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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2003-01-27 TranscriptionJanuary 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 1 Lehman: Alright guys let's get started. We've got a full agenda and obviously if you look at the schedule we're scheduled to run until 9:20. If we hold true to form that's probably going to be closer to I0:20. So I guess that I would ask that the presenters really try to limit their comments. And also as a Council we need to I think be respectful of those folks who are coming up later and try to keep it as close to schedule as we can. So we don't have time to ask and get the answers to questions that we as Council people have why don't we make notes on them and we can get back to the presenters perhaps some other time. O'Donnell: Good idea. Lehman: First presentation is the Airport Commission. Alan Ellis: Good evening Mayor Lehman and the members of the Council. My name is Alan Ellis. I'm a member of the Iowa City Airport Commission along with me is the Airport Manager Ron O'NeiI. I'm here to present the...from the Airport Commission I'm here to present the fiscal 2004 budget request as amended. The total budget proposal as amended is $350,451 - $265,000 towards operations, $85,000 is capital and we generate approximately $166,000 on the air field. Two items were removed from the budget. One item was $28,000 for the jet fuel self-serve. That was something we requested and we'll continue to request. We'll resubmit that. It's a way to give the airport more independence and flexibility in refueling and it supports and facilitates the refueling at night especially for medical helicopters so they don't have to call out an actual service for (can't hear) to come out and fuel the aircraft. And again we'll resubmit that. The other item that was removed was the $20,000 request by us for Airport Business Solutions Company as an outsourced consultant. That was eliminated - a line to zero on the 2004 request and we can accept that if we're getting the money in fiscal 2003. We believe that the hiring of the Airport Business Solutions is pretty important and is actually a linchpin in furthering the airport's progress. And even if we get the money in 2003 we'd still like to see $2,000 - $5,000 in 2004 so we can stay on top with Airport Business Consultants because even after we implement a strategy and a business plan we'll still need to go back to them as we retarget markets, re-implement target strategies and develop opportunities. And they'll be the folks we'll have to go to. Why do we need to hire a consultant? They're going to provide a roadmap for us, minimize the time that ~ve spend on this. I talked to them this moruing. We still believe that once we start we can do a 90- day strategic plan. And this isn't just a vision plan. This would actually be with a follow-up...be a follow-up business plan that would be the action plan - how to implement strategies needed to go. It'll enhance the outcomes. It'll expedite the process. And it'll be a self- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 2 assessment document production device that will put us on the ground as we start off in the evolutionary change at the airport. We know how important the budget is. We don't do this lightly. And we didn't ask for it casually. We think this process will enhance the value of the airport to the community. It will get us revenue production processes that we can't think of on our own. And we think that we'll attract more business and airport users which is where the new revenues are going to come from on our airport. Subject to questions thanks for your time. Lehman: I would like and I'll just ask the Council I would like to schedule with the... Karr: Mr. Mayor. Lehman: Yes. Kart: The mics have to be turned towards you. Lehman: Yes. I'm sorry. With the permission of the Council and with your concurrence I think it would be wise for the Council to schedule a meeting with the Airport Commission and I think perhaps - in the terminal building, in your meeting room - sometime in the next say month or so. Ellis: Quicker if we could do it. Lehman: Well that would depend on Council -where we could work it out, but... Ellis: Alright. Lehman: ...I think there's...there's some issues that we need to understand better and I think the best place to do that is a meeting with ail of us. Ellis: Absolutely. We do need to...we need to finalize this and move forward. Lehman: Do we...would the rest of the Council concur? Champion: I think it would be a good thing to do if we could do it like before a Council meeting so we don't have so much trouble finding a date when everybody's going to be around. Lehman: But I think if we do it at the airport it's probably going to be a separate meeting. At the next work session we'll try to set something up and get back to you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 3 Ellis: We'll be there then. Thank you. Lehman: Okay. Kanner: Alan what was the figure that you gave for revenue produced by users? Ellis: $166,000. Karmer: Has that gone up from previous years? Ellis: It's actually...the rent revenues have gone down, but I believe the total has actually gone up a little bit. Kanner: That's only rent there's no other user fees? Ellis: I could bring Ron O'Neil up and he could explain. We bring in monies from business plans, rentals, concessions, land rent fbr farmers, and that's...I mean it's a large amount of money that comes in from different sources. Mostly it comes from the rent and from the businesses. Kanner: That's the $166,000? Ellis: That's the total value. Yes. Kanner: Okay. And you don't know if it's gone up or down from previous years? Ellis: The rent revenues have gone down. Kanner: But the total figure. Ellis: And that's again as we talked about at the joint Council Commission meetings in the past the result in the changing of the businesses and those types of things. Kanner: I'm trying to see if there's a trend that you're getting more independent or relying on more user fees. Lehman: Why don't we... I think this is the subject of our meeting that we should have. Ellis: Thank you. Good night. Lehman: Thank you. Pfab: Thank you. Lehman: Senior Center. Is that still the name? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 4 Honohan: Still is as far as I know your honor. Lehman: Okay. Honohan: Mr. Mayor, members of the Council Jay Honohan. I'm a member of the Senior Center Commission. You've got a budget of $677,029 that we're submitted of which we would appreciate your approval. This happens to be about $8,000 less than last year and last year was a little over $40,000 less than the year before. I'm not a mathematician. I'm a lawyer, but I think that's about a 7% drop in two years. You will note that we're expecting 80% from the City which amounts to about $545,000. We're expecting the commitment from the County of $75,000 and we expect to raise the balance of $57,000 in participation fees and other sources that we're working on right now. We're not exactly sure of that, but our track record on the skywalk from the parking ramp was very good and I expect our track record to be good at this time too. I don't want to take up any more of your time. If you have any questions I'll be happy to respond. Pfab: I have one question. How is your bookkeeping handled? Is that handled through the City? Honohan: Yes. Pfab: Okay. Kanner: Have you asked Elderly Services to kick in any rent money? Honohan: We have not asked for any agency to kick in any rent money. And in the discussions that we've had and the proposal that we're working on does not contemplate rent by any agency. Kanner: There was no discussion...don't you feel that Senior Center...when Senior Dining was taken over by Elderly Services they got rent free as opposed to essentially Johnson County paying rent for their 20%. That's a unique situation as opposed to other agencies. Honohan: Well you're...the thing you're talking about is a position that some took that the County was only involved with Senior Dining. That was never the Commission's position. Kanner: No, I'm saying that's a part of it - a main part. Honohan: We felt that the County's contribution Steve was completely for their participants and had nothing to do with this specific agency. And we feel the same way. And we don't think that...we think that we can maintain the leveI of service with this two level participation fee arrangement and we think that charging rent would not be a good idea. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 5 This has been discussed by the Commission and in some of the commitment, but we don't feel that that's a good idea. Champion: I think you're right. I mean I think they have a hard enough time making ends meet. You're also going to have a hard time making ends meet. Lehman: Well obviously you're a lot closer to that then we are. Honohan: Thank you. O'Donnell: Fine. Thanks. Lehman: Thank you, Jay. Lisa Parker: Good evening. Lisa Parker, President of the Library Board of Trustees. And I wanted to take just a few minutes to give you a quick building update. We...if you've gone down the pedestrian mall you've had a chance to see the exterior of what we cai1 the west wing. We're getting a lot of real positive comments about that. We are two months ahead of schedule andwe are under budget to this point. So we're feeling pretty good about the project so far. Of course there's always knocking on wood and crossing of fingers and all of that. We will be closing on April 16th and reopening on April 30th to facilitate the move into the new part of the building. Susan also wanted me to encourage any of you to come over and she's happy to give you a tour of the construction of the west wing, see what's going on and how things are going. As you may have read we've begun developing guidelines for the commercial space that will go in on the first floor in the basement of that western extension. And we'll be working on developing lease terms next. We had a public meeting. We've gotten some feedback from the community. And any thoughts that you have we'd be pleased to hear them. This past year circulation was up 10%. In my time on the Library Board that amount has tended to range plus or minus 1 to 2 percent. So circulation being up 10% is pretty significant. And we're pleased about that. People are still making their way down to the library and not finding any impediments at this point. It's going to be a little bit more of challenge when we're in the western half of the building and things will be a little bit more constrained. But at least we're starting out on an upswing. We had over 599,000 people in the library last year which is more than the attendance at all of the events at Carver Hawkeye arena just to give you a comparison - 64,000 card holders. Circulation continues to grow this year up 4.6% in the first six months. We have a redeveloped web site and people are still continuing to come, learn, see what's there that they can get holds and all that kind of thing. Finally I'd like to thank you for your support, for your continuing This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 6 support of our budget efforts and for your support of our budget this year. And I'd be happy to take questions. Kanner: Lisa, are you taking volunteers from the community to help you move or is that all going to be professional staff?. Parker: They haven't...we haven't...the library staff hasn't come up with a way to involve volunteers at this point. We are going to be hiring a moving company that's specific experience is with moving libraries. If they do we'll get that information out to the community, but at this point we're not looking to get volunteers. Champion: When you close the old part of the library for renovation will there be any pathway with all the construction to get to the new entrance? Parker: The...yeah the new entrance will be on the southwest corner of the pedestrian mall so one thing that we're going to do is to encourage people to park for instance in the Dubuque Street ramp and you can just come right across the parking lot in the pedestrian mall there. Now of course we're going to have to work through how that's going to work when they start construction on 64-1 A, but obviously we'll make as clearly marked a path as we can. Champion: I think that is going to be a problem for you when you do that. The other thing that I...I didn't read the whole article in this (can't hear) have you talked about moving your little used bookstore into your regular retail space? Parker: I seem to have recalled a conversation about that. I don't know that they plan to do that at this point. But that's certainly an option. Champion: Well you can do whatever you...I just wondered if you had talked about it. Parker: Yeah. We've talked about it. Champion: I'm not saying you should do. There might be reasons not to do it. Parker: We'll generate more revenue from a business than from this bookstore which is important to us. Vanderhoefi Tell me have you set your guidelines yet for the retail space or those stores...whatever it's going to be? Parker: We have a draft of the guidelines in that we had the public meeting about those guidelines. At some point they'll become something more than a draft and become the actual guidelines, but we didn't get any This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 7 feedback that would make us change what we've set to this point. So we do have guidelines. Vanderhoef: Would you send those over to Council just for us to see? Parker: Sure. Lehman: I think... Atkins: Susan just sent them to Kevin and I and we are in the mist of doing... Vanderhoef: Okay. That's fine then. Atkins: What she said. Lehman: We're they pretty accurately quoted in the paper? There was a pretty good article in the paper about the guidelines that you were asking. Parker: Which...the Daily Iowan article was mostly accurate. Lehman: Okay. Parker: I'm sorry. Atkins: Mostly accurate. Parker: Yeah. And I'm happy to address any questions about the guidelines. I helped write them so. Vanderhoef: Well I haven't seen them at all. Atkins: They're still in draft form. We'll have them for you rather shortly. Vanderhoef: So I'm real comfortable calling over and asking for clarification so not a problem. Thank you. Parker: Okay. O'Dormell: You can get a copy of that article at the library. Champion: And it does look wonderful. Parker: We're pretty excited about it. And we're excited that it's going so well, I.~ust can't say enough about Knudson Construction, about Joel Miller our project manager, Susan and all they work that they...they all work really well together. It's just a tremendous team. Champion: Yeah, it looks great. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 8 Parker: Thank you. Vicki Jennings: Hi. I'm Vicki Jennings, Director of the Iowa Arts Festival. And the Iowa Arts Festival Board of Directors and myself would like to thank you for the opportunity to submit a '04 budget request to the City of Iowa City to support the festival. The Iowa Arts Festival respectfully requests the City fund $8,000 of the festival's $121,000 overall budget. In 2002 the Iowa Arts Festival took a huge step forward by expanding to a new Iocation with a host of new events and activities. We love our site plan. We love being on Iowa Avenue. It's perfect - the literary walkway, the backdrop with the bridge. Our site plan is staying there this year and hopefully years to come. It's just perfect. And then we'll also have Dubuque Street and all of Washington also for the Art Fair. The Art Fair has increased. It's ajuried art fair. We have 100 quality artists in the art fair. Also our stages we have a main stage which is on Iowa Avenue and then also the family stage which is on the intersection of Washington and Dubuque Street. We have increased the culinary road to 20 food vendors. And also we have increased our children and family programming to be more interactive and focused on art, music and culture with the additionally of the global village and then children's day which is traditionally on Sunday of the festival. The Iowa Arts Festival has grown into a great celebration that has become a major regional attraction bringing record number of visitors to Iowa City and Coralville. More than 40,000 people attended the 2002 festival making it one of the largest tourism attractions in the region. And even our Lieutenant Governor Sally Petersen attended last year so I think the word is getting out and I thank Dee Vanderhoef for giving her a tour of the festival last year. The University of Iowa chooses every year to collaborate with the festival by moving its largest alumni weekends to coincide with the festival. Also the Center of AIDS Research and Education has its major fundraiser the pancake breakfast on Sunday. And also the Shakespeare Festival plans their weekend...the first weekend with the festival as well. The cynergy from all these events make for a successful event with visitors filling hotel rooms in Coralville and Iowa City and dining at the fine restaurants in our area. We always send all the artists and all the food vendors a list of all the hotels and motels and the restaurants so they know where they can dine and where they would like to stay in our community. And many of the performers that are from out-of-town we give them a list as well so they know where they can stay. We have marketed the festival across the State and in the Midwest bringing a record number of visitors. We have placed ads in all the regional newspapers and in this past year with the marketing committee we produced a commercial which aired on a local T.V. channel. Overall the Iowa Arts Festival is a huge success, but does put a strain on our budget. With the expansion has This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 9 come increased costs for security, sanitation, clean-up, equipment rental and insurance. And I want to talk about insurance. Two weeks before the festival last year I got a call from our insurance provider and our insurance went up from $1,950 to $4,67l. Now I know that was because of the events of 9/11 where there are large groups of people that are gathered a lot of insurance went up with a lot of different events. But that was a huge strain on our budget. The festival Board of Directors hopes to grow the festival as a great city celebration and become a regional event brining record number of visitors to the area. The increased support from the City of Iowa City will be used to enhance the events, infrastructure as well as to promote the event throughout the Midwest. For the past four years as I've been Director we have received the same amount of $6,695. And so I am asking for an additional $8,000. And I do also want to add that the Iowa Arts Festival last week moved its office to downtown Iowa City and I'm thrilled about our new location. We are at 114 South Dubuque Street. It's a Marc Moen building and we are in the lower level where Wells Fargo is. So stop by and see me. Coffee is always on. So with that...and also we pay rent for that space and that's an additional cost because I used to have the office in my home. So are there any questions? Karmer: Do you reserve a certain amount of spaces for Iowa City artisans of the 100 artisans that are invited? Jennings: Well it is ajuried att fair and so they compete just as anyone else does, but we always do have local Iowa artists because we want to...it is an Iowa Arts Festival so we certainly do have many, many Iowa City artists in the art fair. Yes. Vanderhoefi So you do exclude outside of the state of Iowa artists? Jennings: No, no there's artists from outside the State of Iowa. Yeah. Kanner: They don't reserve it for anyone. Jennings: No. It's juried so it's up to the three judges that decide on the artwork. Karmer: Some cities set aside a certain amount of spaces for local or Iowa artists. I think...personally I like that idea of setting aside. It doesn't have to be an overwhelming amount. Champion: They have a lot. Jennings: Yeah. And we always have Iowa City artists in it. It's never been a problem. And our people know that they need to have our Iowa City people in there as well. Yes? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 10 Pfab: I think one of the neatest part of your whole operation, event, how ever you want to describe it is the fact that you got the other groups to come together at the same time - the alumni and the... Jennings: ICARE. Pfab: ICARE, ICARE that's the one and Shakespeare thing. I think that is just so neat because they all fit together. The cynergy like you say is just terrific. Jennings: They do. Yes. And the Alumni Association they call me each year and ask me what the date is and then they coincide that weekend - that alumni weekend. And we like it because it brings more people to downtown Iowa City. Any more questions? That's it. Thank you. Lehman: Thank you. Mud River Music. We typically don't run ahead of schedule, but I'm glad you're here because that may change. JP Claussen: Yeah. Moving right along. Hi everybody. My name is JP Claussen and I'm the...[ guess I'm the Executive Director of Mud River. I'm the guy who thought it up and continues to work ail the time to organize these events and make this festival happen. And I just wrote a little letter and I'll just read it down here (can't hear) everything. The Mud River Cooperative is a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting local artists. We work to provide opportunities for local artists to work in environments that are healthy and promote positive conscious community building. Our goal of fostering community through music is central in our efforts to organize events that open to people of all ages, abilities and incomes. By fostering community through music i mean to develop an aspect of our community which supports artists financially and organizationally without the necessity of alcohol sales that pay for most musicians to perform in bars or, you know, big record contracts not from Iowa City obviously, but from places like Nashville, New York and L.A. that bring...that take these artists out of our community. We look to help artists to create their art where they live and we work to help them make a living at it. By supporting our annual festival the City of Iowa City can demonstrate its support for our local artists. In providing operational funds the City will enable the event to remain free and open to all. And providing promotional funds the City will allow us to advertise across a wider area getting the word out to other communities and bringing music fans to Iowa City. In providing funds to compensate artists the City can demonstrate its conunitment to local musicians. Generous compensation for artists to perform helps offset time and effort developing and perfecting their craft and encourages them to further do so enriching our culture. The Iowa City music scene overflows with talented artists who are committed to their art for art sake. The This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page integrity and the spirit of cooperation with which these artists ply their trade should not only be commended, but also supported financially lest we lose it. The music industry in America is increasingly homogenous and driven by the principle of art for the sake of profit. This homogeneity threatens to subvert local and regional cultures and subcultures under the rug of some larger Super bowl, McDonalds, Brittney Spears, Disney kind of a culture. It becomes harder and harder to compete with corporations that have millions of dollars to produce and promote their own brand of entertainment through T.V., radio, movies, magazines and newspapers. Currently the Iowa City area has a great deal of innovative, vibrant artists who choose to live and work here. Let's help them make the art they feel compelled to make. Let's demonstrate our willingness to help them free themselves somewhat of the financial and organizationaI burden and risks involved in creating and performing their art. I hope the Council can see the benefit and importance of directly supporting the artists as well as the festival so we can continue to do this work. Vanderhoef: Where do you try to get additional funds for your program? Claussen: Right now it's through donations. So far we've been able to do things without funding mostly because the artists donate their time and efforts. And that's something that technically I, you know, can beat the bush and stump for donations and ask folks to pull the thing off, but ultimately that doesn't pay anything for the artists. That's where you're going to get that majority of funds that most artists get from the bars, you know, when they work the gigs which money comes from, you know, alcohol profits mostly. And so we want to separate those two things to some degree. Not totally I mean I'm not against folks playing in bars or making money there at all, but I'd like to see there be more alternatives. Vanderhoef: Is there any way that you can expand this without these kinds of funds to pay musicians? Claussen: You know that's what I'm working on every day. I mean I'm a grad student. I mean this is something that's a dream of mine and it's something that I work on when I've got the time. At Uptown Bill's I'm the Community Events Coordinator and everything I do down there really fits nicely in with this because it is a smoke and alcohol free place. And it does cater to people who obviously don't generally go to the bars. So working on that I should say it is possible, but it takes a lot of time and energy and it doesn't happen itself and I have a family, you know, three kids in school and these other things as well. Vanderhoefi The musicians themselves what do they do to help promote it? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 12 Claussen: Well so far they've played. I mean that's the thing. Last year we had a festival on August 3ra and we had a lineup of about ten musicians and they donated, I mean it was them that people came there to see. So that's what they've done is they come. We have events every month - Dinner and Jams - at the Small Mall where people come down and play music and none of those people are getting paid. You know they're just coming out and doing what they do for people's entertainment with no compensation. Wilburn: Are you...I'm sorry you mentioned your non-profit status or you referred to in your application, are you working at this on your own. I guess I'm looking at some of the other festivals that have kind of grown over the years that kind of have their own board like the Arts Festival, Jazz Festival - they started small and then expanded. Is it pretty much you or...? Claussen: It's pretty much me. I mean there's a number of people who've volunteered to help pull the first festival off and a number of people continue to be involved and interested and active when it comes time to doing volunteer work. But at this point it's pretty much me in making all decisions and coming up with things and figuring out where to find money and how to pay artists. Wilbum: And where is your non-profit status right now? Claussen: Yeah the Extend the Dream Foundation has kind of taken us on as a fiscal agent so our non-profit status is through them. They have 501c (3). Wilburn: But have you heard from the community... Claussen: Yeah we didn't get that grant. You know we ended up asking for like half of what they awarded. So it's my first go around at asking for grants and stuff and figuring those kinds of things out and how much to ask for and when. Pfab: I had a question. I had no idea...if yon got this grant how would the musicians be compensated? What is the method you use? Claussen: Most musicians like to be paid in cash I find. Pfab: But how do you determine... Claussen: Determine how much. well I mean that's a kind ora thing, you know, once you get money for this kind of a thing then who plays really depends on how much money you have to pay them. So if we end up not getting any money it just might not happen. If we end up getting This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 13 enough money to make the festival go and, you know, rent the stage and the sound equipment and those kinds of things, you know, then I would go about finding bands who are willing to play for free. And certainly in Iowa City, I mean I could put on a quality festival and not pay the musicians a dime because there's a lot of really talented musicians who are dedicated to this kind of thing. But, you know, what I want to do is find ways to provide money for these artists. You know to kind of award them for doing this work. I mean Iowa City has a lot of musicians who, you know, they've been around for a long time and maybe they follow in the path of Greg Brown and they want to make music that they feel has a purpose and has some integrity to it. But there's a whole crop of these young musicians who have been around for about 10 years or so kind of hacking it away playing you know gigs at The Mill and at the Green Room and doing what they can. And after awhile if you've been doing that for 10 years you start want to settle down and start a family and maybe get out of...if you can imagine working all night in a smoke filled room and your job is to sing it's a real health hazard. And there just really aren't a lot of alternatives. Pfab: I want you put down in big bold letters what you just said, but since I expect the majority of people on my...on the Council here we won't discuss that any further. But it was one of the things that was used against us when we were working to get a smoke in those places where your people straggle at great danger to their health. Claussen: Well yeah it's an argument. But again like I say I don't want to present anything certainly against that. I enjoy going out to the MiI1 and seeing music and I tolerate the smoke not being a smoker myself. But it certainly does get difficult at times. What I want to do is really just, you know, they can do their thing I want to present an alternative for people especially if you think about the audience as well. The majority of the audience who may enjoy the music that's being created here in Iowa City and that's something that shouldn't be forgotten I mean this is...you don't have this everywhere. You have big cities that don't have as good of a music situation as we have in Iowa City. And especially people not just college kids who come and maybe they're in a band for four years and they leave, but people who choose to stay here. You know they're here for 10 years. That's a real treasure and who knows if it's going to be here. A lot of these artists are constantly kind of looking at other cities like Austin, Texas and Nashville and places like that where, you know, they can get more work and more different types of work in different kinds of environments. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 14 Pfab: I don't know if we're going to have much or any money for you, but I have to give you credit you gave a very inspiring presentation. Claussen: Well I hope and like I say you know for us and some other smaller organizations, you know, the difference.., even if we don't get everything we ask for the difference between $1,000 to make the festival happen I mean that could be the difference between something happening and nothing happening at all and stufjust being like oh that's a great idea. Kanner: J.P. I enjoyed the event you put on Saturday the Woody Guthrie event I attended at Uptown Bill's. That was fun and it brought in a good community participation. What I'm concerned is economic development and we're not going to be a national or a L.A., but there is a possibility of being an Austin. Austin, Texas is known for their music scene. They have a show on PBS that they do from a local there. We seem to be short of this critical mass to take us to that level. We have all the ingredients here, but something is kind of missing to take it to that level. So people know us as a music and art place, but what's it going to take to get there? Claussen: Well I agree. Well, you know, I think if you Iook at what goes on in the ped mall every Friday night during the summer and the amount...number of people that are there and...hundreds and hundreds you know and those people are there and a good number of them are there to listen to the music and to have a good time that way. Well that kind of music goes on in Iowa City sometimes every single night of the week. You know there's some...you can go to Gabe's at the Green Room or the Mill and now the Yacht Club are these venues and see this really excellent music. But it's not reaching...you know it's reaching an audience that fits a very narrow demographic of people who will go to the bars late at night to drink and in a smoking environment. So I mean that's...we have a fairly good scene for that kind of entertainment. But all those other people who are at the ped mall on Friday nights during the summer well where do they go if they want to see a show on Thursday night? Well they probably stay at home and watch T.V. because they don't., .there's not an opportunity for them to get out certainly where they could take their kids and enjoy some music on the weekends or during the week. But I think we have the critical mass in Iowa City we just have to connect it with the art that's here. Champion: Hopefully, there might be a venue for you eventually. Claussen: What? Champion: The Englert might be a venue for you... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page ! 5 Claussen: Yeah. Mud River did...we did a benefit for the Englert on New Year's Eve. So we certainly look for that kind of community involvement. Vanderhoefi J.P. you mentioned renting the Shakespeare Theater. Claussen: Right. Vanderhoef: What is the charge for that? Claussen: It's $25 an hour if you don't have the dressing rooms and concession area and $75 an hour if you have the concession and the dressing rooms. And you also have to get port-a-potties at that site and that sort of thing. Lehman: Thank you. Claussen: Thanks a lot. Pfab: Thanks. Lehman: Okay. Elisabeth Beasley? Not here. Jerry Hansen's here. Are you ready Jerry? We're running ahead of schedule. I know you don't believe that. We find it somewhat difficult to... Jerry Hansen: Do I have to sign in here tonight? Lehman: Yeah you should. Hansen: Oh, okay. Kanner: Unless there's some reason you want to remain anonymous. Hansen: Me? Lehman: He can't remain anonymous so... Hansen: Marian, can you hand these out? Okay. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Neighborhood Council to present our request for some video and projection equipment for the City of Iowa City really. And basically I'm here to speak about our experience in Weatherby Friends and Neighbors with showing movies in Weatherby Park. We've talked a lot in Neighborhood Council about these movies and how they get people active in their neighborhood and get people to talk to each other and we found in Weatherby that this has become a real event for us. Many of you have attended one of these before and the problem that we've had is always cobbling together the quality of the equipment on a please-may-I-borrow-this basis. And so we'd like to put together a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 16 video projection system that not only just the neighborhoods in town, but anybody in town could use for public events. And so we're requesting $5,000 for this and we would make up the difference through PIN grant requests. Lehman: What's the total look like? Hansen: Well probably somewhere between $7500 and $10,000. It just kind of depends on the equipment we get. At our last one the digital projector that I borrowed was $9,000. But they're coining down in price thank goodness like a lot of other, you know, digital equipment stuff. And we just feel this is a good way to get neighborhoods together. I mean we've seen this program in my neighborhood grow and grow and grow and we're turning out like 300 people at an event. And not many events can turn out that many people and get that many people to talk together. So that's what we would like to see happen here. Lehman: What did it cost to do what you've done in the last couple of years? Was that rented equipment, borrowed? Hansen: We rent the screen. We borrow the DVD. We borrow the sound system. We borrowed the projector. You know...right now we're budgeting about $300. And a lot of that is to cover the pop and thing like that that we hand out just to get people there and get them to talk to each other. You know in today's society this is very important we think. We see a lot of other uses than just a neighborhood, you know, putting on some movie night for this thing. Champion: Can you tell me a little bit about what you talked about what it might be used for Jerry. I mean I like the idea, but Ijust wondered $10,000 will it be used often enough to make that worthwhile. What kind of things did you talk about? Hansen: Well we talked about Neighborhood Association meetings and different presentations we would have for this. But I think the best example to give you rather than what we've talked about is what's happened in Cedar Rapids. They put this system together and they found that it's being used like four or five nights a week. Champion: Yeah I read that in your write-up. Do you know what kind of organizations are using it? I'm trying to pin you down here and you probably don't... Hansen: Well it's very varied. You know it could be the neighborhood associations. It could be like the groups in town - any of the political groups that want to, you know, generate whatever. As long as it's for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 17 a public use and not like birthday parties or something like that. It has to be more of a public use is what we're looking for. Wilbum: Do you know in Cedar Rapids do they run that through their Parks and Rec or through their library the rental? Hansen: I think it's Parks and Rec that they put it through. Wilburn: And do you know do they also in Cedar Rapids do they have an equivalent to our PIN grants? Or is this what they... Hansen: I don't know that. I don't believe that they do. Atkins: Jerry's right. They don't. WiIburn: Okay. Vanderhoef: So tell me when it's that expensive of equipment what kind of projectionist shall we say or sound person...I'm a little concerned with who would actually be the person who sets it up and uses it and makes sure that it gets back in proper repair. Hansen: Well there would have to be somebody from the organization signing off to be in charge of this equipment. And that's something that could be worked out. We've talked a little bit about going through the library or having classes, you know, or a course in how to operate this. But I've found it's no more difficult than plugging in a VCR. Pfab: 1 have a question that maybe you can't answer, but maybe somebody else here can. How many of these units are owned by the City at this point? Champion: None. Hansen: I haven't been able to get one, so... Pfab: I know I didn't...how...does anybody have any idea? Hansen: Well you've got one right there. Pfab: I know. I know the library has one that I know of. And I'm wondering how far around these are. No, I...that presentation that you put on was just wild. I mean it was great and I could not believe the interaction. I've been through that neighborhood a number of times and there were people that probably hadn't spoken to each other since the last time you had one. But 1 mean and they all have a good time. I was just so surprised I walked up there and a couple kids came up to me and said there's some popcorn over there and it's all free. I mean This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 18 they were just thrilled. These people just had a great old time. That was just from the kids' point. But I just...maybe what I'm going to ask what you need is that you be able to use the equipment. Where it comes from is not a big concern of yours. And maybe... Hansen: A little more than that. We see this as an expanding type of thing. I mean I can't tell you which group is going to use it, but I can tell you that they're going to come out of the woodwork once this thing is available. Pfab: But I still...i'm still going to ask ifI can ask the City Manager can you find out how many of these the City owns. Atkins: Yes. Pfab: And, you know, what quality they are. No, I support what you're trying to do 100%. I'm just saying if the funds aren't available is there a way that we can get by for a time because yes. Seeing this thing sit here and not being used is kind of a...not a good use of the investment that's in it. Hansen: Oh, I'd agree with that with anything that's purchased by the City. But we just see this thing as fostering a lot more interaction among neighbors, you know and getting people out and interested in what's going on in this town. And you know if you're looking for bang for the buck I really think that this is going to be a very good investment for the City. Vanderhoef: Steve would this be covered under just our general insurance policy? Atkins: Yes. If we own the equipment. Vanderhoef: With what kind of deductible? Atkins: Oh, our deductible is $100,000. Lehman: That's liability. Atkins: Yeah that's our liability. We suspect that if the equipment was damaged in any way we'd eat that. Lehman: We'd self-insured for casualties, but not for liability. Pfab: I believe the Senior Center has one also don't they? It seems to me that they do. Atkins: Well I'm going to find out. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 19 Pfab: I'm guessing there's 8 or 10 of them in the City right now. Atkins: I think that might be a little high, but I'll find out. Pfab: Would you please? Atkins: Yeah sure. And the other thing is... Pfab: But no that's not saying that what you're doing is wrong. It just that is there stopgap something that we could plug the hole for a bit. But no I think the approach that you're using is great. Hansen: Well you know Neighborhood Council is always looking for ways to get people out, get them together, get them to even talk to each other. And we found this to be one media that has really worked. Lehman: Very good. Thank you, Jerry. Hansen: Thank you. Pfab: Thanks Jerry. Kanner: Extend the Dream is here. Pfab: Who's next? Lehman: Whose dream is next? Actually here we are. Tom Walz: Bob that reminds me of my early days in Peace Corp. We used to take and put a generator on a mull and a 16mm projector and head up over the mountains to a village and show that projector against some kind of a while background and everybody, everybody came out of the bushes and watched it. It was great. O'Donnell: That's neat. Walz: I'm Tom Walz and I represent the Extend the Dream Foundation and I'm here to present to you our request for some support for a project that we started last year and had an awfully good experience with. And really I want to do it at a mom professional level this year and it's obviously going to be more expensive for us. Last year we pretty much funded it out of our pocket with a little bit of help from the Iowa City/Coralville Convention and Tourist Bureau and we were too late at that point to ask for help from the City. But I would like to ask it this year. The background a little bit - the project is that we would like to do a major fair and flea market over on Maiden Street running up into Prentiss on Labor Day as we did last year. And the reason for that...the background of that is that that's an awfully neglected area of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 20 the City. I'm always bothered by the amount of sort of lack of attention that paid to it around Ralston Creek and the kind of neglect that goes on down there and I think it leaves... (End of Tape 03-06, Beginning of Tape #03-12) Walz: I got together with those businesses last year and asked them if they would collaborate with us in putting on this fair or at least they would accept our putting out the effort to do it. And they said yes and they recognized that we need to have more activity off and away from the ped mall once in awhile in other areas of the City and give people a visual view of what other places of commerce and other things that are there. Last year we did a sort of fair and flea market around the antique community. It happens to be something that I'm connected to and know something about so it wasn't too hard to pull together some friends and go out and rent a few tents and throw it up and get the City to let us have the street and see what happens. Now you remember what Labor Day was like last year we had a terrible rain storm and at 6:00 in the morning I mean it was crazy and the things...the tents were blowing and it didn't look like we were going to do anything, but just fall flat on our face. And actually what happened was that bit by bit the weather changed and by 10:00 in the morning the sun was sort of coming out. And we had planned to have it as a fair as well - to have some musical performances and presentations and this sort of thing in conjunction with a kind of a festival atmosphere - the flea market atmosphere with a little food and so on. Well it was done pretty amateurish, but the interesting thing was we had a tremendous turnout relatively speaking for a program like ours which was brand new in its first year. We were only in business for a few months and...but I think we counted something in the neighborhood of 600 people that showed up and just had a great time. The musicians were fun. The day was fun. It proved to me that Iowa Citians are looking for something to do on Labor Day. Coralville has something, we don't. And the people that did...the vendors that did show up that day and had a wonderful experience of having sold some stuff and made some money and this sort of thing. And I hadn't charged them any rent at all. I just didn't know what was going to happen. I just wanted to test it out. And it turned out to be very successful for them. The word is out that this would be a very successful event in the future. And of course the image that I have is, you know, sort of the What Cheer, the July 4th Solon farm out there - that this would be another major economic event for Iowa City, but one that has a lot of fun and flair in it. It's not terribly expensive. You know we've got to advertise more than we could afford to advertise last year to bring in other than the people who happen to live around the area and others who sort of wandered in and saw the activity and decided to test it out. So we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 21 would have an investment in that. And to make it colorful and to make it really professional and to make it kind of look the carnival atmosphere we really would needed to have a sound stage and some sound equipment. And we have the musicians willing to play, but I have to admit that part of our budget really asks for money to pay musicians. This is a new commitment we've made at our little place, you know, I think in Iowa City we just take it for granted that a lot of people can just donate their time and donate their time. And as I've gotten to know these young musicians they need a little something, you know, if nothing else than to keep their equipment going and so on. So we do ask for some money to pay some musicians. We do ask some help in renting some colorful tents and the balloons and this sort of thing. And I'm sure Iowa City/Coralville is going to give us some funds to do the kind of communication advertising that we need to make it a big event. We have lots of volunteers that really pull this off. There are no paid help as you know the whole Small Mall operates on a total volunteer basis. And anyway that's pretty much to project. We call it Maiden Street or the Uptown Bill's Small Mall Fair and Flea Market or something like that whatever it would be. Yes, Irvin? Pfab: I would ask you., .and I just can't recall it talked about how you have an annual cleanup of Ralston Creek which I think is just a wonderful... Walz: Well you know my feeling was I'm not going to ask people to come down in that area and have it look like a damn tmshcan and it really does. I mean if you walk back there it's bad. Now part of that is, you know, you've got the people living under the bridge and other things mid you've got all that growth you can't get into the creek or anything. But just even up and above and around it just it never gets picked up. And so we went out and we had some friends over at Hoe Posts who said they...the volunteer would come in and do that job for us. So the City agreed to sweep the street and the volunteers from Hoe Posts came out on a Saturday...the Saturday before the Monday and we picked up whatever we could pick up - two big container loads of garbage and trash around there and that would be part of the annual event because, you know, I have a lot of pride in that area. I have a lot of pride in what we're doing to make it more attractive. You know the Sanctuary and Chuang's Grocery and that area, you know, I'm working on the antique mall to paint their building again, you know, but it should be spruced up and it's an excuse to get it cleaned up once a year. Pfab: There's a... I've been to a number of little street malls down on Dubuque Street is there any... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 22 Walz: Yeah that's.., actually they followed us this year and they had a very successful event. Pfab: I was amazed. Walz: Yeah I was amazed too. They had a very good turnout and it just seems like there's a market for it. You know we timed it...the nice thing about September is you got all of those young people and they're having to furnish their apartments and do other things. So a lot of our vendors came in with low, you know, the low-end kind of furniture. Pfab: Utility type. Walz: Yeah. And that was very popular. They...most of those people sold out. And of course selfishly from the Small Mall's standpoint we used it as an excuse to at least introduce people to the mall, walk them through, tour them, show them what we had inside and that sort of thing. Pfab: I mean that place must be staggering with activity that it hadn't remembered in 100 years in that area. Walz: Well it's got a lot of potential I think to build up, yeah. And it's an area of development. You know I think not everything going to take place in the center of the town. Steve? Kanner: I like the idea of a flea market. It sounds fun and exciting. But one of the things you say here in the application under how does it benefit Iowa City you seem to be putting this out as a draw for antique dealers. Is there a difference between flea market and antique shows? It seems that they're different grade. When you're talking about people coming in all over this is the new Jazz Fest and Arts Fest of antiques and I don't quite see the connection so maybe you can draw that connection. Walz: Well to me the definition of a flea market is sort ofa...it's not a yard sale and it's not an upscale antique vendor. It's basically someone with a variety of collectables or in our case, you know, we have people who are really going to have Iow cost furniture, high turnover furniture for student apartments in the area because that's what people are looking for on that day. And there are people who deal in that, you know. So it just...they can pick it up and carry it up to the second floor of, you know, there's a 1,000 students right around that, you know that block and...but it's not...we try to make it so it wouldn't look junky. I mean I think you want to make it so it's attractive for people coming in from the outside. We're doing it on a weekend when there's a football game at home which means you might get people to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 23 stay over. We were trying to tell the hotel people that we might be able to, you know if people have a full weekend there was something they could do, something interesting that was going on on Monday they wouldn't have to hurry out of town and just go back they could find something to do. Kanner: Is this on the Convention Visitors Bureau list calendar list? Walz: Yes. Kanner: Thanks. Walz: Okay. Anything... Lehman: Thank you Tom. Pfab: I want to ask one just real simple question, When I looked at the dates and I noticed a very high concentration of living units in that area and is there a large percentage of those people not living there or not occupying those at that time of the year? Walz: No. The, you know, the University... Pfab: This is where you start. Walz: ...yeah the University has started. The big question would be would they go home for Labor Day. But with a football game in town the likelihood is they stick around. And they're so excited about being in Iowa City at this point and getting their apartments furnished that they're probably using that time to get that done. Pfab: And also get a chance to get acquainted with their neighbors. Walz: Right, yeah. Thanks very much. Lym~e Lanning: Do I just start? Lehman: Sure just tell us your name and take off. Lanning: My name is Lynne Lanning and I am here as our organization down as Kidneeds the event that I am talking about is called the Chili Dog Fair. The Chili Dog Fair was begun in 1998 and it has become a large, family-oriented community event which draws around 2,000 people during a 4-hour period on a weekend in September. And it's at the Johnson County 4-H Fairgrounds. The Chili Dog Fair is comprised of a bunch of dog demonstrations such as fly ball, herding, hunting, search and rescue as well as some other activities such as agility, obedience testing. And this is put on and sponsored by the Hawkeye This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 24 Kennel Club as well as the Iowa City dog obedience clubs. At the same time in a different building there's a rousing chili cook-off going on and our chili teams are comprised of people from the Police Station, the libraries, Sheriff's Department, banks, teachers, your neighbors and my neighbors. And they are judged by illustrious judges who are members of our community here. At the same time in that building we have live music, juggling, face painting and these are also all these people are volunteers to this event. A local pediatrician in another area is donating her time doing...organizing children activities where she has games, arts and crafts, recreations going on for that age group. This is a non-alcoholic event and we stress that so that the families are ail able and safely can participate in this. We also have over 100 students from the Alpha Chi Omega sorority at the University of Iowa who come out and basically run all the many details of the day for us. They volunteer their time and are fabulous. And I think it's generally it's a wonderful integration of all sectors of our community that come together. We are...on top of it we have local businesses and hospitals which donate the foods and drinks of the committee at the fair as well as silent auction items. All this sponsorship, donations and the money which are raised at the Chili Dog Fair go to support a local medical research foundation which is called Kidneeds. And Kidneeds is based here and 100% of all donations go to support research on a children's kidney disease called MPGN Type II. No money from sponsorship or from the event is used for expenses of the Chili Dog Fair. Everything is paid out of the pockets of the members of our committee. The Chili Dog Fair has not received any funding from Iowa City, Coralville, or any other public or private entities. So due to the increasing costs of funding this popular and ever-growing event we decided for the first time to come and apply for assistance from the City for the Chili Dog Fair. And because of the informal funding arrangements which we had had prior to this we do not have a formal fundraising committee. It's been done by me, by my friend Maria, but we are currently in the process of creating a not-for-profit corporation should we be awarded any funds from Iowa City. We are a new face before the City Council this year in petitioning for funds, but we are a very familiar face as the Chili Dog Fair is a very familiar face on the landscape of events in Iowa City. Thank you. Lehman: How are you funding it now? Champion: Out of their pockets. Lanning: It's out of my pocket. Out of Maria's pocket and... Lehman: Hey that's a blast. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 25 Lanning: Thanks. Lehman: I had a ball down there. That's just a blast. Lanning: I didn't want to put you on the spot of anything. Lehman: No, no hey listen that was a fun day. Lanning: Thanks. Kanner: I didn't follow you. You were saying just a little bit ago about the money raised...which money raised would go to... ? Lanning: Ail money raised from this event. What we do if Iowa State Bank sponsors the event they draft a check and it goes directly into the Kidneeds Medical Research Foundation. Every cent raised at the event goes directly into research. Kanner: So our money would be a donation to Kidneeds to support a research on this disease is that correct? Lanning: This is a change...what I've said is I currently have the draft papers for a not-for-profit corporation which would receive funding specifically for expenses on this.., should it come to us because I figured you would not want to write a check to me personally to do expenses. If it goes to Kidneeds nothing comes out of there except for research. So that has been the, you know, it's been something that has been a private commitment to pay for this fundraiser by me and by some friends and we are now getting to point where this is growing so fast that if there is any assistance that we can get we are...we have the not-for-profit papers ready so that it can be channeled...or a check written to the not-for-profit. Lehman: This would be used to fund the event. Lanning: This would be used for some of the expenses of the event. Vanderhoefi The expenses that you've listed on your application are those the ones...is that similar to what you've been paying out of pocket right now? Lanning: Yes, I have an actually a further breakdown should you be interested in the very specifics of that. It's a broad category. Yes. Actually it doesn't cover what we're asking or our expenses are above and beyond what we're asking for. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 26 Wilburn: Could you clarify something for me I was a little confused. The newspaper article you put in said, "Kidneeds a non-profit corporation of the greater Cedar Rapids community foundation." Lanning: Yes. Kidneeds is a not-for-profit corporation. We are lodged....we started in 1997 and at that point there was no community foundation here. I had done a bunch of research. Just a brief history and I don't want to take up your time. I have a child with this rare disease. It got to the point there's no research on the disease and so we decided to personally to fund what was ever possible, but we don't have a million dollars to do it. So in doing that we went to different vehicles. We went to the University of Iowa and looked around. The community foundation allowed us to start under the auspicious ora not-for-profit corporation with an initial investment of $20,000 which we put down. With that we get the 501c (3) status of the Greater City Rapids Foundation so that we can...they do all our accounting, they handle all the money. Basically when your checks go in, they bypass me and go directly into Greater Cedar Rapids Foundation under the Kidneeds reseamh fund. The only thing that comes out of that fund goes directly to medical researchers which is the reason that we have.., so that no one...I feel very strongly that people kno~v ~vhere their money is going when it's given and for accountability sake we've been paying privately. So that's...sorry if I get emotional it's my child. Kanner: So who is doing the research that we give the $40,000 to Iast year? Lanning: Right. Research is done...we have within Kidneeds there's a scientific advisory board as well as an advisory board. We personally fund all the advertising for Kidneeds in the American Journal of Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine asking people to please be interested in considering this. And in order you can't say that you have to say I have $40,000 to give you please start and that will shake them up to start looking at MPGN Type II. We have researchers that are in Seattle, in Boston, in Switzerland, in Houston. We funded $160,000 worth of research last year. Our grants are in. I don't know exactly how many. We have two continuing on. We have one probably new researcher. It depends on the quality of the grants at this point which come on. Not only do we go for the funding but we have three volunteer research grants which have been done because people know of this issue, our shortness of funds, and lack of research. So when they have found out what is going on and what the efforts are and the population of children that are not served they've taken it upon themselves to do volunteer research. So that's kind of...that's where it goes. It's all counted...it has to be accounted for at the end of each research term. Anything that is not expended has to be applied for in the new term for extension of funds or else has to be refunded to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 27 Kidneeds. It's all under...there's NIH specifications that cover all the researchers and the accounting for the funds. Kanner: Thanks. Lehman: Thank you. Lanning: You're welcome. Thank you for letting me be here tonight. Lehman: You bet. Well guys. Champion: Right on time. Lehman: Right on time. It looks to me like we're going to have to break and then we'll start again. We're at break time. O'Dormell: No we're not. We're actually 15 minutes before break. Champion: Well no it says 7:40 is break time. Oh no 7:50. Lehman: Well let's take 10 minutes. Champion: Yeah. Lehman: 10 of we'll start back. Okay folks let's continue. Timothy Tack. Timothy Tack: How you doing? Lehman: Good. Tack: I'd like to thank the City Council for considering my proposal. First of all let me introduce myself. I'm Tim Tack. The company I run is Tack-Fu Productions. It's a record label. And also I promote events here in town at venues such as Gabe's, the Que, the Green Room. This is a hip-hop label and I do familiar with the hip-hop genre I take it. It's a form of music. I do the promoting for those types of shows. I bring in acts from all over the Midwest for the last five years. I've been doing this for five years. So I'm pretty experienced at putting on the events. I'm pretty familiar with the music genre myself. Basically if you see in your proposal there what I was soliciting funds for was for a weekend event where once again we would bring in acts from out-of-town and the Midwest. Also have competition. Hip-hop is a competitive music genre - DJ battles, dance, a live entertainment. Also of course education. I'd like to bring in some public speakers. I'm pretty familiar with how these weekend events go. I've attended several in Minneapolis, Madison- the University of Wisconsin puts one on in April and I stay in touch with those folks just to learn, network, get familiar with the people. But to also I'd like to get with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 28 the benefits why I think this would be a good idea for the City. I think once again it would place Iowa City of course at the beacon, the top of innovation, culture, art, music. I thi~k it would benefit Iowa City that this is an event of this nature has been put on before of this music genre. I think this is one opportunity where we can present a weekend event and put hip-hop music in a good light. I mean if you're familiar with BET, MTV...if you're familiar with top 40 radio I think you'll see that their version of hip-hop is pretty distorted in my opinion and I think this is an opportunity to present an event of this nature presented in a positive light bringing in well known acts which shouldn't be a problem and bring in public speakers to of course continue dialogue between all different backgrounds of people. I think Iowa City definitely would benefit in the just word of mouth getting acts down here from well you just might as well stick a compass right there in Iowa City and draw a big circle. I think you can draw people from as far as Minneapolis/St. Paul, Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, Des Moines, Omaha. I think it's not a problem getting the amount of people here I don't think that would be a problem. I think with the right promotion that would definitely draw definitely a big audience. And I think it would be pretty safely, I mean you can pretty much hedge your bets by the acts that you do bring in and the public speakers that you do bring in is going to attract that kind of crowd that is a fan of that type of music in hip-hop. I think I've about explained about enough as I can. I see that you have the proposal there in front of you. So if you'd like to ask any questions go on ahead. Wilbum: How did you decide on starting with a three-day event? Some of our other festivals, music festivals, Jazz Fest that type of thing started a little smaller. But how did you decide. Tack: Well you know I am flexible. I mean this all depends on funding and what groups I can bring down here. Like I said I'm flexible. I mean I decided you know, a Friday night, Saturday day, maybe a Sunday, you know, brunch for guests that registered before hand as kind of like a thank you for attended. And get to know people. It doesn't necessarily like I said have to be a weekend. I'm definitely flexible. If we can squeeze it all in in an afternoon, you know, I'm willing to work. Kanner: Tim, you do have the coolest name of an event here Tack-Fu Productions. Tack: Thank you. Karmer: A couple of questions. Are you working with any other groups - any for-profits or non-profits or organizations in town to help put this on? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 29 Tack: Well in town no, but I'm definitely like I said I'm pretty familiar with these types of events. Like I said the University of Wisconsin up in Madison they've going on for now this will be year number four for their conference. It's called Hip-Hop Generation and that's a funded by the students through the University. But I'm in touch with those folks. And definitely they're a good source of consulting right there. You know they can help me out in any way ifI have any questions. I keep in contact with them. Vanderhoefi You say it's funded by the University. Have you approached the Student Senate or the University or anyone to assist with this? Tack: No, no. That of course comes with time. I mean, you know, you start with the baby steps and as soon as it picks up steam, you know, people get on board. It's just a matter of organizing and delegating. It shouldn't be a problem like I said I've been putting on events for about five years now and I just think this would be just a bigger version of what I already do. Kanner: Maybe these are not all the expenses, but you list $10,000 in expenses - you're asking for $10,000 from the City. You're expecting $12,000 in revenue. So is that a profit that you're expecting to get - $2,0007 Tack: I don't expect a profit. My only concern is giving the acts, the attractions, you know, pay them according to, you know, their worth and set them up in a nice place to stay and make it convenient for everyone. Kanner: Well you had said that $6,000 here for the talent. Tack: Yes. Kanner: But still and then it all adds up to $10,000, but with the vendors' fees you're taking in $12,000 that's your projected budget. Tack: Well I got a call when I handed in the proposal where they're kind of like well what do you expect from vendors and the money that you'd get off the vendors. Well I wasn't really expecting that yet. Which comes first the chicken or the egg? Until I secure funding then we'd look into it as it goes on. Kam~er: And one last question, I'm not that familiar with hip-hop, but what would be a national act that I could go listen to that would be something that you would try to bring in a similar sound to that national act? Tack: A similar act to the national act as far as hip-hop. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 30 Kanner: That you'll be trying to bring in for this weekend. Who could I go listen to...? Tack: Jurassic Five. Karmer: Jurassic Five? Tack: Yes. That would be a good one to look into. Pretty well - they actually played here two or three years ago and what I gather - I did not attend I was at the University of Wisconsin that weekend for the event so ! missed it, but I heard a lot of good things. People had a good time. It was a good show. It was at the Union. Kanner: Thanks. Tack: Any other questions? Pfab: Where does the University of Wisconsin, where do they hold this? Tack: Student Union. Pfab: Student Union. Tack: At the student Union. Yeah. Enough space where they can acts performed live in the lobby and then of course you have your smaller classrooms for your education panels, discussion. I'm just brining more into the forefront what hip-hop music, the culture and the people behind it what it's really all about. Like I said I think more than anything bringing in the public speakers will probably be the thing I'd concentrate on most bringing in quality public speakers because I really would like to open up the dialogue and present hip-hop in a positive light because 1 really do feel that the mainstream media really does kind of distort what this music and culture is about. And like I said I'd like to present it here in Iowa City. I think Iowa City would definitely benefit in that being on the cutting edge, being on the cutting edge, doing something that no one in the State would do. Vanderhoef: What facilities were you... ? Tack: I was just strictly be downtown in the ped mall. And if it would rain you know you got the Sheraton right there, library right next there for your panel discussions. You just check out a room. That shouldn't be expensive. But yes generally located downtown. And I think this would be an event no alcohol involved. This is something that is strictly for the fun, for the benefit of everyone. Pfab: If there's room for a question what is hip-hop? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 31 Tack: Hip-hop is music. It's about 20 to 30 years old depending on who you ask. It's generally a music that's definitely a drum beat is at the forefront and there's certain elements that come along with it and dress, art, style, rhyme, a DJ, two turn tables. If you're familiar with a MTV, BET you might see some of those images in hip-hop. Generally a very creative...it combines many different...the great thing about hip-hop if you don't...what I think is the most creative thing about it is it draws from so many different influences into one music. So there's no rules as to what can apply as far as what you have in the music. Kanner: On NPR I just heard a German Celtic hip-hop. Tack: I can believe it. Pfab: Is there a certain age range where...? Tack: Well generally, you know, hip-hop being it is a younger music, a new form. It generally attracts at least I've found the people who go to my shows 18 to 35 - definitely younger adult. It is youth driven. Lehman: I thank you, Tim. Tack: Well thank you very much. Wilbum: I might even be able to break dance. Kanner: I'm bringing the music. Lehman: Iowa Children's Museum front and center. Deb Dunkhase: Okay. Hi. My name is Deb Dunkhase and I am the Executive Director of the Iowa Children's Museum. I'm here tonight with Shelia Boyd who is our Director of Development and Marketing. Thank you so much for having us. I'm very excited to talk with you about the Children's Museum tonight. I'm going to tell you first a couple things about children's museums. I know that I've seen some of you at the Children's Museum before. But I think possibly some of you have never been out to our facility in the Coral Ridge Mall. The children's museum industry is growing rapidly. In 1975 there were only a handful of museums in existence. Today there are over 275 children's museums across the United States. In 2001 over 31 million children and adults visited children's museums with audiences that ranged from newborns up to age 90 and locations around the world from large urban centers to the smallest of towns. Every children's museum is dedicated to preserving childhood, to promoting lifelong learning through play and to building community. Learning across a lifetime takes place in both formal school settings and informal environments. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 32 Children's museums compliment formal education and instill a sense of wonder and a hunger for knowledge in children at a very early age. Communities across the United States are building infrastructures for informal learning that include many community partnerships. In this new millennium as our world is facing greater mid greater challenges children's positions are uniquely positioned to address emerging issues related to families: community, tolerance and diversity through quality informal learning experiences. I'm here tonight to ask the Iowa City Council to become a partner with the Iowa Children's Museum in a new program that we initiated last summer. This program provides annual memberships to the museum to economically disadvantaged families and is called ICM for Everyone. We're very excited about the success of this program to date. It's only been in action six months. The Iowa Children's Museum has a membership base of close to 1,000 families and our goal is to provide an additional 350 families with donated memberships by July of 2003. It's a pretty ambitious goad. However, as of today...as of January 15th -- last week - we had already distributed ICM for Everyone memberships to 145 families with generous donations from the Iowa City noon Optimist Club, from St. Thomas Moore Church and many individual donations. These families reside in Iowa City, Coralville, Riverside, Hills and Cedar Rapids and I think Tipton. The demand for these donated memberships is great. We've worked with United Action for Youth, with Big Brother, Big Sisters, with the Johnson County Neighborhood Centers, and with the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Community School Districts to target families who could benefit from use of the museum. Actually sitting on my desk right now back at work is a proposal from the Iowa City Family Resource Center that has 43 families that they work with targeted who are waiting to receive ICM for Everyone memberships. All of the funding that goes into the ICM for Everyone program does go directly to memberships for needy families. This program helps our community provide the opportunity for quality family activities that benefit children directly and indirectly helps Iowa City build a strong community of citizens who are learning all about the world around them. I grew up on a farm in southern Iowa where we did actually have a small town square and that's where all the kids went to play and we had ice cream socials and all the families got together to bond and communicate and do it is whatever families do. I know that this kind of gathering place is really important to communities and yet our world is changing. We don't ofl. en have the opportunity of having a central town square in our communities anymore. Instead we have a lot of different kinds of different places where people gather: the libraries, the parks, the rec centers. We like to think of the Iowa Children's Museum of a new kind of town square where friends and family can come to play, communicate and make friends in a safe, nurturing environment. And being out there...I don't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 33 know 70, 80 hours a week I see that happening. We have many, many returning families to the Iowa Children's Museum. I'm also really happy to tell you that last month the Museum's ICM for Everyone program was nominated for a Promising Practice Award from the National Association of Children's Museums. And this program is being nominated as a national model for community involvement with local endorsement from UI President Sandy Boyd and Coralville Mayor Jim Fausert. I'll let you know if we actually win. Champion: I hope you do. Dunkhase: Well you might think that...and you might kind of wonder why I'm standing here because the Iowa Children's Museum is located in the Coral Ridge Mall and you might then think that all financial matters related to the museum are well a CoralviIle issue. That is actually not the case. Over 50% of all the families who are members of the museum - so this is over 500 families - are actually Iowa City residents. And they're continuing to grow. About 25% of members reside in Coralville and the rest from small communities in eastern Iowa. The Children's Museum belongs to all of the children of Johnson County. And that's really important to these kids. The Iowa Children's Museum is also unique in the children museum industry in that we generate almost 60% of our operating income from earned revenue. And we get this earned revenue from admissions, from special programs, from birthday parties, from field trips, from facility rentals - every possible way we can think of to generate income. More traditionally children's museums earn only 30% or 40% of their operating budget through earned income and they rely on contributed income for the rest. The staff and the Board at the Iowa Children's Museum are committed to making the museum as self-supporting as possible and will continue to increase our earned income in the future. But we cannot achieve our mission alone. To reach all families regardless of their economic status we absolutely need help and we would like to ask you for your help. Please consider funding the ICM for Everyone family memberships for the Iowa Children's Museum. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? I love to talk about the Children's Museum so... Pfab: I'm going to be a little different here. Dunkhase: Sure. Pfab: Who...tell me the personnel on your board. Dunkhase: On our board? Pfab: Board right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 34 Dunkhase: Okay I might Sheila to.jump in here ifI forget anyone. The board chair is Diana Lyndell who's with the University of Iowa Hospitals, the chair left is Melissa Blum, our past chair...is that what you're asking me all the board of directors? Pfab: Yeah. Dunkhase: Angie Longou. We also have Chuck Goldberg, Tonya Alford, Marlo Higgins, Terry Trimpy, oh gosh how can I not forget these people - who else? Bruce Kout. Pfab: Is this put together as a 501c (3)? Dunkhase: Oh, absolutely. The Children's Museum is a non-profit. Pfab: And is...is it your own 501c (3)? Dunkhase: Yes. Pfab: For Iowa City or for... Dunkhase: The Children's Museum? Yes. We incorporated back in-I think it was '97. We operated a small pilot facility out at Sycamore Mall the first couple of years we were open. And then opened our permanent facility in November '99. Pfab: Quite a little operation. Dunkhase: We're quite a little operation. Pfab: I watched my granddaughter go through there. It was amazing to watch...whoever designed it knew more about kids than I did. Dunkhase: It's a very magical, wonderful, powerful place. We see anywhere from 80,000 to 100,000 people a year. Kanner: Two questions for you. So the expenses that you're looking at here for this fundraising effort are $31,500. Dunkhase: In total. Kanner: In total and revenue sources including Iowa City you're only listing $15,000. Where are you expecting to get the other $15,0007 Dunkhase: Over the course of the next 6 months we'll do individual donor pushes. We'll push it through other corporations. We haven't finished asking for money for the year 2003. We'll look at other local businesses, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 35 Kanner: Okay. And then my second question is if we would consider giving you money would you consider perhaps through the neighborhood centers using that money for Iowa City citizens? Dunkhase: Absolutely. That's kind of why I was telling you 1 have all those 43 applications sitting on my desk - that is from the Iowa City Family Resource Center. That is what the Iowa City noon Optimist Club asked us to do. They really wanted their funds to go toward Iowa City families. That's very easy to do. The need is very, very great. So we could definitely do that. Lehman: Well how much is a membership? Dunkhase: $90.00 per year. Vanderhoef: Tell me did you consider putting in an application through the City CDBG funding for human services rather than from event? Dunkhase: I don't think we have considered that, but that is a great suggestion. Vanderhoefi In my mind that's where...this is a human service funding ora sort. When I think of event funding I'm thinking about events that bring in new people into the community that expand the economic base and ripple through the community for new dollars whether it be to restaurants or hotels or local businesses and so forth. So in my mind this is not the place to be requesting funds. Dunkhase: So maybe I just told you about the Children's Museum and took up your time. Lehman: I think it's cool. Vanderhoefi It's cool. You're right. I like to hear about it, but the more I listen to you for this specific project... Dunkhase: Well what Sheila is asking me to relay to you is that the membership to the museum does extend to events and programs. That's what you're asking? Could you just come up here and tell them. Is that okay? Karmer: Sure come on up. Lehman: Use the microphone Sheila. Vanderhoef: We want the information. Sheila Boyd: Hello. I'm Sheila Boyd. Isn't...it's my understanding that what we applied for was an events and programming. I mean this is also for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 36 programming, not just events this application. I might be... from my understanding. Vanderhoef: Now what I was getting from the presentation that is was strictly for memberships for families. Dunkhase: Which is a special program. Lehman: But the memberships would extend to special events that occur there. Boyd: Correct. Lehman: I think that's what I hear. Vanderhoef: But for those people - not bringing in new people into the community and that kind of event. Wilbum: Have you considered or have you thought ofpossibly approaching the neighborhood associations to see if they might have an interest in applying for folks in different neighborhoods through the program to improve neighborhoods - the PIN grants. Dunkhase: No, we have not done that. Wilburn: Just trying to work some other possibilities. Dunkhase: Okay. Lehman: Any other questions for Deb? Thank you. Dunkhase: Thank you very much. Kanner: Thank you. Lehman: The Englert Civic Theatre Group. Barbra Kamer: Good evening. I'm Barb Kamer and I live in Coralville at 950 23rd Avenue Place in Coralville, but I'm a member of the Englert Board and have been an Englert volunteer for about two years. I also am, I guess, considered by the other Englert volunteers as the Event Coordinator on the Board. So that means that the Englert Night Out and the Englert Road Race are kind of my responsibility. And for the last two years I've chaired or co-chaired the Englert Road Race so I'm very familiar with that event and have helped with the Englert Night Out. And those are the two events that we submitted applications for this year. Englert Night Out I hope you are all very familiar with that event is a family oriented alcohol-free community event held on New Year's Eve in downtown Iowa City. At this time one thing that I find This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 37 really unique about it is that in Cedar Rapids or in Iowa City this is only family-oriented event offered in those two communities. Cedar Rapids I think has an event, but it's targeted to children. And I think even the Children's Museum had something this year for kids, but family wide and for adults the Englert Night Out is the only activity on New Year's Eve. We hope in 2003 New Year's Eve to take the event from a fundraiser for us to a community event - an event that will be around for years to come, one that you can always count on as an opportunity for entertainment on New Year's Eve. This year we had approximately 45 artists present or do performances of various types. We had over 600 people attend which is the same number as last year and keep in mind that a lot of people were gone for the Orange Bowl. And we raised about 77 hundred thousand...or $7700- excuse me. In kind contributions reached almost $9,000 from businesses and other contributors in the area. Our hope is that not only do we want to take this event from a fundraiser to a community event, but we also hope by using the money that we would receive from Iowa City to pay the performers as well as to pay a facilitator to run the event. We found over the last two years that this event takes a lot of time especially from the volunteers and of course volunteers have real jobs and it almost is a real job in order to pull this event off especially if we want to get it to the level that we hope to take it to. The other event that we do is Englert Road Race and this will be its fourth year. It will be held Jl~ 13ut~ i~'istts a Saturday'b Saturda believe it s July 13 'he I , th. It might be July , ' y after the Fourth of July. It is a community event, We've tried to incorporate various community organizations into our event that help us put it on or in the past we've even done music in the morning down in the ped mall which is really nice on a Saturday morning in the summer. Last year we changed it a little bit to make it more of a fun event. How many of you are familiar with the...a run in San Francisco called the Bay to Bay Run? None of you? It's... Pfab: What's the name? Kamer: The Bay to Bay Run. It's an event that's held in San Francisco and it's a run, but the unique thing about it - and this is what we're trying to do with the Englert Road Race - is that everyone who participates if they so choose they're encouraged to dress up. So you have people dressed up in costumes kind of like what they do for the Bix, but it's on a grander scale. And last year we encouraged people to get out...come dressed as your favorite dramatic character. We didn't have as much success with that as we hoped to, but we are focusing on that more strongly this year. It's a 5K, 8K run and it has almost 200 people participating in it. Two years ago when we held it in 2001 was This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 38 our second year we actually had some people come from Pennsylvania. (End of Side 1, Tape 03-12, Beginning of Side 2) Kamer: And we continue to have people not just from Iowa City and Coralville participate in it, but from Cedar Rapids and the surrounding eastern Iowa communities like the Quad Cities. People actually come over. We find it it's a good race the time we have it. It's after the Fourth of July and all the races that are held that weekend, but it's held before the Bix so it's a really good event for runners - serious runners - to come and use as a warm up before they have to run Braden Street Hill. And of course the money we would receive that we've asked for would be used toward covering the costs, the expenses of the event. Any questions? Kanner: Barbra you list 250 people expected to participate. What's your estimate in the past of what percentage came from outside the Iowa City area zip codes? Kamer: Depending upon which year you look at anywhere from 10 to 20 percent probably. We had around 150 to 250 people the last three years running the race. Kanner: Ten to twenty percent you estimate from outside the Iowa City zip code. Kamer: Yeah. Kanner: And... Kamer: And we do advertise quite heavily on the running web sites that go out across the state and around the region so we do get inquiries from around the Midwest all over the place. Kanner: And then on the Englert Night Out you have about 75, 100 in expenses and then $12,000 in revenue. Are you expecting...are you saying here that the ticket sales is all profit/donations to the cause? Is that how it works? Kamer: That's ideally... Kanner: Where does that extra $5,000 go? Kamer: The extra $5,000 would go actually to pay for the performers and to pay for a facilitator - someone to coordinate the entire event for us. Kanner: Well you have the coordinator listed here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 39 Kamer: Right. Kanner: For $3500. You don't have the performers. You're expecting to pay $5,000 for performers this year? Kamer: We would hope to pay them something - a minimal fee. I couldn't tell you what that fee would be. But if$3500 is what our coordinator's fee are then we would hope to use the remainder in paying the performers which we have not been able to do the last t~vo years. Kanner: I did enjoy the event the last couple of years. Kamer: Thank you for coming. Kanner: Yeah I especially liked the Grant Wood one-act - one person performance. Kamer: I've been a venue captain the last years so I haven't been able to enjoy any of the performances but the ones I've been captaining. So... Kanner: Thank you. Kamer: Sure. Thank you. Any other questions? Lehman: Thank you. Kamer: Thank you. Lehman: Eagles' Flight. Denita Gadsen: Good evening. My name is Denita Gadsen and I'm here today to ask for your assistance in two events. The first event is an event that's been held for the last three years - the first one being held in 2001. It was a Skate-a-Thon Health Fair. And what we're trying to do is we're trying to raise awareness in the community about issues...health issues that effect the community particularly communities ofcolor. The health fair as I said the first one was held in 2001 and at the time I believe we might have had about 120 people to go through the health fair. Last year we had over 250 people. So it is something that people are...they're desiring. There are a number of health fairs held at the University of Iowa, but I think that's setting in and of itself excludes a lot of people. And so this is something that we wanted to do to include the community - Johnson County and Iowa City. That first year First Lady Vilsack was our honorary guest and we've been building on that. Last year we also had a program called Unsung Heroes - community, compassion and service. And that was a banquet that recognized people in the community both professionals as well as laypeople who had provided some service or support to people with diabetes in the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 40 community. And we gave several awards. We gave a diabetes service award which went to a program at the University of Iowa called REACH - you probably are familiar with that. We gave a diabetes inspiration award to a woman who is in her 50's and she works at the neighborhood centers of Johnson County. Actually she volunteers let me rephrase that - she volunteers and we were told that she's there come rain, shine, sleet or snow. So she gives a new meaning to what postal workers do. And so we wanted to recognize people like this. We also recognized the free medical clinic for the work that it's doing for people in the community who are low-income, uninsured, and under-insured. The money that we're asking for would not... Mrs. Vanderhoefit's in your definition it does not quite fit. You would probably say this is one of those human services place that you need to go to, but we feel strongly that the health of the community is a community issue and we feel strongly that although it's not entertainment in the strict sense of the word the money that we're asking for would go toward providing some entertainment - a speaker or some public figure that we could bring in. And there are a number of people who are celebrities and public figures who are diabetic. That's as much as I have to say. I'll take your questions. Pfab: I can make one comment I was a guest of your awards program and I walked away learning more than I ever thought I didn't know. Gadsen: Thank you. Pfab: It was extremely valuable event to me personally. I could not believe what is going on that was below my radar screen. How people work and the efforts they...the work they go to make...help people with diabetes. Gadsen: Thank you for coming. There was an invitation sent to...it was a...we sent an invitation out to ail of the Council and so we thank you for coming. Lehman: Any other questions? O'Donnell: Thank you. Lehman: Thank you. Gadsen: Should I sign this? Lehman: Yes if you would please. Kanner: Denita what is IRPP you list as...I might be reading it wrong you list as a revenue source for $6500. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 41 Gadsen: Yeah. That's not...I think you're looking at it wrong. It's the IHPP which is the...it's...there's a program at the University called the Culturally Competency Cure Initiative and IHPP is one of those...it's the umbrella that provides funding for that organization which provides some funding to Eagles' Flight for its health initiative. Karmer: Do you know what that stands for? Gadsen: It's integrated health education profession...I can't really...integrated health education professional. Lehman: Hey that sounds good enough - close enough. Gadsen: Okay. Kanner: And that's out of UI Hospitals? Gadsen: Actually it's out of health sciences. Kanner: UI Health Science. Gadsen: Yes. Kanner: Thanks. Wilburn: Denita you mentioned that this year the health fair is going to focus on cardiovascular disease, will you continue to do some of the other screenings for other...? Gadsen: Definitely. The first year as I said we did cycle cell. The second year we did diabetes and the third...this year we're doing cardiovascular disease. And cardiovascular disease and diabetes and weight and all of those issues go kind of hand in hand so each year we try to come up with some issue - and again these issues are not just relevant to communities of color - but we do try to bring to, you know, target people of color in the community. Champion: Thank you, Pfab: Keep up the good work. Gadsen: Thank you. Margaret Wieting: I'm Margaret Wieting, Executive Director of the Johnson County Historical Society. My Board President Kristin Summerwill choose to be in Florida rather than here with me tonight. But she'll be here next time. First of all we want to thank you for your longtime support of our organization. And we don't come each year asking for support for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 42 a specific event or a program as you can see from the form that you give us. It doesn't really allow us to share those things that we do do, but what you do support is our mission and that is to collect, preserve and tell the stories of Johnson County of which Iowa City is a significant part. Within the Iowa City community we do manage and interpret and do programs at the Plum Grove site. We are maintaining our site at Old Capital Mall and have some programs and exhibits planned there. We'll be holding our 12th annual time camp at City Park. We offer pioneer and Native American camps. And then one of real highlights last year was our first historic cemetery walk when we went to St. Joseph's in Oakland Cemetery and people had a chance to meet and hear voices from the past whether it was Mr. Hohenschuh from the funeral home or Theresa Feldevert with her story about the black angel. It was popular that we turned away about 75 people. We just couldn't accommodate everybody. And so we are planning to do another one this fall. But the heart and soul our organization is our collection of over 10,000 artifacts that help us to tell the story as well as the oral histories that we collect that give a voice to those. Some of those things that reflect the story of Iowa City include a column from the Jefferson Hotel and we were able to use that in an exhibit. We have diaries and letters of Iowa Citians. We have histories of Iowa City business such as the Dane Coal Company. And then we also have some of the Iowa City fire insurance maps and records.., fire records. And I would like to mention that we also have the Johnson County deed books. They start back as early as 1839 and we have the disintern~ent permits from the Coralville Cemetery when it was moved across the street. And I mention that because of the article just the other day about the records of Oakland Cemetery that those are being computerized and we would hope that you would think of us as a repository of the original records so that they can be preserved and also offered for research. We do appreciate your support. We know we don't quite fit into the annual event, but we do feeI that we do bring...we do provide programming for our greater Johnson County community that brings in over 8,000 people to hear the stories. I do want to just have you have one of our new brochures and that helps give an overview of our organization and many of you are aware of that. And again thank you for your support. And if you have any questions I'd be willing to answer them. Kanner: Margaret this is sort of an aside. Someone just brought this up to me 10 year anniversary of the big flood this year. Do you know is your group or any other group planning to mark that event in any way? Wieting: We plan a small exhibit. We lived that flood. We lost a lot of artifacts in the basement of the schoolhouse and so in fact when Richard Meyers closed down his truck stop he found a lot of his stuffin his This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 43 freezer - books and things so we've got those back. But yes we will do a small exhibit on that. Kanner: Thank you. Wieting: Okay. Yeah? Pfab: I know I've always enjoyed walking through your exhibits up in the Old Capital Mall. Wieting: Good. We're going to do two of those. One will be a poor farm exhibit - pictures that were taken early 1960's and Loren Horton will be doing a program, and then also if you're familiar with the Scattergood project - Michael Luick Thrams and his new effort to talk about the POW camps in Iowa where, you know, so many farmers have to go and fight in the war that they brought in German POW's to work on the farms. So we'll be doing an exhibit thero. So we're real excited that the mall has continuing that arrangement. Lehman: Thank you. Ahead of schedule. PATV? I guess we're not here yet. Chamber Singers? Oh, yes. Champion: We're way ahead of schedule. James Petersen: Good evening. I'm James Petersen a co-president of Chamber Singers of Iowa City. We're asking the City of Iowa City to assist us in our 25th Bach Festival which will be held in March of 2004 within the funding time the grant allows. We were founded in 1970 and nearly every year during that time we have produced a Bach Festival sometimes using only local and area people, sometimes bringing in outside people - the conductor Helmut Ruilling was one a few years ago. And we're asking the City to pay approximately 26% of the costs of the two concert series of the Bach Festival for that year. Do you have any questions that I can answer? Vanderhoef: How many outside people from outside the community usually come in for this? Petersen: Would come for the concerts? Vanderhoef: Uh-huh. Petersen: We have about 4 members who come from as far away as the Quad Cities to rehearsals and then invariably people...they bring a couple van loads of people. And we also have a large contingent of people who come to ali of our concerts from Fairfield and up in that area. From., .I don't see that...we're not talking about hundreds of people coming from Chicago or things like that for this concert. But we are This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 44 envisioning people from say 50 miles to 75 miles away. We're sending publicity to a very wide area -particular since it is Bach music that we'll be doing - to churches as far away as an hour and a half drive from here. So we anticipate people coming from that far. We already have some audience that does that, but we don't really keep track of that ordinarily. Kanner: Which part of the program is free and open to the public? Petersen: The Sunday afternoon recital concert that's kind of an open call for musicians of all kinds to come and play their favorite Bach piece or sing it. And last year we had...I think we had five variations on the Prelude in C which everybody has to learn in piano lessons. I didn't know it could be played four different ways, but I'm imagining that there are a lot of ways. And they all played them better than I did so that was good. Kanner: So the paid orchestra, soloists and conductor they're mostly for Saturday...the Saturday concert. Do any of them play with the group on Sunday? Petersen: They may play as individuals on Sunday, but they're not being paid to do that. That's simply for the love of the music. Nobody who performs on Sunday will be paid. Last year we had students as young as 6 and as old as nearly 80 playing and singing and it was quite an event. It was about two hours of solid music with a 15 minute additional intermission. And we learned never underestimate the draw of 6-year-old with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and parents and everybody else. Kanner: And I'll ask you the same question I asked the hip-hop. What would be a good piece to listen to to get a sense of what the festival is about? A good Bach piece that I could take out of the library. Petersen: The Anna Magdalena notebook would be good if you liked keyboard work and anyone of the literally hundreds and hundreds of pieces he wrote particularly at one of his church assignments he had to write a new piece and perform it every week for church - which also means he had to teach it to the choir. Having been a choir director for about 30 years I know that that's a lot of work. But almost anything with his name on it would work very nicely for you. Any of the large pieces.., we just sang with the University Chorus and Symphonies and the Brahms Requiem and the year before that we sang the Bach B Minor Mass. So you can...the mass itself is about 3 ½ hours long. I wouldn't suggest that for casual listening, but there are a lot of others. When you go to the library type in Bach and I would say instrumental This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 45 and then you'll get quite a list from that. And then go to vocals or choral work. There's a lot there. Kanner: Thanks. And one last question. The people you plan to hire are they local people? Petersen: We're planning to ask people like Timothy Stalter who's the Director of Choral ~vork at the University to sing the tenor parts for us. And we've got some calls in to people at Chicago to sing some of the other parts as well. David RayI who was the Conductor of Chamber of Singers a number of years ago has said that he would like to come and either direct or sing some portion of the concert. So it would be kind of good homecoming if we could get David to do that as well. He's also the Major Professor for our current conductor, David Puderbaugh, who just started in August with us. So it will be a good homecoming for everybody. Kanner: Thanks. Wilbum: You were requesting funding for 2004, but where will this year...what's the date for this year's concert? Petersen: This year's concert will be on the 8th and the 9th of March. Wilburn: And the 9th will be the drop-in? Petersen: Yes. The 9th wiI1 be the drop-in. That will be at 2:00 in the afternoon. Wilbum: At First Bread? Petersen: That wilI be at Gloria Dei Lutheran. The Saturday evening will be at 8:00. Lehman: Other questions? Thank you. Petersen: Thank you. Lehman: Okay. Now we'll do PATV. Josh Goding: I'm Josh Goding. This grant proposal is kind of a response to community members who have expressed an interest in having PATV produce more community programming especially as involved with the high schools. Basically what we'd like to do in 2004 is send some PATV staffers to attend the proms of both City High and West Hig~n and basically set up and produce a live television show covering the parade portion of each of those proms. We'd like to use the broadcast modulator to go live with these shows and potentially 18,000 households could watch the City proms and West High proms parades This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 46 live hopefully. We'd think it'd be a good program. We've heard about it being successful in other communities and we think it would help foster a sense of community spirit and all that kind of good stuff. Champion: Very cute idea. Kanner: Are there any folks from the high schools that have requested you come in there and to tape this? Goding: Not specifically. No. Not from the high schools - not from the students if that's what you mean. Kanner: And xvhat's the prom parade? Goding: I'm trying to think back - I didn't really attend my prom personally, but it's where the members of the.., can you help me here? Lehman: You need to talk in the mic if you would please. Rene Paine: I have a vague recollection myself of prom, but I think it's where the couples they come up and they are announced and they just.., each couple comes up and are announced and they just promenade down a walkway kind of thing. And I think this would be kind of fun because people spend a lot of time - I know these kids do - this is a very big event in their young lives and it's a big deal. And I think it would be kind of fun for their families at home to see them at the event and for them to be seen by their friends and be on TV and we just think it would be kind of a fun and spirited community project. Vanderhoef: Would you have the capability of selling tapes to those prom folks? Paine: Yeah. I think that would be an extension of this project is that then they could have a tape and they could have that to keep and watch years and years later when maybe they've outgrown their prom outfits and they can pull that out of the closet and look at how happy they were back then in high school. Am there any...Irvin? Pfab: I have a question. How...you hope to do this live? Paine: Yeah and I was just talking to people at the...at Mediacom today and we were talking about what that would involve and there is the possibility of taking out a modulator to the different schools and hooking up an outgoing signal from the schools. So they have every confidence that this can be...this can (can't hear). Which would be sort of a unique and novel experiment that this would go live from the high schools because as far as I know they've never had a live program from the high schools. And this might open up a whole new capability. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 47 Pfab: So you have a confidence of 90 plus percent? Paine: Oh, yeah. Pfab: Okay. Vanderhoef: The $3,000 I'm reading is in kind. You're wanting to borrow the equipment basically is that what you're saying? Paine: Well right. We would use the PATV equipment which if you wanted to rent that or if you'd try to rent that you would probably pay at least that much money from like a rental service. So that of course would be PATV equipment that we could use and we have some digital equipment so it would be very high caliber equipment. And then we would just...we're just asking for funding to provide the staff people to do a very good job of video taping the event. And I know from several Council people when I talked with you a couple years ago about PATV and what PATV could do for the community I know a number of you said can you do more community programming especially school type programming. And we went to several businesses. We had a community amhive project. We went to several businesses and asked for funding and honestly didn't hear back from any of these businesses as far as support for some of these types of projects goes. And I remember Mayor Lehman you saying that if...that if we came to the Council and we had some projects in mind maybe you'd be able to figure out a way to help us out...help us do some of these types of things. So here we are and we think that this would be a very good community building event and fun. Pfab: I think the community building aspect of it is j ust...do I say the word wild? Lehman: Not related to prom you wouldn't use the word wild. No. Pfab: But the idea of community building... Paine: I think it would just sort of bring the community together and they'd all kind of gather around and want to experience this either, you know, by being there themselves or by watching it on community television. This might bring in some more viewers to access TV. Kanner: And to get Josh to his first prom. Lehman: Yeah there you go. Goding: Finally the memories. Paine: Are there any other questions? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 48 Lehman: Thank you, folks. Paine: Thank you. Lehman: Parks and Rec. Matt Pacha: Good evening. You all look tired and it's approaching on my bedtime so I'll be brief. I'm Matt Pacha, Chairman of the Parks and Rec Commission. (Can't hear) is John Westafield another one of my fellow Commissioners and I brought my middle son with me to see what his dad does when he's having fun in his spare time. Kanner: Is that Terry? Pacha: My son. Thanks. Now you sound like the rest of my family. I'm not that old. As always I'd like to thank the Council and the City Manager for your past support. I've also, you know I've been doing this for it seems like 100 years, but it's only been 10 or 11 and I would like to recognize Terry. You know I've worked with him for probably 12,13 years now and Terry Trueblood is...you know I think he's one of - and no Steve he's not paying me to say this - he's truly I think he's a top-notch administrator. He does a terrific job with the staff, working with the Commission. He keeps us very well informed and does a great job. Atkins: He does? Pacha: And now he can pay me for that. Lehman: You just lost all your credibility. Pacha: Yeah I know. Pfab: No, I think you just made great credibility. Pacha: Overall things... Pfab: I difference of opinion. Pacha: ...are going real well with Parks and Recreation. As always we continue to grow our parkland and trails, but our staff as I mentioned in past times our staff does not continue to grow. I think we're doing an adequate job of keeping up with maintenance although I don't know that we're doing a first-class job and a job that the public would expect us to do. You know the staff has had to make some unpopular decisions over the last year or two whether it be cutting back on mowing or maintenance, snow removal, shelter maintenance. But overall we're doing pretty well. And of course adding to this is the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 49 fact that over the last several years ~ve've added some specialized facilities such as our beautiful new skate park which is being utilized very well. The Riverside Festival stage Iowa City Kickers Soccer Park, City Park amusement rides. So we've added some things and, you know, all of them require maintenance and I wish we could offer even more facilities and things and maybe as the budget eases a little bit we'll be able to do that. We continue to believe - it's been several years I mentioned regarding a natural areas specialist. We continue to grow our natural areas within the City and we have several of them on the books right now. So we still think that's a priority, but we're certainly willing to wait a little while on that one as well. In addition to that we did request a number of new positions this year for the '04 budget including one in parks, one in forestry, one in CBD and then a half time custodian position in recreation. None of these were approved. And I'm not here to ask for more money. I just ask that as the budget situation relaxes and hopefully it will at some point please keep these things in mind for future. They're still very important. None of them are requested if we didn't feel they were important. Something that just came in that Terry shared the results with me today. I think he just received it today. A few months ago we participated in a survey initiated by the City of Ames and we just got the results. Basically it surveyed a number of Midwestem university communities - 11 of them - well they received about 11 responses. Obviously with all surveys you take things with a grain of salt, but I thought there was some interesting little tidbits that came out of it. The average cost to maintain an acre of parkland according the survey is $1612. Iowa City came in at $883. The average number of park maintenance employees in the summer is 35; Iowa City comes in at 19. In the winter the average number is 15, Iowa City is 11. And the average population of the respondents was 62,469 so it's about identical to Iowa City. So just some stuff...some food for thought. I thought it was some interesting figures. The real reason I'm here tonight is to discuss your support for a Parks and Recreation master plan. In our January meeting the Commission voted unanimously to pursue this and to pursue it with haste. We feel it's our top priority at this time and we'd like to get started on it right away. In the past between Staff and Commission we've tried to do the best job we can by annually or every couple of years coming up with our top 10, top 15 list as far as priorities for capital improvement and things of that nature. You know we've done an adequate job and we've used that to help guide us, but I think we can do better because the one piece of that that's been missing is citizen input. And with, you know, reduced funding over the next four and five years for Parks and Recreation capital projects it just seems like it's a good time to get citizens involved in the decision making process and let them tel1 us what their priorities are. A master plan, you know, will help guide us to make This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 50 more informed decisions based on research about what people want and more what their willing to pay. We feel strongly enough about this that we are willing to recommend the use of the parkland acquisition funds to pay for it if necessary preferably on a payback basis. I want to emphasize that our clear preference would be to pay for this in some other fashion such as GO bonds or, you know, operating funds. But realizing the situation we're in if push comes to shove we discussed it and we're unanimous in our support to borrow the money from parkland acquisition. You might recall a couple of years ago we had $40,000 in the budget for this very same plan budgeted for this and it was lost as a result of some budget reductions. This amount at that time did not include a citizen...a community wide survey component which we feel is integral to this. And so at this point plus inflation our ne~v estimate is around $60,000. So if parkland acquisition funds are used to pay for this we'd like to suggest a payback in the amount of $20,000 a year over 3 years or $15,000 over 4 years if that's the route we need to go. We...like I said the Commission feels unanimously this is the way to go and give a little more direction. We can be a little more proactive in determining what our needs are within the City. As you all know there's a lot of things going on in communities around us and we kind of like to be a little more proactive in terms of what we're doing. And we'd like to get started right away like everyone else. If you have any questions I'd certainly be willing to take a crack at it. Vanderhoef: When you talk about borrowing from the parkland acquisition fund tell me what you have in the ways of plans for use of purchasing parkland. I am aware of the Benton Street Park that you are hoping to buy a piece of that. Pacha: Right - the comer property there. Vanderhoef: And as I understand it we've got about $340,000 in parkland acquisition right now. Pacha: Right. Vanderhoef: Do you have any other plans for purchases at this point? Pacha: There's none that I'm aware of. Vanderhoef: What will it take to finish out the purchases to complete the Court Hill trail? Pacha: Terry? Vanderhoef: Got any ballpark idea? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 51 Pacha: Kevin is here also by the way. He's one of our...did you just sneak in? Oh, I'm sorry. Kevin Boyd is another one of our fellow Commissioners. Thanks for the support, Kevin. Tmeblood: Actually all of that property is under City ownership right now - either under ownership or we have easements except for maybe one small parcel. So there would be very little. Vanderhoef: No purchase left really. Tmeblood: Maybe one small parcel. That's about it. Vanderhoefi Okay. Pfab: Terry before you go I believe you made a comment to me at another time that getting the use of that land is not...there's no opposition to it. There's not a confrontational issue there. Trueblood: The use of which land? Pfab: You said there's a part that you don't...just a real small part. The people that own it are very willing to work with you? Trueblood: That was quite a long time ago and I think there might have been a change in ownership, Irvin. So we...I haven't approached those people. Whether or not they've been approached by Planning and Community Development or somebody else I don't know. But I'm not aware of any opposition. Pfab: Okay. You're not aware of any? Kanner: Terry I had a question. There was...we had requested perhaps a bench at Ned Ashton Park - the little comer park. I never saw anything there. Whatever happened to that bench there? That's on Benton near Riverside on the trail. I think it's called Ned Ashton Park. Trueblood: Right. Kanner: There was talk about putting bench there for people to sit on. It's a nice little place. Tmeblood: I thought one or two benches were a part of our development of that. I'll double check it. Atkins: I thought it was too. It's also a trailhead. Vanderhoef: I remember a conversation about it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 52 Atkins: It's also a trailhead and so the benches made a great deal of sense. Tmeblood: I know that benches were included in the original development plan for that so unless they floated down river somewhere I think they're still there, but I'll double check. Champion: Matt you were incredibly pleasant for a Parks and Rec Commission who've asked for help since I've been on the Council. And I think we gave you a part-timer? Didn't we give you something? A little bit? Just a dab? Pacha: We...I believe we received something for the Mercer...to support the Scanlon Gymnasium as I recall. Champion: We all know that you justfully need more help. We believe you. Pacha: Great. Vanderhoefi You're at the top of my list to get help. Pacha: Marvelous. Alright. Lehman: Thank you. Pacha: Thank you very much. O' Donnell: Thank you. Lehman: Well that is the end of the list of scheduled presentations. Are there others here who were not scheduled? Pfab: We missed one didn't we? Champion: No. We got everybody. Pfab: Okay, okay. Vanderhoef: We jumped past one. Lehman: We did jump past one and then we leaped back and picked up the one that we jumped over. O'Donnell: Spring ahead and fall back. Lehman: Is there anyone else who would like to address the Council relative to funding? Julie I thought you might and you're next after Julie. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 53 Julie Foreman: Good evening. And I'm here tonight to represent the Downtown Association of Iowa City. I'm the Executive Director and we have three funding requests. Lehman: And your name is? Foreman: Oh, I'm sorry. Julie Foreman. Lehman: Thank you Julie. Foreman: Sorry. We have three funding requests. The first one is our Just Jazz summer concert series which is a series of concerts on Saturday night on the ped mall in the downtown area. Our request is for $8600. It's been the same request for the past..~since it's inception I believe. We pretty much leave it at status quo filling the Saturday nights with the Just Jazz concert. The expenses that are incurred are pretty much for the performers and the sound. And then we try to get money from members to help pay for some promotion and advertising. And we can do promotion and advertising through our Friday night concert series as well which we get quite a bit of in-kind services on that. Do you want me to pause and have you ask questions after each one or after all of them? Lehman: Why don't you go ahead and do them ail and then we'll ask whatever questions we have. Foreman: Okay. The second one is the Friday night concert series which probably most of you are familiar with. Also down in the ped mall. Highly successful and we would like to continue to do that. We plan on starting a little bit later in May this year and continuing into September to kind of tap into the student body bringing more people into the downtown area for that. The request for that is $7,000. The overall costs for brining in the performers for about 16 weeks is $14,000. We're hoping to get $7,000 from the downtown...the organization itself kicks in $1,000 and then we hope to get $6,000 from our members. We don't have that as yet. Right now we're at about $2500, buy we're hoping...we start knocking on some doors, the money usually does come through for that. People like the program that much. The Press Citizen again...sorry...is offering quite a bit of in-kind advertising. They'll be advertising it in the newspaper. They also print up all the posters that are hung up, the table cards. Last year they had like book markers that had all the concert series listed on it. And we're looking at different types of advertising this year as well. The third request is for our holiday lighting. I was looking at your sheet. It is a substantial increase and I believe we did get funding. It says not requested last year but we did receive some funds from the City last year for that. So this year we're asking for $2500. The This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 54 reason for the increase in costs is that we wanted to go with commercial grade for one thing. We have quite...when we just get the cheapest thing out there they break, they fall apart that kind of thing. We're hoping to reuse these. The second reason is we wanted to put up more and cover more of the downtown. Now that the City has put so much into Iowa Avenue we wanted to get over there as far as Iowa which has never been done before. We wanted to go all the way down to Gilbert and to Clinton and all the way down to Burlington- sort of the central business CB 10 area if you will which is our core group. The response has been excellent. People like it. They especially like the fact that we've gone higher up into the trees. Is it a necessity? Some would argue yes and no. But the response that I've received and other people who have come up and been in the downtown have said it's been great. So that's what most of the cost is - for the commercial grade lights that we're hoping to reuse and the expense of getting them out of the trees and into the trees. Those are our three requests and anybody have any questions? Vanderhoefi I know you call yourself downtown, do you do anything collaborately with the near north side? Foreman: The near north side historically...yes we do things with them. They're sort of considered...they have been in the past and we're kind of looking at this right now - they've been considered like the Old Capital Town Center. And how that works is the Old Capital Town Center pays a fee and then everybody that's in the mall in a member. Like I said we're looking at that right now because we just started sending out our invoices for our members and that isn't real clear how that area has supported the Downtown Association and if they're going to continue and in what capacity they'll continue. Vanderhoef: They lighting up there in my mind would be a real good idea. Foreman: I would agree with that. If anybody's every participated in the process it is a very lengthy, time-consuming process. And for those of you who don't know this is my first time having down it. I just started with the Downtown Association in August and needless to say it's on my priority list in July this year - not to wait until November. It does take quite a bit of effort. We were very fortunate this year too to have help from the City, from MidAmerican Energy to actually give us bucket trucks to get it up and that made a huge difference. Also I should mention that the Hope House Correctional Facility has been a huge help. They're out there every Saturday fixing the lights. They've taken down lights and replaced them with...we keep all the lights from year to year and reuse them. And so they taken them and restrung them and they're continuing to fix them at no charge to us. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 55 So that's been fantastic. And the response from that has been overwhelming too. People like that as well. Lehman: Julie, my guess is that without the coordination that you were able to put together instead of $2500 you'd be asking for $10,000 or $12,000 or more. Foreman: Without a doubt. Lehman: It's incredible the amount of work that's gone into that. Foreman: Yes. I mean this is just for the purchase of lights. That's ail that is. And you know the people who've stepped up to the plate on this it's been phenomenal. People donating drinks and food for the people who help put it up has been very well received and we're very fortunate I guess. Kanner: A couple things, Julie. Two things actually. It's quite a bit that's spent on sound and I realize a lot of that is getting some expertise from the people running it, but just as we had a presentation before about maybe getting a video projector that could be used by neighborhoods, has there been any thought of a community sound system that could be used and maybe save some money in the long run. Foreman: You know the money is actually for the setting up and taking down of the sound system regardless of whose sound system it is. We have a gentleman who's done it for...over the past few years. And that's just kind of... for that fee it's kind of nice to know that somebody's going to show up every Friday and get it set up in time and take it down and there's no question of, you know, where the cords are and there's no liability issues I guess with that. And I think we're fortunate that he hasn't increased his costs over the years. It's sort of maintained at that level. So I'm not sure that getting sound equipment that could be used each time is the issue. (End of Tape 03-12, Beginning of Tape 03-11) Kanner: ...when I go down there it doesn't seem like there's big crowds there so a couple suggestions to throw at you. One is cut back maybe every other week or once a month and/or extend it...perhaps we had someone presenting about hip-hop getting into some of the hip-hop kind of stuff to try to draw in maybe a younger crowd to get into that. I would like to see jazz take off perhaps, but it's never traditionally been a big drawing music venue. Foreman: We might also thank and once again this is my first season doing this, but I know what you're saying and another thing maybe Just Jazz is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 56 not the term we want to name it because we do get some big band bands play in there maybe get some hip-hop. We get way more requests for bands in the area to play than we actually have dates. So we could always look at maybe changing...you know adding some additional types of musics to that Saturday night. Kanner: And this is sort of an aside, but I think it's connected to what you're doing. There was some talk in the past maybe before you started of perhaps having a farmer's market out on the street and people were impressed with what happened in Madison. I worked at the farmer's market as a supervisor one year so I know how attached people are to having that shelter. But is there any thought have having maybe one or two special event farmer's markets out on Dubuque I think. A lot of people still don't know it's there. And maybe tie it in with one of the concerts - have it, you know, big Saturday morning or leading up to the music. We have some music on our Wednesday night market. Any thoughts on that? Foreman: From what I gather from our records the files that I've reviewed I think there has been discussion with Terry Trueblood about that, but I think there's some City issues with us having that in the downtown like on Dubuque, on the ped mall. Kanner: I think that if you throw out maybe once or twice a year as a special event maybe we could make it work with the backup of the parking ramp in case it rains. Foreman: Okay. I think it's a great idea and I'd be more than happy to bring it back before the Council if that's something that you think would be a good idea. I know that a lot of people would like that and tie it in with some music as well. Like I said from the files it just seemed like it wasn't possible to do at the time. And maybe with some investigative work we could organize something like that. Lehman: I would think that you'd have to work through that with Terry, with the farmer's market folks because there's a lot more issues here than just a good idea. There's probably several different things that you'd have to look at. Foreman: Yeah. And like I said I think it's been brought up before. Kanner: When I was the farmer market supervisor it was brought up. But I don't think it really went beyond initial discussion. Foreman: Okay. Thank you. Lehman: Any other questions for Julie? Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 57 Foreman: Alright. Thank you. Chan~pion: Thank you, Julie. Kris Muhl: Good evening. My name is Kris Muhl and I want to introduce Erin Martin who's going to begin and then I'll take over towards the end. Thanks. Erin Martin: Hi. Good evening. I'm Erin Martin and I'm currently the rowing coach for the Old Capital Rowing team here in Iowa City. I've been involved with the club for roughly 4 ½ years. I currently coach our high school students and our adults. Prior to that I was an athlete at the University of Iowa working with Coach Kowal and the women's varsity program. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with rowing. Sometimes I come across people who know what I'm talking about other times it's very foreign. So I don't know early in the morning we're the people that are out there sitting on long skinny boats on the Iowa River. We get up about 5:00 a.m. for practice rain or shine unless it's lightening of course. Rowing in Iowa started around the 1800's. And the United States Rowing Association today has roughly 14,000 members. It's still growing. There's almost 530 clubs, colleges and high schools from around the country. Ummm...I lost my place. The sport brings in Olympic athletes, homemakers, business people, youth, senior citizens, people with disabilities, athletes from other sports, people discovering the sport for the first time at the age of 30, 40, or 50, those who wish to race and those who are really just looking for an opportunity to exercise, those who are interested in competing, and those who just see it as a social opportunity. Kris and I are here today to introduce ourselves and our club in case you don't know about us and also to ask for some assistance for a Spring Regatta hosted by Old Capital Rowing and the University of Iowa men's team. Old Capital as I said before provides competitive rowing for high schools students and for adults. And Kris' club provides a competitive opportunity for men at the University of Iowa. Pretty much right now we're funded by donations from alumni. We're funded by quarterly dues and everybody participates in fundraising. I know that my juniors this year cleared seats at Kinneck. They sold t-shirts at a local regatta. They sale candy bars, anything they can come up with really to make some money. I can speak for the high school students we currently have 26 members - boys and girls although we only have about 4 boys right now. So we're heavy on the females, which is okay. The students come from West and City High although it is open to Regina, but we just haven't brought anybody in. My kids practice Monday and Wednesday mornings from 5:00 to 6:45 a.m. and then on Saturday afternoons. They come from a variety of economic backgrounds. I've met This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 58 students who struggle with depression. I have a student who has cystic fibrosis. Another girl who recently left because she has a brain tumor. I have kids who take care of their younger siblings. One girl leaves early every time because she has to drive her little sister to school. They're all very intelligent. Many of them have recently applied to Georgetown and Stanford. Many of them are pursuing rowing opportunities in college - boys and girls. Most recently we have kids now rowing at Purdue, Vassar, BU, Wisconsin and Minnesota. And most recently one of my girls was recruited by the University of Iowa women's' program. She'll receive a scholarship in the fall which is really exciting. As I said before rowing has been around for a long time. During the summer here in Iowa the Quad Cities, Des Moines Rowing Club, and people from Iowa City and Coralville meet for the Iowa Games - that's during the summer. In the fall there are races in Des Moines and Rockford, Illinois. But perhaps the largest in the Midwest is fight here in our hometown and that is the Head of the Iowa hosted by the University women. I'm not sure if you've seen that in October. It's typically the weekend before Halloween. You might have sent the tents and the boats parked out at City Park. This race has been going on for I think about 13 years and roughly draws about 1300 athletes -that's just the athletes. The spring season however is a little bit light. There really isn't a lot of opportunity. The women have a couple of head races, but that's a varsity thing and we really can't participate in that so instead we travel to Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, Texas, a variety of other places to compete in a regatta. So since there aren't a lot of opportunities locally we're trying to get some of those events started and we'd like to host a regatta next year in the spring - hopefully in April. But to do that it takes a lot of resources, a lot of volunteers. But we're hoping that you'll see the benefit to the community and not just the total cost. So I'm going to let Kris take over from there. Muhl: If I could just hand these out real quick. Karr: I can take them for you. Muhl: Thank you. Now we realize and I must apologize to some extent on the amount that we requested because for some reason I was under the impression that there was a significantly larger amount available. But I think if you look...and I somewhat revised the budget after we got a little bit more information. What we worked with initially when we first found out about this opportunity after we met with the Iowa City/Coralville Convention Visitors Bureau we didn't have a lot of time before the deadline for this. So we did revise it somewhat. And as I think you can see...and let me just briefly state rowing is a very expensive sport. Each boat - a brand new eight is $25,000, a brand This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 59 new four is about $16,000. One oar alone is $300. So overall...and the trend continues when setting up and running a regatta is a very expensive sport. But also the biggest expenses are setting things up. I think that once you get past the initial set up which are the lanes to...each boat has a certain amount of space and it has to be pretty well marked so that people can or the people on the...the coxswains who stir the boat can be in the correct course and not interfere with other teams. However, once that is done costs drop substantially. And we do also have the option in getting estimates for setting up courses we've said there's no more room than for six boats across, but we could certainly start with less than that. So basically this is asking for all the bells and whistles in the proposal. But you can also see that in looking at who we would attract even within the first year we believe that we can generate...that we can provide economic impact to the City of Iowa City as well as the City of Coralville - well over $60,000 in travel groups, in bringing high school athletes which obviously bring more travel groups than what high school or what collegiate athletes will bring even though there are significant higher number of collegiate athletes. But a lot of these programs are funded and they do stay in hotels. And even on some of these numbers I think you can see for the hotels - granted it's probably low-bailing a little bit we assume $50 per night, four people per room and certainly if you have a travel group of two per high school athlete there's going to be more rooms than that. But we do feel that it would bring a huge, huge impact to the community not only economically, but it will create awareness nationally as well locally of rowing, but also of what resources this community has to offer. Rowing in the community really helps to increase the quality of life for those who are in the community as well as helping to potentially attract other businesses to the state and community. With the astronomical growth that women's rowing especially has seen that is a huge potential benefit for females as well as minorities in the community to be able to get into colleges and universities in the future becoming scholarship athletes at various colleges throughout the United States. But it definitely...rowing also helps promote families spending time together. And because of the easy access to the community provided by the interstate as well as the outdoor atmosphere of this community Iowa City is definitely a perfect location for a large regatta. I think you can see some of the pictures of some of the largest regattas in the United States in what I handed out. The one is Head of the Charles which is in Boston. It's probably the largest head race in the United States. You can definitely see the number of boats that are there - and that's only one launch site. There are at least one if not two other launch sites. And you can see the crowds on the shore. This also potentially can bring in junior national teams depending on the facilities and how they're arranged. And bring in such as what Milwaukee, Wisconsin is doing they're trying to start This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 60 up a regatta and they have successfully done so for the last two years to become as big as the Head of the Charles. And they bring national athletes caliber people to those competition such as the national team, the Canadian national team and other teams. Lehman: Who funds that in Milwaukee? Muhl: It's partially done through the University of Wisconsin as well as through the City of Milwaukee. Kanner: Kris what I'm not understanding doesn't the University have this equipment that you're asking for? Wouldn't they let you use it for a springtime event or rent it for a reasonable rate? Muhl: Possibly. But they do not have a six-lane course which is eventually what we'd like. They do have, I believe, a two to four lane course which in trying to hold a regatta minimum is six, ideal is eight if you have the capacity. Kanner: Would they let you use some of this equipment? Muhl: Certainly. Well, I definitely have a good relationship with Coach Kowal. I believe...but we haven't explored that to any extent. However, I don't believe the course that they currently have is buoyed all the way-typically courses are buoyed every 10 meters. But it's definitely a possibility. And we realize that we asked for a significant sum, but we're also hoping that you might have ideas on possibilities for other venues that we could pursue as well as we are beginning to pursue some of those as well. We definitely have a significant amount of time. We are planning on having an unofficial regatta this spring with some teams, but it certainly won't be anywhere near the level that it needs to be as far as having officials and everything that a well mn regatta is going to need. Definitely one of the biggest complaints you're always going to hear at a regatta is that it doesn't run on time or the docks were horrible and people were falling or getting hurt and things like that and that's why we want ideally to establish that this is top-notch from the get go is we can all possibly do that. Letunan: Other questions? Vanderhoef: Any other regattas in Iowa? Muhl: In the spring? Vanderhoef: Any time. Muhl: Certainly. Rowing kind of has two or three seasons. You have the fall season where there are head races which they start at the head of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 61 river and work their way down which is typically 2 ½ to 3 or 4 miles. In the spring everything is pretty much 2,000 meters which about 1600 meters is a mile. And no there are not any other sprint races in Iowa that I'm aware of. Vanderhoef: So there isn't... Martin: They're mostly in the fall and then in the summer. There's the Iowa Games in the summer. Quad Cities hosts a regatta which... Lehman: You need to speak in the mic. Martin: I'm sorry. Quad Cities hosts a regatta which Des Moines goes to, we go to, and the Quad City teams go to. The Iowa games and the Head of Iowa here in town. But really that's it. Vanderhoefi Well just sharing equipment back and forth having had a history with competitive swimming and trying to get lane lines and so forth for 50- meter courses over the years we were dragging them from the Quad Cities to Iowa Cities and back and forth the same kind of thing where sharing equipment wherever you could. Lehman: Other...? Muhl: And we certainly agree with that. But...and just so you know the men's team is not a funded program at the University. It's not through the athletic department. It's considered a club sport. But again there are really no venues in Iowa. And we feel that once this initial step is out of the way you can see that it costs significantly less to organize and run the regatta after that point. But we do...if at all possible we would love to share equipment, but I don't think that up to what we would like to have - and you can't always have everything you want - but is not currently available to be borrowed or rented. Wilburn: Do you know the history of the Quad City regatta. I mean did they start out in scale the same type of regatta that you're proposing? Did they have do you I know...do they have a balance of corporate sponsors? Or I guess what I'm getting at is did they start smaller and then build to what they are today or? Because you're...it's hard to tell from you what you have your other revenue sources, but you're asking us to be essentially the corporate sponsor unless you have other plans. Muhl: Again we haven't had a chance to explore all avenues as far as other revenue sources. But we do feel that the impact that it bring to the community we're just hoping to get some help. As far as the Quad Cities I've never been to their sprint race...sprint regatta. You have? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 62 Martin: Well I know that they did start at a smaller scale. And they're a very different club than we are. We're focused more on the team sport with the high school and the college where as the Quad Cities is focused more on smaller more individual little boats. And I think that they have some sponsorship through John Deere although I don't know the details on that. And that happened within the last two years. Wilbum: Just a suggestion it might be helpful to find out how they did get started, some of their history, whether there is... I don't know who makes the boats (can't hear) maybe there might be sponsorship possibilities there. Muhl: Right. And Des Moines actually rowing club Subaru sponsors their head race. And the race that I'm familiar with in the Quad Cities is a head race where you don't have near the requirement for buoys and lane lines because essentially you use one side of the river or the other side. Kanner: Erin I'm just curious are you...is the Old Capital Rowing Club a 501c (3) and do you own your boat or who owns that? Martin: We're currently in the process of getting our tax exempt status. You had to build three years of kind of credible financial background and so our treasurer is working out those numbers. But we do own our own equipment. We have an eight that we purchased two years ago and a couple of fours that we own as well as full sets of oars and that's with juniors and the adults row. Kanner: Where do you store those? Martin: We share... Kris and I both share boat house space with Mandy and her team which is that big brown building down by the Iowa Union - it looks kind of like a big football with the ends cut off. Lehman: Alright. We need to move on. I see a couple other folks, but thank you so much. Martin: Thank you. Muhl: Thank you for your time. Lehman: I think I see someone else who would like to speak. Two more? Okay. Who's next? Three more. Let's get started. Yes please. Steve Grismore: Good evening. I appreciate you guys being here so late for all those Iatecomers. My name is Steve Grismore with the Iowa City Jazz Festival. I just wanted to make the official appeal for support again this year as it's been in the past years. The Jazz Festival is in its 12th This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 63 year, 13th event and I wish I could say there's a lot of exciting new news because that seems to be what the press wants to hear, but we're on schedule to do pretty much what we do is have a great event, bring approximately 20,000 people to Iowa City over a 3-day period - July 4, 5, and 6 this year. We'll kick off Friday night downtown at the Friday night concert series and then have Saturday and Sunday. Last year as you know we moved the event to the new location in the heart of the new designed area downtown. It seems to work well even those it's hot there. And... Champion: It wasn't hot on Washington Street? Grismore: No, no. It's hot pretty much anywhere that time of year. There's just a little more shade over there. The trees will be growing though that's the positive right? It will be nice in the future I'm sure. So... Lehman: Well this is one event that we're all very familiar with. Grismore: I know and I just...but I feel that out of courtesy be here to request because you guys have been a great supporter. Champion: It is. Lehman: No, I think it is important. Grismore: If you have any questions you know if you have anything you want to know about. I mean the only thing that I can say is that it's important that we get your support. Our costs have gone up as all the other events have told you and last year the surprise was the insurance went from about $1500 to $3500 for the event. The other thing with the move is we had to spend money on generators last year and it ended up being only about $700, but that's because we actually had problems with the generator and I talked the company into cutting the cost in half for us. You know I get on the phone and kind of raise hell when that goes on. But we could spend $1500 on generators. The power on the eastern side of Iowa Avenue from Dubuque this was is not happening. It's good for Christmas tree lights and other than that it won't run a thing. Lehman: Steve... before... Steve do we not have somewhere within our system generators? Vanderhoef: Backups? Atkins: The City? Lehman: Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 64 Atkins: Just small portable ones. Nothing... Grismore: We need some pretty serious stuff. Atkins: They need some heavy duty. Grismore: And actually it worked out okay we ended up having a generator. The problem was our electrician set up power on the west side first and then the vendors started going and everything they plugged into went (can't hear). So we had a little fire to put out there early, but after that everything ran fine. And I'm expecting...we're expecting to pay for that. I'm not asking in that sense. I just want you to know for the move that was a new added expense as well. So our costs...I do have a pretty good line-up this year. We have people like the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ray Beretto. We have Charlie Hunter. Probably some names of course Steve a lot of people don't know Jazz so Ron Miles, you know Fred Anderson and people you wouldn't hardly know, but that will bring a lot of people to Iowa City. And you know I'm really proud of this event. And we get a lot of recognition nationally for this event. I know the CDV put pictures of the Jazz Festival on their stuff that's gone out. And you know with the new cultural alliance and everything going on that's real positive stuff. And we still run a national ad. And one thing I should also mention that I've done for the City and I don't know...you know we could actually sit down some time and look at some hard numbers, but with the $7500contribution you're obviously a major sponsor, but what I have done is moved you in my marketing scheme of things into the $10,000 level. The reason I do that is because the City gives us port-a-potties, all the trash barrels, all the labor that goes into the people that clean up. You know we try to do a good job of cleaning up after ourselves, but we still have...and we appreciate that Parks and Rec people and all that. So, you know, we're actually giving you...you guys are in the TV ads we run on KCRG TV 9. You're in our brochures and stuff that we send out to City View and the Quad Cities and everything the Gazette does for us and on and on. I just wanted you to know that was one thing I changed last year plus your banner on the front. Not a big deal to you guys probably, but I want you to know that that is a difference from what we used to do in placement for you guys. And if you can develop a really nice banner we'll put it up them for the City. Sometimes...poor Ross comes running up here, this will work. But it's cool. We'll take whatever. I just want you to know those things. And if you have any questions you know where to find me and I'm more than willing to talk to any of you at any time. Champion: It's a great event. Lehman: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 65 Kanner: I don't understand you had electricity on Washington, but there's not the capability of that same type of electricity on Iowa? Grismore: Well... Kanner: Maybe Steve should... Lehman: When you were on Washington wasn't there... Grismore: Let me just try to explain this to you. It's a little tricky. We used to run some pretty long cable off of the power boards that we hooked into those big, green power sources downtown - you know what I'm talking about. Lehman: You were in front of Plaza Center 1 and you drug the cords down to Washington Street. Grismore: Right. And then from there we could run other boxes from other places. Now some of the plugs down along the street worked to certain degree. Actually I'm probably going to speak completely wrong, but I'm going to make this up. It's like a lot of them are 20 amp and they need to be 30. I know that last year the west side of Iowa Avenue - that side of Dubuque - the guys we had a meeting and they talked and they fixed that. And most of those plugs down along the street are now 30 amps which can handle some things. Part of our obligation though on the other side is to make sure the vendors - are pretty crazy and they bring in too much stuff. And if you tell them you have enough power then they bring more than they should so we're learning how to negotiate with vendors. Because you can always blow that no matter what the City would do. All I want you to know is that there is a power problem on this half. And I know when the power went out last year nobody even knew from the City where to go to turn it on to fix it. They say it was in the new parking ramp somewhere, but they weren't sure. And I'm not saying that to embarrass anybody I just want you to know that was problematic. We're not planning on actually using that. We have a generator for that half of the street so we're not worried about that. I'm just telling you. We're not going to try to even use that stuff. Lehman: Well except in all fairness the street was never wired to accommodate those sort of things and that's why you need a generator. Grismore: And that's what I'm saying. Lehman: Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 66 Grismore: You know and I think after last year we came to the negotiation to the point where the City did as much as they can to help us out and that's great and we're paying for generators and that's what it's got to be if we're going to be there. And it's as simple as that and we're not worried about it. Champion: Well except I thought we planned Iowa Avenue as a venue for this kind of thing and you think we would have put enough power in there. Lehman: I don't think for this... Grismore: It's a tricky...it's a tricky thing, you know, and you got to realize like I'm saying you get so many of those hot plates and various things they draw a lot of amps and you really.., you know if it's just one person down there with one of our street...our ped mall people know how to...they've got it under control. But when you have these guys cooking big vats of stuff like it's... Champion: I thought you were talking about the music. Grismore: Oh, no. The music thing. We are taping into...we did have access to some of the power up in front of like closer to Iowa Book up there. Okay? And that's cool and that helps us, But we just still have to do generators. So...but you know I'm just telling you. It's not...it's cool. Lehman: Any questions from Council? Thank you very much. Grismore: Thanks you guys. Karen Kubby: Good evening. I'm Karen Kubby. This is Harriet Gooding from the Conner Center and we're two active members of the ADA Celebration Planning Committee. And that committee is made up of a variety of people so it's a real collaborative effort between the Conner Center, the UI Center for Disabilities and Development formally known as the Hospital School, the Johnson County Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, the ARC, Goodwill, the Enm~a Goldman Clinic, the Women's Resource in Action Center, United Action for Youth and local Para transit providers not just in Iowa City, but also University of Iowa. So it's a nice combination of people that are working together to create a celebration in July. And typically we don't really know for sure what we're going to do yet in this time in your budget process. We know we try to have an educational component. We try to do some highlighting of things that have happened in the community. For example last year and there's news articles in the packet that Harriett gave you where we highlighted things that the City did in terms of Hickory Hill although we were...the trails were a little immature for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 67 our purposes and got a few wheelchairs stuck in the newly laid trail so we had to pound those down. I took my shoes offand got everything back in shape last year. The trails are hardened now so that'll be a different situation. But we also highlighted the universal health that the City was involved in as well as the Hoover playground equipment. That was another public/private partnership between the school district, the City and parents and kids at Hoover elementary. One of the increased costs that we have had is rental costs for the tents and for port-a-potties both of which we feel we really, really need for the population of people that we're attracting to this event. So we don't want to do without that. So we know that you're involved in this event in many ways not just fiscally, but that you come to the event. You participate in the event. When we did the parade you marched with us in the parade. So we appreciate that past support and hope that you will continue to support this event. We are asking for a little over $1300 for a $5800 event. The rest will be generated from the Conner Center, from the Statewide independent living Council and from co- sponsorships that our made up of some of the member organizations that are part of the collaborative effort pay a fee to be a sponsor as well as businesses in the community. A lot of financial institutions are part of our sponsorship. So it's a nice collaboration between the University, the private sector, the public sector, and the non-profit sector. Lehman: Great event. Champion: You get a lot done without very much money. Lehman: Go ahead. Kubby: Yeah people have a really good time and people come from all over. And sometimes it's the highlight for some of the consumers coming from all over. Last year we had people come from Cedar Falls to this event which was a new thing for my mind that people were traveling that far for this event. So it's beginning to build a little bit of a reputation I guess. Kanner: Karen... Vanderhoefi Several of them really wanted to see the accessible house and the trail, but the house was a real highlight to get that together because they want to build. I talked with a couple of those folks. Kubby: Logistically is was kind of difficult to get consumers to the house and to the park and that's always going to be a problem. And I had to do a lot of traffic directing. I stood at the upper level of Hickory Hill Park. Next time I want someone else to do that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 68 Vanderhoef: You didn't make friends doing that one. Karmer: Karen two things. There's a note about funding from Iowa Arts Council. It doesn't come through expense line 19 will be deleted. Which is 197 Kubby: Let's see on the expense side...there was one year where we did an art fair and it seemed to have really good response from the community and from the artists who were involved. And what we were trying to do is to get some kind of assistance for travel costs. There were people who took Greyhound buses from Des Moines with their art work to come here and display their work. So we were trying to get $2,000 from the Iowa Arts Council to help pay some of those ancillary fees for the artists. And so on the income side if we don't get that money then we wouldn't have it on the expense side. So if we don't get that money everything would go down by $2,000. Champion: And Karen these artists with people with disabilities? Kubby: They were people with disabilities and it was mixed. Champion: Yeah I remember you talking about this before. Kubby: Yeah and since there was such good response we were going to do it last year but we thought the Hickory Hill trails and the Universal House were such a prime opportunity to highlight those features in our community that we didn't want to wait. So we may try that again. But if we don't then both...the $2,000 on the income and the expensive side would both go away. Champion: Okay. Karmer: Okay and the other item in past years - this isn't necessarily coimected with you - Bob Finch with Abilities Awareness Day has had a concert on the ped mall. This year he didn't put in an application. In the past we went through the downtown association. Would you be willing to work with him at all to see if he could be involved with your day? Kubby: Oh, yeah. We'd probably have even more musicians if we worked with Bob. He's got connections in the music world and equipment too actually. So, but we've been graced to have people donate that equipment and the muscle to move it around. Kanner: Thanks. Kubby: Yeah. Lehman: Thank you, Karen This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 69 Pfab: Thank you. Laurie Haag: I am the equipment and the muscle according to Karen. Hi. I'm Laurie Haag. I'm with the Iowa Women's Music Festival and I really appreciate you sticking around. I think I'm the last one so I'll try to be really brief. The Iowa Woman's Music Festival is celebrating its l0th anniversary this year. It's a festival that was created to some degree in response to the fact that some of us has noticed that some of the local festivals that we're so proud of and fond of in Iowa City didn't feature women performers very often. And so we were trying to create maybe sort of a head start program for female musicians in town and it's been really successful and popular over the last 10 years. And we really want to do it up right this year for the 10 year anniversary. It's jointly managed I'd say by a private organization, a 501 c (3) organization, that's called Prairie Voices Productions. That's a group of community volunteers. And then the Women's' Resource and Action Center where I work on campus works as kind of the administrative arm - the telephone number and the address and some of the administrative support for that. We largely have funded it through donations, through sponsorships, through small grants from the Iowa Arts Council. This is the first time we've asked you for support. We hope that you'll come through for us. It's a great event. We bring people in from lot of different states. Our mailing list is pretty extensive and only about half of it is local. And we always make sure that people have access to information about Iowa City when they call for hotels and ask for directions to restaurants and recommendations and that kind of thing. So we think that we bring in a lot of tourism. We also feel like we enhance the arts community here that again I think we're really proud of Iowa City and its dedication to the arts. And we also just provide a great opportunity for female performers and female artists. We do the vending thing just like the Iowa Arts Festival does. Female vendors bring their wares there and provide a great opportunity for volunteers to learn new skills and have new experience. And I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have. Lehman: Thank you. Haag: That's it? Great. Thanks. Vanderhoefi We may be brain dead at this point. Haag: That's alright. Lehman: We may have been brain dead when we started. O'Donnell: It's a nice thought. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003 January 27, 2003 Budget Work Session Page 70 Lehman: Well I think that we have gotten through this schedule. Tomorrow evening we meet again at 7:30. Atkins: 6:30 Lehman: At 6:30. I'm sorry. Hopefully we can resolve some of the budget issues tomorrow night. So for tonight we are adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of Iowa City City Council meeting on January 27, 2003