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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-05-07 Transcription Page 1 Council: Alter,Bergus,Dunn (via Zoom),Harmsen, Moe, Salih (via Zoom), Teague Parks & Recreation Commission: McPherson, Stanton,Hayes,Broege,Recker,Hachtman, Moore,Morelli Staff: From, Goers, Grace, Seydell Johnson,Baird,Knoche,Havel, Sovers,Nagle- Gamm,Davies Others Present: Monsivais,Alternate 1. Joint Meeting with the Parks &Recreation Commission—City Park Pool Teague: All right.It is 4:00 P.M. On May 7th,2024, and we're gonna call the City of Iowa City work session into order. We have with us our Parks and Rec Commissioner. So welcome to each one of you. And I do want to just take a moment and just have you all introduce yourselves to the Council and say something brief that you want to share. So we'll start over here. McPherson: Okay.My name is Rachel McPherson.I'm never brief,but I'll try. I used to have a pet rat named Benny and she was very smart. Teague: I love it. Stanton: Uh,my name is Alex Stanton. Um,Brief I look forward to working with you guys. Thanks for having us. Teague: Awesome,great. Hayes: My name is Virginia Hayes. I've lived in Iowa City since my kids were babies,and I've been bringing them to City Park Pool since they were babies,and we love City Park Pool. Teague: Awesome. Thank you. Broege: My name is Aaron Broege.I've lived in several cities,several states across the Midwest,and this is by far my favorite place I've ever lived. So thank you guys. Teague: Awesome and we'll come over here. Recker: Caleb Recker. I've lived in Iowa City my whole life and have also used City Park.Now married with three children, and hopefully they get to use the new City Park. Hachtman: My name is Alex Hachtman, so super grateful to be here and grateful for all the work that you do on our behalf as part of the City Council.Um,the park that I most recently visited was Ryerson Woods,so with the beautiful weather I encourage everyone to get out and enjoy the wonderful parks of Iowa City area. Teague: Great. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 2 Moore: Hey,I'm Connie Moore, and yeah,it's been super fun being on the commission,and I'm just super excited because it looks like Kate Martin is gonna be on the roster for the Aces. Morelli: Brian Morelli. I've been in Iowa City for about 20 years and my kids were raised at City Park Pool and we're lifeguards there and just really excited to be part of the process of looking forward. Teague: Well,I appreciate all of you being here today,and thanks for the work that you do.We're gonna have parks and rec director come up at this time. So welcome. Juli Seydell Johnson. Seydell Johnson: Thank you for having us. I'm so excited to see,all but one of our commission members here. Thank you for making time to come out early and be here today. Just excited to move forward with City Park Pool and give you a lot of information in the next hour so about the process we've been through and some recommendations.I'm gonna take you through the first few slides and then tum it over,um,to our um,consultant group. So just getting started,we're gonna go through an introduction. We're gonna talk briefly about the existing condition review which you saw last summer,the Council action that followed that. Go through our public input summary. We have all kinds of public meetings, focus groups,online,um,all kinds of different ways for the public to get involved,and they really have been. So it's been an exciting process. We're gonna talk through the four design concepts,talk about the second open house that we had. And then the survey results,both the statistically valid random survey and our open survey that was available. And then you'll get a recommendation action for action after that. On the goals are for you to helpfully understand the community input and the processes we went through to get all that input. I know that you've had a lot of residents contact you.But we have information that shares kind of information from the entire community.We'll share that with you today. Then we'll hope for you at your next meeting, approve a new pool design concept,project budget,and then any other project considerations. So for the public and commission,tonight is not a night to make a decision on which of the four concepts to go forward with. Tonight is an information gathering, get all your questions answered,um,and move forward in about two weeks,hopefully with which one we go forward with. Our project team is led by Williams Architects,and they are joined by Berry Dunn who had worked with us.Both Williams actually and Berry Dunn worked with us on the recreation facility and Program Master Plan before this. And then we have University of Illinois here with our surveys. The project team sitting behind me and they'll be up here in just a second; Frank Parisi and Andrew Caputo are our project architects. Danny Wilson has been our recreation consultant from Berry Dunn working on the public input side.And Laura Payne, as I mentioned,has been working with her graduate student or PhD students on the survey methodology and results that you'll have reported to you. I want to take just a second to remind you of the project goals. These are the goals we've been working with since after the recreation facility and program master plan. This is-we use these even in hiring the consultants that will speak to you tonight. As we looked at the fixture of City Park pool,these were the things that we felt were important that needed to be included in however we moved forward.And you've seen these a couple times before this,but having providing a community recreation experience for a wide range of users. So we heard multigenerational throughout our focus groups and throughout our public input.People want a new pool that meets the needs of little kids all the way through seniors and everyone in between. Increased independent accessibility. So right now you have the option of pool ladders,one set of stairs and pool chair lift to get into the pool.We hope for a new pool. It has ramps,have easy ways from the time you get out of your car to get through the bathhouse and get into the pools and-you know,in any number of ways, so that's independent access into the pool.We've heard it provide shade.Now,you also hear it provides space for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 3 sunbathing. So we're looking for both here. Operating efficiencies that support the climate action goals. And we'll talk about this with the gallons of water and kind of sizing,right sizing the pool because that all makes a difference down the road and how much-how much energy it takes to operate this pool.Maximize the efficiency of lifeguards. And I know you've had some public comments about one design or another taking more or less lifeguards. And we can certainly answer those questions. We want to make sure that we have a pool that's flexible and can operate for the most people with the fewest number of lifeguards. We're good for this summer,by the way,though.We have plenty of lifeguards,but we know that it's been difficult for a lot of the people around us. We want to promote our vision.Every child learns how to swim. So once again,making the pool welcoming for families and non swimmers,providing spaces,good spaces for swimming lesson instruction. And welcome users of all backgrounds with specific attention to the facility entry patterns. So when you come into City Park pool right now,you come in the entrance,you have to immediately choose male or female locker rooms.You'll see a design tonight that gives you a third option to come straight through where we have single user restroom shower areas so that you have other ways to access the pool. If you're a family,a father coming with young,you know,your kids, and you don't want to take them in the men's locker room or if you're transgender individual,or any- anybody else can use these single user areas as well. And we want to evaluate the potential of merging the outdoor park restrooms in year round recreation programming space. You'll see that that's been done in all of these pool designs. And generally keep the construction area within the fence. So we heard loud and clear,we like the way City Park feels,we like the tree line,we like the way the atmosphere out there.We think that all four concept designs will still offer that. You'll still feel like you're under a big canopy of trees. So, those were the project goals we're going towards.We'll come back to those as we evaluate the four concepts later on.But with that,I'm gonna tum it over to the project team and let them take you through the rest of the report. Caputo: Good afternoon.It's good to see all of you. See some familiar faces.Again,I'm Andrew Caputo with Williams Architects.Uh, some of you might remember me from last summer,and I was here before the Council presenting an existing conditions report for the existing City Park pool. And we wanted to just briefly summarize that process for those of you that weren't,um,available to attend that presentation and give you an overview of what we found and what we learned and what led to this process for exploring the planning for a new pool. So I'll just take you through that briefly through the next few slides. We were on site with our engineering team,and we took a close look at the existing conditions.We gathered a lot of data from your staff. And there were some things that we found,uh,that are summarized here on this slide. And one of the biggest things that we heard and learned and could observe is the tremendous water loss with the existing pool. Um,we-we learned that the pool was losing up to 55,000 gallons of water per day at the time that was last summer,and that had been actually steadily increasing over the summers. Um, in fact,in 2022,the pool lost over 5 million gallons of water. So going into this,we were already concerned and wanting to identify the causes for those water loss and understand if that could be solved. Um,we found a lot of deterioration,um,based on the age of the structure in the pool basin,and we showed a lot of photos at our presentation. We just have a couple here,but we saw, um,concrete basically that was just beginning to fail over time in the floor and the walls. That led us to a concern for structural integrity. We reviewed some old renovation drawings of the pool that have happened over the years, some changes to the existing gutters,and we found,uh,a serious horizontal separation that's occurring at the gutter line of the pool wall that's leading,uh, significantly to the water leakage. We looked at the existing conditions inside the bathhouse. Most of you are aware that the bathhouse has a basement pool equipment building.It's a confined space. It would not be something that would be designed under today's codes. Uh,so we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 4 expressed some concern about that. And we know all the details of the pool equipment,such as the filtration systems,the-the sanitation systems,the surge tanks,all the piping. Those systems, of course, are aging over time and in need of replacement.We also considered operations and safety in our review. And after our review,we concluded,um,based on our fmdings that repair of the pool did not make good economic sense. The magnitude of these difficulties that I previously mentioned were just too great,and we looked at a renovation cost of approximately around$10 million to renovate the existing pool to its-to an acceptable condition that basically would continue to fail,and only would be a temporary band aid.And so with that,we recommended giving the community a chance to weigh in at this time and consider this to be basically a wonderful opportunity to engage and say,hey,what is it that residents would like to see in a new pool?How could we design a new pool that supports all the residents,uh,that someday would be, um,regarded with the same love that this existing pool is. And with,uh,that presentation,um, there was a council action,of course,And counsel voted to approve that recommendation. And since that time,since I last saw you,we've been busy at work in this design process planning for a new pool. And that's what our presentation will continue to go through with you this afternoon. And with that,I'm going to tum things over to Danny Wilson with Barry Dunn and she's going to talk about our public input.And then I'll be back with you to talk about the options. Teague: Okay.Welcome. Wilson: Hello,everyone. Thank you. So glad to be here. You know,City Park Pool is such a beloved asset in this community,and I loved being able to help lead the charge and hearing what the community has to say and what the community thinks about,what should happen with the fixture of City Park pool. So,we had a variety of in person engagement opportunities that included some open house type feel activities,focus group meetings,and then that was the first step. And then the second step involved the,uh,conceptual design open house and a survey process that kind of worked together hand in hand. So the first open house was called an idea generation session.And that is because there was-there's no preconceived notion as to what would be in a fixture City Park pool.And that actually caught some of our participants off guard when they walked into the setting,historically,they're used to seeing designs on a wall or designs on easels and they get to pick which one they like the best.It wasn't time for that yet.At this stage of the game,it was a very creative process. We've-we enjoyed encouraging the community to join us in that design. Phase of,like,well,let's think about, for example,with the buckets that you see there on the upper left hand side,what would the style be of a fixture pool?What would-what should we invest in as far as amenities are concerned,or what types of pool spaces should be involved,you know,deep water,shallow water,etc.And by the way,what about accessibility? So on the bottom right hand side,here you can see we had some-we did have boards up,where we said, you know,this is a really important thing for us to know is accessing not only the water,but also the whole facility itself through the bathhouse is really important. Tell us what pieces of that are the most important to you. And you'll see the upper right hand side,encourage folks to also be creative in their own way where they could draw or write or both on a big mural sheet of paper and let us know what they would envision the fixture of the pool to be. So this was an idea generation session where not only for those folks that could make it either to Mercer or Robert A Lee, Those that could not make it to either location had the same opportunity to give this similar type feedback online. So actually two ways to participate in the idea generation sessions. Additionally,we had 14 different focus groups, and those focus groups were,uh-there was an invitation put out to the entire community. Anyone could sign up to be a part of the focus group process. The submission requests it was designed to be an intentionally inclusive process where the goal was to be as equitable as possible. So we ask folks to self identify in a series of either demographic categories or user type categories so that then in a very transparent and open This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 5 process,if there were more people interested than there were spots available in the focus groups that there could be equitable as a distribution within those focus groups as possible. So there was, there's a larger group of folks that were interested in participating than we had spots available and so what we did was offer those folks an opportunity to submit their answers to the very same questions that we were asking in person.And in the end what that added up to was 566, sorry, feedback touch points is what we're calling them. So between the folks that were able to join us in person at the idea generation session,those that offered online feedback,those that participated in the focus groups and also those that provided electronic focus group feedback we had 566 different pieces of information to work with. So that is how we listened and as far as who we heard from we're hoping to convey here that an upper left hand side,the participants race and ethnicity,very much mirrored the race and ethnicity breakdown of the folks that live in Iowa City. Some similar results from a gender perspective,and you'll see that from an age perspective the largest participant group were ages 30-49 years. That's that green bar that you see on,uh,the left of the participant age chart. We wanted to show that we-we did have over 157 folks that identified as being over 50. And there was one woman who walked out of our idea generation session who just I loved. I had to write it down,her quote. She said, "I'm 67,and I had fim."And that's what we wanted it to be. City Park Pool is a fun place to be. It's a gathering space,so we wanted to highlight the fact that folks had a good time participating in this process.As far as what we heard during this phase of community engagement it was loud and clear that community members wanted a preservation of the history,the trees,and the open feel of the current City Park Pool. There was also a desire for fixture development of the pool to focus on learn to swim. So very much in line with the goals of the project.Multigenerational was brought up throughout the feedback we heard.And then safety was also important to the participants,and safety meant different things to different people. For the parents of young children,safety meant that they could see all ages of children all across the whole pool deck whereas then safety from someone who might not identify male or female they wanted to feel safe in the space. The lifeguard team, also,when we talked with them,they wanted to be able to keep the place safe as much as possible. So safety definitely rose to the top from a thematic perspective as a consideration in the potential designs.And then finally what we also heard was,please avoid overlapping fimctions. What that meant is the lap swimmers trying to swim laps while the teenagers are trying to throw the football. Sometimes those things just didn't mingle very well. It's not that either party didn't like the other activity happening just that the overlapping fimctions made it difficult in certain places in the current layout of the City Park Pool. As far as amenities are concerned,the top amenity that we heard about was shade,and that was through nearly every single focus group and throughout all of the comments. It didn't matter if it was shade from trees, shade over the pool deck or shade over the water.Loud and clear, shade rose to the top. Similarly,lap lanes,and we will mention both 50 meter and 25 yard lap lane lengths were important to people for different reasons. The 25 yard requests rose to the top often due to their ability in that there were folks that said,you know what?I would like from a progressive- sorry,progression perspective that learned to swim we need to have the shorter length before we go to a long course length. That was one perspective.Another was physically this person's example was,I have asthma. I need to be able to stop at 25 yards. So we heard that alongside the folks that also wanted 50 meters for their long course training needs. The diving boards are beloved. So we wanted to make sure we shared that with you that,that was another top amenity followed by an overall acknowledgment that an expanded kids area particularly for ages 3-8 years old was determined as,yeah,it's missing currently. So there was an acknowledgment from really all sorts of user groups that,that was something that we could do better on with fixture developments. Some of the other support features you'll see there at the bottom,the bubblers and jets.Not only would that appeal to younger litter children but also from a sensory perspective that was important to some of our This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 6 participants needs, splash pad and seating in the water. There's a social location.When we think about pool entry and accessibility,loud and clear,we heard zero-zero depth entry was the most important way for folks to be able to enter. All ages,all abilities,over and over and over again, we heard zero depth entry followed by sloped entry,and then we didn't ask specifically about railings but that was something that came out of our conversations with folks as they really wanted a railing to hold onto to be able to get it in and out of the pool. Finally at this stage of our engagement we asked about the bathhouse. So specifically to the locker room and changing room area folks wanted non gendered and gendered options. This was important to folks who wanted to be able to not have to pick or choose male,female,as Julie mentioned but also those folks that absolutely wanted to choose male or female. Something to keep in mind as we have our design options later.Family and group spaces were also very important followed by privacy. Privacy rose to the top foreshore as something that was more desired in fixture bathhouse designs. The user experience we found that the people wanted direct access into the pool.Regardless of having to choose male, female,people just want to get in. They want to they're excited,they want to get through,and they don't want to have to go through a bunch of hoops to be able to get to that water. Support features also came out of this process.Little did we know that those hooks,the seats,the suit spinners are important added features to the community. When we asked about the multipurpose room there was a lot of,um,just,okay yeah,that sounds great. However,the sentiment was,so we'll support it so long as it does not interfere with any other of the pool features that I just told you about. So they wanted to support the multipurpose room and they saw a lot of different opportunities of use for that space so long as it didn't interrupt the rest of the pool design which we as the consulting team knew they're very separate in their design and there is no impact on the rest of the pool. And with that we learned all of these great things that fed into the design concepts. Caputo: Hello,again,if you want to just want to make sure to mention, feel free to ask any questions along the way here,if you would like to or certainly,you could save them for the end,but we'd be happy to answer any questions as we go along here. The next chapter in our presentation is to discuss the design concepts that we prepared and we'll take you through that process. As we look at the design concepts that we created,a chart was made of comparison factors. There were four specific design concepts that we shared with the community, and you could see those in different colors at the top.We're going to look at this chart as we move through the presentation tonight in each one of the concepts with the data filled in. On the left hand side and blue are various criteria, just reading a few costs,bather load,water savings,program areas,and these criteria could be compared between the different options. This chart was just a useful tool to get a snapshot to look at the similarities and the differences. All right.Right. Option A was the first concept that we created and before we talk about option A,I wanted to just mention some global thoughts. And that is to develop options after the community input information was really an exciting time for us,especially as architects,the creativity and the challenges associated with trying to build outdoor recreation spaces and programming these aquatic elements is what we do.While we're going to share four concepts with you tonight, and those were the four concepts that we ultimately decided were the best.We actually explored probably 15-20 different concepts and vetted those in our office as a team discussing which ones best addressed the project goals and also the goals of the community.And so these four options,I'm going to walk you through. They have some general similarities, and I wanted to just spend a little bit more time on option A to explain those similar things first that you'll see repeated in all the options and one of the most important things as Danny mentioned that,you'll see in all the concepts was this notion and love for this place-this place,which is City Park and the setting. So the setting was a very important thing to all of us throughout all these concepts.We tried to work very carefully to organize the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 7 design of all these concepts in a similar fashion so that the footprint and the integrity of the space between the existing trees was maintained.We tried to be very careful to cite the major elements, the bathhouse,the pool elements and the separate filter building within that footprint, and you'll see that repeated. So on this drawing,North is up,you'll see a similar sized bathhouse. The bathhouse is the same design and all the options.I'll show you that at the end after we get through the four different options.We are separating the filter building from the bathhouse to address some of the concerns with operations and safety and also reducing costs by getting the filter building is actually less expensive closer to the deeper water than it is now where its on the north and associated with the shallow water. So you'll see some similarities there and also,another thing that you'll see Dannie mentioned a lot of feedback that we received about shade. So you'll see all of these options have various shades structures. There are some different shapes and different geometries. Some are over the pool deck, some are over grass areas or over the water, but you'll see that similarity. What led us to option A, and all of the options was trying to synthesize these comments that we heard and a lot of the feedback that we received really emphasize the beauty of City Park and its simplicity and the idea of just the experience of open water in this wonderful setting and we received a lot of commentary from residents that this is not a water park. So the idea of open water,we thought about that,and then we know that City Park pool is very important for lap swimming. And so the idea that open water and lap swimming really led us to a shared feature that all of these options have, and that is the six 50 meter lap lanes. We know that the lap-that size of pool can provide just the general open swim that's desired uncluttered for various activities for kids, for learn to swim, for just general program for having fun and then also at times the pool can be used for either long course,or at various roll planks for shorter course distances. Alter: Can I ask a question,really quick? Caputo: Of course. Alter: So in that-in the drawing,and you mentioned for some things it could be 25.Is that because there will be a bulkhead? Caputo: There could be a bulkhead. That is a possibility. In the drawing,we just have a basically a rope divider that separates what would be 225 meter sections between the 50 meter pool.However, yes,there could be a movable bulkhead. The bulkhead is deployed,it would be something that would need to be lifted and then the pool actually would be just a little bit longer than 50 meters, and then the bulkhead would need to be stowed and basically lifted and then anchored at the end of the pool. So that is a consideration. It could-there could be a bulkhead. Alter: So either way,though,it would be in terms of lab swimmers,it would be either like I'm thinking of it would be either 50 or 25,regardless of the rope or the bulk. Caputo: Correct. Considering some of the other challenges that we had when we were looking at City Park Pool,we know that that pool was designed at a different time when it was the only pool in the community.Besides the original University of LAP Pool and it was- it was- it is certainly an enormous body of water. And so we knew going into that that to replicate that size would be very expensive.However,you'll see that here as one of the options. So what we wanted to do here was if we are separating overlapping uses,which is, again,a comment that we heard very frequently, and we moved diving out of the lap swimming,which we've done here and created a separate diving hopper. So now we don't have divers splashing on lap swimmers and they're in a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 8 completely separate body of water and then we also want to respond to the idea of this expanded play-play area for kids because the existing pool has that small weighting area. There is no zero depth entry,zero depth was very desired. So we separated and have a zero to about three foot six area. So there is a nice separate weighting area here. So the thought process was also understanding the budget,the city's climate action goals,the enormous amount of gallons in the existing pool is again,trying to balance all these factors as architects,we started with,hey,this is. For at least a minimum of six lanes could potentially serve the needs for LAP swimming and for open swim and learn to swim.And the thought process behind that was just simply that these lanes would be available for longer periods than they currently are,even though there's currently more lanes because we've separated these uses. So the lap lanes would actually be available for longer during the day.Now,we'll talk later about there are opportunities to make all of these options larger and have additional lanes,which we'll talk about later.But this is basically how we came up with these four concepts was to try to balance those factors and not run away too far with the budgets.But if I might just finish talking before we go on to the next option,I'll just finish a few things here for option A. Option A was perhaps the most organic. So you could see the geometry of the kids area is a little bit more of a playful free form shape,but not a water park. Still a very large open area with some small bubblers or geysers at the zero depth entry.Again,I mentioned it would-it would go from 0-346 deep. The 50 meter pool.Another way to look at the city's climate action goals and reducing water usage,not just operations,but pulling that deep pool and that diving pool out means that that's the only area that we need to be super deep at that 13 or 14 feet deep. And so the entire 50 meters doesn't need to start sloping to make it down to 13 feet deep. So this pool can be designed now between 346 to say five feet deep or six feet deep, and it can be more of a semi shallow water and again,that contributes to water efficiency. Another just consideration that we had with the design. This pool also,and you'll see a similar theme to have accessible feature. So we have not just the zero depth,but we have an accessible pool stair into the lap pool and then we actually also have a pool stair into the deep pool,which is kind of a nice feature. There's a 3'6"deep landing at the end that you can step down and then step off into the deeper water. That is nice for programming,not just for diving,but actually other activities that might happen in the deep hopper like water aerobics.With each design,you'll see at the bottom here, and I'm not going to go through every one of these bullet points,but we wanted to just comment on the designs compared to the existing pool so that you could understand the differences. So this particular design is about 500,000 gallons of water,and it's about 34%less water than the current pool. So it's still a very large pool. That's a little bit less than 1,000 for the bather load and each one of these pools has a cost estimate. When we say cost,this is total project cost. The total project cost is 18.39 million for this particular pool. And that the cost is the construction cost and the soft cost as well and includes a contingency. So when we say-when we say cost,it's not just construction cost. That's the total project cost.If anyone has any questions about that,you can ask us. Alter: Super quick. I'm sorry. I think you did mention it?What's the-. Caputo: Should I go back?Let me know. Alter: No-no-no,it's super quick What's the current Bather load for- Caputo: The current Bather load is it's,actually,option D is very similar to the existing design, so it's like a little bit over 1,000. Alter: Okay,sorry. Okay. I'll find it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 9 Caputo:But we'll get there in just a minute. Yeah. Recker: One other point. Caputo: Yeah, sure. Recker:When you go through each option,would you point out if there are any specific life-guarding needs for that design? Caputo: Yes. Recker: Thank you. Caputo: So,um,this just populates very slowly,so I'm sorry for that. I don't know why that does that,but I-I don't want to make sure I-I lose it. Um, so I won't-I would not be able to,specifically, comment exactly according to the number of lifeguards for ease- each option because there are variables,and it depends on whether you're at the maximum bather load,at three quarters of bather load or half bather load,how many people are using the pool,and-and,um,exactly what the operations are,what's happening during,you know,are you doing just- are you doing learn to swim? So the-the actual number of lifeguards,I would actually defer to,Julie,to help me a little bit with commenting on scenarios for each one of these comparatively speaking. Um,honing in on the exact number of lifeguards will happen later in on the design process.But we did recognize and want,as Danny mentioned,safeguarding and life-guarding to be a primary consideration with all of these options. So you'll see,in particular,that the bathhouse is designed very differently than the existing bathhouse when we get to it for supervision. One of the comments we received,negative comments,about City Park pool was a lot of parents didn't like how when they were with their very young children in the waiting pool area,they felt like they were very removed from what was happening in the larger pool,just because it's turned and the orientation of it and the distance. So not only life-guarding,but just general safety and the idea that,um,all guards would have a visual across the entire pool was a strong consideration in all these options. So this is going to populate slowly. And again,I won't read all these to you,but I just wanted you to see that these are-these are just was a very nice tool. Um,it's just loading here, and this first one will just populate all the different,some will be a checkmark, some will be an X and they'll be some data.We'll look at the end where they'll all be together. There they go. And then we're going to move to Option B and it'll just delay for a minute. Oops. Sorry about that. Option B was an interesting variation. Option B is unique in all the options,and that it has three separate bodies of water. This was interesting to explore because it presents some programming and operational considerations that some folks,um,folks were strong positives as we reviewed this and discussed this,and it was a nice design, also,not just with operations,but it was a nice design to also think about,perhaps,different water temperatures. Um,we did receive comments about lap swimmers liking cool water. And so this,uh,this is a way that you don't share water temperature with-with these separate pools because each pool would have its own filtration system.Um,there's a little bit of,uh,cost involved in that.As you might imagine,when you separate all the different pools and each one has its own systems,you have a little bit more cost to-to do that generally,and how we offset that was just to make the water areas a little bit smaller.Um,so you'll see in this-this option is close to the cost of Option A at-at$17.94 million. But this pool has an activity pool at the northernmost pool,the zero depth,which is always associated with the adjacency to the locker room. We always want the shallowest water to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 10 close to where the kids are coming right out of the bathhouse for safety. And then the pool gets deeper. This pool would be designed to be about four feet deep. And then we have two accessible pool stairs on either side. If you could see my cursor,a place structure,and some shade. This pool has that similar deep hopper that you saw before from Option A. It's just rotated. So it also has the same opportunity for one meter and three meter diving,also about 12.5-13 feet deep. And it has a similar 50 meter pool,six lanes in this option. Um,in this option,um,just to vary it up a little bit, we-we put a pool stair,we put a sloped entry ramp on this option. Any of the options could have the sloped entry ramp and/or pool stair or both.But we just drew some differences to have a little slight differentiation. Again,you'll see the same,uh, filter building to the south positioned a little bit differently. So the operational considerations, for separate pools,are interesting because you can close a pool.You could have a certain activity happening at a pool,while the rest of the pools are open to public. You could have a certain camp using a certain pool.You could have,um,you know,a team using the lap swimming and you could close down a pool for maintenance and have the other ones open. Some of the negatives,um,of separate pools are they can be a little bit more difficult for life-guarding at times. One of the things that,you know,guards just have to police are kids running across the deck between the different bodies of water. So they do have-they do have some cons.But like all- like anything,there are pros and cons,and the most interesting thing about this option is,again, achieving those different,um,non-overlapping uses in another way than Option A. Moe: On the topic of temperature regulation,I'm curious about the,you know,reduction in the quantity of water, and also,you know,if you're losing what five- five million gallons a year. Um, are these pools going to be warmer?And then what is built into these designs to temper the water? Caputo:Yes,that's a great question. So in the budgets that we're currently carrying for all the designs,uh, so we're just estimating the-the most expensive case in case that would be the ultimate direction. All the budgets include completely heating all the bodies of water and all the pools,um,that they would all have the ability to be heated. Um,that decision doesn't need-I mean,it could be made at the council level,but it doesn't need to be. Um,it is included in the budget because,um, again, it's better to include it than not include it and then later want to add it and it increases the cost. But you-you do have the ability,um,when you have,um,a heated pool to address one of the project goals about learn to swim. Perhaps,a little better than the existing pool. So temperature can be something that's,um,regarded very differently between your different user groups,right? Because young families and children they want warm water. You know,my kids were blue when they were little coming out of the pool,taking swimming lessons,you know,and so to,to-you know,warn water encourages young children to love the water. On the other hand,there's a cost to heat the water and lap swimmers,conversely,like cooler water. So when you-when you combine these bodies of water,you end up having to reach a compromise temperature between these various user groups. You can always also,of course,choose to only heat in the end of May and June and then not run the heaters the entire year afterwards. So you-you-you have flexibility.Let me just say that the temperature conversation is an ongoing conversation that we expect to have throughout the design process with whatever this-whatever entails these options. Moe: With-with heating,how far can the season extend? Caputo: The season-I mean, it-it would be- it's more of a lifeguard issue that we-yes,you're right. You could extend the heating. Um,you could extend-by heating the pool,you probably could operate farther into September. But most of our clients find that the limiting factor is not so much that they can't keep the water warn and comfortable as that they end up losing so many of their staff This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 11 going back to school. So that's,usually,dictates most municipal or-or park district outdoor pool operations is because they lose such a significant staff.But your question is,you know, theoretically correct,you could-you could leave the pool open longer,at you know,heated. Moe: Sure. Salih: I have a question to.you talked about the volume of water and how much we're going to save if we went to this design comparing with the old design. Can you just tell me I don't know. I don't find it nowhere. How big is,ah,like how the difference in size between the current pool and the old pool? Size wise like volume of the waters. Caputo: Oh. So actually,that's an excellent question. So the-this design here,as you could see,and-and I'll move the cursor.You could see it,this one is about 458,000 gallons of water. You'll see when we go to Option D,the last one,which is actually very similar to the existing,and it'll show you that the gallons of water,I believe,we'll get to it.I think it is 750,000.No it's 750,000 gallons. Salih: Oh,750. Caputo: So it's- it's very significant. Um,I can't remember if it's 775 or 750. Salih: 771. Caputo:But we'll get to it in a-in just a couple of minutes.But that's an excellent question because the- the water is tremendous.Yes. Teague: You're going to have to come to the mic. Caputo: I got it right there. I didn't realize it. Yeah-yeah. I'm sorry. Thanks.I remembered it from Options. Salih: Yeah,751. Morelli: I have a question. Yeah. Okay. How do you come up with the bather load?And how is that distributed across? Caputo: So the bather-the bather load is interesting. It's based on the number of people that the code-the Iowa swimming pool code says can be in shallow water or deep water at the same time,the maximum allowed,and then also on the pool deck.And so you have different factors that you use to calculate that value.And you add those two together. Um,there's also exceptions that you deduct. So for example,if you have a,uh,pool that's,you know,2,000 square feet and-and you have diving boards,you take out the plunge area because it's assumed that you can't have faders while you have plunge areas. So for each one of these pools in our drawing software,we can calculate the area of the water,and then we can use the code dictated dividers. You know,we know whether the water-water is divided by five feet. So anything five feet and less is considered shallow water and deeper than five feet is considered deep water.And so again,the code has different values that you use. There's more people that you can fit in shallow water than in-than in deep water,and there's a different,um,a different factor for the pool deck. And that's why all of these have a little bit different number because the geometry of the design is a little different. And so,this one is 881. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 12 Salih: Yeah,again,when-when you're saying the 750 and 458.When-when you say the 458 right now, do you consider only one bowl or all three of them? Caputo:All three. Salih: All three? Caputo:All three together. The total design. Hachtman: When it relates to bather load,can we have some context of what's kind of the maximum bather load we have right now? Caputo:Yeah. You're posted.What is the posted by load right. Seydell Johnson: So our bather load right now is a little over 1,000.A really busy day right now gets 500 people throughout the entire day.We had that twice last summer. Usually it's more like two or 300 people per day throughout the entire day at the pool right high. So you're well-you're well above any current bather load that we would ever-that we've seen probably in the last decade. Caputo: One-one thing that I just thought of to help answer the question about the bather load,that if I just might point out for a minute,something to think about the bather load isn't so much as,like how many people would normally be there.Regarded as almost the same thing as like in a building. Like this room according to the fire department,according to the international building code,it would have a maximum occupancy.Like our meeting tonight is not near that maximum occupancy. It would be an enormous number. Oops,you know,the number in this room might be like,there.It says 95,you know,95 people,right?You probably rarely have 95 people,but you could. So that's kind of like how the bather load is regarded. Are you laughing because I haven't been to enough Iowa City meetings?Maybe I should come back more,right? Dunn: Just go to add numbers,man. Moe: Is-is the bather load directly proportional then to the bath house?And is that baked into all of these, or did you use the same bather house for all the designers. Caputo: So we designed the bath house and all of these options to be about a 1,000-to accommodate about 1,000 bathers.And what's-what's interesting about the code is that the code doesn't have the same delineations. So what I mean by that is the bather load controls the minimum number of fixtures. So,you need to have so many labs.You need to have so many showers.You need to have so many toilets based on the bather load. But the increments are large,like,huge increments. Like 500 - 1,000 bathers in the code requires this many fixtures. So it doesn't matter if you're 501 or you're 999. For example,your bather house is the same size. So that's why you'll see in all the designs,the bather house is unchanged because it's basically saying we're meeting that minimum fixture range that's in the code up to 1,000 bathers or approximately 1,000 bathers. Alter: I'm sorry to hop. Caputo:It's okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 13 Alter:But I'm wondering,and I'm hoping that this is the appropriate time and if you're like,I get to it or whatever.But since you're on Option B,one of the things I'm curious about,and I don't-it wouldn't be bather load.But I think maybe I don't know.Not cubic feet,either but area of the zero depth and the bench,right? Saying that's Option A,as well as the zero depth and so like the hangout pool,essentially,right?Between A and B,are they roughly the same size?And how do we measure that?Is that by cubic feet?Is that by area. Caputo:It can be both ways because the size of the pool is,yes,you can consider the square footage,but it also depth is a factor. So this pool, Option A again,because the designs are all just a little bit different. This pool slopes from zero to about three foot six deep at this rope,and this is a little bit longer zero depth just because of the nature of its fan shape.Whereas and again,I'm sorry to go back because now you're going to have to watch it load. And I'm sorry for making you do that again. Alter:No-no-no-no. Caputo:But Option B is a little bit narrower zero depth.Now,we have all these dimensions available to us because we designed all these. I just don't have the exact dimensions of the pool all memorized. I think this zero depth was about 40-50 feet wide, if-if I remember right.But I don't quote me on that. I would have to get back to you, so I would have to open up my CAD software and query. Alter: Yeah. Caputo: So I could get you all the lengths of the zero depth information after this meeting. Alter: Okay. Caputo:Yeah. And then it'll populate option B. We'll skip through that. Unfortunately,I can't-I have to let it populate before I can go to the next one. Okay. option C-option C was created-one of the things that was-that is neat about the existing facility is the T shape.A lot of people commented just how much they thought the simplicity of the existing geometry was a wonderful thing just for operations and the-the concept of having shallower water that sloped gently down to about three or four feet deep and then to the deep end. So basically,we discussed about the gallons and we know that that T shape is a lot of water volume. So what we did here because we had people ask us,well,why-why can't you just put two zero depth entry edges on the current city park pool instead of having the,you know,one foot nine or one foot six depth,and we could,but that would be very expensive because as you might imagine,it's expensive to create zero depth. So all we did with this option was we took a T and we made it an L. So basically,we just put the shallow-the shallow water on one side. So it's very similar to the existing design that way,instead of a T,it's an L shape. Um,there's-there's a little bit of a cost efficiency here because again,you're sharing filtration systems with the activity pool and the lap pool.You see again,here the six lanes, 50 meters,that would also be dividable. This option includes a play feature and some geysers um,in the pool for kids,and it also has that separate deep upper that's rotated on the opposite side of the pool. So there are some interesting things that happen here with-with um,with-option C.Again, different-different than option A,different than option B. Alter: Can I ask-I'm sorry.And this might be a question for Julie.Um with existing-with the existing pool and the diving well,are there any clubs or any,um,you know,competitive divers that use it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 14 because the notion of a 12.5-13 feet depth,unless that's more on the recreational side where people are not trying to.It just seems like that's very shallow. Seydell Johnson: Yeah.We don't have competition. Alter: Okay. Seydell Johnson: And what is the depth of our current pool?It's 14 right now. Alter:Right. I was just gonna say,I mean,I just yeah. So that's it,that's all I wanted. I don't want to prolong it. Caputo:And at this point of the project because we're so preliminary,a foot in depth doesn't mess- so if the deep pool is 14 feet and it's 13 feet,it's- it's relatively speaking the contingencies factor. So it doesn't- it's-the exact depth can be decided. Alter: Yes,it is sort of at 12, 12.5. First,anyway. Caputo:If- if this pool is desired to be 14 feet deep,it can be. Yeah.And then we'll watch that populate again.We didn't know that that would queue up so long like that. Okay,option D.Option D,um, because we did receive feedback from many in the community,not everyone,but many in the community,particularly the lap swimming groups that said,Hey,we really like the existing pool. Can't you just replicate the existing pool?And as we considered the design options,we thought, well, surely,we could create an option, and then that option can be sent to the community at large,and we can see if that sentiment is shared among the majority of the community. So it seemed reasonable um, for us as an approach to basically show essentially replicating the existing pool.Now,we would have to make some minor changes to it to comply with current codes,such as adding a pool stair but- and other minor manipulations.But basically,we could duplicate the footprint,generally duplicate the depths, and have a pool,but without the desired zero depth entry or expanded children's area. So this is essentially replacing the pool um,in kind with a very,very similar structure. And again,the idea here was that because we did receive some feedback in our- in our um,visits with the public,we thought,well,that's great. Why don't we just have this option and send this out to the community at large and see how the community at large reacts to the option. So you could see that this is the most expensive option.And that's, again,just due to the fact that the pool is quite large. So this option is almost$20 million.And you could see again, that bather load just around 1000. Moe: Two.Pool questions?Before we get to the bathhouse.Um,number 1,I don't know with pools if um,adaptability and by that I mean additions like adding additional lanes in the future,is that all feasible?Um,I know that there's people who just want more lanes. We have people who want more lanes and it's obviously just a matter of cost and- is that an option or is that pretty poor for- Caputo:I don't want to say like it's-you might fmd somewhere in the country where a pool was added to, but I would say it would be extremely rare.And there'd be two reasons for that. Um,the- it's not it wouldn't be difficult to demolish a wall of the pool and extend it.But the difference is you've created an enormous um, seam that then you would have to engineer to be completely watertight, which might be over time,difficult to maintain the water tightness of that enormous joint all the way through the pool. And then the other problem is that all of the pool piping,the return piping and the supply piping,that would all need to be completely re-engineered based on how you're This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 15 expanding the pool based on the Iowa code. So you can't just like extend the pool and extend the gutter without completely redoing all of your piping and filtration equipment because you've changed the gallons of water and the flows through all of that piping. Moe: Okay,so bad idea.Do it right the first time. Caputo: There's no bad idea. Moe: There's no bad idea.I'll own that. I-I am curious about if any of these options are ones that have more or less durability or longevity in the design or they're all equal in. Caputo:No,they-they all would have equal longevity. Moe: Which is what? Maputo: They would all have- Moe: What is the-what is the project?Yeah. Caputo:Well,that-it depends a lot on operations and maintenance,right?Again,it ultimately depends on what materials the pools are made out of,like any other decision with specifying construction products,there's a good better best,right?Just like buying a car. Um,but I would say that we typically would design or recommend that you allow us to specify materials for you to achieve a minimum of 35 year life expectancy without a renovation.Um and-and you should be able to get at least 50 years out of the pool,but you will need-you will need renovation. Moe: Yeah. Caputo:Yeah. Salih: I guess to-just to-Josh Moe's question about adding lanes later.Why not now adding to lane and make it like bigger,is this like cost-wise or area- Caputo:We're gonna talk about that exact thing later in the presentation. That is just excellent comment. Because they-all of these options were just ones that we came up with to try to balance these factors to not get over that$20 million marker too close to it. So you'll see later at the end of our presentation,um,Frank is going to talk about some additional considerations of feedback that we heard. And without jumping too far ahead,any of these options can be revised from 6-8 lanes for additional cost.And in fact,there's also ways that we can accommodate short course 25 yards, what Frank will talk about as well. So these are some considerations for tweaking the option,just a little bit,should you choose to do that. Alter: Couldn't like get six,get the seventh free? Caputo: That's right. That's right.We'll have to-we're the architect. You have to talk to the contractors about that. Lastly,I wanted to just briefly talk about the bathhouse plan and the bathhouse design. Um,Julie and Danny mentioned a little bit about this. And again,I won't spend too much time on this,but just again,emphasize,uh,with you that that existing bathhouse has-has outlived it's life expectancy just like the pool.And we want again,to get safety and the public separated This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 16 from all the filtration systems and get those systems down closer to the deeper water on the south end of the building. So the new building would only be one story.Um,we would redesign the way that you move through the bathhouse. So instead of being forced to go through either the men's or women's locker room in this design,you would come through,this is north. You could enter the bathhouse,um, in either door, and you would be able to move through the bathhouse, locker rooms directly onto the pool deck. That's that yellow area,the lobby space.We'd have an admissions area out front. The current design,there's a lack of security because staff is just literally out in the lobby with the corridor space, and they don't have a lot of,um,protection from things and money and information that they might be handling from pa- from patrons. So this separates,um,the admissions and puts staff in a separate area that's right in front and center, and they can s- see and admit and control who's coming in to the facility. Um,this light pink area are the single user washrooms. There would be two of them.Each one would have a- a shower and a toilet and a lab, and then a nice big bench,um,and be fully accessible. And then we would have a- a-a mom's nursing room here,um,that could also just double as a- as a dry changing room. And again,that could be used for anyone.Moving through the,um,back of the building there,we would redesign the entire guard area and pool manager area. Um,one of the negatives we saw, we-we designed a lot of pools in our office,so that's our- our specialty. Uh,and we see that when we're in the bathhouse of City Park Pool,we do not have a good visual looking out,uh,of the back,um,area. There isn't good supervision to see all the activity that's happening. So that's why the pool manager is designed like a bay window, like a box bay,and it sticks out so that it would have all windows. And so not only do you have your guards where they should be on the deck-on the decks,uh, supervising,but you also have the ability for having your guards and staff in the building, and they are constantly seeing their own guards in the public and where there might be an incident.Um,we also want to improve the guard area. The facilities for your existing staff at City Park Pool,again,was designed at a time that is now passed. So we want to improve that. There's a dedicated first aid room,which is also something that's missing,um,a place for someone might-who might be overheated to cool down.Uh, somebody that might,you know, have an injury, a place for them to be and be up away and off the pool deck and feel safe and separated,um,until they could get some help.Uh,then we have a- a guard washroom and some- some um,storage areas and lockers. Each one of the,um,gendered locker rooms are similar.Ah, privacy again,Danny talked about this a huge thing about,um,design nowadays.Um,there's no such thing as open showers anymore,open dressing areas. So the bathhouse,you would move through this. Um,we'd have a-a series of our,um,toilets here as you walk in from-from the- from the lobby. Then we would have a- a dressing area that would have an open bench,but then there would be individual dressing compartments with seats inside and then showers that all have individual dressing compartments with-with curtains. And again,you can move through the pool deck And then, lastly,the community room. Community room is a seasonal room.Um, so this room can be used at any time. So the idea was that it would have doors.You could use this for birthday party rentals, for example,you might have a pool party.Um,in the off season,t he pool is closed. These stores could be locked,but these stores could be open,and this could be used by camps that are using the park,and that might be a nice feature. Uh,this room also would just be a nice thing to have just in general as another program room for the parks department at large. Because this is a nice sized meeting room that they could have and program meetings here during the day when other facilities elsewhere might be used or unavailable. Uh,so there's- and then also any programming uses or classes could be held here as well,lifeguard training, for example. Lastly,we have some exterior washrooms here that would be used by the,um,uh,people using the park. So these actually-these pink washrooms are outside of the enclosure outside of the fence. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 17 Moe: Is the presumption that this building is a year-round building then? Caputo: The building itself could be year-round. We've designed this. [NOISE] Again,we'll get into more. This is very preliminary. Um,we would recommend tempering the bath house,which is how we recommend and actually do design most of them,which is we mean not allowing the buildings to freeze and having at least minimal heat so you can keep everything at 55 degrees. It makes the buildings last longer.Um,because you are already providing those minimal systems for heating,there's barely any additional cost to make it so you can heat them to 70 degrees,um, if you should you choose to use them. Um,but again,we can have more conversations about that and what the intent is and how you might use all the parts of the building. Today,oftentimes staff spaces have their-have separate cooling,not the entire bathhouse,but that is also,uh,considered now. Um,but specifically,at a minimum,we talked about this end of the building being all seasons. Recker: Andrew, a question with storage. There's not much storage in there. Caputo:No. Tha-that's a good question. Yeah. Recker: And especially the community room,I think will provide good flexibility for programming. Caputo:Uh-huh. Recker: Uh,it looks like it's outfitted kind of similar to say what Mercer has right now. Ah,I'm just wondering if maybe it's possible to grab some of the space within the janitorial custodial space- Caputo:Absolutely. Recker: - and repurpose that. Otherwise,I think the community room may end up serving as storage or the guard room. Caputo:Uh-huh. That's a good comment and I appreciate that. And we certainly can add more storage and improve the design.We-we,um,are showing you a preliminary plan here. So realize that everything will go through a thorough analysis of the pros and cons,and this is just very preliminary. So we'll make a mental note of that. Um,but your comment of storage is excellent. So we do want to provide storage generally for things that are on the pool deck seasonally. And it's not we don't show a big storage room with this because when we design separate filte- filter buildings,we usually put that big storage room with the filter building. Um, and so that will have all the pool equipment,and then it'll have a storage room where you can put the rope reels and the lounge chairs and- and things that you want to get off the pool deck Um, so,um,I thought-I mean,they could be in the bathhouse.If you-if you desired,we could have a separate storage room like that.But usually we-we put it- Recker: I was thinking more for programming,guard equipment,maybe anything- Caputo: Sure. Recker: -you have for swim lesson. Caputo:I think that's a good comment. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 18 Recker: I also had two other questions,but they were more on the pool design,if this is the time. Sure. Caputo:Yeah, absolutely. If I need to. Seydell Johnson:We still have a lot of information to get through on the survey and public input on these four. So I might say we should hold questions now so we get through the information. Caputo: Okay. That would be fine. Yeah.And with that,we're going to move to Danny to just talk about Open House Number 2. And then Laura,we'll talk about survey. Wilson:Yeah. Thanks.You know what?This one is real quick It's one slide. So what you just went through with every one of the four designs,the corresponding list of items that was placed on easels in a room, and we invited the public to come and talk with us about it. So the second open house was much simpler in its concept because we wanted to reserve the time to talk to the public.We've got some of the different points that folks had.But most of the participants that came had a lot of questions about lap swim. So,um,we've tried to do our best to answer those questions for them and understand the pros and cons of the designs. And with that,the open house happened at the very same time that the community was being asked through that,um, community wide survey. And so,Laura is going to share more about those survey and the results there. Payne: Thank you so much,Danny. Good evening. Thank you so much for having us this evening. Again,I'm Dr.Laura Payne,and I'm a professor and extension specialist at the University of Illinois or Band of Champaign. And we're really grateful to be a part of this project. Something that is evident to me,uh, since beginning to work with you all on this project is that City Park Pool is such a special place that is beloved by the community.I grew up,uh,in a community, going to the pool,swimming,lifeguarding,the whole shebang. Uh,and so I-I understand what a special place that is. Our role was to coordinate the community survey that occurred and,ah,what we did was- let me enter. Oh,thanks.Apparently,I'm challenged with technology this evening. Seydell Johnson: Click here. Payne: Okay. Thank you,Julie. Okay.All right. We're going with-we're going to go with Enter this evening. In any event. So we conducted a community wide survey,uh,that began in February and concluded about March 8th,and I'll talk a little bit about the questions that were asked,um the survey methodology,and what the results were. As you know,there are a little over 30,000 households in the city of Iowa City,and what we did was we drew a sub sample from those 30,000 households of 6,000 households. Uh,and they were asked to complete an online survey, as I said,in late February to early March. This was a stratified random sample. And the questions on the survey assessed interest in the four pool designs,programs and activities, and we also assessed demographics. Salih: When you say 6,000,is this the survey that you send out or this is the people who respond to the survey? Payne: Good question. Ah,6,000 households were randomly selected to receive a survey invitation through this postcard in the mail. So we mailed a postcard with a QR code and a link to the online survey. There was an unforeseen issue with the English QR code that was inoperable,but the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 19 other four QR codes worked. A second mailing was sent five days later with a fixed and usable QR code. Uh,the survey was still available during this time to all the residents via the public access QR code while the second mailing was in production,and there was no measurable effect, ah,of that unforeseeable issue,uh,on the response rate,uh,to the survey. And you can see here an example of the postcard. Some of you may have actually made it into the stratified random sample and received a postcard in the mail or two postcards in the mail. The survey was available in English, Spanish,French,Mandarin and Arabic,and we had some responses,uh,across those various,uh,various language surveys. The sample was stratified by race and ethnicity,so we wanted to make sure that people from diverse racial and ethnic groups were over sampled. Stratification of the-of the sample on the front end involved in ensuring that the random sample of 6,000 households closely-as closely as possible,reflected the race and ethnicity of Iowa City households.Because there is research,lots of it actually that indicates that people from different diverse groups like Latino and Hispanic and African American/Black households are significantly less likely to complete mailed surveys. So it's important to oversample those groups to ensure that the sample-that the respondent sample actually closely reflects the population of Iowa City. There were a number of survey questions,but we stayed focused on the primary purpose for the survey,which was to assess interest in the four different pool designs. So first,respondents were asked to submit or to select to submit to write out their zip code and their address to ensure they actually belonged in the stratified random sample. So that was like a way for us to cross check We asked about pool use frequency,the days of the week People,ah,people in their household are most likely to use City Park Pool,activities that people-people themselves and people in their household engage in at City Park Pool,and we also included several demographic questions relevant to the purpose of this community input survey. You can see an example from the-the survey right here.We asked for people to weigh in on their preferences for pool designs,A,B,C, &D. And the question as worded was,how interested are you and members of your household and seeing, for example,option B as the final design for the replacement of City Park Pool. These were measured on a seven point scale where one equal uninterested to seven equal very interested. We also asked people not only to tell us how interested they are in the four different pool designs,but also asked them to rank in order of,you know,their preference,top-the top one being one to the fourth one being the bottom. Uh, for all four pool designs,it's important to note that for every respondent,they were given the order of the pool designs A through B in random order. So every single respondent received a random order,and that's to remove bias,um,from- from the whole process.In terns of response rates,ah,so out of the 6,000 addresses from that stratified random sample, 1,400 of those households had either moved or had a-or we had some returned mail. This is not uncommon for a college town like Iowa City where you have,you know,people moving in and out of the community at certain times. The response rate was 9.8%, so almost 10%response rate,which is excellent. And the total number of valid surveys from that stratified random sample is 449. This ensures that we have a 95%confidence level that we can confidently say there is+/-5%or less error in the responses,which is very important for the validity of the findings.Let's talk a little bit about,uh,what the sample looked like in terms of demographics. The mean age of the sample is 38.2 for the stratified random statistically valid survey. The standard deviation is 15. So what that means,in case you're interested is that,uh,is that on average,people were about-within about,you know-you know,young adults between- sorry,I'm not explaining this well. They were 15 points above or below 38 years old. And that's how closely the age of the sample clusters around the mean.I should have made you a ran a normal curve to demonstrate this,uh,to-to show this visually.Uh,the gender,most of the respondents,uh,reported to identify it being female. This is very common for household surveys. I've done probably 30 plus of these in my career,and more often than not,you have 67%-85% who are the female head of household who are filling out the survey on behalf of the household. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 20 We had the age spread was pretty broad with you can-you can see that,uh,you had a pretty good number of folks who are between the ages of 19 and 29, about a third,30-39,about 20%,middle aged, about 26%,and then the 60 plus age group was about 12%. In terms of race and ethnicity, the sample fairly closely reflected the race and ethnicity of the city of Iowa City. So what you have on the left is based on the American Community Survey. The most recent data from the American community survey,which shows the racial breakdown of the community and on the right is our sample. So for example,our sample was a little lower,75,1.5%white,whereas Iowa City is 74, about 75%white. Our sample is 11%Asian,whereas Iowa City is 7.7%. Our sample is 1.2%African American/Black,whereas Iowa City's is 8.1. So that was the only one that we really kind of weren't close in there.And our sample was 5.2%Hispanic/Latino and Iowa City's is 8%.I should note that 8.6%of the respondents preferred not to answer this question. So we won't know.We don't-we can't know,you know,if-if some of these categories were bumped up a little bit higher because they preferred not to answer. Okay. All right.Looking at the spatial spread of responses,you can see how-where respondents -respondents came from within the city of Iowa City,and it's pretty widely distributed across the different areas in town,which is also another indicator of how closely the sample actually represents the community of Iowa City. So that's a good thing that is spread out like that.In terns of one more demographic,and then we'll get to the good stuff,which is I know you're all waiting for. In terms of children under the age of 18 in the household,more than two thirds of respondents indicated they do not have a child under the age of 18 living in the household.And so this is fairly consistent with the actual age mean age,if you look back at the mean age being 38,you've got younger adults. And you know,I wouldn't say older adults because older adulthood keeps getting pushed back I study aging. So I know about these things.But you have a lot of people who have older kids,kids out of the household in college or you know,just out of the household for part of the year. Then we asked about how often,how often people themselves and members of their household actually visit City Park Pool. Almost half of the sample indicated they visit the pool one to three times per month, followed by 19%who indicated they are non users of City Park Pool. 18%visit once per week, 10%,2-3 times per week and 8%four plus times per week. In terms of activities,the number one activity reported by respondents that they like to do or that they are doing is generally open swim. So that's the most common activity followed by sunbathing,lap swimming,and then fitness Using the waiting pool,other activities and water walking were also reported,but less frequently. All right. Here we go. drummer,please.Just kidding. The interest levels of each pool design. Most respondents indicated they were interested in seeing pool design A being developed. There was also strong interest in pool design B, as you can see from the chart. Only 23%of residents are respondents were interested in seeing pool design D,you know,moving forward with that one. The data was also consistent when we asked about the rankings,pool ranking.Remember, they were asked to rank their pool design preferences A through D,you know,one being their top preference,four being their bottom preference.Nearly 50%of respondents ranked pool design A as their first choice. The second most popular was pool design B with 22%ranking at first,and pool design D was consistently ranked last.At the end of the survey,there was an open ended question,which invited respondents to share any other additional views on City Park pool that they have.And the open- open ended feedback is really aligned nicely with the first round of community input that Danny talked about,where people were really engaged in activities and brainstorming and voting for different options. They also voiced their interest in particular infrastructure needs and preferences,such as a heated pool,more shade,play features,and 25 and 50 meter lap lanes.Family friendly play areas were mentioned as well that included play features, child friendly spaces, and as one respondent said,a more inviting pool for all ages and activities. Over and over again,in this sample,people noted how much City Park pool means to them and their families.I think that's important to note. And there's -there's a strong interest and desire for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 21 separate lap lanes that have lane lines. That was -that came out loud and clear as well.Zero depth entry is very important,and many respondents commented on their preference for pool Design A. So as you can see,this is all kind of lining up and pretty consistent with what you've heard already. So in-In conclusion,overall,respondents indicated the highest interest in pool design A. There is moderate interest in pool design B. There's much less interest in pool design C and D with respondents being the least interested in pool design D. I should say I'll spend a minute or two on the results from the publicly accessible,the public survey,the open survey,as it's been referred to,that anyone else in the community was invited to participate in and submit their input. And similar results were received from the open survey, and we had 1,133 valid responses to that survey. So just a little bit on that open survey and what the findings were. And you'll see how they mirror the stratified random sample,which is another form of triangulation and ensuring the statistical validity of the -of the survey fmdings. So as I mentioned,the open survey had 1,133 valid responses,and we had some responses from people who preferred to take the survey in Spanish,French mandarin and Arabic The age and gender of the open sample. So the age of this open sample is a little bit higher.You remember it was 38.2,I think,for the stratified random sample and a little bit higher.But the standard deviation is about the same. The gender lines up pretty -pretty well there,pretty consistent as well along the same lines. Salih: How did you -how did you conduct the survey?The first one you mail it.What about this? Payne: Yeah. This one was available. This one available-this one was made available through social media,through announcements. What else,Julie? Seydell Johnson: Yeah. So this one -this one was available online for anyone who wanted to fill it out. We did all kinds of press. We did outreach to our partner groups.Everyone we could think of to let people know that the survey was available. So it was just open to anyone to go on and-and do that. Payne: And I want to say that the staff did a marvelous job with their community outreach because for such a high -this is a very high response rate. I've done several of these pool surveys and different communities around the Midwest,and this is a really high response rate,um, compared to some of the other communities that I've worked in. So they did a great job of reaching a variety of different residents in different neighborhoods and areas and things like that. Good question. Thanks. Uh,in terms of race and ethnicity,it mirrored the stratified random sample pretty closely as well. And then if you look at interest levels for each Pool Design,they're almost exactly the same,right?Uh,most respondents indicated they were interested in Pool Design A with a little bit more folks in the open survey interested in Pool Design B,and only 35%of respondents were interested in seeing Pool Design D B developed. So these are they mirror each other very nicely. Okay. So in overall conclusion,both samples,the open survey and the stratified random sample. Overall,respondents indicated the highest interest in Pool Design A. There is a moderate interest in Pool Design,B,excuse me,and there is much less interest in Pool Design C and D with Respondents being the least interested in Pool Design D. And now I'll invite Frank up and he'll talk about recommendations. Thank you very much. Parisi: Thank you. So good evening, everyone.My name is Frank Parisi. I'm the managing principal at Williams Architects,and I have the privilege of closing us out. Hopefully,we'll make it enough time to actually get to your council meeting overall.Um,I think there's enough information that was presented,uh,from Laura survey as well as some of the conceptual designs at Andrew that, um,our recommendation. One of the recommendations is actually to go to Option A as the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 22 recommended option. Um,that's basically based on it achieves all the project goals that we have established for the project. It meets all of the,uh,community need and criteria that was established in the survey and actually in the public engagement as well. So close to that,uh, particular option. These are actually is the same design that Andrew had presented to you overall with regards to the usage,we believe it actually,uh,accomplishes all of those uh all those goals that were a set at the initial that Julie had established with us and meets all of the patrons needs as well. One thing we also wanted to share again,uh,was,uh,consideration for Option B,uh,from the same criteria and operationally. This is,uh, as sustainable operationally as Option A,gives the best flexibility operationally to the city as well with regards to that. Uh,so they all meet the patrons needs as well with regards to that. Um,doctor Payne actually had referred to questions that we had gotten during the open survey portion,and I think one of the council members had asked that about the two lanes. And what we wanted to do is actually show the opportunities here for additional considerations and show them how they would impact the design overall. One thing that actually was brought up,you know, can we revise six lanes to eight lanes on the 50 meter. Either one of those options can do that.It would add approximately$850,000 to the,uh, cost that we presented previously to the project,um,as well to adding obviously increase in operations because of the increased volume to approximately about 75,000 gallons? One thing we want to point out because we were so sensitive to the,uh,contextual park setting as well. If you did move a little bit to the east,we would actually have to move the existing fence line out to accommodate those additional lanes. So there would be a little bit of an impact on the east side to the trees and the playground that is there with regards to that. Operationally,we also like to take this into consideration.Because of the larger,uh,volume of pool in that particular aspect,operation,you do have to add more lifeguards to actually guard that as well. The other I think that came up initially,uh,with regards to the discussion which Danny had mentioned,was the opportunity to do 25 yard lane swim,uh,with regards to that. And there's a couple of different options that we can actually do that with. Uh,one thing that we can do,I think Commissioner Alter had mentioned this,um,we can actually provide a rope at the halfway if the 50 meter.And of course, um,the projected operational model that I think Julie and her staff is considering is to actually have and Andrew may not have mentioned this is to actually have dedicated lanes open all day, which would increase the lane usage for the 50 meter. And then by operationally moving the buoys around,you can actually get 50 meter lanes as well to actually address the short course lane that is needed,right? So that would be within either one of those options by just moving the buoys around. Obviously,there's no additional costs for that other than operations. The other way to do that is actually the deep hopper that we've shown in both of those options.You can actually increase the length of that deep hopper to 25 yards and that you can actually separate the long course swim,open water, and then operationally,you can switch between diving activity or yeah, diving activity to 25 yards. You can actually have a dedicated four lane 25 yard if you were to extend the deeper a little bit longer with regards to that. Operationally that would actually add dollars to the project,about$650,000 to that.And most of the water that is actually being increased in here is pretty much,uh,addressing the 25 yard option into deep popper,which would increase,um,about 2,400 gallons to that operations,and as well as if you noted,most of our deep poppers were actually on the south side of the site.And if you would make that a little bit longer, it actually starts impacting the south fence line to actually make that bigger to allow the safe- safety around there with regards to that. So what we wanted to do,uh,initially is kind of be stewards of your budget,the initial RFP did have a budget.And of course,as we're progressing through the community's needs,we did identify the community needs in each one of the designs with the preferred option as option A.But if there was a desired cost savings,there are things that we can actually do,and that would be at the council's discretion here. We can exchange the current channel that is an option A with just a play feature in the zero depth,which is actually in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 23 Option B.Um,again, further consideration,if you wanted to reduce cost,uh,we can reduce,um, lanes as well.And the last option we actually had was,you know,we can actually revise the layout,of course. Um,we're presenting options and our recommendations as professionals to the Council,based on our wealth of experience doing aquatics facilities overall.Next steps. Oops,I think I went straight to it. Thank you. Um,Julie had initiated this initially, so hopefully we've given you enough information to ask you to deliberate at the next council meeting.I believe it's two weeks from today with regards to that. So if we do have approval at the city council meeting, we wanted to give an overall schedule where we would start design. In June of this year and conclude in January,um,always targeting to do bidding and contracts,um,in the winter months, um,where in February and March,we'd actually receive bids and come back with a recommendation to the board for those solicited bids,and we would actually have a construction duration of about a year in which the pool would actually be closed the season of 2025,which would be next season,uh,with a grand opening in May of 2026.Uh,I do want to thank everyone for your patience this evening and listening to our presentations. Thank you so much for engaging our team. We believe,uh,we've had fan along the way,but hopefully we'll give you enough information to actually make an informed decision. Thank you so much. Teague: Thank you. I just want to we have about 8 minutes left before we're going to take a break. So we'll end on this topic for the work session and continue. So if anyone has any questions,now would be the time to ask Alter: I have one quick question. Um,sorry,I just cut in. Go ahead before. Hayes:Um,I just want to make a comment as you move through the details of the children's play area.I hope you can pay special attention to the noise ambience,that is uh affected by various play features or sprayers or stuff like that. I think one of the nicest parts of City Park pool is that there is no sprayer features that generate a lot of,like,roaring noise, and I can converse with my friends on the pool deck. If you go to the Coralville pool,uh,these commissioners and I could not even have a conversation sitting this close to each other without shouting. And so I just love that City Park,you just hear children playing and you hear birds,and you don't hear,like,loud, splashy noises from the water features. So I don't think we're down to that level of detail yet,but I hope you can keep that in mind. Alter: And I did have one question relative to the,um,potential considerations for 25 yard lane consideration. Um,with the deep popper,you mentioned that if it were to be enlarged,that would impact the south fence line and the trees.Approximately how much do you have an estimate of what that would probably be? Parisi: Double in length. Alter: Double the length? Caputo:Does not impact. Alter: It does not.Yeah. Parisi: You're not going to go back all the way to the front. I'm sorry. Caputo:We-we remember in the Option A,how it's 45 degrees. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 24 Alter: So you could actually just explain it without-. Caputo:We studied it and you can if you just rotate at 90 degrees a little bit more move the main pool up, we can fit it a little more can fit it without removing trees to the side. Okay. Parisi: Thank you,Andrew. Alter:But you could get it so that you could enlarge the V hopper for. Okay. Caputo:For- for trying to keep that footprint. Salih: You mean it's doable but it's going to be cost effective. Caputo:Correct. Cost is affected. Yes. It still increases the cost. Salih:that is doable. Hayes: Can I ask a question about putting 25 meter lanes in the deep water?Does that meet the needs of people who want the 25 meter lane? Caputo:Um,it can be designed as all deep or it can be designed as would be if it was just a typical 25 yard pool,which means it would start at three foot six and slope down to 12 foot six or 13 or 14 feet. So that could be a fixture decision.Um,so you could have the-the-you could have the whole pool be at the same deep water or you could have it be a traditional lap pool,which starts shallow and slopes deep. Hayes:Yeah.I'm sure Julie knows more about this,but it sounded like some of the interest in the 25 meter lane was from people who are not strong swimmers and maybe then wouldn't want to be in deep water. Seydell Johnson:But remember that the entire area of the 50 meter pool is the standable water. Hayes:Yeah. Seydell Johnson: So swimmers,that would be where they would be. And then the other thing about if they're in the diving well,the lap lanes would be available as they are now during the mornings in the noontime swim,the 25 meter ones if they're in the diving well,and then we'd be diving during open swim. So just that clarification. Recker: I have two quick questions.Uh, first off,with the input and the design,is the intent of the shade to provide shade for the lifeguards or for the patrons? Parisi: For the bathers,for the bathers. For the patrons. Recker: Okay. I just-the way it was designed, some of them looked like they were on comers where it may have been intended for lifeguards.Do you hear that a lot with staff? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 25 Parisi:No,I think with the lifeguards,you can see the image that we have out there,there'd be lifeguards stands. Recker: Okay. Parisi: That actually cover the surface area, and then they would have their own shed. Recker: Great. Other question I had is with the toy features,if you're on the current channel or the play structures. Is there some sort of risk coefficient or anything being presented along those lines to kind of speak to one life guarding,but also what other cities or municipalities have experienced when they have that feature versus when they don't in terms of number of instances that may happen accidents. Parisi: I don't think I have- Caputo:We'd have to-we would have to pull all of our clients that have those features. Seydell Johnson:We haven't gotten to that level of detail in either one of them yet.No. Recker: I think that's worth looking into.If we're trying to determine what the fixe features are of it to look at those angles. Parisi: If you recall,Danny had presented this so the interest from the public to actually hit an age- Teague: Can you go to the mic. Parisi: I'm sorry. I apologize. So the play feature that we talked about from the play was actually not to treat it as a water park,but to actually handle the age group that would go 3-8 years old. So that would actually guide the design of that particular feature. Recker: Yeah,and I think that's great. I like the options a lot. I think for what we choose,it needs to be considered both from the staffing standpoint and the potential of incidents to come. Parisi: Agree.. Recker:Which one we would go with. Appreciate it. Morelli: I had an observation that in the-the existing pool,the open play area,open swim area is quite a bit larger than the lap swimming and diving well,and it's sort of inversed in this design A and actually all the designs,at least as it appears in these graphics.But the preference from the community was that the open swim was the top need. So I just wondered if you could comment a little bit about how you balance the space allocation. Seydell Johnson: That's kind of been a common question we've gotten. So a couple of things to remember that with the lap lanes being shown,they're all shallow in this case. So you would have ability for open swim to go the entire length of the 50 meter. So that gains you some space with the current pool. You know,we go into the deep water. A lot of it is the diving boards at the end. So the idea would be there would be 2-3 designated lap lanes,but the rest of that would be available for open swim anytime we're in there for open swim. So I let them comment more about the spaces on This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 26 that,but that's an operating question that we've got asked-operating question we've got asked several times. Caputo: And I would just add to that to say that all of the designs for the leisure pool portion,and I mean by leisure pool,the portion with the zero depth for the first three options,um,we did try to design those pools so that there is a good size 3 foot to 3.6 area for open water to allow for that swimming and waiting experience.We know sometimes feedback we've gotten from designing pools over many years is that if there's too much-too much zer-too much of a good thing,too much zero depth or too much shallow water in the 0-1 foot range that it's not well used, and you kind of miss the-the middle age kid demographic. So we-we did try to designate that,um,to have a-have a-have a middle depth waiting area in- in A,B and C. Moe: I had a question for you,Julie,probably.Um,I noticed that with the additional lanes,which I appreciate having those numbers available to look at,it says,will require additional lifeguards. I wasn't sure how many additional lifeguards and if you could give us a sense of what the annualized cost of the lifeguard is. Seydell Johnson: Fifteen dollars an hour. Moe: Okay. Seydell Johnson: Forty hours a week, 8-10 weeks a summer,so you could do the math real quick on that for each one.But going 6-8 lanes,this widens pool. So whereas you're at six lanes,you could probably have two lifeguards on that pool if it was a standalone. Once you go to eight,then you're probably closer to our current configuration where you put one on each of the comers. So it's probably two extra lifeguards. That all depends on the amount of swimmers and how they're being used. I think options A,B and C would all operate at the same or less lifeguards as what we have now.Actually D,since it's the same. The more water space that you add,the more square footage,the more you spread it out,the more we have to give staff more-you know,more staff life guarding stands to cover the water space. It just comes down to geometry. Salih: And how many lifeguards do we have now.We have eight-now we have eight currently. How many lifeguard do we have? Seydell Johnson:Lifeguards total? Recker: Per shift. Salih: Yeah. Seydell Johnson: Per shift. Oh,I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head. Sorry. Salih:But are going to be more than that or the same because we reusing it because we don't have those two lanes? Seydell Johnson: Yes.In terms of the lifeguards,you know,the larger- so if you were to go eight lanes plus the separate diving wheel plus the separate,you're probably talking more lifeguards than we have right now. If you keep the lap lanes more in a-in a right sized of- of six,you can do it with less lifeguards for that. The diving wheel stays smaller,you need like one lifeguard. If we go This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 27 bigger,you're going to need two. There's lots of trade offs here as we talk about all the different trade offs of what we're going to do. As staff,we're just looking for flexibility so that we have options going into the fixture that we have a pool that we can have you know staff in the long term. So there's going to be trade offs with any of these-any of these options for sure. Teague: We're going to have that be our last question. So thanks to all of you for presenting today and thanks to the commissioners for joining us. And we're going to-go into recess and come back after the formal meeting. [Recess to Regular Formal Meeting] This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 28 2. Discuss City's Utility Discount Program Teague: It is May 7,2024. We're going to reconvene our work session.And the next item on our agenda is item number 2,which is to discuss our City's utility discount program. All right. So,turn it over to you,Jeff. Fruin:Yeah. Uh,there are a couple of memos in the packet. I just want to call your attention to be IP3 in your May 2 packet. The first memo is dated May 2.It's from me,and just gives a little bit of history on the utility discount program.It was originally created in 1979. And has been changed a few times since then. It looks like in the 1990s,the council revisited this program several times. And the last substantial change that we saw was when we created our storm water utility,we had to amend the program to include the storm water utility that was back in 2004. It also notes-that memo notes just how the program has-has grown.We saw some-we found some old staff memos from 1996,at that time,there were 92 rate payers enrolled in the discount program.Back in 2016,we had 370 enrolled. And today,we have just over,uh,400 enrolled. That number can fluctuate throughout the year as people roll on and roll off,so don't think of that as a static number,but generally shows you a trend line of growth in the program. Um,it requires-the-the program requires a subsidy from the general fund. So general fund dollars are required to pay for the subsidy.We cannot use the rate payer monies to-to cover the subsidy. So,um,it's a-it's program that as of today,costs just over$100,000,um,with impact to the general fund. At a previous meeting,there was commentary about our voluntary,uh kind of support the discount program. If you-if you are a rate payer and you see on your bill,you can check a box and pay an extra dollar,extra five,$10 per bill cycle. We do have a number of people that generously participate in that,but that only generates about 11,500 per year. So just about 10%of the overall cost of the program. We will try to grow that program.We will try to market it based on your feedback from- from the previous meeting to get that number up a little bit,but probably not going to reach the full subsidy needed. Moe: Is that number been the 11,500 been static?Do you know?Is it just- Davies: I think at its highest,it was maybe around 15,000. I think probably when it- it initially rolled out in the biggest push,and then as people have moved away or whatever,it's just kind of slowly dwindled. We haven't pushed it in the last few years because a lot of the push was,you know,to help supplement so someone's water wasn't shut off,we weren't shutting off water for almost three years. So we weren't pushing out the discount program at that point. Fruin: The second memo in that packet follows it immediately, and this is one that you had seen before as this issue came up in the budget deliberations. So that one's dated January 31. Again,it goes over all of the rate-rate recommendations. It has a few sample bills in there,and the impact of the rate increases on bill payers both those in the program and not in the discount program,and also has some water rate comparisons that we thought would be helpful at that time. So I'll just let you all deliberate and Nicole and I Ron are here to answer questions about the utility accounts as you have them. Moe: Okay.When someone makes a donation to this program,is it tax deductible? Fruin:You'd have to seek your own tax advisor for that [OVERLAPPING] This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 29 Davies: I don't believe contributions to a local government are tax deductible,right?I'd have to be a foundation or a-a nonprofit. So I don't believe so.But again,we consult a tax advisor,but that's what I believe. Moe: I-I don't know if leaning into promoting this is the right methodology.But if we did,we could orchestrated mechanism where we operated through a foundation,like [OVERLAPPING] foundation. So that people could get that benefit and make me get some larger donations. Salih:But it's better to donate it to number of organization who are helping the-the low income people with paying their water bill because it's going to be complicated even to the city to do it. Moe: Yeah. Salih: So there is currently some number of organization are doing this,so anyway,I-I really,my concern on this is the-that the discount is on the basic used,which is that's why you see here as an increase of only 3.99. And the-the basic monthly use rate for the first hundred cubic feet per month,I think it's just constant charge.But after that, everything will be like$3.97,uh,you know,cent per 100 cubic feet between-if they will spent between 101 to 3000. So this is not reflecting the actual usage of the people who they- are low income and have big families,which is the water is not going to be$36 a month or after the increase is not going to be 37. It would be more than that. And that's what might concern me. And- and the- still the discount is not going to apply to them.It will apply still to the 37 after the increase. Bergus: I-I appreciate that it's not like proportional,right? So as you use more water,you're not getting a bigger discount. Salih: That's what I thought. Bergus: I kind of like that because it incentives conservation on the one hand,right? So if we can like with our climate action team helping people understand water conservation and know that that's one element that can lower the cost of that particular utility. I think for me,the really compelling part in the memo from January was just comparing to other cities. Um,you know,I think we do have-I think we have really good water. Those of us who've lived in Iowa City for a long time, know that it did not always used to be that way. If you ever go to Coralville drink out of a drinking fountain or,you know,drink their water,much-much worse than Iowa City. The fact that it is as affordable as it is and that we work with folks. So we have the discount program.But also,you know,we've heard in the past few years about the payment plans and things that we do. Um,I think when like I'm helping clients who are overburdened with their-their debts and what they're-what they're trying to be able to survive,right?I think the increases of three or$4 per month it's not nothing,right?It can be very significant for them.But,I-you know,if you look at sort of prioritizing what their expenses might be,I think the city is a- a pretty generous,um, creditor for lack of a better term,you know,that we work with people and that we provide a high value service for low cost for what that is. So I-I do appreciate what you're saying,and I understand that you would like to see a discount that applies,you know,to the-even as the increase usage happens,um,but I don't like the idea of sort of incentivizing just higher water usage,meaning,you know,you don't have to pay as much. So I-I think it's worthy of the conversation that we're having tonight.And I think any utility rate increase is important to talk about because we know it impacts people.But I'm okay with the,you know, sort of continuing on the path that we've been on,knowing this is an enterprise fixed.We're not making any extra This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 30 money off of it.Um,it is just self sustaining,and it is the cost of producing this really high quality water,and there's a discount. Salih: I really believe,you know,I understand what you're saying,and I know that we have a very good water. I used to live in Coralville too and we have to buy the water to drink. And that's what costs some time half the bill of the water. I understand that.But if we just can like collect the data on the people who going to take ex- extra from their budget for-to add to the water and everything else,that's will reduce their budget that they use it to put food on the table,to pay rent to do anything.Maybe to you,this is nothing and to us this is nothing somebody like me,I can pay that. There is no problem.But for some folks,this is really a problem. And if the city can do like for those residents, at the end of the day,they are resident of Iowa City. They are vulnerable.You can go and ask about how many people come and ask for the water to be paid,you know,like,to- to be paid for them by a nonprofit organization or the utility.In fact,today, somebody called me and they said,they-they're going to shut down their electricity, for example,because they origin- the owner she couldn't find anything because the program,HACAP programs,six days ago,they close the winter,you know,incentive for the electricity. She been going around and asking if somebody else have. There's many people like this. And-and that's why I want to see like little increase,even we don't have to do a huge increase,but I want to see like more instead of,like, $20 discount to be more than that overall.Now for the because-I mean,like when I say$20,this is overall estimate for the sewer and for the like the garbage and everything is not only the water. And I think when I was talking about this area for not increasing the water,I guess sort like everyone like open into the discussion to look into this. And we should subsidize our people. I don't think so this is going to benefit the resident,which is the taxpayer who are paying,you know,to operate the city. So I don't know. Teague: One-one question I have is related to,um,what are the funding sources that-I'm going to have to turn take this off.Anytime I wear it, it doesn't work out.What are the-what are the sources of funding out there that people can go to right now if they have issues with their water bill. And- and is the city having a direct contribution to any of those entities. So I know that we,um, contribute to,like,Community. Are they one of the entities that have a discount or like, funds available for water.Do we know? Salih: I know HACAP has some time. I know the general assistant has,but I don't know Community. Davies: Yeah. So if someone comes in right,unable to pay their utility bill,there is a sheet that the revenue staff has that has,I think, four or five different places,Community is one.Johnson County Human Services,HACAP and Shelter House all have programs to help with utilities. So they are giving-giving that information of where they-they can seek assistance. Salih: I don't know if that a current accuracy because today we was calling everyone to help this person about her electricity. And the only place available is general assistant. Like HACAP said,go to the humans,like general assistant, and,uh,Community Crisis Center said go,I'm the one who was doing that call with her. I don't know.You know,I don't know if your information is accurate right now. Fruin:Well- Salih: They used to have something like that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 31 Fruin: The information may be accurate,but whether they have the-the fimd- Salih: They-they nun out of fund. Fruin:At a current time,they may run out during the year. Salih: Yeah. That's why I said currently, it's not accurate,but they-they nun out,you know?It is amazing that the good resources here,but not-not like all around the year because we will have certain for this and they will run out. And when you see like the money-we will run out of money,that means they need is great. And that's one of the things that I really talking about here. Teague: One of the-the reason I asked that question is because it seems to me if there is you know if there is an individual or family or whatever that need the utility,need additional assistance,that there is an opportunity for them to get that,um,somewhere. We heard,you know, from Councilor Burgess,you know,talking about,like,you know,everybody is at this baseline which there are some positives to that,although it is very true that there are some individuals that need more equitable help,which might require them to have more. So that's where my interests is.Is,do we have the right partners or not the right partners,but with our partners out there in the community, do they have all the funds that they need? Of course,they'll probably never have all,but is there an opportunity that we can kind of see to for that-for that portion that come to us that say,you know,I can't even afford,you know,the bill right now,even with the discount. So that's where my interest would probably go towards. Certainly,if there's an opportunity that we can have for, you know,if- if-if the-I heard Mayor Pro Tem say,you know,let's increase it from 20,you know,is there another layer that we can attach,you know,locally,and we don't get into,like,all the partnerships and stuff. So I do understand the challenge,and I do think,um,there are ways that we can find a solution that,it may not be the magic bullet,but it would help families in our community. Salih: How many people you said they are participating in the program currently? Fruin:Four hundred and eleven. Salih: Okay.We're not talking about all our people still. Alter: So one question I have is,um,I don't know if this is opening a can of worms or not,but I know that we were able to use ARPA dollars for eviction prevention. We partnered with Shelter House,and they're administering that,um,and we've been really good stewards of allotting our ARPA dollars.Do we have any that has not been spent yet that we-can we put towards this?Because does that still,does that qualify with this-you know what I'm saying.Would this qualify for ARPA dollars?Could we use some ARPA dollars to sort of bolster this fund up?It's a stop gap,I recognize, and I don't want to start playing fast and loose with stuff,but this is,you know,to Mayor Pro Tern's point,it is a smallest number of people,and yet the need is there.Is this something that we could divert some ARPA dollars in the same way that we moved very quickly and very effectively in helping Forestview people with their direct? Fruin:Yeah. So-. Alter: Could we do that with something like this? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 32 Fruin:We-we when we weren't shutting off water,there were a lot of unpaid balances accumulated,and early on,we used$676,000 to erase those fixed balances that were never paid so we have committed 676,000 in ARPA dollars.You do have,um we're just reviewing the quarterly report, getting it ready for you today,so it's handy here.We're still working on two of the Schmid grant agreements,um and we're still working on the affordable housing piece,and we're still working on the skate park piece for ARPA. The rest is in a kind of pending,er,already tied up type of-of state. So yes,you could redirect that from one of those categories,but it's short term. Salih: But that's temporary that's not going to be sustainable for long term-. Alter: No.But if-. Bergus: Can I just ask,uh,overall,like,I'm a little bit uncertain what kind of,like,the policy question underneath this is,right?Because we-we know that the need far exceeds our ability to help those who are most vulnerable.We know that the need far exceeds the nonprofit community,you know,organizations, er, capacity to help those who need it the most. Um,I'm a little-I-I think we're getting a little off track when we're talking about making incremental changes to a discount program that impacts 411 residents. I think if we're going to have a conversation about like what- what is our,you know,as the Mayor always says,if we start at the end,what are we hoping to accomplish,and what are the policies that we can influence to drive that?Because I think this is a bigger issue of people's basic needs not being met and we know what-we know how dire our financial position is compared to what it has been in the past.And every meeting,we come back and say,we should fund this more,and we should fixed,I mean,just tonight,right?Like,Oh, we're just going to increase the-the whatever funds.And it's really hard for us to I think,keep our eye on really what I believe,you know,is our role,which is looking at the entirety of the community and trying to push policy to improve people's lives.And I'm not saying this conversation can't do that or isn't doing that,I'm just saying that I'm a little lost as to what we're- where we're headed. Salih: I have another question. The-the 3.99 increase that we have,this is still going to be increase on the basic only,right? Fruin: Correct. The framework for the utility discount program. Salih:No,no.I'm-I'm-the increase that we are doing right now. Fruin:It's- Salih: Is it per cubic or for the basic? Bergus: It's a percentage. Fruin:It's just,uh,it's a percentage across the board.Let me pull up that memo. Bergus: So I think the memos are based on examples,right? So if you were using 800 cubic feet, it would be a monthly increase of a total of$3.99. Fruin: Correct. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 33 Salih: If we use how much? Bergus: 800 cubic feet. Salih: Which is falling on that second,like for like 3.97 per cubic feet,like. Alter: That's the dollar amount. Fruin:I'm not following,I'm sorry. Salih: Yes. It's the dollar amount. Alter: The dollar amount,the 3. Fruin:Eight hundred cubic feet is generally what we would say is an average households usage. That's where the 800 is. Salih:Because I have-I have this and-from the water department. And- and this is saying like the first 100 cubic feet is just amount of the [INAUDIABLE] which is the minimum.But like 101 cubic to 3,000,to 3,000 is $3.97 per cubic feet-per 100 cubic. And after that,like over 3,000,it will be $2.85, like when they people consuming more than 3,000,the amount will be less.Per 100 cubic feet,that's what I mean. Fruin:Yeah,just to-just to clarify,the rate increase hits both the fixed and the-the first 100 and the variable,correct? So is 3%- Davies: Hit every single piece of that that all increases by 3%. Moe: Right. Davies: Every single layer. Salih: Each single layer increase. That-yeah,that's what I mean. It will be like a lot on those people still because the rate we can due to the increase. I'm proposing to come with a solution for this and to add more discount for the people who are enrolled in this program. Dunn: I think something that might be helpful before we do that potentially. Um,I'd be really interested to see what the additional efforts to publicize the-the program would do.Um,whether that results in more people contributing voluntarily to that fixed or- or other things. Um,I'd just be interested to see what we can get out of that personally. Bergus: And I think we can track that,right?We can say at this point in time,we did this PSA push and social media push,and you know,I think we can do it very low resource from the city and then see after X number of months has the public contribution to that grown or not. And if that's not effective, Salih: To what?I don't get that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 34 Bergus: So the individuals in the community can donate towards the fund that is part of-only about 10% but is part of the subsidy. So we subsidize the program 90%from the general fund,and about 10%of that currently or historically is from donations from the public. So if we want to increase the capacity of that program,if that's ultimately what we're trying to do,then I think we need to market it and market the fact that people can donate to it. And-and see what happens because I think most-honestly,I think the vast majority of people don't know about it. Dunn: I didn't.Yeah. Bergus: And just see if that- Moe: And we have two staff people in the room. So it's not like the community is watching this meeting. Teague: Well,I think that's great to,you know,to,you know,try to do this big campaign for this opportunity. I don't know that-that changes the request at least from- Bergus: I guess I'm not sure with the request. Alter: It's the flipside of that if people we'll need additional resources to help with their bills by putting out and I don't know that it would be a big campaign. It could be a relatively low-lift campaign, but it could get pushed out fairly easily,then there would be more money in the program to help the people who need it. It's two sides of the coin Dunn: If subsidy,it could increase that way. Salih: And can we-while we're doing that, even if we agree to do that,and while we're doing that,can we freeze the increase for the people who participate in this program? Moe:No. Goers:No. Moe: We can't. Goers: That would be a discriminatory rate and it would be illegal. Salih: Okay,can we then-we need to do the discount program, so it's not going to be discriminated. Bergus: And just-I want to make sure we're all on the same page. The discount program that we're talking about. Staff,please check me,but I'm reading directly from the memo is a 60%discount on water and sewer,a 60%discount on stormwater,and a 75%discount on refuse recycling and curbside organics. Salih: And the minimum use. Fruin:With the caveat,the 60%water,wastewater hits on just that minimum charge. Bergus: That 30-some dollars. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 35 Fruin:Yeah. Bergus: Or$29,whatever it is. Yes.And I understand. So it doesn't scale up as people use more,and we need to incentivize conservation. So that-that's my-that's where I kind of try and balance the different factors. Salih: Like,I mean,like,a low income of a family of one person who are paying$36 or$37 for the water and a family a low and common family of eight. Of course,they are using more water.I understand that we encourage not using the more water,but those are a family of eight. They need to use the water,I think it will be- Bergus: I'm saying I disagree with you as to the why.I'm not disagreeing with the underlying facts that bigger families are going to use more water.I absolutely agree exactly. Salih: Exactly. I went the same discount this person will get is the same discount the family with eight will get because basic on the basic used like the-the percent is basic-on the basic use. Bergus: I get-I understand that.I'm just saying I disagree with what you're proposing. I hear you. I hear you. Salih: Yeah,it's not-it's not like something new. So every- Teague: I do wonder. Oh,sorry,go ahead. Salih:No,I just mean like I'm not expecting,I'm not even optimistic. Harmsen:I have a couple of questions. Are we-with this program, are we turning anybody away?Are we able to- is this 411 is the number of people who have-who qualify?I mean,we're not turning people away because we're out of funds,is that correct? Fruin: Correct. Harmsen:And so you also-I know you had mentioned something Mayor Pro Tem about wanting to freeze the rate,which isn't-doesn't sound like something we can do.But are you also thinking about even though it affects not the discrepancy in user rate,but-but the 60%number,an increase to that percentage,which would help everybody across the board, and while it wouldn't be proportional,it would still bring a bill down. Do you see what I mean? Salih: Yeah,but why-why should we increase it for somebody his-his bill is only$36?And if we increase the 60%to,like,for example,70%or 80%,it's still we-like we're losing as a city more for the people or the bill is $36,but we are not helping the-the people- still the amount is the same. We're not helping the people who are consuming more water. Harmsen:Who don't qualify for the program? Salih:No,no,the people who are qualified for the branch. Harmsen:We are just talking about 411 people,or whatever that number fluctuate to . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 36 Salih:400. Yeah. And by the way,also,I was trying to bring something else,there is some people are not qualified even though they are low income.Because the qualifications is you have to have one of the like food stamps or Medicaid or you have to have another program that will prove you are low income. There is some people on this community. They are not eligible for those kind of things, but it's still low income. And those people are there out.You know,uh,I don't know how to fix that. And-and this is a local find. I think we can figure out a mechanism to have like more people who are not qualified for these federal programs to still be eligible for this amount of money- amount of like discount of this I mean, like, eligible for this discount. Bergus: And we had that conversation during COVID,I remember,because,you know,we were-I mean, there were obviously different changes to the utilities at that time and the sort of moratorium on shot-offs and all of that.But I remember Dennis before Nicole talking to us about,yeah,there are different ways that you could define eligibility and explaining why this made sense for that. I-I think that is you know,a conversation that we could revisit.I personally am troubled by us expending the amount of energy that we are for 400 people and 399-$3.99 a month. I think if what we want to do is move the needle on people's quality of life,we need to be having different conversations.Like these tiny little incremental changes in the utility bill,not that they don't matter,they absolutely matter.But what is our job?I think our staff understands we want to help low-income people,and we,as a principle of equity,as the mayor said,right?Equity means different people might get different things,right?We have legal limitations on that in terms of we can't discriminate based on. Salih: We can do it as a way.If that's the only issue,we can do it as a way. We can like to add something new to this discount program to give like more discounts. So we are like using percent maybe we can do like a small percent. Bergus: Well,and I think Salih: For the people. If we want to make it legal,if that is the issue. Bergus: If counselors want to pursue that,that's a thing. I personally don't.And so I'm just trying. I think right now,Mayor Pro Tem,I'm trying to figure out where are we going.Where is this conversation going? Salih: What do you mean,where is going? The same thing that you said you just said is not,ah,we cannot do it because it's not,ah,right to do it order it's not,what's the word? Bergus: I was saying that's one aspect. Salih:Not legal. Bergus: Yeah. Salih: We can make it legal. There's many ways to modify the discount program,so to make it legal,and at the same time,the discount is not going to be more than the additional cost of the- of the utility bill that we are assigning right now. Bergus: So for myself,I disagree with making changes to the program at this time.That's where I'm at. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 37 Salih: Yeah. Bergus: I don't know where the other counselors are. Salih:No problem. Alter: And it does. I mean,I'm-I'm trying to find it in the memo,but this was something that I don't know whether this is apples and oranges,but it is another piece to consider in the way that,um,our strategic plan talks about that in order to continue with a certain quality of our water and our programs,you know,that-that we would work through incremental rate increases,so it doesn't become these large bumps up when there's,like,we absolutely have to do this,and then that inequity becomes even greater. I realize that is not addressing your concern,exactly.But I am sort of the flip side of how do we help with the discount program is not necessarily to put a freeze on these because that is equally only a temporary solution and it will make the pain greater later when we should have been doing these smaller increases as they are needed as opposed to constructing a freeze in order to stave off something and then having to pay for it later in more painful ways. So- Moe: I- in addition to that,I feel strongly that our water needs to remain incredibly high quality, and it's going to cost us three or four percent more a year to continue to make incredibly high-quality water, and much in line with what Councilor Alter said. That means we need to do it two,three percent a year so we can continue to provide water that people actually want because the worst situation would be we stop investing in our water purification. Our water purification systems get dilapidated old,out of date,and then we're stuck with a major-major cost increase for everyone. And I would rather just keep up with it and then really look at those programs that we currently have in place.And,um- Salih: I mean,400 family out of 30 family-30,000 family in this city,those are the one that they're going to make-if we subsidize them will make our quality of water less. Moe: If we freeze water for the entire city,we will make the quality of water less in this-in- Salih: I said 400. Moe: We can't do that.We've gone over that. Salih:No,we can do that. We can-we can- Moe: Call people and tell them we're giving them a different rate,we cannot do that. Salih:No,we said we can this program,you know,the discount program-the discount program helping only 400 people. This is-the people who are like,participate on this program it's 400. Moe: Yes. Salih: And we are-we're going to,like,make the program better to help them.And they are only 4-we are helping only 400 families out of 30,000 families in this community. So those are not going to affect anything I think. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 38 Moe:Maybe I might-I thought one of the many proposals because I'm not following them either was that we would freeze water. Salih:No. Moe: Rate increases somehow. And I'm-I just solidly got that Salih:No,I did not say that. Moe: Okay. Salih:No,I didn't say that.Nobody said that. Teague: So I guess,um,because I-I mean,I hear a lot of conversations,um,that have taken place so far, but there's not been a specific proposal of I-I-I guess I did hear,um,from Councilor Harmson where he said,you know,can we increase the percentage from 60-75?Is there or I don't know if you say 75?If there was a-yeah. Harmsen:I didn't give a-I didn't give a number. I was just sort of like trying to figure out what was possible and-and in order to if not completely meet the need. And what I hear is maybe two paths. One would be an increase of the percentage,which because it's a percentage-based thing,if we increase the percentage of the cost,it actually will increase the percentage of the aid sort of organically.But we could increase that percentage more,right? So if the eight is based on the percent of the bill,and we increase the size of the bill,the eight will go up a little bit. Um,but it's not a one-to-one ratio. The other thing is that-that,uh,Mayor Pro Tem had brought up was the eligibility requirements,and if it made,you know, so there's two possible ways to move forward if we want to move forward.And-and I certainly,there's probably other ones are too big.But as I sort of digest all of the conversation,either an increase of 60%up to 65,70,whatever that number might be for the people that qualify under the current system,and/or,um,looking at,do we need more people eligible to get into the program?And if so how do we do that in a way that it is equitable? So I think there's two different possible paths. They don't have to be both or either all.But just as I process and synthesize what I'm hearing,although certainly or possibly that's the- ,you know,we're talking about an impact of,you know, an increase of 5%may be an impact of $5. I mean,I don't know. It's not-we're not talking about an entire water bill,right? So- so we are talking about. Alter: If it's that thing,I mean,I guess. Harmsen:I'm just saying if we're looking for a way to get off of dead center,those are a couple of things that-that I would throw out there as possibilities,not necessarily endorsing,um,as potential, right? So I haven't had a chance to go down this path,to fully think about these things we're just kind of in the moment.But-but those would seem based on the conversation,possible ways for it. Alter: One of the things that I- is in-in hearing all of this,and I was the one who suggested,hey,maybe we can throw some ARPA dollars towards it,knowing it's a band-aid.But in thinking about it, from sort of backing out a little bit. I do think,how are we moving the needle?And it hit me as you were talking, Sean about,like,well,maybe,you know, increasing that discount amount, right? That's going to be how-how many dollars per household,$5 for the bill,or what?I mean,I guess that's where I'm kind of wondering. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 39 Salih: It's not-it's not$5. It's a lot. Alter: I mean as for instance,um,how much effort and thought and work is going into doing something that is so incremental?I'm like Laura,I'm not discounting or trying to dismiss the very real impact that families are feeling.But I also think that is this going to move the needle enough to actually make-make a substantial difference for them. Salih: It will. For low-income people,any dollar is saving. It will put,like, food in their tables so I think so,I-I would go like,really with 75%. Teague: I can-I mean-I honestly,when I see the 60-75%,I can support a 75%,you know,and across the board,it doesn't have all these different numbers. I can support that. Salih: Yeah,because it's going to be from each one, and that would make a difference from them. Teague: I can-I can support a 75%. It's still off the basic. Um,I-I think it will help individuals and families so- Salih: Yeah. Harmsen:I think if my math is right,there'd be about a 15%increase,which would mean about 15- $17,000 increase in because I know the programs running at about 100,000,right? Fruin:Yes. That's for all.You're just,I mean,the conversations only focused on water right now, right?The$100,000 covers the cost of this program hits all those utilities,um,that are on your utility bill so- Harmsen:Basically what my point was that seems affordable to me. I mean,in terms of- size of-size of the increased cost to the program would not be exorbitant,but it might have. The-the 15% increase to us wouldn't be as big of a deal as the 15%decrease would be to the recipient. Salih: That's what I mean. Harmsen: That is in terms of the day-to-day impact.It is kind of the way I'm thinking,of course,you know,others may feel differently.Do we have to direct city staff to me- Teague: I think we have to-at least have four counselors that would agree to increase to 75%. Dunn: I think before I would want to move on that,I would like a staff report. So I'd be comfortable with asking for a staff report on it. Teague: On what? Dunn: On the change,the impact,where the funds come from. Bergus: I would say if we're going to make a change like this,we've had this discussion tonight,and it would be more work and us revisiting this and taking up more of our time and energy,taking away from all those other work session topics that are on our list.If we want to increase the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 40 discount for those elements that are 60-75%,I think we just need to direct staff to do that so they can make that change rather than creating more work for additional discussion. Salih: We have three people saying that.We need one more to say yes. And he was asking about more information. And now you agree,right? Ok,move it to 75. Teague: Okay. So then we have,um,the direction for staff to move the discount for the water and sewer to 75%. We were talking about that,we don't have a storm I guess. The storm water would also go to 75%. Salih: If it's 75%already,right? Frain: Sixty percent of the entire- Salih: Which one is the 750/o? Teague: The refuse recycling. Salih: Yeah. Yes,all of them,75%. Teague: It would all go to 75%. You have a- Davies: Question. So are you talking about 75%of the minimum or 75%of the top? Harmsen: Of the minimum. Frain: Stormwater is the entire because there is no minimum. Bergus: It's a flat thing. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 41 4. Information Packet Disucssion [April 18,April 25,May 21 Teague: Okay.All right. We're going to- any other discussion there?All right.We're going to move on. We don't have clarification of agenda items,but we do have item number four,which is information packet discussions. We'll start with April 18.We'll I go to April 25th.We'll jump over to May 2nd. And we're at number 5 on our agenda? Fruin:If I could have one I could do after USG. Teague:No. Fruin: I wanna revisit one of those items,but after USG is done. Moe: On IP. Teague: We'll-we'll put you on hold for a second before we go to information part,uh,before we leave information packets. Fruin:My apologies. I just wanted to circle back Uh,I'm looking at the pending council work session item,which is IP 4.Um,I'm a little unclear from your discussion earlier tonight on the historic preservation incentives. Is-are you looking for something on your work session pending list on that? Or where-where does that stand? Salih: I know we have a lot in the work se.A lot of thing to be put in the work session. I think we need the meeting about prioritizing the work sessions. Moe: Like,I would put that-I would put that at-Yeah. -the top of our work session list is like,let's figure out what we're actually gonna take on- Alter: Yes. Moe: -and stick to it. Harmsen: Can I ask a question about the-specifically the historic preservation.Is that something that it would make sense or we can do?I'm not even sure how this would work to kick that to the historic preservation commission. Salih: Yes. Harmsen:Like and- and have them bring us.You know,instead of I mean,I don't know. I just mean because there-I mean,they're so well versed in this stuff,right? Other than Councilor Mor,I don't know-I certainly wouldn't.My level of knowledge doesn't come anywhere close to that or members of the commission. So a thought. Salih: I agree with you because I think they are the ones who are directly involved with the historic position.Maybe they want to do a survey.Maybe after that,most of them they can say,no,we don't need this or something like that. If they-if they can we can just make them the star point of� like, investigating this and come with proposal to us would be better than putting this in a work session. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 42 Alter: They are. Fruin:Yeah. Whether you direct staff or historic preservation you guys can-can make that call. We'll react to historic preservations recommendations should you go that way.But I think some clarity in what type of incentives you want to create because what I heard were two different things, which was incentivizing people to landmark de-to designate something historic and then incentivize people that already steward historic properties to maintain that. Teague: I-I do think because we can't get into,like,the details I think we have to put it on a work session so that the Council can bring clarification as to that direction. Salih:Maybe. Harmsen:I see. Teague:Because you cannot go into detail? Salih: detail right now. Bergus: We can say with some specificity,what it is we want to engage in the work session on. Teague: Yeah. You can talk about the topic,but I think we're trying to do. Bergus: I don't know what the topic is. And if it has-and if it has a financial impact,I'm going to say let's not add it at this point,honestly.Like,can we stick to the things that we've already committed to and follow the strategic plan and not keep adding things that are just gonna cost more and positions that we can't sustain. Teague: I think when we get to prio-prioritizing what's on the work session topics,we can-we can actually go into a little detail there. So I think we wait for that.We have it on the work session, and we'll-cause right now,we really can't go into,there's things going into details. Bergus: Okay. Teague: Yeah. And we can't go into details. So we'll have it on the work session,we'll bring it up,like, what topics do we want to keep and we'll go from there. All right. Monsivais: Am I good? Teague: Anything else,Jeff or? Alter: Actually one thing on just on pending topics and the idea of sort of a meta meeting about prioritizing our priorities. Um,before we do that,maybe our homework,all is to revisit and reacquaint ourselves with just go through the strategic plan jut so that we can go,that's aligned, and that's not so that then we can have when we actually get to that meeting.It's just a suggestion. Bergus: Great idea. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024 Page 43 Teague: Great. Bergus: Thank you. Teague: Awesome.We're going to welcome USG at this time. Welcome,Matthew. Monsivais: Hey,everyone.It's an honor to introduce myself for the first time as City Liaison. So I miss- I miss.But I'm ready to be one leader amongst many in our student bodies. So this is super exciting. Ara Martinez will be the new deputy. Their pronouns are they them,and I'm super stoked to have them working with me. They could not be here to introduce themselves tonight,so you'll meet them in the fall when they're back on campus. The new government-governmental relations team is going to be working much more diligently on our advocacy in the upcoming administration. We have been working on an impressive platform that I'm pretty excited about. This includes,but is not limited to codifying the local advocacy subcommittee and USG bylaws, which no and I have dubbed as the City Mini Committee. This allows-this allows us to give some subcommittee members a chance to attend city council. So basically,they'll get an excused absence from their senate sessions,and we'll be able to have basically special guests whenever they deem they want to come to city council with us. So yeah,that'll be really exciting.We want to work to home promote voting locally at all levels,um,locally and at all levels and ensuring that campus is a safe place to demonstrate and exercise our right to assembly during what we feel is going to be a rough election season.Um,and then I do have a question. So it is my understanding that the city of Iowa City,and this might be a city manager question,that we have city staff that work on state and federal advocacy,um,in some respects about what we need,like, funding from the state,other resources,is that correct? Fruin: Correct. Monsivais: Okay.Um,I do want to at some point,discuss,maybe getting in contact with those city staffers and that team because USG wants to take a more active role in not just advocating for the student body,but also promoting the city that we live in that facilitates our success.We want to make it clear that Iowa City concerns are unequivocally student concerns as well,and I want to voice our support for the items that the community needs to prosper. So when we go do our capitol visit days and we do our state advocacy,we want to also voice Iowa City collective concerns. And that was one of my ideas going into,um,the new governmental relations team for this year because I-I had heard talks here and there,bits and pieces about the city of Iowa City's legislative agenda and I was like,well,what-what does that mean?How can we add to US G's legislative advocacy. So,um,I look forward to hopefully getting in touch with that team and,uh, including those in our advocacy. Um,all this,uh, along with what we already do like lease gap Runners' Guide, Town Hall,etc,will be coming up in the next year. Um,and then also,I'll be here over the summer. So yeah,you'll see plenty of me. Teague: Awesome. Monsivais: Thank you guys. Teague: Thank you. Thank you and appreciate that,yes. All right,we're on to item number 6. Council updates from the sign boards,commissions, and committees. During nothing. We are adjourned. Have a good night. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of May 7,2024