Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-03-31 TranscriptionMarch 31, 2009 City Council Page 1 March 31, 2009 City Council Special Priority-Setting Work Session 6:25 P.M. Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright Staff: Lombardo, Helling, Karr, Dilkes, Lewis, O'Malley, Mansfield Others Present: UISG Representatives -Gunn and Swedlund Priority Setting: Bailey/ Michael's going to facilitate this portion. Lombardo/ So, the...the memo before you is...is set up to kind of open up dialog on a couple different fronts. This is...the whole process is somewhat fluid, um, Kevin and staff have been, you know, researching models or...or similar type of efforts that other jurisdictions have, uh, implemented in...in cities across the U.S. and...and try to look for ways in which we might adapt them for our own use, rather than kind of reinventing the wheel, and really what...what we've come to the conclusion as of late is that, um, in spite of the webinars and articles that appear in...in magazines and other places, there really kind of a retrospective on what a jurisdiction did, and they don't provide a lot of detail in terms of the process and what they did to get there, and as we probe and we have dialogs about that process, we discover that, uh, they're not very different than Iowa City and where we are today, uh, in their past, and...and having similar conversations about how to create this...this effort, that there is no kind ofoff--the-shelf or...or patented process for...for doing this, that they all struggle through many months of dialog and determination to develop the criteria and the process for...for doing this type of...of priority setting. Um, and so we have suggestions for an abbreviated process that will give us a...a scoring or a ranking that can be used in...in deliberating, but I've also, you know, been in conversations with many of you about preparing for, and what types of questions and...and I'm, there's a comment made at one of the previous work sessions that...that has sat with me, and I've...I've been playing it over in my mind, and I forget specifically who made it, but it was...it was centered on the dialog that you all would like to have take place, in...in relation with the department directors, and so I've been thinking a lot about how to approach this, what...what is going to give you all really the...the biggest, um, amount of information, or the greatest amount of information and support from decision-making, and I had some questions of whether you see value in developing a criteria and a weighting, and running our programs through this, or taking the information that we have, the discrete, here are all the programs and cost centers, adding additional information like FTE's, the...the estimated cost for delivering that specific service, and any other information that you would like, providing that type of information to you, and having a broad dialog, and so, um, the question I have is, does Council Member...does Council feel that the...the, developing the criteria, coming up with a ranking or a weighting, and going through that initiative will be valuable to them, or is there want for broader discussions about the specifics of programs and...and treating it, instead of a...a, an objective process where then you have some perhaps...you either feel compelled to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 2 follow what's on the bottom of the list or not, and getting into that dialog. Do you see greater value in just structuring the information so that you have it at hand, and then we go through it in...in whatever fashion you like. We can break it out and make some determination of mandated versus, whether it's a state, federal or local mandate, um, we can identify where the funding source is, whether it's fee-driven, and we can provide that all to you and...by the April 13th work session, and...and then, you know, use that to have much deeper dialogs, you know, have staff here to have that dialog, or do you feel like the weighting and this ranking and this criteria setting is a valuable tool I have some questions about whether or not you feel that or not, and...and so I don't want to spend what will be a tremendous amount of effort and staff time developing something that may or may not be very telling to you, if you're prepared to have the deeper conversations about specific programs and services. Hayek/ Would the, uh, would the weighting system be described to be, uh, implemented or applied by each individual department? Lombardo/ We would enlist their, it'd be a combination of working with the Finance, uh, Department would lead it, but it would be in cooperation, working with the departments to get their input on where they, you know, where they believe some of the criteria fall or not. Some of it would be pretty apparent to the Finance staff, but we would expect, and we would enlist, the departments in...in that process as well, and under either scenario I think it's very important that at the next session, the April 13th session, that department directors be here to...to participate in a dialog, answer any questions, and...and help provide you whatever is necessary (mumbled) information. Hayek/ But, I mean, you're essentially getting...(mumbled) 15 or so? Lombardo/ It'd be about 15 or 16... Hayek/ ...you're essentially getting 15...uh, channels of information, um, each through the eyes of the given department, and I guess my question is if...if a scoring mechanism is intended to minimize the subjectivity of an analysis, and you're got 15 different, uh, channels through which you get that information, is there a risk that there will be...differences between those just because it's a subjective test, just at a lower level. Lombardo/ And...and many jurisdictions have...have, uh, protected against that type of, whether it be overt or...or indirect bias by having a Peer Review Committee, and it's a much longer process. It's tied to a broader strategic planning, and you know, it's...there's a lot more to it than what we feel we can...we can do in a matter of a couple months. And we can come up with the ranking. I think if it's understood that that would be used only for guidance and further discussion, then...then you should be fine. It's if we get wedded to the fact that this scored low, and there's no...there's no, um, there's no test for validity or, I mean, we just don't have enough time to build that in. Um, and so that...that's what has raised a question in my mind, if...if the scoring is only a...a loose aid, then is it worth going through that effort and energy, and if...if you all feel that yes indeed it is, then we certainly will...will get that done. Um, but I think we could...we could pull together the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 3 rest of the information and get it to you earlier, and...and kick-start the broader conversations, if you feel that that's not...and then we can, we could advance the discussion about revenue a little bit and work that in, uh, shortly after the April 13th dialog, as well. Wright/ With...with the timeframe that we have and the fact that...scoring and ranking, scoring and ranking instead of...of different criteria (mumbled) different ways, without some type of equity built in there I'm not sure how much value (mumbled) lack of any empirical, um, touchstone essentially. It might be useful, but I don't think it's going to end (mumbled) given our timeframe. Lombardo/ The material that we've been able to collect from other jurisdictions makes it look fairly straightforward, but then you start probing underneath the process and you realize that it's through meetings like this over several months that they....they have worked through, you know, the detail of that and....and that's when, you know, the reality check for us in terms of what we can accomplish in...in the short time that we have, you know, has brought me to this point of questioning is it...is it going to be valuable to you or not, and certainly it is additional information, but I...I, you know, I have to hear from you all whether you think that it really is something that you're going to use, or you'd really rather just dive into the discussion, about specific programs. Champion/ I don't think I'm interested in some numbering system (mumbled) priorities. L ..I think I'd like more individual conversations with department heads and, I mean, I don't care how we decide to go, but it seems to me that that's going to be a lot of reading and (mumbled) straight. Cause I'm not very smart. Wright/ I think there's going to be some value in some conversations, uh, just stepping our way through the...the budget and (mumbled) to the department heads and just... Champion/ Sometimes it's good to talk to...someone way below the department head. Hayek/ But I don't know that, I mean, I think that's a dangerous route for this Council to take to...to try to do...to uncover all the stones, large and small, and then try to craft something that's workable, and that's...that would be unbelievably time consuming, uh, so I think there's some danger with that, as well. Lombardo/ And keep in mind, several weeks ago I...I made available a, uh, a um, and it's anonymous if you submit on line, or there's a box where you can put a written suggestion box type thing, and have asked staff at all levels throughout the organization to give some thought to any types of...of process or service or engineering or any suggestions that they would have to become more efficient. So I....you know, we've gotten some suggestions, and they're really more of the good housekeeping type things about purchasing paper and things like that. We haven't gotten any ...any, you know, major suggestions for broad service or program re-engineering, but I'm...I'm hopeful. We keep that out there, and I have a dialog coming up, uh, some...some meetings scheduled where I can engage staff when I want to just talk about where we are budgetarily, what...what is happening with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 4 this, um, this event and this...this format or process, and...and just perhaps try to assuage some fears. There's, you know, there's some concerns throughout the organization at the staff level about, gosh, what's going to happen? Are we going to wake up tomorrow and not have a job? I want to be able to at least engage them, answer what questions I can, and help people understand that this is not going to be a...an overnight decision and all of a sudden, X, Y, Z position is gone and...and this is going to be much more methodical, even in the implementation of any reductions, will be...will be staged over a time and that, you know, so, and I'm beginning to sense that in my discussions with, uh, staff throughout the organization...at different levels, and I feel it's really my obligation to engage them and at least have them hear from me about what is accurate, what is not. Champion/ (mumbled) well you can tell them most of America feels that way right now, that they might not have a job in the morning. Correia/ I mean, I like the idea of...of utilizing some type of objective criteria as we're starting to look at things, I mean, on this last page things like is it, you know, is it a mandated service, by whom, um, you know, how much is...of this department is funded by the General Fund, other funding, what are...what is the ability for additional diversification of funding, whether that's you know, I mean, we have some departments that have their own foundations. I mean, I think that...so that's you know funding opportunities, as well as grants or ...or fees or whatever, but I mean I do think that...I don't think that we make decisions based on this is the score and, but I mean, I think it's a way to start to have a conversation based on some type of criteria that helps us to lead the conversation, versus we each have our own individual opinions or, um, subjective, um, this is the program we like the best or...or, you know, we're going to have that to some extent, I mean, that's just human nature, but I mean I do like getting that type of objective information to start to lead our prioritization process. Lombardo/ We can certainly, I'm sorry...(both talking) Wright/...the survey on the last page of this, something that we as a council could find very useful in our own deliberations. Correia/ Right. Lombardo/ We can...we can provide information such as this, I mean, we can identify for you whether there is a state or federal mandate, or whether there's a local ordinance or resolution, uh, calling for the service or program. We can identify that. We can talk about, um, what, you know, whether there are other service providers, you know, a duplication of services through other organizations. We can...we can at least help frame the discussion without establishing a weight and a criteria, if that's...that's a lot easier to get at than to, you know, to run it through a... an actual scoring process. If what I'm hearing is correct, that...it's sounding to me like the information is more important than a...arguably or perhaps arbitrary weighting or scoring. If I'm wrong then... Champion/ No, I think that's right. That's right for me anyway. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page S Correia/ I don't know. I'm fine with trying to identify some type of scoring. I don't know that you'd use scoring necessarily as aend-all-be-all, but I mean, I do think, I mean, I think it's one way to help identify a priority, because if we say priorities are things that we have to do, they, you know, benefit a whole, you know, benefit a certain...um, either a certain sub-set of the economy or people or whatever that we identify as a priority, um, you know, because it doesn't cost us that much. It...because we can get, I mean, I think that...I mean, I don't see...I mean, I think there' a role to identifying some type of scoring because (both talking) Wilburn/ I would tend to agree with that, um, not that you would have, I think it's a basis for starting the conversation, not uh because you don't have time to give tests for validity and reliability, and even if (mumbled) when you're talking about, you know, this service versus that service, or even, um, putting in (mumbled) those type of things, uh, surveys are really (mumbled) attempt at objectifying a subjective set of values that everybody has with each other. So in that way I think it's a place to start the conversation, and otherwise I think it can be, you know, we can sit and, Connie likes apples, I like oranges, but if we do find out that there may be a tendency, uh, for, you know, there's more apple lovers out there than Irealized -let me think about that as I weigh these other pieces of the...of the budget. I think there's, it's...it's a way to help inform some tendencies about some values that we may or may not be aware that both each other has, staff or the public, you know, um, otherwise I don't...I don't see, I think it may...it may be a different approach for us that may assist us different than what we may or may not do during the regular budget session. Do you see where I'm...see where I'm going with that? Hayek/ That sounds like you're talking less about, um, an internally driven scoring or weighting and...and talking more about some sort of external input, uh, what does the community want or how does it prioritize its needs, to the extent that can be determined, and using that. Wilburn/ Yeah, and, but I mean, many of our staff are part of the community, as well, I mean, I just...but I agree with (mumbled) Hayek/ Well, I wouldn't mind, I mean, I see on the memo this discussion of some sort survey of the public. Lombardo/ Right. Hayek/ Okay time to talk about that idea? Lombardo/ Talk about that, if you want to discuss that a little bit, and then come back to this, I would...I'm here to go wherever you want to take the dialog and...and route you back and get some closure on some of the questions that we've (mumbled) initially, um.. . Champion/ I like the idea of a public survey. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 6 Bailey/ I do too. (several commenting) Champion/ And we could do that (mumbled) in the water bill, or online. Correia/ Or both. I don't really open my water bill. Lombardo/ I didn't put it in here. I recommend a kind of a two-prong approach. One would be to hire a firm to do a statistically valid telephone survey, random sample across precincts so that we have some good, uh, demographic information. It will tell us a lot more about our community and their wants and needs, and... and by doing that, we can also structure a web, um, utility to get at some of that, as well. Whether we blend the information or not, I'd want to talk to the firm that we bring in to do the, uh, the valid survey and get input from them in terms of...of how...how valid web surveys are and whether or not that would compromise the data that they collect or not, but we can...we could run a... Correia/ I mean, I would also question the phone surveys (both talking) Champion/ Yes! So many people don't have land phones any more. Correia/ Or don't answer their phone. Champion/ I, yeah, like me! Wilburn/ Well, didn't the, um, didn't the master planning consultant, didn't they use a variety of input? Sources for (mumbled) Correia/ Parks and Rec master plan? Yeah (several talking) yeah web, paper (mumbled) Lombardo/ We had an initial conversation with one, uh, firm and he believed based on our population size to get a 93% validity rating they'd have to survey about 700-odd households (mumbled) O'Malley/ That sounds correct. Lombardo/ And then if we wanted to take it up to 95 (both talking) Wilburn/ So they would divide that across precincts? O'Malley/ Correct. They do it as statistically valid amount of calls in each precinct. Wright/ And that would cost what? Lombardo/Um, I'm guessing, uh, somewhere, we would want to put it out there and get quotes, but I would guess around $15,000, in that neighborhood. To get it done in the short period of time that we're asking for. If we had more staging time then (coughing, unable to hear) but... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 7 Champion/ Well, we also have to get it done before the University lets out. Is that going to be possible? I mean, the town really empties out. Lombardo/ That's just based on one...one firm's comment, I mean, there are others we'd want to reach out to and see, and get a specific quote, you know, identifying what it is specifically we would want to ask them and...and so that maybe, you know, in the end a little high. I don't know, but um, I would love to...I would love to see a...a sample that brings it up to several thousand people, uh, to really get input from a broad spectrum, but we just don't have the time (mumbled) Hayek/ I mean, philosophically I...I'm inclined to think that...that the seven of us as representatives of the community, um, serving in a representative democracy, are equipped to...to come up with a priority list, and I think we could do so. Um, but I also see value in getting some direct citizen input, especially from those who are not, um, regular attendees of our meetings and regular readers of our minutes and watchers of our programs, you know, the people who are just going about their lives the best they can, but don't have that input typically. If they can be reached and give us feedback, in a direct way, I see value in that. And...and there'd be some expense, but there'd also be, we're talking about things that could take up...unimaginable amount of staff and Council time, as well, um, and so I think that's a cost to consider as we go through this. Lombardo/ And one of the things to be thinking of, I just have a few short bullets here and I'd ask for input on, from you all in terms of what additional areas you would like to...to have probed, um, but if you start looking at perceived gaps in services, or even community preference for service, um, and...and uh, citizen satisfaction was for specific levels, you know, if we do this, you know, every so often, um, and some jurisdictions do it every couple of years or so, then we begin to develop trend data, and we'd be able to start asking ourselves, are we heading in the right direction? What can we do to elevate, or should we be doing to elevate satisfaction in a certain area, or minimize gaps in specific areas if, you know, this can be used as part of a much broader planning discussion down the road and...and to help us guide decision making into the future, and then...and then provide, you know, trend data over time that we can track and...and really make good use of. Correia/ I mean, I think that it's more and more common for cities to do these types of community surveys. I was on a panel discussion with Jeff Schott from the University of Iowa's Policy Center, and he...and the panel was about community engagement models and he mentioned Portland, Oregon that had done a specific survey, public input process, over asix-month period of time, I believe, around the city's budget and prioritizing services, and I think Des Moines regularly does (several talking) community surveys to identify, I mean, and I think it...there's a couple things, I mean, I think identifies areas that the city needs to do a better job of just getting information out about services, as well as, you know, what is the community, um, want, and I think that...that we could do, as a council, as a city, a better job with that two-way communication. Um... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 8 Lombardo/ The National Civic League and ICMA, and I think there's some other organizations, uh, several years ago, uh, several being in the five to seven year range I think, uh, participated in developing the National Citizen Survey, and so this is, cities or surveys of this nature are...are being widely used and...and as part of GFOA's budget, best budget practices, they certainly advocate for survey tools being used, so we're not...we're not heading in...into unchartered territory. More and more, um, councils and local governments are reaching out to...to the community and asking for input on...on this type of stuff. Correia/ I would like to see a survey. I mean, I'd like to see some community input into our process. I mean, I'm interested in having community input into the prioritization process. Wilburn/ I would agree, and I think, again, I don't, uh, kind of (mumbled) I don't see it as a way of...forsaking our responsibilities, but just another piece of information to help, because as you develop trends or become aware of certain things, um, something may not rise to the level due to fundings or mandates or that type of thing, uh, where you know, um, as better economic times come, there's an opportunity for something. We've got, you know, here's...here's two or three of those medium to higher range things that, you know, we, uh, had reinforced by some public input that here's an opportunity for some, you know, um, we can chase that down. Hayek/ Well, I think, I mean, I'm confident in our ability to get the input, whether it's through the survey approach or in deliberations of this group or a combination, it sounds like would probably be a combination, um, and I'm confident in our ability to roll out an alternate decision in awell-managed and humane way that, if we're going to make reductions in personnel and cuts in services, we can do so effectively and thoughtfully. It's the part in the middle, of course, that's going to be the challenge, and...and once we create some sort of order of needs, based on the input and, um, the question is -how do you apply that to our current funding and programming. What does that look like. Champion/ When you came up with the projections for our cash reserve, um, how did you use the $3 million money we spent on the flood? Wasn't that $3 million or something like that? O'Malley/ That actually has gone down. We've gotten more funding from the feds so...we, uh... Champion/ But how did that enter into your programming of the reserve fund? Do you remember? I know it's a strange question. O'Malley/ I think it washed out after the second year. Champion/ Okay. Okay. Thank you. O'Donnell/ I don't have any trouble with the survey, um, L ..I think it's important to pick our representative group from the, from Iowa City, the citizens, and um, you know, let them This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 9 come up with questions, I mean, I just don't know that...that this body is capable of asking every question that's out there. Champion/ No. Lombardo/ No, no, no. We wouldn't expect you to develop the questions, um, what I would ask...if we, if there's broad support to do this, and I would, I've listed several bullets, but ask are there areas on here that I've suggested that you'd, or you'd rather not probe, and if...if there are areas that are not on here that you would like to probe, and come to some...and then we would work with the firm to develop the questions and there...they have a way of structuring the questions so that it's valid and not leading and not biased and, you know, we would want to (mumbled) of, um, of subjectivity, or objectivity, rather to the (both talking) Champion/ ...organizations that do this are well, I mean, they...they've got the right questions. They just want to know what category you want them in. O'Donnell/ Every community's unique and there's going to be, you know, leaf pickup in Iowa City's incredibly important to some. Wright/ What would the turnaround be, if we engage some (mumbled) Lombardo/ One firm, and I haven't checked the other, you know, others, um, but one firm indicates that for 93%, uh, statistically valid sample they could get it done in 40-some odd days. If we went up to 95, it would be...I think 70 days. Bailey/ And then how long will it take to get a...a sort of a request for proposals out there? Lombardo/ We could...we could do this through a quote, put out...we would put out just a scope, and then reach out to companies that do this, and...and have them provide a specific quote based on a comparable scope of service. So I would...I would think this week, or at the latest early next week would be the (mumbled) Wright/ Which does lead us back to Matt's question -what about the middle? Hayek/ Yeah. I...I'm reluctant to suggest that this group take some list of needs created by the input process, and then out of whole cloth attempt to come up with, uh, cuts or a new budget or something like that. I mean, to start with a blank piece of paper, even with, you know, if you have a blank piece of paper in the right hand and a piece of paper in the left hand that has our so-called needs, um, to be able to fill that out, uh, starting from scratch essentially is, I'm not sure we'd want to do it. I mean, we spent 45 minutes not too long ago talking about the colors of signs outside Pepperwood Plaza. So, um, you know, any elected body I think has the capacity to get bogged down, and that...that happens, but I think we ought to try to avoid that from the beginning. Champion/ How will you suggest we approach the middle (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 10 Hayek/ Um, the...the best way I, I mean, the best thing I can come up with is...is to solicit the input, tweak it if we think it needs to be tweaked so we've got an essential list of...of needs and priorities, and then I think the most effective thing would be to have your office, Michael, create several scenarios, you know, a handful of them, you know, you could get...we can get the cuts we need through five different routes, and each one is defensible, but different from the others, um, and then present them to us, and let us react to them and deliberate them, and...and none of the five would be set in stone. They could be modified, but...we would come to a dialog with...with some essentially constrained choices that I think would help us make progress fairly quickly. Now that places a lot of hard work (several talking) Correia/ How does that...take into account, I mean, I thought...I guess I was thinking that we would have...we would have input from the community on...you know, that self- assessment for lack of a better term, of community's opinion about priority service needs, or um, and then we would have an opportunity to go through the current, you know, kind of our, this is the current picture of services we are providing and how, you know, and this information about them that's on this (mumbled) the memo mandated, you know, how much we spend, um, you know, these other criteria, and then start to do...start to do that group, uh, process of identifying our priorities before we would send it to the staff level or the City Manager's office to say, okay, these are, I mean, I could see going, these are our priorities then tell us how we would fund our priorities with our current financial picture, versus get the needs of the community, have them go because then that subverts that jumps over our discussion of our priorities to direct staff to give us scenarios how it, if these are our five priorities then how do we pay for them, so we've had...we take the community input, we have our process. We've gotten more information about all our departments, um, and then...and the...you know, current information. Hayek/ Well, I'm not sure we're not talking about the same thing. Correia/ Okay. Hayek/ I mean, I would want to use the community input and...and then weigh in ourselves as a group on it and create some...some list... Correia/ Right. Hayek/ ...you know, short and sweet, if it's public safety at the top and something else at the bottom and everything else in between, broad list, and so we're giving, uh, input or guidance to...to the Manager's office, with the benefit of the community input. Correia/ Right. Hayek/ Without then taking that list and jumping into a 200-plus single-page budget which we currently have and trying to make sense out of whole cloth of that. That's the part that scares me. (several commenting) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 11 Lombardo/ L ..I think, as we...we provide information back to you, we're going to find that there are some things that are...that are mandated, um, and then there's some things that are...and some things that are not. There's going to be some things that are...we collect fees and are funded fully through fees, and... and the question becomes, you know, would we really contemplate eliminating a program or position if it's completely fee supported, if the revenue's going to go away as a result of it as well. I mean, we can identify a...a fair amount of that. Champion/ Right. Lombardo/ The challenge I have with providing you an assortment of recommendations is that I have no context for creating that. There's no, you know, I have no broader list of goals and objectives. I have no...no broader strategic plan. For me to go in and say, yeah, okay, I know...I know the parameters or the rules of the road that I can use to make, you know, proposed cuts. So I...I mean, the challenge I looked at is it's one person's opinion, and I...I you know, being here ten months really don't believe I have the finger on the pulse of the broader community, or this group in terms of, you know, specific goals. I...I mean (several talking) on some level, but not that deeply yet! (laughter) Um, so...so that's my only concern is I really have no context and really...you know, what would I use to drive that, my decision making, in providing you that recommendation. Wilburn/ That's why I see the last sheet here being a tool for you to do that, because if we tear through this, our priorities on...on that, that helps you provide that grouping and then as we get into it further, as we get the ,you know, the public input and maybe one particular, for example, one particular area says that, uh, from the public says that, uh, you know, this isn't really a high priority, but it happens to be a mandated service. Champion/ Well, I think there are other things, information, I would like to know before we go on. We have services that are entirely paid by users' fees, like water, trash, landfill (mumbled) Lombardo/ I would recommend that we focus on the General Fund, and not the Enterprise Funds, because they are funded through (several talking) our problem is in the General Fund. Champion/ No, and then the thing I would like is a list, and this could be any time, just informal of all the departments, how many employees they have, and how they're funded. I mean, I think you offered to provide us with that. I think that would be...are they funded partly by fees or partly by...and partly by General Fund, uh, that can't be hard to put together. Well, maybe it is...things are harder than it seems. Um, and I'd like some public input, but I don't expect the public to make this decision forme. I mean, they may say, I mean, I've had two people tell me last week they're not interested in another fire station. They say we can't afford it. I mean, so you may get a whole different idea from a lot of different people in the community. And I know in the end, I'm going to have to make this decision, but I still want to hear from them. But I'm not going to weight their This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 12 response on what's important. I'm going to decide...I'm going to decide what's important. (mumbled) not them. Lombardo/ In terms of trying to narrow the discussion here, is there...is there consensus with you about doing a survey? Champion/ Yes. Lombardo/ Um, looking at the...the list of, the bulleted items that I've provided for you, is there anything on there that Council would like to discuss and deliberate whether it's, we should include it or not, or are there things that are not on here that you would like us, areas we...we should be probing, um... Wilburn/ You're talking about the bullets on the second page, right? Lombardo/ On page two, correct. Champion/ When they do these surveys, do they give'em like do they give them three services the City...provides and ask them to rate them one, two, three - is that kind of how they do that? Lombardo/ I mean, there are different ways, it depends on what we...if we're going to get at broad preference for services, they have, we would have to work with them (coughing, unable to hear) samples in front of me this evening, but I do have Des Moines', you know, report, and there's some good examples of how they go about it, and I would imagine it's, the questions would be along the same line. Bailey/ It'd be interesting to see what they, on city services, what they named. Champion/ That what? Bailey/ They might name services that they think we provide, but we don't. I mean, I think that would be interesting, I think that would be telling. Lombardo/ I think it's fair to say that there's...there's (both talking) what services they provide. Correia/ In your....fourth bullet, support for certain areas such as, you're just...(mumbled) all- inclusive? Lombardo/ No, no, those are...it's an example of just an abbreviated list of...'such as' type things. Correia/ I mean, I think it's... Wright/ I would guess that the folks that are putting the survey together will have some (mumbled) suggestions (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 13 Lombardo/ ...absolutely. Wilburn/ I think these areas are fine. (several commenting) Lombardo/ We'll get, um, get this together and start getting quotes and getting some ideas about, you know, timing and what it would cost and then start developing some of the questions and getting that done. Good. Wright/Back to the middle, cause I'm still not entirely...uh, how many not enterprise departments do we have? Champion/ (mumbled) O'Malley/ That's difficult way to present that, because our Public Works' department is a combination of General Fund...one...two General Fund departments and seven, uh, non- General Fund departments. But, on a whole I'd say, we have probably eight departments in the General Fund. Wright/ I'm kind of thinking out loud here. It might be helpful for those eight or so departments if we had, as Connie mentioned, the FTE and we should...you know what the budget is, to add that in there as well, um, and basically some kind of bullet pointed outline of the services. Lombardo/ On...on page three, um, page two rather...um, under the criteria and weighting process development, and we can decide whether or not we're going to actually develop this tonight or not, but part of what I...what we feel comfortable that we can provide to you would be a description of the funding mechanism, um, number of FTEs, estimated... some departments it'd be a little easier and more straightforward to develop true cost for service; in others it might be a little bit more of a, uh, of a process, um, you know, but we can also then include information on mandated versus discretionary and...and what...what level of government is mandated, um, you know, and we can even array it that way, if you'd like, you know -here, up front, here are all the programs, across the departments that are mandated through state and federal and the local. We can stratify it that way, if you find that that's easy to look at or not, but we can...we can break it out and provide this information back to you, so that you have then the context for (mumbled) discussing the nuts and bolts of that service. Wright/ Yeah, I think certainly knowing whether or not it's a mandated service is important going into this. That colors the conversations immediately. Lombardo/ Certainly how it's funded...we can make observations too, if...if eliminated, you know, what other programs or what other areas does it, is it related to in terms of feed, you know, revenue-generating or...or we can make observations about implications for that...that program. I mean, it...to some limited extent. The rest of it would have to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 14 done through conversations directly with staff, that you get a more richer understanding of those specific areas. Hayek/ So...so when you say we, are you talking about your office or somebody putting together this information that then comes back to us, in written form? Lombardo/ Right. Yeah. Wright/ How fast can you do it? Lombardo/ Well, I...depending on how...I mean, we can get, you know, this to you at least an initial...by April 13th is...is the expectation. This is a lot of information pulled together, and that's, you know, the ranking, that's where this comes in, in just trying to think about how much information we can pull together at a given time. I think the information I just described, we can do by April 13th, um, if there is...if there's a discussion or a desire to have these...the scoring, um, you know, I would...I mean, we might be able to pull a bunch of it together by the 13th, but depending on what you're looking for specifically, in terms of program information, you know, it could be that we provide you that initial break out of...of mandate, you know, of you know fee versus tax funded, number of FTEs, cost...provide you that information. We start getting into discussions, because you're going, I'm certain, a lot of questions about many of the programs, and start having dialog around that, and then, you know, during that time finish the...the scoring, if that's what you're intending on us doing or not. And then roll that into the, the follow up conversation. I feel pretty certain that we're going to need to use some of the regularly scheduled work sessions, likely to promote, or further the conversation. I don't know that April 13th and then if I saw this correctly then our next meeting is not until, oh, the 20th, okay. So there is one following that. Wright/ And I don't know how others feel about it. I can do without staff (mumbled) scoring model. I don't know if that's.. . Champion/ Yeah, I can too. Correia/ I mean, it doesn't seem to me that.. . Bailey/ So we're getting a raw list? You're okay with (several commenting) Wright/ I think... Correia/ I mean, I guess I'd like this information. I don't know if we need to score it. I mean, I don't know that any of this information for department director is going to be hard for them.. . Wright/ No, it shouldn't be hard for them (both talking) Correia/ ...to share or to pull together. I mean, this is that...they're going to know it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 15 Lombardo/ If...it'd be easier to provide, I mean, and you know, certainly some of it could be up for debate and we can...we can raise that question. It'd be a lot easier to provide the information than it would be to, you know, to, I mean, it's just another layer of staff time and what I'm suggesting is...you know, it's a lot to pull together, you know, to do the scoring, if you don't see value in the scoring, we can provide information or some level of determination as we understand it, if you select the criteria, we can respond to that and then you can use that to deliberate on, as opposed to coming up with some type of weighting and... and uh, numeric indicator, if indeed you're not intendent on using it. Wright/ I think if we really want to do the scoring (mumbled) we could actually sit and do that. Hayek/ I guess the problem I see with this is, you know, we can equip ourselves with a statistically valid survey with fancy summary information from our consultant, and...and then, we can generate some sort of statistical scoring or other data-driven piece of information, and we can probably come up with several more, uh, sources of information, but I mean, ultimately we have to get to the point where we're deciding what to cut and where, and um, we know what the number is - it's a quarter million for the rest of this year and a million dollars each year going forward. Um, that's the part I'm struggling with because I don't see us zeroing in on a mechanism for that. Correia/ But I mean I think...I would disagree. I think that in order to zero in on that we have to have information and context to be able to direct staff to say, okay, there's consensus or majority that, um, you know, based on some criteria...criteria that we've come up with together that we will use, and so is that input from the public, I mean, what is...what are, and then, um, criteria, so if we don't...if, you know, we don't like this criteria that's proposed, I mean...then I think we need to talk, and maybe, then we don't know tonight what the criteria exactly is. It could be this, and as we get more information on, and the context on the departments, we'll build that, you know, that sense of, um, tiered value for a specific services. (several talking) Wilburn/ Because if we don't then how different is that then the regular budgeting process that was (mumbled) Bailey/ I would like to know, based upon what are you ranking, you know, what are my colleagues, what are we using to rank, I mean, I would like to sort of be on the same page, I mean, are we responding to phone calls that we get? Are we responding to letters? Are we responding to personal values? I mean, I would like some structure to see that we would at least get two, you know, generally the same...at least the same book, if not the same page. Champion/ Well, we could do it in a simple way. We could have all the departments list what all their employees do. And then we could individually go through that list and see what services we feel is not necessary (laughing and several talking). Yes! We all have our little (several talking) and then I think also you have to, I mean, most of us I hope would use common sense, I mean, for instance, would I ever think of cutting the Library? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 16 Maybe, I never have, but would I? Would I think of maybe, you know, getting rid of neighborhood services? Amy I'm sure would like to get rid of the Airport, I mean, we all have our little pet things that we protect. Correia/ I don't want to get rid of the Airport! Champion/ Well, I know that, Amy, but...(several talking) Bailey/ ...it sounds like a budget discussion. Champion/ I know it, so then you have to get to discussions about those things. I'm really, seriously, I want...I would like to have a survey, but it's not going to influence my decision. Correia/ Well, I think that's where we get to this criteria, so I mean... Wilburn/ On page three... Correia/ ...on the third page, so is it a mandated...is it a mandated service? And get, if we have to do it, we can't cut it, you know, so that would be a 2, um, what do we want to...what's the direct benefit to the community? How do we measure that? So I mean there's a proposed criteria. We could, I mean, this is proposed. We could fiddle with that, um, I mean, something...the health and safety, I mean, I think that's how we need to start to rank, and then not have it in the end be based entirely upon a score, but I think it gets us to a place of being able to have then the conversation more specifically about, okay, this service is mandated, it benefits you know, the...what it, the benefit to the community is large or we value it. There's a, you know, um, and so what thing start, you know, what things rise, you know, what things...not to say, um, you know... Champion/ Well... Correial ...eliminate anything, but we may reduce services. Champion/ ...when you think about cutting a million dollars out of our budget, I'm sorry, this is not a very good subject. I'm telling you, you're going to get down to necessities and not a necessity. Correia/ Right! Lombardo/ Well, and to the Mayor's point, if...if we can have a discussion and narrow the playing field to get us, as she indicates in the same book if not on the same page, then I feel in a much better position to be able to start making recommendations to you. It's that we haven't created that context yet, so if we can spend time on doing that, but that's...that's, you know...I question how quickly and...and I mean, this is a very, uh, each one of you have very strong opinions and whether or not we can find the...the core middle, you know, is going to take a lot of honest discussion and soul searching This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 17 and...and it's going to have to happen fairly quickly, uh, I'm not...I don't believe it's impossible or...or perhaps even difficult, but we haven't done that, and...and that's what we would need to do for me to feel like I have some marching orders to be able to come back to you and say here is various strategies that you might consider, um.. . Hayek/ Well, if it's a matter of...of getting enough information and enough input to you to then hand it off and get some recommendations back, I...I think I'm on board with that, and...and I don't want to start this process without proper information, uh, either. Um, but I don't want us to get to a point where we have all this information and input that we've generated or collected and then sit down ourselves and say, all right, where's the first $20,000 coming from and can you give me 15 over here and...I don't think that's effective for us to have, to be starting that process, um, it'll get bogged down. And that's why, like I said of scenarios to chose from, just illustrative scenarios. O'Donnell/ Are you talking, Matt, we've been talking about a fire station for... for ever in this city, you know, are you saying we should say we want this -what do we have to do to get this? What do, you know, and we've asked before, you know, how badly do you want it, and what are you willing to cut? You can do the survey, um, you know, and I think there's benefit to it, but I mean, we all know we have great city services, um, we all know if you ride the bus on a regular basis that you think you should add more stops. That would be a gap, um, we all want to be safe and uh, we want a vital downtown. What does it take to get there? Um, that's what I think, and that's where, Michael, I think it's really important we...we say we want this, this and this -what does it take to get here. And I don't know if a survey will help us do that. Champion/ It takes a million dollars. Lombardo/ I think, um, go ahead, Amy. Correia/ Well, I mean, I think...I think the benefit to the survey, I mean, I don't...I think it's...it's apart of valuing the community's input, whether we say we're going to do everything...but it gives us a basis to stand on, um, and it involves folks in the process, and...and I think it involves new folks in the process. We do, we hear from the same people. People that feel very comfortable approaching the Council. That have done it for a long time, and they're opinions are valuable, but we don't hear from many, many, many people and many segments of the community, um, because.. . Champion/ I think we already agreed we're going to do a survey. Correia/ Right, but I mean, I think that it's important because it...when we make, whatever decision that we make at the end has come out of a process that involves more than just the seven of us and the staff, and I think that's important. I think that's building a respectful, responsive relationship with users of our services that I don't know how, to what extent that people feel that we are responsive. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 18 Lombardo/ Let me ask you, do...I mean, have you all...in the back of your mind, do you think, individually and then let's talk about it collectively, but do you have a sense of what might be on the table or not? Are there particular areas that you know in your heart are just areas that are not ripe for consideration? Is that a discussion you're ready to have or do you need more information, uh, to-be able to make that determination? Champion/ Well, obviously we're not going to (mumbled). I mean, that would be really ridiculous. That's what we're after is more (mumbled) Wright/ If you're talking personnel. No, I don't think we are. There maybe some savings in other areas. Champion/ Right. Right. Um...I don't think anything's off the table. And...and I do believe, and I...I said this before, we're going to get down to essentials and non-essentials. We've already cut a million dollars. It's a lot, this is not a very big budget. When you think about the number of people in this city and the services we provide, it's not a very big budget. Hayek/ And I think as we talk about what's on the table or what's not on the table we've gotta decide, there's probably a threshold matter because of its magnitude, the fire station. mean, cause you know, if we're doing it, then that changes the numbers, obviously, and...and we, you know... Lombardo/ These are interesting times, and uh, and let, I mean, let me tell you, explain what I mean by that. Um, the federal government has stimulus funding that is being doled out, and we are tracking, um, what they're doing. We're told that there is going to be a...a funding mechanism for vertical infrastructure for fire services, so conceivably all or part of a, the construction could be paid for through some future stimulus funds. It's not available yet. We don't know how much national...nationwide, we don't know what the rules might be. It's a big unknown, but they...they've identified it as a...as a future bucket. I would guess that they're working now to develop the criteria and all of the detail, and we're told this summer -whether that's May, June, July - I...we have no idea, but we continue to monitor it very closely. Um, likewise, uh, through similar funding mechanisms at the federal level, there...there appears to be money that is coming forward, we'll know I believe in May, that could potentially fund at least a portion of the staffing for that. So this is a very fluid environment with what's happening at the national level and how funds are being distributed and, um, you know, there maybe a mechanism over the coming months for us to do this, uh, and fund it, save, you know, lights and utilities and things like that, and basic core operational costs, for a period of a few years, which would provide tremendous relief on our General Fund budget, and allow you to do something that you've been contemplating for a long period of time, without further cuts in our budget. The problem is I can't sit here with you today and... and deliberate in any detailed fashion on what this might mean, because the programs have not been formed. It's happening, but we...weekly are checking in and making sure we understand what is coming down in this regard. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 19 Hayek/ Shouldn't though we then assume it's not going to land? That it's not going to amve and...and if it does, great for us and we'll have a windfall that we can apply to lessen the pain elsewhere or whatever we want to do, if...assume we aren't going to get any sort of stimulus support for fire and then...have that discussion, um, that makes a bit of a carve out or a stand-alone discussion topic, but it is so big and has such an impact, uh, dollar wise that I feel like we have to. Lombardo/ It'll save us from having to come back and have discussions yet again this year, if the...if that doesn't materialize, so I see your point (both talking) Wright/ ...no way to divorce the fire station from the rest of the process. Champion/ Right. The other thing though, remember, um, the last time we got federal money for public safety, we hired five policemen, that we had to lay off five years later. I mean, so you might depend on the stimulus money to get you started. You're still going to have to make those budget cuts to maintain it. We didn't have the money. Mike, you were on the Council (mumbled) Lombardo/ ...online articles today, and probably will be in tomorrow, I mean, that's partly why I haven't given the go-ahead to the...the Police Department for filing for cops' grants because there's no ability to fund that yet, and the thought being if it rises to the level of attention that, through this process, you know, the grant period is open. We can...we can avail ourselves to that, but right now we have to have the discussion about is that...(several talking) Champion/ I wouldn't turn down a grant, but I'm saying is you're going to have to (mumbled) grant is gone, and the grant will not be forever. It would really help, not our General Fund, but at least people's property taxes if we could get stimulus funding for the fire station itself. Is that shovel-ready? Could...do we actually have, um, construction plans? Lombardo/ Um, that...they're in various levels of preparation. I think we, I'm not sure...they were getting ready to prepare the bid documents and so I...there's a fair amount of work done on it. I just, off the top of my head I can't (mumbled) Champion/ ...(mumbled) bid documents. Lombardo/ We could get it done in the period, um, from cradle to grave that projects about a 14- month project, at...at worse, and so it fits within the 18-month fundability. So there's...somebody made the statement that no reductions in police and fire staffing were to be considered. Is that universal sentiment? Do we want to spend some time confirming that? Anything we can do to take things off the table makes...makes our discussion more focused. Hayek/ It focuses it, but it reduces the dollars you've got left to play with. Because you take police and fire off the table, and I don't know what that does to your $50 million budget but (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 20 Bailey/ ...anything off the table. Hayek/ I mean, I think in...to be consistent, everything's on the table. We can... Champion/ ...on the police and fire (both talking) Hayek/ I'm...I'm...I think I can predict that police and fire will not be adversely impacted by this discussion. It's simply a prediction, based on what I know from this group, but to be consistent, I think we've got to include everything. (several talking) Lombardo/ Okay, well... Champion/ (mumbled) that could be eliminated. Hayek/ Well, there could be, sure, um, I don't...but I think you're got, everybody's got to start from the same starting point, and that was what we talked about in terms of doing this fairly and in a managed fashion that is...that is consistent and fair to all of the City's employees who are affected. Wilburn/ I have a comment, uh, I mean, along those lines of whether within even police and fire, I mean, look...again looking at the...the criteria and that...I could see some benefit by department, I mean, I would be...just a quick glance at this, uh, in terms of ranking these by service within department would help dictate what would be within the department some higher priority, some lower, for example, if I said mandated services top priority so those services' FTEs uh, health and safety is second, uh, internal benefit if it results in cost savings, could be third. Fourth could be, and this would be a particular example of a value, service vulnerable, underserved population. Fifth would be benefit to the entire community. Sixth would be if it's a duplicate service, then it would be a lower priority, that's just one example of...where within even police and fire there may be a service, AKA a portion of an FTE, or an FTE that um, if it's a, if it's a duplicate service or there's alternative means of delivery, the criteria I just laid out on this would be a lower priority, so that potentially would be a...a cut of a quarter, a half-time person. And that's why...that's where I'm saying that, that would be helpful both internally, we'd have the information. External, to help shape those values into choices we would make. It would help inform us, and each of us will weigh things differently, but that also gives you a framework for once you get that, uh, to...to, whether it's presenting some options or that type of thing. Lombardo/ Um, I have some thoughts on how we might proceed, um, do you want to take a break and then come back for that or do we want to have that discussion? Take a seven...reconvene at thirty-five minutes to the hour? (several talking) (BREAK) Criteria: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 21 Lombardo/ Um, what I'm hearing is that having the criteria and...and of the numeric factor underneath, going through that exercise could provide some valuable information, but the actual weighting and coming up with a...a priority list, a weighted score, is not necessarily something that you feel that there's value to. So, having the perhaps the information, or some of the information and maybe some perhaps even that's not here, could be valuable, at least in terms of framing the dialog, but doing the weighting itself, coming up with, you know, we think that mandated services, you know, should have a factor often and uh, health and safety should have a factor of 20 and... and on the line, that going to that level is, there's really no context in...and broad interest in that. Is that...I'm just cuing in on some of the dialog, and I want to make sure I'm either observing correctly or...or (mumbled) discussion in the right direction. I think it would be very easy if we can agree tonight on...on the criteria to use, and...and... Champion/ Well...let's say mandated service, where you have to perform that, but is there a cheaper way to perform them. So I don't think they're even off the table. I mean, because they're mandated, does that mean they have to be done the way we're doing them? Correia/ It's good to know what things are mandated or not, and then to have a conversation flow from that, to that type of efficiency effectiveness. Wright/ Just because a service is mandated, I mean, you're point is well taken - it doesn't mean we have to do it the way we're doing it, necessarily. Lombardo/ Or to the extent that we're doing it. Champion/ Right (several talking) Lombardo/ How much of that service we provide, there maybe some discretion there, and...and this, this level of information will help pull out that dialog, certainly. O'Donnell/ Give an example of that. Champion/ I don't even know what mandated services are. O'Donnell/ (mumbled) required by law to have para-transit. Champion/ Right. That's right. O'Donnell/ It's mandated, and there's guidelines that we follow. I don't know if there's much you can vary from. Wright/ But you can always...I think in any service you can be exceeding guidelines. The guidelines are typically a baseline for a service, and whatever happens to be, you know, certainly you can go beyond that and offer a much better service. Bailey/ (mumbled) that's one of the reasons we do (mumbled) are there other ways to do that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 22 Champion/ (mumbled) Hayek/ I guess to answer your question, I don't know. I mean, I...if I were looking at this, I'd probably rank health and safety very high, but what does that mean? I mean, it would be healthier and safer to have 200 firefighters serving Iowa City, uh, it's not a realistic approach to take, um, so health and safety is very important to us, but exactly how that translates, I have no idea. Lombardo/ What I... Bailey/ Among these criteria also, I don't see anything...you mentioned community values, or I had linked to our Comprehensive Plan/community, you know, espoused values. I mean. there maybe some criteria (mumbled) as well. Lombardo/ And that's, I guess, what I was going to perhaps suggest is that maybe what we do rather than do the weighting...develop the weighting now where you have to decide is it a factor often or twenty or whatever, but establish the criteria that...that you believe is important for us to...to collect and to do some level of assessment on. Uh; along with the other information that is provided on the prior page, uh with regard to the number of fees, the budget costs, whether it's General Fund or fee-based, um, or some combination, all of that qualitative information, um, and quantitative information that we can, we...we break out, discrete programs and services and...and put collect all the information on each program, and then this criteria, uh, we...we develop a matrix that, you know, you have that information available. If at a later date you say, look, this is...we want to go deeper, we think that weighting...coming up with a weighting mechanism is...is needed to help us stratify the programs and services, we could do that. I'm not trying...unless you feel you want to do that now. That's what I'm trying to determine. Um... Hayek/ Hard to say without seeing what the initial set looks like, you know, it's maybe chicken and egg, but it's... Lombardo/ Right. Hayek/ ...uh, cause I...I'm struggling to comprehend what...what exactly the final product looks like, and then what we do with it. Lombardo/ What I'm suggesting having the detail in front of you might foster better dialog. I would propose we get that together, we provide it to you, we have a meeting with department directors present at the next meeting, ask additional questions, and then we engage in a dialog about, okay, now that we have this information let's talk about what we see here, um, and then...then start, between now and then, thinking through ways in which we can start running this down the funnel, to come to some decision point. But...but, I'm sensing that there's some...it's difficult to know how to use information that's yet to be created and put in front of you, and...and that perhaps, and at least providing you that level of detail, and it's going to be fairly voluminous. You have that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 23 then to start having dialogs about specific, asking questions about specific programs and services. Staff will be there to answer questions. You can ask for additional detail and we can round out the discussion, and just keep going through that list of information, and... and then at the point where you feel you have enough to start engaging the dialog to...to whatever sieve we provide or...or whatever process you all, if it's...just a candid discussion about what's on the table, what's not, then you have at least the context of the information in front of you to be able to start having that dialog. Hayek/ How many program will we have on this list? Lombardo/ Several hundred I think is... O'Malley/ I'd say about 70. At least 70 programs. Hayek/ Oh, 70? Over the eight non-enterprise fund (both talking) O'Malley/ I'm talking cost centers. More or less. Hayek/ Is the cost center a programming center? O'Malley/ A cost center would be the minimum of one programming, or it could be more than one. Hayek/ I mean, I was on Housing Community Development Commission for four or five years, and we attempted to inform our decisions with the, with the, uh (several talking) yeah, with...with, we scored these tests, or we scored these applications, based on the community needs that had been placed as labels, prior to our process, and what I always ran into was that pretty much everything that came across our table was a high priority and the fund, and the criteria and the weighting was somewhat helpful, at best, because ultimately you were pitting things that were, that had equal or almost equal scores against each other and we just had to choose. And that's what I want to avoid here. And maybe we can't - I don't know. Correia/ I mean, I...I think that this is not going to be an easy process. I think that there's going to be hard decisions, I mean, we can't...based on what's before us with the budget, things are going to have to cut, and so, I mean, I'd rather...do that through a thorough process that's demonstrated that we looked at what we had to look at. We consider, you know, had criteria that we considered that, you know, we belabored, you know, that it wasn't, you know, we...at one of our meetings we all said these are our favorite programs and...or had staff come up with something that we didn't have a part...significant role in participating in. So I think it's going to be hard. It's going, there's probably going to be elements that feel like the Housing and Community Development Commission because you now there potentially are more needs for service than we have the ability to support, given our financial situation, and so...we're not all, it's not all going to be pretty. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 24 Hayek/ And I think where you and I are diverging in terms of our view of it is at that point where we've got all our information, we've got our priorities, that initial set of decisions about what gets funded, what doesn't -you envision occurring first at a council level, and I guess my perspective view is that it makes more sense to have a set of recommendations coming from Michael's office, to start the conversation and show us several ways of...of getting there. But I think we just have a difference of...of opinion about what makes the most sense. Wilburn/ When we were faced with a similar type decision and request from Council, when we had the approximately $900,000, um, we were at that impasse of, there were some of us who felt...there were some who were requesting, uh, the City Manager to prepare that, you know, prepare that list or prepare those options for us to deliberate, and there were some of us that felt that, uh, you know, major changes in services were a policy decision that the Council should do to present to the City Manager to take those parameters...take those parameters essentially that...that guidance, and come back to us and... Hayek/ Yeah, I think you're right. Champion/ It is a policy decision. Wright/ What did that Council chose to do? Wilburn/ Well, um... Champion/ I can't remember. Wilburn/ ...that Council did not, um...Council, um, did not, if I recall, have the, uh, City Manager present those options, uh, and if we go back and look at the transcripts or maybe Dale or Kevin would remember, um... Champion/ I can't remember... Wilburn/ ...we did not make...we did not make... Karr/ You talking about when the State...reduced (both talking) Wilburn/ Yeah... Karr/ At that particular time the City Manager did come, because of the timeframe on the certified budget, ultimately, with your direction did come with some, uh, scenarios or recommendations that you acted on. Wilburn/ But we gave, didn't we give some... Karr/ Yes you did. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 25 Wilburn/ ...policy direction in the beginning, and then, yeah, so that was the...that was the majority at that...at that time. I think the concern was, again, because of, uh, timing and uh, the political part of our duties was that, uh, the concern that the City Manager would first present the options and then um, there wouldn't be support for the recommendations and then the, uh, potential disruption to the organization, um, you know, you...you targeted (mumbled) City Manager and I did end up, so there was that concern with the internal workings of staff. And thank you for that recollection. That's why we have a City Clerk! Champion/ I don't remember that. I mean, I remember the...having to cut the budget (mumbled) Wilburn/ We came to that (mumbled) Lombardo/ In terms of the list of criteria, that is there, um, are there...are there elements that you find would be useful, some that you do not, are there some that are missing that you would want to see? Could we come to some consensus tonight about that, at least some criteria that you would like to have presented to you, to help you in your decision making? Wright/ Um, Regenia mentioned something earlier that I think would be good to have in our criteria, which is if the service or the program has a link to the Comprehensive Plan. Bailey/ You said something about diversified funding and I have leveraged funding, as well. But I don't...I don't know how you...how you say that, if it's a current or a potential. Wilburn/ I don't have any additional ones to add. And I was willing to do some weighting as I indicated earlier, but there doesn't appear to be support for that, so... Wright/ This is making for really boring TV. (laughter) Hayek/ Don't say that so excitedly! Lombardo/ We can lead you through kind of an ice-breaker exercise to get the (mumbled) (laughter) Wilburn/ Well, this one is the, you've got (mumbled) which would you take? (laughter) That's what this is. Champion/ Well, when we get the list of all the programs we have, the 70 or whatever they are. You know, then Council priority should be easy to kind of narrow down. With critical (mumbled) I like this thing. Important to fund and nice to fund. I mean, that kind of helps where you can start (mumbled) Correia/ Is that what we would each do? (several responding) Wright/ I think it'd be important for each of us to... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council O'DonnelU That should tell you something! (laughter) Lombardo/ Interesting, indeed I think it will be! (laughter) Champion/ I mean, even things we love may have to put nice (mumbled) Hayek/ all right, well, do we want to add any criteria to this? Other than what has been suggested already? Correia/ I think that looks good. Lombardo/ Are there...is there anything that you would take off (mumbled) Page 26 O'Donnell/ I'd take off mandated service. I don't. I don't see what possible benefit we get out of that. Mandated service is exactly that...mandated. Wright/ I think it's important to have (several talking) Correia/ I want to know...which services are... Bailey/ Could be a point of education. If nothing more than that. Champion/ (mumbled) Lombardo/ There maybe some programs that we have questions, and you now that'd be point of a future dialog, you know, (mumbled) ask for more guidance from you all in terms of your expectations or understanding of it. That certainly (mumbled) Hayek/ Are you looking for input on the various two, one, zero weights? You're not. Lombardo/ I'd like to start with just the criteria, and then...if there...if there are new ones you want to add, we can discuss that, uh, if you, if we get beyond that and then you'd like to discuss the...the uh, break out, then certainly you know I'd be happy to do that, but I think let's take it off one bite at a time. Hayek/ Okay. All right, so what else do we need tonight? Champion/ I don't think there's anything else we need. Hayek/ Pardon me? Champion/ I don't think there's anything else we can discuss tonight. Lombardo/ Anything that we didn't discuss that you individuals want to get out there? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Wright/ And so, just a question, um, if we're meeting again on the... Lombardo/ 13th. Wright/ 13th, which is... Correia/ Monday. O'Donnell/ Monday. Wright/ On Monday...will we have this material... Lombardo/ Friday before. Bailey/ Thursday before. Lombardo/ Thursday before? Bailey/ That's when our Info Packets come to us. Wright/ Yeah, if it could be in the packet that Thursday. Lombardo/ If I were to hand deliver them on Friday? I'm just, well... Bailey/ Thursday before. You need a mic. Page 27 (female)/ Would you want to consider adding on the criteria sources of funding? Like whether it's property tax funded... Lombardo/ That's in the general descriptor on the page prior, yeah (several talking) number of FTEs and, yeah, dollars associated, that type thing. Hayek/ At some point we have to decide whether my vision, or Amy's vision, and I'm grossly oversimplifying that, is what we want to do, if that's tonight, it's tonight - if it's at a future meeting.. . Lombardo/ I'll say going in, unless you're able to provide some guidance, in terms of policies, priorities, and otherwise, I...I'm going to resist providing you recommendations because I...I feel I need a context to deliver those in. Champion/ You do. I agree. Lombardo/ Um, and...but I'm happy to do that, popular or not. That's not the issue for me. The issue is that I want to make sure I...I'm acting in concert with you all and the broader vision and priorities that you're establishing for us. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009. March 31, 2009 City Council Page 28 Hayek/ And it would be my intention to give you that guidance and input, and those parameters, but beyond that I guess I think it's a...it's an executive function, and, um, I mean, that's...I think we can find a point at which the baton can be handed off, um, and you're, you know, you're right to want the broad parameters. Lombardo/ I...you know, I think you'll find it's going to be a dialog, and if I feel I need additional input on something, to get past go, then I'll certainly ask for it and I would expect you all will do the same, so I...it's going to be an ongoing conversation I'm sure. Champion/ Does the City outsource any services? I know we do some legally sometimes. Lombardo/ I mean, engineering work, um, you know, stuff like that, but in terms of ongoing, routine.. . Champion/ No. Lombardo/ ...payroll, things like that, no. Wright/ Bills to Des Moines, is that for...processing service? O'Malley/ We do a portion, we outsource some of our, uh, cash collections through alock-box to a bank. We also outsource the printing of our bills, and we outsource, uh, most of our printing of documents. Lombardo/ All right (mumbled) O'Donnell/ Good. Bailey/ You have what you need? Lombardo/ I do. Onward and upward. (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council special priority-setting work session meeting of March 31, 2009.