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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-01-30 AgendaSubject to change as finalized by the City Clerk. For a final official copy, contact the City Clerk's Office, 356-5040. AGENDA IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL COUNCIL MEETIN~ - JANUARY 30, 1997 11:00/I~,M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS ITEM NO. I -CALL TO ORDER. ROLL CALL. ITEM NO. 2 -CONSIDER A MOTION TO ADJOURN TO EXECUTIVE SESSION TO DISCUSS STRATEGY WITH COUNSEL IN MATTERS THAT ARE PRESENTLY IN LITIGATION OR WHERE LITIGATION IS IMMINENT WHERE ITS DISCLOSURE WOULD~, BE LIKELY TO PREJUDICE OR DISADVANTAGE THE POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENTAL BODY IN THAT LITIGATION. THIS MEETING IS BEING HELD PURSUANT TO THE EMERGENCY PROVISION OF THE CODE OF IOWA, SECTION 21.4(2) FOR GOOD CAUSE WHERE 24 HOUR NOTICE IS IMPOSSIBLE OR IMPRACTICAL, NAMELY LITIGATION STRATEGY THAT RE- QUIRES TIMELY ATTENTION. ITEM NO. 3 - CONSIDER RESOLUTION RATIFYING SETTLEMENT OF CLAIM Comment: After executive session Council may wish to authorize settlement in this matter. c,,on= ITEM NO. 4 -CONSIDER A MOTION TO ADJOURN SPECIAL MEETING, page I Item No. 2 Consider a motion to adjourn to executive session to discuss strategy with counsel in matters that are presently in litigation or where litigation is immi- nent where its disclosure would be likely to prejudice or disadvantage the position of the governmental body in that litigation. This meeting is being held pursuant to the emergency provision of the Code of Iowa Section 21.4(2) for good cause where 24 hour notice is impossible or impractical namely litigation strategy that requires timely action. Vanderhoef/moved the motion Thornberry/seconded Novick/Roll call all ayes This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 2 Item No. 3 Consider a resolution ratifying settlement of claim Thornberry/Move for adoption Norton/Second Novick/roll call all ayes. ( Council returned to Executive Session) ( Council returned to open session) Novick/Are we in a formal meeting or are we in a work session? Karr/No we're still in the formal meeting. Novick/We are still in the formal meeting and Larry are you the one that wanted to discuss something else here? Baker/I think we all wanted to discuss something else. Novick/OK who wants to start7 Baker/What's our expectation for what's going to happen Saturday, when are we going to reach some resolution about personnel, how do we want to handle any material Linda might be providing us about fourth amendment issues? Norton/I have a proposal that the things that Linda's trying to get together, we not try to get together before Saturday then. May mean then some questions Sat- urday related to that particular issue will have to be deferred, but I just don't think we ought to put those fourth amendment and other issues that she wants to give us a big document about in the hopper now, we just don't have time to assimilate it. Thornberry/I think we've got plenty to discuss now with the book that we re- ceived this last week with the questions and what staff was going to do, I think we can go on with that and as far as the other things, there is not a deadline to do those at a specific time. This represents only e reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 3 Baker/But that's exactly the point. There ought to be some specific time. Norton/I like to set a time to discuss Baker/We should be very clear when we are. Thornberry/That's fine, but I don't want to start discussing it without the back- ground and information. Baker/I don't want to start discussing it unless I've had time to absorb it. Thornberry/That's what I mean. Baker/R.J. and Steve had time to absorb it and respond to it and perhaps other people had time to absorb it and respond to it. Thornberry/If you don't think we've got enough information already to take up four hours Novick/We are going to do three hours and no more Kubby/We've all agreed there's too much to do, we've agreed to this like 20 times so I don't know why we keep having to agree to it, but that we are not go- ing to get everything on Saturday and that we are going to need to schedule a minimum of one other times that we talk about it. Possibly several other times and in general, Larry's asking for an end point deadline and that may or not be possible but we at a minimum can make a generalized commitment that we are not going to let this drag on. And that within the next two months, within the next month that we are going to try to work through all this information and if we don't meet that generalized deadline we justify to the public why we haven't. Novick/I have the impression we had a generalized deadline, we said we were going to work on it in February. Baker/February resolution, resolution by the end of February on this issue Lehman/Larry, I really think that what transpires Saturday is going to set the agenda for further things we have to do. Maybe it could be done in a meeting, maybe its two or three, but I think we take as much time as we need to get these things resolved. Baker/Within February This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 4 Lehman/Hopefully within February, but Saturdays meeting is going to have Baker/A long way towards that. Lehman/That's exactly right. Norton/I think it still needs to be understood that some of the issues that Linda is still researching and presenting material to us might mean that some questions on Saturday will not be as dealt with completely on Saturday that we might of hoped. They will have to be deferred till. such time as we have those documents. Lehman/No question. Novick/That sounds reasonable. Baker/That issue, those questions, that material that Linda is preparing on that particular issue should be sent to us when it is ready, sent to us private corre- spondence, allow us to absorb it and then we release it to the public soon after- ward. But allow Steve and R.J. to respond to. Kubby/Why does it need to be private? Novick/Well Linda can answer that better than Larry. Kubby/I may want to have some lawyer people I know of help interpret it, help me think about it differently, to agree or disagree, will help me have a better un- derstanding, to have more than one view point. Baker/Karen, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Kubby/If it's private I can't share it with anyone, Baker/Private in the sense that this is not, I think its counter productive to turn this over and have a public discussion of material before the Council itself can evaluate it. Lehman/No but Larry I think this has to be public. Baker/It will be public. Lehman/It will be. Baker/It will be public. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 5 Kubby/You send it confidential, I can't share it with anyone, I will not, I respect that confidentiality, That means no one, It doesn't mean the people I choose or you choose, If its confidential. Thornberry/Don't belabor that point, because-the last booklet that we were sent was confidential and you shared that with someone, Kubby/It did not say confidential Baker/Let's do it confidential and also send a copy to Pat White, I mean were you going to do that anyway. Woito/Pat knows my issues, I've already talked to him. Baker/But he's going to get copies of all the stuff we're going to get? Woito/I can certainly send it to him, Baker/I would appreciate that, Norton/Any difficulty from your point in that next document being public when it comes to us it goes elsewhere? Woito/Not at all. Thornberry/The document that you are going to be sending to us as I understand it Linda is going to be dealing with open case law. Woito/Case Law. Thornberry/I mean this is all open to the public anyway. Woito/And its going to have a number of questions that you're going to have to answer yourselves. Thornberry/I mean this is all case law and it has to do with the federal amend- ment to the constitution, What is so Woito/I don't see any reason in the format that I'm going to give it to you now that the claim has been settled, I don't see any reason for it to be confidential, but that is up to you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 6 Baker/Fine, fine, let's do it that way. Let if fall and see how its handled. Lehman/You know if we could adjourn Naomi, we could all go home and come back her on 2:00 on Saturday, cause I don't think we're doing anything. Woito/Ernie, I need to know since there was such distention in whether I need to do it publicly or confidentially. Lehman/I think we're saying it publicly. Woito/OK Norton/And set a reasonable deadline, but we have that meeting and presumably will have others that may deal with other matters that grow out of Saturday's dis- cussion. Baker/But I want the public to know we're getting it on such a tight schedule that some of us don't feel comfortable responding to it immediately, cause we want to have time to absorb it and talk to other people. So I don't know how fruitful of discussion of those issues will be on Saturday. Lehman/Well they won't be on, because we are not going to have it on. Thornberry/I still think we have plenty of material to talk about on Saturday. Norton/We will. Lehman/We don't need any more material. Novick/OK we are all talking at once. Larry do you have anything else to say. Baker/Just a clarification about resolution of personnel. Novick/OK, Dee Vanderhoef. Vanderhoef/Heard a comment about someone talking about a meeting for next week. Do we need to look at calendars? Novick/We looked at calendars and couldn't get everyone together the same mo- ment. We could try that once more. Kubby/Its going to be difficult This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 7 Vanderhoef/That a concern Kubby/.. we each juggle a little bit to accommodate each other. Thornberry/I'm available any day, day or night, to discuss this. Novick/Except the end of February. Thornberry/Except the end of February. Novick/And that is where we ran into some problems. There were people who tied up the last week of February. Lehman/Naomi, I would suggest, I know Linda said she would try to get us a syn- opsis or summary of what she was going to be doing by Saturday, I really would rather wait and get your complete report than get a synopsis. I think that as long as we probably aren't going to have the time to talk about it anyway. I'd rather have the whole load at once. Vanderhoef/to study at home, I would appreciate that too. Novick/Is there anyone else that says lets not have a summary. Vanderhoef/yes, I would rather have the whole thing Norton/Yes/I'd rather have the whole thing too Lehman/Give it to us all at once Thornberry/Give it to us all Kubby/But this does not mean in two weeks either I hope, because if we had in- deed already made the commitment to finish this by February then we need on Saturday to start talking about training and policies and questions about this spe- cific incident of Eric Shaw's death, that may take a couple of meetings. Then we might end up talking about personnel issues and fourth amendment stuff. So we, If Dean Thornberry is out of town the end of February, we need to step this up. Baker/Lets take a collective resolution that if we don't have it finished by the end of February, we all resigned. Norton/Wait a minute, lets get realistic about something. May I suggest we ask Linda to get us that report by February 7, that is a week from tomorrow. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 8 Novick/No, I think she's going to have it before then. Norton/My point is when can we meet, what's the earliest we can get together, Lets work backwards from that then. Novick/We'll all bring our calendars Saturday, will juggle calendars. Lehman/Will do it then. Novick/There are people who have to go somewhere else today. Thornberry/Again, my last point was, if the City Arty, I'm glad the City Atty. worked as hard as she did, as diligently as she did, with the staff to obtain and come to resolution for the release of settlement agreement on the Shaw thing. I would much rather have this, as we got, then have the summary of the constitu- tional law if I were to get one or the other. Now both would have been nice but there are only so many hours in a day and I'm glad that we could reach a settle- ment on this. Kubby/How that was explained it could have been done in various ways. Baker/And I appreciate that Steve has been running the City and preparing his re- port at the same time. Lehman/I move we adjourn Atkins/Before you adjourn Woito/Now wait a minute, Steve didn't just prepare that report, I helped, I was involved the whole time. Baker/Fine, Steve still ran the city. Novick/Give R. J. a pat on the back too. Woito/and my staff sitting out there. Atkins/Just so there is no misunderstandings for Saturday. We begin at 2:00, I understand there is going to be live coverage not only with our own cable but the TV stations and radio are thinking about doing that so you are aware of that. Sec- ondly, I intend to take the big book and I have a presentation of the material in that book planned. I'll be speaking from the podium, you'll be sitting in your work This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 9 session environment and I would like to kind of walk through that document. Flagging issues for you. Once I've concluded that and your certainly free to ask questions along the way, we would then put on the table the council questions that we prepared written answers for. I would assume at that point you take over the meeting and decide what your going to do from there. I'll be here, Dale, R,J,, will all be here. Then with respect to Linda's presentation, from what I just heard, that's being deferred for another meeting. Is that correct7 Novick/I think we have enough to cover, Lehman/I think your right. Atkins/I want Linda to understand and me to understand. Woito/There's a clarification, that big book, which is being made public now, is not just, part of that is my presentation. That part. I don't think you understand. Norton/That part you will do on Saturday, the part that has to deal with other matters related to the fourth amendment that would come later. Woito/The part that's far more detailed in terms of legal analysis, yes. Norton/So you will have some section on Saturday. Atkins/So Linda will in fact be making some form of a presentation on Saturday. I just wanted to understand, Woito/They'll be plenty of me to say just off the top of my head. Kubby/Will that booklet be made available at the Public Library? Atkins/Yes, were going to take care of all of that right now. Kubby/Will we have copies available at the City Clerk's office or other places for people to look through or purchase or get? Atkins/We will have copies available at the Library, my office, Clerk's office. I've taken the document, and you know the narrative portions of it, I've made that into a summary, which will be available Saturday. I will be in effect working from that, the audience will have a copy of that also. Kubby/Good. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997 page 10 Woito/And the Shaw's attorney knows that that will be public as of now, Kubby/I move to adjourn Lehman/I already did that Novick/moved by Lehman, seconded by Kubby, that we adjourn, all ayes This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City Council meeting of Janu- ary 30, 1997