HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-01 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present:
Staff Present:
Alter, Bergus, Harmsen, Taylor, Teague, Thomas, Weiner
Fruehling, Fruin, Goers, Jones, Havel, Kilburg, Knoche,
Laverman, Nagle-Gamm, Rackis, Seydell-Johnson, Sitzman,
Welter
Teague: This is the City of Iowa City formal meeting on March 1st, 2022. And I'm
going to start with roll call please. [Roll call.] All right. Welcome back
Councilors, and welcome to everyone that is in the audience and also joining
us, uh, by social media outlets. I want to start today just by, um, taking a
moment, um, just to acknowledge, uh, um, what's, what's happening
throughout, uh, within the world here today. And so as Mayor of Iowa City
and on behalf of the Council and the entire community, I would like to take a
moment to speak about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It is with shock,
sadness, and horror that we watch Russian President Vladimir Putin launch
his invasion of Ukraine, striving to illegally rip the nation away from its
democratically elected rulers and recreate it as puppet of his Russian regime.
We here in Iowa City value democracy, value the rule of law, and value peace.
And so we condemn Vladimir Putin with Russia and, and Russia, we stand
with the heroic people of Ukraine who, despite being outgunned and
outmanned, are putting up a fierce fight and laying down their lives to
protect their country and their freedoms. We stand with our own president
as he works to help build and support an international coalition of nations
who are implementing sanctions and other means to pressure Russia into
abandoning its military ambition. We are ready to make the small sacrifices
our nation ask of us so we may help the Ukrainians who are making the
ultimate sacrifice for their nation. We stand with our allies in NATO, the
European Union, and nations around the globe in hopes that by standing
shoulder to shoulder, we can face the Russian tyrant without the added death
and destruction that would come with military operations. We stand with the
Russians who risk their lives to take to the streets of Russia's cities and
protest Putin's war and join the global chorus demanding he stop this
madness. I ask everyone in Iowa City to join me in holding all of these brave
souls in our hearts and minds, and to continue to speak out on behalf of
Ukraine. I also wanted to acknowledge the lights in the Pedestrian Mall stage
and our Public Works street facilities will shine blue and gold, which are the
colors of the Ukrainian flag in show of support during this time of conflict
and turmoil.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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2. Proclamations
2.a. Alpha Phi Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Theta Chapter Day
Teague: And we're going to go on to item number 2, which are proclamations and 2a
is Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, Alpha Theta Chapter Day.
Whereas Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, the first in a collegiate Greek -
letter fraternity established for Black college students was founded at Cornell
University and at Ithaca, New York in 1906, in a period of 96 in, in a period of
90 years, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity grew from one undergraduate group of
seven members to an international organization with an active membership
well beyond 290,000 and is the central organization for many subordinate
chapters of I, of which Iowa City has a chapter; and whereas the Alpha Theta
chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was established on March 11th, 1922
at the University of Iowa as the 30th chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity,
and as the second Black fraternity at the University of Iowa; and whereas the
Alpha Theta chapter has maintained excellence in community -building
through its programming and partnerships with University departments and
other student organizations; and whereas the City of Iowa City recognizes
and honors the Alpha Theta chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity,
Incorporated for 100 years of contributing to the education, civic
responsibility, and the positive experience of Black men at the University of
Iowa and community at large; and whereas the City of Iowa City thanks all
members, alumni and advisors who have worked tirelessly to advance the
mission of the fraternity and commend the Alpha Theta chapter of Alpha Phi
Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated for a century of success and significant
contributions to the City of Iowa City, now, and therefore I, Bruce Teague,
Mayor of Iowa City, do hereby proclaim, March 11th, 2022 as Alpha Phi Alpha
Fraternity, Incorporated, Alpha Theta Chapter Day. And to receive this award
and this proclamation is Anthony, and I'll have you come over here at this
time and we'll give him a hand clap for the work that they've done.
Thigpen: Hey, good evening. My name is Eric Thigpen. Uh, Anthony couldn't make it,
so I'm honored to receive this proclamation on behalf of all the members of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated and all the members of the Alpha
Theta Chapter seated at the University of Iowa. I would like to thank Mayor
Bruce Teague and the City Council of Iowa City for recognizing this historic
event. Thank you very much.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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2.b. International Women's Day and Women's History Month
Teague: Thank you. All right. Item number 2b is International Women's Day and
Women's History Month. And Mayor Pro Tem Alter will read this
proclamation.
Alter: Whereas the accomplishments and achievements of women were first
recognized in 1977, by beginning the annual commemoration of
International Women's Day, and later in 1987, by doing the same for
Women's History Month; and whereas women are leaders who fill essential
economic, social, and cultural roles; and whereas women make critical
contributions to science, law, education, engineering, mathematics, and the
arts and are heroes on the frontline of the COVID-19 crisis; and whereas
March 8 is celebrated as International Women's Day around the world; and
whereas the theme of International Women's Day 2022 is "Changing
climates: equality today for a sustainable tomorrow"; and whereas women
are essential change makers for climate mitigation, initiating sustainability
measures, research development, and leadership in Iowa City and around the
world; and whereas the Johnson County chapter of the United Nations
Association of the United States of America and 19 community partners are
marking International Women's Day by honoring Inside Out Reentry
Community, Iowa City Compassion and Open Heartland for their women -led
contributions to our community at its annual Night of 1000 Dinners; and
whereas these organizations will be recognized during a virtual community
celebration of International Women's Day on Tuesday, March 8th; now,
therefore I, Megan Alter, on behalf of Mayor Bruce Teague, do hereby
proclaim March 8th as International Women's Day and the month of March,
2022, to be recognized as Women's History Month in Iowa City and urge
citizens to recognize and support the contributions of women in the changing
world. And it says accepting will be Barbara Eckstein.
Eckstein: I want to thank the City for, uh, recognizing the work of the Johnson
County United Nations Association on behalf of International Women's Day
and, and our People of Transition, in Transition event, uh, on March 8th. And
I particularly want to thank the, uh, Iowa City, um, uh, uh, Human Rights
Commission, uh, who have been big supporters of ours. We thank you.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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3-8. Consent Calendar
Teague: All right. We're going to start with the consent agenda, items 3 through 8.
Can I get a motion to approve the consent agenda?
Taylor: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Move by take --, moved by Taylor, seconded by Weiner. And is anyone in the
public like to address a topic that is under the consent agenda? If so, please
step to the podium. If you are on the phone, please raise your hand and I will
acknowledge you. And inside the building here, we do have a sign in sheet.
I'm going to assume that, um, no one has wanted to speak on the consent to
agenda items
Petersen: I'm waiting for --
Teague: Okay. If you wanted to step up and speak and then, Okay. Are you speaking
on the consent agenda? Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. Hello. My name is Noah, live in Iowa City. Um, yes. So I have a
question about the number 6b, procurement, uh, the cameras. So what do
you, what does this mean by monitoring intersections? Like for what -- it's an
agenda item, so by state law, you can answer this. Your refusal to answer is
just a personal choice of yours cause there's no statutory requirements that
you can't speak, is, that's only on non -agenda items, this is an agenda item so
you can answer my questions legally. So what exactly is like the purpose of
these cameras, monitoring what and to what purpose, and who has access to
these cameras? How are you going to make sure these cameras aren't abused
to spy on people, which this is, this is just surveillance. They surveillance that
you have put in cameras everywhere and you refuse to answer questions
about the public about these said cameras, when you can answer the public.
Under Iowa code, you can respond to public's questions. You can have
discussion on public, on agenda items. It is properly noticed. So the only time
you, when you don't answer questions on agenda items, that is your choice,
your are choosing to not respond to the public when you do that. You are
choosing to isolate yourselves from the public and not have responsive, not, I
mean, I already know that we don't live in democracy, but just like really
solidifies the point that, wow, I really don't live in a democracy. My so-called
representatives will not really want to talk to people, they won't tell the
public why they're doing and what they're doing it for, so why are you having
cameras? Like, will this, can someone answer that.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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Taylor: Mayor, can, can we ask a staff member maybe to --
Teague: If you, if that's what you would like to do --
Weiner: [crosstalk] stated in the item itself, what it's used for.
Taylor: Cause it's in the item, it lists what it is for. But I mean I, the item itself, I'm
just asking if staff could, maybe --
Teague: You, you could either answer it during your deliberation or you can direct
the staff as Councilor Thomas stated the last time.
Weiner: Could we just explain what they're used for please?
Fruin: Sure. It's uh, page 62 of the packet if you're tracking, um, I'll just read from
that. Um, the Streets and Traffic Engineering Division have pan -tilt cam, uh,
zoom cameras installed at 49 intersections in Iowa City. That's already, uh,
present today. The pan -tilt -zoom cameras give staff the ability to assess
detection issues, pedestrian push but, push button issues and overall
operation issues remotely. The cameras are also used to assess road
conditions during snow events. This purchase will add 40 signalized
intersections to the pan -tilt -zoom camera system.
Teague: Okay. Thank you. Anyone else like to address an item that is on the consent
agenda? Seeing no one, Council discussion...Roll call please. [Roll call vote.]
Passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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9. Community Comment (items not on the agenda) [UNTIL 7 PM]
Teague: We are onto item number 9, which is community comment. This is an
opportunity for anyone in the community that wishes to talk on a item that is
not on our, uh, agenda. And if you are online and wish to speak, please raise
your hand, so I can take a, see how many people want to speak that are
online. And if you're in the audience, uh, please raise your hand at this time,
so I'll also know who all wants to speak. I'm seeing no one online, and seeing
one person in the, two people in the audience. I'm going to allow for three
minutes for each speaker to speak. Please step to the podium and also sign
your, your name, um, when you get a chance at the, at the side table.
Welcome.
Petersen: Hello, uh, name's Noah. Um, what am I here talking about? Um, I'm just
going to tell y'all to defund ICPD they are a violent institution. Um, they are
unaccountable to the people, um There's some other things, oh yes, it'd be
nice if y'all you should, um, have a public housing and divert some of that
money from the police into like housing people, something that actually like
serves people's needs, um, actually like funding, decently funding, mental
health for people. Cause GuideLink is very underfunded. They don't, uh,
communities, underfunded lot, like the actual services that actually like help
people in crisis's are underfunded and are very limited in how they're able to
help people and all this, but the City, so just, the City shows its priority is the
one. It gives cops millions and millions and millions in dollars year after year
and don't have a whole lot to show for it. Um, So yeah, that's all I to say
today.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address an item that is not on the Council
agenda at this time. Please state your name and the city you're from.
Thomas: Hello. My name is Mircea Thomas, from Iowa City. I'm not really sure that
this is the correct protocol. I was here two years ago to complain about, um, a
fine that I got an account of my, um, sidewalk, you know, that hadn't been
shoveled and I was told that it would be addressed today.
Teague: What, what is the address?
Thomas: 1851 Muscatine Avenue.
Teague: Yep, that'd be later in the, later on item. Thank you. Anyone else like to
address a, an item that is not on our agenda? Please, yes.
Guo: Uh, uh, to, to whom it may concern. I have think that we came last week, but I,
we were told the issue had been moved today, on today's agenda item, when
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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I clicked on my phone, which is not a smartphone, the dumb phone that
doesn't click on. So I don't know if would be on today.
Fruin: It's later today.
Teague: It'll be later today.
Fruin: Yes.
Guo: Yes. Thank you very --I sign the name.
Teague: Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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10.a. Hickory Trail Estates Preliminary Plat -- Resolution approving the
preliminary plat of the Hickory Trail Estates Subdivision, Iowa City,
Iowa. (SUB21-0013)
Teague: Seeing, no one else. I'm going to move on to item number 10a, which is
Hickory Trail Estates preliminary plat. This is a resolution approving the
preliminary plat of the Hickory Trail Estates subdivision, Iowa City, Iowa. Can
I get a motion to approve?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Alter: Second, Alter.
Teague: And we're going to welcome staff. And is there someone from the, anyone
else? So we'll, after you speak, we'll bring up any of the applicants.
Sitzman: Thank you, Mayor, Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood and Development
Services. The development team is here tonight, their architect, engineer, and
the developer are available for comment after the presentation. As you said,
this is a preliminary plat for Hickory Trail Estates shown here in the white
outline. The applicant is Nelson Development, LLC. They're requesting the
approval of the preliminary plat, which is essentially a two -lot subdivision,
approximately 48 acres in area located south of Scott Boulevard and west of
First Avenue. Um, the applicant intends to develop about eight acres of that
as a senior living facility and, uh, dedicate the remainder, about 40 acres, to
the City as public parkland. Um, a rezoning to public would, uh, a P zone,
Public, would occur for that parkland after it's been dedicated to the City, and
as a reminder, this area was recently rezoned, uh, through this body, to the
zoning district that would allow for this type of development. This is an
exhibit showing the surrounding zoning again, um, this is the, uh, plat itself
that's under consideration tonight. A little bit of detail there, like I said, the
eight acres shown in the lower right corner, uh, for future development as
senior housing, and the remainder as parkland. Um, the plat does include, uh,
designation of public right-of-way along the southern boundary there for
access to the senior living, uh, development, uh, through an extension of
Hickory Trail Street, uh, which would be, uh, cul-de-sac extending west off of
First Avenue. A little close up of the site itself as it's being currently
considered, a couple other features to point out here, there would be step -
sidewalks on both sides of Hickory Trail, a five foot wide sidewalk on the
north side, a wider sidewalk, eight feet in width on the south side of Hickory
Trail, and actually that eight -foot sidewalk would extend offsite to the east to
connect to First Avenue, also there'd be a trail, uh, connection made, uh,
south of Hickory Trail into Hickory Hill Park. When staff reviews, um,
preliminary plats we use several criteria including compliance with
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
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Comprehensive Plan and applicable subdivision, uh, ordinances. This, uh,
application is in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan, both the Iowa City
2030, uh, long range plan and the, uh, Northeast District Plan, um, it's in
compliance with the zoning with the proposed density and the, uh, type of
style of development, which is more conservation design in nature, um,
allowing for, um, preservation of the sensitive areas that are present on this,
uh, parcel of land, including a stream, uh, wetlands, woodlands, and steep
slopes. Uh, there were conditions placed at the rezoning, um, and while none
of those are completely satisfied at this time, the preliminary plat does show
the level of detail appropriate at this stage to ensure that these conditions
will be able to be met in the future. Those conditions included a submission
of a landscape plan detailing, uh, the tree planting for Lot 1 as well as those
trail connections and sidewalk construction that I mentioned earlier. Staff
does review the preliminary plat criteria for, uh, preliminary plats as I
mentioned before, um, we have evaluated the streets and circulation, the
sidewalks, trails, and pedestrian connections, the general block and layout.
Um, as I mentioned, there's quite a bit of open space dedication accomplished
with this plat that, uh, would be executed, uh, with the final plat at a later
date, um, as conveyance to the City, and we've also ensured that there's
adequate utilities available for the style of development. So to recap, the
development process here shown at grade are the steps that have already
happened or will happen. Uh, bolded in black is the step we're at here with
this preliminary plat, like I mentioned, there would be a final plat that's, um,
executed later and then actual, uh, review of the site plan for development
and the issuance of building permits. Um, the, um, so based on the review of
relevant criteria in the subdivision Code, staff did recommend approval, and
at their February 16th, 2022 meeting, the Planning and Zoning Commission
concurred with staffs opinion and also recommended approval. Uh, there
were, uh, notices provided to, um, surrounding neighbors, but a good -
neighbor meeting was not held as it was just recently held for the rezoning.
Um, that concludes my staff report, and as I mentioned, the applicant, uh,
development team is here tonight.
Teague: Thank you. And do either of them want to speak tonight? Welcome.
Boelk: Good, good evening. Uh, Brian Boelk, Axiom Consultants. Um, as Danielle said,
yeah, certainly here to answer any questions. I think she did a thorough job
of going through the project. You're pretty familiar with this one at this time
and has made a lot of changes, but, uh, I think we're really happy with where
it's at. Uh, Jacob from Nelson is here as well as Andrew from the architect if
you have any other questions. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you. All right. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If
you're online, please raise your hand and I'll acknowledge you. If you're
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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present, please sign in and step to the podium. Seeing no one, Council
discussion.
Taylor: I'll be voting to, um, approve this preliminary plan. And I believe this is a
really good example of the developer, uh, the community and the Council
listening, uh, to each other and coming up with a project that, that suits
everyone's best interest. And I commend everybody for that. Uh, I also
commend the developers for paying particular attention, uh, to protecting,
uh, sensitive areas and also, uh, maintaining the natural integrity of, of the
park. So as I said, I will, uh, vote to approve this plan, but I do encourage, uh,
the developers. And I hope you listen to this to, uh, keep sustainability in
mind and, uh, consider utilizing such things as solar panels or permeable
pavement, uh, to help move us, uh, towards our climate action goals. Thank
you.
Teague: Great.
Thomas: Well, I, I certainly look forward to, um, the, uh, development of the, uh,
parcel, which will be the senior housing portion of the project. Um, from what
I've seen with the submittals, uh, it's a very, a very sensitive site plan, um, the
way it's integrated into the, that particular location. Uh, so I'm looking
forward to that. And of course, I'm looking forward to the, uh, expansion of
Hickory Hill Park, which will make what is a very important natural area in
Iowa City, even stronger, um, with the protection of those sensitive areas, uh,
that are located in this 40 -acre portion that will be added to the park. So, um,
very, I'm very happy with the outcome of this project.
Teague: Roll call, please. [Roll call vote.] Motion passes 7-0.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.
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11. 2022 City of Iowa City Parking Garages Maintenance and Repair --
Resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for the
construction of the 2022 City of Iowa City Parking Garages Maintenance
and Repair Project, establishing amount of bid security to accompany
each bid, and directing the City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and
fixing time and place for a receipt of bids.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 11 is 2022 City of Iowa City parking garages maintenance and
repair. This is a resolution approving project manual and estimate of cost for
the construction of the 2020, 20, 2022 City of Iowa City parking garages
maintenance and repair project, establishing amount of bid security to
accompany each bid, and directing the City Clerk to post notice to bidders
and fixing time and place for a receipt of bids. I'm going to open the public
hearing, and we'll start with our staff. Welcome.
Welter: Joe Welter from the Engineering Division. So this is our annual project
where we do maintenance and repair and needed activities at the six parking
garages around the city, mostly in the downtown area. And this particular
project we'll be working at five of the six, the only one we're not doing work
at in this project is Harrison Street. The project will include, uh, electrical,
mechanical, and structural repairs and maintenance at those five garages.
There'll be, uh, some scanning of the electrical equipment. There'll be, uh,
some ventilation improvements made on our mechanical systems, our HVAC
systems. Structural repairs will be the most extensive in this contract. We'll
have some concrete crack, uh, repairs. There'll be, uh, corrosion inhibitor and
penetrating sealer at the Tower ramp, I'll talk more about that in a second,
epoxy filler with a membrane coating, horizontal spall repairs, joint sealant
with membrane. There are some post -tension, uh, slab repairs at the Tower
ramp, I'll talk about that in a little bit more detail, and there'll be a, a couple
of steel beams, four different locations at the Dubuque Street ramp that will
also be repaired. Those items in black are the items that show up in our, uh,
five-year Master Plan. It's a five-year condition review and proposed repair
and maintenance Master Plan. It was done in June, 2020, was finalized and
that's a five-year plan. And so those, those items in black are those planned
programmed things that show up in that plan, the green ones are ones that
have manifested themselves in the past year. And again, those I'll address in a
little bit more detail. So I'm going to start with the post -tension slab issues at
the Tower ramp. These were discovered, uh, in late June and July of 2021,
after discovery of these issues, we, uh, sought to do some investigation. We
did an amendment with our consultant, uh, who, uh, sought some additional,
uh, expertise from a consulting firm that specializes in these types of post -
tension concrete slab systems. We did investigation and design throughout
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the summer in the fall. I'm going to show you a couple more pictures. So this
is right before 4th of July last year, you can see how in a couple of areas there
at this time, there was about three different tendons, uh, that had, uh, failed.
And then by the end of July, you can see that the, the damages had extended.
At that time we did, uh, shore and brace the structure to prevent, uh, further
damages, and so that shoring and bracing has been up since that time, since,
since, uh, the beginning of July. Another thing that we did was we wanted to
see how extensive these damages were. There's many other places that have
a similar jointing system to the one that you saw in those pictures, that was
the top slab, but this, this design extends through the whole ramp. So we did
a chloride ion and a RILEM tube testing survey of the whole ramp, all the
levels. The results of that were given to us in early November. And it showed,
uh, severe contamination in the top three-quarter inch, inches of, three
quarters of an inch of the slab and noteworthy contamination, uh, inch and
half deep. That study recommended corrosion inhibitor and penetrating
sealer throughout the ramp to be implemented in the next three years. Uh,
one of the things that it also talked about is the fact that we had programmed,
I've commented on how we have programmed work each year from the
Master Plan, we had programmed work in 2022 and 2024, but not in 2023.
Staff was somewhat uncomfortable waiting three years to make these, uh,
these repairs, and since we didn't have anything planned in 2023, we did
accelerate our plans to incorporate this into the project this year. Um, I'll talk
a little bit about some economy of scale that we get with incorporating it into
this year in a couple of slides. The main things that the corrosion inhibitor is
going to do is it's going to protect, there's a lot of shallow reinforcing in these
slabs, uh, rebar and the ten-, the post -tension cables themselves. So the
chloride intrusion that comes from the salt, uh, that we put on the ramp in
the, in the, in the winter time, will start to corrode that metal. So the
penetrating sealer is, or the corrosion inhibitor is going to soak into the
concrete and coat that metal and help prevent that from corroding in the
future. The penetrating sealer is exactly what it sounds like. It's a sealer that
penetrates into the top surface, it's going to help reduce water and chloride
infiltration in the future. I'm going to talk a little bit about the extra repairs,
the Dubuque Street ramp. We exposed, uh, just this one area, but there's four
different areas. Uh, I'm sorry. We exposed two of the four areas in the project
last year, maintenance project last year, and exposed these beams that are
near the stairwells on the north side of the ramp. There's one on the
northwest corner and one on the northeast corner, uh, these beams are
showing a lot of corrosion and a lot of, a lot of deterioration, and so we're
planning to replace these beams in this year's project. So last year we had the
contractor that we hired expose these areas so that we could see them and
evaluate them. And then we got our con, consultant to design a package that's
incorporated in this year to replace them. The other issue is we want to
prevent these beams from having this issue in the future. And so we looked at
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
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where's this water and where are these chlorides, where, where is this
intrusion coming from? And it's on the top level of the deck, uh, and also in
the elevator area on the top level. And so we're going to re-, um, we're going
to put membrane and filler in that area, we're going to slope the drainage
away from those areas. That's going to require us to take the old flashing off,
take some of the masonry off. We're going to have to redo, redo that flashing,
redo that masonry, redo sealant. The door's going to have to be cut, `cause
we're actually going to raise that a little bit, so there'll be some, some changes
to that top deck, but the intention is to get the water out of that area and
away from the, the wall where it's been seeping down into the wall and into
these beam areas. I want to talk a little bit about the budget. So in our last
budget cycle, we budgeted $650,000 for this CIP, $55,000 of that was for our
consultant fees, $70,000 of that was for the shoring and bracing that we're
doing at Dubuque Street and at the Tower ramps. And then the remainder of
that $525,000 was for construction of our, our maintenance activities. I do
have a comparison because our opinion of cost for the whole project is
substantially more than that budget. And I wanted to talk about that a little
bit. So you can see a side-by-side comparison on the left is what the opinion
of cost is going to be, and then on the right is the actual budget that we had
done. So you can see for the three items, those items that we were planning
to do, the electrical, mechanical, structural work that was in the black
bulleted items earlier, that pretty much worked out the way that we thought
it would, around $300,000. Uh, in the fall, we had cost estimates from our
consultant for the beam repairs at Dubuque Street, as well as the post -
tension repairs in the slab, uh, top slab at the Tower ramp. Those costs, uh,
did stay pretty consistent throughout the design. Then we have that extra
item, which was recommended to us in November after we had already
submitted budget, the budget cycle, which was the corrosion inhibitor and
penetrating sealer. Again, it did not make sense to delay this until 2023 or
2024. Um, the costs of these materials are very unique and some of the
information we were getting from our consultant, as well as the, um, vendors
was that these materials were escalating in costs at 1-2% a month. And that
might continue through 2022. So we thought it would be best as staff to just
go ahead with, uh, making these repairs, fixing that ramp up, getting the
capacity of that ramp back in, in, in service. Schedule for this project, so we
have a bid opening later this month with the intention of bringing this to the
Council, uh, on the first meeting in April for an award, construction will start
in May and we're looking to have final completion done before the fall
semester starts for the university. Uh, there's my contact information. I'd like
to have a special thanks for Shive Hattery and Walker, who were our
engineering consultants. And we do have, uh, Tony Altenhofen with us today
from Shive Hattery. So if there's technical questions that the Council has, or
that the public has, we can call him up to answer those questions. Thank you.
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Teague: Thank you. Anyone from the public, like to address this topic? If so, please
come to the podium. If you're online, please raise your hand. Seeing no one
I'm going to close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve, please?
2. Consider a Resolution
Weiner: So moved.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Moved by Weiner, seconded by Taylor. Council discussion.
Thomas: Well, I really appreciate the, uh, the detail in the presentation, um, and I'm
certainly grateful that we identified some of those additional issues, which
will not be going away unless we address them. And, uh, so yeah, appreciate
staffs thorough presentation of the, the issues we're facing.
Harmsen: Yeah, clearly it's an important thing to stop the corrosion now because it's
only getting more expensive. Out of curiosity, the sealant, how long will that,
uh, is that expected, that product expected to stop any further corrosion? Is
that like a five year, 10 year, perpetuity? We should be so lucky.
Altenhofen: Um, I'm not particular, particularly familiar with the specific details of
the products. There are various products available that, um, are generally
accepted in the industry as performing the corrision-- corrosion inhibiting,
um, protection that we're looking for. I believe the, the warranties typically
for those products are five years. Um, certain manufacturers do allow you to
get an extended warranty in certain circumstances.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Teague: Will you give us your name and who you're with, please?
Altenhofen: Yes. Tony Altenhofen, Shive Hattery
Teague: Thank you. All right.
Alter: I'm actually, I have a, just a question out of curiosity, um, what caused the
failure? And I believe it was in the first, uh, Tower Court, I believe. Um, there
was a description of the water that had become problematic for, um,
Dubuque Street, but was that the same concern? Was that the same problem
with Tower Court?
Altenhofen: So there were, there were two separate --
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Alter: -- that's two separate, right,
Altenhofen: -- two separate issues.
Alter: Okay, so I'm, I'm concerned or not, I'm curious about the first, um, issue.
Altenhofen: The one where there's the bulge in the concrete?
Alter: Yeah, yeah --
Altenhofen: So what's happening there, there's, there's high tension cables within
the concrete slab that allow it to carry the vehicle loads. So, um, so they pour
the concrete with the cables in the slab and they tension those to super high,
uh, super high forces in the cables. And so they're in compression. So what
we think was happening there was there was a repair at that location in the
past where, um, an epoxy product was used, which is not uncommon, but
because it was a low area of the slab, water was going to that location and
was seeping into the concrete, and because of the combination of
deterioration from that water and the previous patching that had had
occurred at that location, there was some, it was a weakened condition. So
the cable has that, has a lot of tension in it, slipped. And so what's happening
there is the epoxy repair is bulged up because the, the end of the cable has a
plate, has, has shifted under the pressure. So, uh, it started as just one cable
and those cables are roughly about 18 to 20 inches apart. And after the first
one went, the ones adjacent to it started, started to go. So it was one, and
then it was three and a week later, then it was five cables adjacent that had
slipped. So, and that's when we, um, acted as quickly as we could to get
shoring in there, up underneath to just prevent any, um, further, uh, damage
to the cables, damage to the slab and, and of course, um, address any safety
concerns.
Alter: Thank you.
Welter: You're welcome.
Teague: Right. Roll call please. [Roll call vote.] Motion passes 7-0.
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12. Pedestrian Mall Playground -- Resolution approving the project manual
and estimate of cost for the construction of the Pedestrian Mall
Playground Project, establishing amount of bid security to accompany
each bid, and directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders, and fixing
time and place for receipt of bids.
1. Public Hearing
Teague: Item number 12 is Pedestrian Mall playground. This is a resolution
approving the project manual and estimate of cost for the construction of the
Pedestrian Mall playground project, establishing amount of bid security to
accompany each bid, and directing City Clerk to post notice to bidders and
fixing time and place for receipt of bids. I'm going to open the public hearing,
and we'll start with Juli. Welcome.
Seydell-Johnson: Hi, Juli Seydell-Johnson, Director of Parks and Recreation. I love to
follow such a, such a technical, uh, presentation with this one. This is all
about fun. Um, this is the playground renovation in the Ped Mall. You may
recall that we have already ordered the playground, so this is the bid for the
removal of the existing playground and the installation of this playground
and the safety surfacing underneath. I checked with the playground
manufacturer yesterday, and right now we're on track for the playground
equipment to arrive at the end of May, and with that timeframe we would
have about a month's construction time at some point in June or July. Um, it
should be fairly quick when everything's on site.
Teague: Any questions? Thank you. Anyone from the public would like to address
this topic? If you're online, please raise your hand. If you're in the audience,
please come to the podium and there is a sign -in sheet that you can sign in
when you're done.
O'Hara: So I guess like, it might be too late now, but I was personally going to oppose
the playground because, um, I, okay, so it's like $200,000 dollars or plus,
obviously, um, but like we've heard from the last two meetings, like, I don't
know the official name of it, but like the excluded fund, they were talking like
mothers were up there, like crying about like whether or not like they would
be able to like feed their kids and stuff. And then last meeting, we had a
bunch of people talking about how they need money, like 30 to 60, uh, like
move 30 to 60 days for work. Um, and they need funds for that too. And then
also, like in your meeting, you talked about accessibility, um, so I just like,
one, didn't like, you don't have to tell me, obviously, because I know that
doesn't work like that, but like, just like who assess, like who is it accessible
to? Like if like people with disabilities were able to like go onto the park or if
there were swings with swings, um, like for disabled people. So I was just like
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curious about that as well. And then like we've briefly mentioned like climate
action, um, and it's like never really on the agenda, but um, fixing something
that like isn't broken isn't sustainable. So that, just, like, had those ideas, but
like obviously he just said she like ordered the stuff, but I was just like, it just
kind of sucks that like it's like all that money to like put in something that
isn't broken, but maybe it isn't safe, but I guess like people wouldn't be able
to go on it if it wasn't safe. But yeah, those are just my thoughts. But.
Teague: Will you give us your name and the city you're from?
O'Hara: I'm Bridget and I'm from Elmhurst, Illinois.
Teague: Thanks. And if you can just sign in, thank you. Anyone else like to address
this topic? Seeing no one I'm going to close the public hearing. Could I get a
motion to approve please?
2. Consider a Resolution
Harmsen: So moved, Harmsen.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Harmsen, seconded by Weiner. Council discussion.
Taylor: It's always been --
Alter: -- Oh, go, go ahead.
Taylor: Oh, I, I was just going to say it's always been hard for me, uh, to hear that
something in our infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life. That's just
sort of a hard expression for me to hear, but this Ped Mall playground has
certainly had a very useful life. Uh, every time I've walked by there it's being,
uh, used and enjoyed by many children, my granddaughter or included, she,
she loves the playground as it exists, now. Uh, her favorite part is the little
piece that, uh, carries sound from one end of the playground to the other. She
absolutely loves to do that. Um, it's, it's hard for me to really appreciate
though what the new playground will look like from the conceptual drawing.
So, uh, it will be, um, it'll be fun to see what, how it turns out, but I do
appreciate the fact that the shade structures were included because there
isn't anything there currently now that kind of you're just out in the elements
there. So that will be nice. Um, so I, I do hope that this playground can
continue to be enjoyed by by many more generations to come.
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Bergus: Juli, I did have a, a question. Um, I think from the public feedback, there
were some numerous, I think adjustments. Uh, we got over 500 comments
on, on the playground. Can you speak a little bit to what those adjustments
were?
Seydell-Johnson: Sure.
Bergus: Uh, specifically accessibility as well.
Seydell-Johnson: Sure. And just to explain the process to the public, there was a
separate Council item earlier in the summer for the actual purchase of the
equipment. It was done in the public process as well. The design was done,
uh, with a planning committee made up of parents, downtown business
owners, Parks and Rec people, uh, a large group of people, parents with
children with disabilities. Um, we put it up, put the designs out for public
comment, and if you remember, we had about 550 people comment on this
design with lots of ideas about what needed to change, so indeed several
things, um, were altered. The color scheme was altered. There was two
different pieces of equipment added for additional accessible play for people
using mobility devices, um, there was shade added for the request of people,
having people that, um, kids and parents that, um, had conditions that were
adverse to the sun. Um, and in general, the playground itself had accessibility
areas added to it with the large tower, having an additional transfer, transfer
platforms at stairs, um, because we heard not only about kids that wanted to
be able to get up and play, but then there were adult caregivers needing to
get up to the top to quote rescue them when when needed. So there was a
number of things added to it at that point. So that was back, um, in the earlier
purchasing part of this program. So.
Bergus: Thank you.
Weiner: Yep. We look forward to testing it once it's installed. Give you our feedback.
Teague: All right. If nothing else from Council, roll call please. [Roll call vote.] Motion
passes 7-0.
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13. Enforcement of Bike Lane Parking Violations -- Ordinance amending
Title 9, entitled "Motor Vehicles and Traffic," Chapter 4, entitled "
Parking Regulations," Section 1, entitled "Parking Prohibited in Specific
Places," to prohibit parking in bike lanes; Chapter 9, entitled "Towing
and Impoundment Procedures," Section 2, entitled "Towing and
Impoundment of Certain Illegally Parked Vehicles," to allow towing of
vehicles parked in bike lanes; and Chapter 3, entitled "Rules of the
Road," Section 11, entitled "Prohibited Acts and Conditions," to delete
the reference to parking and bike lanes. (First Consideration)
Teague: Item number 13 is enforcement of bike lane parking violations, an
ordinance amending Title 9 entitled Motor Vehicles and Traffic, Chapter 4
entitled Park, Parking Regulations, Section 1, entitled Parking Prohibited in
Specific Places to prohibit parking in bike lanes; Chapter 9, entitled Towing
and Impoundment Procedures, Section 2 entitled Towing and Impoundment
of Certain Illegally Parked Vehicles to allow towing of vehicles parked in bike
lanes; and Chapter 3, entitled Rules of the Road, Section 11, entitled
Prohibited Acts and Conditions to delete the reference to parking and bike
lanes. This is first consideration. Could I get a motion please?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: All right, and we welcome staff.
Nagle-Gamm: Good evening, Council, Darian Nagel-Gamm, Director of
Transportation Services. The ordinance amendment before you tonight
would essentially enable Transportation Services Parking staff, Parking
Enforcement staff to issue citations to vehicles that um, or to drivers of
vehicles, that stop, stand, or park in the bike lanes. Um, currently, well it's
prohibited currently, um, from parking, stopping, or standing in bike lanes,
but currently only, uh, the Police Department has the authority to issue the
citation. So this would expand that so that Transportation Services Parking
staff, um, especially in the downtown, could monitor bike lane blockages. And
if you've been downtown, um, especially around, I'd say lunch or dinner time,
um, you'd see an increasing number of vehicles blocking the bike lanes. Um,
it's increased during the pandemic, I think due to, in part, the proliferation of
food delivery and other delivery services. And really this is, um, causing,
causing a safety issue, especially for cyclists, but also for drivers who really
need to swerve around the parked vehicles, um, which are often in the bike
lane and in part of the through lane, and at peak times it could, it could
happen multiple times, so it really creates kind of a slalom effect that we're
trying to avoid. Um, our, our goal really is to preserve the bike lane for
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bicycles and redirect, um, commercial vehicles to the specialty parking zones,
um, designated for, uh, short-term commercial parking in the downtown.
Transportation Services staff, um, over the last couple months has been
having conversations with the drivers of vehicles and letting them know, um,
it is prohibited to park, stand, or stop in the bike lane when there's people
present. That's not always been the case. Um, we've been helping them find
other places to park, letting them know where the nearest, um, specialty and
commercial zones are located at. Um, we would continue with this education
campaign. um, we actually created a small, we've been working with
Communications to create a small handbill flyer that would accompany, um,
any citations, um, that has a map of where all of the, the commercial loading
zones are in the downtown area and have a QR code that could even link to
Google maps on a phone and help direct you to, to an appropriate place to
park. Um, we will also plan, um, on, uh, I'd say an extensive media campaign
to help, um, bring awareness to, um, to the, to, um, um, to the fact that, you
know, bike lanes aren't really for parked vehicles, they're, and then help
again, to, to promote parking in these specialty areas that have been
designated for, uh, short-term commercial vehicle parking. Um, the next
steps really would be to begin issuing, um, warnings at first and then we
would move to citations and then we would just continue with that education
campaign. I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have on this
ordinance amendment.
Thomas: Darian, do you think we have, um, enough special parking zones to
accommodate those drivers who are currently stopping in the bike lanes?
Nagle-Gamm: So if you're, if we're referring to sort of the personal vehicles, um, that
are serving a commercial purpose, say the delivery driving vehicles, um, they
have, I would say the greatest opportunity to park in the downtown because
they can park in commercial loading zones, all vehicle loading zones. Um, we
have, right now, 41 ten-minute pickup and drop-off zones, um, that we
instituted during the pandemic to help with this kind of short-term
commercial needs. Um, there's also parking available in the parking facilities,
first hour's free, so it's a quick, you know, move in and move out. Um, I think
its, it, we have enough, it's probably more of a struggle for the larger vehicles
and not of space necessarily, but the time, um, of the demand. So I think there
may have to be some evaluation of whether the deliveries are coming at the
most ideal time, so that parking spaces are available. If the deliveries were
spaced out in such a way, um, I think that we do have that capacity with our,
with our commercial and our all -vehicle loading zones.
Thomas: Thanks. Thank you.
Teague: Thank you.
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Taylor: Um, Councilor Thomas has just spoken, I know he's been talking about safe
streets, uh, for as long as I can remember. And I think having vehicles parked,
uh, in designated bike lanes, uh, causing the bicycles and vehicles to, to
swerve --
Teague: We're not a, we're not at Council deliberations yet.
Taylor: Oh, we're -- not yet. Okay.
Teague: Yes.
Taylor: Never mind.
Teague: Sorry about that, I hear you.
Taylor: Thought we jumped to that. That's okay.
Teague: Yes. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you're online,
please raise your hand. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. Uh, my name is Noah, I'm first going to start out with, um, not pro
parking in places you're not supposed to park, um, but I am going to just talk
about like the, the effects, like you think more flexible, your tickets having
some, uh, a few months ago, my car broke down, like I, and I, I parked my car,
uh, into a spot that was not blocking the road, not blocking traffic. It was not
really, it wasn't blocking anything. It was, I was at the, not, it's not really the
entire point, I don't have time to get into the whole deal, details of it, but so I
had a ticket. My car was broken. I could not move my car. And there was so I
didn't have a financial means to move it, to get it [garbled] for anything like
that. So I had the ticket. And then I remember, and then there was just, towed
away and I didn't have a, due to financial reasons. And the fact of like, as a
neurodivergent person just making, operating in this world is it can be very
disabling sometimes and so, so then there was [garbled] when I went to the
towing company that y'all, uh, uh, the City employees, uh, they told me they
charge a fee there of, how many they [talking to public] no, no, no. It was
more than that. It's $500. It was like they charge $40, uh, $40, I think, $40 a
day at the, at the facility for just storing it, plus then all their other fees for
towing, all that stuff. So then to, to even get my own car back, which I drive
for a living, cause I'm a delivery driver, so that's like how I make my money,
um, they charge was five, over $500. I had no way to pay it. The only reason I,
was able to pay, I have, because I am privileged and I have a family who is
able to support me with money, and the only reason I even have my car still
is because I come from a family that ha-, I'm, I'm privileged enough to have
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support system that can support me. Otherwise I would've lost my car. I
would've lost my freaking living. I've literally thought about killing myself. I
mean, that's been, a lot, I mean that, that is, this system, it punches poor, is a
rich person that gets that ticket, it does not matter, that does not concern it.
This hurts the poor, working class people the most, there's no, I went to the
City, I went to City Hall. I asked, talked to the police and the people there out
there and then other people just at the City Hall, the desk and no one was
able to help me at all, dude. They just said, well, tough luck pretty much. So I
know, I just, like, but think I don't really necessarily have a solution. I just
think y'all need to think more about what, how, what, what the City does. And
have a more like, um, I don't have time to speak on stuff. But yeah. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? If you're online, please
raise your hand, in person, please step to the podium. Seeing no one, Council
discussion.
Bergus: Um, grateful for this, um, change particularly stemming from that stretch of
Clinton Street. Um, it is just a mess, as Darian explained, with people having
to swerve around. And certainly there's no bike lane when people are parked
in it. And I recall the City of Cedar Rapids, a few years ago now, um, shifted a
lot of its, uh, streets downtown, and one of the things that they did was move
parking, and so that the bike lanes are actually inside the parking on some
parts of the street. So that's not what we're doing here. But what I remember
from that process was the educational campaign that they had and walking
down the street in Cedar Rapids and seeing all the flyers that were on the
windshields of the cars that were in the, the zone. And, uh, you know,
certainly I think that's the, the key piece here is that we're doing that
educational campaign, providing warnings, and only at that point would be,
then, be enforcing through the citation. And I'm also very glad to see that
we're expanding it so that it doesn't require a law enforcement officer,
doesn't require a police officer, but we have our parking enforcement folks
will be able to, to do that.
Teague: Well, there's still, oh, go ahead.
Weiner: I, it's probably in fact more appropriate that the parking enforcement
people be able to do this because they're the ones who actually know, uh, the,
the, the parking downtown and the situation in detail. So they're probably
the, the right addressee for this, as opposed to police.
Teague: I do have maybe another question, um, or a question for Juli. So downtown
parking right now, if you're, if your meter has expired the first time you'll get
a ticket or a citation, but that's for $0, um, is that the same situation for this?
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Nagle-Gamm: Um, that is not, so the citation, once the citations are issued for
parking in the bike lane, those are $15 and they don't have a grace period like
our parking meters do. So parking meters, if you, um, if you have an expired
meter, um, and you're parked in a space, um, if you have one in six months,
um, that would be zero, um, fee for that expired parking meter.
Teague: Thank you.
Alter: As long as you're here, Darian, I'm sorry, I have one more question. Um, is
the, um, the Department, are they apprised and aware of the possibility of
that they would be taking on this additional responsibility, and they are okay
with it?
Nagle-Gamm: Yes. Uh, the Department is aware, um, they see the need, um, and they
support, they support. In fact, they would, they would, because we are, um,
present downtown, um, we probably see, our Parking Enforcement staff sees
probably more than anyone else, um, the, the need for it. So they, they are, it's
something that they are looking forward to taking on.
Alter: Excellent. Thank you.
Taylor: So, in relation to that question, these are folks that are already downtown,
they're patrolling, watching the, managing, monitoring the meters, so they
would be aware of the situation and who's parking and how long they've
been there, right?
Nagle-Gamm: Yeah, that's correct. So they are already monitoring the parking
adjacent to the bike lane, so they will already be there along those very
blocks where we have those kind of persistent, or we have this increasing
persistent bike lane blockages.
Thomas: Yeah, I, I think this clearly makes a lot of sense in terms of who's doing the
enforcement and, you know, I really appreciate all the outreach that's
coupled with, with this change to, um, try to make it as smooth as possible.
You know, I, I am concerned that I, you know, we seem to have this inherent
conflict of, between the needs of, of those who wish to park their vehicles
and, um, in the downtown area, which can in this instance block the bike
lanes. And, uh, I, you know, what I've become over, you know, time on, on
these traffic related issues, uh, is, is trying to find the concept that self -
regulates. So there, you know, we try to reduce the need for enforcement
wherever we can. Uh, so I think in, in that regard, it's really critical that
there's alternatives to blocking the, the bike lane for those who are, are
stopping in them. Um, so hopefully that'll work. Um, you know, we, and the,
the situation will to at least a certain extent resolve itself, but it did cause me,
and I haven't had a chance to reach out to the anyone in the biking
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community, but are there alternatives, at least for that portion where we
have the conflicts to re, rework the network, uh, so that someone can ride
through the downtown without if, if there are issues with Clinton, so that
there are other ways one could ride through the downtown, for example,
Linn Street, um, uh, running north -south. I know I, when I bike through
downtown, I often use Linn Street, uh, and there aren't the issues there that,
um, seem to be occurring on Clinton. So as, as far as I'm concerned, that's, you
know, if we can figure out a way to accommodate everybody without
resorting to law enforcement, as the, um, you know, minimize the need for
that so much the better. Um, but I do appreciate everything that you're trying
to do to make where we have the lanes work effectively. So thanks.
Teague: Great.
Taylor: I'm in favor of this ordinance and, um, I'm just hoping that it'll help to
alleviate any of these unsafe conditions that we, that we've had, that we're
seeing.
Alter: It definitely seems like it's a step in the right direction for creating the, a
better cycling community that we're, you know, really trying to set up. And I
think this is another right move in that direction and to, to put it into the
hands of the people who know best what's going on downtown.
Weiner: I, I agree with Councilor Thomas. That is that, that I think, I hope that this
will work, but if it turns out that it is not particularly effective, I hope we'll
take another look at, it, how we can, how we can best protect the cyclists.
Teague: Great. Any other comments? Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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14. Municipal Infraction for Violating Council Rules -- Ordinance amending
Title 1, entitled "Administration," Chapter 5, entitled "Mayor and City
Council," to provide that a violation of the Council procedural rules is a
municipal infraction. (First Consideration)
Teague: Item number 15 amendment to the Housing Authority administrative....Uh,
did I jump one?
[several Councilors]: Yeah. Yes. Think so. Item 14.
Teague: Yeah, that's what I thought. Item number 14 is municipal infraction for
violating council rules. This is an ordinance amending Title 1, titled
Administration, Chapter 5, entitled Mayor and City Council, to provide that a
violation of the Council procedural rules is a municipal infraction. This is first
consideration. Could I get a motion please?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Alter: Second, Alter.
Teague: All right. And any, um, maybe well ask our City Attorney just to give us a
brief overview of this.
Goers: Uh, thank you, Mr. Mayor. So, uh, you may recall that, uh, the Council has
been considering a new set of rules. We're planning on presenting that, uh,
rules and it, uh, set of rules in its final form, uh, at your next meeting. Uh, the
municipal infraction, uh, that is before you today is, is kind of getting near the
end of the, uh, remedies of last resort that you had discussed as part of your,
uh, uh, rule -setting process. Uh, it's not currently, um, a violation to violate
your rules as, as kind of contrary as that sounds. And so we need to do this so
that we can have a municipal infraction, which of course is a civil penalty. Uh,
we had to consider whether we would go with kind of the lower set of fines
or the higher set of fines. We, we are proposing the lower, which is, uh, $100
for a first offense, $250 for a second offense, and $500 for a third and
subsequent offense. The higher, uh, set is, uh, $250, $500, and $750
respectively. And of course, um, there would have to be a lot of things that
happened before, you know, even a first offense municipal infraction would
be, uh, issued. Uh, those include, um, being, uh, warned, uh, by the presiding
officer, being asked to leave the meeting because of violations of the rules
and, and refusing to do so. Even at that point, it is then, and only then that a
municipal infraction could be issued. I'd be happy to answer any questions
that the Council members have.
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Bergus: I do have a question, Eric, what would, um, if someone was fined or received
a citation with the fine attached and then didn't pay it, uh, what would be sort
of remedies from that point?
Goers: So, uh, a municipal infraction is, uh, again, a civil matter and it's handled in
small claims court. And so it'd be a judgment like any other. However, unlike
a, some other judgments that are, you know, let's say assessments that can be
issued against a property, uh, owner or a property, I should say, uh, that's not
present here. Um, so the remedy would be, um, solely going at collecting a
judgment, like any other. Um, there, one of the other remedies that in theory
could be issued by the court is, uh, directing the defendant to not to violate
the rules on the future and so forth. And in theory, you know, violation of that
could be met with contempt and so forth, but, um, it's, one would not be
arrested for failing to pay the fine if, if, if that's what you're asking.
Bergus: Thank you.
Goers: Thank you.
Alter: This will unfortunately show, um, some of my ignorance, but, um, no
question's dumb, right? So if someone did not pay the fine, I know that in
some situations that gets tacked on and inhibits an ability, say to get a
driver's license, things like that. Would that apply here?
Goers: Uh, not to my knowledge, no, those are for failure to pay fines on moving
violations, you know, speeding tickets, that kind of thing. Uh, I'm not aware of
any provision like that for a municipal infraction.
Teague: Any other questions for Eric? All right. Anyone from the public like to
address this topic, please step to the podium. And I do see some people
online. I'm going to ask that.
Guo: I have a question. What it -- can, can you define the municipal infraction? Can
you define the, the one? Is it misdemeanor? Or is it a class one felony? What
is the classification for what you just said?
Teague: And please state your name and city you're from.
Guo: My name is Rong.
Teague: And what city?
Guo: Iowa City, Iowa.
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Teague: Thankyou....That's one want to direct the City coun --
Weiner: Could, could you answer that please?
Eric: Sure. Uh, the municipal infraction is not a misdemeanor. It is not a criminal
charge of any kind. It is purely a civil infraction, uh, much like if, if someone
were to sue their neighbor for, uh, money in small claims court and a
judgment would be entered, same thing here.
Guo: So is it, uh, is it would, the City, um, City ticket, would the City letter like, um,
would the City letter because the maintenance, would that count as
infraction?
Goers: I'm sorry, I didn't follow your question.
Guo: For example, mm, somebody's, um, plantation around their yard, um, the,
somebody, and then it was deemed, uh, one inch taller than the current
regulated, uh, length. Would that be called as an infraction?
Goers: Well, we're going to address your municipal infraction in assessment in item
19. Is that what you're asking about --
Guo: But ultimately in the future? So the, the things you talked about, be in general
would become a part of the municipal infraction, then it is something I would
like to know.
Goers: Okay. I'm sorry. So what's your question then?
Guo: My question is, um, if it's, it's a civil matter, right? Um, would, um, would all
the party should be allowed to mediate first, would they, should, should they
be notified instead of like passing a general, um, rule?
Goers: Well, in, in the case of these municipal infractions, they would be notified in,
in several ways. First they would be warned by the presiding officer. Then
they would be asked to leave by the presiding officer or others who are
present. Uh, and then if, if they still fail to adhere to those, uh, warnings and
continue to, uh, violate or, or failure to leave at that point, then, um, you
know, if being directed by the presiding officer, uh, uh, municipal infraction,
it could be, uh, issued to them. They would need to be served with it. They
would be not at the meeting. It would be at a later point in time. And so they
would certainly receive notice. Is that what you're asking?
Guo: Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I, I, I now understood. That is why I ask the definition
for that. So we are talking about apples and oranges.
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Goers: Oh, okay.
Guo: I, yes. Um, so withdrew. I, yes.
Teague: Thank you. All right. And we, we will start the clock at the next one. All
right. Sorry about that. Thank you. I'm going to go online first. Welcome
Taylor. And then we'll come back here.
Kohn: Hi. Can you hear me okay?
Teague: Yes, we can.
Kohn: Hi, can you, can you hear me okay?
Teague: Yes. Welcome.
Kohn: Hello?
Teague: Welcome.
Kohn: Uh, sorry. Can you pause my time? I cannot hear.
Teague: We can hear you.
Kohn: Okay. You can, you can hear me.
Teague: Yes, we can.
Kohn: Okay. I'm sorry. I'm having some technical issues. Um, I wanted to tune in, uh,
to let you know, I think each of you has a responsibility to oppose this
ordinance, um, to have any punitive measures at all in place around public
comment will hurt the public and will hurt your relationship with the public.
It's really common in community comment for residents to ask whether it's
the appropriate time for them to speak. And the reason for that is that plenty
of people who come to speak to you have to come here and figure out the
rules as they go. And it doesn't matter if you wouldn't issue these infractions
to them for breaking a rule, you could. Your rules are already a barrier for
people because they're hard to understand. I've been paying attention to this
Council for two years, and I haven't figured them all out. And in fact, you all
can't keep track of them either. You have to ask for clarification sometime,
but the difference is that members of the public don't hold your position of
power in this room. And so they aren't protected. And I want to repeat myself
that it doesn't matter if you truly believe you would never abuse these
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infractions because members of the public have no reason to trust that. And
also because you won't always be the people in these seats and you need to
protect the public from Councilors who come after you as well. Um, and it
doesn't matter what the public says to you in public comment. There's never
a good reason to retaliate as a governing body, to someone coming before
you with their concern and the answer to reducing tension with the public in
public comment periods is simply for you all to engage more. Um, you've
done it tonight. That that was great. People had a question and they actually
came here and felt heard instead of just shouting void, which is frustrating
and makes them, you know, frustrated in this time. So the reason some
people who speak are upset with you is because they're not heard. So more
engagement with the public would help, more listening posts would help.
Um, I think I heard one is coming up. In my opinion, they should be more
frequent. Um, more response to correspondence would help. Um, I want to
thank Councilors Weiner also and Harmsen and for responding to me about
the winter shelter last month, I really appreciated that I'm not used to
hearing back from you. And, um, and so that meant a lot to me. Um, cracking
down on punishing the public for taking part in Council meetings is not the
answer. Um, also you should listen to Noah's point. Uh, punishments will
always hit people who belong to marginalized and poor populations. The
hardest, um, your wealthier constituents will not have as much to fear from
speaking here as others will. I know you've selected the lower range, but
there have been times in my life recently, like in the last couple years, when
being charged a hundred dollars, would've meant I would not have been able
to pay my rent. And that's plenty of people's reality. And going so far is to
make an ordinance is setting a dangerous precedent. And I think when that
progressive Iowa City doesn't want to be the one to set. So please oppose this
at every --
Teague: Thank you. We'll, go inside here. Welcome.
Petersen: Hello. My name is Noah. Um, so Eric, um, thank you admitting that this is
still, would be, result in the criminal charge for people who just come to
speak at your meetings, even though you, he, he did, he said this was all in
contempt of court, correct? No, yet it's on record of you saying that earlier.
Hello, Eric.
Goers: This is is not a criminal charge.
Petersen: No, no, no, no. But can't result in that when I don't pay the fine I'm going to
get, if you pass this ordinance, cause I'm not paying your stupid fine. And
also, um, how, how I would like to in good faith, tell me how regulating
germaneness this is not a content restriction, like how you're not regulating
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the content of speech when you are just determining germaneness, how is
that not regulation of content? Hello?
Teague: A councilor would need to direct, uh, staff to respond.
Petersen: Uh, he could respond though. So not, not going to get an answer on that. So
I would like, I would like you to tell me how determining germaneness is not
regulating the content of speech, because someone else uses, comes up here
does a non -germane comment for three minutes, so within that time, that is
exact same as someone who come here and does the germane comment in
that time. So if they're doing the exact same time -place stuff as that person
who's doing germane, and the only difference is the so-called germaneness,
however, you even determine a rule on that, which is obviously going to be
arbitrary and up to the presiding officer, I assume, presiding officer's one
who makes that determination. So how is that not regulation of the content?
Again, the answer me, or, is the silence going to be the answer? Cause we all
know that is regulating content like you can't, in, like honestly say that's not
regulating the content by determining the germaneness of stuff. Besides the
fact it's ridiculous that you're like trying to penalize people who come here to
speak at meetings begin with, but, and I hope you enjoy your lawsuit. When,
if you pass this ordinance, which you should not be passing this ordinance,
that's like an awful precedent to set. Do you really want be setting that
precedent for the state, the only city to have municipal infractions for people
to come to speak at your meetings in "progressive" Iowa City? Is that really
what you want? Like I said earlier --
Petersen -- as I said earlier about the, so a rich person comes in here, they can take
up the meetings and you can fine them all you want and that's not going to
matter to them if you have means. So it's again, only a law for the poor. Do
you really want, do you think it's okay to pass more laws that just only hurt
the poor --
Teague: Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one, Council
discussion.
Bergus: Mayor I'll I'll jump in. I was the person who asked if we could do this. Um,
and at that time we were looking at a number of, uh, I guess, remedies or
actions that the Council could take when, um, our meetings were, were
disrupted, and we had good conversations about making sure that we're only
limiting those things that are, that are prohibited right, that, that are
unconstitutional. And we're not framing up rules that would be moderating
speech in illegal ways. Um, I do think that we are allowed to govern the
germaneness of comments at our meetings. I think that falls within the
manner of how we conduct our business and that we provide opportunities
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for comments on anything during our public comment period. And as we've
talked about at great length, other opportunities for members of the public to
engage with us outside of these business meetings. All that being said, I'm not
going to be supporting this tonight. Um, because last meeting we talked
about what that, that level of like the criminal, um, charge could be, and we
all agreed, I believe to remove that from the proposed rules, and the reason
we agreed on that was that that kind of conduct would, would sort of take
care of itself. It was not related to a meeting. It was someone is committing a
crime that is already defined in our criminal code. And we have remedies for
that. When I asked for this, um, civil citation, it was because we were going
down the path, I thought, of criminalizing participation in our meetings, and
that was not something that I was in favor of, so I kind of offered it up as a
less harsh alternative. Um, but as I've just sat with this, I'm not, I'm not
comfortable, um, having a punitive element to participating in our meetings.
And I hope that those who, um, have been listening, have been paying
attention will know that there is great value in how this City can operate in
our meetings being conducted in a way that we can get our business done,
that is respectful, that is civil and that doesn't need to result in any kind of
citation or fine or criminal charge.
Teague: I think the reality is is we, at least from my, uh, perspective, we should
never get to this point of a municipal infraction. I think, um, whoever is
presiding here, um, can lead, you know, lead the meeting, ask the individual
to, um, you know, redirect, whatever germane is, uh, to, you know, uh,
reconsider what, what the comments are. Um, you know, the, the, the thought
of the, you know, the criminal, uh, charge, um, I, I think you are exactly
correct. The reason we did that or left that alone is because the law already
exists for that to take place, um, which, you know, I, I, I totally believe that if
someone, you know, was to break the law, um, there are some things that are
already in place, so we wouldn't have to do that, um, as a Council. Now you
do bring up, um, you know, discussion points on the, you know, the, on this
part where it was a alternative, uh, to the criminal, um, piece of it. I, I, you
know, as the current, uh, presiding officer over these meetings, I, I really do
not see, um, us getting to this point, um, with the public. Now I am one that,
you know, my, my, my thought process here is, but it could happen, right. Um,
it could happen where, um, we could not operate, um, our meetings. And, uh,
if someone kept, uh, coming back and causing a disturbance, you know, what,
what, what do we have in our toolbox to kind of detour them? So we do have
some things in a toolbox that the rules cited such as, um, they'll have to miss
a meeting or something like that. Um, or, you know, something to the, that
degree. So, you know, as far as me and the money part, um, I, I guess I don't
think that it will ever get to this. So, um, could, could there be a, could there
be a opportunity where we could, and have to cite someone, I think there
could be, but maybe there's other avenues for us to, you know, have the
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discussion of, you know, we've, we've asked you to, you know, change, uh,
some of the, and it is not change your comment. We're not trying to regulate
what people say, um, but we do want things to be on topic. Um, and, and, and,
and we've seen some of that, that hasn't occurred. So if, if the proposal from
Councilor Bergus is that we, um, not do a infraction, uh, you know, of, of this
cost. I, I guess personally, I, I can go with that. Um, I think our rules do cite
that we have, you know, some tools in the toolbox. How, um, how much that
would accomplish, I'm not certain. I also think that if we're finding that that's
not successful, we can always come back and do this part. If we find that
there is another need to have another additional toolbox, because everything
we've done as a Council still isn't working. So, um, if the proposal is not, well,
I guess it's not a proposal, it's either I support it or not. Um, I, I can see not
supporting this tonight and trying to go with the rule, the rules, making the
edit, where this isn't in the rule and seeing, um, how we, you know, how we
go from there.
Weiner: So I appreciate the work that City Attorney's put into this. And so over the
last few days, as I, as I read this, I've come to similar conclusion as Councilor
Bergus. I don't want us to assume somehow that, that, that people are going
to, that, that people are, are in any way going to be bad actors. I really take
some of the points that Taylor made online very seriously. Um, and the, as I
just essentially don't think that we should, that we should think about being
punitive. So, um, you said it much more eloquently than I have, Councilor
Bergus, but I'm not going to support this.
Alter: I think --
Weiner: -- Sorry --
Alter: I'm sorry.
Weiner: The other, the only other thing that I wanted to add is that I would hope
that, um, that, that we can actually, um, conduct our business and that, um,
that, that, that, that will, will be respected.
Alter: I was just going to say that actually, this is probably one moment, um, we're
in actually, you know, public comment and on a specific topic <laugh> is, this
is modeling it, right? Um, I, I also will not support this because it does, it feels
punitive, even though it doesn't go to, uh, a criminal level. Um, and I think
that we've witnessed, I mean, certainly there have been very pointed and
open, uh, comments towards us, uh, certainly since I've gotten in, but they
have not, um, you know, been disruptive in that, not following rules and, and
that we've, we got elected to listen to public comment and to get input, but I
will also say that comment such as Taylor's, um, and, and others, you know,
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we are listening and that was helpful. And along with Councilor Bergus, um,
and with your de, deliberations in your authenticity to come out and say, this
is, this does not feel right. And here's why, um, I think that also one of the
things that was pointed out and that I've heard from multiple people in other
contexts is the frustration level of not having us be accessible. And we've all
been living through a pandemic, hopefully with the weather getting better,
and with us having a much more of a very loud call from the public to say, we
would like to be able to talk to you, just please understand from a place of
authenticity that these meetings are for us to get through an agenda and to
conduct business. It's not that we don't want to hear from you, as I just said,
it is helping the conversation. It is helping policy decisions to hear from you,
but then to have more of the back and forth and to have those conversations,
there will be, and there are more opportunities. COVID shut us down. And I
do believe that we all have a sincere desire to be able to engage with the
public more. So I just wanted to put that out there. At least I'm speaking for
myself individually. Um, but I just wanted to say that this was a, a good
opportunity to see how public input leveled in a, in a, a way that we can all
sort of take it in, um, and think on it and discuss it was, was very helpful.
Harmsen: Uh, just want to, uh, agree with what's been said and thank, uh, the
Councilors and the Mayor for their comments. Um, and I think, uh,
Councilmember Bergus has also really articulated well, uh, kind of this nice
one, this idea of when you make the judgment call, if something is germane.
And that, that is something that is, I think we are empowered to do, the
difference being, not making a call based on whether or not you like or
dislike the comment that's being made, that, that would be out of bounds.
That would be a violation. Saying that it's on topic, uh, because this is a
meeting, um, especially since we do give sort of like the chance for everybody
to talk off topic for three minutes, at the start of our meeting. Um, I feel
comfortable that we are doing the that's, that's a reasonable thing, but I also
agree that with everything that's been said about not supporting, uh, this
particular proposal, um, and as you said, Mr. Mayor, we can always, if, if the
rules that we are looking at don't work, we can always come back to this, but
there's no reason to push forward on it right now.
Taylor: I'm appreciative of the comments by my fellow Council members. I'm, I'm a
little confused, because I think that, uh, we had been feeling pressure and had
been being felt like we were being disrespected and almost, uh, being put in
sort of a villain sort of, uh, role. And so we had talked about what can we do
about this and seeing other, uh, councils across the state and, and the country
who have actually, uh, brought in harsher methods for controlling. Um, I
thought that's what we wanted to go kind of that route. And, and it wasn't
that we were invoking any really harsh punishment, but just providing some
written rules and, and guidelines, um, asking persons to be considerate and
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respectful, uh, to Council members, City staff and, and other people, uh, in, in
attendance at the meetings is all we were really asking and wanting, you
know, and appropriately participating. I, I appreciate Taylor's comments
about, uh, punishing people who want to participate, but that's not really
what we were doing, but, uh, there's a fine, there's a line there drawn for
what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. And, uh, in public meeting,
um, I have to think on this a little bit before I vote on this, but those are my
comments and concerns.
Thomas: Well, I'm, I'm hearing what, uh, Council said and, uh, what some of the
community members have said. And I think I'm, uh, leaning toward, you
know, let's, let's put this aside for the time being. Um, you know, our
meetings were not, you know, this term that I like using, self-regulating and,
uh, I hope, you know, we will re-, rediscover what a self-regulating civil
meeting can be. I mean, we certainly have had some difficult meetings sort of
falling under that question of whether comment we're hearing is germane or
not. And, um, so I think some attempt to mutually respect one another here,
um, is something that, that I hope we begin to see, and as we've also noted,
we've been living, this, this period where, where we've been seeing
difficulties with our meetings coincides with Black Lives Matter, and COVID
converging, some very difficult times, um, where some of our other options
for having those conversations were shut down, uh, we were living more in
isolation. Um, so, you know, I think as we begin to address some of those
issues, perhaps through our, um, our, uh, Strategic Plan discussions of how
we can identify other opportunities for, you know, truly having a
conversation, uh, with, with the community would be helpful. Uh, but for now
I'm, I'm, I think I will not support the current proposal.
Teague: Any other comments from Council?
Harmsen: I think I just want to echo whoever it was that, uh, thanked staff for the
time and effort, acknowledge the time and effort that went into this, um, at
Council direction. Um, and so definitely want to, uh, acknowledge that and
that, that, that work was done, uh, on our behalf, um, as a body who was
interested in what this might look like, and thank you for that, whether or not
we agree with it or not, when we finally get down to the decision still
acknowledge that the work was valuable.
Bergus: Yeah. And you did exactly what we asked. Thank you.
Goers: Certainly.
Teague: Hearing nothing else, roll call please. Motion fails, 0-7. Right?
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15. Amendment to the Housing Authority Administrative Plan -- Resolution
amending Section 2.3 (H) --Absence from the Unit in the Iowa City
Housing Authority Administrative Plan.
Teague: All right. Item number 15 is amendment to the Housing Authority
Administrative Plan. This is a resolution amending Section 2.3, absence from
the unit, in the Iowa City Housing Authority Administrative Plan. Can I get a
motion to approve please?
Alter: So moved, Alter.
Taylor: Second.
Teague: Moved by Alter, seconded by Taylor, and welcome Steve Rackis.
Rackis: Good evening. Um, let me get set up here and hopefully get these on and not
fog up.
Teague: And give us your title please.
Rackis: Uh, Steven Rackis, Housing Administrator for the Iowa City Housing
Authority, and I'm here tonight to, um, uh, talk about, um, an item that we
have before you. And, uh, I, I would like to start with just a brief history. The,
uh, Housing Choice Voucher Program was created in 1998 by the Quality
Housing and Work Responsibility Act. So that is the Act, uh, by the federal
government that created the Housing Choice Voucher Program. Um, I'm not
sure when the first administrative plan was completed and what, um,
guidelines and deadlines HUD had given. My tenure with the Housing
Authority started in 2003, so this administrative plan predated me. Um,
having said that, right now, the Iowa City Housing Authority has 1,191
vouchers available for, uh, basically, disabled families, elderly families, and
working families. That number will be reduced to 1,155 when we convert
those tenant -based vouchers to project -based vouchers for the 501 Project
next to, uh, Shelter House. Um, so that brings us, well, and on, on top of that
in calendar year '21, the Housing Authority spent, um, a little over $8.3
million, uh, in landlord payments, um, on behalf of families. And that basically
works out to be a per unit cost of $557 per household per assisted family. So
that brings us to, um, the absence from the unit policy, which, um, based on
my research has not been changed since the QHWRA created the Housing
Choice Voucher Program. So that's been in effect for about 24 years. Now,
HUD allows families to be absent from their unit up to 180 consecutive days,
but HUD also allows a Housing Authority to define "brief' as so a family could
be out of the unit for any reason, for a brief period of time, and what the Iowa
City Housing Authority did was adopt a 30 day, uh, time as our definition of
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"brief', and any request, and, and basically this was set up as being in a
university town, to address absences that might be beyond the control of the
family or the household, where if somebody's in the hospital and then they're
released to a rehabilitation facility, that we had a policy in place to protect
that family, that household, and that they could keep the voucher, but under
no circumstances, can somebody be absent for a hundred, over 180 days. So
that brings us to this year. And, um, I believe in mid-February, um, Mazahir
contacted the Housing Authority and, um, we set up a meeting to discuss with
staff, um, their concerns and, um, the Center for Worker Justice, um, had
requested that we revise the policy, that, um, the 30 days was not enough
time for families to travel overseas. The, you know, the, the long flights, the
time to get there travel within the country, and, um, they felt that the, the 30
days was, was a barrier to those families, uh, going back to, um, their
countries to see their families and relatives. So we met with the Center for
Worker Justice and had a, a conversation. And, uh, as a result of that
conversation, Tracy Hightshoe, our Department director suggested that
perhaps they could write a letter to Council, which was done and then
Council, uh, directed, uh, the Housing and Community Development
Commission to take a look at this policy. And the Center for Worker Justice
did offer, um, two solutions, uh, one solution being, extend the definition of
brief to 60 days, or to just put in the policy, allow a family, a household, um,
to be, uh, that every family could travel, uh, overseas once per year. So as we
presented to the Housing Commission, we felt that, first off, that our, our
original plan kind of balanced the needs of, uh, people on the program and
people on the waiting list. Um, we have currently about 27,000 families on
the waiting list. About 1300 of them are, uh, within our top preference
category, which is elderly, disabled, and families with children under the age
of 18. So, um, when we did meet with the Housing Commission, uh, Tracy
Hightshoe, our Department director, did suggest in her memo that if the
Housing Commission was going to choose to modify this policy, that we
would prefer changing the definition of brief to 60 versus the families could
be gone, uh, you know, once a year, because we didn't want to put staff in a
position to be making value, judgments that if brief is 60, now, the families
can travel without permission for up to the 60 days. So, um, that is in fact
what the Housing Commission did. Um, they, uh, deliberated for quite some
time, and it was, uh, you know, in addition to their agenda item. And, uh, so
what they did was, um, basically, uh, approve that absences, um, would be
"brief', defined as 60 days versus 30 days, and then the, the rest of the policy
remains, uh, in place. And that is where we're at right now, so before you is
changing the policy, the definition of brief from 30 to 60, and I would ask if
there's any questions.
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Weiner: So thank you very much. So when, um, when tenants are, are gone, whether
it be for 30 days or longer, uh, they, uh, is it, is, am I correct that there's still
paying their portion of the rent and then the, the --
Rackis: -- Yeah --
Weiner: -- voucher plays pays the, the remainder of it?
Rackis: Yes. In, in most cases, um, uh, the, the family members that are working, if
they have a leave of absence from work, not where they've quit, or they've
been discharged from work, if there's a leave of absence, um, from work that
they're going to return to, they continue to pay their portion of the rent, we
continue to pay our portion of the rent. And, uh, so that would be the first 30
days, and the second 30 days, that would occur. And then, uh, family returns,
they, you know, let us know that they're back and we just move forward. So
yes, they pay their portion. We pay our portion.
Weiner: And the, and the second, my, part of my question is that, so that this only,
this only applies if the entire family is, is that correct?
Rackis: Correct. That it, it absence is the entire family, or in the case of a single
disabled person, obviously HUD defines a single person as a family as well.
Weiner: Thank you.
Teague: With the, um, with the current 30 days, is there a request that's made, do
you, essentially, do you have knowledge of the rationale of why someone is
leaving for 30 days?
Rackis: Uh, yeah, typically, um, we, we do. The, the policy, um, has stated that the
family must promptly notify the Housing Authority of any absence that you
know, is going to be, I mean, obviously they don't have to tell us they're
going, going to go to Des Moines for the weekend, but, um, we would like to
be notified by the family that, you know, they are planning an absence, in this
case would be more, you know, anything more than 60 days would require
our approval. The notification process would just simply be, you know, we're
going to do this. We're going to go, uh, you know, visit family in the Sudan or
visit family in Egypt or, or wherever. And, uh, they would notify us. And if
their travel is less than 60 days, then they're good, they're good to go. There's
nothing, nothing left, but to report, the regs do suggest that the family needs
to report to us when they do return, uh, to the unit.
Teague: Okay. Um, do you have any way of tracking the current 30 days, or would
there be a way of tracking the, the 60 days just to give, um, maybe a, a follow
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up report, should this pass, um, you know, on tonight, just to give us a global
picture of the stats of how many people are requesting this. And of course
this is beyond, um, any, you know, letter that has been submitted tonight, but
for us to have a clear picture of what, what, what do those requests look like
and what, um, timeframe people are out of the unit?
Rackis: Yeah, we can do that. We, we did, um, pull those statistics together as we
were looking at, um, at the issue. Um, we don't know if past practice will
carry forward in terms of the number of families that have made such
requests, but, um, you will just have to have to see, you know, the past
doesn't always predict, uh, future.
Teague: Yep. Thank you.
Taylor: There was some, uh, information included. I think it may have been a
question or concern that came out of the HCDC meeting.
Rackis: Oh, yes. Yes.
Taylor: As far as insurance on these properties, uh, you and the Housing Authority
are considered the owner. So would you have like owner's insurance as well
as then the renter has their own insurance --
Rackis: -- no --
Taylor: -- and is that affected by if they're not present there?
Rackis : No, this is, these would be families that are living in, in private sector,
private market units, the Housing Authority is not the, not the landlord.
Taylor: Okay.
Rackis: So this would be anybody living in, in a private sector, uh, rental unit. Um,
they entertain, you know, they engage in a lease with the landlord. We have a
contract with the landlord to pay on behalf of the family and the family's tied
to us with the voucher. And landlords do, in leases, uh, the ones that we've
looked at, um, landlords require, um, typically seven days' notice if
somebody's going to be gone, uh, from the unit. So that, that's another reason
for reporting. You know, we would like, you know, definitely have the
landlords aware, um, because we've had, you know, some stories where
people have left for an extended period of time and turned off all the power
and the unit got flooded because the pipes burst. So landlords would like the
notification to make sure that, you know, that the property is secure. Um, and
yes, the Housing Commission, uh, they're, um, they, the, some, like the, uh, the
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existing policy concerns about fairness to those on the waiting list for a
voucher and concerns about property -owner insurance coverage. Um, I, we
don't know what that timeframe is for a private landlord, but apparently the
rates skyrocket if the entire unit, um, is, is empty. So, uh, that was a concern
of theirs. And, uh, let's see. Yeah. So the final vote was 3-2 in favor of defining
"brief' as 60 days.
Taylor: Thank you.
Teague: Any other questions for Steve? Thank you. Would anyone from the public
like to address this topic? If so, in-house, please sign your name and come up
to the podium. And then if you're online, uh, please raise your hand and I'll
acknowledge you. And we have our past Mayor Pro Tem Salih, so welcome.
Salih: Hi, good evening, Mayor and City Council, City staff. Uh, my name is Mazahir
Salih. I'm the Executive Director of the Center for Worker Justice. I'm just
going to give you like, a quick recap, I guess. Uh, Steve like, explained it very
well, I don't have to go through everything, but last time we came here and I
brought a lot of resident to tell you why was the reason that they, they need
this to be extended. So we thought we don't have to repeat ourself. We
already told you that we have some people on the audience if you have any
question and we have some people on line too. So if you, you need them to
speak more or convince you more, they can come and speak. Otherwise we
don't have to. But, um, the thing that first, thank you very much for, you
know, the Steve, Director of the Housing Authority, and also Tracy Hightshoe
for the recommendation to the HCDC for extend it to 60 days, that's was
good. I think that's what we really want. And, uh, some question being raised,
uh, the, you know, always we educate the family to tell the landlord and the,
you know, the Housing Authority for any absence, because you never know
what's going to happen. So that's why, and also we always educate our low-
wage workers and family, like immigrants about turning on, like, leave your
heat on if you travel during the winter, because they don't know that, you
know, so some people, we had this accident from when somebody left the
heat off and, you know, the pipe freezed and it was like flooded, you know?
Yeah, all this kind, we need education. We continue, the Center for Worker
Justice continue to do those kind of education. Uh, another thing that I really
would like to see being changed in the policy, uh, you know, as the Director of
the Housing already said, yeah, change it to 60 days. But I, when I look at the
HUD policy, and I think I give copies to two Council member here, from HUD
policy that, you know, the word household and the word family, the, the HUD
used family, but the Housing Authority used household. Like for example,
they said when you, you travel abroad to visit your family, or, and if you, if a
family member is being sick, those kind of things, but here it says, household
being sick If the household being one of the household being sick, we're not
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going to travel. He stay like here in the country, because unless you go there
already and somebody gets sick there, so you contact the Housing Authority,
I was coming less than 60 days, but somebody got sick, for example. Yeah.
That I understand. But really we would like to see, uh, say same wording that
used by HUD to be used by the City. You know, even always think HUD is a
strong rules and the City should be a little flexible, reflecting the community.
Yeah. Thank you so much. And I hope you vote this. Yes. And thank you for
voting down the first item.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else like to address this topic? No one's
online. So welcome.
Petersen: Hello. My name is Noah. Uh, and yes, I, I support this, but I mean, say, um,
go like, just, why not just go with the 1. 180 days that HUD allows you to do it
for honestly, like, I mean, anyone else, it isn't receiving the housing
assistance, they don't have to have permission or have like how long, how
absent they can be from their own home. Like, it's, it's honestly really
freaking observed, absurd to me that's like that people who receive
assistance are, have their, their rights just limited like that. And so like 60
days is better than 30 days, but just go all the way to the like legally allowed
that HUD allows you to do, to define brief as the 180 period. Like, that's it
doesn't, like, because that's like what you can like, can, can do that legal, like,
[garbled] defines it as just let them do that, I guess, like instead to like give
them more freedom instead of having to, yeah. Just do the maximum amount
of days instead of just the 60, but do the 60 too, I mean, but go for 180 next
meeting. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you. Would anyone else like to address this topic? Seeing no one,
Council discussion?
Taylor: Well, first I'd like to, uh, thank the HCDC members, um, that at our request,
uh, did, uh, take time to take a look at this, uh, in special consideration so
that, uh, it could be expedited and I am in favor of this, and I'm sure that over
the years, uh, this kind of travel has probably become very expensive for
these folks and, and people, um, want to make the most of whatever time
they have to visit with their family, uh, so would like to have a longer
extended visit. And I'm thankful to have my family as close as just across
town, uh, and can hardly even imagine, uh, having family thousands of miles
away and rarely getting to, to see, see them, let alone to spend much time
with them. So I'm hoping that increasing this to 60 days will, will help these
persons, uh, to be able to enjoy their visits and still be able to return to their
homes here in Iowa City.
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Thomas: Yeah. I appreciate the process on this and everyone's involvement. Uh, and,
um, you know, what we're talking about here is the definition of brief, which
is kind of interesting and how that has changed over time. Now, you know,
what, when you're, when you're talking about long distance travel, uh, and
what that, the circumstances that that may might have associated with it, uh,
the, the notion of brief as, as it had been defined, needed to be revised. And I
think the, um, the 60 -day period makes sense as, as it, um, is noted in our
brief summary, it's still possible for people to have longer absences, um, for
prolonged hospitalization, things of that sort. So this is really, again, just
focusing on this notion of brief and acknowledging that, uh, the meaning of
that word has changed over time for Iowa City.
Alter: I will say that, um, one of the things that has always been a helpful driver for
me in this consideration is that, um, the federal regulations allow for 180
days. Um, and while I think six months would be too much, um, honestly,
because it creates a lot of, um, uncertainty for the very people who are
traveling. Um, but ultimately that's not my judgment call, you know, um, so
I've just used as a beacon, the fact that the, that HUD allows for 180 days. And
so I do think that, um, given that it has been actually so long since there's
been any kind of, um, revisiting of this particular definition, um, and that
indeed, as John has just pointed out, that our community has, um, shifted and
morphed and evolved, and the definition of brief is not the same for all, and
we shouldn't make those assumptions. Um, I really like the elegant way and
the simple way that staff ended up taking a very complex issue and making it
a simple solution, um, I'm really mindful of how long the wait list is and how
many people are waiting for their own homes. And that made this a difficult
decision for me. That said, I think that, um, we can't pit our decisions on
either-or, but it really has to be yes -and, and so I just want to put this
forward to say, I am supporting 60 days as the new definition of "brief", um,
but I want to encourage us to keep thinking boldly about additional ways that
we can get more affordable housing into the community. So thank you.
Teague: Any other comments? Roll call please. Motion passes 7-0.
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16. Assessment Appeal -- 314 Church St. -- Resolution adopting an
assessment schedule for snow and weed removal at 314 Church Street
and directing the Clerk to certify the same to Johnson County Treasurer
for collection in the same manner as property taxes.
Teague: Item number 16 is assessment, assessment appeal, 314 Church Street,
resolution adopting an assessment scheduled for snow and weed removal at
314 Church Street and directing the Clerk to certify the same to Johnson
County Treasurer for collection in the same manner as property taxes. Could
I get a motion to approve please?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Bergus: Second, Bergus.
Teague: And welcome, Stan.
Laverman: Hey, good evening. Stan Laverman, Senior Housing Inspector for the City
of Iowa City. Uh, we'll start briefly. Um, that's going to be hard to read, sorry
about that. What you see up there is, uh, the operating policy for, snow, uh,
sidewalk snow removal, uh, this was last before Council, uh, in November of,
of 2008. Um, this basically walks staff through on how to respond to
complaints that we receive, uh, in our office. Uh, the first part of it, well see if
we can get to a little bit, the first part of it deals with, um, community
engagement and notification to, uh, our community members about what, uh,
the responsibilities for removing and ice from the public sidewalks adjoining
their property is. We do this through multiple ways, um, we rely on press
releases, our, our Communications Department does a great job with social
media, uh, we're prevalent on our City website, Chity -- uh, City Channel 4 has
done, uh, uh, several little vignettes about shoveling your sidewalk and the
need for clearing that sidewalk, uh, full width and down to concrete. Uh, we
make ourselves available to print journalists, uh, to make sure that we're
getting accurate information out to the newspapers, and we participate in
interviews with local television reporters any chance we can get just to get
the message out. Um, a good thing to remember is all of our snow complaints
originate from community members, this is not a, um, proactive response to,
uh, this issue, uh, City staff is not going out and, and seeking out, uh,
violations. Uh, people, uh, deliver these, uh, complaints to us in a multitude of
ways. Uh, we do still have a snow complaint line where you can call directly
and leave your information, uh, we still have people that call City staff. Uh,
there is a report of concern function on the City website, and we also have,
uh, the mobile app ICgov Express, where you can use your cellular phone to,
um, snap a picture of the violation and send it to us directly. There's certain
notification requirements as we discussed, um, we talked about this, this
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comes from, uh, City Council action, uh, back in 2008. Uh, we do plan on
bringing this before you again, uh, um, probably later this spring, uh, there's
been quite a bit of change in technology as far as notification. Um, our mail
service has not been as reliable as it has been in the past. Uh, currently, um,
our policy requires us to mail out, um, notices, uh, unfortunately, uh, a lot of
times those notices are getting to, uh, the public, um, later than we would
like, um, if people have, um. One, one of the, the good things is that, well,
we've had an upgrade in, uh, software technology in the last few years, and
this has allowed us to provide greater electronic notification to people. And
while the policy states that we have to notify the property owner, because of
this enhanced capability, we've been able to notify the property owner, the
property manager, any tenant associated with it as well. Um, we continue to
use US mail, but we find that, um, it becomes cumbersome over time, um, and
our electronic, the courtesy notices we've been using those for, uh, second
offenses and abatements, uh, where the policy doesn't speak to that.
Additionally, on the first notice, uh, for single family and duplex properties,
uh, an orange courtesy notice is left at the property. Um, we leave these once
per snow season, uh, and it spells out, uh, the expectations of, of what we're
looking for, full width down to concrete 24 hours after a snowfall, it's after a
measurable snowfall. We use the National Weather Service's, they have a
station at the airport, um, uh, it's in the middle of the airport and it reports
automatically. It doesn't report until 10 o'clock in the day, a lot of times, but,
um, that's the one that we use to signify if we've had a measurable snowfall.
So that's kind of the background information. Um, we also have, um,
documentation requirements, uh, we take photos, our staff takes photos of
the violation prior to sending the abatement order to the third -party
contractor. The third -party contractor is required to document condition of
sidewalk prior to beginning the work in case it's completed in the time that
we've notified them. And the third -party contractor shows up, and then they
provide us with a documentation photo when the work is done. That's kind
of the basic background information as we move forward. For 314 Church,
uh, I believe Mayor, would you like me to continue or you are, are you
looking for public?
Teague: Yes.
Laverman: Okay.
Teague: Yep yep yep, please.
Laverman; Uh, for 314 Church, the property owner is appealing the snow abatement
and also the appeal for tall grass and weed abatement. There's kind of the
particulars of the case. I think these were in your packet as well. For this
case, it was dealing with at the snow event that ended Sunday, February 21st
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at 5:00 PM, um, which means that, um, we don't begin, uh, enforcement until
Tuesday at eight in the morning. Um, we received a complaint from a
community member at, uh, on February 23rd, um, at 2:41. Uh, on the right is
a, an example of the notice that was sent to the property owner for their first
snow violation. Um, so this was the first one and they also would've had their
orange tag on their door at that time. On Wednesday, February 24th, uh, staff
observed snow and ice on the sidewalk, uh, on the right, that is the example,
or that is actually the second offense, uh, notice that is used to generate the
abatements notice to send to the third -party contractor. Photo on the left
shows the after photo that the contractor supplied us to show us the work
was done, that shows their invoice that they supplied to us. This is the
invoice that we provided to the property owner for the snow and ice
abatement. This includes the fee that the third party, snow removal
contractor charges us along with a administrative fee of a hundred dollars to
cover the expenses associated with the extra inspections, uh, and the time
and documentation that staff puts into it. This cannot exceed our cost. This is
governed by the state code as well. Are there questions about the snow
renewval, removal portion of that?
Bergus: I do have a question. The orange, um, notice that gets, um, provided to the
property in this particular case, is that what happened in January of 2021?
Laverman: Correct.
Bergus: Okay.
Laverman: Yep. So at the first notice or at their first offense, it's only provided once a
year under the current policy.
Alter: Okay, thank you.
Laverman: Yep. Additionally, there was a, a tall grass and weed complaint at this
property, uh, that they're appealing the abatement of it. Uh, the, the, the
complaint came in August, Thursday, August 5th, 2021, uh, it wasn't
inspected until the following week of Wednesday, August 12th. And the
property was given, uh, until Friday the 20th to bring the property into
compliance In your packet, there would've been the same photos showing
the documentation of the violation. The property was reinspected on Friday,
August 20, 20th, 2021. And the tenant indicated property would be in
compliance by 4:00 PM. Um, here's a situation where we will grant in these
situations a little bit more time. Uh, we figured it would be easier to have
them complete the activity as opposed to ordering the abatement, uh, the
contractor probably wasn't going to get there until later the next week
anyway. So, uh, that extra time was given. Um, during the second inspection
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on Monday of the following week, uh, staff observed the property was not in
compliance, nothing had been done. So the order to abate was emailed to our
third -party contractor that same day and a courtesy email would've went to
the property owner, uh, at that same time, which is a copy of the, the
abatement order that goes to the third -party contractor. This is the
documentation provided by the third -party showing abatement work had
been completed on Tuesday, August 24th. We have billing from the third -
party contractor and the invoice that we sent to the property owner. That
concludes that one. Are there any questions?
Teague: Okay. Any questions for Steve? And we're going to do these one by one. No
questions. All right. We're going to invite the property owner to come forth if
they're present. And this is for 314 Church Street, we don't see the property
owner here. We're going to move to Council discussion.
Public: Is there public comment on this one?
Teague: There is not, no. Any discussion by Council. So I guess a part of this is, um,
we allow the, you know, property owner to come and kind of speak to us and,
and give us their thoughts and their, on this, um, but they're not here. I guess
my, you know, for me personally, when I, you know, think about the snow,
um, I do know removal of snow is hard, especially if it's icy, um, but I also
know that access, uh, uh, uh, accessibility is super important to ensure that
people have the ability to get around, um, and I think if, you know, if, you
know, some of the comments that we've heard from those that have, you
know, complained or something like that, um, I won't name any names, but
there, there have been some of our, um, disability champions that have, you
know, talked till they're blue in the face about how hard it is, you know, to get
around, uh, when they rely on a wheelchair or electric chair and they have to
be in the street and even then it's a challenge. And so, um, in the absence of
this, um, person, um, without them coming to, you know, give us, give us their
side, um, I will be upholding the, the City's, um, position.
Alter: Are these to be considered as a package, since one was going to - -
Teague: No, we're going to do one by one.
Alter: No no, I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. Um, one was for winter and, and then as one
was also weed. Okay.
Teague: So together, I mean, we could, we can certainly,
Alter: -- oh, no no.
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Teague: -- split it up.
Alter: No, that's fine. If that's what, you know, the design. No, I just, I think in terms
of accessibility and safety, for people who are traversing through sidewalks
and whatnot during the winter, um, snow is, as you say, both incredibly
difficult to get rid of at times, but also that much more important, I feel than
weeds, which in this case, at least it did not look like it was, uh, posing any
kind of, um, violations or, or, or difficulty for people who were sort of walking
nearer on the sidewalks. So that was just a comment I wanted to make.
Teague: Roll call please.
Goers: Thomas?
Thomas: So what is the, the vote is yes in support of, um, staffs recommendation?
Goers: Yes. To assess the, the fees and so forth. Yes. Sorry. I'm sorry. Did you vote? I
missed it.... Oh, sorry. [Roll call vote.]
Teague: Motion passes 7-0.
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17. Assessment Appeal -- 1851 Muscatine Avenue -- Resolution adopting an
assessment scheduled for snow and weed removal at 1851 Muscatine
Avenue, directing the Clerk to certify the same to the Johnson County
Treasurer for a collection in the same manner as property tax.
Teague: We're at item number 17, which is assessment appeal, 1851 Muscatine
Avenue. This is a resolution adopting an assessment scheduled for snow
removal at 1851 Muscatine Avenue, directing the Clerk to certify the same to
the Johnson County Treasurer for a collection in the same manner as
property tax. Can I get a motion to approve please?
Thomas: So moved, Thomas.
Alter: Second, Alter.
Teague: Moved by Thomas, seconded by Alter. And welcome again, Steve.
Laverman: Mayor, it's Stan.
Teague: Stan. Did I say Steve twice now?
Laverman: My brother is Steve, which you would not know. You, you have, and
that's fine. My brother,
Teague: You know I know you, Stan Laverman.
Laverman: I know. And Steve Rackis is the Housing Authority.
Teague: Yes.
Laverman: But, and, but my brother who's a farmer in Northwest Iowa loves to see
my name, or see his name in print, so don't worry about it.
Teague: Sure. Sorry about that. Welcome again.
Laverman: Okay. 1851 Muscatine Avenue. Uh, this is the appeal of a snow abatement
notice or a bill. Um, specifically, this is for a snow event that ended, uh,
Tuesday, January 26th, uh, at noon, uh, enforcement began began on
Wednesday, uh, 27th, uh, at noon, uh. For this property, they had a previous
violation, uh, for the 2021 season, uh, on Wednesday, December 16th, uh,
that's the notice that is appearing there in the middle, um, so they would've
had the orange notice and they would've had this, uh, written, um, notice sent
to them as well. Um, this is, um, on Thursday, uh, January 20th, uh, staff
observed snow not fully cleared or the sidewalk not fully cleared from the
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sidewalk and down to concrete again, that first offense was December 16th,
2020. Uh, the policy allows us to have this abated immediately. Um, the order
to abate was email, emailed to the third -party snow removal contractor, um,
at 2:00 PM, and the courtesy notice was included to the property owner
because we had his email. Uh, the picture on the left is the before of it not
fully cleared and down to concrete. Uh, the middle picture is the picture of
the contractor supplied where it's completely cleared, uh, invoice was
provided. And I apologize, I don't have the invoice that was given to, the City
invoice that was given to the owner. It was sent. I believe that's in your
packet though. I apologize, I didn't make the slideshow. That was relatively
quick. Do you have any question on that one? So the policy states that it has
to be full width and down to concrete, so, uh, when it's less than that, people
with assisted devices or mobility issues have a harder time getting through
those areas. So our standard is full with down to concrete.
Teague: And so hearing no questions for you, we're going to invite the property
owner up.
Tomus: Thank you. My name is Mircea Tomus and I live here and it is absolutely
true, I got the first notification, the, uh, the orange one. I was out of town. I
called personally back to apologize and the snow was cleared when it came
to the first event. Now with the second event, uh, uh, the problem is as the
inspector himself had acknowledged, I had cleared the pathway, but not to
the right width. Now it was not really clear to me what the right, the correct
width would be. And when I asked him directly, he said, until the grass
shows. Now, to me, it seems some sort of a relative type of standard until the
grass shows. If you have a, if you have a layer of, you know, three inches of ice
on the right and on the left, I was continuing to, I've done it for years and it's
not like I refused to clean the snow, the explanation that other people could
not have passed along with the sidewalk, uh, struck me as, uh, you know,
incomplete since, uh, the property next to me, which, uh, was unlived, had a
sidewalk which had been covered in snow for, for an entire week. So I can't
really imagine how people would've come with wheelchairs or not passed for
my property once they had passed through, through huge drifts of snow,
which had been there for 10 days. And the, I do have, uh, pictures to, to, to
show that. So in other words, uh, what the inspector is saying that if
somebody complains, then they will go there. But if nobody complains, then
there is no problem whatsoever. And in this, in my case, I would argue that
people complained for the property next door. And then people who came to
clean the snow. They simply widened my portion of the sidewalk and they
charged me $210 for that. It's not that I was in good, in bad faith. It's only that
they larged, they enlarged a portion which was already that there. So I think
that we should offer a little bit of, uh, flexibility here because I'm 67 years old
and I'm doing my duty and I, I don't have problem with that, but under such
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standards that, you know, that, you know, the sidewalk has to be clean until
the grass shows. It seems that a little bit of neighborly flexibility here would
help. We live in the same community. If I have the opportunity to help a
neighbor to widen the sidewalk, because I have a snowing machine, I will do
it without asking for fines or prices. This is the spirit of the community. And I
think, I, I honestly think that this, this kind of approach we give you a, uh, a
yellow tag or a purple, uh, an orange tag and a warning, and that after that
immediately you are going to have to pay is a little bit extreme. I could have
cleaned the sidewalk myself, had I been told that it has to be until the grass
shows. I would've put, uh, um, sand or, or, or, or, or, or, uh, salt. I know that
this is not an excuse, but I'm just showing this kind of lack of flexibility, uh, of
which the Mayor was, was also mentioning sometimes the it's really hard to
keep up with standards. So again, you know, in the spirit of community, I
think it would be, uh, advisable and, uh, commendable to show a little bit
more flexibility. And just a matter of principle, when I went to complain
about this, I was being told that actually, you can complain about it because
your, your complaint's going to come on my desk as well, so, to the desk of
the person who fined me. So if you want to complain, go and complain
towards the City people. I don't think that's right. Thank you so much.
Teague: Thank you, Council discussion.
Thomas: I, I have a question for Stan, or is it Steve?
Laverman: I do answer to both.
Thomas: Um, in that first notice is there, uh, language regarding the removal policy,
in terms of the, you know, the full width, the four, the typically is four feet
wide is required in removing the snow.
Laverman: It says if snow and ice have not been cleared, cleared to concrete across
the entire width of the sidewalk, the City will contract for removal and bill
the property owner for removal of the, for the cost of the removal, plus a
hundred dollars administrative fee.
Thomas: And that's in the first notice.
Laverman: That's in the first. Yes. And it's also in, um, the written notices of violation
that are sent as well. The corrective action is the entire width of the abutting
sidewalks must be cleared down to concrete.
Thomas: Thank you.
Teague: All right. Council discussion.
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Thomas: Well, I'll, I'll chime in here. I, I, I think, you know, there, there, I do have,
first of all, I do think there's, uh, with, with Stan's clarification there, that the
fact that the, in the first notice, which is, is kind of a grace period in Iowa City,
I mean, there are cities with re, with regard to snow removal that do not have
that first, goes without a, without, uh, any kind of citation. So there's kind of a
grace with, with the first warning, which is from what Stan just said, explicit
in terms of what, what the expectation is. Uh, so in that regard, I think it's, it's
fair to, you know, I would, I would be in support of, of, uh, staff s
recommendation. There, there are issues as was stated, um, that, uh, with it
being complaint driven, uh, there can be some, you know, that can result in
sort -- kind of a problem, um, with achieving what, what is our goal, which is
an accessible path of travel along the sidewalks. And if we're only citing the,
those property owners who are, you know, the City receives a complaint
over, um, those who do not receive a complaint, you know, aren't required to
clear their sidewalk. So you can end up with sections of our, our pedestrian
infrastructure, which are not accessible. That's sort of a separate issue, but I,
I appreciate the frustration. I'm sure many people feel that, uh, as we just
heard that, you know, they're, they're being cited when simply because the
fact that their neighbor wasn't, uh, they were being held to the standard
while the other, the, the neighbor is not. And I, I appreciate that concern and
frustration, um, but in terms of the way this process was played out, I, I will
be supporting staffs recommendation.
Alter: Um, actually as one who gets out and shovels often, uh, when this happens,
um, I know firsthand, it's very hard to know the width when, um, you're
going along in the middle of winter, um, just case in point. And I'm looking at
the pictures here and for what it's worth the snow pack on either side is,
looks to be at least six inches high. Maybe it's four, whatever, but even so
there's no snow, or, I mean, sorry, there's no, there's no marker, unless
you're constantly digging one way or the other. And I know this from my own
experience as well. Uh, I now know I will go to grass to grass for a width. Um,
I realize that there can be, you know, mistakes and, and, um, and a need for
accessibility, as I just said with the other property. Um, however, in this
instance, because I don't think that it was spelled out in the orange
notification about the width, um, I'm inclined to say this was, uh, a good faith
effort, not to mention the fact that the gentleman mentioned that he was out
of town when he first got the ordinance. It wasn't like he ignored it. So, um, I
actually will, I'm in support of the plaintiff.
Teague: So for me, this is one of those where we've allowed, you know, the property
owner to come forth. The City staff, in my opinion, did exactly what the
Council, um, has directed. Um, so there is no, um, I, I think no inappropriate
actions there. Um, I think, you know, the width is something that, um, a lot of
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people don't know about. Um, there was, as, uh, Mayor Pro Tem just
mentioned this, you know, act of faith, you know, uh, snow happens, you
know, lawn is more, you have a little more freedom with lawn, um, when you
can mow your lawn, but snow happens and you know, that response has to
take place. So for me, with this one, you know, I, you know, the, we still don't
see pavement, you know, that type stuff at this one little hump. Um, I do
know that you can have the perfect snow removal and then, you know, the
wind blows and all that other stuff. I do think the ordinance does stay and
stand. You can correct me if I'm wrong and this isn't what, uh, uh, the
gentleman just said, but if, it's natural snowfall, so if, if the wind blows the
snow into, uh, sidewalk, is it correct to say that that is not a natural snowfall
and you're not responsible?
Laverman: It refers to natural accumulation, so that would still be a natural event.
Where you're not responsible for it is after you spent all the time, clearing
your sidewalk full width, um, that our snow plows come through and fill that
up with chunks of, of rubble and, and ice. Uh, you're not responsible for that.
Teague: Thank you. Um, so at least for this one here, um, this is more providing
grace um, than, um, whether it's, uh, is just providing grace. And so I think
because there was, um, some attempt, you know, I would ask you the
question, but I'm just going to state it. Um, this won't be before us again, I
would assume. All right. Thank you. So I'm going to, um, acknowledge that
staff did exactly what they were supposed to do. Um, but in this one, I will not
vote in favor of it.
Bergus: I agree with you, Mayor, for the reasons that you stated.
Taylor: I also agree with you, Mayor.
Teague: Any other comments, Roll call, please. [Roll call vote.] Uh, motion fails, 1-6.
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18. Assessment Appeal -- 1050 Woodlawn Drive -- Resolution adopting an
assessment scheduled for snow removal at 1050 Woodlawn Avenue and
directing the Clerk to certify the same to the Johnson County Treasurer
for collection in the same manner as property taxes.
Teague: We're at item number 18, which is assessment appeal on 1050 Woodlawn
Drive, resolution adopting an assessment scheduled for snow removal at
1050 Woodlawn Avenue and directing the Clerk to certify the same to the
Johnson County Treasurer for collection in the same manner as property
taxes. Could I get a motion to approve please?
Bergus: So moved, Bergus.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: All right. And welcome...Stan.
Laverman: 1050 Woodlawn, uh, deals with two snow abatements. Uh, the first one
took place, uh, or dealt with a snow event, the first snow event from the year,
uh, from Saturday, December 12th, ended at 6:00 AM. We had 2.8 inches of
snow, enforcement began, uh, at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, the December 12th.
Uh, on Thursday, the 16th at 3:00 in the afternoon, we received a complaint
about the Jefferson Street sidewalks, which, uh, which, uh, are adjacent to the
Woodlawn Avenue property. Uh, Friday, uh, we observed that there was
snow on that sidewalk, uh, that snow notice was sent on that Friday,
December 12th, or excuse me, December 17th and notice was mailed to the
property owner, and a courtesy notice was posted to the property on
Woodlawn Avenue as well. Uh, reinspection took place, uh, Monday,
December 21st and the sidewalk was still out of compliance. The abatement
order was sent, no email was available for the property owner, uh, so no
courtesy notice could be given. Uh, the property was abated on that Monday,
the 21st. Uh, that's a copy of the notice of violation. Uh, this is along Jefferson
Street, um, that is the condition of the sidewalk prior to the third -party
contractor, removing it, removing the snow. Uh, and, uh, the second photo is
the post abatement, um, this shows the invoice from the contractor. This
shows the invoice that we sent to the property owner, including the
administrative fee. Additionally, um, there was a, a second abatement at this
property. Uh, this was, uh, what we affectionately called snow event 9, uh,
which took place Sunday, February 21st. Uh, again, 2.7 inches of snow, um,
ended on Tuesday. Um, a period of time later, March 1st, we received a
complaint again about, um, the snow on that sidewalk along Jefferson Street.
Uh, we went out the same day, observed that it was mainly snow, or excuse
me, mainly ice. Um, this first notice had been sent back in December, uh, on
the 17th. We emailed the order of abatement to the contractor. Again, we
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didn't have any email available for the, the property owner. Uh, it was cleared
on March 2nd of 2021. We still, excuse me, we still mailed a copy of the notice
and abatement to the owner. Um, this shows the before picture from the
third -party contractor, and the second photo shows the after. This is the
invoice that the contractor sent for the second abatement, that's the invoice
that we provided to the homeowner. Any questions?....I've had a lot of
conversations with this owner. Um, this is a case where a neighbor had
graciously cleared that sidewalk for him for years, uh, and something
changed and it wasn't cleared, um. Made contact, we, he had some assistance
there through the middle parts of the year where he had somebody doing it.
Um, and then it just got out of control and, um, we received complaints and
had to take action, so.
Teague: Any questions for Stan?
Bergus: Stan, I don't know if you know the answer to this question, but in my mind,
Woodlawn, do they have sidewalks even on the front side? This would be on
the backside of the property.
Laverman: This would be on the backside of the property adjacent to their property.
Yep.
Bergus: Okay.
Laverman: Yep. So you're still responsible for the adjacent sidewalk to your
property if it's front or back. We run into that on Sycamore Street as well, but
I mean, on, uh, on those cul-de-sacs, you do have sidewalks in the front, but
sometimes the sidewalks along Sycamore there are a surprise to those new
homeowners.
Bergus: Thank you.
Laverman: Scott Boulevard, another situation where sidewalks are in the rear.
Teague: All right. And we're going to invite up the owner. I don't see the property
owner, and the property owner isn't on line to raise the hand. Council
discussion. Roll call, please. [Roll call vote.] Motion passes 7-0.
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19. Assessment Appeal -- 1940 Plaen View Drive - Resolution adopting an
assessment schedule for weed removal at 1940 Plaen View Drive and
directing the Clerk to certify the same to the Johnson County Treasurer
for collection in the same manner as property taxes.
Teague: Item number 19 is assessment appeal, 1940 Plaen View Drive. This is a
resolution adopting an assessment schedule for weed removal in 1940 Plaen
View Drive and directing the City Clerk to, uh, certify the same to the Johnson
County Treasurer for collection in the same manner as property taxes. Could
I get the motion to approve, please?
Weiner: So moved.
Alter: Second.
Teague: Moved by Weiner, seconded by Alter, and then, welcome, Stan.
Laverman: All right. 1940 Plaen View had a situation where we had tall grassy
weeds in the yard, and then we had the sidewalk, uh, or the right-of-way was
obstructed by plantings as well. Um, again, complaint came from, uh,
community members, um, and we received that on Sunday, August 15th of
2021. Uh, following week, the property was inspected by, by City staff, uh, on
Monday, August 23rd, and it was found to be out of compliance, courtesy tag
was placed on the door, uh, notice of violation was sent by mail and we did
have emails, and then the property manager, or excuse me, the property
owner was emailed. Uh, the property owner was given until Monday, August
30th to bring the property into compliance. Uh, property was reinspected
Wednesday, September 1st, and it was, it was observed to be still outta
compliance. Um, our staff felt that there was a need for additional education
and an opportunity to gain voluntary compliance, um, through additional
conversation. An additional notice was sent by mail, an email with a, uh,
compliance date of September, Monday, September 6th. Um, that
reinspection took place, Tuesday, September 7th and the property was out of
compliance. Uh, the, the abatement order was emailed to the contractor, uh,
on Tuesday, September 7th, and a courtesy notice was included to the
property owner. Uh, the, the third -party contractor, uh, arrived September
12th, uh, photographed property, pulled equipment off the trailer and the
property owner prevented third -party contractor from pleting, completing
work. We have been billed by the third -party contractor for the time
associated with the attempt, the attempt to abate. Um, these are examples of
the notices that came in through ICgov Express, um, this is some of the
documentation of the tall grass and weeds at the property. It`s the notice in
the email, this is right-of-way, um, obstruction, so we have a situation where
we have plantings and plants that are obstructing people from passing clear
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through on the public right-of-way. Uh, that's the notice for obstructing the,
the public right-of-way. Again, as I stated, uh, a second notice was given, uh,
there was additional conversation associated with this complaint with the
property owner, but an additional time was given for compliance, uh, on both
issues. Again, on the, the 7th of September, uh, at the subsequent inspection,
it was noted that nothing had been done. Um, there was an attempt again to,
let's, let's back that up. The, there was an attempt after the, the third -party
contractor attempted the abatement to arrange for, um, a suitable time for,
uh, the clearing, um, that did not take place. Uh, the, the third -party
contractor did invoice us for, uh, his time and that was provided to us, and
then additionally, on to the property owner. Any questions on that one?
Teague: So I just want to be, uh, I guess just your last comments. Um, so the
contractor never did the removal.
Laverman: No. And, uh, in these situations, especially where we have, uh, abatement
of, or we have issues with obstruction of the right-of-way, our next step
would be to, uh, issue a civil citation, uh, for the violation that's, uh, within
our, our purview. Um, we didn't feel that, uh, in the circumstances, uh, with
dealing with the pandemic and the court systems, that, what they were,
bringing someone into the court system over this, um, at this time was, was
warranted, uh, and pursued other means and, uh, looked to gain compliance,
uh, this year.
Bergus: I had a question about the total amount, Stan, um, it's on, I don't know that
was in your slides, but in our packet, we have kind of just a, it's on page 263
of our packet, but it shows two different $150 amounts.
Laverman: So there's two different charges here. There's one for the tall grass and
weeds, which is, which is a separate code section. And then there's a separate
violation for obstruction, obstructing the right of way.
Bergus: Okay.
Laverman: So it's, so he split his fee between the two charges.
Bergus: So it's an assessment without, uh, there's one invoice for $50 from the --
Laverman: There's, he split his, he, there's two invoices.
Bergus: Okay. I was just looking --
Laverman: He split it, there was a hundred dollars fee. We split those between the
two.
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Bergus: I see. Okay. Thank you.
Teague: Any other questions for Stan? And we're going to invite the property, only
the property owner.
Tomus: I have a question.
Teague: We are inviting only the property owner.
Guo: Um, good evening. Uh, thank you for time and patience. I have sent the first of
thing first -- the picture, when you take a different point of angle, it actually
shows very different. Number one. Number two, just as formal, we have
discussed that if it's solely complaint based, it can be different. In our case,
there's a backside of this story. And I will read, given the time is that, uh, last
but not least, it's third paragraph, my appeal letter, I have sent to you. Last
but not least, we rented one of our bedrooms to a lady, uh, to keep our ends
meet during pandemic, but we never received any payment during the time.
Uh, instead, uh, some her re-, some of her retaliation, including calling Cities
and DHSS to file unfounded complaints after complaints, she was even after
she was officially evicted by the, by the City's, the time of this also coincide,
there are code records that she was evicted. Uh, uh, she, so, uh, I don't
because I have English is my third language, I am emotionally, this was
received very late when I see the bill. Um, so I emotionally was very, um, you
know what, what I want to say is that she was, um, during the period of time,
she, her monthly water bill was, uh, she got a water bill of $300 per month.
We lived there for years. Our monthly bill was $23. She never paid any of this,
not air condition fee either. Eventually she, she left the property, but she then
had never stopped call and complain. For years, we lived there. I lived there,
I maintained the eco -friendly, mm, environment and all my neighbors, most
of them are retired, passing. And, uh, they enjoyed my berry I had given them
and it's purely organic. Uh, and it's very good, and they also had always
enjoyed the flower. They're welcome to cut any. And they walked by. Nobody
had anything for years. I've been, you can check the records. I've been living
in that property for a long, long time. So, um, just now Tomus, the gentleman
was being, you know, people had complained, again, the other sidewalk was
never been touched. You guys had a approved appeal. In our case, is our yard
from no matter whatever direction, it, it is fine for years. Also upon receiving
it. I had a, I had my back problem. I had a ask neighborhood. They helped me,
they helped me as much as possible. They're not the professional removal,
but I am, uh, a, a fully believe a self, uh, responsibility, self mean the best
governance should be self go-, governing. I had the damage. You have tell,
you know, with the snow and everything. I never have a problem with snow
or everything. I do my best. In this, in this particular case, the, the picture of
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it. Again, I have also support the City with my current picture. Those are
currently, they're all being depleted, um, as, because the philosophy
difference, because most part of the world have noticed ecologically
sustainable environment is better than a three -inch -tall grass, for, for, for
mark my words, the healthy society shouldn't be just sustained by one voice.
It's destroying everybody. If we have a totalitarian govern, governing. I know
City need the revenue. We have the way forward, but we can use other ways
if we are a, a good tourist spot. If there are more people stop at a place
because, you know, other services that would be even better as a tourist spot,
Iowa City shouldn't be just a regular things with, with grass that that's, that's
stupid. That's, that's not sustainable. That's, that's ecological disaster. It, it
had to be, it's, it's all over the world. People don't keep that kind of
maintenance anymore. It's it's, it's, it's itself, it's not a sustainable it's wrong
practice. Again, the gentleman was doing his job and took a lot of pictures,
but we had never take that as liberty, our neighbor, we helped him. We, we
don't just maintain that for our sake, for people, they enjoy the difference.
They can stop, smell my roses, now, no nothing, no bees, no roses, nothing.
Everything is removed. I had to show, send a picture because last week I
thought it was my turn to appeal. I sent it today. I sent the entire letter. The
first part of letter I didn't read is that it is undue burden for us receiving
SNAP, heating. What is that? LIHEAP, it's not heating. There is another thing.
So it is essentially, it's not sustainable. It's, the gentleman knows that, that it's
become. Um, you stop the voice of different, um, you, you, you stop the
progress, you stop America being America. People come all over the world,
Sudan, Mongolia, Vietnam, they come here because they've been allowed to
be different. They will never not be, want to be unfriendly or to hurt people.
That was never the purpose. And now I see that that is the style and it was
entirely gone. Everything's gone. You can see last week, the picture, it was a
church. People came just, they honored everything. Nobody can have roses,
no berries, nothing anymore. It, it, I don't know what, what I am just, sorry,
three minutes might be, uh, um, and also the, the other gentleman want to
speak. He should give even just one minute, allow him to speak, because he's
67. In our, where I came from, people are older and a certain age, they earn
their rights. They, they, they have, that's why we say elders, they people
should, you know, these days probably people live a hundreds, but still, thank
you.
Teague: Thank you.
Guo: Oh my, can, may I, may she speak?
Teague: Is she a part of your household?
(daughter): Yes.
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Teague: Okay.
(daughter): Um, so we have this roommate and she called the City, and they
inspected our yard and I was there at the time. My mom was out of town,
well, well, at Aaron's, and she said it was high. It was not. We plant flowers,
all in the garden and it's not weeds. We plant herbs in our garden. It's not
weeds. And she keeps reporting us after she's evicted, which I don't think it's
fair that she's reportedly reporting us when she's evicted, not in our
household. Um, so then she called the police because I told them to leave, and
that she's not part of our household, which she wasn't at the time. Um, so
then my mom came back and she tried to contact DHS to not make my mom
off custody off of me. So she almost lost custody of me, which is not fair
because she didn't do anything. That's all I have to say.
Teague: Thank you. Thank you, both. Council discussion.
Alter: I did have another question for Stan. Could you explain how we differentiate
between like ornamental plantings, like flowers and berry bushes, and that
kind of thing.
Laverman: So we, we do make provisions for native plantings. Uh, key word is being
native, uh, and there are still certain requirements. Uh, it has to be
intentional. Uh, you can't just allow your yard to overgrow and say, that's
what I was planning. There has to be some thought put into it. Uh, there's
also buffers that you have to have around the sidewalks. Uh, and then,
especially in the right-of-way, you have to have, um, lower plantings, uh,
nothing over four feet. Uh, in essence, you need a foot on the curb, foot on the
sidewalk side, anything in the middle we'll allow up to four feet. Um,
concerns that people have is walking by that, uh, taller things, lean into the
sidewalk and scratch people. And if you're walking with kids and all that, it
becomes cumbersome. Um, on the street side, there's worries that, uh, of
safety of, of people being in taller plantings and, uh, jumping out into the, into
the sidewalk. These are issues that we've heard. Uh, and then in the yard, we,
we have provisions for, uh, natural plantings. We work with people, um, it
does require, um, a little bit of conversation with us about what you're
planting, uh, a maintenance plan, uh, to, to maintain it. Uh, we have several
areas in town where berries in, uh, you know, uh, edible gardens have been
planted and, and allowed by us and maintained very well.
Bergus: When we were talking about the snow removal, it was very clear that the,
um, to the edges of the sidewalk was required. Is the buffer and that kind of
thing that you mentioned, um, indicated in the notice as well.
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Laverman: It was not indicated in the notice. There was a lot of conversation outside
of the notice to explain that. Um, we felt we were having some difficulty at
times earlier on, but we feel it was, which, there was a reason gave the extra
notice. We felt that compliance would be gained voluntarily.
Bergus: And would you have allowed the removal of things that were sort of
volunteer and weeds and kept other plantings?
Laverman: Yep.
Bergus: And was that communicated?
Laverman: If they could have been identified, yes. Yep.
Bergus: Okay. Was that communicated to the property owner?
Laverman: I am speaking third hand. I, uh, I can go back, I believe it was, but I can't
speak with firsthand knowledge of that.
Bergus: Okay. Thanks, Stan.
Laverman: Joan Siders, who worked with us for, for the City for 39 years, this was
some of the cases that she dealt with. So she had extensive knowledge and,
and opportunity to work in these situations. So I have confidence that she
communicated well.
Teague: Thank you.
Laverman: Yep.
Teague: Okay. Continuing Council discussion.
Alter: So at the same time that I'm actually re- incredibly sympathetic toward what
seems to have been a very difficult situation, um, with a lot that has nothing
to do with, um, the, the environment of the yard, um, I'm still struck that
there, particularly in the sidewalks where the abatement is, um, does, it's
incredibly tight. Um, and I am mindful of, of what it is like for, for walking
through that. Um, so I can have both feelings at once. I feel that, um, this has
been a, a tough situation for the family, but I also believe that the City did
everything right. And I will support that they did what they felt, what, what
the strictures say that they needed to do.
Teague: Any other comments.
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Taylor: I did have a question. Who finally did do the clearing of the property,
because the, some of the final photos we got, it looks like it's like totally
cleared.
Guo: We did it, we did it because, um, it's um, number one, number two, it wasn't
June that is, well with us. I, I understand the City has a very busy time. I also
do understand, um, they have lots of people work with different properties,
um, but, um, night during 1990s it would jump and I then hire the people. I
then stayed at home to take care of my daughter full time. So, um,
Taylor: Thank you.
Guo: It was.
Teague: Thank you.
Guo: Thank you for asking. We, we completely took everything out. There was a, a
medical, additional claim.
Teague: Yeah. Any other comments?
Weiner: So essentially the, the, um, the charge is for someone who is not, is split
between someone who is, who was a contractor that was not, that the
homeowner did not allow to complete the work and the sort of blocking the,
blocking the sidewalk or whatever, blocking the right of way issue. Is that
correct? Um --
Teague: if you want to come forward and answer this.
Laverman: It's for both. It's for, um, maintaining the yard, there's a 1 for that. And
then also the, the abate, the obstruction of the right-of-way.
Weiner: Right.
Laverman: And the charge is for, um, the contractor's time to show up.
Guo: But --
Weiner: That was my question. Thank you.
Laverman: Okay.
Teague: Thank you.
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Harmsen: I'm a little bit curious, is it, is it normal to get two bills on the same
property like that? Or was it because of the, it just seems like that just added.
Laverman: It is, because it, it follows two different code sections. Yep.
Thomas: I think the, um, in this case, I mean, I, I do in, in, um, in terms of this policy, I
think the question of what is a weed is problematic, um, however, staff did
spend considerable time trying to explain, um, what a weed is in terms of
their, uh, weed abatement, so to speak. Um, and then there's the question of
the, the obstruction of the sidewalk. Uh, just one comment I would make on
that is our sidewalks, and I'm, I'm assuming this is a four foot wide sidewalk
that that's, that's a very narrow sidewalk to begin with, unfortunately. Um, so
when we, there's, there's very little float there in terms of, you know,
obstructing, you know, if vegetation grows into that area, you have truly a
sub, sort of substandard, uh, path of travel. So that's unfortunate because
there's no buffer there if people are planting and, and potentially obstructing.
Uh, so you know I'm inclined to sup-, support staffs recommendation. And I,
you know, I, I think they, they did make an effort to try to clarify what,
whatever, whatever confusion, um, the, the residents may have felt.
Teague: Any other, any other comments by Council.
Harmsen: I find myself kind of, uh, agreeing that I think that the bigger issue was
the, that getting through on the sidewalk and the right-of-way, and that's sort
of an issue, um, but it seems like this is already given to us in two different
pieces, um, and, and acknowledging that this is, uh, there's some, uh, it's kind
of a hardship case and there seems to have been some other things going on.
I would be okay with splitting these up and approving one and, uh, the one
that deals with the right of way, um, and the sidewalk, uh, but maybe not the
other one, uh, just as a, something to throw out there for discussion, uh, um,
from, from what we've heard tonight, I don't know if other Councilors have a
feeling on that.
Teague: Yeah. I, I, I mean, I do agree this one is, you know, um, there's a lot of
elements to this, but looking at the situation that we're talking about, which
is, you know, obstructing the, the sidewalk, um, you know, there was, you
know, notices given there was conversation had, my, I do understand that,
um, English is the third language is what I think I heard, um, additional time
was given by staff. So, you know, this one is a, you know, I, I think it is a hard
one, but I would be, I think, willing to kind of go middle of the road in a way,
and to, um, you know, dismiss one and keep the other.
Taylor: I would agree with going, uh, on one versus the other, particularly one
where the obstruction of the sidewalk, uh, but not like the weeds since
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there's not really a clear definition of, of, of what they had there on the
property. Um, I think there was some mention, uh, from the property owner
of some financial hardship. I, I would hope that, uh, with the remaining, uh,
charge that the staff would be willing to, to work with them on some type of
payment plan.
Weiner: How, how do we do this? Would we do, um, submit a, or make it, make a, a
motion, separate motion, within the motion?
Goers: Well, yes. So right now I'm just double checking. It, it, it appears that there's a
motion on the table now, and that of course is for the full amount, if, uh, it is
the will of Council or a majority of Council to, um, to change that I would
suggest a, a motion to amend, um, to whatever you see fit with a second and
a, you know, vote on that amendment. And then following that vote, vote, you
would have the vote on the entire assessment. If that makes sense.
Bergus: I did have a question about the resolution itself now that we've heard the
details of this case. Um, I think I'm looking at the right one in our packet. This
is for 1940 Plaen View Drive, and there is about two thirds of the way down.
It says the amount listed in Exhibit A for removing snow is confirmed and
levied against the property.
Guo: No, we never had the snow.
Goers: Let's see that, that, right. I do see that, that's an error.
Guo: We do not have any notice.
Goers: You don't.
Teague: Yep.
Guo: Yeah, he said we don't.
(daughter): And our roommate reported us several times.
Guo: Also, um, the biggest thing I want to say is one is still undo burden to us
because the, even the heating, I never even turned on the heat, rely on the
City's heat. I try to self sustainable, try to raise my, um, daughter, as you, you
could tell, but I, we volunteer for the animal shelter. We, we do everything,
but we do not have funds. It just, we can volunteer our time, but we have, we
have to together work. I, if I volunteer, oh, I work with, try to find somebody
spend the time with my daughter and then the money I make cannot make
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the money, the child care. So, um, it's um, so I understand in this case, is that,
um, going middle the way is not helping me.
Teague: Okay.
Guo: Um, I know we do not want to hurt --
Teague: I'm going to, I'm going to say thank you. Thank you for coming up and we're
going to continue Council discussion. Thank you. So I'm just looking at the
resolution,
Goers: Right. To be clear. I mean, the reference to snow is a scrivener's error, um,
apologies from our office for that. Um, however, all the attachments and
invoices and the notices, I mean, there's clearly no due process problem. Um,
yeah, clearly the property owners know what they were being, um, charged
with and, and the fees that are being assessed.
Bergus: And the, the lack of ability to pay an installments is that, um, based on our
code?
Goers: Uh, I'll ask Stan to answer that I, I thought that that is something that is
accounted for, but I'll, I'll defer to Stan, certainly, on that.
Bergus: It states it in the resolution that it won't be paid in installments. Sorry.
Goers: Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you meant, you talking about the assessment or
before we get to the point of assessment, like when they're invoiced.
Bergus: I think to Councilor Taylor's point of maybe setting up a payment plan or
something like that, the resolution would, would prohibit that.
Goers: Oh yeah. I'm, I'm afraid we're not at that point. Now, if, if the Council is
deciding to assess, the cost will be assessed, it's assessed to the property and
it's collected as though it's property taxes and so forth in, in that fashion.
Bergus: Okay. Thank you.
Teague: Hmm. So, I, you know, I guess we can spend some time trying to, you know,
convert this over. The way that I see it. I think it's very clear that the need of
what needs to happen within this year, moving forward, um, staff is very
accessible to the individuals to kind of help them identify, um, the proper, uh,
things, according to the code. So with that being said, and you know, I, I'm
going to apply a little more grace here for myself. People can be wherever
they are. Um, I, I'm just going to encourage the property owner to make sure
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that they speak to staff to en, ensure full understanding, um, of what they
need to do in this situation. I'm not going to vote, um, in favor of it.
Harmsen: I think that makes some sense, Mayor Teague, especially in light of one of
our earlier, um, earlier decisions. Um, first one we looked at where it was sort
of a, uh, um, don't, you know, don't, don't be back here next year with this
same thing. Um, same issue, uh, before us, and then that was sort of an
understanding. So maybe, uh, so I, I, I think that's somewhat consistent with
what we've done earlier tonight to go ahead and, and extend that. Um, it
sounds like the homeowner has cleaned up the space and, and hopefully the,
uh, there's no more confusion, uh, of any kind, uh, about what needs to be
done in the future. So I, I would agree with you, Mayor.
Weiner: Meaning...? I'm confused.
Teague: I do know. There was, go right ahead, please.
Weiner: I'm just confused. Which way --
Harmsen: The, the grace, uh, the Mayor's, uh, decision to, to vote against, so --
Teague: Right. I I'm going to apply grace and vote against it.
Weiner: Okay. I thought I heard a yes. So that was what was confusing.
Harmsen: No, sorry. I'm sorry. I probably, but I'm agreeing for that reason that
we've kind of already kind of done that once tonight. So.
Teague: There, there is, there has been discussion about at least the amendment
that, so I'm assuming that you're withdrawing that amendment.
Harmsen: Yeah. I never actually made a motion to -
Teague: Right, right.
Harmsen: So yes. [crosstalk]
Teague: That statement, so.
Harmsen: Yes, sir.
Teague: Any other discussion or are we ready to vote? Roll call please. [Roll call
vote.] Motion fails 1-6.
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20.a. Civil Service Commission -- One vacancy to fill a four-year term, April 5,
2022 - April 6, 2026 (Term expires for Ann Rhodes)
Teague: 20a is Civil Service Commission. Civil Service Commission has one vacancy
to fill a four-year term, April Sth, 2022 through April 6th, 2026. And this is
our, um, Council discussion at this point for an appointment. There are only
two individuals.
Taylor: I would move that, um, is this appropriate time to do that?
Teague: Yes.
Taylor: I don't want to jump the gun again. Uh, I would move that, uh, we appoint,
uh, Ann Rhodes to fill that position since she currently holds just a partial
position that she filled in graciously and has done well with a hundred
percent attendance. So, uh, I would move that we, uh, recommend her.
Teague: Okay. Yeah. She, um, yeah, She, she filled an unexpired term, expired term,
so that seems acceptable to, and, and her application would support it. She's
already been on there. So I would support that. Seeing nods of heads, so
could I get a motion to appoint, um, Ann Rhodes to the Civil Service
Commission?
Taylor: So moved.
Weiner: Second.
Teague: Moved by Taylor, seconded by Weiner. [Voice vote.] Motion passes 7-0.
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22. City Council Information
Teague: We are at item number 22, which is City Council information.
Taylor: I just, um, we heard the proclamation at the beginning of our meeting, um,
about International Women's Day and that March is, uh, International, uh,
Women's History Month. So I think it's appropriate that at this time to,
maybe a little out of place, but I'm going to do it anyway, uh, to congratulate
the Iowa women's basketball team on their amazing win on Sunday. It was
really amazing. Uh, and what an honor for them to be the Big 10 regular, uh,
season co -champions, that hasn't been done in many years apparently, and,
uh, packed house, which I know John Thomas was one of them there, of the
15,000 people. First time, again, since like 1988, that's, that's just an amazing,
amazing thing. Uh, they're just an extraordinary example of, of team
solidarity, always working together for every point they earned and, and
that's what teamwork should, uh, be all about. And so congrats to the Lady
Hawks. Um, and then there's a couple of upcoming events, uh, in the
community. This Saturday, March 5th from 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM is the
Community Crisis Services' 2022 Pancake Day. Uh, they had a little hiatus
with the, uh, COVID the last couple years, uh, but that is this Saturday, in
person, at the Community or at the, uh, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church,
2301 East Court Street. Uh, there'll be dine in, carry out, and a new curbside
to -go option, uh, for those wonderful pancakes. Adults $7, children, 10 and
and under $3, uh, great pancakes for a great cause for that Community Crisis
Services. Uh, the other event, uh, Saturday, March 26th and Sunday, March
27th, which I'm really looking forward to this, because this also was on a
hiatus, uh, due to COVID, uh, 10:30 AM to 4:00 PM both days. Uh, the Shelter
House Book Sale, uh, thousands of books are donated by community
members, uh, and sold at a very reasonable cost, uh, proceeds help to
support, uh, the critical work of the Shelter House. Uh, this year it's being
held at the Old Antique Car Museum, 860 Quarry Road in Coralville. And I
encourage everyone to stop by, and I can bet that you will find something
that you like.
Teague: Great.
Taylor: That's all.
Weiner: So I went, I, um, went to the, the, um, see the new Table to Table facility
when they had their open house. I think it's their 25th anniversary. It's a
really, it's a really great and spacious facility that they could, they share with
some, they share with some other nonprofits as well now. Um, and have,
have, uh, it's they have room for semi -trailer trucks, there's room for, to, to
be able to come into that parking lot. There's, it's, it's basically a hugely, it's
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not just a hugely improved facility, but the, the amount of food that they now
are able to recycle, uh, is incredibly impressive.
Teague: Great.
Weiner: Um, and I will leave it to you to talk about the installation. Of Barb Wilson.
Teague: Oh, yes. Yeah. So the president, uh, President Wilson was, um, installed and
we were celebrating the 175th of the University as an institution. And so
there was, um, actually a weekend of events to kind of commemorate, um,
this special occasion of the 175 years as all, as well as acknowledging and
officially through a, um, the traditional ceremonies of welcoming President
Wilson. I can tell you that there were, um, lots of great comments made by
individuals and even talking one-on-one with people, um, there's a few key
things that I walked away with, and the main one is that President Wilson
listens. And I think that's very key, to hear, uh, when you're a leader. And so,
um, kudos to President Wilson and from the City of Iowa City, we absolutely
welcome you to our community.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council
formal meeting of March 1, 2022.