Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-02-20 Transcription Page 1 Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen, Moe, Salih, Teague Staff Present: From,Jones, Goers, Grace,Hightshoe,Kilburg,Havel, Sovers Others Present: LeFevre,USG, Monsivais,Alternate 1. Update presentation from Greater Iowa City,Inc. Teague: I'm gonna call the City of Iowa city work session for February 20th,2024 to order. And we're gonna have our first item which is an update presentation from the Greater Iowa City,Inc. So I'm gonna welcome Nancy Bird.Welcome. Bird:Hi,everyone. Thank you so much for having us.My name is Nancy Bird.I'm the president of Greater Iowa City Incorporated. Uh,we go by Greater IC for short,and today I wanted to walk through.First of all,we're going to take your time because there's a lot to share and a lot that we really hope that you guys can understand about the nature of the new organization.But first,we're gonna start on a report of the work done last year through your service agreement with ICAD and additional services.After that,I'm gonna share the major changes with the new emerged organization and then present opportunities for the city of Iowa city.We really hope to engage you in a conversation around that. So,uh,I'm gonna tum it over to our leadership team and each one will come up and introduce themselves and talk a little bit about the work that they've done for the past year for the city of Iowa city. Austin. Koros: All right. Thank you,Nancy.My name is Austin Koms.I am the Senior Director for Economic Development for- for Greater IC. Still getting used to it.Uh,and,you know,that's a change from ICAD.Before in our previous service agreement was under ICAD. Uh,and I wanted to talk just very briefly about,um,how we pursued economic development with ICAD as,uh,Interstate Commerce Economic Development Organization.And then,you know,a lot of this is transitioning into,uh,the core aspects of the economic development work that we do with Greater IC. The three points that I thought were important to hit were business retention, expansion,business attraction and real estate development. Uh,BRE is probably Number 1 the plurality of the economic development work that we do,because we find a lot more success in focusing on the businesses that are already here and growing from within.Uh,business retention and expansion focuses on,uh,re-uh,on relationship building and,uh,leaming the needs of our companies as they,uh, as they change over years.Uh,the goal of our BRE program is to identify issues before they become major problems, and get rid of those problems before they might lead to a,uh,major change that we don't want to see with a company. Uh,our goal with BRE is to make sure that companies can at the very least,keep doing what they're doing right now and,uh, ideally,fmd ways to help them grow. Uh,the other big aspect that rolls into our BRE program is our data collection. Um,our survey system,and then year over year data collection is an enormous aspect of why we do BRE,so we can track trends over years.Uh,we've had some pretty major change in uh,changes in our data collection systems for BRE over the last couple of years. So we're excited to actually roll out a new system this year,uh,under Greater IC. And I could talk more about that if you're interested.But it gets pretty dull,pretty fast. Uh,business attraction is,uh,what people think about when they think of economic development. It isn't our biggest focus,but we,uh,like to pick our spots with business attraction.Uh,we,uh,you know, we manage the leads that come in through the state,through private developers,direct contacts, all kinds of different,uh,ways that we get business attraction leads. And then assess those opportunities on a case by case basis.Uh,we-we submit RFPs,RFIs other development This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 2 mechanisms and then track those,uh,and respond to those continually.Uh,the heavy focus for how we assess our business attraction opportunities is on high quality jobs. Uh,if it is a company that is going to create high quality jobs,also we like to see decent capital investment in our community.Uh, and then,uh,the big-the other third major factor is if it falls into an industry cluster that makes sense for our community. Uh,if you know they are in bio sciences or advanced manufacturing,uh,humanities and arts,things like that,that really fit in the Iowa City area. Uh, then the other thing I wanted to talk about very briefly is real estate development.Uh,this is where site selection comes into,uh,play. Working with our current land and building owners,uh, making sure we have a good grasp on what is available out there,and how we can help move projects forward and connect dots for people. Uh,a lot of that has to do with partnering with those owners,brokers,constructors, architectures,engineers, folks like that. Uh,we also manage a real estate listing database called Location 1 Information Systems,that is,uh,I think,uh,the go to for- for economic development opportunities in our region and is a mostly well up to date,uh, listing system as-as well as you can keep it.Uh, so yeah,those are the three major things I want to talk about there. And then I wanted to just point out really quickly. These started out as the ICAD,KPI's moving into the Greater Iowa City Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Uh,we don't do this on a year to year basis because I think that is too small of a time frame to look at. Uh,we started this at the beginning of the last ICAD,uh,in-investment campaign and,uh,we're wrapping it up when it was planned to be wrapped up before,which is this June 30th. Uh,you can see,uh,kind of where we stand on some of those big goals. Uh,and a couple of those have changed as we've already hit the mark. And then we wanted to,uh,kind of move the goal posts and see if we can,uh,keep moving forward with that. Dunn: A quick question about one of the things there just in this moment so we don't forget. Um, can you talk a little bit more about the businesses expanded and retained stat here?Because I guess I just kind of think of those as kind of somewhat different things. So how you lump those together as a statistic kind of confuse me a little bit. Koros: So expansions are particular projects we've worked on where your business has expanded,where new jobs have been created through,uh,a through some sort of help that we've provided.Uh, retained is a lot more rare just because it is typically a company saying we are going to leave if we cannot do this,uh,that doesn't happen very often.But when,um,it comes to,um,BRE,we just match up the words with that. Dunn: Thank you. Koros: Yeah. Any other questions before I move on to my colleague Liz?All right. Alter: I just have one quick question like what's your,um,is it like January is-I'm just wondering under your like three year target,is it through- Koros: It's through June 30th of this year. Alter: Okay. So that's fiscal year? Koros: Yeah. It started on July,uh,July 1st of- Alter: 2022. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 3 Koms: 21,22.It was,it'll be three years on June 30th,June 20th this year. Alter: Yeah,I got you.No,I was more curious about like when like are we- Koms: Yep. We're almost there. Alter:Bumping up against. Koms: Yeah. Alter: Thank you. Koms: Yep. Hubing: All right.Hello everyone.I'm Liz Hubing,the Senior Director of Workforce and Business Innovation for Greater Iowa City. So we're great to chat with all of you today. Um,the main three buckets that I'm going to discuss today are workforce development,inclusive economic development, and entrepreneurial support programs. Starting off with workforce development, um,this is something that I'm overseeing,however, several members of our team are involved with this.Looking backwards,um,our main three areas of workforce development initiatives have been a regional collaboration. First off was the ICR Talent Hub,which is a talent attraction and marketing campaign. The second is Ignite ICR,which is a summer intern program,then the third is Inclusive ICR,which is really around diversity,equity and inclusion. So going into them a little bit more,ICR talent is a targeted marketing campaign really to attract newcomers to the Iowa city of Cedar Rapids region. In addition to that,that whole marketing campaign,we're engaging local employers to connect those new candidates to open job positions. The really thing that we're targeting here are people with ties to Iowa or people that work in industry clusters that we're really trying to build up were high need jobs. The things that we're highlighting in our marketing campaigns include quality of life,industries and just overall opportunities for our community. Some statistics from that program this past year we received 157 candidate profiles. So they go onto the website,they submit their information,the resume interest,what they're looking for in the community, and then our team would follow up with them.We ended up placing 10 people through that program,and we had over 87,000 impressions on social media through those marketing campaigns.Moving forward,we're going to change this up a little bit and focus more on Johnson County,and we'll talk about that a little bit more later,or I'm happy to follow up with you all on that.Also plugging into a statewide talent attraction program that we're able to leverage and really attract even more people to our community. So we're really excited about that program.Moving on to the night ICR summer Intern program. The summer intern program is really an opportunity to engage college students,connect them to the community, connect them to opportunities here,employers here,and other young professionals really seeing a place for them here in the Iowa City area to thrive and work after college. Throughout that last summer,we had three different programs mixing it between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City,really focusing on networking.Um,we had a trivia event at Big Grove, so they were leaming about our community in a fin way and just getting to know each other. So they feel more connected hopefully after they graduate,they choose our community to move here. Um, so we had five events throughout the summer. Like I said,three kind of formal events and then other optional events that they could participate in.We had 365 intems engaged in that program,and then 30 companies from the region that participated with their interns in that program as well.Lastly,the Inclusive ICR Coalition. The Inclusive ICR Coalition is a place that they can hold,local This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 4 employers or members of the community can host complex solution focus discussion among the members. So really focusing on diversity equity,inclusion conversations and topics. Last year, one of those events was hosted in Iowa City and was actually hosted at the South District Market and focused on diverse suppliers. So that was a really great opportunity to showcase what we're doing in our community to uplift some of our BIPOC businesses and also discuss overall how we can support those diverse suppliers. Looking forward to this year,we're going to have events on accessible arts and culture,how to engage and recruit immigrant employees,career pathways and more. Looking back again at last year,we had six meetings held. Over 120 people in attendance of those meetings. And then 43 companies participated in that coalition.Moving on to inclusive economic development,a lot of exciting things happened this past year. One of the big things was our board of directors,executive council officially adopted that inclusive economic development plan. So really just showcasing that we support this and we're going to do the work to make some of those things happen. One of the things that was highlighted in that plan that we moved forward on was participating in a critical race theory training done by Professor Adrian Wing at the University of Iowa. So we brought together our organization and some of our economic development partners to get involved with that.Another thing that we did was support some of the applications for the City of Iowa City Inclusive Economic Development Funds. So writing letters of support.Um,just really helping people that we're applying for those. Other things that we did,we really were trying to be intentional about supporting and highlighting things that happened in the south district,market south up six business district, and really being intentional about hosting some of our events in places outside of our own space. So just really trying to broaden that network and highlight some of the other people and businesses in our community. Moving on to entrepreneurial support programs.As you can see from this list,we definitely stay busy when it comes to small business and entrepreneurial support programs. A couple of things that I just want to highlight. This past year we started a new business start up speaker series. So we really saw an opportunity. We have different programs,whether it's like scaling your start up or getting your D off the ground,but we are really missing those fundamental business skills in our community, so we hosted a series of eight different workshops,one each month that focused on anything from business start up, administrative basics,so how do you create an LLC?How do you set up a bank account,get your FIN all the way to things like branding 101,Marketing 101, Sales 101 and making it open access so anyone could come to these events,learn from local thought leaders in their areas and really connect with one another. Something with that was that we really, er, attracted a lot of new faces to that event series. So that's something that I was pretty proud of. You know,typically with these types of things,you see the same people at them,but this was new people coming,typically one off things that they were really needing help with. So reaching them in different ways. Um,other things that we hosted,you can see on this list here 1 million cups.Like I said,with inclusive,er,economic development,we are really intentional. Typically 1 million cups happens at merge,but we've been more intentional at hosting field trips to different businesses in the community so if you're unfamiliar with 1 million cups, it's always a business five years or younger. So just a couple of weeks ago we heard from a young aspiring spa professional who is incubating out of the right house of fashion. So we had our event there and really showcasing her own space,so really great things. Another program that we did was builders and backers,which I think Simmons in the room here.He participated in it,which was a new program to help support people getting their ideas off the ground with education and a little bit of financial support. So um,I won't go into all the details of all these,but really happy to chat through,um,and highlight those with you individually or in the question section and just that number there. The monthly participation we estimate through our programs is around 100 and a lot of diverse spaces in those attendance,which we're really proud of.Next,just wanted to highlight Merge. I think most of you have been to Merge over time,but, er, coming out of the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 5 pandemic,you know,we were a little worried about how we would come back from that and bounce back from that.As you can see here,we have,um,defmitely succeeded in that,and we're seeing a lot of new faces coming into our space. So more remote workers are using the space, more desire to connect with one another. You can see we hosted a nice pot luck event,really making sure our members get to know each other.Also hosting open co working every last Friday of the month, so anyone,regardless if they're officially a paying member or not,can come in. Co work,get to know each other,have a lunch together and connect over that. Other things that we've done there.We helped host EntreFEST this summer, so it's a statewide entrepreneurial conference that we hosted at a merge,but happened all through Iowa City. In the upper right hand comer,you can see a group of,um,young women there.We hosted a leadership, er,workshop with Global Ties Iowa,so women from across the world came to our co working space and learned about entrepreneurship and leadership,which is really cool. And then another thing I just want to call it here,um,you could see a group of three men down there. They're the perfect example of why we have merge.We offer affordable office space where people can incubate.I always say we really,er,hate to see people leave,but when they do,that means we succeeded because they've grown out of this space. That's one example of a company that has grown out of our space and while we're sad to see them go,that means they're successful. You can see here the people that work at Merge.We're 87%full with our office space. So we're really proud of that. Obviously,we want to get to 100%but we're close with that.And we are really proud to say that we support 186 emerging companies and individuals in our space.Like I said,I'm happy to answer any other questions about that as well.But if you don't have questions,I'll pass it off to McKenzie with advocacy. Teague: Great. Thank you. Hubing: Yeah. Teague: Welcome. DeRoo: Good afternoon,everyone.I'm Mackenzie DeRoo, Senior Director of Advocacy Africa sea for Greater Iowa City. I'm really excited to be with you all today.With this merger process,we heard loud and clear from our businesses that they really wanted us to engage more in local advocacy. So while I am still pursuing state and federal priorities in partnership with the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance,which we've done for about the past six years,much of my focus really is on the local work that we can do. So many of you,I've had the pleasure of grabbing coffee with and talking with you.For those of you I haven't,I'm looking at you now. You can expect an e mail from me because I would love to have that opportunity to talk with you a little bit about our local advocacy work One framework that we are adopting is to create advocacy statements for each of the cities that we serve. So Iowa City,Corraville,and North Liberty.Um, understanding that these different communities have different challenges as well as opportunities that they are faced by.And we think that creating these advocacy statements will really direct our work,will increase transparency in what our objectives are,as well as allow us to strategically align with city plans when appropriate. So I have a task force that just met today. Iowa City is our first group. They've met twice now.Uh, so we're continuing to take their feedback and create a statement that then we will bring in city staff to meet with us about to get their input on. And again,fmd those strategic alignment opportunities. Um,I do want to share though that our guiding principles when it comes to advocacy are up here. That really to be collaborative,um,to assume positive intent,and to find partnerships where we can strategic,to make sure that we're making the most of opportunities, funding sources,um,and we don't miss chances to make good This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 6 things happen in the community process and system focused. So understanding that some of this work might be sort of behind the scenes,but really examining how different municipal bodies or organizations interact those systems and if there's ways that we can maximize them for collaboration.And then finally, creating with,but als creating-but also engaging with existing diverse coalitions and fmding common ground that we can bring people together to really make positive impact in the community. The second piece that I wanted to recognize today in our presentation is that a big piece of our advocacy work are our leadership programs.And we really see that our organization has an important role to play in cultivating tomorrow's city councilors, nonprofit board leaders,whatever that might be. So our community leadership program was started in 1990 and now boasts over 700 alumni who work in a variety of sectors.And again, have taken on those civic and nonprofit service roles,as well as become leaders within their own organizations. The community leadership program provides participants a solid foundation in the opportunities and challenges that face our community. As well as how different sectors such as local government,arts and culture,education,nonprofits,healthcare,et cetera,all interact in the opportunities they could have to really make our community the place we want it to be. Um,the Community Leadership Program,I do want to thank specifically Geoff Fruin who has led our Government Day for many years,and it's one of the best.We get positive feedback from that program year over year, and to any councilors who have participated in panels that go as part of that day. I know it's really,l mean important for participants to see perhaps that they themselves could some day,uh, step up into a civic leadership role through council or service on boards and commissions. The second program I wanted to highlight is our executive leadership program and this is a newer program now in its third year. And it's really focused on providing leadership training as well as camaraderie and support for executives at their company who maybe need access to peers,but they're in a leadership role or for people who are emerging managers,who may be a really great subject matter experts,but they're now leading teams of people and they want some support for how to do that. So we have a great partnership with the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business and really work with some of the very best teachers and researchers that they have there to take this program to the next level. So this year's topics are recruiting and retaining top talent, leading a diverse workforce,fostering engagement and wellbeing with your team,and then leading strategic change. And I know the City of Iowa City has had staff participate in that program.We have three staff in this year's cohort. So thank you for investing in your people and for partnering with us to do that.Happy to answer any questions or I can turn over to my colleague Katie. Moe: I'm not sure-not sure if this is for who,but in-in the realm of- of-of business retention and expansion,entrepreneurship and advocacy. So sort of all three of you. What are the unique opportunities that we have here in Iowa City to get people to start a business or to grow from no employees to one. And then what are those things that maybe if we benchmark ourselves against other cities are working here really well or could be better? You got to talk then I'll wait for my answer for you. DeRoo: I was to say,I think it's coming.If I can eve you and do a teaser for that. Moe: Perfect. Teague: Thank you. Welcome. Gerlach: Good afternoon. Katie Gerlach,Director of Community Development,and Executive Director of Better Together 2030. So Iowa City supported Ica through a service agreement. And some of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 7 those funds actually went to help support Better Together 2030. So I'm going to report a little bit on that,but I'm also going to report on the staffing integration. The board of directors of Better Together 2030 voted to integrate with Greater Iowa City staffing support for my position,rather than spin up a whole another organization. We thought we would integrate right in with Greater Iowa City and get right to the work that we've all been doing together. So I just want to highlight the better together 2030 Community Development Corporation was incorporated this past year, January of 23,and we established that board of directors. Councilor Laura Bergus served on that Board of Directors.And now Councilor Megan Alter will serve on the Board of Directors in 24. Our first meetings in March and she'll be elected to that post. I have full faith hope that she'll be elected to the board and continue to serve. She's been incredibly active with our childcare space and so it's a great fit for our work Ah,I would also say that we are working a lot in livability in neighborhoods. So a lot of you participated Councilor Harmsen. I recall we had a good Mexican luncheon muscatine after we toured the 3D printed house.And it was so great.Uh,Redmond, you're right there.Front and center we had a great field trip to Muscatine to see the 3D printing. And the City of Iowa City is actually the reason why we started engaging in 3D printing experimentation um with the offer of a lot to work with and partners to partner with. We've been experimenting for the last year with making this type of development a reality. And unfortunately,uh,we have to also have a growth mindset in this and the printing is not standing up to tests,and engineering,and muscatine.And so as a result,we're going to go back to the drawing board and try to get that in a smaller scale,maybe 80 Us or other opportunities for affordable housing.But I will say it wouldn't have been possible without the city's,you know, Geoff s immediate jumping in with both feet and saying,let's give it a try and the Housing Trust Fund loan award really helped make that possible. So your support of those things and the continued belief that we can make something like this possible has been really helpful. So thank you for that.But I'm also pleased to say that all of that work did not go to waste. And on your agenda later tonight you'll see a DVIP application for the same lot.And so we've been able to use all of our materials and share that with DVIP. And so it's been a really great opportunity to learn together,but also support a new project made out of wood this time. Um,we've also been supporting the Family Resource Center. You've probably heard little rumblings about that.We've been awarded 1.8 million dollar,or 1.9 million dollar, from the state of Iowa and 900,000 from Johnson County towards that development.And continue to work with city staff and non profits in making that a reality.We're still quite a distance from our funding gap,but we'll get close and you'll hear more about that in future months. We've been working still on 15 minute city concepts as well as a basic income pilot opportunity with the County.Welcoming Week was a big event. This week,our mayor welcomed everyone to the city of Iowa city,uh and you can see them there with the Chinese dragons dancing and lions. We had a great time and Shannon McMahon's office actually really supported our outreach and so your communications team was invaluable to us in making sure Welcoming Week got back off the ground after a brief break with COVID and the last couple of years. Supporting livable communities work group with AARP,making this a livable community for everyone. As well as hosting a lot of community conversations and global ties,Iowa visitors. Something you've heard from me about a lot is childcare. So your support also helped us make sure that we could launch the Childcare Solutions Coalition,which continues to meet and address other issues surrounding childcare.But really focused on the wage enhancement program. So the city of Iowa City,if you'll recall, invested$750,000 in that program. And we've been able to leverage that to raise almost$160,000 of private support,with an additional pledge of$100,000 still over five years. So we've raised,with the county support,over 1.6 million now and that's spent out over 150,000 in wage enhancement to date,with 62,000 hours worked and 112 childcare providers benefiting from the program.We've also been supporting transit. So supporting the transit Work group and a Trip Connect Grant workshop in Iowa City and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 8 supporting the bus rapid transit study with some stakeholders. Austin sits on that stakeholder group,making sure to inform that economic development priorities,and you'll hear more about that in a couple of slides, as well as informing the ARPA 10 Active Transportation Plan with ECICOG. Any questions before I invite Nancy up to tell you what's next? Teague:No thanks. All right. Thank you.Welcome Nancy. Bird: Thank you.Well,as you can see,I have a dynamic leadership team. These guys are doing great work I'm a great company. They're all way smarter than I am. So I'm just trying to keep up. Um but one of the-we do have all of the service that they have been talking about. We will be continuing so um you know,with the integration of the-in the merger of iCat in the business partnership,it's important for people to know that. So all of these things that were discussed,they move on.Um however,we have had some major changes with just the nature of the organization in general. Um so what I think is probably one of the primary ones and I think something that the business community,as well as the local community in general has been looking for the vision, like what are we doing here?What's our guiding uh North Star and how are we going to achieve it? So um testing a vision is a really big deal. Um and what is your approach?We have an approach,so I'm going to talk a lot about that. Um inclusivity is critical and then new services so I'm going to walk through these things quickly I know that we're getting a little short on time. Um first of all,we have a vision,so we all know that we're working towards this plan.Pillars 2,3,and 4 are those that Greater IC is going to really shepherd.Um but I want to just share a thriving, inclusive economic ecosystem. I think over the course of time, some of these plans will change but that will go through everything. Um a well connected mobile region can happen when you've got great place based economic development happening where there's clusters and places for people to connect on these transit and stations so-and and neighborhoods. So um we do have an approach here and I want to kind of talk through that. Um while-while we're working on these things,we're also meeting uh with the business community in different ways.But we are talking about place based,strategic,collaborative,public private partnerships. And I'll-and I'll um get to that,um I think Austin talked quite a bit about retention uh we want to make sure that all of the things that we're doing has that threat of inclusivity-inclusivity through it. And that we're really advocating for local economic resiliency.We talk a lot about the business community and how important it is to advocate for businesses.It's hard to advocate for businesses when you're not working together with your largest employers,which in our area,our public sector. So we want to make sure that um we're talking together,that's when change happens um and that we're guided by innovation councils. So basically with this approach,a place based economic development approach,I think all of us have heard about,you know, smart growth and livability.A lot of the tenants are really the same,but we're trying to really uh use research um and understanding to help drive what we're doing.Brookings has constantly got really great information uh data that they've already-research that they've already gathered.But really um mapping our activity centers you know,in- in today's world there's been so much suburbanization.We're working with existing lands that weren't planned that great?Are they were kind of open to the-to the market and,you know,roads were placed in places that nobody here at this table planned. So now we have to kind of work backwards to really look at how um-how these areas um,where are the assets and can we cluster around those assets. So in doing so,here we talk a lot about place making and how to guide investments towards places. And our goal is to guide investment into activity centers or some sort of center we're going to call them strategic investment districts,but we don't have a full name for them yet because we need to really test this vision of how we work. But our goal is really to um guide investment and get the business community and our local community excited about opportunities in areas that need investment um so that's our-that's our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 9 100%our goal. So smart growth, 15 minute cities,livable cities.We're going to continue to explore and really inform and educate our larger community. So we see and we've already done a little bit of work in this you know we've um-we have companies here that are really interested in it. So Newman Munson did this nice study a- a year and a half ago um around what does it look like we map 15 minute cities in Iowa City? So they've got you know kind of the starting point of the activity centers right here. Um there are opportunities around Sycamore Town Crest,um the- so six district,and the ECT campus,and there's fixture opportunities. So we need to start talking about these things and seeing if there's interest so that we can kind of guide the investment. Guide the business community to work with the city of Iowa City and others to make some of these things a reality. Um the university students,the um the GIS students helped take that 15 minute city another step and they researched it. So you can see that there's a lot of people that are really- they're interested. Um and then we're looking at our bus rapid transit options and this is from a past study,but basically some of these-the CRANDIC,the bus rapid transit options, is it possible to cluster kind of some of these activity centers around these nodes? So all of these things are kind of up in the air, and we know that municipal governments drive a lot of this work Um but where can we start?Where-what can we do with-you know we are in a jurisdiction,we don't have control over properties,but we can start to work with the city staff through planning.We can engage the community through forums and innovation councils to help sharing what we could be doing if we were working better together. Um calling businesses for interest and opportunities I mean around each one of these areas if we're just like if we're talking about Sycamore,there are people and business communities that would love to invest in this area if they had an understanding of where to even start. The current platform is not there,right?And leaving it to- um to the market alone. It'll be like that for a long time. And we know that the owner of the Sycamore Mall is out of state and out of pocket,but he wants to sell. So what can we do to step into that process and really help start to gather some momentum around there?Um we also have precedents for this kind of approach it's not just for jurisdictions. Um this is from Des Moines, Invest Des Moines,which is a very similar nonprofit group to our organization that has the county municipalities investing in this, as well as large investors that want to see improvement in their residential neighborhoods. These are four how they've tailored their program is really around residential areas. So we know that this is a model that can work So they've picked four areas here and then this is just an example of how they've-each one is different so we have to tailor different programs to really motivate or incentivize commercial businesses and programs for the city but it's very collaborative and it's very uh targeted. We can do that.Um we also know that we have to change the way we work together. I think in the past,you know,we've we meet with City staff,we've got great relationships.Rachel um Kilburg Varley,I've got to get her last name right. Um has been a phenomenal addition.We've got a great relationship with Geoff and it's really fixe to talk to you all about your visions for the city of Iowa City and what you're doing. I think the biggest thing that we would like to support is really improving and supporting the image of Iowa City is a great place to work,a great place to do business and that perception is so important. It doesn't-do you know what the reality of what happens day to day doesn't even matter it's how you're perceived. And I can tell you just for fixe from some experience from downtown. It does take time um however,you know,we have to constantly be telling a positive story and we also have to-we have to work differently. We have to make time to have highly collaborative meetings,inclusive meetings where we're talking about out of the box solutions. And that means, you know,when the city has relationships with companies and we have relationships with companies,we're all working together as kind of one voice and one team. So that mutual understanding is critical and we're always going to ask for information before we act and assume best intent,like Mckenzie said,because we're really excited about these opportunities. So we want to make time to visit um-we want to also encourage you to make time to visit with local um This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 10 businesses,understand what they-what they want to do and just to get to know them and demonstrate care. Um we have a new IC Lunch Connection series. So that's really designed to help support your message out to our business community. So come to those,they're fixn um. Um participate in forums. We had a great forum that Rachel helped us set up and we had tons of people there.We had to expand our-our space to make sure that we're really informing the business and development community about what the new updates to codes were and we had a really great,great participation. Um,we're also as the city is an investor also I mean this is private sector investment that wants to work with you. So our inclusive membership model is that everyone in this county is a member of this organization. There is no paywall,there's no barrier to participate and we do have specialized services that are only for investors,which totally makes sense.If you're going to put money in to advance the county's fixture,then you get a spot on the innovation council.But other things are open for anybody. We want people to learn and to get to know one another and we're asking also to make sure that people have the opportunity,and we're encouraging them to donate to Better Together our charitable arm that is a community development corporation,can purchase property,can redevelop things,and really make good on really specialized opportunities. Um so the other new services,local advocacy,Mckenzie mentioned Community Development Corporation,uh the plan we want to see advance and this work will be guided by those Innovation Council. So real quickly there's an Economic Development Innovation Council and the chairs are public and private. So we've got Nick Lindsley and Jasmine Almoayyed from Kirkwood. They're chairing the Economic Development Innovation Council and we're looking to support lines of work but also that-that integration. Our business support Innovation council that Liz will lead is um chaired by Joni Troester if people know her she's a HR rep from the University of Iowa and Jennie Wunderlich who's PSC Distribution,the Studio H2O. Great president and it's on our-our board.And so they'll be kind of working with those groups to help share information and have a good touch point.And last,the Community Development Innovation Council that um-that Katie already mentioned.Nick Bergus from the City of North Liberty and Lisa Shileny,the president of um Hills Bank. So great partnerships,great opportunities. We're excited about the shifts in this work it's a lot for people to take in,so we appreciate any way that you can help support the sharing of how we've changed because,you know,we're not just the chamber anymore,but we do still have some of those services and yet we're so much more. So with that,I will stop. Thank you and entertain any questions. I don't know if we got to yours Josh in fact Austin elbowed me and he said. Korns: [BACKGROUND] I said,at least highlight tech transfer commercialization out of the university. Teague: You'll have to either speak at the mic or have-Yes. Thank you. Korns: Yeah. I told-uh I told Nancy to at the very least,we need to highlight tech transfer and commercialization out of the university,the research park as an enormous opportunity for fixture growth in our region.Be happy to get him. Moe: You might need a few more words to help me understand what all of that means. So it's it's just research park efforts,things that are spin offs from university research. Korns: Yeah,I think,well,you asked about,you know,the greatest opportunity for creating jobs uh going from 0-1 in our-in our um community. And I think that uh talent and opportunities coming out of the university are probably Number 1 with a bullet.Liz is our entrepreneurial expert here,but I was also sitting on the other side of Nancy so. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 11 Moe: Okay. Koros: Does that help? Moe: Yeah yeah. That's good. And I guess the other part of the question was,what-what could we do better or were the blind spots were,o-or-what does the city do to help,um,you guys do better? Bird: Okay. I think for the-probably one of the mo-most important things is to,um,be as responsive as possible to,um, companies that reach out. And I know that a lot of them aren't right now,but we hope to change that,to participate in these things,demonstrate care.And,uh,I think over the course of time it can really change a lot. And,um,I mean,I think it's-it's that simple. It's not overly hard.Uh,I know that we have,um,these city launch connections may seem like,oh,it's just a launch,it's-it's pretty important. Uh,people come and they have an experience. They're like,oh,they're showing up.And I think that's a big one. It doesn't mean that you haven't shown up in the past,but we-I think that these things are a little bit more purposeful and deliberate,so, um,yeah,reaching out to businesses,ask them how they're doing,you know. Moe: Thanks. Bird:Yeah,thank you. Dunn: Could you send us this-this,uh,presentation? Bird:Yeah. Dunn: Thank you. Bird:Yap. Teague: All right. Bird:Any other questions? Teague: Thank you all so much. Bird: [OVERLAPPING] Thank you. Teague: This was really helpful and really appreciated.Um,you're going in depth and taking time to give this presentation.And I know that we would al-all like the-the PowerPoint. So,thank you. Bird: Thank you so much. 2. 21 S.Linn Public Engagement Plan Overview Teague: We're gonna move on to item number 2,which is the 21 South Linn Public Engagement Plan Overview. And we're gonna have our Economic Development Coordinator Rachel Kilburg Varley.Welcome. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 12 Kilburg Varley: Hi everyone.Um,so,as you all know,the city purchased the vacant lot at 21 South Linn with the intent to lead a mixed used redevelopment,um,in that comer. So you'll remember at your December 7th work session,uh,we kind of walked through those Chauncey and rise processes and talked through,um-uh, a tentative timeline which the next step of which would be this public engagement phase. So our plan is to kind of conduct the public engagement activities, uh,over the next few months this spring. So a memo in your information packet really described that,uh,proposed public engagement plan in more detail.But I'm just going to walk you through that a little bit now. So before we dive into,uh,kind of our tactics that we plan to take in the plan, I wanted to provide a little bit of context on our approach and how we wanna approach this public engagement effort. So for our public engagement strategy,we wanted to take an approach that will hopefully feel like a two way interaction between the city and the community. So with every, uh,public engagement touch point that we have,we wanna do two things,which is to educate and to collect input. Um, so for,uh,the education,that's really just being clear and forthright about what we anticipate will be in this,uh,development. So we want to be clear about what we expect to develop here,which,uh,we've all been,uh,discussing as a mixed use building.And,um,we just don't want to get into a situation where we're inviting a free for all of ideas.And then the public's frustrated. And we're frustrated because,uh,you know,it wasn't in line with what we set out to develop here from the start. So,um,again,I think just being,uh, forthright about that, about what we expect,um,will invite more effective feedback And then along those lines, in recent years,you've done a lot of visioning, a lot of planning.Your strategic plan is a great example. So just to keep in mind that we do have those strategic priorities and goals in place already and continue to reinforce them and remind folks,um,hey,these are the plans and the values,and those impact areas that we are always working for-working towards. And we'll continue to,you know,prioritize through this process.Um,and then finally,we'll want to just help people understand,you know,why it is important to generate some property tax revenue at this location.Um,so I'm sure you'll expect along the line-along-,uh,at some point during the process,uh,we'll have to have conversations about trade offs of different types of uses,uh,but again,just-just reminding folks that we did use some reserves to invest in this property with the expectation that we would not only recoup that initial financial investment,but also see some level of kind of long term financial gain. Um,so that's kind of some of the background on,uh,the education component.And then for the input side of things,we really wanted to get to the core of, you know,how people are interacting with the downtown. So really understanding what is their experience downtown?Are they coming downtown?Are they not?If not,why not?When they come downtown,how long are they staying?What would encourage them to stay longer? So we're hoping that by asking some of these types of questions,the answers we get will really reveal gaps in our downtown or opportunities in our downtown.And,uh,ideally,then the developers can use that input,um,to innovate and to make sure that their proposals are meeting those gaps and are considering,you know,how people are experiencing the downtown,uh,and specifically that comer. So that's a little background and then I'll talk through kind of those specific tactics that we're going to use,uh,in this engagement plan. So we have a web page up now which is ic.gov.org/21 S Linn. And that will just continue to be updated as we go through the process where we're at in the timeline,any important like documents or resources.And then we have an FAQ on there,uh,which will continue to update as-,um,as we're-we're moving through the process. We also have a specific list,um,in our,er-,enotify system, so you can get text or email notifications specific to this project. So with-with a lot of what we're doing,particularly with public input,you know,we'll be pushing those opportunities out to our general news audience.But this list would be an opportunity for say,architecture firms who really want that heightened level of,um,know about where we're at in the process. So that'll be an opportunity. And then,um,we plan to develop a simple survey,again,to,um,kind of get to some of those This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 13 questions about how people are,uh,experiencing the downtown,and-and highlight,hopefully, what types of uses,you know,make sense to them. And our plan would be to translate that survey into English, Spanish,French,and Arabic. So we would of-offer that in multiple languages.We would promote that,of course,through all of our regular channels. So news release, social media, neighborhood associations,and then we'll work with some of our economic development partners to-to reach those stakeholders as well.Um,similar to how we did the ARPA public engagement process,in addition to the survey,we have just a simple email. So if people don't want to go through,um,you know,answering a few questions on a survey,they can simply email us,uh, whatever kind of thoughts they have about the project,uh,and we're also going to promote the opportunity for people to do that in their preferred language. So,uh,that hopefully will just remove one more barrier. If they just wanna send it off in their preferred language,then we'll,uh, take the responsibility to translate it,uh, and bring it back to you.Um,then moving on to some of the more,uh,kind of event-based engagement touch points. So we're gonna be working with the downtown district. Um,they have a-a software called Hello Lamp Post,which some of you may be familiar with,uh,when they had the large,uh,bunnies public art installation,you could kind of text and have a conversation with the bunnies. And so that's a software that,uh,they're going to use,uh,with a number of projects downtown this summer actually,the Dubuque Street Reconstruction Project to help people,uh, find their way and-and learn about the project,but also with 21 South Linn. So there will-people will have the opportunity,we'll wrap the fence and people can text a number to get some basic information about the project,uh,and about the process to answer some of those questions we have and provide some input through text. And then,um,it would also be able to redirect them to, say,our website or any additional resources if they want to dive deeper. So that'll be a good opportunity for people,you know,as they're moving around through the downtown.We may host a pop up event with them,uh,through,uh, like a first round or something like that. And then we plan to hold,uh,two listening sessions. So the downtown district also has some really valuable placer data which kind of tracks where people are coming and going,uh, from within the downtown and the region. And so through that, we've been able to identify that the west side of Iowa City is where the fewest people are coming downtown.Uh,or coming downtown less frequently than others. So,uh,we're going to,uh,try to target that as a key location for one of our in person events,um,and use that data driven knowledge to do so. And then of course,hold one in a downtown location a little bit closer to the actual site. So those are the two kind of,um-uh,locations that we plan to hold a listening session. And again,we'll kind of structure that in a way that we can provide a little bit of education on the topic.And then,uh,hear from the public about what they'd like to see your answer,any questions that they have. Um, so with all of these,our hope is that we can promote these as widely as possible so that we do have a diverse,um-uh,collection of community input. And,um,you know, again,because of the way we've structured our- our public input questions,we're hoping that we really do target people who,uh,maybe aren't engaging with the downtown in-in ways that others are so.Um,that's kind of our plan. Assuming or,if- if,uh,you all feel comfortable with this plan, we would go ahead and- and put those pieces into place and get that launched in the next month. Kind of execute in March and April. And then we would collect all of that input,analyze, organize,bring it back to you,uh,probably in June,um, so that we can move on to that next step of,uh,you know,taking what we know from that public input,setting goals,and thinking about what we want that RFP or request for proposals to look like. Alter:Rachel,you said that,um,I'm looking simultaneously at the memo and it says that,um,you're requesting a review of the plan. Um,I'm assuming,you know,just kind of if we have some suggestions or comments.But when would that be still useful for you?Can you give us a deadline? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 14 Kilburg Varley: So on the public engagement plan? Alter: Yeah, so that it wouldn't gum up your timeline. Kilburg Varley: Yeah,any feedback you have now would be great. But like I said,er,if, er,if you are generally feeling comfortable about what we have here,then we'll start to actually put the pieces together in the next month. So you could,that would be the time. Moe: In the engagement process I heard you talk about-I think what I heard you talk about was mostly people's desired use of this space,the program elements that would go in this space. Do you also- um,are we opening this up for people to also comment on building mass,building height, building look, is that a part of this process, so do we- is that public engagement process more about what it should do and what should be do? Kilburg Varley: Yeah,well,maybe my point didn't get across the way I wanted it to,because we are interested in what types of uses people,um,would like to see in that location.But because we're trying to get to the core of their experience,we're hoping we'll learn things like that as well. You know,do they feel safe walking Downtown?Maybe that provides something insightful for us in goal setting or for the developer to consider. So hopefully,we'll-you know,by taking that approach,we'll be able to uncover a wider range of useful insight. Moe: Okay. Kilburg Varley: That makes sense? Moe: Yeah-yeah,I can imagine leaving it open for,hey,what do you want versus what,you know,more- more specifically,what do you want this to do would be helpful. Harmsen:Kind of building off of that. Moe: Go ahead. Harmsen:You had mentioned,uh,part of the education process would be relying-relaying information about some of the broad strokes of what we're looking for in terms of the strategic plan but also the mixed use building.Do you need some more input from us at this stage to know- do you have sufficient,I guess,in order to set up some really broad parameters,but still some parameters around-around this. Kilburg Varley: Well,so I referenced a few,you know,adopted plans that I believe would-would make sense to help guide us in this. So your strategic plan,the Downtown and Riverfront Crossings master plan,uh,the Downtown district strategic plan,and even really the Better Together 2030 plan,which I-I didn't list in the memo,but,ah,again,just looking at those, so racial equity, social justice,climate action,housing in neighborhoods,I think within those,it helps again, convey what our priorities are and what type of direction we would wanna move with this development. So,um,I think it would just be highlighting those. And then after we get feedback, um,you would have an opportunity to really drill in on what you wanna prioritize the most. Harmsen: Okay,thank you,that answered my question. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 15 Salih: I'm just like,really happy to see that you mentioned you're gonna translate this for the outreach,uh, yeah, for those language,that's great. I guess during the June and New Year,I just find out like we really have a few Asian community and I would love to see that there is some language also like besides Spanish. Kilburg Varley: What was that Asian? Salih: You see like a Chinese,maybe language we have [inaudible]. Kilburg Varley: Okay-okay. Salih: So if we can-if we can add that to-to have really big community. And also I being like sometime I will major the city outs this when I receive your flyer from somebody else coming to my email, that's me,they-they reach it. So I-I hope you reach out like-like as much organization you can. Because-and ask them as they have to like share it with you another county like was there what's up or something like that. So thank you for doing that,and yeah,give us a- Kilburg Varley: Okay,great thank you. Teague: I-I do think maybe,uh,reaching out to our HR,I am sorry,our Human Rights Department. Because they have,ah,BIPOC organizations a list and they can email it out to them and share the opportunities to be a part of this. I would also say youth organizations is also gonna be critical,to be a part of this. So I think doing a little leg work in the beginning so that we are positive that we've made some initial outreach to different parts of the community. Kilburg Varley: Sure. Dunn: Yeah,I guess one-one question I have is,um,you know,how do you see the-the interactions between,um,the university community and the city with this project? Kilburg Varley: Well,I guess it's imp- it'll be important to collect their feedback in some way.Um,so I guess that's probably something we didn't call out in the plan,but it's a good point so we'll make sure to. Dunn: The thing that I think about is just like,you know,for better or worse,this-the students and a-a large part of the university community is the huge economic driver for Downtown. So I think-of course,I don't think it should be like an overwhelming representation,but I do think that it should be,um,a very much present voice,um,in this process. Um, so that would be my feedback there. One of the other concerns that I have about it is that there's not really a way for people to submit input that's not virtual. You know,um,either the email or a virtual survey. Is there anything that we can do to create some sort of option for people to,you know,come to the city or something like that? Kilburg Varley: So we have those couple of listening sessions I mentioned,so we wanted to hold the two list in-that would be in person listening sessions if that was unclear. Dunn: How are people gonna find out about that though? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 16 Kilburg Varley: Um,the typical ways that we promote it. So,uh,you know,our news release,our social media,we are-I forgot to mention,we are also planning to do a flyer that explains all the different ways you could get feedback. So it would include those in person events on that. Um. Alter: I'm sure on the bus system. Kilburg Varley: Yeah,that would be great example. Alter: Yeah,put the flyers on the buses. Dunn: Yeah. Alter: Or just a simplified poster or something? Dunn: Yeah,well,yeah,I think-I think those are good options,those are good things to have.But,you know,I think of,you know,parts of this community are not necessarily tech savvy and this is gonna be a property that's right across from the senior center.Not to,you know,characterize everyone in the same way.But,you know,it-it is true that there are gonna be people that are going to interact with this building very frequently that might have trouble accessing those things. So I would really appreciate some sort of just way outside of necessarily,um,a listening post,one of two listening posts that people might not be able to attend.Like if they could just see it at- at City Hall or drop something off or something like that,that would be,um,I think just a better thing to have for- for general accessibility. Teague: So are you referring to just like ad,you can mail in comments? Dunn: Yeah. Teague: Here. Dunn: Yeah-yeah,absolutely. Teague: And there are people that do right quite often. Dunn: Yeah 100%. Teague: Yes. Dunn: A hundred percent. Salih: And why are thinking that those [inaudible] Grace:Mayor Pro Tem.I'm sorry,could you share a mic,I think there's an issue with yours. Teague: Yeah,we'll share. Grace: You're not coming through very well,we're gonna check in between. Kilburg Varley: I couldn't hear you well before. [OVERLAPPING] This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 17 Salih: Okay,I'm-I'm just saying yeah,that's better.Uh,what I was?I forget what I wanna say.But yeah, I guess we-we want to-we want to have those events at the listening event. Kilburg Varley: Yeah, so broadly,right now,we've identified a West Side location and a Downtown location. Again,because Downtown is very relevant to the stakeholder group. And then West Side,because we've identified that as being a population who's less likely to come Downtown. So,um,preliminarily,you know,we've thought about working with a wonderful West Side Neighborhood Association on the West Side to identify a good spot. I believe there's a church over there that they use for a lot of community events. So,you know,that may be an option.Uh, we haven't identified specific locations yet.But,um,Downtown,you know,maybe the library, somewhere like that. Salih: Great. Kilburg Varley: Any other questions? Teague: All right. Hearing nothing else. Thank you so much. Yes.All right. 3. Continued Discussion on the FY 25 Budget Proposal Teague: We are going to move on to item number 3 which is just continued discussion on our fiscal year '25 budget proposal. Dunn: I guess I'm kind of interested in,um,hearing about the discussion that you and Councilor Bergus had,um,after our last meeting. Teague: Sure. Bergus: You want me to jump in? Teague: Yeah. Go right ahead. Bergus: Yeah. So,uh,the mayor and Geoff and I all met last Thursday,um,to talk about the work session topic of,um,crisis response. I think is sort of how we're framing it and the need to look at that holistically. So here at the dais,as we've had some conversations about,um,data analysis being a component of that.We've talked about how there's different providers that are city services, police, fire. There's,um,our contract with nonprofit community crisis services relating to mobile crisis response,and of course,Johnson County Ambulance as well. Um,we talked about how the check has a role in where everything kind of comes in and that there's maybe some really basic data that we could get from the JECC relating to like identifying the universe of calls and trying to say well,if we're going to focus in on mental health and behavioral health calls.What is that? We-you know,what are those,um,where are they coming from,or are there certain,you know, times of day?Just some really basic data about those kinds of calls and seeing what the responses to those are and then kind of going from there was my recollection of our-our conversation. Teague: Yeah, so March 19th,our next meeting. During the work session we're going to have kind of informational session,uh,to kind of give us some background,some history,kind of lay the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 18 foundation and start the conversation on the responses here in Iowa City and the greater community. Moe: [OVERLAPPING] Who's invited?I was going to ask who's-who's invited?Do we have all these with Iowa City agencies,Johnson County agencies,JECC?Are they all going to be here to. Teague: Um,we are going to determine,because it could be right,a big meeting.But we're going to try to figure out what is the best way to start that conversation? So I don't think we'll anticipate everyone,but we'll try to get a good representation so that we'll have good information and walk away with. Fruin:I-I told the Mayor and Councilor Bergus that we're-we're diving into an issue that you could pay a consultant hundreds of thousands of dollars to examine over many months,right?To do deep dives into calls for service and dispositions of calls. And,uh, slice and dice those things in any number of ways. So I think it's-I think it's important that we start at the top like Councilor Bergus said,we look at that jet data and that we just slowly build that understanding of who is responding to what types of calls at this time?And then I think there's going to be a next logical step and a next logical step after that. So it's- it's a really big thing for- for anyone to get their arms around. We've got an internal meeting,uh,here later this week with the-the,um,the public safety chiefs to begin to-to think about how best to spend our hour or so with you so that,um, you walk away,uh,we don't want to overwhelm you.Uh,we don't want to confuse you with numbers.We want to be very clear. Um, and- and hopefully,you will be able to take what we present and-and outline what you think the next steps will be but this is probably a multi step journey. I don't think there's going to be,uh, a way to cover everything in an hour and-and put you in a position to make significant decisions. Bergus: And I suggested some data visualization like a pie chart for calls for service for example,making sure we're actually internalizing that a little bit more easily. Alter: So I have a question,I guess, for the-the three of you who had the conversation.Um,how does all of this relate in terms ol�um,because we're talking about under the auspice of the FY 25 budget. I mean,it- it sounds to me like it's a much bigger project than to be able to sort of put a pin in something within the FY 25 budget.But it's that we're undergoing a serious discussion and bringing in the right people and making sure that we can make a data driven decision at some point and perhaps a scaled way or not,but just to begin the process.But as you said,this is going to be-this is not intended to be like,oh,and we'll get info and we'll make a decision that will be impacting our'25 budget. Bergus: The one thing that I would reiterate that I've kind of tried to bring to the surface here,well,two things that I mentioned in our earlier budget discussion.But I think the lowest hanging fruit in terms of this conversation is a crisis counselor located in the JECC. So that's someone who is working on the dispatch floor who is a trained crisis counselor who takes those really serious calls all the time and helps the dispatchers understand that's the type of call that comes to me or that's the type of call to hand off to 988,or that's the kind of call where we want to engage mobile crisis,or that's the kind of call that,you know,because that-that has been identified by community as one of the top reasons that the 911 to 988 handoffs aren't happening.And I think we all three years ago identified that as like a really critical component of any successful best matching of response to calls,um,is having the dispatchers really understand and be able to triage. And that we have the technical capacity for that right now.But culturally,it's not-there This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 19 hasn't really been that change. So that would be one thing that I would continue to-to elevate as a nearer term.Um,and I think talking about,you know,what the scope of that might be in terms of how we would want to participate would be-would be easy. Teague: And I guess,um,go right ahead. Moe: I just as the JECC' is,uh,those employees are serving the whole county.Um,I suppose that should be part of our conversation is if we're,uh, as the city allowed to supplement what the JECC is doing or ask the county to do that for us.I assume there's a sort of interesting. It's not exactly our governmental organization. Bergus: Well,you have two councilors who serve on the JECC Board here,myself and-and Councilor Harmsen,and we did talk about it briefly at the last JECC Board meeting,and I think there's-I don't think anyone's opposed to it.I think everyone knows this is a good idea. Moe: Yeah. Bergus: Someone needs to lead on it,and we need to,you know,decide what that leadership might look like. Moe: Sure. Teague: I think,um,at least for me,I think we're starting the conversation,um,during budget season.I don't foresee,um,really this conversation have anything in this budget,except it is happening during a time when we're thinking about money.And then this fall when,you know,the staff will come to us and say,you know,what are our priorities?I feel like having this conversation at this time would be impactful for us to give us some real serious consideration.But again,next,um, you know,the next meeting we'll get the presentation. Um,and I think it'll be up to this council to determine,you know,where we want to go with that.And I don't know that we need to debate it at this point. Alter:No,that was helpful. Thank you. 4. Clarfication of Agenda Items Teague: All right. If nothing else from our,uh, fiscal year'25 budget proposal,then we're going to move on to item number 4 which is clarification of agenda items. Bergus: Did we want to talk here at all about the process for the Charter Commission before we get to it? Teague: Oh, sure,yeah. Moe: Yeah,process? Teague: Yeah. So,uh, at least the process because I know that they'll be,uh,we'll be in our formal meeting. So how I anticipate this will go from,uh,the selection process. It'll be very similar to what we've done with our formal- all of our Commission appointments. Um,I'm going to open up the floor and request that people submit names of individuals that they would like,um,to elevate or propose as a commission member.And I'll go through and we'll hear all of the names at once. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 20 I'll also request that if anyone hears a name that's been submitted,if you just,uh,make a little notation for yourself,uh,because we're going to come back around after all the names have been elevated and then go through and see if there's additional support for those names.And after,uh, we get the first round of names,we'll,uh,ask for individuals if there was a name that they heard that you want to throw additional support behind. At that point is when you'll be able to submit those names.And I'll pause to see if there's anyone else that would like to also lend their support to that individual that,uh,now has at least one more,uh,person supporting. We'll go through and try to see where we are. If we land at four individuals,uh,or four council-council persons that support it and then they'll be moved into a different category.And we may-we'll take our time, we won't rush.But that's how I anticipate we'll end up with our selection. Of course,we have a minimum of nine individuals that we can appoint. Uh,and what I would say is that we will kind of make that determination after we go through and select at least nine,see where we land. And then if there's,uh, if-if people wanted to entertain,uh,go into 11,we can do it at that point. Any questions about what I just mentioned?Okay-All right. Any other questions about,uh,the Charter Review Commission. Here and-well,I will mention that at the beginning I'll ask our City Attorney just to,uh,talk through a few conflict issues. And at that time I think we can just do that when-when we do the public meeting. That sounds fine. Thank you very much. 5. Information Packet Discussion [February 8,February 151 Teague: Yeah,.All right other than that we will- if there's nothing else on the clarification of the agenda items,we'll move on to information packets,which is item number 5. And we'll start with February 8th. Alter: So,I'll just take up the-uh,the mantle that our former Councilor,Pauline Taylor did,uh,once upon a time and to say congratulations to those who have passed their civil service exams. Teague: All right. We'll move on to packet February 15th. 6. University of Iowa Student Government(USG)Updates Teague: And we're going to move on to item number 6 which is the University of Iowa Student government USG,with their updates. And good to see you all and you're not in your suits. Yeah. Alter: Should make that a requirement for all,look to be. Teague: Absolutely. LeFevre: Good thing I'm leaving in a couple of months then. I don't like dressing up that often. Oh,I think I might just hit the computer. That's okay. Well,will continue going. Yeah,I know.Well, we'll start off obviously with town hall.Uh,thank you guys so much for coming. Um,we know there was a little miscommunication,but we were really happy to have the councilors that came and we had a really good time I would say overall. A lot of councilors or a lot of senators were talking to me afterwards and so everything went really well. So it was really good to have you all there.Matthew,will be next one. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 21 Monsivais:We have done upcoming individual meetings with councilor Bergus and Dunn. We also have completed our meetings with Councilors Moe and Pro Tem Salih. So again,we're just pushing that gentle reminder until we got all of them done. Uh,and then our legislative visit days on Wednesdays have started to go to the Iowa Capitol. So,uh,I think it's every other Wednesday,I believe it is. Uh,USG, senators and executs can sign up to go to the Capitol and they're just called Capitol Visit Days.And it provides a space and a time for senators to be excused from their classes and go advocate for USG at the Capitol. Those have started,uh,I think my day is on the March-sorry,March 20th. Yeah.And one of our very own senators,Avery Debt Barn,has just went on her own accord,uh,to advocate for Representative Zabner's bill to propose lowering Regent tuition rates. So that was really cool. Uh, she was featured on social media for that.But yeah. LeFevre: Hope you guys have all heard though,but Mayflower,the dorm will be opening,uh,up for the 24th,uh,25-,24 25th year,I believe. Yeah,Whatever it's next year. Teague: Yes. LeFevre: Uh,It's good. Uh,it's really,uh,we were really worried about that,uh,obviously,renting and stuff is a big issue of student government and it's just when you have 300 beds that are not going to be filled from students who are expecting it,it's a little bit difficult. So we're really happy that the university is opening up for the next year.Another,uh,Initiative that USG is doing is starting up is the Uber Voucher,uh,Program. This will give about$5 to about 1,700 students,uh,that will be able to cash it in. This alternative,not a complete alternative,but just another option for- such as like night ride and stuff,uh,just so students can get home safe. So that's all we really have this week So,thank you. Teague: Thank you. Alter: Can I ask a quick question? LeFevre: Yeah,of course. Yes. Alter: Go go ahead. Oh,I just wonder,do you have a sense of,um,how full Mayflower will be?Do you expect it'll get to capacity? LeFevre: Um,I know the RA session is going on right now, so they're still deciding on who wants to- who gets to be an RA and stuff like that. Alter:Right. LeFevre: I presume they're going to be filling it up with only returning students.Uh,I don't think there's going to be any new students. Um,this just I don't-I can't give a straight answer,but I know that it's only returning students they're not filling new so.But the see stores will be open inside,so full capacity is presumed. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024 Page 22 7. Council Updates on Assigned Boards,Commissions,and Committees Teague: Great. Thank you. We're on to item number 7 as-as council updates on assigned boards, commissions,and committees. Alter: I'm- actually,this is a former thing and it was just-it a neat,uh,symmetry. I'm going to be,uh,I think standing in or serving on the one book two book festival this Sunday. Uh,I got to do it last year and even though I'm not on the board now,uh,I have a tie in with ACT. And,um,ACT content Specialists are the ones who adjudicate,uh,the the-the contestants in their writing. So it's a neat double for me and I went last year and the kids are amazing,so I'm really excited about that opportunity again. And it's not actually through the council,but through my day gig that they were like that,they reached out and they were like,would you do this again? So I'm pretty stoked. And it's a short program,it's about an hour.And anybody who's listening,if you want to just have like your heart grow about this much,as well as just be fully impressed with the prowess of these kids from kindergarten up to 6,7th grade,uh,the writing is tremendous. So it's a wonderful program and it's um on-on the Pentacrest. Teague: All right. Tear and nothing else. We are adjourned and we'll be back at 06:00 PM for our formal meeting [MUSIC] This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 20, 2024