tried these types of conversations through League events and have not necessarily been, uh, completely satisfied with efforts at that more informal through the Iowa League of Cities. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 16 Elliott! I guess my.. .my thinking financial wise, I'd rather have it be a subcommittee of the League, but I would also think that would be very confusing if I were a legislator and subcommittee of the League came to me with.. .with something they wanted, which differed significantly from something that the League wants, which would, I would think, be at all unusual, that the larger cities would want something entirely different than say smaller towns and cities would. . . Vanderhoef/ But they wouldn't necessarily be, uh, opposing. The big city issues are the ones that the small cities never deal with, because of the nature of their city. So it isn't a conflicting in that respect. What has been the, the problem, uh, picking legislative policy and certainly there are every year when you go to policy meeting and you talk about these, you say, 'Well, this is something that the small cities, for instance, publication, uh, costs.' They say as much in their meeting sometimes as we do in ours, but the cost of the publication that is required by law is very, very expensive for a small city, as compared to what percentage is out of our budget. So, when we lobby as a League of Cities, we look at, okay, this is something that we maybe can get done for the small cities. It'll be okay for the large cities, not a problem. Likewise we've worked then with some of these large issues, but we picked something that covers everybody. So like property tax reform is one of those things that covers all of us, and that's the.. .the balance legislative has tried to achieve. I truly believe that we could do what Bob just said, and what I've been saying, that we could do it from within the organization. We could have a stand-alone lobbyist that is right there on site, that could use the same.. .we're hiring right now a new analyst to do all this data collection for us and turn it around and get it back out for our lobbyists. We've needed this for a long time, have not had the dollars to do it. That's what we're working on in this, uh, reforming the fees that are coming forward, which is a large concern to me that if cities are asked to payout here in a separate organization, uh, I don't know whether you're talking $20,000 or whether you're talking more than that, every year, what that could do within the organization and we would have the collaboration already built in, in how we're working together and the relationship. Bailey/ So if this moves forward, does the League plan on moving in that direction? Vanderhoef/ That's what we've been going forward, for the last several months. Bailey/ We'll just get double lobbying then. That's okay. Elliott! What happens in the... Wilburn! I'm sorry. I want to try and respond to some of the things that have been said and address that. Um, the.. .we're coming up on a half year. .. Helling/ Right. Wilburn! .. .so the fee would actually.. . around $8,500? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 17 Helling/ Around $8,500 for. . . Wilburn! For Iowa City, Iowa City's component. Bailey/ So what's the budget that you're talking about annually, for this new organization? Elliott/ Seventeen. Helling/ The. . . a full year? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $200,000 is what they're talking about. Correia! For this? Bailey/ For this organization. Helling! Not our share! O'Donnell! Our share would be what? Helling/ Um, under the current numbers, about $19,000 (several talking) O'Donnell! $19,000...each year? Helling/ Each year. O'Donnell/ Each year. $19,000. $80,000 for a 4-year period. Correia! How much? O'Donnell! $19,000 a year, is that what I heard? Helling! Yeah. For... Wilburn! For a full year, and we're talking on the half year now, and that's if we were to go out to get a piece of our own lobbyist, that's still less than. . . Bailey/ That's a bargain. Champion! I....(unable to hear) Wilburn! Some examples of some issues, and I'm just kind of pulling these... where there may be some, um, differences or challenges, uh, not necessary even that it wouldn't come up on the rural communities' screen, but there may actually be some genuine differences, urn, urn, let's see. Well, I mean, the example with the, um, the condo, um, urn, commercial type. That would be a clear area, uh, there This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 18 may be some things, urn, well, I mean, um, there may be some differences with, for example, the, um, the smoking and alcohol issues aren't necessarily going to impact smaller (coughing, unable to hear) larger cities. I know that was one that Des Moines was particularly concerned about. Um... Dilkes/ Cable franchising. Wilburn! Cable franchising, thank you, urn, that's another thing that's not going to necessarily come up on.. .on their screen. Vanderhoef! It's one that's been on the screen of League of Cities for several years now. So it's not that it hasn't been covered. Bailey/ I mean, I think that. . . Wilburn! Also I think, ifI'm remembering correctly, I think, urn, I don't know if it was Bruce or Allen. . . that in terms of just focus, uh, at one point last year, the League may have been tracking somewhere, and maybe you have a better feel, around 800 different pieces oflegislation, and this would be nowhere near that volume of.. .ofbills that would be tracked again, related to focus and applicability to, um, the urban cities. Vanderhoef/ And that number has.. .it's already been discussed at League, and.. . and we are not going to be tracking that many next year. Um, that's already, uh, been addressed. Wilburn! But still, due to the nature of that, there are some that, smaller cities, uh, would not be, uh, of interest or on their radar. It's the focus would still be fewer bills for this Metropolitan Coalition. .. Bailey/ Well, and I can understand your concern, but I think that we need to look at this as not, um, not. . . this coalition versus the League. I mean, we need to look at this about how it will help Iowa City, and I think they carefully designed it in a very political way, not to...I mean, to address some of the concerns that the League has. You know, I welcome the changes that the League will make, and I hope that they make them quickly, because they have neglected their large population communities, but so has the legislature so, I mean, they have company there. Um, my concern with this agreement, I would really like a better outline about making sure that we get a good voice at the table, because I think we talked about this with road.. .road projects and other things. Iowa City seems to, um, be viewed as, I don't know, a community that can take care of itself, and so I would like to see in some kind of document how those decisions are going to be made, besides one vote at the table. Wilburn! Well, isn't that what it's going to come down to anyway, is one vote at the table? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 19 Bailey/ I don't know. I'm not sure about that, because it's not very clear to me. And then, I just have to be certain that we're going into this, making sure that our interests are taken care of. Wilburn! Document says one vote. One vote per community. I don't know. . . Bailey/ But it doesn't outline how, I mean, what's the process? When are you deciding legislative priorities? Urn, what's recourse, I mean, I can't imagine a situation in which, you know, eight of these cities will run off and do something that would be very detrimental to Iowa City, but I'm sure if we thought long and hard enough we could come up with something, and so what's the recourse for that situation? Wilburn! The recourse is that you don't, uh, you don't.. .you drop out. You're not part of.. . Bailey/ I think that needs to be more clear. I know you've worked really hard on this, and I'm...I think it's come a long way and I think it's a great...I think this is a great idea, but I think that we need to make sure that, urn, you know. . . Wilburn! I'm just trying to think of a parallel. . . when we had our... when we had our Legislative, well, the items that are on tonight for what we wanted to talk to the Legislature about, it was one vote per Council Member and so I don't. . . Bailey/ I think that needs to be outlined then, if that's as simple as it's going to be. I mean, it is here, but legislative priorities will be determined by a majority. I mean... Vanderhoef/ And then that brings up the question, what happens if, uh, two cities say, 'Well, that legislation will hurt me,' but the other cities say... Bailey/ That's my concern, that's what happens when groups get together on legislation. Vanderhoef/ .. . and we have had that before, and Des Moines, unfortunately, has been, urn, the case in point in those a couple oftimes. Bailey/ Amy, you've been with coalitions like this. What's been your experience? Correia! Well, and that, I mean, this is one of my questions with, urn, the coalitions that I've been involved with that have done lobbying have been pretty focused on one or two items. I think this is going to be different and there's going to be more items, um, to be focused on. But my...I continue to have a question related to, is this, because we talk in here about employment, and you know, I'm thinking of the, um, statewide housing trust fund advocates which is an organization of housing trust funds that purchase a lobbyist together, um, come up in a consensus fashion with their legislative agenda, and one of the housing trust funds serves as the fiscal agent to get the money out to the lobbyists, but it's not.. .there's no terms of employment, and that sort of thing, and I guess that's more what I was This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 20 envisioning when we talked about it at the last meeting. So I have those questions, but I do think there needs to be, I mean, there should be some sort of statement of, that if a piece of legislation is deemed by some cities to hurt, but others think it will help, that then there should be a process to say that then is off the table. Bailey/ Or, we take no position and we don't lobby on that issue. Correia! Right, I mean, I think that you need to have.. .if, you know. . . Elliott! You're talking about a black ball. Correia! Yeah. Potentially, because then why would we want to put in our assessment for lobbying on a piece of legislation if this is a strong organization that we believe is going to have influence, is going to influence us in the negative. Elliott/ I guess I hear two things. One, I think if you have something one city, one vote, that's about as good as you're going to do. I don't see how you form, uh, a guarantee that no individual will be hurt, but the thing I was thinking of earlier is I would want to make certain that if this is a part of the League, which it may not be, that the lobbyists are different. I could not imagine the same lobbyist working for one thing, and then coming back two days later, working for something totally contradictory and conflicting, uh, that wouldn't make sense. I would think you'd have to be sure that.. .that the lobbyist for the League and the lobbyist for the ten leading, ten largest cities, are different people. Wilburn! And that.. .that has been discussed. Elliott/ Good, good, but I, Amy, I understand your concerns, but... Correia! I think the issue is one.. .one, on a board with one vote is, you're trying to make a decision. You want to do ten things, so you have to decide which five things you're going to do, but if out of those ten things, two cities say these two items would be detrimental to our city, they should be taken off the table. We're going to consider these eight things instead. I mean, I think...I don't know what it would be, it's hard to imagine, but I don't think we want to say we... Wilburn! So those two cities have more power than the rest of the cities' one vote. That trumps their one vote. Bailey/ Well, it's a more consensus model, not a voting model. Correia! .. .if you have.. .if you've brainstormed ten items, you're only going to pick three, or whatever the item is, you have to whittle it down. I think in order for the.. .the coalition to work, everybody needs to believe that any legislation they're working toward is going to benefit their community, because why would we pay This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 21 $20,000 in to be lobbying on any legislation that we think would have a negative impact on Iowa City? Vanderhoef/ And then. . . Bailey/ .. . discussed, because, I mean, is there an assumption that we're going to try this and that if it, if it isn't a good year for a city, that they may not be back the following year? I mean, how. ..I mean, I'm sure that you all discussed this. Dilkes/ There's a withdrawal provision in the agreement. Bailey/ Yeah, I know that there's a withdrawal agreement, but when you were discussing this model, I mean, I'm certain this came up. Helling/ Can 1.. . can 1.. . (several talking) Wilburn! Go ahead. Helling/ Go ahead. Wilburn! Well, I was going to say, uh, we in coming up with what's in here, we.. .we operated under the scheme of consensus building, but when a decision has to be made, a decision has to be made.. .that's how we operate, and so that was... Correia! But that's different than a coalition. We are not a coalition. Bailey/ Right! Correia! Weare a council that. . . Bailey/ Yeah, by using the word coalition, I had different expectations for the decision making. Correia! Yeah, for consensus. . . Elliott/ But this hap. . . this comes up in groups - the local Chamber of Commerce has downtown businesses and malls in there, and some things are detrimental to downtown which are beneficial to malls and vice versa. I think you work within your organization that and if you have a good, cooperative organization and you feel that overall, then I would assume that if something's going to be significantly detrimental to one or two cities, the other folks will say, well... Bailey/ I guess the word coalition suggested something different to me, but, I mean, I'm assuming there's interest in this group, I mean, moving forward and creating that kind of. . . Wilburn! Well, the session is coming up. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 22 Bailey/ No, no, no! I'm not talking about a decision tonight. I'm talking about the sense of what this group wants to accomplish. I mean, I'm assuming that it will test the waters carefully, because it doesn't want to break up with anybody the first year. Urn... Wilburn! Also, I'm just thinking. . .I mean, I've been part of paying coalitions too, the National Network for Youth, and uh, which is a bunch of youth workers and social worker type people, and that organization operates.. .there's discussion and (unable to understand) and all that, but it was...it was majority vote for.. . for every issue, so there are other types of coalitions of which you're talking about, which might be similar. . . Champion! Well, I think that some of these things, some of the questions you ask, Regenia, are.. . are good, but all that, I mean, I think we should try it. I think there'll be discussion. It's not written in stone, and if we have problems making decisions about what's going to be on the table, then maybe somebody will come up with a paragraph (unable to hear) that's going to happen. Bailey/ I'm interested in moving forward certainly, because this is a lot farther than we've ever been on lobbying before, and it's about time, but 1...I do want to think about how it moves forward together, and have a good reflection on that, and.. . and, um, how it worked really. I mean, you work with groups enough, Ross, that you know about process and how the process works, and that's. . . that's absolutely critical. And then I'm personally less interested in building an organization than I am of getting a lobbyist in there, up there, and advocating. (several responding) I don't care if they have an office, I don't care. I don't care about those kinds of things. I don't want them spending...I don't want the organization spending time on that, because that's not, I mean, that's not the important thing for our community. Wilburn! Well, the other, I mean, the other piece, too, is for.. .there's conversation about, um, the board, um, the coalition members, urn, you know.. . (coughing, unable to hear) obvious to work with in conjunction, uh, whether it be the League of Cities when they can, but the Chamber of Alliance.. .the Chamber Alliance, the Urban Schools group. Bailey/ So let's just watchdog...in this budget, let's just watchdog administrative costs, because I think the costs should be going to the person. That's what we want to buy, basically. We don't want to buy, you know... Correia! And so, and just.. . are we, urn, hiring somebody that's going to be an employee? Or we are purchasing a lobbyist? Bailey/ Contractual services. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 23 Correia! Contractual service, 'cause that's what's not clear to me. It says terms of employment. What is.. .what is... Bailey/ It's like it's an employee. Vanderhoef/ It's an employee... Correia! .. . are they.. . exactly. .. Vanderhoef/ ... benefits, and the question in my mind is, then if this is an employee that is one and all things, they have to do their own analysis and data gathering, and.. . and doing all of that, and certainly, uh, my experience with the lobbyists, the full time lobbyist that we have, they are, uh, working year-round because of the varying schedules of the committee meetings, uh, throughout the state, and they go to those during the, uh, out-of-session times, as well as in-session times. Dilkes/ I wasn't involved in the discussions until this last one, um, but, and it was my understanding that there's an RFP being developed to, um, to go out to potential lobbyists. Um, it may be that you can.. . and I don't know whether there's been contemplation of it being a contract or employee situation. In some, if you're going to hire a full-time person, it may very well be cheaper to do it on an employment basis. Um, so, you know, it may be that that decision hasn't yet been made. In addition, I think there was some discussion at the last meeting that I was.. .that I attended by phone, that, you know, this person would need to meet during the summer with the Legislative policy group that meets with the League, etc., etc., so it's certainly not going to be just when the Legislator is in session. So I think, unless, Dale, do you know if there was discussion about it being a contract? Or an employee? Correia! The only thing I think that's different about, with a lobbyist and having it be a contractual, whether it's contractual through the year or not, is that if they don't work out the first year, it's easier just to end that contract and hire a different lobbyist, than if somebody is employed somewhere and wherever the host agency is, and then there's... Bailey/ Well, potentially once again, your administration, your administrative costs, um... Wilburn! Well, we have... Dilkes/ I think these are all decisions yet to be. . . Wilburn! ... they're not determined, but I mean, it certainly can be structured that way, because we have three, I mean, we had a contract with the former City Manager that all came up, and I would bring that up. I interrupted.. .go ahead, Eleanor. Was there anything else you... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 24 Dilkes/ No, Ijust think that those are decisions yet to be made, and I'm not sure they can be made ahead of time. Helling/ Well, they have. . . they haven't been made. Keep in mind that this, you know, is rolling rather quickly, and what you have before you is an agreement to try to create the organization. Um, the RFP is just now being addressed, and I don't recall, Ross or Eleanor, maybe you do, any specific discussion about whether this would be an employee, a contractual employee, versus a hired employee. Uh, those are the things that will be.. .will be worked out. Vanderhoef/ And see, we have both of those within the League of Cities. We have full- time employees, and we have contract. So, it could be... Correia! But the League is an organization. I mean, if this was a hired employee, who would they be an employee of? Helling! Of the coalition, if they're a hired employee. Correia! So this is, okay. Dilkes/ Just as the 28E we just did for the Joint Communications Center. That will be an employee of the Joint Communications Center. And there are a lot of decisions in both cases yet to be made, but you have to have the framework in place to get the organizational, organization up and going to make such decisions. Helling/ And as far as the.. .the, uh, decision making process, Regenia, um, what I've heard people say is that, again, this is very... this is in its early stages, but a clear acknowledgement that the kinds of issues that you bring up, we will have to, we'll have to resolve those and get through those or the coalition won't...won't survive (several talking), and I think there's a clear.. . clear understanding and a commitment on the part of the cities to work through those things. Urn, Dee, earlier you talked about the Legislative policy committee, uh, the League was represented at the meeting last week, and uh, it was proposed, by the League, that, uh, two of the elected officials on the coalition would sit with the Legislative policy committee in summer, um, as they go through that process, and also, suggesting that the, somebody from the League, possibly Executive Director or whomever, that position isn't filled now so, I don't know, but they would also attend and be part of the, uh, of the coalition's meetings, so there's.. .they're proposing a close working relationship. Wilburn! And at... Vanderhoef/ It was proposed by who? Helling/ Urn, Allen. Allen was there representing the League. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 25 Wilburn! And the (several talking), and in the first example that, uh, of a couple members of.. .ofthis coalition sitting on, um, something of the League, that would have to occur through the League, since this body has no control over what happens. Elliott! 1. . .I hope that as this thing starts to get off the ground, one ofthe things, one of the alternatives that you don't dismiss is simply keeping a loose organization for the first year or so. Hire a full-time or a three-quarter time or whatever it is lobbyist as an independent contractor, and just work with that person on an informal basis and see what kind of an organization you need after the first year. Bailey/ Let's.. . and, all right, I'm willing to move ahead with this, because it's, you know, there are just so many variables that we can't know, and like I said (unable to hear) but can we schedule a discussion and a review in June, so we can do our due diligence, and then also be respectful to the other coalition members that we could give them plenty of notice as required by this, if it' s not working out for us, and then we would know if we in our next budget have to budget for our own lobbyist. I think that that would be.. .that's the way I would like to proceed. Are other people interested? Sort of checking as early as June. Vanderhoef/ I would...! would suggest that if this organization goes forward that they keep formal minutes and that they be published, uh, in entirety to the Council and so everyone knows what. . . what's happening within this non-profit organization. Bailey/ I would actually rather have a report, rather than formal minutes myself, just given my.. .but.. .I'm sure you guys will figure that out. Wilburn! Well, couple things that were discussed. If, uh, if it's me that's serving as Mayor, uh, that would be what I would bring back to this group, and in, um, to start with in terms of when we have the discussion next time about issues to come forward, I was going to start with the list of Legislative priorities that we came up with. Um, secondly, it was discussed, and we had quite a bit of discussion, um, last couple of meetings about proceeding with open.. .open records, open meetings, that's your recollection, Eleanor? Yeah, so, there's no attempt for secrecy or any type of veiled thing like that. It's.. .it's, uh, that's part of the, uh, addressing some of the concerns that had been brought up by, again, the relationship with the League, urn, and just people's feelings in general about how we should proceed forward. Bailey/ And, I was talking to Senator Bolkum today, and I would encourage this group to get some easy wins, so determing Legislative priorities to remember we have that really long list. It would be really helpful to know what they're likely to look at, and what's (coughing, unable to hear) some push that they can get accomplished, and I think that focusing on fewer with this group, fewer, more impactful, and uh... Elliott/ Be a little pragmatic about it. If your number one priority has zero chance, let's go with number three and four, and hit 'em hard. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 26 Bailey/ ... so that, I would encourage that direction. Wilburn! I think the other thing that came up, uh, one of the things that Allen had pointed out, that if there's, uh, you know, there may be, uh, what may be likely to happen, ifthere's some, uh, this coalition may be perceived or utilized by some in the Legislator as a, if there's ever a difference between this group and the League, as reason to take no action or to, um, you know, and a couple of us pointed out that, um, you know, that happens anyway. This may give a visible voice to that, a tangible voice to that, but, uh, if some, I mean, the first thing a Legislator.. . Legislator does, uh, with a particular item that comes up if they're not sure how it will be perceived back home is that they contact back home and they're talking to individual council members or city managers, or they will check with, uh, some of the other lobbyists, the Farm Bureau, urn, and uh, or they, those that do have their own lobbyist, work.. .work towards those ends anyway. So, uh, that's going to happen anyway, uh, it currently happens, um, but it may be, if that opportunity comes up, then it would be, uh, urn, a visible, tangible entity to blame for that happening. Bailey/ Any response from the Farm Bureau on this, about this coalition? Wilburn! Um, I don't know. Vanderhoef/ Dale, did you end up giving us all the.. .the figures. You said $8,765 for National League of Cities. Helling/ No. For the Iowa League of Cities. If! said National League of Cities, I apologize. This is the Iowa League of Cities' dues. Vanderhoef/ Okay, and then what are our Nationals? Helling! Oh, I don't know what that is. I guess.. .we assumed that we would, that really didn't figure into this, the equation. Bailey/ It would be good to get an idea, urn, of all the kinds of dues we're paying and, with all the kinds of organizations, and... Helling/ Oh, yeah, we can get you that. Elliott/ Are we getting our money's worth? O'Donnell! And how much have we spent totally, I'd like to know (several talking) Vanderhoef/ .. .don't have a choice about, like JCCOG. Wilburn! The other thing I would say, is if you, if those, any specific questions that you have that we hadn't addressed through this document, or, uh, you know, Regenia, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 27 you brought up about contract or. . .if you could type those up and email to those, email those to Dale, and then we can make sure to bring those up as we continue to hammer through this. Vanderhoef/ So this is basically doubling. Wilburn! That's the.. .that's what folks really wanted to do. Okay, back at quarter 'til. (BREAK) Resolution on Police/Fire FundiD!!-FY09 Budeet: ITEM 12 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE CITY OF IOWA CITY'S PUBLIC SAFETY BUDGET. Wilburn! Bob had asked that this be considered ifthere were, be able to discuss it at a work session. There were at least three Council Members who were willing to discuss it at a work session, uh, if Council were to decide to, uh, adopt it before the end of the calendar year, uh, then it would have had to be put on tomorrow's agenda to take action on it. And that's why it appears as an agenda item. So... Elliott! I think my memo says everything. Yeah. I think that over the past four years, the Fire Chief and the Police Chiefhave made their recommendations. They've backed it up with statistics, and if you feel that the Fire Chief and Police Chief are the most knowledgeable people about the needs, and if you feel that the statistics are sound, it would seem that the least that Iowa City would want to do would be to have an average police force, and an average fire department. And if you don't, if you don't feel that way, then you don't have to vote for this. (laughter) Bailey/ I'm not sure it comes down to that, Bob, but thanks for that! (laughter) Champion! My only objection to this is the language is too strong. We don't know what's going to happen, uh, there was something in the paper last week that our residential assessments may drop 6%? Urn, we don't know what else the State is going to do to us money-wise. So, we.. .none of us disagree with your... Bailey/ Sentiments. Champion! Sentiment, but then, um, I mean, I wouldn't mind putting this in ifit wasn't so, um, directive. Like, could just, find another way to word it, that we would like to do this, and then come up with some alternatives" Elliott! Well... Correia! I'm interested in.. .well, first, what does.. .passing a resolution - what does that, what type of requirement does that put on us? (several talking) Wilburn! Dale, go ahead. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 28 Helling! .. .this point, because given the timing that we're in, in terms of trying to get the budget printed up and get it to you next week, uh, we have drafted it up with the positions in there. Um, but in order to have them in there, given our.. .the current information we have and the decisions yet to be made, that amount dips into the Fund Balance considerably. Urn, it's really, urn, you can pass the resolution, you could simply direct us to do that. Probably, if you did either one, that's fine. If you don't, we probably don't have time to adjust it back and approach it the other way anyway. So the practic,d result is that when you do your discussions in January and make your budget decisions, you'll be making them from.. .the same decisions probably, but from a different.. . from a different perspective. You could either have those positions not in there, and look at various ways that you might find money to put them in, or if you have them in there, then you would be looking for those same kinds of ways to reduce the, or... well, reduce the reduction of the Fund Balance, uh, so in effect, making up for some of that. Um, at least part of it, if not all of it. So, what I'm saying is, the issues for you are probably going to be the same, no matter how you approach it, but.. .but in order to get it put together and get it to you before the holidays, uh, we're going.. .we're going to have to move pretty quickly. So it may be that.. .that we will give you a budget with those positions in it, regardless of.. .of your decision. Wilburn! 1.. .I've had three phone calls today from members of the public, uh, two concerned that they had missed the budget process or their opportunity to get something in, and one who just, um, wanted to make sure if we're going to be doing, if we're going to be asserting agenda items now, that they had an opportunity to get their agenda item in now. So my.. .my concern about approving this tomorrow would be, uh, out of the context of the budget that I haven't received yet. Bailey/ Well, and I was. . . go ahead, Mike. O'Donnell! No, 1...1 was going to say, been on this Council now for a long time and each year we all speak about the importance of improving our police and fire protection. We know we need a fourth firehouse, and I think, Bob, this is a good idea. I don't think that this is necessarily the way to do it, because this is a.. .an increasing cost yearly, but I think there are ways that we can do it, and you know, I've never been able, or I've never convinced myself that we should touch our reserve. You know, and.. . and now, I think it's time. This Council's gone a long time. We all talk about the importance, but we've never come up with a method. We have to, I think right now, make a commitment to do it, but I don't necessarily think this is the way to do it. We have to ask ourselves a question, uh, what are we willing to cut, and that's going to be the bottom line. What are we willing to do without so we can have this additional, uh, fire and police protection, which I think we really need at this point in time. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 29 Bailey/ I was, and Bob, I was really surprised to see this resolution from you because of our governance and micro-management sort of discussions, and I thought that this, uh, was uncharacteristic actually in its specificity. Um... Elliott! That's a good word! (laughter) Bailey/ But, uh, I agree with the sentiment, and, um, am committed to increasing our public safety budget. I got an email from a staff member from another department who was very concerned that these kinds of discussions pit department against department, and urn, don't take into consideration the value that all employees contribute to our community. I mean, that public safety is the preeminent, you know, departments, and was concerned that this kind of discussion could deteriorate in those kinds of department against department concerns, and.. . and instead of pulling together as one organization, pulling together as separate departments, and I didn't really...I hadn't really seen it like that, but I thought that was an interesting perspective. So, obviously there's some public concerns out there and there are also some concerns within the organization about how we proceed, so I think we need to proceed carefully with this priority, and make sure that we are keeping people together, rather than splintering people off as we move forward to insure that we have what we need in the community. So, I don't think that this is necessarily the best approach, although I think all of us, most of us have said publicly, that we're committed to seeing this done, and we know that you will be back in our meetings, if we're not doing it. .. Elliott/ No! Bailey/ .. . and talking at that podium, so I think that that will be... Elliott/ Just responding to just a couple of those things - my wife has threatened me with great bodily harm if I go down and make an ass of myself in front of the Council after I'm gone (laughter) so if I'm here, there will be scratches. Secondly, this is not, this is not micro-managing. This is the role of.. .of a board of directors that you.. .you provide a concept and direct the administrators to carry it out. And everything I've heard (several talking) every year is how important public safety is and every year we decide we can't do it. If you don't take it off the top, it ain't going to get done! Period! Bailey/ We direct direction, not necessarily specific percentages. That's what I was talking about (mumbling). Wilburn! Well, and I'll reflect that Dale had said they are preparing, um, the budget with.. .with them in, and the new Council when we sit down will... Bailey/ Well, and perhaps we need to remember that we approve the budget and we can do more to the budget during the budget process than perhaps we've ever done, and, I mean, perhaps it's a process issue as well as a priority issue, and I think that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 30 that's something we should take into account too, as we look at the budget, that we don't like it, we can, I mean, we can alter it within the timeframe given. Correia! And that's what has felt, to me, over the last two budget cycles that by the time we get the budget, it's...it feels mostly set. I mean, in my...in my two years, we haven't significantly changed anything of what's been presented, and so when I'm thinking of this resolution, I do agree that there is more specificity in here about percents, percentages and amounts of money than I would like to see in a resolution like this, but I do believe that it is our role to say, 'We want to see this,' what are the different alternative scenarios for getting what we want, and I don't believe we've received that over the last two years, but we've all said we want to see that, and so I don't know if that, the combination of not giving enough direction or enough, um, hard line.. .I'm not sure. Bailey/ Or an unwillingness to really dig in and take the time in that very constrained budget period of.. .of looking at those kinds of numbers. I think that's also a challenge. Correia! Or. . . right. . .or having more discussion about priorities, and vision during that off-budget cycle so that when staff are putting the budget together, they have a clear sense of where we want, where we want to see resources, um, targeted or put, so that then we get a budget more, urn, aligned with what that, those visions are, and I think that is difficult with the structure that we have, but, um, I think that is important. Vanderhoef/ I'm going to support Bob on this. Bob has asked for, uh, scenarios in off- season, and has asked for them to be put into the budget process, and truthfully, I've been waiting to hear what those scenarios could be, other than we can't do it, given the budget that we have, without making some enormous changes, which might well affect reallocation of, uh, FTE's from a different department into public safety, and certainly other cities have done that same kind of reallocation, and it's very difficult. There's never been any sentiment on Council over my years, and it's not just with the seated people right now, it's been with. . . with previous Councilors too, that no one was willing to step into that, uh, scenario of we're going to fund one less in some department, and that's going to be one new addition to the public safety staff, and truthfully, Bob has not gotten what he asked for, and I think it's good that you're getting a budget that has the, uh, public safety people in it. I was going to ask, uh, Dale when you put this budget together at this point are you saying that you are putting in, uh, this 2.5% to do, uh, a complete hiring of these, 00, new staff people, or is it, uh, a three-year budget that is adding some each year? Helling/ Uh, first of all, the 2.5%, I mean, basically we.. .I'm going with the concept of over three years you want to add nine firefighters and seven police officers, and so we've broken that down, um, and the current budget that we're preparing now has three firefighters and two police officers. Um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 31 Correia! For the next fiscal year? (several talking) Helling/ For the next fiscal year, yeah, for FY09. But, it's not a balanced budget in the sense that in doing that, your revenues are less than your expenditures, for FY09, at this point in time, and when we get into (coughing, unable to hear) January, we'll have to address those issues. That's what I'm saying. That's the perspective, rather than not having them in there, and then trying to identify the source of funding to add them, but the end result is...is essentially the same. Vanderhoef/ And you're also saying that your spending down the reserves, which we know are one-time monies, not, uh, continuing monies to keep those, uh, five new, uh, FTE's. (several talking) Helling/ At this point, that's the only way we can give it to you. We have to find the money some place. It has to be balanced in the sense that it' a budget that if you said okay this is it, it could go to the State, and so we have to find that funding somewhere and the only place it exists is in the reserve. What we'll be encouraging you to do during your budget sessions is to figure out how you can, uh, fund those positions in a different way, rather than from the reserve, so that it isn't drawn down, but you'll have the percentage and everything by then, and we'll have our. ..our, uh, evaluations and so forth which we don't have final yet, but we'll have them by January, when you start your discussions. Elliott! Dale, I appreciate that. Vanderhoef/ Yeah, and. . . and the other question I would have then is, uh, is this doing this without any reallocation ofFTE's? Helling/ What you'll get has no reallocation ofFTE. There are some requests for additional staff that we've not. . . but no, we have not. . . that's something, again, that we'll talk about in the budget discussions, because those are policy decisions that you would need to make. Champion! Yeah, and that's good that we have to make them, but fifteen employees would drain down that reserve really rapidly. Really rapidly! The money has to come from somewhere else. Correia! (several talking) I look at this comprehensively with the whole budget, I mean, I'm not convinced this it's going to drain our reserves over the long haul. Bailey/ And 1.. .I'm sorry. (laughter) I'm just, you know, having worked with some organizations in Cedar Rapids, I also do not want to see the reign of fear that Cedar Rapids is experiencing in all their departments. I mean, it's so debilitating to workers. It's debilitating to the community. Urn, I think we have to proceed cautiously and.. . and really be careful about what we're throwing around here. FTE, you know, this FTE from this department and that, I mean, we're not Cedar Rapids. We're not in the world of hurt that Cedar Rapids is in, and I think that we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 32 need to proceed cautiously, and respectfully, to our community and to our employers, as we have this discussion. Elliott! But if you don't do it now, the future puts you in a world of hurt, because it won't be long till you're going to need yet another fire station, and every year you put it off. So at least this year, we're talking about how we can do it, as opposed to in previous years, looking at it and saying, 'No, we can't do it.' Bailey/ But that's also another policy decision. I mean, there are other ways to grow besides out and needing more infrastructure, and support, and that's one thing that Cedar Rapids is doing a great job of discussing is that smart growth infill, limiting the requirements on infrastructure. Wilburn! Well, and... Bailey/ That's another discussion. Wilburn! You have to remember too that part of the reason why we're not having some of those difficulties was the very reason that we don't have the fourth fire station right now. We made some decisions, there were some FTE's let go through attrition. There were some departmental choices, 00, when we had that million dollar year loss. We made that decision. Other communities did not make that decision back then, urn, so it's not.. .that didn't happen by accident. Bailey/ Right, well, we also have a different form of government than they have too, so... Wilburn! Okay. Dilkes/ I think we.. .you probably want to decide what you're going to do with this resolution before tomorrow night on camera. Urn, ifit's going to be withdrawn, it went on at the direction of three Council people. We can take it off the agenda, or we can vote yes, vote no or defer. O'Donnell! Should go off the agenda. Champion! .. .rather than vote for it. Elliott! 1'd like to have it on. Wilburn! That's one, two, three that would like to have it removed. O'Donnell! I would not like to.. .to vote on this. I think if you. . .if you vote no the perception is you don't support police and fire protection. Bailey/ Well, that's what Bob would like you to do. O'Donnell/ Well, I don't want to do that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 33 Wilburn! Would you want to defer it until January? Would you consider deferring it until January? When we have the whole budget in front of us, and... Champion! What do you want to do with it, Regenia? Bailey/ I don't want it on.. . you know, I don't support... Elliott! If I were going to vote against it, I wouldn't want it on either. Champion! But that's not the reason we're going to vote against it. Bailey/ Oh, I would be willing.... Champion! I'll be willing to vote (unable to hear) any problems. Bailey/ And I think people understand that I'm supportive of public safety. Helling! The resolution directs us to do something which we will be doing in the next week or so, so I don't think it's something you can defer, that particular resolution, because it's directing us to give you a budget, a proposed budget, that's.. .that has those positions in it. Bailey/ My only concern was withdrawing it that people who are aware of it expect some discussion of it, of where we're at with this, and I think that would be.. ..I'm not interested in having it on the agenda. Champion! Ross, how do you feel? Wilburn! I, as I said, I'd rather have it taken off. O'Donnell! That's four. (several talking) Champion! Not on the agenda. Wilburn! No, on an agenda. Dilkes/ Well, this is kind of a weird situation, because it was proposed by Bob. It only went on the agenda because we didn't have time to get it on the agenda, after. . .if we had waited until your discussion tonight, we wouldn't have had the 24-hours to get it on the agenda. So it went on the agenda at the direction of three of you, um, so if three of you. I have no idea who those were, um, want to withdraw. . .I mean, I kind of view it as the withdraw of an application, um, but 1.. .we just want to know, whether you want to leave it on or take it off. Wilburn! There are four who said they would want to have it taken off. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 34 Dilkes/ Okay. We'll leave it on and you all (mumble). Champion! I'll make a motion to withdraw it. (coughing) Wilburn! We're not in a formal meeting. O'Donnell/ Tomorrow night, she will. Wilburn! Okay. Is that right? Dilkes/ I think that's fine. Yeah, you can't make a motion now. Joint Meetin2 A2enda Items: Karr/ We had the request from Coralville, they would like agenda items so we could put them in this week's packet. The meeting is scheduled for Coralville next week. (several talking) Wilburn! No, I think they're just requesting any agenda items. Karr/ Any agenda items. (several talking) Wilburn! Anybody have anything? Correia! You want to let folks know about the housing study coming out in the... Karr/ You want that as an agenda item, or do you want that under other business, just as a (laughter and several talking) I mean, is there anything to report, or you just want. . . you just want to. . . update. Bailey/ Nothing to update; we'll see it on the 23rd, right? Karr/ Nothing? Wilburn! Put it under other. We can just mention. Karr/ Announcements. Wilburn! Yeah, announcements, yeah. Vanderhoef/ They may be curious about the, urn, downtown study. If you wanted to, uh, give an over-report on that. Bailey/ The joint meeting? You think they'd be really curious? Vanderhoef/ I think we have gotten reports like that, and it's more, uh, for your information kind of. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 35 Correia! Our downtown draws people here, which then. . . Bailey/ No, I just, I mean, but, yeah, I think it's a great study. Don't get me wrong. Champion! .. . filler here. (laughter) Wilburn! Doesn't sound like it. Karr/ So, just the announcement on the affordable housing study? Wilburn! Yes. Karr/ Okay, thank you. Ag:enda Items: Wilburn! Agenda items. Bailey/ What's the deadline... Wilburn! Deadline for? Bailey/. The agenda items, because certainly once we all leave we'll all think of brilliant things. Karr/ The agenda items are due to them Wednesday morning. Bailey/ Okay. So, think brilliantly, fast! ITEM 9 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE BUDGETED POSITIONS IN THE DOCUMENT SERVICES DIVISION OF THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT BY DELETING ONE DOCUMENT SERVICES SPECIALIST POSITION AND CREATING ONE SR. DOCUMENT SPECIALIST POSITION Correia! I had a question about Item 9. Elliott! I was just going to raise that. Correia! Resolution amending budgeted positions. (several talking) Elliott! Kevin, is that someone who is simply going to be upgraded? Helling/ Kevin. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 36 O'Malley/ There are.. .it's a very small division, and I think that'll happen, but there are three candidates who can get that job. That.. .it's a four, it's a four-person division, and what we're doing there is a type of succession planning. The person that's in there, uh, is...is doing a lot more work in web work, but web development, and so we're looking for somebody that's kind oflike a senior lead worker and we had that position for a couple years, and a person left us, and so when the new person came in, we wanted to make sure that, you know, before we get around to that position, have some time there, but we think we have one great candidate to do that. Correia! But, so, it isn't creating a five-person department. It's just allowing for... O'Malley/ No, it's going back to what we had two years ago. Correia! Oh, okay. Elliott/ In other words, you got four people. One of them's going to be upgraded. No one else will be added. O'Malley/ That's correct. Vanderhoef/ And that person will have more, 00, duties. (several talking) Correia! But it's not a whole new position. Okay. Thanks. ITEM 8. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, ENTITLED "POLICE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 8, ENTITLED "POLICE CITIZEN REVIEW BOARD," TO MAKE THE PROVISIONS OF THE POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD IN THE CITY CODE CONSISTENT WITH THE CITY'S HOME RULE CHARTER. Elliott/ I mentioned to Eleanor about Item 8. I don't like it. I wish the public had voted otherwise, but we have no alternative but to approve it. Karr/ We had requested expedited action on that one, as well, to get it off the docket. Elliott/ Yeah, right, let's. . . we got to do it. Might as well do it and get it done with. Wilburn! Any other agenda items? ITEM 4. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. f) Correspondence. 6. Wetherbv House: Friends of Historic Preservation, Marybeth and Ken Slonneger This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 37 Correia! Well, I have to say I'm disappointed at the...I understand, but I'm disappointed about the Wetherby House not being moved to public. . . public land. Um, (mumbled) to the public, urn, and I think, I mean, I understand due to the whole timing that, you know, there wasn't enough time for us to have discussion about whether the City should or could support ongoing (mumbled) or on other parkland, um, but I think, I know Coralville provides some support to historical, Johnson County Historical Society, for the Old School House, and you know, we're currently not doing that for any of our historic... Bailey/ Um, I just want to ask... Vanderhoef/ ... uh, Historical Society too, with our funding. Bailey/ Yes we do, and they've approached for an increase. One of the things that in talking to people about the Wetherby House, one of the things that came up is that we don't have a good inventory of landmark eligible and landmark potential, yeah, landmark eligible properties. Historic Preservation Commission undertook this and got some things designated, but they didn't finish the inventory necessarily. Other things came up, and I was wondering if we could put this on a work session, agenda, to talk about if we might be interested in talking with Historic Preservation Commission about adding this to their work plan for next year. Champion! Why don't we just talk... Bailey/ Direct them? Champion! .. .ask them to do it. I mean... Wilburn! You mean finishing the... Bailey/ The inventory, because these things come up, and we're always scrambling, and so ifthere are other people who would be interested in talking about this and working with Historic Preservation, I would encourage, I would like to see that then. Are there other people who would be interested in. . . Elliott! Seems like nobody gets excited about it, until someone else buys it. And then they get all... Bailey/ Right, but if we had the.. .the inventory oflandmark eligible, at least, urn, owners and the community would be aware. It might not change. Wilburn! I think we have to put this on a work session. Bailey/ Do we have other people who would be interested? O'Donnell/ Why don't we send them a letter, and uh... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10,2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 38 Dilkes/ Actually I think Wetherby House is, you've got correspondence on Wetherby House, so...I think you're okay. Bailey/ Okay, so...I would just like to talk to Historic Preservation and see if they could work it into their work plan for 2008. Champion! .. .write them a letter, asking what the status on that is, and if they have time to put that in their. . . Bailey/ And what that would entail. I could be, I mean, they need to hire...I don't know what they would need, but could... Helling! I think that's something that at stafflevel we can find out what the status is. Bailey/ So if we could do that... Wilburn! .. . and get a memo to us, Dale. Bailey/ I would be interested in seeing at the end of 2008 an inventory of landmark eligible properties within the City of Iowa City. So we have an idea of where they are and who owns them. Wilburn! Think that could happen, Dale? Helling/ We'll get you the information and tell them what you're.. .if that's a consensus deadline, or goal anyway, then we'll convey that. (several talking) Um, in terms of the Wetherby property and the letter, there's also, uh, at the end there's a, uh, question of whether or not we would waive the fees much the same as we had intended to. Now, I'll tell you our policy says that we only, uh, the only entities that don't pay those fees are public entities, uh, and that's policy by resolution. Um, so typically I would respond back and tell them what the policy is, but however, in this particular case since the request was made to you, I thought maybe you (coughing, unable to hear) talk about it first, uh, it can be substantial. In this case, it's a small house and.. . and depending on what the waiver is, the.. .the fees could be under $1,000, but I think you, a couple things you have to keep in mind is that, uh, if another one comes along it could be much more rehabbed, uh, building permits and so forth, which are a percentage of the. . .ofthe amount of the cost of rehabbing, uh, can be substantial, and so I think you want to look at the precedent, as well as.. .as, uh, just the waiver. Bailey/ Can we get a sense of what, what we're waiving, before we waive? Helling/ Well, if you're only talking about the, uh, the, um, moving permit and a building permit for like the foundation and so forth, you're probably talking about less than $1,000. Um, however, there are other fees as well, and I said, this is a small, a, uh, small house on a. . . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 39 Bailey/ But that's what I'm wondering is what are they asking us for? Everything? Champion! It doesn't make any (unable to hear) because I cannot (unable to hear) because it's not going to go on public property (unable to hear). Karr/ Connie (several talking) I can't hear you at all, dear. Champion! Oh, Ijust thought I was... Karr/ I'm well aware of that, yes. (laughter) Champion! I like to have eye contact. I have a problem now waiving fees. It was going to go on public land and become used by and for the public, through a foundation or whatever you want to call it. Uh, if, I mean, I would love to give them the fees, but what do we do if somebody wants to move the Mercer Mansion? 'Cause it's historic, you know? Or my house? I mean, PG Clapp lived there. I'm sure in some sense (several talking). I'm sure it's landmark eligible. I live there. That must make it landmark eligible! (laughter) You know, those fees are going to be pretty exorbitant, so that's the problem. (laughter and several talking) Elliott/ Connie, 1. . .I agree with what you say, but even if it were going t public property, I was thinking last week about just what Dale said. What happens when the next one comes along and says, hey, you did this for the Wetherby House. Why am I being treated differently? O'Donnell! You know, you can give them a break up to. . . to a certain amount, and then hold on that. (several talking) Elliott/ Well, you need to be cautious. Dilkes/ I think either way we're going to have to amend the resolution. Vanderhoef/ For private property, and I don't know if that's a good policy to (several talking) amending resolutions for a, uh, one-case scenario, and then all at once get that next one or two, uh, coming in, but, you're going to be sorry that your policy isn't in place. Wilburn! I'm not interested in, uh, in moving from existing policy. So, doesn't sound like there's... Bailey/ I was interested in the.. . (several talking).. .your kids go to different colleges. You'll pay so much of. . . O'Donnell! Give them a certain amount, and it's set in stone, urn, you know. If you give one... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 40 Bailey/ I want to know what dollar amounts we're talking. 0' Donnell/ Yeah. Champion! What about giving them the moving permit? Is there a moving permit fee? Helling/ Right, there is and that's a flat fee, I think, oflike (several talking) Wilburn! If that'll get us moving... O'Donnell! I'm thinking $500, you know, you can do that. (several responding) And that's consistent. Helling! We'll have to come back with the policy revision (several talking). Wilburn! Any other agenda items? (several talking) Other agenda items? ITEM 10. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION REPEALING RESOLUTION NO. 84- 39, WHICH ESTABLISHED A CONSULTATION POLICY FOR THE CITY COUNCIL AND THE PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION Vanderhoef/ I'm curious. On number 10, how is this resolution that we're to be repealing different than what we have in place? Elliott! What I read. . . Dilkes/ Is that the consult with.. .with, um... Vanderhoef/ P&Z. Dilkes/ Well, we just don't need the resolution anymore, because it's in the ordinance now. We don't want a resolution that just duplicates an ordinance. For years it was a resolution and then we put it in the new Zoning Code. (several talking) Yeah. Elliott! That's what I read, that this duplicates, it is now duplicated by something that has been added. Okay. Vanderhoef/ Okay. Wilburn! Any other agenda items? Council Time: Vanderhoef/ I have one thing. Uh, I would like, uh, Council to have a discussion and look at the possibility of using, um, the CDBG Economic Development Funds to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 41 get a, uh, survey of the housing in the upstairs of the CB-l 0, uh. I see this as another place where, uh, Economic Development and work force, uh, housing is a potential, uh, opportunity, and it crosses over, it amounts to that the Housing Study and the downtown study, uh, have some common ground there, and.. . and I've had discussion with, uh, Wendy about that, and I think it would be a quick, easy, uh, to get someone to do that, uh, quick survey of upstairs, and... Correia! What kind of survey? Vanderhoef/ The survey of the second story and above of the... Correia! Of the people that live there? Vanderhoef/ ... the housing. Correia! Oh, just pull the data, how many housing units there are? Vanderhoef/ The housing unit and the status of that housing, uh... Correia! Governmental or price? Vanderhoef/ And condition of it. You know. Correia! We have that in the Housing Survey. Bailey/ Some of that was discussed too in the downtown study, and Wendy and 1... Vanderhoef/ The downtown study didn't cover that part. Bailey/ No, it did an inventory. We did discuss that there's some underutilization of second story, and I think that's probably what you're trying to get at, right? Vanderhoef/ And that's what I'm trying to get at, and.. . and I think, uh... Bailey/ I don't want to use CDBG Economic Development Funds for it. Vanderhoef/ But I think it crosses over, and. ..(several talking) Bailey/ Did you talk to Steve? Vanderhoef/ I talked to... uh, Wendy, and she was talking to, uh, the Planning Department, and not aware of any of that, uh, available, and.. . and the comment was that they knew that that was a gap in the downtown study, uh, but they wanted to.. .to rush along with the downtown study and that that was not done. Bailey/ Can't we add this on to our, urn, with work/live/art... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Wark Session Page 42 Vanderhoef/ Well, that's, work/live.. .uh, work force, well, work force development, or work force housing is what I'm trying to say. (several talking) O'Donnell/ I think we're losing it. Elliott! Marian is.. .Marian is frowning. (several talking) Correia! We're going to look into it. (laughter and several talking) Vanderhoef/ No, I asked for it to be put on the, uh.. .ED. (several talking) That was my request, to put it on ED, uh, discussion and to look at the potential of using, uh, a few ED dollars to, uh, complete the... Wilburn! I can't facilitate a conversation about whether or not the use of Economic Development, CDBG Funds can be put on a work session, uh, (several talking) Bailey/ Can I just say that Economic Development will look into it, and then we'll come back, and then you can decide... O'Donnell/ Oh, you always say that, but you never do. Bailey/ That's not true. I'm getting out my list right now. Wilburn! Other agenda.. .or other, anyone else Council time? Elliott/ How much gin will be at the, uh, 4:30 reception tomorrow? Karr/ Not enough! (laughter) Wilburn! Urn, let me see, there's the weather thing. Is there a weather plan? (several talking) If there's no power, urn (several talking) Bailey/ Um, I have a. . . Wilburn! Regenia. Bailey/ ... Council time. Snow removal, our favorite topic. I heard from a bicyclist that College and Washington Street, east-west sort of into downtown, are very difficult to bike because there's parking and the parking doesn't move, and it's narrow and they haven't been well plowed, and I know that I talked to John Yapp today and we do have the snow emergency to facilitate the clearing of the streets that we are reluctant to use, but in some of those streets that come into downtown, I think we should...I think we should talk about this. Because doesn't our complete streets approach not only talk about how we build them but how we maintain them? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10,2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 43 Champion! And I think (coughing, unable to hear) um, during the holiday break. That's usually when they... Bailey/ Yeah, but these are, a lot of people are still bicycling. Champion! I know! Bailey/ And personally, the walks out there are terrible. O'Donne1l! You have to give them a break on that though. That ice is just (several talking) Correia! If we had utilized the snow emergency route and then cars were gone, we would have been able to get some of that out. Once it's frozen and cars don't move, it's frozen there and so then it's... Bailey/ Well, it's making it harder for bicyclists, it's making it more dangerous. Wilburn! Are you proposing to have this at a January work session? Bailey/ Sure. We have got to talk about snow removal some time. We've got to put it on an August work session so when we go into the season we have some of these things addressed, because we always get these complaints and we all know what they are. Elliott/ Also, is the priority putting downtown last still? Bailey/ Oh, God, I hope not. I think we've talked about (several talking) Helling! I think...I think a work session's a good idea because we can fill you in on the policy and take you through that and how we do it, and. . . Correia! We did that, I mean, Rick did that. I remember the maps and the zones and we did do that. I mean, I would like to do that again, but I would also like to talk about utilizing snow emergency removal routes or whatever it is. Many towns have snow, you know (several talking) Bailey/ Downtown merchants, I mean, that's one of the things that we can do to help support downtown, and you know, we can get really good at it in January and February. Their high retail season is now, and that's when we need to be good at it, when we get these ice storms one after another. Champion! Somebody came to my store and said they wanted to talk about snow removal and I thought oh dear. They said they can't imagine how, how well, she was walking her kids to school or going somewhere at 7:00 in the morning and the streets are full of ice and when she walked to school she said the snow was all gone; she said the City did a fantastic job. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007. December 10, 2007 Special City Council Work Session Page 44 Bailey/ That's what we want to hear! Oakland Cemetery is great. Vanderhoef/ Since I won't be here for that, may Ijust offer something to talk about? That if you put emergency snow, uh, removal plan in action, if you go by districts and allow those cars to park in the ramp overnight to be removed at 7:00 A.M. and then they can come back out on the street. Wilburn! Anyone else Council time? Bailey/ Well, and that even-odd in our neighborhood. Wilburn! I'm going to ask that we stop further discussion about the snow removal. (several talking) Vanderhoef/ Thank you for letting me (laughter and several talking) Wilburn! Any other Council. . . Helling! Ross, Ross, did you want to talk about this letter tonight, or are you going to talk about it tomorrow night? The... Wilburn! Vb, let's (several talking) Helling/ Proposed letter for the RSVP? Tomorrow, okay? Karr/ They wanted it. . . Wilburn! Oh, they need it tomorrow? Okay, uh, reconvene. Where's the letter? Oh, thank you. (several responding) Well, why don't you take a look at the letter, because there might be some future implications... Helling! Yeah, I contacted Eve Casserly today, and her response, in terms of whether there's possible future funding requests, um, the response that she gave me was at this point, no, they're not anticipating that. Vb, but it wouldn't be out of the question down the road after the grant expires. They may be looking for funding, so, but what she wanted to stress is that by signing this letter that's not a commitment to any funding in the future. (several talking) Elliott/ Can you just send a letter saying we... we appreciate and certainly want to do everything we can and we will respond with more specificity. I like Regenia's word. In the future? O'Donne11! Twenty-five cent word! (several talking) Wilburn! Ijust wanted to make sure.. .okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of December 10, 2007.