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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-08-05 TranscriptionIowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [00:00:20] [MUSIC] All right, we're going to go into our work session for the City of Iowa City on August 5th, 2025. The first item on our agenda is clarification of agenda items. [00:00:31] 1 will be recusing my- I will be recusing myself from some- I don't know which item was that? I'm a right commission. [00:00:55] I'm sorry. I'm- I'm crowding your space. I apologize. Let's see where that is. [00:01:04] Is that 11g? [00:01:06] Yes. [00:01:08] The trust fund contribution? [00:01:11] Yeah, the trust fund combi- yeah, contributions and how we do that. That's in the, yeah. This one and another one right, do we have the Human Rights Commission deciding or? I forgot. [00:01:25] So we would just pull it out and vote on it. [00:01:28] No, that's last week. [00:01:29] This one, yeah. [00:01:30] Well, that's not on the consent calendar so that's a separate 11g. [00:01:34] Got it. Got it. Okay. [00:01:36] 1 can just go outside for that. Page 1 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [00:01:38] Okay. Got it. All right. Anything else from our main agenda for the formal meeting? [00:01:47] No. [00:01:48] All right. We're going to move on to item number 2, which is information packets. Let's start with July 10th. We're going to move on to July 24th and July 31st. All right. Item number 3 is University of Iowa Student Government updates. We know that they'll soon back- be back in the City for school, so can't wait to welcome all the students back soon. I'm going to move on to item number 4, which is our Public Art Advisory Commission Strategic Plan presentation. [00:02:39] Yes. [00:02:45] Hi, everyone. [00:02:45] Hello. [00:02:46] Rachel Kilburg Varley. I'm the Economic Development and Public Art Coordinator. I'm not going to talk long because I'm going to hand it over to our Public Art Advisory Committee Chair, Andrea Truitt. She's entering the last few months of two terms on the Public Art Advisory Committee. She's done a lot of great service for us, and she has a lot of great perspective. The Public Art Advisory Committee just adopted their new strategic plan after a five-year plan that ended in fiscal year 2025 so I'm going to hand it over to Andrea, and she will introduce that plan to you all. [00:03:16] Great. Welcome. [00:03:23] Thank you. Yes, I'm Andrea Truitt, as- as you heard Rachel say. All right. Um, okay. Um, so general observations with this plan, really our keywords or at least to me, the keywords, um, are really connector and connecting, uh, the committee as being a connector, um, between people, resources, etc., um, artists and, um, space. And then also, um, really working with the concept of ecosystem or being within, um, ecosystems, depending- oh, it's not in presentation mode. Hold on. Let me make it look more fancy. Hold on. [00:04:07] Page 2 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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 you go. [00:04:09] All right. Oh, I don't want to. Okay. All right. So let me get my notes. Let me get that situated here. All right. As it says, we, um, the plan really dovetails with the city's strategic plan and also with the Better Together 2030 plan. But, um, our kind of values, again, riff off of the city's strategic plans. So as you know, uh, cities racial equality, social justice, and human rights, climate action, and also partnerships and engagement, and those have been, um, the words not going to come to me. Anyway, it sort of looks a little bit different, but as you can see, um, equity and inclusion, sustainability and stewardship, and then collaboration and creativity, um, coming out of those values. Um, as someone who did, um, not the bulk of the strategic planning with 2025- 2020-2025, but being on the committee while that was formed in, um, 2019 or so, um, I feel like this plan picks up, but also, um, update some of those goals that were in that plan, um, but because of the context we're in, uh, we can move forward with some things. So, for instance, if you have looked at the 2020-2025 strategic plan goals 3 and 4, they will look a little bit familiar to you with this new plan. So, um, again, how are we securing and managing funds, uh, the care and maintenance of our public art collection, um, and then also that goal 4 from that previous plan of collaborating, um, with different entities across town, um, to create public art opportunities. So again, you'll see some of that in this new plan. Um, it also, but kind of updates those, moves forward with those. We are reaffirming and updating our, um, real commitment to art in neighborhoods and in public spaces that continues. Um, and then also, I think some of the context for this plan really comes out of, um, what's been happening in the last couple of years, conversations here locally with how do the university, city, county, arts organizations, community organizations kind of collaborate, what can you do together, um, sharing resources, thinking about alternative methods, etc. Um, so what kind of Zeitgeist vibes, if you will, here in town. And then it's also coming out of, um, some necessity or we haven't seen direct impact effects exactly of, um, you know, state and funding cuts or threats to cut funding, thinking about the National Endowment for Arts, for example, though that has affected some organizations locally, um, and then also those kinds of, um, cultural pressures. So, um, perhaps censorship, not funding projects because of their subject matter, etc. Um, so those are kind of- I don't know. It's not like those are direct, um, but they are, I think, there. Also, tariffs, costs of materials, etc., for artists have been coming up. Okay. So here's our process timeline. Um, we've been working on this a little bit for about the last 1.5 years, kind of off and on. Um, and really, as I said, again, we're sort of reaffirming that focus on neighborhoods. All right. Okay. So January of 2024, it's really going through what kind of progress has been made on the previous plan, um, what still needs to be done, um, kind of a little bit of a break. July'24, kind of looking at the budgetary and geographic distributions of things. Um, 2024, having an art stakeholder input meeting with various arts and cultural organizations, um, in the community. And then, um, following that with a public input survey, that's been really interesting. Um, some really interesting comments about comparing Iowa City to Florence, Italy, perhaps, and some also more useful things, uh, thinking about exhibition space and, um, studio space. Um, people like murals, some people don't. Anyway, you can read the public input survey results on that. Uh, March 25, the priorities discussion happened while Rachel was on leave. Um, May 2025, doing a strategic planning work session to really hammer out what kind of wording we want, what makes sense for us, and then um, in June adopting that plan. Okay. Um, our first impact area is maintenance and stewardship. Uh, this Page 3 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. one's really important to me, so it got two slides, not one, like the other ones. Um, but, you know, that's who's giving the presentation. So, um, this impact area is much needed, long overdue. Um, I think there's a changing attitude within the City, and I think public art to, instead of saying, oh, we have a public art inventory, we've got some stuff, and here it is to saying we have a public art collection. We have some stuff. Here it is, and here's what we're doing with it to care for it and steward it and make it - make our art that we have more sustainable and taking care of it. All right. So, as noted on this slide, in 2025, actually, the main assessment happened in October'24, but we now have our first ever condition assessment done on our collection. It's by Midwest Art Conservation Center. Um, they are a Minneapolis -based nonprofit. They work with the Stanley Museum. Um, they work with the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Midwest- Midwest- Milwaukee Art Museum, etc., but they're very well respected here in the Midwest. All right. As I said, in October of '24, Megan Randall, who's a conservator with Midwest Art Conservation Center, came out, looked at both our murals and our sculptures. Um, so that was done. We finally got the report back, and we are moving forward with some things. Um, in terms of what you're seeing- what artworks you're seeing on the slide, these are really, um, excuse me, more of a wake up call for us. So, um, in'21 or'22, um, the Woodland walkway in Pheasant Hill Park had to be removed because the Mosaics had lost many of their pieces. They had very sharp edges, etc. And so, unfortunately, were taken out. And then the- this is late '23. Yes. Fall '23, it was determined that the Kovalev sculptures in Willow Creek Park, um there was no repair to be done. They're too far gone for repair. So they are left in place to do their thing, decompose naturally, etc. Um, but those really are the pieces that I think became catalysts for us to think about, you know, you can't just have things and let them go. You have to take care of them. All right, um, though this slide does not look as sexy, perhaps as other ones, this is the super sexy slide. All right. So some of our recent projects that were happening, um, within that was One's Reality, which is the yellow, blue and red sculpture out by Public Works. Ron is familiar with that one. Um, got a refresh repair by Dave Dennis. Um, that happened in winter of '23, Spring'24. Again, so starting a little bit of that conservation work. Um, again, we've had the condition assessment, and now, um, we've got some, um, ideas to move forward in different things. So some of that includes the neighborhood of Seasons. Perhaps, is one of the potential projects, again, done by the same artist, Jill Harper and students who did the Pheasant Hill Park Woodland walkway objects. Again, getting to that before they are too far gone and become unsafe. And then also, um, working with our bronze sculptures that we have because I forget that we actually have quite a few. And, um, what we're moving forward with, hopefully, will be, um, a workshop with Megan Randall with city staff, Ron's staff over public works, in fact, to learn how to do some of this work, um, this conservation work, care for it with the idea that there are eyes on these pieces, there is regular kind of routine maintenance and care being done so that problems don't get out of hand. And that is, of course, more cost effective. So lots of good things. Could you cat call public works if you see them working on bronze sculptures, perhaps, Ron? Maybe, but public works is going to be doing exciting things, and I'm really thankful for that. Okay. All right. Impact area 2 is artists workforce and local creative economy. Excuse me. It doesn't translate as well on this computer. It's okay. Um, as stated, continuing the public art matching grant program, um, and this is, again, really important to have local dollars supporting local artists with local projects that, um, express this community's values. That is in economic power, um, maybe a small dollar economic power, but it is still a wonderful thing. Uh, and we, you know, are continuing that. And perhaps this program is needed now more than ever depending on what kind of fallout happens with other sources Page 4 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. of funding for artists and projects. Let's see. What else do we have here? Yes. One of the new items on this we'll be doing a little bit more with professional development resources or information sessions for artists. Um, we've already done one. Rachel has already done one, um, with an info session on our grants, but of being a little bit more, um, communicative, clear about our grant process, how to apply to be helpful to more artists. For a while, it was kind of the same artists applying for things. So hopefully getting different artists to apply, um, and being better at that. Again, um, what's also coming out of this, again, think of the committee as being a connector of people and resources. Um, again, that has come up in terms of exhibition and studio space and partners. I'll mention a little bit more on the next slide about that. All right. Our strategic partnerships and funding. Okay. So I think what's really noticeable with this plan is the way that PAC is intentionally sort of placing itself into these arts and economic ecosystems. Um, it's not like that wasn't- I don't- it's not like you're not aware of those things, but being very intentional about it, this time feels like a hallmark of this plan. Um, the scope of the committee is not changing, but given that we have Rachel Kilburg Varley as the staff liaison to this committee and also in her role of economic development coordinator, it means that we can take a different perspective on, um, how we're connecting people, places, resources in different ways. All right. Um, what else do you have? Oh, yes. Um, the Arts Alliance feasibility study is currently happening. Again, do we form a different entity to help the arts organizations here in town? Um, what might we need as an area for this, but that is currently happening. Um, and we can also, again, the better together ethos that's been happening uh, within the city and county kind of area, but really trying to think through what can happen with, um, university, with local organizations, with the city, um, perhaps the county, with local artists, etc., but what- what can be imagined and kind of updated and reassessed with those partnerships. [00:17:47] Okay. [00:17:51] And we've got our last impact area, place based expansion and community access. Uh, again, continuing to prioritize [00:17:59] neighborhoods for projects. [00:18:00] We have so many things downtown, uh, so many murals, we have sculptures. We have, uh, cultural institutions, downtown, et cetera. There's a lot going on downtown. So, um, as a committee, kind of choosing to prioritize those neighborhoods for projects. Um, part of this is also, uh-um, continuing to prioritize kind of pop up or temporary mobile art experiences. You know, we don't really have, uh, the resources to have, you know, artists loft studios or, you know, create a new exhibition space. Uh, so figuring out how to do some of that on a temporary basis, how to use public facilities more, uh, for more art. And then also, um, you know, acknowledging that there is a shortage of exhibition space in town. Uh, there is one gallery over in Coralville. There is public space 1. If you're a university, um faculty or Page 5 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. students, there is some space over at the university, uh, but that's pretty much it. So finding- finding creative ways to find exhibition space is, um, kind of a need, and it did come up in the public, um, survey about this. Something nifty, um, is the perhaps a river focused public art initiative. Um, again, no specific plans quite yet. Um, but as the river is being, um, emphasized in the better together 2030 plan. Sorry about the typo. I found that later. Um, [LAUGHTER] there is room for that and also room to partner, um, with different stakeholders and see what might happen with that. Um, there's also a little bit starting to happen with the river, again, with an improvement project with Burlington Street Bridge, uh, involves city state university stakeholders. So more is happening with the river, which is fun because sometimes I forget we have a river because it's small. Um, I'm from a larger River City on a larger river, so I'm excited to see how this, um, comes out. Um, and in sum, it's really, this plan and the committee really working in tandem with the city strategic plan with Better Together 2030 to complement efforts that are happening around the city and also the county for this. So really trying to tie in, figure out, uh, where are the spaces where we can complement, where there are absences and fill those absences where possible, um, and really be self-conscious, I think about that and not in an embarrassing, shameful, self- conscious way, um, but really to work with different groups and figure out what is possible. Thank you. [00:20:48] All right. Thank you. Thank you. [00:20:49] Thank you. [00:20:49] Thank you. [00:20:50] Any questions by Council? [00:20:53] Yeah, I'm really curious about the condition assessment, and if you could tell us about some of the pieces that might, uh, require attention or you're considering de -accessioning. I know that it was kind of interesting to watch the Des Moines Arts Centers, Glenwood Pond Park and learning that the artists actually do have some rights in that process. And I was curious where in Iowa City we are if there's anything that we should be considering with art that, uh, might need major restoration, uh, and or coordination with an artist. [00:21:28] 1 don't think there's anything so far gone that we don't know about or that wasn't of surprise. Again, I think the COV Lev's have been the worst-, um, the pieces in the worst condition. I know you've-, um, Rachel has had some discussion with the literary walk artist and perhaps participation. Um, there's nothing that is really, really super urgent or dire, which is great. Um, so there were some chats about, uh, different kinds of what- what could be done. Again, neighborhood of seasons came up as perhaps a Page 6 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. potential one to prioritize a bit more. Um, the getting a little bit more done sooner, again, with the bronze sculptures has been kind of a major project, but there's nothing incredibly dire. But as far as working with artists or the artists of the pieces, um, the main example, again, as I mentioned, was literary walk, which I know Rachel discussed with the artist, but he didn't really want a lot of involvement with the piece. [00:22:35] [BACKGROUND] Next question you guys. So the way that most of our agreements are structured with, um, any public art project we do is, well, the artwork becomes the ownership of the cities, and then we usually require the artist, um, allows like, uh, we have some requirements of the artist to work with us in the event that it's needed for restoration or repair or maintenance or anything like that. Uh, so in most cases, we reach out to the artist, and they're either, you know, willing to participate and have suggestions about what we should do to restore the piece. Um, in some cases, we either can't reach the artist in which then we're able to proceed with, uh, you know, a third party, uh, restoration individual or something like that. Or, uh, as Andrew is saying, in this example with the Downtown Literary Walk, uh, he's just suggested we work with you know, he's available and could do it, but he has suggested due to his capacity that we work with someone else. [00:23:39] Thanks. [00:23:39] Is that into your question? [00:23:40] Yeah. Yeah, I just curious about the-, uh, that process that I think I learned a lot in reading the news about how challenging it can be if you decide you want to get rid of something and you don't have the permission of the artist. [LAUGHTER] Um, I was excited to hear you're interested in the river. I'm very, very excited to hear that that's a possibility. It's a passion of mine. Um, for people who might be watching, if they live in a neighborhood and they really want public art in their neighborhood, what's their best way to get art in their neighborhood? Is it show up at a commission meeting or reach out to commissioners or what's that process? [00:24:14] Yeah. [00:24:17] We have in the past, um, and as in terms of getting a piece of artwork in a neighborhood, it was a little bit more informal with a previous staff liaison of going to a neighborhood association kind of person, and then saying, "Hi, would you like to perhaps put in a public art project through our neighborhood art program." So it was much more informal, uh, very much based on assessing how vibrant and active the neighborhood association was. Uh, that's how it was when I was first on the, um, first on the committee, Page 7 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. we've had two neighborhood art projects kind of, um, going throughout my time. Um, so this is actually a view of the, um, successful one, um, for the South District, this is on Lakeside Drive near Fair Meadows Park, Uplift, um, as you can see. And the other one was perhaps trying to work with Lucas Farms to get a viable project going. Uh, unfortunately, just with timing with COVID and- and various an artist wasn't available, was having some of his family issues, not being able to reach another, um, artist, et cetera, it was just deemed maybe we need to, you know, not do anything with it now. So where we're at with that is if you have kind of a vibrant moving and shaking kind of group of individuals to do that, um, we now have a little bit more of a process in place for that neighborhood art program. So it will look like an application process, um, to make sure that that, uh, neighborhood can do the project in a timely manner. Um, so it's really right now through the neighborhood Art Program, you can always communicate. And we just had somebody from last meeting say, hey, um, there used to be something in Black Hawk a mural- in the Black Hawk Mini Park. Have you thought about doing something with that, et cetera. So, um, there are some processes in place. We don't get a lot of requests, so it's kind of, um, figuring out what- what might work, but we do have kind of a process in place for the neighborhood art program. But things have kind of changed. Again, we're learning a lot, I feel like, as a committee, with, uh, the budget that used to work pre-COVID now is just not feasible. I think it was $12,000 before, which you could get a lot. You can't really get anything for $12,000, um, the way you could. So it's a little bit not exactly on hiatus, but of, you know, figuring out how we want to proceed, how we want to use our budget, if we want to say, well, this year we're open to a project, et cetera. But the neighborhood art program would kind of be the main funnel for those projects. [00:27:12] 1 was going to ask if I've had the past couple of months since we, uh, decided to work with, uh, Grand Rail when it came to South- 21 South Lane, uh, the big mural that's right there. I had a couple of people ask me if the- what's the fate of that mural, if there's been any conversation with Grand Rail or anything at this point, or has a conversation been had about it? [00:27:37] So we- that's not part of Iowa City's public inventory. I believe UAY did it with that property owner's permission. Um, in context of 21 South Lane, you know, they have a designed to have the, uh, upper levels kind of step back, so it's still somewhat visible, but we haven't had any in depth conversations about it. [00:27:59] All right. Thank you. [00:28:04] Well, thank you so much and thanks to all the committee members that have, you know, went through this strategic plan, enjoyed reading all about you all's minutes because you're very involved. All of you, so really appreciate all of you. And thank you for chairing. Uh, you've been everybody moving. Thank you so much. Page 8 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [00:28:23] Thank you for being a captive audience. Thank you. [00:28:25] Great. Thanks. [00:28:25] All right. We're going to move on to item number 5, which is discussion of Community Police Review Board, Senate file 311, [NOISE] and the recommendation there. And, yeah. [00:28:40] Thank you, Mayor. This is just a continuation of a conversation that we started with you a couple months ago after Senate file 311 was passed into law. Um, you had a joint meeting with the CPRB back in June, I believe, and asked, uh, the CPRB to provide you a recommendation. So that recommendation is in your work session packet and ready for you to discuss. And we will need some direction from you tonight in terms of modifying or, um, modifying the city code when it comes to the- the CPRB provision. [00:29:18] Okay. And we do see our chief of police here, so hello. Yeah. So I just wanted to get open it up to council, see what thoughts are about the recommendation from the from that board-, CPRB board. [00:29:39] 1 can start. I was actually struck by how it's kind of a revisiting of the past to an extent, in a positive way, that there's an opportunity perhaps, through it being an informal, um, opportunity for residents to talk with the police about concerns or with representatives. It reminded me of the substation in the South District and Henry Harper's efforts. And for quite some time, I mean, it helped relationship build. It was the- there was an ability for sort of an authoritative body to come to the neighborhood, but in not because there's an emergency and allowed citizens and residents to be able to come. And so I was kind of struck by like, Wow, this sort of seems like it's got that vibe to it. And the fact that it would be mobile and could go to wherever residents had concerns I thought was-, uh, is- is really promising, and I think it furthers, if indirectly, but it furthers the kind of work that, uh, I think that the police department as well as concerned citizens and residents have had post George Floyd and that what works is community building. And I see this as an effort to do that, at the same time that it's also trying to fill that gap that has been taken, you know, by having to dissolve this by law. So I felt like this is, uh, a very thoughtful recommendation, and I think that I would be excited to see how this pans out. [00:31:20] Maybe for the public, I'll just read the recommendation so folks know a little bit of what- what we're referring took us we know. All right, I'm just going to read some- maybe some highlights. One paragraph really sticks out to me. The CPRB unanimously recommends dissolving the board. And reallocating time and resources to a staff lay a process with go to strengthen trust and involvement across the community. The board recommends the Advisory Committee would be informal in structure with efforts Page 9 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. led by the chief of police. A wide variety of community representatives with diverse backgrounds and experience would be engaged, varying staff, external partners, and other representative involvement will help increase the understanding of community issues, resources available, and assist [00:32:10] with community policing efforts. [00:32:13] And so I think that is really the gist of what we're referring to. [00:32:21] My thoughts were that it would be, uh, helpful to take their recommendation, but also ask that we have regular report backs on how it's working and what, if any, kind of city resources would be needed to make it as good as possible, but to take the recommendation and just get feedback. And that could be in the form of just memos in our packets or in a presentation, that I'm open to whatever works, but I respect the commission's recommendation. [00:32:50] 1 think one thing-, yeah, I think that makes sense. I think the recommendation involves quarterly meetings. So, you know, probably biannual or something like that. [00:32:59] For them internally? Not for us. [00:33:02] If only we had quarterly meetings. No, no. For the CPR, the replacement, the advisory committee. I think it was quarterly. Just wanted to say and just, you know, how much our city is indebted to the people who have served on the CPRB over many years, including our mayor Pro Tem, uh, and many others who have given their time to deal with some of the most weighty issues that our community faces, uh, and trying to make sure that the policing we have in our community is the best and getting better, the best it can be and always getting better and the time and effort and going through all of the reports and body cam footage and every piece of thing that they had to do to do the reviews, it is heartbreaking that we are coming to this stage, that the Iowa Legislature is forcing this upon us because, um, I think as a community, we could be very proud of what our CPRB has done, what it has represented, and the fairness and work that the people have done on that board for I don't even remember how many years, many, many years. And so, thank you, kudos to the members of the CPRB, to generations and iterations of police chiefs that have cooperated with that process. And we will always be in their debt, and hopefully someday we'll be able to bring it back is my hope. Just wanted to say that because I think it deserves to be said. But yes, and thank you for this recommendation. It's not- it's making the best out of a situation we didn't ask for. And so that's kind of where I came down on this. [00:34:44] Page 10 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August S, 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. Um, I suppose I'll talk now. Uh, really thank you very much to the members of, um, the CPRB for, you know, working through this really weird thing when it comes to, should we dissolve ourselves and what's the best for the community in this hand that we've been dealt. So very much thankful for that. I guess, um, the idea for me that I- that I like is, um, more inf- informal, kind of, like, quarterly, uh, discussions, um, staff led. What I think is an important aspect to what the CPRB did was that, um, it was citizen run and over- oversaw. I think that just inherently when you have people coming and trying to uh, talk about what they're experiencing with the police, um, I think having efforts be led by the police I think is a little bit problematic. I think that having it led by- organized by, you know, staff that are not the police, and if community comes and wants to talk with the police, then that could be something that could be, uh, you know, we want to engage in a dialogue with the police, not have it be every single time you show up at these quarterly meetings and you're talking to officers or the chief of police or somebody. I think that that could put up barriers for some people who want to come and express their opinion or express what they've experienced. So that is my hesitation with the recommendation. I also was curious about it being an either/or thing. For me, it seems like the Citizens Police Review Board, as it stands, what I've been told is that one of the main aspects of it is the officer review- reviewing an individual officer's conduct. But I- I still think that there are things on the CPRB that having citizens - appointed citizens engage with in a formal matter is, uh, I- I just don't necessarily see, uh, why necessarily it can't be a both situation. I think that if you have within a scope that we deem appropriate, have a CPRB that's formal that is appointed- citizens appointed by the City Council talking about policy, talking about, um, coming together and discussing policing in general and how it, you know, how it interplays in Iowa City without having the illegal now aspects to it. So those are things that I wanted to bring up and wanted maybe opinions from other councilors about, uh, because it says here that, um, reallocate time and resources, uh, it would be better to reallocate time and resources to what we're discussing when it comes to a quarterly meeting. I'm just wondering what the time and resources would actually be, uh, if that's something that would be strenuous on a staff level, uh, you know, those are all questions that I have. [00:38:07] 1 will just say that, um, the- the CPRB did have quite an extensive conversation on just that point. Like, do they continue as a- as a body in any format, or do they, you know, kind of go this unanimous route that they've now recommended to the Council? So I do want to just mention that they did have - [OVERLAPPING] [00:38:29] And they had mentioned that when they were here on the last consultation. [00:38:33] Yeah. And, uh, and I know that they definitely, you know, reading the minutes, they definitely had also there they had a long conversation, but, um, I suppose I just wanted to gauge maybe how staff here feels or how other Councilors feel about, um, leaving the Citizens Police Review Board in a capacity, maybe at, you know, lesser frequency to do things such as review policy, anything that they would want to do that is, um, allowed by law. Page 11 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [00:39:19] Yeah. I think there's definitely arguments both ways with that- with that point. I do, um, the thing that I was- so I don't have, like, a strong opinion as far as that goes. I do have concerns about, you know, um, commissioners who feel their own role isn't relevant, and, you know, those who are there making this recommendation certainly got to experience both the activity that is now outlawed, as well as the policy review part. So I imagine, you know, what- what- what you brought up is maybe, you know, they may not be in- their experience may not speak directly to, well, what if we had a commission that was doing something slightly different? I do think, um, what I wanted to just make sure we think about is as the Council sort of liaison to the CPRB when I was able to attend meetings, I think one of the roles of that commission that is important to maintain is that kind of, like, a body of people who are distinct from the department, like, able to, um, hear, you know, comments from the public, and you're not engaging directly with the officers or with the chief. And certainly, I think having, um, I think I brought this up last time, but, you know, the listening post kind of idea that we had contemplated in the, um, plan to restructure the police back in 2020, that has value. And I think having some group of individuals who can, um, just be that, like, communicative buffer with the department would be important, as well. I'm sure in any advisory board, they would want to serve, you know, educational purposes and that kind of thing. But I think, um, as to the question of what is the staff commitment, I was always very impressed with, you know, Kelly's staff was the staff assigned to the CPRB and, um, their role, I think, you know, in having that, like, very public facing, providing information, keeping things organized, um, seems like appropriate to not put that on the department to replace whatever the staff, uh, support mechanisms would be for this advisory group. [00:41:47] There you go. [00:41:48] Well, you should. I really don't know what to say, because I just feel like this is- I don't know. I just want to say, like, doesn't have any meaning. Like, even the- the police review board used to be also just looking at it and document it, and that's it. There was no action. And this is even, yeah, I know this is out of our hand and, uh, we cannot do anything about it right now. But I mean, like this commission when they- you guys said, they're going to do recommendations and, uh, something like that. But what are they looking at to do advice or recommendation? What the thing that they going to evaluate after that, they will bring recommendation? I don't get that if the police chief have something to tell us about, like, what- what this commission going to look at and after that, bring recommendations and trust. [00:42:52] Sure. The way I'm looking at it, it's kind of like Councilor Alter spoke of, more of a community outreach, uh, function. So the people on my staff that would be involved would be me, my command staff, my professional standards lieutenant, and our outreach. And they would do similar to what one half of what the, um, CPRB is doing now, which is policy review, which as the CPRB pointed out in their memo, the entire community has access to every one of our policies. So that part is something that we would Page 12 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. continue to do. And these quarterly meetings, and I anticipate them having more than quarterly meetings if things come up and things that are of interest to the community, we anticipate doing them at different neighborhood association or neighborhood meetings and have- give them an opportunity to provide input. But also, we might pick topics that we want to talk about. We can talk about our annual report. We can talk about our use of force reports, things like that. But what happens is- what- what we - my concern was, and I think the CPRB shared the concern was frustration with the- the main 2.5 decades ago when we came up with the CPRB was to review officer conduct, and that part was obviously stripped away. So to have these people spend- and they spent an inordinate amount of time doing that, watching the videos, reading the reports, and then there was clear frustration because then they just make a recommendation. And thankfully, most of the time, well, since I've been here, every time they've agreed with my findings, but sometimes I think it felt like they were spinning their wheels. Now, take that part off, and then they just have the- the, um, policy review and just coming to chat. And that's one thing we really couldn't do during the current CPRB meetings is really have a good chat. When members of the public would show up, similar to your formal meetings, they get to talk to you, but you don't get to talk back. And that was often frustrating, frustrating for the CPRB members because some of those questions that were raised by the public had simple answers, but it's not on the agenda, so we couldn't talk about it. That's why I think the more informal meetings would provide a little more back and forth dialogue. And, you know, if some people aren't comfortable talking to the police, if they have issues, we also have the Human Rights Commission, and on our incident information cards, we have their information if they want to file a complaint where they don't want to file it directly with us. And that's perfectly understandable, and we get it. And that's another reason why the CPRB was committed so they could- was constituted, so they could file a complaint with someone outside of us. [00:45:27] And just I thank- thank you for bringing that up because to clarify to the public, people that have a complaint can still file complaints. It's just this is one fewer avenue, but the two main ones that remain are the Human Rights Commission and with the department itself. Correct. [00:45:41] Yeah, that's- it's always been there, yeah? [00:45:43] Right. Right. That's nothing new. [00:45:45] So, yeah, I just try to figure out, like, something else that we can add it to them to do. For example, like, we got this report from the- from the Human Rights Commission, I think, every year. Am I right about like, how many people have been stopped? What their demographic is? How can we reduce that? Is that the thing that we get it from? I remember the Office of Human Right, they bring us like reports like that, right? [00:46:17] Page 13 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August S, 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. The police department does a disproportionate minority contact study on traffic stops, which you may be thinking about. The annual Human Rights office report does include some public safety statistics like, uh, I think, contacts with juveniles, uh, maybe is listed in there. But most of believe what you're talking about is probably in the traffic stop, uh, traffic study report, yeah. [00:46:44] Yeah, I- I just feel like that's something worse to be, like, looking at also by this kind of commission to see, like, you know, how can we improve that? Like, a lot of people in this community, they just believe that, you know, the police stop more people of color and like white people in this community, and that's being a complaint. And I've been seeing that on the data, as well, how can we improve this? You know, not like saying, don't stop somebody who done a mistake? No, of course. But I don't know. [00:47:26] It sounds like from what you just mentioned, that that can still be taking place where they can look at that annual report, and there can be more dialogue. Is that what I understand? And even if the current CPRB members wanted to attend, at this point, they have no restrictions based on, um, it won't be a, you know, a- a commission or anything governed by the city. It would just be back and forth conversations that could take place. [00:48:01] Right, and thanks for bringing that up. At the last meeting, I mentioned every CPRB- CPRB member. They're all invited to take- take part, and I hope they do. I think some of them do. But they, you know, I think it was pretty clear what their recommendation was. I think some of them mentioned the frustration with having that one part removed and then feeling like they really didn't have a role. So I- I hope they do take part. I know some- I encourage some of them try to get on the Civil Service Commission as well, too. [00:48:28] 1 think, you know, the beautiful thing about out- the- the previous commission was a citizen reviewing the, you know, practice of the police, which is, how can we make the same concept happening without, like, doing that, which is- is still because the citizen will be trusted kind of member of community who can, you know, the- the- the community member can just go to them- those commission and talk about like practice that they don't like, and how can they go out and meet with people and ask them about what they see wrong, what they want to see, like, happening? How can we build trust between the community and the police and something like that? I think that's what is really needed to make the community feel safe and start, like, interacting and building relationship and see the police as somebody will keep them safe than scare from them. [00:49:26] 1 have a slightly different- I just wanted to because I'm thinking about what your initial, um, sort of alternate proposal was to- to sort of do a yes and to keep them together. And- and admittedly, this is a bit far afield from the specifics of this. But I take into mind that I know the commission came here to talk Page 14 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. about their discussion, and we had a pretty robust one the last time. And then, again, they've come back and they worked through what all of their recommendations were, and unanimously, we're like, this is what we want to do. I- I have to confess because we have had recent incidents or- or a recent event where we overrode, um, a commission's recommendations and staff's recommendations. And I worry that if we do this as a pattern, I'm talking about HCDC. Sorry. I should have been more clear. I worry a little bit about us saying, that sounds great, this is what we want to do. I'm not sure what kind of a message that's going to send to our other commissions and to the commissioners, because we are- we go through actually a fairly robust process and, um, in vetting the folks who are on it. These are engaged people who want to contribute. And so I worry a little bit. Maybe these are just incidental incidents, and yet I- I'm a little worried that commissioners may feel like, well, what's the point of me really putting my all in or actually applying because the Council's going to do what it's going to do anyway. But the CPRB went through a robust process to think about, my God, we're not allowed to be anymore, and our primary functions are gone. What- what are the all the ins and outs of what this means? And so I'm a little loath to- to say, that sounds good and we're going to change it in ways that we want, um, no matter how well intended, so I just wanted to raise that. [00:51:25] 1 just believe that- I- I understand what you're saying again, but what I'm adding, we're not like we just try to add. And also, my question will be when they come with these recommendations, I really don't know. I have to maybe, my mistake, I did not know the background. Do they like, have a public forum, and they come up with this and say, hey, public, that's what you want to see, and we're going to write it and put it because we sitting here representing the public and, you know, and if they are come with this by asking the public and they said, okay, because they are- they are the one who are going to get the information from the public and to write to, uh, you know, maybe two -week loses or recommend loses or recommend, like, a workshop or anything for the police to take. So I- I- I always want to relate to the public and hear from them. [00:52:16] And they are the public, right? [00:52:19] But- but now we are changing something. Even- do you know some- a lot of public they don't know that the Police Review Board is no longer going to be existed? Okay, they are doing it themselves. They- you know, like a commission. I- I appreciate everything that they do. No problem. But I think if we can add a little bit to think not us, we can recommend it to them to- to see that. I just believe that we need to let the public know. Right now, we don't have that, you know, police review board anymore, uh, not because we choose to, because this is- we have to not to do it. And also, we would like to change this to think that's be meaningful connection between the public and the actual police department. That- that's the only thing that I'm referring to, not changing. And I don't know, but I don't think it's fair to convert it to the, like, the commission for the- the CDT, because that's something else. This is completely a new thing that is happening and the public doesn't know about it. Page 15 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [00:53:25] Yeah. [00:53:26] Yeah, that's what I guess you. [00:53:29] 1 would say, uh, for me, you know, when it comes to the future of the CPRB, um, that's, that was just something I wanted to bring up for us to- to talk about and discuss. My main- my main concern is I want people to want to come to these. And I know that we are putting a barrier if it means you come to these meetings and you're meeting with the police themselves if they were the ones who you were having gripes with or they are the ones you had a conflict with so it doesn't mean that you can't have those meetings. It's- I just don't want the entire initiative to be led by and staffed by and attended by the police because I think that that would be doing a disservice to a lot of the public who you know, by nature, if you have you know, I'm just that's where my main concern lies. And, you know, I think it would be a good idea to approach the Human Rights Commission, see how they would feel about it. They have experience with processing complaints and having community discussions. Um, so if anybody has a suggestion on how that could move forward if we decided to go that way, but yeah, that's my main concern. [00:54:46] So we do have the- sorry. Um, I'm I just need to clarity. Sorry. I'm not trying to be dramatic. I was like, literally out of brain freeze. We have there are paths for complaints, correct? [00:54:57] True. [00:54:57] Okay. I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't through this informal process and that it was clear for others, as well. I mean, absolutely, Yeah. The bravery of somebody to come to an informal meeting and talk to the police straight out would be you know. But I want to make sure that it's clear, there are processes in which to have a formal complaint. Yeah, as well as to talk to them. [00:55:16] And I also want to make clear that it's not, you know, we're not talking about, like, you know, what we all think of the police department. It's about how, you know, people who don't have experience with certain officers and who don't know, you know, if you have a negative experience with police, you're going to one of your options is going to a meeting where it's staffed by police. I'm just saying that I think that creates a barrier. It is. Yeah. So I mean, that's just my main concern I wanted to bring up. [00:55:43] Page 16 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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 also the main channel for complaint, it been there forever. And people still chose to file with the citizen Review Board for a reason. And I think now if this really open for the public to come, that would be great. They can come and I don't know how the setup will be. I did not like, fully read this. But is this will be the public will be sitting there and they can also say anything that they want to say during that. If they find an issue that they want to bring to this committee, they can still do it publicly or how does that work? [00:56:21] Yeah, I don't think no setting that the city is involved in can an officer be really discussed or responded to by anyone with information. [00:56:38] 1 see Eric dying to talk here. [00:56:40] Just to clarify a couple of the topics that have been raised. [00:56:43] First off, the limitation in Senate file 311 prevents citizen. They use the word citizen review boards from reviewing the actions of police. Okay. So, you know, that's different than I mean, I'm envisioning that the informal group that the chief is considering would include some citizens. But, you know, to be clear, they would not have any kind of role in being able to formally assess or judge the conduct of any police officer. The other thing I wanted to clarify is that if there's a human if there's a complaint about a city employee or the city itself, whether it's a police officer or my office, and it goes to the Human Rights Commission. Because of the inherent conflict of interests, they send it to the state Civil Rights Commission to investigate. They don't keep those complaints locally. That's not to say those complaints can't come in, they can, but then they're shepherded out, again, to avoid that conflict. [00:57:42] 1 know that, but still just wonder about any kind of advisory group, like how are people asked to participate? Who's invited, who's at the table. I just think that, you know, what we know is the process of appointing people to commissions. And we have plenty of very dramatic examples of how that goes good and bad. So I think I would just raise that as if we're going to do something informal, I think it needs to be, you know, again, I think maybe having the staff support not be in the department might be a way to ensure that it's more like, you know, not um the concern that you were raising of, like, people show up and they're, you know, interfacing directly with you all. But I think that question of if it's called an advisory group or an advisory committee, how it's constituted is really critical to consider. [00:58:45] But, you know, still, I don't understand. I'm sorry, Kix Blaine. When you say the people will come and they see that I agree first with, like, you know, it's not being held by the Bliskev. But, if the B will come, what kind of thing the people will bring? And that maybe will make them feel like, Oh, I don't want to Page 17 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. interact with police Kiev. So can you just give me example? Because you said this is really limited and the commissioner cannot even interact with the public. Just, can you give me a scenario about how this work? [00:59:23] So we're recommending is a staff led process. So you remove some of the rigidity that hampers the commission's work, right? We don't have to have an agenda. We can move our meetings around. We can invite different groups. We can reach out to different groups for meetings on different topics. The chief and I have talked a lot about this, and I think we both have ideas in our head on how this can work. Um, you know, for me, personally, I kind of see an advisory group, but that meets quarterly. But I see us offshooting and doing meetings with neighborhood groups, with the student government, with all kinds of different groups in between those meetings and coming back to those advisory board meetings and sharing kind of what some of the takeaways are. But, you know, what we talked about last time is, you know, were the two of us are talking about how to design this thing for somebody else. What we probably need to do is take several months and have some just conversations with people in the community to say, What would work for you, right? What type of meeting setting is best for you? What type of frequency would be welcome? Where would the meetings be most comfortable? So we can't sit here and tell you exactly what this looks like. But what I can say is if you look at the 15-20 commissions that we have, I don't know that any are set up to be outreach, right? They process work, and it's because of the rigidity of public meetings, it's really hard to do outreach if you're a commission, right? So we think we can do a good job. We're raising our hand and say, we want to be held accountable to doing this outreach. We think we can do a good job. We don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but we're up for the challenge, and we know all those complexities that you're talking about. We fully understand and appreciate those, and we'll do our best to navigate those. At times, it may be that there needs to be a meeting without police participating. I don't know what that situation would be, but I acknowledge that there's going to be some barriers there, and we can adapt to that. So ultimately the goal is [01:01:39] to create stronger connections, [01:01:40] stronger relationships, trust, and, you know, frankly, when you need it the most when you're having some sort of community crisis, we have people that can get in the same room and talk through it and find better outcomes. [01:01:53] So if we're going to change what was a board that was appointed by counsel to hear you know, officer conduct complaints and address those, if we're going to change that into kind of an outreach community focused function, why is that limited to the police department? I think our staff is so strapped for time and energy. I don't like from what I'm hearing, I don't know that I'm in favor of just creating a police Page 18 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. outreach staff thing if we're not also include Like, why don't we do that with other city mechanisms, right? [01:02:28] Like, I mean, this could be one where we see how this works and learn from it to expand. [01:02:34] 1 mean, I think we have our neighborhood outreach folks, right? And I think, you know, obviously, that would be done in tandem with anything like this. But we have staff in the police department whose job it is to do outreach. I don't particularly understand why we would be spending more, particularly your office time on creating a new program for outreach that's just focused on policing when we know that communicating with the public and helping them understand what the city is doing and what our role is and what we can offer and why, I mean, are we gonna create the same thing for other departments? That's what comes into my head in hearing this part of the conversation. [01:03:14] Yeah, I'm going. [01:03:17] 1 feel just like I don't know, but I feel like communication or outreach for only like police practice with a citizen, not like a police department staff will be helpful, for example, meeting at the neighborhood and just talk about, like, police practice since we are not going to file something. But, for example, like a neighborhood will stay, we see this officer all the time just staying here. And, you know, we don't know why, and we would like this to be solved or maybe like those teenager being like anything anything that they can bring and not necessary, they bring it in front of the officer. And how that's how I vision it, like the outlets go by neighbors, the same thing like the listening post that we do. But this is for the police to go there and everybody you know and just, like, talk to the people and bring all the complaint from the residents that they received was there this like, interaction where police stop us and they did not give any translation. To, you know, the person, or they use a child to translate. Like, those complain that every day the citizen interact with the police with necessary we being seeing it or the police is bringing to us and we know that this is, like, kind of complaint. And this is really after that improved the you know, the way that police treated the citizen. I guess I don't know, but I like the idea of, like, just going for focusing on this because we have complaint against the police in this city. We do have. But if we really start doing this outreach, maybe we're going to find where is the problem and solve it. [01:05:05] What I love how you connected the listening post to this opportunity that we have, because it is getting people in front of really police officers or, you know, Chief of Police or whoever is a part of that, that has that maybe more frontline interactions, this is that opportunity. And, you know, when you said the listening post, that's where the light bulb clicked for me, where any of our listening posts, there's one this Saturday at the Farmers' market, I believe. Um, and that's where you get those one on one back and forth conversations. So I do like, you know, that opportunity. It is one on one. The greatest way to keep Page 19 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. people separated is to keep them divided and not having them come together. And so I do think that this could be one of those opportunities just to have conversations. And to once you're hearing you know, people perspectives, there could be things [01:06:11] you didn't think about, [01:06:12] you didn't know about, and this is just one opportunity. You know, there's still going to be some folks that may not want to come because it is a police officer, you know, that may be present, but again, there may be moments where there won't be. Um, and still there is, you know, the two avenues to make formal, you know, complaints if there is a situation that wanted to have a formalized complaint. So I do think this could be first step, a good thing. The other thing I think we need to just consider is on the 16th, is when this expires or when this law has to go into effect. [01:06:50] That's when Senate file 311 goes into effect, August 16. Yeah, is there anything that Council needs to do before well, we're looking for direction from Council as to what to do, because the existence of the CPRB is in both the city's charter and in its ordinances. And so, um, And to be clear, some of those provisions make clear that the CPRB is to assess the, you know, complaints against police officers, which is going to be illegal in short amount of time. [01:07:23] Yeah, and this will be before our next Council meeting. That's right. And is there any concerns about that if it still if these things still are in our documents? [01:07:33] No, I'm less concerned about that timeliness just because the CPRB themselves have already communicated that they won't be accepting any new complaints. [01:07:43] Sure. [01:07:44] So they won't be doing any of the work that will be illegal shortly. [01:07:49] Okay. Got it. So I guess to, uh, maybe refocus the Council, um, at this moment, where are people, um, leaning towards? Are we leaning towards, um, you know, having this- supporting the- what the CPRP has unanimously recommended? Um, which would essentially be the Advisory Committee, um, would be informal instruction with efforts led by the police chief. Uh, we also heard another recommendation, I believe from Councilor Weilein. Um, I mean, we could do, you know, the board recommending, uh, you Page 20 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. know, maybe without an advisory committee, and that would be more in line with what Mayor Pro Tem has said, where it's more of a listening post. [01:08:46] 1 think the two can be co -existent for what it's worth. I mean, I'm- I'm not sure if I see Mayor Pro Tem's suggestion as different from just -just expanding on what has not yet been built, right? Which is what Geoff and others, so this is a way in which this can actually manifest is what Mayor Pro Tem was suggesting. [01:09:07] And to clarify my- I wasn't necessarily proposing. Um, I was just stating that, um, it was something that I've been thinking about and I wanted us to talk about up here. And also, uh, you know, because I'd been thinking about- about this for a while since I saw this packet. And, er, you know, like, part of the thing for me was, you can have what we know what the CPRB does and did was a lot of, you know, millions of hours of body cam footage, things like that, very strenuous work, and they do very little policy review, um, things like that, er, research in that department. Um, but, would that mean that they wouldn't do anything or would that just mean that they would have new avenues open to dive into these things deeper. Those were thoughts I have, but it seems to me like, um, if we decide at some point, that- that would be a thing that we could do. We could just create another commission. [01:10:15] Or another- No, yeah. Advisory. [01:10:18] Advisory. Yes. Exactly. So in terms of me being up in arms about going forward with that part of the recommendation, you know, I'm not opposing it at this moment. I just wanted us to more just have a talk about it. My main concern, like I said, was just about the replacement process and, um, the- the role of the police in organizing and leading that initiative, like the- like it said in the recommendation by, um, the Citizens Police Review Board. But it seems like those are conversations, and that's going to be a process, like what Geoff said could take months. So it doesn't seem like that needs to be decided now. So, yeah. [01:11:03] So I- so I just want to get a temperature of what folks are, um, feeling for supporting the recommendation, specific to what the CPRB has done at this point. [01:11:17] My position is the same, and I'm fine with the sort of, let's allow some of the recommendations by Mayor Pro Tem. [01:11:24] Please use the mic. Page 21 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [01:11:25] Oh, I'm sorry. [01:11:26] Thank you. [01:11:26] Yes, I do think we should take the commission's recommendation, and we should add in during the program development, some of the advice by the Mayor Pro Tem. [01:11:35] 1 agree. [01:11:39] 1 agree. [01:11:43] 1 would like to just- I agree with dissolving the commission in its formal capacity. I would like us to consider before creating a new program that's really oriented around communication and outreach, I would like staff to consider what that means in terms of something that might be given up. You know, I know that we have communication outreach needs in NDS, in Parks and Rec, in, you know, many other departments that Geoff, if you're saying you or your office is going to be committing time and energy towards that. I have faith in the police department's outreach efforts. I think they can do listening posts. They can do those things. But I think if it's going to be a bigger, you know, more energetic process, let's look at the big picture. [01:12:31] So it sounds like you're more of that listening post style with the police department kind of leading that effort. Is that- I mean, or police chief, shall I say. [01:12:41] I've continued to be in favor of that since 2020 when we said we were gonna do it. [01:12:45] No, we want the police to go and do it. No one will come. [01:12:50] I'm just- that- that's a separate thing. That's a separate thing from, I think, creating an outreach plan or organizing a group, in my opinion. That's a separate thing that I remain in favor of. [01:13:04] Page 22 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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 know. I remember we did once the [inaudible 01:13:07] just like coffee with a cup. Everybody just left. They- nobody wanna come as soon as they saw the police, I would say, yeah. I don't think many - many during this tough time, you know, many people are not going to be trusting that they come and talk to the police about issues. [01:13:30] Let me just be more clear. My concern is committing resources outside the police department to do police outreach efforts. [01:13:38] Okay. And that's what this or I saw this is a committee, uh, the advisory board we're doing because this will be led by people not- [01:13:49] But we don't have those people, so what I heard is that it's staff led, like Geoff and his office. That's what I'm responding to. [01:13:56] They may not be a part of the CMO. [01:13:59] Because you guys are keeping saying like the- [01:14:02] What she's proposing. [01:14:04] No. That's not my understanding. [01:14:07] Okay. Yeah, I just don't know who it would be. [01:14:09] 1 see. Yeah, I saw this will be a Citizen Advisory Board. That's what I thought. Do- do you guys understand what- [01:14:21] That's what I was- [01:14:23] 1 could be -just be clear on what my intentions are. The involvement of my office would be me. Page 23 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [01:14:30] No, but you and other citizen or you only? Like, I don't understand this. Still we're going to have advisory board from the citizen of Iowa City, and you will be the staff. [01:14:44] No, we would lead it. The Chief and I would lead it. [01:14:47] Oh, yeah. That's- that's what I mean. I- I want it without, like, I don't know, maybe you will be there, but not like staff from the police department that when- at least for the initial meeting where you go and do the outreach with the public. But after that, when you guys have the meeting together to come and talk about it, that's maybe because they want to tell you what they learn from the citizen and what the issue that they have. And so-. [01:15:17] It does sound like what you're mentioning is something that they've kind of talked about that sometimes it won't be with the police department. [01:15:24] That's when-. [01:15:25] Present or police present, yeah. [01:15:26] When they go and do the outreach. Like the listening post style outreach, I thought, yeah, will be from the citizen and talk to the people. [01:15:35] Yeah, I just don't know how those citizens are approached. [01:15:39] Selected. [01:15:40] You selected. Exactly. [01:15:41] It's not gonna be selected the same way that we select people? [01:15:44] No. Right? That's our whole point is to get away from that. Page 24 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [01:15:47] That's right. This would not be a council appointed, because otherwise, then all the rules of public meetings and public bodies would apply, and you would not have that responsiveness because it's not on the agenda, and so forth. We're trying to avoid all of that. [01:15:59] Yes. I wonder if it really should just be re centered and similar to the listening post style, where it is, um, you know, police chief and staff that goes and people can come, give their input. There's also a resource portion of it at times. But I do- because I heard Councilor Bergus talk about, you know, this advisory board, how is that gonna even work? I think if we in this moment, consider just taking that part out, um, from the recommendation, because it seems like there's a lot of elements to that. But if we look at this more of a as a Step 1 with a listening post, um, kind of lens, that could be Step 1. But for tonight, I wonder if we, um, maybe come back. I mean, I think we can. If people are ready to make a decision, I think we can and probably should. Um, we do need to talk about what do we do with the current CPRB? So are people, I mean, we know what's gonna be happening. Are people comfortable just, um, having to end as of- [01:17:17] 1 mean, we don't have a choice, right? [01:17:19] Well, there's- I mean, they- we just- we do have some choices as far as what the activities are. Wait, some of the activities we don't have a choice on. [01:17:30] Right. [01:17:31] But I also, you know, hear that, you know, really, the- the CPRB is expecting to be invited as well. [01:17:39] 1 guess, without it going into the weeds, but just as a- an example is to tie into existing things like neighborhood associations. So there could be ways in which it is a listening post, but with having engaged citizens who are, you know, come to these meetings so that it can be kind of the structure is there so that it can be a listening post model without the entire thing having to be lifted from the get go through Geoff and through the chief. So I- I am comfortable moving forward, knowing that this recommendation here, and I don't think the CPRB was like, and it shall be like this and this and this, but there's a lot to build and a lot to figure out. But I am comfortable to- to move forward with this recommendation. I don't know if others are. [01:18:27] Page 25 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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 I want to make sure are you, ah, comfortable moving forward with the listening post style recommendation? [01:18:34] Yes. [01:18:34] Okay. [01:18:35] Yes. [01:18:35] So I think that's kind of, you know, Mayor Pro Tern looked at what we have, but just kind of put out words that we know what that means. [LAUGHTER] [01:18:44] And I think that it's- I do think that it's built into the paragraph that we have. [01:18:48] It is. [01:18:49] You know, so I want to respect my own earlier- [01:18:51] Yes. It is built. [01:18:53] Objection of saying we don't want to toss away the recommendations of the CPRB because they've worked very hard on this. I think that this is- they've given us a very generalized structure to say, here is something else that we think will work. And then it gets- the blanks get filled in and existing resources and collaboration happens to make this- to build this out. [01:19:15] So- so I think what we have on the floor now is the listening post style moving forward. Are people comfortable with that? [01:19:26] Yes. [01:19:28] Page 26 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. So and then just for clarification, because I think we need to state which staff would kind of lead that effort. We have our chief- chief of police and our city manager, Geoff Fruin said that they would like to- them themselves will like to lead this effort. Are people comfortable with that, or do we need to do anything different? [01:19:49] That was the main concern I was bringing up. And I- I don't know if I'm alone or if there's enough people to sway that being, but in terms of directly having, er, the police be involved in directing the meetings and the environment and everything, that is what I'm opposed to. [01:20:10] And I think we heard, you know, even from Mayor Pro Tern, that at times, you know, it can start off with the city manager. And then, you know, there will be, um, you know, opportunity to bring in the police chief. [01:20:22] Opportunity to bring the police. [01:20:23] Yes. [01:20:23] You know, because like you were saying, you know, I think that, you know, there may be times when people are saying, I don't want- can we have this meeting and not have the police present? But I think more often than not, you're going to have people just say, just not go, you know. [01:20:38] Yes. [01:20:38] And so, you know what I mean? So it's- I just want high participation, and I want people to feel comfortable coming. And I feel like it will be more effective when there are times where it's appropriate to bring the police into the conversation. I think that could be something that is- [01:20:51] Exactly. [01:20:51] I- I can I- can I make a suggestion? I think if you're comfortable dissolving the CPRB, we'll prepare that ordinance amendment and adjust the charter. I think the staff are probably on completely different wavelengths with- with this discussion in terms of how we wish to approach this. We might benefit from a deeper discussion, and maybe we need to put some- some more thoughts into a proposal and share it Page 27 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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 you because I think where you're going with this is definitely not what we had in mind. And it'd be - I think it'd benefit from some more discussion. [01:21:25] Sure. I think that's true. I was trying to suggest that early. Let's go with this. [01:21:31] Yep. The solution. [01:21:32] So then what we- are people- are people comfortable just deferring this to a later date, staff bring it back some time? [OVERLAPPING] [01:21:40] No. [01:21:40] If I may, the one part, it sounds like there's agreement that we should go ahead and dissolve the CPRB- [01:21:45] Yes, dissolve the CPRB. [01:21:45] -which will require some ordinance amendments. Am I correct that I should move forward with that? [01:21:49] Yes. [01:21:50] Yes. [01:21:50] Okay. I'll prepare that for the next meeting. [01:21:54] But the- the creation of something new is what we're- [01:21:59] Deferring. [01:21:59] Deferring. Page 28 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. [01:22:00] Correct. Yes. [01:22:01] Okay. Just wanted to make sure that that is majority. [01:22:05] Yes. [01:22:05] Yes. Alright. We're gonna defer. We'll bring it back up at a later time. [01:22:09] Thank you. [01:22:10] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Alright, we're gonna move on to item number six, Council updates on assigned boards, commissions, and committees. No. [01:22:20] Summer time. [01:22:20] Hearing nothing, we- well, we did have the, um, joint entities meeting. [01:22:26] We haven't met since then. [01:22:27] Oh, we haven't met since then. [01:22:29] Yeah. [01:22:30] No. [01:22:31] That was a good meeting. [01:22:32] Page 29 Iowa City City Council Work Session of August 5, 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. Yeah. [01:22:32] There's minutes in your e-mail. [01:22:34] Yeah. [01:22:34] Yeah. Correct. [01:22:35] Alright, other than that, we are adjourned. [01:22:38] Thank you. [01:22:39] Thank you. [MUSIC] Page 30