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Home My WebLink About2009-09-14 TranscriptionSeptember 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 1 Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Correia, Hayek, O'Donnell, Wilburn, Wright Staff: Helling, Dilkes, Karr, Davidson, Moran, Morris, Fosse, Rocca, Boothroy, Goodman Others Present: Shipley - UISG Planning and Zoning: ITEM C. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE EXTRATERRITORIAL PRELIMINARY AND FINAL PLAT OF JOHNSON COUNTY EXTENSION SERVICE SUBDIVISION, JOHNSON COUNTY, IOWA. (SUB09-00006/SUB09-00007) Davidson/ Good evening, Madame Mayor, Members of Council. Uh, in spite of your agenda saying that we are here to discuss items A and C, I think that the A came from when we had another item on there, so it's actually only item C. Items A and B are setting hearings for rezonings, which you'll conduct tomorrow...tomorrow evening. Item C then is a resolution approving the extraterritorial preliminary and final plat of the Johnson County Extension Service Subdivision, Johnson County, Iowa. This is an application by the Johnson County Extension Service, which is currently located at the County Farm property in south Iowa City. They have requested preliminary and final plat approval of a subdivision which is currently...it's just a property that is currently entirely within the County Farm property, and what they are suggesting to do is to split off a lot of 1.66 acres from the larger parcel, which is approximately 47 acres, uh, and establish a lot for them to construct a building. Um, like I said, this is on the Johnson County Fair Grounds property, which is not within the City of Iowa City. This is an extraterritorial review. It's currently zoned agriculture...agricultural, uh, in the County. Uh, couple of notes...uh, one from the first page of your, uh, staff report that you received. Uh, the, uh, you will note that under public utilities, this property does not...is not currently on, uh, obviously since it's not in the city, it is not on city sewer and water, and with this proposaLit will continue to be, uh, served by a well and a leachate field (mumbled) septic system. Um.. . the uh, applicant indicated that they have used the "good neighbor" policy in terms of contacting their neighbors and letting them know about the proposal. Uh, in terms of the City, uh, our...this area is included in our South District Plan, uh, and it designates the Fair Ground property for public service, not pubic service as is stated in the staff report (laughter). That darn, uh, spell check, when it's another word does not always catch it. Uh, at any rate, and institutional uses. Now, uh, typically if this proposal was for a residential or commercial, or industrial, uh, proposal, we would suggest that it be annexed into the city and go on city utilities. Uh, because this is an institutional use, uh, and the fringe area agreement does not specifically say that institutional uses are included in that policy, uh, we are suggesting, that is it's acceptable for this property, uh, to remain in the County, uh, and not be on city utilities. Uh, the...there is a water line right across the street that (noise on mic) down to the concrete pipe plant and so it would be...they could possibly discuss with us, uh, if they were interested in getting our water service, but This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 2 they have not done so, uh, at...at this time. Uh, more significant development of this property would...would likely trigger a suggestion that it be annexed into the city, uh, at that time. Uh, couple of things. The fringe area agreement requires that the applicant, uh, provide a, uh, fire rating letter. I don't know if we've received that. Do...(unable to hear person responding). Yeah. From the Hills Fire Department? Karr/ No, we have not. Davidson/ Not, okay, then we'll let you know by tomorrow night if we've received that letter. That is a requirement. Uh, it needs to be, um, we need to have that letter before we do approve the plat. Uh, the other thing that was important about this, and I guess I neglected to actually show you, there's where the property is located in the northeast corner of the Johnson County Fair Grounds. Uh, it's on Old Highway 218. And...let's see, oops, I thought...it actually included. There was...there was an aerial that showed the...the property more, uh, specifically, but you can see pretty clearly there where it's located. iJh, the other thing we wanted to be able to indicate to you is that on an arterial street, uh, Old Highway 218 is part of the JCCOG arterial street plan. Obviously it's connected to, uh, Highway 218 down here at the...at the interchange, uh, we did not want to establish any new access points along the property here, and they have agreed to that. They'll use, uh, the existing access point connected with an access easement proposed new lot, if you approve it. So, uh, we are recommending approval, um...there...there were some minor deficiencies, uh, that...that, in the legal description that needs to be cleaned up. We'll let you know for sure if that's occurred, or do we know, Eleanor, if that's occurred? Dilkes/ It will be. We're hoping legal papers will be taken care of by tomorrow. Davidson/ Okay, so we'll let you know about the fire rating letter tomorrow evening. Otherwise we are recommending approval. Are there any questions? Wright/ Given the situation, Jeff, what is the County's role in this process...if anything? Davidson/ Um, it...it's not clear to me, uh, Mike, what the relationship between the County Fair Board and the County Board of Supervisors is, I mean, there's some people who are the same on those two boards. Um, my understanding is that the...the Fair Board actually would determine that this was an action that they wanted to go ahead with. I'm not certain of that, um, it has been indicated to us that on the County side, this is something that they've agreed to, uh, and would simply allow the...the Extension Service to own the property where that building is located. They are...they are currently located in a County building on the Fair Grounds. Bailey/ Okay. Any other questions? Thank you. Davidson/ Thank you. Council Appointments: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 3 Bailey/ All right. Next on our agenda, Council appointments. Um, Board of Adjustment, there's one opening, three applications. This is currently agender-balanced board. So...I know we've started looking at that in view of the decision at the State level. Champion/ Well, I liked Robert Anderson (mumbled) experience (mumbled) planning. And, he's worked with the City, and uh, has some knowledge of it. I thought they were all good applicants! Bailey/ Is this the person who just wrote the memo to us? Champion/ Oh, L . . Bailey/ Possibly? (several talking) Yeah, he was an intern. (several talking) Wright/ Um, I was going to speak for Kris...Kristin Gilchrist. Um...whom I know. I think she'd be a...be able to do a very good job. She's also a....a graduate student in planning and, uh, urban regional planning. Bailey/ We get a lot of graduate students. Champion/ They're all graduate students (laughter) Wright/ She's older than the average (several talking) Bailey/ Okay. Um, Robert and Kristin. Do we have, uh, four for Robert? Hayek/ I could go...I think all three are...are very qualified, um, this is a closer decision than usual, but I could support Robert. O'Donnell/ I could too. Bailey/ One, two, three, four. Okay. We'll go with Robert. Um... Wright/ We have another...didn't we get another resignation from, uh, Board of Adjustment? Bailey/ Did we get another resignation? Do you know? Karr/ Um, I'd have to take a look if we're going to be announcing it. I have heard one is pending, but I don't know that we got it. Wright/ Yeah. Okay, but we...there's one pending, so we may have.. . Karr/ This would be automatically carried over. Wright/ Yeah, okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 4 Bailey/ Okay? All right. So we can look at Kristin next time. Historic Preservation, one opening, one applicant. Wright/ We had one very qualified applicant. I, uh, think Dana Thomann would be terrific. Bailey/ I do too. All right. (several responding) All right. HCDC, two openings, three applicants. This is a, uh, a board that has struggled with some gender balance. There's, uh, five males and two females. Champion/ Well, you couldn't ask for a better applicant than Rachel. Bailey/ I know! Champion/ Besides the fact that she's a female! (laughter) Bailey/ Yeah, I mean, Rachel would be good no matter what! So we have four for Rachel? (several talking) Okay. Correia/ (mumbled) Bailey/ Okay. Do we have four for Jarrod? One...two, three...okay. Jarrod and Rachel. Okay. We have taken care of those. Moving on -agenda items. Agenda Items: ITEM 2. PROCLAMATIONS. c) City High School Recognition Week: September 27-October 3, 2009 Bailey/ Anybody have any...um, I'll just start, um, Mr. Hayek (noise on mic) City High (mumbled) would you be...not that a West High alum cannot read this proclamation, but I was wondering if you might be interested in reading the proclamation tomorrow night? Hayek/ I'd be happy to. Bailey/ Okay. Thank you. Dilkes/ I just wanted to mention one thing since we've been talking about board appointments and gender balance, um, Marian and I are working on revisions to our procedures, um, given the...the new State law that requires gender balance, or requires efforts to achieve gender balance, um, and that law goes into effect in 2012. So, um...that will be coming to you. Um... Bailey/ I have a question (several talking) Hayek/ That's a law that applies to State commissions and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 5 Bailey/ State-mandated commissions, is that correct? Dilkes/ Yeah, I don't think it will apply to all our commissions. One of the questions for you will be whether you want to apply it to all our comissions, but it's...it's, by State law it's those commissions that are required by the State. Bailey/ So when we discuss that with you we could take up the matter whether we want to make that applicable to all of our commissions. Dilkes/ Right. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ We always have kind of kept it in mind though. Bailey/ We've always (mumbled). Okay. Agenda items? ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. c) Permit Motions and Resolutions as Recommended by the City Clerk. 3. Special Class C Liquor License for 2-Tone, Inc., dba Bluebird Diner, 330 E. Market St. Hayek/ Um, I've, uh...I guess I'11...I'm going to abstain from tomorrow night's Consent Calendar. One of the liquor license applicants is from, um, someone we represent, and the landlord is also someone we represent. So... Champion/ We can just...we can pull (both talking) Bailey/ We can remove that. Hayek/ Pull it out, or L ..I can...I don't.. . Bailey/ Which item do you need to have removed? Hayek/ It's, uh...3.c.3, 2-Tone Inc., DBA Bluebird Diner. Bailey/ Okay, so would somebody make a motion to remove that from the Consent Calendar and consider (both talking) Karr/ Which item is it? Bailey/ 3.c.3. Karr/ I'm sorry. I just am not...not able to hear you tonight. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Bailey/ Bluebird Diner. Karr/ Thank you. Wright/ 3.c.3. I'll do that. Bailey/ Okay. Wright/ Remind me! (laughter) Bailey/ I will do my best! And then you can just vote on the Consent Calendar and we'll consider that item separately. Other agenda items? Page 6 ITEM 11. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO A THREE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH CITY CARTON COMPANY, INC. FOR RECYCLING PROCESSING SERVICES. Wright/ I had a question on, uh, item 11, the recycling contract. Not so much on the contract, but on the, um...it does state within the contract that we could include glass in our curbside recycling, yet we're charged for glass and we're not charged for the other items. Champion/ We don't do glass. Wright/ Well, we don't pick it up, but it...we could, by the way I read this contract. Bailey/ Right. Wright/ Um, but we also...would have to pay for glass, and I just wondered why that was, if anybody... Bailey/ Dale, do we have anybody who can answer this? Helling/ Uh...Rick probably can. (several talking) My understand is... Bailey/ ...just weight! Helling/ There's no market for it, and there's a cost to recycle it. Fosse/ That's right, uh, glass, the market is very poor for glass and it is very easily contaminated with any...anything that's foreign in there, so...so many of the loads get wasted anyway. Wright/ So that's why the City, if we did collect glass, we would have to pay a fee for? Fosse/ That's right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 7 Wright/ Okay. Fosse/ It's a tough commodity to get rid of. Hayek/ What do they do with the glass they collect at their deposit centers? Fosse/ If...if it's clean, if it's a good load, they have markets for it, uh, but it's...I don't know what kind if any money they make on it. Bailey/ Hm, that surprises me. Hayek/ Do we require that they have glass receptacles as part of the contract or.. . Fosse/ No, we do not. Wright/ That's something they just do independently I believe. Correia/ (mumbled) Bailey/ Okay. Other agenda items? ITEM 13. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY POLICE STORAGE PROJECT. Hayek/ Eleanor, could you refresh my memory on...I'm referring to item 13, which is awarding of a contract on the...on the storage project, and...and, uh, four applicants...ofthe four applicants, three are from Iowa City, one was from Dubuque. The Dubuque application came in a little lower. Can you just refresh our understanding of what our obligation is in a bidding situation. Dilkes/ Item 14, is that what you.. . Hayek/ I'm sorry, 13. Dilkes/ Thirteen? Bailey/ We don't currently have a...a local policy or by local consideration. I think Coralville and the County does, and maybe some people have received questions. Dilkes/ Well, there's...the State code provides for all things (mumbled) Bailey/ We're having a hard time hearing you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 8 Dilkes/ The State law provides for all things being equal that when purchasing commodities you need to provide for a local, um...it's not really a preference, but some consideration of the fact that someone's local, but that's not the case with, um, with public improvements. The public improvements, our obligation is to, um, to provide the contract to the lowest responsible bidder. And there is not an element there, um, based on whether they're...within the city or... Hayek/ So you...you look at the numbers and that's the end of the analysis? Dilkes/ You look...if you assume they're a responsible bidder, you look at the numbers. Bailey/ I'm assuming that we do some, we have some criteria for what responsible and responsive is, right? And, how is it that this, our estimate was so low, and the bids all came in higher? I just want to make sure that we're doing appropriate due diligence on this. Helling/ While Kumi's here, if anybody has any other questions on this, uh, please ask tonight, because Kumi won't be able to be here tomorrow night. Bailey/ Okay. Thank you. Morris/ What we found is that the, um, the estimate that we had from our...can everyone hear me? Bailey/ That's better. Morris/ The estimate that we had from the architect was, um, was considerably low, and the reason for that is that what...his thoughts from looking and talking to the contractors is that he didn't have (mumbled) general conditions. For example, for... at working at the Water Plant, um, it would require for a number of, um, things for the contractor to have to do. For example, to have to take classes and certain things like that, that are not required by other types of City projects, and um, all the employees that are working under the contractor, the subcontractors and so forth are required to take a mandatory class at Kirkwood, before working there, and so those types of things that were conditions at the Water Plant specifically to this project, um, added significant cost, but what we found is that the, um, especially if we look at City Construction Group and Tri, um, Tri-County General Construction, the numbers are...are fairly well clustered there. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Okay, any other questions for Kumi? She won't be here tomorrow night. Champion/ We11...I don't have a question for her, but...so, City Construction, which is an Iowa City group, has the lowest base bid. Morris/ Correct. Champion/ So then you add the two together to decide who has the lowest bid totally? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 9 Morris/ Who has the lowest responsible bid, if we decide to take the alternate. Champion/ What's the alternate? Morris/ Alternate is to do, um, to also have a restroom in the lower level space. So it's storage and the restroom. Correia/ So why do we need a restroom in the...space? Morris/ For a number of reasons. One is that we have two different departments that are working within this space, but um, the main reason that the restroom was requested was due to the fact that, um, because of the materials and so forth that...that the Police would be working with, if they were to have a spill or anything like that, would be convenient to have something, uh, have water available closely, and the initial plans for the Water Plant, um, there's...eventually there will be restrooms in that location. So we're only finishing out one of the two eventual restrooms (mumbled). Bailey/ Okay. Other questions for Kumi? We all fully understand this item, cause she won't be here tomorrow? Okay. Great. Thank you for being here tonight. Other agenda items? ITEM 10. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING A COMPLAINT FEE POLICY FOR CODE VIOLATIONS. Correia/ Well, I wondered on item 10, the...adopting the complaint fee policy. Bailey/ I have questions there too. Correia/ I guess one of the questions I have is why are we doing this now? I mean, it seems like...got a budgetary thing and...why not wait, I mean, we already...revised (loud noise on mic) fees in the department, so that there's a...less of a, I suppose a subsidy from the General Fund. I just wondered why...I mean, I understand the concept of having the fee. I mean, I...so that's not what I'm...my question is (coughing, unable to hear) wanting to know why now, why not just wait for the regular budgetary process, instead of kind of taking up things during different times of the year? Boothroy/ It was...these fees are, um, I think were planned in the fiscal year that started July lst, were they not, Dale? And that's why it came up at this time instead of the next fiscal year, uh... Correia/ We didn't talk about it, any time during the budget, so I mean if we didn't talk about it then, then we weren't aware of it being planned during this fiscal year. Boothroy/ Well, we...I don't know that that's correct or not. That was...I was under the impression that we needed to get the fees established, uh, as soon as possible, uh, and that's why it came up at this point in time. The...we did talk about it last spring, and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 10 there was general agreement, uh, to proceed with the fees. I don't know if you remember that discussion, but... Correia/ That wasn't this fee, that was other fees. Boothroy/ No, it was this fee too. Um, we did talk about...I proposed it last spring and there was, uh, a majority. I don't think there was anybody that objected to it at that time, so um...as to...why the timing why or not next year, I...that's... Correia/ It would be nice then if we agree to things that we get an ordinance or resolution much closer to the conversation than eight months down the road. Bailey/ So this fee...it's not a complaint fee. It's an inspection fee, right? Champion/ It's a re-inspection fee. Bailey/ Right. Boothroy/ It's a re-inspection fee, right. Bailey/ A complaint fee looks like the person who's making the (both talking) Boothroy/ We call those complaints, but...complaint inspections, but it's...it's a re-inspection fee, as the policy points out. Bailey/ Right, and this is in addition to any fine that might be levied, right? Boothroy/ Right, and late spring of this year is when we had the conversation, uh, about...Dale was involved with it after Michael had left, we talked about various things that departments could do through that budget cutting process and this is one of the things that we, uh, recommended as part of that package of generating, uh, some of the, uh, fees to cover some of our costs. This is (both talking) Champion/ It seems to me...I think I'm right about this, is that this is a re-inspection fee, so if the problem is corrected (several talking) then there's not a fee. Boothroy/ Right. We go out and...and, we receive a complaint; we investigate it; uh, if it's not founded - no fee. If...if we contact the...we'll contact the property owner. If they correct it, uh, there's no fee. However, if...if the problem persists, then each, uh, that involvement is going to, every inspection's going to result in a fee. Champion/ Right. So I think it's very fair. Wright/ What would be the situation if my neighbor three doors up or something has a, is forever junking up their yard with trash and odds and ends of junk, um, I call, they take care of it. Three weeks later it's the same thing. It's a new call. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 11 Boothroy/ It would be considered re-inspection, cause it's the same...it's a repeat...it's a repeat violation. I think a good example would be like, or not...with parking on the grass, particularly in the fall, uh, we'll be chasing that for some time. In other words, the vehicles will be removed. Two weeks later they're back. They'll be removed. They're back in the next week, sometimes they're there on weekends, uh, and we might spend considerable amount of time just trying to get the attention of the, uh, typically it's tenants, to...to get those vehicles in the appropriate parking areas. Wright/ Okay. Correia/ It's okay on football weekends, right? Boothroy/ Well, that's...that's the west side. Correia/ Everything's okay on football weekends, right? (laughter) Wright/ We could make a bundle on (several talking and laughing) Bailey/ Any other questions for Doug? Wright/ If you (mumbled) neighbor three doors up, I don't have one. Bailey/ Smart! (laughter) All right, other agenda items? Okay, going...we're moving on then. Um, urban chickens, IP2. Also received some correspondence that was handed out tonight on this. Okay. We have a mixed opinion here! And unusual! Legalizing Urban chickens (IP2 of 9/10 and 3g (11): Boothroy/ Would you like us to start? (several talking) Bailey/ Yeah! Go ahead! Boothroy/ Well, I think first I just would mention that, uh, we do need to amend the zoning code to permit, um, keeping of, uh, animals, farm animals, excuse me, in residential zones. So if you decide to go forward with this, thafll require a referral to the Planning and Zoning Commission, uh, and uh, an ordinance amendment, and then um... Goodman/ There would also be amendments to the animal code, as well. Bailey/ So would that go through the Animal Task Force? No. Goodman/ There is not one. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 12 Bailey/ Oh, there is not one. Okay. So, that could be done pretty straightforwardly by us. The other one would be a recommendation to Planning and Zoning first and foremost if we wanted to move ahead on this. Boothroy/ You'd have to amend the zoning code first in order to permit it in the zones that you wished to have them permitted, and then uh, the animal, uh, ordinance would deal with some of these standards and stuff like that that were...that we've agreed to recommend, uh, with this particular ordinance, and I think the other thing you have to decide tonight is whether or not you want to go forward with this, and then the third thing of course is the one thing we're in agreement with is that...is that, uh, we simply don't have the resources at this point in time to effectively administer, uh, what we think, uh, these standards should be, so um, correct me if I'm wrong but we're looking at asking for at least one year, uh, while Misha gets (both talking) Goodman/ That's correct. Champion/ That's why I thought we were both in agreement that we should wait a year. Boothroy/ That's correct...on the implementation. What we don't agree on is whether it's a good idea. (several talking and laughing) That's a different issue! And that, I don't think we'll resolve that tonight probably, because that's...that's going to go through a public hearing process and stuff like that, but...but that's... Bailey/ And what kind of resources would you, just have a sense of if we would step into this, what kind of resources would be necessary? Goodman/ Well, generally it's not that much different than what we do now with our issuance of permits or inspections of...of permitted facilities, or...or animal establishments. The issue is what we've had to deal with since the flood. Bailey/ Uh-huh. Goodman/ And still being in a temporary location and uh, this next year is going to be, I imagine, very busy, working towards the new facility, and so we're just a little taxed, to say the least. Our animal populations have gone up since we've been located in the County, as well, and so we're just dealing with a bit, and I think it would be best, uh, to do it right, and uh, and therefore to wait a little bit to do it. Wright/ And the enforcement would come through animal control, correct? Boothroy/ Probably a combination. Goodman/ Yeah, that's correct, a combination. Uh, the way we foresee it is they would issue the permit; we would do the inspecting. Um, part of the reason for that is because there's structures involved, and so they deal a lot with legal structures and where they are on the property and so forth, um, and then violations of course could be cited on either side. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 13 Bailey/ So, HIS would issue the permit and, um, Animal Services would do the inspecting. Boothroy/ And Animal Services would...would be, uh, involved in, without their approval a permit would not be issued, and that kind of a thing. So we'd have to have their approval before a permit.. . Goodman/ We have similar circumstances now with pet shops and a variety of other things. Bailey/ Sure. Boothroy/ A lot of the complaints, because it is zoning, will I'm sure continue to come to our office, and I think that, uh, so we'll handle those or refer those, depending on what the type of complaint is. If it's, you know, structure location and...then we'll probably handle it. In other words, it's sitting too close to a...a property, uh, that's easy for us to look at. If it's a question about the care of the animal, uh, then that's going to be Animal Services. Goodman/ If it's running loose, Doug's going out to get it (laughter and several talking) Boothroy/ ...I'll bring my hook and I'll catch it. Wright/ Remember, no (several talking) Bailey/ I think I have a few more questions about...conceptually. So if we would move ahead with this, are chickens pets or livestock? Goodman/ Well, I would consider them pets at that point; however, the City does allow livestock currently in ID zones. Boothroy/ Right. Interim development zones, but that's the only zones it's allowed, but we don't have as much anymore as we used to, I mean, you know, thirty years ago we had a lot of, part of the city.. . Goodman/ And frankly we didn't discuss defining them in that way. IJh, or how Council would want to define them. O'Donnell/ Would that (several talking) Boothroy/ ...the definition whether a pet or a...livestock doesn't really change. What it does is it allows, permits this particular type of activity, uh, through a permitting process, which his, uh, if you read the standards, it pretty well explains what that process would be. Bailey/ I understand that, but if they're pets, there are different expectations that people have about pets and what we do if they're abandoned, and how we care for them, and what happens if, you know, a neighbor hurts a pet, versus if they're livestock. I mean, we're an agricultural state. We view pets and livestock very differently. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 14 Goodman/ I would think that any animal that's within our code... Bailey/ LTh-huh. Goodman/ ...we're going to, uh, would be, um...would still fall under our neglect code, uh, would still fall under our cruelty code, um, as an animal. LTh, we could certainly just, I mean, I think the code covers that now. Bailey/ But, right, right...because you (both talking) have taken in other animals, but so if it's abandoned, we would treat it in the same manner as a, you know, neglected, right? And so there would be some financial and...and City responsibility for that. Goodman/ Yes. Bailey/ Okay. All right. Thanks. Goodman/ We have a long list of farmers to take (laughter) unlike dogs. Champion/ Oh, right! Bailey/ Okay. Other questions? Correia/ I guess I have some questions about process. I really like the idea of allowing urban chickens, and I was...I wasn't sure about it when I first started reading the letters to the Council, uh, I went and attended the screening of the documentary "Mad City Chickens" I think it's called, um, about the Madison, Wisconsin journey to have an ordinance allowing it to learn that many, many cities have such ordinances in allowing urban chickens, including Des Moines, (mumbled) Seattle, Chicago, like lots of...of, you know, lots of cities that you wouldn't think and we're here in Iowa so I mean it seems like...it makes sense, um, when I look at the, you know, just looking at the data from Madison with a population of 231, they have 53 applications. It's like a .02% of the population, you know, so I don't know that it's going to be an over...I don't think there's an overwhelming number of people out there just itching to have...have urban chickens, um, or chickens in their urban environment, however we want to talk about it, and so if we...even thinking about the process, if we have to go through zoning, by the time that all these processes go through, it may be a year down the road, and I think some, you know, I could see having a fee to apply to, you know, so that could cover. We have, you know, we've got all sorts of complaint fees to try and help, you know, recoup the, uh, HIS time involved, and I think that that can be woven in, um, to try and go with, to deal with the, uh, costs, but I think that...I think that we should...I would like to see the ball continue to move, so whether we get the ball rolling with Planning and Zoning and have a target date to start that's a year, but not wait until a year to then get the ball rolling, because Planning and Zoning would have to see it and have the readings and blah, blah, blah. We all know how that long beauracratic process goes, so if we started it now with This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 15 the goal of in a year we're ready to go, versus wait a year and then start the process then, it's almost two years (mumbled). Shipley/ I strongly agree with you, Amy. I think this is a fabulous idea, um, but a couple questions I had, um, of course mentioning permits and fees. How expensive of a fee are you envisioning, and I mean, who would be turned down from a permit? Boothroy/ Well, we haven't...we haven't established a fee yet, so I can't answer that. Shipley/ I mean a ballpark? I mean, no. Less than $100? Boothroy/ You know, I...I'm...I'm reluctant to...until we sit down, make a recommendation, I mean, we put together what we thought were some standards and some ideas. We didn't...we haven't talked about a fee, and I'm not going to try and second-guess that... Shipley/ Okay. Boothroy/ ...or make any kind of assumptions. Shipley/ To me this seems like a, something, you know, from an industrial aspect, economic aspect, this is one thing that's going to make our city richer by X number of eggs a month or whatever, um, so I...I think also we should just let, go ahead and people do this, and make it as easy as possible, I suppose. Wilburn/ Correct me if I'm wrong, but typically the fees that we establish, either or and/or a combination of covering the cost to implement, and/or a deterrent, looking for compliance with a, like our parking fees. So it's some combination of those. That's my presumption. Boothroy/ I think, at least the fees in HIS, we try to do it based on the recovery of costs. So we would have to do that analysis with Animal Control to find out what that would be. Wright/ Yeah, I'm...I don't think this is a tremendous idea, and I know that there are definitely strong opinions on either side of the community, but I...I've paid attention as Amy did to what happened, uh, up in Madison. I've looked at ordinances and experiences in a number of cities across the country, and the common complaints and concerns that I've heard, such as noise and smell, uh, and...and, well, chickens running down the alley, uh, really don't happen. Noise is not really a problem. Chickens aren't any noisier than the typical dog. Correia/ Well, that's noisy (laughter and several talking) Wright/ You know, as long as there's reasonable care given to the...the chickens, the...the excrement is not going to smell. Um, I...I have not seen any compelling, uh, medical evidence against not keeping chickens. I've seen some stuff that's sort of speculative, um, I'm interested in giving it a whirl. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 16 Champion/ I just have a couple questions. I mean, I'm not going to have any chickens. I'm done...I'm just (mumbled) but uh, do chickens need exercise? Goodman/ Yes. O'Donnell/ They've got little bitty treadmills that you (laughter) Champion/ And so how do they get that if they're in a coup? Goodman/ Well, generally there's, uh, and you can see there's a pen that's added on to the coop area that's fully enclosed where the animal can get exercise. Champion/ And they can be allowed to run out there. Goodman/ Yes. Correia/ You gotta see the movie, Connie! Champion/ My grandmother raised chickens! I know a little bit about them. Um...but she didn't live in an urban area. (several talking) Well, I...I feel the same way you do - I don't want to stop this thing from happening, but I can't imagine why anybody would want chickens with all these rules attached to it. Um...but I don't want to stop the process. O'Donnell/ Well, I think ifd cost you about $22.00 an egg, if you look at all these inspections and (both talking) yeah! But you know, our Housing and Inspection Services is recommending against this. Um, they're...they're giving so many...well, they're talking about diseases, attracting rodents, predators -there's other things that eat chickens besides human beings. Um.. . Champion/ Well, I've got chipmunks and possums and some horrible groundhog and it's running around my backyard. I...I don't see any big rodent problem or (both talking) Goodman/ These animals do need to be protected from raccoons, dogs, cats (several talking) uh...foxes, coyotes. Wright/ That's actually addressed in the recommendations that Misha and Doug put together. Correia/ It seems a very comprehensive (both talking) because other communities have, you know, it's not like we're pioneers with having backyard chickens, I mean, there's lots of places that have...have them, and have found some of the concerns to be, you know, not really present. Goodman/ There are health risks involved in dried feces...from birds, any type of birds. Uh, so that's something that is...that is of issue. And something that would have to be, uh, you know, taken a look at. There...there are recommendations that our division would make, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 17 um, as what I'd hope the...the group that has formed in town, um, ways that sanitation can, uh, work in a coop, where that doesn't become a problem. Bailey/ Well, and that's...that's another question I guess I have is, um, people who think that this is a neat idea and might jump in. I'm assuming that they'll do some research, but where else can they get that kind of information? I mean, that...that's significant information to know. I think a lot of people who would be very new to this would be getting into this. So... Goodman/ I would agree with you, and... and (both talking) Bailey/ ...training? Goodman/ No. Bailey/ Okay. Goodman/ We're not doing training. We're...we're fine with handing out educational materials, um, but we won't be doing training, no. Boothroy/ I think the...the standards that are trying to anticipate that, um, because (both talking) Bailey/ ...very thorough, I agree. Boothroy/ Well, and...and they're all basically cut and pasted from other locations, and nothing is particularly original to...to us in this...this situation. So, even though I don't support it, I do support these standards because I think that...that they are, uh, thorough enough that...that uh, you know, we will have problems. There's no question about it. Uh, and we'll have problems with neighbors. It will happen, and uh, it is, even if all of these standards are correctly met, uh, and everything is done proper, uh, it's anot-in-my- backyard, uh, thing for many neighbors, possibly, and so that means that we'll get complaints about things that may not be legitimate, but yet we'll be, you know, servicing complaints, running out there trying to, you know, if somebody's upset about it and...and we get involved in these kinds of neighborhood spats all the time, and one thing leads to another, and next thing we're...we're hand-holding people, uh, over the smallest, little item. It starts with a chicken. It goes to the lights are too bright to they're not shoveling...I'm serious. It happens that way and it can go on for years. So... Goodman/ And I'm going to agree with Doug on that. It does. Boothroy/ And so we have to be very careful that we do this properly, because if we do it, uh, we're going to have to deal with that issue, and that's why the neighborhood involvement component, I think, is so critical, because I think that...that communication must occur. If it doesn't occur, uh, things will unravel. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 18 Hayek/ Let me...I'll chime in. I...I've done my research too, and my conclusion is that the experience among municipalities nationwide is a bit more mixed than...than we're, uh, giving (mumbled) credit to. Um, you know, this comes down to me as the fact that organic fresh eggs are readily available throughout the community. So, the benefit is limited, but the risks, the potential risks and costs to this, are less limited. This is a controversial subject, um, people have easy access to this kind of product, um, and...and I'm just not comfortable supporting it. Correia/ But how is it any different from the risks having a dog, I mean, you know...people who have dogs and don't get them their shots or (both talking) train them well. I think for folks that want to have chickens, it's not so much only about, well, because we can get free eggs. It's about the experience of, you know, having this...caring for... Hayek/ Yeah, no, you make a good point, and if I had my druthers, uh, we would...we would police barking dogs and...and nuisance causing animals, uh, more aggressively than we do. So... Shipley/ What is the, uh, worst case situation that you, I mean, just an example of what's the worst thing that can happen? Boothroy/ Well, I think any of these, uh, they could have...some of the reports, I mean, I don't...it depends on how you look at worst case, but we've had...what was in the Wall Street Journal, that article a few weeks back where the neighbors...the chickens got loose and the neighbor's dog killed the chickens, and then he kept replacing it, and finally got tired of replacing the woman's chickens because she didn't take care of them, but it resulted in a neighborhood dispute between two individuals. You know, I think the bottom line here on, as far as staffing is that...is that when you open up the door like...like Matt was talking about, and add another area of...of enforcement and another area of administration, another area of permitting, that it takes time, it takes resources, it takes people, and...and you don't...we're going to be involved in that, uh, and we can make it work as best we can, but you know there's only so much we have available to deal with these types of complaints, and one difficult complaint, from my perspective in a worst case scenario is we end up taking months to, uh, to deal with this and we don't have the resources to do other types of violation inspections or stuff like that, or do it to the level we want, and so that...every time you do something new, you stretch our resources that much more and then I know that you guys get...I get feedback from you guys saying well why isn't this happening faster? Well, there's only so much we can do, and so much time, and so that's one of the things that you have to keep in mind. Sure, it's a neat idea maybe, but it's only for a few, you know, and it's not...it's a want -it's not a need. Champion/ Well, I think also that, because Iowa City is the way it is, and this is not going to happen immediately. It's going to be at least a year, that I'm sure when the time comes where we actually get into this, there'll be lots of public opinions, and people who are against it may present more facts than we're getting now on why we shouldn't do it, and people who are for it will come forward with reasons why we should, and you can weigh This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 19 those pros and cons, cause frankly, I don't know enough about it to disapprove it, or approve it. I don't want to stop the process. But I think the public, and you know there's going to be a lot of public input on this. A lot more public input than on the circus. Wilburn/ I suspect (several talking) what some of you've alluded to, I suspect, um, you know, many of the issues will be, you know, initially that, um, that uh...that learning curve for individuals in the community in terms of how to handle it. I suspect anyone who may or may not be, uh, having chickens in their home now, illegally, are in a neighborhood...they...they are taking...they're doing what they need to do to keep, uh, to keep things healthy, etc., etc., and probably have some understanding with their neighbors currently, and it's okay. The issue is once this is made legal there will be others who, whether it's "wanting that lifestyle" or others who think it's a novelty, where there will be, um, the disruptions, the complaints, etc., people not able to, uh, learn and manage, and um, you know, and the complaints, etc., etc., and then at some point I suppose there will be some just equalization, some level...some leveling out. The people that are going to have chickens or would do it, and there would be coping, but we still have the issue of the ongoing complaints and monitoring of the system, and even to the point in terms of worst case scenarios of potential litigation. I mean, we... even with, you know, animals and there's uh, the City Manager has, uh, essentially holds court as to whether an animal is euthanized or not, and then some, you know, someone who's going to have issues, they...they bring litigation against the City and so it's not...it's not just a simple matter of why can't we have, uh, chickens. It does...it is something that the community has to learn to adjust to and.. . Bailey/ But...I think, fundamentally, you have a lot of opportunities when you live in a community, but you also forgo other opportunities, and um, perhaps keeping livestock for the opportunity and the benefits to live in a community, in a city, you, um, don't have that opportunity within the city limits. I...I think that that's the structure that I'm looking at. I...I have concerns about...the challenges that you just outlined about the...the difficulty between neighbors. I have...I have challenges about defining this broadly. Yeah, it's an interesting and novel idea, but is it...is it what I expected when I moved to a city? No, not at all. Is it what I want to live next door to, in a city? No! It's not. That's why I live here. I live here because I like zoning. I don't want to live next to livestock. I've lived next to livestock, and I know you do, and so right now, I mean, for me to define what it means to live in a community and in a city, this doesn't...this doesn't match that, and I think it doesn't match it for a lot of people. And, I think that that's where I'd like us to stay, is that respectful understanding of what we forgo, and what we embrace, and I do not want to embrace livestock next door. Shipley/ I mean, sure you make some pretty valid concerns, but I mean, where do you draw the line? I mean, yeah, we live in a city, but are you going to prohibit people from growing a garden in their backyard? Like the issues you brought up, the Iowa City Friends of Chickens, whatever they call themselves, they're really well-organized community, so I don't think we're going to have people just coming out, oh, I'm going to buy a chicken because I can apply a permit for it, I mean, there's still a process to go through. I mean, I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 20 just don't...I think a lot of these concerns, you know, may come up once in a while, but I think a lot of them are somewhat unfounded. So... Goodman/ Currently you can have, uh, bees in the city. I would much prefer to live next to chickens. (laughter) Wilburn/ I'm actually, uh, you know, somewhat open to the idea. But L ..I...you cannot pass over the disruption that will be created by, um, I mean, you're dealing with, uh, you're dealing with animals, you're dealing with human behavior, and.. . Shipley/ Look what happens, you know, ped mall on a football game. You have a lot more waste than a chicken create, you know, it's (laughter) Correial The one thing though about your...the comments about choosing to live in a community, I mean, I think as...the, as the economy and the country changes, more people have to move to cities because that's where economic opportunity is. There's no jobs, I mean, so people may want to live a more rural lifestyle, but it's not economic...there's no jobs, the commuting, and so having... Bailey/ A rural lifestyle is, I mean, pretty... Hayek/ It's three miles away. Correia/ But not if you, but you all understand what I'm saying. Wilburn/ Well the notion of... Correia/ Do you understand that (several talking) Bailey/ I mean, I understand if you were in, I mean, I know that the...these, I know that this has worked well in cities where there isn't easy access to fresh organic food, and you really do want it. I mean, most of us can even know our farmers here, I mean, it's very close, and I know that, um, but here, that is very accessible. And, we make a pretty...we draw a pretty distinct line between what our cities are like, and what our counties are like, in Iowa. I mean, that's part of who we are here, and just because this worked in, um, more urban areas, I...I don't think it necessarily applies here. Wilburn/ Well the notion of, um, the small farm is not what it used to be, given the, uh, it's just the mechanics of, you know, industrial farming. Um, and, um, you know, like I said I'm open to the idea, but I mean like I said, I choose to live in an urban environment. I, and for me, the stronger thing for me is, I...um, well, I've (mumbled) I'm...I don't support hunting in an urban setting, and...but I'm open to the idea of, with...with uh, strict controls, knowing some of the challenges and difficulties that, you know, we...will have an ongoing, uh, mediation of the tension between those who support this and those who don't. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 21 Bailey/ So it seems like there are four who are interested in starting this process moving forward. Mike, Ross, Connie, and Amy. (several talking) I'm sorry! You don't get to vote, Kid! (laughter) Champion/ I'm willing to learn more about it and...and make the decision later down the line, um, I don't think four chickens makes a farm. Bailey/ But, okay, so, but if we start this process, as Amy pointed out, it, I mean, and Doug pointed out, it goes to Planning, I mean (several talking) Wright/ ...lot of staff time and a lot of Commission time. Bailey/ Right, I mean, so I think that we should really, you know, be clear about if we...if we want staff to commit the time to...to moving ahead on this. So are the four of you interested in that staff committal of time, to draw up the ordinance, to have Planning and Zoning look at it, and going forward? That's the question in front of us tonight. I mean.. . Correia/ Luckily they aren't reinventing any wheels here. I mean, we've got a lot of work already done, what'd be included in the ordinance, I mean, there are other ordinances out there...to be able to, I mean, I don't... Champion/ Well, they've asked that we...that they're not going to do this immediately. Isn't that true? I mean, L ..(several talking) Correia/ Right, so that within a year, if...if... Bailey/ We could start the...moving forward as Amy pointed out, it will take some time. Correia/ ...Planning and Zoning and what not. Wright/ I think this is a pretty exhaustive list of...of enforcement standards, including the one of a 'no' from an abutting neighbor could be reasons for denying a chicken permit. Bailey/ Well, and given some of the, um, the space requirements. We know that this isn't going to be possible on a lot of areas. I mean, it's all very (several talking) um.. . Wright/ Won't work in my yard! Won't work in most of my neighborhood. Bailey/ Yeah. So, are...I'm asking again, are the four of you asking staff to commit the time to move ahead to develop the ordinance and... Champion/ Yes. O'Donnell/ I'm not. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 22 Wilburn/ I would say yes, but I would not be looking for anything less restrictive than what is here. Wright/ Can always dress it up when we get, look at it the next time. Correia/ I mean, I like what's in here. Bailey/ Eleanor, you have a question? Dilkes/ I do have a question, after reading the memo and for purposes of drafting it, if that's what we're going to be heading towards, the...the memo talks about Madison's ordinance as saying a 'no' by a neighbor could be grounds for denial of the permit. What...what are the standards on which one decides where there is objection from a neighbor is... Boothroy/ I think that, when I...that's not an uncommon provision, but the, uh, I think that's something we have to develop as far as, I mean, I...it has to be...I deal with a lot of like minor modifications and stuff like that, and there isn't really any guidelines to...to tell me necessarily if I have to look at the objections and determine whether they're valid or not. Bailey/ Are you going to (several talking) Goodman/ One of the things we looked at... Bailey/ Do you post notice then? Boothroy/ Yeah, we post notice and we contact everybody within 200 feet, and it goes out ten days ahead, and so, at a hearing you'll get all kinds of comments, some of them are valid and some of them aren't, and you just have to...you have to make sure that they fit within some kind of... Dilkes/ What I'm saying though is...if you want me to sign off on the ordinance, it's going to have to be very clear what grounds on which a neighbor has a veto, or simply can express their concerns, because that was not at all clear to me in reading the memo. Boothroy/ And we're not suggesting a veto. Dilkes/ Well, that's...that's not clear to me from the memo. Boothroy/ It says...it says it's grounds for, uh, (mumbled) Dilkes/ I don't know what grounds means, and that's going to have to be much clearer. Goodman/ Understood. Wright/ A note from a neighbor can be grounds to deny a permit was one of the recommended enforcements. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 23 Boothroy/ Well, and we didn't put in the grounds because we hadn't talked about it yet as far as what those might be. Wilburn/ Well, it seemed to me in terms of, uh, with that go ahead and develop this, that would be a place to start for that staff time, because that...that would be critical, I mean, we have, uh, just looking for parallels in our existing system in terms of what, uh, objections mean, I mean, you...we all experience how that works out whether it's with the, uh, this certain percentage, um, currently most of (mumbled) certain percentages objecting to whether that's a...a rezoning, whether it's a traffic, uh, you know, circle or something like that, uh, so I...I would, it would be helpful to know what, uh, what 'no' means. Bailey/ Okay, and I also heard from the group that, uh, we are respectful of the year request (several responding) so it seems like it doesn't have to be on staff s immediate to-do list. Champion/ No, it doesn't have to be immediate. Bailey/ So, I don't know what the timeline is for getting it through Planning and Zoning, but (mumbled) planning and... Champion/ The other...the other thing I'd just like to point out to people, when you read all these requirements and conditions, I would never do all this work for four chickens. You're going to have to love to...to want to have... Correia/ Which is why I think like in Madison you've got 53 applications out of a population of 231,000. I think you're going to get people who understand (both talking) Bailey/ But we're moving ahead. We'll have the opportunity to see (both talking) O'Donnell/ There's a tremendous amount of expense going into this, in inspections and I mean, Madison has 53. How many are we going to have? Wright/ Probably about four. O'Donnell/ Four. (laughter) But the expense is still there. Bailey/ Do we need anything else, Dale, for (both talking) Helling/ No, I just wanted to...yeah, I just wanted to, from my perspective, to reiterate it's important to go into this with your eyes open in terms of the potential for staff time and cost to do the inspections and the enforcement. It could be significant. It perhaps won't be. I think we'll only know once it's tried. Bailey/ Okay. All right. Thanks. We're going to take aten-minute break. (BREAK) Franchise Fee: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 24 Bailey/ Okay. Um, franchise fees, Dale. Helling/ Okay, uh, you received, actually several memos in the packet...from me, and one or two from the City Attorney. Um, basically I can refer to my memorandum, the first probably half of it was just kind of, um, restating what...what has occurred, and uh, basically the, uh, the mechanics of the...seeing what you can use it for and so forth, that we talked about a few months back. Um, I think the two questions that you were asked to talk about earlier, was there a majority willing to consider use...utilizing, uh, this as a local option revenue source and if so for what purposes, and my recollection is that there...other than, um, the implied regulation of the franchise, the only other purpose that you talked about at that time was for public safety, and...and primarily for, uh, expenses to open Fire Station #4 and also possibly some police officers. Um, as...as was indicated in the memo, there's a few things that are still kind of up in the air, uh, for instance, can we get federal funding for, at least for a time, for any new police officers or firefighters, and we don't really have a good, uh, time frame under which that will occur. We've been told that there would be another round of cops grants coming up, uh, for police officers. We don't know, uh, what the...what the conditions will be. We also don't know how many to apply for, and there's also called SAFER, safer money, which may help us fund some or all of the firefighters for a period of time. Uh, but not knowing when that might occur, and knowing that we will need to move ahead with...with the fire station because we have I-Jobs money for that and we'll have to get started, uh, that will kind of control the timing for when you want to start hiring firefighters, uh, to, uh, staff the station once it's completed, and that'll probably be somewhere in the neighborhood, uh, from the time we can actually go under construction, about 12 to 18 months, depending on weather. Uh, so L ..I think really, as I stated in the last paragraph on the second page, I think a couple of things, options, that you want to look at now is timing on this, if...if you want to go ahead, then (mumbled) want to, uh, when you feel we would need to start collecting the fee, um, because as I said before, we would want to start hiring the firefighters, and also it depends on the urgency with which you, uh, feel that we need to start looking at adding police officers. Um, probably the earliest we could start collecting the fee would be April 1st, and that's if...if this is, uh, an ordinance is passed prior to the end of this calendar year. Uh, if you move it in...beyond that, then you're probably moving into a May or June at the earliest to start to have that money. Now there maybe federal money in the interim that will come. I don't know, and, um, I don't know how much it will be. So, there...there are some, uh, some sort of contingent things there that if you chose to have a franchise fee for public safety purposes, I can't tell you exactly when that federal money might be available. It may not...we may not know that until after something is in place with the franchise fee, and that's one reason why I suggested the economic development piece in the recommendations because that would clearly earmark, uh, any funds that...that were not needed immediately for public safety purposes. You'd have a place, and everybody would know where those funds were going to go, and I think given the, uh, the amount of investment we have in the...in the 420th Street industrial park, that we could offset some of our debt, uh (mumbled) infrastructure improvements out there, and of course, uh, economic development meaning growing the tax base to pay -guess who -firefighters and police officers and so forth down the road. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 25 Champion/ So we would use this money if we did need it immediately for firemen and policemen to offset the bonds we'd be using to improve the industrial park. Is that what you're saying? Helling/ Either bonds or...or internal loans, or whatever it might be, whatever we would use to fund.. . Champion/ So it would actually be sort of a tax relief. Correia/ Well, I guess I would be, I mean, I'd be interested in if we said...if we were more specific, because you know when you say economic development, that's been used to talk about funding the Englert, talk about funding our, um, putting in money for the City of Literature endeavor as, you know, economic, I mean, I would be more interested in being specific in saying money...this is for public infrastructure projects for the purpose of supporting industrial/commercial, and I would go as far as saying affordable housing development (both talking) grow the tax...are very tangible, that we can measure growing the tax base, versus the more sort of touchy-feely projects that we call economic development. Bailey/ Before we, um, discuss this, I just wanted to make sure that, Eleanor, did you have anything to add to the...okay, because I know that you had a memo in here. Champion/ I have one more question before I can discuss this with any, uh, reasonable knowledge. I don't understand the...the supervising and regulating utilities. Correia/ Yes, I had that question too. What is that? Champion/ Can you explain that to me? Helling/ We incur certain costs, just by virtue of having utility, and there is a utility agreement, uh, a franchise agreement with MidAmerican, and in fact there are two -one for gas and one for electricity -and there are some costs that we incur. Uh, there are some fees that they don't pay by virtue of having a franchise. If they have a franchise fee, they would not pay certain fees for like excavation, that type of thing. Correia/ That we would have to pay. Helling/ Well, we just wouldn't get the revenue from them, and uh, I don't have the detail, and I didn't get that for... for... for this meeting because I didn't think it was that urgent that you had that detail, but Rick's working on that and looking at what some of the other communities have done to break that down, and his preliminary estimate is...is somewhere around $400,000 is our cost to do that, and some of that would be from sewer and water, and some of it is general...General Fund money (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 26 Hayek/ Isn't part of that rooted in the genesis of a franchise fee, you know, it had to be tied...there had to be a purpose to it, tied to the franchise you were...you were passing the tax on to. Helling/ That's the essence of the Kragnes case that Des Moines is involved with, but the new legislation has taken that piece out of it, and really turned it into a local option revenue- generator for... for the community. Bailey/ Well, and I think that's something we need to emphasize. This has been provided to cities, as an alternative revenue stream. Um, and we've worked very hard on this. This Council has been supportive of this, and so I think to avail ourselves of this opportunity just makes sense, of something we've supported for quite some time. So...(several talking) Wright/ And I certainly agree with...this is a good alternative revenue possibility, um, if indeed we did not avail ourselves of the franchise fee for public safety for fire and police, and we were able to get some of those grants for example, the cops and the safer grants, would it be practical even to apply the excess from the franchise fee to property tax relief, because that's something we talked about early on. Helling/ Property tax relief is one of the, uh, one of the (several talking) Correia/ You could do that, you could...we could say the intention is for public safety in the absence of other revenue (several talking) Hayek/ The problem with that though, is that...I...I would like to at some point, whether it's now or later, explore use of franchise fee for property tax relief, but if you're...if you're attempting to use...unexpected savings, uh, in the let's say public safety arena because you got...you've landed athree-year federal grant, and then use the savings for two or three...for those three years to provide property tax relief, that effectively drops the rate, but then at the end of that you've got to ratchet it back up. Wright/ Right, and that's...that's...I realized that. I just wondered if there was...even a practical thing for us to (several talking) Bailey/ Maybe there's some middle ground. Hayek/ No, I would think you would...if you wanted to consider franchise fee for property tax relief, it would be essentially astand-alone percentage or fraction of a percentage. Champion/ But it could be used...it could be used to pay off a bond, which would not...wouldn't be reducing our levy, you know, so that's the kind of property tax relief I think you could do, um, like we have...what was it, $63 million whatever it is in bonds. You could use that revenue... Wright/ Specify for debt retirement. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 27 Champion/ (several talking) need it for the police in three years anyway when the grant runs out. Hayek/ And under that logic, you know, using it for, uh, for infrastructure on the 420th Street industrial park (several talking) Bailey/ As Amy said, be very specific about debt...debt levy. Hayek/ ...that's at least two or three years of a lower debt levy (several talking) Helling/ And that's an example of what I gave you. You...I think you'd probably want to...your stated purpose, public safety, economic development, and maybe not get too specific cause you may have other things, you know, we just committed $50,000 a year for three years to the City of Literature. Um, and we'll be looking for particularly for a way to pull that out of the FY12 and 13 budgets, so... Correia/ But I'm not...supportive of using a franchise fee for, I'm sorry, for the City of Literature. I mean, I think that we use...we can use other fees, but I mean, this is, you know, gas and electric aren't currently taxed with sales tax, and so we're going to be putting a sales tax on customers that aren't paying tax on that commodity currently, and so I think it should be for a very specific hard cost. There are things like you would be...you would be bonding for this, or we would be...and public safety I think is something that has a...a (both talking) Bailey/ And I understand the point you're making, and...and Rebecca and I were just talking about at the break though. If this is seriously an alternative revenue, granted it's another tax and I'm not going to mince that. It's an alternative revenue. Why wouldn't we approach it similarly to our General Fund, that we...we take a lot of our expenses out of our General Fund. So, just...your thinking is to make this distinct. Is...is it because it's new, or... Correia/ No, I think...I think that when we...when we're looking for additional...we're looking for additional revenue because there are some like nuts and bolts things that we're saying it's hard to fund, you know, and you look at...when you look at saying we can't fund firefighters that on some level it doesn't make sense. We have a tax base. Everybody needs fire protection, and police protection. Our current...our current property tax should be able to pay for that, and things like the City of Literature, which are nice, but they're not going to...it's not going to benefit everybody, where (both talking) Bailey/ ...my point.. . Correia/ ...is there for everybody. Bailey/ Right, and my point is, as approaching this as alternative revenue, I understand what you're saying, but in approaching this as alternative revenue, that all cities are saying as the roll-back increases, we are all having difficulty doing what we do as...as a city, any This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 28 city, that this is an alternative revenue source. It's not, um, it's not special. It's just another way that cities make their money. Because of the current structure is fundamentally broken with reliance on property tax. So, I mean...I would hope that we would begin to approach this, and I'm not necessarily disagreeing with, it's nice to be able to draw those lines for the community and for citizens, but I would hope that we would begin to approach this as this just comes in to our budget. This is an alternative revenue. We get money here, we get money here, just like a family might have a second job or might take on a special job to...to pay for their increased expenses. It's just another alternative revenue. Wright/ And I understand your perspective on that, and I've...I've talked to quite a few people in the community...who...would be supportive of using the franchise fee for public safety, um, I don't think they'd be supportive of using it to pay for the City of Literature, and I think we need to... Bailey/ And I understand that, but (both talking) Wright/ ...that approach. I'd like to use it...if we can, to offset some expenses somewhere else. Bailey/ Well, and maybe I'm just trying to accomplish a framing issue, that we need to begin to, as the Legislature enables us, to use these...as we get additional revenue streams. We need to just approach them as additional revenue streams. I know when they're new that...that people want to tie it specifically, but in ten years if this continues to be available and...and the property tax system hasn't been changed, and I would venture to guess it has...it wouldn't, it won't be, then this is just a revenue stream. Champion/ But you always have that right, I mean, you...a council has the right to decide how that money's going to be spent. Bailey/ Right. Champion/ This is not like the 1 % sales tax option that's (both talking) Bailey/ I just want us to be careful with the language, and acknowledge that, yeah (several talking) Champion/ I think property tax will be...can be worded in many ways. I...I agree, I don't want it coming off of our 8-10 levy or whatever that's called, but to use it to pay off debt is property tax relief (several talking) without.. . Bailey/ That's fine. Champion/ So, I mean, I...I think people's property taxes are... are very, very high, and uh, this is another tax. Let's face it, it's just like another tax. They don't call it a tax, but it is a tax. Bailey/ Yeah, it's a tax. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 29 Champion/ And, then if you could offer some offsetting property tax relief, especially during the first couple of years when people get used to it, like if we...if we do get a grant for more police or more firemen, then we could use it to pay off debt, and it's not...this fee is not going to cost people that much money. It's going to bring a lot of revenue in because people who aren't paying property taxes right now will also pay this fee, and they're using city services just as much as property tax payers are, and that's one reason I really like this thing, but I agree with...with Amy. It's going to be...I don't want it really specific, cause you never know what's going to come up, but I do think it ought...if we're not going to need it for police and fire, it ought to go to debt...debt retirement. Hayek/ Do we...you know, one piece that's missing here is...is an update on our, on the budget numbers. We're due to get within the next few weeks...year-to-date or quarterly or something, um, from Kevin's office and we don't...you and I talked about this today, Dale, that we lack numbers to know, absent any new, you know, absent any new hires, uh, and forgetting about a franchise fee, what is our deficit, budgetary deficit, in FY11? We had that, you know, it's going to be somewhere around $750,000 or less, um, but we don't know that number. Helling/ The number we projected last year was the $750,000. Um, very preliminarily we're hoping that it's...it will be less than that, um, but I really don't know how much, and we won't...we don't have our evaluations, you know, we don't know what the roll-back's going to be...there's a number of things that we have to get as...over the next couple of months as we're putting the budget together. We can give you a much better, uh, idea of what we're going to have to make up in the absence of any new, uh, staff. Bailey/ Looks like it won't be any surprises is what you just said, that $750,000 was a good... Helling/ At this point in time... Bailey/ That's what I... Helling/ ...the best guess we can make is that it will be less than that. Bailey/ Right. Helling/ I don't want to project how much less, because (both talking) Bailey/ But if we keep that number in our mind it's not, I mean, we might be happily surprised. Champion/ So if we use this franchise fee for police and fire, and...if we get a grant for cops or firemen, we still have to cut $750,000 out of the budget. Helling/ Have to cut something. Whether it's that much or not, I don't know, but we will have to reduce, in order to balance the budget, the best projections we have at this point there will be significant reductions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 30 Wright/ Those grants are...that's spending in addition to what we currently have for the police and fire (both talking) they're offset from anything in the current budget. Champion/ Right. Shipley/ I have a few comments to weigh in on this debate, if that's okay. Um, yeah, as many of you guys know, I'm firmly opposed to this idea, um, sounds like you guys are not, so that's kind of discouraging forme. Um, but yeah, I think this is really an impractical idea, uh, first and foremost, this is going to be extremely regressive. It's going to hurt those on fixed incomes and the lower class than most. Um, you know, everyone uses and must purchase energy. We should make it easier for our citizens to get energy, not more expensive. Um, and on the idea of property taxes, the rates from 2000 to 2009, it's gone up like 25% and the projections for 11 and 12, it's going to go up even more. Um, and this talk about property tax relief, I mean, it sure might sound like a good idea but you know if...it doesn't matter if you're taking money from property taxes or franchise fee, you're still taking the same amount of money from people. Um, and from a citizen's perspective, when we see you know perspective tax increases at the State level and the federal level, and the local option sales tax passed, um, it doesn't really seem like a good time to be raising taxes. Also, in regards to local option sales tax campaign, I mean, that was passed, that was great. You know, the citizens trust you enough to give you money, uh, that says a lot about this Council. Um, but when I was told when people were campaigning for it, it was made very clear that oh yeah, vote yes on this and the City's not going to raise taxes anymore. Regardless if that was your idea or not, that's what people were told. So, I mean, that kind of brings the City's reputation into the picture here. Wright/ Nobody at the City said that! Shipley/ Well, that's what people were saying on the grounds, so...um, and also, I...it's absolutely imperative that we have superb fire protection for our citizens. I mean, that's a chief duty of the City. Uh, one of them. Um, so if I may continue, I...have a couple ideas, uh, on how we could also make up this revenue and fund this fire station, fund public safety without resorting to a tax increase, if I may continue. Um, I just feel like asking permission. Champion/ You don't have to. Shipley/ Um, so yeah, I mean, hopefully...I listed these ideas in really no particular order, and I don't want to flesh out any of these tonight, um, cause it would take way too much time, uh, hopefully they don't seem overly radical, but I think...and this was just something that I came up. I've only been around, you know, researching these things and learning a lot about the City for, you know, four or five months. Um, so I think if we all put our heads together we could probably get much more creative ideas than these. Um, see at first, I mean, when you look at the Parks and Rec department budget, I think 40% of their revenue is given voluntarily, uh, through people paying for services and that during their This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 31 programs, and I think this voluntarily...this model of voluntarily funding government is something that we should embrace much more. Um, so there's no reason why we can't, you know, and this is something that applies to every department, but for Parks and Rec it's already, you know, almost half their budget. Why we couldn't just raise that, you know, gradually. Of course it's not going to happen overnight, but this is something that we should look into. I mean, if people are willing to give the City money for their services, that's obviously you should probably increase that and make it as dependent on voluntary funds as possible. Um, I mean just look at how much money the Library pulled in from voluntary funds. Also, uh, I mean, the sale of assets. Uh, the City has many valuable assets, probably a few it doesn't even recognize. Uh, one thing that came to mind is like the bulletin boards downtown, I mean, that'd make prime advertising for any business, any, you know, advertising the downtown. Everyone walks past those, but now the current situation, they're absolutely cluttered with, uh, posters and they're pretty much...it's a destructive situation cause, you know, there's a lot of...tragedy (mumbled) posting everyone and you've got to spend, anyway, I won't go anymore into that, but I think that'd be a pretty valuable thing to look into, um, and if you wanted to take that even further, when you look at some of the tremendous assets the City has, uh, like the number of parking ramps it has in downtown, uh, if you put one of those up for auction, I'm sure there's well over a million dollars, and then that would eliminate the need for the employees there and then you'd put that on the tax base. Um, so, I mean, that might sound radical, but you know it's just an idea, and I think, you know, a decent one. Um, I mean, again that, with the parking ramp idea, I think the City should be in the fire protection business and really not the parking business. I think that's just a natural thing. When we look at what the function of government should be, it should be giving our citizens fire protection. Um, and then the little, you know, there's miscellaneous factors, and again, I had more than this, but I'll just, you know, keep it short. I mean, water fluoridation. When I took a tour of the Water Treatment Plant, uh, something...I got into the bowels of the plant with, uh, the Superintendent Moreno, and you know, they add all these chemicals to the water supply. One of them was fluoricilic acid and it had the big like hazardous material signs, um, and the chemical alone costs like $25,000 per year, and then you have to pay more because it's hazardous, so you have to pay a lot to ship it and tow it and store it. Um, and then I asked...I asked the water superintendent point blank, I go so if you eliminated this chemical from our water supply, would it affect the water quality at all? He told me no. Um, and that's just something...I just took a tour of, you know, a water plant and that's maybe $40,000 a year we could save right there. Um, and then you know when we talk about, uh, the...the 4th of July fireworks even, we're spending $25,000 when our own citizens aren't even allowed to light off fireworks. Do we really need to be spending that much? Maybe a $10,000 firework, uh, show would be just as successful, or maybe you could apply this voluntary model of funding where you would ask for donations to the Jazz Fest, you know, of you charge an admission even, I mean, I just think we need to explore every option, especially in today's political climate and economic climate, you know, we shouldn't be taxing first and asking questions. We should be...a tax increase should be the absolute last resort. And I know I don't have a vote, but please consider that. Bailey/ Thanks, Jeff. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 32 Shipley/ You're welcome. Bailey/ Other comments? Helling/ I just wanted to bring up one other thing, um, and I mentioned it in the memo. The assumption based on your session last time is that you probably aren't interested in assessing a percent to offset the loss to the local option sales tax revenue. That's what I gathered. I just wanted to make sure (mumbled) that was accurate. They'll already be a year into it before you would probably start collect...or almost a year anyway, so the loss of revenue there would be equivalent to three years (mumbled) at $840,000 a year. Hayek/ I...the important thing forme is...is the projected and actual budget gap for FY11, and we've been talking about this for a little over a year now, um, pledging to make the hard decisions (mumbled) to that gap, and have avoided it thus far and this is another reason why, it's very apparent we're not going to get the public safety objectives of this city met, um, absent some realization, which is why I would support the franchise fee for that...for that limited purpose, but I don't want this to become, um, a...an overly tempting means of avoiding the difficult discussions that we've been talking about for 18 months. Champion/ Right, I agree with (several talking) I mean, that's one reason why if we don't use the money I want it to go to debt relief and not just into the General Fund. Cause I think we're going to have to make some tough decisions. Wilburn/ Well, and along the lines of that, I think if we take a broader look, historically of what we the City have done, um, with our rates, fees, and property tax, um, you know, it's...it's an ever-increasing, um, acknowledgement and realization, uh, I think that we're striving for as a public that a service costs money and has to be paid for, and there were a few years there where we, at least the City portion of their property tax bill was held flat. It was held the same, uh, and then another year with the...a minor increase, and during those years our costs increased. You know, and we again, over the past...the past eight years, um, there have been some services asked for we haven't provided. There have been some cutbacks. We had, uh, a period, again, when we had about $900,000 um, in uh, State aid that we didn't recoup. That money's gone. That's an annual thing, and so we've been in the process of, uh trying to manage, not increase, um, property tax, um...you know, so in a certain...if you look at whether you've got, uh, a certain amount of revenue and/or any...any uh, savings or funding in reserve, we've really been chipping away with that because of the costs that, uh, not only that lost from the State, but also costs that we don't recoup in terms of the, uh, the insurance, um, increasing costs for the personnel that we don't control, you know, so it's um, you know, and as you're all aware, it's not just our...it's not just our city that's, uh, having to go through these, uh, these expenses, but uh, you know there comes a point where, um, again you acknowledge and recognize, uh, you've got a...you have a real cost, real expenditure, and um, the money's got to come from somewhere. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 33 Bailey/ Okay, so it sounds like that we continue to be interested in moving ahead utilizing this revenue source for public safety, and potentially some very specific economic development purposes that have an impact on the debt service levy. Is that an accurate reflection of our discussion? With the acknowledgement that this is going, we're moving into a tough budget, um, session once again, and that, you know, this will be used for the public safety, but we're also looking at that gap, potentially, and we hope that it won't be as large as $750,000, but we're prepared to see that number. Wilburn/ Right now that's the figure we've got to work with. Bailey/ Right, and I think that if we keep that in our mind, perhaps we'll be, you know, happy about the number if it's less, as Dale hopes. Hayek/ I assume there's no way to set this up so that if you did receive other funding for police officers or firefighters, um, we just wouldn't collect it. Helling/ The only way you could do that that I think would be practical, without causing headaches for MidAmerican for instance...well, if we're geared up to charge this much or whatever, would be if we have those decisions prior to the enactment of a franchise fee, but keeping in mind that you need to give 90 days notice to MidAmerican once you pass the ordinance before they can start collecting it, and to begin staffing up, particularly for the fire station because as I said, I think the construction now kind of drives it because we are under certain restrictions or uh, mandates from I-Jobs to get moving on that, get it under construction and start expending those funds, um, and I don't think you want to have the fire station completed and sitting there and not be ready to... Champion/ Maybe the Chief could answer a question for me. Um, when do we need to start hiring those firemen? Three at a time, is that what...what you usually do. Rocca/ Yesterday. No (several talking) well, the...the problem for me is not so much the nine additional. It's the unknown with existing staff and the potential for retirements to compound that problem. You know? We're looking at a 12, 14, 18-month, uh, project, construction project, you know, we could break it down by, you know, 50% now and 50% later somehow, uh, we can go into thirds, you know, the mechanics of training them won't be difficult. It's kind of integrating them into the workforce, and then working around potential retirements of existing staff. Champion/ And, um, what...what's our projected finishing date for this fire station? I should know that, but I...don't have it in my head. Rocca/ Well, again, you know, if you're talking 12 to 18 months, depending on when we start, and the weather can complicate that. Bailey/ We have to start this fall, because of the I-Jobs contract. So, December 2010 potentially. Helling/ The spring of 2011 wouldn't be too far...too far off. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 34 Champion/ Oh I think...yeah. L.. Helling/ If we start now, that's going to take us through, uh, very easily take us into two winters. That would slow it down. Rocca/ That's what happened on 2, Station #2 rebuild. Bailey/ We could do it more like the communication center (mumbled) that'd be good, but... Helling/ Complicating that is the fact that if we go out and hire firefighters now, then they...we won't be eligible for...to, for those positions under the SAFER grants, so we have to be careful about that, and hope that we get information sooner rather than later, but we don't know. Champion/ Dale, let me ask you one more thing. On the I-Jobs, we got half of the money for the fire station, was it half? Helling/ Yes. Champion/ And, we don't know if we're going to get any more? Helling/ We should know by the end of the month if the ARRA money is...that would, uh, that would be enough to fully fund it, if we can make those two work together. Champion/ I mean, so just off the top of my head, I'd like to see us get going on this as soon as possible, so we can start hiring firemen or policemen, or both, uh, if we got some funding, it probably wouldn't be for all nine. If we got some funding from whatever that other funding source is. Helling/ We don't know, Connie. It...we could be...could be able to apply for nine and then, you know, that's...that's ambitious, but... Champion/ Yeah, but I don't want to put off staffing this fire station on some whim that we might get money from somewhere else to staff it. LTh, when...we wouldn't have to, I mean, I would love to get some money to staff it, but somehow I just think...when we talked about doing this fire station before, we talked about hiring them gradually, getting them trained in certain numbers, so that we had trained firemen to staff the fire station when it was done. LJh, and, so by the time we got this money in, we'd be three months, at least four months, probably five months before it all gets, I mean, I don't know, but I really think we need to move on it. Correia/ Whatever target date, realistic target date, for starting to hire, be summer 2010, late summer or no, that's too early. Helling/ It would be before that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 35 Correia/ Before that, okay. Rocca/ One thing I might point out is with previous SAFER grants, the guidelines have allowed you to retain existing personnel. They have. Now I don't know that the guidelines that will come out with this year's program will include that provision, but that...there's a potential for that. O'Donnell/ Dale, did you say that these grants, if we get 'em, and there's always an 'if there, uh, that they will be affected by...by our timing in hiring these, uh, new public safety officers? The firemen and the police. Helling/ Typically what happens with the grants...now, as Andy said, with the SAFER grants, there was some flexibility there for retaining. Typically for grants, they're...they have to be for new personnel, and their fund either fully funded or on a declining scale or whatever for a period of two, three years, but eventually we have to pick up the total (both talking) Champion/ Right, exactly! O'Donnell/ So that (mumbled) effect on how we... Bailey/ Well, and it sounds like what you're saying, Connie, is to pursue the passage of the ordinance by the end of the year with the assessment fee beginning as early as April 1st. That sounds like what...as Dale has...has sort of outlined this timeline, what you're advocating for, is that correct? Champion/ Yes, I am. Bailey/ Okay. Champion/ And then by then we should know if we're going to get any of this money, or not, and if we do, we also could use the excess money that we're not going to need if we get some personnel money, to pay off the rest of the Fire Station, if we don't get any other money to finish building that. I think it's incredible that we got half the cost. That's fantastic! But I'm concerned about, since I've been on this fire station one way or another for 12 years now (laughter) that it's going to be open and we're not going to have any firemen to put in it! (laughter) Helling/ Well, that's exactly what we want to avoid. (laughter) Rocca/ I'll get it going! (several talking) Bailey/ Matt? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 36 Hayek/ If you're...well, I'm sti11...I still come back to this, uh, issue of timing and whether there will be other funds to pay for some, most or all of these public safety costs for a period of time, um, are we able as a municipality to, uh, adopt successive pieces of legislation, ordinances, to...to, for example, we could start now with, uh, an ordinance that assumes there will be, um, federal help at some level, uh, and if that proves not to be the case, then plug the gap, uh, for a period of time, during which we pass another ordinance to give 90 days notice to increase the fee to then start paying for the full cost of...of those, of that personnel. I mean, so that we're not, uh, collecting more than we...so we're not in a situation where we have collected more than we need for personnel, the public safety. Bailey/ So you're saying pass something that's lower, with the anticipation...and then should that not come through...in a timely manner, and able to give them 90 days, raise it. Hayek/ Yeah, I mean, if...if the...if the overall expenses, $1.8 million, and each percent gets you $900,000. Bailey/ Right. Hayek/ Um, pass 1% now, which gets us $900,000 because we believe there will be another $900,000 in funding, and if that...and if it pans out, and we've only taxed 1%, and we've gotten the...the other half through these other federal sources. If that does not pan out, we dip into General Fund or use...do something else, just for that short period of time, and...and we pass another ordinance to jack it up to 2% so that we're exposed for a short period of time, but we're not generating excess funds that we then need to decide what to do with. Bailey/ Okay. Wright/ What if we have a new Council that thinks differently? Champion/ That would be too late. Bailey/ So logistically... Hayek/ Wouldn't that be... Bailey/ ...Eleanor? I mean, that's...that's possible, correct? Helling/ Probably could do that, um... Dilkes/ Yes. Bailey/ Probably makes...developing the (both talking) Helling/ Eventually you're going to have to pick it all up anyway. And so do one ordinance, you know.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 37 Bailey/ And Connie's...or...or and I think you said this as well, and Amy said this as well, call it public safety and economic development, with the understanding that we're going to be very specific about the economic development, and address some debt levy, um, issues, and if we don't need that money, address reducing a debt levy for a period of time, until we do need it for public safety. Champion/ And you will need it. Because (both talking) Bailey/ Once the grants run out. Now that's another way to approach it, which would provide for a period of time, potentially. Property tax relief through reducing the debt service levy. That's another... Hayek/ Oh, I know, and I'm just coming at this from another angle. Bailey/ Yeah, I...and I understand it. It seems...yeah, it's... Helling/ Now, just to caution, when you say reducing the debt service levy, you may not be talking about the amount going down. What you maybe doing is talking about paying cash for those, that infrastructure, rather than borrowing (several talking) Champion/ That's the same! Cause if we're going to be borrowing (both talking) Helling/ Right, right, but I mean, you may not (both talking) Bailey/ It might not be an actual drop. It might just be a flat... Hayek/ It's not the levy. It's the amount borrowed. Bailey/ Yeah. Hayek/ I think that's what was being referred to here. Champion/ But, I mean, I...I disagree with your doing it that way, Matt, just because I can't...I don't see where we're going to get another $800,000 (mumbled) general budget. LTh, and we can return that tax to the people if we don't need it, or that fee or franchise fee. We can return it to the people by keeping our debt levy, reducing our debt levy. Um, and then we'll have the money for the policemen and the firemen, and the reason I like this tax is that everybody who pays it and every... and everybody uses police and fire. iJh, and so we'll be reducing the bond levy for people who are property tax payers. And I think it's awin-win situation for the City and...and for our...and for our citizens. Um, but I mean that's my...that's what I'd like to do and I'm...I'm not held tight to it. I'm totally willing to compromise part of the time. Hayek/ Well the fact of the matter is, well over 40% of the land base within Iowa City is off the tax rolls because we've got public and non-profit institutions that are far more dominant This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 38 here than they are in other communities, and this broadens the audience that pays (several talking) Bailey/ ...nice alternative revenue. Champion/ ...that's why it's a nice alternative revenue. Bailey/ Especially for Iowa City and Des Moines. Champion/ Especially for Iowa City, and Des Moines we got a lot ofnon-taxable property also. But I don't, um...I don't have any qualms about this...about this fee, I mean, I've been looking at this budget for a long time and there's no way we're going to staff a fire station or get more policemen without some other revenue. Bailey/ So is there general agreement with moving ahead on this timeline? To have it enacted by April 1st? Hayek/ Does it make a difference to anyone to have...better FY11 budget information? Champion/ We will by then, I mean, by January...well... Helling/ Well, you have to pass an ordinance, three considerations, and then, uh, have it published and then give notice to...to the utility company, and I don't know...what the statute says about what constitutes giving notice, but they then have 90 days (noise on mic) to prepare to collect it. So I'm thinking probably...probably in November we need (both talking) Bailey/ ...but what Matt is saying is we would...we would be passing it before we see the proposed budget. Champion/ But we know it's going to be a deficit. Bailey/ And we know we want to hire. Correia/ Yeah (several talking) with the option for (several talking) Wright/ There's no money to do it right now. Hayek/ And the other question is that, you know, and this was raised in Dale's memo, do you want to do this as part of the budget process so that we're taking these up en masse with everything else? And I don't know whether we do or not, but... Bailey/ We11...Connie raised the, I mean, the concern is this timing of hiring...yeah, is the timing of the hiring and...and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 39 Champion/ And...we don't know how many, how long it's going to take to hire those firemen. I mean, look at the last time. It took us quite a while to hire a policeman. It didn't come out of...didn't drop out of the sky and join us. (laughter) Correia/ I mean, there's (several talking and laughing) Helling/ ...our fire list, we're in the process of recruiting, and went back, give them the test, and we're going to be interviewing a substantial number of people for police, so we'll have a list (several talking) Bailey/ Just swore somebody in. Right? Champion/ Yes. Bailey/ Pretty new. Champion/ All right. So... Wright/ So it sounds like maybe we need to do November. Bailey/ Ross, you haven't said very much about this. Wilburn/ Um, you know, L ..I agree with that. I mean, the notion of we have to plan for a budget, and we know there's not going to be, um, budget is planned, and we know what conditions we're sitting on there. We, the benefits, uh, if we only focused on one year planning, then, uh, maybe I might think differently, but we in general know what's up ahead, because we do multi-year budgeting, so it's...it's, um, I believe this is a responsible way to, um, to plan for this and the mechanics and logistics of timing for...uh, officers and firefighters, um, will come along with us, making a budget decision. When we make that decision, then staff will adjust, adapt. Bailey/ I have one question about not (mumbled) the local option sales tax. Is there any concern that that would have an impact on those projects or slow them down in any way? Helling/ Um, the projects to be funded? I think we budgeted for those, uh, two major projects, a total of about $30 million which even though our projection was $36, again (both talking) Bailey/ That's what I thought. Helling/ It is a local option sales tax, uh, economy's not that good right now, and those estimates may be a little high. I'm pretty comfortable with...with, uh, this is about $2.5 million that we would lose over three years, maybe a little more than that so...that gives us the margin I think that we can get comfortable with. Bailey/ Well, and if we continue to find outside funding too, I mean, I don't know. I just wanted to make sure. I don't want to see those slow down either, because that's once again, as This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 40 um, Jeff pointed out, that's sort of a, that's a deal that we've made with the community to move ahead with those and they expect to see them in a timely manner. So.. . Wilburn/ Well, I think too, um...I mean, you threw out the notion that wouldn't anticipate any movement related to property tax relief, I mean, indication to the Metro Coalition was that, uh, there will be no conversation really about that for, um, another year, and so um, that's your answer right there, and who knows what conversation related to the roll-back is, and um, I...didn't hear any notion that there was even going to be a freezing of, um, you know, the roll-back and so... Hayek/ Welcome to the farm lobby! Helling/ Given the economic condition, you know, it's...it's probably...hasn't happened that I recall in the past, but maybe we could see just a little inching up again, uh, but I don't know that for sure. But (several talking) trend over the past. It drops, then it maybe inches up, you know, and then the trend is clearly down and that's where it keeps going until somebody fixes it up, and I think Ross is right. It's not going to happen (both talking) Bailey/ Well, let's avail ourselves of this opportunity. It looks like we're going to see this in November, and be able to give notice for an April 1st collection. Helling/ And we'll have better projections by then. We'll come back with, you know, because you have to put your percentage in the ordinance. Bailey/ Right. Helling/ And then we'll...we should be able to give you some guidance. I...I would just point out that, you know, the maximum is 5%. What we're talking about now is...is half that. Champion/ Right, right. Helling/ Not talking anywhere near 5. Bailey/ Okay. You need anything else from us? Okay. Let's move on. Wilburn/ Uh, you know, as one final thought, too, I mean, as we move, uh, further into discussions about that and...and budget, just a reminder that, um...there's differing opinions about where we are at in terms of property tax and whether property taxes are too high, but again, just a reminder that, uh, many of the other comparable cities, population wise or a little larger, um, have revenue options that we don't have (several responding) and that...that needs to be...it's not common for, uh, the public to think of that, but it makes a difference that, and I'm not advocating for, uh, gambling, but it makes a difference that City of Dubuque and City of Davenport have gambling revenue, and some of them have had sales tax longer than us, and other forms of revenue -that makes a difference! Again, equivalent services -the money has to come from somewhere. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 41 Champion/ I also think that people forget in...in Johnson County how many bond referendums are on our property tax. I think I added...we have over $100 million of voter approved bond referendums on our property taxes, plus the, um, communication center, which was not voter-approved. Bailey/ But it's still a good thing! Champion /It's still a good thing! But our taxes... Bailey/ Part of our public safety. Champion/ Yes it is! Information Packets: Bailey/ Infrastructure, so...it's good. Okay. All right, let's move on to information packets, from August 27th, September 3rd, and September 10. Anything? One? Okay. I'm moving on. Council time? Council Time• Hayek/ Wait a second, was (laughter) Bailey/ Somebody always does that! Hayek/ Yeah. Wait, pending... Bailey/ There's a pending list in the September 10th. Hayek/ Move on to Council time, cause I see my bullet point. Bailey/ Okay, yeah, cause it's down here. All right. Council time? Champion/ I have a real point of contention. (laughter and several talking) Bailey/ ...parking? Champion/ No! Bailey/ Okay! Champion/ The Sheraton, which they knew all along they were going to do, put that ATM right where it said in the picture. Shipley/ No, the picture was right next to the area. It's at least... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 42 Champion/ It's about two feet. I think it's (both talking) and you know the reason they wanted to move that ATM out of the lobby is because it created so much havoc at night, and now they put it right by the walkway. They want everybody to use (several talking) Correia/ ...using it (mumbled) Champion/ I mean, I don't know who's going to be on this Council next year, but those of you who are certainly going to be here, I hope you're going to keep an eye on that, that that doesn't become a real safety concern for people using that walkway at night. And when they have those doors locked. O'Donnell/ They have security there, don't they? Correia/ No! Not outside! Bailey/ Dale's writing it down. And we can't talk about this much longer. Champion/ I'm just telling you that it's there, and it's right next to the walkway, and two people will be into the walkway. Helling/ We'll monitor that. We have the police down there, at those hours (both talking) Correial I say rescind their overnight closure! (laughter) O'Donnell/ I have one...one quick thing. There's...there's aclub out on Muscatine Avenue, and...we can talk about this, can't we? (several talking) Um, that is dealing with the sign. Twice a week they put a sign out in the yard, you know, like a real estate sign. It says "All the spaghetti you want, 4 - 8." It's up for two hours, three hours, they take it down. They're getting tickets from the City for this. Is there any way that...that, does anybody feel that a business should be able to do that? Bailey/ Dale has an outline, cause we've talked about this, of the timeline of this discussion, but what you're suggesting is that we bring it up... O'Donnell/ I do want to bring it up, because I...I, even though they walk all over town with sandwich boards or signs all over on poles and, I mean, this just seems inherently unfair that you can't do this, and I understand that it's in our sign ordinance, but I think we need to adjust that. Bailey/ Are there...are there four, go ahead. Correia/ Well, so you know when people are, put those real estate signs up, you know, open house and they stick it in their.. . This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 43 Bailey/ Can we have a memo outlining this before we decide if we want to, um, talk about the sign ordinance, to get us all on the same page? Helling/ (several talking) and clearly, with HIS, it...it would require an amendment to the ordinance. O'Donnell/ We need it changed! Bailey/ Okay. Okay, so Dale will prepare a memo outlining the situation and what would be needed to change it, and then we'll see if there are people who want to pursue changing.... Correia/ And can you include the...the scenario about the little mini-sandwich board, real estate, open house, this way, that's... Champion/ Cause they're always in the public right-of--way. Correia/ Right, right, and they're not like a real estate sign, it's not like in my yard. It's... Champion/ They're not ticketed. Helling/ I think those are addressed in code... Correia/ Are they? Okay. Bailey/ Anything else you want Dale to address in the sign memo? Okay, so that will get at that...at least it'll start (both talking) O'Donnell/ Good. I'm very satisfied with that. Bailey/ Okay. Any other Council time items? Wright/ One thing I'd just like to bring up, and just for the sake of sending out some feelers, um, we've certainly had a lot of discussion about, um, housing in Iowa City over the past few months, and specifically the concentration of...of low-income and assisted housing, um, throughout the community, and I wondered if this is perhaps not a time to begin looking at whether or not an inclusive zoning ordinance would help us balance out that playing field a little bit. Champion/ We should have that discussion. Bailey/ Where is the JCCOG Housing Task Force on this discussion...what are they looking at? Who's on that? Correia/ It was in, I mean, it was...it was a recommendation that was in the (several talking) report and so I mean I think that the preliminary, I mean, the initial task force that now is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 44 just (mumbled) ongoing task force identified that as something for cities to look at, but that it was a, in each individual city is...has to consider it. I would be interested in it. Champion/ Well, I think we should look at housing as a broad subject, and that should be included in it. Wright/ So you'd be interested in looking at it? Champion/ In looking at all of it. Bailey/ Okay. If we do inclusionary zoning, this is something that we ask Planning and Zoning to take up. If we look at housing generally I'm not sure what you're talking about. Champion/ I'm talking about where we put low-income housing and (several talking) Wright/ ...a big element of it. Champion/ Well, I know but we also need to look at where it's at now and what we can do to alleviate some of that. Correia/ Inclusionary housing. Wright/ That's a... somewhat of a different discussion. Champion/ I know, but it's a bigger...it's a broad discussion. It's a big discussion. Bailey/ We need housing...are there four who are interested in putting on housing issues on... Correia/ Inclusionary housing. Bailey/ Just a second. I'm breaking this down. Yeah, four who are interested in talking about the broader issues of this on a work session, and then perhaps from that we can make some recommendations for... Correia/ I'm interested in inclusionary housing (mumbled) talked about lots of broad housing and it just becomes, it's just more talk, more talk, more talk. Bailey/ Okay. So that's, you're not interested in putting that on a work session. Champion/ I am. Bailey/ You are. Hayek/ I am. Bailey/ Two. Anybody else? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Wright/ If it leads to inclusionary zoning. Otherwise no. Bailey/ Okay. Ross? Wilburn/ If A then B? (laughter) Um, I'm trying to recall what the follow-up...what does JCCOG, what was the recommendation... Bailey/ It's an ongoing housing task force. Wilburn/ No, to discuss all of it, or was there one element of...of a... Page 45 Wright/ In the housing report, the...the one that came out in what was that, January of 2008, December 2008, was the recommendation that the communities in there, uh, ought to take a look at inclusionary zoning to see what it would, whether it would work in their communities, and some discussion that nobody has had yet, and I think it's time we start talking about it. Maybe we decide it doesn't work. But we haven't had the discussion. Wilburn/ And I'm sorry, that was, um, I'm trying to adjust my attenuator here, um...it was the inclusionary housing component that no one or was it the broader...I just...say that again. Wright/ Inclusionary zoning. Wilburn /Inclusionary zoning. Bailey/ And Connie wanted to talk about something broader, so I'm asking first and foremost about broading housing issues. Sort of a scattered site discussion is what I'm thinking of it in my head. I've got two people who are interested in that. Mike. Wilburn/ And I'm just trying to...I want to have the inclusionary zoning conversation, um...um, but I do have the concern that when we discuss, historically when we've discussed broader housing, then it fizzles. Bailey/ There's no policy direction. Wilburn/ Yeah. Bailey/ Okay. All right. So...are there four who are interested in talking about (both talking) Champion/ But we have policy that's not used. This Council has policy that has not been followed. Bailey/ No we don't. Correia/ No we don't. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 46 Champion/ I think we do. Correia/ No we don't. Bailey/ Are there four who want to talk about inclusionary zoning on a work session? (several responding) Okay. Hayek/ I'm happy to talk about it, about only...in, uh, as a part of the broader discussion. Champion/ Right, me too. Bailey /Well, I think then if that's...if that's part of the broader discussion, when we have that discussion, bringing other items that you want to be part of that discussion, for future discussion. Hayek/ Okay, so...if... Bailey/ What other things.. . Hayek/ I mean, the devil's in the details. It's how you...how you craft the item on the work session agenda. If...if it's.... Correia/ Inclusionary zoning...inclusionary housing policies. Hayek/ So if you go beyond that to a broader housing topic, are you... Correial I think inclusionary housing... Hayek/ Pulled off the stage with a shepherd's crook or, you know. Bailey/ I don't think we've ever, ever done that. They don't issue shepherd's crooks around here (laughter). Helling/ ...concept is pretty well defined, and understood, which is inclusionary zoning and, you know, if you want to break out into overall housing policies that, you know, then...that would seem to me...if you want to talk about all that, the least we're going to have to state it that way. Uh, and probably help try to...to give you a memo or something to sort of frame the issues a little bit to get you started? I think that would be... Bailey/ Right. Well, and that's why... Correia/ We have plenty of things that have been framed to get it started. We have a whole market analysis. Bailey/ Let's start with inclusionary zoning and see what comes out of it, and then we can have another memo to lead us to other things. Okay? Let's give it a try. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Hayek/ Okay. Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ I don't want to be squelched though, I mean, I want to...I want to (both talking) Bailey/ Okay. We'll get a...we'll get a flipchart and we'll put those things up. Page 47 Dilkes/ You know, if you have...you can talk about inclusionary zoning, you can also talk about other specific areas that you want to talk about. Wilburn/ So if you want to name those... Dilkes/ The...what we have right now is there's not four of you who want to talk about housing in general. There are four of you that want to talk about inclusionary zoning, so that's going on the agenda. Bailey/ What else do you want to talk about? Dilkes/ If there's some other specific item you want to talk about. Champion/ But there are three of us...there are three of us who want to talk about other housing issues, and in the past that's been the criteria, whether it goes on an agenda or not. (several talking) If there have been three of us! (several talking) Bailey/ Okay. We'll put it on the agenda. It will be harder to focus that memo. Champion/ It doesn't have to be focused. Dilkes/ You know, if I can...you've gotten memos about housing in general. I think, from my perspective, staff needs a little more direction as to... Champion/ I know we have (both talking) Dilkes/ ...what memo you want about housing. Helling/ What I envision, if... Champion/ I'm interested in talking about subsidized low-income housing and where we put it. Bailey/ Scattered site. Champion /I'm...scattered sites, which I've been preaching for years. Dilkes/ All right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 48 Bailey/ All right. Champion /That's what I'm interested in talking about (several talking) why it's there and what we're going to do to distribute it a little bit. Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ And I have a number of informational questions that I will, I've got a working list, but I will get that to staff. It doesn't need to work it's way into an actual agenda title. So I can meet my needs through.. . Bailey/ And I'm assuming since we have a number of memos that if there's a memo out there, if it works, we'll take it. (several talking) Champion/ Any can somebody.. . Bailey/ we have a whole market analysis, okay. Champion/ Can somebody, okay, my...my other thing that I'll need for that discussion is it seems to me, a council that I sat on six or seven years ago when the School District came to us about the problems of...of Grant Wood and Mark Twain that the Council said there'd be no more low-income subsidized housing in that part of town. And I want to know what's happened to that. O'Donnell/ I don't remember that. Correia/ It's not a policy. Bailey/ There was not a policy. Correia/ There was a recommendation for that, but there was not a policy. (several talking) Bailey/ Okay. But we'll talk about that when we're at the housing (mumbled). And Dale, you'll come back with a time that you think that this can be pulled together for pending, right? Helling/ Right. Bailey/ Thanks. Helling/ We're getting into that time when (mumbled) Bailey/ Yes. Helling/ ...those decisions based on the upcoming election (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 49 Champion/ I might not be here January 1st, so I want to (several talking and laughing) Bailey/ Do we have more Council time items? O'Donnell/ No! Shipley/ Uh, actually I had a couple ideas. This one idea about the bulletin boards downtown, one of the ideas we came up with at Student Leadership Institute, uh, to help the Office of Student Life and the late-night funding, uh, is either at the OSL, if the City was able to lease or sell these, at least one or a couple, that would help, you know, University students use that a lot with a more permanent place to advertise their events. Bailey/ So, I think that, um, there has been some discussion within the City about those bulletin boards, and somebody else taking them over. Karr/ The Downtown Association, we have a contract with them. Bailey/ We have a contract. Hayek/ CVB has... Bailey/ Yeah. Hayek/ ...indicated interest. Helling /I think there are some discussions. Bailey/ So, I think a good place to start is to get that information and see what's possible within that, um, framework of contracts we've got out, and then if it's possible, bring a request to Council. I think would be the approach. Champion/ Or the Downtown Association might be willing to work with students just fine. Bailey/ Right, but I don't know what our, I mean, I do know what our contract says, cause I read it (both talking) Shipley/ ...situation's pretty destructive and wasteful. Bailey/ So, I think talk to, um, Dale or Marian about...is the Downtown Association currently, are...(several talking) Shipley/ I'm talking about the ones that are, yeah, the...all of'em. Not the locked ones. Correia/ The ones that are just people (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 50 Helling/ yeah, and those are, some of those are designed and intended to allow people to post and whatever (several talking) Wilburn/ Because people were posting on telephone poles and walls and... Shipley/ Well, they still do that! Wilburn/ I understand that. I'm just...Dale was just mentioning that the free-for-all or cluttered nature of them was by design (mumbled) Bailey/ Okay. All right, any other Council time? Hayek/ Uh, very nice letter from, uh (mumbled) about Steve Long and Tracy Hightshoe. If you would just pass on job well done to them (several talking) Pending Discussion Items: Bailey/ Okay. Any budget priorities? We kind of talked about budget tonight with franchise fees. Schedule of pending discussion items. Matt, did you have something? Hayek/ Well, I think...I think we need to, um...schedule another crime related update or work session, uh, ala...sort of like what we did last week, but keep this on our radar screen and...and plan another month or two, or whenever it is, to...to... Bailey/ So in November? What do you want from staff? I mean, are others interested in this? (several responding) What would you like to see so we're being very clear. Hayek/ Well, I haven't thought a lot in-depth on it, but...but you know, some new information on...on allocation of police resources, uh, neighborhood organization, there's... Bailey/ Officer Bailey, um, has...is, has been active, well, throughout the community it would be interesting to get some information about that. Wright/ I just read an article in the Gazette about... Bailey/ Davenport. Wright/ ...Davenport police, uh, doing background checks on, uh, rental applications. Bailey/ That was a really interesting article. I'd be interested to hear what our police department, if some of those things are...we could implement some of those approaches here. It's been discussed, or do we already do some of them. Hayek/ And so I guess, you know, updated information on what we've done over the last, you know, three, four, five, six months, but I'd also like us to start to consider some more, longer term things we can do, um, with enforcement and...and what not. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 51 Bailey/ Well, and I encourage everybody to look at that Gazette article. That was a really, um... Wright/ I actually have it here if we can maybe get it reproduced and put in our packets. Bailey/ Maybe, yeah, maybe you could just get that to Marian so it's in our packets, and that could be a point of discussion there. Hayek/ And then I had one other thing I just wanted to throw out there, and that has to do with, uh, nuisance enforcement. Um, we've got a complaint based system as it relates to couches on porches, unkempt lawns and all of the stuff that...that neighborhoods struggle with, um, and I don't know how effective a complaint based system is. Bailey/ Well, and with our University project, with the University, the University's actually asked us to move a little bit beyond the complaint based, particularly in those neighborhoods that we're targeting, and I would like...I would love to discuss this a little bit. Wright/ I would agree! Bailey/ Others? Champion/ Especially when we get some more police. Bailey/ Well, I think part of this is housing, too. So...put that on the (several talking and laughing) Wright/ Got a year before we even vote on that one! (several talking and laughing) Bailey/ Okay. So...nuisance enforcement and crime. Any other pending discussion items others would like to throw on the table? Wright/ It's a really light-weight agenda. Community Events: Bailey/ All right, upcoming community events and Council invitations. I really did want to take some time with this, because there are a couple upcoming that I think are...are particularly important. Um...our largest, or one of our largest employers, ACT of course, is celebrating their 50th, um, anniversary and I think probably all of you received an invitation to their, um, activities, and there's something on Sunday, October 18th, um...tours, and some other things, so I think...it would be great to have a visible Council presence. I attended, and Dale attended, their, um, event at Old Capitol, but ACT is a large employer and I think that us being visible and supportive as they celebrate this milestone would...is significant. So if you've received the letter (several responding) okay. Have you all received it? (several responding) Okay. Good. Then I won't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009. September 14, 2009 City Council Work Session Page 52 provide it for that. So, please, and...and then...let's...let's figure out who's attending so we do have a visible presence for that. Um, there's a Boat House dedication. I think you all received, uh, letters and that's a partnership with the City, with the University, that's this Friday. I will be attending. Dale, I think you're attending. Helling/ Um, I hope so. Bailey/ So...if others are attending, that's another important one. And then, something I won't be able to attend, but I'm thinking that many of you might be interested is the City High 70th anniversary is on Sunday, September 27th. Did you all receive these letters? I will not be able to attend, but I think it would be nice to have Council present, particularly from alums, and others who have had graduates or parents, so...um, that would be great. Wright/ I'm probably going to be out of town that weekend. Bailey/ Okay, but it looks like we have a couple who will be there. Okay, good. Any other...events that you all are aware of that we should be covering? There is the CDBG celebration this Thursday, um, at Wetherby Park, 4:30. And there is the Wetherby Cottage event on Friday, as well. So, I'll be covering those, but I hope to see others there as well, as your schedules permit. All right. Do we need any meeting schedule discussion? Karr/ No, but I wanted to just notice you had something distributed this evening too, that's um, I think coming up Wednesday, just, since you're talking about scheduling. From the Realtor's, the safety... Bailey/Oh, right! Thank you. Karr/ And I just wanted to note that because you just got it handed out, and it's time-sensitive as well. Bailey/ Okay. I don't think can attend. I (mumbled) so, and we have a joint meeting on Wednesday too. Just FYI (several talking). Okay? Anything else for the good of the cause? All right, see you tomorrow evening. Thank you very much. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council regular work session meeting of September 14, 2009.