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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-02-06 Transcription Page 1 Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen,Moe, Salih, Teague Staff Present: Fruin,Jones, Goers, Grace,Liston,Lyon,Knoche, Sovers,Hightshoe, Sitzman, Bristow,Davies USG: LeFevre,USG Liasion,Monsivais,Alternate 1. Presentation on City Hall Building Space Needs Study Teague: All right. It is just after 04:00 P.M. on February 6,2024,and this is the City of Iowa City Work Session.We're going to start with number one item,which is a presentation on city hall building space needs study.And the council just finished doing a tour in separate groups so that we didn't make a quorum.And I'm going to tum this over to our City manager,Geoff Fruin. Fruin:Well, first,thank you for the extra time today.Really-really do appreciate it.Um,you may recall that this is one of our strategic pla- strategic plan action items,excuse me,ah,and we're very excited to be working with the uh, OPN Architect team to really take a deep dive into, ah,the space here at City Hall and,ah,a goal towards the end of the-the contract. We're not quite there yet to establish a path forward in thinking about our fixture space needs. So here to talk,ah,today just about the need.We're going to stop at,the need. We're not really exploring solutions at this point,but,ah,just establishing that case for needing to-to move forward. Again,thank you for the tour.We've got about an hour long presentation,and I'm going to introduce Justin Doyle with OPN,who's going to introduce the rest of his team and start the presentation. Teague: Great. Bishop: Good afternoon. Teague: Welcome. Bishop:My name is Justin Bishop.I'm a partner at OPN Architects. Fruin:I apologize for that slip. Bishop: It's okay. We-we have a slide. Fruin:I heard a different group on my mind from earlier. Bishop: Um,and I'm representing a much larger team of architects and engineers here with me and my colleagues, Sophie and Landon,Architects here at OPN as well. Um, and we'll join me in sharing some of the information that we're-we've collected to discuss today. So ah,our agenda is really just to talk about the process,the conditions on observations, some of the space needs analysis that we've started to do with the different departments. Um, and talk about what the next steps might look like. So from the overall-overall,I need to not talk with my hands- from an overall process standpoint. You can see we're right at the end of the data collection phase. So we're stopping short.As Geoff said,we're not-we're not proposing solutions yet. This is really about an opportunity to connect with you and-and share with you where we're at and have an opportunity for more questions or input anything that you'd like to discuss. Ah,so the next phase after this would be the iterative design and then ultimately a final report,um,to share findings and possible This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 2 solutions moving forward. As we think about this process,um,it's not just quantitative nuts and bolts,it's also the aspirational sort of quality of space as well that we want to capture and think about.Um,so it's really using both sides of our brain,if you will,um,from that standpoint. The- the process overall that we've been through,um,to date has involved existing conditions analysis. So with our engineers we've walked through the space,documented things,um,and it's also engaging the-all the different user groups. So we've had a steering committee of key staff and stakeholders. And then we've also touched base with each of the individual departments as well. So we've had interviews and surveys and-and work that's gone into that. Um,so the-the-the data that we're collecting here is-is really the-the needs and thinking about what this facility should be,not only today to fixnction,but for the life of the building for the next 10 years or beyond. What we can project from a space needs and use standpoint as well.Um,so through all of this, we've-we've got a lot of great feedback.We've sort of distilled it down into a handful of guiding principles. Um,these are-these are 10 items in- in no specific order.Depending on your perspective,you might rank one higher than the other.But I think they're all important items that we've talked about and are sort of those common themes that we've collected from the different departments and different user groups.Ah,thinking about the experience of people coming into the space,becoming welcoming and inviting,um, creating healthy spaces where people work, um,and- and spend majorities of their day if they're here in the facility. Thinking about accessibility. So,um,ADA is a good minimum,but what can we do above and beyond that as well?Excellence in service. So that's the customer service. How do we-how do we serve the public out of this facility?Thinking about the respect and dignity, safety and resilience. Um,all of these things go to the experience,the sort of aspirational side of things. Thinking about flexibility and adaptability as things change now faster than ever with technology and different ways that we work.How can we sort of fixture proof what we can in a space design.And then pride in our city and community,um, is that sort of that sense of civic-civic pride and-and proud to be part of this space. And then a commitment to sustainability and understanding the climate goals for this opportunity is a project like this may have.Um,so here's a word,all of some of the common pieces of feedback that we got throughout the process.Just looking for more space, more privacy,better access to natural light.Um,and yeah, a lot of- a lot of consistent feedback and a lot of this. So really where we're at is analyzing what we have today. So we have a good handle in and we're starting to wrap a-wrap a bow around what we need in the fixture from a square footage standpoint,but also some of the goals of- of an analysis like this. Um, so with that, I'll turn it over to Sophie. She'll walk through a little bit more of the findings of some of the pieces that we've seen. Donta: First,we're going to walk through,um,conditions of the building itself,but we saw what our engineers saw touring through. And then we'll look into,um,some recommendations for space needs of what you guys need,um,at City Hall. So this is the building from the air.Um,you can see from the roofs that it was built in multiple parts. So the original police and fire hall, it's that brown.And then this civic center side was built in the '60s. And then,um,the addition kind of in dark green to police and fire was in the'80s,where they filled in the courtyard and then added a second floor to part of the firehouse. And then throughout the'90s,the final courtyard was filled in, ah,in that light green area.And then in the back,of course,the council saw this on the tour. The Augusta going up right behind us,impacted some of these spaces,um,with their windows, natural light as well. So here you can see it if we chopped it off at first floor.Looking at the structure of each of these,um,almost the whole building is steel frame,but built in different parts. Um except the original firehouse,um,is kind of a mix of bearing walls,load bearing walls and columns. And what this means is it's just harder to alter. It has been altered over time,but harder to take that space and convert it into something else,um,when certain walls can't come This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 3 down.And then program wise,this is the building kinda broken up into three pieces. City Hall over on this side,and then you have a public safety with police and fire,ah,to the west side. One of the other things we looked at through this building, especially because so many of the courtyards,where there used to be windows,were filled in over time as we did a day lighting study.Uh, ideally,any place you have people working all day,you want access to natural light in some capacity.Um,so looking at this,uh,there's different colors,but basically that dark blue is failing zero daylight. So looking at the maps,it's where the courtyard was in filled and then much of the lower level,that is all,ah,office space,gets zero daylight throughout the day. So when we look at it,proportion it's nearly half is spaces that we wouldn't really typically put office space, things that are more like storage in those areas, ah,that are currently office space.And you can see from the pictures,these are two people's offices.Uh,you have some people with you know two walls of glass. It causes problems thermally.It's- it's almost too much light. And then you have some people down in the basement with absolutely no light in their office or you know several offices out from that. The next thing we looked at is circulation through the building. And we're going to flip through these fast,but basically you have three levels and then a basement,so four levels,but each of them,except for third floor,is not actually one level. Um,part of this is because it was built in different chunks and part of this is because your lot is on a hill. Um,but it presents a challenge in terms of ADA access,um, and providing equal access to the whole building when you have all these different levels. So that is the lower level,it's basically four and a tiny five. Um,level one again is three and then this-this piece in front is fourth.And then circle, of course, are all the different staircases. There is not one because it was built in additions. There's not a central stair that accesses all these levels. Um,there's different sort of pieces that go to different. You know one goes to one and two over here,one goes from one down to zero over here throughout the building. Um,this is level two,which is basically in three pieces,afire piece, a police piece,and then,um,NDS. And then level three on the end.Um,so altogether,these are all the different stairs and ramps to get through the building.You can see it's not one or even really two clear,um,emergency egress or clear way if the public was coming in to find their way up to third floor or find their way around. The other big challenge,um, especially because it was built in pieces,is accessibility for people who can't use the stairs. Um, so you have one elevator right now.Ah,the areas in green is everywhere you can get to without stairs from that elevator. So this is the accessible portion of the building and it's really limited to City Hall.Um,that elevator has had some maintenance issues and since you just have the one should the elevator go out now,you can only really access first floor.Um,and then on the left you see in the police department there is a small elevator but the entrance from the lobby to police is not accessible. If someone were to say,come in to report a crime and they were not able to use the stairs,they would actually have to go outside all the way around and back through the intake, so basically back through the jail. So looking at this in summary,basically you have a mix. You have some areas like the lobby that are nice,new,they're functioning.And then you have some areas that are in a lot worse shape,um.About 50%of it,I would say shouldn't typically be office space for people in their full time,um and clear and accessible circulation is one of the big lacking things in the building. How do you find your way around and how is everyone provided equal access to the same services? So next we're going to look at systems. We had engineers take a walk through um, with facilities department.And these are basically all the different mechanical electrical room scattered throughout the building. And the big thing here is it's basically been cobbled together over time.And if you renovate one section,you've now cut off services from the other section. So you have an electrical room on one side of the building. You have your sprinkler service at another location. You have your boiler clear over here. It makes it harder to do things in pieces. And it means that some of the runs between these things,the length of pipe or the length of duct are really getting toward the end of what you'd want. And then exterior same,you have rooftop This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 4 units,um, for the heating and cooling kind of scattered all over the place. And then the transformer on the corner out front of the police department. So the main takeaway from our engineers really was that um,any sort of substantial improvement in the way the heating and cooling fimctions or the electrical and plumbing systems would require total replacement. It's been added,subtracted,patched together,basically since the '60s,um,adding any sort of additional space onto the existing systems,we are overcapacity at this point. If there's any sort of addition,we're looking at total replacement. And then the biggest thing is,um,progress toward climate goals.You're looking at total replacement. The existing stuff is not able to really be improved from a sustainability point of view. So the last thing we're going to talk about with the building is,um,kind of the human experience as you're going through. So the council just went through a tour and got a lot of this feedback as well.But some of the things in City Hall,I mean, the fust one is this room on a packed day,there's defmitely not enough seating,um,for a full audience. About half of this room is committed to the platform up front and the ramp needed to access it. So it's just not really an ideal shape or size anymore to hold a large meeting. And there's isn't not really-you can spill out in the lobby,but there's not really an awesome second place to put people.If there is some sort of large turnout meeting,you really,um,are undersized in here. Um,the employee amenities to talk about bathrooms later on.But the break room is really small. It seats about ten.It's down in the basement. It's for the whole building,um,and you walk past floodgates to get to it. So employee wellness spaces, employee amenities are one of the big things. Um,you can see the floodgate down there too. Um,you have sort of dark,narrow corridors in the basement that just don't really say like I would love to work down here. Um, and then overcrowding is another big one.Many of the departments are growing and they just don't have space for people. People don't have offices,they have corners and the conference room, desk in the comer of the hallway. Um,alot of the fastest growing departments are the most squeezed in at this point. Fire there's really,um,two major things. One is lockers and dormitory situation. This is built in the'80s,it was assumed all firefighters were the same gender. They could have open dormitories and that would just be fine. Um,all modem firehouses have singular pods. Your room has a closing door,changing rooms and showers have closing doors. Um,this is just how we construct these things now. And this is the one firehouse in town that does not have that currently. The other big thing is the apparatus bay. Um,you can see that's where you get your gear kind of squeezed into where you'd park the truck um,because they don't really have-you can't back in one side and come out the other side like a modern one would be planned.Um,you don't really have much space between the building and the sidewalk and the street.Um,this is how they back the truck back in. You have someone on the sidewalk and go on a little to the left and you have to slowly back the men from a response times perspective. The Apparatus Bay is undersized for the amount of vehicles and how they would fimction now. This bay was built in the '60s and has not been enlarged since.And then with police,it's kind of the same thing. Things are outdated and you have people packed into every comer of this office,in the bottom left,I had to get an aerial photo because,it is literally a closet. There's a column in the middle. You get to shuffle your way to the left and then sit down in your chair,um. They have desks scattered around,um,interview rooms,we defmitely recommend more and greater variety,um,than what they have now,um,the locker rooms downstairs are dated,but in particular the women's is much, much smaller and in much worse condition than the men's,that's the women's,where they just have their own curtains up.And this was not a recent picture,this was a dry summer day and they've got the fan running down there for humidity. Um,and then the other big thing is the entrance. So like I said before, if you come to report a crime,that's where you are.You've got this window high up,you've got stairs around a comer,um. If you can't navigate the stairs,you're going all the way around the building and back in where the people have been arrested come in. And then restroom access throughout the building is a big one too.Um,this is a chart of uh, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 5 men's fixtures and toilets in a men's room,toilets in a women's room um, any all gender fixtures and ones that would be accessible.You know,most of your bathrooms are down in the basement right below this. And they are old school men's,women's,no accessible stalls. That"s the women's right there. Um,just kind of a line up. And then on level 1,you've two all gender over there. If you have a large meeting in here, again,you've got just those two and they are not accessible by modem standards. And then everyone who works on levels 2 and 3 shares one women's and one's men's room. Those are accessible up on level 2,but again only accessible if the elevator is working. So big summary points to go over really with building um,your overcapacity in terms of number of people working here. That is Number 1.Almost every department has more people than the space they're in currently, and is finding ways to fit people in.Um,the quality of space is pretty inequitable across departments. So you have the area like over on the left where you've got windows,you've got nice office space. You come into the area to pay,utilities, finance area.It's pretty nice,but then you get in some of these corners of the basement,especially where they've had water issues and where they're more crowded,you don't really have people having equal work spaces.And then,with things like police and fire,you have firehouses all over town. The people who work at this one have a much different experience than the people working at the newer ones. Um,a big thing across the board was lack of meeting space, lack of training space for employees,because they're packing people into things that used to be conference rooms,used to be offices with a table in the comer,is now an office for three people. There just is not that space to conduct training and to conduct private conversations. Um,from a public perspective,it can get pretty confusing if you come in and you're saying you're meeting with someone in the Housing Authority,how do you find the Housing Authority from the front?Um,how do you find someone up on the third floor?Things like that. Uh,and then the public safety facilities,you know,we're built in the '60s,cobbled to get added on in the '80s,very undersized and outdated. That probably the biggest need of the building is that public safety side. So now we're going to go on to space needs summary,so how we got to these numbers.We're going to go through numbers basically,of existing spaces um,City Hall police,and fire. And then um,what they should be. And we got this,as Justin was saying,we have toured we've looked through,we've looked at peer facilities,um,in other towns. Um,we have looked at the survey information we got from employees on how many people are working there,how many people are working there in the fixture,um,and came up with some of these right sizes of spaces. So we're looking at these numbers,we're looking at,um,current space and then the second number is right size to what it should be now,plus trying to project 10 years into the fixture.We don't ever really want to look right now with recommendations because things are always growing going forward. So City Hall, which is,you know,this section of the building,you're about 41,000 right now,and what you need is closer to 55. And some of the big things that went into that number,um,about 21st-25% increase in the number of workstations needed than what you currently have right now. Um,the council chambers should be larger,um,to accommodate the size of public we have in Iowa City now. Um, again,this room was sized in the'60s the town has grown a lot since then. Um,right size meeting room space and technology we have a handful of these big conference rooms that often have two or three people meeting and then you have lots of people in cubicles on the phone a lot and on Zoom meetings and things like that now and particularly having sensitive conversations with members of the public.um,if you're calling about like the insulation grant, you need to give your income,uh, if you're calling because you're behind on paying your bills, you don't really need the whole office hearing that conversation. Um, so providing a lot more of the smaller rooms with technology and the rooms with translation capabilities is a growing need in the community as well. Um,looking at improving wellness amenities for staff,um,having some sort of private room,whether it's lactation room,prayer room, somewhere that you can go and have a break.Um,improving the quality and the size of the break rooms that actually become This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 6 somewhere where people are gathering and eating lunch together and having a spot to take a real break and then,uh,the restrooms,um,modernizing and distributing better throughout the building. Um,and then also just equal access to space,you know,you've got a lot of things that are technically compliant because they did what they could in terms of ADA,but making that really work for everyone for access throughout the building. So the next one we looked at is police. Um,you're going to look at these numbers and say,wow,that is twice as much,more than twice as much,um,and really that is what we're looking at,um,in terms of what you have existing is so undersized compared to what you would typically have for the number of people working there.But then also for some of these goals to have increased training,you need a training room,to have space for community partnership organizations they need a place to work. Um,there are all these additional services being provided alongside the police that ideally would be in that same location,physically together that there isn't room for right now. So some of the big things that go into it,um,a significant portion of staff currently,they do not have a workstation. Typically,they have shared workstations to write reports. They're working out of their car,uh,people in closets,people in corners things like that,um, improve and increase the number of interview rooms,provide a diversity of rooms,uh, for different types of interviews. Increase meeting and training space,uh,is a big one. And then space for community partnership organizations,um,for the plan for the police going forward. There really needs to be space for those people to work side by side. Um,included in this also is co locating there's,uh,a county and city collaborative cyber crimes unit that would ideally be located in the same place. Um, providing a more welcoming and accessible public entry not just having a little comer with the stairs,but having an actual lobby. Um,someone to welcome you when you come in,you have an actual main entry to the police headquarters. And then modernizing the locker room was making that more inclusive,similar to fire a lot more you see the pod style these days,having that in as well. And as comparative for police we looked at a few other cities,uh,and more recently built stations. You can see the population of the city on the left versus station size and you can see pretty quickly,uh, for the size of our city and the size of our staff,the current station is very much undersized for what it should be. Dunn: I'm sorry. Donta: Then moving on to fire similar situation,that firehouse was built a long time ago.Equipment was smaller,a lot less people,um,and looking at what would be needed at fire Station number 1,um, in an ideal situation.And the big things here and one of the biggest ones,the vehicle bay.Like I said,that bay was sized in the '60s,um,there's defmitely more equipment and larger equipment now. Um,typically you'd have space outside of it to take the truck out and wash it,say or not have to park vehicles in front of each other and move one vehicle to get another one out in terms of response times. Um,decontamination sequence,this is something you see in modem firehouses that you didn't then where you'd have basically,um,almost an air lock of you'd come in if you're covered in cancer causing materials that have been covered,um,you know,going out to see a fire. You have a room where you take all that off,you have this big industrial sized laundry machine basically you come through,um,have a shower,get cleaned up and then come into the building.You have this sort of lock between bringing all that stuff in with you to where you're also working and sleeping and eating. Um,replacing the living quarters with private pods, sort of updating that situation for the modem era of firefighters. And then acoustical separation right now,everyone's desk is kind of in a hallway,um,that you'd get to. So if you're trying to actually sit down and get the work done,um,there just isn't that sort of peace and quiet element that you would want,um,to give the firefighters.Here we compared Station number 1 to Stations 2 and 4 which were much more recently built. You can see there's a lot more staff at Station 1, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 7 um,the the five and in parentheses is out of Station 4,there are sometimes two people from Johnson County Ambulance,so that's why it's sometimes three, sometimes five. But you're looking at 3-5 five versus 12 and both of those other ones are larger stations that have all these things on the slide,like the pods and a larger apparatus bay. Um,so especially when you have people in the fire department working across,you see this inequality of the people stationed here versus the people stationed,say up at Station 4.And the other thing we looked at was the city comparison again,what are some peer facilities that have been built recently,um,and how large are those fire stations that are being built currently? So here's basically all three numbers together. What you have total at this downtown facility versus the projected need currently and then looking out into the fixture. Kind of back to the building history,you can see there's,you know, the initial building,uh,about 30 years later is a period of investment late '80s,early'90s, fmished up in 99,um,with the courtyard infill. And then,you know,looking 10 years out from now,here we are 30 years again looking at,um,you know,it's time for some investments in this building again,defmitely. All right.Justin,back to you. Bishop: I think so too. So that was a lot.I think the goal of our tours and sort of the summary today is to make sure that you all have sort of background information right, and-and can make informed decisions when that time comes in the fixture. Um,understanding um the existing conditions but also the opportunities.And I-and I think that's the thing that I want to make sure we highlight here too,is that it's not just challenges with the facilities but it's actually a testament to the amazing staff that the City has. The amount of work that they do,the way they utilize their space, is maximized to-to the fullest extent.And so I just want to make sure I give everybody kudos for that, ah,in-in how high performing everything is right now. And I think the-the fixture optimism and possibilities are exciting to think about,of-of what that could be. Um, so- so that was really our goal for today, for next steps it's really thinking about those opportunities and-and how do we want to prioritize those things and what might that look like. So,um,the site has constraints, um,obviously with the existing-with the existing City Hall facility and the space needs that are being identified. Um,that includes the site access for the-the trucks,the vehicles,apparatus, things like that. Um,I think most of you saw the flood doors in the basement. So understanding some of the other environmental constraints like that with the-the grading around the building. Um,understanding the-the history of the structure as well I think there's some really great bones here, some really cool,um,spaces. So how do we acknowledge that and- and weave that into a fixture plan?Um,thinking about the public access way finding a lots of room for improvement there.Um,the accessibility and sustainability, all of these things,um,will be factors into whatever solutions or ideas that-that might come out of this exercise. Um,the other thing that we didn't touch on in the existing conditions would just be that the realities of a phased project, so if there was,um,a fixture project to happen,understanding what does that mean to operations?How do you continually serve the public throughout any sort of project,whether that be fire or any of the other office fixnctions here,um,and thinking about the logistics of that can start to actually be a constraint on the design itself.Um,so we're excited about the opportunities here and-and how that can start to align with the strategic plan of the city and also the climate goals.Um, and I think ultimately just boosting the civic pride,um,as sort of a-a great goal to think about those opportunities. Um,so with that,we want to make sure there was time for questions or feedback. If- if there's anything that you'd like us to think about as we move into next phases of this study, now would be a great time to-to share some of those-those questions or observations and yeah, we'll just open it up with that. Teague: I know there is a lot to be said. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 8 Moe: Who's gonna jump fust? Harmsen:All right. I have an easy question maybe just to get out of the way,just curious about the-when you say rooms with translation capabilities,just does it mean space for a third person to be a translator,or is there anything special with a design there I was just curious. Donta: Our translation technology basically. Teague: If you can come to the mic,please. Donta: It could be a third person.It could also be translation technology. Just the ability to have a conversation with a member of the public whose English is not excellent,so they can understand all the services as well. Harmsen: Okay,thanks. I was just curious what that actually meant. Physical space needs terms. Moe: I think it'll be interesting to see continued study of what spaces need to be close to each other,what need to be on the same site,what needs to be in a certain geography for response times.Who works together?Who doesn't matter whether they're together,I assume that's kind of the next piece of the puzzle. And there's probably the department heads who have,you know,who they work with. I'm kind of curious how the civic engagement component of that,like when the public comes to City Hall,what they expect,how that-how that engagement process unfolds to,sort of, what communities expectations when they show up at City Hall. Who's here versus who might be in a different building?Is that-is that a part of process? Bishop: Yeah,for sure we've-we've really done a good job engaging in all the departments. And then it's- it's really a question of when we're at the moment to-to gain feedback from,you know,other stakeholders, even outside of the City Hall as well so I think there's opportunity to do that within our analysis here and we'll follow-we'll follow your lead on. Fruin:Yeah,that was one of the survey questions that went out to the departments is,you know,what are those important adjacencies,either that you benefit from now or that you might benefit from in the fixture? So I know there's already been some work on drawing those connections between, for example,engineering and urban planning being close to each other,right?Because they're reviewing the same plans at the same time. So those adjacencies will be really important. Bergus: Just following up on that with the order of operations question. Are we evaluating like all the real estate and buildings that the current- city currently owns as we're thinking about that,or are we sort of saying everything that's in this building we're going to assume should stay like,how are you approaching that? Fruin:Yeah, so the scope of- of the work um,with OPN right now has a couple of specific scenarios that we're looking at.But the goal is to-to get a big picture of,you know,what pieces may be interchangeable. So,the specific scenarios we're looking at would include potentially relocating the Housing Authority.We've talked a little bit about that in the past of trying to maybe take advantage of adjacencies with counties departments as well,should that opportunity come up. And then the police department itself,and if you look at all the adjacencies in city hall,police has the least amount of connections,no offense chief,but they-they can certainly be picked up and moved elsewhere and not compromise response time like you might with the fire department and- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 9 and not create a whole lot of complexities with,um,detaching them from a critical adjacent,um, department. So those two things are-are being specifically looked at. And with regards to police, we've asked OPN to-to,at a very high level, from a square footage standpoint, consider the old Public Works campus and whether there is a fit there,just strictly a physical fit to accommodate that space. So that's in the next phase of this project. Moe: Laura as Councilor,Burges and had a similar question and followed up with Geoff about what do we have completely as a city.And there is a really good study,but it's kind of old,that says all of our buildings when they were built,what kind of mechanical systems they have.And it's out of date now.And I would strongly support this to continue,but also zooming out at looking at all of our facilities and having a sort of continuously up-to-date map of all of those just because it's 15 years old now and things have been fixed and things have been abandoned and I don't know what the process is to get that going,but it seems like we want to have that piece of information too in making decisions about City Hall specifically. Fruin:Yeah. So Councilor Moe was referring to a 2012 facility kind of inventory needs assessment that we had done for us with RDG,I believe was the consultant that did that. And certainly would be a lot of great benefit to doing that again,I'd want to reflect on just our capacity to do that and where that gets prioritized.Because as you know,we've got,uh,transit equipment that are entering the design phase right now. Two-two significant buildings. We're also working on a significant building at the landfill. Undertaking this space needs study. Got a couple fire stations. So just trying to think from just a capacity to put into that study,but also how does that fit in with all those current projects,um,that we're currently juggling. I just need some time to-to reflect on that. Teague: Yeah. I would agree at some point we can you know figure out how we can look at all of the,um, city-owned properties,but Robert A.Lee is one that I think we should defmitely consider since it's downtown and some of the services- some of the operations here. I think that would definitely be one that should be in the mix. Fruin: Sure. So you're talking as potential solution for space needs here.Yeah you know,a project like this is going to feel really daunting,right?You probably came out of that tore thinking,oh my gosh,how are we ever going to solve this?The best advice I can give is one step at a time. And just kind of trust that the process will get you there. So I think to-while there were a couple scenarios that we're interested in understanding,we are still kind of arms wide open in terms of the solutions that could be appropriate on-site,off-site,um,is defmitely all on the table.I think we need to get through this needs assessment.We need to let the team kind of say,here's a couple of opportunities we see.We're going to have a decision to make and let's follow this path for a while.And then there's going to be a set of decisions,right?I mean,obviously,there's fimding obstacles and-and operational obstacles,but,um,I wouldn't take Robert A. Lee off the table.But I'd be careful just,kind of,directing or thinking about a particular solution at this time. Those- those will come naturally if we do the process,right? Alter: I actually have a question going back to,um,the slides where it was like,you know,this is our current,right,and then here was the need now,is that the projecting forward 10 years or was this actual need? Bishop: Yeah,that's-that's the objection. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 10 Alter: I mean,it's the vision. Bishop: Future growth. Alter: Yeah,it makes sense. Bishop: So a bit of our survey of fixture growth of staffing and capacity in that way. Alter: Sure.Because as soon as you actually build for what you need right now,it'll be,again,you are behind the eight F. Bishop: Well,if-if there's any way to build in the adaptability,flexibility as departments shrink and grow over the decades,like that's what we want to think about building smart too. Alter: Sure. Thanks. Donta:Especially because,you know,we start the process with this study,the timeline from today too is built solution. Alter: Yeah. Donta: You know,you don't want to be behind that already. Alter:Right. Moe: In your investigation of this building,are you leaming about its capacity for renovation or reuse or repurposing?And what can you talk about sort of the bones of this building and how good is it or how bad is it? Donta: Structurally,this half is in better shape than a lot of you saw the fire truck fire bay issues. The police and fire section is definitely in the worse shape as a structure than the rest of it. The bigger challenge is age and quality of systems. You've seen the plumbing issues already happening,but a lot of the guts to the building are where the big issues lie. Bergus: Just a general kind of observation for staff,um,especially understanding that we're not at solutions and there's going to be financial hurdles and all of that.But I think the sooner we can get a sense of,if we imagine solutions will be incremental versus more comprehensive. Um, because I imagine that,you know,any kind of significant fimding solutions may take a fair amount of political will as well as creativity from the staff. So just kind of thinking about that, um,maybe in parallel with this.But overall,I was,um,really kind of shocked at how poor the condition of the facilities are and thank you to our staff for putting up with that because there's a lot that are,yeah,much-much below what I know they deserve. Alter: Uh,go-go ahead. Salih: I-I guess I have a question.Maybe I got confused.Ah,is this something-I know that we have something on the budget for the changing,something on the fire-the fire department for the-is this like including like in the plan,or because we already budgeted going to do it after that again, we're going to get later. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 11 Fruin:Yeah. So the-the-what OPN is being asked to do is imagine,um,kind of what some medium to long term solutions are. Uh,our staff has to work in the-in the space and make the best of it,so you're going to continue to see smaller projects come forward. Uh,in fire,we do have the apparatus bay repair that's-that's currently,uh,being worked,uh,on or trying to get to that,uh, that final contracting stage.And then in the- in the CIP,there was additional dollars to do some renovation of the living area.Um,those dollars aren't going to make the situation ideal,they're going to make the situation a little better. And it's- it's viewed as an interim solution,but one that's really needed.Like we couldn't wait 3,4, 5 years or longer to get to a permanent solution. We felt we had to pursue those,er, for the short term. Dunn: Do you foresee this,uh,the scale of this project and the scale of the need as a- as a bond issue? Fruin:Um,hard to say. Very well could be,um,uh,but I-I think we'd have to explore various options. Part of it's going to depend what the solution is,right?If there's some incremental steps that we can take,then maybe a bond referendum isn't needed. If it's a full scale replacement,uh,or a new build,um,it very well could be on the table,but way too early to-to probably give you any-any type of definitive answer. Salih: And-and you mean like after they come up with a solution,we're going to do that like one at a time? Fruin:Well,yeah. I don't know what that solution is going to be. So for example,uh,a solution,um, could be that these two or three areas maybe need to move off site. Um,and where that is,we don't know,but explore off site locations.And if they move off site,here are some remodeling opportunities that could provide a 10-year,20-year kind of solution.Um,that's part of,at the end of this,what we're going to be asking you.We're going to kind of lay out a few different paths and we'll have a recommendation for you.But,um,I don't know what that's going to-to look like. We are not engaged with OPN to enter into design work on any solution. This is going to be conceptual high level solutions. And maybe you guys can just talk a little bit about what-what the city should expect as a deliverable at the end of this,what's that final report kind of speak to. Bishop: Yeah. So we'll,um, explore several different solutions that may involve remodel,it may involve addition,it may involve other off site things. So as a deliverable,that would be part of a recommendation,then other things that we can talk about and- and decide,make decisions on there.Um,as part of this,we'd also,um,plan to put sort of an order of magnitude costs to the different options as well. So the idea that,um,the-there's lots of different ways to sort of slice it and phase it and-and prioritize things as well. So all of that is part of our analysis.Um, it'll stop short of,you know, fully designing spaces and worrying where every door goes.Um,but big picture,big sort of blocks of color and understanding the space needs,that's-that's really what we've signed up for with this exercise. Alter: Would there also be,um,as you were talking about,a range of magnitude,right,um,in terms of what our options are,um,you know,running through kind of like this is your Hyundai,this is your mid,low,right?I mean,would we be that type of thing,like if we were to absolutely go the stock,this is going to be our super duper 21st century,right?Or- so would we have that kind of- Bishop: Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 12 Alter:Ranges as well? Bishop: I think that's part of the conversation. Alter: Okay. Bishop: And that's things that I think Geoff and staff have done a really good job- Alter: Yeah. Bishop: -of thinking about already. Because even when we entered the survey phase of this,we-we really-we really talked about the needs versus creating a giant wish list that would sort of sink under its own weight,right? So we want to be responsible in the decisions that we make,even in how space is allocated,um,let alone how those solutions might work So that-that lens is something that will bring to any sort of options that we talk about as well. Alter: Sure. Salih: And what about the immediate work that needs to be done from the thing that we saw?Like really there is very bad step going on there, so- Fruin:Well,we'll repair the sewer line.We'll make sure that there's still heat coming from the FTVAC system.Um,but in all seriousness,we are-we have been and we will continue to do incremental repairs,right?There's roof repairs that are planned for this structure. Um,there are,um,I think,a few years out, some restroom-like cosmetic restroom upgrades. We've talked about the-the fire police were 2,3 years ago,uh,did a soft remodel of,uh,a couple of their interior spaces. So we pretty much work within the budget abilities.We have to incrementally improve those spaces, but,uh,the budget does not contemplate any large scale,um,renovations to this,uh,space. It's all incremental. Teague: I guess I'll echo Councilor Bergus,uh,comments to the staff. Um,I really appreciate you all working under,um, some precarious conditions.Um,certainly,there is a need,as I was hearing Mayor Pro Tem,um,get to like,what are we going to do now because there are some things that do need attention,and of course,we're going to do what we can to survive. Um,but there are some serious concerns,um,that may not get addressed right away.But I hope that,um,you know,and- and I just know with the group that I did the tour with,we were like,wow,this is overwhelming. So the hope is that we'll be able to get,um,moving on this a little bit.I know it's going to be the process increments,um,but I also know the well being of our staff is important and,you know,where you work all day,it should reflect,uh,I think,that the heart of this community,and-and we're slacking here. Um,not something that was intentional happen over- over the years.Budgets are always tight,right?And I think it's- it's the right time to step back and say,what do we need to do for our employees that serve our public. If there's nothing else. Anything else? Fruin:Again,just appreciate your time and certainly your comments as well. Um,after we get through the next phase,we'll be back in front of you to talk about those next steps. Salih: And thank you for your work too. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 13 Teague: Yes. Alter: Thank you so much. Teague: And I appreciate all of our tour guides. Salih: Yes. 2. Annual Historic Preservation Plan presention Teague: All right. We're going to move on to Item Number 2,which is our annual Historic Preservation plan presentation. Welcome. Bristow: Hello. Thank you,Council. I'm Jessica Bristow.I'm the Historic Preservation Planner. Okay. So just a little bit of background,uh,we are a certified local government. That is basically one of the results of the Historic Preservation Act,formed State Historic Preservation offices across the country. They establish certified local government programs and we belong to part of that,and so they require an annual report each year, and they actually require that we present it to you. So thank you very much,uh,we became involved in the program very early.We joined in 1983,uh, this CLG program encourages Historic Preservation at the local level,uh,local government use of the Secretary of the Interior standards for,uh,Historic Preservation. We do have some technical assistance that's provided through the State Historic Preservation Office,which we can SHIPO, and it also provides some funding opportunities for preservation activities. There's a distinct difference between the federal program,which the public face of it, for most people is the National Register of Historic Places and our local program, and the state report-the annual report requires that we report on both of those.Uh,in Iowa City,we have eight historic districts. Those are all locally designated districts. They're also all listed on the National Register of Historic Places.We also have a Downtown District on the National Register,but it's not a local district. We have five conservation districts,that's only a local designation. There's no National Register component because those areas did not have enough integrity to be listed in the National Register. And then we have,uh,currently 67 individual local landmarks that have been designated,45 of those are also listed in the National Register,uh,we also have National Register landmarks that aren't locally designated. So it can get a little bit confusing. Uh,the first part of the annual report, uh,requires that we provide just some basic general information. Uh,we have 12 seats for commissioners,uh,one representative from each of those historic districts. That's part of the state requirement,and then we have at-large members.We have,uh,three seats that are open now and they've been open for years because they're very small districts and we haven't been able to get commissioners fro-for them. Uh,this past year, in 2023,we had 12 meetings and for a budget- most of our budget is just with the rest of the city, such as my salary and things like that but,uh, our Neighborhood Development services budget does include$450 for our annual mailing that we send out every spring to all of the property owners to let them know about the program.We have about$750 for training and other expenses and then we have our Historic Preservation fund as well,which was increased by$2,000 last year. The next thing that they ask about are properties that are listed in the National Register,that have been altered in some way,or moved or demolished. We don't have any of the second two here,and we evaluate that basically on what we have reviewed as staff through our program,and so this year we had 34 properties that were altered in some way. This is just one example,Connie Champion's Old House on 430 South Summit,uh,they have a rear addition that has been approved. The report then,uh,asks about any local designations and so this past year we locally landmarked the original Emma Goldman This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 14 Clinic. It was already part of a National Register and local Historic District,and then it asks about any locally designated properties that were altered or moved or demolished. This just happens to be one example,uh,we had 23 properties that were. This was a porch reconstruction. You might think it doesn't look too bad,but it's totally sinking and falling off,here is one of those columns in the contractor's shop while he was working on it and here is the final result. The report also asks about assistance that we provide on preservation projects. Uh,staff provides technical and design assistance to basically anyone who asks.We also field lots of calls from,uh,members of the public, sometimes other communities,and occasionally even people from other states. In fact,this year we had 241 inquiries and each of those was about a different topic or a different property so sometimes there were multiple inquiries about a property. Those resulted in 85 actual applications for,uh,work within our community. Uh,we also work with other,uh,departments and areas such as the Senior Center staff,we worked with them on reviewing the major rehabilitation of the exterior of their building this year.I took that photo on my way in today,uh,because they started putting the scaffolding up to work on that.We also provide assistance to property owners through our Historic Preservation fiend. Uh,this is a very popular program,and frankly,it's a lot of fim to run. It's really nice to be able to tell people that we can actually help them with their rehab,as well as help them decide how to do it. Uh,we have funded 54 projects on 43 properties, so some properties have had more than one project. So we've given out$165,000 worth of grants,a couple of those might have been no interest loans worth the total,uh,project costs,yeah,$404,000. This just happens to be Emma Harvet's home and this is-they had some masonry repair on all of the brick around the base and this was just the side steps and,uh,before and after. Uh,Public Education and Outreach. Our biggest thing is our annual,uh,Preservation awards. This year was our 40th anniversary,uh,we do that every year,er,uh,we're working on trying to revamp it a little bit to get the commission to help a little bit more this year. This just happens to be a slide of one of our winners,a property where they removed all their synthetic siding and repaired the historic siding underneath. The report also asks about our issues and challenges or successes and this year for some reason,we've had a huge rash of work without permits and therefore without historic review, so getting through that,we've changed a little bit of our process internally to try to figure out how to catch those a little better,uh,we also have some challenges with the open positions on the commission,because if I have only nine seated commissioners and my quorum is seven,there are times when we can't meet that quorum and have to change dates.Uh,there's an overall nationwide lack of available contractors and,uh,also people who can draft things if they don't want to hire an architect as well.Uh,one of the successes is we have this historic bam on Woodlawn.We've been working with a previous owner for years to replace the foundation. Here's the corner where there's no foundation and it will now get a new foundation,so that's a good success. Uh,the annual report also asks about partnerships that we've formed or continued. This year we worked really hard with the Housing Fellowship and the Student Build Group and their architect,Martha Norbeck to design the house that'll go at 724 Ronalds. Uh,we've also had the Climate Outreach Coordinator in the Parks and Recreation director to meet with our commission because,you know,we were talking about City Park Pool,we've been talking about basically just climate outreach. Historic Preservation is very involved in,ah, sustainability. And then,as I mentioned before,working with the Senior Center staff on their building.One of I think our most important partnerships is working with City Channel 4.We have worked with them on podcasts and historic videos. They record,obviously all of our meetings as well as yours. They record our awards ceremony every year. The last few years we've had,ah,an interest in some special videos and they've helped us with those and in fact,this year they created a video for our 40th anniversary and I will show that to you cause that's the end of my annual report for you. So let me get that up. [Plays Video Presentation] This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 15 Bristow: Can't make it any louder. Thank you. Teague: Thank you. Salih: That's nice. Teague: All right. Any questions,I guess from council. Salih: It's really nice video,very nice. I don't know who put it together,but that's amazing. Bristow: I think that Ty Coleman and Lillie Ostwinkle with Channel 4 did most of it,but I don't know for sure. They were the ones I talked to,but I just gave them names to interview and they did it all otherwise, so they did an excellent job. Teague: Great. Thank you much. 3. Continued discussion on the FY 2025 Budget Proposal Teague: All right. We're going to move on to Item Number 3 on our agenda. Continued discussion on the Fiscal 25 budget proposal. Fruin: So M-Mayor,this is really an opportunity for you to go,as a council,go any direction you want with the remaining items that you wish to discuss on the budget.Um,per your request there is a memo in the,um,information packet about the utility rate increases that are proposed, so happy to review that from a staff standpoint,getting council concurrence on utility rates is- is probably the most critical thing for us,because there's a lot of work to prepare,um,uh, for those,um,uh, ordinance amendments,but you all can take it in whatever direction you want,and we'll do our best to answer your questions. Harmsen: Quick thanks for putting that together.I did kind of like compare that to my own utility bill. I had to chuckle because evidence of having two teenagers in the house and our water consumption being maybe slightly higher than average for that sized family was-was jumped out of me.But- but thank you for putting that was helpful to look through. Salih: I-I-I really would like you to go through it for the public record so-because everybody have it and nobody know about it. Fruin: Sure. Happy to do that.Um,so the,uh,memo itself is,uh,IP3 of your February first information packet. Uh,starts off by just talking about what,uh,the strategic plan action item,uh,indicates, which is that we would pursue small incremental rate and fee increases and not become reliant on large rate spikes,uh,or the use of property tax,uh,unplanned debt that sort of thing. So that's our guiding principle as we put together the-the-the budget,um,your fiscal year 25 budget,which starts July first,uh,of this year,uh,includes a recommendation from staff for a 3%water rate increase,a 5%wastewater increase,and a$1 recycling per month,uh,increase. There's no recommendations for increases to our refuse,pick up our organics pick up or our storm water rate,um,all of those things,uh, for many Iowa Citians,not all reflected on a utility bill that-that you may pay. Um,both water and waste water are,um,billed based on consumption of water. You have a water meter. We measure how much water flows through that meter and that is what you are billed on for purposes ol�um,estimating impacts to households,we use an 800 cubic feet This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 16 usage,um,uh, scenario, and I've included a sample bill,um,in the-in the memo to show,uh,you what that,uh-what that rate would be. The memo also has a breakdown in-in table form on Page 2 of what the increase of 3%would be for someone that uses that 800 cubic feet average. So you can see that we would estimate the overall monthly bill to increase approximately$4,$3.99 per month if you use 800 cubic feet of water. Again,that's going to be a smaller increase on the water line, a smaller increase on the sewer line one dollar per month increase on the recycling line,and just about$0.06 on the,uh,tax that is also included on that bill. Uh,Council had some questions about our utility discount program,so I included the same scenario for,uh,those residents that are on our discount program.And you can see the overall increase to those residents is estimated to be$2.83 again with the major assumption that you're using,that 800 cubic feet,uh,of water. Um,why do we need the,uh,increase?The 3%for water,um,really is just cost of doing-cost of doing business. I think we've all experienced inflationary pressures on our own budgets,our business budgets,our home budgets,uh,the water department is no different. Uh,they've seen some very volatile spikes and chemical costs and cost of construction as well as you think about repairing water main breaks and then just the treatment process itself,a 3%is pretty modest based on those,uh-those needs. The waste water rate of 5%,uh,addresses those same concerns. They're also buying chemicals and making capital repairs,but we do also plan to issue debt to pursue the digester complex rehabilitation project,uh,which could be 10-$15 million as we work through the design of that. So the extra couple of percent that you see there is also to support fixture debt issuance to support that large rehabilitation project at the south plant there. Um, recycling fee of a dollar per month is really in reaction to the increased cost of processing recyclables. So we collect those curbside recyclables,but then we contract with a third party to process those,basically,take those away from the city. The cost of those,uh-uh-the cost of that processing is increasing significantly.Uh,you see,that process cost really over time is very volatile. It's just based on the-the resale markets for those-those recyclable products,but we've seen those-those costs nearly double and we expect that that's gonna be continued challenge.Just to provide you a little bit of perspective on how our rates stack-up to-to others throughout the state of Iowa,I provided a kind of a clip of a table that's in your fiscal year'24 approved budget that shows how our rates stack with,um,both nearby cities and some of the-the larger cities in Iowa,and you can see that we're kind of right in the middle of the pack.From a total perspective, we tend to be a little bit higher on the waste services and a little bit lower on some of the water and sewer charges.Very proud of our waste services,there's probably not too many of these cities,if any,that provide the same kind of curbside service that we do,which is why our waste numbers are a little higher. And then finally,going back out even further,I took a clipping from a annual water rate study that the city of Ames,Iowa does and- and that looks at how we stack up against our peers.And that looks at populations of 10,000 or more that use a similar type of treatment process. And you can see when you just look at the water rates,we are well below,uh, the median,uh, for cities in Iowa,that are 10,000 and above. That's an overview of the memo. If I skipped anything that you wanted to talk about more,I'm happy to go back to that topic. Moe: I really appreciate all the work that you put in to not only just answering the questions,but going above and beyond and showing us compared to other cities.I also respect you,great Mazahir Salih, for being concerned about people and their ability to pay water because it's the most basic thing that we all need.Um,I felt very good to know that we do have a utility discount program. So that is important and I'm glad that's part of what we're doing right now. When I think about things that our city does like water,it's not that controversial. We all expect it to be perfect every time. All the time. And I would hate to do anything that would put us behind in the production and delivery of really wonderful,wonderful water. And as I understand the way that we've structured the enterprise fund is we need to find some way to pay for these improvements to keep This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 17 us having safe, ample drinking water for everyone.Um,and so I guess I -I feel like with the comfort of seeing this help for people who need help,but also understanding that we need to keep up,um,and keep a water system is great. I know that before 1999 with the new water treatment plant,we had everyone who lived here before had terrible water gross water. And now we have really remarkably good water. And I don't want to slide back into really being known as a city with gross water. Salih: I really think that this information is still for me is not even-thank you for putting the information together,that's going to make -become helpful.But 800 cubic is still$36 I don't know if that the average. That's not the average for using in Iowa City by talking to some of the city and I believe that is not the average bag. That's what I want to say.I want to ask you, if somebody have a water use of$100 how much discount they got.Because I'm sure 100%per maybe this council doesn't understand how discount work because here as you see the discount from 36 is 31,and that-this is for I guess somebody who's bill for the water$36 and for the sewer 36.But for somebody, water use like$100. How much discount they got?Because the discount is not from the usage its from the basic used. That's what I mean. And I'm worried about the family that have five children,seven family of six. From all the immigrants and low income people,they have more children and I feel like this is going to affect them. And I understand that there's cities their water is more than us,but why should we compare ourselves to the-like cities have because they-there's other cities have more water than us and we say,oh,we're good.We can still become better than those cities,and continue look up to our residents and see who can afford it,who cannot and either we can do the discount 60%-even not 60%even like 40%from the usage.I will go with that. From the usage not from the basic used so that's what I-what I mean. This is increase or leave it as it is,but think about the people who have voucher. How many people have-do have that answer?Like how many people use the discount? Fruin: The-have the utility discount right now? Salih: Uh-huh. Fruin: Three hundred and eighty five. Salih: Okay.And I think those-we have a lot of low income people in our community that we should really look up to them that say are not going to afford this.Because is still the discount is not from the usage. Alter: I'm trying to work through the-the-the basic math and if there was-if the bill was a hundred dollars,right?A 60%would-would take that bill down to 40,right? Salih:No,but that's not how it work. Fruin:No. Salih:But that's-That's why I want somebody to text-submit it to you. Alter: Am I oft?Am I off on this?I mean,I'm looking at- Fruin:Yeah. So there's two different-there's- for the water and sewer,there's,uh,kind of explained in the- let's see. The,uh, first page of the memo. The,uh, second to bottom paragraph. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 18 Alter:Right. Okay. Sorry. Fruin: The-you've got the service fee and the volumetric fee. Alter;Right. Fruin: The service fee,uh,is that something that everybody pays,um, and then the rest is volume-based there. Alter: Okay. Fruin: So,um,it's a 60%discount off the service fee for water and sewer. Alter: Okay. Fruin:And then the storm water and the refuse,recycling and organics,it's,uh,the percentage,either 60 or 75,depending on which of those you're talking about- Alter: Okay. Okay. Fruin: -of the entire amount. Alter; Got you. Sorry. All right. Thank- so thank you. Salih: And those,normally,the lowest part on the bill,that have 75 discount. You know,I'm really talking about usage of the water. This is not a good discount.And if we increase the water,the people- the low income people will be hitting hard. Dunn: Just-just asking for a little,like,history. Is there a reason why it didn't go to the volumetric charge and just went to the service fee when it was implemented? Fruin:I'm not aware of the-the history behind that decision. Uh,we'd have to do some research. The program's been established for a long-long time well before I was-. Dunn: Yeah. Fruin: -uh,employed. Dunn: Okay. Teaguer:It seems to me that's the,you know,the-the heart of the question here is,er,how we're utilizing this,uh,the discount and maybe looking at- looking at that a little closer is what we need to do. Salih:Maybe,yeah. Teague; Er,because I don't know that there's any dispute about the need for the increase,you know,uh, overall. What I hear is more so can we relook at that utility discount program? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 19 Salih: Sure.I really am not against increasing it as long as we can find out for the people.I think water is a basic human right,and,you know,like,shutting water for people who cannot afford it is really shameful for the city to do it, and we can do something. Those people are also taxpayer. Teague: Would it be,uh-does,uh-is there any support for kind of looking at that separate from-just looking at,um,the utility discount program from council? Salih: I will want to do that. Harmsen:I think that's-that-that makes sense to me,yeah. Teague: Do we need to- er,and of course,we can get to that at some point. Um,do we- are we-are we in agreement that,you know,the increase-increase should happen,but then we,you know, separately consider the discount program,is that- Salih: I agree with that. Alter: Yes. Dunn: Yes. Teague; Okay.All right. So we're going to lay this item to rest and kind of give it our blessing,and then we'll take that up at a fixture meeting. Fruin: Okay. So just for clarification,should I just place this-place the low income discount program on the pending list as an unscheduled item? Teague: Yes. Yes. Salih: And I just want to ask you when this will be affected,in July or when? Teague: July 1. Fruin:July 1. Dunn: The first. Salih: And I-I hope we can fmd that,of course,way before that we can talk about this. Alter: I support that. Harmsen:Yeah.Agreed. Teague: All right. And now is an opportunity for any other item that people want to talk about with the, uh,proposed budget. Dunn: Hey-hey, Geoff,could you,uh,reiterate the-the topics that we were-we had for consideration? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 20 Fruin: So again,these were my notes captured.I do want to put the caveat out there that I-I very well could have missed something,but,um,uh,the,uh,police budget is,um,uh,uh,uh,the final topic,I suppose,but I don't know if everybody considered the,um, fire staffing conversation from the last meeting closed or if that's still ongoing. And the parking,I've-I've considered that we've got the direction to raise the core meters $1 an hour to$3.If that's considered closed,then we're good.And I'm left with police at that point. Teague: Uh,can we-the only thing that I had left was police. Moe: And there's two separate police issues. The- Salih: Yes. Moe: There's the,uh,the license plate reader which,um,our current code,even if we were to approve a budget for it,we understand that our current code would not allow us to use them anyway, so that's it,I think Interesting position for us to be in as we could be approving a budget where we don't have the-we-we can change this,but we would also need to move quickly on that. And I understand from you guys that there's a political will to-to modify that,uh, current ordinance that's a decade old. Goers: Yes. That's about right. Moe: We have six months to do that. I don't know.I'm curious to hear where everybody's at on that. Dunn: Yeah. I-I feel very strongly that we need to have a policy developed,and we need to have a council decision on it before we authorize the budget. Moe: Before the budget. Dunn: Yeah,absolutely. Moe: Okay. Dunn: Let-that's-I feel very strongly on that. Um,yeah.Like,we-I don't think that we should just-and I- I really do appreciate City Manager bringing this question before us because as I understand you didn't have to,um,but I really do think that that is something that we need to discuss,determine, and create policy for if we choose to go forward with it before the budget is done.Like,just- that's just my very strong opinion. Alter; Do others also have very strong opinions?I mean,I agree that there should-we should discuss this, especially if there's an ordinance. Salih: Yes. Moe: Okay. Teague: I guess the question would be is,you know,when do we have that discussion for the ordinance? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 21 Alter: If we're going to think about whether we're going to actually fixed it,to pay for it,then it should be soon so that it can be in accordance with how we deal with the budget. Teague: Sure. Sure. Alter: Yeah. Dunn: Geoff,could you give us an idea of,you know, say,we wanted to have a meeting where we invited some people,you know,folks from the department, folks from other places, say,we invited someone from ACLU, say,we got that at our next meeting. Is that still an appropriate timeline to make a decision like this?Like,you know, could we invite people to a meeting,then in the next meeting,make a decision? Fruin:Uh,I-I sense-I sense some hesitation. And you need to trust your gut and- and not rush this,right? If- if you have hesitation,that's okay. Um,I think if you committed to that conversation,much like the-much like the,uh,low income discount program,if you say,I'm willing to have the conversation,but there's an education process that you all need to go through that the community needs to go through,that's-that's okay. I mean,we're-we're-we're pleased that you're willing to entertain the-the conversation. So my recommendation,just kind of based on some of the comments,would be,uh,to put it on your pending list,but not to-not to rush it. I-I don't think we would do,uh,it justice presenting to you if you had us come back at your next meeting and try to rush something. So whether you want to leave the 40,000 in or,uh,the-the budget or take it out,that-that's really up to you. If you're not comfortable with it being in there,we can take that out.We're not going to spend it,uh,unless we have the authority from you to do that,uh,which does require an ordinance change. So if-if it's in there and we decide not to pursue these cameras, it's not going to be spent.But if you'd rather it out,that's-that's okay too. Alter: Okay.And actually,I'm reversing sort of the-how I opened it up,but in the scheme of things,I think 40,000 in terms of what the priority is for us to discuss in order to be able to pass the budget,this isn't at the height of the priority. That's-yeah. Dunn:No,no,no. That's not what I'm saying. Alter:No,no,no,no. And I know you weren't. I'm just saying that I was suggesting,well,we should,you know,then think about this within budget season.Um,but since it's 40,000 as opposed to other items that we have,that we do want to talk that are-are larger in scale,I think that I'm reversing myself. Dunn: Yeah. I guess the-the thought that I have is,I don't want a budgeted item to be a potential,like, pretext for approval. Um,I think that,you know,if we want to-to do the purchase,we should-we should get it taken care of. And if we need to do a budget amendment in the fixture,we can-we can do that,um,but it's not something that I'm comfortable approving. I'm not saying that I'll,you know,disapprove of the whole budget,but it's not something I want to be part of the budget before we have that process done. Um,I don't think that's anything different than what I've said in the past. Salih: Is there a timeline for that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 22 Fruin:No,there's not a-there's not a hard time line. I mean you know,I think you should expect that,uh, over time,it's going to be more expensive,but it's a-it's a subscription type of service. So we're probably going to have to deal with increased cost over time anyway.Now,I don't think there's urgency to this. There's a lot of value,obviously that the-the chief and I's position. There's a lot of value that this technology can offer and we'd like to engage in those discussions.But whether it's six months from now to nine months to 12 months,that's not,uh. Salih: And why we don't want to talk about it now and just say like to see what is everybody's stand. Teague: It's the-it's the process of the ordinance change is the biggest thing. Alter: Yeah. Salih:But when you say the ordinance change,that means we already agree and now we are about. Teague: You know,to give the public the notice. You know,have them come in if they wanna,you know. Salih: Yeah,that's-that's what I mean like. Fruin: So even before. Alter: I want to know more. Fruin:Even before we get to the ordinance change and chief feel free to jump in. I think what we would do is we would invite the camera manufacturer to come talk to you about the technology. Let you question the company itself. Um,and then I'd ask the chief to share some of the experiences that um,uh,that he's heard from other departments that use this.What is the experience that the University of Iowa has-has,um,had in the last year?We know that there's,I think, 17, 18 other agencies that currently use this technology in the state of Iowa. We can gather some information and share it with them. So I think you go through an education process. And if you get to the point where yes,we feel comfortable,then we go to the ordinance, and then we can tackle a budget authority.And if there's a great sense of urgency,yes,we could do a budget amendment, but we can also just budget in fiscal year 26. Salih: Yeah. Fruin:And move forward at that time. Um,yeah,again you don't want to rush a decision like this.You want to be very comfortable with it.I really don't have a preference whether you leave that money in or- or not.My,um,my preference or my hope is that we engage in that discussion and you all can make an informed decision,um on your own timeline,whether to move forward or not. Liston:I think we're just trying to.Justin lesson Chief of Police. I think we're just trying to open up the conversation. That's it. Salih: Yeah. I-I think this is really something that we don't have to rush it without conducting with the public. And I feel like you just said,it doesn't matter this year or the 2026. I-I feel like we-we don't have to budget for it this year and we just can start the conversations, and hear from the public and everything and we can do it next time. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 23 Teague: Yeah,and I guess I'm personally comfortable with that. We're not talking about a lot of money here in the scheme of things, so I would be comfortable just kinda not having it listed in the budget and we have that conversation and if we feel a need to do an amendment,because it seems a little critical,I would feel comfortable doing it then. Moe: I do think it's worthwhile putting on a work session though too. Bergus: Yeah,definitely- definitely. Teageu: Yeah,we put it on the work session. Alter: Yes. Moe: And I also,it's interesting,my gut reaction of it was-was negative.But the more I'm sort of learning about how,where they are and what they're doing and how they're used. I'm sort of changing my opinions. And I feel like it takes a long time for most people to go through that process because at first I was like,oh,you,red light cameras,speeding cameras,I don't know,it's a totally different technology and so I expect the community will want time to digest all that information so. A slow process to talk through that. Harmsen:I think a worthwhile part of that conversation would be,you know,and we've talked about this with other ordinances related to cameras and stuff,you know,kind of that ACLU best practices, um,you know,because I had this conversation before.But,you know,just kind of making sure because there's always that balance between security, freedom,you know,right to privacy. How much privacy do you have in public spaces?I mean,I think those are things we can weigh out in time and here's some perspectives on,and I'd appreciate the time to go through that. Dunn: Yeah. And I-I think we should invite organizations like the ACLU to come in and just talk about them,you know,nationwide and capabilities. Alter: I realize this is ballooning,but I was just I'm mindful of was it at least one meeting ago,if not two, that we had,um,the proclamation for human trafficking.And so I think that having a few organizations that actually are like here might be also some ways to have that perspective as well. It doesn't have to be many,but I think that that type of engagement as well could be useful just to get the background statistics as-as we did in a proclamation,but to have the-the ED be able to come up and talk about how that's impacting this community and the regions useful. Harmsen:I perceive for myself basically a cost benefit in kind of approach to this and kind of seeing what those are and weighing those out. Teague: Sounds like we are going to put this one on a hold,um,and so we're not going to have it a part of the budget. Fruin: So just so everybody's clear,we'll remove$40,000 from the police budget. That'll be reflected in the final that-that comes your way.And then to the pending list,we will add some type of license plate reader,technology,educational session. And that won't be scheduled but we'll just put it on the pending in the chief and I'll have some discussions about how best to approach that with you given your comments. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 24 Dunn: And I guess speaking to other topics,I personally didn't quite see the FTE discussion as concluded. I kind of saw it amorph a little bit.But I think we need to figure out some sort of direction for where that is to go.Because the greater consensus seem to be an assessment of needs called for service and figuring out what-what that leads us to.But,um,at this point,I think the discussion is still very much there.I don't think we have time for that today. Harmsen:Are you jumping to fire?You mean we have one police issue. Bergus: You're talking about data analyst for police. Harmsen:Which? Salih: Staff finalist. Harmsen:Were talking about fire. Dunn: I'm talking about about fire-I'm talking about fire because earlier that was said put to rest,I thought were done with the. Teague: Yeah. So at the last meeting,I listened to all the comments and I think what was concluded was we're going to have a conversation,more of a robust conversation on public,um,more on public service. And if in that conversation the full,you know the full time firefighter came at that time, then then it would be taken up then.But it won't be a continue in this budget discussion is what I understood as far as a separate item. If it came up in that discussion,then that's a need that we see. So that's how I took it and that's how I concluded at least my understanding of that conversation last time.But. Bergus: Well,the only other thing that I was wondering,Mayor,was, are you referring to the larger like, public safety conversation in response to calls that we're talking about? Okay. So I think you and Geoff and I are meeting next. Teague: Thursday. Bergus:Next week on that, and then I know it's not scheduled,but I think that was my question is,is that part of the budget discussion?I think it should be. Teague: I think and I think as we talked about, it all depends on like what does that look like from all at least for starters,other really municipalities,you know,how do we tackle that,um.And just from a strategic standpoint,it could very well be that we get together and determine that we just have the conversation.But if it seemed like,for instance,it would be better that the county,you know, started the conversation,then we make that determination as to how we feel,that it's,you know, best.But that was the hope for kind of that meeting. Bergus: Okay. And I guess I will be coming into it with a specific to Iowa City.Not necessarily,you know,assessing who else might be leading that like I think we have such a primary role and that that we should be talking about it from our community. Teague: Sure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 25 Dunn: And-and my understanding of where that conversation went was also not that it would end with that would be the last of our budgetary discussions and move that on. I mean,I think that this is a question that I mean,we at least at least Councilor Bergus,and I remember in the meeting, definitely spoke to this should be a topic of our budget. So I-I. Teague: The-the-the fire or the public safety part? Dunn: Am I mixed up? Teague: Yeah. I think all because is. Bergus: I thought you were talking about the data analyst for the police. Dunn: Talking about the data Alter: Yeah. So councilor Bergus wants to talk about the public about the data analyst and whether,right? And-and councilor Dunn is talking about the-the FTE for the ICFF. So it's two different topics. Teague: It's actually three topics going on. Alter: And then-and then.Yeah. Salih: One at a time. Let us start with the police analysts position. Dunn: Okay. There we go Harmsen: That's sure we're heading anyway. Alter: So I'm still going to maintain,and just to be sort of straightforward,I still maintain that a data analyst position within the police department is important.And I know that we had conversations about it being because of the importance of data analytics for so many areas of city functioning that maybe this could be housed under the city manager's office. There are some logistical issues with that.But my concern is,let's talk about this is almost like not a pilot because I think that this has already been proven to be helpful. This is one of the major factors in how we got Guide Linkand some other things that are helping the community in diversionary ways.But,um I think that if work on the,data analytics for the police department were-were only a portion of this data analytics position,that would be more like,let's give this new position to the city and let them help on a variety of things. I think it's going to be too diffuse and I don't think it's setting up this data analytics person for success. I think that it needs to be focused. So that's where I'm at. I am perfectly okay with this line in the budget specific for the police department,with an idea that yes,we should be looking to see where there are other re parts of the city operations where this kind of work will be immensely helpful. And I know that the Mayor and the City Manager,and Tracy Hightshoe as well, from the work that you've been doing with the Harvard,um. Teague:Bloomberg program. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 26 Alter: Thank you- Thank you. The program that you're with,I was losing anyway. I know that this is an incredibly important part of like,how does a city fixnction well towards the fixture?I just don't want us to get ahead of ourselves. Salih: I just want to ask,before we dip into like deeply into this,can someone explain to me what's the duties of this data analyst?Because I need like job description exactly like name things. What they're going to do,what they're going to collect,what data and everything. Liston: So a crime analyst or a data analyst does many things. We currently have the position,but it's staffed as a sworn position. So as you guys remember,when we had kind of our staffing crunch, many of our specialty positions,that was one of our specialty positions weren't,um staffed because we needed to put our people out in the field on patrol. So that was one of the five. The other ones were the downtown liaison,the community outreach,the neighborhood liaison. So we will have to be pretty much at full staffing in order to staff that sworn position as a crime analyst. In order for a person to have access to our data systems,it's a federal requirement. It's criminal justice information system. They have to be an employee of a law enforcement agency.Again, that's where we've run into some challenges with our partners from community. They don't have access to our systems. So what we were going to do is repurpose two of those sworn position police officer positions,our crime analyst and our neighborhood liaison,and turn those into our co-responder positions,the positions that are partnered with our partners from community,um our mental health liaisons. We were going to change those and it's much easier for us to staff a civilian position. You can look around the city job descriptions. When we put out civilian positions,we get a lot more applicants and the spin up time is much faster than it is on a sworn position because they have to go to the police academy, field training and things like that. So what would they do? They do a bunch of things. One,I used to run an organization that had many crime analysts. And they would do intelligence products,they would look at crime statistics,try to figure out what they think is going to happen,and put out these reports like this-this is the trend,this is what we're seeing. This is where we can best deploy our assets. That's one data driven police work,that's a big one, and then they do other things. David Schwindt did a fantastic job with some of our community partners that weren't necessarily always using law enforcement data.But some of it was,some of it was our calls for service. The times we've dealt with members of our unhoused community,or things that we could easily identify as mental health calls,those are the things they're going to be doing. And if they don't have access to our system, then they wouldn't be of much use to us. I'm not saying that there wouldn't be a use citywide for them to do other things.But they wouldn't be a used to us and we would probably just keep that housed in a sworn position,which would take longer for us to fill. We'd again have to get to full staffing. Harmsen:I have a real basic question,um,kind of talking about this a little bit,kind of launching off of Councilor Alter's comments.If this position were to be housed in the police department,would it have sufficient duties to justify an FTE like moving forward over periods of years?Like,is there enough work there,um to justify that? Liston:Absolutely. Again,when we've had it in the past, as you all know,David Schwindt was very busy. He had plenty of work to do and still is in high demand right now.He just doesn't have the time. So yes,there is an agency of our size should have at least one,many agency.My former agency had dozens. So,yes,there's plenty of work. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 27 Fruin:If I could give an example,because the chief and I were just meeting with the director of community and we talked about our mental health liaison positions and,the uh,we had a discussion on what we wish we could measure with-with this program.Because sometimes the success of these programs is hard to quantify,right?We don't know what prevention um,um,you know,we don't know how many,um crisises they prevented necessarily. So one of the exercises that we talked about that this data position could do is look at,um an individual that a mental health liaison has-has been working with,maybe has served in the field, and look at the trends of how many times did that person interact with law enforcement,um or,you know,other agencies prior to that initial contact with the mental health liaison and then measure it going forward now that they're provided services and they have somebody checking in on them doing referrals and follow ups. How many,um diversion?You know,if that person had five contacts in the last year with law enforcement and in the next year,they don't have any huge success. We can tell that story.We can make the case to invest even more in those types of services,in those positions.We can't really do that right now. We don't have the capacity to do that right now. Community doesn't have the capacity or the access to the system to be able to do it right now. That's just one example,um of something that David Schwindt used to be able to do for us that we cannot do now. That I think would provide a ton of value. Teague: So Council,I want to just let us know that we're like almost at 15 minutes before our formal meeting. What I'm going to maybe do at this point is kind of pause this. We'll come back after our formal meeting and pick up the work session at that point. Um,USG you have an option of either waiting to give your presentation at the time or during the work session,or during the formal meeting,come up during public comment,you will be subjected to the three minutes. Um,but I just wanted to make you aware that that is an option. All right?We. LeFevre: Okay. So,you're saying either do it during public comment,or else. Teague: Either do it during public comment or when we come and resume our work session. LeFevre: Supervision,right? Teague: All right. We're um,actually going to take a kind of a recess. Goers: You are going to recess. Teague: We're going to take a recess from our work session.All right. Teague: We are coming back into session,our session for the City of Iowa City on February 6th,2024 and we are still on item number 3,which is our continued discussion on Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal.And we were engaged in conversation before we took a recess that we can pick up at this point so,um,there was a lot of conversation happening. So I don't know,I think the chief was just up and we were just um,I think were Counsel was deliberating so. Fruin: Think we left off on the uh,crime analyst data analyst position and uh,Judge Chief had just explained a few of the different types of uses. Liston:Were there any more questions on-on that particular position?I think I tried to explain what they will be doing exactly and the challenges of not having them be an employee of a law enforcement agency. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 28 Harmsen: That's right,that was one question I had.But I think you answered it beforehand,but you had said a couple weeks ago about that-the access the certification and who grants that because I was unclear on that.Like so that's not something you can arbitrarily as the police chiefs give somebody access to because it's different? Liston:No,no. They have to be employed by a law enforcement agency. So again,that's the challenge we've dealt with -with our uh,mental health liaisons who are employees of community. Um, so we weren't able to get over that hurdle.Now we can share certain things,but in order to do the job of a data analyst or a crime analyst,they need to have that otherwise,we'd have someone sitting next to them and certain things we can and cannot share for Sieges compliance. Dunn: A couple-And—Uh, sorry. Go ahead. Teague: Just one quick question and this person would be um,professionally an analyst? Liston: Correct. Teague: And not a sworn officer? Liston: Correct. Teague: Civilian employee,not a sworn officer. Liston:Yes. Teague: All right. Dunn: I've got a couple of questions. Liston:Yes. Dunn: So,what type of information are we talking about?Like that could or could not be shared? Liston:Any personal identifying information that's in our RMS system they would not have access to. So how many times we've dealt with a particular person,where this person lives,how to access this person,any of those things,they would not have access to our RMS system,period. Dunn: Why would they need access to personally identifying information like and this is just pure ignorance,right?And I'm just asking out of here,um,but why do they need to know people's names or addresses or things like that rather than just the specific incidences,general areas,you know. Liston: Typically crime analysts will assist with products that deal with specific people. They would need to know these are the specific people who are doing these specific things and that's a big portion of their job.Not just generic numbers,actual people. Dunn: So it's like surgical responses at times? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 29 Liston:Yes. Dunn: Okay.Um,the other question I have is-is what defines employed by a law enforcement agency? Um, like if we had,and this is just very theoretical here, like if we had a janitor working for the law enforcement agency,could you theoretically give them the right to look at this information? Liston: They also had to have a need. Dunn: Say they had a background or something,I don't know.Right.But like theoretically right,like if- if the person is working for law enforcement agency like one day a week,would they have,you know,a need.Does that make sense? Liston:I would say no,they don't have a need. Dunn: Why? So like if we had a data. Liston: So we do have janitor access or maintenance people. Dunn: Outside of the rhetorical because that was yeah.No but like so say we had like um,the-the whole city wide,um,you know,uh,analyst.Right um,and one day a week they had off from the city position,but they worked for the police department. Um,they would have potential grounds to have access to that to do their work as a data analyst for the department versus the rest of their work for the city or however right,is just theoretical. I'm just wondering like what that situation would look like and how that. Liston: So we have a couple positions in our department. The person who runs our records and who we all met today,and the person who is our system analyst and they are our Sieges criminal justice information system compliance officers. Dunn: Okay. Liston:And they're the ones who make sure we are in compliance. They're the ones who had to get the fire staff fingerprinted just to walk through unescorted through our area. And they say they have told me,according to Sieges compliance and again,we went through this with the mental health liaison staff that they have to be employed by a law enforcement agency and I specifically asked them what about just a city employees?They said law enforcement agency. Bergus:No,that was my question.Just to put a finer point on it,is the City of Iowa City doesn't count? Liston:No. Bergus: Okay. Dunn:But I mean, like if we split it right,we split duties. Alter: FTE just so. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 30 Dunn: Yes.But I mean we work through those things. If we have those problems,you know,it's just an idea,I'm just like-I'm just like spit balling out here and thinking about if this is a problem like I'd like us to think creatively,depending on what the council decides to pursue. Liston:If I only needed one person,a person for one day a week,I wouldn't have asked for the position. Bergus: Yeah. Couple of things about this position. So Geoff and I had a chance to talk about it at our last weekly meeting and um,you know,trying to look at holistically,what might a person who is analyzing data. There's crime analysis,which I think is somewhat different than some of the other things we've been talking about.Right?Like some of the service provision things that we talk about like with Guide Link aren't necessarily crime analysis for the purposes of figuring out,you know,patterns to identify individuals and that kind of thing.Um,what-and the last council meeting that we had we were talking about like,well,could it be,you know,zoomed out more - more comprehensive for the city data analyst position. I think maybe we should talk about having a data analyst position that is relating to like all of safety rather than just the police department in that case,could they be looking at calls for service in the same system as like if it was police and fire or if they would they have to have access from the JEC or,you know,do we have answers to that as far as giving someone the fuller picture to be able to analyze calls and responses throughout our community,not just from the police department. Liston:Again,the guidance I'm getting from the people who do Siegis compliance for me are employed by a law enforcement agency. That-that's the guidance I'm getting. So to your point of there are some things that this person may not need that access for,but specifically to Guide Link and community. The challenge that Geoff brought up earlier about us,we're really trying to quantify things that we've prevented which are really challenging. They would absolutely need that access to say this person engaged with law enforcement five times before they engaged with their mental health liaison, in which case their engagement with law enforcement stopped or they didn't have any more. Those are things that they would 100%need access to our systems for um, and those are just ones that we came up when talking with uh,Abby and Sarah. Bergus: Yeah. Liston:And there are other things that I probably can't think of right off the top of my head but uh,-and we can discuss whether you call it a data or a we call it a crime analyst,but it's crime data. So um, and again,whether or not I'm asking for a crime analyst with access to my information.If it's outside of my organization,then the guidance I've been given and that we've gone over several times is that they wouldn't have access to that. That would make that job much more difficult. Moe: All right. I guess where I maybe thought you were going with that is can you see the other 911 calls?Can you see if it's just a medical response? Liston: That would still be our Cad system which is covered by Sieges um. Moe: So you can see if somebody's having a crisis that only -only that uh,ambulance or fire shot. Liston:I'm not sure how what their qualifications are. Again,I don't run the ambulance service,and maybe the fire chief can talk about it,but they wouldn't have access to our system. They might have access to general cad-data,which is computer JEC information. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 31 Moe: Yeah. Teague: Are you um,maybe saying can they look at that data and analyze it?Is that what you're thinking? Moe: Is that we need a crime analyst,we also need a sort of holistic emergency response analyst,and we need a city analyst. We need three analysts and so I don't really want to hold up this one because we need three. That's where I'm at right now. Teague: Yeah. Moe: I feel like we-this is a good thing and I think we probably want more data to make smarter choices and be more surgical and so the city can grow,but maybe the city services don't grow. I don't know if we're. Teague:Being a city-a data. Moe: The efficiency. Yeah. Teague: Yeah.Being a data informed city I think is critical for our fixture growth and knowing that this position I agree.You know we need to look at holistically. You know,there are interconnected things that is outside of the police department,that is probably in the um, all the other departments,so they interrelate. Um,but I do believe that given the requirements of someone being a part of the police department,that this is a needed role.I'll support it. Again,I do think um,you know there are so many interlocking things when I think of unhoused individuals,well, you know what made them unhoused?Um,and so all of those things,at some point, it may be addressed you know by someone that they're looking at. How can we prevent and help this individual kind of change their uh,trajectory so I'll be supporting it.But uh,I would agree that we need uh, at some point, as we continue as you just mentioned,we need more than just the police analyst we need yeah. Fruin:Just to share some context.I think it's helpful because I appreciate-we appreciate what you're saying there. And over the past few years,you have supported positions that are providing data analysis,um, analysis. Ah,most recently in transportation,ah,we have a dedicated management analyst who works with data every day, and just in last year's budget as well you supported an engineering tech position,um,who's really managing all the cartograph data which is our-our basically our inventory management system in the public works world where all the water,sewer signs,road signs,things like that data.Um,so you have invested in this data informed model. Um, and I think that this is looking at your strategic plan and knowing the types of work you want us to do,I think this position is absolutely critical.I think it's critical in the police department and I'll probably be back in a fixture year to talk about another position in some other department or the city Manager's office to give more of that umbrella,um,type of viewpoint to this-this kind of data driven journey we're on if you will.But to me it's-it is very clear that this is the biggest need in-in the organization when it comes to data and data analyst. Bergus: Chief,I think it was maybe last summer you were talking about the,um,um, let me just maybe purchase a different way. Currently,do you have any unfilled sworn officer positions?Because I know you've been hiring a number of officers? Liston: Three. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 32 Bergus: You have 3. Liston:We're at 82. We have 85-we are authorized 85.And not to belabor the point,but you know the- the process of getting someone from start to finish.We have four people currently at the academy right now,and we have three more in field training. So seven of those people, four of them are in Des Moines and three more of them are working with a field training officer. So it takes close to a year from start to fmish to get them being a contributing member and that's when we start looking at filling those unfilled specialty positions,where we're getting closer to,we've filled Colin's spot in the downtown liaison,but go ahead. Bergus: Yeah.No,that's exactly where I was going though now is that this position is trading out one of those sworn officers,but you're asking for,ah,additional position in the budget,correct? Liston:Right. Bergus: Okay. Liston:We trading out with two of those swom specialty positions that have not been filled since I've been in Iowa City.We're going to-one of them was the crime analyst which was formerly filled by David Schwindt and the other one was the neighborhood liaison officer who has been filled for- for years. Those are going to go to our community respond-to our co-responder position which is swom,and then the person who the spot that would-would become a civilian spot for the crime analyst. Bergus: So it sounds like you do have one position that could go from a swom officer to the civilian position,right?That's currently open? Liston:No,we're moving that to the co-responder. We're. Bergus: There were 3 open. Liston:Well,the other one is our community. There's a nighttime downtown,so five,um,um,specialty positions bear with me. Only one of them is currently occupied. Bergus: Okay. Liston: That's the daytime downtown liaison. Bergus: Okay. Liston: There's an open nighttime-nighttime downtown liaison. There's an open community outreach ah, and then the two that I want to repurpose. One being the neighborhood liaison and the other one being the crime analyst. Those two would become the co-responders. So still five special positions. Bergus: Okay. Salih:But you said the crime specialist-analyst was held by a swearing officer before? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 33 Liston: Correct. Salih: And now you're shifting that. Liston:Right?Correct.And it hasn't that position hasn't been occupied since David Schwindt left,which was two-two years ago now. Salih: And he was the swearing officer was and now you want to do it but you want to do it with civilian. Liston:We want to do it with a civilian and repurpose those positions to work with our mental health liaison,which was the plan when we started that co-responder program. We just didn't have the- the positions allocated for it. Bergus: One other question on this particular analyst position.Um,I think it was just kind of like mentioned in passing but for the whole council um,the idea I think based on this conversation is they're dedicated to the police department.And at one point,there was some conversation about having that position assist the county with the community violence intervention is. Liston:Well,the county require-uses us to help give them people to- ah,the people that they're focusing on that are most likely to be involved in violent crime. Those people typically come from our staff,and a crime analyst would be the-the exact person that they would want to say,okay,these are the people we're most concerned about that you can try to intervene with. Bergus: I'm just concerned that we're going to be taking,you know,I think it was last summer when you presented to us about having a position like this.Helps the department work smarter not harder. Liston: Correct? Bergus:Right. And we're talking about efficiencies here. So I-that is a separate program,right that is housed at the county is not our-our program. And so I just want to be sure that we're not saying,I would like this whole position.I would like even more than this.But also their time is going to be taken by this other program that maybe won't enable the department to work smarter rather than harder.Does that make sense? Liston:It does. And that would-any type of crime analysts would help with things like that. That would be I don't want to say that's going to be a bulk of,it's not. The-our current staff,our Street Crimes Unit,helps give them people that they might want to get involved with to try to prevent things from happening. This person-this civilian person would be even better equipped to do that, because they would have even-an even bigger picture. It would be their job to understand the trends and what's going on instead of most of our staff does a really good job of understanding that themselves,but they're out in the field going to calls and. Bergus: So one year ago we had this conversation about shifting right from the police department to other means of providing safety and crisis response. I know that we're going to have a separate conversation about the crisis response more holistically,but I just wanted to flag,you know,as we're having this conversation with the request to increase the police budget for this position, right?It would be an ad of a full time employee that,you know,there's that context still exists and I still,you know,if biggest picture we want to look at matching the best response to the call This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 34 when we continue to increase the resources in one department and not increase them in other types of response that aren't armed officers which was one of the goals from our preliminary plan to structure the-restructure the police department.I just don't know how we're going to ever accomplish that,as the budget gets tighter and tighter. Teague: I will say that I believe that this position will help overall.It can help in some capacity for changing some one individual,you know. Bergus: I hope so-I hope so. Teague: And I think-I mean,you know,it has lots of purposes but I think that holistic approach,I really do think that this is a needed part of that holistic approach. Bergus: I just don't want to that-that thread of what we've been talking about. Teague: Yeah-yeah-yeah. Bergus:Last year. Salih: And this position for the city only,right?We're not like sharing a position with any another entity. Liston:We are not sharing the position,but the position that would help other organizations. If asked,just like our mutual aid with anything else. So if someone asked for help,we would always help.But no,it's not-it's not like the county is sharing a mental health liaison that works both in North Liberty and No,this is a City of Iowa City position. Salih: Yeah. Teague: So for,um, staff,um,budgetary direction. I guess we just need to know what the consensus is for this position. Alter: I support the specific line. Teague: Okay. Moe: I do as well. Hermsen:I think I can support this as well. Teague: So I'm here in the majority for support. So we'll go with that. I think the last item for budget consideration,um,that I heard today come back up is the,uh,fire-full time fire position. So I wanted to just,um,re-have that conversation. Dunn: Yeah. Uh,well,I want to thank Councilor Bergus for kind of reframing the conversation a little bit, um,at our last meeting. And I think that,um, at this point,what we need to do with that framing is kind of get a list of things that we need to make judgments and have another or like either at our next work session,um,you know,have folks present that information on calls to service and, um,really kind of help that assessment that we talked about,um. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 35 Teague: Okay.I-I do wonder,um,aren't- aren't specific to that position because my understanding or feeling was there wasn't a majority that was ready to say yes for that position. And then we thought that if we had this other conversation,um,the holistic conversation and-and it came up in that conversation,then it can be considered at that time. So maybe we should take a step back and just get a sense of,you know,is Council willing to go ahead and,you know,where are we with continuing the conversation on this position or is council,you know, saying not at this time because of the recommendation that we heard from,you know,this-you know,the city. Altera:I guess my question is that I mean,and I agree,we need to have a- a broader conversation about calls for service and- and-and needs assessment and safety,right?I mean,that's where we were centering this. Um,and I wonder,is this part of the budget conversation or is this just a large, right?Because the thing that was before us,what-what sort of initiated this conversation was about using contingency finds to find a FTE firefighter,right?But now this is a much broader conversation and I know I'm not comfortable taking money out of that contingency for some other purpose,right. So is this just a generalized conversation saying yes,this is a priority at some point or are we willing to say now we need to actually ask staff to carve out whatever this,the result of this conversation is,right?I mean,is ths-is this a conversation that will lead to a budget recommendation or are we,do you see where,I'm confused. Dunn: I think it should be,um,I mean,last budget cycle.We kind of came to the conclusion as a body that we needed to gather more information from more stakeholders,we needed to hear from more and more people and we decided to,um,continue on as-as we did.Um,and if we're not doing something right now when we're in the middle of the budgeting cycle rather than at the very end of the budgeting cycle,um,we're not going to know where money needs to be spent,either this year or next year. So,uh,whether or not it's something that you know,say,the reports does or whatever information we get does point to,um, a necessary need for an additional FTE position at the fire department and we choose to go forward with that through,um,the finding mechanism that I-that I advocate for,um,or it says,you know,the need is elsewhere. Um,I think that this is important work that needs to be done in the context of the budget,um,because we need to look at both what we have budgetable for this year and we also have to be thinking about next year. Um, and honestly,I don't think it's going to happen if we just punt it.Just straight up. Alter: I was just looking for clarification. Teague: Yeah. So maybe we-maybe this council needs to just talk specifically to Councilor Dunn's,um, request for consideration of us allocating finds for the full time firefighter and it would actually be from those kind of reserve front. Alter: It seems like that's the cart before the horse.Right.I mean,it seemed to me that it started,sorry,I just jumped. So I apologize,but it seemed to me that that was the initial conversation,but that led us to say,let's do this broader work. And so my question was,would that lead to some kind of a budget recommendation?And it indicates at least from Councilor Dunn and I would concur.It makes a lot of sense to say that rather than just to have a,yep,that's important and punt it,but we can't necessarily say respond to the original,ask about the fire the FTE,because we don't know if that's the position that's going to be needed. And so we need to have the broader conversation before we actually say,are we okay with leaving the contingency funds in there or do we want to spend them?Do you see what I say,um? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 36 Teague: So that's-that's what I walked away with the last meeting,that-that was not going to that the consideration separately for the full- full time firefighter.We-we were done with that conversation and we were going to net in the whole. That was I just heard Councilor Dunn say today we need to really look at it and consider it. Salih: Can I ask question. Teague: If I understand. Dunn: Think there's a little bit of misunderstanding. So I mean,if-if I may Mazahir. You can go ahead and Mazahir,Councilor Salih. Salih: Go ahead. Okay,because I just like feel like you guys are- are answering each other and you are not giving us a chance to talk. Dunn: Go ahead. Salih: Yeah. Dunn: Go ahead. Salih: Yeah,because before we move,I would like just to remind me,because I might forgot from last time until now.Is this being asked by the police-by the fired Chief that position needed and,uh, immediately what the urgency for that position to be filled and I just want to know that before we can move in. Lyon: Scott Lyon,Fire Chief. Uh,there are a couple things I think that we need to discuss.My-my ask to the City Manager's office was for three firefighters,a fire inspector and for a community risk reduction officer. At no time did I ask for one firefighter. Okay. So that's out there.Earlier,a couple of weeks ago when we went through the initial budget discussions,we talked about the Iowa City Fire Department being an accredited agency- a legacy accredited agency.Uh,with our re-accreditation that we just went through,there are 14,uh,core criteria,uh,recommendations that-that we are to follow up on, and one of them or a lot of them have to do with staffing different areas of the fire department, from suppression to administration to fire prevention. Uh, so there is a bigger conversation that does need to take place and-and a bigger analysis that needs to take place. So that is-that is where I am at at the fire chief right now. You guys just had a great discussion on making data driven decisions and that is what I fully support,is data driven decision making.Um,so I definitely need the time to-to go through and do those job tasks analysis throughout the organization. Salih: Are you in need of an urgent full time positions staff? Lyon: Uh,I'm not going to say we're not in need of any positions. The fire department short will one firefighter change,um,many things that the fire department probably not.It'll balance out the shift. So they're all equal numbers of people. Moe: How long would it take for you to-to analyze the many,the five needs that you said to us? Lyon: Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 37 Moe: How long or what resources do you need to sort of prioritize those four? Lyon:Right. So- so it's tough. You know,one of the things that,um-one of the recommendations is surrounding administrative support. I have no administrative support whatsoever in the fire department. Um, so I'm doing everything from paying the light bill to putting together a strategic plan. Um, so we have a new robust records management system that is going to be incredibly helpful in doing exactly what we need to do,and that's putting forth a realistic staffing plan that covers the next five or 10 years,um,but we definitely have some immediate needs.Um,I think that,um,early summer. I think I'd have a pretty good feeling of-of,you know,what-what- where we can go in the next five or 10 years,but make no mistake about it. The lack of administrative support is truly-truly problematic in my organization. Salih: And right now,if I ask you,there is two position one,choose one,administration support or-or firefighter,which one are you gonna choose? Lyon:Well,I'm reluctant to choose either of them to tell you the truth.Um,I made my recommendation to the City Manager and-and he recommended for the reasons that he has not-not to pursue staffing. Salih: And what's the reasoning? Fruin:Well,um,there's I don't have the account in front of me. There's probably 10-15 positions requested during the budget process. Um,I would say most departments probably didn't even suggest,uh,new positions even though they're needed,because,um,they just understood that it was unlikely to be funded through the budget process. Uh,so the job that I have is to hear all the requests,analyze our financial position and put forward a budget that I think balances the needs of the organization and our financial ability to pay.And that ability to pay is just not can we pay a salary for a year. I tell our staff all the time,if I don't have 100%confidence that I can add positions and that we're going to be able to fiend them for their career,then I don't want to add that position.And we're in a precarious financial spot. Yes,those are contingency funds there. So the net budget impact is zero,but there is a bigger commitment that you make when you budget personnel than when you budget contingency dollars. You're not just committing$100,000 for this budget year.You're committing$100,000 plus 10-15%per year for someone's career. And I'm just not comfortable making that recommendation right now. Bergus: And I just want to be clear what I'm hoping the conversation can be about this more holistic crisis response and community safety conversation is not to put any staff person in a position of pick a position. It is to say let's look at all of the response in our community, all the different entities that respond. Are we best matching the response with the call and how are we investing in that?How are we reflecting that in our budget based on the values and strategic,uh,priorities that we have in-in the strategic plan. That's what I'm hoping we talk about. So,you know,I feel like this is getting really and I really don't want departments like,you know. Salih:No.But we are talking now is specifically about the position for the fire department. Your vision for that is tough or like to be for everything. I'm 100%agree with it.But right now if we are talking only about the-the fire department employees or position let's just finish this,I think And I from what I'm seeing,Andrew,I don't know where you get the earring needs from since now he said recommend he need more than even one employees but because many other department they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 38 still also in need of employees That's what the City Manager recommendation I'm not going to give those and not those. And that's why we're going to hold for now I don't know can you just explain to me? Dunn: Yeah. So,I think some framing of this conversation or maybe some reframing of this conversation is in order.Um,I think that the conversation in line with what the mayor said is less specifically at this point about whether or not we use these contingency funds and it's more so about doing this broader conversation. And,you know,should we see- should we as a body decide that yes, there is a significant need at the fire department then we can examine that proposal. So I think that we're not dismissing that potentiality.Right. That's always been the thing that the Mayor had said throughout this entire conversation but I think that I would reiterate something that Councilor Bergus has said and something that Ibe already said tonight is that this is a budget conversation where we do make,um,this qualitative analysis of our calls for service of our public safety.And we have the information to make an educated decision going forward through those decisions. So that requires some work from our department heads,certainly from the fire chief,certainly from the police chief,and certainly from other partner agencies. Um, so that is something that's going to take a little bit of time but I do think that it is something that is a budget discussion that we should have now. Salih:But Laura,can you tell us exactly about that?Can you speak about the position that you are putting forward?Because I feel like now we don't- it seemed like we're okay with a firefighter. Can we use that money to fund a position that we'll be doing like all the response for the calls or something like that? Bergus: I mean,what I think we were talking about was a bigger policy discussion.A specific thing that I mentioned at the last meeting or maybe the meeting before that was that we consider funding a crisis counselor in the JEC. That was a very specific thing.But I think,you know,if we're going to have a broader conversation let's hear from those who would be directly impacted by that,that that is a priority,right. And if that is the case then consider doing that. Salih: Can I suggest something? Since I don't think now we agree we don't need right now maybe a firefighter position. Can we just like talk about the broader conversations.Now later I don't know but let us focus on a broader conversation about that kind of position using the fund as a part of the budget and allocate money for it if we agree to do something. Teague: I just want to make sure,because this was the exact place that we left off. Dunn: Absolutely. Teague: The exact place. So I just want to make sure. Moe: You so you are right that we are at the same place that we were. Um,I wanted to start by saying thanks for the professionalism of that whole conversation. Um,I appreciate that there are a lot of needs at the city. I interact probably most with Neighborhood Development services. I know they desperately need many,many employees and the budget that comes to us has had a lot of work go into it and maybe there is for the next budget cycle more of that process. The ugliness of it-this council clearly wants to see the ugly,um, for the three or four or five months before we actually do this process. As far as fixing the budget that Geoff worked on for,um,the last year right now I'm kind of feeling like we don't know as much as they do and yet we're poking at it. We all agree This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 39 that there needs to be a broader conversation about public safety but I don't know why we're in the weeds on some of these things. Dunn: So we have to define what we want to talk about. Moe: Yeah. Dunn: We need the information from the experts that you're talking about. Which is why,um,I started this conversation saying,okay,let's talk about the information that we need to make this decision. Who do we need to have come before us?What kind of information like qualitatively do we need to look at to determine the needs that we have in the community.I think that's where we're at. I think that's where this conversation needs to go. Salih: Then let's do it.Let's like just ask the staff to bring those people who we can talk to us about it and after that we can-because we cannot just make a decision like that without hearing from the stockholder. Bergus: And I think to your point,Josh,it's really that,you know,I would say it this plainly with all appreciation and respect to our staff that I think this is a conversation we've committed to having and it's not reflected in the current budget. And so when we're talking about the level of investment,right,it is very- it is reflected in the current budget in very what I would consider very minimal ways.And so are we willing to talk about a more significant investment?That's why I think it should be during the budget conversation.Right.And we have been talking about this,you know, literally for a year. And so its-and at that time it was next budget cycle. So at every budget meeting,you know,we've raised this and I think there's consensus around it. So it's just a question of yes,it's not in the budget document but let's have that conversation and decide if the scope of investment is something that we want to see reflected differently in the budget or not. Dunn: Or even really what the scope of that investment could possibly be. Bergus: Yes. Dunn: Like this is really this is we need data. Alter: Yeah.Well,what's the scope of the investment?I mean,yeah.Um but and this is truly it's a question you were talking about seeing the ugly before it gets to us. So are you suggesting that we should be involved while the departments are putting their stuff together?Because I would say that that's like that's not our- Moe: That's like micro management? Alter: That's not our swim lane at all.Not at all. We are not- Moe: I kind of agree with you but I also hear it an appetite for that. Alter:No,it's- sorry. I'm like,uh. Moe:No. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 40 Alter:No but-no.Right now is that this is the-this is the time in which we get to see that they have done the work,they have gone through and combed through this,right?And are bringing it before us and now it's our turn to do that same combing. Moe: Right. Alter:Because we approve it,it has to go to the state in April.Right. Give it-correct? Moe: Correct. Alter: So this is the time for the ugly with us. Moe: Right. Alter: It's not the time for us to get involved prior to that. That's-I think we are on the same page? Moe: I don't disagree with you. Alter:No. The appetite is not to now step in and become- Moe: Right. Alter: -part of City staff to help create this budget we're reacting to it and offering possible revisions is how I'm seeing it. Moe: Sure. Alter: And having the conversation publicly so that it's transparent. Moe: Yeah. Teague: So if I was to kind of get us where we are right now we're not going to have a specific discussion about the firefighter position at this time. So essentially the recommendation that Councilor Dunn has put before us,we have said not in this-not at this time,not in this context if it comes out in another way then it comes out in that way. Is that the agreement? Dunn: That's accurate. Alter: Uh-huh. Teague: Okay.All right. Alter: That wasn't hard. Teague: Anything else on the budget? Dunn: Well,that would mean that we haven't done anything for that particular item as it relates to the broader conversation of public safety. So do we have that as a work session item? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 41 Teague: So councilor Bergus and I are meeting and Geoff meeting next Thursday to determine what 'cause I just heard it here.Like what needs to be a part of that conversation. So we're planning to meet so that we can prepare for that discussion. Dunn: Cool. Sounds good to me. Teague: To the best of our ability. Fruin:I hate-I hate to prolong this,but I-I-I um,I just want to make sure I'm clear on city expectations for staff.Because um,the type of issue,what you're talking about,this high level analysis,in order to make a budget decision,you are trying to get your arms around a monster of a-of a complex issue.If- if you think that we can come and present you the data that you're gonna need to-to make a budget decision for fiscal year 25.I can't live up to that expectation.We are not able to do the nuanced data analysis to match responses analyze kind of calls for service and say this is the-the appropriate response. Here's how you should shift budget resources.We can provide high level calls for service er, like you see in our annual reports. And like you've seen in the preliminary plan. If that's the type of decision or data that you need to make a decision,that's great.But when you're getting into breaking down calls for service and dispositions and who's responding, and we're talking about internal and external agencies. That's a big,that is a-a monster of a-of a challenge and we're up for it,we'll do it.But if you're asking me to come back on February 20th and give you all that information you need,it- it's not realistic. Bergus: And I wouldn't expect that that's what we're doing this budget cycle.But I think we have to start the conversation in a more substantive way and talk about level of investment. Teague: And I think the best,I mean,certainly there's an argument that we could or should have had this discussion a long time ago.But we're here now and I think um,while we're talking money,even if we aren't allocating money,this budget cycle,I think it's the right time to have that conversation. Harmsen:Yes,I think just two.We want to put a reminder to ourselves that,you know, September,this past September,you know,there was some conversation about these kinds of high level goals when city staff did ask us about that. And I don't think we gave them a whole lot of guidance at that time. So with that in mind then, if we want to do this,maybe that's the time,you know, in terms of like those discussions. So I mean,we're at some point just just,I mean,make sure we don't let an opportunity slip by again,at the front end of the process. Alter: I feel like it's um,I've been saying yes and but I think it's that we should start the conversation now and we'll be in that much better position in September to be able to offer some guidance in a more substantive or concrete way of what the outcomes of these conversations,what have these conversations yielded in a way that can actually help guide staff when that call for what are your priorities in September come up. So I think it comes up at both times. Salih: What I understood from the- from the staff that they need at least now direction of how much information we need to provide right now. So I think whatever information that you just mentioned,besides like bringing people to talk to us like from as a partner that we're gonna partner with them. Such as Crisis Center, such as like what's it called,the-the ambulance, and all this kind of like,can we bring those people right now to talk about like a way of cooperations. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 42 And-and this kind of information is not that it doesn't cost a lot of money, so maybe we can start there. Teague: I think that's great. Moe: The large analysis that you were talking about, Geoff, is that something that you envisioned that you were doing on your own or that we should be allocating money for to hire a consultant or additional staff to do that analysis. Teague: I-I think we're gonna come back with this.We're gonna meet. We'll come back Um,we're hearing a lot of. Alter: Suggestions. Teague:No,no.We're hearing all the good stuff.Right? So I think we'll come back to this and we'll have that-we'll have that discussion. Is that acceptable to people right now? Alter: Yeah. Salih: It is. Teague: Okay,thank you. All right. Anything else on the budget proposal?Anything staff isn't clear on that,they need clarification on something that has already been discussed right now today or in the past. Fruin:I think we-we're clear. 5. Information Packet Disucssion [January 18,January 25,February 11 Teague: Great. We're gonna move on. We're gonna ski-not do item Number 4 because clarification of agenda item caught me off guard a little bit. We didn't have that discussion,but we went through our agenda.We gonna-um,we will go to information packets,which is item Number 5,and we're gonna start with January 18th. Alter: Um,I want to talk about I have to remember IP2,the memo from neighborhood services coordinator about the property at Taylor Drive. And um,I guess I would just suggest or- or offer up my impression that I think um,of all of the options that have been presented,um,there's a really exciting opportunity for this to become an inside community center.Um,Wetherby is well used,well loved,um, and I think that this could really expand um, create a really nice hub,an additional hub for the community. So,I know that that staff recommendation,I know that um,it was talked about with um,some uh,stakeholders in the South District and they were in favor of it. So,I would just sort of urge council as well to-to think about it. Um,I think it could- especially if,you know that property. It's really weird um,and I don't think it's gonna be all that rentable and you wouldn't get the return on investment in the way that the other duplexes do for um,the homeownership program. So I think that this ah,could be a really welcome way to get more people into the park and to use it. Moe: Do you know,Megan,what the recreation has-the parks master plan has for whether re-park is that part of it,that there'd be an investment in indoor space? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 43 Fruin:It-it does. It didn't specify this location because at the time we were planning,we-we-we didn't have this kind of idea in mind that we'd acquire this property. Um,and. Oh,I don't think-I don't think staff is-is in a position to say that indoor rec facility,um,which is really just,uh,an enclosed park shelter,right?I mean,it's-we're not talking a rec center,we're talking a very small kind of community meeting room,uh,with a little bit of storage and things of that nature. Um,it may not be most appropriate on this exact site,but what this-clearing this site does is it opens up the park to a great degree and it could provide some additional flexibility in the fixture.Whether we need to-to shift parking or if you wanna put some community gardens on this site or move a public art,it could-it could allow us to just move the pieces in the remainder of the park to nicely fit,uh,an-an enclosed,um,recreation space. Moe: Okay.But I ask because I think that it's our job.If there's a master plan out there and we want to shift gears,we should speak specifically to the master plan that's there because it's nothing,we're frustrating looking at old master plan that's not executed. Fruin: This would be consistent. Moe: Okay. Teague: : That's right. Any other items from January 18th? Moe: IP3,thanks to the master gardeners. Appreciate their work Harmsen:Yes. Alter: What hat tip to-to former Councilor John Thomas?Wasn't he part of the gardens on parade that was put on by the master gardeners? Moe: He was. Alter: Yeah, so- Teague: All right. We will move on to January 25th.We'll move on to February 1st. Okay. Hearing nothing. Fruin:Mayor,I was hoping to just talk about the pending list real quick. Teague: Oh, sure. Go right ahead. Fruin:Folks who had a long day here.But,um,there were several items that came up in your,uh, first budget work session where council said,yeah,we should talk about that. And I just wanna get some clarification on what you'd like to see reflected on the-the pending list going forward. We had a couple of ads tonight,uh,with the utility discount program and the license plate,uh,reader technology. Uh,there was conversation about lost affordable housing,childcare fixnding,and the airport terminal building. Um,would you like any of those,uh, listed on the,uh,kind of the other topic section of this or basically the unscheduled,um,portion of this list?I'm going to go one by one.Lost was brought up. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 44 Alter: Yes. Fruin: Okay. We'll add that. Moe: Yes. Lost specifically,but I also may be within that conversation also other levies that are currently available to us. Fruin: Okay. Alternative revenues? Moe: Yes.Revenue conversation. Fruin:Uh, affordable housing,I believe you brought up,wanted to kind of just take stock of where we're at,what we're pursuing, and whether we need to change course. Alter: Agree. Definitely. Fruin: That'll just be list and if you want to specific title let me know. Otherwise,it'll probably just be generic,uh, childcare funding. I think Megan,you brought that up at some point wanting to explore,uh,maybe a conversation with the local coalition. Alter: Yeah-yeah. Salih: We just talked about funding for immigrant-led organization or immigrants. Alter: Yes-yes. Fruin: Okay. So,um, funding for-how do you want me to phrase that? Salih: I said funding for immigrant-led organization or immigrant-served organization. Fruin: Okay. Salih:based comm- community organizations. Fruin: Community orgs. Okay.Airport terminal building. This was your- Moe: That's-that's my thing,yeah. Fruin:Like an update from the commission on where they're at in the process? Moe: Yeah. I think understanding.I mean,that was an item that I was- it's a small amount of that project, but I wasn't excited about us spending money for something in our CIP that specifically said demolition of that building. Dunn: Do-do we need a work session item for that,though? Teague: Yeah,I-I was gonna say I don't recall at least the council having the discussion. Moe: Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 45 Teague: Just saying they wanted,you know,two or three people wanted that particular item on there. I just assumed as things are progressing,you know,we would get updates.But are you wanting a work session on that or- Moe: I would expect updates if we're spending money on it. Dunn: You can always reach out to the commissioners. Moe: Yeah. Dunn:No,I don't. I just- Moe: And also to understand I-I- Fruin:If you wanna shape the direction of the project because you don't have direct control over-over the-over the-the outcome. If you wanna shape it,you need to be engaging with the airport commission. Moe: Yeah,directly. Okay. As individuals or as a council? Fruin:I would recommend the individuals because I think that puts your commissioners in a tough spot. I think the council if- if you wanna consider this,you need to have a- a majority voice to be able to share with the commission. Moe: Well. Is anybody else care about the airport building enough to invest time in it?I think I'll put this in context.We have this building here,that's a problem.We have Robert A.Lee Rec Center that's a problem.And we have the airport terminal building,that's a problem. And they're all historic assets. And if we're gonna pick something that we actually want to invest in and say,you know, maybe we want to preserve one of these that one seems to be,um- Dunn: We can still like have those discussions and you can still pursue those things. But I guess really the question of it being a work session item is what I-what I wonder if- if it's necessary because the other thing is also like if throughout your,you know,discussions and,you know, fact finding with this,you learn some specific information that you'd like to share and talk about and discuss in a work session for council action. You can always reach out to,you know,two other councilors,and say,hey,I'd like this on the work session topic and it's done,um,if you can get two other people.But just as of right now,I personally don't feel like I know enough to say,yeah, I definitively want to have a fixture conversation on that because I just-I just don't know.And then that's not to say anything against what you're saying or the validity of that,but that's just how I feel personally. Alter: And for what it's worth,this list is ever ongoing.And so in fact,if you want to get some attention onto something going the route of finding councilors to say,hey,this is the research I've done, here's something to talk about is gonna jump the line, so to speak. I mean,just to be realistic about it,otherwise it might sit and languish,. Moe: Right.Now I hear that.I feel like that's,uh,we're gonna be seeing the Historic Preservation Commission bring to us probably some interesting information at our next meeting.And that's This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 46 just because things languished for a long time,didn't get brought up,and now we're in a reactionary mode. So I will do my best to be not reactionary. Alter: Okay. Salih: I also want to remind you about the- like modifying the water discount. Harmsen:Yes,thanks. Salih: Yeah,thanks. Fruin:And don't need to do this tonight,but if you see things on that list that have been there for a long time,that you don't really prioritize anymore,you-you can also,as a council,remove items. And sometimes that's a good thing because if- if the public reads this and they see that's on there, they're going to expect that you talk about it. So as this list gets longer,I usually urge council to look in the other direction too.Because your time is limited together and how you focus is really important. Salih: Some of them can be-like three of them maybe can be in one work session,right?Because there are small items. Fruin:I-I don't know what those would be on this list. Sometimes the ones.But your next meeting,the February 20th,you'll see you have city conference board,the update presentation from Greater Iowa City. And then I'm going to probably also um,have Rachel talk to you about our public input plan for 21 South Lynn. And that's an example of three items we can bum through pretty quick,but a lot of these other ones are pretty weighty. Salih: Okay. Teague: All right,anything else from February 1st? 6. University of Iowa Student Government(USG)Updates Teague: We're going to move on to item number six,University of Iowa. You guys student USG updates. Monsivais: Oh,we've been waiting patiently. Harmsen:Very nice. Teague: Well,welcome. LeFevre: Do we get an award for being the last ones making it?I mean,I don't know. I know ask you. Matthew go ahead. Monsivais:All right. First off,only a month and a half late,we have the USG holiday cards to give out. So hopefully we should be passing those out soon. Uh the 30th Annual dance marathon,big event happened this weekend,so students danced for 24-hours straight.We were able to raise 1.5 million dollar in total. So great successes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 47 Teague: Awesome. Monsivais:We had a great intro meeting with Mayor Pro Tem Salih on Thursday. So just a soft reminder, we do want you to schedule those meetings with us and get back to us. It's a really great time to get to know us personally.And we also want to talk to you and know,you know,motivations on the council going forward. Uh our by laws do require us to meet with each councilor each-once each semester. So please don't get us impeached.Another reminder is that Town Hall is next Thursday, so we'll see you there. And then Noah and I presented the renters guide to USG Senate as well. And then um,oh yeah,next Tuesday,next Senate session,Mayor Pro Tem Salih is also coming to speak with USG. So it's really exciting. Harmsen: Quick question for you on the event next Thursday.What time and is that going to be at IMU or is that going to be at the Old Capitol or? LeFevre: Yes. Were-hopefully the agenda should be finished by tonight.Um,it's going to be in the Old Capitol Senate chambers like it was last year. Seven o'clock There'll be refreshments afterwards. Just as-I mean I'll send the agenda to everyone here too as well. Seven o'clock Old Capitol chambers.We'll have call- calls,decorum with GPSG and then USG. We have no bills or anything to pass, so we'll get right into council introduction,very brief introductions about who you guys are,what you guys do, stuff like that.And then we'll just have it be a bit less moderated Q&A than last year. So far,we haven't been thinking about points of discussion,if you remember that from last year.Just so we can kind of have it flow more naturally we felt like we were really time constraint. Um,a new thing that we will be having for- for each-each question we'll only have two Councilors answer.Last time we kind of kept going with a lot of people answering, which was really good that you guys all knew something,but we just didn't. Oh, sorry. That sounded really,you mean? Oh my goodness. I'm sorry. I'm happy back.No,I'm sorry. Harmsen:You set the bar high last year. LeFevre: You guys-you guys were all very informative and each person had like a unique piece of information and unique perspective,which was really good.But we just have a lot of USG members and a lot of questions and a lot of concerns.And so we really want to kind of-kind of keep moving a little bit more and so this still be for the regular time until about 8:15 and then 8:15-9 no later than nine,and we're going to have our same thing of refreshments and socialization downstairs. IMU Catering again. So it'll be pretty simple and a good time to talk to students and GPSG will be there this year. So that's awesome. Bergus: Great. LeFevre: On another announcement. Um,I know that I talked to Geoff about this of course,but I just wanted to raise it to all of you. Is that in my two years of being here,I've never actually asked for much from the council specifically,but there is this amazing program that the University has called Raise the Bar.It is currently not getting any l ending by the State of Iowa. I believe they cut it.It was underneath like women's resources of some sort. I don't know all the information nor does Matthew.But we're here to relay it,so we can just get interest from you guys. So we have this amazing senator Anushka Gupta,who came to Matthew and I saying,hey,we'd really like this program to somehow stay in Iowa City. Can the City of Iowa City do anything about it?And so Matthew and I had a meeting with Rebecca Evans,who is the one person running the program um,with Anushka and the two of us.And we talked about how we want to develop this. In a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 48 rough estimation,it's about only$2,000 at most a year.Most of the prices go to printing and various stuff like that. We will obviously,more than willing to have Rebecca Evans and Anushka come and actually speak during some sort. We don't know,whatever if you are willing to engage that conversation um,and to explain the Raise the Bar program.It trains bar staff around Iowa City. I know that recently it's worked with Brothers,and it trains the staff on noticing and preventing sexual violence of any sort. We've been getting a lot of good feedback from it, and Rebecca has a whole bunch of more like statistical data besides mine,just like hearsay. And so, yeah,this isn't obviously like a total something,but we want you guys just have it on your interests,please talk to us about if you need contacts,anything like that. We would love to.I need to get back to your email. I just haven't had time yet.But yeah, so that's all we have actually. It was way longer than three minutes,so I was not going to fit in that. Teague: Well,thanks for that.What I-what I think we'll do is, for train the bar staff. We'll connect you all with some staff if council is okay with that. Just to talk about some fimding opportunities through the city. LeFevre: Yeah. Teague: And then-yeah. I-I think I'll leave it at that for now. LeFevre: That's-that's kind of our path too. Teague: So,yes. Dunn: Is it worth having a- Harmsen:Why don't you just say work session? Dunn: A work session discussion?Yes.A work session item. Teague: I think the fust step for any organization looking for fimding,as they mentioned,is just to work with our staff to find out what the opportunities are already existing.Yeah. LeFevre: Yeah. Awesome. Teague: Thank you. LeFevre: Thank you. Teague: All right. Alter: Thank you. 7. Council updates on assigned boards,commission,and committees Teague: We're at item number seven,council updates on assigned boards, commissions and committees. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024 Page 49 Salih: I think we attend the MPO meeting today- last week And today we are-we just attend our fust Rule Committee meeting and we did some recommendation that's going to come by you guys next meeting? Goers: Thank-you.Next meeting,right? Salih: Yeah. Goers: Yeah. Teague: Great. Any other updates. Dunn:Rules Committee? Teague: I did want to just mention that tomorrow through Friday,I'm gonna be going to the National League of Cities Waste Management Sustainability Forum. And that's going to be in Seattle?No um. Fruin:You're going to Arizona mayor. Teague: Arizona. I'm like Seattle.No.Yes,yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah,yeah. Scottsdale. Arizona. Scottsdale, Arizona. I do want to give a shout out to the staff who spent half- literally half of a day with me on Waste Management and all of the great things that we're doing. And actually we were invited to attend the City of Iowa City. Paid in full, so there's no financial resources by the City of Iowa City.But I think a part of it is the great work that's happening here in Iowa City is being noticed around the world. And so I think kudos to our staff. The people who sat with me and kind of trained me. I want to give a shout out to them. Jane Wilch is our recycling coordinator,and then Jen Jordan who is the resource management superintendent. And of course,thanks to Ron Knoche and the entire Public Works Department and all of those great people. So is going to be an interesting a couple of days. I never thought that Waste Management and Sustainability would be something that I would,you know, embrace. Yeah.But honestly,there are some great things happening here in Iowa City. A lot more things can be done,but I think we're in a very fortunate community.And so I'll be happy to go and represent Iowa City and at the National League of Cities Forum. So-That's so cool. -great. Salih: How long are you going to be there? Teague: Until Friday. So it's Wednesday through Friday. So,yeah. Anything else?If nothing else,we are adjourned and enjoy the rest of your evening. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 6, 2024