HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-01-29 TranscriptionJanuary 29, 2009 City Council Page 1
January 29, 2009 City Council Budget Work Session 4:30 P.M.
Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia (arrived at 4:40 PM), Hayek, O'Donnell,
Wilburn, Wright
Staff: Lombardo, Helling, Karr, O'Malley, Boothroy, Lewis, Severson, Kopping,
Tharp, Craig, Rocca, O'Brien, Mansfield, Moran
Others Present: Gunn, UISG Representative
Taste of Iowa City:
Bailey/ Are we ready? Great. Our first group, Taste of Iowa City. Our first group this evening!
Cohen/ Hello to all. Thank you for the opportunity to become...come before you today. Um,
Taste of Iowa City, I don't know how many experienced it last year, but we started it,
DTA started it. Actually, Catherine Champion headed it up. Um, as Connie will tell you
all the work involved that we had, but um, basically what we did last year is we, um, met
with the University on several different occasions with student body, and the student life
area, and said to them: what can we do to help you participate more in our community.
And what a lot of them told us, um, a large majority said, you know, we come to Iowa
City and we never have a welcome. No one ever asks us to do anything or cares if we're
here, except for our money, and we kind of came forward with this in that regards. Um,
the University was, uh, a partner in this event. Um, they took all their freshmen. They
gave them, I think, six tickets. We coordinated with, um, a lot of the restaurants came out
in the street. Many of the retail did. And, um, the freshmen got their free tickets and we
had thousands of people (laughter) show up for it. It was just amazing to everyone. So,
looking at the event and how successful it was, um, we've decided we really need to
expand on it and really make this a big force, coming each year, and the University has
agreed with us in this, um, aspect. So, going forward with this year's event, um, what
we're doing is obviously raising funds, doing far more advertising on it. We didn't
advertise anything last year, but it's really...it's a welcome to...what we anticipate doing
is a welcome to the students, as well as a welcome to the community members. We all
know how many new ones come to our community every fall and a lot of them associated
with the University. So that's what our hope is, is that we will come forward with this.
Um, we had a retail meeting this morning. We are trying to have a few events where we
can really get retail out in the street, and that's another thing we're going to talk to
Council about is trying to expand this sidewalk ordinance, you know, sort of thing, so
that we can...are able to do that in any big event we have downtown. But, so it's going,
it's really welcoming our community, um, Regenia was there last year. We intend to
have her hopefully there again this year. Um, it's on the first Wednesday of, um, school,
that school's in session. So everybody isn't quite into a schedule yet, and um, it just
worked out tremendously. It's a lot of people had not heard about it. I think the ones that
came were just very impressed with what went on. So, what we would like to, um, do is
get some support from the City and have the City one of the sponsors with the event.
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Um, we've asked for $2,000 this year. Um, another thing that we're just to let you know,
kind of going in to this, the University is now, I believe has put in something, um, to the
City. They're going to start bringing parts of Riverfest downtown this year. Quite a
majority of Riverfest activities. So we're going to...we don't want to duplicate our taste,
as such, but we have the general plan for it, so what we're going to do is work with
Riverfest this year and we're going to have kind of a send-off for seniors. Um, so we're
going to do something similar. It might be a River Festival or River Feast, or we don't
know exactly what it's going to entail yet. Um, but we've talked about, you know, if we
have a... a street blocked off and getting retail out into the street, more of a little flea
market sort of thing. There's lots of ideas coming forward on it now. But we're hoping
with working with this River Festival, or Riverfest one in April this year and again, the
ideas just flow to make this fall one even better. So, I don't think we've ever had a real
formal big thing to welcome people to our community in the fall, and L..I just think that
it's a natural that the City partners with the DTA and the University in that regards. So,
that's what we're asking.
Bailey/ Thanks. Any questions for Leah?
Champion/ (unable to hear)
Karr/ You do need to wear the mic. (several talking) We want to capture every moment!
Bailey/ Every golden word!
Champion/ You were saying asend-off for seniors, I wasn't sure if you meant senior citizens
(laughter)
Cohen/ Students!
Champion/ Okay, thank you for clarifying that.
Cohen/ University was thinking the fall, we will welcome the freshmen, and then the Riverfest
one would kind of send-off, and hopefully have style show and different things connected
with that too.
Hayek/ Do you have a commitment from the City, or from the University rather?
Cohen/ Yes. Yes, we have, in fact the University is getting, um, I think the Alumni Association
involved in this too. I think last year they had about a $5,000, um, budget is kind of what
they worked with. They gave lots of these free tickets, and we just kind of slid in on this
last year. It was, it was far larger than we had anticipated. So, um, the University I
believe is putting forth more funds for it this year and anticipating much larger outcome
from...and what it really did with the students was wonderful, because it...we...a lot of
us were out in the street and it forced them to walk around the blocks, so the idea was,
their introduction to downtown is not the bars, you know, they really had a good
introduction to to look at and see the stores and that there's other things down there. So,
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it...I thought it was pretty fascinating to see the freshmen in there, so yes, the University
does have a good commitment to it, and they're doing the same with Riverfest for it this
year.
Bailey/ And then, how does this coordinate - do they still do week of welcome at the University?
Cohen/ Yes, they have all their week of welcome events, yes, and then this is Wednesday night
of that week.
Bailey/ Okay, so it's a...it's a week of welcome event, as well, for them to a degree.
Cohen/ Yes. Yes.
Bailey/ And then I'll be so presumptuous to ask, if we do do this sponsorship, what kind of
recognition do we get?
Cohen/ Oh, City would get very good recognition! (laughter) It would be the...the Downtown
Association, the University, and the City of Iowa, and we did last year, actually Wendy
Ford gave us a couple hundred dollars that, um, we were able to utilize and we did give
the City some recognition just for that too, so...
Bailey/ Any other questions?
Wilburn/ Does anybody remember how much this amount compares to what we gave the
University for weeks of welcome one or two years ago?
Bailey/ (mumbled) so, I mean, that's a good question.
Wilburn/ Maybe it was three, four years ago.
Bailey/ I don't...I don't even remember...
Wilburn/ Yeah, we did.
Champion/ We did.
Wilburn/ I was just curious for the comparison. I can try and (mumbled) myself.
Bailey/ Okay. Any other comments or questions? Okay. Thanks.
Cohen/ Thank you much!
Bailey/ Next up we have Irving Weber Days. Shaner?
Irving Weber Days:
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Magalhaes/ Good afternoon, everyone. Or good evening, I guess, depends on how you define
that. Uh, thanks a lot for the opportunity to address the Council about, uh, our FY2010
budget requests for support of Irving Weber Days in the amount of $10,000, uh, as you
did for FY09. Uh, as you know, Irving Weber Days was established in...by the City of
Iowa City in 1998. Hard to believe it was almost...over ten years ago, uh, as a way to
honor Irving's memory and instill the desire for current residents to appreciate and
preserve the community's history. Uh, one of the main goals of Johnson County
Historical Society, who I'm representing today, uh, along with the Planning Committee
for Irving Weber Days, uh, is of course to engage the public, uh, in the County's history
through lots of different programming and so forth, and the bottom line to us is that, you
know, we don't want to just have a bunch of artifacts collecting dust, that we want to
bring history to life and so things like Irving Weber Days, uh, are a great way to do that
and that's been done, uh, over many years. I did want to take this opportunity, hopefully
it's not inappropriate to do so, to highlight uh, a couple Iowa City, uh, initiatives that
we're undertaking, aside from Irving Weber Days, that I just wanted to pass along a piece
of information for the Council, if that's okay. Uh, two pieces of information.. .
Wilburn/ Can't talk while you're (both talking)
Magalhaes/ I know (laughter). So I'm just distributing a brochure on, uh, something we call the
Community Stories Project, which uh, will ultimately result in a major exhibit at the
museum, uh, but uh, essentially it's going to represent a specific history of each
community in Johnson County, including Iowa City. So we've begun working with
various individuals in Iowa City to, uh, create the Iowa City component of that project.
Uh, the other piece that I distributed to Council is, um, a project related to the flooding of
last year, uh, obviously, you know, as a historical organization, it is part of our mission to
try to preserve as much of the information about that, uh, those events as we can, uh, and
the big focus with this is...an oral history effort. Uh, for example, we're going beyond
the usual, you know, talking to, well, we'd love to talk to all of you because I know you
were all involved with it...the flood recovery efforts and so forth, but we really want to
get the voice of individuals that normally aren't preserved, uh, in historical record. For
example, uh, we're working with the American Studies teachers at City High, uh, to
create essays of all of their students about their involvement with flood recovery or, uh,
sandbagging, or their parent's involvement, uh, and we just think that that's going to be a
really neat angle that normally isn't undertaken. Um, so anyway, sorry to digress, but uh,
just another example of, you know, how we're trying to make history come to life. Um,
so we feel like certainly Johnson County Historical Society now, uh, as you know,
starting this fiscal year, uh, is leading the effort with Irving Weber Days' activities, uh,
and we think that's a very appropriate thing to do, uh, all of the partners that have been
involved over the years are very excited about, uh, continuing to work and having us kind
of take the reins of that, uh, just as a reminder, other folks that are involved in Irving
Weber Days' activities include the Iowa City Public Library, Friends of Historic
Preservation, the University Project on Place Studies, Iowa City Genealogical Society,
the Iowa City Press-Citizen, the Iowa City Host Noon Lions Club, uh, and several others.
Uh, this year we're also beginning conversations with, uh, some new potential partners,
such as the Englert Theater, the Iowa City Community Theater, the Iowa Children's
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Museum, uh, and a few others as well. Uh, in particular, since we're planning to move
the ice cream social and family festival, uh, back downtown this year, which is where,
you know, Irving Weber Days used to be downtown, when it first started. We want to
move it back downtown again so we're, uh, hoping to uh, connect with the Downtown
Association. I've met with Darla, and uh, we'll be talking to their Board about uh, getting
their involvement in the event. Um, this is a direct result, I should say, of some sage
advice by, uh, Mayor Bailey, and Councilor Hayek at last year's Irving Weber ice cream
social, uh, that both suggested, you should look into having this downtown, which I do
listen, so thank you very much for the advice. Uh, so we're thinking it's going to be a
fantastic event this year. Um, as you know, from last year's request, we are making some
changes to the way Irving Weber Days is approached. Uh, we will continue to have, uh,
a month-long series of events and programs, uh, all kinds of, uh, interesting things
reaching a diverse audience. Uh, but we want to focus one day on having just a
gangbuster event with lots of different activities that'll appeal to lots of different people,
uh, and draw a really big crowd and lots of visibility toward, you know, Iowa City's
history and...and culture and so forth. Um, so for example, for this year, as I said, we're
moving the...the culminating event downtown. Uh, it'll be Saturday, May 30th, uh,
we've got all kinds of different activities that are planned, uh, I know this doesn't relate to
FY10 budget request, but the unfortunate situation I'm in is that your FY09 funding, we
haven't done the event yet that it's funding (laughter) and so I'm just going on what we're
.planning on doing this year to give you an idea of what your investment will pay for, uh,
for next year, as well. Uh, so for example, for this year, we've got all kinds of things in
the works. Uh, Ellen Buchanan is celebrating her 20th anniversary of doing her one-of-a-
kind oral history interviews, so there'll be a reception recognizing that great work that
she's done over the years, uh, and she'll be interviewing Chris Merrill, uh, this year as one
of the interviews that she does, which obviously, uh, is a very significant uh, person to
cover. Uh, the very popular Parade of Historic Homes will be going on, uh, in May, um,
lots of local history programming, so forth. The exhibit opening for the Communities
Stories Project, which I mentioned, and exhibit opening for the, uh, a flood photography
exhibit related, uh, thafll be at the Museum, at Johnson County Historical Society, uh, as
far as the ice cream social and family festival, uh, we've got things getting organized,
such as a merchant carnival, which I can explain further if anybody's interested, but this
dates back to the early-1900's. Sort of the equivalent of a business fair, but uh, much
more intriguing. Uh, a local history trivia contest, with hopefully some Iowa City
celebrities, so to speak, uh, a Weber art project. This hopefully we can get the Iowa
Artisans' Gallery and other folks involved in that, uh, project. Um, we're going to do a
little thing called the "Evolution of Dance" which, uh, will kind of go through the eras of
different dance styles and music and so forth. Uh, an architecture tour downtown, uh,
featuring historic characters representing different businesses, uh, as we go downtown.
Uh, we're thinking about doing an old fashioned swimming suit show, uh, which
(laughter) I don't know what the City ordinances are about, uh, you know, risky things
like that, but if you recall, really old swimming suits covered the whole body, so it
shouldn't be an issue. Uh, and you know, just generally old-fashioned games and then of
course, free ice cream and...and live music and that kind of thing. Um, so this kind of
gives you an idea of what we have in mind for this year, which will then again, uh,
continue into uh, 2010 and just continue to grow, uh, as an event. Um, and of course, you
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know, we'd love to hear from City Council about your ideas for Weber Days, both this
year and in the future, uh, like I said, I do listen! (laughter) And implement people's
ideas. So, uh, so again, we appreciate your, your support and uh, hopefully it's something
that we can continue to count on, uh, in...in response to probably the logical question
that, uh, many of you might have, that you had for Leah, uh, obviously we put City of
Iowa City is the premiere sponsor for this event, and uh, you are the biggest logo on
everything that we produce and uh, the Press-Citizen donates advertising, so you're right
there in all the ads and everything. So, um, be glad to entertain any questions.
Bailey/ Questions?
O'Donnell/ You were very thorough.
Magalhaes/ (laughter)
Bailey/ So where in downtown Iowa City for that culminating, the big.. .
Magalhaes/ Well, my hope is that we would have...since we're envisioning having a stage with
lots of different, you know, music and then things in between -the swimsuit fashion
show and such - uh, I'm hoping to have it where the Friday Night Concert Series occurs.
Bailey/ Sure.
Magalhaes/ Now, one little snag in this whole plan is, you know, we want to be able to have a
backup weather plan, and obviously we were counting on the Library, but unfortunately,
there's a conference taking up all of their meeting rooms that day so (laughter) we'll look
at the Englert as a backup plan, the Old Capitol Center, and some other things, but...um,
it'll be beautiful. So we won't have to worry about it!
Bailey/ That's right! It's not going to rain so much this spring. Okay. Thank you.
Magalhaes/ Thank you.
Bailey/ Bike to Work Week, nobody's here. We should go grab Robin.
Karr/ I was going to say, it might be because we're running early.
Bailey/ Yeah. Isn't that amazing? (talking and laughter)
Karr/ Shaner will be happy to...fill in the time! (several talking)
Bailey/ You were very thorough!
Karr/ You want me to see if I can.. .
Bailey/ I can walk down there.
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O'Donnell/ (mumbled) I think.
Karr/ I think Leah's going.
Wright/ Good thing she's handy! (several talking)
Bailey/ Um, where's the music?
Wilburn/ It's in the closet.
Bailey/ Okay. I'm sure that (mumbled)
Wilburn/ Thanks. Couldn't let it sit in the car. Too cold!
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Bailey/ Yeah. (mumbled) dinner arriving? Who's coming for general budget discussion? Just
Kevin? We might be running ahead, to start that. I mean (unable to hear person
responding)
Lombardo/ ...department directors to attend if they were able to. But, I mean (mumbled)
Karr/ You want to move down to the microphone, because it...we're taping. Please.
Bailey/ He's feisty!
Lombardo/ Um, I've...(laughter)...I've indicated to all department directors that they should feel
compelled to come and...in case there are questions this evening, but for the core budget,
it'll be Kevin, myself, and.. .
Bailey/ I'm just concerned that we might run a little bit ahead.
Lombardo/ Yeah, and whenever you're prepared to go, and Leigh is here as well.
Bailey/ ...are not concerned (mumbled).
Karr/ Your dinner is here, so whenever you wanted to do that, as well.
Bailey/ Okay. No Robin? Okay, we probably won't run a little bit ahead.
Karr/ Let me...let me check. I wonder if she delegated it to Planning. I wonder if somebody's
coming from Planning.
Bailey/ Oh, Kris? (several talking) Airport, let's go! Huh?
Karr/ Airport is here. They need three minutes.
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Wright/ Nobody from Planning is coming either?
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Karr/ I made a call and we're checking. (several talking) Do we want to take a break or do you
(several talking)
Bailey/ Hard to get this group back (mumbled) (several talking) Bike to Work Week? Great!
(several talking)
Bike to Work Week:
Ackerson/ Uh, Robin Butler asked me to fill in for her today. She's apparently out of town, uh,
I'm not sure how much of a...a sponsorship of this event I want to provide as an
employee of JCCOG. I don't want to be partial to one project over another, um, but I've
helped coordinate this event, uh, for the last couple of years, and I'd be happy to answer
any questions, uh, that you might have, um, one thing that she asked me to highlight is
that, in addition to some of the common events that they've held in the past, they're also
going to add a couple of bike rodeos at two local elementary schools, uh, it's like an
obstacle course and um, the Optimists put these on regularly. There'd be one at
Longfellow and one at Kirkwood Elementary this year. Uh, so that's something new that
they're adding.
Bailey/ Okay.
Wright/ Did any of the larger employers in town been approached to, as sponsors?
Ackerson/ As sponsorship of the event as a whole or.. .
Wright/Yeah.
Ackerson/ ...uh, no. One thing that we're considering putting together is a way to track people's
ridership. Uh, that people would register online and uh, submit the number of miles that
they ride and the companies that have the most ridership would be recognized somehow,
uh, just as a way of, uh, publicizing those, uh, companies that...for cycling. LTh, they do
that in the Quad Cities and (coughing, unable to hear) right now and something that we're
looking into, but we haven't had any financial support from any company that I know of.
Bailey/ Other questions for Kris? Okay. Thanks for coming down.
Wright/ Thanks, Kris.
Ackerson/ You bet!
Bailey/ He can send in the Airport...if you could send in Airport people out there, that would be
great! They've had three minutes, right?
Airport Commission:
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Farris/ Good afternoon!
Bailey/ Hi, Greg. (several responding)
Farris/ How's everybody today? (several responding) I, uh, know we talked before in the one
work session. I did want to have a chance to come back and just, uh, say a couple things
about the budget and get some feedback more from the Council, maybe set up some, or
put some ideas in your heads. As I said, the budget we presented this year is pretty much
the status quo for what we had the year before, uh, in the sense of our larger money
amounts, of course, we're moving stuff around. We changed a lot at the Airport since.
We've actually put the budget in...we started with a 1.6 FTE employee wise. Since that
time we had an employee retire and the Commission decided that we weren't going to put
someone back in that position immediately. We're going to look at working with the
Fixed Base Operator to, uh, fulfill those needs that we had, for one year, to see how that
works. We expect to see some improvement, uh, cost savings in that process. But we
need to go through, because we're unsure of some of the areas. We're pretty sure that
there'll definitely be a cost savings, just how much we'll see. So that's, uh, in effect the,
uh, we were looking at a cost savings, and looking at the employee part. So that kind of
tells you where the budget is now. The one thing I would see, work with the Council,
is...is we're starting on our strategic plan, our five-year strategic plan, and um, in just my
short time on the, uh, Commission, uh, you know, every year as the budget comes
around, the Airport's always looking to see exactly what it can do budget-wise. And I
wondered if the Council, or even as we discuss with staff going forward, if we would see
an amount, uh, that would be a comfortable amount...we feel that we can support the
Airport. How much that is...uh, less than the amount now or the same. As we do the
strategic plan we can start putting that number in there and see how we can reach
whatever goal that is. At the moment with the Airport, I have limited income streams to
make more money. We can do things as we discussed about rates, um, hopefully with
larger volume I can increase money, but most of those are going to be efficiencies and
what not that I can improve. With the current stream it'd be difficult for me to be totally
self-sufficient. As we look at building more infrastructure, talk about south development
and those things, those are opportunities I think we could increase, um, our income
streams coming in, which can have a larger effect on the overall budget. So, I guess in
some levels to see a number or a percentage or a decrease or wherever we'd like to be, so
I can do that for the short-term, as we start the strategic plan. And then as we go forward,
um, is those other income streams come in, of course, we can revisit it, but I think it
would be a good thing, uh, an exercise for the Commission to have also. We have a
couple of, to reach that goal, like once we came up with a number, then we have, uh,
recently a study from Emory Riddle and the FAA about general aviation airports and how
they've become self-sufficient, uh, which we're going to try to present to the City staff
and to the Council, it just is a study that they went through and looked at airports and
how they could do it. Just interesting numbers. In our general area, about 19...I think it
was 19, it was under 20%, uh, of the airports could actually become self-sufficient. And
they just look at ways they can be. Their income streams, how you can look...because
we talked about fees, uh, fair market value, those kinds of things. So once we had a
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number, we could take some of the information out there, see what we're doing well, and
what we can improve on, and then try to reach that number, and I think that would give
the Commission a goal to hit, uh, the Council then would know every time we come in to
report abudget -here's what we're doing, here's what we've done so far, and I think it
would just be better for everyone involved. Not the discussion for this time, but just
something we can think about going forward.
Bailey/ Are people interested in having that type of discussion, as part of our prioritization
process? I think that that could be a very helpful, useful sort of thing, from my
perspective.
Champion/ Well, I think it'd be helpful if the Airport, instead of having us converse them every
year about the money, having a set thing and knowing that's what they're going to get.
Farris/ Yeah, and a goal to shoot for. If we need to (both talking) reduction, and as I said, I mean
I think the Airport's goal and everyone was the whole time is a perfectly self-sufficient,
uh, entity. Right now I don't know if I can reach it with income streams that I have, but I
think we can improve.
Bailey/ Uh-huh. Amy, did you have a comment?
Correia/ Sure. I mean, I guess, I um, I mean I think that...as a business enterprise, I mean, I
appreciate that you're using the term strategic planning, but I guess I would hope that
you're thinking about developing a business plan to be as self-sufficient as possible. I
mean, I understand the constraints in this...in this sector. Municipal airports may not be
able to be 100% self-sufficient, but when we're having non-business enterprise
departments going to self-sufficiency, um, I think the goal should be as...far as possible,
and so I think it's hard to put a number on it, because then you shoot for the number
rather than for what the possibility might be, um, I mean...not to...you know,
micromanage, and I'm just sort of throwing that out there. I mean, I did ask for some
information from Michael, and I appreciate getting that, um, and I... sort of looking at,
you know, 800 square feet is rented at $140 a month, um, I mean that is a really low, in
this market, for any type of storage. You know, so if you go to try to rent a storage
facility for your stuff, or a, you know, warehouse, I mean that is really cheap and I
understand that it might be, um, comparable to other municipal airports, but there
certainly a threshold at which somebody's willing to pay up to a certain amount, before
they're willing to move, so it might be the (both talking) Muscatine, but certainly
somebody who's renting a T-hangar might be willing to pay up to $200 before driving an
hour each time they want to use their plane. So I mean, those types of things, kind of
what can our market...you know (both talking) bear, um, and then the other number that I
found a little bit, um, and so I don't know, um, is the, um, so the official operations is
about 19,000, um, so that's both a landing and atake-off, if that's what I understood, so a
landing is counted as one, and then atake-off is counted as one -operation.
Tharp/ I think I can help explain that. An operation is defined as a landing or a take-off, so uh,
right now the...the official numbers on file with the FAA are about 19,000.
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Correia/ Okay, and so then with the...so then when you talked about sort of your main, because
there's no landing fee or no parking fee, so the main revenue then is in the gas, and so
that...that you sell, and so that's around...budgeted at 20,000. You collected 21,000 in
08. That means for every operation, we're getting about a buck! And certainly, that's
really a great deal for folks, and there's not even a parking fee, and I know that we talked
about, you know, people coming in and parking for a Hawkeye football game and the
money they spend. We have a lot of people that drive into town, and they pay for parking
all day, and they're spending a lot of money too, and so just for kind of a fairness. I'm not
quite sure why there's no type of fee when we're not really selling very much gas. So I
mean I guess those would be the types of things that in the business plan to be looking at,
I mean, I don't know that somebody's not going to fly in their plane because we're going
to charge them 25 bucks during a Hawkeye football game, because if they had to
drive...they're going to have to pay for that parking (laughter) anyway...essentially. So
we're sort of having certain class of alum football goers kind of get a better deal with
their...you know.
Farris/ Yeah, I know, and I think, as we said, if...if we're looking at that efficiency, going to...all
those things come about, and whether they're used or not because charging someone
$5.00 to park versus having them fill up 120 gallon tank of gas, I'd probably rather have
the fuel than the $5.00 charge.
Correia/ So that we're not really getting that, I mean, we're not...we're only getting a do1...I
mean, an average of a dollar for each operation. So I'm not sure (both talking) that
Farris/ But I mean, those are things you have to look at, and then what's usual in the market for
aviation. No, And I think those all can be done. I guess mine is, if I don't have a goal
that's somewhat agreeable, you know, I know we don't have one to set, then if I come
back and say, well, I've done this, then my fear is you can say well, that's not enough.
And so I just want to make sure that there's expectations and that I can, or we, not just
me. Can actually reach those things, so that each, and I know it changes and there's...I'm
comfortable with that, that things change over time, but I think that communication we
always talk about especially for an entity that's somewhat separated, is something I'd like
to have a little closer, at least, so that I can have something to shoot for and say, that's
good, or no, that's not good, and explain why I didn't reach that (mumbled). That was my
only comment.
Wilburn/ As part of preparation for that exchange in conversation that I'm sure the Council
would be willing to hear, there are certainly some, other than other airports, in-house,
some benchmarks that you could check with City staff and City Manager in terms of, uh,
fees, balance for example, um, while there's been some debate in terms of whether or not
Housing and Building Inspections should pay for itself, there's a certain percentage,
certain proportion. Parks and Recreation, which is within City departments, have aself-
imposed goal in terms of balancing fees and uh, no fees of 40% of their operations being
paid, um, (both talking) yeah, so I think within house, if you're willing to have
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conversations with staff, they might be able to give you some...things to...to take a look
at.
Farris/ Yeah.
Wilburn/ To propose...to get the conversation started, I guess, some leadership in trying to show,
here's a place to start.
Farris/ Right.
Bailey/ Other comments? Questions? I think there's interest in having that conversation (several
responding) and um...
Farris/ Yeah, I think it would be interesting to...once we could put together, uh, this study, you
can see some of those avenues of revenue for airports, that are generally the traditional
ways that airports in general aviation especially. So it's kind of an inside in to the
business side of these small airports and how they make money.
Bailey/ Well, and it's our intent, uh, to have a prioritization process this spring, so as the
materials that you pull together for us, I mean, the sooner we have them probably the
better.
Farris/ Excellent.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ Yeah, I think ifd be good to start with that. I mean, to have that in the process. I do
think Amy makes a good point that I don't always agree with her about the Airport, but
that if I can fly an airplane I don't have to pay for parking. I think that's really...that's
something I would have never thought about.
Bailey/ Okay. All right. Anything else? All right. Thanks for being here, and thanks for going
early. Okay, our next, um, presenter, we are running ahead. It's just a miracle! So our
next presenter isn't here, but what I'd like to do is in front of you, I think we can skip to
the Aid to Agencies, um, we, you know, we always have the option of not necessarily,
um, just...publishing the bottom line and not necessarily breaking these out, but in a
difficult budget year I think, um, it's appropriate to let organizations know as early as
possible. So, if...if we can affirm this recommendation from Mike and Mike, or if there
are some questions or changes, and we could go through that tonight. I'll give you some
opportunity to look at it, um, it was also in the Info Packet last week, um, I think that that
would be good if we could get to some decisions about this so Linda can let these
agencies know.
Champion/ I don't think I should comment on this since I'm running the campaign for the new
Shelter House. Do I have to back away from the table?
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Correia/ I also have a conflict cause the (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay. So, dinner's there so...okay.
Wilburn/ It would be helpful, um, if we could hear from Mike and Mike, uh, just some thoughts
in terms of, I mean, it's...overall it looks like an 8.6% decrease for this line item, but the
ranges are from, uh, anywhere from a 2.9% decrease for one agency, one agency, to
100% decrease for the other, so maybe he could walk us through the thinking and how
you differentiated between.
O'Donnell/ I'll start briefly here. Neither of us (coughing) excuse me agreed on a blanket cut,
um, and it was a very difficult thing to, uh, to go through this. Um, we...we agreed that
we would not take on any...any new funding, as you can see by this, and um, you know,
there was a great deal of thought put into this, and we looked at a percentage of how
much Iowa City contributes to the total budget, and based our opinions somewhat on that.
Would you agree, Michael?
Wright/ Yeah, that was a springboard, uh, for a couple of these that we essentially zeroed out, it
was less than a percent of their total budget (mumbled) it was a pretty...pretty tiny figure,
given that we took a $40,000 hit on the total, um, line. Obviously we had to make some
decreases somewhere and that seemed like an equitable beginning.
Bailey/ Okay. Did you want to make any other comments about this process, or the numbers
here?
Wright/ Um, some of these services, uh, we felt particularly in the economic times that we, uh,
run into since last year are very essential. We didn't want to make big cuts; if we couldn't
handle their entire increases, uh, we tried to do the best we could. Um...
Bailey/ Which ones of those would you want to particularly highlight?
Wright/ Okay...um, well, for example, Shelter House. Getting the same amount that they got
last year. Uh, DVIP is getting the same that they got last year. (several talking) Yeah.
And the Red Cross. Um (both talking)
Bailey/ ...to the microphone so we can...
Severson/ That's the Red Cross, the same we had for agencies that stay the same amount, um, as
Mike and Mike mentioned, we did recommend, um, deleting the ARC of Southeast Iowa
and 4C's. It was less than 1 % of their budget, and as they said, we didn't consider the
three new requests, which were HACAP life skills and Pathways, not reflecting anything
on the service delivery, but just this wasn't a year to consider any new additions.
Bailey/ Okay.
O'Donnell/ And we also did not leave any contingency funds. We used everything.
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Severson/ Yes, we had about...a little bit more than $4,000 in the contingency fund, and that's
something that we've been able, in the past, to have a little bit of a cushion. It'd
occasionally help agencies out with an unexpected need, um, so I took that amount off
the $40,000 so then we looked at about right around $36,000 in reductions. Um, just to
let you know, and I hope you know this already, but the Human Service agencies really
appreciate the local support, and one of the real values of the local support is it tends to
be flexible. Lots of times they get grants that doesn't allow for very much administration
cost or it's hard...people aren't very, um, interested or...not interested but, they don't
necessarily see the value of contributing money to keep the lights on, and so that's
something that one of our agencies uses to help pay their utility bills. They can...it's Free
Medical Clinic. They can get medication, they can get professionals to provide services,
but they still have to have the lights on and the heat on to provide the service. So, it's
very much appreciated and the flexibility of local funding is also appreciated.
Wright/ And I'll have to just add that with the decrease this year, it was no fun trying to parse out
the money.
O'Donnell/ And once again, it was...we thought very important to, um, look at the percentage of
the total budget. And we thought that...that if we were a fraction of the total budget, the
1 %, that we'd be doing less by...by cutting that or holding it the same. But it was not an
easy process.
Wright/ And we did try to...uh, as best we could, keep some of those youth services funding at
least a reasonable level in relation to the budget last year. That...I think that fairly well
explains our rationale for going through this.
Bailey/ Okay. I have a...question...this bottom line, 425,268, and the budget bottom line on
page 86 in our budget - 414,755.
Severson/ I was confused about that too, Regenia, because at the top of it it says 425,265, so I
wasn't...we went with that number, that was $40,000.
Bailey/ Okay. That's what...yeah.
Wright/ Yeah, the top...that 425 was the one that fit the recommended reduction.
Bailey/ Okay. All right. Cause I saw that comment and I saw this bottom line. (mumbled)
Okay. Now I understand. Any other questions? Is this group comfortable affirming this
recommendation from our subcommittee? Matt? Ross? I'll give you a minute.
Hayek/ I am, uh, you know, L ..I'm looking at how we got to the 425, and sort of looking at it at
a more macro level, um, and I don't know how that, how 425 became the magic number.
If it was just what...what we could do under constrained circumstances, or if there was a
rationale behind that that we, that would be helpful to know about.
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Bailey/ Is there some insight that you can provide, on the microphone?
Lombardo/ No methodology. LJh, we were looking at, uh, what we were cutting in general from
other budgets and...and just trying to find something that we felt we could support and a
fiscally but what was no judgment call on what was funded.
Hayek/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ Within the 425, I am comfortable with the recommendations.
Bailey/ And I know you guys spent a long time on it, so I'm absolutely comfortable. I would not
want to presume to rethink what you must have gone through. Ross?
Wilburn/ I agree. I just needed to hear the rationale that you went through (mumbled) you all did
put the time into it, um...
Bailey/ Okay. So, this, um, we...we're affirming this package basically. I don't know what your
process is, but it's good to let these agencies know as early as possible. So, thanks for
your work on that Mike and Mike and Linda. We really appreciate it.
O'Donnell/ Thank you.
Wright/ And thanks to Linda (several talking)
Severson/ Thank you.
Bailey/ Okay. Connie and Amy, you can come back in here if you like.
Wright/ Or even if you don't!
Bailey/ Well, there's nothing...they can (mumbled). Marian did call, um, the people from
Mission Creek and indicated to them that we were running ahead, but since there are two
of them, um (mumbled) he could get a hold of the other person, so...
Champion/ They should be here any minute anyway.
Bailey/ Yeah. I think we said arrive ten minutes early.
Lombardo/ This would be really awkward if we were filming.
Bailey/ Oh, um, we have a plan for that actually. The City Manager has to do a juggling act.
(laughter and several talking) juggling. If it's budget time, it's a juggling act.
Wright/ Yodeling might be interesting too!
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Lombardo/ I think the juggling might be more entertaining! (laughter)
Karr/ (several talking) Go ahead. I had turned it off, so I'm turning it back on if we're going to
talk business.
Champion/ Oh, it passed as it was presented to us yesterday?
Karr/ Yes.
Bailey/ The House passed it, yes, and the Governor is expected to sign it on Monday. Hi!
Lombardo/ We're running early, so you can jump in whenever you're ready!
Bailey/ (several talking) Right at that podium at the mic. We're running early. We like that!
Mission Creek Festival:
Earley/ Just like to introduce myself. I'm Craig Earley. I am a producer with the Mission Creek
Festival, and also the director of development. Twenty-seven years old, originally from
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, I moved here in the fall of 2005 to work on my Ph.D. in the
American Studies Program at the University, uh, I also work with the James Gang and
the non-profit arts space, Public Space One. Just wanted to thank the Council and the
Mayor for giving us the opportunity today.
Perry/ Yeah, thank you, uh, my name is Andre Perry and I am 31-years-old and I moved here...
Bailey/ Andre, you're welcome to raise that mic because that looks very uncomfortable (several
talking, laughter)
Perry/ I came here from (several talking, laughing) I came here from San Francisco, California,
uh, to pursue my MFA at the University of Iowa in non-fiction writing. I have graduated
and that was in May of 2008, and now I'm essentially a visiting assistant professor at the
school in the English department and I also work at the restaurant and venue, The Mill. I
book bands there. Um, so thanks again for having us. Uh, so Mission Creek Festival, uh,
you might want to know the reason we founded this. Our goal and mission here is to
enhance the culture and artistic life in Iowa City, um, we are all about artists, and
supporting artists and promoting artists. We are all about supporting the citizens of Iowa
City, to make sure they have great art experiences here, and we're also about Iowa City
and promoting Iowa City and making sure that people know the wonderful things that are
happening here and what a great city it is. Um, so...I think some...one thing that a lot of
people know, but some people still might not know, is that there is a lot of great art, in
music, in literature, and visual arts, happening in Iowa City and it should be known, not
just here, but on a regional and a national way. Um, in that Iowa City actually should be,
and is I think on the way to being one of the cultural centers of the United States of
America and we are interested in promoting that and continuing that trajectory, making
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happen. Um, so what exactly we are, um, what we do, is a 4-day festival and it happens
two weeks after spring break. It's usually the first, um, week of April every year and it's
four days, and it overtakes...or takes over the venues and the spaces of downtown Iowa
City. We use Iowa City as our map. It's almost like the culture geography of Iowa City
is our festival. So that means venues like the Picador, the Mill, the Java House, Public
Space One, Prairie Lights, um, maybe some University spaces, um, the Englert Theater,
the Yacht Club, and so, what happens in those venues, there'll be readings, there will be
musical performances, there will be gallery walks, art openings. There will be, um,
documentary films shown or narrative films shown, and so essentially as fans of the
festival move throughout the different events, whether they chose to be a festival pass
goer or they just chose to go to some individual events, they start to not only see these
artists in these different places, but they start to see what can happen in Iowa City and so
you might have someone who's college age or just graduated from college, or someone
you know, who's a young professional, you know, late 20's, early 30's and it starts to
reinforce that this is a place I could stick around. This is a place that has good things
happening, and so they start to enjoy Iowa City and not just enjoy the events that are
happening, and they start to, you know, attach, um, those experiences to certain places.
So, they go to the Java House, they hear an acoustic, you know, guitar playing session, or
they go and hear a reading at Prairie Lights. They're like, you know what, I've never
really been upstairs in Prairie Lights. I never even knew that they had readings here.
They go to the Picador and be like, oh, I was always kind of scared of that place, but
actually they have music that I like there. And so it's starting to reinforce our image of
Iowa City, and then we bring in people, because the festival has not only local and
regional artists, but it has national artists, and some of the best national artists come here,
and so it starts to turn a national eye on us. You know, all of a sudden a band from New
York comes and plays in Iowa City and so people working at the New York Times,
they're like why are they going to Iowa City or people from Los Angeles are wondering
what's happening here, and so they start to look at us. And so we become, you know, it
helps put us on the national scale as well. Um, so a lot of the programming we do, uh, is
different than some of the art's programming that happens in Iowa City already with
some of the other organizations. We bring in cutting edge art. We bring in avant guard
stuff, underground stuff, up and coming stuff, and when I say avant guard, I don't mean
to scare you. That's not stuff that's unlistenable. It's just stuff that you probably haven't
heard of yet (laughter) but in the next few years it's going to get very popular. We've had
artists within a year of playing our festival, who are relatively unknown, and then the
next year, their albums or their first books or their collection of poetry is on the New
York Time's Best Seller List or it is, you know, on the Rolling Stones' number one album
of the year or, you know, we can see ahead, you know, that's what we do is we try to find
up and coming artists. We bring them here, and then we mix them with the great art
that's already happening here and we create connections and it kind of puts us on the
national map, as well as, you know, reinforcing us who live here right now. Um, turn it
over to Craig for a second.
Earley/ One of the things that's great about having these kind of up and coming bands and being
a community-driven non-profit and working with like-minded musicians, as well as
booking agents, is it allows us to get a lot of bang for our buck in terms of how the
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festival is actually run. Um, we're able to get an incredible amount of buzz for the bands
that generate national immediate attention, especially in kind of alternative and Indie
music outlets, without spending a whole lot of money. We get a lot of buzz for relatively
low investment in festivals run, uh, by the two of us, as well as two of our other
colleagues. It's very do-it-yourself, if you will. Um, and... and booking the festival, like
everything we try to is all about building relationships and we've been able to build some
really nice relationships within the industry, uh, which can be pretty fierce, um, who have
already over the last, you know, four years of the festival shown a lot of support for what
we're doing here. And what getting these kind of bands allows us to access is the very
allusive kind of 18 to 30 demographic...of college-aged kids are certainly a part of our
market. Um, the immediate...people right after college who are thinking about sticking
around, we'd like to think that this gives them more reason to stick around. Graduate
students like Andre and myself, as well as young professionals, and recent transplants.
This is a market that we've always felt, um, part of the reason the festival was started is
kind of missed by some of the other arts programming in the community. Uh, that I think
gears itself a little bit older and a little bit more kind of mainstream, if you will. Um, and
what these people are, are the people that fuel, um, a word that gets talked about a lot in
Iowa City, and I think for good reason, is this idea of the creative economy. Um, these
are young people who have a lot of young, vibrant ideas. They're creative individuals,
and frankly they spend a lot of money. Um, and keeping them here, and keeping Iowa
City strong and youthful and vibrant, um, is important to us as residents, but we also
think really important to the community as a whole, especially in the long-term. Um, and
the way our festival works as Andre pointed a nice portrait for you, by using downtown
Iowa City and venues that already exist is that the festival directly puts money back into
the economy. By using the Mill and the Picador and the Yacht Club, these venues
obviously benefit, but over the course of four days, people are coming downtown a lot.
Um, they need to eat. They need to drink. They might want to shop, and as we
continuing to grow the level of national talent that we're bringing in, which is
extraordinary for our upcoming festival, we also anticipate hotels, um, and people
coming in from out of town and needing places to stay, um, so it...it really does channel
money back into what we're doing here. Um, and we're also growing at an exponential
rate, um, we've found an incredible amount of community partners, some of the arts
organizations that we've mentioned, um, as well as local businesses, and in terms of just
festival goers. In the first year we'd estimated around 1,500 people came through the
doors, uh, this year, 2009, which will be our fourth, we're estimating close to 5,000 and
we imagine it growing even more for 2010 festival, which will be our fifth, uh, we think
those numbers could approach 7,500. Um, and besides that, we've also built great
relationships, like I said, in the community in terms of some very generous individuals, as
well as businesses who have shown support for what we've done here. Um, so even
though we're coming to you and asking for the City to support our venture, we're also
very much out in the community talking to businesses about sponsorships. Asa non-
profit you can be a member of Mission Creek Festival. So our festival is based on a
financial model that is sustainable in the long-term. Um, and that's really important to us,
and we actually can see it, uh, from here. It's exciting because we can see it growing, uh,
even more.
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Perry/ And, I think it's probably the question you're asking is like, what's the end goal here?
Where do we want to see this in another five years, another ten years, and we really think
that this could be one of the most important happenings, festivals, in the state, if not for
certain, you know, one of the most important happenings in the Midwest every year,
every spring, you know, people in Chicago, people in Minneapolis, people in St. Louis
and Kansas City, as well as you know, all the people of Iowa kind of looking to Iowa
City to lead us, and you know in the next wave of art. Every year, you know, people
saying, oh, you know, I'm going to go to Iowa City this April. I'm going to block off a
few days here, cause I know I'm going to hear things I haven't heard before. I'm going to
see things I haven't seen before. Um, and one thing that cannot be undersold, whether, I
mean, music is a big focus of ours, and we all sort of big on literature and then a...we're
still working on the visual arts, we're still building that, but one thing that cannot be
undersold is actually like power of music, of having a great music scene in your city.
You look at any major city in the United States, and you better believe...has a great
music and arts scene going on there. It...there's something that just equates to it.
Whether or not, you know, I'll talk to my brother about this. He's a lawyer in Boston. He
moves to towns because not necessarily he's going to go see all the shows, but he just
wants to know that it's happening. You know, somewhere beneath the surface, and it
makes him sleep a little bit better at night (laughter). So, it...it is extremely important,
you know, it helps build a city. So, thanks so much. Uh, if you guys have questions, you
know, feel free to ask them.
Champion/ Have you ever thought, I mean, have you ever done anything with like plays or
dramas or is it...
Perry/ Yes...yes. We try to build a bit each year. We try to be realistic and not take on too
much, so as to dilute the festival, and every year we, you know, grow a little bit more.
You know, the first year was music with a little bit of literature, and the literatures been
growing every year, and you know, the literary programming is super solid right now,
you know, like this year we have, you know, some of the best existing novelists in
America right now, they're going to come and read here. Um, and then the visual arts
programming is starting to build. You know, there's the film side and then there's, you
know, the visual arts like paintings and sculpture, that side, is slowly building, and
theaters probably the next place to go. We have a good friend of ours just...who moved
back into town, Ryan West, who some of you might know, who's very involved in the
theater, and so you know, we add people who can help us curate that.
Champion/ There are a lot of young playwrights out there trying to...
Perry/ We agree!
Hayek/ On the music side, how do we stack up, or how does this festival stack up to other metro
areas in the Midwest? In terms of Indie...I'm missing the word here, but...but, well, in
terms of events, in terms of festivals, um, I mean, how do we compare to what they're
doing in Madison and other places like that?
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Earley/ Um, we stack up incredibly well. Um, in terms of...I guess kind of depending on what
you look at. Um, artistically we're certainly one of the best. I mean, this year we saw the
rise, you might have noticed, of the 8035 Festival in Des Moines, um, a major, uh,
festival that they had over the summer that was great, extremely well funded, um, a lot of
sponsorships; it was outdoors; it was over the 4th of July. Um, and it was great, but
doesn't, um, I don't think, capture the kind of freshness and vibrancy, and um, buzz-
worthiness, you know, to use these unquantifiable terms, um, of what we're doing here.
We're seeing some really interesting stuff. A friend of ours is doing something somewhat
similar in Champaign-Urbana, um, but as a kind ofcommunity-based, all indoor, um,
using existing venues, I mean, I would say the only things that you could adequately
compare it to, um, you know, would be the CMJ Music Festival in New York City and
South-by-Southwest in Austin, Texas. Um, or the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco, I
mean, it's...it's getting there, um, it's certainly one of the strongest in...in the Midwest for
sure.
Perry/ We're neck in neck with Noise Pop right now, which is a major festival in San Francisco.
We're at, and they've been around for 16 years. And this is just our fourth year, and we
are closing in on them very quickly, and they're friends, so it's not like a battle or
anything. (laughter)
Earley/ Yeah, and... and I actually do want...I think you do have to look at it different from these
kind of, you know, festivals that you read about that pop up in fields outdoors for one day
and then disappear. Um, that's very much not what we're about. Um, you know, is to
have this big kind of thing, you know, 100,000 people come in and then leave, and you
could have been anywhere in the world, right? (laughter) We like to really think that
we're, that Iowa City is an important component of our festival.
Bailey/ Other questions?
O'Donnell/ Very good.
Lombardo/ I'll only add...I met with them a couple times over the last, uh, several months, um,
because I heard about what they were doing and was really intrigued and...and this
reminds me of Austin in some ways, many, many years ago, and kind of the...the vibe
that was going on and how it built, and also it parallels to me, uh, a little bit about Spoleto
USA in South Carolina, different mix of, um, arts, but they started very small and they're
now a 17-day festival that brings tens of thousands of people to the community to...to
engage in that festival. So, the potential of this, um, really sparked my curiosity
and...and I think, you know, the model that they're using is very sustainable and...and
they can grow it and manage it, as opposed to some of those big events that get well
funded right out of the gate and then kind of evaporate. So, I, you know, I think they're
doing great work and I just put that little plug in for them. I think it's got tremendous
potential for...for this city.
Champion/ Sounds great! I'm impressed! (several commenting)
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Bailey/ Thanks for coming down.
Earley/ Thank you very much. (several talking)
Bailey/ Appreciate your work! Okay, we will take a dinner break and reconvene at 6:00, um, for
General Budget discussion and um, I think we'll start right away with community events
and see if we can get some consensus on that and see... see where we can go, because
that'll all be fresh in our minds. So...back together at 6:00. (BREAK)
Fireworks:
Bailey/ So, I thought maybe we would start with, while they're fresh in our minds, these um,
presentations. See if we can get some consensus with community event funding. Once
again, we have a bottom line number and certainly could move forward with that, but I
think it's helpful if we can get some of these line items filled in. So.. .
Correia/ Don't we have $85,000?
Bailey/ $85,162, yes.
Correia/ Right, okay.
Bailey/ And I have a question about the fireworks.
Correia/ I do too.
Bailey/ Perhaps, Marian, you can explain that.
Karr/ Uh, the fireworks is in your, uh, your proposal as a...a bookmark by the Jaycees At the
time that the deadline, uh, was due, no decision was made on fireworks yet. They've put
in the $10,000, uh, as you can tell from their application, the fireworks itself generally
runs about 20 to 25,000. The Jaycees have since expressed an interest to help in any way,
be supportive volunteer wise, but are not interested in, um, maintaining the leadership
role in it. So, if you would like a show similar to that, um, I am working with the
Jaycees. I'm working with Mary with Summer of the Arts, and the University, um, again,
all of them have pledged their support. They're interested to do the same; however, the
dollars would be the City's own at this time.
Bailey/ So...
Correia/ Okay, hold on a second.
Bailey/ Go ahead!
Correia/ So, what we're talking about is doing...
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Bailey/ Is your microphone on?
Correia/ Yeah.
Bailey/ Okay. Thanks.
Correia/ What we're talking about is doing the fireworks part of Jazz Fest, which is.. .
Karr/ That's correct.
Correia/ ...last year, which we had to do because of the flood.
Karr/ Uh-huh.
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Correia/ And so...in the past, the Jaycees had asked us for money, but they have put in money.
Karr/ That's correct.
Correia/ So they're not, they don't want to put any money tn.
Karr/ They're not...they've not pledged any money at this point, no.
Bailey/ And I did ask Summer of the Arts if they would put in money, since it's becoming part of
their show, and they felt that this year that wouldn't be possible. They're having some
sponsorship challenges, um...
Karr/ I think in the future, I think the Summer of the Arts, that is a potential to incorporate (both
talking)
Bailey/ ...they indicated as much too.
Correia/ And what about the University? For putting money in, I mean.. .
Karr/ Uh, I have spoken to the University, uh, we've had one meeting and we're looking at, uh,
another. They are thinking more of an in-kind donation, uh, again, with...with services,
personnel, grounds, not...
Hayek/ Air space?
Karr/ Air space (laughter) but not, uh...
Correia/ How much do fireworks cost?
Bailey/ $25,000 for (both talking)
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Karr/ 20 to 25 was the show last year (several talking) yeah, right. There are some advantages in
ordering early and other issues, but the benchmark is about 20.
Hayek/ The Jaycees' letter references a $2,500 deposit. Are they at least putting that up?
Lombardo/ I think, as a placeholder, just to you know get the date booked. Um, but I wouldn't
count on them for much effort (noise on mic) together. You know, the reality is...is that,
you know, the manner in which the letter came and the lateness, we...and we haven't had
time, I mean, we're just trying to get organized. I think in subsequent years, I mean,
Marian's been at work for a little while now, but in terms of really doing a show and
getting all these logistics sorted through, it would have been nice if we had, you know,
several more months, and...and I think in future years it'll, you know, will...will get
easier and we can contemplate, is there a better home for this or are there other
fundraising opportunities, but um...
Correia/ What about Student Government? Have we gone to them? I mean.. .
Karr/ I've not approached Student Government.
Correia/ Cause I mean, I wonder...
Karr/ It is the summertime and I don't know what their (several talking)
Bailey/ Tyler, do you think that that would be something that might be possible, within...I know
it's summer, but...
Correia/ ...University's in session.
Gunn/ Well, yeah, there's some possibilities there, that...the Administration separated the
graduate school from the undergraduate school budget, so there's...they're working out,
there's going to be a lot of different shifting of money. So...potential there to see if
there's any openings between the two. But yeah, the students...the Student Government,
they have appropriations committees that take care of that entire fund so.. .
Correia/ Can you look in to...
Bailey/ Yeah, if you could sort of (several talking) because their administration changes in
April? The administration...okay.
Gunn/ But the process is...it's ongoing now so...
Karr/ And we will have to be committed to a show well ahead of that if we wish to...
Bailey/ Right.
Gunn/ But long-term perhaps, yeah.
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Champion/ We have to do the 4th of July (several talking)
Bailey/ Yeah. The question I guess I fundamentally have if it's not, I mean, it sounds like it's on
us this year.
Lombardo/ Yeah, I would not...I would not say this would be a funding to the Jaycees. We'll
fund it (both talking)
Bailey/ But is...is...if we are, if it's on us, is it out of this particular budget? The community
event, the program...
Lombardo/ Oh, um, I mean, that's...I would say keep it cleaner and we'll, you know, um, I don't
know, Kevin, how you feel, but L ..my take would be we would not put it through
community events.
Bailey/ Okay. So that gives us a little leeway.
Lombardo/ Right.
Bailey/ I mean, with this bottom line.
Lombardo/ Really that's money going to other entities.
Bailey/ Right. Okay. All right.
Wilburn/ And there's still time to, uh, I was under the presumption that several of the Jaycees had
been licensed as pyrotechnicians, um, I presume there's enough time to...
Karr/ We are working with the same gentleman that did the show last year, Monty, um, and...
Wilburn/ So they actually hired a...it wasn't one of their own. It was...
Karr/ No, it was...it was an outside vendor.
Wilburn/ Okay, that's...
Karr/ Yes, it's an outside vendor.
Lombardo/ I saw Chief Rocca get up and head for the door. I've been teasing him about
becoming (both talking)
Bailey/ Do we have some trained pyrotechnicians in the Fire Department? Never mind! Never
mind! (laughter and several talking)
O'Donnell/ What was the Jaycees, what was their reason?
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Bailey/ The capac...they indicated that they didn't have the capacity to continue this large of
project.
Karr/ They're regrouping. They've dropped considerably in membership. They are regaining in
membership, and reprioritizing as well. Doesn't mean they won't be back, but I certainly
think as Michael laid out, I think this year, um, they're definitely separating from it and
uh, as a result of that, looking at other venues that you maybe seeing them back for other
requests for other things.
Lombardo/ I'll be candid and in the discussion that I had with them, and it's been a lot of months
now, um, they use this as a fundraising event for their organization and I think they were
finding that it just was not bringing in the...the dollar compared to the effort that they
had, you know, through volunteers and coordination, that...that they felt I think justified
the...the work.
Bailey/ But for this...even if we do not have this particular line item, we will have fireworks for
4th of July.
Lombardo/ Yes, we will have fireworks.
Bailey/ Is that what you're saying? Okay.
Wilburn/ I was in demolitions in the military, but I put holes in the ground (several talking and
laughing)
Karr/ That's why you're not on the committee, Ross. (laughter)
Bailey/ That's not what we're going for here! Subterr...(several talking)
Correia/ Will...will, so, but we're working on having it, the fireworks, be associated with
Summer of the Arts (several responding) all of the marketing about the.. .
Karr/ And they're very excited about it.
Bailey/ Mary indicated that last night when I talked to her.
Karr/ Mary has been in the meetings.
Bailey/ Okay.
Correia/ And then the other thing would be making sure, having...we've talked about this, the
Summer of the Arts in the past, with the Transit, having Transit run later so people can
take the bus, but that's all part of (mumbled)
Community Events:
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Bailey/ Okay, so let's talk about...so we'll get fireworks even if we don't have this line item.
Let's talk about, um, we have a bottom line of 85,162. Let's talk about what we want to
fund, and see if we can get some, um, consensus.
Champion/ ...easier to start with what we don't want to fund.
Bailey/ I'm willing to start in any manner that will get us to a decision, um, quickly.
Correia/ I don't want to fund the Boy Scouts.
Champion/ I don't either.
Correia/ Okay.
Bailey/ Um, that's two, um, do we have others who are...I have concerns about funding a group
that...I have concerns about funding that. That's three.
Wright/ Yeah, I...I...
Bailey/ Are we in agreement?
Hayek/ I'm not opposed to funding the Boy Scouts for the reasons I think you are. I have some
concerns just about the impact of their program and the numbers. I don't have a
philosophical problem with it. They're an independent group.
Bailey/ Okay. But it sounds like a thousand...okay, go ahead, Ross.
Wilburn/ I was just going to say, my concern...they gave us the information on how they handle
the...human rights aspect of it, uh, but my question yesterday was, you know, the other
groups are community events that community members can participate in, as opposed to
this (several talking) you know, you've got to be a member. The community's welcome
to observe, but that's not the...it's not the same goal and objective of their...their goal and
our goal in terms of this funding don't appear to be congruent.
Hayek/ And my concern was they...they, it's for 40 children.
Bailey/ Right, well, there's consensus that we don't want to fund it, and...and agreement that it's
a good program, it's just not necessarily in alignment with...with what we're doing with
this. Okay. So, um, anybody else want to toss something else on the table that they
would consider not funding, if that's.. .
Champion/Well, I'm...
Wright/ The two New Life Church...
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Champion/ Right.
Wright/ ...proposals.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ I think it's a great idea. I think they can partner with other agencies and I think it
would not be appropriate for us to give money to a religious organization.
Bailey/ I tend to agree with that statement.
Correia/ I was interested in funding the picnic portion of the back-to-school.
O'Donnell/ I would too.
Wilburn/ That was the portion I was looking at, in terms...because we...I'm sorry, go ahead.
Correia/ I was going to say, I looked at their budget and that was $750 so that was.. .
Wilburn/ And I was...I was looking at it in terms of, uh, I mean the food portion, that's what they
try and do and gather, so this...funding that, um, there's other entities that we fund that do
that aspect and they can partner with them.
Bailey/ Okay, other comments? Three interested in funding $750 for the back-to-school picnic?
Hayek/ I'm open to Amy's suggestion, but make your pitch.
Correia/ Um, well, I mean, I think...I think that there...it's a young organization. I think, you
know, we saw the pictures. I think that it is...it appeals to a demographic in our
community that might not be attending other community events that we fund, um, and I
felt like they gave a good pitch, um, wanted to support them.
Wilburn/ They kept it open to that picnic is a gathering point where others are welcome. They,
um, it's not a...it's not a service, is my impression from some folks that were...
O'Donnell/ So how much are we talking here?
Bailey/ 750. I still think that they defined it as a ministry, and having been raised in that
tradition, ministry at some point always involves ministry. (several talking)
Champion/ I have real problems with that. I mean, I...probably send them money myself. I
have problems with taxpayers' money going to a religious organization, of any kind. And
I think separation of church and state, and I think, um, there'll be people who will feel
like I do about it, although I will support the group that would not support any religious
group and I...I think you're getting into kind of messy waters by doing that. It is a
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ministry. It is not, I mean, it's not a concrete structure, but it is a ministry and I think
you're talking religion.
Hayek/ Is there any other funding we do that comes close to this, in terms of that element?
Bailey/ I don't think you've been (mumbled) Aid to Agencies...would...
Wright/ Nothing from Aid to Agencies.
Correia/ Well, I mean, certainly non-profits have, that we fund, have grown out of faith based
initiatives. I mean, Shelter House. It was started by ten churches...
Champion/ But it's not...it doesn't have any religious affiliation. None.
Correia/ No, it does not. No.
Bailey/ It's not also called a ministry, and I...I appreciated...I appreciated the presentation and I
appreciate very much what they're doing and think that we need many groups in our
community doing this. I agree with Connie. I don't think that we necessarily need to
fund them. If they need, you know, perhaps a waiver of permit fees or park shelter fees,
and we can help them out in that way, maybe that's something we could consider, if we
have a policy in which that would plug into. But.. .
Correia/ I did put that down on my notes -waiver room rentals.
Bailey/ So...
Champion/ Yeah, I wouldn't object to that. I just, um, I just think you're getting into future
difficulties.
Wright/ Yeah, I think funding this does...essentially set a precedent that's going to...we have a
very good chance it's going to come back and bite us in later years.
Bailey/ Well, we have a lot of faith based organizations that do a lot of community outreach and
we're fortunate to have that, but do we want to have that...I mean, that list of, I mean, is
that what we want to be funding with these...this events' funding?
Hayek/ Let's not do it.
Bailey/ Okay, so that's...okay. All right. Anything else right now?
Hayek/ (sneezing, unable to hear) wireless, we did not hear from them.
Correia/ I would say no to that.
Bailey/ Yeah, we did not hear from them. I would say no to them.
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Hayek/ I've also heard some, um, discouraging information about Wi-Fi in the downtown area
and reliability.
Wright/ Oh, it's not a good connection.
Bailey/ The best connection downtown is the...the Library's.
Hayek/ Yeah, so we've got (several talking)
Bailey/ We're already funding a wireless...yeah.
Hayek/ Or the Old Capitol Mall (mumbled)
Bailey/ Well, and some of the businesses. Okay, are we in consensus, not? Okay. All right.
Wright/ I love the idea but...not this year.
Champion/ Um...
Bailey/ All right.
Champion/ Let's see...
Correia/ The Food Alliance came in. It's a big jump.
Champion/ Yes.
Wright/ Yeah.
O'Donnell/ What did, Amy?
Bailey/ I will disclose that my husband is on their board, but that's the extent of what I know
about that work -the Food Alliance.
O'Donnell/ Which one are we talking about?
Bailey/ Johnson County Local Food Alliance.
Correia/ Local Family, and then the Local Food Summit.
Bailey/ But they didn't present either, which surprised me since they jumped.
Wright/ I think the Field to Family is a...very worthwhile program, but I don't think we can give
them a $3,000...
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Champion/ Absolutely not!
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Bailey/ It's very similar to Taste of Iowa City, in my perspective, in that it is a food festival in
downtown Iowa City, sponsored...it's sponsored by restaurants. So, that's something that
passed through my...when we talked about the Taste of Iowa City. (several talking)
Wilburn/ It just highlights locally grown.
Bailey/ Yeah, it does.
Wright/ My note was to fund it at $1,000.
Hayek/ The Summit or the.. .
Bailey/ The Field...
Wright/ Field to Family.
Champion/ Do we want to fund...
Correia/ ...Summit?
Bailey/ Do we want to fund the Summit?
Champion/ No I don't know...do we want to fund, um, I don't know if they're related or not, the
Taste of Iowa City, which I think was incredibly successful last year without any funding
from us, and since we're really tight on budget, it's been incredible, it was incredibly
successful.
Bailey/ Are there other ways we can support that, you know, we always get all this in-kind
support. Can we toss them some in-kind support? What kind of...I don't know what they
ask for or used last year from the City.
Champion/ I don't know either.
Bailey/ Okay, let's go back to, um, the local Food Alliance Field to Family. Mike suggested a
thousand dollars.
O'Donnell/ I agree with that.
Bailey/ One, two, three, do we have somebody else...we can punch in a thousand and see what
we come up with? Mike, Mike and you said (both talking)
Correia/ Right.
Bailey/ Right? Okay, that's three.
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Wilburn/ That's fine.
Bailey/ Okay. Let's try a thousand there. All right, let's go to Taste of Iowa City.
Hayek/ And then the Summit, nothing?
Bailey/ Summit nothing.
Hayek/ Is that...
Bailey/ That's what I...
Hayek/ Was that implied in what you were suggesting? (several talking)
Correia/ Didn't hear from them and it's a brand new thing so...
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Bailey/ Okay. All right, let's go to Taste of Iowa City. Connie's comment was, let's not fund
'em; they were successful without our money.
Champion/ And we don't have much money this year. I mean, we're cutting down on our budget,
and even though...I just think it was so successful last year, that I don't...(mumbled)
successful.
Bailey/That's in interesting perspective. I mean, let's let it...I kind of like that because...you
know, there's so many things that happen in downtown Iowa City that come to us for
support. It was successful - do they really need our support?
Champion/ I mean, I know my daughter ran it, and she's got a lot of enthusiasm.
Bailey/ I loved the event!
Champion/ That was very successful. The year before that they only had like 200. Last year
they had, I don't know, 5,000 or 6,000. It was incredible!
Bailey/ So basically you're helping fund it because of your daughter.
Champion/ I'm not going to fund it.
Bailey/ No, no...you personally! (laughter)
Champion/ She's not running that show this year!
Bailey/ Oh, okay.
Champion/ I'm going to make her run (both talking)
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Bailey/ ...others think about Taste of Iowa City? I think it's great and in alignment with what we
do, but I...it was successful without our funding and I think...
Wright/ And I bet it could be successful without our funding again.
Champion/ Yeah, I'm sure it can be.
Wright/ Whatever in-kind support if we can.. .
Champion/ Right. I think all these organizations that do things, we can give in-kind support to.
Bailey/ Okay. Others, Taste of Iowa City?
Champion/ Can we talk about the big one?
Bailey/ Wait, wait. Let's, let's (several talking) trying to move in a linear (laughter)
O'Donnell/ You know, I would really, if (several talking) I'd like to see it funded some. (several
talking) Yeah.
Bailey/ What are you suggesting? What number?
O'Donnell/ A thousand.
Correia/ Five hundred.
O'Donnell/ Five hundred?
Wilburn/ I'm really struggling to remember what we supported the, uh, University's...week of
welcome thingy. I want to say it was in the range of 500 to 750, but I'm...I'm pulling that
way out of the recesses of my...(several talking)
Bailey/ Okay. We have a 500 and we have a 750. Do I have four people who (several talking)
Correia/ ...not funding it.
Champion/ I mean, I think also...um, I'd like to see maybe the restaurants put in a little more
money. They...were, it was very successful. If we had $500 left when we're done...
Bailey/ Okay. Well, we have four who are willing to take a pass on funding it.
Wilburn/ I'd be willing to come back to...
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Bailey/ I would like to come back to that (several talking) that would be a prior...okay, let's
jump to the big one, Summer of the Arts...60,000. (several talking) It's our
premiere...right now it's our premiere downtown festival.
Champion/ Well, I would like to keep them at 50.
Correia/ I'd like to keep 'em at 50.
Wright/ I can go for 50.
O'Donnell/ 50's fine.
Champion/ If they take over the fireworks next year, I'd think about $60,000.
Lombardo/ That's 10,000 less than was approved last year.
Hayek/ We went up to 60 last year.
Champion/ Oh, we did! Oh. (several talking) Oh, then I'll have to go with 60 (mumbled)
Bailey/ 60? Was that a 60, Matt? Were you, um...
Hayek/ Um, I would be.. .
Bailey/ ...for 60?
Hayek/ Yeah.
Wilburn/ I would...I would go with 60, as well.
Bailey/ Three. And I...I'm perfectly fine with 60.
Champion/ I guess I misread the year.
Bailey/ Okay.
Wilburn/ I have a vague recollection...
Correia/ I mean, we're cutting other things. 55, I mean, it just seems like we're giving the Englert
$50,000 so that's over $100,000 for downtown...I don't know, it just seems like in a year
when things are being cut...
Hayek/ To put it in perspective, I think we've got about 15,000 more to shave to get down to the
number, the 85,000.
Bailey/ Yeah.
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Champion/ I did love the Mission Creek Festival.
Correia/ I loved the Mission Creek and I loved Landlocked.
Bailey/ I do too.
Champion/ I like both of those.
Bailey/ So...
O'Donnell/ I liked Landlocked a lot.
Bailey/ Start us out some numbers here.
Champion/ Well, they can't have a lot. (laughter) I do love them.
Wright/ Well, Landlocked, um, asked for 10,000.
Champion/ No, they asked for 7.
Correia/ 7.
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Wright/ I'm sorry, I was looking at Mission Creek...asked for 7,000, um, I think they're
definitely worth an investment. I also think they could charge two bucks for the weekend
for everybody (several commenting) and clear their expenses. So I say let's give 'em a
thousand bucks.
Correia/ No!
Bailey/ Okay, we have a thousand on the table. What...what would you suggest, Amy?
Correia/ 5,000.
Bailey/ 5,000? (several commenting) Okay.
O'Donnell/ How about half, 3,500?
Bailey/ Have a compromise number at 3,500.
Hayek/ I can live with that.
Correia/ Yeah, I can live with that.
Champion/ Well, let's talk about, can we talk about the two together?
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Bailey/ 3,500, well, they're not together. In any way, shape...
Champion/ Well, we're going to run out of money very quickly here!
Wright/ Well, then we gotta go back and shave some more.
Bailey/ Then we'll go back and shave. We'll, I want to get some starting figures, cause this will
tell us who we want to fund. Okay, let's go to Mission Creek.
Champion/ What'd we do for Landlocked? What'd you say?
O'Donnell/ 3,500.
Bailey/ 3,500.
O'Donnell/ I think...I think Mission Creek also is...is 3,500. It's new, uh, request.
Hayek/ I'd make a stronger pitch for more to this group. I've actually been to one of their, to last
year's, uh, festival, and I know something, just because of my work on the Englert,
about...about their impact, and it's incredible. And they're expanding it...
O'Donnell/ What are you suggesting?
Bailey/ Are you suggesting 5?
Hayek/ 5, at least.
O'Donnell/ I could go with 5.
Champion/ Cause I mean, that's going to be an up and coming thing, and...
O'Donnell/ Yeah, and it's great.
Bailey/ Can we go with 5? One, two, three....great, okay. What are we up to here? (several
talking) Well, I started and then I lost...
Wright/ I've got us at 59.
Champion/ We've already got 60 to the Englert. I mean, 60 to the Summer of the Arts.
Wright/ Give 'em 59.5.
Champion/ No. We have 60...
Wright/Oh, 60, yeah, sorry! (laughter)
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Champion/ I mean, my math is bad (laughter)
Wright/ I wrote down the wrong...
Bailey/ I have us at 71,000 and that can't possibly be.
Correia/ What have we gone through that we...
Bailey/ Okay, so this is...
Champion/ We're at 69, 79.5, I think. No...
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Bailey/ Okay. We have funded Johnson County, uh, local Food Alliance. You want to put these
in, Matt, at a thousand.
Hayek/ Wait. (laughter) Start from t he top.
Bailey/ I am.
Hayek/ Back to work.
Bailey/ Oh, but we (several talking)
Correia/ I think we should...
Wright/ We're being a little bit random.
Bailey/ We have been random. We're okay! Let's just...let's just talk about what we've done so
far, and then we'll go random some more. Johnson County local...the Field to Family,
we've done a thousand.
Hayek/ Okay.
Bailey/ Landlocked Film Festival, we agreed on 3,500. Mission Creek Festival, we've got 5,000,
and Summer of the Arts we've got 60,000. How much more can we spend?
Hayek/ Uh, 69.S...so...
Bailey/ Oh, we can spend some more! We have the whole finance department back here. Help
us out here! (laughter) So what are we at?
Hayek/ We've got another $15,700 roughly (mumbled)
Bailey/ Oh my gosh!
Champion/ ...Irving Weber Days.
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Correia/ I'm interested in the Irving Weber...I think (several talking)
Bailey/ Put a number on the table.
Correia/ 10,000. (several talking) Well, we're funding Summer of the Arts at 60,000. (several
talking)
Bailey/ I'm just saying, I like Summer of the Arts better than Irving Weber Days. That's what I
said.
Wright/ 7,500.
Bailey/ 7,500.
O'Donnell/ Yes.
Bailey/ One, two..
Wilburn/ That's fine.
Bailey/ Three. I'm fine with that. (several talking) Okay, we'll start, we'll go back. All right.
Wilburn/ I want to...are we going to put something else on the table or...
Bailey/ Let's...let's start and go to Bike to Work Week.
Wilburn/ That's what I was going to suggest.
Bailey/ At what?
Wilburn/ Uh, at...at the requested amount. We...um, this is one of the events that's I think a
basis for the application for, um, the um, biking community designation. Um, it has the,
uh, what's traditionally known as the "Mayor's Bike Ride." It highlights the
transportation alternative. We've been, we've had conversations about using the
alternative forms of transportation, both for the environment and for um, relieving just
pressure on cars downtown, um...I think we get a lot of, uh, impact in the cycling world,
in terms of the advocacy that goes on there. There's folks that have been in Des Moines
that are avid supporters and participants, our bike to work week, other communities in the
state look at our group of folks that advocate for the trails, the alternative transportation.
They've been in Des Moines, uh, doing some lobbying with some bicycle legislation,
bicycle safety legislation, so for what I view as a...as a minimal investment we...we see
it in other areas related to transportation, related to environmental concerns, uh,
community profile, etc., etc.
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Bailey/ Okay. So 1,500 for Bike to Work Week? Two...Amy? Mike goes for it. I think we're
going to have money, Amy, so we'll get back to Irving Weber Days and get it fully
funded.
Correia/ We also have the Youth Advisory Commission in here (mumbled)
Champion/ The ADA celebration. That's pretty.
Bailey/ ADA, are we in concurrence to fund that. They've stayed at a steady...
Correia/ $972.
Champion/ 972, I love that!
Bailey/ Okay.
Wright/ I'm fine with that.
Bailey/ Okay. Looks like we have about 5,690 to go. Does that match your numbers, Matt?
Champion/ Does anybody know...
Bailey/ Extend the Dream Foundation?
Champion/ Does anybody know how that little flea market is doing or whether that's really
grown at all or....stagnated?
Bailey/ I don't think it's grown much. I can't remember (several talking)
Hayek/ Is it Tom Walsh's group?
Bailey/ Yes. It is only one of the only things on Labor Day weekend, around here. (several
talking) It's one of those holidays that nothing else...okay, Memorial, yeah. It's one of
those...okay...holidays that not a lot is happening.
Champion/ I think it lacks organization and drive.
Bailey/ So are you suggesting not funding it?
Champion/ Well, I would like to reserve some money for them if they can come up with a real
plan.
Bailey/ Okay. Um, one for no funding.
Correia/ I'm fine to fund it.
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Bailey/ You're fine not funding it?
Correia/ To fund it.
Bailey/ Okay. We can one way or the other.
Wilburn/ I would say to fund it.
Bailey/ Okay, that's two to fund it.
O'Donnell/ I don't care to fund it.
Bailey/ That's two not to fund it. That's three to fund it. Matt?
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Hayek/ I'll fund it, only because I know, uh, how far Mr. Walsh and his cohorts stretch dollars,
cause I've seen 'em do it in other ways, but uh, I wish they'd come in and talk to us.
Bailey/ Okay.
Champion/ Yeah, I'd like to know...
Bailey/ 4,6901eft, um, Iowa City Community String Orchestra. They, um, funding request of
600. We funded them, um, in the budget this year at 400, or...yeah, 09 at 400. Toss me
a number.
Correia/ I'd do 400.
Champion/ 400.
Wright/ 400.
O'Donnell/ 400.
Bailey/ All right.
Champion/ What do we have left?
Bailey/ 4,290. Let's see, what groups do we have left to touch...Riverside Theater...
Correia/ Riverside Theater and the Youth Advisory Commission.
Bailey/ Okay. Toss me some numbers here. Riverside Theater?
Correia/ So why is the Youth Advisory Commission in community events? In programs?
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Bailey/ Do we have money in the Council budget to fund Youth Advisory Commission? Could
the Youth Advisory...Kevin is nodding yes. We could fund the Youth Advisory
Commission from the Council budget. (unable to hear person away from mic) Okay.
Champion/ Okay, and then...but I don't know what they, I don't think they need a increase of
1,200 (mumbled)
Bailey/ So, what are you saying?
Champion/ Well, I would go back to the 3,000.
Correia/ I think the increase is for the (several talking and laughing) for that back-to-school
event.
Champion/ Oh.
Wilburn/ That's correct.
Correia/Yeah.
Bailey/ I think we're under on our travel.
Champion/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay. (several talking)
Champion/ ...what they wanted the increase for.
Correia/ Right, but just sort of thinking about the structure of the Youth Advisory Commission is
a commission of the Council. So I'm not sure.. .
Bailey/ Yeah, and we'll fund it from the Council budget.
Correia/ Right, for it to...
Bailey/ But, I mean, if there's an amount that we want to designate, I think that's most
appropriate. We can talk about it briefly here, unless it's going to be a lengthy discussion.
Um, I do have some concerns about, um, it's meeting schedule and having quorum. So, I
mean, what do you think, Ross? I mean, they have challenges in that way.
Wilburn/ Right, and...the Council has restructured the group and we've got, um, another
appointment coming on, um, I've had conversation with the one school that has no
representation at this point, and they are working to get a representative. I think once we
get them up to full strength, um, I don't anticipate the quorum issues being (several
talking) I don't anticipate it, but L ..I can't promise that.
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Bailey/ Well, no. So, 3,000 from our Council budget, is that the agreement? (several
responding) One, two...
Hayek/ Does that mean it's not from this...
Bailey/ Not from this fund. (several talking)
Correia/ I would say 4,000.
Champion/ Well, we have money in the Council fund. If they come up with a plan to do
something late, they can always come to us for it.
Correia/ Come to us, or the City Manager?
Champion/Well, they have to come to us. (several talking)
Bailey/ Uh, Marian, you look like you have a question.
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Karr/ Well, I'm trying to figure out, again, they presented you a budget of 4,250. It was broken
down I think four, five categories. So whatever amount of money, if there's an event you
don't want to fund, then I think they'd like to hear that message or is the message that
with the existing money, fund the best you can of all the programs.
Bailey/ Summer of the Arts Global Village is 250, web site and advertisement is 1,000, Youth
Empowerment Grant is 200, and back to school summer fun fest is 1,000, and that's the
new event.
Wilburn/ In one of their lines, they reduced, based on...they reduced based on what they actually
used.
Bailey/ It doesn't add up to...one, two...that doesn't add up to the...
Karr/ Check your empowerment grant one again.
Bailey/ No, it's...oh! It says 200 in the line, but it's 2,000. Um, but the line...okay. So, that's
the division.
Karr/ So, yeah, if the direction is to use the money with the new program included, that's what I
was just clarifying. You like the new program, but just...
Bailey/ Which is the back to school summer fun fest.
Karr/ Okay.
Bailey/ Okay. So, from the Council budget, fund them at their request?
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O'Donnell/ I think so.
Bailey/ One...
Correia/ Yes.
Bailey/ Two.
Wilburn/ Yes.
Bailey/ Three.
Champion/ Yeah, I could do it.
Bailey/ Okay. So from the Council budget. All right.
Champion/ They can have my trip to San Francisco.
Bailey/ They can have your National League of Cities trip?
Champion/ Yes.
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Bailey/ Okay. (laughter) I think we'll all donate ours. Okay, Riverside Theater. We have 4,290
left. If anybody...oh, yes. That MBA paid off. I can run a calculator. 4,290 left. We
have Riverside Theater that has requested 5. We've funded, uh, their budget from us last
year...this year is 4,000, and Amy would like to get some more to, uh, Irving Weber
Days, and we would like to visit Taste of Iowa City. So...Riverside?
Champion/ I would give'em 4,000. I think we've given them a lot of support.
Bailey/ Okay. (several responding) One, two, three, four. 4,000. We have $2901eft.
Champion/ 290?
Bailey/ Yes. Where shall we put it?
Correia/ Irving B. Weber Days.
Wright/ Let's give it to Irving Weber Days.
Champion/ Yes.
Bailey/ Should we give it to Irving Weber? (several talking) Okay. So we are funding Irving
Weber at 7,790. Okay. Did you get all that...somebody? Okay. (several talking)
7,790. Nicely done.
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Wilburn/ I just want to make a comment about the...Summer of the Arts, uh, Regenia, you
already mentioned this, kind of a signature event. In the back of my mind I have some
type of recollection of a multi-year commitment at that amount, when they (both talking)
when they consolidated, and I think it was like around, we talked about like around three
years or something like that.
Champion/ It was three years at 50, then last year (several talking)
Bailey/ I think maybe we should, um, we should work session them and talk about our ongoing
commitment, given some challenging times, and how they're doing and how we can help
them built capacity? I, I mean, maybe that's something (several talking) something to put
on, um, okay. All right. Can we move along? Um, the new levy sheet that we recently
received...received this week with the fourth fire station, with the three lieutenants added
in fiscal year 2011. That's what it says at the top, gives us a levy amount, where the
picture of the house is...there are house pictures in here too, gives us a levy amount that
is basically...the bottom house, is 8-cents more than the proposed budget presented on
January 10. Okay? Is everybody following that? So, the first question I'm just going to
put out is, are we comfortable with that particular tax rate? It's essentially the same tax
rate we saw three weeks ago. And I think that's where we need to start our discussion.
And if we don't start our discussion we'll never end our discussion, so are we comfortable
with that tax rate, that amount?
Wright/ Regenia was actually scrambling for the paper, which (mumbled) which amount, the
top...
Bailey/ The bottom one.
Wright/ $815?
Bailey/ $815.10...so in your budget book, um, originally proposed budget was $815.02.
Karr/ We're looking at the packet that has a revised schedule on top that was distributed, you
picked up Wednesday. Tuesday, Wednesday...
Bailey/ I'll give you a minute to catch up.
Karr/ It won't be bound now. It's loose.
Hayek/ I made some notes, and I'm not (mumbled)
Bailey/ I think if you keep turning those pages, Matt, it's...no, this one, in the staple thing. I
think it's back there. Okay. You have...
Lombardo/ ...you refer to, Mayor, is 17.879, correct?
Champion/ Yes.
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Karr/ Second from the bottom.
Bailey/ Yes. Yeah. I was...I as referring to the number in the House.
Hayek/ I mean, to accomplish this, we are, um, doing less capital improvements, fewer capital
improvements, right? We are increasing emergency levy and increasing the employee
benefits levy.
Bailey/ Yes.
Wright/ We're also not bringing in three fire lieutenants.
Bailey/ In 2010.
Wright/ In the 2010 budget.
Bailey/ Right. Okay.
Wright/ But we would bring in the line firefighters.
Bailey/ Right. And so essentially this is the...the same amount we were looking at three weeks
ago, and so I'm going to ask the question -are we comfort...it's a tax increase.
Wilburn/ And we're doing the prioritization over the next (mumbled)
Bailey/ And we're...and we have indicated our commitment to the prioritization over the next
few months, because um, the first budget we saw is an unsustainable budget. This is an
unsustainable budget, and so prioritization is going to be critical.
Wright/ I think we need to be clearer when we say prioritization what we're actually saying.
We're going to be looking at services and programs and...
Hayek/ Personnel cuts.
Wright/ Personnel cuts.
Wilburn/ For the purposes of making a sustainable budget...
Wright/ Right, for the purposes of keeping a sustainable budget, but let's just be clear and not,
uh...
Bailey/ We're going to prioritize services, which could have service cuts. It could have the
collapse of a department. It could have a lot of things. It could have...so, are we
comfortable.. .
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Correia/ So it's a 16-cents increase from this year's tax rate?
Champion/ No, it's more than that.
Lombardo/ But largely not because of an increase in the levy rate, but because of appreciation of
assessed values.
Bailey/ Right. I mean, to parse it out, but no citizen parses out a tax increase.
Champion/ But that increase doesn't, that doesn't include the increase in the employee levy
(mumbled)
Bailey/ Yes.
Champion/ Oh, it includes that. Okay.
Bailey/ Yes. This gets us...
Champion/ It has everything. Okay, that explains the discrepancy that I was coming up with.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Just to give you some context, I think what we were talking about a week or two ago was
to, uh, make some cuts, um, to go some distance toward the cost of the new...of Fire
Station 4 personnel costs, right? Um, and this is a different suggestion, where we
basically give up some capital spending (mumbled)
Bailey/ Those cuts were made in capital...instead of service. Yes.
Hayek/ About $500,000 in capital expenditures we're not going to make.
Bailey/ Right.
Hayek/ Uh, and then, uh, in return for that we have $500,000 of additional, uh, spending, paid for
by a levy for personnel and employee benefits.
Bailey/ And so I repeat the question -are we comfortable with this City levy amount?
O'Donnell/ This budget is not sustainable, is that what I'm understanding?
Bailey/ The first budget we were presented with wasn't sustainable. We committed that we will
look at services over the next few months with a goal of being done with that by May. So
in case some of these can be implanted, well, with hope that some of these can be
implemented with the fiscal year, July 1, and we can even further shrink this. The
expenses.
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Correia/ The other question that I have is when I was looking through the capital improvement
program, something that we had talked about at our last budget meeting was things like
not including growth in parks if we're thinking that any growth in parks is going to have
an operational impact, and so I don't...I see that we still have those in here, and if we're
going to be talking about priorities over the next few months, we...essentially with this
budget, are committing to growth, which would have an impact on operations that, so I'm
not sure...why (several talking) some of those things weren't moved out.
Bailey/ So you're advocating further reductions in the capital budget?
Correia/ Yes.
Bailey/ Okay.
Correia/ That wouldn't be reductions in, you know, maintenance or...or up...
Bailey/ So Amy's indicated that she's uncomfortable with the City levy amount, and would like
further cuts in the capital budget. Are there others who would like to go through the
capital budget and look at that?
Champion/ Well, I thought we...
Wright/ I would be willing to take another look at some of those.
Bailey/ Tonight?
Wright/ I think we've got a couple things we can still cut out of that.
Bailey/ Okay. (several talking)
Correia/ And I guess I'm not talking about necessary cutting out altogether, but...
Bailey/ Out years.
Correia/ ...and said that we have a chance, not commit ourselves to growth if we're going to do a
priority to...to then say later, well, we need to, you know, our priority is not to continue
growth, but then we've already committed ourselves.
Bailey/ Michael, you had a comment?
Lombardo/ I was just curious if, um, to know which park project, if it's Franholz-Miller and...
Bailey/ Well, I mean, I think that's what we'll do next. The one thing that I would like to point
out, if...if we're on parks, the one park project that I would suggest that we move out is
on C-8...it's the North Market Square, um, park redevelopment. It's a small dollar
amount, but the reasons, um, and I spoke with the northside neighborhood at the
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Northside Neighborhood meeting about this. As you know, the facilities plan for the
School District has come out. There are some discussions, although not in Executive
Summary about older schools. Should the School District want or need to, um, one of the
ideas for Longfellow, because they have land, is to build a new school, build on that site.
They don't have that kind of space Horace Mann, but perhaps if we put this
redevelopment in an out year, we could look at land swapping or some kind of
arrangement should that be of interest to both parties.
Champion/ Very good point.
Bailey/ So, if we moved this out, this would give us flexibility. It would be a shame to do park
redevelopment and then look at that question. So, I would suggest we move that out.
People in the northside seem to be comfortable with that, just because of the unknown
nature of this, uh, school discussion.
Wright/ Given the commitment of the neighborhood to keeping that school, uh, I would agree
with you.
Bailey/ Okay. So...
Champion/ Well, they have to keep that school.
Bailey/ I would suggest...moving it out for placeholder in, uh, 11, if others are in agreement.
Hayek/ Yeah, if that's the northside's sentiment (mumbled)
Bailey/ It was a very small meeting, but I did...I did give aheads-up to people and there seemed
to be concurrence about that.
Champion/ The other, um, park...
Bailey/ Okay. Um, Amy wanted to look at some other park projects. Can we do that first?
Champion/ (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay, Amy, do you have some (both talking) page?
Correia/ B-9.
Bailey/ Thank you.
Wright/ What was it?
Correia/ B-9. I mean, I'm just looking at things that are in fiscal year 10, so moving out our
bonding.
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Bailey/ And that...Sand Lake increased by $2 million. It was $4 million in our previous...I'm
sorry, Kevin. Marian...(several talking) yes, C-9 of the revised. (several talking)
Lombardo/ I can share with you, the 250,000 that was in, is in for 2010 is, uh, that...in CIP we
discussed this -the general sentiment is that we need to do some ground leveling. There's
some just basic work, because it's starting to draw attention and we need to do so earth
moving and just making sure that it's safe. There's some holes and ruts and things, so we
put this amount in there, um, to do just some basic kind of site work, and...brush
hogging, so that it's more visible and it's, you know, cleaner, um, there are no...it's safer
for people to be in and around. There's not as much brush grown up and then the ground
leveling, so...(several talking) just basic, basic...kind of maintenance of what's there, so
that it, if people do go out there to fish, that it's not as much of a safety hazard for them...
Wilburn/ There are people using it now, and, um, it's...it's still pretty raw off of a quarry
operation, so there's...there's stuff down there that...
Lombardo/ Right.
Correia/ So in our...in our recurring projects...
Bailey/ Can I just ask Kevin, un, why...
O'Malley/ It's a simple math error.
Bailey/ Okay, thank you.
O'Malley/ It was supposed to be $6 million all along. All we've done is really, uh, for Sand Lake
is just move the money out a few years.
Bailey/ Okay. I just wanted to confirm that. Okay, Amy?
O'Malley/ And to answer maybe a earlier question, nothing that you do in FY10 will affect your
tax levy. That's only FY09 projects.
Bailey/ And that's what you moved around. Right.
Correia/ Yes, but as we're talking about the future, anything we commit to now, we're essentially
saying we're going to commit to maintaining it in the future, and we haven't gone (both
talking)
O'Malley/ Right, I'm just...I think somebody started the CIP discussion with trying to reduce this
year's tax levy.
Bailey/ Well, that's how I was framing it, um...
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O'Malley/ Right, and that's why I just want to clear that up. Unless you cut an FY09 project,
you're not going to impact your levy.
Correia/ We're thinking about, and we've had this conversation about, building the ground work
for sustainable budget for fiscal year 11 and beyond. We need to be looking at what
we're committing to building now, or we're just adding things on that we said we have to
maintain if we build it, so...okay.
Wilburn/ I would also just add...(both talking)
Correia/ No, I just had a question of the, you're talking about this $250,000 for the improvements
there, we've already in the recurring projects bond for park maintenance and
improvements of $473,000. So none of that can be, I mean, that's committed, we know
that's committed elsewhere, it can't be...
O'Malley/ No, it's not committed.
Correia/ Okay.
O'Malley/ That's kind of a blank, a thing for all the parks.
Correia/ Okay.
O'Malley/ For any park.
Correia/ So, potentially we can...not have it be necessarily listed under Sand Lake, but have that
achieved in our $473,000 that we bond for parks maintenance and improvements already.
Lombardo/ Instead of calling it out for Sand Lake specifically, put it elsewhere so it's not in...
Correia/ Because we already do it.
Champion/ The other thing that...a problem I think one reason our taxes have gotten so high is
that we tend to bond for things that should be coming out of our General Budget just
because our General Budget is so strung out, so we're bonding for like park maintenance
and we're bonding for computers. And we're bonding for things that are...have to be
replaced all the time and we should only be bonding for things that are more permanent.
I know it's legal. I'm not saying we're doing anything illegal, but it sure...
O'Malley/ That's correct, Connie, plus we also are bonding for some personnel costs...in our
TARP program, or GRIP program, which is not good budgeting.
Champion/ It seems to me, and I'm sorry -I've been on the Council for 12 years and I (mumbled)
that we simply don't have the money to do all this. We just don't have it. And we have
no other way of raising, besides sales tax, and so people look at their taxes and they think
that we're building all this stuff, and a lot of it isn't building at all. A lot of it is not bricks
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and mortar. A lot of it is employee levy, and a lot of it is stuff we should be paying cash
for.
Bailey/ Well, and I think this is a really good discussion, but fundamentally I think what we need
to get to tonight, I mean, some of this parks' discussion, I mean, I hear what you're
saying, Amy, and some of this can be...be done in prioritization to move these out, um,
because that's the nature of a CIP program, but fundamentally, I want to get to a place
where we have a comfortable, what we are comfortable with for this past levy, so we can
give some direction to staff so they can get this budget published. So, if nothing that we
do in FY10 impacts this particular City levy in FY10.
Correia/ We have to publish our CIP, with our budget (mumbled) for fiscal year 10, we have to
say what we're planning to bond for.
O'Malley/ State law requires us to publish some very arcane forms that...that you would not be
able to devise the CIP out o£ This is the financial plan that we present to the public, that
this is what we intend to do. This is how they can interpret what we do, but what the
State requires that for the tax levy information is very arcane program words that would
be pretty difficult to define.
Karr/ Not detailed.
Bailey/ Sure. (several talking) we know that some of that work...what we intend to do, will be
in prioritization.
Correia/ I guess...I'm not comfortable not going through this and saying what I'm agreeing to,
and will be voting on, bonding for in fiscal year 10 unless we have this conversation now
(mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay, are there others who want to go through this entire CIP tonight, and um, make
adjustments?
Lombardo/ I'll only add, projects change. I mean, this is a budget. The projects change every
year because different priorities come up and, I mean, CIP is adjusted often throughout
the year so...because it's articulated here doesn't mean it absolutely gets done.
Bailey/ Right. Are there others who are interested in going through the CIP and making these
changes? Amy's made a suggestion of an approach and I just want to see if there are
three others who would like to take that approach tonight.
Wright/ Before I say yes or no to your question, there is one CIP budget issue, CIP item, that I
would like to see discussed because it bridges two different years. Do I want to go line
by line, and page by page - no.
Bailey/ Okay.
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Correia/ ... a couple other items that I wanted to talk about.
Bailey/ Okay, are there others who just want to highlight some items?
Hayek/ I'd like to make a...a suggestion, um, that kind of throws a wrench in all of that.
Bailey/ I don't like that. Go ahead.
Hayek/ (laughter) That's why I'm making it! Um, I mean, we've...and this has to do, uh,
with...with the impact of the fire station on what was presented to us in December. Um,
we're...what was presented to us in December omitted that, uh, it was a balanced budget,
um, with very difficult decisions having to be made a year from now, and frankly sooner
than that, because we're going to go through this prioritization process, um, we... from
my perspective, staff has been pulling their hair out trying to basically scramble ever
since then to, uh, figure out a way to pay for the first year's personnel costs, um, in the 10
budget, um, and we are...we've gone through, we've taken several stabs at...at trying to
grab the money from this place or that place, and we're about to start talking about that
again tonight, um, and there are some unknowns out there, uh, and in terms of financial
picture that the City will face just in the next few months. Last year we brought in, I
checked on this, we...just the interest income alone on our money was $1.6 million. It
may drop down to $300,000 this coming year. That's a drop of well in excess of a
million dollars, um, we don't have those final figures. I think we're going, I checked and
we're going to get them in the next few weeks or maybe next couple of months, and um,
that shouldn't change our commitment to moving forward with the fire station. I think
there's broad consensus to do that. But, it seems a little, uh, chaotic to me to, um, say on
the one hand we're going to start this massive prioritization process. Just in a couple
more months from now, um, it's going to require a comprehensive review of our needs
and our wants, and...and involve a lot of energy, which has to occur. But at the same
time try to splash-dash something together for this budget, to, uh, do the first, uh, step,
uh, in the personnel and capital expenditure for the fire station. Uh, and I'm seeing the
drain it's causing on staff to try to do that. One thing we could do is say that we're going
to lump the fire station into the prioritization process. I have no doubt that it'll come out
at the top or near the top. Um, it's a matter of waiting a few more months. It would put
everything into the same pot, and apply everything to the same prioritization process, and
um, I think by then we'll have more information. We'll make difficult decisions, but they
will be global and it might make for a, uh, a more manageable and...and thoughtful
approach to all of this. It is a suggestion.
Bailey/ Are there others who, uh, interested in...in pursuing that line? That approach. (several
talking)
Wilburn/ In my mind, um...we've heard over the last...four or five years, um, that fire station
and staffing, it has emerged over the last four or five years through meetings, work
sessions, public input, um, election, Council election, um, so in my mind, um, that's a
done deal. That has already happened through all of those, uh, processes, and so um, I
think over the next several months when we do the prioritization process, we are already
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doing more than past Council...we will be doing more than past Councils have been
doing, because we will be dealing with budget over a longer period of time, um, setting
up for the next budget plan. So, um, so I'm not wanting to uh, include the fire station as
part of that prioritization process, to make a long story short, because I feel that has
already been done through multiple, um, in multiple areas that (mumbled)
Wright/ L..agree with you completely, Ross. L..just can't see putting the fire station, uh, even at
slight risk at this point. We have had too much feedback from all over the community in
favor of this, and I think we need to bite the bullet and go ahead with the fire station as
we've discussed.
Wilburn/ And if I could add, um, you know, each year we...we do this and...and staff has gone
through the process and whittled down already and, you know, we make the final
adjustments and that's the give and take of the finalization of the process for "the plan,"
and Michael's correct. There are times throughout the year that we will adjust the plan,
and there's one or two times during the year that we will vote, uh, a revised budget, based
on...based on that. And, I think also, um, you know, even though we...we can only do
so much with the information we have at the time we're making it here, because uh, we've
also had the experience in the past where after we pummeled each other up here, uh, the
State comes out and changes the game after we submitted our, you know, so that was the
worst scrambling that I've seen. So this does not feel as, um, frenetic as that time, to me.
That's just, um, so...comfortable is probably not the...the right word to use, because it's
always difficult in terms of how much to tax and respecting Connie's comments about,
um, given what has been presented with the adjustments that we've made, and the
commitment to stretch the examination of the future budget that the Council's going to do
through the prioritization process, um, that's...that's a, uh, way to manage our way
through this at this time that I'm comfortable with.
O'Donnell/ You know, I think what Matt said makes, uh, makes a great deal of sense. I remain
very committed to the Fire Department, um, but we're looking at um, tax increases or...or
I think reliance on a local option sales tax, um, everybody's intentions are still I think
very much in favor of moving forward, but we did have couple of major obstacles jump
in our way. Ones the cost for the flood and the other is the economy in general, um,
we're looking at some significant tax increases to our citizens at this point right now, uh,
with a Joint Communication Center, um, the fire station will most certainly increase it. I
don't know to what degree yet, um, I just...I don't know if I'm ready to burden the
taxpayer to that degree, well, I'm not willing to burden the taxpayer to that degree a this
time. I would like to, um, I would like to follow Matt's recommendation. I think it is a
priority for us, but things have come into play that were not in our control.
Hayek/ Mine is not an argument to...to keep pushing off the fire station. That was one (both
talking) I'm as committed as anybody to it, but it's just...it doesn't make sense to me
budgetarily to...to try to slap-dash, and I'm probably creating a word there, uh, hastily, in
my mind, hastily and somewhat chaotically, craft a way to pay for the first leg of it in this
budget, knowing that in two or three months, we're going to be doing a comprehensive
review of everything, um, in a more methodical measured, uh, manner, that um, allows us
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to work as a group, and staff to work with us, to...to figure out how we're going to pay
for the services we've prioritized as being at the top of the list or...or at least not at the
bottom of the list, and it...systematically it makes more sense to me.
Bailey/ Well systematically what would have made sense is if we actually had a proposed budget
this year that took our comments last year seriously and would have included the fire
station, and then we could have had this discussion over a longer period of time, I mean, I
think that that's what you're referring to, that...that we actually have expressed this
commitment to the fire station, and I would suggest...I wouldn't want to put it in a
prioritization. We have mucked about with this project long enough. It seems like it's
not enough of a priority for us to step forward with it. You can say it's a priority or we
can all say it's a priority, but until we're willing to take a step in the direction of actually
funding it and moving forward on it, it really isn't a priority. It's just words. And so, if
we are not willing to fund this in this budget, sure, we can talk about it in prioritization,
but my inclination would be to take this fire station off the table and stop kidding our
citizens and kidding our Fire Department that it's ever going to happen. And that's
exactly how I feel about this. We've delayed this long enough. Either we're committed
to it, or we're not, and I know it's a difficult step. I know it involves a tax increase, but
this tax increase is no, is not substantially different than the proposed budget that we got
three weeks ago. We've found a way, staff has found a way to make it happen, because
we have said it's a priority. We have an opportunity to make it happen. Why aren't we
seizing this opportunity, if it's such apriority -that's my question.
Hayke/ Well, I mean, whether we fund the beginnings of it in FY10 or...or FY11, uh, the fire
station is going to be part of the prioritization, uh, process. Every last thing we do will be
part of that process.
Bailey/Afire station that doesn't exist, it doesn't necessarily have to be part of that prioritization
process. It could be, or it could not be. It doesn't exist. It's a concept. It's a priority, so
we say, but the priority, I mean, values and beliefs are only indicated through behavior.
And that's...
Champion/ I think you're being a little hard on Matt. I...I.. .
Bailey/ No, I'm not intending to be hard on Matt. I'm frustrated because we...we go through this
on a fairly regular basis and I just don't want to put people through this again. I don't
want to put fellow Council Members through it. If we're not going to move forward, let's
just stop talking about it.
Champion/ You know, I agree with...I agree with Matt. I think he's absolutely right. L ..I'm
willing to leave the fire station in the current budget, but I want to know by the end of
this prioritization that we're so calling, talk about how we're going to staff it, and pay for
it.
Bailey/ Wait a minute! I'm...
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Champion/ Well, without...exorbitantly raising people's taxes to do it.
Bailey/ No, no, that's in the new proposal.
Champion/ Not this year.
Bailey/ Yes!
Wright/ This is the exact same, almost exact same levy that...(both talking)
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Bailey/ The revised budget includes the fire station with the staffing spread over (several talking)
Lombardo/ But, additional, I mean, cuts are going to have to be made to be able to sustain that
level of funding.
Champion/ Right.
Lombardo/ And I think we all understand that.
Bailey/ And that's what we talked about on the 10th, that we were committed to the fire station,
we understood the prioritization or the cuts or examining services would be looked at as
part of...of getting to the fire station. Matt is suggesting, um, and I don't know what that
would impact the taxes, so we have to get some sense from Kevin. I mean, maybe it
could hold them flat, um, just putting...instead of doing what we said on the 10th,
actually putting it off and putting it in the prioritization mix. Because it's in this revised.
Champion/ Okay.
Wright/ Yeah, and I think, mark my words, if we put it off of this budget to fiscal year 11, we'll
find a way to put it off to fiscal year 12...
Bailey/ That's my fear.
Wright/ ...and I've just about had it with this fire station being put off. I'm really very frustrated
right at the moment with the concept.
Champion/ Well, I agree with you on that. L ..I find it very frustrating how I'm going to keep
people living in Iowa City to pay for it, but I agree with you. It has to be a priority and,
um, Regenia, I think you're right. The priority is keep it in there. Um, it's difficult. It's
very difficult. But, we really have got to get this fire station (several talking)
Hayek/ Don't get me wrong! What the City Manager proposed in the recent packet, uh, makes
the most sense I think, to me, I mean, it's an easy way out for this body because we're not
talking about making any cuts, other than in the capital program.
Bailey/ Today we're not talking about any cuts.
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Hayek/ Right, so we kick the can down the road, essentially, um, at least a few months, but you
know, it slows the, uh, implementation of personnel for the fire station by putting off the
lieutenants hired, uh, it you know, drops spending on capital programs by half million to
pay for the half million increase in personnel and benefits expenses. So, it gets it done,
and...my point was more a systematic one.
Champion/ No!
Hayek/ But another thing I (several talking) I want to defend the staffs decision not to include it
in the budget, because two very critical things happened over the last year, and one is the
flood, not predicted, and one is the incredible implosion of the economy, not predicted
with substantial impacts to the City, and on interest income alone, you're talking about a
million three.
Lombardo/ And I'll add that it's not, uh, mine or staff s prerogative to recommend to you massive
cuts to services in order to fund something, without any broad guidelines up front to do
so. Um, I understand that there was intent and there was an effort made to get it funded,
but I strongly disagree that it should have been in there as a budget with a
recommendation for a tax increase. That's not my responsibility.
Wilburn/ I'd also like to add, um, I understand your point in terms of, uh, the pacing and
decisions here recently with that decision to include it, but to use broad strokes like
haphazard and slapping together, I think dishonors the work including the, uh, cuts that
were made and the proposal that was initially put in front of us that was done over the
course of months by staff, I...I know you don't mean it that way, but I think that can be
misleading for the public, um, and...and the press, and so I...I, we're not...we didn't start
with a budget from scratch as we were sitting and talking, so I just want us to be cautious
with the implication, words that we use, and I still go back to the fact that, um, saying
that we're going to do something that, uh, we acknowledged in the short-term is, uh, is a
uh, is a modest hike increase, um, that is not to say over time given our, uh, given our
own guidelines in trying to keep balanced budgets and sustainable, and to keep within
our, even our self-imposed limits, but this body also has a history of during times of crisis
and/or opportunity that has come up, in some cases decided by the public, of both a slight
increase over a few years, manage our way, modifying some service, cutting some things,
letting things go by attrition to bring it back down, uh, within those areas that include
both of our, uh, both our debt policy. That includes (mumbled) history of use of that
emergency levy, um, so in a sense, it's kicking the can down the road, but that doesn't
acknowledge, here's the plan in place for making sure that we've got a string on the can
(noise on mic, unable to hear) so that's...
Hayek/ Don't get me wrong. I...I know that months went into, uh, the work that the departments
did to shave, uh, off the original budget plan, and that's why it came in on budget, or at
budget, but that...that excluded the fire station, and that's in my point is that once we
include the fire station...
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Wilburn/ We change the conditions.
Hayek/ ...we change the conditions. So...
Bailey/ And we altered the conditions, I mean, I think staff has done a very creative approach to
altering the conditions, that we can actually pull back on the debt levy and still have this.
I don't know. So, where are we?
Wright/ Well, may I make a suggestion? Since we now know that (both talking) CIP is not part
of the published budget. And we are going to have essentially a dissection of the budget,
beginning in a couple of months. May we leave the CIP discussion, further CIl'
discussions, out for the time being?
Bailey/ Unless anybody has any burning issues, I would be inclined to do that. You said you had
one, and Amy had a few, so...I mean, if these are burning...I'm inclined to do that, but
(several talking)
O'Donnell/ Well, we've already talked about the half a million dollars on the Sand Lake project.
Wilburn/ I do have a comment about that one, since it was brought up already, if I could.
Bailey/ Sure.
Wilburn/ If the Council decides that, and this is just areminder - an awareness piece -that the
Sand Lake project is something that they wish to push into further years, um, there's a
longer term impact to that because I don't think we'll be in a better position to get a
community attraction, tourism grant than we are right now. So that's...that's something
that potentially may not be there in the future, which pushes even further down the road
the capacity to...shape that into an area, and that, I'm just saying (both talking)
Bailey/ ...it might not even be..
Wilburn/ ...that may, yeah, that may be a decision that, but I'm just saying, be aware that
there...that we are giving up something which may be a decision that Council may wish
to make.
Champion/ Well, I...you know, sometimes you just can't afford it yet. Just can't afford to pay for
it.
Bailey/ Okay. You had a burning capital project issue?
Wright/ If my burning, my burning issue can be discussed in a couple of months, I'm willing to
put it off for the sake of...expedience!
Bailey/ Okay. Will be discussing our capital improvement, um, as part of our prioritization, I am
assuming we will.
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Lombardo/ Yeah, I mean, depending on what we want to accomplish, certainly going to effect
the projects that we do and um, with regard to Sand Lake, we'll have, we have an
upcoming presentation before the CAT grant or Vision Iowa Board. We may have some
better indication of what level of funding may or may not be coming. These bonds will
not be issued for more than a year, and so there is time to say, look, you know, I know it's
in the budget but we're just not going to issue debt for whatever, um, i£..if something
comes out of the prioritization, or we see something happening with regard to the funding
for Sand Lake or any other project that we expect some level of...of state or federal
assistance.
Bailey/ Amy, did you have some questions about some projects?
Correia/ Well, I just, the...the interstate 80 aesthetics, I mean, I know it's not a lot of money, that
$20,000 a year over four years out of our road use tax, but you know, I just drove from
Iowa City to D.C., plenty of stretches what you were talking about, what we're going to
be seeing with concrete in the middle, and you go by so fast, I just don't think that it's
road use tax well spent on a road that's not even ours, and we do have vegetation on
either side. I'd rather put that in to, um, pavement rehab, you know, or other things that
we, that actually will impact Iowa City residents, um, then an interstate 80 aesthetic
improvement.
Lombardo/ If you'd like to have a work session on that, I would...I think appropriate to have
JCCOG as part of that and.. .
Bailey/ Well, I think if we can talk about that with prioritization, Imean, it looks...bonds have
been issued for 09, or how...
O'Malley/ This doesn't have any bonds.
Correia/ Road use tax.
Bailey/ Oh, road use tax, so we've spent (both talking)
Correia/ Nothing to with bonds, but it's just, you know, this is the first time we've seen this and...
O'Malley/ Yes, we have spent 09.
Bailey/ Okay. So we've spent 09 and so we can talk about 10 in the prioritization. Was there
another project that you wanted to...
Correia/ No.
Bailey/ Okay. Mike?
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Wright/ For the sake of just my own clarification for the, the Burlington Street median, the
University mentioned that they would be willing to pay for the first piece, if we would
pay for the second, but I have some real questions about our ability to pay for the second.
Uh, in 11. As far as that goes, if the University can even.. .
Bailey/ Right, well I think that's something we'll have to discuss, because given the University's
environment has changed, as well.
Wright/ And I say that, it's no secret probably to anybody that I don't think it's a particularly
great idea, uh, but I say that too because there's a commitment involved in that...that we
may not be able to afford.
Bailey/ Okay. So that...that'll be a discussion after you all have talked to the University?
(several talking) Okay. So, back to where we are with this levy. We are at 17.879. I
won't use the word comfortable. If you'd give me another word... are we willing to move
ahead with this? With our published budget'?
Wilburn/ Yes.
Champion/ Yes.
Wright/ Yes.
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ Give me that number again. I want to make sure we're on the same...
Bailey/ Right. It's right down here -it's 17.879. Am I saying that correctly, Kevin? Okay. So,
are we willing to move ahead with this? This has been a group that has typically
approved a budget unanimously, I want to make sure that we are discussing this
completely before we get a published budget.
Hayek/ And...and to compare it to what was originally proposed, in terms of the dollar impact
per 100,000, it increases that by 8-cents.
Bailey/ 8-cents, yes. Are you willing to move ahead with that, Matt?
Champion/ Yes, yes, move ahead with it.
Hayek/ Yep.
Bailey/ Amy? Okay. Um, all right. That's the direction we need, um, any other...budget items
that we need to discuss. Um, at our next work session Marian will be having a schedule
that will include meetings that will, about this prioritization. We know that we want to
do that in the upcoming months, so just we'll be prepared for that. Any other comments
or questions about the budget?
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Correia/ And so we'll be discussing at our next work session the sales tax?
Bailey/ Um, that's another item that I want to bring up. There's one other thing that I want to ask,
and if nobody else is uncomfortable about this, it's a moot point. Is anybody
uncomfortable about, um, a recycling coordinator, even though it's funded from Landfill
fees, um, adding any staffing in a difficult budget year? I think it's a distinction that's lost
on the public that it's funded from a different pot. I have some discomfort with adding
any staff this year. Is anybody else uncomfortable with that? One other person.
Correia/ Say it again.
Bailey/ It is a different source, but I think that's something that's lost, I mean, I'm talking a little
bit about appearances, I admit. No, I'm talking quite a bit about appearances. I think it's
lost that it is a different source, but that's why I'm expressing discomfort and not, you
know, whole scale against it, but is anybody else concerned about this?
Wright/ I think it quite frankly just looks bad.
Bailey/ I do too. Nobody else?
Hayek/ No, I'm...trying to find the page.
Lombardo/ My only comment is that, you know, in terms of our efforts toward green initiatives,
this, you know, this position is going to be key to doing that, so I...we may have to slow
down some of the.. .
Bailey/ Philosophically L ..I.. .
Lombardo/ ...understand completely, just want to make sure that...that we understand (both
talking)
Bailey/ ...just think it's lost.
Hayek/ How does this position, though, coordinate her time with work being done on the east
side? With...with recycling and with, I mean, that's part of our CIP. Is this a hirer that is
in conjunction with that?
O'Malley/ My recollection of this position was it was going to help more than just recycling. It
was going to look at wetlands and other, uh, natural areas, besides the...it's not just the
recycling type...
Lombardo/ ...storm water (both talking)
O'Malley/ ...right.
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Bailey/ I don't...
O'Malley/ It was kind of a larger...
Bailey/ I want to be clear. I don't have a problem, I just...it's an appearance concern.
Correia/ So the 100, is the 100%, this position has no impact on the benefits levy, there's no
100%...
O'Malley/ There is no tax implication at all.
Correia/ ...no tax implication.
Bailey/ And I understand that.
Correia/ No, I know, I'm just checking!
Bailey/ Okay.
Correia/ You never know, sometimes maybe there's employee (both talking)
Bailey/ Yep!
Champion/ Oh, yeah, sometimes they're split with somebody else (several talking)
Wilburn/ ...criticized, you're always criticized for what you do, um, and that's, we put ourselves
in the position to and that's...that's the response and um, maybe there's some members of
the public that, that, uh, don't appreciate that, but uh, my...rationale is you...you pay for
this out of your...you're paying for this out of your fees and...and this community has a
history of embracing recycling efforts, and so (mumbled) recycling and a concern about,
you know, waste water, storm water, all of that.
Champion/ I don't have any problems, um (several talking)
Bailey/ Okay, I mean, I'm more than willing to do the bullet points and the talking points. I fully
understand. I just wanted to put it out there for...okay. Are we good? All right. Let's
talk sales tax, because we can, because it might have an implication on the budget. There
are two items that you got tonight, um, let's look at...trying to figure out. Okay. The
email that's to Marian that says page 1 of 2 at the top. One of two. (several commenting)
Okay, this is, as you can see, I'll summarize a little bit and then give you time to look at
it. And then Michael, you can jump in, um, the Auditor felt that this was important
information for us to have. There's a distinction of course if we enact...if we get this on
the ballot and the local option sales tax is enacted earlier, naturally we will collect more
money. And so, um, in the bottom paragraph he makes that distinction about what that
difference is, and then in the table, that's attached, it's on a legal size. Shows um, some
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potential amounts, and Michael, if you would just want to walk us through that with the
columns, because you know what the column headings mean.
Lombardo/ (mumbled) um, the, um, basically if you take from the column that says "distribution
percentage".. .
Bailey/ Could you use your microphone...sorry, thank you.
Lombardo/ ...back, um, the three year property tax levy is, uh, the mechanism that they use to
derive the distribution percentage, and so if, um, all the jurisdictions listed here were to
vote in the affirmative that, uh, to adopt a sales tax, then the distribution percentages
would apply as listed in that column, and Iowa City for the 12-month period, uh, moving
forward would, uh, would bring in the amount listed and then it breaks it out different
ways. Um, my understanding, and we're going to be doing some homework in, with the
new legislation and making sure we understand if any one of the cities votes no, then that
effects the percentage. What I need to determine is, what does it mean in terms of
dollars, uh, is...is the full amount redistributed or does, you know, do the taxes earned
and...for Iowa City, for taxable um, sales get excluded and I want to make sure we
understand specifically how that works, and not...and at the work session we'll be ready
to answer those questions, but it does have implications for percentages and where the
dollars go and, um...
Bailey/ And Tom wanted to just, of course, draw the distinction between if the local election is
held in March, versus the local election held in May. And he felt that that was important,
that we had that information.
Karr/ The revenue difference he projects between the two dates, with the assumption that it
passes in all of Johnson County, Iowa City's difference in revenues with the two dates is
$1.1 million.
Bailey/ So that's receiving revenue April 1st versus July 1st.
Karr/ Correct.
Bailey/ Um, so...I'm just going to...we'll work...I'm just going to ask aquestion - is there any
thought, I know some already feel that this is moving too quickly, but is there...is there
any interest, and I don't even hardly know how we would do this, but we...the deadline
is...
Karr/ The deadline for the March election is February 3rd, Tuesday.
Bailey/ Tuesday.
Karr/ The issue, the question, the bottom line is, is there any interest to make that March
election, and if so, it is possible only if there's interest on the part of Council to decide
this by February 3rd. If not, the deadline for the May election is March 10th.
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Bailey/ And well within our current schedule. So, is there any interest...given this
information...that we got just today. I know it's all moving very quickly. The Governor
is going to sign...is expected to sign this bill on Monday. So, um, and much of this came
from Cedar Rapids, and I believe that they're probably poised with their language, um, is
there any interest in trying to get language together by Tuesday?
Champion/ What is Coralville's wish on this? Do you know?
Karr/ Coralville's wish is for timing, wording, or both.
Bailey/ They have not expressed an interest, um.. .
Karr/ I have not...we've not talked to Coralville since these figures came out, and um, at the time
that we knew of Coralville's interest, there was only one date mentioned and that was
February 3rd. And since that initial discussion, the second option has been given.
Bailey/ And they were a part of the meeting to develop the second option. I think, um, there was
some belief that February 3rd maybe too soon. So, um, I'm making some assumptions
here, but I think that...that they would be okay with a later date, but I don't have any
indications. Is there any interest in trying to meet before Tuesday?
O'Donnell/ I don't know how we can, doesn't that seem like it's going at break-neck speed?
Bailey/ I think we could use the word that Mat used earlier, slap-dash?
Hayek/ Think I used the word mania the other day.
Bailey/ Okay, mania would work, yes.
Wright/ Frenetic came up.
Bailey/ Okay. So are we saying that there's no interest in meeting before Tuesday? And that we
will just continue to have this scheduled for our work session on February 9th? (several
commenting)
Champion/ I just don't think we can have it done by then, without appearing, I mean, we
wouldn't even...no.
Bailey/ Okay. (several talking) All right. So we will work session sales tax on February 9th.
Are there any other items or questions about this particular issue? Okay. I think that's it.
Lombardo/ ...Iowa sales tax law in a lot faster fashion (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay. ]
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Karr/ Um, just in...
Champion/ ...a first if you understand (several talking)
Bailey/ Do we have any other items tonight?
Karr/ Just in closing, because we will have that memo out on scheduling, if there are any dates in
the next few months that you know you're unavailable, why don't you give me a call,
send me an email, and I can work that into the proposal for the memo going out next
week.
Wright/ One thing I would like to add is a big thank you to staff for all the work pulling this
together. I know some of this had to be done pretty darn fast!
Bailey/ Thank you.
Lombardo/ We should anticipate having a brief executive session, uh, on the 9th as well. Um, to
discuss labor negotiations and...
Bailey/ All right. So I think that that's all the, um, business that we have for this evening. Thank
you. Um, good discussion, and we will move forward.
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