Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-04-23 Info Packet~ i ~~~®~l~ ~III~~ ~~~~~ -•n..s~ CITY OF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION PACKET April 23, 2009 MISCELLANEOUS IP1 Council Meetings and Work Session Agenda IP2 Letter from Acting City Manager to Linda Schreiber: Thank you for hosta plants IP3 Letter from the City Attorney to Heidi Voorhees, The PAR Group: Recruitment contract IP4 Letter from the City Attorney: Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) IP5 Memorandum from the City Engineer: High Priority Projects for the Upcoming Surface Transportation Reauthorization legislation IP6 Memorandum from the Director of Public Works and the Director of Planning and Community Development: Update: Flood-related activities IP7 Response from the Director of Transportation Services to Connie Parsons: Parking spaces downtown ®~~ ~~lu'~~~ ,,,~ City Council Meeting Schedule and CITY OF IOWA CITY Work Session Agendas Ip~ www.icgov.org TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE SUBJECT TO CHANGE • MONDAY, MAY 4 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Council Work Session • TUESDAY, MAY 5 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, MAY 18 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Council Work Session • TUESDAY, MAY 19 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • TUESDAY, MAY 26 Emma J. Harvat Hall 5:30p Special Council Work Session- Priority-setting • THURSDAY, MAY 28 Emma J. Harvat Hall 5:30p Special Council Work Session- Priority-setting • MONDAY, JUNE 1 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Council Work Session • TUESDAY, JUNE 2 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, JUNE 15 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Council Work Session • TUESDAY, JUNE 16 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, JUNE 29 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Special Council Work Session • TUESDAY, JUNE 30 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Special Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, JULY 6 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:OOp Regular Council Work Session 7:OOp Special Formal Council Meeting Emma J. Harvat Hall Continue Council Work Session if necessary ~ - i _ ~~ '""'®'~~ City Council Meeting Schedule and -~..~_ CITY OF IOWA CITY Work Session Agendas April 22, zoos www.icgov.org • MONDAY, JULY 27 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Special Council Work Session • TUESDAY, JULY 28 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Special Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, AUGUST 17 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Regular Council Work Session • TUESDAY, AUGUST 18 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Regular Council Work Session • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Regular Formal Council Meeting • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 Johnson County Health and 4:OOp Joint Meeting Human Services Bldg • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 28 Emma J. Harvat Hall 6:30p Special Council Work Session • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29 Emma J. Harvat Hall 7:OOp Special Formal Council Meeting April 20, 2009 Ms. Linda Schreiber 2725 Highway 109 NW Oxford, IA 52322 Dear Linda: IP2 ~:.=.®~r ~ _III~~~ -•~..`_ CITY OF IOWA CITY 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240- 1826 (319) 356-5000 (319) 356-5009 FAX www.icgov.org This will acknowledge, with utmost gratitude, your generous donation of 390 hosts plants to the City of Iowa City last year, and further, your efforts in organizing the group of volunteers who planted the hostas in planters in the downtown area during the summer and fall of 2008. This will also acknowledge that you have received no goods or services from the City in exchange for your contribution. Protecting and maintaining plantings and other public amenities in the downtown area remains a challenge for City staff in light of the misuse and vandalism that occurs. We thus rely on assistance from downtown businesses and property owners in helping to keep the Central Business District clean and attractive. Your contribution toward this end is indeed extraordinary and a reflection of your long history of personal dedication and service to the Iowa City area community. We at the City look forward to working with you and continuing this project over the coming summer season and hopefully beyond. Thanks again for initiating this effort and for your continuing service to our community. Sincerely, Dale E. Helling Acting City Manager cc: City Council Wendy Ford, Economic Development Coordinator Terry Robinson, Parks & Forestry Superintendent mgr/a sst/Itrs/sch re i be r04-15-09. doc April 21, 2009 Heidi Voorhees, President The PAR Group 100 N. Waukegan Road, Suite 211 Lake Bluff, IL 60044 Re: Agreement with City of Iowa City Dear Ms. Voorhees, ~~ r _ ~ IP3 ~,1~.®I~ ,~®,.~ CITY OF IOWA CITY City Attorney's Office 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240-1826 (319) 356-5030 (319) 356-5008 FAX www.icgov.org On April 29, 2008 the Iowa City City Council appointed Michael A. Lombardo as City Manager for the City of Iowa City following a recruitment conducted by the PAR Group. On April 17, 2009 the City Council terminated its contract with Mr. Lombardo. As you know, the City's contract with the PAR Group includes a "guarantee" of employment for at least 12 months and an agreement by the PAR Group to conduct another search for the cost of expenses and announcements only. Enclosed you will find copies of the resolution appointing Mr. Lombardo and the resolution terminating his employment. The City Council has not yet decided if it wishes to conduct another search. The purpose of this letter is simply to notify you that the Council may look to the PAR Group to conduct another search pursuant to the terms of the contract. Please contact me if you have any questions. V truly yours Eleanor M. Dilkes City Attorney Encl. Cc: City Council w/o encl. IP4 ~ r ~_..®~~ ~m~ ~ rrr®~~~ -~-~.~._ CITY OF IOWA CITY Apri120, 2009 Dear Homeowner: City Attorney's Office 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240-1826 (319) 356-5030 (319) 356-5008 FAX www. icgov.org I am writing to all persons who have indicated that they wish the City to buy their homes through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), which is often referred to as the "buyout program." Since my January 261etter, City staff has obtained more information about how the duplication of benefits process will work, and City staff has revised its appeals process. From conversations with officials at the State of Iowa and FEMA, City staff believes that the grant likely will be awarded in May. The City will not make a written offer to purchase your property until the HMGP funds have been awarded. Duplication of Benefits The City is required by federal law to ensure that there is not a "duplication of benefits" between HMGP and other forms of government assistance. As a result, the City's offer will be contingent on any duplication of benefits ("DOB"). This means that the City must reduce the purchase price by the amount of FEMA assistance and/or flood insurance, unless the property owner can verify that the funds were expended on repairs or clean up. If you received an SBA loan, the offer will be contingent on the owner paying off the SBA loan at closing. As David Purdy said in his recent email and as I said in my earlier letter, the most important thing for you to do is to make sure that you have receipts to show how you spent the assistance. If the receipts show that the assistance was used to repair and clean up the home, then the amount of the assistance is not a DOB and will not be deducted from the purchase price. David will be contacting you in the future to gather copies of all the receipts, and he will submit them to FEMA for review. The City will not be able to schedule a closing until staff receives the DOB determination from FEMA. State officials have indicated that it will take FEMA at least one month after it receives the submission of receipts to issue a letter with the DOB amount. David's recent email included an attachment with three scenarios to illustrate how the DOB works. If you have questions about the DOB, please contact David. Appeal Process Previously City staff understood that the owner could appeal both the City's value of the home (the 112% of assessed value) and the DOB. State and FEMA have now told City staff that the DOB cannot be appealed. Let me explain why City staff understood that the owner could appeal the DOB determination. Enclosed please find a copy of page 3-8 of the State of Iowa HMGP Property Acquisition Handbook. Based on the State handbook, the City of Iowa City designed an appeals process that allowed the homeowner to "challenge the ... DOB or other deductions." After creating the appeals process and informing homeowners of it, a FEMA official told City staff that notwithstanding the language of the handbook a homeowner could not appeal the DOB figure, a conclusion that was confirmed by John Wageman, the State Hazard Mitigation officer. As a result, only the City's determination of the value of your home can be appealed. I am enclosing a copy of the revised appeals process, which is also available on the City's website. As noted in my earlier letter, after the City makes you a written offer, you will be working with two members of my staff, Mary McChristy, a legal assistant, and Sue Dulek, an assistant city attorney. You should feel free to contact either Mary or Sue with any questions you have throughout the acquisition process. m rel Eleanor M. Dilkes City Attorney Enc. Copy to: City Council-w/enc. City Clerk-w/enc. Dale E. Helling-w/ enc. David Purdy-w/ enc. Mary McChristy-w/enc. Sue Dulek-w/ enc. Excerpt from HMGP Property Acquisition Handbook THE APPLICATION PROCESS Prepare a press release. If you are awarded the project grant, plan to issue a press release announcing the award. • Draft contracts, policies, and procedures. You may need to hire contractors for some grant activities, such as demolition. You must follow federal procurement regulations, which require you to solicit competitive bids. Your community also may have local procurement policies in place for you to follow. If your community does not have procurement policies in place, contact the Iowa Department of Administrative Services, General Services Enterprise, Procurement Services for guidance (littp://das.,gse.iowa.~ov/procurement/index.htYml). Remember, until you are officially awarded a grant, you cannot solicit bids. Draft your appeals process. Begin to consider your procedures for resolving conflicts that might arise between property owners and the community. Design an appeals process whereby property owners can challenge the fair market value of their property and DOB or other deductions. Your procedures should address how the appeals must be submitted, who will receive them, who will evaluate them, and what criteria will be used to evaluate them. ~ Property taxes. Determine when the community will assume responsibility for property taxes. Some communities require the property owner to pay property taxes through the closing date on the sale of the property. Other communities only require property owners to pay through the date of the disaster or the declaration. When considering your polity, consider the amount your community will lose from that year's property taxes. • Determine the date the properly must be vacated. Residents should vacate the property on or before the date of closing. Be as precise as possible when stating when residents must vacate. If your community intends to give property owners some degree of flexibility, establish specific conditions. Determine decent, safe, and sanitary replacement housing. Property owners who receive Replacement Housing Assistance are required to procure decent, safe and sanitary housing outside of the hazard area. Determine what major systems or conditions will satisfy the community's determination of decent, safe and sanitary replacement housing. Draft documents requiring property owners' signatures. These documents are necessary for the implementation of your property acquisition project. Examples of these documents include an offer letter, which contains specific instructions to the property owner for participating in the project, and a formal Statement of Voluntary Participation, if not already completed. 3-8 ~ r CITY OF IOWA CITY HMGP APPEALS PROCEDURE ^~~®~~ ::111 ~ ~~~ +~ ~aar~ll ~a.~_ Right to appeal. You have the right to appeal the City's CITY OF IOWA CITY determination of the market value of your property in the City's offer 410 East Washington Street to buy your property through the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program Iowa city, Iowa 52240-1826 (HMGP). The written purchase offer to the homeowner and the ~3i9) 356-x000 a eals rocess will not start until Iowa Cit has been allocated (319) 356-5009 FAX Pp P Y www.icgov.org HMPG funds and HMPG agreements have been signed. Owner at the time of the flood. If you owned the property at the time of the flood, the amount of the purchase offer is the pre-market value of the property less any deductions. The City's pre- flood market value is 112% of the 2008 assessed value. This valuation method is based on comparing the assessed value to the sale price of properties in Parkview Terrace that were sold between June 2006 and June 2008. You have the right to appeal the amount of the pre-market value. Duplication of benefits/deductions. Please note that the amount you will receive at closing is not necessarily equal to the amount of the pre-market value of the property. In arriving at the final purchase price, the City is required by federal law (42 U.S.C. §5155, 44 C.F.R. 80.9, and 44 C.F.R: 206.191) to ensure that there is not a "duplication of benefits" between HMGP and other forms of government assistance. FEMA will provide to the City the amount of duplication of benefits. You do not have the right to appeal the amount of any deductions. Purchased the property after the flood. If you purchased the property .after the flood, the amount of the purchase offer is the current market value of the property. A determination of market value in such cases will be made on a case-by-case basis. Deadline to appeal. All appeals must be submitted within thirty (30) days from the date of the offer. Please use the attached form to submit the appeal. The written appeal should be addressed to: City Attorney City Hall 410 E. Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 Hearing date. The appeal hearing will be at a date and time convenient to you. You will get written notice of the date, time, and place of the hearing. After receiving notice of your appeal, the City may choose to obtain its own appraisal which may require additional time before the hearing can be scheduled. Hearing procedure. • The appeal will be heard by a hearing officer. You may have anyone attend the hearing that you believe will help you. You have the right to be represented by legal counsel or other representatives in connection with your appeal at any time, but that representation is solely at your expense. The City of Iowa City will have staff in attendance as well. City Of Iowa City Hmgp Appeals Procedure Page 2 Both you and the City of Iowa City will be given full and equal opportunity to be heard, and both may present oral and written information on an informal basis without regard to the rules of evidence. Both also may object to information presented and question those presenting information. You may inspect and copy all materials that the City of Iowa City has pertinent to your appeal. Decision on appeal. The hearing officer will make a written decision within thirty (30) days and mail it you. The decision will summarize all the information considered including a list of the documents submitted and the records reviewed. The decision will explain the rationale underlying the decision. Hearinct officer's decision is the only appeal. If you are dissatisfied with the decision of the hearing officer, there is no further appeal. However, you have the right not to sell the property to the City of Iowa City. The HMGP is a voluntary program. Revised April 2009 ppdadm/hmgp-appealprocess.doC r ~.®~>~ ~m~ir. . ,~®.~~~ CITY OF IOWA CITY MEMORANDUM IP5 Date: April 22, 2009 To: Iowa City City Council From: Ron Knoche, City Engineer Re: High Priority Projects for the Upcoming Surface Transportation Reauthorization legislation We recently received notice from Congressman Loebsack that the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will soon be accepting applications for High Priority Projects for the upcoming Surface Transportation Reauthorization legislation. High Priority Projects are similar to what used to be referred to as "earmarks", but with a much more detailed application process and transparency. The current transportation legislation is set to expire on September 30, 2009. This reauthorization provides each House District with opportunities to improve transportation infrastructure by identifying high priority projects. The initial application information is due May 1. Because of the short timeframe, staff is preparing application information for two transportation infrastructure projects which have already been identified by the City Council as high priorities for Iowa City. The two projects include: 1. Park Road Bridge and Dubuque Street elevation: $32 million estimate 2. First Avenue/Iowa Interstate Railroad Bridge: $6.4 million estimate Staff has been pursuing other funding sources for these two projects as well; we hope that we can attract a combination of funding sources to bring these projects to fruition. It is unlikely any single funding source will be able to fund these projects, and it is important a number of options are pursued. A local match (minimum 20%) will be required; it is hoped the sales tax can support the match for the Park Road Bridge and Dubuque Street elevation project. If they are ultimately approved as High Priority Projects in the upcoming transportation legislation, funding may be available as early as 2010. Feel free to contact me at 356-5138, or John Yapp at 356-5252 with any questions. Cc: Dale Helling Rick Fosse Jeff Davidson John Yapp jccog adm/mem/H ig hPriorityProjects-4-09.doc ~ r ~_.:.®~~ ~m'~r~ ~ ~~,~~ CITY OF IOWA C-TY MEMORANDUM IP6 Date: April 23, 2009 To: City Council From: Rick Fosse, Director of Public Works Jeff Davidson, Director of Planning and Community Development Re: Update: Flood-related activities Engineering and Public Works Administration: • Worked with staff to develop the applications for the Community Disaster Grants. • Contractor waiting for Iowa River levels to go down to work on the river bank repair on the Iowa River Corridor Trail south of Hills Bank. • Waiver signed for Iowa DNR in regards to the Iowa Avenue Sewer Crossing. • Awaiting DNR approval of the plans for the reconstruction of the Iowa Avenue Sewer Crossing. • Developing plans for the repair of flood damaged infrastructure. • Met with FEMA regarding the status of the Animal Shelter. • Developing plans for the Riverside Festival Stage Electrical Repair. • Answering questions from the public regarding the Park Road Bridge and Dubuque Street Elevation Project and the North Waste Water Plant Relocation. Water Division • Replacing meters in flooded areas (Idyllwild & Parkview Terrace) - in-house project 1. Received a call from Barb Glynn with FEMA regarding Hazard Mitigation and addressed her questions • Working with Engineering for design and schedule on the 12" river crossing repairs (Old Plant and Hwy 6) • Met with Jeff Chalk with FEMA and his colleague Perry to review the PW and Hazard Mitigation submittals in order that they may be updated with cost data from the Hazard Mitigation Study 1. Plan to meet with Jeff Chalk on 4/15/09 to discuss updates and ramifications on hazard mitigation funding • Continued to work with Deb Mansfield and State of Iowa on projects related to FEMA Hazard Mitigation reimbursement • Continuing to work with Steve Long to identify funding for additional Hazard Mitigation Projects. • Hazard Mitigation report from Howard R. Green is expected to be complete by mid April. 1. Send Ayres/U. of I. Iowa River Flood Study to HRG to incorporate into Hazard Mitigation Study Report Wastewater Division • Repair of the North Wastewater Treatment Facility is now complete. April 23, 2009 Page 2 Planning and Community Development: • Staff has distributed $543,416 in Federal Jumpstart funds and $622,025 in State Jumpstart funds. • Staff continues to meet with the long term recovery committee to determine our community definition of "long term recovery" • Staff is currently working with or has distributed funding to 75 flood affected households. • Governor Culver signed SF 289 into law on Tuesday, April 21 at the Old Capitol, with community development and PCD staff in attendance. • Planning staff have been meeting with the City Attorney's office to coordinate efforts to quickly begin the process of making offers to homeowners once we receive approval from FEMA officials regarding Iowa City's HMGP application. While no firm date has been given, it appears approval will come in mid-May. • Staff received verbal confirmation the grants submitted under the Community Disaster Grants Program have been approved. The funds should be arriving in about 2 weeks. Planning staff will be beginning the process of collecting all required documents so that the funds can be quickly disbursed to assist in our flood recovery efforts. • Jumpstart Business Recovery -closed out April 15: 56 applications 50 approved for funding: totaling $1,191,288. 2 pending approval: totaling $55,000 • Business Rental Assistance Program Opened on April 16 As of noon today, we have received 18 applications totaling $237,000 in business rental assistance requests. Original correspondence Sg(11) on April 20 Marian Karr From: Chris O'Brien Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2009 3:59 PM To: 'connie@shopvelvetcoat.com'; Council Cc: Kathryn Johansen Subject: FW: to Regenia Bailey Connie, IP7 As a follow up to our conversation from today, I want to thank you for your e-mail and for your time to discuss the concerns that you shared. Four of the parking spaces on the 100 block of Washington Street should open up on Friday, 4/17/09 and the rest of the spaces are scheduled to open on Tuesday, 4/21/09. In addition, if there are days that you need assistance with parking for a shipment arriving, please feel free to give me a call at (319) 356- 5156. Thank you again for your time and feel free to contact me if you have additional questions. Chris O'Brien Director of Transportation Services City of Iowa City (319)356-5156 Chris-obrien@iowa-city.org From: Connie Parsons [mailto:connie@shopvelvetcoat.com] Sent: Friday, April 03, 2009 3:53 PM To: Council Subject: to Regenia Bailey Dear Regenia, I am responding to the Downtown letter dated 3/18/09 with suggestions on how business owners can keep the downtown street scape clean this spring and summer. It occurred to me to respond with a few suggestions of our own as we were scrubbing the vomit off our doorway entrance before the opening to our retail space this morning. Over the last 3 weeks on Washington St., 14 days have had the meters block off from parking (2 full weeks out of the 3). This comes on the heels of metered parking removal around the corner on Dubuque St. just a couple of weeks prior. There was no notification of this parking situation to our surrounding business -something we could have passed on to our customers via email - during our semi-annual event that was taking place. Fifteen minutes is not enough time to shop in a retail environment and we can reassure you that the retail environment in the downtown area is feeling the effects of these issues coupled with the economy. Is it possible to spread this closures out and /or get some sort of prior notification? We have been downtown since 2000 and have witnessed the changes to the area first hand. That being said, we believe in the downtown area but would like to see a bit more partnering when it comes to issues such as these. We believe it could be quite beneficial to retail spaces during these tough times. We do appreciate your consideration of these matters. Please feel free to email or call with any questions or comments. Best Regards, Connie Parsons Velvet Coat 319.887.7151 4/ 16/2009