HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-01-28 TranscriptionJanuary 28, 2009 City Council Page 1
January 28, 2009 City Council Budget Work Session 7:00 P.M.
Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright
Staff: Lombardo, Helling, Karr, Dilkes, Craig, O'Malley, Moran, Kopping,
Mansfield
Others Present: UISG Representative, Gunn
Sales Tax:
(A lot of noise on the recording and paper shuffling; difficult to hear at times.)
Bailey/ We added this to the agenda to discuss Senate File 44, and I under...where is it with the
House? I did not check (several talking)
Dilkes/ Referred to Ways and Means (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay, it hasn't yet passed the House, um, we had a discussion of this last week, um,
Council Member Hayek was there. I was there, um, with our local delegation. We feel
like this bill that came out of the Senate Ways and Means reflected our discussion, and as
you see, (mumbled) Coralville in that meeting had expressed an interest in a local options
sales tax. I wrote a letter asking, um, that (mumbled) discontinued after they saw the
version of the bill, that they would w rite us back (mumbled) have a letter from the City
Administrator of Coralville asking for us to put this on the ballot. That's sort of the
general...the shape of what we need to consider. Timeline is very tight. Marian,
(mumbled) dates. It's March...or Eleanor, March 10...
Dilkes/ Um, the two possible election dates are March 3rd and that would require that the
question be to the Auditor by February 3rd, and the second election date is May Sth,
which would require that the question be to the Auditor by March 10th.
Bailey/ Okay. This is something that we would have to put on the ballot very quickly. If we are
interested in (mumbled) Michael or Dale, do you have anything to add regarding this?
We talked about this with the Metro Coalition. Michael, I know you've talked to Kelly.
Lombardo/ You know, I...I think, uh, the letter, um, states their position and their desire, uh,
they have...as the way it stands right now, um, the route for them to get on the ballot is
through Iowa City.
Correial(mumbled) think we should discuss it.
Bailey/ (mumbled)
Correia/ Right now...proceed with putting it on the ballot, you mean?
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Bailey/ Well, we would have to, um, step into this. We would put it on the ballot (mumbled) city
as well; have to have...walk us through how it gets on the ballot exactly. (several
talking) have to have in place, I guess.
Dilkes/Because Iowa City has, uh, more than 50% of the population, Iowa City, um, is...is in
the position to call it for the entire County. The election is held countywide. Um, under
the existing law, uh, the...the folks in the unincorporated areas are counted as one block,
and the folks in the contiguous cities are counted as one block. It either fails or, um, is
approved in the contiguous cities, and it fails or is approved in the unincorporated, um,
areas. The Senate 44, um, changes that in a significant respect in that while the election
is called in the same fashion, therefore it would have to be called by Iowa City, um each
city rises and falls on its own, so...um, Coralville could pass it and Iowa City might not,
and it would be imposed in Coralville and not in Iowa City, and visa versa. Um,
the...when you do a resolution to put...put the question on the ballot, it's a resolution
sending the question to the Auditor. You must designate the purposes for which, uh, the
sales tax will be used, um, and those are purposes for Iowa City, um, other cities and the
unincorporated areas will have the ability, um, to designate their own purposes. As of
right now, Senate 44 does not limit purposes to flood relief, um, but we don't have a final
bill yet so we don't know how that's going to end up.
Correia/ (mumbled) we need to discuss, in terms of put...put a question on the ballot (mumbled)
we would need to identify...
Bailey/ Yeah, we're just trying to get a sense of if there's general interest in moving this forward,
monitoring the...the new bill, seeing if it's similar to, um, Senate file 44, and if so, this
would be something that we would have to schedule for a work session to discuss the
purposes of putting it on the ballot. So, tonight is there an interest in moving forward in
the direction of putting something on the ballot, so we can...if this comes out of the
House and through the Governor's office in shape with this kind of timeline, we're going
to have to move fairly quickly.
Hayek/ Eleanor, is...my understanding is that if...if, uh, this legislation goes through and is
signed by the Governor, that doesn't change the underlying sales tax, uh, law in terms of,
uh, a community representing more than 50%, being able to do this (mumbled) or under
the current schedule (both talking)
Dilkes/ No, it does not. This is just an additional option provided to flood-impacted
communities.
Hayek/ Meaning we presently have this option and have had it for many years?
Dilkes/ Yes.
Karr/ The purpose of this legislation was to fast-track...the revenues received for flood-effected
cities, other than the option available now. The revenues then would be appreciated in a
more, in a quicker fashion than the current law.
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Hayek/ Right. But if nobody acted on this fast-track, you would still have the option to (several
commenting) okay. Well, I have no interest in...in indicating one way or the other
whether we want to put this on, uh, a ballot, until we have held a work session and heard
from people we need to hear from, and discuss it amongst ourselves. This is....a big
move, and it may be a good one. I'm not opining either way, but, um, things are
happening extremely fast and this body has not even spent five minutes talking about it.
O'Donnell/ Well, L ..I don't think, Matt, unless we show interest tonight that it will reach a work
session. I mean, that's...I think the purpose is to find out to see if we are in fact
interested in...in any way, shape or form, and I certainly am.
Correia/ I mean, I'm interested in following the legislation and talking about...about it at a work
session. You know, and we want to hear from staff about, I mean, we have a letter here
from Coralville, um, you know, what they...would, you know, projects, you know, the
flood mitigation. I would want to hear from our staff what our...thinking we would want
to, what we would be raising money for.
Wilburn/ In the event the legislation fails, then the only option is the current option, which is
Iowa City drives whether or not an issue is put on a ballot, and there's a timeliness factor,
uh, in terms of support (mumbled) projects, uh...
Dilkes/ You should know, I don't know how much you all know of the history of this, the
original study bill that was, that did come out before Senate, uh, File 44 came out would
have allowed Coralville to simply put it on the ballot themselves. That changed between
the time of the study bill and Senate File 44.
Lombardo/ And certainly one can speculate depending on the decisions you make that there
might be lobbying to...to get it changed back to that, should...should we decide not to try
and help them in this endeavor. I mean, it's a possibility.
Champion/ Well, I'm certainly willing to talk about this, especially since Coralville can't put it up
on the ballot without our...without us doing it. And I think to be a good neighbor, we
need to seriously consider this. I mean, even if Iowa City doesn't pass it, Coralville, if
they pass it, is going to get it.
Dilkes/ I think you need to think about whether...if Coralville is going, whether you want a
situation where Iowa City, it goes on the ballot for the entire County. It may rise and fall
in a particular city on its own, but it has to go on the ballot for the whole County, or can it
go on the ballot for only one city.
Champion/ I thought you said it couldn't.
Dilkes/ It...it's not through the legislative process yet. (several talking) It's not law yet, so...I
think you need to think about what result you might.. .
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Bailey/ And, um, what Eleanor just said, it's not law yet and um, part of the discussion you had
about this is, um, that Iowa City has to put it on the ballot, and Iowa City was reluctant to
put it on the ballot. We need this for flood related, and so I tend to agree with you, to be
a good neighbor, I think that we should proceed in a manner to get it on the ballot, um,
whether our citizens, um, vote for it or not, it does give the opportunity for Coralville to
vote for it, and I think that's important, because they had huge impacts, um, to their
business community and are looking at flood mitigation and... and are concerned about
how to proceed, and believe that this is the answer for their citizens. Now, I'm sure that
their citizens will also weigh in and have an opinion and...that option happens out there.
So...
Champion/ Michael, do we know the amount of flood damage Iowa City has incurred?
Lombardo/ In terms of pure damage, we've identified over $100 million in...in projects and that's
not even including any recovery, assistance with recovery or flood mitigation in the
neighborhoods, so it's substantial, and, you know, we're lucky to receive some level of
State and federal funding to support those projects, but I...the message from, um, long-
term recovery group, uh, and EDA is that there's going to be some expectation of local
funding as well. How much...we're going to continue and we...we continue to meet with
other departments and try to find other grant opportunities, but it's a substantial price tag
and it...comes down to, the timeliness and what your desire is to get some of these larger
projects done and then what's the expectation for flood mitigation down the road.
Champion/ And, we will get reimbursed for some...a lot, quite a bit of this damage, but do you
have any idea what it's actually going to cost us? In damage, I mean.. .
Lombardo/ Just on City projects alone, we've already...I mean, expended something on the order
of a million and a half dollars, and...and we're all working on flood stuff now, um,
that...that portion of it will not be reimbursed. It's somewhere on the order of $7.5 or $8
million in damages to municipal infrastructure and...and projects that we're attending to.
Uh, that does not include any of the neighborhood businesses or anything like that. It's
just strictly municipal.
Champion/ I mean, I'd like to see us put this on a work session as soon as possible, so we can be
informed and let Coralville know that we're going to put it on our work session, in case
this is the only route they have. I would support it (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay.
Wright/ I'm fine with putting it on the works session. I think...it doesn't hurt to have a
conversation.
Lombardo/ The conversation (mumbled) okay. And...
Bailey/ Actually, I think, um, as Eleanor indicated, I think Coralville would be looking for a little
bit more of intent to put it on the ballot.
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Hayek/ It astounds me, I mean, we're...there's this mania that has, uh, developed just in the last,
less than a week on a sale tax issue that we haven't even discussed as a body and... and a
one-penny sales tax increase is a big deal to a lot of folks and as...and will result in huge
numbers of dollars, and may be a good idea, but we...we haven't spent minute one
looking at any information, uh, or talking to anybody about this, and I'm fine with putting
it on the work session, and I'm fine with doing that even within the confines of this
potential legislation, potential law, um, but there are broad implications to moving
towards a sales tax in this way on these issues. It would impact all sorts of things,
and...and we just have to have that discussion. And I just wanted to be a little more
deliberate about it, and so I...I can't personally, uh, say yah or nay about this tonight on
this issue. I'm perfectly willing to look at it in a work session format soon.
Bailey/ Well, I think, um, depending on how things go in Des Moines, perhaps we wouldn't
necessarily have to answer that question, because if they...they switch back to a different
version of this bill, Coralville could proceed on their own, and maybe that would answer
the question, so um, there's general consensus to put it on a work session?
Wilburn/ What information would be gathered from the work session (mumbled)
Bailey/ I mean, we have data about how much sales tax (mumbled) correct?
Lombardo/ Yeah, we can provide you information on the revenue generating potential, uh,
throughout the County, and specific to Iowa City and the other cities.
Wilburn/ And that's pretty much updated information (mumbled) I would suggest that
(mumbled) seen information, but prior Councils have, so (several talking)
Lombardo/ Based on last year's retail sales (several talking)
Bailey/ ...bulk of the discussion would be for purposes or (several talking) would be (several
talking)
Lombardo/ ...and they've refined the numbers in terms of just estimated projects, estimated
damage, uh, those types of...data points for you just to consider for our own.
Champion/ Well, I think the other thing we need to consider when we talk about this sales tax
(mumbled) before the next work session which I hope there's something on the next work
session.
Bailey/ February 9th, yes.
Champion/ Um, that...will this hinder us...in a future situation with citizens. I don't mean with
the law, because I think we are going to need this sales tax to fund fire and police. I think
the only way we're going to get enough revenue for public safety...is going to be (both
talking)
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Bailey/ ...could be a purpose. We aren't restricted to flood (mumbled) current version of the bill
that went to the House.
Champion/ But, it's going to go on the ballot so quickly. Do you have time to educate people? I
mean, that's going to be really quick!
Bailey/ We11, that is some of the concern with this bill (several talking) I mean, Cedar Rapids
has said as much.
Dilkes/ I think what is odd about the bill is that it's not...the purposes are not limited to flood
relief. But it clearly has been presented as a flood relief, quick flood relief measure
(several talking) from Cedar Rapids. And...I...I think expanding that discussion beyond
that is...is what's putting you in this dilemma.
Bailey/ Well, I think there is general consensus and we're so far behind schedule we should move
along. There's general consensus to put it on the February 9th, um, work session and
we'll discuss that then, and um, we get to talk about the flood relief, versus other...as well
as our interest in putting in on the ballot, but um, this is moving quickly, and Coralville
will want an answer quickly. I know that some people take a little bit longer to make
decisions, but we should be prepared on February 9th to have a sense of how we want to
move this forward, and if, you know, you need to think no, I can't make a decision and I
have to say no, that's fine, but on February 9th we have to have some indicator of the
direction this is going. This is too fast.
Karr/ I just wanted to clarify, and I'm sorry, but by February 9th...
Bailey/ We will...
Karr/ ...the decision maybe made for you by the Legislature changing it. (several talking)
Okay.
Wright/ It maybe dead altogether by then.
Karr/ That's correct.
Bailey/ ...that's fine for Iowa City, I mean...
Correia/ What would we do in one week?
Bailey/ No. If it's changed so a city, non...or contiguous cities and it's another city contiguous to
ours can simply put it on their own ballot and vote, where putting our citizens at a
disadvantage, I believe.
Hayek/ (several talking) 50% of the county's population.. .
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Dilkes/ Not to share in Coralville's.
Karr/ And you won't get the revenues as quickly.
Dilkes/ You are creating the possibility, just so you all understand this, you're creating the
possibility tonight that Coralville...that this legislation will be changed allowing
Coralville to put it on the ballot, for Coralville, and to...only in their city, not region
wide, and to get all the revenue that is generated in Coralville. Just so you all understand
that.
Hayek/ (several talking) this Council wants to hold a work session sooner than February 9th,
that's fine. I (several talking)
Bailey/ ...session is, Matt. That's exactly what this work session is. We are holding a work
session. That's what this is about. I'm sorry the decision has to be made quickly, but
Eleanor has laid it out very clearly. That is exactly what we're deciding tonight, whether
our citizens have the option to share possibly in this, if it's supported in the County, or
whether we basically give Coralville the signal that they.. .
Correia/ When did this come out?
Bailey/ It came out...it was in Ways and Means...
Correia/ No, no, no, no! Our packet...this packet.
Karr/ Yesterday.
Correia/ Yesterday, so I mean, I find it really difficult...(several talking) packet yesterday and
have an expectation that I would come here today and be able to say, yes, we will put this
on the ballot without having any analysis from staff.. .
Bailey/ I understand your concern, but this came out of Ways and Means on Friday. This is the
legislative session. They...Matt is right. It's a...it's a frenetic flurry of activity up there.
Bills are flying right and left about flood affected cities, and this is how (mumbled)
Champion/ And I think it's important that we give this serious thought because Eleanor's right -
are we going to give our citizens a chance for this money, or are we going to let
Coralville get it all, and then if we are going to put aone-cent on the ballot again,
Coralville is not going to support it and we're never going to get any money. (several
talking)
Correia/ ...work session on Monday, I mean, I think that there's enough time to be able, I mean,
it's Wednesday. The session ends for the week tomorrow, on Thursday (several talking)
Bailey/ ...have this on the Governor's desk by the end of the day tomorrow.
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Correia/ So you're saying between today and tomorrow they may...they may change what we
(several talking)
Karr/ The bill provides...the bill provides for cities to have elections twice. The first deadline is
February 3rd. Cedar Rapids has already expressed a desire to make the February 3rd
deadline to be, to have a March 3rd election. So therefore the Legislation has to be done,
if indeed that time table were to be utilized, it must be done and in place to allow Cedar
Rapids to act on it by February 3rd for the election March 3rd for revenue to be April 1.
That's why...this is the Legislator's response to the flood effected cities in lieu of this
special session. So they're moving this quickly to allow those timelines, and that's why it
seemingly is very unbelievable, but that's response that they have committed to. In
addition to that then they've offered the second option of...of March 3rd, May 3rd...yeah.
O'Donnell/ A sales tax isn't new in this community. We've talked about it for years and years
and there's a very clear need for it right now, um, Connie mentioned (several talking) we
have been...two things that really (several talking) and also the flood damage and the
costs that we incur (several talking) tool if used properly.
Wright/ May I suggest that we have some people up here that have been waiting...
Bailey/ Well, no, I wanted to hear what Connie had to say...
Champion/ Well, I'm interested in just asking if there are four that are willing to go ahead with
this.
Bailey/ To put it on the ballot?
Champion/ Well, I'm willing to say I'm willing to put it on the ballot.
Bailey/ So am I!
O'Donnell/ I am too!
Bailey/ So, we'll still have it on the February 9th, uh, work session. We'll get the language of the
bill as it changes or as it doesn't change, to people so they have the time, but this stuff
moves fast so...
Champion/ And we will let Coralville know...
Bailey/ I will educate that this is what...was our discussion and that's the direction we are
moving, assuming that the langue in the bill stays the same.
O'Donnell/ Do we have (mumbled) there are four? Okay, great!
Bailey/ All right. Mike, you were going to suggest that we move on.
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Wright/ I think we need to move on. There are some people that are giving us their time this
evening and we've sucked up an awful lot of it already.
Bailey/ So, let's get started. We have the Senior Center Commission.
Senior Center Commission:
Honohan/ Isn't it fun being on the City Council?
Champion/ It's a lot of fun! You should think about it.
Honohan/ I don't envy any of you. (several talking) On behalf of 1,140 senior citizens, and
many people who are not members but do come to Senior Center, I'd like to thank the
City Council for its support of the Senior Center. Um, we've had a great year and it is
getting late, as Mike says, where you're way behind, so what I would simply like to do is
just, uh, this is the first year that I've come here and not asked for additional staff because
I know what your budget constraints are, uh, I'm not 100% excited with our budget, as
proposed by the City Manager, but I guess we'll accept it. What I would like to do is just
answer any questions you might have, give you any information I can, if you have any
questions. If you don't, I'll get out of here and let you go on with the rest of your work.
Champion/ Thank you!
Bailey/ I just...(laughter) you know, I did read through your Annual Report (mumbled) for the
upcoming year, and I always appreciate that those are put together, and I noticed that you
want to look at some more fundraising activities, which is very exciting for me and I
hope it's exciting to other people, and I just wanted to know what kind of activities you
were thinking about and...what kind, maybe give us a couple examples of what you've
been doing.
Honohan/ I can't say that at this point in time we have anything extremely specific of what we're
going to try to do. Obviously we're going to try, uh, we have had fundraisers in the past,
quilt raffles and things like that, things we do at the County Fair, uh, we of course are
looking at um, a kind of a additional fundraising effort to get more money into our
Foundation, and the Foundation of course would support the Senior Center. Uh, I guess I
can't say that we have five or six specific projects in mind. The Commission is just
trying to look and see any way that we can generate funds. (mumbled)
Bailey/ Thanks. Any other...
O'Donnell/ ...truth to the rumor that you're going to be giving private lessons on the chicken
dance?
Honohan/ Um, next year!
O'Donnell/ Next year! (laughter)
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Honohan/ Well, we always have chicken and noodles. I can't remember if the chicken dance is
(mumbled)
Bailey/ Any other questions for Jay? Thank you.
Honohan/ Thank you.
Bailey/ Parks and Rec Commission. John? (several talking)
Parks & Recreation Commission:
Westefeld/ Good evening. I'm John Westefeld, uh, Chairperson of Parks and Recreation
Commission. Um, Mike Moran who's Acting Director of Parks and Recreation is also
here tonight, and we're giving you a very brief handout, look over and (mumbled). I want
to make a few introductory comments, and then talk about work issues, the Master Plan,
the name for the second dog park, the, uh, CIP, uh, projects which I know you're familiar
with, particularly Sand Lake and the pedestrian bridge, and uh, little bit about staffing.
Before I start, I do want to acknowledge Terry Trueblood, who's not able to be here
tonight. Many of you know that Terry is, uh, undergoing, has undergone surgery and is,
uh, recovering up in Minnesota, so we certainly send him our best wishes. I also want to
take a minute and publicly acknowledge the phenomenal job that Parks and Recreation
staff, uh, have done under a very difficult year. I know this is true for many people that
work for the City of Iowa City, certainly not just Parks and Recreation, but the
combination of the flood and two very severe winters have really taxed the personnel and
the resources, and I...I just want to publicly acknowledge the brave work that Terry
Trueblood and Mike Moran and Terry Robinson and their staff have done. So, four quick
points I want to make. First, the Master Plan, uh, Mike has given you the full copy of the
Master Plan. I know it's very long. It's very detailed. Take a long, long time to read that,
but there is an excellent Executive Summary in there, and I would urge you to, uh, take a
look at that. I think it does a great job of highlighting many of the issues in Iowa City, in
terms of Parks and Recreation, and we're very appreciative of the support that the Council
has given to us in pursuing a Master Plan. I ...I just think it's got great potential for us in
the future, and uh, barring something unforeseen, our intent is to officially pass this final
version of the Master Plan at our next meeting, and we hope that you will, uh, likewise
pass this version, uh, at your next meeting, um, on February 24th. So, we're very excited
about the plan and we think it gives us a lot of opportunities for future development and
ideas for parks and recreation. I want to very briefly, uh, mention the second dog park
that is going to open this spring at Scott Park. I want to mention, because I think it's a
great example of a collaborative effort, uh, between the Dog PAC group and the Parks
and Recreation, uh, department and commission, um there's been a lot of interest in dog
park activity in the community, as many of you know, and so we're very excited that a
second park, um, is going to be opening. Uh, as far as we know right now, this spring.
The CIP projects, which again, I know you have in front of you, um, I know we're very
tight on time so the only thing I wanted to mention about that list is again to quickly
highlight Sand Lake and the pedestrian bridge, uh, Rocky Shore pedestrian bridge, which
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are Peninsula...which are one and two on the list. The main comment I want to make
about the Sand Lake recreation project, um, we continue to move ahead with that. It's
going to be a very long process. It'll be a very gradual process, of course, has slowed
down some, obviously, but we're very happy with the fundraising that's gone on for that
project, and as of, um, I just checked with Mike about this before he came over. As of
tonight, we've raised $69,000 for that project, in a fairly short amount of time, so again,
I...I think this is going to be great, uh, a great project for the community, uh, when it's
completed with a lot of potential, both in terms of parks, um, and recreation. As...I know
I said last year and... and uh, (mumbled) prior years continue of course to need staff, um
that's a continuing need, and we just want to, uh, ask for your continued awareness about
that issue. We certainly recognize the budget issues, but we just want to mention that
very quickly, and the last thing I wanted to mention, just something in case you're not
aware of it, this...I think you're all familiar with the fact that we do a parks tour every
fall, Parks and Recreation Commission and whoever from the City Council can join us,
uh this year for the first time ever we asked the Coralville Parks and Recreation, uh,
Commission to accompany us, and several of them (mumbled) we did a joint of both, uh,
Iowa City and Coralville parks and I think it was a very productive, very productive. We
got to meet several of their commissioners and vice versa, so um, we're very happy to be
able to do that. So, in summary, Master Plan, um, again, we hope you'll take a look at
that and...and pass that, um, at your next meeting, and uh, CIP projects I think are self-
explanatory, uh, mainly again want to highlight the Rocky Shore bridge and Sand Lake
recreation project. So, any questions, and Mike is also here if there are questions I cannot
answer.
Champion/ John, do you think when the new dog park opens...I'm very supportive of the
pedestrian bridge. I think that's (coughing, unable to hear) happen, but do you think that
when the new dog park opens that that may alleviate some of that traffic that's going
down Foster Road now?
Westefeld/ Yeah, L ..I think some (mumbled) I think there's...hard to predict that, I think I'd be
speculating, but I think there's some potential. I think that the, uh, my sense is that there's
just a huge amount of interest in...in dog park activities, and once it opens I think we'll
very quickly get a feel for what the utilizations going to be like, but I think...I think that's
a good point. I think (mumbled)
O'Donnell/ Do you not have any numbers there, presently at the dog park?
Westefeld/ I don't. Do you, Mike?
Moran/ Uh, right now about 200, a little over 200 strong, and they've donated money to both dog
parks, uh, to pay for fencing and everything, so it's virtually been just a land operation for
us, and they've paid for all the improvements.
Westefeld/ Any other questions?
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Bailey/ Any other questions for John or Mike? Um, you know, we've talked a little bit about
slowing down the Sand Lake project, and um, I just wanted to get your thoughts on slow
is too slow, from the Parks and Rec, I mean, it's a great project - we know it -but it's also
an expensive project.
Westefeld/ You mean in terms of years?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Westefeld/ (mumbled) I have a thought, but why don't you...
Bailey/ No, I'm asking for your thoughts, so I mean...
Moran/ We just get into acatch-22. The more we develop down there, the more people are
going to want to go down and use it. So, we just sort of have to take that, a broadened
approach as to how we're going to section that in, because uh, when we start opening that
up and make the developments and everything, we're going to get used. People are down
there using it already, so...
Bailey/ Right.
Moran/ It's acatch-22. The more we do, the more we're going to have to maintain it, and then
we're right back the same problem that we had before. So, uh, if we stretch it out and
take a very sequential approach, plan it and then fund it in steps, uh, you know, four, five
years. I think it's already planned out to 2013.
Bailey/ Uh-huh.
Westefeld/ The main point I'd make about that is, I feel like, again, subjectively that that whole
area gets tremendous utilization right now. It's, the dog park, the Frisbee golf course has
really taken off down there, and there are a lot of people, you know, that walk in and jog
down in that area.
Bailey/ Sand Lake.
Westefeld/ Oh, Sand Lake.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Westefeld/ Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you, I thought you were talking about the Peninsula area.
Bailey/ I might have said that. L ..it's been a long day, but I...I actually was thinking, I'm
visualizing Sand Lake, so that's (both talking)
Westefeld/ I would agree with Mike. I think it's...it's really going to be (mumbled). I think
given all the different kinds of activities at Sand Lake that are slotted to go in there, I
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January 28, 2009 City Council Page 13
think that it potentially could draw a huge number of people for all kinds of different
activities, which in turn (mumbled)
Wilburn/ There's already quite a few people who fish and...and mountain bike down there, um, I
noticed some, uh, flat tires have occurred (several talking) things, but is the intent still,
uh, that's a pretty (mumbled) boats on that, and I think that's important.
Bailey/ I think that's a great vision. Any other questions? Okay, thanks for being here. Sorry
we ran behind, but.. .
Westefeld/ Thank you...no problem.
Bailey/ ...thanks for hanging out with us. All right. Library Board.
Library Board:
Dean/ Hello, I am Tom Dean, and I'm the President of the Board of Trustees of the Iowa City
Public Library. We also have Susan Craig our Library Director here tonight, and uh, four
of my colleagues from the Board are with us tonight. So...we actually have a quorum
here tonight (mumbled) appreciate their support in coming out. Um, it's a pleasure to
appear before you tonight and on behalf of the Trustees and the Library staff,. and the
citizens of our city, thank you for your generous support of the Library, uh, over the
years, and uh, and currently, of course, too. Uh, your support allows us to boast the
busiest public library in the State of Iowa. We have over 700,000 visits per year, uh, that
translates into almost 2,000 visits per day, uh, at our Library. So we believe we have not
only the busiest library, uh, in Iowa, but one of the best libraries in the country! Um, we
continue to grow at the Library, as we seek to meet the needs of the community. As
reported in the Iowa City Press-Citizen recently, uh, difficult economic times mean
increased usage of public libraries, and our Library staff and...and library people across
the county have known this for a long time. In tough times, citizens need the library even
more for learning and entertainment materials, Internet access, job search resources, uh,
so...so far this year our Library has experienced increased usage across the board. This
includes circulation, in-house computer use, library cards issued, and programming. Just
a couple of numbers, uh, that we have seen so far in this fiscal year, a 16.8% increase in
Iowa City resident Library cards, uh, approximately 6% increases both in people, uh, into
the building and in circulation. We have hosted 1,500 community meetings in the past
six months. That's a 63% increase over last year. We've increased Library adult and
children's programming by over 20% each, and in the last six months we've increased
young adult programming, uh, by nearly 200%. Uh, the goal of the Board of Trustees is
to maintain and enhance our collections, and services, uh, that our citizens highly value,
and of course we are challenged as everybody is, city departments, all organizations and
businesses, uh, by these current difficult economic times. So, we do understand the need
to our part in making sure that the City is able to meet its many obligations to our
constituents. At this point, we've already removed $83,000 from our initial budget
request. Those cuts have included two new part-time personnel lines, and we requested
those lines several years in a row, so those are not new this year, uh, but we have not
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been, uh, including that in our budgets for several years. Uh, other cuts are in such areas
as temporary employees, overtime, staff education and travel, and equipment
replacement. We've also already cut our collection budget, and eliminated completely an
online homework help service. Uh, it is very possible, if not likely, that the Library will
also suffer declines in its, uh, Foundation contributions which provide significant
collection support and like most other Foundation assets and our personal assets,
investments and retirement accounts, uh, the values of the Library's, uh, Foundation's
investments have declined and in our case it's been by about a third in recent months.
The Iowa City Public Library has served more patrons, and provided more services in
recent years without an increase in staffing. So we are already doing more with less.
Library usage no doubt will be increased further in the coming year. At this point,
flexibility in our ability to cut expenses has virtually been eliminated. If we do have to
make further cuts, uh, it...the Board will have to face a menu, uh, of very difficult
choices, among those (coughing, unable to hear) existing staff, downsizing or eliminating
collections, reducing computer support, uh, and cutting hours. Those are just some of the
choices we will have to make. Uh, and again, at this point, our community will no doubt
feel and see those, those reductions in service. But we do, as I said, understand that we
need to do our part in these difficult times, so on a positive note to conclude, one way in
which we capitalize on our value and our contributions to the community is through
partnership with other City departments and community organizations. We provide the
City with general fund dollars through the rental of our retail space, uh, also through
parking ticket revenue that is generated by Library staff who monitor Linn Street parking
spaces which are designated for Library use, uh, currently we are awaiting word on a
nearly $58,000 International City/County Manager Association Public Innovation grant
that is in partnership with the City Recycling Center, and this is for a project called
"GREEN Iowa City" -that stands for garden recycled energy ecology now -which is a
community education project on various environmental issues, uh, our children's
programming has and continues to have many partnerships with organizations like
Hancher Auditorium, the Iowa Children's Museum, Iowa City Community School
District, Cedar Rapids' Public Library, and others. I know some of you have been...were
to see our Abraham Lincoln "Self-Made in America" display from the Lincoln
Presidential Library Museum, and the Library has other, many other Lincoln bi-
centennial activities, uh, through February and beyond, uh, and those are...of interest to
students, community members, and...and visitors. Uh, we believe the Library is also an
excellent economic development tool. It provides a major attraction for perspective
businesses and residents who value a high quality of life in the community. And in that
vain, our Library's excellence played a role in Iowa City being recently designated only
the third city of literature in the world by UNESCO. So at the same time these
partnerships leverage the Library's contributions to the community, uh, we are also aware
that, again, uh, further budget cuts do threaten those partnerships, as well. So we remain
concerned and vigilant about those. Uh, the Board and the staff of the Library look
forward to providing continued essential and expected services to the citizens of Iowa
City, and again, they look to us, I think, as critical to our community's high quality of life,
uh, we are determined to help Iowa City weather the current economic storms, uh, by
what we do best -providing free high quality and readily available collections and
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services. So, again, we thank you very much for your past and your continued support,
and (mumbled) Susan or I are happy to answer any questions you have.
Bailey/ Any questions?
Correia/ I have a question...when you're...talk about the cuts that you had, or...
Dean/ These are from the initial budget request.
Correia/ Oh, okay. Because, I mean, just for the public, the increase...the 08, well it increases
from 08 to 09, and 09 to 10 are 6% each year in the total receipts, and then the total
expenditures. So, I mean, I understand cutting from a dream budget, but.. .
Dean/ Right, right...
Correia/ But the actual...um, the actual budget has increased 6% the last two year, I mean, the
proposal for this year 6% increase from last year in receipts, and it's about...$200,000
increase. I can do a percentage from General Fund...um, so...
Dean/ A lot of our.. .
Correia/ It's different to talk about cuts that are cuts when...(both talking)...cuts from what you
wanted to do.
Dean/ Right, right, and I...I think our point is that, uh, at this point, you know, any further cuts
that we may have to make, uh, are going to, uh, create very visible and very felt kinds of
reductions in services. At this point I think, based upon our initial budget request and
what, uh, you know, then we had to cut from that, uh, you know, those were issues that
certainly were, uh, things we would have wanted and, uh, things that we feel in many
ways are necessary, but we've not necessarily effect the day-to-day operation or...or the
people coming in the door would (mumbled) (several talking) and... and as with many,
uh, departments, most of our expenses are fixed. I think it's 70% of our budget is
personnel, and uh, utilities and...and buildings, so, um, we don't have a lot of control
over...those are going to increase actually to (mumbled)
Champion/ I, uh, I want to commend the Library on doing even a better job than our own parking
meter people do (laughter)
Dean/ We do want to keep those spaces in circulation and we really (both talking)
Champion/ I know! It's a great job. I think last year the amount of money was $26,000, is that
about right?
Wright/ I think that's pretty close, yeah.
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Champion/ Yeah, but it's...those parking spaces have been really handy for the Library, and
people should not be abusing them.
Dean/ Right, and that is why we monitor them so closely, for the services the Library patrons, to
keep (mumbled)
Champion/ (several talking) Susan write most of the tickets?
Craig/ No! I have an officer number though. (laughter)
Bailey/ I have a question about the, uh, the homework help that you eliminated. Is this the, um,
program that...that all the libraries in the area were doing similar...the same time and
have all the libraries eliminated it, or is it just the online component?
Craig/ It is an online service that we pay a fee for based on our population, and when we started
it we tried to get all the libraries that served, uh, the Iowa City Community School
District to do it, and so North Liberty, Coralville and Iowa City were doing it, um, this
year North Liberty felt they couldn't fund it anymore, and as we were looking at
things...that were not, it's a very good service, but the amount of use that it's getting is
not high, and we were hoping that we could hold onto it for another year, promote it
some more, it's the kind of thing we felt that if we could keep it and push it a little bit.
The people who use it love it, but given the value per customer, we just felt it was
something that needed to go.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ Are you going to plan on doing the summer program again with the busing to the
different schools?
Craig/ We hope so. Um, well, we did change it last summer. We're not...we don't have special
routes that go to certain neighborhoods anymore, but any child and their caregiver shows
their Library card on any bus route, any Monday through Friday off-peak hours, can get a
ride downtown for free, and then we give them a bus pass to get home.
Champion/ That's great.
Bailey/ Okay. Any other questions? Thanks. Thanks for being here. Sorry we were running
_ late. Um, Summer of the Arts. Mary.
Summer of the Arts:
Frieden/ Good evening, Mayor Bailey and Members of the City Council. Thank you for giving
us the opportunity to, uh, speak with you tonight about our budget proposal. I have with
me tonight our, uh, 2009 Board of Director President, um, President of our Board of
Directors, Dirk Keller. And, um, we wanted to just highlight a couple of things from this
past summer, and let you know what we have coming up this year. We actually have a
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full year of programming in place right now that we're looking at implementing. One of
our...our large goals is to implement year-round programming and give service to the
community 12 months out of the year, and we're looking at doing that. Um, Dirk'll give
you a kind of an overview of the first nine months. We have...we have the fall and
winter figured out. It's just not set in stone as far as dates and the details yet. We have
some programs...we had an artist workshop last weekend where, um, the artists told us
exactly what they needed in technologies, so we're going to write a grant and get that
technology help for the artists. So, uh, that's one of our fall programs we'll be doing. Uh,
while Dirk's passing that out I'll let you know that last year's Toyota Scion of Iowa City
Jazz Festival had record, record attendance and I think that was in part to the
collaboration that we built with the Iowa City and Coralville Jaycees, and the City of
Iowa City brought us together with them and helped us, uh, move the fireworks
downtown, and I...I've heard a lot of very positive feedback about the fireworks being
downtown and behind the Old Capitol, gorgeous pictures. It was fantastic to see, and
we're actually, uh, working with the City this year to help organize that, and uh, I believe
the Jaycees are stepping back and...and um, we're working with Marian Karr on helping
to organize the volunteers this year and whatever else you need us, or as far as support
goes, um, so any other support in there, we are available for that. Um, even with the rain
and the flood coming on, we still had 25,000 to 30,000 people show up at Arts Festival
last year, and fantastic, fantastic sales on Saturday. Our artists said that it was one of the
best sales' day they had ever had, so we were really, really happy with that, um, we
considered a successful Arts Festival. We were able to move the Children's Day
activities inside, had performers inside, and we saw 1,000 children show up (laughter) in
the Library on...on Sunday, despite having some tornado warnings and such, so it
(laughter) it was great! Um, the Friday Night Concert Series, uh, we did cancel one week
due to the flooding, at the City's request, but wow! After... after, uh, Jazz Festival the
community started coming back out again. We had the most tremendous crowds ever
down there, and I know some of you were out there dancing and having fun there. So I
know that...that the community really enjoyed that healing time together, to be able to
enjoy time down on the Pedestrian Plaza on Friday nights, and the same thing with the
Saturday movies, it got rained out a little bit, but um, we had tremendous crowds there
compared to years past. So, what we found was that the community really showed up in
full force to support our programming this year and we're really appreciative of that. Um,
this year our Board of Directors also worked behind the scenes, and um, did work
to...put together athree-year strategic plan for our organization, and that strategic plan
will focus on building our organization, building our programming, building resources
for our organization, advocating for the arts and supporting local artists, and um, creating
a Midwest marketing message so that we draw people here to the Iowa City area, and um,
when you think of drawing people here to the Iowa City area, and looking at your budget
and thinking, hmmm, I want to remind you that arts equals economic development. That,
um, when you think of the arts and people...people, uh, think it's a luxury, and it's not.
The arts are not a luxury. It's something for everybody, and that's one of our...our core
values as an organization, is that...that the arts are here for everyone. And, um,
according to what the CVB, the Iowa City, Coralville Convention and Visitor's Bureau,
uh, approximately $230,000 is spent by someone attending a local conference. We
looked at that number and said, you know, somebody comes into town from out of town
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approximately 37% of people who come to our festivals are from out of town. A lot of
them get a hotel room, so even if half of those people get a hotel room that come into
town, and they're going to spend money at our festivals because they're free. They're able
to buy a little bit more food maybe than they might not have been able to before, or go
into some of the shops downtown and we estimate that about $6 million comes back to
the community with our budget and because of that, um, because of those people coming
into town and spending. And, we also had, um, a little look at the arts and economic
prosperity calculator by the Americans for the Arts, and with their...with their calculator
and they look at the size of our organization and the size of our community, and the
average dollar spent per person in going out to eat and that type of thing, and what they
say the total industry impact of our $335,000 budget will have on the whole entire
community is $101,000 in local government revenue. So that's just the tax revenue that
the City will receive by people who are spending, by the people who are staying here,
by...by people who, um, who visit this community and come out to our festivals. The
total industry impact of our $335,000 is $2.6 million. So, when I say arts equals
economic development, it's not just from one calculator. It's, I can...I can pull up many
more, but supporting the arts really does bring people to the community and it really will
help our community to keep the (mumbled). I know it's a tough year and we really hope
that you'll be able to continue funding us. I...I know Dirk has a couple of words he'd like
to say as well.
Keller/ Good evening. Thanks for having us here. IJh, I'm not just the President of the Board of
Directors. I'm also the Marketing Director, and I want to speak to you as Marketing
Director...for just a moment. Last year in 2008 we were able to get the area media
partners on our marketing committee to contribute in well over $800,000 in advertising
for various Summer of the Arts events and projects. Every single one of those, uh,
$800,000 in advertising included the City of Iowa City's sponsorship of these events.
Also, many of those, uh, ads ran in areas other than Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. We had
marketing in areas like Dubuque, Quad Cities, Waterloo, Des Moines, and I'll bet most of
you aren't aware that, uh, in regard to Jazz Fest, our entire Jazz Fest program was
broadcast live throughout the state of Nebraska on Nebraska Public Radio. We continue
to expand our reach, and we are going to continue to expand it this year. My goal this
year is to have $1 million in marketing contributed by our media partners. We've taken
on a few new partners this year, uh, Lamar Billboard and Mediacusp Billboard,
throughout Cedar Rapids and Waterloo, uh, as well as some other locations. Uh, we've
got some partners who are willing to step up. We are going to be working on campaign
theme that, uh, is going to help our community feel, uh, empowered and a partner with
us. So, we've got a lot at stake here with Summer of the Arts, uh...I don't want to beat a
dead horse, but um, the economic situation affects all of us. Those of you up there, and I
appreciate what you're having to go through in making these tough decisions, but...we
don't just bring economic impact in, uh, tax base and money spent in the community, but
we also offer our marketing plan that reaches far beyond Johnson County to promote
Iowa City as the Home of the Arts for the State of Iowa. I'm willing to answer any
questions that you might have about marketing, or about our Board of Directors.
Bailey/ Any questions? (several talking, laughter)
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Keller/ It's what I know best!
Champion/ I know! (laughter)
Keller/ Thanks very much for your time, folks.
Bailey/ Thanks, and thanks (mumbled) we can have athree-minute break if you want. (several
talking) let's take a little bit of a break, I mean, we (several talking) Youth Advisory is up
at 8:00. Be back in your seats right at 8:00. (BREAD Okay, Youth Advisory
Commission. (several talking)
Youth Advisory Commission:
Han/ Hi, um, my name's Michelle Han and I'm from the Youth Advisory Commission. Um, I
guess I don't (mumbled) I still believe that (mumbled) so um, we have a few items that
we, um, wanted to, uh, expand. (mumbled) Global Arts Village, um, which is a part of
the Summer Arts festival, participated in the past couple years, um, last year we
requested $500, but, um, (mumbled) used all of the money and (mumbled) use the money
that way for other purposes, um, (mumbled) other items. (mumbled) advertising. We'd
like to advertise, um, that the Youth Advisory Commission is there and sort of the
opportunities and what it is about (mumbled) including Facebook, and um, we'd like to
sort of expand that advertising this year so we can get some more input, um, we thought
that it was very successful last year. There were, uh, many people visited the web site
and clicked on to advertisements so, um, we think it'll be useful to have some more, uh,
(mumbled) and um, another thing the Youth Advisory Commission allows for, or does, is
we have youth...we have (laughter) and um (mumbled) service projects or something that
(mumbled) come to us and ask for grant money and we can award up to $500 and this
past year, um, we awarded two grants of $500 each, and we had allotted $2,000 total and
um, I think we want to continue that amount and retain that, and hopefully with more
advertising, um, with the web sites and such, um, we'll have more (mumbled) and that
should go well. Um, another item that we, uh, on the Youth Advisory Commission we're
trying to explore was trying to organize aback-to-school festival, um, this is a new item
and um, we wanted to sort of get the community together, especially students in the area,
and sort of have like a... a festival where we come together before school starts, sort of a
bringing together of the community after summer break (mumbled) so um, we'd like to
bring everybody together, have some (mumbled), um, have some youth involved, and of
course, we would be there to (mumbled) sort of, um, let other...let other youth know
what, um, opportunities are available so we have another item for that (mumbled) um,
that's basically it! (laughter) Any questions?
Correia/ I love the idea for the back-to-school summer fest. I like the others (mumbled)
Wright/ It's a very impressive line-up that you guys put together.
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Bailey/ Thank you (several talking, laughter) okay. Old Capital Valley District Cub Scout Day
Camp.
Old Capital Valley District Cub Scout Day Camp:
Svenson/ Thank you, Mayor and Council Members, for your consideration of our request. My
colleague, Joe Sadewasser, will be passing out cone-page summary of some of the
exciting events and activities that go on at Cub Scout Day Camp for nearly 400 youth,
approximately half of whom are from the City of Iowa City, each summer, and uh, we are
proud of this event and the positive programming and the wonderful memories, and
adult...positive adult interactions it provides for our area youth, um, and I'll let Joe give
you a little bit more programming details and just conclude, um, by summarizing the
request just underwriting our facility rental costs, and um, is leveraging nearly 1,600
hours of volunteer support because as you may know, um, volunteering...volunteer
support is really what makes scouting happen, so Joe...I'll let you share a little more.
Sadewasser/ Thank you very much. As Dawn mentioned, we do this annually at the Johnson
County Fairgrounds. It's an outstanding event. It's four days. We run it Monday through
Thursday every summer, uh, and we really pride ourselves on keeping the cost of the
event very low for the boys that come out. It's just $40.00 for four days, eight hours a
day, and kids get a t-shirt and all the program supplies, and everything, uh, out of the
deal. As Dawn mentioned, uh, this proposal is for...to help underwrite the cost of the
facility, uh, the Johnson County Fairgrounds, uh, facility prices increase every year, so in
an attempt to help keep that cost low, that's what we're looking at. Um, and again, we get
a number of kids that come out every year to this, uh, and it is staffed primarily by
volunteers. We have about 50 volunteers that give up basically a week of their vacation
to come out and do that, um, it's just outstanding to have, uh, 50 people out there to help
provide that supervision and that mentoring. Another thing that we're particularly proud
of is our community collaboration. We have a lot of community groups that come out,
uh, as noted on your, uh, handout. University of Iowa Aircare's come out in the past, the
Johnson County Sheriffs Department, the Iowa City Police Department, uh, the
Conservation Department, uh, various, uh, community groups have come out and helped
us out. American Legion, and then throughout the weekend or throughout the week, we
have different team-building task program, uh, and activities -athletic events,
competitions, it's basically a great opportunity for the kids to get outside, uh, experience
some things in nature, uh, learn a little bit more about each other and uh, and have a good
time. So on that note, I'll open it up if you have any questions about the program itself
or, uh, anything we can answer on the application.
Hayek/ How many years has this gone on for?
Sadewasser/ Uh, it's been at Johnson County Fairgrounds for probably ten years, but prior to that
probably at least 20 if not more. It used to be out at Kent Park and they actually outgrew
that, and so they moved to the Johnson County Fairgrounds.
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Correia/ And so...the request is to cover the fairground (mumbled) other fundraising or
considered raising the fee to $45? Or.. .
Sadewasser/ Yeah, we do other, uh, fundraising activities throughout the year, uh, we would like
to keep the fee at $40 if at all possible, uh, just to keep the (coughing, unable to hear) low
as possible to the boys.
Correia/ So there is a fee. Do you offer scholarships?
Sadewasser/ Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you asked that. We have a...an outreach program, it's
called "Scout-a-Reach" uh, that we specifically serve, uh, at-risk children, uh, that's
throughout the city and actually throughout our district, um, and that we underwrite the
cost of the entire camp for the boys. We actually, for that we pay for a, uh, what we call
program aid. Basically someone that, uh, we pay them to, uh help through the week.
They staff the event and uh, we provide transportation to and from for them.
Svenson/ And if I might add, the budget amount was (mumbled) the proposed revenue sources
for looking at 300 paid registrations and planning on 375 attendees, so there's 75, um,
would have their...the cost of Day Camp fully underwritten for them.
Correia/ And do those...do those, um, scouts (mumbled) around the area, I mean, what's the
(mumbled) area that scouts are coming and...
Sadewasser/ Yeah, uh (both talking)
Correia/ ...Iowa City free scholarship students, that sort of thing?
Sadewasser/ The...so the scout (mumbled) our districting I should take a step back. The Old
Capitol Valley District, that's the district that we serve, uh, serves Johnson County, Cedar
County, Iowa County, and Washington County, population center's obviously right here
in, uh, Iowa City/Coralville area, uh, about half of those scouts that come to the Day
Camp are specific from Iowa City, uh, all of our outreach programs, uh, with the
exception of one in North Liberty, located in Iowa City, so the majority...the vast
majority of those that would be, uh, getting the...uh, participation fees paid for would be
from Iowa City.
Bailey/ Other questions?
Correia/ (mumbled) a few years back on some (mumbled) policies, does local Boy Scout troop
follow the non-discrimination policy that the City follows?
Svenson/ In response to that, our local Council which encompasses this district plus a grand total
of seven counties in mideastern Iowa, um, developed a statement on Human Sexuality,
which we'd be happy to provide. Um, that the basic summary of that statement, just to
give you the background while we're talking about it now is that sexuality is something
that's not the purview of the Boy Scouts, and the information on sexuality will not be
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January 28, 2009 City Council Page 22
requested, um, or required as any part of the registration process. I can tell you our Scout
Executive has never had an issue in the I believe 12 years that he's been with Hawkeye
Area Council come up related to that matter.
Champion/ But you are a member of the National Boy Scouts Association or whatever?
Svenson/ I'm sorry?
Bailey/ That you're affiliated with...
Champion/ Yeah, affiliated with the National Boy Scout Association.
Svenson/ Um, that's correct.
Wilburn/ This, just kind of a slightly different direction, and I'm just kind of looking at, and
thinking, about the organizations that we typically fund with the, um, community
organizations...community events type of thing. Typically a lot of the events that we,
since resources are limited, that we give funding towards in this particular source of
funding, uh, you know, Arts Fest, uh, the ADA celebrations, are things that are open to
the community in terms of attending, um, and um, and so is this something that's limited
to scouts then, if someone's not a member of the scouts, do they...do friends get to come
along or...walk us through...
Sadewasser/ Yeah, they...they would be a registered member, um, this is actually a good
opportunity that a lot of times the boys that come out for the week and find that they like
what they see and join, um, but the general public is always more than welcome to come
out and see what's going, but it is, uh, definitely a scouting event, yeah.
Wilburn/ Okay. All right, thank you.
Svenson/ And I will add that it is geared towards the Cub Scout ages, which are ages seven
through ten.
Sadewasser/ Yeah, seven through eleven, yeah.
Svenson/ Seven through eleven, the...the activities are specifically designed with, our prescribed
programming with, uh, young boys of that age frame in mind. But it would be available,
as Joe said, you know, as a potential recruiting tool, um, for scouting, for someone
who...friends of the scouts and things who wanted to come experience it as well.
Bailey/ Other questions? Thank you. Okay, our next presenter, ADA celebration.
ADA Celebration:
Ruff/ Good evening. I'm (mumbled) funding for the ADA celebration. Over the years, we have
helped a great deal of people, disabled and non-disabled, to understand the world of
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disabilities cope with (mumbled) with a parade every year, and now we (mumbled)
celebrate. (mumbled) of the people (mumbled) tell us how ADA has made their lives
more accessible in today's society, and then we also educate the general public
(mumbled) that day, and it's very (mumbled) the ADA itself is almost 20 years old and
there are still people out there wondering what ADA is (mumbled) and we're trying to get
people with disabilities to take charge. A law is only as good as the people it covers.
Bailey/ Any questions for Keith about the ADA celebration?
Ruff/ We are (mumbled) same amount we did last year.
Bailey/ And we appreciate that. (laughter) Questions? Okay, thanks for coming down here,
Keith.
Ruff/ Thank you.
Bailey/ Landlocked Film Festival, we're ready for you! Your timing was ideal! (laughter) We
are ahead of schedule and (several talking). Take a breath, you're good!
Landlocked Film Festival:
Blackwood/ I have a PowerPoint, and I see (mumbled). Okay, now I'm totally out of breath.
Bailey/ We're way ahead of schedule, so (mumbled)
Wright/ Take five seconds and breathe! (laughter)
Blackwood/ (mumbled) Okay, uh, I'm Mary Blackwood. I'm the Creative Director of
Landlocked Film Festival and I would like to tell you about this guy -this is Rocco
DeVilliers. He is an independent film maker. He lives in Utah. He's not part of the
Hollywood pipeline that produces movies, um, Hollywood doesn't like to take risks when
they produce movies or when they distribute them. They like movies that have, um, a lot
of explosions, comic book super heroes, big name bankable stars, um, car crashes, etc. A
lot of independent film makers think that there are a lot of other stories out there to be
told, and they want to tell them, and Rocco's idea was that there had been children.. .
movies he'd enjoyed as a child and he wanted to make a movie like that, an adventurous
story with children in it. So what Rocco did is he found some people, uh, where he lived
and he built an organization on (mumbled) stunt pilots of small planes, and they got
together and raised some money. He wrote a script with his brother called "The
Flyboys." Um, they found two extremely talented young actors to play the main roles.
And these are two boys, um, in the movie who have an adventure and they're kind of
boys from different sides of the tracks, opposite sides of the tracks, and they...they get to
know each other, and through the course of the film they learn lessons about loyalty and
family, friendship. So it's a really wonderful film. It's almost two hours long, and once
Rocco had the whole thing done, with his whole team and made this really nice movie,
um, he still couldn't get a distribution deal. So, he did what independent filmmakers
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everywhere do -they go to the film festival circuit. Um, film festivals usually charge a
fee to the filmmaker to enter their film, so every filmmaker has to chose carefully where
to send his or her film. And Rocco did send this movie, The Flyboys, to several film
festivals, including Landlocked. Now we didn't know anything about him or this film
before we got it. And there are always a lot of surprises in the mail box when we send
out the call for entries. But we did take this movie and in August 2008 on a nice
Saturday night evening at 7:00 PM, people were filing into the Englert. This is an awful
photo, I'm sorry, just had my little camera with me, but you can see the Englert's getting
full. This is when people were getting in there, um, the place got really packed. They
had to open the balcony. There were even people by the time the movie started lining up
around the back of the theater. They stood through the whole movie. Um, I'd already
seen the movie myself a couple of times, and I really loved it, so it was really fun for me
to watch people enjoying this movie, and they were laughing at things that were funny.
They were gasping at scary things, um, there was a scene where one of the boys actually
falls out of a plane without a parachute on. (mumbled) really kind of love these boys,
and I heard screams in the audience, actual screams, it's a fabulous moment in the film!
Um, the first time I saw it I nearly had a heart attack. Now, by the end of the film
everything comes out okay. The boys learn about, you know, things like...they're
actually...theirparents who are both single parents kind of get together. It's a really
sweet ending to the film and there was sustained applause in the audience. Everybody, I
think, really enjoyed it and the people who were coming out of the Englert later, I saw
just smiles on everybody's face. Um, it wasn't just people in Iowa City who were at this
film though. Uh, a few days before the festival, the producer of the film called me and he
wanted to tell me about some people from Wisconsin who are small plane pilots. They
had heard of this film through the underground. It wasn't getting released, it didn't have a
distributor, so they managed to get a hold of the producer, and they just said, where can
we see this film? We've got to see this film! And Dan said, hey, can you get down to
Iowa City? You know, Landlocked Film Festival, it's in a few days. So, uh, these people
got (mumbled) got in two Cessnas, they flew down to the Iowa City Airport from
Wisconsin, they took a cab up to the Englert, and they went to the movie and they
watched it with everybody else in Iowa City, and uh, they loved the film. They just loved
it. Um, one of our people with Landlocked spoke to them afterwards. They'd never been
to a film festival before, uh, they liked it so much they stayed and watched five more
films. They stayed overnight in a hotel. They had several meals in downtown Iowa City.
They had a great time at the festival and uh, the next day they got in their plane and flew
back to Wisconsin and told everybody what a wonderful time they had in Iowa City at
Landlocked Film Festival. And the fact that...this is our model for the film festival. We
would love it to be the Sundance of the Midwest. We'd love it to be a thing where the
community here can all see films, films from all around the world, you know, learn about
different people, but also we'd like to be a destination for people to come to Iowa City to
watch these films. And Landlocked is already Iowa's most comprehensive film festival.
It is a competitive festival. We put out a call for entries, and we have independent jurors
and we give out awards. We have multiple venues going at one time. We use the
Englert, the Public Library Room A, and also some conference facilities in the, um,
Sheraton and Vetro. It's all wonderful because we've got such a tight little downtown
area, it's perfect for a film festival! iJh, we put on workshops and panels. A lot of
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filmmakers come on their own dime to sit and watch their film with the audience, and
have Q&A's afterwards, and we're also putting on your round events, um, we're actually
starting an encore screening in partnership with the Senior Center, um, on February 1st.
Uh, everything at the festival is free. The workshops are free. The panels are free, um,
and the films themselves are free to people to watch. And Landlocked really is
international in scope. We have gotten entries from literally around the world, and this is
kind of interesting because Iowa City having gotten the...the designation of being the
UNESCO City of Literature. I did look at their application and they mentioned
Landlocked as being part of Iowa City's unique cultural landscape. So we're proud to be
part of that. (mumbled) Landlocked is actually, um, we are an all-volunteer
organization, um, this year we just have added over a dozen new key volunteers to help
us put on the festival. We've been building our community relationships. We have
several local sponsors on board already. We're continuing to work with that. And, we've
been having really dramatic growth also. The first festival was one we put on in August
of 2007, and in three days in August 2007 1,500 people came to downtown Iowa City to
see Landlocked Film Festival. Uh, just last year, or this past year, August 2008, 3,500
people came to Landlocked Film Festival. And we're going to project doubling that in
2009. Now, along with, um, with having that dramatic growth, we also have an
economic impact on Iowa City. Um, (coughing, unable to hear) what if all the people
that came to the festival you can try to estimate maybe everybody bought a meal while
they were downtown. Say at $10. That would mean that in 2007 with 1,500 people
downtown at the festival at $10 each, they actually spent $15,000 to local businesses in
downtown Iowa City, over athree-day period, in 2007. In 2008, it translates to $35,000
and projecting ahead, you know, again more. We...actually believe that we're
underestimating the economic impact to Landlocked here. Um, some people will come
just to see the free films. They won't spend anything downtown, but we also know a lot
of people who have come into town, like I said the filmmakers came, in 2007 about 35
filmmakers came from around the country, a lot of them brought families, friends, they
had their (mumbled) with them. They stayed in hotels and motels. They stayed in bed
and breakfasts. They had a lot of meals around town because they stayed for a few days.
In 2008, uh, about 43 filmmakers came and again, they all brought people with them.
They come from all across the country, staying again in hotels and also some people are
spending a lot of money when they come. That one I put up just for fun! (laughter) That
was a great animated film we show. We feel we're at a critical point in our development
as a film festival, and in order to become the Midwest's biggest film festival and that is
absolutely our goal, we do need funding to put on this free festival for everybody to come
see it. Um, we are planning grant applications to organizations such as, uh, the Iowa Arts
Council, and also national organizations. We are going to write a grant to the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which does support small film festivals. Funding
from Iowa City would really help to, uh, provide the cash match that these grants require,
but not only that, but Iowa City dollars actually generate spending right back into the
community, because the things that we spend the money for the festival on are right here
in Iowa City. We pay a fee for renting the Englert, and they do give us a discount, but
still that's a big part of it. Um, we have all our posters and our programs printed locally,
and we'll be needing thousands of them this year, um, we have t-shirts printed locally.
Um, we make local media ad buys to promote and market the festival. So a lot of the
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money, it's not just the money that the people that come to the festival might be spending
downtown, during the festival, but also that the festival itself is spending money and
reinvesting in the community in order to put on this festival. So if you remember The
Flyboys, uh, interesting thing happened. They won our top award, um, not surprising.
It's a really beautiful film, I'm very fond of it myself. They also won a lot of awards
across the country. They've done very well at festivals across the country, and now
Hollywood can't ignore them. I was really thrilled to find out they got a distribution deal,
because of the film festival circuit, and it's really amazing that our reaction to this film in
Iowa City has been impact on the film industry, through the fact that we loved it in Iowa
City and we let them know, has taken this movie from film festivals now to the big
screen. It's going to open nation wide in the near future. I'm not sure exactly when, um,
and I'll be going to the theater if it comes to another big screen. So um, you know, arts
take...they take national risk to make these films and the question is, will we take
advantage of that risk by bringing their films to the audiences here in the heartland. Um,
we believe that Landlock's potential for growth is limitless. Eventually we intend to
become self-funded, um, but right now, the City's assistance will support Landlocked as
we become a vital part of Iowa City's economic and cultural development, and just as a
last thing, I'd like to invite everybody here, uh, February 1st if you're not watching the
Super Bowl, Sunday, come on down to the Senior Center at 2:00 PM. We're showing
Alaska Faraway and Reflecting Canada, and they're free at the Senior Center. Thank
you.
Bailey/ Any questions for Mary?
Wilburn/ Just a comment so that...another story that you wouldn't be aware of, that, um, I went
to the Landlocked Film Festival and saw the film Interrupting the Pipeline, at the Library,
and I spoke with the, um, one of the film (both talking) and uh, we talked about, uh, some
of the issues, concerns here in Iowa City Community School District, and he, uh,
provided a film for us to use this year, and we did it. We showed all 900 or so teachers
saw it as part of our "Cultural Competency Training" on Martin Luther King Day and
(mumbled) making it okay to talk about, uh, some of the issues that we have (both
talking)
Blackwood/ ...we certainly do have documentaries and narratives. I mean, there's all kinds of
fine stuff, there's heartbreaking stuff, heartwarming stuff, and things that are...make you
think, and those are really great opportunities to actually talk to the filmmaker about why
he made that film, what choices he made, and yes, that he can then have a connection
where he can use his film again, or that you can use it. I'm glad to hear that. That's
wonderful!
Wright/ Got a question for you. Um, first of all, I love the film festival. We went to it last
(mumbled)
Blackwood/ Oh good!
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Wright/ Uh, have you thought about selling maybe a $2 pass good for the whole weekend, as just
a way to make a little money for yourself, and not put much of a ding in anybody's
wallet?
Blackwood/ You know, we really have had a lot of conversations about that. We're kind of rare
in a film festival that's not charging admission, and even if we did go to the idea of
charging admission, we'd keep it very inexpensive, but there's, you know, something
really wonderful to see so many people coming and so many different kinds of people,
because we had, you know, people of all ages, of all types, you know, coming to the
festival and I think if that were a barrier to anybody, even...especially in this economic
time, you know, a family can spend a lot of money, even at that, going to the festival. It
just seems it would be wonderful if we can continue to offer it at no cost. It's not that we
wouldn't consider that, certainly, but we love having it be free.
O'Donnell/ L ..I really enjoyed your presentation. It just makes me want to run out and watch a
film (laughter)
Blackwood/ Thank you!
Bailey/ Any other questions, or comments? Thanks, and thanks for being early. It worked out
well for all of us, I think.
Blackwood/ And I don't know how to turn this off, so I guess (several talking)
Bailey/ Thanks.
Blackwood/ Thank you so much!
Wright/ Thank you.
Bailey/ Okay, Back-to-School Picnic, and Feed the Needy for the Holidays. We have people
here for that. (mumbled)
Back-to-School Picnic, and Feed the Needy for the Holidays:
Butler/ Good evening, uh, Mayor, Council Members, thank you guys for the opportunity. We
(mumbled) allow us to be in your presence this evening. I do have a PowerPoint. Should
I have set that up with someone previously or (mumbled) (noises on mic) Okay.
(mumbled) Okay, you guys bear with me one moment. My first time using this.
Wright/ Technology is so great when it works right! (several talking)
Butler/ Okay. I'm not going to start the presentation as yet. (mumbled) Use the function F3
(several talking) All right. I had one of my members...first of all let me just say, uh,
Miss Mayor and all the Council, what a wonderful job you...
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January 28, 2009 City Council Page 28
Karr/ If you don't load it, it's going to timeout.
Butler/ Okay.
Karr/ Load it and then...
Butler/ (mumbled)
Karr/ No.
Butler/ There we go. All right. Uh, my name is Pastor Jacob Butler and um, I'd like...my wife,
Pastor Jean. That's my lovely wife. We're the pastors and the co-founders of New Life
and Destiny Christian Fellowship International Ministries, you know, located here in
Iowa City and Coralville. Uh, our efforts are to reach the community, which is the main
reason we're here. We're afaith-based organization. We have articles of incorporation.
We're also a SOIC-certified and we do have all those documents to back that up. But, uh,
since we've been here, which is a little under three years, uh, we've been reaching out,
which is what ministry is all about, and uh, giving back to the community. That's such a
large part of what ministry is, um, we're not just a church, but we're the church within a
ministry, because our efforts are, you know, spread abroad and do a lot more than just
preach the Sunday sermon, choir sings a song, receive offering and go home. No, uh, we
have a large vision for the community and this is just a small portion of it, with this back-
to-school picnic as well as the Feed the Needy (coughing) excuse me, from the holiday
program. So, with the handouts, what I gave you was a copy of a...our summary of costs
that we spent last year as well as a projection for costs for this year, for both of those
programs. But, uh, also have a copy of the article that Mr. Rob Daniel did. He covered
the Feed the Needy...Needy program for us back here in November for Thanksgiving,
and he also wrote about a small bit about the picnic in our interview, so uh, this
presentation is just some of the pictures of those two events that we had, to show you
what we're doing, and what we want to continue to do here in Iowa City. So, if I may,
um, I'm going to start my presentation. And I have it on timed, not on click, so...I
wanted to expedite things - it shouldn't be long. So I'm going to start with the picnic and
then the last portion of the presentation will be pictures taken from the Feed the Needy
distribution. But we held this in Coralville Morrison Park only because, and it's only
because, City Park wasn't available right after the flood because it was in such a mess, so
just so you know. If you don't recognize it, that's Coralville Morrison Park. And just a
few of the young people...we had, uh, a talent show, you know, we uh, we do a whole lot
of things during the course of the picnic. We were able to distribute well over 100 book
bags, not just school supplies, but book bags, filled with school supplies. As well as feed
close to 250 people during that picnic, and it was a large success. And we had a few
(mumbled) left over, and we (mumbled) efforts of our members and some small
donations, but we as a ministry made that happen. And that's just some of the leftovers
after we distributed to all the children. Some happy faces (laughter) and the people ate
good, I mean, they came back for seconds and for thirds! And we had a good time. We
was out there practically six or seven hours.
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Champion/ What'd ya eat?
Page 29
Butler/ Uh, it was like a family reunion. We had ribs. We had chicken. We had hamburgers.
We had hot dogs. We had hot links. All the size...cakes, pastries, you name it, we had
it! All types of pops and juices and water. And it couldn't have been made possible
without, uh, our members and the other volunteers that showed up and did a phenomenal
job. But this just, just a brief look into what we...what we do in our outreach programs.
And those are only two that we had last year. We want to institute more down the road.
What we've asked from you is just some support in those, because those are the two
biggest ones they we had, and we're going to implement more on this year, and it's all
about community outreach. Being a blessing to the people of Iowa City. Those who are
less fortunate, you know, and going to meet them just where they are. Sometimes a
church has to go outside of the walls, because sometimes the people don't want to come
in, so you go out to reach, and these are just ways to reach people, to not just impart
spiritual things to 'em, but to teach them about life and to give them a meal. I mean, you
can witness a ministry to someone (mumbled) full stomach than you can if they're
hungry, amen. You bring 'em something to eat, you got their attention, at least for a few
moments. (mumbled) a lot of food and a lot of children, but we had games, fun and
games, we want to incorporate more things. I want to, you know, we'd like to maybe add
a clown this year and maybe a jumping jack, you now, just things for the kids to have
fun, you know, and not be tied down. So it's not just about giving them school supplies,
you know, that's the man purpose, but we want them to have fun, you know, cause there's
not too many open free picnics that would just welcome any and everybody. And you
see, we're richly diverse, so it's not a cultural thing, you know, it's for any and everyone
(mumbled) all types of people, colors and racial backgrounds, to come on that particular
day. You probably recognize a few of'em, some long-time Iowa City residents. Some of
our members...and this is the first time a lot of the members are actually seeing some of
these pictures so (mumbled) portion of our members that came out to support us tonight.
We like to do this every year. This is actually our second year, um, that last weekend
right before school starts back, and this is the Feed the Needy. As you see, the size of
those boxes, each one of them was approximately that size. And by being the first one, it
was (mumbled) because we fed people, you know, but we wanted to do more, you know.
(mumbled) volunteers wanted to do a lot more. We didn't have the monies, you know, to
purchase the turkeys and the hams, uh, that we would like to put in the food box
(mumbled) donate a food box for the holiday, it should have everything, you know, and
that turkey or that ham is what actually makes the meal. But we gave 'em what we had,
you know, and it was at great cost and we went to great lengths to (mumbled). They
worked diligently too.
Lombardo/ Pastor Butler, do you do the Feed the Needy on a sign-up basis or just announce and
have people (mumbled)
Butler/ LTh, no, it was, uh, just announced, and what we did, because we didn't...didn't want it to
go to people who were actually just trying to abuse the system, per se. We didn't make
'em show any financial, uh, documents saying what was their household income. We just
wanted to make sure that they were residents of Iowa City, and then at the same time,
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make sure that it was only one box per household, and it was issued. It was a success. It
worked that way. We would like to reach more people, you know, but uh, for this
particular program, we...I think were (mumbled) 65 boxes and that was because they
stopped coming and we had some left over and so we just issued those out to our
volunteers and people that was (mumbled) but if you would look at our summary, um, the
cost that we bore for, uh, for the picnic alone last year totaled, you know, about $1,700.
That's, you know, the back packs and the school supplies and all the food and along with
that, and uh, as you see, it wasn't...not even half the expense for the Feed the Needy, but
we didn't reach as many people, nor did we have any meats included with that, and that's
what we would like to do, you know, to actually have a turkey or a ham, and maybe try to
target at least 150 families. (mumbled) say 150, because I talked to a couple of agencies
and I found (mumbled) the Salvation Army had those (mumbled) maxed out for the
holiday, uh, it was 150 that they were to distribute, you know, turkeys and food boxes, so
we'd like...if we can just add to that, because it's more than 150 low income families and
needy people in the area. Now of course we, as a ministry, we're not only non-profit, but
myself and my wife we still work full time jobs. None of our volunteers...we not on a
salary. Nothing comes to us. Everything that we get that comes to us, we give it back.
We're giving it out. So like...we pray every day, Lord be a blessing to us, so that we may
be a blessing to somebody else. Because it's a...it's a good thing when you be able to
bless someone and give them something they didn't have, and see the smile on their face
and the gratitude. I know I got a witness in the house. And that's what it's all about, and
so we're just asking you to help us because sometimes people that might have...you're the
governors, you're the keepers of the City, you're the Mayor, you're the Council Members.
You have the authority. You have the power to delegate certain amount of dollars and I
know you have certain programs, and granted I didn't find out about this program until
the week before it was about to shut down last year for getting an application in for this
year. So I believe it was God-sent, you know, that I found out a week before the cut off
period (mumbled) you know, put in our application for this year. We want to reach more
people, you know, because we know that there's a lot of people out there. Iowa City and
the Coralville area, for which I'm talking about Iowa City, taken on because I live in
there. A lot of people came down from Cedar Rapids and from other places, and they're
still coming, and a lot of'em are lower income. So, especially toward the Feed the
Needy, we want to be able to double that number. We almost fed about 75 families, as I
said, if we can just try to reach 150 so now when you look at the cost of the turkeys and
the hams, which we're guestimating that we can get them at volume, maybe about $12 or
$15 a piece, you know, that's where the bulk of the money will come.
Bailey/ Let me see if anybody has any additional questions.
Butler, Yes, Ma'am, yes, Ma'am.
Bailey/ Any ques...additional questions about these two programs?
Wright/ I've got one, probably could apply to either, but I'll just say for the Feed the Needy for
the Holidays, um, have you tried working with any other local organizations, joining up
with them to see if you could make resources go further?
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Butler/ When...I tried to, uh, join up with HACAP, and at that time their resources were already
out and they said they was doing everything they could do, so uh, I forget the young
lady's name, but I personally went over and saw the Director over there at the Food Bank,
you know, to see if we can join in and do this, but seeing if...we had already undergone,
you know, and uh, this things about to come to pass, so they said well you go ahead and
do what you can do. We've done all we can do, and so until next year, you know, we
don't know if we can assist or use you coming in and joining with us, but the thing was,
uh, I asked the HACAP organization, the eastern Iowa I think it is, it's called. I submitted
an application to become a part of that, to be a regular, you know, upon...not only just
donations, but distributing, you know, foods and whatnot, and they wouldn't even allow
me to, us to become a member of the organization because we don't have a regular food
pantry set up. So, they was just reaching out for donations, you know, which we didn't
have at the present time. We wanted to be able to do that, because you know, it's not
about us, you know, it's all about Him, but we want to be able to just give as well as to
receive and we (mumbled) distribution center, you know, what HACAP can't do, because
one or two programs can't do it all. So, uh, we're...we have our volunteers and we doing
it out of the goodness of our heart because we love God and we love people, and we just
want to see people be blessed.
Bailey/ (mumbled)
Correia/ I had a question. Are you familiar with...just this school year, the Consultation for
Religious Communities had joined up with the neighborhood centers in a community
partnership to, um, create, and they called it "to gather together" to get, um, school
supplies to every child in the county and all the school districts.
Butler/ No, I had not heard of that.
Correia/ That's, um, because they had churches, um, the main, um, format is they would have
churches sponsor, um, neighborhood schools and then have that church be responsible for
getting the donations and there was some bulk purchasing, and then get the school
supplies, so it didn't involve the community aspect of it (mumbled) but getting the
supplies to every child. That, um...
Butler/ No, no, Ma'am, in fact, until I received my letter and asking me that question, uh, I had
never heard of that program So I looked it up and found out what they were all about,
you know, and as you just said (both talking) distribution of school supplies, but even
with that, I mean, we would be willing to join in with them to help with the school
supplies, but that still wouldn't stop the picnic, because the picnic is an event for all, you
know, that they can look forward to year after year, like hey, we gonna have some fun!
Let's go eat! And have a good time, so, no, I wouldn't close any doors or you know, as
far as that being an opportunity, join in with that network of organizations to, you know,
reach a broader spectrum of people. We have no problems about that.
Bailey/ Other questions?
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budget work session meeting of January 28, 2009.
January 28, 2009 City Council Page 32
Wilburn/ Just a comment to add to that, I mean, please understand that we appreciate the work
that you all do in the ministry that you're doing and certainly, um, you know, providing
anything for someone who is of need and (mumbled) wonderful and blessed thing. Um,
we have, just understand, we have to look at who we're providing funding to, um, on one
hand clearly I think you're doing some good work, but we have limited resources too, and
um, in looking at your application, um, it's just natural for us, because we're already
providing some funding and in some cases we might not be reaching, but just the
example of collaboration with, um, the Consultation of Religious Communities, and that,
uh, that was afirst-time effort. It was very successful, and every, um, every child was
provided with supplies and...and uh, in fact there was some left over that they could
stretch it out (mumbled) of the school year. Um, so it's only a portion of your request
that I'm looking at, just wondering about, you know, are we already providing for
reaching that (mumbled) stands separate and this is coming to us under "community
events" funding, as opposed to our Aid to Agencies funding. That's kind of an in-hour
thing where the source of the money comes from, uh, so I think that's more (mumbled)
consider, uh, so that's just (mumbled) but thanks for the work that you all are doing.
Wright/ And thank you for your patience tonight.
Butler/ Thank you for your time.
Bailey/ Thanks for being here. Thank you (mumbled). Okay, Iowa City Community String
Orchestra.
Wright/ I was so hoping you'd come with a quartet! (several talking, laughter)
Iowa City Community Stringy Orchestra:
Mohr/ My name is Emma Mohr, and I am Vice President of the Iowa City Community String
Orchestra. I've been a member for four years and I play the violin. Um, so I'd like to tell
you a little bit about the orchestra first. The orchestra has been around for 29 years now.
Um, and we hold bi-annual flute concerts for the people of Iowa City. Currently we hold
these concerts at the Englert Theater, so we have concerts in November and in April, on
Sunday afternoons. And at these concerts at the Englert we average about 200 people per
concert. Um, so before I outline my budget, or our budget, at the...I'd like to describe
how this, uh, community string orchestra benefits the Iowa City area. Um, first as I said,
we offer free concerts to anybody who wants to come, and it's a central downtown
location, so anybody can...who can afford a bus pass can come to these. Um, secondly,
we like to utilize local Iowa composers and soloists, so for instance, during the Arts
Festival last year in June, we, um, asked Philip Wharton, an Iowa native, um, who now
(mumbled) to write a piece for children, and he based his piece off the Giant Jam
Sandwich. I wasn't familiar with this book before the concert, but after the concert I was
very familiar with it. So he made music for the book. He tied the music to, uh,
illustrations from the book that were projected behind the orchestra, and the story was
narrated by I believe his sister, while the orchestra played. And we had about 350 people
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
budget work session meeting of January 28, 2009.
January 28, 2009 City Council
Page 33
per concert, and we had two of those concerts, the morning of Saturday, of the Arts
Festival. So, that was...that was pretty exciting to see a lot of kids there, excited and
learning about all the instruments, seeing the pictures on the screen. Um, so another
thing that we're doing right now that I wasn't able to outline in the application is, uh,
we're commissioning a work this semester, or this spring season by a composer from
Georgia. He had moved here from Georgia, and he's been in Iowa City for the last year,
and he wrote, um, athree-movement piece with a Georgian tunes and bells and
(mumbled) as so we've been (mumbled) here and so for a local artist who needs support.
He was a Professor at Kosovo University before he came here. Um, also at our spring
concert we'll be having two trumpeters from Cedar Rapids Symphony. Um, so this is just
this spring semester. In the past, uh, last fall we had a flute and oboist and we had
another piece by that he composed just for our orchestra. Um, so these are some
of the benefits that we provide the Iowa City community area, um, in addition I think the
Landlock Film Festival described it well -when people come downtown they spend
money for food after the concerts, so that's another (mumbled). Um, so some of our
major expenses are renting the Englert Theater, um, $1,100 to rent for two performances
and dress rehearsals throughout the year, um, our other major expense is paying our
conductor who, uh, organizes all our concerts, the music, conduct us all the time, um, and
he provides a lot of the music that he buys for his own library, and then photocopies for
us, because we would not be able to afford that at all on our budget. Um, so we have
approximately 32 members (mumbled) orchestra, and in order to provide free concerts to
community members, we all pay orchestra dues. $40 a semester, um, and so far that's
been covering us well with donations from like-minded individuals, um, however, this
year we're increasing the number of soloists and composers we have, and also um, we'd
like to increase the amount of money we give our conductor to go up with inflation. We
analyze it every three years, and it's coming up now. So, uh, those two things combined
sort of explain why we asked for a slight increase in funding from last year. Um, in
addition, one new thing we started was a web site for the orchestra, and our web site is
www.iccommunitystringorchestra.com and this costs a small amount each year, but you
can visit it and check out our concert dates and pieces we've played, members, uh,
(mumbled) anything you'd like to know about the orchestra. Um, first of all, we don't
have recordings linked (mumbled) but...that's it. Um, so does anybody have any
questions?
Bailey/ Any questions for Emma?
Mohr/ Has anybody been to a concert before? (several talking)
Hayek/ You accomplish a lot on a limited budget. (mumbled)
Bailey/ Thank you. I think you were very clear with your questions. You did a great job!
Thanks. Okay. That concludes the presentations for tonight. We will convene tomorrow
at 4:30 to, um, have additional presentations, dinner break, and then budget session.
(several talking)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
budget work session meeting of January 28, 2009.