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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-01-08 TranscriptionPage 1 Council Present: Staff Present: Alter, Bergus, Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner Davies, DeLoach, Fleagle, Fruehling, Fruin, Goers, Grier, Havel, Hightshoe, Knoche, Jones, Kilburg, Liston, Mangano, Nagle- Gamm, Nurnberg, Seydell-Johnson, Sovers, Tharp Budget Overview and Highlights - City Manager's Office: Teague: It is Saturday, January 8th, 2022, and it's just past 8:00 AM and want to welcome everyone to the City of Iowa City, uh, uh, 2023 Proposed Budget meeting. And so we're going to probably get started with our City Manager leading us off here in a little bit. Um, I know that there is a lot of content that we're going to have to go through today and Council, if you're, we're going to try to figure out break times and all that stuff as we go along. Um, I would kind of give a, a little bit of a warning, um, as I'm looking around the room and seeing how, how we're doing so, but if at any point you need to excuse yourself and come back, just feel free to do so. I'm going to bring on our City Manager, Geoff Fruin at this time. Welcome. Fruin: Okay. Thank you, Mayor, Council. Good to be here with you on a Saturday morning. Look, look forward to, uh, a good long budget discussion, um, uh, as the Mayor, uh, noted, um, I think one of the challenges you'll have today is to kind of decide, uh, you know, how deep to dive into some issues versus tabling them for, for additional time. So, uh, please feel free to ask clarifying questions as we go along, whether that's in this first initial presentation or, uh, with, uh, the department heads that'll be presenting to you later this morning, uh, but as you get, uh, into some detailed items, we, you may just for the sake of time today, want to, want to pause and, and schedule that for, uh, uh, more time. So just keep that in mind. I want to start with a couple of, uh, thank your, um, uh, we have a budget committee that, uh, reviews all of the, all of the budgets and does all the hard work Um, uh, you'll notice a familiar face gone, uh, at this budget session. That's our, uh, former Finance Director, uh, Dennis Bockenstedt, uh, who, uh, left late December. Um, I want to make sure that you all have had a chance to meet, um, our Finance representatives today that do a ton of work, uh, not only on the budget, but on so many things. We have Nicole Davies, who's our interim Finance Director and Jacklyn Fleagle, um, who is our budget guru. Um, uh, we're going to be leaning on her pretty hard, uh, to, uh, help us navigate through, uh, the questions and adjustments that, uh, you may pursue, uh, through these, uh, budgets. Also want to thank, uh, Rachel and Redmond for their work on the budget this, this year. And there's, uh, um, someone that's not here that puts a lot of work in too, that's Michelle Cook from our Finance Department, and when it comes to, um, our flip book, uh, that was a new initiative, uh, from the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 2 Finance Department this year. And Michelle did a lot of the heavy lifting there. So definitely a team effort, um, and, uh, want to thank that budget committee. Um, this is a really, uh, important, uh, budget year. They're all, all these discussions are important, um, but this is certainly going to be the toughest budget year that, that we've had since I've been here in the last decade. And, um, the decisions this year will set the table for probably even a tougher budget year next year. Um, and we knew this was coming. This is the last couple years of the property tax, um, reform implementation. So we knew these last two years would be difficult. Unfortunately, they're being compounded with a couple of other factors, um, that we didn't necessarily anticipate, um, would, would have as big as impact as they did. So we're going to go through that today a little bit. I mentioned the, uh, the flip book. This is where you can access it. Hopefully you've had a chance to play around. It's a nice forward -facing, uh, presentation of the budget. Uh, this is new for everybody, for us. Uh, hopefully you saw that we tried to incorporate some videos. Uh, it allowed us to do some more with charts and graphs and things of that nature. Um, and we hope to expand on that as we get more familiar with the technology and, and comfort with, uh, the videos and all of those things. Um, you can still download a traditional PDF if that's easier for you to work from, uh, if you have any trouble with that, just let me know. So, um, you know, budget's a never, never-ending cycle, but I, we try to put a review schedule up here, just so you are aware. Um, we always like to start with the Strategic Plan, because if we're doing our job correctly, as staff, you're seeing your Strategic Plan throughout this budget document. And so we dated that back to 2020, Council knows that, uh, one of your tasks, uh, early this this year will be to, uh, adopt a new Strategic Plan. We did hold a budget work session with Council back in September, and we're here on that third box doing the operating budget review. Uh, on Wednesday, we'll have a Capital Improvement Plan review. So today's operations, uh, next week, uh, is going to be focused on those capital investments, those major roads and parks and public facilities, utilities, those types of things. Uh, we'll touch on a little bit of that today, but mostly, um, save that for next week. Uh, I, the, the important things to know here, and these are state dictated deadlines, is that we have to set the public hearing for our maximum property tax on February 1st, which means we need to have all decisions made that may influence how high that property tax rate, um, uh, or levy needs to be, um, really by the end of January, January 25th. So, if the Council's going to have discussions that will force us to, or that will lead us to have a higher property tax levy, an associated rate, that's got to be done in January. Once you set that ceiling of your property tax, um, you can have, uh, really the month of February then to go and debate expenditure decisions. We need to have those expenditure decisions, uh, made by the end of February. Um, we well say February 22nd here, uh. That allows us to set the public hearing for the budget on March 1st and actually hold the hearing and adopt the budget on March 15th. Uh, we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 3 have to have the budget, um, into the County Auditor's office by the end of March. Uh, it's a big document. Um, you started to go through that. Uh, we certainly, uh, don't expect that you'll be able to read every page. Um, and what I've done here, uh, for your future reference is just the, the, the sections of the budget that I really think it's important for you as elected officials to spend some time with. So as you continue to look through this budget, please take a look at these sections. I want to talk a little bit about fund structure, government fund accounting isn't necessarily intuitive for, for everybody. Um, and I'm going to try to use the laser pointer here. Hopefully you can follow on the, the handouts as well. Um, we have the different types of funds across the top here, and I'll start with the General Fund. That's 90% of your discussions during the budget are going to be focused on the General Fund. That's where our property tax collections come into, um, and that's what's going to fund your police, your fire, your parks, your general government operations. So again, 90 -plus percent of the Council's deliberations tend to be within the General Fund. We have special revenue funds, which is this second column here. I like to just describe these as, these are funds that have strings attached to them, right? So these are either grant funds like CDBG or HOME, where we have to account for those separately and there's limitations on how we can spend those. Um, we have things like, um, our SSMID accounts in here. Uh, we have a road use tax, so that fuel pump tax that we get, we have, there's only, um, certain uses that are eligible, uh, to, uh, to use those funds on. So we account for those different. So those special revenues that, that have limitations on how you can spend are accounted for separately. The third is debt, self-explanatory. We collect funds to pay off debt that we've issued. Enterprise funds, uh, we'll spend, uh, quite a bit of time today, particularly in the Public Works section, going through enterprise funds, these are business -like accounts. This is our water. This is our sewer refuse collection. Essentially, we operate these like a business, except we don't have that profit motive like a private business would, okay, so we charge the users fees. We charge you, uh, a water fee. And when we deliver you the water, tho-- those fees sustain that operation. So, um, whatever we're charging is what we need to operate, uh, that system. Capital projects, again, that's, uh, really for next week. And then we don't spend a whole lot of time on these internal service funds. These are more internal accounting. This is fleet replacement, ITS equipment, copiers, and things like that. We do chargebacks to different departments to account for usage and that sort of thing. So we don't really spend a whole lot of time, uh, within these internal service funds. I want to take a minute, uh, just to talk about some of the recent budget initiatives, um, in recent, you know, roughly last three, four years, uh, and, and the Council's done quite a bit, um, uh, uh, during this last year. So, I won't go through all these, but you can see we've increased the minimum wage; that had nearly a million -dollar price tag. And that's not a one-time expense, that's with us forever, 'cause we lifted those wages. We continue to pay those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 4 higher wages. We converted a lot of temporary, which are non -benefitted, hourly positions to permanent positions; that carried a cost of about a quarter million. And you can go down the list and see a number of the other things that we've done. Um, the important thing to communicate to you and, and we're doing a little bit of foreshadowing here, is we've been able to do this because we've had robust growth in our taxable valuations. Um, we've had the flexibility to take on these new initiatives and um, unfortunately we're, we're not in that position the next couple of years to be able to tackle some of these, these bigger, um, bolder initiatives. But I do want to point out the success, uh, that we've had in recent years in advancing these, 'cause a lot of these still tie directly to the active Strategic Plan of the City Council. So, I'm going to talk a little bit about the bad news, the challenges, uh, up front and then we're going to get into, um, uh, some of the, the focus areas of the budget. So this is not a new slide. This is a slide that has been, uh, presented in some way, shape or form, uh, to, to the last probably six or seven Councils. Um, these are all the things that we've been watching out for. And it's really been a warning in years past to say these things are hanging out there and they could create a problem for us. And unfortunately, we do have all these things converging right now. This warning is turning into more of a, uh, a reality for us. So commercial backfill, we used to kind of warn the Council, backfill' s going to be taken away eventually. Well, it was taken away last year, or at least be the, the legislation was passed to begin the phase-out. Um, we've known the multi -residential taxability. So if you own multi -residential property, you're not paying as much, uh, taxes as you used to be. And that's, that's been an incremental hit to us, with the sharpest hits, uh, coming, uh, this year and next year. Residential rollback, we're going to get into that a little bit, but that's a state factor that tells, uh, tells you how much of your single-family home you need to pay taxes on, right? You don't pay taxes on a hundred percent of your value. You pay taxes on a, roughly 56% of your value, um, right now, and that number fluctuates year to year and that's a number set by the state. And so as that number drops, if the state formula drops that number, that's fewer, that's our tax base kind of being eroded for that year. Uh, stagnation in taxable property growth. This has been one that we really haven't seen over the past decade until now. Uh, we've seen really robust taxable value, uh, growth in Iowa City. And unfortunately the last couple years, um, we haven't been able to keep up that trend. And then, uh, volatility and key expense lines. I think we all probably hear the stories of inflationary pressures, supplies, materials, delays, all those things are leading towards more volatile expenses, um, which, which, um, are fighting us a little bit now. So I'm going to go through each of these, uh, and talk a little bit about them. The State of Iowa backfill, uh, so this was, um, an effort by the state legislature back in 2013. Um, before this reform bill, um, commercial used to, commercial properties would pay taxes based on a hundred percent of their value. So, if you owned a million -dollar property that was commercial This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 5 in nature, you, our tax rate, uh, went into a hundred percent of your value. You paid on that, uh, that whole value. The state reduced that to 90%. So now, now you only pay taxes on $900,000 of your value, if you own that million -dollar property. The state said, don't worry, cities, we're going to make you whole. And for eight or nine years, they did, uh, make us whole. We, we used to receive $1.5 million from the state to make up for that gap. Well, last year the state said, we're going to phase that out and we've been helping you long enough, cities. You should be able to, to handle this on your own now. So we're going to go from $1.5 to approximately $1.2 million. Uh, you can see how that's accounted for on the right side. Um, but, uh, we're going to lose approximately $340,000 a year in revenue, uh, over the next five years. And, uh, cumulatively, that'll be about a $7 million impact, uh, to our budget. Uh, that $1.5 million, I'd like to give you some context: that's the equivalent of pretty much operating a fire station. You know, if we look at, uh, the cost of 15 firefighters, roughly a hundred thousand dollars per employee with salary and benefits, uh, that's, that's roughly what it takes to operate a, a fire station 24/7. So it's a significant amount of money that we will be losing over the five-year period. Multi -residential, um, this piece, um, uh, hurt us quite a bit. And, and if you're a college town, because college towns tend to have more multi -residential property, these are apartments essentially, um, you got hit a little bit harder by this provision of the 2013 reform bill. Um, it used to be, prior to 2013, that if you owned an apartment building, that was treated like a commercial property. So again, you paid taxes on a hundred percent of that building value. Um, the state said, you know what, we'd rather see apartments taxed at a residential rate and residential rates fluctuate, but it's currently in the fifties and we'll go through that. So every year the state has reduced that taxable, um, value, uh, for, um, for multi residential properties. And it's taken it from a hundred all the way to next year, it'll meet the residential rate and we won't have multi - residential anymore. It'll just be considered residential. Huge loss to us. You can see some of the stats here, um, for this year, um, those properties are going to be taxed at 63.75% of their value, um, which is a loss of $146 million in taxable value for, for us just in fiscal year '23, that's about, uh, a $3 million in lost property tax revenue just for year. And you look at the cumulative effect over this, uh, since the property tax, uh, uh, bill was, uh, passed, it's close to a $14 million hit to us, uh, and, and that's real revenue. That's not, uh, taxable value. That's, uh, that's real revenue to us. So this slide just kind of illustrates that. So if you go all the way back to where we started, you can see, uh, multi -residential that used to be commercial a hundred percent, and you can just see how they've dropped it down. It started off at two years at 5%, then it, uh, went down, uh, to, you know, 3 to 4% a year, all the way down to this is where we're at now, 63.75. And you know, this hit has, has hurt every, every year, but you can see what's going to happen next year, which is why next year is going to be a really tough budget year. Instead of dropping 3 or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 6 4%. Uh, these two numbers have to equal here and it's going to equal whatever this number is. And you can see that we've been consistent that we're in the mid -fifties. We should, we should probably expect we're going to stay in the mid -fifties. So instead of a 3 to 4% tax, um, or rollback rate drop for, for, uh, apartments, you're going to see a 9 or 10% drop in all reality, and that's going to have a huge, uh, impact, um, on our tax base. And then again, going forward, there is no multi -residential, uh, property classification anymore. So this residential rollback trend becomes a lot more important going forward. Okay. So this is the percentage of your, what used to be single- family home that's being taxed. All right, so if you own a hundred -thousand - dollar home every year you pay, we take that tax rate into a slightly different percentage of that value. And you could say, see, it's been up around 81% as a high. This goes all the way back to 1978. Um, and it's been as low as 44% in about 2007 or 2008. Um, currently we're sitting, uh, over here at 56%. And one of the big pressures on this budget is it dropped another 2% this year. So again, if you're a homeowner, that's good news, right? You're going to pay a little bit less taxes. Um, but we have to struggle, we have to struggle with that, and you can see the number up there. Um, for every percentage that drops, it's about $800,000 in revenue for Iowa City, $825. We are looking at a 2.3% drop this year. That's 56% to 54%. If you strip out the rounding that we did there, it's 2.3%, which means it's a, um, about a $2 million impact to our budget this year, $2 million in revenue that we otherwise would have gotten if that would've just stayed at 56%. Weiner: Geoff, can I ask a question? Yes. How, how does this, is this somehow tied to farmland pri -- how does the state set these? Fruin: Yeah, it's, it's, it's not a discretionary, um, setting by the state. There is a formula, um, and I I'd have to, I'd have to get back to you on exactly what that is, but I believe it has its roots in the agricultural crises, um, in the seventies and eighties is, is when they really started to hone in on this. So, um, one of the, uh, one of the major influencers in this, I believe is agricultural land prices. Well, we can certainly follow up with you and get you more information on that, on that formula. So this is just something to watch, um, particularly as, as, uh, multi -residential now, or going forward, will match this rate. This is going to become a lot more critical for the City. And we, we, uh, frankly, would just like to see this stable, you know, from a budget standpoint, it's nice to be predictable. And when it fluctuates a couple percentage points a year, uh, can either be a real nice benefit or, or a real challenge like it will be this year. Okay. So this is, um, this is getting to the slide on our, our taxable growth trends. And one way we look at that is just looking at building permits, right? So, if, if we know there's a lot of building activity, usually that there's about a one- or two-year lag, and then you see that, um, reflected in our taxable value growth. And so this goes back from This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 7 2010, all the way to 2021. Uh, these are calendar years. So 2021 is a complete year now. Uh, and you can see, um, early on in that decade, we were pretty low under, under, um, a hundred million mark there. And then you could see, we had uh, uh, uh, growth up to that 161. We had a really good year in 2016, that was just a couple of large projects, uh, coming together all at once. And then we sustained this really high level of growth from '16 to '19. I want you to remember that: '16 to '19, that high-level growth, those corresponding budget years, when you look at '17 through '20, that's, when a lot of those recent initiatives that I touched on earlier were accomplished: the minimum wage, the, the temporary to permanent con-, uh, uh, conversions. When we have, when we're back down to this level here that we're at, um, we can expect that we're not going to see a whole lot of, um, taxable growth because of those low, low permit numbers. Now, we did get a little bounce back in 2021. That's not a terrible number, that $135, unfortunately, $35 of that is tied up into one permit. That's the Tailwinds permit. Um, so if you strip that one permit out, you're, you're still at that hundred million mark, and that Tailwinds project has a TIF associated with it. So that $35 million, uh, big - value permit, isn't going to hit our, our kind of budget, um, as immediate as some other projects, uh, might. Uh, we did have a really good year in single family homes. We issued 133 single-family permits, uh, which is our highest level in four years. It shows the strength of that market. Unfortunately, the commercial industrial market, even multi -family market, um, just, wasn't very strong, uh, these past, uh, few years. Okay. So there's a lot going on this slide, but this is a really important one to connect to your last slide. So what the orange shows is essentially our tax base. We talk about tax base. You can see how it's grown over the last decade. The black line is the percentage of growth in that tax, uh, in that tax base. And I want to point out a couple of things. One, you can just look across the, the percentage growth line, and you can see that outside of fiscal year '16 there, you know, 7, 3 and a half, 5, 4, 8, 3. Those are, those are pretty strong numbers. And, uh, another important thing to know is the pattern here. And I'll explain this up, down, up, down, up, down in terms of the percent. That's because the assessor reassesses properties every other year. So if you own existing property, the assessor will come in and reevaluate your, your property every other year. And that's what you're seeing these spikes in. That's when we get these, these odd year spikes, that's why those are higher in these other years, um, the only you're seeing is new growth, essentially new buildings being added, um, because the assessor will assess those as they, uh, as they basically come online. Uh, what's most concerning, um, here is obviously this piece of the trend. Uh, this year, this budget year we're talking about, is typically a higher year. It's a reassessment year. That means earlier in, in '20, uh, in, in '21, the assessor would've gone out and reassessed all properties. Um, and we should have seen that trend continue with the bounce back. We didn't. And so that doesn't mean that trend is broken forever. This trend is, is still the predominant This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 8 trend. That means when I say next, year's going to be even tougher because we'll be lucky to keep that flat. And you can see we've gone down every year where it's not a reassessment year. So this number will probably stay negative. It may drop even further negative. Um, our taxable value dropped a quarter of a percent this year. You see what we haven't experienced that in, in the last, um, many years. Probably have to go back into the two thousands, uh, during some of the recessionary, uh, times around 2008 to see a negative, um, taxable value growth. Now I will point out that our overall growth, our assessed growth grew three, about three and a half percent. So our assessed value grew, but you gotta remember assessed value and taxable value are two different things. And when I was explaining the, the, the rollback figures, that's where those come into effect. So while we grew three and a half percent, that 2% cut to the residential rollback, the drop in the multi - residential rollback, that's what eroded us to get below that one. Essentially, we weren't able for the first time to grow out of those property tax reform, um, pressures that we've had. We've always been able to grow more than those cut us. And this time those cuts were deeper than, um, our growth. The, the last slide I'll touch on, uh, before turning it over to Rachel, is those volatile variable costs. We'd like to just show you a couple of examples. Um, these are things that we typically cannot control, or don't have a whole lot of control on. Um, I'll start with property and liability insurance as an example. We've, uh, seen over the five years, 113% increase in our property and liability insurance. And this is something that a lot of cities are struggling with right now that's a $610,000 impact to our budget. Um, a big driver of that is cyber liability. I think we all can appreciate the, the news stories and coverages of, of cyber -attacks and, and those sorts of things, well, that's really put a ton of upward pressure on our insurance rates. Fuel is another thing, um, we're looking at, um, about 58% increase from, uh, our actual FY21, uh, to what we're budgeting this year. And that's just, that's not increased consumption. Uh, we're actually doing quite a bit to reduce consumption in our fleet by going to electric vehicles and things like that, but that's just the overall, uh, inflationary pressures on petroleum. Okay. So we're going to, uh, turn to a revenue section and I'm going to, uh, invite Rachel up to talk through revenue. Kilburg: Okay, good morning. So, like Geoff mentioned, um, Fm just going to spend some time here going through the revenue side of things. And I'm actually going to start with just, um, a kind of an overview of revenue sources across all of our funds. So on the screen, you see just a breakdown of all of our revenue sources across all City funds. Um, I won't go through each of these, but I just want to hit on two, two of them specifically. So first that green slice, um, charges for services, that accounts for 23% of all of our revenue. Um, and that really, if you recall, if you think back to, to Geoff s, um, presentation on our fund structure, that really, uh, pays for our enterprise funds. So that's, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 9 um, those funds that we operate like a business: your transit, your parking, your utilities, refuse, water, those kinds of things. And then, um, the other big slice here is property taxes, which accounts for 35%, um, and that really, uh, helps pay for our General Fund, which is on this slide here. So the last slide was all funds, and this is just our General Fund. Um, again, I'm not going to go through all of these, uh, but I will call out a couple. So here again, you see a small slice, 2% charges for services, all those fees, we charge like rec fees, inspection fees, those kinds of things, that accounts for just 2% of revenue coming into our General Fund. Um, another smaller one I'll call out here is other City taxes that includes hotel/motel tax revenue, and utility franchise tax revenue. And that also accounts for just 4% of the money coming into our General Fund. The big, the big player here, obviously is property taxes, we are heavily reliant on property taxes in our General Fund. Um, Redmond will talk a little bit later about what that means for expenditures. Um, but that's why, um, you'll hear us talk today, uh, so frequently about our concerns with our tax base, because we are so reliant on those property taxes to pay for General Fund, um, operations. So that kind of leads me into my next slide here. Um, this is showing kind of a comparison of our tax base and, um, our tax rate over the past 10 or so years. So, to do kind of a quick recap of what Geoff just talked about with that valuation trend, that trend in our tax base, um, I've circled in red, the, those odd years, those assessment years -- those reevaluation years, where we typically see that growth and you see, that's certainly been the case, FY17, FY19, FY21, you're seeing seven and half, eight and a half percent growth. Um, that's strong growth in our tax base. And then in fiscal year 2023, that last bar, that's where you really see, um, that trend bucked. Um, as Geoff mentioned, it's about a quarter of a percent drop. So that means our tax base is actually shrinking in fiscal year '23, um, and we expect that to also be the case in fiscal year '24. Now this is directly kind of related to our property tax rate because all of those big budget initiatives that, um, you heard about earlier, you were able to do that because, um, we, we had such strong growth in our property tax base, and we were able to, to dedicate resources to really major initiatives like affordable housing, raising the City's minimum wage, doing those kinds of things without raising the property tax rate. In fact, fiscal year '23 will be our 11th straight year of a property tax rate decrease. Um, and we've largely been able to do that through a reduction in our debt service levy. And again, that, that's credit to the City Council, um, and Finance staff's, really prudent debt management strategies. Um, I will note though that we have kind of leaned out that debt service levy as much as we, uh, think we can. So we, we expect that we'll stay around this property tax rate going forward. And then this is, um, just a kind of a reminder that the Iowa City property tax rate is just one, um, of the total, uh, property tax rate that a property owner pays on their tax bills. So, um, as you can see here, Iowa City accounts for 41% of the total share, um, this is called the cons-, the overlapping tax rate. Sometimes you hear the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 10 consolidated tax rate, um, and, and we account for 41% of that share. Um, and then this, this is just kind of again, showing how we've managed to, to reduce our share of, um, that overall property tax rate over the past 10 or so years. You can see back in fiscal year 2012, we were up closer to 43, 44%, um, of that total share and we've dropped down, um, to, to about 41%. So property tax owner pays the sum of all of, all of the property rate of all of these taxing bodies. Um, and we have, have managed to reduce our share of that down to about 41%. This is just a comparison, um, of Iowa City's property tax rate with other large cities in Iowa. So, um, I'll start with that mid-- kind of middle column there, the 2012 tax rate. You can see by that, um, a decade ago we were competing with Council Bluffs for the highest tax rate in the state of Iowa. Um, and it's been a priority of the City Council and of the City staff to really, to really reduce the, that over the last 10 years. And you can see in that last column, um, that we have been successful, we've reduced our tax, um, our property tax rate by about 12%, we've dropped below Davenport, Des Moines, and more recently Cedar Rapids. Um, so now we're settled, um, at that 15 points, I'm sorry, $15.67 range, kind of in the middle of the pack. And that is where we expect to stay, um, through the, through the, in the coming years, uh, as I mentioned, we've kind of leaned out that debt service levy as much as we can, and without any sort of new revenue, revenue source, it would be really difficult, uh, to drop into that $14 range. And then over the next few slides, I just want a couple -- touch on a couple of their major revenue sources. So first, um, on this slide, you see hotel/motel tax, if you think back to that, um, pie chart of all of the, the revenue sources that we take in you'll recall that hotel/motel tax was a smaller percentage of that, at one and a half, maybe 2% or so of the revenue that, that we're bringing in there. Um, but nonetheless, it is a revenue source for us. As you can see in fiscal year '23 and in years past, we typically bring in about a million dollars there. Um, there was a bit of a depression, uh, during the pandemic, but we anticipate that, um, that that will return to normal in the coming years. Uh, the utility franchise, um, tax as well, so the State of Iowa permits cities to adopt a utility, a utility franchise tax on gas and electric, uh, utility bills up to 5%. Iowa City currently has a franchise fee rate of 1%. So we do have a bit of capacity to grow there about 4%. Um, as you can see, that 1% rate returns just around a million dollars, uh, sometimes lower. And that volatility really comes in, uh, due to climate and weather. So hotter summers, colder winters, um, the more that a resident is using their heating and cooling systems that all, um, contributes to kind of the volatility, uh, here. And then road use tax, so, um, Iowa City, uh, uses our road use tax to fund our annual, uh, re- pavement rehab program. Um, and you can kind of see, uh, a little bit of the history of what we've been bringing in in road use tax over the years. So way back in, uh, around fiscal year 2012, that was just a little, a little bump we got from that 2010 census, um, around FY15, '16 is when the state bumped their fuel tax to 10 cents, um, bringing in a little bit more for us. And This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 11 then, um, in fiscal year '22, we expect that we, again, will a little bit of a bump, um, from that, uh, from the 2020 census. We don't know what that is, um, quite yet, um, but we do expect to see a small increase. Um, I will say that, uh, this has not been, and I'll talk about this later, but this has not been growing at the pace that, um, our pavement rehab needs have been. So, um, like I said, I'll, I'll touch on that a little bit later in the presentation as well. And then local options sales tax, this of course is the one revenue source I'm talking about today that, um, we, we do not have. Iowa City did have, um, you may recall after the 2008 floods, we, the voters did approve a, um, four-year local option sales tax. During that time, um, we brought in about $8.8 million a year, and that helped to fund really major, uh, flood resilience projects, like the Gateway project, um, the southwest water treatment plant facility and the creation of Riverfront Crossings Park. Um, that LOST expired in fiscal year 2013. Um, but as you can see, many of the other cities, major cities in Iowa, um, do have a local option sales tax, and you can kind of see, um, on this slide, what, what the, what they use that for, uh, and that option does remain open to Iowa City with, uh, approval of the voters. So that's kind of a, a, an overview on the revenue side of things. I'm going to hand it off to Redmond, and he's going to go through the expenditure side. Jones: Good morning Council. Council voices: Good morning. Good morning. Hi. Jones: Um, as you know, I'm like four months in, um, so I've been doing a crash course on the budget. I want to thank staff and I think Geoff hit, uh, right on. It's incredible, uh, just to watch staff pull, pull all this stuff together. Um, so I, uh, definitely share, uh, the pain of the new councilors, uh, trying to take in all this information. Uh, so, um, I'm going to do a little cameo and, and that's going to be the expenditures. Um, our first slide here. Oh, I got, okay. So. There we go. Um, first slide here is, uh, a chart, it's kind of basic, but I also find it, you know, uh, interesting. Um, obviously your eyes tend to go to the, uh, the anchors, uh, of the, uh, charts, uh, the, uh, business type, um, activities, uh, obviously $53 million, that sticks out, um, capital projects, also $47 uh million that sticks out and then public safety is also, uh, one of those things that's constantly, uh, in, in the, uh, um, the public's eye and, and that's at $23 million. So we kind of talk about what kind of makes up those activities, um, business type activities, obviously the things, uh, in this name, uh the things that, uh, the City does that, uh, reflects, uh, uh, business, um, uh, uh, processes and things of that nature. Those are going to be things like, uh, transit, uh, parking, uh, water, uh, waste water, um, capital projects. We're going to be, you know, spending time talking about that, obviously, in our CIP uh, process and work sessions. Um, public safety is one that maybe folks don't, um, you know, readily identify things like code enforcement, obviously police and fire, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 12 but also, um, housing inspections and building inspections, really key pieces, uh, to having a safe community. Um, I think, um, the interesting part of this slide, if, if you will, if we were able to make this three dimensional, um, the public tend to also think that these are competing interests, many of the times, that if you, you take, if you build up one you have to take away from another, uh, but I would argue that if we were able to look down on this, uh, and look down on the pillars, that it would actually, um, make a circle and, and that, uh, the success of one pillar actually helps the other pillars. So, you know, essentially at the end of the day, um, if they're well managed, well balanced, uh, that these expenditures will help, uh, rate payers and tax payers justify their investment in those services that they're getting. Uh, our next slide is, um, focused on, um, the General Fund expenditures. Uh, the, the previous slide was all the expenditures. So obviously, um, you can tell right off the bat that, um, personnel, uh, makes a big chunk of that. Um, there is no doubt that, uh, about the fact that a human asset in any organization, particularly high-performance organizations, uh, the human asset is going to be the most important piece of that organization. Um, and that's no difference here. You can see that, um, 71%, uh, of our, um, General Fund goes towards personnel expenses. If we drill down into that, into that a little bit more, uh, we'll actually see those numbers. Um, I think one of the things that, uh, is striking here is, uh, personnel are pretty, a solid, uh, stable, uh, but always growing, um, uh, expenditure. Uh, you're going to have, uh, hard costs, benefits, um, pensions, and these things, they don't tend to go down, uh, always tend to go up. And, um, they're often the key to having a, um, strong and happy, uh, human asset, which you count on, uh, to deliver the services, which justifies, um, your rate payers and your property tax payers, being happy with the services they're getting, which then feeds into all, everything else you're doing. So it's, it's kind of a, a circle that feeds off of, off of itself and it kind of starts with your personnel. Um, but the challenge in tight, tighten, uh, tightened budget years, uh, other things have to give. So, um, some of the things that would, would be, uh, naturally, uh, vulnerable to that are things like services, and we'll, we'll get back to the contingency, um, supplies, and then, uh, you can't build as many things. So your capital outlay, um, is, is always vulnerable. Um, the contingency here kind of sticks out, um, but that's actually a planning process for expansion for our new fire station, the personnel pieces of that. So, um, the City's been really smart, and you'll see this kind of trending, um, through many of the other, um, aspects of the budget is that the City has done really well in planning for, uh, growth, um, and, and planning for, uh, these type of contingencies. And that that's one of them. So let's talk a little bit about debt services. There's probably three main areas, um, that the Council -- councilors should, uh, focus on when you're thinking about our debt service. Uh, one probably the most important is the state law that's, that, uh, basically limits the, uh, debt service to no more than 5% of the total assessed property value of the city. So, um, we're in a really This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 13 good spot. Uh, we utilized about 18.8%, uh, of the allowable, uh, debt limit. Um, the City also has, um, um, strong, um, internal, uh, processes, um, that also, um, limit, uh, the, uh, levy not to exceed 30% of the city's, uh, levy in the fiscal year. Uh, right now we're at about half of that at, um, 15.8%, excuse me, I'm having a hard time breathing through my mask <laugh> so, um, so, um, and then, uh, the, this third, um, column is, is really, um, about, uh, our, uh, AAA bond rating. And this is a really impressive piece, and I'll go into how rare, uh, having a AAA bond rating is, uh, but Moody's, which is a, uh, independent, um, credit, uh, rating, uh, agency, uh, has given, uh, the City of Iowa City, the highest rating, um, based on its, uh, past fiscal, uh, de -- deliberations and dedication and, um, investments, um, which has made Iowa City a very strong and safe investment for, uh, investors who, um, seek out municipal bonding and things for that in their portfolios. Um, so for, for those at home, uh, it would be more like, uh, having a great, um, credit score from TransUnion. When you try to go out and buy a car, um, obviously the higher your credit score, the better deal you will get on your car. So as we move forward to, uh, make investments in infrastructure and things of that nature, um, having a strong credit score, having a strong rating, AAA allows us to get more for the tax dollars that we invest. So this slide just kind of shows how rare that is. Um, this is, um, a look at all US cities. Um, we're in like the 12.4%, uh, across the nation look, uh, this slide is focused in, on, we are doing in the state of Iowa, um, and there's only four communities in the state of Iowa that has a rating of this, of this nature. Um, so that's, uh, Cedar Rapids, which has recently just got that, West Des Moines and Clive and ourselves. Um, looking at West Des Moines and Clive, those are suburban communities. So, managing older infrastructure and, uh, traditional neighborhoods and all those kind of things, they don't necessarily have all that, their infrastructure's brand new, they just built, uh, new subdivisions and things like that. So they haven't gotten to the point where you have to start paying to maintain those things. So it's a little easier for them to get to that level, uh, than a diverse, um, community of, you know, traditional, uh, neighborhoods and things of that nature like Iowa City. So it just kind of just bolsters how well the City has done in managing that. So I'll turn it over to Geoff. Fruin: All right. So we're going to jump into, um, our enterprise funds. These are those funds that, uh, we operate more or less like a business. And, and there's a, there's a lot on this slide. Um, it's there for reference. I just want to; I'm going to highlight a couple of things. One with this budget proposal, we are not, uh, recommending any, uh, rate increases to water, wastewater, uh, parking, transit, landfill, uh, or storm water, but we are recommending a $3 per month increase this refuse line item here, okay. So this is the curbside pickup. If you have a single-family home, or if you're in a, a dwelling of four units or less, the city, uh, has that cart program where we, we pick up weekly, um, uh, you can see, um, this is even with the $3, uh, increase. We're really This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 14 just getting to the point where these are estimated revenues coming in 4.4, uh, expenditures are at 4.6. So we've been running a little bit of a deficit in this fund, and it's been shrinking our fund balance. Um, we think with this $3 rate increase that will get to a pretty stable leather, uh, level. You can see it's still a deficit this year, but there's some, one-time expenditures in there, um, that we think will level off. So, um, it doesn't get us to a super comfortable place, but, uh, we're trying to balance the pressure on residences and fees with really what we need to operate this service and, and have a safe fund balance. We do have, uh, a healthy fund balance of about 23%. So a little bit of a deficit, um, does not, uh, have a huge impact on us. I did want to point out a, a couple other funds that are highlighted here. Uh, we'll stay, uh, right below that with landfill. You can also see in landfill, we're running a deficit, we have some significant capital needs out at the landfill. Uh, we've got some new buildings, new cell developments and things of that nature. So this is an intentional deficit. Um, we've gotta see, once we get a few of these capital projects under our belt, how those bids come in, um, and how they impact operations. But this is definitely on our radar. Uh, we may need to be looking at a tipping fee increase at the landfill in the coming years. And so the landfill operates based on the fee you pay when you, when you come into it. Um, one thing to keep in mind though, is we raise the landfill rate, it hits the, the refuse account, right? So we, we pay that too. We don't get a free pass in the landfill. Um, so if we raise the landfill rate and we know we've got a pretty tight refuse, you can expect that even a refuse may need to be bumped. So that's just kind of on your radar. We'll watch that in future budgets. Uh, transit is the other one. Uh, I want to point out here, we're going to talk a little bit more about Transit later. Um, we are, uh, running, uh, still a little bit of a surplus in here. We've been, uh, benefited from a lot of COVID relief dollars, particularly with the CARES Act that have really stabilized, uh, some operations there, um, but we still have some significant concerns in, in Transit. Um, uh, most notably our ridership. We still have not, uh, come close to recovering to pre-COVID levels. And, uh, again, we'll get into that a little bit more, uh, uh, later on in this presentation. You can see, we do have a pretty healthy fund balance in Transit, um, both restricted and unassigned, um, that is largely because we've been saving up to have a competitive match for federal grants. So we want to replace our transit buildings, a major initiative of ours. We know that if we have a 20, 30% match, we'll be more competitive for those federal grants. So that's why you're seeing us carry a, a bigger fund balance. And that's what we're trying to do in operating with the surplus here is move that to a fund balance to help pay for that new facility. I do want to talk about the water shutoff policy. Um, this is, this is one of those items we probably can't get into today, but it needs to be on your radar. We probably need to have a discussion on it sooner rather than later. Um, at the onset of COVID, uh, the city made a decision, uh, to suspend the practice of shutting off water, much like any utility account, if you don't pay, the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 15 traditional way to recoup that payment has been to disconnect service, whether you're talking about electric or water or whatnot, um, we've twice talked to Council about, uh, reinstating this policy because of the financial impact it's having on us. Um, and the Council has chosen not to reinstate that policy, um, yet. Um, where we stand today, we have about $600,000 in uncollected, uh, revenues. That number continues to grow. Um, and there was some hope that with all the state relief and other relief programs that, that we would make up those dollars, um, you can see that we've gotten about $140,000, uh, to our water utility, uh, from those relief programs. So, um, uh, we definitely, they, they definitely are not keeping up. They've been helpful, but they are, are definitely not keeping up with the, the number of accounts and the, the dollar amounts that are un--, that are going uncollected. Uh, we will need to consider that, you know, essentially when we have uncollected accounts and we don't have a, a serious way about collecting those dollars, all the other rate payers in the system take on that burden. So that $600, $600,000 has to be, uh, shouldered by all the rate, uh, other rate payers. The longer we go and the higher that gets, it's going to put more pressure on us to raise water, sewer, refuse rates, stormwater rates, um, uh, to compensate for those uncollected, uh, revenues. So again, just something that needs to be on your radar, something that, that we definitely need to, to visit early in, uh, 2022 again. We're getting into kind of some summary slides here. Um, want to talk about the property tax impact to the kind of average house. Um, so, um, we'll walk you through this example. This is fiscal year '22 versus the budget we're proposing today. And if you, uh, we use a hundred thousand dollars for an assessed value of a house, that's not because that's the average assessed value in Iowa City, it's just more simple to do the math. If you have a $200,000 assessed value or $300, you should be able to more easily do the math. So to show you how this all works, if your home is assessed at a hundred thousand, um, you can see that the taxable value is $54,000 next year, 130. Remember that ties to that rollback, that rollback rate is 54%, and you can see it. It's currently at 56 going to 54. So you're paying your taxes on a, a lower amount of your value. We, we, uh, multiply our levy into that, and you actually end up paying this amount. So this year, if you own that hundred, a thousand dollars house, you're paying $884 in property taxes to the City that actually goes down $ 38. So that's that rollback effect. Now, keep in mind your assessed value may go up so that, that could be, you know, washed out and also keep in mind, we don't know what the school district or the County or Kirkwood may do with their tax rate. So this isn't an absolute for any residential owner, but it illustrates what the impact of our rate may be on a, on an owner. We essentially take this information. You can see on the top, excuse me, you can see the 38, uh, dollar decrease at the top here. And then we layer in all our other traditional fees, um, utility fees, to show what the total impact would be. And you can see here storm water, the same. This is the $3 month refuse increase. So you can see a $36 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 16 increase there, and then everything else stays the same. So, the total impact is, is about a wash it's about 0%, little, little, little bit into the negatives, but a $2 savings, uh, for that a hundred thousand dollar, uh, home. All right, Fm going to turn back over to Rachel, who's going to talk about some areas of focus. Kilburg: So we have talked a little bit today about some of those concerns we do have. Um, but I also think it's important for the City Council to know that, um, in, in all operating budgets, we do prioritize, um, our funds for, uh, the City Council's Strategic Plan objectives, adopted master plans and enhancing any core services, um, that we are able to. So I want to talk a little bit about, um, some of those things. So first on this slide, um, is, uh, a little bit about our climate action efforts. Um, as you may recall, a few years ago, the City Council, um, created an Office of Climate Action and Outreach, and at that time they also approved, um, a 24 -cent emergency levy, which is dedicated to implementing the Climate Action Plan and the City Council's emission reduction goals. Now, the staffing is not tied to the emergency levy, that is General Fund, um, funded out of the General Fund, so emergency levy revenue is directly paying for all Climate Action programs, incentives, um, education efforts, um, and in, in the past few years that has been bringing in about a million dollars. Um, now we have had some staff vacancies and some reduced capacity, which has accumulated a bit of a balance there. Um, we, we expect that we'll be at full staffing by spring, uh, of 2022 coming up here, um, but for fiscal year 2023, we are actually recommending, uh, just a 4 cent drop in that emergency levy that'll bring in around $850,000. And this is the level that we've identified as being sufficient to carry out those Climate Action initiatives. Um, it'll enable us to spend down a little bit of that balance that we have accumulated. Um, and importantly for you to know that does open up, um, a little bit, um, of capacity in that emergency levy. The state allows you to levy up to 27 cents, um, in that levy. Um, so if there were other initiatives that the City Council wished, um, to direct that, uh, funding to that opens up a little capacity there. Um, but just talking a little bit about some of the accomplishments that we've been able to, to achieve in the past year, um, our Climate Action Office held the first annual Energy Blitz in the South District neighborhood. They're planning to expand upon that, um, in the coming years. We held our first in-person weeklong Climate Action Festival. Uh, we -- 3 -- 333 households, uh, participated in our Root for Trees tree voucher program. We continued, um, our Climate Action grant program and we launched, um, some commercial and industrial energy efficiency matching grants. Coming up, uh, that we have planned, uh, with our fiscal year 2023 proposed budget, um, we'll be focusing on resilience, um, especially in underserved neighborhoods, expanding residential energy efficiency, programs, and incentives, um, making some improvements to city facilities, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 17 to improve energy efficiency and electrification, um, and then implementing an EV readiness plan that was completed uh, in the past year, Bergus: Rachel, if I could stop you for a second. Yeah. Um, so just to summarize the 4 cent overall proposed reduction in the, um, general levy is based on this 4 - cent reduction, correct? Kilburg: Yep. That's correct. Bergus: And then just, I think I might have misheard you, but the personnel costs, uh, in the Climate division, I guess? Kilburg: Yep. Bergus: Do come out of this or don't? Kilburg: They do not. So there are three authorized, um, personnel for the Climate Action Office and those are funded out of the General Fund. Bergus: Okay. Thank you. Fruin: Yeah, just real briefly. The reason that we do that is, is recognizing that this is a unique property tax source. You know, it is to address emergencies and, uh, you know, should we have, uh, a natural disaster or some other major emergency come on, Council may want to say, we need to shift away from some of these educational efforts and, and grant efforts and fund whatever the, the emergency at hand is. And we didn't want to have staff subject to those winds. So by putting staff on the property, the General Fund kind of property tax levy, it would allow us to make changes to the emergency level without the pain of layoffs, um, uh, standing there. So it, it just is intended to give you and future Councils more flexibility. Kilburg: Okay. Then I'll go ahead and move on, um, to, a slide on social justice and racial equity. This of course has been, um, a major strategic objective of the City Council for several years. Um, typically our operating budgets do include several investments and for fiscal year 2023, um, that's no different. So a couple of, of items that we're recommending in, in the upcoming budget include a $25,000 increase to the social justice and racial equity grant program, that would bring that total program up to a hundred thousand dollars. Um, we're recommending actually an elimination of all library fines, um, for all patrons, this, the library has not been charging fines throughout the pandemic, um, and believe that that this is the time to, to kind of follow the national trend and the trend across the state to eliminate fines as an equity issue. Uh, the '23 budget recommends a new annual commitment of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 18 $25,000 set aside specifically to support BIPOC business growth and our entrepreneurship. Um, we include funding to support our community's crime. I'm sorry, crisis response efforts. Um, we include funding to, to help sponsor, um, partnerships and events, including the annual criminal justice summit, Juneteenth, and, um, MLK day. And then we include funding, um, to, to make accessibility and ADA improvements, um, at sidewalks, parks, and to sponsor an annual ADA event. Um, I do also want to mention that, uh, in June of 2020 with the Black Lives Matter resolution, the City Council had decided to set aside a non-recurring amount of $1 million for racial justice, um, activities. And, uh, that, that funding was carried over. It has not been spent to date and remains available for Council's, uh, use. Our Aid to Agencies grant program is considered an important part of our social justice and racial equity efforts, so this grant program provides some, uh, operating assistance to, um, local non, uh, profits and social service agencies. Um, in fiscal year 2018, the Council decided to set aside 5% for what is, uh, called emerging, emerging, um, social service agencies and each year about a hundred thousand dollars in CDBG funds or community development block grant funds, are dedicated to the Aid to Agencies Program. And then we supplement that with General Fund dollars and the Council has made it a priority in recent years to really bolster and enhance this program. Um, you can see kind of the history of that on this slide here in fiscal year 2020, the City Council decided to fund all applications, which effectively doubled that program. Um, they, again, increased that amount in fiscal year 2021, and then last year, um, the City Council, and that approved budget included a 3.5% increase. And that was made with the expectation that going forward an annual 3%, um, increase would be added to this program just to keep up with inflation. So accordingly for fiscal year 2023, um, we are recommending another 3% increase that brings the General Fund support for the Aid to Agencies Program to just over six thou-- $600,000. Um, affordable housing of course is a, a major, uh, priority of both the City Council, City staff and the community. Um, so in the past four or five years, um, $1 million in General Fund dollars has been, um, allocated to affordable housing. Um, and over these past five years, since fiscal year 2017, this has resulted in about 9.6 million, um, in affordable housing investments. This has assisted more than 1,286 affordable units, and this does not include rental vouchers, public housing, or workforce tax credits. Um, additionally that has leveraged almost $10 million in outside low-income housing tax credit or LIHTC funding. Now the, the ability to leverage that, um, that amount of money is, is really, I'd say in large part, due to the City Council's decision to allocate about 70% of that annual $1 million to the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County. Um, the Housing Trust Fund, uh, administers those dollars. 20% of, of all of that money they receive is set aside specifically for LIHTC projects, and then the remaining amount is, uh, administered through a revolving loan program. So as loan repayments are made, they're able to cycle those funds back through, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 19 um, to act on more affordable housing project opportunities. Um, so in addition to that, then that other, what remains of that annual $1 million is broken out as follows: 7.5% is dedicated to an opportunity fund, 7.5% is dedicated to the City's Healthy Homes Program. 10%, uh, goes to the, the Community's Security Deposit Assistance Program and/or Risk Mitigation Fund. And then 5% is reserved for emergent situations. Now this $1 million in General Fund support does not stand alone. Um, an important part of the City's affordable housing strategy has been the creation of new revenue streams to support affordable housing. And one way we've done that is through, uh, development agreements, TIF, and annexation negotiations. Um, essentially when, when a project doesn't involve affordable housing units, then, uh, the City works to collect affordable housing payments in exchange for incentives such as height or density bonuses, um, TIF revenue, those kinds of things. So in, in green here is an example of what kind of revenue that does bring in. In Riverfront Crossings district, we've collected about $980,000 to date. Through the Foster Road TIF, um, we expect to receive about $2.7 million over the next 10 years, and then with the Tailwinds development that was just approved in the last year or so, um, that, that developer paid, uh, $1.8 million to our Affordable Housing Fund. And that actually facilitated the purchase of eight duplex units in the South District, which the City will rehab, um, and, uh, incorporate into our South District Homeownership Program. So, um, you can, you can really start to see how that, uh, how that impact, um, turns out. And it's just important again, to, to think of this as a kind of holistic affordable housing strategy. We have that $1 million in annual General Fund allocations. We have those loan repayments coming through the Housing Trust Fund compounding little by little, each year, and then we have, um, these new development streams that we work to get through, uh, development agreements and, and all of this just helps to, to act on more affordable housing opportunities with deeper levels of affordability and more longer-term affordability. And then investments in roads. I talked to you a little bit earlier about, um, our road use tax revenue and our annual pavement rehabilitation program is tied to that road use tax revenue. So, um, what you're seeing here is just our annual, um, pavement rehab program. This does not include those major road projects, um, that you do see in the CIP. Um, and as I mentioned before, uh, what we're taking in, in road use tax, isn't necessarily keeping pace, uh, with our road rehab needs. When you kind of combine that with, um, some of our concerns for that revenue source, things like fuel efficiency improving, lower fuel prices and an undercount of a potentially suppressed count in the 2020 census. Um, we will, we will have concerns about whether, uh, that road use tax will be able to, to continue to sustain our level of needs there. Um, and so ultimately what that means is that we're going to have to bond for, for more roads. Um, this is a, this is kind of an, a, a schedule of up major upcoming road projects that are included in our CIP. I won't go into these into detail. You'll have your CIP This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 20 work session next week, um, well you'll have that opportunity. But again, these are separate from annual re-- pavement rehab program. So these are CIP funded, not funded by the road use tax. Um, and just an example of some of those large needs that, that we'll need to bond for, um, take taking that bond capacity away from parks, trails, those kinds of things. Uh, one road project that I do want to call your attention to here is that last one, the Market and Jefferson Street two-way conversion project. Uh, last year, we did hear, um, some support from Council for, for getting that back into the CIP. So we've included that in 2026, that's about when our staff expect those signals may be ready for replacement. Um, and for, from both a financial responsibility standpoint and just a resident disruption standpoint, it makes sense to do those two things together. Um, I'm going to talk about a couple of master plan implementations parks on this slide and bike on the next. So, uh, a couple of major, uh, improvements through our parks master plan that we've made in the past year is some accessibility and drainage improvements at both of our dog parks. Uh, some ecological restoration work at Hickory Hill Park, Terry Trueblood and Whispering Meadows. And then we've recently added some shaded bench swings and public art, um, installations at the Riverfront Crossings Park. In the fiscal year '22,'23 budgets, um, some upcoming, uh, improvements that are budgeted, uh, Glendale Park, some playground and shelter improvements are in Glendale Park, the Pedestrian Mall, Chadek Green and Court Hill Park. And then we have some planned accessibility improvements in Harlocke Hill Park, Oak Grove and Ryerson Woods, which will be paired with some ecological improvements there as well. Then our Bike Master Plan, uh, in the coming in the, the projects that we have planned in 2022, 2023, um, will really help improve connectivity in the South District neighborhood, um, for bikers. So a couple of projects that we have coming up for bike lane -- we have bike lanes planned on Southgate Avenue, West Benton Street, and Rochester Avenue. Bike boulevards will be installed along Weatherby, Hollywood and Lakeside. We have four -to -three lane conversions planned on Madison and Keokuk that will add bike lanes, uh, to both of those as well. The Highway 6 pedestrian trail, um, will be expanded from Fairmeadows to Heinz, adding some connectivity there. And then a side path is planned in, uh, in, in conjunction with the American Legion Road reconstruction project. Um, so with that, I'm going to turn it back over to Geoff. He's going to talk about, um, some upcoming facility needs. Fruin: Okay. Home stretch, I promise Council. Um, uh, this is a really important thing for me. Um, and I, I want to spend a couple of slides talking about that, uh, as we wrap up here. I think it's really, really important, um, that we continue to, to really focus and commit to updating some of our substandard City facilities. We have a lot of facilities that were built, uh, either for a community that was much smaller, uh, than Iowa City, um, and, uh, certainly This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 21 aren't maybe meeting some mod-- modern standards that we, like not only for the public, but for our employees as well. I want to say we, we, we, uh, cannot express to you enough, how much of an impact the new Streets buildings for Public Works has had. Um, Ron can talk a little bit about that later today in his presentation, but that has made a world of difference for those employees and for our operations, some real efficiencies there, we think we need to continue to look at that. We've been really focused as a staff on the financial piece of this in budget years. And you can see on the right how we've created a facility reserve, and we've been really diligent to trying to dedicate, uh, funds to that. We've built that up to about $13 million, however, facilities are expensive. Um, and you can see the list on the left side. When we talk about a Transit Facility, Equipment Maintenance Facility, renovations at this building, uh, we know that we have fire station expansions and modernizations that are needed. We're going through a Parks and Rec master plan, which will focus on the pool and the rec centers. Um, any one of those projects could, could take up all or most of that $13 million, uh, so that $13 million's great, but it doesn't go very, very far. We need to be diligent about continuing to identify funds to help facilitate these. Now they don't all have to be paid in cash, but there are some, uh, bonding limitations that we have for some of these, uh, facilities. So, you see the list there of kind of the priorities that, that we have identified as staff, um, and in the CIP, you'll see some of these start to show up. So we're really going to be more aggressive in, in presenting these to you. Um, outside of the facilities reserve, we also, an emergency reserve, just want to report out that that balance is staying stable at $5.1 million. This is really, um, uh, to be used at Council's discretion for emergencies, and that, you can see some of the, the, the types of emergencies that we might anticipate. Um, we've used this for land acquisition for flood resiliency. Um, but as we have, uh, volatility in revenue sources, um, we could use this as a short-term gap, uh, to avoid more drastic financial measures. Um, and that can also be used to help facilitate, um, or close any final gaps with facility improvements. This budget does include, uh, 3.74 FTEs, and I want to walk through, uh, those. Most of those FTEs, um, are outside of the General Fund, so are not property -tax dependent. We have an, uh, an electrician for our Traffic Engineering unit, um, uh, just as we've increased signalization, we've added decorative lights to bridges and stages and things like that, um, it really, uh, really helpful, uh, to, to have, uh, an additional, uh, electrician on staff that can help troubleshoot, uh, those issues. Uh, in the Transportation Services, uh, Division. We have a program assistant, um, just to help facilitate a, a lot of the, the, the projects identified in the, uh, Transit Plan. Um, one of the reasons that we, uh, are asking for a $3 rate increase on refuse is to add another, uh, Refuse employee. We have seen, uh, growth in the community. We have seen more usage of curbside collections, particularly on the yard waste and organics, and, uh, uh, that position's really needed just to, to make sure we're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 22 completing those daily, daily runs on time. The two General Fund positions are actually just expansions of existing part-time positions. Uh, one's a creative assistant in our Communications. Um, as we do more graphic design, as we get into, um, uh, reviewing more and more documents that are digital for, uh, ADA compliance needs, we could really use those additional hours for that staff person, and then an NDS, uh, the program assistant position. Uh, this is again, an existing position that's part-time, uh, and as we've done more affordable housing, we have more compliance, right? So we have to, we have to check those Riverfront Crossings units. We have to check those TIF units for compliance for 10, 20 -year periods, whatever that may be. And, and, and that staff could really use some extra hours to help focus in on those efforts. So again, uh, 3.74, um, this does not, uh, come close to kind of, uh, meeting the needs of departments. And, and, uh, just to let you know, we, we had, um, uh, close to, um, I think I might have, I think I might have the wrong numbers here, but I, I think we had well over, um, 15 positions requested by staff. I can, I can, uh, uh, follow back up with you later today with that exact number. Um, but there's a lot of needs, and you may hear some of that from your department directors today. We certainly want to try to provide them the resources they need to efficiently carry out their services, but also have to balance that with the, the acute financial challenges. Weiner: Geoff did, did, did I see, or maybe I read it wrong in the budget, that, uh, a position to help, to help, um, with the cyber issues? Fruin: Yeah, so we, we actually, um, took that to Council probably a couple of months ago, and we asked for that position to be approved outside of the budget cycle, uh, 'cause there's some more urgency to that matter. That position has been posted and has been filled. Weiner: And does, does that in any way help with our, some of our insurance costs to have someone actually dedicated to that? Fruin: Um, I, I don't know. I, kind of looking at the finance. It probably doesn't hurt, but it wasn't a decision we made because we knew we would get an X percent reduction. Um, I'm sure, as, as our insurance, uh, policy, uh, holders would, would review us, um, they would appreciate that and factor that in, but it wasn't, uh, "hire this position and get this type of reduction" type of scenario. All right. Um, just kind of looking ahead, uh, preview to next year and next budget. Uh, uh, a lot of our time's going to still be focused on COVID recovery. We know we have the ARPA program. That provides us a great deal of opportunity to have a, a huge long-term impact on our community. Um, it's going to take a lot of staff time to do that. So in terms of new initiatives, there's a lot of new initiatives that are going to come with ARPA and that's going to really focus our time. Uh, probably on your next Council meeting, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 23 you will see a request for a, uh, temporary position in NDS to help with grant compliance and, uh, ARPA administration. Um, we, we do have the ability to use, uh, administrative dollars as part of those grant awards. And we really feel that's going to be necessary for us just to keep pace, uh, with a lot of those ARPA programs. I think you're familiar with what we're working on now. Council will, will, uh, uh, in the next few weeks, get a kind of a email or sorry, a memo summary from the City Manager's office outlining where we stand with ARPA. We know your next work session; you're going to be talking about the direct relief program as well. So, um, a lot ahead on that. Our Transit service expansion, I think, Council knows Sunday service is next on our list. We were hoping to be able to implement that, uh, this winter or spring, uh, more realistically it's probably summer of '22. Um, Council probably was aware that we had to reduce frequency on a bus route for a period of time this past fall because of driver shortages. Um, we are still struggling to just fill, uh, our, our current routes with drivers. Uh, we have a lot of supervisors that are having to drive buses, uh, because we can't keep pace with that. Uh, and that's been a challenge that's, uh, for, for two reasons, one, it's going to be hard to expand service when we can't really run our service right now, but two, the folks who are planning that expansion are spending time driving buses. And so we're a little bit behind on the planning side of, of things too. Um, but we will get there. And, uh, uh, we, again, we are aiming for the summer for a launch of that program. We're still down 40 to 50% from COVID, uh, if you look at pre-COVID numbers and our, our current ridership, uh, that, that worries us. Um, we have seen some great improvements, uh, we're up over a hundred percent over last year. Uh, you know, those, that first year of COVID, we've really had good growth, but we just haven't come all the way back yet. And we're, uh, obviously still working through COVID right now and just not sure what long-term ridership looks like, but that's an important piece of that financial model. We do plan to pay for the two-year, uh, pilot on Sunday service with one time, uh, grant dollars. Uh, those are CARES Act dollars largely, and that's just something that Council's going to have to consider. We still have not identified a long-term funding source for Sunday service, which is going to be probably close to $1.5 million, uh, all said and done to add that one day of service. Uh, roadway, we've hit this pretty hard, um, but, uh, Council in early '21 received, uh, a Pavement Management Program report. We currently are in good position relative to our peers throughout the state, um, and, and we should feel really good about that because we're the only one that doesn't have a local option sales tax to help support us. Um, but the plan clearly showed, and the projections clearly show that if our funding levels are stagnant, which they currently are, we're going to see that overall condition of our roads, uh, start to, uh, start to drop. And of course at that point, repairs become more costly. So, uh, I just want to keep that on your, your radar. Um, we talked about facility planning, this just kind of repeats that. There's going to be a lot of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 24 staff work, uh, this coming year and prioritizing on facility planning, uh, in the CIP you're going to see, uh, Transit Facility, Equipment Maintenance Facility, um, renovations at this building and City Park pool, um, identified, uh, in the CIP to be funded. Um, all those things, we have a fairly good idea on, on what we want to see except the pool, right? There's still a master plan trying to determine what the future of City Park pool is. Um, we just know that its age and conditions are going to force our hand. And regardless of what that master plan says, whether it says reinvest in what's there or clean slate it, and, you know, do something different, it's going to cost a significant amount of money. And then finally, uh, for next year's budget, uh, you know, expect an even tougher conversation. Uh, next year, we've got the elimination of that multi -residential classification. The backfill will, uh, uh, continue its phase out. It's a non -assessment year. So we're not going to see that bump. And we know looking at the building permits the last two years, that we're not going to have a ton of new growth coming online. So you're really be looking at negative to stagnant at best, uh, taxable growth. We think we'll be pretty stable with utility rates. Um, I feel really good about water and sewer rates where they stand right now. I think we've done a really nice job, um, uh, stabilizing those. And then, um, all these other things that, uh, we've continued to get, continue to touch on. The, uh, uh, takeaways from this budget, um, we are, uh, I think successfully navigating the first decline in taxable valuation in over a decade. And, and we are doing this with a, a nominal rate, uh, decrease, uh, through the, uh, emergency levy, which Rachel touched on. We are still trying to take what we can and invest in those Council's strategic priorities. We don't have to dial anything back, which is good, whenever we make these investments, whether it's in staff or new initiatives, we really do it with the hope that we never have to dial those back. And we're not having to, we are able to add to a few things on a, on a minor, uh, level here and there. And then, um, I think we've done a really nice job setting the table for those future public facilities and, and in the CIP and, and just in conversations this next year, you're going to see that become a much higher priority for us. So I appreciate your time. I know it's a lengthy presentation. Uh, we are happy to answer any questions that you have, uh, before we start to focus on departments. Um, but I'll turn it back over to you, Mayor, to see how you want to proceed from here. Teague: Thank you all for your, uh, presentation. I really appreciate taking some time and giving us an overview. We'll be hearing from all the departments, um, as we move forward. Council, are there questions that you have at this point, realizing that there will be, um, more in-depth conversation by some of the department heads as they, uh, do their presentation? Weiner: Uh, I just want to make a quick comment that the, I mean, doesn't help us at all, but I was having a conversation with Representative Jacoby yesterday This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 25 about state taxes and, and the, and we went back to the 2013 property tax reform, which, he is someone who's been doing the, the, the money up at, in Des Moines for a long time, basically labeled the worst thing the state legislature has ever done for community and cities. Thomas: I have a, a one question and maybe a few comments. Uh, one, one question I have relates to the increase in assessed values, Geoff, which I think you said averaged out to be 3%. Fruin: Yes. Thomas: This past year. Um, that's something I would be interested in understanding just in terms of trending. Is that a, is that a number, you know, that has been lower in the past or, you know, where we stand with that? I, I would also think, uh, it would be an interesting percentage to look at at a finer grain, meaning, you know, how does that play out at a more local level within Iowa City? There's certain parts of Iowa City which may be seeing 10% increases in assessed value and others that are relatively flat. And, um, I, I think that assessed value is a, is an important measurement because it, it speaks to how property values are holding up, uh, over time. And, you know, those, those areas where we might see a flat or possibly even an, a decrease in assessed value, um, would be an area of concern. Um, what, what is it that's causing, uh, those property values to remain flat? Um, so that's, that's one thing that I think is an important variable, uh, looking forward. Um, another thing that I've always found puzzling, 'cause I've seen this now in several budget discussions is the, um, the property tax rate in Ames. I'm always interested in these comparable analyses and uh, the Ames property tax, similar sort of university town, um, and size and their property tax rate is quite lower than Iowa City's or any, any of the cities within the state of Iowa. It's really at the, the low end. So that's another comment I would make. And then, you know, there has been a lot of emphasis on the road conditions and that, that too is a major concern of mine. Um, you know, I think, as staff has been emphasizing, uh, we have, uh, you know, we're a city, we're a legacy city in part, we have older parts of Iowa City and, and that's something that the, the Road Management Plan highlighted was the distribution of streets that are in bad repair are not found equally distributed throughout Iowa City. There is a, there's a concentration of poorer quality streets in the legacy portions of the city. Um, so you know, some of us may be living in Iowa City and thinking, God, what's the problem with the roads, you know, if you live in a newer neighborhood, you know, they're in pretty good shape. So, it may, it may be you only experience where, where, where we have problems if you're driving through the core of Iowa City and then you start seeing, you know, what we're talking about. So, you know, I know I've emphasized this point before, but, but the realities of living in Iowa City, uh, vary depending upon This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 26 your, your location, uh, and you know, the, the condition of the environment in which you are living, uh, and, and, you know, it's great to get an overall picture. Um, but I would say at the same time, you know, how, how, if we were to develop budgets for, for the City on a more fine grain, what those might look like in terms of identifying needs and concerns, um, because they will vary from, from neighborhood or district to district. Um, and then the last thing I would say is, is this LOST question. It, it does seem that that is looming. I think we've reached a point. We've been talking about it for a long time. Uh we're or we may need to seriously consider that because, uh, I'm all for trying to streamline services, identifying new revenue sources, but it does seem, we may be facing a point where, um, an increase in our revenues at the scale of what LOST would give us may be something, uh, we need to seriously consider at this point. Um, so those are some of my, my introductory thoughts. [cross chat] Harmsen: That's, thank you. Um, just a couple, uh, things, first of all, uh, thank you, City staff. Uh, this is a huge document, um, going through this, uh, as my first time through this process, I was struck by the amount of work, uh, and ongoing work, obviously from years past and moving forward. So thank you all for the hard work and time and effort that you put into creating this, um, for a new person, it was incredibly understandable, clear, um, and obviously a lot of work went into it. So thank you all for that. Uh, one thing I think that I would find interesting too, uh, for information that we can then pass on to the residents of Iowa City, uh, because as we make these decision based on, you know, trying to give them, uh, the best possible city, uh, is talking about some of these cuts, um, the, the big, basically the big, uh, um, tax rebates for landlords, and I'd really be interested to know how many of these landlords reside in Iowa City and how many of them are out of this community. And out of state, essentially saying as the burden will fall more and more on our, uh, local owners, um, how much of these, uh, these, uh, gifts from Des Moines are actually flowing out of our community. So as the burdens stay here, um, and these, you know, these big apartment complexes, I mean, we provide services for everybody in our city, no matter, you know, who owns the property. And we think we do a good, a job of that. Uh, we increase their property, their investment, by all the things we provide from our Public Safety, to our Parks and Recreation to our transportation. I mean, we are helping their business model. I'm really curious how much of this hit we're taking is actually money that's flowing right out of our community and probably right out of our state. So I know that's a lot of, you know, that, uh, you probably won't have any fine grain, but some sort of a picture of that, because we're going to have to be telling, uh, the other residents of our community, why we're making these decisions and, and where is this going This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 27 and who is it benefiting, um, as the crunch comes on them. Either they have to be satisfied potentially with lesser services, less protection or, um, or, you know, being charged with it, some other kind of tax or fee. So, uh, don't expect you to have that answer off the top of your head, but that's something as we go through this process, I would be really interested to know. Taylor: I would be remiss if I didn't mention, um, former Councilor Mims, uh, when I first got on the Council, she harped over and over again about the Moody's AAA rating, and I really, I'd never heard of it before and didn't really understand the importance of it. It took me a while before I really understood it. And by now, and, and seeing the documents, it is really important. And I think we do have it in our Strategic Plan. And I think we should continue to put an emphasis on that to, to, uh, maintain that AAA Moody's rating. Alter: I have a couple of clarifying questions if I may, um, and I'll refer to a couple of slides, but I also want to, to reiterate and repeat and thank, uh, staff for the immense amount of work and the clarity, uh, as somebody who's not all that familiar with the numbers, uh, this is getting these, these overviews in the big picture and also what's going to come from each department, um, is really appreciated. And thank you for walking us through this. Um, it's really, really helpful. That said, I have a couple of clarifying questions, um, and they're disparate. So the first one actually refers to, I believe it's slide...well, it has to do with hotel/motel. So I think it's slide 24. Um, and there was a bar graph that was showing that the highest revenue I think was at 2019. So pre-COVID. Um, and I also know that Council and development from 2016 to 2019, there was a lot of discussion about the number of hotels that were being put up. And, and we did see a really pretty marked increase. My question is, um, it was sort of suggested that as we get to quote unquote, post -pandemic or get out of the pandemic or whatever you want to call it, those numbers may increase. Is there an expectation from staff, um, in a predictive way, that when life is a little more stable, um, that, that, that spike that we see, that highest bar, that that will be where hopefully, or, um, uh, the prediction is that hotel use will be back up in that 2019 range? Fruin: Ye-- yes, I think that's our, that's our hope. So, so this, um, this year, what you saw here is this is when the Sheraton was converting to the Graduate, this little dip here. So we had a, a major ho-- our largest hotel was closed for a good portion, and once the Graduate opened, and we were kind of full, fully filled, uh, that's our peak. And then you're right, the COVID, this is our bounce back from COVID where we kind of expect to be, we project flat. This is a pretty conservative, um, uh, kind of projection across here. I, I would like to think that when we look at actuals in a year from now, that we'll be closer to, to that top level. Um, but the only re, the only way to really grow this is to get more market share, essentially, to build more rooms and, and take more of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 28 that hotel share, uh, from other neighboring cities or to see those average daily night rates increase. Uh, in other words, just the demand, um, to go in and, you know, we saw that coming out of COVID and, and so much of this depends on, you know, the success of UI athletics and, you know, whether Hancher's operating at full steam and those types of things. So, you know, if we can continue to, uh, um, kind of manage through COVID, we should see a bounce back to that fiscal year '19 number. Alter: Thank you. Um, another one, actually, this is a really easy question, so I'll throw that one in the middle here. What is the difference between a bike boulevard and a bike lane? Fruin: Uh, a bike lane is going to be striped on, um, a road, a bike boulevard is going to be non -striped, but it's signed, it's kind of a designated as a safe biking alternative, but maybe where we didn't have enough pavement with, to actually put a, a lane in there. So it's generally a road in which there's lower traffic speeds, lower traffic volumes, and we say, it's okay, it's pretty safe to drive in the street here. We try to put more signs up. So that motorists are a kind of looking out, uh, for, uh, bicycles. You might see, like share the lane type of signs on a bike boulevard. Alter: Thank you. And then I have one more question if that's okay. Um, this is a little bit more, again, just clarification for me, and it may be just repeating what you did in your original presentation on slide 32. And it has to do with General Fund expenditures. You talked a little bit about, um, there's one specific callout on contingency, and you mentioned how this would be sort, this is, um, had to do with, uh, expanding the Fire Department. Fruin: Yeah. Alter: Personnel and the station. Can you explain that again for me, please? Fruin: Yeah. So, um, in your CIP you will note that the design for Fire Station 5 is included for the first time. So, um, uh, returning Council members are aware that we have bought, uh, land for two future fire stations. One is a, is a new fire station, Fire Station 5, and then one is kind of a replacement for Station 3. Um, as we get to building those, we have to have a staffing plan, 'cause it's going to be $1.5 to $2 million, likely, to operate a new fire station. Um, if you've been in the community long enough, you may remember, it's right before my time, uh, when we opened Station 4, there was a lot of controversy on how to actually fund that station. Essentially, the City got to the point, where how do we come up with $1.5 million to operate this, well, that's how we ended up with the one point, uh, one percentage utility franchise tax. Ultimately the Council had to raise that rate, um, to be able to fund that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 29 station. And what we're trying to do is get ahead of that. And, and we're doing that by setting aside operating dollars every year. It's our plan right now. So this year we've set aside $300,000, um, for future staffing. Now we're not, that's not like, uh, it's not, uh, you know, um, something that, who -- the balance will carry over or from year to year. But essentially next year, what we hope to do, is set aside $600, the following year, $900, all the way till we get to that fifth or sixth year. And we'll have that $1.5 to $2, 2 million to where I don't have to come to you and say, we need to increase that utility franchise fee, uh, a percentage to fund this, or we don't need to increase a property tax rate to fund this. The idea is to incrementally build it in there. So it's less, less of an ask when that time comes. So you'll see this contingent. That's why you see it in a contingency because it's not really the, the dollars themselves, aren't that critical that we carry over. Um, it's really building that capacity in the budget. So it's there in five or six years. Does that make sense? Alter: Absolutely. And so is the idea that, um, rather than Field of Dreams, build it and they will come, build it and we'll find the money, it's a matter of saying when we have a comf -- the amount that can, can sustain and, and hold that, then building will progress. Fruin: Yes. Alter: So there is no hard target for when the station and the personnel will be put to -- Fruin: Well, we're signaling the target with the building of the station. So, um, in our fifth year of the CIP, we have the design, so you could imagine construction, maybe six years out. That's our current plan. Now, if the Council came to us and said, we want to build that station in year two or year three, then we're going to have a little bit of that discussion to say, okay, we don't have money just ready to, to staff this. Um, here are your options. And it may be that we have to increase, uh, um, a new tax or a, a fee or something to help pay for that. But you're right. What we're trying to do is say, if we're, if we're in agreement, general agreement, that five or six years is the right timeframe, then we have a capital plan to build the stations. And now we're having, we're basically implementing an operating plan to staff it, um, you'll see a lot of communities that struggle. It's really easy to build a station. Any community can borrow money and build a station. It's really hard to staff 15 new personnel or 12 new personnel, whatever it is we decide to, to, to staff that station with. Alter: Thank you so much for that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 30 Bergus: I have just a couple of hopefully quick questions and maybe they'll be rhetorical and need some further discussion. But, um, as we look at all of these converging financial challenges that make it one of the toughest, um, budget years in, you know, a decade or so, uh, you know, it comes to my mind, why is this a year that we're still reducing, um, property taxes? And so I know that, uh, a revelation for me as a councilor was that certain levies can only fund certain things. And so this year we're proposing a reduction in the emergency levy of 4 cents. So, my couple of questions, number one, what dollar amount does that 4 -cent reduction equate to, if you have a general idea? Fruin: Um, it, it, we're probably roughly about 50,000 a penny, is that kind of a good balance? So maybe $200,000 we're talking about. Bergus: Okay, so not a big financial impact. Fruin: No, this, this is not a big financial impact. Bergus: Are there things that were requested or proposed that if, if that particular levy had that additional $200,000 income that we would want to be funding? Fruin: Uh, you know, that's an emergency levy. So Council has to, you know, you really have to decide something's at an emergency level. This wouldn't be something to say, you know, let's go fund a consulting study for a, a planning effort. We really wouldn't do that out of this type of levy. Um, if there were climate action initiatives, if there was flood resiliency, uh, initiatives, then we, we could look at this. Um, as, as we kind of mentioned during the presentation, I'd be really, really hesitant to put any type of staff expense on this. So while we do have staffing needs, I wouldn't think that this is the appropriate levy. That's a long-term commitment for a levy. I think you really want to keep, uh, it's a long-term commitment on a levy that should be pretty flexible. So I think the short answer is no. Bergus: Okay. Thank you. Weiner: All right. Um, I want to ask just, um, one or two other quick questions. Um, one you, you briefly mentioned in with respect to the road use, uh, the road use tax, the, the potential undercount in the census, um, is that our, do you have any idea if we're planning to, to request, um, that they look back at our census numbers and I understand that doesn't take, that doesn't take place immediately, but that is one way to recoup this down the road? Fruin: Yeah. So you can, you can, we can request like a technical challenge, but, um, that's not going to be really helpful for us. Basically we'd have to, to, to kind This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 31 of prove that, hey, you, you missed a neighborhood, like you, you physically didn't count this neighborhood. The problem is, is they, they walked the neighborhoods, they sent the letters, but we had a good portion of our population that, that wasn't in town. Um, so, uh, the prevailing thought is that's not going to be helpful for us college towns. Um, there's, uh, um, we're, we're looking at a consortium of college towns are kind of looking at how else to challenge. There's not a clear way through the Census. Um, uh, in a couple years, the Census will open up a special census process in which cities, um, can request that they come in and do a recount, and we can look at that. The challenge is you have to pay for that cost upfront. So we'd be looking at a million -dollar -plus cost to have the Census Bureau come in, and then you're crossing your fingers and hoping that count comes in good, um, uh, because the return on investment is really what you're looking at. So I've done special censuses before, I've seen 'em pay off. Um, I've seen it to where the cities invested in 'em and unfortunately the, the count didn't come 'em in as high as they wanted and, and they, they didn't return. So we're still exploring all those possibilities. But, uh, at this point I don't have a clear answer. Weiner: Thanks. Another very quick question is, um, with respect to the water shutoff deficit that we're in right now, can any, is it, is it currently legit to, to, to backfill any of that with ARPA funds? Fruin: Um, yes, we could, and that's, that's one option that the Council would have is to take, um, essentially ARPA funds use them as lost revenue, and then wipe the slate clean, essentially transfer that $600,000 over to the respective utility accounts. And, and say, from this point forward, we're going to reinstate the policy and right off the bat, there's nobody, that's, that's subject to the water shut off now, you know, if you continue not to pay for a couple months, that may come at you, but you, you could do something like that. Yes. Weiner: Thank you. Teague: Seemed like we have a lot of opportunities for some work session discussion, you know, some of these items. So, I'm going to, uh, refrain, uh, from, uh, just some of the, my comments, um, because a lot of them were touched on and I realize that there are going to be more in-depth conversations to come. We're going to go ahead and progress in our agenda, uh, with some general government program budgets. And we're going to start. Fruin: Yeah. If I could make a suggestion, um, I think we should, uh, invite, uh, Mr. Goers up and allow him to go through the, uh, City Attorney's budget. And then let's, let's save the City Clerk, Manager and Finance for later on in the day, since we're, we're here all day. Um, we have Chief Liston here that can This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 32 jump into police, uh, when you're ready. So maybe Mr. Goers, you can decide if you want a break or not, and we'll invite Chief Liston up. Does that sound okay? Goers: Yeah, I'll certainly defer to the Council. If you want a break now, I'll be patient, or if you'd like me to press on ahead -- Teague: I think well go ahead and go with you and then we'll take a quick break after that. General Government Program Budgets: Goers: Okay. All right. Well, uh, again, probably for those who are at home, my name is, is Eric Goers, I'm the City Attorney. Um, City Attorney's office, uh, budget information starts at page 49 of your materials with the budget information starting on page 338. Um, so the first, uh, uh, slide that's, uh, appears here is the, you know, overall org chart of the, uh, City. Um, as you're aware, uh, the City Attorney is one of three employees who reports directly to City Council, the other two being the City Manager and the City Clerk. Um, also as you'll see in future, uh, presentations and future slides, many of the departments, uh, beneath the City Manager have numerous, uh, divisions and, uh, complicated structures. Uh, the City Attorney's office is not one of those, uh, departments. Um, we're going to start easy, uh, for, uh, Councilors. Uh, the City Attorney office has, including myself, a total of seven employees. Um, the City Clerk's presentation will be similar, uh, in that they don't have divisions, uh, either. Um, we have, uh, 6.5, uh, FTE. Um, although the budget information is a little bit confusing about that, uh, in that you will see 5.5. Uh, the reason for that is that, uh, one of our, uh, City Attorneys, uh, Liz Craig, who is our primary, uh, tort, uh, litigator, uh, is actually paid directly out of the tort levy. That was a change that was made years ago to our department, uh, funding model. Um, actually I used to be the, tort levy, um, employee, uh, the prior, uh, Department of, er, uh, Finance Director used to joke about me working for him, uh, a joke that Eleanor did not appreciate. Um, our budget, uh, again, excluding Liz, in the tort levy, is $686,000, um, of which 93% is, uh, personnel costs. Uh, you'll see that, um, we don't need a lot of equipment to do our work It's mostly just us, uh, working at our computers, uh, typing away and, and doing our filing and, and communicating and supporting the work of the other City departments. Um, you'll also see that our budget is, uh, decreasing, uh, this year. Um, it appears that that's as a re, result of lower, uh, personnel costs, those personnel costs are, are given to us by the Finance folks who are far greater able to, uh, uh, project those and determine those. But I assume that that is, uh, derived from, uh, me making less than Eleanor was, and, uh, my replacement making less than I was, but otherwise all the other employees with the City, uh, I'm sorry, with the City Attorney's office This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 33 are, are capped, uh, that is they've reached the maximum salary they can, uh, achieve. So I wouldn't expect a whole lot of growth, um, in that figure in the future. Um, I'll take, uh, a moment to talk about that staff. Um, the lawyers that we do have working for the City Attorney's office are highly experienced. Uh, our least experienced lawyers are in their 16th year of practice. Uh, I'm in my 25th year. Sue Dulek, who's our first assistant, is in her 36th year, um, of practice. Uh, we as a group, uh, average 22 years of practice of law, 13 of which is with the City. Uh, our legal assistant, uh, Mary McChristy, will be celebrating 30 years with the City, uh, next week after coming to the firm, um, or coming to the City from the, from the Hayek firm way back when. Um, again, we do almost all of the City's legal work in-house; that makes us different than certainly the vast majority of cities and towns in Iowa. Um, and even more so, or even, uh, the, the cities that are even comparable to, to size with us, uh, still have a tendency to, uh, send out more of their work than we do. Now we do, um, hire, I sought counsel on, on some occasions typically, if there's a legal conflict, uh, that requires that we get outside counsel to represent an officer or other City employee. Uh, there are certainly also, uh, highly specialized areas, such as bond counsel, collective bargaining, workers compensation, uh, that we farm out. But otherwise we mostly handle, uh, the City, uh, legal work, uh, within our walls. Um, that's really all I have for you. I know that you will have, uh, much larger or longer presentations for more complicated budgets, and I don't want to take any more of your time than I need to, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have. Teague: If none.... All right. Goers: Thank you for your time. Teague: Great, great, great. All right, well, we're going to take a five minute, or we should probably do a 10 minute at this point and then come back, um, right at, well say 10:00 AM. (break) Public Safety Program Budgets Liston: Um, the Police Department maintains 110.76 full-time equivalents. And this is on page 113 of your flip book, um, 110.76 full-time equivalents, and made up of 84 sworn. And I noticed that the presentation last year at this time, we had, our staffing was 80 sworn, today we're at 77. So, uh, and just for reference, I have hired 10 people. So we've had a significant amount of turnover, and most of that's just people, um, reaching the end of their career. We've had several retirements, we've had a few medical retirements, and we had about three people move out of town and, and, uh, move to another agency. Um, the good news with that is we are in a unique position in Iowa City in that we are able to still recruit good candidates. And I'm very proud of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 34 that. And I think a big portion of that is because the Police Department has always been well funded. We have good equipment, and I think we can compete with any area law enforcement agency. One of the things we have done to make sure we can do that is implemented with our Human Resources, a continuous application process, and that was something that had not happened in Iowa City. We would do it once every couple of years, open up applications. And then we would, we have, we would do our testing and get that number whittled down. And then they would go before the Civil Service Commission. Civil Service Commission has been outstanding. We can call them a week's notice and they'll convene a meeting and certify a list. So, as we speak, like I mentioned, we have 77 officers, uh, with an authorized staffing of 84. We have an active list with nine people on that list. We are still accepting applications. So if we happen to exhaust that list, we'll just start it. We'll, we'll start the testing process again. So that puts us in a position of advantage over any other agency in the county where they have to ramp up their entire process. So we're very happy about that. So we'll move on through, through these three, uh, um, three departments, we have 10 projects, the Police Administration just has Police Administration. Police Support Services has several. They have Support Administration, the people who run that, the Captain and so on, the stationmasters, those are the people, when you go to the police station, they're sitting at the front desk. Crime Prevention, uh, those are our outreach people that people go out in the community and, and build relationships. Uh, Crossing Guards. You obviously know what that is. Records and Identification, the people who, if you go to the police station and ask for records, they're the ones going to, are going to get it to you. And then we have Animal Services. Police Field Operations is what you think of as traditional police work. And that's broken down into three projects, which is Patrol, the people when you call 911, they are the ones who are going to show up; Criminal Investigations, those are the ones who follow up, the detectives, they're, they follow up on crime and try to solve that. And then the other field services are, are, um, are positions funded by grants like our, our, uh, Johnson County Drug Task Force position and our Domestic Violence Investigator. So we'll move, if I can direct you, to, uh, some of our accomplishments from Police Administration, this is on 117, if you'd like to follow along. They filled the vacant police chief position. Here I am. Um, we've achieved our, uh, CALEA accreditation for the seventh time. And what CALEA is, is our, uh, best practices. And we're one of 10 local law enforcement agencies in Iowa that are accredited through CALEA. We, we were first accredited in 1999, and just last year we received, received our seventh award. So we're very proud of that. We're implementing a lexical policy manual rewrite, and what that does again, is best practices, and it, we will constantly be reviewing. We, we do this internally, but this, this organization will help us. They have staff attorneys; they follow case law. And if anything happens to need to be changed, they will often can catch it before This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 35 we, we will. And they also implement daily training based upon our policy. So we're really excited about that. And we think it'll really increase our officers' understanding of our policy and will, this, this organization will also work with our Community Police Review Board, because as you know, every time we update, change, implement a policy that goes before the Community Police Review Board for their input. So this will still allow for that process. Upcoming challenges, um, again, trying to continue to recruit for, uh, diverse applicant pool, to more closely mirror our community. I think we've done a very good job at that, um, and we're still working through the City Manager's preliminary plan to restructure the department and we can go over some highlights of that as well. No changes in staffing, um, for, uh, Police Administration. Services, if you're wondering what that is, for Police Administration, that's primarily training, um, and some IT chargebacks and, and, uh, programs that we run software, um, software expenses associated with administration and, and we'll also have that with both of the other divisions. The next one is police -- Police Support services. And again, as I mentioned, the Support Administration is the captain in the, the administration of that division's records. We've already gone through this, so we can skip down to recent accomplishments. Um, we created a full-time Civilian Support Services Supervisor in the, that was part of the, uh, plan to restructure instead of having a sworn officer supervising those civilian, uh, records, people and stationmasters, now we have a civilian supervisor. Um, we established a full-time Crime Analyst. They've worked on the outdoor canine recreation area with Animal Services Center. One of the big projects, and an expensive project, was the shelving, uh, for evidence, if you, we store our evidence down at the, offsite, and it's quite a big room, and the way we were storing it, wasn't really efficient. And we had spent a lot of money on getting those shelves replaced, so it's much more efficient. Um, one of the things we're excited about, and I mentioned it to my wife the other day, because I read an article about heart attacks with moving snow, that we we've gotten new AEDs and the AEDs we had, we were able to repurpose those. So, one of them is actually in my car. That's why I mentioned it to my wife. If you see me laying in the driveway, remember there's an AED in the back of my car. Um, upcoming challenges. Uh, we constantly, with supply chain issues, we're having problems with uniforms. Our uniform contract, which we have a loc-- or a, a vendor who we use, that, that has expired. We have it out to bid right now. So we're hoping we can, uh, we're hoping we can maintain the, uh, level of service that we have had. Uh, we're installing a catio. And that is just what it sounds like, apparently a patio for cats at, uh, Animal Services. So Chris is excited about that, and they're having some significant issues at Animal Services with their HVAC system. And that is going to be something that we anticipate being a cost. No changes of service there. Um, one of the things we have added, it's not, it's not our employee, but you all are familiar with the Mental Health -Law Enforcement Liaison position This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 36 that we added last year. This budget will fund another position. Again, it will not be our employee, it'll be an employee through CommUnity, but this position will fund another one of those. So right now we have 40 hours a week. We have one full-time employee that works for CommUnity that helps us. This would double our coverage with that. And moving on to police field operations. Again, this is the standard, what you, what the normal public thinks of, Police Department, patrol, investigations, and other field services. Um, we've done a lot of good things there, specifically dealing with, uh, officer wellness. We implemented the EDMR program for officers to receive access for traumatic, uh, for trauma specific therapy. Um, one of the things I'm most excited about is we joined in a ch, in a Chapter 20/80 agreement with the Johnson County and the University of Iowa for joint forensic and, uh, analysis team. It's, it's called JFACT and it's a cyber team. We, we had all these agencies that had one specific person that would investigate cyber, uh, crimes or download phones, computers. And as you can imagine, almost every crime nowadays has some sort of cyber nexus. Everyone is carrying a cell phone in their pocket. Um, so we were becoming overwhelmed with that and we were putting all of our eggs in one basket. It's a very specific and high-tech position. And if some, if that, that detective decided he didn't want to come to work, we would have a major gap in our services there. So now we've created this task force with the County and the University. So if God forbid something happened and we lose a position, we still have those services because it's a task force now. So we're very excited about that. They're doing hundreds of devices, uh, since we implemented it six months ago, they've done several hundred devices and thousands of gigabytes of information. So it's, uh, really excited about the work they're doing. As you know, we hired a full-time Victim Services Commission. Uh, we have the embedded social worker that I mentioned before, uh, the Law Enforcement - Mental Health liaison. And we've partnered with the Shelter House, with their position to help, uh, the, the homeless outreach position, which has been working well for us. Uh, this is also where we are adding that extra funding for the additional mental health liaison. One of other things we're working on right now and it, and the former mayor pro tem was very involved with this process, was our, uh, immigrant and refugee outreach position. And we are currently, uh, interviewing for that position. So that was funded off of last year's budget. We'll continue that this year, um, really excited about that. That's a part-time position to supplement the, we already have a Community Outreach Assistant. This will be a part-time one focused specifically on the immigrant and refugee population. So, um, one of the things we're also excited about as you, you all are well aware and had a lot to do with, it was the Guidelink Center. We continue to utilize their services. Um, they continue to expand services and it's just a fantastic alternative to, uh, specifically to jail or the hospitalization for us. It gives us a nice, uh, alternative. No service level changes there. Uh, the, we just hope to be able to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 37 get up to full staffing. And I do think, considering the hard work Human Resources and our recruiting team has done, we'll be able to do that. Um, what happens is when we don't have full staffing is those Community Outreach positions, the two Downtown Liaison officers, the Neighborhood Liaison officers, those positions go unfilled. And, uh, we understand that that's important for our community. So we're making a commitment to get that done, but to do that, we have to be able to fill our spots and we have to be closer to full staffing. And again, considering the, the information that I just shared with you, that we have, uh, an active list that should be able to get to that point. We have five, five people at the academy right now, they will finish in April. And that's, I, I may have explained this to you before. It takes us a long time to get someone spun up. So when we hire someone, they don't immediately go out into the field, as you can imagine. If they are sworn, say they work for Coralville or another agency in the state of Iowa, they then they do go immediately into our four-month FTO program. But someone who has never been a police officer, they need to go to the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy, which is four months. And then they need to go through our field training program. So it it's an eight- to nine-month process from start to finish to get them to be a productive member of our department. We cut that in half with our certified officers, we have had a focus on certified officers, uh, there's seven on this current list. So that will give us a little more immediate help, but it's still not day one hire, and then they're, they're a contributing member of the department. So that's one thing we need to keep in mind. And it's been frustrating for me considering that I've hired 10 people and we're still down seven officers, but I do think there is light at the end of the tunnel. And I hope this time next year we'll be at or close to full staffing. There's always going to be attrition. You guys understand that with an agency our size, people are going to come and go. Is there any questions? I, I know I kind buzzed through this. Um, do you want to go over any of the specific budget points. Your budget, the budget in your book starts on page 350 and it has each of them broken down by projects. So there's 10 separate projects in there. And again, it's a pretty, um, it, it's a pretty lean budget as you, as you can see in the budget book, 86% of our expenditures are for personnel alone. And that's something that we really have no con, control over. Bergus: Uh, Chief. I think you mentioned that, uh, under the Administration section that one of the upcoming challenges is continuing to work through the restructuring, uh, plan. And I think you said you might have a little bit more about that. Was there anything else you wanted to highlight or kind of what you had in mind for the upcoming year with that plan? Liston: Sure. The, the main part is adding, uh, Joah Seelos is our Law Enforcement, Mental Health -Law Enforcement liaison. The main thing is, is increasing his numbers to two, getting another one of his position. I know, I think we're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 38 going to be talking to you, Council will be talking about it later. Uh, the Mobile Crisis is, is looking to expand their services, which we fully support. Joah has worked closely with that. In fact, he, he was gone from working with us for several months, working specifically with Mobile Crisis. So what it kind of works out is do we have a built-in Mobile Crisis person working with us? Um, and then they are going to expand their services as well. So we're really excited about that and we fully support the expansion of that. Fruin: Yeah. And, and Council, you will, uh, have a memo in your packet next week. That includes a proposal from Guidelink to expand Mobile Crisis. And when, when we say expand, it's, uh, it's already a 24/7 service, um, but we're really focused on driving down response time and creating opportunities for their, um, more long-term employment opportunities. They currently rely a lot on on-call, um, staff, and you can imagine turnover in that type of position is greater. So some of these ARPA funds, we're going to be recommending that we invest in this service, uh, in order to drive down response time. And as response time improves, you will see law enforcement use it more, 'cause right now, with the response time of 30 minutes, that's, that's hard for an officer to wait 30 minutes on scene for, for a handoff. So we really want to focus on driving that response time down to 10 to 15 minutes so that we can see those law enforcement referrals, uh, move up. And then hopefully on the prevention side of our call continuum, if it's only 10 to 15 minutes, uh, uh, response, hopefully you're just going to see people call Mobile Crisis more frequently. And, and I think we have a real opportunity, um, from a communication standpoint, to promote that this coming year, because there will be a shift to the national 988 hotline. Um, so you won't have to know the 1-800 number, uh, to call Mobile Crisis. You'll be able to dial 988 and, and, and the folks at CommUnity will be involved in that dispatch. Weiner: And that, that am I correct that that will all come into the JECC out at the County center that they will, will they be able, will they be taking 988 calls out there? Fruin: No. So, so that will be dispatched, uh, through the existing Mobile Crisis dispatch. Is, is what, you know, the, state's gotta make some decisions there, but currently, uh, it's a, it's a, um, cooperative relationship with Foundation 2 and CommUnity that, that does that. So, uh, Chief, do you want to mention your, uh, your, your initial talks with JECC about, um, uh, involving Mobile Crisis, uh, in those 911 calls? Liston: Sure. We're, we're investigating which calls, uh, Mobile Crisis was very interested in doing it like a co response, similar to what would happen like on a vehicle accident when they, when they call Police Department and ambulance or fire, if it was a clear mental health call where traditionally it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 39 would just be the Police Department, they would also call, um, Mobile Crisis. And as Geoff mentioned, with a 30 -minute response time, sometimes that's challenging. The officer has either handled the situation by the time Mobile Crisis shows up, or they're just waiting for that. So with the expanded services of Mobile Crisis, we think that could be a very viable option. Also, one of the things that was in the, uh, planned restructure was the diversion. I think the 988 diversion from law enforcement, what happens is everyone just calls 911, and, and it ends up coming to the Police Department. With 988, uh, again, it's a simple number for people to remember. I think by that alone, there will be a significant amount of diversion that calls are just going to Mobile Crisis. And then there'll, there will be some mechanism for them to determine their metrics on, well, we need to get law enforcement involved or not, but it'd be nice to have those people who are professionals in that area, make those determinations instead of it just coming into 911. And then there we go. Weiner: Thank you. Teague: Any other questions? Thank you. Liston: Thank you. Teague: Yes, we're going to move on to the Fire Department at this point, and welcome. Grier: Good morning. Teague: Good morning. Grier: Do I go down next page? Fruin: Yeah. Grier: Uh, sorry. Hey, there we go. Fruin: There you go. Fruin: Does Coun-- do, does Council want me to turn off the lights so you can try to see what's on the screen? I know it's hard. Uh, or do you prefer to have the lights on through your comments? Thomas: I, I can't see what's on the screen, so I don't know if it's that, if anyone else can, I can. Oh, I, I it's. Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 40 Grier: I got the budget book here, so. Okay. Well, good morning again, John Grier, Fire Chief. Thanks for the opportunity to see you one last time and do budget. Uh, we do come to you from four fire stations throughout the city. 64 full- time equivalents, I know that in the City Manager's presentation, he talked about, uh, Fire Station 5 and relocating Fire Station, uh, 3, so I won't spend much more, uh, any time talking about that, but our divisions, you see there, Administration, that, there's four of us that work in, in Administration, or actually there's six of us, but we all do kind of different functions. The BCs are on shift, and then we have a fire marshal. That's also a battalion chief, but, uh, as the, as Chief Liston talked about, we have some changes coming up through the Fire Department. You know, there's some upcoming retirements, uh, uh, uh, some folks over the next couple years, we have a number of folks that will be eligible for retirement. So we're working closely with, uh, Human Resources as well to work on our recruitment and testing process. Typically we do a test every few years, whereas now we're looking at a different option. How can we do that more often, uh, streamline it, make it more efficient, uh, uh, increase diversity. We've done a lot of outreach in the community with the working out, reaching out to certain groups, working with, you know, uh, Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County, Open Heartland, UAY, those sorts of things. We've had an apprentice program, apprenticeship program that we, uh, started this past year. So we're just trying to get, uh, a little more, uh, folks as they're younger and looking what a career in public safety could be for them. We typically do also a, a Youth Emergency Services Camp. Of course, COVID has kind of impacted that for us a little bit, but, uh, so we, we do have a lot of, uh, folks out in the community trying to increase, you know, uh, interest in the Fire Department. But again, that's what, we'll work closely with Human Resources to move that forward. I'll go through the, the divisions here. Fire Administration is what I do, and some of the accomplishments that we, we're proud of, obviously we, we're a three -time -accredited fire service agency for one of, uh, 189 career Fire Departments in the United States that have achieved this, we are due for reaccreditation in 2023. So that's, uh, it will be an upcoming challenge for us and our accreditation manager to get all that. It's an intensive review of what you do and how you do against a, a standard that's developed by a commission and, uh, best practice. And it's a continuous improvement model. So we're proud of that. Uh, the other things that we consider accomplishments, we've kind of guided the pandemic response for the City, maintained a lot of supplies and just kind of been a go -to resource for that. And I think that, uh, we've, as you, we've learned right along with you and we adapt to changes, that comes up. But so certainly we are, are continuing to monitor that. We were able to successfully write a grant and get an additional laundry machine, a gear -washing laundry machine for Fire Station 2. So we're happy about that. And, uh, we did complete our weather alert siren upgrade. We had a five-year project that you had funded. So we, we finished This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 41 that. And as the challenge, as I mentioned, that we're going to have, reaccreditation, which we'll start, and then we have some succession challenges for us too. Uh, no changes to service level. And you know about the contingency fund, so I won't spend any time talking about that. Emergency operations is our bread and butter. That's, you know what, we're here for. There's a minimum of 16 firefighters on duty each day throughout the city. Last year, we finished up the call volume of 8,106 calls for service. If we look back to the '70s, when, you know, 450 calls was a number of calls in the '70s. So we've pretty much, uh, grown rapidly over the years. We had a downturn in COVID year. Obviously, nobody wanted to call an ambulance or go to a hospital. So our call volume is down, but we've kind of bounced back with that. One of our issues with, you know, call volume increase and the need for looking at Fire Station 5 and those sorts of things, or con, what we call concurrent calls, when the unit that's covering a fire district is already out on another call. And that happens 40% -- 47% of the time. It varies by district, but Engine 3 could be on a call and then there's another call for service in that district. So we cover that all with another fire station. So that's one of those metrics that we look at as that continues to increase, I think that's something that you'll, you'll review and just, you know, help you decide your timeline. Uh, we're doing, uh, replacements for our apparatus. We actually have a new ladder truck on order, which should be here April. I'm guessing more May, but, uh, so that's certainly on there. And then we have some coming up in the CIP that well talk about later. Uh, we are working to update our, uh, defibrillators as well. And we're working with a number of groups in the community to be a part of Pulse Point and Heart, becoming a Heart Safe Community, which I think you've heard about or read about, basically is just having folks that are trained in the community in CPR and the folks that, uh, download a Pulse Point app. They could get a notification there was somebody in cardiac arrest in this area and the AED is located here, and we're actually going to put five of those units out in the community that would be accessed by anybody in the community that is signed up for Pulse Point. So we'll continue to move forward with that. No changes in, uh, service there. And, uh, the big outlay will be the new AEDs for us. Fire Prevention. That's our Fire Marshall's office. We do a lot in that office, fire investigations, public education, code enforcement. Uh, it's been a challenge to do public education, as you might imagine, over the last couple years, we've done virtual things, working with the, the City, uh, television to produce things that we could put out for the schools specifically, but it's available to anybody. So we're hoping that in the future, we'll be able to get back into the schools to do, you know, in person, but we still have been invited to a number of events and you can see our folks help paint a wall here. So we're still going out and doing things it's just different. As a lot of things are for us. Uh, we're looking to, you know, increase funding so that we can do some more of those outreach, uh, programs. Uh, if we had, you know, a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 42 position that could help part-time, those sorts of things, for future discussion, we used to have a position that did that, but that was lost a number of years ago, but as things start to ramp back up and the world kind of turns back to normal, that'd be something that a position would be, uh, nice to have that filled in the future. But the Fire Marshal does, uh, do a number of inspections throughout the year. We have a contract, obviously with the University, we conduct inspection that we do, commercial inspections for typical commercial spaces, once every three years, anything with a licensure we do every year. So it, it does keep that division pretty busy. Fire Training. Uh, thanks again for the training tower in the training area. It's awesome. We are slowly building it up with, uh, additional props and getting more comfortable with what we have there. And I think we'll see a future, a future where we'll become a regional spot for area fire departments to come. We are, uh, we just transitioned to a new, a new training officer. So he's kind of hitting the ground running. We have two new firefighters starting Monday, so he gets to work them through their six-week orientation. We do have, uh, some challenges down there with the roof at the, at the building, but that's being worked on. And we are transitioning to, well, more of an, uh, at-home training module where we become the place where we do training. And I think that that's going to help us. As you might imagine, firefighting changes a little bit as things con-- continue to change with technology, what's available, uh, how things are built. A good thing about in, in the codes that we adopt here, help us in all of those regards. Uh, and no service level changes for, for, requested for Training either. So that's kind of the, the quick overview of the Fire Department. If you had any questions, I would certainly entertain 'em. Bergus: Thank you, Chief. In the, um, Administrative division, you'd mentioned the challenge of continuing to recruit, and I know that diversity has been, uh, uh, something that the Department has maybe struggled with, uh, increasing over time. I had learned recently that it takes, uh, can take even a number of years for someone who's interested in joining the department can actually join. You mentioned maybe some serv, uh, some changes in how the recruitment and sort of certifi-- certification process happens. Is that going to shorten the timeframe for someone who's interested in joining? Grier: Absolutely. That, that would help that immensely. We, we make a list of approximately 30 folks that, you know, meet all the requirements. Then we keep that list. We don't have people turn over as much, you know, so we will keep that list for a couple, couple, to maybe three years sometimes. So in the initial discussions with Human Resources, we're looking at what's the timeline that we can go to realistically, to do that process. And I think that's part of the discussion too, is, how we do it right now, it's very intensive because of how we do it. Is there a way that we can streamline it, so we're being smart about it and, but still getting the result that we want, 'cause This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 43 you're right. If, if I miss the test date by a month and I can't test for two or three years, I've moved on to another community or I've looked somewhere else or that sort of thing. So I think it'll be a good change for us. It's just one of those things. This is how we've always done it. And we've tried to look at ways to do it in the past and now it's just, it's time to do it. And we're looking down how, how we can do that, the most efficient way to get it done. Bergus: Thank you. Fruin: And I think we've got some good experience with Police, as Chief Liston mentioned. We were able to streamline that quite a bit, um, kind of the staffing emergency forced our hand, but there's some good lessons learned there. That'll transition over to Fire and we're probably looking at, you know, going through recruitment here in the next well, three to six months. Grier: Yeah. Fruin: Uh, so we'll get, get going on those plans. Absolutely. Grier: And again, I think the, the connections that we've made in the community over the last couple years, it's going to be helpful to us too, you know, exposing folks to what it is like to be in public safety. And, you know, we interact with the ambulance and the police quite often, so maybe they don't come to Fire, but they go to the Police Department or they work for Johnson County Ambulance or get into EMS or something, you know, but, so it's, we're looking at different ways to make it and getting out in the community and making those connections when somebody is 16, you know, and trying to get to them. As soon as you turn 18, we're going to have a test, you know, within the next year, then it certainly becomes a little more manageable, I think. Thomas: Chief do, do you have a, I was noticing under the, um, the Emergency Operations. So your, your es- the estimate is 83, 8,350 calls in the coming fiscal year. Do, do you have a breakdown as to what type of calls these are? Grier: I do, uh, I can give you 2021. Like I said, as I said, 8,106 calls for service, that was 9,511 unit responses. So on some calls, we send more than one unit, uh, total fires in Iowa City, 185, building fires, 46 -- 32 of those were in Iowa City. The other 14, we went and helped one of our, uh, mutual aid partners. Total EMS calls, any call for medical service, 4,607. So the bulk of our responses are EMS. We do run a, a fair number of fire alarms as well. Uh, we, rescue calls 'cause we're, we're an all -hazards organization. We do confined space. We do extrications, we do water rescue. So we do a little bit of everything, but yes, total EMS 4,607. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 44 Thomas: Thanks. Grier: And that's the, that's the benefit to us too, is also being, you know, having Fire Station 5 and Station 3 relocated. It helps us get to those calls more quickly. Taylor: When I worked at the hospital, we had an annual, uh, in-service, hands-on, uh, fire safety training, uh, handling the, uh, fire hoses and, and getting instructions on, on things. Uh, does your department still do that? And if so, do you get reimbursed from the University or is that just a community service for you guys? Grier: We do not do it for the University anymore. Uh, I probably saw you there. I worked at Station 2 for a number of years, went over there and did that quite a bit. We do offer fire extinguisher training to the community, to businesses if they, uh, are interested, and we do charge them for it, for the time we have -- our training officer, does those sorts of things, but we don't do it as much as we used to. I think a lot, a number of companies have their own internal, uh, safety committee that takes that initiative. But we do do chargebacks for things that are out of the norm, you know. Emergency response, we go to, no problems, no questions. We do charge back for things like that. Uh, or if there's a hazardous material spill on the interstate, we can charge back to the, the carrier if we use resources here. Taylor: Thank you. Harmsen: Um, with the increase in call volume and the increase in the size of our city, could you speak to how that's sort of, what pressure, if any, that's put on, uh, the Fire Department at the current staffing levels. I know we're looking in the future a few years down the road of, of helping that, but, uh, what's the situation like currently? Grier: Well, I would say absolutely, we, we, we are tired. We go through phases of being more busy than others. Obviously, there's, when the University's out, uh, call volume tends to go down. But in my experience of almost 30 years, I've found now that not, people don't leave town as much as they used to. I know when I was in college, I went home. Now I think a lot of college students tend to stay. So the, the, it's always a busy city. Uh, so yeah, I think, you know, we're, we are, the overlapping calls is a concern and, uh, the City Manager and I have this discussion on, you know, this is why we're looking down the road, we need to start working on these things. But I think it's just, yeah, between running calls, doing inspections, `cause our company's doing inspections as well. Uh, doing all of our training to maintain all of our certification. It, it is, it is busy. Now we are working with the NDS -sharing physician to help us with our, our licensure inspections. So that's a welcome This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 45 relief, but yeah, we are, we are busy and anticipate that it's going to continue to go up incrementally. Harmsen: This is probably more for your successor, but any short-term solutions as we wait to, to move a on the, uh, fire stations that we can help with some of that pressure. Grier: Well, I think, you know, short term solution could be, instead of, you know, we talked, I heard, uh, the presentation about staffing and the cost of staffing. And we, we all understand that. I think a short-term solution could be, uh, a squad that would staff two people, you know, instead of hiring, you know, 12 to staff a fire station, if you hired a few folks that could staff, help with, staff a squad. So then there, two people are running an EMS call while an engine company can stay in service. And this particularly comes to mind for me like Fire Station 2, they're kind of over on by the, themselves, over on that way. But so if you had a squad that could help. Or Station 3 runs a majority of our EMS calls, uh, so that something like that could help too. But I mean, it's all, it's all numbers 'cause we, you know, have to have the apparatus to do it. And then, uh, if you have those two people, you know. Fruin: One of the things that the Chief's been working on with, uh, Tracy Hightshoe and NDS is shifting some of the fire inspections over to building inspectors. Um, so trying to identify where those, where are those properties in which we have building inspectors going in for their, their needs and then a fire inspector going in and can that all be handled by the building inspector. And uh, I think we've, uh, are just getting that kind of program off, uh, off and running now, uh, because we've, uh, fully staffed up in the NDS Department, but our hope is that will take some of the units, uh, keep some of the units at home instead of sending them out on inspections where they might have to leave and answer a call. Grier: Yeah. That, that will definitely be beneficial, 'cause as, as Geoff mentioned, they bill. NDS would go to an inspection and they would say, Hey, here's something you want to write down on your fire report. And we're like, okay, do we both need to go there? If, if we can share, this is what we look for, put it on your list. I mean, I think, and I think the business owner probably likes it, one less visit as well, you know, but it would help us remain in, in our stations more often too. So. Thomas: Uh, where, where is Fire Station 3? You mentioned they get the most EMS calls. Grier: It's right across from Proctor and gamble. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 46 Thomas: Oh, okay. Bergus: Um, Chief, with most of the calls being, or such a big chunk of the calls being EMS calls, and you mentioned apparatus, um, are fire trucks responding to all of those calls and is that something you've considered changing? Grier: Uh, yes. The fire engine does respond. Uh, we take it with us 'cause that's what we need in case we get a concurrent call. Uh, so this is where the squad might come in, play in the future where if you had a, a specific vehicle that would cover those types of incidents versus taking a fire engine, but we, we take it with us in case we have another, like a fire incident while we're out Bergus: Just thinking about things like fuel and tire repair. Grier: Sure. Bergus: And all the incidents that come along with the larger apparatus. Grier: Yeah. And we respond with the ambulance because of our, you know, we're more spread out than the ambulances so we can typically beat, beat them, but we do share space with them at Fire Station 4. So that helps, helps with that area. That is certainly one thing to consider is that we want to stay in as much as possible. And part of that continuing process is working with the JECC as well for calls that we typically would go on. Now we may not get dispatched on, they ask a couple more EMS questions, could be an ambulance -only call. So then we, we are not dispatched to that, or if we get dispatched and canceled. So, the we're certainly working through all those things too. How can we still serve the public and go on the things that we're definitely needed for, how can we cut back the ones that we don't need to go on? And part of that could be like, like I said, false alarms as well. If we continue to work through the fire marshals programs, which has reduced false alarms, but how can we reduce it more? You know, if you save going out 300 times, that certainly helps. Weiner: So if you were, if you were to staff up, uh, something like, like a squad, um, would, would the, would the thought be that eventually when Fire Station 5 opens that, that per, that personnel who hired for something like that would then be shifted to the new fire station? Grier: Yeah, that would be my initial thought. And then I would say down the road, it'd be nice if we could have that squad too. I certainly understand the numbers game, you know, uh, in a, in a perfect world, it would be great to do this, but you know, being realistic, I think that that could be a short-term This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 47 solution. And then yes, I would slide those personnel over into Station 5. Uh, yeah, Manning, staffing Station 5. Wow. Took a while to get that out. Sorry. Weiner: Really appreciate Fire taking the lead on, um, on COVID response coordination. Um, one other quick question is, you mentioned CPR and, and the new initiatives, is CPR training down now because, and, and accreditation of people down now, because of the pandemic? Grier: That I do not know. I know that the training has changed, they've, they made it easier now. I -- back in the day, you know, it was difficult to get to a class, now we're, they're teaching for the layperson, you know, hands -only CPR. So at least you're doing something. So I think it, you are able to do a lot of that, some of the, maybe the initial stuff online or virtual. And then if you have the opportunity to actually use a mannequin, so you can get that experience to what it feels like to push, you know, but I, I don't know if the numbers are down, but I know that the Heart Safe Community part of the upcoming program will definitely help us get Iowa Citians more trained. Weiner: Thank you. Teague: All right. Thank you so much. Great. Grier: Thanks so much. Have a good day. Culture and Leisure Program Budgets: Teague: You as well. All right. We're going to move on to culture and leisure program budgets. We're going to start with the Library, but yes. Fruin: So, uh, I think we're going to start with Library, Juli. Yeah. Um. Teague: Yes. We're going to start with the Library. Fruin: Uh, Anne Mangano's going to present, uh, to you today, and, uh, uh, ask that you give her some grace, 'cause she found out she was presenting to you today a couple hours ago. Teague: All right. Fruin: Um, Ellsworth had something, uh, come up unexpectedly and, and wasn't able to, to join and so we, we thank Anne for, uh, pinch hitting here on, on very short notice. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 48 Mangano: Yes. Thank you very much. Um, my name is Anne Mangano. I am Collection Services Coordinator at the Iowa City Public Library. Um, I have a statement from Ellsworth, I will read that to you, and then afterwards I will try to answer any questions, and if I cannot answer them, uh, we'll write them down and get the answers to you. So, um, the Library's budget starts, our budget information starts on page 171 and the specific budgetary information starts on page 366. A little bit, a little bit about the Library. The Library is a semi -autonomous City department governed by a nine -member board of trustees appointed by City Council for six-year terms. The staff is about around 120, but 40, we have 43 full-time permanent equivalents. Most of those positions, of those 120, are actually part-time and hourly. We work out of an 82,000 -square -foot building, and we have a bookmobile. There are eight department divisions, including Children's Services, Collection Services, Community and Access Services, Adult Services, Information Technology, Facilities, Administration, and the ICPL Friends Foundation. ICPL is proud to be accredited as a Tier 3 library through the State Library of Iowa, and all of our professional librarians, those of us who work in jobs that require a master's in library and information science or equivalent maintain -- maintained full licensure through the State Library. In 2021, we were one of 11 Iowa libraries recognized as a Star Library in the Library Journal Star Library Index of public library service. That's a true honor. We were also voted the best library in the Corridor by the readers of Little Village. We are proud to have recently added two bilingual story times a week to our schedule. We now offer both Chinese and Spanish options for young patrons and their caregivers. We also have increased bookmobile services by 20% and have expanded to new areas of the community with Friday service hours and more service stops. In terms of the budget, our approach to the 2023 budget was to keep moving forward and making improvements without having to ask for more resources, you will notice our requests were largely flat or reflective of real reallocation of funds within the budget. As you discussed this morning, our most significant change we are requesting for the 2023 budget is to officially go fine -free for all library materials. Fine -free means that we will not be charging a late fee so that those daily like 25 cents, you don't bring a book back, we're not going to charge those anymore. Or we would like not to. We implemented a fine -free model in 2019 for children's materials and young adult materials. And we extended this temporarily during our COVID closure. This temporary extension has now been in place for over two years as we've reopened the building. Traditionally, we would approach this change with statistics, use reports and future forecasts on the financial impact and com-, and community, community benefits. But honestly, with the impact COVID has had on our overall statistics and use, our best set of data would tell a partial story. I could tell you that community feedback from ending fines on children's materials has been extremely positive. Materials still come back to the library, hold times have not This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 49 increased in a meaningful way. And more importantly, we have heard from many people that they came back as library users after being away for years because of overdue fines. Going fine -free continues to be a local, regional, and national best practice in libraries. And it aligns well with the DEI initiatives the City and the Library are working on. We understand that extending the fine -free model to all collections will have an impact on Library revenues, but believe it is the only way, the only fair way forward for our community. And we hope the Council will support us in making this next step for being truly equitable in our service models. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning and for the support you've offered the Library in your work on the Council, and we welcome all of you to come for a tour of our facility to meet our staff and to see our services in actions. Teague: Thank you. Mangano: Can I answer any questions? Teague: Yes. Weiner: I'm, I'm just really excited to hear that, that it, that people have come back the library who had not been there for years. That's really, for me, probably one of the most important data points. Mangano: It's really interesting to work at a library and to not feel any sort of ownership over fines, like fines are a daily thing, but for one person may actually feel ashamed. Um, it's very hard to have that conversation and very, um, we're very happy to be able to say we don't have them anymore. Thomas: The, the other change that that I've noticed is the, um, when I've been taking out material, the it, unless there's a, it's on hold, there's an automatic, uh, renewal of -- Mangano: Yes. Thomas: -- the material at least one, one time, which, which is helpful too, because some, you know, depending on what it is, it sometimes can, that due date can run up on you. And so it's, it's sort of nice to, to see the extension on that. So I think that helps too. Mangano: Yeah, we've gotten good feedback about that. We instituted that in October 2020. Alter: I just want to say as an actual, very regular library user, and throughout COVID, I've just been so impressed with the improvements actually on the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 50 consumer end again, like the automatic renewals and the reminders. Um, and, and also, I can say experientially, yeah, the hold times haven't lengthened, books are ready. And I think that people are just more willing to, to avail themselves of, of what the Library has and the turnover is better. I mean, I've certainly had things pop up and be ready for me before I was expecting them. So, I just want to say that, um, kudos to shifting and adapting and improving in the middle of, you know, a pandemic when honestly, so many people and, and institutions are having to figure out how to manage, you've not only managed, you've improved your services and I just commend you guys for it. Mangano: Thank you. Harmsen: Uh, just to pi-- piggyback off of that too. Um, the digital services, uh, as well that the Library offers, I know that, uh, the, I use the Libby app almost daily, uh, and the Kanopy app quite frequently for, for streaming films. Um, and I know that's part of something that the, the Library offers and during COVID, it was so incredibly helpful to, you know, when, when there wasn't a, a, a feeling of safety to go in, we could still, you know, myself and my kids and my wife could all access, uh, books and audio books and, and even films and stuff that way, just because we were Library members. So, so another program that I think is worth just sort of, sort of mentioning to our, our people that live in Iowa City. Mangano: Yeah. Weiner: And what has been the response to the expanded bookmobile presence, is that, have, have you, has it been well used? Has the, has the response been good within the community? Mangano: Yeah. It's, um, we're still in the kind of the building and letting patrons know phase of those services and trying to get that schedule, like, really well put down, um, when's the best use of it. But we have been able to go to places we've never been before. And there's been a lot of, uh, patrons who have not been comfortable coming into the building, and providing that bookmobile service and just a little bit more opportunity to be able to access them materials, their holds, or talk to a staff person, uh, without having to go inside the physical building has, we've received quite a few comments about that. Teague: Well, thank you so much, really appreciate you stepping in on such short notice. All right. We're moving on to Parks and Recreation and Juli Seydell- Johnson. Welcome. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 51 Seydell-Johnson: Good morning. I didn't mean to try to take over the Library. I just was expecting Ellsworth, so that's not my intent. So good morning. I'm Juli Seydell-Johnson, Director of Parks and Recreation. Um, our information begins on page 146 for our intro in your book. And then the budget information begins on page 359. Our job is to connect our community and maintain our natural infrastructure. It's been a challenging couple of years with the pandemic as it has been for everyone, but I feel like we have a resilient staff that has, uh, really jumped in to help and make a lot of different things happen. So I'll walk you through our divisions. First of all, Administration, there are two of us, two full-time employees in Administration. Um, our biggest success this year was the partnership with Film Scene to get the new, um, screen out in Chauncey Swan Park. That was very well received and a lot of fun to be a part of. A lot of, uh, interesting things to figure out on how to do that, um, but we did it and we were glad to see so many people take advantage of the outdoor movies. This is also where Farmer's Market sits in our budget. Um, a very successful year again, after being, um, online with, uh, pickup only for a year. I will tell you though that our Wednesday night market has continued to flounder a little bit. Uh, we're looking at that and unless we get a fair number of vendors signed up, um, early this season, you may not see the Wednesday night option for this coming summer. And we would just focus on our Saturday market at that point. We think that because, uh, there is some other online options still available that took away some of those customers. Um, but just between number of vendors and the number of customers we were seeing on Wednesday nights, that may come to an end, or at least a pause for a year or two of that one. Our next division is Government Buildings. Um, it has 12 and a half full-time staff. They have also been very involved in our COVID response and adaption. So most of the things you've seen throughout the buildings, as far as Plexiglas, changes to work stations, additional, um, hand sanitizing, additional cleaning, that's been up to the Government Building custodians and maintenance staff. A lot of behind -the -scenes stuff, as well as we've worked on HVAC systems to increase the amount of filtration and over, you know, turnover in buildings. Um, it's been an interesting learning year in terms of all of that. I'm also kinda struck by the number of projects you've talked about already this morning, that Government Buildings has been a part of. Kumi from that staff played a big role in the new Public Works Facility, as it was constructed. She's also a part of the catio project at the Animal Services. I just, I love to talk about that catio project too. Um, and the fire station roof that, uh, Chief Grier talked about. So Government Buildings has their hand kind of out throughout a number of departments. They're working on the aging facilities and infrastructure, which you've already talked about. Uh, these guys have a lot of duct tape and a lot of tricks up their sleeves to keep things operating, um, but as we adapt to climate change, I have to tell you, our facilities are feeling that as well, the wind storms we've This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 52 had, the extreme temperatures, um, even this extreme cold we've had the last few days have put a real tax on our boiler systems. Um, there's all kinds of things happening that are new and different and changing because our weather is becoming more and more extreme. Um, and other than that, it's pretty much business as usual in that department, as usual as it gets, as they just adapt to what, what comes next with the pandemic and, and other operations. Next, we have our Recreation Division under Brad Barker. They have eight full-time staff. They, uh, run the Rec Centers, all the programming. This has been a challenge during the pandemic. If you remember, at first, they did, um, emergency childcare, which we offered. And then the Rec Center was used as a daytime warming facility last winter We are now reopen at, at both Rec Centers. Uh, we still have a fair number of people coming into the building to use it as a warming shelter, um, but it's not the primary purpose. It is open for general programs and operations. One of the big things that happened this past year is to adapt to people's comfort level with social distancing and being outside. We, more than doubled the number of, outdoor drop in neighborhood events. We were very lucky. We had a donor who donated money, so we could get what we call our Rec N' Roll trailer. And that was equipped with all kinds of fun stuff. Everything you need for the best yard party you ever had, uh, is in that trailer. So remember that, if you want to have an event that you need help with, and we rolled that around to various parks twice a week, had free events, entertainment, family activities. They were very well received. And I think a great way to increase our connection in the community when people weren't as comfortable coming in for our typical indoor classes. We are open at operating as fairly normal now. Um, but obviously watching the current situation, uh, for where we'll go with that. The Rec Division is in the midst of a Rec Facilities and Program Master Plan. We just finished kind of the first round of public input. We had, um, over 50 in-person public interface areas where people come in and give their input into the plan. We had an online portal for that, and we did a statistically valid survey. Right now, all of that is being compiled, that will be coming back in the next month or so for us to look at, and kind of look at the future wishes for recreation in our community. It's also gone through and looked at all of our recreation facilities. Um, not a surprise, City Park is old, City Park lea--, pool leaks a lot of water. Um, it is not very environmentally friendly as we operate it. Uh, it's a traditional pool and some people really love it. And some people would really like to see something different. So we're anxious to see what the results are for that. Uh, a little bit more of a surprise was Robert A. Lee, um, pool has a few more maintenance concerns than we were aware of. And that will also be something we'll need to discuss, uh, once this plan is complete, but it's interesting, we're getting a lot of great feedback. In fact, our consultants who do this, you know, all over the country are amazed at how much Iowa Citians likes to talk about Parks and Rec. We warned them, but they were not ready for the amount of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 53 feedback, um, that they have gotten. Uh, we also have a Rec Assist program, which, their scholarship program, that has been going strong. We're doing everything we can to look at barriers that are keeping people from participating in our programs. Some of the key questions in the master plan also relate to this, but we're making sure that we, uh, can do what we can to get people into our basic programs and use our, use of our facilities. The next division is our Parks Maintenance and Forestry division. There are 23 full- time, uh, staff in Parks Maintenance, and they do general park maintenance, forestry, horticulture, and natural areas and athletic fields. So a lot of accomplishments here this year, over a thousand trees planted throughout the city, a lot of street trees, a lot of, uh, partnerships with groups like the Rotary, um, and a lot of, um, help from residents through the Root for Trees program. We have a lot of trees going in and we're kind of on, we're looking at being on track to do the same thing next year with more street trees and a couple other neighborhoods getting filled in with some of the funding that is provided. Uh, it was mentioned before this morning, we're working on Glendale Park, just waiting for the playground equipment there. Ped Mall playground has been ordered. In both cases, supply chain issues are delaying, uh, when the equipment is here, but those will be going in soon. We've had a, very much an increase in our success with our native areas. If you've been out and seen Scott Park or City Park areas that were planted in native prairies, uh, our staff is getting better and better at managing those and learning how to grow the traditional prairie plants. Um, and we've gotten a lot of compliments from residents and asking for more of that in the future. We talk about the tree canopy, canopy and its benefit to climate action, prairies have similar benefit, um, less maintenance, less input from our staff, more habitat for, um, birds and animals and more carbon sequestration from the traditional prairie plants. So kind of hitting it from both sides on that. With trees. Of course, we still are seeing EAB, emerald ash borer, damage to the trees. Um, we are getting a better handle on it than we have in the past years. We know that there's still trees out there, but for instance, the recent windstorm in December, we only lost a few trees. Um, so that means that we've really gotten a lot of the most damaged trees already down. So they're not causing damage to cars and property and, and, and whatnot. Um, but there are still kind of silent, damaged EAB trees out there that we will be continuing to look for, monitor, um, and take down and replace as we go. Same with the derecho damage. Uh, we are still working on catching up with some of that. We've gotten all the big stuff done, but that's going to be ongoing for the next year as well. Athletic fields: we are the only, as far as we know, the only department in the United States that has all of our athletic fields, with environmental certification from the United States Sports Turf Manager Association. So that's something we just learned in recent months. Uh, this looks at our practices for how we maintain the fields, um, adaptations that have been made to the buildings and the lighting systems, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 54 and, uh, gives credit just to the fact that they are trying something different and really trying to be environmentally sensitive in an area that traditionally has used a lot of chemicals and a lot of, um, additional resources to maintain athletic turf. So, our crews are really kind of taking off in making that a different, a different story. Then find we have the Cemetery, three full-time equivalents. Couple of things that they've done on the Cemetery grounds is they've added a prairie area out there, and they've gotten quite a bit of tree work done in this last year, both with help from our Park Maintenance, and then also for some contracted help, taking down some older trees that had been, um, were likely to cause damage in the near future; planting new trees, getting things, um, uh, pruned and, and in better shape out at the Cemetery. We didn't know how the pandemic would affect the Cemetery. We were, we were somewhat worried that the increases in deaths would of course increase business of the Cemetery. That hasn't really been the case. It's been pretty steady. We do know in 2020, there were a lot of, um, ceremonies and internments that were, um, that were delayed because of COVID, families wanting to have bigger celebrations. Those are kinda catching up with us now, but still the overall average is pretty consistent. So that's the highlights from our department. What we're asking for this year is all pretty standard. We are doing our best to serve the public in different ways, but using the same resources we have -- I didn't mention overall we have 48 and a half full- time employees, but an interesting, uh, statistic from this week, we figured out that we have an equal number of hours provided by part-time employees. So about 96,000 hours a year, um, of part-time employees working at various jobs within Parks and Recreation. So, and that's several hundred part-time staff, depending on the time of year, and what they're doing, but, um, a lot of people that get their first jobs with us for lifeguarding or customer service or teaching summer camps and that sort of thing, um, and it, it's, it's been a really nice place to be working. So, um, that is my summary. You are all welcome, once it warms up, to come outside to our events, we hope to see you out, having listening posts again at Party in the Park and some of the other events, um, but stop at any time, if you want a tour or want to meet more of our staff, we'd be happy to do that as well. Thanks. Alter: I have one question. Um, you mentioned, uh, the recreation assistance, uh, the scholarship program. Seydell-Johnson: Yeah. Alter: And, um, can you just talk briefly about that a little bit and then sort of a follow up or addition to that is, um, how were DEI activities and outreach during the pandemic? I mean, did you see sort of a slowdown or conversely, more of a ramp up, uh, as more of an opportunity to get more people involved, even while participation might be down? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 55 Seydell-Johnson: Yeah. So our Rec Assist, is kind of two parts. We have a full scholarship program for all swim lessons that is funded through donations to the Parks and Recreation Foundation. Um, and that is we have a, we have a vision in Parks and Rec that every child in Iowa City will learn how to swim. Um, we think that's an important safety skill. It's an important skill for getting their first job as a lifeguard. If you want a great paying job when you're 15, learn how to swim. Um, so that's funded through that. Then we have separate funding for the Rec Assist, and that is we've, we've streamlined that so you can apply, families can apply once a year, and that helps provide offset for costs for all of our other general recreation programs, like, um, preschool, sports, basketball, arts programs, those kind of things. Um, and the final question I've forgotten. Alter: It had to do with sort of DEI outreach and community engagement. And just wondering within the pandemic context, um, did you see a slowdown in interest or in the ability to do outreach? Seydell-Johnson: Sure. Alter: Or was it able to, to be more successful because.... Seydell-Johnson: Right. So I would say in the initial phases of the pandemic, um, back in 2020, it slowed down a lot. We didn't really do many of any type of an event because people were just not comfortable gathering in almost any form. I would say that turned around greatly this last summer with the number of events we were able to hel-- hold. Um, our trailer helped us get out to a number of smaller parks, um, areas that don't traditionally have Party in the Parks we've been able to hit. Most of those, we did different things, like we did a fire hydrant party at one neighborhood. Um, we've done all kinds of different themed events, but indeed I think the outreach part has really grown in the last six or seven months with that. Our Recreation staff has really, um, changed their focus from the buildings to being out in the neighborhoods and the parks. And that's probably one of the good things we've learned from COVID that we want to keep doing is, um, we found that those are pretty, that those are very successful. So yeah. Thomas: So, so you will be continuing the, the, I think you referred to them as the outdoor drop-in events. Seydell-Johnson: Right. So, our plan for the next year would be to continue the Party in the Park, which has been a program for a number of years, but then the Rec N' Roll program, very similar. It just didn't have the entertainment with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 56 it, like the band or the musician, um, but it had all the party games and, and staff doing that kind, those kind of things that will continue as well. Thomas: I think that's a really, um, a really great concept because you have the, um, the programming aspects, um, married to the outdoor spaces. Our park system, which sometimes, I mean, it's nice to have the program that's kind of embedded in the site, but to then layer on top of that, the, um, that recreational component and have that distributed throughout the city is, is a really great idea. Teague: I imagine, um, partnering with, um, like Summer of the Arts or something like that, just for some music. Um, I will say that it's a little disheartening to learn that maybe Wednesdays, um, the Farmer's Market won't happen because it was always some, uh, live festival, um, activities happening over there, but totally understand, um, some of the challenges that have been over the, over time. Um, what I would encourage, just maybe some, um, exploration of, um, how can, um, something like that still happen, maybe it maybe it's on the road, maybe it's three times a year, um, and it could have more of a DEI component to it, more diversity component. It could be a little more local. McPherson Park, I can't wait until we have some type of a musical event because he was such a, a music lover. And so I, I just see there is great opportunities. I've really enjoyed all of the, um, the different, um, things that have happened that the Park and Rec do, do in our community. And I think it really does help, um, with experiences for all types of individuals, because I think exposure, um, is key to really anyone's development. And so I thank you and the, uh, Park Division for giving us all opportunities. Taylor: I'd also like to thank you in the Parks Department for, uh, again, on the DEI aspect of it, uh, all, all portions of the city, north, south, east, west small parks, large parks, you have managed to, to hit those spots so that like one group isn't, uh, left out one part of the portion of the town. So I commend you on that. Weiner: I just think, I think it's, um, to shift a little bit away from the Rec portion to the Buildings portion. Uh, it's, it's really important to what your contribution has been to working on the ventilation systems and so forth. And so between, between improving ventilation, which I think is one of the, one of the focal points of the future for public health, um, and sort of the greening of buildings as we, as we, um, change and build new buildings, will be really key aspects. Seydell-Johnson: Thanks. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 57 Teague: Great. Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And we are moving on to the Senior Center with our coordinator. Latasha DeLoach and excited to have her boisterous spirit with us here today. Weiner: Thank you for letting us continue to use your building. Teague: Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. DeLoach: Trust me. I'm going to address that. Good morning, everyone. Um, for those who do not know me, my name is Latasha DeLoach and I'm the Senior Center Coordinator. Um, first I would like to give you all a very warm welcome to our new City Council members and an official welcome to all of you all to the Senior Center, since I haven't had an opportunity to stand before you, as we've transitioned to this space for social distancing. So welcome to our building. Uh, thank you all for this opportunity for me to tell you a little bit about the Senior Center. First the Senior Center is operated by seven staff members, uh, four of which are full-time employees, including my position, and three are part-time employees, the department is also supported by two full-time facility maintenance staff in partnership with Parks and Rec Department. So we're very grateful for them and their amazing upkeep of our building and sanitation. Obviously, as we continue to go through this pandemic, the Center, uh, mission is to enhance the quality of life by creating opportunities to support wellness, social connection, community engagement, lifelong learning for a diverse and growing older adult population. The Center's ultimate goal is to continue expanding connections into, in social isolation for adults over 50, we specialize in increasing social involvement and bringing together intergenerational groups to learn from one another by staying active, curious, and connected. Social isolation is a growing health crisis. That is not limited to older adults, especially in this ongoing pandemic. Social isolation increases a person's risk of premature death and can be rivaled with causation of smoking impacts or diabetes and research shows that there is a 50% increase of dementia for folks who are socially isolated. The Center offers classes, clubs, interest groups, special events, and volunteer opportunities for older adults and other members of our community. While programming varies, it typically involves the performing and applied arts, technology, finances, which is important, fitness, history, literature, language, science, current events, travel, and wellness. We are well known for our wellness equipment that is geared specifically for individuals over 50. This past year, we have had, we have made efforts to continue providing virtual opportunities for all of our older adults in our community, as well as around our county with our partnerships with City of Coralville, as well as the City of North Liberty and the County, as well as for people who are outside our state lines, because our virtual programming is open and free to the public, as well as even, we have This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 58 some international members from Canada now, we're quite proud of that. Being able to have that type of reach, um. Because of that we have become national leaders in our work on virtual programming and how we continue to re-- be reached out by multiple Senior Centers across the United States. Um, many, um, are impressed with our ability to have the number of virtual programs that we have and the reach of, uh, participants. Our classes usually are for about five to 120 participants. Um, even this week, we had a full class that we had to move down to the assembly room, um, that was completely full of them learning about Asian culture. One of our secrets, you want to know our secret, is that we have one of the strongest support systems, because many Senior Centers are not embedded in their local city government as we are. And we are quite, quite grateful to be that, as well as amazing and consistent staff. Majority of my staff that are full-time have been for here a minimum of 10 years. So that's a lot of knowledge and, and information about how the Senior Center is run. And we're proud of that. And I get to work next to and, and with these folks every day. And I'm proud of that as well. And then we have the, a great community, right, that supports and loves older adults. The Center houses several agencies that serve older adults, including the VNA, which is the Visiting Nurse Association, Johnson County Public Health, which provides, uh, medical and health services here in our building downstairs, well throughout the building, wherever, wherever we have space, sometimes, uh, free Medicare insurance. So you might have heard of SHIP, um, legal and, uh, assistance with tax prep that happens, um, in the, the spring here, that'll be coming up so that that's free for our seniors, so they can avoid some of the fees associated with getting their taxes done. And those are on seasonal basis, as well as we provide office space for TRAIL of Johnson County, which is a membership -based nonprofit that provide necessary services and supports to allow and assist seniors in staying in place, um, in their homes. So a few bright spots. Um, we continue to offset operational cost with contributions from our philanthropic arm, which is our Friends of the Center, um, through our endowment fund every year. Uh, we partnered with, um, Towncrest Pharmacy and Iowa City Parks and Rec Department to provide administrative support and infrastructure support for multiple COVID-19 vaccination, uh, vaccination clinics. Um, we offer, which something I'm very proud of being a part of, implementing a self-serving, a free pantry that includes perishable and non-perishable foods, toiletries, sexual disease prevention, thank you, Public Health, and offer other free information for our, in our lower level of, of our building here. When you come in on that Washington Street door, it's open to anyone in the community, not just older adults. Um, this, uh, summer, we were able to provide a new program called a Give -Back Garden. It was a way to, uh, develop a way to fight some of that social isolation by having that activity outdoors and to bring older adults together and learn new skills. And as well as it provided free and fresh produce for the Simple and Free Pantry, we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 59 continue to sop -- offer scholarship memberships, um, of a low cost of $10, or if a senior does not have it, we will allow people to join for free, but a majority of our programs actually are free. So, um, these, this mostly is to be able to allow people to use some of our spaces like our fitness center. We have significantly increased topics, diversity of topics, including challenging discussions with members and public on discussions on race, gender, sexual orientation, and other attributes of diversity from intersectional viewpoint and standpoint. These efforts are strategic in our recruiting and retention of more and more individuals of color. It is important in any recruitment and retention plan of when you want to increase diversity that you prepare the people that are currently in that space for that change. I think sometimes we get that wrong when we just want to bring in lots of people and haven't prepared the space. Uh-oh, I got to chatting with you on my, went off. Uh, we continue to do that. Um, and we are currently offering our program guide in English, Spanish, and Arabic. Some of our ongoing challenges is the continuation of this pandemic. This is impacting older adult populations at a higher mortality risk, um, than other populations. And so there's continuous concern how we maintain our building and picking and choosing about which activities will actually be in -building versus our virtual programming or which, which, um, opportunities are hybrid as well. Um, so we continue to be creative about how we, we do that and work towards our goal of decreasing social isolation, keeping older adults connected into community, um, by using that hybrid virtual program, as well as social distancing, distancing, masking, and, and obviously sanitizing on a consistent basis. Um, we also lost our ability to provide noonday congregate meals, um, but we continued to check in with Horizons about, um, how they're making sure that those folks that were coming here are continuing to be served at home with home delivery. And we will continue to work through the phases of our building of our up-and-coming Facility Master Plan that is happening. Um, and we hope to present, to present that plan to you all really soon as we're in those fi--, very, very final stages and, and hope to, uh, get that in front of you. So in my conclusion, if you would like, uh, a tour of our building, let me know, and I would love to do that. If you have any questions, I'm happy to take that at this time. Weiner: Thank you. Do you also work with the various, um, senior residences around town? DeLoach: Yeah, absolutely. Have a really good relationship with those folks. Um, we offer some of our virtual programs. We, we know a lot of their activity directors, so our Program, um, Coordinator keeps in good contact with them, as well as I know, quite a few of the directors around town and as well as we have a monthly, uh, older -adult meeting that we pull a lot of those folks, well, two, well, three of those meetings where we get a chance to get together and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 60 kind of talk about, uh, different things that are going on just in the community in general of how we can continue serving older adults. Weiner: And, and I know that pre pandemic, um, which seems like an entirely different world. You were, you were working actively on bringing young people together with some, with, with some of the, some of the people, some of the patrons of this building as others. Has that, uh, been able to continue or is that sort of on hold. DeLoach: It's a mixture, right. Um, now that we're able to have younger kids who are, are getting vaccinated there's, um, a little bit, a loosening of people feeling more comfortable with that. Currently we partner with, um, it's a, a school right next door. And so they have been bringing youth in. They were just here actually, I think Thursday, when it's too cold, to just be able to have some space. So we are hearing the voices of children here, um, here in our building, but, um, we were doing some more of that work, but some of that has definitely slowed down just because we just have to be more cautious, uh, about the mixing of those two populations. Teague: Was there a meal component to, uh, bringing the generations together at one point? DeLoach: There's always food here at the Senior Center when we're doing events. Um, obviously because of that, because of taking off masks and, and, and exposure, we've had to, uh, not be able to continue some of those programs, but we always have had food, but if we're outside, we definitely will, we'll have food. Um, recently when we celebrated our 40th anniversary, we had ice cream truck out and lots of cupcakes so that we could celebrate that. But yes, um, we are pro -food here at the Senior Center. Teague: And I know we'll get more into maybe some facility upgrades DeLoach: mm-hmm Teague: but I wanted to just ask about, um, the kitchen, which is, you know, kind of a hot commodity DeLoach: mm-hmm Teague: Can you kind of just give us an update on, uh, thoughts if there are any at this point or if that's just something that's still, um, out in the wind. DeLoach: So it is definitely a part of that Facility Master's Plan. Um, I'm, I'm really excited about it. Um, the goal, goal of the kitchen is for it to be utilized not This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 61 only for the Senior Center, but for the community, right? So the goal is for the, the kitchen to be a, um, catering -slash -classroom. So the goal would be that people could learn while they're in there with adaptable tables that were raised, come up, um, for accessibility. Um, and that people also who have catering, could utilize the kitchen outside the hours that we're having our classes. Um, so for instance, if you're doing food prep for a food truck or something like that, uh, I think there's lots of opportunities for programs there and partnerships there. And it's endless in my head, I have like at least 10 programs I'll build that I don't want to go into right now, but, um, that we could potentially do here. Some of the classes we're thinking about is what happens when your, your house size has, um, decreased due to the death of a spouse, right? So how do we provide food for one or, or, um, different health conditions people may have, so nutrition classes, so. Some of those things we're able to do kind of, um, in class or virtually with some of our partnerships with the State of Iowa, we partner with the Public Health there, and we provide some of those nutrition classes online, but to be able to actually at one point, at some point, be able to do that here in our kitchen, we'll be really happy as well as we'll be able to utilize it for, um, for this space. Um, as, as you see, we've painted some, uh, we have some more to do in here, um, and that we can utilize the spaces for, uh, um, events that can be rented out as a way to provide some income for the Senior Center . Teague: I don't know if you're planning to partner with some of the, the classes and stuff like that, but at one point at Mercy Hospital, the chef did a lot of, um, I guess, like videos on, on making food. And at Hy -Vee, there is a nutrition, they have a nutrition program. So there could be some opportunities for partnership -- DeLoach: Oh yes. Teague: -- that could really help, um, you know, really, uh, make that program very successful with some really skillful and talented, uh, individuals that could assist. DeLoach: Yes. And, um, our, definitely, is a part of our hope. I think our first thing from a Facility Master Plan that you all will see is, is, is dealing with some of the outside parts that are essential to deal with first. And then that kitchen is definitely in our top priority. Teague: Great. Bergus: I didn't have any questions, but just wanted to say thank you for having the goal of decreasing isolation. I mean, that has turned out to be so incredibly This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 62 critical during the pandemic, and it's just really wonderful to have that alignment and intentionality throughout the programming. So thank you. DeLoach: Yeah, absolutely. Taylor: I appreciate what Horizons does for the community. As far as providing meals. I know a number of people who rely on that for their food. Uh, they can't get out to the grocery stores or they just don't want to cook for themselves. And that's a great service, but I do know a few people who used to rely on the Senior Center for, for their meals. Is the, uh, eventual plan to return to that, hopefully here? DeLoach: I think when it's safe, we definitely want to do that. It's, it is about, um, feeling safe enough to do that. Um, and you know, that's a partnership. We, we never, um, really had any part of it other than housing it and being a location. So, it really is based on Horizons and how they feel about that, and in partnership with us having some discussion about how do we do that safely, et cetera. Um, at this time, a lot of congregate sites around the State of Iowa are not open. Um, and actually we were seeing a de, decrease in congregate sites just in general, um, just nationally. Um, so yeah, so there is definitely, um, but if you know those folks, and they not receiving food, please let me know so that I can talk to Horizons and we can make sure that they're getting a meal. Community Program Budgets: Teague: Thank you so much. All right. And we are going to, um, jump a little bit in our agenda and invite NDS, uh, our Neighborhood, um, and Development Services, Tracy Hightshoe, who we are well familiar with because she's at most of our work sessions and, uh, formal meetings. So welcome. Right. Hightshoe: Thank you. I'm Tracy Hightshoe, Neighborhood and Development Services, I want to thank you for extending your Saturday to listen to department directors talk about their concerns, their highlights, their budget. Um, I'm not going to lie, the last couple years for NDS, like the community, has been a challenge, but with any great challenge, there's always great opportunities. And these, the federal funds, the amount of funds that we'll be seeing in the next two years creates an opportunity that can help potentially our residents for years to come. So it's an exciting time, too. A little bit about our budget. NDS is responsible for the overall administration and execution of all building, inspection, planning, including transportation planning, and zoning activities. We also manage affordable housing and our other community development programs funded with federal state and local funds targeting lower income residents. We have a total budget, usually runs This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 63 around eight point, $18.7 million. You'll see, in the revised fiscal year '22 budget, because of the infusion of ARPA and HOME, ARPA and CARES Act funding, it's about 44, $42.9 million, whatever we don't spend in fiscal year '22, you'll see that carry over in fiscal year '23. In addition to that budget, the MPO, our Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, allocated $17.3 million to our area transit agencies, Iowa City-Coralville and Cambus, that doesn't get through, doesn't get shown in our budget, 'cause it's a pass- through directly to the transit agencies, but they're still monitoring that, drawing down those funds. And they'll continue to work on that throughout the year. We are a department of 45 FTEs across four divisions, Administration, Development Services, Neighborhood Services, and of course the MPO. So a lit-- oh, the be-- budget request. We do have one of those budget requests, Geoff talked about earlier, it's for our Community Development program assistant to go from 0.63 to 1.0. You'll find that due to all the affordable housing programs that we've had over the last few years, the Riverfront Crossings, TIF, annexations, the infusion of different funding sources, we have 15, 20 -plus years of affordability compliance periods. So we need help in the compliance of those programs and just the general administration of all of our housing programs. So I'll talk a little bit more about that community development. So I'll start with Neighborhood Services. It consists of three divisions. It's the largest division in NDS with over half the employees, they staff the Housing Community Development Commission and the Public Art Advisory Committee, Housing Inspection Services, invests, inspects almost 20,000 rental units every two years for health, safety, welfare, we receive approximately 2000 nuisance complaints, those are like your snow, grass, weeds, um, garbage, et cetera. The Housing Authority primarily administers housing programs, such as the Housing Choice Voucher Program and the public housing programs with federal funding from HUD. Our service area includes all of Johnson County, Iowa County and parts of Washington County. It's exciting that we have now total vouchers and public housing units equal 1,559. You know, for several years that I've been here, we were stagnant in the number of housing choice vouchers we received, but since the end of calendar year 2015, we've gained 185 vouchers. Those are for specialty clientele. So se-- we gained 38 vouchers for veterans, 78 mainstream, and 69 emergency vouchers. And those are for, basically, a subset of homeless. Uh, people are experiencing homelessness. I always want to, when I talk about the Housing Authority, it's the one program that there's so many misconceptions about and about the people who ha--, who utilize our programs. So I always want to talk about the major takeaways. Our vouchers are dispersed throughout Johnson County in about the same relation as population. So not one city has all the vou, the vouchers and not just one neighborhood has all the vouchers, they are dispersed throughout the, Johnson County and consistently every year over half of our vouchers that we administer are utilized by the elderly or people with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 64 disabilities. And then with our families with children, only 1% report welfare as their sole source of income. So they are working, but they're not able to afford market rate housing in our community. And then I know, you know, many of you are familiar with the source of income protection that we, we passed back in 2016, that will go away in 2023. Um, when the state, um, doesn't allow us to force that anymore. But this pandemic has shown that what a source of stability that the, the voucher program is. So we make over $8 million in housing payments to landlords of rental properties. So it's a source of stability for the household, as well as a source of stable income for the landlord. Community Development is the last division of Neighborhood Services. It's the one that, that administers all your Community Development Block Grants, your HOME funds. They administer our Economic Development, Public Art, aid to agencies. Um, typically our focus is on low to moderate income residents. In a, in a general year, before COVID, we received about $1.2 million in annual entitlement funds, are those your federal funds for housing, economic development, public service programs, due to the pandemic, we are intensely engaged in getting federal state and local COVID relief out to the community so that these funds get to the most vulnerable at - risk residents, while at the same time following all the federal and state requirements that are attached to it. Since 2020, we have entered partnerships with over 25 local organizations to help expedite and prioritize how we get these funds to those who need it most. We have, what -- so far, just with the CARES Act and the various other pots of money that we've received, we've received $3.89 million. This is three times over our annual entitlement funds. And out of that $3.89 million we've allocated 2.9 to Housing Assistance, over half a million to public service, Public Services, and then $423,000 to Economic Development that assisted 27 small businesses. And what was unique about that was 22 of the 27 small businesses were owned by women or persons of color. We are now making ways or making plans to implement, um, the additional $20 million ARPA and HOME Act funds that we will be receiving. You're going to get a Council memo with your next Council meeting about hiring a grant specialist to allocate, distribute, report, and monitor these funds at your next meeting. Some of the major initiatives just, I mean, COVID has basically taken up, taken up our year. In fact, I administered CDBG HOME funds for about 10 years. So even I have been taking on funds and I think it's been to the detriment of my staff because they can't find anything what I save, but we're getting through it. Um, we've also purchased eight duplexes for the South District program. This has been an opportunity for us because only 11,11 of the 16 units are occupied. Five are, are vacant, but not all in one. So that means we have five half units of the day, duplexes vacant. This has created other partnerships for us, and opportunities. So we are partnering for workforce development in the construction trades with Kirkwood and the Home Builders Association for both women and students in the Iowa City Community School District, the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 65 class was full. Kirkwood advertised it. We have a full class, 15 women are on site today. They start at 8:00 AM over on Taylor, and we ended up with an even, full class with 10 on the waiting list. So we'll continue to utilize those partnerships while we have vacant units. Um, just to get people, we, we need contractors. We're seeing a shortage out there in that field. So anything that we can do. So, we're going to provide affordable housing for residents in that area, but we're also going to provide the construction trade training that, that will be, that's just needed in the area. We've also generated over $2.9 million in fee and lieu payments or revenue generated through the Riverfront Crossings District and tax increment financing, affordable housing requirements. That's the money that we used to buy the, the duplexes. We had to spend $1.5 million to buy the eight duplexes. We have $1.3 million available. However, most of that funding has to be used in the Riverfront Crossings District, due to the requirement. Total, in all of fiscal year '21, we spent over $10 million for affordable housing assistance benefiting over 1900 households. And you're going to see, we have a report that we do. You saw it last year, our NDS annual report that will be available probably the end of February, early March, that will outline all of our efforts throughout the Department, affordable housing community development. You'll see that all in our affordable, in our NDS annual report. The next department is Development Services. They are your planning and building inspection. They're the ones that we rely on for the comprehensive planning that we need. Annexations, zoning, subdivisions, site plans, building permits, inspections. They enforce our flood plan regulations and our historic preservation requirements. They staff the Planning and Zoning Commission, Board of Adjustment, Board of Appeals and Historic Preservation Commission. Huge accomplish, accomplishment for this year was the adoption of the South District form -based Code in November. As you remember, the new code focused on pedestrian -friendly and development, preserves important environmental resources, incorporates complete streets, and supports a variety of housing type, or AKA, our missing middle housing. We are working on implementation of financial incentives for engineering and design work to support code -compliant development. And we hope that these regulations are success, successful so that we can duplicate them in our other, um, areas as development progresses. In December, we hired an additional, a building inspector to provide relief for the Fire Department and to focus on energy efficiency code requirements on projects that required a building permit. We will incorporate the annual liquor inspections and the University of Iowa residential properties. Um, they need to be inspected as well each month or sorry, each year. And we start this month. We will build an increase in inspections during rough -in to confirm the installation value meets the code, and that final inspection to verify energy code requirements. At the end of each calendar year, it's always a great time for us to start looking at trends, especially in the, in our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 66 development. And I know Geoff touched upon a few of those this morning, so I'm just going to go over the things that we're going to go over or continued to go over the City Manager's office. In 2021, we issued 2100 permits valued at $135 million. To place this in perspective, in '20, we had 1700 permits at $87 million. Our 10 -year average is 2300 with a value of $189 million. So the '21 numbers are an optimistic sign that we are recovering, but we are not back to pre -pandemic levels yet. We are now tracking solar permits as part of our energy -efficiency initiatives. In 2020, we had 71 permits, last year it rose to 95. Rezonings have dropped drastically and from 26 in fiscal year '18 to nine last year, while county rezonings are increasing. We didn't have any fiscal year '18, we had seven last year. Um, what's concerning for, for the Planning Department is based on lots platted in '21. The number of dwelling units anticipated is the lowest it's been since the aftermath of the Great Recession in 2010. The issuance of building permits is outpacing the creation of new lots, which has decreased the availability of buildable land. For single- family development this is a long-term trend, where the number of available lots have decreased each decade, at least since 1990s. So we are working at, we're analyzing that. We're going to be preparing a memo that you'll be seeing in the next few weeks. So we can discuss that. We are excited about upcoming development in 2022, we have the Gilbane at 700 South Dubuque and the former Capstone project at 315 Prentiss. Both of those are student - oriented developments. Then we'll have the completion of Tailwinds, the new 11 -story high rise in the East College Street rehab, the build -out of historic buildings that's, that's progressing right now. Our last division is the MPO. They are our Transportation wing. They, they look at all forms of modes of transportation from vehicle, bike, pedestrian, and transit. They complete traffic studies, traffic analysis. They prepare and administer transportation -related grants. They funnel federal and state transportation funds to projects and programs. They work to enhance traffic safety by analyzing and monitoring collision data and working with those communities in those problem areas. And of course they do all the development reviews for transportation concerns for Iowa City. They are governed by two policy boards, rural and urban, and they're comprised of elected officials. Their revenues come from Iowa City's General Fund, road use tax fund, and contributions from Johnson County and the State of Iowa grants. They will continue to fulfill the goals of the Bike Master Plan. In 2022, you'll see the Plan project significantly increase bike connectivity in the South District. They will continue to work on that $17.3 million to, for the local transit agencies, 'cause they still have those monitoring, reporting draw -down to funds, responsibilities, and they continue work on the Long -Range Transportation Plan. It is a major 18 -month planning effort that will culminate in the adoption of a plan in May of'22. And it does include, um, the transit, passenger rail, passenger rail studies. Um, Geoff said we could go over our concerns, so I'll go over my concerns as well for the Planning This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 67 Department in general or for NDS in general. It's the same as I noted last year, staff capacity and the complexity, lack of flexibility and number of reviews we complete. We have a new staff. Um, I think a third of our Building Inspection and Planning Department is new. A lot of our reviews are time- consuming and there's difficulty understanding the requirements amongst enforcement officials, other departments in the development community. Our code is typically what you see in for community of size. We have our current zoning designations. We have those requirements that are important to our community, such as conservation, historic districts, sensitive areas and design overlays. However, in addition to just our regular code, we almost have three separate codes. We have the Peninsula code, which I realize it's almost built out, but we still continue to get additions, rehab, that we have to look. We have the Riverfront Crossings code, which has seven subdistricts within that. And now we have the South District form -based code. So, I realize we're not going to probably have a code overhaul in the next few years, but we will look to simplify, and we'll look to standardized language at, as we go. So you might be seeing some code amendments from time to time as we strive to make it easier and simpler to follow. Our Department priorities, we, we always, we're trying to balance those Department priorities with your strategic priorities. Um, in addition to timely, impactful, and effective expenditure of our COVID relief funds, we're, we're, we're coming up with a memo that we'll send to you, but we have to balance, um, the following priorities. And there's probably more that you'll probably add it in during your budget discussion. So, in no particular order, we have incorporated missing -middle development by right into our residential zoning, we have Riverfront Crossings form -based code of updates and changes. We have the Climate Action initiatives that include incentivizing improved energy efficiency in new and existing buildings. We have district plans; we have 10 districts. We need to discuss how often we update those districts. Do we consolidate 'em? How often, how often do we basically to update them? Um, we are going to concentrate on our growth areas, which is, ah, Southwest, Northeast and north, Southeast District at this point. And then we have the update to the Affordable Housing Action Plan, which will include potential code changes to address affordable housing. So all those things are going to come to you during your budget discussion to discuss and to prioritize. And based on your feedback, we will, we will make a work plan based on your input. Our Department has been busy, we have it. And it's like I said, it's been a challenging past year, but we have dedicated, caring, professional staff. I'm proud of the work that do, what, the work that they do, and what accomplishments they do every year. So that ends my presentation about NDS and happy to answer any questions that you might have. Bergus: Thank you so much, Tracy. I have just kind of a big -picture question about some of the more, um, I don't know, intensive kind of comes to mind, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 68 affordable housing initiatives that we have, like the, uh, the vouchers that support the permanent supportive housing. Do we have a sense of where our community is in metrics like that compared to other cities, our size or other college communities? Hightshoe: I think we have more vouchers. I I'll have to go with the Housing Authority, but I believe we have more vouchers than other communities our size, but we're also a three -county area. So I think it's unique. Not all cities have the Housing Authority under them. So we do. And like I said, we're Johnson County, Iowa, Iowa County and parts of Washington County, and whenever new vouchers come, are available, we have usually accepted all that we, that we've been able to, and it's created work demands. I mean, it's a, it's a different process in the federal waiting lists or the, how you process housing choice vouchers. So these, they go through Coordinated Entry or the VASH vouchers come from the Veterans. So it's a learning curve. Um, but as we get more of, as we're familiar with those programs and we get more, hopefully that staffs able to better absorb those and get those out. Um, I know for the Emergency Housing Vouchers, we committed those fast. I think, I think we put out, uh, there's social media blip or something in your Council packet about only 6% of housing authorities had even implemented the program and we had already gotten ours out and started leasing. So I think we're doing well in that area. Bergus: Thank you. Alter: Following on the heels of what, um, Councilor Bergus said, with the vouchers have, have there been early conversations with landlords, um, and their understanding of, um, with the state getting rid of that, that structure or that, that compelling piece, um, do landlords understand the stability that those vouchers actually offer to them as well, to making sure that their units are rented, right. I'm, you know, I'm just wondering what kinds of, um, common- sense conversations there have been, `cause I'm sure that you've your Division has been on top of this to.... Hightshoe: We've not started marketing yet, but we will. Um, I think what landlords are finding is, I mean, without us even marketing, they're getting paid and that's not always true with all the other properties out there and tenants. So I think that speaks huge volumes in itself, but we'll start talking about the benefits and we have a community that we inspect regularly. So besides entering a contract, a HAB contract, the requirements of our voucher holders are not that much different than any other tenant. So, `cause we're already inspecting. I mean, there's some communities that don't inspect, there's some communities that only inspect every 10 years, every six years, we're out there at least every other year. So, um, some of the reasons why landlords This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 69 don't want to participate is 'cause they fear increased inspections. So we really, it's not as much of a problem in Iowa City that it might be in other communities. Alter: Thanks. Teague: The Landlord Association, I'm assuming that, um, there's opportunities to talk to them as well. Hightshoe: Yep. Teague: And, and just, Hightshoe: Yep. We'll be moving towards that. Yep. Teague: Yep. And increase that awareness. Um, at the end of your presentation, you were talking about a third of the staff is new. Um, and I understand, um, and have you mentioned the, the different codes, there's three, um, how challenging that is as well as, um, the institutional knowledge that, that, you know, comes with longevity and stuff like that. At least for me, I know that this, uh, the past council, and I assume that the new Council, um, do see the need to make sure that we're consolidating, um, the codes, um, you know, and, and, and certainly want to hear, which we know we will, uh, from, from NDS, uh, kind of the, um, your thoughts and your plans or how we can make that happen. And so I just wanted to just continue to say, at least for myself, I open up that door, because I do know when you have multiple things going on and, and you have staff training, them on all of, you know, varying codes and they're overlapping and you get confused, right, on, on what is, what, so I, I do acknowledge that. The other thing I want to say is just, um, when it comes down to some of the federal funds with CDBG and, and, and stuff like that, have you, because I know there's been a few things coming out, um, during COVID, that have been kind of an unexpected, ah, there's money available, have you all been able to accept all of that money or have you turned it away? And if so, and not offered it to the public? Hightshoe: Oh, no, we've not, to my knowledge. We've not turned down any money that's been offered to us, so. Teague: Awesome. Hightshoe: Not allocated or spent it all, but we're not turning it down. Teague: Awesome. Great. That's all I wanted to, that's all I -- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 70 Hightshoe: Opportunity there. Teague: Yes. Weiner: Yeah. You all do just an enormous amount of work Uh, I think that, you know, what you, you highlighted what the challenges, um, the Mayor just highlighted sort of the challenges of having new staff in addition, but, um, the, the look forward to also seeing the, the new Affordable Housing Plan and how we as a Council can work with you on that. Bergus: I did just have a quick follow up based on what the Mayor was saying with the technical, um, understanding and the, and the differences in code. I see in the Development Services division, there was a, a conversion of the Development Regulation Specialist to an Associate Planner with Urban Planning. Can you just kind of explain that? Hightshoe: Yep. Um, we had a, due to the South District form -based code, what we wanted this position to do was to concentrate on site review use. So that person is still going to do the, the Sensitive Areas of flood plain management that will remain, but they will also have to work a lot more with our social, our Planning Department regarding the South District form -based code regarding all the site reviews and the requirements. So we're transitioning that person from just basically, um, regulation specialist to associate planner, to incorporate much more, much more coordination with the Planning Department. So it it's still a full-time person. Bergus: Yeah. Hightshoe: And then also it was at about the same time that Engineering also, um, got an employee for Storm Water that took some of the responsibilities from our older position up to Engineering. So that frees that person to do the site reviews and the South District form -based code items. Bergus: Very helpful. Thank you. Thomas: When can we expect that affordable housing, um -- Hightshoe: The update? Thomas: Yeah, the update. Hightshoe: Well, we're drafting it right now, so we hope to have the draft done and then back to the committee so that the committee can either basically say, yay, nay, edit, we want more research on that. So it's going to go back to the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 71 committee at the end of this month. So it depends on how much time and effort the committee wants to basically tweak the report. So we've met for over a year now. We're probably 90% done, so there's some, there's some areas of debate such as the annexation policy changes that they're debating right now. So it's all, basically it'll be up to them. So I'm not anticipating they'll meet more than once or twice, I'm assuming. And then it'll come to you for review. Thomas: Thanks. Teague: All right. Well, thank you so much, right. Hightshoe: Well, thank you. General Government Program Budgets (cont'd): Teague: Yes. So we have just about 13 minutes. Um, I, Kellie just got back. Are you up for your presentation? Fruehling: Sure. Teague: All right, we'll go with, we'll go with the City Clerk office presentation. Should have gave you some warning. Fruehling: That's all right. I can wing it. So good morning. Uh, Kellie Fruehling, City Clerk's office. Um, the Clerk's information starts on page 42 and then the budget starts on 337. Um, like Eric said earlier, the Clerk is one of the three, uh, City Council appointees along with the Mayor and the City Attorney. Um, including myself, we have four full-time employees and then one hourly transcriptionist. Are you struggling, John? Thomas: No, no, I was.... I was just going to ask if you could speak into your mic please. Fruehling: Um, there aren't any, uh, recommended changes or requests for personnel. Um, the Clerk's office coordinates all the City Council agendas, uh, and information packets for distribution. And then we archive those packets along with the signed and completed, um, resolutions and ordinances. And then also take care of any of the filings or recordings like at the Recorder's office or the Secretary of State. Um, we're also responsible for legal publications, um, such as public notices, ordinances, um, and minutes required by law. Um, open records are requested through the Clerk's office, uh, and then we route those to the appropriate departments to gather the information and then send those back out to the requester. Um, some of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 72 licensings duties, uh, that we do in our office, um, our taxi companies and drivers, uh, outsour--, outdoor service areas, um, cigarette permits, beer and liquor licensing. Um, we also take applications, uh, for public assembly, uh, permits, um, parades, use of the Ped Mall. Um, so anything like information tables or the ambulatory vendors that you see on the Ped Mall. Uh, we offer, also provide, uh, support to the Community Police Review Board, um, and then our clerical support for the Cemetery. Uh, and then really, I think a large function of our office is assisting City staff, uh, and the general public for, for any information, um, whether it's directing them to the appropriate department or trying to navigate and find something in the Council archives. Um, the budget has a, a slight de-, decrease `cause it's a non -election year. Um, I think if you look at the, the CPRB budget, um, there was a slight increase, uh, due to, um, legal counsel, uh, and the re-, recommendations, you know, that they've been working towards giving to Council and then some increase in, in complaints. We're small but mighty, but I'd be happy to answer any questions. Weiner: You do a lot. Thomas: Well, I'm just looking at, uh, the, under the goals and objectives, and in performance measures, the, um, ordinance and resolutions received in and finalized for, uh, the calendar year 2021 were 456, which was over 150 more than the previous year. So it's, uh..., Fruehling: It's -- that means you guys were busy, Thomas: Yeah. As were you, I guess. So, um, it looks like it it's projected to go down, but that's an astonishing increase in, um, that particular measure. So thank you as always for your work. Bergus: I had a metrics question also. So, on the, on the following page, the performance measures talking about the number of images electronically archived through the Recorder and, and project files went way down in calendar '21, but is expected to go way up in calendar '22. Do you know what that is? Fruehling: Well, we had, um, there for a while we had, had past, um, like, Public Works projects that we were sending a ton in to get those imaged so that we could archive those. We finally caught up, um, and so that's probably why you saw it shift down a little bit. Um, again, it, it's probably another surge of those Public Works projects. We try to send them as we get a good chunk, but that isn't always how it works out. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 73 Bergus: And then my other question relates to the, um, portion of your job that you said is helping people find things like in the City Council archives, are you working with those who are working on the website update with that? Or how, how is that going to work? Fruehling: Well, we, we did make a, um, a -- a change. I think it might have been you that had requested that the search options were a little bit difficult. And so we, we did do a fix for that. Now with the new website, I haven't seen any of that, so I I'm assuming we would be able to do something similar or hopefully even better. Um, but I haven't seen anything yet, so, but I mean, that would be something that we look at so that its things are easily accessible. Yeah. Bergus: I'd just encourage as much integration kind of, in that as we can. Cause obviously your way of keeping documents to be, to meet our legal requirements may not always match the, you know, most sort of intuitive way of finding information. So however we can coordinate is awesome. Fruehling: Right. Bergus: Thank you. Fruehling: Yep. Teague: I guess for me, I don't have anything that, uh, pertains to the budget, 'cause there's been some things highlighted. I just wanted to, again, thank you and your staff for all the assistance and technical support that you've given to me. And I, I'm sure that my colleagues, as well as previous colleagues would say the same thing. Um, and also to those that are from the community, oftentimes you all are getting the calls and helping people navigate. And I, um, uh, there are success stories that I've heard, um, where they've really appreciated the services and uh, and the customer service, the high quality of customer service that you give. So I am recognizing that, um, to some of the, uh, public, you all are the initial face that they interact with. And I really appreciate that. Fruehling: Thank you. Teague: All right. We are about five minutes to 12 and we're going to stop here and we'll come back at 12:30, 12:25. We'll just do 30 minutes and we'll be back. So see you at 12:25. (break) Teague: All right. We will get started again with our budget session for 2023, the proposed budget. So we're going to have next up, is the Metropolitan and Planning Organization of Johnson County. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 74 Fruin: Uh, Tracy covered that really briefly, um, in her budget. And if for those of you on the MPOJC board, you'll probably have a little bit more detailed discussion on that budget at, at a future meeting. So I think we're ready to jump into Transportation Services if that works for you. Business -type Funds: Teague: All right, well do that. Come on up. Nagle-Gamm: Good afternoon, Council. How's everyone doing. Teague: Awesome and amazing. How are you? Nagle-Gamm: Excellent. I'm quite well. It feels, uh, this is a point in the winter when 20 degrees feels like 50 to me. So I'm officially acclimated, um, and was happy to, to take a walk downtown to meet with you all today. So again, good afternoon. Um, I wanted to first say welcome to Councilor Harmsen and Mayor Pro Tem Alter, welcome, um, welcome. We're really looking forward to working with you both and the entire Council this year. I am Darian Nagle- Gamm, Director of Transportation Services. Um, in short, um, we help Iowa City get where they're going. That's really kind of the, our mission in our department, and whether that's by transit, um, by bus, by bike, um, by car, on foot, especially in the downtown area, we really help, um, uh, we have a hand in all of those things. In your budget flip book to start, uh, our Transportation Services Department introductions are on page 256, if you're following along. And then the bulk of the financial information starts on page 438, if you want to make a note of that. And I'm going to start here with just an overview of our staff and our divisions. So we have 76 employees in Transportation Services, over three different divisions. Uh, the first division I'll talk briefly about is our Transportation Services Administration. And that is a three- person division. That is myself, um, Mark Rummel, who's the Associate Director, and, um, we have a maintenance worker specifically dedicated to maintaining the central business district, so Ped Mall and the surrounding area. Um, so those are the three, those are the three things that are contained within our Transportation Services Admin, which makes up 4% of our total, uh, employment, um, within Transportation Services. Second division I wanted to highlight briefly is our Parking Operations and that's really 28% of our total, uh, employees for Transportation Services. And that encompasses really the maintenance and operations for our on -street parking meters in the downtown, our ramps, our parking ramps, parking facilities, uh, parking lots. We do have six parking lots that we manage as well. And, um, of course our parking enforcement that helps keep, um, keeps things, uh, keeps people and vehicles turning over in the near -downtown areas. Last division, um, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 75 within Transportation Services that I wanted to highlight is the Transit System. This makes up the bulk of the employees, the bulk of staff, um, within our department, 67% of the employees in our department are, um, earmarked for, or support, uh, transit operations in the community, which consists of 13 routes, um, new as of this year with, uh, with the implementation of the Transit Study changes, I'll talk a little bit about, in a few moments. We do operate, uh, 16 hours a day weekdays, um, and we provide service 12 hours a day on Saturday currently. And well, and we'll talk a little bit more about the Sunday service, um, pilot, which will commence this year, which will extend another 12 hours of service, um, to the community on Sundays. All right. Next topic, budget. So our budget, uh, for fiscal year '23 is, uh, $13.3 million is what the proposal is. 64% of that is, uh, earmarked for the transit operations. 31% of that is earmarked for operating and maintaining our parking systems. And then 5% of that is earmarked for administration and maintenance of the central business district. Um, I wanted to note too, that the bulk of the funding that funds Transportation Services, in fact, 95% of it comes from, um, the transit and parking funds. Um, as Geoff mentioned earlier, those are those business -like funds, um, enterprise funds that receive revenue from user fees, et cetera. Um, and, uh, 5% of our funding for our department comes from the General Fund. So we're very heavily weighted towards the enterprise funding to keep our operations running. So, 2021, uh, a little bit of a rear-view mirror moment here, but it was a very big year, um, for our department. Um, we finalized the Iowa City Area Transit Study, and I can tell you unequivocally of the, um, I fully understand why it's been 40 years since this was, since the last time the Transit Study, or the transit system, I should say, was comprehensively reviewed because it is quite an undertaking. Um, we feel really good about our launch, um, of the first two phases this summer, which was first and foremost, the, uh, realignment or the alignment of, uh, fares, and our fare system with Coralville. We made some very positive changes, all positive changes in fact, to our, to our fare system. And we also, um, now have all of our fares, um, aligned with Coralville. So they're the same for both systems and, and you can use all of our passes on both systems, and that is a first time. We had some that would, that were, um, interchangeable, some that weren't, and as, as you might imagine, that can get really confusing for, uh, for our passengers and for staff. So that was the first phase, um, last July. We followed that a month later with, uh, with a complete redesign of our transit routes, stops and our bus schedule, which was, um, which was a very, I would say, a monumental undertaking for, for our staff, and not just our staff in our department, but also for, um, other departments that assisted, especially Communications. They were absolutely essential in, in launching, um, help, helping us throughout the entire process to get the word -- this is a very heavy, communications -intensive process, as it should be. Um, and they really did an amazing job helping us make sure that we were able to answer This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 76 as many questions, um, and get that information out in front of the community, um, and then, you know, answer many questions after, um, the launch. Um, either through the info booth that we hosted downtown, where we just staffed that for, um, for multiple weeks this summer or through the, you know, phone calls, we received emails and all that. So, um, we feel really good about those first two phases. And, uh, we'll talk a little bit more about the phases that are yet to come yet this year. The other major accomplishment, that I want to highlight for the department is the launching of the prep, preparation, really for the launch of electric bus operations. This is, uh, not as simple as we're just taking a diesel bus out of operation and replacing it with a diesel bus. This was, I would say another mega project, um, really is what it turned out to be because there's a whole infrastructure component, um, that was, that took a greater, a greater portion of the year, last year, to just make sure we have the infrastructure we need to be able to power those buses. In fact, we just charged them for the first time, right before the holidays. So we're thrilled about that. So we'll talk a little bit more about the next steps, but I, I wanted to highlight that as a big success. Um, we're launching in January, but it really is because of all of the work that we did in 2021. Um, and not just our department, again, Engineering had a big part in that. Um, and, um, we also had partnered, I should mention with, um, MidAmerican Energy for sponsorship, um, for these electric buses to really kind of promote the synergy between MidAmerican's pledge, um, towards using an increasing amount of renewable energy, which really aligns well with the City's focus on Climate Action goals. Um, so you'll see on the electric buses, they're co -branded with MidAmerican Energy and they're co -branded with Iowa City's Climate Action Plan, which makes so much sense. And we're really excited about that, that, about that partnership. Um, the, the next few weeks, right now, we've started our training for the electric buses, 'cause again, it's not as easy as here's your new bus, um, you know, take it away. It's a, it's a different, it's a different company. The buses are laid out differently. They drive differently. Of course we have the infrastructure piece, um, that we need to train on. We're scheduling emergency service provider training because they're high voltage. So it needs to be handled differently in case there is an incident that we hope to never have. Um, but we've begun that, begun that, uh, training this week actually. And we will, the plan is to have, uh, to launch them into service, revenue service, um, on the week of January 24th. So that's when you can expect to begin to see them out on a few routes, and we'll ultimately be moving them. We don't know how far they can get in a day right now under cold temperatures. So it's really going to be, we're going to pilot them on routes. So, we're going to see what the, what the energy demands are because as you're probably all aware, electric buses, um, if it's cold outside, it reduces the range, the, the amount of miles that they can travel in a day. And we've compensated for a part of that by adopting a cold weather package that Proterra has, um, recommended for cold -weather This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 77 communities. So our buses will be equipped with an auxiliary diesel heater to help power the heat, not to power the drive train. They don't, the buses will not drive off of, it's a, the estimate is that it would use 5% of the diesel that we would need normally for a diesel bus, um, to be able to, that backing it up for a second, that 5%, uh, use of diesel over the course of a year will enable those buses to be out on the road longer because the power, the energy stored in the batteries will be able to be used to keep the buses out on the road longer. Otherwise, you have a pretty precipitous drop, um, in the amount of miles that you can use a bus in a day. And then eventually the batteries are going to get good enough that this sort of accessory, um, diesel heaters to help just generate heat for our passengers won't be needed. But it's a, it's, from my, from my perspective, it's a good trade off right now. All right. So those are the two big things that we were working on, um, in 2021. A little bit of a preview about what we've got going on with the electric buses, of course, um, there's really three priorities, I would say on the transit side of the house for 2021 for us and the electric buses is the first one I just mentioned. Um, we're going to be continually kind of rotating those throughout our routes. Um, we'll get to know and understand them and how far we can drive them and how long they take to charge. And it's just kind of a different, it's a different ballgame, but we're really excited to start playing. Um, of course the next phases of the Iowa City Area Transit Study. Um, uh, Geoff mentioned earlier the Sunday service pilot, um, we've been working, um, behind the scenes, um, laying out, uh, potential schedules for the Sunday service pilot. We've had some challenges this fall, the electric bus, um, project, which ended up taking, um, more time and, and energy, uh, towards the latter half of the year than we expected. And then also compounded with some staffing issues, um, that we've been having, um, related to, I would say the pandemic specifically, but also probably some of the same general challenges in, in bringing staff on board that many organizations are facing. So it's, uh, slowed things down a bit, but we do plan on launching the Sunday - service pilot this summer. We also, um, are planning on launching, uh, a series of tweaks to the service. Um, just things that we've evaluated, and we've noticed after the launch, um, that, that we, or comments that we heard from the public and we've really thought through and kind of catalogued all of what we've heard from the public since the launch. And we've, we've come up with some ways that we think we could even just, uh, clean things up a bit, some, some unexpected, um, some issues, some things that really didn't, we didn't really hear from the community until after, um, things were in play like some routes that, um, it seems like we might benefit from just making them a half an hour earlier, even. 'Fortunately these are not things you can do on the fly, 'cause if you change one thing, it changes absolutely everything in our system, from the bus schedules to the driver's schedule. So we're hoping to package all those together and, and make those changes, um, early this year as well. We'll be further exploring our late night and on demand options. And This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 78 Geoff alluded to that earlier also, um, evaluating a low-income fare program. You had indicated that that's something you, you would like us to, to further look into. So we have that on our list as well. Um, commencing a bus stop revitalization program. That's something that we heard from the community loud and clear through the Transit Study process. So that will be a multi - department project. We'll work with Engineering to, to begin that. And I see that as being a multi-year project, we certainly won't be able to go, you know, address every single, um, transit stop across the community in one year. But I see that as being an ongoing project where every year we have another route and we focus on that route and we, and we bring the, the transit steps, stops up to today's standards and really just make more safe and comfortable transit stops for our users. I think it'll go a long way and, um, a long way in, um, helping our riders who rely on our services today, but also attracting more riders. And I know that's a big initiative, um, for our Climate Action goal is making it more attractive, um, to more people. Um, last but not least in terms of the, uh, Transit is the Transit Facility, and Geoff also alluded to that earlier. So we have, we are beginning to, um, to, we're basically beginning to put together the information necessary for an RFP, for an RFQ for design work. Um, we're continuing on the, on the, on the back end every year. We're, we're submitting grant, federal grant applications for, um, funding for a transit facility. I think we've got a, a strong application, we've heard so much, um, you know, there's always limited amounts of funds for these projects, but, um, we have submitted, uh, another grant application in November and I just got word yesterday that there will be a, a slew of additional grant applications that are coming as a result of the, um, the, um, the, Bi-, the Infrastructure Law that's coming out. So I expect there will be another grant opportunity within a month or two. Um, so either way we, we can see the writing on the wall and, and we're, we're hoping that the grant funding lands, um, but we are, we're beginning the work on our end, um, with, um, with, uh, our, with the Engineering Department to, to get that RFP, um, prepared so we can commence that project. And then on the Parking side of the house, it's also a very big year for parking this year. We've been very focused on Transit for the last few years, but, um, we have some, some, um, overdue needs, I would say, um, first and foremost, we're plan to replace our automated parking equipment this year. Um, it, they're at the end of their useful life. And they take a lot of work from a, a maintenance perspective to go address the needs of customers who are, um, you know, having troubles getting out of our parking facilities. Um, it's just increasing every year and it's, it's past, past the 10 years, which is kind of the expected, um, the expected lifetime. So that's a big project we're working on. We'll be, Parking will be replacing the parking meter, um, brains, if you will, the computers inside them this year, you will, might notice a little bit difference. Um, fewer parking meters out there for some of the parking meters that you saw with two actual meters, um, on one pole, you'll see them combine into one meter that you'll be able This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 79 to, um, park in either parking space at, so it'll reduce some of the congestion if you will. And some of the, um, just a little bit of the unsightliness in the, in the right-of-way downtown. Um, we also plan to revitalize and expand our bike parking downtown. We definitely have a need for more bike parking and some of our, um, bike parking, our bike racks are in, um, poor shape. So we, um, that is, that is on our, on our list for this year. And then last but not least, um, the electric bike share, putting that back out again for RFP. I know those of you who have been on the Council for a while have heard us talk about the bike share for some time, we're think we're going to need to put it out for RFP again. And the hope is that we can find a partner who can get the bikes on the ground for us, because that has been the challenge, um, with, um, the bike industry, the bike -share slash, um, scooter -share industry so rapidly evolving, and then, um, the pandemic happening. And it's, I think it's time to just get another RFP out and, um, see if we can get another, um, player on board who can get, who can get the bikes on the ground. So that's another one of our initiatives for this year, um, last but not least. Um, before I, before I take any questions, I would be happy to arrange a test ride on one of our new electric buses for you all before we launch in, um, on January 24th, if that is something that you're all interested in, I could certainly do that. Seeing a couple head nods. All right. Um, we'd be happy to coordinate that, I'll work with, um, Kellie to get, um, something on the schedule for you all. And I also want to let you know, too, if at any time you ever are interested in a tour of the Transit Facility, um, just to see, um, um, you know, check things out, get a little better understanding of operations, I'm more than happy to, to give you a tour around and, and, and show you, um, both the facility and just, you know, give you a high level overview of kind of what we do and, and how things work on the back end. So. And without further ado, I'd be happy to entertain any questions you might have. Thomas: Well, this past year was, um, pretty impressive in terms of the, you know, the accomplishments with the, the new transit study, the electric buses, uh, as you were mentioning, even just the, the infrastructure requirements on the electric buses. I, I know I'd mentioned to many people that the buses were coming, and they would ask, well, when are they going to be available? And, you know, without appreciating how much work has to go into, to, um, modifying the infrastructure in order to get them out on the road. Um, and then you have, as you said, uh, a number of things to build, you know, to build on that, those accomplishments. I, I have just become increasingly, um, challenged on, on this question of competing with the automobile, because it, for, within Iowa City, those who can drive, uh, you know, and all the requirements that go into that "can", you know, they can afford it. And so on and so forth, uh, competing with, with the automobile is really challenging because of the, the inherent comfort, safety, um, and security of driving in an automobile. Once you get out of that automobile on our streets, um, one can This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 80 feel quite vulnerable, um, without that kind of two tons of steel enclosing you, uh, and you're more sensitive to all the unpleasantries that you might be passing through that, you know, that, that two tons of steel and glass sort of isolate you from. Um, so I, I'm appreciative of the fact that I think, you know, the there's so many pieces that go into creating that transit system that will rival the automobile in terms of comfort and safety, and the bus stops, the access to the stops. Uh, it's a very complex system that, um, if it's not sort of addressing all of these particular concerns, you know, a person may, who can may just say, well, it's just a whole lot easier and, and more comfortable for me to drive. So I'm, I, I hope we can, you know, rise to that challenge. Um, I feel this city, given its size, uh, and the, the culture that we're trying to cultivate will, um, we'll see that transition, um, the value of it. So, so we'll see. But, um, as I said, I've just been increasingly, you know, amazed at how advantageous things have been set up for the automobile and that, um, you know, the, the system, the infrastructure for the alternatives has to match up, if it's going to succeed. Taylor: I would certainly be interested I'll, uh, touch bases with Kellie on, on, uh, having a test ride, `cause I missed the opportunity before and from the folks that had the opportunity, sounds like it was a, it's a great experience and just such a different, uh, different feeling than on the regular buses, and for those new Council members or any of the Council that has not toured that facility off of Riverside Drive, I would encourage you to do so, `cause it'll make it even more apparent why in the CIP there's that big chunk of money for the new facility, because it just, uh, there's just a great need for it, uh, for the safety and the comfort of vehicles and the staff members, you can just see that right away and it's functioning okay, but it's been functioning there for years and, and there are a lot of issues. So I would encourage you to do that. Nagle-Gamm: We say it's well loved, um, well worn, well loved, but yes, it's probably updated in terms of the, our needs today. Teague: I'm curious if, for the ridership, and thank you for your presentation and all that you all do, and happy that we successfully launched the new, uh, transit, uh, system, uh, in August of last year. Um, I am curious to know, since our numbers have not returned, to what was in 2019 as far as the ridership, were at 27, um, and now our projection is hopeful at 19, um, persons per hour. Is there any id--, and we know that the overall ridership is down about 40% somewhere in there. What do you think is the sense because seemingly our world has, or our community is back up and running and functioning, maybe 70%, you know, of pre-COVID level? So I'm curious to know what your thoughts are, uh, that's contributing to the decrease. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 81 Nagle-Gamm: Um, I give a lot of thought to these, so I'm glad you asked that question. I'm, I'm afraid I might not have the answer, but I'll tell you what's been ruminating, at least with me. Um, I think transit tends to be a habit that people build. Um, so it was an immediate, um, habit people had to change or felt like they had to change. And we were in a very weird position where we were discouraging people from using our service. Um, we were, kept it operating and I'm very proud of that fact. And we are in a university, especially hospital community, and we needed to keep that service going, but we were actively discouraging people as we were in the community, you know, stay home, hunker down, that kind of thing. So, so I think part of that might be rebuilding that habit for people. Um, part of it also might be, um, people's, um, employment structures maybe have changed. So I think that work from home, it's hard for me to get a grasp on how many people are still working from home. You know, I, we've been paying really close attention to when the University's bringing people back and, you know, I can get a lot of intel from the community, but I don't have that same intel from all of the other businesses, you know, that work downtown. And so I think the work from home, um, is probably affecting, um, uh, some people's commute as well. And then there just may be people who are still, you know, we're all still here, we're wearing masks right now. There may be some people who are just not, um, not willing to ride public transit again. Um, I hope that's not the case 'cause I don't, we've, I think we've proven with our, with our measures, um, it's very, a safe and effective way to get around town, but there may be people who are just reticent to, to return to transit quite yet. So it's really challenging that this is the year that we're, we're making these big changes to transit with the hope of building a better transit system that's more, uh, reliable for those that need it, that can bring more riders on board because it's really hard to flesh out changes, um, how these impacts to the system that we're making are affecting ridership when we have this other really, really challenging, uh, health, public health situation happening. So those are the things that I've been able to kind of ascertain, but I don't know if I, if we know or will ever know all of the factors, I just know that we need to continue. And I think we are continuing making our system the best system that we can. And we've got a lot of that outlined in our Transit Study, based on the feedback we heard from the community, the expertise we brought in from our consultant team. And so we've got a really good path forward for us. Um, and I think again with the climate initiatives of this Council and this community, um, continuing to focus on the benefits of transit, especially super clean transit, which electric, these electric buses will be run off 84% renewable energy. There's only one other transit agency I've been able to find in the country that has renewable energy stamped on the side of their buses and that's Portland. Um, so there might be others, but I have not in my, my Google searches been able to find them. So it puts us in a very small, um, and select group, which I think we could be really proud of. So I'm hoping This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 82 again, um, that will also be another way that we can, we can draw riders back to transit or new riders to transit. So I think it's just going to take a multi - pronged strategy, and we need to play the long game and we need to keep investing in the system and investing in those things that make it, um, safer, comfortable, more convenient, less expensive. Um, you know, we just need to keep highlighting those things, so. Teague: I think your guesses are sensible as to some of the rationale. Um, the other thing that I might add is, um, change is always, you know, it takes time for people to even experience, uh, a change like this to get on the bus. Uh, I know where I live, next door, right in front of me in my, you know, neighborhood was the bus stop. And so, um, typically when people might, you know, first engage in a change would be, if they're going downtown for some event, they know parking is going to be just hard to find. And then, so I think we haven't had that, you know, those opportunities yet for people to jump on the bus, um, because even the downtown block party I think was before that. Um, and so maybe it, it, it'll take some time, but I do believe that the ridership will increase, it's just going to take, uh, a little, uh, time and we're still in the pandemic so, uh, some of those, uh, components are just compounding the decreased ridership, but thanks for all you all do. Nagle-Gamm: Thank you. Appreciate it. Bergus: Darian, do you have a sense of the uptake of that transit app? And have you been continuing to get feedback, or do you feel like people are using it? Do you know? Nagle-Gamm: I think it's increasing. So, we have, um, we aren't able to suss out who, our Iowa City Transit riders who use it, or University or Coralville riders since we're all in the same system, but the University who has the agreement with the transit app, um, it it's free for us to use here, but they have the actual agreement, so they get the data. So they, they send us some intel, um, a couple times a year and every time I've seen a report, it's been, we've been seeing a big increase. There was a big increase in usage at the beginning of, uh, the school year and coincident with the, the Transit System changes, which we really pushed that heavy because that was, if there was any time to just, and if you're a, a smartphone user, an app -friendly user, there was no better time to hop on the Transit app. So it's, it's going to be, it's like our credit card usage in our parking facilities. You'll, you'll notice if you, if you dig into the budget, you'll see it's been a steady kind of increase. Um, and we're just going to keep pushing that messaging, um, out there to help, um, to help the community. Those who don't have a smartphone, we do have a webpage that's maintained, it's icareatransit.org, the University runs it, um, but it's, um, it's a, it's a desktop version more, well, I shouldn't say desktop version. It This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 83 is not the transit app, but is, um, it's something you can access on your desktop and it has Iowa City's, um, Coralville and Cambus's, um, arrival times by stop. So you could click on a stop or click on a route, click on a stop and you can get the arrival time information. So you can get some of that information if you're not a smart, um, phone user. Um, but yes, we're continuing to push that app. I think it's been, I think it's been beneficial. Bergus: Awesome. Thank you. And then just a super nitpicky thing. I noticed the schedules are online as PDFs, but only within the LaserFiche program, which is very not usable. So I don't know if that can be addressed in the, uh, website update or if you need to just drive everyone to this other icareatransit.org page. Nagle-Gamm: I suspect it will be with the website update, um, but that is, that is on our radar as well as, too, it's part of our communications. And, and I, I might have neglected to, to mention this as part of our next phase for ICATS, but one of our big pushes this year is with the website update, um, but just re, really digging into all of our communication pieces. Um, either from, uh, from the website to the transit app, to, you know, the City's website to our printed materials, um, which we got out last summer, I think there's still more materials that are needed. Um, so that's part of what we're going to be working on this year too, is cleaning up all of those, um, items and just really improve the materials and the broad range of materials that we really need to serve everybody in the community. Weiner: I'm really happy to see the, the various transit systems being able to sync some of these things, the, the, like the use of the app. I'm really happy to see that Coralville and Iowa City have synced their fare systems now and so forth, um, sort of pie, pie in the sky, um, I'm consistently struck that we have, by the fact that we have three different transit systems in a very small, relatively small population area, um, and that there could be an, obviously this is not just a City issue, this is a County issue, University issue that there could be enormous savings, um, and efficiencies if there were like one transit authority, gov, um, coordinating everything. But, um, yeah, any, any, any steps that we take along that line, as far as I'm concerned that are, are positive steps to coordinate and reduce, um, reduce duplication. Nagle-Gamm: Yeah. And that's a lot of what, with, absent of the political will to create a combined system at this current time, I think that one of the main objectives with the Transit Study, is how do we, okay, how do we function in the best and highest and most efficient way and deliver the best services to the greater metro area as we can. And that was really kind of at the forefront of, of our Transit Study goals, um, to, in terms of your question about, you know, a regional system, we haven't quite met the threshold for a FTA - This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 84 designated regional system. I believe that's a 200,000 -metro area population threshold. DART in Des Moines operates under a regional system. Um, it's a, it's a its own taxing body. It's kind of a different, um, it's a different, it's a different system than our three -agency system we have right now, um, but yes, I think, um, the part of that goal with the Transit Study was how do we take as much of, how do we make the system work as best as we possibly can together using, you know, the three agencies that we have today. And, and I think we've gotten some of those, especially with the fares, um, and realigning our routes, I think, um, was also really helpful in making those transfers more seamless for the, for the public. Alter: I have one final, Fm sorry, you're just about to leave. Um, but this is actually about the electronic bikes and I love that it's coming back into play. Um, and I just wondered if, um, the, the projected, uh, pilot for it still is based around, downtown, or whether there's been discussions, since there had to be the pause, about the possibility of looking at incorporating parts that are outside of downtown. Um, 'cause it seems to me that that actually also has a real commonsensical kind of potential, um, to be able to help get people to the core or to downtown, um, and, and then back out to where they might live rather than just traveling around within the downtown area. And if, if you guys haven't had that kind of conversation yet, or that's not where you're at, that's fine. I just wondered if there had been the potential of, like, reenvisioning what the pro-- pilot might be given that you've had a chance, you, you've had a lot on your plate, but given that there's been a pause. Nagle-Gamm: Uh, that's a great question. And we haven't quite re -approached that, that subject yet, but as we begin to just revisit the RFP that we put out last time, we'll, you know, we're in, we're in a, this is the time where we're going to reevaluate what's in there. I don't know if we, we recalled spelling that out or if that was part of what we heard back from the, the, the companies that we had worked with that this would be their recommended approach. Um, but again, we haven't been able to get anything, you know, get the actual bikes here and on the ground. So it's definitely something that we can take a look at in our conversations that we have. And as we're, as we're, you know, reevaluating the RFP and preparing that for, for launch, um, but we haven't, we haven't given much thought to it. Um, but it's, like I said, it's on the, it's on the schedule for this year, but we'll certainly take a look at it. Taylor: I, when we've had discussions about the electric bikes before I gathered, there was a lot of community interest in, in us having that sort of a service. Do you have an idea of, um, whether that would require an extra full-time, uh, personnel for you in maintenance of them or I, I was thinking there was something kind of in lines of Megan's question that, um, you could let somebody know where you dropped that bike off and then they would come This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 85 pick it up? You wouldn't necessarily have to get it all the way back to downtown. And if that's the case, you would need someone responsible for that. So do you have some idea of what, what that might do to increase your costs? Nagle-Gamm: Yeah, it's a, it's a great question. Um, uh, the, the goal would be to offload all of those responsibilities onto whomever we're partnering with. And I think that's how they're structured nowadays, um, is that the company that we partner with, how the structure has, has been working, um, at least the latest structure in the last few years that, that I had evaluated. And again, things are rapidly changing in this, in this, um, in this business model. So, I, I'm assuming this part might stay the same, but there could be changes, but that the, the company who comes in at no cost to the community, um, um, in no upfront cost to us, they provide the staff, and they provide the service. So they would be the ones responsible for, you know, fetching wayward, um, micro mobility devices, whether it's a scooter or a bike or whatnot, and bringing them back into, and they have vested interest to bring 'em back into where they're going to get used at. They have the data, they understand they have a vested interest in getting those vehicles where people need them to. So that would, um, I, I envision that being wrapped up in, in the provider, that kind of work. All of that said there will likely be work involved on the City's end. Um, it, there's just no way to get around the fact that there will be some, you know, we will be playing a role. It will take staff time to, to do these things, but we're hoping that the bulk of the, the, um, the fetching, the realigning every night, 'cause that's a part of what these bike share companies do. They lay them out. Um, so you wake up in the morning and there's bikes in hot areas where people want to use them at again. Um, when you wake up in the morning, that's kind of a part of that, you call it rebalancing. So they take 'em from afar and they rebalance them. Um, so the goal is to have the company provide that support. Taylor: Thank you. Thomas: How, how long, uh, could you remind me how long we've been trying to get that bike share in place? Nagle-Gamm: Well, Geoff might be able to give the, the -- Fruin: Predates Darian. Um, we've probably been, uh, seven, eight years. We've had multiple RFPs. We've had agreements with companies. Um, part of it has been, um, the, the rapidly changing landscape of these. We're seeing a lot of companies come and go. They get bought out by, uh, each other, um, and, and also the University's position on this has, has, has been pretty fluid. There's been times in the, in the past where the University has taken a position that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 86 they weren't going to allow motorized devices like scooters on their walks. Um, and, and of course these companies look at that as well. That's, that's where the business is, right. So if we're going to come up to some resistance there, then, then they start to back away. Um, I don't think that's the University's current position. So all those things have contributed to, to a lot of starts and stops. Uh, um, and frankly with the Transit Study, the last two years, I, I've told Darian to put this one on the back burner. Um, and it's probably still going to be on the back burner until we can get Sunday service launched. Um, there's just not enough staff capacity to, to manage a new launch like this, um, uh, at the same time those other initiatives are being undertaken. Thomas: Yeah. I, I too have concerns with all the, all the factors that go into, um, the bike share concept. Uh, we, we, you know, I, my sense is, is bike share works, if it works, it, it works well in places that have a high tourism component. Um, we have some tourism, but not, not, you know, we're not a major city in terms of attracting tourists. And, and then the, the University has a Cambus system, which I think is the rival of any, you know, mobility service that, that, um, one could imagine really, uh, so I'm not clear how, and especially Geoff, when you mention, if there are issues with the use of some of these, you know, whatever they may be, scooters or bikes on University property, that's yet one more challenge. Um, so I am kind of, I, I think there is a market there, or at least a, a desire to have some of, you know, whether it's e -bikes in particular, I think has enormous upside potential in opening up, um, biking to the larger community because, you know, we are not Holland in terms of our topography. We do have hills and a hill can be, you know, I mean, we, we're talking about a, a bike lanes on, on Benton, and I think it would be a heck of a lot easier to consider riding on Benton on an e -bike than trying to trudge up that hill. And there are many others like it. So I, yeah, I do hope we kind of step back and think about how, how we can offer our increased mobility across Iowa City. Maybe not so much of, and, and open up the envelope beyond the downtown. Fruin: Yeah. One thing I just real quickly, I think, uh, another thing we're seeing is the, these devices are hitting the, the in-, individual consumer market pretty hard right now. So, um, being downtown at City Hall, you know, it's not uncommon for me to be able to, to see several people a day on a motorized scooter, um, motorized skateboards are becoming a lot more accessible in terms of price points. You'll see, uh, folks with the kind of the handheld remotes just zooming down the, down the street. So the devices are here, they're available, they're becoming more affordable. And that's that, that, that, um, is another barrier that a private company has to overcome to enter into a market and make money if they're competing with individual units This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 87 that are relatively affordable. Yeah. It may cause some hesitation for them to come into the market. Teague: Thank you. Nagle-Gamm: Yep. Thank you. Teague: Awesome. All right. We are going to the Airport. So Michael, Mike Tharp, come on up. Welcome. Tharp: Thank you. Uh, first congratulations to our returning Mayor and our new Council members, um, happy to see some new faces all around. Um, if you haven't noticed, I lost the long hair I used to have um, somewhere around 24 inches was donated to Locks of Love. So it was, uh, yeah, little bit of a change. Um, I am Michael Tharp. I am the Airport Manager, uh, under the Airport Commission. I manage the day to day of the Iowa City Municipal Airport. Um, as, as the hierarchy goes, uh, you all appoint the members of the Airport Commission and they set kind of the, just like you do, the broader, uh, with the City, the broader overall goals of, of, uh, the Airport. And it's my job to carry those out. Um, as far as the, uh, operations of the Airport, we have roughly 36,000 operations a year. An operation is a takeoff or a landing. Um, we have three entities, that uh, operate out of the Airport. We have Jet Air, our fixed base operator. They are the, the aircraft concessionaire. So if you're flying in, they'll be the refueler, they'll be the maintenance provider. They also do charter services, uh, aircraft training, uh, maintenance. Um, they, we also hire them to do our groundskeeping and maintenance around the Airport. So they're pretty vital to us. Uh, we also have the operator performance lab, which is the University, uh, research lab that operates out of the College of Engineering. They do all kinds of aviation research. Um, a lot of it focused around human factors type stuff, but, uh, also, uh, signage and iconography and, and, uh, uh, communications. And they work with, uh, companies like, uh, uh, Rockwell Collins, Raytheon. Um, I'm not sure what their name is at the momentum, different DOD agencies, uh, um, Department of Defense. And, uh, uh, they've worked with NASA. They've worked with, uh, other state DOT agencies. Um, so a lot of, lot of activity there. Um, and then we have Care Ambulance, which is an ambulatory transport service. They actually partner with Jet Air to provide the medical staffing for any medical charter flights that are, uh, transferring patients, uh, out of the, out of the area, um, from the University primarily. Uh, with that, um, 2022 is going to be an exciting year at the Airport. Uh, we have a lot of projects coming out that you're going to hear about more in the CIP section, uh, in a couple of weeks, but, uh, we, we've got some work on the runway. We're doing some work, uh, to, uh, allow for new hangars to be developed, uh, more parking at the Airport. It's, uh, a lot of things that are going to impact the revenue. And one This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 88 of the things that, uh, the reasons we're doing that is for the last four years, we have been self-sufficient operationally. So we have not dependent on, uh, tax dollars for supporting the Airport operations. Um, we can strive to continue that, uh, that's, uh, that's one of our goals is, um, we are in your, um, enterprise funds. So that's one of the goals of the enterprise fund is to have those departments be self-sufficient. Um, we are operating roughly a $385,000, uh, operations budget. The vast majority of that goes to maintenance and, uh, maintaining the Airport. I believe that's roughly about 75%, and that kind of dovetails with our revenue, about 75% of our, uh, income comes from our hangar rents and ground leases. Uh, the rest of our income comes primarily from our farming operations. We have a, a farm, uh, manager, and we get about 10% of our income from that. And then fuel sales, uh, covers the remaining, um, amount of, uh, revenue, uh, and this year, um, everybody has had challenges with COVID. Um, we've actually seen a massive increase in our operations. Um, uh, as, as, uh, COVID and airline schedules have been disrupted, a lot of folks that are able to have turned to general aviation, whether it's flying their own aircraft or charter operations. Um, but we have seen a, a dramatic increase in our numbers, and that has been a, a remar-, uh, just a, a blessing because it increases our fuel sales, that increases our revenue, uh, that we get from that. And we're excited to, you know, with those projects we've got going on this year, uh, to just to see where that continues to go. Um, and with that, I think that's generally all I have, um, happy to invite everybody to the Airport for a tour of the operations. The University research lab is always a sight to see, but if you are interested, uh, please let me know. And well certainly, uh, arrange for something. I'm happy to take any questions. I think I failed to mention the Airport starts on 272 on your budget book I'm sorry. That's my fault. Teague: Of course the Airport is one of those things that, for me, when I first came on City Council, I wasn't, uh, aware was in a part of the City, um, uh, operations. Um, and I did have a question just about, um, and, and maybe this will come out in the, um, next Wednesday when we have our discussion. Just what is the future of, what are your thoughts are the future of this, of this location and, and its use? Tharp: I, as, as far as the location, uh, it's, it's a great location because it, uh, the Airport itself is roughly about five to 10 minutes from anything in Iowa City. Uh, because of the nature of the University Hospital system, um, being that close to the hospital, whether it's for org, organ transplants, just, uh, uh, patient transfers, um, really is a benefit to the community. Um, I know in the late nineties, I believe early nineties, late nineties, I believe there was some conversation within, uh, the City and the Airport about relocating the Airport at that time. Um, and I think you would've lost, if that had happened, I think you would've lost some of that, that aspect of, of just being close to the major This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 89 centers of, of city activity. Um, not that, I mean, it, it would've allowed for longer runways. That's one of our restricting factors right now at the location. Um, some of these projects that we'll talk about with the CIP are meant to maximize, you know, what we can do in the space we have, um, which for our operation will, um, increase the activity and increase some of the revenue that we can draw from fuel sales, but we're not going to see, you know, airline service, um, that type of activity, um, in Iowa City. Teague: And peak times, are you finding that there's more need for activity than you can handle, or you have to do a lot more coordination, um, than if you had more than two runways. Tharp: As, as far as our facility, we can handle the activity we have. And I think any increase we see over the next five, 10 years or so, um, well be, we'll be adequate, adequately able to, uh, handle that. Um, our parking, um, for aircraft, especially if we see some of the larger stuff that, that comes in, um, that can be tight on occasion, football game days, other high-profile activities in the area we do, uh, do have to manage our space a little carefully, just how we're, we're parking everybody. Um, and we have plans in the next few years to increase that with the FAA. So, um, uh, that is, is something in our, our program, um, as, as far as activity. Um, if you, if you were to talk to the charter company, um, there are times they're farming out sites because they don't have enough staff or enough, uh, airplanes to be able to, uh, uh, handle all of the charter requests that they get. And I think you're going to see that, you know, as the industry comes back, if, if, if, uh, you recall pre, uh, pre- COVID, uh, there was a lot of talk in the aviation industry of pilot shortages, maintenance, uh, mechanic shortages, just general personnel shortages all around. Uh, one of the things COVID did with everything getting shut down and everybody kind of downsizing their operations because of that. We now, the industry had adequate staff and as everything's springing back, uh, you're going to see those shortages come back, um, along with it. Teague: Thank you so much. Tharp: You're welcome. Teague: Yes. Enjoy the rest of your afternoon. Tharp: Thank you. You too. Public Works Program Budgets: Teague: All right. We are going to move on to Public Works with Ron Knoche, welcome, welcome. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 90 Knoche: All right. Good afternoon. Teague: Afternoon. Knoche: Um, my name is Ron Knoche and I have the privilege to serve as your Public Works Director. Um, this is my eighth operating budget presentation. So I've been in the position for seven years going on eight. Um, the Public Works Department is funded through eight different funding sources. Uh, the General Funds, special revenue funds, uh, enterprise funds and internal service funds. Um, this means that as we go through this presentation, we'll be all over the budget book, so it's multiple different sections that we'll be dealing with. Um, the Public Works Department introduction begins on page 218 in the budget book. Uh, Public Works Department is, uh, six divisions, uh, seven, if you include the administration side of things. This budget includes 159.76 full-time equivalent positions. Uh, we currently have 159 employees in the Public Works Department, 150 full-time, three part-time, and then six seasonal, seasonal or hourly employees. Um, the, we, well go into the Public Works Administration, Engineering Division budget, so that begins on page 378. Um, this operation is funded through the General Fund, uh, storm water fund, and some of the capital funds. Um, the, this group oversees all the City and, uh, private development projects, uh, that are going on within the community. Um, and currently that's right around 70 active projects that we have going on, uh, in our, in our community. Uh, we also oversee all the utility work that goes on in the right-of-way. Um, this currently has some challenges for us. Uh, we have two fiber optic companies that are in our community going for a citywide buildout, and then we also have a, a major upgrade in the gas system, uh, in the downtown area, uh, by MidAmerican Energy. So, um, there's some challenges there that we're dealing with. So, so to help on the permitting side of that, we've actually added a Civil Engineer position, uh, within our department or within the, this, uh, division to kind of help the, that process, those permits. Um, this division also oversees the sidewalk repair program. So the pink paint that shows up in your neighborhood that, that comes out of this group and that's, uh, uh, we cycle through the city every 10 years. Uh, and then this group also oversees the storm water utility, um, and then the Best Management Practices programs. Um, so there are some, uh, funding sources that are out there for community members, uh, to be able to do some matches on, um, various upgrades, uh, on their private property to help deal with some of the increased storm water runoff, um, that is, that is occurring. Um, one of the major things that, uh, uh, this, uh, division had just finished is, uh, a, a scanning project. So, um, one of the things we'll talk about is the asset management program, um, that we're, that we're working on, um, as a kind of the uptick to that program, we've been scanning all of our project plans that we have in-house. That's about 13,000 sheets of, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 91 of documents that we've just currently scanned. Are there any questions on the Public Works Admin or Engineering Division budgets? All right, we'll move on to Streets and Traffic Engineering. Um, this begins on page 386. Uh, this operation is funded through the road use tax fund, um, which is a special revenue fund. Uh, we maintain 500 lane -miles of roads and a hundred signalized intersections. Um, the, the maintenance of that includes, you know, patching and repairing, uh, of our streets, the snowplowing, and then the sweeping. Uh, this program, this, um, division also, uh, deals with our leaf program as we go through the community and pick those up in the fall. Um, the, the staffing in this division, um, it is really about disaster response to a certain extent or emergency response. So we have, um, 13 snow routes that we deal with every year. We have two people on each snow route, so that's 26 employees, um, but then as, as you get into a derecho or a flood response, um, this is the division that really kind of keys up and, and heads into those types of responses, um, within, uh, this current, bud, or the budget's proposed, um, we are, uh, looking at, uh, adding a new paint truck Um, we've, uh, been very successful in adding, uh, bike lanes in our community over the past number of years. And one of the struggles that we have with our current paint truck is we can only paint on the driver's side of the truck. So as you go down the centerline of the road, you can paint in the centerline, but then when you go, want to paint an edge line, they actually have to run it backwards. So they actually do those late at night. And so we're, we're running all those edge lines going opposite direction of the, of the traffic. So with the new paint truck, we'll be able to, um, be able to paint on either side of the truck and, and move forward and, and, and do a better job of utilizing, uh, that, that equipment. And then also, um, the intent is to, to be able to put a different product down that is, uh, a little bit, uh, longer, um, life than, than what we currently have. Um, on a sustainability measure, uh, we just had a contractor come in and we crushed 6,300 tons of concrete. Um, that was, uh, concrete that was removed during our patching projects, um, that is going to be re, uh, utilized as modified sub base in our patch, in our pavement repairs. And then also, uh, some four -inch -plus material that we use out at the Landfill, um, to, uh, help with stabilization of their roads, uh, for their operation. Uh, we also crushed 1400 tons of asphalt millings. Um, these were millings that were reclaimed from our overlay program. Uh, every year we, as we, as we mill those off, we, we collect those and then, uh, those will be utilized for alley work and some of the shoulders that we have around town. Have any questions on the Streets, Traffic Engineering...? Bergus: That reuse of the concrete and the asphalt run, is that something that many, most cities do, is that unusual? Knoche: Uh, I'd say the larger, the larger communities are doing that, like Cedar Rapids, Davenport, Des Moines. Um, this is something that we had done in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 92 the past and just because of the product that we had gotten, we kind of went away from it. Um, it, it, we, the, the contractor at that time, didn't do a very good job of crushing for us. And so, uh, we have some other, um, availability of material here in town. So, um, so we were kind of just going and buying it, but, um, we found that, uh, as we collect and we do a little better job, we can get a little better product. So. Bergus: Thank you. Knoche: Yep. Um, this budget does include another Traffic Engineering staff member. Um, so the Traffic Engineering group, obviously they deal with the lighting around town. They also deal with the banner switch outs and some other, those other opportunities. And so, um, but we, we will, we will be adding a, a staff member to that work group, which would be nice. Thomas: I, I am thrilled to hear about the durable paint. I know that sounds like a, a very nerdy thing to say, uh, but, um, you know, my observations are that our, our current material is, is not making it through to the time when it receives another coat of paint. And so I'm, I think, especially an area where we may have conflicts among, you know, pedestrians and drivers and so forth, having a more durable material on the ground will really be helpful. Knoche: Yeah. And the, the product, so it'll still be a latex paint is what will still be dealing with, but it'll be a high -build material. So it actually puts down a, a little bit thicker amount of the material, so it should stick longer. Thomas: Okay. Right. Teague: On that note, are, do you hear from citizens often, um, complaining that there's like an intersection typically where, um, the paint isn't clear and it's really confusing and, and potentially dangerous? Knoche: Uh, I, we, we don't hear from the, the, the community very often in regards to the painting issues. Uh, we as staff tend to run across some of those it's like, okay, we need to, we need to do something a little bit different there, but, uh, we, we don't get a whole lot of, uh, input from the community. Teague: Okay, great. Knoche: All right. Uh, we'll move on to the Wastewater Division. This budget begins on page 455. Uh, the Wastewater Division's funded through the wastewater fund, which is an enterprise fund. Uh, we have about 320 miles of sanitary sewers and 17 lift stations in our system. Uh, we have 110 miles of storm sewer and five stormwater pump stations in our system. Uh, our Wastewater This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 93 group, uh, they're treating about 8.6 million gallons of wastewater per, per day. And, uh, in, in our Wastewater Division, we're, we're, uh, currently working with the University of Iowa, um, to develop a, I, develop the Iowa wastewater, waste -to -energy research program, innovation center and tech park. Um, and that'll be actually located at our plant, down, down by the soccer fields. Um, this is working with the College of Engineering. Um, basically they are looking at, uh, research and, um, the processes that go on for smaller communities in Iowa. Um, obviously we, we, we are a larger community, so, so some of the stuff that we're looking at won't necessarily be utilized by, by our processes, but, um, it will benefit the benefit, uh, rural Iowa in regards to the work that's going on. Uh, we are currently in the process of building a greenhouse, uh, down at the plant, um, that greenhouse will, uh, be the location for a, a process that, uh, Grosswen Technologies out of Slater, Iowa is developing. It's an LGO wastewater treatment process basically to remove phosphorus out of that. So, um, we will, uh, we'll, we'll be working with the University on that as we, as we move forward into the future. Um, one of the, the things that we are working under right now is an EPA consent order, uh, in regards to some zinc issues that we've had in the past. Um, we've been able to address those issues and we'll be looking at lifting that consent order, uh, within this calendar year. Any questions on Wastewater? All right. Uh, the next division is the Water Division. Uh, their, their budget begins on 468 in the budget book, um, funded through the water fund. Uh, it's also an enterprise fund and we have 280 miles of water mains in our community. Uh, we produce about 2 billion gallons of water a year. Um, that's enough water if you stacked it all on top of Kinnick Stadium to be about a mile high. Um, we're able to, uh, be fairly efficient in our process. We can produce a gallon of water for about one penny. So there's not many things you can go out and buy for a penny these days, but, uh, but that's, that's what we're producing our water for. Um, some challenges that we'll have coming up, uh, in, in the next few years. And we're, we're still kind of waiting to see what these rules are going to be looking like. There'll be a lead and copper rule that'll come out from EPA. Um, and so what that'll probably look like is, um, identifying where in our system we have lead service lines in, in our community, um, and looking at whether they need to be replaced or, as, if you would have a, if you're, if you have a lead service line and you have a, a repair need, um, basically not being able to just patch that, actually doing a full replacement on that lead service line. Teague: I, I have a question. I'm, I'm so when you all are doing any type of repair, I'm assuming that you're already are replacing it without, with, with products that would be potentially acceptable. Knoche: Correct, yeah. So, so, um, so all of, all the work that we're doing, we'll do up to the stop box. Our current process is we, we replace to the stop box and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 94 that was all with, with new material and material that's lead-free. Um, we will work with property owners and the, the homeowners and basically say, we we'll continue to, you know, replace this up to your, up to your home. Um, but that is, is, uh, on the property owner, um, to pay for that. And so we've been able to do payment plans, or sometimes they'll just do it on their own, um, outside of the project. Um, but as, as we, as we move forward, um, kind of the, the option of being able to do it may not be there. It's going to have to be a requirement as we move forward. Fruin: If I could jump onto that, Ron, please, uh, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, for the, the part of the system that the City owns. So, we, we have the main pipes that go down the road, and then if you have a single-family home or apartment or building you have a service line that comes out and connects into the road. That service line is private. That's the, the stop box is kind of that delineating, um, piece of equipment there. Um, so where we know that there's likely to be lead is on that private side. Um, we know that when certain, uh, the age, by the age of the house, that lead was a commonly used material for that, uh, we know on the inside of, um, homes, there's probably lead, but Ron, do we, do we have any lead pipes remaining in our publicly owned system that we know about? Knoche: Not in our system. Yeah. And, and just a correction. So the, in addition to that, so actually from the, from the main that's out in the street, from that, from the main where the corporation is, so where you actually drill the hole and tap in, to the home is actually privately owned. The, the stop box, when we do our projects, the stop box is the easiest place for us to be able to kind of make that connection back into the system. That's why we normally replace kinda what's within the right-of-way when we do our projects, um, and, and leave that, have been leaving that up to the property owners to replace to their home. Um, and, and we, we do have a map. So one of the struggles that's with this is, you know, we, we can estimate, you know, we have some knowns of, of, you know, where lead services are. Um, we have some estimation based on, you know, when your home was built or if any work has been done to your home, you know, in, in the past 30 years. Um, so there, there's, there's still kind of trying to work through and frame up exactly what that, that process and what that, what that program will look like. Um, one of the things that did come out, uh, in the next rule that, that we'll be talking about is the, the PFAS rule. So, so PFAS is, uh, um, basically it's what they called the, the term, the forever chemical. So it's the, the Teflon that's on your cooking pans, um, and various other things. And so, um, the, this has been a, a pretty hot topic, uh, within the, the federal government. Um, the Iowa DNR just has gone through and has done some testing within the larger, um, water plants in the State of Iowa, um, mainly looking at water plants that have river water as, as a source water. Um, they did come in and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 95 do testing in our system, uh, and that was in November. And it's come back that we have no PFAS, uh, you know, in our finished water. Um, we have found that in our sandpit, which is one of our source water, uh, loca--, or could be one of our source waters, um, that there is some residuals of a byproduct, kind of an afterlife product in that, in that pond. Um, so as we move forward, um, we'll be doing some additional testing to make sure that it doesn't show up in our system. Um, but then well also be looking at kind of what the future of our sandpit, uh, source will be if, if we'll ever use it or not. But, uh, so that'll be something that we'll be working through. Um, and that kind of ties into just the overall resiliency of our source water system. So we, we have some projects we'll talk about, um, that are actually ongoing now. And well talk about on Wednesday in regards to the, uh, our lateral well system, uh, that we have, and that's, um, some of our solarian wells. So any questions on the water system? Taylor: Oh, just, just a quick little, um, mention of my six years on the Council. I think there have been numerous, uh, of the water main breaks, and I was just amazed at, uh, and, and in some of your information we got today, uh, at, at the age of some of these, the lines that we've got in town dating, even back to the late, 1919 and 1950s. Uh, so we've seen a lot of, uh, items come before us where, replacing this. Have you noticed a change since you've done that change in the piping, say PVC, uh, no breaking in the, in the newer systems you're using? Knoche: So, um, yeah, we, we, we are, we, we actually, we have a main in our system that's 1880 vintage. So, we, we have an original water main out in our system. We had a, a main break, um, in the downtown, um, along Clinton street. And that was on a main that was from 1886. So, uh, and, and those are, those are cast iron pipe, very, very good material, obviously. Uh, it's, it's served us well, um, but, but it, yeah, it is time to, for some of those things to be cycled out of our program. And, um, unfortunately there was some timeframe in the seventies when we didn't have, we, we were with ductal iron pipe that isn't very good pipe. And so one of the projects that we're dealing with this year is the water main replacement along Highway 1, uh, in the, in the Walmart area. Like we just, we just bid that project and awarded that one, um, that, that's, that's pipe that's, you know, 40 years old, you know, and, and it, it is just riddled with, with holes. And so, um, you know, PVC, there, there are some, you know, some more durable products that are out there as we're moving forward. Large main, um, large iron main really ends up being ductal iron pipe. That's just where we go, uh, with that, uh, 12 inches and below we can use the PVC pipe. Um, it, the thing about water main breaks is sometimes you just never really know what the cause is. You know, sometimes it's material failure, but sometimes it's just, you know, the, as, as the, as the, as the, um, winter sets in and you start getting some freeze -thaw This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 96 and you start getting some thrust setting in, um, it could be that. Um, sometimes it's just a differential in, um, the, the ground temperatures to what the water temperature is actually being produced and put out into the system. Taylor: Thank you. Knoche: All right. Um, we'll move on to the Resource Management Division. So this, this is actually two different work groups. It's the Refuse Division and the, or the, the Refuse group and the Landfill group. Um, the Refuse budget begins on page 483. Um, this is, uh, funded through the refuse collection fund and is, is an enterprise fund. Uh, weekly, we pick up 16,500 customers, um, with that on an annual basis, it, that's about the 10,000 tons of, of waste, 2,500 tons of recycling, and about 38, 3800 tons of organics that we're picking up on an annual basis. Um, organics, obviously been a big push for us. We've gone to the City -provided carts. Um, we, uh, last year we added some equipment, so we'll be going to automated pickup on the, on the organic side right now. We're, we're, we're, we're working those trucks in. Um, but, uh, those have historically have kind of been our rear load, uh, trucks we've been using those for, um, and this, this, um, budget also has an additional staff person included in it, uh, for, for this next budget season. So, um, this has been a work group, uh, you know, they, um, with COVID, they've been challenged, uh, in regards to the amount of waste that people are putting out at the curbside. So they they've been a very, very busy group. Um, and the additional staff person will, will be greatly appreciated in that work group. Uh, the Landfill budget begins on page 490. Um, the, the Landfill's, uh, obviously is, is funded to the landfill fund and is also an enterprise fund. Um, our Landfill services, Johnson County, Kalona, and Riverside, uh, were, you know, the last year we brought in about 152,000 tons of waste, uh, that was up, um, about 24 -ton, 24,000 ton from where we were at in FY20. So, um, obviously COVID had a really big impact. Uh, folks being at home were able to do a lot more cleaning, um, which, which, uh, ended up, uh, at our landfill. Um, we're, uh, happy to report that in FY22, uh, we're in the second quarter, I just finished the second quarter there, and, uh, we're actually down 16% from where we were in FY21. So we, we are starting to see a trend of, of the amount of waste that we're receiving at the Landfill starting to go down. So that, that's a great thing in a lot of ways. Um, the Landfill Division also oversees the three recycling drop-off sites that we have. We have one at the Landfill, uh, one at the old Public Works site. So that actually was the one relocated from the former North Dodge Hy -Vee. And, uh, and then we have one at East Side Recycling Center. Um, one of the focuses that we'll have, uh, through some grant programs is some, uh, improved glass recycling, uh, opportunities. Um, so you'll see the, those containers actually be painted purple and, uh, we're still looking to find some locations for those around the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 97 community, but, uh, um, that's something that we'll be, we'll be you looking at here in this calendar year. Um, obviously the, the, the struggle with the, the Landfill side of things and actually in this division is, you know, you're, you're running a landfill and obviously you make money by bringing garbage into the landfill, but you also want to recycle, and you want to reduce the amount of materials coming in. So it's kind of that, you know, just that balance, uh, as we work forward, uh, there, um. At the Landfill, we are currently going through a master, master planning process. So, um, we're looking at utilizing space in the future. We have a building, equipment building that we're going to build, and we just want to make sure we put in the right spot out there. So that, that process will be, uh, ongoing here the beginning of this, this calendar year. Any questions on Resource Management? All right. Uh, Equipment Division. Um, I don't have the page number on that one. Silly me. So the, uh, budget for the Equipment Division is on 654. So the, the Equipment Division, uh, is, uh, an internal, uh, fund. Um, we, uh, we maintain, uh, basically all the City fleet, uh, including Police and Fire, except for the buses, the Transit buses, uh, in the Equipment Division. We have around 500 units, uh, within the City fleet. Um, this group oversees all the vehicles replacement. Uh, obviously they're, they're working with departments and divisions and trying to replace with the electric vehicles wherever we can. Uh, and we've been pretty successful at doing that as we move forward. Um, we also oversee the, the City radio system in the Equipment Division. Um, there, we're currently, uh, in the process of replacing our, our system and we're looking at the opportunities that are out there, whether we continue with our standalone system, or if we, uh, look at going with the Johnson County, uh, Joint Emergency Communication System in that one. Um, the, uh, we also oversee the Fuel Facility, uh, out of the Equipment Division. Uh, we actually provide fuel for Johnson County and for the Iowa, Iowa City Community School District on their busing system, uh, out of our, uh, facility down at the Public Works site. Um, we'll be starting in the master planning process, uh, for, um, at, at the Public Works site for the Transit Facility and the Equipment Maintenance Facility. Um, these, uh, two facilities obviously were included in the original master plan that we did in 2015 for this site. Um, the, the thing that we have done since 2015 is we've actually purchased the corner. So, um, the, the Public Works Facility is located at the corner of McCollister Boulevard and Gilbert Street, uh, kind of down by Napoleon Park, um, the original master plan that we had ended up, um, Kum and Go actually still owned, um, the corner there. And so we've actually purchased that corner since then. So we'll be doing some, uh, re -master planning of that, of that site. Any questions on Equipment? All right. So, um, go ahead, Geoff, anything. Fruin: Go, go ahead. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 98 Knoche: So I, I just kind, kind of sum things up. So our, our, the biggest challenge that we have in Public Works is, is staffing issues and retirement. So, um, you know, in the past year, uh, we've lost 400 years of service, uh, and knowledge with, within our department. Um, as I look out, uh, in the next five years, 20% of my staff will be able to, be eligible to retire, so, um, it's, uh, it, it's, it's going to be some trying times for us in regards to, um, you know, what you see out there in the community. Uh, we've, uh, added four or five new plow drivers, uh, just in this winter. So, unfortunately, I guess, fortunately it waited till last week to snow, but unfortunately it would've been nice to have a few small snowstorms in, in November and December to be able to give people, uh, kind of, uh, acquainted to their, to their, to their, uh, routes out there. Um, but you know, what we're trying to do to try to help, uh, ease some of that, um, issues as we move forward. Um, we are working on an asset management, um, system, uh, within our, with, within, within Iowa City. Um, we are finalizing the, the, kind of the, the contract on that right now with Carter -Graf Systems. And, uh, and, and with that, uh, will help us download some of that institutional knowledge that we have in folks before they leave, before they leave our, our community. Um, well be looking at the American Public Works accreditation process, uh, and basically what that is, is documenting the practices that we do, uh, out there today. And, and, um, moving forward with, uh, you know, potential eff-- efficiencies that are there. Um, you know, how are we dealing with the retirement side of things? We're, we're working on building the bench as deep as we can. Um, obviously we have our seasonal positions that, that occur every year, both in Streets, uh, Water, Wastewater, Landfill, Refuse. Um, we do engineering interns, uh, every year. Uh, we have hourly operators, uh, at the water plant. So we're kind of tapping into the University of Iowa and their students and running a program there. And then in our Wastewater group, uh, we have an intern program, uh, where we've been working kind of mainly with, um, the, um, community college programs to, to, to bring some folks into our, our system there. Um, on a statewide level, uh, we're, we're developing a, a Public Works, uh, service bureau, um, and that's, um, something that, that's unheard of. So State of Iowa is trying to be a leader in regards to that. So, as we move that forward, um, and, uh, and so, so we're, we're doing everything that we can right now to try to build the bench and making sure that we have, uh, public professionals, uh, able to serve the community as we move forward. So, uh, as, as always Public Works staff and, and the facilities are always available for, for, uh, visits, if you stop down, we well get you a tour. If you want to do a ride -along more than, more than happy to do that, um, we are in the process of, of, uh, planning for an open house, hopefully, uh, we'll be able to, to host down at our new Public Works Facility um, Saturday, May 21st, uh, working with, uh, kind of a citywide services, um, open house, um, give us an opportunity to, to show off, uh, what we do for, for Iowa City. Not only at the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 99 Public Works, uh, side of things, but also, uh, Public Safety and pretty much all the services that we provide. So. Alter: So, can you repeat, um, how many people you're like, I can't remember what time you...sorry, you're post -lunch. Um, can you repeat, uh, how many people in the next few years you're anticipating are going to be retiring? Knoche: So 20% of, of, of the staff in Public Works will be eligible to retire. Alter: Thank you. Yikes. Teague: Any others? Fruin: Ron, I was just hoping you could take a minute or two and just talk about the impact of the Streets Facility, uh, on, uh, both Streets and Water operations. Knoche: Yeah. You know, so, um, it, it's actually, it, it spans well beyond just kind of the Streets and Water side of things. So, you know, um, it it's given us the opportu--, like during COVID, especially, uh, it's given us the opportunity to still be able to, to have full staff meetings with our, with our Streets Division in the morning and send 'em out and, and be able to space out and be able to, you know, socially distance in regards to those meetings versus where the, the space that we had previously. Um, we are, uh, able to house all of our trucks in, at, at onsite, uh, previously the, um, all of, during the winter, we were spread out kind of all over the place in, in various, various locations. So, uh, majority of our plows were located at the Johnson County Fairgrounds. Uh, the building was about as tight as you could get it. I mean, I, I don't know how the guys were, were parking their trucks and, and not causing damage to everything that was there. They, it was, it was about as packed in as you could get. And so we've been able to spread out and, and, and, and be in that scenario. Um, the Water Division, um, they they've, you know, they're able to, to do everything that they need to do in a, in a heated facility where in the past they would've been out kind of in the backyard, uh, where we're at, uh, where, where now, where re-, Refuse is at, uh, down on South Gilbert Court. And so, along that line, it also gave us the ability to, um, take our, uh, Refuse group and put, house them in one location. So they actually got the hand-me- downs in regards to the, the old Water Distribution Facility, um, but it, it, it really suits their needs. Well, um, we've also been able to co -locate, um, uh, Public Safety on our site. So the Fire Training Center, uh, is, is also on that site. So those training towers, um, and then some of their, and what was kind of a mishmash of some of the Refuse and Recycling trucks, uh, they've been able to reutilize that building, uh, to use as their education center. Teague: All right. Any other questions for Ron? Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 100 Knoche: Thank you. Teague: Yes, I, we have two more, um, budgets to do. It's going to be the City Manager and then Finance. I think what we'll do is take a five minute now, if people are amendable to that, and then we'll come back and kind of, uh, start with our City Manager, uh, budget. So we'll just come back at 1:55. (break) General Government Program Budgets (cont'd): Teague: All right. It is 1:55, and we are going to continue with our budget process, and we're going to invite our City Manager, Geoff Fruin, to give an overall budget for the City Manager office program. Fruin: Okay. I'm actually going to start with the City Council, um, budget. Uh, we don't have an intro page, but it's 336 on your, uh, budget document, uh, as you'd imagine, pretty straightforward, um, just a reminder that your salaries do have of an inflationary, um, component, uh, index tied to it. So that's where you see salary adjustments there. We use a, uh, Consumer Price Index and that's by ordinance. Um, uh, and then a reminder that, um, uh, some of the, uh, dues to organizations like the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the Iowa League of Cities will come out of this budget. And there are opportunities for professional development for you as Council members. So if you, uh, want to get involved either on a state or national level, uh, with the National League of Cities, Iowa League of Cities, you want to attend a conference, there's different work groups, uh, particularly within the National League of Cities, uh, talk to me and I can, uh, help you, um, explore those options. And, um, uh, again, uh, conferences or webinars or whatever might be offered. Any questions on the Council budget? Teague: I will mention that the National League of Cities does have a conference this, um, January that I will be attending, is the plan. Um, and I believe it will start Friday the 21st of January. Fruin: Yeah. That I think that's their legislative one, uh, that they do every year. So there's a, a couple differences. I think, if I'm not mistaken, this one is really geared at how to interact with your federal legislatures and federal lobbying and that sort of thing, but there's, uh, you know, sustainability work groups, college town work groups, whatever your interest, uh, may be. And I, again can explore that with you. Okay, the City Manager Department, uh, we have the intro section on page 56, and you can see the, uh, org chart there. Um, we do have, uh, 21 and a quarter full-time equivalent positions, uh, that are spread out through Communications, Climate Action, Human Rights, Human Resources, Economic Development and then of course, the three of us that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 101 you see, uh, at all your meetings. Um, uh, straightforward personnel-, um, driven budget, but we do have some large City -sponsored events, uh, that are budgeted out of here. So our, uh, Cyclocross sponsorship, our Summer of the Arts sponsorship, uh, the 4th of July fireworks, Juneteenth, um, and Any Given Child, which is a partnership with the school district Foundation, all come out of our budget and make up a, a significant portion of that budget. Otherwise, again, it's largely, uh, the personnel cost for the, the three of us, uh, here with you today. Um, with each of the operating divisions, Fm going to ask, uh, Rachel and Redmond to walk you through those. So we'll just, uh, uh, throw it over to the other, other side of the room with Rachel, and she'll walk you through a few of them. Kilburg: Sure. I'm going to go ahead and start with the Communications Office that, um, introduction is on page 61, starts on page 61, and then the budget numbers information starts on page 339. Um, the Communications Office, uh, supports 8.89 FTE currently, uh, that's Communications itself, media, and cable TV operations. Uh, as you'll recall from before we're recommending in the FY23 budget, um, a .37 FTE, uh, upgrade to an existing position, our halftime creative assistant, um, who does a lot of our ADA, uh, compliance with digital documents as well as graphic design work, uh, we're recommending upgrading that position to full-time, bring that to a full 1, um, FTE, um, overall though that budget has had a slight decrease in expenditures. Um, they've been able to gain some software, um, efficiencies, uh, through the website redesign package that we've selected, uh, and just some other digital storage efficiencies. Um, uh, the fiscal year '23 budget does include some funding to replace ca-, the cameras and projector in the City Council chambers back over at City Hall, so when we get back there, we'll have some new tech equipment to work with. Um, but otherwise, big kind of focuses for the Communications Office in the coming years include completion of that website redesign, that is a City Council strategic objective, um, continuing to work on required closed captioning. And then of course, uh, we can't thank the, the Cable TV office enough throughout the past year, and certainly going forward. They have really stepped up to the plate when it comes to managing all of the changes in how City Council meets, how boards and commissions meet and how we make those meetings more accessible to the public. Um, and then I'm going to skip actually to Climate Action. Um, so the Climate Action, uh, and Outreach Office starts on, and this is just the General Funded portion. So as you recall, um, the personnel, um, and office staffing is funded out of the General Fund. So the introduction for that starts on page 79, and then the budget information is on page 343. Um, so as I mentioned, this is the General Fund, um, support just for those three full-time positions. And then this also includes, um, you know, just general office needs and then the budget for the Green Iowa, uh, AmeriCorps team. Um, the staffing's not dependent on that emergency levy in case again, um, there's a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 102 need for, uh, that emergency levy to be used for, for something else. So we don't want staff tied to that. Um, as I mentioned earlier, we have had some vacancies in that, um, office just due to retirement and some other turnover. Um, but we have two positions filled currently, the Engagement Specialist and the Climate Action Analyst. We are underway in the hiring process for the Climate Action Coordinator. Uh, so we're hoping that by spring, we'll have a fully staffed Climate Action Office, I think for the first time since that was created. And then I'll move on to the Climate emergency levy budget, um, to talk again, just highlight some of, some of what I've talked about earlier, but that begins on page 402, the emergency levy budgetary information. Um, and as we mentioned, the emergency levy, we're recommending a decrease of 4 cents in the fiscal year '23 budget, that makes up that full 4 cent decrease in the overall property tax rate. Um, and again, that reduction is really just to reflect, um, what we've determined is sufficient to meet the needs of implementing, um, that office's activities, um, and, well as to spend down some of that fund balance that has accumulated during our periods of staffing vacancies. Um, but otherwise, as I mentioned before, I don't need to, to rehash it too much. This levy does support the implementation of the City's climate action plans and, uh, the City Council's goal to achieve net -zero by 2050. So programming, trainings, educational efforts, incentives, all of that is paid, uh, directly with the emergency levy dollars. Unless there's no, any questions, uh, I'll hand it back to Redmond, he'll finish up the City Manager divisions. Bergus: I, I did have a question on the, um, the Climate Action section. There was a, uh, in the metrics there, sorry, I have to get back to it on page 82. I just was wondering about the increase in the, um, CO2 per capita. I mean, the downturn during the pandemic, I think makes sense, but just wondering about the projected, um, for 2021 and then into 20, calendar year 2022, do we have a sense of what that's attributed to, or going back on kind of a third of the way down on page, uh, 82 there? Kilburg: Yeah, I would anticipate it, that's just kind of looking at the downturn that, that we had, that we kind of expected from the pandemic, um, but we can look into it closer and get a better answer for you. Bergus: Okay. Thank you. Fruin: Yeah, I, I, I, um, I believe that is just probably changing, um, the denominator, the, the population estimates we have increased. My guess is that our, uh, carbon numbers are maybe not projected out in the future, but we we'll follow up with you on that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 103 Jones: Okay. Thank you, Rachel. Um, so I, I will have the, um, Human Resource Division, the, um, Economic Development Division and the, um, Office of Equity and Human Rights. So, um, I think they're the, like the small but mighty, uh, departments. Um, I, uh, had a little experience being a Human Resource Director in my past life. And I can tell you the goal was to make sure I wasn't in front of Council, uh, because if that was the case, it was likely a crisis. Uh, so, um, Human Resources is, is really important for an organization. Um, for us, uh, they manage, uh, about keeping a population of a thousand employees, um, keeping, keeping them and trying managing morale, uh, making sure that, uh, the employee, uh, work base is positive and, um, and, uh, strong and productive, obviously. Uh, if you're, uh, disconnected, disenfranchised, uh, as an employee base, you can't be innovative, uh, you can't, uh, be, um, productive. So, uh, HR is really on the front line on that. Um, their budget, uh, starts on page 65, the introduction and, um, their information, um, begins on, uh, 341. Um, some of the highlights in, in, um, their, um, budget is, is, well, there, there's an increase in the budget. Um, mostly that's going to be for comp, uh, compensation study, uh, and there's some really key, uh, recruitments that the, uh, the Department will be helping with. You heard a little bit about, uh, the challenges with the Police Department and recruiting there. Uh, but we also have some big, uh, um, leadership positions as our Finance Director position, as well as our police, uh, Fire Chief position. Um, so they'll be managing those. Um, is there any questions with HR before we move on? Alter: You mentioned the compensation study, is that I'm sorry, across, I mean, is that for a particular department? Is that across all -- Jones: That's going to be across the organization, um, right now it's estimated at about $100,000 to probably go through a RFP process, uh, and in, and inadvertently, you'll also be looking at classifications and making sure that those are in line. Alter: Okay. Jones: Uh, so just making sure that we're marketable. As you know, there's probably, you know, probably also have seen the trend of how hard it is to get workers. Uh, so, you know, you have to be, uh, marketable, be an organization that, uh, doesn't have a lot of issues that, uh, uh, are, are geared to entract, attract the best out there. So, uh, this is going to allow us to be on, stay on, on that, uh, that cutting edge, if you will. Alter: Has such a study been done before, and if so, how many years ago? Jones: Yeah, that I don't know. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 104 Fruin: I, I can handle that. It's before my time, and that's why we want to do it. It's probably been, I think, '07, '08 was the last time, uh, that we did a comprehensive look at our, at our wages, um, and, and corresponding position duties. Um, what we have done in the interim is, is usually as a position becomes vacant, we look at that just internally and decide if we need to make changes. Sometimes we come to you and ask for those changes to, to reclassify occasionally, uh, employees themselves, or supervisors will, uh, push internally for reclassification. But, um, I think it's pretty healthy every 15 to 20 years to take that comprehensive look and it is about attraction, but it's also about retaining your employees too. And, uh, Redmond's correct, in this environment, uh, where, um, employees have more options than they, than they may have thought they've had, in the future. Uh, I think it's just really wise for us to take a good hard look at that. Alter: And just one final question, um, based on whatever comes out of that study, I'm assuming that possible recommendations are about adjustments to make sure that there's market com-, market competitive range for retention. Is that something that, in spite of the budget that, that, um, and the anticipation of some tight years that, um, uh, HR and, and the Department will be looking to, to, to make sure that we're able to retain, um, sort of the, the historical knowledge and the people and keep them at a market rate? Fruin: Yeah - Jones: Yeah - Fruin: Go ahead. Jones: Well, I was just going to say, I've been through this process before, uh, typically it depends on how far you might be in or out, of where the market is, but, uh, it typically comes with an incremental approach to bring things on board. Uh, very rarely are you able to do it all in one, in one step. So, um, I would expect that they would, it probably have some type of staffing, uh, rebuild plan that comes along with that. Alter: Thank you. Jones: Uh, okay. Moving on, uh, uh, also have Human Rights, um, which is, uh, you don't know about me, I had an opportunity to serve on the, uh, Human Rights Commission for the State of Iowa for about eight years, um, so, um, it's also kind of a dear to my heart. Um, it's, it's another one of those departments that, um, obviously it's been on the cutting edge here, uh, but a lot of times, in a lot of communities you don't hear about 'em until things go wrong. So, um, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 105 also really critical, uh, to be proactive. Uh, the Department, um, does a number of, uh, things reactively as, as well as proactively. From a reactive standpoint, it does, uh, enforce, uh, the City's anti -discrimination laws, uh, handles investigations, um, receives complaints, um, makes even, uh, uh, determinations on probable cause on complaints. Um, but from a proactive, and I think, uh, you're very familiar with the work that's been done with the Truth and Reconciliation, um, Black Lives Matter, other Black Lives Matter, uh, activities, uh, which by the way, the budget represents, uh, about a million dollars of investment in those type of activities as well. Um, and by the way, um, also the introduction to that department is on page, uh, 69. And, um, uh, the budget information starts on page 342. Um, I think one thing that, uh, I would like to, to highlight as well, it was kind of mentioned, but it's actually rather, uh, significant, which is, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the, um, Municipal Equity Index. Um, that is actually a, a third party, um, agency that, that looks at the City's, uh, equity, uh, uh, diversity, inclusion activities through multiple areas of the City and looks at, um, compliance with, uh, nondiscrimination laws. It grades the City as an employer. It also grades municipal services, uh, grades law enforcement, and, um, also leadership in areas of, um, LGBTQ and, um, equity. Um, for Iowa City, we're at a hundred percent, a perfect rating. Um, that's not something that is given out easily. Um, actually there's only three cities in the state of Iowa that has it, um, Iowa City, West Des Moines, and Dubuque, so that that's, we're leading, um, Davenport, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, uh, Des Moines and Ames. Uh, so that's something that, um, uh, is, is really important. It kind of goes underrated, but I can also say from, um, a couple years back, excuse me, every time I start talking, I start getting my own air, I start. Okay. Um, but a couple years back, um, working with the state commission, I can tell you firsthand that there was a move to reach out to businesses and investors who are interested in moving in communities, uh, that have this type of track record. Um, so it, it, it actually ties into even an economic, uh, development opportunity, um, for, uh, for a community as well. So, I think that that ranking, you know, we get it, I think, um, being such a trendsetter in social justice, um, we, sometimes we get to look in the rear-view mirror and realize some of the things that we've accomplished, uh, 'cause we're constantly pushing forward, uh, but you know, sometimes we realize how many great things have already been achieved. So this is one of those examples. Okay. Moving on. Uh, is there any questions before I move on to Economic Development? Okay. So Economic Development, um, that's going to, introduction's going to start on page, uh, 75 on that one. And the budget information starts on page 343. Uh, this one you're probably more familiar with than, and, than maybe the other two, because it comes before you quite a bit, uh, when, um, opportunities and TIF and, and, um, working with, uh, organizations like ICAD, uh, come, uh, come before you. Um, the Economic Development department is staffed by, by one member. Uh she's um, uh, key This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 106 as a liaison to the business community, um, really focused on creating, developing, and implementing programs that are aimed to, uh, benefit our local economy as well as our, uh, tax base and our workforce. Uh, some of the, uh, highlights, uh, would be something that, uh, would be really familiar to you. Uh, obviously there's been, um, talk about the Tradewinds project, um, with, um, uh, NDS has mentioned it, uh, but some of the other highlights of, of that project, the historic preservation qualities, the, uh, new, uh, location for the, um, Riverside Theater, uh, apartment building that is, um, LEED Silver certified and, um, $1.8 million of, uh, contributions to affordable housing, all through that project. Um, it also, uh, and we, and I've been also working, uh, with Wendy, um, to, uh, develop our Small Business, um, uh, grant program. That's going to, uh, focus on targeted small businesses and, um, BIPOC businesses, um, and also, uh, there's been a number of, of, uh, programs and activities with Climate Action as well. So, um, really, uh, important, um, division and, um, keeps the, uh, new investment coming into the community. Teague: Great. Any questions? Bergus: I had a question. Jones: Yep. Bergus: Yeah. About the, uh, this division, looking at the performance measures on page, uh, 77 to 78, primarily doesn't look like there's a lot of anticipated or, um, projected growth on these measures anyway, is that just kind of, the staffing is maxed out where, where they are or, I mean, I'm, it seems to me that, especially in the challenges we're looking at financially over the next few years that maybe trying to ramp up or amp up some of the economic development activities would be helpful, but I don't know, is that, either of you could speak to that. Jones: And I, I can take a cut at that, but if, if Geoff, you want to jump in, I think, um, some of that's going to be with the, the overall slow, uh, growth of housing and, and, and development in general. So a, a lot of, of our economic opportunities come from folks being interested in doing, doing something, and we put together a package that is just what they need to, to get over the hump. So that slows down, there's going to be, you know, less opportunity to pull those kind of things together. I don't think it's going to be, uh, due to the lack of, uh, of activities, uh, with ARPA presenting and working through, um, how those programs are to be developed and reaching out, uh, and keeping record and progress of those, cause, which is going to be part of the qualifications of ARPA, um, we're going be pretty busy in, in that area. So, um, I think it's just a mix of, are they going to be, you know, Tailwind type of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 107 projects that may be not so, uh, but it may be something much smaller, which would be more grassroots, which I think we'll be very busy at. Bergus: Thank you. Fruin: Yeah. I'd just like to add, add real quick. We, we tend not to project out TIF projects. Um, we, we never really know when those opportunities are going to come. I can tell you we're not negotiating any TIF deals right now, so we're not going to project any out. When they come, you know, obviously we analyze and work on those. So those, some of those things are just hard to, uh, project out. Um, the other thing to keep in mind is that we largely outsource our economic development. I mean, ICAD is our economic development team. Um, we contribute financially to them along with the other cities and private businesses, and their performance metrics would, would, would speak more volumes to the, you know, the complete picture of economic development. And, um, we do like to have, um, this division in our office and have an employee because we do like to do things, um, tailored to Iowa City. You know, the targeted small business grants are a good example of that. The climate action grants. That's not something we can just ask ICAD to do on behalf of us as a city, we need those internal resources to kind do the custom, but the, the traditional economic development, um, recruitment of, of industry, retention of our industry, we, we rely heavily on ICAD to carry those duties out for us. Teague: I will just maybe, um, as something that I've consistently asked and I don't really know the answer and, and, and hopefully this isn't doesn't come across insensitive, but I absolutely love Wendy Ford and I do worry about our internal systems not being at max capacity to even, um, leverage the partnership that we have with ICAD, because, um, I, I just think that there potentially could be more opportunities for, uh, residents in the economic development, uh, area. And so I, I, you know, I, I'm always interested if there is, um, some missing pieces that either ICAD fills that, you know, that they don't have in their toolbox, or if, um, the, Wendy Ford, I'll just mention the name, feel like, you know, they don't have, but, uh, this is a growing city, is a very desired city. And I, I feel like potentially there's just some opportunities missing. Um, we are never going to be able to capture all of them. I mean, that's just impossible, but I do think that there could be some more opportunities, whether those are national, state programs or city programs that can be, you know, created, but staff capacity, um, in the internal system. Um, if that is, um, kind of a, a hindrance, at least for me personally, I think it's something, uh, when we're looking at these goals and metrics that we should, uh, consider. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 108 Jones: Yeah. I, I think that's a good point. Uh, and I did, it does remind me of a point that I didn't mention, uh, it's not showing up as a budget, uh add-on but, uh, the Council had previously approved, um, a retail, um, marketing firm, uh, that didn't really pan out. So, we had like $50,000, uh, still available to be using in this, these type of activities. And, and just in my, my recent meeting with, um, with Wendy, we talked about how to explore some of those. I called it more exotic type of economic development opportunities that we haven't been able to look into. You know, there are the opportunity zones that we never have been able to make turn into something, maybe put a little more energy into to seeing if we can get investments, uh, more interest in, in that. And, uh, some, some other, uh, other things like EB5, which we, we hadn't been able to really pull it together. And some of these things, you know, uh, they come out they're the latest trend and they don't really pan out, but, uh, it does, it does, uh, behoove us to kind of look in and dust those off and see if there's some opportunities there for us. So we, we are kind of looking at trying to be a little more robust and some of those things out there that we haven't taken advantage of in the past. Teague: I will say in other cities that have programs, one thing that most cities have identified as the, is the technical assistance that individuals or businesses need to kind of get over the hump to actually get to the finish line of some great opportunities, but for whatever reason, um, sometimes it's the technical assistance, which is really relationship building, that can get people to the finish line. Fruin: Yeah. I, uh, a couple of quick points, Mayor. Um, one of the things we did do this past year was fund the new BIPOC business accelerator. That's that's, uh, being led by the, uh, multicultural development, uh, organization. If you're familiar with Tracy John Sergeant's, uh, operation, that's, that was a $25,000 commitment that we did this year. And that is, um, that same commitment is reflected going forward in the budget. And that, that is a lot of that technical assistance that you're talking about. The that's a, a pretty narrow group there, but, uh, we do recognize that as well. And, and then regarding staff capacity, um, you know, that's one of the things that we struggle with, that's really where we try to take your indirect cues when it comes to Strategic Planning and discussions like this. Absolutely we could, we could use more economic development resources, but I could use more human rights resources, more communications resources, Latasha would love more staff. Uh, I'm sure Nicole, uh, could talk to you about staff needs. I mean, there, that that's a challenge throughout our organization and that's, uh, again, where, you know, part of, part of my role as City Manager is to determine kind of what's needed for the, the basic level of service that the community has come to expect, and then trying to take cues from you all and saying, here's where the Council's focused, how can we layer additional staff support on this? And right now, for economic development, I feel pretty good about what we're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 109 putting out with the one-person team and, and with the help of the ICAD folks. But if, if I got that sense from the Council, um, that you want to get a lot more aggressive and focused, I might have to come back to you and say, it's going to require some, some additional personnel help. So I think that's it from City Manager's office. Teague: Awesome. Any other questions for the, the City Manager's office? Great. I think we are onto Finance. Davies: Yes. You guys made it to the end. So I am Nicole Davies. I need to get this mic up, 'cause my chair won't go down. So. I'm Nicole Davies. I am the Assistant Finance Director, also now the Interim Finance Director. Uh, the Finance Department budget, um, summary starts on page 83 and then we're in the book a couple different places, uh, for the actual budgetary info. One group starts on page 344 and another on 659, but I'll give you those page numbers as I hit those divisions. Uh, the Finance Department, uh, has 36 FTE's, that's across six different divisions, first division being the Finance Admin. So their budgetary info starts on page 344, um, and Finance Admin, there's four FTE's and that's across five positions. That's the Director, the Assistant Director, Jacklyn, who, who's sitting next to me, the Budget and Compliance Officer, then also our Finance and Risk Assistant. And then we also have a part-time internal auditor. Uh, this division handles a lot of the adminis-, administrative functions of the Department, puts together the compilation of the budget, which you guys are all looking at today. Um, so obviously one of the big things was getting this into a flipping book to hopefully make it a little bit prettier, maybe, is the right word, a little bit, hopefully more user friendly for the public to review and, and look at. Um, there's also the compilation of the Capital Improvement Plan, which we'll go over on Wednesday. Um, this division handles all of the investments in banking, which is about $250 million worth of, of management of that, and with Internal Audit, um, we're reviewing all the financial policies and procedures and also looking at internal controls as they review the policies. This division also manages the annual debt issuance, um, along with the IRS and SEC compliance that goes along with that. Um, I know it's already been brought up a couple times today, our AAA bond rating, which we're obviously very proud of and, and want to maintain. Um, and I know it's kind of come up in the past as to, you know, what is, what is that in monetary savings or what does that mean? And obviously we can't give you like, this is exactly what it saves us, because interest rates are always moving, the amount of debt we have is always moving, but if you just want to ballpark, average a hundred to $150,000 a year, what that AAA bond rating saves us. Um, this division also manages all of the health and dental reserves, the workers' comp program, the employee benefits program, and, and then, uh, deals a lot with the TIF financing and the TIF debt. So, uh, challenges, uh, this is really for the entire Finance This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 110 Department, well be going through an upgrade of our financial software, which is always a little challenging, but it will affect all of the divisions in the Finance Department, we're heavy users of it, obviously it'll affect people City- wide, but most of the testing happens within the Finance Department before it's rolled out, um, to the rest of the City. And then we're also still currently managing two FEMA disasters, uh, still the COVID-19, uh, disaster, and also the derecho. And if you've ever heard nightmare stories about working through a FEMA disaster, they are true, they're very challenging. Um, that's it for the Finance Admin division, moving into Accounting. Um, their financial information starts on page 347. This has 6.45 FTE's and that's across seven different positions. Um, within Accounting, we handle the accounts receivable. So that's all of the billing except for, um, your utility billing and the Landfill billing. So, um, it's usually sidewalk repairs, um, we bill for any retire, retiree health insurance, um, we bill for the Airport hangar rentals. So it's kind of everything else other than, uh, the utilities. Uh, we also handle all of the accounts payable through the City, so we make sure all of the bills get paid. A very important function, the biweekly payroll, everyone wants to make sure they get their paycheck. Um, and then we also manage or assist with most grants, um, that the City has. We obviously, you know, you talk about CDBG HOME, the, the pieces of it obviously handled by NDS, we deal a lot with the financial pieces and, and, um, getting the draws done and, and some of the financial reports. Um, we also coordinate the annual financial audit and obviously our, uh, pull a lot of different other random financial reports. The Accounting Office also does the bookkeeping and payroll for JECC, that started a few years ago and that's, I think been going very well. Um, I know the staff in my office that, that handles most of that enjoys it, and I think it's been good for the JECC as well. Um, probably the key challenges in Accounting, um, we're always dealing with, with ever changing accounting standards, GASB standards, if you ever can't fall asleep at night, read some GASB standards. They're not very exciting and they, they can get very technical. Um, and then I feel like this has kind of been a common theme. We've had a couple, uh, very important positions, a couple of our salaried positions last year that retired with over 20 years of service. We've got one, our payroll accountant in February with over 15 years, those positions are always, um, hard to fill. It's a lot of knowledge walking out of the building. Um, and they're very important positions. Moving into Purchasing, that budgetary info starts, uh, and this is kind of broken into two different pieces. Purchasing starts in at page 348. Um, we'll also talk about the Central Services portion of, that falls in Purchasing, that starts on page 666. Uh, Purchasing is part of the General Fund. Um, Central Service is an internal service fund. So to talk about Purchasing first, this is who handles all your RFPs, RFBs, if we need to get quotes, um, for any non-public improvement project, runs through this office, um, they also manage any contracts, even, uh, you know, once the RFP goes out, the contract might be good for two or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 111 three different renewals. So they handle, um, when those renewals, before they have to go back out to be bid. Um, Central Services, that really handles all of our copiers. So they replace those as needed. We charge those back and they also handle all of the mail and packages that go in and out of City Hall. One big accomplishment in Purchasing that we're very excited about is, um, we finally got an online bidding platform implemented earlier. Well, I guess it's not this year, '22 in mid '21. Um, earlier in the fiscal year, I guess I should say, um, it's kind of been several years in the making, but it's really going to help us get things more uniform and consistent, hopefully lots of efficiencies and then it's electronic. So we're getting rid of a lot of paper and, um, kind of delays and getting that paper out to people and back in. Now it's all at, at everyone's fingertips. Teague: I'm curious to know, uh, from the user point of view, what are you hearing, Davies: Like the vendors or the internal users? Teague: The internal users. Davies: Um, I was kind of concerned `cause usually, you know, when we change up stuff like this, usually change is not well accepted, but we've, I have gotten zero negative feedback on it so far. Um, the feedback I have gotten has been very positive, like, oh, we really like this, it's a lot easier to just go in and look at it. Um, so yeah, I, I'm very pleasantly surprised that it's been, um, well received internally. Uh, moving into the next division is Revenue. Their, uh, budgetary information starts on 349. They have 7.88 FTEs and that's across nine positions. Um, this is the division that handles all of the utility billing and all of the Landfill billing. Also they handle the daily banking. So that's City-wide, reconciling all of the deposits that are coming in from all kinds of different places and, and going into our bank account. Um, and one of the challenges they're facing, they, uh, we just purchased a new notification system. They've kind of gotten it all set up, but with COVID and the collection process not being going, they really haven't had to use it. Um, so it's kind of set up, but now they have to kind of see how it works once they start using it. Um, also in this department is Risk Management, that financial information starts on page 659 there's 1.8 FTE's and that's across four positions. And this is where, um, all of our insurance is managed. So all of our property liability, um, cyber, workers comp, um, the insurance gets renewed annually. And as mentioned earlier, it's definitely volatile and we've been seeing some large increases the last couple years. Um, Risk Management manages all of the claims against the City, um, and they also run and coordinate safety programs and do all of the City's annual OSHA reporting. And the last division is our Information Technology. And this budgetary info starts on 662. This has 10 and a half, uh, full-time equivalents over 11 different positions. And this is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 112 really, you know, anything, technol-, technology related. So, your computers, your network, Wi-Fi, fiber optic, our telephones. They support all the software that's used in the City. Um, also the GIS system and video cameras in all the buildings and throughout the City, they also manage that as well. Um, challenges for them, just data management and archiving. We're moving more and more to electronic, but then it means we need more storage and more ways to manage and more ways to retrieve it. And then something that I think will always be a challenge is network security. Um, obviously the ways that our network can get hacked are constantly changing and evolving. And so, we have to, with that, um, in answer to your question earlier with that information security analyst, I think it's more of the insurance companies are expecting certain standards. So to have positions like that keeps us from not having an even larger increase in our insurance premium rather than getting kind of deduction for it. Um, but like Geoff said, that position just started this week. So that's a very good thing. Um, and also one thing I, I found very interesting, our IT director had said the other day, uh, phishing through emails is definitely one of the hottest ways that people can get into your network. So they've done some testing with that. And when they first started doing it about 51%, there was a 51% failure rating. Our last test was down to 1.8%. So, the employees weren't super excited about it, but we all learned real quickly that, don't, don't click on links. Don't open up anything you don't know, `cause we don't want, uh, we don't want anyone hacking our system and taking it over. So that's the Finance Department in a nutshell. Anyone got any questions? Alter: I just want to say absolutely, this flip book is amazing. So I just want to, it's not a question, but I'm just the, the ease with which we're able to navigate such copious documentation is great. So thank you so much, whatever effort you put into it is very much appreciated on the user end. Davies: Yep. Not mine, but Jacklyn and, and like Geoff mentioned Michelle back at the office, Davies: Yeah. Michelle found it and then yeah. A lot of work to, to get it in and, and make it look like that. Alter: Thank you. Teague: I would agree. It's really, uh, phenomenal. I have my, um, volume turned off or else you'll hear this flip of a page, it, it kind of surprised me when I first heard it. Cause I didn't know what it was and I, when I flipped again and I'm like, oh, it's the computer. Davies: So, so you get that feel of actually turning the page. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 113 Teague: Yeah. It's really neat. Well, thanks for your presentation. I, I, um, kind of the first time seeing you before Council, and I just want to say you did a great job. There's a lot involved in the Finance Department and um, I guess from a, from, you know, sitting on this end it's really important that our financials are very transparent, um, as well as easily organized to understand. And I think you all have done a good job. You've done a great job of doing the presentation today, as well as being a part of the big picture for our, um, um, for everyone in our community that looks at our budget. So thanks to you and the entire department. All right. Alter: I actually have one question that, um, sort of redirects over to the City Manager and the Deputy City Manager. One of the recurring themes that I've heard from many of the different department heads is, um, the concern about the knowledge that's going to be walking out the door imminently through retirement. And so I was just curious about succession planning. Is that something that you have sort of, um, is a comprehensive process or is this something that, um, is kind of handled inter--, by department and division, uh, to, to know the best ways that they can retain that knowledge? So -- Fruin: Um, yeah, Um, it's, it's a good question. Uh, we don't have, I think the last time we did kind of a comprehensive look at that was probably about eight or nine years ago. Um, really found that, um, because our operations are so diverse, um, it's a lot easier to kind of focus those within each department. So, um, we have, uh, questions, uh, or, or prompts if you will, on our, uh, annual employee evaluations for our supervisors about their succession plans. And we meet annually with those, uh, department directors to go through that. And for each department, it could look a little bit different. Um, it's gone from everything from reclassifying positions to give, um, internal employees a little bit more exposure over complete operations to, to, to prep them and, you know, to becoming, um, candidates down the road to, um, internal trainings, uh, that, that may be tailored to, uh, certain, uh, individuals, uh, or professional development needs. But we do absolutely go through that. And then with the, um, uh, kind of non -supervisory staff, um, we make sure in those annual evaluations that we're talking to them about what their career goals are and what they may, um, what they feel they may need, uh, in order to advance, uh, within the organization. Discussion wrap-up: Teague: All right. Well, thank you. And we are kind of at our, um, the end of our, uh, budget presentations, uh, Councilors, but now is the time to kind of do any, uh, discussions or wrap ups, uh, that we desire. I do want to just, um, let us know that we've been in here since 8:00 AM, and we will have some This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 114 opportunities, um, to highlight and, through work session, do a deeper dive in some things. And so I just want to just caution us, um, if we're wanting to dive deep into anything, but certainly this is an opportunity for us to bring up, um, whatever you desire at this time. Weiner: I mean, I think that one I'll be really brief. I think the one thing that we didn't really talk about much, but it's in the, it's definitely in the materials is the extent to which the University's a part of our community, but really does not contribute to our funding because they don't, they, their property is not part of the property tax base. So sort of any place we can, um, as, as they were talking about the, as Public Works was talking about, there's a project, a University -based project that's taking place at their, at, at their facility, any, any way we can actually leverage University knowledge or, um, or ability to put together public, uh, basically as a public -public partnership is to our advantage because otherwise we have a lot of property that, that does, from which we cannot benefit in terms of, um, property taxes. Bergus: I just have a, a reflection briefly, Mayor, and this has struck me the last couple budget cycles as well, that, you know, when we look at, at what the Council spends its energy on, it always is surprising to me that that doesn't usually match the largest expenditures, right? Like the things that we spend a lot of time and effort engaging in may not represent any significant budget item. And I don't, I still don't know what to make of that, but I think it is, it's always just kind of bothered me a little bit, I guess, um, that, you know, I look at like, um, NDS to me is always this like really important expansive department that, um, I do think is one that we spend a lot of, uh, time and energy talking about, you know, affordable housing and, uh, federal funding that flows through. And, um, but it's just not that big of dollars. So as we look forward, maybe to Strategic Planning and visioning for the future and trying to be intentional and forward looking, and we're thinking about ARPA projects and just trying to pull it all together....Again, I don't have any answers. I just, it strikes me again today that the things we spend our most energy on aren't necessarily significant in relation to the budget. Teague: And, and I'm, I'm happy you pointed that out because I never thought about that. And, and I'm assuming that you're, um, relating to the things that we spend a lot of time and energy on, um, during the budget conversation is smaller numbers in comparison to big picture. Bergus: And during our governance, like throughout, you know, at meetings, things that we spend a lot of, of, you know, deliberation and sort of agonizing over. So, I don't think it's unique to Iowa City, but. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 115 Teague: Okay. Um, I, I did want to just, um, bring up, um, that we'll have to really think about the, get into the, uh, where do we want to be with the, uh, the property tax and that ceiling, meeting the February 1st deadline, I believe, but, but I think I heard January 25th, so we only have one more work session. I don't know if, um, it would behoove us to take a little time to talk about that. Um, maybe just do a quick review. So we have two new councilors that, I just remember being here and having a very little understanding of what that meant, but it is, um, critically important, uh, to have a, a, a, the best understanding. Fruin: Yeah, I can, I can jump into that. And I'm going to, um, pull up on, on, on your flip book, I'll get you the page, um, in my, uh, opening transmittal letter, which, uh, um, Rachel always does a nice job pulling together. The, um, levies are on page 20. Um, so that's what I would direct you to look at is the, the, um, gray, blue and red, um, table on page, the bottom of page 20. Our tax rate is made up of several different, um, levies. Okay. So, um, that's what you see in that gray column. We have general, transit, tort, library. These are all state defined levies that generally have a maximum to them. Um, so like our General Fund, um, if you move over, you see the dollar amount that's generated by an $8 and 10 cents levy. $8.10 is the maximum. So if you want to get more dollars for your General Fund, I, we can't raise to $8 and 20 cents. We are at that state maximum. Um, the same would go for transit. Uh, 95 cents is that maximum. So we can't levy property taxes more for that. So as you look down there, you can see all the different levies and what we can, uh, and what we currently, um, pull off those. When, uh, we talked about our efforts to reduce the debt service levy. You can see that down towards the bottom. Uh, it's bolded in debt service. It says $2 and 47 cents there. That's where we've received all the savings in 10 years, 90, 99% of it probably is in that debt service levy. So that's one that has shrunk quite a bit, and that's mostly because our bonding has stayed flat and we've had really good interest rate, um, environments. And we've been able to, um, uh, uh, basically we don't need as much of the tax base to pay back those bonds. Um, what you're seeing here this year is in the red. Okay. And the difference is in that emergency levy, and this is what Rachel talked about, um, a couple of times. The emergency levy is just under library and you see that we're asking for, uh, 20 cents. And that last year we, we asked for 24 cents. So that's that 4 - cent reduction that, uh, Councilor Bergus asked about earlier, that's about $200,000. Um, we can go up to, uh, 27 cents on that. That's one of those levies that we still have room, uh, to grow, if you will. I will note that that levy was zero, uh, before we started our Climate Action initiative. So it's not a levy Iowa City historically used, we kind of creatively use that to fund Climate Action. So that max property tax, as it stands today with our budget recommendation to you, is $15 and, uh, 63 cents, which is in the red, on the, uh, far, far right there, `cause it we're, we're not including the kind, you can This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 116 kind of leave out the SSMID, the Downtown SSMID on that. Um, if you want to raise that rate, that's what we need to know by, um, January 25th at the latest. Um, and I, I always remind Council it's, it's, um, it doesn't have to be your job to, to determine how to fund a particular initiative. I really encourage you to, to think about initiatives and then ask your staff to give you options on how to fund that particular initiative. So don't feel like you've got to become a municipal finance expert to accomplish anything that you don't see in the budget that you want to see in the budget, but to the Mayor's, uh, Mayor's point, that 15, once, once we get past that, uh, maximum property tax date, our ceiling's set. You can go down; you just can't go up. Thomas: So when do we see as an opportunity in our meetings that are coming up for having a more general discussion of those kinds of initiatives that Geoff was just referencing. Where, where would be the best place for that to happen? Right. I mean, right now I'm after seven hours of -- Teague: Sure, sure. Thomas: --conversation, I'm not ready to, to talk about them, but I'd like to have some sense of when we would do that. Teague: I think in the CIP, you know, in the CIP typically, you know something could naturally come up, um, during that meeting, which is going to take place on the 12th, but our next work session, uh, which is going to be, is it the 18th or the, the 19th, somewhere in there? Um, we'll have the opportunity to really dive deep. Uh, we have one, we have the ARPA, uh, item on the work session that we're, I'm sure we're going to, um, spend some time on. Um, but I do believe that to the best of our abilities, if there are some things or some initiatives that you're thinking, one, you, at least personally, I would certainly run it by some, um, fellow councilors, but, uh, also talk to, uh, the City Manager's office, if there is something, uh, that you're interested in, it, you may be enlightened by, um, the fund, the funding source, you know, maybe it's from General Fund, it's something that's under General Fund or is an enterprise fund. You know, it, it, just making sure that you understand, you know, where the, where the funding source would come from. And then, um, just get some in, you may be able to gain some insight on past, like, attempts or something that might, uh, help in the discussion, uh, during the work session or when it's, when it's brought up. Um, some things, you know, if it's going to affect the levy, that's going to be the, the key for next, for the next two meetings, I think Um, so that's what I would say. Anything else that we want to bring up today? All right. We made it through one more initial, uh, it used to be called Budget on a.... Thomas: Breakfast. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022. Page 117 Taylor: Breakfast on a Budget. Teague: Breakfast on a Budget, yes. Fruin: Uh, Mayor, if I may just make some concluding remarks, thank you to the Council members. This is a long day. This is information overload. Please don't feel like you have to know everything inside and out, or that you should know everything inside and out, um, but do know that you have staff here that can help you over the next couple of weeks dive into things, and, and, uh, we can certainly arrange meetings with, uh, Nicole, Jacklyn, uh, any of us, uh, if you want to take a deeper dive, uh, before a work session or, or Council deliberation, we can certainly do that. And then I just also want to thank, um, the budget committee again, there's been kind of an inverse relationship to, um, uh, the amount of talking and the amount of work that's been done on the budget, um, today. Um, the folks that you didn't hear much from put this thing together, really did all the hard work and that's, uh, Nicole, Jacklyn, Rachel to a large extent, um, you didn't get to hear from them much today, but those are the ones that did the heavy lifting. Um, you, you get to hear from me, and I didn't do much at all. So I just want to, again, acknowledge that and thank, uh, those individuals. So thank you for your time. Teague: All right. And thanks to all of those in the background, making it all possible. Really appreciate that. And with that, if nothing else, we are adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget work session of January 8, 2022.