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Home My WebLink About2025-01-13 Transcription (Budget Presentations)Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:00:01] Okay, back to the budget session. So we're going to go to the City itinerary. Welcome. [00:00:09] Good morning, Eric Goers, City attorney. Um, you will find that my budget presentation is probably among the briefest and simplest you will encounter today, and I know you have a long day before you, so I will try to keep it that way. Uh, as you know, the city's, er, legal work is done, uh, mostly in house. There are times when a legal conflict requires that we get outside counsel to represent an officer, for example, or some other city employee. And there are some highly specialized areas like bond counsel or collective bargaining, workers compensation, that kind of thing, um, that we farm out. But otherwise, we really try to do the vast majority of legal work in house ourselves. Um, so, the city Attorney's Office budget introduction starts on page 49 of your packet with the budget information itself on page 332. The structure of the City attorney's office is pretty simple. There are no divisions, just seven full time employees, which is going to make what I'm about to say a little confusing. That is that you'll see that we're moving from 5.5 full time equivalency to 6.0 full time equivalency. That, as Jeff mentioned earlier, as a result of the increase in one assistant city attorney position from 50% to 100%. That had been- we had not enjoyed such an increase in capacity for at least 20 years that I've been here, and we had some difficulty hiring someone at 50%. But as I mentioned, we've got seven full time employees, and we have 6.0 in our budget. Why is that? That's because one of our attorneys, Liz Craig, is actually an employee of the Tart levy. That was a budgeting move that was made long ago, where we had more money there, and most of her work is in tort defense. So we thought that that was an appropriate place to put her. Um, that fund remains healthier than the general fund, as you've just heard, so there she remains. You'll see that assistant City attorney position listed on page 340, if you want to close that circle. Uh, our budget excluding that tort levy position is 1,800- I'm sorry, $1,081,400 of which 95% is personnel costs. For that reason, there's not a lot of flexibility in our budgeting. Um, lastly, I'll note that the lawyers that we do have, I'm very proud of. They're highly experienced not only in the practice of law generally, but with the city specifically. We have an average 22 years in practice among our attorneys, ranging from 11th year in practice to 39th year in practice. Becky Passavan, our administrative secretary is in her 28th year with the city and her third year in our office. She's been, uh, a great addition. And our legal assistant Mary McCristy celebrated 32 years with the city last year. As I mentioned, our personnel costs are the significant part of the budget. They're going up $95,600 from last year's budget for the reason mentioned before, that increase in FTE, and all other expenses are going up a total of $4,452. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. I appreciate the work that your office does. I am curious to know what are peer cities are doing as far as in house legal work versus contracting out? Are we a similar sized, um, city in a city attorney's office capacity? [00:03:34] Different cities handle things, um, I'll say differently, and that's within the Metro Coalition cities in Iowa. Um, there are a lot of, er, offices that are for cities that are, um, similar size and have fewer city attorneys, but farm out much more. For example, many of the cities that we collaborate with have, I'm going to forget the name of the insurance, ICAP, I think is the name of the insurance. So if they're sued, um, outside attorneys with hired by the insurance company end up doing all the defense. As you're Page 1 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. aware, we do almost all that in house. And so that's a significant difference between what other cities do and ours. De Moine I'm not sure how many, um, attorneys they have, but I would guess more like 25 or 30, multiples of what we have. But as I say, cities handle kind of their mix of in house versus outside counsel mix very differently. And our city has always found efficiency in trying to handle things in house. [00:04:42] 1 see that, like the housing authority hearing, like in 2021, was like 21. And after that, it's just like nothing. [00:04:50] I'm sorry. Which item were you looking? [00:04:52] I'm just looking at the performance measurement of, like, hearing- housing authority hearings. [00:05:01] Performance management, I'm sorry. I'm trying to identify that line. [00:05:04] It is on page 60- 54 of the book. [00:05:12] The performance measure you're referring to? [00:05:15] Yes. [00:05:15] Okay. I'm sorry. I'm with you now. What was your question? [00:05:18] My question was, you know, I see, like 21. And after that 4100. What's that? Why is 21, and after that none. What happened in 2021? [00:05:35] I'm sorry. I'm with you now. Uh, housing authority hearings are typically when folks are in danger of losing their housing choice voucher or Section 8 vouchers. As you can see that those just come when they come, I'm going to speculate now because I don't know. Perhaps Tracy Hitch would be able to better answer this than me. But I think during the course of COVID, there were those who faced a lot of financial stress, and as a result, we're not able to pay rent and that kind of thing. And I think that may have resulted in a greater number of hearings for folks running at the risk of losing their vouchers. As you can see, those numbers have gone down. Page 2 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:06:14] Yes. Okay. Sure. [00:06:17] Any other questions for me? All right. Thank you. [00:06:30] 1 didn't know who was that. [00:06:31] Yeah. Second. [00:06:37] All right. Dustin Listen, Chief of Police. As one of the larger departments, I first want to acknowledge all the hard work that finance and the city manager does to city manager's office to make this process for us as painless as possible. Um, it's a monumental task that has to be done every year, and I'm sure it feels like Groundhogs Day because it does for me. So thanks for all your work. I also want to acknowledge my, Jen Dam, who's my administrative coordinator, she lives for this stuff, and I'm so thankful for that because she knows this budget frontwards and back and makes my job a lot easier. So, um, the police department has 114.26 full time equivalents, and 85 of those are sworn. Right now, we have five vacancies on the sworn side. And where those vacancies sit, are three of our specialty positions and two of our patrol positions. So the three specialty positions that are vacant right now are the community outreach, the nighttime downtown Liaison and the second co responder position. The two of our five specialty positions that are full our daytime downtown Liaison, which is Colin Fowler, and our co responder position that we just filled in September. I think the city managers been sharing you those numbers, and we'll go over those in a little bit. So, the department has broken into three areas. There is the administrative part, which is my side, and then the main two parts are field operations, which is traditional police work, what you think? Patrol and investigations. And then we have support services, which is everything else. Animal control records, the civilian side of the department, evidence, and things like that. I wanted to go over some of the highlights of our last year. You all funded a crime analyst position that we were able to fill this last year, and that's been a wonderful addition to our department. Hopefully, some of you've got to meet her and talk to her. She's been developing relationships all over the community. Not- it's not just an internal position, and that's one of the things we talked about last year when we were talking about the position. She's developed relationships with many of her outside partners to include the sheriff's department. She's working on a project for him with the jail, shelter House, downtown District, She's met with them. Um, one of the things we're really having her look at is how calls for service change based on some of our projects. So rolling into our other position, that we changed our positions. We have that co responder that started in September as well. And that's a officer that is permanently assigned to one of our mental health liaisons. They ride together in a patrol car. And again, those are the numbers that the city manager has been sharing with you. In three months time, that position handled as many calls for service as the entire mental health liaison Page 3 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. position did in the year prior. So they're really getting out there. They're really getting involved in the community. They're what we call in the business jumping calls. So they're out there just listening to the radio, and they think, Oh, that one might have a mental health aspect to it, so we'll go. As opposed to when they're at the station, it's a little harder to figure out they're not as out in the community. It's still a great position that we have in the station, too. So we have two of those that are employed by community that work that are embedded in the Iowa City Police Department. Traditionally, they had just been housed out of the department, and they would go out from time to time. Now, one of those is still traditionally housed in the department, and the other one is riding in a patrol car. So that's been wonderful. Animal services has had a leadership change since we last spoke, and they're also going through working on a project for a new training facility that we're really excited about, that'll be funded by the Foundation. Um, want to talk about calls for service. Over the last year. They've gone up about 2.5%, but relatively pretty steady. The calls from the community have been pretty steady. But overall, it's about a 2.5% increase. Um, our violent crime. One of the numbers that we share with you, I share a graph with you mostly. Our violent crime trend numbers are still really positive. They're going down. This last year, we only had seven shootings, and if I'll remind you in 2020- in the year 2020, we had 57. So the trend line is going down sadly. We had a tragedy at the end of year. We did have one homicide. That's our first homicide we'd had in over two years. So one is far too many. But again, the trend line is heading in the right direction. What that allows is investigations to do other things. As you can imagine, when we have a homicide investigate, it's all hands on deck. They don't really have time to focus on other things. When we had two years without a homicide, investigations was really focusing on other things, and one of the their big focuses was child enticement cases, and something that no one really likes to talk about, but it does happen in the community, but you have to be- you have to be proactive with it, and we've been able to be proactive with it. So those numbers have uh- one of the things we're going to do in the coming year is be much more public about that. Um, I want to- I want the public to know that it does happen and that we are addressing it. Hopefully that'll have some sort of deterrent effect. One of the exciting things that we've been doing in last year's budget funded it, and we'll continue in this year's budget is working with climate change. I know the city manager mentioned the good relationships. We absolutely love working with our climate change department. Last year, they got us two, uh electric bikes, Colin Fowler downtown Liaison, pretty much rides that exclusively. He- he shares an interesting story that I'd like to share. We had an incident at one of our bridges where someone called in that someone was contemplating suicide. He was able to get to that call on his electric bike and get there fully ready to handle the call instead of huffing and puffing after pedaling all the way down there. So that's a story that I like to share. He said, No, had he not had the electric bike 1, he may not have gotten there in a timely fashion. Or when he did get there, he'd be out of breath and be able to do a good job. So happy ending on that one. We're also about to receive fully electric Ford Lightning through working with the Climate Action Group. And that will be used primarily by our community outreach, our civilian, people who go out and handle calls at civilians can. So we're excited about that. We're also. She's going to help us out with supplementing our budget to try a pilot project where we're going to try a patrol car that's fully electric. Chevy makes a blazer that has been approved for patrol use? We may be one of the first in Iowa to try that. So, we're excited about that. We do have a charging station that was built for the lightning that will also work for that blazer if we can get it. So a lot Page 4 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. of good things happening there. It's a great partnership. She's really fun to work with. I'm sure she's going to talk to you all later. So hopefully she talks about that. [00:13:41] You mentioned that- yeah, that there's been uh, you know, work with climate action. Is this in terms of them providing you recommendations of what the appropriate. [00:13:52] Oftentimes, it's helping us with grant funding. [00:13:54] 1 was going to say- [00:13:55] The two bikes and the lightning were funded through grants. [00:13:59] Okay. Great. [00:14:00] Yeah. Now onto our budget. As we talked about in the last few years, what's surprising to me every year is how little wiggle room I have in this budget, 86% of the budget is just personnel costs. And then when you add on equipment charges, vehicle charges, I really don't have a lot to play with. This is an absolutely status quo budget. I didn't ask for anything that we haven't had in years past, no position changes, no service changes. Um, I think it was just a little under 5% overall on the increase from the original budget of last fiscal year. The largest drivers of the increase other than personnel would be our new body worn cameras, which came before you a few months ago. Uh, the digital storage on that is exceedingly expensive, but it's a fantastic device. Er, the user interface is much more user friendly. We can work with our outside partners with it better. Of course, the county Attorney's Office often needs videos, and we'll be able to instead of burning them to disc, the old fashioned way, we can just share it through the Cloud. Vehicles. Again, vehicles are always a driver fuel. We're addressing the fuel issue with a few of those climate action things, the electric vehicles, but also the vast majority of our fleet are hybrids. So that helps the fuel- fuel costs as well. Any questions? [00:15:24] You say, again, I'm sorry. I missed until the tail end about the video. [00:15:31] Right. [00:15:31] It's- it's the increased cost is for the cloud storage. Page 5 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:15:34] The Cloud storage and the new body worn camera. It's- it's a contract and annual contract that we have that has increased significantly. It's about a percent of our budget to be quite honest. [00:15:43] Okay. [00:15:44] But much more user friendly, we've been paying for physical storage. Now this is paying for storage in the Cloud. That's where a lot of this stuff is moving to. And hopefully in a couple of years, when we can we have retention period on our body- on all of our evidentiary storage, but specifically the videos, typically it's two years, so we'll be less reliant upon our physical storage, and there may be some cost savings in that in the future. [00:16:08] You mentioned the number of calls that the co responder handled since they've been paired with that specific officer and out in the field was like, in three months, the entirety matched the entire last year. Do you have a rough sense of how many calls that is in that period? [00:16:24] Yeah, I have them right here. Um, they were averaging over 100 calls a month. I think the city manager sent them to you and of course, it's going to be at the bottom of my stack. But, um, the first month, they- the first month, they- last year, the two co responders or excuse me, the two mental health liaisons responded about 370 calls. So in three months time, they had 370, just those two working together. If you give me just a second, I'll fumble through my papers and find it. [00:17:03] And I think you said one of the budgeted sworn positions that's open is another co -responder. [00:17:09] Correct- correct. Um, go ahead. [00:17:11] Well, and that's the- the officer who would be, um- [00:17:16] Who would be assigned- [00:17:17] Dedicated. Page 6 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:17:17] with our other mental health liaison. [00:17:19] The Liaison- [00:17:19] Correct. [00:17:19] that's currently in the station. [00:17:20] Correct. [00:17:21] Okay. [00:17:21] And there's some value- again, there's some value in having a mental health liaison at the station. I think they have a little more time to do follow-up. So that's something we might look at in the future. Is if we maintain, uh, traditional mental health liaison and look at maybe bringing on board another person who might just be assigned as a co -responder, because I would- I do think there is some value in the time that the station assigned mental health liaison has to do follow up. But the numbers, the first month that they worked together, they handled 138 calls, the second month, October was 153, then there was some vacation. So November and December was a little lower, 77 and 59. But, uh, in four months time, they've really- they're- they're really getting out there and one of the projects that I have or our crime analyst's working on is seeing how calls for service or how an- our interactions with people change pre and post interactions with the mental health liaison. The first small bit of data that we had it was only a couple of months. It.actually showed an increase in calls for service with these people, but I think they were just happy with the service they were being provided. And- but anecdotally, we have several cases of people who were two or three times a day callers. After a couple of weeks of working with them, once they got, uh, hooked up with the right services, then that- those calls stopped. So I'm really excited once we have a little more time to see how the, uh, mental health liaison impacts calls for service, specifically from our repeat customers. [00:18:531 Just going to say that actually, um, at a League of Cities Conference, there was, uh, a panel that focused on embedded mental health liaisons with a dedicated police officer. And that was actually also one of the- the metrics that they were able to track and that did track over time; was a reduction in- in calls for service once they were connected up. So you're - Page 7 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:19:15] Yep. [00:19:16] Your initial, um, data seems to be tracking with what some longer -term, um, programs have shown. [00:19:23] Good. And I- I don't know if you guys have seen her, but our- our co -responder is a sworn police officer. She does wear the police equipment, but a much softer uniform. It's kind of a polo. Um, and again, she's just there to kinda make sure the scene is safe, and then the mental health liaison is the one who takes the lead. [00:19:40] The- the five open- there are five vacancies. Three of those specialties, are they hard to fill? Like, are they very difficult to find people willing and wanting to do that work, or is it just this has happened- this just so happens this year, is it? [00:19:53] It's- we don't fill based off a position. So we would hire people on and they would all start as patrol officers and then from the existing people we have, then we would fill those specialty positions. We've - our high watermark this year was 82. And at 82, I'm getting ready to fill those positions, but then we - Kevin Bailey retired, and we had another person leave, so now we're back to eighty. So when- as we get closer to 85, then those- then I feel like I can fill those positions because we need the people in patrol. Um, the struggles we have with the numbers we have now is when- people have a hard time getting days off because of the minimum staffing requirements we have to- to staff a patrol shift. [00:20:36] Just on the mental health calls, do you have a sense of what the sort of maximum capacity is, like, how the one dedicated co -responder is meeting the overall need, or is that to be determined? [00:20:50] 1 think it's to be determined. The numbers- the first two months, they were really getting after it. To me, I think that's probably their maximum capacity. And again, that's 40 hours a week. In a perfect world, we'd have it 24/7. And I know that's one of the strategic goals; to have the mental health coverage 24/7. 1 would like to have the mental health coverage out in the street 24/7. [00:21:13] Are you collaborating with the County Ambulance Services, um, Community Paramedic Program at all? [00:21:20] No, I'm familiar with it, but we certainly- we- we certainly will. Yeah, but not now. Page 8 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:21:28] Okay. I'm- I'm looking at the- at page 121 under goal objective and performance measurement. I- I see that- that one of the goal of the police department is community gain a better understand of the police officer job. But when you look at the tables, you see that you done a lot of- of community outreach event and presentation, even though if you give me an example of those will be great. But for public right, uh, public education effort on the rights. [00:22:00] Yeah. [00:22:01] Is not, you know, and that's exactly what minority people would like to know; what their rights and what their responsibility is. And I see that you did not like just one and you estimated also one for this year. [00:22:16] 1 think we have- [00:22:16] U h- [00:22:16] 1 think we're having a hard time -capturing it. That's our part-time community outreach for the immigrant community. That is what he focuses on. And I don't think we've done a good job of capturing it'cause we're- a lot of the things that- these three things sometimes overlap. Um, I think we could do a better job of capturing the specific presentations specifically for rights, and we'll do a better job of that because he is doing that. I'm sure you- [00:22:41] Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. [00:22:42] Yeah. [00:22:43] You already meet those people and doing like- some as a presentation. Why don't also part of the presentation do your right- what your right- like, uh, know your right training, something like that. [00:22:53] Absolutely. We will. [00:22:59] Any question? Okay. Thank you. Page 9 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:23:04] Thank you. [00:23:05] We- City Clerk, you want to go? [00:23:10] Kelly Grace, City Clerk's Office. Um, our information starts on page 45 of the- the budget book, um, and then the actual budget's on 321. Um, City Clerk's one of your three council appointees, along with the city manager and city attorney. Uh, when fully staffed, we have four full-time employees. Um, we do not have any recommended changes or requests for, uh, personnel. Um, large part of whatever our office does, uh, we coordinate the council agendas, information packets, archive all that information, do all the final, uh, signatures, recordings, um, filing with the Secretary of State. Uh, we also are responsible for legal publications, public notices, um, ordinances, and minutes required by law to get those published, and then, uh, ordinance- ordinances codified. Uh, all open record requests- well, most open record requests are submitted through the clerk's office, um, and we route those and coordinate those with the appropriate departments. Uh, in 2024, we had 207 just come through our office, and that's not including the ones that, you know, reached out to individual departments just for, you know, quick information. Uh, some of the licensing duties, our taxi companies and taxi drivers, outdoor service areas, cigarette permits, and then beer and liquor licensing. Uh, we also handle the applications for public assemblies, parades, uh, use of the Ped Mall, um, which includes like information tables, ambulatory vendors, and amplified sound. Uh, those event applications only, that doesn't include the stuff. The smaller, uh, applications for the Ped Mall. We had 120 last year. Um, and then we also provide, uh, staff support to the Community Police Review Board, uh, clerical support for the cemetery, and then we assist staff in the general public with finding information, um, anything in the council archives. Uh, typically, budget would be status quo, but this year with elections, um, it's going to have a bit of an increase. Uh, actually, the FY 25 will have an increase just because we are gonna have a primary with the- the three, uh, candidates, uh, and then the special election in March, and then it is an election year in November. So if we have a primary in October, that will increase with that, uh, and then the general election in November. I'll be happy to answer any questions. [00:25:47] You said that you will not have, um- you have no personnel to fill-. [00:25:531 No increases. [00:25:54] No increases- [00:25:54] Page 10 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah, I did. [00:25:55] Correct. But aren't you back- are you back -filling for- [00:25:57) Yes. [00:25:58] Okay. [00:25:58] Yes. Yeah. Sure hope so. [00:26:02] Yeah. [LAUGHTER] [00:26:04] Any question for Kellie? All right. We're gonna move to the- the Fire Department. [00:26:21] Okay. Could get the word chart pulled up for the Fire Department or- [00:26:27] Just click over, Chief. It should- there you go. [00:26:30] Oh, okay. Very good. Well, good morning, everybody. It's, uh, ni- nice to talk with you again. Uh, Scott Line Fire Chief. Uh, we're gonna go over the budget, uh, proposed budget, some highlights, and some challenges that we face as we- as we move forward. Um, I'll- I'll be referencing page numbers as we go through. Um, on the screen, uh, you can see the- the basic layout of the Fire Department. Uh, Fire Chief Administration, um, tha- that's, uh, essentially myself, um, and then we have the Deputy Fire Chief, and then the divisions, uh, underneath, uh, with the lieutenant training officer position, and then the three shifts or battalions that- that are in service, uh, every day, 24 hours, uh, seven days a week. Uh, we can take a look at page 128 in the budget packet. We could talk a little bit about the Fire Department. We are 66 members. Uh, that's counting everyone, including myself, uh, in the agency. Uh, we're an all - hazards fire department, meaning that we respond from anything from medical calls to fires, hazardous materials. Uh, we- we- we are the- the catch-all agency many, many times. Uh, we operate from four fire stations. Uh, we have, uh, five companies in- in service at a given time, three engines, two ladder trucks, and a battalion chief, which is not a fire truck. It's- it's a pickup truck. Um, and then all members of the fire department do have a response, um, uh, responsibility, including myself on significant incidents. Uh, so we- we are, uh, definitely, uh, operations focused. Um, in 2024, um, I- I have some re - Page 11 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. revised call numbers. Uh, we experienced 9,000 and- I'm sorry. Nine thousand eight hundred and nine incidents, um, during last year, which- that really equates to 11,266 unit responses. Uh, many of those calls do not require, uh, all- all fire trucks to go. Uh, a lot of those calls do require all fire trucks to go, so that's why you have, uh, two- two different numbers. [00:28:51] Chief, was that- um, does that include when there's a call for aid from Iowa City to another? [00:28:59] Yes. Yes. That- that would be included in there. And last year- remember, I could share with you. Uh, mutual aid is what we- we would classify that as. Uh, we responded outside of the city, um, called 120 times- 121 times. We received aid back into the city about 60 times. So there- there is a- a significant give and take, and a- a collaborative approach to- to- what we do is certainly what, uh, what's, uh, works best for us. Um, if- if you look at page 131 in your budget, um, it'll show you that the fire emergency operations is by far the lion's share of- of the spending in the agency. Um, again, ve- very forward facing. Uh, fire administration, uh, coming in second, training, fire prevention, uh, both coming in at about 2%. So not- not unusual for a fire department to spend most of their money in operations. Um, if we look at page 132, uh, fire administration, it is under my direction, and I am responsible for- for the operations of the Fire Department and adhering to, uh, state and local laws that pertain to the fire service. Uh, the Deputy Fire Chief is the Number 2 in command of the organization. Uh, that position in the Iowa City Fire Department functions greatly as administrative support. Um, um, is also the- uh, Operations Chief is also the accreditation manager. Um, is also the one that helps me, uh, uh, process bills. So, uh, the- the lack of administrative support from time to time, uh, certainly hurts us. [00:31:01] Excuse me. You don't have an admin? [00:31:03] No. We do not. It appears in two thousand and- I'll probably get this wrong. I think 2011, that position was eliminated through attrition and never replaced. Uh, the Deputy Fire Chief is also, like- like I said, our accreditation manager, which is fantastic. Um, and the Iowa City Fire Department has been an accredited agency since 2008, uh, which- which is, uh, remarkable by- by any stretch. That's a long time to be accredited. Uh, some accomplishments that we can talk about that- that I want to put into context that are in your budget book, um, is the annual compliance report, is that first bullet. Uh, being an accredited agency, we are required to annually report out our progress as an agency. Um, for the Deputy Fire Chief, the battalion chiefs, and myself, we have to coalesce- coalesce the data and- and report out, uh, where we- where we're at as an agency, and they either accept our annual compliance report or they say you are not compliant. We are fortunate enough to be compliant as of today. Second bullet, that we did update our- our body of armor inventory in the Fire Department. Uh, we- we do, uh, have that need in our business. There was existing, uh, body armor in our fire department when- when I got here. Um, it- it, uh, unfortunately, was not up to stuff, as it would say, and, uh, we- we- uh, now have the appropriate stuff. Um, we've replaced a handful of vehicles; uh, command vehicles, training Page 12 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. officer vehicle. Um, I- I think the- a- a great win for last year on the administrative side is something that we talked about previously, is the implementation of our new records management system. Um, it's- it's giving me, uh, the- the more granular look at the organization that I desperately needed, and, um, it- it's certainly, uh, uh, doing- doing great things for us. Uh, an offshoot of that, uh, record's management system is a community connect program that we've pushed out to the community. It's, er, a user input, uh, web -based app, uh, that- that our citizens can put in their information at their residents to help us find, uh, either missing people, pets, uh, where water shut -offs are, any special needs if they have. Uh, like at my house, my elderly parents living with me, that, um, that- they could note that in that program, and it gives us a heads up while we're en route to the call. Uh, some upcoming challenges that- that - that, uh, in full transparency we- we have to talk about. And I- and I think the first one there is truly, uh, maintaining accredited, uh, uh, agency status. It's a heavy lift, um, and, uh, we- we work diligently to maintain that, um, but- but given resources, uh, being what they are, it- it- it is difficult. Um, the health wellness of- of our personnel, um, is- is super important. Uh, I- I seek to increase the, uh, uh, the screening of our members through the annual physical process. There's- there's some- some work to get done there. I'm happy to report that we- we have a signed contract, uh, with- if I get this wrong, Jeff will tell me, EC COG, ECI COG, uh, to- to align the Fire Department strategic plan with the city strategic plan. That'll start, um, here next month, I believe. Uh, excited to do- to, uh, get that, uh, moving forward. [00:34:45] And uh, one- one of the last, uh, challenges that- that I think, uh, I- I would like to say is, uh, the- the computer -aided dispatch system at the check, um, is- is somewhat cumbersome and outdated at this point, and um, it- it is something that, uh, I continue to work with them on to- to figure out where we go from here. Uh, so, um, in- in the, uh, proposed budget in front of you, there are no service, uh, level changes, um, presented in this document. Uh, if we go to page 135 briefly, um, not- not going to read it all to you. I- I think in context, uh, to- to understand where we're at as a fire department on the response side of the house, we saw a 6.5% increase in call volume from last year. Uh, as I converse with my peers across the state of Iowa, that's- that's not out of line. Uh, that- that's ma- many agencies that are in growth communities are having the same issues that we are. So we're definitely not living in a silo. Um, it's- it's, um, the way things are at- at this point in our business. [00:35:58] Just out of curiosity, is that increase sort of proportional to population increase or are there certain areas that seem to be leading that? [00:36:07] Sure. I- I think the- the answer is yes. Um, well, I- I think it- it's a gamut of things. Uh, one of the metrics that- that we know, uh, as fire service professionals that- that is important to- to look at is population density. A- as a city becomes more dense, you can anticipate more emergency calls for service. There is a direct correlation, uh, that the National Fire Academy has looked at this numerous times. Iowa City is dense. We- we have a dense, uh, dense population. Uh, I- I think on top of that, there's been a societal shift over my career in- in my last 28 years of the fire service going from the call of, uh, last resort to the call of primarily first resort. And- and that's okay. We- we will respond to the citizens and we'll- we'll Page 13 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. handle the problems as we see fit. So it- it's really, uh, a bunch of factors that are just led to, uh, a- a gradual increase in calls. So if you look at our five year, we're up about 32%. Um, so that is, um, that - that is a total from last year. Uh, of those calls we had 5,072 EMS calls last year, uh, which again compared with our- our peers, that- that is not unusual. Um, is it a lot? Yes. Uh, our call volume is high. Our- our call volume per person is high, and I'm incredibly proud of- of the firefighters that, uh, and- and EMS providers here in- in Iowa City that take care of our community. Something I'd like to highlight is last year, we had seven citizens, experience a cardiac arrest and walk out of the hospital. Uh, full recovery, um, and that's- that's a testament to- to the folks in the fire stations doing good work. Um, to have seven people in a given year, um, walk out of the hospital after being, uh, clinically deceased for a while is a big deal. So very, very proud. [00:38:14] Chief? [00:38:14] Yes. [00:38:14] Just maybe because I know that, um, you have a- a section coming up on, uh, and of course, I flipped, on training. But I was wondering in relation to the density piece that you talked about. I know that the fire department, I mean, that there's specialized training that has to be done for urban firefighting, and I just want- and I know that the- the departments have undergone that. Is that a regular feature? If so, is it like yearly, biyearly, what have you, and is it accounted for, which I have not gotten to that page yet? [00:38:46] Yeah, it- it may not be accounted for in there, but what- what I can tell you here in Iowa City is- is that, um, our- our folks are very verse in high rise firefighting operations. Um, so in- in the vertical environment, um, you have to operate differently. Um, everything from the- the resources that you bring to the call, to the way that you behave once you get to the scene. Um, thankfully, uh, the vast majority of our- our super big buildings are protected, the sprinkler systems, uh, stand pipes, and stairwells, and- and that type of thing. Um, with our daily staffing being what it is, um, that it- it's certainly all hands event, uh, plus all the Mutual Aid Partners that we could possibly call, but yes, we are certainly trained. If we could take a look at page 137 real quick. This- this is just some- some basic, uh, statistical stuff that we did not get entered. You'll notice in the- in the bottom chart under fire control. Um, building fires, we- we had 41 building fires last year, uh, and that's an easy number to account for. It's- it makes sense, but we experienced right around a- right around $1.2 million in fire loss last year here in the community. Um, some of the other metrics, um, are- are subject to change because they are greatly outside of the control of the fire department. Um, when we talk about a fire confi- contained, uh, confined to the object of origin, room of origin, so on and so forth, a lot of those metrics are truly, uh, dependent upon when the fire is discovered. So we will- we'll be modifying those, um, a- as we go up. Um, with response times, I- I would like to express that our total response time to all incidents, um, be it fir or medical is, uh, eight minutes and 15 seconds, 90% of the time. So nine, um, nine out of 10 Page 14 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. times that's what- what a citizen could expect, uh, from the Iowa City Fire Department, and that is city wide. So downtown, those- those response times are much shorter, and you get further out on the edges of the- of the community, uh, the times get much- much, uh, much longer, more protracted. Uh, fire prevention is headed up by our fire marshal. Um, the Fire Marshal is the- the, uh, only full time member in the Fire Prevention Bureau. We have other folks who do ancillary duties to help out, uh, where they can. Um, and, uh, I couldn't be more happy with the- the performance of- of, uh, of, um, the- the Fire Marshal Troy Roth, and- and the things that, uh, he- he gets done, uh, for us. Uh, one of the things I'd like to see us do as we move forward is- is transition the- the, uh, Fire Prevention Bureau from - from that moniker to a community risk reduction, uh, type of environment. We're- we're not only addressing the fire problems, but we're also addressing the EMS problems. Um, we do work with, uh, Johnson County, uh, Mobile Integrated Health, Johnson County System of Care, a handful of allied groups that- that kind of fall under that, uh, community risk reduction, uh, umbrella. And, uh, my vision is- is, um, that is where this goes eventually. Uh, page 141 talks about the fire training. Um, we are very fortunate to have a, um, uh, wonderful training facility, uh, down off of, uh, McAllister. Um, we- we have hosted, um, I believe, nearly all mutual aid partners at this point, uh, to high fire training with us here in Iowa City, and they are part of our response package, and we are part of their response package as well. So great collaboration, uh, and, uh, training is- is, uh, going very well, and I'm very, very happy. If we take a look at page, uh, 350. Uh, the city manager discussed it this morning, uh, the reduce in- the reduction in the, uh, contingency fund. Um, one of the things that I- I truly appreciate is the transparency in which the- this, uh, reduction has occurred. Um, the city manager's office, uh, took time out of their schedule to explain the- the situation to each shift on the fire department, and, uh, that - that was truly a- appreciated, and, uh, and uh, we- we may not like the message, but it is indeed the message, but understanding the why is much more, uh, much more helpful when, uh, that type of communication is taking place. [00:43:58] 1 do have questions about, I don't know when the appropriate time for that is, but, um, about the shift in thinking. It's completely related to state property tax reform. We understand that a very unfortunate decision had to be made, but- [00:44:12] Sure. [00:44:12] Can you talk to us about what del- hopefully, it's just a delay, but a delay of Fire Station 4 or 5, I'm sorry, means for the city, um, what- I guess you're going to engage in a strategic plan process soon. I- it's actually probably good timing to do that strategic plan in the context of state property tax reform. Um, how- how are you managing on- this crap sandwich? [00:44:39] No, that's- that's a fair question and- and a good question. Um, but the- the first thing that I have to do as a fire chief is- is to- to ensure staff that the sun's going to rise tomorrow. And- and they are- I- I Page 15 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. believe they're on board. And, uh, and you know, but- but also be- be realistic. Uh, geography is geography, and- and as we build further to the East and further to the West, uh, until we intervene, our response times will increase. Um, response times, what- what that means to- to the citizen, the person we're here for, is that every minute that goes by when CPR is not being done, uh, when- when someone's in a cardiac arrest, there's a greater- there's a 10% decrease in- in their likelihood of surviving. Fire doubles in size every minute. I think you can see that in- in some of the- the news here, uh, recently. Um, so for us, our- our strategies, um, kind of circle back around to controlling what we can control. And what we can- what we can control as an agency is getting out the door as quickly as possible, and- and our- our folks work diligently at- at that. Me providing them facilities that are easy to get out the door. You know, Station 1 is- is kind of a little bit of a maze to get out, uh, to- to the fire trucks. Um, and then it's, uh, you know, we- we look at some- some other, uh, alternative response units. That was a- that was a question from last year, um, and, um, uh, Battalion Chief, uh, Zach Hickman, uh, performed a and completed an applied research project at the National Fire Academy. Um, alternative response units do make sense in Iowa City, um, but again, they- they have to be staffed. We - we have to put people on them, and- and right now we- we simply don't have staffing to spread anywhere other than what we have today. So there- there's no magic answer, uh, to- to your question. [00:46:51] Sure. So five is delayed, but we still need to address one, and- [00:46:55] Yeah. (00:46:56] Okay. [00:46:57] And Station 1 is being addressed. Uh, the city manager touched on it this morning with the- the upstairs remodel, uh, that's- that's great- greatly, uh, appreciated. Um, we- we do, uh, we got a new Bay floor, so it's- it's certainly not all gloom and doom. [00:47:14] 1 had a question actually, um, that ties into, um, delaying Station 5 and staffing because I know the city manager said that he was retaining a $300,000, um, sort of staffing potential. Um, roughly, how much does that equate in FTE? And I realize it's three, okay. [inaudible 00:47:40]. And so, well, I'll- I'll just leave it at that because I know there's a myriad ways in which those positions, it's not necessarily that it would be on an engine, there could be other needs I know in- in the past that you- you've had that kind of staffing consideration as well to relieve pressure. So I'll just. [00:48:011 Yeah, that's- that's a fine question to ask, you know, but I would I would balance out the shifts, I would hire an administrative person, and I'd hire someone inspections. That's what I would do, so. Page 16 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:48:14] Thank you. [00:48:151 Sorry, you piqued my interest about, um, Mr. Hickman did research saying that alternative responses would actually be good for our community. Can you just state a little bit more maybe in future budget years, what that request might look like? [00:48:28] Sure, yeah. So, um, this is something actually I have engaged, uh, climate action, uh, with as well. Um, it most likely will be, uh, two members in a small SUV or a small pick up truck that would respond to calls that are appropriate, uh, mainly EMS calls, um, to- to alleviate the pressure on the fire apparatus themselves. Um, that- that's really what- [00:48:53] Trucks and drive around all the time like patrol cars, or are they stationed kind of things? [00:48:56] Well, they'll- they'll be stationed somewhere, but that's part of the challenge. [00:48:58] Yeah. [00:48:59] Is- is that, uh. [00:49:00] Where does that station go? [00:49:011 We don't have the fuller space to- to make that happen right now. [00:49:05] Okay. [00:49:05] But I- I think with, uh, some creative solutions, we could make that happen. [00:49:09] [LAUGHTER] Just put in the parking there. Page 17 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:49:13] Yes? [00:49:14] Chief, I'm glad to hear that- that evaluation was done on that alternative kind of response with the smaller, more agile vehicles. I appreciate what you're saying about staffing them. I wonder if you have any way to quantify, um, what the shift to the community risk reduction kind of program might mean in terms of calls or severity of calls. And similarly, I- I really think for a department of your size to have no dedicated administrative role, uh, is probably costing, right? In other areas, right? If that- for you and the deputy not to have that administrative person. [00:49:56] Yeah, certainly complicates things. Um, as- as it pertains to call volume and community risk reduction, that's- that's a- a very difficult thing to quantify. Uh, any time that- that we try to measure calls that never occur, it- it becomes very difficult. You know, you hope in a five year trend analysis that you'd see, so- so we focus on fall prevention. You would hope to see a decrease in falls, um, but you just don't know, um, but I will tell you from my experience that, uh, being involved in community risk reduction across the spectrum is- is absolutely the best thing we can do for our citizens. [00:50:38] Even just noticed in your budget document, the- only a third of the fires had a functioning smoke alarm. I read that right? [00:50:48] Yeah, um, we're- we're going to gear up to do a smoke alarm blitz, uh, again here soon. Um, you- you know, uh, unfortunately, people aren't as diligent as we'd like them to be with their smoke alarms. Are there any other- other questions I can answer for you guys? Well, I- I do appreciate your time. I know you have a long day today, but, uh, please know from- from my office that, um, the- the sun is going to come up tomorrow, that- that moving the- the station down the road is certainly not something that we would want, uh, but we will still deliver the- the highest quality of- of, uh, citizen care that we possibly can. so thank you. [00:51:37] Okay, next we'll have the library. [00:51:54] Good morning. Ah, thanks for the opportunity to be here this morning, um, I'm Ellsworth Carmen, the director of the Iowa City Public Library. I'm going to give kind of an more narrative overview of our department as is my style most years. Ah, but also talk directly to the budget. Um, our department summary starts on page 18- 68, and the budget details start on page 360. Ah, the library operates primarily out of our downtown building, which is open 67 hours a week, seven days a week. We also have a bookmobile that operates five days a week plus special events, evenings and weekends. Our Page 18 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. service area includes Iowa City, and then by contract, Hills University Heights, Lone Tree, and Rural Johnson County. We offer specialized services to Johnson County Jail residents and homebound patrons via postal mail and we collaborate with local libraries and ICCSD on a special library card for students called the AIM Card. Our core offerings include free inclusive programming for all ages, extensive material collections in both digital and print formats, multilingual services, including weekly story times in Spanish and Chinese, and a growing world languages print collection. We do lots of community outreach across the community, including specialized targeted programs in collaboration with partners. The library is governed by a nine member board of trustees, which is appointed by City Council, and we have eight departments with 15 librarians and around 93 non librarian staff for a total FTE of about 46. So the vast majority of those staff are part time. Um, I wanted to share some fiscal year 24 performance highlights and this is going to be a lot of numbers relatively quickly, but it's just to give you an idea. Um, so our door count in fiscal year 24 was 526,659. That's a 10.8% increase from the year before. We circulated over 1.2 million items, offered over 2,000 programs, including 852 for youth and had over 52,000 public computer sessions. Our meeting rooms were used over 1,200 times, and library staff responded to over 22,350 reference questions. All of these are offered, of course, for free with as low of barrier as we can figure out. We took on some inclusivity initiatives we're very proud of last fiscal year. We expanded what we call our special access services, which are services designed for nervous patrons and their caregivers, to what we're calling now the All Abilities Club, that group meets twice a month and offers different types of programming and ways for folks to connect who are experiencing similar challenges in the community. We created a multilingual video series to orient people to the public library realizing that many newcomers to the United States and to Iowa may be coming from areas where public libraries either don't exist or look very different. So by offering these in different languages, we're- we're trying to expand that network of people who see us as a place to come. We worked with the grant through the Public Library Association and AT&T to provide adult tech classes in English and Spanish. This was a relatively small initiative, but it had a unique outcome, which was we had almost 100% continued participation in the program. So if the tech- if we offered three tech classes that kind of built on each other, almost every participant came back for each one, which is relatively unusual. Um, and part of the grant allowed us to provide a meal as part of the programming and childcare, which was a great asset. I want to talk a little bit about our fiscal year 26 budget request. But before I jump into that, I just want to recognize that two things can be true at one time. We are exceedingly grateful for the funding that we get from the Iowa- from Iowa City to fund the library. Especially in light of the elimination of the levy. The city manager's office and city council had an opportunity there to say, great, there's a million dollar savings, like, moving on, and I- I will be appreciative of my entire career that that was not the choice made. It's a little complicated with the library budget because we are semi autonomous. So we have the library board involved in these decisions, and we also have the Library Foundation. So that's a group that raises funds for the library and does contribute to some of our- our spending. All of that said, we still need more resources to stay at our current level or increase service. Um, and- and that push and pull can be awkward to talk about. I did make two staffing requests in my draft of the fiscal year 26 budget. One was to convert two hourly teen intern positions into a full time teen services library assistant one. This would have allowed us to staff the teen center for significantly more hours a week and build on the success that we've been working on with- with that service to that population. I also requested an increase for the Spanish Page 19 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. bilingual library assistant three from 20 hours a week to 30 hours a week. That again would have allowed us to build on success. Um, that- that librarian is working with so many families that haven't used the library in the past, and we're ready to evolve those roles into bigger, um, but we'll have to wait for the future. Those were not approved, but it was a great opportunity to talk about those services with Jeff, and I plan to resubmit next year. Jeff had prepared department heads to encourage us to ask for what we needed, but- but certainly prepared us that this is not a landscape where we're going to see much growth. Um, similarly, I- I requested a couple of specific line increases, including $20,000 for a strategic planning consultant. Ah, we've done the past two plans, and I think the one previous to that as well, though I wasn't here internally with almost no cost associated with it. And I think we're at a point where we need to- to bring a consultant in to do a little bit deeper community data collection analysis in preparation for a plan. Um, our plan was to match those funds with board controlled gift funds to be able to do sort of a robust approach. We still can allocate obviously gift funds through the Board for that project. It just will mean changing the scope, um, and we also requested $27,000 increase for materials. Um, we've had small increases in raw materials budget in the past few years. Sometimes I call it flat, and then Jeff reminds me it has not been flat. It has been small increases, ah, and that's true. But we're facing inflation, like everybody else, changing demands for materials, really unchecked pricing increases from publishers and vendors, where library discounts are going down, cost per title is going up. And we are seeing direct impacts of this in increased weights for popular titles. We're having to change our hold ratios for purchasing more, disappointment and format availability. And as we expand world languages, we get more requests for translated versions of materials. Many of those are often very expensive. Um, we were- we were- we were given a $6,000 increase in our collection lines across the board, which is great, that will not- not fill the need, but it will certainly help. So we'll as always do our very best to maximize the impact of those dollars. We have some significant challenges coming up. You've heard some of these before, ah, continuing to balance the print and digital collections, um, expenditures, especially a mid rising costs. It's a question that every library across the country is trying to figure out. We have hope that if we work together, we can push back on some of the more predatory price changing that publishers and vendors are taking on, but we'll have to see how that goes. Um, we are facing, again, like other departments, growing community, social service debt. So the number of patrons that we see with mental health or addiction or housing insecurity who bring those needs very actively into the library, um, are growing, and it's putting us in a position to decide how do we balance meeting those needs with other sort of more traditional or core public library services. And this is something we're thinking very carefully about through the lens of staff wellbeing and retention, and recruitment and we want people to- to be able to do sort of the library work that they imagine while also supporting the full community and responding to those patron needs. We anticipate more legislation this session, ah, related to access, inclusivity, and library service. Um, we're- we're going to be watching that very closely, and- um, and to see what comes out of it. We know last session, there was some conversation about looking at library boards as a form of public library governance. I have very strong feelings about that. I think the library board will have strong feelings about that. And if that- if that comes back around, or if the intention to expand the restriction in school libraries is pushed into public libraries, the biggest thing that can be done to sort of make sure that we have a cohesive response to that is to ask questions. So if you see legislation like that coming around and- and the- the thought is, Okay, so this says explicit materials shouldn't be in a public library collection. Right. Like, I- I agree with that statement. So what Page 20 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. does it mean in practice? Like what's- what's really being said in this-, ah, in this legislation, please reach out to us. Even if it feels like a basic question or a really complicated question, library staff and the board love to talk about this stuff and we would- we would welcome that conversation. We also had some really positive developments in fiscal year 25 coming up in 26. We're so excited for the flooring response to CIP. This has been a long time coming. We are ready and- and have high aspirations to leverage those dollars to make the biggest impact that we can on the community. We're seeing increase used by traditionally under -served populations, which reflects- which is a direct part of our strategic plan. So seeing these numbers increase is a huge point of pride for us. And we're really proud to see the satisfaction in the recent Pool Co survey. Um, as Kirk Laman pointed out in his presentation, um, the library received a 96% favorable rating. And I'll point out, that's an increase, um, the library received a 94% favorable rating in 2013, and 95% favorable in 2017. So there's not a lot of room left to grow, but we're going to keep trying. Ah, and again, I want to express true authentic gratitude for the way that this council supports the library, both in the funding and in the social support and in use of the library. And - and also express gratitude to Jeff and his department for- um, for leading departments through this trying budget time, that's probably not- not as low as it's going to get yet. So we recognize that and are thankful, and I'm happy to answer any questions. [01:04:06] The question. Um, first of all, I'm happy to be counted as one of the many that comes in the door. Um, your library is amazing- our library is amazing, um, the whole system, and, um, so I just wanted to put there out as gratitude as- as a resident. But, um, and I'm particularly happy, um, that the- the library is fine free, right? And it has been for some years. And I remember at the time that it happened, um, naively I was like, Wow, you know, how does that going to do your budget? And it was essentially, it was like, it's so little ends up contributing to the budget that it's not really cost effective, and it does a ton for good public usage to not have that in the way. Given that the constraints are increasing, and as you say, the costs are going up because they can, by those who are dictating the prices, has there been any conversation about fines? I mean, I do not think that that is a good move back to the futures or backwards, um, but I just wondered if those discussions have been held. [01:05:14] That's a great question. I would say, um, we have not taken that question to the board, but there has been some conversation at the library level about, um, mostly sort of preparing for that kind of question. In particular, unless they were brought back at a significantly higher rate because of the staff time involved in the administration. I mean, they're essentially a punitive tool that doesn't work. So I think if- if the library was tasked with increasing revenue, most likely that would not be where we would want to look. I think it wouldn't be tremendously difficult to come up with an estimate of what that would look like? Since going fine free, we would have a much better grasp of what the cost savings are, um, and could- I'm not going to say it would be perfect, but we could- we could take a stab at figuring out how many card holders we gained by reducing that barrier. Um, but at a national level, I'm involved in a number of director groups and urban library groups. This is certainly a conversation that's happening, is are there- what are the most fair and equitable ways to- to create revenue? Ah, at the end of the day, since public libraries were built as a non revenue building department, it's hard to actually Page 21 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. get over the hump of, like, we're going to make a difference. But- but if and when that- that question comes up, we'd be happy to run some numbers while recognizing that our goal is to be low to no barrier for all users. [01:07:01] Absolutely. And then I have one follow up question, that's slightly off from that. But you- you mentioned it in terms of, like, the amount of time and administrative work that- that the, staff would have to do. You know, ends up not being very cost effective. In that same way, though, you or in a similar line of thinking, um, you mentioned with staff with the increased usage that isn't necessarily core, but with people coming in with mental health issues or homelessness, or any- any number of- of challenges that is facing our community right now that they're- they're coming to the library. Um, several other departments have mentioned sort of collaborations with climate action, for instance. I wonder, have there been conversations, perhaps, with- if not departments within public safety, because certainly we've had our own issues with having a police presence or a need at times for conflicts in the library. That's not where we want to go. But has there- have there been perhaps conversations with agencies that deal with mental health to see if so that the- the strain isn't on non specifically trained library staff who nevertheless want to be inclusive and welcoming and helpful, right, that there could be partnerships or at least some way. I know that every department in every portion of the city that's doing outreach is strained, but I wondered if those conversations were starting to happen, or there have been discussions about doing that kind of conversation so that there might be ways that- that can be a win win both for patrons, the library staff, and then also for mental health professionals who know they are at a place where they might be needed most. [01:08:41] Yeah, another great question. We work very actively with shelter house and community. Um, we know the outreach officers really well. Um, at one point, we had a practicum sort of intern, who did social work housed at the library. That was a program that has since ended. But we- and also we have a meeting scheduled for a few different sort of public service departments to talk about some of the challenges with behavior that come with under housed and under-resourced, um, patrons that- that come to multiple city departments. [01:09:161 1 sit on and another manager from the library are part of the unhoused persons group that meets with the city. So we're- we're working hard to- to maintain those communication connections. I'm always open to the idea of a, you know, more of that kind of staff being housed- housed in the library, but maybe not part of the library staff as far as budgeting. Um, the issue that comes up immediately is because we're open seven days a week and nights and weekends to actually get robust coverage, we're not talking about even one full time person, we're sort of talking about three- four. And in the- the demographics that would be primarily served, the idea of office hours or setting appointments can be a real barrier. Um, so it's- I think it's- it's definitely something to continue talking about, and we try to leverage the partnerships we have with other city departments and nonprofits as effectively as possible. On the- on the area where library staff really shine, and my opinion is how quickly they can understand. Page 22 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Okay, so this is what community is doing right now. These are the people doing it. We're going to meet them. We're going- when they come, we're going to be involved. We're going to try to- to figure out like how best can our services work together. And I've never seen staff adopt the attitude of, like, not our problem. Like, we called 911, and we're done. It's really- so I think that- that it's as those- as those resources grow, and there's more possibility on their side for partnerships, we are- we are very ready and receptive. [01:10:52] Thank you. I'm really glad to know about all of that. [01:10:56] 1 don't want to follow up on that a little bit, too, and to understand what the library board and your leadership thinks about bringing more social services even permanently and more robustly into the library. Is that something that you- you had an organizational discussion about that? Um, you've sort of defacto social services for much of Iowa City, but it sounds this conversation like there might be thinking of it being formalized sometime. Is that- am I hearing that correctly? [01:11:23] There was an enthusiastic board response to the limited term on -site social worker that we tried. That project was really well received. Um, and I think that there would be philosophical conversation, especially if the embedded staff, we are with departments that- that may serve differently than the library. So the police department comes to mind. And what the board is going to want to talk through Is- is exactly what's the scope? What's the- how do we differentiate the library staff roles from- from the additional staff roles, and really what's the benefit to the community? But I think that the- the current board would be very responsive to um, thinking about how do we both expand those services for the community and maintain the balance that library staff face of sort of like one social service in the need can take a four hour desk shift, and- and you're saying no to the people who are asking for genealogy assistance or- or need help finding materials. And we understand that and staff embrace it. But I think sort of continuing to hone that balance would be- the board would be excited about that. Yeah. [01:12:40] The interesting for me, up here to know that board's sort of position and maybe even proposals moving forward. I mean, that's not- that's future thinking, not necessarily this specific budget related to this budget, last year was my first year going through the budgeting process on Council, and it was, you know, that looked like a big increase in funds, a $5 million increase to the library, but really, it was just because of the property tax loss. I was curious in your holistic budget, which has a foundation component. Have- has there been increases in the foundation's capacity to help? Have they had the kind of increase and support for the library? I mean, um, we all love the library and want to make it work, but it's going to take a lot of hands to make it be exceptional into the future. How is that work working? [01:13:27] Page 23 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. So there's kind of two parts to that answer. The foundation is intended to increase sort of nimbleness, and I always think of it as an initiative funder, where if we have a new idea, we don't need to burden the operational budget with that. We can say we're going to take gift funds and use them to try- try this and sort of pick our success metrics and see if it's something we want to adopt fully. That as budgets have changed, that use has sort of shifted to more operational support. So we take money every year to support the collection, to support summer reading programming, that kind of thing, which ideally would be part of your general operating budget. As far as capacity growing, I would say yes, capacity is growing. I think we're right on the cusp of being able to- to formalize an increase in the foundation's gifts to the library every year. We had a retirement of the development director a couple of years ago. I had sort of estimated with the board that it would probably take three years to balance out, you know, to- to swing through that pendulum of leadership change, and the new director of that department is- is surpassing my benchmark- my expected benchmarks. So I think that we're- we're going to have that curve is going to be much softer than I expected. And we have a couple of meetings set up between the Friend Foundation Leadership and the Library Board to talk about some different ways to house funds and different things like that. And I do, like I said, I expect that in the coming years, next- this year or next year, being able to look at increasing that gift. And then another role the foundation plays also. This is probably old news to all of you, is when there are reserve funds and when there's sort of more wealth building strategy, often the biggest leverage for that is to use in a capital project. So it's able to kick start a build or a renovation so that that doesn't fall completely onto the city. [01:15:381 Thanks. [01:15:46] Thank you. [01:15:47] Thank you. Yeah- yeah, but if I can check something here. [01:15:55] And at least take to say, good morning. Julie Seydell, Parks and Rec Director. I'm going to follow up just a little bit on the conversation about working with the unhoused and under -resource individuals. That is an issue that we're seeing a lot at our Downtown Rec Center in particular and throughout the park system with encampments and whatnot. And actually, we have a meeting tomorrow with Parks and Rec and library staff to exactly to discuss that between the two buildings. And we've invited Senior Center, hope they join in soon, but we want to try to figure out how best to share our resources. As you know, the downtown Rec Center has free showers, lockers, we're a popular spot for people to be once again opened seven days a week for warming centers. They tend to start with us at six in the morning and then move to the library when it opens, and we know that they end up at the senior center part of the time for their services. So we are looking at- at that a more comprehensive basis as well. So okay, so parks and recreation, what are we here for? We- we are here to create places, spaces, events to foster social interaction through our community. I once lived in a neighborhood where the first time we met Page 24 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. our neighbors was, unfortunately, when there was a tragic traffic accident right outside the neighborhood. And the first time people came out of their houses and got to know who they live next to. Our job in Parks and Rec is to try to make that happen without an accident. We want people to come out to get to know their neighbors to not just go home and insulate themselves. It's done through our facilities, it's done through our parks, it's done through our programs, our events. But it's really fostering that social interaction, so when there is a community emergency, you know enough to check on your neighbors because you know who they are, and you have a little bit of care about them. I think it also helps people share the same space and understand who their neighbors are in such a diverse community. We come to the farmers market every Saturday. You see just a very diverse crowd. You see people at our party in the parks and other events. We want to make sure the neighborhoods are out and people, all people of their community are out with each other, sharing that space. We also provide basic safety, health, and recreation skills. We had 1,300 rec programs in the last year, Aquatics, soccer programs, little kids programs, arts program, cultural programs, you name it. We've done that. That's another way we foster that social interaction whether you meet your friends that your kids are growing up with through their soccer practice or you meet other people in the senior exercise class in our pool. We think it's a great chance for you get to know other people and- and have some interaction outside your regular circles. We foster and restore our natural areas. We planted almost 1,000 trees this year, 997. 1 wish we could add extra three trees. It's going to be a little less next year for two reasons. The budget is a little bit less. We're going to be more around 500-600 trees. It's also getting harder and harder to find the spaces. We've filled in all the- the easy spaces at this point, so we will continue to plant trees every year, but it's also taking care of. It's not just putting the tree in the ground. It's those first few years of making sure we get back and water them and maintain them. And then a big part of our operations is safety in city buildings. So our government buildings, our facilities. People don't often think of this as in Parks and Rec. And not only do we manage the two rec centers, but we also take care of all City Hall, police station, Fire Station 1, the senior center, and then help with the maintenance throughout the rest of the fire stations, animal services, and just a number of other city buildings. So our budget starts on page 145 for the summary, and then the budget on page 353. We are a department of 48.5 full-time staff members, and I'll go through each of those divisions. But an interesting statistic we just pulled together last week is that we have, this time of the year, about 130-140 part-time staff that grows to about 250 in the summer for seasonal and part-time staff, a total of about 111,000 hours of part-time work. That's the equivalent of another 53.25 FTEs. So another thing that people don't always think about in parks and recreation is we're often the first job that someone has. The first job experience. We job training, whether you're a lifeguard, and you become Iowa City's police chief. That's why I asked him if I could say that. [01:20:15] No, he's gone. Dustin's gone. [01:20:17] Chief Liston was a lifeguard for us at one point. Or this summer, we had one of our full time park staff members retire, and his retirement party, we had a couple dozen parks maintenance folks that came that had worked for us at one time. And now they represent virtually every other parks maintenance or Page 25 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. maintenance department in the eastern Iowa, whether that be county, state, university, our staff has started with us and gone on to make quite a difference throughout our region. So job training is a big part of that. We, as we said, our recreation division 1,300 programs. A change of this year is we started doing programming out of the Ned Ashton House. That's become the hub for our adaptive and inclusive recreation programs. So not necessarily a big increase in those programs, but a big increase in using that space and giving them kind of their own home base. That's also opened up the rec centers in the evenings for other program areas that can happen there. Rec centers are open 361 days a year. That's 97 hours of public access in each one of those facilities, both Robert A Lee and Mercer Scanlon. And of those 97 weekly hours, the Robert De Lee Pool is open for 49 hours a week, and the Mercer Pool is open for 92 hours a week. So big impact is a big number of hours. That breakdown of staff. So that is eight recreation programmers. And I bring that up because we do have one recreation program, position, a full time position. Joyce Carroll retired about a week ago after 45 years of service for us. That positions on hold right now. It is in the budget, and we hope that it stays there, of course, but it is on hold, and we will be temporarily running those programs, which is everything from summer camp through arts and special event programs. But that's about a fifth of that 1,300 number of programs under one supervisor. So if something happens and we're not able to fill that, realize that will be a significant change in our service level through recreation at some point. Another thing that we have asked for over the years and have not received is money, as Jeff mentioned for an updated park master plan. It's not in the budget you see right now. We had asked for it earlier. But as lucky, gotten through almost all 50 parks in the nine years that I've been here. Thank you. What an amazing impact that's been on our community to have all of those parks updated. There's a lot more work to do, and I think it's time to- to go back out to the public and develop a new plan, so we know what we're doing in the next decade. Maintenance for our facilities. Our government buildings operations is 12.5 staff members. Now, in your budget book, it shows us four, but that's because 6.5 of those personnel are in the recreation budget, and two of them are in the senior center budget. So that's 12.5 people that do all of the general maintenance and all of the custodial work in City Hall. In the fire station 1, in the police station, both of those being seven -day - a -week operations, in the senior center and in the two rec centers, which are also seve n-day-a -week operations. So a lot of that staff is simply custodial staff, keeping the restrooms clean, keeping the office spaces safe and clean. But then that's also all of the HVAC. All of the heating and cooling, I should say, all of the plumbing, all of the sewer repairs, every other little maintenance option that happens. And as Jeff said, we've had a lot of funding for smaller projects throughout the facilities. That's great. That's something that those two administrative staff in that division manage. So the roofing projects that we have been just doing, they're involved with this third -floor rebuttal. It's a staff that's pretty stretched thin. So I just want to bring that. We talk about it every year. We talk about how the buildings are getting older. They're quirky. What you do in one building doesn't work in the next. We know that there's service impacts on that. We know that the senior center is often too hot or too cold. We know, like we just had an elevator break over there. We know what the rec center is. The pool water is too hot or it's too cold. There's a lot of things going on that that staff is constantly scrambling for. And I think they're doing a great job of trying to keep up with it, but it's going to continue to be one of those things that is difficult for us to- to continue to work with. They also maintain the swimming pools. So two of those 12.5 staff, two of those are the swimming pool maintenance people. I think that's our main things that I have to offer. We also do cemetery. We have three full-time staff at the cemetery. They had about Page 26 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. 69 interments last year. When we talk about culturally reading- reaching all areas of the community, I always like to remind you Cemetery staff, probably more than any other city department, because they work actively with families in those final days after someone has passed away, and they work with all different kinds of cultures and all different kinds of religious and different things that happen at those interments. So it's really interesting what that small staff of three knows and works with and is able to manage pretty efficiently in that operation. And then, of course, Farmers' market, you always like to talk about that because that's the best- the best thing about Saturday mornings here in Iowa City, had a great year. It's coming back really strong since COVID, and look for that to continue. So with that I'd answer any questions. [01:25:56] Really briefly, when you were talking about facilities staff, and that some are housed in specific components of under Parks and Rec, like, whether it's recreation or what have you, um, is that budget reflected as well? I mean, -is- sorry. Let me rescind that. Um, even though they are allotted within different departments, do they go wherever is needed. Yeah. So two things. So that means they're funded out of those departments when I say that. [01:26:24] Right. [01:26:25] So, for instance, two out of the Senior Center or the 6.5 out of recreation. [01:26:29] But they're not. [01:26:29] They'll report to Josh World. Sitting behind me here. [LAUGHTER] Make sure you're still there. Uh, and they are managed by him, so they switch and move as we need them. So, for instance, one day, we had three of our custodial call out with the flu. [LAUGHTER] And so we used everyone else, including Josh to scrub toilets and make sure the buildings operated. [01:26:49] Okay. [01:26:50] We- it's- it's managed as an overall division, not in those specific areas. Yeah. [01:26:56] Thank you for understanding what I meant. [01:26:57] Page 27 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] [01:26:59] Um, I'd like to circle back to the master plan update, just because first of all, I really appreciate when there's a master plan. You go through the master plan, you check it off, and we can show constituents, like, this is what we said we were going to do, this is what we did. It's done. Like, I find it really helpful. Um, you indicated that you are hungry for another master plan for Parks and Recs as soon as possible, or, um, Tec, can you talk a little bit about that? [01:27:24] Yeah, I mean, we- we've requested funding. It is a large chunk. Um, I would tell you that Dubuque just announced that they're updating their park master plan to tune of $400,000. [01:27:35] Okay. [01:27:35] We had asked for significantly less for that, and we've done that in the last couple of years, and we've asked for more around 100, 150,000. Um, I think there's just more comprehensive to include more recreation programming, which we just did two years ago. So this would truly be for parks areas and active open space areas. [01:27:53] Sure. And when you do in the master plan, just to make sure I understand this, is specifically focused on Parks and Recreation, not facilities, which is also, I know our departments called Parks and Recs, but I always think of you as Parks Recs, and Facilities. [01:28:05] For a little bit everything. But yeah, we- we actually operate under three different master plans. We have the Park master plan, which is the active use areas of our outdoor parks. We have the natural areas plan, which is all of our ecological- ecologically -sensitive areas, or forest preserves, Terry Tublod area, Hickory Hill, some of those more, uh, less intense park areas, but where we do restorations. And then the recreation program and facility master plan, which focuses on the recreation facilities. And then the fourth one would be the overall city facilities master plan, which included this building. Um, so they're kind of all separate plans. [01:28:47] Any another question? Thank you so much for everything you do. Next, we have the Senior Center since we have let- let's just here. Okay. [01:29:09] Page 28 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Happy Monday to all of you all. Latasha De Loche from Iowa City Senior Center. Um, have a little opening statement. Um, what if I told you there's a place right here in Iowa City where lives are being saved every single day? Not with flashing sirens, or dramatic rescues, but through something as simple as profound as human connection. Every day in Iowa City, hundreds of older residents face a moment that many of us may not even think about. A decision between isolation and being seen and the work we do at the Senior Center ensures they are not invisible. Um, these aren't just ideas. This is the heart of what we do at the Iowa City Senior Center. So let me tell you a little bit about us. Um, we have, um, me, [LAUGHTER] the senior center coordinator, who I've been here in this position about seven years. Um, truly grateful for all of you all's leadership, um, to make Iowa City thriving, innovative, inclusive, um, especially for our treasured members of the, uh, community, our older adults. Our department has about 13 employees, but only four of those are full time, including myself. So the rest are run by, um, I say, we're run primarily by volunteers pixie dust in funding. [LAUGHTER] So nationwide, this is something I always try to educate people on. Uh, there's a silent epidemic, um, plaguing older adults, and it's often hidden, but it's in plain sight. Social isolation and loneliness affect one in four seniors in the United States. Um, it's not about feeling alone. It's a public health crisis, actually, um, ARP, National Academics of Sciences, Engineering Medicine show that chronic loneliness is as harmful to one's health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day. Who can afford that honestly? Um, but social isolation, um, is associated with higher risk of heart disease, dementia, depression, and even early death. And obviously, as senior centers, we're trying to prevent that. Here in Iowa City and even across the State, we still have those challenges. Older adults, um, as they lose mobility, access, and, um, caregiving support, they face increased risk of invisibility within our communities. And so the mechanism that connected them to the world, um, like employments or running daily errands or family visits, they become less and less and less reliable. Um, his is where the Senior Center steps in, and we kind of tip the scale, um, back towards connection and health and dignity, which is really important. Um, so at the Senior Center, we have- we offer lots of different solutions, whether that's helping people with getting their Medicare. And if you know anybody who's older who've had to deal with Medicare, you know how difficult it is to navigate that. Um, we have a ship office there, and people can have, um, lots and lots of access to get that help, and you'll see in a budget book we have tons of numbers, so I'm not going to hit you all with a bunch of numbers right now. Um, but we provide that services. Um, we also provide in a- in house agency trail, um, which is tools and resources for our folks that are getting older, and they help them with having volunteers come over to help with light bubs and different things like that. And so they are housed in our building. Um, we also provide tax aid, free tax aid for folks who are 50 plus. Um, we provide that, as well as a number, hundreds of programs that we offer. If you haven't seen them, please feel free to pick up our guide and peruse through them and see what we are offering. Um, one of the partnerships that we're really proud of and excited is a local, um, partnership with Table to Table. Um, that's actually happening right now at the Senior Center on Monday. There's- our lobby is overflowing. We have to pull extra chairs out just to get places for people to sit, and some people bring over their walkers with the seat on them, and they just use that as their chair. [LAUGHTER]. But we distribute thousands of pounds of free food every month that promotes the Council's strategic plan for supporting climate change [01:33:13] and sustainability efforts, right? Page 29 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:33:15] Less food that are going into our landfill. Uh, so it's also supporting other departments. Um, it's ensuring that seniors not only stay fit, but they feel and remain connected to essential resources in our community, and we provide that using one of our City facilities. So beyond food or location, we plays a pivotal role. We have weddings, we have all kinds of things. People are using in our location. What we also love is the fact that we have a bridge to our parking ramp, which helps a lot, definitely, in- in this type of weather, as well as it prevents people from- some of the slipping and sliding of walking into other facilities. Um, so from fitness classes, we have our lifelong learning programs, which are our classes because we- we believe that learning is lifelong, um, unstructured social spaces. We have coffee and conversations on Thursdays, so you're welcome to come to that. Uh, a ensure that older adults, uh, have the opportunity and the tools to re-engage in the community, um, every day. So, uh, national research shows that older adults who attend senior centers like ours are more likely to experience improved physical, emotional, and mental health. Um, clear evidence of the impact of our work. So- but we have our obstacles, right? Um, at the Senior Center, as a leader, I emphasize to my staff to have a vision to see obstacles as opportunities. Um, when challenges arise, they are not viewed as barriers, but stepping stones for greater success, that means we are growing. That's all it means when we have obstacles. One of the most exciting opportunities ahead includes our upcoming installation of new windows and doors. We need those. [01:34:47] We really do. [01:34:48] These upgrades will improve both the functionality and aesthetics of our space, and also allow members to stay comfortable and, uh, people from the community to feel welcome in our space. Additionally, upcoming interior design and construction needs. Hopefully, the design starts happening this year and construction next year are vital to maintaining our long term success. Um, stable heating and cooling, you just heard from Parks and Rec that that can be a challenge, um, paired with updated mechanical [01:35:17] and plumbing systems, um, [01:35:19] allow us to provide consistent comfort for everyone who's coming in the doors. It isn't just about infrastructure. It's about preserving accessibility, preserving a- a actual historical building, which also goes back to sustainability, um, we're cornerstone here in downtown. I promise you those daytime shops, a lot of those people have already stopped at the Senior Center to have class on their way, which is also helping with our economic development here in the community. Um, the upgrades to the building that's going to incorporate some interior design elements. Um, we hope and with research specifically to accommodate older adults, but also the community at large, um, that are usili- utilizing the space. We like believing that people should feel secure, inspired, valued, all of those things when we Page 30 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. take the time to do that thoughtful design. Um, equity is really important to us. Um, we know that every story of aging, um, it's not the same, right? Um, so we have an equity standard that we created a few years ago. Um, and as a person, that is a, um, equity person, even though I know that's not as valued right now in the world. Um, but I believe it at my core, and that's how we operate. So we are very purposefully embracing inclusion, uh, because equity is not -just like it abstract idea, it's like something we actually practice. Um, when faced with different challenges, like we have growing demand, we have changing demographics, um, er, unique needs, even of our we have a larger increased population of unhoused seniors that are utilizing our space. We lean on our equity principles and standards on how to adapt and respond. Um, this means creating more accessible spaces, offering information to those that are new residents or new into the building, um, and providing programs that meet people where they are, um, whether that's in person, because, um, some people can come to the building or virtual programs. We still have virtual programs, including hybrid programs where people can, um, engage in a class, um, while they're there, or people can also Zoom into those classes. We even have singing groups that have hybrid where you can sing at home, as well as watch other people singing, um, or just simply just- just- we just try to be a reliable presence. Um, for example, when an unhoused singer comes to us, we don't just offer them resources and referrals. We make sure they feel seeing heard and supported. I make it my business to introduce myself and to have my staff introduce ourselves just about to anybody who walks in our building. Um, that alignment with human dignity and purposeful planning is what equity looks like at the Senior Center. Um, your support ensures- the Senior Center support continues to be a weaker hope, um, for older adults. We've seen lots of marriages. We've also seen people lose spouses, um, et cetera, friends, um, but we're there to be a support, um, throughout that. So the investment that you all have in our 24,000 square foot building, [LAUGHTER] it- it empowers us to provide vital services for folks and to continue to grow innovative ways that we can work with the folks that are coming in, as well as community partners. So one of the reasons that Forbes said last year, the Iowa City was one of the best places is one's best cities to retire. So I think that's really great. And one of those reasons always when people come in is because of the Senior Center, it's the largest senior center in the state of Iowa. Um, so, hundreds of folks are not being forgotten, thankful for your funding for that. Um, because of you, city manager support, um, we are able to deliver these programs and spaces. So, um, um, we have an opportunity to just not meet, like the needs of folks. But I feel like we're answering, like, deeper hopes and- and having people touch into parts of their heart that they didn't get a chance to, maybe when they're earlier, maybe you were just a pianist, but now you get to do- be an artist, and so we're helping people to touch those things. Um, and so, um, oh, I want to invite you all to our Iowa City black history but, I'm trying- I'm trying to be brief because it's before lunch. They always hit me right before lunch. So I got to keep it pretty precise. Um, but Iowa Sady, we're having another bowl. We had one last year, and this year, the theme is highlighting the elegance of the Harlem Renaissance. It's on February 8th from 7:00-11:00. It includes a live band, so there will be a live band show. Um, but it's also this year to reach out to the community. We have some, um, Black women who are younger Black women who are designers, fashion designers. So we have a fashion show. Because I don't- there's no bounds in my head about what we could do over there. Um, fashion show, delicious food, um, and then our- our key note is Caleb Riney, the- the Negro artist, since his- his name is inspired by the Harlem Renaissance and Lingston Hughes. Um, so those proceeds last year that we had, we were able to do an underground railroad trip, which has been a highlight. I get calls every month, wonder is Page 31 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. the next trip because that's something that we weren't able to really offer was field trips, um, outside of just here in Iowa City. Um, and so we went on an underground railroad trip last year, and this year, we're going to the Figge Museum with proceeds and, um, go to some different festivals, hopefully down there. So, um, at this time, I would take any questions or comments you have about the Senior Center. [01:40:36] Just as I'm looking at 364 of the budget, um, I don't know if this is for you or Jeff, the- the 28E agreements, is that county support, or is- is that? [01:40:48] Yes. [01:40:48] Okay. [01:40:49] So for a long time, um, the county supported the Senior Center, and then we went to the quality of- of life grant. So every year, we'd have to apply for grant. But, um, in the last two years, now we just specifically receive, um,- we have a service agreement with the county, and we just get a set amount of money every year, which is very helpful for us, given my staff at small and writing grants can take up a lot of time. So we just get a set amount from the county to support our services here, um, because we also- we serve all of Iowa City, but we also have, um, little spokes [LAUGHTER] out in North Liberty that's funded by some funds there and from county funds. And also, we are at Mercer for, like, ship and different programs like that. [01:41:30] Yeah. And that's was the my question, like is like somebody from Coralville, can they also be? [01:41:35] Oh, Any- anyone can. We have, um, Iowa City membership. So we have over 1,500 members. [01:41:40] Mmm-hmm. [01:41:41] But that doesn't include public, right? So that's just members because we have some classes that are member only because it might be that you need to sign a- a release or something like that. So that's what that membership is for. It's also for using, like the weight room, stuff like that. So when you're a member, you have access to those spaces. Um, but we have people, we have a huge number of people from Coralville, as well as North Liberty and other smaller towns. We have people as far as Cedar Rapids, and we have some international members, honestly, that come in for our- for our hybrid classes because they just love it. Um, we saw that spike during the COVID because we were one of a few people that Page 32 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. kind of were able to pivot and provide those services. So yes, we do provide that for anyone. Their price is a little different, but that's because of we know the majority of our funding is coming from the City of Iowa City. [01:42:29] Understand. Yeah. Great work. Thanks. 101:42:33] Yes. Any other question. [01:42:35] Any other question? Thank you. [01:42:38] Thank you. [01:42:39] And I think we have only five minute. I don't think Tracy you need only five minute, do you? [LAUGHTER] If you want to come, you can, Yeah. Yeah. [01:42:55] At 15 minutes is. [01:42:56] Fifteen minutes. [01:42:56] What she's projecting. Is that okay or do you wanna break first? [01:43:001 Uh, what do you guys think? Because I need my 30 minute. I have to go to the house and help my mother before I come. [01:43:08] Okay. Well. [01:43:09] Yeah. If you want yes a year now and. [01:43:13] Take a break until 12:30. Page 33 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [01:43:15] Take a break until 12:30? [01:43:15] Yeah. [01:43:15] Thank you. [01:43:16] You don't have to rush. Even though, I know you're like- you're like, I'll always talk fast. You know, I'll just don't quick. [01:43:22] Yeah. [01:43:22] So nervous. [01:43:23] All right. [01:43:24] Thank you. [01:43:26] Okay, back to the budget session. Uh, and now is Neighborhood and Development Service, Tracy Hightshoes. Welcome, Tracy. [01:43:41] Thank you, Mayor pro tem and counselors. I never know if it's having this presentation before or after lunch is beneficial so I don't know if you come invigorated or in a food coma. I realize my material is kind of dry at times, so if it helps, ask questions, you can interrupt me at any time. So my plan is to talk about our day-to-day operations, then talk about our special projects that we have right now, and then finish with our highlights and challenges for the next year. So our budget starts on page 188, and the budgetary information on 365, MPOs on 388, and the housing authority 495. So in total, neighborhood and development services is about 50 FTEs. Our fiscal year'26 budget is approximately 22.8 million. This is a little bit lower than our 2025 revised budget of 36.5 million. That just means throughout the year, we expect to spend down some of our larger grants like ARPA, pro housing, and different things. We are made up of three divisions; development services, neighborhood services, and the Metropolitan Planning Organization of Johnson County, which I'll ca- I'll just call MPO because it's a lot easier. Um, the development services are urban planning and the building provision. They facilitate our development Page 34 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. process. So anything from comprehensive planning, annexation, zoning, final plans, site plans, building permits, inspections. They also staff our planning and zoning commission, Board of Adjustment Board of Appeals, and the Historic Preservation Commission. Neighborhood Services represents about half the department. They are housing inspection, housing authority, and community development. Fiscal year '25 have seen- we'll see increased activity and as our housing authority grows, you just approved a FSS coordinator, we approved the HPA 2 position that we hired a couple of months ago, and a housing counselor. [01:45:22] Do you have an org chart? Just press over on the computer there. [01:45:27] Yeah. There you go. Sorry. [01:45:29] No, sorry. Thanks. [01:45:31] Um, so like I said, we have three positions that are probably newer, the FSS coordinator housing counselor that we'll anticipa- anticipate hiring next year, and then the HPA 2 position. Housing inspection services inspects almost 20,000 rental units at least every other year. We just had a major milestone. We now inspect at least 40,000 bedrooms in the community. Um, for those with a voucher, inspectors complete all required HUD inspections throughout our jurisdiction, and we receive about probably over 2,000 complaints annually that we handle through NDS, mostly for largest categories for grass and um, snow. The housing authority provides financial assistance to stabilize housing for those in need in our community. We assist more than 1,700 families with low incomes, maintain affordable, safe housing. We own and manage 86.public housing units, 24 permanently affordable units, and administer close to 1,600 housing choice vouchers. We also manage five south district homes as rental property until they can be rehabilitated, well vacated, rehabilitated, and then sold as affordable home ownership. There's always misconceptions about our housing choice voucher program or what some people call Section 8 so I always like to highlight the following information. We serve three counties. We serve Johnson County, Iowa County, and parts of Washington County. We are the second-largest housing authority in the state. Our vouchers are dispersed throughout the county, pretty much in the same relation as our population. So Iowa City has the most vouchers than Covill and North Liberty, than the remaining county. Over half vouchers that we administer are utilized by the elderly or disabled head of household and for our families with children, less than 5% report welfare as the sole source of income. So the families we assist are working, they just can't afford housing in our market. And our voucher program pays over nine million in housing assistance payments to owners of rental properties in Johnson County. It is a source of stability for our participating landlords. We have gained 250 vouchers since the calendar year 2013. These are mostly for special needs populations, veterans experiencing homelessness, or for those people experiencing chronic homelessness. Community development plans and administers housing jobs and service programs to assist those in need with federal state- by using Page 35 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. federal state, local, and private grant dollars. We are called upon to administer federal and state disaster aid to households such as after the floods of 2008 and the pandemic of 2020. They staff the Housing and Community Development Commission. In a typical year, we have not had one since 2020. We administer approximately 2-3 million in projects through the community development block grant program or home program and our local programs such as housing rehabilitation, aid agencies, the South District Affordable Homeownership Program, and Affordable Housing Fund. And typically, all of our programs assist those people under 50% immediate income. Then lastly, but not- not least is the MPO, they are transportation planning wing. They work with all modes of transport vehicle, bike, pedestrian, and transit. They complete traffic studies, prepare and administer transportation -related grants, final federal and state transportation funds to project and programs, develop and review, transportation, concerns for Iowa City, manage our Iowa City traffic calming program, manage traffic signs in the right away- well, overhead street lights in Iowa City and manage the right away and then they handle resident concerns for all things transportation -related. They are governed by and staff two policy boards, the urbanized and rural policy boards that are comprised of elected officials. The urbanized area includes Iowa City, Covill, North Liberty, Tiffin, University Heights, County, University, and the school district. Then for highlights, as many of you know, the major highlight from my department was the award of the pro housing grant. The opportunities created by this grant have the potential to have a profound and lasting impact on our community. It encourages systemic changes to housing policy that can benefit Iowa City for years to come. Over 175 communities applied, only 21 were awarded funding. The grant was written by urban planning, but involved coordination among several of my department to comprehensively address those barriers that reduce housing supply and contribute to diminished affordability. I believe by awarding the grant HUD acknowledged our past efforts of zoning changes to encourage building types other than single-family detached homes, which for any community is not easy to do. Our commitment of local funds and policies to address affordable housing, such as our Affordable Housing Fund, tax increment financing, riverfront cross- Riverfront crossing policies, and our successful history of administering home fund- of HUD funds. In my mind, the grant addresses two critical areas. It addresses our land use policies and code requirements that can serve to limit diversity in housing and lead to increased exclusion and segregation and develops our internal capacity to develop and manage income and re -restricted housing for permanent affordability. As far as land use and code changes, the grant will enable us to update our future land map to better align with our climate action equity and housing goals, that include a diversity of housing throughout the community. In the end, it'll set the stage for a more flexible zoning code that can better adopt a community needs and housing demands. It initiates a rezoning to facilitate a multifamily or a higher density uses, increase the supply of housing types that are typically more affordable, especially more affordable over time and it completes a parking study to review and modify the minimum parking standards required by code. As you recall, parking tells us how many spaces we must accommodate on a building lot to accommodate a dwelling. Higher parking requirements can serve to li- serve to limit development and restrict development options so we hope to adopt lower ratios where feasible. In terms of development capacity, while a city owns and manages 24 non-public housing units, we have not stepped into the role of developer of Affordable Housing since our- ba- basically, we don't develop affordable housing, we acquire it, but now this puts us in a position where we will develop, construct, and then manage it. We'll soon enter a consultant agreement with a firm knowledgeable in finance, housing development to HUD programs. That firm will help us develop a Page 36 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. five-year plan in terms of organizational structure, staffing, a financial plan to get us in the best position to develop and manage affordable housing, and we anticipate the development will be housed within our housing authority. In addition to just the ability to develop, we'll have a pilot project. This is a good combination of our federal funds if this works out. Our ARPA funds allowed us to buy a parcel on North Summit Street and if the environmental review goes as well as we hope, then we can use the funds, our pro -housing grants to do a pilot project there. The pro -housing grant only requires 18 units, but we hope if we use this parcel, we can build up to 36 units. And then last part of the grant is that we'll initiate housing counseling services as a proactive way to help our housing participants navigate the pressing challenge they face in our housing market. It would include housing counseling, credit repair, and fair housing education. And with qualified staff, we hope to have community workshops addressing these same issues. The goal is to become a certified housing counseling agency. Um, and like I said, we anticipate hiring one housing counselor next year. Then I wanted to highlight some of our permit activity. Jeff mentioned this in his presentation. So our 10-year permit value average is 194 million. 2024 came in at 130 million, which is our second lowest with 2020, of course, being our lowest. The good news is that 2024 showed increased single-family activity. Single-family permits bounced back from 54 permits, which was the lowest since 1982, and second lowest as long as we've kept records back to 1963 to 110 in 2024. That being said, we had no family permits in 2024, which is concerning. Replay was a huge student housing project. Their permit was issued in 2023. Staff will be looking closely to follow how our multi -family permits come in in the next year and subsequent years. We had only one duplex permit in 2024. That being said, duplex lot creation, where we haven't entered the permit, but we've created the duplex lot, was the highest in 20 years due to the cardinal height subdivisions, which are mostly duplexes. The installation of instructure has started, so we hope to see those permits coming in soon for the next construction season. Then I always like to highlight upcoming development in the next year. So under construction now was replay, that large student housing development North Myrtle and Riverside. Oaknoll assisted living on Benton Street, Western Homes, a senior housing development, Monument Hills, a subdivision on our northeast part of town by Rochester and Scott Boulevard, and our second Ronald's home. And then projects that should have completed rezoning on our site plans, this upco- upcoming construction season, include ACT, Devon Scholar Home on 313 North Dubuque, a fraternity for caddies, the Clark's multifamily project at 400 North Clinton, which I anticipate will primarily be student housing and then we're working on property owners on potential projects in our form -based code areas. We anticipate zoning text amendments to the form -based code to facilitate our first development this winter, so that'll probably be coming back to you in I'm anticipating February. And then the MPO allocated and program more than 4.6 million in federal operating funds for the three local transit agencies, and we completed the crandic cord or bus rapid trans feasibility study, which is on your tonight's agenda for joint entities. I feel really bad for you because that's a long day. Um, neighborhood services we have initiated in closing in on the completion of the consolidated plan, our guide to how we prioritize and spend our federal funds over the next five years to benefit primarily residents with low to medium incomes. Eric Kuby, our neighborhood service coordinator will be presenting that at your next council meeting. We anticipate the analysis of impediments to fair housing, our regional housing needs assessment, will be ready for your review next month. These documents will help the city make important decisions related to housing policy, planning and implementation. They can help us identify discremenory prac- discriminatory practices, suggests zoning modifications, target resource- target Page 37 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. resources for underserved areas, and highlight where affordable housing is scarce or non-existent. As a Bloomberg, Harvard City Leadership Initiative participant, we worked with Harvard fellows this summer to research our best ways to reposition our public housing. As you know, from previous presentations, our public housing has been losing money for the last four years. It's not sustainable. We had sold public housing about a decade ago so we have sufficient reserves, but we can't afford to keep losing those reserves and that- that missed opportunity to buy additional Affordable Housing or have more affordable housing available to us or even lower the rent that we charge because we have that funds available. So we anticipate bringing forth an agreement with a consulting firm with extensive experience and knowledge in public housing conversions next month. And then our staff worked extensively on meeting our HUD CDBG timeliness measure, which measures how fast we can get our federal funds out. So HUD doesn't allow you to have more than 1.5 times your entitlement amount and your line of credit. They check this measure every- beginning of every May, and if you don't meet this deadline, you have to complete a workout plan with HUD, and decisions whether to cancel a project or reallocate funds can be dictated by HUD instead of the local community. So our goal is always to avoid that situation, ensure timely expenditure of funds. We continue to work with community partners. We have encumbered all 18.3 million of the ARPA funds, working with approximately 30 non-profit and public entities. Our efforts had transitioned to working with recipients to spend their funds in a timely manner in compliance with all program requirements, and funds must be spent by December 31st, 2026. As Jeff mentioned, we partnered with DVIP for State Home ARP Award. Um, they were awarded 3.7 million. They will purchase our property on Kane Street that we previously purchased with land opportunity- our land making or opportunity funds. They'll build up to six townhomes for individuals and families fleeing domestic violence. In addition to development funds, they were also awarded supportive services and operational expenses. I think the state only awarded two grants during that cycle, so it's great that Iowa City was one of them. I do have three concerns. The first being is if our building activity for our growing population meets the demands of all households throughout all their life and their income levels. We are working on our 2024 residential development report. If you recall, this is a report that analyzes residential lot creation and building permit activity in Iowa City. The MPO projects a demand of over 10,000 new residents in Iowa City by 2030. That's the amount of residents that we would increase this decade. Our conclusions will most likely be the similar to last year. We anticipate we'd only be able to house a little over half of our projected demand based on current building activity. So my concern is that we are not adequately producing housing for all stages of life and all income levels. With increasing demand, insufficient supply, inflation, and higher interest rates, we anticipate increasing prices and more affordability issues. We will work to encourage supply of all private market housing. We must work with the development community to help us address overall market affordability and housing for residents at all their life stages. So that leads to my second concern, it's our zoning code. The complexity lacks of flexibility and the number of reviews required. The process is time-consuming, and there's difficulty understanding the requirements amongst enforcement officials, other departments, and the development community. For a community of our size in Iowa, we have a complex code. Cities typically have current zoning designations, conservation, historic districts, sensitive areas, and design overlays. However, in addition, we have four separate codes. We have the Peninsula code, which is still relevant because we have additions and ongoing rehabilitation, we have the Riverfront Crossings Form -Based Code, which contains seven subdistricts with varying requirements. We have the South District Form - Page 38 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Based Code, the Southwest District Form -Based Code, same, code, but with different land use maps, and then we have the East side mixed -use. I'd like to advocate for a code that is easier to understand, easier to find relevant sections, and easier to communicate to be understood by all those in the development community and regulating officials. Most developers do not like uncertainty and prefer to pens out projects to determine feasibility before moving forward to acquisition and development. Our code should be easy to understand and have greater flexibility. After the comprehensive plan future land use map, our update will move to updating our zoning code. And then my final concern is just in general staff capacity as Jeff alluded to with uh, throughout every department in the city. This pandemic is unlike the flood, where most of my departments' assistants went to buyouts and demos or down payment assistance. We're greatly aided by legal with the appraisals and closings. The same type of project was done repeatedly and allowed for expertise. This is different. For the pandemic since 2020, we've received over 22.9 million in federal state, and additional city funds for a variety of needs such as housing, relocation, public facility, public service, economic development, and other activities and all these activities and projects, they trigger different federal and state requirements. These pandemic funds are addition to our regular funds. We have hired one full-time temporary grant specialist to assist. We'd request that this position become permanent. Each new program requires extensive time to determine what requirements apply. We have several ongoing COVID relief problems- programs such as ARPA Homer, CDBGCV, and now the pro -housing grant all in play in addition to our regular day-to-day responsibilities. We'll have multiple consulting contracts for the consolidated plan, the analysis impediments, the regional housing mark analysis coming to a closeout, but we will be entering or starting new ones for the comprehensive plan, the parking study, the public housing repositioning, and the technical assistance to create development arm within the housing authority, as well as self develop our first Affordable Housing Project on North Summit Street. The MPO also, poor timing, but they have the quadrennial four-year planning review by the Federal Highway Administration scheduled this coming year, which is a full review of all MPO functions. So it is daunting. It's exciting time for sure, but not without stress to my staff. We are excited about the opportunities in 2025. We'll continue to tackle as much as we can as effectively as we can, based on the council's- the priorities that council sets. And I'd be happy to take any questions. [02:01:211 I'd be curious to, um, want it. My understanding is the comprehensive plan is already budgeted from- it actually started with last year's budget in this year, is that correct? It did. [02:01:32] What happ- well- [02:01:33] We've plan- we already know- [02:01:34] Yes. Page 39 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:01:34] -that this is happening. We do have- [02:01:35] Between the housing grant and funds that we've already had set aside, we have it paid for. [02:01:39] We're doing it, which is great, and it's much needed. [02:01:42] We've the contract with Confluence, so we've started [LAUGHTER] [02:01:44] Yes. But the- the line that sticks with me is the complexity, lack of flexibility number of reviews in our development process. It sticks with me because I hear it every day in my day job that that's a major complaint. It's just, like, hard to do business or to develop here. Where does the comprehensive plan process overlap with that and address that, and where does it not hit that? And is that the opportunity to actually, when we do the comprehensive plan process, actually address that whole issue? Because it's- to me, it's not just the- the code- it's not just the zoning code, it's building code plus plus plus. [02:02:19] 1 think it's both. [02:02:20] Yeah. [02:02:21] So with the comprehensive plan, right now, a lot of our cities all in the future land use map says it's all single-family residential. So what the comprehensive land use plan, the future land use map, will have us pri- reprioritize, and we probably will look to either up -zone or increase the flexibility to have different types of housing other than single-family residential within the plan. But then the zoning code comes and that- that is where you'll see like the zoning code is the mechanism that enforces that future land use map. So between the comprehensive plan, which hopefully will get more diversity of housing throughout the community, then the zoning code will enforce that. And hopefully, we have more by write development, we have more administrative approvals, things like that, that the zoning code will help with the development process. [02:03:03] Yeah. [02:03:04] So I think it takes both. Page 40 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:03:05] Yeah. And is there a- the comp plan is in full- in flight, is the other piece of that in flight also? [02:03:11] No. The zoning code update will follow the comprehensive plan. [02:03:14] Okay. Immediately, or is that something that you need council direction to do? [02:03:18] 1 think we need the budget. [02:03:20] Yeah. The- the goal would be immediate, but the comp plans are a couple of years. [02:03:25] Yeah. [02:03:25] Before that's adopted. So we haven't really started to plan for that. But the comp plan is going to lay the justification out for making all those changes. [02:03:35] Should they overlap a little bit? So as the comp plan or land use plans are being revised, and the comp plan is being developed, the development process is sort of the part 3 of that? [02:03:47] It sh- it should be seamless. I'm not sure about how much it overlaps, but certainly, it should flow right in. You want that conver- you don't want that conversation to die out and then have to bring it back, right? [02:03:581 Right. Um, the next thing is, that's sort of a separate issue is- is- is City acting as the developer of affordable housing, which is interesting. Um, I'm curious, the process that you're going to engage this year. Is that to sort of test the feasibility of that, or is that like we're doing this? We're going to start being- acting as developer? [02:04:21] Well, yeah, we- we'll be doing it. However, what- a consultant will help us with. Um, and we've just interviewed the consultants, and we're going through the process of narrowing down who we're going to hire. They'll help us sit down with a five-year plan, which includes staffing models. We know we have Page 41 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. to hire people, but who- what kind of position do we have to hire? Um, staffing models, legal organization. Different housing authorities are organized different ways. Um, and then we'll help us with the financial forecasting. So that development will do all that. They estimate it to be a 3-4, 5-month process, and then we'll start the- with the pilot project of actually developing that pilot project. [02:04:53] So does this budget reflect the increased staff that would be needed to do that work? [02:04:57] The pro -housing grant pays for the consultant. [02:04:59] Okay. Okay. [02:05:01] Yes. And the pro -housing grant also pays for, um, a developed specialist. I don't know what the title was in the- in the grant application, but someone to kind of lead the development arm of the, um, housing authority? [02:05:14] Not just the study, but the actual potential new hires that we'd take on in five months? [02:05:20] Honestly, I think we have to wait for the 3-5 months because for a housing authority our size, they might say hire someone, or they'll basically, it might be we con- we contract out with a firm to do that. So we'll wait to see what that analysis, and what our best step forward is like for that next five years, how do we get from point A to point B? How do we- how do we become a developer? [02:05:38] Okay. [02:05:40] 1 have a question that, um, [NOISE] has to do with sort of the- the way in which you were talking about permits, and, I mean, essentially bringing business in and- and how we're tracking it. Um, I know that - that we've got I think Iowa City or sorry, um, like, a name behind, Greater Iowa City Inc., has, you know, taken up particular areas within each of the municipalities as an area of interest that they're going to really be advocating for for development and what have you. And so I was wondering then within the city in terms of economic development, and then the relationship between that, like, trying to bring in more developers. Your area, as large as it is, isn't really doing that advocacy piece. It's more like we're just- we're managing it all, right? But is there a relationship between the departments where there's the, like, whether it's Rachel or, um, others who are really doing that work to in- attract people to come in and build? Like, is there a relationship between your department and those? And I'm kind of looking. Page 42 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:06:51] We have a development committee meet- [02:06:52] Yeah. [02:06:53] -development committee that meets [inaudible 02:06:541 City Manager office, including Rachel on economic development issues. [02:06:59] Right. [02:06:59] We also work like on our new form -based code. Since we're working on that first development now, we will have a guide to make it like a summary guide, so- and we'll have -some education, some workshops. And once that's ready, we'll wait until the- the text amendments that you're going to see, um, this winter. When those are finalized incorporated, we work with Greater Iowa City, with our Economic Development Office to publicize that and to get people to come in because what I'm hearing from developers is some of the hesitancy to develop in our form -based code is because- [02:07:27] They don't know. [02:07:27] -they don't know it. It's hard, I mean, it's a lot of pages to look through, so we're hoping that summary guide helps out quite a bit. Um, and they just can't pencil it like they could like a normal RS5 development. So we're hoping with greater education, easier materials that we'll get more development, plus we're hoping with that first development, when people see it, um, that more- [02:07:49] A model. Okay. [02:07:51] So yeah, we'll work with whoever we can. [02:07:54] Yeah. [02:07:54] And I think that - Page 43 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:07:55] 1 just knew that, I mean, your- there's so many pieces that you're already doing that that isn't one of them, but to- to think about how there- there could be that. And I saw you nod when I asked [OVERLAPPING] [02:08:04] Yeah, we worked- we worked pretty closely. I think we're connecting on a daily basis-. [02:08:09] That's great. [02:08:09] -on most days. And Rachel's out doing that work, our office is- is doing that work as well. And then we've got our partners, like you mentioned with Greater Iowa City that are out as well. [02:08:18] Thank you. [02:08:19] 1 think those week- weekly development committee meetings when a developer has a concept, and they want to come and talk to us. Those have been- we have been good- we've been getting good feedback about that. So- so hopefully more developers take us up on that. [02:08:30] Tracy, you mentioned in the staff capacity concern or challenge, uh, item that the grant specialist was temporary, and you want that to be permanent. Is that position permanency reflected in this budget? [02:08:43] No. [02:08:43] Okay. [02:08:44] Between our ARPA funds and our pro -housing grant, um, that position is stable probably for the next three years. This is after that. I just see with every opportunity comes more opportunities and like if we get hou- if we get the Pro -Housing 2 grant, we apply for other things, I just see the need being there. Sc yeah, I mean, yeah, we'd love for that position to be permanent. [02:09:04] Thank you. Page 44 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:09:11] All right. Well, thank you. [02:09:23] Good afternoon, everyone. Darian Nagle-Gamm, Director of Transportation Services, and I'm happy to be here today to provide our annual update on the state of business and transportation services. Um, of course, our mission is to provide safe, affordable, reliable, and sustainable transportion services to the community. And we do this by helping Iowa City get around by bike, by bus, on foot, or by car. And we do this by directly providing public transit service, of course, and we also manage the vehicle and bicycle parking in the downtown area, but we also manage the maintenance of the central business district, so the downtown, the ped mall area, to make sure we have a safe, welcoming, attractive environment, and an attractive downtown that people want to visit. And if you're following along in your budget flip book, transportation services starts on Page 253. And I'm first going to talk a little bit high level about divisions and staffing. We have approximately 81 employees in transportation services in the proposed budget. This is the third, to give you a sense of scale, this is the third -largest department in terms of employees in the city. And we do this across three different divisions and across 12 different activities. First division I'll jump into is Transportation Services Admin, and that is, uh, myself and Mark Rummel, who's the Associate Director. Second division is our parking division, and parking division makes up about a third of our total employees of the Transportation Services Department. And within parking, we manage- it's probably pretty self-explanatory, but I want to lay it out for you. We- we manage six ramps in the downtown, approximately 1,200 on street -metered parking spaces. So there's a lot of equipment out there in the right of away we manage. Um, there's about 20 short-term, uh, loading zones in the downtown that we also manage. We also manage enforcement, um, of, um, parking in the downtown area, and of course, maintenance of all of those facilities. In terms of transit, which is the larger division within our department, it takes approximately 2/3 of that 81 employees just to get the transit system roll on every single day. Uh, we have 13 routes, we operate about 17 hours a day, about 12 hours a day on the weekends. And, uh, we also contract paratransit services. We don't manage that in-house, but we do contract that through Johnson County seat, so they provide that service for our community. In your proposed budget today, you will see, uh, a $15.9 million proposal for transportation services. Again, the proportions even, uh, are pretty consistent amongst our employees and the percentage that are allocated to each budget. Um, the Transportation Services Admin makes up the smallest proportion at 442,000, parking is proposed at 5.3 million, and transit is proposed at 10.1 million. So, again, about 1/3 of the budget is allocated towards parking and about 2/3 towards, um, transit with a smaller slither going towards Transportation Services Admin. As Jeff mentioned earlier, and as we mentioned back in August, um, you know, Fare -Free Transit, we are in the middle of a- a really exciting kind of transition - inflection point with transit service in the city of Iowa City. And as we mentioned in August, we were going to come back with some, um, some thoughts on how we could potentially fund Fare -Free Transit going forward. Jeff mentioned earlier today that we were looking at increasing- uh, or the proposal also increases, uh, the proposal also includes an increase of 1% to that utility tax to help fund Fare -Free Transit going forward. Jeff also did a really good job of articulating that that's a really static number, and unfortunately, our costs aren't as static as- as we would like to maybe see them be year -over -year, so Page 45 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. that's something that we're going to be evaluating in the future. That is, of course, in addition to the additional support we're looking from the parking division to help support Fare -Free Transit going forward. And on that note, so I want to transition to- to highlights. We'll talk about transit before we - we transition over to- to parking. But I think the first highlight really to mention, and Jeff did a great job articulating it earlier, but the ridership increases over the last two years have been so exciting to watch. Uh, 43% increase in the first year of the Fare -Free pilot, which was amazing. And it exceeded my expectations. Um, so that was a 450,000 more rides on transit after we removed that fare, and just remove that barrier, made it easier for people to just hop on board. Um, but that's not where it stops. Um, so we're halfway through the second year of the Fare -Free pilot, and very surprised, very pleasantly surprised. And I can report, um, very happily that we were up 20% over the previous year, which means, um, you know, we haven't changed anything service -wise. Like, removing the fare is a big lever that you can pull to induce ridership. We didn't have that lever to pull in terms of transit service, we didn't, um, we didn't make any- many changes to transit service. What I will say we did was worked really closely with the climate action team and the communications team. And again, it was that engagement that Jeff was- interdepartmental engagement that Jeff was referring to earlier to create a really fantastic, uh, outreach and education campaign. So you've seen messaging regarding Fare -Free. Whether it's the fear - free transit Halloween messaging, or you know, just really creative messaging digital, um, and otherwise messaging that's going out. So I think that's making a difference. I think that's one of the things that's making a difference, and we meet every three weeks to talk about promoting Fare -Free and how we can move it to the next level, and how we can continue to inspire the community to- to take transit. So I think that's one, um, thing I definitely wanted to highlight, but I think the increased parking fees also made a difference. I think it made it easier for people who maybe were considering, um, you know, transit. You know, I think it- it did inc- incite some writers to- to, you know, leave our car at home and hop on transit instead. So I think the combination of those two and, um, changes are what is really driving that 20% increase we've seen year to date so far. Counselor Alter, you asked earlier today about, you know, where we're at in terms of, you know, pre -pandemic levels. That's the measures- that's the yardstick for which we're measuring a lot of things. And we- we just about got to our pre -pandemic level, our FY19 level in the last fiscal year that ended. So we were 60,000 rides short. So we were very close. We were very excited to be back. And now we're forecasting. If we continue to increase, if ridership continues on the trend that it has for this half of FY25 fiscal year, um, we're projected to- to move past pre -pandemic levels by 23% by the end of the year, which, um, would be approximately 1.8 mil- over 1.8 million rides on transit, um, this year, if all- if the trends all hold so far, so very exciting news. [02:16:26] Also, in addition, um, so we had, um, gone through the Harvard Bloomberg, and that's the next pivot point here, the Harvard Bloomberg City Leadership Initiative program. Um, it was a really incredible opportunity for us to be able- to learn how to use data to better inform all of our decision -making, um, as a- a department and as an organization, and how to more strategically approach, um, the wide variety of really big community challenges. And we applied, uh, this performance management process that we learned to increasing ridership in Iowa City. It's been a strategic plan goal for the better part of the last 10 years and it was a really great opportunity. It's one we've already been working on, but it was Page 46 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. great to dive in, get this, um, education's management, development training and apply it, um, to- to this- to this community problem. Everything from what's a great process for really figuring out what the problem is, like, defining the problem, all the way to, you know, developing metrics for use so that you can understand how, um, you can measure success along the path, developing interventions or solutions for the problem. You know, setting goals was a big part of that, um, developing and reporting, and also, you know, uh, and at least in our instance, we've developed monthly meetings in our department, performance management meetings where we just sit down and talk about what the data is telling us. And that's a real big deal in our environment because we're highly reactive in transportation. It is we plan, plan, plan, but a lot of our days truly are spent reacting to what's happening on a day-to-day basis. So it's a precious, um, couple of hours we get every month and I think staff has really enjoyed it. We've all become more data -literate in the process. We get to spend time, you know, digesting the data, thinking about it, um, talking it through with our team. Um, it's really elevating everything that we're doing, so we're really excited about those skills and how we can- how we can put those into play, um, both in our department for other problems and across the organization. And one thing I want to share that came out of that process was, um, you know, we've been- we've been clearly working towards increasing our ridership, but we didn't have a real specific goal. And we use this- or we use this as an opportunity to develop a very specific goal. So we- our goal to- in order to meet our climate action goals by 2030, we know we are going to need 1.91 million rides on transit. So we have a goal. Now, we have something to shoot for. Um, when we set this goal, we also knew that we needed approximately, uh, 68,000 additional rides each year, um, up till 2030 in order to hit that goal. Um, so far, year-to-date, we've already, um, netted 150,000 more rides on transit. So we are well above our pace to reach our goal for this year and then honestly, we're going to be knocking on the door of the 1.91 million if we continue at the rate that we're going right now. So some excited work came out of that program that I wanted to share, um, and again, we're really excited for how we can take those skills and- and- um, and implement them for the future. Transit facility is also, um, I'm very excited to say, we have kicked off, we've commenced the transit facility planning process, the design process. Um, we're working with of course, equipment on co -locating on, uh, the public works campus. Um, we've been planning this for many, many years, um, so- and we just had our first, um, sets of design team meetings with our team, so it's feeling very real now, which is really exciting. Um, and so that process, we're going to have updates for you, um, throughout the year and certainly next year, we're looking forward to what we have to share, um, but things are just kicking off right now. Um, in terms of staffing, this is both a challenge and a highlight. Um, we had a record -setting amount of turnover, I would say. We hired 14, um, new employees over the last year, which was, again, a challenge, to be sure and a big accomplishment. Um, the team really rallied, um, to both cover open shifts. Again, we can't- the buses can't call in sick. We've got a commitment to the community, so it's- it- it's part of that daily scramble that I- that I'm talking about, um, making sure we have things covered. So, um, it was an extraordinary effort. We've developed a real solid- we've really enhanced our- our training program. On average, we used to have, I'd say, maybe 2-3 per year, so that gives you the sense of scale. And it's, again, a big time commitment to make sure that people are onboarded in a way that they're going to be successful, and, um, they're prepared for all the things that can happen out on the road. So it was a- it was a- it was a big challenge, um, for us, but I am so- um, so proud of how the team persevered. It got through it. We partnered with the university to help us with some training, um, with our entry-level driver training. So,now it's kind of Page 47 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. we're open, um, to a broader cross-section of the community because, um, whether you have a CDL or not, we can get you trained and we have a system for that now and that's I think going to really benefit us. It- it certainly is benefiting us now, it will definitely benefit us in the future. Uh, in terms of staffing, that's- I wouldn't say that's our only challenge. We're- we're constantly looking for ways that we can make our- [NOISE] especially our- um, our new driver shifts more. We have a- a wide variety of, uh, a wide span of hours that we need to cover and our newest drivers, we have a seniority -based system for picking runs or picking shifts, if you will. And so the newest ones have the least amount of choice in their shifts. And those, um, shifts can quite honestly just be really challenging for people, um, because of the - again, the 17 hours of coverage we need in a day. So we're kind of constantly looking for ways that we can help make the shifts more predictable, um, and make an environment, um, that, um, you know, we can be as- as accommodating as possible to help make, um- to help with that turnover with our newest group, whereas where we- we tend to see the most, um, turnover we have in the last year. We've also had some fleet challenges. So, um, you may have heard in the news our- our- our electric bus manufacturer filed through Chapter 11. They were bought out by another company. Um, er, I don't know if that other company was fully prepared for- to take on the support and, um, necessary. And we've been having an increasingly challenging time getting the support and the parts, um, necessary to keep the electric buses on the road. So you're always going to see one or two, but we haven't been able to keep them all on the road. We have some- we have some, um, er, I would say congenital issues with some of the buses, um, that's requiring major- basically major repairs. So it's been- it's been a challenge. And not only just- we knew it was going to be a challenge and a learning curve, um, and everybody was willing to kind of jump in and, like, let's learn this new technology, but we also knew we were going to rely heavily on support from our manufacturer and that's what's lacking right now. So we still think this is the direction clearly that we need to head. It's clearly the direction that the, um, the industry is heading, but we're having challenges right now because of our equipment and our lack of support we're getting from our manufacturer. It's also, um- it's also basically creating a situation where we're putting additional stress on our diesel buses, more miles on those buses that we thought we were going to be able to spread out a little bit more evenly. Um, but with the reliability of the electrics because of these issues, um, that we have just- it's taken a lot longer to get through each one of those issues is- has created more and more maintenance challenges. So that's something that we are- we're- we're facing with right now and it's- um, er, and it's a day-to-day, day-to-day, um, operation for us to make sure we have enough buses to provide the service. And then the last, um, challenge I want to leave with before I talk about next steps is just again, you've heard me, um, mention this before, but there's just, you know, an increase in aggressive behavior in s- that societal shift that happened at the pandemic. It's not just our industry. I think a lot of public -facing, um, industries are having the same challenges. Um, so trying to cr- again, create an environment where we can make things as safe and comfortable for staff as possible, whether that's, um, CIP projects, which you'll hear from mein a couple of weeks, you know, driver barriers, ha- handheld, um, radios so they can have more private conversations, those sorts of things. Um, whether it's de-escalation training or us updating our policies such as the- the code of conduct that, ah, we brought before you in the last couple of sessions. Those are we're kind of taking an all -hands approach in different, um, angles to try to, uh, support our staff as much as possible, um, to help be able to navigate- give them tools they need to be able to navigate, um, you know, challenging situations that might pop up from time to time. All right, next step. So, um, Jeff, er, Jeff, um, gave us a Page 48 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. prelude to this earlier, but we are kicking off the bus stop improvement program. Uh, I'm very excited about this. This one has been on the agenda for- for some time too. So we're having our first meeting towards the end of the month working with, um, with the engineering team to help get this fired up. But our plan is to basically evaluate all of- get, you know, a comprehensive evaluation of every transit stop in the community, um, and determine what steps we need to improve the amenities, to make sure there's ADA access, um, all of that, to make our stops more safe and comfortable, make it again, a system that - system of choice that people want to use. So we're firing that up this month. I already gave you, um, a preview of the transit facility. Um, we are, um, a- a procurement in terms of buses because we really need, um- we really need additional buses right now. We do have some funding. Um, we were awarded 19 million for the transit facility, which I love to say that. Er, remind me that, um, that when we have that money come and that's helping to fund, um, that big project. But we also had five million for buses too included in that same grant, which was really fantastic. And we are- uh, four buses, I should say. And we are- we are beginning to move forward. It was- it's been a little complicated because we had planned to pair with our former manufacturer. We have to kind of disentangle that, um, and then reattach ourselves to another manufacturer, so we're working through those nuts and bolts, but we're hoping to get that procurement process rolling this year. It's going to take about two years manufacturing -wise before the buses would arrive. And, um, again, just continuing to- last thing is just continuing to promote the heck out of the Fair Free program and transit in general and its economic, climate action, um, and other benefits for the community. So, um, park- I'm gonna pivot to parking now. [02:26:52] Can I ask you a quick question? (02:26:53] Sure. [02:26:53] On your, um, you said it's, er, the- the bus stop improvement project that you're going to embark on a comprehensive study of all of them. For some reason, this has taken me back a bit. Um, maybe 2018, there was a pretty extensive bus study done, right? And I want to say at that time, that also was wrapped up in that, sort of, like, the- the quality of bus stops. Is that something that you can draw on so it's not- or a- a- are you planning on drawing on some of that to be able to help inform this rather than starting from ground zero up? I know a lot has changed since 2018, but, um, I was just wondering if you could, you know, kind of take some of the data that you already have, um, to be able to maybe find some shortcuts. [02:27:401 Ah, yeah, that's a great point, yes. So our consultants for the transit study also did kind of a big picture- [02:27:46] Yeah. Page 49 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:27:46] - amenity analysis. Like, what is the standard today? What kind of standard do we need to set, um, for bus stops? They didn't do a- a full inventory of the bus stops, but they did kind of set the stage for what the amenities that we should be evaluating today are, what our transit stops should look like. So I think what- where that's going to be really useful is when they're- they're not only going to inventory. The idea is that this- this consultant team doesn't only inventory, but they also make recommendations. So I think that they're going to be able to draw from our previous recommendations, um, to help, um, lay out a strategy for the recommendations and then the- the actual maintenance plan, the CIP plan, to help to put those into place. So yeah, it'll be kind of- the end product will be a marriage between the two. Any other questions on transit before we pivot to parking? Okay. All right. So I always like to start with this highlight. Um, it's- It's a fun one. But so we finished our 11th year of first hour free in the parking ramps and this last year, fiscal year, we- we gave away 882,251 free hours of parking. So that was quite a number. Um, it's about where we have fallen in previous- I'd say pre -pandemic levels,. so things are starting to sort of move back in that direction. Um, but I always like to start off with that- with that one because it's been a really popular program in terms of parking. Speaking of popular programs, the next one I want to highlight is the Block by Block or the Downtown Ambassador program. That has, um, been a real game changer for downtown. We have historically had a janitorial services contractor in the downtown, um, area, but we were decreasingly getting the amount of service that we really need and probably with increasing needs in the downtown as well and, um, pivoted towards a- a company block by block that really focuses on maintenance in downtown areas. Like, that is their bread and butter, that is what they do across the country. So they're really familiar with the types of challenges, um, events, festivals, you know, football games, um, nightlife, all of that. They're really familiar with that and- and it really shows. So they launched on June 1st, so n- you know, nothing like jumping in with two feet, um, festival season at Arts Fest, um, is when they kicked off. And I think they've done a great job. You'll see them in the red outfits downtown. They're hard to miss. Um, they do everything from janitorial work, trash, power washing, sweeping, graffiti removal, um, detail cleaning, that sort of thing, and they're supporting the ramps and the central business district, the Ped Mall, I shouldn't mention. But they also have an ambassador role. So this is not something we got from our janitorial services contractors before. They're greeting people, they're providing wayfinding. They will jump your car if, um, if you need a jump. They will help- they will do a walk you to- to your car if you feel uncomfortable. They- they provide a wide range of services which, um, is really fantastic. Snow removal, they were helping. Um, we haven't had too much, hopefully knock on wood that con- continues from a work perspective. But they, uh- they are going to be helping us clear the- the crosswalks, the curb cuts in the downtown, which i- for those of you who have been around, that's a challenge every single year, um, with- with the curb cut. So that's been their way that they're plugging into our- our snow ops. Um, so we've received many positive comments on, um, on their work. We've seen it ourselves. We- as each passing season goes by, we see ourselves as- as partners because we have maintenance staff, um, Department, um, Transportation Services has maintenance staff too, and we see ourselves as partners and we meet on a weekly basis. Um, we're- we're getting our teams close so everybody knows each other. We see ourselves as all being on the same mission. So we've been working on and doing a lot of- um, of team building as of late, um, because again, we all have the same mission. So it's been a very- we're really pleased with how that program is working out. And as we get, you know, a full season of each season under our belts, because Page 50 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. they're all a little bit different in Iowa City. We think it's just going to strengthen operations and- and have better results for downtown. Um, of course, um, must mention the parking and citation fine increase as well. Um, we did launch that. We had all new systems, so this was the first time we had gone through this process with our- with all of our new systems. We have new parking systems, new- new enforcement systems. So it was a bit of- of a new mobile payment app. So it was a bit of a, um, challenge, but I think staff did a really great job navigating those challenge and making sure we were, uh, prepared for that process. Okay, pivoting to some of the challenges. Um, age and condition of parking facilities. You're going to hear me talk a little bit more about this in the upcoming CIP, so I won't [NOISE] get into all the details, but just know that's- that's an issue. But I will say in terms of the condition of facilities having Block by Block, um, and their staffing to be able to maintain the facilities like the garbage pickup and cleaning and detail cleaning, um, in addition to what our staff is able to do, has been tremendously beneficial. So they're a better environment, um, but again, they're still older buildings, so we have those challenges. [02:32:52] Safety concerns, again, the rising and aggressive behavior. We're doing all the same things on the parking that we're trying to do on the transit side to- to again, make people feel safe and comfortable. We're updating our protocols, our processes, how we respond, providing de-escalation training. Just a number of things to help again, make it, um, because, you know, our- our department in general is wandering throughout the community not wandering- doing their jobs, but moving throughout the community on a daily basis. We aren't in one, you know, secure area we can swap behind. And- and so we really have to upskill our team, um, and they often will be working independently. So that's something that we're working on, um, continually working on both parking and transit. And then last but not least, I just wanted to mention the budget. Jeff alluded to this earlier, so we're- we're observing - we're watching how the budget, the parking revenue increases. They're coming in less than what we expected. I think it's not uncommon to have and actually expected to have somewhat of a decrease in demand when you have an increase in prices. What is less known is an increase in prices with the free transportation alternative. I don't think that that's been studied in many places. So we're continuing to watch and evaluate, um, that because, of course, it's- it's- that- that increase was designated to help support our block by block operations, our aging facilities, um, and also fare free. So it impacts the whole department. So that's something that we're closely watching. [02:34:18] Miriam, actually, um, you triggered a question that I had earlier. Is it, as you say, time will tell. But I was wondering, too, because we had, [NOISE] excuse me, a great deal of construction that kind of shut down some street parking. And then also we have had, um, some ramps that have had more limited parking because of repairs. Does that figure in? Do you think- do you think that that might be part of it? I know that probably in the big picture, those are just little slivers. But, um, based on the fact that the- the fare - the parking rate hike really has not been in effect that long, I was wondering because it kind of coincides with some of those times when actually street parking and ramp parking was decreased. [02:35:04] Page 51 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. It could be making, uh, a small difference. I would say for those people that are creatures of habit, and they only go to one facility, and maybe they don't know the system as much. Maybe it's impacting their behaviors, but on the whole- looking at the whole system, there's been more capacity than we have seen. Mid day capacity, we look at the 10-2, that's kind of our bread and butter. If there's capacity at 10- 2, and the full signs aren't on, um, and that's different. That's, you know, and there could be some post pandemic changes in there too, but there's nothing definitive that we can point to. I mean, people are, you know, traveling a little bit differently and whatnot, but it's- it's hard to suss out exactly what is what. But on the whole, there is capacity in the system pretty consistently, even in capital, which is, you know, that's usually the bell weather. So it's probably a smaller impact. All right. And then the last thing before I wrap up is just, um, in terms of next steps, rehabilitation of bike parking downtown, we're pivoting from the- the hangar racks for those who ride bikes, know what hanger racks are. It looks like a- a clothing hanger. Um, they're a little harder to park to a U rack system. So we're pivoting to that. We've been working on conceptualizing the implementation of some flex zones downtown to help increase the amount of commercial parking available for large vehicles when, um, when they need it most, which tends to be the early morning hours. Parking facility maintenance. We'll talk more about that at CIP. It is definitely a hot item for us this year. And then- and then I neglected to mention this on the transit side, but it's both sides. But really, again, standing up our analytics and reporting game, if you will, with our department. So we've gone, um, we've got some really great internal reporting. We've got some really great metrics. We've got an excellent management analyst on staff who's creating really effective tools for us to use, and we look forward to basically taking that and kind of going to [inaudible 02:37.:00] next year and moving that to the next level. So I'm happy to answer any questions you all might have. [02:37:07] A few years ago, we wanted to do the bike share Any status of any micro transportation sharing programs that you can talk about. [02:37:19] It's still on the list. [02:37:20] Okay. [02:37:20] It still is. We've had, I mean, with the major changes with the fare free and the transit facility coming online, um, and not knowing. I think it's been a matter of staff time to be able to dedicate to it, but we do still have it on our- on our list, and that's on our long-term plan is to- to help bring some sort of short- term micromobility cause maybe it's not a bike, maybe it's scooters or who knows what's coming next flying, this, that or the other. So, um, but it's on- it's on our list. It just yes, pressing matters have kind of bumped it down. And all the challenges that we continually had doing it, um, I suspect we'll probably still have those, but, yeah, that's where things are at right now. [02:38:00] Page 52 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services.. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. And we're talking tonight at joint entities about, uh, regional transportation and potential activation of the credit line. How does your department see that since, you know, we're not budgeting anything? Should the area wish to do something for that? Like, how are you thinking about that? [02:38:15] So I think it's an interesting proposition. I mean, my thoughts go to, you know, how is it going to be operated? Who would operate it? How would it interconnect to our system? That's a big way that we're looking at this. How could we connect it to our transit system, so people could get across the metro area faster and potentially, you know, to the other side of the east side of Iowa City faster? So I think there's - there's a real opportunity, um, to- and it's also a really well situated, um, corridor. So it would be fantastic to see it used in some way shape or form, whether that's, you know, whether that's passenger rail, whether that's bus rapid transit, whether that's even a bike trail, you know, to be able to use that, I think would be great. But we're looking at it from- our questions are, you know, who is going to operate? How will it connect into our systems, and, you know, how are we- how are we going to make it- how we're going to utilize- how are we going to basically connect it with what we already have right now? [02:39:091 I'm not sure whether this is for you or for finance or for the city manager, but I think- I think that this budget piece is probably one of the more complicated ones for me to fully understand because there's a piece of general budget, there's enterprise funds, there's capital improvement funds, and it's hard for me to sort of stack all these together. And I've never fully understood the enterprise fund component, because we know that parking for itself could potentially pay for itself. My understanding is that's kind of the way it was structured long long ago was we didn't want taxpayers to pay for parking garages. We're going to make parkers pay for parking garages. Um, now, with transit is- is maybe never been actually operated like a traditional business, that self -supported itself, but yet we call it an enterprise fund. Can you- can you untease all this? Cause I have a hard time explaining it to anybody who asked to me because I said, well, how- how much does the bus cost? I'm like, well, look here here here and here, and I'm not really sure. [02:40:08] I'll look to Nicole to jump in on this, but the parking is a kind of true enterprise, and its- and it's in the sense that you're thinking of it, transit is- is a little bit different because it's- it's got your federal operating support, but you also have a property tax levy that is just for- for transit. So it does have property tax dollars, uh, going into it. The idea with the parking funds would be excess parking funds would be transferred into the the transit. So starting to view those as complimentary. It blurs the lines a little bit, certainly, but, uh, um, I think the- the two are related when you think of just how people move in general, multiple modes. Um, so it's a- it's a little bit of a- a messier enterprise, if you will. Um, but, uh, still operates. We- we would still operate that as an enterprise. Nicole, anything else? [02:41:07] Page 53 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah, I mean, they're definitely both enterprise, and I get what you're saying. There's money all over, but the general fund isn't really to bring in that levy, pay for those little bit of expenses and- and push it out to transit. So everything's still running through this transit fund. Same with the capital. It's running out of here to go to the capital, same with parking. Any of the capital stuff. You see some of this and there are transfers out. That's what's going to fund those capital projects. So you're seeing everything within these enterprise funds. It may look like it's in different pieces, but ultimately, it's running through these. [02:41:42] And there's no legal requirement to keep money from an enterprise fund within, you can transfer out. Like, we can transfer out parking enterprise funds to another enterprise fund. There's no- there's no - we're not running afoul of any rules in that way. It's just sort of our- ourselves- keeping ourselves accountable to- to this, or is it a state function? [02:42:02] There's- there is some rules, but really we have to make sure that parking is paying for itself first before we look at it going somewhere else. [02:42:13] Normally, that's not the case. We're not making profit. Like normally, just like everything cover, at least and sometime even doesn't cover, right? [02:42:23] All the enterprise funds, right? Is there- our expenses are less than our revenue, but that's going somewhere, right? We're holding it to then pay for future capital projects. It's not- it's not a for profit. We're not giving it to the shareholders. It's reinvest back into the system. [02:42:40] Yes. But, I mean, like normally, we don't get, like, a lot of money back. So we can say, oh, now we have this money, we can use it to do that. Because of the way that we don't overcharge the parking. We don't do those kind of things. Maybe, like, little will be remain or if not. [02:42:59] Right. We're hoping to charge enough to be able to fund these capital projects, right? We need to repair our parking facilities, and that isn't $100,000, and we'll talk about it next week. Those are big chunks of change. It's going to take a while to build it up. So should our fees be high enough to help pay for that at some point. [02:43:18] Yeah. [02:43:18] Page 54 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. The reason I think I've kind of brought this up is just because I- I know people who were originally involved in like in the 70s of making sure that taxpayers didn't pay for parking garages in Iowa City, and that it wasn't set up, like, in Coralville, where it might seem like you're parking for free, you're really not. The taxpayers of Coralville are paying for you to park for free. And I- I like the way we've structured our system, and I just wanted to make sure that we're maintaining that integrity of that system, where taxpayers don't have to pay for the parking garages in the way- in the same way. I'm- is that the way that we're kind of thinking about parking is is that we don't want our general funds to go to pay for parking garage, is it possible? [02:44:00] That's correct. [02:44:00] Okay. I- [02:44:01] 1 think at least that's how we function right now. (02:44:04] Right. [02:44:05] It is, but I think we're going to learn in the CIP that we have some pretty expensive parking garage things to address in the coming. And I think everybody loves the free bus. Like, this is I should probably just come out and say, I love the free bus. We need to figure out way to pay for it. I just continue to have pause that it's the right mechanism to support the free bus is to take money out of the parking enterprise fund to support it. [02:44:29] Yeah. And- and if we get to the point where we need to borrow money to invest in our- our decks, we can also look at revenue bonds that are not supported by the property tax base of Iowa City, but supported by the, uh, parking rate. Uh, and that's how parking facilities have been funded in the past, as well. [02:44:49] Okay. I just feel like I've brought this up numerous times. I should expand the thinking on why I care about this. [02:44:59] Any another question, Dana? [02:45:02] Page 55 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Thank you. [02:45:03] Okay. Next is our airport. [02:45:09] Hey, that's nice straight line of an org chart. [LAUGHTER] Good afternoon. Mayor Pro Tem, Counsellors. I'm Mike Tharpe. I'm the airport manager. The airport budget is pretty straightforward. We're running an airport. Uh, the airport facility is a facility that can trace its origins to 1918. Uh, we have two runways with a maximum landing distance of 5,002 feet. Uh, we have approximately 30,000 operations a year. Uh, an operation is a takeoff or landing of an aircraft, and we have 96 based airplanes on the field. Uh, we also have three businesses that are located at the airport. Jet Air is our airport concessionaire. They provide aircraft, uh, charter flight training, uh, maintenance services, refueling, and they serve as our grounds keepers and, uh, general, uh, maintenance support staff at the airport. Uh, Care Ambulance is an ambulatory company, as the name would suggest. Uh, they provide ground transportation for medical flights and other, uh, hospital related services in the area. And then we have the operator performance lab, which is a university research lab out of the College of Engineering. And, uh, Dr. Tom Schnell and his crew do a lot of, uh, human factors and communications type research, along with partnerships, of Rockwell Collins, Raytheon, whatever they're calling themselves these days, [LAUGHTER] and other organizations within the, uh, federal government. Uh, along with that, we have 15 buildings of varying areas, or one of our oldest buildings is our 1951 terminal building, which provides its own unique challenges. Uh, and according to the Iowa DOT, uh, the airport itself is responsible for $24 million of economic impact to the Iowa City area. So for the low low price of zero general levy dollars, uh, we are providing $24 million of economic impact. With the money we do raise, which is about $450,000 a year, those funds are coming primarily from our hangar rents. Uh, that's about 70% of our income, our fuel flowage fee. So every time somebody buys a gallon of gas at the airport, the airport gets a fee off of that. That fee is $0.15 a gallon now. That generates about 15% of our income, and then rest of it comes from general ground leasing, uh, which includes the farm lease of roughly about 110 acres of- of ground that we have. Um, beyond that, we host a number of events over the course of the year, whether it's the pancake breakfast, with the Optimist Club. Uh, we partner with the Summer of the Arts group to do drive in movies at the airport. Uh, we partner with the Experimental Aircraft Association to host Young Eagles Days, which is a program that they do provides free aircraft rides for kids to try to spark that aviation interest in the next generation of fliers. And we also work with, uh, Greater Iowa City is part of the business leadership programs. Uh, we host part of their economic development day to educate people about how the importance of airports and how we are part of that economic engine that helped makes the- the city go. Um, we'll talk about our capital, uh, program in the next couple of weeks, uh, but we do get $100,000 from the general levy that we use for grant matching funds. Uh, we can turn that $100,000 into, you know, 1 million, $2 million based on the grant matching programs and how the state and the federal government uh, supports the airport with- with those funds. Uh, and our challenges, basically, it's the age of our buildings, for the most part, age of the buildings and our ability to generate new revenue with the ground we have. Um, as noted with the 70% of our hangar rentals, additional hangar- hangar development is needed for both taking care of our wait Page 56 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. list. We do have a wait list of about 30 airplanes, give or take, uh, folks that are also on the list that are homebuilders are building their own aircraft, as well as people that are trying to buy manufactured aircraft like Cirrus or Cessna. [02:49:42] Um, unfortunately, uh, the economics of building and hangar development are a little bit out of whack in aviation, and it- it is really a struggle to get, uh, any type of fiscal, uh, payback, uh, in terms of building, uh, those type of buildings without other grant support or, uh, just purely having a loan out there for 50 years. Um, yeah, that is generally my presentation. Nice and short and sweet. Yeah. [02:50:161 But I'm happy to answer any questions about the airport you might have. [02:50:19] 1 have one kind of almost dumb question. It's like curiosity. What is a gallon of aviation gas typically retail for? [02:50:26] Right now, it's about 585, 586. 1 think was the last time I looked at the- the price for gas at the airport. [02:50:33] And is jet fuel more or less expensive? [02:50:35] Jet fuel is usually more expensive. [02:50:38] Okay. Just curious. [02:50:39] Are you buying one? [02:50:40] No, not so much. [LAUGHTER] [02:50:41] 1 was going to, but that's too general again. [LAUGHTER] [02:50:45] So, I mean, hangar rental is obviously a key part of your income, and I see that, you know, the graph- I appreciate having a graph in there sort of see increases. Is that just- is the quantity of hangar space increased at all in the last several years? Or you just- just increase in cost per square foot? Page 57 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [02:51:001 No, our- our hangers have been stagnant in terms of the individual numbers for probably about 20 years? [02:51:05] Yeah. [02:51:051 Um, oh, so that's all pure fees on the- the existing tenants. Uh, we do annually evaluate hanger rates in terms of what we're charging, and we are charging a premium compared to Cedar Rapids, Marion, Tipton. Uh, we- we look at roughly about an hour's drive away for our comparisons. And then we also throw Ames in there as the other college town to see what they're doing. [02:51:25] Okay. [02:51:26] Yeah. The question regarding, um, essentially programming, um, cause you mentioned, I think it was the Eagles Fliers something like that. And I got to attend, um, kind of a celebration, um, that the Eastern Iowa Airport did a year or two ago. And in that, they were talking about sort of in the same way of like trying to figure out how to get Spark people's interests because the industry needs not only pilots, but, like, engineers, and that there was- and- and-, um, there's a program through Kirkwood, I wanna say, that was like aeronautic engineering. And I just wondered if those- if those points have been sort of connected, like, having us- obviously a very small regional airport connecting up with a larger regional airport to- because it seems like this is just simply an industry issue about getting more people in the profession through a variety of ways. That seem like that might- I know that these are littles in the- in the Eagle thing, as opposed to people looking as [OVERLAPPING] [02:52:261 Yeah, and- and we have partnered with the- the Cedar Rapids Airport over the years with- with a number of initiatives. Uh, I'm also the president of the Iowa Public Airports Association this year. Um, uh, we do annual terms for that. But, um, the Kirkwood program, they've started an, uh, aircraft maintenance program that- that came online last fall, I think, was the first year. Um, their- their classes are filled up with- with waiting lists. Um, Co College is starting a flight- a flight school. Uh, so the- they're doing a- going to start pilot training in the next year. [02:53:01] Airport management too. [02:53:02] Page 58 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Airport management, too, yes. Um, um, so there are- there are programs that are being developed out there in the region. Um, as a matter of fact, to start the Kirkwood program they took our- our shop manager, and he is the director of the program. [LAUGHTER] [02:53:19] Is there the aviation program that Kirkwood have or what kind of a program they have? [02:53:25] Kirk- Kirkwood started an aircraft maintenance program. So you can [OVERLAPPING] yeah. [02:53:29] The maintenance program. Okay. Not engineering. Okay. [02:53:33] Thanks. [02:53:33] 1 just- yeah. It was just interesting because I'm learning these sporadic things, and I'm like, of course, you're gonna. [02:53:40] Yeah. [02:53:41] It's a small world. [02:53:42] Industry wide, there's a shortage and it's going to get worse as the next generation hits the retirement age. Commercial Aviation has a mandatory retirement age of 65 airline pilots, you know, we're seeing that on the national level with- with the airlines and what happens, it's just like a ladder. They- they rob from the next tier charter companies, and- and everything goes kind of in that hierarchy, where charter companies like Jet Air would be losing pilots to airlines without, you know, raising benefits or wages or other things like that. [02:54:17] A boring structural question. As I understand, the airport sort of its own entity, and you come to us in a budget season just because you're looking for matching grants, like, you manage your own budget as far as rentals and jet fuel costs, and that's all done by your own airport commission. And really, this is just, like, matching funds component. Yeah. [02:54:40] Page 59 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. For the most part. Yeah. The- the airport, so you alluded to enterprise funds where using other funds, there is a federal rule that any funds made by- created by the airport has to stay within the airport. So essentially, the Airport Commission, which you folks get to appoint the members of the Commission, they're charged with managing the airport and managing those funds. Yeah. [02:55:03] Okay. [02:55:05] Any other questions? Okay. Do you want to have 15 minute break or 10 minute break? [02:55:12] Yes we can. [02:55:14] Yes, we can come at. [02:55:15] 12:00. [02:55:161 2:00. [LAUGHTER] 2:00 [02:55:21] Okay. [02:55:21] Yeah. [02:55:22] Let's come back at 2:00. [02:55:24] All right. Now we're going to go back to public work. [02:55:30] Good afternoon. Ron Kentucky Public Works Director. It's an honor to be a member of this incredible public works team. And it's hard to believe this is my 11th operating budget. So it seems like I'm a young kid, but I'm not anymore. Unfortunately. Public works departments funded through eight different funding sources, consists of general funds, special revenue funds, enterprise funds, and internal service funds. Means that when you look at our budget, you're all over the budget book. We're everywhere. So we'll start off with the public works department. The overall public works Department introduction Page 60 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. begins on page 213 in the budget book. We have seven divisions, including the administration. The budget includes 168.76 full time equivalent positions. We currently have 166 employees, so we have 155 full time three part time and eight seasonal employees. The proposed expenditures for the FY 26 budget is just over $57 million. For the public works administration Engineering Division budget that begins on page 371. These are funded through the general fund, Stormwater Fund, and then the Capital Projects Fund. The oversees the city and private development projects, that include- that include all public infrastructure. So currently we have about 76 city projects that we're overseeing and about 58 active private projects that are going on. The engineering division also oversees all of the utility work that goes on in the right away. Obviously, there was a big push by Iman and Metronet to kind of do their- their fiber infill, and then there was some push by Mid American for the gas line replacements. Those are pretty much complete now. They're still doing some infill. Iman and Metronet are still doing some infill, but for the most part, their overall city buildout. Iman was citywide. Metronet was just on the west side of the river. Um Engineering Division also oversees the sidewalk repair program. We've divided the city into 10 areas. This year, we're in area 10. So if you are in northeast Iowa City, which is generally north of Curt Street between First Avenue and Scott Boulevard, we'll be looking at your sidewalks this year. And then we're in area nine last year, so that is the east part of Iowa City. We'll be doing the repair program in that area this year. So the ones that don't get done by the private owners, we'll do that with the city project. The Engineering division also oversees the sidewalk cafe program. And then this engineering division is also been integral to the development of the asset management program. We did have an asset management technician position that was approved in last year's budget. We have not filled that position yet because as you approved at your last council meeting, we have a third floor renovation going on, so we really don't have room for them yet, but we will bring them on board once we get the remodeling completed. Engineer division also oversees the Stormwater utility and the Best Management Practices programs. Stormwater utility budget begins on 490 in the budget book. In FY 24, we had 63 Stormwater quality BMP grant projects that were funded. This was down from about 13 from the year before. And then we had one Creek maintenance, project that was done in FY 24, that was down one. What you'll see in- in the overall budget, the- the dollar amounts as far as the grants that were given. Overall was the same. It's just some projects cost a little bit more than others have in the past. And then in calendar year 23, the Stormwater program organized seven cleanup events around the community, which was up from- which is an increase up from five events in FY- calendar year 22. Any questions on engineering, public- public works administration? All right. We'll dive into streets and traffic engineering. So that begins on page 379 in the budget book, funded through the Road use tax Fund, which is a special revenue Fund. Maintains 500 lane miles of streets in Iowa City, 100 signalized intersections. That maintenance includes patching repairs, snow plowing, and sweeping. We also maintain and operate the signal systems for the University and University Heights. So we have a 2080 agreements with those- with those groups to run their signals systems, also. We bill them back for that maintenance work. Um, the equipment division or the streets division also oversees the leaf pickup program, obviously very popular. This year, we picked up 451 loads over the eight weeks of the program. This is about 100 loads more than we had last year, so about average for us in regards to the number of loads that we picked up. Um, the streets division is also key to disaster response. Luckily, we knock on wood, have- have been able to dodge some of the bullets there, but we did have a snow event last year that was got about a year's worth of snow in one week. So, um, about this time last year, we Page 61 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. were dealing with that. Our street superintendent goes on vacation next week, so it's happened about that time last year. So hopefully, we'll see how that- how that plays out. Um, in 2023, we did acquire a new paint truck. Um, this, uh, has allowed us to transition to a different paint product. Um, which has given us longer life in our street paint markings, and also allows for staff to be able to install it in a much safer manner. Um, if you recall, previously, we had to drive backwards when we were painting some of the edge lines because of the way the truck was set up previously. So, um, the- the new paint truck, um, and then also with the new paint product has really helped us out from that standpoint. Um, from a sustainability measure, we continue to work through and recycle, uh, the pavement that we are pulling out of our street pavement repair program. Um, and then also, uh, we are, um, so we're crushing that. Um, this year, we just finished up with a crushing contract. We crushed 17,000 tons of concrete, uh, pavement. Patching material, um, and that has been crushed into four inch minus material and then sub base material. So, um, that four inch minus material that is typically used by our landfill to do the day pads and build some of the roads for us. Um, and so with that, we're obviously, uh, um, it's about half the cost to crush it, is to go buy it either at the quarry or at SEG materials. So we're- we're seeing some savings in regards to that, and it's also a good sustainable measure for us. We'll be looking at probably crushing again in two to three years. Um, we do have a set up in the- in our crushing contract that we could crush every year, if- if need be. Um, [OVERLAPPING] [03:02:25] Does- does that just mean there's a big machine that comes in and actually takes a pile in turn. [03:02:28] Yes. Yeah. So if- so it's all stored right now down at the streets laid down area. So south of the old Mushkaki Park area, if you look at a map, there's some pretty large piles of rock down there now. So they- the company actually came in from Pella, they- they crushed material stock pile it for us, and then we'll haul it out to Landfill or haul it to wherever it needs to go. [03:02:51] Do private contractors have the ability to give their pavement that they would tear out for a private parking lot for the purposes of the city's use? [03:02:59] So we- we- we are not- so they have the ability to do that, but they typically would take that SEG materials. So S&G does a similar process that we do. Um, we'd- we'd like to have our own product, either whether we're collecting it ourselves or we're paying on our street projects, so that we know where the materials coming from, and it's fairly clean. If it gets too dirty, it- it doesn't make as good of a product for us. [03:03:26] Yeah. [03:03:27] Page 62 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Any other questions on streets and traffic engineering? [03:03:30] And we'll talk about the actual construction in the CIP budget. [03:03:33] Correct. [03:03:34] Yeah. [03:03:34] Yep. That'll be a week from Wednesday. Wastewater division begins on page 449. It's funded through wastewater Fund, which is an enterprise fund. We have about 330 miles of sanitary sewer and 16 sanitary sewer list stations in our system. Uh, we have 110 miles of storm sewer and- and five storm water pump stations. Uh, we also maintain one wastewater treatment plant. Uh, right now, on average, we're treating about 7.6 million gallons of wastewater, uh, per day? Um, that obviously is wastewater that's strided not only Iowa City, uh, University of Iowa, and then University of Heights. So we serve- we serve those- those areas. Um, with the University of Iowa, we- we - we continue our partnership, um, with the Iowa wastewater and Waste Energy and Research Program, innovation Center and Tech Park. Um, so we have Gross Wind technology who has built a greenhouse. Um, there they're working through an Algal biofilm system, basically to figure out a way to take some of the- the nutrients out of the system. Um, the- the purpose of this program, which has a fairly large funding source from the state of Iowa is to look at ways to have low cost treatment for the smaller communities in Iowa. Uh, we're working through a couple major projects right now at the wastewater plant, so we have the- the digester Complex project, um, which we'll talk about on Wednesday- a week from Wednesday. Um, there is basically trying to figure out a way to deal with struvite, which is, uh, a leftover component, uh, by the phosphorus that's in the- in our system. Um, we've come up with a way to do a chemical addition there, so, uh, with that, um, it's going to allow us to- to put a little bit more money into our dagsor complex renovation versus having, um, put in a bunch of processes to- to remove that material. Um, that project is- is under design. And then we're also working through the wastewater digester gas improvement. So, um, we have purchased the gas cleaning equipment. So that's on order. It's being built now. Um, and then we're working through the design for that project, which we will bid this year. Um, we are also been working with an accounting firm, um, to, uh, make sure that we'll be eligible, uh, for some tax credits in regards to the infrastructure investment and Jobs Act funding. Any questions on wastewater? [03:05:56] 1 think maybe you've talked about this morning, Jeff, that- that the reason that the wastewater or enterprise fund balance is listed as being needs monitoring is because of that digesterjust being so expensive and. [OVERLAPPING] Page 63 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. (03:06:10] Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, it's- we're you know, like total- total project for $30 million between the two projects, maybe a little bit more. Um, and so the- the thing that- that's is interesting in regards to the- the renewable natural gas is, it's- it's all market driven, you know, in regards to what your revenue is. So you just, you know, there's that part of it that we'll have to work through. Um, and so it'll- it'll be- we- there's been some decreases in the project because we've been able to work with bit American and have a different injection point in regards to where we'll actually inject the natural gas into the pipeline. Um, so as we continue to work through the process, I think we're seeing some cost savings in regards to the actual project cost. But then the- the outlier pieces, kind of, what's the value of that renewable naturalgas? [03:07:07] That's what makes it look like a less safe bet in some ways to our creditors is they don't know how much money would generate. [03:07:12] Yeah, typically, when you're looking at an investment of this scale, there's going to be rate increases associated with that. So whether it's water or wastewater, if you're going to invest $30-40 million in your plant, In most cases, you're going to have to raise your rate because you're going to have to borrow money and pay that debt service back. U, at this time, we're not planning any rate increases, uh. [03:07:381 Um, a rate increase may be necessary, depending on, uh, how those bids come in, the terms of the borrowing, and then ultimately, how much revenue we're getting back from the natural gas and how much credit we- of the tax credits that Ron talked about from the Jobs Act, how much we get back. So there's just more variables in this one. We don't know what the market for natural gas is, we don't know what federal tax credits we're going to get, and we don't know the bids yet. So we're just- we're flagging it. But as you can see, uh, if you were to look at the enterprise fund balance slide from this morning, we have an unassigned balance in wastewater of 21 million. So it's a healthy fund. Um, and my- my hope is all those things connect, right? The bids come in just fine, we get the federal tax credits, the market for the gas is as we project. And this probably quickly moves from an A to a AA or a AAA rating. But we didn't want to look overly optimistic, have those variables turn against us, and then come back next year and say, we need a 7% rate increase and have you look back and say, well, wait a minute, where did that come from, right? [03:08:51] Questions on wastewater. All right. Water Division Budget begins on Page 457. Uh, the water, uh, division is, uh, is funded through the water fund, which is an enterprise fund. Uh, we maintain 285 miles of water main, um, we produce about two billion gallons of water a year. Um, the- the visual that I - I like to go back to is- it's- is basically you take Kinnick Stadium and you cover it up with a mile of water, and- and that's- that's how much water we produce in- in a year. Um, that- that production of water costs less than a penny a gallon. So a very, um, efficient, uh, process that we go through. Um, obviously, Page 64 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. impacted by federal standards. Uh, so the lead and copper rule is- is probably the one that has the- the biggest impact on us as of late. Um, with that, you may recall, we implemented the lead service line replacement program, um, which we developed, uh, working. Uh, we have the warranty program, so the insurance program that's out there, um, for the homeowners that have signed up for that insurance. Um, We've- they've seen a savings about $30,000 in regards to service line replacements that have come up, um, through the cost share program. Um, folks have seen about $80,000 in relief in regards to, um, you know, working with us and- and getting that offset in regards to the lead service line replacement. And then we also had the lead service line ordinance. So basically, that state said if you have a lead service line that- that has an issue, and you need to maintain it, you have to replace it, you can't just put a patch on it. So, um, that- that's the lead service line replacement program. Um, along with that, uh, by this- this last November, um, we did have to put out public notices to all of our residents that had unknown lead or galvanized service line material identified. I think it was 3,500 mailers that went out. Um, what that prompted was a lot of folks asking to have their water tested, um, obviously, right to- to see if there's any issues. Um, so we've- we've done over 100 samples have been tested, um, in those 100 samples, give or take, we've had 84 no detects. So we've had folks, obviously, they've come back and said, no, there's no- there's- there's no lead being found. Um, we've had none that have been over the 15 parts per billion action level, which is good. We've had one that was about 14 parts per billion. Um, and what we're doing as- as a staff, we're going out, we're meeting with those, um, individual property owners or homeowners or residents, um, basically to see if there's something else in the system that's causing that problem, whether it's, um, they had done some, uh, work, and had broken some material lose and now sitting in a screen, you know, an aerator screen in their- in their faucet or what that could be. So we continue to work through that program. Um, as- as the program continues -to develop, um, not all the rules were in place yet, um, we'll adjust to those rules as- as they do come up. And then, uh, the forever chemicals, PFOS, we're- we're still working through that. We've been lucky, um, that the only, um, location that we've actually had a hit on PFOS, uh, in- in our source water system was in our sand pit, um, which we don't pull water from anyway. So, um, we're- we're - we've been lucky in- in that aspect. Um, water continues to work through, um, and do master planning and looking at projects that are fos- focusing on improving the resiliency of the source water systems and our finished water systems. Um, and in this budget, uh, we do have, uh, one proposed, uh, Maintenance Worker 3 position in our distribution group. Um, basically, that's a group that goes out and is, uh, addressing water main breaks, um, you know, dealing with flushing and, uh, from a- just from a staffing standpoint and, um, having better coverage, um, we- we feel the need for that Maintenance Worker 3 position, uh, was justified in this budget. Any question [OVERLAPPING]. [03:12:53] Regarding water production, um, I know that Des Moines for years has had to budget substantially for nitrate removal, and Cedar Rapids is considering that now moving forward. Does Iowa City need to be budgeting for any kind of nitrate, uh, removal? [03:13:09] So, uh, as of- as of now, um, we- we've been able to dilute the- so for us, historically, um, we've seen nitrates increase in the spring. Also as the spring rains come, it starts, um, bringing the fertilizers off the Page 65 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. field into the system. Um, we- we tend to see that nitrate level raise. Um, we have been- we've had the ability to dilute that with other source water- [03:13:40] Wells. (03:13:41] -basically with the wells. And- and we have not had an issue in regards to nitrates, um, yet. Now, well, that- that probably will be a matter- it's probably just a matter of time. Um, one of the things that we are doing is we just went through a- a master planning process both for the water distribution system, looking at the- the need for upgrades, and then also looking at treatment, the various treatment, um, and figure out technology -wise, where we need to be at there. So we're continuing to digest that and - and figure out where we need to move, um, from a- from a water treatment process. Um, I think the- the- the process that we have has served our community very well, and I think that it will probably be the way that we'll continue. I don't think we'll, uh, be looking at bringing an RO, reverse osmosis, into the system like the University of Iowa has done. Um, I think, you know, 20 years ago, when- when we were- or 25 years ago when we were, you know, going through the process of developing the process for this plant, we- we made the right decision at that time. Any other questions on water? All right. Resource Management Division. Divided in two work groups, we have the refuse group and the landfill group. The refuse budget begins on Page 472, um, which is funded through the Refuse Collection Fund enterprise fund. And FY24, uh, we- we picked up from 16,935 customers each week, um, resulted in 9,742 tons of waste, 2,185-2,185 tons of recycling, and 3,500 tons of organics. We continue, um, to push organics pretty hard in regards to, um, figuring out ways to- to work with even the multifamily residents to- to have the ability to- to deal with food waste. Um, with this budget, we are looking at the proposed - includes a $2 sticker for organics bags. Um, you know, so in the past, uh, we- we did have the- the yard waste bags that you bought that- that we printed and- and were purchased at, um, [inaudible 03:15:55] and ACE Hardware. Um, we went away from that program, um, when we put out and had the organics containers available for folks. Um, you know, basically pushing for folks to use the- the containers. Um, we'll continue to push that a little bit harder, but what we found is, um, the super users that are out there, um, and there are some super users. And, you know, what's- what's defeating for staff is when they pull up at the curb and there's 20 and 30 bags there that are- that are ready to go. And so, um, the - with this, you know, like we'll- we'll continue to- to push, um, better- better ways of dealing with organics, this, you know, the last couple of years, um, we've pushed pretty hard to- to basically leave your leaves, and, you know, compost your leaves and- or- or even mulch your leaves and leave them on your yards versus, um, you know, picking them up. So, um, we'll continue with- with that, uh, effort in regards to, um, educating the community. [03:16:56] So- so just so I understand that everyone who has the current organics dumpster can fill that dumpster, is what we're proposing, but if you want additional on top of that, additional bundles of sticks, additional bags, it would be a $2 per bag bundle or however it's? Okay. Page 66 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:17:141 Yeah. [03:17:15] So everyone who just uses their one container every week, they're not going to see an increase, it's really just. [03:17:22] They would not see an increase, that is correct. [03:17:23] I'll admit, I'm a super user, but I will pay for it. [03:17:26] And Ron, I had a question because you just mentioned about the- the leaf pick up, um, you know, the encouragement of mulching and what have you. And I felt- I was like, yay. [LAUGHTER] We don't have to rake. Um, but I think that you mentioned that there was, like, 100 more pickups this year, like, 450 [OVERLAPPING]. [03:17:48] Number of truckloads that we picked up this year. [03:17:50] Truckloads. [03:17:501 Yeah. [03:17:51] So- so it increased this year despite of [OVERLAPPING]. [03:17:53] Yeah. It- it goes up and down. [03:17:56] Yeah. [03:17:56] Like last year, I think we were- we were 100 less than that, and which is about- it was roughly, you know, 30% less than we normally would see on average. And I think last year was a dry year. And so what- what- what tends to happen, right, is as you're vacuuming those leaves up, they end up kind of vaporizing versus being in the truck, right? So- right- so this year was a little bit wetter. So yeah. Page 67 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [LAUGHTER] And what we're doing with- with, you know, with that part, which that's all funded through- through the street side of things, that's- that's where that whole process is funded at. Um, you know, now, we're hauling those leaves out to landfill, and so we're using it, you know, in- in the- the compost process out there, or we're hauling it to- to farm fields around the area that- folks that want those. So, um, yeah, so we're- we're finding places for those. [03:18:42] Great. (03:18:43] Go ahead. [03:18:44] 1 was going to say I'd encourage with the, you know, sort of maybe reducing the ease of getting rid of large amounts of brown waste that the communication involves from the city, uh, please don't burn. Because I know that's also one of the corollaries. If it costs money to get rid of your yard waste, people will burn it, which is not good. [03:19:05] But I think, a, it's illegal unless you're burning it in a- in your outdoor fire pit. [LAUGHTER] [03:19:10] In- in your galvanized chimenea that looks like a garbage can that Oscar lives in. Yeah. [LAUGHTER] [03:19:17] Ron, I had a question. You said, um, you're pushing the food waste, um, going to, obviously, our composting facility. And you mentioned multifamily. How- how is that working? [03:19:28] So, you know, we've- we've had some success. Um, you know, so- it's not only looking at the multifamily, we're also looking at ways to deal with our non -profits, because, you know, like the- the food bank and some of these other places that- that are creating that waste, we're- we're trying to figure out ways to work with them and- so they can utilize that. But we- we can utilize that better in the process. [03:19:46] Is it something like if you have a landlord at a multifamily that wants to provide it, they should contact the city, or- or like, what's the status of there being a program available for that? [03:19:58] So what we- what we did, the pilot project we did was that we- we basically were- we had a location where folks could bring stuff too. Page 68 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:20:04] Okay. [03:20:04] Yeah. So- so I'd imagine that as- as we developed that a little bit more, that's probably the model that we would continue to use. [03:20:11] Okay. Was that at the like the Rec Center and parking lot? [03:20:13] Um, we might have had one there. Um, I know we did on East Side Recycle. [03:20:18] Okay. So it was tenants bringing their food waste. [03:20:20] Yeah. [03:20:21] Okay. Thank you. [03:20:22] 1 had a couple of, uh, quick things one. Um, I saw one of the points in here about the increased compost production, needing diligent efforts to outreach to ensure to sell. Just a quick- one quick observation about that being a good problem. I remember a few years ago, people would reach out to me about, oh, I went to get compost and they were out, right? So there was a little bit of lag time because it takes the aging process. So maybe you can talk- if you could just for a moment, just kind of help inform us and understand, you know, what has improved now? I mean, that's great. And then the other part, which is sort of like that's the- the good news. The bad news is I saw something in here too about, um, the stress to staff and to our facilities from out -of -service areas, people using the landfill and stuff for that. So if you could talk to kind of the good news, bad news, sort of. [03:21:08] Yeah. So- so when we- when we look at the compost, and that- that- that segues right into where we're going next. But, uh, so as we're looking at our compost facility, um, you know, we're going to increase the size because of the grant that we received from EPA. So, you know, a, we're going to have more material to- to, um, disperse or sell. Um, we've done a pretty good job. We have a couple larger, um, businesses in South Central Iowa that likes our compost, and they'll actually- so when- when it's available, they can come and get it, and they- and basically, they bag it and sell it, um, or use it within their- their own business. But when we know that we have projects, either that are city projects that are Page 69 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. coming up, or we know that we'll have, uh, um, you know, some other grant programs that maybe that - we'll hold material back, and- and so, um, we've been pretty, uh, blessed over the last few years that we've been able to have the material available as needed, and we really haven't ran out to a certain extent. Um, you know, in regards to the- the stress that's on staff at the landfill of, um, folks coming in from outside of our service area, right? So, you know, we service, um, Johnson County, Kalona, Riverside, those- those- so those two outside communities, and then all of Johnson County. Um, what we've seen around us is Iowa County, um, Lynn County, um, their- their landfills are closing at noon on Saturdays. Um, and so- or- or it could be a scenario where they are- are closing because of wind, where maybe we're staying open. And so the stress that's there is, you know, the folks at the scale are trying to determine, is- should we be taking this waste? And so, um, what we did in regards to eliminating the concern of the after-hours on Saturdays is- is we- we moved to the model of our landfill closes at noon now. And that way, it- it- it is the same as what the landfills are around us. And so it doesn't end up, um, I have a truckload that I'm taking to- to Lynn County, and they're closed, and so I know Iowa City is open until, you know, 4:30, I'm going to go down to Iowa City. Um, so we've eliminated that as- as part of the equation. [03:23:20] 1 think part of that too is just to kind of- I kind of know this from a tour last summer that there is a concern about, um, uh, the speed at which landfills fill up. And so, the, you know, other service areas, people from those residents dumping in our- our landfill fills our land fill up faster and ends up having- it has an impact that's not that far down the road. [03:23:411 Absolutely. All right. So Landfill Budget is on Page 479. Landfill fund is- is an enterprise fund. Um, in FY24, uh, we received 142,874 tons of waste. Um, that was up, uh, from FY23, which is, um, just over 132,000. So we were up about 7.7% in regards to the waste that we took in. Um, one of the concerns that were- as we're looking down the road, at least one of the concerns that I have, is- is, you know, there are some large university projects that are to be going on. Um, you know, there's- there's other large, you know, local projects that are around, and the concern that- that I have is that- that- that demolition waste and- and where is that going to go? And so we continue to have those discussions with the University, you know, making sure that if there's a way that not have it go to the landfill, try to, you know, work that in. Um, but, uh, that- that is a concern for us as we move forward. Um, we are- [03:24:43] We did complete the construction of the cell, uh, that we're now currently filling. So, um, things um, are going really well there. Uh, the Landfill Master Plan, we did complete that. We are in the process of building the landfill equipment building. Um, and so that is underway now. Hopefully, if it's not this week, next week, the building should show up and we'll start put the building up itself. So, uh, I know staff is excited to get that, um, to get that building in place. Um, we did talk about the landfill hours changing. So um, so not only was there the change in the landfill hours, but that also, um, required us to do some scheduling changes with our staff. Um, so um, that started, uh, the first- well, kind of the first week and, uh, and the new year, and we've been working through that. Along with the proposed Page 70 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. budget, um, is basically charging residential customers for yard waste drop off at the landfill. Um, that has not been done in the past, um, and so that is a $24 per ton fee, the minimum fee would be $5. So today, uh, you could- today, you could haul out and you could drop off as much yard waste as you wanted to at the landfill. The concern that that has been there for staff, its- it ends up being that equity thing. Um, what tends to happen is, if I'm a private hauler, uh, I- and I'm doing business, I'm charging you to pick up your yard waste. I will go right to the pile and dump and I'll say, it's coming from my own home, or- and so- so really, it ends up being, uh, relieving some of that stress that staff has, and dealing with the public as they come and drop off. [03:26:31] It's the pro, uh, procedure going to be then because I know with a lot of- there can be long lines at the landfill. And right now, the- the- the sort of, uh, mulch people just drive right by everybody and go dump, like, is there like a system to manage throughput? [03:26:46] So what we found is at least when we went to the- we increase the minimum fee in regards to waste, the- the garbage. It really would- by having that minimum fee, it really has helped that line move through to the point where we're not seeing the lines down the hill like we had previously. You know, now, you know, on a bad day, it's maybe one car outside the gate versus, you know, being all the way down the lane. Um, so we'll see how that impact is as we move. But the way it will be is basically everybody come into the landfill, will go across the scale. Um, we currently have three drop off areas for recycling, uh, the landfill, East side recycle, and then we just recently opened up the South side, uh, recycling area down to Surges Ferry. Um, we're also still doing the glass -recycling. Um, as always, you know, the- the- the landfill- the resource management group, you know, they continue to struggle in balancing the reduction strategies with trying to operate a landfill, right? Because we have to have revenue to be able to do the things that we're doing there. Um, but- but, uh, I think we continue to develop great programs with Jen and Jane working through those things. As we talked about the EPA grant, we did receive $4 million. Um, that is for compost facility upgrades, so that will include both, um, infrastructure, uh, increase, and then also we're looking at SM equipment, um, to go along with that. And that goes- here's is underway. We just signed the contract with [inaudible 03:28:231 redo that design at the last council meeting. Any questions on resource management? All right. Equipment division, uh, budget begins on 656, um, funded through the equipment fund, which is an internal service fund. Equipment maintains the complete city fleet minus the transit buses. So that's about 625 units, um, oversees the vehicle replacement. Um, we currently have roughly 40 vehicles in the fleet that are either hybrid or electric vehicles. Also, they oversee the city radio system. So, um, we did make the transition, so everything is with Jack in regards to the overall radio system. Um, but equipment obviously is oversee and getting those radios installed in the vehicles. And then they also oversee our AVL system. So all of our public works vehicles have AVL in them. Um, and with that, we have- we're actually working through some tools right now, uh, both on the snow maintenance side and, uh, um, we did it with the leaf pickup program, where we may potentially roll out a map that is public facing that you could see, um, you know, where the snowplows had been, how long ago were they there, um, you know, just to get an idea from a- a travel standpoint of where we're at. Page 71 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:29:45] Well, they have names. [03:29:47] So they are not named yet, but-. [03:29:49] Yeah thanks. [03:29:50] -but the- but that has been- that has been the discussion. [03:29:521 You have seen this, right? [03:29:53] Sure. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So yeah. So once we get a public facing, maybe we'll be looking at naming our snow plows. Yeah. [03:30:011 1 think that would be awesome, though, just because there can be such a- I mean, I- I do it, too, but a disconnect between, like, perception. "Oh, they're never around." And then reality. Actually, I made a point. I'm picking on my poor husband all the time in these meetings, but I made a point when we did get our Snow Ice event, I live in a cul de sac on the South side. And before 9:00 AM, there was somebody, and there was a plow through, and I was like, "Look, [LAUGHTER] there's a plow." Right? And I mean, because it's not a major street. It also doesn't have a throughway. Uh, so I was just incredibly impressed. But, sorry. So I'm louding you guys at the same time that I think that, having that kind of, like, mapping, to be able to so people go, Oh, yeah, that's right. I did see that, or it did come through, yeah. So thank you. [03:30:47] Yeah, we're excited to get that rolled out and all. I know there's still some bugs in it, we were looking at last week, we we're dealing with some stuff, and there's still some bags there that we're working through, but we'll get that out fairly quickly. Master planning is continuing for the public work site. So we had some meetings last week in regards to the- you know, the city equipment, transit facility move. And we're excited to- to obviously get that project moving. Obviously, the ability to hire the senior facility design and construction manager was huge to be able to get that project kicked off. Um, and we're excited to be working with Deman Munson and HDR on that design. Within this budget, as we talked about this morning, we do have a mechanic too, a new mechanic 2 budgeted in the proposed budget. Um, we have a mechanic 1 position that's been open for about nine months. So we were able to bac-fill, that position last week. And in that time frame, we had another mechanic one that's moving to Page 72 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. another division. So, um, these positions are very hard to fill. But overall, you know, from being able to maintain the fleet, they're vital as we move things forward there. So we are excited to be able to, you know, look at hiring a mechanic 2, and then we do have a mechanic 1 position that remains open. [03:32:12] Regarding the Bus barn Transportation Services building, does that include removal of the old one, or is it just the production of a new facility? [03:32:21] So the- the way that it's set up right now, we will be looking at the raising or repurposing of that, you know, at the end of this project. Um, but really I mean, that- that- that does not include the money available to do the demolition. [03:32:35] Okay. And the second question is, the thing that didn't make sense to me in the budget booklet was regarding the equipment fund, was the budget increases due to charge backs expected to be greater than expenses? Um, and I'm just- I'm trying to understand what charge backs. I didn't- I didn't make sense to me. It's a- It's in the fun- it's just part of the equipment fund fund balance sheet. I was like, what does- what does that mean? What are charge -wise? [03:33:02] 1 think if- I take this. The equipment fund, the way it gets revenue is it charges back everybody else. So all the revenue that's coming in, right, some is from streets, some is from water, some is from wastewater. So all their revenue is all charge backs. That's where it comes in. [03:33:18] Okay. So Ron's department manages the fleet, but if you want to take a trip out of town, you charge him, and he pay him eventually. Okay. Got it. [03:33:28] And in- and in part of that too is, you know, as we're looking at the issues that we have with vehicle replacements, you know, so we're holding some vehicles in our fleet longer than we would like to. And so along those lines, we're- we're ending up having some maybe larger expenses and repairs than what historically we've had in the past. So, you know, as we calculate those chargebacks year to year per vehicle class, it may we may get behind on some things where, you know, just because of the way the chargebacks were calculated previously. [03:33:59] But then that's corrected in the next year. So. [03:34:02] Page 73 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yeah. I think- you know, another thing that we've seen in recent years is inflation has hit a lot of these vehicles hard. So when Ron replaces a waste truck, we may say, we expect it to serve us eight years, and we think the replacement will be X number of dollars, and we're setting aside one -eighth of those dollars so that, when it comes time to replace it, we have it. And now the situation that we're getting to is, that- that our estimate for replacement is well short because inflation has impacted these manufacturers, and we can't get that truck within six months, like we maybe could have in the past. It's taken a year and a half. So we've got to save more money or dip into those reserves. And we've got to hold on to that truck a little bit longer while the order comes through. So it's kind of compounding issues, uh, really seen throughout the entire city. Um, but mostly on those very large pieces of equipment. [03:35:05] Any other questions on equipment? [03:35:09] All right. [03:35:09] Um, so that covers all the divisions. So our biggest challenges in public works as we move forward, continue to be staffing in retirements. As I continually kind of look at where we're at, 22% of our public work staff will be eligible- will retire or we'll be eligible to retire in the next five years. Our top 10 employees that tenured employees in public works. Similar 350 years of service. Uh, we have one employee has 47, another one has 45, and then you kind of work out from there. So, um, there's a lot of expertise that goes out the door when those folks leave. So, you know, we're working through those things and trying to build the bench. So in building the bench, you know, we- we have engineering interns, we have a water hourly operator program that we've been running. Our wastewater team continues to bring in community college interns to work through their programs to get their licensure. And then here in the next- in this next semester, uh, for, uh, equipment, we're going to be doing some job shadowing of some diesel mechanic students, uh, from Clarke Comana. So we're continually trying to build our bench, making sure people understand that, you know, working in a dealership or doing whatever, there's other ways, you know, to work on the public facing side of things. The entry level driver training requirements, um, continue to have a little bit of an impact on our- on our teams. Right now, uh, any folks that are coming in our operations, that are CDL required positions, they have to have their CDL permit in hand to start them. And then we've developed a pretty good training program. So pretty much if you come on with this, um, you will have your CDL, um, in the time frame necessary, in that six month time frame, um, continued asset management development. So this is going into year 4 of our five-year implementation. Um, pretty much, we've been through all the operations now, um, streets, transit, water, wastewater, all those have been integrated. And now we're starting to build out those platforms. It's gone really well. Staff has really embraced the use of the asset management system. And there again, as- as we have those long -tenured employees that are leaving, it's going to help maintaining that institutional knowledge as they walk out the door. Uh, supply chain issues continue to be there. Our chemical costs are all over the place, uh, for our water- wastewater side of Page 74 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. things, and then the vehicle replacement and availability, and then just a reasonable ordering time frame. So we've had some ordering windows that are- that have been a week versus in the past, they've been, three or four months. So, um, just continue to try to work through those issues. Thank you for the time today to talk about our budget. Thank you for your service, our community. Um, public work staff are always available for facility tours, right along, if you'd like. Um, we are, I mean in the- the early stages of scheduling for our National Public Works, um, week open house, this year, we're going to be at the landfill. So still trying to see exactly. Hopefully, we'll have a new building in place by then. Um, but but really looking at how we can work together with maybe in some of our other local communities and - and having a larger event this year. [03:38:411 I have one question, and I know that you've addressed it to an extent, but it's a little bit more in the weeds, and part of it is literally picking up tick -tips, tricks, what have you. But in terms of, like, succession planning, where you mentioned, you have a significant percentage of folks who are going to be eligible or will be retiring in five years. And I love that you're talking about, you know, building the bench and getting internships so that there's like the next generation of public works employees. And I was wondering about how that's fitting in with those who are currently, you know, have a career in the department, but are not going to be retiring out. Um, is there kind of some cross -training happening or some kind of, like, work to get them that institutional knowledge or to expand their institutional knowledge? But how do you balance that then with the workload that they're currently doing? And I say this literally as a sort of it's- it's- it's regardless of industry, it's an issue, right? And I'm just kind of curious about how you're handling that. [03:39:48] Um, so when we look at those tenured people, they tend to be either senior maintenance workers or maintenance worker threes. Um, you know, so they're working with their team as they're going out in the field. So there's that- that that's training that's going on, you know, within each of those groups. Um, and then depending on how the work group is- is- is organized, like for the streets, for example, we have the senior maintenance workers, we have maintenance worker 3, 2, and one. So that progression happens, you know, typically would happen internal, and then we would bring somebody at the maintenance worker 1 level, and then kind of work them- work them through that same program. [03:40:30] Thank you. [03:40:35] Okay. Thanks. [03:40:42] 1 think all we have left is the city manager's office budgets and city council budgets is pretty exciting stuff, but you want to jump into that or. Page 75 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:40:50] 1 think we should- we still have time. [03:40:52] All right. It- it'll be pretty- pretty quick here. The city manager's office, uh, budget, I'd turn your attention to page 59. That has the staffing by division. Uh, so you can see that we have four positions in the city manager's office. communications has ten and a quarter, three in human resources, three in equity and human rights, one in economic development and public art, and three in our climate action and outreach, uh, division. Across all these operations, uh, the fiscal year 26 budget has a 1.37% increase in expenditures year over year. Um, and then I'll jump through, uh, each of these operations. So, uh, page 60 is the city manager's office. That would be, uh, Chris Kirk and myself, along with a grants position, uh, which I have on hold right now, uh, pretty status quo budget expenditures. Those are on page 333, if you- if you want to look at those, but, um, no service level changes. We did incorporate the Pulco Community survey last year. So you'll see a jump in that time period. That's, uh, plan to be offered every two years. And in the intervening years, we plan to use the same company to do a employee engagement survey internally. The communications division starts on page 61 for the narrative, and is also on page 333, and that, again, is a status quo budget. Pretty much, I can say the same about all of them with a- with a 1.37% increase across all, but no service level changes to communications, and that does include our cable TV operation within that as well. Human resources is on page 65. Uh, human resource budget is largely the same from year to year. A couple of things that can impact that would be if we need to do police and fire promotions, we typically will bring in a consultant to help do that testing. So that, uh, in those years, uh, that can be a little bit higher. And also any years in which we do collective bargaining, we do use outside legal counsel to assist us. So you can see an increase when we know that we'll have collective bargaining, uh, sessions that will require that outside contracting. [NOISE] The Equity in Human Rights Office is on page 69, and the council did authorize a new position, uh, that we hope will be filled this coming spring. It's an engagement specialist. Uh, we did go out once for that to fill that position, but did not have success in doing so. And I know that Stephanie is anxious to- to go back out. Uh, the change, uh, in this budget, I- I mentioned in my opening remarks today, and that's a $25,000 reduction in general fund support for the racial equity and social justice grant program. So that would take the general fund support of that grant program to 75,000. That is the fiscal year 23 funding level. So in fiscal year 24, we went 75-100, and it's maintained at 100. As I mentioned this morning, it doesn't necessarily mean that the grant program, uh, has to be reduced. However, uh, under my proposal, if you wanted to make it whole, you would tap into your Black Lives Matter account, uh, which, uh, has a balance unavailable- an available balance of roughly $620,000 at this time. Economic development and public art are on page 73. Uh, there are a number of changes in this budget. Most of the organizations that we support, the arts and culture and economic development organizations are held flat. Uh, there is a $15,000 reduction to the EDC. That is that Cedar Rapids based, uh, firm that, uh, works throughout the corridor to support high growth businesses. Uh, we also reduced our opportunity funds 25,000. These were discretionary dollars that staff, uh, uses to launch programs like the targeted small business grant program that we just launched. So that was previously budget at a 125,000, and that is down to 100,000. So we'll continue to offer programs that just, uh, may be of a different scale, uh, in fiscal year 26 and going forward. The public art program, which is also managed by Rachel, has a Page 76 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. reduction of 4,500. That budget in fiscal year 25, uh, was 56,500, or is 56,500. And, uh, we are recommending 52,000 there, so a decrease of 4,500. Again, that's- that is not all grants that are issued. There's some maintenance, uh, that goes on, uh, in addition to grant programs that we offer. The climate action office is on page 78. And again, this is one that when we initiated the climate action office, we funded it in two different ways. We, uh, funded the personnel in the general fund. And then all of the supporting programs, the grant programs, the educational programs, that's where we use the emergency levy. And, uh, the thought being is that if we ever needed the emergency levy for something else, we would still have the staff in the general fund, and we could just kind of shrink the programming a little bit. We didn't know that the state would eliminate the emergency levy, but it was nice, uh, at least that we had the staff in the general fund already. So really what we're absorbing into the general fund now is all those programming dollars. Uh, and we're doing that incrementally. So we're still offering a lot of grant programs. You- you've seen those, uh, come out. We'll have continued support for resilience hubs, we'll continue to do the home insulation project, the Harz grant program, root for trees, uh, things of that nature. Some of those are getting scaled back a little bit, uh, but we're able to do that in the general fund. [03:47:42] Some of those programs, is there an acceleration or a deceleration of people interested in participating in those? You know, at a certain point, maybe everybody's had an opportunity to participate, but I know that's not true. What what? [03:47:55] 1 think in most cases, we see an acceleration. Uh, you heard from, uh, Sarah at your last meeting or maybe two meetings ago about the Harz grant. Those are the new construction dollar grants. We're really seeing strong interest there. The resilience hubs were- were intentionally trying to take on one per year. I think we're going to stay at the two for now and get those fully up and operational. Root for trees is pretty steady. The climate action grants always have more applications than we can fund. So we're still seeing a lot of interest in those programs. Now, the emergency levy when we- when we ended the emergency levy, there was still a- a projected balance in there. So at the end of fiscal year 26, we project that there will be about an $850,000 balance. And so what I'm saying, uh, in my message today is that the general fund doesn't have to pick it all up at once, right? So we want to start to move these grant programs into the general fund and on the climate fest educational programs, things like that, but we still have this balance in the emergency levy to- to lean on, so we don't have to phase it all in at once. So there is, again, a projected balance of 850,000 in that retired emergency levy at the end of fiscal year 26. Uh, so I think we can continue to be fairly aggressive with our climate action offerings, uh, but we do need to be careful, uh, and not burn through that balance, uh, before we can kind of fully stabilize the - the general fund in fiscal year 29. Those are the city manager's office, budgets. Is there any of those that you want to go back and do a deeper dive into? If not, your city council budget is on page 330, and there is really nothing changing there. Uh, you do, uh, have an auto, uh, kind of escalator on the salaries that - that go to council members, so you'll see the salary numbers change. That's based on a CPI index, and that happens on January 1st of every year. Outside of that, really your budget is covers some travel and training for- for folks that are interested in attending any type of professional development, whether it Page 77 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. be league of cities, mayor innovation, project types meetings, and also has some, uh, membership to those same organizations as well. [03:50:38] Any question for Jeff? [03:50:42] Yeah, I guess, maybe this is- I'm actually looking at the same time at the strategic plan. And one thing that, um, curious to sort of see as it seems as though it's a city manager's office responsibility and our strategic plan, is that responding to growing homelessness and collaborate with nonprofit, uh, using data inform strategies. Is a budget cover that? Is that do you have the capacity to- that seem to be something that in our strategic plan discussions, we all highlighted is- is highly important? [03:51:11] Yeah. [03:51:111 Can you cover it with the budget that's proposed? [03:51:14] Yeah, so the- the winter shelter. So if you remember two years ago, we increased our wilter- winter shelter contribution from roughly 20 to $30,000 per year up to, I believe it's at 108,000 right now. So we really wanted to ensure that, uh, we knew how long the winter shelter was going to be open. So it has start and end dates, uh, different operational and reporting requirements as well. Those dollars are still reflected in this budget as are the dollars that support the outreach program with the shelter house. Uh, there's definitely a growing amount of staff time and resources being dedicated, uh, to that outreach. So, you know, much like all the departments that came before you, yes, there's a need for more. Uh, but this budget doesn't have any additional resources provided in it. I will say, the, I think, Wednesday of this week, uh, we are interviewing with the Bloomberg Harvard team and, uh, advocating for a two year fellow, uh, to assist on this very issue. So that would be a graduate student that would come in and help us, uh, ensure that we are making those data informed investments and, uh, decisions, someone that can help bridge that. Um, a level of collaboration and understanding with our nonprofit partners. So we are still working outside of the budget to secure resources. Counsel may remember that we had success in getting a summer fellow this past year, who studied, uh, our housing authority properties. So, uh, fingers crossed, we'll be able to get a fellow that would support us for two years here at City Hall and help us advance our work there. And outside of that, no additional resources in this budget. [03:53:131 This is a connected, and it's a non -budgetary, uh, I don't know point. But I know in conversations that you and I have had, you mentioned that a number of, uh, people who are unhoused, in fact, have housing vouchers, but because of what the state has lifted from their. Page 78 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:53:34] Source of income. [03:53:361 Yeah, that- that landlords can essentially deny housing, uh, based on that. What kind of creative things or conversations do we have someone within-. [03:53:49] Yeah, there's a couple of examples. [03:53:51] What are we doing with that? [03:53:51] Yeah. The housing authority does have some dollars budgeted where they can begin to think about creating some incentives, uh, for landlords. Uh, and I know they've got some different ideas that they're kicking around. I- I think I recently saw a month or two where the Cedar- the housing authority that serves Lynn County and the Cedar Rapids area recently came out with some landlord incentives. Uh, we are already funding a risk mitigation program. And that program, I think, has assisted, if I'm recalling correctly, about 8-10 different, uh, placement of 8-10 different individuals in the past year. And then, uh, we're trying to think outside the box as well. Uh, one of the grant programs that Climate Action is offering is, uh, a whole home electrification grant program. So it's a rehab grant program, $50,000. But in order to- to accept the $50,000, you have to agree to accept a housing choice voucher. So, again, if we can't do it on a regulatory side of things, where we're saying that we're going to require you to there's a non-discrimination clause. We can't do that anymore. How do we craft our incentive programs to say, if you want to tap into this grant program, you have to pledge to, uh, accept vouchers going forward, and those will only be for property owners that previously have not accepted, uh, voucher holders. So the idea is to build that pool. And I think we're going to continue to think of the best ways to- to go about that. [03:55:24] Because I have a limitation? Like, you have to accept a voucher for X amount of years indefinite. [03:55:31] 1 believe it is five. I don't have that information right at my fingertips, but I believe it is a five year commitment. [03:55:42] Okay. You guys, you just have a discussion to wrap up. [03:55:50] We want to do finance department? Page 79 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:55:52] Oh, I forgot about finance. I'm sorry. [BACKGROUND] Folks that do the most work on the budget, and we're just. [03:55:591 Okay. Thank you. I will make the super shorten suite because my department is by far the most boring section of this entire budget. You know, most- most of all of what we do is support internally these other departments and all the great things that they do. But, uh, the Finance Department, our narrative information starts on page 82-109. And then the financial pieces start on page 339, and then we do have in some internal service funds, and those start on 661. I'll just walk through these briefly. We have 34.38 FTEs across the six divisions. All of the budgets are very status quo, and most of the increases you're going to see are all going to be in personnel. It's going to be wages and benefits. Uh, no new service levels, no new FTEs, uh, nothing in it. It's really just the cost of doing business to maintain what we're already doing. Uh, I think the one thing maybe to highlight is we do have in the accounting budget, uh, some work study, in turn money. Again, we've definitely seen turnover and retirements uh, in that area. I think we probably have some retirements coming up in accounting, so want to get, um, some exposure to governmental accounting, to some younger people to hopefully then entice them to come here someday. So we're hoping to start that this summer. Um, other than that, I'm not sure I want to say this out loud, but we currently have no open FMA disasters. It's the second year in the 10.5 years that we haven't had one. So I hope I didn't just jinx us that one's on its way. [LAUGHTER] The other big things has already been hit on. One of the pages in our bot covers the tot levy. So, again, this is where you're going to see the general fund piece of those increasing insurance premiums. That's a large part of what you're going to see is an increase in the finance budget in total in those insurance premiums. [03:58:00] And then really with IT, we've definitely been seeing some turnover there, that is one of the things that we're trying to figure out, er, kind of the reasons and what we can do to make it better, um, because it's really hard to help support, um, because there's a long learning curve and trying to help support some of these software systems that we have, um, so to make sure we're given the best support that we can. I think that hits the highlights. Anyone have any questions? [03:58:301 Does the tort levy cover anything outside of, I understand it's Liz Craig's position and the city attorney's office and insurance? Or is that pretty restricted where that money can be spent and those are kind of the two sand box [03:58:41] It's pretty restrictive and it's maxed out basically, right? There may be like a cent or two and it just kind of- again, we're estimating what those premiums are going to be. Hopefully, we've estimated high and it's lower, right? So the tort levy is kind of a guessing game too, so we don't want to have it too high. Page 80 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [03:59:041 Any question from Nico? 103:59:08] A lot of gratitude, actually. [03:59:10] Yeah. [03:59:11] This is unbelievable and I really like being able to see all the years, um, you know, past and estimated. So just multiple ways to take in the same information, both narrative and from definite lives there. [03:59:28] This- this team works really well together, and they work really- really hard. We're lucky to have this team. And Michelle Cook, who really puts together the budget book isn't here, uh, but she, she deserves a lot of the credit too. Um, th, the county just published the valuation numbers on January, the night of January 2nd, I believe. So to- to turn around and incorporate those numbers into this entire document, and get it out the door four working days later, and to be able to sit here and talk through the budget is 100% on that team right there. [04:00:03] And sitting all day. Thank you for everything you do. Yeah. Thanks. Okay. You guys wanna, still we have time. We're doing very good on timing. So if you wanna just discussion for and wrap up. [04:00:21] What's really helpful for staff is, um, if we have a general idea of the areas of the budget, you want to explore more or particular questions. Um, if we can just even identify those, then we can do some additional prep work, uh, to- to make sure that we're prepared to talk about that at your, at your next council meeting. Um, again, the January 21st work session, we'll try to have some time available for- for budget discussion, and, um, after that, we'll kind of look to see what's left on the list and, and how much discussion you wanna have to see if we have to schedule. But if you do know there are areas of the budget that, that you're going to want to, to talk through, uh, even identifying those before we leave today would be very helpful. [04:01:09] I- I come. [04:01:09] 1 really would like to because we've been talking during the strategic planning and everything and we've been talking forever about the affordable housing. And what we see in this budget that we're reducing even the affordable housing fund by $200,000. Uh, what I'm really want to propose, I know that. We Page 81 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. don't have any money like in, in the general fund. And also the staff know better houses work and what we can cut, what we cannot. But I'm really proposing that we have to identify $5 million at least for affordable housing. And this is not necessary, it have to come from the Like, for example, we have the river frost crossing. We have like, can we just add all those together? We have 600 for black life matter. We have like all the thing that is flexible. If we can just bring them together in add them and see how much that so we can identify yes, we're going to take $200,000 from the like this, but we still have money somewhere else that we can put together and, and just final do some kind affordable housing. If there is a way, you can of course, you know. [04:02:26] Yeah, we can do that. [04:02:27] Say the same thing. But that's what I want to see, uh, not like cutting something that but you know better. If you wanna, like if we are close and we want, like small amount of money, you know how you can get it. [04:02:40] Sure. [04:02:41] We really want to see something like that, since we all of us agree that affordable housing is needed. [04:02:47] Absolutely, we can do that. [04:02:49] We talked about it during the break, and it's like, there is from disparate places affordable housing money. I think it's just,'like, let's marry the strategic plan to the actual strategy of, like, if we're looking at money, how might we best leverage it to, to, to be able to say, here is what we have and, and then get active about it. [04:03:11] Yeah, we can do that. [04:03:12] Okay, thank you. [04:03:13] And I'm thinking about that kind of along the lines of what Darian was saying with the transit ridership of, like, okay, now we have a number that we know to meet our climate action goals by 2030. We need this many more riders per year, and that's it's just so much more achievable to be targeting based on Page 82 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. incremental increases. I think about it, like the number of units right that the MPO says we're going to need. For us to hear that would mean this many additional each year by, because I think that target was 2030 also. And I guess we could just divide 10,000 time 5. But, but just to, like, have that more in front of us, right? So that if we say $5 million, we can see being spent, how is that reflected in the meeting the demand for housing in the community? So just kind of, like, taking some of these data points and helping us tie them together, if that makes. [04:04:14] Yeah, makes sense. Yep. [04:04:16] 1 have a schedule question. I've flipped to my first page here in, like, the sort of what you've proposed for the schedule. Are these the state mandated deadlines to have these decisions made? [04:04:30] So the levy has to be set and we have to submit that by March 5th to the county. So that is a state mandated as far as the, I don't remember the CIP, I think it is February 4th. That is so we can get our stuff together so we can start getting all of the stuff we need for all of the bond hearings. So it's just kind of the amount of time that's needed to get that stuff done, as far as the March 11th for the expenditures, that's because we have to set the public hearing and we have to be able to publish what those are so many days before to be able to approve the budget in time to submit it to the county. [04:05:091 Just keep in mind, you only have one meeting scheduled in March. [04:05:13] Well, and I've just, as I'm thinking through this, thinking we have a special election, and we'll have a new colleague in the middle of this process, which is a little bit strange, I guess. So hopefully that person will be paying attention to this meeting and future meetings. [04:05:32] Tell me early. [04:05:33] We could theoretically act faster than this if we wanted to. [04:05:37] Mm hm. [04:05:39] You could certainly make decisions. Adopting the budget prior to April 15th, I'm not sure there's a really good way to do that. Yeah. I think that the adoption will be post special election. Page 83 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:05:52] Yeah. Okay. [04:05:56] 1 think, you know, like, everything that maybe the recommendation that we see in front of us. Uh, I from myself, speaking about myself, I- I really don't see like there is there going to be a lot of, like, kind of disagreement or something like that. But I feel just the affordable housing that I told you about. But after that, I see a lot things make sense. I don't know that as a counsel, but yeah, we, we can, we can go through this. I feel like we can go through this very quick. [04:06:30] So, um, one thing I would because I wrote it down as far as, like, actually, if we want to change the tax rate, right? That has to be decided by the 18th, right? And given that we are all collectively, we've been talking actually for a couple of months about how do we generate more revenue, right? Does it not make sense to sort of say, we should probably have a hard or not hard, but have a focused conversation. Again, we have the information about lost. And talk about the difference between, I mean, I- I'm not in favor of raising the rate, but I mean, it seems to me we need to actually sooner rather than later start thinking about, okay, if we're looking at alternate revenue streams, we need to probably nail that down before the 18th. I mean, we need not nail down, make, uh, a half of conversation and have some direction for ourselves about which way we're going. Does that? [04:07:26] I'm thinking an alternate revue revenue stream for fiscal year 26 or getting stuff in line for. [04:07:31] Getting something in line. Yeah. And, and are we okay with where we're at right? Given what the projected budget is with our current tax. [04:07:411 Right. [04:07:42] Right. So yes, it's a, it's a yes, and, you're correct to, to, to correct me. It's like, no, it's, it's not to say this is for now, but to, to look ahead knowing that the next couple of years are going to be worse. And to know also that a tax rate levy is one of the triggers that we can pull or levers. Sorry. [04:08:01] 1 heard Jeff you say you would never bring a budget with an increased overall rate. Did I hear, hear that right? [04:08:10] Page 84 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Well, no, not never. Um, I think it's a goal of ours to keep it flat or, or to reduce it, but it may be inevitable that we have to without sacrificing significant services. Uh, what I get, what I would be concerned about raising it this year, uh, uh, would be that you are gonna raise it this year, you're gonna deploy those funds in the budget. And then next year and the year after, we've eaten into that capacity, where we can't raise it anymore. So, um, I'm, I'm not comfortable raising it this year, but depending, especially what new legislation may come down, we may have to. And really, for us, that would mean leaning on the employee benefits levy more and transferring more from the employee benefits levy to the general fund, because again, the general funds tapped out, the transit is tapped out, tort liability is tapped out. Um, there's not a whole lot of property tax left, left to grab. [04:09:10] And I appreciate what you said, really the, the capacity. And I think that, that's what was happening with the flip in the employee benefits and then the, and the debt service, right? Is making sure we have that capacity for future years. [04:09:22] Right. [04:09:23] I'm not advocating for raising it now, but I do think from, you know, if, if you need to understand kind of the will of the council to consider something like that for future years since the budget planning that staff does is so many months in advance of even this conversation. I just want to make sure that we're raising that and understanding that. [04:09:44] That's where I was trying to go with it as well. Not to say, should we do this this year? But more to say, in the way that Mayor or Mayor Pro Tern when presiding looks to us during P&Z and is, are we inclined to agree with this? Are we inclined to agree and say, let's keep the rate at where we're at? I mean, just to have that discussion. So that we know that like on February 18th, there isn't all of a sudden this, like, you know, in conversation that. [04:10:131 1 agree because, you know, even though we, we have a little of back fill right now, you know, next time we are not going to have anything, it will be, like, a really good reason when we say we need money, and we can increase it. But yeah, I'm inclined of that. [04:10:30] Yeah. But leaving them the table. [04:10:33] Yes. Page 85 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:10:34] I'm just thinking, you know, historically, there certainly have been councils and city managers who have been more willing to reduce staff or reduce service levels than perhaps the current one would be. So even just, you know. [04:10:47) Understand. [04:10:47] And I think you know that, but just again, to be transparent about it, to be talking about it, so it's not a surprise to anyone should we go that direction in coming years? If we need to. [04:11:011 Maybe things we can I downscale love little. You know, I'm too much optimistic, right? [04:11:12] Well, I just wanted to raise one more issue on the community safety side. So I very much appreciate what Chief Liston said of having a very lean budget, right? There's nothing in the police department specifically that is beyond status quo, right/ just keeping things as they are. Um, the council has talked numerous times starting most clearly with the city manager's plan to restructure the police department in December 2020 about shifting towards that prevention line of crisis response, shifting away from armed response, specifically, I know with ARPA dollars, we were able to fund mobile crisis relatively aggressively. I'm not really seeing any alternatives in this budget. I appreciate what Chief Lyon said about community risk reduction. And I think those things go together. And we know there's other initiatives in the county, like the mobile integrated health with the ambulance service. But can you just speak to where is that? And what kind of what, what can we look forward to as far as that trend? [04:12:31] Yeah, I think, Chief, Chief Liston articulated where he's trying to go with the, the mental health liaison response, right? So here's we're all very proud of the, the work in the first four months that that team has done. Uh, he does have the one specialty position that he'd like to fill to hopefully bolster our ability to respond to mental health crises with the appropriate amount of resources. The strategic plan goal does, uh, uh the strategic plan does articulate a goal to try to get 24/7 coverage on for our mental health liaisons, we would need to hire three more or partner with community to hire, uh, three more of those positions. That's going to be incredibly difficult in this budget environment. Um, and with the changes at the state with the mental health regions, we don't really know what that's going to look like, too in terms of tapping into potential outside sources. So, uh, that continues to be the department's focus is to, to increase the amount of times the mental health liaisons are interacting on calls. Uh, and, um, outside of that, that, you know, that's it. That's where the push is. Uh, we still have the shelter house outreach program, which, uh, our, our PD outreach staff works daily, uh, with, with the shelter house folks there. Um, but it's, it's status quo, uh, very much so. Page 86 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:13:591 Well, again, no surprises from me to my colleagues, but I really think we should be looking at the unfilled positions. Again, we were at 82, which was a high watermark, right? Of the 86, um, budgeted. And I understand we're at 80 now, and there's the, the five just as the chief articulated. So if we could consider shifting towards the more, um, mental health crisis and prevention side, I would ask that we look at that again this year. [04:14:31] Yes. [04:14:35] One of the things actually, I noted while Chief Liston was talking, was that specialty, and at the same time, I know that the priorities always are about patrol first, and then specialty, but it seems to me that this could be a fit where, um, that- that- staff can, oh, not staff. I'm sorry, that counsel can heartily endorse or suggest that perhaps that specialty position is filled, um, because it seems like so much good workout. It- it seems like this is not ancillary. It's very complimentary to the work that's being done, and it's relieving pressure on service for calls. So it seems to me like it- it makes sense to actually fill that before we get other staffing up. Those specialty positions are usually filled after we've gotten the patrol numbers up, and he was saying that they're down. Am I misunderstanding? [04:15:33] No, it's- it's a balancing act. We've got a couple of the specialty positions filled now with the downtown liaison and the one mental health. But the- the chief ultimately has to balance who- how many do we have out on patrol versus filling those specialty positions? It really comes down to how are we meeting our minimum staffing levels, right? What's the minimum number of officers we need out at a given time? Are we able to meet that consistently? Um, he'll consider things like the amount of mandatory overtime that we're requiring. So when we're low on staff, there's a lot of mandatory overtime forcing people back in to fill those shifts. Um, it's hard to justify that ask of employees, and that expense on the taxpayers while you have specialty positions filled, right? So, um, I think he's kind of trying to find that balance of how many specialty positions can I fill for these really great value producing partnerships, uh, versus how many do I just need to respond to call for services that are out there? [04:16:33] 1 was just wondering given the fact that there were so many calls that were in that bucket of meeting it, so I was wondering if maybe that's actually an extra, ah, piece of consideration that that would actually be alleviating calls for service over or- or- or, you know. [04:16:50] Yeah, and that's- [04:16:50] 1 get there's multiple pieces to it, but it did something - Page 87 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:16:53] Hundred percent. [04:16:53] That that amount, that might actually be something where that could actually be primary service- [04:16:58] Yeah. [04:16:59] In the way that he is and- and that you have explained how, you know, the- the mandatory staffing works, that this might actually be part of that model. [04:17:07] Yeah. I think that's really why he has the civilian crime analyst really focused on that particular issue. The chief mentioned today, kind of a surprising result for us is initially, um, we actually saw the reverse effect, where, ah, the people we were engaging with on the- on the mental health calls were calling more in the short-term. What the chief expects, and I think we all would hope and expect to see is over time as we get them connected into community services outside of the department, um, that those calls go down. Uh, so yes, if those numbers can, ah, show us that we're reducing calls for service, then absolutely, I think he would want to get that second one filled, and advocate for a third position that maybe, ah, starts off in the stations and then, ah, moves to, ah- ah, one of the open shifts. [04:18:00] Again, this is anecdotal, so, you know, literally take it for that value. But at that panel, um, with the different was West Moines and Urbandale, another, ah, suburb that I can't remember, but they talked about, as- as the chief did, about the importance of follow up, uh, that that was the piece that actually really over time, and they were talking about the difference between policing and this. I know you know it better than I do. I was the FA panel, um, but that was the piece that allowed those service calls to go down over time was that there could be more time spent with whoever the person they need was, as well as getting them the resources, which lowered than the calls overall. [04:18:45] It sounds like two pieces. One would be with our partnership, increasing the number of mental health liaisons, whether they be in person or out in the field, and then having enough officer capacity to make them out into the field. One of the pieces of data, I don't expect you'd have it now, but as they put this together, um, one of the things that Chief Liston mentioned was having somebody the liaison out in the field with the patrol officer. I think he used the phrase jumping a call, which I- I kind of took from context just to mean, heard it and sort of responded ahead or instead of or's, that's right, actually what my question. Was it a response where they were co -responding, like was it the same, was it truly like a Page 88 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. diversion as in this other team, mental health liaison team was responding, so patrol officer didn't have to? [04:19:31] Correct. [04:19:32] Or what? Okay. So that was what it was. It wasn't just sort of, like, we're going to both respond and if somebody can be diverted or I wasn't sure how that worked out. (04:19:39] It would depend on the nature of the call. Uh, yeah, if the nature of the call, um, let's say, maybe it was, um, some sort of disturbance, and where there might be a fight, or there might, um, be information that says, now, there maybe some sort- some sort of fight here. The mental health folks may respond, but you may also get another patrol car to respond. If it's a, um, let's say, uh- uh, a situation that's called in where it's probably pretty clear. It's just someone in a mental health crisis in a public space that someone's concerned about, then they can absolutely jump in front of a patrol unit from responding and that patrol unit can stay in their district. [04:20:23] Sure. I think we compare these metrics, knowing what the difference is between, like, what's a one to one replacement versus a, you know, a group call kind of a thing. So just- just kind of knowing what that is. That would be useful. [04:20:35] , I think a little more transparency just on the service levels that we're looking at now. I mean, I know, just with the City of North Liberty, when they had a lot of turnover, they changed some internal policy and ended up kind of having the same coverage. So I think just some transparency for us in what does that mean when we say, this is what the required, um, you know, of the patrol, what the requirements are. [04:21:02] Sure. [04:21:04] Just so that I fully understand the 85 sworn officers, and we have multiple that are sworn officers and specialties. It's sort of, like, we're, you know, of them. If those all 85 are filled, and we have someone who's just not a specialty officer leave the force, does that mean that somebody who is a specialty becomes a non specialty until they fill up to get those? I was that- [04:21:30] It can. Page 89 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:21:31] Okay. [04:21:31] It can. It doesn't automatic. So if- if we have 84 staffed officer positions, and a patrol- patrol officer leaves, we're still at a healthy enough staffing level where we don't have to pull somebody off of, um - off of a specialty position. But where we found ourselves in 2021 and 22 is our staffing got into the low to mid 70s. And at that point, yes, it is. We're pulling people out of specialty to get them on patrol. So we're at this area now in which we've stabilized around the 80, we have 80 ish. You can see the chief is a little bit on the fence on how many can I fill? Uh, because the last thing we want to do is to fill a specialty and then pull that person right out of that position. So, um, that's- that's an evaluation that he has to make, and- [04:22:26] Could be somebody with the skills, with the training, with the desire to be that specialty role, and- and might be doing- bring that quality of work to their regular patrol, but their title is technically not- [04:22:37] Absolutely. [04:22:38] Bad. [04:22:39] So, Officer Fowler, our downtown liaison is a good example. He was a downtown liaison, and then he had to be reassigned to patrol because of staffing concerns. So he brought those same skills during his day to day patrol work during that time, and then staffing levels went back up, and we reassigned him to that downtown specialty position. Same person responding, same skill sets being delivered to the public, um, just out of the patrol, um, framework as opposed to the downtown liaison framework. [04:23:10] [inaudible 04:23:10] Wonderful scenario. Everyone has that skill set in training. What's the way to get to that? [04:23:18] Well, we- that certainly our goal is to do that, and when we have an open position- an open specialty position, that's typically open to the entire department to say, okay, who's interested in the mental health liaison? And we will have officers kind of self-select to say, yeah, I think I'd be a great fit for that. I'd be interested in that. We might do supplemental training with that particular officer. But the idea is that everybody should have the baseline training to be able to, uh, raise their hand and say, I'd like to - I'd like to try that. Page 90 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:24:001 Okay. Anything else? [04:24:07] Oh, okay, sorry. [04:24:08] Your done? [04:24:091 No, um, and this is ancillary to specific budget, but it is related. Given that there's a recommendation to, um, all around, for the aid agencies to be flat, um, for the grants for HRC, potential to drop down to 75, um, and for, you know, there's- there's other tweaks here and there at grants. Earlier the- in the calendar year, we talked about, um, making sure that all the different commissions knew of sort of, like, who is applying for what and talking about redoubling or redundancy. I think given that there is going to be more pressure on grants and awards, that that particular plan that we sort of we're coming out of Is- is really, really important because I think that we will have a lot of unnecessary conflict if there is simply, uh, or not unnecessary, but it'll be, you know what I'm talking about frustration if there are awards that seemingly are going to the same agencies at a time when the budget has been reduced across the board. So the- the work that had been envisioned by staff or recommended or suggested to- to have that sort of master plan of being able to let people know would be crucial. [04:25:38] Yeah. Kirk pulled that together after the council discussion- [04:25:42] Yeah. [04:25:42] Several months ago, and I think we have a plan in place to make sure that that goes out- [04:25:46] 1 know that it was in the works, so I just wanted to make sure that, like, now more than ever, I think that's going to be really important. So thank you. [04:25:54] Um, one thing that I don't know if it's going to cause questions or not would be, um, I'm looking at my cheat sheet here about the things that this is kind of the punch line sheet of things that are unpleasant, I guess. The racial equity, and social justice grant being supplemented with the Black Lives Matter funds, how does that look in a way that makes, ah- makes the best out of that, so- and curious what the rest of the council thinks. I mean, is that we just simply do the racial equity and social justice grant and have a set aside that's set specifically for fund. Page 91 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:26:33] The Black Lives Matter fund is really intended to be a council directed fund. So if you- if you told us that you want to let's say accept my proposal, we're only going to transfer 75,000 in general funds if you want to supplement it with the 25, we just really need that, uh, permission to draw down the balance for the Black Lives Matter account, but from a practical standpoint, the dollars mean the same. So we don't need to distinguish who is getting general funds versus who is getting Black Lives Matter's funds, they can really be intertwined, and- and from the outside world looking in, it would be the same. It would just be where we are polling funds are when it comes time to actually write the checks. [04:27:20] I- I was talking about this a little bit to, you know, Counsel Bergeson Alter. So I- I just believe that even we have 1,650, right? Six hundred and fifty? [04:27:32] It's about 620. [04:27:33] Yeah. Let's say 650. If we divide it by 25, that's 26. We're- we're talking about 26 year leaving 650,000 almost sitting there, just to give the human rights commission grant 25 every year to make it, that's not practical. So I think we should use that 650 toward affordable housing, and that is still going to benefit the marginalized people in this community. So, you know, maybe either we keep the 75,000 as it is, or if you've start looking somewhere else and two week some things in, and out and find that 25, that would be good. But we really encourage you guys to use the 650 toward the five million affordable housing fund, and as in retain, still will benefit the marginalized community including by black community like black people. [04:28:37] Interesting idea. I need to sit with that for a second, but- [04:28:40] 1 think- I'm sorry. I think that pops into my head, may protein would maybe be like half a million from that- like, 500,000 from that, and then we could say that would give us four years or five years even of supplementing the grant funds. I really don't love the idea of reducing that grant pool, you know, because I know how seriously the Human Rights Commission takes those, you know, applications, and - and we've seen some really interesting stuff come through there. But that's just- just another idea on top of your. [04:29:15] Yeah. Well, and- [04:29:16] Page 92 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. I assume that 25,000 wasn't, like in perpetuity. We were just making a decision for one year, but I think your point is good. We don't want to, like, make that it forever thing. [04:29:24] Yes. [04:29:251 Because- because you're right. That does get to be a little silly. But I don't think that was what the proposal was, so I don't want to. But I- kind kind of, and really I think- think like Counselor Moore said, I want to sit with that, but that's an interesting idea. [04:29:39] To circle back to your original point, I don't- I don't have any issue with taking money from BLM to perhaps in a limited way to helping with getting us to 100,000, because I think that they're absolutely aligned. Black lives matter money that the council directs to social justice racial equity in there. Social justice justice, I think- That's a- that's a correlation that makes a lot of sense that, you know, it'd be different if we're- [04:30:12] Even if we-. [04:30:12] We're saying all we're going to now bump up city council pay. [04:30:161 Right. [04:30:16] Right? [04:30:17] No way. [04:30:17] We're having an issue. [04:30:181 Yeah. [04:30:19] No. Page 93 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session of January 13, 2025 (audio recording is available from the City Clerk's office) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [04:30:201 It was right for [OVERLAPPING] our city manager- it was right for our city manager to put it here in front of us because it will be something that we'll probably get calls on. [04:30:28] Yeah. Anyway, this. I think Jeff you have clear ideas now. [04:30:34] Yeah. [04:30:35] Yeah, all right. [04:30:35] Appreciate it. And I just thank you all for your time. It's a long day, and it's a- you guys have plenty of other pressures on your time, especially on a Monday. So thank you. Uh, again, thanks to the finance team and Chris and Kirk for their work on this. [04:30:49] Of, course. Thank you also to you guys. [04:30:51] You're often running. [04:30:53] Yeah. And thank you again for- for [OVERLAPPING]. [04:30:55] Thank you for [OVERLAPPING]. [04:30:59] Nice. [04:31:00] No need to adjourn. We didn't have any actions, right? So - Page 94