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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-12-02 Transcription#2 Page 1 ITEM 2. OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS -Lincoln Elementary Bailey: Would the students from Lincoln Elementary please come forward. I also want to introduce Tyler Gunn who's our, um, UI Student Liaison. He's here to help, and say a few words as well. So, I'll... Gunn: Thank you, uh, my name's Tyler Gunn, as she had stated, and I'm a student as well actually at the University, and I'm on the Student Government, and I'm the University Liaison. So, when I was your age, I wasn't quite as involved as you were, and it's very special you're doing this, so, we're all very excited to hear what you've been up to, so, when I give you the microphone, could you please state your name and tell us what you've been up to. Thank you. Hopewell: Hi, my name is Audrey Hopewell. First, I would like to say thank you for this incredible honor. I believe I received this award because I'm on student council, safety patrol, kindergarten reading buddies, and I help my classmates when they need it. I have always made high goals and try to achieve them, especially with volunteering. I do many things outside of school, including participate in the youth volunteer program at the Iowa City Public Library. I'd like to thank my whole family for encouraging me and the teachers and principal at Lincoln for choosing me to receive this award. (applause) Short: Hello. My name is Senead Short. I was born in South Africa and I moved to the United States of America when I was five years old. I feel privileged to have been at Lincoln School from kindergarten to 6t'' grade. My first impression of American school was at Lincoln, and it has been a very happy and positive experience. Always our Principal, Miss Kolarik, and the teachers have led by example with fairness, kindness, honesty, and setting high standards for themselves and the students. I would like to thank Miss Kolarik and the staff at Lincoln Elementary for choosing me to receive this award. I believe they choose me because I help out with newsletter, memory book, lunch serving, student council, peer assistance, and kindergarten reading. Thank you. (applause) Bailey: Very nicely done! Thank you. Very nice, and um, we congratulate you on all your activities. Your school is very fortunate to have such active students involved in the activities there. So now we would like to present you with your awards. I'm going to read one of them. They both say the same thing, with your name on them, of course. Citizenship Award: For her outstanding qualities of leadership within Lincoln Elementary, as well as the community, and for her sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize you as an outstanding student citizen. Your This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #2 Page 2 community is proud of you. And this is presented to you by the Iowa City City Council. (applause) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #3 Page 3 ITEM 3. SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT. a) UNESCO Bailey: Item 3 is a special announcement, and we have Chris Merrill here, uh, with us tonight to talk to us about the UNESCO designation that we recently received. Merrill: Thank you, Mayor Bailey, uh, as you noted, on November 20`h, after a three-year long effort, Iowa City was named the third City of Literature by UNESCO. We follow Edinburgh and Melbourne, and I am very grateful to the Mayor; also to, uh, Ross Wilburn who was there from the beginning. We didn't think it was going to take this long to get this far (laughter) but, uh, I'm glad you were there with us for the...for the whole ride, and uh, we had a ceremony last, uh, last Tuesday, and I'm going to pass around the, uh, programs that we had. (mumbled) What I think this does for us - we enter the very vibrant, creative cities network, which includes cities like Montreal, Buena Aires, Berlin, Aswan, Kobai in Japan, um, it's really kind of an amazing thing that a city of our size is now in the network, and indeed it seems that our, uh, proposal, the 80-page long dossier that we assembled, I think began to give UNESCO some other ideas, other ways of thinking about what the creative cities network might be. They singled out our emphasis on education, and that's why it's really fun tonight to follow the students at Lincoln School. I can't wait to go home and tell my 7-year-old what she can aspire to, and uh, see, uh, Principal Kolarik here and uh, and the students, but what the UNESCO designation tells us though is the importance of the education, the model that we set all those years ago when Dean Seashore at the University of Iowa decided to grant graduate credit for creative work. From that came the Iowa Writer's Workshop, which led to the International Writing Program, the Non-Fiction Writing Program, and on and on to things like poetry in public and the whole vibrant literary culture that we have here. I think of this designation as on the one hand cementing in the public mind the centrality of, uh, of Iowa City as a place where great writing begins, and I also think of it as a spur to action for us. It gives us a chance to take a look back at what we have achieved, and now gives us an idea about what we might create as we move forward. All the talk is about creativity and creative industries, and in a year in which this City has suffered grievously it's nice to have this light at the end of the tunnel, a reminder that what writers do in the midst of even the darkest circumstances is to help us articulate our questions, to tell us something about our lives, and as I wrote at the end of my remarks the other day. They give us, they make us see and they feel, I said they've also put Iowa City on the map with the brightest colors, the map of UNESCO Creative Cities. I said what good luck it is to live here, and let's make the most of it! So I thank all of you for your support, and I look forward to working with the City Council, and with the Mayor, as we try to imagine what this looks like, uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #3 Page 4 going forward. I've said to some people I feel like, uh, it's a little bit like an electoral campaign, although ours took about a year longer than Obama's, but uh, after three years of campaigning, we have it, and now I think we're in the transition period, and uh, once the transitions over, it will be up to you to govern it. So, uh, I'll be happy to be a part of that transition and I look forward to seeing what sort of structure we can put together that will serve the needs of Iowa City. Bailey: Thank you, Chris, and thanks for all your, well, all your work on this! It's been great, and I also wanted to point out that we...we were presented with this broadside of, uh, Marvin Bell that he wrote in honor of this recognition. And so this, we will have hanging somewhere in City Hall, we just have to find a suitable place for it. So... Merrill: Can I...I might just add. If you go to the web site of the writing university...writinguniversity.org you can see Marvin's remarks, um, we beamed him in for the ceremony into Old Cap. He spoke quite eloquently about his 40 years of service to the Writer's Workshop, the sense of community of writers that was established here, and then he rounded it off by reading the poem. It was pretty terrific! So... Bailey: Thank you. Merrill: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #4 Page 5 ITEM 4. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Karr: Mr. Mayor, I'd like to...or, Madame Mayor, I'd like to announce the three deletions. Items 4.c.1, 4.c.7, and 4.e.1. 4.c.1 was the setting of a public hearing on a remodeling project that will be deleted and come back to at a later time. The other two items are applications for, uh, a new liquor and cigarette permit and the applicant has requested indefinite deferral. Bailey: Thank you. Champion: Move adoption as amended. Bailey: Moved by Champion. Hayek: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Hayek. Discussion? Roll call. Motion carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #5 Page 6 ITEM 5. COMMUNITY COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). [UNTIL 8 PM] Bailey: This is a time for people who wish to comment on items that are not on tonight's agenda. If you wish to address the Council please approach the podium, state your name for the record, and limit your comments to five minutes or less. Gordon: Uh, good evening. My name is Steve Gordon, and I'm here representing a group of, uh, folks that are interested in the housing...housing and more specifically workforce housing. ITh, we call ourselves the Informal Housing Group and it's hopefully creative naming is not our strength, but uh, we started meeting, I don't know, almost two years ago, uh, with the goal of trying to get a diverse group of people together to, um, you know, come up with some thoughts and ideas on how to, uh, tackle the issue of workforce housing in the area, and um, we met for a little over a year, and we put together a joint statement and um, the people involved in that group, I'm just going to kind of name the organizations so you can see how diverse the group is. Uh, we had a representative from the, uh, Hawkeye Area Community Action Program, HACAP; the Iowa City Association of Realtors; the Housing Fellowship; um, a developer, uh, a realtor, uh, the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County; FAIR; the Consultation of Religious Communities; Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity; uh, the Land Development Council; and the uh, Greater Iowa City Area Homebuilder's Association. And so our goal was, if you can believe, um, this group coming to any consensus, we were able to come up with, uh, with ten or eleven pages in a nice, uh, a nice packet here of ideas that we were able to agree upon on how to tackle the issue of workforce housing. So, um, we, uh, we finished this up earlier this year, obviously with the challenges of that...that the area faced this summer, um, we delayed presenting this to you, to the City Council here, but thought it was a good time now to, um, make sure this gets back on people's minds and back on the agenda, and I know...and I know you've been thinking about it and talking about it. So, um, Karen Kubby is going to come up and give a, uh, summary of the, of the document that we put together. Then we'll get you all a copy, and um, I'm...hopefully Ican defer some of my time to her, in case she runs a little over five minutes. If not, I'll be right here to take the rest of my time. So, here's Karen. Thanks. Kubby: Good evening. My name's Karen Kubby. I live at 1425 Ridge Street, and this is a really incredible process that we actually modeled after what the City did years ago on the sensitive areas ordinance where you brought all the stakeholders together and came up with a result that was kind of surprising, but...and was protecting of the environment but very workable. So we wanted to model that result, um, with this process, but without government spurring us to do that. We did it on our own accord. And one This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #5 Page 7 of the things that we came to consensus to is a commitment. Our commitment that, um, we wanted to think about affordable housing in a regional sense, and wanted to come up with ways to create flexible incentives that were very workable. Because we wanted to not just talk about this and have this lovely document, but we want to have the result being increased numbers of affordable rental and homeownership units in our community, and not just in Iowa City, but in our region. So even though we believe this is a regional approach, we also don't want that if we can't, as looking...putting together non-profit groups, for-profit groups in the public sector, regionally, to come up with one kind of consensus housing policy. We don't want that to paralyze the process. We want some jurisdiction then to take some leadership role. If we can't do it all together at once. We know that that happens. Example, the sensitive areas ordinance where Iowa City took the lead. Ten years later the County, um, had a similar ordinance instituted. We also want to stress that we don't think that there's any one single solution. So, and I know that that came up at your last informal meeting where you talked about the marketing, the market study, um, from your consultant that there were lots of different solutions. We want to echo that. But we also want there to be some very measurable goals, so that you can have a policy, have some short-term goals, some long-term measurable objective goals so that you can see how is the community doing? And we don't believe that it's just governmental agencies that need to act on this. We-want to stay involved as all of these groups to work together on affordable housing, and we can see how have we all done in this area. We also know that there are changing circumstances, where it's a changing economy going up and down, whether it's a huge natural event like the floods of this summer that those goals and objectives may need to change. They may need to get sped up. They may need to get slowed down because of those factors. In general we came to consensus that we believe that scattering housing types and densities can create more diverse neighborhoods, but there can be some, um, unintended consequences to that, and so in thinking about isolating people who might need to use public transit, but if we're creating new housing on the outskirts of town, but we don't have the fiscal ability to get public transit into all of these isolated areas or these more, um, less densely populated areas, that's not going to work. And so we really talked about how developers could work together, maybe jurisdictions work together, and cluster densities of affordable housing around the community so it makes it more feasible that localities can get public transit out to different places. We also recognize that it's not only the public sector, but it's the private for-profit, the private non-profit, and citizen sectors that have a role to play, and in this document we kind of outlined what we saw each of those sectors has a role to play in affordable housing, and I'm not going to go through all of those ideas, but they are...they are out there. We want to encourage the City to really see federal tax credits as a major way of providing affordable rental housing, and not very many This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #5 Page 8 private developers have the savvy to put all of that together and so if there's a way the City can be a conduit, to help teach the community how to access those monies, it would really go a long ways towards encouraging more affordable rental housing being developed. But also looking at local residential TIF's. I said the word, yes, we should have some residential TIF's. Uh, low interest bond financing, establishing higher density zoning in more areas of the communities are things that we have to have happen that are in your purview. Now I know that pre- zoning areas or changing zoning to higher density in already developed areas is a really hard thing to do. There are a lot of times there's neighborhood opposition to that, and it's going to take a lot of political strength and political support from people in the community who want to see that happen for us to come up here and say there are trade-offs here for higher density in a specific neighborhood. And we're...we plan to be here to support those kinds of activities on your part. Um, we talked a lot about inclusionary housing, and this is one area where we could not come to consensus, but there were a few things about this discussion that we did have consensus on, and that is to look at the record in other communities, and when...if you decide to go with inclusionary housing, use other communities as positive and negative role models to avoid the pitfalls and to do it well, if you decide to do that. But if there are going to be obligations on the part of developers, whether for-profit or non-profit, in providing affordable housing we feel it is absolutely necessary that if there is a mandate that there also be huge flexibility with how to meet that mandate, and that maybe there's some kind of a point system that's created or benchmark system where if you meet certain benchmarks, you get higher density. You can decide to package things differently; that you have afast-track through the development process, to create some tailored incentives for people in which they can meet those mandates. We also think that there are ways to probably streamline the current development process. Um, and balancing the important role that government plays and having housing regulations and zoning regulations with making sure that once those obligations are met in terms of meeting objective criteria on the part of developer, that after that there's greater discretion on the part of the private developer, whether for-profit or non-profit. So we come here with a document that we hope could be a foundation or a base for your housing policy. Many of the things that we came up with independent from the marketing, uh, consultant, there's some parallel there and I think that should make those things scream at you, those things that come up again and again. Um, one of the groups that I belong to, FAIR, also has a different, um, study, because no one actually talked to people in the marketing study or in this group of people who actually needed affordable housing, so um, we're kind of hoping that you take these three different documents, put them together, encourage JCCOG to move forward on this discussion, and if they don't or they're slow to put pressure to just keep this on a front burner. Affordable housing has been an incredible need in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #5 Page 9 our community for a long time. There have been in-roads, but we need to move faster, especially post-flood. Um, and we just encourage you to keep going, to use us and see us as a resource and keep many stakeholders involved in the discussion. Thanks. Bailey: Thanks, Karen. Kubby: Oh, and we have copies of, um, our joint statement for everyone. Thank you. Wilburn: Move to accept correspondence. Bailey: Moved by Wilburn. Hayek: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Hayek. All those in favor say aye. Motion carries. Champion: Thank you for all this work, and that is a diverse group, but I'm surprised you ever did make any decisions. (unable to hear person away from mic) Kubby: Feel free to call on us if you have questions. Bailey: Thank you. Correia: This is good timing. The JCCOG, um, Coralville Housing Task Force is scheduled to meet on December 18t", so that...members from all of the JCCOG organizations, um, will be meeting. I just...quick question, will you be doing this presentation in front of all the other organizations, as well? Kubby: We're scheduling that. Uh-huh, yep. Bailey: Thank you! Others wishing to address the Council on community comment? All right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #6 Page 10 ITEM 6. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. d) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ZONING CODE, TO AMEND THE DEFINITION OF "HOUSEHOLD" TO REDUCE THE NUMBER OF UNRELATED PERSONS ALLOWED TO RESIDE IN ONE DWELLING UNIT FROM FIVE (5) UNRELATED PERSONS TO THREE (3) UNRELATED PERSONS IN THE COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC-2), CENTRAL BUSINESS SERVICE (CB-2), CENTRAL BUSINESS SUPPORT (CB-5) AND CENTRAL BUSINESS (CB-10) ZONES. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Wright: Move second consideration. Bailey: Moved by Wright. Hayek: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Hayek. Discussion? Hayek: I guess I'll...uh, point something out. I supported first consideration. I'm going to support second consideration, but the thing I want to, um, express to you is that, uh, I was mindful of the comment made at our last meeting that the process wasn't what it should have been and uh, I personally take those suggestions very seriously and... and I did some independent investigation to see how the process went on this and, um, I concluded that the process was a fair one, um, I looked at the notices that were sent out and uh, the uh, the agenda items and how they were posted on the web site and published in the usual way, and uh, learned that in addition these items were provided to the media and things like that, and I think, uh, that that was a fair process. LTh, and the suggestion was made that we should have provided essentially a courtesy call or a courtesy communication to, um, the development community and I understand that, but I think that's a, um, somewhat dangerous thing for us to consider doing, the reason being that if we're talking about a change in our Code and then you respect that effects numerous people, uh, to communicate with some of them, but inadvertently or purposefully omit others, it's a dangerous thing and...and if we need to consider, uh, our formal notification process going forward, we can certainly look at that, but um, I think it's important that when we communicate changes like this that we do so to the entire community of interested persons or entities, and do so through a consistent medium, uh, I think that's happened in this case, um, but we need to be mindful of that, uh, but the reason I'm saying all these things is because I want those who are affected by this and...and had some complaints about the process to understand that we take that very seriously and I did my own looking and I'm satisfied with how this played out. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #6 Bailey: Further discussion? Page 11 Champion: Well, I am going to support it, although I am, uh, a little disappointed that we're not grandfathering some buildings in that, uh, had plans for development. Um, but I like the whole ordinance, so I'm going to support it. O'Donnell: I'm going...I didn't support it last time and I won't support it this time, uh, I really believe when you buy property anywhere with a certain set of rules in place that they should remain in place, not be changed in the middle of the game. So that's...that's the reason I'm...I am not going to support this. Bailey: Other comments? Okay. Roll call. Item carries 6-1; O'Donnell in the negative. Karr: Motion to accept correspondence. Wilburn: So moved. Bailey: Moved by Wilburn. O'Donnell: Second. Bailey: Seconded by O'Donnell. All those in favor say aye. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #6 Page 12 ITEM 6. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. e) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLAT OF MOUNT PROSPECT ADDITION, PART IX, IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SUB08-00009) Karr: Madame Mayor, we had a request from the applicant to defer till the 16tH Bailey: Do I have a motion to... O'Donnell: So moved. Champion: Second. Bailey: Okay, moved by O'Donnell, seconded by Champion to defer to the 16th All those in favor say aye. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #9 Page 13 ITEM 9. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE BY-LAWS OF THE IOWA CITY YOUTH ADVISORY COMMISSION. Champion: Move the resolution. Bailey: Moved by Champion. Correia: Second. Bailey: Seconded by Correia. Discussion? Wilburn: Um, let's see...I think, um, in general, and I'll ask if staff, City Clerk, um, if she has any other insights, but I think the, um, the committee was in agreement with the recommendations from the Rules Committee that, uh, that perhaps the biggest substantive change is, uh, in terms of trying to make sure that there's representation from, um, all of the high schools, including the alternative high school, and uh, Regina in terms of membership, and then having some at-large appointments, in an effort to, uh, make sure that we're hearing from, um, both sides of the river, all perspectives, that type of thing. Um, ...larger thing that I... Karr: I just think the general concept that it removes, um, the requirement of the 18 to 21-year-olds, so that the Youth Advisory Commission would be made up, uh, totally of those under 18, or 18 at the time of filing. Bailey: Amy, did you have a comment? Correia: Well, last night I was just (mumbled) Bailey: Okay. How do we anticipate that this might change the work or the focus of the commission? Do we have anticipation of that, given that it's going to be an all high school group now. Wilburn: Well, I think the hope is, and I will certainly put my efforts into to working with (mumbled) to make sure that the, uh, the schools are aware and that there's some, uh, ownership, institutional ownership that will help support, uh, both, uh, maintaining a full membership in the commission. I think that's one, um, big item and then I think the other thing is, um, and you and I, Madame Mayor, were both around when the conversation about creating this that there was, uh, the hope in particular that we've got the University of Iowa liaisons, you know, that they have a presence, have a voice through that vehicle, but that we wanted to hear from young people in the, uh, in the community, and that this would perhaps be a way to bridge, provide a positive experience for youth in terms of gathering input and...and supporting different, uh, either events, issues, or policy, um, and that by providing that for that vehicle with the City, that uh, it will provide This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #9 Page 14 a positive youth experience that it will either help retain some young people in the community, or they may after they (mumbled) move away, return some day. Bailey: Uh-huh. Any other discussion...regarding this? I guess I just also want to make sure that, um, I've been reading the minutes and a lot of the focus has been very school-based and make sure that we also have that City perspective, because it's a City commission and we could really use their input on a lot of things, um, city-wide, especially parks and those kinds of things. So... Wilburn: Yeah, and I also think, uh, too, one of the things, I mean, we all see the challenges with all of our commissions in terms of maintaining membership. That's not unique to this commission. I would also remind folks that we allow some room for the youth members to really define, grow into the role, and to hear what the issues are from their perspective, as opposed to us proscribing, I mean, certainly we want to provide, uh supports there for...for their growth and learning, but uh, you know, it's uh, in my opinion, again, it can be important to give them that latitude, but also you know this is a new commission. There's...there's ahistory with all of our other commissions, and uh, this is just...I don't want to see us give up on this, and I don't sense there's that concern with um, with the Council, um, and uh, we just, uh, need to figure out a structure, because there are multiple across the country, that's going to work for this community. It...they're going to look different from town to town, and it's just finding that...that uh, that method, that way and that process that is going to...you know, essentially institutionalize interest and input from youth in this community. Correia: I do think that there's...that we as a Council should be thinking about being intentional in requesting input from our Youth Advisory Commission, that if we're considering items or issues that we think in advance, this would be an item, issue that we would like to have, um, a youth perspective on, and send that to them. And say, here's an issue, you know, we'd like a...and maybe, um, you know, with this new, just...I hadn't thought of this...with this new designation as a literary city, there might be...we might want to ask them how can we promote this, um, amongst the entire community, you know, um, how can we do that from that perspective, um, that's just an idea that came to me, but I think that, um, it's great, it's wonderful to have a Youth Advisory Commission, but I don't...I want to make sure that we're intentional at utilizing the information skills that they have, um, that provide input to us. I think our other commissions have a specific purpose in terms of we established you to give us input on specific things, and then we get those back and recommend...policy recommendations, um, and that hasn't happened, um, in this advisory commission specifically, um, and I do think that we could This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #9 Page 15 do more to find out about what other youth advisory commissions around the country are doing, and have them give us feedback on....these are some other structures, this might work for us. (mumbled) Bailey: Okay. Any additional comments? Roll call. Item carries 7-0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. # 14 Page 16 ITEM 14. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Bailey: Let's start with Amy. Correia: Thanks. I want to say congratulations to the Realtors, and um, our own Iowa City Housing Authority, which was in charge of the, uh, homeownership course, um, was featured in the Ambassador's for Cities documents, um, and so that's very exciting recognition of the work that the Realtors and the Housing Authority and lenders have done to, um, improve opportunities for homeownership in Iowa City and Johnson County, so congratulations. It's a lot of hard work and well deserved praise. Um, I also wanted to let folks know I'm a member of the Long- Term Recovery Committee, and we had a meeting today, um, that committee is now going through the process of formalizing its structure and to be recognized by FEMA, um, once that happens and there's information that FEMA can share with the Long-Term Recovery Committee, um, in terms of moving forward on the process of working with individual households and identifying unmet needs, and then, uh, working to garner resources in the community, um, there's afive- committees including policy advocacy...policy and advocacy needs assessments, um, a case management committee, uh, volunteer action, um, and there was also an update from the Volunteer Action Center that just as some of the needs are heightened, um, volunteering calls of people interested in volunteering is starting to go down, um, and so I encourage anyone available and interested in doing some volunteer work, um, to give a call to the Volunteer Action Center, which is 337-NOES, um, there continues to be church groups from around the country that are coming in. In fact, I heard there's one coming in, um, the week, um, end of December and again in January, that there continues to be an ongoing needs (mumbled). Bailey: Thank you. Matt? Hayek: I wanted to recognize the, uh, the very unfortunate layoffs at International Automotive Components. This is, for the public's knowledge, this is a local plant, uh, with headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan. It makes, uh, interior car parts for the auto industry, and it has been affected by the downturn in the economy and the wars of Detroit, um, the state of Iowa had provided some economic development assistance, and Iowa City had provided some public infrastructure improvements to, uh, help this business, uh, certainly hope they recover from it. It's a reminder to this body that, uh, a diversified economic landscape is in our best interest. I think we have that, um, but uh, it's a very sobering blow. Bailey: Uh-huh. Ross? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #14 Page 17 Wilburn: I have three things tonight. I want to just make the public aware that tomorrow night, Wednesday night, from 6:30 until 9:00 at the Holiday Inn Kinnick Ballroom. There's a fundraising dinner for the Fast Track Program at City High, and um, want to certainly support that program at City High, which provides support for youth of color that are interested, uh, potentially in, uh, college and some perhaps would be first in their families to, uh, to attend college. Congratulations to Mr. Henry Harper, the program coordinator. There's lots of volunteers that, uh, that support him in his efforts, and the Administration over at City High, uh, similar program exists, little different slightly different focus at West High School, but we certainly appreciate, um, all the staff and volunteers that put their time, energy and effort in trying to make a connection to education and higher education with our...our, all of our youth, but in particular youth of color. I want to, um, thank, um.. . Champion: Ross, um... Wilburn: Yes? Champion: ...before you go on to your next thing, the money will be used for what? For the program itself, or for the kids? Wilburn: Um, my understanding is that money will be used to support, uh, the program. Part of the, uh, part of what, and I don't have intimate knowledge of where that money goes, but I know part of the activities provides creating connection with, um, University college students, uh, at a college. I know in the past they've looked at trying to, um, make a connection with some of the predominantly, uh, for example, African- American colleges historically, um, to I guess kind of a mentor, role model, aspiration type thing, and to value your own culture, um, I know that, um, the program at West High, the psych program, they have made trips to, um, Decorah, the Luther College, with that same intent and there's also been a program this past summer with the University of Iowa, uh, called the Academy to work with, and this particular example is with African American youth in terms of recognizing one's own culture, the value of appreciating that, but also a heavy academic side to that. Again, create that connection, um, with uh, with post-high school education. Champion: Sorry to interrupt. Wilburn: That's all right. No, no problem. Thanks for asking. Uh, there's just also, this is just an awareness piece. Uh, there is a Teen Summit for African American teens between Iowa City and Cedar Rapids that will be at the Pappajohn Business Building, uh, there's a couple, uh, sororities that are, uh, supporting that, um, Stephanie, um, in our Human Rights Coordinator is also working with that group to put that on. So it's kind of a community This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #14 Page 18 dialogue between the two communities, and I want to thank the University and Pappajohn Business Building for their support and use of space. And, finally, I want to, uh, thank the, uh, Council on International Visitors to Iowa City, uh, there's a ....they frequently bring groups to Iowa City and take tours, uh, of different aspects of community based on, uh, the International Visitors particular area of focus, and I know there's going to be some Indonesian visitors on, uh, December 8th, meeting out at City High School, uh, with their civics class out there, so...again, thanks civics and all their volunteers for their efforts. Bailey: Thanks. Mike? O'Donnell: Nothing this evening. Bailey: Connie? Champion: I wanted to bring up something we talked about quite a while ago, but have never done anything about and that is Iowa City possibly banning the use of those unrecyclable plastic bags at grocery stores. We talked about that in that work session, and I thin it's something we should seriously look at. Bailey: Are there others who... Champion: ...look at it. Bailey: I did have a conversation with Jen Jordan after that, and we...in passing, and...are there others who would be interested in putting this on, as a pending item? (several responding) Correia: Can we get a memo saying...research on other cities that have done this? Champion: I had one, um, from how San Francisco did it. Bailey: And I think Jen has done some research. I don't know...I mean (mumbled). Correia: Before we talk about it, if we could get a memo from her on.. . Bailey: Michael, can we just add this to the pending list and have you coordinate, maybe that pre-information? Lombardo: Yep. Bailey: That would be helpful. Okay. (laughter and several talking) You shouldn't clean your desk! Okay. Mike? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008. #14 Page 19 Wright: Um, it's supposed to snow again tomorrow. We had a little bit of snow over the weekend, and it's just...just another reminder. I think we've gotten the word out pretty well, but that Iowa City does now have a snow emergency ordinance. I don't think we'll probably have to invoke any snow emergencies this week, but for folks to be aware about that, to listen to the media, listen to the radio, watch the television, pay attention when it's snowing. If you hear a mention of the snow emergency, um, for folks that are accustomed to parking on the street. That will, uh, make a difference in where you have to rest your car for an evening, for example. You can get details on that on the City's web site, icgov.org, and it's uh, our first year with that. I don't think there's too many bugs left in this, but we'll be tinkering with that as things go along. Bailey: Okay. Thanks, Mike. Um, first of all I wanted to say on behalf of Council our thoughts go out to Sally and Roger Stutsman on the loss of their son Michael. I know that Michael, um, is a farmer, an organic farmer and touched many lives in our region, and so um, the Stutsmans and all their extended family have our deepest sympathies on this loss. Um, I want to build on what Mike just said about this snow, um, as a reminder that even a little bit of snow and ice, um, needs to be removed from your walks, so people can get around the city easily. There are many of us who are out walking and running, and so um, something to be aware of. Seems like if we just finish the season and here it starts again, but um, just a reminder to take care of those walks as soon as possible, within 24 hours is our ordinance. And then I want to announce a concert that will be held this weekend. The choir, the GLBT chorus is presenting their holiday concert. As many of us...this time of year is...is a lot about music and this will be Saturday, December 6th, at 7:00 P.M. at Zion Lutheran Church, and they have three guest conductors, and I have to disclose that I am one of the guest conductors, probably the least talented among the three, but the group is great. They sound wonderful, and it's a really nice concert. Um, it's free admission, but there will be afree-will donation. So I invite everybody to come out and enjoy some holiday music this Saturday. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council Regular Formal meeting of December 2, 2008.