HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-09-21 TranscriptionPate 1
Council Present: Bergus, Mims, Salih, Teague, Taylor, Thomas, Weiner
Staff Present: Fruin, Jones, Kilburg, Goers, Fruehling, Knoche, Havel, Sitzman,
Bockenstedt, Nagle-Gamm
Others Present: Van Heukelom, Miglin (USG)
FY 2023 Budget goals and Priorities:
Teague: We are going to transition now to our work session. Today is September 21st, 2021. The
fust item is going to be the fiscal year 2023 budget goals and priorities. I'm going to
welcome our city manager, Geoff Fruin.
Fruin: Thank you, Mayor. Like clockwork, it's budget season again. This is the time of year
where we'd like to just do a check in with you. No formal presentation tonight, although
we're happy to answer questions if you have any. We do like to check in with you, just to
see if there's any new budget priorities that you'd like us to consider as the staff begins to
compile the FY23 budgets. Just a quick reminder for you and the public, your staff is
going to be working hard on budget compilation. Really from about this time all the way
through December, at which time will deliver you a draft Fiscal Year 23 budget. Your
review largely takes place in January and February because state law requires that the
budget be approved in March. When we get to January and February, we can certainly
make changes. Although any significant changes to the budget become a little bit more
difficult at that time as we've said, tax rates, and we've made other decisions that might
have to be undone. Again, what we look forward tonight is just any changes to your
goals, any specific projects you want us to be reconsidering or taking a look at. So with
that, I'll just turn it back over to you Mayor, and again, if you have questions, we've got a
number of staff here that can fill those.
Teague: Great. Well, I know that we've all been through this process once before where we just
kind of talked about our priorities and some things that we want staff to consider. An so
I'll just have people just put it out there.
Salih: I want to start. I just want to I talk about affordable housing. You know that through the
American Rescue, money that's coming soon, Geoff recommended some kind of
affordable housing. I would also agree, that's something we have to do. But even before
we knew that this is coming, we talked last time on our master plan that we added the
word, we need a solid plan for affordable housing. Let us think about if this money never
came. Since we said this is one of the goal that we want achieve next time, I think it is
fair, to think about allocation of some of the budget to be in the US for affordable
housing plan. I'm just saying that because we talked about it and we need to really be a
little aggressive. I've been in this Council for four years. This is my last year and since I
joined, I was saying affordable housing and everybody agreed. I don't think nobody in
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this Council, they really don't agree about, there is affordable housing crisis. We need to
work and add to that. What the city has been doing regarding affordable housing, if we
can add more work so we can have really a solid plan for affordable housing for Iowa
City. This moment, I've been seeing people who get Section 8 voucher from my
community, or the people that I see are by the center for worker justice, they will be very
excited that finally, they've been in the waiting this for almost three years. Finally, they
get vouchers, but they cannot find a house that comparing to the market price with this
thing. If they're lucky, they will find housing fellowship which has been playing really
great part of providing houses that will be covered by Section 8 easy because they are in
lower price. But, take Section 8 and go everywhere. That's why people are moving out.
Like my cousin, she couldn't find any thing in Iowa City. She had to move out to
Coralville, because Coralville market price is less than Iowa City. We are forcing people
out of our community because the market price of housing here is really high. The city
has to do something. We need our population to grow, because that's good for us and as a
city so we have more property tax and everything. I just hope this counts so they can try
to start something about this. I'm not going to be with you all, but please, think about this.
People have been waiting for a long time to see the city is been doing this. Thank you.
Taylor: I agree with Mayor Pro Tem Salih. It has been an issue for a long time that we've been
talking about. I know, the south district home ownership program was an excellent start
as far as getting lower income folks in due housing, but that is for home ownership. I
think, what she's referring to is also for the rental properties. What we've heard is that it's
too expensive for the developers to build due multi -family units, but perhaps we as a city,
need to be a little stronger in our discussions with developers and encourage them. Even
help them find properties that they could redevelop it as more affordable units for these
folks that need this housing. I also have talked quite a lot about childcare and I still feel
really strongly that this city needs to look at that. I know we've talked about it. We've
talked about a brick and mortar option as far as building and purchasing a building or
even co -purchasing it with the county, and I would hope that we continue to have that as
a priority because that's what holds a lot of people back in jobs. Because they don't have
childcare, we've heard that a lot. I think, having a brick and mortar facility as well as an
education and training program for providers, I think, that'd be really important and
something we should do.
Weiner: I agree with both priorities. I do think that with respect to childcare, perhaps either aside
from or in addition to a brick and mortar, one of the most important things we can do is
help people get the training and the certification to open up home day cares in their own
homes. That is proven one of the things that certainly I've seen personally throughout the
pandemic is that, having smaller units so that you have sort of pods of people and there's
a much smaller chance of people being infected or so forth, can really be valuable as
opposed to a large one. So that you can have them in neighborhoods, in people's homes,
in the community. Those can be both really successful and a really important income
stream for whoever runs that child care. Because one person can have, depending if they
don't take babies, they can have up to five or six kids in their home. You get a number of
those and that can make a big difference. With respect to affordable housing, the thing
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that I would like to put on the table is something that I've heard about, but I don't know
the extent that we've done it. That's land banking, because land is expensive. It's a really
an integral part of the cost of putting up, if you're going to do new construction. I don't
know, Geoff, where we stand on that, but it seems to me that land banking could be a
really integral part of that.
Fruin: I can respond to that real quick. We have bought one piece of property for land banking.
It's a lot on the east side of town that would accommodate six town homes. We've made
offers on other lots, but have not found our way to closure. I'd say, we're working towards
a significant accumulation of fee in lieu dollars in the Riverfront Crossings district. To
the point where we're starting to have some preliminary staff conversations about
possible interest in purchasing property down there, or partnering with some future
development that may occur in that area. Then again, outside of the Riverfront Crossings.
Because there's a reminder that the fee in lieu that are generated from Riverfront
Crossings, must stay in that district. Outside of that area, we still have a few $100,000 in
our land bank account and we selectively look for property that we can purchase, but
outside of the six town homes, we have not closed on anything yet.
Salih: I think we have done really a lot good things when I just hear about, for example, the next
building that we have on Herbert Hoover. There is apartment that is really affordable
because the City is also like help on making those 13 apartment on that building to be
affordable. For example, the other one that we have in river crossing being managed by
the Housing Fellowship is very nice building and also have some affordable housing at
30 percent, 50 percent, 40 percent which is really good. I think that Peninsula on the
fourth road, we have some apartment there that people can really live for. If we become
just a little aggressive with those kind of things, that we already been doing it and it have
the good result will be great. Just one of the idea, I'm not experienced in affordable
housing, but I know in this city there is a lot of people who have experience and they
can't bring it to the table, to the city so something like those.
Thomas: Well, I certainly agree with the affordable housing emphasis. We will have the
committee coming out with its report sometime later this year, correct Geoff?
Fruin: That's correct. Yes, John.
Thomas: I'm looking forward to seeing what their recommendations may be. I would want to
emphasize looking at the strategic plan, it talks about fostering healthy neighborhoods
and affordable housing throughout the city. I really do feel that throughout the city needs
to be emphasized. We need to integrate affordable housing into our community and the
strategies may vary depending upon the context. So in terms of the budget, some of these
strategies, and I've had discussions with the city manager and others that they may
require kind of testing the concept, it may not be something that we roll out in the same
way that we rolled out or will roll out I'm assuming the South District. That it would be
the variables may be such, the challenges may be such that we need to test the idea in a
much smaller scale to understand how we can do it well. There may be financial aspects
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to some of these strategies. I've become aware of the fact that many cities have enacted
zoning changes. For example, Minneapolis, allowing duplexes and I believe triplexes on
all single-family lots in the city, but they're running into financial problems. You can
change the zoning code but if there are barriers to implementing the change, it doesn't get
you anywhere. It may not just be simply changes to the regulatory framework. It may
also be looking at the financial aspects of the strategies that we develop. But I do again,
want to emphasize how can we do this throughout the city. Janice, I thought your
comment on the daycare was interesting in that way too. If we try to integrate the daycare
into households, I personally experienced that when I was in graduate school in Madison,
where my wife at the time had a small daycare operation built into our apartment. So that
distributive approach may reduce the cost because you bypass the brick -and -mortar
aspect of it. But you still have the regulatory factors to consider. Some of the other things
that I've been thinking about would be in looking at our strategic plan, enhancing
community mobility for all residents. I've been speaking about barriers to access in
wintertime with the corner curb ramps that are the result of our plowing operations. That
may have a budgetary consequence. So we're looking at transit, that's good. Pedestrian
and bicycle networks I think are also important. At a minimum, these barriers to access as
it relates to walking and then with our bike system. My observation has been that we're
making great strides in our trail system, but less strides in our on -street bike lane system.
That's the system that I think benefits ridership where biking is used for commuting
purposes and not just recreational purposes. It has crossover into recreational use, but I
think it might help us with regard to improving mobility where biking becomes an
alternative to driving. It ties into our need to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and
my sense is that our bike lanes at least on certain streets do not feel safe and comfortable.
We do not yet have the protected bike lane as a type, and I'm seeing it. I saw just the
other day in Cedar Rapids and their downtown area, very set aside bike lane very clear
that it was distinct from and not adjacent to the vehicle lane. Improving the bicycle
network, I think is something that I hope we can advance. I feel we're falling behind in
terms of our on -street system. The memo talks also about concerns regarding
development and the fact that growth has slowed at least with respect to some of our
previous years and we've mentioned in our strategic plan the idea of trying to measure
and understand the cost of development as it relates to the cost of the infrastructure that's
required to service that development. It seems to me a very critical time to really begin to
evaluate how we grow. That not all growth is equal in that regard so how do we grow in a
way which will be not a liability over the long term. The city is in the game for the long
term, we're in the long game. Yes, we need to have revenues generated in the short-term,
but we don't want to see development that is a revenue generator in the short term,
become a liability in the long term. That's something that I think as a council and
certainly, as a community need to better understand and there are ways in which that
analysis can be done and done in a way that's depicted graphically in a very compelling
way so that we're all on the same page in terms of understanding in ways we develop.
Some of those ways we develop may end up requiring subsidy over the long term. That in
itself takes away from our ability to fund the kinds of things I think all of us are talking
about tonight. At a minimum need to understand that certain types of development may
in the long term result in a subsidy in order to make them function properly. I think this
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is an opportune time to take up that conversation. It's on our strategic plan. We're kind of
reaching the end of that two-year period and I understand that we've run into buzz saws
for the last two years in terms of being able to look at all the issues that were raised two
years ago. But I do think at this point in time, it's really critical that we have an idea of
what type of development generates long-term wealth and integrate that into our
development policy. My inclination is to think that that type of development will also
address climate change. It will address equity. It will address the environment. It will
further us on other fronts as well if we take a critical look at our development model.
That may require funding as well to do that analysis.
Bergus: I appreciate all the discussion that's focusing on our strategic plan priorities because I
think that's really remarkable when we think about we were sitting in March of 2020
coming up with those priorities. Then if we look where we are now, I think we still have
those solidly in focus. I think they're still very good in spite of all of the emergencies that
we've been dealing with since March of 2020. We're talking about the budget that will be
expenditures beginning July 1st, 2022. Hopefully by then, we'll be out of the emergency
response phase with COVID hopefully. I think this year, I hope that we look at we look at
it as a special year because of the American rescue plan infusion. The strategic
investment projects that we all looked at and I think had consensus around at our last
work session and relating to the ABPA funding really mesh well with our strategic plan
priorities that we came up with in March of 2020. I agree with the focus on those. I think
that yes, affordable housing. Yes, climate resiliency. Yes, inclusive neighborhoods. I
appreciated workforce development, childcare, mental health support. All of that to me
really ties into also our commitments from one summer ago relating to the Black Lives
Matter movement. We said at the time that that was just the beginning of our anti -racism
work as a council in this community. I think it's important that we continue to invest in
that. Not just the remainder or the one million dollars that we allocated at the time, but
really putting that focus on all of our departments, all of our other strategic plan priorities
and strategic investment projects I think can benefit from an anti -racist focus.
Specifically relating to what we discussed a year ago and how are carrying forward to
this budget that would be starting next July. We did also commit to our preliminary plan
to restructure the police department. I just want to focus on that spectrum of response,
that continuum of response, and the prevention and diversion from the immediate police
contact and prevention and diversion from the criminal justice system. I think we have a
great opportunity to invest in that end of the spectrum with things like mobile crisis
response, 911 integration or 988, if that's the timing of that. Just really thinking about
community safety because all of these strategic plan priorities, affordable housing,
climate action, inclusive neighborhoods, resilient economy, all of those things improve
the safety of our community. I think we need to go a little bit further in being intentional
with looking at things like violence interruption and how we might support that in our
communities. Also remembering that workforce development, that our recreation
programs, that our library programming, the programming that happens here. All of those
things contribute to safety in our community. I remember two years ago it was like
radical when we were talking about investing in some of these social supports, like as
infrastructure. But I think if we listen to this conversation here, we're solidly there and
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we're allowed to be there, we're able to be there because we've got that strong fiscal
responsibility and we've carried on for so long. I think with the infusion of federal money
at this time, that's an even better opportunity. I agree with you, John, on the concern of
where's development going to be, what does that mean in terms of the tax base in addition
to the cliff that we're facing with the 2013 tax reform and then the 2021 additional
reforms? But I think we really look at the timing of now and using the ARPA funding to
really juice those strategic plan priorities. It's an exciting place to be.
Teague: I would agree it is exciting place to be because there's a lot of opportunities that we can
do in this next budget process. I'm happy you all brought us back to the strategic plan
because there's actually six items that I have identified and they really do fall under the
strategic plan. The majority of mine fall under the last one that we actually discuss, which
was promote an inclusive and resilient economy throughout Iowa City. I'll just point them
out because we have a little time. Also USG, please engage in this conversation,
especially from a student perspective. When we talk about childcare, I think nights and
weekends. I would love to see opportunities for people because working individuals jobs
come 24/7, seven days a week. Affordable housing, I think there's a lot to be said, a part
of what we say in our strategic plan as that partnership. I think partnerships are critically
important. We have some affordable housing advocates that they know this work like the
back of their hand. I believe we should rely on them to really help us through this
process. One challenge that I have found throughout this pandemic, this very apparent, is
where do you go for help? All the different types of help that you need. I'm not exactly
sure if I am promoting that the city be one door entry or try to figure out the best ways for
one door entry. For just a hub that people come because there's so many things out there.
Even when people come to me, I have to try to figure out what's the best avenue to advise
them to go and receive whatever type of assistance that they need. One door entry and
that can be for a variety of things, for access in city government type opportunities or
even trying to find out what are the some of the benevolence type activities within our
community. The other thing that is here and is very clear in our strategic plan and as it
says, encourage healthy, diverse, and sustainable economic activity throughout the city.
Including taking steps, invigorated neighborhood commercial districts and create new
small neighborhood commercial nodes. I have to tell you that I absolutely love what was
created over on the north side, the outside seating. That's really neat. I think that in our
community we can look at more opportunities to just create a space that is vibrant for
people to come. I was at Iowa league of cities and the number 1 thing that people want to
when they visit a city or live in a city, vibrancy. I think there's a lot of vibrancy in our
community. I also believe that those partnerships with some of our minorities need to
also be relooked at just to make sure that we're not only inviting them to the table to be a
part of something in the community, but also making sure that we provide some funding
to support their efforts. I so love and appreciate that we have the social justice and
equity. Wait a minute. What is it? The social justice and equity grant that we give, I think
right now is at $75,000, we have talked about increasing that. I still think we should
increase that. Many of those applications come from big organizations that have some
phenomenal things that they do. But throughout the year, there could be a group that want
to put on something like we had this past September I lb where there was a great event
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that happened. As things come along, if there are some funds that the city can have for
some opportunities from people who are just now breaking through to ask for city money
and to engage in the city, I think that'd be great and we have something just lined up. The
other thing is climate action. We can't forget about climate action. I'm just going to leave
it there because we need to be aggressive. The last thing I'll mentioned before, I give up
the mic is going to be economic development. I think Wendy Ford and all of our staff,
they do phenomenal work. They really do. I believe that we need someone dedicated to
and whether this is through partnerships or someone dedicated on the city staff to look for
greater opportunities for state, federal funds, IFA funds that can really help a large
arrangement of our community. Everybody in our community really is not just focused
on one group or whomever, but if we can have someone just do a little more intentional
work. The business owners, the microloan, especially for minority individuals, I think
that's great. But I also believe that there is some more money and some more grants out
there that people can benefit from. If we can just have a dedicated staff, that would be
great.
Van Heukelom: I know we're running short on time.
Mims: I haven't had opportunities, Council, excuse me. If you bear with me just a minute, this is
the end of 12 years, my last opportunity to do this. Having done this many years, I think I
want to give staff a whole lot of credit. Geoff has been here for five years, the city
manager and I don't remember how many before that as assistant city manager, four or
five. We've just got a good history in the finance department and the city manager's
office of really making sure that we are as efficient with our money, I think as possible,
and certainly following council direction as to how we spend that. When I sat here and
listened to all of my fellow council members, I would say there's not a single thing that I
disagree with. I think these are all really important things. When we go back to affordable
housing, just as a reminder, we had a really good 15 point affordable housing program.
We got through it and we need to get a new one, and we're going to get a new one. We
made a lot of progress with that first one and we need to keep making that progress. Maz
mentioned out on Herbert Hoover. If you're referring to what I think, it's LIHTC dollars.
The idea that we are as supportive and helpful as possible with developers who know
how to and want to go after those LIHTC dollars, and go through the state and federal
requirements of those monies. That's really important because that leverages our dollars
big time. We get a lot more out of our city dollars if we can leverage those state and
federal dollars, so to get those LIHTC projects. Similarly, Housing Fellowship does an
awesome job as was mentioned. The other comment was, we need to continue growing. I
don't know if this option is even still on the table, but I would encourage the Council to
really work with the city manager's office and see if there's any chance of getting the
Carson farm annexation back on the table. At that point in time, we have lost 200 acres of
possible developable land with a minimum of 10 percent of the housing units on that
being affordable housing under an ordinance that we currently have in place. I feel really
strongly that we lost a great opportunity because the goal was to make it greater or
perfect. We don't always get greater, we don't always get perfect, but that was an
opportunity for city parks, maybe a school, fire station, and again, a minimum of 10
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percent of those housing units. At least at that time, the developer was talking about not
wanting all single-family homes. We don't want all single-family homes. We want the
missing middle that John has introduced to us over the years. We want those
opportunities. But we don't have much land left in the boundaries of the City of Iowa
City. We're going to have to look to those opportunities and some may be pretty big and
bold. We need to realize that we're not going to always get exactly what we want. Those
developers need to have that opportunity to make money, they're taking huge risks, but
we could get some really good things. I think the continued focus on our existing
strategic plan, as at least a couple of you said that those things are still really relevant
because to a certain extent, have gotten sidetracked on some of those in the last year and
a half, because of the other things that we have had to really focus on with Black Lives
Matter and with COVID. I think the ARPA money does give us that opportunity to do
some pretty unique things. As we all did agree on those strategic investment funding
opportunities, I think not only do we have the opportunity to give money directly to
people, but we have the opportunity to invest in those things that when we look back five
years, 10 years, 15 years, will have made a significant difference in this community. I
think between Laura and Bruce, I think you made a lot of great comments in tying
together so much of this in how if we do it right, we have the opportunity to promote
growth, we have that opportunity to promote diversity. Laura, I think you said it so well
of how many of these things can really tie together in making a safer community, which
come back to a lot of things that we were talking about in the summer of 2020. How do
we reimagine the interaction of our police department with the residents of our
community? How do we make, just a much more pleasant, comfortable, safe society here
for everybody? I would really just echo a lot of what my fellow councilors have said
tonight and just wish the staff, and the next council best of luck in putting all this
together.
Teague: Thank you. I'm going to ask the Council if we can allow USG to speak up to three
minutes and then we will adjourn at that time.
Van Heukelom: I won't take three minutes. We actually met with University leadership yesterday
to talk about the University's strategic plan, so I was able to bring a lot of feedback from
other executives and to this which was really helpful. Definitely, affordable housing
working with the University. They're also coming up with a lot of ideas for this, so just
subsidies, vouchers for students, less luxury apartments in general. We want to see a
landlords being held accountable, especially for those places that don't have recycling,
like using resources to send people there and make sure that those are set up. You guys
talked a lot about your public transportation plans over the past couple of months and
we'd like to see free fare for students. Then just in general, A lower police budget.
Students showed in the reimagine campus safety report that they just want to reduce
police presence in general in the community. Thank you.
Salih: If you can give me just a half minute. I guess I want to ask Geoff for the housing
committee that we have. You said a report is going to come soon toward the end of the
year. Do we have a student representative on that committee?
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Council work session of September 21, 2021.
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Fruin: No, there's not a student representative. I think Tracy Hightshoe and her staff have done
some outreach. I don't know if they reached out to you -all for some conversations, but 1
think there has been some efforts to do some outreach and that's ongoing.
Salih: I think is a good idea, one representative, at least from the university since they are
working on this kind of affordable housing, if we can bring-
Miglin: This Thursday, we actually have a meeting with Yvonne, who's in charge of housing and
dining out the University. Tracy will be there and we're trying to get somebody from the
Tenants Union to have a conversation about affordable housing.
Salih: Great thanks.
Teague: Great.
Weiner: Can you throw in trying to figure out how to get rid of homeless week into that
conversation?
Van Heukelom: We'll try. That was brought up during our strategic planning as well yesterday.
Teague: Thank you -all, Council. Thank you, USG. Thanks to everybody for attending. We are
going to adjourn and we will be back at 6:00 PM for our formal meeting. See you soon.
This represents only a reasonably accurate closed captioning transcript of the Iowa City City
Council work session of September 21, 2021.