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Home My WebLink About2020-11-02 Bd Comm minutesCITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Board of Adjustment: July 15 Item Number: 4.a. MINUTES BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT FORMAL ONLINE MEETING JULY 15, 2020 — 5:15 PM Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) FINAL An electronic meeting is being held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. MEMBERS PRESENT: Gene Chrischilles, Ernie Cox, Zephan Hazell, Bryce Parker, Amy Pretorius MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Susan Dulek, Joshua Engelbrecht, Kirk Lehmann, Anne Russett OTHERS PRESENT: Britni Andreassen, Keith Weggen, Michael Pugh, Siobhan Harman CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM. ROLL CALL: A brief opening statement was read by Pretorius outlining the role and purpose of the Board and the procedures that would be followed in the meeting. SPECIAL EXCEPTION ITEM EXC20-07: An application submitted by Britni Andreassen on behalf of Kum & Go L.C. requesting waivers from the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street fagade along 3rd Street and from the frontage type and related design requirements for the north fagade at 1310 South Gilbert Street & 348 Highland Avenue. Pretorius opened the public hearing. Lehmann reiterated this is an application for Kum & Go requesting waivers from the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street facade on 3rd Street and from the frontage type and related design requirements for the north facade. The property is located on the east side of South Gilbert Street, north side of Highland Avenue just north of Highway 6. The area includes both a gas station that is currently there and then also some light industrial buildings on the east Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 2 of 8 side of that site which is all owned by Kum & Go now. Lehmann stated the area is zoned Riverfront Crossings - South Gilbert Street, it is surrounded by other zones including Riverfront Crossings - South Gilbert zones, CC-2 to the south and intensive commercial. For background Kum & Go, L.C. rezoned the property in this location from intensive commercial to Riverfront Crossings - South Gilbert on December 17, 2019. After that, Kum & Go has since requested two special exceptions, EXC19-12 which allows a quick vehicle servicing use in the Riverfront Crossings - South Gilbert zone and was approved January 8, 2020. Then EXC20-03, which waives the two-story building minimum height requirement that's in that zone, and was approved April 8, 2020. Kum & Go is now requesting another special exception, EXC20-07 which would waive three additional requirements including that surface parking must be set back three -feet behind the secondary street fagade along Highland Avenue; that the remaining street frontage along South Gilbert Street have a 5-foot free- standing screen wall; and that the north face of the building meet either the Urban Flex or Storefront frontage type standards. After staff provided comments to the applicant, Kum & Go provided an updated site plan dated June 23, 2020 which was in the Board's packet. This moved the proposed building from the northwest corner of the site to the southwest corner of the site and they also modified the proposed screen wall. Instead of being a three-foot wall, it'd be a five-foot fence of either wrought iron or metal that imitates wrought iron. Lehmann stated that is allowed under the Form -Based Code with the approval of the Form -Based Code Committee. So Kum & Go's revised request only requires waivers from the parking setback on 3rd Street and the frontage and related design requirements on the north building face. To give more detail Lehmann showed the first site plan noting the building is in the northwest corner and the wall that's proposed along South Gilbert Street is also three foot in this plan. The initial requests are that the north facade would have a waiver, the setback along Highland Avenue would have a waiver, and then that fence along South Gilbert would have a waiver. Lehmann showed the revised site plan noting again the building placement moved to the southwest, the fence type changed, and with that then the only requests are the north building facade and a three-foot setback behind the building facade when looking at it from Gilbert Street on the 3rd Street side. The role of the Board of Adjustment is charged with approving, approval with conditions or denying the application based on the facts presented. To approve the special exception the Board must find that it meets all applicable approval criteria that includes specific standards pertaining to the waiver requested and general standards for all special exceptions. In this case, the specific standards are found at Section 14-4B-4B-12J which allows waivers from development standards for quick vehicle servicing in Riverfront Crossings zoning districts. So for properties located in CB-2, CB-5 or Riverfront Crossings District or Towncrest Design Review zones, where it can be demonstrated that the proposed quick vehicle servicing use cannot comply with a specific standard as indicated in subsections B12h and B12i of this section, the Board of Adjustment may grant a special exception to modify or waive the provision, provided that the intent of the development standards is not unduly compromised. The Board of Adjustment may impose any condition or conditions that are warranted to mitigate the effects of any variation from these development standards. Staff made findings that the property is zoned Riverfront Crossings — South Gilbert, is in the Riverfront Crossings District, and is therefore eligible to request a waiver from standards outlined in that section which requires that properties in the Riverfront Crossings District comply with the Riverfront Crossings Form -Based Code. Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 3 of 8 Lehmann continued that the applicant requested waivers from the following two sets of requirements; setback and screening requirements and frontage and facade requirements. With the waiver from the setback and screening requirements, there is a requirement found at 14-2G-3A-4b-(2) that surface parking, loading, and service areas be set back at least three feet from the secondary street building facade. This helps create pedestrian -friendly streetscapes where building facades are aligned along public sidewalks and parking and service areas are behind buildings. The proposed parking along Highland Avenue complies with this standard, but a waiver is needed for parking on the north portion of the site near 3rd Street. Lehmann pointed out the south and north building facades as facing secondary streets and noted parking should be set back three feet behind these facades. This would mean parking should be completely behind the building when looking at it from South Gilbert Street. In this case, the south parking setback follows that standard. However, the north side does not because there's parking that is not behind that building facade which is visible from South Gilbert Street. So, the first exception is to allow parking within that area that is not behind the building. The second waiver is for frontages and facades. Principal buildings and facades must comply with frontage type and building type standards found at 14-2G-3A-3e. In addition, several building design standards found at 14- 2G-7F also apply to street -facing facades, including requirements to divide facades vertically into 20- to 35- foot bays (1 b), to provide equal architectural quality and detail at corners (1f), to provide a certain proportion of the facade as doors or transparent windows (1g), and to disallow blank facades (1h). These standards improve the quality and character of public streets and spaces by breaking up facades, creating seamless transitions around corners, and providing visual interest, which ultimately contributes to more pedestrian -friendly streets. The applicant requested these requirements be waived for the north facade of the proposed building which faces 3rd Street. Lehmann pointed out the north facade facing 3rd Street on the site plan, which is where they are requesting waivers. The initial set of elevations they submitted with the application shows that the north elevation is a blank wall which requires a special exception. The applicant submitted an updated site plan where the north elevation changed pretty dramatically, and the south elevation also changed. However, there are still exceptions that are needed on that north facade. Lehmann said the updated design has more design elements than the initial version that was submitted. Lehmann continued with the staff findings, noting 3rd Street, where they're requesting most of these waivers, is not shown as a primary street on the regulating plan. The Code's intent regarding the parking setback, screening, frontage, and facade requirements is being met in this case because a five foot tall street screen is proposed on the west and north sides of the site as shown on the June 23, 2020 site plan, and because the exceptions are primarily along 3rd Street which is a non -primary street which is not shown in the regulating plan. Lehmann stated staff recommends a condition that the final site plan substantially comply with the submitted site plan dated June 23, 2020 to ensure parking is visually buffered from the sidewalk on South Gilbert Street and that the street screen to the north provides additional buffering between the sidewalk and north facade. Staff also recommends that the final elevations substantially comply with those dated July 8, 2020, which was not included in the staff report. Lehmann noted that doesn't mean that Kum & Go can't make changes because staff also recommends that if there are substantial changes from the submitted site plan or elevations, they must comply with the site development standards and other applicable requirements of the City Code. Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 4 of 8 Hazell asked if the question before the Board is if they allow that area to be developed is this significantly impacting pedestrian experience on along 3rd Street? It looks like on the plan there's still a sidewalk along 3rd Street and is that still fully intact with this change. Lehmann confirmed that was correct and that they're also evaluating the pedestrian experience along South Gilbert and that more of these standards apply to that Gilbert Street frontage as a primary street, but then also the pedestrian experience along 3rd Street. Lehmann next discussed the general standards, which are found in Section 14-4B-3A. The first is that the specific proposed special exception will not be detrimental to or endanger the public health, safety, comfort or general welfare. Staff finds that there is an existing convenience store with fuel sales located on the site and the Board of Adjustment has already approved allowing a new convenience store with fuel sales at the site in special exception EXC19-12. The Board of Adjustment has also waived the two-story minimum building requirement of this site with the condition that the external walls of the proposed convenience store be built at least 22 feet in height to give the appearance of a two-story building was which was approved with special exception 20-03. The new request will not change the use or access of the site. The requested waivers will result in the following: a view of parking from South Gilbert Street that is not blocked by the building on the north side of the lot: a building where the where the north face will not contain the frontage type or provide other building design features. Finally, staff also finds that the five-foot tall street screens will buffer both results from public rights -of -way. The second criteria is that the specific proposed exception will not be injurious to the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity and will not substantially diminish or impair property values in the neighborhood. Staff finds that the proposed request will not change the use or access to the site. A modification of parking setbacks and frontage and design standards on the north face of the building will not injure the use and enjoyment of other property in the immediate vicinity, nor will it affect nearby property values. The third standard is that the establishment of the specific proposed exception will not impede the normal and orderly development and improvement of the surrounding property for use as permitted in the district in which such property is located. Staff finds that the surrounding properties are developed but are also eligible for redevelopment under the Riverfront Crossings Form -Based Code, and that redevelopment of this property in these requested waivers will not affect development or improvement of surrounding properties. The fourth standard is that adequate utilities, access roads, drainage and/or necessary facilities have been or are being provided. Staff finds that the subject property has access to all necessary utilities and facilities and the redevelopment will not require off -site improvements. The fifth criteria is that adequate measures have been or will be taken to provide ingress or egress designed to minimize traffic congestion on public streets. Staff finds that the current site has access points off South Gilbert Street, Highland Avenue and 3rd Street. The rezoning at Ordinance Number 19-4814 included a condition that the applicant close all access points from South Gilbert Street and have only one access point from Highland Avenue to minimize traffic congestion at the intersection of South Gilbert Street and Highland Avenue and on surrounding streets. As a result, staff finds the proposed redevelopment will improve traffic congestion, ingress and egress. The sixth criteria is that except for these specific regulations and standards applicable to the Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 5 of 8 exception being considered, the specific proposed exception, in all other respects, conforms to the applicable regulations or standards of the zone in which it is located. Staff finds that approval of the requested special exception will waive the following requirements. First, that the surface parking be set back three -feet from the north building facade along 3rd Street (found at 14-2G-3A-4b-(2)); the north face of the building will be required to have a frontage type (found at 14-2G- 3A-3e); and that the north face of the building will not comply with several related building design standards (found at 14-2G-7F-1 b, -1f, -1g, and -1 h). Staff also finds that through the design review process staff will ensure compliance with the other provisions of the Riverfront Crossings Form -Based Code. Lehmann reiterated again with the staff recommendations, as long as it substantially complies with the elevations and site plan, that if they do make changes they would just have to comply with those standards. Then the final criteria is that the proposed exception be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan of the City as amended. Staff finds that the Future Land Use map in the Comprehensive Plan designates this area for mixed use development, which includes a variety of retail, office, and residential uses. The Comprehensive Plan supports urban infill and redevelopment in certain areas of the City, including the Riverfront Crossings District and that the Riverfront Crossings Master Plan calls for a pedestrian scale development in this area along South Gilbert Street with buildings along the front of the street and parking to the rear. Some planning concepts include a gas station on the corner of South Gilbert Street and Highland Avenue. The plan also calls for a retail/convenience store in this area to serve local demand, and the area's envisioned to be redeveloped with a commercial use. Staff recommends approval of special exception EXC20-07, waiving the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street facade along 3rd Street and from frontage type and related design requirements for the north facade of the building, for the properties located at 1310 South Gilbert Street & 348 Highland Avenue subject to the following conditions: 1. The final site plan must substantially comply with the submitted site plan, dated June 23, 2020, or any changes to it must comply with the site development standards and other applicable requirements of the City Code. 2. The final elevations must substantially comply with the submitted elevations, dated July 8, 2020, or any changes to it must comply with the design standards and other applicable requirements in the City Code. Lehmann noted they did also receive a public comment which he sent out in advance of the meeting and that public comment basically said that some of the surrounding property owners had no objections to this application. Parker asked for clarification that the findings number six that was written before the July 8 elevation changes, which Lehmann confirmed, Parker also noted 3rd Street is technically a dead end. Keith Weaaen (Civil Design Advantage) stated he didn't have much to add in the way of the presentation acknowledging Lehmann did an awesome job going through it. He would like to add a little bit of clarity as to why they're before the Board for the third time. After the last special exception meeting, they submitted building elevations and site plan for design review process where they got further into the details, the nuts and bolts of the layout and design of the site and the building. During that process, through communication and correspondence with staff, they realized that there were certain criteria that they simply could not meet and as a Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 6 of 8 result, they continued discussions and coordination with staff to find a layout and a plan that meets the criteria as well as something that staff and Kum & Go are comfortable with. In addition, Weggen stated they have no objections to staffs comments or the conditions in the staff report. Pretorius closed the public hearing. Parker moved approval of EXC20-07, an application submitted by Britni Andreassen on behalf of Kum & Go L.C. requesting waivers from the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street facade along 3rd Street and from the frontage type and related design requirements for the north fagade at 1310 South Gilbert Street & 348 Highland Avenue subject to the following conditions: 1. The final site plan must substantially comply with the submitted site plan, dated June 23, 2020, or any changes to it must comply with the site development standards and other applicable requirements of the City Code. 2. The final elevations must substantially comply with the submitted elevations, dated July 8, 2020, or any changes to it must comply with the design standards and other applicable requirements in the City Code. Chrischilles seconded the motion. Pretorius noted it seemed a little bit complicated, but Lehmann did a good job of explaining things that seemed pretty cut and dry. She added the facade looks really good and she can definitely tell the difference between the original versus what they're now proposing. Additionally, the site plan looks good, so clearly they're making an effort to work with what's happening here. Parker doesn't think there's a whole lot of pedestrians going to all those businesses which will now be razed for this venture. Hazell stated the screening along Gilbert Street really does help buffer that significantly. Cox noted he continues to be supportive of this project and thinks the pedestrian experience will not be affected negatively by these changes. The landscaping along 3rd Street will do a lot and therefore is feeling really good about this project. Chrischilles noted he has no objections to the plan, it seems to be well thought out and the exceptions proposed will be kind of a non -issue as will be covered by the facade or the screening which he thinks is fine. Chrischilles stated regarding agenda item EXC20-07 he concurs with the findings set forth in the staff report of this meeting date, July 15, 2020 and concludes that the general and specific criteria are satisfied with the additional recommendation that the final elevations substantially comply with those dated July 8, 2020. If there are substantial changes to the site plan or elevations, they must comply with the applicable requirements of the City Code. Therefore, unless amended or opposed by another board member, he recommends that the Board adopt the findings in the staff report for the approval of this proposal. Hazell seconded the findings. A vote was taken and the motion carried 5-0. Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 7 of 8 Pretorius stated the motion declared approved, any person who wishes to appeal this decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after this decision is filed with the City Clerk's Office. SPECIAL EXCEPTION ITEM: A request submitted by Kum & Go L.C. to extend the expiration date to July 30, 2021 for EXC19-12, a special exception approved to allow a quick vehicle servicing use in the Riverfront Crossings -South Gilbert (RFC -SG) zone, EXC20-03, a special exception to waive the minimum 2-story building requirement, and EXC20-07, a special exception (approval pending) to waive the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street facade along 3rd Street and from the frontage type and related design requirements for the north facade. Hazell moved approval of the request submitted by Kum & Go L.C. to extend the expiration date to July 30, 2021 for EXC19-12, a special exception approved to allow a quick vehicle servicing use in the Riverfront Crossings -South Gilbert (RFC -SG) zone, EXC20-03, a special exception to waive the minimum 2-story building requirement, and EXC20-07, a special exception (approval pending) to waive the 3-foot parking setback behind the secondary street facade along 3rd Street and from the frontage type and related design requirements for the north facade. Parker seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion carried 5-0. Pretorius stated the motion declared approved, any person who wishes to appeal this decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after this decision is filed with the City Clerk's Office. CONSIDER THE JUNE 10, 2020 MINUTES: Parker moved to approve the minutes of June 10, 2020. Chrischilles seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion carried 5-0. ADJOURNMENT: Chrischilles moved to adjourn this meeting, Cox seconded, a vote was taken and all approved. Board of Adjustment July 15, 2020 Page 8 of 8 BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT ATTENDANCE RECORD 2020 NAME TERM EXP. 118 2112 418 5113 5127 6110 7115 CHRISCHILLES, GENE 12/31/2022 X X X X X X X COX, ERNIE 12/31/2020 X O/E X X X X X HAZELL, ZEPHAN 12/31/2021 X O/E X X X O/E X PARKER, BRYCE 12/31/2024 O/E X X X X X X PRETORIUS, AMY 12/31/2023 X XFX X X X X Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused -- -- = Not a Member Item Number: 4.b. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Climate Action Commission: September 8 MINUTES FINAL APPROVED IOWA CITY CLIMATE ACTION COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 8, 2020-3:30 PM— FORMAL MEETING ELECTRONIC MEETING Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting is being held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. MEMBERS PRESENT: Madeleine Bradley, Stratis Giannakouros, Kasey Hutchinson, John Fraser, GT Karr, Matt Krieger, Jesse Leckband, Becky Soglin, Eric Tate MEMBERS ABSENT: Grace Holbrook STAFF PRESENT: Sarah Gardner, Ashley Monroe, Brenda Nations OTHERS PRESENT: Benjamin Grimm, John Barr, Cheryl Miller, Warren McKenna, Diane Platte RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: None Krieger called the meeting to order. APPROVAL OF AUGUST 3, 2020 MINUTES: Fraser moves to approve the minutes from August 3, 2020. Soglin seconds the motion, a vote was taken, and the motion passes 9-0. PUBLIC COMMENT OF ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: Benjamin Grimm (Iowa City Schools) stated he didn't have much to report this month as everything's focused on COVID and trying to get the students back into school. The AmeriCorps Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 2 of 14 team is shifting gears with having a mix of students learning online versus in school so it's going to change the dynamics for things like recycling, so they are retooling and changing focus. John Barr (Scott Park neighborhood) wanted to call to the Commission's attention a letter written by Chris Stephan. It was primarily initially directed to the Parks and Rec Commission but was cc: to the Climate Action Commission. Barr just wanted to encourage everyone's review and consideration of this letter. Nations noted the letter isn't in this agenda packet but it will be in the next one as it came addressed to the Commission so she needed permission to open and then can scan it and send it out. STAFF/COMMISSION ANNOUNCEMENTS: Nations first announced that she is retiring October 5, which is the date of the next Commission meeting so the very last thing that she will do is the next Commission meeting, and then at five o'clock she'll be retired. Gardner and Monroe will continue to support the Commission. Action Items from last meeting: Nations noted Soglin did send the edits to the last meeting's agenda, Giannakouros was going to work on the Climate Action at Work awards but that was the day after the derecho and he did not have the ability to do so, however Nations said they completed those and they will be announced later this month. The Commissioners were to contact Nations on any metrics input, she did provide the two years of metrics and an updated greenhouse gas inventory. Monroe was to review tree planting, and Fraser did meet with Gardner about the ambassador program. Gardner also sent the link or the Climate Fest kickoff. Nations put on the agenda to discuss the Human Rights Commission statement and if the Climate Action Commission wanted to make a formal statement. Position Vacancy Update: Nations next gave an update on the vacant commission seat, it was announced at the August 4 meeting and needs to be open for 30 days, so the deadline to apply is today and they'll be announcing the new member on 9/15. Progress Updates on "Accelerating Iowa City's Climate Actions": Nations stated some of the key items are that they have launched the TIF funded Climate Action Incentive Program, the transit study information should be out in early October, the Climate Ambassador Program is going to be rolled out at the Climate Fest in two weeks, the tree planting project is going forward, the Climate Action at Work program is complete and they have chosen the five winners in each of the five categories of the Climate Action Plan, those winners will be announced on September 25th, and each winner will get a $500 prize. The Climate Festival will be starting on September 19. Gardner added as many are aware last week the Iowa City area had a big spike in the infection rate for COVID-19 and as a result of that, after some staff discussion, they decided that the most appropriate thing to do for the Climate Fest would be to make all of the events virtual as a matter of public safety. They don't want to be assembling crowds and also the City is discouraging other events from taking place so it would look bad if the City goes forward with their own event in the midst of that. The Climate Fest website has been updated to reflect this and she has spent a lot of last week retooling some of the events but thinks they've got a good plan B in action now. Nations encouraged everyone to check out the Climate Festival website. Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 3 of 14 Gardner gave an update on the Climate Ambassador Program noting it was scheduled to launch at the end of the Climate Fest. They have the application developed, and the resource page is under development. She stated there will be two web pages for the Climate Ambassador Program, the first one will talk about the program itself, and be the front facing one that talks about how to get involved and have a link to the application on it. Then the second page is the resource page, which is the page that the ambassadors themselves will access during the training program. Fraser asked about Commissioners participating in the training and Gardner is really excited to say that they are working on a simultaneous launch that any Commissioner can participate in. Gardner stated they also made the decision last week that the AmeriCorps team that's coming on board starting September 24 will be doing a lot of energy efficiency work but because of COVID-19 that program in the spring had to look a little different and they're anticipating it looking a little different in the fall too. One of the things they'd like to do is have them take the ambassador training as well so that'll be a nice opportunity to expand the reach of that program early on. Monroe stated they would continue to plug away on these items throughout the fall and the Commissioners should reach out to staff with questions or ideas on working through the list. Krieger noted the list appears to need some input from the working groups and may need to be updated. Nations agreed and said they are looking at ways to organize the list so working groups can see areas where their input is needed. Hopefully more updates at the next meeting. Greenhouse Gas Inventory: Nations stated she finally got all of the data for 2019 inventory and the data show that emissions did go down a little bit in 2019, a lot of that had to do with the MidAmerican renewable electricity percentages going up. Right now, they're at 61 % and were at 51 % for renewable energy for electricity. Nations uses 2010 as the baseline and showed the percent change from then. Right now, as of 2019, they have reduced 33% emissions, which is 12% off from the goal to reduce 45% by 2030. So that's good but they still have to remember that they're going to net zero which is 67% more reduction needed and even with MidAmerican and the University making those reductions. They can really see how the power plant has reduced since 2010, which is great. There is an impact on the buildings with industrial, commercial, and residential and then the power plant itself, but actually transportation has gone up and waste has gone up so if it wasn't for MidAmerican and U of I they might have it risen all areas. So they still need to focus on transportation as it is increasing, and the waste even though it's a small portion but that's also increasing. Nations next showed per capita since 2000 and they've been decreasing since 2008, but it's the lowest that they've ever been per capita. Giannakouros noted the UI power plant will be testing this year to get the last boiler off coal and stated if that happens it could bring down the numbers 2% or 3%, but the good thing is they are down 86% in terms of their coal consumption already. Giannakouros asked if Nations had estimates on what happens if MidAmerican does actually go to zero or if the City goes to zero before 2030? Nations said they do have estimates for that and it is in the Climate Action Plan. Electricity is now about 40% it was 42% so now it's less than 42% and a little tiny bit of that is from Eastern Iowa Light and Power. Nations explained that is a huge impact however the thing is the City has gotten a lot of heat, so to speak about, about resting on their laurels on what MidAmerican is doing but that's not the only thing, the City still has to work on transportation, natural gas, and waste. Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 4 of 14 Fraser wanted to echo what was already said about not becoming complacent or resting on their laurels and being really proactive before they get to the point where anyone can say "I told you so" and the City was letting MidAmerican do it all and letting the UI power plant do it all. He would like to have further discussions or a better understanding as a Commission to understand where the next realistic, relatively large, low hanging fruit is, and really get aggressive about going after it. He feels like it would be awfully easy to wait and see what happens instead of being really proactive. Fraser acknowledged the Commission is all about being proactive, and the Plan is proactive, but he wants to make sure that they don't get complacent on this. Nations noted if they didn't track this every year, they wouldn't even know what's going on and she doesn't think the City's taking credit for these differences that MidAmerican and the University has made, but since the City is tracking it, they can credit it to their goals. Stated the next thing that is a huge impact is electric vehicles and getting off natural gas is really huge. It is a huge hurdle to get it out there for people's knowledge and information because people really think it won't work and are afraid of new technology. Electric vehicles are going to make a big impact on the 17% that's transportation. It's not just electric vehicles, the City is also hoping to double bus ridership. She added a few years ago, Iowa City had just a handful electric vehicles and now Johnson County has over 500 electric vehicles. So, the change is happening without doing anything so if the City can get the infrastructure and the codes and the policies and the incentives in place, it can really increase. Nations added as long as the electricity is renewable and people charge their EVs at night when people are not using as much electricity and so it doesn't put as much of a load on the grid as if they were charging it during the day, it's a win, win. Krieger stated one of the challenges they're going to see and adjust to is that the batteries are just right. The electrons flowing in are either green or not, so eventually there has to be a system for knowing what the customers are taking from the grid and what that energy mix is. This has been a problem in California, they're trying to figure out now how to credit batteries for being green or not, because the batteries in and of themselves are not actually green. Fraser stated he really loves the idea of EVs because they can create their own destiny in Iowa City however, he is concerned they can't control their own destiny because they can't, as an example, increase more or demand more restrictive standards that exceeds State requirements. They need to form collaborations to get more leverage with the State Legislature and get to a point where they can match ever decreasing standards that are increasing depending on what the State is willing to do and that's not going to happen unless there are a lot of people demanding it. Iowa City will need other cities to join them in promoting Climate Action Plans and making noise at the legislative level otherwise it won't work. Nations is hoping to work with other communities in eastern Iowa on Iowa City's EV readiness plan to form relationships. Added there is a consultant that they've hired to look at climate action plans in other cities. Cedar Rapids is working on a climate action plan, Dubuque is updating their climate action plan, Davenport and Cedar Falls will hopefully follow the group effort and it will all hopefully transfer into other things as well. Monroe noted she has been working on the legislative priorities for City Council and communicating with our legislators and as part of that effort, as well as interest in furthering these adoption of State Codes, she has started reaching out to some community groups that might have aligned interests in also communicating with State Legislators. She is happy to take 4 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 5 of 14 suggestions on how to approach it in a more coordinated way. Fraser thanked Monroe for bringing that up and stated he is probably not as aware of the legislative efforts as he should be but is grateful that the City is going in that direction because it has to happen. It's going to have to be in a lot of communities, screaming at their legislators to make this be a meaningful change. Krieger asked what is the timeline? Monroe noted typically they do the legislative priorities in October and November but this would be a separate effort in communicating or coordinating with other community organizations who would be in support of adoption of the codes for residents or tenants or developers who could benefit from it and having them communicating with a like message to the State House when the session starts. Nations added what they have been trying to work on projects that have the most impact, but communication and awareness are both very important. It is a big part of what's in the 100-day report, education and communication. She feels that with the climate festival and the ambassador program they're going to start seeing more education and communication. Nations also thinks energy efficiency is a very important thing to work on, especially with the industrial users, they're big users, and so the City can focus on that too. Gardner stated regarding the EV discussion, one point of real interest to this Commission, especially given the ongoing discussions of equity, is that they made a recent change to the scope of the EV readiness project. In the original scope there was a component where they were going to do sighting analysis for early EV adopters but of course that is a way of saying people with a lot of disposable income. Staff asked that instead of doing that, they do a study about how they could move the needle for renters and folks living in multifamily housing units because of course it's a fairly straightforward matter if you want to buy an EV yourself and put a charger in your garage but if you are renting from someone or living in a multi -unit dwelling, you may not have those resources and EVs are not just great for the environment, they also represent huge savings for households that are able to adopt them. Therefore, the Commission needs to make sure that those savings are being made available as broadly as possible to all members of the community. She added that is something that's not contained in very many other EV readiness studies so is a real way the City has an opportunity to lead on this particular issue. Also, to bring it back to the Climate Fest that if someone is interested in EV's there is a link to sign up to the EV101 presentation which will include a discussion about how EVs compliment clean energy development specifically because of the time that they charge. Krieger also thinks they need to work through as part of their efforts the barriers. It was seen when the derecho came through everybody lost power, so what does that mean for systems that are based on power, and people then revert back to natural gas or even with tree canopy and they don't want to plant trees near their house now. There are going to be some potential challenges there that they're going to have to address and overcome those perceptions and better to find other solutions, maybe solar generators. Giannakouros agreed with Fraser and stated that low hanging fruit is probably the most impactful thing outside of the areas they've been progressing which is embodied energy and buildings and also the efficiency of those buildings. That is the next step and it feeds into those questions, if the grid is going to go renewable through MidAmerican, they want to beneficially electrify everything that they can electrify. So how will they be asking people to adopt specific Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 6 of 14 technologies, and how will they know they're going to make climate progress, etc. Krieger said it's a bit of both, there has to be regulations and incentives and they keep advocating for more improvements with the policies, the regulation side. But he thinks until they can get there, they need to offer up the incentives to help push people there, whether it's a pilot program for offering education on air source heat pumps for example, or project pilot projects showing those the uses of those technologies. He feels they have to show people the way in they can make positive changes. Tate asked about starting a study to look at renters and the bigger picture question about considering equity for different projects. Gardner said she has been very active in the EV realm for the last several years, she did work with a utility looking at their EV readiness plan and how multifamily units fit in. She is really excited to see the City actually pick it up and run with it because it is a big gap in how EV readiness is addressed. In this particular case, part of the reason it's of interest is because they know that the proportion of renters is growing, and homeownership is declining. They also know that they have a high number of renters in Iowa City in particular and they also know, with intersectionality, folks usually don't have one barrier to contend with, there are multiple barriers. So if they look at income demographics, for example, in Iowa City, and they look at who's renting and thinking particularly about long term rentals, although of course student rentals are important as well, but thinking about long term rentals, the income household income, they're on average compared to the household income for homeowners, they see that renters have not always, but mostly have lower disposable income. So that's one way they're thinking about inequity is just reaching folks who can benefit more from the technology in terms of their own personal household budgets. But also, if they start tearing it apart and looking at the demographic data, they start seeing that there are, of course, implications for race and ethnicity. For the family structure, there is unfortunately more single parent head of household folks living in some of the rental units than otherwise. Gardner added of course with every demographic one can always find exception, but that was one of the reasons in particular they want the study to be fair. Tate appreciated that and said perhaps they could not just capture groups by choosing one demographic category but using some correlation tables with demographic data. Metrics — 2-year data: Nations stated the goal here was to start to look at some more granular data since they completed the Climate Action Plan in 2018. They used that data to have a baseline and will now start to look at some annual data to see in the different five areas what's really happening and where do they need to focus on, what's getting better and what may not be. This first went through the Commission with the working groups and staff and it was kind of amazing how long this actually took to get all this information. For buildings, the renewable MidAmerican they've already talked about was easy, that's improving. Originally, they thought about trying to do the University of Iowa power plant renewables but that's much more difficult and she emailed them, and they have their renewables by weight and MMbtu. So, they decided that it would just be easier to do it in metric tons when looking at their emissions and tracking which have improved over just two years and from 2018-2019 the residential, commercial and industrial all of those have been improved too because of the MidAmerican wind energy. The last thing they also looked at were the municipal emissions from the City facilities which is tracked, all of their 300 some utility accounts, and those have improved too. So, the buildings are looking pretty good, for the most part because the two providers of energy are doing a good job. Next looking at transportation, the vehicle miles traveled has increased a little bit and bus 11 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 7 of 14 ridership went down a little bit. She added a column to show green for improvement and red for not improving over baseline was because sometimes if indicator data goes up its an improvement and sometimes if the indicator goes down it's an improvement. It turns out that the census has changed the way that they've done Transportation Mode Split data and they can't get those numbers every year, it might be three years or five years, so the last time that they did that was 2018. She added one would think it would be really easy to find out the number of registered EVs in Johnson County, but she probably spent more time on that than anything else because it's much more difficult. She called the County, she called the State and she called the Clean Cities Coalition, and nobody claims to have that number. She did find out eventually that currently Johnson County, as of 2019, has 587 electric vehicles. They are expecting that to increase over time and will continue to track those vehicles. Next, the miles per gallon of City vehicles. That was really interesting, they got the data for the annual fuel usage for City vehicles, like buses, garbage trucks and dump trucks, the mpg average was pretty low. This is something they must track internally and it's good for them to know but the majority of their vehicles use quite a bit of fuel and they're not passenger vehicles. They also decided to track the electric and hybrid City vehicles. Next Nations stated the landfill tonnage has gone up which is not a good sign, but curbside recycling and organics has also gone up, which is good. She noted tree canopy is another very difficult data point to get and they are still working on that one. The grants for stormwater best management practices were tracked, that's a voluntary program, the number of new trees planted by the City that's by the City for the City on City property. The Climate Action at Work Awards and ambassadors weren't set up yet but hopefully it will give them a start. Nations also added that many of these things they are tracking can be totally derailed by all sorts of other things that have nothing to do with climate like COVID or derechos. It may have something to do with climate, like extreme weather, but also the economy can have an impact. If the economy goes up or down, people's waste goes up and down. So many things can really have an impact on these numbers. This is a good start though to really look into the details of people's actions and the impact of some of these details can have on our emissions. Krieger asked what are the stormwater grants, are they just awarded within the City? Nations replied it is a grant available just within Iowa City limits for residents. She added that's another thing that goes up and down with the economy, if the economy's bad, it's a matching grant award and so people don't have the money they aren't going to do it. It's a matching grant for things like permeable pavers, rain gardens, soil amendments, all those type of projects. NEW BUSINESS: Johnson Clean Energy District — Cheryl Miller: Miller stated she is also joined by Warren McKenna who is the formerly of the Farmers Electric Coop in Frytown and the developer of the solar farms there. They are here today to talk about a proposed solar energy planning system study for Iowa City and Johnson County. The context for this is that last April, the waterworks solar project proposal came before the City Council and a number of council members emphasize the importance of a big picture and to look at solar energy to help educate and inform the council members about what the demand was, what the loads were, what all the issues, feasibility issues, costs, benefits, roadblocks, etc., of bringing more solar energy into Iowa City and a number of folks watching that discussion really thought that made absolute sense, that some kind of larger picture was needed in order to advance solar energy here. So over the summer, Craig Mosier, also with the Johnson Clean Energy District and Miller recruited McKenna and David Osterberg from The Policy Project to get the ball rolling and start thinking about what a study such as the council members were envisioning might look like. They put Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 8 of 14 some concepts together and then started going around and talking to city and county officials and staff, university folks and other people knowledgeable about solar energy in the area. They then came up with what they think of as a pre -feasibility study, it's not an engineering study, it's not a deep economic analysis of solar energy, it's the big picture. They looked at what are the different options, what's the demand, what are the opportunities and feasibilities, sites, where could they be located and what could be the benefits for users. Miller explained there's basically two categories of solar energy. There's on -site, PV panels on roofs of buildings that provide energy to that building primarily and then there's the centralized, 1 megawatt - 200 megawatt solar farms or community solar. It was that centralized on the grid solar project that was proposed at waterworks. That was a three -megawatt project on about 18 or 19 acres of land. So that's where their focus started and as they talked to people, they decided that it was important to include both in the study of this kind, both on -site solar and decentralized projects. So this study would then look at the feasibility in terms of connectivity to the existing transmission and distribution network and the compatibility with all the requirements of a solar energy infrastructure and agreements that would need to be made with MiclAmerican or with power companies, it would look at the different sites, either on private land or public land that could be used and where there was willing landowners to bring an installation or put a solar project together and it would look at users. They initially were thinking primarily of larger users, industrial commercial sites where a big solar array could generate a lot of power, but as the conversations evolved they started really thinking also about how a solar energy program, a well -designed one, could meet some of the social equity goals of the community as well such as a rebate program that would target particular neighborhoods, low income neighborhoods or multifamily affordable housing. Miller was recently given a copy of the equity impact review tool to look through and see how that framework could be useful in thinking about also incorporating social equity aspects into a solar energy program here and kind of information, combined with a really good public process that would reach out to businesses and governments, landowners and consumers and get information to them and get input from them about what kinds of projects would be most successful here, they think is very important. Miller stated in the agenda packet they put together a concept paper and a scope of work. She noted the one in the packet is a little outdated and McKenna will update them on the scope of work and what something like this might cost. When they started out this project, they thought it would be county wide and include any community, University Heights, Coralville, Iowa City, and other communities that would be interested in solar energy of any kind. They have come to the belief, however, that maybe the first time out limiting to Iowa City would be a better, more efficient, expeditious way to move forward. Then they could focus on one set of decision makers, one set of goals and speed this up. McKenna he was called upon for the technical background on this stuff since he has a utility background. He noted they are now on version four of this draft of the scope of work and it's broken down identifying Lows Site Solar Systems utility scale. McKenna will highlight the economics, legal, regulatory, and public information process. As Miller noted they did narrow the study down to just Iowa City and they estimate the study's going to cost about $30,000. This model is based on more of an inside out model where they produce and buy local versus an outside in to satisfy your credits or your energy credits. He is not sure what the City's goals are but down in the Kalona area, most of it's about being local so one of the focuses of this is community solar and how to build possibly large community solar projects. Miller and McKenna can take any questions, but just wanted to end by saying that they're trying 0 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 9 of 14 to figure out now that they have this scope figured out as well as handing it off to two partners and pull together to do a study like this is their next step. They're hoping that this is a short study at six months and hope to get started later this year and have it completed and reported to the City by late spring of next year. Miller did add Johnson County has expressed an interest in this kind of a project as well as the Iowa City School District, University of Iowa, and MidAmerican Energy would also need to be part of this study. They'd like to go to the City Council as soon as possible with this proposal to get it started and understand this Commission would be reviewing this to be able to advise the Council so they're interested in how they can work with the Commission. Fraser stated assuming they found funding for the study, what do they expect the results of the study to be and what's the next step after that. Miller stated what they tried to figure out was if they could start a community conversation among all the possible participants in something like this and be able to collect some of the real baseline information, like where are some sites where solar energy solar farms could be built, where are the big loads, what was the transmission infrastructure, all of that information would then open up the possibilities of this. She suggested to start looking at the fringe areas, they could start thinking about a solar project there. That would really be a way to bring a lot of partnerships together to have the basic information needed to then say, okay that spot looks like real possible areas for development and then hopefully over the next few years start developing them. McKenna mentioned it's more of being prepared for the other pressures that are going to come from local, not necessarily from the outside, to do more community solar primarily, or put more solar in Iowa City, for instance, or more solar in Johnson County. He anticipates probably as much solar is going to go in Iowa as there is currently wind and most of that will be sited sporadically not one location. There's about 100 megawatts going in down in Wapello, that's probably the largest spot in Iowa. Iowa City could easily have 1-2-3-4 megawatts of solar sited within the Iowa City area, Johnson County area. He doesn't know what's currently there, it's probably insignificant really of what could be done. The growth in solar will come from local. Fraser said getting the money is a point of resistance, but beyond money, or if they had the money, where's the resistance to this going to come from, what are the other challenges to doing this. McKenna responded mostly regulatory, probably some of the community projects are going to have to be interconnected with MidAmerican so that's going to take a cooperation between the existing utilities. Everyone is going to have to be at the table as well as the City and University and public pressure. Krieger asked if they are advocating for community owned solar, are they trying to find a way to build out some centralized solar in Johnson County. He asks because if it's owned by MidAmerican it is his understanding that they went through a process with the City recently where they worked really hard to identify a site and it fell through because the Iowa City community didn't want that land use to be changed. So, the City has been through a process where they've had the analysis of a MidAmerican cooperation with Iowa City. McKenna agreed and said that is exactly what he is referring to, and it fell through. That part is most troubling for him right now. Leckband agreed, he stated the biggest roadblock was the aesthetic concern, that was primarily what seemed to be the driving factor and the reaction. He was not project manager on that, he was tangentially involved, but he doesn't think really anybody thought about the huge aesthetic 9 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 10 of 14 question, especially on a sound project. He feels that really underlines the need for public input and public engagement. The adjacent landowners and the community need to be onboard, whether it is a public space or not, if somebody doesn't like a field turning into something like that or perhaps their view shed is affected. One of the takeaways is just engagement and buy in from the community and the neighbors. Krieger agreed and said that's one of the big highlights they've seen is that a study like this potentially could outline or show what some of the options are. In the previous case it seemed like for everyone that there was only one option being presented and a study like this potentially could showcase what are the different opportunities and allow for a public input or feedback process. The study can then take into account all the comments and make improvements, potentially, to the design, so that it was more accepting. Krieger also noted the other part of his question was if the City is only looking at solar PV. Some of the comments they've had were around community -wide power turning more electricity into renewable. He noted there's a difference between peak and non -peak demand there but have they also considered incorporating solar thermal as part of the study or battery storage or just different elements that might be more unique, and could be more piloted in this community that would fill a gap that they don't currently have. Miller stated they did not, they kind of took off from where the waterworks project was and started thinking what some other places are where something like this could be built, private land, public land, or whatever. As they have gone through the summer discussions a number of things have come up and are now thinking this is probably phase one and phase two of this project would be to figure out what is the most basic information in order to be able to move forward in the in the near future with a project like a waterworks, only something that's going to be more socially acceptable. McKenna stated he is primarily solar, so that'd be that's why they brought him into it. Krieger noted he was just thinking more about trying to supplant natural gas usage and to decrease that is going to be one of their major areas, as they just noticed from the emissions reporting. Krieger noted the last process for the waterworks park project didn't have didn't come in front of this Commission and it didn't have a lot of public engagement opportunity. He asked if they are looking for the Commission to provide a recommended support as a Commission to Council on whatever it is that's going to be presented to Council. Miller stated when they visited with several Iowa City Council members and staff they recommended coming to the Commission and presenting this idea to get an endorsement before going to the Council. Krieger noted the Commission didn't have the most current version, Nations just emailed out the newest version, so they can continue to look at that and perhaps look at making a recommendation at the next meeting. Giannakouros agreed they need to be sure to remember how important public input is, or they will run back into a similar situation with MidAmerican water plant project, where they've done all this work, and haven't had on or understood the community input piece, and so any kind of a 10 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 11 of 14 study must express a very clear effort to figure out what areas are actually going to be from a community sense politically palatable. They need to know why the public didn't want that site at waterworks to happen, was it view shed or dog walking or whatever, but not knowing was a blind spot and that's why the project failed. A few people in the community said they weren't consulted about it and they weren't happy with it. Krieger suggested taking into consideration that they are running at close to out of time today so perhaps they take this up again at their next meeting and at that point everyone will have reviewed the revised version. Soglin agreed and said everyone could just review it on their own and if they still have questions that need to be discussed to maybe send them ahead of time and perhaps have Miller come back to the meeting so she could potentially answer them. Discussion of making a formal statement similar to Human Rights Commission: Nations stated this was a carryover from the previous few meetings where there was some discussion that that the group wanted to make a formal statement. She is wondering if the Commission wanted to go forward with putting together something and who would do it. Krieger said they were maybe looking for a champion to draft something, similar to what the Human Rights Commission had put out, but more specific things related to the actual Climate Action Plan or something like that. They probably just need someone to look at it, champion it and draft something for review. Tate asked what the need for this is, he is just generally more along the lines of tangible actions as opposed to another statement. He is not meaning to poopoo this idea but is genuinely asking about the benefit of making a statement. Nations acknowledged that's a really good question and thinks the benefit of making the statement would be to show Council and the members of the public that this Commission is behind choosing to use equity to make decisions and has that as an intent. Soglin stated they discussed a brief statement that encapsulates what maybe the Commission wanted to say that some members had raised early June, shortly after the murder of George Floyd and certainly many other deaths and what was happening in the community. She does personally would agree she doesn't want to be spending a lot of time drafting something being labeled as performative and not making real change. However, making a short statement, maybe two sentences, essentially, however, might be worth doing if that's what the group would like. Tate suggested maybe it's not to be written to another audience, maybe it's written to themselves as a reminder to themselves, like being reminded of the golden rule every now and then, that this is how they operate. Soglin volunteered to work with Gardner then to draft a sentence or two to present at the next meeting if that's agreeable to everybody. 11 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 12 of 14 Equity considerations: Nations stated with the equity focus on the Accelerating Iowa City's Climate Action, the update had a whole column for the equity focus and the equity considerations were going to be looked at by the equity working group. Working group evaluation: Krieger had sent a note out to all the Commission members to have a discussion around what is the work of the working groups, how will they operate and what does that look like. Will it be different for each of the working groups, each one has a different level of engagement just because of the different things they're working on. So, moving forward it'd be good to have a conversation around what is working right now, and should they make any changes. He would also encourage when they are looking at the accelerated actions report it'd be good for each of the working groups to take a look at where things are that they should be focusing on and are there ways to either advise on those things or provide necessary recommendations. Also are there things beyond that report that the working groups should also be working on. So he challenges the working groups or this Commission to think about what are some of the tasks that are related to those accelerated actions, specific implementation initiatives, that the working groups could also be working on that maybe haven't focused on yet. Fraser stated he feels they may need a separate special meeting of this group to talk about a couple of these topics because they're never going to spend the reasonable allocated time during a regular meeting. Soglin thinks they could spend about 30 minutes to discuss this at the next meeting and wondered if the conversation is about the format of the group versus the actual topics. Fraser stated the answer is both. Soglin needs to understand why he is saying it's both because in terms of the building working group they are meeting every other week for an hour and a half and that's actually part of the issue for some of them, how much time they're spending, and yet to have another meeting about meetings concerns her so she would rather try to do it in an efficient way at the next meeting, and people come prepared, think about it beforehand, and come very prepared about what their concerns are and do kind of the analysis that Krieger asked in the email. They could have a very fruitful discussion next time in like 30 minutes and then not have to schedule another meeting about meetings. Nations said she asked Krieger to put this on the agenda because just from talking to different people from different meetings, there are lots of differences and questions on what they are supposed to be doing. She added from all the different working groups meetings she has attended there at different levels. Also, the work can't just come from staff time, especially now that they're back down to just one staff (Gardner) after next month, she's just not going to be able to attend all the all the working group meetings. Nations added this is the only Commission that has working groups and she thinks it's a great idea, but it's been a year now since the Commission was formed and the working groups some are more successful and have a little more focus because the topic. Perhaps they can get more members so that personally 12 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 13 of 14 Commission members don't have to be in charge of these meetings and could put somebody from the community in charge of some of these, some of these tasks. Overall Nations just wanted to use the best use of their time and is really thinking about it in a deeper way, what the working groups should be doing and what they want to do, and maybe some of them could take a break, and some of them could beef up. Perhaps they just to think about it in a deeper way and redirect to make it more meaningful. Gardner stated another way of thinking about working groups is that for other boards and commissions, they're often project focused and that might be a useful frame in this discussion. If in the next month, each working group talked about what is the project that they're focused on, what is it that they want to accomplish, and what's the timeframe for that. If they don't have that, do they want to continue meeting or do they want to form as the projects arise or are needed. She feels each working group should take stock and then report back to this meeting next month. UPDATE ON WORKING GROUPS: Tabled due to time constraints. RECAP OF ACTIONABLE ITEMS FOR COMMISSION, WORKING GROUPS, AND STAFF: To recap, Nations stated they will have a new member hopefully next time and she will make sure they're oriented with all the appropriate information that they need. She will look into how they can pull out the items for the working group for the update and add working group discussion to the next meeting She will put solar on the next agenda. Nations, Gardner and Soglin will work on a short equity statement. ADJOURNMENT: Krieger made a motion to adjourn. Giannakouros seconded the motion. A vote was taken, and the motion passed unanimously. 13 Climate Action Commission September 8, 2020 Page 14 of 14 CLIMATE ACTION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD 2020 00 00 NAME TERM EXP. O O O O O N O N O N O Madeleine Bradley 12/31/2022 X X O/E X X X X X John Fraser 12/31/2020 X X X X X X X X Stratis Giannakouros UI Rep X X X X X X X X Grace Holbrook 12/31/2021 O/E O/E O/E X X X X O/E Kasey Hutchinson 12/31/2022 X X X X X X X X GT Karr 12/31/2020 X X X X X X X X Matt Krieger 12/31/2020 X X X X X X O/E X MidAmerican Jesse Leckband Rep X X X X X E X X Katie Sarsfield 12/31/2020 X X O/E X X O/E X -- Becky Soglin 12/31/2022 X X X X X X X X Eric Tate 12/31/2021 X X X X X E X X KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM No Meeting -- -- = Not a Member 14 Item Number: 4.c. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Community Police Review Board: September 8 r �`, CITY OF IOWA CITY - za �=,' 47 a* MEMORANDUM Date: 10/14/20 To: Mayor and City Council From: Chris Olney, Community Police Review Board Staff Re: Recommendation from Community Police Review Board At their September 8, 2020 meeting the Community Police Review Board made the following recommendation to the City Council: (1) Accept CPRB #20-01 Additional action (check one) X No further action needed Board or Commission is requesting Council direction Agenda item will be prepared by staff for Council action S:RECform.doc Final/Approved COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD MINUTES - September 8, 2020 Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of board members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. CALL TO ORDER: Vice -Chair Orville Townsend called the meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jerri MacConnell, Amanda Nichols, David Selmer MEMBERS ABSENT: Latisha McDaniel STAFF PRESENT: Staff Chris Olney/Kellie Fruehling, Legal Counsel Patrick Ford STAFF ABSENT: None OTHERS PRESENT: Interim Police Chief Denise Brotherton, City Council Member Janice Weiner RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL (1) Accept CPRB #20-01 CONSENT CALENDAR Motion by Selmer, seconded by Nichols, to adopt the consent calendar as presented or amended. • Minutes of the meeting on 08/19/20 • ICPD General Order 07-02 (Detainee Processing) • ICPD General Order 99-08 (Body Worn Camera and In -Car Recorders) • ICPD Use of Force Review/Report July 2020 • Correspondence from Carol deProsse (x4) Motion carried, 4/0, McDaniel absent. NEW BUSINESS Policy Discussion — Townsend noted board member Nichols had requested this item to be added to the agenda, he asked Nichols to open the discussion. Nichols stated she had several recommendations for change to police policy. Selmer questioned if she was meaning the General Orders. Selmer explained the general orders are the police policies and are reviewed by the Board who can make recommendation for changes. Ford clarified that Nichols was possibly suggesting an overall discussion about police policy that is separate and distinct from what Council has asked the Board to do, adding that the Board can discuss and make policy recommendations at any time. Nichols agreed and would like to suggest recommendations to change police policies, with the first being an immediate hiring freeze for new police officers to then re -direct resources to hire other types of professionals to handle non -criminal complaints such as domestic abuse advocates, mental health workers, social workers. Selmer asked for clarification from Legal Counsel as to where the Boards authority lays on hiring freezes. Legal Counsel Ford stated the authority of the board is to make recommendations and have discussions about police practices and policies, hiring would not fall within those parameters. Ford added the board could choose to make a recommendation to the City Council. September 8, 2020 Final/Approved Nichols questioned if the revised Body Worn Cameras and In -Car Recorders General Order included removing the section allowing an officer to deactivate the camera if no persons are present. Interim Police Chief Brotherton stated it had been addressed and updated in the newly revised order. Ford explained the redline version included in the packet outlines specifically what changes were made. OLD BUSINESS Community Forum Discussion — Olney reminded the Board of the upcoming Community Forum to be held via Zoom meeting platform Monday, September 21 st at 5:30 p.m. Discussion Item No. 8 of Resolution 20-159 (Resolution of Initial City Council Commitments addressing the Black Lives Matter Movement and Systemic Racism in the wake of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police and calls for action from protesters and residents) Townsend asked the board if they wanted to defer discussion of the compiled suggestions list presented by sub -committee of McDaniel and Nichols until the next meeting when McDaniel could be present. The board agreed to continue discussion now and in future meetings when all members are present. Selmer expressed his concerns about capacity to issue police department formal reprimands. He views the CPRB as being a citizen volunteer advisory board and feels handing down discipline to officers is not a role the CPRB should do. He would like the board to receive more informational reports quarterly on discipline and training but as far as hiring, firing or dictating discipline that would be over reaching. Townsend agreed with Selmer as to not wanting the power to dictate discipline, adding the board should not be an administrator of police officers. He views the CPRB as making recommendations only not an administrating role. He would like to receive quarterly discipline reports on if an officer was disciplined or required to have additional training. Having transparency from the police department and being informed when misconduct is found would be helpful. Selmer stated he feels the CPRB should remain an advisory board with additional power to review and report on discipline when misconduct is found, and to appeal to the City Council for a hearing on the discipline issued when disagreement with Police Chief/City Manager. Legal Counsel Ford reminded the board it is a community volunteer board and to consider liability issues which could occur with the ability to discipline officers. Nichols suggested taking a vote on the sections of recommendations pertaining to receiving quarterly disciplinary reports. Ford suggested the board could wait to vote after reviewing feedback from past members. Townsend questioned if a minority officer files a complaint of racism or harassment within the police department is it documented. Interim Police Chief Brotherton explained there are City, Police Department and Human Resource policies on reporting harassment. Nichols questioned if statements made in a complaint can be used against the complainant in other proceedings. Ford stated the complaint is confidential material. The CPRB report to Council is public information. Townsend stated by having more information available the CPRB could be a stronger advisory board which would also bring about more transparency. CPRB September 8, 2020 Final/Approved Nichols stated she feels the community consensus is that the CPRB does not have any power and has no confidence in the board being a factor in bringing in transparency. Nichols would like to see more action beyond submitting a recommendation to the police who can then do what they want with it. Nichols added she liked Selmer's suggestion on requesting quarterly discipline reports. Selmer thanked Nichols and McDaniel's for their time and hard work on compiling the draft suggestions list. Townsend thought they had done an excellent job as well. The board agreed to continue discussion of the draft suggestion list at the next meeting when all members are present and feedback from the community forum and past member questionnaire can be reviewed. PUBLIC DISCUSSION David Drustrup noted he would like to see a well thought out and thorough way to have complaints looked at closely and for repercussion to be thought about BOARD INFORMATION None. STAFF INFORMATION None. TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE and FUTURE AGENDAS (subject to change) • September 21, 2020, 5:30 PM, (Community Forum) Electronic Zoom Meeting • October 13, 2020, 5:30 PM, Electronic Zoom Meeting • November 10, 2020, 5:30 PM, Electronic Zoom Meeting • December 8, 2020, 5:30 PM, Electronic Zoom Meeting • January 12, 2021, 5:30 PM, Electronic Zoom Meeting EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion by Selmer, seconded by Nichols to adjourn into Executive Session based on Section 21.5(1)(a) of the Code of Iowa to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that government body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds, and 22.7(11) personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including but not limited to cities, boards of supervisors and school districts, and 22-7(5) police officer investigative reports, except where disclosure is authorized elsewhere in the Code; and 22.7(18) Communications not required by law, rule or procedure that are made to a government body or to any of its employees by identified persons outside of government, to the extent that the government body receiving those communications from such persons outside of government could reasonably believe that those persons would be discouraged from making them to that government body if they were available for general public examination. Motion carried, 3/0, MacConnell and McDaniel absent REGULAR SESSION Returned to open session at 7:32 P.M. Motion by Selmer, seconded by Nichols to accept CPRB #20-01 report and forward to City Council as amended. Motion Carried 3/0, MacConnell and McDaniel absent. CPRB September 8, 2020 Final/Approved Motion by Nichols, seconded by Selmer to set the level of review for CPRB Complaint #20-03 to 8-8-7(B)(1)(a) On the record with no additional investigation. Motion Carried 3/0, MacConnell and McDaniel absent. ADJOURNMENT Motion for adjournment by Selmer, seconded by Nichols Motion carried, 3/0, MacConnell and McDaniel absent. Meeting adjourned at 7:35 P.M. COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD ATTENDANCE RECORD YEAR 2019-2020 (Meeting Date) 9/10/19 9/24/19 1018/19 11/12/19 12/10/19 1114/20 2111/10 3/10/20 5112/20 6/9/20 7114/20 8118120 9/8/20 NAME NO QUORUM Sam X X O/E O O O O Conaway Monique X X X X X X X X X Galpin Jerri O X X X MacConnell Latisha X X X X O/E X X O X X X O/E McDaniel Amanda X X X Nichols David Selmer X X X X X X X X X X O/E X Orville X X X O/E X X X X X X X X Townsend KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting --- = Not a Member COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD A Board of the City of Iowa City 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240-1826 (319) 356-5041 September 8, 2020 r ; To: City Council Complainant - City Manager Equity Director 1 Chief of Police Officer(s) involved in complaint From: Community Police Review Board Re: Investigation of CPRB Complaint # 20-01 This is the Report of the Community Police Review Board's (the "Board") review of the investigation of Complaint CPRB #20-01 (the "Complaint"). BOARD'S RESPONSIBILITY Under the City Code of the City of Iowa City, the Board's responsibilities are as follows: 1. The Board forwards all complaints to the Police Chief, who completes an investigation. (Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(A).) 2. When the Board receives the Police Chief's report, the Board must select one or more of the following levels of review, in accordance with Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(B)(1): a. On the record with no additional investigation. b. Interview /meet with complainant. c. Interview /meet with named officer(s) and other officers. d. Request additional investigation by the police chief, or request police assistance in the board's own investigation. e. Perform its own investigation with the authority to subpoena witnesses. f. Hire independent investigators. 3. In reviewing the Police Chiefs report, the Board must apply a "reasonable basis" standard of review. This means that the Board must give deference to the Police Chiefs report, because of the Police Chiefs professional expertise. (Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(B)(2).) 4. According to Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(B)(2), the Board can recommend that the Police Chief reverse or modify the Chiefs findings only if: a. The findings are not supported by substantial evidence; or b. The findings are unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious; or c. The findings are contrary to a police department policy or practice, or any federal, state or local law. 5. When the Board has completed its review of the Police Chiefs report, the Board issues a public report to the city council. The public report must include: (1) detailed findings of fact; and (2) a clearly articulated conclusion explaining why and the extent to which the complaint is either "sustained" or "not sustained ". (Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(B)(5).) 6. Even if the Board finds that the complaint is sustained, the Board has no authority to discipline the officer involved. BOARD'S PROCEDURE The Complaint was initiated by the Complainant on June 3, 2020. As required by Section 8-8-5(B) of the City Code, the Complaint was referred to the Chief of Police for investigation. The Chief's Report was filed with the City Clerk on July 23, 2020. The Board voted on August 19, 2020 to apply the following Level of Review to the Chiefs Report: On the record with no additional review, pursuant to Iowa City Code Section 8-8-7(B)(1)(A). The Board met to consider the Report on June 9,2020, August 19, 2020 and September 8, 2020. Prior to the August 19, 2020 meeting, the Board reviewed audio and video recordings of the incident. FINDINGS OF FACT On February 5, 2020, Officer observed a black Audi Q5 parked with its left wheels to the curb in the 100 block of Wright Street. The Officer investigated the parking violation and issued the responsible party a parking ticket. 7 On June 3, 2020, the Complainant filed a complaint with the CPRB alleging that the_Offc r issued the ticket because the Officer did not like his response for illegally parking and that he, sk oulo not have received a citation. The Complainant also alleges that the Officer used his police -Vehicle to block him from moving his car. ALLEGATION 1 — Discourtesy. Based on audio and video provided, it does not appear that the Officer was discourteous to the Complainant during their interaction and the decision to issue the citation was prior to the interaction. The board affirmed the opinion set forth in the report of the police chief and/or city manager. Chief's Conclusion — Not Sustained Board's Conclusion — Not Sustained ALLEGATION 2 — Violation of Civil Rights. Based on the audio and video provided, it did not appear that the Officer violated the Complainant's civil rights through the blocking of his vehicle. The board affirmed the opinion set forth in the report of the police chief and/or city manager. Chief's Conclusion —Not Sustained Board's Conclusion — Not Sustained COMMENTS The Officer failed to provide full audio and video of the interaction due to having deactivated his body camera. Only partial audio and video were provided after the body camera was manually activated. The Officers actions were consistent with the current departmental policy and procedure for Body Worn Cameras and In -car Records. During the course of this investigation and reporting the Police department has amended its policy regarding body worn cameras. Deactivating body worn cameras such as the officer did here now results in discipline for the officer including suspension and/or termination. The board fully agrees with this policy change. w�, Final/Approved COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD COMMUNITY FORUM September 21, 2020, 5:30 P.M, Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of board members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. CALL TO ORDER: Vice -Chair Orville Townsend called the meeting to order At 5:36 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jerri MacConnell, Latisha McDaniel, Amanda Nichols, David Selmer MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Legal Counsel Patrick Ford and Staff Chris Olney, Kellie Fruehling. OTHERS PRESENT: Interim Police Chief Denise Brotherton, City Council Member Janice Weiner CONSIDER MOTION TO ACCEPT CORRESPONDENCE AND/OR DOCUMENTS Townsend read the correspondence received into the record. Motion by Nichols, seconded by Selmer to accept correspondence and or /documents. Motion carried, 5/0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION Townsend noted City Council has requested a report and recommendations from the CPRB regarding changes to the CPRB Ordinance that enhance its ability to provide effective civilian oversight to the Iowa City Police Department and that the Board welcomes any suggestions or comments from the public. The following individuals appeared before the CPRB: David Drustrup Angie Jordan Aaron Page Tammy Nyden Leslie Carpenter Temple Hiatt Meredith Chen Sabri Sky Amel Ali Caroline Dieterle Eric Harris Anna Blaedel Margaret Fuller Rich Mathias ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 6:53 P.M. COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD ATTENDANCE RECORD YEAR 2019-2020 eetin Date 917Mi9 101lN19 11112f19 12tl4t14 1714120 2111f2a 3❑0120 5l12i20 6/9126 7114f20 8fI8f7A 918720 9@1120 NAME FORUM Sam X X OtE O O O O Conaway Monique X X X X X X X X X Galpin _ Jerri MacConnell _ -' -- -- O X X X X Latisha X X X X 61E X X O X X X McDaniel O!E X Amanda Nichols — X X: X X David Selmer X X X X X X X X X X O/E X X Orville X X X OtE X X X X X X X Townsend X X KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting = Not a Member November 10, 2020 Iowa City -City Council City of Iowa City 410 Washington Street Iowa City, Iowa 52240 RE: Community Police Review Board Annual Community Forum The Iowa City Community Police Review Board (CPRB) held the annual Community Forum on Monday, September 21, 2020 at 5:30 pm. Due to the Covid Virus the program was held virtually via Zoom. Board members participating in the forum were Vice Chair Orville Townsend, Jerri MacConnell, Latisha McDaniel, Amanda Nichols, and David Selmer. Staff participants were Legal Council Patrick Ford, Staff- Chis Olney and Kellie Fruehling The Vice Chair opened the forum to the public and the following individuals participated: David Drustup, Leslie Carpenter, Amel Ali, Margaret Fuller, Angie Jordan, Sabri Sky, Anna Blaedel Aaron Page, Meredith Chen, Eric Harris, Tammy Nyden, Temple Hiatt, Caroline Dieterle, Rich Mathias. The following topics were discussed: • Remove funding from the police and have trained professionals respond to calls in the community • Having trained mental health professionals accompany police to mental health calls • Make the Community Police Review Board's availability better known to the public • Inquiry about the type and level of information that is provided to the CPRB from the Police Department • Schedule CPRB meetings more regularly for public engagement • A member of "Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America" inquired and commented on services available to victims and observers of gun violence. • Inquiry about the tear gas incident in June and the City Council's hiring of and independent firm to investigate it. • Discussion of the escalation of violence that we're seeing in this country. Final Topic The Vice Chair shared information related to the Community Police Review Board's functions and the services available. The Vice Chair thanked everyone for participation and mentioned that the program would be available on TV Channel 4. The forum was adjourned at 6:53 pm Orville H. Townsend, SR., Vice Chair (Transcriptions are available at ICgov.org) Electronic Zoom Meeting The forum is being held via Zoom due to WHERE concerns presented by COVID-19 You can participate and comment during the forum by going to the Zoom meeting registration link: g ID: 952 8410 9770 18 �_i C COMMUNITY FORUM The Community Police Review Board will be holding a Community Forum for the purpose of hearing views on the policies, practices and procedures of the Iowa City Police Department. QUESTIONS & COMMENTS: Send your questions or comments you'd like addressed at the forum to the following by Thursday, September 10, 2020: Please include full name and address. (All correspondence is public) CPRB Or e-mail to: City of Iowa City CPRB@Iowa-city.org 410 E Washington St, 62240 Q SHARE Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. dmmmwm�°°, IOWA CITY Date: 08/20/2020 Contact: Chris Olney, Administrative Secretary Phone: 319-356-5043 Community invited to attend Community Police Review Board forum The Community Police Review Board (CPRB) will host its annual Community Forum to hear views on Iowa City Police Department policies, practices and procedures. The community is invited to submit questions and comments that will be used during the event. The forum will begin at 5:30 p.m., Monday, September 21, 2020. An electronic Zoom meeting is being held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. You can participate and comment during the forum by going to the Zoom meeting registration link: https:ltzoom.uslwebinarlregister/WN vuuRaN5KRr2XvhMGs9EUvw Meeting ID: 952 8410 9770 Send your questions or comments you'd like addressed at the forum by Thursday, September 10, 2020, Email to: CPRBOiowa-citv.org or Mail to: CPRB at City Hall, 410 E. Washington St., Iowa City, Iowa 52240. Be sure to include your full name and address as all submissions are public. The board will try to address all questions and comments it receives. The forum will also be recorded and later shown on City Channel 4. You can view programming and the schedule at www.citychannel4.com. Chris glney From: City of Iowa City<CityoflowaCity@public.govdelivery.com> Sent: Monday, September 14, 2020 4:33 PM To: Chris Olney Subject: Reminder: Public invited to attend Community Police Review Board forum © SHRRE Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. 800000�°•°f IaWA CITY FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Date: 09/14/2020 Contact: Chris Olney, Administrative Secretary Phone:319-356-5043 Public invited to Community Police Review Board forum The Community Police Review Board will host its annual Community Forum to hear views on Iowa City Police Department policies, practices and procedures. The forum will begin at 5:30 p.m., Monday, September 21, 2020, using Zoom meeting platform. An electronic meeting is being held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. To participate, registration information is available at https://www, iccov.om/city-government/boardsJcomm unity-police-review-board-oorb _I t L r **" Questions? Contact Us CITY OF 101VA CITY UMSCOCITY Lit Lit LR.ARM STAY CONNECTED: 1JII ti I tl Program Schedule Monday, September 28 05:00 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum 04:00 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Wednesday, September 30 01:30 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Thursday, October 01 12:00 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Friday, October 02 09:00 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Saturday, October 03 09:00 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Monday, October 05 10:30 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Wednesday, October 07 10:00 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Thursday, October 08 05:30 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Friday, October 09 10:00 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board CommunityForum Sunday, October 11 06:30 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Monday, October 12 05:32 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum 04:32 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Wednesday, October 14 02:02 PM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Thursday, October 15 12:32 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Friday, October 16 09:32 PM — 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Saturday, October 17 09:32 AM -- 2020 Community Police Review Board Community Forum City of Iowa City Cable TV Office 410 E. Washington St Iowa City, IA 52240 319.356.5046 Chris Olney From: AJ <fivecaloriebanjo@yahoo.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 6:42 AM To: Community Police Review Board; South District Neighborhood Association Subject: Re: Police Union and contracts RISK To Whom it may Concern: Question/discussion for 9/21 meeting: We are curious to learn and understand more about the ICPD's Union contracts and how negotiations for things within those contracts can limit actions a police chief or others in charge can engage negative/unacceptable behaviors of officers/staff. Respectfully, Angie & Jason Jordan Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone Chris, From: Denise Brotherton Sent: Monday, September 21, 2020 2:59 PM To: Chris Olney Cc: Kellie Fruehling Subject: FW: Police Union and contracts The ICPD Union contract and negotiations do not limit the actions of the police chief or others in charge to address negative/unacceptable behaviors of officers and staff. As stated in Article II in the contract between the City of Iowa City and The Police Labor Relations Organization of Iowa City, management rights include the power and authority to suspend or discharge officers for proper cause and to determine and implement methods, means, assignments in personnel by which its operations are to be conducted and to develop and enforce rules of work and safety standards. All union contracts are approved in open session by Council and are available on our website 24/7. 10i1'ACi0aptaln s ntee 139-01thOrtOn Commander Field Operations Division FBINA I vL1ti - ;. OWN M11913W6440 kWM City ftlice Department ICPD Mission: To work in partnership with the community, enhance trust protect with courage and compassion, and empower victims of crime through excellence in service. Page t Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Community Police Review Board (CPRB) Annual Public Forum — September 15, 2020 Zoom Meeting Platform Members Present: Jerri MacConnell, Latisha McDaniel, Amanda Nichols, David Selmer, Orville Townsend Sr. (Vice -Chair) Staff Present: Legal Counsel Patrick Ford. Staff Chris Olney, Kellie Fruehling Others Present: Interim Police Chief Denise Brotherton Roll Call: Townsend: Good evening and welcome to the, uh, our City Community Police Review Board forum. Uh, first order of business is roll call. Uh, will you please indicate with present if you're here. (mumbled) MacConnell. MacConnell: Here. Townsend: Daniels. McDaniel: Present. Townsend: Nichols. Nichols: Present. Townsend: (mumbled) Selmer: Selmers here. Townsend: Selmer and Townsend, here. Uh, next, item two, introduction of board members. So, uh, David, would you start up? Introduction of Board Members: Selmer: Sure. Now, I don't know what the forum is going to be. Are we doing like more of a background or just introducing ourselves? Townsend: Introd... introduction of yourself, just how long you've been on the board, you know, uh, any other, uh, activities you're involved in, I guess. Selmer: Sure! Um, I'm David Selmer. I've been on the board now, this is my third year, and, um, I come from a ... a law background originally. Um, I did civil rights practice and I, uh, defended police officers in Chicago, Illinois, for a while and then I, um, ended up litigating civil rights cases on behalf of, uh, plaintiffs against police officers in Chicago for a while. Um, I now own This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 2 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription my own business here in Iowa City. I've lived here with my family for, uh, I'd say going on almost 10 years now, um, somewhere around there and, uh, and —am ... am proud of this community and ... and proud to serve it in this role. Townsend: Okay, thank you. Okay. MacConnell, would you like to share something with us? MccConnell: Um, sure. I'm Jerri McConnell. I've only been on the board a few months. Um, I was a psychiatric social life ... social worker in my real life before I retired. Townsend: Thank you. (mumbled) McDaniel: Hi, my name is Lathisa. Uh, I've been on the board for about two years. Urn ... um, I also serve on the board for the Iowa City (garbled) and also (garbled) the ACLU Chapter, um, in Iowa City. I've been in Iowa City for about, um, about eight years, and I'm originally from the south, so, urn, Texas. Louisiana. Townsend: Thank you. Okay, Nichols. Nichols: Hi, I'm Mandy Nichols. I've lived in Iowa City for over 20 years. I worked at the University Hospitals and Clinics, and I'm the Director of Corridor Community Action Network. I've only been on the board since July. Townsend: Okay, thank you. And I'm Orville Townsend and I'm starting on my second term and, uh, (mumbled) I'm a member of the Black Voices Project and I'm also on the, uh, with the ... our University of Iowa Black Alumni Association. So thank you for sharing your introductions again. (mumbled) three. We need to, uh, a motion to ... consider motion to accept, uh, correspondence and the documents. Uh, I need a motion. Nichols: Motion. Townsend: Okay. Motion. Uh, and a second? Selmer: Second. Townsend: Okay. Motion and second. Okay we...we only received one .... one, um ... one correspondence, and I ... if I can find it here I'll .... I'll share it .... share that with you. And that was from .... I .... some reason don't have it with me here. (mumbled) It was the correspondence from Angie and Jason, and their... question was to do with, uh, whether or not the managers in the police department were hampered by, uh, union contracts. And, uh, based upon a response that I received, I'll share that with you. The response is, uh, the ICPD union contract and negotiations do not limit the actions of police chief (garbled) to address negative/unacceptable behaviors of officers and staff. As stated in Article 2 in the contract between the ... our city —and the police union relations organization of our city, management rights include the power and authority to suspend or discharge officers who for ...for proper cause, and to determine and implement methods, means, assignments in personnel, by which its operations are to be conducted, and to develop and enforce rules of work and safety standards. So that's, uh, you know, the response from the City to, uh, Jason and Angie's, uh, response, uh, request. Uh, next This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page s Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription one, a business. Selmer: Orville, was that gonna be typed up and, um, submitted with our documents, do you know? Townsend: Uh, that was, uh, I think basically, uh, Chris can basically have that in the next packet. Selmer: Okay. So the written response will be available to the public, right? Townsend: Uh, yes. Chris, uh, am I correct in assumin' that it can be made available to the public? Olney: Yes, I will put it with the draft minutes of the forum. Orville, you still need a vote. You've... you've had a motion and a second, so we need to vote. Townsend: Uh, now we, uh, have the motion. Now can I get a motion to accept the, uh, correspondence? Olney: Orville, you already have the motion. You just need to ask all those in favor or opposed. Townsend: All those in favor of receiving correspondence, let it be known by saying aye. Against? The ayes have it and motion carries. Public Discussion: Townsend: Uh, I have some things I need to share with you first, and, uh, beginnin' with City Council has requested a report and recommendations from the CPRB regarding changes to the CPRB ordinance, that enhances its ability to (garbled) effective civilian oversight to the Iowa City Police Department. The board welcomes any suggestions or comments from the public, and before we start public comments, I'd just like to share with you, uh, if you are participating on Zoom from your computer, uh (mumbled) that you use the raise hand button and you will be called upon to speak. If you have called in by phone, you can press *9 to raise your hand. Comments will be limited to three to five minutes depending on number received. Also, will you please state your first and last name before you began to speak. Okay. Thank you. Iowa City: It looks like our ...our first speaker is David Drustrup. Townsend: Okay, David! Drustrup: Uh, can you hear me okay, Mr. Townsend? Townsend: Yes. Drustrup: All right, thank you so much for having me. My name's David Drustrup. Um, just wanna, uh, thank you all for havin' this, uh, for taking the community input. Um, think it's a ... a really important aspect of, ub, of all this work is allowing the community to be the ones who ... who decide how we are policed. Um, so City officials often like to use the phrasing `systemic racism,' um, but... but often what we hear are solutions that are only reformist and actually non -systemic. So the great Dr. Angela Davis recently pointed out in an interview that reforms This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 4 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription are the things that got us to this point. And so why do so many well-meaning liberal people simply ask for more reform, and she points out that most of these people, um, lack historical consciousness, as she calls it. So Dr. Davis and other scholars point out that reforms are actually (garbled) that we've always tried to do things like additional police trainings. We've tried diversifying police force. We've tried to making changes to the police technology. But these are all reforms that have failed at achieving meaningful change. She reiterates reforms are what led us to this place today. So if we wanna address systemic racism, we must have a systemic solution. So that means changing the underlying function of police, and anything less is non- systemic, and the reason the police have always operated as a racist and classist institution is not because there are individual police officers who are bad people, although this certainly can be true. It's ... it's because the institution has been tasked not to provide protection and safety, but to simply keep order, and when the officers are granted the individual discretion on how to keep that order, um, the order that they believe is most important (mumbled) inevitably harm those who have less social power. And so that means in Iowa City the immigrant and refugee community. It means BIPOC folks. It means LGBTQ and financially insecure people. Meanwhile, people who are white or financially secure, who ... or who might be part of well -respected organizations or groups in Iowa City, they all have social power and they very often push back against policing changes cause they know that the police and the current social system largely protect them. So instead of repeating another round of reforms, we must invest in the people who have been unloved by power in Iowa City. So this means increasing their power by increasing their access to services and finances that allow them to be safe and don't even need to interact with the police in the first place. So this means mental health, housing, food, and more. In the meantime, we must remove funding from the police and instead have trained professionals respond to calls in the community. So, for example, for mental health calls, we need mental health professionals responding, not police. Police are trained in punishment and only have about one week's worth of training every single year. Compared to mental health professionals who have entire years of training every year. So the community meeting the ... the City Council hosted last week, um, showed how little funding these organizations receive and how much better they could be... how much better they could serve our community, if they had the right funding. There was extremely broad support at that meeting for the idea of mental health professionals handling mental health calls. So we know the community wants this. It's just a matter of whether our leaders have the political will to give up some of whatever connection or power they have with the police department. And these rapid response teams can be modeled off of other cities such as Eugene, Oregon, where they handle calls for mental health, homelessness, substance use, domestic abuse, interpersonal conflict, and so much more. The really thinly funded department in Eugene, saves the Eugene government over $5 million a year by their own government's estimates, in, uh, diverging away emergency room visits and... and allowing police to do things that they're actually trained to do. Also Councilor Thomas on City Councilos introduced the idea of limiting or eliminating road traffic stops by police, which has resulted to Iowa being one of the worst states in the country in disproportionate minority contact. So Councilor Thomas's proposed instituting more traffic cameras at busy or dangerous intersections. I think we should seriously consider support for Councilor Thomas's proposal, insofar as that technology is not used to disproportionate... disproportionately affect communities of color or BIPOC individuals. Thank you all so much. Townsend: Thank you, David. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 5 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Iowa City: I currently do not have anyone else with their hand raised. Oh, here we go. Aaron Page. Page: Mute now. All right, everyone can hear me? Hi. Um, yeah., I'm just ... I'm trying to ... I'm sort of new to the system and just trying to like look at, um, how the CPRB operates and what the record is in the last couple of years, and one of the things I guess I didn't totally understand was these layers, levels of review, um, and I know there's a level that specifies interviewing or meeting with the complainant. Um, I guess I wasn't sure, you know, uh, I look ... I looked at a lot of different reports and complaints over the last years, and I didn't see any evidence of...of that level of review being specified. And I was wondering, I mean, does that mean that the CPRB does not meet or has not in the last couple of years met with any complainants to hear their side of the story, or (mumbled) I guess I'm just wondering if there's a piece of this that I'm missing, if there's some sort of other ...if it's typical to meet with complainants on a more informal basis or if not having that level review doesn't, you know, means something else or something, I don't know if that's, um, understandable. But I guess I was -to the degree it suggested that the CPRB wasn't meeting with complainants. It was something that I was sort of struck by. I guess I'm not sure if I'm able to ask questions in this forum. But ... but this was just something that I was, um, looking at. So I'll ... I'll put that out there. I could, I suppose I could also bring this question in a different forum, if that's more appropriate. Thanks. Selmer: Orville, do you wanna take that one first or you want me to... Townsend: (garbled) I'll just start off by saying that, you know, the, uh, you know, the board, we basically (garbled). We ... we eventually have access to the information, and we take a look at and process all of the information that's available to us. Most of the time, you know, we have enough information to feel comfortable making a decision to do what we need to do. But if we ever get to the point where we don't, we do have, uh, the capacity to request to meet with the individual. So that's something that the board can ... can do. Selmer: Yeah, I'll just piggyback on that (mumbled) I think raised some good points. That...thafs a first step that Pat always reminds us during our meetings is we have to set the level of review and we take it seriously. Um, I think, number one, every complaint that comes through already has a narrative, um, that explains their side, as you ... as you put it, the complainant side. Um, and then we wouldn't be looking at things until after, um, the police has already responded and kind of flushed out some of that. And ... and most recently, ever since I've been on here anyway, uh, there's been police video body camera and car camera that we've been able to watch, um, in almost every single... every one that I can remember, um, that really helps kind of...witness, be a ... a direct witness to repeat events, um, so that when we do set that level of review, I think I've been very comfortable, um, so far, after having reviewed all evidence to not need a further interview to ... to understand what happened, understand the ... the claims by the complainant. Um, to the best of my recollection right now, um, that we have not asked for that, and that would be for that reason, but it is a possibility if we wanted to ... to bring them in and ... and, uh, to do other things, such as hire an investigator, if we needed to, um, within that same ordinance allowance. Iowa City: Uh, next we have Leslie Carpenter. Carpenter: Hi there. Can you hear me? 'Ibis represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page b Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Townsend: Yes. Carpenter: Okay, great. This is Leslie Carpenter. I am an advocate for people who have serious brain disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar, etc. Um, I'm highly active in our community with NAMI Johnson County, as well. Um, I just wanted to, um, agree with the idea of having trained mental health professionals, um, accompany police on mental health calls. I think that's highly appropriate, um, but 1 do want to point out that the only reason that the police get involved in the first place is because all other systems in the mental health treatment system have failed, and they are allowed to say no. Police are not allowed to say no. And unfortunately, that's what's caused many of the crises that we see today that do tend to adversely affect people of color more than white people. Um, so I think part of the solution is having mental health professionals accompany police. Unfortunately, I think we're going to find a shortage of those types of professionals being available, as we're already ranked pretty low on the totem pole for the number of mental health professionals in our state in the first place. Um, I'd be happy to have a more extensive conversation at some other point in time, um, but just wanted to make the point that yes, it would be better to have mental health professionals or social workers agree, um, and assist police with these calls, and to help to de-escalate them further. Um, but we do need to face the reality that we still need to work on a state and federal level to fix the overall system. Thank you. Selmer: Very good points. I ... I think that's a very profound point and, uh, also Mr. Drustrup's points. And I just wanna add to those things my own impression is. The police also are, a lot of times, responding to these issues with mental health, um, where there needs to be some type of, um, policing, so to speak, uh, to ... to protect safety and, uh, and to sometimes the ... there's violence and the threat of violence that accompanies a lot of these, um, complaints, where sending just a mental health worker that might not be trained in police tactics is not enough. (both talking) ...very complex issue. Townsend: Yeah, I just like there that, you know, when it comes to mental health, that's a very sensitive area because —the number one goal has to be for the police officer to basically get control of the setting so that it becomes a safe environment for an individual who's in a crises. And basically his or her thinking is such that its not advantageous to him. So, you know, this is a plus - negative. The plus is that the person in a crisis now has someone there that wants to help them. The negative is the person that's there tryin' to help them are police. Basically are trying to get control of the situation to assure that the person is not gonna hurt his or herself. And I guess a lot of times with (mumbled) on this can really be misinterpreted. But, you know, it's, uh, I...I think our standing basically has done a good job in terms of advocating for, you know, mental health, but we do have a ways to go. I agree. Iowa City: Okay, uh, next speaker is Meredith Chen. Chen: Hello. Can you hear me? Townsend: Yes. Chen: Hi there. So I'm also following up on David Drustrup's point on mental health and response. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Pagel Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Um, also taking into mind (mumbled) Carpenter's response. I am actually a former resident of the Willamette Valley, Oregon, and somewhat familiar with the Eugene CAHOOTS program. Um, my sister having been able to use it at one point. Um, just, I think ... my reflection here is that emergency medical response used to be conducted by the police, as well, um, including traumatic injuries. Until a group, one of the, um, earliest groups was the Freedom House Ambulance Service, which was built up in Pittsburgh by a group of black folk, which were otherwise not being treated, um, and they encountered a lot of roadblocks and... limitations. However, they really were the pioneers of -that program, which was also just assumed to be under police control. Um, so I would ... I don't have very articulate statements here, I'm sorry (laughs) to say, but I would encourage looking into it. As a ... as a... brainstorming thinker, I think there's a way that we would make it work (garbled) taking that additional burden off the police might be for everyone's better interest. Thank you. Nichols: I also kind of want to respond to that whole topic of conversation and what you said, Orville, about, um, you know, the police's goal in those situations to be to keep people safe, um, but in order for a situation that is unsafe due to a mental health incident to become safe, the person who is experiencing that mental health situation has to feel safe. And... unfortunately, when they ...are dealing with a crisis, having ... being approached by usually multiple armed individuals, does not tend to make that person feel safe; and therefore, they don't tend to ... they tend to have a big barrier to creating a safe situation that doesn't cause additional trauma. Townsend: Good point. Iowa City: Okay, we have a Amel Ali. Um, and then Eric Harris, and then we'll circle back to Aaron, Aaron Page. I apologize if I cut you off before you were done. Ali: ... hear me? Selmer: We can. Ali: Okay, perfect. Um, hi, my name is Amel Ali. Um, I have lived in Iowa City for probably almost 21 years now. I'm an immigrant from Sudan, um, and I really love this community and ... I care about it a lot and it sucks because I did not ever know that there was a Community Police Review Board. Um, it would have been, you know, in situations that I was in in the past, it would have been helpful to know that there was this type of board that I could come to, um, if I felt like a situation was handled improperly. Um, and so I wanted to maybe like make a suggestion and see if there was any way that you could kind of make it more known that you guys are available as a resource. Um, whether it be, you know, taking like the cards that you get from police officers and writing something on the back like hey, if you have any issues, uh, please reach out to us and tell us about your experience, or something along those lines, just because I think it would be, um, helpful for people to know about this because I definitely... didn't hear about this at all until a couple of months ago. Nichols: Think that having basic CPRB contact information printed on the back of officer I.D. business cards is a great idea. McDaniel: Yeah, I would agree with that, and also just trying to make more, um, availability, as far as This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page s Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription this information, um, either through online or, um, I think we've talked about maybe having more than one forum a year, um, to kind of just, I mean, just having one a year seems like it's ... it kinda leaves people's mind and people forget about that we're actually here. Um, and just having it ma ... maybe more than once a year will kind of -and start building that kind of, um, connection and communication with the community more will help with, um, you know, with people, um, discovering the board. Iowa City: Eric Harris is next. Harris: Okay. Yes, my name is Eric Harris. Um, I live in the South District neighborhood. I'm also on the Leadership Council of the South District Neighborhood Association, and I'm also a employee of the Shelter House. So I want to comment on the comments I heard about, should there be mental health, um, mental health people that should accompany the police when they have cause of, you know, people havin' disruptive behavior, or of people havin', ya know, some type of (mumbled) like some type of mental issue, like whether it be induced by alcohol or drugs, and bein' that I work at the Shelter House, I'm right there on the front lines, um, in that salve area. There is,, um, a drug treatment center, um, that's gonna be the Access Center soon in that area, and bein' that I see things happening on the front line, sometimes when the ... when the like law enforcement shows up to deal with people who are havin' issues, sometimes what I think and what I see is that they're confused on what to do. Um, they don't want to scare a person but they wanna help the person, which I can't say that I see him do a good job at it, but at times they don't have any response because they're not sure of what to do with the person who's havin' an episode or experiencing anything or being disruptive, and some of those times .... like, excuse me, like some of those times those people, um, don't need to go to jail. They, you know, that needs some help and bein' that, you know, I'm on the front, I felt that it was my right to, you know, at least try to make, you know, like just make people aware of that, you know. So I do agree with the need for ..some mental health people to come out with law enforcement. Thank you. Townsend: Thank you. Yeah, I'd just like the, you know, kind of -kind of thinking in responding to that. Uh, I think we have a national movement now where there's a lot of forcing, uh, in terms of eliminating our police departments and, you know, obviously I personally wouldn't want to see this happen, but I kinda get the feeling that down the road what ... what may ha....hopefully what will happen is that we're gonna have some changes (mumbled) you know, not necessarily eliminatin' police departments but, you know, initiating some changes that basically it's going to make our departments more efficient in terms of how do we provide not only needed services to citizens, but also effective, and that means that, you know, we're gonna have to change the way we do things, and I ... I think it's gonna be interesting to see, you know, what our police force is gonna look like in the next five years. Selmer: And carrying that forward to the courts as well. I had the pleasure of working in Iowa City, um, with ... the drug courts, and I found them to be incredibly effective and a good means towards the straight up penalty -type of enforcement and ... and handling the issues where you can actually work with people to help them get to the right personnel, and if we can start that in a more proactive sense, right from the incident, uh, it's great. I think one of our concerns that Orville and I addressed before too is, you know, I think it's been (garbled) commented on is .... is just, we have a difficult time drawing that line of how do you hand off the situation This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 9 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription where people are needing safety, and ... and that help of the police and yet also needing the safety and help of somebody with, um, more mental health training, like where does that ... where's that line get drawn, and I think it's a great conversation that we all need to have and we just have to be very cognizant of all of the complexities. Iowa City: We're gonna have Aaron Page, and then we'll have Margaret Fuller. Page: Yeah. Hi. Um, I mean I guess this is sort of in an emotive follow up on ... on, you know, with the benefit of the information I received to my question. Uh, so, you know, I mean I guess that the ... that the board is not actually talking to complainants and, you know, to some extent it's to ... to address that, to express some dismay about that, because I think, um, that would be very concerning for me. I mean, I think ... I am an attorney, so part of me is looking at this just as a fact-finding issue. I mean the idea that the board is sitting down with on the one hand a police report that's been fully researched by an institution, urn, and then on the other hand, you know, a pdf...like a form, oftentimes probably a handwritten form, right, of...of just a couple of...an initial impression by the complainant and having to make a decision on that. That doesn't seem remotely fair, and it seems like there's gonna be a lot of complications and a lot of other nuances that would be left out, and that you'd wanna pick up by actually talking to the person who went through this. Um, and I understand that there's body cam video in some cases, or maybe all cases, but even body cam video, of course, can be contextualized or explained, or, you know, I just don't understand why that decision wouldn't be made without the benefit of hearing from ... the complainant and certainly my exposure to other citizen, you know, other boards like this in other cities, uh, receiving... receiving and interviewing the complainant is just ... it seemed to be the bedrock function. And it's also part of, I guess the last thing I'd say is it's part of the mediating function, I think, between, you know, the ... the injured individual, who considers himself injured and the... and the police, and I guess I'd encourage the board to think about, you know, what this process looks like from a complainant standpoint, in the sense that they feel, you know, they genuinely feel they've been injured. I think we all know that. You know, these aren't fraudulent reports, that, you know, they fill something out and they send it in. And then they get back, without even being contacted, they get back a, you know, some sort of a notice that their complaint isn't being sustained and they weren't even allowed to explain their side of the story to anybody. I just wonder if that actually inflicts even more, you know, injury on the pere... you know, on the perceived fairness of the situation. Um, so that ... I find that really surprising and sort of a difficult fact, uh, but also... anyway, and I'll just ... I'll end it ... I'll end it with that ... with that comment. Thank you. MacConnell: Definitely see that point of view. Iowa City: Okay, we'll have Margaret Fuller, and then Angie Jordan. Fuller: Hi. This is Margaret. Um, I have a couple questions. Uh, one question I had is sort of a basic one. I've never attended, uh, this committee presentation before and I'm wondering as far as, you know, kind of some people are talking about more radical transformation of the police department beyond simple reforms. So I was wondering what role this committee has in something moving forward like that. Do you have any, um, any influence in that direction, or do you deal with cases on a case -by -case basis? That's my first question. Do you guys want to address that before I ask my second question? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page to Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Nichols: We have the authority to make recommendations to the city council for policy changes (mumbled) Fuller: Okay, so you communicate directly with the ... with the Council. Townsend: (mumbled) ...on a case by case basis, you know, as ... as complaints are filed, then, you know, part of the process is after the police chief (mumbled) use it and makes a decision. Then it comes to the board. We take a look at it and review it, and we make a decision, and then we send a written report to the City Council with our findings. Fuller: Okay, great. And then my second question is about, sort of the level of information that's provided to you from the police department. So you were talking about a case -by -case basis, but do you also get information about the frequency of certain routes being traveled, the locations of different numbers of arrests in different areas, like are different neighborhoods being over policed? Do you have that sort of higher level data, um, you know, like the ... the race of different people who are, you know, force is being used disproportionately. Could that information be accessed by your committee? Townsend: I would say basically we ... we do it on a case -by -case basis. And we do have access to all of the information that's pertinent to that case, uh, the officer's, um, cam ... body cameras, the squad car, you know, camera, uh, basically we have access to that. And if we feel we need more, then we can request that. (several talking) Selmer: She's asking more about. Yeah, go ahead, Amanda. Nichols: Um, I think she's asking a broader question about more about being able to see trends like some of the kind of, um, detailed recommendations that were made for some of our ..our changes regarding quarterly reports and things like that. On ... (mumbled) Selmer: So yeah we do get quarterly report (both talking) but yeah. Do you wanna answer it then, Amanda, about the quarterly reports and things? Nichols: I guess I'm ... I'm not quite sure yet since I've only been on the board for a couple of months how much information... precisely we get in that. I know that there were some recommendations made to ... start to get more information in quarterly reports, but I'm not sure what we get now. McDaniel: Yeah, I don't actually remember how much information we get in the quarterly reports, which means that it's probably very little information that's in the quarterly reports, if I don't remember it. So (laughs) yeah, but if, um, the, uh, if, like David or Orville who's been on there. I mean I've only been on there for two years, but I don't ... I honestly do not remember it having a lot of information. But maybe someone else can remember. Townsend: I think we get quite a bit of information, but unfortunately I don't think we get the information that the ... that the young lady was, you know, talkin' about. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page z i Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription McDaniel: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Selmer: So we do get, um, several pieces of information. Um, we get, um, things including the number of complaints that were filed, um, to the police and the complaints that we reviewed, um, the times that the chief sustained them, the times that we sustained them. Um, we get some other information regarding arrest. Uh... I ... I ... we get all of those things. We've also got, as far as the Police Review Board goes, a ... an opportunity, a charge so to speak, from City Council to recommend, um, things that we might want as board members to try and enhance our oversight of the police department, and we are in the process of developing that report. It was just given to us a couple, um, months ago, and we're getting some more information and feedback from other members as well. The, uh, one of the proposals that we are all, um, addressing... enhances some of that information closer to what you've, um, kind of touched upon, Mrs. Fuller, um, about the...the number of arrests in different areas, the, um, demographics of those arrests or stops, um, where excessive force may have been used, um, more weapons are drawn, those kind of, um, issues. Something that we are right now debating amongst ourselves about, um, perhaps what we might want to ask the City Council to have provided to us so that we can en... enhance our oversight with those ... with that greater amount of additional information. The quarterly reports, um, so that it's not a memory test here for the Latisha or anybody else are available as public record, as well. So, um, you're welcome to go and ... and see what we are given, um, and to kind of look for some of the trends, so to speak, and ... and those type of things as well. Um, it should be available on the ... on the website. Fuller: Yeah, it seems to me like that information is, uh, almost even more important than individual case information, um, at least as important, I think, for the board to be able to review the police department behavior overall, instead of on a microcosm. Townsend: I think it's important that we remember that we are ... an advisory board, but luckily with what's been going on and the charge we recently got from the City Council, we ... we're going to be able to, you know, talk to past board members, uh, collect information, uh, what we're talkin' about, and this forum is going to be important, you know, we'll be gettin' good information from it. So we're gonna be submittin' a report with recommendations to the City Council that hopefully will strengthen, you know, our board's presence, but also staying within those boundaries of being an advisory board. Fuller: Thank you so much. Iowa City: Okay, um, we'll go to Angie Jordan, uh, followed by Tammy Nyden. Jordan: Hello. Can you hear me? Townsend: Yes, can hear you. Jordan: Awesome. Thank you guys so much for having this. Um, I've got a few different things, so I'm just gonna kind of put one out there and see what happens. Um, one, I just wanna really agree with mostly everything that's being said by folks. Uh, another thing too is I'm a huge supporter of you guys meeting, uh, more regularly for public engagement. Um, I'm excited that our Iowa City Police Department is going to be coming to our South District Neighborhood Association `this represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 12 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription meetings regularly to give us updated, current neighborhood information that we request. Um, 1 think we need more of that in all neighborhoods, personally, um, but especially in the ones that, in my opinion, are underrepresented and underserved sometimes, and over served and all the things. Um, something that I was ... just wanna make sure it gets put out there is ... neighborhood engagement, um, having a social worker, a mental health worker. I hope this becomes part of the policing team. I also hope that there are neighborhood liaisons, uh, folks that are from the neighborhood, residents that have stepped up into leadership positions that can be called upon. We have our own little task force in the South District that goes out and, um, checks in on folks. Uh, we wanna be utilized. The neighbors and the residents from these communities, we ... I'm saying it, I'm one of `em. We want to be utilized. So how do we get integrated into, uh, kind of reforming the police. I would also ... and I know I'm going on and on, but I'm just gonna spit it all out. Um, is there a possibility for residents, uh, to be part of hiring and training processes? Is the CPRB ... are you guys already able to make recommendations on that, and (laughs) are you all involved in making recommendations for union contracts that are being renewed? So it's a lot of stuff there. I don't know what you guys wanna chew on, but thanks for this opportunity. Selmer: Amanda, do you wanna take (mumbled) Um, I think there was a couple questions in there, and I think there were some good points. Um, some things the board right now has capacity to ... to do and some things we don't. Um, hiring and training, we're not involved in ... in that. At this time we are, again, one of our proposals, um, that we are considering as a board is recommending to the City Council is that we might be more involved in the discipline, uh, side of it, to hear what discipline might happen, and tied to discipline would be training and additional training, um, for officers if misconduct was found. Um, we do, uh, get briefed on what the officers coming out of the academy and things that are ... are trained on and ... and those (mumbled) um, but, uh, we don't really have any direct oversight of that. Um, as far as union contract, we have nothing to do with that. Um, and we have not reviewed that. Um, it's not really within our capacity. I think one thing that we might want to clarify, um, is that ... my understanding, and again this is just limited my understanding of what the CPRB was meant to do, especially when we first came on. Um, the term was basically to review complaints that were made directly on a case -by -case basis, uh, about police misconduct and look at that individual case, more than anything, and determine whether or not we ... agreed with the police, um, recommendation that there was misconduct or not misconduct. And... and where we disagreed, or where we agreed, we'd file a report to kind of just alert, um, the City Council about it. That was ... that was our primary function. We also looked at policy, um, and reviewed policy and to make some certain changes, or recommendations for changes, again just recommendations. That was it. And, um, we were one of the only ..we were the only in Iowa, we were one of the only, um, even doing that as a Community Police Review Board, and, um, this new wave of, you know, what else should we be doing is, as a community and as civilians, and, um, trying to overs... oversight and give oversight to the police is ... is fantastic. It's great. But, the board is ... is metamorphosizing right now, from what we were (laughs) from a long time ago. So your kind of suggestions I think are fantastic, and we need to just, um, (mumbled) like where we are, where we were and how quickly we can change, and how many ...how many hats a five -person team here can actually wear at one time. And if we can delegate some of that, I'd be all for it. Townsend: And as I mentioned earlier, we are an advisory board. Uh, I don't think we want to get into discipline or, you know, trying to tell, you know, the police chief what he should he or she This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page rs Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription should do, but at the same time, I think it's important that we take advantage of the opportunity that's been presented to us to do everything we can to make sure that we're not a token board. That we're just not here to have a name to make it look like we're doin' somethin'. I think it's important that, you know, we as a ... as a board have something to offer and I'm hoping that we can get to the point where we have some not necessarily powers, but, you know, to make sure that we are makin' a difference. Selmer: (mumbled) answer most of your questions, Miss Jordan? Jordan: Thank you. Selmer: Thank you for what you do. Iowa City: Um, we'll have Tammy Nyden, and then she'll be followed by..00ps and she just disappeared. Uh... there she is. Should be followed by Temple Hiatt. Nyden: Can you hear me? Townsend: (garbled) Nyden: Okay, thank you. Um, L..I want to thank you for holding this and, um, reiterate some of the things people have already said, but add a few things. When it comes to mental health, the police involvement is usually going to escalate as opposed to deescalate situations, and one thing to think about is doing an audit of how many calls are wellness checks and mental health related, and considering that ratio, and then consider moving that funding into creating a new agency that focuses on mental health and the training that is specifically mental health and de- escalation and not in control. I'm concerned because sometimes the police end up being called in and even in hospitals for symptoms that are related to mental health illness, because we don't currently have the kind of mental health training that we need for very violent cases, and we need to rethink that as an earlier speaker said, about having a different kind of training and a different kind of agency, and as, um, Leslie Carpenter pointed out, that's going to mean thinking about, um, workforce, and so we have to think about that as a long-term goal. I wanted to add one other piece that wasn't mentioned and that is we have to think about the role of racism and mental health (garbled) and how if you are from a group that has been disproportionately punished in a community, seeing somebody in uniform and with weapons, um, is going to raise your anxiety, um, in a way that is rational, and um, going to exacerbate, um, a mental health response and so we need to consider that. Thank you. Townsend: (both talking) McDaniel: I would also like, yeah, I would also like to also add that, um, that we're also going to be dealing with medical racism. So even if we are ... even if police or, um, social workers are dealing with someone who has been identified as having a mental health issue, sometimes us as people of color are also not believed to actually have mental illness (laughs) so, um, we're also (laughs) So we have to actually also deal with not only the fact that, you know, we have police that are not, um, prepared to deal with people who are, uh, who are having episodes or mental... mental issues, but also the fact that sometimes people don't even believe that people of color This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 14 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription actually have mental issues and that our. ..our, um, aggressions or are, um, some of the episodes we're going through are n... are relate to something else, usually either drug or alcohol or just, you know, just, um, aggression in general and not actually... we're not dealing with any kind of a mental episode. So that's something we also need to think about. Townsend: (garbled) I think a lot of people (mumbled) but mental health population is the last law to them (mumbled) would even imagine, and it's probably one of the more difficult populations to address. I mean, you've got a perfectly normal actin' person who's that way because they're taking a medication. They may start taking medication, but you never know when an onset of mental illness episode is going to happen. So, I mean, I personally feel that if we ever get to the point that we're gonna adequately address it, we're gonna have to go to some form of a team, where you've got law enforcement and you've got mental health, uh, professional, you know, on duty together so that when a person has a episode, then you're gonna be sending people out who really have the expertise and knowledge to do what's needed. MacConnell: I would like to see the, um, mental health professionals and harm reduction professionals, um, on that team be the ones to make that call. Make that decision as to whether or not they felt that they needed to have the police present (garbled) in that location at that moment. McDaniel: Yeah,1 agree. I think it's ... we should try to remove as much interaction with the police and people who are dealing with those kinds of episodes as possible. Um, you know, unless, you know, this myth, the mental health provider or, you know, you said harm reduction, they feel that they are walking into a situation that could be potentially dangerous and then... that... but that would be a decision that they would have to make. MacConnell: And I think that a lot of times that those, um, situations are ... are like an emergency by the time the call is made, and there's not always time to utilize everybody ..at that specific moment, and I think that's something that has to be taken into consideration. Selmer: But if the emergency call was placed to (mumbled) request, which is trained professionals in the mental health agency first, if you had that instead of a 9-1-1, you had an 8-1-1 and mental health professional showed up, it might deescalate the situation, so... Townsend: (garbled) usually when they call me, the one constant factor is panic, the parents (garbled) neighbors, but ... and the person who's havin' the episode is very unpredictable. So, you know, I, you know, I agree, we ... we really need to take a look at having a ... an approach that's going to adequately address the needs of our mental health population. MacConnell: And another issue is the... at the emergency mental health team that you're told can be called will not respond unless the person in crisis is the one to call them. And I think that's just... that's something that I have found out that was pretty troubling, that narrows your choices. Nichols: This would be, I mean, if we ... if we were to ... as a community, you know, obviously not just... CPRB doesn't have the power to do this on our own. But if those were changes that we were to be able to make, it wouldn't have to follow all of the same regulations and guidelines as what exists now. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page ]s Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription MacConnell: Right. Iowa City: If...if Tammy is finished, we'll move to Temple Hiatt. Hiatt: Can you hear me? Hello? (garbled response) Okay, thank you. Um, this is my first time, um, attending the ... the board, um, meeting and I appreciate the opportunity for the citizens input. Um, I'm a member of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and we do a lot of work, um, with survivors and making sure that ... that their voices are heard. Um, my...my question about the ... the recommendations that you make, um, to the ... to the police, do they ever involve reparations, um, for, uh.... or support services for those that have been banned by gun violence, and this could be, um, you know, any... anyone. This could be obviously a victim that suffered gun violence. It could be a ... a witness to gun violence, and of course, you know, people who are potentially suspects, um, that have been harmed by gun violence (phone ringing in background) McDaniel: I think that was one of the recommendations, one of the things we are, uh, looking into as far as amending the ordinance as far as providing some kind of...some kind of, um, some kind of, um, recommendations for, um, for restitution or reconciliation, when it comes to, uh, people who've had interactions with the police. I think we.A think we ... I think that's one of the ... one of the things we've discussed as far as, um, adding as a piece to our ...to our, um, ordinance. Selmer: Yeah, just to be clear too, up until now we have not had any capacity to discuss discipline or training or reparations. Um, it was merely a ... a recommendation on whether or not we agreed as a panel of five, um, community members with the police on sustaining or not sustaining alleged misconduct in a...in a report. That was it. It did not include any discipline. Hiatt: All right, I'm ... I'm not real familiar with, um, you know, what kinds of services the ... the police department or the City might provide. Um, so if you have any input on that or —or information, I would appreciate it. Townsend: I think that's an area that basically, you know, it's been ... it's been discussed, but, you know, you're talkin' about, uh, somethin' to do with finances, so that's... that's kind of a different neighborhood than we hang out in. MacConnell: Well, and also the state ... the state has the vicfim... uh... .reward financial appointments too. There is a fund for that through the state. Townsend: But I think, you know, questions like this ... would probably get better results that the person were to attend a City Council meeting and doin' public discussion basically shared knowledge and concerns. Hiatt: If you've been a victim or...or...or suffered, you know, harm, I ... I don't know that that would be something that someone would feel comfortable in doing. Um, but I think certainly that ... that that is ... that is something that, um, that I think should be in the ... in the, um, realm of responsibilities for this board. So thanks. That's good to hear that... that... that, uh, that's being considered. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forurn of September 15, 2020. Page 16 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Townsend: Okay, and thank you for your recommendation. Hiatt: You're welcome. Thank you. Iowa City: Okay, it looks like, um, and I'm sorry about the names. Sabri Sky. Sky: Hello, yes. Sabri. So, I didn't (mumbled) next, um, so I'm speaking as somebody who has, uh, been a survivor of police violence and, um, really difficult, uh... uh... police interactions. Um, and I will say that they've gotten better, I think, um, in town. But that's also somewhat because of my being able to ... to open up more, and I just want to reiterate, for one.... something that I ... I know that everybody here already knows, but I ... but I really wanna see it applied in detailed, uh, nuanced ways, um, I guess in polic... policing policy and training... and training part, that people are afraid of police. People are anxious and, uh, even say in the South District, um, at the community feedback sessions this summer. Um, people mentioned, uh, some of the speakers mentioned having community interactions, you know, in the neighborhood with police that were ... that were good and friendly. But there is for, uh, I think like Ta... Tammy (mumbled) said, for ...for rational reasons, people have anxiety when ... when police show up and the focus... so (mumbled) coming from that, the focus on a mental health ... a mental illness or a mental health problem incident or episode. While I appreciate that and I think we need to consider that, um, like Latisha is saying, uh (mumbled) um, and be sympathetic and empathetic and, you know, caring and medical in the response to that. There's also a problem in that because part of the medical response... medical, you know, physical interactive protocol response is police physically grabbing a person and restraining them. And the ... the jump from interactions, in my experience, and the experience of many other people that 1 have communicated and had support groups... discussion type discussions with about this, that that job is extremely quickly and all of the supposedly rationale or reason for that escalation is placed on the individual. While were not, you know, I understand logically the police are the people reacting because it's not just police. It's also EMTs... and I honestly have concerns about whatever social workers or mental health professionals might be in the alternate response team. They don't know anything about the person's background, but that is not necessarily a reason to act like they must, you know, the person in question must be the most dangerous person in the world. And my experience has been that's how they're treating you and it forces the situation to escalate into violence and the experience of it is dehumanizing violence. I'll just leave it at that right now. (laughs) Townsend: Well, I think, you know, basically there are certain things that I think it's important that citizens (mumbled) be aware of and that is, number one, if you ask the police officer for his or her name, they have an obligation to give it to you. Second thing to keep in mind is that all officers are wearing body cameras, so, you know, if...if...and if it's a deal where they've stopped you and... and there's a squad car, you can get the number of the squad car and ... and the time of day. I mean, there... there are a lot of things that can happen if -inappropriate access by police officers are reported, and I think that's... that's something we really need to focus on is, you know, reporting inappropriate behavior. Sky: So I want us to ... that's really important and encouraging and thank you. Um, like it —it took me five years to even think about going and asking for the report to find out the names of those officers or, you know, any of these other things because of the affect it has on people. Um, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page» Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription also my point is that what is considered appropriate is damaging. Townsend: Sky, I'd just like to share somethin' else with you. Here in our city, you know, we're lucky, we hit the jackpot, you know. We ... we've had a police chief that was just fantastic, that was very demanding of his staff, and as a result of that, you know, any inappropriate behaviors were dealt with. So, if you have concerns, I mean, you know, you can share that with the police force or you can file a claim with the, um, with our board. McDaniel: Go ahead, Amanda. Nichols: I was actually gonna refer to what you had said previously, so go (laughs) McDaniel: Yeah, I was just gonna, you know, just wanted to talk to what Sabri is talking about as far as, um, she ... she was not able to get to the point where she felt comfortable to actually make a complaint, and, um, I mean the only ...the only solution within the board that I can tell you is that if you don't feel comfortable or if you want someone to ... to assist you on your half, you can bring in a third -party person to assist you with the complaint process, if you feel that personally you are not in ... and ... and ... and you know, in the emotional capacity to handle it yourself. And also ... and I think we need to .... and I think we need to also be aware of what Sabri is saying, as far as, you know, um, her experience with, um, mental health professionals, with EMT, with social workers that sometimes they are also involved in some of the kind of police tactics that we do not want those people to have. So we're gonna have to do some ... our own ... our own kind of, um, troubleshooting our own, not troubleshooting, but our only ...or kinda think about ways that we can incorporate these other resources into, uh, public health or public safety, without it being a ... another form of policing. Townsend: And if you prefer not to have to deal with a group of people, you can file a complaint with the Human Rights office, and that way you'll be dealin' with one person. Selmer: Thank you for sharing that experience with us (mumbled) Iowa City: Okay. Um, I don't see anyone else with their hand raised. Um, just a reminder if you're on Zoom you can use the raise hand. Um, and if you're on the phone, you can do *9. Uh, looks like we have Caroline Dieterle, who would like to speak. Think you just need to unmute, Caroline. Dieterle: (mumbled) all right now? Iowa City: Yes. Yep, you're up. Dieterle: Okay, I followed the news reports and what's been going on with the incident that happened this summer with the tear gas that was thrown, and apparently subsequently now (clears throat) it has been, uh, decided that the Iowa City police were some of the people who were involved with that, and, um, I do understand that the Council is ... is gone, has gone back to wanting to have an independent investigation. And so this question is kind of jumping the gun, so to speak, but if they find that, um, there is some fault in what was done, does this mean anything that the Police Review Board can do anything about? I mean, basically, I think a lot of people This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 18 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription are rather uncomfortable with having tear gas used on citizens. Selmer: We can't just discuss too much of the details of complaints, but we are going to be reviewing, um, after the independent investigator (mumbled) Police Review Board will be looking into... the conduct by the Iowa City police, whether they sustain it, um, through the City Council or not, we'll have the opportunity to set our own level of review, including our own independent investigator, um, and look into it. Dieterle: Well, that's very reassuring. I'm glad to hear that that's true, and I'm glad to hear that the board does have an independent investigator now, which I think years ago was not the case. Selmer: To be clear, we do not have one now. Um, we are suggesting that it is in our authority, potentially, after the City Council has its own independent investigator review it, as part of our level of review, after they make the report. (both talking) ...to have such an investigator, if we need it. Dieterle: I ... I thought that was part of the, um, initiative that was passed years ago, but I didn't know that the board had any money to do anything like hiring an investigator. Is that something that the Council would supply or do you have a budget now for that? Selmer: We do have the authority to request an independent investigator and utilize one. Dieterle: Okay. Townsend: But that ... that would not be, you know, often. It'd just be in those rare situation... rare situations where we ... we felt we needed, um, a ... a different level of information. Dieterle: The other question ... the other question I have is one that I asked years ago, and basically people laughed at me for asking it. But unfortunately, you know, things have ... the way things have gone subsequently, I think my question is less laughable. And that is if President Trump, you know, followed through on his threat to declare martial law ...prior to the election, um, what is the thinking that has gone into what the City and the police department here would do in response to that? Selmer: I think that's beyond our capacity for the ... Police Review Board right now. We haven't (mumbled) hypotheticals or those type of scenarios. Dieterle: Well the trouble is, is that if you don't think ahead, if the, uh, situation should arise, and nobody's even talked about it, um, you're thoroughly behind the eight ball. So I would suggest that you do, ub, talk about this as a possibility and what you would do in response. Townsend: Caroline, I don't think that, you know, this is somethin' that we ... we're gonna have to do somethin' real different, you know. I think it ... if that were to happen and basically as a result of that our police force were, you know, dealin' with public, and it came out in a way that it was negative, then we would still, you know, you would still be able to file... and we would follow the same process that we followed all along. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page ]s Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription Iowa City: Okay. Um...I do not see any more hands raised ... at this moment. Townsend: We, um... Iowa City: Oh, I stand corrected. Looks like we have Anna Blaedel. Blaedel: Yes, thank you. Can you hear me? Nichols: Yes. Blaedel: Excellent. My name is Anna Blaedel, um, thank you for this forum. Thank you for the work that you're doing. Um, and I just wanted to, um, to echo in response to the previous question raised, I believe the ... the person's name is Caroline, and wanted to raise my voice also to encourage this, uh, review board to be thinking about, um, the escalation of violence that we're seeing in this country. Um, I ... I don't think that we can just assume that things are going to stay as they are, or even that as they are is acceptable, um, for a status quo. And so I would, uh, encourage you all. 1 know that there is limited, uh, capacity and, uh, limited power, and that's part of what we're talking about, but I would like to echo that question and strongly encourage this group to be thinking about, um, how to prepare ourselves to be accountable to each other and to our communities. Thank you. Selmer: Thank you. Iowa City: And again, I don't have anyone waiting to speak to the board. Townsend: Okay. Uh, l'd like to basically, you know, share some information at this time. We've talked about the Police Review Board, so like to just give a little spiel that, you know, give specific information about the board. Uh, the CPRB reviews reports prepared after investigation of complaints about alleged police misconduct. It is issued it's own written report that contains detailed findings, the facts and conclusions that explain why and the extent to which complaints should be sustained or not sustained. The CPRB reviews powers, police policies, procedures, and practices and may recommend modification to them. The board shall hold at least one community forum each year for the purpose of hearing views on the policies, practices, and procedures of the Iowa City Police Department. Any person with personal knowledge of an alleged police misconduct may file a CPRB compliant with the board. So this kind of, you know, keeps you in fact with what we're really about. There are other things, but those are pretty... some of the basics. Also, we'd like to share with you that, um, this is a public forum which is public record and being recorded for rebroadcast on City Channel 4. So this will be rebroadcast on Channel 4 at a later time. Iowa City: Orville, I do have somebody that has their hand raised. Townsend: Okay. Iowa City: We want to let one more ... uh, looks... it's Rich Mathias. Mathias: Hello, everybody. Yes, you pronounced my last correctly. (mumbled) it as Mathias. Just This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Page 20 Community Police Review Board Community Forum Transcription. wanted to ask, um, during this meeting I heard one of the board members mention that, um (mumbled) some training after a disciplinary report. I was just wondering has anyone ever considered maybe doing the training before the disciplinary reports, um, maybe on sometbin' like racial profiling or somethin' like that. Um, somethin' like a...a prevention -type thing, instead of a disciplinary thing. Selmer: So if I understand your question right is whether or not we are overseeing the police and recommending that they're getting training on ... tactics for, urn, various things... before, uh, before there's a specific finding of misconduct where we recommend that certain officer goes back and gets trained on something. So more of an oversight of their whole training schedule. Is that right? Mathias: Yes, yeah. Yes, that's correct. Um, I'm just concerned, and I think it's totally appropriate for someone to get some training after they've been issued a disciplinary report, but I just thought maybe some prevention measures, maybe the board could recommend to ... to, um, the law enforcement of Iowa City. Selmer: Yeah, I think, uh, reviewing where the police officers get trained and how they get trained is absolutely something that we should be looking into, and, you know, we have limited capacity right now. We can only do so much, but I think, um, an oversight of what the training, um, that's offered to the officers and ... and whether or not we might inquire as to additional training and whether or not they're getting that as ... as part of our functions and what we've done in the past, to some degree. We can do more, I think, um, but I think there was a couple examples where we had with, um, most recently police body cameras, for example, and the training on that and we ... we had the officers come in and explain to us how they were trained, a new cadet and what, uh, what they're usin' the body camera and the ordinance was. Um, this is one example. So there is some of that going on. Mathias: Thank you. Iowa City: Okay,1 see no hands. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City CPRB Annual Public Forum of September 15, 2020. Item Number: 4.d. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Community Police Review Board: September 21 Final/Approved COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD COMMUNITY FORUM September 21, 2020, 5:30 P.M. Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of board members, staff and the public presented by COVED-19. CALL TO ORDER: Vice -Chair Orville Townsend called the meeting to order At 5:36 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT: Jerri MacConnell, Latisha McDaniel, Amanda Nichols, David Selmer MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Legal Counsel Patrick Ford and Staff Chris Olney, Kellie Fruehling. OTHERS PRESENT: Interim Police Chief Denise Brotherton, City Council Member Janice Weiner INTRODUCTION OF THE BOARD AND BRIEF OVERVIEW CONSIDER MOTION TO ACCEPT CORRESPONDENCE AND/OR DOCUMENTS Townsend read the correspondence received into the record. Motion by Nichols, seconded by Selmer to accept correspondence and or /documents. Motion carried, 5/0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION Townsend noted City Council has requested a report and recommendations from the CPRB regarding changes to the CPRB Ordinance that enhance its ability to provide effective civilian oversight to the Iowa City Police Department and that the Board welcomes any suggestions or comments from the public. The following individuals appeared before the CPRB: David Drustrup Angie Jordan Aaron Page Tammy Nyden Leslie Carpenter Temple Hiatt Meredith Chen Sabri Sky Amel Ali Caroline Dieterle Eric Harris Anna Blaedel Margaret Fuller Rich Mathias ADJOURNMENT Meeting adjourned at 6:53 P.M. COMMUNITY POLICE REVIEW BOARD ATTENDANCE RECORD YEAR 2019-2020 (Meetinp, Date) 9/24/19 1018/19 11/12/19 12/10/19 1/14120 2/11120 3/10120 1112120 619120 7/14/20 8/18/20 9/8/20 9/21/20 NAME FORUM Sam X X O/E O O O O Conaway _ Monique X X X X X X X X X Galpin _ Jerri O X X X X MacConnell Latisha X X X X O/E X X O X X X O/E X McDaniel Amanda X X X X Nichols David Selmer X X X X X X X X X X O/E X X Orville X X X O/E X X X X X X X X X Townsend KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting --- = Not a Member Item Number: 4.e. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Historic Preservation Commission: September 10 HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION September 10, 2020 APPROVED MINUTES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION EMMA J. HARVAT HALL September 10, 2020 MEMBERS PRESENT: Kevin Boyd, Carl Brown, Helen Burford, Sharon DeGraw, Cecile Kuenzli, Quentin Pitzen, Jordan Sellergren, Austin Wu MEMBERS ABSENT: Lyndi Kiple STAFF PRESENT: Jessica Bristow, Anne Russett OTHERS PRESENT: Ginalie Swaim Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) LAnectronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical o concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff, and the public nted by COVID-19. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action) CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Boyd called the electronic meeting to order at 5:30p.m. utilizing Zoom. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: None CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS: 720 N Van Buren (Chimney Removal) Bristow noted that 720 North Van Buren is in the Brown Street Historic District. It is a Foursquare with elaborate square columns and a siding treatment with narrow lap siding and corner boards that changes to mitered siding corners at the sill line for the second floor and the head of the stair window. It has a pretty heavy dormer and probably a second -generation standing seam metal roof. There have also been some additions on the back. Bristow said the current project is to remove the chimney. The chimney has been leaking for quite a while. Bristow says that she has been working with the property owner to get it repaired. They have spoken with several masons but are having some difficulty lining up a mason to do the repairs. Bristow believes that this is due to the combination of working over the standing seam metal roof without damaging it further (because the intent is to repair any issues with that roof), coupled with the fact that it does have stucco coating, so the coating would have to be removed, the chimney repaired, and the stucco coating probably reapplied.. Bristow stated that, on a Foursquare, while the chimney obviously sticks far above the roof, it is not the most prominent architectural feature. It is also not a decorative chimney. It is not currently used by any of the house systems. Due to multiple issues like the leakage, the prevalence of other repairs, and the fact that the hole itself can be repaired along with the rest of the roof so that it won't be visible, staff does recommend approving this chimney for demolition. Kuenzli asks, if the chimney has stucco on it to keep from having to re -tuck point it. If it were removed and the chimney tuck pointed, then it wouldn't need the stucco. Bristow says she thinks that it was probably done for multiple reasons. The chimney was leaking and tuck pointing the chimney just became difficult, so the stucco was added partly to try to create a slightly more impermeable layer on that chimney. Bristow does not know when the stucco coating was put on, but notes that it could be problematic removing it permanently Bristow thinks that it could be flashed up underneath the stucco and it could be the repair area where the water is getting past the stucco. Bristow says that the main problem is getting people to do the actual work. A roofer who would repair the roof might be able to take it down, whereas they would actually need a mason to repair it. Boyd asks if there are any other clarifying questions. Hearing none, he opens the public hearing and after no discussion, closes it. MOTION: Degraw moved to approve the Certificate of Appropriateness for the project at 720 North Van Buren as presented in the application. Burford seconded the motion. The motion carries with a vote of 8-0. NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION - IOWA CITY CENTRAL BUSINESS DISTRICT: Bristow said the 2016 study of the Iowa City Downtown Historic District was a review of a 2001 study completed by historian, Marlys Svendsen. In the years between the two studies, many things had changed. Alexa McDowell of McKay Consulting from the Minneapolis area was hired to complete the new study. The result was that she was a potential historic district, including a discussion of Iowa City's urban renewal history. Bristow said the issue was that, in a commercial district, the street has a relationship to the sidewalk and pedestrian travel, and likewise the curb line to automobile travel. So, in Iowa City's Downtown, when the Pedestrian Mall was created and those relationships removed, it essentially made that part of the Pedestrian Mall ineligible for listing on the National Register due to the fact that it did not have the same integrity of place and feeling. The change disrupted how people and automobiles interacted with the buildings. Bristow said that urban renewal was not only controversial in Iowa City but also nationally. Out of the 200 pedestrian malls that were created nationally, only 11 were considered successful enough to continue to exist, and ours is the only one in the state of Iowa. Bristow said that for that reason, there was the potential to use a Criterion consideration G National Register eligibility because it includes the Pedestrian Mall and the buildings of that era which are less than 50 years old. Bristow explained what the nomination has in it, since it is a federal form. She said that there is a section of the nomination that is a narrative story and would be good for the commission to consider as part of their Education and Outreach in the form of a presentation for the public about the history of their Downtown. 3 Bristow said the goal with the review of the National Register Nomination is to discuss the fact that, as a community, they feel there is significance to make it eligible and that it also possesses the integrity to make it eligible for listing in the National Register. Bristow said the National Register Format is a form prescribed by the National Park Service that includes formal descriptions. Bristow said in 2001 and 2016, the area was called the Central Business District. Now it is the Iowa City Downtown Historic District. The form includes the location, as well as space for certifications from both the state and federal officials. Bristow said the National Register considers a "property" as something that could be just one house, or a house and its garage on a lot, or it could also be an area such as Downtown. So, it is considered one "property" since it would be listed on the National Register as "The Downtown," and all of the buildings that one would normally consider as properties are instead considered "resources". Bristow said the narrative description of a downtown that has many resources is very lengthy, as opposed to a National Register nomination for a house, which might only contain one paragraph for each of the things it describes. Bristow said the Nomination describes the area in question, and includes a map that provides the boundaries. For the National Register, large blocks are included. Often both sides of the street are included. Bristow pointed to the boundary through the alley between College and Burlington Streets. The street along Burlington is not included, since there is not significant integrity or enough remaining historic buildings to include. Bristow said that the 2016 study had not included the old Carnegie Library within the boundary but there was some discussion in the community about the idea of including it. Similarly, at the time when McDowell wrote the nomination, the B.P.O.E Hall was still in place and it was considered a contributing resource, but since it came down earlier this year, it is just a blank space within the district. Bristow explained that the map shows the district boundary in green, and all of the contributing structures (meaning that they have a recognizable style and/or fit within a certain period) are highlighted in black. They contribute to the story/ narrative that McDowell develops about Downtown, which is really about the history of commerce in Iowa City. Bristow notes the importance of the University being adjacent to the Downtown, since they have developed together since Iowa City started as the capital of the state. Bristow said the capital was moved to Des Moines and the capital building became part of the University, which contributed to Downtown development. Bristow said this ties into the story of the Pedestrian Mall because its success is also partly due to the location of the University, being that students, faculty, and other people use the Pedestrian Mall so much for congregating and other activities. Bristow continued that the black buildings are considered contributing resources, and the blue highlighted buildings are all of the buildings that are already listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Bristow said this is actually a fairly significant number for a community like Iowa City. The National Register Nomination does not consider buildings that are local landmarks (which some are), so that is not indicated on the map. For instance, there are few buildings that are local landmarks that are not listed on the National Register, such as the Hohenschuh Mortuary building, or the Yacht Club being one of them. Bristow continued by saying the buildings in gray are not contributing, which means that they were either built too recently, such as the 201 building, Plaza Towers, and Ecumenical Towers. These buildings just don't fit architecturally within the time period that is being referenced in the Nomination. Some of them, like the big white corrugated building that is now a big black corrugated building on 4 Washington Street, is not contributing because it has been altered and is not recognizable in its current form. Bristow said that in the nomination, McDowell discusses how the Holiday Inn building was really a huge part of urban renewal because it stopped the progress of Dubuque Street through downtown, but it was built outside of the time period for the development of the Pedestrian Mall, so it does not fit as a contributing building. As it approaches its own 50-year age, McDowell suggests looking at it again to see if it could be considered a contributing resource. Bristow stated that the Pedestrian Mall is listed in as a contributing resource. She says that part of the issue with the Pedestrian Mallis the fact that it is not 50 years old. If it was 50 years old. McDowell had to use a special Criterion Consideration G, for resources that are less than 50 years old, in order to include it, and she talks about that in the nomination. Bristow showed a picture of the Pedestrian Mall, specifically Black Hawk Mini Park, and pointed out the locations of both Washington and Dubuque Street as well as the Holiday Inn (now The Graduate). She said this image serves to illustrate the fact that we do not have a street, curbs, or a typical sidewalk, so this type of relationship is not like what one would see on the north end of Dubuque Street where these elements are still intact. Bristow said that the Nomination does note two criteria of significance: Criteria A and Criteria C. Criteria A is about an event that is a broad pattern of history that really helped to shape the community, such as the development of commerce in downtown and the relationship with the University, as previously mentioned. Criteria C has to do with the materials and architecture and the workmanship of the buildings, which is where we get into all of the contributing buildings. Bristow speculates that, out of the 103 resources and 94 buildings, around 73 of them are considered contributing. The other criteria and significance are Criteria G for the Pedestrian Mall, so they must discuss whether or not those criteria are accurate. Bristow explained that Section 7, a discussion about the integrity of the area. Bristow says that the National Parks Service wants every nomination to comment on seven different types of integrity for each nomination that they receive, whether it is an individual building, an object, a cemetery, a downtown, etc. So, the Nomination must discuss how it has integrity in each of those areas. Bristow said the integrity of location is very basic, and it refers to the fact that it exists where it originally was built. The relationship between the Pentacrest and Downtown is maintained, so the Iowa City Downtown is not going to lack the integrity of location because it was not moved. The integrity of setting is related mostly to the streets, which is where the setting of the Pedestrian Mall also comes into play. Bristow said McDowell also talks about the importance of association - the fact that Downtown has a relationship to the University which has contributed to its success. The integrity of design, materials, workmanship all relate to Criteria C having to do with architecture. Bristow explains that the city has regular blocks that were part of the original plat of Iowa City, as well as buildings that were constructed in recognizable styles and materials, and a good level of workmanship. It has to do with the fact that they have retained their style and all of the things that McDowell refers to when she talks about each individual building in the 40 pages of description. The integrity of feeling is taking all of these things in conjunction and noticing how it creates a feeling where one can recognize the historic character of the Downtown as they walk through the space. They can also then recognize the reason why the Pedestrian Mall was created and why it has been successful, and McDowell lays out how Downtown meets each of these different areas of integrity. Bristow said that there is a period of time covered in the Nomination, which is called a period of significance, that extends from 1856 when the first building that still exists today was built (the Franklin Printing House on the Pedestrian Mall on the alley between College and Washington), through 1979, l•1 which is what criteria consideration G allows us to do. Bristow said the date of 1979 is the date when the Pedestrian Mall was completed, so it ends with that and includes all of the urban renewal buildings that were built within that same period of time and excludes (as non-contributing) all of the buildings that were constructed after. Likewise, it also includes most of the alterations that were done to historic buildings within that time. Bristow said that McDowell does discuss each building individually; which Bristow noted is good information for the owners of those buildings to have as well. In Section A, McDowell lists the architects and builders who were involved, and includes a statement of significance paragraph as well as the longer narrative that really captures the story of how downtown developed. Bristow also included a few images in her presentation that McDowell had in her nomination such as the 1839 original plat of Iowa City with the Pentacrest, which was Capitol Square. Bristow said Iowa Avenue lined up with what was going to be Governor Square, which is Governor Street, and is not quite in the area of Woodlawn. Since the capital moved, there was never a governor's mansion that was built, so it was turned into a residential area. Bristow showed another image of the downtown district, which showed that there was originally a park that was taken over by the University at one point in time. She showed another photo from 1854, taken by Wetherby, whose studio has been taken down but was once where Old Capitol Mall was. that includes some of the original wood frame buildings that were aligned along Clinton Street, with the Pentacrest off to the side. Some of the buildings in the photo are starting to become brick buildings. Bristow showed a photo from 1880 with a view looking down Iowa Avenue from the East, including Dubuque Street, and what is the Dulcinea building today. The image shows buildings that can be easily recognized today. Bristow showed another image from a slightly later time, which looks North on Dubuque Street and shows an area that was heavily altered from urban renewal. She said that this is one of the, at the time, many mansard roof buildings that were in Iowa City, but was taken down and replaced with the very large brick building that actually ended up replacing eight buildings, located on the northwest corner of College and Dubuque. Bristow said that the Nomination includes a National Register -level discussion of urban renewal, which is pretty much the antithesis of historic preservation. This written discussion must be at a level that could be accepted and approved by the National Park Service Bristow summarized McDowell's outline of the history of urban renewal. She said it began between World War I and II as a kind of "slum clearance," so it is heavily tied into systemic racial segregation basically because, post -World War II, in some of the large communities like New York and Chicago there was recognizable downtown crisis. Because of this, they wanted to focus on the white middle class and drawing them into downtown, on top of what was already happening with suburbanization. The first major redevelopment happened pretty early in 1950 in Pittsburgh, which was basically an attempt to take down what was seen as urban blight, and so many black neighborhoods were destroyed as a result of urban renewal. Bristow said a couple of things that McDowell points to in the Nomination are the 1954 ruling of Berman v. Parker, which ruled that the government could seize private property not just for public use but also for public good. This was just one of controversial things that happened as a part or urban renewal and thus allowed for the destruction of some of the historically black neighborhoods that were developed up in and around some of the other larger downtowns. Then in 1956 there was the Federal Highway Act that tended to destroy a lot of historic black neighborhoods in order to create roads through many of the larger cities. Bristow mentioned McDowell's reference to the 1961 book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, which had been very controversial in urban planning as well as in architecture. Bristow said that in her book, Jacobs was talking about a kind of urban renewal, not by razing a bunch of things and destroying things, but rather from the ground up and propping up communities and helping from a completely different point of view. This all ended up leading into the Historic Preservation Movement that has happened across the United States. Bristow said it is interesting that the Nomination includes urban renewal and success within Iowa City's Downtown. Bristow said that McDowell also includes the history of our specific urban renewal and the fact that it was titled the "Better Iowa City project" in order to market it to the public. Bristow shows another image from 1974 that depicts the destruction of the west side of Clinton for the Old Capital Mall. Bristow said that because the community is very politically active, the urban renewal project in Iowa City almost stopped. McDowell notes that urban renewal happened pretty slowly because there were "tribes" of people who were very good at getting their point across to one another. There was even a point were HUD was going to pull all of the funding for urban renewal if the city did not do anything, which is when the demolitions really started in 1974. Bristow noted that McDowell then wraps up her discussion of urban renewal with a history of pedestrian malls because it was not something that was used in all urban renewal projects, but is key to ours. Bristow said the nomination includes a bibliography for further research and notes all of the technical geographical data such as maps, a table of resources that includes each building. Bristow said she wanted to make clear the difference between National Register and the local designation process that the Commission has been through more recently, and she thought that going through the format of the National Register nomination would help with that. Bristow said that the National Register, at least for individual properties that are considered eligible for listing, tends to consider interiors as well. McDowell does not mention is buildings are individually eligible as she did in the study. Instead, she talks about them as contributing to the historic district. Bristow said that the next step is to see if the commission has any questions, then to discuss whether or not McDowell makes a good cohesive argument for the notion that the Downtown has significance as an event related to Iowa City's commerce and community development, as well as for the architecture of the Downtown, the validity of talking about the Pedestrian Mall, and integrity that McDowell mentions. Boyd asked a clarifying question about whether it is important or not for the commission to include a comment. Bristow responds by saying that, because the nomination originated from the commission and they secured the services of Akay Consulting to write the nomination, it is less important than if someone from the public had hired an outside historian for their own property, but including a comment from the commission shows that it is important to them and that they understand and appreciate the nomination for the honorary title, which would help with community with the work they need to do in the form of tax credits and potential grants. Bristow encourages the commission to include a comment if they should so desire. Boyd asked if there are any other clarifying questions. Hearing none, he opens the public hearing. Swaim introduced herself as the board president of Friends Historic Preservation as well as the representative of that board at the current meeting. She stated that this has been a long time coming and that she is excited that the commission has reached this point and looks forward to the acceptance of this nomination by SHPO and by the National Park Service. Swaim knows that it can benefit the owners of some of the aforementioned buildings in terms of tax credits and grants, just as Bristow mentioned. Swaim stated that it will also benefit the entire community, and referenced the Elks Building VA (or rather the space where the Elks Building used to be on Washington and Gilbert) to see that we really need to preserve the best of a downtown. Swaim said she believes that this district that has been delineated does include that best as well as the sense of scale, the similar architecture in materials, and the feeling of a true sense of space that makes the community unique. Swaim said that the urban renewal and the Pedestrian Mall components of this are important, and she is very grateful to McDowell for fleshing that out because she thinks of that as a new history - it is an important history and the fact that we are contributing to the National History of that by getting it into the Record is laudable. She, once again, appreciates all of the work that has been done, and states the Friends supports this wholly and completely. Boyd thanked Swaim and asked if there are other members of the public who would like to speak up. Hearing none, he closed the public hearing and proceeded with discussion among the commission. Burford agreed with Swaim, and stated that there is a real import of recognizing the historic fabric of the downtown, and that it is important almost psychologically for the community because the history which has been covered in this nomination is a perfect example of how there were many vying sides on what was important to the community, how different groups had the opportunity to speak and take action, and how the community came together. DeGraw said that she liked the relationship between the Pentacrest and the Historic Downtown, and as long as the Pentacrest maintains its historic character, she believes that it is really important that the Downtown maintain its part too, which is so much of the character of Iowa City. Kuenzli said that she has put a few words together to start off the statement. She said, "We as the historic preservation commission approve and support the carefully considered and researched work that Alexa McDowell's firm has conducted in the creation of a nomination for a historic downtown district." Boyd mentions that he would want to include how much the nomination tells the story of the full history of the city through the lens of Downtown, and that the original oldest building there was built for the Capital. One of the original newspapers' covering the capital was a print house from the time Iowa City was the Capital all the way through the Pedestrian Mall fight. Boyd believes that this illustrates Downtown as the heart of the community and wants to include something about that in the comment from the commission. Bristow said that McDowell will present the nomination when the State Nomination Review Committee meets on October 9th. They will then discuss and decide whether or not the state will promote the nomination to the National Park Service, but they could also come up with some suggestions for changes as well. Since the time when the nomination was sent to the commission, there has also been a discussion about the attribution of the design of part of the Jefferson Hotel, so there could be some minor changes that are made between the review committee meeting at the state level and its submittal to the National Park Service. MOTION: Boyd moves that the commission recommend that the nomination move forward with the following comment: The Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission believes that this nomination tells the full history of downtown and our city from the Capital days through our urban renewal fight, and the Commission approves and supports the carefully considered and researched work that the firm of Akay Consulting conducted to create the nomination form for the Nomination of an Iowa City Downtown Historic District. The Commission believes that we have met Criterions A, C, and with careful consideration, Criterion G, has been fully developed. Sellergren seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0. E. HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND APPLICATION AND INFORMATION SHEET REVIEW AND UPDATE: Bristow stated that they have already had some internal discussion about historic preservation fund application and just wanted to update the commission. She showed the information side of their flyer for the Historic Preservation Fund and explained that it discusses the fact that they have grants and loans. Each year, they get new information about the median income, and they use 140% of the median income for their income limit for grants. Bristow said a discussion arose because, when this was developed, it was apparently written into the information sheet that no one could have more than one grant or loan for a fiscal year. Bristow clarified that it had never been the intent to limit it in that way unless they had to limit it due to the number of applications and the number of projects that came up. She explained that, all along, even from the very first year where it was implemented, they had actually approved more than one loan for eligible properties. These tend to have big projects that do a lot of extensive work, and where they can figure out a way to divide the work into two discrete projects. Bristow recalled the first one was overall prepping and painting, but then it also included reshingling with cedar shingles on the roof of a house. So, they have always allowed two, even though the information sheet did not accurately reflect that. Bristow said they have updated this section to include the fact that, if the proposed work is extensive and/or multiple projects are deemed necessary, two projects may be approved by the Historic Preservation Staff. The phrase "no more than one" was substituted with "no more than two" in regard to how many grants one applicant may receive, and that was the extent of the changes. Bristow further clarified that she is just making the Commission more aware of what they have been doing all along, but now the flyer has been updated to match the practices for the purpose of being transparent with the public about what they are doing. Bristow also mentioned that they might actually meet their cap of applicants this year for this Fall already due to the significant number of applicants last year who were just not able to get contractors to respond in time to get approved within the fiscal year. Some of those projects might not utilize the full $5,000, which could allow the acceptance of another applicant in the Spring. REPORT ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Certificate of No Material Effect - Chair and Staff Review. 917 Bowery Street - Governor -Lucas Street Conservation District (foundation repair and reconstruction) Bristow described the house at 917 Bowery Street as a Gothic Revival located on the huge lot on the corner of Bowery and Governor. She stated that she has been working with the owner for years, and they have done a few different projects in that time. Currently, the original limestone foundation is crumbling. In fact, there is a pile of rubble inside the basement. It is going to be repaired, and they hope to salvage enough stone so that everything above -grade will still be stone, but below -grade will be replaced with concrete block. 1110 East College Street - East College Street Historic District (roof shingle replacement) Bristow stated that this was approved right after the storm, but the house did not have storm damage. Rather, it is just a basic roof shingle replacement. REPORT ON CERTIFICATES ISSUES BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Minor Review - Staff Review. 0 331 South Summit Street - Summit Street Historic District (storm damaged attic window replacement) Bristow said this was storm damage that warranted a window replacement. They had spoken to the owners about the attic window in question before the storm, and whether they would use it for egress or not. It was two in -swinging casement windows that were comprised of 20 littles panes surrounding one larger pane. During the storm, it was destroyed by a tree, and Bristow concedes that it is beyond repair. It will be replaced as two individual casements like it was, so they will swing out instead of in. 904 Bowery - Governor -Lucas Street Conservation District (removal of non -historic Cedar Siding and repair of original siding and trim) Bristow said that 904 Bowery is clad in cedar shingles, even though it did not have cedar shingles as its original siding - the shingles are covering a lap siding. They hope that the lap siding is repairable, but they will just replace it to match if it is not. They know what the lap siding looks like because there is a three -season partially enclosed porch on the north side of the house that has its original lap siding inside. Kuenzli asked about the location of the original front door and mentions that this house is a real mystery. Bristow says that even from the fire insurance plans it is hard to tell what has been altered. Brown asked about what will be done with the windows during and after this process. Bristow replied by saying that are going to remove the cedar shingles and then remove a small piece of trim that projects forward to expose the size of the window and the width of the trim underneath, which might be the original width. Bristow said that they will have some damaged things to repair, and they will most likely have to reinstall that crown molding at the top of each window, which involves hiring a carpenter. This would make it a part of the staff approval process. There are a few other issues yet to be determined, such as if there is a trim board present and if there is the existence of a drip edge and/or a watertable. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR AUGUST 13. 2020: No discussion. MOTION: Kuenzli moved to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's August 13, 2020 meeting. Burford seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8-0. COMMISSION INFORMATION AND DISCUSSION: Burford informed the Commission about the community's loss of Carolyn Dyer, who was a long -serving member of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Dyer had strongly supported historic preservation and was well known in the community as the "Nancy Drew Queen" because, in the late 90's, she started having conferences about the Nancy Drew books. Burford claimed that Dyer really practiced what she preached, and that the last project that she was involved in was when she was on the board of managers for Iowa City Cohousing, who built Prairie Hill, which was Iowa City's first cohousing community. In addition to all of this, Dyer was very supportive of historic preservation, and Burford really enjoyed learning from her. Russett shared that the Art -Planning Travel Budget has been significantly reduced, and as a result the training opportunities for commissioners might not be happening this year. ADJOURNMENT: Brown moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Kuenzli. The meeting was adjourned at 6:52 p.m. Minutes submitted by Lauren Rails. W HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD 2019-2020 TERM NAME EXP. 9/12 10/1 11/14 12/12 1/09 2/13 3/12 4/09 5//14 6/11 7/09 8/13 9/10 0 AGRAN, THOMAS 6/30/20 X X X X X O/E X X X X - - -- BOYD, KEVIN 6/30/23 X O/E X O/E X X X X X X X X X BROWN, CARL 6/30/23 X O/E X BURFORD, HELEN 6/30/21 X X X X X X O/E X X X X X X CLORE, GOSIA 6/30/20 X X X O/E X X X X X X -- - -- DEGRAW, SHARON 6/30/22 O/E O/E X O/E X X O/E X X X X X X KARR, G. T. 6/30/20 X -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- - -- KUENZLI, CECILE 6/30/22 O/E O/E X X X X O/E X X X X O/E X KIPLE, LYNDI 6/30/22 X X X X O/E O/E X X X X X X O/E PITZEN, QUENTIN 6/30/21 X X X X X X O/E X X X X O/E X SELLERGREN, JORDAN 6/30/22 X X X X O/E O/E X X X X X X X WU, AUSTIN 6/30/23 __ __ __ __ O/E X X O/E X X X X X Item Number: 4.f. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Housing & Community Development: September 17 MINUTES FINAL HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 — 6:30 PM ELECTRONIC MEETING Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting is being held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. MEMBERS PRESENT: Peggy Aguilar, Matt Drabek, Lyn Dee Hook Kealey, Theresa Lewis, Kyle Vogel MEMBERS ABSENT: Megan Alter, Nasr Mohammed, Peter Nkumu, Maria Padron STAFF PRESENT: Brianna Gabel, Erika Kubly OTHERS PRESENT: Sara Barron, Cady Gerlach, Ellen McCabe, Martha Wichert, Christine Ralston CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Drabek called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: AUGUST 20, 2020: Lewis moved to approve the minutes of August 20, 2020. Aguilar seconded and a vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR TOPICS NOT ON THE AGENDA: Sara Barron (Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition) stated the Johnson County Affordable Housing Coalition will have their annual meeting next Thursday, from 4pm to 5pm on zoom, their speaker is going to be state senator Zach Wahls, who's going to talk about state legislative efforts and other work underway to secure more affordable housing throughout the state. Obviously, this has been a really challenging year for that. Many colleagues across the country are calling this a crisis on top of a crisis on top of a crisis, whether those three crises are the existing problem with affordable housing, the pandemic, and then one of any number of weather -related issues that people are facing from wildfires to derecho to hurricanes. So there's a lot of work to do and they're looking forward to setting their focus for the next year next Thursday from 4pm to 5pm on zoom and Barron shared the link to that meeting in the chat box. The second thing Barron wanted to share was that a group convened through Project Better Together and is working on a couple of things to increase knowledge about housing in Johnson County and Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 2 of 11 resources for landlords and tenants. In October, they're going to have some good information about the resources that are available and how people can access them and that might be of interest to HCDC Commissioners. OVERVIEW OF THE HOUSING TRUST FUND OF JOHNSON COUNTY: Ellen McCabe (Executive Director of the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County) presented an overview of their organization. McCabe said she has been in Iowa City for more than 38 years and has worked at eight not -for -profit organizations and volunteered at 11 other organizations and used to run the youth shelters in Iowa City 30 years ago. McCabe wanted to share where some of the funding that The Housing Trust Fund awards to housing projects also receives funding from HCDC. She stated they are not formally partners in this but they do a lot of work that crosses over. The Housing Trust Fund's mission is to promote and support housing that is affordable and their vision is that everyone in Johnson County should have access to safe, decent and affordable housing. They have two main programs, the program that pertains most to HCDC work is the revolving loan fund and then they also program the owner - occupied rehabilitation program, but this is for individuals outside of Iowa City since Iowa City has its own program. They have four funding rounds per year for affordable housing in The Housing Trust Fund and if they listened to Tracy Hightshoe's report Tuesday evening in front of the Council she talked about the one of the benefits of working with The Housing Trust Fund is that they are flexible and have four funding rounds per year, which allow applicants to put their irons in the fire when it's right for them. So flexibility is one of the key factors about The Housing Trust Fund. They support housing with financial backing when they create units of housing or when they preserve units of housing. So taking existing rental properties and keeping them affordable and providing needed rehabilitation. They also provide a limited amount of assistance for rent deposit in shelter facilities. McCabe stated they have a website that points applicants to information and the actual application that people fill out and guidance for their applications, including income maximums, deadlines, things like that. They currently have a funding round that is open with $1 million and the deadline for applicants is the first of October, and then before the close of October they should know the outcome of their application. McCabe said they look most importantly at the area median income (AMI). Housing wage is $19.44 an hour or $40,000 a year for someone to afford that two - bedroom apartment and only 10% of people who qualify for Housing Choice Vouchers are able to receive one. McCabe next showed the AMI levels for this year, including the wage that someone would need to make in order to qualify as low income, a one -person household is $10.21 an hour and people who make $55,000 a year as a single person are qualified as low income. McCabe next explained the types of outcomes that can happen when people apply, they can receive a grant and that's usually for the acquisition of projects or people who are below 30% AMI. People can also qualify for forgivable loans which is essentially a grant or a zero -interest loan or a low interest loan, 1 % to 2%. The Housing Trust Fund also charges that interest rate for the larger projects, the for -profit providers who are the LIHTC providers and so forth. They also have projects that take the form of grant or loan combination and some of the funding is forgiven and some is paid back. They have quite a few of those with The Housing Trust Fellowship and Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity. The operations committee suggests an amount to be offered based on the funds available and then the board of directors approves that amount and then they roll out the funding round with an email, on Facebook, on Twitter and a press release. There's a deadline for the applications in each round and the applicants are competing against each other. The distribution committee reviews the applications and makes recommendations to the full board and then the board determines the awards and then feedback is given to the applicants. The characteristics that influence outcomes are if the project is under 30% AMI, it's going to take precedence over a similarly situated project that's higher than 30% AMI. Also projects that benefit people who have another challenge, such as a disability will have favor over those that don't. The Housing Trust Fund values new partnerships and she'll show one of those later on in her presentation. The projects that are funded have to be viable, the numbers have to make sense, they have to have affordable rents and so forth and then have an appropriate term of affordability, they've been pushing projects to negotiate with them to say if they applied for a 10 year affordability, would they accept a 20 year affordability and so forth. The Housing Trust Fund is also looking for innovative projects. McCabe explained some possible outcomes that make the project not eligible for funding, perhaps they didn't consult with the executive director before putting in their application and it did not meet the standards or they're eligible for funding, Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 3 of 11 but the there's not funding available, so they would be encouraged to apply again. If a project is funded and the terms offered might differ from what's in their proposal, they get an award letter that states the terms being offered and then The Housing Trust Fund attaches contingencies to most projects that they have to secure the other funding or they have to meet the timelines or zoning, things like that in order for the project to get the actual funding. In terms of this past year, McCabe said The Housing Trust Fund received funding from a number of sources, Johnson County is their highest dollar funder at $654,800, then the City of Iowa City, then the City of Coralville and the City of North Liberty. Coralville and North Liberty have both increased their funding this past year and this current year. The Housing Trust Fund receives state funding, which is what kicked off The Housing Trust Fund way back in 2002 when state funding became available. They partner with the Federal Home Loan grant for rehabilitation outside of Iowa City on properties owner occupied, and then they also apply for other grants and donations. McCabe showed a summary slide of what's taken place this past year for Johnson County, they awarded $1.2 million but she put an asterisk by that because they actually awarded $850,000 more than that, on projects that did not advance their next steps with the LIHTC program. She noted the magic number is that $1.2 million is going to leverage almost $16 million or another way to look at it is for every $1 that's invested $15 ends up being added to the support for affordable housing in Johnson County. They will create or support 141 units of housing. In terms of Iowa City funding, McCabe showed how they spent it last year, they received $500,000 minus $25,000 for administration which left a balance of $475,000 to invest. They invested in two Project Next apartments, which created 32 units and Shelter House which is going to create 36 units at Cross Park Place to permanent supportive housing for people with chronic or who have been chronically homeless. So The Housing Trust Fund put in a total of $1.1 million which also they leveraged together $13 million with the Iowa City funding. Looking at how the money is invested, they created 85 units for housing under 30% AMI and that was 99% of the funding this past year, and $5,000 went to support two units between the 30 and 60 AMI level and $3,000 to support people between 60% and 80% through the Inside Out Reentry program. From the Iowa City funding 77% went to grants primarily to the Cross Park Place, the rest impacted Iowa City by supporting the Affordable Housing Coalition, they provided a $15,000 grant. They were the first in the state to use Iowa Finance Funding for capacity building that helped them increase their hours, increase their membership, increase their visibility and their impact with the manufactured housing task force. Over the last four years they received $30,000 and they'll receive that bump up again this year. For the Inside Out reentry program, most of the housing that they supported through rent and deposits was located in Iowa City, they helped 12 households with a $20,000 grant to help formerly incarcerated individuals who are participating in the Inside Out program. Over the last few years, they've provided almost $60,000 in grants and they're providing $20,000 again this year. In March when they realized that COVID was coming McCabe began to work with her board of directors and they created an emergency shelter grant funding round so they had an extra funding round and allocated $65,000 to help get people out of the shelter and help keep people from entering the shelter. DVIP applied and received $25,000, Shelter House applied for and received $40,000 for rental assistance, they've already spent their funding for 20 households with 36 people, 19 of those 20 households had incomes below 30% AMI. McCabe noted The Shelter House on Southgate is 10 years old so they applied for and received a loan for $36,900 to rehabilitate their showers and that should serve 70 people a day for 10 years. Shelter House applied for and received funding for the Cross Park Place 2 project to provide for permanent supportive housing, using the housing first approach, for 36 households with incomes below 30%. That project is going to leverage $5.5 million. A new partner is Unlimited Abilities, The Housing Trust Fund gave them $105,350 with a zero -interest loan, and they're going to have a house for five individuals. They picked out a property and hope to move in this winter. McCabe said they also have some awards prior to fiscal year 20 that are still hanging out there, they gave funding to purchase three lots for Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity so they're going to build three homes in Iowa City. There's a little stall on that project due to the COVID. They have a program with Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity to rehabilitate some homes. They have a program with Greater Iowa City Area Homebuilders to help senior citizens and people with disabilities. They have a grant program going with the City of Iowa City that she works with Kubly on. They have the Iowa City Co -Housing Program has some down payment assistance that was awarded to them years back that they haven't found the right tenants for, and then they have a bunch of Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 4 of 11 projects that leased up or are leasing up this year at the Next Apartments, there are 36 units, one, two and three bedrooms out on Herbert Hoover Highway, it's leasing up currently, they got a $775,000 loan from The Housing Trust Fund, which included some funding from Iowa City, and the overall project was $8.4 million. McCabe showed some pictures of inside an apartment at Next. The Housing Trust Fund gave Shelter house some funding for another fair weather lodge that's located in Iowa City for five people with chronic mental health issues. Finally, with The Housing Fellowship they funded units in Del Rey Ridge and it's currently leasing up 29 one and two bedroom units just south of downtown. They received an award of $800,000 loan from the Housing Trust Fund for a $6.7 million project. McCabe is also working with Shelter House to serve on the Governor's Recovery Housing Subgroup, which local homeless coordinating boards looking at livable communities focused on elderly. McCabe next discussed COVID-19 stating her board decided to offer loan deferrals to their loan partners. They have 50 loans that they service and they just knew that some organizations were going to be in trouble. One organization took them up on the deferrals with a with a number of loans, and another one is still considering doing so. They also offered that emergency shelter funding round, they don't know how this is going to impact housing, right now they are putting all of their efforts towards making sure that people know about assistance programs available and they're all working together extremely well. Additionally, they don't know what the impact of the storm is going to be, not necessarily here in Johnson County, but the affordable housing stock in Cedar Rapids and Linn County has taken such a hit, that they may have increased competition here. McCabe wanted to express her gratitude as they have an amazing group of volunteers on the board of directors and the committee's that do this hard work, and then the funding from the City of Iowa City just makes all the difference in the world to be able to make these projects happen. McCabe concluded by showing the impact of The Housing Trust Fund's work over the last 16 years, they've awarded $9.5 million, which has helped create affordable units of housing for 837 households. Lewis thanked McCabe for the awesome work they do in the community and wondered how the Commission could help get the word out there about the grants and the opportunities that The Housing Trust Fund provides. McCabe said the Commission can as they have in the past support the Council's decision to fund things. She noted The Housing and Community Development Commission gave up part of their funding for the LIHTC projects and went to The Housing Trust Fund to award the City's LIHTC funding which is 190 this year, which will be 380 next year. Vogel asked McCabe how many loans that they're currently servicing. McCabe said they are currently servicing 50 loans. Vogel asked what the standard repayment on those loans is. McCabe said it really depends, most of the rehabilitation loans are 10 years, the loans creating units is usually 20 years, and then the larger projects are 30- or 40-year projects. Vogel asked if they ever had any issues with loan defaults or with non -payments. McCabe said not very often, they had one partner who really struggled with Medicaid reimbursement, so they had to lengthen the term and change the agreements, but they've never had anybody default. Vogel asked if the money comes from the City is that money ever part of the loan process or is the money from the City just part of grant awarding processes. McCabe said most of the money would be a loan and all the principal comes back into the loan fund, they never touch the principal of any loan. Funds to keep the lights on and all of that comes from the interest income and the administrative funding specifically from Iowa City and Coralville and North Liberty and what they portion off as the administrative piece. Vogel asked if they know what the total amount of monies are held as a future liability or a future accounts receivable that The Housing Trust Fund has received from the City over time. McCabe said she can't parcel it off for the City but they have liabilities coming to them in the $8 million. Vogel is just curious because he thinks generally when a grant is being awarded from the City to an organization, it's for something very specific, but in The Housing Trust Fund's case, it's really giving money to give to somebody else that's going to give it back to you at some point, but that money never comes back to the City so eventually that money's just collecting compounding interest and compounding return on investment towards The Housing Trust Fund so he is just curious what those historical numbers are. 4 Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 5 of 11 McCabe says the board looks at the balance and takes all but $100,000 (because $100,000 belongs to The Housing Trust Fund, it was earned by the trust fund in another way and that's their emergency fund) and they put it all back into the funding rounds. So yes, some Iowa City money may end up in Coralville in the long run. Vogel acknowledged McCabe just raised another question because he was if they do not limit funds from the City being provided to builders or providers of affordable housing outside of City limits. McCabe said they do only use the Iowa City money the first time around for projects in Iowa City. Vogel noted but they don't keep track of that repayment of money in a separate account inside of the Trust so that when that money does get paid back in future use, it would also be only supplied to an Iowa City project. McCabe said that is not something they have done. Vogel noted there is something to be said about some kind of chain of record of knowing where funds that taxpayers and Iowa City have paid was for City programs and even long term when those monies are continuing to be reused are being used for Iowa City projects and not getting used outside of town. It's not that Coralville shouldn't have affordable housing either, but they should pony up for that kind of stuff on their dime as well. Drabek had a question about the total impact of growth over time. What is the maximum where they say they're doing all they can do. McCabe believes there is no limit, the beauty of it is they're not making the housing they're not hammering or managing the properties; the experts are doing that. Therefore, she doesn't see a limit. IOWA CITY COUNCIL MEETING UPDATES: Drabek noted it was presented it at their previous meeting to assign two commissioners per month to follow the City Council meetings and flag issues that were relevant to HCDC. Drabek said he followed the first September meeting fairly closely and from the one that was just a couple of days ago he jotted a few things down from the minutes but has not had a chance to watch the recording of the meeting. The issues he jotted down were things that were mostly relevant to Iowa Freedom Riders demands and the City Council's addressing those issues. He noted from the first September meeting, that the Council voted to eliminate one full time police officer role and establish in its place one full time victim service specialist role. The Council also deferred a resolution to purchase tasers. Council voted six to one to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Lewis said she did review the agenda from the first meeting in September and didn't find that there was too much. She was also able to watch most of the recordings of the September 15 meeting where Council did review the affordable housing report. The City said their COVID crisis relief efforts are going to continue with Community Crisis Services, Shelter House and Center for Worker Justice and they're providing some additional money there for them. Council reviewed the report and really talked about increasing density in in a variety of different neighborhoods and adopting some policy and implementing some South District Form Based Codes, which is what they had done with some of the current affordable housing issues and things done in the South District. At the end of the presentation there were a few questions about accessibility she thought were Interesting. What she got from the discussion was at least one of the City Council members was really concerned about accessibility and there was some concern about families being able to access some of the COVID relief funds for either rental support or utility support. There was a proposal made to talk to the current three nonprofits (Community Crisis Services, Shelter House and Center for Worker Justice) to see what their needs were for additional staff to be boots on the ground, to actually go out and do some engagement among marginalized communities to really get people to go and apply for that relief. So the plan was for the City to approach those agencies to see what they would need as far as funding to be able to have someone who could dedicate their time to go out and engage those communities and try and get people the support that they need. Lewis noted it may not be appropriate to bring this up now but in doing the agency visits, one of the agencies that she did visit today they discussed how the community is really supporting these neighborhood nests to support the school district for the online learning as well as when the hybrid learning would be in place. So if you don't know those would be places for kids to go to get some academic support for the times that their on the hybrid, that they're not in school, or even when they're on Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 6 of 11 their fully online classes, and they have those off days where it's kind of that unstructured time. So one of the things that she did find out today that Alexander Elementary, which is on the south side, has a pretty significant number of kids who are not engaged, have not enrolled or have not logged on and have not participated in online education. Therefore, there's a real need to have a neighborhood nest at Alexander Elementary and so she also found out that there have been some CDBG funding that went to a few agencies to support neighborhood nests, and wondering if HCDC wants to consider funding for a neighborhood nest at Alexander Elementary to really support that community. She acknowledged it's not directly related to housing, but when she did hear that some funding was used for other organizations to support some neighborhood nests it made her really think about whether or not they should really try to help the families and kids who are struggling in the southside neighborhoods, get some families and kids engaged in learning and really support them through this virtual time. Vogel agrees that is great and thinks the first step would be for somebody who wants to do the nest or run with the program to come to the City and ask for funds. Does anyone know if the City has been contacted for assistance with something on that side of town or Alexander related? Kubly said they haven't heard from anyone specifically from Alexander, but if anyone happens to know contacts, they could make sure they're on the outreach list when they have their next funding availability and can reach out to them directly. Lewis said that part of the coalition of a small group of individuals who's really pushing these neighborhood nests and working with organizations across Iowa City have reached out to Neighborhood Centers because Neighborhood Centers does a lot of after school care programs and some before school programs. They said they would be able to start right away and do a 12 week 8am to 3pm program at Alexander and really engage that neighborhood, it would cost around $20,000 but they'd be able to start it right away. She can get back in touch with people that she had contact with if there's some interest in this Commission to helping support that community and kids during this really crazy time. Vogel asked if they know what the school districts are doing regarding assisting with those funding such as using any of their empty buildings for this kind of situation. Does the City have some agreement or relationship with a shared space studio or what spaces would be available especially if the schools go back to hybrid in a week. Drabek asked Kubly and Gabel about this and what would HCDC do to support something like this. Could it be part of the funding rounds in October. Right now, they have no pot of money in front of them. Kubly said an allocation that went to 4C's was part of the first allocation of CDBG-CV funds and is going towards that nest that's in partnership with Dream City so they do currently have some funds that are going towards that project. She doesn't have a lot of familiarity with the other locations or needs or the buildings that they're using. The City is working with the State to get the second allocation of CDBG-CV funds and that went to Council on Tuesday and was approved. They were planning to use a portion of that fund to do another competitive round for agencies so they'll get more applications from providers that are participating in this, including like Neighborhood Centers and maybe Four C's again for longer term funding. They could prioritize this type of project with that funding and can always bring that to HCDC. Lewis asked if is that something that HCDC have to like and take a vote on. She is just concerned about the at -risk kids who within the first two weeks of school in elementary, haven't been engaged and aren't starting school online. Kubly said she doesn't think it's necessary to vote on because one of the barriers that they'd be experiencing is just timing of receiving the State funds and actually be able to do the allocations and then get it out to agencies, it's probably going to be a month at the best, so it's not going to be the most immediate situation. Lewis asked if there is something that they can recommend to Council as an action item to say as HCDC they're concerned and again, it doesn't have real relevance to the housing piece, but as a community trying to rally around what the school is, and the parents and the families are dealing with, and knowing M. Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 7 of 11 that there are some really high -risk kids and families that are not being engaged in education because of this, and what effects that will have on the community long term. Kubly said they could write a letter to Council, she would say that right now the priorities for our CDBG- CV funding include childcare, which is the broader education, and the Nest could be lumped into that category. Lewis said she appreciated that the funding is prioritized on childcare because the Nests fit into that, it's just that month timeframe for the funds is an issue and what would that look like depending on how things continue with a virtual versus going to the hybrid version. She would love to draft a letter for all of HCDC to review and then to send to Council. Drabek said anyone on the Commission can draft a letter whenever they want it doesn't guarantee that everyone will sign it, but anyone can draft one. Kubly noted they can also individually send a letter anytime but if you want to do it on behalf of the Commission it should be voted on. Lewis made a motion to send a letter on behalf of the Commission to request some more immediate funding to support nests. Keely seconded the motion. Vogel said he is still somewhat unclear as to what the purpose letter would be aside from just telling the Council that they're behind the idea of if a group comes forward asking for money, that they're pro giving them money, but he is still hesitant to make a pro giving money stance and they don't know what organization or group or program is even looking at asking the Council for funding. He is absolutely behind the idea of providing these services and if they can help fund those services, they should but it seems like it's a tough thing to try to recommend the Council to take a positive direct action on something when they don't know what the positive direct action would be. Lewis stated this specific request is for Alexander Elementary so the specific ask would be for Neighborhood Centers who would be willing and able to very quickly ramp up a neighborhood nest at Alexander Elementary, but they would need $20,000 to do it. Now whether Neighborhood Centers needs to adopt and put forth a specific proposal is something different. Her reason for bringing it forth was she knew that other neighborhood nests received some funding from our funding sources and there's a real need at Alexander Elementary due to a high number of families and kids that are not engaged there. Vogel asked what that does mean when they say they need $20,000, do they have a space in mind already, do they know where they would go. Other than Alexander Elementary he can't think of anything else over there where that neighborhood nest would have as a space. Lewis said she can explore to get more information and can just as a person, write a letter to the City Council based on what she finds out about what's happening in the community and they don't need to have a vote on it. Lewis withdrawal her motion. Gabel made a note that Vogel and Padron are looking at the October Council meetings. CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL PERFORMANCE & EVALUATION REPORT (CAPER) STATUS: Drabek stated the next agenda item the yearly CAPERs status which they would normally be looking at but he believes City staff are going to update them and tell them that they're not going to look at that for a while. Gabel confirmed and said the update is basically it isn't happening yet because HUD issued a waiver to give the City 90 days from their normal due date because there's so much up in the air right now. 7 Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 8 of 11 Vogel asked if staff could explain the CAPER to the newbies in the group. Kubly explained every year they do a report at the end of the fiscal year that outlines how they're meeting the goals that they identified in the Consolidated Plan, the Action Plan, the progress towards those goals and how they spend the money. It is a big overview of the year that is submitted to HUD. As part of that process, they'll do a 15-day public comment period and bring it to HCDC for approval before they send it on to HUD. The reason for the waiver is because they're getting additional funding that goes within that CAPER and can't close it out and move on. Vogel asked what the difference between the Action Plan and City Steps. Kubly explained the Action Plan is the one that they do before the beginning of every year and the City Steps is the five-year Consolidated Plan which is a broader planning process. REIVEW OF CITY STEPS (FIVE YEAR CONSOLIDATED PLAN) PRIORITIES: Drabek stated next in the agenda packets is the list of priorities for the City Steps five-year Consolidated Plan, this is for an open discussion and to give feedback on those priorities to staff. Kubly explained this is from the five-year Consolidated Plan and this Consolidated Plan just started in July. They did an amendment in May to include COVID related projects and now have that broad pandemic issue covered within the Consolidated Plan. This review is for if there are any changes in the community where they need to revise the priorities so they can fund projects to meet those needs. Vogel asked then if this is a discussion just about priorities or solutions to satisfy those priorities? He asks because he has a litany of issues that are revolved around how they expand looking at things for solutions to these priorities. He read through the entire plan, and obviously the thing close and dear to his heart is expansion of affordable rental and owner housing options. The problem he sees is that there's stuff in there like how to expand it, how to make private rental investment landlords provide housing to affordable housing to HCV to 30 and 40 and 50 and 80% AMI. There's discussion in the Steps Plan about having a discussion and looking at waiving rental permits or waiving license fees and that kind of thing. However most of the Plan is still aimed at the concept of nonprofit organizations or very much wrapped up in the tax credit stuff. Riverfront Crossings got its own special way to figure out AMI, whereas they're doing the 80/30 rule for HUD and HCV and everything else, suddenly they're doing 40% AMI for Riverfront Crossings just to make those numbers work. Vogel reached out to Steve Rackis and he said out of 431 entities who got HCV payments last month 30 of them are government nonprofit or tax credit properties. That means 400 current providers of affordable housing in Iowa City that are taking HCV payments and providing affordable housing to clients fall into that private landlord private residential owner. So the vast majority of housing being provided through that HCV program is coming from people who own a duplex, own a couple duplexes, own a house that they rent out and he thinks it does the City a disservice when they're not including those people in the Steps Plan. They're not reaching out to those people when it comes time to reduce their costs, whether that is something like when they get the housing inspection for an HCV tenant that gets marked and their rental permit license for the next year is waived. In the last 10 years, they've seen housing rental permit costs go up some crazy number like 80%, they've gone from every two years to getting every year inspections and then those inspections are on top of the HCV inspections that rental property owners have when a new HCV tenant moves in for the first time. Vogel stated there is no discussion at all in any of the Steps Plan about accessory dwelling units, and it's been 12 years since HUD put out their first case study showing how accessory dwelling units help single and low income housing and especially elderly housing and senior housing, and to add those to existing properties, without major changes to zoning or major changes to building codes, etc. Vogel wonders how they get that discussion started with City building and City zoning and City housing inspection and all that to get some real world assistance to the people who do own property and do pay taxes. He also acknowledged talking about some of the taxing properties are getting tax breaks and aren't even paying the taxes that the rental property owners are and in Iowa City rental property owners, apartment owners, have seen 16% higher reassessments of property taxes in the last five years and all of those costs add up. When they're trying to get people into houses they can afford, especially older houses, those costs have to at some point find a happy spot where private investors can provide the Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 9 of 11 housing they want to provide without the incredible expensive costs that they have to give that nonprofits and community associations and community organizations aren't having to pay because they're getting access to grants and funds. His point is how do they get that conversation going with building and the other departments of the City to get a Steps Plan that actually incorporates all available possibilities and not just this very limited outlook of taking giant amounts of money and helping a smaller amount of people versus more of the direct housing needs that people in Iowa City. Keeley added that one of the site visits that she did made her really think that the nonprofit organizations around the community, especially when it has to do with housing, are noting that so many of their families are just one crisis away from losing their house, from not being able to pay their bills, from just all out losing it all and having to look for alternative arrangements for themselves. The nonprofits are in the same boat, they're just one crisis away so how the Commission thinks about and uses their recommendations to the City Council is important. With everything that is happening right now, in the middle of COVID crisis, how do they think forward to the future to allow the City, the organizations and the families to think beyond just that one step away from a crisis to really getting to be sustainable. They really need to begin taking some good steps forward enacting some significant changes for the community and the families that they serve. In meeting with one of the agencies she asked them what they needed from the Commission their answer was to start thinking long term, help them get past just thinking one day at a time, one paycheck at a time, one budget cycle at a time and help them really get to be in a sustainable place. PROPOSED POLICY CHANGES TO 2016 EQUAL ACESS RULING: Drabek said the next item in the packet was a letter they're considering opposing HUDs policy changes around gender. This was brought to the attention of the Commission last month, the HUD change is to eliminating protections for transgender people. The commissioners stated they support the letter that was in the agenda packet. Vogel moved to support opposing proposed changes to the 2016 Equal Access Ruling by sending letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on behalf of HCDC. Lewis seconded the motion; a vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. COORDINATION OF JOINT FUNDING APPLICATION PROCESS: Kubly stated when Padron put this item on the agenda she did not know if she'd be able to draft a letter by this meeting, so she was just going to give a general update, but yesterday she was able to send that letter through. Kubly said her plan is to submit that letter tomorrow with the minutes from the last meeting, but Council won't meet again until October 6. HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT INFORMATION: Kubly gave an update on the CDBG-CV funds. They've got their first allocation out and agreements in place with some of the agencies that have been awarded funds and are working through some of the nuances with other agencies. They also got a second allocation of $686,000 in CDBG-CV funds, but it was through the State and that went to Council this week for approval. They are planning to do the same thing with this money, 60% will go to Community to do emergency housing assistance, and then 40% will go to the agency allocation round so people will be able to apply for those funds. They also found out last week that they're getting a third allocation of Cares Act CDBG money and that will be $424,000. Keeley asked for the additional 40% that they're going to allocate to agencies of that $686,000 that's not the same as the amount that was already funded, this is new, so it would be in addition to what they would already get as legacy agency funding. Kubly said it's not legacy funding, it is Cares Act money, so Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 10 of 11 they did an allocation maybe a month ago and agencies applied. Things like the 4C's nest project was one that got funded. With this new funding they will be able to apply for new projects or additional funding for the same projects. She added they do not know of any future monies from a future Cares Act, there is word of a potential new Cares Act that keeps going in and out of the news but there's no information at this point. Gabel pointed out the last thing in the packet was the 21-day Equity Challenge. The City Manager's office asked staff to send that out to all of boards and commissions. Gabel concluded by saying at the next meeting on the agenda they will be discussing CDBG projects without agreements. ADJOURNMENT: Vogel moved to adjourn. Kealey seconded the motion and a vote was taken and the motion passed 5-0. 10 Housing and Community Development Commission September 17, 2020 Page 11 of 11 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record 2020-2021 Name Terms Exp. 7/16 8/20 9/17 Aguilar, Peggy 6/30/22 O/E X X Alter, Megan 6/30/21 X X O/E Drabek, Matt 6/30/22 X X X Kealey, Lyn Dee Hook 6/30/22 X X X Lewis, Thersea 6/30123 X X X Mohammed, Nsar 6/30/23 X X O/E Nkumu, Peter 6/30/22 O/E X O/E Padron, Maria 6/30/21 X X O/E Vogel, Kyle 6/30/23 X X X ■ Resigned from Commission Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Vacant 11 Item Number: 4.g. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Human Rights Commission: September 15 Approved Minutes Human Rights Commission September 15, 2020 Electronic Formal Regular Meeting Zoom Meeting Platform Members Present: Ashley Lindley, Jessica Andino, Cathy McGinnis, Mark Pries, Jason Glass, Bijou Maliabo, Noemi Ford. Members Not Present: Adil Adams. Staff Present: Stefanie Bowers. Others Present: David Drustrup, Andrew Coghill Bernards. (Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of council members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19 Recommendation to Council: No. Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 5:31 PM. Approval of the July 21, July 28, & August 18, 2020 meeting minutes: Minutes of July 28 will be amended to show the vote on the recommendation. Minutes of August 18 will be amended to remove "to" and "process" will be changed to "progress" under Black Lives Matter statement. Motion by Pries, seconded by Andino. Motion passes 6-0. (Ford not present). Moving the Commission Meeting to the 4th Tuesday of each Month: The Commission had a majority present and decided to move their meetings to the 4t' Tuesday of every month. The reason for the change is to allow Commission members to follow City Council work sessions and formal meetings which occur on the third Tuesday of each month. Commission Statement in Support of Black Lives Matter: Commissioners will revisit this statement at each regularly scheduled meeting to document their progress on the items contained within it. NCJC Request to Modify SJRE Grant of FY19: This is a request to modify the grant to go to assisting ethnic restaurants/businesses in the South District. The request is to move funds from their original request to culturally specific food, gift cards, and local stores. The grant has $1200 left which would go to these funds. A motion by Andino, seconded by Pries. Motion passed 6-0. Lindley not present. 30th ADA Virtual Celebration: Staff requested Commissioners save the date for the event which runs from 2- 413M on Saturday, October 3rd. Staff did a video recording for the event on a person's rights under Iowa City's human rights ordinance to file a complaint. Fair Trade Town: The Mayor and City Council proclaimed the City of Iowa City as a Fair -Trade Town at their meeting on August 4, 2020. Screening of White Privilege or Cracking the Codes: The Center has a copy of Cracking the Codes that can be used by other Departments for a community screening. Staff will check to see if the Office has a copy of White Privilege and if so, what the requirements are to hold a public screening. Due to COVID-19, any screenings would be via Zoom or at an outdoor setting that allows for social distancing. Human Rights Awards: Commission staff will work with other City departments to advance recognition of Award honorees for 2020, since there will be no in person event. Lindley, Pries, and Glass will serve on the selection committee. Reconsideration of IFR Request for a Recommendation for Seats on the City Council: David Drustrup spoke on current feedback and agreed there is no monolithic voice for BIPOCs but noted that the right to speak on behalf of a certain group should be by those most affected by the problem, those most outside the system of power. The reason IFR deserves a place at table is due to the morality of the politic that has rendered them voiceless. The intention is to support the most marginalized. IFR wants to get the ball rolling more quickly. They don't want to delay any longer. Don't want to change anything that is happening but empower. IFR are excited about being on the other side of this. If they can work on the policy stuff, then can help assist in keeping this moving. IFR has tried to have meetings with Council members regularly because there is a communication gap. It feels slow they are lucky to get one -hour meeting with them now. Glass mentioned that his perception was much different and that he believes that the Council is listening they may not be agreeing to everything but are listening. Drustrup does not feel that there is not an opportunity to be in real discussion. IFR don't feel they are in a conversation. McGinnis appreciated the clarity IFR has done on some of their reasons but that it may be premature to make a recommendation like this when things have not been totally cohesive plan. By pushing it without that form it invalidates it if the planning does not go first. Further, the Council has been responsive to IFR. Their last meeting went past midnight. It is also important to remember that Council is dealing with several issues including schools opening, pandemic, the derecho, the deer hunt, and this is one item on a very busy agenda. Pries noted the urgency of this time is important. And has a lot of memories of when it was urgent in the sixties and did not wait for government. We need to have this vision. He likes that they speak to power (Council) but it is the grassroots. He does not know about amending the bylaws of the Council to allow for this. Subcommittees: Staff will assist the Housing subcommittee in arranging meetings with City staff who work in affordable housing. The Health Equity and Anti -Racism subcommittees have not met. Reports of Commissioners: Andino, attended the Implicit Bias Training Sponsored by the Office of Equity and Human Rights as did Pries. McGinnis, and Glass, attended City Council Listening Posts as it related to Police Chief selection. Maliabo, has been supporting immigrant and refugees who have been displaced by the Derecho in the Corridor. Meeting was adjourned at 7:24 PM. Member Attendance Sheet Member Term 1/21 2/18 4/21 5/19 6/16 6/19 7/07 07/14 7/21 7/28 8/15 9/15 Maliabo 1/2021 Present Present Present Excused Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present McGinnis 1/2021 Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Rochester 1/2021 Present Excused Present Present Present Present Present Present Excused Resigned Resigned Resigned Adams 1/2022 present Excused Present Present Present Excused Excused Excused Excused Excused Excused Excused Andino 1/2022 Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Ford 1/2022 Present Excused Present Excused Present Present Present Present Present Excused Present Present Lindley 1/2023 Excused Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Glass 1/2023 Present Present Present Excused Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Present Pries T/-2-0-23—FPresentl Excused Present Present I Present Presentl Present Present Present Present jPresent Present Page 2 Item Number: 4.h. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Library Board of Trustees: September 24 i I O A CITY ; . PUBLIC LIBRARY 123 S. Linn St, • Iowa City, IA 52240 319-356-5200 • icpl.org HOURS! Mon-Thurs 10-9, Fri 10-8, Sat 10-6, Sun 12-5 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Minutes of the Electronic Regular Meeting FINAL APPROVED September 24, 2020 Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of board members, staff, and the public presented by COVID-19. Members Present: Wesley Beary, John Beasley, Kellee Forkenbrock, Robin Paetzold, Tom Rocklin, Hannah Shultz, Monique Washington. Members Absent: Carol Kirsch. Staff Present, Elsworth Carman, Karen Corbin, Melody Dworak, Alyssa Hanson, Sam Helmick, Anne Mangano, Patty McCarthy, Stacey McKim, Brent Palmer, Jason Paulios, Angela Pilkington. Call Meeting to Order. President Beary called the meeting to order at 5:04 p.m. Public Discussion. Terri Byers said the library union presented a letter of intent to bargain to the City on 9/15. Byers said, the law changed about collective bargaining for employees in 2017. The Union must be recertified and AFSCME members must vote from 11/13 to 11/27. Johnk asked if there is a simple majority. Items for Discussion/Action. FY22 Budget Discussion. The budget has a kickoff meeting in early October. The first part of the process is checking our current capital improvement projects (CIP) and they are on track. We will add new CIP projects if necessary. Carman said department heads have not been instructed to cut anything specifically. Carman said there are two areas where we will allocate more; Facilities Services for cleaning supplies and PPE, and, if we plan to continue mailing items to patrons, an increase in our mailing budget. Johnk was surprised that we have not received a financial hit. Carman believes we may not be far enough from the closure to realize the effects from the pandemic. All the data is not in; the City is transparent and proactive and they will talk us through if changes happen. Carman anticipates the budget will look a bit different but does not know how at this point. Staff Reports. Director's Report. Carman pointed out this month would have been a CAS department report. It was deferred so Sam Helmick, our new Coordinator of Community & Access Services, can have a little bit If you will need disability -related accommodations in order to participate in this meeting, please contact Elyse Miller, Iowa City Public Library, at 379-887-6003 or elyse-miller0 cpLora Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. more ground under their feet. Carman welcomed Sam and expressed how glad we are to have them on our team. There was a brief conversation about library services beginning October 6. Departmental Reports. McCarthy said she has received 15 reservations at the $125 level. Please let her know if you did not receive the Window newsletter. In response to a question about how much of the $125 the library receives, McCarthy said $45 fair market value; $40 goes to Brix, $5 covers the cost of the event. Adult Services. No questions or comments. President's Report. President Beary reminded the trustees that the annual Iowa Library Association (ILA) conference takes place on Thursday, 10/15. Interested trustees should let Miller know. Announcement from Members. None. Committee Reports. The FY22 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Friends Foundation Board (FFB) of Directors and the Iowa City Public Library Board of Trustees was presented. McCarthy said this is an annual agreement that spells out the undesignated quarterly money the FFB donates to the library. The MOU was accepted at the FFB meeting. Paetzold asked about automatic withdrawals from credit cards; McCarthy said this can be done on the library website and that many people use automatic renewal. The MOU is informational only and is signed by the President of the Library Board of Trustees and the FFB president. Communications. Additional information provided by Susan Vileta from Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH). Paetzold said College of Medicine is now having staff use masks in addition to shields. Rocklin asked if anything in the HVAC information was of interest to our Building Manager, Brad Gehrke. Gehrke is looking into one of the light treatment methods. Paetzold asked about intake vents in the atrium lobby area. Carman said all intake units go through the building and then go out again. Carman stated we take this very seriously and continue to discuss it and when we hear new information, we look at it to see if the measures apply to us or need to be taken. Consent Agenda. A motion to approve the consent agenda was made by Shultz and seconded by Johnk There was no discussion. Motion carried 8/0. Set Agenda for October meeting. Special Meeting after October 6 roll out of new services, likely 10/8. Paetzold asked if we have a benchmark for using new services. We are using ICCSD metrics to build from. Paetzold asked if there is a plan for when the second spike comes. Carman believes the dial forward /backward model will assist with this. Policy review. Tom and Hannah will help Wes review these. Adjournment. President Beary closed the meeting at 5:37p.m Respectfully submitted, Elyse Miller I f you will need disability -related accommodations in order to participate in this meeting, please contact Elyse Miller, Iowa City Public Library, at 379-887-6003 or elyse-miller0iWi.o a. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. 2 Board or Commission: ICPL Board of Trustees ATTENDANCE RECORD 12 Month Me ing Date Term Name Expiration 5/7/20 5/28/20 6/11/20 6/25/20 7/09/20 7/23/20 8/27/20 8/27/20 9/10/20 9/24/20 10/08/20 10/22/20 Wesley Beary 6/30/21 X X X X X X X X X X X X John Beasley 6/30/21 X X X X X X X X X X X 0 Kellee 6/30/23 X X X O/E O/E X X X X X O X Forkenbrock Derek Johnk 6/30/25 O/E X X X O/E X O/E O/E X X X X Carol Kirsch 6/30/23 X X X X X X X X X O/E X X Robin Paetzold 6/30/23 X X X X X X X X X X X X Tom Rocklin 6/30/25 X X X X X X X X X X X X Hannah Shultz 6/30/25 X X X X X X X X X X X X Monique Washington 6/30/21 X X X X O/E X X X O/E X O X *March 26, 2020 meeting cancelled; beginning of COVID-19 pandemic KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Library Board of Trustees: October 8 Item Number: 41 lawwl IOWA CITY j% PUBLIC LIBRARY 123 S. Linn St. • Iowa City, IA 52240 319-356-5200 • icpl.org HOURS' Mon-Thurs 10-9, Fri 10-8, Sat 10.6, Sun 12-5 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Minutes of the Electronic Special Meeting October 8, 2020 FINAL APPROVED Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of board members, staff, and the public presented by COVID-19. Members Present: Wesley Beary, John Beasley, Kellee Forkenbrock, Derek Johnk, Carol Kirsch, Robin Paetzold, Tom Rocklin, Hannah Shultz. Members Absent: Kellee Forkenbrock, Monique Washington. Staff Present: Elsworth Carman, Karen Corbin, Alyssa Hanson Sam Helmick, Patty McCarthy, Anne Mangano, Elyse Miller, Brent Palmer, Jason Paulios, Angela Pilkington. Guests Present: None. Call Meeting to Order. President Beary called the meeting to order at 5:05 pm. Public Discussion. None. Update on Library Services. We transitioned from curbside to Lobby Grab & Go and now patrons come into the lobby where they are greeted, oriented to current services and safety protocols, and directed to the holds pick up area at the top of the lobby stairs. Appointments are not required. It is a bit early to know what the statistics will look like. Our primary concern was assuring staff felt supported. Thus far, patrons have been pleasant and happy to be able to come back into the building. There have been no belligerent refusals to wear a mask. Carman specifically identified Karen Corbin, Larry Parks, Angie Pilkington, and Mari Redington who staffed the desks the first morning. We are documenting the questions patrons ask us; most have been about early voting, browsing, study room access, and if the bathrooms may be used. Next Tuesday the Bookmobile will serve as a traveling hold pickup spot at different locations from 10:00 am to noon and 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm from Monday through Friday. Also on Tuesday, Tech Access begins from 10:00 to noon and 1:00 to 3:00 pm. We hope to minimize barriers to use by not requiring appointments to use the computers. Johnk asked how we are tracking inquiries and would like to know which services people are asking about. Rocklin asked about early voting and if If you will need disability -related accommodations in order to participate in this meeting, please contact Elyse Miller, Iowa City Public Library, at 319-887-6003 or elyse-millerCa kpl.org. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. there will be a separate entrance. We will use the exit doors from Meeting Room A; the Fire Marshal approved this. We anticipate lines for early voting, but having separate entrances should help. We will make resources available to help the voting volunteers ensure the space is safe and as pleasant as it can be for voters. We learned from our colleagues there will be restricted parking along S Linn Street between Washington and College throughout early voting. Signage will include a sidewalk sign at the intersection of Washington and Linn and signs under the current parking enforcement signs, all indicating the street parking is for early voting only. Carman will reach out to Stan's Barber and the law office across the street about this. We do not expect it to be too disruptive and will communicate the best we can and let the board know if there are any issues. Kirsch said the early voting line she was on was long and hopes for tremendous turnout. Director's Report. We welcomed more staff back from furlough to support Library Grab & Go and other library services. We plan to look at comparisons of curbside to lobby service using quarterly statistics. If you have ideas, email Carman. Home football game dates are set but not the times of the game. We expect that with limited access to the game the Ped Mall will be busy. There was discussion about whether to be open and/or if service changes are needed on game Saturdays. Rocklin thinks it is reasonable to think the Ped Mall will be busy. Paetzold asked about dialing services back to curbside for these Saturdays. This is still under discussion. President's Report. Beary stated the ILA conference is next Thursday. It will be recorded and viewable for 30 days post -conference. He suggested trustees consider attending and reminded trustees about the education component of their role. Beary said if you attend and would like to debrief afterwards, he is happy to coordinate. Miller will do the registration. Beary said attending live on Thursday, 10/15 might be challenging, but reiterated the recording will be available. Adjournment. President Beary closed the meeting at 5:23pm. Respectfully submitted, Elyse Miller If you will need disability -related accommodations in order to participate in this meeting, please contact Elyse Miller, Iowa City Public Library, at 319-887-6003 or eluse-millerPicpl.orq. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. 2 Board or Commission: ICPL Board of Trustees ATTENDANCE RECORD 12 Month Me ing Date Term Name Expiration 5/7/20 5/28/20 6/11/20 6/25/20 7/09/20 7/23/20 8/27/20 8/27/20 9/10/20 9/24/20 10/08/20 10/22/20 Wesley Beary 6/30/21 X X X X X X X X X X X X John Beasley 6/30/21 X X X X X X X X X X X 0 Kellee 6/30/23 X X X O/E O/E X X X X X O X Forkenbrock Derek Johnk 6/30/25 O/E X X X O/E X O/E O/E X X X X Carol Kirsch 6/30/23 X X X X X X X X X O/E X X Robin Paetzold 6/30/23 X X X X X X X X X X X X Tom Rocklin 6/30/25 X X X X X X X X X X X X Hannah Shultz 6/30/25 X X X X X X X X X X X X Monique Washington 6/30/21 X X X X O/E X X X O/E X O X *March 26, 2020 meeting cancelled; beginning of COVID-19 pandemic KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting Item Number: 4.j. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Planning & Zoning Commission: October 1 r N �`'.pfr CITY OF IOWA CITY = �xq 47 a', MEMORANDUM Date: October 19, 2020 To: Mayor and City Council From: Anne Russett, Senior Planner Re: Recommendations from the Planning and Zoning Commission At its October 1, 2020 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission have the following recommendations to the City Council: By a vote of 6-0 the Commissions recommends that the zoning code be amended as illustrated in the staff report to help invigorate neighborhood commercial districts and empower new small neighborhood commercial nodes by allowing the Board of Adjustment to provide flexibility from zoning regulations in certain commercial zones. By a vote of 6-0 the Commissions recommends to amend Title 14 Zoning to allow parking reductions of up to 50% of the required number of spaces through a minor modification process in the Mixed Use (MU), Commercial Office (CO-1), Neighborhood Commercial (CN-1), Community Commercial (CC-2), Central Business Service (CB-2), and Central Business Support (CB-5) zoning districts. Additional action (check one) No further action needed Board or Commission is requesting Council direction X Agenda item will be prepared by staff for Council action MINUTES FINAL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION OCTOBER 1, 2020 —7:00 PM ELECTRONIC FORMAL MEETING MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Craig, Mike Hensch, Phoebe Martin, Mark Nolte, Mark Signs, Billie Townsend MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: Sara Hektoen, Anne Russett OTHERS PRESENT: Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person is impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: By a vote of 6-0 the Commissions recommends that the zoning code be amended as illustrated in the staff report to help invigorate neighborhood commercial districts and empower new small neighborhood commercial nodes by allowing the Board of Adjustment to provide flexibility from zoning regulations in certain commercial zones. By a vote of 6-0 the Commissions recommends to amend Title 14 Zoning to allow parking reductions of up to 50% of the required number of spaces through a minor modification process in the Mixed Use (MU), Commercial Office (CO-1), Neighborhood Commercial (CN-1), Community Commercial (CC-2), Central Business Service (CB-2), and Central Business Support (CB-5) zoning districts. Hensch called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CASE NO. REZ20-0006: Commercial Reuse Exception Ordinance Consideration of the Commercial Reuse Exception Ordinance, which amends Title 14 Zoning to allow exceptions to zoning regulations for alterations and expansions to existing buildings due to building and/or site constraints in the Mixed Use (MU), Commercial Office (CO-1), Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 2 of 13 Commercial (CN-1), Community Commercial (CC-2), Central Business Service (CB-2), and Central Business Support (CB-5) zoning districts. Russett stated in terms of background, the City actually received an inquiry from a developer about a long vacant building located at 1120 North Dodge Street, and what was being proposed required flexibility from the City's zoning regulations. There are also other underutilized commercial properties that have experienced issues meeting zoning regulations due to existing physical and site and building constraints. The proposed amendment would support the reuse of existing buildings by providing flexibility from zoning regulations due to building and site constraints. There is existing flexibility incorporated into the Code now that provides some flexibility from zoning regulations. These are reviewed administratively through the minor modification process. There's also minor adjustments which staff can review in the Riverfront Crossings District and there are also some special exceptions that the Board of Adjustment can review for providing waivers to zoning regulations, particularly for historic properties. Russett explained this proposed amendment would expand upon those existing provisions in the Code. In terms of a summary of the ordinance, the goal is to address barriers for small scale commercial areas that have site constraints by providing flexibility from zoning regulations, so that means flexibility from parking standards, setback, lot coverage, etc. The focus is on lower intensity commercial zones that typically serve neighboring residences. It would allow alteration and expansion of existing structures, it would not allow the demolition of existing principal structures, and it requires the review and approval by the Board of Adjustment through a special exception process and there's specific approval criteria outlined in the draft. Next Russett discussed the applicability of the proposed ordinance, there are certain commercial zones that are eligible and certain zones that are ineligible. She showed there are six eligible zones, which are lower intensity commercial zones. The ineligible zones include Intensive Commercial zones, Highway Commercial, and the Central Business, CB-10 zone. Those three zones are higher intensity and have been excluded because they typically don't provide commercial uses to neighboring residential areas. In addition, the project must result in an alteration or expansion of an existing structure, it can't result in any demolition of a principal structure. Finally, the property cannot be designated as a historic structure and that's because there are existing Code provisions that provide flexibility from zoning regulations for historic structures. In terms of potential waivers, Russett noted the list is pretty extensive. The waivers that could be requested include waivers from specific approval criteria. These are approval criteria for specific land uses, for example, density standards for group living uses or requirements for multifamily uses. Also, approval criteria for accessory uses would be eligible. This includes things like drive setbacks for drive throughs, or size requirements for accessory retail uses, and will also allow waivers from commercial zone dimensional requirements. That includes things like lot size, setbacks, height, open space, as well as site development standards, both commercial site development standards and general site development standards. This includes things like parking area setbacks, screening, access, and circulation. In terms of general site development standards, this includes things like parking, landscaping, screening, outdoor lighting. Russett stated there are certain waivers that are not eligible for this request and that includes the minimum separation distance standards that are in the Code for drinking establishments, as well as separation distance requirements for adult businesses. Additionally there are sensitive areas ordinance and floodplain management regulations, and waivers from those standards could not Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 3 of 13 be requested through the proposed ordinance. The proposed ordinance also includes a list of specific approval criteria, Russett showed the approval criteria that staff would review the application against as well as the Board of Adjustment. All of these criteria must be met in order for the project to be approved by the Board of Adjustment. The first approval criteria is that the exception is necessary because of existing building or site constraints that make meeting the standard difficult. In addition, the exception must be compatible and/or complimentary to adjacent development in terms of mass and scale, open space, traffic circulation, general layout and lighting. The exception cannot adversely affect views, noise, storm water, light and air privacy from neighboring residences. The exception cannot be contrary to the intent of the standard and it must be in the public interest. Staff reviewed and did an analysis to identify the parcels that would be potentially eligible to request a waiver, and most neighborhood commercial areas are eligible. This includes the Northside Market area, Towncrest, Old Town Village and Pepperwood Plaza. There's also some other pockets of commercial that would also be eligible such as the area on North Dodge, for example, Hilltop Tavern. Russett noted this does not provide any flexibility from standards for businesses that are located in residential zones. She showed a city-wide map that shows some potential eligible properties, they are parcels that have a structure on them and no vacant lots are included and any properties that are historic or located in a historic district have also been excluded. Russett noted they can see from the map that there are some commercial areas that would be eligible that are not what one would think of a small scale or neighborhood oriented commercial. That includes the North Gate Business Park, as well as the intersection of 218 and Highway 1. In these cases, the amendment would rely on the approval criteria which would be evaluated on a case by case basis and they must address any compatibility standards related to surrounding properties. The burden of proof to meet those specific approval criteria is on the applicant and large-scale commercial properties may have a difficult time meeting some of those standards. Staff has reviewed this against the Comprehensive Plan and the proposed amendments supports the City Council's Strategic Plan, as well as several policies within the Comprehensive Plan related to encouraging compact and efficient development and a healthy mix of independent and locally owned businesses, and improving environmental and economic health of the community through efficient use of resources. The flexibility would allow existing commercial buildings to be efficiently utilized to promote economic activity throughout the community. Staff thinks that this would be primarily used by local businesses on unique infill lots. The role of the Commission tonight is to review the proposed zoning code text amendments and its consistency with the Comprehensive Plan and provide a recommendation to City Council. Staff recommends the Zoning Code be amended as illustrated in the staff report to help invigorate neighborhood commercial districts and empower new small neighborhood commercial nodes by allowing the Board of Adjustment to approve flexibility from zoning regulations in certain commercial zones. Hensch asked if the impetus for this amendment the strategic plan the City Council approved. Russet stated it is a combination of things. They've received inquiries for infill sites over the years that have had a challenging time meeting standards. The most recent one was a request for reusing the building on 1120 North Dodge. Hensch asked if all these waivers have to go to the Board of Adjustment or is there a process Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 4 of 13 where some of the minor modifications can just be administratively approved by staff? Russett replied the existing minor modifications will stay as is in the Code. However, the proposed amendment would require review and approval by the Board of Adjustment through a special exception process. Hensch asked if the maps Russett showed were for illustration purposes only or did they in fact contain all the applicable zones? Russett said they included all of the applicable zones and also removed any properties that were vacant. They wanted to show all those zones that were eligible that had existing structures on them. Hensch also asked about the stormwater waivers and would the Board of Adjustment be able to waive a requirement of the city engineer. Russett stated the stormwater management regulations are in a different title of the Code, and that would not be eligible under the proposed amendment because the stormwater management regulations are not in the Zoning Code. Signs noted Russett mentioned infill several times and are these special exceptions available on an empty lot and not just for reuse in properties that are reusing an existing building. Russett confirmed empty lots are not eligible. Craig questioned how this will affect things in the long term, if someone has a use, they have the property, they get the special exception, and everything goes fine with their commercial enterprise but six years later they're moving on, they've grown and they're going to a new building, or whatever. Is that building then available for a different use or do the people who want to use it for something else now have to come back and get a special exception as well. Russett said this ordinance isn't changing what uses are allowed in these commercial zones, it's just providing flexibility to specific standards, but not uses, and the special exceptions go with the property, not the ownership. Townsend asked if there is a property that's not on this list or map, how can they take advantage of these exceptions. Russett said if something comes available that's meets these requirements and is in an eligible zone with an existing structure and there's no demolition, if they meet the approval criteria, they could request a waiver. Townsend asked if there was a good neighbor held for special exceptions. Russett said it is encouraged and explained there's a public hearing, there's notification, there's signs, very similar to zonings and subdivisions. Hensch opened the public comment Hearing no comments, Hensch closed the public comment Nolte moved that the zoning code be amended as illustrated in the staff report to help invigorate neighborhood commercial districts and empower new small neighborhood commercial nodes by allowing the Board of Adjustment to provide flexibility from zoning regulations in certain commercial zones. Townsend seconded the motion. Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 5 of 13 Hensch noted he really likes this and thinks they need to find a way to work on neighborhood commercial. He hopes this is something that can really help entrepreneurs and developers to be able to reuse some of these properties, particularly in the neighborhood commercial areas. Townsend agreed and noted there are a lot of places that are vacant now and it would be nice to get them filled up. Especially the Marketplace Mall, it is such a big, beautiful mall, and there's nobody in it. Signs agrees that there's a lot of vacant and underutilized properties in quite a few areas and unfortunately, there's a chance that they'll see more vacant properties in the in the near term so making it potentially easier for a new person to come in and start a new business is a positive thing. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. CASE NO. CREZ20-0007: Parking Reduction in Commercial Zones Ordinance Consideration of the Parking Reductions in Commercial Zones Ordinance, which amends Title 14 Zoning to allow parking reductions of up to 50% of the required number of spaces through a minor modification process in the Mixed Use (MU), Commercial Office (CO-1), Neighborhood Commercial (CN-1), Community Commercial (CC-2), Central Business Service (CB-2), and Central Business Support (CB-5) zoning districts. Russett began with background stating this again is related to barriers to infill development and minimum parking requirements can be a barrier to developing and redeveloping infill commercial properties. Russett stated this would apply to vacant lots and the proposed amendment could support the development of vacant infill commercial lots by providing reductions to parking standards. Russett noted there are some existing provisions in the Code that provide reductions to parking standards but there are also gaps, which this amendment is trying to address, the Code often does not apply reductions to multifamily parking for mixed use development in commercial zones and sometimes the reductions are limited to small amounts that wouldn't be beneficial for commercial properties. In terms of a summary of the proposed ordinance, staff is proposing to replace an existing provision in the Code that applies to CNA Zones, the Neighborhood Commercial Zone, which was adopted in 1995 and it allowed land banking to reduce parking. Russett noted how that provision is structured is that it allows reduced parking to promote neighborhood commercial uses. It could require that up to 30% of the land that would otherwise be needed for onsite parking remain as open space and then if that area was needed in the future, the City could require the owner to construct the parking. The CNA Zone is not heavily utilized throughout the City and staff did a search and couldn't find any examples of this provision ever being used since it was adopted in 1995. Therefore, staff is proposing to get rid of that land banking requirement and revise it to allow a reduction that would be available for new construction, redevelopment, alteration or expansion of projects for residential and commercial uses within again, similar to the last ordinance, these lower intensity commercial zones. This would not apply to the Central Business District Zone or Intensive Commercial or Highway Commercial. The parking reductions could be requested for both commercial and residential uses, up to 50% of the required parking Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 6 of 13 could be waived, no land banking would be required and it would be reviewed through the City's minor modification process which is an administrative staff level review but does require notifying neighbors of the request and an administrative hearing. Staff has identified some approval criteria that they think would be appropriate for staff to review in any requests for parking reductions. To ensure that this really assists smaller scale neighborhood commercial buildings, they want to limit the footprint of those buildings to 5000 square feet. They would like the applicant to submit a parking demand analysis that demonstrates the proposed parking will meet the demand. Also the ordinance would protect historic, or potentially historic structures by not allowing their demolition. Again, staff looked at the areas that could be eligible to request a parking reduction and it includes Pepperwood Plaza, Old Town Village and it would also be useful in areas where commercial lots remain vacant, like 2229 Muscatine Avenue and 620 South Riverside Drive. Russett showed a couple maps that showed the parcels that have the eligible zoning district. It includes vacant lots and includes lots with structures on them. Russett noted similar to the last ordinance, there are some commercial areas that are eligible but may not be areas that one would think of as smaller scale commercial, like the North Gate Business Park, and if a request for reduction was requested and it would rely on a case by case review and building size limits that staff would review by each request. Some of the benefits are it would reduce costs of businesses, it could potentially encourage other modes of transportation, it would be less impervious surface and less runoff and a more efficient use of the site. The proposed amendment does support several Comprehensive Goals and strategies as well as the City's Strategic Plan and Climate Action Plan. The role of the Commission is to determine if the proposed amendment is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan and make a recommendation to Council. Staff recommends the Commission recommend approval of the proposed ordinance as presented in the staff report. Hensch asked on the parking demand analysis, is that just something as simple as they could just give like a prediction of their parking demands or the historical parking demands, or would they need to retain a consultant to develop that. Russett said it wouldn't be required but the ordinance will give staff flexibility to request a more robust study if they felt it was necessary based on the proposal. Hensch asked if there is anything the MPO does, because they do all that traffic analysis, in terms of a parking analysis or where do those numbers come from. Russett replied the applicant has to provide it. Hensch then asked if there's retail on the first floor and housing units on the second floor is that taken into consideration to make sure there's enough parking provided for residents, could they decrease those numbers. Russett said the applicant could request a reduction up to 50%. Finally, Hensch asked if the environmental improvement is simply because of the reduction of impervious pavement. Russett replied that is a benefit but it can also potentially mean more people might bike or walk and therefore could be help with emissions if there's less car traffic. Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 7 of 13 Hensch opened the public comment. Having none, Hensch closed the public comment. Craig moved to amend Title 14 Zoning to allow parking reductions of up to 50% of the required number of spaces through a minor modification process in the Mixed Use (MU), Commercial Office (CO-1), Neighborhood Commercial (CN-1), Community Commercial (CC-2), Central Business Service (CB-2), and Central Business Support (CB-5) zoning districts. Townsend seconded the motion Hensch stated he thinks this is a great idea as he thinks they really need to decrease the amount of concrete and the creation of stormwater runoff and find ways to green the City and this is a way to do it. Martin stated she is always in favor of less parking, because she likes encouraging less driving but also wants to be on record that she hopes the City is also looking at bettering the bike lanes, and some sort of patrol to make sure that cars are respectful of those bike lanes. She really hopes that this spurs a further conversation about making sure that the City does have the connectivity that they've been talking about for years, whether it's pedestrian or bicycle, a further conversation does need to happen. Overall yes, she wants less parking and less concrete but to not forget the big picture. Townsend respectfully disagreed with Martin, for example on Muscatine there is not a lot of places to park, there is a CVS and a Walgreens but as far as on -street parking, there is none for any small business, and biking is not always an option for more mature individuals. She agrees there is a need for both, yes they need safety for bicycles and safety for walking, but also places for those who do still drive to be able to park and not have to walk a mile to get to those businesses. Signs stated he has been on record before expressing his concerns about the continued parking reduction efforts throughout the community. He is not a bike rider but looking at some projects where things have been put in with parking reductions such as what happened on South Gilbert around Big Grove Brewery has caused issues. Also on Summit Street, he has seen issues around Deluxe Bakery when it's busy, therefore a 50% reduction concerns him. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. DISCUSSION ON THE GOOD NEIGHBOR PROGRAM: Russett discussed the staff memo regarding the Good Neighbor Program. She explained it a voluntary approach to ensure that there's dialogue between the development community and neighboring residents. She reiterated it's a voluntary program that the City encourages developers to do. Russett stated it is the applicants meeting, but they coordinate with City staff. The Good Neighbor Program was created in 1998 and in 2013 the program was reviewed by staff and they recommended that it maintain its voluntary status and the Council agreed. Last Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 8 of 13 year, staff reviewed the Good Neighbor Program and came up with the same conclusions that it should be voluntary, and that staff should continue to work with applicants on encouraging these meetings. When the Commission discussed this at their meeting in August there were four recommendations that came out of that meeting. The first is that that the Good Neighbor meetings should be required for most land development projects but there may be some exceptions, and that in some cases, a second Good Neighbor meeting should be required such as if it spans multiple years; second that staff should look at ways to notify renters in addition to property owners; third they should increase the notification radius from 300 feet to 500 feet; and fourth that they should ensure that there's coordination with neighborhood associations. First Russett wants to discuss voluntary versus mandatory. Staffs thoughts on a mandatory meeting is that if they go the route of having a mandatory program then they need a clear policy that's easily understood, that it's limited to projects that have the most impacts, which are changes to land use policy, so Comprehensive Plan amendments, or rezonings that are project specific, staff would not recommend mandatory meetings for more technical reviews, such as subdivisions, or vacations or the applications reviewed by the Board of Adjustment. Russett showed a slide to outline what they would specifically require. They would want to see mandatory meetings for annexations and maybe a second meeting for annexations if there were two rezonings that were associated with that. Their thought on that is typically when land comes into the City it's rezoned to an interim development so there might not be any development project in mind at the time, there might not be a concept, that might come later and at that time there should be another rezoning Good Neighbor meeting held. In addition, they could be required for a project specific Comprehensive Plan amendments and associated rezonings, but again not for subdivisions, vacations or Board of Adjustment applications. In terms of notifying renters and the notification radius, staff supports the Commission's recommendation to increase it to 500 feet and they also want to work to notify renters. They are however concerned with the amount of staff time that it could potentially take to notify renters so they want to limit it to notifying those where the data is easily available to staff through the assessor's site. Lastly, if they increase the notification radius for Good Neighbor meetings, this is also going to impact the letters that staff sends out in advance of Planning and Zoning Commission meetings. Those radiuses need to be the same so if they increase the radius to 500 feet for Good Neighbor meetings, they need to increase the radius to 500 feet for the mailings that staff sends out. Staff looked at a couple examples to figure out how that increase would affect the number of letters and mailing cost. With a downtown example, because of the density of downtown, the increase in letters seems like a lot, from 300 feet just being property owners, it's 93 and at 500 feet and including owners and residents, it's 508. The increase in the number of letters and the increase in the cost and postage is a lot and that would take quite a bit of staff time. They don't have administrative staff support for planners available for that so planners and interns would have to do that, but it's probably manageable. In terms of additional notifications, staff will continue to work with their neighborhood outreach coordinator to notify the neighborhood associations and they will continue to post signs. Russett added they also have a new customer self-service portal that was launched a couple months ago, it's publicly available, and it is a website to search for projects that are going on in the City. They'll continue to use that as a tool and also look at ways to improve electronic notifications. In summary, Russett noted staff supports some changes to the Good Neighbor Program to help ensure that more people are aware of proposed development projects in their neighborhood, but Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 9 of 13 they do have some concerns on how the changes could impact staff times. Based on experience, they have been able to work with applicants and applicants have been willing to hold good neighbor meetings when they're proposing a project that is a larger scale and has a greater impact. Staff also feels that they need input from the development community on this if they're going to make it mandatory. It would also require a Code change. Additionally, staff hasn't really heard one way or the other from members of the development community on this proposal. Russett reviewed the pros and cons, the pros are that more people would be notified, it would clarify the expectations of the Planning Commission, and they have a clear policy. Some of the cons are that it is an additional requirement for the development community that they've typically been willing to do when it's voluntary, it could increase the time for review of these applications, it's going to increase staff's time on administrative tasks, and there is going to be some financial budget impacts to the City in terms of postage. Townend asked how the Good Neighbor Meetings would affect areas outside of the City and into Johnson County if the radius was enlarged to 500 feet, would the County people be informed as well. Russett confirmed they would. Hensch stated he really likes the recommendations staff developed and concurs that since they're asking for the increase in communication with neighbors, they should also make sure they're communicating as well with the development community, to let them express their thoughts on this also. He just wanted to add for the long term members of the Commission this is just a recurring problem, they've heard so many times people saying "they weren't made aware of these developments, or applications as they're coming through" and he just feels like they really need to find a solution to it or address that issue. He does like the way staff have to address this. Hektoen noted it's worth pointing out to that the State Code allows if 20% of the property owners within 200 feet of the property to object to a rezoning and that objection could trigger a supermajority approval at the Council level, and this will in no way impact that requirement. This won't give anybody any greater rights to require a supermajority vote. Signs asked if staff is recommending making the meetings mandatory in limited circumstances. Russett said if they're going to the mandatory route, they need a clear policy. What concerns her is requiring two meetings in certain instances based on the time period of the project, that would require monitoring the project and how long it's been going on and if they need to have another Good Neighbor meeting, she doesn't want staff to be spending time doing that. If they're going to require it, it should be when these major changes are proposed related to land use. Hensch agrees and wrote a note down on the annexations because typically the land use doesn't change on those so he is not sure that's particularly important but the second land use change is the important one. Notifying people that land is getting annexed into the City is important, but he is not sure that Good Neighbor meeting is quite as necessary in that scenario. Additionally, Hensch is very sympathetic to the demand on staff time and if the time comes, they certainly can make a request that the City has additional staff. Signs would certainly support tacking on just a recommendation that the drain on, or the change on staffs time be monitored and that the Commission acknowledges there may need to be staffing adjustments to accommodate these changes. Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 10 of 13 Hensch noted one thing he thinks they've learned, or heard loud and clear in the recent community protests, is people want to have a voice, and people want to be heard so it's our responsibility as community representatives to amplify that. Hekteon stated another option might be to increase the application fee, maybe to absorb some of that actual cost that the City is going to incur. Hensch would certainly endorse whatever recommendation staff gives to assist with the additional staff time and costs because the answer isn't just to keep giving more tasks to staff and they want to be very sensitive to that. Townsend stated however, in the long run with the Good Neighbor meetings they get to find out what the neighbors are thinking and if there are concerns before something that comes up at a Commission meeting. The Commission only gets one side of the story unless they hear from those neighbors that are going to be affected by it, yes it's more work but in the long run it'll save all a lot of time and a lot of headaches. Hensch agrees and thinks it is actually to the developer's advantage to have good communication with the neighbors but not everybody sees it that way. Townsend had a question about in the memo where staff talk about next steps, to make this mandatory it would require an amendment to the City's Zoning Code but the rest of this, like expanding from 300 to 500 feet is purely administrative correct, so what does the City Council have to approve to begin making changes. Russett confirmed to make it mandatory they would need a Code change. Regarding radius the standard now is 300 feet but there are several examples of Good Neighbor meetings where they worked with the applicant, and they've expanded that radius. So even though they don't technically require 500 feet, staff is always asking them to do more. Townsend asked though if they're going to codify 500 feet she wondered if the Council had to do that before staff could start requiring it, but it appears it is an internal thing and staff is already suggesting it to applicants. Russett said they have a published pamphlet that sets forth the Good Neighbor policy so it is articulated in a public manner and provided to the developers. In terms just amending the policy itself that could be done and Council does need to adopt the policy, but it's not an ordinance, it would just be approval of a resolution. Townsend asked what action is needed tonight to endorse what the staff has recommended. Russett said staff is going to have to take this to Council for their feedback. The last time they discussed the Good Neighbor policy the discussion ended up at Council, she is not sure if it will get on a work session as they have a very packed agenda lately, but she can keep them posted on that. Townsend had one more question regarding sending out the notices to the renters, if they don't have to have the names of the renters can they just send it to the addresses. Russett agreed they could. Signs feels like they need to make a recommendation or endorse a proposal or something to Council so that it gets action and they resolve this issue, because it does seem to be kicking the Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 11 of 13 can down the road here for a couple years. He thinks it's incumbent on the Commission to make a recommendation to Council. Hensch stated because Council's agenda has been really packed lately perhaps the Commission should put it on the agenda for another meeting and discuss it again briefly and make a recommendation to take to an informal Council meeting to get direction from them when their agendas are a bit less packed. Hensch opened the public hearing. Hearing no comments Hensch closed the public hearing. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: AUGUST 20, 2020: Townsend moved to approve the meeting minutes of August 20, 2020. Signs seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. PLANNING AND ZONING INFORMATION: Hensch first wanted to acknowledge how very surprised and saddened he was to hear of the quite unexpected death of Carolyn Dyer a long-term Commission member. She was always looking out for the little person and the Commission could really appreciate her input in her presence. Russett gave an update on the Forest View project, in terms of the proposed development, there's nothing new to report. The rezoning was approved last year but they still need approval on their preliminary and final plat as the City has requested some additional information from the applicant but hasn't received it. Russett did want to let the Commission know that the City has provided some funds to the Forest View Tenants Association to help them weatherize their mobile homes for the winter. Additionally, toward the end of this month the property owner is going to start removing some of the abandoned mobile homes from the property so there may be a little activity in that area, but it's not going to be related to the project. Next Russett discussed the South District Form -Based Code, it is an ongoing project. They got a revised draft of the Code from the consultant in July and they've been working on reviewing it and have provided some comments back to the consultant last week. As soon as all their comments are addressed and they have a workable code they can release that to the public. Lastly, Russett stated the conditional use permit for the kennel in the unincorporated area that the Commission recommended against at the last meeting, the City Council actually ended up recommending approval of that with one additional condition related to incorporating sound deadening material between the outdoor exercise areas and the adjacent residential properties. Therefore that'll have to come back to the City and they'll review at the staff level. Planning and Zoning Commission October 1, 2020 Page 12 of 13 Signs asked about the new self-service portal and wondered if at a future meeting where they didn't have a really full agenda, staff could give the Commission a quick tour of that. Russett agreed. ADJOURNMENT: Nolte moved to adjourn. Signs seconded. A vote was taken and the motion passed 6-0. PLANNING & ZONING COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD 2020-2021 DYER, CAROLYN HENSCH, MIKE MARTIN, PHOEBE KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Not a Member Item Number: 4.k. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Public Art Advisory Committee: September 3 FINAL MINUTES PUBLIC ART ADVISORY COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 3, 2020 5:30 PM ZOOM MEETING FORMAT MEMBERS PRESENT: Andrea Truitt, Nancy Purington, Ron Knoche, Juli Seydell Johnson, Dominic Dongilli, Eddie Boyken, Jan Finlayson MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Miller, Tonya Kehoe STAFF PRESENT: Marcia Bollinger, Wendy Ford PUBLIC PRESENT: Jean Littlejohn, Family Folk Festival, Jeff Capps, Kelly Moore, Will Kemple - Taylor, Iowa Children's Museum, Jason Snell, Multimedia Artist, Stephanie Miracle, UI Visiting Dance Professor, Nora Garda and Eloy Barragan, Iowa Dance Festival, Dawson Davenport, indigenous local artist. Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 29.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of Commission members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. CALL TO ORDER Truitt called the meeting to order at 5:34 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA There was none. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES OF THE AUGUST 6. 2020 MEETING Seydell Johnson moved to approve the minutes, Purington seconded. Approved unanimously. INTRODUCTIONS All members of the committee as well as the public introduced themselves. REVIEW OF PUBLIC ART MATCHING FUND APPLICATIONS Black Hawk Mini Park — Dawson Davenport Bollinger explained that she had previous conversations with Davenport about the location of the proposed mural. The proposed building has had numerous windows installed on the side of the building since the old mural was installed. Davenport explained that he hasn't had chance to look closely at the area but felt that it would valuable to reeducate the public on the history of the space and why it was named the Black Hawk Mini Park. Bollinger agreed that she is has frequent conversations referencing the location as the Black Hawk Mini Park and feels that an effort to provide that the history of the location in some form. Ford mentioned that the Iowa City Downtown District identifies the area as the Black Hawk Mini Park as well. Truitt mentioned that possibly a self -standing panel of some kind could be installed to provide space for the mural. Donegal asked about the existing wall located at the SW corner of the park area. Ford mentioned that it was a story wall that highlights the impact some Iowa City residents have made in the community. Staff will work with Davenport to look into alternate opportunities in the space and apply for Public Art Matching Funds at a later date. Knoche asked about the budget and proposed schedule for the Matching Funds and how much money was available. Bollinger reviewed that there was $25,000 available for FY20/21, the committee committed $7000 in July and applications currently under review total $11,500. There would be a minimum of $6500 available for a next round of funding — possibly November or after the first of the year to align with spring/summer projects. Family Folk Machine — Jean Littlejohn Littlejohn explained that the pandemic has prompted the Family Folk Machine to restructure their focus on live performances to a more virtual or recorded venue. The transition to an electronic venue is something they are not used to doing so others need to be brought in to assist with that process. Purington asked about the budget as described in the applications. Littlejohn stated that much of the funds that are mentioned are part of the larger activities of the Family Folk Machine. Jason Snell Knoche asked Snell about how the timetable of the project might need to be adjusted due to a delay in the replacement of the power poles by MidAmerican Energy. Snell acknowledged that delays were very possible and he is flexible in the schedule of the concerts that occur. He added that he may be able to secure additional funds to host more than one concert. Site, Sound and Space — Stephanie Miracle Miracle described the project as being a multi -media, sensory experience for the participants and is focusing on the use of the Chauncey Swan Parking ramp as a possible location to start the experience. She also stated that the project would be something that could be experienced numerous times but ever changing as the environment changes. In order to keep costs low, there will no live performances. Barragan asked for some clarification about how participants can experience the project. Miracle explained that the program can either be downloaded through an app or a QR code. ICM — Eye See `Em Capps explained that the project grew out of previous funded projects that got started but needed to restructured to something more accessible, safer and an i ntergene rational experience. They also wanted to focus efforts on downtown Iowa City. Truitt asked about the potential for spreading germs with the found objects. Moore explained that the found objects would all be behind plexiglass so there would be no handling involved. Donegal added that he loved the concept of a "Courtyard of Curiosity". Purington asked about schedule and Capps stated they were ready to commence this fall. Knoche asked about the ability of the kiosks to withstand the impact of downtown atmosphere and ability for them to get carried off. Kemple- Taylor stated that the structures were 4' x 4' cubes, and 2"x4" framing with plywood covering so fairly heavy. Capps stated that the kiosks could be moved from place to place. Iowa Dance Festival 2020 — Nora Garda and Eloy Barragan Garda explained that the Dance Festival are planning to perform at the Iowa City Airport as a drive-in performance. Participants would stay in their cars to enjoy the show in a safe, socially distanced venue. The space is very large and can accommodate up to 30 vehicles. Barragan explained that the music would be broadcast through KCCI radio so the audience will be able to hear the music. The entire show will be 60 minutes. Purington asked about access and visibility at the proposed location. Barragan explained that the location is located nearer to Riverside Drive and near an airport hanger that has a large paved area. The cars would be parked in a U shape in one row so everyone can see easily. The committee convened for further discussion regarding the funding levels. Seydell Johnson moved that the committee approve all the applications in full except for the Black Hawk Mini Park. Finlayson seconded. Purington expressed concern regarding to the Iowa Dance Festival application regarding the appeal of the type of music and dance that they present. She also stated that she felt the project would get funded regardless of the public art matching funds. A discussion occurred regarding University projects applying for City funds. Truitt suggested that a larger conversation should occur regarding the concern of University involvement. The committee voted 6-1 (Truitt lost connection and did not vote) to approve the following: • Black Hawk Mini Park - defer for further discussions with Davenport and upcoming Matching Fund opportunities • Family Folk Machine $1,000.00 • Synesthesia $2,000.00 • Sight, Sound, and Space: Where in the world are we? $2,000.00 • The ICM "Eye See 'Em" Experience $2,000.00 • Iowa Dance Festival 2020 - On the Street Drive IN $2,000.00 Total - $9000.00 CONTINUED DISCUSSION REGARDING FY21 PROJECTS Bollinger explained that the committee should focus on determining the locations for two projects decided at the August meeting. Sculpture Garden/Trails • Court Hill Trail • Riverfront Crossings Park Trail Community Garden Art • Kiwanis Park • Walden Green Park Purington motioned to approve Riverfront Crossings for the sculpture garden. Finlayson seconded. Approved unanimously. The committee then moved on to a Community Garden Art site. Finlayson moved to approve Kiwanis. Purington seconded. Approved unanimously. Bollinger suggested that committee members visit Riverfront Crossings Park and consider locations for sculpture pads. Seydell Johnson stated the neighborhood input should be gathered for the Kiwanis Park project. Finlayson offered to connect with Judy Pfohl, the neighborhood president about the opportunity for the project. The process for the project was discussed a bit and it was decided to pursue that after contact with the neighborhood occurred. Making the RFP's for either project until the artist's registry was finalized was supported by the committee until PUBLIC ART STRATEGIC PLAN — ESTABLISH SUBCOMMITTEES TO ADDRESS GOALS AS OUTLINED IN STRATEGIC PLAN Bollinger reviewed the subcommittees and reviewed the interest of the committees. She will follow up with an email to finalize. ADJUSTING MEETING TIME Bollinger stated that she heard from Donegal that he would not be able to meet at an earlier time this semester. An adjustment could be reconsidered early next year again if there was still interest. COMMITTEE UPATES Purington asked if a rotating sculpture garden could be considered in the future for high traffic, more vehicular locations. Bollinger stated that FY22 allocation process would be appropriate for that discussion. STAFF UPDATES Bollinger mentioned the Eulenspiegel Puppet Performances were occurring at the airport the upcoming weekend. ADJOURNMENT Knoche made a motion to adjourn. Miller seconded. Meeting was adjourned at 7:15 PM. Public Art Advisory Committee Attendance Record 2019-2020 Name Term 1215/19 1/16/20 2/6120 3/5/20 4/2120 4/20/20 5/7120 6/4/20 7/2/20 816/20 913/2, Expires Nancy lurington 12/31 /22 __ X X X X x X x x X x Ron Knoche X X X x X X O/E X X X x Jul! Seydell- X x X X X X X O/E X X lohnson X Vero Rose 12/31 /20 x X X X O/E X - - - -- Smith X Steve 12/31/20 X x X O/E X X X X X X O/E Miller Andrea 12/31/22 X x X O/E X X X X X O/E X Truitt Eddie Boyken 12/31 /21 X X X x x X X X X O/E X Jan 12/31 /20 -- -- -- -- -- -- X X O/E X inlayson Dominic 12/31/23 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- X X X Dongilli __ Tonya 12/31 /23 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- X O O Kehoe Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Not a member Item Number: 4.1. CITY OIF IOWA CITY www.icgov.org November 2, 2020 ATTACHMENTS: Description Telecommunications Commission: June 29 APPROVED Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 0612912020 Meeting Minutes Pagel of 3 Electronic Meeting (Pursuant to Iowa Code section 21.8) An electronic meeting was held because a meeting in person was impossible or impractical due to concerns for the health and safety of council members, staff and the public presented by COVID-19. Minutes Iowa City Telecommunications Commission June 29, 2020 — 5:30 P.M. Via the Zoom remote meeting platform Call to Order: Meeting called to order at 5:33 P.M. Members Present (via Zooms Matthew Brenton, Adam Stockman, Gina Reyes Members Absent: Andrew Austin, Kyla Paterson Staff Present (via Zooms Ty Coleman Others Present: none Recommendations to Council: None A_pgroval of Minutes: Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to approve the June 1, 2020 minutes as presented. The motion passed unanimously. Announcements of Commissioners: Brenton noted that his three-year term with the Commission was ending. Coleman said that James Pierce, who had previously been on the Commission, would be joining the group starting in July 2020. Short Public Announcements: None. Municipal broadband research and report: Brenton said he and Stockman had edited and put together the report document, found in the meeting packet, for the City Council. He said they didn't feel that a recommendation by the Commission was necessary. He said the report would provide the Council with information so that they could decide the best course of action. Brenton said they did not include the notice from the Iowa City Community School District (ICCSD) in the section about the current state of broadband in Iowa City since the ICCSD was mentioned in the "why broadband matters" section. Brenton noted that the federal and state grants that had been identified were not currently accepting applications and that funding was not currently available, however, this information was stated within the report. Brenton said the report covers the bases of all of the broadband options that are out there, including wireless mesh, 5G, and low earth orbit technologies. Reyes said the report did a good job of summarizing the Commission's previous discussions. Coleman asked if the group would want to consider adding a closing statement to the report and referred to APPROVED Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 0612912020 Meeting Minutes Page 2 of 3 an earlier discussion, where the Commission had suggested the idea of mentioning to the Council that they would be available to discuss the report further. Coleman said he would check with Assistant City Manager Ashley Monroe about the best way to present the report document to the City Council, whether by simply putting it in an upcoming information packet or by Commission members presenting it at an upcoming meeting. Brenton said the next step after submitting the report document to Council was to wait to hear back from them. Brenton wondered if that meant the Commission would not need to meet until it hears from Council. Brenton said he envisioned a few potential responses from Council that might be received. One is that members of the City Council could express interest in setting up an advisory board. Another response could be that they decide to proceed with a cost assessment. Another could be that they come to a decision to not pursue the topic further at this time. Stockman suggested the group provide the Council with the three options in the report's conclusion. He said that if the Council is interested in pursuing things further, the Commission would likely play some kind of role. Brenton said he added page numbers to the document during the meeting and added the following statement at the end: "This concludes the ICTC research into municipal broadband. The ICTC will wait for feedback from Iowa City City Council on what the next step is and whether it should involve the ICTC." The Telecommunications Commission voted on whether the document, after implementing the changes discussed, was ready to be sent to the City Council. All members of the Commission who were present voted in favor of sending the amended document to Council. Adjournment: Stockman moved and Reyes seconded a motion to adjourn. The motion passed unanimously. Adjournment was at 5:50 p.m. APPROVED Iowa City Telecommunications Commission 0612912020 Meeting Minutes Page 3 of 3 TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 12-MONTH ATTENDANCE RECORD Reyes Brenton Stockman Pierce 06/24/2019 vacant x x x o Austin 07/22/2019 x x x x resignation 08/26/2019 o/c x x x vacant Paterson 09/23/2019 x x x x o 10/28/2019 x x o/c x o 11/25/2019 o/c x x x o 121l 6/2019 o/c x x x o 01 /27/2020 x o/c x x o 02/24/2020 x x x x o 03/23/2020 Meeting not held due to COVID-19 pandemic. - - - - - 04/27/2020 o/c x x x o 0610112020 o/c x x x o 06/29/2020 o x x x o (x) = Present (o) = Absent (o/c) = Absent/Called (Excused)