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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-04-28 TranscriptionApril 28, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 1 Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session 5:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright Staff: Helling, Karr, O'Malley, Hightshoe, Knoche, Dilkes, Fosse, Rackis, Long, Johnson, Hargadine, Briggs, Powers, Okerlund, Mansfield Other: Agenda Items: ITEM 5. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. ~ Correspondence. 7. Dianne Allender and Sandee Wennerberg: Lower Muscatine Road Bailey/ Okay, let's get started. I know this will be good news to all of you. We'll be dispensing with our Special Formal Council meeting tonight. We will be canceling it. So, just wanted to let you know. We may run a little bit, uh, past 7:00 because we will keep alley maintenance on, but it shouldn't go much past 7:30, I would hope, but I make no predictions! (laughter) So, the first item on our work session agenda is Agenda Items. Anything...I...I can go first if you want. Um, and I see Rick here. So I have a question about the letter that came regarding Lower Muscatine. It's, uh, Item 5.£7. Can you just tell us where we are in that process and how you incorporate these kinds of letters into the process. Fosse/ Sure! Bailey/ Thanks! Fosse/ Um, last Thursday night we had the pre-design meeting for this project, and the object of that meeting is to flush out what are the concerns of the neighborhood and the other parties along the corridor there. So this letter fits well into that. Bailey/ Good. Fosse/ And they also came to the meeting. Now...now because this is apre-design meeting, we don't have a lot of answers for specific design questions, like this. Those are the type of things that we'll address during the design process. Our focus at this point is just to pin down what are the issues, and then we can develop design options that address those, and it's...it's likely that we'll get back together with another neighborhood meeting in the design process where we can address some of those in more detail, and we'd also be happy to get together with you all if you want to do that, uh, during the design process, as well. Bailey/ Very good. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 2 Fosse/ Had projects over the years of this magnitude. We have a lot of competing interests and ones that come to mind are Kirkwood Avenue, Melrose Avenue, uh, Summit Street bridge, Court Street extended. Those were all projects where we had a lot of competing interests, where we were able to put together a project and...and get something built. It's not necessarily everybody's happy, but we've...we addressed a lot of (mumbled) Bailey/ And so you will be communicating with them, where we are in the process, so they understand that this will be taken into account, right? Fosse/ Yes. Bailey/ Thanks. Hayek/ So is the sentence from that letter that this proposal will destroy our large, beautiful established trees premature? Fosse/ Yes. Hayek/ Okay. Fosse/ Yes, we don't know that. Hayek/ We don't know that that will happen. Okay. Correia/ And then have...have we...I know we talked about this before, um, and maybe there've been discussions in the past about working on developing a second access to that Kirkwood parking lot behind the Oral-B? Fosse/ Yes, I think that those conversations are still going on. Correia/ Those are still going on? Okay. And then the other, would we be working with the Sycamore Mall, or having commuter parking, so that students... Bailey/ They do do some of that. Correia/ They do do some of that? Okay. Bailey/ Because that is an okay place to, for students and for visitors to the campus, to park. Fosse/ And I do not know the status of...of that. Correia/ Okay. So in terms of the status of conversations about getting a second access to the Kirkwood parking lot, who is that? Are you working on that? Different department? Fosse/ Well, Planning...Dale's office has been involved to some extent. Is that correct, Dale? Helling/ Yeah, we've...we've had a meeting with the folks from Kirkwood, and uh, as this process goes along we'll be meeting with the other people in the corridor, and uh, businesses, and will be conveying some of that information too, and getting an update on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 3 that, but primarily, it's something between P&G and...and Kirkwood. That's where the conversation is occurring. Correia/ But I mean, if that's something that we feel like there should be a street, and that would alleviate...if we wanted to do less imposing on the neighborhood with...with widening the street, and trying to move the traffic away from the neighborhood, behind you know, into Mall Drive...I guess I would be interested in a bit more aggressive approach to that, to see if there are ways to minimize having to expand, uh, Lower Muscatine. I don't know where others are. Fosse/ The other thing that if...if we pursue that option further that we'll need to look more into is just what sort of capacity exists on Mall Drive because of where that drive would come in on the curve (coughing, unable to hear) Mall Drive and its proximity to the intersection. Those are all things that we'd need to flush out. Bailey/ Okay, any other questions or comments? O'Donnell/ Well, that would put a tremendous amount of traffic. Mall Drive goes around and it's...uh, curves. That one light there, that would just put a tremendous amount of traffic on that road. Bailey/ It goes by two schools. Correia/ Yeah. Move all the traffic... O'Donnell/ A great deal of it. Bailey/ I mean, my question was simply where we are. We're not here to solve some of the problems, but I'm sure we'll hear more about this as we go on. Fosse/ The key is, we're at the pre-design point, identifying issues now, and interests. Bailey/ Thanks. Champion/ I wanted to ask. Are you done with that one? Bailey/ Yes. ITEM 11. APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 2008 DUBUQUE /CHURCH STREET RADIUS IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS. Champion/ About l l ...this Church Street/Dubuque Street improvement. That's only on the west side of the intersection. Is that true? Wright/ That's correct. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 4 Champion/ Just wanted to make sure we weren't (mumbled) going to do. Wright/ Oh, don't worry! Bailey/ Oh, do you see any Northside people here tonight? We're fine! (laughter) Hayek/ That's your answer. Bailey/ Other agenda items? ITEM 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE BUDGETED POSITIONS IN THE REVENUE DIVISION OF THE FINANCE DEPARTMENT AND THE PARKING DIVISION OF THE PARKING AND TRANSIT DEPARTMENT BY DELETING ONE ACCOUNT CLERK -REVENUE POSITION AND CREATING ONE CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE -PARKING POSITION. Correia/ I have a question about agenda item...um, 21. Bailey/ And we will be deferring this item. Correia/ Oh, we are? Okay. Bailey/ Tomorrow night, to the May meeting. Some details need to be worked out. When we defer it, I also have some concerns and questions. Karr/ 21 is deferred? Bailey/ Yes. That's the parking thing, right? (several talking) Okay. Yeah. Okay, other agenda items? ITEM 12. AMENDING THE FY2008 OPERATING BUDGET Hayek/ Uh, 12, the amendment certification of the operating budget through the end of either March or April. Do we typically hear from someone on staff outlining those changes? Bailey/ Kevin will be here tomorrow night. Hayek/ Okay. Bailey/ So if you have specific questions, Kevin will be available tomorrow night at the public hearing, which I think is a good way to do it actually. Other agenda items? ITEM 23. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE SENIOR CENTER BOILER AND CHILLER REPLACEMENT PROJECT This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 5 Karr/ I believe we'll be deferring Item 23, as well, the Senior Center boiler? Bailey/ Deferring Item 23. Karr/ To May 13"' Bailey/ Yes. Anything else? If not, I'm going to keep us moving along because we have a long list. Okay. The TARP program changes. This is Item 24, agenda item 24. TARP Program Changes (Agenda Item #24): ITEM 24. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY AND PROCEDURAL MANUAL FOR THE GENERAL REHABILITATION AND IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM (GRIP). Powers/ Good evening. Uh, my name is David Powers. I am the Housing Rehab Specialist here for the City. Uh, I just wanted to talk to you briefly about our targeted area rehab program, where we're at, and where we're looking to take it. The program, uh, was implemented in 2001, as a result of a visual survey that some of our staff did in selected areas, neighborhoods. Um, it's targeted to fill a perceived gap in our housing rehab program, that being between the 80 and 110% of the median income for Iowa City. Um, it's more of a traditional home equity loan program. It's a straight 20-year, um, 4 %% loan, monthly payments, um, very successful up to this point. The demand for it has been steady. Uh, always have a waiting list, and the programs, or the projects that we do have all gone very well. I think our average project is about $25,000, um, we do this at the same time, obviously, that we run our...our federally funded program. So everything gets kind of piggybacked together. We run both concurrently -not on the same projects, obviously. Um, but very successful. As of late, we have heard from a lot of homeowners who have friends who have gone through the program or, you know, people talk, and uh, so there's been a lot of demand for the program outside of the five neighborhoods that were originally designated. We've decided, uh, as soon as that started really picking up in the last year or two, that we would prefer to do another survey of the city to kind of evaluate the demand, see what kind of a need there would be. So last summer, we...myself, Jeff Vanatter, the other Housing Rehab Specialist, two interns worked with us, to survey every single family house in Iowa City, uh, walking...good exercise, but uh, we went ahead, evaluated everything, compiled it. We had one of our interns, uh, put it into GIS so we could kind of see where, uh, where there were issues, where there weren't issues, and cross reference that with the income data from the census, and what that lead us to was, there's need for it pretty much all over the city. Obviously there are certain neighborhoods that would never qualify just based on income, but as far as housing need goes, it's pretty much city-wide. Uh, we evaluated the homes based on a set criteria, looking for problems just on the outside of the homes. Obviously we didn't go into any homes, but problems with the siding, the roofing, windows, things that could be seen from the public sidewalk that would be issues that need repair. Um, and based on that, there's not a huge problem in the city of Iowa City. Overall the houses are all in very good shape, but you can walk down any street and see, well, this house it's time for a paint job or (mumbled) should have been replaced, one of those things. Um, so what we're looking to do at this point is to open it up citywide, um, change the name of the program -obviously we can't call it "targeted" anymore. So it'll be a "general rehab and improvement program," GRIP. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 6 Champion/ Great idea! (several responding) People would, you know, not high income but (mumbled) all over town (mumbled). Karr/ You need your mic on, Connie. Champion/ Oh, sorry. Just... great idea! (laughter) Correia/ Well, and thanks for doing all that work, going and looking at all of the houses in town. I mean, I think that's good data to have, and to support the expansion. So.. . Powers/ It was good...it was good to have it done. The ones that I know of, to date, has ever done anything quite like that. So now that we have that data, I know, um, it can be used for other things, historic preservation, that sort of thing, so, it's good to have it. Bailey/ And so, after tomorrow night, I...I get the sense that this will pass, um, how will you publicize this? Powers/ Um, probably at first, uh, through, we usually put an insert in the water bills. Bailey/ Okay. Powers/ It's the most economical way of getting the word out. Uh, unfortunately, a lot of people don't go through those with any great detail. Bailey/ There would be that! Powers/ So we're going to try and get, uh, some press coverage on it. Hayek/ Is there any downside to this switch? Powers/ Not that we've seen so far. Not that we can... Long/ Put liens on the property so if someone doesn't pay us back, we'll...we have a lien on the property. Powers/ And so far, since 2001, we haven't had anybody default. Bailey/ That's really impressive. I don't think there are many programs out there. Champion/ This is a program who's income falls within a little higher range than a lot of our money goes for, but they might not qualify for a bank loan (mumbled). I think it serves a great purpose. Bailey/ Oh, right, and it keeps our housing stock...it helps keep our housing stock up, and I think it's really smart. Wright/ Look at the neighborhood association newsletters too as a good source of public... Powers/ We've done that in the past, as well. Yep. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 7 Bailey/ Good. Wrighd Get a grip campaign! (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ Any other questions for David? Thanks. Okay, Steve. CDBG/Home Funding Recommendations (IP2 of 4/24 Info Pkt): Long/ Well, I'm Steve Long, Community Development Coordinator, many of you know. Tracy Hightshoe and Jerry Anthony are here, as well, and Jerry's the Chair of the Housing and Community Development Commission. So we're here tonight to talk about the recommendations that the Housing and Community Development Commission made a couple weeks ago. Right now we're in the middle of our 30-day public comment period, which expires on May 12"', and we're back at your meeting on May 13`h asking for your approval. Just wanted to recognize Commission Members who spent hours and hours going over the applications and critiquing each application. Just to give you an idea of what the Commission...how many, how much time they spend on it, um, the applications go out in December of every year, and they're due back to the City in January. Then we make site visits to all the projects that actually have a site located, and the applicants make presentations to the Commission. Then the Commission ranks each application, and then makes a funding recommendation. Then they meet for one meeting to discuss why there might be some discrepancies, why is one project rated 60 points, another one with 100 points. Then they actually get together for the final meeting, and talk about the recommendations. Just a summary of this year's projects: we had 27 applications, um, about $3.5 million in requests, and we only had about $1.5 million, which is pretty typical, but this year we had a little more leverage than...than normal. Our $1.5 million is going to leverage over $11 million in outside funding. Just kind of go over the...we're going to create 47 new units of affordable rental housing, provide 13 households with tenant-based rent assistance or TBRA, as some people may know it, homeownership opportunities for another 31 families, and then housing rehab assistance for 28 households, improvements to six non-profit facilities, and assist over 5,500 low-income persons with services, and hope to provide financial assistance to three small businesses. So I'll just go through the different projects...quickly. We've got about $2.3 million in requests for housing projects. And these are the projects that were recommended for funding. Southgate Development, it's hard to believe this wasn't that long ago. Champion/ It might have been today! (laughter and several talking) Long/ Yeah, true! Bailey/ Maybe tonight! Long/ Um, they're looking to convert their property on Broadway to provide homeownership opportunities, and they requested $200,000 and the Commission recommended $80,000 to assist up to twelve households for downpayment assistance to purchase their own homes, and they're targeting households under 60% of the area median income. The Housing Fellowship requested CHDO operating expenses, and the CHDO is a community housing development organization. I'll try not to use...we work with HUD money so there's a lot of acronyms (mumbled). This is basically funds to help them with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 8 operating expenses, um, some...like to help pay for an accountant, for instance, just to operate their agency. IIh, this is a new category, I guess you'd call it. It's a CHDO predevelopment loan. They requested $15,000 and the Commission recommended $13,000, and that's to pay for predevelopment expenses for low-income housing tax credit application. And that's a HUD...that's an allowable, something we've never done before, but HUD strongly encourages that we provide predevelopment loans. The Housing Fellowship also applied for funds to purchase land to construct affordable rental homes, targeted to persons 31 to 50% of the area median income. This again would be part of a tax credit project. HACAP was awarded funds to purchase one unit for transitional housing. ISIS Investments is a private, for-profit, and they were awarded funds to acquire two existing homes in the community, and then rent them out as affordable rental housing. Chauncey Swan Limited Partnership is a private entity who would like to construct affordable rental housing on the City-owned property just...uh, a block from here, on the corner of Gilbert and College Street. They're requesting funds for a predevelopment loan to do an environmental review. As we know, there used to be a gas station on that site, um, and then do some site planning. There'll be up to 40 units there. Dolphin International is another private corporation. They currently own Lakeside Apartments, and they are looking to convert Lakeside Apartments into homeowner...into condominiums. Right now there's 401 rental units at Lakeside. They would like to combine some units and create 358, uh, condominiums. So they're looking for downpayment assistance funds, and the Commission recommended $68,000. The Iowa City Housing Authority applied for funds for tenant based rent assistance, which is just like it sounds. It's um, it's similar to their voucher program,. where they assist home...or renters with their rental payments. They received $60,000.. ,or are recommended to receive $60,000. Iowa City Housing Authority also applied for funds for downpayment assistance, and HCDC recommended $107,500 to assist up to 11 homeowners, uh, purchase homes. I'm going to go into the public service category, and that's generally our most competitive, because we have...HUD restricts the amount of money that we can spend in this category, and that's primarily operational funds...fornnn-profits. (mumbled) list of who applied. Local Foods Connection, recommended $1,500, and they provide...they distribute fresh, organic food to low-income residents of Iowa City. Shelter House requested funds for operational funds for an outreach services coordinator, and this also matches their HUD grant, the STAR program. Compeer requested funds for a part-time director; recommended $1,000. Extend the Dream Foundation, $1,000 to help pay for a consultant to assist them with, uh, fiscal management. The ARC of Southeast Iowa also received $1,000 for supportive employment services (coughing, unable to hear) with disabilities. And the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic, uh, $2,500 for operational funds for a pharmacy technician. MECCA, uh, received $1,000 for operational funds to support some group activities for HN/Aids clients. Then going to public facilities, which is, uh, assisting non-profits with their actual physical facilities, and our list who applied. $571,000 there. MECCA requested $48,000...$48,500 to renovate, to paint, renovate the playground and the restrooms. We don't normally have pictures of urinals, but it was in pretty rough shape. So the Commission received, or asked $11,400 to assist with the restroom renovation. ARC of Southeast Iowa, uh, $3,000 to improve their exterior lighting, in the back, and to add an alarm system to the new facility on Muscatine Avenue. Iowa City Free Medical Clinic is currently leasing their facility in Towncrest, and the HCDC recommended $90,000...$90,772 to assist with the acquisition of the facility. Mark Twain Elementary, the recommendation was $40,000 to assist with new playground equipment. Their current playground equipment is original to the building. Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County, had some renovation of their Broadway This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 9 Center, and they've requested $54,200 and the Commission decided the highest, um, priority was to replace the windows and awarded $14,600. Domestic Violence Shelter, going to replace privacy fencing, uh, repair the restrooms, and install a security monitor. This is their front door...at the front door, so you can see who's waiting outside. (mumbled) We got a few projects that were not recommended for funding. There's four here. Dolphin International as Lakeside, a playground at Lakeside Apartments, or Lake Pointe Enclave, as it's called now. Extend the Dream Foundation with some rehab work for their F Street facility. (mumbled) transportation expenses for clients to programs, and the Visiting Nurse Association with some operational funding. (mumbled) Just like this picture because they're sitting in the little chairs at Mark Twain Elementary (laughter). Those are the recommendations. If you had questions about the budget. Champion/ I thought I read, uh, that there was some talk about combining all the assistance for downpayments in one pot, rather than specific projects. Did I read that in here? (several talking) Bailey/ It was aletter -you're touching it. That very thing. Champion/ I think that sounds like a great idea. Are you talking about pursuing that at all, rather than project-specific? Correia/ It wasn't an application, it was an idea that came up later? 'T'here wasn't an application for one...one? Long/ No. We had three downpayment assistance applications. The Commission chose to fund all three. Anthony/ And this idea came up... Bailey/ You're going to need a mic. Anthony/ This idea of combining everything came up after the applications closed, and it was initiated by one of the three, um, we didn't see much support for this idea from the other two (mumbled), but in future it might be an idea worthwhile...worth pursuing, uh, but before the applications (mumbled) Bailey/ So it could come in as an application... Anthony/ Yeah. Bailey/ Okay. That makes sense. Champion/ It sounds like a really good idea to me. (mumbled) Correia/ But we have...in the past, there has been such a effort, right? Hills Bank or, not Hills Bank but... Long/ Hills Bank ran a program with the City, and it was cancelled last year. Correia/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 10 Long/ It wasn't...HUD asked us to return the money. It wasn't spent. Correia/ And so what were some of the problems that.. . Long/ Um.. . Correia/ ...that occurred? Long/ To be honest...well, what Hills Bank told me was that the, um, lending...the lending environment has changed since that program was... Correia/ Okay. Long/ ...banks were a little more flexible and they were lending up to 100%. Correia/ Oh, so they didn't need the downpayment assistance to help people, become homeowners. Long/ Yes. That's what Hills Bank told me. Correia/ Oh, okay. Hightshoe/ ...with our federal funds for home-buyer assistance. Correia/ Right. Hightshoe/ You still have to get clearance... Correia/ Right. Hightshoe/ ...so for homes built before 1978, the homeowner would have to...someone would have to incur the testing cost and if there's any problems identified, you'd have to mitigate or you have to stabilize for lead, which is expensive, so it could be you'd actually spend more on correcting for lead or stabilizing lead than you would on the downpayment assistance. Correia/ Right, and so is that what some of the current....because w1Ren L ..when you were just doing the thing...how many households were going to be helped with $68,000 from Dolphin, eight homeowners, that's you know around $8,OOd a homeowner. Is that downpayment assistance going to go to the homeowner to play down what they're going to need to mortgage, or is part of that lead mitigation? Do ylou know what I'm saying? Hightshoe/ I think it's two different...when you're talking about Southgate and um, Lakeside, when they do the rehab, they'll be doing the rehab and they~~ll know they have to mitigate for lead and then they'll be clearance testing it. So before v~je even offer, or before our homeowners offer downpayment assistance, that unit has already been clearance tested, and it's already safe, so there's no extra cost for the homeowner, for those two projects, as they'll already have their clearance test, and the developer will bear those expenses. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 11 Correia/ Okay! Hightshoe/ But with downpayment assistance just open general citywide, you have the problem of if there's a unit before 1978, then you have to test for lead and you'd have to do some paint stabilization measures. Correia/ And that seems to be kind of a big barrier. Hightshoe/ It could be costly. Correia/ Especially a lot of the homes that are affordable are from before 1978. (both talking) Right, and the Iowa Finance Authority, they have...their downpayment assistance program for first time home buyers, that doesn't have a restriction, it's different money? Right. So there are first time home buyer assistance programs available. Long/ I haven't checked the IFA website lately, but those funds are pretty limited. They're not always there. I think they're maybe $1,000 a home, sometimes $2,500. Correia/ Yeah, I was thinking it was $2,500. Bailey/ So, I want to focus on a project that may be a challenge, um, just because we haven't talked about what we're going to do with the particular property, which is the Chauncey Swan rental housing, and as you know, as I mentioned to you, we have that scheduled for a work session in June, um, and it's my inclination that we would want to take this off the list because of how I understand the funding (coughing, unable to hear) and so if you can walk us through. If we would award this, what would happen? Long/ Well, you award it as it stands now with...with Home Investment Partnership funds. When you award Home funds to a site, you tie affordable housing to that site. So, if we award the funds to the project, that...and the project does not proceed, that developer would have to pay that money back to the City. If we award the funds to that project and the project does proceed, we would have to construct affordable rental housing on that property within five years. Bailey/ So... Wilburn/ So it's locked in by statute, or by administrative code? Long/ Right, it's a statutory requirement. Bailey/ So if we approve this on May 13`", we are basically...there's really no need for discussion in June about that property, because we have indicated that we have interest in proceeding in some kind of affordable housing on this site. Or, we're going to ask...if we move ahead with this project and decide not to do affordable housing on that site, that particular developer would need to pay the City back. Hightshoe/ The developer or the City. We called HUD today to confirm, um, the money has to be paid back to HUD. Bailey/ The money would have to be paid, okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 12 Hightshoe/ ...so either the City has to pay it back, or the developer. Typically we pass it on to the developer (mumbled). Long/ So it's really a policy question you would have to make. Bailey/ Right. And I would suggest that we would want to remove this project. Not that it's a bad idea, and explore it perhaps in our June discussion as one of the ideas that's come forward for this site, but not necessarily tie funding to it at this time, until we make a policy decision about that particular property. What do others think? Hayek/ I agree with that. I mean, we haven't begun a conversation about what to do at this site, and there are a variety of options before us. It just doesn't seem...it seems like it's a premature move, um, and if there's any chance that the $18,000 would have to be repaid to HUD, is... Hightshoe/ Our Home... Hayek/ Okay, so it's not like we would lose those... Hightshoe/ No, we don't lose it. We just have to pay it back. Bailey/ So, other comments about that...how we would like to proceed with this? Wright/ Given the flexibility that we would have, the City would not be out anything, as I'm understanding this. Is that correct? If...if that were not to be part of aloes-income development? Wilburn/ Well, there's potentially a political potential question related to that, if...if we award, if we give the award with the intent whether the developer or not, um, is willing to...well, I guess they would pay the City back, but the question is, are there, it's a political question whether that's a precedent you wish to set or, um, you know, could that potentially use the, again, political pressure that, uh, well, we were wanting to put...I'm not saying this is what the developer would do, but it could be something (mumbled) put housing up there now if the City (mumbled) putting a Rec Center up there, a park or whatever. So it's more of a (several talking) potential precedent setting type thing, and/or political. Bailey/ Or is this how we make decisions about our property that somebody brings forth something we move...we step into it and then we find ourselves going in a direction, perhaps, that we hadn't fully explored. Hayek/ You also have the...the use of that money. If we award the $18,000 and in a year or two or three or some time down the road within the HUD parameters we decide against it, the money has to be repaid and then used for a future project, that $18,000 can't be used now for the purposes (mumbled) Bailey/ So is there a general sense that we would like to remove this... O'Donnell/ I would like to remove it. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 13 Bailey/ Um, and then you want us to do something with the money? Correia/ Well, I (laughing, several talking) I have some ideas about that. Um, when I, so when I look at, in the housing projects what we're supporting is we have support for six rental, one transitional, and 31 homeownership, and I'm interested in, I mean, I think that our housing market analysis indicates a greater need for rental, multi-family rental, over homeownership, not that homeownership isn't needed. I mean, there's evidence to suggest that, um, but I'm interested in trying to support additional rental options, um, particularly those applications that are coming forward that are attempting to attract additional dollars outside Iowa City, into Iowa City. Um, in conversation with the Housing Fellowship, I believe that application is...involves a tax credit, they're making a tax credit application to bring a million...like $1.7 million in tax credit into Iowa City, and so I'm thinking about, you know, that biggest bang for your buck kind of thing, um, pared with...we have information that says we need additional rental through findings from our market analysis. So, I mean, I'd like to see some of the homeownership moved to the, um, moved to rental, rental housing, um, you know, as I wasn't part of the Commission, um, given that one of the applicants is a program of the City, um, the Housing Authority, I mean, I feel most comfortable saying, um, let's move that homeownership funds into the rental housing, um, we have funds in the Housing Authority that have been recycled funds that we're using for homeownership, um, I'd like to see us have a conversation of the Council about how much dollars are in there, how can we use those dollars for homeownership, and some of the issues that have been identified in our housing market analysis, um, but I'd like to see...more support for the rental, especially rental that's leveraging significant dollars back. Bailey/ So are you talking about taking...no, you're talking first of all of moving the $18,000 to Housing Fellowship. Correia/ Yeah. Bailey/ To rental, because it's rental to rental, which makes sense. Correia/ Yep. Bailey/ Um, and then you're talking about taking, um, dollars from the Housing Authority homeownership, which is $107,000. What portion of that? All? Correia/ Uh-huh. Champion/ I'm not willing to do that. Correia/ Because then we're still getting eight, um, ten, um... Bailey/ And you're suggesting that the Housing Authority has a fund already that could make up that $107,000, which is... Correia/ Well, there's a few things. I mean, we're still getting 22 units of homeownership assistance through Dolphin International, Southgate, and...and, um, isn't there a third one? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 14 Bailey/ The Housing Fellowship, right? Correia/ Southgate... Bailey/ Southgate and Dolphin. Correia/ So 20...we're getting 20 homeownership units through the Southgate and Dolphin. We do, I mean, we're doing homeownership opportunities right now through the Housing Authority out at Longfellow. I mean, we're putting four units in there, um, the self- sufficiency program that the Housing Authority operates is a program that assists folks with moving to homeownership through, um, as they increase earnings money goes in to savings accounts, the training program, I mean, I think that there are...we are through the Housing Authority program, supporting homeownership opportunities, at a fairly significant level, and I think we haven't looked at, okay, what do we have in the Housing Authority, I'll just call it affordable housing fund that is from the sale of public housing units that is recycled back into housing opportunities, that we have been using for homeownership. I think we have a chance to look at that and say, okay, how do we want to support homeownership opportunities with that, but use these federal funds to let that leverage other federal funds into our community to meet the needs that we have identified in our report, that still gives us significant homeownership, helping 20 households, um, but being able to increase more rental homes help from six to, I'm not sure how many that would get us, but um, six seems like a paltry amount compared...when we have the need and we know how much more expensive it is. Bailey/ Well, and I just think it makes sense to start doing something in response to our study. And this seems like a small step, um, and it is our program after all so it seems like it makes sense to do it with our program, I mean, with money that would go to our program, and then further investigate what we have in our program to be able to do the homeownership. That makes a lot of sense to me, so I'd be interested in looking at that. Are others? Wright/ I would, as well, and I particularly like the notion of...of the additional leverage of dollars. It just makes a lot of sense. Bailey/ Is anybody else interested? Ross? Connie, you said you... Champion/ I'm not interested. Bailey/ Oh, come on! (laughter) WrighU Nudge a little further. Bailey/ Because we'll have a continued discussion about the money that we have in the fund. I don't think that...I don't think that we're not looking at homeownership. Champion/ How much...have we used our money yearly for homeownership? Correia/ From the Housing Authority? Well, I mean, the last two and a half years that I've been on Council, we have developed homes out at Longfellow, um, and those are those dollars, and I think there's some downpayment assistance, and again, the support that the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. April 28, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 15 Housing, that our Housing Authority gives to the family self-sufficiency program that helps folks save money, has...there's an incredible number of people that have been able to buy homes, with money that they saved, because they increased their income and (several talking) Bailey/ ...the Housing Fellowship is leveraging how much? Tax credit? Correia/ Actually $1.7 million is when 1 talked with them in the tax credit amount. Wilburn/ Well, I'm potentially interested because of that leveraging, but I'd want to have an opportunity, um, hearing this tonight to discuss with the Housing Authority Director. I don't...process as far as I don't think, in my opinion, tonight would be the night, because they're an applicant, and the other applicants wouldn't be afforded an opportunity to speak tonight, so... Bailey/ And we wanted to do this discussion because the comment period wasn't over, so if there was substantive changes, those would be out there and we would get response, and then we could change it back, I guess, on the 13`h. Is that... Long/ You have until May 13`", yes. Bailey/ So that would be a one way to do it, is to sort of a draft change. See what kind of responses we get. I don't know how else, procedurally, this could possibly be done. Any other thoughts? Long/ Come back May 12`h Bailey/ Sure. Absolutely. Wilburn/ There's the Housing Authority Director sitting in the audience, and I suspect that he'll follow up with any and all of us between now and then. Since we're...because we're not talking about taking this away from, uh, we're talking about reallocating from, um, from that as opposed to, I mean, I doubt that if we give this to any other, if we award this to other organizations that are going to complain, so since we're talking about the one here, um, I would recommend leaving it the same and again, that's out there, the ideas out there. It'll give us some time to (mumbled) Champion/ I'm sorry, Ross. What are you saying? To do it or not do it? Wilburn/ Leave...leave it as it is. Bailey/ He's considering it. Wilburn/ ...I mean, if there's, obviously if there's four then you can go ahead and do what you want, but it would give, uh, um, it would give any of us a chance to speak with the Housing Authority Director just to talk about impact and... O'Donnell/ I agree with that. Bailey/ Matt, you had a comment? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 16 Hayek/ I'm inclined to follow Ross' comments, um... Wilburn/ Again, I...the leveraging of the dollars is an interest, but again (mumbled) Hayek/ And I'd also...I'm inclined to follow Ross', uh, comments, and I would also, I'd like us to consider applying those $18,000 we freed up to the, uh, Lake Pointe Enclave, uh, project, um, and the project manager approached me and showed me what they're doing down there and it's...it seems to me like a fairly bold, uh, initiative, and if they reach the $90,000 to $95,000 funding range, they can fully fund the first phase of...of this work, uh, they were awarded $68,000, you know, recommended $68,000 by, uh, HCDC and that $18,000 would help toward getting 100% funding for that first phase. I think it's a fairly exciting project. Correia/ It is exciting. I'm not interested in that because we have...we're...at this point with these recommendations we are supporting homeownership at the detriment of supporting rental housing, and we have information that tells us that we need rental housing more than we need, um, homeownership, and we're significantly supporting homeownership, which I think is great. We're getting these applications, but, um, I would like...using the data that we have, and the limited resources of this, these federal funds, that we should...I think we should be targeting those resources towards the need that has been identified as the greater need, that we know costs more, um, and is being, um, is being, um, conducted, I mean, developed by local non-profit groups. Wright/ Um, given that we've got, as you say, we've got the data we need to start paying attention to our own housing market analysis. I would just as soon see that go to rental. Bailey/ How `bout you? I mean, I'd like to listen to the report we have. We're, I mean, we're doing further study on it, and I would like to be able to do something that would indicate that we've read it. Champion/ I'd like to hear from both of these...what they think. I'm really torn. I think the idea of homeownership has so much appeal to me, and I think a lot of people can't do it without this kind of assistance, and then...I mean, it's the American dream, and.. . Wright/ ...just a decent place to rent sometimes. Correia/ It's a basic need. Bailey/ So, what we do know is that Chauncey Swan project is not on the list, and that we have $18,000 to allocate, and I suppose we'll talk about this again on the 12"'. Wilburn/ And that part I would like to see go towards the rental. It's the other question about... Bailey/ So, you would put the $18,000 to the rental? Wilburn/ Yeah. Bailey/ Okay, so that's four of us. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 28, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 17 Correia/ And just given what we, and I'll just to...give a further analysis, given the way we...the way we, uh, the allocation that we have right now helps, um, 37 homes, and so 31 being homeowner and six being rental, and that's, then 16%, um, is what we're getting as rentals, I mean, I just think looking at percentages that that percent should be... Long/ You mean permanent rental, because tenant based rent assistance... Correia/ I wasn't even talking about that. I was only talking about the permanent, yep. Bailey/ So there is a majority who would be interested in reallocating the $18,000, and I assume we're talking about the Housing Fellowship because of the tax credits? Correia/ Yep. Bailey/ Okay, so that would be a change that, um, okay, other comments about this presentation? I have a question. Um, regarding public service projects, uh, I don't even know how to ask. You're funding a lot of projects for a little amount of money and nothing fully funded. Um, did the Committee consider funding, actually fully funding just a fewer number of projects. It seems more strategic to do that, and I know that you're trying to make a lot of money go, or a little money go farther, but it doesn't seem as effective. And I'm asking Jerry to speak on behalf of the Committee. (laughter) Anthony/ This is the most difficult category to... Bailey/ Of course it is! Anthony/ ...and uh, yes, we did reject a couple, um, because we felt we just couldn't spare any funds for them, um, and I think the informal policy that we adopted was to give at least a thousand bucks, $1,000 to each of the (mumbled) Bailey/ I think you might want to... Hayek/ It's a perennial dilemma that..: Bailey/ I think it's a problem, I mean, I think we need to get a little bit more strategic with our funding ofnon-profits, and I just think...I don't know what the answer is. I mean, it's a constant problem for funders, but (mumbled) rarely gets anything done very well or very quickly. Hayek/ But if you're a...an agency that faces either a thousand dollars or no dollars, you can indicate to the Commission, as I'm sure these places do, and they did when I was on the Commission and it's better than nothing. Bailey/ Right, it's better than nothing, but they also have to (coughing, unable to hear) time and money, you know, raising additional funds, and the length of time it takes to get a simple project done is multiplied, you know, and some of these projects probably never get done, um, and is there a policy or do we have a policy that...we don't have a policy apparently that if we fund them through Aid to Agencies that they do not apply to this. (several talking) Okay. All right. Well, think on it some more. That's my suggestion. ] don't know if anybody else has... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 ~ Special City Council Work Session Page 18 Champion/ Well, my...I sort of agree with you, Regenia. I also wonder, a lot of this is funding operations. It's not funding like a new air conditioning unit or... Bailey/ Right. Champion/ ... (mumbled) Bailey/ But it's funding part of salary, I mean, Compeer is operations that goes to a part-time person. Wow. That's a real part-time person. (several talking) Right. Hayek/ It's not their only source of funding. Bailey/ Sure, but... Wright/ It's a fragment of the... Bailey/ I know how it works. Believe me. I do know how this works. I just say that I don't...I think we need to relook at the approach. Apparently you do this every year, but it's not very strategic. And then the Twain Elementary. Wright/ I was going to bring that one up. Bailey/ That's just horrible that the School District is not funding this. Wright/ ...policy is just... Correia/ I tried calling a School Board Member this afternoon but didn't...wasn't able to get through. Um, do we know if the new SILO money can be, maybe you know. Champion/ I asked one of `em. Correia! Can it be used for playground equipment? Champion/ I asked one of `em once, could you spare a little bit of that sales tax money... Correia/ Oh, you did? And what'd they say? Champion/ They said they didn't know yet. Correia/ Oh, okay. Champion/ Well, I need to go to a School Board meeting to talk about (several talking) I mean, even though...the School doesn't finance playground equipment, it's done through PTA's or Parent Association. When you have a school with the economic level of Mark Twain, it's never going to get funded. Wright/ These huge inequities. (several talking) Bailey/ ...and we shouldn't have to be funding... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 19 Champion/ I can promise you I will go to a School Board meeting. Bailey/ Okay, all right. Champion/ Because it really drives me nuts. Bailey/ Will you go before May 12`"~ Champion/ Yes. Wright/ This is an issue every year with the PIN grants, as well. Bailey/ Yes. Wright/ So many of the PIN grant dollars end up going for playground equipment, to support the school's goal of a physically fit student body. Champion/ ...fund playgrounds, but now that they have the sales tax and the bids are coming in lower than expected. I think they could take some low-income schools and provide some essential playground equipment, not luxury playground equipment, but you look at some of the schools. You know, I use the school playgrounds as parks for my grandchildren because they're better than most of the parks. Bailey/ Well, and that would be a partnership opportunity, which would be fine, but to come to us to fund...to replace equipment that's been there since the beginning of the school, that's just...that's... Wright/ Yeah, the District doesn't step up even for a percentage of this. Champion/ Uh-huh. Bailey/ That's ridiculous. Those are just our thoughts! (laughter) Hightshoe/ I could tell you what they told us when we funded Grant Wood playground. (both talking) ...District policy that District funds did not go for playgrounds, and it's up to the Parent-Teacher Organization, or PTA, to fund it. Wright/ That's been their policy for a long time. Champion/ That's always been the policy. Correia/ Maybe we should submit a letter saying they should have a policy that addresses the economic.. . Bailey/ Well, Connie will go talk to them and she can take a letter on our behalf. Wrightl I think that would be a terrific idea. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 20 Bailey/ Yep. I don't want to see this, I mean, it's obviously probably used as a neighborhood playground. I wouldn't want to see it. Champion/ There's only one piece of playground equipment there. Bailey/ It looks very dangerous! Hightshoe/ They're removing all those silver, the, you know, the older equipment. Correia/ I was going to say, things that we all...(several talking) Bailey/ Well, I didn't necessarily want to change that. I just think it's horrible. Wright/ I don't want to change it this year, but I'd certainly like to look at this in the future with a jaundiced eye. Champion/ Well, also I thought maybe Parks and Rec might want to get involved, because there really isn't a park around there either. Bailey/ That's true. Champion/ And so, I mean, this could be a joint project with the School District and Parks and Rec, kind of like we have over at, uh.. . Bailey/ Well, yeah....okay. Champion/ All right. I'll do it. Bailey/ Thank you, Connie. Champion/ I'll love to do it actually. (several talking and laughing) Bailey/ Okay, any other...any other questions or comments for Steve, Tracy or Jerry? Champion/ L..you did a great job. Bailey/ Thank you. And thanks to the, and thank you to the Commission. I mean, we saw the minutes, we saw what time you got out of meetings, so, yes, it's a lot of work. Wright) Thank you. Bailey/ Thank you. We're all good? All right. Chief? The floor is yours. Police Policy on Traffic Counts: Hargadine/ Good evening, Sam Hargadine, Iowa City Police Department. Um, few weeks back we had a supervisor who, uh, sent an email to those on his watch, and um, it was to address available time, um, that was not spent on a dispatched call. Every officer has, um, can't predict what type of calls or the amount of time spent on calls every day, um, but there is a small window of time when they're not on dispatched calls or report This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 21 writing, and um, we're able to track that by watch and by officer, and as um, uh, in this particular case you notice that the amount of available time had gone up, the amount of, uh, traffic contacts had gone down, so he, uh, issued a, um, directive that he would like to see more traffic contacts, more community policing type of activities like foot patrol, more business, open business check contacts. Um, the, uh, this was sent out via email, within the department, uh, probably one of the officers emailed that to a member of the local press, and it, uh, made it to the front page. Um.. . Champion/ Made it to my phone too! (laughter) Hargadine/ Did it? I've received several calls and emails on it as well. Champion/ Yeah. Hargadine/ And, um, there are those that even prior to the, um, the incident, there are those that thought that we have a quota system all along. There are those that, um, think that you as a Council issue me directives to come up with so many PAULA's every year, and that's...as you know, that's not the case. Um, but there's times when perception gets out of hand and...and becomes people's reality. So, that's why I wrote the, uh, letter to the editor, and at that point, I'll open up for questions. Correia/ So, will you analyze over the next, I don't...six months. So obviously there was data that suggested the officers were being lackadaisical...I don't know if that is the right type of word, and so this was an idea to just make sure they're doing their job, and so... Hargadine/ Yeah, it was an incentive. Just, it's time to get busy. Now, there are times when, you can't lump it into an entire watch. Uh, there may be one or two that you have to motivate, and, um, if for instance an officer is, spends a lot of time doing TIPS training and, um, report writing and has a high number of felony arrests, and it's clearly documented that he has, he or she has no available time, then traffic contacts is a non- issue, because it's, you can document. But if there are nothing but zeros in all those categories, and this particular commander expects to see something for, um, the salary that we're paying. And it's...it, um, there was no mandate that tickets be written. That would be a quota. Champion/ Okay. Hargadine/ Um, the difference being is contacts. If you see a violation, whether it be equipment, um, speed, running a stop sign or a red light, um, there...you know, we receive a lot of, um, complaints about traffic in the neighborhoods and people running stop signs, and that's just part of, um, part one of the problems that...that, uh, comes up, and as officers see this, we expect them to make some type of contact, whether it be a verbal warning, written warning, or issuing a summons. Champion/ Okay, well, to me the ideal police force would be zero, zero, zero, zero because that means there's nothing bad happening. But I...I think there's a feeling out in the community that there's a quota now, so I may be driving down the street and I'm going to get stopped if I slow and go. I mean, maybe you should be (mumbled), but, um, I think the perception out there, and I'm not saying with everybody, is that there is a quota and now you have to make so many traffic stops and make so many tickets, so that's the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 28, 2008. April 28, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 22 perception, and like you say, the perception that we demand all these PAULA's is out there also, and so I just think it's that kind of a memo, really, put people on fire (mumbled). Hargadine/ Not if they read it. Champion/ I know, people don't read it. (laughter) Hargadine/ Well, I...um... Champion/ You know, they talk to somebody next door and.. . Correia/ So is there, is there an issue, is there a moral issue in the department, is it something, I mean, you know, an email that goes out to your staff that ends up getting forwarded to, um, the press signifies that maybe there's a moral issue, um, somebody wanting to, you know.. . Hargadine/ I suspect we're talking about one person. Um, because the Union also looked at it, and they, and they discussed it with their Counsel, and uh, they voted that it wasn't an issue. Correia/ Okay. Hargadine/ So, um, as far as moral, that's a moving target. Um, clearly, um, you know, there are those that, uh, don't like having a boss, and um, one of the things about police work is it's a very independent occupation. You can go out for eight hours and you don't have to produce, you know, so many widgets. You can come back at the end of your watch. Um, this particular...you know, we wanted to see something that, as a watch, and that is an issue in Iowa City. We get a lot of complaints, um, bicyclists, pedestrians, motorists, um, traffic safety is...is part of the... Correia/ So you're saying we're getting complaints, so then we should be seeing that our, that there would be numbers attached to officers having traffic stops. Is that what you're saying? Champion/ Well, if we...(several talking) Hargadine/ That's how we address the issues, is stepped up enforcement. Champion/ I mean, that's how you control it too. O'Donnell/ By stepping up enforcement, you're talking about more contacts, and that's... Hargadine/ Absolutely. O'Donnell/ If you read beyond the headlines, I mean, that's what you had to do. I mean, it certainly didn't seem like a quota to me. It's just making contact, and uh, you know, that's just basically a policeman's responsibility and um, I...I didn't have any problem with that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 23 Hargadine/ If we had an increase in armed robberies at convenience stores, then we're going to issue probably a directive that says `we want you in those businesses more often.' It's the same thing. Wright/ Personally I think it's a...a good policy. I like it. I...if people weren't providing cause for contacts, it wouldn't be an issue. (several talking) Champion/ I don't think it's an issue either, but I think there are people out there who think it is. Bailey/ I just wanted to make sure... Hargadine/ ...and I think those were there before, as well, Connie. Champion/ No, I appreciate, I just, even though I read your letter to the editor, I just needed to hear it, you know, we're not really having quotas. Hargadine/ We do not. There was not a quota before. There's not a quota now, and um, you know, overall, I think our traffic, I know our OWI's are down, because of the...I mean, they're still there, but just the arrests are down. Um, it's not because they've gone away. Uh, just because of the time that officers are available has gone down, so... Bailey/ Okay, are there any other questions for the Chief? I mean, I think we just wanted to check in to see we fully understood what was going on. Wright/ I think it's terrific. Bailey/ Go ahead, Amy. Correia/ I just wondered, do we keep data on, um, to be able to assess for racial profiling? Hargadine/ Yes. We are the only department in the state of Iowa that tracks that. Correia/ Because that might be something we'd look at to make sure that this policy isn't having an unintended consequence of increasing... Hargadine/ That data has been there for...years. Wilburn/ Time...I think we were one of maybe three departments, three cities that collected that. (several talking) Champion/ Appreciate you coming. Bailey/ Okay, anything else? Appreciate your time. Hargadine/ Thanks. Champion/ Now comes the.... Bailey/ Are we still good? No breaks? (several talking) We are... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 24 Fosse/ ...get the technology fired up. Bailey/ Oh, okay. (several talking) Allen Maintenance Policy (IP3 of 4/24 Info Pkt): Fosse/ (several talking at once) ...see the Mercy parking ramp in the background. Yeah, this one's in that awkward state that's in between paving and gravel. (several talking) Yes! This is the one! Bailey/ Okay. Fosse/ Get started? Bailey/ Yes. Fosse/ Oh, we hear about alleys year-round from people, but this is...is the time of year when we hear the most, and that's because when frost goes out of the ground, the pavement, if there isn't pavement there or the gravel, uh, gets squishy and... and we have drainage problems, so we hear a lot from people, and that's generated an interest on your part, and I put together a memo, uh, summarizing our alley...our policy on alleys as it exists. And...and talking to my predecessor, this is something that he struggled with for close to 30 years. It doesn't lend itself to good solutions, but let's go ahead and talk about what we've got. Uh, when you look at alleys, there's really two aspects of our policy. That is how do we take care of what's out there, and then secondly, how do we improve it, that is to pave it. What mechanisms are in place to do that. And let's talk about taking care of what's out there first, and um, this is the...who called it the Alley of Death? (several talking) Thanks, Mike. (laughter) Um, this is two blocks north of here, and this is the one that goes by John's Grocery and...and they, incidentally, have done a very nice job of paving that portion that's abutting their property. It's a remainder, and you can see here that it's in that awkward state where it's not really paving any more, but it's...it's not gravel either, so it doesn't lend itself to asphalt patching or to the techniques that we use to maintain gravel alleys. It's, uh, just in very tough shape, and that's looking from the other direction there. Um, and...and also let me talk a little bit about snow plowing, as well, because that's something that comes up, and...and alleys are our lowest priority on snow plowing, and in most cases, we don't make it into the alleys for one of two reasons. One is we're into the next storm already, or the, uh, alleys are already so packed because of the traffic that running a blade over it just kind of slides over the top. Um, my predecessor shared with me some...some of their experiments in the past at getting in alleys sooner, and one of the problems is...is, uh, the garage doors that are close to the alley can get snow piled against them and especially if it's the kind that open out, they can't get open. Backing up a slide, you'll see there's window wells and...and that sort of thing along an alley, and you can literally kill somebody's window well and break their windows when you plow an alley. So there's certain challenges there. Um, drainage is a problem in alleys, and it tends to get worse as we add additional materials over the years, as people call and request material, and...and let me just back up a moment and note that, uh, when alleys do get in poor shape, our policy is that if people pay for the rock at the quarry, we'll go get it and spread it on the alley. So it costs $8.00 a ton and we pay for the hauling, the spreading, the grading, that sort of thing, but as the surface of the alley builds up, it...it's more difficult for water to flow across it, so some natural drainage This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 25 patterns are interrupted and then, uh, you begin to have problems like this and it's rare that you'll find a storm sewer that's available in an old neighborhood like this that we can tap into and then drain that out of there. Bailey/ Where is that? Fosse/ This one? Bailey/ Yeah. Do you know? Fosse/ This looks...our Streets department took this. I...I would guess it's just (both talking) yeah, that's where I was thinking. East of downtown. Correia/ Oh, okay, yeah. O'Donnell/ Put this into perspective a little bit, Rick. How much would a ton of gravel cover? Do you have any idea? Fosse/ Ton of gravel, well, you're going to get about ten tons in a truckload, and a truckload would get you, you know, just depending on how bad the alley is, 50 to 100 feet. O'Donnell/ Okay. Fosse/ You're looking at about...what's that? O'Donnell/ It's not very expensive to get it done. Fosse/ No, no, but...but it's interesting when we do that, we'll get a couple property owners together. They'll pony up for some rock, we'll spread it, and then we hear from other property owners that...that are upset by that, because they...they like the rough conditions, keep the speeds down, um, also you have situations like we're seeing here where alleys...alleys tend to meander and migrate, kind of like a stream, but there are different dynamics going on there, and if you look at the curb opening here, you'll see that the center line of this alley is about right here, so if you extend that on. This one is just finding its way to the south. And, so as we put additional rock on there, we hear from the people on the south side that are saying, `Don't do that until you move the alley back to the north,' and the people on the north side of course don't want all that vegetation removed along there, um, so it's...the one consistency from alley to alley is that you really can't get people to agree on what they want out of their alley. O'Donnell/ Is it washed rock or something, because you can't put gravel down, can you? Fosse/ Well, it's a Class A road stone and it does have some fines in it, so there are some dust issues, as well. Wright/ Dust is another issue with it. Is that something you're going to address at all tonight? Fosse/ No, I really wasn't going to talk about that. Wright/ Okay. I'll bring it back. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 26 Fosse/ Okay. O'Donnell/ Can't have an alley without dust. Fosse/ The other problem we have is with vegetation, the growing over the alleys, that in the back of this picture you can see a pickup back there in that kind of a tunnel of vegetation, and we...our plow trucks and endloaders and that sort of thing can't get through to plow or sometimes just to get in and grade and dump rock and grade, because it doesn't do the equipment any good, and it doesn't do the trees any good, and...and trimming those back can be a sensitive issue with the neighbors, as well. Um, there's just another shot of a...of a alley, or excuse me, a garage door that's so close to the alley that if you plow it and that sort of thing it can cause troubles. So... Hayek/ Rick, can I ask you...I don't know if you can guess this or not or estimate this or not, uh, what percentage of the overall hard paved road mileage in town is, um, would our alley streets be? Fosse/ I don't know the answer to that. Hayek/ In linear feet. Or, as a percentage or something. Fosse/ We've got one of our interns working on compiling some information about how many blocks of alleys we have and of those, how many are paved or in some state of paving, that is. Um, see if there's anything else I wanted to cover on the maintenance aspect of it. I...oh, another thing that, let's see. It's tough to see in some of these, but some people plant nice flowers and stuff along the edge of the alleys, and uh, since they do meander, it's tough to see where the edges are, especially in the snow and there are no curbs and cause problems when we gouge out somebody's day lilies and stuff, and I was just looking at the most recent addition of the Northside neighborhood (laughter) and I read the article about, uh, giving away seeds and plant plugs for neighbors to plant in alleyways. I thought, `Oh my!' The next time we grade along those alleys, uh, we're more than likely going to be disturbing some of these things. So those are some of the things that...the competing interests that tug at each other there. Now, that's how we take care of alleys, or don't take care of alleys, if you will. Um, then if you have an alley you want to convert it to being a paved alley, what's the process there, that's really the second part of this, and traditionally the method that was used up until the early 1990's were assessment projects, where we would assess the cost for that upgrade or reconstruction to the property owners, and they gradually fell out of favor until the point, I think our last assessment project was in the early 1990's and we haven't done any since because we just, um, don't get them through the process, and we just fall out at some point there. So we've looked at a variety of options since then, trying to come up with different ways, and one is a cost sharing, where the City will provide the design and perhaps even some of the cost of the paving, uh, and even when we try and facilitate that, the only time that we've been able to pull it off is right across the street here by New Pioneer Co-Op because we had only one property owner to work with. Um, it seems that any time multiple property owners get involved, we just can't pull it together. We can't get 100% participation, and the Sally....this is one where we've tried to do that, we've tried to pull people together and we just can't get participation. We've offered to pay about half the costs of that. Um, another one is a private project built to City standards, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 27 and uh, what that does is it forgoes the...the expense of the assessment process. There's certain built-in expenses there that add about 30% to a project cost. So if people are able to pull it together on their own and do it, they can save some money there, but to date that's never happened in a residential setting. It has happened in one commercial setting, and that's the alley by Plaza Towers, uh, was paved to City standards, been dedicated to the City. Uh, we got the private alleys, or excuse me, private projects not built to City standards, and that usually consists of putting down a few inches of asphalt on top of an existing situation, and uh, we've seen a few of those go, some with success and others without success. Uh, often times the difficulty is if you put athree-inch mat of asphalt on this, it may leave puddles along the edges here. Uh, we actually had one where they paved right against somebody's garage door and that...that was really nasty. Uh, so, you end up with some disputes on occasion. (laughter and several commenting) The best one is where the City simply just does it - we pay for the project start to finish, and the only examples I can think of are those that were in the urban renewal, behind the Englert and east, yeah, east and west of there, those blocks right in there, but not all of them were done. Just the one up behind, uh, Ben Chates property in there. It used to be Rentertainment, that's one that didn't get done as a part of that. O'Donnell/ Do we plow these, Rick? Fosse/ These? Outside the central business district, typically we don't get to those between storms. As I said, they're either...by the time we get there they're so packed down that the plows do little. O'Donnell/ So private contractor would do this alley? Fosse/ This one? O'Donnell/ Yeah. Fosse/ Yeah, they'd either do it on their own or hire a private contractor, or just...just pack it down. iJh, we do in the downtown area do some plowing and we do put salt down, uh, you don't want to put salt down on a gravel alley because once...that'll get down into the gravel, and not allow it to freeze during the winter time, and then you've got a real mess on your hands. Hayek/ Are...are alleys City streets...are they rights-of--way, what are they legally? Fosse/ Eleanor, you might need to dive in and help out here, but I think the answer is they are public right-of--way, um, there's...I think they...from a zoning code perspective, there are differences between City streets and alleys, as far as setbacks, that sort of thing. Uh, but as far as State code requirements, they pretty close to the same, Eleanor? Dilkes/ Yeah, they're right-of--way. Hayek/ So, in the typical alley scenario with two houses, one on either side, private property lines would maybe meet in the middle of that alley, with the City right-of--way over it, or is it...it's not part of... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 28 Dilkes/ The City...the City, when it's right-of--way, the City owns the property, um, except for some downtown areas where the University is, um, where we have the, um, public access easement over the fee that's owned by the University, but in the rest of the City, we actually own it and fee title. In the County, you've got that ownership to the... Hayek/ That's what I'm...okay. Champion/ It is a terrible dilemma, but I just don't think we can afford to maintain all the alleys in town, and the neighbors aren't willing to put any money into it. Maybe I want the City to fix my driveway, because it's falling apart. I mean, I just think that's... Bailey/ Well, yeah, I agree with you, but I mean there are some standards that I have some concerns about, the gravel, um, the alley north of us, they put down, it wasn't gravel. It was probably pea rock, the really tiny stuff, and they didn't put it down in any way that stayed, so basically it was coming down our sidewalk, and blocking up drainage, and so I mean do we have some what you can and cannot do? Fosse/ Well if...if...if it was pea gravel, I don't think the City hauled that out there. It would have been somebody else, and it's not something that we typically police, if you will. We don't track those things. Uh, one of the other materials and something that we've used on this alley here is asphalt grindings. Any time we mill off the old asphalt, before we replace it we save it and use it again somewhere, and it tends to work okay in alleys. It can pack in and kind of act like real asphalt for a period of a few years, but, no, I'd never seen...pea gravel does not stay put, because it's not angular. (several talking) Bailey/ And then additionally, if you look at this alley, I mean, a lot of rental properties are taking advantage of this alley access, and yet they are not willing to keep it up, um, and that's a little bit disappointing too, and it would seem that we, I don't know if we could do anything about that, but it seems like these apartments benefit. These apartment complex benefit from alley access. Wright/ Well, that's an issue that we run into, in our alley. Bailey/ Yes. Wright/ Probably a good third of our block is two large apartment buildings that have all their parking off the alley. Bailey/ And is that alley well maintained or not? Wright/ Uh, the only maintenance comes from the homeowners. Bailey/ Right. Wright/ Uh, the rental agency didn't even return my call when I asked about would they care to go in with the neighbors on alley maintenance. Champion/ That's amazing! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 29 Bailey/ Well, and I think, I mean, I don't know if there's anything we could do to approach that, but it seems to me that if you benefit, if you're a commercial entity that benefits from alley access, you should, um, I don't know. You should be maintaining that alley access because you are also causing a greater degree of traffic. (several talking) O'Donnell/ ...property owner you should be responsible for access to your property, I would think. Hayek/ But you can also make the case, just to argue the other side, that a city owes...it's City- owned land, just like a street is City-owned land, and the entire public is benefitted by bringing cars off the streets and have them park, not on streets, but in these, you know, alley accessed areas. I mean, you could make the argument that the City owes the same obligation to the public that it does on streets, um, and if you accept the, if you accept that, you know, then you just run into limited funds. Bailey/ Well, then we prioritize. Hayek/ Well, essentially we have. Bailey/ Right. Hayek/ For 15 years. Wright But when we need to repave the street, property owners are assessed. Fosse/ Not in recent years. Wright/ Not in recent years? Oh, I misunderstood that. Hayek/ If you repave a section of road, anywhere, they're not going to pave Brown Street. (several talking) If you, if you...well, I say Lucas Street, your street is scheduled for some stuff. Now, all of Iowa City pays for that block, right? Not the people... Bailey/ Road use tax. Fosse/ Road use tax. Hayek/ Okay, but... Fosse/ Yeah. Hayek/ ...it's a shared burden. Fosse/ The history of assessments has been if a street was converted from unimproved, say it was just gravel or chipsealed, to an improved street, those...those were assessed, and there're virtually none of those left in town, just a few remaining, and even those type of assessment projects fell out of favor in the 90's, and, uh, the same with sidewalk projects. Those were viewed as property owner expense. Those used to be assessed, and now we've got that infill program where we're filling in some of the key gaps, at City expense. Um, so assessment projects in general fell out of favor all about the same time. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of April 28, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 30 Hayek/ The one question is, does...does paving an alley like that benefit the entire public, or just the residents of the structures around that particular alley? Correia/ Probably depends on the area. Bailey/ Well that particular alley is a really good example, I think. Because I mean, we're all familiar with it. Fosse/ Yeah. I would comment that the last, uh, probably four or five alley paving assessment projects that we did, uh, were off in the south, southeast of downtown and areas that converted from single-family to...to apartments, and once it hit a critical mass of apartments, then there was so much traffic back there, it really needed...alleys needed to be paved and they were assessed. Bailey/ Do you remember what the critical mass was? Fosse/ I would guess, you know, we're talking like behind the, or the buildings on Johnson Street. Bailey/ Right. Fosse/ South of Bowery, uh, those are some examples. Bailey/ See, and that would be an approach I'd be willing to look at again, um, I'm not sure if it's feasible, but just because this kind of situation. Wright/ I mean, this alley has deteriorated. If you really want to experience this, try it on a bicycle. Champion/ Oh, that would be impossible! Wright/ Oh, it's possible, but it's...(several talking)...it'smugh! Bailey/ Then you don't open it for three hours. Wright/ But, this has deteriorated so badly that it's...there are times when it's a danger to your car to your go down it. Champion/ Well, you don't really have to go down it. I mean, you can use... Wright/ But the people that live there... Champion/ Oh, right, yeah. I'm surprised that they don't get after their landlords. Bailey/ Well, they probably do, but it doesn't matter. Hayek/ They're 19 years old and worried about other things. Bailey/ And they could still walk to John's and (several talking) So... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 31 Hayek/ What do we do? Bailey/ We can...we can say that we want to do something about alleys, and change our policy, or we can let the policy hold. That's basically, I mean... O'Donnell/ Well, they're not going to get any better. Wright/ No, they're not. O'Donnell/ They'll continue to deteriorate. Bailey/ And so what do, do we want to do something about that I guess is... O'Donnell/ I think you almost have to. Bailey/ So, what are we looking for? Some kind of assessment, some kind of critical mass, every alley in town? Correia/ So do we...right, do we have a sense of what, like with...I'll just use our, with you know the targeted area we had programmed, like GRIP, do we have a sense of, you know, have we looked at all of the alleys, do we know how many alleys are really bad, can we prioritize them and, I don't know, put them on a...on a roll out projects of.... Bailey/ That we pay for, or somebody else pays for? Correia/ I don't know. Wright/ I think if we just had some data to start with, that would be.. . Correia/ I think having some data, like how...and then, and how much, and how much would it cost, um, and is there a split of assessment? Do we say property owners pay 50%, the City pays 50%? O'Donnell/ See, that's the way I was thinking. Bailey/ Well, and I just don't think personally we're in the City, gravel doesn't belong anywhere, I don't know, it's just a bias I have. I don't think gravel belongs anywhere. Wrightl But even if some, there are plenty of gravel alleys, I mean, lots and lots of gravel alleys and I don't think we need to look at paving all of those because... Correia/ I have a feeling some folks that have gravel alleys don't want a paved alley because they don't want a lot of people going through their alley. I mean, I don't know...we shouldn't assume that every... Wright/ Yeah. Our gravel alley is actually a nice impediment to speeding. Correia/ Right. O'Donnell/ But who drives through alleys? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 32 Wright/ Fifty, sixty cars who live in those apartments. O'Donnell/ Well, but...unless you live there, you really don't have any use going down an alley. So that's... Fosse/ We have one single-family residential alley that is paved, and that's just in the southwest quadrant of 7`h and Court, and that's one we've been back and put speed humps in. Correia/ Yes, there are speed humps in that alley! Bailey/ I walk that way (several talking) Correia/ It is almost a street, yeah! (several talking) There are houses that face it! Bailey/ Okay, so we're going to gather some more data about how many alleys we have and what kind of condition their in. What else do you want? Champion/ Well, I'm not willing to go 50/50 because I think... Correia/ Well, we're just putting ideas on. This is just a brainstorm. This is just a what are all the things we could do (several talking) Champion/ ...everybody let their alleys deteriorate to the point where the City has to step in and pay for it. Hayek/ I think if we did do something like this, realistically it would either be the City paying for it, or us imposing assessment, but none of this, `Hey, let's get the eight people on the street to a coffee and try to get all eight to agree.' It's just not (several talking) Dilkes/ I think, I think...need to make sure that people understand what a formal assessment process is. It's very unlike getting everybody to agree, you know, and I think part of the reason that they went out of favor is because once you have an objection, I think by 75% or something, it has to be a unanimous decision on the City Council to assess...to assess. So...so, and even without that objection, it's athree-quarters vote, I think. So it's a very difficult process to get through, and as Rick mentioned, it costs a lot of upfront money to do that process, so I...I think you have to think a lot about whether you're going to use that process. I think Rick has told you let's get together and pave this thing doesn't work, and so it seems to me you're looking at, do you have maybe some kind of policy about, for instance just by example, if you have... if you identify an alley that functions as a street, or more like a street, or something then that might become a City project or something to that effect. Bailey/ But I think that, I mean, personally it's offensive to me that commercial properties are benefiting from this, rental properties are benefiting from it, and yet they refuse to take care of it, and...and they're causing the deterioration and yet they'll do nothing about it... Dilkes/ But, yes, but then you have to be prepared to do the special assessment process. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 33 Bailey/ ...right, and probably would. Wright/ There's a possibility, I think. Correia/ But everybody would have to. (several talking) Karr/ And that's been the one thing, having gone through these being here in the 90's as well, that was the toughest thing for Council, and new...just a continuum of Council, is that one person, um, stops the whole thing. That's the law. Bailey/ Yep! (several talking) Correia/ Right, is there any...any possibility of putting into our, I don't know, rental...rental permit process that if your...(both talking)...yeah; if your, if so many units, if you have so many units, over twelve units or whatever, that accesses an alley, that you must.. . Bailey/ Yeah. Would that be possible? Dilkes/ I don't think you, I...once somebody has access to a property, if you cut off access, you've got a problem. So I don't think...I think it would be very tough to tie it to a rental permit. Helling/ Remember, if you can pave an alley, you're going to pave at least a whole block of an alley. You can't do it in pieces behind certain properties. Bailey/ Right, but this is a good example, and you know, plenty close into town, that there...a lot of the traffic and deterioration comes from...from having rental property off of it. I mean.. . Dilkes/ But then your remedy is a special assessment. The law provides for that. You have to grit your teeth and do it then. Fosse/ I will mention that the cost to pave an alley can vary significantly, if there are storm sewers required. Now this alley that we're looking at here is one that as I see it, I hope I'm right, it's a hump, it drains out both ends, and you don't need to add any storm sewer, but if you got one with a low point in it and it's two blocks or three blocks to the nearest storm sewer, your project can be three times what you might expect. Correia/ So what, so what's the ball park on this? Fosse/ I've not roughed it out. Bailey/ And so what...what kind of staff time and, uh, expense goes into, if...if for example we were willing to do a special assessment on this alley, tell us how that would get to Council, just briefly outline it for us. Fosse/ Marian? Karr/ If...if, I haven't looked at the special assessment since the last couple of times they did it. Basically it was very similar to how we, um, do liens on snow removals, where we give This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 34 them notice of the project, we give them a time among themselves, decide to do it themselves. There is, uh, a procedure for a public hearing. A letter, and then your intent to do the project, plans and specs, and again, it's just a very similar...it's a combination of our lien process and our typical bidding of streets. Bailey/ And so you would bid, you would have to put together bid.. . Karr/ Yes, we have to have that.. . Bailey/ Well, I just want to get the engineering side of it. Helling/ You have to basically design the project in order to determine what the... Karr/ Yeah, it isn't a concept. Bailey/ Right, of course, that's what I was just... Helling/ You have to have engineering up front. Correia/ That's all the time and effort involved. Karr/ Because they also have to have an estimate of that, because that is the incentive, if you will, for them to work together, or to let the City do it. Now the trade-off is many communities in the state do this, and they do it routinely. Bailey/ They do what? Karr/ Assessments. And they do it routinely. But it's easy to, if you...it's easy to be consistent. Bailey/ They never stopped doing special assessments. Karr/ Right, that's exactly correct. Um, so, no it's...takes a little bit longer, but it's very clean. (both talking) It's just that I don't know of any other procedure that one, that unanimous or it's dead, and that's what happens. (several talking) Bailey/ ...staff capacity to be able to take projects like this on. I mean, it would mean other things wouldn't happen, right? Fosse/ We do have the option of subcontracting for it. Bailey/ Okay. Fosse/ Paying for those expenses. The State code basically specifies what your overhead is on a project like this, and it's roughly 30% of the project cost. Whereas on an average project it might be (mumbled) range and those additional costs cover the...you need to prepare a plat for each of the properties, uh, so that you can verify the frontage, the expense and that sort of thing. So it's...(several talking). Yeah, they...they prescribe the method that we do it, and we usually hire counsel out of Des Moines... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 35 Karr/ We usually use the...the Haynie Law Firm, our bonding attorney, typically. It's much, again, it's very similar to a combination of, of our bonds. There's certain paperwork we do, and there's abuilt-in required fee that's put on top of it for the assessment procedure. Bailey/ Okay. So, well... Champion/ This is all commercial property in this alley. It's all commercial, isn't it? Hayek/ Not asingle-family rental. That wouldn't be commercial, would it? Fosse/ There's some regular homes on the south... Wright/ The east side of, the southeast part of the alley is single-family. Bailey/ But they, they're not directly off the alley. It's a driveway off the alley, I guess, but I guess maybe that would... Wright/ One house has their parking off the alley. (several talking) Bailey/ Okay, so, regardless of that, is this something we want to go ahead with doing, and could we actually see ourselves doing this? Or... Correia/ So you have a typical special assessment cost, how much per...you haven't roughed that up? Fosse/ No. We...Ron may have those numbers, but I don't have them with me tonight. Correia/ Okay. Bailey/ Well, I could see... Wright Yeah, at least like to get more information. Bailey/ For those of you who have served on Council a little bit longer, did you want to say anything? O'Donnell/ I think if you would let this out to the property owners that we're considering this, we'd have to buy bullet proof vests. Champion/ I don't think so. O'Donnell/ Oh, I do. I do. Champion/ They're not actually going to shoot us. O'Donnell/ I mean, they don't want to change smoke detectors. You know, we're talking about changing the...cost a lot of money for an alley. Correia/ Haven't people been complaining about the alleys? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 36 O'Donnell/ Not the owners. Correia/ Not the owners? Well, who else would complain about them? O'Donnell/ The people who rent, who also use the alleys. Bailey/ I don't think the owners come near the.. . Fosse/ Mostly we hear it from the parents. O'Donnell/Because they have to fix the cars. Wilburn/ There's a couple things that come to my...as Marian pointed out... Bailey/ Do you have your mic on? Wilburn/ Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. The things that are running through my head as...even just this discussion shows what a challenge it is. IIh, secondly, you know, Marian pointed out, um, you know, rarely or no other process where there has to be 100%, um, and while other communities may do it, I'm just thinking of the challenges in this community, where it's taken a super majority and, uh, supermajority has failed to come forth, and then the third thing comes to mind. This is the longest I've ever seen Eleanor pull out and look at the code books, so that let's me know to let it ride right there (laughter and several talking) Dilkes/ ...and is 75%, so if you get an objection filed by the owners of the property that represent 75% of the assessment, which of course could be one or two property owners, then you've got to have a unanimous vote. Wilburn/ So, unfortunately it's, I mean, I'd be willing to put it out there, but... Champion/ 75%, well, that's probably a lot of property owners on that. So it's not... Karr/ No, no, remember, it's...not the likeness, but it's like the rezoning. It's not 75% of all the owners. It's 75% of the property. So one owner... Wright/ Could nix the whole thing. (several talking) Dilkes/ Let's say (several talking) owned everything on one side, plus, you know, half of the other side or something like that. Then they would be able to force the unanimous vote. 75% of the property (several talking) it's based on value, but assuming it was (several talking) Wright/ If we're only talking about paved alleys at this point that are deteriorating. Is that correct? Champion/ Right. Helling/ Well, you could assess repairs on paved alleys. You could assess paving an alley that's not paved. I mean, you can (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 37 Wright/ Right, but what...where I'm going with this is if we knew how many of these paved alleys there were that are deteriorated badly, if there weren't too many of them it wouldn't be (mumbled) to consider that we could just pick up the tab on one every year or, you know, on a rotating...rotation of some sort. If we don't...we have to do something. I mean... Champion/ We don't have to do anything. Wright/ I think we do. Champion/ I don't... Wright/ I feel an obligation. That alley behind John's is just a nightmare. Champion/ I know it, but you don't have to use it. Hayek/ Well, you don't have to drive down Dodge Street either. I mean... Champion/ Well, I don't! (laughter) Wright/ But the kids...the kids who have their parking there have to park there, Connie. Champion/ They ought to be writing complaints. Hayek/ We've talked a lot about this. I think you've gotten the direction you need to...(several talking) Bailey/ No, no, I don't think we've given direction. Hayek/ Okay, well, I guess... Bailey/ ...with all due respect. I mean, are we interested in moving this forward and then being willing to assess? Hayek/ Well, or do something along the lines of Mike's suggestion, which is make at least, you know, one alley a year, something comparable to that. Our policy... O'Donnell/ ...agree to something like that until we know (several talking) Bailey/ You should you had an intern walking on the alley inventory. Fosse/ Yes, yeah. Bailey/ Okay. So when will that information be done? Fosse/ I'm guessing within a few weeks. Bailey/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 38 Helling/ What kind of information will that yield? The condition of the alley, or just the... Fosse/ At this point, we're looking at what's our inventory, uh, how many feet are out there and...and what's the paving, type of it, and some rough condition assessment. Now, that aside, really what drives many of these projects might be the complaints that we get, because some people are perfectly happy with an alley that's in poor condition, but there's some, like this one, that is two blocks this direction that generates probably 50 to 60% of the alley complaints we get each year. Champion/ If we could come up with some idea. I think that's a good idea -how many do we have, but I'm never going to agree to pay 100%. Never. I can tell you that right now. Bailey/ Okay, so... Dilkes/ Don't we also have to know though, uh, some assessment of the traffic volume on that, on the alley, in order to figure out what we're talking about? I mean, because part of the problem with the John's alley is there's a lot of people that are accessing that alley and going.. . Bailey/ Using it like a street more than using it like... Dilkes/ Or what the neighboring properties are -are they commercial? Are the residential? I mean...I just want to make sure you're getting the information you need. Fosse/ And to provide that level of detail on all of our alleys would take years. Champion/ No. Fosse/ But, we could... Champion/ Do it on the high complaint ones, like 60 calls a month or whatever it takes. I don't know. Helling/ Well, I think it would be helpful too if we can put together, along with that assessment, Rick, some range of costs for say 300 feet, which is a typical alley, what, 300? 350? What the range of costs would be, what it is to do the gravel, what it would be to do asphalt or whatever, or you know, concrete. We can, I assume, get some rough estimate of today's dollars. (several talking) Bailey/ That would be really helpful. Helling/ Then you'll kind of have a better handle for what you're dealing with. O'Donnell/ (several talking) difference between asphalt and concrete? Helling/ Um, well, it depends. Rick can explain it, but I think it depends on how thick you put it down and what you do for a base. Fosse/ Right, we want to put something down with a similar service life, and...and that might, the asphalt might be a couple inches thicker, but a lot of that is market driven, and we're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 39 interested to see what the first prices start coming back for asphalt with fuel prices as high as they are. Wilburn/ If they are paved, or, um, if you improve them beyond gravel, you're essentially creating another road and they're uncontrolled intersections, and people are going to go buzzing through those. That's just a...that's a natural consequence of it. Champion/ (mumbled) avoid a stop sign or... Wright/ We actually see a fair amount of that, people do treat the alleys as streets on the northside. Bailey/ Do you have... Wright/ Can I ask one more alley question before we leave this? What options are available, uh, to property owners for dust remediation in alleys? Fosse/ Dust control, the, um, there are a couple products out there, um, calcium chloride and then (mumbled) a derivative of tree sap, and the County routinely bids that out each year (mumbled) have it sprayed in front of your home if you live out in the County. I can talk with them about what those expenses might be, um, I do know that, from my experience with it, it can be kind of gooey at first and not very friendly to leather. So if you're back there in leather shoes, and when it's first applied it can be kind of nasty. `Course in a rural application there's rarely people horsing around... Wright/ If people want to do that, do they need any clearance from Streets...the Street department? Fosse/ Well, we've never had anybody call about that before. If we do get that call, I suspect at a minimum we'd ask them to discuss it with the neighbors so it doesn't cause unrest in the neighborhood when it goes down. Bailey/ Okay. So we're going to get some data on the alleys, as much as you're gathering from your intern, and we get to talk about this again. Fosse/ Uh-huh! (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ Thanks, Rick. Hayek/ Thank you, Rick. Bailey/ Nice photos! Helling/ One more element to the special assessment process, and I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I believe typically he property owners that are assessed...over ten years, I think. Fosse/ Yes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 40 Helling/ But there is, then they pay interest on, yeah, on...so they have a choice, they can pay it up front or they can pay it over a period of time, uh, with interest, but that's again, that process is to make sure the assessment pays for 100% of the project. Bailey/ Okay, so we'll talk about this again, so think about how you'd like to proceed. Thanks for taking the time, Rick. Fosse/ You're welcome. Council Time• Bailey/ All right. Council time? Correia/ Actually I have something that I wanted to bring up since Rick is here. Well, I was going to bring it up anyway, but it's good that you're here. I was at the, um, the Old Capitol Criterion the other, yesterday, and I'm wondering if there's a way to kind of have that (noise on mic) on the calendar in Public Works for when you start doing the potholes, because they had quite a few...I was walking around, that they had circled with an orange, um, paint so that the bikers wouldn't go over them, because you know they have the...and I know you've been out there doing that. So I was just wondering if that could be kind of on the agenda to do...to cover those potholes... Fosse/ Oh, it is! We do have that...we've been talking about it for weeks, because I love River Fest and (both talking). A lot of the orange spray paint on the bike course, um, are things that are so small that we don't normally patch something like that, because the patch won't stay in something that small, but it will affect a bike, especially racing bike tires, so they need to highlight those to bring them to people's attention. The area I was disappointed in is underneath the Iowa Avenue railroad bridge, and that was on the running course, and that needs more attention than it got, and...and because of the extent of the repairs that are necessary there, uh, we're waiting to do that until after school gets out, so that we can manage the traffic better. Yeah, that was (mumbled) Correia/ Okay, thank you. Bailey/ Thanks. Other Council time? Correia/ Well I have...in the, um, Parks and Rec minutes, I don't remember, I think it's the ones, it's the draft ones, they had recommendation to Council about the parking, um, during Farmer's Market, that we would kind of ease off on parking, um, huge parking enforcement in the Rec Center and the, um, Chauncey Swan lot. (mumbled) Helling/ There...there is a request, just came late last week. (several talking) Correia/ Like I don't know if that's necessarily something we have to vote on or if we could just kind of give a directive... Helling/ No, we'll do it at staff level, at least, you know, figure out if there's some options that (mumbled). Bailey/ Okay. Other Council time? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 41 Wilburn/ Anybody going to race the bus and the car? (several talking) Uh, I hadn't committed. They asked me. Hayek/ You're undefeated! (several talking) Bailey/ Do we have to just appoint? Wilburn/ No, anybody can just... Bailey/ No, I think we're appointing you! (laughter and several talking) Correia/ It's a different time and a different course, too. Wilburn/ Well, that's the thing, and the course is shorter and that's an advantage for the car, `cause the car doesn't have to get out of the mall. Correia/ (several commenting) over the noon hour, although... Wilburn/ They're going from the Coralville Library to Old Capitol, instead of Coral Ridge Mall. So it's a straight shot for the car (mumbled). Bailey/ Yeah, but you know what? I used to work out there, and that's hard at that time of day. It's really, really hard. It's 20 minutes. Wilburn/ I'll think about it. I think you... Correia/ You're not going to do it because you think you might lose? (laughter) Wilburn/ Jordan didn't know to go out on top, you know. Correia/ Well he went out and then came back and didn't do so well. Wright/ I've been playing phone tag with Chris Ackerson and I suspect it's about this. Wilburn/ What a perfect opportunity to... Wright/ And I'd love to see you right there with me! (laughter) Bailey/ Well, you guys figure it out. I told them I would, but I suggested you, Ross. Um, okay... Wright/ I am not a fast bicyclist. I'm a plodder, so.. . Correia/ I have one other thing. I have, I got a letter from, um, Andy Johnson from the Housing Trust Fund about the affordable housing task force, the regional task force. The, um, Housing Trust Fund has...is working with Jeff Schott from the University's Institute of Public Affairs, who's agreed to facilitate the process. Um, and one, something that Jeff would like to do in advance of the different entities all meeting together is to meet with the different entities individually, um, not necessarily with the whole Council, um, but with some Council Members, certainly the person that's been appointed, but other This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 42 Council Members and other staff, um, so wanted to see if there were any...anybody here that would be interested in meeting in a small group with him, um, for about an hour. Wright/ Do you know when? Correia/ They have...they've given different dates. I mean, so I...if you're interested we can look at the dates to see what might work, and then I can get back to them. There's like six or seven dates listed. Champion/ (unable to hear) Correia/ I think it's to start to, um, let's see... Bailey/ It's like pre-gathering, it's stakeholder information, gathering stakeholder information, I'm sure. Correia/ Um, I have it...here you go. Ask for the reaction to the study as a whole, get the sense of interest level in the community for undertaking some of the recommendations, briefly walk through the specific recommendations, and to get a sense of where you see the most opportunity for action, and then identify other stakeholders that you would like to see involved in the process. So... Bailey/ So without calling an open meeting, we can have two additional Council Members there. So who's interested? Connie. Anybody else? Karr/ Connie, you want to put your mic on. Champion/ Oh...I would be interested. Wrightl If I could make it work, I'd be interested. Bailey/ Call me if you can't make it work. I'll be your backup. Wrightl Can you get me some more information? Correia/ Do you think we should have other, I mean, other City staff? Bailey/ Yes, Steve Long. Great. Okay, other Council time? All right. Joint Meeting in Coralville Bailey/ Joint meeting in Coralville. You had a memo... Karr/Basically had a memo in your packet, IP4, and basically the first thing is will the date suggested, May 28th, late in the afternoon work, and then number two are the agenda items that are proposed. Is there any more agenda items that you would like to suggest, because the deadline is prior to your next meeting. Bailey/ Okay, so late in the afternoon they're talking about 4:00? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 43 Karr/ Well, it's either 4:00 or 4:30. Bailey/ How does that work for everybody? Wright/ Can we go to 5:00 on these things? Champion/ (unable to hear) Wright/ No, if you're going ahead of the traffic.. . Karr/ The other reason...the other reason they had said 4:00 or 4:30 is many of the local, many of the bodies have meetings in the evenings to go to, so they wanted to be done with the meeting, so they could go to 6:30 or 7:00 meetings elsewhere, Mike, is why 4:00 or 4:30 got settled on. O'Donnell/ So is School Board going to be at this meeting? They are... Karr/ The School Board has been invited to the meeting. Bailey/ Okay, let's add playgrounds. O'Donnell/ That's when we would ask our question. Bailey/ Thank you, Mike. Good idea. Well, I still think Connie should go to a meeting. (several responding) Karr/ That's a yes on the 28`"? Hayek/ I'm tentative on the 28`" (mumbled) Karr/ I just need to know if we'll have four there, on the 28`". (several responding) Bailey/ I can be there. Wright/ I'll be there. Karr/ That looks okay for the 28`" Hayek/ I'd like to be there. Karr/ And let's add playgrounds as an item. Bailey/ Yeah, okay. Any other... Karr/ Do we say playground funding? Bailey/ School playground funding. Karr/ I mean, that's... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 44 Correia/ ...school playground funding, not just about playgrounds, but school playgrounds (several talking). Karr/ Okay. Done. (several talking) And no question mark, just a statement. (several talking) Bailey/ And Matt will be there to speak to the item. Correia/ Do we...this is adding an item that's not ours, but I would be interested in hearing about the RAGBRAI celebration that (several talking) Karr/ We can add, if you'd like an update (several talking) like a RAGBRAI update (several talking). Schedule of Pending Discussion Items: Bailey/ I just wanted to let you know - in May we were going to discuss, um, the third quarter financial report, the check-in that we asked for, but Dale suggested that we wait until Michael is here and discuss it in June. So it's not that it wouldn't be ready, and I hate to put that off, but I think that that's a better use of everybody's time. Is there agreement...okay. (several responding) All right, anything else for questions about where we are on pending (mumbling). Um, there is an upcoming community event... Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations: Bailey/ ...there's a Department of Transportation reception for the new Commissioner who's from Cedar Rapids. It's on Thursday at 5:00 in Cedar Rapids. Did you all get invitations? (several talking) It would be good to have some...I can't be there, but it would be good to have some representation from Iowa City there. I think some staff might be able to be there, but it would be good to have a Council Member or two. I think it's at 5:00 (several talking). This'll be more fun. Wilburn/ My labor requires me to be at a labor management (several talking). Bailey/ Okay, all right. It won't be more fun that what I've got, but, um, I'm not canceling that. So, okay, um, I'll just make sure that there's staff there. Dale, I mean, that might be something too to check upstairs with John to see, yeah, but you might want to go too. Good relationships with DOT are important, I guess. Meeting Schedule: Bailey/ Do we need to discuss the meeting schedule? Do we need to cancel any more meetings? Karr/ I assume we'll cancel the 2"a and the St". Bailey/ You guys not want to meet this weekend? What do you think? (laughter and several talking) Yeah, let's cancel. (several commenting) Friday and Sunday, and Farmer's Market starts this weekend. (several commenting) Correia/ And then the Iowa City Public Library has their event on Sunday. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008. Apri128, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 45 Bailey/ Okay. (several talking) Correia/ Well, there are some places that (several talking) Bailey/ You guys want to go home. So, I think we're done. Thanks! Good to see all you guys. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of Apri128, 2008.