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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-12-10 TranscriptionPage 1 Council Present: Alter (virtual), Bergus, Dunn, Moe, Salih, Teague Staff Present: Fruin, Dulek, Goers, Grace, Knoche, Havel, Ralston, Nagle Gamm, Rummel Others Present: Martinez, USG Alternate 1. Clarification of Agenda Items Teague: Today is Tuesday, December 10, 2024. It is just after 4:00 P.M. And I'm gonna call the City Council work session in order. The first I- well, welcome to everyone that is here present, and those that are, uh, virtual. Uh, hello to all of the fellow councilors that are here. You'll see that, uh, Councilor Alter is virtual, and Councilor, um, Shawn Harmsen may not be here for the work session, but do plan to be here for the 6:00 P.M. formal meeting. We're gonna start with Item number 1; clarification of agenda items. Hearing none, we're going to move on to Item number 2; information packet discussion, November 21 st. I do not. 2. Information Packet Discussion [November 21, November 27, December 51 Salih: Okay. I wanna just talk about business. Teague: Yep, we- we'll come back. Salih: Okay. Teague: We'll go on to November 27th, and December 5th. Anyone have anything from those items? Moe: I wanted to, um, point out IP4 on that December 5th. Um, I found really worth noting that the Iowa City Association of Realtor data indicating that median home prices are up dramatically. But, um, that's largely because the price per or the- the actual size of homes keeps getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And, uh, as we dive into the comprehensive plan process next year, that's just a little nugget of information that I think is really, sort of, important to note as we continue to talk about affordable housing and, uh, maybe where there's gaps. Teague: Right. Anything else from any of those three information- information packets? I know that Mayor Pro Tern had one item that she was- Salih: Which one? Teague: November 21 st is what you were looking for, potentially. Salih: November 21 st, and I think it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. It's page number 10 I think in front of that. I've forgot- I've forget the page number. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 2 Teague: Oh, sure. Salih: Hey, Geoff, what's the page number for the- like number of the homeless was page 10? Frain: I think that's the December 5th IP. Salih: Oh, December 5th. Frain: And that's the one that Councilor Moe mentioned as well, IP 4. We have the- the general statistics that staff is just choosing, and then we created a second page. Uh, to- to meet your specific requests, uh, I do not have a- a source for the homeless count yet, a monthly homeless count. Uh, I'm not aware of one. I've reached out to the Shelter House to see if they're aware of one, and they are not, so I'm still trying to find if there is a- a source, but our staff and Shelter House staff are not aware of a monthly count. So we'll keep looking, but I'm less optimistic that there's a- a data source for that. Teague: What's the last page? Salih: The last page? Teague: Yes. Salih: Like, they said they don't have, like, a monthly. How many people we have on the street every months? Frain: Co- correct. I mean, there's- there's a sheltered and unsheltered, meaning the- who may be staying in their facility versus who- who may be staying in the street. And my understanding you wanted both numbers. Salih: Yes, I really wanted both number. And especially now we have- I know that we do have emergency shelter, which is great, but not for family. Like, a couple of days ago, I had find a family they are in the street because they are not gonna be allowed to be in the emergency shelter because it's for not design for family. So we- we- we really need to do something about it. And that's why I'm asking the people who are outside because it could be a family who's staying on the street. And that will make us move and figure out something, maybe for winter especially for family oriented place. So, yeah. Frain: So there- there is a one time per year federally mandated count. That's, uh, if you scroll up two pages. We reported the 2024. It's called the point and time count, and that is reported across the country. Um, and I know the- the team that does that, uh, count here in Johnson County is probably putting together their plans because there's a single day in which, uh, those counts take place. So we should have the- the change, and we can go back any- any number of years for- for previous data, but the 2025 count will be conducted, uh, in January- this coming January. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 3 Salih: Sure. At least for now, if we cannot count the people on the street, so we can just at least count like every month, how many people in the shelter currently. Fruin: Sure. Salih: And, uh, I know there is a street out- outreach also for coordinator injury, but I- I'm not sure how they collect that data yet. And maybe we- we- this is great to start with, and I think we're just going to continue build on it and- and figure it out. Fruin: Sounds good. Salih: Yeah. Thanks. 3. University of Iowa Student Government (USG) Updates Teague: Anything else from the IPs? Hearing none, we're gonna move on to Item number 3; University of Iowa Student Government Updates, USG. Welcome, welcome. Martinez: Hello, everyone. Matthew is currently doing a final, so's he is not here with us. Um, our first announcement is that our much hyped parking voucher initiative went off really, really well. Big, thank you to Curtis Brenton and the City Manager's office for being so flexible and helpful. We had all 750 vouchers claimed with, um, 282 of those claimed in just the first nine minutes of the program. All were gone within 24 hours. So that was really exciting. We received lots of positive feedback from students and faculty alike, and we are excited to continue this program into next year and hopefully expand on it. Secondly, we- Matthew and I have set a date for annual Town Hall event that is going to be on February 1 Ith. We're looking to make it much more interactive this year. We have two tentative locations, either we're going to do it at the Old Capitol a usual, or we might move it to our newly renovated Richey ballroom in the IMU, which is where we've been having our senate meetings, now that everything's under renovation. This is a chance to connect with the student rep- this is a chance to connect with the student representative body at large, and we encourage you to tell us topics that you'd like to hear about from the students. We're gonna hold an open access during a senate session prior to the event to make sure that our student leaders are well prepared for, uh, the Town Hall to interact with you guys. We've sent out an email to the City Manager in the Clerk's office, and that is all we have for you guys tonight. Teague: Well, we wish everyone that is doing studies and finals the best. And thank you for carving out some time to come and be with us tonight. We're going to move on to Item number 4; local option sales tax and other alternative- alternative revenue streams discussion, and we'll have Geoff Fruin get us started. 4. Local Option Sales Tax and other alternative revenue streams discussion Fruin: Okay. Mayor and Council, this is, uh, an item that's been on your pending work session list for, uh, quite some time. Uh, it started off as an item in your strategic plan that was This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 4 originally adopted back in 2020. As a reminder, your strategic plan contains a quote that's truncated here, but to consider alternative revenue sources that can help achieve strategic plan goals, fund infrastructure, and facility needs, and reduce reliance on property tax. Uh, so we talk about revenue diversification quite a bit when we present the budget. We are very reliant on property tax as- as cities in Iowa, and particularly, uh, in Iowa city here. And some reasons to think about revenue diversification at this point in time are listed on the screen there, State property tax reform, uh, being, uh, the first item. Uh, we've seen since 2020 really, kind of, plateaued, uh, property valuation growth. And then, of course, we've all experienced the inflationary pressures, which ultimately reduce our purchasing power, uh, here as a city, so our dollars don't stretch as much. Um, we will talk about property tax reform quite a bit in January. So I've just put a slide here that summarizes, um, some of the legislation that has occurred in the last ten or so years. You've heard me talk quite a bit about the 2013 reform. Uh, it is important to note that that reform still is impacting us today. Uh, we have that commercial backfill payment. We'll get one more year of a partial payment in fiscal year 26. And then those dollars that were promised to cities, uh, by the state back in 2013 will officially be exhausted, and we will no longer get that. At its peak, it was about 1.5 million per year for Iowa City. Uh, with this budget that we're planning, the last payment will be around 300,000, uh, that we will get. Uh, there were modifications, uh, in 2022, uh, that impacted cities. And then, of course, in 2023, we had reform. Um, one component of that was, uh, increased, uh, homestead exemptions, uh, with the inclusion of a new military homestead exemption as well. Uh, and, uh, for your information, uh, we are projecting for the budget that we are preparing for, uh, starts next July, uh, that those will, uh, result in about a $439,000 loss in revenue for- for Iowa City. Uh, you're aware that the library and the emergency levies have been phased out. Those were, uh, producing $2,000,000 in annual revenue. And, uh, those are, uh, going to be phased out over the next couple of years, uh, through the combined general fund levy. And we'll- we'll go through all that in detail in January. Uh, of course, you've already heard probably plenty of- of news stories as the, uh, legislators are getting ready to assemble again in January, and it appears like further property ta- further property tax reform is priority, uh, number l,uh, for many at the state house. So takes us to tonight. We're going to talk about, uh, some available revenue options. Uh, cities in Iowa do not have a whole lot of home rule flexibility when it comes to revenue sources. Uh, those rules differ from state to state. So in some states, cities have a lot more latitude to pass different revenue sources or revenue, um, streams. Um, in Iowa, we're pretty limited, uh, and again, very heavily reliant on property taxes. So we're gonna talk about charges and fees for service. We're going to talk about franchise fees, and then we'll end with the local option sales tax. We won't spend a whole lot of time on charges and fees for service. They are pretty- you know, pretty straightforward. Uh, we can charge a cost for the services that we provide. You think about that through a lot of the enterprise funds that we- we manage; the water, the sewer, uh, think uh, parking is another example. We can charge to cover those costs. But we also provide a lot of services in which we don't provide or we don't charge a fee, or we charge a fee that doesn't recoup all of our costs. So you might think about, um, a recreation program. We may not charge the full cost of that program. And there's, um, policy decisions that go into that. The- the- the more cost you want to recoup, the higher those fees are, the more barriers to participation, uh, there are. Um, however, we can evaluate those, we can set This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 5 targets and, uh, attempt to, uh, gain more revenue by increasing those fees on things like facility rentals or program registration fees. Gas and electric franchise fees. Um, so, uh, there's a lot going on on this slide, but, uh, um, the city council can pass, uh, a franchise fee of up to 5% on both gas and electric. Um, we currently have a 1 % franchise fee here in Iowa City. You can see some other comparable cities on the- on the chart there to your- your rights as well. We're generally on the low side of, um, what cities can charge. Uh, we do anticipate, uh, recommending to you, ah, a second 1 % to help, uh, sustain the fair free transit service. And if you account for that, I know that decision has not been made by- by you all, but if you account for that, that would leave another 3 %, uh, for- for us to pursue. Um, it generates roughly about $980,000 per year. It's somewhat weather dependent, right? Because it's going to be based on usage. So if you have a very hot summer and you're running the air conditioner a lot, you're going to have a little bit more, uh, franchise, uh, fee collection, same in the winter if it gets really cold, and you have to run your- your furnace a lot, you will pay more in those franchise fees. So you can see some variability. But even as the city continues to grow, this is a pretty flat revenue source. And that's one of the things you want to consider with any new revenue source is, what is the trend line? How volatile is that? Uh, and does it match whatever, um, expense line you're hoping to fund? Right? This wouldn't be one in which we would necessarily want to rely on solely for a service that increases at a three or four or 5%, uh, clip every year, because eventually, those expenses will- will outpace, uh, the revenue production. There are state standards. Uh, at the bottom, the- the final list of, uh, six bullet points there are, uh, kind of truncated from, uh, the state code, but there are certain eligible uses, ah, that are specified, uh, in state code. I'll jump into the local option sales tax, cities in Iowa, uh, can levy a sales tax up to 1 %. Uh, it does require, uh, a voter approval, unlike the franchise fees. I didn't mention that in the last slide, franchise fees, is a decision that you can make at this, uh, DS here, uh, but the lost has to go to a vote, and, um, we, uh, must secure 50% approval, and 50% of the revenue received must be allocated for property tax relief. That is a relatively new change, uh, to state law from several years ago. The last time Iowa City had this on the ballot, that was not a specified requirement. You can see current estimate is right around $8.8 million in revenue. So this revenue source is by far the- the largest one available to us. Uh, and the amount of revenue will depend on the participating cities in Johnson County. So we're not going into that tonight, but understand as more cities passed a LOST, there's a formula that looks at population and property valuation, and, uh, the revenue, ah, estimate can change based on who's participating. Dunn: Quick- quick question for you. Um, so if I'm remembering this correctly from previous conversations about LOST, um, the 50% must be allocated for property tax relief. That's just in the first year, isn't it? Fruin: No, it's an ongoing requirement. Um, however, there's no mandated tax rate that you'd have to stay at. So let's say if you were to- to use the funds to lower or to avoid, uh, taxes, you wouldn't necessarily have to, uh, maintain to keeping that tax rate for the period of the LOST This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 6 Dunn: So I think what I'm remembering maybe is we can't, you know, use the lost and then simultaneously increase the same amount for property taxes to offset that in the first year. That's- is that what I'm remembering? I think there was a specific- there was- I remember in our last conversation, there was a specific prohibition on doing something moving around funds like that in the first year. Goers: Well, I guess I'm not sure I'd have to look into that, but of course, based on recent state, uh, changes to the property tax code, we're pretty limited to what we can do anyway. But I can certainly look into that. Dunn: Yeah. I was just trying to remember from the last conversation. Thank you. Teague: And is it required that 50% of the voters if it's on the ballot, must approve it? Fruin: That's correct. Yeah. Teague: Is it 51 % or? Fruin: Yeah. Just a simple majority would. Teague: Sure. Got it. Fruin: Moving on, uh, the last note there is just that we're one of the few cities in Iowa that do not have a LOST. You see 93% of jurisdictions have- have a LOST, and if you look, we'll get to some comparable cities. It's really Iowa City and Ankeny are the two largest cities that- that do not have a local option sales tax. I wanted just to point out, uh, a little bit, uh, the same graph as was on the previous slide, just with some extra years on there. One of the things with sales tax is that it tends to be a little bit more volatile. Um, so, uh, this graph can show that. You can see there was, um, a relatively steady increase, and then you can see a small dip above the- the 20 in the 2000- early 2000s there, where we had a little bit of a recession. And then you see the big, um, decline around 2008 with the Great Recession there. And that's one thing you have to account for with these types of revenue sources is that there can be large drops and large spikes in those- in those sales. Um, you can see we've been relatively flat or plateau, uh, the last several, uh, are coming out of the Great Recession, and then we start to decline, uh, down in that 2020. So again, when you think of the needs that you're trying to meet, you also have to think of the trend lines, uh, and what- what can be expected with, um, sales going forward. This is the comparison you're used to see in this in your budget presentation that we do every year in January. This is, uh, other large cities that have LOST in- in the state of Iowa. You can see when it was initiated, you can see which ones have a sunset and which do not. Uh, that is, uh, your choice when you put that on the ballot. You can choose to sunset it if you want. Uh, some choose to sunset it, um, uh, and believe that, you know, that's a- that's a mechanism for the public to hold them accountable to how they are utilizing those funds, and others pursue it without a sunset. Again, a lot of it's going to depend on what you are trying to fund, uh, with this. And also just point out the- the uses. Uh, so Des Moine passed in 2019, that was the first year, uh, after the state required 50% property tax relief. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 7 If you're looking back at those other years, you can see cities, uh, chose property tax relief, uh, back when that was not required as well. Uh, LOST has been utilized in Iowa - in Iowa City. So after the 2008 flood, we passed a four year LOST here to fund flood mitigation projects, the Dubuque Street reconstruction, the expansion of the South wastewater treatment facility, and the Riverfront Crossings Park or the decommissioning of the North wastewater plant at the time. Uh, were all uses of those LOST dollars for that, uh, four year period of time, safe to say those projects would not have happened, uh, without the LOST. And that just kind of signifies the power of LOST to fund large projects. There's no other revenue source that can- that can rival LOST to accomplish some of these, uh, major initiatives. The city did put LOST on the ballot again in 2014. The proposal at that time was 50% for streets and trails, 40% for property tax relief and 10% for affordable housing. It actually had more than 50% from the voters in Iowa City, but at that time, the state law looked at the voters of a contiguous city group, and, uh, it did not receive the same level of support in Coralville and North Liberty. All those votes were counted and tallied as one, and we- we fell short of the 50% threshold. So no LOST was- was pursued, and it hasn't been placed back on the ballot since that time. There is no longer that contiguous city requirement. That was one of the changes that came five years or so ago. So we can pursue that or any other city can pursue that alone regardless of, um, there being contiguous cities. You know that we're just wrapping up. We've- we've actually completed the community survey. We're wrapping up that final report. We'll be presenting that to you at your January 7th work session. Uh, but I am going to share, uh, this- this, uh, question. We did a custom question to probe the public's, uh, desire, uh, to - to use LOST for different purposes. It's, uh, in the- the ranked order of whether the respondents would, uh, support lost for that purpose or not. You can see investments in streets, bridges and sidewalks received the highest, uh, percent of supporting. Uh, so that's 72. And then just going down that list, investment in affordable housing came in at 69%. Uh, modernized parks trails and natural areas hit 62. Uh, investment in nonprofit social services was 60, and then 39, 39, and 26 for the final three categories there? There is about a 6% margin of error being reported by the- the company that, uh, ah, did the survey for us, so you'll have to factor, uh, that in as well. But just give you a little bit of insight into, uh, how the public views the- the uses of local option sales tax or potential uses. Dunn: Did we give respondents an opportunity to give their own feedback for what they'd like to see or? Fruin: No, there was not an open ended question. It was a selection. Dunn: Thank you. Fruin: Um, the last time LOST was really discussed was back in, uh, 2020 or maybe eve in late 2019 after, um, we completed our pavement management program. So we have a pavement management program report, uh, that, uh, is currently being updated. We should have an updated- updated numbers for you, uh, this coming year in 2025. Um, but what this pavement management program did is it took data that's available on pavement conditions. So there's an analysis of pavement condition on all 237 miles of streets in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 8 Iowa City. It gives that a condition index. And then it helps project out based on your level of funding, whether you're going to be able to hold your level of pavement condition index or if you're going to start to see it slip based on inflation and other, uh, factors. When we completed the report, uh, we received a good condition rating, and we actually perform, uh, actually well above most of our peer cities, despite the fact that a lot of our peer cities use LOST for- for roads. So I think we've done, uh, a very nice job, historically, uh, keeping our- our roads in relatively good repair. We all know that there is a- it's a continual challenge. Um, but, uh, the important thing that we wanted to point out with this slide, uh, is the- the line graph on the right side. Um, this is looking at projecting out that pavement condition index score with or without a LOST. So if you look at the Black line, uh, and you want a higher score the better, uh, here, so the Black line would just be able to maintain our funding. Most of our roadway resurfacing dollars come from the road use tax. Uh, that's the fuel pump, uh, tax, the tax that you pay at the fuel pumps. That's a relatively flat revenue source. And so what this is saying, if you have a flat revenue source and high inflation with your cost of construction, cost of reconstruction of roads, eventually, you're not going to be keeping up, and that black line shows that by 2035, our condition index, uh, will drop from the mid 60s to the high 40s. And then it goes through various scenarios with use of LOSTor partial LOST, uh, of partial loss. So the high purple line would be to use, uh, at that time, all of LOST for, uh, roads and maintain the existing budget that we have. Under that scenario, it was projected, we could probably maintain our existing, uh, rating there. So that's the last time that this council, many of you were not on the council at that time, but that's the last time LOST was presented in a public report. Um, and we haven't revisited it. But again, the study is being updated at this time. A couple more slides just to wrap up, I'm happy to answer questions, uh, ah, and- and follow up with you on anything that we haven't presented. Um, when it comes to LOST, one of the things I wanted to mention again is that you really have one revenue source that can tackle your big projects. If you don't use LOST for, uh, for example, facility projects, that could be rec centers, it could be City Hall, it could be any number of public facilities, then your options are very limited. You'll have to probably move to a referendum type of system in order to get those- those projects funded. Um, uh, the utility tax, user fees, and things like that aren't going to enable you to pursue those larger projects. So, uh, when you decide to move forward with LOST, you have to know that if you choose not to use it for some of those bigger initiatives and you- and you use it for operations or, uh, any other use, that you really, uh, limited options going forward for, um, future- future councils on how they can attack some of these, uh, larger- larger projects. Um, the, uh, other thing is sales tax has, uh, again, some volatility to it. So you just want to be careful funding operations with sales tax, either because of the sunset or because of the volatility, particularly if you're looking at funding- some level of operation that requires all of the projected sales tax, because you might get 8.8 million this year and next year might be 7 million. The year after that could be 10 million. You really want to be careful and leave yourself some cushion if you're looking at operations. And of course, you have to be very careful if you put a sunset date on there. The last thing I think anybody would want to do would be to create a new program, hire a bunch of staff, whether that's city staff or externally, if- if we're giving this money out to other organizations or sharing this with other organizations, and then have it sunset, have the voters not re approve it, and those services have to be withdrawn. That staff has to be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 9 eliminated. You've got to think about, uh, that as you move forward. This is all kind of repetitive here, so I'll just leave this on the- on the screen, uh, just some simple pros and cons with the three different revenue sources that we- that we covered. Um, we did not talk about property tax, we're maxed out on most of our levies. The levies that we're not maxed out on have limitations such as, uh, only being used for employee benefits or only being used for borrowing purposes. We certainly can talk about property taxes but, uh, most- most of the levies that would give you the discretionary dollars that you need or that you would like are going to be maxed out. Happy to answer any questions. Dunn: Yes, what are you looking for from us at this time? Fruin: This is really just educational, I- I would- I would, um, encourage you to- to just kind of take this as background information. You're going to be spending hours and hours and hours jumping into the budget, uh, starting in January, and I think this is good information to have in the background as you enter those discussions, but I'd always encourage you to think holistically about the budget when making these types of decisions. So, um, I- if there's more information that we can provide to, uh, help you process what you're going to, uh, here in January and February, that's great, but for tonight, it was mostly just to, um, increase the level of understanding of these revenue sources. Moe: Thanks for this. Um, can you go back to the Pol Co slides? I- I personally find this very, very valuable in how we determine if we do LOST and how we designate those lost funds. I don't know, I'd be curious to hear from fellow councilors if they see it the same way. I- I was to be honest with you wrong in my guesses on what this poll would look like, but I have confidence that this poll is a good cross-section of our community, and we should pay attention to it. Dunn: I'd agree with that. I think that what this also speaks to is that, um, you know, a majority of people in Iowa City are renters. They don't own their homes, uh, so the- the property tax relief, uh, section is- is far less impactful to them. Um, I've said, uh, in- in numerous meetings before that I think the LOST question is- is a question of when not if, um, and I think I'll just- I'll just leave it at that. I think, you know, when- when that decision is made, I think that this just shows us that, um, you know, we need to be trying to mitigate the regressive wealth distribution, uh, as much as we can. Bergus: I think, just to respond to your comment, uh, Councilor Moe, I think it's very telling that Iowa City, um, residents had a two -to -one investment in nonprofit social services over property tax relief. I mean, that's a pretty stark, regardless of the margin of error or including the margin of is a really stark contrast. So I agree that it's very informative, um, and I think it gives us, um, a starting point in terms of, you know, investment in infrastructure being the top priority for, um, thinking about how we're trying to expand, um, pedestrian access and bikeways, and that kind of thing as well. Um, I had a question about the, um, on the pros and cons slide. Under the gas and electric franchise fees, the second bullet under the pros, um, can apply different rates for gas and electric or different kinds of property. So I think this was a question that we'd had a while ago, and I just want This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 10 to make sure I understand this. So if, for example, in our climate action goals, we wanted to incentivize electrification, I mean, is that connecting the dots, like, if we tax natural gas or impose a higher franchise fee on natural gas than on electric? We could do that. Fruin: Yes, you can. Um, we looked back at the last year's revenue, um, and again, we said 980,000, uh, is generally what the 1% on gas and electric produce. Uh, 73% of that is attributable to electric, and 27 on gas. So, uh, certainly the electric produces more, but you could say take gas to three and leave electric at one. Bergus: Okay. And then as far as the different property classifications, is that- is it really- are they- would it be the same classifications as for property tax types, like, basically just commercial industrial and residential? Fruin: Yeah, I think the intent here would be, you know, if you wanted to charge a residential rate that's different than a commercial industrial rate. Bergus: Okay. Fruin: Yeah. Bergus: Thank you. Teague: Um, it's not surprising to see, um, like that survey result, um, streets, and, um, is one of the things that I often get from residents in our community. Like, when did you go to come fix my street? So to see it as number 1 is- isn't totally shocking, but I think if I wasn't in this role, you know, as a city councilor, hearing from people, I would have never thought that would have rose to the top. But that is what's on people's mind because they experience that on a daily basis. Um, I did want to be- just give some transparency that I have been in conversations, um, with some community folks on LOST, and Mayor Pro Tem and I do plan to attend a meeting tomorrow. Um, I'm not exactly sure where that'll lead, but, um, I think as a- as a, you know, part of this body. I need to be transparent with that, and so if something transpires, of course, we'll come and tell you. You are here about it. But other than that, thanks for this, uh, it's really important that, um, given the financial situations that lie ahead that we may have to- I think Counselor Dunn said it best. It's not a matter of, um, if, but when we do this. And so, um, look like we're nearing that time when it might be required for us to tap in to continue to provide the services that our community deserves. Moe: So this is something that would go to the voters, um, and as I understand, it could be as soon as November of 2025. Can you give us a high-level working backward schedule of what decisions this council needs to meet and what groups we need to engage to, uh, I mean, to get there? Fruin: Yeah, uh, it's definitely something I would not encourage that you- you rush to get on the ballot. I do think that there needs to be plenty of opportunity for you to hear from- from the public, from constituent groups that may have opinions on this, uh, and I think you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 11 probably need to get through the entire budget, um, deliberations too. So, um, I don't, uh, have at my fingertips the exact time frame from when we notify the county to when, uh, this would be on the ballot, but I think you're- you're here, um, pegging of the November election, uh, would probably be about accurate if you get through the budget process and we're able to reach a- a decision to place it on the ballot, and you're probably looking around that time frame. Um, but it's more importantly, I think, uh, I think it's most important that you feel confident about the decision that you make and you feel confident that you've heard from the public and are putting forward something that- that they can support. When it comes on the ballot, we're no longer advocating, we're educating the public on- on what this measure is, so, um, you'll have to kind of think about when- when the community's ready to shift from an advocacy, uh, kind of push from the government and to an educational push from the government, right? Salih: Yeah. I- I think I totally agree with you on that. That's what I was trying to say, uh, last time when we started talking about it, the public was almost against it. So we reach out, like, we receive a lot of feedback from the public that they- they don't like it. So I think we don't need to rush. We need to hear from the public and see, like, what they think about this before we can add it to any ballot or- or before we can come up with a decision to add it to the ballot. That's what I'd say. Yeah. Teague: Sounds good. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. And, Councilor Alter just be sure to jump in. I'm not really acknowledging hands. Sometimes I forget. All right. Alter: No worries. Teague: All right. Alter: No worries at all. 5. Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees Teague: Great. We're going to move on to the next item on our agenda, which is number 5, council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. Bergus: Had a JECC meeting recently, have another one in December. Um, we'll be approving the annual budget, and they'll be presenting that to the Board of Supervisors, I think in January. Teague: We did have a sister city, um, initial meeting with stakeholders on Monday, December 2nd. And there were, um, quite a few people that were invited that attended, um, just a few scheduling conflicts. Overall, the meeting went well, and, um, the opportunity for formalizing some type of relationship with other communities in a usable fashion for not only them but also for us is of great interest. What I will say is that the finalization of this group that first met, uh, thought it would be appropriate for us to meet again with I think the thing that we're going to focus on is what would be the goal of the, you know, whatever is developed for the governings of this sister city to try to start there, there was This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024 Page 12 some mention that potentially we may ask a consultant just to come in to help us navigate that. Um, almost free of charge or little charge. Uh, we'll find out who pays for that. But if there is no, um, I- I think it was a great initial meeting. Uh, a lot of the things that we talked about, as a council, were the topics that were brought up, so it was a little bit of educating on some of our discussion, revisiting some of their thoughts and, um, like, you know, how do we move from here? So we will have another meeting and, uh, Kirk, who was very, uh, helpful at coordinating and all of this will send out another Doodle poll, and I anticipate, um, more than likely, um, by February, we'll have an update for you. Okay. All right. That's all I have. Any other updates from council? Hearing none, we are adjourned from our work session, and we'll be back here for our formal meeting at 6:00 PM. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of December 10, 2024