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HomeMy WebLinkAboutJune 2024 HCDC Packet If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate in this program or event, please contact Brianna Thul at bthul@iowa-city.org or 319-356-5240. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. HOUSING & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION (HCDC) June 13, 2024 Regular Meeting – 6:30 PM Iowa City Senior Center Assembly Room 28 S Linn Street AGENDA: 1. Call to Order 2. Consideration of Meeting Minutes: May 16, 2024 3. Public Comment of Items not on the Agenda Commentators shall address the commission for no more than five minutes. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion with the public concerning said items. 4. Discuss Landlord Incentives Commissioner Szecsei requested to discuss landlord incentives for affordable housing. The commission will discuss and may consider recommendations to City Council. 5. Consider Changing the Regular Meeting Date and Location of the Housing and Community Development Commission The commission will discuss and consider changing the date and location of HCDC meetings which does not require an amendment to the by-laws. Based on commission feedback, staff propose shifting the regular meetings of the commission to Emma Harvat Hall (located within City Hall) on the third Monday of each month at 6:30pm. If approved, the next regular meeting of the commission would be July 15, 2024. 6. Review and Consider Recommendation to City Council on Approval of the FY25 (FFY24) Annual Action Plan The FY25 Annual Action Plan summarizes the actions planned to help address the needs and goals in Iowa City’s consolidated plan, City Steps 2025, in the next fiscal year. The plan includes the budget for CDBG and HOME funds, a description of the projects to be funded, and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) required information. At the March 21, 2024 meeting, the commission made budget recommendations for FY25 CDBG/HOME housing and public facilities projects. The FY25 Annual Action Plan incorporates these recommendations. Staff will provide a brief overview of the draft, followed by discussion, proposed changes, and consideration of a recommendation to City Council to approve the plan. A 30-day public comment period for the plan began on May 17, 2024 and will run through June 18, 2024. A public meeting is scheduled for June 18, 2024 where Council will consider formal approval. Following Council approval, the plan is submitted to HUD for review. The FY25 Annual Action Plan is available online at www.icgov.org/actionplan. If you will need disability-related accommodations to participate in this program or event, please contact Brianna Thul at bthul@iowa-city.org or 319-356-5240. Early requests are strongly encouraged to allow sufficient time to meet your access needs. 7. Staff & Commission Updates This item includes an opportunity for brief updates from staff and commissioners. Commissioners shall not engage in discussion on updates. 8. Adjournment Housing and Community Development Commission Meeting Packet Contents June 13, 2024 Agenda Item #2  May 16, 2024 Draft HCDC Meeting Minutes Agenda Item #6  The FY25 Annual Action Plan draft is available online at www.icgov.org/actionplan or the link below: https://www.icgov.org/home/showpublisheddocument/2208/638515324084130000 MINUTES PRELIMINARY HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION MAY 16, 2024 – 6:30 PM FORMAL MEETING THE CENTER ASSEMBLY ROOM MEMBERS PRESENT: Kaleb Beining, Horacio Borgen, Maryann Dennis, Karol Krotz, James Pierce, Kiran Patel, Becci Reedus, Denise Szecsei MEMBERS ABSENT: Kyle Vogel STAFF PRESENT: Sue Dulek, Brianna Thul OTHERS PRESENT: None RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: None. CALL MEETING TO ORDER: Beining called the meeting to order at 6:30 PM and welcomed new member Borgen. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: APRIL 18, 2024: Reedus moved to approve the minutes of April 18, 2024. Dennis seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the minutes were approved 8-0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR TOPICS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CONSIDER A RECOMMENDATION TO AMEND THE HCDC BY-LAWS: The Commission discussed a recommendation from staff to amend the by-laws. The proposed amendment included reducing the size of the commission from nine to seven members and changing the number of members required to form a quorum from five to four. The commission previously discussed the proposal in April. Dennis began the discussion asking how many times they haven’t had a quorum. Thul stated in the last year, February they planned to not have a meeting, in January it was cancelled due to snow and not having a quorum. Prior to that, the last meeting that was cancelled and rescheduled was February 2023, it was cancelled and later rescheduled. Reedus also asked how many times they met and just have five Commissioners present. Thul shared in the past year the attendance was:  April 2024 – 6 members present  March 2024 – 5 members present  December 2023 to February 2024 – no meetings held  November 2023 – 8 members present  October 2023 – 5 members present  September 2023 – 6 members  August 2023 – no meeting held Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 2 of 7 2  July 2023 – 7 members present  June 2023 – no meeting held  May 2023 – 5 members present  April 2023 6 members present Dennis asked if it is staff’s opinion that Council just doesn't receive applications for the Commission and if that is why it is hard to maintain membership. Thul explained the applications for the three upcoming positions closed yesterday and they have eight applications currently that are active. They try to encourage people with experience described in the by-laws to apply. Staff can list some of the places that they try to recruit from and also at the last meeting the communication staff from the City was here taking some pictures and videos that will be used in marketing materials for boards and commissions so hopefully that will help. Vacancies are announced at the Commission meetings, City Council announces them as well, and then staff have sent info to the Iowa City Association of Realtors, the University of Iowa Student Government, the Homebuilders Association, Better Together, South of Six, University of Iowa Planning and Public Affairs, Iowa City Tenants Union, Greater Iowa City Apartment Association, Johnson County Social Services, and they’ve also tried realtors and to banks. She noted it's difficult to recruit people. Szecsei commented there's no outreach to people who are actually affected by the decisions that are being made here and that might be something else to reach out to have representation from the people who are directly involved. Thul stated one of the groups that they work with would be the Iowa City Housing Authority that is housed in City Hall so they receive info on vacancies as well. Staff are always open to suggestions if others have recommendations on places to send the vacancy notices, or if Commissioners have a network of people, they can always feel free to pass those along. The more they can get it out there, the better recruitment will be. Dennis asked about the conflict-of-interest policy and noted it says that if a Commissioner is involved with a possible applicant, for any kind of funds that HCDC recommends to Council be allocated, that they can’t then participate. Dulek confirmed that is true, because CDBG and HOME funds are together in one pot, if someone is conflicted for a HOME application then they’re conflicted from the CDBG pot as well. Dennis stated one of the biggest things they do is allocate those funds and if someone can't participate then that really doesn’t make sense. Reedus noted last year the Commission added the somebody with nonprofit background in the bylaws because this Commission took over the Aid to Agencies funding about a decade ago. There wasn't really a requirement for nonprofit background, though a big chunk of the work is reviewing nonprofit applications and awarding monies to nonprofits. Krotz noted she receives housing assistance through the Iowa City Housing office and would like to see maybe one more person who actually is out there and sees firsthand what it's like to acquire housing as it brings a broader experience to the Commission. Szecsei agreed and stated the school board, for example, doesn’t have anybody on the school board who has actually fallen through the cracks in getting their education here in Iowa City. The representation of this Commission should be a group of people that actually need to be served. There are a lot of educated people in Iowa City, and she appreciates that but would like to hear from the people who are directly affected or impacted. Krotz noted there are also a lot of educated low-income people in Iowa City. She added some people have a misconception that is someone is low-income, they’re probably not very educated and that's not true so there has to be a pool to pull from. Szecsei stated her concern is that dropping the number of people serving will reduce the chance for those people to have a voice and representation. Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 3 of 7 3 Reedus agreed but noted getting them to meetings is the problem and that's been the problem, as well as keeping them on the Commission. She also stated they’ve had a lot of turnover since she’s been here and she can’t even begin to count the number of people that have come and gone. Borgen stated he thinks that one of the difficult parts of being a board member, or part of a commission, is recruiting the people because people don't know what to expect from that commission. Sometimes people have the backgrounds and the experience and the knowledge of participating in a commission, but if they don't advertise what they're trying to do, it's difficult to engage people in what they're doing. He noted if they have less board members or commissioners because of the attendance, in the end what they are cutting participants who could bring something new to the table and could be that representative from one sector. Krotz stated maybe people will feel more comfortable applying to vacancy if an orientation or onboarding happens before the person has already been appointed. Dennis noted to try and orientate or onboard somebody who is considering applying to be on the Commission would be extra work for staff and it sounds like they already reach out quite a bit. Dennis does not have an interest in doing that as a commissioner. Reedus stated they could watch videos of previous Commission meetings if somebody wanted to know what the Commission was about, they could go back to the archives and watch the meetings. Krotz was just thinking in terms of being able to retain the Commissioners once they're appointed, and to get good attendance. Dennis stated if someone applies for a commission, goes through the process, and is appointed by City Council and then they don't come to meetings, or let staff know that they're not going to come, in her opinion, it better be for a pretty good reason. In fact, she had asked for the January meeting to be rescheduled because she would not be able to attend and knew there would be a presentation she didn’t want to miss. Reedus stated there are a couple of meetings every Commissioner should be here for. The funding meetings where they do the work, score the applications, hear from the applicants. She noted it was one of the most recent funding meetings where they had to wait for another Commissioner to show up and every seat in the audience was full. That shouldn’t happen. If someone else didn’t show up, they would have had to send everybody in the audience home. It does not send a good message to the community. Reedus stated part of being on a Commission is the commitment of making the meetings and doing the work. Krotz is trying to understand how reducing the number of people on the Commission is going to give a guarantee that the other Commissioners are going to come to the meetings. They can’t guarantee that. Thul stated from the staff perspective, they are recommending a smaller Commission to have a smaller quorum. Typically, it's the fifth person that wouldn't be able to make it and they would have to cancel the meeting. To give an example of when this would be a problem, when staff gets funding amounts from HUD, they have about 60 days to do a sequence of events. Staff need to do a public notice, they need to bring it to HCDC, and they present at a Council meeting. They need to hit these benchmarks before they can submit that to HUD by their deadline. So, if they have to cancel a commission meeting at the last minute, that means staff might not be able to get HCDC feedback, which is valued and really important to include in the plans. If they have to cancel a meeting and are unable to reschedule, they are not getting HCDC feedback and would have to submit that to HUD without it to meet the deadline. Staff is looking at it from the perspective of, if they have a quorum of four people - they could likely meet more often and be able to get input. Thul clarified that they are not asking to make a smaller Commission to get less feedback, that’s not the intention. Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 4 of 7 4 Dennis agreed and stated the most important thing they do is make a recommendation to City Council on how to spend the federal money that comes into this community every year. There are a huge amount of regulations and they have to rely on staff to make sure that everything is compliant and deadlines are met. They may miss a lot of money coming into this community to support the folks that need the services that are provided with that federal money. Szecsei stated the winter months are probably the most challenging months to get the quorum, often due to weather, and that's not going to change regardless of how many people are on the Commission. So, when the applications are being screened, that would be the time to emphasize the importance of coming to the meetings on a regular basis and getting that commitment. Reedus asked about doing the work remotely if somebody wasn't able to get here for whatever reason, does the City allow them to attend remotely. Dulek explained that they have to have quorum present in person, others can join remotely but the quorum needs to be bodies present. Thul noted that commissioners have probably all received her Thursday phone calls as sometimes it's hard to know if they will have five people in the room to form a quorum. Dennis appreciates staff does that because the last thing she wants to do is come here and then not have a quorum and not be able to do any business. Szecsei noted also if they move the meetings to Wednesday, like staff is proposing, and change the location, that might solve some of the parking issues. Thul stated it's hard to say. The reasons she hears for not being able to attend are across the board - weather, family, life. Pierce noted two things, one is they're discussing this topic at a meeting when they have eight people present, so discussing going down to seven is a little bit awkward. He did acknowledge he also has been here when they only have five or six present, so it definitely fluctuates. He stated on a previous commission he served on they had five members and still had trouble getting a quorum of three. So he is unsure if reducing the number required will actually help. It may be a little bit easier to get four people instead of five but also sometimes it's hard to even get three so reducing the number might not solve the problem or they may still encounter the problem. Krotz asked if staff has talked with any other staff who work with Commission's to find out what their experience is with attendance. Thul can’t speak for the other Commission's but doesn’t think it's a unique problem to HCDC. Dulek noted the Airport Commission, which runs the airport, almost always had four or five present. Planning and zoning runs closer to almost always full attendance, the Board of Adjustment has five members and almost always all five are present. However, there are some of the other Commissions that do struggle - the Senior Center, Parks and Rec., Public Art. It really varies but staff certainly could reach out and get to that information if needed. Board of Appeals, which hears appeals to the housing code and the building codes, may only meet once or twice a year and they struggle for a quorum just because they meet so infrequently. Beining gauged support for the amendment by a show of hands. Borgen, Patel, Szecsei, and Krotz were opposed, and Pierce preferred to abstain. There was not enough support to amend the bylaws and no motion was made to recommend approval to Council. Beining encouraged commissioners to attend the meetings. Pierce stated he is very open to reconsidering this question in the future, of amending the number, but they currently have eight people and if there's eight applicants for three spots, it is likely they will get some quality applicants and there just needs to be a stronger effort to retain them and emphasize the importance of making the meetings unless there's an extenuating circumstance or something. Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 5 of 7 5 Szecsei asked how the applications are reviewed and decisions made of who gets selected for the Commission. Thul noted of the eight applications only three of them are new since the last appointment. She explained if someone applies for this Commission their application is kept on file for a year. Ultimately, the appointments are up to City Council's discretion. There are some things in the bylaws that they consider like someone with experience with housing assistance, construction, or finance. CONSIDER CHANGING THE REGULAR MEETING DATE AND LOCATION OF THE HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION: The Commission discussed changing the date and location of the monthly meetings to the 4th Wednesday of each month. Patel stated she has a standing meeting at that time. Thul noted if the 4th Wednesday is not going to work for everybody, she can go back to the drawing board and try to look at the calendar again. She noted there's a lot of logistics that go into these meetings and she doesn’t want to suggest something tonight that might not work. The Commission discussed possibly Mondays might work for the group and staff will look into options. DISCUSS PROCESS FOR FY25 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN: Thul stated normally the City’s Action Plan would be due to HUD within 45 days of the fiscal year starting however because of the turmoil around reaching agreement on a federal budget, they received the grant allocations very late this year. Originally, HCDC was not planning to meet in June, but staff would like to hold a meeting to get the Commission’s input on the Action Plan. Thul explained for context, after the March meeting where HCDC came up with the funding recommendations for CDBG and HOME, staff then take those recommendations and put them into the federally required Annual Action Plan. The Commission can then review the Plan and provide any comments or notes. Staff then take the Action Plan to City Council, which this year will be on June 18 after a 30-day public comment period. Staff will submit the plan to HUD after Council approval. Thul noted the HCDC meeting will need to be off schedule from the normal meeting time in order to make the Council meeting on the 18th. Staff have proposed June 6 or June 13. Commissioners discussed the two options and Szecsei made a motion to move the meeting to June 13. Reedus seconded the motion. A vote was taken and the motion passed 8-0. Pierce asked if there would be a July meeting. Thul stated the July meeting will still happen and the agenda will have introductions for the new appointments to the Commission, they will need to elect a new chair and vice chair, and staff will present the calendar for the upcoming fiscal year once they finalize the meeting dates. Reedus requested to discuss possible presentation options for the next fiscal year also. Thul stated they can do that. One idea staff hope to include is fair housing training from the City’s Human Rights staff as that might be useful for this group and commissioners agreed. STAFF & COMMISSION UPDATES: Thul stated she already went over the Annual Action Plan update and the public comment period for that Plan - that is going to start tomorrow and it will run for 30 days. It will be in the HCDC packet for June as well. She reminded them it is a long document and in a HUD required format but at the June meeting staff will provide an overview. Thul also noted that the City has hired a consultant for the Consolidated Plan. She reminded the Commission that is the five-year plan where they set priorities for CDBG and HOME funds. There will be the public participation opportunities and she is hoping by the June meeting she’ll have some more information on how the Commissioners can participate in that process. Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 6 of 7 6 ADJOURNMENT: Reedus moved to adjourn, Dennis seconded the motion and a vote was taken and the motion passed 8- 0. Housing and Community Development Commission May 16, 2024 Page 7 of 7 7 Housing and Community Development Commission Attendance Record 2023-2024  Resigned from Commission Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused --- = Vacant Name Terms Exp. 3/30 4/20 5/18 7/20 9/21 10/19 11/16 3/21 4/18 5/16 Beining, Kaleb 6/30/24 X X O/E X X X X X X X Dennis, Maryann 6/30/25 X O/E X X O/E X X X X X Krotz, Karol 6/30/24 X X X X X X X O/E O/E X Reedus, Becci 6/30/24 X X X X X X X X X X Vogel, Kyle 6/30/26 X O/E X X X O/E X X X O/E Patel, Kiran 6/30/26 X X X X X O/E X O/E O/E X Pierce, James 6/30/26 -- -- -- X X X X O/E X X Szecsei, Denise 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- -- -- X X X X Borgen, Horacio 6/30/25 -- -- -- -- -- -- -- O/E O/E X