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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-01-27 Transcription#2 page ! ITEM NO. 2 OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARD -- Mark Twain Elementary. Lehman/ The next item is Outstanding Student Citizenship Awards, and I'd like to ask Rachel, Emily, and Ryan to come forward, please. You know, this is really the best part of the whole meeting. Ryan Niles/ Hi. My name is Ryan Niles. I'm a fiflh grader at Mark Twain School. I'm a conflict manager. That's where we help kids solve their problems at recess. l am also on Patrol. That's like a crossing guard. On Thursdays, our class reads to the first and second grade students. We have also been, I have also been in fund- raisers like selling wrapping paper and candy. Lehman/ Thank you, Ryan. I'm going to read one of these, and then they all read the same except for the name. "For his outstanding qualities of leadership within Mark Twain Elementary, as well as the community, and for his sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize Ryan Niles as an Outstanding Student Citizen. Your community is proud of you. Presented by the Iowa City City Council." And if you're really good at conflict resolution, we may put you to work for us. Emily Gill/ Hi. I'm Emily Gill, and I go to Mark Twain. I'm very helpful and nice to people in my school, and I go home, and at home. I listen and pay attention to my teacher and parents. Currently I am on Student Council, and I help plan activities to raise money for playground equipment. I go to the Girl -- l go to Girl Scouts and we do activities and have lots of fun. I am also one of the Captains on School Patrol. We help children cross the road to school and back. I have helped push wheelchair kids during recess. This program is called Lunch Buddies. I play my violin in the school orchestra. I practice every day. I also go to Iowa City Girls Choir to sing. I have gone to many concerts. In the summer, I play softball and soccer. I also delivered the Press-Citizen until they changed to morning. I'm very honored to be chosen as one of the Outstanding Student Citizens. Thank you. Lehman/ Very good. Rachel? Rachel Manuel/ I'm Rachel Manuel, a t~velve-year-old sixth grader from Mark Twain Elementary. These are some of the reasons I think I am getting the Student Citizenship Award. I have been a conflict manager from third grade through fifth grade. A conflict manager is a person that helps other kids solve their problems. I've been on Patrol since fourth grade, and I xvas Captain in Patrol in fifth grade. A Patrol crosses kids across the street before and after school. I help my teacher a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa Cit~' council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #2 page 2 lot, and I like helping others. I've also been in seven different Footlighter plays, and I play the cello and am in Orchestra. Every week, on Wednesday, I go to APE, and I play games with the disability kids. I like to read and talk a lot. I really like school. I am very happy to receive this axvard. Thank you. Lehman/ I know I speak for Council, we really are proud of you young ladies. I've got a couple of twin granddaughters, and I just hope that someday I could give them an award like this. So thanks a lot, kids, and congratulations. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 //3 page 3 ITEM NO. 3 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Lehman/ (Reads agenda item//3). Norton/ So moved. Thomberry/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Norton, seconded by Thomberry. Discussion? Kubby/ I had one item on page 4, f(1) when we're naming the depositories. If we end up implementing some of the items from the Housing Forum, we can go back to this to put any kind of strings on the money to local financial institutions, we can still do this now, but we can go back later and talk with them about some strings you want to attach for housing issues. I'm assuming that's the case. This doesn't lock us into no strings. Lehman/ Well, Karen, that only is regarding the University oflowa Credit Union, so 1 would assume that -- Kubby/ Right, but if we want to have strings with the Credit Union, I want to make sure that -- Lehman/ Yes. Kubby/ That we can later have strings. Steve Atkins/ That's correct. Kubby/ Okay. Arkins/ Kubby/ Atkins/ You can, the City Council can go back anytime -- Okay. And so we can have discussions with all the institutions. Kubby/ Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #3 page 4 Atkins/ The primary issue is the establishment of the maximum amount of money that they can accept with these depository approvals. Don Yucuis/ Correct. Atkins/ Okay. Lehman/ There's another item on this Consent Calendar that certainly bears mentioning. That is setting a public heating for the issuance of General Obligation Bonds in excess of $10,000,000. Those will be discussed, I think at length, are we discussing those right now? I guess we are. This is a list of the items that are on that, that will be on that public hearing, and there will -- Yucuis/ Correct. There was a request to at least go through and list the projects that were going to be on the agenda two weeks from today. We're setting a public hearing tonight for February 10th to receive public comments on authorizing up to $10,500,000 of General Obligation Bonds. The majority of the projects listed in the Bond Issue were included the Capital Improvements Program budget that you've been reviewing right now. In fact, we have a meeting coming up Thursday to go over those projects some more to see ifthose are the projects we want to keep in our Plan, move them up, or move them back. There are two new projects that have been added: the downtown streetscape, partial funding $720,000, and the Willow Creek Trail, bridge over the Iowa River at Napoleon Park, $200,000. That project is to be bid with the Willow Creek sanitary sewer, and hopefully we can see some savings when we do that. The majority of the projects listed are essential corporate purpose projects as defined by State of Iowa Code, Section 30, 384.24, and they do not require a referendum vote. City Council has the discretion to sell bonds for those projects. Three of the projects are general corporate purpose projects which normally require a referendum vote, if funded from a General Obligation Bond issue. They are the library heating, ventilation, air-conditioning project, Park central maintenance building, and the Southside soccer fields. There's another section of the State Code, 384.26 which allows cities to issue up to 5;700,000 of General Obligation Bonds per project that are for general corporate purposes. These projects are subject to a reverse referendum, and a reverse referendum means that a petition can be filed before the date fixed for taking action to issue the bonds, and therefore they would be required to go to referendum to have those projects be funded from General Obligation Bond issues. We'll be discussing those projects again on Thursday, January 29th at the 6:30 p.m. Informal Meeting or Budget Meeting in the Council Chambers. And just one other point, the Southside soccer field project is $400,000. That project is for continued development of the soccer complex. The This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #3 page 5 plan includes continual improvement to the seventeen soccer fields, imgation expansion, restrooms, maintenance building, road and parking improvements, and development of the parkland around the complex. And one other note on that project, the Kickers have contributed $140,000 for that project. Kubby/ Don, xvhat is the petition requirement if someone would object and want to go through that process. Do you know? Yucuis/ I don't -- Norton/ We should be familiar with that by now. Kubby/ Well, it's different for every different kind of purpose. Norton/ Yeah, I'm sure it is. Kubby/ So it could be one-percent, it could be a fixed number of signatures. Yucuis/ I'd have to guess it's a fixed number of signatures based on the number of people that voted in the last election. And off the top, I want to say it's ten percent, but I don't know if that's the exact number. But it is, it is, it specifically has to be filed prior to the next meeting. Kubby/ (Can't understand), you were elected most recently, that's like a 400, 500 magnitude? Lehman/ 500 or 600. Yes. And Don, one other question. Should Council, on Thursday make any changes to the project as listed here, ~vouid they then be, would they be changed for the public hearing, with the changes made on Thursday? Yucuis/ If you were reducing the dollar amounts that you're requesting, that would be okay, because you're looking for authorization up to S!0,500,000. Lehman/ Up to? Okay. Yucuis/ If you added a (can't hear) past that, we'd have to reset the public hearing for another date. Lehman/ Okay. Any other questions by Council? Norton/ Well, we can reshuffle, we can reshuffle a little? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #3 page 6 Yucuis/ Yes, you can. Thomberry/ Within categories. Lehman/ Any other discussion of the Consent Calendar? Kubby/ I had one last thing. We're accepting the work for the Sheridan Avenue sanitary sewer bypass project, and I just wanted to thank the neighbors for their incredible patience down on Sheridan Avenue. Things were tom up a !or deeper and a lot longer than we ever imagined, and we appreciate the inconvenience that you went through so that there wouldn't be continued problems in that area. Lehman/ Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January. 27, 1998. F012798 page 7 ITEM NO. 4 PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). Lehman/ Item g4 is Public Discussion. This is a time for any person here who has a comment on an item that is not on the Agenda to address Council. We would ask that you sign in, state your name and address, and take no longer than five minutes. Danny Boal/ My name is Danny Boal, and I live in Iowa City. On February I st, TCI is pulling Cartoon Network from the lineup, on the air of the lineup. A lot of the viewers want TCI to reconsider their decision. I have a petition with 283 signatures asking TCI to reconsider. In February, we still have five news channels, 24-hours a day. Programming will end at -- kids daily programming will end at 7:30 p.m., daily. I surveyed 192 kids about the channels they like to watch. The results were first, Nickelodeon, second Disney, third, Cartoon Network, fourth USA, fifth f/x, sixth ESPN, seventh Weather Channel, eighth WGN, ninth TNN, and tenth Univision. There were ten choices and kids were asked to put an "x" by their channels they liked to watch. I wasn't happy about TCI's decision, and I'm trying to get them to change their minds about to leave Cartoon Network on the air. I'm asking the City Council to fine TCI ifTCI takes Cartoon Network off the air and can't put Cartoon Network back on starting March 1 st which is what TCI promised to do. Thank you. I have the surveys and petitions. Kubby/ You can bring them right up here to our City Clerk. Thomberry/ Yeah, give those, give a copy of those to the City Clerk. Kubby/ I think Mr. Boal deserves a Citizenship Award for the work he's done. Lehman/ We will forward those to TCI along with a note from the Council indicating that we have received them and we have heard your comments. Thank you very much. William Gorman/ I have a prepared statement, and I have some copies. My name is William Gorman and I'm Executive Director o£Systems Unlimited, Inc., here in Iowa City. And I have a prepared statement, and copies are being handed out at this time. (Reads statement). Lehman/ Thank you, William. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 //4 page 8 Harold Steger/ My name is Harold Steger. And I have a few statements I'd like to make. I feel that the City has discriminated against me by not having a shuttle bus to the east side so I could ride for nothing and I could leave my car at home and save gas and parking money. Your catering to a certain segment of the City which is in walking distance of downtown and the University. That's one statement. You're taking over our SEATS system which is not broken. And I was always told, if it ain't broken, don't fix it. The restrictions that you've put on seniors are totally uncalled for. You are penalizing them by making them stay in their homes. Which is a bad deal for a senior. They need to be out and about. I'm very lucky, I'm only going deaf. But I can get around. I walk, and I do it. But that's just what I want you to know that that's how I feel about your just taking over the SEATS system. Thank you much. Lehman/ Thank you. Before we have the next speaker, I'd, let me just briefly summarize where I think Council is after last night's meeting. It appears to most of the Council that there may be some economies in the City providing paratransit service. There's absolutely nothing that was said last night, nor do I think there's any intention on the part of Council to decrease in any way, shape, or form, the service that is given by SEATS. It might be a different colored van, but it would be the same service. I think there is a very genuine interest on the part ofall of Council to have a unified system for the entire area. And I, I can tell you we are having a meeting at 11:30 on Thursday. This is not something that is done. You know, every journey begins with the first step, and sometimes when you take the first step, you disturb the soil a little. But I don't want anybody to get the opinion that we are in any way, shape, or form, decreasing service. We are not. All we are talking about is that the management of the system and the deliverer of the service may be different than it is now. The service should remain identical. So, 1 think it's important that you realize that now. And if l, if any Council person perceived our discussion any differently, I wish they would say so. Because I feel a very strong commitment on the part of the Council. We decided to investigate, to look further, and by doing so, by telling our staff to move ahead with this, we need more information. It's kind of like passing an ordinance for the first time. There are two more meetings. And I think this Council will be very, very careful in looking over what we do, and anything that we do, I believe, will be in the best interests of all the transit riders. So, next, please. Leanne Mayhew/ My name is Leanne Mayhew, and I live in Coralville. I just wish you guys would just figure out what you guys want to do. There's a lot of hurt people out there that count on SEATS buses. Lehman/ Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 9 Jeannette Ochenfels/ My name is, let's see, what do I do here, okay. I rely on SEATS because I have to go to work and stuff. If it wouldn't be for SEATS, I wouldn't be able to get around, because they take me places and the Iowa City Transit, I'm not satisfied with them. If you're disabled, at least they could pick up your bags and help you get on the bus. As I am always not satisfied with their lifts, because people, they put the lift down, and then let you get on, but when it comes to somebody disabled, they don't help you with your stuff on the bus. That's the only thing I don't like about it. I like their lifts and stuff. It's just they're not helping you more like SEATS do. SEATS see that you get to the house so you don't fall on ice and stuff like that. That's why I appreciate SEATS. SEATS is my favorite ride because it's more helpful than the City bus. And that's all I've got to say. Lehman/ Thank you. Kubby/ Thanks very much. Mary McCarthy/ Good evening. My name is Mary McCarthy, and until Aguust 30, 1996, I lived in Iowa City for 14 years. Currently, l live in Coralville. However, I work in Iowa City and am in Iowa City every day. My mission is to address, again, the SEATS issue. And I obtained, today, the memorandum issued, it's dated January 22, 1998, regarding the development of a paratransit system for Iowa City instead of working with the SEATS program. This is not my first communication on this issue. I have talked to Dee Vanderhoefas well as the members of the negotiating team on this issue, and I've been following it since last spring. When re-negotiation attempts were initiated, extended, and re- extended. Recent articles in the newspapers and by obtaining a copy of the aforementioned memorandum have brought me here tonight. I would like to publicly thank Lisa, who's in the City Manager's office, for promptly arranging for me to pick up the memorandum today. I always want to applaud and recognize people who do their job very well. My concerns with the proposed changes in the level and types of services available by the proposed fixed paratransit system, and by the use of cabs. Those are kind of some issues I've read about, and Mayor Lehman, appreciate your remarks, but as long as I"m here, I'm going to go ahead. Lehman/ Oh, please do. McCarthy/ With my, ~vith my energy load on this today. While I lived in Io~va City, I witnessed many of my 7th Avenue neighbors use the SEATS system. In fact, l This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 10 am here after talking to two of my previous neighbors today. They encouraged me to come. These individuals need door-to-door assistance and use wheelchairs and scooters that would not fit any type of cab. I certainly hope that individuals with these special needs will be considered and respected in the City of Iowa City's future plans for its own system. Other questions my friends had: If any Iowa City citizen wants to go an event in Coralville, will this individual be able to go on an Iowa City transit, or will they have to transfer? Will the cost change? And how will they get home? Details such as these are concerns of many of the individuals who currently depend on SEATS. My job involves daily to weekly contacts with people who use SEATS to attend to health services. I am very concerned about the proposed changes that will put one more barrier up for people who are already challenged with transportation issues. Overall, I am disappointed that a negotiated plan was not developed. By monitoring these attempts, it has appeared to me that there was an Iowa City agenda to either privatize or leave the SEATS system in some way. l find it very interesting in an era ofdownsizing, rightsizing,, and sharing services and attempts to not duplicate services that the City of Iowa City would develop an implement a plan that would re-invent a wheel. Thank you. Lehman/ Thank you. Jean St. John/ My name is Jean St. John. And I just wanted, just a point, that I have really enjoyed and appreciated SEATS. I go down to the Senior Center, and l xvould be homebound if I didn't have access to SEATS. And while we're down there, you know, we old ladies talk. And I will tell you that SEATS gives the best service of any transport service. Because we watch them help take old ladies to their cars. And I just want you to know that we really appreciate it. Thank you. Lehman/ Thank you. I think I speak for Council. We appreciate your show of interest in the SEATS program. I think I can reiterate what I said earlier. We're in the middle of looking at something which we believe can be worked out. We -- Audience/ (Can't hear). Lehman/ No, wait, no, no. I don't believe we intend to change any of the service. And if you have ideas to give to us regarding how we could improve service, or whatever, we're more than happy to hear it. l suspect most of you are here to show your support for SEATS. And if you have something different to say, I ~vould certainly encourage you to say it for us. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 11 Nancy Ostrognai/ Hi. My name is Nancy Ostrognai. And I want to point out the obvious to you, that hopefully each and every one of you will be eligible to ride on SEATS in twenty or thirty years. So it's real important that service is maintained. And one thing I noticed on your memorandum is there is a couple of errors. One thing they say is that a vehicle holds ten to twelve, and wheelchairs wipe out four of those seats. You know, so you know, it holds a lot less than what the memorandum says it does. And I thought I'd give you some anecdotes. The service with the taxi, although they're very nice people, they aren't as concerned as SEATS drivers are, and one gentleman was sitting in his cab reading his paper, although I asked for assistance out of the building. And it ~vas an icy day, and l fell off the curb and my wheelchair fell on top of me. Then he looked up from the paper. He was about to drive away because I wasn't out there in the (can't understand) or whatever. And although I asked the dispatcher that I needed service, or I needed assistance, he evidently didn't get the message. So I think, you know, to rely on cabs to take the basic times can be a big mistake. A !or of those people have only been working a short time, and SEATS drivers, most of them, I'm known for four or five years. So I think you should consider this program real carefully, and you should talk to some actual riders of the SEATS. I think that they'll keep you from making mistakes or errors and basing your decision on faulty facts. Thank you. Lehman/ Thank you, Nancy. Thornberry/ Mister Mayor, may I respond to this? Lehman/ Yes, Dean. Thomberry/ I have a response to some of your questions. We anticipate the taxi service having a SEATS bus available to them instead of having a paratransit person ride in a taxicab, let them have a paratransit vehicle with a paratransit driver attached to it, to the cab company. This would be one of the enhancements of the service that we're looking at locally, to eliminate this very problem that she has just brought up. And I think that this is, this is a very valid problem that she had, and we did not know about it, obviously, until just now. But in our enhancement of the service, we could see the possibility that this was necessary in giving the cab company a paratransit vehicle to use with a paratransit driver, and giving the taxi services the training necessary to take care of the paratransit riders. And that's a very, very valid argument, and we can see some solutions for that. Thank you. Kubby/ And if we end up doing this, and providing a paratransit vehicle for a taxicab company, that will take care of the riders that the taxicab service can provide per This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Janua~' 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 12 hour. It doesn't take care of the other social needs of the riders who will go into a regular cab. Because a cab company has a different kind of mission than a paratransit service. It's basically a transportation service, it's not also a social service. So I don't, I think it might take care of two or three rides an hour in the way that you're describing, but I think it's erroneous to say that it will take, that it will be the same quality of service, so I disagree a little bit. Lehman/ Well, just let me say at this point, we are looking at this, I don't think there's anything casting a stone. I don't think there's anything erroneous yet because I don't think that we have decided. You know, we do not have the information that we're going to need to move forward. All I can tell you is I think we're being, we'll attempt to be as sensitive as we possibly can. Marilyn Belman/ That's what I wanted to address, too, the human element. I think you're looking at a financial element. You have to consider the human element. And I've been a customer of SEATS since '94. I started having seizures in '94 and partial seizures, focal seizures, so I was able with medication to continue teaching at West High, and only due to SEATS. I couldn't afford to take a taxi out there every day. And they got so bad this year, I was not able to continue. But it was only due to SEATS that I was able to continue, and I'm extremely grateful. But also, during that time that I was on SEATS, I saw them work with students who had graduated from our Downs Syndrome program, I saw them take kids where they wanted to go and be careful with them. I saw them pick up people from the Pathways Adult Center and make sure that the people who had dementia or Alzheimer's disease go to the door, found their keys, was inside. When I had a seizure in the van, they walked me to the door, I now have osteoporosis, and if it's slippery, they go to the door and get me. A cab doesn't necessarily mean to be that lax, but they don't come to the door and get me when it's slick. But I remember one day, one of the drivers had walked me all the way into school and they called off school it was so bad. And he had already xvalked me all the way in to be sure that I got in carefully. But there's just a whole lot of dimensions that you need to know about, and I think unless you have somebody who's handicapped herself, or unless you have an elderly person that's riding the van, you don't know about it. And I think that you're caring people, it's just that you don't know what the experience is like. You haven't gone through it. I've gone through it as a customer. And I think you need to know how meaningful it is and how important it is, and you've got a quality service here and you shouldn't throw it out. You should be very careful what you're doing. And I wouldn't want to see you start changing it and reducing it, and then down the road not have it there. And I talked to some of the teachers who are teachers of disabled students, they said "Oh, my gosh". And they sort of thought I'm going to need that for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 13 student travel, for Goodwill or Covenant Place of some other program. And they saw into the future, and this came up so quickly that nobody was prepared to sort of get on the bandwagon and say we've got to inform you guys of what's going on here. You may lose something that we really need. So please be very careful what you're doing. Lehman/ Thank you. But let me point out that paratransit service is a service required by law. There will always be -- but the point that you're talking about, and I think it's -- Belman/ It's the quality of the people. Lehman/ Right. And I think that's something that we will -- Beiman/ I'm talking about the quality of the people you have right now, that are caring people, they don't let somebody fall, that go up there and take the groceries in, that come and take you when you have a seizure and take you in and put you down on the sofa, and say are you okay before they leave. They know about seizures, they know about CPR, you already have people that are trained. Why would you train somebody else? Thomberry/ No. If we do indeed take this system over ourselves, the best people that we could hire to do this system -- Beiman/ Are the people you got. Thomberry/ Are the people who are doing it right now. Belman/ Exactly. Thomberry/ So that's what we -- Belman/ Well I wouldn't want you to hire them and them give them half wages because you're downsizing them. Lehman/ They'!! get more wages. Belman/ When you're cutting back. Thomberry/ As a matter of fact, we pay more than the County would pay for the same -- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 14 Kubby/ If we have full-time work for them. Belman/ Well I think there should be (can't hear). Kubby/ Which is yet to be decided. There might be a lot of part-time split-shift xvork. Marian Karr/ Excuse me, could I have your name, please? Belman/ Marilyn Belman. Kubby/ Belman, one "l". Belman/ I used to teach at West High until I couldn't do it any longer. Loren Schmidt/ Mister Mayor, members of the Council. A few points, briefly. Lehman/Your name, please? Schmidt/ I'm Loren Schmidt. Much has been made of assertions that there are times ~vhen vehicles for paratransit are not in motion. Those experienced with paratransit know that there are really only three ways to avoid that sort of thing. The first would be to require the drivers always to have the vehicles in motion, even if, in the words of the old Bill Hayes song, there's no particular place to go. The second would be to substantially overschedule on the premise that cancellations would occur, and the results might mesh with needs. The third would be to require the everyone who requests a ride use that ride, even if the conditions that generated the request in the first place change. For example, there were, on occasion, I requested a ride to take my daughter to the doctor. That day, prior to the appointment, the doctor's staff called to say that she had been detained in Emergency, or for personal reasons. Few would say that we should feel obligated to use that ride and go to the office, even if the appointment would not occur. Similarly, consumers often request rides to attend meetings. And not infrequently, those meetings are canceled. Again, few would say that the consumers, that much purpose would be served by utilizing those rides to go to the meeting location, even if nothing was to occur there. Finally, in the language of economists, demand has some elasticity with respect to available service, that is, a service could be constructed that would be sufficiently inconvenient and unresponsive so that yes, demand would decrease. That's do-able. Please don't do that. Lehman/ Thank you, Loren. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiD' council meeting of Januar3.' 27, 1998. F012798 page 15 Clara Northup/ My name is Clara Northup. I have to be in Pathways Adult Center five days a week. I depend on SEATS bus. They pick you up at the back door and bring me home. I only have to walk up the walk. It means so much. They have (can't understand) with every passenger. And there are a lot of (can't understand) patients that need to be taken care of but I wish you would consider (can't understand) get to the hospital before because I have no handicap other than I'm in a wheelchair. These people that have arthritis, are they expected to go out in the cold, in the rain, and is there going to be a scheduled place where we will meet, or xvhere we will go under various weather conditions? And number two, people talked about it, but why do we (can't understand) to you all? I know (can't understand) several clients who are also (can't understand) they are let off the bus and taken to the door, and we get (can't understand). I knoxv for a fact there are a couple people (can't understand). I live in the (can't understand) house, and there are several ladies that ride the bus that say they depend on the SEATS bus driver to take them to the door. So I know that (can't understand) take that into consideration. Thanks. Lehman/ Thank you. John Watson/ Hi, John Watson, president of Goodwill Industries. I really don't like standing up here. IT always takes something big to get me to do this, I don't know why. Coming up on 19 years at Goodwill this spring, and I can tell you that the kind of stories and accolades that SEATS is getting tonight are deserved. That's been our experience, our experience throughout that 19 years. It's really a remarkable service. It's very personal. I can also say, though, that the Iowa City transit system has always provided very excellent service -- customer oriented, they've accommodated special situations. We've had some difficult situations that they've handled on an individual basis, and they've been very helpful. I don't expect that to change. Both services are very quality services. By it's nature I think a fixed-route service is less personal, it has a busload of people, hopefully, but not always. It's a large bus and it can't provide the door-to-door service that SEATS does by its very nature. I would expect that you are going to move ahead. I would urge you, as you've indicated that you would, to take a real serious look at hiring as many of these very excellent drivers as you can. And I hope that they xvould be interested. We are concerned about how that will work out in terms of this service. We're also, I would echo what Bill has said about urging you too look at a regional service. I think that that is the only way that the users, which are riders and the organizations that depend on this service, are really going to be served well. I think Mary McCarthy spoke, it's been somewhat disappointing to see the course of this dialogue over the last few years. It's time for the City, I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 16 think, to be forthright and take a leadership position on this issue of a unified service. It's always been kind of hidden in there, in my mind, as kind of a hidden agenda. I understand your wanting to take control. If I was paying 80% of a service that I was also doing myself, and had a program, a transit program, was buying another program like that, I can understand your wanting to have control. I'm somewhat dismayed by the lack of forthtightness on both parts throughout this process, and I think it's time to take some, to set out and be, to assert some leadership on this and look at what is, what is the best for the tiders. I think what you're heating here, tonight, is that the customer has been left out of the formula. We've not been informed, and I include myself in that. And the people here that you're heating from, they have not been included enough. They have not been consulted enough, and I think it's time to sit down with them, before you make these decisions, and ask what's going to work best and what is going to work best is probably, in the long run, going to be the a unified system and the most cost- effective because that's more users. The only regret I have about the Iowa City transit system is that there isn't more of it. Kubby/ John, when you talk about a unified system, the way I, it's being talked about in two different ways. One is that the City would take it over, and that Coralville and University Heights and the County would contract out with us, which is basically what we have now but with different management. CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-13, SIDE B Watson/ I think, you know, you have a transit system, the Iowa City transit system. It's a we!l-managed system as far as I can see, and it looks like it's going to be the one that's going to prevail in terms ofparatransit for Iowa City. When you, what l would urge you to say is that we need a paratransit system that doesn't stop at borders, like Bill Gorman said. That it serves the whole region. Once this one paratransit system, if it's operated by the County or the City, it really doesn't matter. Both operate good transit systems. They know that business, and they can do it. The City's the predominant player. They've decided we're going to do it. I think the writing's on the wall, go ahead and do it. But look at, don't just look at Iowa City. Kubby/ Thank you. Lehman/ We hear you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 17 Watson/ Riders don't stop at the border. Lehman/ We hear you. Norton/ We certainly intend to do so. It depends on what their choice is, too, of course, in this matter, you see. Watson/ Sure. Norton/ But xve are certainly interacting with them about it. Watson/ I would say the same thing to them. Let's sit down and get over the territorial turf stuff, and let's look at what's best for all the riders of the system. Thank you. Thornberry/ And John, I sure appreciate your coming to a meeting or two during the negotiation process and getting your input, from your needs of your people, too. And I appreciate the time that you've spent with us in the negotiation process. And he did. He xvas there. Vanderhoef/ Thanks, John. Thornberry/ We had input from a lot of people. Casey Hayse/ Hello. My name is Casey Hayse. I use SEATS service every day. I always call SEATS before I call friends. SEATS has made it possible for myself and my son to be part ofthe community. I read all the memorandums and I want to talk about several different issues. First, SEATS and ADA. I think, even ifwe equip all the buses in Iowa City with lifts, we would still have to use paratransit services. When I ride the bus, I ride the bus with people with all kinds of disabilities, mental illness, mental retardation, Alzheimer's, all those types of people are individuals who could not use mainline service. I could not use mainline service because I cannot independently negotiate my son and my car seat. I would also like to talk about peak hour usage which was discussed in the memorandum and proposed cutbacks of drivers and buses to save money. I'm a person, like I said before, who always calls SEATS first. Because I don't want to overuse my friends, and I obviously cannot drive. Usually, SEATS cannot accommodate me in the daytime. To me, it's very shocking that you are saying that there are reports of two to four buses being open, sitting, in the daytime, because I use SEATS for my doctor's appointments, social activities, work, everything, and I know that there are lots of times when I am turned away. And if you take more buses off the roads, that's going to be less flexibility in my life. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiD' council meeting of January 27, 1998. FO12798 #4 page 18 And I think that it's important for me to be able to get to appointments, and attend events, and use the bus services just like people would use mainline transportation. So I'm real concerned about cutting back on buses. Let me see. Any transition plan should include a task force of ridership consumers, people that use the service, and use the service regularly. You cannot make decisions about paratransit services without involving people with disabilities in the decision- making process. That's critical. If you don't use people with disabilities in the decision-making process, the decisions are going to be bad. And money is going to get wasted. Now's the time to involve people with disabilities in the process and also bring the SEATS leadership to the table. There is leadership in SEATS that exists now. There are people that are very experienced and committed and understand disability issues way more than people who haven't been working with paratransit for years. I don't know, maybe you all have been riding paratransit buses and riding buses, but I don't think that you have the same experiences that the leadership of SEATS has. And another thing I'd like to say is when we're pinching pennies and nickels and quarters here, we're talking about quality of life issues for people ~vith disabilities. And people with disabilities can and do contribute and enrich our community. And I think, if we're going to make important decisions about how we're going to get around, we should involve them and we should embrace the leadership of SEATS. Thank you. Oh, 1 have a couple other questions. What are the proposed, projected startup costs? Kubby/ We saw no numbers at all, and so we have no idea. Hayse/ Okay. So, if you have no idea, then there's no expected savings because we can't have expected savings if we don't have a projected startup cost. Lehman/ I think we're at a point right now where we are, we're taking a closer look. This is not a done deal. This is not something that is already done. This is something that we're looking at. We've instructed staff to look at it, come back with their projections, and show us -- and we asked for numbers. We asked for, we want to know what you're asking. Right now we don't know those things. We'll find out. If it works, it works. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. But it's all a little premature. We don't have the plan put together. We have a concept that we think might work. Hayse/ Well, what I'm saying is I think that you need to choose a few people from SEATS, a few people with disabilities, a few Council members, and have some meetings before we make some premature decisions. Thank you. Lehman/ Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 19 Shannon Lundquist/ Hello. My name is Shannon Lundquist. And I'm just graduated through college. And I use SEATS and the City bus and with my (can't understand) and with everyone here, I am excited to go to meetings like everyone else. And my first choice would be the SEATS. Every day, l allow time for their (can't understand). I guess I feel like SEATS is another opportunity for people with disabilities to get around the City. Thank you. Lehman/ Thank you. Vanderhoef/ Thank you. Lehman/ I think this is certainly a real tribute to the SEATS program, and the quality of service that they provide. And we do thank you. If someone has something different or more to add? Audience/ Well I have something to say. I'll get to the microphone first. You want to talk? Go ahead, I'll let you talk first. Susan Thomas/ My name is Susan Thomas and I've been a SEATS rider for the past four and a half years. One of my first questions would be, you were talking about equipping the taxi companies with, what I've heard so far is, a SEATS bus. As far as I know, there are twelve running through SEATS right now. How do you account for the service that all twelve of those are providing as opposed to equipping the cabs with one bus? Thornberry/ Well, there would be an additional SEATS service. It xvould be like the SEATS that you're getting right now, in additional to the system that you're experiencing now, the cab company would also get one. Lehman/ It wouldn't replace it. Thomberry/ Wouldn't replace it. Thomas/ So, there would be the same number of buses that would be running? Kubby/ That's not true. We were talking about significantly decreasing, like by 3/4 almost, the number of vans for SEATS during the mid-day time. And that those rides that the four vans couldn't accommodate would go to the taxi service. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 20 Thomas/ Right. And it's also my understanding that one of the things that the City is unhappy with, as far as how the service is run is that they're seeing that some of these vans are empty part of the time, or don't, aren't filled to capacity. One of the things that I see as a rider that SEATS is trying to do is get the greatest number of people where they need to go, on time. If you cut the number of vans down, and you've got the largest capacity of people, there's going to be people who are never going to make it to their appointments on time. And people aren't always going out for leisure or social events. If there's someplace you've got to be on time, if you've got fewer vans, they've got to zigzag back and forth across town, and you're never going to make time-frames and appointments. Champion/ I think it's important that people understand that maybe Karen has been to more City Council meetings than I've been to, since I've been on the City Council, but I haven't heard this Council make any of the decisions that she speaks of as fact. Thomberry/ No. Champion/ And I guess I find that a little upsetting. We have made no plans to cut service. We have made no plans to cut the number of buses. We haven't made any plans. We haven't even made a decision. Kubby/ But that's not quite true, Connie. Thomas/ Well, I think that might even be part of the problem. Champion/ It is true. Thomas/ It's that all that we hear is change, change, change. And I don't see anyone on the Council, other than maybe Karen, saying that it's working. And that you're trying to change something that, you know, I see people at the SEATS office bending over backwards to run in the best possible way that it can be run, and you know, I'm not sure that any changes you're going to make are going to be of benefit. Kubby/ I don't think that's quite true. I think that all of Council's committed to providing quality paratransit service. I think that there's a real concern about the rising costs of SEATS, and that the majority of Council feels that if the City takes it over, that we can cut costs while providing a quality service. I haven't personally, my view is that, I haven't seen anything on paper that says that we can do that, although last night, to go along also with what Connie xvas saying, is that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 21 when our staff was asked how would we save money, the answer was that we would cut down the number of vans mid-day, and shift people over and have a bigger taxi contract. And that's how we would save money. And so, that was stated, and that is the premise for the decision, thinking that we could do things cheaper if we used that strategy. So maybe the numbers haven't been decided, but the strategy is the basis upon which the majority of Council said let's go look at the numbers in more detail. To cut the number of SEATS vans mid-day and switch people over to taxicab service. Vanderhoeff I don't know -- Kubby/ Am I completely wrong on that? Champion/ I think so. Vanderhoef/ For my view, yes, you are. Kubby/ Then xvhere are the cost savings? Vanderhoef/ Well, we -- Lehman/ Folks, folks, look. We have very preliminarily started talking about this, and I think, until we get something back from staff which we have asked for in two weeks, we have these things floating around in the air here and there. And you hear things and I hear things, and we all hear different things. We need something concrete to talk about. We need a proposal. We have a concept right now. And 1 think we've agreed the concept may be one that will work, and so we've instructed staff to pursue the concept and come back with the numbers. Show us how you can do what you say you can do. I don't think we know exactly how we can do that. Kubby/ So Ernie, would you clarify what the concept is? Lehman/ So it's really not possible -- pardon? Kubby/ Would you clarify what the concept is, and how we could -- Lehman/ The concept is -- Kubby/ How we could save money? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 22 Lehman/ The concept, as I understand it, and if I'm incorrect, let me know. The only thing that I understand, to be accurate, is that we proposed to be able to serve the same people with the same service, with a different carrier. In other words, instead of riding in a white van, you might ride in a blue one. Is that, that's my perspective. Norton/ Yeah, that's -- Kubby/ I disagree that that's what happened. Norton/ I still think our premise is to offer as good or better a service at a better, at a lower cost. And if we can't come up with that, I don't think there'!! be a change. O'Donnell/ And I think the key word is "good or better". And I think we have an opportunity to provide more services to the people who need it. And l think we, we need an opportunity to get the figures and numbers put together and then answer these questions. Thomas/ And did you say -- O'Donne!l/ But I'm not interested in compromising the service, and I won't support that. It's going to be as good or better. Vanderhoef/ This has been a consistent statement for -- Thomberry/ That's correct. Vanderhoef/ For all of us. Norton/ That's what we're exploring. Vanderhoef/ To be sure that the paratransit part of the service is equally as good as what you presently experience, which is excellent. We hear you tell us again and again. My phone calls today, people are telling me what good service they get. What we are looking at, now, is management kinds of things that could create even a better service at a lesser cost. But for you, personally, you may not see anything different but a change in the telephone number that you call for a ride. Thomas/ And did you say that this proposal is to be forthcoming in two weeks? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 23 Lehman/ I think that the, we're going to trying to formulate something. It isn't going to be complete in two weeks. we're looking at something that's going to take time. If it's going to work, it's going to take time to put it together, to be very sure that we're doing it right. And I think we'll be very sure, or we won't do it. But I don't think there's any way, in two weeks, that we'd have anything finalized. I think we have to work our way through this, step by step by step, looking at many of the things that have been mentioned here tonight. And I think that you can depend on our staff to do that. Our whole, ~ve will provide the service. We're committed to that. If we can do it better, if we can do it more efficiently, we're interested in doing that. That's all we're looking at. And the time-frame -- Atkins/ Folks, a good bit of it is going to be depending on you. I need policy direction, which you gave us last evening. Lehman/ I think we gave you direction last evening. Atkins/ We will begin framing the issues as best we can, with the information that we have. Lehman/ Which will take time. Atkins/ Now remember, -- yes. One of the big issues that has been sort of overwhelming us in this discussion is the fact that management information did not exist from our original provider. So we are trying to put information together to the best of our ability. But your policy position to me is very clear. The service will be as good, or better. And that's what the instructions are. Lehman/ That's our position. Vanderhoef/ And the original proposal to Council was that we were not going to do this like tomorrow, and leave customers without transportation. That was not the intent. What we were looking at was having a seamless kind of transition, if we take it over, and we're talking about around a date of July 1, if that is acceptable to the County. So we put it out there as a proposal to them, and we would have this time to work through all the things and make sure that we meet the needs that you folks have expressed to us tonight. That was all in the original planning idea of this. What we needed when we took it to Council was an opportunity for Council to look at it and say yes, or no, whether they are even interested in this concept of Iowa City managing the paratransit, versus the County managing the paratransit. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiW council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 24 Kubby/ But very specifically, on February 23rd, is the next time Council's going to talk about it, at our next informal meeting. And we decided last night to have SEATS be the issue that begins at the beginning of the meeting that begins at 7:00 p.m.. Therefore, people could get transportation, and we would be done with that discussion in time to get public transportation home. Which didn't happen last night, and we're going to rectify that. Thomberry/ We've been criticized in the past, to inform the public once a decision has been made. In this case, we're informing the public during the process. We have, just last night, asked staff to get us the numbers that, is it going to be possible to give the same service for less money. we've also got to have time to contact the other entities like Mr. Watson indicated, on a unified system is what we're looking for, so that there is no break in the service. You will not notice anything like Mayor Lehman said earlier, it may just be a different color of a bus. It may be the same driver. It may be, you'll be getting the same service, if not better. That's our goal. That's what we're striving to do. And we won't do it unless we Can. Thomas/ In closing then, I would just like to ask that as you make this decision, you use the voice of the people who use the service in making your decision, being that while I understand and appreciate that you are trying to do, make the best decision for the city, being that you yourselves do not use the service, I would ask that you listen to the voice of the people who do before making a decision. Vanderhoeff Thank you. Thomberry/ Thank you. Kubby/ A reasonable request. Lehman/ I'd like to draw this to a close soon. If you have anything different, I would be more than happy to entertain anybody who'd like to speak. Robert Simpson/ Mr. Mayor, members of the Council, my name is Robert Simpson. I am not a consumer of the SEATS service, and will try to view them somewhat objectively. I think there are problems in the operation of the SEATS. Nothing that is not remediable. And I think it is something that we should take into due consideration. I think one very important point has been made this evening, and I came to talk with you to emphasize that point. Today, as I talked to members of the community who use paratransit, I found an awful lot of anguish and a great This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 25 deal of concern because clearly, a message has been communicated, that what is customary to them, will be changed, and changed dramatically. Lehman/ Where did that concept --? Simpson/ I have no idea. It might have been a misperception of the press. Lehman/ I think it is, but go ahead. Simpson/ A misperception of the press. Undoubtedly, there is a lack of really good communication coming out of this process as it is now. In order to offset that in the future, may I once again emphasize a point. And that is that inherent in this planning process must be consumers of the service, whether it be a special task force that would assist the Manager's office, and the City Planning and JCCOG, and those entities that are involved; whether it would be a group that you would ask to communicate with you either on a public or individual basis, I think it is truly important that consumers of the service be involved in this planning process. And I might say, in my own small way, in conclusion, that this type of hearing, with this number of persons, would be quite unusual in any other community in the state ofloxva, and you are to be commended, all of you, for listening and hearing. Lehman/ So are you. Thornberry/ So are you, that's right. Lehman/ Yes, sir? Chris O'Hanlon/ I got handed a note to ask a question, too. Lehman/ Okay. O'Hanlon/ So someone else wouldn't have to stand up. It was suggested that there was a survey done to collect some information about riders, and since we know a lot of the people that do ride, and a lot of those people didn't get surveyed, we kind of wondered who was surveyed, and what that was all about. Thornberry/ I don't know who put out the survey. Lehman/ I can't answer that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 26 Champion/ We didn't. Vanderhoef/ I don't know about a survey. O'Hanlon/ It seemed kind of weird to us, but okay. The people that we know didn't seem to know much about it. So that was that question. The point I'd like to raise is, this xvhole process is basically driven by cost. We live in a day and age when we've heard a lot about tax savings, about HMO's in terms of saving money, and all this. And people with disabilities have gotten scorched by the whole process that says we're going to save money and oh, by the way, we'll be just as good as, or better than it used to be. And the truth of the matter is, the real secret to this is in the money. Where's the money, what's it going to cost to do this and that. When they tell you they can give it to you for less, you'd better run, because chances are it's going to be, something's getting cut somewhere, somehow, the transition is being done. Thornberry/ Either that, or you're getting gouged. O'Hanlon/ Right, right. You're not getting -- Champion/ We think we're getting gouged. Thomberry/ That's right. O'Hanlon/ Somebody's paying for the service. It costs money to do it, no matter how we go at it. And we need to understand that these are critical life issues for a very large percentage of the population. There's a lot of people that critically depend on this kind of service. It's not just SEATS. I've heard a lot of these same people criticize SEATS in terms of scheduling hassles and in terms of having to sit there and wait in the windows of time to get service. So it's not just a matter of they came out to just support SEATS. They came out to support a service that's critical to their lives. That needs your support, and however we do it, we need to keep them in the process, critically, and you have a lot of citizens here in this town that are willing to speak and stand up for this issue and want to get involved. So keep them in mind. And count on their expertise in this process. And if you think you had a good showing here tonight, make a change and cut some of these services, and you'll see an awful lot more people here, I guarantee you. O'Donne!l/ Very well said. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa Cid' council meeting of Januar?,.' 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 27 Thomberry/ You know, you're absolutely right. A taxicab service to a lot of people is nice to have, but SEATS service to you is a necessity. And we understand that. Karr/ Excuse me, sir. Could I have your name? Lehman/ Folks, we're going to take a five minute break -- okay, one more, and we're going to take a five-minute break. Martha Yook/ My name is Martha Yook. I'm with the Johnson County Coalition for Persons with Disabilities. I have a disability, I have a chemical imbalance. I'm very interested in this issue of SEATS, as many of the people I know use it, and will use it. My comment is a sort of admonitory one, that the best laid plans of mice and men gang aft a-gley. Thanks. Lehman/ Thank you. We'll take five minutes. BREAK Lehman/ Meeting is convened again. Can I have a motion to accept correspondence? Thomberry/ So moved. O'Donne!l/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thomberry, seconded by O'Donneli. All in favor- (ayes). Motion carried. Item number five -- Kubby/ Excuse me, Ernie, I want to go back to that issue that we were talking about during Public Discussion. Because it, how we're kind of left with it, I ~vas at a totally different meeting than the rest of you were at, and I don't think that that's true. So at some point, I feel it's important for us, as a Council, to clarify what is the theory behind us thinking in a theoretical sense that we can provide this paratransit system cheaper than the County. If it's not that we can do mid-day service cheaper than the County by having fewer vans and putting those rides onto the taxis, what is the concept that will create more efficiency? And it may be that people don't want to talk about that tonight. But at some point we need to clarify where is it in the system. That's what I heard Joe talking about last night, and some people were saying well, no, Karen, that's not what was said last night. But I, I believe that's what was said last night, in part. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 page 28 Norton/ That might be one of only several ideas, as I understood it, they, the Committee tells us they think we can do it as well, or better, cheaper. And when we asked the question of where cheaper, one of their several different ways, and I'm not sure they're all articulated yet. I'm not sure they could articulate all of them. Kubby/ Then what's the basis for our decision? Champion/ I think that part of it is -- Norton/ We said go further, and convince us again further we're ready to take the jump and convince us further. Lehman/ May I suggest that was the direction we gave staff, to come back to us with more definitive -- you asked a couple questions last night that I don't think were answered. And l, we need answers -- Kubby/ About management constantly (can't hear) -- Lehman/ That's correct. Norton/ For example. Lehman/ And we need those answers, and that really is what we directed staff to do, come back, give us something to get our teeth into, to look at and talk about. And I think until we get their report, their recommendations, that I don't personally feel there's anything to talk about except they're feeling that they may be able to do this as efficiently or more efficiently and at the same level of service. And 1 think what we've said is prove it. We want to see it. Norton/ Go further. Lehman/ Did I misinterpret that last? Kubby/ No. I just didn't want to leave the impression that somehow I was, I was stating something that was talked about fairly extensively last night. Lehman/ That was one thing. Vanderhoef/ What I heard, Karen, is when you talk about noonday service, the figures that we have show that there are several vans that are not being utilized, or only This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 g4 page 29 utilized with one ride during that center period of time. So I did not say personally, and I didn't hear it said that taxicab would be used in that time period. What I was saying was there are other times that there may be taxicabs used in there, but there is a possibility of decreasing the number of vans without having any additional. Lehman/ Well, this discussion -- VanderhoefY And this will show up when we get more figures and as they continue to come from the County. Because we have very short, limited time of tracking that. Lehman/ This discussion, I think, is better left for when we get the information. We'!! have all of it. Kubby/ That's fine. I appreciate the continued short discussion. Atkins/ Excuse me, may I add to it? Lehman/ Please do. Atkins/ For a minute or two? You know, one of the difficulties, and you all who've sat up here for more than five minutes realize it, when you're in public life, you make decisions in the public. And as I saw what unfolded, there seems to be, at least in my mind, and Dee and Dean conferred with me before they finalized their memo, there's a question of philosophy. That is, this is an urban government providing urban services. Paratransit, at least in our judgment, has been substantially an urban service. If you take a look at the numbers, it's like 80-plus percent of the rides are urban generated. The second one is a matter of policy. How best do you want to provide a particular service. And that's why it was important, at least from your staff's perspective, to hear you say as policy, under, with this underlying philosophy, this is the policy that we would like to see you pursue. And then, third, becomes the issue of management, administration, bottom line, can we do it, based upon this foundation, cheaper? And clearly, one of the issues that was identified was that at mid-day, based upon the information we received from the County, Joe identified substantial downtime. Downtime is paying for a public service when in effect we're not really generating either participation in the service, and you're losing business income from that service. So I think, you know, you step through philosophy policy and get into the management issues, it's now into well what kind of service do we want to provide, if you generally satisfy the philosophy and the policy issue. You're still debating policy a little bit. we're not there yet. And I just want to make sure we understand each other. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 30 Lehman/ Well,-- Atkins/ I know you've given us direction. It's still a question of policy though. Lehman/ I think, Steve, that the first two issues you brought up probably will be somewhat tempered by the third one. We have to, I think, show that we can be, obviously I think from a policy standpoint, really feel that we are better able to do certain things. If we are not able to do it more efficiently or as effectively, then we probably are not going to value the first ones as greatly as we would otherwise. Atkins/ But you have to remember somewhat of the debates that you get into. If you look to Joe and said, and I think Dean spoke to something, can we do it more efficiently at less cost? And Joe said yes. Depending on the particular constraints in policy that you apply. Because, in theory, if you ask that same question of the County, they can't answer it. Can you do it more efficiently at less cost? If they answer yes, well, wait a minute, why is it costing so much? If they answer no, that's why we're taking it over. Kubby/ But the answer yes, last night, from Joe was with the caveat that that was Iowa City's fides. Atkins/ Yes. Kubby/ And we're talking about inter-jurisdictional fides, and that can change the whole formula. And it's real important for us to remember that's what he said when we look at, when we say we pledge to say your service isn't going to change, that we see how that plays out as it trickles down to the specifics. Atkins/ And remember the philosophy issue is that we have an unusual circumstance whereby we have a reasonably good-sized rural paratransit service. That's somewhat unusual. Not unlike we have a city that provides landfill services for the County. I don't know of anybody else in the state who does it that way. We choose to. So, I mean, there are just underlying philosophical questions that you have to kind of nod your head and say yeah, that's the way we want to do it. Now, go out and do it, and here's the policy to guide it. Norton/ I agree that we don't want to get into a long debate on this issue tonight. But I hope it was also understood last night that there was a strong preference that we have, that we manage a unified kind of a service. Now this depends on what This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #4 page 31 others wish to do. But we expressed an interest in unified, xve don't want people dropped off at borders, and we don't want ships passing in the night. If we can avoid it. Arkins/ We clearly understood that, and one of our first phone calls this morning was to set up a meeting with Coralville. Norton/ Okay. Lehman/ No, I think that's right. There's a lot of things that have to be sorted out. But 1 think that we are all amenable to trying to sort those things out, and I think that's where we are right now. Atkins/ Okay. That's fine. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5a page 32 ITEM NO. 5a PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS: Consider a motion setting a public hearing for February 10 on a resolution approving revisions to the August 6, 1996, Fringe Area Agreement with Johnson County, which is part of the Iowa City Comprehensive Plan. Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5a). This hearing is going to be limited to, in fact it will be restricted to areas within area C as it is designated in the Comprehensive Plan. The recommendation is consistent with staff recommendation and also with action taken by the County Board of Supervisors. Thornberry/ Move to set the public hearing. O'Donnell/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion? Roll call- Karr/ You don't need, a motion. Lehman/ Oh, a motion. All in favor- (ayes). Closed. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5b page 33 ITEM NO. 5b Public hearing on an ordinance vacating .50 acres of Waterfront Drive, located south of Highway 6 and east of Gilbert Street. (VAC97-0003). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5b). This is a small parcel that was really created when the Hy-Vee store xvas built, south of Highway 6, and will kind of clean up the area. We need to vacate that, and I think, probably farther down the line, we will be looking at filling up the adjacent property there. P.h. is open. Champion/ Good public hearing. Lehman/ P.h. is closed. Kubby/ I would say the opposite, actually. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiD' council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5c page 34 ITEM NO. 5c Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article L, entitled "Provisional Uses and Special Exceptions," to provide for temporary use permits to allow short-term activities such as special events or seasonal outdoor storage and sales. (First consideration). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5c). This is an ordinance which will allow events that we have currently been allowing to take place to be regulated and complied with an ordinance. Right now we have events that really don't require any ordinance. This would make their activities legal. Thornberry/ Move adoption of the ordinance. Norton/Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Dee Norton. Any discussion? Kubby/ The only hesitation I have is for a category, certain things can be, can be qualified for a temporary purpose that could last up to a year, To me, that's not very temporary. But because our staff said that some of the things, one of the items that would be approved under this would be construction storage. That that makes sense. And that if, in a couple years, we find that there are other uses creeping in for that period of time, we might need to make some adjustments. Lehman/ Okay. Any other discussion? Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5d page 35 ITEM NO. 5d Consider an ordinance amending the Building Code and Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article B, entitled "Zoning Definitions," to change the definition of GRADE. (First consideration). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5d). This is an ordinance that will prevent builders from trying to circumvent an ordinance that governs the height of a building. Thomberry/ By (can't understand). Lehman/ Yeah, by adding soil around the building. And this is one that has the endorsement of the P/Z Commission, 5-1 abstention, and certainly the city staff. Vanderhoef/ Move first consideration. Thornberry/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Any discussion? Norton/ Well, I have one question I want clarified. I think it was brought up by Pam Earhart in the P/Z meeting. They're talking about 20- or a 4:1 grade, 20 feet out from the building, is that in every direction? Thornberry/ No. It was not. Norton/ I don't understand. What part of it is? Karin Franklin/ It's not in every direction. This is on average around the building. Norton/ On average. So it would be possible to be a very steep grade on one side and flat on the other, and average out to meet the conditions? Champion/ Sure. Franklin/ It's possible. Thomberry/ Again, I think -- Franklin/ That's to allow for things like walk-out basements. I mean this is something that is going to cover every single possible building. Vanderhoef/ Would it be more than the 4:1 ratio? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa Cit3' council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5d page 36 Norton/ Could be in some places. Franklin/ In some places, yeah, it could be. Vanderhoef/ Okay. Norton/ It could be steeper than that in some places, yeah. Lehman/ Further discussion? Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January. 27, 1998. F012798 #5e page 37 ITEM NO. 5e Consider an ordinance amending the Zoning Chapter by amending Title 14, Chapter 6, "Zoning," Article B, "Zoning Definitions," Section 2, by changing the definition of Transient Housing to increase the number of days persons are able to stay as temporary residents. (Pass and adopt). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5e). This really may be what as a practical matter we've had to do anyway, making it conform with the ordinance. Thomberry/ Move adoption of the ordinance. Vanderhoeff Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Any discussion? Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa CiD' council meeting of January. 27, 1998. F012798 #5f page 38 ITEM NO. 5f Consider a resolution approving a preliminary and final plat of a Resubdivision of Outlot A, WB Development, a 15.9 acre one-lot commercial subdivision with one outlot located on the east side of Naples Avenue, across from Alyssa Court. (SUB97-0025). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #50. We've been asked to defer this until the 10th of February. Do I have a motion to that effect? Vanderhoeff So moved. O'Donnell/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by O'Donneil. All in favor- (ayes). Motion carried. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5g page 39 ITEM NO. 5g Consider a resolution approving a preliminary plat of Westcott Heights, an 84.6 acre, 3 l-lot residential subdivision located in Johnson County on the west side of Prairie du Chien Road, approximately 1/4 mile north of Newport Road. (SUB97-00 ! 7). Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #5g). This is a subdivision within the County which is within our two-mile subdivision. It has been approved by the P/Z Commission and its approval is recommended by the staff. Thomberry/ Move adoption of the resolution. O'Donneil/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thomberry, seconded by O'Donnell. discussion? Kubby/ Last night, I had some questions about stormwater that Karin's going to give us some more information on. Franklin/ What you were reading from, when you referred to the comments about the stormwater and how it was handled was in a report that was done prior to the plat being revised. The plat was subsequently revised, and another basin is provided in one of the other outlots to handle the other stormwater. Kubby/ Does that mean that all water running off that property stays on that property, in terms ofstormwater management? I mean, it may eventually go off, but __9 Franklin/ The majority. There are about four lots on the very south part of this property that may flow to the south. But most of it is going either into the basin that is on the ~vest side of this development, or the northeast comer, in the two outlots. Kubby/ Okay, thanks. Norton/ I have a question. Karin, relevant to the same issue, did the legal wording get in there that the City is and can in principle or can in fact, require the installation of storm basins if necessary? Franklin/ Yes. Norton/ If necessary at some point down the road. Franklin/ Yes. That is standard language with all of our County subdivisions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #5g page 40 Norton/ And that's in there. Is the question in there about the stipulation about those other 25 acres being developed? Or can we put a stipulation in that the back 25 acres can't be developed unless secondary access is available? Franklin/ I-- Norton/ I thought that was the recommendation, they had to be in the legal -- Franklin/ If that was something that the P/Z Commission wanted to have in the legal papers, then it would be in the legal papers. Norton/ Okay. I'!1 assume it is. Franklin/ Because there wasn't anything outstanding on this item. Norton/ And Solon's going to bring a pumper full of water? Franklin/ Pardon me? Norton/ Solon's going to take care of the fire? Franklin/ Yes, yes, they are. Norton/ Hauling big buckets? Yeah. Franklin/ Big buckets. Lehman/ They're called tanker trucks. Norton/ Yeah. Lehman/ Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #6a page 41 ITEM NO. 6a PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE WATER MAIN - PENINSULA PROPERTY PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS. a. PUBLIC HEARING. Lehman/ (Reads agenda item//6). This is for the construction, and this is part of our water project. And these are water mains that are to be constructed on the peninsula property adjacent to Foster Road and the Elks Golf Course. The estimated cost of this construction is S331,350 and will be funded through existing General Obligation bonds. P.h. on this. P.h. is open. P.h. is closed. b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING. Thornberry/ Move adoption of the resolution. O'Donnell/ Second. Lehman/ Moved by Thomberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion? Kubby/ You know, I looked at the route of this. I go down to the peninsula frequently because I know it's going to be developed, and it's a beautiful piece of property, so I want to experience it as much as possible before there's a lot of change to the area. And as the water line goes up the hill, towards where Foster Road will be, we're going to put an additional swathe of clearing up a hill that's full of trees. And I talked with Chuck Schmadeke about could that be the golf cart pass for the Elks so that we, instead of having two clearings or one winding clearing for the golf cart pass and one for the waterline, we could avoid that in having these two big disturbances. And the answer was no. Which is real unfortunate, just because of the logistics of where the golf course holes are going to be, it doesn't work out. So this is for me, a real dilemma, in that I value our water plant plan, because xvater's just a basic public health issue that we need to deal with. But I don't like all the destruction of the steep slope and the wooded slope that's there. And there's not a win-win situation, so I have to choose, and I'm choosing the water plant over the trees in this instance. And I don't like making those kinds of choices, but, that's life. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #6a page 42 Thornberry/ Karen, if it helps any at all, the winding paths of a golf cart path, that wind through the trees, can be CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-18, SIDE A Thomberry/ Not going to cut another swathe for a golf cart pass. They'll wind that through the trees and keep it in the shade as much as possible. Kubby/ I hope that it works out that way, yeah. Lehman/ Is this a roll call? Karr/ It's a resolution. Lehman/ Yeah. Roll call- (yes). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Januar3., 27, 1998. F012798 #7 page 43 ITEM NO. 7 ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES. Lehman/ (Reads agenda item #7). And I believe we have correspondence in the Council packet on that, though I don't recall. Karr/ No, I believe that's erroneous. That was from the last packet, and should be deleted. Thomberry/ Put in your applications. There's a lot of vacancies here for these boards, -- Lehman/ Some opportunities to serve. Thornberry/ You bet. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page44 ITEM NO. 8 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Lehman/ City Council information. Karen, we'll start with you. Kubby/ I'd be happy to. I just have two things. One is the Women's Resource and Action Center is putting together another Social Change training which is entitled "What Do We Do Next: Organizational Planning." And that is happening Monday, February 16th from 6-10 p.m. in the Iowa City Public Library. Ifyou want more information or want to register, you can call WRAC. And that number is 335-1486. And secondly, I saw this thing in the Press-Citizen last Saturday, entitled "Tell Us about Your Bout with City Hall". And I, it says "Residents often have run-ins with local government that leave a bad taste." Well, I got a bad taste xvhen I read this and thought this is just inciting public government bashing, and this isn't really what I want to see our local newspaper doing. So I called Michael Beck, and I hope I get this right, I think he's the Managing Editor. Atkins/ Yes. Kubby/ And he said that's not what we meant. So I said, well, ~vhat did you mean? And the answer was, we want to hear about not only the challenges in interacting with local government, and suggested solutions that did things, too. I said well, that didn't appear here, so we talked about how they were going to have multiple new calls for stories that would say not only the bad and the ugly, but the good as well. So I hope it is a well-rounded process of collecting information about the citizens' interactions with local government, and not just government bashing. That's not a good way to facilitate public interaction from us. It creates (can't understand) in us, and we want to hear it, but we want to hear the whole picture and not just one part of the picture. So I hope to see that renewed call for stories and some different semantics. Norton/ Can I add something here, Karen? Kubby/ Please do. Norton/ In today's, there was, it still had "bout" in the title, but there was a call in the paragraph for good interactions as well. That was a follow-up to the one earlier. But the word "bout" still crept in there, giving kind of a pugilistic sound. Kubby/ Well, i want to put my own call out to the citizens of Iowa City to send in stories of the positive interactions and the good services that the City does provide. There's a lot of good that goes on here, too. That's all I have. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Janua~' 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 45 Champion/ I won't comment because I totally agree with Karen. And I felt just really kind of angry at the same article. I thought, well, that's, I just wanted to have (can't understand) somebody who doesn't like Connie Champion or Steve Arkins or whoever. Lehman/ Steve. Atkins/ Thank you. Lehman/ Anything else, Connie? Champion/ No. Lehman/ Mike? O'Donnell/ I had two calls today on SEATS, and there's a lot of misinformation out there. I've heard we're going to eliminate it, or greatly reduce services, and I want to show everybody that the intention of this Council is to provide good service, not reduce the service, and we're going to try and improve on the service. So give us an opportunity and don't jump to any conclusions and ignore the misinformation. Lehman/ Dean. Thornberry/ Okay. I just have one thing, Ernie, Mister Mayor. Lehman/Oh, thank you. Thornberry/ And that's one thing we brought up, oh, maybe 6, 8, 9, 10 months ago, and that was about Neighborhood Commercial basement square footage issue. And I would like to talk about that. I would like to talk about it soon. And I think Karin Franklin is aware of our concern. She has probably left the building, and is unavailable at this point, so we'll leave this for another night. But I would like to talk about this soon, as far as the Neighborhood Commercial basement square footage, and how it affects businesses, i.e., a restaurant in the east part of Iowa City. Can we get that on the agenda sometime? Champion/ Regular work session. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 46 Lehman/ Steve, I'm sure we probably can. And I have talked about this too with Karin, and it's something we're going to be working on. Thomberry/ I second that. Lehman/ Dee Vanderhoef? Vanderhoef/ A couple of things. I would like to know exactly what our sidewalk policy is for the City in that one of my SEATS calls today was from a disabled woman who says that during the summer, she can ride a regular transit bus because she uses a scooter or a walker, but in the winter, she cannot use this because there are no sidewalks and there are big piles of snow that she cannot navigate across. So l would just like to check in and see what -- Atkins/ As in, excuse me, Dee, as in retrofit, neighborhoods that don't have sidewalks? Vanderhoef/ (Yes). Atkins/ Kind of like, Ernie, when we had, six months ago, when we were able to get that filled in. Thomberry/ I don't think, Steve, that that's it. There's an area of town, we!!, several areas, that don't have sidewalks but have a bus stop there. And when the snowplows come by -- I got the same call-- Vanderhoef/ Oh, okay. Thomberry/ That the snowplow puts the snow up, builds it up, especially on the comers, also, even where there are sidewalks. Atkins/ Okay. Thomberry/ If there's a bus stop there, they can't navigate that little pile, or sometimes big pile of snow, in order to get from the sidewalk to the chairlit~ on the bus. Atkins/ We don't have to do it now. Why don't you give me some of the addresses you got. I need to go out and see it, I think. Vanderhoef/ Yeah, okay. Atkins/ To my knowledge, we don't have anything that would (can't hear). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of Janua~' 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 47 Norton/ isn't it true though, Dee, that we have a sidewalk policy, that is, I thought the City had been divided into ten regions, and we were progressing with getting sidewalks in where they're not. Atkins/ For repairs. Norton/ That's just for repairs? We're not going to re-establish any of them? Atkins/ Well-- Norton/ Some of them are going to be pretty crucial. I think we'd better take look at that. Vanderhoef/ Well, then maybe we should go section by section, not only with repairs, but in retrofitting. Atkins/ l suspect folks, we could identify them. We have neighborhoods that, when you approved the subdivisions, you also chose not to put them in. I'm trying to think, what was it, Walnut, Walnut Ridge. Vanderhoef/ Walnut Ridge. Atkins/ Having no sidewalks out there was a deliberate decision. Now, I don't know -- Kubby/ That's a private street, too. Does that make a difference? Atkins/ I don't know, Karen. That's what I'm trying to -- l think I hear you, you want me to take a look at it. Norton/ Take a look at it. Vanderhoef/ Take a look at it, that's right. Atkins/ I'll bring you something back. Thornberry/I know there are no sidewalks on either side of Dubuque Road. Atkins/ Yeah. And we've had a proposal off and on in that neighborhood, and it was simply just too expensive when we contacted property owners. They rejected it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 48 Kubby/In my neighborhood there are lots of little places without sidewalks, and there are many people who use wheelchairs, scooters, walkers, and canes, who live around where I live, and some of the people in wheelchairs have gotten tickets for riding in the street. And I think that they shouldn't get tickets when there isn't -- I'm not promoting the sidewalk thing at this point, but my neighborhood happens to like those spots without the sidewalks. But in general. But I don't think we should be giving people tickets who have no other choice. Atkins/ I hear you. Kubby/ But to be in the street. Unless they're being reckless. Thomberry/ Drag racing. Atkins/ I hear you. Vanderhoef/ Okay. And another question I really have is whether we have any kind of a policy on meeting rooms that fits the whole City. I'm aware of Parks and Rec, and those meeting rooms a little bit, but like in this building, I don't know, and any other building. And we will be building, a preliminary look at the water building will have a meeting room in it. So, I would be interested in looking at a policy, perhaps, for meeting rooms. Atkins/ The only thing I would caution you on is that each kind of operation is going to be a little different. We may be able to accommodate some folks in this building and the Rec Center simply, that doesn't, they're open late at night, in the evening, library's open in the evenings so I think, I don't know if you can do a uniform policy. We've collected some information about this room, since we've put some money in this room, and just how we go about it right now, it's busy. You know, we're able to, particularly we want to open it up to greater public involvement. Vanderhoef/ I'm curious what it looks like throughout the City. Atkins/ Okay. Vanderhoef/ You know, what are, what spaces are available. Atkins/ I'll put a little summary memo together to just kind of get you up to speed on it, and you can take it from there. Vanderhoef/ And whether there are charges, or what there are. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 49 Arkins/ Okay. Vanderhoef/ Okay? Atkins/ Okay. That's it, thanks. Lehman/ Dee? Norton/ Well, I just want to make a brief comment about a memo we got from, 1 guess you got from Rob Winstead, about railroad crossings .... Atkins/ Yes Norton/ But I did want people to know that we're watching. And I'm pleased to see that some of them are going to be reconstructed in 1998. Atkins/ There's a file. There's a Dee Norton railroad file we keep -- Norton/ Well, there's two of them going to be reconstructed in 1998. But I see some of the others that are not in very good shape, and we've applied from funds, but the lag from the DOT or whoever is responsible for these is incredible. They've projected 2004, and my car will certainly be mined by that time. Thomberry/ It was years ago, Dee. Council/ (All talking). Lehman/ You know, Dee, when we finally got the Green Machine, I thought maybe, you'd lighten up a little. Norton/ Come on. Atkins/ We closed that file. Norton/ 1 still think we keep working on it. But I just want people to know it's a slow process with the State, apparently. Lehman/ ! have just two things. I'm sorry-- Norton/ No, I'm fine. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 50 Lehman/ Just two things, to remind Council and whoever's watching from the public, that there ~vill be a meeting Thursday with members of the Council, City staff, some of the Board of Supervisors, regarding SEATS. So that's a discussion that will take place. And there was one other thing we talked about a year ago, almost a year ago, following the, a kegger event which occurred on the North Side, which ~vas attended by a large number of people who became unruly. And ifl'm not mistaken, at that time, I thought, and correct me if I'm wrong, I thought we said that we might want to look at something that might prevent something like that from occurring again. Am I fight? Arkins/ Yes, you are. Lehman/ Well, if I am also correct, it followed Riverfest, at the same time? Kubby/ Yeah. Lehman/ So that's coming up rather soon. Kubby/ In April. Lehman/ And if we're going to look at that, or still feel it's worth looking at, maybe we ought to - Kubby/ But we were looking at regulating that if there were x-many kegs, you had to have restrooms and cordoned off areas, and while we wouldn't eliminate the ability to have a large -- Lehman/ Oh, no, I'm well aware of that. Kubby/ Just controlled and ruly. Lehman/ My question is, are we still interested in doing something? Atkins/ Eleanor can answer. I have a comment, too. Eleanor Dilkes/ I think it's in my office, and I think it's just something that's been put on the back burner while we were understaffed. But we'll get, we'll look at it and get it going. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #8 page 51 Atkins/ However, we do receive those requests. I don't have probably the ordinance authority that I should have, but we have, the last couple, I mean, we've had some. We were very, very restrictive of the applicants. We explained to them that what happened before, it can't happen again. And we had expectations, and so far, the applicants with that lot played ball. Kubby/ So what kinds of things were you talking about? Atkins/ I explained to them, I said I think you need to have some outdoor Port-a-potties. I think ifyou spill over into the public thoroughfare, it's going to be closed immediately. That there was absolutely no question that if we saw outside consumption, you know, on the public thoroughfare, we were going to shut it down immediately. And we just said, you know, you've got to act responsibly. And we also made them talk to their neighbors. Because that one free-for-all that we had, when we had neighbors afraid to come out of their house because people are throwing bottles at each other, that's, that sort of tears it, and that's what we did. And so far, it worked. Kubby/ And what's the result? I didn't hear about any wild things? Atkins/ Neither did I. So we consider that a victory. Kubby/ Yes. Atkins/ Okay. Champion/ When I have my wedding reception at my house, I need to ask Council? Atkins/ Well, no. Not, no. Thomberry/ Only if you're going to throw a bottle. O'Donnell/ That was a kegger. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #9a page 52 ITEM NO. 9a REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER. Lehman/ Steve, do you have anything? Arkins/ Yeah, two things. Number one, a little interesting bit of information. Our shuttle downtown, we are now averaging about !,200 people a day. We expected 200. it's gotten to the point where Joe, just the other day, we have removed the seats out of the middle so folks, if you're riding the shuttle, you're really standing up on the shuttle. But we increased the capacity from about 60 to 85 people. We just simply don't have the budget to run a second bus. But it's certainly, the popularity of the system is there. Today, Jeff and his folks were conducting an onboard survey, why are you riding the shuttle, what are you doing with the car, those sorts of things. We'll have that information for you shortly to see how well it's going. Kubby/ That's the beauty of no-fare transit. Champion/ Yeah. Atkins/ The second item is something new I want to announce to you. That on February 12th, in cooperation with the Social Studies curriculum folks at the School District, we put together what we're calling Local Government Day. And it's going to begin at about 8:15 in the morning. City High and West High will each have 12 students. How the schools are going to go about selecting them, I understand they're going to do it by way of some essay competition or whatever. But what we intend to do is that these 24 students are going to be set up with, in effect, site visits, during the course of that morning, they may go to the landfill for an hour or so, then to the water plant, and then maybe to to the police communications center, then back here for lunch, in other words, we have a whole variety, not everybody will do the same. We'll have someone at the Senior Center, then maybe to the library, and then to the Rec Center, something such as that. But we intend to have kind of a full morning with these 24 students, and bring them back here for sort of a box lunch, at noontime, visit about what they experienced. This is our first try at this. we're kind of excited about it. I think it should be a lot of fun. O'Donnell/ Cool. Thomberry/ There's a follow-up to that, Steve. When I was at City High. Atkins/ When you were at City High? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City. council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798 #9a page 53 Thomberry/ Many, many years ago. We had a, we also had a Local Government Day then. This was in 19--, oh gee. Vanderhoef/ '06? Thomberry/ And we ran, those that wanted to participate in Local Government Day, ran and were elected by the student body. Lehman/ Were you elected? Thomberry/ To do -- and I'll tell you what, I ran at that time it was called Dog Catcher. I ran for Dog Catcher and was elected. So those that have said that I couldn't be elected Dog Catcher were wrong. Lehman/ Long leash. Thornberry/ It was a very short leash. Arkins/ Yeah. Well this is an attempt to -- Thomberry/ They did that for a long time. Atkins/ Quite frankly, what we're trying to do is let these students become aware of the variety ofthings that we do. I mean, many folks are unaccustomed to, when we talk about tours, we're going to take them into the bowels of the water plant. Thornberry/ Yeah. Atkins/ And try and explain how the thing works, so again, each of the students, that was a poor choice of words, you're right, each is going to have, you know, a couple of hours of experience with a City service. Hopefully come back and learn more about it. So it's our first try at it, and we're excited about it. All I have. Lehman/ Eleanor? Dilkes/ Nothing, thank you. Lehman/ Remember, Thursday night, 6:30, budget. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 27, 1998. F012798