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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-02-18 TranscriptionIowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:00:20] [MUSIC] It is February 18, 2025, and it is 6:00 PM. And this is a city of Iowa City meeting. I'm going to call it to order. Roll call, please. [00:00:31] Alter. [00:00:31] Here. [00:00:32] Fergus. [00:00:32) Here. [00:00:33] Harmson. [00:00:34] Here. [00:00:34] Mo. [00:00:35] Here. [00:00:35] Sella. [00:00:351 Here. [00:00:36] Teague. [00:00:36] Here. [00:00:37] Page 1 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:,//citychanne]4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [NOISE] All right. Well, welcome to your City Hall, and we're going to just jump right in here with Item number 2 proclamations, which is 2A International Women's Day and Women's History Month. Whereas March 8 is observed around the world as International Women's Day to celebrate women's achievement, raise awareness about discrimination, and take action to promote gender parity. And whereas the United States has since 1989, formally recognized March as National Women's History Month. And whereas the United States, the United Nations has promoted the advancement of women throughout its 80 year history, and whereas the City Council endorsed the UN Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination in 1995. And many individuals and organizations in this community are working to ensure equity for women rights and girls. And whereas the Johnson County United Nations Association and over 20 local businesses, nonprofit organizations and University of Iowa entities are sponsoring night of 1,000 dinners, a community celebration of International Women's Day on Thursday, March 6, 6:00 PM through 8:00 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Corville to recognize women's led groups and initiatives advancing UN Sustainability Development goal number 3. Good health and well being. Now, therefore, I Bruce Teague, mayor of the city of Iowa City, do hereby proclaim March 8 as International Women's Day and the month of March 2025 to be recognized as Women's History Month. In Iowa City I call upon residents to recall- to recall the achievements of women and recommit to the goal of full gender equality and parity. And to receive this is Meredith Gale. And I see that Jim, as well as Biji is also here as well. [APPLAUSE]. [00:02:48] [inaudible 00:02:48] [LAUGHTER] Thank you, Mayor Teague, [00:03:15] for this proclamation honoring International Women's Day and Women's History Month. Um, and thank you to the city for your support on behalf of the Johnson County United Nations Association, your support of the event, Night of 1,000 Dinners. Um, the theme for International Women's Day this year is for all in capital letters, ALL women and girls rights, equality, and empowerment. Um, this is also a pivotal year because it's 30 years since the world leaders met in Beijing, um, for the First World Conference on Women, where the world leaders did promise, equal rights, opportunities, global and safety for women and girls everywhere. One of the first places that girls were specifically mentioned, um, and that is still- the Beijing Declaration and platform is still the, um, the best document, the plan to achieve equal rights for all women and girls. Um, it has achieved some, but we have a long way to go. In 1995, when this- this meeting happened, only 12 countries had legal sanctions against domestic violence, and now it's 193. So we are moving in the right direction. Some things we can do as a community are to support women's rights organizations, demand leaders enforce gender equity laws, equality laws, educate the next generation on equality, amplify the voices of those most left behind, speak out against gender stereotypes, bias, and discrimination, and advocate for women in leadership. The Johnson County United Nations Association is hosting the Night of 1,000 Dinners. Thank you for giving the details on that and your proclamation. Each year, we do choose to honor, uh, several organizations in the community that are women led and support the sustainable development goal this year of good health and well being. Those are the Free Medical and Dental Clinic, Prairie Lands Freedom Fund, and then the UN Healthy Start for refugee children. So happy that several of you will be there. Page 2 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:llcitychanne]4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. There'll be a buffet dinner- a buffet dinner by a- Togolese catering group. So we'll be supporting a local, uh, Togolese business and immigrant business, and we'll also be, um, affirming the dignity and contributions of refugees and immigrants, um, at this organization. Segments of the program will be presented in the following languages, Arabic, Spanish, Swahili, Hindu, Kikuyu, or Farsi, and in recognition that some people face discrimination when they don't speak English fluently or speak with an accent. Thank you so much for your support and this opportunity on behalf of the Johnson County United Nations Association. [00:06:07] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] All right, thank you again. All right, we're going to move on to our consent agenda. I'm going to ask for a motion for items 3 through 7 while removing item Number 6(c) for separate consideration. Can I get a motion, please? [00:06:29] A move. [00:06:31] Second. [00:06:32] Move by Sella, seconded by Mo. He was a little louder than or little. I don't know which. [LAUGHTER] All right. And anyone from the public that is present would like to talk on any item on our consent agenda. Items number 3 through 6, um, but not 6(c). Seeing no one present or online. If you're online, raise your virtual hand. I don't see any one online or in person. Council discussion? Roll call, please. [00:07:07] Fergus. [00:07:08] Yes. [00:07:08] Harmson. [00:07:09] Yes. [00:07:09] Mo. [00:07:09] Yes. Page 3 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:Zlcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:07:10] Sella. (00:07:10] Yes. [00:07:11] Teague. [00:07:11] Yes. [00:07:12] Alter. [00:07:12] Yes. [00:07:13] Motion passes 6-0. All right, Council Lemos recusing himself from item 6(c). Can I get a motion to approve consent agenda item 6(c)? [00:07:27] So moved. Bergus. Second, Alter. [00:07:29] Anyone from the public like to- to discuss this topic? Please raise your virtual hand if you're online. Please come forth if you're in council chambers. Seeing no one, Council discussion. Roll call, please. [00:07:43] Harmson. [00:07:44] Yes. [00:07:44] Sella. [00:07:45] Yes. Page 4 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:07:45] Teague. [00:07:46] Yes. [00:07:46] Alter. [00:07:47] Yes. [00:07:47] Fergus. [00:07:48] Yes. [00:07:48] Motion passes 5-0. All right. We are at item number 8, which is community comment. This is an opportunity for the pub- public to comment. Um, and it is intended so the members of the public may be heard by council because community comment is for items not properly noticed on the agenda. Council cannot engage in discussion or debate due to open meeting laws. Only in person comments will be allowed for community comment, public comment for specific agenda items, which must be directly related to that agenda item may be made in person or remotely. I'm going to invite anyone up that wants to speak on any item that is not on our agenda at this time, you'll be given three minutes. All right. Seeing no one in person, we're going to move on to item number 9. As our regular agenda 9a City Park Pool Replacement Project, resolution approving project manual estimate of costs for the construction of the City Park Pool replacement project, establishing amount of bids, security to accompany each bid, directing city clerk to post notice to bidders and fixing time and place for receipt of bids. I'm going to open the public hearing. And welcome. [00:09:15] Hi. Julie Sydale Johnson, Director of Parks and Recreation, Allo tonight in the middle of this cold snap. I feel a little bit like, Oh, if the snowman up here, dreaming about summer. [LAUGHTER] And talking about the pool. We're here tonight with plans and specs for the pool. It's been a long process. Through the whole process, we've had these nine project goals. I just want to remind you of those quickly. With the new pool, we wanted to have a whole range of user experiences. We want to make sure that there's increased independent accessibility into all areas of the pool. Lots of shade on the deck, provide design and operating efficiency that meet our climate action goal, maximize the efficiency of our lifeguards, help with every child learn how to swim. Welcome all users of all backgrounds, evaluate the merging of our indoor shelter and restroom into one building, which we're doing, um, and then limit the Page 5 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:./.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. construction area generally to the fence line. And I would say that we have met all these nine goals in one way or another in this process. We did a lot of public input on this process. We'll go through that a little bit more. But the main design considerations that we came across was people wanted to preserve the feeling of the traditional City Park pool. They love, love, love, love City Park pool and wanted it to remain somewhat the essence of that. We wanted to preserve as many trees as possible. So I'm happy to say, at this point, it looks like we're going to take down seven trees, um, and they're all pretty small, and I'll show you where those are. But the plan is to maintain all the large trees that are around the pool. Give it that open field focus on learn to swim, multigenerational opportunities, safety of the pool, keeping user groups separated as they do their special things inside the pool. So we have a whole outline of how we got to this point. I know a lot of you have stepped through this with us every step of the way. We started with the assessment of the current pool during the summer of 2023, determined that the current pool is well beyond its lifespan and that the best course of action was to move forward to replace the pool. So in October 23, 2023, we started with the public input. We had one meeting in the afternoon at Mercer, and then we had a second open house meeting in conjunction with our Halloween event, and almost 500 people took part in those meetings with another 251 people responding to the online version. That moved us into the next phase, which was to host 14 focus groups with our consultants leading the conversation in each of those focus groups, talking about the different priorities of all the different people. One hundred and thirty seven residents participated in that with another 44 online. That led us to the three concept designs which you saw as a Council. Those were updated. Those were shown to the Parks and Re Commission, the Historic Preservation Commission. We had another public open house in February of 2024. And then we did a statistically valid survey to residents to look at those three options. We came back to you with the results of those surveys in May and decided to move forward with generally Concept A with a few options to do some different things with that concept. Went forward with that through design, checked back in in October, and here we are today. Um, and even this afternoon, we were still looking through the plans and specs and doing things like checking the roller shades and all kinds of fun stuff. But it has been a long process. The community has been very involved. We had meetings this morning with residents who still had concerns or questions about it. So I know that there's been a whole lot of interest in the project. This slide summarizes the amount of touchpoints that we've had with the community throughout. We've done our best to be as open and transparent through the entire design process. Which brings us to this design, it is a three pool concept, six, 50 meter lap lanes, a leisure pool, which has a play feature not shown in this particular picture, a separate diving well with two diving boards, availability to add a climbing wall and a third diving board, though those are both alternates on this bid. Grass areas, staying essentially within the fence line of the current pool. It does bump out to the east. That's where the new filter house is, you'll see there in kind of the right side of the picture. That's one of the biggest impacts to the site is having that filter house separate from the bathhouse. There's another rendering of it. I caution because this rendering and the one that's been shown in the media, people have had a lot of concern that the leisure pool seemed really small. So I want to show you this drawing, as well. The leisure pool is actually about two thirds the size of the lab pool. So it's bigger than what it seemed to appear to a lot of people in those pictures. Um, the lap pool has the 650 meter lap lanes. When you compare the surface, the water surface area of the new pool to the- to the old pool, the difference is essentially the same as the 250 meter lap lanes that we're not building in this pool. So the old pool had 850 meter lap lanes, this one has six. Those two lap Page 6 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:Zlcitychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. lanes account for the difference in surface area between the two designs. Okay. This is the play feature that's chosen for the leisure pool. And I should point out that there isn't that little sitting wall around it in our final design. There is a straight wall behind it that acts as part of the ramp into the pool, but, um, this was an earlier picture that we got of that. Lots of fun and lots of fun things for small kids to play around. The bathhouse, um, the top shows the view from the pool. The bottom shows the view from the parking area or from the entrance area and the area to the left. On that bottom one is the community room, a room for about 50 people in that community room takes the place will eventually take the place of what are indoor shelters at City Park. And the two restrooms to service Upper City Park will now be attached to this building. What you see as what we call gray brick restrooms in Upper City Park will be demolished as part of this project. How do we support the climate action goals? Well, the main reason- the main thing we're doing is the bathhouse itself will be the first all electric fully electrified municipal facility. So all the heating, everything else, the water heating in the bathhouse is all electric. We also looked at the possibility of solar, but with the idea of keeping all those beautiful trees, solar didn't seem to make sense. But we are moving forward with the heat pumps and with all electrification of the bathhouse, shower house, not the filter house. If we decide to heat one of the three pools or all three of them, that would be through gas heat that we're not able to accomplish with electric heat at this time. The other thing is this pool has significantly less water, about a third less water than the current pool. So there'll just be less water use, less water chemicals, treatment, everything else that goes with that. And, of course, everything else throughout the facility is low flow water use and all kinds of LED lights and everything else that we can think of to- to help meet those climate action goals. The bathhouse, you've seen this design before, separate men and women's restroom, but then an option to come straight through, which has two single user shower restroom facilities and a separate family changing area. So three options there, if you did not want to go through the men's or the women's side. Also, enhanced lifeguard area, including first aid room, some of the things we really didn't have in our older pool. There's several bid alternates on this. So the base bid, these are the things not included. First of all, we'll have the option of deciding whether or not to heat each of the three pools, and they can be done separately. I could heat just the activity pool, not the lap pool or the diving well. If you remember during our public comment, the lap swimmers were very concerned that the water would be too warm for lap swimming. So I don't sense that there's a great need to heat that water, but the activity, small children's pool, definitely, for swim lessons and that sort of thing, if possible. So we'll see how those bids come in. We had the option of adding a UV disinfectant system. This is something that's not required, especially for outdoor pools. It's an enhancement to the way the water is treated. It's a safety- added safety feature. It's becoming more and more common in outdoor pools, but as I said, it's not yet required by the state, so we don't have to do that. We'll evaluate it based on the cost. We are looking at doing it at the two indoor pools, but being that it's UV comes from the sun, an outdoor pool. You kind of get a lot of it for free from the sun directly, so not as important at the outdoor pool. [00:18:18) The climbing wall and their diving board are alternates we are looking at the price of new water and sewer lines all the way through the park to Park Road, and we likely will need to do that. We have alternates for landscape seating walls, both within the pool deck area around the pool and in the front entrance area. If not, the landscape limestone seating walls, we just still have planting in that area, but Page 7 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at.https:1,/citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. in a less expensive way. We're getting a price to demolish that park restroom building I talked about. If not part of this contract, then our staff would inc- would accomplish that in house. It would just take longer. And then the shade structures, so the base bid includes all of the fittings and the footings needed to put them into the pool. If we can't afford it when we do the base bid, we'll still need to get those at some point. We just may purchase them separately later. So that is our bid alterna- alternates, the project schedule. We go out to bid tomorrow, assuming you approve it tonight. Bids come back in March 25th. I don't plan on sleeping March 24th, [LAUGHTER] finding out what these bids are. Uh, we hope to have them awarded April 1st with construction, then, uh, April 25 through April 26. So remember, the outdoor pool would be closed for this entire season with a grand opening in May of 2026. Um, it's really exciting. I also wanted to show you really quickly how we got from Concept A to the final design because I had quite a few questions about that last week and this week. So this was the Concept A that was shown during the survey phase. And if you remember back in May, when you approved Concept A, you approved it with a couple of possible changes, one of them being, and we showed this at this time, too, is separating the leisure pool from the lap pool. So you can see it's the same pool space. It's just here it's together, and here it's separate. We've gone forward with it being separate just because of the benefits to operations and the ability to open and close pools separately, um, the ability to heat or not heat, do all those different things. Um, the other thing that we show at this point, we were still showing the vortex swim channel area or kind of the mini lazy river. After we showed this, we got a number of concerns, including from some of the facilities that actually have those that called us and talked to us about some of the safety concerns that they'd had. So we did a little research on that, and we decided in the end it probably wasn't the best option. So we switched from the vortex channel back to the play features, which is why you see that. And then in the final design, it's - everything is flipped. So here's what you saw back in May. We flipped it so the lap pools on the left, leisure pools on the right, same size of everything. Just flipped, uh, had to do with utilities coming into the site and a few other things that are underground, uh, more than the actual what was above the deck. So that's how we ended up with the- the final design. Julie, can I ask a quick question? [00:21:23] Yeah. [00:21:23] In the diving well, um, you've got two diving- is it one meter and a three meter or two- [00:21:28] Yes. [00:21:28] One meter or-. [00:21:29] One meter and a three meter with the base bid, room for another one meter on the side. And that's one of the alternates. And it is 14 feet deep. So other questions. Page 8 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.comlcity-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:21:43] What is the value including the alternates? [00:21:47] Oh, I don't know that off the top of my head. It's about 18 million for the base. [00:21:51] Yeah. [00:21:52] 1 don't have the value of the alternates. [00:21:54] And I was curious what the capacity to absorb some of the alternates were if we're close to budget, if we're-. [00:22:03] The answer for that. [00:22:06] Uh, you- you know, by including them in the alternates, we're expressing our desire to include them in the- in the full. I think what we're nervous about with this one is obviously our ability to react if the bids come in high. Uh, I would hope that if- if we're, uh, closer under with the 18, we can grab nearly all those alternates, um, but, yeah, we- we would like to do all those things. That's why they're out there. [00:22:35] Have you had conversations with the designers about, um, potential tariffs and the impacts on costs for this? Is that- I mean, as I know, it's- it's- nobody knows anything yet, but is that-. [00:22:45] Yeah. Uh, we haven't had conversations with the designer. We've had them internally. We've also had conversations about the availability of a workforce to build these things. They rely on a lot of people that come in with visas. So those are too big unknowns, so we don't have any answers. [00:23:01] Sure, we can't control them. I'll ask one more question. [LAUGHTER] Um, we- at previous meeting, you had said that some of the large o- large oak trees are being preserved through this design. However, there might be some sick trees- [00:23:22] Yeah. Page 9 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Zcitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:23:22] -um, in City Park. Um, how far along is that investigation? And do we-. [00:23:28] Yeah. Thanks- thanks for bringing that up. Uh, no further along than what we talked about before. We know that there's several that are reaching the end of their lifespan and are stressed. We don't have any reason to believe that they need to come down immediately. We did lose a few last summer just randomly during storms, though. So it's- it's still possible we could lose some of those large ones. The trees that- I said I would come back to this, the trees that we are losing, um, there's two smaller trees on either side of the entrance on the north side of the building. Uh, those are- sorry, I have it written down here. So we're losing two dog- small dogwood trees there. There's one tree that is just kind of to the top right of the, uh, the old bath house. That's a white oak that we're losing. We're losing a white pine closer to the- to the, um, entry point from the street. And then we lose a maple and two smaller trees that are labeled as- as ash trees, but we're actually not sure that's what they are. Uh, but three smaller trees just on the east side of the current pool kind of were that filter house building. So no significant large trees. In fact, we moved the filter house building to a slightly different site to save one of the largest trees that's out there. It doesn't mean they're going to be- not be impacted by construction. We- we have very strong specs that say that trees need to have protection around them, um, know that our forestry staff watches that like a hawk, um, and wants it to be protected, but things still happen during construction. So it's possible that we could save all the trees and have a few decline significantly in the - in the years right afterwards. So-. [00:25:08] Thanks. [00:25:08] Mm-hmm. And I forgot, Ben Clark is the project engineer here, and he's back here, too for questions, if have you had any. [LAUGHTER] He's the real smart person behind the whole project, so. [00:25:24] Just to thank you. You know, having been up here for the- since the start of this process, uh, all the steps that you and city staff went through to make sure we had a lot of input from the public, uh, through multiple different modes and different ways to try and get as much of that as possible, going through the various iterations of design, um, listening, trying to incorporate as many of those public concerns into the, uh, into the design phase. And then it's exciting to be at this point. Uh, and I will join you with the fingers crossed and bated breath on March 24th or whatever it is. So hopefully, um, we see something good then, so-. [00:26:02] If I can just add also, um, as you said, this is so well loved that a number- a large number of people have very strong opinions. And- and there were times of difficulty, and I just applaud you and staff for Page 10 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. remaining open and having dialogues. Um, and I know that I have heard from some- some folks who initially were adamant against it. I was like, just talk to Julie, and they came back to me to say, this was the best thing that you could have said and that you have wangled your way through a lot of difficult times, and, um, you have done it so, so well, and this is the coolest result. It's- it is something that really has the spirit of City Park and looks like it and has incorporated so many disparate goals. And yet, it's- it's there, and it's tremendous. So just thank you very much personally. [00:26:54] 1 really think you're going TO have a high quality pool for the next 50, 60, 70 years. It's going to be its- it's traditional. It's fun. If it's the site, I think it's going to be a great investment. [00:27:07] Any other questions? Oh, [OVERLAPPING] Juli. [00:27:10] Answer my question was- [LAUGHTER] it was awesome, wasn't it? [LAUGHTER] [00:27:16) Sorry. [00:27:17] Sometimes. [00:27:18] 1 apologize. [00:27:19] 1 retarded that ball. Sorry. [00:27:22] Oh. [00:27:23] All right. Thank you. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you're online, please raise your virtual hand. If you're present, please step up to the mic. Seeing no one in person or online, Council, I'm going to close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve, please? [00:27:44] So moved. Moe. [00:27:46] Second. Harmsen. Page 11 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s:llcitychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:27:47] Council discussion. [00:27:50] I'll pile on the accolades for our staff that did. Um, I- I- I am very happy with the outcome, but I also, uh, really appreciate the process that you went through and specifically starting with a set of goals that you continue to, you know, leave them broad, but, um, achieve all these goals. I'm happy with, um, sustainability initiatives that are built into this project that I think could be a template for future city projects. So I'm very happy. [00:28:18] This was definitely a community effort because there were surveys, there were groups coming together, youth groups that came to talk about what they envision different, um, all types of people from our community, some that weren't swimmers, um, that also had input. So I really appreciate the city taking a step back and saying, we want to make sure that we have all voices, as many as possible to really make sure that we're creating something that is for everyone. And I think that has been achieved. So thanks to the community members that came out and lended their time, took surveys, and also to the staff, thank you all so much. [00:29:03] You said it well, you know. I- I believe, yeah, this is- the good thing about this, like, the community was there. I was like, the survey that the city, UH, did and ask people what they think should be here. I know that we cannot please everyone. As you said, until now, some people will come and they want to see something different. But, you know, even the- sometime you cannot fit everything. Sometime you cannot, like, please everyone. But I think this is really great project. And we've done what we can. Thank you for the staff for doing this, and appreciate it. Bit exciting. [00:29:47] Roll call, please. [00:29:49] Moe? [00:29:49] Yes. [00:29:50] Salih? [00:29:51] Yes. Page 12 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at httl2s:,/.Icitychannel4.com./city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:29:51] Teague? [00:29:52] Yes. [00:29:52] Alter? [00:29:53] Yes. [00:29:53] Bergus? [00:29:54] Yes. [00:29:54] Harmsen. [00:29:55] Yes. [00:29:561 Motion pass is six to zero. Nine B is Charter Amendment. Ordinance amending the Iowa City Charter as recommended by the Charter Review Commission. Can I get a motion to pass and adopt? [00:30:08] So moved. [00:30:09] Second. [00:30:10] Moved by Moe, seconded by Salih. And welcome. [00:30:15] Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of the council. I thought it would be appropriate if I appeared tonight. Our vice chair Malik Sarah is here. I've appreciated your process of the readings and your unanimous approval. And I again want to thank you for choosing- choosing us to be on this commission. It meant a Page 13 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/,/citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. lot to me personally. As I indicated 50 years ago was when I first dipped my toe into city politics. So a lot of memories, and I want to thank, especially Kelly and Eric Goers. Without them, we would not have had this- had the type of final, uh, product. Uh, they- they kept us on track, and were- were outstanding. And I think we reaffirmed that council manager form of government is solid and strong. It's served our community well, not only for the last 50 years, for 70 years. So I appreciate that. And as one who has a personal and professional investment in this community, I do appreciate that. So, um, again, I just wanted to be here tonight in case there are any additional questions, but, um, I think- I think the process was- was thorough, uh, was- was rigorous. And you can rest assured in 10 years will be here soon. And I probably- I don't know if I'll be around then, but I'm- I'm hoping. [LAUGHTER] But I don't know that I'll be on the commission, but I do want to thank you again for allowing myself to be on this time. So thank you very much. [00:31:451 And thank you, Mayor Balmer, and to commi- well, I guess, commissioner Balmer, former Mayor Balmer, and to Commissioner Sarah for both coming to the meetings. We really appreciate that. And again, for all of the commissioners who serve this. And did I just give a comment? All right, I did. Thank you. [00:32:03] Yeah. We a- we a- we appreciate that. [00:32:051 But I should give a comment. [00:32:06] Yeah. No, that's very much appreciated. [00:32:08] Any questions by council? Thank you. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you're online, please raise your virtual hand. And seeing no one in person or online. Council discussion? Roll call, please. [00:32:30] Salih? [00:32:321 Yes? [00:32:33] Teague? [00:32:34] Page 14 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.htmi) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. Yes. [00:32:34] Alter? [00:32:35] Yes. [00:32:35] Bergus? [00:32:36] Yes. Harmsen? [00:32:37] Yes. [00:32:37] Moe? [00:32:38] Yes. [00:32:40] Motion passes is six to zero. All right. All right. We are at Item Number 10. Announcements of vacancies new. Today is Housing and Community Development Commission. One vacancy to fill unexpired term upon appointment through June 30th, 2026. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM Tuesday, March 25, 2025. Can I get a motion to accept correspondence? So moved, Moe. [00:33:06] Second, Bergus. [00:33:07] All in favor say aye? [00:33:08] Aye. [00:33:09] Any opposed? Motion passes six to zero. And we're at Item 11, announcements of vacancies previous 11A. Civil Service Commission, one vacancy to fill a four-year term. Community Police Review Board, one vacancy to fill an unexpired term. Housing and Community Development Commission, one vacancy to fill Page 15 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https://citychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. an unexpired term. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM Tuesday, March 25th, 2025. Airport Zoning Board of Adjustment, one vacancy to fill a five-year term. Airport Zoning Commission, one vacancy to fill a six -year term. Board of Appeals HVAC Professional, one vacancy to fill an unexpired term. Historic Preservation Commission Jefferson Street, one vacancy to fill a three-year term. Historic Preservation Commission Woodlawn Avenue, one vacancy- one vacancy to fill a three-year term. Vacancies will remain open until filled. Item Number 12 is City Council information. And does anyone have anything they want to talk about? I want to say thanks again to, um, everyone that attended the State of the city today. Um, I think I can summarize that, um, the video that was shared with me, really talking about the state of the city, our city is strong, and the people in the room really had an opportunity to see some of the things that we're doing. Words sometimes aren't enough. We're really close to it. But I think the people really appreciated the opportunity to see some of the words in action, and thanks to the c- staff that made that all possible. Um, our communication staff is top notch. They are phenomenal. And all of our, um, support staff, Kelly included, um, really appreciate you all making this, um, the greatest opportunity for our community to come together and hear the state of the city address. We're going to move on to Item Number 13, Report on Item from City Staff, City manager's office. [00:35:21] 1 was just doing some mental math, which is dangerous. But I think I've attended probably 500 or so city council meetings in my career. And that was one of my favorites. That- that is a very memorable one, and I- I just appreciate THE- the positivity in this moment and the reflection of all that's happening. Uh, so thank you, Mayor and Council for your support of all those things that were highlighted in that- in that video. That was pretty impactful. [00:35:55] City attorney's office? (00:35:56] Nothing for me. Thank you. [00:35:57] City clerk? [00:35:58] It's a great event, but maybe we need a larger venue. [LAUGHTER] [00:36:02] Exactly. [00:36:02] Yeah. Page 16 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of February 18, 2025 (audio and video recordings can be found at https:/.Icitychannel4.com/city-council.html) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription through Verbit: AI -Based Transcription & Captioning Services. For greater detail please refer to the meeting recordings. [00:36:05] Film scene next time. [00:36:05] Outside. Standing outside. Yeah. [00:36:08] It was. Yes. Well, awesome. All right, we're at Item Number 14. Can I get a motion to adjourn at- I'm going to look at this one, 636 PM. [00:36:19] Move. [00:36:20] Second. [00:36:21] Moved by Salih, seconded by Bergus. All in favor say aye? [00:36:24] Aye. [00:36:25] We are adjourned. [00:36:27] [MUSIC] Page 17