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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-03 TranscritionIowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:00:21] All right. Well, ready or not? It is June 3rd, 2025, and this is the city of Iowa City formal meeting. And I'm going to call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. [00:00:34] Alter. [00:00:35] Here. [00:00:35] Bergus. [00:00:36] Here. [00:00:36] Harmsen. [00:00:37] Here. [00:00:38] Moe. [00:00:38] Here. [00:00:39] Salih. [00:00:39] Here. [00:00:40] Teague? [00:00:41] Yes. Here. [00:00:42] Ben. Page 1 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:00:48] Here. [00:00:48] Weilein. [OVERLAPPING] [00:00:52] He's here. [00:00:53] Very well. [00:00:55] All right. Well, welcome to everyone in your city hall today. You all look beautiful. As well as to everybody that is joining virtually, welcome to you as well. The second item is proclamations, and 2A is International Domestic Workers' Day, and this will be read by Councilor Bergus. [00:01:15] Whereas domestic workers, housekeepers, caregivers, nannies, and others who care for homes and families play an essential role in the economic and social well being of our communities and whereas these workers, the majority of whom are women often work long hours with limited to no labor protections are historically among the most undervalued and vulnerable members of our workforce. And whereas International Domestic Workers' Day commemorates the adoption of the International Labor Organization Convention Number 189 in 2011, which recognized domestic work as decent work and established global labor standards for this sector. And whereas. We honor the vital contributions of domestic workers and reaffirm our commitment to ensuring their rights to fair wages, safe working conditions, and dignified treatment. And whereas continued advocacy, policy reforms, and public awareness are necessary to secure justice, respect, and recognition for all domestic workers, including those in informal and undocumented labor. Now, therefore, I on behalf of Bruce Teague, mayor of Iowa City, hereby proclaim June 16th, 2025 as International Domestic Workers' Day in Iowa City and encourage all community members to recognize the invaluable work of domestic workers and to support the efforts that promote equity, dignity, and justice in all workplaces. And to accept the proclamation are Yadira Castillo, Alba Chavez, Uselvi Briseno, and Alejandra Escobar. [00:02:59] Thank you [APPLAUSE]. [00:03:12] Thank you. [OVERLAPPING] [00:03:27] Page 2 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Good evening. My name is Uselvi Briseno, and I'm an immigrant from Venezuela and a domestic worker. I'm here today on behalf of Escucha Mivos and the Domestic Workers' Committee to say, thank you. We're grateful to Iowa City for this powerful proclamation recognizing Domestic Workers Day. Today, we celebrate the hands and the hearts that care for our children, clean our homes, and support our families, often without recognition or fair protection. Domestic workers are essential. The majority of them are immigrant mothers and grandmothers who deserve dignity and respect. This proclamation is more than words. It's a step towards visibility, justice, and hope. Grazia pescucaEscuca MbosRcoErba, I Mirda Dara Jada. Thank you to the city of Iowa City for listening to Escucha Mivos and recognizing the value and humanity of every domestic worker in our community. [APPLAUSE] [00:05:43] Thank you, and thanks to the others that joined you today as well. Item two B is Waste and Recycling Workers week, and this will be read by our own Mesar Sala. [00:05:55] Thank you. Was according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, the eradication of many disease in Western world is due to the large part of higher public sanitation is standards resulting from effective garbage disposal. And whereas the proper collection and disposal of waste, recycling, and organic waste are integral to preventing litter and dump it up. And whereas the city of Iowa City values the creativity of dozens of workers in the public and private trash, recycling, and organic waste industry in our community. And whereas the city of Iowa City promote environmental sustainability through reducing waste and increasing recycling and composing now, therefore, Maher- I Mesar Sale, on behalf of Bruce Stick, the mayor of Iowa City Iowa here by proclaiming the week of June 15 to 21st, 2025 as waste and recycling Workers' week in Iowa City and urge our community members to recognize the viable roles that collection and removal services for trash, recycling, and organic waste play in our city, in our daily lives. And here to accept this gain from recycling recycling coordinator. [APPLAUSE] [00:07:43] All right. Hello, everyone. I'm Jane Welch. I'm the city's recycling coordinator, and we sincerely thank Mayor Teague and City Council for the Waste and Recycling Workers' Week Proclamation. The city's resource management division represents staff that maintain our curbside collection program serving Iowa City residents and the Iowa City Landfill hazardous material collection facility, compost facility, and recycling drop-off locations that serve all of Johnson County. Locally, we have several private waste and recycling entities, such as haulers and recycling material processors, that we work alongside to collect and process materials as well. This proclamation is meant to honor and represent all individuals working in the trash recycling and composting industries for their daily work to keep our Iowa City and Johnson County communities cleaner and safer. We thank Mayor Teague and City Council for recognizing the industry's essential service. Thank you very much. [00:08:40] Thank you. [APPLAUSE]. Page 3 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:08:48] Alright, we are moving on to our consent agenda, [00:08:51] which is items three through eight. Could I get a motion to approve, please? So moved. Move. [00:08:56] Second [inaudible 00:08:57]. [00:08:58] Can anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you are online, please raise your virtual hand. This is for anything on our consent agenda items three through eight. Yes, please. Welcome. We'll ask you to give your name and city you're from. And we also have a sign -in sheet. And in the back, if people are wanting to speak, there are pre sign in little paper that you can have filled out and drop it in the box, as Miss Mary just did. So welcome. [00:09:42] Hello. My name is Mary Gavi, and I live in Iowa City. And I see a surprise at eight A about parking on- on the east side of the 1,000 block of Arthur Street. Now, as far as I know, that's between Wayne Avenue and Muscatine, and why you would need parking there when everybody has a parking lot. All the businesses, the church, the mental health clinic, and that building that they're building for HACAP or whatever that name of that building is. Nobody knows what it is, but they work on it every day. But there's parking lots there. And besides, that road, if that's the area I'm thinking about, it needs repaving. It's got more potholes than it has road. And it's a two-way street. So, how could that parking there on that street be of any help to anyone when there's plenty of parking in the parking lots? I don't- I know you can't answer the question, but I just want. This is a surprise to me because I didn't even know anything. There's no signs posted or anything. But it seems like it doesn't make sense, because there's plenty of parking spaces and I guess you would call, like, the biggest, uh, the amount of parking would be a town and campus. And so they have their own- they have two parking lots, as far as I'm concerned. And where I live in the Wayne Avenue apartments, we have parking spots there, and there's a public drive there. So, this is a surprise to me. I didn't know this was even going on, and why do you want to have it there when there's so much space available? It seemed like I don't know- I don't know what's going on there, so I can't speak any more than that. But that just caught my eye because I live there. Thank you. [00:11:52] Thank you. Anyone else like to address the topic? That is on our item three through eight. See you noone in person or online. Council discussion. Roll call, please. Sala? [00:12:10] Yes. Page 4 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:12:11] Teague? [00:12:11] Yes. [00:12:12] Winin? Counselor Winin? [00:12:19] Yes. [00:12:21] Alter? [00:12:21] Yes. [00:12:22] Bergs? [00:12:22] Yes. [00:12:23] Harmson? [00:12:24] Yes. [00:12:24] M o. [00:12:25] Yes. [00:12:25] Motion passes seven to zero. We are on to item number nine, which is community comment. This is an opportunity for the public to come and speak to the council, but we are not allowed to engage in discussion because of open meeting laws. Individuals will be given 3 minutes to speak. And if you would like to speak during this time, will you please raise your hand so I can just count the individuals that Page 5 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. want to speak during this time? Great. Please come up to the podium, and you'll be allowed 3 minutes, state your name and city you're from. Welcome. [00:12:58] My name is Mary Gravitt, and I'm from Iowa City. I'm here representing my community in the Senior Center. The old people down there are scared shitless for what's going on. They're afraid they'll lose their Social Security checks and the Medicare. So I prepared a little statement for them on what they should do, and maybe the city could do something about it, too, but I doubt it. Just as Maslow has his stages of self -actualization, I signify upon him have my own concerning wokeness. The religious right leadership and their mega congregations that help Donald Trump into office confess that they believe in the Bible, that is the word of God. Yet they use the term woke as a pejorative, along with the politicians they support. The caution is to wakefulness appears in the Bible 89 times. Yet this means nothing to these profane and witless Christians who want to ridicule. However, I prefer Thessalonians five, five to seven to make my point clear. You are children of the light and of the day. We don't belong to darkness and night. So be on your guard, not asleep like others, stale alert and clear-headed. Night is a time when people sleep and drink is get drunk. There are four stages to wokeness. Awake, which is to cease sleeping, to become aroused or active again, a sleep which is a state of bodily breast figurative for physical death or spiritual dullness, wake, which is to arouse from or as if from sleep, aware, which is having or showing realization, perception, or knowledge. As it states in Psalm 44:14, preachers and politicians have made us the awake- the woke people, an object of ridicule among the nations, thus making the word of God Jesus live. The woke realized that our political leaders are, in the words of Hannah Arendt. Dak bound murderers signing away lives and livelihoods, drunk on the blood of children and widows. And if you don't wake up, you are also guilty. So these people are afraid, and the city the center belongs to the city. And we must take care of the mental health of the elderly, because the elderly took care of our mental health. And we must wake up to the situation we're in and stop letting people frighten people. Don't be afraid. Wake up and just face what you got to. Thank you. [00:16:02] Thank you. Welcome. Anyone else who want to speak during this time? [00:16:17] Good evening, everybody. My name is Scott Hazs. I'm the Executive Director of Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity, and I am an Iowa City resident. I've come to talk about two different, uh, I guess, one thing in two different issues related to the aid for agencies funding that will come up later in the agenda. And this is um an issue that uh our work often is overlooked and doesn't necessarily- isn't really captured in the application process. And so in the scoring that was. [00:16:52] 1 want to make sure that is this related to the item. [00:16:55] Is there going to be chance for public comment? Page 6 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:16:56] Yes- yes, you'll wait during that time. Thank you. Anyone else like to address an item that is not on our agenda today? [00:17:08] Seeing no one, we're going to move on to Item Number 10, which is, uh, planning and zoning matters today. As rezoning north of East Foster Road, ordinance conditionally rezone at approximately 2.69 acres of land located north of East Foster Road between North Dubuque Street and Prairie Duchene Road from high -density single-family residential with a planned development overlay zone to a high - density single-family residential zone. And I'm going to open the public hearing. And welcome Danielle. [00:17:42] Thank you, Mayor. Danielle Sitzman, Neighborhood Development Services. As you introduced this item, it is a rezoning. There are two of them back to back on your agenda that are basically land swaps of equal size between two owners in roughly the same area of town. Um, this slide shows the boundary of the land swap on the first rezoning. Uh, this is not the swapping of land tonight, but actually the rezoning that needs to occur so that land can be transferred from one area to the other. Basically, our, uh, requirements are that, uh, when something, uh, basically, we don't like to have land with split zoning on it, so we like to have land all under the same zoning. So in this case, with the boundary line adjustment that's being requested, administratively, there needs to be a preceding rezoning to, uh, rezone it so that it can have a similar rezoning or similar zoning district to the land that is going to join. So in this instance, that black dashed outline is moving to the west out of the red box and into the blue box is going from a zoning district that has an overlay on it because it was previously part of a rezoning that had, uh, sensitive areas a- as part of the, um, original area that, uh, was zoned at one time. It's moving into an area that no longer needs to have that overlay zoning. It is already, though, uh, constrained by the fact that it has sensitive areas on it, and there have been, uh, protections put in place there. So really, it has no development potential as it transfers over to that other area because it's already been, uh, protected in that way. So it was be- leaving Lot 4 of one subdivision and going into that land area that I, uh, I indicated in that map. It's a simple rezoning in this case, so there's just two zoning standards that we look at consistency with the comprehensive plan. In this case, the future land use map, um, does indicate that this is, uh, appropriate for conservation design because of those sensitive areas. And like I said, they've already been protected. The zoning district that it's becoming is just IRS 12. It's consistent with the land use policy in our comprehensive plan, um, and is observing the protections that were intended there. Uh, since nothing's really changing, it's not changing the character of the neighborhood in any way, um, it would also be consistent with that criteria. As I mentioned, it's got environmentally sensitive areas that are already protected by conservation easement. So just in the broad outlines of the Forest Hill Estates subdivision, um, this was part of a much larger, uh, area of land, 50 acres that was rezoned in 2017, had some, uh, planning, uh, action taken on it in 2018. Um, it's part of, um, one lot, uh, in Lot 4 and is being transferred to the land to the west of it. Any additional steps that would happen would be administrative, so that boundary line adjustment that would actually occur to transfer the land would be taken care of administratively. And in the future, if development occurs, Page 7 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. there'll be additional steps for site planning and building permits. So based on a review of the relevant general criteria, staff recommended approval of this rezoning one condition because this land is not fully, um, designed yet, it doesn't have a site plan, there's still some, uh, need to constrain those activities until the boundary line adjustment happens. So that's really what this condition is about. So even though the rezoning is happening, the boundary line, uh, also needs to- to be, uh, affected. So Planning and Zoning Commission did review this at their May 7th meeting and voted by a margin of 7-0 to also recommend approval tonight. If you have any questions, happy to answer them. There is a CZA and it- and it has been signed. [00:21:07] Okay. Any questions by council? [00:21:10] We'll say that applicant's engineer is here tonight, too. So if there's any really technical questions, they can answer those as well. [00:21:15] All right. Thank you. Hearing no questions. Thank you. Wanted to give the applicant an opportunity to speak if they wanted to make any comments. Okay. All right, we're going to move on to public discussion. Anyone from the public like to address this topic. If you're online, please raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one in person or online, I'm going to close the public hearing. And then I'm going to - well, [LAUGHTER]. [00:21:47] You have to ask us. [00:21:48] Yeah, I was going to ask council if they're inclined to vote with P&Z. [00:21:52] Mm-hmm. Z� 1/ 119 am, 1" [00:21:53] All right, but- can I get- can I get a motion to give first consideration? [00:21:59] So moved, Harmsen. [00:22:00] Page 8 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Second, Alter. [00:22:01] All right, council, discussion. Roll call, please. [00:22:06] Teague. [00:22:07] Yes. [00:22:07] Weilein. [00:22:10] Yes. [00:22:11] Alter. [00:22:11] Yes. [00:22:12] Burgus. [00:22:12] Yes. [00:22:13] Harmsen. [00:22:14] Yes. [00:22:14] Moe. [00:22:15] Yes. [00:22:15] Page 9 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Salih. [00:22:15] Yes. [00:22:16] Motion passes 7-0. 10.b. Rezoning south of East Foster Road, ordinance rezone approximately 2.69 acres of land located south of East Foster Road between North Dubuque Street and Prairie Duchene Road, from high -density single-family residential zone to high -density single-family residential with a planned development overlay zone. I'm going to open the public hearing. And welcome again, Danielle. [00:22:40] Thank you, Mayor. Again, this is the second part of the two for the land swap that's occurring. The subject property is bounded here in the white outline. It's on the south side of Foster Road this time, just a little bit farther east of where we were just looking. Again, there's a request to swap the land between where it currently is and the lot to the north, Lot 5, make it part of Lot 5. So, again, the zoning needs to change to bring it into compliance. In this case is leaving a simple RSL 12 zone and joining an OPD. Um, what's different here is that the lot that it's joining has already gone through the site planning process, already has a number of buildings and units approved for it. Really, again, offers no development potential because this land was anticipated to handle the storm water from that project anyway, so it really does not change, um, what this particular land could, uh, be used for. It's already tied to those, um, requirements. Shows, again, here leaving the blue box and joining the red box. Again, the zoning- the base zoning is pretty much the same. The review criteria that we use, we're looking at the comprehensive plan and the compatibility of the neighborhood. Again, it is supported by the comprehensive plan. It has helped basically the development along Foster Road to be at- where development is clustered to rather than being in this area, which is also protected as sensitive area. Um, and again, since nothing's really changing, it's not impacting the character of the neighborhood or the regulated sensitive fea- features. This is Forest Hill Estate. So this would be land being added to Lot 5 in Forest Hill Estates, and the rezoning here, uh, would not need to go through site planning or, uh, steps for building permits, those have already been accomplished, just the administrative step of a boundary line adjustment. So based on a review of the relevant criteria, staff did recommend approval of this proposed rezoning, and again, Planning and Zoning Commission supported that. There's no condition here because there's no need to, uh, get ahead of a building permit, it's already happened, and, again, because there's no additional development potential. That concludes my staff report. Happy to answer questions. [00:24:39] Hearing, no questions. Thank you. Developer, any? No- no, nothing from the applicant. All right. Great. Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you're online, please raise your- raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one in person or online. We're going to clo- before I close the public hearing, is council inclined to vote with P&Z? All right. We go to close- close the public hearing? Can I get a motion to give first consideration? Page 10 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:25:09] So moved, Salih. [00:25:10] Second, Moe. [00:25:12] Council discussion? Roll call, please. [00:25:15] Weilein. [00:25:19] Yes. [00:25:20] Alter. [00:25:21] Yes. [00:25:21] Burgus. [00:25:22] Yes. [00:25:22] Harmsen. [00:25:23] Yes. [00:25:23] Moe. [00:25:24] Yes. [00:25:24] Salih. Page 11 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:25:25] Yes. [00:25:26] Sorry. [00:25:27] Yes. [00:25:27] Yes. [00:25:28] Teague. [00:25:29] Yes. Motion passes 7-0. 10.c. Rezoning North Governor Street. Ordinance conditionally rezoning an approximately 5.49 acres of property located between North Dodge and North Governor Streets from medium density single-family residential zone, high -density single-family residential zone, medium densities multifamily residential zone, and multifamily residence zone to a high -density single-family residential zone with a planned development overlay for approximately 0.17 acres and to medium [00:26:00] density multifamily residential zone [00:26:02] with a planned development overlay for approximately 5.32 acres. And this is, um, a motion to pass and adopt, although the applicant is requesting deferral to June 17th, and there was correspondence included in the council packet. Can I get a motion to defer to June 17th, 2025? [00:26:22] Motion to defer to June 17th, 2025. [00:26:25] Pass- Second. [00:26:26] Moved by Salih, seconded by Alter. Council discussion? Roll call, please. [00:26:33] Alter Yes. Page 12 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:26:35] Bergus. [00:26:35] Yes. [00:26:36] Harmsen. [00:26:36] Yes. [00:26:37] Moe. [00:26:37] Yes. [00:26:38] Salih. [00:26:38] Yes. [00:26:39] Teague. [00:26:39] Yes. [00:26:40] Weilein. [00:26:41] Yes. [00:26:42] Motion passes is 7-0. Can I get a motion to accept correspondence? [00:26:47] So moved, Moe. Page 13 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:26:48] Second, Harmsen. [00:26:50] > All in favor say aye. [00:26:51] Aye. [00:26:51] Aye. [00:26:52] Any opposed? Motion passes 7-0. We're moving on to Item 11, which is our regular formal agenda. 11.a is 2025 Water Pavement Patching Project. Resolution approving project manual and estimate of costs for the construction of the 2025 Order Pavement Patching 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. [00:27:22] Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Tim Schmadeke and I'm a civil engineer here in the Engineering Department. The 2025 Water Pavement Patching Project is an annual project that is done to construct emergency repairs after a water main break occurs. We currently have 25 locations in need of re- in need of repair in Iowa City. As you can see in this image, each number represents one of the main breaks, and they can happen anywhere throughout Iowa City. Iowa City experiences roughly 70 water main breaks a year over a five-year span. And the reason that there's such a difference between our current 25 number of water breaks and the average of 70 is that water main breaks can occur where there is no pavement. So you don't need a pavement patch if a water main breaks and there's only soil above. But there will be additional locations added to the project as the year goes on. When a water main break occurs, there is damage done to streets, driveways, curb ramps, sidewalks. As you can see in these images, we do temporary fixes so that people can access the streets in front of their houses or their driveways and sidewalks. Um, at a minimum, this project wants to restore those areas so that they are what they were before the water main break occurred. The estimated construction cost of this project is $360,000, based on the 25 sites that we currently have. The bid schedule is, sorry, the bid opening is July 1st, 2025, and the contract will be awarded the following Tuesday on the eighth. The construction timeline of this project is from July of this year to November of this year. Here's how I can be contacted. uh, thank you all for your time. Uh, are there any questions? [00:29:11] 1 actually have a question. Page 14 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:29:12] Yes. [00:29:13] Is there an approximate average- [00:29:16] Uh-huh. [00:29:16] -of how long it takes to repair those, or is it, uh, a matter of it depends on how severe the break is and what the damage is? [00:29:23] That- that 70 that I shared? [00:29:25] The- of- of what is being- um, for the 25. 1- 1 just mean in general, like, you know, the homeowner, how long can they expect to potentially have their driveways or their, you know, their impacted areas? How long does it take to repair? [00:29:41] It really does depend on the scale of the main break and the temporary area that is patched. [00:29:48] Cordoned off area. [00:29:49] Uh. Rough estimate is a day or- a day or two. [00:29:53] Okay. Yeah, that's helpful. Thank you. [00:29:54] Yeah. Great. Thank you. All right. [00:29:59] Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If you're online, please raise your virtual hand. Seeing no one in person or online, I'm going to close the public hearing. Can I get a motion to approve, please? [00:30:13] So moved, Moe. Page 15 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:30:14] Second, Bergus. [00:30:16] Council discussion? Roll call, please. [00:30:21] Bergus. [00:30:21] Yes. [00:30:22] Harmsen. [00:30:23] Yes. [00:30:23] Moe. [00:30:23] Yes. [00:30:24] Salih. [00:30:24] Yes. [00:30:25] Teague. [00:30:25] Yes. [00:30:26] Weilein. [00:30:27] Yes. Page 16 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:30:27] Alter. [00:30:28] Yes. [00:30:29] Motion passes 7-0. 11.b, Wastewater Treatment Facility Digester Complex RehibiIi- Rehabilitation, Phase 1 Project. This is a resolution approving plan spec- specifications estimate of cost for the construction of the Wastewater Treatment Facility Digester Complex Rehabilitation, Phase 1 Project, establishing amount of bids, security to accompany each bid, directing city clerk to post notice- to post notice to bidders and fixing time and place for receipt of bids. I'm going to open up the public hearing. And welcome, Ben. [00:31:03] All right. Hi. I'm Ben Clark from the Engineering Division. I'm here on behalf of the Public Works Department and specifically the Waste Water Division, um, asking you to approve this project. We've been working on it for several years now, and, um, we're kind of excited to get it- get to this point. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Randy Wirtz. He's been working on this project with us, and he'll give you a, um, presentation and answer any questions you might have. [00:31:31] Good evening, Mayor and Council members. A pleasure to be here tonight. Um, so as- as Ben mentioned, we're- we're going to go through the project overview, and I'll just get right into it. Okay. So we'll talk a little bit about the history of the project, um, the como- components of the project, this- the overall budget, as the- and then we'll get into the schedule. Um, the history, uh, of this plant goes back to about 1988. So it's been in- online for almost 40 years. Um, it started with the specific port- portion of this project is the di- digesters, and I'll talk a little bit more about that. But the plant started with two digesters and then a big storage tank, and in 2001, about 13 years later, four more digesters were added, and those are shown, um, in the yellow and blue here on- on the slide. Um, and that was a fairly large project about 24 years ago. And then about 10 years ago, there was another upgrade to add the biosolid storage facility. So all of these facilities will be touched by the current project that we're talking about now. Um, so the project overview. The digestion complex is, again, right here, if- I guess, you can't really see my slide- my mouse there, but between the two green squares there is a digester complex. On the- on the north side, the green square is a new building that's being constructed to house a bunch of equipment that will further process the sludge. And then the green arrow below or the green box below, uh, that's the new renewable natural gas system. And I- I think you all are familiar with what's going on there, but they're going to be taking digester gas produced as a waste product and converting into actual natural gas to put into a pipeline. So it's exciting project that way. It'll actually generate revenue, and I'll get into the details there. I wanted to give a little bit of a history in terms of how we got here. Um, it was really the climate action plan that developed the impetus behind this- the concept of Page 17 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. using the net- digester gas as a- as a fuel, as a- as a natural gas. Um, back in 2018, the climate action plan, uh, was ad- put in place and adopted. In 2020, you- you started a study, uh, to look at how you could use the digester gas from this plant as natural gas or to produce electricity and for some other - other methods. Um, at that time, it didn't move forward. Um, the project wasn't cost-effective, um, partly because of the value of the material itself, and partly because just the market wasn't there yet for it. Um, now, in 2022, um, we got- we were involved to re-evaluate that- that study and to look further at your treatment plant. And at that time, the market had im- improved quite a bit for this project, uh, for the- for the deliverables from this project. And so the- the value, uh, was then there, and it showed that it did actually have a financial payback. In addition to beneficially reusing the gas as a- that was a waste product, we could also actually have a revenue from- from that- that waste product. So then we took it in 2023 and further dove into a conceptual design to make sure that we had our costs figured out and that it- it was going to make sense, and it did. And then, over the last year and a half, we've been working on the final design of- of the project. Uh, we're here now to hopefully approve the project and - and go into the bidding phase. [00:34:54] So we're going to just walk quickly through the digester or the project components. It's really at its core. It's just an upgrade of the plant, of a portion of the plant because those plants need to spend money on them every 20 years or so, and these digesters haven't been updated for about 24 years now. So we're replacing the mixing systems in there. We are reducing the amount of power that they will use, uh, by up to 50%, so that's savings of probably 25,000 to $30,000 a year through reduced power usage. Um, putting stainless steel covers on two of the tanks that had carbon steel. The carbon steel has- has degraded. Stainless steel will last for a very long time in- in the- anyway, the stainless steel will last quite a bit longer. There were some budget constraints probably halfway through the project. We actually de scoped the project when we realized the costs were coming in a little bit high, based on our estimates. And so there were several things that were eliminated from the project. Those won't go away. They still will need to be done at some point, but these we felt we could take out of the project without sacrificing the quality of this project, and you probably have another project similar to do these components in five or 10 years. The new sludge processing building, this is- will house several new processes. Um, and this is actually where you'll actually receive waste from other industries in town and maybe even out of town. We'll receive fat soils and grease waste from commercial facilities like restaurants. That material will all be brought in, it'll be stored in a tank and then pumped into the digesters, and that will make more digester gas and produce more renewable natural gas then in the end. And you'll not only get paid for receiving the waste, but you'll make more gas and more revenue from that gas. Um, again, there were several things in this building. The building shell is staying the same, but we did de scope what's going in the building to some degree so that we could reduce the overall cost of the project. But we're designing it so that that stuff can be added back in at a later date, very cost effectively. So the space is still there. The connections will be there. It's just that not all of the equipment is being put in at this point. Fat soils and greases. So this is from your restaurants in town. You have a lot of wonderful restaurants in town. They all have grease traps or hopefully they have grease traps, and they're maintaining them. And that grease will be brought to the treatment plant, hopefully. Um, this machine here will be installed in a building. It will screen that material has a lot of typically has forks and plastics Page 18 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. and napkins. Everything goes down the drain, and it ends up in your grease trap. So this screen here will take all that stuff out and then allow that grease to be further processed in the digesters to make more gas out of it. You're putting in sledge screening, so not a lot of plants have this technology yet. This is - you guys produce a class A or class 1 product. It can be used almost anywhere. It all goes to farmland now, but it's actually a very, very high quality product. But there are some plastics and some things in it that you don't really want on your garden or you don't want on your farm field. And so the decision was made to put in the screens that will actually strain out those plastics and other materials that you really don't want on the land. So it's really a value added technology. There were two of these in the original project. There's only going to be one now. It's still enough to process everything. But if it goes out of service for any length of time, then you just have to bypass it. You wouldn't have a second unit to be brought online. We're putting in a silo to store what's called high strength waste. So high strength waste is from industries like food production facilities. They usually have material that goes to the landfill or goes to sometimes it's land applied. Um, it's really highly concentrated pollutant material, but it's great for digestion because high pollutant means it has a lot of energy in it, and that energy can be converted into gas, and that gas can then be converted into natural gas. And so we'll be bringing in that material. We'll be bringing in the fog, the fat, oils and greases from the commercial entities and storing that, and then that's slowly fed into the digesters to make gas. Um, and we're estimating that you should be able to approximately double your gas production by bringing in this material. Struvite mitigation. I don't know if you rem- if any of you remember seeing any of these pictures, but you have a fairly severe struvite issue. Struvite is just a chemical. It's ammonium phosphate, ammonium magnesium phosphate, and it creates these crystals, and it just can gum up everything and crystalize everything and plug up pipes and mixers and everything else. And some pictures of it are on the right here. The original plan was to actually design a facility that would recover struvite as a product. That is a very expensive process. So when we started the planning, we looked at other options, and the plan that got put in, and it was already pilot tested, proven to be very effective is going to save more than $10 million on the project cost. So that was a good deal to look at some other options there. And then the exciting part, the digester gas reuse, um, we call it renewable natural gas or RNG. Again, we're taking this waste material, making digester gas, which is really dirty, has a lot of carbon dioxide in it, has a lot of hydrogen sulfide, that rotten egg smell. So it's a very dirty gas. We'll clean it up to really it's almost completely natural gas at that point. It's 98% methane, which is essentially natural gas, and it's clean enough to be put into the pipeline then and injected into the Mid American pipeline. This is becoming common. It's very common at agricultural facilities that make a lot of gas from cow manure and other things. It's becoming much more common at the municipal wastewater treatment plants. This is a picture of what it'll kind of look like. The picture on the light. It'll come in kind of a containerized solution, and then it'll look a little industrial, but it'll be very effective at making the gas. Revenue, you'll drive revenue from tipping fees from receiving both the high strength waste and the fog. You'll have digester gas attributes. The environmental attributes is really where most of the money is made. That's- that's the high end value that can be sold on green energy markets or on the federal renewable fuel standard market. And then there's actually- you actually physically sell the gas, as well. The utility will pay you for the actual gas molecules. So there's three sources of revenue that will be derived from that project. The pipeline, the treatment plant is showing up on the top of this picture. The red line is the approximate route of the pipeline. Mid American will design and build that pipeline and own it and maintain it. But that's Page 19 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. approximately it's about half a mile of pipeline. It's going to be a very small 1 " pipe at 650 PSI. So they're injecting into a 650 PSI high pressure mean. I think that was that. So the budget, the fun part of the presentation, the overall budget right now is at about $36 million. You've already spent about $830,000 on equipment. So the reason that was done, you pre purchased equipment last July. The reason that was done was to allow you to obtain rebates through the Inflation Reduction Act. You had to show that you were proceeding with the project in 2024 by the end of'24. As long as you can prove that, which you have, you're eligible to receive fairly substantial rebates through the Inflation Reduction Act. I'll get to that in a minute. We're expecting the bid costs to be in the neighborhood of 28.2 million. That's the project that will be advertised. And then the other costs, you can see the Mid American gets paid for the interconnect. Technical services are all the engineering and other legal fees that go into it. And then there's some special inspections and things like that. All adds up to about 36.2 million, and we're expecting some of the preliminary projections were about $3 million in rebates through the Inflation Reduction Act. That would come after the project is built, and you're actually selling gas on the pipeline. Um, a quick payback analysis. So not many wastewater treatment plant projects have a payback. Um, they're still good projects, but they don't generally- generate revenue. So this one we're estimating the RNG portion of the project at about 15 million. If you take out the 3 million of rebates, it's about 12 million. We're expecting a net revenue after everything's paid for after the O&M is paid for of about a million dollars a year. And that's, again, combination of tipping fees and revenue from gas sales. So that's a direct payback of about 12-15 years. So there is a payback. Again, that's unusual for a wastewater treatment plant project, and kind of exciting. And then the last slide is just the schedule, and I did want to touch on this a little bit. So the equipment was bid again a year ago, almost a year ago, exactly. The overall project advertisement, that $28.2 million advertisement is scheduled for tomorrow. Open bids mid July. Council award in early August. And then the next steps really that the city will need to take is to begin developing that gas sales agreement. And you start with developing an RFP that goes out to brokers. There's a lot of- this has become a big deal. There's a lot of people that are into this market now, and you will get bids from brokers that sell this gas. They buy and sell this gas, and they'll give you the terms that they want and the prices they're willing to pay for certain volumes of gas that you will be producing. Um, that's going to be a fairly lengthy process. We're not in a big hurry because they're not going to do anything. The brokers won't do anything until you actually have contracts in place with Mid American, which is, I believe, happening very soon. And then they see that the project is actually happening. They don't want to touch it until they actually know you're going to be making gas. So we have time. But I would say, in the fall of this year, you start developing a request for proposal. Um, in winter and spring, you issue those requests for proposals. It might take a couple of rounds of proposal to really get what you want. It'll be a little bit of a learning curve. There's not many municipalities that have done this yet. We're working with a few right now that are, but we haven't actually taken the proposals yet. So we're still learning a little bit on that side, too. Um, but we- I would say you would have about a year from when you issue RFPs to actually when you have to have somebody under contract. You really want to have someone under contract about six months before you start making gas. Which you'll see here, um, the RNG contracting, we thought next summer, so in about a year, uh, the RNG system online, not till the following June of 2027. So you have time to get all that worked out. And then we think project completion is about June 2028. And the IRA rebate is planned. Again, you have to be- the project has to be complete. You have to be making gas and selling it, Page 20 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. er, to get the rebate. So we think that'll be late 2028 maybe to 2029. And that is the end of the presentation. All right. [00:46:45] 1 have two questions. One about, I guess, ecological sustainability and one about economic sustainability. Well, first of all, thank you for the presentation. I actually- this is a huge expenditure for the city, so it's worth the time to understand exactly what we're spending this much money on, and it's helpful to know that there is a payback on it. Um, regarding this sort of ecological sustainability dimension of the plant, we currently burn or release the methane. And then now we'll be capturing subst- which has got a huge global warming potential. Do you- can you tell us a little bit more about how important that is from a sustainability perspective? [00:47:20] So, right now, the city uses a portion of the gas that's produced to heat your digesters, you'll continue to heat your digesters like that. Er, the rest of it is flared, so there's a big candlestick out there that burns all of the excess. Um, from an ecological standpoint, this does have a much better carbon footprint because you're replacing natural gas that would otherwise have to be used or purchased as virgin natural gas. So overall, it has a negative net positive impact on your carbon footprint. I don't have specific numbers. [00:47:55] The amount we sell, right? The amount that's sold back is-. [00:47:58] It is, yeah, how you put that into carbon footprint then is, yeah, that's the math that I don't have on the top of my head right now. Um, but yes, it does have important ecological considerations there, and it's becoming very common. It's frankly more popular in Europe, and the markets for it have really matured. Five years ago, that's part of the reason the project didn't move forward. The markets really were not very mature at that time, and they matured significantly. So even if the federal government were to go away completely on this, there's still a very solid market for it. [00:48:30] That's one part of the economic piece I was going to ask, and that would sort of be one is what's the durability of the equipment? I mean, 12-15 years is a good payback, but do we have to replace the equipment every 12 or 15 years? [00:48:40] We would expect you'd be doing major- fairly major maintenance, you know, within 10 years, not replacing. And after 20 years, you'd probably have to replace the equipment. Now, most of the membranes will last most of that time as long as they're taken care of and they don't get contaminated. Um, there are little compressors and everything like that that will break down, so they'll be maintained, Page 21 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. like anything, and we would expect the compressors to last 20 years before they'd have to be replaced. Okay. Thank you. [00:49:10] What was happening with the high strength waste and the, um, fats, oils and greases before this, or what's happening with those now? [00:49:19] Well, I- Maybe that's for our staff. [00:49:21] Great question. That's probably better for your staff. So the high strength waste now is probably being taken to other treatment plants, or it might be land applied. There's like I'm from Wisconsin. Truth be told. A lot of the material there is land applied. So it's just put on farm fields, um, as a nutrient or as a way to dispose of it. They're getting away from that. The DNRs in most states are not allowing that as much anymore, so we have to find a home for it now. So it's probably being taken to um, actually, I know a lot of the waste in this area is being taken to lagoons, anaerobic lagoons, which are agriculture in need. They're treating swine waste or manure and things like that. So they're allowed to add some of it to those lagoons. And some of them might be hauled quite a distance over to Des Moines. Des Moines takes a lot of this material. They've had a program like this for probably 10 years, and they take in a ton of material every day, and they make a lot of money on it. It's a lot of work. You know, it's not free. Um, it's- but it does pay for itself if you have the right quantities. [00:50:29] Thank you. Do you know if there's similar like you mentioned Des Moines than going east? I mean, like right now would we be sort of like an attraction, so to speak? I mean, because you mentioned there's people, you know, could bring things in, right? And I was just wondering, well, if there's stuff in Rock Island, like, is that, you know, we're not going to get folks from Illinois or, you know, whatever. I just want to know. [00:50:54] Great question. The closest ones to you, Davenport takes a little. They can't take very much. And in fact, the hauler that takes it there would probably come here because you have more capacity and you could take it all. Um, I should- I shouldn't probably say that in a public meaning because I don't know that for sure. Um, Muscatine has a program. They bring in a fair amount, but they have a ton of industry right there, so they're serving that industrial base. And they're kind of maxed out, as well. So anything additional would likely come here. Dubuque has a program. They're fairways fairly far away, and then Des Moines is- is the closest one to that direction. So I would- I would guess everything in this valley in Cedar Rapids would probably come here. [00:51:43] We have an opportunity. Thank you. Page 22 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:51:46] Yeah. [00:51:48] All right. Thank you. [00:51:49] Thank you. [00:51:50] Anyone for the public like to discuss this topic? [00:51:57] Sit or a person or a live? I'm going to close the public discussion or close the public hearing? Can I get a motion to approve, please? [00:52:06] So moved Moe. [00:52:08] Second, Alter. [00:52:09] Council discussion. [00:52:13] It's exciting. [00:52:14] Exciting. [00:52:15] It's like, with no shade against other cool things that have come before us, this is extraordinary. [00:52:21] It's been kind of cool to watch it develop over the last several years, too, as we've worked it through each stage of this process. I think we had some of the first meetings on this maybe right after we joined the council. That's something. [00:52:35] Roll call police. Page 23 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:52:37] Harmsen? [00:52:38] Yes. [00:52:38] Moe? [00:52:38] Yes. [00:52:39] Pardon me. [00:52:40] Sorry. [00:52:43] Super sorry, y'all. Um, I just wanted to see if Jeff, uh, could walk us through how because you explained it to me, but I think you would explain it better. I think some people might be looking at this and being like, Wow, this is, you know, close to $40 million. I just want to make sure people know exactly how it's been funded. Um, so they know it's not just coming from the general fund or something like that. You know what I mean? [00:53:11] Yes, that's correct. This is all, uh, will be paid for by the wastewater fund. So it's really paid for by the fees that we charge. Uh, we did increase wastewater rates 5% last year, and that was to help to pay for the borrowing costs. So we are issuing revenue bonds or we'll be issuing revenue bonds for this project, and there's also a state loan that we take. So there will be debt, but it will only be wastewater funds to pay back that debt. [00:53:43] Thank you. [00:53:45] All right. Any other item or COBIT? Hearing none. Roll call, please. [00:53:53] Harmsen? Page 24 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [00:53:54] Yes. [00:53:54] Moe? [00:53:55] Yes. [00:53:55] Salih? [00:53:56] Yes. [00:53:56] Teague? [00:53:57] Yes. [00:53:57] Weilein? [00:53:59] Yes. [00:53:59] Alter? [00:54:00] Yes. [00:54:00] Bergus. [00:54:01] Yes. [00:54:02] Page 25 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Motion passes 7/0. 11C, fiscal year 26, Aid to Agencies. Resolution allocated Hubert Services Aid to Agencies funding for fiscal year 2026, July 1, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. Can I get a motion to approve, please? [00:54:20] So moved, Harmsen. [00:54:23] Second, Moe. [00:54:25] Alright, and welcome Erica. [00:54:28] Hey, Erica kobi with neighborhood services. So eight to agencies is our annual human services funding for non profits who are serving low income residents of Iowa City. Uh, applications have been accepted through the United Way Joint funding process last fall. Agencies eligible for Iowa City legacy funding are included in City Steps 2025 as legacy agencies. We are on a two year funding cycle in coordination with all of the joint funders. Um, any agency funded this year as a legacy will receive funding next year as well in FY 27,um, at a prorated amount based on the FY 27 approved budget. Applications were scored using an updated scoring criteria approved by the Housing and Community Development Commission. So the scores are, um, listed on this spreadsheet here. Um, those are staff scores and recommendations for funding. The allocations are organized starting with the highest scoring agencies at the top. Um, in our allocation process, we look at the scoring criteria, but we also look at the increased. Um, so we look at increasing funding to agencies with higher score first, um, as we're going through our allocation. Um, we also consider the request amount and prior year funding when we're going through and determining the funding levels for the agencies by score. Um, typically, I'd be presenting a recommendation from HCDC, but we were unable to reach a quorum to review the applications with the commission this year. Um, we did request scoring and input from commissioners and received input from two commission members. So, um, some considerations for our recommendation, these numbers have been adjusted slightly since the last time you've seen this recommendation, um, just based on the approved budget, we use a portion of our CDBG public service dollars for this program and then adjusted that slightly with our approved HAD allocation. Um, in January, city council approved our City SEPs 2030 program plan, excuse me, uh, which outlined some changes to our AD agencies program. Um, because we started our legacy process before that plan was approved, um, we haven't fully implemented those changes with this funding round. Um, some of the changes in that plan, it shifts the minimum funding level to $20,000. We did incorporate that change into our recommendation. Um, however, the- the current set minimum funding is $15,000 for this funding round. Um, in future funding rounds with City Steps 2030, we will also be providing direct funding to six agencies. Those are highlighted on the sheet in kind of the lighter blue color, those six agencies. Um, about 56% of funding is being directed to those agencies. Our goal with the City Sets 2030 is to have approximately 50% to those six agencies, no more than 60%. And the other piece of this budget is our non legacy funding. Up to 5% of the total AD to agency budget can Page 26 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. be set aside for agencies who are not receiving legacy funds in a given year. Um, this year, we recommend setting aside $30,000 for non legacy funding. We haven't put that application out yet. We wanted to await our final budget amounts, which just came out a couple of weeks ago. And then also that process and eligibility is contingent on this award. So we wanted to get this through, um, this approved first. Um, as proposed, the approval of this agenda item- upon the approval of this agenda item, we would proceed with a non legacy funding round. We'd put the application out. Um, the non legacy funding offers $5,000-15,000 of one time funding for the year, and we would work with HDDC on a recommendation and bring that recommendation back to council for approval. And that's all I have. Happy to answer any questions. [00:58:10] Um, how much confidence do you have? I mean, you just mentioned that you'd work with DCDC on non legacy. Um, I know there was difficulty with Quorum. So and I know that there's some suggested changes. I mean, do you anticipate that you'll actually be able to do that collaboration for non legacy? [00:58:30] 1 would expect so. I think, um, part of the quorum issues were the level of work required with the legacy agencies, and I think this is a much more manageable application process for both the applicants and the commissioners and staff. So I think people will be willing to participate. [00:58:44] Also can you tell me this is putting you on the spot, but just as best you can. In the past couple of cycles, how many non legacy agencies have applied for those dollars? [00:58:57] Usually around eight, I would estimate. And so if we fund them all at $5,000, we could fund six. If we funded them at $15,000, we can only do two. So it's usually somewhere in between that. [00:59:08] Okay. Um, one other question that I have [00:59:14] is there's not in, sorry. [00:59:20] There are a few agencies, um, in your recommendations that even while the dollar amount may not be that much of an increase, um, the percentages are a lot in comparison to others. Can you speak a little bit to that? [00:59:37] Um, so, the one that jumps out to me, um, is aging services. And I can pull it up, but if you look back to their prior year funding, they kind of had a drop in FY 24-25. And so this was more an alignment of what Page 27 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. they've received in the past. So that was a consideration. Um, also, just the- the level of funding that they're requesting. [00:59:59] So the level of funding. So the proportional or. [01:00:03] I'm sorry. Maybe I'm looking at. I'm sorry, I'm looking- I'm looking at free lunch. [01:00:06] Okay. So- so there was something of a correlation between what the- what the ask was versus- in relation to the proportionality of the percentage. I'm sorry, I'm using the wrong keywords. There is a correlation between what they were asking for and then also the amount that was awarded. When you mentioned that there was a drop off prior so then you're like, Okay, we can bump that up. Based on the fact that their ask is actually for more. I'm I understanding that logic? [01:00:37] Yeah, so we're- we're kind of looking at consistency of funding, um, a little bit, as well. And so I was speaking of aging services before. Sorry about that. So we're looking at, like, maybe FY 23 through 25, what they've received, um, and maybe that had shifted previously. Um, so, um, I brought that up a little bit. And also, they're kind of the next- they- they requested a small amount, and they're the next, uh, highest score. [01:01:04] If- if I could add to that, and please correct me if I'm wrong, Erica. Some of the larger percentages increase are reflecting the new minimum allocation, as well. So you can see free lunch, aging services, houses into homes all were around that $15,000 level, which is the minimum allocation. But as Erica mentioned before, with the new consolidated plan, we pushed that up to 20,000, uh, so a lot of that jump is just keeping them to the minimum. Okay, that equally helps. Thank you. [01:01:43] Thank you. Alright. [01:01:45] Thank you. [01:01:46] Anyone from the public like to address this topic? If so, please raise your head so I can see who I wants to speak. Alright. I'll invite you up, and then there is a basket. If you have a little preprinted sign in, you can drop it in there. Otherwise, you can sign in. You'll be given up to three minutes. Welcome. And please state your name and city you're from. Page 28 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [01:02:14] Hello. Missy Forbes, Iowa City. I'm the executive director of 4Cs, and I, um, have spoken with you guys and, um, corresponded a lot about our funding. And I think when I was at the work session, you brought up a very term that hit, and it was the ARPA Cliff, um, 4Cs. A few years ago, I met with city staff and- and talked about our funding issues, and we were able to, um, capitalize on the ARPA funding, so to support the work, innovative work to kind of keep our- our organization relevant. And we're coming to a close of all of that funding. Um, and while- and I think that one of the concerns I also have is that this joint application is a two year funding. And so, while we may be okay getting through FY 26 with the rest of our ARPA money in FY 27, it looks a lot different. And so 1, um, a lot of you I've spoken with personally, um, and know the- the things that Four Cs does to support all families that are trying to access childcare, the affordability, um, all the- all the work that goes into that. And imagine what Johnson County looks like without 4Cs, without home ties, without the advocacy work that we do, and the additional support that we do to support individuals who want to do the work and stay in the work. Without 4Cs, this community looks a lot different. Um, and I appreciate the innovation that the innovative programs that the city of Iowa City, the City Council has supported, the wage enhancement program being one of them. Um, Iowa City is a really innovative and progressive place, and, um, just I'm asking for a- a thoughtful [01:03:56] approach to the funding that [01:03:58] 1 requested and what the ARPA allocation has been able to support that. Um, and then I would just say, too, that 93% of the people that we serve are from Iowa City and the funding that we receive from other municipalities and looking at the ARPA or excuse me, the aid- the, um, aid to agencies allocation is a bit disproportionate when you look at how many Iowa City residents we served, um, as opposed to other municipalities and the funding that we received from them. Thank you. [01:04:34] Welcome. [01:04:36] I'm back. Scott Hazs, Iowa City resident, Executive Director of Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity. Um, the- the application does a nice job of- of capturing a snapshot of what we'll do in that- that period, that application period. But, um, what we struggle with that habitat for humanity is that it doesn't capture the cumulative effect of our work. So, um, it captures the- the people that we build a house for and sell house for in that year, but it doesn't capture the homes that we built the previous year or the previous period. Even though those people are still enjoying the benefits of their home, and it's still an affordable housing unit that we don't get to report on. And as a result, um, the- the per- per individual investment for habitat for humanity looks really expensive because we're not able to capture the people that we built homes for 5, 10, 15 years ago. And so as you consider this and as you guys discuss, um, the funding for that, I just like you to consider that the homes that we built in the past are still providing affordable Page 29 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. housing for low income individuals. Um, the second thing that I'd like you to consider and is also really difficult to capture in the application is- is the depth of the service that we provide. Um, home ownership is transformational. It provides generational wealth that households can use to invest in, um, invest in education or transportation or whatever else it might be that, um, they might need to strengthen their family. And it's really difficult to capture that in this application. So, um, again, um, I request that you guys consider those two points. Thank you. [01:06:30] Thank you. [01:06:37] Good evening. I'm Sharif from Skajice. Um, I'd like to thank you so much, um, say thank you for the city - city council and the city staff here for the tremendous support being given to, uh, non profit organizations. Uh, for us, I think the aid to Agency and other government, uh, support for us has always been tremendous. It has been, uh, the tool that we use to expand and extend our services to people in workplace when they are encountering housing issues and especially now for many of the migrants and people who really are forced to navigate, you know, the issues around, you know, the government, um, immigration policies and practices. These are all the people that come to us, and we are the people who really know those people and support them. We use those funds and others to provide services that can help the people navigate what's going on in this community, become like, really active and effective component of our community in here and really, er, encounter and challenge all the- the things that happen around immigrants or low income people when they need to do those things. So I really uh- uh, appeal for the council and for the city to consider all the things that City of Oka just is doing and support us by extending the funds provided so we can continue doing our work. Thank you so much. [01:08:16] Thank you. [01:08:27] Welcome. [01:08:28] Good evening. I'm Charlie Easton. Uh, I live in Iowa City, and I'm here to talk about the Center for Worker Justice's request for funding from the AD Agency's budget. I agree very much with Executive Director Sharif's description of the CWJ's current work, and I think it's a vital part of what we do as a community. For people who need assistance. I also realize there are many other people here from other agencies, and I don't- I really respect and admire the work they're doing, the work you're doing. Mayor Pro Tern Sally and many of you- others, too. Basically, I think, in my view, we're confronted again with a lack of quite enough funding to go around to all the agencies that view this support as part of our essential um revenue process gaining process. Um, the same thing happened a few years ago when I actually was on the Housing Community Development Commission with Council Momon Alter. And at - that particular year, we had the same situation. A lot of requests, clearly justified uses of money, clearly Page 30 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. needs for what the agencies were doing, and not quite enough city support to go around. So to me, let's really consider increasing the amount of money we're going to allocate from city funds, and let's see if we can make all of the agencies that applied this year have uh, a- an adequate amount of support not to meet our individual, I think, total budget needs, but to get us to the point that we thought we needed to be when we made our application. I really appreciate your work, and I admire all of you. Thank you. [01:10:41] Thank you. Anyone else? Boca. [01:10:53] Thank you. I think you're out of stickers. Um, my name is Allison Battin, and I'm a South district resident. I'm also the director of Childcare Workforce Development at Four Cs. I had written something, and I'm not going to read it because I actually just want to kind of, you know, talk to you about how we're all connected. So I used to work at Shelter House as a housing case manager, and I used to just think so highly of foresees. I'm so lucky to work there now. I've only been there for about six months, but I've been so connected to the mission for a long time because when I was a housing case manager, the first thing when you are trying to stabilize your housing is finding employment. If you're a caregiver, the first thing that you actually need to do is find stable, consistent childcare. And so I connected with Michelle at Home ties, and, you know, I'm sure you all are aware of the work that they also do with UAY and DVIP. And I just I don't want to come here and maybe have us be pit against each other, but rather speak to the way that we all support each other. I'm also working on some English classes for childcare workers. Um, you know, there's a lot of wonderful organizations that we also share the same community, and we're serving the same exact people. And so I just wanted to highlight that, as well. Um, the last thing I wanted to say was that crisis care, I think, is one of the most under- you know, discussed, part- one of our programs is Crisis Childcare. And I just wanted to talk about that, as well. As a foster parent, I think it's I just have a very, like, keen awareness of how much harm is caused when families are separated, and crisis care is an opportunity to provide a night or two for children in need. Maybe sometimes parents do need time to stabilize, maybe need a few months to recover from something, but sometimes they just need a night or two, and that's where Four Cs crisis care comes in hand so that people don't actually need to enter the foster care system. Um, and I love my kids, but I kind of wish they weren't with me, you know what I mean? But I think that's why I decided not to say what I planned to say, but just am really grateful for our collaboration throughout the years, and I'm here to just say that keep letting us do what we do. Thank you. [01:13:37] Thank you. Welcome. [01:13:49] Good evening. My name is Margie Martel. I'm from North Liberty, and I came here today to talk to you about how forces of Johnson County has made a huge difference in my life, a difference that has mattered. The difference between realizing my dream of becoming a childcare provider and kind of giving up on my dream entirely. I, um, have been a public educator for 20 years, and I was, I retired Page 31 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. recently. And I was trying to decide what to do with this wealth of knowledge and experience. And I've been a librarian, and the public library was calling my name. And then I found out discovered this has been a long time ago when I needed the um- I needed childcare, um- I found out what a deficit there is in quality childcare and childcare providers. And I attended a class, and I was told about four Cs of Johnson County. And after attending, going there, meeting Allison, buttin, I started a journey that I didn't think I could navigate alone, and it turns out I couldn't helped me, um, through the licensing process, finding out all the information about if it was doable. And in the process, I've made really great friends, other people that attend um- that go to four Cs of Johnson County to get information. About maybe starting their dream. We've become kind of a support group, and long story short, because of Force's resources, I have recently realized my dream. I'm opening my own childcare center in the fall, and I'm very excited to be um passing on all my experience, all the tools that I've gleaned, and all the resources that Forsys has provided me to uh future children. I feel like this legacy will just continue on and on. Um, and I really hope you continue to support a center like Four C's, helping all of us that are interested in this field, provide that for the community. Thank you very much. [01:16:35] Thank you. Anyone else? Say, no, what else? In person online. If you're online, please raise your virtual hand if you want to speak. Say no one in person or align Cals a discussion. [01:17:00] Having been on CDC, I know how hard the commission works. Why those packets are daunting, and how much staff works, especially in this instance where there wasn't quorum. And so the real onus came on staff, and it is a brutal process to go through for both the applicants and for the people who go through the applications and make the rankings. Um, so I just want to express that I know how difficult the process is and also how grateful we are that you have done it. I also remember hearing from agencies, EDs, and staff talking about, as you're looking at essentially a spreadsheet up on the screen, and it's like watching your application and essentially your baby be dissected, right? As people are like, Well, what about 2000 here and 5,000 there. So I've realized, especially now moving on to counsel, that to be cavalier and to sort of go in and be surgical about things is not the best MO. That said, I do feel that it's not going to come as a surprise to anybody on council, given what I have advocated for before I was on council, and then as I am now, that I would like to see four Cs receive higher funding than it is. I also recognize that, just in a very practical sense, as others have commented, right now, unfortunately, we are in a situation where there's a pie. And the Pie is only so big, and there are a lot of different entities who have real need. So I cannot, in good faith, recommend the full amount. That said, I think that the kind of work that Forces has been doing warrants more than $20,000, especially since it's a two-year funding cycle. So I would like to recommend 35, and um, maybe we can look at non -legacy as potential place for it. Again, I recognize that what I am doing goes counter to what I thought was so important that um counsel not do, which is micromanage and go back and, like, rearrange a really thoughtful process. But in this instance, I just I do feel strongly. This is serving this, they're small and mighty, and they are serving a particular um subset or subsets of community that um are doing things that some of our larger agencies aren't, and as has been talked about, that there is a lot of collaboration. And so I would like to see that reflected in the amount that's being offered up. So. Page 32 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [01:20:13] 1 have one question, and this is just referring to urgent funding needs that if someone come to the - comes to the city and they need some funding, is there someone that can remind the council of that process? [01:20:29] What do you mean emergency funding? [01:20:31] Um, for a request made by an agency if the agency. [01:20:37] There is no request. I think they have a cycle, and they apply for this cycle. [01:20:42] No. [01:20:44] Not this one. Outside of this. I think they met agency funding man. [01:20:47] It's the emergency funding. Um, Erica can give you the details, but just as a reminder, the origins came much in a meeting like this in which um, there was an urgent call for one agency to get some one-time dollars from the city to meet some operational needs that they had. And the council really struggled with that decision. And realize that that decision had implications for a lot of different agencies across the entire community. So at the time, the council created an emergency funding program, which is not something that we offer at a point in time, but there's an application process that lives on our website, and we've used it very infrequently, but I'll let Erica, as you're sitting down, explain just how you review those applications when they do come in. [01:21:37] So you pretty much covered it. We have an application on our website with our grant opportunities um, and staff when an application comes, we review those on a case -by -case basis to see if they meet the criteria of the funding. [01:21:52] 1 understand what you're saying, Mayer, about emergency, but, yeah, I think that should be really discussed differently. This is now today is the A two agency, and I think we should discuss really this one and see how we can increase the funding for those organization right now, as maybe also like Counsel Arthur allocated. But while I understand also four Cs, I will also support increasing funding for them, I didn't want to raise serious concern about the two legacy agency Dream City and the Center for Walker Page 33 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Justice, being awarded zero funding in this year's 82-agency cycle. I think, according to the city to agency guideline, legacy agency are supposed to receive at least 95% of the total budget with a minimum award of $15,000. These agency are recognized in the city Step 2025 for their high performance and long- standing service to low-income residents. And if they apply on time and they are in a good standing and continue to serve vulnerable population, I think they should not be excluded from the funding entirely. And I think this decision really contradicts the purpose of aid to agency programs, which means to provide stable support to trusted organization, giving the agency zero send really a wrong message to our community, especially now for the- for like, this bad political climate. [01:23:36] 1 really believe that CWJ should receive more even than $15,000 during this time. And I also suggest higher amount to them, which is 40,000, not just the minimum. CWG is one of the few organization in our cities that constantly support immigrants and low wage workers who are under increasedly pressure in today's political climate. Their work is critical to equity and justice, and it is directly aligned with our city values. I think Dream City also play a vital role in uplifting under representative community through mentorship, education, and outreach. Both of these agency are doing work the city cannot afford to lose. I strongly urge the city staff and the council to revise the decision and ensure that both Dream City and CWJ receive funding. However, I'm asking, taking any penny from those organizations that already been allocated or, you know, assigned money to them. No. I just believe that we need to figure out a budget for it and, you know, like, from other sources. Especially as we prepare to ask voter to approve a local option sale tax, we must show them that we are using existing city funding responsibly and equitably. Denying core community organizations like Dream City and Center for Worker Justice, both legacy agency that serve low income and immigrants residents goes against the spread of the trust. If we expect to continue, if wept our community to support additional revenue through the sale tax, we need to demonstrate that we prioritize the basic needs of our most vulnerable. That start with honoring our commitment and fully funding non profit organization that doing the frontline work. And I really encourage us to fund all of them and revise, also look at 4Cs request, as well, and we can figure out the funding for it. Even if we went deficit, that's fine. We just need to make sure we are helping our community. [01:26:04] Yeah, I would say, if y'all can still hear me? [01:26:08] Yes. [01:26:09] Just -just checking before I talk. I would say, you know, in- in a moment like this, so much of what Mayor Pro Tem was saying is exactly what I was going to say. In a moment like this, when Center for Workers Justice does so much seen and unseen work for the immigrant population here in Iowa City and the - from so many different immigrant communities here in Iowa City who have reached out to me, who I've talked to, say that they've just provide, like, essential above and beyond service to them in a way that is Page 34 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. just so essential at this time. And immigrant communities are going around, are just living their daily lives very scared right now. And I think that slashing all funding for the Center for Workers Justice at a time like this is not responsible. And I think that seeing as we are already working in a moment of deficit, and we added $200,000 to it for the Johnson County Affordable Housing Fund, and that was a correct thing to do. Then I think that we can continue to dig in and not play the game that people at the state and federal government want us to do, and that's to pit us against each other and make us fight for scraps. That's exactly what they want us to do. And it really is, I think it's time for us to be bold and to realize that we are in a political moment that these agencies, and not just Center for Workers Justice, foresees habitat for humanity, dreams it like these agencies are what's going to help hold our community together while we work through this extremely challenging political time. So specifically, the first thing I thought of when I saw the Center for Workers Justice funding being slashed to zero, I- I guess I was expecting to see it be increased. So that's how I feel about it at a time. We can talk about specific numbers. But that's just overall how I felt when I saw this proposal. [01:28:35] Could staff bring up the recommendation spreadsheet again so we all can see it on the screen? Thank you. I- I want to just respond to some of what my colleagues have said. I think I, too, do not like micromanaging, and I really don't like taking, you know, a scalpel to work that has already been done and none doing it. I also know that when we approved the aid to agency budget for the portion that comes from the general fund, we didn't do much of an increase in this budget cycle. And one of the things that we did not know at the time that we approved what I think a 3% maybe increase. Okay, Jeff's nodding a 3% increase in that allocation in this budget. What we didn't know is what all would be happening in our world right now in terms of the threats to funding of non profits. And so, to me, that does push me towards a willingness to increase the size of the pie at this point. I agree with a lot of what Mayor Pro Tern said and what Counselor Elaine said in terms of just not only the moment that we're in, but that we can find the money. And I don't want to send a signal to the applicants that, you know, you'll just get whatever you ask for if you come and lobby us. That's not what this moment is about. This is about identifying what has changed since we made some preliminary decisions and what's in front of us right now. Specifically, I would agree with increasing funding to 4Cs. I would agree with funding Dream City, and I would agree with funding Center for Worker Justice. I think those organizations, all of the organizations, all of the organizations provide necessary services to our community. And as the mayor always says, the need is so much greater than what we can provide. But I- I do think those are really important. And, you know, the differential in what was requested from habitat for humanity, you know, to what they are receiving was $18,000. And we find ourselves in this moment where we're spending a lot of political energy and- and angst on what ended up being very- very small numbers in the scheme of what our decision making is. So I'm in favor of increasing the overall pie and agree with the recommendations that have been made by my colleagues. [01:31:26] What is the- I just want to- what is the overall without a number- without a specific number? [01:31:32] Page 35 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. I mean, based on- based on what folks are suggesting. [01:31:37] 1 mean, I also would say, though, I mean, one of the things that is, you know, we have talked about, well, and in the coming years, there will be six agencies that we're moving more towards a service model, right, where they will be funded and have that expectation. I think that the one thing that we do need to continue, you know, it's- it's a grown up relationship between the agencies and between counsel and United Way, as well, is that accountability for having, you know, keeping a clean house and making sure that you make- make targets that you can reach, that you are able to account. I mean, that is part of the definition of what being a legacy agency is. And so I think that I agree with the- the political and cultural and actual reality that we're living right now. I like, very much I appreciate your perspective, Councilor Bergus about, like, when we approved the budget. Before, we had no flip and idea what was about to be unleashed, and the need is even greater and even while the threat is greater, right? So we have this double whammy. But I think that said, that's absolutely where I think we need to step up and with all of the hard work that's being done by the legacy agencies, for all the agencies, there has to be the understanding of a commitment to making sure that internally things are being run in a way that there's no question about how the monies and the services are being um meted it out. So I would just add that. It's something that when I was on HCD scene, we had the conversation about what makes what defines a legacy agency. When is it appropriate to move from, you know, that emerging agency into a legacy agency? It's like, then sort of the expectations of how it's run end up being greater because there is more experience there. And so I think that's one of the things that moving forward, we just have to be mindful of it. As the need is greater, I know that that means administratively there's that much more to do, and can't we just help people? But I think that there has to be that accountability piece, as well. So I just wanted to put that out there as the flip of the coin. [01:34:09] So thanks to my fellow counselors for speaking on this. The agencies that are here present, the ones that are not here present, you do awesome and amazing work. Thank you so much. It is critical that when I look at this, these are the folks that are helping the most vulnerable individuals within our community, all of the agencies. And I agree that there needs to be more, you know, we need more support. We wish we had more money, right? Tangible all the time in a budget. Where I sit with this right now is the voices that haven't spoken that were maybe not given the full amount. So, for instance, we see neighborhood Centers of Johnson County. You know, they're at 77,000 recommended, but they requested 150. And I'm going to go to those that have significant or deficits, I would just call it, or they didn't get that award. We have free medical clinic, which is about half the funds requested. They requested 100,000, but 46,000 was awarded or recommended for awarding. We have, and now, we know that we heard from habitat for humanities, which was about 50% awarded. And then, you know, $10,000 is significant when you look at houses into homes, right? Is the request the 30 they're getting. It's recommended for 20. And even the ones that are requesting, you know, they're less than $5,000 from their reward. So while we- while I am all about honoring and recognizing the need for our community. I want to just maybe pause to say, How do we do this? How do we meet the needs? It is changing. We heard from- we heard about the Arbor Clift. There are folks here that probably have Arbor Page 36 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Cliff, you know, definitely in here. And we know that from the funds that Arbor provided during COVID, it was transformational for agencies. But ultimately, it was transformational for lives of individuals in our community that are most vulnerable. So it's $358,000 is what we're talking about between the fiscal year 2026 request and the staff recommendations. I mean, that's- that's a significant amount of money of what's needed to support. [01:37:02] At 100%, right? [01:37:03] Right, that's at 100%. 1 just want to acknowledge that if we're going to have the discussion, which I know is necessary, and the need is great, you know, it's a little bit difficult, but I needed to put it out there. And again, I know the work of there's not a name on here that I don't know their work. And I think all of us know every agency on here. We know the value of their work, and we know that even what they're requesting doesn't even begin to meet the needs of their agencies and the needs of those in our community. So I just want to put it out there. I don't know the- how we move forward, but I needed to at least express that there are some funding requests that haven't been met, and I just want to put it out there for now. [01:38:06] So when I think about this process, I think of it as two very specific parts. There's a political component where we come up with the actual funding allocations, where we come up with a strategic plan or we come up with a process for staff to go through. And, like, I think that's totally our lane. And then there's the technical component where the professional city staff pore through those documents, and they're looking to see whether these every single organization on here has a meaningful and very important mission, and all of them are very well intentioned. But the professional city staff looks and sees who's actually spending their money on the things they promised they were going to spend it on, who's actually spent it, and who still has money left over. And so I was compelled by Counselor Bergus' sort of change in the political tenor to say, yes, we should increase funding, but I'm opposed to us swerving into the lane of what the professional city staff does, because this list up here is organized by staff score, and there is a pretty big spread. And I don't think we really want to get into the business up here of going through talking about who scored poorly and why, or maybe we do. Maybe that's the conversation is how, like, how are we going to have accountability with the public money? And that's, I think, important. And I think our professional city staff has a responsibility. We've tasked them to be responsible with public money to make sure that all of these wonderful organizations are doing what they said they were going to do and are following through with the promises that they've made, because it's- it's, I can imagine a situation where we'd never end this conversation of who we like best. And so, anyway, shorten it, yes, I'm okay with finding a way to find more money, but I really want to stay out of being specific about this organization ought to get more and that ought to get less. I want to take from this and give to them. I really think that's not good, and I do think that we should trust our professional city staff who spent a lot of time reviewing finances and reviewing sort of compliance with these big dollar amounts. Page 37 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [01:40:20] Just as far as the scope of what we're talking about, any shortfall would be general fund money if we're looking to expand the Pi. Do we have other revenue or other buckets that it'd be coming from if staff was directed to find more money? [01:40:36] Yeah, I think there's a few options. Um, you could look at the non legacy budget. That would be our first suggestion is that you just don't offer the non legacy program this year, and you reallocate the 30,000 how you see fit, ah, to this, ah, legacy agency program. Um, the opportunity fund and your affordable housing program was designed to be flexible to meet not only housing needs, but complimentary needs as well. I believe we have, ah, maybe a quarter million dollar balance in there that we hold for, ah, any number of purposes, that would be eligible. Otherwise, I would say you're into the general fund contingency and general fund reserve. Any one of those three options, ah, is- is doable for us. [01:41:24] To one of the- I'm sorry, I cut in. [01:41:27] No, go ahead. I spoke off to you. [01:41:28] 1 was just going to say that, I mean, this dovetails very well with the conversation that we're going to continue in our work session next time about the proportion of our commitment lost. So and if we are successful and we are highly motivated, which I think all of a sudden we really are on a number of levels, um, revenues could start coming in as early as next year. So this would be something where we can look for a stop gap. I recognize as well, um, that at this is sort of for the agencies, this is an excruciating time because I- I know from my time, as well as staff knows that, no, no one is asking for 100% of the funding that they need. Um, so they're asking for what they believe they can get. They are signaling more and more about what the need is, um, but none of these numbers represent fund- fund us for a year or for two years. That's sad. So a little bit of I'm kind of indirectly responding to what you were talking about, Mayor, where it's like, How do we do this? And I honestly think in my sense is that we do expand the Pi, but it's to one of the conversations that I remember from HCDC more than one time was about what are reasonable expectations for legacy agencies to have and that the language within city staffs that city funding for legacy agencies, is that it is a fairly stable revenue source, consistent and stable one. And so to ha- have some agencies that are legacy agencies that don't have funding at all. I- I obviously advocated right off the bat for four Cs, and they did get some funding, but it is we're talking about the gap in terms of what the request is and what the amount awarded was, that's huge. They are down 32%. So that was my advocacy in the first place, but broadening the discussion to think of the fact that legacy agencies basically had an expectation of some consistency and stability. I think that as a one time, we can look to that opportunity fund, um, to help bolster the agencies. Um, I don't know what that amount would be, specifically for Dream City and for CWJ. Dream City did just get- again, it's not operational. I Page 38 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. recognize that. But they go out almost $3 million to put their, you know, I recognize. Like, there- there's so many different valences and so many different things to consider, and I don't want us to do that on the dice, and I don't want us to slice and dice. But I do think that for a one off, we should find the money somewhere, and if it sounds like we have it, then we can actually really work hard on getting lost through and to talk about the percentage of how much is going for community partnerships. [01:44:35] And also especially about, like, if we look at those, we're going to do this only one time now. I don't know maybe we need to do it later again. But next year or in two year, we're going to see only six organization out of this organization. Out of the 21 organization we see right now receiving, like in this charge, they will be receiving funding, like directly or guaranteed funding, that's what I want to say. But, you know, and if I- when- when I said, also, like, increase the fund for sip realism, $15,000, 1 really come from- when I look at last year when even they get the $15,000, they get that after they become an advocate. Because the staff also recommend it there to them. Ah, when we look at those, only two organizations who are really say, like, led and serve under representative people, even though all these organizations serve low income and people of color. Two, I'm not disputing that at all, but Dream City and Center for Worker Justice is really a safe hub for those individual to come there right now, especially during this time. I think Yasin considers this as safe hub for them. And I'm- I'm saying that because next time, those organizations are not going to be there, given the fact that last time being funding for CW only $15,000. 1 really recommend higher amount between, like, say, $5,000 $40,000 to these organizations. And I- I really want to see also habitat for amenity. I did not talk about that earlier. But I really recommend also, like, yeah, given I can agree with Councilor Alter for $35,000 for seas, $30,000 for habitat. Ah, I'm going to say $35,000 for the Center for Worker Justice and like $25,000 for Dream City. [01:46:43] May I offer just some feedback? I've been through this conversation a few times before, and I think there's probably several agencies that have been through this conversation before, and it's really hard. You guys are in a very, very difficult spot, and everybody's acting with really good intent. Councilor Alter, I believe it was when you were on HCDC when this led to a joint meeting with HCDC and there was a push to double the budget for AID agencies. Maybe 2018, 2019 ish, and that's ultimately what the council discussed. And I think everybody was elated that the budget was doubled, but the way that that was allocated, um, was that those who had requested more dollars got more money, and that really upset other agencies who didn't put out large requests, even though they may have needs. So I- I'd caution you a little bit to look at those requests because different agencies come into this process with a different mindset on request. If they've received X number of dollars plus 2 or 3% for 15, 20 years, that's what they expect, and that's what they ask for, even though those needs could be greater. So I would just caution you a little bit to look at that, um, request amount. Um, if I had to offer some advisement on the- on the spot if you're- you're looking at making adjustments, my recommendation would be that if you want to fund Dream City and Center for Worker Justice, both who have zero allocation and staff's recommendation that you take them to the minimum amount. You've got several agencies that have that minimum amount now. And then if you want to bring, um, the others up, I would suggest you look Page 39 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. at those that have received a- a decrease from the actual allocation in 2025. So you kind of start with Horizons Big Brothers, Iowa Valley Habitat. Um, and if those allocations have gone down from 25, maybe you just look to bring them back to those 25 levels, and then you use the minimum allocation for the two agencies that weren't funded. I- I think you're going to be better off looking at that type of framework than basing it off of a request when there's really no guidance in the application process for what that request level is. [01:49:13] Yeah, part of what I think we, ah, what we're faced with is that equitable portion of this or- well, I would say just how do you do this on the spot? [01:49:26] You don't. You don't. That's the point. [01:49:33] We- we certainly know that the needs are there, but how do we do it? I think- I- yeah. [01:49:43] Well, I really think for the, you know, I still want to recommend for Dream City and for Center for Worker Justice a high amount. And I would recommend that coming back from the Black Life Matter Fund. It is there, and we did not use it. And it's for Black people. Yeah, they can do that. It is there. At least we did not use it at all. It's been sitting there for a long time. [01:50:09] Yes, yeah I'm glad you brought that up I failed to remember that with Councilor Bergus' earlier question. Yes, that is discretionary councilor dollars that you can assign. [01:50:20] Yeah. [01:50:24] 1 don't really have a recommendation at this point. I'm- I'm still open to whatever. I did write down at least prior to Jeff's comment, minimum of 20,000 for Dream City and Center for Worker Justice. And that didn't really come with a lot of, um, I guess, strategy to it, except how do we begin to work piece by piece to- through this? And it seemed like to me, that would be a starting point. And then if we were to look at-, um, because again, there are- there are folks that, you know, there are a strategy to their request. Um, and so- and- and we don't want to, you know, have anyone feel like we are picking and choosing up here, which- that is-, I mean, a little bit of that is absolutely happening. I mean, we cannot deny that that has taken place. And so- but I- I think with the intent of what I'm hearing for myself and my colleagues is we do see the needing. We wanna do- we want to do we want to do something, and there's a lot of rationale as to why we wanna do something. And we're still at what do we do? But I think if we could maybe start there and then maybe work on other requests. Page 40 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [01:51:54] 1 guess I'm looking at where- while the need is great from all, if we were to look at like things that had been scored and had that got some bump or what have you, knowing it's not the full amount, et cetera. To me, that is actually going in there and redoing everything. I think we need to have a framework and a structure to say, what is the logic that's going to guide us? Well, thus far, it seems like it's that, um, we have a couple of options. One is that every legacy agency gets funded. That seems to be one in some way. [01:52:35] Can I just inject? [01:52:36] Yes. [01:52:36] That had no. The city staff did go and rethought how they did it, and they looked at previous year allocations, and that's how they kind of based some of their, um, recommendations. So I just wanted to put that there while- while you're also giving your remarks. [01:52:53] Yeah, and I just- I simply meant that we needed to have a framework and a structure for how we think about if we're going to do this, it sounds like there's a good portion of us who are interested in doing that. What is the guiding logic? How? And so to go through and to look at, well, then, you know, this agency didn't get quite what they wanted, and so that's- to me, that's too much going in and redoing everything. But if we were able to look and say, we're committed as a council to fund all the legacy agencies, that's one thing that we can hang our hats on and say, there, right? Without saying, nope, we're going to override. Well, we are, but I'm sorry. [01:53:38] There's some arbitrariness to this, no matter we try to say. [01:53:41] It is but if we can make attempt to not say, let's go back in and redo everything according to just what we think and what requests are. That's- that's what I'm thinking. [01:53:52] Real quick. Is this our last funding round where we do legacy agencies and terminology goes away. [01:53:58] Yes. Page 41 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [01:53:58] Yes Great. It's a two year cycle, though. [01:54:00] Yes. So next year, we would just take [01:54:03] these awards and prorate it based on the- the federal, um, award that we get. [01:54:08] Sorry, and how much we have in the Black Live Matter? [01:54:12] Half a million,. [01:54:13] Six hundred, isn't it? [01:54:17] Um, 700, 800, maybe- [01:54:23] 1 do- I do want to make sure that Counselor Weilein has his opportunity to speak. I heard him trying to chime in. [01:54:33] Thank you, Mayor. Um, again, it's kind of hard to chime in and not interrupt everybody, so my apologies. Um, I- I just wanted to maybe briefly touch on, um, absolutely, I want 100% respect that, you know, this is something that, you know, you have to sift through 800 pages of data financials, applications and come up with these- these hard numbers. And so the staff that do these things, it's, you know, like, we see the work and the things that we're talking up here, you know, um, I think we just have a little bit different roles. Like, we, you know, were elected and have, like, constituents that talk to us about things, and we go out and specifically talk, ah, to folks. And so I just think there's different perspectives. So it's not like we're trying to undermine what the staff is doing, but I just think that um, you know, like, there - there is something political with this, you know, and we have to figure out where we want- want to put money in our community, too. And it's not about certain organizations and saying that their work is less valued, but sometimes there's one crisis, and someone needs to be focused on a little bit more. Um, and by someone, I mean, a certain community. You know, I just don't want to get into, like, uh, you know, like, I- I think we would be remiss to say that there wasn't an extreme attack on the immigrant community right now that we haven't seen in so long. And so I- I just don't think that that is something that is inappropriate to say, uh, in a time like this, um. And the same thing could be said with for the free Medical Clinic. I with the recent, you know, house legislation, I don't know exactly what the status is Page 42 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. with the Senate. Um, according to Joni Ernst, it doesn't matter if we die. So, ah, I'm not confident about that. Um, but we might see a bunch of people from rural communities lose healthcare, from people in our community lose healthcare. And where does someone who doesn't have any healthcare go to get health care? They go to the free medical clinic. Um, and so in times of, like, extreme austerity and crisis, like what we are seeing now and what could get worse, we're not talking about something that is meant to undermine staff. It's just kind of like taking an overall, uh, look at the world and trying to anticipate what we will need and when we need to dig in more. And so that's what I think this is about. Um, I definitely agree that we need to find a way that is- that is the most fair, and I don't know exactly what that looks like. Um, I do, ah, think that, um, especially since we, you know, have so much money in the Black Lives Matter Fund, I think that, um, this- this- especially in this moment, and we can reexamine it next year in two years. But in this moment, I think, ah, we- we can do with, you know, digging in as much as we can. Ah, that's what I will say. [01:57:53] Okay. If I could make a correction, just because I was able to look up the balance of that fund. In the fiscal year 26 budget proposal, which we put out in January, we reported a balance of just over 620,000. [01:58:07] Sure. I guess- I want to have, like, really different, ah, new proposal. Can I have my [inaudible 01:58:15]. [01:58:16] Yes, I think I'm going to say why I'm advocating more money for CWA, again, because this time, they are working hard to reach to like immigrants communities. They're doing new program to educate them about what's going on. And their- just their- their work is being, like, suddenly increased without, like, budgeting for it. That's why that's my rationale of giving them more money because of the political climate. Coming from OA, coming from the Black Live Matter funding. Dream City 20,000 CWGSA5, 4Cs adding 15,000 more and habitat adding 10,000 more. This is $80,000, and it can come from the Black Lives Matter times two will be $160,000, which is coming from Black Lives Matter, and I think that money is there for a reason. And I think if it is sitting there, you know, if we don't use it now to support, you know, the- the Black folks because all those people are doing, um, work for, like, black or brown people in the community, whether it's Dream City, CWA, 4Cs, Habitat. And if we want to do that, let us just take $80,000 from Black Lives Matter times two years will be 160. [01:59:35] Do you want to go [inaudible 01:59:37]? Go ahead. [01:59:41] My- my mind still goes back to the emergency funding request that I don't. yeah, I'm just stuck. [01:59:47] Page 43 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. So for the public who sees Megan and I whispering over here, we need to be transparent, what's happening. So, Mayor, I believe you said that the total shortfall, like, if everything was funded at 100%, it was 300 and- 58,000. 358,000. [02:00:02] The difference between $1,099,034 and- [02:00:08] Yes.-$740,212.50. [02:00:12] Okay. So I very much appreciate that proposal, Mayor Pro Tem. I appreciate the framework that our city manager has offered. I think this is unprecedented times. This is the last time we will be doing this. I don't know if this is what you're suggesting, Mayor, but were- were you- [02:00:31] We could offer something unprecedented. [02:00:33] Right. So I don't know how people feel about just saying fully funding everything. [02:00:40] You know, this council has done that once before when HCDC came and did a joint meeting. [02:00:45] 1 remember that. [02:00:46] Um, and while I am- um, I- I know the need. I know all these agencies. I think that is the easy way out. I just want to be very transparent that if we do this, this could just set us up for something in the future. [02:01:02] It's- it's-. [02:01:03] But- but, you know, I don't know how you do this right now without just making a big leap to not be inclusive unless we try to figure out another way to do this, which I think we've been talking about that for a long time now. I guess if, you know, the 358,821.50 been here before, I can support it. Um, each - you know, I know that the need is great. That just means everybody is fully funded. I don't know what all other councilors support, but I could support that in this moment. [02:01:47] Page 44 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. I think, yeah. I- I support that 100%- 200%. [02:01:52] It would be also recognizing this is a two-year funding cycle, there would be a shortfall in the second year of 116,000. If we were to use- if we were to use the Black Lives Matter money to fund this. [02:02:03] Whoa. [02:02:04] I- I'm not- now, personally, I'm not- I'm not saying we should use that. I think we- Right. And maybe-. [02:02:10] We are not going to use the Black Live Ma to fully fund all this organization. No. [02:02:15] They're all serving. [02:02:16] No, no, I- I understand that. [02:02:18] It's a great way to- [02:02:20] But we need to think about housing for Black- Black- We need to think about many things for Black people. [02:02:24] We've got habitats. We've got shelter house. I mean, we- [02:02:26] 1 don't know that we have to debate where the funding is going to come from. I think we could, you know, direct staff, and we could- we know that the Black, and the- we just- we just finished having the commission, you know, giving them opportunity to bring a- bring a report, and we don't know what those requests look like, but I am comfortable in this moment directing staff to say, $358,821.50. Please, you know, fully fund the request for fiscal year 2026 for all the legacy agencies. [02:03:06] Yeah, but, you know, I just don't understand why each time we just go to affordable housing and- and - and Black Lives Matter funding or those kind of like funding who have really been allocated for specific purposes. I've been seeing using the Affordable Housing fund each time organization come and ask for Page 45 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. something. I saw that before. I saw it. But why? We can ask the staff to just like, figure it out, figure it out. You know. When I said that, I said, because those organization is a safe hub for Black people. I understand any of those organizations who are serving Black, but they are not safe hub for Black people. I'm going to tell you right now, like, for example, I'm going to give you examples, but I hit to, like, examples take some organization and make it as example. But what I really mean, you know, like Dream City is really safe hub for Black people to go there. And that's why I saying using the Black Lives Matter funding. Center for- that is for immigrants who are Black, too. Go there. It is- it is really a safe hub for them. Yes, they receive civil services from another organization which is 1 100% admire your work, but not using. That's why I'm just saying we can use some of it to make those organization get funded. But, you know, what's the difference between the- you are using the entire Black Lives Matter which is 600 something to fully fund organization. [02:04:47] It was because it was a large pot of money, and it was serving-. [02:04:50] It is opportunity fund. How much in the opportunity fund? [02:04:55] 1 think it's slightly over 200,000, 250 somewhere in there. [02:05:00] Yeah, you can use that. [02:05:01] 1 mean, I- I- I offered it up as an option. It wasn't to say, this is my proposal. I just offered it up because it was $600,000. [02:05:10] 1 understand that, but, you know, now, you know, this has really hurt Black people. I don't think that's good idea. We assigned this during Black Lives Matter. [02:05:21] 1 think- so the mayor indicated, you know, we don't have to say where the money is coming from. We need to understand that staff will have to use the priorities that we have provided to come up with the funds and let us know what those are, and if it requires a budget amendment, how that all has to work. [02:05:42] Yes. [02:05:43] So I don't- I don't think we need to specify specifically where. Page 46 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:05:48] Do we want to give- I'm sorry. Do we want to give staff some sort of percentage of people served? I mean, if we're going to say use some from the Black Lives Matter, some from other sources, do we want to give them something sort of non arbitrary to go on for that, Mayor Pro Tem? [02:06:05] I'm, um, like, really hoping for Dream City CWGSA 5, 4Cs, Habitat for humanity to get this funding from Black Lives Matter Fund. Okay. But not full funding. I was just requesting $20,000. 35, like 15 additional and just like $80,000 from the Black Lives Matter funding because we were thinking, we're going to do affordable- we're going to talk about affordable housing soon. And I think we need to talk specifically because we have fund specifically for Black people, and we want to talk about affordable housing for that. [02:06:42] Illegal. [02:06:42] I- I think what- I- I think what if we can agree, if- if- if there is a- a direction to the staff to agree to give the funding of 358, then I think that's what we do at this moment if people are willing. So I'm going to just, um, ask if Council is willing, and this may be- [02:07:11] I'm- I'm in favor of increasing the total money, but I continue to believe that our professional city staff has a better sense of who also has ARPA funding, who also has unspent ARPA funding, who also may be asked aggressively versus who asked conservatively. And I think that there's something to be said about that knowledge that's not represented up here being part of this. So I'm for increasing the funding, but not for saying whatever you ask for, you can have it. That seems to be a really bad slippery slope. [02:07:44] And also we can go back to what Geoff said earlier. You said that many organization used to ask for, like, their needs. And after that, they find out if they ask for more, they can go more if they ask for less. Yeah, maybe that's what the case right now. You know, having for full funding. [02:08:02] But we don't know that. [02:08:04] Yeah, I'm asking. I said, maybe. [02:08:06] Yeah, no, no, no. I- I know that there has from conversations in the past that-. Page 47 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:08:11] Yes. Exactly. [02:08:12] It is, but we can't- I mean, that's- that's so subjective. [02:08:18] So the question I will go back to at this moment for all of council is, um, I'm going to make- can we have a proposal for 358? [02:08:29] What, make a motion? [02:08:30] Yeah. [02:08:31] Yeah. I'll move that we fund for 358,000 for- 358,821.50-. [02:08:42] Second. [02:08:42] Additional. [02:08:45] Second. [02:08:46] Oh, second by? [02:08:48] Second by Weilein. [02:08:49] Yes. [02:08:49] Move by Alter, second by Weilein. Any further discussion? [02:08:54] Page 48 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Mayor, I just want to understand. You- you would like to bump that up. And I think you had said about fiscal year 26. 1 want to make sure that it's clear just fiscal year 26. [02:09:04] Right. Because we know that that is only half, right? Because it's- [02:09:08] That's why I'm asking. Yes. [02:09:10] It's a two-year cycle. So what we know is that if laws should pass, I think that- we heard that, I think there will be other opportunities in the future. Or do we want to deal with this all right now? [02:09:24] But really, I think we have to deal with it right now because first, you- you are fully funding a lot of organization that-. [02:09:32] Can- can I- can I make one proposal, please? It would be the same thing. So if we're saying 358 for now, it would be for the future budget, we would also want the city staff for the- for next year's budget, as well. [02:09:47] No, but I'm- I'm saying even if we say only for this year. [02:09:51] Well, I was saying it will be for two years. [02:09:53] That would mean- yeah, I just want to say like, why- like if we said for only this year, that means next year, the people who get zero, they're going to get zero. [02:10:02] That's why I want at least a minimum, you know. [02:10:07] And what- well, it's a two year cycle, so- [02:10:09] Yes, they'll be funded for two [02:10:11] Page 49 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. They'll be funded for two years. So we can- that's what I'm proposing is that it will be a two-year cycle. So this would be 358*2. And everybody's fully funded for two years. And, of course, that'll be for next year's budget. So if- so we may need to revise the motion. [02:10:33] It's that to fund the legacy agencies at the collective ask for 358,500 and- oh, sorry, $358,821.50 for two years, which is the cycle at which we fund. [02:10:56] Sorry. To clarify, it sounded like you said to fund them at that level. I assume what you mean is to fully fund the request by increasing the amount by the number you just gave? [02:11:04] Exactly. [02:11:05] Okay. And- and do we have Counselor Weilein seconding that motion again? [02:11:11] Yes, please. [02:11:12] All right. [02:11:13] To be clear, we're just putting this at the 1,000,099.34, right? [02:11:17] Mm-hmm. [02:11:18] 1 mean, that's the other way to say that a little more easily? [02:11:20] Yes. [02:11:21] Okay. Just make sure I understand. [02:11:23] Yes. Page 50 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:11:23] But it was very fun reading off of-. [02:11:25] All right. [02:11:25] Mayor's phone. [02:11:27] Can I make one- can I make one last comment? I don't want to draw this on, but I think this is really important that everybody understands. You are going to be voting on this and making funding allocations that have no bearing to the staff scoring at all. As long as you know that, and you're comfortable with that- [02:11:44] 1 am not. [02:11:46] -this will have no bearing to the staff scoring. [02:11:49] Yes. [02:11:50] Yes. [02:11:51] Okay. Yeah. [02:11:53] Very well aware of- [02:11:55] Yes. [02:11:55] The positions that- [02:11:58] We took. Page 51 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:11:59] -we're in right now. Um, any other- any further discussion on this? [02:12:07] 1 would just like to reiterate that this is not to undermine the staff's work with doing the things within the parameters that counsel has given them direction. Um, this is- I think this is about the council understanding the moment that we're in right now and wanting to do what we can to ease whatever pressure on our community members. And by this one time fully funding these organizations for what they requested, I mean, through this time of austerity and craziness, I think that that's just, you know, I think it's very clear what we're trying to do. And I think that, um, yeah- so I very much support this, and I really want to thank Mayor Pro Tem, the Mayor, everybody else who's on board with this, and I'll be supporting it happily. [02:13:02] Any other discussion? [02:13:03] 1 just want to make sure that the city, you know, the city staff should figure it out and hopefully it's not from the Black Lives Matter fund. [02:13:14] Well, I'm not super comfortable in this moment just figuring things out. I would like some council direction on the funding. And I'm- it's just general fund reserves, it's general fund reserves. But there's been enough discussion amongst you, where I can sense some different opinions on the funding source. So I would appreciate some direction on the funding sources that you- [02:13:36] Can you just remind us, like, opportunity fund. Now you said $200,000. Is this like every year? [02:13:42] No, that's a balance that carries over. So that $1 million affordable housing fund that we have unspent balances, and certain certain line items will get dropped into the opportunity fund, and that's what we use for new opportunities that come up. We've used that for land purchases, for kind of emergent needs that have come up. So it's a balance that we carry to be responsive in the moment. [02:14:10] Okay. Just- I just want to say I'm [02:14:13] strongly supportive of increasing funding, but this mechanism is really the wrong way to do it. [02:14:20] Page 52 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 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. I don't disagree with you one bit, but I also know that we're somewhat in a position, and it's not- it's not political for me. It's more, how do you go through and determine who gets funded and who don't. [02:14:33] 1 think that we set goals. I think discussion is over, and we're voting. [02:14:38] Yes. Yes. Yes. [02:14:39] I'm sorry. Procedurally. I just feel like I needed to say that I am in support of increased funding. I think this mechanism is the wrong way to do it. [02:14:47] All right. Any other comments? Do you have the direction that you need, Geoff? [02:14:54] Not on the funding source. [02:14:55] Okay. So, um, is council comfortable, I mean, saying, use general funding for this? [02:15:05] Yeah. [02:15:06] Yeah. [02:15:07] Okay. Okay. [02:15:09] Yes. [02:15:09] Any other comments? Roll call, please. [02:15:14] All right. And to be clear, this is from the motion to amend. [02:15:17] Moe? Page 53 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:15:17] No. [02:15:18] Salih? [02:15:19] Yes. [02:15:19] Teague? [02:15:20] Yes. [02:15:21] Weilein? [02:15:24] Yes. [02:15:24] Alter? [02:15:25] Yes. [02:15:26] Bergus? [02:15:26] Yes. [02:15:27] Harmsen? [02:15:27] Yes. [02:15:28] Page 54 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Motion passes six to one, and now we'll go back to- so this was amending for the- for the full funding allocations, essentially. Now, we are on that vote. Any other discussion because it's been amended? Roll call, please, and this is for the vote to provide funding essentially at the-. [02:15:56] Hundred percent. [02:15:57] At the 100% of request. [02:15:59] As amended. Right. [02:16:00] As amended. [02:16:01] Okay. Salih? [02:16:02] Yes. [02:16:03] Teague? [02:16:03] Yes. [02:16:04] Weilein? [02:16:09] Yes. Sorry about that. [02:16:11] Alter? [02:16:11] Yes. [02:16:12] Bergus? Page SS Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:16:12] Yes. [02:16:13] Harmson? [02:16:13] Yes. [02:16:14] M oe? [02:16:14] No. [02:16:16] Motion passes 6:1. All right, thanks to- [02:16:21] Thank you. [02:16:21] -everyone for this discussion. We're going to move on to Item number 11. [02:16:26] We need a motion to accept correspondence, mayor. [02:16:28] Oh, yes. Thank you. [02:16:30] Second, Bergus. [02:16:33] Alright. Yeah. So the motion to accept correspondence was by Salih and then by Bergus. All in favor say Aye. [02:16:41] Aye. [02:16:41] Page S6 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Any opposed? Motion passes 7:0. We're at Item number 11D, tobacco civil penalty and permit suspension. Almost Paradise. Resolution finding an employee sold tobacco to a minor and assessing a $1,500 civil penalty and 60 day retail cigarette permit suspension against Almost Paradise. Now, I do know that we need to allow a little time for setup of this, but could I get a motion to approve, please? [02:17:20] So moved. Moe. [02:17:21] Second, Bergus. [02:17:22] Alright. So our city clerk just needs to get things attached for us. And because our city attorney office will be presenting the case, Assistant Johnson County Attorney Lynn Rose is here to advise the counsel. So yes. [02:17:46] Are you ready? [02:17:47] And uh welcome to Attorney Lynn Rose, who is over here to our right. Welcome. [02:17:55] Counsel. Thank you. [02:17:56] Great. [02:17:58] Alright. At this time, I'm going to ask for staff comments. So welcome, Jennifer, the assistant city attorney. [02:18:06] Thank you. Good evening. As the mayor indicated, my name is Jennifer Sukarath, and I am an assistant city attorney. This is a tobacco enforcement matter that is contested by the retailer and also where the criminal citation issued to the employee for selling to the minor has been dismissed. So in this case, first, the council will need to determine if there's been a violation of Iowa code Section 453A.2, which prohibits an employee of a retailer from selling tobacco, tobacco products, alternative nicotine products, vapor products or cigarettes to a minor. In this case, the counsel cannot rely on the criminal conviction for this determination because the criminal conviction was dismissed. If counsel does determine that the violation has occurred, then counsel shall impose a civil penalty. Even though the criminal citation was dismissed, the civil penalty is still imposed against the retailer because Iowa Code Page 57 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Section 453A.22 uses the term violated as the trigger for proceeding with civil penalties as opposed to the term convicted. Almost Paradise has three prior violations. The council's prior resolutions addressing the three prior violations are included in the council packet. The dates of the prior violations are June 30, 2022, January 12, 2023, and May 13, 2023. At this time, I'm going to have Sergeant Matt Ties provide some general background on tobacco enforcement, and then I will be questioning witnesses regarding Almost Paradise's fourth violation. [02:20:05] Welcome. [02:20:07] I'm Matt Ties. I'm a sergeant with Iowa City Police Department. Um I'm going to give you a quick overview on how tobacco compliance work. First off, the city has a 28E agreement with the Iowa Department of Revenue to perform tobacco compliance checks and enforcement. One compliance check is a year is completed at each business that has a tobacco permit. For businesses that fail that initial compliance check, a recheck is done on that business. How the compliance check works is that an underage person will work with the police department to conduct the compliance checks. The underage person is only allowed to carry their state issued ID and a cash and whatnot that we give them. It is explained to the helper that there is absolutely no deceit in this process. If the clerk asks for their ID, they are to give them their ID. If they ask how old they are, they are to give them their actual age. If they ask if you're old enough to purchase this, they are to answer truthfully that they are not. There is absolutely no deceit in this. When doing the checks, the helper is sent into a business and they will purchase a tobacco, vapor or nicotine product. Um if the clerk or the business fails, the underage person will actually purchase that item and bring it back out to police, and then the officers will go inside the business, speak with the employee, and then issue a citation. The entire compliance check is audio and video recorded and observed by officers prior to issuing a citation. Once the citation is issued, that would be for an employee providing tobacco products, vapor or cigarettes to anyone under the age of 21 years of age. And then that criminal citation is prosecuted in court at the Johnson County or [02:22:14] Johnson County Attorney's Office. [02:22:17] 1 couldn't hear you when you said they will go inside and the person who's selling it will say, How old are you? And the person can just say, I'm 25 like this, or they have to provide ID. [02:22:30] What I'm saying is there's absolutely no deceit at all. Like, they will not lie. So if the employee ask how old they are, the helper, the person trying to purchase it will give them their actual age. It's not a trick. It's not a game, there's no deceit. [02:22:44] Page 58 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. How we will normally prove that. Like, for example, not- I'm not talking about the person you sent for, like, to exam this. I'm talking about just regular people who've been- if they sell to the person you are sending, that means they sell for everyone else who are underage. Did they- is the problem like they will ask or they never even ask? [02:23:09] Yes. [02:23:10] Like, did they ask, like, how old are you or they just don't ask and. [02:23:15] Yeah, so in these ones, like if they don't ask or anything, our helper will purchase that. [02:23:21] And is the person you're sending look like an old? Like, sometimes you see, like, kids, but, you know, underage, but they look like older. [02:23:29] They're all under. [02:23:30] Really reasonable kind of person or? [02:23:34] Like any other young adult, young person out there, yeah. So there's no deceit at all. So it's just they walk in there and there, if everything goes well, they will ask for their ID. It's not trying to trick them whatsoever. [02:23:51] Sure. Excuse me. [02:23:58] Okay. [02:24:02] And now I'll ask questions of the first witness, Grace Batchelor, who will appear by Zoom. [02:24:13] Okay. [02:24:13] Page 59 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Hello. [02:24:15] Hello. Welcome. [02:24:18] Could you state your name, please? [02:24:20] Grace Bachelor. [02:24:22] And when is your birthday? [02:24:25] September 15, 2004. [02:24:27] Did you assist the Iowa City Police Department on tobacco compliance checks? [02:24:33] Yes, ma'am. [02:24:34] And what did you do? [02:24:38] Um the officers had explained the tobacco compliance checks. I went into Almost Paradise. The clerk sold to me. We did a recheck, and they sold to me again without asking my age for my ID or how old I am. [02:24:57] And were you advised what to do if you were asked for your birth date or your age? [02:25:02] Yes, ma'am. [02:25:03] And what were you advised to do? [02:25:06] To tell them my actual age, to give them my actual ID, and to give them my actual birthday. Page 60 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:25:14] And you indicated that you were able to make a purchase at Almost Paradise. Was that purchase at Almost Paradise on May 29, 2024, at 3:55 South Lynn Street in Iowa City? [02:25:28] Yes, ma'am. [02:25:29] Okay. And how old were you on May 29, 2024? [02:25:34] 1 was 19-years-old. [02:25:37] And was that purchase recorded? [02:25:41] Yes, ma'am. [02:25:42] And how was it recorded? [02:25:45] The Iowa City Police Department gave me a phone that video and audio recorded. [02:25:56] And have you had the opportunity to watch the recording of that May 29, 2024 purchase? [02:26:03] Yes, ma'am. [02:26:04] And does the recording accurately reflect what occurred? [02:26:08] Yes, ma'am. [02:26:10] At this time, we're going to show the May 29, 2024 recording. [02:26:28] Page 61 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. I almost like changed the password. Okay. Can I get a brown gray lemon breeze? Thank you. [02:27:39] Not on the phone. [02:27:44] Okay. [02:27:51] Grace, does that recording show the May 29, 2024 purchase that you made as an underage individual? [02:27:59] Yes, ma'am. [02:28:01] After you left the store, did you provide the product and the recording to the police department? [02:28:07] Yes, ma'am. [02:28:10] Thank you. I don't have any further questions for you at this time. [02:28:14] Thank you. [02:28:18] I'll now ask the next witness, Officer Jeff Schmidt, some questions. Could you please state your name? [02:28:32] Jeff Schmidt. [02:28:35] And your current employment? [02:28:36] Iowa City Police Department. [02:28:38] Were you involved in a tobacco enforcement at Almost Paradise located at 3:55 South Lynn Street in Iowa City on May 29, 2024? Page 62 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:28:48] 1 was. [02:28:49] And did an employee of Almost Paradise sell a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine, or vapor product to a minor? [02:28:55] Yes, ma'am. [02:28:56] And do you recall the name of the underage individual that assisted the Iowa City Police Department on that date? [02:29:03] Grace Bachelor. [02:29:05] And what evidence did you have that an illegal sale was made? [02:29:10] Well, I knew that she was 19-years-old, so under 21. And then we were sitting outside the business in an unmarked car when she went into the business, purchased the product, and then came out with the product and handed us the product. [02:29:24] Assistant attorney, can I ask you to step closer to the mic, please? Thank you. [02:29:29] Did you issue a criminal citation to an employee of Almost Paradise named Colin Henneman for selling a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine, or vapor product to a minor? [02:29:39] 1 didn't. [02:29:41] And are you aware that that criminal citation was dismissed by the magistrate court? [02:29:47] Yes, ma'am. [02:29:49] And do you know why the criminal citation was dismissed? Page 63 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:29:53] Witnesses were not able to be present for the proceeding. [02:29:58] And is it your understanding that it was not dismissed because the sale did not take place? [02:30:03] Correct. [02:30:09] At this time, I don't have anything further to support the violation. Um, but I do believe Almost Paradise may want to present. [02:30:18] 1 want to thank you all. Any questions from counsel at this time? [02:30:23] 1 do have a procedural. [02:30:26] 1 have one. [02:30:27] Oh, go ahead. [02:30:28] Sorry. Um this whole process is new and weird to me. Um, so is anybody currently right now under oath? [02:30:42] No, because this isn't a courtroom proceeding. [02:30:46] Okay, that's what I figured. That's my only question. Thank you. [02:30:52] My question is procedural. You mentioned that if we find that their- that the sale occurred, then there was a violation, and then we would at that point, we have to impose the penalty, is that right? [02:31:06] The civil penalty, correct. Page 64 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 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. [02:31:08] Okay. [02:31:09] 1 do wonder if some of the questions have to be appointed to our representative. [02:31:14] Oh, sorry- sorry. Thank you. Uh, Attorney Rose. So the- as to whether or not the violation or as to whether or not the sale occurred since Counselor Weilein asked about, you know, being under oath, this does feel sort of like a court proceeding, but it's not. What- what standard are we considering as far as the level of proof or finding there is a violation? [02:31:43] Preponderance, Counselor. Can everyone hear me? I feel like I'm kind of shouting. Yes. [02:31:48] Okay. It's a preponderance in this case, and the counsel is sitting in a position of essentially an adjudicator, deciding whether or not it happened. This isn't policymaking. [02:32:02] Right. [02:32:03] Should the council decide that it happened, then the counsel, according to Iowa Code, shall impose a penalty if that's the conclusion that's reached. Counsel doesn't have discretion about the penalty phase. [02:32:20] And just for my colleagues, the preponderance of the evidence, can you just explain what that standard means? [02:32:26] It's more likely than not. It's not like beyond any possible doubt. Is that fair to say? [02:32:34] That would be an excellent description, Counselor. [02:32:37] Thank you. [02:32:41] All right. Thank you all. Page 65 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:32:43] Thank you. [02:32:44] At this time, I'm going to ask the permittee, if present, if you would like to say anything at this time. [02:32:56] Yes. [02:32:58] Welcome. [02:32:59] Good evening. Um, my name is Shannon Walsh. I'm an attorney in Iowa City, and I represent the owners of Almost Paradise. And I think that the fact that these two, there are two tickets that were dismissed on the same day is relevant and should be considered. Also, the fact that it hasn't been brought up is that this property, this business has changed hands several times in this time period. It's not the same. I mean, she's calling it ticket 4 and ticket 5, but it's not. [02:33:38] The business has changed hands. So I conferred with the state and they said that tickets don't transfer to new owners and change of hands of the new owners. So, um, I think that there's a lot to be disputed. Um, my client is very unhappy and is already contacting, um, federal attorney, a federal practice attorney in Des Moines about this. He and some other tobacco store owners. I think their gripe isn't so much with the city, but as with the law, and but he also feels targeted based on his ethnicity. He's from Jordan, and he just feels like he's been harassed for several years now and that, uh, he- he just is very unhappy and asked me to come down here and assert that. Um, but I that, uh, there's been a lot of unnecessary back and forth between the city clerk and him and the state because he'll and he sold the business and then, um, new ownership files and then the permits. And it's when you sell a business, you sell the goodwill of the business, which is the name. So almost paradise, just because it's operating the same and has the same name doesn't mean it's owned by the same owners, the same people. So there has been a change in ownership. Um, and I think that's an important point. I, uh, I don't know what the point is of giving tickets if you- if you found innocent, if the court dismisses it, it should throw this whole thing out. It's really shocking to me, the way this laws being applied. But that's all I have to say. [02:35:47] Ask questions. [02:35:48] Page 66 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. I don't think I have a question for Lynn or for Ms. Rose. Um, do we take in consideration this, are we really just determining whether this sale happened or should we also be considering this change from the sole proprietor to corporation? [02:36:05] So at this point, uh, you need to determine whether or not this sale happened. Um, I would encourage you maybe to ask the city attorney if she has any information on the change of ownership since she researched the question specifically, but I can advise the counsel that a change in ownership that is only the form of ownership and not the actual owners does not constitute a change for purposes of who gets cited as a civil matter. So the change of ownership is not relevant if the same people are still running the business regardless of how ownership is structured. And there's Iowa case law on that. If counsel wants to know about that, we can cite that case for you. [02:37:05] You repeat that for me? I followed it, and then all of a sudden, I went. Um, so even if there's change of ownership, if the venue itself is still, it's not just the matter of the venue. [02:37:17] O kay. [02:37:18] If the structure of the ownership changes, but the people running the business are the same people, the change in structure of ownership doesn't change liability. [02:37:32] And that is the case here. [02:37:34] It is, as we understand. [02:37:35] Okay. [02:37:36] Can we have this assistant city attorney tell us about that since she did the research and hear it? [02:37:40] Yes. [02:37:41] Please. Page 67 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:37:42] So there has been one change of ownership. There was an attempt to change ownership. I believe it was in May, but it was at the time the moratorium was in effect. So that application intending to change ownership was rescinded, and a new application was filed as the sole proprietor. Then in January of 2025, there was the new device retailer permit requirement. And at that time, Almost Paradise had submitted their application for their device retailer permit in the name of a corporation. And in order to approve that permit, you have to have a tobacco permit. So Almost Paradise decided at that point to change their sole proprietorship to the corporation to match the device retailer permit so that the location could be approved for both. It was represented that it remained the same place of business for, I guess, all other intents and purposes, but the legal ownership did change from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. [02:38:53] And that's the same person in both cases or. [02:38:57] Yes, my understanding is the same person is involved in still ownership and management. [02:39:05] Thank you. [02:39:06] Yes. [02:39:11] So is there a council person that wanted to follow up with the permittee and ask any questions of the permittee? [02:39:20] Um, I actually, I did have one question. You said that, um, whoever that you're representing has been harassed for several years, but you're also saying that this is a new owner. [02:39:33] Yeah. [02:39:34] So if there's a new owner house. [02:39:37] They have exchanged hand and he, um, Mr. Shari has been involved, but he does not own. It's changed ownership, but he manages it and from a distance. Um, it's- it is what it is. I- I can't but technically, and we're all being very technical here because of the law. He when he went to Iowa City AP, which is the Page 68 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. corporation, those are different people. It is not the same company as the almost paired well, it was almost paired it was an LLC. So it's changed hands. [02:40:24] From whom to whom? [02:40:25] From whom to whom? Yeah. [02:40:27] Well, Mr. Shari owned it originally years years ago. And then he sold it to, um, I don't even remember the name. They're all uh, Jordanian Arab names, but it has changed hands legally. And, um, so then ifits changed hands. [02:40:50] Who are you here representing tonight? [02:40:52] Yes. Almost Paradise. [02:40:55] Which is the same business as it was years ago? [02:40:59] Well, I've continued with the business as it changed hands because it's the store is what I represent. And if it's a different owner, I deal with the different owners. [02:41:13] So what owner are you dealing with? [02:41:16] Pardon me? [02:41:16] So which owner are you actually dealing with currently? [02:41:20] The owner the AP, ICAP the corporation. [02:41:24] Yeah, but that's probably a person you're talking to. Who's that person? Page 69 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:41:29] It varies because there's a group of them. [02:41:31] Okay. In that group, does it include the same individual you just mentioned? [02:41:35] Mr. Shari. [02:41:36] Thank you. Yes. [02:41:37] Yes. [02:41:39] O kay. [02:41:39] He is a shareholder, but he's not the majority shareholder. [02:41:44] Ms. Walsh, our attorney indicated there's authority to support the fact that, um, despite this change in the business, um, ownership structure that the violations would carry through to getting to the fourth violation, you indicated that that's not the case. Do you have authority for your position? [02:42:05] Well, I- I don't the top of my head, but I do know that if it's a different ownership, the tickets don't and the fact that it's a different structure, that's a different ownership. It went from an LLC to an Incor- corporation, so it's not the same, and the tickets don't transfer. And I got that direct. That was actually from the state. [02:42:30] Do they have, is there documentation from the state or is there somewhere that we can look to see. That was actually one of my questions that the state says. [02:42:38] The state has. [02:42:40] Is there like just a list of rules of tobacco rules that you can look at? I got back. I got this notice. I was out of town, and I got back, and I asked for more time to deal with this and prepare with it. And Jennifer was Page 70 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. out of town and she didn't get my request until just very, very recently. So I- I had to rush through this and deal with it. It was, um, unfortunate, let's put it that way that both of us were out of town, but I feel like, um, it was because she in her note, she said, feel free to contact me by such and such a date Friday at 4:00 P.M. Or something. And I know, I think I got back on Wednesday night, and so on Thursday, I'm calling. She's gone. And there's no way to discuss this. I did call Eric and he was like, I don't know what this is about. I don't want to deal with it. Talk to her on Monday when she gets back. But here we are. I mean, it's just. [02:43:51] 1 was just interested in whether there was documents from the state and if you have that. [02:43:58] There's plenty of policy and law that if you go on tobacco. [02:44:03] 1 was just hoping to have a specific. [02:44:05] 1 don't have it with me because I didn't have much time to prepare for this. Um, and I do know that you're going to do what you have to do and my clients will do what they have to do. We'll see how it all turns out. But it's unfortunate because I think the way the law is written, especially for him and these people, they own many of these tobacco stores throughout Iowa. And the last time I was here for some similar situation, there was a woman here who was from Des Moines, and she had gas stations all over the state, and she was very unhappy. Um, you can't police your employees every second. And the fact that he the employee sells to a minor, sure give him a ticket, find him guilty, fine. But to shut a whole business down is a lot. You're putting a lot of people out of work. You're shutting down a viable tax paying business. It's- it just seems completely at odds to what should be done. But that's my opinion. That's all I have. [02:45:18] 1 think you said. Anyway, you have said that you was needing more time. So you can prepare I think what I believe in front of us now is this happened or not? Do you think you have more evidence could prove that this is not happened? And also, if I ask you, do you think this happened or not? [02:45:44] Yeah, I have no idea. [02:45:46] No. [02:45:47] Will you step to the mic, please. Thank you. Page 71 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:45:53] 1 have no idea if it happened or not. I was at court, their witness wasn't at court and it was dismissed. So I had no opportunity to cross examine her or the police or any of it. And this is not for. [02:46:08] You watch the video with us? We just watch the video with you. Right now, this is the first time for us too. But from the video it clearly happened. But what do you think? [02:46:18] Don't think that the video is reliable frankly. It's very garbled and shaky and you don't know what's happened exactly. I think you need to be able to have a court determine have cross examination, have evidence, do it through a court process, not just this counsel. No offense to the counsel. But I think it's not a judiciary, um, proceeding that you are doing and those two tickets were thrown out by the court. So as far as that goes, I didn't happen. I know. [02:47:02] You mean, if we give you more time, you will come up with evidence showing us that this is not happened. [02:47:09] 1 can't say that for sure, but I certainly could do a lot more than I was able to do in 48 hours. [02:47:17] Can I ask for the case law that tells us about the transfer? What you were alluded to, what it means to transfer a business, and at what point it's a new business versus not? [02:47:28] So the case, the citation for the case and the title is Nash Finch Company versus the City Council of Cedar Rapids, 672 Northwest second 822. This is a case from 2003. It is the updated case law that's specific to the issue and it's still what we call good case law. That means it hasn't been overturned. And this is out of the Iowa Supreme Court, not the Court of Appeals. Many thanks to assistant city attorney Miss Schwikerath for helping me track down this site. And having reviewed that case, let me see if I can find the quote for you here. So the Supreme Court reasons that violations are logically aggregated by the place of business, not by a particular permit, meaning the permit has to be renewed annually, but if a violation happens in the same business over time, that's the logic to use to aggregate them to decide if you're dealing with the first, second, third, etc violation. And then, uh, they go on to say that aggregated violations can occur during the terms of different permits covering the same place of business. And then, I don't know that I underlined the quote, but they have- they've got their reasoning here, but you're asking me for quote hang on. Oh, it's okay. [02:49:57] Page 72 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. They do tell us the statutory definition of place of business is no help [LAUGHTER]. But it says the word place has many definitions and it is our judgment that one that fits best in this context is a building or loca- locality used for a special purpose. So under the common meaning of the term any place, it can also mean wherever the business is conducted. And then, um, they go on to say, because the statute is ambiguous about that, um, and because the Department of Revenue, which oversees the tobacco permits allows a permit to be transferred between locations if a business moves, um, the agency interpretation implies that the focus of the regulatory scheme is the business or operation of the specific retailer, because once the retailer has issued the permit, it could be transferred to a different location. So it's about the business. If the business moves down the street, but the same people are running it, it applies. If the business changes its ownership structure, but the same people are running it, they're the same people who have been issued the permit. And that's why it works. I'd be happy to give you my copy it's okay. [02:51:32] Just one other question as far as the, um, I think we heard that- that it would be wrong for us to vote- to close this business. That's not what's in front of us tonight, correct? We're just finding whether or not the sale occurred, and then we don't have discretion. If we find that it did occur, more likely than not it occurred, then the penalty is imposed, is that right? [02:51:53] That's correct, Councilor Bergus. The limit of your authority and jurisdiction in this matter is did it happen or not. Thank you. [02:52:02] But what's the different- I really get confused. What the difference between the 1113, D, and 11E? [02:52:11] Yeah. Good question. [02:52:14] Could you repeat your question? [02:52:15] 1 said, what the different? We have two items here. [02:52:17] Our agenda items. [02:52:18] Oh, on the agenda. Okay. [02:52:20] Page 73 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. And I just would like to know what the different because one of them here, like revoking, and the other one say suspension and 60 days. [02:52:29] Two different violations. [02:52:31] Is this two different violation? Because it says selling to a minor, selling to the minors. [02:52:35] So the very last sentence of 11, er, D says, the civil penalty for a fourth violation within a three-year period. And then in 11E, the last thing is the civil penalty for a fifth violation within a four-year period. So we haven't heard about the next one yet, but I'm assuming that's going to be a different violation. [02:52:55] And that just- it just pertains to the cigarette per bit. So they've violated, and that would be the next step where the city would give them, uh, approval. [02:53:05] Right, I think we're talking about two different incidents. I think it was the question. [02:53:09] Correct. Yes, it is two different incidents, but I think [OVERLAPPING]. [02:53:11] You mean- you mean the- the- the fourth incident is not enough to revoking the license, but here is another incident after that, make it five, that's why it is the time to do that. Okay. [02:53:27] Yeah. [02:53:29] Councilor Salih, has your question been answered? [02:53:32] Yes, thank you. [02:53:33] Okay. [02:53:34] Thank you. Page 74 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:53:37] Alright. If no more questions for anyone, they also discussion. [02:53:43] And- and also, Mayor, I- the one that is failed on the court, both of them or just one? [02:53:50] So can we have some explanation of what the. [02:53:54] It's the difference between the two agenda items that there's a fourth. [02:53:56] From our attorney, Miss Walsh. [02:53:58] 1 like to say that both those tickets were at the same court hearing, and they were both dismissed. [02:54:03] But different- two different- we'll find out if they were from different incidents. [02:54:07] They were. [02:54:12] From the city. [02:54:12] So there's two different item numbers on the agenda because there's two different violations. One occurred on May 29th, 2024, and one occurred on June 27th, 2024. So initially, everybody with a tobacco permit is checked, which is what happened in May of 2024. And then everyone that fails those checks is rechecked, and that's what happened in June. And this particular business failed both times. But they're separate agenda items because if you did not find, for example, if you don't find that the fourth violation occurred, we can't do them together because we need to know, you know, if the fourth occurred, then it's a fifth. If the fourth didn't occur, then we're looking at another alleged fourth. [02:55:00] Because the video that we watch is the fifth or the fourth? [02:55:04] Page 75 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. That's the fourth. All the evidence that I've presented so far is for the fourth. I'll present the fifth when we get to the next agenda item. [02:55:14] Got you. [02:55:15] One question. So for the fourth one, when it took place, the staff and the business was notified of the fourth offense? [02:55:27] So the citation is issued to the clerk. So yes, they are notified. [02:55:33] Right at that time, or? [02:55:34] Yeah, the citation is usually issued, and in that case, the officer went and issued the citation. [02:55:42] Got you. [02:55:42] And this was in May. [02:55:44] Correct. [02:55:45] And the other one is June. [02:55:48] Correct. [02:55:48] Like a month. [02:55:49] Okay, in the same- and is this, like, a normal thing that, you know, the officer does or the police department when- when you find somebody like- when you cite someone, you're gonna come back and check on them or you do it for every, like- like, monthly for everyone? I just want to know, like, what's the practice. Page 76 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:56:12] So the first check is done on every business that has a tobacco permit. And then the second check is done on every business that fails the first check. [02:56:24] Okay, get you. Thanks. [02:56:26] Thank you. [02:56:27] Fair enough. [02:56:27] Council, if I could just note a terminology issue for you as well. We're using the terms citation and ticket sort of interchangeably and just something to note. The Iowa Code on these permits provides that the clerk that makes the sale, so the clerk you would have seen in the video, they receive a criminal citation, and that would be tried in the magistrates court over at the Johnson County Courthouse. The citation to the business is a civil citation, and that's what's in front of you now. And those are two distinct and different things with two different standards of proof. [02:57:15] Got you. Thank you. [02:57:17] Interesting. [02:57:18] 1 think I'm ready to vote on this. I'm ready. Alright. Any other comment by council? Roll call, please? What do we- so a yes vote mean. [02:57:28] 1 vote for yes. [02:57:29] What does the vote mean? Do we need a motion? So this is a- so the vote would be to if you agree that this took place. [02:57:40] Okay. So a yes vote means yes, this actually happened. Page 77 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [02:57:43] Correct. [02:57:44] Got it. [02:57:45] So I will say, I feel very weird about this whole thing about being someone up here reviewing evidence, potentially, you know, effectively shutting down a business. And I know by law, I'm not supposed to take that into consideration, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to, um, take it into consideration in a neutral way when, like, this isn't a court of law, and there's witnesses here, but the witnesses didn't show up to the court proceedings, and I don't understand why they wouldn't show up to the court proceeding. And- this is all just very weird for me. I'm not in a place where I'm gonna vote yes on this. So- I don't know if any other councilors feel the same, but, yeah, that's just how I feel right now. [02:58:39] 1 just feel like the only thing that I can feel kind of, like, in the middle if- because the [inaudible 02:58:49] attorney said that if she would have had more time, maybe she would be prepared more. And I would really be interesting on seeing how can she prepare more and bring us, like, more evidence? And also another question that if we said this happen, yes, is this means automatically- no, you said this is different. Oh, sorry. I guess when I say, like, this mean automatically we will revoke- revoke their license, but this is not a revoking one. This is just the penalty and the suspension for six days, right? Am I right? [02:59:30] Yeah. That's for this one. That's correct. [02:59:32] Yes and, uh, yeah. [02:59:36] 1 feel like I was able to understand that video well enough, you know, to understand that that person never asked for an ID. It was- the audio was very clear. The video was fine. [02:59:48] And I would say that the law is there for a reason to sell to someone that is 21, no judgment. But certainly, since today is, finally, believe it or not, June 3rd, I would say for anyone with children, they would want the clerk to ask their child for ID. And so for me, they didn't follow the protocol that the agency has set and, er, I mean, that's what we're voting on here. There's no judgment here, is did it happen or did it not? And the video and all the evidence today showed that it happened, so. [03:00:32] Yes, I agree with that. Page 78 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:00:37] Roll call please. [03:00:38] Teague? [03:00:39] Yes. [03:00:40] Weilein? [03:00:42] No. [03:00:42] Alter? [03:00:43] Yes. [03:00:44] Bergus? [03:00:44] Yes. [03:00:45] Harmsen? [03:00:45] Yes. [03:00:46] M oe? [03:00:46] Yes. [03:00:47] Salih? Page 79 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:00:47] Yes. [03:00:48] Motion passes six to one. We are on to item number 11E, tobacco permit revocation. Almost Paradise. Resolution finding an employee sold tobacco to a minor and revoking Almost Paradise retail cigarette permit. Because the City Attorney's office will be presenting the case, Assistant Johnson County Attorney Lynn Rose is here to advise the council. And could I get a motion to approve, please? [03:01:16] So moved, Moe. [03:01:18] Second, Alter. [03:01:20] And I'm gonna invite the Assistant City Attorney Jennifer back up at this time. [03:01:27] So I think on the prior item, after you make the finding, then you do need to assess the civil penalty. [03:01:36] Is that in the. [03:01:37] 1 think we voted on the resolution. [03:01:38] Even though we have no discretion? [03:01:39] Yeah. [03:01:40] Oh, you voted on her. [03:01:40] 1 think we just approved the resolution. [03:01:42] Okay. Yes. Page 80 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:01:43] Sorry. My mistake. So this is the fifth violation that occurred on June 27th, 2024. So as I stated in the previous item, first, we do not have a criminal conviction in this case, as the matter was dismissed due to the witness' unavailability, so council will need to determine whether or not the violation occurred. And then if it's determined the violation has occurred, this would be a fifth violation which would result in the revocation of the permit. At this point there's four prior violations. In your council packet, you have the June 30th, 2022, January 12th, 2023, May 13th, 2023, and you just determined that the May 29th, 2024 violation occurred. At this time, I'll ask questions of Grace Batcheller by Zoom. [03:02:44] It's the same person. [03:02:48] Could you state your name? [03:02:50] Grace Batcheller. [03:02:52] And what is your birthday? [03:02:54] September 15th, 2002. [03:02:57] And did you assist the Iowa City Police Department with tobacco compliance checks on June 27th, 2024? [03:03:05] Yes, ma'am. [03:03:06] And what instructions did you receive from the Iowa City Police Department? [03:03:12] If the clerk asks my real name-, er, sorry, my real birthday, my real ID, and my, uh, real indication of my age, then I have to truthfully tell them what it is. [03:03:29] And do you recall making a purchase at Almost Paradise located at 355 South Lynn Street in Iowa City on June 27th, 2024? Page 81 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:03:38] Yes, ma'am. [03:03:40] And how old were you on June 27th, 2024? [03:03:44] 1 was 19. [03:03:46] Were you able to purchase a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine or vapor product from an Almost Paradise employee on June 27th, 2024? [03:03:55] Yes, ma'am. [03:03:56] And was this purchase recorded? [03:03:59] Yes, ma'am. [03:04:00] And how was it recorded? [03:04:04] The same phone with a video and audio recording. [03:04:09] And have you had an opportunity to watch the recording of the June 27th, 2024 purchase? [03:04:16] Yes, ma'am. [03:04:17] Does the recording accurately reflect what occurred? [03:04:21] Yes, ma'am. [03:04:23] I'm going to show the June 27th, 2024 recording. Page 82 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:04:29] There you go. [03:04:45] There you go. [03:04:59] Could I get a Mighty Mint North? [03:05:02] That's going to be 14.94. [03:05:33] Thank you. [03:05:47] Does that recording show that you were allowed to make a purchase and you were not asked for your birth date or your identification? [03:05:54] Yes, ma'am. [03:05:56] After you left the store, did you provide the product and the recording to the Iowa City Police Department? [03:06:03] Yes, ma'am. [03:06:05] 1 don't have any further questions for you. Thank you. [03:06:08] Thank you. [03:06:10] I'll now ask some questions of Sergeant Matt [inaudible 03:06:13]. Were you involved in tobacco enforcement at Almost Paradise located at 355 South Lynn Street in Iowa City on June 27th, 2024? [03:06:29] Yes. Page 83 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:06:31] And did an employee at that Almost Paradise location sell a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine, or vapor product to a minor? [03:06:39] Yes. [03:06:40] Who was the underage individual that assisted the Iowa City Police Department on that date? [03:06:46] Grace Batcheller. [03:06:47] And what evidence did you review that an illegal sale was made? [03:06:52] We know that she is underage. She went into the business without any vape or tobacco or anything on her. There's audio and video recording that we can watch live. And when she purchased the tobacco - the product, she came out and provided it to the officers. [03:07:12] Was a criminal citation issued to an employee of Almost Paradise named Jason Allen for selling a cigarette, tobacco, nicotine or vapor product to a minor? [03:07:21] Yes. [03:07:22] And are you aware that that criminal citation was dismissed by the magistrate court? [03:07:27] Yes. [03:07:28] And do you know why that criminal citation was dismissed? [03:07:31] The witness was unavailable. [03:07:34] Page 84 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. And is it true that the- it was not dismissed because the sale did not take place? [03:07:39] Correct. [03:07:40] 1 do not have any further questions for you. And I don't have any further evidence in support of the sale. [03:07:48] Procedurally, and this is a lay person, why would something- what is the rationale for dismissing that citation with the absence of a witness? Is it just simply because that's where the support for the video is, and so there's just not enough to go forward? Why would it be dismissed rather than postponed? [03:08:12] Um, well, I- so our office does not prosecute the criminal citations. I do know that in this case, these matters were continued a number of times. I believe it was on both sides. And so when a fact witness is not available, often a case is dismissed because, you know, you just can't prove it up. And again, in a criminal court, you're dealing with a different burden of proof. [03:08:40] Sure. [03:08:40] And you're also dealing with different evidentiary rules. [03:08:44] All of that helps me. Thank you. [03:08:46] And also, I think in the video, you cannot even see who that person is in the video because there is no, like, her face is not there. [03:08:55] The tattoo. [03:08:56] But it's still- she wasn't there to say, yes, this is me. [03:09:00] Oh, yeah. [03:09:00] Page 85 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Yeah. [03:09:01] Yeah. [03:09:03] 1 see. [03:09:04] Anyway, I- I guess I want to ask you, I guess, procedure questions. Um, if we said yes, we have to- if we said yes, that means automatically the lesson would be evacuated, right? [03:09:17] Correct. [03:09:18] There is no another option? [03:09:22] Not under the code and the administrative rules that govern this process. [03:09:26] Okay, and there is no another option around this for us as a council? [03:09:31] Not under the code and the rules that govern this administrative process. [03:09:36] And is this code I'm- this is- again, sorry. The- the complete just lack of understanding [03:09:42] of- of the- the technicalities. [03:09:44] Is this code state code? [03:09:47] Yep. Yes. [03:09:47] Okay. Thank you. Page 86 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:09:48] You are in, uh, Iowa Code Chapter 453A, specifically subsection 22.2E. [03:10:02] Okay. [03:10:02] For this one. [03:10:04] Thank you. [03:10:04] And also do we have to act on this? [03:10:10] If I may interrupt, I'm not sure if Attorney Wirtz would like to speak to this violation. [03:10:15] Oh, I am so sorry. Yes. [03:10:19] Oh. [03:10:19] Well. Yeah, so, Kobe is by their Perbit. [03:10:26] Sorry. Here. [03:10:28] Um, everything that I said previously applies to this ticket, as well, even more so because they will shut the business down if this is done. But, um, there are options for appeals, and they will be taken. So um but that's all I have. For now. [03:10:51] Any questions for. [03:10:53] Yeah, thank you. I'm just thinking, like, if there is a way we can. This is- this is the fifths. And even if we approve this or not, they're going to have one more. They have the suspension. They have the $1,500 penalty, and they will be having- still they will be having one more or does that have to be be barrier? Page 87 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:11:19] So it's the. [OVERLAPPING] [03:11:21] Like- like fifth- five citation barrier or five citation automatically you revoke. [03:11:32] You revoked after the five. [03:11:34] It doesn't matter when it happened. Maybe one now, one after two year. It doesn't matter. [03:11:41] There- there is a time period, so it has to be five within four years. [03:11:45] Within four years. And do you know when all those happen if you don't mind. [03:11:49] So the first violation was June 30 of 2022. [03:11:53] O kay. [03:11:54] And so then now the fifth violation is June 27 of 2024. So we've got the five within two years. [03:12:02] The five was in two years. [03:12:03] Yeah. [03:12:05] And you said four years, right? [03:12:06] Yes. [03:12:08] Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. Okay. I- I don't know. I'm just trying to figure out a way because still, even if we did not do anything on this one, still they have only one more again to be revoked. So I- I don't know. [03:12:23] So I do have a- I would like to res the video, please. [03:12:27] [BACKGROUND] Could I get mighty Mint North? [03:13:04] [BACKGROUND] It's gonna be 4 today. [03:13:34] Thank you. [03:13:47] And I probably should have noted that this is council discussion. [LAUGHTER] [03:13:55] I'm going to be completely honest. Um, I don't know what Mighty Mint North is, um, and I still feel weird by the fact that we are operating in, like, a space that it's not a criminal court. It kind of feels like one. Um, but the burden of proof is different, uh, and it I- I don't know. Like, people aren't, um, required by law in this setting to tell the truth. So why are we basing our decision on people who I- I don't know. It - it's just weirding me out. It's all I'm gonna say. [03:14:39] 1 kind of agree a little bit on that because I feel like now, this is a business in our community, and we are not really on a court, and maybe we can become a little flexible. Uh, you know, on giving as to a business in our town, and can we just do something without even, like, act on this? Like, defeat it indefinitely and just don't act on it or. [03:15:08] Based on what I saw, it seems like a business that profits off selling cigarettes to children. So, um, I clearly saw that sale, and I'm prepared to vote. Yeah. [03:15:18] She's- she's 19, not a child. [03:15:22] Underage. Thank you for correcting that, but I- I'm not convinced that we should be giving second chances to people who are harming the public health. Page 89 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:15:34] Yeah. [03:15:35] Or sixth chances. [03:15:37] 1 mean, I need for the cretin. We did not act on that, but still, I just feel like we can do something since the court has been dismissed. Maybe we can do something as a counsel for one more time. [03:15:54] I'm going to go ahead and- and, you know, I mean, our job here and it is part of our job to decide if we thought a violation occurred or not a violation occurred. The person never asked for the ID. Adding insult to injury, this was the second time in less than a month with the exact same person. [03:16:10] It was the same exact Oh. [03:16:13] It was the same staff or- or. [OVERLAPPING] [03:16:15] I'm sorry, not the same staff member, but the same. [03:16:17] Yes. [03:16:19] Person, um, you know. [OVERLAPPING] [03:16:21] Different staff. [03:16:21] Different staff. But the thing is when you get a permit, you agree to make sure your staff doesn't do this. So that is part of. [OVERLAPPING] [03:16:29] What the business model. [03:16:30] Page 90 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. It's part of the business. Um, you know, the fact that not only was it so many in such a short period of time, you had two in a month. And yeah, and- and again, our job, and that is just part of our job in situations like this, kind of like how when we do planning and zoning, we are in a semi adjudicative role. It just feels very similar to me. That's part of the job. And the video, he never asked for the ID. It's pretty - it's not a question of somebody lying. It's we saw it. So I'm also comfortable to vote. [03:17:03] 1 would- I would just say and if I am strongly out of this is the wrong comparison to make, somebody staff, uh, attorney or- or the city manager jump in here. But we had before us about whether we should barn cradm let alone regulate. We have regulations in place. This has been a violation of it five times for an establishment whose sole business is to know what the regulations are in order to sell this. So, um. I saw this and they know what they need to do to be able to sell this product and what they can't do. And it wasn't one time. It wasn't twice. This is the fifth time in two years. [03:17:51] Three years. [03:17:52] Three years. [03:17:52] Per month. [03:17:56] And- and normally do you do that like one month apart when you do the other check? Or you have- you have, like I don't know. Like because when was in May, when was in June. Right. Normally, that what you do, that's the normal practice, like the once above? [03:18:15] Yeah. So I think it could vary a little bit, but usually the re check is fairly quickly after the initial check. [03:18:28] Yeah. [03:18:28] 1 1 think the evidence is clear that the violation occurred. I- I appreciate the concerns about the impact of this as well as the concerns about how this proceeding is going. And, um, Oliver, it's really weird for all of us and probably least weird for me because it's more like a court. Um, but, 1, you know, even though the witnesses were not put under oath, even though, um, the the rules of evidence are different as they would be in court, I think that, you know, we just have to say it is more likely than not that that was a sale of a tobacco product or a nicotine product to a minor or to someone under 21. Sorry. Trying to be Page 91 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. precise. So I- I believe the evidence is more than a preponderance. I believe it is very clear and um, yeah I'll be voting, yes. [03:19:26] Yeah, the evidence is clear. I'm not like going to doubt that. [03:19:31] That's is clear. [03:19:33] Yes, yeah, that's why when I request, I said, don't vote on it, but because if we vote, we have to say the evidence is clear, it's clear, you know? I agree it's clear. [03:19:46] Any other discussion by counsel? Roll call, please. [03:19:52] Weilein? [03:19:54] No. [03:19:54] Alter? [03:19:55] Yes. [03:19:56] Bergus? [03:19:56] Yes. [03:19:57] Harmsen? [03:19:57] Yes. [03:19:58] M oe? Page 92 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. [03:19:59] Yes. [03:19:59] Salih? [03:20:00] Yes. [03:20:00] Teague. [03:20:01] Yes. [03:20:01] Motion passes 6-1. We are on to Item Number 12 is announcements of vacancies previous, 12 A announcements of vacancies in previous is going to be Community Police Review Board. W Vacancy to fill an unexpired term upon appointment through June 30, 2027. Human Rights Commission, one vacancy to fill unexpired term. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM Tuesday, July- July 1, 2025. Public Art Advisory Committee, one vacancy to fill unexpired term. Applications must be received by 5:00 PM Tuesday, June 10. June 10. [LAUGHTER] June 10th 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 Brown Street, one vacancy to fill a three year term. Historic Preservation Commission, Jefferson Street, one vacancy to fill a three year term, Historic Preservation Commission Jefferson Street, one vacancy to fill a three year term, Historic Preservation Commission Summit Street, one vacancy to fill a three year term, Historic Preservation Commission Woodlawn Avenue, one vacancy to fill a three year term. Vacancies will remain open until filled, where at Item Number 13, City Council information. [03:21:33] Um, I'll be traveling, um, with multiple people from Greater Iowa City and the Cedar Rapids Economic Alliance, as well as Ron Kanaki from our Public Works department to advocate for a variety of things at the federal level, and we're really focused on two things I think are really important to this community. One would be three things, sorry, CDBG, um, funds. So advocating to that to continue and increase if possible. Um, talking about workforce and education and specifically federal research funding NIH uh, NASA and NSF funding, which is, of course, critical for all the people who are in the, uh, research and R and D realm in our community. And then finally, uh, the Burlington Street Bridge project. Uh, it is a blossoming project. It's going to be big, going to be expensive, and we're going to get a lot of federal help to get it done. Um, the costs are- are pretty broad is what we think it is, but we're certainly going to Page 93 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. need help. So, um, happy to report back next time on what we learned. But if you guys have any specific requests, um, happy to take those to our federal delegates. [03:22:47] I'll try to be quick, but I actually have a bunch of things. And, um, so, here we go. Um, this Thursday, June 5th, is party in the park at McPherson Park, which is gonna be really exciting. Um, there's also a celebration for the student build, um, at 724 Ronald's on Friday from 4:00-6:00, which is fantastic. They've been doing great work, and this is the everybody gets to see it and celebrate it. Um, next week, DBIP is, um, hosting, I think, a, um, kind of a show or a get together at the Stanley Museum of Art, um, Thursday, June 12th, art as a response to trauma. It looks really interesting from 5:00-7:00. Um, and then on Friday of next week, Habitat for Humanity is, um, doing Billy Towns and Women Build dedication ceremony on Blazing Star Drive, which is in my neck of the Woods, which is going to be phenomenal, and it's absolutely honoring, um, a tremendous community partner. Um, and then the last thing personal news is that I announced my re election kickoff last Thursday, May 29th. So, um, there are some of us up for well, seats of, um, are going to be up for re election in the fall, and I'm running to defend this one. So that's it. Okay. [03:24:19] 1 guess when I say, like, Friday, the sixth is, you know, holiday for the Muslim community, and I would like to wish all the Muslim in Johnson County heavy eat and Eid Mubarak. [03:24:32] Yes, yes, yes. Greco. [03:24:36] Um, I guess I'm currently in New York City right now. That's not why I'm here, so it's 10:30 here, so I'm probably a little bit sleepier. Um, but I'm here for the conference on Advancing the field of Alternative response, and I'm meeting really, really good people who have so much knowledge and insight about, um, crisis response. And so I'm excited to, you know, finish the next two days of the conference and share everything with y'all. Um, it's been fun. [03:25:11] All right. Cool. All right. We'll move on to Item Number 14, report from city staff. City manager. City Attorney? [03:25:24] Nothing for me. Thank you. [03:25:25] City Clerk? [03:25:27] Page 94 Iowa City City Council Formal meeting of June 3, 202S (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. No. [03:25:28] Item Number 15, Adjournment. Can I get a motion please? [03:25:31] So moved. [03:25:32] Second. [03:25:33] All right. Move by Bergus, second by Salih. All in favor say Aye. [03:25:38] Aye. [03:25:39] Any opposed? We are adjourned. [03:25:40] [MUSIC] Page 95