HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-04-02 Minutes numberedMINUTES OF THE JOINT MEETING OF THE JOHNSON COUNTY BOARD
OF SUPERVISORS, IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL AND IOWA CITY
COMMUNITY SCHOOL BOARD:
APRIL 2, 1997
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
Introductions ................................................................................................................................2
Iowa City Willow Creek Sewer Interceptor Project and Southwest Area Economic
Development .........................................................................................................................2
Update on Iowa Cit3. Airport Master Plan ....................................................................................6
Update on SEATS Computer Reports and Paratransit Contract Negotiations between Iowa
City and Johnson Count,,'. ......................................................................................................7
Planning and Coordination Strateg3.' for School Sites ....................................................................8
Parking and Status for the Johnson Count' Senior Dining Program at the Senior Center .............. 15
Update on Share the Road Program ............................................................................................20
Proposal for Regional Qualit).' in Government Network ...............................................................21
Tax Increment Financing Districts ..............................................................................................21
Update on Johnson County Human Services Decategorization Project and Innovation Zone ......... 26
Conference on Complying ~th the .tunericans ~ith Disabilities Act ............................................27
Proposal to Schedule an Emergency Preparedness Program ........................................................27
Update on Safe Schools/Safe Communities Juvenile Crime Prevention Conference ...................... 29
Update on Telecommunications Act of 1996 ...............................................................................31
Update on Funding for Senior Center Contract ...........................................................................34
Proposal to Utilize Local Option Sales Tax to Fund School Construction and Maintenance ......... 34
Scheduling a Future Joint Meeting ..............................................................................................35
Johnson County Board of Supervisors Vice-Chairperson Joe Bolkcom called the Joint
Meeting of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, Iowa City City Council, and Iowa
City Community School Board to order in the Westfield Inn at 4:14 p.m. Present were:
Iowa City City Councilors Larry Baker, Karen Kubby, Ernie Lehman, Dee Norton, Dean
Thornberry, and Dee Vanderhoef; Mayor Naomi Novick; Johnson County Supervisors
Joseph Bolkcom, Jonathan Jordahl, Stephen Lacina; Supervisor Sally Stutsman arrived at
4:45 p.m. and Supervisor Charles Duffy was absent; and Iowa City Community School
Board Members: Ernie Galer, Linda Levey, Vice-President Marvin Lynch, President
George Matheson; School Board Member Alan Left left at 5:26 p.m. and School Board
Members Susan Mims and Cindy Parsons were absent.
Also present were: Iowa City: City Attorney Linda Woito, City Clerk Marian Karr,
City Manager Stephen Atkins, Assistant Director of Planning and Community
Development Jeff Davidson; Johnson County Board of Supervisors Administrative
Assistant Carol Peters; Iowa City Community School District: Superintendent Barbara
Grohe.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 2
INTRODUCTIONS
Johnson County Super~'isor Joe Bolkcom: Why don't we go ahead and start and for the
minute taker from the Auditor's Office if we could go around and introduce ourselves so
she knows who we are as we take minutes for Tom.
Iowa City Mayor Naomi Novick: OK, the minute taker is right here. I'm Naomi
Novick, Mayor of Iowa City.
Iowa City School Board President George Matheson: I'm George Matheson, President
of the School Board.
Iowa City School Board Vice-President Marvin Lynch: Marvin Lynch, Vice President
of the School Board.
Bolkcom: Joe Bolkcom.
Iowa CiD, City Councilor Dee Norton: Dee Norton, Cid' Council.
Iowa City City Councilor Larry Baker: LarD' Baker, City Council.
Johnson County Supervisor Steve Lacina: Steve Lacina, County.
Iowa City City Councilor Dean Thornberry: Dean Thornberry, City Council.
Iowa City CiD- Councilor Ernie Lehman: Ernie Lehman, City of Iowa City.
Johnson County Supervisor Jonathan Jordahl: Jonathan Jordahl, Johnson County
Supervisor.
Iowa City School Board Member Alan Left: AI Left, School Board.
Iowa CiD' City Councilor Karen Kubby: Karen Kubby, City Council.
Iowa CiD- School Board Member Ernie Galer: Ernie Galer, School Board.
Iowa City CiD' Councilor Dee Vanderhoef: Dee Vanderhoef, City Council.
1OWA CITY WILLOW CREEK SEWER INTERCEPTOR PROJECT AND
SOUTHWEST AREA ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Novick: OK, we all have received an agenda and we're just going to run through it.
Whoever of our groups had proposed that item should give us some idea of why it was
proposed and what kind of information they would like to supply. The first one is
Southwest Area Development of both economic development, airport master plan,
southwest interceptor sewer. The City had some back~ound information provided here
on that, however it was an item proposed by Johnson County. Does anyone from Johnson
County want to give us an idea of what they were considering here? Nobody wants to
discuss this one huh?
Bolkcom: Obviously the correspondence from Bob Wolf to the City and then back again.
Bob is here and Robert Miller is here from the Fairboard and Rich Gay also from the
Fairboard that are concerned about issues associated w4th the dewatering associated with
the sewer project.
Novick: Is there anything within the letter from Chuck Schmadeke that is disturbing?
Bolkcom: I would say there is a number of things that had me bothered. Bob, do you
want to make a comment about or City staff on what the status of...
Robert Wolf: Sure.
Novick: Well it was the County Supervisors that put this item on the agenda, not Wolf
SO...
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 3
Bolkcom: We also invited Bob to be here for the discussion, because there is concern
among not only Bob but folks that are involved with the operation of the County Fair
there so... Jonathan or Steve maybe you could jump in at this point. Steve I think you...
Lacina: Go ahead Jonathan and then I'll follow up.
Novick: We're recording this we need to get whoever is speaking close enough to a
microphone so that it can be recorded.
Lacina: You go first. then I'll finish up.
Kubby: It would be great if comments could be why items about Chuck's letter that don't
seem right that there are continued concerns about.
Novick: OK, somebody from the Fairboard, was that who you said?
Lacina: Two major concerns, I guess one would be the dewatering of the area that might
impact the water supply for the neighbors down there. It would be the modular home
park as well as Shucherts and the Fairboard itself The timetable would be another factor
as far as when the dewatering took place so that it didn't impact the 4-H Fair. We have a
large population down there and if an impact takes place and the water with a large
population we're going to have septic problems and the like. I think a third major concern
was whether or not dewatering of the ground would actually cause a reverse flow and pull
river water back through what used to be a landfill. When I was a kid we threw lead
based paints, DDT, all kinds of nasty stuff in the old landfill down there. There would be
concerns about the backwash of river water moving possible contaminants into the water
supply which I think you had an environmental impact statement done and it is now clean,
but that it doesn't actually contaminate that ground and cause health problems. I would
lay those 3 out as points of discussion and possible clarification for staff. Maybe that's
been addressed.
Novick: Well the letter from staff did address the dewatering and the possible
contamination based on the fact that they were talking about 800 feet distance from the
Wolf property. I was not really too concerned about it. However, how is the distance
from there to the fairgrounds? Is that any closer because of the way the thing is done?
Does anybody know?
Wolf: No it's probably another 2500 feet from the edge of my property. A correction I
just learned today that the...
Novick: Can you come forward and somehow get recorded?
Wolf: My name is Robert Wolf, I'm developing the Lake Ridge property. Our concern is
that we've tried to enhance the lake property dow~] there so that people can fish in there as
you read in Chuck's letter and mine. That's how this all started. I just wanted to caution
everybody that we do have some really nice clean water there, probably the best in the
State and we're really fearful of having it contaminated through the dewatering process.
Very possibly from pulling that leachate back through and we don't really know where it
is on the other side of the road. But the well driller has informed us that it's over there
and it's working its way down along Riverside Drive and I don't have any geological
information do share with you to know where the clay layers and all of that stuff are. The
other thing that Chuck's letter said that it was going to be 800 feet away and I just learned
a while ago that it is in fact going to be within 200 feet of our property. In fact it is 150
feet off which basically as I see it puts it right at the end of the runway. I have a drawing 1
can show you.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 4
Thornberry: While he's doing that... Naomi, do you remember what Chuck said that in
the Elks property, we didn't want to put the golf course how close to one of the wells in
fear of the contaminants getting into the city well water?
Novick: I don't remember the numbers.
Thomberry: What the distance was for those wells? Steve, do you remember?
Vanderhoef: I think it's 200.
Thornberry: 200 feet.
Vanderhoef: Yes, and they think it is probably going to go up, but it's a federal
requirement.
Novick: The current requirement I think is 75 feet. But there is some change in the offing
based on EPA or DNR and I've forgotten what that number is.
Kubby: It seems w-e can certainly time the project that whatever dewatering has to
happen can avoid the fair. That makes perfect sense to do and that Linda aren't we
required if we're dewatering and it affects other people's major water sources to make
sure that they are provided with water during that time?
Iowa City City Attorney Linda Woito: Yes.
Kubby: So we need to communicate with people about what our responsibilities are.
Woito: They would need to notify us.
Novick: What are the dates on the fair?
Wolf: Jul3, 21-24.
Norton: (Inaudible).
Novick: Steve wants to say something, go ahead Steve.
Iowa City City Manager Steve Arkins: I asked Chuck to kind of give me a brief idea...
Chuck Schmadeke our Public Works Director and he indicated to me that we have some
preliminary soil borings on the route for the sewer and we have some similar information
with respect to where Bob's well is and at least initially there does not appear to be a
problem with that conflict. We'll have to do additional soil borings. Secondly as far as
the scheduling has been suggested I can't see why that cannot be accommodated. Thirdly,
the proposal that the engineers are working on now is a series of small shallow wells as
opposed to the deep well thereby minimizing that cone of depression with respect to
drawing water for dewatering purposes. And then finally if it was necessary we can
certainly pipe the water right back into the sand pit if it would be necessary. I think these
issues are being dealt with. I have not had a chance to communicate those with Bob and
any ofthe other folks and we'll be happy to spend some time with him on that, but that's
where we are with that.
Kubby: Most of this issue it seems like it's technical things, that we have an obligation to
make sure you're not without water. We have an obligation to make sure that we're not
contaminating people's water supply and that we need to have staff talking to people.
Wolf: My point is though from a land use point is it appears that the sewer is going to
come at this point. This is Lake Ridge. And if he's going to come up 150 feet or right off
the end of this runway, being a contractor and all and a !and developer, it would seem to
me that we would be better off to have the sewer out here in the middle where it would be
accessible from more of the property as opposed to running down that property line. I'm
sure that we can work out these details. I just don't want a big problem later on.
Arkins: We agree with that.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 5
Wolf.' That was my reason for initiating the letter to Chuck.
Novick: OK, do we have a reasonable conclusion that we can work out the details by staff
conferring with Wolf and with the County Fairboard?
Arkins: ,MI I have is preliminary information. I will have Chuck or someone from my
office contact Bob in the next couple days to come in and go over eve ,rything we have and
I think take it from there.
Wolf: I can do that. There is one other point. Along the same lines the Johnson County
Fairboard is proposing a new building down in their area and they can tell you more about
it than I can, but we have our package treatment plant..and as we understand it there is
quite a bit of opposition of letting them tie into my plant when there is nothing else
available at this time down there. I just want to lay that on the table, because they have
already made a commitment based on my agreement to let them tap into my plant. I think
I read in the paper that they are about to do some major fundraising based on that
commitment.
?: This would be the community theatre.
Novick: It's not the Fairboard though, it's a community theatre building and the Fairboard
as far as I know isn't doing the building.
Wolf: But they can't get a building permit, because they have to apply for sewage.
Novick: OK, can we ask Chuck to find out if that affects us at all? I don't know that it
would.
Atkins: That's in the County and we don't really have a...
Norton: There's no problems with hooking on there now'.
Kubby: Yes, but they don't have any say about sewer hookup in the fringe, do they?
Lacina: I don't think we would have any jurisdiction over this as well. So if you enter
into a contract and Linda correct me if I'm wrong...
Kubby: Yes, that's like a DNR thing or something.
Lacina: ... my understanding would be they would clear it with DNR and the County and
City would probably be out of it.
Woito: Yes.
Novick: Well that's what i'm thinking as well. I think that within County property you
have to clear it with DNR and the Board of Health and people like that, but I don't think
the City Council has anything to say about it.
Wolf: Well this has basically been the first public meeting that's been held since I got that
information and I've shared it with people from the Fairboard and I guess I'd like to find
out if there is some problems that we'd like to deal with it immediately. We really can't
make commitments to do fundraising and then turn around and say whoops, we can't have
any sewer.
Novick: Well I think Department of Health and DNR would have jurisdiction, wouldn't
you think so?
Arkins: I would suggest and Linda and I will work... we need to confirm that though in
writing in some fashion so that there is no misunderstanding on that. If you have
authority, then we can communicate to you that you have authority to deal with it the way
you choose to do it or not. If you have no authority, then we'll discover that also and let
you know. We'll do those things.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 6
UPDATE ON IOWA CITY AIRPORT .MASTER PLAN
Novick: OK, thank you. There was some discussion of economic development within
this... there was some concern about the airport master plan. Does anyone from the
County have any comment on that7
Bolkeom: I think the airport master plan was just maybe to get an update on where things
were at.
Novick: Well things are moving along. The FAA has...
Kubby: The Council voted on a contract for acquisition of easements, so we'll be talking
with property owners in the immediate area to get the aviation easements that we need.
Norton: They are in the process.
Lacina: Is there a timetable for completion of this?
Novick: It's really sitting in the hands of the FAA? We have hired somebody to take care
of the value of these easements and the FAA has our application to help us pay for these
easements, but they haven't said when.
Thomberry: The work is ongoing now though yes.
Kubby: But it's going to take a few years, even the acquisition issues may take a couple
of years.
Woito: There will be monthly updates, perhaps we could carbon copy the Board of
Supervisors on those updates.
Kubby: That would be a real good idea.
Novick: That sounds good.
Thornberry: Quite a few property owners have already been contacted so. From my
feedback from a property owner is that they're very fine people to work with.
Lacina: Now the easements pertain to streets or sewer?
Kubby: For aviation protection zones.
Norton: Runway protection zones. Some of them are (inaudible) rights and some of them
are actual properties.
Novick: In some cases we're going to have to condemn, purchase property in order to
preserve the airport rights.
Woito: Would you like the land consultant to come and give a presentation to the Board
of Supervisors? This is a different consultant.
Lacina: Karin gave us a good overview the other day when she came in on the Streb
property and that helped us a lot. At least it helped me a lot. I think that would help.
Because in the discussion of the airport, Phase I so to speak kind of fell back behind the
Ranchaw property where a street could be easily laid in there and there should be I think
already sewer.
Arkins: Now, there isn't.
Lacina: There is not sewer, OK then I misunderstood.
Arkins: There is a separate issue pending whereby the land that is behind the row of
properties on Highway I and the airport trying to find an access road in there. There is
interest in development of those for commercial purposes Steve, that's correct. But there
is no street network, there is no utilities. Jeff and some other members of the staff are
working on it. We haven't even brought the concept to the City Council yet. But that's
part of the airport master plan and also some development interests are taking place.
1115
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 7
Lacina: We had another developer looking at the County with roughly 100 jobs that
we're tD, ing to now locate on some property out by Tiffin on the Interstate, but as the
companies come to us it's a little bit frustrating to say see you and see them head to West
Branch or other areas so a timetable would help us at least. The one mega company has
put their project on hold for 2 years and we'd like to be able to go back to them with a
timetable and say well maybe in 2 years we'll be ready or at least say no, we have no idea.
An update would really help us. Thank you.
Novick: Is this something that could possibly use the Streb property?
Lacina: We brought that up and they did look at it and that is an option, but again what's
the timetable for the sewer line that will go up through Snyder Creek? Will the TIF help
install that?
Arkins: No. At the next Council meeting the Council will consider beginning the process
of the TIF. The Se~'er Project has had a minor delay, because of a change in Corps of
Engineer regulations, but barring anything that's wildly unforeseen we would hope to be
in the ground with that project late this summer or early fall.
Lacina: Oh really.
Atkins: Yes, so that project is still moving along.
Novick: We don't have the exact location for the line that's going in near the airport, but
we did move it forward on the agenda so that we can get some commercial and industrial
development near the airport.
Atkins: That's the Willow Creek. Yes that's moving along.
Novick: Right.
Atkins: .And that's a far bigger project and a lot more work vet to be done on that one.
Novick: Right, is there any other comment or question on this issue?
Bolkcom: I think we can move on to SEATS.
UPDATE ON SEATS COMPUTER REPORTS AND PARATRANSIT
CONTRACT NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN IOWA CITY AND JOHNSON
COUNTY
Novick: OK, is there a computer update on the SEATS?
Bolkcom: Well we continue to work with our new software, as folks know the County
bought some new sofia'are to track how we provide rides and in terms of how costs are
allocated and we continue to work with that. We're still struggling a bit by way of update.
So we'll continue to work on trying to get reports out. In terms of contract discussions
we are prepared to begin negotiations next week with the City on this. We are concerned
initially about the City Council's proposal or the City's proposal as it relates to having 5
dedicated vehicles in Io~va City and only in Iowa City and having cab service provide
transportation evenings and weekends. We just want to let you know we're concerned
about what you made as an initial offer to us about what you want us to provide to you.
But we hope to sit down and negotiate a long term contract.
Novick: I realize that there will be contract negotiations. We haven't yet appointed City
Council members to be on that committee. We plan to do that next week. We have
Council Meetings next week and we just haven't had Council Meetings in a couple of
weeks so we haven't done that yet.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 8
Bolkcom: That's fine. Steve and I will be on the County's committee.
Novick: We had a letter from Sally asking us to appoint some people from the City
Council. I'm sure there will be a couple of staff people also. We just haven't yet put the
City Council people on there.
Kubby: I know in the past that the school district, well some ofthe kids using the school
district use SEATS..are there any issues in contract negotiations that School Board needs
to be involved in?
Bolkcom: To the degree to which 5 vehicles can transport the present number of people
we have concerns that we have anywhere from 8 to 9 vehicles in a given day in Iowa City
providing transportation..And if the City is only interested in 5 dedicated vehicles that
don't leave Iowa City. we're concerned that fewer people are going to ride whether those
are young people that are involved with School District things, they might be impacted.
Kubby: Do those students go through the school district to get rides or are they getting
rides to school as a citizen of either Coralville or Iowa City?
Iowa City. CommuniD, School District Superintendent Barbara Grohe: I think
generally the rides are to work sites or jobs during the day rather than to and from school
transportation.
Kubby: OK, so how do children with physical disabilities get to school?
Grohe: We run buses too.
Kubby: OK. Your regular school buses?
Novick: OK, so it's from school to a job after schools finished.
Grohe: Or during the school day, because some of the kids go to a work site as part of
their school experience.
Novick: OK.
Thornberry: How many children are we talking about?
Grohe: I'm sorry l don't know that number.
Novick: Can we get that information to the committee that's going to be negotiating a
contract, because it may help with scheduling and how many vehicles, etcetera? OK any
other questions on SEATS? Can we have the committee who will be negotiating a
contract have some computer update information before that negotiation starts?
Bolkcom: Yes.
Novick: Thank you. Praything else on SEATS from anybody?
PLANNING AND COORDINATION STRATEGY FOR SCHOOL SITES
Novick: Moving on to item 3. Strategies for overall coordination and long term planning
and schools sites was part of the proposal from the schools. I think the City added the
streets and other recreation, park land, neighborhood, etcetera, trails. Would the schools
like to tell us what they started with when they proposed that?
Matheson: First of all what I'd like to say as your guest and our first association with this
meeting we want to thank you for the invitation and we appreciate being here and hearing
some of the discussion that's going on. Obviously some of this affects us and some of this
is foreign, at least to me. I think probably the other Board members are really up on top
of this, but as far as the potential school sites we have 2 new high schools in the planning
stages and we were wondering where the !and might come from.
I ttr7
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 9
?: It's April 2nd, not April 1st.
Matheson: Nobody fell for it so... Barb and I talked a little bit about this item and I think
we had heard some discussion that you were no longer reserving land as a part of future
developments and we just thought it might be a good idea to discuss how things were
going in terms of new developments and how you anticipate as a City and County
reserving land or identif54ng land or planning for school sites.
Norton: How do you come up with 2 at a time here?
Matheson: We just thought the public was ready for 2 new schools.
?: Talking about high school it has to be 2 at a time. One on one side of the fiver and one
on the other side.
Norton: Oh, that's the logic.
?: Unless you're going to build one in the middle of the fiver.
Novick: I think that you can put the next one out in North Liberty somewhere.
Kubby: Since we now have our open space ordinance, we were doing this as part of our
open space requirements before we really had the ordinance and sax4ng land for schools
was part of that. We really haven't as a City talked about it since we've approved our
open space ordinance. It's not part of our discussion.
Novick: Well it wasn't just open space. It was the School Board at some points in the
past saying we think we're going to need a new school and I think they may have said a
grade school here, a junior high school there, can we set aside some land? And we never
did actually decide hog' this !and was going to be set aside and how it was going to be
allocated in terms of cost. Was it going to be entirely a single developer's cost or was it
going to be allocated somehog.' to school's taxes or property taxes in some way and we
never did get to the point of agreeing on how to do it?
Kubby: We talked about a school impact fee at one point Steve, is that still on the
planning staWs work program?
Arkins: To my knowledge it is not. I don't think we've talked about it in along time. Jeff
is saying no.
Iowa City Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development Jeff
Davidson: No, there are apparently 2 sites tentatively identified as elementary school
sites, because in the subdivision process we had 2 large land owners that we were working
with. One in the Sycamore Farms area and one in the Windsor Ridge area. I think we've
discussed those with Barb and her staff. And she has indicated to us how far the school
district can go in making a commitment to that site at this point in the process. Those 2
sites are the only ones tentatively identified right now.
Kubby: They have some limitations that if nothing happens within 15 years or some
certain amount of time that they revert back to the ownership and power and authority of
the developer.
Norton: But those 2 are in the hopper aren't they, those 2 that you're talking about?
Davidson: (Inaudible).
Norton: Doesn't the school have to say something about the general region you're talking
about?
Matheson: Well has your policy changed in terms of new developments? In the past
you've asked the developer to set aside some land for school sites.
Informal .Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 10
Kubby: We really haven't really had any big annexations or rezonings that were that big
since the Windsor Ridge.
Norton: That's the only one I think.
Novick: Well there w'ere 2.
Norton: Sycamore.
Novick: There were 2 large annexations in which we asked them to set aside some
acreage and we said if the School District was not going to use that acreage within 15
years, it would then be available for the developer to use for some other purpose.
Matheson: You're talking about Windsor and Sycamore.
Novick: Yes.
Matheson: So that's still an accepted practice then, if there were a large acreage or not?
Novick: Well we never did set it as a firm practice. We never did put it into our zoning or
annexation ordinances, because we never did agree on how we were going to pay for it.
We said that there should be perhaps an impact fee of some sort and the School District
and the City just never did agree on it. So it's not in writing.
Kubby: Well we never talked about it explicitly.
Norton: Well, how did you do it in the past? How did you do Weber?
Iowa City School Board Member Linda Levey: We did it, because a developer agreed
to it.
Norton: In this case. But how did you do Weber before that?
Levey: We bought it.
Norton: OK, well that's the best way is money.
Left: I don't think that planned acquisition for a new school is a big hurdle, because it's a
very low percentage of the cost of the overall project. So it's more of a matter of how it
fits into the development, but on the other hand if you set land aside as a proposed school
there is a big potential of misleading the potential buyers that think there is going to be a
school there and yet we don't know what populations it's going to create, whether it's
students, non-students. That's our biggest problem is looking at demographics of the area
and yet we have a large growth in population, but not large growth in the number of
students. So we've got to be concentrating where our students are being placed through
these new developments. So it's very hard for us to tell you as this area grows this is how
we would like to target a new school site.
Kubby: We need to really know in advance so we can do our capital improvements
planning so that what happened with Rohret Road doesn't happen again. Where we had
to figure out where this $3,000,000 was going to come from 2 years ahead of when we
had it scheduled. So in any case we need to make sure that we're communicating with
each other about demographics and streets and capital improvements.
Norton: It makes me feel like Coralville ought to be here to if we're going to talk school
sites, because I can see some places on the other side of the fiver out where Oakdale
Boulevard comes across towards 965. I mean if you're talking about getting away from
where present schools are and where the density is developing.
Matheson: That also relates to impact fees as far as I know a few discussions that I was a
part of I think we were asked what would you think about impact fees and immediately we
think about several governmental units not only Iowa City, but Coralville, North Liberty,
Hills, and whether those governments would be interested in impact fees. It almost is
Informal ,Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 11
unthinkable to think that all of those units would come together and agree on a system or
way of imposing impact fees.
Kubby: But if this ends up being an important issue in the near future, maybe we need to
get all of those entities together ~4th the sole thing on the agenda is that issue.
Matheson: We did wonder the same thing about Coralville. In terms of... We're guests,
but maybe they should be here, because we deal with them as much.
Norton: Well in terms of this issue particularly of overall development whether it is school
sites, streets, and all the rest, they run together and we were looking at 965 and Deer
Creek. They affect you~ they affect the County, they affect us, and they affect Coralville.
But I wonder on the school thing it seems like there ought to be a way to proceed here
that is ~xitten in stone. but apparently there is not. Maybe a subcommittee ought to take a
look at that question on how to formulate a plan.
Woito: Well there is one thing that you all should keep in mind and I'm sure that if you
ever want to move on with this question the la~3'ers have to get involved, because you
can't impose the burden on one developer to provide the service that the entire school
district community is going to enjoy.
Norton: Right.
Woito: I mean that's I hope obvious to everybody
Novick: Well that's the reason we talked about impact fees and we never did conclude
anything.
Woito: And so really it would be a School Board impact fee.
Novick: It would be a School District kind of thing. I don't know exactly how to do it.
Matheson: That's called property tax isn't it?
Novick: Well yes it would eventually end up as a property tax. It would be something
that would have to be school district wide which would be almost all of Johnson County.
I think there is just a little bit of Johnson County that is not within this school district and
we wouldn't necessarily have to include Coralville and North Liberty and other cities if
those kinds of issues were going to be discussed.
Grohe: I think the discussion we came to though was that it would be difficult to get all
of the communities that we serve as a school district to agree on process. It might even be
more difficult to get them to agree on any impact fee at all and the concern that came up
was part of the informal conversation was then communities that did agree to an impact
fee could put themselves at a disadvantage for development if other communities that we
serve don't have an impact fee. So it seems that we have this whole discussion of impact
fees that was a discussion doomed for failure as you tried to bring all of those issues to
bear and get everyone to agree they would have to agree at the same time about a
reasonably similar process that would take place in nearly all of the communities that we
serve. That seemed like a task that had no end in terms of getting it to happen. The other
idea that we had for putting this on the agenda was just what Karen was talking about and
that is that we have a rather continuous dialogue with both the City of Iowa City Planners
and with the Coralville Planners. Those are our 2 most frequent ones and North Liberty
fight now. We do that internally among staff and it seemed that it might be a good idea at
least initially to set aside an hour and maybe meet with each of the communities that we
serve and talk about what development is going on in the community and what
development the school district is talking about and say that to the elected bodies as well
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 12
as the staff having these conversations. That was kind of the crux of this whole thing is
that maybe it's important for us to get together once a year and say this is what we think is
going to be happening over the next year or 2. This is what it looks like to us and then
both the staff that are ser~4ng these various places will have that conversation and all of
you would hear it too. Right now it happens at the staff level, so maybe a kind of
summary discussion at the end of a year or beginning of a year might help us all get a
perspective of what's going on in the various communities that we're dealing with. That
was part of this whole agenda item that that might be worth doing and getting scheduled
on a fairly regular basis so we kind of update each other, not just the staff, but the elected
officials too get the update at the same time.
Novick: That sounds like a good idea.
Norton: (Inaudible).
Vanderhoef: That I like, but I'd like to go back just for a second on the impact fee Barb
when you were talking about taking it to each one of the municipalities that are in the
School District. I don't know what your possibilities are in bonding or funding from the
school district in and of itself. I'm aware of bond issues that end up purchasing land and
building schools. Now is there anything that precludes the School Board from going forth
and sa~4ng we will have an impact fee for the School District that will be district wide that
will be for the purpose of land acquisition.'?
Grohe: The School District doesn't have any taxing authority, so we can't do that. We
can bond and say in this we're going to try to pass this bond referendum and included in
the bond referendum is the land cost as well as the building cost.
Vanderhoef: But can you do a separate one that doesn't say it is also the school on it?
That you are bonding for land for future development.'?
?: I don't think you'd have a bond issue for land. It's too small an amount.
Novick: A bond issue has to be dedicated to a specific location, but what about putting
something in your current property tax, is that allowed7
Norton: What do you mean putting it in.'?
?: Accumulating cash for...
Vanderhoef: Cash up front for land acquisition.
Novick: Something like that, yes.
Norton: Well how did you buy land then for West High? How was that bought?
?: It was out of PPEL. Land acquisitions out of the PPEL Fund.
Novick: Well that could do. If there is money in the PPEL Fund that is now set aside for
land acquisition, that's similar to what we're talking about.
Kubby: Could we speak English for a minute, I don't know the School Board jargon.
Norton: What's the fund?
Matheson: Physical Plant and Equipment Le,,3,.
Kubby: Thank you.
Thornberry: Naomi, a point of clarification, you said that a bond issue must be site
specific. When we bonded for the new water plant did we have to site specific the new
water pipes?
Novick: Yes.
Thornberry: It's not the same.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 13
Novick: It w411 be a little different. When we're talking about a particular construction for
a particular school it's different from saying there will be water pipes that connect this to
there. You don't have to be specific in the bond issue, you just have to say the water
pipes are going to be paid for with water fees.
Thornberry: Well then why can't you say the land for the school will be paid for by the
bond?
Novick: I don't knoxv.
Left: The bond has not been a problem.
?: Weber School land.
Left: It's the planning.
Man 4?: My impression is that raising the money you have certain authority to do that,
it's the planning I think what .M was saying earlier was. It's the planning and where to put
them.
Arkins: It's not hog' to pay for the land. It's how to coordinate it with the whole
community development and what's the natural process.
Baker: I think I'd remind the schools that it's more than just the cities, because for
example the County government approved a large scale development and Bob's
development that certainly could bring many, many children to an area so it's really more
than just municipality that may have to wade in on this issue.
Kubby: As an individual council member I'd love to hear from the School Board when
we're talking about a big annexation issue to understand how it's going to impact, because
of the kind of development or zoning that we're talking about it may be able to help us
understand what does that mean to the School District. We have this lovely thing with the
conditional zoning agreement that's how we got this open space before the open space
ordinance and the school site land that we need to know early in the process to begin
negotiating, so keep an eye on our agenda as we need to keep an eye on yours.
Left: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. Our problem in trying to say how does a new
development area impact the district is no one can say at what rate that development is
going to be completed and what is it going to produce and we're looking numbers of
children. We can't look at number of occupied buildings and so every time we deal with
new development, new growth, we're late in the game because we're looking at where the
students are. So when we have all of the growth in the Coralville area, we want all of the
numbers that it can produce but no one can say how fast these new developments are
going to be spearheaded by actual development.
Kubby: And obviously development areas can change too, they go from older...
Left: That's right, they recycle.
Novick: We also have to say that it goes in both directions, because building a new school
out on Rohret Road caused all kinds of new housing to be constructed out there that we
hadn't planned on having constructed quite as soon as it was. And we had new street
construction also based on the fact that the school decided to go over there and then
everything else followed it.
Matheson: But wasn't the concept already there.'? The plan for the subdivision was in
place wasn't it?
Novick: No.
Kubby: Immediately around the school was planned.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 14
Matheson: Right. That's what I mean.
Novick: A lot of the subdivisions in that area happened after the school happened.
Matheson: It was obvious that it was going to continue to develop around the immediate
school.
Kubby: Just how soon is what we're talking about.
Levey: It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. AI said that you know plan a school and if
you don't know if the housing is going to develop or not. but maybe it becomes a magnet
for housing.
Novick: It certainly can be.
?: Cedar Rapids closed a school without ever occupying it. You don't guess where it's
going to be.
Levey: We could put it in the mall.
.9: We know students are going to be there.
Lacina: That would take care of it. I would like to make 2 quick points. One is for the
purposes of information sharing as we move forward the County will be developing a GIS
system. And by that I don't mean Johnson County, I mean in general all of the entities
will be advancing forward into this GIS system and I think it's going to be very important
to get a database that we can go in and pull information out and look at demographics.
And the school, the City everybody is going to need to be involved in this so that we
develop a good useable platform that everyone can tap into. Second point is while we're
talking about impact fees there are other sources of revenue which might assist the school
through JCCOG We've had a number of ISTEA funds for transit moneys that we've
reallocated into (inaudible) buses or connecting bicycle paths in order to keep parents
from having to haul kids across the Interstate north and south. The trail from North
Liberty down to Coralville hopefully will help some kids be able to ride their bikes to the
school, so involvement in the Council of Governments I think would be very welcome if
the School would want to have somebody set in. It would also be a forum for you to pass
information back to all the small communities that are involved in that so I want to extend
an invitation as the Chair of that to invite you to attend.
Matheson: I was going to say I don't what the proper forum is for participating in
planning or even discussions, but obviously I think the School District is very interested in
participating in that. Whether it be a forum similar to this, a continuation of this or some
other forum, Council of Governments, but you can count on us being participants in that
and continuing participation. It's to all of our benefits to do that, there's no question
about it.
Norton: I'm surprised you're not in there already. Because there we're obviously talking
about transportation and looking at where development is, because that's where
transportation routes have to be of various sorts.
Kubby: The arterial street plan is probably the number one document that would be most
(inaudible) the School Board looks at.
Norton: Absolutely.
Lacina: Should we plan on maybe twice a year trying to do something where we could do
something similar to Council of Governments, because then you would have Coralville and
the other entities.'? To start off with probably it would be information sharing and not a
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 15
voting position on the Board. We would have to discuss that, but at least to start the
communication.
JCCOG Executive Director Jeff Davidson: Just to clarify the School Board President is
a non-voting member of the JCCOG Board currently.
Matheson: Oh.
Kubby: Where have you been?
Noviek: Surprise.
Matheson: I've only been president half the year.
Noviek: Well you don't get the JCCOG schedules9 Jeff. do we send the agendas?
Matheson: We've been planning the 2 high schools that's why.
Novick: You and your 2 high schools, enough already.
Lacina: One in the mall right?
Noviek: I think Steve Lacina's idea of a meeting w4th JCCOG might be something that's
workable. Maybe we'll schedule that kind of thing when we get to the last item when we
schedule our next meeting and we'!! include some other people and maybe not have
everybody attend, but at least representatives from eyeD'body.
Kubby: At a regularly scheduled JCCOG meeting, I think we all have full.
PARKING AND STATUS FOR THE JOHNSON COUNTY SENIOR DINING
PROGRAM AT THE SENIOR CENTER
Novick: Is everybody ready to move on to item 4? Sally, the County is the one who put
item 4 on the agenda, we just saw this today, we haven't seen it before. Can you explain a
little bit about how you arrived at that?
Stutsman: Sure. These are some suggestions for items of discussion that came to the
Board through the Nutrition Committee and these are things that we wanted to bring
forward and to get feedback from primarily the City as far...
Norton: (Inaudible).
Novick: Well yes.
Stutsman: No pun intended huh7 So maybe if we just go through the 3 of these and then
we can decide how we want to approach them. The first one is that the City and County
recognize the Nutrition Program as a basic program in the Iowa City-Johnson County
Senior Center. I think this is basically a philosophical situation where the Nutrition
Committee doesn't feel that the program is considered an integral part of the Senior
Center and their planning. It's housed there, they pro~fide the space for it, but as far as
part of being a real integral part of' the planning and part of the program we just don't
sense that that is there. Are there any comments or further discussion about that7
Kubby: In terms of making statements, we have a Senior Center Commission that I
would more feel comfortable having this discussion with them before I could say yes I
support saying that this is a basic program even though my instinct is saying well yes of
course.
Novick: I would like to hear why you are saying you don't think it is part of the Senior
Center Program. Is it because the Senior Center Commission or the Council of Elders is
not planning and governing this program7
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 16
Stutsman: Well part of this comes from the Nutrition Committee. Joe, you have served
on the Senior Center Commission. Do you have an,vthing to add?
Bolkcom: Actually I'm not. Charlie is our member on that. I think historically there has
been a feeling that the congregate meal program is a separate entity that operates at the
Senior Center. I guess just some acknowledgment that it's an integral program of the
Center. It brings the most number of people to the Center on a daily basis and maybe it's
an attitude issue more than a programmatic one.
Novick: Isn't this a program though that operates in many sites, not just at the Senior
Center7
Bolkcom: It operates at Autumn Park and we also run the Hills site...
Stutsman: Solon.
Bolkcom: ...and Solon and Swisher.
Kubb3': Lone Tree?
Bolkcom: Lone Tree is a separate site.
Novick: So I guess that's why it has a separate committee rather than being part of the
Senior Center Commission.
Bolkcom: Right it's a County funded program...
Lacina: No.
Bolkcom: ...through the Area Agency on Aging.
Lacina: Heritage. We do not put any tax dollars into it, it's through Heritage that they
give it to us.
Bolkcom: That's what I just said.
Novick: OK so Heritage operates this program and operates it at multiple sites.
Bolkcom: That's right.
Norton: I'd like to think about Karen's point, because are we preempting the Commission
in some ways if we were to bless this at this point? It might be regarded by the
Commission as stepping on their turf before they get it in.
Kubby: Uh-huh
Bolkcom: I guess in general we see all 3 of these points as something to be discussed
maybe with a smaller group with Senior Center Commission members, with a couple
members of the City Council. Maybe that's the forum to...
Stutsman: Well let's move on to parking and this has been an issue for a long time and it
seems like we just don't get anywhere with it. We've discussed this off and on and have
presented it in different formats and it just doesn't get dealt with. So I think what we're
suggesting are some alternatives here and then the direction about where do we go from
here7 Where do we start moving so that we can come to some kind of agreement.
There's been some options identified as far as the Linn Street Parking, the parking in front
of the Senior Center having that designated just for volunteers to the Nutrition Program
and I guess that's maybe where the philosophical thing enters in. If this is recognized as
an important part of the Senior Center then the parking just falls into line. We begin to
make plans that this is something that we're committed to then we have to make some
parking arrangements for the volunteers.
Norton: How many are you talking about?
Stutsman: Well what 4 or 5 slots l suppose to begin with.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 17
Novick: Can't we designate those in the Chauncey Swan Ramp, because they are available
there and they are not available on Iowa Avenue. Those metered slots are always filled.
Stutsman: Is there any possibility that something can be worked out to designate those
spots for volunteers to the dining program.
Kubby: Right nov,' they are earmarked for Senior Center Volunteers, not necessarily
Nutrition Committee Volunteers.
Novick: You're talking about the ones at Chauncey Swan7
Kubby: Yes.
Novick: However are you talking about those or are you talking about Iowa Avenue?
Stutsman: No we're talking about designated slots on Iowa Avenue that at this point are
not designated, but what is the possibility of getting some specific slots on Iowa Avenue?
Novick: Those are tough. Those are verb, tough.
Bolkcom: There are designated volunteer parking spaces for Senior Center Volunteers,
but there are no designated volunteer spots for Senior Dining volunteers.
Kubby: Right.
Bolkcom: And I guess that kind of underscores the first point.
Kubby: I'm sure we can get numbers of how often are those filmed during these times and
can we designate 3 out of those l0 and 4 out of those 10 during those hours just for
Senior Dining volunteers. Is that a hardship that walk, the 2/3 of a block a problem for
those volunteers? I'm assuming if they can stand up to wash dishes that they can walk a
block.
Stutsman: Well I don't think it's so much as a hardship just knowing that there are some
slots there that they can count on always being there and that they're available for them to
park.
Kubby: Is 4 a good number for us to be thinking about?
Novick: Can we get a specific number?
Norton: Where?
Stutsman: And that's what we need to find out.
Novick: And Jeff Davidson can you find out how many of these things can be done at
Chauncey Swan because I know at one point there were spots available that were
designated for Senior Center Volunteers and it would be easy enough to say the Senior
Center volunteers and the Nutrition Volunteers can both use them.
Davidson: Sure.
Kubby: But it's the guaranteeing during those specific hours for Nutrition people.
Novick: Yes, we need to find out how many spots are needed and how many spots are
available that we could mark.
Norton: But you're talking Chauncey Swan not on Linn Street or Iowa Avenue?
Novick: Right.
Stutsman: Right and the request is for Iowa Avenue.
Novick: I just don't see how that's possible.
Thornberry: I think if there were parking spaces open and it said for Senior Center
Volunteers only or whatever, we would all be getting a lot of phone calls and letters or it
would be ignored. It just isn't going to happen, not on the streets. Chauncey Swan I
wouldn't be quite as opposed to having them lumped x~4th some of the Seniors, because
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 18
there seems to be in the daytime in the middle of the day it seems to be more Senior
Center spaces open in Chauncey Swan then anywhere else.
Novick: There are Senior Center spaces in the parking lot behind the Senior Center, but
it's hard to say that from 11:30 to 1:30 the other volunteers can't use it and only the
Nutrition volunteers can, but they're available but you just have to have the permit on the
car and you have to be able to get there at the time and find a space.
Stutsman: I know.
Bolkcom: We'd love to have some of those permits then to compete for the spaces I
guess.
Novick: As far as I know the permits are designated and I don't know how many there
are and we can find out. Give us a number about how many people would use the spaces
and we'll see if we can find some spaces that can be marked.
Davidson: The Senior Center Lot is administered by the Senior Center, so that kind of
falls under Karen's comment about the Commission and not under Iowa City parking.
Novick: But even then, even at the Commission they're sa54ng we will sell X permits and
you can come and find out if there is a space available and the spaces are designated for
exactly the number of permits that are sold. We need to find out some numbers.
Norton: Well it seems to me that committee that we're talking about putting together
that's going to talk about question number one in some way should make sure that the
Senior Commission understands the importance of this program and among those aspects
are the parking issues. Which bears on that lot behind there and see what they can shake
out about it and tai 'king v,4th Jeff I don't see how you're going to take the spaces right in
front of the Cottage you mean or somewhere like that.'?
Stntsman: Well in front of the Senior Center there is kind of that jut in.
Norton: Oh, the cut out there.
Stutsman: Yes and have those designated with signage sa54ng that these are just for...
Norton: Talk to the Senior Center Commission.
Novick: That's the loading zone. That's the place to drop off people.
?: That's the place to drop people off for Senior Dining right there and then go park the
Bolkcom: According to our SEATS drivers the drop off is on Washington Street and that
was designated that way, but it's not really used that way.
Norton: But a lot of private drop-offs are used that way.
Thornberry: Yes.
Kubby: But you wouldn't have to make the whole day.
Norton: Leave some or say between 11:30 and 1:30 it's verboten.
Vanderhoef: Is there any reason why the volunteers wouldn't be capable of parking at
Chauncey Swan and walking a block.'?
Stutsman: Bob, can you answer that? I don't deal directly vdth the volunteers.
Nutrition Advisor)' Committee Member Bob Welsh: First of all Chauncey Swan is a
metered spot, not a free spot. On Linn Street you have across from the drive in to First
National Bank you have a drop off section. That is not used as Joe said as a drop off for
persons, because there is big steps there. They drop off persons either at the Alley or on
Washington Street. At the present time the volunteer spots in the Senior Center lot are
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 19
marked volunteers only. You cannot park there if you're a volunteer for the Nutrition
Program.
Novick: Well what you'd need for those volunteers is a little label on the car.
Stutsman: Well how do we get access to those little labels on the car?
Novick: Well we'll find out, tell us hoxv many. We'll find out.
Norton: The Senior Commission.
Welsh: A point of that one suggestion is you do have spaces there on Linn Street which
most of the time are vacant. Are people who pull in there for a moment and run to the
Cottage or even to First National Bank..adl we're sa54ng is it would be very simple not to
have any negative impact on the volunteer program of the Senior Center to just designate
those spaces there like on the lot for volunteer parking to just say during the hours of the
Senior Center on Linn Street to designate that volunteer parking.
Thornberry: Sounds sensible.
Novick: Well here it says, Iowa Avenue. Linn Street is also here. OK
Levey: It must be when I go to the senior Center on Thursday mornings, I'm there all
morning, those spaces in the front on Linn Street where there's that parallel parking,
they're always full. The band is there, I'm there, it's just packed. There's no parking
anywhere in the lot even for a volunteer. One thought. I don't know how feasible this
would be is those spaces that parallel parking is just such a waste of space to me, if that
sidewalk could be deepened a little bit and head-on angle parking.
Novick: We're looking at it south of Dubuque so we could look at it north of also.
Levey: You can't drop off people there, because as he said the stairs are so steep that
people that really need it have to go in the side entrances so...
Welsh: I wanted to mention on Iowa Avenue the impression I had with that and here
again this becomes a matter of priorities and all. One of Iowa City's blessings is that it has
parking problems, most communities would kill themselves to have that problem. But
(inaudible) as mentioned a lot of people cannot utilize that facility, because of a lack of
parking. Again Chauncey Swan seems like a very, reasonable alternative and the fact of
the matter is for your elderly persons that is not a viable alternative.
Novick: I'm sorry,, but I know a !or of elderly persons who do use that and are happy to
use that so don't generalize.
Norton: Good exercise Bob going up that hill.
Stutsman: The last item is nominating a person to be appointed to serve on the Nutrition
Committee and I don't imagine that's too difficult to accomplish if that can be put on.
Novick: No, I think we can ask the Senior Center Commission to consider one of their
members as a member of this committee and we'll get back to you.
Stutsman: And working on the other 2 you suggest ~vorking with the Senior Citizen
Commission.
Novick: I think the Senior Center Commission.
Kubby: Yes, we'd like to maybe hear some recommendations from the Senior Center
Commission.
Norton: They'll tell us what they want us to do. Yes.
Novick: We'll just ask them to put it on the agenda and then get back to us. If we can get
some specific number of spaces on the parking before we ask them to put that on the
agenda that would be helpful.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 20
Bolkcom: Maybe we could be informed when it's going to be on so that we can have a
Super~4sor or 2 who wanted to attend the Commission meeting.
Novick: Certainly. I think there is probably a person from the County appointed by your
Board, you might talk to that person and find out a little bit more about it also.
Stutsman: Is it worth exploring what Linda suggested about the angle parking? Is that a
possibility at all?
Kubby: It certainly could be added to the other Linn Street angle parking we're already
looking at.
Stutsman: OK. All right.
Davidson: That's already in the area we're looking at. Council has directed staff already
to look at Linn Street between Iowa and College and College between Linn and Gilbert,
those 3 blocks we'll be evaluating this summer for angle parking.
Stutsman: OK.
Novick: I also should say that we're probably going to do angle parking with meters if we
do it. We haven't yet discussed that, but I have to tell you its certainly possible.
Bolkcom: What else?
Norton: (Inaudible).
Stutsman: Can we get tokens to put in those meters?
Novick: I think that if your Nutrition Committee wants to subsidize the volunteers in
terms of paying for their parking it's acceptable to me. But it's not acceptable that other
Senior Center Volunteers are paying for parking and these are not.
Norton: Yes.
Welsh: Senior Center Volunteers are not at metered spaces.
Novick: They are paying for the permits.
Welsh: Oh, that's right. I'm sorry.
Novick: So we w411 work it out somehow.
UPDATE ON SHARE THE ROAD PROGRAM
Novick: OK, moving on. Karen I think you suggested the signs on Share the Road.
Kubby: Yes I did. I wanted to just pass around some photographs of the new Share the
Road signs that have been put up in Iowa City that help remind everybody that both bikes
and cars are legal vehicles in Iowa and that we're sharing the roads. And some maps that
people can take and I guess I'm really encouraging the County to do this and I'll be
approaching Coralville to do it too. These are the streets that include Coralville and Iowa
City. Coralville is not doing this at this time, Iowa City has I think most of their signs up.
The signs are really cheap. They're only $60 including the posts. We have information on
how to get them.
Stutsman: How' many have you put up in Iowa City?
Davidson: 145.
Novick: The map shows streets that have been designated by JCCOG as better streets for
bicycle traffic to intersperse with cars.
Kubby: I think they're just a real good reminder to everybody on the road that there are
both rights and responsibilities. That's all. Iowa City Council Members all have seen this
II lq
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 21
map, so I just really wanted School Board Members and Johnson County Supervisors to
see it.
PROPOSAL FOR REGIONAL QUALITY IN GOVERNMENT NETWORK
Novick: The next item was my proposal, because Susan Vavroch came to a JCCOG
meeting and said that she would like to organize a regional Quality in Government
network Since I put this on the agenda I received another letter saying that this meeting
will be held on April 21 and it gives the time and the place, etc. I'm encouraging people
from City, County, Schools to consider attending this finding out more about it and trying
to do something. That's it.
Stutsman: I was going to say I'm planning to go to that if anybody would like to carpool.
Novick: l would do that.
Stutsman: OK.
Norton: Oh boy, you're going to wrap us in a bunch oftouchy-feely...
Noviek: We don't know what it's going to be. We're going to have a couple people go
and find out. You don't have to be one ofthem.
Norton: I sure won't.
Stutsman: We'll come back and let you know.
Norton: Real work to do.
Novick: I just wanted people to know that this was going on and the people who were at
the JCCOG meeting had heard from her so others can know that it's here.
Kubby: I just wanted to let people know that these pictures don't belong to me, so I need
to get the other one back.
Norton: Great signs.
Novick: Copies of the map should be kept by School and County, because we have plenty
of those.
Thornberry: Who do they belong to?
Kubby: John Yapp, I borrowed them.
Novick: By the way I had a nice comment from a bicycle rider about the other signs, the
bicycle friendly community signs. He thought they were neat.
Lynch: I had a question, did this emanate from the group that's in Wisconsin I think that
they are connected with (inaudible) in some respects?
Novick: It's regional in Iowa, Area 10, Kirkwood Community College. Jeff, if you're
going to make some decisions about the next JCCOG meeting via phone call you might
also mention the fact that this meeting is available if you happen to talk to anybody.
Davidson: We have determined that there will not be a conflict between the Historic
Preservation Board's (inaudible). We're not planning on rescheduling the JCCOG
meeting.
Novick: Good, thank you. Anyway Washington, Linn and Johnson County have received
this letter also Marion and Coralville. If anyone knows that North Liberty or Hills or
somebody else might be interested it's available to anybody in the county.
TAX INCREMENT FINANCING DISTRICTS
ila.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 22
Novick: OK, who put in TIF's?
Kubby: County.
Levey: For those of us who are acronym challenged, what does that stand for?
Kubby: Tax Increment Financing.
Stutsman: Steve, do you want to explain it briefly?
Lacina: The purpose of a TIF is to take any additional growth in tax dollars and to
reinvest it into the specified purpose of the TIF. So for example the Coralville Mall, some
construction took place and the value of the property increased and we will all benefit
fi-om that tax base. Then they placed a TIF upon that and as new construction takes place
now the County, School, everyone will be locked out from those additional dollars to
include Coralville, but the additional growth tax dollars then must be reinvested for the
specified purpose of the TIF which in their case is for infrastructure. So for example on
Streb's property with the TIF if it's specified for interior streets, then that's what it has to
be spent for. There is a limit on the time period and I think it varies from 7 up to 20 years
that it can be specified. I think Coralville intends to go 5 to 7. Negative side of it is with
the additional growth on the Coralville example, their law enforcement is also locked out
and all of their other infrastructure for streets exterior to that particular project are locked
out. So they are also motivated to invest in, get the logistics in place and then back out of
that TIF. It stops the School System from getting the tax, the County, we get the original
base dollars but we just don't get that new growth.
Kubby: You don't get the increment increase. You don't get that.
Bolkcom: So in the case of the mall there is going to be about a $1,500,000 extra tax
dollars a year that Coraix~!le will essentially keep all of that money.
Norton: Yes, because you're going from low value to quite a bit.
Bolkcom: About $600,000 of that a year is school district money. About $250,000
would come to the County and now it's basically to Coralville.
Lacina: After 5 to 6 )'ears, then we'd get that dollar which would give major...
Novick: And there is State laws on this. It is possible for somebody to say only 50% of
the increment or 75% of the increment will be used for this purpose and the rest of it will
fall into the general fund for everybody. I haven't read it recently, but there are variations
that are possible.
Kubby: And Iowa City was going to be talking about a TIF for not the full 140 acres, but
only the industrial part. I can't remember how many acres.
Novick: It's about 100 acres.
Norton: It's about 100.
Kubby: At this point staff has been talking to us about a 20 year TIF, so we may want to
hear some feedback from the' County and the School District about that.
Stutsman: Well the other thing to add about TIF's is that you really don't have a choice
in the matter. When Coralville decides to TW, they don't go to the School Board and ask
them is this OK. Or to the County. They just can go ahead and put in a TIF so it impacts
all of us and yet we don't have a choice in how long or the area or whatever.
Grohe: It's important to understand that for the schools, the impact of the TIF is on our
Physical Plant and Equipment Lew which is our construction fund and our repair and
maintenance fund.
Kubby: That means you just go out to bond.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 23
Grohe: So when we lose that money for the time that it's gone that's money we don't
have available for any kind of physical or any kind of maintenance or construction
projects. That money is not available to us for that entire period. So...
Novick: It's also operating funds.
Grohe: No, because our operating funds are per pupil allocation.
Novick: However don't you have local property tax involved in that per pupil allocation?
Grohe: But we get the per people allocation. what it determines is hob' much is generated
locally from the property tax and how much is generated from the State.
Novick: I see.
Grohe: The real impact is on the Physical Plant and Equipment Lex3, which means that to
the extent that the TIF works, because what it's supposed to do is generate growth and
development and increase the value of whatever property you've TIFed out then
eventually the impact of that growth is supposed to generate additional taxes for the
taxing body when the TIF is over. To the extent that it generates any additional growth
that results in School District costs, we get to deal with the growth without any of the
money. Which is a problem for us. And so if they get too extensive then the School
District kind of loses all around, because we pick up costs of whatever growth in terms of
families and children is involved then we lose whatever increase we would have had in
terms of taking care of facilities and construction, so that's the impact on us.
Kubby: That's another reason for the school in the mall.
Norton: You said then that's it's possible to earmark to take less than all of the TIF
money and let some of it continue. Can that be distributed in a different formula than
normally for example could the School Board get it's ordinary share out of smaller total
file?
Novick: I don't know'. I know that the State law allows some variation. It allows a
government that declares a tax increment district to save all of increment will be used
within this district or some part of the increment will be used within the district and there
also allows some variation in the number of years and I don't have those things at my
tingenips.
Grohe: I'd say the difficult position for the School District is that you certainly don~t ever
want to be in a relationship with one of your communities where they're saying to you we
need to do this in order to promote growth in our community and have the School District
say no we don't think you ought to do that. You know we work together on growth in
our community so it's kind of an awkward position to be in because we feel the impact,
but it's not something that of course that you get to vote on at all. That you have a lot of
discussion about. But even if you did, it gets very difficult to say we understand that this
is what you need to encourage this kind of growth, but we don't think you should do that
because when you engender that kind of growth we engender these kind of costs. So
generally what happens is it happens and then you take care of it.
Lehman: You know Barb, that's not all that much different than the City though. The
City of Coralville that if they do this TIF for the mall, they're going to have to spend
money for infrastructure for streets to service that mall and whatever. They're going to
have increased costs and no money whatsoever coming from those taxes. So the cities
and School District really aren't all that different.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 24
Grohe: The only difference is the City gets to vote on whether to do it or not and the
School District gets billed with the result.
Lehman: But the burden is just as much on the cities as it is on the School District when
it comes to pro,,4ding those ser~qces.
Norton: Yes, but they're doing it to themselves. In the case of the School Board it's
being done to them.
Novick: As far as Roads are concerned you can somewhat say OK we're going to have
more traffic, we're going to have more gasoline sales, we're going to have more road use
taxes. Sometimes those Lvpes of things work out, but for the schools they do not, there is
no other way.
Lacina: There are some examples where the TIF has been in my opinion abused. There
was a golf course constructed which took school taxes av, ay up by the (inaudible) area.
Novick: That didn't happen here, did it?
Lacina: No.
Novick: Thank you very, much.
Lacina: There have also been up by Dubuque there was a small town that for economic
development purposed TIFed an area for the growth and they constructed a grain
processing facility v, fithout realizing the impact of all of the semi's that then destroyed the
streets running to it and they were locked out of any revenue from that for a long period
of time until that TIF came off So there has to be some forward planning. For example,
Coralville's Law Enforcement will be affected by the new mall, but they are locked out of
revenue for that. So one of our concerns and I think we have a town in Johnson County,
the entire town has been TIFed which basically put us in a hard tax freeze, because we
don't get any new growth on that.
Kubby: A tax freeze on the tax freeze.
Lacina: So a concern is I guess from the County's standpoint short term when you can
see a real benefit coming back we can live with that. We just notch the belt a little tighter.
But on a long term ifwe're talking 10, 20 years there could be some serious impact.
Norton: Well we ought to get the numbers at least. That strikes me as strange that we
don't even have figures on it. We ought to know what the impact is going to be. You
said somebody could estimate that Joe7
Bolkcom: There are... the Assessors who have estimated an agsessed evaluation of about
$50,000,000 of the mall proper when it's completed. It's a little less than a $1,500,000 a
year. In the case of the schools, the mall actually divides the Clear Creek and Iowa City
Community School Districts. It goes right through the middle and so the Assessors are
very interested in how' that square footage works out, but I think we should...
Norton: Wow.
Novick: Very interesting.
Stutsman: Well it's even to the point where it goes through some stores. Right through
the middle of a store, so half of the store is in one school district and half the store is in the
other school district.
Bolkcom: I think TIF used appropriately to bring that project on line makes sense. When
TIF money is used off site for other kinds of infrastructure projects, it becomes a problem
I think. And Coralville should just recognize that other governments are going to assume
some greater costs. The County is going to have costs. I don't know what they're going
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 25
to be necessarily. We expect our County Attorney's office to be busier with bad checks
and juvenile problems.
Stutsman: Juvenile problems.
Boikcom: The ambulance is going to go out there more frequently, so we do anticipate
some costs, it's hard to ~ow what they are.
Matheson: How do you avoid misuse Steve?
Lacina: If the cities petition the State to grant the TIF we're out. The class of property
has an effect as well. So for example if you're looking at retail TIF's where it's going to
generate jobs, those people are buying houses, the TIF effect is somewhat minimized
because they're going to bring a lot of outside dollars into CorMville. People are going to
locate here, work, and so we're affected, but yet we're going to grow. It's just going to
come vdth it. If you're looking at a small number of jobs for a steel plant down at
Muscatine and you TIF the area and you're pounding your roads, then you're really
hammered, because you've got a lot of expense to subsidize that structure so a lot
depends up on the class of property. But from the County's standpoint and the schools'
standpoint, we basically have it handed to us we have no choice.
Matheson: I mean it's just up to the municipality...
Bolkcom: Basically.
Matheson: ...to self regulate.
Novick: And the County could do a TIF also, it's not just a municipality.
Matheson: Pardon?
Novick: A County could do it.
Lacina: Yes, in the rural area we can lock that money back into an intended
reconstruction project for an industriM park, for example as Scott has done. Scott has a
lot of industrial property. Every dollar of new growth is reinvested back into that
property.
Matheson: But you don't have to do it, you have to apply for a TIF.
Lacina: Well and you don't have to have the TIF, because we could just make that
dedication of X amount of total property tax dollars back into it as well.
Matheson: That's right.
Lacina: For the counties to do it it's questionable.
Bolkcom: I think we should just be encouraging Coralville to do whatever they need to
do as quickly as they can. Initially they were talking a 2 to 3 year TIF and now it's gone
to 6, 7, 8 year TIF. They could probably find things to spend money on in year 9, 10, and
11.
Lacina: Actually the first I heard I think was a 7 and now they're back to 5. They want
to get it off.
Stutsman: Yes, I think they are motivated to get it off too because they need those
dollars.
Lacina: Their law enforcement and all of the other things that they hope to do is going to
be negatively affected by the TIF.
Bolkcom: That's just the mall that you're talking about.
Kubby: It's going to be challenging when we talk about the Industrial TIF in Iowa City
and that we may not want it to be 20, so that we don't hold up the moneys to the other
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 26
entities, yet the Industrial Park is something that takes longer to fully develop and so
we're going to have to balance those 2 things in our discussions. That's up and coming.
Lacina: But it's a good tool, if it's used fight.
Novick: OK, anything else on that? What's going on with Decategorization?
UPDATE ON JOHNSON COUNTY HUMAN SERVICES DECATEGORIZATION
PROJECT AND INNOVATION ZONE
Stutsman: Decat, that's good. I put this on the agenda just because I knew the School
Board was going to be here and this is funding for Child Welfare programs that the
County gets and distributes and we have a number of programs that are in the schools
specifically in Northwest Junior High that received Decat funding and we never know
from year to year what that funding level is going to be. So as the year has gone on since
we started Decat the funding has gotten tighter and tighter and I think we just need to be
aware of that and see if we can get any additional funding for these programs that are in
the schools from the School District. I know we've been in conversation with Barb Grohe
about expanding funding for these programs. These programs are valuable. They have an
impact on kids and they're a positive impact on kids. I think it's real important that we
continue them but we have to recognize too that funding is limited and see what we can
do to get additional funds.
Kubby: Are the funds are Northwest for the same kind of family center that's out at Hills.
Stutsman: Right, there is a variety of funding streams. The Hills center has grant moneys
plus Decat funding. Decat funding a lot of times is used as a match grant for other grants
and things to leverage additional moneys. So it really plays an important part. I just am
concerned with cutbacks and what kind of impact that is going to have. I think we all just
have to be aware to keep these programs going we all have to make a commitment to
some funding for them.
Novick: I heard that you got funding for your innovation program. Do you want to tell us
about that.'?
Stutsman: I didn't hear that.
Noviek: I read it in the newspaper.
Stutsman: Oh, well that's terrific. Unfortunately, the good news is that we got the
innovation, the bad news is that there is no funding associated with that. All that allows us
to do is to apply for some waivers for some rules that inhibit us from doing what we want
to do. The program itself is dealing with FIP recipients and the Work Force Development
and trying to get these...
Novick: What's FIP?
Stutsman: I'm sorry., Family Investment Program. The old AFDC program and basically
what the program will do will be to allow people who are in the FIP program to work
through the system faster. We identify different barriers, as far as them getting into the
Work Force Development program and so we decided what those barriers were and we'll
be applying for waivers to cut out the red tape basically is w, hat it will be. So we can
move people through the program faster. Because ,,,,'hat we have to realize with the
Welfare Reform Act is that the clock is ticking, the minute somebody is eligible, the 5 year
clock starts ticking and so the faster you get these people through the program and on
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 27
their feet the better it is for everybody. So it's real exciting. The proposal that was put
together it calls for a lot of collaboration from a lot of the agencies in the community as
well as the school district, the Health Department, so I think we'll be able to do some
innovative, exciting things.
Novick: But no money?
Stutsman: No money.
Novick: Too bad, OK.
Stutsman: Just allows us to kind of work the rules so that we can make the system work
better. So that's an incentive in that part ofit, but I think it will lead on to other things as
we develop the program and things so.
Kubby: Are there plans at the School district level to talk about those family centers at
N'orthwest and Hills if the Decat money is not available7
Grohe: We have a committee that's working with Decat on looking at those.
Stutsman: Is anybody from the School Board, Barb, on those committees7
Grohe: No, it's a staff committee at this point.
Stutsman: OK, all right, I didn't know how involved the School Board was with those
plans and decisions and things.
Grohe: Not a lot yet, because we're still trying for some other grants to help support that
particular program.
Stutsman: It's just a concern as money starts getting tighter. You know the Juvenile
Justice grant I was at a meeting about that this morning. It brings over $200,000 into the
community to really deal with some prevention tsq~e programs that are really having an
impact. Well it's a 3 year grant, we're at the end of that 3 years, we don't know if we'll
get continued funding and then we say well what happens now. $200,000 is a lot of
money for the County to pick up or anybody to pick up. It's pretty scary especially when
our needs aren't decreasing, they're increasing. Especially when you start talking about a
mall and what kind of impact that will have. It's pretty scar).'.
Atkins: That's the same thing with the police officers for the cities. The funding stream.
Novick: I received a notice for some grants for juvenile crime prevention and I passed it
on to the police chief and he said he's going to consider tD'ing to get together with some
youth groups and do some joint applications.
Norton: Naomi, is that the one I brought back from the Safe Schools?
Novick: I don't know what you brought back, but I got one in the mail. I got a notice in
the mail about grant applications and I passed it on. He said the had the same notice, you
may have had it also.
CONFERENCE ON COMPLYING WITH THE AMERICANS WITH
DISABILITIES ACT
Novick: OK, what do we have here? ADA compliance information is in the packet that
everybody received. I thought it sounded like a very inexpensive conference if anybody
wants to go and learn more about ADA compliance so I threw it in the packet.
PROPOSAL TO SCHEDULE AN EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS PROGRAM
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 28
Novick: Who put in emergency preparedness?
Norton: I probably did.
Novick: That was you.
Norton: I'm still tDing to organize or see if there is enough interest in a half a day or
something like that for public officials to get updated on emergency response. The State
has some people who do a very interesting briefing on that and I'm representing the City
on the Emergency Commission. It seems to me it would be w4se, whenever I look at the
list at what you ought to know I'm pretty shocked by how much I don't know real well
and exactly who is going to be on first. Now I don't want to waste anybody's time, but
l'm kind of thinking that it might be wise to have those at least interested give a little
briefing. In addition to that we're soon going to have a dam failure study. We've been
looking at that for some time and I think it's about finished and we might at the same time
do that. So some time we better think about where we all are during substantial
emergencies. I don't know that we know that now very, well. I don't feel very
comfortable I don't 'know whether everybody else does. I'm sure Steve has a book on
what a CEO is supposed to do during an emergency, but 1 don't know what the rest of us
do. So I just throw it out as a possibility to see if there was any interest in... I know the
City has already said they would come but not for a day. You know they would come for
a couple hours but I don't know that they would hold still for even a half a day. So if we
could get this lady to come do~ from... and try to get a group together.
Novick: Where is she?
Norton: From Des Moines.
Thornberry: I think it is important and I think we should as elected officials know what
we're supposed to do in some sort of crisis whether it be tornado or whether...
Stutsman: Well what does Jim McGinley do with emergency...
Norton: Jim of course is the coordinator. He would brief us on local plans, but the State
would only be on general plans. He would try to brief us on more detail. I just feel like an
elected official ought to know about this a little bit.
Thornberry: If the dam breaks, he's responsible call him.
Stutsman: He wants to know which way to run huh?
Thornberry,: Which way to go.
Norton: But wouldn't this plan come... Well we're going up to Palo for our next
meeting, but I think there would be a combination of a briefing by Jim as to where we
stand on local plans and on principle maybe that's what we should organize. But I'll work
with Jim and see what we can come up with
Novick: See if you can come up with...
Kubby: 2 hours max.
Novick: Well I would say 2 to 3 hours would not be unreasonable. We met for 3 hours
yesterday and didn't make great progress.
Kubby: But we were doing a quite...
Vanderhoef: The first 2 hours were great. But on that third hour. Maybe we should quit
at 2 hours.
Novick: Is there somebody here who would like to endorse this? Ask Mr. Norton to go
ahead and schedule something and send us all a notice? County too?
Norton: I'!1 work with Jim about this.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 29
Stutsman: Is the School District interested?
Norton: Is Charlie (inaudible) still on there.
Stutsman: Yes Charlie is.
Norton: Well everybody seems to think they know, but not everybody shares it very well.
I'm sure they're countins on schools for emergency locations. I don't know that.
Bolkcom: We're a host county for Palo.
Kubby: You bet. That's where the big kitchens and the big areas for putting up cots are.
Grohe: We were the site for the floods. That's where we housed people because we had
the big driveways.
Kubby: Right. Southeast.
Novick: It was so convenient that the floods happened in July when there weren't any
classes in the gymnasium What would happen if it were in May?
Grohe: We'd still work something out.
Novick: We'd work something, OK.
Norton: Well l just think it might be important to know the role of the Red Cross and
eve~'body else. They're a big factor in this whole enterprise. So I'll present you a little
proposal about this.
UPDATE ON SAFE SCHOOLS/SAFE COMMUNITIES JUVENILE CRIME
PREVENTION CONFERENCE
Novick: Who put in safe cities is that County?
Norton: Well I did only because I went to the meeting. I guess that's me, but I don't
want anything to happen. 3 people from the school staff were there as well and Deb
Minot representing the County. Everybody at the meeting had each group... this was the
urban...
Novick: Explain which meeting this was before we go any farther.
Norton: This was in Des Moines and it was a meeting called Safe Schools/Safe
Communities, not Safe Cities/Safe Communities. The urban school districts, urban areas
such as Davenport, Council Bluffs, and so on. Each group had maybe 6 to 10 people at
the meeting and (inaudible) from the Juvenile Justice department all directed at juvenile
crime prevention or juvenile delinquency or whatever. Each group had to report their
problems. Every group had some city and county officials and everybody came up with a
big problem that not everybody in the community knows all of the things that are going
on. We've got so many different activities in this community and in the schools that the
city is not aware of and they're saying that sometimes the city's elected officials are not as
clear about these things and are not as manifestly what shall I say involved in the
importance of these programs and that we need to get that done. Now just how to do that
I'm not sure. But I brought back a big book, I left it with you Naomi, because I didn't
want to...
Novick: I saw it, I put it on the shelf and l haven't had time to even think about it.
Norton: This was a big proposal from the Justice Department and I haven't had a chance
to assimilate it yet, but I just wanted to say and I know Larry has been tracking some of
this from the City and you do for the County Sally I guess and I thought we would get
together with Linda and see what needs to be done to bring this higher in the list of
/ hA?;
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 30
importance in the CID', because it's a great concern to us of course with the revitalization
of downtown. The delinquency issue is an issue down there and I think we all need to get
better informed about it.
Statsman: I agree and we need to just keep working on more coordination and things.
Kubby: Does the Human Services Directory include School District programs like those
family centers or other...
Statsman: The Human Services Directory?
Kubby: Or is that just Human Services Agencies7
Statsman: No it includes the gamut at least I think so, doesn't it Jeff7.
Davidson: It's a service directory not serv%e agency directory.
Kubby: So all those things. That's a resource that we all have access to that is updated
on a regular basis and will now be available on disc.
Norton: Well I think this juvenile justice program that the Federal Government is pushing
and I don't know whether there is any money in it or not, but is exactly this to put the
communities and their elected people more in touch with this problem. Because the
schools are doing a lot of things that the rest of us don't 'know.
Kubby: Did people from School Board go?
Norton: I will talk to Larry and you and see what we need to do and with Linda. Of
course JCCOG again is the place where I suppose this gets discussed more frequently.
Grohe: There is a task force that operates that includes the School District, the Chamber
of Commerce, many of the downtown association merchants have been getting together
with us and with some of the service agencies around the issue of gangs, gang prevention,
juvenile delinquency, and that group is meeting on a rather ongoing basis. We send
representatives to that group too. We sent a team of people to this conference and they're
going to go back to this larger task force and talk to them about some of the idea that they
came up with too.
Norton: Well there already may be a mechanism.
Grohe: So we may have a group already going for the coordination that we're talking
about. I don't know whether any of you serve on that group. I think it's more of a work
group rather than the policy makers that are there, so we have some way of getting that
information out to a larger group of people who can consider what we may need to do and
what they're trying to do is make sure that all of our approaches are coordinated to the
normal (inaudible).
Novick: Barbara, is there somebody from City staff on that committee?
Grohe: I know' who our people are, but right at the moment I can't tell you who your
people are.
Novick: OK, who is the main coordinator? Who is the person in charge of calling the
meetings, etcetera?
Grohe: I think it might be John Beckord at the Chamber of Commerce, I think they're
helping facilitate this.
Novick: OK, we should find out who is there from the City and if not we'll get somebody
there.
Grohe: I think you have a representative from the Police Department there if l'm not
mistaken.
Novick: We'll see. It sounds like a logical person.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 31
Lacina: I think we all should thank the school system for allowing us to use their facilities
at West High and I can't think of the elementary school over on Benton Street for disaster
practices when we had the mock tornado that came through and then since we are an
evacuation site for the Palo Center if something happens there. They allowed us to a
decontamination project out there and I think we owe them thanks. Thank you.
Kubby: Thank you. I'm the only one who ever brings that up and they always laugh at
me.
UPDATE ON TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACT OF 1996
Novick: OK, moving on, you put telecommunications act in there.
Stutsman: I put this on and I ~ess I was just interested in 'knowing what the City and the
School District, how they're approaching when they're asked for sitings for towers and
things.
Norton: We're making some steps.
Novick: Well we sent some information.
Stutsman: Right.
Novick: We sent you what we had so far. Also we sent some information about a
conference that's coming up in case somebody want's to go and learn more about it.
Kubby: Although we don't want a new urban forest as Dee Norton says. We want the
different companies to cooperate to try to decrease the number and height of towers if
possible.
Norton: These things are really heavy duty. All we've done is make sure that they
presumably kind of tr3' to force them into public areas if they can. And to try to co-locate
as much as possible.
Kubby: And some setbacks.
Novick: I think that the requirement for larger dishes in residential areas could be
important to the County as well. You might want to just read through. You're welcome
to copy anything that we sent.
Matheson: We got a cable request and we spent a considerable amount of time
entertaining the proposal, staff time and eventually did approve and then they withdrew
their offer. So we wasted a lot of time, but we were entertaining the possibility.
Norton: Of a tower?
Matheson: Yes.
Kubby: Actually the County's Board of Appeals... 1 think.
Stutsman: Board of Adjustments.
Kubby: Board of Adjustments dealt with them and had a really great list of questions that
helped us when we were dealing with our ordinance and so you all have been working on
it.
Lacina: See actually I thought Steve put this on and was going to talk about condemning
that radio station.
Stutsman: You want to tell us about that?
Atkins: No.
Stutsman: Did you get any phone calls? I heard about that this morning, what a horrid
joke.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 32
Novick: Too many. I don't know if Lisa kept count, but she told me there were lots.
Kubby: She said to me at least 50.
Arkins: There were lots.
StuBman: Is everybody aware of what happened?
Norton: No.
Stutsman: Do you w'ant to talk about it?
Kubby: KCJJ said that the City was condemning their property and that we were going to
keep the station going, but they had to play Chinese music and that they had to have
increased diversity in their work force and in their programming. And so they were
playing all of this Chinese music and people believed it and...
Lacina: And the phone number.
Stutsman: Didn't they give Stcvc's phone number?
Novick: Yes, they gave the City Manager's office's phone number.
Norton: They were just trying to give (inaudible) a heart attack.
Atkins: That's right you shouldn't laugh.
Kubby: I know, but I was laughing when I called Steve to forewarn him and I knew that
it wasn't funny to him.
Matheson: At least they didn't say they were going to drop $100,000 from a helicopter
like somebody else did in another city and created one huge, I think Cincinnati I'm not
sure where, and made people very angry demanding their money.
Stutsman: That's what we talked about that there is just no sense of humor and
everybody just takes things so seriously.
Norton: Sally, is there somebody particularly from the Supervisors that is tracking the
telecommunications issues?
Stutsman: Well yes and no. I went to NACo and they had a number of sessions about
Telecommunications Act and things and what kind of impact it has for counties, but we've
really not dealt with it a lot except what we're doing through the Board of Adjustments.
They talked about easements...
Norton: Right of ways, yes.
Stutsman: ...and charging fees for companies to come in and use the County right of
ways. Has the City or the School District, well the School District wouldn't be... well
you might.
Novick: They might. They could have one on the school.
Norton: We've asked our P and Z to take a look at some of the right of way issues. I
don't know where it is on their work list, but I'm pretty sure it's on there somewhere
because there may be some more aspects of that. Because you have to have everything in
place. You can't play it ad hoc or you're in trouble.
Stutsman: Right.
Kubby: Yes, if they use the fight of way they should pay.
Stutsman: Is the City thinking of doing that?
Norton: Yes.
Novick: We do have that.
?: We are in the process of drafting a comprehensive ordinance in fact we're working with
Bryce Williams who was our consultant on the franchise renewal and we just got enough
information now that they're working on first draft and it will be comprehensive. We also
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 33
did some minor modifications to the zoning ordinance what about a few months ago.
Both of those things, the tower sighting and that, part of that can be covered in you
zoning ordinance, part of it will be in the comprehensive ordinance as well. I think one of
the things Karen was talking about trying to force them to share facilities other than to
build their own. So when we're finished we should have pretty complete, the
telecommunications ordinance focuses very heavily on things like use of right of way and
compensation for that franchise unit sort of thing. Fortunately some of the case law that's
happening in Courts and with the FCC in their rule making seem to be going in favor of
communities to regulate (inaudible).
Lacina: One thing to be aware of is 911 Board received some information from the State.
Starting about the )'ear 2006 the cell phones we're supposed to be able to track them
,a4thin 15 feet, so there vdll be a major change in technolo~' of the phones that are being
carried, but also there may be dead spots if they don't use satellites that will require
towers to be constructed to cover an entire area so we'll wait and see if they delay it
farther or exactly what happens with the technology.
Novick: With some of the new telephone technology there will be towers every few
blocks if they get their way
?: Every square mile.
Kubby: Maybe it's just for the emergency system. I don't know what the furthest
distance they can be away to be regular and be effective, but that means on some regular
pattern all throughout the whole United States there are going to be... Wow.
Thornberry: I don't think they'll be land based, I think it'll be satellite like GPS.
Novick: They're not sure though, they're talking.
Thornberry: Well I mean they use that for airplanes. They had land based towers all over
the country, they're going away from those to GPS's and even the bus systems, some taxi
cabs, and now some cities. You get a map of the city and just program it into your GPS
and it will tell you when to turn right, when to turn left. This is all from satellite.
Norton: But you still need some receivers. I don't know why they're talking about so
many towers.
Thomberry: You need a receiver in your GPS.
Norton: This needs to be line of sight.
Thomberry: Well line of sight from the sky,. No, it doesn't need to be, you know you've
got tunnels and everything else in some municipalities, but the GPS is within a couple of
feet.
Lacina: In fact Rockwell gave us a presentation that during the Saudi war they were able
to put chips on the back of artillery shells and actually track them in real time at that speed
3 dimensionally. And they're working with John Deere now to put chips on bulldozers so
they won't have to use laser sighting. The technology is just going to be phenomenal here
in about the next 10 to 15 years.
Norton: That means we'll have a lot of leftover towers. Write in there that they have to
take them down.
Thornberry: Of course our airways might get full...
Kubby: That means we need a lot more public spaces to talk to each other, because
they're always going through technology.
Thornberry: (Inaudible).
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 34
UPDATE ON FUNDING FOR SENIOR CENTER CONTRACT
Lacina: Before we go to local option tax, one quick point, we kind of skipped over item 4
with this contract. Don Yucuis did provide us with a spreadsheet either in Excel or Lotus
and talking about an overcharge to the County on the Senior Center Contract, so Don
provided us with 10 years worth of actual expenditures and did a very nice job of laying
this out and I took it a step farther and I calculated actual variances because one year we
underpaid by $54,000. ,And if you look over the total 10 years there was a $72,000
difference, the County portion being $14,000 and if you factor that against the total dollar
amount invested in the contract and it amounted to .004255 or .4% accuracy which is
outstanding.
?: Great budgeting.
Lacina: So you did a nice job on this.
Thornberry: So when we do we get our money?
Lacina: Actually you're in tough luck.
Thornberry: Oh.
Norton: Don't tell us the percentage. Give us...
La¢ina: Bottom line we actually did overpay over the 10 years and we don't have 2 years
actuals in yet, but 5;14,000 worth of the County's share and that's on a total budget of
$4,550,000 so we're right in there.
Kubby: So they should be asking that question of us.
Norton: They want the money.
Bolkcom: We'll catch you on SEATS.
PROPOSAL TO UTILIZE LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX TO FUND SCHOOL
CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE
Novick: Anybody else have anything that they want to add to this before we get to the
next item? OK. I think the next item was proposed by the School District. Was that you
Barbara?
Grohe: The reason this is on here is at a recent meeting of the Governor he was
suggesting that the answer to all of the School bonding woes in terms of needing 60% is
that they were seriously considering a piece of legislation that would make it more feasible
for school districts to get the proportion, in his words the large proportion of any local
option sales tax and that that's what he saw as the answer to addressing infrastructure
COSTS.
?: Oh my...
Norton: Wow.
Grohe: I don't particularly think this is the answer, but I thought we should at least let
you know that that was the discussion he's having with school people and that way the
schools would be taken care of in terms of their own construction costs, repair and
maintenance. Since school construction not just here, but more so in the rest of the state I
would say the condition of school buildings is horrible in this state. And the possibility
that many smaller districts would have done were 10 and i I bond issues to get repairs to
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 35
their buildings is just... it gets to be rather debilitating for the Community even to go
through yet another bond issue and so what they're trying to do is find a way around it. I
think we all agree that we'!! probably all retire before the 60% majority is ever changed for
school bond issues and so they're trying to find a different way to do that rather than
changing the 60% and this was one of the ideas that's currently being discussed. Since
occasionally the local option sales tax comes up with all of the discussion I think we
should at least let you know that that's the conversation that both legislators and the
Governor are having with us about that possibility.
Novick: That's interesting I read today that the Governor is considering signing a
complete reimbursement of all of the property tax that he's been taking away. The credits
for elderly and for whatever...
Norton: Homestead.
Stutsman: Home mortgage.
Novick: Homestead, etcetera. That would certainly help the schools and the cities.
Grohe: It would also be a miracle, but...
Stutsman: Is he talking about doing that?
Kubby: He did sign an income tax cut, but is willing to find another way for people to
find some good in the most regressive tax, well it don't know if it's the most, but a
regressive tax. Things are interesting.
Grohe: Yes, the logic of all of that escapes me.
Lacina: I think we have a total of $425,000 or $430,000 that the County is short and that
is school and everybody by the lack of reimbursement from the State.
Novick: The leadership folks in the legislature are trying to work out a way to say we're
going to put this $22,000,000 back into the State budget. We're going to designate it for
property tax relief or for some kind of capital improvements and if we do that the
Governor is going to sign it.
Thornberry: We could give Ernie Lehman a shopping list that he could give to Minnette
every Friday. He meets with her every Friday. Just give him a shopping list.
Lehman: Her list and mine don't agree very much.
Grohe: That's all I have. That's all the information 1 had to share.
SCHEDULING A FUTURE JOINT MEETING
Novick: OK. We think it might be a good idea to schedule another meeting. Does
anybody have any ideas that it ought to be X months from now or whatever?
Kubby: Well I don't know how often it's appropriate to meet all 3 entities, but with the
County at least every 6 months is appropriate. We could easily have a full agenda to
speak with the County.
Stutsman: Well how does the School Board feel about meeting with this group?
Matheson: You may have come in after... we did talk a little bit about this, I think you
know we're quite interested. Obviously we all have busy schedules, I mean you and we so
you could over do that too. But on a selected time frame we think it would be a very
good idea. But I think we do think that it should go beyond 3 entities, because we deal
with more than Iowa City.
Thornberry: Well we could invite Coralville also.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 36
Novick: Well the School District would like to talk about potential school sites and trails,
etcetera with almost County wide representation, because that's what the district covers.
Thornberr)-: JCCOG
Novick: JCCOG was what we decided could be an easy way to handle that.
Matheson: And this may not be the... I'm just suggesting that leaving Coralville out for
us. We have to find a way to deal with Coralville and it may not be this forum.
Norton: Well JCCOG would put you in contact with a wide group and it would be
helpful, because eve%'body and I think then most of the people from the City would be
working with the schools. If we had a giant meeting then it would begin to become
ineffective at some point.
Thornbert3': May 14th~ 4:00 p.m.
Kubby: That's the nex~t JCCOG meeting.
Novick: Well then if the School District would like to come to that meeting and present
some ideas you would not have an entire City Council or an entire Board of Supervisors,
but you would have some representatives. If May 14th is not good maybe the School
District would like to do this in a meeting when schools are not in session in July or some
time like that. That's certainly possible.
Matheson: Just let us know.
Kubby: We can just let the Chair know' that's of interest and we can schedule that in.
That's one of his functions.
Novick: Right.
Norton: What time frame were you talking high schools?
Novick: That was an April fools joke.
Kubby: He would have believed the KCJJ.
Novick: He would have.
Stutsman: Do we want to reschedule this group then 6 months from now?
Novick: Would that be acceptable? Also while we're thinking about calendars I would
like to ask City Council people, did everybody have an invitation for this district wide
parents awards? OK. Now that everybody has it I won't put it into the next packet.
Iowa City City Clerk Marian Karr: I'd just like you to know that if you're looking at 6
months we do have a city election coming up and is there an advantage in waiting until
after that election to meet or before it and having all of the candidates there? It might be
something you want to consider possible waiting till afterwards. Like before the Holidays.
Norton: You could have a couple of lame ducks there.
Lacina: What is the date for the election?
?: October. November.
Stutsman: September would be 6 months from now do we want to wait till then?
Karr: Well that's why I thought I'd throw that out.
Kubby: I think we should do it in September and if there are candidates they can all come
and learn something about intergovernmental cooperation and discussion.
Stutsman: I guess I would agree with Karen, I kind of hate to wait till November or
December.
Norton: Particularly if there is sales tax and other kinds of issues coming up.
Novick: Well that's certainly possible, hang on while I find a calendar.
Informal Minutes, Joint Meeting: April 2, 1997/page 37
Kubby: I mean last time we didn't do it at 6 months and we waited and it was 18 months
before we met and I don't...
Novick: Because we did it that way we put the next meeting scheduling on this and I
don't have anything marked in September in this stage in my life.
Vanderhoef: What's our regular meeting Naomi in September? Do you have those
marked?
Noviek: I do not have anything marked for September.
Kubby: 8th and 9th, 22 and 23. So ifwe could avoid those weeks.
Karr: The week of the 15th would be an open week as far as City Council.
Stutsman: Are Wednesdays good, the 17th, would that be at 4:007
Novick: Wednesdays are OK.
Kubby: If it's at this time I have a meeting that night.
Karr: 17th of September tentative.
Noviek: 4:00 - 6:007
Karr: 4:00 - 6:00.
Novick: Does that sound reasonable7
Karr: All 3 bodies or 27
Stutsman: Sounds like 2.
Novick: Sounds like 2.
Vanderhoef: School Board may have changed their mind.
Matheson: We didn't say no.
Novick: Do you want to be invited7 OK, we'll invite you.
Matheson: Sure why not.
Kubby: Wow that would have taken 20 hours of staff time to figure out. That was
efficient. Well it was good to see you all.
Noviek: And how about that7 It's only 10 minutes after 6. Terrific.
Matheson: Thanks for inviting us.
Adjourned at 6:10 p.m.
Attest: Tom Slockett, Auditor
By:
On the day of , 1997
By Casie Parkins, Recording Secretary
Sent to the Board of Supervisors on April 23, 1997 at 12:30 p.m.
Sent to Iowa City City Clerk on April 23, 1997 at 12:30 p.m.
Sent to Iowa City Community School Board on April 23, 1997 at 12:30 p.m.