HomeMy WebLinkAbout1997-08-25 TranscriptionAugust 25, 1997 Council Work Session page 1
August 25, 1997
Council Work Session
6:00 PM
Council: Nov, Baker, Kubby, Lehman, Norton, Thomberry, Vanderhoef.
Staff: Atkins, Helling, Karr, Dilkes, Franklin, Schoon, Davidson, Fowler, Logsden.
Tapes: 97-110, side 2; 97-114, all; 97-115, all; 97-116, Side 1.
Review Zoning Matters 97-110 S2
a. Consider a motion setting a public hearing for September 9 on an ordinance amending
the Zoning Chapter by changing the zoning designation from RM-20, Medium Density
Multi-Family Residential, and RS-5, Low Density Single-Family Residential, to OSA-20
and OSA-5, Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone, for approximately 1.9 acres located at 1122-
1136 N. Dubuque Street. (REZ97-0003)
Franklin/Consider setting a p.h. for September 9 on a rezoning to OSA-20 and OSA-5 ....
Cliffs hillside. The P/Z Commission had a plan before them .... which looks like it
will work... Terragon .... last week... this has been deferred for one more two week
period to September 4 meeting of the Commission. It looks like there are some
real possibilities that this will work. We want to go ahead and set the p.h. on this
for the 9th so that there is no intimation in any way that the city is delaying this.
There is a November 1 date that the property owner must meet that is a court
order and we want to insure that there is nothing on our part that stands in the way
of that.
Kubby/Assume we hold a public meeting on the 9th (can't hear).
Franklin/Well, it is going to be tight and what we may need to do is look at the
possibility of them starting some aspect of it .... retaining wall that is there now...
remove... needs to be some re-working of that existing retaining wall and maybe
they can start some of that work. We will need to talk that through.
Kubby/(Can't hear).
Franklin/One of the factors that have been put into the P/Z Commission's work on this ....
Terragon be part of the review of this as it proceeds so that that company is on it
the entire time.
Kubby/(Can't hear).
Franklin/At the property owner's expense. So that is the deal on that one.
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b. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article E,
entitled "Commercial and Business Zones," Section 2, entitled "Neighborhood
Commercial Zone (CN-1)," to permit any retail or personal service use in the CN-1 zone
with a size limitation to help ensure neighborhood compatibility. (First consideration)
Franklin/First consideration of the ordinance relating to the CN-1 zone and the uses...
size for retail and personal service.
c. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article N,
entitled "Off-Street Parking and Loading," to increase the parking requirements for
residential uses in the CB-5, Central Business Support Zone. (First consideration)
Franklin/First consideration of the change in the parking requirements for residential
uses in CB-5.
d. Amending Title 14, "Unified Development Code" of the City Code by amending
Chapter 9, Article A, entitled "Parking Facility Impact Fee" to revise the formula for
payment in the CB-5 Zone.
(1) Public Hearing (continued from July 29)
(2) Consider an Ordinance (First consideration)
Franklin/Continuation of the p.h. on the Parking Impact Fee changes. You said at your
last formal meeting regarding this that you wanted to think about the percentages
and whether you wanted to do any change. We have not, as a staff, done any work
on this at all in the interim. You all were going to think about it. So this is a p.h.
that is continued. If you don't wish to make any changes, you can close the p.h. or
you may close the p.h. and then amend by motion what is before you tomorrow
· night.
e. Consider an ordinance amending Title 14, Chapter 6, entitled "Zoning," Article O,
entitled "Sign Regulations," to permit projecting signs as a provisional sign in the CB-5
and CB-10 zones. (Pass and adopt)
Franklin/The pass and adopt on projecting signs. And that is all the P/Z stuff.
Kubby/(Can't hear).
Baker/I didn't see any shift, giving any leeway from the rest of the council ....
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Lehman/I think a little flexibility would be not a bad idea.
Norton/What form would that take?
Lehman/Well, the requirement is exactly 25% .....
Norton/
Kubby/
Lehman/What if they want to put 10% on it?
Kubby/
Lehman/
Norton/10%? Doesn't that put a lot on the city?
Nov/Well, they can pay the extra. If we say up to 25% and someone said okay, I can only
fit 10% but I am going to give you 90% in terms of fees. Do we want to accept it?
Lehman/With a minimum of 75% required.
Baker/You have got to say no.
Franklin/This is fine. It is a change in philosophy which I am- From a staff position, I
think I am cool with that because our original position was that you have no
parking and no impact fee. We then moved to if you are going to have an impact
fee, allow them to pay up to 100%. But there was very strong feeling on the part
of the P/Z Commission .... and city council at the time that for residential, that
there should be some parking required on site ....
Baker/But if they can easily fit 30%-
Franklin/You could say 25% at least.
Kubby/I would rather have a floor.
Lehman/A range.
Norton/A floor with a range.
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Lehman/We have that now, it is 25%.
Thomberry/You could drop the 25 to say 15 to 35. That would give some room.
Lehman/As long as you require a minimum of 75%.
Thomberry/
Baker/
Norton/I could see some range ....
Franklin/Okay. So it is paying 75% at least.
Baker/At a minimum.
Franklin/Minimum. And you may provide on site anywhere from 15% to 35%. Is that
what I heard?
Nov/I don't know. I think we ought to think about it. We have until tomorrow to think
about it ....
Thornberry/I don't think a flat 75% is fair.
Norton/
Baker/15 to 35.
Lehman/
Norton/
Nov/I think 35 sounds high.
Kubby/
Lehman/I think it would be very expensive to provide the extra 10% .... It is an option
they can use if they want... at least it is there.
Kubby/
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Lehman/This is only residential, right?
Franklin/Right. This is only for residential uses.
Vanderhoef/The parking is parking and they can use it for however they choose to use it.
Thornberry/
Vanderhoef/
Norton/ .... want to be careful to not let too much of that land go to parking .... keep it
available for commercial reasons ....
Nov/This would apply then just to housing, not the commercial.
Franklin/That is right. Only residential.
Baker/15 to 35.
Norton/
Lehman/15, they pay 85.
Franklin/But if they provide 35, they still pay 75.
Norton/
Nov/And we also changed the number of parking spaces required.
Franklin/That is correct. There is more required now.
Nov/So having 35% of those on site could be a large section of the property.
Thornberry/That number changes with every council.
Council/(All talking).
Franklin/Okay. Is there a majority right now for a minimum payment of 75%7
Council/(Yes).
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Franklin/And you must provide on site somewhere between 15% and 35%. If you
provide more than 25% on site, you still have to pay 75% for the fee.
Lehman/No .... If it is less than 25, then you increase the-
Franklin/That is right. You are still paying 75%. You don't lessen that 75% under any
circumstance. Okay. Are there four people for that?
Nov/I think I hear four.
Franklin/Okay.
Kubby/
Franklin/If you are all fine with that now, what we will do it we will amend the
ordinance before tomorrow night's meeting. It needs to be stated at the beginning
of the p.h. that this is what this is doing now. Then you can close your p.h. and
vote your first consideration.
Nov/However, don't we need an amendment on the floor and a vote on the amendment?
Franklin/Yes, you will need to do that, right.
Norton/
Franklin/An amendment to the amendment.
Kubby/
Nov/Karin, may I pester you for just a second on the Unified Development Code
Performance Standards Screening for Childcare? In the comment that we have, it
says in cases where childcare center is built across from and adjacent other use
such as an industrial use, the childcare center has to provide a screening. However
that from our comment section does not appear in the ordinance. So will you
check the ordinance again tomorrow to be sure that it is clear enough so that it is
the way it is suppose to happen? Thanks.
Vanderhoef/Do we ask Karin about #11 about the transit interchange?
Nov/I will talk about that later. I will have some more information .....
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CEBA - Protek Medical 97-110 S2
Schoon/On the agenda for tomorrow night you have a resolution approving an
application to the state for CEBA Funds... $50,000 forgivable loan from the state
and the city providing a $15,000 no interest loan that would be repaid in its
entirety and it will be paid off in five years. Your materials includes the details of
that. It is a start-up company ....they will be producing products for the ultra-
sound and imaging market .... targeted industries ....ideal match for us ....ideal
match for Oakdale Research Park .... They meet that targeted industry criteria .... In
your materials you have the details of the project, the number of jobs created, the
wages .... It is a start-up company .... greater degree of risk .... lessened given the
abilities of those involved .... they do have the abilities and the skills to pull off
this project... let them talk with you briefly ....Rick Pruter is here... Chief
executive officer and owner of the company ....
Rick Pruter/Hello. Thanks for inviting me here. I have just been in the market for 14-15
years now...
Nov/...stay closer to the microphone.
Pruter/ .... I have had an engineering firm in the Quad Cities .... medical devices ....
inventor and marketing person .... I have got a lot of background... customers ....
looking forward to pulling in some sales.
Kubby/How many companies are out there? .....
Pruter/
When I directly look at them, there is one other company in Sweden called A-
Medic... a lot of other competition out there .... high regulatory requirement on
them .... FDA for the United States .... I just received another approval through
FDA today for another line of products ....
Nov/I noticed... one of the reasons you wanted to be here in Iowa City was to be close to
your venders. What kind of venders are close?
Pruter/In Iowa there is people that make some of our products .... critical devices... local
machine shops .... medical devices .... difficult task ....
Nov/
Pruter/
Nov/Any other questions.
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Kubby/I have a question about benefits issue... says the company will pay 50% of the
premium but the insurance will contain a 90/10 co-payment.
Pruter/ ....typical situation with Blue Cross/Blue Shield where 90/10 on selected doctors.
You pay 10% of the bill and insurance company picks up 90%.
Kubby/So will the company or the employee pick up that 10%?
Pruter/The employee will.
Lehman/Pretty standard.
Vanderhoef/More standard is 80/20 ..... this is a very attractive package.
Council/
Nov/
Pruter/Bill Evans knows most about this .....
Bill Evans/We are looking at for both a single and a family to pay 50% of the
premium ..... for a single person you would max at $1,000 and a family $2,000
which is pretty standard.
Thomberry/ .... If someone is single and their policy costs $1,000... they pay $500 .....
50/50. If they are married and have children ..... policy is the same?
Evans/In most cases... some of them have it married and spouse and others that it is
married and children ....
Thornberry/I have been asked this, aren't you discriminating against the individual who
is single? ....Why don't you just take a certain amount? ....take your average single
employee ....
Evans/They pay less premiums as married.
Pruter/You see more companies... going to that. traditionally it has always been a
percentage of both .... go to a dollar amount ....
Norton/So the family does pay.
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Thomberry/... if they have got six children it is still the same, it is family.
Kubby/I had talked with Rick before the meeting... environmental part of our
guidelines .... energy conservation rehab ..... looking at are the products that you are
producing going to be energy saving .....
Pruter/
There are some things that we are doing to the building ....We look at reducing the
total consumption of electricity and water quite a bit .....areas in the building that
we can make more energy efficient ....
Norton/
Pruter/The one area will be a clean room .... completely sealed up .... one set of doors
taken out ..... keep the bio-burden down .....
Vanderhoef/How much ability will you have to expand in this building?
Evans/We are going to take up about ..... looking at having quite a bit of room to expand
in here ....We can expand and it is hard to define how fast and how much we will
expand ....
Vanderhoef/Your growth plan is fairly aggressive ..... I was curious whether this building
will take care of you for at least that initial expansion? .....
Evans/Yeah, I would say probably at that point... 5-7 years ....
Vanderhoef/Okay, thank you.
Pruter/I wanted to add for the last year... working on the inventions and FDA
submittals... approvals .... hit some gold mines here .... big accomplishment.
Kubby/I have a question for David. How do we make a determination about the amount
of money? .... How did we come up with $15,000 as what would be appropriate?
Schoon/We came up with the amount in terms of what the state is often looking for in
terms of local contribution ..... 30% or more of what the state is providing, you
will get full credit in terms of the point system at the state....balancing of that
percentage.
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Lehman/I am delighted... staff worked very well with them... kind of thing we are
looking for .... compliments ....
Schoon/
Nov/
Evans/Thank people that helped us on some building issues .....
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TCI Update 97-110 S2
Nov/TCI update, Dale.
Helling/This shouldn't take very long. Obviously... announcement .... Arlene Heck,
General Manager of the local TCI system .... the current system is maximized ....
she said they intend to build the local system to a 550 megahertz. She indicated
fiber and coax system ....
Kubby/It is good of them to recognize that they should fulfill the agreement.
Helling/You may have also read in the paper ..... somebody at the corporate level who
indicated ....last official communication to us saying they weren't going to do a
re-build ....he wasn't sure just how this was going to .....back out a little bit. We
have no official communication from TCI .... We were in process of looking at
attorneys .... expert advise .... at this point we put that on hold .... As part of the
Franchise Agreement they are required to submit to us engineering plans prior to
beginning of construction .....I will expect that we will see some plans pretty
quick.
Vanderhoef/Do we have any information... substantial increase in fees to our cable
users .... pass along for the rebuild .....
Helling/My understanding is that there is some allowance in the FCC formul.as .... those
are the only rate control that we have left ....for rebuild that could be added to the
basic rate and still keep them in compliance ....main goals... increased channel
capacity. Those services general have to be bought by the cable company and that
is passed onto subscribers ....tier those... more selection ....we don't know ....They
have made some indications ....
Norton/Dale... what was the last formal commitment?
Helling/The last formal written communication was from Mr. Kantrell saying... they had
decided they didn't need our permission to do-
Norton/That kind of stiff letter.
Helling/Right ....
Norton/Strongly worded.
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Helling/But Ms. Heck's statement was in an open public meeting of the Commission and
we are relying on that.
Norton/
Nov/Dale, do you have any information on franchise fees? .... gross income in relation to
franchise fees?
Helling/Right, that was federal appeals court and the way the franchise fee is attached ....
FCC ruling or lower court ruling .... not part of the gross revenue and the franchise
fee could not be calculated based on the entire amount .... federal appeals court
reversed that in total almost recently... We suspect that will probably go to
Supreme Court because it does have a rather significant impact.
Nov/
Helling/
Norton/
Nov/This was a pretty firm ruling ....
Helling/There are two very distinct schools of thought in terms of whether or not that
should apply .... ultimately is how that is applied will have a significant impact on
their revenues and on ours as well .....
Nov/
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Public Art 97-110 S2
Nov/Okay, we are moving into public art.
Franklin/I am assuming there are four of you that have an interest in this topic?
Kubby/Yes.
Baker/I just had a question about the timing .... What was the sense of urgency on this
issue and why are we having this discussion before we settle all the other .....
Council/
Baker/...other financial issues facing the city that we had not resolved yet .....
Norton/
Baker/It is just a manner of timing.
Norton/I think we have got to get the financial house in order ....
Nov/...it does not affect the General Fund ....
Council/
Franklin/The timing of it is such that you will be having your financial discussions-
September 2 you are having one ..... you will be able to resolve those particular
issues .... I think that you will have hopefully have your financial issues resolved
before you would need to vote on this.
Baker/
Council/
Franklin/I am going to show you a very brief five minute video .... sense of what public
art is about. (Presents video). So you get the idea? It can be a whole range of
things .... I put together for you a proposal for how Iowa City could do a Public
Art Program and I assume that you all have read this and before we put it to
ordinance form, are there questions? .....
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Kubby/Something on the second page about plan... preferred art medium .... different
medias used... better to talk about characteristics .... versus saying what the media
has to be .... Talk about characteristics versus media.
Lehman/Wouldn't this really be a discussion better left to the public art advisory
committee? .....
Kubby/I am talking about the proposal that is before us ....
Lehman/Isn't that the sort of thing they would decide?
Kubby/I don't know.
Franklin/That is quite possible .... What we would be doing with the ordinance would be
establishing the public art advisory committee... percentage allocation... what it
was going to apply to and the public art advisory committee. Format of who
would be on the committee would also be within this ordinance .... specifics of it
would be something that we would want to have the committee work out how it
was going to operate ....
Baker/Ask you about the second page-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-114, SIDE 1
Baker/That cost and all costs are charged back to the 1%?
Franklin/That would be up to you. Typically... advised to have no more than 20% of the
budget be dedicated to administrative costs .... 1% .... FY98 CIP...for instance...
biggest allocation would be the Near South Side multi-use parking ramp ....
$41,600 would go to the 1% allocation. However, more typically, as you get
projects that are somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000, that would be the
allocation .... we cannot expect to always take the administrative or staff costs ....
from that percent allocation and I don't think you should be misled to think that
that could occur. If you start taking more than 20% of your 1% allocation and put
it toward administration, you are really diminishing what you are going to be able
to do with art .... could be that you involve an artist in the design of the building
such that there is some feature or design feature of that building that is different
than what you would get if you just had it engineered or with an architect ....It
would be a much more subtle use of art ....
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Nov/You could hire somebody to do a low relief and pour it into a concrete wall of the
building.
Franklin/Potentially yes .... your percent allocation could go for the design by the artist ....
determine on a project by project basis ....
Lehman/The ramp across the street ....
Franklin/An architect.
Lehman/ ....cost
Franklin/ .....I could find that out from Kevin Munson who did that ramp.
Baker/Cost of the design ....
Nov/
Franklin/Those were pre-poured concrete slabs that came in .... difference doing on that is
just plain versus one that has the arch or some design to it .... How much higher
that is than just a plain one, I don't know. We would have to find that out.
Lehman/The thing that interests me .... buildings and street projects should be as
esthetically pleasing .... example... entrance to Civic Center .... We could make a
very functional entrance .... do some things to make it very esthetically pleasing. I
guess to me that is doing what this proposed to do. I have a real problem with
assigning a certain percentage ....Possibility of creating a fund, not necessarily a
percentage of costs of a project ....
Franklin/This isn't about abandoning design .... for the sake of art .... This is based on an
assumption that esthetically pleasing design is a given. That we will do that with
the hiring of any architect, engineer, designer when we do a project. That is a
given. This takes it to another level, it takes it to another step... It stands out
sufficiently .... you say, that is interesting... different .... new heights ....
Kubby/ ....public art ....something above and beyond the design ....
Vanderhoef/A question .... a fund versus specifically to a project .... rational nexus thing...
I am wondering if there is any legal ramification ....if we were doing something
with a Enterprise Fund project ....
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Franklin/ .... talking about doing this only on public projects. The rational nexus is when
you are imposing a fee on someone in the private sector.
Vanderhoef/In a sense .... It is still a tax on the citizens and the project. Is it possible to
co-mingle those funds from one kinds of bond to the other... Does it have to be
used in a project?
Franklin/When you put your bonds out, you describe your project and within that project
you include the art component... Can you co-mingle? .... You can choose to ..... as
long as you say that is your policy, your direction. That is up to you ....
Vanderhoef/
Norton/Suppose you maintain good design and an architect with some flair so that you
get a structure like this one .... and you decided, given that design, that there is no
particular need for explicit addition, an artistic addition for that ....Can that 1% go
somewhere else?
Franklin/What happens in a number of other cities, they don't put it right away into a
public art fund. They will have a 1% allocation and if that entire 1% allocation is
not spent on .... art for a particular project, that money will go into a public art
fund. However the first line that they travel is to try to get an art component in
each of the public projects .... Or if they spend less than the 1% allocation, they put
it into a public art fund. This proposal suggests that that money go back to the
funding source and that was considering the diverse opinions on the council about
what you might want to d.o with this .... from a public art perspective, you would
put it into a public art fund. However, frankly, I didn't think that many of you
would buy that and so I suggested that it go back to the funding source.
Norton/ ....go back to reduce the bond.
Baker/It would go back to the tax payers.
Franklin/Well, this is all for the tax payers .... This is based on the premise that public art
is good for this community. It enhances the community, adds value to the
community and .... is an economic development tool.
Thornberry/...You are saying that an architect can't make something pleasing enough
that you have to have an artist mess with it?
Franklin/No.
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Kubby/
Thomberry/
Franklin/This particular proposal-
Thomberry/Just because it has been done by an artist doesn't mean that it is okay.
Franklin/Understood and that is why there is this community and we are out of it.
Norton/ ....In principle, this is just like parks or recreation.
Franklin/The idea here though is that you have the people who are going to be involved
in the project, you have this core committee of people, that is concemed with
public art. Then with each project you have people who are intimately involved in
the project .... It starts out much more democratically then did the skywalk project.
Lehman/ .... Would we apply this to all Public Work's projects? .... If we did, what would
the impact be in design time? ....
Franklin/First of all it is proposed that this apply to building projects over $500,000 .....
bridges and arterial streets and trails are the Public Work's projects this would
apply to as proposed .... assuming it is over $500,000. We start design work in the
fall and winter to let bids in the spring... include the artists... art component at the
very beginning .... committee would look over all the capital improvement projects
that would include the 1% allocation and put together a project art plan that would
indicate what projects were going to have art components... characteristics that
would be looked at for that art component ..... art component would be worked the
whole way through ..... answer... as long as you get at the very beginning of
design, it does not hold it up.
Kubby/
Franklin/
Lehman/Are there cities of a comparable size to ours that have a program like this?
Franklin/Yes. I will get you a list ....Waterloo, Ames.
Thornberry/
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Baker/I will tell you what is bothering me .... It is the way it will be collected and spent...
It seems to be too closely tied to future projects when there is a public art need in
general for the city .... We have to figure out a way of generating money for public
art. Does that money have to be tied to the source of generation? ....
Franklin/FY98 ..... $59 million.
Baker/So 1% of that would have been $590- That is probably too much ....
Council/
Baker/Why couldn't we have a process that generates the money outside the General
Fund as a source of money for public art that is not tied to those projects ....Goes
into a fund that is administered through this committee ....
Franklin/Based on the total capital? Based on something?
Baker/Based on something. It seems like a much simpler process .... can be applied as
this committee sees fit.
Franklin/You could.
Baker/
Vanderhoef/I have a concern .... September .... my experience of projects... If you have
one committee and you have got 7-8 big projects going on for the following
summer, that we don't have enough lead time in there to do it .... How can we get
this many things done in a short period of time? .... A fund would allow them to
divvy up the monies .... concern on time.
Kubby/ ....we know the big projects that are coming up... We can be working .....
Vanderhoef/
Kubby/If you know how much money you have, you can start talking about the
characteristics of the project... You can get as far as you can get... You can time
this .... You can figure out those logistics ....
Vanderhoef/
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Baker/...Assume that the project deserves an art component .... Have a fund not tied to the
source.
Franklin/ .... Take your full percentage of the total CIP, you still have this group that
comes up with a project art plan for any particular year. We should always do it a
year ahead ....
Nov/If we are going to do this total capital expenses, I think 1% is going to be very high.
Council/
Franklin/
Thomberry/
Norton/ ....might do it as a part of the project.
Kubby/What project would you not .... bridges, arterial streets, parks and trails. What
kind of a project in that list would you not want to have some public art
component?
Baker/I am not ruling out anything.
Kubby/
Baker/ ....Ira project can use or benefit from an art component, we do it. But that is
irrelevant to where the money is coming from and where it is going back out. That
you don't look for the project. The first thing you have to resolve is get the
money ....
Franklin/When we sell bonds-
Baker/Going back to Ernie, your initial exclamation about the $590,000 figure... that was
a strange year. But 1% of $59 million... is a big figure ....
Franklin/
Lehman/$55 million the year before.
Franklin/$21- the year before that.
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Baker/
Franklin/What we could do, too, in terms of this number because the $59 million sounds
like yipes. That includes $17 million for a library expansion .... When we sell the
bonds, we are pretty specific on what we are going to be selling bonds for and we
sell them in a lump for General Obligation bonds. So what we could do, I think, is
calculate that 1% on the bond sale and it would be fora whole myriad of things ....
it goes into the public art fund. The committee has an ongoing master plan for
public art in Iowa City .... they set priorities .... and we get the public art.
Council/(All talking).
Lehman/Karin, who decides how the money is spent?
Franklin/The committee and the reason I think it is important that that committee be
separate from the city is because you are political.
Lehman/It is obvious.
Franklin/The committee needs some expertise in terms of people who are familiar with
and conversant in art, who are artists.
Lehman/
Franklin/ .... in this proposal, it is not dominated by artists. You also want to have people
on that committee who are representative of the community and are representative
of the place where the art is going to be ..... The committee is the one that needs to
decide the specifics and work with the artists.
Norton/If we go the route of somewhat more flexibility of developing a pool and then
spending it as a committee may decide. And if you can do that... what number
would we base it on? ....
Franklin/I had the suggestion of whatever our bond sale. Whatever that is we can take
the 1% from that because that is pretty specific and it is also real most of the time.
Baker/What would help future discussion ..... go five years back and project five years
forward, what were our bond sales and what do you think our bond sales will
be? .... What is appropriate.
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Kubby/I love the idea that any new big project has a public art component to it no matter
what it is .... And that maybe we say 1% and maybe we take 80% of that 1% for
that project and that other 20% goes to the fund to do pre-developed or already
developed areas and maybe we need to jump start that with private fund raising ....
combination .... I think the beauty of the 1% for each project or some percentage
for each project is that we are saying that on these big things it will be .... a status
quo part of the process that some kind of public art will happen in those areas ....
Baker/ .... generate the money, put it back on the committee, that committee determines
where the money is spent .... I just don't want to tie it to every new project.
Norton/
Baker/Find a way to generate the money and be as flexible as you can on how you spend
it.
Norton/Also want to be sure that you are committed to incorporating art in some of these
larger projects.
Baker/If that committee determines that it is appropriate, they will do it.
Nov/We have to determine that we want to spend the money.
Thornberry/Art for arts sake I don't think it is a good idea just to increase the project
costs ....
Nov/
Thornberry/You can design it artistically ....
Nov/ ....you can hire an artist to design those park benches instead of just buying them
from a catalogue.
Thornberry/ ....The design can be artistic ....
Nov/It is not artistic design when you buy it from the catalogue.
Council/(All talking).
Baker/One of the characteristics of art is its uniqueness .....
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Vanderhoef/One of my concerns .... I have a real concern that if we go with that kind of a
plan, whether we realize it or not, built into the architectural cost of each one of
these projects, we are going to be paying for additional time for the architect ....
multiple meetings with the art committee .... It is going to increase the cost of our
projects .... Simpler... do an overall and maybe some guidelines that says we don't
want all of our money spent on two big projects .... We want to be sure that we
have some things for our smaller projects and let the committee design them ....
rather than each one.
Kubby/The economic advantage of designing it on the front end ....
Vanderhoef/The committee can say this year... these two small projects are ones we
think deserve .... don't tie it to every single project.
Nov/You are trying to give the committee some flexibility .... architect fees tied to
percentage of construction costs ....
Vanderhoef/Architects... engineers .... they get paid for their time somehow ....
Council/(All talking).
Norton/I would like to get two things from the staff. I would like to hear .... know of
some of those communities of a smaller size .... Can we get any indication of how
it proceeds in cities of more moderate size?
Nov/I have a stack of ordinances .... I can certainly share them with you.
Norton/ .... see them played out a little bit dollar figures that would have been generated
under two different modes. One is doing it on a capital improvements in general
or doing it on a more selective set of projects .......
Baker/
Franklin/Okay, so you want the smaller cities and what was the financial?
Council/(All talking).
Nov/ ....you are going to get people such as Dean who say we shouldn't be spending this
money on the trails project because there are too many people that don't use the
trails.
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Thomberry/
Nov/So we are not going to argue about who is paying for it because it is part of the
general well-being of the city or we don't do it at all.
Thomberry/Is the 1% a given?
Nov/We can talk about the percentage.
Norton/
Nov/We can adjust the percentage .... I think I hear us saying that as a general rule, we
would like to do something with public art. What I don't see this and what hasn't
yet come up amongst us is whether or not we want to dedicate the proposal of art
to only Iowa artists or put it into a national ad ....
Norton/...regional.
Nov/Kubby/There may be some big project that we do want to bring in someone
national ..... certain rules ....
Nov/I would like to say that we have some previous Iowa tie ....
Kubby/ ....preference, not strict rules.
Franklin/Is that something you feel strongly enough about or is it something that the
committee- I think the committee... would put together recommendations to the
council as to how to manage the program and address issues such as any
limitations.
Kubby/We could have an ordinance and then a policy statement and those issues could
be in the policy statement.
Nov/
Baker/...I would like to figure out where the money is coming from.
Lehman/ .... minority report. In the first place I don't favor an ordinance. I would favor a
policy that the city would encourage on any projects $500,000 or more, that up to
a certain amount of dedicated to enhancement of the project .... forms of art or
whatever .... in the design of the project.
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Nov/But you would go along with an ordinance establishing the committee?
Lehman/Yeah .... encouraging that .... make it a policy that we do encourage that art be
incorporated into any project of $500,000 or more.
Kubby/ ....I will $300,000.
Baker/I prefer a public art fund ....
Norton/I didn't understand on whether we need an ordinance or not.
Council/
Norton/To establish a committee, we need an ordinance, don't we?
Baker/
Nov/I think it would be a good idea to put it in ordinance form.
Kubby/Sets up expectations ....
Nov/ ....It commits the city .....
Council/(All talking).
Thomberry/Dee, I am saying it could be a waste of money because you can design it
such as that it is artistically pleasing ....
Nov/You can put it into the artistically pleasing construction .....
Thornberry/Mandating that every project is more expensive because we're putting in art
as opposed to just designing it artistically .....adding another percentage to the
cost.
Council/
Vanderhoef/What happens if we put together a policy and use it for say three years and
see what comes of it ....
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Kubby/I think the value of the ordinance is that in order to amend the ordinance .... have
to go through a public process ..... insures a democratic process ....
Vanderhoef/ ....I would like to try it under a policy situation to start with ....
Nov/I don't think we want a city council discussion like this for every
project .... ordinance and setting up a committee is the way to start ....
Baker/Do the ordinance, get on with our life-
Norton/And get some data.
Baker/Got to figure out how much and where it is coming from.
Franklin/Dee, the data that you want is smaller cities-
Norton/I want to know what is happening in some smaller cities.
Franklin/You want GO bonds over the past few years and what 1% would mean.
Norton/
Lehman/
Franklin/What you want is what we have spent on GO bonds on various issues and what
1% of that would be and then projecting out what our future GO bonds sales
might be based on our CIP program.
Nov/How many of those projects were over $500,000 and would have fit this plan...
Franklin/So we are still working somewhat with the applicability as set up in the memo.
Nov/
Nov/
Thomberry/
Kubby/ ....taking an amount of GO bonds or these perimeters .... We are not talking about
$590,000
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Council/(All talking).
Thomberry/...last year ....$590,000.
Kubby/
Council/(All talking).
Nov/We will get some more information. Let's move on.
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Snelson Sculpture Location 97-114 S2
Franklin/While David is setting this up-
Council/(All talking).
Franklin/This is the sculpture that was at.., Dubuque and Iowa Avenue... storage .....
Kubby/I think we need Dean Thornberry.
Council/(All talking).
Franklin/The reason that this is before you is because we do not have a public art
advisory committee. Otherwise you wouldn't have to deal with this ....
Lehman/
Thornberry/ ....do it Dave.
Lehman/It is a done deal ....
Nov/Do you want us to set it up in the park this way rather than that way?
Schoon/With the idea that we would be able to change it every few years in terms of its
configuration.
Lehman/
Thornberry/Which park? .... Which neighborhood association would like to have it? ....
Schoon/The committee looked at locations for this sculpture .... given its size .... Terrill
Mill Park was very attractive in terms of its proximity also to City Park-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-114 SIDE 2
Schoon/It would be in a community wide park .... entrance way to the city ....decided to
locate it in Terrill Mill Park.
Lehman/Great decision.
Thornberry/
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Nov/Is this going to be near the new sidewalk? ....
Schoon/This will be near the trail.
Nov/
Council/(All talking).
Schoon/(Refers to map). This is Dubuque Street. This is the proposed trail ....
Nov/
Schoon/(Refers to map). Here is the trail ....
Thomberry/
Norton/I ask about security ....
Schoon/We will tie it down ....
Norton/It would be really nice if that welcome center was a little bit more welcoming.
Thornberry/The building ought to burn down.
Norton/It looks a little bit on the tired order.
Thornberry/Retired.
Norton/
Council/(All talking).
Nov/
Thornberry/When was this built?... Where has this been stored7 ....
Schoon/The model is on loan from the Summerwills.
Norton/It is very nice.
Nov/And where did the money come fi:om when we bought this7
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Kubby/National Endowment for the Arts and then private.
Schoon/The sculpture cost $60,000 in 1977 or '75. Half of it came from a federal grant ....
The two sculptures... was also at the same time ....The two together cost $80,000.
Half came from National Endowment for the Arts .... 15% from the city, another
15% came from donations... Project Green... fundraising committee which Emie
was a co-chair of.
Council/(All talking).
Nov/Moving on...
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SEATS 97-114 S2
Nov/SEATS.
Davidson/You have some information in your packet from me .... Board of Supervisors...
discussed the letter which came from Dee Vanderhoef. .... where Dee discussed...
summary of the discussion at your meeting July 28 about the proposed agreement
for SEATS service .... The Board had an extensive disc_ussion .... upshot... neither
of those are acceptable to the Board of Supervisors .... The question then was
where do we go from here. There was discussion of reconvening the negotiating
teams .... everybody feels like a lot of progress has been made .... However, I will
say the county was very up front about saying they do not feel they have got any
position to negotiate... most important consideration from them was the
stipulation that is in the proposed agreement that at the end of the year we would
look at year end actual expenditure figures and if there was revenue that was taken
in that was not used, which has been the case in the last three years for the county,
that that would then be pro-rated back to whomever sent it in originally. This is
something that the city negotiating team felt was real important that the county
has agreed to. However, they feel that that takes away... their cushion that they
have had for monitoring exactly how much money is spent during the year...
Without that protection they do not feel they have the flexibility to adjust the part
of the agreement that is a concern to the seven of you and that is the 9% increase
in the second year of the contract. They feel very strongly that the so called
discount that was put in three years ago .... was intended to be phased out .... it
needs to be phased out as far as they are concerned. Once again, without the
ability to have any revenue at the end of the year which to make adjustments
needed in the contract ..... they don't feel that they can leave that 5% discount in
for the second year of the contract.
Kubby/Can we have the agreement work both direction where if there is money left over
it comes back and our riders have spent more than the agreement, that we pay
in? ....
Thomberry/It was fewer last year than before.
Kubby/Traditionally we have had to do an amendment to give them more money.
Thornberry/In the last two years they have owed us money.
Council/(All talking).
Davidson/ ....past 10 -15 years it has gone up .....amendments ....
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Kubby/Some of the issues... how we pay .... Maybe having that go both direction is one
way to get around ....
Lehman/Are the figures available from the county? .... reliable ....
Davidson/The way the contract as proposed is set up right now is that at the end of the
year, year end actual figures would be looked at and if there was a surplus of
revenue collected, that would be refunded back, prorated, the majority of which
would accrue to Iowa City. There is not the reverse in the agreement right now ....
If the county spends more than they take in, that Iowa City will agree to discuss it.
It is a very weak statement ....
Lehman/Are the numbers that the county is able to compile, are they reliable enough to
do what Karen suggests?
Davidson/ .... The county has provided a sample of data... the monthly reports have not be
generated yet by the county ....
Lehman/
Davidson/About 18 months.
Baker/If staff is happy with the figures, that proposal is just commonsense ....
Thomberry/If the numbers are there .... I would have no problem with that .... As long as
they are figures that are actual figures ....accurate. But we have no way of
knowing ....
Baker/
Davidson/ .... Iowa City has not understood what they are paying for. The management
infonrtation will allow Joe and Ron .... to monitor that. Without that information,
they cannot monitor what Iowa City is paying .... What we have in there... what
has been negotiated by the two .... is a penalty, a financial penalty that would
accrue to the county if the reports are not produced.
Thornberry/That was one of our negotiating points ....
Norton/ .... wouldn't it be reasonable to proceed to the reciprocal agreement that Karen is
suggesting.
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Vanderhoef/I think .... This is still not addressing the double taxation situation that we
have up front, that 9%. So when we put out the $560- for next year and then we
take 9% on that and continue on for that- When we know Iowa City is 70% of the
population in the county and that we get- We, Iowa Citians, are taxed in the
general accounting besides the taxation that happens for our transit system and we
are at max Transit Levy above and beyond what we take out of our general fund
to help support our transit system. This is the part that is not possible .... offered...
the county has two other options of who to do all of this, to keep it all integrated.
1. They can take over the entire system and tax for it at the county level and run
all of SEATS. The other option that they have is to run this through the mral levy,
therefore Iowa Citians are never taxed for running the SEATS program in the
county areas .... Then these other things are real negotiable.
Norton/Isn't that latter matter one that they are simply not willing to negotiate, this
double taxation issue .....
Thornberry/
Vanderhoef/They have acknowledged it for three years .... They have not come up with
any logical reason that it was appropriate for three years and now all at once it is
not appropriate again.
Kubby/Not 100% of that discount was for the double taxation issue. Some of it was to
help ease our paying in dealing with Systems and Goodwill and the Nelson
Center.
Vanderhoef/But that is their choice ....another negotiable kind of thing that we can do...
Kubby/But do we really lmow what the percentage of double taxation is? We have
negotiated this discount .....I don't know that we really know what those numbers
are ....Whole lot of issues ....to figure out is there a formula that can be
standardized to figure it out ....
Nov/ ....if they are taking their General Fund versus their Rural Levy, it is not affecting
US.
Davidson/At the Board of Supervisors meeting there were a couple of numbers... 5%
discount is about $30,000 .... going to have to come out of their hide .... out of the
county someplace ..... The second number... amount of taxation that comes from
Iowa City to fund the rural service .... about $125,000 that comes from City of
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Iowa City tax payers .... Somebody .... the county has not been willing to budge on
that. They are not willing... to attempt to execute seven sub-agreements with the
little towns so that they can take it out of the rural levy.
Vanderhoef/They have the option of doing 28E agreement with all those other towns
from the General Fund ....
Davidson/ .... Because none of these communities... have a fixed route transit system, the
county can tailor whatever service they want ....
Thomberry/What little town... is looking at bus service?
Davidson/North Liberty ....
Norton/Well, what is before us? As I understand it, you guys are continuing to negotiate.
Lehman/We have reached an impasse.
Norton/What are we asked to do then?
Davidson/Through Dee's letter you made a proposal to the county which essentially said
everything looks fine except this one thing and we are not willing to vote for the
agreement because of that one thing. Here are two options for dealing with that
one thing. The county said neither are acceptable. We are stuck on the one point
mentioned in Dee's letter. The option... is to convene the negotiating team
again .... county... they don't feel they can budge ....
Thornberry/Jeff, you said the 5% which is in question .... $30,000... They owe us
$49,000 .... Why wouldn't they budge off that 5%.
Davidson/The $30,000, Dean, will accrue in FY99. The money from this year's contract
in excess of what they need to operate the system will ... legally go back to the
General Fund .....
Thornberry/ ....They are not giving us any money back?
Davidson/Not this year.
Nov/They have not set this up in an Enterprise Fund ....
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Thomberry/... A year ago there was $100,000 and it was suppose to come back to the
city and instead of having it come back to the city, we agreed to let them buy and
get the computers .... generating these reports .... Now this last year they got in
excess of $49,000 that was suppose to be-
Vanderhoef/
Davidson/With respect to this year, Dean, Iowa City has given the county- There is a
contract... that says how much money they will collect from Iowa City and that is
how much they have collected and they didn't need it all to operate the system.
Thomberry/ .... my proposal .... would be to do our own and get a 28E agreement with
Coralville ....at a cost savings ....We are doing more than what is prescribed by
law ....
Davidson/What the Board of Supervisors expressed some interest in doing .... to put this
on the agenda at your joint meeting with the School Board .... If you would like to
reconvene the negotiating team, I think they would be willing to do that .... 17th ....
Kubby/Is there time for the negotiating team to meet again between now and the 17th?...
Thomberry/... the county is not willing to meet.
Kubby/We need to be creative enough and ask them to be willing to find some moving
around room to make this happen ....
Davidson/I think the county would agree, Dean, to reconvene the negotiating committee
is that is what your desire is.
Council/
Nov/If we are going to stick to exactly what we have said before and the county is going
to say exactly what they said before, is there is need for the committee to get
together and not negotiate? We have to give some leeway to negotiate if they are
going to get together.
Kubby/ ....ball is their court ....Ask thein to come up with a couple of ideas.
Nov/Suggest that they establish an enterprise fund.
Norton/ ....Do we know exactly what the numbers would be for us?
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Vanderhoef/ ....We are at a handicap because we do not have figures from the county ....
Joe ....
Norton/I am looking for the magnitude of this double taxation. How big is the double
taxation issue dollarwise?
Fowler/From what I heard Jeff say, it is $120,000 a year.
Davidson/That is just taking the percentage of Iowa City population .... 70%... how much
they spend on the rural service.
Vanderhoef/
Fowler/Our estimate would be that we would be able to do the service for comparable
dollar amounts .... close to the same dollar amount that the county charges.
Vanderhoef/For this coming year minus the 9% increase ....
Lehman/
Fowler/I am saying the $560- that is in for this year ....service within Iowa city ....
Lehman/
Kubby/People would have less service because they couldn't go out into the county.
Vanderhoef/That isn't true, Karen.
Kubby/
Vanderhoef/As long as the county is choosing to tax us for county service, the county
can still serve an Iowa city resident who chooses to go out into the county. We are
being charged for that right now, Karen ....
Kubby/ ....more work by the consumer.
Council/
Lehman/The double taxation... If the county does not provide the service for the citizens
of Iowa city, they will not pay that tax to the county? ....
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Davidson/That is part of the general levy.
Lehman/We will still be paying that tax whether or not we are getting the fee service
from the county ....
Thomberry/
Lehman/
Norton/
Lehman/How long would it take to set a system up like this? .... that would work.
Fowler/It would be wonderful to have a year .... transfer of vehicles... shop staff...
minimum of three month lead time.
Kubby/I am not very interested in talking about this at this point. For me the goal is to
have an integrated service .....
Thornberry/ ....We can get a private service ....there are other options out there ....
Norton/Let's wait for one more negotiating round and the joint meeting ....
Davidson/Tomorrow you will be asked to consider another 30 day extension .... which
will take us to the end of September.
Thornberry/ ....They like the month to month a lot ....
Nov/Why is this month to month better? ....
Thornberry/Same amount... made a profit on us last year. They like it.
Davidson/It is a higher figure ....adjustments would be made ....
Nov/And they are not interested in doing a 12 month contract?
Davidson/Not for $560-, no ....
Nov/$560- is what we paid last year.
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Davidson/No .... $560- is intended to reflect a decrease in ridership ....
Nov/The monthly payment ....
Vanderhoef/It is a 5% increase over last year.
Fowler/Based on their proposed $610- figure.
Nov/ ....They are still asking for an increase this year.
Thornberry/With a profit they had last year ....They took in more than they had-
Nov/...There are budget surpluses for all kinds of organization, including governments .....
Thomberry/
Nov/They may have given us the best estimate they could. What we need in the next
contract is that the surplus is coming back and not in their General Fund.
Vanderhoef/That is part of what we have negotiated .... close... exception is double
taxation issue. The one sticking point it the double taxation.
Nov/I understand that. Do you agree to go back and see if you can come up with
something? Okay.
Vanderhoef/I will go back .....
Nov/If we can .... increases are no more than the inflation rate .... tie it to the inflation rate.
Can we negotiate something like that?
Vanderhoef/We can work on it.
Davidson/Naomi, the way the contract is set up, from now on, if they take in more than
they spend, you would get a refund to you.
Vanderhoef/ ....negotiating for our percent back at the end of the year ....have figures ....
Kubby/county .... need that cushion... If that is the case ....agreeing to give them money ....
Vanderhoef/
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Lehman/Jeff.... in the proposed contract, if they take in excess money over what it costs
them, they will rebate to us our share of the excess? Is that true in succeeding
years of the proposal? Then what difference does it make? .... if you get the excess
back anyway?
Fowler/One of the things... concern... budgeting process... transit budget was reduce... we
cut service... Paid excess of funds to Johnson County ....impact on fixed route
service ....
Kubby/ ....Last year's excess goes to next year's ....
Fowler/As we went through the budgeting process, if there was an increase in SEATS, I
would not like to have that reflected back on our fixed route operating expenses ....
Which would result in cut-backs ....I would have a concern it would have a
negative impact on our fixed route ....Or separate out the two accounts in our
budget so that one didn't reflect on the other.
Kubby/
Nov/You also have to remember that if they have money and don't return it to the end of
the year, we have lost interest on it ....
Thomberry/ ....penalties ....if they don't get us the reports ....
Norton/Are you still trying to get it on tour miles? ....
Thornberry/Without the data .... we can't say whether we are being charged right or not ....
Norton/
Nov/I think we cannot continue to discuss this in the same circle .... We should delegate
this to the committee. Let them look at it one more time and let's take a break and
Thank you Joe, Jeff.
Davidson/Dee and Dean, I will call you guys.
Thornberry/We want figures from July ....
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-115 SIDE 1
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Initiative - Hickory Hill/First Avenue 97-115 S1
Nov/Is that Eleanor? Marian, okay.
Karr/The petition was filed shortly before 5:00 this aftemoon, The voter rolls were
ordered at 5:00 and we should pick those up tomorrow.
Kubby/
Karr/I wanted to go through a couple of things .... Our Iowa City Charter does allow for
Initiative and Referendum issues. First of all the difference between initiative and
referendum is important in this case because a referendum is intended to represent
an item that can be repealed in part or in whole or asking for council
reconsideration rather than an initiative which is typically one to initiate new
action. Because this was action taken during your CIP discussion- A referendum
goes on to say the referendum petitions must be filed within 60 days after final
adoption or anytime more than two years after final adoption. Therefore, because
the CIP was approved in March and that was the first time that you moved up the
First Avenue Extension Project, more than 60 days has elapsed from the final
adoption but not two years. So therefore a referendum would not be in order on
this issue. However an initiative was in order because_it does allow them to
amend. So what they are requesting is council consideration of amending your
CIP approval by delaying construction of First Avenue Extended Project by two
years.
Baker/Does the petition say initiative and referendum?
Karr/The affidavit... Once they initiate the proceedings, they must file an affidavit of
their intent. That affidavit does state whether it is an i_nitiative or a referendum and
they did indicate it was an initiative and did attach to_it a resolution wording to the
extent that I just summarized and included in last we~ek's council packet for you.
Also I wanted to note that the Charter, itself, which is different than any other
portion of the Code, uses the word ordinance throughout the language. Ordinance
can mean resolution or ordinance in this particular section of the Code ....
The procedure goes on to state that once an affidavit is filed of intent and they
attach to it the resolution or in the case the ordinance_but it is a resolution, they
must then go on file as stating their intent to get the necessary petitions, circulate
those petitions with the resolution attached to it that _t!!. ey are asking people to
consider and then once they receive a minimum of 2,525 signatures, file it with
the City Clerk. That is based on the Charter having a minimum of 2,500 or a
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figure representative of 25% who voted in the last regular city election. That
indicates the 2,525 figure. In 1989 we had a petition filed that the petition was less
than the 2,500 required but because the Charter was silent on receipting a smaller
number than the minimum, we took it, certified it insufficient and they get one
chance to amend it. That Charter has been amended now to clarify fully the
minimum must be accepted at the time of filing. So again, they had to file a
minimum of 2,525 signatures. They did that shortly before 5:00 today. They came
in with 2,553-28 more signatures than the minimum on the face. What this does is
kick in the procedure that I will now order- have ordered the voter rolls from the
Elections Office and we will verify as we are required to do by the Charter that
each person who signed the petition is a registered voter in Iowa City. If they are
not a registered voter, the signature will not be counted. There are several possible
situations. The address must accompany the signature. If the address does not
match the voter roll but they have included optional birthdate and we can verify
that person has indeed moved, which is not uncommon, we will certainly count
the signature. If the optional birthdate is not there, then we cannot count the
signature because we are unable to verify the person at that address. Okay.
Again, going back to the procedure again. Once verified, once all the signatures
have been checked against the voter rolls, I will issue a certificate of either
sufficiency or insufficiency. If they have a certificate of sufficiency, it means that
they have the required 2,525 signatures by voters in Iowa City. If they do not,
they have one chance to amend and only one. There will be a registered letter sent
indicating the certificate of insufficiency and giving the exact number that were
valid and what they have to do to bring that up to the valid number of required
signatures. Then after that, again, a certificate of sufficiency or insufficiency will
be issued and it will be submitted to council for action. Once council has it, you
then have before you a question of whether to adopt it in a form similar in
substance or submit it to the voters at the next election.
Baker/Does the council have the option- What is this amend or adopt in substance? Does
that mean change something about it?
Karr/A non-substantive change .... But on the face of it, it must be very similar in
substance to the intent of it.
Baker/If council rejects it and it is goes to the voters, it has to be literally what was
submitted?
Karr/Again, similar in substance. It can be modified somewhat, but the general theme
and the substance cannot be-
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Kubby/
Karr/In addition to that we are required to put summaries in the booths. There will be
some additional supportive materials submitted for the booths in addition to the
question. So yes, the question itself will be on the ball_ot but some more
information will be there.
Kubby/Who dictates the content and form of that additional i_nformation?
Karr/That will be something that staff will probably recommend and we will run it past
you. The state law gives us some parameters on that.
Kubby/
Karr/There are some parameters that we all must follow and the petitioners have done
their part and then we will submit similar substance.
Karr/Is there some kind of time frame in terms of the chance to amend?
Karr/The intent to amend on the part of the petitioners? Yes, the time frame set forth is
sort of very much up to you and the direction we take. The time frame set forth in
the Charter will not enable the question to be on the November 4 ballot. If it is
council's intent to put it on the November 4 ballot we have to escalate the whole
timeframe and that includes the certification process and also the amendment
process the petitioner's will have.
Kubby/Do you have that time frame figured out?
Karr/I
do. First of all I must note the intent of the Charter was to allow 20 days between
the time of the filing and the certification process. After the first filing, then it was
within two days a notice to be sent to the petitioners and they would have two
days from that notice to submit additional papers within 15 days and as you can
tell, our deadline for the date imposed- The state imposed deadline for the
November 4 ballot is 5:00, Friday, August 29. There is no way that we can take
20 days-15 days to certify it to you. So those deadlines that are going to give you
are based on the state election law, not on our Charter. We anticipated- Last time
we did this was in 1989 and at that time it took 30 - 5_.0 hours to certify. That was
based on a petition that came in the first time with les_s than the required number
of signatures. They were allowed to amend it once. They were short 1,500
signatures the first time. They had to come back and we re-certified it and they did
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get a certificate. That time, when we did it, it was approximately 35 hours and that
was based on voter rolls totally 18,500. Our voter rolls as of this morning was
roughly 47,000. So every signature will have to be verified against the voter roll
list totally 47,000.
Kubby/ ....by hand or electronically?
Karr/We are unable to access the data base because of the shortage of time .... setting up a
program .... the program wasn't written ..... time... problems... Went to the hard
copy... do it by hand .... investigate it for the future.
Thomberry/Can you get volunteers within the city? ....
Karr/We have had some volunteers .... under supervision from the Clerk ....staff come
forward ....organized tomorrow ....paperwork ....
Kubby/ ....seems pretty likely that it would be insufficient ....
Karr/ .... They are still out getting signatures at the present time .... supplemental batches...
Bennet Brown is here. We will certainly do our very best. There is no way that we
are going to get it done by your meeting tomorrow evening .... We hopefully can
get it started mid-morning tomorrow .... put as many people as we can on it ....
Nov/ ....Should we set a tentative meeting for Friday? ....
Karr/Anything council decides to do will take council action. So my recommendation
would be to set a meeting for Friday afternoon, giving us time to certify both the
initial submission as well as any supplemental submission and then council would
have the option. Again, I stress to you, according to the Charter, once certified,
you do have 60 days to act. If you take your 60 days which is within the parameter
of the Charter, you will miss a deadline for the November election .... I have to
have it certified at the Elections Office at 5:00, the 29_th, this Friday... by state
elections law.
Thomberry/ ....we need to get hopping on that.
Karr/You either need to adopt it in something similar in substance to their request or
forward it to the next regular election which would be November or a special
election.
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Kubby/Does that mean that we can have affirmative vote for either of those or that if we
vote no on adopting similar language that it automatically goes to the voters?
Karr/You would need to take the second action. But yes, the answer to both-
Kubby/If we voted no then we would vote on the second resolution?
Karr/At the same time.
Kubby/Are we compelled then to vote yes to get it to the voters because of the Charter?
Karr/Yes, it is a matter of timing.
Nov/You have to have a specific resolution that tells your Auditor that you want this on
the ballot.
Karr/Yes, that is the second action I believe that Karen outlined.
Nov/So we need two resolutions on the agenda if we meet on Friday.
Karr/Yes.
Kubby/
Karr/I would suggest giving me sometime on Friday if I need the time. I would prefer
3:00, no earlier. It means that it curtails your potential for discussion if you wish
to have lengthy discussion. But it does need to be certified by 5:00.
Kubby/When do you need it done? .....
Karr/We will have the two resolutions prepared. If it is going to be amended on the floor,
that will take a little bit with document services .... I would prefer to be- I would
like to not go any farther than 4:30. I have to go over to the Johnson County
Administration Building .... State law is 5:00 ....
Vanderhoef/I would request that we go at 3:00 ....
Nov/
Karr/I don't know how much time we are going to need... 3:00 is better ....
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Council/(All talking).
Karr/Then tomorrow evening you would announce the special meeting if it had been
certified and we will cancel the meeting if the petition falls short and is not
certified. Is that with everyone's? If the petition is certified insufficient, in other
words, they are below the required 2,525 registered voters, we will cancel the
meeting for Friday.
Kubby/
Karr/They are allowed to amend once and they are aware of that and they are still out
there doing that right now.
Council/
Karr/I am not going to cancel until after- They have been notified, they will come in and
state their intention to amend, fill out an affidavit of intent to amend, go and get
some more signatures- Then they will bring those in. We have got to go through
the same step with the second signatures and verify them against the voters rolls a
second time.
Nov/And if at the second time it is insufficient, we cancel the meeting.
Karr/That is correct.
Norton/
Kubby/
Thomberry/
Karr/We will cross off dups. That is why we use one list. Once we issue the certificate
and close off the first one, we certify that so many of them are valid, so many are
not. That ends that. We start then the second one totally new, using the same voter
rolls and starting from the total valid ones.
Thomberry/
Nov/And when you check the voter rolls, you are crossing off the names that have been?
Karr/Yes, that is how we check for dups.
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Nov/It sounds like we will just announce tomorrow night that there will be a special
meeting here on Friday and then if we have to cancel it, we will have to cancel
Friday afternoon.
Karr/This will allow my staff not to have to call a special meeting and have to hand
deliver everything. We will call you if it is canceled ....
Kubby/
Karr/
Nov/The petitioners certainly have reasonable knowledge ....
Karr/Once they submit a supplemental ones, it will come in as a complete package ....
Thomberry/Do they know what the final time and date is?
Karr/Yes, they do. We don't have a specific date... We don't know how many invalid
ones we have .... I know they are still out getting signatures... They will need to
know from us how many they are short ....
Nov/Okay, thanks Marian.
Davidson/ .... clarification .... map which showed the park and the storm water
management area... memo... areas have not been dedicated... they have been
designated as part of the park .... designated, not dedicated.
Council/
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City Attorney Recruitment Update 97-115 S1
Nov/City attorney recruitment ....
Atkins/My question to you all was where do we go from here. I need to have some idea
on what role you want me to play in putting this all together. I know there was a
committee of you reviewing resumes. I reviewed all the resumes and I selected
my five or six candidates. I have those set aside for you anytime you want to see
those .... I prepared interview questions for you.
Nov/This is still confidential information at the moment ....
Atkins/
Council/
Atkins/You asked me to review them, I reviewed them ..... The question is September 11
or 12 is stampeding upon us .... you had set aside for interviews and I need to
know a whole lot more if you want me to set up those interviews.
Kubby/
Atkins/Evidently a couple came in today and to my knowledge they were postmarked
satisfactorily. I think you can call it done as of today and we will check those
postmarks for you.
Kubby/Might be other people ....
Nov/If they received an application, they have to turn it in with a Friday postmark. So it
is likely that by tomorrow we would have had all the stragglers ....
Council/
Nov/Employees applications they go by a postmark date.
Atkins/My question to you is what do you want to see done next.
Baker/My question is the three people who saw the applications doesn't preclude any
other council members?
Nov/The general idea was three people would read all of them and then come up with a
short list ....
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Thornberry/
Baker/
Nov/It is still confidential ....
Norton/
Nov/My thought is can we as a committee get together and develop a short list and can
we do this by Thursday which would be two weeks before we want to start
interviews and then we can call people on Friday.
Kubby/I had .... I thought we had talked about the three council members... and Steve and
maybe Sylvia and Dale ....
Nov/Steve had read all the applications, Sylvia has not ....
Kubby/What group does council want to do the initial screening? ....
Baker/I want to look at all the applications .... I want to have Steve involved .... I would
prefer... Sylvia .... Dale.
Nov/All of these people will certainly be involved in the interviews ....
Baker/I would also like to have an outside attorney go through the (can't hear).
Nov/
Baker/
Kubby/Good to have a small group .... short list of five or six ....
Nov/This is confidential information... We do not give it to other people to read to decide
to interview.
Kubby/When we figure out who we are going to interview, that those interviewees might
meet with a group of department heads, might meet with a group of attorneys,
might meet with a group of citizens ....
Norton/When do you want to meet to pare it down
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Thornberry/How many names are going to be on the short list?
Nov/We will decide.
Kubby/
Nov/ ....Sylvia ....get a short list of six ....
Kubby/
Vanderhoef/Is there going to be an opportunity for the rest of the council to read the
short list before you offer interviews?
Council/(All talking).
Kubby/ ....go down to a smaller number ....Then the whole council would choose the
interview list...
Council/
Kubby/I wrote out this whole thing for Steve about a process once we know who we are
going to interview. Maybe I should get that typed up and send it around the
council ....
Atkins/I wrote up something similar .... Folks, this is 2 1/2 weeks away. The time is
going to get to be difficult ....If you interview five, you had better expect to be
here all day.
Lehman/
Atkins/You need to settle in on process questions to do this right .... I am assuming you
want me to arrange these things. You need to tell me what you want me to
arrange.
Nov/There is a possibility that I can work on some of the arrangements ....
Kubby/ The direction on what to arrange.
Vanderhoef/I would like to see .... I would like to be able to pick up a short list of
resumes on Friday to have them over the weekend ....
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Kubby/ ....I want us to have a group conversation about the short list to hone it down to
the interview list, face to face ....
Atkins/I strongly encourage you to sit down as a committee and do just what Karen
suggests.
Kubby/As a seven member group not in public.
Atkins/
Dilkes/You would have to go into executive session ....
Nov/We are going to be here on Tuesday.
Karr/I was going to review with you the schedule... Tuesday... is 5:30.
Nov/ ....Do you want to come in at 4:30 ....
Kubby/Tuesday, September 2 is at 5:30?
Atkins/Yes, you have two items that night.
Karr/The other thing you could do- You got Downtown Update and Financial Issues on
Tuesday .... put it at the end .... It is a special formal meeting so you will want a set
time to start .... We can adjourn later but not earlier.
Kubby/The employment discussion should happen on the front end of the meeting when
we are fresh.
Atkins/I agree.
Norton/
Karr/We would just do a special formal meeting at whatever time you prefer ....
Norton/Not just an hour...3:30.
Kubby/On Tuesday, 2nd.
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Karr/3:30, September 2, So you want to go 3:30 and Downtown is still scheduled at
5:30?
Nov/3:30 to 5:00 and have a break.
Kubby/And the purpose of the special meeting is an executive session to hone it from a
short list to the interview list.
Nov/That is the general idea.
Karr/You have a special meeting on Friday afternoon at 3:00. Why don't we just take
care of then...
Vanderhoef/
Nov/We are talking about 3:30. Back to Thursday, morning or afternoon ....
Council/
Kubby/What about 2:30 .... Thursday ....to create the short list?
Karr/And that again is just three council members at 2:30 on Thursday?
Nov/Yes, committee meeting, not the whole council.
Kubby/Could we ..... another task to do is to figure out the rest of the council. We could
then bring to council on Thursday to give a blessing to so Steve knows what to
arrange. I could make sure the thing I gave to Steve is typed up as a basis for our
conversation.
Nov/Sure.
Atkins/2:30 on Thursday, 28th, for the... city attorney screening committee.
Kubby/Steve, can you get me a copy of what I gave you ....
Atkins/Yes.
Kubby/I will type it up. We are also going to talk about process during that Thursday
meeting.
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Atkins/So what did we schedule?
Kubby/2:30, Thursday, for creating the short list and talking about process.
Karr/And 3:30 for executive session on Tuesday, September 2, 3:30 to 5:00.
Atkins/Okay. I would put down Downtown Financial Issues, don't set a time for them ....
Kubby/If we want to bless the process questions on Friday, do we need to have that be an
official agenda item on Friday?
Atkins/Probably wouldn't hurt if we are going to be together.
Karr/We can't add to much more to the meeting.
Nov/We don't have time to add anything more to the meeting.
Karr/Plus you don't need action to write up the process. You are going to meet 2:30
Thursday and 3:00 again on Friday. When are people going to see the process? I
thought you were going to put it in your Friday packet.
Nov/We are going to put it in the Friday packet and we are going to discuss it on the
Tuesday.
Karr/Do you want to do scheduling things real quickly right now since you are there and
got the calendars?
Thornberry/I have a question about packets. Are they going to start delivering now in
September or are we still picking them up?
Karr/I thought we had changed- It is forever.
Thornberry/
Council/
Karr/September 2 -
September 4-
3:30 to 5:00 for executive session
5:30 Downtown Update and Financial Issues
3:00 to 5:30 Parks and Rec Tour
6:00 to 7:00 Airport Commission Joint Meeting
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September
September
September
September
8/9- Regular work session and formal
11/12- City attorney interview process
17- 4:00 Highlander Joint Meeting School Board and county
22/23 Regular work session and formal
September 3- 6:30 Candidate Workshops
October 15- 6:30 Candidate Workshops
Baker/I am .....out of town 10th through 22nd ....unavoidable conflict ....
Council/(All talking).
Nov/... We have a memo from Melody Rockwell about the development in the south area
of town... Wednesday, 27th, two meetings... Wednesday, September 3 at 5:30. I
am going to plan on being at all of those .....
Norton/I will go to at least one.
Nov/If we have not more than three we are fine .... 27th of August and 3rd of
September .... 5:30 and 7:00 on 27th and 5:30 on 3rd of September ....
Council/
Vanderhoef/Wednesday we have got JCCOG.
Nov/
Council/
Nov/Okay, Norton and Lehman and I are going to stick around for the later meetings on
27th ....
Council/
Atkins/As a reminder, there is a Senior Center Tea on the 3rd ....3:00 to 5:00 ....
Nov/They require an RSVP ....
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PCRB Administrative Issues 97-115 S1
Atkins/Just a few things to get you up to speed on it. Office set up is underway. Bylaws
are still being drafted. Marian can speak to the staff person and Eleanor can speak
to the legal council. Down to making your appointments. I would like some idea
on this training... mandatory or not the Police Citizens Academy? .... Whether it is
a requirement for PCRB Board members?
Lehman/Tough to make it mandatory ....
Atkins/It is offered once a year ....four months ....We have the space available ....
Norton/Encourage them, we can't really require it ....
Nov/
Kubby/Most people understand the kind of commitment ....
Council/(All talking).
Dilkes/I think it has been proposed that the Board will choose their own counsel. We
have three attorneys who have applied. We sent letters out to all Linn county and
Johnson County attorneys ....I think our office would make recommendation...
offer an opinion.
Atkins/ ....say to the Board that we would be happy to provide a recommendation for the
Board ....
Dilkes/
Kubby/We were going to have a current person on staff be the staff person ....
Atkins/We have advertised and Marian has interviewed, we are ready to fill that position.
Karr/Permanent part-time position, 20 hours ....
Thomberry/
Karr/That person will be under my supervision and can do some other things as needed.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-115 SIDE 2
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Karr/Certainly for the first few months with the by-laws, legal counsel, just getting up in
running .... then ... assess it at that time.
Atkins/We have made the assumption that we will proceed with that appointment as
soon as you had concluded your Board selection ....
Karr/I have concluded interviews. I was simply waiting for the appointment of the Board
and also to listen to your discussion tonight to make a final decision.
Kubby/How many applicants were there for that position?
Karr/30 some. I am a good person to work with.
Atkins/I think you are down to Board appointments.
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Appointments 97-115 S2
Atkins/I think you are down to board appointments.
Nov/Okay, let's do Housing and Community Development Commission first. We have
extra applicants here tonight which I haven't had time to read. Has anyone else
read it?
Vanderhoef/I would like a minute.
Nov/Okay, let's all take a minute. This is somebody who may have worked. Steve, do
you know that? Do you know if Angela Calvin is someone who had been an
intern in our Planning Department?
Karr/I know there was an Angela up there but I don't know if it is the same.
Nov/There was an Angela, wasn't there?
Karr/There was but I am not sure it was the same last name. I don't know.
Nov/And I don't know either if it was the same last name. I just don't somebody who has
been an employee or an intern up there.
Norton/Is that the only one we had for the Housing tonight?
Baker/We had at least five, eventually.
Nov/We have five, one of which is added tonight.
Vanderhoef/This application says recently employed by the city of Tupelo, Mississippi.
Nov/Yeah, however this is somebody who is a current graduate student and I believed
worked for the city Planning Department for awhile unless that is a different
Angela and Marian doesn't know and I don't know. And that is why I am asking
questions.
Baker/Do you want to do individual appointments?
Nov/We need three. Do you want individuals or do you want to say three?
Norton/Let's just take a non-block.
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Baker/Sandy Kuhlman.
Norton/Fine.
Lehman/Yep.
Baker/Jane Moraski.
Nov/Okay.
Kubby/I like Lori Bears. I would like to nominate Lori.
Vanderhoef/I was thinking Rick House myself in that there are lots of things happening
now with the new Housing Director and the money issue of that is really
important to me and I think Rick would offer that to the committee.
Nov/Yeah, I think that financial background is important.
Kubby/Although part of the weaknesses of the committee is not having people who in
the past have used services that a lot of agencies that come in for money and that
is a weak point and Lori Bears is someone of lower income. She is someone with
a developmental disability that is very high functioning and will be quite able to
make these kinds of decisions and I think would be a really important asset for
this committee.
Vanderhoef/As I recall, we have in the last year made such an appointment. I can't think
of that woman's name.
Kubby/She resigned. She was one of the resignations.
Vanderhoef/I need to look at that because I don't recall.
Kubby/And even if there is one, someone who is a recipient or has been in the past in
terms of the total, just having one token person like that, that is not enough.
Norton/The person who is there surely is not token if they are. I just wondered if it is a
suitable match. Is it a real serious match there in terms of issues.
Nov/I think it would be very difficult for her.
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Kubby/I disagree. I think Lori has a lot of potential and given the opportunity, she is
focused and would do a very good job as a volunteer for the city.
Baker/We agree on Sandy Kuhlman.
Vanderhoef/And Jane.
Baker/And Jane.
Vanderhoef/I would like to suggest Rick.
Lehman/I would also.
Norton/Who are the other- Do we know who the rest of the Commission at the moment?
Do we have all the names? I think we ought to take a look at the content.
Thornberry/I could agree on Rick also.
Karr/Right now? David-
Vanderhoef/I think we got four for Rick.
Karr/Do you want to hear or do you have four?
Thornberry/Let's hear.
Karr/David Purdy, Dan Cilek, Gretchen Schmuch, Denita Gatson, Bill Stewart and
Kathleen Renquist. Those do not include the three that are being filled now.
Baker/There are four votes for Rick House.
Nov/Okay, do we have four votes for Sandy Kuhlman and Jane Moraski?
Council/(Yes).
Housing and Community Development Commission -
Sandy Kuhlman
Jayne Moraski
Rick House
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Nov/Okay. Marian has a list of PCRB applicants that were culled from the list that I gave
her with our city council preferences. If there were not at least two or three people
suggesting that name, we were treating it as if it were a nomination without a
second.
Kubby/Can we take a few minutes to take a look at the (can't hear) applications?
Council/(Reviewed applications/list-Everyone talking).
Nov/Okay, we started out with probably a more diverse list than what we have here. A
lot of these people were on several lists but we also have some people who were
different occupations, different ages and I wonder if we want to think about
something else.
Kubby/Most of the individuals on here are professionals, too, and that might be some
point of diversity as well as racial diversity that we want to look at.
Nov/Well, Leah Cohen is not what I would call a professional. She is a local downtown
business but most are- And Bleeker withdrew today.
Lehman/Right, he is gone.
Kubby/Did he say why?
Norton/He wrote me a separate note. He went on vacation with his wife and they both
talked it over and she kind of decided that maybe this wasn't the right time for
him to pay his civic rent again. Bill Bleeker. But he was certainly interested. I
think Mrs. Forest Evesheski talked him out of it. I would like to suggest Margaret
Raymond if we are going to go-
Lehman/Well, it appears to me that the top two have received everybody's- Everybody
concurs on those two.
Nov/Those two, I would say are pretty easy. We get two women of two different
backgrounds and I think that is a pretty reasonable way to select. If we want the
third woman, you know there are a couple of others on here that would work or
we could see what we can do-
Norton/I like- John brings a different perspective in my judgment and a great deal of
respect.
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Kubby/A man full of integrity.
Lehman/I would really agree.
Nov/All right.
Kubby/And in terms of the peace officer, I mean, really the only- There are two people
on this list. Is that true? Mark and Paul.
Thomberry/I think they are both fantastic.
Nov/I think Paul Hoffey is probably a little bit better on that one.
Norton/He is pretty close to the Iowa City Police.
Lehman/He has taken the department where he is through accreditation.
Norton/I understand that.
Lehman/It seems to me-
Norton/I understand that. My only question would- I think either one of them. I just had
a toss up. They are both on my short list.
Baker/I lean towards Mark Sandler.
Kubby/And why?
Baker/I want to phrase this delicately. We have got a lot of legal law background on all
of this list here and I just felt that trying to get people as objective, as open,
diverse, that Sandler would be my choice over Hoffey.
Kubby/Would you be more specific?
Baker/I will.
Nov/I spoke with both of them and I spoke with people who know both of them and I am
leaning towards Hoffey.
Norton/you don't think his closeness- Now I like Ball and I know his family very well.
His closeness to the police department. He was on the police department here.
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Nov/When was that?
Vanderhoef/Twenty years ago?
Nov/Twenty years ago?
Norton/Twenty years ago? He has been in business 40 years.
Kubby/So it was 35 years ago and how many people do we have on the department?
Nov/Nobody is still here from that group.
Norton/Just a matter of perception on that, in my judgment. Therefore Sandler has a
certain appeal. I like them both.
Vanderhoef/I received a very strong recommendation from citizens of Cedar Falls that
really swayed me to go for Paul.
Kubby/Do you think there would be some advantage to have someone who was in a
position who was understanding police work in a college community that is not
this one but is an Iowa college community, issues-
Norton/I think there are some advantages there.
Lehman/I do.
Norton/I have no problem at all if you want to go with Paul. I am certainly not-
Council/(All talking).
Nov/I think I hear a majority for Hoffey.
Lehman/I also like Coleman.
Norton/Well, so do I. I thought Raymond and Perkins. I mean we had a bunch of terrific
candidates. Extremely appealing candidates.
Nov/Right, we did.
Norton/And in Coleman.
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Thomberry/And Judith Perkins.
Kubby/Yeah, Judith Perkins. I had this very interesting experience. I was up listening to
Jesse Jackson and supporting the UPS workers in Cedar Rapids and these
Teamster guys said Karen, come here. And I wondered what they were going to
say to me and they said we want to talk to you about Judith Perkins. She sits
across the table from us and we couldn't recommend who was more fair, more
forthright and knows a lot about police work withoutBeing involved in police
work. So to me, that was pretty strong. Somebody who sits across the negotiating
table.
Baker/My list, Margaret Raymond and Perkins were the toss up and either one would be
excellent and very good.
Norton/For me, Raymond and Perkins were equivalent and Coleman, the three of them. I
hardly know which way to go.
Vanderhoef/Yeah, I really like what David Coleman had to say in his resume and his
experience with University students over a long period of time impresses me.
That-
Kubby/I agree.
Nov/We need somebody who has that University contact. So far none of the people we
have appointed have a University contact. I think we should at least one.
Vanderhoef/Margaret Raymond.
Norton/Margaret Raymond.
Nov/That is true. That is true.
Council/(All talking).
Thomberry/I see five. Do we need a backup?
Lehman/I think that is a good idea.
Kubby/Can we sit back for a second and just look at the five that we are thinking of and
look at the compliment of skills and-
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Norton/Very complimentary and wonderful.
Kubby/You have got a restaurant owner that deals with a lot of downtown issues. You
have got someone who deals a lot with- Margaret with past practical (can't hear)
skills with academics and the ability to look how other communities do things in
terms of law. John Watson, just people find him to be incredibly fair and bright.
Ex-police chief, so you got a peace officer. We have someone down at the
University who is also a minority citizen.
Lehman/I guess would prefer that we don't perhaps pick an alternative because it
depends on which one. If one were-
Norton/It is pretty tight set.
Lehman/Yes. I think we need- I think we are very fortunate to get the caliper of folks that
we have. Unreal.
Vanderhoef/And the caliper we get and the other thing that I have spoken to- All the
candidates that I talked to personally is that I congratulate them and tell them how
much I appreciate them putting themselves out there and offering themselves to
this commission. It is going to be a heavy load for them to do, to start up this and
I appreciate all of the applications.
Nov/Yeah, we had excellent applicants for this.
Council/(All talking).
Kubby/Okay, Cohen, Raymond, Watson, Hoffey, Coleman.
Lehman/Right.
Kubby/Not nearly as difficult as-
Vanderhoef/I think we did our homework.
Lehman/Oh, I did.
Vanderhoef/I spent hours on the telephone.
Thornberry/I didn't think that was going to take long tonight. I really didn't.
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Council/(All talking).
Lehman/I really think that was time extremely well spent. We had an awfully good list of
folks. The sad part is we couldn't appoint them all. I mean we got some awfully
good people.
Thornberry/You are right. Very very good.
Vanderhoef/I am real pleased.
Nov/I would like to include with a letter, refusal, rejection, whatever we are calling it, a
list of commissions that will need appointments between now and January 1.
Council/(All talking).
Nov/Just tell them there are other opportunities and please consider some of these
openings that are coming along.
Vanderhoef/And reiterate our thank you for applying.
Nov/Send them something other than the standard form letter.
Vanderhoef/Yes, thank you. You can do it.
Nov/I can do it. Okay.
Police Citizens' Review Board -
Leah Cohen
Margaret Raymond
John Watson
Paul Hoffey
David Coleman
Housing and Community Development Commission -
Sandy Kuhlman
Jayne Moraski
Rick House
Police Citizens' Review Board - Leah Cohen
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Margaret Raymond
John Watson
Paul Hoffey
David Coleman
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Council Agenda/Time 97-115 S2
1. Nov/(Agenda #11- Iowa City Transit Interchange Facility) I wanted to talk about the
Transit Facility .... The Old Capital Mall has offered an option to build onto their
building on the Washington Street side .... I would like us to continue to consider
that option and to defer again on the Transit Facility that is on the agenda tonight.
Lehman/Who would own the property?
Nov/They would own the property .... It would be something that we would use ....
entrance from Washington Street... office space .... sell some bus passes...
restrooms .... It would be on the sidewalk... Mall property.
Lehman/Could we get a permanent easement?
Nov/We would negotiate a permanent easement of some sort .... On Washington .... where
Younkers juts out.
Lehman/It is absolutely invisible to the public ....
Nov/Capital Street comer where Younkers juts out
Atkins/(Draws pictures) ....
Lehman/That is fine.
Nov/All I am asking for is to defer the vote for tomorrow night.
Council/(Yes).
Nov/
Council/(All talking).
2. Lelunan/(Agenda #3g(1)/IP(4) of 8/19- Iowa Avenue Streetscape) .... I don't think
removal of any significant portion of parking on Iowa Avenue in regard to the
streetscape is a reasonable possibility. Am I reading folks right?
Kubby/I think it matters what is proposed and where parking could be created as a
tradeoff.
Lehman/I don't think we are looking at losing parking.
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Council/(All talking).
Norton/I want to go underground.
Nov/
Council/(All talking).
Vanderhoef/It sort of bothers me that we... talk about some of these things and put
everything on the platter when... this is not an option to take parking off.... not
four people even thinking about it.
Nov/
Vanderhoef/ .... Hickory Hill... Mountain bike trail through the park and someone called
me .... Anytime I have ever heard anyone on council... never been any interest ....
There are certain things that are not in conversation ....spending people's time ....
mistake ....
Norton/ .... gorgeous streetscape, I might have to think really hard .... I say substantial
parking has got to be there.
Lehman/My feeling is that we would probably not approve of any program that would
significantly lower the number of spaces available in that area ....
Nov/Parking could be shifted somewhere else.
Lehman/
Vanderhoef/
3. Norton/I have a bunch ....Railroad crossing is still terrible on S. Gilbert Street .....
Nov/I brought up railroad crossings when we met with the IDOT .... I told them there has
to be some way to accelerate the rebuild of crossings ....
Vanderhoef/I had a report from a citizen who watched the railroad people come out to
the Capital Street crossing and there were five railroad workers there. They
removed one rusty rail ....
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Norton/It is totally frustrating ....mention it tomorrow night ....
4. Norton/(IP8 of 8/22- Planning and Zoning Commission Work Program) I am some of
you had a call from John Streit today about his basement thing. Where do we
stand on that issue .... storage underneath the restaurant ....
Vanderhoef/Did you look at the updated list from P/Z, their work list? And what I saw
on that was that they moved it clear to the bottom .... thought that this was a much
higher priority for several of us on the council. I don't know whether there are
four votes to move it up higher ....
Norton/I couldn't tell him where we were ....
Vanderhoef/ ....I thought we were showing considerable interest to move that right
along ....
Norton/Let's move it up a little bit.
Vanderhoef/I would like to move it up.
Lehman/We felt it was important enough to take care of it immediately .... might behoove
us to address at least that portion of it sooner rather than later.
Nov/I spoke to Karin Franklin. She said he came back with exactly the same plans... no
modifications whatsoever ....It is because of total square footage... includes the
basement ....
Kubby/What we really need to focus on is where on the work program we want this
item .....
Norton/I would like to move it up some ....
Thomberry/The old McDonalds on Riverside Drive which is now the flower place... does
that have a basement under it?... It does have a basement because I worked
there .... Does my Burger King have a basement?
Nov/Does your Burger King have a restriction on the number of square feet?
Thomberry/It does for parking ....If it was total square footage, I would need X number
of parking spaces ....
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Lehman/
Council/(All talking).
Nov/They have to consider the number of parking .... folks that come in and sit... affects
the amount of traffic in the neighborhood commercial area.
Kubby/ ....I think it is important... If we want P/Z to move it up as to where we want it ....
We need to tell them where we want it.
Vanderhoef/Isn't 1, 2, and 3 are pretty well happening.
Kubby/#4 has some reason why it is there, too ..... Could be the new #5.
Vanderhoef/Move #10 up to #5.
Lehman/Is this important enough? Does this affect development? ....
Nov/We don't want to design a law to accommodate a person.
Lehman/We did this on the west side.
Nov/
Lehman/This would be any basement space.
Norton/How should it count as related to-
Nov/For everybody or restaurants only? ....
Thomberry/ ....retail ....It is still basement storage space.
Vanderhoef/There are some differences on the number of cars that come in for a
restaurant versus the number of cars that may come into a retail space ....We are
going to look at the whole thing.
Council/(All talking).
Nov/I don't want us to get to the issue of nobody count the basement.
Lehman/Let P/Z think about it.
page 69
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Vanderhoef/Are we okay with #5?
Council/(Yes).
5. Norton/Where did this issue of establishment of grade go? Is P/Z split on it ....
definition of grade. Where did it go?
Nov/It was changed. They said this is not the way you establish grade. You cannot fill it
in and say that is my grade.
Nov/I thought they didn't decide.
Nov/...seem to me that it went somewhere ....
Norton/ ....I guess the staff is back at the drawing board for a new definition ....okay.
Vanderhoef/That is what I read in the minutes ....
Kubby/And he is re-doing the berms.
Vanderhoef/And how about the electricals?
Thornberry/The electrical can be re-done.
Norton/
Thornberry/They told him that it could not be re-done. Then the city came and said hey,
can you re-do that .... we could .... They already told him that they couldn't do it ....
They told the city they don't want to but they could. They can. So if it can be
done- He was given the wrong information ....
Norton/I was only concerned about the grade question.
6. Baker/(Agenda # 19- Engineering Div. of the Public Works Dept. by Adding Two
Full-time Special Projects Inspector Positions) Steve, tomorrow night... could we
talk a little bit about item #197 ....
Atkins/The construction workers, sure.
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7. Baker/(Agenda #17-Napoleon Park Softball Fencing Project). Can you get a- It has a
per linear foot or some sort of break down on what... price of fencing ....
8. Baker/Did you have somebody downtown Friday night cleaning up?
Atkins/Yes.
Baker/Was he or she in uniform?
Atkins/Should have been ....
Baker/I looked all over.
Atkins/We did.
Council/(All talking).
Lehman/He was seen downtown .... It was mentioned this morning.
9. Baker/Friday night downtown... I saw four police officers down there and almost...
bonding session together... ought to be spread ....
Atkins/That is the instructions .... We will split them up.
Kubby/ ....like elected officials talking to each other instead of other people ....
Nov/
10. Thornberry/This trail thing on splitting up the trail down to Napoleon Park. Can that
be somehow .... split up...?
Lehman/The way it is sitting right now is it is being bid on two separate projects. I think
we really ought to not acquire the property and not condemn the property until
such time as we have-... put it on the back burner in view of budget constraints or
whatever. There may be from Riverside Drive to Hwy 6... retaining wall trail
along Riverside Drive. There may be a better location .... I think we should take it
off.... the burner .... don't take bids. _
Thornberry/Then how do you get from Hwy 6 down to the park?
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Lehman/Hwy 6 down to the park I am saying great, do that one. It is the other section
that I think we should wait on.
Thornberry/I do, too.
Lehman/ .... he said we were going to bid it separately but we were still going to go ahead
and acquire the property and get the bids ....
Kubby/Because we were going to do the whole project and split it up financially in two
years ....
Lehman/I thought we were going to take another look at it.
Thornberry/
Baker/ ....We were going to reconsider that section ....
Council/
Kubby/We decided to go ahead with the easements ....
Lehman/If we decide there is a different location, then why have the easements or
condemnation? ....
Norton/Possibility of instead of going down the west side of the fiver, going down the
east side .... avoiding that difficult side there .... I think we have already instructed
staff... west side ....
Nov/I don't know the construction would be easier on the east side ....
Thornberry/
Baker/We are just negotiating right now, fight.
Lehman/The way we left this... We were bidding it in two sections but that the first
section, the section along Riverside Drive, as it is currently planned, we would go
through and acquire the property, condemn what we need to and go ahead and bid
the project. It may be what we end up doing. I am not convinced that there may
not be a better route than that. I don't feel that we have any business acquiring
easements and condemning property for something that may not go on that side of
the river.
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Baker/So we are changing the terms of the decision?
Lehman/Absolutely .... It would be split but the second half may or may not go as
currently planned.
Thornberry/
Dilkes/I just know there has been a resolution authorizing the acquisition of the
easements and it is the standard resolution that authorizes condemnation. So I
think if you are going to change that-
Council/(All talking).
Nov/It would come back to us before condemnation.
Council/(All talking).
Dilkes/It authorizes condemnation and we always come back to you and say we are
going to have to- As you know, we often just tell you we are at the point of
condemning.
Thornberry/Would you have already bought other properties if it did not involve
condemnation by that time?
Dilkes/Yes.
Thomberry/So you are committed to the west side, period.
Kubby/That was our decision.
Atkins/I thought that was the decision.
Kubby/That was the decision.
Norton/
Lehman/I think we should have an opportmfity to re-think that and take another look at
it.
Thornberry/That is two votes. I don't know if there is four, Ernie.
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Kubby/We have looked at this at least 2-3 times.
Council/
Norton/We were also looking at money .... Why not take another look and see if there is
an option cheaper than going down that hard west side ....
Vanderhoef/... what was brought back to us still was a west side plan.
Norton/Did they ever look at Madison Street?
Council/
Thomberry/What would we have to do to stop the easement buying at this point?
Dilkes/Four of you would have to indicate that that is what you wanted to do and we put
a hold on it or rescind it.
Thornberry/Are there four votes to put a hold on west side?
Baker/Why could the easement buying or negotiations be contingent on .... when that is
the chosen route? ....
Council/
Dilkes/That won't fly ....
Thornberry/So what do you want to do, Larry?
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 97-116 SIDE 1
Lehman/One little chunk we haven't already bought. We are going to say no ..... It is
either back off and take a second look-
Vanderhoef/Have we purchased any, Eleanor?
Dilkes/I don't think so, no ....
Lehman/I don't think we have yet.
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Dilkes/I would have to double check but I don't think so.
Baker/
Lehman/I just want to look at the options ....
Baker/One side or the other, one year, it might not be the west side.
Council/(All talking).
Thomberry/
Dilkes/For the part of the trail that you are not going to start building.
Lehman/Riverside Drive to Highway 6.
Thomberry/Highway 6 to the park, fine, go, start or whatever. But look at in another
year .... Hwy 6 North don't buy any land or don't do anything with until for a year.
Nov/Someday we are going to do the park at the comer of Riverside and Benton and
now we are saying we are going to put the trail on the other side of the river. It is
not going to go anywhere near this park?... Going to put it on Madison Street?
What happened to the whole idea of a fiver trail?
Norton/If it gets too expansive to go on the river, what are you going to do Naomi?
Lehman/You move it away from the river.
Nov/
Kubby/So we need to re-schedule this for an informal so that we can be directive with
staff....
Nov/I think I heard four people directing staff to hold it and not do anything with it.
Kubby/We can't not talk about this for a year ....bring it back and tell us what the options
are.
Norton/And hear from the river trail people ....
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Dilkes/I think we should put a resolution on the agenda then to cancel the authority for
acquisition on that part of the trail just so four of you vote on it and it is clear.
11. Thomberry/My other thing- Well, you took all my street things on the basements.
Just to update you, Dee. You have been out of town. They are putting on the turn
signals on the comer of- (Gilbert/Kirkwood).
Norton/I saw that message.
Thomberry/But they haven't got the controls in yet.
Atkins/The controller is not in.
Thomberry/
Nov/The traffic signal is covered up.
Thomberry/On some of these other signals, I was just wondering, we have got a green
arrow and then it is red. Why can't it be a green arrow and then green and if there
are no cars coming, you can turn .....
Nov/You still need the red light for the cross street ....
Council/
Thomberry/The one on the comer ofHwy 6 and Boyram is not ....
Nov/And none of them on Burlington .....
Thomberry/And there is no right turn on Burlington when you turn into the Holiday Inn.
You can't turn right on red.
Kubby/On that street there are so many pedestrians ....
Lehman/
Atkins/Pedestrians are a big issue ....
Thomberry/
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Nov/I would like to see as many left tums as possible with the yield on green system
whenever we are getting around to replacing traffic signals.
Vanderhoef/I think you guys have covered it well .... I am done.
Nov/Thank you.
Adjoumed: 10:10 PM
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