HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-22 Transcription Page 1
Council Present: Alter,Bergus,Dunn,Harmsen, Moe, Salih, Teague
Staff Present: Fruin,Jones,Platz,Kilburg,Davies, Ogden,Knoche,Kilburg,Hightshoe,
Nagle-Gamm, Seydell Johnson,Barker,Lyon, Carman
Budget Overview and Highlights:
Teague: Alright. We're going to go ahead and get started on today,which is January 22, 2024,
and this is the City of Iowa City Fiscal Year 2025 budget conversation that we're gonna
be having. I'm going to just jump right in there and turn it over to our City Manager
Geoff Fruin.
Fruin: Thank you,Mayor and Council, and,uh,welcome on this Monday morning. We have a
long day ahead of us,uh,but I'm anxious to-to talk through the fiscal year'25 budget
proposal with you. Um, I usually,uh,will,um,just offer a few kind of,um, re-remarks
on the-the overall day,uh,before we jump into the presentation here. It is a long day,
you're going to absorb a lot of information,um, and you're probably not going to be able
to solve all the issues that you may see in the budget,uh, I- I generally urge you to ask a
lot of questions,um,but we may have to flag and park some topics for a future work
session,uh, depending on how deep you want to go. Um,we'll be prepared to answer as
many questions as we can, if we can't answer anything,we'll circle back to you,uh,with
a memo in your H' or in- in some other fashion to get you the information that you need.
So the way today will work is Redmond and I are going to start with a presentation,we'll
be about an hour to an hour and a half. Uh,this is your executive summary of the budget,
uh, and then,uh,we'll take a short break and you'll have a steady stream of your
department directors come up and- and talk to you about,uh,their budgets and their
operations. I encourage you to ask questions of them. And again,we'll just kind of,uh,
flag anything that needs further discussion or if you need more information,we'll-we'll
follow up in the next uh, few days. Sound okay?All right. Off and running,let's go.
Okay, so,uh,the,uh,budget review schedule is in front of you. Uh,you do have a copy
of these slides,uh-uh, in front of you. If you want to take notes too,we could make them
available electronically as well. We started on September 5 with a budget work session
on priorities. Uh,those helped inform staffs proposal, and we're here in that second gray
box,uh, on January 22 talking about the operating budget review. In two days,we'll
move over to the capital side of things, all your major expenditures on infrastructure,um,
uh,parks, trails,roads,utilities, that sort of thing. And then we really get to the next two
lines of this review schedule,which is where certain decisions need to be made. We
really would like to finalize the CIP. I know it's a quick turnaround,but by your February
6 meeting. So if we identify any things,uh,this Wednesday,we'd like to try to get those
worked out,um, at your- at your next council meeting,which is February 6. That allows
us to begin the preparations,uh, for issuing the bonds and stay on schedule there. Uh,we
have to establish our max levy rates for,uh, a new notice that's required as part of last
year's tax reform. Uh,we have to get to the County by March 5 our max rate. The County
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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has to take the max rate from all the taxing jurisdictions,put them into one mailing, and
mail those out to,uh, all residents so they understand,uh,what those rates are. On March
19,we'll set the hearing for that levy, and on April 2,uh,we'll have that levy hearing, and
we'll also set the hearings for the adoption of the budget and any associated ordinance
changes that come with,uh,utility rates and things of that nature. Your public adoption,
uh, or voting on the budget adoption will occur on April 16 with the final public hearing,
so,uh,that is your-that is your timeline really working to April 16. Understand that once
you set a maximum in some of these steps, so,uh,when we're setting the maximum tax
hearin-tax rate, for example,you can always go back,you can always spend less. But at
some point you won't be able to increase that levy anymore, if that makes sense. So a few
checkpoints along the way. Um, I won't go through this,but I wanted to have it for you.
The budget document is a rather large document, it takes a long time to get through. This
is just some,uh, sections that I think are particularly important for elected officials, so if
you are,um,prioritizing time,you may want to revisit this slide and- and look through
those. A quick overview on government accounting. Uh,this slide shows all of our
budgetary and non-budgetary funds. Um,we're going to- I'll walk you through each one
at the- at the- at the top there,we'll kind of work our way from left to right across. The
general fund is where most of the budget decisions will take place,that's where most of
your operations-tha-that-where-where there's some discretion would take place. Um, so
your police,your fire,your parks,your general government,to finance,those types of
operations live within the general fund. Your special revenue funds are revenues that we
receive that have strings attached, in other words restrictions on how you can spend those
dollars. So for example,the road use tax is three down,we receive that road use tax from
the state and that has to go towards maintaining our street network. We can't use road use
tax to build a new park. So think of those funds as just restricted in how you spend those
dollars. The debt service are funds that we bring in to pay off the debt, so we borrow for
capital projects,uh,we then levy a property tax and that-that pays those debt service. Uh,
our enterprise funds are funds that we run like a business, so the-the money that we take
in support those operations,uh, and,um,you can see-mo- a lot of the utilities in there,
water,wastewater,the rates that we set are set to run that program. We don't use
wastewater funds to-to build parks or,uh, fund public safety initiatives,things like that.
Um,those are, again,run just like a business would. Capital projects,money going into
there pays for our capital improvement plan,pretty self-explanatory, and then our internal
service funds,we won't fm-we won't spend much time at all on those. Um, uh,those are
just kind of funds trading,uh,money,more of an internal accounting. So I use that
equipment one as an example. All your different operations will-will transfer money into
the equipment fund and that's what pays for vehicle replacements and maintenance and
things of that nature. Okay. Uh, I want to start with the current year we're in,the fiscal
year'24 budget review. It's helpful just to kind of take stock of where we were this time
last year and what's happened since then. Uh,we were experiencing our second straight
year of declining taxable value in the community. Uh,we'll get into this a little bit more,
but while we've had good growth in the community,uh,we've had um,uh,property tax
reform and other factors actually lead to a negative tax base growth. Uh, last year we saw
multi-residential properties. Your apartments,um,uh,become fully phased in, and those
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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are now considered residential properties just like a single family home. We continue to
see declining commercial and industrial backfill payments from the state. Uh,we ended a
streak of 11 straight years of lowering our tax rate. Some of these pressures just made it
to where we had to-we had to stabilize that rate. That wasn't completely unexpected. We
knew that we were,uh,kind of leveling out as- as we were entering that year. We made
some adjustments to several utility,um,rates,uh,mostly to-to help cope with some of
the inflationary pressures being experienced. And we-we had a pretty aggressive add of
11.5,uh, full time employees,uh, almost six of those in the general fund,uh, a handful to
enterprise funds, and then two of those were funded externally. Uh,we had one funded,
uh,through the Housing Authority,uh,through federal,uh,housing dollars, and one,uh,
through the,um,uh,Animal Center Foundation, as well a volunteer coordinator position.
We-we demonstrated great progress towards the strategic plan,uh, and then we just kind
of again raised some red flags,uh,with,uh, some of the taxable valuation growth and
really what that means for future years. Um,while it wasn't anticipated during the budget
approval in August of- of this year,we did,uh, do a drawdown of reserves, about 4.5, 5
million,uh,to purchase the 21 South Linn property. So just to acknowledging that we
made that decision,uh, early in this fiscal year to draw down some of our,uh,reserves
there. Okay,we're going to go through each of these five topics,uh, one by one. These
are some of the headwinds that we continue to face in putting together this budget. Um,
the State of Iowa Commercial Industrial Backfill. So this dates all the way back to 2013
tax reform. Uh,the state lowered the taxability of commercial and industrial properties
from one being 100%taxable to 90%taxable. They told cities not to worry because they
were going to make up the difference. And,uh,they-they lived up to that promise for a
period of time. Um,but back in 2021,they decided it was long enough,uh,that they lived
up to that promise and they started to-to phase out,uh,those backfill payments. So the-
the graph on the right just shows you that,uh,uh,we're in this declining,uh, payment,
uh,period in fiscal year'25. We'll take in about 600,000,uh,uh, from the state for this
backfill,uh,not even half of what it was at its peak.Next year we expect to be just over
300,000, and then in fiscal year'27 we will no longer get any assistance from the state
from those,uh,those tax changes. Residential rollback-um, a lot of attention on this last
year,you may recall that the-the State,uh,uh,uh, Legislature,um, changed the rollback.
It was originally going to be 56%,that's what it was originally published at, but they-
they lowered it to 54. Uh, so we had two straight years of 54%. Um, this is the rate in
which residential properties pay. So if you have a- a million dollar,uh,residential
property,uh,this current year,you pay taxes on 54 percent of that value or $540,000.
That's what our tax rate would go into,that's how much the party would pay. Uh,you can
see that, ah, for fiscal year'23,we have a steep decline. We're going from 54%-46%. And
again,this is a state issued number,uh,this is not something the city controls. Uh,this is
the largest drop in- in a single year since 1979,um, largely driven by assessments,uh,
growth. So I think last year, a lot of, uh, assessment mailings went out. We were hearing
assessments going up 15, 20, 25 percent. That's a major factor in- in this rollback figure.
This is a statewide figure, it's not unique to Iowa city or Johnson County,um,but it is
significant. Uh,the green text above tells you that for every 1%,uh, change,it's about 1.1
million in tax revenue to the city. So 8% drop over $8 million,uh, impact uh,to the city.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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Uh,this will probably be the last year for this slide,but it's important that we're-we now,
um,have our multi-residential property as being residential. So this shows that,um, all
the way back in fiscal year'14 just like commercial properties,uh,your multi-residential
properties were taxed at 100% of their value. If you owned a million dollar apartment
building,you paid taxes on a million dollars. Well, the state with that 2013 law dropped
that taxability down to the residential. So at the bottom there you can see,uh,the current
year we're in,uh,they're paying taxes on 54.65% of that value, and then next year it'll be
46.34% of that value. A couple of things to point out,uh,we estimate the cumulative loss
in revenue. This isn't tax base,but in- in actual revenue to the city. Uh, over this phase
and period was about $20 million. Um, and now that last bullet,uh,we have 81% of our
total assessed valuation subject to this residential rollback. So, um, it just goes to show
how much volatility we need to be able to brace for year over year. As this thing moves
up or down,um, 81% of our- of our assessed value is going to be moving with that. Uh,
the divers- diversification of- of tax base when you think of commercial industrial
becomes even more important,right?Um, I think we've seen over the last 5, 10 years
more and more of our tax base is dependent on multifamily and residential. This really
underscores the need to continue to look for those opportunities to build our commercial
and industrial tax base. We'd like to look at building permit trends as kind of a lead
indicator in taxability. Uh, so this gives you about a decade's worth of history here. Uh,
you can see that,uh,um, in that, uh,kinda 2017-2019 range,we were at that- a little over
213 million in,uh,building permit value, and then a sharp decline with the pandemic.
And,uh,when we talk about a negative growth in tax base,that's really because,uh,the
2020 and 2021 years we weren't growing much. And there wasn't just a whole lot of
economic activity happening in the country,um,but locally we felt that too, and that
translated to,uh, depressed uh,taxable valuation. I'm happy to report in 2023,uh,we
bounced back in a- in a good, strong way. We had over 275 million in building permits.
So we should see the impact of that in a couple of years as those properties are built and-
and hit the-hit the tax rolls. Um, I should also note,we had about 40 million,uh, of our
2023 value as public sector. In other words,that won't be taxable. So if you back that out,
uh,we're just over 200 million. And a large portion of that was,uh,two properties. We
have a large student housing,uh,property that was permitted on Myrtle and Riverside,
and a large senior housing that was,uh,uh,permitted,um,uh, around Hickory Hill Park,
the Featherstone Senior Living. Those two projects account for over $100 million of that
value. So again,properties that will be subject to the volatility of that residential rollback.
Okay,this is-But, uh-uh,this is a busy slide here,but,um, I want to,um, first start with
the red bars. This is, uh,you can think of as the-the tax base,this is the taxable value in
the community and you can see kind of good steady growth from fiscal year 16 to fiscal
year about 21, and then some plateauing,uh, after that. Um, I like to look at this in two-
year increments, and that's what the red numbers at the bottom tell you and you can see,
uh, as we go from left to right, we have 8.96% growth over two years, 9.27, so that's
telling you on average we're about 4.5% growth,uh-uh,per year,um,which was able to
kind of allow us to muscle through some of the 2013 property tax law. We had a great
two-year period in fiscal year 20 and 21,uh,where we were,uh, closer to 6.5% growth
each year,uh, averaged out. And then unfortunately,uh,you saw some of that pandemic
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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impact,uh, in fiscal year 22, and - and we're continuing to exp- experience the impacts of
that through fiscal year 25. So when you see 2.78% growth over two years,uh, followed
by 3.25%really,we're looking at a four-year period in which our tax base is growing, on
average 1.5%. I think we can all appreciate that that's not going to be enough to sustain,
uh,the-the current operations when we're as dependent on property taxes as we are,uh,
here in the state of Iowa to fund local governments. So we continue to,um-uh,try to
work hard to make sure that those taxable numbers,uh, get back up to that 4.5-5%range
that we were at pre-pandemic,uh,but for now,we're-we're still falling short of that goal.
A little bit more about the property tax reform. Uh,we talked about the 2013 reform,
that's now fully phased in. Uh,the commercial and industrial backfill payments. We
talked about those,those will be out by fiscal year 27, and then,uh, in 2021,there's
actually a new backfill that was created. This is the business property tax credit backfill,
um,the Legislative Services Agency,when that legislation was passed,uh-um,projected
that by fiscal year 29, 30,the state would no longer have money to,uh,pay cities back for
this property tax credit backfill. So,uh, this isn't actively being phased out,but we do
expect that the state will eventually stop making payments or be forced to,uh,phase
those payments out. The 2023 legislation,uh, saw a new military and senior homestead
exemption. We're seeing that for the fust time. Uh,that's basically a property tax
exemption that,uh, qualifying,uh-uh,households,uh, can add to their,um-um,their
homestead. And,uh,we see- see in this fust year,the impact for Iowa City is about a loss
of$13-$14 million in,um-uh,taxable valuation, so certainly impacted by that. Uh, and
then we're going to talk a little bit more-Redmond's going to talk more in a little bit here
about the,um, loss of the Library and the emergency levy,uh,but those were eliminated
by the state,uh, and those produced just shy of$2 million for us,uh, annually. Uh,
obviously,the Library levy was used to support their operations, and the emergency levy
the city had used to support,uh, our climate action programming. Um,those two levees,
uh, are added to the general levy,uh, and we'll get into that again,but then that general
levity- levy is ratcheted back down and we'll be fully- and those levees will be fully,um,
gone by fiscal year 29,probably 28, it just depends on our growth rate,but, um,my guess
is it'll be out by 2028. So you can see in this fust year,we'll lose 36% of the value of that
levy,that's why I think it'll probably be out this year. The more you grow,the quicker
that ratcheting back of that levy loss is. We'll have some specific numbers to- for you to
look at in a couple slides. So we-we have to absorb this into the general fund unless we
collectively decide that there's services in the general fund that we want to reduce,we
have to make room for these,which is difficult when you're in a period of,uh,um,
stagnant taxability growth. And on top of that,we continue to see volatile variable costs.
So unfortunately,uh,we can't control all the expenditures,um,that we'd,um, like to, and
we have things like health insurance, and,um, I pointed out property and liability
insurance in this slide. Sometimes those,um-uh, show volatility, We've seen that with
fuel prices, and we all experience that with fuel prices from time to time where,uh,those
will jump up. But I thought I'd highlight these. So our property insurance,uh, increased
25%,uh, in the current year, and we're projecting another 35% in fiscal year 25. Uh,
property insurance across the country,uh, is getting,uh,more difficult and more
expensive,but,uh,municipal governments are- are certainly experiencing this too. Our
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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liability insurance,we're projecting 21% increase in fiscal year 25. So when you combine
these, it's- it's about $850,000 in new,uh, expenditures for the general fund,uh, over
these two years. So,um,those are just things that we have to-we have to absorb,uh,
obviously,we try to limit these,uh-uh,but,uh-uh,we're going to have to absorb them
and,uh,that's at the sacrifice of some of the-the inputs to the services that we,uh,
delivered. All right, I'm going to turn it over to Redmond,who's gonna walk you through
the revenue section.
Jones: All right. Good morning, Council. So, um, every year, so this is going to be new for- for
our new folks,but I try to,uh,put this in the right mind frame and I always come in with
a- a little story about,uh,my,uh, former,uh, graduate school,um, finance professor. Mr.
Moodys,uh,no,uh, connection to Moody's grading,uh-uh, credit system. But,um, last
year we talked a little bit about the goose and a golden egg. I'm not going to bore you
with that one, every- everyone knows that. This time I'm going to reflect on a story about,
uh,Prosperia,uh-uh, fictional community,that he would also use to,uh,talk about,uh,
some of the challenges that,uh, goes into municipal financing. And so,um,in this story,
uh,Prosperia is running into some,uh, financial crisis and,uh,they-they are- are real
short on- on- on options, so they start kind of looking at creative financing tools and one
of the things that they came up with was,um, some,uh,private placement bonds and,
um, some community,um, community bonds where the community can actually buy
bonds in their community. A little bit like,uh, Green Bay did with their-their football
stadium there. Um, and- and so anyway,the story goes that it- it's a hit, um, everybody's
vested in- in the outcomes of the city and they're invested not only,uh,by taking in it,
but,you know, financially investing in the community,uh, and it's- it's the rave. Um,
other cities are looking at it and- and starting to adopt it and what was a unique thing that
drove a lot of people to Prosperia,winds up becoming kind of a status quo, and revenues
start to drop,um,the-the magic of the short-term, um-um-uh, creative financing kind of
goes away and,uh, go figure the original,uh, situation that placed to the city in crisis is
back. But now it's even worse because they never really addressed those issues and,um,
basically lived off the- off the-the short-term,um,benefits of- of that creative financing.
So,um,his sories always end up bad, so I, I- I think about that,but I just wanted to kind
of lay that-that kind of frame-mind frame there as I kind of go through these revenues so
that,um,we kind of keep in mind,uh,that our challenges,uh,we need to look at the-the
finde- foundations of those challenges and- and,uh,maybe not just get focused on maybe
some short term solutions. So,uh, as soon as I hit it, it goes dark, okay. All right,picking
up with revenues. So,uh,we'll start with this slide,uh,which shows all fund,uh,revenue
sources. Um,this is, uh,primarily want you to take a look at the,um,property tax slide-
slice of the pie, it's 31%,um, changes of- for services,that's our enterprise funds,that's at
22%. Um, our intergovernmental funds usually aren't this,uh, large,but the big chunk of
that is our ARPA funds. It also includes,um-uh, 28e agreements. All right. Our next
slide focuses on just the general fund. Uh,the big takeaway,uh,here is,uh,the visual
effect of the,um,much-how much the general fund relies on property tax, and that's at
67%. Uh, some of the other,uh,pieces,uh, of the pies would,uh,be other city taxes,um,
hotel,motel, and utility franchise taxes,that's around 5% intergovernmental,uh, grants,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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28e,we talked about that, 7%miscellaneous fines, fees, chargebacks,uh,to enterprise
funds, etc. That's around 12%,uh, 2% change for services, inspection, cemetery
programming,And a small portion,uh, is the financial,uh, sources,that's I%,those are
like sales of assets and loan repayments. So,um we kind of talked a little bit about,um,
some of the,uh,the impact on our- our levies. Um, as shown in the previous slide,uh,
how important property taxes are to our general fund. This really,uh,highlights the
impact of what House File 718 had on our-the-the property tax reform,uh,that was
passed last session. Uh, for Iowa City, that resulted in,uh,Library and emergency levies,
uh,being discontinued and conso- consolidated into our general fund levy.Um,that
moved,uh, our 810 general fund,um, levy,uh,which is,you know,based on per a 1000
tax rate,um,to 8.57,uh,with that consolidation. Uh, so,uh,that sounds good except that
the state also imposes a,um, a growth rate in taxable,um,property value that-well, they
impose a penalty on,uh, communities that have growth rates that go over 3%that-that
affected us, and,um,that,um,the penalty reduces,uh, our,um,tax rate by 17%. So,uh,
that 8.57 of that consolidation is reduced by 17,um, since. And that takes it down to, 18,
um, excuse me, 8.4/1000 of tax assessable value. So to help try and- and close that,um,
gap,there's a couple of things that,um,we've looked at,uh,to kind of ease some of those
pressures. So,um, one is our,uh, our increase in our tort levy,um, and an increase in our,
uh, debt service levy. So you can see those there to,um,make up that gap of that $0.17
that we lost.
Fruin: I'm going to jump in real quick.
Jones: Sure.
Fruin: Um, on that backslide. Um, this one's really-this one's really important and it's probably
going to take you,uh, a little bit just to stare at this and- and really think through it. So
we'll-we'll pause on it for a minute. But what's happening is- is that Library and
emergency,uh, levy is getting squished into the general fund,right?Um,but then the
general fund levy has to come down so it's not like it's just added to,um, and we have to
free up flexibility in the general fund. Um, so what Redmond's pointing at is we're
increasing a couple other levies that the general fund historically has supported so that the
general fund can back off that support a little bit and then take on the Library and the
climate action. So,um, the general fund could pay for the increase in insurance cost,but
we're better off putting that on the tort levy and- and absorbing,uh, again the Library and
emergency fund in the general. Same thing on the-the debt service,we typically we'll-
we'll transfer money from the general fund to the capital fund and we do pay as you go
capital projects in addition to borrowing. We just can't do that as much right now,not in-
in the short term at least. We hope to be able to get back to that. So we're- we're going to
be doing less pay as you go and more borrowing. And you're going to need to increase
your debt service levy to-to pay for that. So that's- that's what's going on here. But this is
going to take a little bit for- for the,uh,kind of the tactics here to sink in.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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Alter: And can I hop in. Redmond,you spoke about if there's growth above 3%, cities get
penalized?
Jones: Yeah. They'll call it reduction,but it's a penalty. Um,yeah. So counterintuitively,uh,the
way that they have-have looked at cities that are growing, in their- in their minds,they
believe that those-that growth is not being shared with the taxpayer. So their thought is
that they would increase,uh, and basically increase their ability to-to reduce that growth,
um, and force- and force some type of tax relief. But it doesn't make sense for a
community like Iowa City because we've been on an aggressive tax relief plan for the last
11 years anyway. So for- for us, it essentially is penal-penalizing us for being successful
and- and having a growing community.
Alter: Yeah,that's how it sounded to me too.
Jones: Yeah.
Alter: Thank you.
Bergus: Um,the-this slide here doesn't show all of our levies. Are there other levees where we
still have any capacity? I mean, I trust that we're shifting things around as best we can,
but just in thinking about places where we could actually collect additional real-real
estate taxes. Are there other levies that could be used, like, for specific projects or things?
Fruin: Yeah.Nicole and Angie may have a list that they can rattle off,but there-there are other
levies available to the city. Some of them probably were-were taken away in the same
legislation. But like there's a capital improvements levy,uh,that-that requires voter
approval. Um, I believe, is there an airport? I think there might be some type of
municipal airport levy, I'm not sure. Any other ones come to mind that we've-
Davies:Not that come to mind. And we do have a little bit of room in our employee benefits
levy. But-
Teague: Will you speak into the mic,please?
Davies: Sorry.
Teague: Thank you.
Davies: We're running-we're running out of options to even be able to increase anywhere,right?
At some point, if they keep dropping it,we're not going to have the ability to even keep
our rate where it is.
Bergus: Right. Okay. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.
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Moe: Is- is there any- sorry, follow up question on that. Is there any suspicion that additional
levies will be removed through state legislation?
Davies: I mean, I think they're-not at this point,but there's already-there's already a bill,right,
to reduce the commercial and industrial,uh, assessment. So I mean, I think they're
coming after property taxes again. What that's going to look like,we don't know.
Dunn: Quick- quick question about the-the growth penalty. Um, could you kind of explain the
relationship between that penalty and our- our,um, desired growth rate?Right. So are we
shooting for a growth rate, and this is just like an objective question. Are we shooting for
a growth rate that's going to incur us like more of these penalties,because that's what it
seems like?
Jones: And- and I should say, I- I have characterized it as penalties. They will call it a reduction.
Dunn: I don't care what they say.
Jones: So- so,um,based on the rate of growth you fall in- in these various tiers of reduction,the
whole idea is to ratchet back that consolidated debt,uh,the consolidate- excuse me,the
consolidated,uh, levies. So,um, for us, it's the Library and Emergency. For other cities, it
could be some other,um, other levies that have been consolidated. And- and what they
want to do is get us back to the-the 810. So over,uh, over a four year, five year period,
there's continued reductions and based on your growth,you can be reduced quicker than
others. If you're a slow growing community or not growing community,that reduction is
at a lesser rate.
Fruin: Yeah, it's- it's hard because there's not a-there's not really a target. Um, I could tell you if
we would have grown 2.9%,then we wouldn't have been penalized at all. Um, so that's
the magic number is 2.99. Um,but regardless of,you know,this really just- this really
just dictates how you're phased down over that four year period. At the end of the four
years,we're all going to be back at 810 anyway. Um,my guess is we'll hit the 3% growth
targets every year and we'll probably be-we'll-we'll probably see this phase out occur in
three years instead of four. That's-that's probably where we're going.
Jones: Great. So moving forward,um,this slide, uh-uh, our property tax rate trend kind of
highlights what we were kind of talking before uh,the red bar as tax-taxable valuation,
blue is our property tax rate. As you could see uh, and even if we went back beyond uh,
fiscal year 16,you'll see uh,that blue line trend continuing to come down. Uh, it- it is
notable around fiscal year'22 that it starts to plateau out and that's really where uh, a lot
of the-the states uh, 2013 tax reforms at the backfill has-has run its course and- and now
the new uh,tax reform has run its course. So I mean,theoretically that blue line would
continue to be going down if it wasn't for uh, our big brother state agency trying to get
involved in guiding us on- on with the tax reform legislation. So uh, it's kinda- it's
actually kind of counterproductive in some of the things that-that they're doing. But just
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the same uh, our valuations have been on a scale going up. And with fiscal year 25, it's-
it's a better year, as you can see. But I don't want to kind of say that's a turnaround year,
but it is coming-uh, coming out of COVID and um-and um, it looks a little bit better. So.
Bergus: I have a question about the taxable valuation on that slide. Uh,you mentioned on the
building permit slide that a lot of the value indicated in that increase was, or a good
chunk of it,was public and therefore,wouldn't actually be assessed. Do these value- is
this just sort of like the built value or is this already backing out? Is this like the actual
amount on which tax is levied versus the 100%value?Do you know?
Frain: This is-this is the taxable value,not 100%.
Bergus: Got it. Thank you.
Frain: So for example, in fiscal year 25,you can see that taxable growth of 3.61%. Our total
assessed growth was 18%.
Bergus: Yeah, okay.
Frain: So we saw great value grow,but only 3.6 taxable.
Bergus: Thank you.
Jones: So look- looking at this slide reminds us um,that-that Iowa City is just one levy um,or
one component in the overall uh,tot-total property tax rate that property owners pay. Uh
the city uh, at its highest point was at 43.5%um, overlapping but with a lot of those
efforts that we've been talking about, getting our- our tax rate down,we're-we're now got
it down to where we're 39%uh,which is below the school district,which is at 41%. So
just reminder that, although we seem to draw a lot of attention with the public eye,that
there's other uh, gover- governmenal agencies that are involved in their tax rates. Uh,
this-this slide looks at, again, our efforts in reducing our tax rate. And we-we'll see that
um since 2012, our tax rate has dropped below the city of Davenport,below the city of
Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, and uh, and as of very last fiscal year, even Sioux City, so
we're uh-we're doing really good at our 16.3 I mean, obviously we would love to do
better,but we're also facing headwinds on just like the other communities are- are with a
lot of the tax reforms that has been coming down. This slide uh,takes a look at our hotel
motel tax. Uh,remember, overall,this is a relatively small percentage of our general
fund. Uh, if you recall our earlier general fund pie chart,hotel motel would fall at that 5%
in other city taxes portion of- of our general fund revenues. Uh,but we like to look at this
one because it gives us some indication of- of visitors to our community and some of the
effects of our economic development efforts. Uh, I think some- some years to kind of
keep an eye or take a look at that would explain some of the peaks and valleys is in fiscal
year 2018,we had the graduate hotel going through renovations uh, in 2020-2021 we-we
know that was the COVID-19, so that shows a big dip there, and uh, 2022 in 2023 uh,
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shows a resurgence. So my-my mom used to always tell me that a setback is a set up for
a comeback. Well, it looks like our hotels are making a comeback after COVID-19 so.
Our next slide uh, looks at our major revenue sources. Our utility franchise,uh,utility
franchise, our tax on gas and electric utility bills. Uh,we only show our actuals because
our budget is really conservative. So any fluctuations in our energy usage or weather
related uh, for cool summers,warm winters uh,will kind of be evened out from those
impacts. Uh, so- so we're at 1% Iowa City Utility franchisees currently at that point. The
state allows us to go up to 5%with uh, City Council approval. Um, so um,this is on the
left there, or the right, I should say. You-you'll see uh,where some of the other
communities line up there. I think one of note is just recently North Liberty had moved
from 1%to 3%. Um, in- later in the presentation,we'll kind of explore how this revenue
source could play a role in finding ways to potentially help us with some of our funding
for our fare free transit once the pilot program is concluded. So just kind of keep this in
mind as well,.
Moe: Redmond, I know this ofthand,but is there a capacity for us to have franchise fees
different for electric versus gas, something that might align with climate action goals?
Jones: I don't know of breaking those up.
Fruin: That's something we'd have to look at a I'm not aware of cities doing that,but check into
that.
Moe: I would like to know that.
Jones: So,yeah. Um, so our next slide looks at our road-use,uh,road use tax. Um,this revenue
stream is heavily restricted,uh, for road related to expend-uh, expenditures.Um,the-the
takeaway here,uh,that we want you to leave you with is that we're facing some- some
major challenges in keeping pace with our road maintenance demands. Um, so- so
looking at this graph,um,the blue lines represent our,um, our revenues. The-the red up
and down is the-the change rate. But I- I think,um,behind this slide is,um, is really the
um, cost of construction is going up. Uh,we had a- a pavement management plan,uh,
done in 2020 or 2021, and,uh,the plan called for an estimated additional $11,000,000 in,
uh,per year,uh, in,uh,road investments. And so if you look at,uh, 11- fiscal Year 2011
and the growth that's happened from there to fiscal year 2023,that only represents,uh,
around $3 million- $3.3 million of- of growth in the,uh,road use tax. So if- if our plan is
calling for investments of 11 million,you can see how far we-we are and,um,what that-
that gap is. To kind of give you some idea,the plan also identifies our- our whole road
network value at around $610 million,um, and- and also recognized about 63.9% of our
total,uh,road condition as in good condition. But that leaves us with,uh, 36%,uh, of
condition that is either fair,ranging to very poor. And so there is certainly a challenge
that we have in front of us and of course,there are some headwinds that we have to work
through. Um, so this slide will kind of talk a little bit about those headwinds.But fust,we
do realize that,um,road use tax is not keeping pace. We-we clearly know-understand
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that. But then the construction,uh, expenses,uh, is- is really shown here. This is done by,
um,Department of Transportation and you can't really see. But,um,you could see in
2015-2016,there's a huge,uh, a increase of costs there and so that's before COVID,uh,
pandemic those costs were going up and it was just exaggerated,um, and- and-with
during the pandemic, and so,um,that cost is- is also raising,um,the-the dollar amount
that we need to reinvest in our roads because it's going to be costing us more. The other-
the other challenge is every year that we delay,uh,that also is a compounding effect,uh,
not only with the construction costs,but then the road condition gets worse and as road
conditions,uh, get poorer,they're more expensive to get back up to-to-to the standards
so that's a constant,uh, challenge,uh,headwind that we're dealing with.
Alter: Did you say that it was,um, the overarching kind report card on our roads,was that 36%
were fair to poor?
Jones: Yes.
Alter: Okay.
Jones: Yes and I- I will say I think we're-we're going to be commissioning a new,uh, a new,uh,
pavement,um, study soon to-to update to 2021, or-but that's pretty much where we were
at that point in that snapshot in time.
Teague: How often do we do that? I think where we just did it in 2019?
Fruin: Yeah,the state will collect the pavement data every- every couple of years. The 2020
study was the fust time that we really,um, hired someone to analyze it and help us
prioritize and project out future needs. So later this year we'll have an update to that.
We'll probably do those updates every three to four years just so we can make sure that
we're aware of whether we're keeping up or not.
Dunn: Do we- do know if-how we are in comparison to other similar communities?
Fruin: Yeah,the report gets into that. We're actually fare very well compared to our peers. Um, I
think,uh,particularly when you look at the older cities,right, it's hard to compare
ourselves to the Ankeny's and West Des Moines' of the world that are new, um,mostly
new infrastructure. But I believe,uh, only Waterloo maybe was ahead of us in terms of
the larger cities, and they use a LOST for 100%roads. You'll see that in the next slides,
and that's one of the biggest kind of challenges that we have. When you look at the next
LOST slide,you will see that most of the older larger cities use a portion of their LOST
for roads and we just don't have that revenue source.
Moe: And this is annual trends that we're looking at right now. Is there any evidence that what
we're doing in Iowa City is smarter or better? I mean, I know that there's an increased
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cost in labor and materials obviously is forcing this,but is size of roads, quality of roads,
amount of infrastructure that gets replaced also something to control?
Fruin: And this is just,uh, this is just a benchmark that-that- and it's not to say our experience
has been exactly the same,but through our-through the bids that you all approve,um,
we've seen-we've seen those projects,uh,just in the last few years jump 20 to 30 percent
pretty routinely so,um, I don't think we're-we're too far off,uh, from these DOT
experiences.
Jones: So I- I think the other point I'd like to- to leave you with is- is that,um,with all those
challenges,um, obviously we've been relying on,um, our- our G.L debt to fund our road
projects. That-that places additional,um,pressures on,uh,tax-property tax revenues
which overall can,um, affect the,um,the availability of- of funds for quality of life uh,
investments.
Bergus: Is that general obligation debt in terms of property taxes all captured in the debt service
levy? Okay.
Fruin: Yes.
Bergus: All right.
Jones: So our- our next slide here,uh, local option sales tax. Obviously,we were kind of,um,
building you up to what a po-possible solution could be,um, if,um, an additional 11
million is needed,um, and keep in mind that number could be higher now,uh,because
that was ascertained in 2021. But going off that number over the next 15 year period, if
we wanted to just have our status quo kind of conditions, it would take that type of
investment. Um, if we estimate a loss in that would generate roughly anywhere from $8-
12 million per year and,um,with a projected growth of about 1.3% annually. So this is
just showing some examples of- of how LOST is being used in other communities. Uh,
you can see,uh,that many of them are using,um, street repair as a part of it and we
talked about Waterloo and- and Cedar Rapids also using 100% of their LOST for street
repair.
Moe: I- I see some of the older effective years show 100% streets and sewers. Does the state
allow us to do that or is- are we required now to do property tax reform with 50%?
Jones: They-they're-they have been there to-to use,uh, 50% for property,uh,tax relief There's
been some creative ways that have been used,uh,to get around that hasn't-hasn't been
upset yet so,uh, give us,you know, give us time, I'm sure they will figure out a way. But,
um,the-the rule of thumb is that 50%would be,uh, go for tax-property tax relief.
Bergus: We've looked a few times at that 2013 number that averaged the 8.8 million last time we
had LOST. Do we-what's our best guess for what it would be now?
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Frain: Well, the-even though that cities can vote on these individually now,which is different
than 2013,uh, different than in the past,um,there's still a revenue sharing model in place
for contiguous cities so it really depends on who else jumps in. Um, I- I don't think we've
seen,uh, exceptional growth in our sales tax base,uh, since 2013. Like Redmond said,
maybe-maybe a percent a year at best. Uh, so the estimate that Redmond gave of 8 to 12
million is probably pretty good, I'd say hopefully closer to that 12,uh, end of things. But
if our contiguous cities also pass a LOST, it could-we could be up in that 18-$20 million
range pretty quick. Um, it just depends who's in and- and who's out.
Bergus: Is that because Coraville has so much sales tax?
Frain: Yeah, so the-the revenue sharing for contiguous cities is based on population- largely
based on population. If let's say Coraville,North Liberty, and Iowa City all have a LOST,
all that money goes into one pot and then there's a statewide formula that distributes to
those three cities and it's largely based on population,which makes sense,right,because
businesses don't pay sales tax. People pay sales tax. So yes, if Coraville comes in,they
have a large number of businesses collecting that tax,the revenue pie is going to grow.
But they also have a relatively small population compared to Iowa City so they won't
realize all of those collections in their community.
Bergus: Thank you.
Salih: When you say expired in 2013,how long before that we have the LOST rate tax?
Frain: Four years.
Salih: Four years?
Frain: It was after the flood, so there were flood relief projects. We-we used that to,uh, expand
our wastewater plant,uh, at the- at the- in the south part of town, and eventually create
the Riverfront Crossings Park and then the-the Gateway project that raising Dubuque
and the new Park Road Bridge we're all supported by the LOST.
Salih: What do you mean when you say generated 8.8 million,that's before 2013,which is-
Frain: Correct.
Salih: -old now.
Frain: Twenty- 20 basically 29- 2009 through 2013,we collected those funds for those projects.
Salih: And- and we've grown since then,right?
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Fruin: We- we've grown since then as a- as a population,but our sales tax base hasn't necessarily
grown proportionate to our population.
Fruin: Okay. I'm going to jump into the,uh,reahn of expenditures here. Uh,this just a- a- a
quick graph to show you,uh,how much we've been,uh, spending in the different types
of- of funds. Our general fund is,uh, a little over 71 million,your enterprise funds,
again,those operations that we run like a business,your utilities,your parking,uh,
examples, about 64 million. The other large piece of that is the capital project side. That's
where most of the expenditures take place. I like to share this slide. Um, gives you a little
bit more comparison with our cities. This is a general fund make up. And the Iowa State
University puts these together every year, and to help cities kind of understand where -
where they're at relative to peers. So we spend about 39% of our general fund on public
safety. And I point out the -the -the culture and recreation section two were about 23%.
On average all Iowa cities spend 44% on public safety, so about 5%more than us, and
20% on culture and recreation are about 3% lower than us. However,that difference gets,
uh, even greater when you just focus on cities of the - of similar sizes. So cities of similar
sizes to Iowa City spend roughly half their general fund on public safety. Again,we're at
39%, and they spend about 16% on culture and recreation. So,uh,you can kind of walk
away from this is that we provide exceptionally high public safety services with fairly
lean budgets, and we also invest a higher percentage of our general fund and culture and
recreation than our peer communities. Uh,when we look at our general fund,uh, it's
really important to know that three quarters of every dollar go to personnel. Uh,we are a
very labor heavy operation. The services that we provide require people to deliver those,
and,uh,the expenses around people generally are fixed,right?We are mostly unionized
here, so we have collectively bargained wages. We offer health insurance which have rate
increases. We're part of state pension plans which have rate increases annually. Um, the
discretionary portion of our budget, outside of how many staff we hire, largely is that
25%,the services,the contingency,the supplies if not much. When you hit hard times,
that's generally why you see us, and why this budget year we're pumping the brakes on
adding staff a little bit because there's just so much dependent on,uh, on those. This is
the same information just with actual dollars. You can see,uh, from last year we're
recommending an increase in total expenditures of 4.5% in our general fund,which is
almost exactly equal to that,uh,personnel expenses,those collectively bargained wages,
those health insurance,those pensions,uh,things like that. Everything else is - is - um,
uh,much smaller dollar amount, and - and more,uh, status quo. Back to Redmond for the
debt service.
Jones: Um, for debt service, I think the thing that I really want to come across is- is the,uh, fiscal
discipline that the city has practiced has served as -has served as well. Um, so,uh,keep
in mind that the state law, uh, limits debt service to,uh,be no more than 5%of the total
assessed tax valuable,uh,uh,value of the city. Um, and- and- and instead of using that,
uh, state limit,uh,100% of that state limit,the city actually only uses 15.5%of, it's- of
that limit for its general obligation bonds. Uh, additionally,uh,the city by internal city
policy limits,uh,the ability of its debt service levy,uh, ensuring that it doesn't exceed
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30% of the city's total levy,uh, in any given fiscal year. Uh, currently,uh,we're -we're
at,uh, debt service,um, at 16.5% of that. So,uh, again, showing very strong fiscal
discipline on the city's part. Um, and that's one of the reasons why we've been able to,uh,
convince Moody's that we're deserving of a AAA,uh,bond rating. Um,Moody has,uh,
many things that they look at,but one of the things they look-they look at is the overall,
uh, debt burden that,uh,the -the communities that they rate. Um, and they have goals of
that not being,uh,more than 0.75—0.75% of the total assessed value. And -and we're
right,uh,right at- at that number at 0.78%. So- and that's actually getting a- a lot closer
than we were just even last year. Uh, so we're making progress, and - and that as our- as,
um, debt obligations start to fall off, it gets us closer to that number. So we're-we're right
there where -where we really need to be.
Moe: And- and these debt service numbers are all public debt service numbers. Is there any
private debt service numbers included in that? I know we have neighbors that use private
debt service to fund things.
Fruin: Yeah,we-we don't do any private placement bonds.
Moe: Okay.
Bergus: I have a question about how this capacity that we see reflected in, compared to the state
limit and compared to our own policy. Um,what does that represent in terms of where
our debt service levy is?Like is there an easy way to reflect that in terms of what that
capacity that remains? Is it $1 amount or is it a more complicated formula?
Fruin: Yeah,we really haven't gone through the exercise to see how high we could take that debt
service levy,um,but there's also different,um,um, debt strategies. You know,we try to
retire all debt. Most of the GOs that we issue are ten years, and we try to front load some
principal payments. Uh,you know, if we went to 20 year bonds, and we - and we -we
looked at different payment structures,you could increase your debt,uh, capacity without
impacting the rate as much. Um,but you're going to pay more interest over time. So, um,
hard to-hard to quantify exactly,but we-we do have room to grow, and we could
mitigate that through longer term debt. I'm not recommending that,but,um,that would
be a possibility.
Bergus: We're just kind of pushing on, I think I said this last year as well,but we've been so very
conservative in how we address borrowing and just,you know,thinking about the
pressures that we're under does that push harder towards some change in this strategy or
not.
Fruin: Yeah, I think,uh,yeah particularly if- if we come to a con - conclusion, or it looks like
LOST just isn't going to be right for our community,um,we're going to have to look at
increasing bonding for roads. Uh,we're already seeing that kind of take hold in our CIP.
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We'll get into that a little bit more. But, um,uh,that may become a necessity if we don't
consider a- a- a- a source like local option in the future.
Jones: I thinks,uh, getting to some of that,uh,Laura is that,uh, if you remember, last year,uh,
we were projected at around 0.92%, and we've been-been able to get that down to
0.78%, and we still had our AAA at that point. So there's room there,right? I mean,they
don't like it. I mean,their-their benchmark goal is- is - is - is obviously 0.75%. But
obviously,we were able to continue our, and have our AAA when we were a little bit
further away from that goal. So there-there's room there. I mean,these are-these are just
pieces. And I think what we talked about last year too is there's the aggregate of things
that they look at. And so,um,there's definitely, like Geoff said, there's -there's rooms to
-to push it, and- and- and - and strike that balance. Uh,but we of- often take advice from
our financial managers to know exactly where that could be, and where we probably
should stay away from.
Bergus: And I think I asked this last year as well, but there's not an easy way to quantify what the
AAA bond rating is worth. But again,we treat it as sort of sacred here. And if it's not,
obviously saving us significant money,which is something to,you know,to keep in mind
to look at as well.
Jones: Well as a segue,thank you,um, looking at our- our Moody's bond rating. So I think
they're the thing that I want to drive home here is- is one -keep in mind that there's um,
multiple rating agencies. Moody's handles many cities,but there's not-there's others um,
Standard and Poors and Fitch,make up what they call the big three. So there could be
communities that use those bond agencies as well. Um,but we use Moody's and there's
multiple cities in Iowa that-that uses Moody's as well. And um,we're in a really small
group of communities um,nationally, as well as ah, in the state,which we'll look at in the
next slide. But just kind of you know, looking at um, from a national standpoint,you
know,we're one of 239 communities that at least work through Moody's as their bond
rater, and um,that-that's a very select group. Um,but there's other communities and um,
Aal is also very good um,rating um, and there's you know a number of communities
there, a majority in Aa2 communities you can see there. Um,But then they get lower on
various situations. So looking at Iowa,um, only one of three communities um,us, Cedar
Falls, and um, I believe that's going to be West Des Moines,um, so you know, in a very
um,unique situation and um,hopefully that reflects the quality of life because that is
certainly one of the things that Moody's look at um, and they look at the attributes of the
community. Things like household incomes,but also uh,the investments that we make in
the community. And so uh, I think that both we're-well that we're doing something-
doing something right.
Harmsen: Correct me if I'm wrong,just kind of reminding that we talked about the benefit of
this. It's essentially the idea that we get a better percentage rate when we borrow.
Jones: Yes.
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Harmsen: So it's like not getting the credit cards they give college students and they get 15%
every three days, or whatever it is,when I was a college student. It- it's getting, I mean, it
saves us real money down the road. Right?
Jones: Absolutely. Right. And it's just funny your analogy because I remember just happening
just to be able to get any kind of credit was great when I was a college student,right?
And so you're willing to accept 21% interest or whatever,but then after a while,you get
to realize that you know what, 2% interest is pretty good. And so when you're able to
have high ratings like that,you get to call some of your own shots and dictate, so demand
better interest rates. And so that actually makes a big difference in what you can do for
the community and you know in researching,because actually I- I worked last year,
Laura raised the point of what equates to $1 amount and trying to get that. And I was
really trying to find that answer this year and I just- everywhere I went, I just couldn't.
But uh, I did see some examples where the city of Detroit,where they were, you know, if
you recall,they had hit bankruptcy. The state had to come in and- and um,provide them a
manager-required manager to manage their finances for a while. And so they were well-
well down to the Baa3 and they've worked themselves up to a Baal now and they're
celebrating- celebrating that and what they were able to do between the difference of the
Baa3 and the Baa,they were able to take savings and reinvest it into their pension
program,which was what was killing them. So it makes a difference,hard to say that it's
$200,000, $300,000. But it does generate the ability for cities to reinvest in quality of life
and other things that help them. So important. Other things I wanted to, I just give you
some idea of some of our regional counterparts.North Liberty,they have a Aa3,
Davenport,they're at Aa2, Tipton in A1, Waterloo Aa2, Muscatine Aa2,Des Moines
Aa2. So,just kind of give you an idea where we are in those comparisons.
Fruin: Okay. A lot going on- on this slide. You're not going to spend a whole lot of time. You've
got it for reference, if needed. These are your enterprise funds. Really,what I ah, ah,tend
to ask councilors to focus on is that the two right columns. Uh,the far right is a fund
health analysis. This is just our kind of analysis to you. The A funds,we just need to
monitor closely. They're-they're not in poor health,but they're they're certainly on
slimmer margins when you look at the kind of reserves and what they're um,bringing in
year over year,uh. The Aa is obviously a little stronger. The Aaa we feel really good
about, so we're in a pretty good spot with water. They have some expiring debt,we've got
some good fund balance and we're going to be in a really good position to address some
of our community's future capital needs here in the next decade or two with that fund.
Something just to circle back to if you need it.
Bergus: On this rating system, is there anything lower than an A?
Fruin:No. Yeah, I will invent something if we get there.
Bergus: I got it. Okay. Thank you.
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Frain: But get there,this is just my own rating system here.
Bergus: Thanks.
Frain: For utility rate changes proposed in this budget--we are proposing a 3%water rate
increase, a 5%wastewater rate increase, and $1 per month in the recycling rate. The total
monthly fee increase for a household would be just shy of$4. Most of this is to support
operations. As we continue to see service inputs go up with inflation,the wastewater is in
part to support some future debt issuance. We are expecting to issue some revenue bonds
in the next few years and the additional rate will help pay back those debts. And then on
the recycling side,the third party processing of our recycling materials is getting ah,
much more expensive very quickly. Ah, so the extra dollar will go a long way to meeting
some of those increased costs for handling the recyclables that we pick up.
Moe: Is recycling under refuse or landfill?
Frain: It's under refuse. Um,yes. It's from a management standpoint, it's under one.
Moe: [INAUDIABLE] enterprise balance is.
Frain: Yeah,refuse.
Moe: Okay.
Frain: Yep. It would be under refuse.
Moe: So Parkiung and Transit, I'm not sure I fully understand the lines between those two.
Frain: Um,yes. So Parking is,there's a little bit of blurred lines between Parking and Transit.
Think of Transit just mostly as the bus operations. We do have one parking deck,the
Court Street deck,whose revenues are required by the federal government to support
transit because it was built with a federal grant. Um, otherwise, the parking fees that we
charge in the decks, and we collect on the streets, support the parking deck maintenance
and the operation of those.
Salih: You're saying with this,you're proposing like increase in the water?
Frain: Yes, 3%water rate increase.
Salih: But we just did on the 2021,Right?
Frain: We did on 2024. Last year we increased it about 3, or 4-4%. I had it on a previous slide. I
don't-
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Sahli: But why for the water?
Fruin: Because again,we run the water operation like- like a business,right?We don't support it
with property taxes,we don't support it with utility taxes. And you have to continue to
pay your staff who have collectively bargained wages. You have to pay their health
insurance,which is going up, and the cost of construction when we're repairing water
mains and we're fixing um,main breaks,uh,those costs are going up 3%,4%, 5%. So
you have to continue to bring in revenue.
Sahli: I understand,but you know, is this done deal or are we going to vote for it?
Fruin: This is this is our proposal to you all. You're going to vote on it.
Sahli: But yeah. Because I really think that we don't need to do that. This is going to affect a lot
low income people by like every year. If I thought we just done it in 2021 because I was
here,but then us last year,you did it and you're going to do it this time. I think we need
really to look into this and to figure out another, if we want to increase something, let us
not increasing the water.
Bergus: Two-two points. 1)we keep saying run these like a business,but the really important
distinction there is no profit margin.
Fruin: Correct.
Bergus: We cannot have a profit margin. So we-we run them to break even.
Fruin: Yeah.
Bergus: Okay. And then,uh, on the wastewater,how do we decide if we're gonna increase rates
to retire debt versus kick it. Like we could subsidize through bonding and like debt
service,right?
Fruin: Yeah. You-you could use property taxes to-to pay back the debt. Um,with wastewater,
we could be looking at upwards of$30 million in improvements to the plant. Um, on
average, our GO bonding is about 10-12 million. Uh, so something of this magnitude, I
think it makes a little bit more sense to put on a- a revenue bond. Um,but yes,we could-
we could look at that from a,uh,property tax bonding standpoint. I think we're in a pretty
good spot financially with wastewater. We're not carrying much debt now. The debt that
we do have will be expiring in the next few,uh,years so we can take the capacity that we
were using to pay back old debt,keep that capacity, and- and,um, support some
reinvestment into the plant that's gonna-that's gonna be needed in the next few years.
Bergus: For the end user, is the wastewater, um, amount tied to the water usage?
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Frain: That's correct,yes.
Bergus: Okay. So this increase isn't-you can't like use less wastewater to reduce the increase?
Okay.
Frain:No-no it's based on water consumption.
Bergus: So just thinking about who's bearing those costs there, it's not an incentive for-
Frain: Correct.
Bergus: Um- conservation?
Frain: Correct.
Bergus: Okay.
Frain: Certainly, on the waterside, there's conservation.
Bergus: Yes.
Frain: And- and that's-that's one of the challenges the water fund will face,right?As- as,uh,just
building materials improve,right?You think of low-flow faucets and shower heads,that-
that's great. The-those are great things,but they also constrain revenue in the face of
rising expenses. Uh,two other,uh,user fee charges that we're proposing with this budget,
a $2.50 cent per ton tipping fee to,uh, support landfill operations, and also help,uh,
support,uh, a new equipment building that is sorely needed out there, and,uh,potentially
for us to look at future land acquisition as our community continues to grow. And then,
uh, one of the more significant recommendations from this budget is a parking rate
increase. We haven't increased our parking rates in our decks and our meters since 2013.
We are recommending that the parking decks move to two dollars an hour while we-we
would maintain fust hour free. Uh,we would also increase meters to $1.50 or two dollars
based on their location. And then adjust citations for expired meters,handicapped space
violation-violations, and- and a host of other,uh,- common violations that we see
primarily in the downtown area. Uh,the combination of these,we would estimate would
bring in about $2.9 million. And you can see the breakdown of how we would anticipate
to spend that. About 1.5,we hope will go to permanently support fare-free transit to the
community. Um,we would like to, ah,recommend about another million dollars per year
to support parking deck maintenance. These are capital investments in our deck as we
look at projected capital needs, concrete repairs, and things of that nature. Uh,we
currently are not generating enough revenue to-to meet those,uh,maintenance
obligations coming up. And then about $400,000 to support,uh, enhanced cleaning
efforts downtown. Uh,we are seeing our third-party,um,waste vendor downtown,um,
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their service level,uh, diminish. Uh,we're not, ah, effectively working with them to-to-
to get to a level of service that we think is acceptable for this community, so we've been
working with the Iowa City Downtown District to explore,um, other,um,maintenance
options, and,uh,we feel like we're working towards a good solution. But it will cost
more money,uh,to get more people downtown and in our decks to help,uh,keep the,uh,
area clean.
Moe: I return to the question about the enterprise funds being separate and how,um, I think
everyone's excited about finding ways to continue fair-free transit,but parking and
transportation being two different enterprise funds,how is this okay?
Frain: Yeah. So we would be-we'd be moving to a combined enterprise. So we'd be essentially
taking,uh,there's a couple of different paths we can take,but as of right now,uh,we're
leaning towards a combined enterprise of basically putting parking and transit into one
enterprise fund.
Salih: Would you please go back to the water,the utility rate change?And when-when you say
like when you put it on this kind of format that looks at $1.09 month per home,yeah, it
feels like very good, it's really not a lot of money and everything,but what-what-what
kind of bill we're talking about?Like how-how much is the bill itself you are comparing
the one dollar to?Because some people,they pay for their water from $50-180, like me.
So it depends on the user. The more the people using the water,that will be higher. But
can you-when-when you calculate this, and you say $1.90 cents per water, $1.84,
because all of them in one bill, and I know that you say $3.93 per bill,but what are we
talking about?How much is that bill when you get this percent?
Frain: Yeah. It's- it's gonna depend on- on consumption. If you,uh, live alone,uh,your water
rate is- is- you-your consumption is going to be lower, if you have a family of eight or
nine people...
Salih: I understand that. That's not my question. My question,when you come with this amount,
what-how much you ask them- like getting this number from?Like $100 bill,that's why
we pay 3.9, 50?
Frain:No, it would be- it would be more of, ah,what we would consider an average re-
residential bill.
Salih: Which is?
Frain: My guess is, uh,water side of things, is probably about $35 a month. I'm kind of-
Salih: Yeah,that's the average?
Frain: I'm- I'm- I'm guessing.
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Salih: Yeah. Because that's not right. You know, it- it- it would feel like really good,but that's
not true. That's what I- like uh...
Fruin: You-you-you may be thinking of your utility bill. You get a utility bill that has water,
wastewater,refuse...
Salih: I know.
Fruin: ...refuse, storm water all on it. Water is one component of that bill. So you may be
thinking of what the total utility bill is that you received from the City of Iowa City?
Salih:No,no. I'm- I'm the,but yeah,but all of them- con- con-the-the total bill will consist like,
water,wastewater, and recycling and everything, garbage, and everything in one bill,
right?
Fruin: Yes-yes. We-we present that on one bill- one monthly bill.
Salih: Yeah, and we're-we're having this increase on that bill. Each- each section have like this
increase?
Fruin: Correct.
Salih: What I mean, like the 1.9 for the water,you get that 3% of what? It is 1.9. I have- I can
figure it out,but I'd have to calculate it. But if you can tell me, like if we said 3% is 1.9,
with how much was the bill that you get 3% of 1.9?
Dunn: Thirty-six. The-the,what I calculated, and I'll explain why-how I did this. Um, and this
is just off of the numbers that we have here. So if- if we're assuming that every percent
here is about $0.36 and some- some change,um,that times 100 would be the average rate
based on this calculation is $36.33 for water rate alone.
Salih: Yeah. And- and by the way, our basic, if nobody uses the water is $30,that's why I don't
want this example to be here because that's not true example. This is what make me say,
oh,that's not much, let us increase it,but-but that's not right. You know, if this bill is-
like if you calculate to 36,whose water bill is 36? So I guess we- I guess when I point
that out was so because it look good here on the- on- on this slide.
Fruin: Yeah.
Salih: But that's not the reality.
Fruin: We're happy to present it in any way you want. We're not trying to-to-to hide anything
from you,uh, or the public. We'll-we'll present it in any way you want. If you want us to
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bring in sample bills and- and show you what that looks like,h,that's-that- we're happy
to do that. What we're suggesting is that 3%revenue increase is needed to continue to
support operations at the service level that we provide. If we don't,that's okay. But what
you end up doing is you set yourself up for a larger increase down the road,right? So if
you don't do one this year,you don't do one next year, eventually,you may need a 10%
increase. And that's where we've really been intentional of trying to avoid large spikes.
Matter of fact, it's a line item in your strategic plan. Don't have large spikes in your- in
our utilities. Make them manageable,make them smaller. Uh, so that-that's really what
we're trying to,uh, do at the end of the day.
Harmsen: I did actually see that happen in a city where I was working as a journalist in
Galesburg. They had several years where they did no water rate increases. They had a
similar sort of, uh,municipal fund actually. They-they were really proud of theirs
because it was like this super deep- deep aquifer and best water in western Illinois, all
that kind of good stuff. They went several years without one. And then I remember being
there and being at the meetings where they had to jump at 15%because they hadn't raised
it in like, I don't know how many years,but-but it definitely like it- it did, they-they
were like literally gonna have to like shut down their plant or jump it like a huge amount
that everybody had to swallow all at once. So whether or not this is the right rate or not,
you know,we'll-we'll be looking at that and figuring that out. But I do know that is a
concern that I had even before you'd mentioned that Geoff because I had seen that happen
in other communities I've lived.
Salih: I think that's fine, Shawn,but there is a low-income people here. Even if we want to
increase the water,we have to look to subsidize those people. We have to do something
about it. But,you know,there is-we have businesses here,we have people who can
really afford to pay the water if they increase it. But the thing that may be,you don't
know,there is many people in this community,they have all the time,they are const-
constantly,they are late on their bill,they cannot afford it. If we increase it, it will be
really high for them. So we- I just want you to know that what I really need, I will love
for the people who have money to pay the water,that's fine. But for- let us talk about also
putt in consideration,there is some group of people in this community cannot pay for the
water increase. That's why while we're looking into this,we should figure out how we
can subsidize the low-income people.
Teague: I did hear you mention that $30 was the basic.
Salih: Thirty- 36.
Teague: I'm sorry, $30 was the basic rate.
Salih:No-no.
Teague: Okay.
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Salih:No, it's not $30 the basic rate.
Teague: Okay.
Fruin: I'm- I'm sorry,Mayor go ahead.
Teague: Oh,no. I- I do wonder if,um, if there are some basic rates that we can look at,whereas
everyone in the community is sharing this 3.93%, $3 and 93% or I'm sorry, $3 and 93
cents. But I think as we go along,um,we'll be able to have more conversation on this.
But if it is-
Salih: Of course.
Teague: If- if it's shared by all than that,would be a small number.
Salih: Yes because I- I guess like when the public sees say oh,no problem,my-my bill will
increase $3 and 93 cents but that's not right. Your bill will increase depending on your
usage. And 3.93 is for the 36 as annual calculated, $36 bill which is if you don't use the
water,the city will send you a bill for $30.
Fruin: Okay. I- I would recommend that we-we maybe move on. We've got a last cover day. We
can-we can certainly dive deep into utility rates and we can present you different
scenarios for different,uh, consumption levels. Uh, and we can also provide you
comparisons with rates in other communities. Any information you want,we're happy to
provide you.
Dunn: Could you also include on that,um,you know,what utility rate discount programs we
already offer or are offered in the community?
Fruin: Yes,we can do that. Right.
Dunn: I'll just see email to you. Okay. Um.
Bergus: Just a quick question on the parking. Uh,when was the last time that we raised those
fees, do you know?
Fruin: Um, 2013. We might have done a-uh,uh, a kind of more surgical citation increase
between 2013 and now,but the-the decks and meter overhaul was lastly done in 2013.
Bergus: I'd- I'd urge us to consider a higher increase. I mean,this may-you know, if we're not
going to do it for 10 years, and I think with especially if it's subsidizing fare-free,there's a
pretty,you know, one-to-one for many people on that. And- and I having a business
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downtown, a lot of people complain about parking. It's not the fee, it's the availability. So
I think increasing the fee will also increase availability.
Fruin: Okay.
Salih: That's encouraging people to ride the bus and not coming with their car.
Fruin: Ah, I like to look at the estimated tax impact. We use $100,000 assessed valuation just
because it's easy to- easier to do the math in- in your mind. Uh,um, and we've added a
scenario B because assessments went up,uh, last year. So if you look at fiscal year 24,
uh,that property tax bill for the City of Iowa City would have been,uh, $854,uh,
keeping the tax rate the same, if your assessed value did not change,you could see that
would,uh,reduce,uh,your property tax bill by $130. And if you did experience a 20%
growth in assessments last year like many did,you'd actually pay about $15 more. So this
just goes to show you how,uh,what we're trying to show you here is how,um, all the
variables kind of come together to make up a property tax bill. You have your assessed
value,uh,which changes every couple of years. You have the-uh,what's actually
taxable,which is set by the state, and you have the levy that the City chooses. And then
of course,you're also going to have to layer on what the school district and county and
other taxing bodies choose to. I'm going to try to move through these fast. We'd like to
just kinda show what that would look like when you combine all the utilities and property
taxes. um, so much this, I don't put a lot of emphasis on this slide, especially this year
because assessments was-uh,went up so much last year. Um,but we do track this over
time just to see how much,uh, additional costs we're asking,uh, of our utility bill and,
uh,property taxpayers. So I want to talk a little bit about strategic plan and how this
budget helps us move forward towards many of the goals,uh, ah, and actions that you
have specified in your strategic plan. First, it's a good,uh,moment just to pause on- on
our ARPA funds. We do have to have all these funds obligated by the end of this year,
uh,with spend-down and two more years. You can see,uh,we've made really good
progress. We last reported,uh,this to you at the,uh, end of December. Uh, so you have a
memo you can go back to if you want to do a deeper dive. But really proud of how the
Council has prioritized those ARPA funds. Uum,we certainly,uh, did not take the easy
path forward with ARPA, um,which could have been in just investing in infrastructure
and- and things of that nature. We really looked at the needs of the community and have-
have done our best to contribute to,um,uh, creative solutions to address those. So very
proud of that work.
Moe: What is the spend-down requirement?
Fruin: Uh, all funds have to be obligated by the end cale- end of the calendar year, and the
spend-down requirement is the end of 26. So we look at our values. Um, I'm going to try
to cool through this. The next several slides are text heavy,but I want to- I want to go
through these fairly quickly. We're a little behind schedule. Uh,we continue the Social
Justice Racial Equity Grant program. We had increased that last in fiscal year'22. That
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remains at 100,000. You still have approximately, speaking round numbers here, 600,000
remain in the,uh,Black Lives Matter line item that was created in fiscal year 2020. Uh,
that is to be invested at your future direction. Know that that capacity exists. We're
excited to welcome a new human rights and engagement specialist position that the
council added with the last budget that's currently,uh,being,uh,recruited right now. Uh,
we continue to,uh,participate and expand sponsorships for,uh, a number of,uh,
important celebrations throughout the community,uh,many listed there. And then,uh,
uh,we make annual accessibility improvements throughout the community,uh,
sidewalks,parks,uh,things of that nature, even in our public buildings. So continue to
work on those fronts too. Uh, climate action. Our intent is not to skip a beat, even though
those climate action funds,our funding source,we're losing due to that state property tax
reform, it's going into the general fund and we hope we're not skipping a beat. So they're
going to remain aggressive. Uh,number of,uh, existing grant programs and
programming that we're going to offer and you've seen,uh, in recent weeks some of the
newer offerings that we have,uh, including whole house electrifica- electrification grants
for landlords that commit to accept housing choice vouchers,which we're really excited
about. Other major initiatives that we have outside of the climate action team,uh,you're
aware of the composting grant the Public Works Department received to expand that.
Keenly aware of the,uh, fare-free transit in our efforts to extend that to a permanent
basis, and we have a large solar installation project that's under design,uh, at the Iowa
City Municipal Airport. Partnerships and engagements--hopefully you see this in just
about everything that we do. Uh,we,uh, continue to try to,uh, find solutions with
partners,whether governmental partners,nonprofit partners,private partners,uh, a few at
the bottom there that I'd like to highlight from this past year. We have a new winter
shelter partnership,uh,where we've increased that funding,uh,uh, $75,000 this year.
And that'll continue to grow in exchange for,uh,the service commitments from the
shelter house. Uh,we are collaborating very well with the County Attorney's Office on
the Community Violence Intervention program. And as we,uh,mentioned,with the
parking increase,we're looking at,uh,partnering with the,uh, Iowa City Downtown
District on a new cleaning collaboration for our Central Business District.Neighborhood
and housing -uh,this is the fust year in many years we're recommending to increase the
million dollars,uh, for the Affordable Housing Fund,uh, 3%recommendation,which
was,uh, included in,uh,the last Affordable Housing Action Plan. I mentioned the wilter-
winter shelter funding increase as well. Uh,we're currently considering land acquisition
options for a significant scale,permanent affordable housing project that we would lead,
uh,utilizing,uh,both ARPA and Riverfront Crossing,uh, funding streams.Uh, continue
to,uh, aggressively spend our CDBG and HOME allocations, and we,uh,partner with
the Johnson County Affordable Housing Trust Fund. We'll continue to do that going
forward. Uh, at your last council meeting,you,uh,heard an introduction to the
comprehensive plan redo,which is on the-,uh, on horizon for us and our staff are very
excited to,uh, delve into that to help us meet our affordable housing goals. Uh,you will
get an updated,uh, annual report from NDS uh, in a couple of months that'll detail the
exact number of units assisted and created through our affordable housing efforts. Uh,
you can access the,uh, last year's annual report and see that information,but those are
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updated on an annual basis. From the mobility standpoint,uh,you'll continue to see
expanded electric vehicle parking in all of our parking ramps. You may have seen it if
you park at the Chauncey Swan. Just expanded here,uh,the last week or two. Uh,we
talked about fare-free. Uh, and then from annual standpoint,we continue to look at bus
stop improvements, sidewalk infill, and curb ramp improvements. Uh,we'll get into
specific projects,but with any project we pursue,we look at a multimodal,uh, design
lens, and really focus on how to make that not only better for drivers but for,uh, transit
riders,bicyclists,pedestrians, and more. Very excited about the Highway Six Trail
Extension Project between Broadway and Fairmeadows. We'll begin that design,uh, in
'20- in fiscal year 2025 and hope to construct that in '26. Remain aggressive on the Bike
Master Plan. Uh,you saw bike lanes,uh,this year go up on Benton Street,uh, as one
example. Uh,Rochester is another,uh,with the reconstruction on that project. Uh,
looking ahead to this year,uh, Sunset,uh,we'll add bike lanes, and then we have a 4-3
lane conversion on South Gilbert Street from Stevens to McCollister. Major road
improvements coming up. Uh,this will harken back to the previous road slides that
Redmond walked you through. Uh,we have the Gilbert and Dubuque Street projects
which council has already approved for'24.Next year we'll be looking at the Court Street
Reconstruction and North Gilbert Street Reconstruction projects. And then you can see in
the out years, and- and these numbers are staggering. These are large ticket items,uh,
some of them have external funding sources,but-but not all of them. So we continue to
try to find those exter- external funding sources when we can,whether that's,uh, state or
federal funds. Uh,but the point is, is that the roads are increasingly taking up more of our
bonding capacity,um, and,uh,we're still not keeping up.
Moe: Will we talk about the specifics of these during capital improvements day.
Fruin: Yes. We can-we can dive into these.Now these aren't the only road projects we do. We
do annual resurfacing. Our crews are out there patching. Uh,but these are-these are some
of the bigger ticket highlight items. Uh, from an economic development standpoint,uh,
we continue to support the BIPOC Business Accelerator Program. Uh,we have funds,uh,
that we can use to develop our own small business grants and technical assistance
programs, and also to support Better Together 2030 initiatives. We have,uh,ARPA
funding agreements that we're working on to support,uh,placemaking in partnership
with Bolschmidz South of Xx and Iowa City Downtown District. And you're very
familiar with the-the ARPA program and- and how we're working on that front. Um, I
will note that we have flat funding year over year for Greater Iowa City, Inc and all of
our arts and culture partners that are listed there. This is the second year,we've kept that
funding flat,um, and each year,those agencies have requested increases in their budgets.
Uh,but due to some of the budget pressures, our recommendation has been to keep those
level,uh,those,uh, organizations flat. But we need to understand that they have rising
costs too, and at some point,uh,we need to decide whether we want to increase,uh, our
annual support for those organizations.
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Alter: Geoff, can I ask about the,um,the- it's- sorry, the four million ARTA grants for
underestimated and investment in childcare. Um, is there- are there plans or is there
money allocated to continue our support of the Wage Enhancement Program beyond
ARPA?
Fruin: Of the what program?
Alter: Of the Wage Enhancement Program beyond ARPA.
Fruin: We don't have any funds budgeted for that. But our $750,000 commitment is over three
years. So it was 250,000 a year essentially. Uh,we'll see what the drawdown rate of that
is. And then eventually, I think we will be asked,just like private sector businesses are
being asked. But there's nothing in this budget because the ARPA funds will take us
through fiscal year probably '26.
Alter: Okay. Basically, I just wanted to put a pin in it to say that that is continuing interest to find
sustainability for that.
Fruin: I appreciate that. Safety and well being -uh,we're continuing to increase our Aid to
Agencies Grant program. Uh,this is now going to be 770,000. This is the annual funding
to support,uh, a variety of nonprofit agencies in the community. We've stuck to that
council recommendation of 3%. Um,the Aid to Agency pot has grown,uh,has probably
doubled or tripled in the last 7-8 years,uh, so we continue to invest in- in that program.
Uh, continue to invest in,uh,the future funding for a new Station 5 from the Fire
Department,uh,that's,uh, shows up in a contingency line item in the Fire Department
budget. Uh,you'll hear from the,uh,Police Chief later about beginning to shift our
mental health liaisons to a co-responder model in alignment with our preliminary police
plan. We are recommending a new civilian,uh, crime and data analyst position to support
the-the community violence intervention program,nonprofit capacity building, and our
public transparency efforts. We'll get into that a little bit later today. Um, we'd like to,uh,
have council,uh, consider the expansion of the,um, local license plate reader technology
that the University recently installed,which is also growing across the state. Uh, I think
that this can provide,uh, exceptional,uh, capacity for us on the investigative front,uh,
and help,uh,with crime prevention and the location of missing and endangered persons.
And we've got some good,uh, information both locally and throughout the state on- on
how those are assisting other law enforcement agencies. Uh,we continue to move
forward with the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County and the Free Medical Clinic,
on the grants that you provided them to build their own capacity and excited for the
outcomes of those projects. And then your Strategic Plan also, uh, calls for continued
investment in the Senior Center building. Uh,that project is starting this week. And,uh,
we're already,uh,moving into expanded night and weekend programming as well. Lots
of park projects going on. Um,uh,we've been exceptionally aggressive on the parks
front, in my mind,really, since this plan was adopted in 2017. These are projects that are
all underway, or,uh,we'll be,uh,underway,uh,here soon, either from a construction or
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a design standpoint, and a good mix of,uh, different types of recreational amenities that
will continue to enhance throughout the,uh, community. All right. From a resource
standpoint, I want to talk about our facilities, equipment, an- an- and technology. We did
create the Facilities Reserve Fund in 2019 to meet some growing needs in our
community. Er, at its peak,we were able to build that fund up to probably about 13 to 14
million. And now you're seeing uh, some intentional drawdown of those funds to meet
uh, community needs. So how are we using those facility reserves that we banked over
that four or five year period? The Senior Center Maintenance pro- er, our Rehabilitation
project, our new equipment maintenance building,uh,which will be under design here
soon. The City Park pool uh,project,that's coming up, and then eventually, another
round of improvements at the Senior Center. Ah,we have fire stations three and five er,
next on the list. We currently have insufficient funding for those in the facility reserve
and are hoping over the next two uh, or three years to-to build back up to where we
would need to carry those out without um, ah,bonding or referendum needs. So we-we'll
continue to track that an- and see er,what is needed to stay on schedule there.
Alter: And Geoff, Fire station 3,that's to rehab it or to-to renovate?
Fruin: Um, that could be a relocation or it could be a rehabilitation. In- in place right now,we're
planning on a er,relocation.
Fruin: And it would go further east, is that correct?
Fruin: Yeah. We'd have er, Station 3 move further east, and Station 5 go south or vice-versa,
however you want to tag those. Um,that's a 26, 27 er- er,project. So we're er, continuing
to work on that both on the operating and the Capitol side, so we're prepared for that.
Alter: Is the idea that both would happen at the same time?
Fruin: Would need both to happen at the same time,yes. Ah,your next work session,we're going
to be talking about the space needs study that's currently under contract. So more on that
an- and on February 6,we're gonna be asking you for some high level direction er, later
this year uh, on the space-uh,how to solve the space needs in those three facilities.
We've secured over $30 million in federal funding this past year to support transit and
landfill compost projects. Couldn't be more proud of staff for- for going after those
federal funds and being successful. Er, in landfill and the Wastewater Enterprise Funds
we're also supporting major facility enhancement projects. Um, council has asked for
more data driven er, er, or data informed decision making tools. So we are starting to
build our uh, internal capacity for that. Public Works is uh, collaborating with a number
of other departments on the build out of our asset management system. And we'll be
proposing a new uh, community survey, something we haven't done since probably 2016,
2017, er,to help give us some- some data that we can track every year, every two years,
uh, so that you have a better idea of the sentiment of the community on a variety of
different issues.
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Alter: I- I know that I'm very chatty this morning on this slide,but um,what you're referring to is
that community engagement survey as one piece of- of this larger effort.
Fruin: Of one piece,right?You're gonna,um,when we're building this kind of uh,more robust
um, data repository, er, some of that external feedback meets some of your infrastructure
data, some of your service level data. Um,but I feel like that-uh, that public sentiment
piece is- is really important um, and we're going to need to establish that. And- and I
think that's really important that you not only do at one point in time,you've-we've got to
find a- a comfortable cadence, for us to do that every couple of years, so that we can see
trends in the community.
Moe: I want to ask one more question on this slide. Looking ahead to people,we'll look at Fire
Stations 3 and 5. How many additional staff would be needed to-to staff uh- a- a
renovated and new fire station?
Fruin: Yeah,um,we'd probably look at a minimum of 12,but-but honestly,we kind of dig
deeper into that as we-we get there,you know. We have the Chief look at exactly what is
needed, er.
Moe: These are the capital investments of 10 million,not the human resources investments?
Fruin: That's just the capital side and it's estimated to, kind of rough estimates of$5 million a
station right now. Um,the operating side er, is in the operating budget, so we're trying to-
to budget roughly that $300,000, a year so that when the time comes,we have the budget
capacity to hire those staff.
Dunn: What-what does it typically cost on board a new firefighter?
Fruin: Um,probably I- I've- I've been using 100,000 for the last several years. It might be a little
higher now, 110 $120,000. You can think about an annual expense from wages,
insurance,pension uh, outfitting, training, all those sorts of things. Uh, keep in mind with
the Station 2,we also have to be thinking of fire trucks, apparatus gear, all that kind of
stuff.
Salih: But we already budget for the employees as well and the section of the-.
Fruin: We are working towards that. It's a gradual,we've been doing a little bit er, every year and
hope to be where we need to be by that 2027 uh„ construction year.
Alter: And one last question, and this is actually more about your facilities. Um, is the equipment
like the trucks and whatnot?Um, I know that there's such a backlog in terms of back
ordering.
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Fruin: Yeah.
Alter: Um, is this in thinking about what we want to do for 26, 27 and the new station, is now the
time that we're having to budget for the equipment.
Fruin:No, I think we're still a year too away from that but-but you're correct that there is quite
the- quite the backlog er, for ordering that equipment, so we'll have to take that into
consideration,but we want to make sure that we have all the funding pieces in place
before you're going to be ordering,you know, a couple of million dollars and equipment.
Alter: Okay. So does- so that we know heads up,that's not something that we have to be looking
for within this. Okay.
Fruin: Correct. From the People's standpoint,uh, I won't go over the fiscal year 24
accomplishments,but I think we did uh, cover some good ground um,uh, in 2024.
Twenty twenty five,we only uh,have two staff positions. You've already approved and
allowed us to hire one. That's the Senior Facilities Design and Construction Manager in
Public Works. Er,you allowed us to move forward on that early after we received that
$23,000,000 transit grant, er, as we definitely needed some additional staff assistance to
carry out that project along with the neighboring equipment building project that ideally
will-will be built in tandem. And then ah,the civilian crime and data analyst, I- I
mentioned that before and will have the chief talk a little bit more about that uh,here in a
little bit. And- and there's the 300,000 dedicated to contingency funding for future fire
station 5 staffing. On the financial side,um,we are uh,trying to stabilize our enterprise
funds that continue to be impacted by um,um,macroeconomic pressures, inflation,
supply chain issues uh, and so you do see those utility rate increases that we'll be
revisiting. Er, you have allowed us to add a grant management specialist position. We
hope to bring that person on board in the next uh, few months and that will go a long way
to securing and managing even more external funding. Our emergency reserve remains
flat at 5.4 million uh, and our facilities reserve balance is being drawn without any
contributions planned in fiscal year 24 or 25. Er,when we made the decision to buy 21
Southland,we knew that that would probably restrict our ability to-to transfer more into
that facilities reserve or the emergency reserve. Um, and then fiscal year 25 er,with just
some of the state reform pressures that we're seeing, and I think it's probably unlikely that
we'll see a transfer into either the emergency or the facilities reserve um, in the- in the
coming fiscal year too. So hope to turn that back around and- and uh, get back to the
point where we can put a couple million dollars per year into those reserves,but uh, as of
now, er,that's not our current outlook.
Alter: Can you say what the current ah,balance is? I mean,you mentioned that it's been drawn
down,but.
Fruin: Yeah,the emergency reserve is- is at that 5.4. That has been pretty steady. Um,we'll-
we've only used that a couple of times for flood buyouts er,when properties come
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available that we-we wanna buy and remove from the floodway. The facilities reserve,
um, I see Nicole flipping through a bugger-budget.
Alter: Sorry. And I know it's in there. I just thought for all of us in the gallery.
Frain: Yeah, I think we were- I think we were at its peak,maybe 13-14 million. Maybe a little
higher,but.
Davies: Uh, so we're projecting it to be at- at about 5.5 after FY 25 because we're using a
significant portion for the city park pool.
Alter: That's right. Thank you.
Frain: That last bullet is important. Um, so we-we're drawn-we're in a period uh,we're-we're
coming out of a period when we really bolstered our reserves. And those reserves are
now being used,that's why you have them. Uh,we're using them in a planned way. We
bought some excess property that we're going to be able to control um, and uh,we're
investing in facilities,but we just got to keep an eye on that,that general fund ah, ah
balance. We're projecting to be at 31% of- of our fund balance. And our policy says,we
should be between 25 and 35. So we got up around 40 percent and- and we're drawing
that down. Um,but with some of the-the valuation concerns that I've expressed and some
of the reform concerns that we know are- are headed our way, ah,we just have to be
careful that we don't dip down too much further than-than where we're at right now.
Salih: I have a question for the slide before please. For the you said the position was previously
filled by sworn officer,however,vacant since the pandemic. Does this means are we
thinking to fill out that with non-sworn officer?
Frain: Correct. So uh, officer Dave Schwindt was the last one to hold that specialty position uh,
and he had a unique kind of skill set that um, allowed him to really excel in that. Um,we
think that,that position-uh,there's probably a bigger applicant pool and a stronger
applicant pool if we make that a civilian position, ah, someone that's trained uh, in- in
data analytics statistics, ah,those are the skills that we'd be looking at.
Dunn: Question on this slide as well. Um, can you kind of go into the um,thought process for the
additional 300,000 dedicated to contingency funding for future fire station 5 staffing
versus pulling someone on, getting them trained up so that when that time comes,they
can immediately meet the need,uh.
Frain: Yeah,um, so we-we did that last year. So instead of the -the 300 contingency last year,
we did 100,000 in contingency and we hired two additional ah, firefighters,um. Uh, I- I
you know, in a perfect world we'd-we'd hired we'd hired them all right now and we'd
have them there,but understand when-when you're opening a new station you're not
going to put 12 new people at that station. Right?You're going to-the new people will be
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spread across different stations. Uh, so I don't think it's much a service level,uh, impact,
uh, as one might think. Uh,but,uh, for- for this year what I look at is we're budgeting a
$2 million deficit in the general fund. Uh, so 300,000 of that,yes, is this contingency. But
uh, if I- if I know I'm going to budget that capacity and- and plan not to use it, I'm a lot
more comfortable. I think if we were not budgeting a $2 million deficit in the general
fund,that I might be more inclined to recommend something similar to what we did last
year,which was lets hire a couple and get them trained up. Uh, so we'll continue to look
at that and certainly you're-you're free to-to-to change this,uh, strategy,but for now I
don't know that we're in the best financial position to keep adding operational expenses
with what we're forecasting really between now and fiscal year'29 with tho-those levy
reductions. So not spending those dollars,uh, I- I think is the wise move or the prudent
move at this point. Okay.Next year's budget-uh,what should we expect or what at least
is your staff thinking about right now?Uh, it'll be the final year of that commercial
industrial backfill payment. So we'll lose another $300,000, from the state, and then that
last 300,000 will go away. We're going to continue to see a reduction in our general fund
levy. Uh, so that's going to continue to put strain on all those,uh, constraints on all those
general fund operations. I think you're going to see minimal operational expenses added
to the general fund between now and fiscal year'29. I just am not sure that we'll be able
to get past an annual budget deficit,uh,with the state reform. We'll see how some of the
community growth comes in,but,uh, it's hard to envision adding a lot of positions over
the next few years in the general fund. You're going to see our GO bond issuance go up.
Uh,next year and we have a large project with court street,uh, and,uh,we're-uh,we're
going to get into this a little bit on Wednesday,but your-your- our purchasing power on
the capital side is definitely diminishing, so we're going to try to take the annual
borrowing amount from what-where we've been historically,which is probably 9-12
million, and we're going to have to push that 13, 15, 16 million, and that's going to take
some additional budget capacity. And again,that's really,uh,being driven by two things,
one,not transferring as many general fund dollars into the capital program, and two,just
the increased cost of these capital projects. We just can't stretch our money as far as we
did three or four years ago. Uh,right now we're projecting a 1%utility tax proposal in
fiscal year'26 as the final funding piece for fair free transit, and then we expect that we'll
continue to have modest public utility rate increases to keep up with some of those
inflationary pressures during those operations. We'll be monitoring those reserve levels
like we just talked about, and particularly that facility reserve balance. Uh,we're going to
have to see how some of these major project comes in and- come in when they are bid out
and,uh, see where that leaves us,uh,with respect to future facility needs. Uh,really the
bottom piece is- is critical. Uh,we really need to think about intentional efforts to expand
our tax base. Uh,we want to support all of the programs,whether we're talking about
City operations,we're talking about funding arts and culture institutions,non-profit
institutions. It all starts with driving that tax base up, and,uh,you know, as we talked
about early on, four years of an average 1.5% growth just isn't going to give us the
flexibility we need to do all those things. So final thoughts,uh, is our last slide here. I
think we're going to continue to move the community forward through investments that
align with our strategic plan. We're going to continue to have a robust capital plan despite
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these pressures and headwinds. We are recognizing an increasing number of red flags and
we're trying to limit operational investments that could strain the organization in the
coming years. That's the thing we have to understand. All those operational commitments
that we make today,they don't go away in a few years. So if the condition-the budgeting
conditions continue to worsen,uh, it's not easy to take those,uh, operational investments
aw- away. Uh,we're setting the stage for,uh, a sustainable revenue stream to support our
fair free transit, and I would argue that's one of the largest local public service
enhancements that Iowa cities offered in decades, and,uh,we're going to be ushering in a
period of a significant investment in public facilities, and as of right now there's no
associated tax increases and limited utility fee increases,uh,that will fund those projects,
and we're looking at the Senior Center,Equipment, Transit,Landfill,Wastewater, all
those projects right there,they're-they're under design,uh, and,uh,moving forward. It's
not to say there are only facility needs,uh,but we are entering a stretch in which we will
be doing more on that public facility investment,uh,than we have in the previous,uh,
several years. Okay. We went,uh,went a little bit longer than planned. That's okay. Uh, I
have a- a- a few notes that we wanted to,uh,revisit utility rates and parking fees,uh,
things of that nature. Uh,you had a question on utility tax councilor Moe, and we'll get
you that answer. Uh, at this point, any final- final comments, questions, or things to flag
for follow up at this point?
Salih: Like if we want to add something,how we do, go about that like- like as a council if we
have like certain programs, certain values, certain things going,because now this is the
stuff proposed kind of.
Fruin: That's right.
Salih: And the, I don't know,with all this like deduction here and there from the tax levy and
from- from the like payback- fillback-backfill and everything, itt- it makes us really
scared even to propose anything because I- I feel like there is no money,kind of, and I- I-
I don't want to put pressure on just like increasing taxes for water, increasing taxes for
people so we can do this.
Teague: Well, I- I would say that now is the opportunity for us to have conversations.
Salih: Yeah,but I want to- I don't want to know when the best time we can do that.
Fruin: That's really up to you all. You can take that time now. You can wait till the end of the
day. You can schedule a work session after today,uh,to-to talk about any individual
proposals councilors have.
Dunn: I will say,kind of,what I'm doing is I'm putting together just like a list of action items
that,you know,maybe if it would be appropriate for the end of the day we can kind of go
over things and,you know, say,hey, do we want a work session on this,this,this, or this?
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Salih: Yeah.
Dunn: Just to kind of,you know, save total staff time right now.
Salih: Because the sooner we tell you what we need is better things even to tell us,no,we don't
have it or anything. We just need to do it early.
Fruin: I couldn't agree more. Sooner the better.
Salih: Yes.
Alter: When can I just- one thing that I'm curious about,uh, is in this overview. I mean, it's
absolutely understandably focused on the dollars and the projects, specifically one of my
ongoing questions that I have actually um, and I know that we made several hires within
the City for staff previously,but I just want to kind of get a temperature taking from
perhaps the department heads about and- and certainly you Geoff,because I know that
this is also one of your own goals is about staff capacity,morale, engagement, and sort of
how does that balance out with,uh,the budget and the-the projects that we have. Do you
feel confident,uh,that-that staff can- can kind of handle the-the framework of- of what's
being proposed?
Fruin: Uh, every department that comes up here today can articulate a need for additional staff,
um, and- and I don't doubt it for a minute. If- if they could have additional staff,there's
no doubt they would bring value to the community to the operation. At the end of the day
it's a balancing act,uh, and,uh, over the last decade Iowa city has taken more of the-the
growth that we have had has been invested in,uh, it's not-not-not completely,but more
of the non-staff items. Right. We've created an Affordable Housing Fund. We've,uh,
more than doubled Aid to Agency,uh, external grants,uh,we've-we've taken positions
from part time to full time, we raised the minimum wage really before others were doing
that,uh,we've-we've chosen to invest in those,uh, as opposed to adding additional staff
people. I'm not- I'm not second guessing those by any means,but there are intentional
decisions that we've made along the way. So our staff gets by,uh, and we wouldn't put
anything in here in the budget that we didn't think the staff could manage. But yes, staff
feels burnout pressure,yes, staff feels uh, overwhelmed at times,but we do our best to
prioritize and move everything forward. So,uh, if you,you know, specifically want to
ask department heads about,you know,their staffing levels and what would they do,you
know,how would additional staff help them, I'm sure they would love to give you their
perspective,but,uh,yeah,there's no doubt. We could use it,but the life in- in- in,uh,
government operations is that there's a scarcity of resources, so it's a balancing act.
Alter: Thanks.
City Attorney
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Teague: All right. Well, thanks to Geoff and to Redmond for giving us this,uh,budget proposal
overview. At this point, I- I want to go ahead and give us a break. Uh,why don't we take
10 minutes? Ten minutes.Ten minutes,we'll be back at, 10:17,uh 10:18. All right we're
going to continue with our budget discussion, and we're going to bring up um, our City
Attorney who was up next to kinda do his presentation for his department. Welcome.
Goers: Thank you,Mayor and Council. Um, as you know,my name is Eric Goers, City Attorney,
but for those who-those rare souls who might be tuning in from home to watch today's
meeting, I want to make sure I identify myself. As you know,um,we in the City
Attorney's Office do almost all of the City's legal work in-house. That differs from, ah,
the way a lot of other City Attorney's, ah, offices handle. Some have smaller staff,but
then farm all manner of things out. Um,we tend to like to keep it in house if we feel like
we have the expertise to do so. Certainly,there are areas,um,where we do bring in
outside counsel. Those are either highly specialized areas such as bound,bond counsel,
collective bargaining,workers compensation, ah,those kinda things, or if we need to get
outside counsel due to a conflict, or sometimes we bring in, ah, outside counsel to
represent a police officer in litigation or something like that. But otherwise, we handle the
vast majority of the City's legal work ourselves. Um,you've had a long day ahead of you,
and our budget is pretty simple, so I'll certainly keep my presentation very brief. City
Attorney's budget information starts,the introduction is on page 49 of your budget
packet, ah,with a little more detailed information on page 330. Structure of our office is
pretty simple. We don't have any divisions. Ah,we have seven employees totaling 6.5,
ah,FTE. Ah, that constitutes an administrative assistant, a legal assistant, and, ah, 5.5
attorneys,um, I'm sorry,4.5 attorneys. Um,note that you'll see in the budget actually 5.5
listed for the entire office, that's because Liz Craig in our office, one of our attorneys, is
paid out of the levy. Ah,that was, ah, done a number of years ago for budgetary reasons.
There was more money there than in the general fund. And so she continues to be listed
there,you'll see her listed on page 337 in the levees bond or budget portion under
Assistant City Attorney. Our budget, ah, excluding Liz is $965,048 of which 94% is
personnel costs. We don't need a lot of equipment to do our work,but our lawyers are
highly experienced. One of the things that Council has wanted to hear in years past is
who's on our staff and what experience they have. And I'll be very brief in reporting that.
We have on average 24 years in practice. This is referring to the attorneys. Um,with our
least experienced attorneys in their 18th year of practice,um,ranging up to Sue, ah,
Dulek, fust assistant, who is in her 38th year in legal practice. Becky Passavant, our
Administrative Secretary, is in her 27th year with the City and her second year in our
office, she's been a great addition. Our Legal Assistant is Mary McChristy recently
celebrated 31 years with the City, and she's been a legal assistant longer than that. Our
personnel costs are going up $53,306 from last year's budget,but the remainder of our
budget actually went down, so our, ah,net increase is $50,493. That is, our budget went
up, ah, less than the personnel costs increases, last year as well. We did that last year as
well. Both years were due to cost cutting in the remaining 6% of our budget, ah,which is
not a lot and did not that have much wiggle room in. But where we did have that wiggle
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room,we cut last year and cut this year as well. I'd be happy to answer any questions you
might have about City Attorney's budget. If not,thank you for your time.
City Clerk
Teague: Thank you. We're going to go on to our City Clerk. Which is our Deputy City Clerk
sitting in today.
Platz: One moment here. I'm Ashley Platz,Deputy City Clerk. Um, the City Clerk's information
is going to start on page 42, and then the budget information will start on 329. The City
Clerk is one of three City Council, City Council appointees. The other two would be the
City Manager and the City Attorney. The City Clerk's Office does have four full time
employees and there is no recommendations for changing, ah, for personnel changes. Our
office coordinates city council agendas, information packets for distribution and archives,
those packets along with the signed completed resolutions and ordinances, and takes care
of any filings associated with any,with those documents going to the County Recorders
Office or the Secretary of State's. We are also responsible for any legal publications, ah,
such as public notices,publication of ordinances, and,um,minutes as required by state
law. All open records requests are submitted through our City Clerk's office, and once we
receive, it's routed to the appropriate departments,um,to pull the requested information.
Some of the licensing duties of the City Clerk's Office are taxicab companies and drivers,
uh pedicab and taxicabs, outdoor service areas, cigarette permits,beer and liquor
licensing. Um,the City Clerk's Office also handles the applications for public assemblies,
parades, and the use of the Ped Mall, and that would go with the information table, any
ambulatory services,um, ambulatory vendors or, ah, any amplified sound permits. Um,
we also provide support staff for the community police review board, clerical support for
the cemetery, and, ah, assist city staff in general,public and researching information. Um,
at this time, the budget has a slight decrease due to it being a non election year. I think
that's it.
Teague: Any questions? Thank you.
City Manager's Office
Teague: We're going to move on to our City Manager's Office.
Fruin: Thank you,Mayor. I've got several divisions that I want to walk you through. You can see
the org chart on the screen. Ah,we'll talk about our offices budget and then the division
budgets of Communications,Human Resources,Human Rights,Economic Development,
and Climate Action and Outreach. The City Manager's budget starts on Page 331 in your
budget document. Ah,there's four staff in this division,pending the hire of the Grants
Management Specialist position that was hired last year. It is very much a status quo
budget with one exception, and that is $25,000 for that community survey that I
mentioned before. Um,the, ah, survey, ah, is done by a firm that works with a lot of
governments across the country. It's who we used back in 2017 and I think a couple of
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years prior to that,maybe 2015, 2014, and they provide kind of a exceptional
benchmarking types of services along with their, ah, survey tool. So that's $25,000 that's
the loan, a significant addition to the City Managers budget. The Communications
Division budget starts on 331. The Cable TV division that is also managed in
Communications is on 332. In total, about 10.25 staff. Um,no major service level
changes. The team is considering some additional engagement platforms, including a
texting platform that we may look at- at throughout the year if uh, if budget resources
permit. But at this point, it's, ah,no difference or no changes in service levels. The
Human Resources division starts on 333. Our Human Resources staff is a small but
mighty three person team. Ah,this past year,they lead our wage and compensation study.
They take care of all benefits, administration,hiring, collective bargaining,those types of
things. Um,you would see higher expenses in the services line for fiscal year 25. That's
because we anticipate hiring a consultant to help with both police and fire promotional
testing. That would be a third party that would come in and help us, ah,test any
candidates for promotions in those operations. That gets done every couple of years,
depending on, ah, anticipated hiring needs that the City has. So you will see that-that
dollar amount come back down in fiscal year 26.
Dunn: Geoff, I got a quick question about this one. Um,this is just out of curiosity. I mean,what
is the other miscellaneous revenue,172, 173?
Fruin: Uh,boy.
Dunn: Very small. And that's, I'm just-
Fruin: In the human resource line?
Dunn: Yeah.
Fruin: Um.
Davies: This is just a guess,but I think it's,uh,unused cafeteria plan money that comes back to
the City.
Dunn: Okay.
Fruin: It's a better guess than I had,Nicole. Great job. Okay, our Human Resources, I'm sorry,
Human Rights budget starts on 334. Um, and if I'm- if-by all means, if you've got
questions on these,jump right in. I'm going through these fairly fast. Uh,Human Rights
is, ah, another three person team with the,uh,new engagement specialist that,uh,was
added in the current year budget. That position is being recruited for right now. Um,this
is the home of the Social Justice Racial Equity Grants. There are lots of sponsorships,uh,
that are pursued in this,um, in this budget. Various advertising and programming
expenses as well,uh, as well as expenses to,um, aid in the investigations of,uh,human
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rights complaints that the offices, ah,receive. Our Economic Development budget is on
335. Uh,that is a one person team that Rachel Kilberg Varley leads. Uh,we have status
quo funding for Greater Iowa City. We're essentially taking what we used to contribute to
ICAD and what we used to contribute as a member to the Chamber of Commerce or the
Business Partnership, and that'll be our continuing commitment going forward. Uh,we do
have operating funds to support Schmid Placemaking, so South of Six and Iowa City
Downtown District. Their annual funds to support small placemaking projects. We have
what we call an opportunity fund,which is where we would go to create grant programs.
In the past,we've done facade grants,targeted small business grants and things of that
nature. We can also offer technical assistance programming for small businesses,uh,
through those funds. Uh,many of the arts and culture organizations that we fund are in
this particular budget. Ah, again,those are flat. That would be like the Englert, Fihn
Scene,Riverside Theater, City of Literature, Summer of the arts, those are all contained
in this budget, and our, ah, staff is recommending a flat,uh,budget for those
organizations as well.
Bergus: And that 4.5 million outlay is 21 South Linn
Fruin: Correct.
Moe: Yes,the same question,why?Why does that fall under economic development?
Fruin: Um, looking at the motivation for why we-why we purchased that to control
development,we anticipate a private- eventually a privately owned structure.
Moe: Yes.
Fruin: Um, the Economic Development coordinator also leads our Public Art efforts, and our
Public Art budget is $56,000 per year. That was,uh, down as low as 25,000 probably
four or five years ago, and council,uh, doubled that. Uh,we've increased it about 5,000
this year for some additional maintenance of existing pieces that we have throughout the
community. Your Climate Action and Outreach budget starts on 335. Um,you have a,
uh, staff of three in your Climate Office. Uh, this was formerly split between the
emergency level, excuse me,the emergency levy and the general fund,now it's all in the
general fund. Ah, and a bit of history,when we created this,um,we decided to put all the
staff expenses in the general fund, and then we decided to put all the programming and
grants and education expenses in the emergency levy. And the reason we did that is
because,um,we didn't want to have staff reliant on the emergency levy in case it was
needed for some other use of natural disaster, flood, anything like that. So we really
wanted to protect that staffing. Uh,we didn't anticipate that the state would remove the
levy,but I'm glad we set it up the way we did,because the staff has already been
absorbed into the general fund years ago. We're really just absorbing the programming
and the grants and educational dollars. Um,we will,uh, our- our goal is to maintain the-
the current level of service. We'll continue to offer the same grants that we have been,
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and staff will-will allow those to evolve over time to meet community needs. And I do
want to point out that when we shut down the emergency levy,we'll anticipate,uh, about
an $800,000 fund balance there. We will stay true to the-the desire- the intended use of
those funds. So over time,we'll be able to draw that $800,000 down,um, for granting for
facility investments for anything that we want to,um,related to climate action. For fiscal
year'25,the four home electrification,uh, grants that we're doing,uh,to incentivize
people to take housing choice vouchers will be paid from that emergency levy. So we're
actually going to be drawing down that 800 by maybe $100-200,000 in fiscal year'25.
Um, and then we'll continue to build our general fund capacity up,uh, in the meantime.
And then,while not, I believe, on the agenda, I'll just mention real quickly that the City
Council budget is on Page 328. Um,the,uh, one note to make on- on Page 328, is that,
the personnel expenses,your salaries,um, are tied to an inflationary index, so you will
see those change with that inflationary index every year. Um,not much in this budget,
although you do have,this is where your memberships to the National League of Cities,
US Conference of Mayors and Organizations, such as that,uh,will be included.
Alter: Is travel included like for those conferences that's within this?
Teague: Yes. We have a travel budget for Council. Um, I think,uh,we've just based it on
historical,um, travel desires of the council. But if you,uh, see an opportunity that you
would like,um,usually the Clerk's Office will coordinate travel, and we can talk through
any budget constraints that may be there, if you do identify that. In the past, we've
attended National League of Cities and Mayor intervention-Mayor's Innovation Projects,
Iowa League of Cities,those types of conferences. That's all I have for the City
Manager's Office.
Alter: Actually, I'm sorry. Just like, it's a small point but I'm just curious,rough estimate about
how much we spend out average,um, on registration and travel for conferences? I know
it's not that big,but I was just kind of curious within that.
Fruin: Yeah. Um, I can get you a- a precise amount,but,um my guess is,your travel is less than-
less than 10,000 on an annual basis. That would include any lodging,hotel,probably
closer to five or six.
Alter: Thank you.
Bergus: I had a question, Geoff. I don't know if this is something that can be well reflected in the
budget,but I know that you and the Mayor are participating in this Bloomberg program
about data driven initiatives,um, and so just thinking about kind of centralizing that to be
able to leverage it throughout the city,what are you thinking around that?
Fruin: Well, that's a good example of, I'd love to have a data team,right? In the City Manager's
Office that could really dive in. But that's not, um,that's not a top priority need in my
mind. I think some of your departments have more acute needs than that. So we're trying
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to position our office to lead that. We've made some changes to the Assistant City
Manager position. It took away some duties from that position to free up capacity for- for
this very thing to-to become stronger with performance metrics and reporting. Um,but
it's going to- it's going to take some time. I can tell you the-the program that-that we're
in has been exceptionally helpful. It- it gives you guidance on,um,the-the right
questions to ask,the right kind of framework to-to pursue within an organization. So
we're going to do the best we can with the resources we have,but we won't have a
dedicated individual to lead that effort,uh, at least with this budget.
Finance Department
Teague: We're going to move on to our Finance Department.
Davies: All right. Hello,Nicole Davies,Finance Director,uh,just like Geoff, I've got several
different divisions, I'll go through them rather quickly,we've got no-nothing much in our
budgets,they're pretty status quo,um,not a lot of changes,um, if you have questions just
jump in. Uh,there's 35 FTEs in the Finance Department across six different divisions and
I'll go through those divisions. First being the finance admin. Um,the finance section
starts on page 86. Uh,the budget numbers start on Page 336. In finance admin,there's
three FTE's across four positions and that's myself,uh, our assistant Finance Director,
who's not here and home with her brand new baby boy, so she'll be gone for the next few
months,um, and then Angie to my left, our budget management and analyst, and then we
also have a finance and risk assistant. Um,we handle most of the administrative functions
of the department. We are the ones that compile the budget book that you're looking at
today. Um, also the compilation of the capital improvement plan that we'll go through on
Wednesday. We um,handle the investments in banking which is about 285 million across
the city. Uh,we manage all of our annual debt issuance as well as the IRS and SEC
compliance that goes along with that. Uh,we manage our health and dental reserves,the
work comp programs,um, some of the employee benefit programs, and then the TIF
Financing and TIF debt. Uh, and really one of the big challenges across the whole finance
department is our financial software,um,we upgraded last April,we had the smoothest
upgrade we've had since I've been here,we have another one coming up this April, so
fingers crossed,um,that we are continuing down a good path of easy upgrades. Uh,we're
still managing two FEMA disasters, hopefully none of you ever have to deal with FEMA,
you'll probably hear this for the next several years,we're still dealing with trying to get
the COVID-19 and then Derecho disasters wrapped up,um,maybe in the next few years.
Um, onto the next division which is accounting that has 6.7 FTE's across seven positions.
Uh,this division handles almost all of the billing except for our utility and landfill, so all
kind of the general billing that we send out. They pay all of the city's bills. They handle
the biweekly payroll. We manage or assist with almost all of the grants throughout the
city. Um, this coordinates our financial audit and we also do a lot of other annual
financial reporting,um, for other divisions as well as for the city. We also do the book
keeping and payroll for JECC. Uh, and definitely one of the biggest challenges uh, in the
accounting world is the ever changing accounting standards,um,they've come out with a
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couple of doozies the last few years over leases and software, and then there'll be another
big one, on compensated absences this year,um,that Jacqueline will get to implement.
Next division is purchasing,uh,that financial information starts on Page 670,this has 4.2
FTE's across five positions. Um, like it said, purchasing um,handles all the purchasing
through the city,handles all of our RFPs and RFB's,um, any quotes for any non public
improvement projects. Um,they also manage a lot of the contracts even if they aren't bid
out throughout the city. This area also manages our central services,which is all of the
copiers and they replace them as needed. They also handle all of the mail and packages.
Um, one of the biggest things affecting them,we just had a retirement for an employee
that was here more than 20 years, so when you have a four personm division and one
person leaves with that much experience„ it'll be a little bit of a learning curve as we get
everyone back up to speed.Next division,the Revenue Division,um,that information
starts on Page 341. I have 7.88 FTE's over nine positions. Um,this is the division that
handles all of the utility billing, all of the landfill billing. They handle all of the daily
banking, so all of the revenue that's coming in throughout the city. Um, and then our risk
management division that starts on Page 663 and that's 1.8 FTE's,they were four
positions. This is where all of the insurance is managed our property liability,um,
environmental, cyber,workers comp, and this is re-renewed annually and as Geoff had
mentioned earlier,this is definitely one of the areas that we're seeing a lot of volatility.
We had huge increases last year,we're expecting,um, similar if not worse, increases
again this year. This division handles all of our insurance claims. They also run and
coordinate our safety programs and do all of our OSHA reporting. Our last division is the
IT division. This information starts on Page 666 and there's about 10.8 FTE's over 11
positions. So again,this division handles all of our computers and network,Wi-Fi, Fiber
optics,telephone and software throughout the City. They also manage our GIS system
and all the video cameras and in the buildings throughout the city. Um,they probably
have the biggest change in their budget and that's just really timing of when equipment
needs to be replaced at different network and again that, all of that stuff is increasing and
then too definitely network security is always something that's um, forefront of our mind,
it's something that's always changing, always evolving, so they're doing everything they
can to-to try and keep us as secure as possible. Any questions?
Moe: A quick question about,um, I- I too,have worked with FEMA and appreciate the
complexity of that. Curious about some of the FEMA and ARPA, excuse me, some of the
ARPA funds and what risks the city has for funds that are obligated and not spent and
how that is managed but is that accounting, I assume, is that risk management or is each
individual department manage their own funding?
Davies: We actually got away from the ARPA funding uh,that's mainly handled in the NDS
Division,has been running the ABPA.
Fruin: Yeah. So that-that staff also has timeliness requirements with CDBG and HOME, we
have to have spend down requirements, so we're used to it.Now uh,with some of the
ARPA grants were uh, is a nontraditional items,right?Wage enhancement programs,
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that's something that's very different than-than funding a project through CDBG and
HOME but, uh, our staff is good at monitoring progress of those projects, I know they'll
raise red flags with me if they see us falling off track and,uh,we're just going to have to
do our best,uh,to work with the groups that we've granted to to make sure they spend it
and those groups know they have every motivation to spend those dollars too.
Police Department
Teague: All right. We are going to move on. Thank you. Um,to the Public Safety and Programs
Budget. We're going to start with our Police Department.
Liston: Good morning-morning,Dustin Liston, Chief of Police. Um, our budget starts on Page
109 and then on 342. Uh,the Police Department is authorized 114.26 full time equivalent
positions which includes 85 sworn police officers and 29.26 non-sworn. We currently
have 82 swom uh,positions filled with four officers in the academy in Des Moines.
They're set to graduate in April. Uh,the department is broken down into three divisions--
the administration division,which is my office, and the Office of Professional Standards,
which is the position that you all approved last year; field operations and support services
are both run by a captain. Uh, field operations is patrol and criminal investigations,uh,
traditional police work,what most people consider traditional police work. Support
services is basically everything else, so station masters,those are our front desk
personnel, crime prevention,records, animal services, and evidence. Um, I'm going to go
into some of the service numbers from last year before I get into the budget,um, I want to
talk about calls for service. Last year,um,we had a total of 64,000 calls for service-
64,700 calls for service but 8,600 of those were traffic stops. This year we had a total of
62,300 calls for service with 5,200 traffic stops, so our traffic stop numbers went down
about 40%. But other than traffic stops, calls for service went up about 2% and if you
were to back off what some people consider officer initiated activities,um,things that
just officers put themselves out on, could be checking a business. There are many things
that would require them to call out on something, something they weren't dispatched to.
Calls to the police went up 4% if you back off the officer initiated activity. Um, as our
staffing, I think this time last year we were high, 70, 78, 79, so our staffing number has
gone up a little bit and that has resulted in a 17%reduction in overtime. We spent a lot of
time last year talking about the overtime numbers,um,we specifically spoke about one
investigator in particular that, our sexual assault investigator her overtime went down
12% last year. So uh, several reasons for that. One is the staffing numbers, another one
and I'll get to in a little bit is uh,we didn't have a homicide last year, for the fust time
since 2019, Iowa City did not record a homicide. So I'll go over those numbers quickly.
The shooting numbers--last year we had 15 confirmed shootings, as opposed to 13 the
year before, in 2022 we had 13, so it went up by two but again,we didn't have a
homicide. Five people were shot last year as opposed to four in 2022. Um, gun seize is
one of the numbers that we've been tracking for the last couple of years. In 2023,we
seized 101 guns,uh,that's down slightly from 2022 when we seized 134. For the last
several years,though,we've been seizing over 100 guns. One important thing to point,
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out of the 15 shootings, over 80% of those resulted in charges and arrests being made and
I think that's a large driver for keeping those numbers down. If someone's going to do a
shooting in Iowa city, chances are better than average,they're going to get caught and
they're going to get prosecuted. So,um,mental health numbers, as you know,we added
to our mental health liaison staff,we now have two. Uh, last year they had 213, excuse
me, 321 uh, contacts,which is a 53% increase from 2022. And the-the second,Katie, our
second mental health liaison only started the last couple months of the year. So I expect
those numbers to go up a great deal,but we still showed a 53% increase. Um, one of the
things we're working on,we're having a hard time, I don't think they get the credit they
deserve. They do a lot of follow up which isn't tracked,uh,properly. We'll be working on
that and we'll talk about another position that might help us track that a little better. Um,
we will be implementing, as Geoff mentioned earlier,the co-responder program which
would pair that officer,which is what we originally designed the plan to be, pair that
officer that,uh, liaison with an officer. So I expect their numbers to really go up because
they'll be out there in the field. We gonna-we still want to thread the needle by allowing
them time to do follow up because I do think that's an important service that the mental
health liaison does,that not necessarily the officers have the capability to do. Um, street
outreach--we are in daily contact with our street outreach- outreach person from the
shelter house, our crime- our public outreach. Uh, some of you know Sergeant Kevin
Bailey,he basically works with street outreach every day. Um,we've noticed an increase
in our unhoused population, and they work hard to get those people housed. And that
position alone has housed 194 people since its inception in February of 2021. So they're
doing fantastic work,but it's an ongoing project and we keep,uh,we keep really paying
attention to that, especially at this time of year, during the cold weather. So now let's get
onto the budget. Um, as you've noticed,most of all of our budgets is tied up in personnel
and benefits. The police department is no different. Over 80% of our budget is,uh,
benefits and wages. So I don't have a lot of wiggle room, and then if you add on vehicles,
fuel, equipment, so it becomes even less wiggle room that I have. So with contractually,
uh, obligated increases in wages and benefits,um, our budget went up $712,000 just off
of those contractually obligated benefit increases. But the-the entire police department
budget this year only went up $500,000. So although the wages went up and benefits
went up,we were able to cut in other areas,um,to keep-keep it a reasonable budget. So
our overall budget is gonna go up about 2.9%with this request.
Salih: Yes, I have a question for that. The-the 500 going to be for the police budget, is it just like
because of the increase of the benefit and the,uh, or we are hiring more officers? Can
you explain.
Liston: It's mainly the increase in benefits. We had 700,000 that were wrapped up in increase in
benefits, so we cut costs elsewhere. And there is one added position,the civilian crime or
data analyst position. That was the one added position. But again,that's an unsworn
position. As Geoff mentioned earlier in the presentation,we-that used to be housed with
a sworn position,David Schwindt,he has since retired. We had not filled that position,
um, so it'll now become a civilian position.
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Salih: Okay. But no new sworn officer in that position, correct?
Liston: Yeah. Go ahead.
Dunn: Could you talk a little bit about like what is needed out of a crime analyst, like what-what
you guys generally ask of them?
Liston: Well,there's a lot of things they can do. The data driven initiatives, making sure we're
deploying our resources in the smartest and best way possible,but they also help our non-
profit,uh, groups. I know Dave Schwindt did a lot of work with Shelter House and with
CommUnity, and we continue to plan to do that. With the new community violence
intervention plan,we'll be working closely with them. We are currently working closely
with our staff to identify the people that we're going to do those,um,the outreach to,but
this position will specifically work closely with them.
Dunn: What kind of qualifications do you typically look for and experience?
Liston: Well, in my former life, I ran a unit that had,uh, crime analysts and typically they-they
usually have a degree in some sort of statistics and then,um,we would-we typically
have to send them to FBI who has some training,there's several training programs that
you can send people to,my former agency would would send them to the FBI to do it.
But,um,uh,they're number crunchers,you know, and that's what we look for.
Dunn: Thank you.
Harmsen: Refresh my memory. I think we were talking about Officer Schwindt before. There
were a couple of currently existing programs that are a direct result of the work that-that
he did. Is that correct?
Liston: That is. I think Geoff could probably speak to those. That was before my time.
Fruin: That pre-dated Chief Liston. So,um, the one that he spent the most time on was Cross
Park Place and really making the case to the community about the savings that would be,
um, on not only the law enforcement side but the healthcare side. So,uh-uh,Dave was
instrumental in quantifying just how much time officers were spending with chronically
homeless individuals. And then he built some relationships, obviously had those with the-
with the sheriff and the jail, but also the local emergency rooms to-to quantify those
expenses too. Those helped us significantly build the case,not only for city dollars to be
invested into that project,um,but for state and federal dollars to be invested into that
project. It was a very compelling case study grant application that allowed us to do that.
And then on the back end,Dave was very helpful in- in actually quantifying those
savings. Basically looking at that fust year after those individuals were housed,uh,what
those savings actually were. He helped to a- a lesser degree,but still played an important
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role in the guide link planning as well. And then,uh,the other one that comes to mind is
early on when we started the Winter Shelter Initiative back in 2015, 2016, tracking police
contacts with homeless individuals both before and after the winter shelter service was
available. So I look at it as really you know a resource that we can deploy to prevent
those calls for service. If we think of that spectrum,how do we prevent more calls for
service?We have to build capacity in our non-profit community. And I think this position
could have the ability, again,to make that case on the most effective and efficient ways to
build,uh, capacity that would prevent calls for service.
Salih: Uh, I just follow up question again. You know for the 500 increase for the police budget,
we said that includes the data analyst and also like the,you know, increasing of the
benefit and everything, insurance and all this. Do you have this somewhere breaking
down why increasing the 500, like each, this is- like breakdown. I would love to see
breakdown for the 500,000 increase.
Liston: Sure, it's in the budget book. But again,we started with a $700,000 increase. We whittled
it down to 500 by vehicles, over time,not budgeting as much for overtime. We saw the
significant increase,that's how we got down to 500. So the increase is, and this position,
the-the new position is obviously increase. I think we budget around 100 grand for
something like that all in. So that's where the increase is. But there is actually savings on
other parts because we're already behind the eight ball on the contractually obligated,uh,
increases with pay and benefits.
Salih: Sure. Thank you.
Fruin: If I could just make a clarification. When we talk about increase in benefits,we're not
talking about new benefits or enhanced benefits,we're just talking about the increased
cost of benefits.
Salih: Yeah. For example,you mean the insurance was and now the insurance is that.
Fruin: Correct.
Salih: Yeah, I understand that. We- I just want to see a breakdown. Yeah.
Bergus: Sorry.
Fruin: Go ahead.
Bergus: Talking about the difference between last year and this year--so last year we had six or
seven unfilled positions, I think,when we were at budget time or at 78 or 79 positions,
and so I'm sure my colleagues remember my proposal in April was to shift that money
out of this department. What we're seeing now,with the officers being hired up,those
increases,um,that are contractually obligated are attached to those permanent
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investments in the staff. And so we made those last year and the staffing increased, and
now we're beholden to increasing this year if we want to track or match those contractual
obligations. So something that I think Geoff pointed out,um,hopefully earlier,was that
we really have to be cognizant about that in terms of locking ourselves in to increases.
And if we're looking to build capacity in our non-profit partners, I don't see in this budget
those investments to try and you know have a, let's say we quantify a number of calls for
service. So the liaisons this past year did 321 contacts,um-that is one particular type of
generally the very acute mental health calls. Do you think that's fair to say, Chief?
Liston: Yes.
Bergus: Um,you know, and - and the follow ups may be not being quantified in that. But I think
ah, overall, if we haven't assessed total calls for service that our officers are responding to
and types of calls that could be diverted to other programs and investing in other
programs at a contractual quantified amount,potentially,we could save a lot of money.
And, Geoff and I have had this conversation,um, Chief and I have had that conversation
of,you know,when to do it and how to look at it. But,um, I was really expecting that at
this budget cycle because of all the conversations we've had in the last couple of years
that we'd be looking to make that-that shift. Um, so I think,you know, council
understands that we're going to be having a,uh,work session at some point still within
the budget cycle, I think, about this. But I just hope that we keep our minds open to what-
what those alternatives could be. Um, as to the additional position, I would really urge,
ah, Geoff and- and my colleagues here to consider having the data person be a centralized
position who can work on behalf of the whole city. Um,we- we are going to be having
the-the program that,um,the Mayor and Geoff are participating in. You said you would
love a whole team. I appreciate very much the need to work smarter,um, and know that
you've,you know, gotten this increase in staffing up without an increase in the overall
calls for service. So the pressure on the department is already reducing,the -the overtime
is already reducing, I think now would be a time to make an investment in an overall
position that could say holistically,not just in the police department,but let's talk about
safety as a whole. Let's talk about the fire department, let's talk about what we're doing
for housing. When Geoff spoke to the strategic plan match ups,right? In that impact area
for safety,those were not like investment items. There were some very,you know,
relatively minor things but I think we could do a lot better. And I think now would be the
time to do it given the shifts, um,that we're seeing just sort of in the community. And
getting to that opportunity of really focusing on the prevention and diversion. Um, a
couple of specific things that I think we'll get to when we have our work session,but
piloting something to have,uh, like a crisis counselor in the JECC who can be diverting
calls even earlier, even further upstream, I think would be a very small monetary
investment to contract with the service provider. So we're not paying the benefits for that
person,we're not,you know,but we can say put someone in the JECC to help push calls
and relieve pressure on the department. I think the other thing that I hope we consider is
piloting,you know, some expansion in terms of mobile crisis relating to the more acute
calls. I mean, if you sit down and have a conversation with our liaisons,you know,
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they'll-they'll really paint a vivid picture of the types of circumstances that they're
dealing with and the fact that a little bit more assistance in terms of having someone who
could prescribe medications or having someone who can,um,you know, assist in
addressing injuries if someone has self harme,would go really-really long way. And
currently, our officers are assisting in those calls. Or there are,you know,usually if
there's been violence or something like that,the officers are- are on the front lines there.
So I really do think like,we're positioned really,really well, especially compared to other
communities in the country. Um,the fact that we have the diversion at the 911 level,the
fact that we have a department that's already,you know, looking at these things and
working to co-respond. So I just really,really urge you-all to ask how we are investing in
those things and why this budget needs to be status quo if we're at that point of trying to
answer the needs of the community by matching the best response with the call.
Salih: I think you are bringing like really interesting ideas. But I don't think this time we need
more time to discuss that ideas I think. And also I would love to know how you guys
manage it without this position on the last four years. What the descriptions of this
position exactly and,you know, like full description of the job position. Um, yeah and I
really will love, as Council Bergus said, a work session or something to I guess,um,you
know, devoted to that concept to figure out exactly why we increasing this budget.
Alter: I completely agree that. This is, and we agreed to it already,that we would have a- a
working session about this. But I guess, and- and I was heartened because the way that
you were describing this is that we are really well positioned and I was seeing this is a
yes and kind of situation. But then I was a little bit taken aback at the end when you said,
well,we're taking a look at these things and that we really need to invest. And I guess
given some of the programs that I know are,um, going on that there's been the increase
with, and- and it can be more, should be more as we move forward. Um,with having an
additional,um, community partner,um,mental health expert, and the program that will
now be,um,where there is a dedicated officer rather than sort of just a designated. Right?
Maybe I'm getting the two terms mixed up. But what I mean is that there will be a sworn
police officer who will partner permanently with the mental health expert to go out on
these calls. And I have,um,heard from four different communities in Iowa who have that
program as well. And they talk about the immense benefits of having a specific officer so
that they can slow down and do the follow up work, and also hand off to the mental
health expert who is their partner. Um, so I know that that's in place,um, and has been
able to happen because of the additional hire for the-the outreach person. So I'm not
meaning to pontificate,but I do think that to say that the police department is only taking
a look at these things isn't quite accurate because I think that there are investments
happening within the structure that they have and we can continue to look more. Um, I
also think that it is- can't be underestimated or under emphasized that we have $700,000
as said,we hired new people, so there is an increase in that. But these are contractually
obligated,these are union approved,these are council approved positions. Um, so the fact
that it was brought down to $500,000 and as you said, it's like a 2.9% increase,right?
There was a slide in the executive summary that talked about the budget ask for each
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department being something like 4.5. So I do think that, you know,there is more that can
be done. I think for our community obviously,there's a lot of community support for
additional and different and innovative models for how to define and work through what
public safety is for our community. And I think that the police department in one year has
actually listened and responded to a certain extent. So I just wanted to say that even while
there is more to do.
Bergus: Yeah. And I think it's really about like trying to quantify a dollar saving. Like- like in
the context of the budget,the piece that I feel like we haven't gotten to yet is to say, okay,
community partners, if we were to give,you know,what would it take to address this
amount of calls and not 320,but like 10,000. You know, I mean,you know,why-why
are we not scoping things at that sort of level rather than a few hundred at a time?
Teague: I- I did enjoy,um,the conversation surrounding the civilian crime analyst,um, from the
point of like, is there a way for us to look at the entire agency,the entire organization?
Um,because I think you're right, Councilor Burgess,that,um,we have homeless,you
know unhoused,we have a hospital,hospitalization. We also have,um, drug use. We can
look at all of this, um, in- in from an analysis point of view for all types of things in the
organization to see how we combat this. So I think instead of going into like a- a deep
dive on this position right now, I would ask staff to look at,you know,what would it look
like if we did have someone for the entire agency.Now, of course,there will be some
priorities from the beginning that could be related to,um,you know some of the Police.
But we do know that it's all intertwined. Is, you know,when you're thinking about,um,
homelessness and drug use. Homelessness and,um,jobs and all types of stuff can go into
this. So that's where I would,um, like us to look at. I don't know, funding wise,where we
are with the opioid funds that the lawsuit that we got through,um,the county is holding
the funds or gather funds. So I'm not sure how we're utilizing that money,but potentially,
um,we can, at some point, dive into how those funds will be used. And I- I can see it as
really some of that preventative measures as well.
Dunn: Mayor, quick clarification question as to what you were just saying now. When you're
talking about like whole agency, are you specifically talking about ICPD or are you
talking about like the whole city?
Teague: The whole city is what I understood Councilor Bergus was referring to at just having
that analyst position for the entire city. When we look at,uh,just being a more data-
informed city,um, I- I can see great benefits,um, at having it at the organizational level,
even,you know,there being,uh,priorities,right, at certain times, and I think the fust
priority would be that person would spend a lot of time developing whatever is needed
for kind-kind of this intention-this intentional purpose. But overall,there are so many
intertwining things that can be looked at that really, isn't totally under the police
umbrella,but it all leads back to,um, er,you know,ways that-that we can analyze and
see how can we,um, get the information that would be more productive in creating some
solutions.
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Liston: Can I just make a real quick comment only. Um, one thing we may run into,which we
have with the mental health liaison, is their access to criminal justice files. If they are not
an employee of a law enforcement agency,they will not be able-we won't be able to
grant them access to our,uh, our RMS system, our records management system, and
that's what we bumped into with the mental health liaison. They're not employees of the
Iowa City Police Department, therefore,they can't get access. We-we can find
workarounds with that, especially when we go with the co-responder. The co-responder
would have access and they would be able to work together. But if it weren't housed in
the police department, and I- I don't disagree, I think the city could certainly use a
position like that. But if it weren't housed in the police department, I'm afraid we
wouldn't be able to give them the access that,uh,they would need to do their job.
Teague: And that access is important. I know Officer Schwindt,um, emphasized,um,uh,
communication sharing between other organizations, it's- it's challenged because of
HIPAA. And so,uh,that is a great point,uh,that,you know,you just made as- as far as
like it being housed in the,um,police department. But again, even if it's housed in there,
I do think that we can look at ways to make sure that we are looking at,um, other aspects
of the community.
Alter: I just wanna raise one, er, I can't help it, it's a devil's advocate kind of thing,but,um, in
my other work,um, er,the questions of capacity and about being able to provide
someone a grounding for,um, success,right?Um, are we setting up someone for success
is a question that I often think of when,uh, onboarding someone or giving someone new
responsibilities or extending them,right?And it- and it really does go to, is there support
for the work that's going to be done?And so it is- I put it out there as a question to think
about for when we get to working session,but the notion of what is not, for a new
position and to-to take it from one area that has a lot of intersections with,um,
community health,both,uh,mental health and otherwise. Um, and then to say, and let's
broaden it,to have this person be responsible for all of the ways in which we could use
data-driven information to help the entire city may not be setting this person up or the
city for success. At best, somebody might be automatically coming into a position where
they are maxed out of capacity before they've even begun. So I just say maybe this is a
vision for us to be able to build towards,but it also seems that it may make sense for us to
think about it in what are the best possible ways that this data analyst we-who we've
already budgeted for, can help provide some really good insights, and then we can take
that case for our new grant proposal writer to find other opportunities so that we can fund
more positions to create a larger spectrum to build this capacity up and the success. So
I'm not- I know I sound emphatic, I'm simply putting it out there as something for us to
think about, about, is that the best way to use those funds to say,now let's have it be this
person- one person working across all city offices when maybe we can get the most acute
needs taken care of through it being a civilian position who will not be beholden to the
police, in- in so far as they're not a sworn officer. And then we can think about what
success might look like. Uh, so
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Bergus: Yeah. So I think if- if our intent would be for this position to support the community
violence intervention, I have really strong concerns about it being internal to the police
department. I think models throughout the country.
Alter: I'm no saying just the community violence,but I-
Bergus:No no, I know,but I- I- I heard Chief say that would be a primary, or a- a role for this
person. And so I think- I- I really just think we need to be pulling back and looking at it. I
know it's just one position,but it's not just, you know, if this- even if we characterize the
whole position as a data analyst for safety,right?Doesn't just have to be police
department,but if it was for community safety,they should be looking at and addressing
a lot of things beyond policing.
Alter: Yeah.
Bergus: And I do think if they're supporting the community violence intervention,um, it i- is
much less likely to be successful if it's within the police department,because of the need
for the community connections.
Salih: Can we look at as information from other cities how they do it outside the police
department then if were successful?
Teague: There's definitely opportunities there. I think what we'll do just for, and- and I don't
wanna rush anything if people really do wanna pause on this position,uh,we certainly
can. Um,but maybe we can pick this one up in a work session and get a little more,um,
intentionality surrounding this position.
Harmsen: I did have a little bit of a question,not exactly for this,but just jumping back to the,
um,the change with the liaison,um, going from what it was,uh,not that long ago, like
when I started on Council to this change that is happening,has already started happening
or is about to happen?
Liston: About to.
Harmsen: Proposed to happen. So what is the difference and how will it look different and what
is it expected to achieve?
Liston: The original position was supposed to be a co-responder. That's what we advertised it for,
that's what we put in the plan. It was,uh, always supposed to be paired with a law
enforcement officer. And we were working through the beats on that,what that looked
like,what sort of uniform, softer uniform, things like that. The national model typically
has a softer uniform. Um,we didn't have the staffing to-to do it. So, um,when Joah
started,Joah would go out to calls that officers were already on as opposed to riding
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around in a car with an officer and what we call jumping calls that sound like there'd be
something he could assist, and he-he wasn't able to get out to many calls. He would have
to wait for an officer to arrive, or,um. So now, it would- it will be what we intended it to
be when we started the program,which is paired with an officer, a- a full-time officer,
that's that person's partner that has a aptitude towards those type of calls and- and that
type of training. The budget also has additional training for those co-responder positions
to make sure they have an additional level of training. They're never gonna be mental
health professionals,but people on the Iowa City Police Department get a lot of reps
dealing with,uh,people in crisis. So they're-they're decent at their job, and certainly
people who would be attracted to that would be people who,uh,who care about that. So
that's what it will look like. And we'll have to phase it in just because of staffing alone.
We'll have to phase it in. My-my intention is to tip- it'll likely be the evening shift,uh,
person that will be partnered up at fust,because that's where we get the bulk of those
calls.
Harmsen: Okay.
Liston: And then, er, as staffing allows,we'll- we'll fill the other spot.
Harmsen: Thank you.
Liston: Um, so that was the big part-the big addition to is the-the,uh, data analysts that you all
have been discussing. Another one that I'm sure we'll-we'll have to talk about in more
detail is the license plate reader cameras. Um, I'm sure that'll generate a lot of interest.
Um,there's three- over 350 of those in the state of Iowa already. Uh,University uses
them.North Liberty just approved them. Uh,University Heights is going to have a
system similar to that. Um, they're-they're being used,uh, all over the state. Um, I think
it adds to our efficiency. Um, I'm sure I've told some of you all stories about us sifting
through,uh,manually sifting through video looking for a missing person or a person we
know is in a car. Um, those LPRs allow us to do that automatically, so it would make us
much more efficient that way.
Moe: Where would those be located?
Liston: That's a good question. We would have to decide which places they made the most sense.
Um,the companies have,uh, deployment models. Uh,the University has deployed many,
uh, in the community. Uh,private businesses have deployed them. Some of the big
retailers have them on,uh, entry ways to their businesses. But,uh,there are 350
municipally-owned ones in the state right now. Most of the metro area has them. Um,
these aren't,um, again,these aren't traffic enforcement. They're not-they're not like when
you drive through Cedar Rapids and get a speeding ticket. It just- it just reads license
plates.
Salih: And can you explain again why that for?Why wanna do that?
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Liston: Why w-why would we want to do that? Often times we're looking for a vehicle. You-
you've seen the amber alerts and things like that. We could-we could input the license
plate in there. And then any time that vehicle drove by one of those cameras it would give
an alert. Yes.
Salih: I see.
Liston: Yeah.
Teague: I did just bring up, I did just a quick research on Iowa human trafficking numbers, and
in 2021,the hot line received 86 human trafficking-related cases and identified a total of
161 victims. Um, so it- it you know,we-The public really don't hear a lot about human
trafficking,um, and even missing persons.Yes,we get the alerts,but there is a finite time
that is pretty critical for finding,um, individuals during situations like this. So I just
wanted to at least bring up whatever data I just found really quickly on that.
Liston: And most of these agencies have several success stories. The University has a really
interesting one where they had someone who was suicidal, and they were able to input
that information into the camera system, and find that they had gone home out of town,
and were able to get that person the help that they needed. And it would not have
happened without the camera systems.
Salih: But this not necessarily,the public doesn't know where is this device at.
Liston: They're not hidden, if you know what to look for,you'll find them. But no,we would
certainly post that. That wouldn't be something we would hide.No.
Salih: Yeah. But- but if for example, if I know about what is-was this at, I'm doing that crime,
why should I come that way? So you can catch me.
Liston: That's- that's a good point,but that's why you put them on the major ingress and egress
places in town. So you-you'd have to be strategic about the deployment,but if someone
were really really sharp um,they could possibly avoid those, so just de- depend on how
many you would have,but absolutely.
Dunn: So I would say that this is also something that,um, is worthy of a work session
discussion. There's been just about a decade's worth of debate since I believe these,um,
started becoming commonplace in the United States, and at least on fust glance, I'm not
very supportive of the idea,but of course it is,um,up to Council and I could be
convinced. But,um,no matter what I think that the council, if we do choose to, er,
provide funds for these devices,um, I do think that we need to establish a very solid,um,
policy for use and access to those records, as well as, er,relating to the destruction of
those records. Um,ACLU has some- some great resources and recommendations,um, on
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the usage of- of the data and the technology. Um, and again, at some point, I really would
like to have a greater discussion on this before we,um,move forward with it.
Harmsen: I'm kinda glad you mentioned that,because I think that's a conversation Geoff and I
have had even over other cameras-types of cameras. Sort of that cost benefit analysis.
I'm one of those people too,that's not automatically excited about more- any kind of
surveillance. But at the same time, I recognize, for instance, some of the downtown stuff
where we have had some shootings, and some of those cameras have been instrumental in
finding somebody who would be willing to fire a gun in the middle of a crowded-middle
of my city,um, and letting them not walk around the streets to do it again. Um, so there's
a benefit,but I'm also aware of the cost and I think one of the things that I'm always
interested in is the policy question and what happens to records that are kept,how long,
um,this I'm a history person, and so I know in other points of history that you don't have
any control over a record once it's created,how it's going to be used by-by future people
who may or may not be as,um, ethical and I won't go into a history lesson, I'll save my
professor stuff for when we actually have more time. Um,but yes I know Geoff, I saw
you leaning forward can speak to maybe some of the policy things,but I think that would
be an important thing to me that we-we pay attention to and make sure that if we do that,
that it's got policies in place that, tip that cost benefit analysis more towards the benefit
and away from the cost.
Dunn: Yeah, and I've- I've got the policy recommendations from ACLU are fairly brief, so I'm
not going to feel bad in just explaining them here. Um,they've got five of them. License
plate readers may be used by law enforcement agencies only. Um,the government
should-must not store data about innocent people,um, for any lengthy period of time
unless plate data has been flagged. Retention periods should be measured in days or
weeks,not months, or certainly not years. Er,people should be able to find out if their
plate data, er,has been logged with a vehicle registered to them. Law enforcement
agencies should not be sharing license plate reader data. Er, and any entity that uses
license plate reader should be required to report its usage publicly on at least an annual
basis. So ACLUs recommendations.
Salih: Do you know how much it cost us?
Liston: Er, I have rough numbers,yeah.
Fruin: The budget contains 40,000. Um, so the way the system works is- is- it's basically a
subscription. I think if you are familiar with the software as a subscription model,they're
not city,there would not be city or law enforcement owned cameras. Um, a company
would put them up at a cost of probably 3 to $5,000 per camera per year. Er, so we've
only budgeted 40,000 because we'd like to kind of, er,move slowly down this path and
we think that could get us a few intersections. As the chief mentioned,probably focused
on entry and exit points into the community. Um,but I want to just talk about process. It's
not-this isn't a situation where if you leave these dollars in the budget, it's going to
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happen. There's going to be a lot of council involvement to get us from point A to point
B. Um, if you- if- if it's a nonstarter for you,then take the funds out of the budget,um,
but we're not going to spend those funds until you are 100% sure on what we were doing,
and how we're going to do it. Um,we're going to have to amend our ordinance regarding
the use of these types of cameras. So there's an ordinance amendment that would have to
come fust. Er,we'd have to publicly talk about the locations, and get you to approve
those. We'd have to have a policy, and we are-we're well aware of the ACLU policy, and
we have to make the case to it. Like why-why is this worth it?And we have a lot of good
information, good statistics from the University, from other Iowa law enforcement
agencies on how these have assisted them, and at the end of the day, it is a cost benefit. If
you feel like the cameras intrude too much into,um, someone's private,um,life,then-
then we shouldn't do it. But there-there is no doubt in my mind,um,that these cameras
can allow our staff to be much more efficient, and to,um, er, intervene on public safety
issues much quicker than we can right now. Whether that's solving a crime or preventing
the next crime. I'm convinced by what I've seen in talking to other communities, er, that
use these. It's a conversation, it's not something that's going to move forward. If you just
leave the budget dollars in there,you're not going to see these cameras start to pop up.
Dunn: What is the advantage to us making the appropriation right now versus a supplemental
appropriation later on in the fiscal year, aside from just-
Fruin: We- we just want to be transparent. We decided that this is a- a conversation that needs to
be held in a room like this at- at every step of the way, and I think the budget authority is
the fust step of that. Yes,we could move forward,um,without the budget authority to do
that,but we know it is a priority for the chief and I,um, so we just wanted to be open and
clear about that.
Teague: I would just say from the,um,the disability world, persons with disabilities,this would
be great. We have,um, individuals with intellectual disabilities that they get on the Inter-
Internet,people pick them up,they're dependent-many of them are dependent adults.
And having something like this in the- in the past would have been very helpful for a lot
of those individuals being found are really quickly and returned back so. But,yeah, I- I'm
comfortable keeping it in there and just having the discussions about definitely the
policies and- and all that stuff at a later date.
Alter: I think it makes sense too, definitely pull this out to talk about.
Dunn: Yeah, I- I agree. I'm- at this point, I'm not comfortable saying that I support having the
money in there before we have the broader conversation about policy and
implementation. Um,we talk about constantly that this document is about our values, and
our money,uh,that we spend is about our values. And I think it's not a good idea for us
to allocate funds before this body has come to an assessment of whether that is in
alignment with our values. Um, so I think we need a lot further discussion on that. And-
and quite honestly, I would not want to have the mo-money allocated before we have the
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specifics figured out. I think it's- I think it's good to have the conversation. I think it's an
important conversation that we need to have,but for it to be in the budget at this point,
um,with-with this group's knowledge,um, I'm not sure that's the best path forward.
Teague: Is- is there a way to just have some discretionary funds at 40,000 earmarked?
Bergus: I mean that's the case anyway. That's-that's below the threshold of-or that's-
Salih: I- I thought,you know, all this now is just numbers are there and we're still going to talk
about them for each department and whether we're gonna approve it or not. But if this
means if we put the $40,000 there that it'd have to be there after today? I- I saw like the
Department talk to us and tell us what they need and we go back and like look at it and
approve it is it not that-
Alter: Because this is the opening of us just getting the information,right? So it's like we're not
approving anything today.
Dunn: Yeah, I'm just saying. I'm sure-
Alter: I appreciate also that it was put in so that this could be raised in a public way. It seems to
me that that was the impulse and so now we can take it up and- and consider what more
we need or what have you,um,but yeah, it- it does fall under discretionary,but that
would-that's always not a good idea.
Salih: For me, sorry. I- I wanna see like each department what increase they need.Now,the
police is 500,000. Can I know breakdown,why is that?And so I can like feel that's what
comfortable that's what's really needed and- and this is for each department that they need
more money.
Moe: Thanks, Chief Liston for highlighting this. I think we were- I think you were the one who
actually brought it up, so this is going to be controversial. And thank you Geoff for also
bringing that up too that this is something that's gonna be controversial for us to work
through. I wanna know if the process moving forward is we have a work session to talk
about this in the budget process, or is the recommendation um, from Councilor Dunn to
just completely think about removing it and adding it in later? I guess it's- it's- again, it's a
$40,000 expenditure. So I'm- I'm not sure what the proposal was as far as we will have a
work session. We all agreed to one on the increase of the one data analyst. We also
having a work session or is this discussion also part of that? Is that what-
Dunn: So I would say I don't have any problem with having this discussion and figuring out all
the specifics of it during the budgeting process. I just think that at least for me personally,
that needs to be a prerequisite.
Moe: Sure. Yeah. Understood.
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Bergus: Yeah, I agree with that. And just in the context of additional transparency,thank you for
bringing it up. And of course,understanding that you didn't have to,right? So thank you
for that. And I think just for transparency from my end, Geoff said if you think it's kind
of a nonstarter,right? That's- I think that's more where I am. That's what you're saying?
That we had the conversation fust.
Salih: Yes, I agree.
Teague: We'll figure out the timing Great.
Liston: I think that's all I have. Unless you had any more questions.
Teague: Thank you.
Liston: Thank you.
Fire Department
Teague: We're gonna move on to our Fire Department. Welcome.
Lyon: Good morning.
Teague: Good morning.
Salih: Good morning.
Lyon: How do we pull the-up-there we go. All right. I'm Scott Lyon,the Fire Chief of the Iowa
City Fire Department. This is my second time in front of the council. Um, I will be
having my two-year anniversary this April, so- so it's good to see everyone this morning.
The Iowa City Fire Department, er, employs 66 full-time firefighters. Um, we provide
fire,medical,technical rescue,hazardous materials, emergency response. Um,we have
four fire stations every day that-that are in service,uh,with four engine companies and
one ladder truck and one battalion chi- chief on duty at a time. Um, currently, our
minimum staffing is 16 members. And that includes,uh,the battalion chief,um, all the
way down to the firefighters. Um, four divisions of the fire department are fire
administration, emergency operations, fire prevention, and fire training. Um, if- if we
look at fire emergency operations, er, it by far is the largest section of the fire department
and makes up approximately 81% of the budget,um,with fire administration coming in
second, and the fire training and fire prevention er,both,uh, coming in about 2% of the
total budget of the fire department. Um, if we look at Page 131 in your-your budget
book,we can talk a little bit about fire administration. There are a couple of things I'd
really like to highlight that happened last year that were absolutely great. Um,but the fire
department was successful over the summer in being reaccredited. Um, again,um,which
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is a phenomenal step. Um,the Iowa City Fire Department is one of a few fire
departments worldwide,um,that has been accredited for more than 15 years. So
something we're very,very proud of Fire administration,um, also takes care of,um,
everything in the fire department, from software to building maintenance um,
accreditation and- and that-that type of thing. Um, another highlight from the fire
administration, er, side of the house last year,um,was a partnership of Local 610 to host
a Fire Ops 101 class. And- and I know some of you got to participate in that down at the
training center. And I- I think that went-went very well. Um, some upcoming challenges
that-that we're experiencing as a fire department--ah, one is just simply an increase in
call volume. Uh,the fire department is very busy. We responded to over 9,200 runs last
year. And I- I don't see that curtailing any time soon. Um, another one of the upcoming
challenges that we're having as a fire department is simply succession planning. Um, our
agency- our fire department is getting much older and we'll be having some key
retirements taking place here-here soon. Um,the financial highlight the City Manager
talked about,uh, a little while ago,um, relates to the contingency funding for Station 5
here in a couple of years. Er, emergency operations again, er, call volume continues to
rise. Um, last year we specified the-the replacement of three fire trucks,um, and we're
hoping to see those hopefully sometime in the next 12-18 months. Um, so that will be
very good. Um, some of our challenges do- do center around fire apparatus at this point.
Just the lag that we've talked about of- of getting fire trucks built, er, from- from the
speci- specification to delivery. Depending on the unit we're talking about, it could be 24,
36,48 months, depending on the- on the apparatus. So that is certainly- certainly a
challenge. Again,um, I know the-the addressing the-the condition of Fire Station 1,um,
is something we're gonna talk about later on this week in- in the CIP budget. Um,there-
there is a capital outlay expenditure that increases, er,within the-the fire department that
will help us pay for extrication equipment that is much needed that is currently on the
rescue truck to help facilitate car accidents or removal of victims from car accidents. That
equipment is 11 or 12 years old and it's- it's time for it to-to simply get out. Um, see here.
Fire prevention. Uh,the fire prevention division um,takes care of fire inspections,um,
pre-planning,um, code enforcement,um, extremely busy,um,but-but once again, a lot
of good things happened with that division over the last year. Er, some key partnerships
with the University,um, an- and Johnson County, as a whole allowed for a really
effective er, community, er, summer camp at Fire Station 4. Um,we continue to partner
with a variety of agencies to-to put on Safety Village every year, er,which definitely
seems to be a staple within our community. And were-were able to get that done, er,
with-with that division that had one full-time employee in it. Um, if we move on to fire
training it was very busy with fire training last year. Um,we- we were able to conduct a
very large recruit class in the spring,uh,hanks to the addition of two, er,positions within
the fire department, and fire training continues to be, er, incredibly busy and effective.
Um,there is er, an increase in the financial highlights section within fire training that is
reflective of the five-year inspection of our fire training tower. Every five years it has to
be inspected to keep the warranty up and make sure that it's safe. Um,there are some
interesting statistics in page- on Page 694,um, of your budget book that simply talks
about,um, and reinforces the-the call- call demands that-that the agency is facing right
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now. Um, and just over the years,the fire department continues to-to get busy, and I
don't see that changing,uh, anytime soon. Um, I'll take any questions you may have.
Moe: Just curious, in our initial discussions that there was an additional $300,000 allocated for
future staffing and the question arose at that time about whether or not the prudent thing
to do is to bring those people on now so they're you know trained up,ready to go when
the state additional fire station is built. Can you talk to that?
Lyon: Yeah, sure. Um,the option to bring on,uh,the personnel now versus later,uh, I would
certainly like to bring on the personnel,but I also understand the financial constraints that
are present. So-so for me at this point,um, it's very important to know that the staffing is
planned,the staffing is being funded, and when we're able to implement those funds,uh,
really depends on the financial picture.
Dunn: So what I understand is your preference would be to bring people on now,but that
decision is kind of out of your hands, correct?
Lyon: I-I would like to slowly bring on positions into the Fire Department,uh,but again, I do I
do understand the financial constraints that we have.
Dunn: And- and could you remind me what the request you guys made this year for,uh, increase
in staffing was?
Lyon: In total, I requested five- five personnel, I requested a fire inspector at the captain level, I
requested a civilian,that's a community risk reduction person, and then three firefighters.
Dunn: Okay. And so,uh,you know, if we were to,you know, transition some of the contingent
funds to a position,what would be your top priority for a position?
Lyon: For a singular position?
Dunn: Singular position.
Lyon : That is a very difficult,uh.
Dunn: I'm just thinking. I'm just thinking.
Lyon:No, I understand. Right now,we have,uh,really two competing priorities. We have two
shifts that have one more person than the other shift, so it would be helpful to balance
shifts,but also in fire prevention,right now,we have one FTE that is running the entire
fire prevention division. So that would be, I believe, a choice that you guys would need to
make.
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Dunn: Can you talk about the impact of,uh,you know the disparity between the numbers of
firefighters on the shifts versus you know the ability to respond,morale, all those things.
Lyon: Sure, I-I.
Dunn: Safety.
Lyon: Well, I-I don't see it as a safety issue, I don't see as the ability to respond issue. I know
staff has expressed,um,that there's a morale issue surrounding the other two shifts
having one more person,but that's the extent that I see that issue.
Dunn: So ultimately, it's like it's more of the work on the 16 than it is.
Lyon: Yeah. You know one position in the Fire Department is not going to be a game changer.
Would it be welcomed?Absolutely. But,you know,ultimately what we're, what I'm
shooting for is a construction of Station 5 and that will help response times workload and
on down the line.
Dunn: Okay.
Alter: Would that,um, once Station 5 is,uh, completed,the size of the personnel would be the
same as current state? Correct?You're not looking to add?
Lyon:No. That would be as as a manager alluded to,the other 12 positions once we open up the
next firehouse.
Alter: Right,right go. Yeah, so it's not looking to-
Lyon: To increase.
Alter: Okay.
Bergus: Chief, can you just talk a little bit about this community safety reduction position?
Lyon: Yeah. One of the emerging trends in the fire service right now is community risk
reduction. Uh, something that's not new to the City of Iowa City by any stretch of the
imagination. Uh,but one of the things that I hoped to achieve during my tenure here is to
be able to you know deal with problems on the front side and deal with challenges on the
front side. And you can do that by having a civilian manage a risk reduction program that
addresses everything from falls, traffic safety, cooking safety, and those types of issues.
So at some point,um,that will be something I definitely want to do.
Bergus: Is there data from other communities that,where you could quantify what you might
expect in terms of prevention from a position like that?
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Lyon: That's a really tough thing when we talk about fire prevention because we can never count
the fires that never happened,right? That's a tough thing that we will always come across.
Um, so it's really, I think, a community feeling of how engaged we are. Many Fire
Departments' are doing the community risk reduction model,but it is very difficult to
quantify.
Moe: So Fire Department does a great job,response times are fast,wouldn't ever want those
numbers to increase. I am curious though, looking at the number of non fire incidents you
guys respond to, it's the vast majority of them,we just talked to police and I know that
there's been an ongoing discussion about how we get non police people to respond to a
non police needed response. What is the Fire Department doing,kind of in a similar vein,
where you can divert that big fire truck going?
Lyon: Well, that's difficult right now. I'll be completely,honest with you.
Moe: Sure.
Lyon: Of those non fire calls that we're talking about,the vast majority of are medic calls. And
here in Johnson County, in Iowa City,we have a third service ambulance provider. Uh,
they are experiencing the same volume increases that we are. So our shared goal between
us and Johnson County is to get someone on scene within a timely way. With many of
these medical calls, if we don't go,um,when an ambulance gets there, an ambulance gets
there,Johnson County ambulance is very busy and they're working their tails off every
single day. So really, it's a co response model to get the citizen the care they need the
quickest. So I- I wouldn't advocate that we don't respond to those calls.
Moe: Okay.
Bergus: Same question I asked a year ago, chief about apparatus size, following up on that,um,
any movement or progress on being a little more nimble with.
Lyon: You bet. One of the things that we're looking at right now --Battalion Chief Hickman, is
doing an applied research project that's going to look at,uh, a smaller response vehicle, a
squad concept, a smaller utility type vehicle, and seeing where that may fit into the Iowa
City Service Model. Again,part of our challenge is not only the ambulance call,but it's
making sure that we get,uh,the effective response force on scene for a building fire. So
they kind of have to play with-with each other and it can't be this versus that, it's this and
that most likely.
Salih: I just want to ask you about the State 28E Agreement and the local, is this when our Fire
Department helps the State or help other cities, or what is that?
Lyon: Sure 28E agreements?
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Salih: Yes.
Lyon: The Iowa City Fire Department,uh,we have contracts with the University,University
Heights, for service levels. But outside of that, on 28E agreements like mutual aid
agreements,uh,we,the Iowa City Fire Department,we provide mutual aid on a frequent
basis,multiple times a week, to the surrounding area and we also receive mutual aid on
incidents of higher magnitude like we experienced last week, or at times where we are
just call saturated and we need people to come help us.
Frain: Just to clarify, in the budget, if you're looking at those revenue line items on Page 348,the
State 28E Agreement is the University's contribution to our fire operations, and the Local
28E Agreement is the University Heights contributions for covering their community
with those services.
Moe: How were those values determined?
Frain: The University relationship-there's an agreement that is several decades old. It factors in
the square footage of property that the University owns compared to the square footage of
property throughout. The City determines a percent and then they pay a similar percent of
our overall fire budget.
More: Those reviewed regularly to make sure that they're on parity with our actual expenses.
Frain: Well, the the formula inputs are reviewed regularly. Um,we think it's a fair way to go
about doing that. We could look at calls for service data and analyze it a different way,
but but all in all, I think it's a fair approach. Um,the University Heights 28E Agreement
is based on a rolling average of calls for service I believe. We look at a three or five calls
for service to University Heights, and we do a similar proportion type of analysis and
assign them a cost.
Teague: All right. Thank you.
Lyon: All right. Thank you.
Library
Teague: And we're going to move on to Culture and Leisure program budgets. We're going to
start with our Library. Welcome.
Carmen: Good morning.
Teague: Good morning.
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Carmen: I'm Ellsworth Carmen. I'm the Director of the Library and I'm glad to be here to share
some information this morning. I feel like every year I approach this maybe in a little bit
more narrative way than most of my colleagues for two reasons. One, it's just the way
that I think, I'm a librarian and storytelling is how I approach things. Secondly,the
Library is a semi-autonomous department, so we have a board that does much of our
governance, including specific allocations from the budget after those monies are
delegated for Library use. So the department summary starts on Page 167 and the budget
details begin on Page 358 in the budget book. Um, ICPL operates seven days a week in
our downtown location, and the Bookmobile provides services throughout the community
five days a week. We offer free, inclusive programming for all ages, including significant
literacy focused programs for youth and wide reaching collections of circulating
materials, including physical items and digital content. Library staff provides outreach
services all across the community. We contract with University Heights,Lone Tree,
Hills, and rural Johnson County to provide full service to regional non-Iowa City
residents. Our services include materials and programs in several languages including
weekly story times in Chinese and Spanish. The Library is governed by a nine member
board of trustees and maintains the highest level state accreditation available in Iowa. We
have 39 full time staff members, 12 permanent part time staff members, and 57 hourly
staff members. We operate with seven internal departments. We are not seeking to make
any staffing level changes this year,but we are asking to move (can't hear)percent of a
full time position from the Library gifts and bequests line into the general Library budget.
Um,when the Bookmobile was added to ICPL, a part time position in the Children's
Department was expanded to full time to cover some of those shifts for the community.
The additional hours and benefits were paid from the annual NOBU budget,which is
made up of board controlled funds, largely from gifts. Since the COVID-19 furlough,
we've been working to hold personnel funds to cover moving this position fully into the
regular Library budget.While no new staff hours will result,the shift will allow for more
flexibility in the use of the gift funds for future years. I'm thankful that the CMO was
supportive of discussing this change. The Library is heavily used by the community. In
fiscal year 24,we welcomed over 490,000 people into the main Library and Bookmobile.
We circulated over 1.25 million items,with 28.7% of those being digital. We facilitated
and hosted over 630 programs in the Library, and over 325 in the community, issued over
500- 5,550 new cards, answered more than 25,000 reference questions, and our public
computers were used for over 45,000 computer sessions. If you aren't a Library user
already, I encourage you all to come over and see how the community is using that
resource. We are facing some significant challenge right now, all of which impact the
budget. As you're all aware,HE 718 eliminated the special Library levy. For context,the
ICPL levy passed in 1991 with 68 support for the highest possible Library levy of$0.27
per thousand dollars of taxable property valuation. Last year,the levy made up about
17% of the Library's budget,which was just under $1.2 million. It's important to note that
the levy was never intended to be extra money for the Library. It has always covered
essential services. And it is spent across the Library's budget. It is not allocated
specifically to cover personnel, or programs, or physical plant. The loss of the Levy feels
hugely personal to the ICPL community. The levy was a point of pride for many
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community members and members of the Library staff. It symbolized support for the
Library in a tangible way and made the budget less volatile because of the guaranteed
fund allocation. Losing a community supported levy, is a significant negative change. I
know the loss of the levy makes your budget work and the work of the CMO more
complicated for the next four years and beyond. And if that feels frustrating to you,know
that I am right there with you. So the Library has a Friends Foundation that funds certain
positions and provides an annual undesignated gift to the Library. But it's important to
understand that the Friends Foundation cannot bridge the gap in funding that the loss of
the levy brings. Um, I just want to note here,how thankful I am to be part of a city that
understands and values how the Library functions as part of a city government. And I'm
so appreciative of the way that the budget is approached with creativity and strategy.Not
every community in- in Iowa can say that. Recent legislation has a negative impact on
Library operations in two other ways as well. As part of the state government
reorganization bill,the state Library was moved from the Department of Education into
the Department of Administrative Services,which changes some of the reporting
requirements and oversight structures. We have yet to see what the full impact of this will
be. But I'm concerned about the future of state funds for Library service, specifically
enrich Iowa and open access,which provided over $80,000 in last year's budget. State file
496-the law restricting access to materials and school libraries and classroom collections
has less of an immediate impact on ICPL, but has affected some of our workflows and
the use of our materials. Depending on what happens with the current injunction,we will
continue to work to figure out the most effective ways to bridge access gaps for the
community,but this is something we're keeping a very close eye on. Other budget related
challenges ah, include, like everyone else is seeing, increasing costs for materials and
supplies and increasing performance fees for outside presenters. We've seen an increase
in over 35% in costs for bringing in programmers. And in fiscal year'24,we reduced
summer programming by two programs a week,which resulted in a drop in attendance
numbers between 300-600 children per week. We know that participating in summer
reading programs helps students avoid summer slide and develop lifelong literacy skills,
so this service decline is significant. We expect to reduce summer programs even more
this year due to increasing programming costs and budget staying the same.Printing costs
and material costs keep rising, and with the second year in a row,with no increase to the
collection budget,we're purchasing fewer titles every year. Which means longer wait
times for popular items and a narrower scope for the collection as a whole. As many
other departments are experiencing,the social services and mental health needs of our
community have outgrown the resources available. And the Library has responded to
these increasing needs as nimbly as possible. We've participated in a grant funded
program that brought social workers into the Library and work actively with social
service agencies in the community. But in the future,more resources will need to be
allocated to meeting the mental health needs of the community and the Library. Library
staff are open to doing much of this work,but we will need to do significant training and
most likely increased staffing if current need patterns continue. I pride myself on being a
frugal budgeter,but it does feel tight to continue to face these increasing needs. There's
really no room for service expansions right now, even when the community need is
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evident. As an example, I've been meeting with the leadership of the South of Six
business district to evaluate Library service needs in the area. And we have a good idea
of what service expansion could look like,but just don't have the funding for additional
Bookmobile hours,new book returns, or any innovative ways to connect area residents
with their Library. I'm investigating some grant funding for this project,but it's going to
be a stretch, and there just aren't other places in our budget to find those resources. We're
also affected by current culture wars,with Library services,primarily collections and
programs being politicized and leveraged in disruptive ways. It takes significant staff
time to plan for and respond to extreme reactions to programs,materials, and services,
which is a drain on overall resources. We collect a lot of data about Library use,but have
elected to focus on access and education goals. In the budget book metrics,we've added a
new metric for a number of print materials in the World Language Collection. We'll
continue to report on door counts and program attendance in the main Library and
Bookmobile, and have added a count of unique community groups using our meeting
rooms per month. These metrics were selected for inclusion because they align with both
the Library and the city's strategic plan. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here and
talk about the Library, and welcome any specific questions that you might have.
Harmsen:No specific questions,but we are well aware of the bulwark that the Library represents
in our state right now. And thank you for that work. I know sometimes you find yourself
on the front line when all you really want to do is help people read. Um,this Council,
unlike the people in charge of the state like books and reading. And so we approve of the
work you do.
Carmen: Thank you.
Bergus: So I just had a question to the metrics that you mentioned at the very end of your
presentation. So in our packet um, looking at the door count, significant increase from
fiscal year'21 to now. Is there something going on there in terms of counting folks that
would have caused that or has there really been that level of increase in Library?
Carmern: There really has been that level of increase. But part of it is still recovery COVID. I
would say that the curve of that number, I think it's still very impacted by re-norming
after the COVID closure.
Bergus: Yeah,that makes sense. Okay. So yes, fiscal year'21 would have been 2020. Thank you
That makes a lot more sense.
Carmen: Use is up and that-Yeah. Um I would say that it's not a perfect national trend,but we're
seeing that. I think anytime there's pressure on the economy in general,Library tends to
go up,which is a negative and a positive.
Bergus: Yeah. Thank you.
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Alter: I know that it's reflected line by line within these pages,but can you speak a little bit more
just as a narrative about how you're addressing the levy being gone? I mean 17% of your
budget is a lot.
Carmen: I mean,the fust call I think I made was to Geoff to talk about what-what do we need to
do right now. Sort of here,um, the lens that the City is going to take on it,which could
run from,well, that money is gone. So figured out to sort of,we're going to try to
maintain those services,which I'm so thankful,um,was-was more of the response I got.
So the board,um, and I have talked a lot about what,um,reductions would look like if
we did need to absorb a 17% loss. Um, and realistically, if that funding isn't, um,
continued,we would be looking at probably at least one,possibly two days of closure
and,um,that would be the way to sort of compress the-the funding model that we have.
We're about 77%personnel costs at the Library. So just sort of the-the money saving in
other areas,um, it is hard. We have,um, like I said,we serve a number of non-Iowa City
communities through 28E Agreements. Um, if there is significant service change,we'll-
we'll loop those groups into conversation as well to see what-what all of that looks like
together. Um,there has been a lack of support through the State Library,um, around this.
Not every public Library in Iowa has a Library levy,had a Library levy. Many did,but
among that,many had much smaller. Um, so the impacts range from sort of devastating
to not much. Um, so that's where we are now. We- we have a lot of contingency planning
around what would it look like if,um, if those resources were simply not available. But it
would be a- a deep and immediate cut in public service.
Alter: Thank you.
Moe: I think we're in a moment in time where we all want more access to information,not less.
Um, is there anything in the budgeting process,um, and this is asking you to look into
your crystal ball, I guess. Um,they will puts you at risk of more state oversight of what
books might be in our public libraries. Or is there a way that we need to be thinking about
budgeting that insulates you so you can have access to provide all books?
Carmen:That's a great question,um, and a scary question. I think there are absolutely multiple
things that could happen that could restrict access more. Um,we could see a duplication
of the laws affecting school collections right now,where it was just like, you can't have
X,Y, and Z, or we will criminalize that so the librarians will be liable for giving a minor
a book about LGBT content or something like that. Um, I think there's also the
opportunity, especially with that state Library shift from the Department of Education
into administrative services to start applying rules like, if you don't filter Internet and you
don't have,um, age restrictions on your card for who can check out R rated movies or
graphic novels or whatever we want to put that around,then we will remove state
funding,you may not become accredited. You may-there are some pretty straightforward
paths to tightening this on public libraries. Um,we're optimistic that-that won't happen,
and I think there's a lot of,um,there will be a lot of loud,um, activism around it if it
starts to. But because libraries,um, serve entire communities and a lot of our user base,
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um, are sort of under resourced, in general, it's a vulnerable population. And- and I do
worry about even incremental or,um,temporary reductions,what-what kind of effect
that would have on the community. Um, so we're-we're hoping not but to me,the school
collection bill felt a little bit like testing the water and if that is going to work, and I think
with the current injunction,we just don't know yet what that's going to look like. Um, it
wouldn't surprise me if there are attempts made. I don't know that will be successful. To
think to think about how do we sort of protect internally,um, I'm- I'm realistic about the
budget and I know the answer isn't just to say,we'll just cover anything that the state
stops paying. Um,but it would-we just have to start that hard work of how do you
prioritize already prioritized uses of money and work that way. I think that we have a big
advantage in having a lot of IT skill at the Library and a really masterful Collection
Development Department. So if there were mandates about how collections are handled
or circulated,we can react to that very nimbly,where lots of libraries would probably
need to either shut down or bring in outside consultants to figure out how do you make
your ILS system work with restrictions and things like that. So I think we're ahead of the
game there,but if there are simply global mandates around things,we'd have to walk
through the process. I've been here five years. The whole time the Library Board has been
amazing and thoughtful and engaged. And I think that while I don't want that to happen, I
do feel like we're well positioned to-to have the hard conversations about how do we
respond to those things. The Board has also been very proactive in the political landscape
and has made a number of statements and been active in local legislation around Library
priorities.
Parks & Recreation
Teague: Well,we really want to thank you for coming, Council, we're going to do a break right
now, a lunch break. I do know that we,uh,have Parks and Recreation and our Senior
Center that is present. We're going to pick you all up right when we return. We're going
to break for lunch until uh,12:35. We'll be back. All right. We are going to continue with
our proposed budget conversations and the next department up is our Parks and
Recreation. Welcome.
Seydell Johnson: Welcome back. I hope you're all refreshed and ready to go.Juli Seydell
Johnson,Parks and Recreation Director. Um, our department is there to build community
capacity by facilitating spaces,places, events for the community to meet each other, share
space together. We teach our basic safety skills, every child learning how to swim and
other fun things like that. And then we protect and enhance the natural resources
throughout the city. So those are the main things that our department does.Um,we have
four divisions plus Park and Rec admin. Starting on page 145 of your budget book,Park
and Rec admin. The main thing that's been keeping us busy, of course, is City Park Pool
design and public input. Um,we'll be coming back with you some more information on
Wednesday on that. Um,the statistically valid survey will go out in a few weeks. So
we're on track,um,that's been taking up a lot of time. And then the other thing to
mention is we had a great year at the Iowa City Farmers Market. It's a theme through
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both that and our recreation programs, I think we finally come back into our space after
the pandemic. We've seen increased use, increased people coming out for everything.
Um, so good year with the Farmers Market. Uh, you go to Page 151 is Government
Buildings. This is our- our facilities side that takes care of,um, City Hall, Fire Station
One,Police, Senior Center,Robert A. Lee Rec Center, Mercer Rec Center,the three
swimming pools,the three splash pads, and the downtown fountain. So a lot- a lot of
different facility things you asked you said every department would tell you where they-
where they need staff the most. I would say our top request,which is not in here right
now, is- is more custodial help in- in the maintenance side of things,keeping these older
buildings-you talked about the temperature in here-this is an ongoing thing. These older
buildings, it's nearly impossible with the-the HVAC and BAS staff that we have. So,um,
that's a big part and it's seven days a week. Uh, during the storms,we had the Rec Centers
open at six in the morning. We kept Police and Fire doors open and kept them operating.
And we had a couple different custodians sleep in the buildings overnight during those
big,uh, cold weather attempts just to make sure that the buildings didn't freeze up
overnight. So it's a- it's a big job for a very small staff. Uh, we then go to Page 155,
which is Recreation. As I said, the attendance in our programs and events has really been
increasing a lot lately. The Rec Centers are both very busy in the evening and that leads
us to moving some of our inclusion programs to the Ned Ashton House. This has been a
rental facility in years past but never really caught on for as many events as we thought it
would, it was very few events. So we're going to move to having some programs out
there in the evening. So we have yoga right now,but we'll have more of our Inclusion,
Special Populations Programs. They're excited to get to use that space and we're excited
to see the building get used for that. Uh, over the summer,we had over 50 free and low
cost special events and neighborhood events,um,throughout the city. We make an effort
to get out to all the parks so that people can meet their neighbors at a fun event and get to
know them in that way. Page 159,Park Maintenance, 21 FTEs, uh,just had a very
challenging week with the extreme weather, forestry, several hundred tree requests over
the two storms, and probably as much damage or close to what we saw at the Derecho.
Different types of trees, evergreens, crab apples, oak trees with leaves on it. But still a lot
of damage out there that it's going to take them a while to work through and get back. But
Park Maintenance also takes care of our natural areas to small projects throughout the
park,keeps-keeps the restrooms open throughout the city. We have seen some of an
increase in vandalism throughout all of the restrooms. People think it's maybe just in their
park,but unfortunately, it's been one of those things that we've seen throughout the
system in the last couple years. Um, sometimes just nuisance stuff, sometimes pretty high
dollar things that we have to repair and replace. So that's been a challenge for us. Uh, 750
trees planted last year and on track to do that again for the next year. But remember, it's
not so much the planting of the trees, it's keeping them alive afterwards. So we have a lot
of staff in the summer just watering trees and pruning and doing those kind of things.
And then our final division Cemetery, on page 164. Three full time staff there. They also
took a lot of tree damage last week,um, and a lot of what they're doing is grounds
maintenance right now,trying to catch up with that. All right. Happy to answer any
questions.
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Salih: I just want to ask, I don't know where I can find that information, about the budget for the-
for the pools- for the City High Pools and, sorry, City Park Pool.
Seydell Johnson: City Park Pool. We'll talk more about it Wednesday. We're right now at about a
10.5 million dollar budget. We have not seen the fust three concept proposals. Hopefully
later today or tomorrow. I'll see those. Um, we'll get moving forward with-
Salih: Sure.
Seydell Johnson: -we're out on that.
Salih: And what about Robert A. Lee. I- I don't know what's going on with that this, so we're
going to talk about that too.
Seydell Johnsoin: Indoor pool continue to operate it. Attendance has been pretty stable,hasn't
really grown,hasn't really declined from when I heard a lot about it a year or so ago. We
track the numbers every day. Those are reported to the Parks Commission each month
and we said after City Park pool is done we would come back and discuss it further.
Salih: Sure.
Fruin: There's noth-nothing in the budget for major renovations or change in use to either Rec
Center-
Salih: Sure.
Fruin: - at this point.
Alter: This is just a quick follow up question um for the tracking for the attendance and usage of
Robert A. Lee and the-the pool specifically. I know that there are some very staunch
advocates. Was there sort of a mutually agreed upon kind of tracking system because I
know that that was a point of contention or is this something that's kind of leveled out and
people are understanding what the numbers mean?
Seydell Johnson: We still have two different tracking system. We report the staff numbers. They
report their numbers each month. We report, since the Commission sees both of those
they're pretty close-
Alter: Yeah.
Seydell Johnson -um,you know if one goes up,the other goes up,but there are a couple off here
and there and we worked at length to try to get them to match up and it's just not going to
happen and so.
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Alter: An average?
Seydell Johnson: With the Parks and Rec Commission the last time they looked at hours a few
months ago we added in back in the 9 to 11 morning hours. Um,with that we actually use
the advocates numbers and they're not that different than staff numbers,but they are
different.
Alter: Okay.No, that's great just to put an average of the two together and were good. Thanks.
Moe: Maybe again with pools and parks,but also capital improvements. I assume these capital
improvements decisions are based heavily on the master plan,the parks master plan.
Seydell Johnson: Correct.
Moe: It would be helpful in the CIP process to sort of tie those things together to see how they're
all tracking for my sake.
Seydell Johnson: Yeah,the good news is we're down to like five parks in that master plan that
haven't been touched, so we had requested money this year to update and get a new
master plan. It has been deferred at least for another year. There's not much left in the
plan that we haven't done yet at this point which is an amazing thing to tell you as the
Parks and Rec Director.
Moe: Congrats.
Alter: One other question and I'm the one who opened the cann of worms before lunch,but um, I
know this is an awful lot of work. I mean your-your department oversees a vast amount
of maintenance in the city. How-how are the numbers staffing wise versus the
work,understanding that we've run into some major snafus with the ratio and with these
storms and whatnot,but on balance?
Seydell Johnson: So,the toughest one is government buildings,um, and it's two part there. I
mean it's-it's just having enough hours to cover the facility seven days a week and we
have staff that has to be here seven days a week from six in the morning till nine at night
and we do augment with some Shelter House,workforce that comes in at night at Mercer,
but that's one thing that is just continuing and then the entirely the HVAC systems,the
building envelopes, so the outside of the buildings,the building roofs,you're going to
hear all about this in-in the other facility reports. They're old and we've been-we've been
pulling things together for a while, so it's stressful on that staff. The swimming pools are
getting old, getting the City Park replaced is great. Having splash pads out at different
locations takes more staff time away from the things that we need to do, so we can handle
it the way we're handling it,but that means some things aren't getting done.We could
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really use a better FIVAC/BAS either contract or person that can do more of those skills
for us we've been working towards that and then like I said just custodial hours to do the
basic cleaning and shoveling and keeping things open. Park staff,um, you know it- it
goes in phases there with the storms, of course. Forestry staff is working as much as they
can right now. One of the issues there is finding people to do the contract work. We have
money for natural areas contracting. It's been difficult to find companies that are available
and willing to do the work that we need, so it's- it's a staffing issue for other people too,
not just ourselves.
Alter: Thanks.
Senior Center
Teague: Thank you, and we're going to go over to our senior center. Welcome.
DeLoach: Good afternoon.
Teague: Good afternoon.
DeLoach: LaTasha DeLoach uh, Senior Center Coordinator. Excited to be here this morning.
You can find our budget on 362. Thank you all for this opportunity to talk to you all a
little bit about the services we provide for older adults here in Iowa City and beyond. I'm
really excited and have a lot of gratitude for the continued support of the senior center. So
many other senior centers are not housed within city government, so a lot of them are
non-profits and they're dealing with a lot of cuts and unfortunately from state funding to
other grants there are very-very few funding opportunities for older adults in the state of
Iowa, so for us to be housed in a city we are extremely grateful and very blessed for lack
of a term for being able to be a part. Our mission and our goal is to enhance the quality of
life for a diverse and growing older adult population by creating opportunities for
wellness, social connections, community engagement and lifelong learning. We are
dedicated to ending social isolation for adults over 50 by promoting social involvement
and connection, social connections. Fifty years of age always shock people. They're like
wait a minute. I'm almost 50,what you mean the Senior Center,but we have to be
cautious of the current needs and those that are coming, so it's-it's our way of being future
focused by bringing those folks in. We kind of find out what they want before they retire
as well as what they're looking for in their retirement because we know we're cutting
cross generations consistently, so that's really important to us. I am a pro-aging person.
Some people,uh, do a lot of work about how we can be anti-aging. I'm pro-aging,
especially as a person of color,knowing that so many folks do not get the opportunity to
live longer in life, and so I'm about embracing getting older without shame and so we
have that show up a lot in our programming. One thing I want to bring to your attention
as I said that our goal is to enhance quality of life,but by reducing social isolation and I
don't know if you all are aware we've come out of a pandemic,but now we're in an
epidemic of loneliness and social isolation and this is coming out of the U.S Surgeon
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General office and the consequences of those lack or poor or insufficient connections
include risk of heart disease, stroke and dementia for- dementia for older adults and so
that lack of connection increases the risk of permanent death for folks by more than 60%
or is equivalent to smoking 10 cigarettes a day. So, I'm putting that fact out that it's clear
that social connection is the medicine,right, for this epidemic and I'm proud to have you
all and myself to be a part of being on the front lines of reducing that and trying to end
that in our community. So again,thank you all for your unwavering support. I also, I'd
like to express gratitude for you all hearing the requests and concerns of staff and of
course our older adults and wanting to open up the Senior Center on nights and
weekends. And so this weekend will be our fust weekend that will be open. We've had
nights for a couple weeks now and so I'll be working with communications to put out our
new hours of operation so that more people can utilize the facility,not just our members,
but also the community because we have great classrooms that are ADA accessible and
now that's going to open up for people to be able to book for community meetings, etc.
We're really excited about that, so you can spread the word when the communication
goes out. As you all know the Senior Center is 24,000 square feet plus building and it's
ran with four full time staff including myself. So that's me and three others and then we
also have four other positions that are permanent part time and recently the new hires of
our night and weekend reception is now added too. We're able to run that facility with
those folks,but also about 200 plus volunteers and student employees. We also have
folks from the UI who are student employees that help us, especially on nights and
weekends. And one thing that's really important to me as a Coordinator, as well as my
staff, is that we always keep in mind the values outlined in the Strategic Plan and so you
will see that throughout our program guide and you see that throughout our programs and
the different things that we're doing. It's important to me from a social justice,racial
justice and inclusive standpoint to make sure that our programs are also making sure that
we're including people on all different levels, income,racial backgrounds,nation-nation
of origin, etc. and also being very careful about making sure that we're ADA approved
and so one thing we applied for recently was a small grant to make our- our elevator
more ADA accessible by each floor now will, once the contract is finished, will
announce, so for our folks who have some hearing needs or you can't visually see some
of those things, and so we're trying to make sure we're addressing all of those things as
we continue to do our work for older adults and the community as well because that's not
uh age thing anyone can have hearing or vision impairments. So we also want to focus on
our social justice,racial equity pieces. This year we,just two quick examples of how we
have done this from a community engagement standpoint, as well as we have two new
affinity groups. One is called Queer Elders. So our Queer- Queer Elders group, excuse
me,they meet on Wednesdays at 2:00 just in case you know people who don't know, and
so they meet every Wednesday and so every other Wednesday is a queer focus movie that
has discussion. I told Geoff I was ear hustling a little bit and I was listening to some of
the discussion and people were talking about how they're so grateful as older adults who
had to go through -they-they paved the way for a lot of the-the new things that are
happening in our communities and how they have a place where they can connect and
they can have those conversations within their generation and so I'm just so glad to be
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able to be a part of being able to offer a space like that for folks. I'm very proud of that.
Also to create a sense of community and to open up some more discussions,we have a
new group that was originally called Elders of Color,but they changed their name to the
Original Mature Groovers which I call the OMGS. We've had a couple of months and-
and they've done just a fantastic job in,um,bringing in those different perspectives with
folks of color. And that's coming across Asian backgrounds and Latino backgrounds and
African backgrounds as well as African American backgrounds at this point. Um, and
they recently partnered with the Office of Equity and Human Rights to do a zoom session
on what happened to affirmative action because a lot of them grew up in that era. Um,
and so also I'm going to go ahead and put a plug in because y'all gave me the mic. We
are excited to announce that we have an Inaugural Black History Ball, February 3rd. If
you have social media,you cannot have missed us, So just know that we're using our
marketing budget effectively. Uh, it's a collaboration with UI Stanley Museum. They've
curated an exhibit of African art and modern black art for the Senior Center. And it also
will include a silent auction coming from the UI Theater Department of African inspired
mask, as well as a local black artist has donated watercolor paintings of African themes.
Um, it also will have African and traditional African American cuisine. An amazing jazz
performance by our UI jazz professor Curtis Taylor,his quartet that have so many
accolades. I don't even know what to tell y'all where to start to- to look up all the things
that they've done. Um, and I want to extend a warm invitation to you all. And if you
haven't checked your mailbox, like me,because mine is too far and it's cold,um, in your
mailbox,you should have received an invitation to attend that. If you're unable to attend,
we get that. But I do have a short list of seniors that would like to attend and may not be
able to afford the ticket. So if you want to donate a ticket, I put that in your hands. Um, so
things that are really important to know about, challenges that we have. Come on up is
finally,we are going to have some exterior work done on the building starting as early as
next week, so there will be some sidewalk closures and different things. So,you know,
those things will come out in our communication here at the city to let people know about
those changes and so we're going to be doing the exterior parts. And then our next hope is
to start working on our windows and doors for glass. Which will also help our HVAC
situation to help us with keeping heat in the building and keeping the heat out when it's
hotter in the summertime. So, um, I'm just trying to make sure I get all my pieces in here.
But,um, one thing that's also really important is that we do collaborate with other
communities and how we try to provide services. And so whether that's people needing
assistance with Medicare,um,medical insurance appointments, legal assistance,tax
preparation. We partner with other organizations and- and other cities and we are able to
provide those services due to those cities also assisting us with funding to do that. Uh,we
try to keep these services as close to home as possible for our seniors because we know
how important it is to serve people where they live and in their neighborhoods. So sites
include like Mercer Park might be the Coralville Library,North Liberty,um, out at the
Ranshaw house, et cetera. We still continue to have our free pantry for perishable and
non perishable foods,toiletries, and as well as sexual disease prevention resources. Um,
because that's very important in our population. People,kind of,you know, giggle about
that,but that is really a significant issue in our community and other resources that are
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available so,um, in your budget. You'll see we have a request for a- a mobile hearing
system,um,that we need for when we take tours and we're outside. We will not be as
ADA accessible as possible so that people are able to hook that sound to their hearing
devices so that they can hear their tour guide because we know there's traffic different
things that makes it difficult for folks to hear. Um, that's just one highlight. But the rest of
them are smaller things like furniture, et cetera, and maintaining our nights and
weekends, of course,because we want to continue to be equitable across the facilities that
we have here. Um, so thank you again,um,this makes a huge,um, difference in the lives
of older adults in our community and appreciate your continued support.
Moe: I'm looking at the.
Salih: Go ahead.
Moe: I'm sorry. Um, I noticed in the revenue section of your budget,there was a 2080 agreement
for 2023. That was black,what happened?
DeLoach: Oh,what was that last year? So that's because we didn't have a service agreement.
That service agreement just started.
Moe: Okay.
DeLoach: And before that,we would have to apply for Quality of Life grant to the county. So we
just got a service agreement. So it used to be a grant,but now we have a service
agreement.
Moe: Okay.
DeLoach: Through the county,which is different,right?Because we don't have to apply for it
every year.
Moe: Okay. So that is-that is the county's investment in the senior Center, is it?
DeLoach: Yes.
Moe: And that is that what that whole line item is?
DeLoach: Yes.
Moe: Johnson County. Okay.
DeLoach: Yeah.
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Salih: I just want to just go back to 2019. In one of the council meeting when we was talking
about the leg center revenue like redevelopment-remodeling the leg centers. And we
brought up the community kitchen at the leg center. And Geoff mentioned,no we have
one at the senior Center and when we do the constructions,we will bring it to code, so it
will be Community kitchen. What happened on that?
DeLoach: Oh, it's still in our plan,but you got to remember,we're just putting some dust on the
building this year. So we have had that plan for a while. It's taken a little bit, but I think
it's in maybe our third or fourth year of our master plan. So it will take a little bit of time.
We're making sure that outside,that's our highest level of safety, is making sure the
exterior parts of the building are safe for people walking by in general,but also some of
those needs. And then in our CIP plan, I believe it is 2026 maybe that we'll begin
working on some of those other interior pieces like the kitchen.
Salih: Okay.
Alter: I had one question,um,under expenditures and it is from the difference in personnel and
in services,um, I guess the personnel is not down that much. It's only about $5,000. But
then in services, it's like a $30,000 difference less.
Fruin: I think you're looking at the revised budget. So that would mean that there's probably
carryover funds. So funds that weren't expended, so you go back to the column that says
2024 budget would be a better baseline to look at. Um,personnel expenses are up a little
bit.
Alter: Oh ok. Yeah-yeah,thank you.
Fruin: Is-is down a little bit. Say that's just natural fluctuation?
Alter: Yeah-yeah-yeah,no thank you. I was just looking in the wrong spot.
Salih: And those agreements, like the 28 agreement is like as a city using our senior center or
what that.
DeLoach: So what- so a long time ago when the senior center was fust started,we had an
agreement with the county that they would pay a portion of supporting the operation at
the senior Center. You know,politicians change,things change and that went away. So
we had to do for many-many-many years was apply for their Quality of Life grant. What
has happened is they're like,why are we making the Senior Center apply for this money,
knowing they're doing good work?And so they put us back in an agreement so we don't
have to spend the time doing a grant,but now we get that funding every year and we just
have to provide them a presentation and update.
Salih: That's great.
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DeLoach: Yes, it's huge- it's huge.
Salih: Relief for you was little stuff?
DeLoach: Yes, oh yes-yes. My very tiny staff.
Moe: Any chance we can get more money from our county partners.
DeLoach: Don't think I don't ask.
Moe: Okay.
DeLoach: I will be asking you all as well. So I will be asking everyone. So other question.
Alter: If I want to donate a ticket, do I just reach out to you specifically?
DeLoach:No. You don't have to.
Alter: I can do it through my [OVERLAPPING].
DeLoach: When you go on there it says donate a ticket.
Alter: Awesome. I can just click. I have to be out of town.
DeLoach: Please. Thank you. We do have folks that we-we have a little list and they're getting
really excited. When I call, I'm like, I got you a ticket so it's great to do that.
Dunn: Do you know how many you have?
DeLoach: On my list?
Dunn: Yeah.
DeLoach: Oh man. It's probably growing right now. I don't. Yes, it's probably I know for sure I
had about five or six,but we probably have some more,you know it just depends. I
haven't put out a very loud because the reality is the ball only has about 115 spaces
because it's our fust one. So it's new. It's a great way to show off the senior center,which
our hope is also that it brings in revenue. That people can see the classy building that we
have,that they can use it for other things. So it's a little limited in there. So it's great for
small and medium functions. All right.
Neighborhood& Development Services/MPO
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Teague: Thank you much. All right. We're going to move on to community program budgets and
we'll start with our neighborhood and development services. Welcome.
Hightshoe: Hello. Tracy Hightshoe with neighbor and development services? I realize every year
I have you guys after lunch and I realize you've been here long day. So I tried to play
around with NDS trivia,NDS by the numbers,but unfortunately I didn't work with the
format. So you're getting my regular presentation. NDS has about 50 employees, about
47 FTE's. We have a budget in fiscal year 25, about 20.9 million. We consist of three
divisions,Development Services,Neighborhood Services, and the Metropolitan Planning
Organization of Johnson County,which I'll be calling MPO because it's much smaller.
The Development Services Division is our Urban Planning and Building Division is what
you typically suspect in a building- a building division. So we facilitate the development
process. We do all your comprehensive planning, annexation,zoning site plans,
subdivisions, and then we do all the building permits, inspections and enforcement. And
couple of years ago,we hired another building inspector and we agreed to take on the
liquor inspections that were previously done by fire. That's all within our development
process. We also staff the Planning and Zoning Commission,Board of Adjustment,
Board of Appeals, and the Historic Preservation Commission. Our next division is
Neighborhood Services. That's about half our division. There's about 27 FTE's. They are
the Housing Inspection,Housing Authority and Community Development. Housing
Inspection inspects about 20,000 units to ensure health and safety. They're in the unit at
least every other year. For those with a voucher,we do the HQS inspections. We do
everything necessary for-by HUD to inspect the units within our jurisdiction. We receive
almost 2,000 nuisance complaints every year. As you can imagine,most of those are
grass or snow. Due to this recent snow loss or snow event,we have about 140 complaints
in counting. We're working through those. If it can warm up and melt, it greatly help us.
The housing inspectors also, due to workload and community development, are
administering our Healthy Homes program. They oversee and administer all those home
improvements that we do that impact the air quality, the indoor air quality for those
households with a member that has a lung disorder such as COPD or asthma. They also
coordinate with the College of Nursing for Asthma Education for the healthy Homes that
we do. Just an update regarding that Healthy Homes Initiative. Back in 2021,we passed
that radon ordinance because of the timing in our rental permits every other year. At this
point, all our single family and duplex properties have been tested and mitigated. That is
huge. It is good timing because HUD just going to a webinar next month has recognized
radon as a danger, and now they went short of testing. But they're also requiring public
housing to-to look at that danger. And we're afraid that they'll, it's a good idea,but we
need money testing our multifamily and inspecting, and mitigating theirs, and mitigating
multifamily is a little bit different. Might be more expensive than what we're used to in
single family or duplex homes. But still,we're probably far ahead than any other
community with that ordinance because all of our public housing that are single family
duplexes have been tested and mitigated. The Housing Authority provides financial
assistance to stabilize housing for those in our community. We-we assist almost 1,700
families in our jurisdiction to acquire and maintain affordable safe housing.We own and
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manage 86 public housing units, 16 affordable and administer 1,595 vouchers. When I
talk about Housing Authority, I'd like to make four main points that we serve all of
Johnson, Iowa,parts of Washington County. We are the second largest housing authority
in Iowa. Our vouchers are dispersed throughout Johnson County,pretty much based on
our population. They're all not in one community. They are throughout our metro area.
And then over half of our vouchers that we administer are utilized by the elderly or head
of household that's disabled. So the far majority actually I think it's closer to 60 percent
with the last year. And out of those who don't qualify as elderly or disabled, less than five
percent report welfare is their sole source of income. Our families are working,they just
can't afford the full rent in our market. Community development is that division that
plans and administers housing,jobs, and services for low to moderate income residents.
We're called upon to administer federal and state disaster in times of the flood. The
pandemic, our division usually steps up and helps those. When we're helping individual
households with them-with,with various needs,we staff the Housing and Community
Development Commission. In a typical year,we administer about 2-3 million in
Community Development Block grant,which I rattle off a CDBG. But if you hear me say
that it's Community Development Block Grant and Home Entitlement Program,these are
the funds we get every year by a certain formula through HUD. We don't have to apply
for them,we just get them and we administer,but we also administer local programs such
as Housing Rehab,Aid to Agencies,the South District Affordable Home Ownership that
I come before you and talk about. And then Affordable Housing Funds. Most of our
programs target those below 50 percent of median income. Then the MPOs our last
division. They have about 5.2 FTE's. They are our transportation planners for all modes
of transportation,vehicle by pedestrian transit. They complete traffic studies analysis,
they prepare and administer transportation related grants. They funnel our federal and
state transportation funds to projects. They develop-they do the development reviews for
transportation concerns in Iowa city. They manage the Iowa City traffic calming
program, and you'll see all the traffic signals that you get in the correspondence pactic,
you know about new traffic signals. Signs are required at different places. They basically
handle all our resident concerns regarding transportation related items. They are governed
by two staff. They are governed by in staff two policy Boards,the urbanized and the
Rural Policy Board. Our urbanized area includes Iowa City, Corville,North Liberty,
Tiffin,University Heights,the county,the University of Iowa in the school district. For
highlights I wanted to touch on, Geoff talked about our building status and I wanted to go
a little bit more into detail about that there's a positive trend. Last year we had 152.7
million in permitted activity. Last year we had 275.5 million. This value includes two
huge housing projects. It was one Student Housing Project at 525 South Riverside,that
was 83.7 million in value. And then the Hickory Hills Senior Housing for 30.7 million of
the total 532 residential units in 2023. These two projects represent 411 units with 788
beds. They are a huge portion of the residential activity. My red flag that I always feel
like- if I see a red flag we'll let you know, is that we only had 54 single family and four
duplex units permitted in 2023. This is the lowest since 1982 and the second lowest for
long as we have records for dating back to 1963. My concern is that maybe we're not
adequately producing housing for all stages of life. You see a lot of student housing,you
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see a lot of senior. At a positive note, duplex lot creation the creation of a lot,not
necessarily the permits,was the highest in 20 plus years due to the Cardinal Heights
subdivision,which are mostly duplexes. This was in a RM-12 zone so it wasn't due to our
recent zoning code amendments, it was a- it was a zone that allowed duplexes. We hope
that this year we see a lot of those-we see the permit activity and the duplexes are
created. We also had a huge, a great thing,we have been working on zoning code
regulatory changes since 2016,when the fust housing action plan went to force,we were
able to do those housing text amendments that our current comprehensive plan supports.
As you recall,the goal of these amendments were to improve housing choice, increase
housing supply, and encourage affordability. Major changes included the addition of
duplexes in our single family zones. Greater flexibility in 80 use as long as the owner
lived on one of the two buildings. A simplified process for reasonable accommodation
from zoning requirements for those with disabilities. Changes to the design standards to
increase the cost of construction. Simplified and expanded multifamily housing options,
and incentives for income restricted affordable housing. In terms of increased density
parking requirements, or parking waivers and modifications to setbacks and building
height. We also adopted the Southwest District Plan,the future land use, in the form
based code, in January 2023. The zoning districts are used,the same one as the south
district to focus on pedestrian friendly development. Preserve important environmental
resources incorporate street-, sorry incorporate complete streets and supports a variety of
housing types which we are familiar is missing middle and we hope to apply these to
other greenfield areas as the future development occurs. We also collaborated with our
Climate Action Office to roll incentive programs such as the grant for new housing that
meets the HERS rating or exceeds that rating. And then the Housing Choice Voucher
Energy efficient Pilot Program. We're excited to work with climate action on those. Large
developments that you'll see upcoming this year are the Gilbane Student Housing. We'll
complete their projects at 700 South Dubuque. It's a huge building that your probably
familiar with is [INAUDIABLE] which is student housing is under construction,Hickory
Hills under construction. And we expect Monument Hills,which is another senior
housing development to kick off this building season. The highlights for MPO efforts to
continue the bike master plan that Geoff touched on earlier today. And we allocate and
program more than 17.3 million in COVID emergency relief funds. We've already
programmed that,but we still have that process of reporting and drawing down the funds.
And that goes on until all money is spent down. We allocate and program more than 11.5
million in our typical federal funds,things like the Surface Transportation Block grant
funds. That's a two year funding cycle. And we'll continue our efforts to complete the bus
Rabbit-Bus Rapid Transit feasibility study that we're expecting next spring. It just
started, it's under contract and we had a couple of committee meetings,then
neighborhood services. This past year,they've spent over 50.6 million on affordable
housing,which does include the 10.8 million spent by the Housing Authority. We have
assisted or created 2,884 affordable rental homes. And created an Assist 119 owner
occupied affordable Homes. As Geoff mentioned,the 2023 NDS Annual report and our
Affordable Housing Update supposed to be done probably in March and you'll see all the
specifics about the units created and any other information that you might want to see
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that would be in those two reports. We achieved the highest annual spending in CDBG
and home funding. In over a decade. With over 2.3 million,we created 50 units of
affordable housing using CDBG funds and HOME funds. Huge project was the
Partnership for Shelter House for the 501 project for 36 units that came online this past
year,we paid over a million in relocation to 80 Forest View residents and collected over
2 million Riverfront crossing fee in lieu. We now have a total of 5.8, so we'll be looking
for assembling land and developing an affordable housing project with those funds. We
have encumbered or is pending 15.7 of the 18.3 million ARPA funds. And working to
commit that final 3 million and working with the Inclusive Economic Development
Recipients to finalize agreements so that they can start spending funds and it's a concern
under my challenge and concerns. All those funds have to be spent by December 31 of
2026. We are concerned with the ARPA funds that all of them all the recipients spend
out their funds on time. It's one of those that I'm worried about because it's not under our
control. It's not the city's projects, it's-we're working with a dozen or two dozen other
entities that we're trying to steer so that everybody's spending their money down and that
we spend it,we not only obligate the funds by the end of this or this calendar year,but we
spend the funds in two years. This past month,we just entered an amendment with IEDA
for 685,000 in CDBG-CV funds for shelter house improvements. The State was not able
to administer the grant, so we will be-we'll just increase our current CDBG-CV grant
with them,um,that does provide 62,000 available administration. Um, I wanted to go
over our concerns,um, I have three large concerns. The fust is building activity for our
growing population that meets the demands of all households throughout all their life
stages, challenges with our zoning code and the last is staff capacity, especially in
neighborhood services. We provide an update in April to analyze residential lot creation
and building permit activity, and we'll do so again in the next few months. The MPO
projects a demand of over 10,000 new residents by 2030. And based on the final planted
lots and permit activity,we don't anticipate a half of the demand. With increasing
demand, insufficient supply, inflation, and rising interest rates,we anticipate increasing
prices and more affordability issues,not less. So we're really working on the supply. And
I know housing and senior housing and student housing is good,but we have to increase
all housing of all different types in our market. That- a lot of times that means we have to
work with the private sector in addressing even market affordability of getting the supply
of those housing. The second concern is the complexity and lack of flexibility and
number of reviews completed. Many are time consuming,they-they're difficult to
understand,uh,the requirements amongst enforcement officials, other departments in the
general development community. For our community of our size,we have a complex
code. Cities typically have current zoning designations, conservation historic districts,
sensitive areas, and design overlays. However, in addition to these regular what you see
in almost all cities in Iowa,we have four separate codes. We have the peninsula code,
which is all developed,but we still have ongoing rehab additions, different things like
that. We have the Riverfront Crossings form based code,which has seven sub-districts
within that,we have the South district form based code and now the Southwest district
form based code. It's the same code but different future land use map in the
comprehensive plan and we have the east side mixed used. Just enforcement in educating
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the development community about where to find these regs,what applies to them,what
doesn't gets confusing. We want to advocate for a code that is easier to understand, easier
to find the relevant sections, and easier to communicate and be understood by the
development community. And then my last concern is staff capacity. This pandemic is
unlike the flood uh,where most of my departments went to buyouts and demo and down
payment assistance. Those are-well and those were greatly uh,help- legal, did it huge
assist because they provided the appraisals and they helped with the closings. But those
are something that we did on,you could get the expertise because it was the same type of
project that you do over and over again. As a comparison in a typical three year period,
we administer approximately 78 million.Now we have almost 23 million and that 23
million, it's not just for one type of project. It's housing, it's economic development, it's
public facilities,public services. It's all across the board. That means staff has to learn the
different regulations that go with all these programs. And unfortunately,now the federal
government has the reasons but we have HOME funds,we're used to HOME funds,but
they come up with HOME-ARP. So it's like HOME, but it's not. We have CBDG and the
state came out with CDBG-CV. It's like CDBG but is not. Um, all these things are a little
bit different than all of them. A little bit easier likewise,but you also have no one to go to
to help. There's no HUD representative that you can call with ARPA funds. It's
researching, it's investigating so it just takes a lot of time so in addition to my worry
about spending out all the funds that we need to comply,not opening ourselves to
liability,because my staff has a hard time catching up with what they have to do. And
they're worried about if they miss a reg,will we expose the city or these nonprofits to
having to pay back the federal govemment? That's a concern. Um, in addition to all these
other things,we have our regular programs. So we have the a lot 10 and Lindeman that
we've not developed. State HOME-ARP came with a great opportunity so we're working
with a nonprofit for special population to build that. It was an opportunity to build,with
almost no debt service,to help a specified population. We have 5.8 million in riverfront
crossings fee in lieu to apply for a housing project. So we're looking to assemble project
that takes work because then once you assemble the project,you have to gather all the
funding sources to make it possible and you have to bid it,you have to monitor it. Um,
it's a great- I don't want to say that's all a problem, it is a great problem to have is that we
have all these funds,but we have to administer them. Um,bad timing but the next
Consolidated Plan for housing,jobs and services is due. We have to get that under
contract this winter so that we can have it done by November, so then we can start our
fiscal year 26. So the Consolidated Plan for Housing Jobs is our five year plan for how
we're going to spend our federal funding. So it's needed, it has to be now, it's just a bad
time for us. The Housing Authority,we have embraced the Housing First model,which is
your permanent housing with support,we have gained 250 vouchers over the last 10
years that focus on very high needs or households with a lot of barriers. The specialty
vouchers provide housing assistance to those in our community who need it most. It
follows the best practices for reducing homelessness and it is in line with our strategic
plan. They provide considerably more administrative funds than our traditional vouchers,
um,but they do come with challenges. These vouchers are intended to serve specific high
barrier populations. We have not always hired staff with specialty training or background
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to work with high barrier populations, and consequently, it can be challenging. We will
be also looking to position our neighborhood services,most likely the Housing Authority
in the position where we can develop. My goal is that before I retire, which is a few years
away,that we position the Housing Authority at least neighborhood services, into where
we can develop, own, and manage, our own affordable housing portfolio outside of
federal funds. That is a goal but to get there,we'll need staff and it just takes time. Um
the thing I was proud because even though the work load is immense right now,
neighborhood and development services saw that PRO-housing grant and even though
that meant a lot more work in app applying, if we get the funds, it's a great opportunity, I
think it was 5.6, 5.8 million,um, so they collaborated together because it takes both of
them because it pays for our comprehensive plan and uh,hopefully the steps of our new
zoning code,but also requires us to develop affordable housing project that is enabled by
those zoning code changes. So I was kudos to staff because I asked them before you sure.
With the workload you have, do you want to proceed and they said yeah, if it's a great
opportunity,we will proceed. Um, so in addition to our Department priorities. In addition
to timely, impactful, and effective expenditure of all the pandemic funds,we have that
comprehensive plan that we will take under RFP this winter or spring and then we have
the consolidated plan update. And Anne gave you through like all the comprehensive
plan items,um,basically the strategic goals is to focus to reduce predominant single
family zoning and allow by right more types of residential housing, such as duplexes,
town homes,ADU, small scale multifamily. Um, and we'll continue to pursue our climate
action objectives in that comprehensive plan. Um,we- still as Geoff mentioned,we have
affordable housing allocations at 1,030,000 thousand. We budgeted 50,000 for two
additional rehabs with the South District Program this year um,we have the ad agencies.
So I think I explained our basic services, our highlights and our challenges. So we're
excited about the opportunities in 2024, and we'll continue to tackle as much as we can,
as effectively as we can,um, and all the priorities council sets. We've been busy,um,we
have a dedicated, caring,professional staff. I'm proud of the work we do and accomplish
every year, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Moe: You sure?Um,under upcoming challenges, I think that-that the exact phrase,the lack-the
complexity, lack of flexibility, a number of revisions,uh, in our department is text, I
think I've seen for several years now in the budget. But I don't see an increase request in
this budget for staff,um, I was wondering, is- is that right?
Hightshoe: If I had to choose staff right now, I'd probably be neighborhood services,um,just to
alleviate some of the,uh, challenges and the pressures there. We did get a three year,uh,
we hired a grant specialist to help us but I could argue right now, even after the pandemic
funds are over,we have that need to continue that position in community development.
Um, I foresee that the housing- or the City Manager's Office will be hiring a grant
specialist to apply for funds, and I'm assuming a lot of those will be in community
development housing. That will come back to my division. So I see the workload
continuing even after our funds diminish. Um.
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Moe: Well, I mean, I see it in my professional world that it's- it's- it's difficult sometimes to get
things done, it just takes a lot of reviews and I'm wondering,um,when we go through the
comprehensive plan process, I think that's going to be something on the front of our
minds is how do we alleviate that because we either need to dedicate more staff time for
you to keep up with the com- complexity or we need to,um,make things a little simpler.
I'm curious, is there anything in this budget that helps-that process helps your staff and
helps us get through the comprehensive plan process [OVERLAPPING]
Hightshoe: We budgeted increased funds for a consultant to take us through the comprehensive
plan and then after we have that comprehensive plan,we look for a zoning code so that
our zoning code would be the regulatory,uh,mechanism to-to achieve those objectives
in the comp plan. But you have to have the comp plan update fust. So we do-we did
budget 150,000 in fiscal year 25 for that consultant and then we do have some other
funds that we have built up to pay for. Even though you hire a consultant, it's still extra
work.
Moe: You're going to spend a lot of time with that consultant and us so I was just wondering, can
it all get done and keep up with the needs for development?
Hightshoe: We're worried yeah. It's a concern because very- I don't recall ever a time that we
have the comprehensive plan and the consolidated plan going at once, it takes a huge
amount of community input in public. Maybe we can double up and we can do that but
it's unfortunate timing maybe it's good,maybe it's bad but we'll see how it works. We're
hoping to coordinate all those public input as much as we can.
Moe: Sure.
Hightshoe: Um, and then we'll have a consultant for both. And then in the consolidated plan,we
also are contracting out for the housing market analysis for our metro area so that will
help,uh,hopefully so that part will be done for the comprehensive plan,um, information
and update. But I would love staff.
Dunn: So I was wondering if you would humor me on some questions that I've got. Um,
specifically,you-you mentioned a statistic about 53 something, I think it was plats and
that's being the lowest [OVERLAPPING]
Hightshoe: Are you talking about the residential permits?
Dunn: Yeah.
Hightshoe: We have 54 residential,uh,permits for single family homes.
Dunn: And that being the lowest since 1981?
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Hightshoe: The low since 1981, and the second low since the 1960s.
Dunn: So that really kind of rang a bell in my head, and so I- I- I decided to try to look at some
more like macroeconomic indicators of what's going on in the economy. Um, and my-
my question is really,you know, in relation to this whole conversation about,um,
changing regulatory regime that we have here with regards to developers. What kind of
impact do you perceive that to be,um,when,you know,when I'm looking at the-the
numbers here, looking at like historic mortgage rates, inflation rates, as well as the
effective funds rate,we're seeing a lot of like very similar circumstances in relation to
1980 so like high levels of inflation, 18%,the highest mortgage rate levels since 1980. I
think that said like 8%there,yeah,just about 8% and then inflation rate levels highest
since 1980. And so I guess my question is really apologies for less- less being directly
budget related,but more so something that I really just dug into right now. Like,what
kind of- like do you see this as a regulatory issue or do you see like a correlation between
these like macroeconomic trends that are affecting the broader market and what kind of
impact do you think those regulatory changes can have on the-the trends?
Hightshoe: I think it's all related. When you have certain tool boxes for assisting just
affordability and I'm not talking about subsidized because new construction regularly,uh,
gets you,uh, affordable housing for those at 30,40, 50% of median income without great
subsidy. So I'm just talking about the private market, developing duplexes, single,uh,
town homes, small scale,multifamily. I think it is it's interest rates,the cost of
construction going up but sometimes developers hate unknown regulatory process. They
don't want to come in,uh,they like development by right. Um,they like to know the
regulations in advance so some of that. I think through the comprehensive plan and when
you go through that public input, I really hope to include,um,the development
community so your builders,your architects,your engineers because there's a lot of
things that the public wants,but I don't think the public understands the cost of that. Um,
like the public might really love the peninsula,but the peninsula built without,uh,
without subsidy. I mean,there's a lot of things the public might want but not understand
the associated costs so I think when we get this public input,that another stakeholder
group that we need to listen to is the development community and what they say,what is
possible,what can they do,what do they want to do?Because they have to be a partner,
we can't subsidize our way out of a affordable housing crisis so we have to work with our
private developers as much as possible to increase that supply and if one of those tools is
to make the regulatory barriers less or easier to facilitate by right development for
multifamily,then that's one tool that we-we'll pursue or that we'll try to pursue.
Dunn: Do you have any like- I know this is an impossible question to answer but,um, and so I
recognize that forthright. But,um, do we have any idea what kind of impacts to
affordable housing that opening things up just say like opening up regulations and I know
that's a very broad strokes thing would-would have on the community like that-that's the
thing that I always come to.
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Hightshoe: Yeah.
Dunn: Like wonders like how do we even quantify these things?
Hightshoe: Seems to be a balance- a balance between what the community wants and what
they're also willing to pay, ah, at the market rate. Um, I don't have a magic answer for
that one,that I don't know.
Dunn: Okay, I appreciate it.
Fruin: One thing I'd like to mention is that we-we sometimes forget that we operate in a regional
housing market and,um,the macroeconomic pressures that you're talking about
Councillor Dunn, are absolutely real. People are reluctant to sell their house that they
have,uh,uh, a mortgage at 3% on,uh,because they'd have to buy a new house at 7% or
whatever the current rate is. Um,those are all real, construction cost increases are all real.
Um,but when a builder is looking at where to increase supply,uh,they're going to look
at the cost of the land and they're going to look at the-the ease of getting,uh,through that
regulatory environment and built. I love the fact that we're doing form-based codes,but
we have to understand that we are forcing a development model that,um, is unfamiliar to
many,um, and at a time when the market is so hot,where you can build the product
you've been building for decades and sell it in a day,um,why would you want to shift?
We just have to realize that the-the environment that we create has to plug into this
regional market because if you're looking to move here,you're most likely going to
consider the whole region,uh,not just the Iowa City market. So I think what we're trying
to get at is there's a way to meet our development objectives. There's a way to do Form-
Based Code,um,there's-there's a way to produce the housing diversity that-that we all
want,um,but we have to make it simple and clear,uh,because if it's complex,they're
just going to choose the path of least resistant which is probably also where the cheaper
land is.
Salih: I want to ask you about the system that we as 3- 314 household using CDBG fund for rent
assistance. Is this something like going to be ongoing on the budget or this is just was a
fund from CDBG available at that time and when was this 314?
Hightshoe: I'm not understanding.
Salih: I'm looking at the-the recent accomplishment on page 194.
Hightshoe: So which one was it?
Salih: Recent accomplishments?
Hightshoe: Yep which one.
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Salih: Where citizen- I'm talking about the 314 household that we as it's like really high number
which is great assisting 314 household for-by being them the rent assistant or maybe
subsidized rent assistant. I guess want to ask you, is this recent?Like in this year like FY
23?
Hightshoe: It was in the last fiscal year.
Salih: Last fiscal yeah?
Hightshoe: Yeah we have a CAPER that'll be based on the fiscal Year 23. There one time funds
or CDBG-CV funds so we won't-we won't get that funds again.
Salih: You don't get that?
Hightshoe: Yeah we don't get those on an annual basis. That was directly in response to the
pandemic.
Salih: Oh, that's [OVERLAPPING]
Fruin: Any time you see that CV it's referring to special COVID funding.
Salih: I see. Okay and what about the-you know the deposit assistance that the City of Iowa City
doing it with CommUnity Crisis Center is just coming from another fund that we-we
committed every year or?
Hightshoe: Security deposit assistance with CommUnity? That is part of your Affordable
Housing Fund. We dedicate 70,000 every year, and that goes to, ah, CommUnity Crisis
Service to administer so yes we allocate that project.
Salih: Any plan we-we are going to increase that because by talking to the crisis center, I find
out like way in the middle of the year, like team, like the fund gone and the -the need is
really great. The program is very good.
Hightshoe: You'll be getting a memo in the next probably. Regarding as we try to- as we fund the
winter shelter,we had to change the percentages in the Affordable Housing Fund. We're
bringing that new distribution formula and at the same time,we were advocating for
more funds for security deposits too. I can't remember if it went from 70,000 to how
much we bumped it up to. But yes,we're going to advocate for an increase out of that one
million dollar that you do for the Affordable Housing Fund. We're going to change
percentages. That includes the winter shelter and then we're going to bump up the
security deposit. That means with the-we have to take money from some- another pot
within the Affordable Housing Fund. So we'll be getting that memo to you probably in
the next month.
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Salih: Sure thank you.
Hightshoe: But we do-there's a large demand for it.
Moe: When earlier today,we were talking with finance about who was administering the ARPA
funds and they said,you'd be the person to ask these questions to. Um, I'm curious about,
um, obligated,unspent funds and the city's risk. If our partner agencies or the grantees do
not spend their money, is the city at risk, if they think they have that money don't spend
it. Like, are we obligated to give that to them and how do we-how are we tracking that to
make sure that they do spend their money out as promised?
Hightshoe: We do quarterly up-wel we either have monthly or quarterly updates set with
everybody that we've entered agreements with. Yes we have to obligate those funds by
this-the end of this December,um, and if you don't obligate those funds, and I do believe
you are at risk for paying money back. And then once you obligate the funds,this is why
I'm concerned and I'll probably be meeting with Geoff regarding tub and really we have
to do a risk evaluation for each organization. Like,how likely are they to spend these
funds within the two years?Because once you obligate that money in your past
December of 2026, if they stop or they don't want to do it or they just can't administer the
funds,we lose those funds.
Moe: Yeah, I think everybody is on the same page. We want those federal dollars spent here in
Iowa city,but there's a huge risk that they just don't get spent and we could be on the
hook for some dollars.
Teague: I have a question,um, so the one good thing about,um,when we see all of the awardees
right now,we see the program that we're doing, it really,um, is community based, is not
as many other organizations did,um, operations within the city. I do wonder if we did not
take kind of,um, an- an assessment to see if there's opportunity for us to shift,um,how
we utilize the funds. So we can use it for operations,um, in the city is all allowed by
ARPA but certain things we can do. Um, and if we were to,you know,use it for some
operational and kind of move monies around. Still having money for those that were
granted those funds. We still have three million to also look at,um,but I wonder if we're
not at a place where we just shift,um, at least federally,how we utilize the funds,but
locally we're still kinda on the same track at invested in the community,um,that-that
this council wanted to do so. I guess my question is,um, is there any appetite by the city
staff to change course on just the reporting to the federal government and how we're
utilizing the ARPA funds?
Hightshoe: I do know in March, Geoff and I are going to sit down regarding that-that risk
assessment that we do. Um,hopefully,we have everything-um,we have a good idea of
who's proceeding and how we're going to obligate those funds by the December. So in
March we'll start looking at,we might have to work with some organizations to say,
okay,we don't think you could spend 100 grand within two years so maybe we get back
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to 50 and I'd have to talk to Geoff about, if you're talking about swapping funds like with
revenue replacement for revenue loss.
Teague: That's what I'm referring to.
Hightshoe: Yeah that'd be outside my department. So I'd be like calling Nicole and Geoff?
Teague: Yeah because I think there's a lot of,um,things that complicate that. Certainly, if you
have a major project,you have to find land depending on,you know,the individual's
project and then there's other people's you're dependent on others are related to that.
Maybe that's a-that's a bigger conversation beyond just today,um,but I would at least be
open to our revenue replacement,um, opportunities.
Hightshoe: To be honest,my-my back up always in NDS, like what we have control what we
can spend money on is acquiring. We're eligible to acquire housing and that we could
own,manage and operate as affordable housing so it would be come to us debt free and
we can manage it as affordable housing. That's my backup plan that I'll probably talk to
Geoff so we have that March. We go over that,uh,risk analysis and I-we identify there's
about 1.5 million. We don't think we're either going to obligate or we're going to have a
problem. Then we would look to,um,buy housing to- off the market right now,
whatever's available. That's my backup plan.
Alter: This is a- it sort of insertion,but I don't know, it might be a redundant or of course. These
are also conversations we'd be having with-with the grantees right to say. Here's where
we see you in terms of like a risk analysis and to have that conversation so this isn't just
taking the dollars. Sorry,taking the dollars back.
Hightshoe: Yes,we'd be working with them. We're doing our best to try to build capacity,
especially with the inclusive economic development. I think Laura had sent me an email
that for the three largest that got over 100,000 that are nonprofits. We're working with the
University of Iowa Nonprofit Resource Center. We have a contract with them that we're
paying for outside of. I think we're paying with ARPA, um,the generated interest so it's
not out of their award. The fust is that Paul and Dave from the Nonprofit Resource
Center, or meet with the staff and the board members individually. Then they're going to
have a workshop on fed- federal regs and leadership. The next workshop is based on what
they feel they might need,based on the one on one meetings in the fust workshop and the
last is that they'll do organizational audit and they'll tell that agency where they think that
they might have some area of concern that they need to hire legal counsel. Accounting,
um, so we're trying to do as much as we can to improve their capacity.
Alter: Absolutely. I think this is just- I just want to make mention that if, you know, as we're
talking about action items on Council,that this is something for us to talk about and be
very well informed,um. And I- I completely understand, it's a balancing act between
losing and being on the losing dollars and being on the hook for them along with the
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amount of blood, sweat, and tears that both staff, council, and especially the community
members who have now been awarded that money. At no point should this seem like it's
a surprise as far as what next steps are. So I think this is something I want council to talk
about sooner rather than later because, I'll be honest,this is the fust time I'm hearing
about this possibility. So I think we need to have this talked about in a work session.
Salih: And- and also why have you thought about like really hiring somebody temporary just to-
because this is a lot of monitor-monitoring and follow up and, like, and you still have the
same staff before the money coming in.
Hightshoe: We've hired one person.
Salih: You did?
Hightshoe: Yeah. We do have a grant special she's been assigned to HOME\-ARP and uh,um,
the ARPA funds. So she's starting to work with those folks right now. And we've- since
the pandemic, I mean, I've been administering federal funds. Kirk, from urban planning
since he used to be a CDBG planner,he's been admist- administering public housing. We
took the Healthy Homes Program for Community Development and did,uh,sent it to
housing inspection. I mean, it's like all department we're all in trying to administer the
funds that we have, it just- it gets intense and- I- I want my staff to be busy,but I don't
want them to be overwhelmed,now that-that could be overwhelmed now for three years
and we still have two more years. So that- that is concern that I'm worried about.
Salih: Yeah. I just want to echo what really Megan said,because the last thing we want to hear is
taking the funds from the people we gave. But,you know, if they come from them,that's
fine. If they said,you know what, 100%we cannot do it by 2026, okay. That maybe. But,
you know, I think the city should just give them a supporting tool as much as they can- as
we can to make them succeed in doing the-the project that they was trying to do.
Hightshoe: Yeah. We'll be doing that review in March and we'll be seriously talking to all the-
the recipients. And if we identify that we are concerned,we'll be going through them,
we'll be updating you because we have from March until December to obligate them to a
different purpose or a different use.
Teague: It sounds like council can have this discussion after you all have that assessment in
March.
Dunn: Got one quick final question adjacent to this. Um, so,you know, say we do get to an
eventuality where,you know,there are funds that need to be taken back, and say we do,
you know, authorize to go forward with,um, acquisition of housing like you suggested.
Hightshoe: I'm just saying the easiest way to spend a lot of money.
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Dunn: Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah.No, I'm just saying all these theoretical things,right?
Um, do you foresee that having problems with Faircloth since that's-those are federal
dollars?
Hightshoe:No,this would-this would be outside our public housing. We're trying to develop-
Dunn: Okay.
Hightshoe: -our own basically affordable housing portfolio outside of federal funds. So this
would be own-managed, administered locally.No federal funds.
Dunn: Okay, cool. Got you.
T Hightshoe: hat's what we're trying to build up to. We're looking at other housing authorities
and nonprofit assistant providers across the Midwest to see how they do it, and how
they're organized,what staff that they have to hire. So like how many units, at what point
do you need a leasing agent?How many do you need maintenance staff.? So we're
looking on that now. It's just taking us more time just because we're busy right now.
Moe: I'm sorry, one more question based on that. Why-why? I mean, in the past the city has
been more engaged with empowering not for profits to do some of that development and
management?What's the thinking behind bringing that under the umbrella of the city
government?
Hightshoe: The why is because for-when we open up housing applications,there's times where
we don't get several-we-we don't get many,um, and we-the amount of demand that we
have is just huge. Um, I think we looked at Fort Collins,they used to be a housing
authority, approximately of our size, about 10, 15 years ago. They got out of public
housing, converted. And I'm not saying this is the right way to go,but I think they did a
RAD conversion and now they primarily develop LIHTC with so many units targeted to
30,40%. So they went from having about 100 public housing units,now imagine about
12-1,500.
Dunn: Wow.
Hightshoe: So just another- another- I'm not saying we go to the LIHTC because I have issues
with LIHTC sometimes too on the high rent.
Moe: Oh, I'm sorry. This isn't a replacement for the not for profit mechanisms that we currently
have in place. This is a supplement or addition to and there's not a thought that that would
compete with or detract from those investments also.
Hightshoe:No,to be honest with CDBG HOME money,we couldn't use it for ourselves anyway.
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Moe: Okay. Got it. Thanks.
Teague: Thank you much.
Hightshoe: Thank you.
Transportation—Parking& Transit
Teague: All right. We're going to move on to our business type funds with transportation. And,
uh,just for noting, Tracy did cover neighborhood and development services and MPO,
Metropolitan Planning Organizations of Johnson County. Welcome.
Nagle-Gamm: Welcome. Good afternoon,Mayor Teague, Council. Welcome Councilor Moe and
welcome back Councilor Salih, it's good to see you. Um, looking forward to working
with you both in the new year, and you all. All right. So I'm Darian Nagle-Gamm,
Director of Transportation Services for the city of Iowa City. Our mission is to keep Iowa
City moving, and we do that by bus,by car,by bike,um, on foot. Um,we help even all
those people on those many different micromobility devices that we're seeing out there
nowadays. So,um,that's really our mission and our goal is to really provide safe,
comfortable,reliable, affordable, and sustainable transportation services to the
community. So we,um,manage-we do this by directly managing the transit system, so
we are a direct provider of transit services. We do,um, outsource the pair transit services
through Johnson County SEATS, so they provide that service on Iowa City's behalf. We
are also responsible for maintaining the parking system downtown, and that is in terms of
the parking facilities and also enforcement. And we do- our department is also charged
with the upkeep of the Ped Mall and the Central Business District,maintain it as a nice,
pleasant place where people want to come do business,work,hang out, chat with their
friends, enjoy- enjoy the great outdoors on a day like today, although today it is very
warm outside, I might add. This is about as warm as it gets or at least it feels very warm
considering where we've been. So on your budget- in your budget, flip book,um,
transportation services starts on page 251, and then with the bulk of the financial
information further ahead on page 430. So fust I'm going to tell you a little bit about how
we're staffed and how our divisions,um, are structurally,um,pulled together in our
department. We have 80 employees. Um,we have the third highest number of employees
in terms of the departments,um, across the city. We have three different divisions, 13
activities within those divisions, and I'll just highlight the divisions today. One is the
Transportation Services Admin Division,this contains myself and Mark Rummel who's
the Associate Director. The Parking Division is approximately about one-third of that 80
staffing level, so one-third parking, another two-thirds is transit. And in terms of parking,
to get into a little bit more specifics about what we do,we maintain the six parking
facilities downtown. Um,there's 1,200 meter parking spaces that we manage as well, six
parking lots, all of the bicycle parking in the downtown,parking enforcement, of course,
uh, in the Central Business District and the near in downtown neighborhoods. And then,
again,the maintenance of that Central Business District. So, uh, in terms of transit, again,
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that was two-third of our total staffing levels takes a lot of people to keep the transit
system rolling every day. We have 13 different routes we provide service on, and that's
17 hours a day, 12 hours a day on the weekends, or excuse me, on Saturdays. Johnson
County seats, again,provides that paratransit services, and Iowa City Transit owns and
maintains all of the vehicles. So we maintain the in-house. We have our own maintenance
staff. For transit specifically,we maintain the 27,um,the-the large buses,the fixed route
buses that you see when you think of bus service in town. And then we also manage the
13-the maintenance for the 13 paratransit vehicles. So there's a little bit of a dance
between us and seats and we're always moving vehicles back and forth as we're,um,
repairing, doing preventative maintenance,um, and making sure that they have the
equipment they need to provide the services to our community. Our proposed budget this
year is about $17.5 million. The greater portion of that,probably not a surprise,would be
for transit,that's about $12 million is the proposed budget, or 63%. Park budget proposal
is 5.1 million,that's about 35%,with the transportation services admin proposal at around
414,000 which is 2%. So I'm going to dig in a little bit more into parking and transit. I'm
going to start with the parking side of the house, and fust thing I'm going to do is do a
little bit of a review mirror, look into,that's my transportation pun. That's all I got. That's
all I got. Um,review mirror for last year, and talk about some of our accomplishments for
2023. And then we'll talk a little bit about challenges, and then we'll finish up with next
steps before I move on to transit. So fust accomplishment I'd really like to note is that
our,uh, Transient Hours Parked. So if you see that in your budget book,what is Transient
Hours Parked? So that's just really an accumulation of all the hours of parking that we as
a city have provided. So that's either through our parking ramps or that's the on-street
parking and our parking meters. So,uh,we have finally gotten back up over five million,
so we are not quite where we were at pre-pandemic,um,but we're going to get there this
year for sure. Um, it's a 43% increase over the hours parked last year. So to me, I'm
seeing that as people are returning to more regular,whether it's either regular commute
patterns or just people are feeling free to visit downtown more or just move about the
community. So I'm seeing that as a good healthy economic indicator. And again, a 43%
increase from last year, so we're happy to see that. Um, a big parking project that we
completed in the last year was new automated parking equipment. And you'll never talk
to anybody who's more excited about new automated parking equipment than you will
our maintenance staff. Because our equipment,um, our last equipment,was the fust
automated equipment that Iowa City had had. We had many more cashiers once upon a
time in the past do- do those transactions. And the equipment was great, it was
revolutionary,um, and it- it aged out like electronics do. So,um,we have the new
equipment installed, ah, it was a multi-month process,many months,more of planning,
and it-makes it very quick and easy. If you haven't been through the ramps,it's so much
faster and easier to get in and out of the ramps,um, and it takes-the-the equipment is so
much more reliable,um, it's- it's just easier all around. So our maintenance staff that had
often been called when you hit that button and you need some help. We send somebody
there to help if we can't handle it,uh,remotely, and they've been able to focus a lot more
of their time on other more traditional maintenance jobs versus making sure that we can
get people in and out of our ramps,um,really efficiently. So that's been really an exciting
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project,um, for the community. Um, in terms of some other really great stats,know we
have given away 780,000 hours of free parking through the fust hour free program in our
parking ramps. Um,that's a really popular program for anybody who wants to pop
downtown and grab something and without having to circle, looking for a parking space,
um,that may or may not exist,um, at certain times a day on street,um,they always know
that they can go to the parking ramps. And,um,that fust hour is free, so that's been very
popular. Um, in terms of,you know, and we'll talk a little bit more about this in- in terms
of challenges,but we've implemented a body cam program for our parking enforcement
attendants. Um,we have-this has helped to create a more safe and comfortable work
environment for our parking enforcement staff,um,who at times,um, can be on the
receiving ends of some not so pleasant interactions with people unhappy about,um,
either receiving a ticket or just the fact that there are parking enforcement attendants in
general. So,um,that's been a really well-received program. We're continuing with our
parking facility five-year maintenance projects. And this is an ongoing every year. You
hear me talk about our parking facility maintenance projects because they are aging,um,
like all of us, and,um,you know,required an increasing amount of investment to keep
them safe and comfortable for the public to use. So those continued last year and will
ended this year. And then last but not least, I just want to acknowledge all of the time and
energy our staff puts into assisting with all of the festivals and events downtown. We've
become-we're just kind of become known as a festival city. I feel like that's one of our-
one of our great assets, and our team does a lot of behind the work-behind the scenes
work with the coordinators for those events to help make them happen. So I just want to
acknowledge,um, all of their hard work. It's been really nice to return to those after the
pandemic,but,um, I don't want to list any of our accomplishments downtown without
mentioning those. Right now,we're gonna talk a little bit about some of our challenges
that we're having in terms of parking. And I alluded to the-to the safety component, and,
um,you know, creating a safe and comfortable work environment for- for staff,um,has
been a priority. And if you talk to any of our employees,whether in transit or parking, in
the last year,this is going to be one of the top items that they're talking about. And we've
had some incidents between our staff and,um, of- and the public, and then there's been
some incidents that have happened,um,Public firearms incidents,those sorts of things
that happen downtown. And what I want you to think about is,you know,we all have our
workplaces, our places that we go to, our department staff workplace is the downtown.
So when any of those things happen,they're constantly roving. So it's- it's unnerving to
say the least,when-when those,um, situations-when firearm situations happen or- or
when you-when you are,um, faced with a member of the public on the street who's very
unhappy about X,Y, and Z, about,um,you know, getting a parking ticket. So we've been
spending a lot of time this year trying to find ways to make a more safe and comfortable
work environment. Because some things about our environment we can't change,right?
So the enforcement needs to happen on the street. We have maintenance that needs to
happen in the facilities, in the public area. So we've been working a lot on those things.
Ah,the body cams is one way. We have addressed those. We've moved cashiers,um,
from the booth where they're more visible,um, and sometimes they feel more trapped a
little bit too to,um, to other locations where they can remotely monitor and remotely
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provide assistance and dispatch. And that's helped to make our staff feel more
comfortable. Um,we've done a lot of de-escalation training,PD has been really kind to
come in and do several rounds of de-escalation training,um,to help our staff know what
to do and how to,um,kind of bring down the heat and some of those conflicts that can
occur. Um, so I just wanted to, again,um, acknowledge PD's support,um, over the last
year. So that's- safety is one thing that's on all of our minds. Aging facilities is another
thing that's on our minds,um, as we'll talk about when we get to the CIP presentation
later this week,but,um, you know,there's an increased needs for maintenance for our
facilities, and both in terms of structural maintenance and then the janitorial maintenance.
Um, and we'll talk a little bit more about some ideas we have for that in the future,but
that's definitely an ongoing challenge. Our equipment- and our facilities aren't getting any
younger, I guess is what I'm trying to say. Um, tying right into that segue, and right into
that is our outsourced janitorial support, and Geoff alluded to this earlier today. So our
department is supported,um, on sort of a,um,basic and,um, detailed cleaning support
perspective in terms of trash liners,um,picking up trash,um, and detail cleaning of our
facilities, the dusting,the wiping down,those sorts of things. Um,through a third-party
contracted vendor,um,the support that we've gotten has just kind of decreased over the
years to the point where it's we're looking for other options. We've been working with
the,um, downtown district on,uh, a joint option to help get,um,the support that we need
to the level that we need. Um, so that's something very exciting, and I'll talk a little bit
more about that in next steps. Snow, I'd like to add this in for a challenge. Ah,record
breaking snow last week. Um, I know when we think of snow,we think of the streets
department and they do an amazing job,um, and I am very grateful and all of transit is
very grateful. And parking for all of their support,we-that they help us be able to do
what we-what we need to do. Um,but our team also moves a lot of snow downtown. So
we have staff that,um,we are- are-we are charged with removing the snow from the
parking spaces,the sidewalks around the public facilities. We're the ones who are getting
out there and kind of shoveling the-the crosswalk,um, curb cuts as much as we possibly
can. And then the bus stops,which are all across the community. So,um, everybody kind
of drops what they're doing on the parking side of the house when snow happens,uh, in
general, especially when snow happens like it happened the other week. Um, and they
just divide and conquer. And,um, it's an amazing effort. They put in a ton of work, a lot
of overtime,um,to try to turn the city back into regular operations as soon as possible. So
it's not perfect. We are working- every single year, I see it getting better and better. We
have more staff,we're getting more efficient,we're getting more resources to be able to
dedicate towards snow removal and getting things turned around as quick as possible,but
I cannot be more proud of how they handle,uh, an extreme snow event,um, in the last
few weeks. And it's still ongoing, so we're still moving snow. And then last but not least,
just staffing in general. And as Geoff mentioned,um, earlier,there's not one department,
us included,that would not,um,would-would not see ways we could use more staff to
provide better services to the community. On the parking side, I think of maintenance
staff for sure,um, for the maintenance shortfalls or the things that we'd love to be able to
do,but we are extended,um,to the extent that we can. I'm hopeful that this new potential
program with the downtown district,um,will get us to where we need to go, and that
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additional funding,um,will help us,um, provide that support that we all know we need
in the downtown. Um, and then I will talk a little bit more about,well, let me back up for
a second here. So the other item I want to mention quick is just enforcement staff. So,
um,we have been slowly adding more enforcement staff over the years. We've heard
from the downtown district,you know,we- it's-we need more enforcement. And the
reason we do enforcement is not just,you know,uh,to,you know, generate revenue, it's
to generate turnover. Because if we-we all know if we don't have enforcement in the
downtown,you will not be able to get a parking spot in the downtown. It just will not
happen. There will-people will move in, and then they will-they will stay there. It serves
a great purpose for this community. So,um, always looking for-You know. I don't think
it's in our formal request this year,but that's- that's an item we're always looking for is
more enforcement support to help ensure we have that turnover downtown so more
people can visit downtown. The last item that I was going to mention, I'll touch on over
in the transit side of the house, and that's more on the administrative,um, level as opposed
to the front line staff. So next steps in terms of parking. Again,we're partnering with the
downtown district to explore that new maintenance program. We're really excited. We're
really fired up about this potential opportunity to provide better service,more detail
cleaning downtown. Um, Geoff also alluded to this parking and citation rate increases.
This is a proposal that will come to you a more formal proposal. You'll be able to see
more details,but it's been around 10 years since we've touched any of our-um, any of our
rates in terms of citations or parking fees for ramps and or on-street parking fees. The
increased cost of providing parking services in ten years, I mean, in one year,two years.
It's been pretty astronomical. You can add that up over the last ten years and imagine
where we're at,the aging condition of our facilities. Do you guys have heard from me
already on that,um? To support Fair Free Iowa City again,um this would be an
opportunity for us to connect some of those funds we're receiving on the parking side of
the house and help support this great community initiative that we have piloted right now,
which is the Fair Free Iowa City. Last two items really quickly,EV, expansion and
ramps. Geoff also alluded to this. We are planning an expansion and we're just going to
keep expanding as we see fit. Um, we have good stats so we can see how many new
unique vis-vehicles are utilizing these spaces. We're keeping close tabs on that. And then
as I mentioned also earlier,we're continuing with our parking facility maintenance
because it's an ongoing- it's an ongoing project every single year so that's parking, and if
there are any questions, I'd be happy to jump over to transit.
Alter: I have a really quick question. I hope it's a quick question. It's on your upcoming
challenges,page 258, and you went through sort of the highlights of them,but,um,the
second last bullet is implementation of flex zones to expand short term commercial
parking downtown. I may have missed that. Can you just describe for me what the flex
zones are on this?
Nagle-Gamm: Sure. Yeah, it's a great question. So we are-we were going to pilot a project this
year where you take a bank of metered parking and we convert it into a flex zone. What
that means is,um, at certain times of the day,the space is reserved for commercial
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parking. If you have a large enough bank,you could fit semis there,you can fit large box
trucks,you could fit multiple box trucks. And all this was born from a need to provide
more short term commercial parking. Our thought is that we could provide it during the
morning time. Potentially,we haven't got all the details worked out,but from they say
2:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Take a metered parking bank and make it short term commercial
loading zone. Then after that it reverts to metered use. Then,you know, customers,
individuals,you know, store employees, if they need to pop in and get something,we'd
be able to use it. It's flexible. Zone would be flexible. Um,we had originally planned for
one on ten South Dubuque Street,but with the project this year we're gonna,we're gonna
put that one, and we'll talk about that maybe in the design process,but we are-we had
originally proposed to pilot it on ten Clinton as well. We're going to revisit that this year.
Speak with the businesses along there and- and see if that's something that they're still
interested in. When we surveyed basically everybody on Clinton Street a few years back,
there was wide support for piloting it. We're hoping that still exists and we'd like to pilot
that.
Alter: Okay. Thank you.
Moe: Like. I don't know whether this is appropriate for capital improvement questions or right
now,but the age of the parking garages came up tangentially during our last city council
meeting,where we approved some money for the Capital Street improvements, and we
understood that there was some sort of chloride extraction analysis being done. That was
a response, I think,to a question about how much life is left in these parking garages. Is-
is that something that-that you can speak to now, or could at capital improvement days
towards?What do we know about these garages?Because they're incredibly expensive if
we have to replace them,um as much life is left in them.
Nagle-Gamm: It's a great question. I think I'd be better prepared to respond to that on Thursday.
Moe: Okay.
Nagle-Gamm: In terms of where we're at with the chloride testing,but that has become part of
our protocol. We do a five year maintenance plan, and that starts with a deep assessment
of our facilities every five years. Um, from that assessment, a five year plan is built, and
then we-we determine, and then basically we go year by year and make those
improvements. A lot of that is structural and responsive to say what the chloride
treatments show, or what other evaluations have shown for that facility. I'll be - I'll
provide some more information on Wednesday if that's all right.
Moe: Yeah,that'd be great.
Nagle-Gamm: I'd be happy to.
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Dunn: Got a question about,um,page 260. I kind of came up when we were discussing,uh,
transient hours parked. I was looking over this,um,page in front of me and the
department objective is increased transient hours parked in downtown, on street and off
street spaces. That kind of confused me a little bit. Um, seemingly contradictory to the
entire goal of fare free and our climate initiatives of wanting to reduce dependency on
cars increase the activity with bicycle transit,pedestrian transit,then simultaneously the
partnership and engagement focus from the strategic plan. I didn't quite understand how
that links in. So if you could kind of- I don't really know what the question history really
there,but it just really confused me as to how all that links in in a kind of contradictory
way.
Nagle-Gamm: That's point well taken. These are I would say older metrics. They predate me in
the department, and I think part of our goal as we move forward is to create more salient
metrics that more reflect today's standards. These are kind of holdovers that we've been
measuring year after year,but right. On the flip side,the parking tells me two stories. It
tells me one,how many people are engaging in the downtown. That's a useful metric to
me,um but you're right, it's the department objective of increasing those does seem to be
potentially in conflict with increasing ridership on transit. Maybe we want to float all of
those boats,right? To the extent that we can in terms of our capacity. But I think those
are all worth taking another look at, absolutely. Then in terms of the credit card, so when
we fust launched credit cards in the parking equipment,um, it was something we really
wanted to encourage the public to take advantage of these features. This is a holdover
from that time when maybe we weren't so credit card friendly and we've become much
more so. I think it's maybe outdated. Its usefulness in terms of a metric that we should be
looking at. That's absolutely valid points.
Dunn: Okay.
Salih: I just want to ask about the fiscal year 2024 revised revenue that I feel like really high. I
think that's because you're replacing like four buses. Where we get the money for the
replacing of the bus, and is this something we can get like for 2025 as well to do
something else?
Nagle-Gamm: The four buses,we will be- if you're talking about the grant funding buses.
Salih: Yes.
Nagle-Gamm: Yes. We're very excited to receive funding for,um, four additional battery electric
buses through the FTA as part of the Federal Transit Administration. I'm getting too short
with my acronyms Federal Transit Administration, coupled with the-the grant for our
new transit facility. We got both of those two together, and additionally,we also found
out we are receiving funding for two more electric buses through the DOT. Through the
state,we are going to receive two more buses. So this is very exciting news. We will be-
we're going to go through the procurement process for six more electric buses. Um, lead
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time is about two years. That's what I've been told by manufacturers. In terms of waiting
for them to hit the ground. But that will put us above one third battery electric,um, in just
a few short years.
Salih: How many-how many buses we have total?
Nagle-Gamm: Twenty seven total. Four electric right now, and then add six more. That'll put us
up to ten. That'll be a very good-um it'll be a very good number of- it'll be a big
transition. We'll see our diesel emissions, our costs go down pretty significantly at that
point,um.
Salih: Do you think those kind of grants we can get it like every year? [OVERLAPPING]
Nagle-Gamm: We'll do our best. It's grant funded,right?A lot of-the two that came from the
state are due to the age and condition of our older bus. We-we are ranked with the entire
state. Every bus everybody owns in the whole state is on this list, and it's ranked based on
age and conditions. Basically when the state gets money,they they start handing it out the
funds. It's not competitive in that way. It's based on how old, so two of our buses got to
the top of the old age list, and so that's why they were receiving funding. But the other
grant funds,those are competitive and we can apply for those.
Teague: Yeah. We-we apply for that those funds many times, for many years. We got $23.3
million for the facilities, and then for the four electric buses,which was no small feat.
Nagle-Gamm:No small feat. It was approximately ten applications over five years of various
different so. Oh so- so I came to you every year and I stood here and I said,we're going
to try again next year. So I can proudly say,we don't have to try again for the facility,but
we will try again for additional buses. Absolutely.
Alter: This is a different manufacturer?
Nagle-Gamm: So we- so there's some questions about manufacturers.
Alter: What did they get themselves. I mean- if it takes us down to rabbit hole,but I just know
that there was some issues with the original manufacturer that they had to declare
bankrupcy?
Nagle-Gamm: Yes. So we could-we can quote different manufacturers and we may need to do
so.
Alter: Sure.
Nagle-Gamm: Due to complications with the solvency of the manufacturer we have right now,
they actually were bought out by another company and they closed on it. So that makes
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me feel good from a maintenance of our current equipment perspective. But we are
looking at other options in terms of where these next six buses come from. So it's pretty
exciting.
Moe: Wanted to thread together Mr. Dunn's question about the increase in transient hour parking
and the increase in bus ridership,what that all means with the conversation we had earlier
today,where we discussed increasing parking fees,with that I had- I lived in Philadelphia
for a while where they did a big traffic study and learned that most people driving around
in downtown Philadelphia were driving around, looking for a parking spot like,wasting
gas, driving around, looking for that good street parking pass. And the logic was,you
know,this your transportation planner, or they just said, let's make the street expensive
and the parking ramps cheaper. And it dramatically reduced the amount of people
zooming around looking for a parking spot. So as we think through potential budget
implications of altering our fees for parking garages versus,uh, on street parking. Have
you guys done that analysis and sort of think through what it means for us to increase
parking garage costs and not think about what it would mean to increase street parking
costs?
Nagle-Gamm: I don't- I don't know if we've come to the final layout of what everything looks
like,but that's-that's one of the factors absolutely to consider. Uh,percentage increase,
you know, is another factor to consider. But yes,the last time we made the parking chain
10 years ago,when we did this,there was an explicit strategy to price them in such a
way,to encourage people to use the parking ramps versus on street. So that was definitely
part of our thought process the last time around.
Fruin: And the proposal before you also increases the street, so the ones in the heart of
downtown would go to $2. And we're hoping that the incentive for fare free is that-that
I'm going to go to the deck instead of and get that fust hour free as opposed to circling on
the street. During staff does a nice job of, excuse me,monitoring the capacity of our
meters. And we generally like to see meter usage in that 85-90, 95%range. Because it
means if you do circle,you can find one,but it may be a little bit difficult. So that's the
balance that we see. And then I think we-we strike that pretty well, especially during the
peak hours.
Salih: Thank you.
Nagle-Gamm: All right. Since we've segued into transit, can I tell you a little bit again,back to
my review mirror. I don't know if I can use the same joke twice. But if we look back at
2023 in terms of- I just wanted to highlight a few accomplishments. The fust being the
May service level adjustment. So it was our fust major service level adjustment since the
transit study, in 2021, is when we made those changes. We, ah,provide earlier service on
eight different routes. We increased service levels on two routes to 20 minutes, and that's
Court Street and Towncrest. And that is a huge improvement in terms of service
frequency. We rerouted the seven North Dodge Route to accommodate,um,the fact that
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more people working at the commercial park north of Interstate 80,the name is escaping,
right?North Gate Commercial Park,um, the vast majority.Now that Pearson is- is sort of
decommissioned,we move service to the east side to be able to provide support to the
majority of the employees that were out there and also provide direct support to Oaknoll
East. So that was a great addition we were able to do by rerouting that. So we-that was-
that was a major undertaking for our department. These are not easy things to do,um, it's
a new service schedule, it's a new staffing schedules, it's new,um, a logistic schedule to
get everybody where they need to go. So I want to acknowledge how hard the work to
make that happen. It improved our on time performance dramatically,um, and we were
able to provide earlier service in the morning for people who couldn't quite get to the
university. This is who we heard mostly from,um, on time made them very happy. So we
were really thrilled with those changes, it made the drivers happier because they're less
stressed, less behind schedule. So it was definitely full of wins. So that was- we started in
May,that was our fust big,um, improvement. And then in June, of course,the $23
million grant that you mentioned,Megan,um, 19 of that will go towards the transit
facility,um, four million of that will go towards those four new buses. Super thrilled.
Could not be more thrilled with that grant award. For the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) study,
I think Tracy might touched on this too,um,because the MPO is running point on this,
but this is the BRT study, I think it's- it's just gone underway last year. And I'm sitting on
the committee and all of the transit agencies locally are, and it's just a re-evaluation or
another evaluation of the CRANDIC Rail corridor and what could happen if that was
repurposed as a bus rapid transit corridor between Iowa City and North Liberty. Some big
potential there for re-imagination in many different ways. But I'm glad we're looking at
transit also and potentially um,you know,paired with even trail bicycle pedestrian. So
that's really exciting news in terms of transit. And then,um, last but not least,we
launched a little thing called Fair Free Iowa City, which is really exciting. That was,uh,
in August. And I'm sure you all are well aware of the stats, but I'll repeat them. So 47%
increase over the last five months and ridership. So over 200,000 more people rode transit
in just those five months than they did the previous year,which is amazing,um,truly
amazing,um,we're-we're super thrilled,we have a lot of new faces on board. People
always ask me, is it new people is it more rides?Both- it is both. We're seeing new faces
all the time and we're seeing more rides from people who-who have been long-time
transit customers. So we're super thrilled,um, about how the Fair Free Pilot has been so
well received and embraced by the community. It's literally, I think the only thing,um, so
we've done where we've received 99.9%positive feedback. I can maybe say one or two,
um,you know,not supportive comments that we've received. It's been- I don't know if
your stats match up with my stats.
Dunn: Yes, one!
Nagle-Gamm: It's been pretty remarkable to be a part of. And I must say that launch in August
was outstanding. Shannon McMahon and the communications team, and Sarah Gardner
and the Climate Action team and our staff put together a brilliant launch. It was launched
exactly the way you want something like this to be launched. You want people to get
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excited about it. You want there to be a lot of hoopla because it's a really big deal. I went
to- I've told a few other people I went to the week after I had vacation and I was up in
Northern Michigan. And what did-who did I meet in the campground? Somebody who
knew about Iowa City Fair Free Program and thought it was the most amazing thing
they'd ever heard. And I was in very far Northern Michigan. So again,the
communications was on point for that. It's been really exciting then we keep, every time
we put a press release out with our performance for the month, it generates more press
interest and more questions to me. And I'm always happy to chat with people and really
hype the program because I think it's pretty exciting. So,um, last on that topic,just this
week,um, City of Iowa City received an award from Better Together, 2030 for the Fair
Free Iowa City Initiative and for supporting regional transit,um,which is one of the
regional transit and mobility in our region. So kudos to you all for being a part of such an
amazing historic and really positive pilot program. All right. So now we're going to pivot
to challenges off the high notes. So challenges on the transit side, and you all have
probably heard this from me before,but staffing was a challenge last year. And,um, I
think we've gotten to the right number of staff in terms of the transit side of the house,
like how many drivers we have,um, especially because the council approved four
additional part time employees for us. That would have been in August of 22,we just in
December for just a split second had gotten all of those positions filled. So it took us a
year and a half to fill the positions that you had authorized for us. So that was a real
challenge. And we've had some shifts in that, so we're hiring again right now. But it,um,
takes an incredible amount of work to make sure that those buses are staffed. And
incredible amount of overtime and dedication from all the other drivers and the
supervisors when they need to fill in, um,the buses can't call in sick,um, somebody has
to be in that bus driving,um, and on that schedule, so it does put a strain on our
operations,um- Things are looking up in 2024. I'm- I'm an eternal optimist, but I feel like
things are turning around. I say that because our applicant pools for the recent around uh,
we've had two,three, four times the applicants now than we have in years. So I don't
know if we're finally getting out of whatever happened during the pandemic,but um-um
we're hoping for brighter days ahead. But it did contribute to our ability to be able to
really expediently deliver on projects and uh,just when day to day operations consume
all of your time day to day, it's really hard to push the needle on many other things. So
staff did an incredible job balancing all those. And then the other item in terms of staffing
is just an our administrative staffing levels. So this would be kind of supervisors and up
and our operational environment is changing. It is very different. It's changing. It's
evolving. You know,we're implementing some really transformative community
projects,but we're also doing a lot of minor projects that we need to keep our service
levels moving. Um, and it's been a real challenge to- and we're constantly re-prioritizing,
um, engaging with staff, getting staff the tools that they need, getting these projects done.
Um, getting a bus rolling,um for X, Y, Z problem that's happening on the road. So it's
kind of a constant re-shifting act and we've been working with the City Manager's office
on how to maybe re-purpose some open positions that we have in a way that better meets
our needs today. So that's something that will- that will likely come to you at some point
in the future,um with our existing staffing levels. Last challenge I just want to touch on
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again is just safety. So the safety conversation is not just happening on the parking side of
the house, it's happening on the transit side of the house too. And with the increase in
riders on board,which is fantastic,there's just an increase in interactions with the staff.
Um, I will say um, concerns at the fare-box or that was kind of our number one thing you
know,that could spark some- some conflicts, if you will. But,um, those are certainly
decreased,but it's really just enforcing the code of conduct on the bus. So,you know,no
loud music,you know,no profanity, like those kinds of things. Um,just our staff has had
more-has had to address those more than they have in the past. And this has been sense a
pandemic, it's just-whatever that cultural shift is. We're hearing it at restaurants,retail
stores. I mean,we're hearing it everywhere. And we're not the only department too. So
that requires extra. It's stressful for staff,but it also requires extra,you know,work from
the administrative staff responding to calls. Sometimes PD, we ask PD for support on
occasion as well um,which they're really happy to do. But it's just- again it's- it's more
things that we need to respond to in our operational environment. Uh, I also want to
mention too,we'll talk about this a little bit in the CIP too,but we do have some project
plans. We've been doing some things like on the parking side to help give staff the tools
they need, some deescalation training, and PD has been stepping in for that. Um,but we
have some projects that are meant to make our transit staff more safe and comfortable
too. We have barriers that are installed on our electric buses. Um,we are um, seeking to
retrofit the rest of our buses with a, kind of barrier. It just provides a cab space,kind of a
safe space for our drivers. Some other um,projects like a handheld um,radio, so they can
have a private conversation over the radio because if you're given a description of a
person,you don't necessarily want to be broadcasting all over the whole bus.Um,that
makes staff feel more safe and comfortable. They can have private conversations. Um, so
those are just some of the things that we're doing to try to create an environment um,that
people feel safe and comfortable and that they want to work in. All right, last bit here.
Next steps in terms of transit- transit facility. So we have the word. So now the rubber
meets the road. Oh,there's another one, see I'm full of transportation jokes. They're just
come out of nowhere. Um, so we have our new staff member in engineering who's
helping to shepherd this project. So thank you very much for approving the funding um,
for the capital projects administrator. Um, she is- we are working through the RFQ right
now, so we're going to go out for design to have somebody help support um,the
development of the design and help get us through the rest of the federal environmental
process. So this is a federal procurement process. So there's lots of steps outside of what
we would normally do from the city's perspective. Uh, so the goal is to have a consultant
help us walk through, safely navigate all of those,um turns. And then,um you know,
hopefully,by the end of the year,we're gonna have a good start on some real design on
what the facility is going to look like. So I'm really excited, staff is really excited to help,
um kinda transform the way that we do our operations um, in a way that's more efficient
and,um,you know,bring-bring our facility up to today's standards. So we're really
excited about that. Um,we are also planning on drafting an RFP for bus stop
improvements. Geoff talked a little bit about this earlier today. So we've been spending a
lot of time in the last few years,we're focusing on service and then that transition to
electric and then the transit facility also. So we're,kind of coming at transit service at all
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angles,but we also want to improve the experience for our customers at the stops. So
that's,um one of our next moves, is to bring on a consultant who can help us do an
inventory of all the bus stops across the city and develop a plan to improve them. So
that's exciting to kick off this year, I already previewed the six new electric buses that
will- that will have coming. It's like I said, it's going to be about two years,but we're
gonna start that design process this year and get that procurement roll in,which is very
excited-very exciting. Um, and then last but not least, fare free Iowa City. So we're
continuing our pilot program. Um,we are going to come back to you this summer for a
check in to have kind of a more in depth discussion about how things are going,where
things are at um, and make a determination about um,how we move forward after we've
kind of measured its effects for a full year. So thanks for being so patient. I would be
happy to answer any questions you have.
Harmsen: Thank you for that bumper to bumper analysis. It was more than fair.
Dunn: Okay. Thank you, Sean.
Harmsen: You're welcome. That was just for you, sir.
Dunn: Yeah,he's the guy-he's the guy.
Harmsen: Seriously sounds good. It's really kind of cool that we made it all the way up to the
Uppers.
Nagle-Gamm: Yes, I found out about the Uppers. I had not been up to Northern Michigan
before.
Harmsen: I used to live not very far from there in Northern Wisconsin.
Nagle-Gamm: It's beautiful. Clearly they're -they're smart, well educated people because they
know all about our transportation. Well read.
Moe: I don't know,Again, I never know when we're really in which budget chunk to talk
through,but um, I know that there's talk about to continue fare free,which everybody
loves so much is to look at how parking and transportation would work together. They're
currently structured as two separate enterprise funds. Can you talk us through what you
would need to make those to become one enterprise fund?
Nagle-Gamm: It's my understanding that it's structural. Like an accounting structure. Is that not
correct,Nicole?
Davies: Yeah, it's really just an accounting change. It's nothing right. Daring I don't want to say
she runs them as the one. But they're already both under transportation services. So
really, it's, um a matter of us combining them for reporting purposes.
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Nagle-Gamm: Once upon a time,we used to be two separate departments, and I think that would
have been a bigger challenge too. And then the wisdom of my predecessors and Geoff
and maybe Geoffs predecessor down-um, down the road,previously it was two
departments, so there'd be a lot more hoops to jump through if they weren't combined
already under one department. But it seems like it's just an accounting um,procedure at
this point.
Teague: Well,thank you so much. All right. It's 2:30 we're going to do a 10-minute break, and
then we will come back and we'll go to airport. We just have two more uh, departments to
hear from today, and then we'll be able to have some conversation amongst ourselves.
Councilor Alter will be back in a little bit,but we're going to go ahead and get started and
welcome our airport.
Airport
Tharp: Well, good afternoon. Uh,welcome to our new members and- and congratulations to our
returning members. Um, I'm Mike Tharp. I'm the Airport Manager for the Iowa City
Municipal Airport. Uh, we have an amazing airport in our community. Uh, our airport
consists of two runways. A primary runway of 5,002 feet, and a crosswind runway of
3,900 feet. Uh, among the airport facilities,we have a terminal building,which was built
in 1951, 60 hangar units,which,uh, co- comprise of 59 different T hangar units, and six
other bulk storage corporate style office,uh,hangar building structures. Among the
airport,three of those buildings were,uh,built with private dollar uh, investments. Uh,
So that is something we would like to continue in the future. Uh,we have three ma-main
entities that operate at the airport. Our fixed base operator,Jet Air,uh,provides most of
the aircraft conces- concessionaire services like aircraft charter, flight instruction,
maintenance,uh, fuel handling services. We also contract with them for our grounds
keeping and maintenance, snow removal,uh,mowing,those type of operations. Uh,the
operator performance lab,which is a University of Iowa research lab which runs out of
the College of Engineering. And then we have Care Ambulance,which serves as an
ambulatory company. They provide the medical staffing for a lot of the uh, medical
flights that come out of Iowa City and they also do the ground transportation of a lot of
the patients that come in,uh,to either the university,the VA, or what's formerly known
as Mercy. Um, as a general aviation airport,we can handle pre- all activity that is not
commercial airlines. Uh,we also get some military flights on occasion. Uh,we have
33,000 operations per year. And operation is a takeoff or landing of an airplane or
helicopter. Um, a lot of that traffic is related to the university hospitals in some fashion.
Whether it's the helicopter traffic, whether it's life flights, organ donation flights. Uh,we
also have business activity flights, like billion Auto Shields, Procter and Gamble,uh,that
utilize the airport,uh, for their,uh,business needs. Uh, in comparison of the 33,000
operations that we have,uh,the FAA data on, Cedar Rapids has 38,300 for their annual
operations and 13,000 of those operations are the airline flights that they have. So from a
general aviation standpoint,we are dramatically busier than what Cedar Rapids is. Uh,
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we do a number of community events throughout the year to bring people out to the
airport. We host pancake breakfast every year by the Optimist Club. We work with the
Young Eagles,uh-uh group,the Experimental Aircraft Association. Uh,that is,uh,
activity that provides free flights for children between, I think it's 7 and- and 17. Um, one
of those things that-that organizations do to spark the aviation interest in- in our,uh,
hopefully up and coming future pilots and uh,maintainers. Uh,we've worked with
Summer of the Arts for drive-in movies for the last few years. Uh, last year, 2023,we
hosted a movie for-uh, as part of the Climate Fest Initiative. Uh,that was wonderful. Uh,
and then we also worked with the Public Art Advisory Committee and we have a
wonderful a- art mural on the side of our hangar facing Riverside Drive. Um,that art
mural was about a $40,000 project. And also we used that to kick off our community
foundation fund for the airport,uh,raised about $32,000 in- in proceeds to make that
happen. Um, in 2022,the Iowa DOT did a economic impact study of aviation all across
the state. Uh,that study yielded a result of the Iowa City Municipal Airport having a $24
million impact to the local economy each year,um, so for the investment in- into that
airport,having $24 million is an amazing return on investment. And it supports at the
time, 77 jobs directly at the airport. I don't know- I believe that number has grown
slightly as jet air has hired a couple more people since then. Um,budget wise,we operate
a roughly $400,000 airport operations budget. I think this year,uh,the budget that's being
proposed is actually up to 440. Uh,the vast majority of that is arrived from hangar rents.
About $300,000 of it. And then we have a fuel flowage fee,which we charge to jet air
our FBO, and,um, that's now 15 cents a gallon. That brings in about $70,000. And then
our- our other random ground leases and farming operations bring in about another
$60,000. Um, each year as part of our kind of,just overall budget process and trying to
make sure the airport is,uh, continuing to be self sufficient,which is- it has been since
2018. We do annual hanger rent evaluations, so all of our T hangars are on a year rental
basis. And every year we evaluate those rates,uh,to compare them with about-with
airports roughly about an hour's drive away,uh,to make sure we are staying,uh,
essentially above the-the market. Um, other projects we have going on in the next couple
of years,uh,we are set to open bids, or at least on a schedule to open bids in April for our
phase- fust phase of our solar power generating project. Uh,Phase 1 will cover our
airfield lighting and one of the,uh,the airport building that the,uh, ambulance company
is in. Uh, that will provide 100%power generation for both of those a- a- activities and
save the airport about $12,000 a year in utility bills. Um, uh, I mentioned the fuel flowage
fee,um, in September of 2023,we increased the fuel flowage fee from 10 cents a gallon
to 15 cents. That represents roughly about a 20- $25,000 increase in revenues that we can
expect,um, in 2023, a- a-we moved about 508,000 gallons of gas. Um, so that's pretty-
pretty astonishing for- for our airport. Um,but having an airport with-with buildings as
old as we have,that does create a number of challenges. Maintaining a 1951 building in
an open field essentially,uh,the weather of the last couple of weeks has certainly
exposed our HVAC systems are somewhat deficient when it gets to be the extreme cold.
Um, so we did have a little bit of challenge in maintaining,um,what we would call
normal operating,uh,temperatures. Um,but we've also done a couple of things to try to
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encourage other folks to build hangars like extending our taxi and infrastructure into the
south T area,um, and that is the airport and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
Teague:No questions for you. Thank you so much.
Tharp: All right.
Teague: Yes.
Tharp: Thank you-
Public Works—Administration & Engineering
Teague: Thank you. All right. So we're going to go and hear from our last department for today,
which is Public Works. And welcome.
Knoche: Good afternoon,Mr. Mayor and Council. Ron Knoche,Public Works Director. It's my
privilege to serve as your Public Works Director here in Iowa City. It's hard to believe.
This is my tenth operating budget presentation. So it seems like yesterday I started in the
position,but here I am. The Public Works Department is funded through eight different
funding sources,which consists of general funds, special revenue, enterprise funds, and
internal service funds. So what that means for you is we are all over the budget book. In
regards to the presentation today,um, so we'll start off with the Public Works Department
overall that starts on page 212 of the budget book. We have seven divisions which
includes the administration side of things. Um,the budget includes 164.76 full time
equivalent positions. Um,we currently have 164 employees on staff. That's 154 full time,
three part time, and then seven seasonal or hourly folks. So what that means right now Is-
is we're-we're roughly about eight position,um,needing eight positions filled within
Public Works. Um, the proposed expenditures for the FY 25 budget is just over $54
million. The Public Works Administration and Engineering Division,that begins on page
370 of the budget book. Um,this is,uh, division areas funded through the General Fund,
the Stormwater Fund, and the Capital Projects Fund. Um, the engineering division
oversees all city and private development projects that include the construction of public
infrastructure. Um, currently,we're overseeing 80 active city projects and 54 active
private projects. The engineering division also oversees all the utility work within the
right of way. Um, obviously,uh,there's been some strains on our staffing just in regards
to the installation of fiber optics within our community. Um,we are getting close to the
end in regards to that,um,but the addition of the civil engineering position that was
added in FY22,uh,was-was critical in making that process,um, go smoother for our
utility companies. Engineering division also oversees the sidewalk repair program. Um,
so with that,we split the city up into ten areas. And so every year we're inspecting one
area while we're doing the replacement in the-repairs in the- in the area previously. Um,
this year we're going to be an area nine, so if you're in eastern Iowa City,um,kinda out
past Scott Boulevard,um, or a little bit south of Muscatine Avenue,um,you may see
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some pink marks show up on your sidewalks. Um,we also oversee the Sidewalk Cafe
program,uh, in the Public Works admin area. Um,we've been engineering division has
been integral in the asset management program. Um,with that,uh,we have a position
open in the asset management technician position. Um,we have yet to fill that position,
but-but working towards that,um, engineering also oversees the Stormwater Utility,um,
which includes the best management practices program, so Storm Water Utility budget.
You can see that on page 490 of the budget book. Um, in FY23,uh,we had 76 Storm
Water quality EMP grants that were funded,which was double of what we had in FY22.
Um, and then we had two creek maintenance grants. So,um,the creek maintenance,um,
basically, is if- if you are a private citizen and you back onto a creek,um,there's no the
city does not own the right of way of wherever that is,um,you can get some funding to
be able to do some restoration along those creek banks. Um, so there are two in FY22,
uh,FY23 that's down from what we were in FY22. Uh, but I think we made up for that in
the Stormwater EMP grants that were out there. Any questions in regard to Engineering
division or public works admin?
Moe: Just a question about our capital improvements project that we'll be looking at on
Wednesday. The design fees for that actually fall under the engineering departments
costs,the-the consultant costs for those really large projects or is that actually part of the
capital improvement?
Knoche: It's part of the capital improvements. And- and that's even if we're doing like an in
house design,the engineers are charging their time out to the individual capital programs.
Moe: Okay. Got it. Thanks.
Streets & Traffic Engineering Division
Knoche: All right,um,moving on to the Streets and Traffic Engineering Division. So that will be
on page 378 of the budget book. Streets and Traffic Engineering is funded through the
Road Use Tax fund,um,which is a special revenue Fund. The Streets Division maintains
500 lane miles of roads and 100 signalized intersections in our community. Um,that
maintenance includes the patching repairs,um, as we saw last week, a lot of snow
plowing and sweeping of those areas. Um,the Streets Division also oversees the leaf,uh,
pick up program. So you're in the fall,we run about eight weeks where we're at vacing up
leaves. Um,this year,uh, our collection was actually down from what it was last year. So
we had about 327 loads this year. Uh that's about half of what we saw last year. Um, and
the reason for that,we believe, is that it was so dry,um, we were really actually creating
a lot more dust,um,then actually,um,blowing the leaves in the back of the truck. I
think,um,we vaporize them versus actually having to haul them somewhere. Um, the-
the streets division,um,you know,the way that we're set up there, especially in the
winter maintenance,we have 13 snowplow routes. Uh, so we have two employees that
are assigned to each of those routes. Um, and so really the street is really set up for the
response to natural disasters that may occur,whether it's a ratio,whether it's a tornado,
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um, flooding, or a snowstorm. So,you know,the Streets division is really the group that's
out there in responding to those-those natural disasters. Um,we were-we took receipt of
a new paint truck last spring and we're able to put that into service. Um, and what we're
seeing with that is a lot longer life out of our pavement markings and a lot safer
installation methods. So,um,we're appreciative of that as we move forward and I think
we will see, uh,more life that comes out of those and- and the less frequency of us
having to be out and painting. Um, in the streets division. From a sustainability measure,
in FY22,um,we took about 6,300 tons,um, of pavement that we had pulled out of the
repair areas that we were doing and we crushed that. Um,we're down about 500 tons left
of that. And so we will be in this budget,there's a proposal to crush the next round of
pavement patches that we've pulled out and is down at the Musquaki area. Any questions
on streets and traffic engineering?
Wastewater Division
Knoche: Uh,Wastewater Division is next,uh,that begins on page 447. The Wastewater Division
is funded through the Wastewater Fund which is an Enterprise Fund. Um, Wastewater
maintains about 320 miles of sanitary sewers and 16 lift stations in our community. Um,
they also maintain 110 miles of storm sewer. Um, and with that five storm water pump
stations,um,we have one wastewater treatment plant. Uh,we on average, treat about 7.4
million gallons of wastewater per day,um, down at our wastewater facility. We have
partnered with the University of Iowa. Uh,with that, they've developed the Iowa
Wastewater and Waste Energy Research Program, Innovation Center and Tech Park. Um,
so down there Gross Wind Technology,which is an Iowa company,um,has built a
greenhouse. And they're looking at ways to treat,um,wastewater with an algae type
biofihn system. Um, the idea here is to help reduce the cost for smaller communities in
Iowa on their wastewater treatment. Um, from on- our wastewater plant itself,um, our
wastewater digester complex, is what's the big project that will be coming up over the
next few years. Um, in the past, I've talked about struvite,um,that's a- a- a compound
that precipitates itself in our- in our wastewater plant piping causes all kinds of issues.
Um, as we've been looking at our wastewater digester complex project,what we found is,
um,just a- a small chemical additives helped us out and helping to decrease the amount
of that,um,but we still have that deferred maintenance that we're having to address in the
overall project. And so as I mentioned,that is under designed now. Um, and then with
that,we have our wastewater digester gas improvements project. So,um,you know,we
have found that,um,you know,the potential of doing a clean up of that,um,renewable
natural gas,um, and then going to a- a pipeline injection process,um, is- is feasible. Um,
we are still trying to figure out from the IIJ funds Infrastructure Investment Funds
whether or not our project will be,um, eligible for those funds. We're still working
through that but that project is also underdesigned currently. Any questions on the
wastewater Division?
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Salih: I just have a question about what-what do you mean by an assigned and restricted
assigned, assign mean like your budget for it and this is leftover money or what-what do
you mean by unassigned money fund?
Knoche: I have to defer that to Nicole.
Davies: Trying to think of what's restricted. Um, yeah, it's just money that's not set aside. It's not
set aside for anything else. We have to have restricted funds for debt service we have-
and we have restricted funds for capital reserves. But if it's not in one of those two
categories then it's unassigned.
Salih: Okay.
Knoche: Any other questions on wastewater?
Moe: Just the cu- curiosity about the two outstanding,um, sewer revenue bonds that are listed in
our packet. Um, due-uh, it looks like they're due in 2044 and 2034. What was the
duration of those and like when did those?
Davies: They're not that-those are what we're anticipating.
Moe: [OVERLAPPING]Those were the anticipated this year.
Davies: [OVERLAPPING] I'm not sure both of these projects move forward.
Moe: A 10 year and a 20 year bond,two separate ones. Okay.
Davies: Possibly, it- it's all kind of up in the air at this point,but.
Moe: Okay.
Water Division
Knoche: Okay. Uh, let's do about the water division. Uh, so that, uh, division is on page 457 of
the budget book. Um, once again,uh, enterprise fund, our water division maintains about
285 miles of water main in Iowa City. Um, annually,we're producing said about two
billion dollar-two billion gallons of water a year. Um,that visual of that is, if you're
sitting at Kinnick stadium and you look up a mile,that's how much water we produce in a
year. So yeah, I- I- I like that visual. Um,you know, as we uh,uh, as-with that,you
know,were-we're able to produce uh, a gallon of water for about a penny. So that-that's
about what that's-that's costing you as- as a consumer. Um,the challenges that are there,
uh,new federal standards,uh, are being,um, every- every- every legislative cycle we're
looking at new things like the lead and copper rules are one that are- are up for,um,
looking at again,um,the way that we're addressing the current,uh, lead and copper rules
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as we've implemented the lead service line replacement program. Uh,that's, uh,
something that council has worked on, and- and the water division together we've worked
on over- about the last year or so. Uh,with that,we developed a warranty program,uh,
the city cost share on,uh, lead service line replacement and lead service line
investigations. And then also,the lead service line ordinance,which basically requires if
you have a lead service line that-that needs repair, it has to be replaced. It can't just be
repaired. Um,that program has actually been very successful. Um,we-we have even
though the-the mailers haven't all gone out yet to all the community,there's folks within
the community that-that have,um,been proactive and reached out to the warranty
program, and- and are part of that already. So,um, it's- its been going very well with
regards to that. Um,the pvers side of things,the forever chemicals,um,we don't have
any impact to that in our- in our water system,uh,that we know of yet. But, um,we're
also looking at,um,uh,the amount of chem-the amount of the pvers that we're looking
at that they're-they're looking at trying to,um,regulate us on,um, is- is basically the size
of a grain of salt in an Olympic size pool. I mean, it's- it's very small in nature and,um,
the-the testing capability of that level of,um, contamination is- is still under
development. So,um,we'll- we'll see where that takes us,uh, in the coming years. Um,
current projects that we're working on now is improving our.
Dunn: [OVERLAPPING] Can I ask a question about [OVERLAPPING]
Knoche: Yes.
Dunn: Okay. So is- is that just a different way us like of us like understanding that we don't
know how much we have in our water right now.
Knoche: I think what we can-what we can say is to the level that we are able to do the testing,
um,we know that we-we have very little,um-well, in our finished water system, so
what's being put out in the system,no issues um, and our source water is where-um,
where that's going to come into effect.
Dunn: Okay. Thank you.
Knoche: Um, and for- and for our current projects that we're working on,uh, from a consulting
standpoint,uh,we're looking at improving the resiliency of our source water systems.
Um, so,uh,we are currently working with the University of Iowa,um, and Strand
Consultants to-to look at basically our alluvial system and try to determine,um,whether
or not,uh, if we just put more collect-more laterals out of our collector system, if that
will help us or if we need to,um, drill more wells in regards to that,um,we're looking at
the overall resiliency of our system from, ah, from a distribution standpoint. So we're,
um, looking at-uh,you know,right now we are,uh, a ground storage system, so we're
pretty much and we are 100%pumped right now. Um, do we bring,uh,water towers
back into the system?Um, looking at the resiliency from that standpoint and the ability to
revive into the system. So-um, so basically,building a master plan,uh, for our water
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system,uh, and that's ongoing now. So hopefully, a year from now,we'll have the results,
uh, of that system,uh, analysis.
Bergus: Um, I'm hearing that correctly that water towers provide more resilience? Is that just
because of the gravity aspect or can you explain that briefly?
Knoche: Right. So it's- so in a- in a, if you would lose power,right-um,right now we have
generators at- at all- at all of our GSRs. So it'd be an issue if- if you would lose power
and then would also be out of power generation as far as a generator at your system. So
obviously, elevated storage, gravity creates that pressure for you.
Bergus: Yeah. Cool. Okay. Thank you.
Knoche: Any other questions on the water division?
Moe: We sell water to numerous other cities around us,right? Is that-
Knoche: We do not. So I guess we provide water for University Heights.
Moe: Okay. That's it,not the university of-this University of Iowa also.
Knoche: [OVERLAPPING] So- so it depends on where they're at in the system. So,um, the
university-there are some buildings that are on the city water system,there's other
buildings that are on their water plant.
Moe: Okay. Do they pay a fee just like the citizens of Iowa City or they?
Knoche: Correct. Okay. We do have a couple rural subdivisions that we provide water to. Um,
Lacina Meadows,uh,kinda of South of town on Naples, is one. Um,the-the criteria that
we have in those situations is,um, if they have an issue, so if there's- if there is a health
issue with their water system, um,that's in place, they're outside of our growth area and
obviously,won't,uh, create a constraint on our system,um,we will provide water. We
have the ability to provide water. We don't necessarily have to,but-um,but so we do
have a couple rural subdivisions that we are providing water to currently also. All right.
Let's chimp into resource management. Um, so resource management division actually is
in two different groups.
Resource Management—Landfill& Refuse
Knoche: Let's chimp into resource management. Um, so resource management division actually
is in two different groups. So we have our refuse group and our landfill group. The refuse
section is,uh, in the budget book on page 471. Um,the refuse collection fund is our- is
our enterprise fund that we utilize there. Um, currently,uh,refuse picks up,uh, from
16,677 customers each week. Um, last year,um, that resulted in,um, 9,746 tons of waste,
uh, 2,188 tons of recycling. Um, so that was down about 4 percent from the year before,
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um, and also results in about 3,099 tons of organics,um, and that was down about 8
percent from the year before. Um,we do continue to push organics,uh, as- as,uh, an
initiative for- for our community. Um,with that last year,uh,we did initiate a pilot
project for multifamily residential options. Uh,basically,uh,we went down these every
recycle,truck was available there. Uh, folks could then bring their organics to that
location. Um, and- and why-why is that-why is that a priority for us?Um, 2022,the
DNR did a waste characterization study to see what is actually going to landfills in Iowa,
and- and of that, 20 percent of the waste going to landfills is organics. So there's- it's- it's-
,you know,you have the ability either to reduce what you're buying or you have the
ability to redirect that to a different end use,uh,which for us,uh, ends up being compost
if- if it goes into that organic system. Uh,the landfill budgets on Page 478,uh,that's also
an Enterprise Fund,um,the Iowa City Landfill Services, all of Johnson County,Kalona,
and Riverside. The landfill received 132,672 tons of waste in FY 23. Um, this was down
from 135,000 tons in FY 22 so it's about 2.1%reduction. Um,the current trend that we're
seeing,uh, is- is not as optimistic. Um, for our second quarter of FY 24,um,we're up
about 15.2%,uh, in- in regards to tonnage at the landfill. That's about- it's about 3,000
tons per quarter additional that we're seeing in FY 24. Um, and we did construct a new,
uh, landfill cell last summer and we are currently starting to fill that landfill cell. So, um,
we saw space in the former cell,but,um,we need to be able-we need to start getting the
bottom of that cell,uh, covered up as a part of our DNR permit. So we're moving forward
there. Um, as far as the-the landfill goes,we do, currently have three recycling options,
drop sites,uh, in our area. So we have at the landfill, uh,the old public work site and
East-side recycle. Um,we are currently under construction of a new South-side area so
that will replace the old public work site,uh, and we'll move South on uh, Old Highway
218 South Riverside Drive. Um,to improve the glass recycling access,we do have the
three drop off locations at Robert A Lee. Uh,parking lot,we have the Coralville drop off
in the recycling center there and then the upper city park parking lot. Um,the other-the-
the challenge with-with the landfills is, um, is that balance of reduction strategies,you
know,trying to reduce what we're taking in,but then also trying to operate a landfill,
right,because the-the revenue that you get in your tipping fees is actually helping you
offset the-the operating costs there. Uh,we did finish the landfill master plan. Uh, and
we're currently in design of the new landfill equipment,uh,building and hopefully,we'll
be able to start construction on that this year. Um,the EPA grant that was discussed
earlier, $4 million. Um, Iowa City was one of two recipients in region 7. The other
recipient,uh, in region 7 was the Iowa DNR. Um, the $4 million grant size that we did
receive was the largest that was available,uh,to any of the recipients. So,um,we're
excited to-to get the planning started on that expansion at the landfill. Any questions on-
on the resource management side of things?
Bergus: My question that comes up from time to time is the-the possible city's role in
commercial,um, organics. Is that anything that you've scoped or considered,I mean,
particularly, in the downtown area?
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Knoche: Yeah,um,we-we've not-we-we have a little bit. You know,we tried to figure out,uh,
various ways to deal with the-the commercial aspect and we haven't found the right
solution there yet. Um,you know, one of the things that-that we are looking at,uh,with
the wastewater plant project is having some type of,uh,high strength waste,uh,
receiving station. Um, it- it- it's- there's a lot more that has to go into before we can
actually start taking you know,the restaurant waste and some of those other things,but
uh, I- I think that's something that-that Jane and general is trying to figure out is,you
know,better ways to-to deal with our- our waste that we're creating.
Bergus: Thank you.
Moe: Residential consumers,have recycling come pick up at their house to commercial users?
How do they typically manage recycling as it interacts with the city?
Knoche: So the-the-we only do residential,though the commercial side of it is all done by
private haulers. So we like-but I think it depends on which hauler you're dealing with.
Waste Management has their own facility that they're hauling things too,we and some
other folks haul stuff to ABC's facility on Heinz Road. That then basically it's a transfer
station per se in regards to the recycling side of things. They compact all that and then
that goes to the Scott County landfill and dealing with there.
Moe: And is that just history that there's been two systems, a residential and a nonresidential
system for waste management. Like you know, if you're running a cafe in town,you buy
your waste management services from there rather than use the city services. Is that just a
long-term?
Knoche: And we really don't have-at least with the equipment that we have now,we don't have
the ability to basically dump dumpsters. So our system is set up for residential. So I think
historically that's the area that we feel comfortable in providing that service.
Moe: Sure.
Equipment Division
Knoche: Any other questions?All right,we'll talk about the equipment division that's on page
658 of the budget book. The equipment fund is an internal service fund. The equipment
division maintains all the city fleet except for the transit buses. It's about 620 units that
equipment is overseeing. So as a part of that division,they're looking at all the vehicle
replacements and then obviously as we're able to,we're replacing the traditional gas or
diesel vehicles with hybrid or electric bearing electric vehicles. We currently have 40
vehicles in our fleet that are hybrid or battery-electric. And that's projected to be up to 49
at the end of this fiscal year. The Equipment Division also oversees the City Radio
System. So previous to this last year,we were other than emergency,which was on the
JECC system. We are on our own system. We've now made that transition to JECC
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completely so really for Dan and his work there. It's really about just the installs of those
radios are coming in. The equipment also oversees the-our AVL system or our automated
vehicle location system. Currently, all of public works is on that system and we have
seven vehicles in parking and transit. Equipment also oversees our fuel facility. So that
fuel facility is fueling all of the city vehicles,but then we also have the Johnson County,
and the school bus system fuels at our site down at the Public Works location. We're
excited to begin the master planning of the Public Works site and bringing the transit
facility there that will include-that shared equipment maintenance facility. Hopefully, as
we move that forward, as Darian mentioned,we do thank you for the ability to hire
Michelle in our senior facility design manager position early to-to get that going because
there's quite a bit of work that has to be done yet as we move that project forward. Any
questions on equipment?
Public Works - Challenges
Knoche: All right,biggest challenges for Public Works as we move forward,you know,we are
looking at staffing issues in retirement. Last year I reported to you that 20 percent of our
staff was up for retirement. In the next five years,we're down to 13 percent. So we've had
some folks that have turned over,but the-but that's still quite a few folks that we're
looking at,you know our top 10, as far as senior employees in our Public Works Division
have a combined service of 350 years, so we have some long term employees in our
Public Works Division. But I will say our average right now in years of service is right at
10 years of service. So we-we've been fairly lucky in some divisions and not so lucky in
others as far as being able to find replacements as we move forward. So part of that
staffing issue of building the bench right. So whether it's bringing our temps in during the
summer in the streets division, our engineering interns for the engineering side of things,
our water plant,we've done a lot with our water hourly operators. Basically,those are
students coming in operating our water plant on the weekends. Our wastewater team has
been working with community college programs to basically develop more of an internal
program and kind of be the place that Kirkwood Community College, or DMACC, can
look to be able to send their students to get their required training that they need in hours
to be able to move things forward. You know, along with the replacement,the entry-level
driver training requirements that are out there for your CDL license,you know we-that
was an impact on us a few years ago. We've done a pretty good job in- in the city of
developing an internal program to address those issues. So that is-you know you have to
have basically a knowledge test take that then also have to have the behind-the-wheel
training that goes along with that. A really good job of developing that program. Really-
other than the cost of going online and doing the-the book learning part of it. It is-we do
it at a fairly nominal cost to us as a service asset management development. We're
continuing down that road. We're in Year 3 of five. As far as implementation goes. This
year we're going to bring the rest of streets. We're bringing transit water treatment plant,
wastewater treatment plant. We're integrating both of those into that system. Going into
Year 3,we're two years into this. Our staff have been-done a great job of really jumping
on this and embracing this and moving it forward. So we're excited in regards to that
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aspect of things. What this is going to help us with,you know-we talked about kind of-
you know, 350 years of service,right?We have some folks that have a lot of institutional
knowledge and when they retire that goes out the door. This is our ability to try to grab
that knowledge before they leave. This year is a part of the asset management. We will be
mapping the storm sewer system so we will be-throughout the community doing that.
You know,the third issue that we have is just supply chain issues. Also chemical costs
continue to rise,vehicle replacement, availability, and reasonable ordering times are still
out there. We are still-those are still challenges for us as we move things forward. But
you know, I. I'm optimistic that we'll be able to provide our service to our community as-
as we have been. Is there any questions in regards to those challenges?
Moe: Speak a little bit more about the mapping the storm sewer system. Are we just unaware of
what there is or are you looking for quality of infrastructure?
Knoche: So it's- it's- it's a combination. Um,you know, so over the last two years,we've-we've
mapped our water system 100%. We've gone out,we've GPS our wastewater system.
Um,you know,now we're into storm sewer. So the-the challenges that-that's out there
is,you know,there's some stuff that goes some crazy ways and we're still trying to grasp
those things. And part of that challenge is,you know, originally,uh,wastewater, storm
water were a combined system.Now-you know,now we've completely separated that,
but now we're still trying to figure out where did that old system go,you know,because
we're-we're talking about systems that are,you know, close to 100 years old.
Moe: I'm just thinking about how Ralston Creek is one of those weird catch basins that's also part
of our storm water, our city storm water management system. Is that part of this analysis
too to figure out?
Knoche: So we're-we're-that- so that will be separate,right?
Moe: Okay.
Knoche: So Ralston Creek is a receiving stream of most of our storm sewer systems, and,you
know, at least in the eastern side of Iowa City. But we do break out basin by basin each
year. And we're doing analysis of kind of what in that catchment area,which,you know,
there are smaller areas than just the overall Ralston Creek,um, and breaking those down
and- and doing the analysis to see what improvements need to happen in each of those
basins.
Moe: Seems to be perennial frustration from one or two citizens a year with Ralston Creek and-
Knoche: Well,um,thank you for your time,uh, and- and what you- in the service you provide to
our community. The public works staff and facilities are always available to give tours or
provide ride alongs if- if you'd like. The last two years,we've used the National Public
Works Week in May to- to highlight services in our community. We were down at the
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Public Works facility two years ago. Last year we were up at the water plant. This year
we're going to be down at our wastewater facility. So there'll be more information that
comes out on that. It's the end of the process,right?But,you know, I think it- it's going to
be great for the community to see what we're doing there and then what possibilities there
are for us as we do these larger projects in the future. So thank you.
Teague: Thank you. All right, Council,we are at that point of our wrap up discussions. Um, I
think what I want to do now is just to have a stretch a little bit. So let's just take three
minutes. I'm going to start my timer and when you hear it go off,we're coming back. All
right mics are back on and we are going to just jump right into our-kind of our wrap up.
Well, our discussion should there be anything and- and then we'll wrap up after that. I
just want to give us-to just make statements that we did identify a few things that we're
going to discuss in work session. So those items, if we can reserve,um, our conversations
on that for when we bring those up related to the budget,that would be appreciated. And
then a couple of things this Wednesday at 2:00 PM,we'll be back in this room for our
CIP work sessions. And then just a reminder that at 4:30 today,uh,we'll have our joint
entities meeting,which will be hosted by Coralville City Hall. I just wanted to make
those- I feel like mention of those. All right. So we're at our discussion point.
Dunn: I can start. Like I said, I've- I've been kind of taking notes over things that like- like the
mayor said,we think that we need to have a discussion over. My list is this LOST,um,
automated license plate readers. Um, one new full time equivalent fire position.
Basically, a conversation about the contingent funds,um, and the centralized data analyst
versus police crime analyst, as well as assessment of parking fees.
Alter: Remind me again.
Dunn: Whether or not we raise it to $2 or we go more is really what I'm thinking.
Alter: Oh, okay.
Salih: Also the water. I- I want to see like- like what can we do to ser- like first how many people
are low income that receiving discount from the city?At least we have idea about how
many people are receiving discount from City. Those are people who are going to be
mostly hit. And after that, we can decide. I'm not against the increase of the water,but
again, increase it for low income people. So if we can find a solution for those,there is no
problem of increasing it.
Alter: And I would just put in a request. If I could see like what a sample bill would look like, it
would visualize it for me much better. Thank you.
Salih: Yeah. That will be really helpful because you can see the discount is just for the basic.
And it's not really a lot for the minimum charge of-yeah, it is 60%. It's a huge percent,
but it's only for the minimum. Yeah, it's not.
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Bergus: I think as part of that,maybe since we have new councilors, I know it was Dennis that
gave us a presentation. So it's been a little bit- bit of just kind of all the things that the
Revenue Department does to work with folks. I know we do payment plans and that kind
of thing, so it might just be a nice like,yes, if your monthly bill is this,here are your
options for how to say it. Is that-
Salih: I know,but from my understanding,the 60% of the minimum water and sewer charge,
60% of the monthly storm water charge, and 75% of the refuse and cycle charge each
month,which is the minimum. Now, the using. You know, it doesn't matter like how
much is usage,the discount applied to the minimum charge.
Alter: The minimum or to the charge?
Salih: It's the minimum [OVERLAPPING]
Fruin: We'll be happy to walk you through the whole program.
Bergus: We'd love it.
Fruin: Yeah.
Bergus: Thank you.
Salih: I think we need somebody to come and talk about it so you can resign exactly.
Dunn: Water work session?
Salih: Yes.
Moe: I don't know if this is for this budget season,but something I'd like to learn more about is
fire ambulance and how they work together, could work together better. How many
services that our fire department are making because our ambulance service is
overburdened. What our county partners can be doing to better serve us. I don't know. Is
that something that we have time to manage in this budget season or something we
should lean into for next year?
Fruin: I would suggest it's not-there's not enough to a- and we would be really rushed to do
anything that would have budget implications. If it's more of an educational exercise,
then we-we get to it sometime in the next year,um, and- and just start there.
Moe: Okay.
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Frain: I know for me personally, I would need to get a lot more educated in that area as well on-
on the ambulance side of things.
Moe: Am I alone in thinking that this is a challenge?
Bergus:No, I think it's something we do need to be talking about when we talk about overall
response,right?Because they are one of our three primary fust responders in our
community. And so when we talk about the prevention and diversion on the crisis
continuum,right? Of calls for service,they are certainly a significant player in that. So, I
don't know. Geoff, I'm scheduled to talk with Fiona on Thursday. Do you want me to ask
her what she might be able to pull together in that crisis response work session?
Frain: I'd rather kind of work through Chief Lyon on that. I just- I think the professional courtesy
of going between those two would-would help. And again, I'd- I'd like to better
understand things from our fire department's perspective too.
Moe: Yeah.
Bergus: Well, and- and I think even just not-not like is our fire department responding to their
calls if they're overburdened,but they are changing their service delivery with the
addition of their,um, community paramedic program as well.
Salih: Mhmm.
Moe: Yeah, is that- I'm sorry.
Salih:No, go ahead.
Moe: I was going to say that was my understanding too, is our community paramedic program is
supplementing a- a- a gap in service. Is- is that a fair characterization?
Bergus: As far as I know.
Frain: There-,Yeah, there- it's a new service element that's being launched through Johnson
County.
Moe;Yeah. And that's not to say bad things about ambulance. I know they work hard and deal
with with the budget they have so.
Salih: And I think also a really hot topic. All of us can be in on affordable housing. What we're
going to do about that?How are we going to with it on the budget and become bold about
it? I really don't know,but we need-we need to talk about that I think.
Teague: I think we just heard from Tracy Hightshoe.
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Alter: Longer vision.
Salih: Yeah,but, I mean, our vision,not just our vision,we hope it's the same. But we need like-
the staff, I think they proposed like increasing of the Affordable Housing Fund $30,000
and all this. That is not a bold-like move. I think we need to really start talking seriously
about this. Doesn't have to be like implemented tomorrow.
Alter: I Definitely.
Salih: We need to start talking about it.
Alter: I do think that, I mean, I see your point that they've been thinking about-they-they were
talking about having a non-federal, local,permanent affordable housing options. Um, and
so that's something I think we should absolutely learn more about so that we can
collaborate and help direct. Um,but I- I don't think it- like should be really- like we're all
doing this together,right?We just-we need to be better informed.
Salih: Megan,you don't need to go that way. I'm talking about really-
Alter: Me neither.
Salih: like bringing some ideas from another city and give it to the staff, and the staff will go and
evaluate it and can- can tell us if is some- something implementable. But not like I'm not
liking the staff idea. That's not what I mean, okay? I mean,really,we should just start
talking about some ideas or how we want-when we want to achieve,when we want to
see really- like what a goal, 2030 we want to have this amount of affordable housing.
And after that, like just tell the staff what our goal or vision is. And the staff are the
expert. They will go and figure it out. You know,that's what I mean.
Alter: Okay,no,we're on the same page. We are on the same page.
Salih: I don't know.
Moe: Is reviewing the strategic plan action steps the-maybe a great way to do that or we can
maybe give even more meat to that document and say we want-because it does speak to
that and we can be more specific in that- in that strategic plan. That seems like a good-
like we have a framework cooked up that we could build on. I don't know, do- do you
feel like that's a good way of doing that?
Harmsen: Well, I think part of it, I mean, so kind of see, I'm starting to-to see something here.
Um, so the strategic plan that we just did with a lot of that stuff,with a lot of the stuff that
we're talking about we want long term or- or permanent affordable housing units. Um,we
want to be aggressive. I mean,these are things that- I- I mean- I mean that absolutely no
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slim. Like- like if I knew people on the council that weren't here for the last two years
that did that process,um, I think were you on yet,Andrew,when we did the strategic
plan?
Dunn: Yeah. Yeah. That was one of the- like the fust thing that I approved.
Harmsen: Okay. Okay. So, I mean,that was for that process we spent that summer doing it, I just
can't remember the timeline. Um,yeah. So I mean, so some of the stuff- so I think one of
the things that Tracy was talking about was now that there's been the build up the fee in
lieu,that does go back to when Mazahir was fust on the council and before building up
that funding was looking for, like we told staff, we want-we don't want any more of this
like 15-year, 20-year,we want permanent affordable housing. And we also know that one
of the ways that the market might not bear that. So one of the things I think they're
talking to us and we are in the process of researching to bring back to us is the stuff that
will be like city owned,not with federal money,because federal money there's a limit,
right?Because there's only so many. So that's what she was talking about was taking now
that there was 5.5 million built up overall, that's fee in lieu that's been generated from
various different projects. Um,that's what I was talking about, like actually looking at
building, so the city owns it,runs it or partners for the running of it,maybe with Housing
Trust so that it stays non-profit, affordable housing for perpetuity, like forever. So thats-
Salih: But there is another way. That's what I'm talking,not the only way the staff have. There is
many,many another way we can bond for- like bond and build affordable housing. We
can do like many things. That's what I say. Like ideas to bring it up and see if that's
something doable. If that can be implemented. It's not like I- I hate what Tracy said. I was
here and I was hearing what she said. But I know that I have other ideas and other people
in this community who are expert in affordable housing,they-they know-they have
some ideas. Can we just bring those expert in the room and talk about new way of doing
affordable housing? That what I mean,you know. Or this is good,we can still do- do
what she said because that's really something we can do it,no problem. Yeah.
Dunn: So how I kind of understand what you're saying, and I'm just clarifying,right, is you want
to open up the reahn of possibilities of what our discussion is and invite people from the
community to say like talk about,you know,what would like a cooperative housing
project or something like that look like. Or what would like a cooperative or,you know,
publicly-owned mobile home park that is free from the influence of,you know,Haven
Park properties?You know. What would that look like in our community?How could
that be achieved?Just getting some time on assessing those ideas and- and kind of
making it possible to even plan towards those in the fust place. That's what I understand.
Salih: Yes.
Dunn: I think that's great.
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Salih: Yes, it's not something I said, do it tomorrow and have our money right now,no.
Dunn: It's just like- like a idea building,you know?
Salih: Yes. So like a goal,to build a goal and I give it by this certain time. Yeah,that what I
really mean.
Teague: So we'll have a work session surrounding housing. It's what I hear.
Megan: And this is not this budget related,but it is something for future is to- is to think about
how we might be able to create in the same way that there's been very specifically tagged
monies for affordable housing, for Black Lives Matter, for,uh,there's a couple of others
for childcare. I mean,right now we're-we're budgeted out,um,to help with the wage
enhancement program,but,um, I would love for us to think about ways that-that could
be sustained,but it's not for this budget. So it's- it's sort of it, it's an aside to say yes and at
some point this year, let's,you know,talk- again bring in sort of the Childcare Coalition
and- and find out what kind of thinking they have. But it- it does not have,uh, a specific
tie to this budget.
Moe; Its sort of two buckets developing,right?
Alter: Yeah.
Moe: Yeah,there's a long term bucket, and we have to talk about this now to get a budget past
bucket.
Alter: Yeah.
Moe: Okay. Is-when you had your list,Andrew,that was the same list I had,were you thinking
LOST was a long term budget discussion as opposed to an immediate term budget?
Dunn: I think that that's part of the discussion.
Moe: Okay.
Dunn: Honestly,yeah.
Moe: I'm mixed on it too as far as-
Dunn: Probably not.
Moe: -communicating LOST out to the community like right now doesn't seem.
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Dunn:No, I'm not saying like,hey, let's do it. I- I just think that we need to discuss. Like I'm
saying that I don't have like a stance in that way. Right? I think we need to have, like
from what I hear today, I think we have to have a very serious conversation about it
Moe: Fully agree with you. [OVERLAPPING]
Dunn: and that's what I'm talking about.
Moe: And it's my understanding it takes year-years to develop a coalition of people who would
get behind that. [OVERLAPPING]
Dunn: We're also dealing with like really regressive tax. So like all of those implications-
Moe: Sure.
-Dunn: need to be understood as well. Yeah,understood.
Teague: And talking to our neighbors as well.
Bergus: Yeah, exactly. Take it up regionally.
Alter: Yeah.
Teague: Anything else for today's discussion?
Teague: Hearing nothing. We,um, again have our joint entities meeting. Um,they do start
gathering around 04:00 PM and it starts at 04:30 and then this Wednesday at,uh,02:00
PM,we're going to have our CIP in this, uh, in council chambers. Again, so if nothing
else we are-
Fruin: Mayor, sorry.
Teague: Go ahead.
Fruin: You were all really anxious for that,but I want to make sure that staff is prepared for the
February 6th,uh,meeting. I'm sorry,not February. Uh,this Wednesday's meeting,the-
the 24th,because historically we've had CIP and then we've also had continued budget
discussions on that agenda. Is there anything that you mentioned in this list of topics to
delve deeper into that you want staff to be prepared for with additional information for
Wednesday afternoon?
Harmsen: Is there one you think is a quick turnaround like lends itself to that? Versus one that
staff is going to need more time?Um,well, I mean, I think we want to deal with all of
them. Right?
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Frain: Yeah.
Harmsen: I don't for me personally,just speaking just for myself. I don't care what will we do-
which will we do Wednesday?Which we do the next work session. So that's why-that's
why I phrased my question that way.
Frain: Yeah.
Harmsen: Part of it is effective.
Frain: Yeah. What-what information are you needing to make your decision?For example, if
you want to hire an additional firefighter,what information do you need or is it just
discussion that you need?Uh,the data analyst position. What are you hoping to get out of
that position?Where do you want that to be located within the operation?Again,what do
you want from staff to help you make that decision?Um, I think the water would be
helpful to have some additional time to put together a comprehensive report for you on
the water issues,um, any type of,uh,police budget discussion. Again,we're ready- staff
is ready to go unless there is,uh, specific information that's being sought in preparation
for your discussion.
Dunn: I guess what I would say to that is,um, I think it might be the easiest things to discuss
would be the fire position and the parking fees. Um,We-we could do more than that,but
I think we already have a lot of the information to kind of just go over, discuss anything
like that. Um, so that could be a relatively easy,um,not easy conversation to have but
like thing to include.
Alter: I wanted to ask you a sorry, I jumped in. Um, on the data analytics or the- or the crime
analysis position. Have you and the chief roughed out,um, any preliminary job
descriptions that would be for advertising or a sense of what the qualifications are or the
job,you know what I mean,those bullets that you would put out publicly because that
might help?
Frain: Yeah.Not any great detail.
Alter: Okay.
Frain: We would have probably for the budget purposes estimated where it would land in the pay
classification system. But once you approve a position,then we go into the detailed job
description,um, drafting. And you actually have to approve that addition in a separate
meeting as well. So, um,we could pull similar types of position job descriptions from
other communities and present those to you. But we haven't,uh, at least not to my
knowledge, gone to any deep detail on that.
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Salih: But at least I think you guys have a idea what that kind position what that position is-what
you guys need and what that person going to help you on it, like,um,we can just-we can
just say we have somebody want to hire and we don't know exactly what we want to say.
But of course,the [INAUDIABLE] for whoever needs this position,they have some kind
of basic job description for that person. I would love to know that. I would love to know
like this job,you said where they are four years ago?Right?We had this position?
Fruin: It was a specialty position that a sworn officer held.
Salih: Yeah. But was doing the same kind of data analysis?
Fruin: Um,yes.
Salih: Yeah. I- I would love to know how they managed it in last four years without that position
and why Now this position is important,what that person going to do. And yeah, I would
like to know those kind of things and the budget for it and also I really would like to
know the 500 like separate,the 500 increase in the police budget is what?Like number 1,
2, 3 total 500,000.
Fruin: Salaries,benefits.
Salih: Yes, I want to see that.
Fruin: Okay.
Dunn: Just bringing it back around. I would still say that probably the easiest things if we were to
add anything to just this Wednesday would be the fire in the parking would be-would be
cool with that.
Moe: The things that I'd be curious to learn about and if they can get the data together by that
conversation for that conversation would be it who,uh,we've already done monthly fee
increases this year. This-we're proposing hourly fee increases in this certain budget. Is
that correct?For-Parking uses. Parking. Because you're saying parking passes is simple
questions that I would have is- is, are we talking about increasing parking passes or just
hourly?
Fruin:Not the passes. We did passes last year. Uh, a small adjustment. This would be the hourly
parking in both in the decks and the ramps and then the citation.
Moe: And then just who-who are I mean,we know that there's people who are shopping that are
just onesies twosies,but then there's also employers downtown curious to sort of have a
little bit of their input. I guess they're probably buying the passes,but don't have a lot of
data on that. And then the third piece of that is do we have any kind of information about
people who are driving to park downtown and hop on a bus. Like it seems like if there's
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an increase in parking ramp and an increase in busing, like I don't know. Like I said I
would hate to-we saw in the presentation that there's an increase in- in- in people parking
hourly and an increase in people riding the bus. Is that happening?
Fruin: Yeah. We can present you all that data when we talk about increased ridership,uh, on the
buses. Know that we are now just getting to like 2019, 2018 levels. Even with fare-free,
we're not at peak ridership from before fare-free started. Like peak ridership may have
been 10-15 years ago,we've seen great increase,but we're still not there. And same with
parking,we're still not pre-pandemic parking level. So it is possible to increase the
parking and transit,um, and still have capacity to grow both.
Bergus: My-my sense as far as the size of the increase,particularly on the- on-street metered
parking. My general sense is that is more of a political question of like how big of a jump
can we swallow. Right?Which is why I think we should talk about it,you know,because
we appreciate the recommendation. But I think if we had the political will, more revenue
is not a bad thing.
Dunn: Also,the direct impact on- on utilization and people's usage of their own personal
vehicles. You know,that's-that's a real thing that I think needs to be part of this
conversation.
Salih: Just keep in mind that there-there's street parking is only two-hour ride limit.
Fruin: It's different- it's different- different locations you have one hour,two hour,up to five or
seven hours in some locations.
Salih: Oh, really
Alter: further away from downtown the longer further Away,yeah.
Salih: The longer-the longer. Okay. Yeah.
Fruin: Well,we'll just I think have on the agenda continued budget discussions. Um, and you all
can dive into the things that you don't need supplemental staff information for. We will
get to work on,um, a- a lot of these items that I think would benefit from additional
information. Um, and then we'll work towards probably taking advantage of February 6
for some work session time. It'll be full. We might have to return to work session after the
irregular council meeting,but,um,we should probably not waste an opportunity. Keep in
mind you only have one scheduled meeting in March.
Salih: Okay. If the-the increase on the benefit is across the city. Right?Employee is not only
police.
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Frain: Correct. There-there are unique benefits to certain employee groups. Um, so for example,
public safety pensions are different- different than non-public safety pensions. So there
could be variability in costs,but,um, for the most part, they're going to mirror each other
pretty well.
Salih: Yeah. Okay.
Teague: All right. If nothing else,we are adjourned and we will see you all shortly in Coralville.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 22, 2024.