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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-04-01 Transcription#2 Page 1 ITEM 2 OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS. Helen Lemme Elementary Bailey: Would the students from Helen Lemme please come forward. Good evening. Thanks for being here. We appreciate you coming down. I've asked Council Member Hayek to help me in these awards. Um, who would like to start by reading their statement? (mumbled) That was a volunteer. (laughter) (mumbled) Rogers: Good evening. My name is Collin Rogers and I'm a, I'm in sixth grade at Helen Lemme Elementary. I'm honored to receive the City of Iowa City Outstanding Citizen Award. I try to incorporate the six pillars of character into my daily routine. These are traits my parents have taught me, and we use every day at Lemme. I would like to share with you what these pillars mean to me. Trustworthiness -you can be trusted, and to be honest and accountable; caring -reaching out to others to give them a hand or a smile or friendly hi; respect -showing you value others; responsibility -you are reliable, you can follow through, you can be depended on; fairness -being a good sport in all aspects of life; citizenship -you bring people together in your school or community. An easy way to remember these pillars is to follow the Golden Rule: treat others the way that you want to be treated. Thank you again. Have a good night. (applause) Eyanson: Hello, um, I am Joanna Eyanson. I believe I was chosen for this award because my peers and teachers believe that I show the six pillars of character: trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, and citizenship. I believe these are important because they, when used in everyday life, not only make the world a better place for all those around you, but also for yourself. I also think that any of my classmates could have been chosen for this honor, and that everyone at Lemme Elementary shows the six pillars of character everyday. It's great to be a Lemme Leopard. Thank you. (applause) Hayes: Hello, my name is Molly Hayes and I'm a Lemme, I am a sixth grader at Lemme Elementary. Thank you to the students, teachers, and Mr. Bacon who think I am a good citizen. The six pillars of character are important to me because if we did not have them our school would have bullies. But that's what is so great about Lemme, there are no bullies. I try to exemplify respect, fairness and caring by treating others how I would want to be treated. I try to show trustworthiness, responsible...and responsibility by trying to hand my work in on time and following through on my promises. I try to show citizenship by helping with school activities and setting a good example for younger students. Thank you City Council for this award. (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #2 Page 2 Chay: Hello, my name is Angela Chay. I'm a sixth grader at Lemme Elementary. I would like to thank Mr. Bacon, Mr. and the Lemme teachers and students for this award. I believe I was selected because I try to do my best to follow the pillars of character, treating others as they would like to be treated. Some special things I've done in my life include raising money to surprise Lemme's art teacher and singing in the musical, which raised $15,000 for Iowa City Hospice. I'm currently a safety patrol captain and also participate in choir, band, and chess club. I would like to thank my family and everyone here tonight for making this evening special for the other recipients and myself. It's great to be a Lemme Leopard. (applause) Hayek: Okay! Well, I'm an old Shimek Shark. Never been around so many Lemme Leopards! Okay, we have an award for each of you, and there are four awards for each of you, and they have your name on it, but they all say the same thing so I'm just going to read this once for all of you. It's called a Citizenship Award. For outstanding qualities of leadership within Helen Lemme Elementary, as well as the community, and for his or her sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize -each of your names is on here - as an Outstanding Student Citizen. Your community is proud of you. Presented by the Iowa City City Council, Apri12008, signed by the Mayor. So, I will hand these out. (mumbled) congratulations. Molly, you're next, here's yours. Joanna, here's yours. Collin, here's yours. Congratulations. (applause) Bailey: Thank you. I think we learned a lot from your statements about those, uh, pillars of character. So thank you all for being here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #3 Page 3 ITEM 3 SPECIAL PRESENTATION. a) Trees Please! Smith: Thank you, Madame Mayor. Um, my name is Terry Smith, resident of Iowa City, here tonight on behalf of MidAmerican Energy Company. My presence before you tonight is somewhat of an annual event, uh, where staff files application for grants, and I'm able to come here and award that grant money to you, the City of Iowa City. Uh, MidAmerican Energy is providing $272,000 this year to 99 cities and community organizations throughout its Iowa service territory in support of its Trees Please! program, including $20,000 to the City of Iowa City. Trees Please! funds are distributed to the local communities each year, in an effort to promote energy efficient programs and environmental beautification through the planting of trees, and it's just one of the 22 programs that MidAmerican offers in its energy efficiency program offerings to both residential and non-residential customers. Since 1992 when the Trees Please! program was initiated, MidAmerican's grants have helped communities across the state plant more than 65,000 trees. Trees improve the energy efficiency by serving as natural windbreaks and providing shade to the homes and businesses, while beautifying our parks and roadways and other common areas within our communities. At the same time, planting trees improves the air quality and helps protect and nourish the soil. Since inception, the company's energy efficiency programs in the early-1990's, more than $400 million has been invested in helping our customers reduce their energy bills, and it's my pleasure tonight to present this check to the City of Iowa City for $20,000. Bailey: Thank you! (applause) I will make sure that this gets to, okay, to the right person. Thank you very much. We appreciate the support. We value our trees in our community, um, as much for their energy as for their beauty, so thank you very much MidAmerican Energy, and thanks, Terry, for being here. Smith: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #4 Page 4 ITEM 4 PROCLAMATIONS. b) Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity Builds Iowa City Homes Week - Apri113-19, 2008 Bailey: (reads proclamation) Karr: Here to accept the proclamation is Chris Wilson. (mumbled) Swanson: Thank you. Madame Mayor, and Members of the Iowa City City Council, my name is Chris Swanson, and on behalf of Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, we graciously thank you for this proclamation this evening, and uh, we hope to work with you in the future on low-income housing issues, and uh, maybe this spring we'll see you swinging a hammer with us on one of our build sites. Thank you very much. Bailey: Thank you. Okay. (laughter and several talking) (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #5 Page 5 ITEM 5 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Champion: Move adoption. Correia: Second. Bailey: Moved by Champion, seconded by Correia. Discussion? I would just like to point out under Resolutions we are adopting the amended Standard Operating Procedures and Guidelines for the Iowa City Police Citizen Review Board, um, that we recently amended, that refer to the referendum that we had in November. Other items of discussion for the Consent Calendar? Okay. Roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #7 Page 6 ITEM 7 PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. a) CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR APRIL 14, 2008 ON AN ORDINANCE REZONING 17.97- ACRES OF LAND LOCATED SOUTH OF RUPPERT ROAD FROM COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC-2) TO INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL (CI-1) (REZ08-0002) Correia: Move to set the public hearing. Bailey: Moved by Correia. Hayek: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Hayek. All those in favor of setting the public hearing say aye. Those opposed same sign. Motion carries. Correia: We'll have those minutes from the Planning and Zoning meeting...at our, in our packets? (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #8 Page 7 ITEM 8 AMENDING TITLE 3 ENTITLED "CITY FINANCES, TAXATION & FEES," CHAPTER 4 ENTITLED "SCHEDULE OF FEES, RATES, CHARGES, BONDS, FINES & PENALTIES," SECTION 3- 4-5, ENTITLED "SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL," OF THE CITY CODE TO INCREASE OR CHANGE RESIDENTIAL SOLID WASTE COLLECTION FEES. a) PUBLIC HEARING Bailey: This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open (bangs gavel). It's going to be a quiet night, I can see this. The public hearing is closed (bangs gavel). b) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE (FIRST CONSIDERATION) Champion: Move first consideration. Bailey: Moved by Champion. O'Donnell: Second. Bailey: Seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion? Hayek: I think it's worth pointing out that, uh, this is an approximate 4% increase and that fee, from the information that we've received, is that this is largely due to, among other things, fuel price increases that the City has to absorb somehow. Bailey: Thank you for pointing that out. Other items for discussion? Okay, roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 8 ITEM 9 APPROVING THE IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY'S ANNUAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2008. a) PUBLIC HEARING Bailey: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) The public hearing is open, and we'll start with Steve Rackis. You have a brief presentation for us, I believe. Rackis: Yes. Thank you and good evening, and Steven Rackis, the Housing Administrator for the Iowa City Housing Authority and... and before I really get into the annual plan, I just wanted to highlight, um, what we've titled "new initiatives." Every year we try to come up with something that's new, and this one was a little bit unique and, um, just wanted to share that with you, and, uh, the impetus for this really arose with, um, various concerns expressed by, uh, some of our public housing tenants regarding, um, oh, the neighborhood, how they fit into the neighborhood, um, and...and just some various issues. So in our discussion, um, we...we started thinking about, um, just the Housing Authority project and it ultimately became titled "Good Neighbors, Strong Neighborhoods," a pilot program for neighborhood associations. It really started with the Housing Authority and Neighborhood Services -how could we partner together, working with the neighborhood associations. As we started those discussions, we...we realized that it was a lot bigger than just Neighborhood Services and the Housing Authority. So we identified the players, and these are the players that we felt had a vested interest in the Grant Wood neighborhood, and side with the association. Uh, we wanted to get all of these players to the table, and...and sort of sell them on the ideas of being involved in the neighborhood, and identify, you know, who could provide the resources, and then actually our small event that we were looking at became a big event, uh, with the...with the addition of an organization, a community organization, volunteer organization called, Reclaiming Roots, and we really came up with what we ended up calling this big event. Um, this was our first meeting and really the only reason I point this out is, uh, we kept to a very tight agenda and very tight on what are we doing here, and you know, who, what, when, where, how do the stakeholders address the concerns, and not just this big event, but what could we do in a month? What could we do in six months? What could we do in, what could we do in twelve months? Not just a one, sort of one- shot deal. Uh, we met approximately three or four times, uh, until we started identifying, uh, many of the neighborhood needs. And what we identified was, uh, and again, you know, we had some issues of kids hanging out, nothing to do, uh, neighbors not feeling like neighbors, you know, not feeling like they're in a neighborhood. So we identified that we needed some more, uh, recreational, some more programming to target the youth living in the neighborhood at the Family Resource Center and Gym This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 9 at Grant Wood. Uh, there was a lack of attendance at the Neighborhood Association meetings. Um, routinely they would have four people attend their meeting, and there's 930 households in the Grant Wood Neighborhood Association, and then this need to create a pride in property, by both renters and owners in the neighborhood. So, as we went through out meetings, we decided, well, let's ask people, uh, Mike Moran at Parks and Rec said, well, I'd like to do more programming, but I don't want to just develop programming. I'd like to know what people would want. So the Neighborhood Association surveyed at the Ice Cream Social all of the parents whose kids go to Grant Wood School, and then the Housing Authority, we identified all of our public housing tenants that lived in Grant Wood Neighborhood Association, and all of the Section 8 participants that live in Wetherby, Grant Wood, and then up in Census Tract 17, uh, figuring they were just on the border of...of Grant Wood. So all told, we collected about 150 surveys, and that led to the...led to the addition of programming, uh, Mike Moran worked with Iowa City Schools and the Grant Wood Neighborhood Association and we developed some new activities that are in the, um, they're in the Spring calendar, um, for people to sign up for, and really the key feature there was, um, Mike convinced the City High Men's and Women's basketball team and volleyball team that in exchange for gym time, they could probably teach kids how to play basketball, volleyball, and that was sort of the neat, you know, it really didn't cost anybody anything to get anything scheduled. So now we do have some more activities at Grant Wood, uh, in the gym, uh, not just during the school year, but all around. Uh, the next step was the low attendance, so we decided to, uh, Deb Briggs likes using Microsoft Publisher and really came up with some different flyer material and some different marketing strategies to draw people. We delivered flyers door to door, inviting people to the meeting. We called our public housing tenants personally and invited them to attend the meeting, and you know, really told them, if you want to have a stake in the neighborhood, you need to participate in the Neighborhood Association. iJh, the attendance immediately jumped from four to 20 people, and the neighbors had a discussion of, you know, not letting their neighborhood be labeled, but that they as renters and property owners in that neighborhood could really write their own label, and label, you know, what their neighborhood meant to them, and then here's an example of the flyer that we delivered, and then, uh, also this flyer we use as a recruitment for, again, our big event; who needed help cleaning up their yards, who needed help with, uh, trees and bushes and shrubs, leaf clean up, and then also, who didn't need help but who wanted to volunteer. So, uh, our big event, we decided...and again, uh, lot of people involved in this, that, um, on October 20`" we would do lawn maintenance, basic weatherization, and hauling away of unwanted items. So people would contact either Neighborhood Services or Reclaiming Roots and say, "I need my gutters cleaned out. I need a mirror hung," you know, whatever their needs were, were collected and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 10 collated and then Reclaiming Roots handled all of the organization of identifying how many people for each project. People showed up that morning and were sent off, uh, on their projects, so what we ended up with was, um, and I think I'll just jump to the pictures here. I can read you the numbers. (Power Point presentation) We ended up with, uh, 61 total volunteers that came out on the 20~h, uh, people brought their own equipment. The Iowa Association of Realtors created a tool shed, uh, where people can go check out tools from the realtors, so they brought their tool shed with them, which amounted to tools in the trunks of people's cars at that point, but they actually are going to have a tool shed at...at their site, and again, Reclaiming Roots organized everything. They walked door to door, after we got a certain response from the Neighborhood Association meetings of what people needed. They walked door to door in the entire neighborhood, knocked on doors, and asked people if they needed any help. Some people said we're fine, but you know, the elderly lady across the street can't clean her yard. She probably won't ask you, but you probably ought to knock on her door and you know, I'll ask for her. So, uh, Hy-Vee provided the meat, the grill, an employee to run the grill and the realtors added, uh, some food as well. So again you can see, um, some of the various sites and the cleanup that was done, and uh, our results, 31 families assisted. We used two large dumpsters, 180 waste bags, uh, 20 families used a hazardous waste trailer, again, 3,219 pounds hauled away, and the neat thing was the City trucks were coming by and collecting leaves that day, even though the next day they came by, um, and collected the leaves. So they were out there, with the truck, uh, working all day and just hauling the stuff away right and left. So it gives a real nice partnership. Um, and again, our results, uh, you know, we have a model that we can follow with other neighborhood associations. We feel there is a spark in neighborhood involvement. Volunteers and the residents equally benefitted, uh, people made comments, "Boy, this really looks nice. I'm glad we did this." You know, I see the need for continuing to do this. At least initially we're hearing from the Police of fewer calls and calmness in the neighborhood. This summer will tell. You know, again, when you got how many inches of snow on the ground, you're not having a lot of people hanging out, and uh, a lot of people asked about upcoming events, and uh, really what we have planned for the future with Reclaiming Roots is, um, I've met with Marcia Klingaman and uh, Reclaiming Roots again, and um, they had a desire to go back into the Grant Wood Neighborhood Association; uh, the Housing Authority had a strong desire to work with the Wetherby Neighborhood Association. So, Reclaiming Roots is going to, and the Association of Realtors expressed a strong desire to have more input in the planning, uh, because they wanted to do something in either neighborhood. So what we're going to do, most likely sometime in April or May, is schedule another cleanup for both Wetherby and the Grant Wood neighborhoods, and that's already in...in the process, already in the works, and again, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 11 you know, we'll let Reclaiming Roots and the, uh, Association of Realtors organize it. We're going to look at raising some money, uh, to pay for some of the trucks and the dumping and that, and right now I've...we think it'll cost about $2,000 and what I've told Marcia and Reclaiming Roots is for now consider that the Housing Authority will put up $1,000 for that, and then we'll try to raise other money and get donations from perhaps other City departments. So, there's our new initiative, uh, for this year and hopefully we can have something as good next year. So with that, I'd like to entertain any questions you might have regarding our annual report. Bailey: Are there any highlights that you'd like to make for us regarding the report? Rackis: Uh, yeah, I think so, and L ..I hate to, you know, I think this was a very positive event, but I seem to spend quite a bit of time during my day fielding phone calls and, uh, and student inquires, general public inquiries, and I...I guess for lack of a better term, sort of the myth around, um, assisted housing and um, I think, you know, there was some correspondence to City Council a few years ago that...that, you know, considered rental assistance to be, um, that we were turning Iowa City into a mecca for out-of-state, high-maintenance welfare recipients, and that these dysfunctional families are causing serious problem for our schools and police, and I've been putting this booklet together, you know, it used to be just a regular memo. I started putting the booklet together to sort of better highlight, uh, the statistics and reality of what our program is, and in reality, the Iowa City Housing Authority, which you the City Council are, we are serving the families that H.U.D. intended, and these are low- income, elderly, disabled, and working families, and the reporting that we do for H.U.D., uh, bears that out. 61% of the people participating in our program are elderly and disabled families. When you take into consideration the number of working families, that accounts for 86% of the people on the program. So when we talk about, you know, high- maintenance welfare recipients, of the families that are on our program that report that they receive income from the Family Investment Program or welfare, we have 14% of the families. Conversely, 43% report income from wages, and 59% report income from Social Security or Supplemental Disability Income. The families that report receiving welfare, of those families that their sole source of income is welfare is only 4%, or about right now this moment, 60 families. So, welfare recipients - I don't think so! It's elderly, disabled, working families. Out-of-state? Right now, 160 families that are on our program, if we tracked this, lived outside of Iowa prior to admission to the program. Uh, 1,017 families lived in Johnson County prior to admission. Another 139 families lived in the state of Iowa prior to admission. So, 84% of the program are people that lived in either Johnson County or Iowa, so, you know, again, I hope, you know, people This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 12 will read the annual report, and I know some people will say, well, you know, statistics -lies, damn lies and statistics -but this is data that is reported to H.U.D. on a monthly basis. It is their reporting system. It is not our reporting system. We can't cook these numbers. These numbers are what they are, and I started in the Housing Authority in April of 2003. We have been randomly audited six times. There has not been one finding with our data. There has not been one finding with how we manage the program. There has not been one finding on our rent calculations. There hasn't been one finding on people, whether or not we're serving people who are eligible for the program. So, I think our program can stand H.U.D.'s test. It can stand anybody's test as ahigh-performance program. So, that'll be the, you know, maybe a little "myth busting" tonight. Thank you. Bailey: Okay. Questions for Steve while he's up here? Were there questions about the annual report? Champion: I love your new program. It sounds wonderful. Rackis: Thank you. Wilburn: I appreciate all the work you do...handling some of those, some of the inquiries. I know that's your job, but uh, you show good patience in trying to present factual information to people, and uh, they'll do with it what they will, but I think it is helpful for the public to be presented with, uh, what...what actually's going on, what we're intending to serve, and that we're serving those who, uh, who can use the support so that they can become sustainable on their own. Bailey: I get a lot of questions about the waiting list that we have, how long people stay on it, and how other people rise to the top of that. Can you just briefly overview the waiting list policy? Rackis: Yeah, the...the basic eligibility group that we're targeting in our, uh, preference, our local preference, are elderly families, disabled families, and families with children under 18 who are residents of our jurisdiction. Now, the wait for those families is approximately one year. Uh, for everybody else, outside of our jurisdiction, the next category is still elderly families, disabled families, and families with children under 18, uh, but we estimate their wait, well, we started putting in our letter that the wait was indefinite, but we got a lot of phone calls, because people didn't understand that. So, the wait...we just picked a date and we say five years, but in reality I believe it is longer than five years outside of our jurisdiction, because last year at this time we had 900 people that, at least on that first blush, were elderly, disabled, families with children, and were residents. This year, and we've just pulled a hundred people off the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 13 waiting list, as of the writing of this book and we had pulled a hundred, we still had 800 people elderly, disabled who are residents. So we continue to get applications, and that wait has sort of fluctuated for our residents to be about a year. It's been as low as six months, but it's about a year. So, you know, as long as we get applications from residents, I don't see that we'll ever really go beyond, and five years is...is really probably aloes-ball estimate for people living outside of our jurisdiction. Bailey: That helps. Thanks. Wright: How often does the average household stay, um, in the housing? Do you have any... Rackis: Uh, yeah, actually, uh, well, I don't have the average. I do have, um, on page l l ...or 13 of the booklet, we...we get the, uh, family characteristics from H.U.D. and their monitoring. That was a period of about 18 months, and about 38% of the people are on the program less than a year. Uh, 9%, one to two years; two to five years is 23%; five to ten 20%. So really, when you sort of get up to five years, um, you know, there's S l ...you know, probably about 60% of the program is five years or less, because what you see a lot of times, you see people that get into some type of a family crisis, perhaps loss of job, loss of income, divorce, separation, temporary poverty, you know, they get back to work, get back into the workforce, and then they're off the program. The people that tend to stay the longest are the elderly and disabled, because they're on a fixed income and there isn't really any prospects of them becoming self-sufficient. So, again, I think based on the statistics...probably 60% is, that's probably pretty common, less...five years or less. Wright: Thank you. Correia: Well, I want to reiterate what Connie said, the, uh, impressed by all the collaborations that we're seeing out of the Housing Authority over the last few years, on both the intra-city collaboration, just with the, uh, Reclaiming Roots day on October 20`", the City... all the different City departments that were involved to make that successful, and all the community organizations that were involved, uh, and there were a significant number of University students and faculty were involved in that, weren't there? Rackis: Uh, yeah, actually I should have made the plug for Rex Honey, a Professor of Geography. He requires all of his students to perform 55 hours of some type of community service, and that's in one semester, and uh, Rex had about 20 students. They all participated. One of them did the Power Point, uh, for me, and they did, they just did a fabulous job and...and Rex does a fabulous job weaving that in. We have our own interns, as well, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Page 14 that helped, um, Abbie's of course an intern with Linda Seaverson and we pull on Linda's interns as well, but yeah, the students really, over the years, have...have done a fabulous job, and if anybody really, you know, needs students, have volunteer opportunities, contact Rex at the University because he tries to tie everything back into community service, and again, 55 hours in a semester is a pretty good commitment. Correia: It's one of those good examples of the town-gown partnership, uh, we hear a lot about the University's emphasis on community service and service learning, and this was evident that that's happening and that there's really good work that students are doing in our community. Rackis: Yeah, they actually, uh, when we did the flyers for the inviting people to come to that planning meeting, uh, Rex's 20 students, you know, went to a11930 households in the Grant Wood neighborhood, passing out those flyers, trying to get people to come to the meeting. Correia: And I also just wanted to point out to the significant financial, positive financial impact to the community of receiving these federal housing dollars, because all the dollars that come in, um, to the Iowa City Housing Authority and then go out into the community are federal...federal dollars, um, and in your report, on page 6, uh, you point out that the Housing Voucher Program paid approximately $3.8 million, into our local economy to landlords and owners of rental property, many of whom are local...local landlords, as well, and utilized local contractors and, uh, so I think that's an important piece of, uh, this program. Rackis: Yeah...thank you for pointing that out. I think that sometimes gets lost, that the family on the program is not receiving the payment directly. They...their eligibility is determined, the amount of rent is determined by formula, and then we enter into a contract with the landlord, and pay that directly to the landlord, and again, even in-town landlords may have property managers, or even the out-of--town landlords have local property managers, who then, you know, that money gets spent to them, that's money that's, you know, fixing the units, you know, repaint, you know, doing the maintenance and that on the units, so that money does...I think the Chamber, I think they talk about for every dollar brought into the community, gets spent seven more times. Bailey: Any further questions or comments for Steve? Okay, thank you. Do other people have comments for the public hearing? Public hearing is closed. (bangs gavel) b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Wilburn: Move adoption of the resolution. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #9 Correia: Second. Page 15 Bailey: Moved by Wilburn, seconded by Correia. Uh, further discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #10 Page 16 ITEM 10 TO ADOPT THE AMENDED IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY'S PUBLIC HOUSING ADMISSIONS AND CONTINUED OCCUPANCY POLICY (ACOP). a) PUBLIC HEARING Bailey: This is a public hearing. Public hearing is open. (bangs gavel) Rackis: No big presentation for this one. Um, just simply, um, making some adjustments to, uh, admission policies, for both our public housing, uh, admissions and continued occupancy plan, and to the housing choice voucher administrative plan, um, just some relatively minor changes, a few things, um, added by regulation. The domestic violence piece, and uh, the good cause piece - is something that we've practiced, but did not really have in writing, and the good cause piece is primarily, if somebody files a late appeal or takes late action, that we're going to spell out, you know, how we're going to review to address a late appeal. The other changes that...that we made are primarily in the area of, um, program integrity, of monitoring who, uh, comes on to the program, who's determined eligible. H.U.D. does require that we, uh, screen for, uh, drug related activity and for violent criminal activity, and they allow you to do other criminal activity, and if you do other criminal activity, you have to define what that is, and that's simply what we've done here is to...to expand beyond just drug related and violent criminal activity, on uh initial eligibility determinations, start looking at other criminal activity and primarily activity that goes to the nature of fraud, deceit, forgery -that type of thing, because the program is really based on a person giving us true and complete information that can be verified by a third party. If we don't get true and complete information, we maybe housing somebody who's not eligible, uh, not counting income that should be counted, and you know, trying to make dollars stretch where they otherwise don't need to stretch. So that's simply a brief overview of the changes that we're recommending. Bailey: Okay. Any questions or comments for Steve, regarding these changes? Okay. Thanks. Other comments at the public hearing regarding the admissions and continued occupancy policy? Okay, public hearing is closed. (bangs gavel) b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Champion: Move the resolution. Bailey: Moved by Champion. Wright: Second. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #10 Page 17 Bailey: Seconded by Wright. Any further discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #11 ITEM 11 TO ADOPT THE AMENDED IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY'S HOUSING CHOICE VOUCHER (HCV) ADMINISTRATIVE PLAN. a) PUBLIC HEARING Bailey: This is a public hearing. Public hearing is open. (bangs gavel) Rackis: Same explanation. Page 18 Bailey: Any questions regarding this, um, administrative plan? Straightforward apparently. Would anybody else like to comment regarding the choice...the Housing Choice Voucher Administrative Plan? Public hearing is closed. (bangs gavel) b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION O'Donnell: Move the resolution. Bailey: Moved by O'Donnell. Champion: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Champion. Discussion? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. Thank you, Steve, for being here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #17 Page 19 ITEM 17 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING A PROPOSED 28E AGREEMENT FOR PARATRANSIT SERVICE BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND JOHNSON COUNTY FOR THE PERIOD OF JULY 1, 2008, THROUGH JUNE 30, 2013, IN SUBSTANCE, AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST, AN AGREEMENT INCORPORATING THE TERMS OF SAID PROPOSAL. Champion: Move the resolution. Correia: Second. Bailey: Moved by Champion, seconded by Correia. Discussion? Champion: How was the 4% increase, um, decided? Fowler: Joe Fowler, Director of Parking and Transit. Um, the 4% is what we have in our current contract, uh, we had talked with the County. They had, um, requested more than 4%, and we requested less than 4%. One of the items that they wanted to, uh, push for, okay, one of the items they brought up was for us to do away with our discount fare for the low-income people, that they would have taken a lower dollar amount. We strongly felt that the discount fare was important to us, and the reason for that is they get to keep all the fares that come in, and so, um, I think we probably paid a little bit more, but that was in order to keep the discount fare for the low- income riders. Champion: Do you have any idea how many low-income riders we have? Fowler: No, I don't. Champion: Okay. It's a good idea! O'Donnell: Joe, did we, uh, retain the no-denial policy? Fowler: Right. Everything in the current contract, uh, continues through, uh, we still have all the provisions that we previously did. Bailey: Further discussion? Correia: And the funds come out of the Transit dollars? Fowler: Yes. Bailey: Further discussion? Thanks, Joe, for being here. Roll call. Item carries 7- 0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #21 ITEM 21 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Bailey: Mike Wright. Wright: I don't have anything this evening. Bailey: Okay. Thank you. Champion: I don't have anything either. Bailey: All right. Mr. O'Donnell. O'Donnell: I don't have anything either...tonight. Page 20 Bailey: Mr. Wilburn. Wilburn: Happy Birthday to Alex Wilburn. (laughter) Bailey: How very sweet! Hayek: Well, I guess that gives me two things to talk about. Happy Birthday to my daughter who turns one on Thursday. Uh, and uh, a comment about last week. Last week was...I think it goes without saying, one of the most difficult weeks that this community has ever faced, and uh, I can tell you that it was also very difficult for City staff, including especially our Police Department, but I think they handled the situation with great sensitivity and professionalism, and I know that we were all very grateful for that. I think, uh, it was one of their shining moments, I would have to say, and I...I think that bears mention. Bailey: Okay. I would like to echo, um, Matt's appreciation of our Police Department, um, and the professional way they handled themselves last week, and know that they face a stressful job every day, and um, last week was, um, quite stressful for them, and we all appreciate the work that they do for our community. I'd like to also recognize the Police Department, um, it was recently accredited for the third time by the Commission of Accreditation for Law Enforcement agencies. This accreditation started on March 15`h, 2008. So congratulations! We know that it's quite a professional department, but this acknowledgment, um, underscores that, and I appreciate the work that our Police Department does. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008. #22 Page 21 ITEM 22 REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF. a) City Manager Bailey: City Manager. Do you want to talk about Des Moines a little bit, or... Helling: Um, pursuant to our discussion last night, I did go to Des Moines and we met with the Lieutenant Governor about the collective bargaining bill. Needless to say, there were no conclusions. Um, it's just something that is still under consideration. There's a motion to defer, um, by the prevailing party, or the prevailing side, and um, it's uncertain when exactly that...that motion, or any further consideration will happen, uh, it is under consideration right now by the...by the, uh, Governor, and there are an awful lot of meetings, apparently, uh, probably will conclude this week with various interests, and so...and the Metropolitan Coalition will be having a conference call on Friday to further meet and discuss the results of today. Bailey: Thanks for making that trip. (several commenting) Wright: According to the news tonight, there may be a compromise. The Governor seems to indicate that compromise is imminent. Helling: Could be, yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of April 1, 2008.