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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-06-23 TranscriptionJune 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 1 June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session 6:30 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright Staff: Karr, Helling, Dilkes, Lombardo, Davidson, Miklo, Howard Other: Addition to the Agenda ITEM llb. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION WAIVING FEES UNTIL JULY 1, 2009 FOR BUILDING, ELECTRICAL, PLUMBING, MECHANICAL AND DEMOLITION PERMITS AND INSPECTION FEES ESTABLISHED BY RESOLUTION NO. 02-316 AND RESOLUTION NO. 03-183 AND ASSESSED BY THE BUILDING INSPECTION DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND INSPECTION SERVICES FOR STRUCTURES THAT HAVE BEEN PENETRATED BY FLOOD WATER. Bailey/ Shall we begin here? Planning and Zoning items, um, Items 4.f and g. These are the Galway Hills Plats. Karr/ Could...before we start, may I add something to the agenda for tomorrow night? Bailey/ Oh, please, yes, Marian. Karr/ Um, we're going to be considering a resolution waiving the fees until July 15L of 2009 for building, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, and demolition permits and inspection fees, uh, assessed by the Building Inspection Department for any structures that have been penetrated by flood water, and we'll be discussing, we'll have a copy for that and we can discuss it tomorrow night. If that's okay, we'll go ahead and add it. Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ Who will present on that? Karr/ Uh, that would be our City Manager. Michael will be doing it. Bailey/ So we'll discuss that tomorrow night. Karr/ That'd be great, thank you! Bailey/ Thank you. Thanks. So, Jeff, are you ready to go? Planning and Zoning Items: fl CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY PLAT OF GALWAY HILLS SUBDIVISION PARTS 10 & 11 IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB06- 00003) (DEFERRED FROM 6/3 AND 6/17) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 2 g) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLATS OF GALWAY HILLS SUBDIVISION PARTS 10 & 11, IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB08- 00006) (DEFERRED FROM 6/3 AND 6/17) Davidson/ I am now. (mumbled) Bailey/ Oh, good! Davidson/ Yes, Items f and g. Madame Mayor, Members of Council...uh, these, this is the Galway plats, the preliminary and final plats that we considered last time. Uh, you do have some information from me, um, trying to address, uh, the issue of traffic, um, on the Shannon Drive, uh, portion of the subdivision. Um, and...and certainly not to belabor it, but I think what we've been through in the last couple of weeks does point out the need to have good adequate street connections, and multiple ones where possible, in the subdivision and we've been through all that and we certainly won't go through it again. Uh, you did ask for us to evaluate some traffic calming features for the...let's see, basically be this portion here of Shannon Drive in the proposed Parts 10 and 11, and we have evaluated that, uh, for you. We've given you basically three options, uh, two are more expensive build-type options, uh, the other one is one that, uh, mid-block traffic circle that we could retrofit afterwards, similar to the one right up here on College Street. Uh, there is some difference in the expense of those and we have indicated to you that because they are not part of anything that's in our existing subdivision regulations, and we have not made an assessment that according to the way we assess these things that it is necessary, and negotiated that through with the developer that this would be at City expense. I do want to clarify, uh, one thing, and we can certainly talk about those as much as you'd like, um, in the summary of my memorandum, I do indicate that either retrofitting traffic circles or a traffic circle as we've done in Cardinal Pointe subdivision would require you deferring the plat, so that we could then re...negotiate a revision with the, uh, developer, uh, and basically have the plat reflect the change in street design for that. Um, adapting the mid-block traffic circle, the City crews afterwards, we would not have to do that. You could approve the plat tonight and then direct us to do that. The, uh, speed table, after some discussions with Engineering staff it does appear that you could approve the plat as is, and we think we could probably adapt that within the existing right-of--way, which means that we would just have to change the construction drawings and basically figure out what the additional expense would be, and that would be City expense, but I...I think we could have you approve the plats, if you wish, and direct us to do that, and...and I will say that although our analysis doesn't show that either the speed table or the traffic circles aren't necessary, we certainly think they're reasonable things to do, if you'd like to do them. We wouldn't even give them to you as suggestions if we thought they were inappropriate, uh, for any reason. So, uh, if you'd like to go ahead with those, they are certainly reasonable things to do. Correia/ So, and that...just to remind myself, the speed...the area that we're talking about, the street, would be that area which of the street that would be going through what is proposed to be a City park on either side, and that would also be a bike trail. Davidson/ Willow Creek Trail. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 3 Correia/ I really like the speed table. I mean, I've had experience with (several talking) besides the Newton Road one, I mean, I've had other experiences, um, and my question is, why would it be $SO,000...it's you know some asphalt and... Davidson/ The only thing we're going on there, Amy, is what it costs the University to put theirs in on Newton Road, and because you have to work all the drainage out and, I mean, it's more than just what you see visually on the street. It's working all the drainage out so that the street still works and when in the wintertime, and water drains, we don't want it freezing across the road. We need to make sure all that works, and that's...that's the expense. Wright/ That speed table on Newton Road is very effective. Correia/ Yeah. Bailey/ Yes, I agree. Correia/ Is effective in other places that I've encountered. I like the speed table. Champion/ I do too. I agree... Wright/ ...terrific. Correia/ And I think because this is...essentially the City directed the...the road to be in this location, we are planning City park on either side, I mean, it makes sense to me that we would pay for putting this in, and that there's variety of public purposes at play here. Davidson/ I...I think it will more clearly define and identify the Willow Creek Trail, which eventually of course will go under 218 and, uh, right now the plan is for it to go up to the County Poor Farm and there be a trailhead at the County Poor Farm eventually, so... Wright/ Given the trail, you know, bisecting the street right there, the...the speed table is a very obvious and clear delineation of what's going past. Correia/ (mumbled) Wright/ Yeah. Davidson/ So tomorrow evening you can consider approving the...the plat, the plats. There's both the preliminary and the final one, and then you'd want to direct us to work with the developer to amend the construction plans to incorporate the speed (mumbled). Bailey/ Okay. Thanks. Let's move on (several talking). Subdivision Regulations. a) AMENDING TITLE 15, LAND SUBDIVISIONS, BY REPEALING TITLE 15 IN ITS ENTIRETY AND REPLACING IT WITH A NEW TITLE 15, LAND SUBDIVISIONS. Davidson/ Yeah, this is an item that, uh, we've been anticipating bringing to you, uh, for some time, and...and are excited to do so this evening. Uh, Karen and Bob are going to make a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 4 presentation in just a moment, and...and take you through some of the nuances of it. I just wanted to say a few things upfront. Um, you know, it's easy to...to get kind of bogged down in all the subtleties of...of these things. You went through that already, fairly recently, with the Zoning Code. Um, there's a lot of complicated information, some of it seems rather dry when you're trying to read through it, but I do want to emphasize how important this is. I mean, these determine the built environment that's out there, and how our community grows. Um, and I think it's good for you all to understand that, you know, we start with the Comprehensive Plan, the broad vision. The Zoning Ordinance then is set up to implement the Comprehensive Plan, um, call out permitted uses, densities of development, height setbacks -those sorts of things. Um, and then the Subdivision Regulations are...are just what the term says -how to subdivide property into individual building lots and really determine the public facilities that are needed in corporation...incorporated with those building lots, and...and basically what happens out...out in the real world, and how the community grows. Um, if you refer to Karen's, uh, June 4 memo, she highlights four bullets there that...that sort of basically give you the major changes, we think, from the...and certainly feel free to ask Karen any questions you have about anything, but...but basically the Subdivision Standards, as I said, reflect Comprehensive Plan goals. I'm just reading real briefly here from Karen's memo...uh, street connectivity standards, wider variety of street types, reduction in local street pavement width requirements, update to right-of--way widths to accommodate street trees and utilities, uh, and better incorporate pedestrians and bicyclists. These are things that we have tried to reflect in the new regulations that you have before you. Uh, we've tried to clarify definitions, purpose statements, and standards within the Code, and I think one that all of us are interested in. We've tried to clarify submittal requirements and approval procedures to streamline the approval process for both developers and the City, and this is something that all of us, both from our end and your end, have heard about from the development community. Sometimes it can be a frustrating process. I think it's something that both sides need to take some responsibility for, and...and we have tried to streamline that as best we can. Uh, and then we have several practices that have become sort of defacto ways, uh, that we do things, that we have tried to, uh, clarify those, and...and basically incorporate these in here as...as requirements, rather than just...they're, as I say, they sort of become requirements, and I think a number of them, the development community -although some may agree or disagree more -they like at least knowing what the rules are, uh, when they're putting this information together. Um, Karen has also outlined that this has been a very deliberate process, and she can highlight anything you'd like to have highlighted, but we have tried to involve the broadest variety of input that we can into this, clearly the home builder's and the development community have been very important in terms of the input that they've given us, and we've tried to work through those, uh, and we've worked...done that with the Planning and Zoning Commission, uh, and the Home Builder's presence as well, and you, uh, received a matrix, I think, Amy, when you requested the information be sent out in one of your, um, work session packets that had a matrix in it that sort of clarified how we tried to resolve those issues at the Planning and Zoning Commission. Um, and...and I can tell you that what you have before you is... is our best shot at what reflects the values of this community, and...and I can tell you that there are people who think we've gone too far, and there are people who think we have not gone far enough (noise on mic). Ultimately, you will decide, uh, what does reflect the values of this community, and if we need to go farther with something, let us know, and if you feel we've gone too far, same way. So, with that, I will turn it over to Karen and she'll take you through a few concepts. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 5 Howard/ Switch around here...as Jeff said, um, the goals of the project are to implement primarily the, uh, policies of the Comprehensive Plan, clarify things in the Code, um, to make it more clear and consistent reviews, um, and to clarify that those submittal requirements for developers, to make it very clear what's expected and how the process goes, and also to codify our current practices -things like our secondary access policy that's been, that we've been practicing for quite a few years, and we just need to get that on the books so everybody knows about it and it's clear. Um, basically what is a subdivision? Um, it's a division of parcel...a piece, uh, of land into three or more legal lots. Um, it's a graphical representation of the lot lines, the streets, the sewer lines, water mains, sidewalks, everything that goes into a neighborhood. The purpose of having a Subdivision Code is to encourage orderly community development, in places where it is cost-effective to extend public services and infrastructure. We don't want this community to leap-frog across, um, empty land, or we want it to be cost-efficient for the City and for its residents. Um, also to regulate the extension of that public infrastructure. All the bones that go behind and underneath the ground, um, the City's role in that regard is quality control. We want quality streets; we want quality, uh, water and sewer lines, all that infrastructures, and also to implement all those policies and plans that we have in place. Poorly designed subdivisions increase the cost of living for residents, increase long-term costs to the City for maintenance of its infrastructure, reduce economic development potential, and jeopardize public safety. Those are the reasons we need a good Subdivision Code. In our Comprehensive Plan, I just want to run through a few of our goals, uh, highlight a few of our goals related to the Subdivision Code, um, a lot of goals about having a interconnected street system -reduces congestion on our main roads, helps to disperse trafftc, provides more direct routes, um, encourages bicycling and walking, and allows for efficient provision of emergency services and public services. We just recently, you just recently, adopted a complete Streets Policy. Design the streets to accommodate all modes of transportation, and the Subdivision Code is one of those ways to implement that policy. With regard to environmental protection goals, preservation of environmentally sensitive features on our landscape, use ofbest-practices with regard to storm water management, and soil erosion -all of these things can be implemented by the Subdivision Code. Parks and open space goals in the Comprehensive Plan - we call for small neighborhood parks within walking distance of residences, uh, accessible open space that provides a focal point for the neighborhoods, and a continuous network of trails and sidewalks that provide good access. Uh, with regard to public safety goals in the Comprehensive Plan, we want to insure that emergency access, um, by developing an adequate street circulation pattern, and minimize emergency service response time. So how do, how have we gone about implementing some of these goals in the Comprehensive Plan, how have we incorporated that into this draft of the Subdivision Code, um, with regard to interconnected streets, we have new block length standards. How long the blocks are, that's how many intersections you can have on your street network. We've come up with new standards; we had no standards at all. We have no standards right now in our Code at all. Streets required to be stubbed to the subdivision boundary, that helps for a logical street pattern for one developer to continue the pattern on to the next property and the next property. It makes it easy and logical to travel across the city. We've also put in language to discourage cul-de-sacs, and also codify our secondary access policy. One of the things that we had a consultant analyze our development regulations a number of years ago and compare it to our Comprehensive Plan, and one of the things that they noted was that we have no existing regulations, uh, addressing street connectivity. And they said if the City is serious about implementing the policy of connectivity, uh, new regulations need to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 6 added to the Code. Uh, there are a number of hidden costs with an unconnected street pattern. Now, I know a lot of people like to live on cul-de-street...cul-de-sac streets. They like to live on loop streets where there's not a lot of access, um, they're quiet, they're private, um, but if you have too many of those kinds of streets, you end up with a very disconnected street pattern, and this was one of the, uh, just an illustration. If someone lived in this home here, and had children going to school at Horn School, it would make it very difficult for them to walk to school, because they would have to walk all the way around, and so that means more money is spent for parents to travel to and from school, uh, driving their kids to school. That's just one cost, hidden cost, to having an unconnected street pattern. Also it costs more to provide public services. This last winter, we had lots of snow to remove from the streets, um, it costs a lot of money if you have lots of disconnected streets. Also, increases response time for emergency services, and the longer the cul-de-sac, the more people that are effected in an emergency if that street is blocked. With regards to extending streets to the subdivision boundary, this is a matter...this is an illustration of...of how it affects the next property owner. Uh, if these streets had been connected down to, and extended to the subdivision boundary when this subdivision was platted, this property would have had a lot easier time, now that it's being platted for, uh, for homes, because it left them without real good means, um, for connecting them to the neighborhood street system. Uh, with regard to actual street standards in the, er, in the Subdivision Code, uh, we've provided a wider variety in a table form of street types. Uh, reduction in the required pavement width for local residential streets to reduce pavement costs, and slow traffic through our residential neighborhoods. An increase in required right-of--way width to accommodate street trees, utilities, and bicycle facilities, and I'd like to just, um, I'm sure that most of you are familiar with our...our street types in the city. We have local streets, collector streets, and arterial streets. The local streets provide, of course, the access within neighborhoods. They're low traffic volume, uh, collector streets provide connections between those local streets into the arterial street system, and the arterial streets then provide those connections across the city. Uh, for our local streets, um, the proposed Code reduces pavement width from 28 feet to 26 feet, and increases the right-of--way width, and here's an illustration, um, you can see right now this shows a 28-foot wide street, this is what it is currently. We have a six-foot wide parkway, what we call a parkway, uh, four-foot wide sidewalk. Here's the proposed, uh, street system here. 26-foot wide paved street. Provides 11 feet for street trees and utilities, afive-foot sidewalk, and the difference here is that we have room for street trees and more room for utilities. Uh, there's a lot of benefits of street trees, which I'm sure you're probably familiar with more than just aesthetics, um, it encourages walking, increases property values. There's been studies done that...that tree-lined streets in business districts actually increase the income stream by 12%, um, over un...uh, commercial streets without trees. So there's some real economic benefits to having, um, street trees in our neighborhoods and in our commercial areas, as well. In our older neighborhoods it's real clear the benefits of street trees, and we would like to translate those to new neighborhoods. Here's a subdivision, uh, just not quite enough room along the parkway to plant those over-story trees that provide those benefits. And as you can see from this illustration here, even at a young age these trees start providing benefits to a new neighborhoods. Uh, question came up at Planning and Zoning Commission -why can't we just plant those over-story trees in a reduced width parkway. You know, why do they need so much, uh, ground to grow, um, we asked the City Forester those questions, and these are the responses he gave. The health really suffers, of the trees; it poses a risk, more risk, to traffic and pedestrians; and of course you have the retrofitting as the trees get too large, uh, to fit in that parkway. Uh, he also This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 7 commented that 95% of the trees along Summit Street are in poor health, because of that, uh, reduced right-of--way, or parkway width. With regard to collector streets, the only proposed change would be to increase the right-of--way width from 60 feet to 66 feet, and this is also to accommodate street trees, but also to accommodate the need for bicycle routes, and bicycle lanes. Uh, these are, collector streets are great streets for bicycle connections, uh, throughout the community. They don't carry as much traffic as arterial streets, they do have those connections, and this, uh, will increase the ability to have both street trees, and bicycle lanes. With regard to arterial streets, uh, we all know that it's really hard to retrofit things after the fact. If you don't get enough right-of--way, streets need to be improved and widened over time to accommodate traffic, um, it's really hard to go back. We have streets all over town that, um, it's really difficult to have a buffer for pedestrians to have those street trees, um, hard to have room for storage of snow along some of our arterial streets, and then, uh, moving on to pedestrian facilities. We want to codify the sidewalk width standards that we have in place, and increase sidewalk width from four feet to five feet, um, this provides a little more room along our sidewalk for, uh, handicapped, and also to be able to pass and provide, uh, room for the landscaping along the edges of the sidewalk. Also to provide mid-block pedestrian connections to break up long blocks. So when you do have to have long blocks because of the need, um, to, um, here's an example of a long. The need for a long block when there's a school or a park, somewhere where you can't break it up with a street intersection, providing those mid-block pedestrian connections to the school makes it so folks don't have to walk or bicycle around so far to get to those neighborhood destinations. Uh, some additional, um, things in the Code that were brought up in discussion by the Planning and Zoning Commission, uh, the lot depth along major traffic ways, uh, we want deeper lots along arterials where the homes back up to the arterial, and a deeper buffer required from I-80 and Highway 218. Here's an example, one of the reasons, um, that it's a good idea to have deeper lots, uh, that back up to arterial streets. People want privacy in their backyards, which is understandable, and if the lot, the backyard's not deep enough, you end up with this wall of fences along arterial streets. If you have enough room to provide a landscaping buffer, this is what you get. Making it much more comfortable for everyone, including the property owner. Here's another examples with, uh, a berm actually and landscaping. Uh, with regard to, I'm sorry if this is not real readable -the, uh, dark orange along here are the areas that are remaining that are zoned for residential development. There's just some little segments along 218 and Interstate 80 that are still potentially residential land, um, the feeling is to provide some buffer between the highway and residential development. Uh, we need to codify something there. With regard to parks and open space, one of the additions is the lot layout to provide better public access to parks and open space. I have a little illustration here. Here's Willow Creek Park. Obviously this is...it's very obvious this is a public park. It's got some, um, asingle-loaded street along the edge, uh, everyone has easy access to it. Everybody knows it's there. Um, this is another park, which I'm sure is very lovely and is enjoyed by all the neighborhood folks, uh, but it's not real obvious it's there for people outside the neighborhood, and it is a public park, um, just doesn't have very good access. So, the point is to try to divide the lots and plan your streets so you have better access to parks. Uh, then finally with regard to the approval procedures, um, we wanted to define what a complete application is, and define and codify current practice with regard to applications that come in with deficiencies, so it's very clear, um, when...when we're going to send things on to the Planning and Zoning Commission, um, and also to streamline the final plat approval process. Um, right now for a final plat it has to go through, um, the staff, the Planning and Zoning Commission, and the Council, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 8 the proposed code has it going directly, as administrative procedure, directly from the staff to the Council, skipping the Planning and Zoning Commission, as long as it complies with the preliminary plat. Here's just a little flowchart that the Commission used. There was a lot of discussion back and forth between the development community about these procedures, and if you have any questions, um, a lot of it's outlined in that matrix, questions about those...the approval process. Um, you know, basically the things that were under contention is, you know, what's a complete application. Now it's in the Code. Um, what's current practice with regard to, um, deficiencies that come in with an application. And I just want to finish up by saying that there was quite a bit of work that went into this by all involved, um, we got a lot of good comments from the development community that were incorporated into the draft. Um, and the Planning and Zoning Commission, you know, considered this very carefully, so, um, I would be happy to answer any questions that you have about the details. Hayek/ I know Glenn Siders' piece is in there, and I, as I understand it, I mean, there's public hearing tomorrow night so we'll hear from people. Can you, uh, summarize what the primary concerns are, at this point, from the building trades...to this? Howard/ Um, you know, that's...if you check that matrix that we sent, what we tried to do was take any public input and when there was a request for an amendment...so we took Glenn's comments and um, the comments that came from the Homebuilders Association and tried to put those into each item specifically -there are many requests, um, and then in that matrix it also says, it tells you which amendments the Planning and Zoning Commission decided to...to, uh, incorporate into the draft. Um, there was a lot of discussion about street connectivity, um, how we should codify it, whether we should codify it, um, those are the big issues. Um, about...a lot about the approval process and how to make it better. Hayek/ Okay. Howard/ Those were kind of the two main things. Hayek/ Okay, and...and I ask because I don't know exactly what they'll focus on tomorrow night, and it'll help me prepare more for tomorrow night if I can anticipate what they're going to bring up, but I'll look at those two things...as a starting point, more closely. Bailey/ Other questions for Karen? O'Donnell/ Well, I always become a little concerned when I hear we're going to discourage use of anything, such as cul-de-sacs, um, you know, you mentioned the reasons that people like to live there, it's private, uh, less traffic, uh, safer for your children, and any time we say we're going to discourage it, that means that it may be very difficult, and a lot of times that's dictated by the lay of the land. So when we say discourage, I want to make sure that doesn't mean eliminating. Howard/ Yeah, and we made that very clear. It doesn't eliminate the possibility of cul-de-sacs, because obviously there's a need for cul-de-sacs in certain locations. I mean, you have several plats in front of you, um, on your agenda tomorrow that had, you know, there's no way to get around certain physical features of the land, uh, it could be that the previous subdivision was platted without connecting streets to the subdivision boundary, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 9 so obviously there's going to be need for streets that don't connect, but I guess the point was if you have a policy of discouraging them, um, that the more connected your street system is, the less traffic on all the streets. Um, it's sort of aself-fulfilling prophecy if you... if you, um, you know, if you don't connect your streets, then the streets that do connect have a lot of traffic, and then you get complaints from all those folks, and it's a matter of consistency and fairness, and...and if you think about the grided part of...of Iowa City, older parts of Iowa City, those streets all connect, and yet are very low volume, very easy and, um, for kids to travel to school on, and I think it's because they're so connected that it keeps that traffic volume low. It's the areas that we have lots of...lots of cul-de-sacs and...and only a few streets that connect that...that we have a lot of problems with. Wilburn/ Well, and as with anything, whether we allow something or discourage something, um, either direction there're going to be consequences, um, you know, in this case you're talking about if we allow many of them, how it impacts traffic. I think we have to consider other City services and what that means. We had complaints about snow removal on cul-de-sacs, and so it, you know, the domino effect is going to be there, it's just what we're willing to find acceptable or unacceptable. Wright/ I think we're looking to a future that at some point is going to have to have less individual vehicular traffic. Um, discouraging cul-de-sacs ultimately makes sense for even better design for where we're going to be living in the future. O'Donnell/ Well, also, Michael, if you have a straighter run, it would have a tendency to increase the speed. So, I think it's adouble-edged sword. Wright/ Depends on how it's designed, but I understand what you're saying. O'Donnell/ And also in your cutting the street width of the 28 foot street to 26, what does that do to bicycle traffic on that street? Howard/ On the local, that's just on the local residential streets. The collector streets, the proposal is to be wider to accommodate bicycles. O'Donnell/ I...I understand that, but we went from 28 to 26, and there's still going to be bicycles on that street (mumbled) Howard/ I think...yeah, the idea is that the low-volume residential streets, the local streets, can accommodate everything, that it's fairly safe because it's so low volume, um, and the 26 feet came from the state-wide urban design standards, um, the whole state's kind of moving that direction. I think a lot of cities are doing that just to reduce pavement costs, and also it makes, it helps to reduce the speed of the traffic. Davidson/ Yeah, I just wanted to add that the notion with what Karen just laid out for you is that on a...on a local, you know, typically the local streets don't even have center lines on them, and it's very easy for a vehicle to pull out and get around a bicyclist. A lot of the collector streets have center lines. All the arterials have center lines, and what we want to try and do is make...make those curb lanes wider so that a bicyclist can be in the street and a vehicle doesn't have to cross the center line to get around them, and that's why the distinction. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 10 Champion/ And then the sidewalk is going to be wider too, so the bicyclists could use the... Howard/ Right, for young children, you know, and traveling to school and that sort of thing, yeah. The wider sidewalk helps. Wilburn/ Where do we factor in, um, within subdivisions, or as subdivisions come up on a collector street, curb cuts...is that, uh, is that figured in the subdivision design, or is that related to an engineering standard? Howard/ As far as the driveways? Wilburn/ LTh, well, I'm thinking more actually in terms of wheelchair, um, visual impaired. Howard/ That's all in the engineering, I mean, that was one of the things that came up, um, at P&Z a lot. There's a lot of other codes that...that this relates to, the fire code and the engineering standards, um, things in the actual construction standards are all in the City Engineer's office. So we don't have any real, um, you know, detail-oriented construction standards in the Subdivision Code. It just refers to the Engineer's Standard. Wilburn/ Yeah, I was just thinking because... Miklo/ ...all intersections we would have the curb cuts, where the sidewalk meets the public street. Wilburn/ And is that an engineering standard? Miklo/ Right. (mumbled) Wilburn/ Okay, right. Hayek/ It's interesting to contrast the grid pattern of old Iowa City with the wavy, undulating roads of modern day planning. Does that differ...has that difference been looked at. I mean, is it just sort of the in-vogue thing to do these days... Howard/ Um.. . Hayek/ ...to go with the wavy...pretty inarticulate way of putting it, but... Howard/ Maybe we need to stress is that having a connected street pattern doesn't mean the streets have to be straight. You can have connected streets that are curvy. It just, that can follow the lay of the land. I think we have the curvy streets for a number of reasons, um, just because they're attractive and...and create a nice, uh, flow to the neighborhood, um, but it doesn't mean you can't have, uh, a block length that's, you know, between 300 and 600 feet. Um, you can still have those curvy patterns that follow the lay of the land. Bailey/ Other questions for Karen? Okay. So you'll be there tomorrow night to...to do a little bit of a presentation and take any questions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 11 Davidson/ ...tell us what you'd like tomorrow night, in terms of presentation or just want us there to answer (mumbled). Wilburn/ You mentioned the, uh, you mentioned the grid, uh, the only grid I see talks about the different; um, were the suggestions by, uh, pubic input included as part of that grid as whether they're accepted or not...do you know what I'm getting at? Howard/ On the matrix? Wilburn/ Yeah. (several talking away from mic) Can...can I just... Miklo/ The June 5`" packet has this chart, which has the proposed amendment to the Code, a staff explanation, um... Wilburn/ Okay, that's, I know where to look. I'm looking at a different grid (mumbled). Davidson/ Would you like the same presentation tomorrow night? Champion/ Do we need a presentation? O'Donnell/ I don't think it... Bailey/ I think it would be terrific if Karen would set it up with the memo, the June 4`h memo I thought was particularly helpful; um, Amy, you were going to say something? Correia/ Well, I just think a public hearing that's televised, it's nice to have a little bit of a formal presentation from the staff on what we're going to be considering for anybody that's watching what we're doing, and for other people that are there, um, probably what you did is just a little bit longer than what I would think you would want, um, I do like having some discussion or sharing with the public about the process (several talking) involvement...right, and the memo, I think that... Miklo/ The PowerPoint can just be edited. Howard/ The goals and the...just basically the goals and the process, and what a Subdivision Code is? Bailey/ Yeah, that would be good. Hayek/ Do we not want to have some explanation for the public's benefit of what's being changed? I...I think this was a great presentation, and maybe it's a little long for a public hearing, but there's a lot of good information in it at the same time, and I think, you know, it's a good opportunity to educate the public. In fact, that's the purpose. Bailey/ I would be comfortable with having this presentation tomorrow night, for the sake of the public. I mean... Howard/ ...try to take some of the details out, or...no... Bailey/ So, this presentation... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 12 Wright/ It's a good presentation. Bailey/ It is. Okay. Thanks. All right, next item is old bus depot site, which was talked about in the info packet. Michael? Old Bus Depot Site QP2 of 6/19/08): Helling/ You asked for history, and so I tried to go back and sort of dig out how we got to where we are. The, uh, primary questions I think remain is that the future use, um, I would indicate one thing that's not in the memo that I did some checking on the, because the old bus depot site and the East Madison site, not the Wilson Building, but the other two, do belong to the Parking Division. They were purchased with parking funds, so there would be...divert that to another use, there'd be abuy-back of the property from Parking, and I believe several years ago, those two parcels, um, appraised at about, just the land, was appraised at about (mumbled) closer probably to about a half million now. O'Donnell/ Combined? Helling/ Sorry? O'Donnell/ The two properties combined. Helling/ Combined, yeah, those two, yeah. Lombardo/ I guess, I don't want to interrupt discussion about this, but as I kind of got acclimated here and been throughout the building and through Fire and Police, uh, I've noticed that we're really constrained on available space, and I have some concerns about where do we go from here. Um, and so in lieu of doing, unless your decision is to raze the ground and just kind of use it, and that's certainly one option, but I'd like to get a discussion up on the next work session to talk about a facility's study and do a needs assessment based on how our staffing is growing and what our space needs are for storage and meeting space and community space, um, and...and get some idea about what that would entail and the costs associated, and get that dialogue, and then what we do with our available land and this building and anything else would be (coughing, unable to hear) broader assessment of what our needs will be in the future. Champion/ I think it's...I'm not... Wright A holistic view, I like that. Bailey/ I think it makes the most sense. Champion/ I think it's silly to think about selling that off right away, since we are constrained on all sides, and... Correia/ And...I don't know that, when I wanted to talk about this, it wasn't that I wanted to sell it necessarily, but the way the old bus depot looks right now, it's a bit of an eyesore, and were you...I think we're using it as some construction staging. We used it in the winter, and I think that that's our space and we use it that way, but it...it, it's a pretty visible This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 13 corner right off from the downtown, and so while we're deciding how we're going to use that land, whether we use it for expansion or not, I'd like to talk about what it looks like and what it's used for during the time when we're making those plans, because it could be five years down the road, um... Champion/ Or 20. Correia/ ...or 20, and if we're just to stay...looking the way it looks, and just sort of being an ad- hoc, oh, we're going to put backhoes here now...I'm not sure that...that's what I... O'Donnell/ Are you saying a vacant lot would look better... Correia/ I don't know! I mean, it could be something else. O'Donnell/ ...because I agree. (laughter) Correia/ I mean, I don't know what it could be. I mean, I think there's probably lots of different ideas of how it could be put to use in the interim, and have a more pleasing aesthetic about it. Wilburn/ The challenging piece...I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying, but the challenging piece is, in order for there to be interim use, if it's beyond, uh, the City, if the public's going in there, then you start getting into, well, just comments like, `Clean the building up,' well, if there's going to be an occupancy permit, you've already seen what some of the costs are going to be, and so then you get into short-term, long-term.. . Correia/ Well, absolutely. I'm not saying that we...that we have the building so we...that's part of the discussion I'd like to have about the long-term and the short-term use of it, and maybe we want to use it for construction staging and then we won't use it for that, but we haven't talked about it. It's just been that way because there hasn't been any discussion on it. Wilburn/ And I'm suggesting that some glimmer of the long-term use may dictate what the short- term uses, possibilities, would be. Bailey/ And I think I would like to, I mean, I agree. I wouldn't necessarily like to hint to people that they would have access to that site. Um, the most compelling use for me right now is a public, private, um, after we look at our facilities needs, but um, I agree with Amy. It does look a little rough on a very visible corner, and we own it, and we have expectations for how other people care for their property and... Champion/ You're right. It does look terrible. (several talking) Correia/ Buffer it then! Put some hedges up before (laughter)... Champion/ It does look terrible! Bailey/ So... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 14 Lombardo/ Would it be better if I were to be able to provide some, uh, some time horizon for facilities... Bailey/ That would be helpful. Lombardo/ It could give you some...it wouldn't take, you know, a very long time. Matter of perhaps a few months, um, but if I could get my arms around that a little bit better and provide information to you, it might help decide what...what to do, if anything, with that facility (mumbled). Bailey/ And could, I mean, we talked once upon a time, I thought, about a little pocket park, or just a green space. I mean, could we get a sense of what it could take to pull up the concrete and plant some sod? I mean, which seems like a...it seems minimal; maybe it wouldn't be. I don't know. Are others interested in maybe something like that, or... Champion/ Well... Correia/ Yeah! Champion/ ...I'm, you know, I love that building. Bailey/ I know you do. (laughter and several talking) Champion/ I mean, I just think it's historical, and I think it could be a wonderful little shop, but I think, um, the money it would cost to make it usable safely, well, it's probably...I'm not even going to spend, um, so I...bite my tongue, I really think we ought to just tear it down! I can't stand it! Bailey/ That was a progress! (laughter) O'Donnell/ I'm for retaining the ground, but I totally agree the building is...has far exceeded its usefulness. It's an eyesore on the corner. (several talking) ...and I...I just think it's time for the building to go. Bailey/ So can we get a sense of what it would cost also to clean up the property? Lombardo/ We'll do a couple of different scenarios of what...what might be done there that it'd still be functional, but not take a wealth of resources and probably a couple options. Champion/ And then...what do we do, I mean, if we even touch that building, what do we do about all the stuff that must be under it? Oil, grease.. . Correia/ It's a brownfield, we'd have to... Bailey/ We don't know that for a fact. Correia/ Oh, we don't? Okay. (several commenting) Champion/ Well, there was...do we fix them under there or (several talking) and a gas station. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 15 O'Donnell/ I thought it was cleaned. Wasn't it, Dale? Helling/ I don't know that it's been cleaned; I don't know that it's contaminated. Um, I think the tank's still in the ground, and we just...I believe it's all (mumbled), but we...I don't think we really know what's under that. Wright/ Does anything in this demolition quote that's in the packet, uh, include bringing the tank up? Helling/ No. The demolition costs did not include digging it... Wright/ It's just leveling the building. Helling/ ...right. Bailey/ Well, and, it has to be...it has to be a Brownfield to get a Brownfield grant, right? It has to be named a Brownfield, and we don't even know if it qualifies, right? Okay. Lombardo/ Yeah, I mean, before we tear it down, we may want to do just a (mumbled) environmental assessment. Bailey/ Think that would be good. Champion/ Yes. Bailey/ ...pursue some funds. Champion/ It's...the corner, it does look bad. It really does look bad, and I drive by it every day and think we need to do something. Hayek/ As you look at this, I think we ought to at least look at the historic preservation aspects of this. This may not be a building we want to save, but, uh, just as we want to be consistent, to the extent we can with what we expect of the private sector, so should we potentially be expecting the same of ourselves, if we're going to impose preservation requirements on the private sector. It may be that the best thing is to tear it down, but I think we ought to look at that, uh, and if we don't, we will probably hear from... Bailey/ Is it older than 50 years? That building? Champion/ Oh, yes! (several responding) Hayek/ It's...so... Champion/ Those buildings were built in the 40's and 50's. Wright/ Yeah, that porcelain siding is late 40's. Champion/ And, you know, there's a great diner in Salt Lake City, in an old gas station like that. It's totally adorable! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 16 Correia/ And you know, I don't know if we talked about this in the demolition, but I mean, part of the demolition could be auctioning off pieces of the building. I mean, the County did that when they were demolished the parcel of land that we have the Human Services building, and almost every single piece of plywood and.. . Champion/ Have we ever tried to just sell the building? With that nice glass and that, what do you call that? Plastic...it's not plastic. Bailey/ Porcelain siding is what they called it. (several talking) Champion/ ...try to sell the building itself, for somebody to move it? Hayek/ Well, we can look at that, but I think what we want to do is get an assessment of our long- term needs and... Champion/ ...on Summit Street? (laughter) Wright/ They did have some thoughts in here though too that it might be from that, um, memo from Joe Fowler indicating it might be really difficult to move it. Bailey/ Right. Structurally. Champion/ But the facade. Correia/ Yeah, I mean, I think... Wright/ The facade could be... Correia/ ...auctioned off. Bailey/ So, do you have enough direction of what we want next, Michael? (laughter and several talking) It's a little free-ranging, but, um, think that we want to clean up the corner, and um, have a sense of what our facilities needs would...needs would be, and um, explore the possibility of auctioning off parts of the building, and find out if that's a brownfield site. Right? Champion/ Yeah...it's, you know, College Street looks so nice now. I mean, it's just really taken shape nicely, and then there is that corner. Bailey/ Okay, so, all right...thanks. Agenda items. Agenda Items: ITEM 5. AMENDING TITLE 16, PUBLIC WORKS, CHAPTER 3A, CITY UTILITIES -GENERAL PROVISIONS, SECTION 6, BILLING AND COLLECTION PROCEDURES; DELINQUENT ACCOUNTS, TO ELIMINATE THE DELINQUENCY CHARGE FOR ALL STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ENTITIES. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 17 O'Donnell/ What...how have we changed number 5? About delinquency, uh, you know, for charging other governmental bodies. I thought we were going to redo that in some way. Bailey/ (mumbled) Helling/ We changed it from what it was before. O'Donnell/ Weren't we going to come up with different wording, because the... Dilkes/ Michael, this is the billing one, the utilities one for overdue... Lombardo/ I'm still trying to figure out...sorry. We're, we feel that the ordinance that is in place is adequate, that we can work within that, and really don't feel a need to modify it. O'Donnell/ It just seems like there's an air of unfairness in that, that governmental bodies don't pay a delinquency charge and everybody else does. I don't... Lombardo/ It has more to do with the timing, um, in terms of... O'Donnell/ I understand. Lombardo/ ...and so we're not...I've been reassured they're not habitually late, extended periods of time and if they are, there's ashut-off provision in there. Uh, it's for, you know, the day to a week or so kind of where they're in flux and they have to get their approval process into gear, um, but from what I understand, they're not, it's not a case of habitual tardiness in paying. It's a timing thing. I had concerns about that too, that, you know, if it's...if it's more the latter, that we're going 60 days and not getting paid, then I'm all for we should charge, and there shouldn't be any... it has to do with kind of the initial.. . O'Donnell/ I understand it's...it's because of their meeting schedule, and the, uh, billing cycle, so, but if there were some way to clarify that a little bit so it doesn't look like we're giving the governmental body a break for being tardy on a bill. Dilkes/ Mike, we're going to kill the ordinance. We're going to indefinitely defer it and be done with it, so, Michael is not recommending that we make any changes. O'Donnell/ Okay. Champion/ Yeah, and...yeah, good. O'Donnell/ Good. Thank you. Bailey/ Other agenda items? ITEM 4. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. c) REZONING APPROXIMATELY 9.48 ACRES OF LAND LOCATED SOUTH OF OLIVE COURT AND LEAMER COURT AND EAST OF MARIETTA AVENUE FROM MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE FAMILY (RS-8) ZONE TO PLANNED DEVELOPMENT OVERLAY (OPD-8). (REZ08-0001) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 18 Wright/ Anything on 4.c., the Olive Court, uh, Learner Court... Bailey/ Um, it's a rezoning. We can't discuss it tonight. Is that right? Yes, we'll have to discuss that tomorrow night. Okay? Dilkes/ All our conversations about rezoning occur at the formal meeting. Wright/ Okay. Bailey/ Other agenda items? Okay. Moving on. ITEM 10. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 2 OF THE CITY CODE, ENTITLED "HUMAN RIGHTS," CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "DISCRIMINATORY PRACTICES" TO EXCEPT SMALL EMPLOYERS FROM DISCRIMINATION CLAIMS AND CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED "ENFORCEMENT," TO INCREASE THE TIME PERIOD FOR FILING A DISCRIMINATION CLAIM. (FIRST CONSIDERATION) (DEFERRED FROM 6/17) Wright/ I did have one...I was just going to ask Eleanor this and maybe, I don't know if you've heard anything on, um, the discriminatory...Item 10, the discriminatory practices, um, has there been any move to change that at the state level? Dilkes/ ...recent no. Wright Yeah...it just, it strikes me as bizarre, to say the least! Dilkes/ It certainly could be changed, by the way. ITEM 11. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION CONCERNING MEDIACOM COMMUNICATIONS CORPORATION'S 2008 UPDATING OF RATES FOR BASIC CABLE SERVICES. (DEFERRED FROM 6/17) Hayek/ The Mediacom rate increase, is that a, uh, pursuant to a formula? What it costs to...what's that? Helling/ It is, yeah, and it only applies to those who have just the very basic tier. It's the only tier we can regulate, and there are formulas that the FCC gives us and we apply those to see if there, you know, if they're calculating within the guidelines and formulas, and we've determined that they are, and it'll go up from $11.55 a month to $11.62 a month. Hayek/ And that's the package I get at home, so that's aseven-cent hit to me. (several responding) So, okay, it's essentially (several talking) adjustor. Helling/ Not really inflationary. The formulas are much too complicated to call them inflationary, but it's...it...it can go up, you know, incrementally. Uh, just as a side note, in terms of...we are one of the few communities that actually regulate, and apply the formulas, because it's very complicated, but um, we also are, have...I don't know if it's...I think for Mediacom's, uh, um, systems in Iowa, we have the lowest basic rate. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 19 Wilburn/ That's when it comes up, and then the other piece that Dale will say is that, uh, we have in the past historically challenged one of the increases, and then it comes...uh, the Mayor will read it and no one will want to make the motion, uh, to increase rates and there'll be a long pause and somebody (several talking) Bailey/ ...toward the end tomorrow night and... Wilburn/ ...have to do this and then we'll move on. Hayek/ I nominate Ross! (laughter) Bailey/ Other agenda items? Wilburn/ I think that's a newbie...task! Champion/ I think so, too! Bailey/ All right, shall we move on to public property smoking policies...Eleanor. Public Property Smoking Policies QP3 of 6/19/08): Dilkes/ I think the focus of the discussion tonight needs to be on whether you all want to designate certain areas, additional areas, as being non-smoking, but I'm just going to...and I think the memo gives you the background that you need, but I'll just run through the basics. Uh, the state law prohibits smoking in enclosed City buildings, um, in City vehicles, with the exception of unmarked police cars, and then it...and it also prohibits smoking in, um, in closed places of employment, which is pretty much going to just mirror the enclosed public buildings for us. Then it regulates, um, smoking in certain outdoor areas. One of those areas is the "grounds of public buildings." It's not defined in the statute, but as I noted in the memo, it's defined in the proposed administrative rules, um, which will not be final, um, until probably the fall. Um, but kind of the way the proposed rules deal with it, if it...if the grounds are those areas that are used in connection with the public building and immediate adjacent thereto. Um, so for instance in City Hall it would be all the internal sidewalks, um, the, uh, parking lot is used in connection with this building, etc., but it wouldn't be, for instance, um, at the Soccer Park you have a, you know, the concession stand and the restrooms, it would just be the immediately adjacent area, not, you know, the distant soccer fields, except for those seating areas, which are also covered. Um, so grounds of public building, used in connection with and immediately adjacent to the buildings. Um, bus stops, smoking is prohibited at bus stops. Um, that would include all our bus stops. Um, and the seating areas of entertainment or sporting venues. Um, clearly places like the stands at Napoleon Park are going to be covered, um, but it gets a little murky after that, because the...the rule has a very broad definition of seating areas. Um, it includes standing only areas. It includes places where people congregate to witness events. Um, it...there is, and for instance, questions are, you know, at a stage at Jazz Fest or at the Friday Night Concert Series where people congregate to witness those events, are those non-smoking areas by statute. The, um, the, uh, statute does allow, uh, the City to designate areas that would be seating areas, so you might designate a hundred feet from the Friday Night Concert Series stage or something to that effect. Um, places that...where smoking is not This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 20 prohibited under the statute -private vehicles, um, private vehicles on our grounds; private vehicles on school grounds are covered. Um, outdoor areas controlled by the City that are not considered grounds of a building, i.e., those outdoor areas that aren't used in connection with a building and immediately adjacent to a building, um, trails are not covered, unless they're the grounds of the building, and right-of--way is not covered. So given that, there's...I've got several categories of places where the City Council needs to consider whether you want to prohibit smoking, and the act specifically allows, um, cities to designate additional non-smoking areas. The first that I think you need to think about is, um, City parks. As I said before, only the grounds of the buildings in our city parks would be covered. Those areas right next to the building; wouldn't cover all the rest of the park. So the question is do you want to do a blanket prohibition on smoking in city parks. Ames, for instance, has a...prohibits smoking in their city parks. So this whole grounds issue isn't as big a deal for them, um, in their parks. Uh, City cemetery, that's the same issue. There is a City building out there, but it would only be...it wouldn't be the majority of the cemetery that...where smoking would be prohibited. It would just be, um, an area immediately around the building. Um, City Plaza is right-of--way and it's not regulated under the act. Um, there are some areas in City Plaza that will be covered because of other provisions of the act. Um, outdoor seating areas of restaurants are covered. So all our sidewalk cafes, and any outdoor service area that a restaurant has would be...smoking would be prohibited. The only outdoor area that would not...or outdoor restaurant or bar area that would not be covered would be like a beer garden. It would have to be in connection with a...establishment where the selling of food was just incidental of the selling of alcohol. I'm thinking maybe, uh, the old Gabes, you know. What is that called? Correia/ What about like the Brothers' patio? Dilkes/ No, that's a restaurant. Correia/ Oh, okay. Dilkes/ I don't think downtown we have, well, because under our sidewalk cafe ordinance, too, it has to be a "restaurant" in order to get a sidewalk cafe. So, all of those should be...all those sidewalk cafe areas should be... O'Donnell/ What about the streets downtown? Dilkes/ No. That's right-of--way, and right-of--way is not... O'Donnell/ So you can sit in your vehicle in the street downtown, but you can't... Dilkes/ You can sit... O'Donnell/ Yeah, but I mean, you can be downtown and you can't smoke in the Ped Mall, but at 2:00 in the morning you can have 500 people out in the street smoking a cigarette. Champion/ No, we didn't say we can't smoke in the Ped Mall. You couldn't smoke in the congregating area... O'Donnell/ I thought we were banning the Ped Mall. Aren't we talking about that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 21 Champion/ ...like with the Friday Night Concert Series. Bailey/ That would be a possible... O'Donnell/ Within a hundred feet? Bailey/ That would be a possibility. Dilkes/ That would be a possible...yeah, and clearly when you're thinking about whether you want to regulate in one place, you need to think about the ramifications for the neighboring places. O'Donnell/ Exactly! Dilkes/ The other issue that we have in the Plaza, in addition to smoking being prohibited in, um, outdoor service areas and sidewalk cafes, is that seating area issue, you know, if we're not going to do non-smoking in the Plaza, we're going to have to do some designation of where the non-smoking areas are for entertainment events on the Plaza. Um... Champion/ Wait a minute! Can I just back up here? Dilkes/ Uh-huh. Champion/ I thought you said where people congregate, like to watch a concert, would be smoke- free. Dilkes/ LTh-huh. Champion/ Didn't you say that? Dilkes/ Uh-huh. (several talking) That we have those downtown in the Plaza. Champion/ Right. So that...when we're having that concert, the congregated area would have to be...would be smoke-free, under the way the ordinance reads now. Dilkes/ Under the way the statute reads now, right. Champion/ And the same way with Jazz Fest. Dilkes/ Right. Champion/ So we're covering that automatically. Dilkes/ Those are covered, but I think we're going to...I mean, there's so much...on the Plaza, for instance, I don't know where that seating area is. So we're going to have to... Bailey/ Yeah, it's not defined. Is it everywhere somebody's sitting... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 22 Dilkes/ Let me tell you this. If you chose not to regulate smoking in the City Plaza, then we're going to want to define some seating areas, like for the Friday Night Concert Series and any other entertainment events, and we can do that. That's just something... O'Donnell/ Or at a distance. Dilkes/ Yeah, right. Correia/ Is the playground area... Bailey/ Did you have more for the list? (several talking) Can we just finish the list, and then discuss the details, is that okay? Dilkes/ Yeah, then we'll go back through each one. Bailey/ Right. Dilkes/ Um, parking ramps are not covered because they're not enclosed. Um, again, right-of- way isn't covered and there maybe situations where if you ban in one area you're also going to want to pull in a section ofright-of--way. I know, for instance, Susan Craig is concerned about if there is a ban of smoking on the Plaza that she wants to make sure that the right-of--way, right where the entrances to the Library are, it's banned there, as well, so it doesn't become a smoking area. Champion/ It's already banned there! Dilkes/ No. It's just banned 20 feet from her building, still on her grounds. It's not on the right- of-way. So,1'm just using that as an example of how these things interact. And then the final one would be just certain...if you wanted to do bans on smoking at certain events. So... Bailey/ Okay. Amy, you had a question? Correia/ Oh, the playground in front of the Library, is that considered a park? (unable to hear person away from mic) Right, but when, but you're saying that we have the ability under this act to talk about, um, banning smoking... Dilkes/ It's part of the Plaza. Correia/ Okay. Bailey/ So... Wright/ So we could talk about sections or all of the Plaza. Correia/ Right. L . . Bailey/ Do we want to start with the Plaza...then? (several responding) Let's start with the Plaza. Okay. Yes? You're interested in... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 23 Correia/ In the playground area and some... Champion/ Yeah, I just want to bring up something. Correia/ ...area around it. Champion/ L..have you ever seen anybody smoking in the play area? Correia/ Not in the play area; I'm talking about... Champion/ Have you seen anybody smoking other than (several talking) Correia/ Yeah! The benches around, some perimeter around the place. Champion/ But I think you have to be careful, because my concern with making the Plaza non- smoking, you're going to force people to the next block. I mean, I think you've got to think about the repercussions of this. I mean, we have...I'm not saying that people should be smoking by the playground, or people should be smoking in the crowd during a concert, but don't recreate a problem until you see if you have a problem. Bailey/ One of the approaches I was thinking about since most of our sidewalk cafes are on College Street, and then there's the viewing area for the concerts and then there's the playground area and the Library is...is prohibiting it along that College Street, plus maybe some distance that would get a seating area, and then not necessarily prohibiting it along Dubuque Street. I know that that pushing that balloon there would pop it out to Dubuque Street, but that would be a compromise. I don't know. I mean... O'Donnell/ I don't have any problem with a certain distance from the Friday Night Concert, and I don't have a problem with the playground area. (mumbled), but I...it was my impression when I sat here and listened to the talk at different times that we were talking about the entire pedestrian area, and you clearly cannot ban right-of--way, so and I...I do think that at 2:00 in the morning, you step into the street with...with masses of people downtown, and I think you're creating a problem. You're...you're...and, you're shifting a problem. I don't think you're correcting a problem. Bailey/ Eleanor, any other comments? Dilkes/ I just wanted to clarify one thing. You...I think you do have the right to prohibit it in the right-of--way, but that would be a designation by you. It's not prohibited by the statute. (several talking) O'Donnell/ Do you have the right to prohibit it in your own vehicle? Dilkes/ Do you have the...do we have the right to... O'Donnell/ The right to prohibit it inside... Dilkes/ No, because that's not property that's under our control. O'Donnell/But they're parked on our property. So we can have six... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 24 Dilkes/ I think that would conflict with the statute, which gives a specific exemption for private vehicles. O'Donnell/ I'm just trying (several talking) Bailey/ Any other thoughts about the Plaza? Champion/ What was your compromise then? Bailey/ Just doing most of College Street, and then Dubuque Street. What...what were other people thinking about the Plaza? Wright/ I'd really like to see us outlaw on the Plaza altogether. That would be the Dubuque Street and the College Street. Champion/ I suggested that 20 years ago or 15 years ago, just because of all the cigarette butts around. But, I'm concerned that we're just going to move it somewhere else, and that, to me, is a concern since I own a business on Dubuque Street, or other people own businesses on Dubuque Street. So I think you're going to shift the problem, um, in front of my business or in front of the businesses on Washington or in front of the businesses on College Street, further down. I don't...I think you've got to consider the repercussions of what you're talking about. Dilkes/ Connie, I think you're going to have that issue anyway, because the University is prohibiting smoking on their entire campus. So, for instance, you're not going to be able to smoke on the Pentacrest. Bailey/ Ross, what are your thoughts... Champion/ Well, they'll go the sidewalk. That's... Dilkes/ Right, that's what...yes. Bailey/ Ross, do you have some thoughts about the Plaza? Wilburn/ Well, clearly I would have concern about, um, smoking in the playground area, and where the events are, um...I'm appreciating what you're saying, Connie, but I think Eleanor's point is very salient, because it's, you know, you're going to displace something somewhere, regardless of what, uh, of what's going on, especially with the University and the Pentacrest. Um, my other concern was the sidewalk cafes, but those are covered. So...um, I hadn't... Wright/ I'll really be curious to see...I'm sorry. Wilburn/ ...I hadn't necessarily thought about banning the entire Plaza. That wasn't...I was more concerned, um, with those particular areas, in particular with kids in the...in the Plaza there, and then just trying to enjoy some of the (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 25 Dilkes/ One thing you could just think about as we go through this whole list, too, is just, you could wait a while and see how things shake out. (several responding) You know. Wilburn/ That was...that was another thing. I think, I mean, an opportunity to kind of observe. Just what's the natural displacement that's going to occur, because of the ban in the sidewalk cafes, are we going to see folks, well, I'll just wait until I go, or are you going to have people hovered around the perimeter of the sidewalk... so part of me was like, well, I want a chance to observe and see what...what's... Champion/ I had suggested that because I've been in a lot of cities, um, that banned smoking in restaurants and bars, and I don't see this huge congregation of people smoking anywhere. Wilburn/ I didn't see it in D.C. when we were out there. Champion/ You don't see it in New York City. I didn't see it in San Francisco. I didn't see it in Salt Lake City. That, I mean, I know we have a place where everybody congregates downtown, and that may make a difference, but I'm not against making part of the Ped Mall non-smoking. I think (mumbled) should not be smoking by their children's playground, for instance, that just seems crazy to me. Or the soccer fields, and now that's been taken care of, but um, I don't, I think...I don't know if we're going to have a problem. I think you may create more problems by making the Pedestrian Mall non- smoking. Then you're going to have (mumbled). At least there's ashtrays there! And I think people use them, but I'm concerned also about the other businesses downtown. You can't ban smoking in the whole downtown. First of all, it's going to (mumbled) unenforceable, so don't make laws that you can't enforce. Wrighd But you know, Boulder did ban smoking on their downtown pedestrian mall, and my observation is that you don't have people lined up on the rights-of--way on adjoining streets smoking. I mean, they do smoke over there, but it didn't appear at the times I've been there to be a serious problem. Champion/ No, I don't see that any city has a big problem. I don't see it happening. I think less people smoke, for one thing. And that's good, so I...I don't know. I think we should just wait and see, um, I don't know how...the way the State...it's not an ordinance, whatever you call it. Bailey/ Statute? Champion/ Statute...reads now is if the Friday Night Concert Series is there, you can't smoke where the people are sitting. Isn't that correct? Bailey/ Although Eleanor seems to indicate that they might want some clarification of where that seating area technically ends. Is that what you (several talking) Correia/ ...either direction and are listening, so...it's not like a stadium. Bailey/ Did you have thoughts about the Plaza? Hayek/ Well, I...as an overall matter, I'm...I guess I would probably side with the wait and see approach, just to see how this, uh, state-wide legislation, combined with the University's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 26 move, um, plays out downtown, um, I am open to, uh, some of the more obvious restrictions -playgrounds, uh, that sort of thing, but I'll make the argument against -just to play devil's advocate -against banning it outright in the entire Pedestrian Mall. That's a wider expanse than you can walk through, and it's easier to avoid a smoker, if you're on the right-of--way in front of, on Washington Street or on...your business on Dubuque Street can't, and we're next to a bar and every morning we sweep up 10 to 25 cigarettes,. every morning, seven days a week, and...and um, so there's a fair decision there, and you can't, you know, people coming and going from my office walk past people who are leaving either a coffee shop or the bar next to us, having a drag, and... and so you're in a more constricted space, and I think if you're going to look at....as a mater of fairness, you'd have to look at all of it, and that's a pretty draconian move. Maybe it's one we want to take some day, but...those are my feelings. O'Donnell/ I...I agree the wait and see. Let's see how this plays out. Dilkes/ You started with the hardest one, the Plaza. (laughter and several commenting) Bailey/ I think...I do think, however, it does make sense to, um, and I think it would, people would understand the banning of smoking around the playground, the play area. Champion/ Why can't we just put a sign that says "no smoking around the play area." Generally smokers have sued. Bailey/ That would be after we do the ban, yeah, we'd put... Champion/ No, I mean, why couldn't you just put that there? A sign there. Why can't you just put a sign up and see what happens? (laughter) Bailey/ We won't pass any laws -we'll just use signage! (laughter) Wrighd That'll be good when the word gets out! (laughter) Hayek/ Eleanor, you can just go on vacation when we do this! (laughter) Bailey/ She'll need to! So, are we...are we waiting to see, or are we doing the obvious, the play area and some designation of where the seating area is for the Friday Night Concert Series, or are we going to wait and see? O'Donnell/ Wait and see. Correia/ I do think it makes sense as a compromise to the whole Ped Mall to one section, because that whole section of College Street, you have the Library, the play structure, the fountain, where people are in the Friday Night Concert, and most of our sidewalk cafes, and it just seems to me that makes sense to start there, um... Bailey/ Yeah, I think... Hayek/ ...College from Clinton to Linn Street? Correia/ Yes! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 27 Bailey/ Because you know, banning it in front of the Tobacco Bowl just seems silly. I mean... Hayek/ But that's not a good argument to go up Dubuque Street. Bailey/ Right, well, but it's a...I mean, it's the more gathering spot. Hayek/ Yeah. Bailey/ And your point about Dubuque is wider. I mean... Correia/ We're not pushing all the smoking out off into Dubuque or Washington businesses, and those right-of--ways. There's more open space in there, less congregating of folks that, um... Bailey/ In large, large groups. Correia/ In large groups, and in our sidewalk cafes that don't want to be, um, create some choices, and keep smoking away from vulnerable populations, children, people as they're...and then we don't have to do this thing of there's no smoking in this area when there's a Friday Night Concert, but there is other times. I mean, I think that then it kind of clears that type of thing up. Champion/ I think we should just wait and see. I just don't think...you're thinking about creating problems. There may be problems, and then we'll have to deal with them. Hayek/ I'd be open to dealing with libraries and play areas. That makes sense to me, but if we're going to arbitrarily define, or look at one particular commercial area over another, that's where I run into some... Bailey/ I guess I thought about College Street as...um, and you're right, maybe it won't be a problem, but where the sidewalk cafes are. I mean, you can't enjoy asmoke-free meal provided nobody decides to sit down and have a cigarette on the Plaza right near you, where you're sitting out in a cafe. Champion/ But then are you going to ban it too on Iowa Avenue, because there's sidewalk cafes there. And they don't have as much room. I mean, I think.. . Bailey/ Okay, so the play structure and the area by the Library? Correia/ Well, what about that circle that goes around the fountain, and the concrete stage area? Champion/ How are you going to... Correia/ Because that's seating area. Bailey/ Delineate the seating area? Correia/ Delineate the seating area... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 28 Wright/ ...extension of the playground. Bailey/ Eleanor? Dilkes/ You could delineate the seating area for when there's entertainment going on, and not say it's all the time. That would be an option. We're going to need to delineate the seating area, just so we know where smoking's allowed and smoking is (mumbled). Wilburn/ Is the easiest "X" number of feet from the stage, or... Dilkes/ We can (mumbled) Wilburn/ Okay, all right. I would support that. Bailey/ Okay, so... Wright/ Having gone from total ban to College Street to this...I like banning it on College Street better than this. This is kind of.. . Champion/ I don't agree. I think there are other businesses that are going to suffer because of that. But what about if we make an ordinance that covers all of our playground equipment, including in the parks? Not the park, but.. . Bailey/ The areas...so... Champion/ You could do a broad thing. Wright/ Playground areas in general. Champion/ Playground areas, which include play equipment. Dilkes/ I'm really...I think you've got to really be careful about making more chopped up areas where smoking is...so now we've got a park and we've got the area around the building and then we've got the playground equipment. I mean, it just gets...it's going to be a very difficult enforcement situation. (several talking) Hayek/ How many DPH officers are going to be walking around with... Bailey/ They're going to deploy like 1,500, I think. Hayek/ ...looking around for smoke. Champion/ Maybe we can increase our city budget by (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ Okay. So, we talked about the play structures, the Library. Two people so far want to wait and see. I'm just going to count noses. What...you said the play, you're okay with the play structure, Library. Amy, where are you? Champion/ I'm certainly okay with the play structure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 29 O'Donnell/ I don't have trouble with that. Correia/ Well, I'm at all of the College between Clinton and Linn, but will go to whatever there's majority. Hayek/ I have a problem with it. I don't think it's fair. Bailey/ Play structure and Library, or all... Hayek/ I'm okay with that. Bailey/ ...okay. Wait. I think we have agreement here that we will do the play structure and the area around the Library. O'Donnell/ What area around the Library? Dilkes/ ...the area around the Library? Bailey/ (several talking) you mean between...I was assuming it was between the play structure and the Library. Dilkes/ Oh, okay. Bailey/ That's the area I was assuming. Hayek/ Isn't that part of... Dilkes/ Play structure to that entryway of the Library. Hayek/ Isn't that part of Susan Craig's concern, that smoke gets into those doors and goes into... Champion/ ...no smoking within 20 feet of the Library. Bailey/ Yeah, but there's that outdoor chess area, and you get a lot of kids in that, too. Dilkes/ Okay. Bailey/ Okay? Wilburn/ Just to be clear...and you're going to, is she going to play around with (several talking) from the entertainment area, the listening area? Dilkes/ And do you want that prohibited just when entertainment is being provided, or... Champion/ Oh, yes. It's just... Dilkes/ ...or at all times? Bailey/ That seems to be the consensus. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 30 O'Donnell/ And how are we going to do that? So we're going to have big signs, or are we going to (several talking). I don't think so. Wright/ You can be standing on the perimeter with a cigarette and (laughter and several talking) Hayek/ We'll have the "stazie" figure it out! Wilburn/ No, we do have to notify the public, so... Bailey/ Okay, so, um, let's look at the rest of the list. We can...City parks? Champion/ Impossible to enforce, and ridiculous. O'Donnell/ How do you do it? Wilburn/ Um, I have a question, and I'm sorry, Eleanor, um, I'm a little stuck between the...I was looking at your examples with Napoleon Park and the Kickers Park, and around Napoleon...around Kickers you're talking about, uh, no they can't. It's that area about the seating areas, because during softball games we only have bleachers that go here, and then people bring their lawn chairs along, and then if it...you know, our team complaining about...I remember the last time there were a couple folks with cigars in lawn chairs, right outside the, you know, the dugout area and.. . Dilkes/ Yeah, I think we're going to want to...as we designate the area for entertainment downtown, we're going to want to do that with other seating areas. (mumbled) so just so it's clear, since they're covered anyway and we don't know what's covered in (mumbled) Correia/ For a sports park, could we ban all smoking in a youth sports park anywhere? Bailey/ And...okay, so what parks would that be? Dilkes/ Well, you'd want to say which parks you're talking about. Correia/ I know, but I'm just asking. Bailey/ So would that be Napoleon and Kickers. Correia/ The Mercer ball fields. Bailey/ Would that be the baseball fields over at City Park? Correia/ Right, the baseball fields over at City Park. Bailey/ What other parks are there? Hayek/ Well, Happy Hollow next to my house. Correia/ That's different. That's not a... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 31 Hayek/ They're playing Little League there, and they've got soccer and they've got (several talking). Yeah. Karr/ They're even at Creekside. Correia/ I mean, could that be during a scheduled activity, you know, registered, whatever...reserved activity, that there's no smoking. Champion/ I don't have any kids in sports anymore, but are people actually smoking at those... Wilburn/ Oh, yeah, they do. I...I had a guy, uh, vehemently, you know, you don't have it posted on the outside of the gate that you can't smoke in here and he just plopped right down. I don't even know if he was watching the...if he had a player out there or not, but big cigar right along the third base line and... Champion/ Did somebody ask him to put it out? Wilburn/ I did, yeah. Champion/ Did he? Wilburn/ No, he didn't. Champion/ He didn't! Wilburn/ And I had no way of...you got no way to stop me -it's not posted! You're right. O'Donnell/ So, is it a certain distance from the ball field, or from...third base line or something. What do you do? Dilkes/ If you can give us some general direction about what your interest is, then I can talk to Terry Trueblood about where those areas are, and how we might define them. Bailey/ Are there four people interested in pursuing this with youth sports? Champion/ Yes, I am. Wilburn/ Yeah. (several commenting) Bailey/ Okay. So you'll get some direction from Terry. Other parts of park that I assume, no? Okay, the cemetery? O'Donnell/ Who smokes in the cemetery? I don't...that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. I mean, are there parties there or what? (several commenting) Well, that's okay. (laughter) Apparently! Bailey/ Okay, so we're not... Wright/ I'm fine with people smoking in the cemetery! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 32 O'Donnell/ I've never seen anybody smoke in the cemetery. Bailey/ Parking ramps! O'Donnell/ That's the most ridiculous thing! Bailey/ People can just smoke to their heart's content in the cemetery apparently. Um, parking ramps. Dilkes/ There's an issue with one of our parking ramps, the one that's over on...that's now, you know, the mall, that's attached to the mall over there that's now, the whole top floor is University property, and they're, um, very concerned that, for us I guess, that um, nobody's going to be able to smoke in their upper floor and they're all going to go into the ramp and smoke. Correia/ They haven't been able to smoke in the upper floor anyway! Dilkes/ What's that? Champion/ Yeah, you haven't been able to smoke in that, I mean... Bailey/ Smoking in ramps, Des Moines banned smoking in ramps... Champion/ The University, well, the University owns that part of the...it was smoke-free anyway! Wright/ But, the ramp is not is what I'm hearing. Champion/ But, it's always been smoke-free. Who... Bailey/ The ramp? Champion/ No. Malls. Dilkes/ Well, I guess I should say, we should be concerned about people going into our ramps, as opposed to...(several talking) Bailey/ Is that a wait and see area? Champion/ I think so, because (several talking) Lombardo/ People are going to congregate there and (mumbled) O'Donnell/ And the car exhaust is probably not harmful, I mean, you could...I mean, there's cars running in there all the time, for Pete's sake. I, you know, I'm just going to kind of... Dilkes/ One thing to do is think about the reasons for the legislation, and I think it's really pretty odd that parking ramps got exempted from it, when you actually look at, you know, you're trying to cover places where, um, people are employed. We've got our parking This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 33 folks in there. Um, where the public will be exposed to second-hand smoke. I...I just think it's more a glitch in the way the act was written, that parking ramps.. . Bailey/ We might want to consider our parking ramps. Dilkes/ ... so I would think you might want to consider parking ramps. Champion/ I think it's unenforceable. I mean, I hate making rules that can't easily be enforced. Nothing irritates me more than just making rules to make rules. O'Donnell/ Let's only do it on even numbered floors. Wilburn/ Well, actually there are...part of it, the whole concept, is that you're also empowering non-smokers, or people who don't wish to be, uh, to give them, uh, the example I gave with the gentleman who refused to put out the cigar. You don't have it posted. If it's...if it's banned, I can say, `Yeah, there was a sign up there,' and so part of it is there's aself- policing. The other piece to it, I believe, in the legislation that also allows for the general public to call and ask for...now maybe by the time a police officer gets there, um, that person is gone or they've extinguished it, um, but then again, maybe not. Because there's also...there's a piece in it, I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, Eleanor, if an employee were to, uh, if the business were not, um, making sure that this is smoke-free, there's a sanction against, uh, essentially a whistle blower. Dilkes/ It's an...there's an anti-retaliation... Wilburn/ Anti-retal...that's the word I'm looking for. Thanks, Eleanor. So, um, yes there can be challenges to enforcement, but there's a big component that is the self-policing and empowering the, um, folks who do not wish to be exposed to second-hand smoke. Champion/ Again, the repercussions of that. So if the University bans smoking in all of their buildings, and they think their employees are going to go out in the ramp to smoke. I don't know that there's smoking on the University floor anyway, but, I mean, they're in private offices. So then are people going to go down to the sidewalks and smoke? I mean, so then you're going to have the sidewalks, which are public right-of--way. You're going to have those people coming down the elevator. Correia/ Or it's too much trouble and they just... Champion/ No, no, believe me, it won't be too much trouble! I just... Wright/ There's no way we can stop people though from going down to the street... O'Donnell/ Exactly! Good point. Champion/ (several commenting) That's exactly what I'm saying! Correia/ They can go to their car. I mean, I do think if we're thinking about people congregating so they're on the second floor of Old Capitol and they go out into the, by the door, that that does create other people have to walk out that door to go to their car, and I agree with Ross that those, having signs posted do deter people from smoking because other people This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 34 who don't want to be around smokers are empowered to say, `hey there's no smoking here' because it's posted, and that happened when the County went smoke-free around the perimeter of their buildings, and so...I'd support it. Bailey/ The parking ramp ban? Correia/ Yep. Wilburn/ That's fine. Wright/ Okay. Hayek/ I don't know. Bailey/ I'd support it. O'Donnell/ What did you say? (several talking) Wright/ You would support it. Hayek/ There's four. O'Donnell/ Which parking ramp? Bailey/ Ours. Wright Municipal, in general. Bailey/ Right-of--ways, you said that was possible? What...what are the constraints on that? Dilkes/ I'm not...I'm not suggesting that you do that. I'm just saying in certain places... Bailey/ I'm just going down the list, where it's possible, and so...checking with people if they were interested in pursuing it. I think Mike is not (laughter). O'Donnell/ I'm not interested...Connie hit it right on the head. Enforce it. It's unenforceable. Champion/ ...enforce it somewhere else, and that's my concern with right-of--ways. I mean, then...you know, then they're going to go to aright-of--way where it isn't banned, and I...I think, I just don't think that smoking bans going to cause any big problems. I think people... Hayek/ Eleanor, I think it would help for you to define for us what aright-of-way is, and give an example or two. Dilkes/ Okay. Um... Hayek/ Because I'm not sure we're all on the same page. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 35 Dilkes/ Okay, well, downtown, um, not in the Plaza. Um, the, uh, streets and the sidewalks down there are all right-of--ways. Hayek/ Okay, so from building facade to across the street building facade, that's all right-of way? Bailey/ And sidewalk to sidewalk, basically, in other areas of town. Karr/ The benches on those sidewalks. Dilkes/ L . . Bailey/ Not that I'm suggesting to ban it, but...just... Dilkes/ Yeah, I'm not suggesting...I didn't even have a specific place in mind. I just wanted you to know, for future reference, that I think it's possible because we have control of your right-of--ways. Bailey/ Right. Dilkes/ So, in the future... Bailey/ Is this something we want to pursue? Dilkes/ ...a problem you can mess with it. Bailey/ Okay. And then you said bans on, at certain events? Dilkes/ I mean, if you wanted to regulate smoking... Bailey/ Which I think is what Amy was talking about. Dilkes/ We'll have to do it with respect to the seating areas, of those, but... Wright/ So if...we would be talking about something like, for example, saying we ban smoking within "X" number of feet from the concert stage. Dilkes/ Within this block area or something, yeah. Bailey/ (mumbled) Correia/ And then we'll have portable signs during those events? I mean, how will we let people know. O'Donnell/ Connie will stand there! (laughter) Champion/ Well, I think if you have an ordinance in place, does it have to be signage? Correia/ But I'm... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 36 Dilkes/ Right, one of the aspects of the state law is that you have to sign every vehicle, you have to sign every, uh, entry. Bailey/ Signage was the most specific part of their rules. Correia/ But I mean, for our...for, uh, event-specific bans, it doesn't make sense to have a sign up 365 days of the year. Dilkes/ I assume our sign people could do... Correia/ Right, we could have portable signs. I mean, because it's supposed to be for people to know so they don't smoke, and for other people to know if they see people smoking, to say, `hey there's no smoking.' Bailey/ So, any other events, beyond the ones that we've discussed? Friday Night Concert Series. Dilkes/ That might be just, that might be a really good wait and see one. When you see how it shakes out, having to prohibit smoking around the stages and stuff. Bailey/ Okay, and then, we talked a little bit about enforcement, but how will it be enforced locally? Dilkes/ That's still unclear. The Department of Public Health is charged with, um, enforcement, um, they do designate local authorities as people who may help with enforcement, um, there's not been a mandate to that effect yet. Um, there actually...it's acivil penalty against individuals, um, and there's a lot of...there's a lot that's unclear about that whole issue. So, I think...I think, yes, a police officer could issue a citation against an individual. I don't think our...I know our Police Department is not interested in becoming the enforcement agent against establishments with respect to their signing and that kind of thing. Um, so, um, we're just going to have to work through that. Bailey/ Okay. Any other questions or comments? Wilburn/ Just a question about, uh, taxicabs received a state exemption? Is that correct? Am I reading that right, or did I read that wrong? Bailey/ No, they're... Dilkes/ No, taxicabs are covered. Wilburn/ They are covered, okay. (several commenting) Dilkes/ And we... Wilburn/ I read that wrong then. (several talking) Bailey/ Gaming floors of casinos. Okay. Any other questions, comments for Eleanor? Do you have what you need...from...okay. Thanks. We're going to take aten-minute break. Metropolitan Coalition Process QP4 of 6/19/08): This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 37 Bailey/ Metropolitan Coalition, um, process and discussion about issues. Ross, did you want to speak to this a little bit? Wilburn/ Do I have to? Bailey/ Yes, please. Wilburn/ Okay. Let me find it first. IP4...no...(mumbled). Okay. Wright/ With the nice spreadsheets. Bailey/ Right, Amy had asked for this spreadsheet that... Wilburn/ Right. Uh, for the meeting that the Coalition's going to have to kind of start strategizing for the next legislative session, it would be helpful to have, um, actually I want to go to the...the original email that they sent... Correia/ So... Wilburn/ Um, hold on a second, Amy, I'm sorry. Uh, they wanted to know from us over the next year what issues we should spend the...the Coalition should spend its time, um, needs, interests, main priorities for the coming year. Bailey/ Things have changed recently. Wilburn/ Categorize our needs, interests according to whether the Metropolitan Coalition should be proactive on a particular issue, defensive, uh, defensive would be things that, um, essentially if this comes up during the session, then either advocate or block against it, and then they wanted to know areas where, uh, someone from our community would be willing, able to go and help, um, provide expertise in a particular area. (mumbled) if a bill came up related to Brownfield, or um, if we're out proactively trying to increase money, state money for brownfield/grayfield, do we have someone on staff that would be the Coalition lobbyist would call upon to go to Des Moines to speak to those areas. So, um, it would be helpful under the areas of interest, rather than saying, `yes, we support alternative revenue,' it would be...it might be helpful to, as...different types of revenue come up, what we would be willing to support, what we wouldn't be willing to support. For example, I'm not proposing this - if there were some wheel tax sticker, if that's something that we thought we would obviously support, that that would be something again, as the Coalition goes forward, advocating or being defensive (mumbled). It would be helpful when that comes up to know who from the City, and again, it might come up in the course of one week, where there'd be no time to get a, uh, meeting together (mumbled). That enough preface? Bailey/ I think so. Wilburn/ Okay. Bailey/ So, Amy, you had a question? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 38 Correia/ Well, I just, you know, when L..when I asked for bills that were tracked and status, I mean I didn't at all think it would be this many or this long. So in terms of how the Coalition works, at the different meetings did you all...lobbyists come and here are all of these bills related to, you know, urban metropolitan areas, and discuss then the position. I mean, I don't know what TU...(mumbled) means. Bailey/ Tracking uncommitted for and against. Correia/ Okay. Wilburn/ So a lot of...once they're listed as tracking, they didn't...in order to speak to though, they have to register something with the State Legis...rather than to say they're...they are, uh... Correia/ So how did you all decide what you wanted the lobbyists to track? Wilburn/ Uh, part of it involved, when we pass...at least in terms of our position, when we laid out those legislative priorities, um, before the session. So part of it was just trying to base it on that, and some type of ancillary position. If this is somewhat related to, um, for example, we had something about the state-wide smoking ban, and so they were tracking it. It was difficult, challenging for some communities to say we want the Coalition to take a position on the bills out there because they hadn't had the discussion, um, so there were some of these areas where if we had, if we had a discussion on it, in the past, then we would say Iowa City would be for or against, uh, or if it's, or if we hadn't necessarily discussed that particular issue, if we had related discussions that have come up in our Council meetings, in all likelihood our Council would be, so you know, that's how we came up with some other tracking things. The more...the more information we can come to agreement that this is something that Iowa City would want the Coalition to track, the more...or to take a position on or to follow or be defensive, the easier it will be as the session comes up when the lobbyists call to say this is coming up this week, um, you know, the easier it is to speak on behalf of...of the City. Correia/ So it looks like the one, the positions that were taken by the Metro Coalition. That's identified by an F4? Okay, would be brownfield and grayfields, public safety, lodging impact fee, charter cities, sales and service tax, liquor license enforcement, traffic camera tickets, state franchise tax revenue. That was it? Wilburn/ And some of those, uh, for example on how that related, we had some conversations about alternative revenues, so some of those are alternative revenues. You see how that (mumbled) Bailey/ So when it comes to, um, kind of guiding the direction that the Coalition takes, it's...it would be helpful for us to weigh in on issues, as Ross outlined, issues of concern to our community, because as we have the next meeting, we're going to be able...we're going to start forming sort of positions of the Metro Coalition. Wilburn/ And even areas where some...they are just tracking, you know, they didn't, the group didn't anticipate the smoking ban, for example, getting as much traction as it did in the legislature. Um, even our conversations about, uh, okay, yes go ahead and track this - we were able to give our lobbyists at least the positions or tentative positions of the cities This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 39 so that when they were meeting with the, you know, a lobbyist...er, when they were meeting with members of the legislature, they were able to say, um, well, the smoking in particular -the question at the time was state-wide or local or not at all. Um, we didn't have enough people at the meeting willing to take a position, uh, whether it was state- wide or local, but there at least was enough consensus that some form of state-wide ban would be, whether it's giving, uh, cities the...the authority, or a state-wide ban, they at least had that information, which helped influence the, uh, individual legislators as to whether or not it might be accepted in their own area. Bailey/ That's a good example of an issue that had a lot of differing opinions within the Coalition. Yes? Correia/ Looks like...pretty much all of the ones we were for (mumbled) except for one! Brownfield and grayfields, which I don't know what that's about. Bailey/ It's about some funding, but it's a small amount of funding, for brownfleld and grayfield redevelopment. Wilburn/ But also again we came into it just... Correia/ Oh, I know! Wilburn/ ...but it, there's some of these where they'll be able to pick up...some groundwork was laid in some of those areas, even though, you know, there was no...uh, even though they would have failed, some groundwork was laid. For example, some of the revenue alternative stuff, um, our lobbyists were approached about what would, you know, Senator such-and-such is thinking about this. Is there, would there be interest potentially. So, some groundwork has been laid for those pieces in the next session. Correia/ And this is an election year, correct, which means next year is a brand new session, so any bill that went anywhere, everything is dead. We're starting over. The next session is everything. So then it gets even more important to be ready early, because if we want things written we're going to have to get it in by certain dates, have somebody agree to have it written and reduced and all of that. Wilburn/ Well, there was also conversation, if members of the Coalition were interested in trying to help, if we knew that the majority of the Coalition members were...supportive of funding, state funding, for Brownfield, grayfield, uh, or housing tax credits -whatever it might be -then it might put us in a position to influence some of the State House and Senate races, at least in terms of just the campaigns come up in the fall, and we could be talking at some of the forums and debates that.. . Champion/ Good point! Wilburn/ ...that we're, uh, we happen to know that the Metropolitan Coalition would be in support of this, where...so it may help drive some of the discussions. (several commenting) Correia/ So did we...after we, in terms of the topics that got on this list as tracking, was that something, you know, that everybody submitted things, like the Housing Trust Fund This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 40 (mumbled). I don't see that on here, and that was something that we had passed as part of our legislative... Bailey/ We provided our list of legislative...IBelieve we put other cities that had legislative priorities provided those lists to see what the Metro list would look like. Um, and not enough cities, I would say, not enough members included that on their priority list, or (mumbled) in favor of that. Wilburn/ (several talking) what it was about. Correia/ Right, but I mean, it seems like there's a lot of things on here that certainly these didn't all come from people submitting items on their list, because there's probably over a hundred. It sounds like they came from, we're interested in this type of thing, the lobbyists found out which...which I think is a really good thing...what types of legislation... Bailey/ Right. Correia/ ...is related to that, but I guess that would be something I would at least want there to be, you know, if it's something that we've identified, they're checking all of these things that... that.. . Wilburn/ Just like with us, there has to be a minimum number of Coalition members interested in having (several talking). Correia/ So, the Coalition members all agreed on all of these, there was a consensus on all of these items, at their meetings that were discussed. Okay we want him to track, or her, I don't know who...her, all of these items. I mean, that... Bailey/ Well, some of these, like...okay, so like river enhancement community attraction and tourism program, um, and then link that to Brownfield and grayfield. I mean, some of these fall broadly under these alternative revenues or access for cities for having funding, and so the lobbyists would identify these as opportunities that that the Coalition was... Correia/ Which is like the Housing Trust Fund, the alternative revenues for cities. Hayek/ I think to answer your point though, you have to lobby your co-members in order to get a consensus on an issue that then your lobbyist has instructions to track. Bailey/ Or use the framework that the Coalition has already provided, to indicate that this would be an alternative revenue for some of our cities. We should be tracking this particular initiative. Hayek/ Yeah...if the bylaws permit something like that. I mean, can a single member bump it onto...onto the list, if it meets some criteria you're looking for, overall? Wilburn/ You got to convince, uh, um, a majority of the Coalition to at least be willing to track it, be proactive, be defensive. So it involves some lobbying (mumbled). Wright/ Were there any situations like that during the last session? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 41 Wilburn/ Well, uh... Correia/ My experience with lobbying in anon-profit that was a member of (coughing, unable to hear) organization was the membership organization before the session started, identified pretty short (noise on mic, unable to hear) then were tracked and lobbied on through the session, and when things came up...something might come up that was related to either the scope of the work of the organization or that sort of thing, then certainly the lobbyist was keeping up with what was going on, and then if there was a need for something, would bring that back to the membership. Wilburn/ That's essentially what a lobbyist (mumbled) Correia/ I know, but this is such a longer list. Bailey/ Well, you're talking about cities. I mean, you don't have a very...and you're also talking about border cities versus other kinds of cities, which is why the smoking ban was a tracking item, rather than a (mumbled) that's how it came out, and I would like to point out one of the most interesting discussions was traffic camera tickets. There were a couple cities that have used that approach, and a couple cities who weren't interested in that approach, but um, that...not a majority. So, I mean, that's the challenge of the Metro Coalition. There's so many, there're a wide range of interests. So how do we want to proceed? Do we want to take this list? Do we want to develop our legislative priorities and build our position for the Metro Coalition from our legislative priorities? I mean, how would we like to proceed. As you can see, it's pretty wide ranging. When will our meeting be, Ross? Wilburn/ Um, looking...am I plugged in? Yeah. Looking at, um, the last week of July, if that (mumbled). Correia/ Well, some things I have no idea what they would mean, like something is just listed as "non-profit." Wilburn/ Well, let's try this. If you're getting at focus, then the intent...these are ideas, and so if we were to say these are our...we feel strongly that these are three areas specific area that the Metro Coalition should be involved in, then that's something that we can take to the Coalition and try and hammer those and see how many of those three ideas that, you know, and then it's...but again, you've got to get the other members, a majority of the other Coalition members to go along with that. The intent isn't really necessary...necessarily for us to have an all-inclusive list, but if there's not enough people interested in our second priority, but they are with our first and our third, uh, they may have three or four other priorities, and if we have an idea on what the thoughts are of this Council, then we can go for our second, you know, our fourth priority, our fifth priority, to support it that way. Bailey/ So, do we want to just go down this list? Or how do you want to proceed? What would be the easiest way for you to represent our position. Wilburn/ I would think if folks felt very strongly about three or four areas to start, you know, these three or four are our top priority, that would be helpful to know, and if there's a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 42 specific...well, for example, state historic tax credits lift cap. I know that's...at least state historic might be an interest to folks here if that's, if lifting the cap does it for this group, and you feel that that's a strong priority, then it would be helpful to...to say so, um, and I already gave the example of is there something with an alternative revenue, or is our position whatever we could get. And they'd be willing to give...we can try it. Wright/ What is liquor license enforcement? That's also a little vague. (several talking) Wilburn/ Um, there were several dynamics involved with that, um, part of it, uh, these smaller communities don't necessarily have the challenge that we do in terms of the numbers of liquor licenses, and the constraints that may or may not be, uh, as part of that. If there's...I know that Lynn Walding from the State Commission was willing to have hearings, um, around the state about what some of those issues are, uh, I think Des Moines, in particular, had an issue about, uh, being able to hold a liquor license establishment accountable for what happens in a parking lot. I think there was the stabbing or shooting, something like that, that's something that...is that not allowed, I presume now, Eleanor? There...uh, if something, if three folks are in a bar and get liquored up, they're out in the parking lot outside the bar, um, the, uh, establishment is not accountable for what happens there, is that correct? Dilkes/ Uh, well, it would depend if they had sold to underage, if they were underage and they sold to them, or if they were intoxicated and they sold it to them. I think it would depend partly on the facts. Wilburn/ So, in that case I think the City of Des Moines was interested in trying to strengthen the ability of the City to hold...I don't know that...I don't think it was underage. I think they were interested in, uh... Dilkes/ Probably a good example of that would be, um, for instance, uh, attaching the number of PAULA's in a bar to the...making the owners responsible for that. That's...you can try that, but it's not explicit. Wilburn/ Right, okay. Helling/ On the first one, there are some, um, hearings scheduled. I think four of them around the state this summer, and the fall, that the ADD is going to be...in response to this very thing, uh, the topic they want to address is problem bars. (several responding) Hayek/ You know, I...it seems to me that, and maybe this was just intended as a beginning to a conversation that'll take a little while, but I don't know how we can identify priorities and coalesce around them without a lot more information on the individual issues. There are items on this list I don't even know what they mean, and, um... Wilburn/ Let me pause for a second... Hayek/ I may be assuming you're trying to go farther than you are right now, so.. . Wilburn/ ...these are...these are general ideas, areas that some of these were issues that came up in the legislature and some...some specific, some that were just, some of their bills that just died. Um, we...we don't have to submit any of these to the Coalition. Whatever this This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 43 group feels would be important to have to try and work with the other cities on in trying to influence legislation that's beneficial for our city and a majority of the larger cities, what...so this, these are just topics for us to consider. Hayek/ Whether we're drawing from this list or generating one from within this group, it just seems to me that we'll need some format whereby we can do that, and I don't know if it's the August retreat or if that's really dedicated to other tasks, but something like that would help us to (mumbled) these issues and...and you know in an informed way come up with...with something we can all agree on. Otherwise I just don't know how we'd do it. Wilburn/ I'm not (several talking) I'm not disagreeing with that. I'm just saying, um, in the...we need to be able to work with the other cities in the fall to be ready to go in January. So, um, we have this meeting set up in, or we're having this meeting set up at the end of July, which will be here. The other members coming here, to express our, um, our views as to what we would like the Coalition to be working on. If you're suggesting that we're not ready to do that, then that may push back the date that the Coalition can do it, which may push us up on the deadline of the (coughing, unable to hear) so.. . Dilkes/ Well, you have...you have a list of legislative priorities that you developed from last year. Maybe you could start there, work from that list. Champion/ Well, I think we can work quicker than August. I mean, we're probably still going to have the same ones. For instance, one of the things listed here is residential property classification. I don't know what that means, but it reminds me of our condo situation. I can't believe that's not a concern in these other metro areas. That condos that are rented are taxed as residential property. I mean, that would make a huge economic impact on us, a huge economic. (several talking) Correia/ ...is, yeah, is that captured under alternative revenue? Because I think the other thing that we talked about is the rollback, I mean, and that's not... Bailey/ I think alternative revenue is broadly defined, because some cities are willing to look at things that, um, legislation might enable them to do that we wouldn't necessarily be interested in. Correia/ I suppose that's not property tax reform, but I think that that's something that we have talked about. Bailey/ But I think the Coalition has, as well, I think that that, I mean, property tax reform would probably be a priority. Of the Coalition. Wilburn/ And a challenge with that was that, uh, there's a, I think the Governor has a group that is studying looking at actual reform, so that particular item was going to go nowhere this session. So the fallback was well let's talk about the revenue side, at least, or other forms of revenue, um... Correia/ What is further define roll of MC? Bailey/ Metro Coalition. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 44 Correia/ Oh. Bailey/ How do we interact with the Governor's office and the legislature. Just fundamentally, I mean, is it just our lobbyists. Correia/ So that's not really a legislative agenda item. Bailey/ No, but it...an area of interest. Area of activity, I guess, for the Coalition. Wilburn/ Is this Council willing to have the Metro Coalition consider, are we just lobbying the legislature, should we be lobbying the Governor's office, should we try and establish, as a coalition, a tighter relationship with the Governor's office. For example, um, one item where we at least have an audience with the Governor was related to the, uh.. . Champion/ Union thing, yes. (mumbled) Wilburn/ Yeah, negotiated. Champion/ Whatever it was, right, the union thing. Wilburn/ And we had, and that's something, again that's something an opportunity came up. We went forward and had a conversation with the Lieutenant Governor and actually an (mumbled). Bailey/ So, for our next discussion regarding this, um, our current legislative priorities that we developed last...last December. Wilburn/ That would be fine. Bailey/ And what else would be helpful? I mean, let's...let's, I mean... Hayek/ Well, let's start with what we created, the existing list, and I'll leave it to somebody's discretion -maybe Ross' - if we want to look at some or all of the suggested topics, and then get some talking points and background information on that so that we can know what we are discussing, whether it makes sense for Iowa City. That would be (several talking) Correia/ I guess that's what I'm wanting to know -the extent to which, and this is that piece of assessing...assessing, since we're in this infancy, do we want to continue to put a lot of effort into this, or do we think Iowa City should have its own lobbyist, and we put our efforts there, and I guess I would want to then do, have some type of assessment of these legislative priorities that ended up being chosen, let's just say, by this, by the consensus of this Metro Coalition. How important are they to Iowa City? Is...to assess how beneficial is it for us to keep with the group, um, (coughing, unable to hear) do we hire our own lobbyists, like other cities do? Um, or do we... Bailey/ Some do both. Correia/ Right, I just, I want to... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 45 Bailey/ Okay. (several talking) idea of what's needed? Wilburn/ Uh, no. (unable to hear person away from mic) Bailey/ Oh, good. (unable to hear person away from mic) Uh-huh. And so we don't have a list? The soggy list. Okay. (unable to hear person away from mic) Okay. So at the next meeting we'll look at our current legislative priorities, um, Ross will identify some of these, um, and provide some more background information, maybe some that you feel...that you saw the particular benefit to our community, um, and then we'll also have some staff ideas. Okay. Anything else that would help make a decision and be able to communicate to the Coalition? Wilburn/ When's our next work session? Karr/ 14"' of July. Bailey/ Okay. Karr/ So the packet would go out that Thursday. Bailey/ Okay, thanks. Wilburn/ Can you, uh, re...in that Info Packet, reprint our priorities from last year. Karr/ Sure, yeah. Council Committee AApointments: ITEM 12. CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS. (DEFERRED FROM 6/17) Bailey/ All right. Council committee appointments. Um, SEATS Paratransit Advisory Committee, Mike is one of our representatives and we need another. It was previously Dee, and you said the meetings are when? O'Donnell/ Um, they're like the third Wednesday, and...and well, there's no set time on it. Um, you get a call, they're sometimes on Friday. Most of the time it's on Friday at 11:00. They recently changed to Friday at 9:00, but we're talking now about changing the location of the meetings. They're at Goodwill now and uh, it seems to make sense that they be at the SEATS building, paratransit building, because that's where...it's easier for members to get there. But, uh, I don't know. It's an interesting committee. I think anybody'd enjoy it. Bailey/ Connie, would you be willing to do that? Champion/ Yeah, I could probably do that. How often do you meet, Mike. I can't remember. O'Donnell/ Monthly, every other month. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 46 Champion/ Oh, every other, but not every week. O'Donnell/ No, no. Bailey/ Are there others, I mean, I asked....I pointed to Connie, but is there somebody else who's dying to get on this committee? Champion/ If you're dying you can have it. I don't want you to die! Bailey/ Okay. Um, the ECICOG, um, Amy's not able to serve, and the meetings are when again? Correia/ The last Thursday of the month. Bailey/ Last Thursday and what time? Correia/ 1:00. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ Do we have a volunteer for that? Mike, didn't you volunteer for that? (several talking) Wrighd Pardon me? (laughter) O'Donnell/ You didn't volunteer. Wright/ I did not. Bailey/ Ross, you can't. (mumbled) Hayek/ There's no way I can do this, and I'm about to go on CVB. Bailey/ Oh, that's right. I get off that one. Okay. Wilburn/ Thursday's our, that's their professional development time, and uh, I'm partially responsible for it. O'Donnell/ Cannot do it. Champion/ I am not the least bit interested. Period. Bailey/ Okay. Um, does anybody object if I uh would volunteer myself, I guess, because I seem to be the last person standing. (several responding) All right, so, and thank you for going on the CVB because that frees up a Thursday for me. (laughter) Hayek/ I believe you conscripted me to CVB a few months ago, so uh... Bailey/ Conscripted? Such a harsh word! Okay. Hayek/ Just your karma. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 47 Bailey/ My karma is not very good lately. Um, Council Time. Council Time• Correia/ Well, I wanted to share some of the things that I've been involved with over the last week or so, related to the flood recovery and um, get some input from Michael too about the City's involvement in sort of the next stage of coordinating flood recovery efforts. There's a flood task force that really coalesced, um, and the United Way, um, has asked Barb Floyd to chair this, that's, um, initially around the individual flood recovery efforts through the United Way Disaster Fund, um, that's at this point largely funded through, um, County funds into that. They're accepting donations and there're some funds left over from the tornado relief fund (mumbled), um, that project involves a contract with the Crisis Center. There are case advocates, and right now they're two Crisis Center case advocates and two County social services case advocates that are working one-on-one with individuals, um, helping them, um, sign up for all of the...all of the federal assistance that they might be eligible for, from the Red Cross, State, for the assistance, that sort of a thing, um, one of, just to let you know, one of the things that, um, people are going to get denials and it could be, um, one of the case advocates ran across that, when they applied for FEMA it asks if you had property damage, and some folks left and didn't know because they may have lived on the second floor of an apartment building. They don't know if they have property damage, um, so they checked unknown because that's an option to check unknown, and it kicks back, sort of an automatic denial, even though you also say you're at a shelter and you're evacuated and can't go home and that sort of thing, so there's advocacy needed because then you call FEMA and you have to talk to them about your situation and then they will release...at this point it sounds like they're pretty much automatically releasing two months of emergency housing assistance, and then folks that need ongoing assistance, so for example they have a year lease that they still have to pay on but they can't be in there. They can get up to another 18 months, um, housing, similar for folks that are homeowners, can't get into their house, but are still paying mortgage or whatever, they can get up to 18 months of housing assistance. So that's what is going on there. Um, the Consultation of Religious Communities and the United Way are starting to work on the recovery phase of coordinating volunteers and coordinating work, and so the Untied Way - I know that some folks are more aware than others is working on getting up and running, and I think they're going to have a press release tomorrow, a volunteer action center. They've brought in, um, somebody from Los Angeles who is the director of an action center and has a lot of experience with disaster recovery and mobilizing volunteers, so we met today with, um, United Way and this, um, person from...I can't think of his name now, from L.A., and two members from the Consultation of Religious Communities (mumbled) to talk about this next stage of recovery and (mumbled) were talking about what happened in 1993 with having a coordinating committee. Um, it seems like, um, after hearing from the United Way and their role and the work that they're doing in developing the volunteer action center, um, and the consultation, which is at this point seems like meeting weekly to figure out the mobilization of volunteers. One of the things that's happening is a lot of the national church groups are calling their local denominations and saying we have volunteers and we want to come, and so trying to figure out how that happens, um, so it seems that the United Way is willing to convene some type of trying to figure out what that looks like, coordinating committee to try and make sure that we have people who want to volunteer match with...with, um, things to do, um, and so it seems like a role for the governments This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 48 is to help identify, um, areas, um, sort of to identify the map, if you will of okay, River Heights, this would be the...River Heights is ready for some recovery efforts and this would need to have the building official go through and this is what needs to happen, because already Rod had a call from somebody in River Heights and they still have houses under water, it's in the county, and the Mennonite Relief Fund saying we have church volunteers that want to come and help you do stuff, and they're saying there's still water, you know, and we're going to come to the Board meeting and talk about this, and Rod's saying there's still water in these houses. It's not, we're not ready to come in, and so we need to have some type of input from the governments for, to the volunteers, and the volunteer action center of, okay, now we're ready in these areas and this is the process that needs to happen, um, because apparently some other things that happened in the gulf with Katrina when volunteers went in and some church's experiences are, they were helping recover in areas that had no building codes, so they're not...they were helping to rebuild where they didn't have to have that type of interaction with building code officials because there were no building codes. So, we're going to be having some national churches coming in with this experience, um, and those recovery areas that are going to be different here because (mumbled) officials. Champion/ Well, they also don't have a lot of graft. Correia/ Say it again. Champion/ They don't have a lot of graft. Bailey/ So what are you... Correia/ So I think what we, um, and this is, there's going to be another consultation meeting on Wednesday. There's also going to be a this task force meeting tomorrow, so I think in the next week we're going to be more clear about what type of information is going to be needed from the governments, Coralville, Iowa City and um, the County, about who can help identify, okay, here's an area that is now ready for recovery, um, so...to release it, to be able to match up these volunteers, these volunteer efforts, and here's a, you know, a framework of when you do have volunteers that go in, this is what needs to happen first. You need to, you know, there needs to be a building permit, there needs to be this, you know, this inspection and this sort of a thing. Bailey/ Do you want to talk about where we are with some of that information? Correia/ I know we're going to waive the fees, but I imagine people are still going to have to go pull a permit. Lombardo/ Right, but once the mandatory evacuation order is lifted, people are going to need most immediately to get in there and get, you know, the damaged stuff and the drywall and all that out. Um, and then, um, they need a licensed electrician and plumber to come in and do an assessment of their systems, and make recommendations. Once the repairs are done, then Housing Inspection Services would go in and do their inspection. Bailey/ And they have that information in...that's in the info packet, is that correct? (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 49 Correia/ None of us on this, in this committee, have that info packet. So, I mean, I think... Lombardo/ I'll make sure you get that. Bailey/ I think from what the Committee is discussing, that some of the staff have done some of these things in Iowa City because neighborhoods were needing it as we lifted evacuation orders. So, um, I think that might be helpful to, um, the Committee. Lombardo/ Steve Long has (mumbled) tasked with pulling all that together. I'll make sure (mumbled) Bailey/ Right. So, is that...the information that you... Correia/ Well, and I think that what, and again, we're meeting tomorrow morning so I can get, be more clear about what (mumbled) might be the best way to kind of move through the recovery so that communication is happening and it's not, somebody calls this person and then somebody else calls this person and somebody else calls this person if there can be, you know, one person that gets called from each, you know, identified for each whether that's somebody from Planning or I mean, I don't know, Public Works or Law Enforcement. I don't know. Apparently in 93 sort of all those people were around the table. I'm not, I wasn't...I didn't help with those recovery efforts so I don't know how that works. We didn't have the volunteer action center then either, which I think will do some of the work that probably happened there. Hayek/ Can I say...I wanted to talk about because I think it dovetails nicely with what you've brought up, Amy, and that is, I think we as a group need to, uh, have a, a more structured response, involvement...to an involvement with...with the flood issues, um, than we have so far. I mean, I think all of us have played roles as individuals. Amy, through your work and you know the rest of us from sandbagging to attending briefings and everything in between, and that's great, um, but...I think we need to consider dedicating more of our time as a group to these issues. Cedar Rapids is facing a crisis on a...on another order of magnitude. On the other hand, they've been meeting as a group on a daily basis almost to deal with this, and I'm not saying we need to do that, but um, I think we ought to give some consideration to, uh, the uniqueness of this crisis, even though Iowa City is largely unscathed in terms of 98% of the population and all of our municipal infrastructure, it's still a huge thing and um, I'd like us to consider that, and we've got...we met once during the flood to pass an emergency evacuation or... authorization and that made sense. Um, but I'm concerned, especially looking at our schedule this summer with, uh, with the involvement of this group in very important decisions, both on the short-term nature in terms of relief we can provide to...to people and businesses, and...and the sorts of things that you're talking about, Amy, and in the long, on the long horizon, um, with a lot of big decisions that we're going to have to face, but I...I don't think we're doing that yet and I think we really would be well-advised to do so. Um... Correia/ Yeah, and...and I agree with you. I mean, I think one of the things that...I was at a meeting today where, I mean, I think sharing information I think it would be nice to have...for us to see that...that packet that's going out to homeowners, for a couple of different reasons. One, if we get calls, um, we don't know this stuff. I mean, I had a call from somebody that I had helped evacuate her cat and she had gotten a call and that she was supposed to pick up her cat and...and I didn't know that an evacuation order had This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 50 been lifted, but it actually hadn't been lifted. We'd just been told they could go in and get their stuff, and so I didn't have the most up-to-date information, um, and I was at another meeting where I got this great brochure that would be good to have had it when it first went out. Bailey/ I think that that was just part of the packet, that was just available on Saturday. Um, Eleanor, did you have a comment? Okay. So, just in regard to more frequent meetings and...and those sorts of things, I mean, for the most part I think, um, staff has done a lot of this. I think what you're asking for is to be up to speed about where we are on some of these things and what we anticipate the policy level decisions will be in response to this issue. Hayek/ Yeah, I mean, I think staff's done a fantastic job, and I...I've been to lots and lots of the briefings over the last couple weeks, and I've seen first hand and...and I have nothing but the highest praise for that, but we have an opportunity and probably an obligation to, in the very short-term, make some decisions about ways to assist, um, and...and those really fall to the Council as a whole, I assume, because staff is, uh, staff is well equipped to deal with the immediate flood emergencies, and they did so under the authority we've already given them, but some of these things going forward probably bump up against the limits of what they can do without our input. O'Donnell/ What's a couple of examples? Lombardo/ Actually this dovetails nicely into some of the things I wanted to raise tonight, in that as we come out of the ramping up, you know, some of the things we're going to need to address, um, we've talked today a little bit about small business assistance for...for those small firms who were kind of hanging on the margins, who...they can work through SBA and their lenders for kind of broader needs (mumbled) but they need $2,000, $3,000, $5,000 just to get them through the cleanup, um, and can we start a fund, um, that...to assist them, and...and having the initial conversation with Nancy about, um, corporate involvement and matching funds, um, and so we're trying to iron out the details, but ultimately I need...I need some guidance from you all in terms of the direction we can go with that, and an approval to earmark funds if that's going to happen or not and... Bailey/ And I anticipate that CDBG...there are some CDBG funds available, as well, that we could access and provide. Lombardo/ We're trying...and we're trying to go ahead and determine what those are; how much of the funds are earmarked for specific things and so that's another conversation that we'd have to (mumbled). The second, um, piece is, you know, lobbying, um... Bailey/ Right. Lombardo/ ...we need to really start either individually or working with some of the other flood- affected areas, or at least in the corridor or with Coralville or whomever, but really targeting our, um, our congressional delegation and anyone else, uh, in terms of getting additional funds to...to do programs like buy-out. That's another big thing. I'm getting a tremendous number of questions. We're chasing down information, but people have this general feeling like they're going to be made whole, and...you know, um, conversations about, we're getting information now about how those programs work, so that we can This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 51 have a meaningful discussion with you all about what...what's our position, how far do we want to go with this, but ultimately, you know, it's going to be a funding decision, even if funds are made available through the FEMA buy-out program, so...um... Dilkes/ I think what...I'm sorry, Michael, hate to interrupt you, but I think we really need, particularly since flood...isn't on the agenda, maybe if you can just kind of run through your list, Michael, and then we can get some meeting schedules in place, or figure out how we're going to deal with that. Lombardo/ Um, and then the...the, uh, last bit of business I had is really, um, Council retreat. I know we went through a lot of pain to get that scheduled, but perhaps we should be putting that off more towards fall, and closer to budget, and focusing now on the river corridor, as a flood issue and do we want to engage the University and the broader community, um, process for discussing and planning for the future genesis of the river corridor, and it would be my recommendation that yes, that is something we do want to consider and discuss at length. Champion/ Definitely. And I think also...well (mumbled) communicating with Coralville and Cedar Rapids and working as a group, that FEMA money, which is going to be a certain amount for the state, we want to lobby so we can (several talking) Dilkes/ Amy, Amy...you know, we don't have flood on the agenda, and I really think we've talked already for 10 or 15 minutes about it, and I don't think that's right when there's so many people affected. So I think we just need to focus on getting...figure out the logistics of how we're going to do this. Correia/ Yeah, so what I would like to do is get flood...a regularly scheduled flood recovery effort, because some of the major things that I'm learning about, I'm learning about because they're in the newspaper (mumbled) buy-outs and...or from other conversations, um, and I would like to have those conversations. Lombardo/ And there's a timeliness issue with some of these, you know, if we're going to do them, we need to move (mumbled). Bailey/ Right. Lombardo/ ...so, when...when can we schedule a meeting and then I guess the discussion is how often should we meet. Bailey/ So the discussion of the meeting schedule, I think, is something that we have to address, and um, how would you like to proceed with that, because this will...this probably will involve additional meetings, which is quite a challenge as we saw when we were setting the retreat, and I think what we'll have to do is simply go for the...having a quorum. (several responding) Correia/ I mean, if we can have something that's anon-traditional time, like a 7:30 meeting every other week, 7:30 A.M. meeting. Champion/ Oh, that'd be perfect for me! That's... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 52 Bailey/ So, um, I'm assuming that Marian can sort of... Karr/ I have a schedule here. Do you want me to mock something up and you look at it tomorrow? I mean, you don't meet again until July 14`", so therefore, I assume you don't want to wait till that point to nail it. Bailey/ Right, I think.... Karr/ I mean, even if we could get one meeting date now and I could mock up additional ones and you could discuss at that time. Champion/ I think, um, I'm very flexible in the mornings. Very flexible, um... Bailey/ Well, Marian will come up with some ideas and suggestions, and if you have some constraints, I think you should talk to her, and if you have some preferences I think you should talk to her, and...and we'll go from there, and then... Karr/ And your goal is to set it up sooner rather than later. Champion/ Oh, yes! Bailey/ I think immediately, rather than later would be more my... Dilkes/ I think what we want to do is we just want to make sure what we've got...we know what the agenda topic is going to be, and then staff has enough time to gather the information that we need to give you guys to make the policy decisions. Bailey/ And it's my understanding that regarding the concept of buy-outs that that...that staff info meeting is July 7`". And so... Hayek/ We're not getting too much...some of these things, the issue you just mentioned, is one that's going to involve extensive study and a long period of time, and you know.. . Karr/ So you're not thinking, Matt, that we have to wait until the 7`" to begin? Bailey/ No. Hayek/ I would say we shouldn't, because that's two weeks. That's half a month after where we are right now. Champion/ If for no other reason, it'd get us informed. I mean, we...I mean, we don't...none of us knew about this nice packet. It'd have been nice, I mean, how would you let us all know about it, because they (mumbled) Bailey/ Well, and that's another question that we should, I mean, I tried to do updates during, after the briefings to each one of you calls, or check in as you ask about that, but in these kinds of situations it's helpful. I mean, the web site was updated and the press releases come out. I know some people use that. So, we should also have a discussion at one of these is how we communicate, or what the communication protocol or preference with this group in these kinds of situations. Okay, so Marian will work on a schedule, and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 53 Karr/ 7:30 in the morning being a preference, and starting with an hour and a half? 7:30 to 9:00? O'Donnell/ Not with me, 7:30 in the morning. Bailey/ I think that we'll each have individual preferences that you will hear as per usual. Sorry. I think that (several talking) Hayek/ But this is an extraordinary time, and we're going to have to bend our schedules, and we're not going to have seven people at all the meetings. And that's okay. You know, you have to do what you have to do. Champion/ But I think it is, I mean, those of us... Karr/ And we'll do transcriptions so... Bailey/ I think we're in agreement that we're going to move ahead with this (several talking) O'Donnell/ Well, it can be early morning, just 7:30 at night. Bailey/ Okay, so that was Council Time for Amy. Any other...any other people have Council Time? O'Donnell/ I...just one thing. I, um, you know, I have been kept very well informed during this whole thing (mumbled) as well as talked with Regenia, talked to Michael, and talked to Dale, and I...I don't want to waste time at a meeting with, and I'm not going to get into this because we're talking about the flood, but we will talk (mumbled) but, um, I don't know. I don't feel like I've not been informed. Champion/ Well, I don't feel like I haven't been informed. I just think I'd like to know more decisions that are being made, um, I don't feel uninformed, and I didn't call Michael or anybody because I think they have enough on their hands besides talking to me. (several talking) That's my Council Time. Bailey/ That's your Council Time? Champion/ No, it's not my Council Time. I just wanted to tell the Council that I will be late tomorrow night. I am going to go to the School Board meeting. Mark Twain is on the agenda for 7:15, and I feel compelled to be there, and they called me (mumbled) Bailey/ Thanks for doing that. Champion/ But I will come right afterwards. Bailey/ Okay. Other Council Time? Okay, we've discussed, um, Schedule of Pending Discussion Items and probably given the flood issue, some of our pending items will move around. Michael and I will discuss that next week, about what we will put off a little bit farther. Are there any upcoming community events, or Council invitations that we should be aware of, and have presence at? Okay. Other than... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008. June 23, 2008 Special City Council Work Session Page 54 Upcoming Community Events/Council Invitations: Hayek/ Other than reminding the group that this morning there was Chamber, uh, hosted meeting on flood response, and post issues, um, and that I thought it was a pretty good meeting, but it was just a start and there will be more, and we'll have to decide what our role with that group is, as well. Correia/ So you were at that meeting though? Hayek/ I was there, and (mumbled) Michael was there. So... Bailey/ Um, okay. Discussion of Meeting Schedule, which will occur when you give us some dates tomorrow. Okay? Anything else for the good of the cause? Michael time. Lombardo/ Just a reminder that... Bailey/ Can we add that to the... Lombardo/ ...Dale will be Acting City Manager Thursday and Friday, as I am (mumbled) Bailey/ Congratulations. (unable to hear, away from mic) Okay. Lombardo/ I'm bringing work with me. It won't go away! Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ Bon voyage! Bailey/ See you tomorrow night. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special work session meeting of June 23, 2008.