HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-01-08 TranscriptionJanuary 8, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 1
January 8, 2008 Special City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M.
Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright
Staff: Karr, Helling, Dilkes, Mejia, O'Malley, Lewis, Mansfield
Other: Volland; Bob Beezat, PAR Group, Consultant
City Manager Search Process/Schedule:
Bailey/ Good evening, Bob, this is Regenia.
Beezat/ Hi, Regenia, good evening.
Bailey/ Good evening. We have a couple of new, um, Council Members. Why don't we just go
around and introduce so you can get a sense of the...of the voices at least. Start with
Amy.
Beezat/ Okay.
Correia/ Hi, Bob, Amy Correia.
Beezat/ Hi, Amy.
O'Donnell/ Hi, Bob, Mike O'Donnell.
Beezat/ Mike, hello.
Champion/ Hi, Robert, Connie Champion.
Volland/ Hi, Bob, Abbie Volland.
Beezat/ Okay, Abbie, how are ya?
Volland/ Good, how are you?
Beezat/ Oh, well. Thank you.
Hayek/ Bob, Matt Hayek, I'm one of the two new Members. Nice to meet you.
Beezat/ Yes, Matt, same here.
Wright/ Hi, Bob, Mike Wright. I'm the other new Member.
Beezat/ Okay, good! (laughing) Thank you.
Wilburn/ Bob, Ross Wilburn, and how are you doing?
Beezat/ Fine, thank you.
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Wilburn/ Good!
Karr/ And Sylvia's here as well, Bob.
Beezat/ Okay, thank you.
Bailey/ We have your...why don't you come up, Sylvia? We have your memo, um, from the info
packet and why don't you just walk us through where we are so far with this process, and
I know Sylvia talked to you about some other information that you can provide to us, to
help us...
Beezat/ (garbled, unable to hear)
Karr/ No, go ahead, say it again. Are you having problems hearing, Bob?
Beezat/ I was on your voice, and a few of the others, but this is much better. Thank you.
Karr/ Okay.
Bailey/ We have the memo that you sent in front of us, and then, um, I know that Sylvia talked to
you about providing some additional information. So why don't you just walk us through
the memo and that other information.
Beezat/ Okay. Well, let me start with the other information, I guess...
Bailey/ Great.
Beezat/ ...just to give you an update on, uh, as of today we have 54 applicants, and, um, we have,
uh, of that group, 52 are males and 52...or two are females. One is an African-American
male and two are Hispanic males, and they're part of that group of 52. We have, and we
will continue to make, uh, a lot of contacts to broaden out the diversity of that group. Uh,
so far, um, we've made about 221, plus or minus some, but just making, kind of checking
through all of the things I've been doing. We sent out 118 letters to start with, uh, and of
those 118, uh, 45 were to females or African-Americans, and some cases obviously fall
into both categories there. So, uh, and, uh, we've also sent out 58 emails, which a good
number were to African-American, um, potential candidates or people that might
recommend potential candidates. We've contacted, uh, most of the leadership of the
National Forum of Black Public Administrators, uh, some we had sent the letters to, and
some we followed up with emails, and then I've also made about 45 to 50 calls. I don't
have an exact count, but, uh, to follow up on those. So, so far we've made roughly again,
plus or minus, 221 contacts and uh, of those 76, roughly, have been to females, and 77 to
African-American, of which would include some females in that group. So that...we still
have calls out to a number of people, um, I know our plan is to send a report to you on
the 23`d that you would get on the 24"', so it's two weeks from tomorrow that we would
send you that report, and, um, I am calling people daily to...to broaden that pool out. We
do have some excellent people within the group of 52, uh, but, uh, I know you're
interested as a community and certainly our job is to, um, do everything we can to get a
diverse pool, as well. So, we are working on it. I still have, uh, calls out, and some
people thinking about it. iJh, and, uh, I've kind of given people at least, ask them to get
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back with me by the end of this week or at least the first part of next week so that, uh,
um, I know who I'm...who I'll be working with, and uh, so that's where we're on that.
We did...I have narrowed the group down roughly to about 20 people at this point. Um,
and I know one of the issues Sylvia brought up was those...requesting confidentiality. I
guess what I would consider the top tier of candidates at this point, uh, there's 19 in that
group, and 13 of those have requested confidentiality, and the remaining, roughly 35
people, uh, only three have requested confidentiality. And that's kind of reflective of, uh,
those who are currently working and some working in Iowa, but working in other states
as well, um, are certainly more concerned about confidentiality than...than somebody
who is currently unemployed, um, so, um, I guess in talking to people, uh, as I
mentioned, we have 54 applicants, which is a higher number than we generally get for
searches these days, and part of it is because, obviously, Iowa City is a very attractive
community, and um, but I will say one of the difficulties with ,particularly, uh, uh,
minority candidates, um, when I've been rejected by them as I've called and talked to
them, and they've considered it, there are two factors. One is...is the weather (laughter)
uh, anybody who works in this business, uh, uh, and you contact people proportionately,
and I've never seen any exact percentages, but African-American male and female, uh,
managers and assistant managers are...are very much located along the coast, both
coasts, and uh, southeast and in the south, and uh, two folks I had yesterday, uh, I thought
I had them pretty interested, but, um, they...they just don't want to come to some place
that cold. Some of them have started their careers in cold places and as one of them said,
`I'm spoiled now! So I'm down in the warmer weather,' and uh, that's just a reality, um.
I think the other thing that...I've at least had responses from people, uh, in trying to get
their interest in Iowa City as wonderful as it is, and it is, and I think people recognize
university communities as having a lot of pluses. They just say it's not a metropolitan
area, and, uh, uh, I think, again, in our experience in contacting people, particularly
people that are on the coast or southeast, Virginia, those...some of those states,
they're...they...whether they're minority or not, people from the coast consider all of us
in the Midwest kind of "fly over" territory, and uh, um, but it, again, moving to a small,
relatively smaller community is...is an issue for a number of people. So, we're...all I
can tell you is, I'm making calls every day, and I will continue to do that until I send the
report up to you on the 23rd, which you will get on the 24"', and I will continue to do
whatever I can to, uh, broaden that pool out. So, that's what...where we're at as far as
that is concerned, and I would urge you at least, uh, uh, to have us send you that report,
which you would get on the 24"', and you...as we talked earlier at least, uh, without
nailing down a date, but that I would come out and visit with you in an Executive Session
January 30"' or 31S`, uh, to review those, and at that point, uh, uh, you can make a
decision then of whether or not you want to, uh, uh, proceed with the pool of candidates
that we have at that point or...or whether there's...you want to have us do some
additional, make some additional efforts. But I...I'm...so that's kind of where we're at
as far as that. So I don't know if you have any questions or comments before we kind of
get into the rest of the schedule, but, uh, I know that's important to you, and we are
certainly pursuing it, but that's where we're at right now.
Bailey/ Does anybody have any questions for Bob regarding the pool, at this point?
Wilburn/ Uh, Bob, this is Ross. Just one quick question. I know because of confidentiality
requests I'm not going to ask towns, but, uh, can you give us an idea...are we getting
applicants from outside of the Midwest? Are they primarily in the Midwest?
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Beezat/ Um...
Wilburn/ Is that something...
Beezat/ ...it's primarily...primarily the Midwest, um, I know there's, uh, part of your interest,
and I've been keeping my eye open for folks that are, uh, in the, uh, some private sector,
primarily private sector, and I do have a fella who I've been talking with who's out on the
east coast. He's originally, uh, from the Midwest and wants to get back here, but the
great bulk of `em are...are Midwest people, and uh, I have a fella here from New
Hampshire, uh, fella from Rhode Island. I do have a Hispanic fella who's out in
Colorado at this point. Uh, one African-American fella is from Georgia, and uh, certainly
is a good candidate. So, but primarily...I have a fella here from New York who spent a
lot of time in the Midwest, in Michigan, so, but I would say of that... of those in the 19,
kind of the top tier at this point, um, probably four, five from Iowa at the present time,
uh, and other, uh, Midwest, Illinois or Wisconsin or somewhere in the Midwest.
Wilburn/ All right, thank you.
Bailey/ Bob, this is Regenia.
Beezat/ Yes.
Bailey/ Just talk a little bit about the private sector, public sector, what you're seeing.
Beezat/ L ..there's two people that I have in the group of 19, um, and one of them has kind of
moved back and forth from the public to private sector. Um, and I think has some, uh,
good potential, at least, uh, I've talked with him and we're doing some reference calls
and uh, and checking him out. There's another fella who is in Iowa, in the region, in your
general area there who has pretty good management experience overall, nothing really in
the public sector, but is worth talking to. Pretty strong into the information technology
arena, but seems to have had pretty broad experience managing, uh, uh, national
operations, uh, within that, so has some good supervisory and management experience,
and uh, so those are the two strongest, I would say. Most of the other ones have...have
fairly limited experience, uh, in...in just management overall.
Bailey/ Thanks. Any other questions for Bob? Okay, let's talk about this schedule a little bit,
Bob.
Beezat/ Yes, well, I kind of laid out at least what generally takes place, and as I mentioned, we
can do whatever fits your community, uh, uh, I know at least in talking to Sylvia, there's
been some concern maybe about rushing the process, which, uh, we certainly don't want
to do, and...and want you to feel comfortable. What I tried to lay out for you, just as
what happens in most communities we work with, and, um, most communities are quite
comfortable doing things on a two-day kind of Friday/Saturday, uh, it requires usually
that people take off one of those days, and that's kind of why they go with Friday's and
Saturday's because the people have full-time jobs as many people do on city councils, uh,
they can take one day off, and uh, maybe not bollix up their work too much, but...so
that's kind of what I've recommended. Uh, I know there was some comment maybe
about, uh, doing, um, and we've done it with some other communities, doing maybe three
interviews. Let's just assume you pick six people to interview, uh, maybe do three of
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`em on...on a Thursday evening, and often when we do that, it would be done with
people who are kind of in the region so they can drive over during the day and, uh, and
for those that are coming from more distance, have them on a Friday, and um, and then
do a second round, you know, possibly on a Saturday, uh, and...uh, so that's kind of the
general way it goes, and...and I would just say at least from our experience, people don't
feel rushed, but, uh, in fact some cases they finish the first round and then they kind of
want to go ahead and make a decision, and L ..I push quite strongly, but obviously every
community will do what they want in the end, but I like to have that second round. I
think it does, uh, solidify people's decision making, and I've seen sometimes people who
were, uh, second or third after the first round kind of pop up to the first place then. So,
um, but it's also possible to schedule something where the intention is to kind of get it
done by, you know, that first weekend, but if people are not comfortable at that point, uh,
then, uh, to delay it, and in some cases, though not too often, sometimes it gets down to
two candidates, and uh, I would say one out of 20 searches we do, uh, sometimes the
mayor and a council member would go out to the community where the person is
currently working, or most recently worked, and, uh, spend a day or two there, talking
with people, just to kind of get a better comfort level themselves. Um, I have found over
the years doing this that, uh, we've these people at least in terms of their
background and experience and how they would fit with you. By the time it gets to the
point that you do the actual interviews, uh, we will have done reference calls. We will
have verified their education. We, in fact, we're in the process of doing that before we
even get serious about `em, because we can do that quickly. We will do credit check, and
motor vehicle driver's check, and a, uh, a felony court check, and we will do newspaper,
uh, article check, and also we do Google people and go to MySpace, find some
interesting things some times, and...and I think a lot of times, once you have all that
information, plus you've interviewed and talked with the candidates a couple times.
Most times people are very comfortable with...these are genuinely experienced people,
but we can always get through those first two days and you can say, you know, we want
to do some further checking or we want to think about it and maybe have people back at
another time, or you can just say, `Boy, we got nobody here,' and let's go again. Doesn't
happen too often, but it has happened, and we would start that up with you again. So,
L ..I would urge to try to set the two days, and either that weekend that L ..you know, it
was like February...15d' and 16"', or the 22nd and 23rd...just so you could have a couple of
days set aside, and at the latest, say February 29t", March 1St, but I don't want to get it too
far out because people are active and interest in making a change, and sometimes we
initiate that and then they start thinking about it, um, I don't want to lose good people
either. So, uh, but I would urge you to aim for that maybe 15t" and 16t", or 22"d and 23rd
because once we meet, say on the 30t'', uh, and there are people in there that you think
you would want to interview, which we certainly hope would be the case, but, uh, and we
need, we will have given these people aheads-up ahead of time that we're aiming at the
15`t' and 16t", or the 22"d or 23rd, and uh, then as soon as you pick `em we can get in touch
with `em and things can get in motion so they can show up. So, that's kind of the outline
and suggestion, and I'll be glad to answer your questions, and I think to some degree if
we could just pick the two days, we could work out the details of...of how the interview
process would proceed and who would be involved in it. I know you want citizen
involvement as we had in developing the profile. Some folks did mention, you know,
maybe having some process where the department heads might have some opportunity to
meet with them, as well. So we, I think once we know the dates and we know the
calendar, uh, the calendar and the candidates, we can work those specifics out maybe
when I meet with you on the 3011' and 31St, but again, that's just a suggestion to you.
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Champion/ I...it's Connie, I thought we were only going to have public input for the finalists,
final two or three.
Beezat/ I'm sorry. Was that a question, or was that a statement? I'm sorry.
Champion/ Well, I'm not sure, I mean, that's what I had...that's what I thought, and I'm just
asking. Am I right or wrong?
Beezat/ I think what we've talked about was after the...the Council did an initial set of
interviews, uh, they would evaluate the people and narrow it down to two or three, or
maybe even four...
Champion/ Okay...
Beezat/ ...and, uh, have them come to some type ofineet-and-greet function.
Champion/ Right, okay, right.
Bailey/ So we might interview six that week, but only four might show up at the public...public
meet-and-greet. Questions for Bob about this process, or comments? Go ahead, Ross.
Wilburn/ L ..I, this is Ross, Bob, I like the...my preference would be either the 30"' or 31S` is fine.
My preference would be that first weekend in February that you picked, the 15"', 16"',just
out of concern of not losing anybody that's in your...in your pool. That's just a comment
in general for everybody.
Correia/ We had talked earlier about having the candidates that come, and I don't know if we had
talked about for both first round and second round -that would have their spouse or
partner come also.
Champion/ That'd be the fmalists.
Correia/ That'd be the finalists, so...but I mean if we're doing this first...this scenario where you
do first round interviews and second round interviews that same weekend, there's no
opportunity for that to occur, unless everybody, all the candidates bring...and I don't
know that we want to pay the expenses for all of the candidates (unable to hear) see the
community and...and that sort of thing, but I think that's important in our finalists,
because that's important in their decision making.
Bailey/ Another concern that I have about doing it all in one weekend is a similar concern that we
had with the public, the budget public hearing a couple years ago. We have the public
hearing and then the...the vote on the same night, and we've changed that and separated
it, and even separating it by a week and bringing in people we determine as finalists,
would allow us to take some of that input into greater consideration, I would imagine.
Correia/ As well as having the opportunity for the...input from staff.
Bailey/ I feel strongly that we need a separate, um, opportunity for department heads and staff, in
some way, and I don't...I don't have an idea of what that could look like. We should
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look at some other models, um, meet with a candidate because that's going to be an
important part of this job, um, for them and for the candidate, you know, the person
coming in. So...
Wilburn/ This is Ross again. If...if we're going to do that, and that's fine, um, I...I would
strongly recommend that...that next visit be the very next weekend.
Bailey/ I agree.
Wilburn/ So that it doesn't get stretched out, and you don't lose anybody.
Bailey/ I agree with your concern about losing people, because it becomes a very public
process...
Wilburn/ Right.
Bailey/ ...and it...we either lose people or it becomes a more expensive process, potentially,
because we get into some kind of bidding war or something. I agree.
Wright/ Yeah, this is Mike Wright, and um, I kind of see the one weekend approach as being
pretty frantic for everybody. involved, and L .. I would j ust like to go along with the
concept of bringing the finalists back.
Correia/ Bring them back if they want to come back with their...
Wright/ With their spouses.
Bailey/ Uh-huh, right.
Mejia/ Bob, this is Sylvia. Um, just for the Council's information, I did...I know that you've
been kind of modeling with Cedar Rapids, and uh, they did it in two days, a Friday,
Saturday, and it is, you know, I don't know if frantic is quite the word, but it's an
interesting schedule, but they did and they reached their conclusion and started their
negotiations on Saturday, just as an example that someone, you know, that's how they
did it. It's not saying that's how you should do it, but um, I knew you were impressed
with their process and their results, so...it can be done. Whether you wish to do it that
way or not is up to you.
Champion/ I can't...
Beezat/ I would just say if we're going to do it over two weekends, which is fine, probably doing
it two consecutive weekends is...is going to be difficult for some of the candidates, so we
might need to look at, and we could, you know, doing it the first round on that 15~', 16"'
and uh, and then maybe skipping two weeks and, uh, you know, coming back that 29`x'
and March ls`, and I'm not saying absolutely, but it...it, I know the travel arrangements
and sometimes things with family and kids, you know, it just...getting babysitters...it's
just something to consider.
Bailey/ Bob, this is Regenia. So how does that address our concern about losing candidates or
losing people if we stretch it out to two weeks? Is that...
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Beezat/ I don't think that would be, you know, once they get to that point, then they come in for
that first round, they know you're serious about `em and I think once they come and see
the community, if they haven't seen it before, and I think meet you. You're a good
group, uh, that they feel they could work with and I think you have good department
heads. I think it certainly, before they jumped off for something else, uh, it would, you'd
at least have a good shot, and we could kind of play it by ear in a sense of who the finalist
candidates are, where they're coming from, uh, my guess is you will end up with,
depending on who else we can get in the pool at this point, but two or three of `em will be
people that will be relatively close, and by that I mean within maybe two and a half, three
hours, four hours drive, and so that's not as big a problem as somebody maybe flying in
from the east coast and, you know, and we could play that a little bit by ear, I guess.
Bailey/ Go ahead, Connie.
Champion/ I guess if we lose somebody because we want them to come back two weeks later, I
guess they're not for us anyway. (laughter)
Wright/ Well, particularly if they know going into it that there's a good chance they might be
called back the following weekend, they should have ample opportunity to clear their
calendar.
Bailey/ Right, and I suppose we could...I don't know how we want to do that. We could do the
next weekend as an option. I don't know. I don't know how scheduling works best, but
go ahead, Sylvia.
Mejia/ I think that the two weeks would make it easier in terms of scheduling for folks to make,
uh, arrangements if they have to fly and it will allow us adequate time to get them, uh, a
place to stay and all that type of thing. Um, I think if you can agree on those potential
dates and get them in your calendar, that's really important. We can work through the
details...I think is what you were saying, Bob, in terms of when we might do one thing
and how they might meet with department directors.
Beezat/ Right.
Mejia/ But we really need your commitment so that when we start telling these candidates that
it's going to be this weekend and two weeks later, uh, that we're not throwing something
at them later and saying, `Well, never mind, scratch those. We've got two others.' So
that's probably pretty important for this evening, if you can reach consensus on that.
Wright/ So are we looking at the 15`x', 16"' and the 29~' and uh, March lsr, is that correct?
Mejia/ I believe that was your suggestion, wasn't it, Bob? 15~', 16`h
Beezat/ Could have...yes, that's a suggestion, but we can do it the other two if we all know up
front that we're going to do it, uh, you know, the 15`h and 16"' and then the 22°d and 23`d
I just...just based on my experience, I suggest the extra week in between, but we can
work with whatever.
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Bailey/ Well, I suggest we go with Bob's experience because that's why he's here, so, um, how
about doing the 15~', 16t" and then that last week of...of, what is that, the 29`'' and 1s1
Yeah.
Champion/ The 30`x' and the 1st. I'm sorry.
Bailey/ It's February.
Champion/ Oh!
Bailey/ Yeah, so, does that work for everyone? Are we in agreement with that? So provided the
list looks good on the, um, that we see on the 24"', um, those are the dates that we have
reserved, and we'll figure out details about how we involve department heads on that first
weekend, um, what the meet-and-greet looks like and how we do that, and those are
things that we can work out later, correct?
Mejia/ Right, that's something Bob and I can work on, and find rooms, figure out some options
for schedules so that...
Correia/ So does...I'm sorry...so does the meet-and-greet and department head visits happen that
first weekend, or the second weekend, with the finalists?
Champion/ The second weekend.
Mejia/ Bob, is that correct? I thought it was the first weekend.
Beezat/ No, I would suggest you do the first round, and you have the department heads and...and
meet-and-greet, because part of what I heard anyway, and maybe improperly so, that you
wanted to get that input and then you wanted to think about it and not have it occur, you
know (several talking).
Mejia/ It would be with the short list of five to six.
Correia/ Oh, not the...
Bailey/ So they help us, they help us reduce to the finalists. Is everybody in agreement with that,
that we would like that kind of input with a short list?
Champion/ And then we wouldn't have the meet-and-greet with the finalists -we'd just make
that decision?
Bailey/ We make that decision, and then go with ameet-and-greet of our choice?
Mejia/ Well, it's up to you. I...I thought that you wanted the, uh, meet-and-greet to include all
five to six, so that you could get public input on those five to six.
Champion/ That's a good idea.
Mejia/ As opposed to...whittle down to two or three. It's your call, but...
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Beezat/ I think if you're delaying it, you know, having the split time in between and I think
having all five or six part of the meet-and-greet and interviewing with department heads
as we set up some process there on that first weekend would be good to get all that done
that first weekend. Everybody can then give you their input and you can...
Bailey/ Right. (several responding)
Mejia/ Which would have to be done relatively soon though, Bob, so that we could contact those
two or three to make arrangements.
Beezat/ Oh, sure.
Mejia/ So it's not like we can have the meet-and-greet the first weekend and then wait a week
before Council meets. Council will then have to meet shortly thereafter, to narrow the
candidates down further to the two or three that they're bringing back.
Hayek/ In fact, why don't we use the time we would have used to make the second cut on that
first weekend to make our decisions and decide who to bring back, the top two to four,
whatever it is. Strike while the iron is hot during the first weekend.
Bailey/ Right, right.
Dilkes/ Then...then I'm confused about why we're having two weeks then between.
Champion/ But the plan was to come back.
Dilkes/ Well, I understand that, but why if you're cutting, if you're making a decision on that first
weekend to cut it down, why are we waiting two more weeks (several talking at once) to
interview them again.
Champion/ Well, he thought it'd be better for the candidates.
Dilkes/ To have two weeks?
Champion/ Uh-huh.
Karr/ Who thought it would be better?
Champion/ Bob.
Bailey/ No, I think Bob thought...(several talking).
Beezat/ Yes, that's my initial suggestion, but I certainly heard concern that it be spread out a little
bit to get and weigh the input of the community and the department heads, and also not
feel like it's just rushed along.
Bailey/ So, we could, I mean, we could strike while the iron's hot, although we could take some
of that input and meet on Monday or Tuesday, following...after reviewing some of the
input, and still get information to candidates in a timely manner. I mean, that's still ten
days before the next...
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Champion/ Yes, that's a better idea.
Bailey/ Right. I mean...
Correia/ I thought the two-week between was for the candidates so they're not having to make.. .
Bailey/ Well, I also thought part of the concern about making the decision within a weekend was
being able to accommodate some of the input and also how quickly we would be making
a decision.
Champion/ Yeah, I like your idea of meeting that Monday or Tuesday.
Hayek/ Yeah, that's fine, and...and if we're going to solicit public or other input during that first
visit, we'll be hard pressed, I think, to get that information, you know, when it's helpful
to us. (unable to hear person in audience)
Champion/ Next week, next Tuesday (several responding)
Karr/ Um, a couple clarifications here. Number one, I believe...hi, Bob, Marian. In...in the
input process, what we had initially thought about is handling it much the same as you
receive input as a Council Member right now, is that you do not receive anonymous
written correspondence. We would have prepared some comment cards, asking for a
name and a comment, and a date of response back, depending on what date you wish that
response or that input, and they would be then, uh, um, combined and provided to all of
you in the timeline that you provide. So, that information and that process would be
available the night of the meet-and-greet, okay? Secondly, I just wanted to note that if
you go with the 15"', 16`h and wish to meet the 18`h, the 18"' and 19`l' are your regular
meetings. The 18`x' is a holiday, uh, so you do not have your work session that evening,
so it is an open date for you. You have a combined work session and formal on Tuesday
night. So, depending on...on scheduling that time, in one sense that Monday is open
because you had not scheduled it due to a holiday, but in another sense you have a
combined work session and formal the next night, Tuesday. And that would be your
public hearing on the budget.
Bailey/ On the Tuesday?
Karr/ On the Tuesday.
Bailey/ So, is using that holiday, what you're offering up is that...that is a possibility, or a
suggestion?
Karr/ I'm just looking at the calendar and reminding you that that is a formal week and that is
your public budget hearing on Tuesday, so I would not do it Tuesday, but if you do it
Monday, it is a holiday.
Bailey/ Does that create any problems for anybody, if we actually would meet on that holiday?
Or...
Karr/ The 18`x'.
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Mejia/ I'm already working that day doing police promotional, so I'll be here! (laughter)
Bailey/ So...so that seems to be possible. Okay. So, is everybody clear...
Wilburn/ I'm sorry, meeting during that day on the I8r''? Is that what you said, or in the evening?
Karr/ I'm sorry...Ross, I'm sorry?
Champion/ Well, we could meet in the day because it's a holiday.
Karr/ You can meet (several talking) again, we can schedule anything you want. I'm just trying
to figure out if you'd like, then we're going to as a staff then...you'll have to allow for
the comments at the meet-and-greet to be compiled, to be written, digested and compiled
and distributed to you. Now, they can be distributed to you at the meeting, on the 18`''.
That's fine. I'm just trying to get a handle on what you're thinking here. So you're
thinking the 15"' and 16"', meet-and-greet, department heads. Meet the 18`x, and so...it's
a very short timeframe for any comments to be received from the public, if they don't
have the input that time, because there won't be any mail delivery either.
Champion/ Oh, right!
Bailey/ But they also have the email possibility. It's too bad we almost can't set up email kiosks
or something for people to leave at the reception and email us, because that also would
be...
Correia/ Well, we're only getting input from people that were there.. .
Bailey/ There, right.
Correia/ ...because you can't really provide input if you weren't there (several responding)...and
we can say if you.. .
Bailey/ And we can easily get input from department heads, because, I mean, they'll realize the
constraints, as well, so...
Champion/ I think it's fine. I think they'll get their comments to us if they want us to have `em.
Wright/ If we could have some cards or even an email response before the meeting on Monday.
Bailey/ Right. Any concerns about this process? So...on the 18"' that would be my preference as
well (several talking) everybody in agreement on an evening meeting? Great, thank you.
Okay. So, we have dates. What else do you need from us tonight, Bob?
Beezat/ I think that's it. Uh, if...I missed a lot of that because you were talking, but I gather
we'll...we'll have that first round on the 15"' and 16"' and then on the 18"' you'll review
comments and narrow it down, and then we'll do a second round on the 29`h and March
ls`, and...and we can work out the details on the different things. So that's fine with me,
and I will be there at each event.
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Bailey/ Okay, and um, and it sounds like our intent also is to invite partners on the final
interviews on the 29"' and March 15`. Do we need to decide if we're meeting with you on
the 30"' or 315`, as well?
Beezat/ Yes.
Bailey/ Okay. So, the 30"' is a JCCOG meeting at 5:00 P.M. in Coralville, um, and I suppose we
have the flexibility of a day or an evening meeting, right?
Karr/ As long as...yeah, I will check the room. As long as the availability...we'll have to juggle
some schedules, but yeah, you let me know and we'll make it happen.
Bailey/ Okay, so does somebody have a preference of date or time of day?
Beezat/ And Madame Mayor, it's usually about an hour and a half to two hour meeting, just
generally. .
Bailey/ We can meet after the JCCOG meeting. We can meet on the evening of the 315L. Is there
a preference? So, I'll just toss out, let's meet on the evening of the 31ST
Wright/ That's what I was going to suggest, as well.
Bailey/ Does that work for people? At 6:30? Or earlier...okay, 6:30 on the 3155
Beezat/ Okay.
Bailey/ We're going to just be so together in January and February. Okay.
Dilkes/ I should probably just let you know, L ..the weekend of the, um, that second round
of...29"' and the 151, I am committed that whole weekend, but it's here. I'm supposed to
be running a swim meet at the Field House. Um, I can juggle what I can, but...and send
someone else, and it's probably not crucial that I be here...necessarily, but I don't know.
Just so you know that.
Bailey/ Okay, thank you. Okay.
Wilburn/ I'm sorry, one final question. The second round on the 29"', is that...is that an evening,
are those evening...
Bailey/ Let's reserve the day, as well.
Correia/ And will part of that day...just because I (unable to hear) will that be all day with
Council? Will that be part...
Bailey/ I think those are details we can talk about when we know your scheduling constraints, but
at this point, let's try to reserve the day, if that's possible, and I mean, it's always easier
to take that off your schedule than it is to get it on your schedule.
Correia/ I already have things on my schedule that I (unable to hear) right now, so...
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Bailey/ Well, we can talk about that.
Correia/ Okay, but I don't have a sense...
Bailey/ Bob doesn't have to...okay.
Beezat/ If I could suggest that the second weekend, you probably will only need one day. If
you've gone through that first round and gotten the input and weighed it, you'll have
maybe three or four candidates that you would do an interview with and...and I would
just guess you could do it in a day, either Friday or Saturday.
Karr/ Then would we...again, if you don't want to keep Bob on the phone, but yeah, I think the
sooner we can nail down the days and be comfortable with what we're telling candidates,
staff, and you know, the better.
Mejia/ Are both the 29"' and the IS` available for you, Bob?
Beezat/ Yes, yes.
Mejia/ We can finalize those dates and I can get back to you with one or the other after the
Council has the opportunity to, uh, look at their calendars further, rather than keep you...
Beezat/ I can do both days. I just wanted you to know because I know all you folks are busy, that
I think we could do that in one day without rushing anything.
Mejia/ You wanted to allow adequate time for interviews and then reach some type of conclusion,
hopefully, as to the candidate and potentially begin negotiations. Hopefully begin
negotiations.
Beezat/ Yes, Ma'am.
Mejia/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ Bob, I have another question. When the final candidates come, um, do we entertain
them, have somebody in town do something with them, how do we handle that?
Beezat/ Well, I wouldn't say entertain, but we will have set up with Sylvia so that people get a
tour of the community, uh, and, uh, before their interviews so they can see the municipal
facilities and other points of interest. Uh, that's what most communities do. I would, and
I would say probably 95% of the communities do, uh, uh, so in a few cases, um, when the
tours are taking place, which are usually done by city staff, department head staff,
sometimes there might be a community representative that goes along, uh, sometimes it's
people from the business community or Chamber, or you know, something like that, just
so, sometimes people have questions about the real estate, obviously, and some other
things that they can get a feel for, but again, that's not done, people don't expect that.
They will do their own walking around and talking to people, and uh, so anyway, that's
how generally it works.
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Bailey/ Other questions for Bob before we let him go?
Hayek/ Does the packet that gets overnighted to us include for each candidate a list of references
we can contact, or...
Beezat/ It will a, it will be the materials that the people submitted. It'll be a summary of kind of,
we just put it in a format so you can kind of look at the same thing about each candidate,
and uh, we do not include all the reference materials at that point. That's part of my
meeting with you, is to go over that. We do talk to people in confidence, and so we don't
want to be too broadly distributing people's reference comments, and so, anyway, that's
what you would get, and uh, I think it would give you sufficient information based on
what you read, and then our discussions, to make a reasonable decision.
Bailey/ Other questions? All right. Thanks, Bob. Sylvia will be in touch with you, um, and we
look forward to seeing the list on the 24`h
Beezat/ Yes, Ma'am, thank you, and thank you for all your input tonight, and we'll keep working
at it.
Bailey/ Thanks. (several responding)
Beezat/ Good night, bye-bye.
Bailey/ Okay, Sylvia, what else do you need from us this evening?
Mejia/ I have a list here of what I needed -the potential dates. What we can do is come back to
you with a, I presume that you want the department directors, am I hearing that correctly?
You want the candidates to interview with the directors, so...
Bailey/ Yes, absolutely.
Mejia/ ...we could come back, um, at the time that Bob is here we'll come back with a schedule
that shows how we can do that. It'll be kind of around-robin, they kind of shift all
around, and...with a tour, as he suggested, um, of the city. For the second weekend when
they come back, we'll spend a little bit of time putting together maybe some information
that we can give to spouses or partners regarding schools and realtors and that type of
thing, so they can have it as a little reference sheet and then they can make those contacts
that they wish to make. They'll have different interests, of course. Um, we can put
together some type of a tour, or the, you know, the partners, if you think that is
appropriate. So, I'll talk with Bob a little bit more. I think I have what I need from you
folks at this point. The dates were really the...
Bailey/ Yeah, and any input about what else you would like to see in this process, um, when
people come in. I mean, somebody mentioned having the Chamber involved with tours.
I think that's a great idea. I think we could also, um, work with Josh Schaumberger. He
would do a great tour for partners or um, for candidates. He does a great job of selling
the community, as does Nancy Quellhorst, so...um, other comments or considerations?
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Mejia/ Generally, the initial tour would be with a City staff person who could answer those
questions for the individual about the City facilities and how the City works. That might
be at the second stage. Is that what you were suggesting?
Bailey/ Right. I think that would be...be fine. Any other ideas or thoughts you want to get to
Sylvia as we plan this, to make sure that they're incorporated?
Dilkes/ Sylvia, don't we need to pick the 29"' or the 30`", so Bob can...or 29`" or the ls`, so Bob
can let candidates know, to set that date aside?
Mejia/ Um, yeah, you can do it in one day. So, I guess if you would like...
Bailey/ So with finalists, people...what are people expecting? An interview, any additional sorts
of process?
Mejia/ Generally, it's a little more informal interview, where, you know, uh, you can get into
more specifics or questions that you might have on...to the individual, where as your first
interview's going to be very structured, where you're asking exactly the same questions
of each (unable to hear) uh, so that you get the same opportunity for each person to get
the information.
Wilburn/ I would imagine there might also be a little bit more give and take in questions from the
candidates, because at that point if they're really thinking, `Hey, I may be coming here,'
in terms of (several talking) they may have more questions about the community.
Mejia/ I guess one thing we didn't ask Bob is, but generally speaking, an hour is usually adequate
time. You get longer than that, I'm not sure you're...
Champion/ An hour's plenty of time.
Mejia/ ...yeah, it's...so, you're going to need to, uh, reserve, you know, probably up to four
hours to have that. Would you prefer to do that on a, you know, Friday morning, uh,
Friday afternoon, uh, remembering that you're...
Correia/ Sorry. Does anybody know when the County...Democratic County Convention is? Is
that March 15`"?
Bailey/ March 15`"...that's what I have in my brain.
Correia/ Because I heard somebody. say the ls`, so I'm just...
Mejia/ So I guess, you know, as long as we don't need two days, the 29"' or March ls`, if you
would like to get that down, we can mark that on your calendars...
Bailey/ I think Saturday is fine. I have a question about, I mean, I know...I don't know what the
tradition is with public-sorts of interviews, but, um, in other settings, um, in interviewing
candidates, and also being interviewed, there's been a social component, either dinner
with a small group of people. I mean, I think that's what you were getting at. Um, is that
something that we would typically do with finalists? I mean, not in a bunch, of course,
but... (laughter)
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Mejia/ Well, I certainly have, uh, seen that done, where there, uh, I think the concern again is if
you have everyone, then you have the potential for...
Bailey/ No, I mean a couple taking a couple...I mean, I know we get a different picture...we all
get a different snapshot (several talking at once). But on the other hand, I mean, if
they're really coming to the community, that's also part of the, I mean, I think that was
your point, right?
Mejia/ What concerns...
Bailey/ I mean, there would be...
Dilkes/ Yeah, as long as there's not four of you at dinner...I think that's fine.
Mejia/ You know, where would you put that in, in terms of...
Bailey/ Well, if they came in Friday night and we interviewed on Saturday, I suppose is what I
was thinking.
Mejia/ We do a Friday night...
Bailey/ That would be an option or an opportunity, not necessarily required. But, it's just a
thought; I'm not particularly wedded to it, but I know other organizations do that.
Mejia/ So we'd ask them to come in by Friday evening. Are you willing, you know, I guess that
would be second.. .
Bailey/ If you're interested in coming in Friday evening, there are a couple Council Members
who would love to have dinner with you. That's how I would present it. I don't know.
Hayek/ With all of the candidates? In a single...two-two...
Bailey/ Well, I think, you know...we would team up.
Mejia/ Two-two-three or something like that, I think is what...
Hayek/ I'm open to that, but I'm sure Amy's concerned it would sort of result in different
experiences for different people, and I'm not sure it's going to help us, because we might
all come in and say, `Yeah, we had a great time.' We all went to FAC with our
candidate. (laughter)
Wright/ I think if you have the same two individuals going with the same candidate each time,
you have a more consistent impression you're going to have if...if, you know, you and I
go out with X and.. .
Bailey/ Right.
Mejia/ You'd only have that one opportunity. (several talking)
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Bailey/ So we just do interviews on Saturday, and...and be done with it?
Mejia/ We certainly could arrange for other, uh, you know, department directors or something, if
you...if what you're saying is you want to show them some type of social. (several
talking)
Bailey/ That's part of it.
Wright/ Small part of it. It's more like how do they respond in a situation, what are we going to
find out.
Bailey/ Absolutely critical, I think, for our most visible leader.
Champion/ Right, yes, exactly.
Mejia/ But they're all in different circumstances, which makes it very difficult to start comparing.
Champion/ (several talking) I was thinking about doing it just to be nice.
Bailey/ Yeah, there was that aspect of it too, but if there's not a consensus, let's just do the
interviews on Saturday, that's fine, um, and then make sure that we have an opportunity
to do, um, partner tours if there, if the partners are interested, on that Saturday as well.
(several talking)
Hayek/ You know you could...you could do something Friday afternoon or evening for the
candidate that does not involve the Council if they're flying in anyway. You know, give
that, give interested candidates an additional tour with a City person, the facilities, or take
them to an Englert event or something that they can benefit from, even though we're
not.. .
Correia/ ...because part of it is selling the community. (several talking)
Wilburn/ ...on that Friday night, which...yeah, there's a gala at the Englert, because I was asked
to help perform in a group with that, so there will be stuff going on that evening.
Karr/ Sylvia and I had talked about, in that package we were going to get ready for the spouses
and things like that, of working with CVB and other people, and doing fun facts like
what's going on, and then again, we could then coordinate when they're...they can tell us
what they're interested in and we could match them up with a community person, and
still have...have them booked, but booked with an interest that they chose, rather than us.
(several talking)
Bailey/ Okay, so Saturday interviews, and you'll look at making sure they have a good time
(several talking)
Mejia/ ...occupied and show off our city on Friday night.
Champion/ Or Saturday night, depending on when they're going to be here.
Mejia/ Right. By Saturday night though, hopefully, you will be into negotiations (unable to hear).
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Bailey/ But you know, the other candidates can find another position here. You know, we can
sell our community to as many people as we chose. Um, do you need anything else from
us?
Mejia/ I think that...I think for now that should take care of it.
Bailey/ Thanks. (several responding) Okay, let's just...
Mejia/ I'll go get Dale.
Bailey/ Right.
Correia/ So, did we say the 14`n and 15"', or the 15`n and...
Karr/ 15"' and 16"'.
Correia/ Okay, 15"' and 16`"
Bailey/ Friday and Saturday.
Champion/ Marian will write all this down for us and get it to us.
Karr/ I'll write it down and (unable to understand). (laughter)
Bailey/ Are there other items that we need to get on the schedule tonight, when Matt comes back,
or should we just do that in Council Time?
Karr/ As far as, I'm sorry...other items as far as scheduling?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Karr/ I think only as they relate to the budget, after you get through that discussion.
Bailey/ Okay.
Karr/ Probably in the not too distant future we'll want to take a look at our long-term schedule,
farther out...
Bailey/ Right.
Karr/ Right now you're only to March, and I know we have a conflict, potentially, with the spring
break, so but I think we need to get the budget put to bed first and committed, and then
we'll look beyond that.
Wright/ Spring break.
Volland/ If anybody's going anywhere they have to take me with them! New rule!
Wright/ We don't get it. (several talking and laughing)
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Bailey/ We're going to wait for Matt to get back.
Helling/ No, that's all right. We just need to (several talking)
Fees Associated With Moving a Structure (IP3 of 1/3 packet):
Bailey/ Okay, the next item that we have are a couple of items from the Info Packet, and one is
the fees associated with moving a structure, the Wetherby House, and I think that there
were some specific questions, I think.
Wright/ I had a couple of questions on this one, Dale. Uh, the first line you just said that the
Slonnegers had asked that the Council waive certain fees, but we don't really know
which ones they asked for. Is that just the ones that they listed, or were they vague? ]
Helling/ Um, it was kind of vague, but I essentially...the impression I got was they were asking
for a waiver of the same fees that Council had indicated they would waive, or reimburse,
or offset or whatever the term is, when the structure was going to be moved to City Park
and become a public amenity.
Correia/ And this is what you have listed in this...were those fees when we had discussed it
before?
Helling/ No, what I have listed is essentially, um, based...you had discussed it some in the past,
and in talking with the, with the staff and so forth, what I listed was what I...an example
of some of the fees...(mumbling)...anyway, some of the fees that...that are fixed, uh, and
those are listed there, and I think the total is about $385.00. There was some discussion
when you talked about it before, about having a fixed amount and I know that the number
$500.00 was thrown out, um, uh, so just taking from that, I...I indicated an example of
some, of the fees that are fixed. My recommendation is, if you're going to do something
in this regard, I think you have to be very careful about what precedent you set. Uh, if
you're going to do something, then you should do something that you can control, and
not something that is in control of the person moving it, as it's private ownership. An
example would be the...the building at Court and Clinton that was destroyed by the
tornado. There was talk of moving that. There was all kinds of additional fees, uh,
charges that might have been encountered there. For instance, police escort and so forth,
because of the problems moving the building, how long it would take. There's the
question of a charge to actually, perhaps, shore up the bridge on Burlington Street, in
order to pass over it with that much weight. So there are all kinds of...of fees that are
involved, permit fees and so forth, that are dependent on the amount of work being done,
and that's out of your hands. That's controlled by the person doing the moving. So, as I
said before, I think you have to be careful of the precedent you set. If you're going to do
something in this regard, then I would recommend that you have an amount that's fixed
so that you have control over it. That's the essence o£ . .
Wright/ And you're recommending from Historic Preservation funds?
Helling/ I...I think that you probably should identify a source of those funds some place, um, I
was suggesting Historic Preservation. Otherwise it'll come out of the General Fund. I
don't think that you'll have too many of these in a given year, um...I guess the other
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thing I would emphasize is it be a reimbursement, rather than...and I think the City
Attorney would agree that that's something you should do, rather than...don't necessarily
have the specific authority to waive fees. (unable to hear person talking)
Bailey/ Okay, so, um, we need to give some direction to staff so we can move ahead on this.
How would we like to proceed?
Champion/ When I was willing to move...when I was willing to waive City fees, it was when the
house was going to be placed in City Park and become part of Iowa City. Now it's going
to...I don't have my notes with me, but it's going to be moved and made into a bed and
breakfast, isn't that true?
Bailey/ Rental property.
Champion/ So now we're going to have afor-profit situation and...and then I'm a little reluctant
to waive these.
Bailey/ Amy?
Correia/ I guess I'm interested in...in, um, the reason why it's not being moved to City Park is
because there's no funding identified to help maintain the operations of a public amenity.
Champion/ Right.
Correia/ Um, and so, but I feel...if this is going to be, if it's eligible and they are going to apply
for landmark status or whatever it is that, you know, they're doing a service to maintain
the history of our community by saving this house. Um, and so I would be willing to
have a policy, if...if there's no option for it becoming a public amenity, that there's no
funding for it, if they will apply for and maintain the historic landmark status, or
whatever it is with the State or National, then I would be willing to reimburse, you know,
up to an amount that we set, um, just because I think that it is a service, um, the first
choice, their first choice was to try and make it a public amenity, and that just didn't, um,
come through.
Wilburn/ But you're not talking about assuming the...any ongoing cost of operations or any
programs or anything like that, are you?
Correia/ Well, no, because we decided that that wasn't going to, you know, we weren't going to
do that.
Wilburn/ I understand, but you had said because we're not doing that, if they're willing to pay
historic whatever.
Correia/ If they're willing to, uh, apply for... if it's eligible for a landmark designation, and
they're willing to do that, apply for the designation and maintain it. I don't know what
all's involved in that, but if they're willing to help maintain historic structure, um.. .
Wrightl And I would think this is probably eligible for Iowa City landmark status, if not National.
Um, I would see whatever small investment we might be able to make in terms of
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reimbursement as an investment in historic preservation for the community for that
house.
Bailey/ Are others interested in pursuing that... sort of that approach, that reimbursement
approach?
O'Donnell/ I would pursue it, and I don't...I don't want to get involved in shoring up any bridge.
Um, you know, I can see this with permits, um, usage also comes into play for me. I
don't want it moved to a place and have it become a bar, you know, but if we can move
something of a historic nature and preserve part of Iowa City's history, L ..I would go for
a percentage, maybe, of the permits, and uh...
Wright/ Up to $500.00?
O'Donnell/ Yeah, yeah.
Bailey/ Are others...
O'Donnell/ I would make it tied strictly to the permits, and uh, L..I really...(several talking)
Bailey/ Okay, that's three people interested in pursuing reimbursement. Are others interested in
doing that with some constraints?
Hayek/ I would go along with the growing consensus, and I...I share Amy's idea of...of insuring
that in fact it's going to be something that will fit into a definition of historic
preservation, whether they're going to apply for the Registry or...or do something else.
There was a guy many years ago, uh, Max Yocum who moved houses around left and
right, and I doubt he was really preserving them, um, and, um, but he also did save at
least the outer shells of a lot of houses as well, but we're going to have a workable
definition. I think that's probably going to be the tougher to do than coming up with a
dollar cap. Um, so, and, you know, if a ten-year old house is moved, does it qualify?
Correia/ Well, and that's why I think it's tied to that historic preservation - if it's a structure that
is eligible for, and they apply for and...you know, it's received. So...
Wright/ A structure of some clear historic merit, which is likely eligible for historic designation,
whether City or National.
Bailey/ Do we have the expectation that they would apply for that historic designation, is that part
of the constraint, to get the...the reimbursement? I mean, I think that's the direction staff
needs.
Correia/ I would like it, you know...
Hayek/ I mean, it's hard. There are a lot of historic homes that are in actually great shape that,
whose owners never took the effort, never took the time to apply for that kind of status.
Correia/ But if they wanted to move it, then...and they wanted reimbursement, then that would be
sort of the eligibility threshold, they would have to apply.
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Wright/ Well, in addition, not just any old house is eligible for any kind of historic designation.
This is probably eligible because it's Wetherby's home.
Correia/ Right.
Volland/ There are costs to the application?
Bailey/ Yes, I believe that there is.
Wright/ The Historic Preservation Commission would make that determination, whether it's
eligible, so it shouldn't.
Bailey/ So...go ahead, Eleanor.
Dilkes/ Well, I was just going to say you could require that there be a determination by the
Historic Preservation Commission, that it is likely eligible for...
Wright/ Thank you.
Bailey/ (several talking) Thank you. And so do we have a dollar amount cap?
Wilburn/ My preference would be, I mean, these don't come to that $500.00 amount you're
making, but these are...these are preset and they're...they are fixed fees. So I would...I
would just recommend these five permits that were laid out.
O'Donnell/ Recommend what, Ross?
Champion/ City-issued permits.
Wright/ The $385.00...
Wilburn/ ...moving permit, electrical permit.. .
Champion/ I'll go along with that. (several talking)
Bailey/ Does that sound good? Do you need any more direction or detail?
Helling/ No, I think based on your discussion, we'll have staff draft up some...something that
they can, that the Commission can review, uh, that addresses the kinds of things that you
talked about. So you'll have some criteria and people will know that going in.
Bailey/ And you'll also communicate with, uh, the Slonnegers regarding, that we're working on
something that will involve reimbursement?
Helling/ Yes.
Bailey/ All right, thanks.
Combining the Senior Center With Recreation Division (IP4 of 1/3 packet):
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Bailey/ Next item that we wanted to discuss is this memo about combining the Senior Center with
the Recreation Division, and I think it's, um, helpful to discuss this. This came up as a
budget discussion, I think, last year and so I think in light of our budget's discussions this
year, I think that it was important to sort of get this on the table. Um, so Dale, did you
want to comment on this before we have questions or comments?
Helling/ Yeah, I will briefly. Um, this is the result of a couple meetings with staff and also one
meeting involving the representatives from the Parks and Rec Commission, and also the
Senior Center Commission. Um, they explored a number of areas where...where they
see common interest and so forth, but the...the purpose of my getting this to you now
was to get some response, uh, to your request last year that...that this be addressed, and I
addressed it in the context of whether or not we could realize any significant savings by
doing some sort of a combining. The main thing that I would stress is that
organizationally even though the Senior Center Coordinator reports directly to the City
Manager, that position is not a department head position. It's classified as a division
head position, and so organizationally if that were moved into the...to the Parks and Rec
Department, in all likelihood the way it functions it would remain as a division head
position, reporting to the director. LTh, so in terms of that organizationally, there's not,
you know, there's not a significant savings by it, by eliminating an administrative
position or reducing it or so forth, and I...and that's about...given the meetings and
what's been discussed, I think in order to fully explore what, uh, what common interests
and what kind of things might be combined, uh, in these two operations, I think that, uh,
that would involve more discussion, and more involvement on the part of the
commissions. So I wanted to address it in the context of budget issue, uh, if you want to
pursue it beyond that or have some ideas about, you know, how...what sorts of goals or
outcomes you might be looking for, um, then I think we need to figure out what that is
and then we can...we can move forward with that. Is that...
O'Donnell/ From reading your memo, Dale, it sounded like the only differences is the Director of
the Senior Center, instead of reporting to you would be reporting to the Director of Parks
and Rec...
Helling/ Well, that's...
O'Donnell/ ...with no efficient...no savings.
Helling/ If it's a transfer to the department of Parks and Recreation as it exists now, as a division,
not a department, but a division within the City, then I think that...that the staffing
structure would remain the same. I couldn't make a case to reduce that position below a
division head position, without making some changes in function, and that is what we
would have to address, uh, I think before we would just do that.
Bailey/ Other comments or questions? Well, I certainly expected a little bit more of a thorough
analysis of cost benefit, and the cost, um, I mean, there are additional staffing positions at
the Senior Center that, uh, provide support and...and was there some level of analysis of
that, um, those, and also with the Recreation Division the numbers served, sort of cost per
program per person sort of thing. I mean, the Senior Center specifically has a
membership fee. The Rec Department doesn't. I think...I think that that's wrong, um,
and so when...I was one of the people who really asked for this, and...and from my
perspective it doesn't do the cost benefit analysis that really helps us get at anything for
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the budget. Um, but this is what we have, so...moving forward, I wondered which of
these ideas about working together are they talking about implementing, and the Library I
know is also doing Senior programming, and so how are these programs...how are these
groups working together, because I mean, we certainly heard last night that we have a lot
of constraints in our budget, and I think we have to look for creative ways to, um, provide
the kind of programming our citizens expect. So how are these three entities working
together, and what of these are they considering implementing and how might that look
moving forward?
Helling/ This was not meant to be acost-benefit analysis.
Bailey/ Well, if it's related to the budget I kind of expected more numbers and...
Helling/ Well, yeah, and...and I think that's something that can be explored if that's, you know, if
that's what you want to do and look at those things. Um, and in terms of what's in here
and the things that they talked about, I think anything they can identify and continue to
meet, which that was one of the suggestions, and continue to try and identify areas where
they can work closely...more closely together. All of those things are on the table, and
things that they will continue to pursue, and I think it would be helpful to have the
Commission representatives more involved in that, as well. If you want to do a...a full-
blown cost-benefit analysis and pull in the Library...all senior services that we provide,
then...then certainly we could do that, but that would take some...
Bailey/ Well, I think what I've come to understand is perhaps the greatest expense of the Senior
Center is the building itself, and um, perhaps that's something that we might explore in
the future because it's a very costly old building to maintain and, um, are there
opportunities, um, I know in our unfunded we have a Rec Center, um, remodel. Are
there opportunities to combine at least facilities, that would provide some... some
efficiency? So, I think that those are things that we need to leave in the back of our
minds. Are there other questions about this...as we move forward? I think we'll just,
um, keep these things in mind and...and move on.
City Organizational Membership Fees (IPS of 1/3 packet):
Bailey/ This was something we asked for. It's certainly a large part of our budget, and, Dale, did
you have any comments regarding...these?
Helling/ No, essentially, and there are membership organizational and/or, uh, dues and/or support
commitments. Some of them are not necessarily a membership fee, but rather...like
ICAD for instance. It's just an amount that you've committed to support. The same
thing with the CVB, the Convention and Visitor's Bureau, and that's, I believe, 25% of
the hotel/motel...yeah, of the hotel/motel tax revenue. So that fluctuates as the revenue
does for that tax. Um, the..the only, uh, well, a couple of things. Number one, the Iowa
City County Management Association and the International City County Management
Association are two organizations that the City Manager and I belong to, uh, and have
traditionally, and there's certainly some benefit from that, as there are from the
department directors, other employees that belong to their respective professional
organizations. The City can benefit from those, particularly in terms of...of information,
survey information, that type of thing that's available to us, because we have that
membership. So, I've included all of that, and I'm not sure just how much you were
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interested in, because I know a lot of it was, uh, generated by the question of the
Metropolitan Coalition and pay there, and to stress again that that bottom figure of
$8,687.33 is a six-month figure. That's January through June of'08. So double that for
the annual amount.
Bailey/ And did you find out more about the National Civic League?
Helling/ I have not. Um, apparently we've been a member for a few years, and I'm not sure, uh,
how we got to be a member or...I mean, I know how we got to be a member, but I'm not
sure why. Let me follow up on that. I don't have that information yet. That's, uh, that's
the one that's $325.00.
Bailey/ Right, unfortunately. Any questions about this list? And it certainly has a budget impact.
I mean, it's over $700,000 so something...
Correia/ Although I guess...I don't consider the ICAD, CVB or ECCOG or JCCOG membership
...organizational membership fees. I mean, I...you know, I'm looking at the National
League, Iowa League, Civic League, the other ICMA, Metro Coalition, which
$27,OOO...half of a year.
Helling/ I should have left a space between the Chamber of Commerce and ICAD because that's
where it...the top four are basically membership, and then it goes into those other kinds
of commitments for organizations that you chose to belong to in the community and then
the last one is the professional organizations.
Correia/ Well, because...but, right, well and those bottom ones, seeing that those are
organizations that we're funding a service that's provided to us directly, where in a
membership organization like National League of Cities, yes they're providing us a
service, but it's just a different type of thing.
Bailey/ Well, and I spoke with Doug Elliott last night at the reception about our membership with
ECICOG and um, he certainly said that we could use.their services to a greater degree.
We...we minimally use their services. I mean, they do a lot of transportation planning.
We have a lot of transportation planning through JCCOG, but they also do grant writing
and other sorts of services that we could use, um, you know, depending upon our needs.
Um, so, that's something to think about, how we get more from that contribution to
ECICOG. And they do write CAT grants. Although they may charge for those. But
maybe we can talk to them. Okay, any other questions or comments about that memo?
Okay. So let's move on into, um, talking about the budget and follow up from last night.
Budget:
Bailey/ So do you have the information that...follow up information, I think?
Helling/ I have...first of all I'll pass out -these are copies of the, uh, letter from, the memo from
Chief Hargadine. And that's the memo that you originally received in October. Um,
have a couple other things (mumbling) does everybody have one of these? (several
responding) Okay. As long as you have that in your hand, may want to talk about it.
What we're going to do, this is...this is our high-tech flipchart. So, I think what we were
going to do is as you talk about budget things, we identify issues that you, uh, that you
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want to pull out and talk about, then from that we assume that the things you don't want
to pull out and talk about are...are okay with everybody in the budget. So, if
there...make a list and then...so you'll have a running list of decisions that you have to
make. Um, one of the things that you asked for and that Kevin has provided is the, um, is
a ten-year history on the Fund balance and so forth, and I'll just let Kevin run through
that with you.
O'Malley/ Actually, um, this is a combination of two requests. The first request was the, when is
the TIF money, some of it's rolling off, um, we can take advantage of it, and in 2010 we
pickup about $100,000 of, uh, TIF...no longer TIF revenue so it comes back to us, and
in 2011 we'll pick up about $200,000. After that it's pretty much gone until, um, the
Tower Plaza is paid off (mumbling).
Bailey/ But those projects that come...what are those projects....
O'Malley/ Unless you have new ones that come up.
O'DonnelU I'm not seeing any.
Correia/ What are you talking about? I'm sorry.
O'Malley/ It's not shown on here.
Correia/ Oh, okay, so say it again.
O'Malley/ Okay. The...the request was when does the TIF projects expire, what revenue would
we realize, and we...we looked at, well, I checked with Wendy -she wasn't in, so I
checked with Tracy and she gave me the districts that we have, and they're pretty close to
what we have in the budget, but we...I noticed that some of them are expiring in 2010
and 2011. A lot of them are so many years or a certain dollar amount, whatever it gets to
first, and most of them look like they're getting to the dollar amount first. So, um, like I
said, a $100,000 that we haven't got represented in this budget, in 2010. What's that?
Champion/ It could be sooner, if they make their maximum.
O'Malley/ Correct.
Correia/ And that's not in the numbers that you have here?
O'Malley/ No, it's in the numbers (several talking) it's not in the green book. Not in the green
book. This is, uh, subsequent from our discussions last night. So I plugged it in the, and
if you look at the 2010 column projected, in the $47, X475,000 there's $100,000 of new
money in there. So if you would compare that number to your green book, it should be
$100,000 difference.
Champion/ And you said possibly a $200,000...
O'Malley/ The next year.
Champion/ The next year.
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Correia/ An additional $200,000?
O'Malley/ An additional $200,000.
Correia/ And that's just from TIF?
O'Malley/ Correct.
Correia/ So that's...
Champion/ And that's going to be all our money?
O'Malley/ That's correct.
Champion/ Okay.
O'Malley/ I mean, yes, that's our 40%.
Correia/ That's not including like what you were mentioning yesterday, the expectation of that
Mercy going online in the Northgate.
Champion/ So, I mean, I don't know, I mean, I think this is...we need to reserve this money for
public safety. Um, that's a good place to start in my mind, and not just deplete that, um,
fund that I don't like depleted. I mean, I think by the time...this is coming up soon. It's
already 2008. So, this is money that would not, that is not in our budget right now and
I...I would like to see us reserve the money, plus the money from that Mercy surgical
center, um, to be used for public safety, specifically firefighters. And...
Helling/ Well if you... if you look at this, it is rolled in, and then this gives you a different
projection with the new numbers, and then you can see how that projects out, and uh, I
think that...that's more the essence of what this document is about.
O'Malley/ Right. I can only put in the estimates that I can visualize.
Champion/ I know. I know.
O'Malley/ I don't know what the Mercy...
Champion/ I'm visualizing for you (laughter). Because I'm not an accountant! (laughter)
O'Malley/ No, send me a number and I'll put it in.
Bailey/ So what you're doing with visualizing the Mercy is you're visualizing our anticipated
commercial tax base growth, which is to a certain account...to a certain degree,
accounted for in our budget when we figure on growth.
Champion/ Oh!
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Helling/ We estimate our growth and valuations, both in terms of growth and in terms of the
revaluations and that's...that's included in there. Now we do, you know, we budget and
estimate conservatively, um, because you don't want to get burned on the other end.
Champion/ And...okay, well, anyway, I'm glad to hear there's going to be some money available.
Helling/ There is new money in there.
Champion/ And then the other thing I wanted to bring up is...are houses selling under
assessments? Are we going to see a decrease in assessments and not an increase?
O'Malley/ Deb's had...has had discussions with the City Assessor, and I'll let her speak to that.
Mansfield/ Okay. Um, I spoke with him, and he said generally, um, they will be seeing an
increase from the last assessment time period and the.market prices that he's seeing right
now do not show the increases that we see in the past, So he does see it leveling off.
Champion/ Okay. So you've already...good, I'm done. I just had a nightmare about it.
Bailey/ So can we go through this sheet?
O'Malley/ Yes, this, uh, this essentially is a history of our unreserved percentage of cash balance
to expenditures. Um, we've had some, um, interesting years in the past, uh, in the year,
in the third column over is 6/30/2000. That was the...a year where we had a 27`x' pay
period. That's why you see the expenditures going up 17%, and the next one will be in
2012 in proforma, that $53 million talking about. The, uh, not sure where exactly, in 19
um, excuse me, in 2003, 6/30/2003 column, under actual receipts, you see it's $40
million? That's quite a jump from 2002 of $36 million. That was when Transit was
transferred in to the General Fund. So both the revenues and the expenditures jumped
that year. Following year in 2004, the revenues went down 1%. That's when the State
took away a million dollars. Um, there's a lot of little stories in these numbers.
(laughter) And it's kind of like trying to...it's easier to project the future because you've
got an assumption and you run it, but in the past, different things happened. 6/30/2006
we had the tornado, uh, and we also had an ice storm in 2007. We, uh, Court Street
Transportation Center opened up in 2006. That's why you see more revenue, going from
$42 to $45 million. A full year in 2007. Let's see...
Bailey/ But consistently, I mean, going down to the percentage of unreserved to expenditures,
consistently, um, since 2003 we're higher than our optimal.
O'Malley/ Right. Several factors in there...
Bailey/ Okay, talk a little bit about that.
O'Malley/ ...2005, 2006, 2007 we saw an increasing interest rate market, adding a half million
dollars each year in interest income revenues. Going forward, it's starting to go down.
And especially if you use fund balance, the other two components of interest income
decrease.
Hayek/ These are the bond...
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O'Malley/ No, these are just all our idle funds earn interest income. These fund balances down
below, the $19 million like in 2006, those balances earn interest income daily, based on
market rates, and from 2002 to 2007, it was, well I think it was 2003 to 2007, they started
going up. The Federal Reserve started marking it up. Now the Federal Reserve is going
down, because the interest rates are too high for housing to keep going.
Bailey/ Each one of these years that were above the 30% optimal, we don't...I don't see budget
numbers here, but I'm assuming that we...our budget goal or objective, or estimate or
projection or whatever you want to call it for percentage of unreserved expenditures was
not this high, is that correct?
O'Malley/ No. We tried...every year we budget, try to budget, a balanced budget, meaning that
revenue equals expenses.
Bailey/ Right.
O'Malley/ And...obviously going forward, we're not doing that.
Bailey/ But, fundamentally, we're doing a balanced budget and still coming up with more, um,
unreserved balance than...than is...(several talking)
O'Malley/ We've had some good years. We've got revenue also from the Lodge coming in. We
had revenue from Plaza Towers going up. This is construction permit revenue. Um,
commercial growth. Now, those are just one-time shots and then they go away, unless
you have more new growth, then the other part is the tax base. So those are some of the
elements (loud noise in background, several talking) So...I guess the point I'm trying to
make about the revenue is most of it is external. It is not something that we control. It's
not something that we can say, `This is going to happen for sure.' And so, our goal as
budgeters is hopefully we'll have more revenue than expenditures, and that's been the
case for most years, except in 2000 when we had a, uh, 27 pay period in 2001. (loud
noise continuing in background) That's the net receipts above expenditures.
Hayek/ You show 29% on the 08 current budget. Is that, I mean, is that where we are six-plus
months into the fiscal year?
O'Malley/ No. No, because we haven't spent all that money. That's what we budget to spend,
and hope to be at 29%, but say the Senior Center doesn't get their, uh, bathrooms done by
June 30"', well, then we'll carry that money over, and so we won't have spent as much
money, so our fund balance will look better. There's a lot of timing differences that
occur.
Hayek/ Right. Well, I guess my question is are the numbers from 07 and before actual...
O'Malley/ Those are actual numbers.
Hayek/ ...in 08...the 29% for 08 is what we budgeted.
O'Malley/ Budgeted.
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Hayek/ Okay.
O'Malley/ What our estimates are.
Hayek/ Okay.
Correia/ (loud noise continuing in background) Should that...under the current budget, the total
actual percent change from prior year, should that be negative 3%? From 48 to 46?
O'Malley/ The fund balance, I think that's measuring the last .fund balance...
Correia/ No, that...total actual receipts percent change from prior year? It's going down.
O'Malley/ Oh, the 46?
Correia/ Okay, it's 46, but it says 3%.
O'Malley/ I would think that would be a negative. I know (mumbling; noise continuing in
background)
Correia/ Adjusted 08?
Helling/ (unable to hear; noise continuing in background)
O'Malley/ That's...yeah, that's probably right. There was some road use tax in 07.
Correia/ What?
O'Malley/ Well, these taxes in 07, not 08.
Helling/ We took it out, so that's probably the 07 figure with the road use tax.
Correia/ So it should....that 48 be less than 48?
O'Malley/ For comparative purpose, it would have been 44%. $44,000, I'm sorry...$44 million.
If you look on page 20, they should match up with those numbers. (noise continuing in
background; several talking and laughing)
Correia/ So, right...so actually that 48,727 under 2007 should be 46,675.
Bailey/ No, 44,645,400.
Correia/ Oh, oh, oh. 44, right? Gotcha, I've got the wrong one.
Bailey/ Look at the restated, right?
O'Malley/ Right.
Bailey/ Okay.
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Correia/ But then that changed from 44.. .
O'Malley/ 8% is from the previous year, the 48 to the 45.
Correia/ But the 44 to the 46 is 3% increase. I get it. Okay. And what accounts for the huge,
the...this 17% jump in expenditures in this current budget?
O'Malley/ Largest part of that is...I tried to explain last night about transfers. It's picking it up
by the (unable to understand) and putting'it back in (mumbling). But there was...there
was some significant capital outlay also. Our capital outlay, there was...first off, there's
$935,000 of buy-down of debt service.
Correia/ Right.
O'Malley/ And we had the transit profit and loss for two. years, which ended up being about
$935,000, and then we had, well, as you know, those CIP ones the, uh, we had the fire
station loan of a million nine fifty, that's about $2 million more, and then we had the, uh,
bathrooms at the Senior Center, the engineering for the chiller and the roof, tuck pointing
at the Senior Center, and we had the bus purchases. It was...it was a good year to have
fund balance money around to spend. It was an unusuxal year. That's represented on page
23 of your green book. The...the net of $4 million shows that $2 million came in in
transfer-in revenue, and $6 million went out, so the net real money going out is $4
million. Um, so any questions. That's historically what's happening, and you requested
a proforma as to what would happen with the 27 pay period in 2012, and going beyond.
Bailey/ So I guess one of the reasons I asked for this is because it seems that we're consistently
above our optimal, even though we're aiming for optimal or within that range, and I
know that there are external...externalities that we can't count on, but yet regardless of
the timing and the other issues, we have been consistently above that optimal, which
would seem to suggest to me that we are taking in, um...we are taking in and/or
containing expenditures to a degree that we could, perhaps, afford additional services.
O'Malley/ And borrowing money...those revenues are also loans.
Bailey/ Right. Which we are able to do.
O'Malley/ Able to finance.
Bailey/ Well, or we could...
Correia/ ...make that statement again. The...
O'Malley/ Well, what I'd like to make clear is actual receipts does not mean fresh money all the
time. It means you might be borrowing from some other fund. So a true measure would
be actual new money, tax money, interest income money, charges for services, money
that comes from the outside coming in would be a trine measure of...of your past earnings
ability, and the net is predicated mostly on external market conditions and property taxes.
And I would also like to point out, back in 1998, of that revenue of property tax...of this
revenue, 62% was property tax. As you know, 70% now of the revenue is property tax.
So property tax is becoming a bigger slice of the revenue pie.
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Hayek/ i.e. we're more reliant on property tax, residential property tax.
O'Malley/ And market conditions. Now, you can draw many conclusions from this.
Hayek/ Do you do any modeling based on anticipated market change?
O'Malley/ Just what we...what we experienced in the past from the...from the City Assessor.
It's been 2 to 3% in the off years, in regular growth, and um, about 4% in the revaluation
years. Conservatively. Because in the last two...last two evaluations were phenomenal.
We had a 38% increase in 2007. That's why you see those revenues skyrocket in the
General Fund, but the City did not take advantage of jt in the Debt Service Fund, so we
collected the dollars in the General Fund and then went and paid down the Debt Service
Fund.
Hayek/ But if we, if we enter another recession, about which there's talk right now, what, you
know, what impact does that have on us? What...how do we take that into account?
O'Malley/ I would say...decreased property values.
Hayek/ ...values, yeah.
O'Malley/ Uh, less growth, and then we'll keep up with expenses, cost of living expenses.
Mansfield/ Less permit revenue.
Hayek/ Right.
Helling/ In terms of the recession question too, Matt, I think that historically we've...we've not
seen the downturn in property values that maybe other areas of the country have seen in a
recession period. We have been protected from that, but this time around it looks like
we're going to realize some effect from that, even if we don't go into a recession. Just
the fact that what's happening with those property values in some other areas. So,
even...even if we don't technically go into a recession, or go into a recession at all, the
property value issue is still there, and we're anticipating that those things are going to
level off, much as what Deb was talking about earlier,, that the...the indications from the
Assessor, and that has nothing to do with whether or got we'd actually enter a recession
or not, and I know that's a definitionable thing.
Hayek/ Uh-huh.
Mansfield/ We also have one other factor, and that is we're a 'university town, and in the
commercial area, it was interesting to me that new construction and the amount that went
to exempt, just about exactly off-set each other. And; you know, that doesn't thrill me. I
mean, it's just...I would rather not see that number. Qlaughter)
Hayek/ I don't track. What do you mean?
Mansfield/ That means that growth...commercial is your best, you know, area for the tax base,
and so commercial is going to change by revaluation, by new construction, and then they
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have, you lrnow, buildings removed or whatever, andl,another category is property going
to exempt, from you know whether it's residential go#ng to exempt, commercial going to
exempt, um, whatever, and in the...in the FY09 budget, the comm....assessed valuations
from the Assessor's abstract show commercial growth was almost exactly off-set by
commercial going to exempt. '
Correia/ So, like Old Capitol (several talking)
O'Ma11ey/ $12 million growth we had was (several talking) it~~,'s 100%. I mean, 100% tax in the
(several talking)
O'Donnell/ What percentage of our property is residential versus commercial?
O'Malley/ Two-thirds is residential, but we have to rollback i~ it becomes commercial, it's almost
the same as residential, correct?
Bailey/ Okay, so we talked a lot about the constraints of our bludget, but this is a group that's
(mumbling) to moving forward with some, um, new ~rojects. So, what do we want to put
up there for discussion items and opportunities and hOw we want to move this discussion
forward, um, regarding this? Do we need...are...are additional information needed, I
mean...additional questions...what do we want to put on the table?
Champion/ I think a decision we have to make is if we're wilUing to raise our debt levy, um,
which I have a little trouble doing, uh, if we're going ~~to possibly be able to staff a new
fire station next three years, that's going to be another estimate, I don't know, $2 million?
For a fire station?
Helling/ Yeah, I would...I would say it's going to cost you...',
Champion/ Plus you have to buy the trucks to go in it. ',
O'Malley/ No, we have that in the budget.
Champion/ Oh, that's in the budget!
O'Malley/ We have a million five for the building which I thick is going to be short, compared to
the two and a half million dollar remodel.
Champion/ And...and then do we pass a bond referendum for that fire station?
O'Malley/ You can, if you want to do an election. Otherwise'' all you have is $700,000.
Champion/ And then we have to borrow it. From somebody else. Like the Landfill. (several
responding)
Helling/ The Landfill...just, and I know that it's been a good isource of (mumbling, but
it's...there is a limit to how much...
Champion/ I lrnow, I know. I'm just throwing it out. (several responding)
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O'Malley/ That's not how I would go at it.
Champion/ So then, um, um, and how much are we willing to! raise peoples' property tax. You
know, I think it's...I want to staff this fire statian, so ~'m willing to give up other things
to do it.
Correia/ Say it again.
Champion/ I'm willing to give up things to staff the fire statioin. I would like to see
the...personally I'd like to see the fire station grow into a referendum, so it's paid for out
of tax dollars. I mean, I guess it's all paid for with taac dollars. I...I think it would pass,
and then...and then I have to look at the Library bona and the fire station bond, and what
percentage of that is of our percentage that we have, }you know what I'm saying?
O'Malley/ Right.
Champion/ I'm not explaining myself very well.
O'Malley/ I think you're saying you'd carve that out and say that's voter approved.
Champion/ That's voter approved.
O'Malley/ Most of it can...
Champion/ ...above it I'm willing to go. Uh, so we can do other projects, obviously.
Helling/ You're talking about exactly what you did with the Library.
O'Malley/ Same concept, it's the Library...
Helling/ As a Library, you allowed to go above that because it was a referendum.. .
Champion/ Right, right, right. Um, I...I lost my little sheet ypu gave us last night. I really liked
it. L ..there were a couple good things in there.
Helling/ Which one?
Correia/ I had a question...
Champion/ ...the whole idea. I get it. (noise on mic)
Correia/ I had a question on, um, the (several talking at once)'..
Champion/ Oh, good, thanks.
Correia/ When I was looking at the Library budget, the Library has it's own levy, so it has that
increase of...our 8.10 levy going into Library increased 7% the last...2008 and then 7%
again (unable to hear) I wondered was that the request from the Library? Is there a
reason it's 7%...their Library levy increased like 2.5% 07 to 08, and about 5% 08 to 09.
You know, which is their...I just wondered if there's a way to maintain the same level of
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service, maybe not the same level of acquisitions coming from our General Levy, um, if
that was shaved down to 3% or something, increase, a year, that would open up some
General Levy dollars for other things.
Helling/ Jump in...you don't, you don't approve the Library'$ budget the same way you
approve.. .
Correia/ We approve the levy amount, and that's what I'm swing. I'm not talking about the total
of receipts, I'm just looking at...
O'Malley/ Part of that 8.10.
Correia/ Right, that 8.10 that goes in. I just looked at those dollars. I wasn't looking at the
bottom line. So, right, they would decide how they wfould use it and we have kind of
what's in there, that's not set in stone like you said.
Mansfield/ Based on expenditures. If you adjusted expenditu#~es, that number changes.
O'Malley/ Or if you.. .
Correia/ I'm not talking about...I'm just talking about, you lcr~ow, so what we do is we set policy
for the Library in terms of how much of the 8/10 levy...
O'Malley/ That's correct..
Correia/ And so...when I looked at those numbers, they incre~ ed 7% -- the levy, not the
expenditures, I mean, that actually went up 11%, but jum, I'm just wondering, I think
there's the ability, you know, maintain a current level' of investment, um, and...and just
not raise it at such a...7% seems significant, um, to other departments.
Bailey/ It does seem a little out of line with other department, and I was...will we hear more
about that when the Library Board comes and talks toy us about their request?
Helling/ Well, funny you should ask, because I did have a node here that...that something I
probably should have pointed out last night in terms c~f assumptions, and this relates
directly. This is a Library...for the purpose of the bu~3get, we have assumed, your policy,
that all the...the rent revenue, or the revenue from leasing the, uh, west portion of the
Library, uh, to the public, for public use, that all of th'~at revenue would go into retire debt.
That was your policy. The Library has proposed, we~l and I should, let me just back up
one step. The estimate before any of that was leased was that it would bring in about
$50,000 a year in rental revenue. The actual amount ~s closer to $100,000. I think the
estimate was $97,000 for a year. And the Library had proposed as an expanded service
level that you put $50,000 into the debt service and they retain the other $47,000 to put
into their reserve, uh, I think their computer reserve, end for some other equipment. And
they...they also had approved an expanded service level for another $46,000 to, uh,
purchase what they call, um, search interface software. The reason I bring that up is
because we...we created this budget, assumed...assuming that you would maintain
that...that, um, policy of putting all that revenue into...to retire debt. So you will hear
from them in that regard, I would suspect anyway, that they will come and want to make,
you know, their case for why they need that money for other purposes, and ...and to
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leave it at $50,000 instead of putting the whole amount in. Anything else that they could
bring up, you know, I don't know at this point.
Bailey/ That doesn't address the 7% increase in the (several talking at once).
Helling/ Whatever increase is projected for FY09 that would bump that up.
Correia/ The, um, in the budget here it has the rents as revenue for the Library of $113,000, so
that's something else that they receive rent for, not...
Mansfield/ It actually is the number we're talking about.
Helling/ Okay, so it is...
Correia/ So you did put it in here.
Mansfield/ Yes.
O'Malley/ Yes, the revenue flows through there, and there are some expenses too. There's some
heat and electricity and stuff so the net revenue goes to the Debt Service Fund.
Correia/ So is that shown here? Oh, it's shown here in the transfers out (several talking) Oh, I
see. (several talking) So it's shown here, going out. But that's something else different
from.. .
Mansfield/ Yes.
Correia/ ...making a decision, or discussing that General Levy.
Mansfield/ The General Levy went up by 7%, basically in correlation with their personnel going
up 6%.
O'Malley/ Some of that...some of that you have to recognize as...
Correia/ But there's other costs that they have in here, services, supplies...I mean...
Mansfield/ If you look at those proportionately, they didn't go up as high. (several talking)
O'Malley/ But you also have to look at, you know, there's some issues, but one of the wage
issues was that they use a lot of temps, and the minimum wage went up, and so we had to
factor some of that in. The payroll aspect.
Helling/ That's not a...large amount for the Library.
O'Malley/ No. That's correct. They have...this is based on their existing costs.
Correia/ I understand, but between, even if it went, even if we increased the levy amount 3% from
08 to 09, between the levy that we give the Library levy, it would still maintain the
staffing level. At the...
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Champion/ I don't think the Library levy is...can it be used for staffing?
O'Malley/ It's used for anything. (several talking)
Correia/ ...because they have an opportunity to have their own funding source, so that's a good
thing, um, so...
Bailey/ So I would like to put this up as a budget discussion item, something to look at after we
hear from the Library Board. Would others like to discuss this? (several responding)
And that is not to say that I don't value the services of the Library, which.. .
Champion/ (several responding) ...support the Library! Just looking for a fireman!
Bailey/ Well, and I have a question about, you know, we've talked about if the Emergency
Communication, the Joint Center, comes on line as projected, and we're still projecting
that July 1St, 2009, calendar year 2009. We do free up about $750,000 in 2010. I mean,
yeah...yes, that's net of the CSO's.
Correia/ Well, and that net of the CSO's, but I think that you had brought up yesterday an idea of,
um, the idea related to if we're doing a lobby remodel, if there's a way to share,
or...increase efficiencies by having an information desk that serves as during the day as
information for the Police Department and for the public, and then so there's already
somebody doing that, and cross training or whatever, and then the other staff for those
other hours, um, if the building's not open I think that that might, and I'd like the
opportunity to bring that cost down, that new cost down.
Bailey/ And I think we should put that up as how we maximize the efficiency of the lobby
remodel to, um, minimize...
Correia/ Accommodate the...
Bailey/ Accommodate....um, and additionally I talked with the Police Chief who doesn't like that
idea, um, but also if the CSO's are doing some dispatch responsibilities, can we...can we
use the Emergency Management levy, the county-wide, to help support some of those
costs, not only in our...in our department, but in the Sheriff's Department and Coralville
will have the same challenges, as well, and so, um, that's something we can talk about at
the subcommittee level, but I certainly think it's possible to off-set some of our own
General Fund costs, if they're doing similar dispatch type duties. Well, I mean, it's
something we should explore, I think, and so certainly would like to put that up there, as
well. You know, if...
Helling/ So, just for clarification, so you're saying that that would be money that would be levied
through the County levy, and then.. .
Bailey/ When I talked to the Police Chief, he did have concerns about using other staff levels, and
said that there would be similar dispatching type of duties, as they're doing now, because
they do dispatch and front desk. Some aspects of those duties would continue to be
dispatching duties. What opportunity do we have to use some of the levy, the county-
wide levy, to cover some of those cots? I mean, so if 20% of their duties, or whatever it
is, and the Sheriff s Department and Coralville will have the same challenges, so I think
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it's worth discussing among the subcommittee to see if, I mean, and potentially it could
make the levy, you know, too high and there could be other concerns about that, but
that's a political issue that we can talk about. So, I think that's something to explore, as
well.
O'Malley/ How do I put it on the screen?
Correia/ Well, should we do City Hall...
O'Malley/ ...that we can control.
Correia/ ...well, not, but there's...the first part of it was lobby remodel.
O'Malley/ Let me give you a little history on the lobby remodel, `cause I know you guys have
ideas now in your head about it, but that was my concept about four years ago to remodel
the lobby to take advantage of some efficiencies of the information desk and the
cashiering function. You have...I did some studies and 70% of the people coming into
this building are looking for the cashier, and we point them up the stairs. You know, it
might be better customer service if we had the cashiering function when you come in the
building, and putting a kiosk in there for automatic and those kind of payments, and then
I also wanted to bring back some of the artistic aesthetics of the 1960's and raise the
ceiling up there, and...and just try to make it a nice looking entrance as you walk in
(mumbling) neon lights out, but any event, that was some of my ideas and open it up so
that the Police could...also put in bullet-proof stuff. We've got some issues, but anyway
those are some of my ideas (laughter).
Bailey/ I think this is going to be a good discussion!
O'Malley/ And...and so now that the Police are coming out there, and I was going to take
our...our phone system downstairs, because that can be anywhere, to be answered, and I
have two cashiers and provide information like that. It didn't have a Police function in it,
so now we're talking about who's going to control the front lobby.
Champion/ The cashiers will.
O'Malley/ (laughter) Well, no, not...there's some new ideas on the table.
Bailey/ But we can talk about those, right? (several talking) You're okay to talk about it.
O'Malley/ I'm always okay to talk about it.
Champion/ That is a great idea.
Correia/ I mean, I think what I need to have a better understanding of is what the community
service officer type duty is with emergency, you know, what type of dispatch would they
be doing if all of the 9-1-1 calls, obviously not all calls to the Police Department are 9-1-
1 calls, who takes those?
Bailey/ It's a 5275 number.
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Correia/ Right, and so what...
Bailey/ ...would continue to come through here.
Correia/ Right, what's the...what type of public, you know, people wanting to pay their fine to
get their car out of, um, towing...does that need to be a...
O'Malley/ No, that can go to cashier. But the after hours...
Correia/ Well, no, after hours will have to be somebody else, exactly.
Bailey/ So something to discuss when Sam is here, and then...so let's put it on the list so we
lrnow it was, you know.
Helling/ Sam also drafted a memo that I have that...
Bailey/ Right.
Helling/ ...but we could get that to you in advance of your public safety discussion.
Hayek/ While we're on the subject of the emergency level, I lrnow these are in the records
somewhere, but was the zero, was the lack of a levy for 08? Was that part of the buy-
down? Meaning that we were at .10 for a period of time, and then for one or two years, it
shows a zero and then it goes back up in 09.
Helling/ It...it was a result (several talking)
Hayek/ ...tax relief?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Helling/ Yeah, it was a result of the fact that we had good valuations in 07 and so we were able to
eliminate that. We brought it down to about three cents, I think, in 07, and then in 08
we're able to eliminate it. We put it back in at ten cents because that's what you
projected last year on your budget.
Hayek/ Right, and if this county-wide emergency, right (several talking) what...do we know what
the rate will be on that if it goes through?
Bailey/ No, we still...no, and we wi111rnow soon because they have to certify that at the, the
Supervisors will have to involve that in their, um, in their budget, and that's the trade-off
issue.
Hayek/ Is...do, are they constrained by a similar .27 cap like we are?
Correia/ (several responding) ...emergency levy's different...
Hayek/ Okay.
Correia/ ...from theirs.
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Helling/ They're constrained by what it can be used for.
Correia/ Because our emergency levy's not really for emergency.
O'Malley/ That's correct.
Helling/ It's anything you deem to be, the emergency.
Bailey/ Other budget discussion items that we need to get on the table as we move forward to try
to make hiring these people possible?
Champion/ Well, do we want to bring up what I said last night about the Senior Center, no more
new hires?
Bailey/ I think it's worth discussing.
Champion/ I mean, I think there are people there who could work an evening now and then.
Helling/ So you're talking about the roughly $10,000 for the two temps?
Champion/ It's always just $10,000, but it adds up.
Helling/ In this case, that's the...it's two temps at less than ten hours each. So they would be
temps so there's no benefits.
O'Donnell/ And that's, Dale, would be providing extra services, and programs, and so forth up
there?
Helling/ No, basically would be to have somebody in the building when there are activities going
on after hours.
Wright/ ... (several talking) flex their staff a little bit. (several talking)
Correia/ Yeah, I think...the question is, have they explored flexing their staff?
Bailey/ A 12 to 8 shift.
Correia/ Yeah, to work.
Helling/ Well, I know they have, and I suspect, again, um, when you have your visits from boards
and commissions that they will address that.
Champion/ It seems to me that that's a management decision and not an employee decision. It
would be in my case.
Correia/ I have a question about, um, our Airport, um, it seemed that we had had, uh, policy or
practice or rule of trying to bring that General Fund support to the Airport down, so it
was at about 112, and in this budget it's up to 130, um, I don't...115. No, that's not...
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O'Malley/ Um, I'll give you a little history on that. Have a little history...um, we had those
problems with the Airport, uh, when the old FBO left or retired or died, can't remember
what happened, but um, when he left, we couldn't find anybody, and so they were
spending quite a bit more tax dollars as they, well, they got an FBO and they gave him a
very good deal to give, and...
Correia/ What's FBO stand for?
O'Malley/ Fixed Base Operator, I'm sorry, who had managed the properties and part of the Fixed
Base Operator's, um, besides managing the Airport, they manage certain hangars and
they got the revenue off those hangars. They'd pay us a lease payment, and in return,
they would lease them at a higher rate and so that's part of their revenue, and they had
like flying service out there, charter service, training service. So they made certain
revenue off that, and... and fuel, and they made some certain dollars off the fuel. When I
came here and I looked at that contract back in 1995, said, `Geez, who wrote this
contract?' It was a sweetheart deal. So, anyway, so I was kind of waiting for that
contract to expire (laughter) and it expired, but we couldn't find anybody, and another
contract came in with some front years without any payments by the Fixed Base
Operator, and that incurred more property tax support, and there was quite a few
discussions - I think Mike and Connie remember those discussions several years. There
was some communication problem between the Airport... in those years, we always had a
policy - it wasn't formalized -but we said we would support, besides their operations,
that if they got grants, state grants or airport grants, up to $100,000 per year, we would
throw in for capital fixtures. So it's like, um, they might get a tarmac recoated through
the state. It was a 55/50 grant, so we go up to $100,000. So, we have a base operation
support for just the regular operations. That should be about $112,000, but we are willing
to put in more, up to another $100,000, for matching grants, and that's why you see it
increasing.
Correia/ So that's an informal policy, or it's formal policy?
Bailey/ Is it contractual?
O'Malley/ Not contractual.
Correia/ Is it written anywhere?
O'Malley/ No.
Correia/ But it's...so, is that 112 plus whatever is...
O'Malley/ Right.
Correia/ ...130 because we're assuming we're going to get grants? I mean, I'd rather see it at 112
if they get grants.
Mansfield/ There usually are existing grants that they have applied for. Like runway 7, within the
grants, and um, apron...a lot of your tax...yes. Um, and a lot of your tax (mumbling) so
you have FAA grants that are 90 to 95% grants, and $100,0001oca1 money that'll give
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you access to 90% federal money, or to 50 to 70% state money, saves your GO debt at
some point.
Correia/ Right, but I don't see in the 08 and 09 budgets any rent...I mean, any rent...any grant
dollars in here.
Mansfield/ It would be in the CIP. (several talking)
O'Malley/ ...yeah, it would show up...what happens is we take the money from, we transfer the
money from the General Fund to the Airport, and the Airport transfers it to the CIP
project.
Correia/ But I mean, I under...then why don't we see it here then, because it doesn't say it's
transferring out?
Bailey/ We see $64,000 transferring out, is that what you're referring to?
Correia/ Usually, money that's up here shows up (several talking). It's not up here.
Bailey/ Right.
Helling/ I don't want...I want to be careful we don't get sidetracked in the CIP, but if you look on
pages like 29, um, C29, yeah. You'll start to see some of those things in about, second
one from the bottom, and it goes on to the next page. A number of those Airport projects,
they're from federal grants, and it shows the, uh, the amount... some of them are from GO
bonds and some of them are, for instance, look at 3421, runway 7 paving. Airport capital
acquisition CIP. It shows, uh, an amount, um, well, that shows the total amount.
O'Malley/ Go up one more.
Helling/ Yeah, okay, yeah.
O'Malley/ 3420, uh; says General Fund CIP funded. That's our match.
Helling/ That's the match. The...
Correia/ And... for prior year.
O'Malley/ Correct.
Helling/ Yeah, that...that's for 08, but that's an example of how...how we do that, so it transfers
and then it shows up in here.
Mansfield/ Right. And um, on the next page, 3424, the hard surface floors, um the 4,011 that
says from Airport Operations, basically, General Fund has to kick in more so that they're
able to derive that local match.
Correia/ So is there a reason why we don't put the state grants or federal...other federal grants in
this part of the budget for the Airport?
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O'Malley/ They don't get any operating grants. They only get capital grants.
Mansfield/ Page 115 is only theiroperations, and not their construction projects.
Helling/ So they transfer some of the operating to pay for it. (mumbling)
Correia/ Oh, okay.
Champion/ Is there amount of, uh, let's see...did the Airport decrease? Wasn't that 150 before?
Correia/ 112.
Bailey/ It was 112 at one point, but...
O'Malley/ It got as high as 188. That's when we got very...that's when we did an audit back in, I
think, 2004.
Champion/ Right, so actually it has decreased.
O'Malley/ It's gone down, and uh, I try to stay on their back about making the leases pay for
themselves. Uh, because they like to get around that.
Bailey/ So is there any reason that we're...we need to provide our matching dollars as they
pursue these capital grants from our, um, General Fund?
O'Malley/ That's the only place to get the money. Because we don't know when it's going to
occur. So it usually comes out of our fund balance, our cash balance. You could ask
them to raise rents.
Bailey/ Right, I mean...
O'Malley/ You could, but they're an Airport Commission who...
Bailey/ Yeah, we can't tell them what to do. (several responding)
Correia/ Right, but I mean if we said, you know, we're going to give you $112,000. You can use
it to match grants or whatever. We're not giving you...
O'Malley/ You could do that.
Correia/ ...anymore to match grants and that's what you have to live with.
O'Malley/ Right.
Correia/ You can use that to match grants.
Bailey/ Other items we...are we putting that on a list, or...yeah, I think put it on the list. We're
not developing much of a list. Other items you want to discuss about this budget? And
I'm assuming that you're not just ready to move ahead with it, so (laughter). Go ahead,
Matt.
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Hayek/ Well, should we, I mean, I'd kind of like to go to a little more macro level here, and talk
about how we might approach funding these additional positions for fire and police. And
I don't know if it would help to try and reach a consensus on sort of an order of priority
or... or an order of approach, whether we, you know, at the beginning start by looking for
ways of freeing money up, and if that doesn't get the job done, we go to something like,
you know, flex, uh, flex schedules or hiring freezes or actual cuts, and if that doesn't
work we go to tax increases, you know, some order of progression that we can apply to
this process. That would help me, I know. But that may not be...
Bailey/ It seems like one of the things I've heard is people are looking to free up money. Is
that...that seems to be first and foremost the way people are approaching that. Is
that...am I hearing that inaccurately? Is that, I mean, Connie, is that the first, what are
you guys thinking?
Wright/ My suspicion is we probably need to look at some other possibilities, and besides trying
to scare money out of the existing budget, whether that's, you know, the...some of the
things...the sheet that you handed out last night, suggestions about, you know, parking
fines.
Bailey/ But I guess the question is, I think Matt was asking, is where do we want to start, or what
would be our first look that we would have, and it seems to me that one of the places we
started doing is looking to free up money.
Wright/ Looking at the existing, yeah.
Bailey/ I mean, so that would...I think that would be the first thing. Now, what would we be
willing to do next if we can't scare up or free up enough funds to address these positions?
And...and an additional question is we're assuming that we're committed to all the
positions as have been suggested. I'm assuming that that discussion will come after we
see the Police presentation and... and a brief presentation from Andy regarding the timing
of the hiring. Is that, am I making a correct assumption?
Champion/ Well, yeah, we do need to know about the timing. (several responding) I think my
priority though, my personal priority, would be to staff the fire station first.
Correia/ That's where mine is too.
Champion/ And I do think there is some possibility for police grants, which would really be nice.
But that fire station has been kicked around way too long now.
Bailey/ Is there a consensus that our priority is firefighters? Before police? Is there a consensus
on that? Or, I mean, or should we put that on the table for further discussion?
O'Donnell/ I think you need to discuss that.
Bailey/ And do we want to have that further discussion after we hear the presentation from
the...from Sam and from Andy? Is that (several responding) okay, so can we put that on
the list, please? What are our hiring priorities?
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Correia/ (unable to hear)
Bailey/ Public safety hiring priorities. And that would include the CSO, um, hires, as well.
Champion/ Right,
Helling/ I'd almost hoped that you wouldn't look at those quite the same, because the CSO
is...(several talking)...in the operations, as opposed to adding, whether it's CSO's or not,
you could decide that.
Bailey/ Okay, when it comes to funding these, I mean, we're looking at freeing up money, but
then what are we looking at next?
Champion/ Aone-cent sales tax.
O'Donnell/ Which we know will not pass.
Champion/ A half a percent sales tax.
Wright/ Well, rather than just saying cone-percent tax, could we just say new sources of
revenue?
Champion/ Right, whatever it is.
Bailey/ Is there a consensus that that would be the next item that we would look at?
Hayek/I...I would not be comfortable pushing, which under any other definition would be a tax
increase, until we've exhausted, uh, the other measures that might be available to us,
which would include, um, looking for funds or some sort of hiring freeze or...some sort
of cost-saving measure. I think we...we should pursue those before we reach the, you
know, the ultimate, uh, tool in our toolbox, which is a tax increase, however you style it.
Correia/ ...the one thing is...is, I mean, one of the ideas in here was, you know, increasing fines.
I mean, I think generally...you know, is there any way to generate revenue...that's not...
Wright/ I don't see that as a tax increase. I see that as a user fee.
Bailey/ I tend to agree with Matt though. I would...I would rather look at cost containment
before looking at, um, new sources of revenue, given the current environment in which
we're operating. We know that bringing on another...another, aservice in a different
way is going to increase taxes across the board. So I would like to look at cost
containment next, um, but certainly open to what the group wants to do. But we know
that first and foremost we want to look at freeing up funds from other areas.
Champion/ Well, we're going to have to...then we have to be willing to cut some other services.
O'Donnell/ We've said that all along and we know it. We're all committed to public safety.
Bailey/ Is it cost containment cutting, or is it looking at...
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O'Donnell/ It's cutting a service somewhere.
Champion/ I think a new... freezing hires is cutting service. I mean, what do we do, we're going
to have to cut service. Um, there's no way you can have money without cutting services.
The City runs on a pretty tight budget. That doesn't mean there aren't things that can
done, and I'm willing to look at anything, don't misunderstand me.
Bailey/ Are you willing to look at that before looking at new sources of revenue?
Champion/ Yes.
Bailey/ Are others willing to look at cost containments before looking at new sources of revenue?
Ross, haven't heard from you.
Wilburn/ That's because I really...I thought that was already set.
Bailey/ Well, I think we're talking about the second priorities, is do we look at increasing taxes or
user fees first before we look at cost containment, or do we look at cost containment
next?
Champion/ How would we increase taxes?
Bailey/ Well, we could (several responding) levy.
Wilburn/ In answer to your question, I think it would be fine to look at any cost containment
strategies, but L ..I really thought that was kind of stated earlier, but I don't, um, I don't
know. I mean, my presumption was that staff is doing that anyway, since four years ago
when we gave that direction. That was continuing to (unable to hear) so I don't know,
um.
Champion/ Regenia, if we...if we raise our emergency level to 17 cents per thousand, uh, then
people are going to get zapped with the new County levy for the Emergency, um,
Dispatch Center. I mean, I'm really concerned about what we're doing to property taxes
in this community. I mean, they're really high, and the Emergency, uh, Joint
Communication Center is also going to put a new levy on the taxpayer, and then if we
raise our other emergency level to 17 cents, I guess I'd like to know how much that's
going to add to that $100,000 house.
O'Donnell/ Well, the Emergency Center, isn't it 59 cents a thousand?
Bailey/ We're looking at 57 to 63, but, I mean, I think that there are other ways we can talk about,
I mean, we have some ability to...well, I think that the committee's going to look at that
next meeting, and have a better idea... suggestions and (mumbling), but right, I mean, I
think that is a concern.
Helling/ For clarification, on...you're looking at this sheet. That 17 cents would be the difference
between 10 cents and 27 cents. Ten cents is already in there.
Champion/ Okay, okay.
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Helling/ Yeah. So on the $100,000 house, 17 cents on a thousand would be $17.00, right?
Champion/ Uh-huh. (several talking) Deer control, that was General Budget money? Deer
control was General Budget?
Helling/ Yes.
Wilburn/ I'm sorry...go ahead, Connie.
Champion/ Oh, I was just going down the list.
Wilburn/ I was going to ask a question about Economic Development, but that's not...that's not
the CDBG portion, that's General Fund. (several responding) Um, maybe as part of the
discussion, if we had a discussion about the Economic Development, uh, I...I think it's
important to have that fund, but I'm wondering, uh, especially since some of the
commercial areas are saying they're not getting their tax dollars' worth, etc., etc., with
the, uh, reduced fire times, if maybe, uh, a sma11...I was thinking maybe if $50,000 of
that could go towards...
O'Donnell/ That's a good idea.
Wilburn/ ...with a firefighter, I mean, that's our basic infrastructure. It's...
O'Donnell/ Is this $250,000 every two years, is that the way I'm understanding it? And what's
our balance in there now? (several responding)
Mansfield/ Um, we spent $70,000 of it early last year for, um...
Helling/But, yeah, L ..we need to dig that out.
O'Donnell/ I didn't know how much we had in there.
Helling/ Yeah, we'll tell you the amount and maybe give you a little history on it too.
Champion/ It's not building. We don't...
O'Malley/ No, it's only as needed.
Champion/ Right.
Mansfield/ It's in the General Fund, until a project comes...
Bailey/ It's usually the state...it's the state match stuff that we do. Okay, do we want to keep
going down this list?
Wilburn/ Um, I was still looking down. I think, uh, Connie already asked about the Emergency
Levy. I was, um, if that hotel/motel tax, if it is raised to 9%, I presume that, uh, and
correct me if I'm wrong, I presume like the Convention and Visitors Bureau would be
asking for, I mean, in the past they've asked for a larger proportion, but I'm...I'm
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wondering if that would be something that we'd want...if whatever percentage increase,
if any, occurs that that would go towards public safety.
Helling/ That...as you know, there's a...there are certain, you're restricted to certain uses, but it's
fairly, fairly flexible.
Bailey/ Well, we use it for Police right now.
Helling/ But we...
Mansfield/ ...50% of it could be non-cultural, which is (unable to hear) maximum number for
police/fire is 50%.
Bailey/ Well, and I would imagine that if we would be successful in raising that. I can't speak for
the Board or...or what necessarily would happen. I would imagine because (unable to
hear) would increase, so therefore the percentage could stay the same and, um, I think the
CVB is...desires to become less dependent upon hotel/motel tax. So, I'm...I'm not sure
that that would be necessarily the case, that they would push for an increased percentage,
or we would push for an increased percentage. And I think that can certainly be a
discussion that would have to be had.
Wilburn/ So what percentage is that that currently goes for non, uh, non...
Mansfield/ Forty seven and a half right now.
Correia/ Is that...is this in the Legislator?
Bailey/ No, it's one of our legislative priorities.
Correia/ But it's not even a bill or anything?
Bailey/ We've not heard that there's any movement in that direction, because once again at the
state level that's raising taxes, even if we have to do it in the county. I mean, it's voted
upon.
Correia/ Right.
Bailey/ So...
O'Donnell/ Is anybody interested in talking about this deer control money?
Champion/ Yes.
O'Donnell/ It's a tremendous amount of money to spend on a yearly basis. Other communities
are making money controlling their deer herd. I mean, they're selling licenses for... for,
um, bow hunters.
Correia/ I'm not interested in talking about considering hunting in the city limits though.
O'Donnell/ Well, that's what we're doing though, with the, uh, Buffalo.
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Correia/ Well, not amateur hunters (several talking)
Wilburn/ It's a deer...it's a deer kill. It's not urban hunting.
Champion/ Right.
Bailey/ So is there a general consensus that we want to put that on the table to discuss as a
reduction or not?
Correia/ Well, I mean, I'm wondering can we, what can we get for less?
Bailey/ Okay, so we can discuss that with some constraints, it sounds like. All right. What about
Aid to Agencies?
O'Donnell/ I don't think we should touch that.
Wilburn/ I, uh, sent a...just FYI...I sent a memo to Eleanor today, just asking for...I'm leaving
the Crisis Center...just asking for her opinion about, uh, whether or not I can participate
in discussion of Aid to Agencies or not. So, just be waiting for her opinion.
Bailey/ But is that on the table to discuss among the rest of us? Or...
Wright/ I don't think so.
Champion/ (laughter) I can't do that.
Bailey/ All right. Events funding.
Wright/ What does that mean exactly -events funding?
Bailey/ Our community events funding (several talking)
Wright/ Okay, that's what I thought, yeah.
O'Donnell/ And that's really good for the community.
Champion/ Does that include the $50,000? I mean, that will be decreased. I know it was athree-
year commitment.
Correia/ Yeah, but...I think (unable to hear) consider maintaining that level of commitment.
Champion/ Maybe they won't need it.
Correia/ What?
Champion% Maybe they won't need it.
Hayek/ That's Economic Development.
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Helling/ Talking about Summer of the Arts?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Helling/ I think actually.. .
Bailey/ They did. They asked for a little more.
Hayek/ Yeah, they're upping by $10,000, aren't they?
Bailey/ So, are we willing to discuss that, or no?
Champion/ No.
Bailey/ Consensus no? Okay. Let's just keep moving. Emergency Levy, are we willing to
discuss raising this, increasing this?
Hayek/ No.
Bailey/ Would be our third level of discussion.
Wright/ I think it deserves discussion.
Bailey/ We agreed that the third thing would be new sources of revenue. This could be part of
that discussion.
O'Donnell/ It could be part of it.
Bailey/ Hotel/motel tax, we've already discussed. The parking fine subsidy. That would be part
of our third level of discussion. We're willing to do that? (several responding)
Correia/ One of the other things I'm wondering, and...um, I wondered why, um, we...we're
raising rates for refuse collection. I wonder why we're not...when was the last time we
raised Landfill rates?
Champion/ Raised what?
Correia/ Landfill. I mean, that's a business enterprise. We're not...we haven't...
Mansfield/ ...their revenues are sufficient. They don't need...refuse needed a rate increase to
support operations. Landfill...
Correia/ But I mean, similar parking doesn't need increased revenue.
Mansfield/ Actually, they did for...
Bailey/ Eleanor has a comment about...
Correia/ ...no, but that's what we're talking about here.
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Bailey/ Constraints regarding this?
Dilkes/ Yeah, I think parking fines and fees for services are completely different things. A fee for
a service has to be reasonably related to the cost of providing that service. So, for
instance, we could not intentionally generate additional funds from, uh, building permit
fees or landfill fees, and...in order to fund our, um, General Fund operations.
Bailey/ But we could from parking fines, because.. .
Dilkes/ I think it's a fine. I think it's...it's not a fee for a service, and...and, yeah.
Bailey/ Right. Um...
Helling/ Just a note on that. In talking with Joe about that, there's not a need at this point in time
to raise parking rates, but that could come along in conjunction with having to build a
new parking facility, um, that's why I said last night, you have to think of this
independently of the actual need and be prepared to make those...those increased when
needed. I think it's been several years since we raised the...the parking fees.
Champion/ Two years.
Helling/ Two years? Okay. Um.. .
Bailey/ But we don't link fines and fees...I mean.. .
Champion/ We raised our fines too.
Bailey/ Right.
Correia/ The meter (several talking)
Bailey/ But we're talking about fines, not fees.
Champion/ We're in the second year.
Helling/ I'm just saying periodically we raise fines also, and a lot of that money goes back into
parking, so that's...that's what I want to keep in mind. When you're just talking about
the fines, keep in mind two things. One thing is just kind of the...when it's time to raise
the fines, these will be the University and their fine system or their, uh, fine schedules.
That's different than this. This would be specifically for...just keep those separate in
your mind. You could raise this and maybe get a proposal next year to raise the fine.
Champion/ For parking itself. What is...
Helling/ No, the fine.
Champion/ Oh. What is, I mean, but we maybe asked to raise the fine because parking needs the
money.
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Helling/ Well, generally it's tied to what's reasonable and appropriate, or...are people, are we
giving a cheap deal on fines, then we've raised them.
Champion/ What is...what's the University charge for parking fines?
Dilkes/ (several talking) I think we're...I mean, in the conversations I have with other
attorneys...attorneys in other larger Iowa cities, we are quite low compared to parking
fines in other places.
Hayek/ I got one for $15.00 the other day at the Law School. (several talking)
Bailey/ ...making money off of this group.
Wright/ Yeah, it was an expired meter.
Bailey/ Okay, let's (laughter and several talking) we're going to keep going down this list. Public
art.
Champion/ That's a bond anyway, that's a debt. It's not money in the General Fund.
O'Donnell/ You'd never convince Bob Elliott of that.
Champion/ I know.
Helling/ Well, the reason it's in there is because, you know, we talked about your debt, as well,
and to the extent that...
Champion/ I don't want to discuss this!
Helling/ Okay! (laughter)
Champion/ I'm just teasing! (laughter)
Bailey/ I kind of expected that. Are others interested in discussing public art?
Champion/ ...well, it'd just be my decision, but I understand, because of the limit on the debt.
Helling/ No.
Bailey/ All right. Um, traffic calming.
O'Donnell/ I'd be willing to talk about that.
Correia/ How would this, I mean, the road use tax fund, I mean...
Bailey/ Yeah, how would we...
Correia/ ...how would this be...
Bailey/ ...available to us to use.
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Helling/ Well, that's probably the last note that I was going to try to call to your attention tonight
that probably should have had a page in your presentation. Go back to page 59, and the
only thing I would call your attention to there is about half way down the page, above the
break downs, that says "ending balance." The balance in 2007 was...was high at 2.2
million, uh, it's been discussed that an optimal level for that balance would be about a
million dollars.
Correia/ Why?
Helling/ Um, because that would be about 20% of the annual revenue, that road use tax revenue.
And to keep that in reserves for specific projects that we might want to fund, would come
along that we would need funds. We can use road use tax for that, rather than going
through (unable to hear) debt levy. Um, there's no magic to that. That's just, seems to be
a good level for a reserve. I don't know, are there any other reasons?
O'Malley/ No, uh, well, your working capital. We only...we get paid once a month through them
(mumbled) that we didn't get a current payment. It'd be nice to have at least 10%.
About what we have now is 10%. So...
Helling/ So, that balance is a little lower than we have established as sort of the optimal level.
Want you to be aware of that. There are certain things that we can do that will...will, uh,
relieve some of that, if you want to do that, and that leaves more money available
for...for projects that we might want to do. If we can build that balance up, so that we
don't have to go to the General Fund and to the debt levy. Again, they all tie together.
Bailey/ So the general question is, do we have concern that our road use tax balance has fallen
below a million dollars, which we informally maintained, um, and is this something we
want to build back up, or not...not worry about...
Correia/ ...traffic calming and the leaf pickup...you're talking about when they go around and get
all the leaves?
Helling/ Uh-huh, uh-huh.
Correia/ ...all of our curbs? Those are two programs that, I mean, people love the leaf pickup.
don't think we can.. .
Wilburn/ They got rid of it in Cedar Rapids and they got pummeled.
Correia/ What did you say?
Wilburn/ They got rid of it in Cedar Rapids...and they got pummeled.
Wright/ I think we would too.
Correia/ I can't imagine, and the traffic calming, I mean, that's something that (several talking)
neighborhoods feel like they have an issue, they had an opportunity to come together
and...
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Bailey/ Well so, but let's broaden this out. Are we concerned that this road use tax balance is...is
below this million dollars? I mean, is this something we feel compelled to address at this
time? I'm not seeing a lot of, I mean...
Hayek/ I don't have enough information on it. I don't...(several responding)
Bailey/ ...for a while.
Helling/ Leave it be? Is that what you're saying?
Bailey/ Uh-huh.
Mansfield/ One thing, Public Works Director routinely does ask that the annual, um, asphalt
overlay road maintenance, you know, he would love to see that level increased. Um,
several years ago it was higher and it bumped down a little bit, and you know, that's your
other trade off, um, you've got operations, leaf pickup, and stuff versus what we can do
with the pavement maintenance.
Bailey/ Right.
Helling/ We did bump that up a little bit this year, but not as much as he wanted.
Bailey/ I think that now, I think we're interested in just leaving this be, and I know there are other
discretionary spending items that could be on this list, and so I...um, I anticipate that
some of us will come up with those, or you will have another list for us. How are we
proceeding with that?
Helling/ Well...
Correia/ I'm sorry. The other thing we have is (unable to hear).
Bailey/ Oh, other concepts.
Correia/ ...enterprise funds. I'd like to...
Bailey/ Well, we're discussing that, um, um, in our new sources of revenue, so that would be.. .
Correia/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay, so other discretionary spending, um, are you bringing us additional ideas or should
we be pouring through the budget for additional ideas?
Helling/ If...if...if you or I or any of us can come up with any other ideas that sort of fit into this,
that's fine. We can expand this list. I'm not sure I have...I'm prepared at this time or
have any ideas about where to look in terms of the...the, uh, reductions that you're
talking about. I think that's a policy decision (several responding)
Correia/ Is there...in each of the different departments (unable to hear) services, um, but for some
departments I have more of an idea of what the services are provided and at what level,
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and others, um, so I mean it's hard for me to make any sort of assessment of...if we're
going to look at places to...
Bailey/ My question with that is...is that the natural area to look for cost containment, which, I
mean, Ross has suggested that we know that departments are doing that, but can we get a
sense of is that a possibility, because it's more difficult, obviously, to do cost
containment in personnel.
O'Malley/ Pretty much the budget is 75% personnel.
Bailey/ Right. So are...is a service line item and expenditures the natural place to look for cost
containment, I guess is my broader question.
Helling/ Going to give you an observation, number one, and then a suggestion. Number one, my
observation is, and this is the first time I've been through this budget. We do go through
it in some detail with departments. Um, I don't think you're going to find a lot there. I
think the budget is pretty tight. I think it has been for quite a while, and we had to tighten
it up even more, but we're always looking for ways to...to contain costs here and there,
and I think our department directors are too, and that's one of the reasons why we often
have unbalanced grows a little bit more than we anticipated, or maybe doesn't go down
as much, because we are able to...to contain costs and thereby not spend as much as we
budget to spend. Um, my suggestion with...with respect to what Amy indicated about
not being familiar with...with some of the operations and what we do. Several years ago,
you talked about scheduling some work session time to bring in maybe one division at a
time, go through that process, kind of find out what they do, get to know them better and
so forth, and we did that to a couple divisions, and then we didn't do it anymore. And I
think that's probably a good way, it's the time commitment on your part, but it might be a
good way to get some of these questions answered, so when you get into the budget, you
get in here in January, you're not wondering, you know, what they're really doing or...or
are there aspects of those operations that aren't really necessary. (coughing) time to cull
that out and...and educate yourselves, uh, during the course of the year, because you
can't, there's no way you can take one month out of the year and absorb all that. It's just
not.. .
Bailey/ (unable to hear)...this year to become more familiar. Um, just in the interest of moving
this along, are there other items that we need on this list? So, if you'll look at your
schedule the next (coughing, unable to hear) discuss the budget specifically (coughing)
capital projects on January 24`x', and then we have awrap-up on the 28"'. (coughing,
unable to hear) as looking at freeing up money and then looking at cost containment, and
then new sources of revenue, and making some decisions about what hiring priorities we
have. Which meeting do we intend to do that? When do we need to have the Police
Chief and the Fire Chief come and talk about public safety? And I guess what I'm
suggesting is perhaps we need to add a meeting or two to approach this discussion so we
can have the wrap-up by January 28"', and that schedule is predicated, uh, on the public
hearing and the rest of the things we're required to do by State law.
Champion/ I think you're right. We're going to need another...
Correia/ Do we have a full work session for next Monday?
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Bailey/ How is that shaping up, the work session on Monday?
Helling/ At this point, I don't think there's a lot, um, we haven't had a work session, you know,
for a month, so...so I'll know more tomorrow morning, but...
Karr/ You do have an Executive Session too, Dale.
Helling/ Yeah, there is an Executive Session, litigation. Um, I would suggest that we go ahead
and put that on at the end, as the last item. And you can see how...no, budget.
Correia/ Oh, but I was wondering about.. .
Bailey/ So can we talk about, I would like to talk then about hiring priorities, um, that's the next
order of business on Monday's work session. We'll add that last?
Helling/ Yeah, I think...you've identified these...all these as part of your budget, so...
Bailey/ Right.
Helling/ Yeah, we will put it on just as budget discussion.
Bailey/ Just heads up, let's talk about...
Correia/ But budget discussion (unable to hear).
Helling/ I have just...just for your information, if I could find where I wrote it down, I have three
dates that, or four dates I guess that don't work, um. I'll find it. Go ahead and I'll dig it
out here. I did write it down.
Correia/ Because I was just wondering if Monday would work for...
Helling/ Oh, here we go. Sam is not available on January 16`t'. Andy's not available on the 15`h
21 S`, or 22"d.
Bailey/ It sounds like they're available on the 14~'.
Helling/ So it sounds like they're available on the 14~'.
Bailey/ Great. That would be great.
Correia/ Then could we do that as a first item, so that they're not there the whole time and.. .
Helling/ If you're going to have them come in, I think (coughing, unable to hear). After the
Executive Session.
Correia/ We have to do that first? (several talking at once)
Bailey/ Um, is there any interest in starting the work session on Monday a little earlier, and
having Sam and Andy come in, for example, at 5:30 or 5:45, and then Executive Session,
shot for 6:30. Would that work for people's schedule?
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Correia/ 5:45?
Bailey/ 5:45 or 5:30.
O'Donnell/ 5:45.
Bailey/ 5:45? (several talking)
Helling/ Um.. .
Bailey/ Then have Sam and Andy there right at 5:45. That'll...
Helling/ I'm assuming you don't want a lengthy presentation from them. I mean, you've seen
this information.
Bailey/ We set it for 45 minutes, so yeah.
Helling/ So most of it will be questions. So I'll tell them maybe five, ten minutes at the most.
Bailey/ Yeah, and then our objective that night is to determine our hiring priorities, regarding the
budget. So, I'm hoping we can do that next session. Okay, regarding...
Helling/Before you go, do you want us to...we'll schedule this into the meeting, and then
schedule the budget discussion again at the end? (several responding) Okay.
Bailey/ Um, the additional items of talking about in order freeing up, um, funds, cost
containment, and then new sources of revenue. I assume that that would take another
budget work session. Are people open to that idea, and...how do you want to do that?
Champion/ I thought that's what we were going to do Monday night. I mean, um...
Bailey/ Monday night we're going to talk specifically about hiring priorities. Do you think we
can get through all those topics? (several talking)...plus regular work session. I think
that's going to make for...
Helling/ Typically, you have this list and you can go as long as you want and stop at some point.
Bailey/ We'll go until...so can we add another budget meeting?
Karr/ Was it your desire...
Bailey/ Pardon me, Marian?
Karr/ Was it your desire to do that after the CIP's, and after the boards, commissions, and...that's
what I wasn't quite sure.. You had talked about waiting until after those presentations, or
did you want to do that before the presentations?
Bailey/ ...a little late.
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Helling/ It would be, yeah, it would be a highly desirable to do those before, just because once
you get into the end of the month, and then we have to start packaging together the
budget with your changes, uh, we have to put that all together so it's available. You set
the public hearing, that amended document has to be available for inspection when you
set the public hearing, and you hold the public hearing, start to crunch up against getting
it done by March 15`''
Bailey/ Well, one option would be to come back in the evening of the 24"'
Karr/ I'm sorry, what day?
Bailey/ Well, all...we're here all day on the 24"'. It...we could also come back in the evening on
the 24"'. I don't know if that's...
Wright/ Oh, I don't think that's a good idea.
Champion/ We've never used that whole day before. I think we'll have time for a lot of
discussion that day, if we all have that day reserved.
O'Donnell/ We have been finished by noon on that day.
Karr/ No, that's the day that quite frankly you never were done in a day, and you spread off into
the next day.
Champion/ Really? I don't...
Karr/ Sorry, you were. It often spilled over into the beginning of the next session. I don't know
how many are on this time. I mean, I but, yeah, it has been.
Champion/ Well, and...yes, and that's probably going to work, but decide...
Bailey/ How long are we scheduled on the 28`"~
Karr/ The 28"'right now you have a tentative schedule starting at 8:00 A.M. for budget, and going
to possibly noon, and then you've got your regular work session that evening. The 28"'
and 29"' are your regular meetings. You certainly...you could look at that full day, but
tentatively you had booked 8:00 until noon.
Correia/ There's a meeting in here that day for the Violence Against Women Task Force.
Karr/ That'd be the same setup so we'd be...
Correia/ Right, but I'm just saying we can't keep going.
Wright/ Are we wanting to make this after the capital projects?
Bailey/ I think it would be helpful if we...if we did.
Champion/ Um, the capital projects...that's going to be dependent on how much we're willing to
jack up that levy, I mean that percentage, so I guess what I'd like to have, and I don't
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think it'd be that difficult for you to get to me, is what percentage is the Library levy and
what percentage would be $2 million or whatever it takes for that fire station. We don't
have the fire station yet, but I'd like to know what percentage of our debt service that is.
O'Malley/ Oh. The Library?
Champion/ The Library, plus $2 million for fire station.
Bailey/ Well, would we have that figured in in 2010 when that comes online, right? For debt
service?
O'Malley/ Actually, that'd be 2011.
Bailey/ 2011, okay.
O'Malley/ Bonds will be issued the year that construction is done...the following year, but we
have a million five for construction costs, which appears low.
Champion/ I think we need to keep the $2 million, and the Library, um, so part of that...
O'Malley/ Library's still in that.
Champion/ Yeah, but part of that.. .
Bailey/ So getting back to the schedule. Add that to the list of items, information items (several
talking) um, can we, uh, extend the 28`n three more hours and finish up this discussion,
and literally have awrap-up on this budget discussion?
Karr/ The room is free until the 3:30 meeting.
Bailey/ Right and that's why I said `ti13:00, or throw out some other evening possibilities.
Wright/ How about the evening of the 29`n~
Karr/ 29`n is your formal meeting.
Wright/ Of course! Geez!
Karr/ Sorry.
Bailey/ We could meet, um, at 7:00 the evening of the 30`n after the JCCOG meeting.
Karr/ I just want to get back again to...I don't know how much time, yeah, it...(several talking)
Mansfield/ ...have new state forms this year so it might take some time.
Karr/ We are...we are looking at setting the public hearing on the 5`n, so if it gets much later...
Bailey/ ...latitude with that?
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Karr/ Well, the latitude is when you'd like to hold your public hearing.
Bailey/ Right, I mean...
Karr/ So you take...you backup the date. If you're looking at your public hearing on the 19`n,
and there are publication requirements, and it's got to be to the paper by the Friday after
you set your public hearing the 5`n. If you're setting your public hearing for a special
meeting later, the 26"', then we buy time. If...
Bailey/ So what about the 30`n, the evening of the 30`n? 7:00 P.M. until we're done.
Correia/ And so we would have...so with that, we would have to do our public hearing on the
19`n? And pass the, vote on the budget that first meeting of March?
Karr/ March, correct.
Correia/ That'd be March...
Karr/ 4`"
Champion/ The 28"'...you're talking about the 28"', the 29`n, and the 30"'~
Karr/ And the 31S` you have an Executive Session with...
Champion/ (several talking) I couldn't handle it.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ Not that I dislike any of you. I just can't handle that many City Council meetings
three nights in a row.
Bailey/ So, I've tossed out the afternoon of the 28`n, or the evening of the 30`n. Does anybody
have any other suggestions?
O'Donnell/ How long are we planning on being here on the morning of the 28"'?
Correia/ That's what she just said, stay later.
Bailey/ We are schedule for noon. I mean, perhaps we can get to this and then what we'll do is
we'll just go home early or cancel the meeting that we have on the calendar. Trust me!
But...
Correia/ We'll try to get it done on the 28`n
Karr/ So the 28`n, 8:00 to 3:00, because we have a 3:30 meeting...(several talking)
Bailey/ Okay, let's do 8:00 to 3:00 on the 28`n, thank you, and believe me, if we have decisions
and we're done, we'll leave. Much as we enjoy each other's company.
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Karr/ So and I'll revise this and I'll try to get this distributed in the packet, but you've got then for
budget driven, you've got added to the 14d' with a new start time of 5:45. You've
retained the 23rd at 5:30 for the market analysis, and then going into 6:30 for the budget,
and the budget on the 23rd is boards, commission and events, and I haven't sent that
notice out yet, but I plan to send that out this week, if that's firmed up. So that we can
book that.
Helling/ That's at 7:00?
Karr/ Well, I would...I think we're going to try and start that a little bit earlier. There's interest
to start...
Helling/ ...I'm getting questions about when and what time.
Karr/ I know, but I've been waiting to send out the notice until we firmed it up tonight. I'll send
it out this week, but...and then the 24`h then you're booked 8:00 to 5:00 and we'll book it
as capital improvements projects/budget, so if you do finish the capital improvements
projects early, you certainly got `til 5:00 that day to discuss budget.
Bailey/ And I'm assuming that we're taping the capital projects (several responding)
Karr/ Then you've got 8:00 to 3:00 on the 28d' and your regular work session that night. The 29`h
is your formal, and the 31S` is Executive Session, special formal on the City Manager
search. (several talking) Yes. That will be the 23rd. Well, no the Aid to Agencies, no.
We don't have that booked at all.
Bailey/ We usually do that in wrap-up.
Karr/ You usually wrap that up after your, yeah. (several talking)
Helling/ ...approve the amount, and then determine later how...
Karr/ ...later time do that, yeah.
Champion/ And we don't always have them come and talk to us.
Karr/ You approve the lump sum in the budget. (several talking)
Bailey/ Okay, and if we approve the bottom line, we've.. .
Karr/ The lump sum.
Bailey/ Okay, all right.
Karr/ And then you're not changing. Then we're still back on schedule then for setting the public
hearing the 5"' and holding it the 19"', given that scenario.
Bailey/ Okay. Um, Council time (unable to hear) Thank you, very much!
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O'Donnell/ You know, just the...disabled parking in front of the Library, there's one spot. I
think we need to look at that, and uh, maybe have like three spots. When people are
pulling in and uh, you know, it's a lot easier for somebody to pull across the street or
walk across, uh, I've had several calls, people with severely disabled kids in wheelchairs
that are really having difficulty getting them into the Library.
Helling/ So, I'm sorry, Mike.
O'Donnell/ In front of the Library, there's one disabled spot.
Helling/ You're suggesting we put another one in?
O'Donnell/ At least one more.
Helling/ At least one more.
Correia/ Is that something we want to ask the Library or...
O'Donnell/ Well, I was going to call Susan, but I didn't have a chance to.
Bailey/ Mention that to Susan and...
Helling/ Yeah, `cause she'll want to take it to the Board, I'm sure. (several responding)
Bailey/ Yeah, that'd be great. Any other items? Great, thanks.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council special work session meeting of January 8, 2008.