HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-01-08 TranscriptionJanuary 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 1
January 8, 2004 Council Work Session 8:50 AM
Council: Bailey, Champion, Elliott, Lehman, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn
Staff: Atkins, Karr, Helling, Nixon
Facilitator: Jim Swaim
TAPES: 04-05, BOTH SIDES; 04-06 BOTH SIDES; 04-07, BOTH SIDES; and 04-08,
Side 1.
Swaim/It's really a privilege to be able to work with you all for the day. A privilege for
a couple of reasons. One is, time is a pretty precious commodity for everybody,
and I know that you all rarely get a full day together, so to be invited to be a part
of that process is really, I think, kind of special and I appreciate the opportunity.
It also puts a little bit of pressure on me, to some extent, because I want to make
sure that the day is useful to you. So that's what I will be trying to do throughout
the day is make the day useful, and hopefully a little bit enjoyable for each of you.
I'm going to be using a process that is called a technology of participation for
some of the parts of the meeting, not every part of it, and it's a process that was
designed at the Institute of Cultural Affairs in Phoenix, Arizona, and again it's
called the technology participation, and it's a process that I've been using in youth
work for several years. Ross actually introduced me to the Institute of Cultural
Affairs several years ago when he was part of the National Community Youth
Development project. So that's the process that I'll be using, and before I get into
much, I'm supposed to announce a couple things. One is there's coffee and
donuts over there, and there's water. Throughout the meeting, this is the kind of
stuff where people can get up and go up and use the restroom, just feel free to go
do that. We will be asking everyone, smoking is only permitted outside the front
door. There are telephones by each door. Actually I've got one on the floor so if
you need to use a telephone, it's over there. The restrooms are located just off of
the lobby. In getting ready to help you all for today, I talked to a couple of folks
and tried to get a general impression of what might be useful for the day, and I've
organized an agenda. This morning's agenda, we're going to do some
introductions, that's what we're doing. We're going to do a little warm-up
exercise. We're going to spend a little bit of time talking about unconditional,
positive regard, and then I'm going to try and do some conversations with you
that perhaps we could do a workshop on some guidelines for how you want to
work with each other, and at the end of the morning, we're going to do a little
exercise on vision. So that would be the morning's agenda. Somewhere in there,
we're going to take a smoke break or a break, probably take two of those.
Champion/Didn't we tell you we needed four? (laughter)
Swaim/Well, actually, I've heard four different versions of what we need.
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O'Donnell/And what time? (laughter)
Swaim/We'll do the first break around, little before 10 and a little before 11:00, and then
we'll have a break for lunch. The afternoon agenda will start with a nap, or a
walk. We'll have another warm-up about "what time is it". A thing called a
"wall of wonder", for the, which is an exercise to look at a little bit of the context
of Iowa City. Another piece on vision, vision II, and then most of the afternoon is
spent on a little bit of what I would call an issues workshop, and then we'll have a
brief wrap-up. I know a couple people may have to get back to work. Connie
has...
Champion/I have a part-timer so I'm fine.
S~vaim/Okay. My target is to try and be done no later than 4, perhaps earlier, but the
issues workshop is a little bit open-ended and it may be that by the time we get to
that, you want to make it briefer or longer. But that will be up to how the group
wants to proceed. Any questions about the agenda? All right. Throughout the
day, I may end up having some things, this is a sticky wall by the way, this is the
part of the stuft: I'll be using this and when I do I'll try to move it out a little. In
getting ready yesterday, it tums out my wall isn't working the way it's supposed
to be. (can't hear) I can't just slap things up there very easy. But, throughout the
day, if I ask you to do an assignment that we're going to share with everybody,
I'm always going to be saying these three things: write big, use three to five
words, and only one idea per page. I'll get to that when we start doing some more
of these exercises. You've got some pens and some sheets. Some of our work
I'm going to be asking you to think individually, and then other times we're going
to be pairing you up. Because this is a public meeting, for the parts where I'm
dealing with all of you at the same time, it's being recorded. On the times that
we're breaking into small sub-groups, then as I understand it, Marian, then those
don't need to be recorded. So that's a little bit of(can't hear). Any other
questions? All right. I'm going to pose some questions to you and I just want
you to write your answers to these, and this is going to take a few minutes. This
is not a three to five word one. So get your pens out and be ready to take some
notes for yourself. Write down the names of your parents. First names. Whether
they are living or deceased. Put your birth dates down.
O'Donnell/And whether you're living or deceased. (laughter)
S~vaim/Where were you bom? What is your zodiac sign? How many siblings, if any, do
you have? What is your birth order, ify0u do have siblings? That is, are you the
first, the last. List two activities that you excelled at in high school.
O'Donnell/Does drinking count? (laughter)
Swaim/Anything can count. Name the first teacher you can recall, not necessarily the
best. The first teacher that you can recall. Having, knowing, that we have a huge
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crowd of Frank Sinatra fans, I'm going to change this (can't hear) some of your
favorite artists, but think back to the first song that you can remember, that had a
lasting impression, for whatever reason. It can be anything from "Itsy Bitsy
Spider" being the first thing that you can remember to "Bebop Aloopa" because it
was your first high school (can't hear). The first song that you can remember that
had some sort of impact.
Lehman/"Rock-a-Bye Baby" count?
Swaim/List the earliest, best friend you remember. List your best, or it could be your
most interesting, vacation moment. List the strangest place you've ever visited.
And the next one, two more questions and then...list one proud moment. It
doesn't have to be your proudest moment. I know that one always stymies
people, oh geez, you know, my daughter's wedding, my son's baptism, but list
one proud moment. And again reminding everybody that this is a public meeting
and the minutes are recorded, list one embarrassing moment. (laughter) I was
going to have the staff do this also but...
O'Donnell/Should have, that would have been good.
Swaim/I should have. I do need, let's see, all right. I was going to have you do it. I
need you to do it real quick. The problem is I'm going to have all day, is there's a
lot of exercises that (can't hear) so what I think I'll do is have you split into two
groups of two, and one group of three, so why don't I have the three of you. The
two of you. And, one of the twosome groups come over here, and since we're not
meeting in a full group, I don't think this part of it has to be recorded. What I
want you to do is share that information for five minutes with each other, and then
each group is going to report back to the full group, real quickly. It's going to go
really fast. But you're going to be reporting on somebody other than you, and
you're going to have to do it from memory. You won't be allowed to take notes.
So ready? Can I have the two of you just go over there? This way we can cut
down on noise.
Champion/Aren't we the oldest? (laughter)
Swaim/That's what happens. All right, just go through this really quick.
(TAPE OFF)
Swaim/All right. (several people talking and laughing) Before you answer about other
people, we'll just go around the room. I want to know the first job that you had,
ever had.
Vanderhoef/Babysitting.
Wilburn/Selling kool-aid.
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Lehman/Pulling weeds out of a bean field.
Bailey/Oh, babysitting probably.
Elliott/Grocery store clerk.
O'Donnell/Shoveling walks.
Champion/Um, I worked in a shoe store.
Swaim/A shoe store. What jobs did you have in college? Let's start here.
O'Donnell/What was the question?
Swaim/What was your first job in college, at college-age?
O'Donnell/Bouncer.
Elliott/Among them, many jobs, but laying field tile for a dime a rod. How many know,
how long a rod is?
Lehman/16 feet.
Elliott/See, a bunch of farmers in here.
Swaim/So a buck sixty...
Elliott/A dime a rod. On a good day I could make ten bucks.
Bailey/Englert Theatre, Applegate's Landing.
Lehman/I was the colonel of the urinal. I cleaned the restroom in the dorms. (laughter)
Wilburn/I was Stan the Ice Cream Man. (laughter) In the Quad Cities, I drove the ice
cream truck. Yeah.
Vanderhoef/In college, or in that age range, both waitress and lifeguard.
Swaim/Both waitress and lifeguard. Okay, now for the hard part.
O'Dormell/In the shallow end. (laughter)
Swaim/What's Bob's parent's names?
O'Donnell/Sam.
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Champion/Diane?
O'Donnell/John?
Champion/John.
Swaim/Nod yes or not. All right.
Elliott/John, they're half right. (laughter)
Swaim/Who is Ernie's first teacher?
Bailey/Hildy Johnson.
Swaim/Is that right?
Lehman/That's right.
Swaim/Uh, what's an event or an activity that Connie did in high school?
O'Donnell/Connie was part of the history club.
Swaim/Dee, what is Ross' zodiac sign?
Vanderhoef/I don't know.
Swaim/All right. Uh, what is...
Lehman/Regenia. (laughter)
Swairn/What is Regenia's birth order?
Lehman/She's first out of two.
Swaim/She's first. What is her zodiac sign?
Lehman/Capricorn.
Swaim/What's his?
Lehman/Three, I'm sorry. Three, she has two siblings.
Bailey/He's Catholic. He was bom on July 16, 1941.
Lehman/You were bom on December 24, 1959.
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Swaim/And what's Mike's best vacation moment? Or most interesting.
Champion/Fishing in Hawaii.
Swaim/Okay. What's the strangest place that Bob's ever been to?
Champion/He said he's never been to a strange place.
O'Donnell/Bob really hasn't. He's lived a life of absolute dedication and is totally
enjoying every place he!s ever been. (laughter)
Lehman/And boredom. (laughter)
Swaim/What's Ross' proudest, or a proud moment for Ross?
Vanderhoef/When his second child was bom and his older daughter came over and gave
her a little soft pat.
Swaim/What's Connie's proud moment?
O'Donnell/The birth of her first daughter.
ElliottY You were looking at Mike so I said that's fine. (laughter)
Swaim/How about if you have what's her embarrassing moment?
Elliott/Well she had a near-death experience but that wasn't embarrassing.
O'Donnell/No, Connie lost her slip on a date. (laughter)
Swaim/What's Bob's embarrassing moment?
Champion/He farted.
O'Donnell/In front of a whole bunch of people. (laughter)
Swaim/How can you forget that? The time and place is what was important.
Remember, we're back on live... (laughter)
O'Donnell/Are we being filmed?
Swaim/No, we're not being filmed.
Lehman/You didn't see (can't hear).
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Swaim/Let me ask you a couple of questions. Why might it be important to have this
kind of dialogue for you all as Council Members?
Wilbum/I think it humanizes, I mean we have the professional relationship, but to, .just to
know something a little personal. Gives you a little insight into who they are.
O'Dormell/It gives you an opportunity to know each other. I think that's...
Swaim/Okay. What else?
Vanderhoef/To laugh.
ElliottY I think it's important for us to remember to listen, and really listen, not just stand
there while they're talking.
Swaim/Okay. What else? Is there anything that you heard from your partner that was
surprising to you?
O'Donnell/The slip. (laughter) Urn, you know, I was really surprised when Bob,
because I've always looked at Bob as this outgoing person that knows everybody,
and when he couldn't really remember anything that he excelled at in high school,
it just kind of floored me because I thought Bob would have had numerous...
Elliott/That was interesting because there was nothing in which I excelled in high school.
Wilburn/I was surprised that, I had no idea you were in to music in high school, vocal
music. Yeah.
Champion/I flunked out of music.
Swaim/Anything you found that was totally expected?
Elliott/Yes, Mike's zodiac sign.
Swaim/What was it?
Elliott/The crab. (laughter)
Swaim/Anything else? Totally expected?
O'Donnell/I expected Bob to be a really sensitive guy, and when he explained to me his
proudest moment about his marriage and watching his bride come down the aisle,
I really expected that kind of description from you, Bob.
Elliott/That was 46 years ago.
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Swaim/Are there any downsides to knowing this information about, or having these
kinds of, are them any scary parts of sharing this kind of information with each
other?
Champion/I don't like people knowing I was bom in Gary, Indiana.
Bailey/Yeah, Knoxville, Iowa. Hmm...
Swaim/So not wanting some information shared.
Champion/No, who cares.
Wilburn/Especially being recorded. (laughter)
Lehman/Change the share to recorded. (laughter) That would be best.
Swaim/Any other thing that might be a potential inhibiting factor for being able to share
kinds of personal information with each other, or working with each other in a
kind of personal way?
Elliott/Essentially I've always been a rather open person so it doesn't bother me at all.
Swaim/Okay. What about doing it in the context of open meetings. Are there any things
about, well let me digress for just a minute. You know I serve on commissions
and stuff, and certainly you know they're all governed by open meetings, but
there's times when the setting is pretty intimate, and often times in those settings
it's easy to start sharing information with each other and getting good and
personal about your beliefs and stuff, and other times, you know, six reporters and
forty people from the general public. What impact does that have on your ability
to kind of relate to each other in a personal way when you're deliberating as a
council?
Champion/I think you have to be able to laugh at yourself to do this willingly and easily.
Swaim/Okay.
Champion/I think it's important.
O'Donnell/And I think that anybody who's sitting on this Council, after participating in
all the forums, you sit there and anything can be asked to you. I mean, and your
political philosophy, as well as how you feel personally on some items, is asked
and you know you really, I really don't have any problems telling anybody
anything. That all comes out in these forums. Do any of you agree with that?
Elliott/And they did.
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O'Donnell/When you sit where we sit, your life's kind of an open book. I mean, you're
in the paper all the time.
Swaim/Emie?
Lehman/Yeah, but I think that open meetings do, to some degree, inhibit conversations.
There are things that you will not say in a public meeting that we would say to
each other privately, which I think, and this along the same line, the same reason
that the Council decided not to televise work sessions. Because there are
questions that we have that may turn out in retrospect to be stupid questions, or
we think they're stupid, but they need to be asked. And we're reluctant to do that
on TV, for example. But I do think that in open public meetings, there are things
that we would sometimes like to say that we won't. We'll take, we'll say it
during a break to each other, to kind of reinforce our own positions, but I do think
that it's more difficult to be terribly, to be personal, in public meetings.
Elliott/I think though that pertains more to the subject than to the person. I think you're
talking about there are some things that are very delicate, and to just say them
without putting them in a very reasonable context and being extremely careful
how it's worded, and if you're, I'm talking to you in private, I might blurt it out.
Lehman/Right.
Elliott/But I think in the forums we're talking about, it's good to take your job very
seriously and yourself not very seriously.
Vanderhoef/Sometimes it's time constraint and looking at everyone has an opinion
around the table, and the hardest thing for me to do in a public meeting, is to do
the visioning kinds of things because what I see and want to happen is
conversation, and sometimes you can put something out there at informal kind of
thing, and say "what about this?" but if the press picks up on it and then says
that's where Dee Vanderhoef stands, and it's not necessarily true, it is put out
there to prompt other people to think, and for me to hear what they might think of,
way off of the wall, and those are the kinds of things that I miss presently in a
work meeting.
Swaim/Okay, all right.
Wilburn/I think also, trailing on that, the assumptions that people make about who you
are and what you do, and the positions or votes you will take, some times on the
surface can appear at odds, and I think that could be hard both as an individual
and for the public. How can you support that when you....dadadada....when you
are or you do or you supposedly...there's a presumption of a set of values and
how that may or may not dictate the decision you made.
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O'Donnell/Well, and do you think it's important too to really think before you say
something? I mean you can, and no matter what you say, how it shows up in the
paper can be an entirely different thing.
Vanderhoef/Right.
O'Dormell/So you get more cautious, but I think when you're asked a question, you just
give it a little bit more thought before you talk.
Swaim/I'm sure all of you have been in meetings and, part of the, one of the techniques
in the technology of participation, they all do various forms of brainstorming.
We're going to ask you to brainstorm ideas a little bit as part of today's effort, but
normally, you know, if you're facilitating a meeting for brainstorming, you say "I
just want you to list the things that pop into your head", in fact brainstorming
excels when we're off the charts. When you think of the most outrageous ideas,
you know, and we want you to think quick. Don't worry - there's no wrong
answer. How many of you have been to a brainstorming session? There's no
wrong answer. In fact, the more you push the envelope, you probably don't get a
chance to do that in a public delivered setting very often because of what you all
have described. Is that kind of accurate?
Elliott/I think the more you live, the more you realize that except in some of the
sciences, there are no wrong answers. There are only what's most popular and
what's least popular.
Swaim/But, the press and the public may interpret things that you say...
Elliott/Oh yeah, oh yeah.
O'Dormell/There's an example of that in the paper this morning, Jim. In the editorial,
we're all listed as a bunch of conservatives, and they have no idea of our
philosophies on social issues, or where we stand, how we voted, yet we're all
listed as a bunch of conservatives.
/ Which paper?
O'Dormell/What's that?
/ Press Citizen.
Vanderhoef/And, what is their definition of conservative?
O'Donnell/Exactly. Well, I guess...
Vanderhoef/I see a range here and conservatism may be for certain issues, but not all
issues.
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O'Donnell/That's true.
Vanderhoef/So don't collapse everybody in to saying they're conservative on every
issue.
O'Donnell/Yeah.
Vanderhoef/That's what's wrong with labeling.
O'Donnell/Yeah.
Swaim/Urn, we'll have some chances to talk about the public, your intersection with the
public, as we move (can't hear), but one of the things that I heard from folks and I
think there's a consensus among the whole group, that part of today is to identify
ways that you all, the seven of you, in concert with the several to several dozen
City staff that you interact with, but the seven of you are going to be working as a
team, working together, in theory, over the next two years, is that right? Two full
years. You seven will be deliberating with each other, and I think part of what
we're hoping to be part of the day, is just some ideas on how to do that. Number
one, effectively; and how to do that in a way that advances the best interest of our
community, as well as remaining true though to the ideas that you hold near and
dear. And that's, there's going to be a natural tension, ! think, between parts of
this. Well, I want to do a quick exercise, it's not a real quick but it's kind of quick
and it will take us to our break. ! want you to think back to some meetings and
events of this past year, and even for those of you new to the Council, it doesn't
necessarily have to be ones you were involved in but ones that you witnessed.
And I want you to think of a meeting that you thought was successful (can't hear).
Champion/That was successful?
Swaing Successful. And, just ponder that for a minute. Think of a meeting that you
viewed as particularly successful. And I want you to hold that thought, kind of
over in this part of your brain. And I want you to try and simultaneously, and this
is a hard one, think of a meeting that was just a disaster. An unsuccessful
meeting. And I want you to hold that thought over here. Think about that for just
a minute. IfI were at the, let's start on a positive note, ifI were at the successful
event, so bring that to mind, what would I see? What would I see happening in
that successful meeting?
Vanderhoef/Respect.
Swaim/Respect? How would I see that? What do I (can't hear)?
Vanderhoef/Acknowledgement of others.
Swaim/Okay.
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Vanderhoef/Their thoughts, their ideas.
Swaim/What are some other things that I would actually visibly see?
Elliott/Differences.
Swaim/Okay, differences.
O'Donnell/To me a successful meeting is a problem solver.
Swaim/ Think of a specific meeting now. Don't think ofit theoretically. Calltomind
that specific meeting.
O'Dormell/Well I think when a budget cut came down on us, and I thought we answered
that cut fairly well with Steve's help.
Lehman/Positive results.
O'Donnell/That was a positive thing.
Lehman/Yeah.
Swaim/What words do you hear, when you're at that moment. Again, try and recall that
exact meeting. What are some of the words that you heard at that meeting? That
contributed, especially to its being a success.
Vanderhoef/Specific words I can't say, but I'm also thinking of budget meeting and so a
feel of empathy, in particular about staff cuts.
Swaim/So one of the things was there was genuine empathy as part of that.
Lehman/I think cooperation is another word.
O'Donnell/I think compassion is another one. We tried to do that in a sensitive way.
Wilburn/And specific words that come to mind in hearing those, at the meeting that
Mike's talking about, I'm thinking there was dialogue like "how can we", "let's",
you know it was more of, we knew we had the pressure and the burden, and there
was, there weren't too many negative comments. It was that type of progression,
okay how can we, next, and then when we knew there was another source of
agreement, those are very brief exchanges.
Swaim/Okay.
Champion/So maybe compromise.
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Lehman/Yeah, I think that's a good word. Also I think even though some of those
meetings did not involve unanimous decisions, there was definitely a feeling of
teamwork on the part of the majority of the Council. They felt they had done
something as a group.
Champion/I come about this totally differently. Urn, I can't put my finger on what I
would call a successful meeting. I personally think every meeting was successful
in that it amazed me that we got anything done. (laughter) So, I have to say that I
thought every meeting was successful because we accomplished something, and
some of it was rockier to get there than others, but I can't say one meeting was
successful and one wasn't successful. I think every meeting is successful, but it
may be more difficult.
Swaim/Well, reflect for a minute on ones that are not successful or were more
challenging, or especially difficult, or ones that are especially frustrating, and tell
me a little bit about...bring those, try to recall a specific meeting. Puli one up in
your mind.
Elliott/How large do the meetings have to be?
Swaim/It can be a small meeting.
O'Donnell/When the Council was sued...was that last year?
Lehman/No, that was a couple years.
O'Dormell/Two years ago. That's an ever-present memory that I have.
Lehman/I think in meetings, and I don't disagree with Connie, but there were meetings
that were certainly more successful than others. Results many times, in fact the
last four years were very, very successful for the city of Iowa City, even though as
a Council we didn't always feel that way. The results were very good. But there
were, I think the word contentious is a good word for a lot of our meetings, even
though we had positive results, they were contentious meetings, and many times
that sort of...
Vanderhoef/Clouded.
Lehman/Yeah, I...we've always had some contentious folks, if you will, from the public.
Not a lot, but...most people are very respectful, they're very good people, but in
the last four years we had a certain amount of contentiousness among ourselves,
which really, really inhibits being able to do something. And it makes you not
even feel good about the good things you do. (laughter)
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O'Donnell/Well, and the perception that went out around us, Ernie. A lot of people
thought we were getting better ratings that Seinfeld. (laughter) And...
Champion/Well we're better than Seinfeld.
O'Donnell/Well, we were at times. (laughter) But, I mean, the perception, you're
running, you're trying to do a good job, and I tell you, the last meeting we had is
the most enjoyable meeting I've had, I think, in the last four years. We collapsed
a reading. We've never, we haven't been able to do that. On an issue that was
absolutely a no-brainer, I mean, but we wouldn't have been able to do that with
that last Council. I mean, it's just efficiency I think...the public...
Swaim/Well, recalling an unpleasant meeting, what are some things that you see?
Again, visualize that meeting. What are things...if I were to say what do you see
at that meeting? Finger-pointing? Okay.
O'Donnell/Accusations.
Champion/Yeah, accusations.
Swaim/Okay, for a minute just focus on what I'm visually seeing. I walk into that room.
We tune in, or we flipped over from Seinfeld, and we're zeroing in...
Lehman/A lack of respect.
Swaim/How do you see that though? Tell me what you see.
O'Dormell/Expression out there. You see it.
Lehman/I think that's part of it but also I think that if you listen to some of the
conversations over the last, for a bad meeting, you would find lack of respect
between Council people for each other.
Swaim/Okay.
Elliott/I'm not thinking of a specific meeting but what Mike said about efficient meeting,
I think there can be times when that's good, but I think some of the least effective,
least productive meetings in which I've participated in, were very efficient
meetings in a superficial sense. Efficiency is sometimes not the end-all. I think
we need to understand, democracy is not efficient, and that's why I think
differences, it's the way we deal with our differences.
Swaim/Okay.
Wilburn/I think one thing that comes to mind for me for the meeting I'm thinking of,
well there's two specific ones, it's more the verbal stuff that I hear. Name-
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calling. I remember one person calling in to question my faith in God and
rambling on about that.
Champion/I don't even remember that.
Lehman/Oh I do.
Wilburn/I do, yeah.
Lehman/All of us.
Champion/We were called a lot of names.
Swaim/What else though?
O'Donnell/Accusations.
Swaim/For a moment, think outside of meetings that are directly related to Council. Just
what are some general things about meetings that go bad.
Champion/I think it's frustrating for people at meetings, for people to assume, this kind
of goes back to what Ross said, assume that you have some idea that you don't
have at all. I mean some, I can remember being accused, we were all accused of
not caring about the poor, or the old, or the handicapped, or that kind of
assumption because you don't vote for one particular thing. So I don't know how
you put that into words, but it is an assumption.
Swaim/Similar to what Ross had said earlier about people, you know, trying to reconcile
your vote and they don't necessarily know much information about why you're
voting a particular way, a particular time, and then extrapolating from that your
life view.
Bailey/For me a bad meeting also, the feeling is an elephant in the room. There's
something going on here, I don't know what it is, I can't possibly be that upset
about the issues they're discussing, what's going on. It's a sort of, to me, a, I'll
use the nice language for this. Not even a hidden agenda, it's just this sort of
mind roller coaster, wait a minute, what is going on, what is here that's causing
this horrible, you know, the negative. What we're seeing is that finger pointing
and the name calling, but something else is going on and I can't quite figure it out
and so this unspoken elephant in the room that's just sitting there. We're not
going to name it. We're just going to be angry about it.
Vanderhoef/Some of that I see as this collapsing of conservatism, or on the flip side,
maybe progressive, and that people who have strong feelings about councilors,
one way or the other, come to the microphone, assuming everyone has that same
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opinion and certainly come off as being very righteous because they know that
their opinion is correct, and it tums up in how they say things to us.
Wilburn/Once you're given a label, then I have the right to discount anything you say,
and that's how it...
Vanderhoef/That comes back to this collapsing of identity.
Bailey/Yeah, and if you have that label and don't vote the way I think that label should
be implemented, you're betraying the entire label.
Vanderhoef/Uh-huh.
Bailey/You know, I mean, it works both ways. People who are on your side and people
who are not.
Vanderhoef/Uh-huh.
Swaim/Your friends start to hate you, people you hate you become your best friend.
Bailey/Because you've betrayed.
O'Donnell/I think what bothered me most was, and I go back, I still keep going back to
that Southgate. People coming up, pleading their case and understanding that you
have to follow the zoning, and the codes, and the ordinances that you've voted on
many of them and passed, and they take it so personal, when you really don't
have any option, you know, under the law you're compelled to vote in a certain
direction.
Wilburn/That kind of goes, falling back to what Connie was commenting on, to once,
and, once the person hears no or that you're not going to support their cause,
everything, I'm thinking of a Far Side commercial where someone's yelling at the
dog, blah, blah, blah, Ralph, blah, blah. Once they hear no it doesn't matter what
justification that you put out them, you know. You can see it in the crowd, they
just, you know, the heads fall back or the eyes roll, or you know, people clenching
their fist, or...
Vanderhoef/Nudging the neighbor.
Wilburn/Yeah.
S~vaim/Let me ask you just a couple quick things. What, when, when one of these
meetings is over, what's people's mood? What's the mood of the people who are
participating in this meeting?
Elliott/Not, that's, you're talking about negative meetings?
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Swaim/Negative, yeah.
Elliott/The feeling is not good. You don't leave feeling good.
Lehman/Well I think frustration. I think there's been a lot of frustration after meetings.
Champion/I think also...
Swaim/I'm not referring just to you. I'm not asking you to comment just on your
feelings. It's ~vhat...
Elliott/...the chemistry in the room, in the building, among the viewers is just not good.
It could be frustration, it could be anger, it could be any number of negative
things, but...
Vanderhoef/I think there was a resignation that showed up in well we're never going to
be able to change this, meaning the mood within the community or the mood of
the ourselves because we saw this barrier of non-team players, or something of
that order.
SwaimJ Well, and I think there's even, I'm stepping outside the facilitator role for just a
minute, but I think there's ends of those meetings that leave people grieving,
leave people sad...
Champion/Anger.
Swaim/...people being angry.
Lehman/You kno~v, there's another thing. A lot of those meetings reinforced differences
among Council folks. I mean, after the meeting we had certain feelings early in
the last four years. As the four years progressed, bad meetings reinforced our
opinion sometimes of each other, rightly or wrongly, but they just became more
entrenched, I think.
Swaim/Well actually that was a good, one of the questions I was going to ask is how do
you, how, what impact does this type of meeting have on a future meeting?
Lehman/Terrible.
Champion/I mean, what do you call it when you take a group and we kind of separate
ourselves. There's aword for that. Somebody help me out.
Elliott/Isolation?
Wilburn/Segregate?
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Vanderhoef/Polarize?
Swaim/Polarize.
Champion/Yes, that's the word.
Lehman/And that's a good word.
O'Donnell/And I think there was a we, they thing over the last four years too.
Lehman/I don't think there's any question about it, but I also think we complain about
the public characterizing us as conservative, liberal, whatever, and we do the
same thing with each other. You know, I know what Ross is going to do. I've
known him, I know how he's going to vote 'cause that's just the way Ross votes,
or I know what Connie's going to do, or Mike, and we do that to each other
unknowing. We don't even think about it. And I think in the last couple of years
there were comments made by some of us, who are not present. I guess that's
being pretty specific. We didn't listen to what some of our compatriots said
because they had been so off the wall, that you know, we just turned them off.
They were gone, because of the relationships that they had, that had developed
between us. And I don't think there's any question that no one always has bad
ideas, but it becomes, it became, to the point where I think it was very, very
difficult for the Council to listen to a couple of our own members.
Swaim/...the Far Side carton of just blah, blah, blah. Even if the dog blah, blah, blah,
blah was saying the house was on fire, we need to leave now. You don't even
hear it.
Lehman/No. And it's very unfortunate, but I think it's a very human reaction, but it's
not a good one.
Elliott/One of the things that I learned years ago and I didn't really realize until later in
my life was so often almost mom important that what you do is how you do it.
And I think back to the lunch I had with Regenia and coming away from that, I
anticipated that we'd spend maybe 30-45 minutes, and I think we were there for
almost a couple of hours, and I came away thinking I'm going to really enjoy
differing with this person because I'm actually I think going to learn something,
and I think we'll get something done because there's going to be energy, but there
will be respect. And I think it's how you differ and how you discuss. It's so
important, and it's so easy to slip down the slope (tape ends).
Swairn/(can't hear) in a group that I served on, I really liked the people I was serving
with, and I really liked that 4 or 5 of them were completely different in their
viewpoints, and to some extent their politics, and their ideas, but we also had
common ground, and I remember a vivid discussion about small is, remember the
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book "Small is Beautiful", and you know, UAY is a small agency and several of
these colleagues were all in agencies that ~vere growing and expanding, and well I
loved having that kind of dialogue at a meeting, so I would, you know, put that
difference is a positive thing, but we've also heard how it can be a destructive
thing. If it just, you know, gets reduced to well, you know, you always think
small is beautiful and that's a stupid idea (laughter). The word that I hear at not
very good meetings is stupid, you know, or worthless, or what are you thinking
about. Stuff that really devalues you as a human being.
Champion/We did use a lot of those words.
Swaim/And those don't make people feel very good. They don't like fires under
creativity. They probably take you more to emotional things rather than rational,
and they don't help our community. But, let's move past that. I'll stand in front
of it. (laughter) But thinking about the good sides of meetings, what have you
learned in some of the stuff about good meetings that helps people participate?
What have you learned from those meetings that you can share with your
colleagues today that will help you?
Bailey/Listening is more than waiting for somebody else to be quiet? I mean, something
that Bob said is really listening, instead of just...
Swaim/But not...
Bailey/It's not waiting.
Elliott/As a matter of fact, I've felt badly because there have been times ~vhen I felt
guilty because somebody says something and I'm formulating I want to say
something and I realize I haven't heard the rest of what he or she was saying, and
it's easy to do that.
Bailey/Especially in a public setting.
Elliott/Yeah, oh yes.
Champion/I think the other thing too that is important, what you two have been talking
about, is that because I don't agree with you doesn't mean I haven't listened.
Elliott/Yeah. You folks get that all the time.
Champion/Uh-huh.
Swaim/Okay.
Champion/But you are those "you folks". (laughter)
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Elliott/Yeah, now is the present. I was referring to the past. (laughter)
O'Dormell/That is a common comment. You're not listening to us. Well, yes we are but
I disagree, you know, that's .... I've heard that a lot. You're not listening.
Elliott/Well you know, I've had children, and then you'll hear that you're not listening.
(laughter) Connie, have you heard that before?
Champion/Never. (laughter)
Swaim/What are some other things that you have learned from these successful meetings
that you can share with your colleagues today about...
Champion/I think successful means reduced tension.
Swaim/Can you elaborate on that?
Champion/Well, I think after some of those unsuccessful meetings, it's hard to go home
and relax, or to leave it behind you, especially since I'm an insomniac anyway.
To try to sleep after one of those meetings was almost nearly impossible.
Because you really are tense. You're angry. You feel insulted. And it's difficult
to get over those feelings because you're just really...if I was a physical person, I
would like to hit people sometimes but I'm not, thank goodness, but you know, I
think successful means whether you agree with somebody or not, or whether
maybe you don't get what you wanted done, but I think successful means you
don't leave the meeting all tensed up and angry.
Lehman/Well I think openness is something that you really have to have for a good
meeting. I mean we have to be open with each other. And if we aren't, we won't
listen, we won't do any of this, and we have to feel that our compatriots are open
to what we have to say. Whether they agree or not, at least they will listen.
Champion/You know when I first was in, well I (couldn't hear) political office. I came
home one night, really kind of upset, and end up, I think it was a, I can't
remember if it was School Board or City Council meeting, but my husband gave
me some really good advice. It must have been a City Council meeting, or it
might have been...it doesn't make any difference, but he said you know what, he
said you got to remember, Connie, that crocks get sick too so you have to listen to
them. And what he was telling me that these people that I totally disagree with all
the time, might have a really good idea some time, and I need to listen. I try to
remember that all the time because I think it's a really true statement. I mean, as
a physician, he has to listen to all these people who call constantly and there's
nothing really wrong with them but he has to listen because it's the time there
really could be something wrong with them, and people that you disagree with a
lot may also have a good idea and so you need to remain open.
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Swaim/What else about good meetings can you share with your colleagues, especially as
it relates to helping to create dialogue as opposed to inhibit dialogue?
Lehman/Council folks, anybody in public life, has to learn not to take things personally.
I don't know how you phrase that, but anybody who sits on the Council who takes
a disagreement personally is going to have a very unhappy, unproductive,
unsuccessful time on the Council, because we just plain cannot al~vays satisfy
each other or the public, and if we're true to ourselves, we are not always going to
agree. And if you take that personally, it can totally destroy, it's the frustration,
and I think we do, last few years, I've gone home so frustrated. We work so hard
and try so hard to get something done, and then after the meeting say, oh my God,
you know, another one of these, and the frustration is incredible, but you really
have to try to not take it personally or you'll go nuts.
Swairrff Yeah, let's talk about that for just a minute. If I show up at a public meeting, and
I'll use Ross as an example, and I am standing up to the podium and I go, your
vote on that thing was just stupid and I think you're a stupid person. I can't
believe we ever elected you to the City Council. (laughter) (can't hear) I'm not
going to allow anybody I know to call the Crisis Center and I'm cutting off all
donations to the Crisis Center.
Wilburn/I've heard that too.
Swairn/That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Now, that's coming from the public
and there's a possibility of how you react to that, I mean it is personal, and it can
be personal, and can be very hurtful. What ifI said, ifI got into a racist remark,
well you just remind me of some dumb nigger that, blah, blah, blah. That's a
personally hateful, awful thing to say or you know, you're just one more dizzy
broad that got elected to the Council. You're just some dizzy woman that got
elected to the Council. Those are personal remarks. If the public comes forward
with those, it's personal and I think it's important for you to say don't take it
personally, but it can be very personal. But there's a distinction that I think you
all need to recognize. There's an element of that that's going to happen from the
public to you as the seven people that are elected, but let's change that for just a
minute. Now, you turn around. Now, you tell him that's stupid. You're really a
stupid person for that. Say that to him. (laughter)
Wilbum/I can't say that to Ernie. (laughter)
Lehman/Sure you can.
Swaim/Ernie, that's just stupid. Plain stupid. I don't know what planet you're on.
Lehman/You have a right to be wrong. (laughter)
Swaim/You're just a, that's just a dumb woman thing.
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Elliott/Can I say that to Emie? (laughter)
Swaim/How you interact with the public and how the public interacts with you is one
thing. How you interact with each other is quite another thing, and you're going
to be together every week for two years. There is absolutely no way, Ernie, I
don't believe it's possible, for you to not interact with each other personally.
Lehman/I didn't mean that. I mean, when I say take it personally, I'm very much in
favor of something that he is not in favor of and Council votes against what I
believe to be the right thing. You can't take that personal. But I totally agree
with you. Our relationships with each other are personal.
O'Donnell/You know one thing that's really frustrating though, is when somebody tells
you that they're going to vote one way, like this is the way I feel, and then they go
in and change their mind.
Champion/I don't think that's bad.
O'Donnell/But no, Connie, but see that's why Connie, and that's why I have so much
respect for Connie. Because being able to change your mind means you have an
open mind, and you learn to respect that.
Swaim/But to the point of taking it personally, I want to go back to one other thing.
What can you do as a group? What, let's not talk about the past, but what can you
do as a group to try and instill in the public that you are respectful of each other.
Champion/Oh I think it's going to happen, I mean I think it's going to happen. I just
don't see problems with this Council. I think we have to forget the last four years
where we had all this animosity for each other. Not all of us, but I think most of
the time you will have a Council that is respectful of each other, and recognize
that you're going to have differences of opinion and you're not going to vote the
way people want you to all the time. Well, Ernie might not vote the way I want
him to all the time, or any of that. I don't see this Council dwelling on personality
conflicts because we're all respectful of, we're all respectful people. So I don't
see that's going to be a problem. I really don't.
Vanderhoef/There/s another...excuse me.
Swaim/Go ahead, Dee.
Vanderhoeff There's another piece of this when you say don't take it personally. You
have to, in my mind at least, make a distinction when someone criticizes, that they
are criticizing your position or your philosophy on a certain issue, but it isn't all
encompassing to you as a person. I can disagree with Ross on an issue, and keep
that separate from saying Ross is a bad person, and there's real distinction and
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 23
that's one that I work on all the time because then coming off of your position, if
as you say, maybe you didn't get your position accepted, the next piece of it, and
this is where I think things build up. If you can't let it go and say okay that one's
over, that one's done, forget it. Ernie and I have talked about a previous councilor
who could blow up big time about an issue, but once it was all said, it would
never come back. He let it go.
Elliott/I was just going to, kind of a two-patter. I was thinking back when you said don't
take it personally, the advice I gave to my daughter once when she came home
from school. I think she was in junior high and somebody had said something
very hurtful to her, and I said you know, Laura, try to feel sorry for that person
because the person, because of what the person said and the way it was said, you
really have to feel sorry for them because they don't know any better. And then I
got to thinking of the old song "you only hurt the one you love" and I think that,
while I think that Council has absorbed with grace most of the negative things and
potentially hurtful things that the public says, I think that we as a Council have to
be even more certain about the things we say because if we build up respect, the
only people who can hurt you are the people you love and respect, and/or respect.
And i think at this point that if Ernie said something hurtful to me, it would
probably hurt me. If somebody from the audience, one of the greatest
compliments I've gotten during the campaign was on one of the paid TV shows.
One of the people in town for whom I don't have great respect, one of the few
people, called me dangerous, and I thought that's the greatest compliments I think
I've ever had. (laughter) I just thought that was terrific. But I think the people
for whom you have respect and the people from whom you hope you have their
respect, I think we need to be especially careful. Just a few minutes ago I said
something I wish I hadn't said because it might have been a little hurtful. I think
we have to be careful.
Swaim/Sure, being mindful. So being mindful would be...
Wilburn/Excuse me, Jim, one of the things that, as I'm looking through you know the
bottom half of the list there, of things, those things take time and you know,
listening and actively listening, and trying to be open, it takes time which can
extend the conversations or the meetings out, and while we won't always have
that luxury with the public, because there are things need to be done and people
are there for their particular item, but one thing that we can, I would think we
could try to model amongst each other, and actually help each other, that in some
way the public might perceive, was that since we are together for the two years,
we can give each other time. We can make sure we do those things with
ourselves, and hopefully those will be perceived by the public. One thing that
really helps me, has helped me, and Connie, Mike, Dee, and Ernie, what each of
you have done during one of those meetings where someone has gotten real
personal, a personal attack on me, is come up during the break or after the
meeting and just said, regardless of whether we agreed on the vote, and just said
you know that person's out of line. And I really appreciate it. I think those types
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 24
of things will help us keep the relationship going and not, being able to let it go
amongst each other. I think that really can be helpful.
Swaim/That's great.
Lehman/There is at, even with our two compatriots who are now gone, there is a certain
camaraderie among people who are elected. I don't think there's any question
about it. Whether you're a county supervisor or whether you're a city council
person, and Regenia you and Bob will really, as the more you're on the council,
the more you'll appreciate this. The very fact that other folks put up with the
same things that we do, and, seven of us get the same sort of thing from the
public. Whether at a council meeting or privately, there are folks who contact us,
they take our time, we do all these sorts of things, so there is a certain
camaraderie, a certain part of us that is alike, whether we disagree with each, even
the last group. As much as we disagreed with each other, there is still...at that
point the camaraderie was not great, but I can remember in previous councils, a
person...and Dee's talking about Dean Thornberry who happens to be a person
who could disagree with you adamantly, almost to the point of blows. Meeting
was over, he'd be the best of friends. Go out and go for a walk through a
rezoning, or go have a beer. Karen Kubby is a person we had a lot of
disagreement with, not a lot, certain issues there were strong disagreements. But
there was a camaraderie on the council among those folks because they were team
players. And I think there is always a certain amount of camaraderie because
whether or not we agree with each other, we are all in this together. And I think
we all, the longer you're on the Council, the more you understand, we are all in
this together, whether we agree or not.
O'Doxmell/Well and I think, Emie, follow that up is the seven of us are going to vote
together probably 98% of the time. I mean, and that's an amazing thing when you
get seven people that understand things the same way, and those few times when
there's disagreements, I mean, those you just try not to be judgmental on.
Lehman/You're right, except that those 2% are probably more important than the 98.
O'Donnell/That's correct. (laughter)
Lehman/That's the ones that get us in trouble. That's the ones that create the division
among folks, destroys respect for each other. It causes name-calling and those are
the 2% that we have to handle right.
O'Dormell/Did you know what really happened though? We had people that we, well
we didn't prejudged. We were drawn into this judgment where we reached a
point where even a good idea was not given any credibility because (can't hear).
Swairn/Well, let me just recap real briefly. You all are going to be serving (can't hear).
You're going to be a seven-person group of folks who see each other a lot.
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You're going to, you know if you stop to think about it. I'm just amazed. You're
representing one of the neatest places, I'm sure all of you will agree with this, I
certainly do, one of the neatest places on the Earth. Iowa City is this incredible
community. People ask you about it. They'll hear stuff about it. You are the,
you've been chosen by the citizens here to do this for two years. I just think it
must be extremely exciting, and as I said, I marvel at what you have lying before
you. I can't wait to see how it turns out, but as part of our agenda, I said that we
would get a break and it's fifteen minutes past when I said we would break, so
~ve're going to take a ten minute break by that clock, so when the big hand is just
before the four (laughter) please come back and take your seat.
(BREAK)
Swaim/For a minute, for a few minutes here, I'm going to ask you to think and write
individually. You can copy if you want, but I would encourage you not. I want to
get your independent thought.
Vanderhoef/Is this to be posted? Do you want it on these?
Swaim/Yeah, this is going to be...but first...
Vanderhoef/Posted?
Swaim/Bear with me for just a minute. Thinking about this broad discussion that you
just had about good meetings and bad meetings and lessons learned, and for this I
don't want to have a group discussion yet. I just want you to think individually,
so I want you to first just make a list of these things. (can't hear) From what
you've heard so far, what is one clear guideline, one clear guideline, that you
would like to suggest to your colleagues, for how you operate as a group? One
clear guideline. What's a second guideline? I want you to think now for a
minute. If there was one guideline that you think would surprise your colleagues,
and it can be a small (can't hear). These are just suggestions for your colleagues.
It doesn't have to be earth shaking, but if there was one guideline that really might
surprise your colleagues, write that one down.
Champion/One guideline that we ourselves might use?
Swaim/That you might use, yeah. Just a surprising one. Again, it doesn't have to be, it's
actually important for you to think of the small things, not just the large things.
You know, an off the wall one would be, we should all have good posture.
(laughter) Think off the wall for a minute. Another way, and another question
poses, what is a less obvious guideline that you might suggest to your colleagues?
What are two more guidelines that you could suggest? (laughter)
Champion/This is getting boring. (laughter)
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Swaim/And now I want you to think in terms of your interaction with the public and how
you present yourselves to the public, what's one clear guideline that you would
suggest to your colleagues about that type of situation. Less focused on your own
interaction but interaction...the one clear guideline you would suggest to your
colleagues for your public interaction. And is there one less obvious guideline for
that type of interaction with the general public that you could suggest to your
colleagues? And one last part of the exercise, and if you've got room on the
paper you can do it on that or if you need an extra piece of paper, and this is the
part I don't really like to suggest but I'm going to. If there were a "thou shall
not", fill in the blank, type of guidelines. At the Youth Center we call those
things kind of rules, and we don't, we try and shape our work in terms of
guidelines for how to behave rather than how to not behave. But if you were
going to have a pretty clear "thou shall not", kind of a rule for your colleagues, for
your interaction with colleagues. What would that be? Thou shall...what would
that first commandment... (can't hear).
Lehman/You just said one, you didn't say ten. (laughter)
Elliott/Actually the 2,000 year old man said there were twenty but they lost the other
slate. (laughter)
O'Donnell/Not many of us can remember that far back, Bob.
Elliott/Pardon?
O'Donnell/Not many of us can remember that far back.
Elliott/Well, I was there.
Swaim/Okay, for this part of the exercise, I am going to need you to participate, Steve,
only because I have to have some (can't hear), so I'm going to ask you to work
with Ernie for the first part of this, and (can't hear). (Council Members counting
out loud) I did that wrong. I just...let'sjust do it this way. Let me pair you up
with Bob. And you pair up with Regenia. And you two pair up. And you pair
up. And I want to get these, I want two of the groups to work out here and two of
the groups over them. Or actually just one of them.
Lehman/What are we doing?
Swaim/Here's what you're going to do. I want you to share your lists with each other.
That's the first thing you'll do. Just share your lists with each other. The second
thing I want you to do is to write, and this is where we're going to use this system,
write your ideas on pieces of paper, one idea per page, no more than five words,
three to five words, write big. Share them and write them down, and don't use
yellow. Take a blue or dark colored marker. (Council Members asking various
questions out loud of the facilitator.) You are sharing your ideas with each other,
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 27
and you write down. First of all, share your ideas. Let's start there. Don't use
orange, and write big.
(TAPE OFF)
Swaim/I'm going to do something I won't normally do so I'm just going to clue you in
on part of the process and I (can't hear) The thing that happens with truth is you
all own individually your ideas and sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's
bad, and we talked about some of that this morning. Part of this problem, part of
the reason we're going to do it this way, is to get ideas up which you don't
necessarily know whose idea it is, so we'll see if people can recognize the
brilliance of that (can't hear) (laughter). What I'd like you to do in your group, is
to pick out the two clearest guidelines, and it can be a negative one or I mean a
"thou shall not" if that's what you think is absolutely the clearest. And hold them
up when you've got them. The two that you think are the clearest guidelines.
(Council Members talking amongst themselves) Two of them that are
reasonably...don't worry about this. Take each other personally. Thou shall not
condescend. I want to hear "why". Listen thoughtfully and be respectful. Let
person speak before reacting. Thou shall not name call. Listen. And sensitive to
openness?
Elliott/In.
Swaim/Sensitive in openness?
Elliott/Yes. Sometimes this brilliance has to be explained.
Swaim/Well let me first just turn to the group. Are there any of these that need a little
one-sentence additional information for you to understand?
O'Donnell/Sensitive in open (laughter).
Swaim/One sentence?
Vanderhoef/When responding to the public, you must be sensitive to their position and
still be open in your assessment.
Swaim/Okay. Everybody understand that? In looking at the ones that are up there, are
there any two that you think are similar or related in some fashion?
Lehman/You mean the two that say listen?
Swaim/One at a time. Bob?
Elliott/Listen thoughtfully and be respectful.
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Swaim/And?
Elliott/Sensitivity and openness, to me, are talking about the same thing.
Swaim/Okay.
Bailey/And there's another listen in there too so you can pile that on.
Swaim/So go ahead and put that over there?
Bailey/I would.
SwaimJ Okay. Any different pairs, that either are similar or somehow related to each
other, or make sense to you as a pair?
Champion/Thou shall not condescend and thou shall not name-call.
Swaim/Okay. Any other pairs related to these?
O'Donnell/Well I want to hear why and let the person speak before acting, is...
Champion/What does that one mean?
O'Donnell/That's brilliance back here again. (laughter)
/ No. Which does what one mean?
Champion/That one you have in your hand.
/ Take each other personally.
Champion/Oh, take each other personally. I couldn't read it from here.
Wilbuin/I would like to hear some explanation, further explanation on I want to hear
why. I want to hear why.
Bailey/That was why, for example, for Council Members why you might be voting on a
particular position. It gives transparency to understanding people's decision-
making process.
Wilburn/Okay. Just so that's clear, I think these go together, just so it's clear. Speak
before, let them speak before reacting. There's more to reacting than just a
verbal. There's not looking, the eye rolling, body language.
Swaim/Okay. Looking at what you have in front of you at your table, pick out two or
three, at least two and possibly three, that are different than what's already up
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there. (Council Members talking amongst themselves.) All right, these are the
new ones. Eye contact when disagrees. Negatism. Allow silent affirmation.
Respect assures success. Respect council decisions. Don't take the public
seriously (laughter) Teach. Vote your conscience. Ignore Connie's slip-less past
(laughter), and don't hold a grudge. Are there any of the new ones that you think
relate to each other, or work in pairs, that are different than the pairs we already
have up? I should have asked, are there additional explanations people need?
Elliott/Well respect and success I think relates to sensitivity and thoughtful, respectful,
and listen and that sort of thing.
Swaim/This one relates to...
Elliott/I think over here on the left.
SwaimJ So you think it might be over in here.
Elliott/Yeah.
Swaim/Okay. Are there any pairs that are different than what's already up there?
Champion/I think eye contact when you disagree also goes with the sensitive and respect
and listen. I mean they're all...
Swaim/Okay, but are there any that are different pairs that you think go together?
Lehman/I think the eye contact and Connie's slip-less past (laughter).
Champion/That'll probably hit the papers tomorrow! (laughter)
O'Donnell/I think the name call and condescend is right along with respect decisions,
don't take it personally, don't hold a grudge.
Elliott/Yeah, don't hold a grudge and don't take it personally go together.
Lehman/Yeah.
Champion/Yeah, they do.
Elliott/And, Jim, there's another one. Don't take public...oh that's a little different.
O'Donnell/I would like some explanation on that one.
Lehman/What?
O'Donnell/Don't take the public personally.
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Lehman/I did that one. I think the public will do personal attacks on Council people, and
if you take those things personally, you can, life will be miserable. I think you
have to understand that we're going to be the subject of some folks who publicly
will say things they won't even say privately, but we can't take those things
personally or it's going to make life a little tough. Also, we have in the past, had
folks speak from the podium where we have had to stop them because there were
some comments that are made that are inappropriate and I think it's correct that
we don't allow some comments.
Swaim/Okay. I could use some help on two terms. Just understanding a little bit.
Positive negatism and timing.
Elliott/Timing was mine. I said I think it's, in a meeting, there's a time for humor, a
time for seriousness. There is a time to listen. A time to speak. It sounds biblical
(laughter and comments). I think some people, I think writing and speaking in a
meeting, timing becomes a part of it.
Swaim/Okay. And positive negatism?
Champion/That was mine and I didn't quite know how to put it down, but I was just
using Hickory Hill Park as an example to Ross, and it's kind of how I was raised.
My parents had followed this philosophy so I'm just going to give an example.
Like when people, there was a big group ofpeople against Hickory Hill Park, I
mean against First Avenue, and a lot of them were Hickory Hill Park activists,
and when they approached you, just say to them well you know it's going to go
through so just get over it, I think is a negative, even though we knew it was
going to go through so my approach would have been, well I know you don't
want First Avenue to go through but it probably is going to, so what we need from
you is ideas on how to protect Hickory Hill Park, so that you reinforce their
opinion even though you know it's not going to happen, and I think that's a very
positive way with the public, and frankly with your teenagers, if you have any, so
I don't know how to put that.
Swaim/Okay, does everybody understand what that term means then? Okay, so again,
are there any other new pairs?
Wilburn/I'm going to, after hearing further explanation of that, and this is a differem
way of looking at it. I would say her positive negatism is related to eye contact
when disagreeing with someone. Because you're, in both situations, you're trying
to honor and respect what they're saying even though you disagree or you're not
going to go along with them. So it's a way of, it's a way of respectful relatiog,
both of those are I think. The eye contact when disagreeing and positive
negatism.
Swaim/Is that right?
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Wilburn/Yeah, that's right.
Swaim/Okay. Any of these over here go in any particular place over here?
Bailey/What's allow silent affirmation?
Wilburlg That was mine. One of the things that we do, or, not just in Council meetings
but I think people in general, we all feel like we have to say something, this is
kind of related to the efficiency of the meeting. It's not with the vote because you
know you gotta do that, but someone agrees with an idea so I got to say I agree
with it, you know. If everybody agrees that the sky is blue, we all don't really
need to say that the sky is blue. And we should honor and respect, if you know,
someone's not speaking up on that, you know, we're going to presuppose or
assume that they're agreeing with it and we're respecting their choice to allow the
meeting to go on without, you know, trying to...we're also trusting that they will
speak up if they don't agree with it.
Elliott/I think that maybe then as you explain it, goes a little bit along with my timing
thought.
Swaim/So timing and?
Wilburn/Allow silent affirmation. I can see that. I would agree with that.
Bailey/And for me it's a little bit different that I want to hear why, although if we're all
sort of in accord, I don't need to hear we're all in accord. On sort of more
complex issues, I was referring to that, because it helps me understand the issue
and the position a little bit better, and the person, and the views that they take in
making certain decisions. So it is a little bit different.
Elliott/I think you're both right. I think there are times when ifI agree with Ross on,
because the reasons he stated, I don't need to repeat it. But Regenia agrees with
him before, and I agree, for a different reason and (can't hear)
Wilburn/I'm not talking about, here's an example. That dialogue may happen the first
reading of an ordinance. Now, the second reading of an ordinance could be (can't
hear) I mean, if the ideas are out there and we knew we had an understanding that
we agree on it, I mean, we are letting the public know that that's a reason, but do
we need to keep putting the same reasons. That kind of what I was getting at.
Bailey/And I also make assumptions that other Council Members will have needs to
express their reasons that have to do with constituency in discussions that they
had with citizens, leading up to a vote, and I think that that is important to
recognize, that their public needs to do that and to let people know.
Vanderhoef/There's another little piece that goes with that, and I never know personally
how much needs to be done. Council, I'm talking about teach, and Council has
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been criticized a couple years ago about not putting enough information into our
public meeting that's on television, to let the public know what we are truly
voting on. So when it's a piece that takes three readings, ifa listener has not
heard meeting number one, then my question is how much is appropriate to give a
fast review for reading number two? Mostly we don't do it on routine things. If
it's a controversial issue or a split vote, different philosophies, then my question is
how much is the right amount?
Swaim/Okay. Do any of you...well let me ask you this. Is there, just a single though, or
a quick mn-through so you don't have to be precise in your answers. Is there one
word that expresses what the commonality is, here just a quick word. Shout it
out. (laughter) (tape ends)
Swaim/So respect. What's a one-word phrase that captures this one?
Champion/I think that's all...
Lehman/Respect.
Bailey/That's still respect.
Champion/I think it can all go under respect.
Swaim/All right. I think you're right. Should this?
Wilburn/There's something a little different though, because these two, there's an action
and negative action that you're taking, as opposed to a positive way to show
respect. Do you see the difference? There's purposeful negatism in those two.
Swaing Well let's just jump over to here for a minute, and we'll leave that one name-less
for a moment.
O'Donnell/I think we can put ignore Connie's slip-less past (laughter) right above I want
to hear why. (laughter)
Swaim( All right.
Vanderhoef/That's timing.
Wilbum/How about we just put it to disrespect? Is that fair?
Champion/Oh year, that's good.
Swaim/What about this one? Just a quick name. Just a name.
Champion/Acceptance.
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Swaim/And the next column?
Elliott/Communication.
O'Donnell/Good one.
Swaim/And the last column?
Lehman/That's basically communication too.
Champion/It's communication.
Swaim/All right. Well, tell you what, should it go this way? All right. Now, take a look
at your remaining ideas, and first of all, are there any, well I'll tell you what. Do
it this way. Take a look at these symbols, and if it fits under one of those, put that
symbol on it. Look at all the remaining ones you have. If it's in this kind of
category, put an exclamation point, equal sign, triangle, square, star, hexagon.
Take a minute and confer with your partner. If possible, use the red (can't hear;
several talking at once). And if it doesn't match any of them, don't put a stair and
we won't put it up. And once you're done, just bring them up and stick them in
the category you feel...hang on to that thought. (everyone talking at once)
Swaim/All right. Let's look at the new ones and let's just read the new ones. Thou shall
not interrupt. Is this a new one? Respect assures success.
(several answer)/No that's been up there.
Swaim/Excuse me. Acknowledge/respect others. Listen first. No new ones there. No
new ones there. Empathy. Be positive. Achievement is collective. Don't take it
personally. Take the time to ask questions, to listen. Be positive in message. Be
clear in your requests. Eye contact with speaker. And, team no no letter I. I
almost was going to write that on a phrase this morning, I swear to God. There is
no I in team, is that what that's referring to?
Champion/I never could spell. (laughter)
Swaim/Okay. Did I read everything that's new up on the board?
O'Donnell/Be informed.
Swaim/Be informed, and that you thought was a category for these two?
O'Donnell/Yeah.
Wilbum/Those two were new also. Allow exploration and be honest.
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Swaim/I'm sorry...allow?
Wilburn/Allow exploration. Right below it.
Swaim/Do those fit under this one? You thought this should be a category. Is that what
you were saying, or did you think that should be a principle, an operating
principle or guideline?
O'Donnell/Well, it's one that wasn't up there and we thought it was very important.
Swaim/Okay. So, go ahead.
Wilburn/Allow exploration was about we had earlier talked about not being able to
brain-storm, allow someone to kind of brain-storm, fully develop an idea, speak
it, but also don't hold them to that idea. Allow them, you know, let me talk, let
me think this out loud, but let me disagree with my own statement as I get to the
end of the idea.
Swaim/Okay. Anybody see places where these relate to, well first of all, does this stand
alone in it's own column? Is that what is happening there? Be informed?
Champion/I think so.
Swaim/Does this one, you had said teach and give information, does that one?
Lehman/Yeah.
Elliott/Well, it's going, one is to be informed yourself and the other is to try to teach.
Vanderhoef/It is a communication of a sort. The other thing that I had thought of when I
was using teach is reporters, and finding out where they are with their information
before you answer questions to them, and certainly without being condescending,
try to bring them up to speed on background information so they understand the
issue.
Champion/But actually I would think that's just because the (can't hear) take place. I
mean I think if we want to inform everybody then we should have another TV
show. I mean I don't think the Council meeting is where that should take place.
Swaim/Before we go too much further, let's find homes for these homeless ideas.
Champion/Well I think Connie's slip needs to go under respect and it shouldn't be
brought up all the time. (laughter)
O'Donnell/Never say brought up when you're talking about a slip. (laughter)
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Lehman/We need a good sense of humor up here.
Bailey/Is that communication?
Wilburn/It could also be respect, because you're showing respect to everyone else if
you're being honest with them.
Lehman/I would agree with respect.
Swaim/Over here? Does that go okay with everybody over here?
Bailey/Oh sure.
Swaim/Okay. What about allow exploration? Is that...
Champion/Under informed.
Lehman/Informed.
Swaim/Okay. Respect council decisions?
Wilburn/Acceptance?
Elliott/It's respect.
Champion/It's also acceptance. Get over it if it didn't go the way you want.
Lehman/Thank you. That's exactly right.
Bailey/Get over it.
Swaim/Team has no letter I?
O'Donnell/Put Connie's slip. I don't know where vote your conscience would be on that
board.
Vanderhoeff That's with honesty.
Champion/Uh-huh.
Bailey/It says a respect issue.
Swaim/What do you think? Vote your conscience.
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Lehman/Voting your conscience and honesty and those other things are individual things
for Council people. They are not collective things. I think (can't hear) those are
not. Those are very personal things, and I'm not sure they fit in any category.
Elliott/Well, the only thing is, if you're not honest, if you don't vote your conscience, if
you're not sensitive, if you're not respectful, then you don't get respect.
Lehman/Well I agree, but I think those are disciplines for us as individual people so
when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we like what we see, or not.
Elliott/You could put them under one category or divide them out in to something else,
yeah.
Swaim/Is it at all related to wanting to hear why, and letting people speak before
reacting?
Champion/No.
Lehman/I don't think so.
O'Donnell/I think it would be more acceptance. It seems to fall in, you know, don't hold
a grudge, don't take it personally.
Swaim/Okay. And again, what about team? I mean the concept is, I wasn't trying to
make light of the concept. The notion of(can't hear).
Elliott/I think, that wasn't mine, but I think that's, Ernie just put it into context. I think
that when you look in the mirror and you say, did I vote my conscience? Was I
honest? Have I been a team player? I think those are personal qualities that you
want assure for yourself.
Swaim/So where would you put it?
Lehman/The reason I put that in there, regardless of what Council does, there is no
individual responsible for the action of Council, and I don't care whose idea, it
requires the support of four, or hopefully seven people, to do anything. And I
think it's very important when we refer to actions that we have done as a Council,
that it is "we did it". (can't hear) a number of times where we as individual
cmmcil people have to respond to decisions that were made by the Council that
we didn't support, and the worse thing (can't hear) I didn't agree with it but the
Council did it. We did it. The Council did it, and if you're part of the team, we
don't have to expound on it and be bragging about it, but we are part of the
organization that did it, and I can't do it alone.
Swaim/So, how about personal qualities. A category of personal categories?
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Bailey/Well what Ernie's saying relates to respecting Council decisions. I mean, how
he's interpreting this sheet, to me relates to how we respect Council decisions.
That is to say, even if I didn't vote for it, you heard my reason why, we're moving
forward with it, the vote has happened, I'm supporting it. I mean, this is the
ordinance we have in our community whether I voted for it at all.
Swaim/Bob, are you okay with it being?
Elliott/I'm okay with everything. (laughter)
Lehman/Which brings up a new category.
Swaim/Oh, excuse me. Don't take the public personally?
Champion/That goes trader the personal comments again.
Elliott/Or acceptance.
Champion/Right.
Swaim/So let's just look at the largest one of these, this acceptance. Can somebody read
all of the ones that are on there out loud? Will somebody volunteer to just read all
of these? These two are offin practically separate categories.
O'Donnell/I would be glad to. Where do you want me to start?
Lehman/In the middle.
O'Donnell/Okay, acceptance, take each other personally, don't hold a grudge, be
positive, achievement is collective, don't take it personally, empathy, vote your
conscience, don't take public personally, respect council decisions, team has no
letter I...the rest of them?
Swaim/These are all under the same one. All right. If you were to pick a three to five
word name that answers the idea of guidelines for your council, so a three to five
word name for this guideline. What would you use, and I'm going to ask Dale?
Write it down as they describe it. Is there a three to five word description of this
kind of acceptance guideline?
Elliott/Well it's all a part of being mature. I think if you have maturity, that's what many
of us think of.
Champion/Stick up for the team.
Swaim/Go ahead and just keep throwing ideas out.
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O'Donnell/I was thinking, you know, be a team player.
Bailey/Play well with others.
Champion/That's good.
Swaim/You like that.'?
O'Dormell/That's good.
Swaim/Play well with others. This next one, on communication. Is there a three to five
word, well tell me, Regenia, would you read the ones in this one.
Bailey/Eye contact when disagree, positive negatism, timing, allow silent affirmation, be
positive in message, be clear in your requests, eye contact with speaker, and take
the time to ask questions and to listen.
Swaim/Okay. Three to five words that would characterize that guideline?
Lehman/Communication skills, that's all they are.
Champion/Uh-huh. Yes, good communication skills.
Swaim/Good communication skills?
Champion/I think that's good.
Bailey/Diplomacy.
Swaim/Diplomacy? Sounds good.
Champion/That's more number one, I think.
Elliott/Well, if you communicate effectively, you are diplomatic, because
communication deals not so much with what you say but how it is received. So
good communication...
Wilburn/Is effective communication?
Bailey/Effective, yeah.
Swaim/Effective communication, yeah. People like that one?
Champion/Yes.
Lehman/That's fine.
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S~vaim/Use effective communication.
Wilburn/Effective is a judgment.
Lehman/That's true.
Swaim/And, Ross, would you read the items under the respect column?
Wilburn/Respect, sensitive and openness, listen, thoughtful and be respectful, listen, thou
shall not interrupt, respect assures success, be honest, acknowledge respect in
others, listen first.
Swaim/And, do you, how does the group feel, Ross' comment was insightful, in that this
is for the other end, are you, would you like this to be a separate stand-alone? It
can be, that's...
Champion/How about just respect versus disrespect? That doesn't really solve our
problem.
Swaim/Well again, respect is part of what you're capturing. There are a couple other
things that are up there.
O'Donnell/I think plays well with others fits that one too.
S~vaim/Well what about that just notion of listening respectfully?
Elliott/Well with everything positive about respect, there's a flip side and you just
mentioned two of the flip sides of respect.
Wilburn/The reason it stands alone for me, if these are guidelines for the Council and our
interactions, if that's the way we're looking at it, it's helpful to know what to do
and what not to do.
Swaim/How about ifI do it this way. This is...
Champion/How about thoughtful listening or respectful listening?
Lehman/Respectful interactions. The whole thing...
Swaim/Respectful interactions over here?
Champion/Well that's the same as communication, don't you think?
Lehman/Well communications don't have to be respectful.
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Champion/That's true.
Elliott/To be effective they do.
Swaim/No, you're right. You can...
Elliott/If you want to leave a bad impression you can certainly do it.
Swaim/Respectful communication, or respectful listening?
Lehman/Well, interactions, I think, catches a lot of it.
Swaim/Respectful interactions?
[,ehman/Listening, talking, openness...
Champion/...the body language part of it?
Swaim/Respectful interactions?
O'Dormell/Do I understand that there are two sides?
Bailey/We could actually put thou shall nots under respectful interactions because those
indicate what aren't so you could incorporate them.
Swaim/All right. Is that okay with you, Ross?
Wilbum/I agree.
Swaim/Okay. So I'll move those in a minute. My sticky-wall is a total disaster.
(laughter)
Bailey/I think it's working generally well. (laughter)
Swaim/And, the information exchange. Somebody want to read these three.
Vanderhoef/Teach, be informed, allow exploration.
Swaim/And is there a three to five word title for that.
Champion/Informed decision-making.
Lehman/Right.
Swaim/Informed decision-making?
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Lehman/Good.
O'Donnell/Good.
Swaim/And I think these two are still standing alone. Is that, and I may have overlooked
some...
Champion/I think I want to hear why as part of informed decision making.
Bailey/Or effective communication.
Champion/And also let person speak before reacting is part of respectful interaction.
Swaim/Let me start with this. You think that this might be over here.
Champion/Uh-huh.
Swaim/Okay.
Elliott/And let person speak before reacting could well be under play well with others.
Champion/Oh yeah.
Bailey/Uh-huh.
Champion/Either one.
Swaim/Is that an okay?
Bailey/Uh-huh.
Swaim/Have we captured everything? We're going to put these two back over here, and
we are never at a public meeting again which we'll speak of Connie's slip-less
past. (laughter) but, are you okay to tear it up?
Champion/I'd like to keep that. (laughter and several talking at once)
Swaim/Let me just walk through this a minute. What we can possibly discern from this
is a potential for four broad guidelines to guide you as a Council over the next two
years in your interaction. If you were, if you had a group of fifth graders come
into the City Council and say what is one of those guidelines? How would you
state that? We have respectful interaction with one another in the public, or
something like that. That, and that captures what you have there. We play well
with others. As a Council we will use effective communication. And we will be
informed in our decision-making.
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Elliott/When it comes right down to it, you really, playing well with others does fall
under respectful interaction also.
Swaim/Sure.
Champion/It's easier to understand.
Swaim/So looking at that, real briefly, and I know I've pushed you past the second break
but I think the lunch is going to come here soon enough that we may end up...but
I want you to look at these for just a minute. Is there anything up there that is a
little surprising? I don't mean surprising like profound necessarily but something
that you may not have thought about before you started pondering these things.
Nothing? Okay. Is there anything up there that you are particularly excited about
implementing as part of a guideline for this group?
Wilburn/In light of the past four years, it's probably the exciting part but the good
reminder is the play well with others part. To remind myself, you know, to not
mentally hold a grudge. It's stuff that I try to do but it's something that is not at
you for a few years.
Lehman/We're overly sensitive at this point.
Swaim/Sure.
Wilburn/Still raw.
Lehman/No, that's right.
Swaim/So for you that's (can't hear) kind of exciting, the notion that you can get back in
the sandbox again. (laughter and several talking at once)
Champion/You are terrible. (laughter) I think what we're really saying is that we will
play well with others, and that...
Swaim/Were any of you excited about anything else...is there another one... ?
Bailey/I'm going to go back to the surprise one. I think empathy is a surprising thing to
have up there, not necessarily because we wouldn't think of it, but I don't think of
public decision making necessarily as an empathetic process.
Swaim/Okay.
Lehman/That's a good point.
O'Donnell/That's a very good point.
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/ And you're the rookie.
Bailey/Rookie in some areas.
Elliott/The only thing is, on some of these, teach, empathy, a number of those, I think the
maturity aspect comes in to place because if you carry these things too far you can
go over the edge and for instance, the Council got into trouble a year ago or so by
some people being too empathetic to people's feelings, and they shouldn't have.
They needed to vote on a certain (can't hear) were told to vote, and it cost the city
money. So I think you can carry everything in moderation. I guess that's the
Methodist in me speaking (laughter) but almost everything you say you can carry
to an extreme and we need to take care.
Champion/But that's what empathy is about. It's being...empathy without...
Swaim/But you are leading to the notion that I had about anything up there that looks
particularly daunting or challenging, or might be something that you have to pay
close attention to in order to implement that...
Elliott/To, to, just to further explain that. When talking with people regarding, working
with them regarding preparing for an interview. I tel1 them you must be
confident. You must be, show that you have a sense of humor, but any of those
things you can carry to an extreme and rule yourself out immediately if you
appear overconfident. Remember what the situation is. So, Regenia, you were
going to say something.
Bailey/Right. You know I'm an interrupter so I'm really trying. (laughter) I put that
(can't hear). I think that that's an interesting point you made about how empathy
was carried too far, but empathy balanced with informed decision making,
knowing the role and knowing the responsibilities of your role, and balancing
those two, well, can help keep all of us out of trouble, so to speak.
Swaim/You bet.
Bailey/So some of these perform a balancing act on the others.
Lehman/I think I hear what you are saying. I absolutely agree with it. Some times we're
insensitive by being sensitive, and there are times we don't have to be insensitive
to a decision that we make that is, that you are not happy with, but we can
certainly empathize with your unhappiness, like Connie said about Hickory Hill
Park. We didn't change the decision not to put the vote in because of your dislike
of the road, but we will try to make it as palatable by protecting the park. That's
empathy, and you still made the right decision but you were empathetic to the
folks who disagree with it.
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Elliott/And, Regenia, one of the things you said was explaining to your constituency,
sometimes when you vote for something, you need to explain that, that's what
you were getting at, you understand their feelings (can't hear) but I have to do
this.
Bailey/Yeah, (can't hear) certainly heard what you said, and I understand how that can
be. Perhaps what we now need from you is this sort of direction, but Council is
bound to go this direction for these reasons, and I feel this is the appropriate thing.
Yeah.
Swaim/Anything else about what's up there that is, is there anything up there that you
think the public would have difficulty understanding? In your interactions?
Again, if the fifth grader walks in or the Joe citizen comes in for public comment,
or you know, the results of today's meeting are published wherever, is there
anything up there that you think people might look at and go what do they mean
by that?
Lehman/(can't hear) but I do not believe that the public would understand how important
it is that we take each other personally, because they, because politics is so
impersonal, and in the political world out there, the comments that are made
publicly are anything but sensitive to each other, so that's one thing I don't think
the public would appreciate, that in order to be effective and work together, we
have to take each other personally. I'm not sure the public would understand that.
Swaim/Really?
Lehman/Look at campaigns and see how people malign each other, say things they
probably don't even mean, and that's the public. Those are the folks who
contribute the money to the campaign, and they don't like somebody because,
don't even know them, but they like the other person, and the fact that you would
establish a personal relationship with this person, that I supported their opponent,
there's something wrong with you if you want this, you know, if you take this
personally. And yet I think we have to. I don't think the public understands that.
Swaim/First I want to commend you for working through this morning. I think I, I'm
hopeful that these serve as some sort of guidelines, and by the way, this really
should be, I'm going to encourage you to think of it as just an early part of your
process together, as sort ora ground floor foundation for what you do. These
things mean a lot of different things to different people, and even in our
discussion today, you get a sense of one person's view of timing might be slightly
different than another person's part of timing, but one thing I heard all of you say,
is you want to speak to each other respectfully and listen to each other
respectfully. So when we come back, or during lunch, I want to talk a little bit,
have you talk with each other about, your ways to communicate, and whether you
can only communicate in meetings, but as you look at these guidelines I hope you
will use them in your interactions, not just in the public's eye, but I hope they are
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guidelines you find useful in just general interaction with each other. With that
said, I think lunch is going to be delivered soon. We're way past the next break
so we'll take a smoke break, potty break, a whatever break.
Atkins/Jim, I deliberately decided I was not going to be involved, but I want to make one
comment about it. There are two things that leap offthe paper at me. One,
there's never been a mention of politics during this whole discussion. The word
has never even surfaced, and secondly, as a political body, an elected body, I
mean you're chosen for your views and beliefs, and representing those of others,
to use the word empathy is a very positive thing.
Swaim/Okay. Take a break and let's play it by ear....oh, it's here. It's not a particularly
working lunch.
Kart/I need to know, is it an open meeting or not. Do I turn off the tape recorder?
Swaim/Turn offthe tape recorder.
(TAPE OFF)
Swaim/Okay, enjoyed lunch and managed to get out and take a quick walk. It's a lovely
facility. Again, it's one of the things you should be particularly proud of. The
day that Dee and I were consulting about this, you had just gotten a photo, an
aerial photo, and, anyway, part of what I want to pass on to you, with the staff that
you have, the interactions that I've had with City staff have just been great.
We're not going to spend a lot of time today talking about that, but I think at some
future meetings that you might have about process, you might want to review how
your dialogues apply to the interaction with staff. I know in coming out here to
try and get the room ready, everyone from the people who clean rooms, to the
people who make sure the water is running, to the people who great, just great,
and it's one of the things that I think all of us want to take great pride in. Since it
is a public meeting, we're in a public session, I wanted to publicly acknowledge
all the help that City staff provided in making this facility work for us. I'm going
to review real quick our agenda. We've already taken our nap, if you didn't,
that's too bad. (laughter) I'm going to make this one a lot briefer. A little quick
warm-up, and I'm going to do Vision I which I didn't get to, and it'll be combined
with Vision II, and then we're going to do an Issues Workshop, and then we'll
wrap up for the day. Okay? So, this half of the group I want you to come over
here.
Elliott/Do we need to bring anything?
Swaim/Let me make it three of you. Dee, you come back in on this side. Can three of
them...and if the four here....and keep the tape on. But it's okay that they're not
part of the tape? All right. The four of you over here, come over here. (several
talking at once) ...go as fast as you can. Ready? Go. Just on the board. (several
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talking at once) I want all four of you to start watching the clock now. Has it
been a minute yet? Let me know when it's exactly one minute and forty-five
seconds. Shhhhhh ........ now? Everybody sure? How long has it been? Are you
done?
O'Donnell/Bob is.
Elliott/Nothing's ever done.
Swaim/You're done?
Elliott/We're done.
Champion/Oh, you guys are done?
Swaim/What was, let me just start with this group. What do you think was going on on
the other side of that wall?
Lehman/They were having a good time.
Swaim/They were having a good time. Okay, and, what was going on on this side?
Wilburn/We were focused on the clock. You gave us a task and we focused on it, and
didn't move from that. What was your task? To make a circle up there and then
take note of the time.
Swaim/And then take note of the time? And then, what?
Vanderhoef/Note finally when it had reached one minute, forty-five seconds.
Swaim/And what was your experience like over on this side?
Vanderhoef/Listening to what was going on on the other side and assessing that their
instructions were far different than ours.
Swaim/Okay. What was it like for you, Regenia?
Bailey/Well it was quiet, so it wasn't very active.
Swaim/How about for you, Ernie?
Lehman/It was boring.
Swaim/It was boring. How about for you, Ross?
Wilburn/I'd say it was boring.
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Sxvaim/Boring, okay. And, but you were aware, you were kind of aware, weren't any of
you curious about what was going on on the other side?
Vanderhoef/...assessing what was happening.
S~vaim/But you all were assigned an extra task of watching the clock. What was that
like? When I asked that it had been a minute, ho~v many of you were like "God,
it's only been a minute"? Tick, tick, tick...now on the other side, you guys were
having a blast. And what was your task?
O'Donnell/We were playing tic-tac-toe.
Swaim/As fast as you can...
O'Dormell/And getting beaten by Connie.
Swaim/And getting beaten by Connie. (laughter) I wanted to do this just as a little
warm-up exercise because one of the things I know you all are really conscious of
is your use of time, and so I wanted to give you just a quick exercise on what
happens when you have two different types of things going on, and one is really
enjoyable and everybody, and people are focused and they're just oblivious to
time. If we, ifI hadn't been mindful of the time, I bet they'd, we could have let
them play another fifteen minutes and they wouldn't have even come back to the
room. Your group, you're sitting over here. Like I said, what was it like. It was
boring. You're watching. It's quiet. Thoughts are racing through your head like
what's going on. When are we going....tell me a little bit about how this
compares to just how you manage your time in meetings. Again, I only want to
have about a five-minute conversation, even less than that, mindful of the time,
but how can this experience help you understand anything about how you relate to
time when you're in the meetings?
Elliott/I don't know if this is what you're getting at, but it seems to me that whether it's
in meetings among ourselves, some people seem to be enamored with their voice
and they talk and feel that they're saying something extremely interesting, not
realizing that everyone else is uninterested and bored.
Swaim/Okay.
Wilburn/Time marches on when you're having fun.
Swaim/Time marches on when you're having fun.
O'Donnell/Time passes faster when you're having fun.
Swaim/Okay. And...
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Lehman/Well I think time passes more rapidly when you're focused. If you're obviously
focused on doing tic-tac-toe, you were focused on nothing except... (several
talking at once).
Swaim/...is that when you have different tasks that are being attended to, or some part of
the meeting or part of a process, one part of the task may be quick and easy to do,
and one part of the task may not be so quick and easy to do, and you're never sure
what requires all of you as a group, or individually, or as individuals, are
experiencing.., so I just wanted to do that as just a quick opener about your time,
and at some point, as I said, you may want to visit in your guidelines just how you
manage your time with each other. I have another activity that I want you to do.
And for this one, I want you to just gather around this table. We're not going to
have a lot of conversation about this. This is a map of Iowa City. I want you to
look at that and visualize actual places that you really like in Iowa City, places
that you live, places that have meaning to you. (music playing in background)
And now I want you to go back to your chairs. (tape ends)
Swaim/...ten years from now. Draw some images or use some words, that represent
your image, or your vision, or your hopes and dreams about what you want as part
of our community, and as you complete those things, and you can do several, you
can do one. As you complete them, I want you to come up and put them on that
map some place. Just set them down in a place that you think is representative of
where you want it to be. (can't hear) clear?
Elliott/Three or four words, huh?
Swaim/Any number of words. It can be words. It can be pictures. Yes, when you're
done, put them where you think they should be on that map.
Champion/Can we put them on the map any time?
(music playing - papers shuffling - several people talking)
Swainff All right, if I could have your attention now. I just really want to, and I'll have
them do it from up here and I'll have you guys do it from there. As you're putting
the stuff on, Ross would you share what you're putting on the map there.
Wilburn/Urn, let's see. Near Napoleon Park I'm putting, I drew a ball diamond and
softball and bat. I drew along the river a bicycle for the bicycle trails, and multi-
purpose trails. And I also made an attempt to draw the weather-dance fountain
and the band stage with music and the library with books. But I can't find
downtown. (laughter) Oh there it goes.
Swaim/Regenia, what did you put up on there?
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Bailey/Well I put up a completely full Peninsula neighborhood with houses and shops.
A lot of activity. A lot of commercial stuff out there. And I called it the place to
live in Iowa City. And then I put up the downtown with the Englert and probably
a comment I won't say out loud, and arts, and all kinds of different, you know.
The things I like about downtown, vibrant, packed, woo hoo!.
Swaim/Woo hoo, vibrant, happening, locally owned stores, can I read the last comment?
Bailey/You can read it.
Swaim/Coral Ridge, what? (laughter) How about somebody else, real quick, while I'm
here. What did you put on?
O'Donnell/Mind I put for right now I think we're good and in five years I'd like to be
better, and in ten years I'd like Iowa City to be perfect. For the Peninsula I put
planned excellence, and my vision for downtown is a viable and strong downtown
once again.
Champion/I put vibrant on downtown. I put beautiful on Hickory Hills Park. I put
accepting to the Broadway neighborhood, and I can't remember my fourth one.
Swaim/Are yours the little ones?
Champion/Because I can't draw.
Swaim/Great neighborhoods?
Champion/Oh, great neighborhoods and an undeveloped part of town, but it could be
anywhere.
Swaim/And somebody had accepting?
Champion/That's mine that went with neighborhood.
Swaim/How about Dee?
Vanderhoef/I attempted to draw, which I don't do well. The extension of Mormon Trek
across the river with the bridge, connecting up with the river trail on the east side
of the river, and the sand pits and park, and parkway on the east side.
Elliott/I didn't put down anything for any particular area. I just put down my hopes for
the city in general, and to the best of, I could remember, I said: clean, orderly,
energetic, and people-friendly.
Swaim/Okay. It's right there.
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Champion/Clean?
Bailey/Orderly? (laughter and several talking)
Swaim/He had warm, he's a little off today, but the people are warm though. Okay.
And who did I miss? Anybody?
Lehman/I was very generic I suspect. For the future, I just say a well-planned expansion
of both commercial and residential property, and I think the key word is planned
to generate the kind of tax revenue to provide the services that the city is famous
for.
Swaim/Okay. Anything (can't hear) to? No controversial...any?
Elliott/When you say surprise, I think that most of us have been around long enough that
in the campaign we were asked about did something surprise us. I think there're
very few things that surprise many people. For instance, Iowa won last night.
Anyway, if that doesn't surprise you, nothing will, and...(laughter)
Swaim/Well another quick thing I want to do is I want to just also talk a little bit about
where Iowa City has been, but I wanted you to do a little bit of a vision of where
Iowa might be, but they have a thing called a Walt of Wonder, and again, this is a
quick thing. I'm not going, I don't want to be on this for more than a few
minutes. But, look at these time frames along in here, and real quickly if you
have a particular, momentous event in Iowa City's past that you want to make
note of on the time chart, just grab a marker and come up and write it in really
fast. So just ponder, all come up and gather. You can actually use the little
markers if you want.
Wilburn/Make sure you use the dry erasers.
Swaim/Use the dry eraser. And read it out loud as you write it. (several talking at once)
This is just things that stick out in your mind about Iowa City's past. You can't
think of anything gigantic in 1970 to 19807 (can't hear) ...put it down then. The
library?
(several talking at once, sharing ideas)
Champion/I think here too that preservation started here. Right.
Lehman/The ped mall came in...
Swaim/Any events? You can just get back in your seats. Steve, as you look at this wall
from a City staffand planning and Zoning, any thing, when did you start your
tenure as City Manager?
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Atkins/86; also I think it's important, my predecessor was here eleven years. And if you
notice the age of our staff, not a lot of turnover.
Wilburn/A couple other significant events, negative ones, but the Shaw shooting and
then (can't hear). (several talking about event)
Swairn/How many of you were living in Iowa City....I'11 start over here. How many of
you were living in Iowa City in...
Elliott/65 I came here.
Vanderhoef/You count student time?
Swaim/You were here when? Anybody else who was here?
Vanderhoef/I was here as a student.
Swaim/Anybody else? What about 1960 to 70?
Champion/I was here.
O'Donnell/So was I.
Swaim/What about Regenia? We'll assume that you're here. Anybody else? Who
started being here in 1970, 19807
/ I did.
Swaim/Nobody else. 1980 to 19907
Champion/Ernie, when did you move here?
Lehman/61.
Champion/Well you have to put your name up there. (several talking)
Swaim/Marian, (can't hear) here?
Karr/Never mind. I wasn't here until 69.
Swaim/69. Is everybody up there? (several talking)...(can't hear)Anyway, so that's a
little bit of a Wall of Wonder just to put some context to different events that
affect Iowa City, and again, it's interesting that you as Council Members, you,
many of the things you were focusing on were structures and buildings, but also
some events and some other similar kinds of things. But, for a moment I want
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you to think about the current, right now. What are some of the key events that
you are hearing about in the news?
Vanderhoef/Homeland security.
Champion/Are you talking about local events?
Swaim/Any news.
O'Dormell/Patriot Act.
Swaim/Patriot Act, okay. Fire them out.
Lehman/Homeland security too.
Vanderhoef/Homeland security.
Swaim/Homeland security.
Champion/Iraq.
Swaim/Iraq.
O'Donnell/Terrorism.
Swaim/Terrorism.
Wilburn/Upcoming election, presidential election.
Swaim/Presidential election. What else? How about in Iowa? What are some things
you're hearing about and reading about in Iowa.
/ Money.
Swaim/Money.
Vanderhoef/Taxes.
Swaim/Taxes.
Bailey/Collaboration.
O'Donnell/Population.
Bailey/Government.
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Swaim/Population.
Lehman/Immigration, work force.
Swaim/What about issues that you...the Rain Forest? Gambling? How about any
headlines that you've read that relate to cities or city government? Anything in
the headlines about the cities? You mentioned collaboration?
Elliott/Yeah, the money. Everybody is concerned about money right now.
Vanderhoef/Reduction in work force.
Champion/Lack o f overtime pay.
Swaim/What else? Health care? (several talking) What's that? A winning football
team. Okay.
Vanderhoef/Urban sprawl.
Champion/Where'd you hear about that at? (laughter)
Swainff What of these ne~vs items or pieces of information do you find stunning or
shocking in some manner?
O'Donnell/Health care. The exorbitant rates that are being charged over the last couple
of years.
Elliott/I found shocking the two things that have come up in the last two days,
immigration and overtime pay. Both of which I think are pretty shocking.
Swaim/Okay. Others? Anything stunning?
Elliott/Michael Jackson.
Swaim/What again relating to cities, anything that is shocking relating to cities? (several
talking at once)
Lehman/Yeah, that's the big question for this year, is what's going to happen. We don't
know.
Swaim/Have no idea?
Elliott/That shouldn't be included under sturming or shocking. I was just amazed at how
little reaction there was.
Champion/From the public you mean?
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Elliott/Yeah, yeah.
Swaim/So that was a surprise to you?
Elliott/Yeah if anything was a surprise...
Lehman/Yeah, but let me just suggest that the manner in which we handled the cuts was
probably far more sensitive than what most cities were able to do, which is why I
don't think we got the reaction.
Elliott/Well, it was so well done. Again, how you do something, quite often, is as
important as what you do.
Vanderhoef/Timing.
Swaim/...things that you would categorize as sounding like good news, again you
mentioned sporting events. Any good news?
O'Donnell/Well I think the good news is the budget, from everything I'm hearing it's not
going to, the cuts aren't going to be as severe as we had anticipated.
Vanderhoef/New ownership, both in the Peninsula and in the Capital Center.
Lehman/Some things you don't see the forest for the trees. Perhaps the biggest news for
this Council, was the Council election, as far as good news. I mean, seriously.
We're sitting here today talking with ! think a wonderful group of people, and that
was good news to the Council.
Champion/Marc Moen's building is good news.
O'Donnell/Well and the cumulative thing is even with all the turmoil we went through
the last four year, we still managed to do over $100 million a year in building
permits, for I think four or five years in a row. That's incredible.
Elliott/Another interesting fact is I think two of the things that have just been mentioned
as good news are good news to some people, not good to others. We have
differing views on things.
Lehman/So are most of the other things that have been said here. We're talking about
our perspective.
Elliott/Right, but especially I think that is something to keep in mind.
Swaim/(can't hear)...intrude but the library is ahead of schedule, that's one I'm very
happy about.
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Champion/If they can get to it. 0aughter and several talking at once)
Swaim/As you think about cities that you've encountered... I assume, I don't know.
How many of you, do you all read about other cities, I mean, as part of your
duties as Cotmcil, do you go out of your way to kind of find out about other
things? I don't even know what kind of publications do you all get?
Wilburn/(can't hear) through the League of Cities (can't hear), National League of
Cities, and kind of keep an eye on the newspaper about what's going on.
Swaim/Anything in those publications in the last month or so that's been kind of like oh
wow? Is there anything that you've read about or heard about where you go boy I
wish we could do that, so like the Rain Forest, obviously...what are some things
that you've seen or heard about in your...
Lehman/(can't hear) Dubuque has had one of the most remarkable investments in that
community, both by the federal government and the state, Vision Iowa, locally, or
whatever, in their riverfront. Don't have the same things to deal with, but
Dubuque has just done incredible things to that community. (several talking)
Bailey/There was incredible vision in Dubuque and not, okay, so our neighbor to the
north there are issues about the gambling and the river run project, I would
contrast those two cities about the incredible vision and then maybe the not being
in tune with residents and trying to move something forward and (can't hear) two
interesting studies.
Vanderhoef/And Dubuque had had a tremendous hit from the loss of industry and jobs,
and for them to create a new vision and carry it through, to create the dollars, the
excitement, and the economic development, in the entertaimnent industry versus
the industrial community that they had previously enjoyed.
Elliott/Regenia's two words were vision and (can't hear). I thought those were really
important.
Swaim/What about...
Lehman/You could almost contrast that with the city of Waterloo, that has suffered many
of the same set-backs that Dubuque has, and Dubuque has more than just.., it's
been set back, after set back, after set back, and Waterloo has basically been the
same with John Deere, or whatever, and Waterloo has not been able to deal with
the situation nearly as successfully as Dubuque.
Swaim/Any insights into why that might be? I mean, do you ever ponder those things? I
don't know how you all....how it works, but if I read that Waterloo has and
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Dubuque has...why is that? Is there anything you can identify about the success
in one place not being the same as the place you would expect to be similar?
Lehman/I'm sure there are a lot of differences between those two. Dubuque sits on the
Mississippi River which is obviously one of the true wonders of the country, and
because of that, were able to tie into a lot of federal money that Waterloo
probably could not have tied into, even with the Cedar River, but there also seems
to be a cohesiveness in the Dubuque community that I don't see in the Waterloo
community, although I'm not all that terribly close to it, but Waterloo seems to be
far more fractionalized, even when they were talking river boats, whether they
would have it, where they would have it, this sort of thing. Dubuque has
concentrated on the riverfront. Waterloo can't seem to decide where to
concentrate.
Champion/Another thing I think about Waterloo is it's always had a different reputation
than Dubuque. Waterloo has never really had a good reputation, as long as I've
been in Iowa which has not been forever. But it kind of reminds me about Gary,
Indiana, in the sense that if you've lived there it's probably not as bad as you
think it is, but it's always not, I think reputation has a lot to do with what follows
through.
Vanderhoef/There's another city I'd like to compare all of this to that happens to be a
western...but Sioux City also lost a lot of that industrial, tax-base that Waterloo
and Dubuque did, and they were the first one to jump out there and implement the
1 cent sales tax and jump out there, and I believe, was number one in the school
tax also. They've done a lot of renovation in their own public buildings and so
forth in the downtown, and when Connie and I were there, what, four years ago?
Their downtown was still dead. There was all of this new stuff added, but there
still weren't any people, as comparative, ali the new things that had been added to
Dubuque, and the people were there. I don't know why. I'm just making an
observation.
Swaim/What about other, are there any lessons or insights from really small towns in
Iowa?
Elliott/Yes, I was just thinking back on what we just said and responding to what you
just asked, coming much more close to home and being more controversial, I
think looking at Coralville and Iowa City. I can remember some time ago when I
would sit at Council meetings before I ever became much interested, and people
would say we wouldn't want to do that. We'd be like Coralvitle, and over and
over I hear now, why can't we be more like Coralville? Coralville gets things
done, but also, it's illustrative of what I said this morning when everything in
moderation because I think about the time you're moving, you think you got
things going, there's a tendency to go too far and to be too extreme. But I think
we can learn from both Coralville's successes and Coralville's mistakes.
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Swaim/What about other small towns?
Vanderhoef/Okay, I would look at Storm Lake, Postville, and West Liberty, and maybe a
shocking thing that came recently in the paper was "white flight out of West
Liberty school district", and all of these three towns have addressed an
immigration and change of population, and a moving towards a closer to 50/50 at
least in the immigrants versus what they call natives, whatever those happen to
be, but there is a undercurrent of change and we're hearing more from the state
about immigration and how we can move that into our work force, and into our
society.
Swaim/What about any news from Washington that affects the cities?
Vanderhoef/Stormwater, water in itself, homeland security.
Swaim/But I mean any information coming from the feds that give you, I should have
been more fair in the question. There's a ton of stuff obviously coming from
Washington, that affects cities. Anything that you've read about that gives you
some new insight, some potential solutions to confronting issues that affect Iowa
Citians that you hear from the federal government, or things that are coming from
D.C. that are useful resources for cities?
Elliott/I think things coming from D.C. are causing a lot of people increasing concern
more than anything else.
Champion/I can't remember when Washington, D.C., solved a problem. (laughter)
Wilburn/Well there was work with staff (can't hear) transportation facility.
Vanderhoef/...earmarked, but at the same time, they have not passed a transportation bill
so we're sitting on borrowed time on that one, and don't know what's coming.
Swaim/Wouldn't you like to have the luxury of just going ahead and starting your fiscal
year without passing a budget? Do you ever think about that, Steve?
Atkins/You think about it but then you realize how irresponsible that is. You get
nervous enough trying to get the things done that we want to get done, and not
knowing we're financially secure is...
Swaim/Last year in February when they gave final passage to the final budget that they
were so late on last year, and the Conference Committee, they decided to put all
of the House members that were on the Appropriations Committee, serve on the
Conference Committee, and then instead they had like ten or fifteen on the
Conference Committee. They convened the meeting. After five minutes, all but
three of them left the meeting, so you really had three people out the entire elected
U.S. Congress doing the final negotiations on the entire U.S. Federal Budget, and
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after midnight, the two of the three left, and there was only one person and a
handful of Congressional staff. I thought, and I found it dumfounding (can't
hear). Any other things for any other small towns around the Midwest that give
you any insights into how you respond to issues?
Elliott/Well, it shows, in West Branch it shows what the influence of one entity can do.
The Hoover Library and what it has done for West Branch.
Swaim/Okay.
Elliott/And so people think the Rain Forest may be an extreme, but still, to look for
something like that, is an appropriate thing to keep at least on the back burner.
Wilbum/One thing personally for me, and Regenia and I were talking about this during
the break, in going to some of the League of City meetings and hearing some of
the concerns and questions that come up. How do we do this, come up in some of
the smaller towns, there's two things that jump to mind for me. One, a specific
issue like how much care and concern do we give to open records and to open
meetings in Iowa City relative to you know what goes on in the rest of the state,
and I don't know that the public in Iowa City in general realizes how much care is
given here relative to the rest of Iowa. And the second part is just a lot of issues
that continue to come up at some of the smaller cities things that they're trying to
do, or figure out how to do, or how do we get this ordinance to address this, are
things that are already on the books in Iowa City. On the one hand we talk about
how large our set of ordinances are but on the other hand, it's you know, when
you hear some of them talk, it's like well, you know, that's already been
addressed in Iowa City.
Vanderhoef/Something that comes up for me is that I'm not sure Iowa City and the
corridor acknowledge and realize that we are dependent on the little cities. The
Labor Shed survey shows that people are traveling 70 to 80 miles one way to
come to the corridor for their job. Now those people chose to travel this way, and
at least at this point, or choosing to live in all the small towns, and if their small
towns were not to have those people, what would it affect Iowa City and the
corridor in trying to build housing, and provide services, and expansion of the city
and what would happen to the little towns? So, to be cognizant of and assisting in
a regional fashion to be sure that the small towns stay viable...
O'Donnell/I wonder, Dee, if people chose to live in small towns or if it's due to
necessity due to the high taxes. Iowa City is a very, very expensive place to live.
Our taxes are high. Water is high.
Champion/Housing, land...
O'Donnell/But I think that's a very important reason for a lot of those folks.
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Vanderhoef/And schools.
O'Donnell/School system is great here.
Lehman/You know unfortunately the folks who live in Iowa City think it's like this
everywhere in the world. They don't understand the things that you were talking
about, Ross, as far as the, as careful as we are about public input and public
meetings and this sort of thing. But one of the lessons I think we also need to
learn from cities like West Branch and Postville, and (can't hear), 450 peak jobs,
350jobs lost out of a city of 2,500. West Branch is losing a significant employer,
I don't recall the name of the company, we are so stable in this community and so
diversified in our work force, it really, really behooves this community to see to it
that we keep the kinds of industry that we have. Obviously the University of
Iowa being the largest, largest employer in the state by the way, larger than the
University Hospitals. Proctor Gamble...but these are stable, solid industries.
Don't have these peaks like the Cedar Rapids do. So I think we can see from
other communities, that what may be a tremendous asset for them in good times,
is an incredible liability when things aren't so good, and we're sitting here not
enjoying those really, really good times, but not having to deal with the really,
really tough times either. So, I think we need to temper with what we see.
Hoover Library might be a wonderful thing. A Rain Forest in Coralville if it's
built and does incredibly well for a year and a half, and falls on it's face and
becomes a financial drag for the state of Iowa, is certainly something else. We're
very fortunate.
Champion/What about in terms of, you touched on the University. Tell me a little bit
about what your vision of the partnership with the University is. What's the, what
are some hopeful things you see coming down in terms of partnerships with the
University ?
Lehman/Well I think that we have established with, first of all, the city is a very
important player in ICAD. So is the University of Iowa. In fact, the President
three years ago of ICAD was the Vice President of the University of Iowa. Very,
very active in ICAD. They're active in the Oakdale facility. We have Bruce
Wheaton and his folks, and we need to talk about, I know this is like a city, but
Iowa City we breathe and are healthy because of the area, not strictly what's
within our own borders. But the University has become a very, very active
player, and from my perspective, the relationship between the University and
Iowa City is about as good as we could possibly have. I don't know of any
project that we have done, or that they have done, where we impact each other,
where there has not been conversations, and for the most part, resolutions that
have been, not just satisfactory to both sides, but embraced by both sides. And I
see that continuing. There's a very, very strong feeling for each other. I
remember a time when Sandy Boyd was President made the comment "this is the
University of the state of Iowa not the University of Iowa City, when we asked
him to do something with the city. But the position of the University of Iowa, and
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it has been for probably the last ten or fifteen years, we are a citizen of the City of
Iowa City, and as a citizen we have a responsibility. We've seen that when they
deal with alcohol issues, student issues, housing issues, with Iowa Avenue, the
water plant. Mormon Trek was a huge project, a combined effort. The building
of the Athletic Center and the traffic that's going to be redone over on Melrose.
Not always perfect but certainly I think, a tremendous relationship.
Elliott/Emie, I think that we're joined at the hip. And if one suffers, both suffers, and if
one gains, both gain. I think if Iowa City's downtown area would disintegrate
into a group of flea markets, University of Iowa would suffer greatly. And if the
University of Iowa suffered financially and was not able to be the quality
institution it is, Iowa City would suffer greatly, and I think as long as we both
understand that, that's the way we have to operate.
O'Doimei1/Well anybody who doesn't think the University is a partner in this venture
here, needs to go downtown during a break or own a business downtown. You
have any trouble finding a parking spot.
Champion/I know, but pretty soon people don't want to come downtown when the
students are here.
O'Donnell/Some of them, but I think it's kind of like the lifeline of Iowa City, and I
think it should be viewed that way.
Champion/I think the other good contributor that we haven't talked a lot about, haven't
mentioned, is ACT which has been a great citizen.
Elliott/Excuse me, Connie, but it's interesting that if the University weren't here, ACT
would not be here. NCS would not be here. Noel Levitz would not have been
here. Any number of things would not have been here.
Swaim/What about your relationships with the County? County governments. What...
Champion/Do we have to talk about that?
Swaim/No, you don't have to talk about it. In the context, what I was trying to get at the
context, you know the state reinvention of Iowa plan is you know, we'll balance
our budget by not giving the cities and the counties any more money. And you
mentioned earlier gee, it's a little surprising that nobody needs....you mentioned
Dubuque. I think the firemen in Dubuque went door to door and said as a result
of these cuts, we are going to have to lay offx number of firefighters. I mean that
was one of the few places I'm aware of where people actually translated the cuts
to stuff, but you have the state talking about (can't hear) if you guys can organize
some regional services.
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Elliott/One of the hopes that I personally have for the future with this Council, this
Council can make a meaningful progress for coordinating and consolidating a lot
of the governmental entities, and I would hope that in the next four years we
could do that, and our relationship with the County government, with Coralville,
with North Liberty, all of them, vitally important.
Swaim/What else in terms of the County, or you also mentioned ICAD, the whole notion
of regional development?
O'Donnell/I think that's going to be real important. Many of us are now thinking about
regional communications as well as transportation, police, and fire, and I think for
government efficiencies, there's that dirty word once again, but that has to come
into play. I think we can be more efficient and save money, and that's exactly
what we should be looking at right now.
Champion/It won't happen until there is a really, incredible budget cuts, because nobody
wants to give up any territory, and you know, we've been talking about joint
government venture, as far as I know for twenty years, and I don't see anything
happening. We talked about twenty years ago about joint 911 services, joint fire,
joint police, one transportation center with one transportation director. That's
been talked about, but it won't happen until we're all forced to do it because of
economics.
Elliott/Necessity is the mother of invention.
Champion/It's just not going to happen. Coralville doesn't want to give up their police
chief, we don't want to give up ours. The sheriff doesn't want to give up his own
911 center, and we're not going to give up ours because we think ours is better
than anybody's, so it's not going to happen until we're forced to do it. It's not
going to happen.
O'Donnell/Well I think it's really important that the different municipalities sit down
and start talking about this.
Swaim/How often do you do that?
O'Donnell/Every quarter.
Swaim/You do that every quarter? And that's done by, just refresh my public memory
on this, that's done...as the entire Council do you sit down? Okay, as an entire
Council you sit down with an entire group of other Council Members.
Champion/We have a joint governmental meeting, and then we also are members of
JCCOG and it comes up at both places.
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Wilburn/It's nothing beyond the status quo, you know. JCCOG, there's issues where
there's money that comes down, and we figure out if (can't hear), there's
occasional joint venturing on streets and some of those types of...
Vanderhoef/And those things are mandated by the federal government, or I don't know
that those dollars...
Wilburn/Yeah, nothing created, nothing new...in fact the strain has been on the status
quo stuff.
Swaim/Would that be like the Senior Center?
Wilburn/The Senior Center. A few years ago the seed stuff, where there's strain right
now.
Swaim/In thinking about all this kind of stuff, do you, let me ask you to do an individual
thing here for a minute. Just make a note to yourself, do you see any kind of
emerging trend affecting city government, and if you would just write it down.
An emerging trend, any kind of emerging trend.
Lehman/That's a really, really broad question.
Swaim/Be more specific. As you think of Iowa City over the next two years, are there
some trends in city government that you think, as a Council member, that you
want to remind your colleagues that we should stay focused on, pay clear
attention to - does that help? (tape ends)
Swaim/...be mindful of. Just write those down.
Champion/I'm sorry, what was the second one? (several talking at once)
Swaim/We're going to come back to this. That's why I'm asking you to write this down.
I'm going to take a break. Take a quick break until 20 till.
(TAPE OFF)
Elliott/You know, it's unfortunate we have to interrupt Mike occasionally. (laughter and
several talking)
Swaim/Okay, thinking of our newfound guiding principles, how might you have handled
trying to get back together as a group?
Elliott/Just say Mike shut up.
O'Dormell/With much more sensitivity. (laughter)
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Swaim/I was doing this, I was paying attention over here, and other cues - eye contact
with other members. I was thinking should I interrupt, should I say excuse me,
but as a facilitator you say words like ali right, or you say some neutral word as
opposed to come on now. So, as members, let's try it again. (laughter and several
talking at once) You might say, Mike are you ready to...
O'Donnell/I would like to respond to that. I would like everyone to notice I was in my
spot and ready. Vanderhoef (laughter and several talking)...
Lehman/Mike, that's called transferring blame.
Vanderhoef/...always the last one to sit down.
Swaim/Can take it seriously while at the same time can have some humor in these. So,
picking up where we were just before the break. Can a couple of you just
volunteer to read what you may have suggested as some trends, or specifically
any trends affecting economic development, or that the City might be mindful of?.
Champion/Well one thing that I'm well aware of...
Swaim/Excuse me just a minute. As we proceed for the rest of the discussion in the
afternoon, I want to describe a little bit of a dilemma for me as a facilitator, and I
think probably for City staff a little bit, we want to get some ideas about issues
and that's why I called this an issues workshop. At the same time, I'm mindful
of, as a facilitator, trying to just be aware of the issues without really kind of
probing into your, the details of your views, and that's a little bit of a challenge
for me to figure out how to do, but I wanted to articulate it to you all and tell you
what I'm hoping to try to do in this aftemoon's discussion, is give you some ideas
about what you, what your colleagues think are some big issues, without resolving
those issues, without deciding those issues, without using today's time to
articulate how you might disagree on the issues or how you might even agree on
the issues, so that's the, a little bit of the tightrope that I'm going to try and walk
us through this afternoon. So, with that in mind, let's go ahead and...
Champion/Okay, I think a major issue that Iowa City needs to deal with is we've become
a haven for low-income people from cities that are migrating here for a better life,
and I don't blame them, I'd come here too, but we're going to have to deal with
this issue.
Swaim/And do you see that as a trend for cities, or is that, I'm trying to look for trends
that are affecting cities in general. Do you think that's a trend that's happening
elsewhere or is that very unique to Iowa City?
Vanderhoef/It's happening elsewhere in my mind.
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Lehman/But it probably is, there is a certain uniqueness to this community as well
because we do offer, we're very, very big on social services...I think social
services are the issues we're going to have to deal with in this next...
Swaim/Okay.
Lehman/short term.
Swaim/Another...yes?
Elliott/In the broadest sense, more broad than that, ! thought that I've seen over the last
half dozen years, a trend that I think has been cyclical in the past, a trend more
toward moderation. If you want to stick with labels, there was a trend toward
being ultra-liberal. Then a trend, we went into an almost, a very conservative
council, then back to liberal. It's been kind of moderation over the last few years.
Swaim/Okay. Moderation of views.
Vanderhoef/A trend that I see is that this is a high-income community, and very
generous community in giving to social services. (tape went out)
Wilburn/...it encompasses that, but it's looking at the growth areas of the state, and the
corridor is one of...if you have a place, an area, that is apparently prosperous, and
apparently no place else is, it attracts people, and it's going to be a diverse set of
people, and the challenge is meeting and deciding balancing the services that
government is going to do because you have people of higher income, people of
lower income, (can't hear) because everyone is coming here to experience that
growth. That's kind of the way I look at it. And then along with that, the
challenge or something that I think will be a trend to pay attention to is looking at
revenue sources for the city.
Swaim/Can you elaborate on that?
Wilburn/Where that money to meet those needs is going to come from? Our alliance on
the property tax as opposed to...we're unique to compared to some other cities
because we have the property tax and then just the revenue funds that we have.
We don't have gambling. We don't have (can't hear) so that's...
Vanderhoef/A trend really is that we are becoming job centers and small towns are
losing some of their job opportunities.
Swaim/I want to give just a quick response to this one. The State Department and the
University collaborated on groups of international dignitaries coming through and
UAY occasionally hosts that when they came, and we had the group that was here
from Africa. (can't hear) lawyers and dictators, but in this group in particular,
there were I think six or seven mayors of cities in the range of 300,000 to 700,000
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population, and they were asking us all this information about our programs. And
one of the things that I mentioned was you know we do get a core group of funds
from the City and the County and United Way, and these mayors were like the
city has money? Your city government has money for this kind of service, you
know. They were just dumbfounded at even the concept that a city would support
some of these services.
Lehman/You might get that same reaction in other cities in the state of Iowa. We're very
unique in that regard.
Swaim/So, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...
Champion/No, it's good to hear.
Swaim/What are some of the other economic development issues that...
Elliott/The corridor concept is I think one of the major ones. That's been brewing for
some time but it came to fruition in recent years.
Swaim/Okay.
Wilburn/I think another thing, how we look at the budget and looking at the budget in
terms of, are we looking at the budget in terms of growth, or just trying to make
stability. When you manipulate (can't hear) willing to grow, are you willing to
cut just because of political pressure. I think it would be more and more
important to look at how we have (can't hear) you know, are we looking at (can't
hear) etc.
O'Donnell/I think on a more local level, even with our last Council, I think there's a
more collaborative effort with the University and small towns. We did the
Mormon Trek, we did the railroad trestle, we've got Camp Cardinal Road which
is $10 million project, but I think this Council is taking advantage of capturing an
opportunity. I mean whether we do it with a TIF or tax abatement, but you know,
we can look at Sycamore Mall. We can look at (can't hear) more. We'll be asked
to do something with Old Capital I'm sure, and those are all opportunities for
growth and jobs.
Lehman/Well I think, I don't know if this is what you were looking to, Ross, I think we
have to be very judicious in our use of economic incentives over the years. I
think we've been very successful in the projects that we have assisted, but I think
we're going to have to be every bit as cautious as we have been in the past
because the pressure to do economic incentives is going to get greater and greater
because of competition from other communities. And I think as long as we do
them smart, we're going to be in good shape. I think if we do things that are not
as smart, we can get ourselves into some economic problems. But I think there is
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going to be more and more pressure on cities to give economic incentives, but
we're going to have to be very, very careful, as we have been.
Swaim/And you mentioned Postville. I mean, there's a place where just a natural
tragedy, a fire reeks havoc and then immediately when there's an opportunity,
you're going to be competing with how many other states, how many other cities
that they have a chance to have NCS or Proctor & Gamble or all the competition
that went on with Maytag. Was it Maytag? Amana Distribution Center in West
Branch. You know, you're competing against lots of people, and it probably is a
trend that in the last twenty years, everybody has gotten a lot more sophisticated
in their recruiting and their economic development.
ElliottJ I think over the past several, two or three years, I've been very supportive of the
TIFs and that sort of thing, but I think it's important for us to listen to those
people who have disagreed about them. I think they have raised some very valid
points, and that, Ernie, as you said, I think we need to be even more concerned
than we have in the past. Because now everybody's going to say well I'd like to
do something. What kind of economic assistance are you going to give me?
O'Donnell/But everything that we do has performance standards attached to it.
Elliott/Yes, yes.
O'Donnell/And I think that we've been very judicious in that. I really do. I mean, our
projects that we've agreed to incentives have I think benefited the community to a
high degree.
Vanderhoef/The trend of TIF and the repercussion to (can't hear) may lead us to a trend
that I'm foreseeing perhaps coming out of the state house in how it affects our
school districts.
Champion/It'd be pretty minor.
Vanderhoef/As school districts continue to lose funding from the state that comes from
income tax, they're looking just as hard for dollars to support their programming
as we are. Another thing that is a trend in my mind that when we say corridor,
you may well have implied this, but I think it really needs to be pointed out, that
even though in this competition in new growth in industry, we must be mindful of
the spin-off effects that we get when one of our neighboring cities in the corridor
gets a project that we don't get because those dollars I think are going to be
recycling within the corridor so even if we don't get it, someone else will but we
will get some benefit from it.
Elliott/I have to tell you that in recruiting people as I was doing, that it was much more
effective to recruit people to the Cedar Rapids, Iowa City area than to recruit them
to Iowa City, and that was evident fifteen years ago, and particularly ten years
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ago, so I was disappointed that it took so long for the corridor to concept to really
become reality.
Vanderhoef/And I think in recruiting to Iowa City, I have heard repeated many times
how important the school system is in the recruitment, and so being remindful of
keeping our school system strong,, is that we will recruit top notch people and top
notch businesses (tape cuts out)
Champion/..place to bring it up, but we someday as a group need to really work on
legislatures (can't hear) law that allows condominiums to be taxed at even
residential rates, even if they're rented, and that's really affecting Iowa City's
economy. It's really affecting our economy, and I'm not sure how much
difference in our budget it would make, but I would imagine it would be a
substantial amount. And it's hard, I don't know why the legislatures refuse to
deal with that issue but they're not dealing with it.
Swaim/Well, one thing I'm just gong to put up here, and again I'm going to (can't hear)
There are a number of things that the state does or doesn't do, as I read the news
and read information about civic governments and a variety of things, I think
there's an issue in which the state legislature is somewhat disconnected from,
especially from the urban centers, and there was a piece on NPR last year, I think
it was last-~-I was driving back from Des Moines, talking about a study of all of
the key committee chairs in the Iowa legislature, and how many of them came
from towns that were under 5,000, and so I think there are a lot of issues that
affect cities, and especially affect Iowa City, and for that matter Des Moines and
Cedar Rapids and the like, in which there's kind of a disconnect between what the
legislative body is even addressing, and I think that points to one of the clearer
things, but I think I would just categorize that as there's a lot of state issues
disconnecting, or disconnected from actual life in cities.
Elliott/Well I think, Jim, that is one of the trends you see. We are moving from a rural
dominated state to an urban important state, but I think the latter hasn't quite
caught up with the former.
Swaim/Are there, again let me ask you to first write your ideas and then we'll...are there
two, one or two or three issues, that you think as you look at the city and the city
council's role in the corridor and the surrounding area, are there tWO or three
issues that you think should be addressed, or that you want to encourage the city
to try and address more on a regional basis, and I'm saying that not rather than
Iowa City, but more focused from a regional perspective and your contribution to
it is looking at it, even if it means Iowa City doesn't fair quite as well or
whatever. Just a couple of issues that you think you would encourage your
colleagues and encourage the staff to, that you think you should be approaching
more from a regional basis, and would be willing to step outside an Iowa City
boundary council member to be part of this regional effort. Okay? What comes
to mind?
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O'Donnell/Transportation.
Bailey/Transit and transportation. Is that what you mean?
O'Donnell/Uh-huh.
Elliott/I think the broad thing is just fiscal efficiency. Then under that is transportation,
administration, communication, any number of things.
Champion/We're talking about regional government?
Swaim/No, the issues that you believe that as the Council looks at them, we should really
be trying to address them from a regional basis.
Elliott/In other words, somewhat as we have addressed education.
Bailey/And economic development.
Swaim/Economic development.
Lehman/Well and another one is actually sanitary landfill is a County facility, even
though the City operates it. I mean, it's a City facility but it serves the County.
Vanderhoef/But that's mandated.
Lehman/But it's still, whether it's mandated or not, it works that way. These
other...pardon me?
Swaim/Waste management?
Lehman/We already do that. That is countywide.
Swaim/But that's what I mean, that's one where you encourage and you would hope that
you're looking at it from a regional perspective rather than just what the city's
stake in the landfill is.
Vanderhoeff No, the regional refuse is mandated for the cog area already, and we put
together one plan. There may be several centers.
Swaim/So again, I'm just saying, so that is something that you are comfortable with and
encourage happening on a regional planning perspective rather than just Iowa
City.
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Elliott/Some of the things that have been in the past and will emerge in the future, things
like alcohol control, smoking control, municipal power, any number of those
things, I'd like to see much wider than just unilaterally by Iowa City.
Swaim/Okay.
Vanderhoef/There could be something as simple as we do announce when we are going
to do purchases of large equipment to try and bundle them to get good bids but
there may be other possibilities of things that we could order collectively that
could save us all some dollars.
O'Donnell/We try and do that now though. We're pretty good at it.
Vanderhoef/We do it within the city. What might it be if it were countywide?
Lehman/You kno~v, we've looked at that more than one time in the last several years.
Atkins/There's a state law that requires you to notify other jurisdictions when you're
going to make purchases of a certain item. I forget what the dollar figure is.
We've generally been pretty good about it. For example, when we spec'd a fire
truck, we shared that with another jurisdiction, if they would like to have that. In
fact, I can remember a number of years ago, Coralville and Iowa City bought fire
equipment simultaneously and saved a couple bucks as they used the same specs.
So we do do those kinds of things.
Vanderhoeff It's the smaller, every day stuff that we don't.
Atkins/For example, the University could actually serve as a warehouse facility for us
they buy paper in such volumes it'd be nice if we could draw upon some central
resource there.
Vanderhoef/In printing services perhaps. There are things that the North Liberty's, the
Hills, the Tiffin's, in collaboration with the University and Iowa City ought to be
looked at. I don't know if we could save money or not. It's just...
Swairrd So, transportation, transit/transportation, economic development issues...
O'Donnell/Along with transit there's fire and police. I mean that's...
Lehman/And I also think we are going to have to look at issues relative to housing.
Subsidized housing, vouchers, and this sort of thing regionally rather than just in
Iowa City. We administer federal programs that are available any place, I mean,
they could be administered anywhere in the county, and I do think we're going to
have to look at the larger picture in that regard. I think that is part of what we
discussed earlier, and certainly something we're going to have to address later.
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Wilburn/I think in a broader sense too a lot of the, you know, Iowa City does it through
our work with JCCOG and (can't hear) .... funded, provide services to all of the
county, and surrounding counties, but only a few of the cities and the counties
made a trend toward funding only what they're mandated to fund by the state, so
that's...it's pressure on the agencies that the city funds because the demand is
coming from the rest of the county, and when the other participants aren't
assisting, then that puts a greater demand, and you all don't like saying no to
some of the issues that are out there for social service funds, but that's driven
by...
Swaim/Well I think this is a pretty big list but let me ask you, if there were two things on
that list that you wanted to make sure that at the next opportunity that you have to
be with colleagues from other cities and joint planning, if there were two items
that you wanted to make sure you addressed in conversations, how many of you
would pick this as one?
Elliott/You don't think, Jim, there are financial considerations and there are political
considerations, but I think maybe transportation might be most critical and most
financially needed, but I think it's the least political reality at the present time, so
are you thinking what we think is most politically feasible or...
Swaim/I wasn't thinking of either, but that raises a very important point because
sometimes the issue that's most important to talk about is the most politically
explosive and it's the last one you should bring up because what will happen is
what? Chaos will reign.
Elliott/For instance, I would like to think that maybe somehow combining law
enforcement communication might be something workable, although I don't
know the realities of all the turf protections, but I think it would be more realistic
than the transit and transportation that I think...
O'Dormell/That's one I thought should be there too, dispatching.
Swaim/So, you can think, any of you can think however you want to think about it...
Elliott/Thank you. (laughter)
Swaim/And, in whatever way you are thinking about it, let's just start with which one of
these will you want to make sure, and you may be cautious and you may say I
want to pick one that is politically easiest and most doable because I dote on
success, or you might be the rabble-rousing leader that you were earlier this
morning, and want to pick one that won't (can't hear) most bubbly and hardest
because it's the most important. Whichever one. Which one would you pick?
Elliott/Economic development.
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Vanderhoef/Housing.
Swaim/Housing?
Bailey/I'd pick purchases because I'm for administrative efficiencies and I think it's an
easy win.
Lehman/Well I think long term, of the things that we have up there, dispatch I think is
something that's happening right now. In fact the city of Cedar Rapids last year,
our Washington group, was trying to get funding from the federal government for
Linn County so that all of their emergency folks are on the same dispatch, and I
think that's something that isn't as political. Fire to me because of the incredible
cooperation between fire departments and the mutual aid within every department
within the county, to me a fire district and combination of fire services is probably
going to be one of the first things we ever see happen. And based on the success
of that, I think we'll see other things develop. And Steve is smiling because he
likes....he knows some political firemen. (laughter) I think fire, long term, has
got to be one of the first ones.
O'Donnell/I think the very first one is going to be, they may be doing it now, Ernie, but
there's grants for expanding dispatch...
Lehman/Oh I think dispatch....yeah....less political.
O'Donnell/Less political, and I think that's the most doable first.
Champion/We have how many dispatch organizations in the county? There's four in
Iowa City.
Atkins/Dispatch centers?
Champion/University, the city and the county, Coralville.
Vanderhoef/The ambulance has their own dispatch, don't they?
Lehman/Are they on the same as the county?
Swaim/Let me encourage you that as, again, as part of your guiding, guidance for your
meetings, and your principles, you want to be informed. And that's great
advantage to that. When you don't know for sure, make sure you initiate
conversations with staff about getting that information to you, especially if it's a
critical piece of information, so that you're talking factually in your meetings. I
wanted to...
Wilburn/There's two that I'm torn with, between fire, police and housing. The reason l
say fire and police, one of the things that, and correct me if I'm wrong, Steve.
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One of the things when we gave the directive for especially police to come up
with some cuts, what suffered were some training things, and training is
something, regional training, is something...
Vanderhoef/A no-brainer.
Wilburn/...to pull up, you know, because I would suspect that if some of the other cities
are going to have further pressure to make those cuts, those permanent cuts would
come from personnel, that one of the things that's going to suffer is training, and
that seems to me to be a logical thing, and then you know, the past year and a half
in particular, there's been a lot of pressure and concern about (can't hear) issues
whether it's affordability or whether we should or shouldn't, and...
Swaim/Well again, I'm distinguishing this as an issue that you have to deal with, from an
issue that you want to approach at the next meeting that you have face to face
with others.
Wilburn/So in that case I'd go with the fire and police.
Swaim/Who have I not gotten to? Connie?
Champion/Oh, Mike and I have exactly the same...
Swaim/What's your...
Champion/Fire and police.
Swaim/Mike?
O'Donnell/Fire and police. (laughter) Communication, dispatching, is what I have,
same thing.
Swaim/Well that sounds...again, this is just to give you all some ideas about how each
of you are thinking respectfully, but it sounds like that one is one that you know,
City staff should be encouraged to do, and that you ought to be initiating some
conversations with your counterparts.
Atkins/Jim, if I could just add that for Council, that after saying that, the next question,
are you willing to direct that an agenda be put together? Simply an agenda of
issues surrounding that because then it gets, then you start naming names (can't
hear) but I need to have an agenda.
Vanderhoef/And for me, the fire and police is certainly a good place to start, and I would
move on with the early fact finding for housing.
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Elliott/Anything that involves personnel, however, I think you need to be extremely
careful that you don't send out a message which creates a great deal of
misinformation...
Vanderhoef/Angst.
Elliott/Yes, angst is a great word.
Champion/Well you know, I think it's wonderful that we want to do this, but I don't see
it happening because when Coralville needed to hire a new fire chief(can't hear)
we should talk about a j oint...I think all of this is nice to talk about but until
budgets get tightened up, I don't see it happening. So I think it's a waste
of...League of Women Voters, isn't this what they're going to bring to us?
Lehman/Yeah, but Connie, I think that one of the issues that's been brought up, the
dispatch is one that is probably allows municipalities, and governmental units, to
maintain their political identity, and yet combines a very, very important function,
and that has happened throughout the country. You're exactly right though. The
only places that I know of where there have been consolidation of services is
where it's been an economic necessity. It just, people...
Bailey/...you started with a public safety issue of dispatch, and then the sort of enabling
area of training.., those are...
Champion/That could happen. But, when I mention it to others, oh no our system is
totally different than yours and better.
Bailey/Everybody's got a better system.
Elliott/I was just going to say what Regenia said. As you start small and maybe you start
with training, you start with communication, and pretty soon you're working
together so much that maybe several years down the road it will become a reality.
Champion/(can't hear) work together when we need help. That's what's uneasy. The
whole county is incredibly enabling to each other, so it isn't like we don't already
work together.
O'Donnell/The 20/80 agreements are so important with fire. You can see a downtown
fire and you can see fire trucks from Coralville and North Liberty and West
Branch and, I mean, it's amazing how this county does pull together.
Bailey/Well I think the way for Iowa City is to be the leader in broaching some of these
conversations in these win/win, starting small ways. You know, and not
approaching it in a fearful or negative, he'll never go for this way. Looking for
where we can get some common ground. Especially when it's a head-nodder.
Dispatch or training, you get heads nodding I think pretty quickly.
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(several talking at once)
Swaim/But the other thing that I commend you for though, is being mindful of the need
to look at many of these things, including the challenging ones, in a way that is
different than the status quo, and you know in my work with teens, I can't tell you
how many times a teenager's parents will say well, it's pointless to try and get this
lesson across because they're never going to get it, or they'll never do this, or
chose to say, my parents will never, you're beating a dead horse, and lo and
behold, the right set of circumstances, the right dialogue, the right moment,
possibilities become endless.
Elliott/I think it's important to point to one of those things over there that I have noticed
and it says don't be condescending, and even I, living in Iowa City and feeling it's
one of the nicest places to live, have noticed a bit of a condescending attitude by
some people in Iowa City towards other places, and certainly I know it exists in
other places who thinks Iowa City is a just a very haughty, condescending place,
and as long as that continues, it's going to inhibit any move toward consolidation.
Wilburn/I think another thing to in trying to start small and build on that success, is I
think we could probably put more energy into highlighting when some of those
regional things occur. I mean, there're some things we'll mention in a Council
meeting, but there aren't always the balloons flying up in the air, the stuff that
helps call attention to what's happening and when it's worked. So I thing
celebrating becomes, you know, looking at that, and I think highlighting that will
help not only support the effort to do, but it acknowledges what is being done and
kind of balances that focus and critique that you get for not being regional.
O'Donnell/Don't you get the idea that we all sit at JCCOG and we all have these pools
of monies we divide, and we sit there with representatives from surrounding
areas, and on a consistent basis vote to give money to other communities. I mean,
I think the ability is there to work together. I mean, you don't get the feeling that
there's animosity within the group certainly.
Swaim/Well collaboration is a tough thing, and again I'm stepping out of totally neutral
(can't hear) a lot of praise and stuff for doing collaboration but it's hard. It is
easier to do in good times, and harder to do in hard times and yet it's, much more
critical to do in hard times than it is in easy times, but we have a definition that
we've used for lots of meetings where our view of collaboration in many of the
work groups that we're in is everybody comes to the table, empties their pockets,
and puts all of their resources on the table, and then takes their hands away from
the table. That's, that's great collaboration. That's really hard to do in tough
times. It's like, well I wanted to keep the twelve cents. (laughter) But that's the
challenge that you face in doing these things. The one good thing that you've got
going, and you've spoken to that today, is hard times do drive people to do this
better, and you can be model of this kind of collaborative effort, and the other
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 75
thing just in terms of one more editorial comment, the elections in other places
have gone reasonably well, and you have good people in those other places that
you can reach out to that are probably struggling with some of these same things
so now probably is a good time to do that. Before I end the broad discussion, I
wanted to come to one other thing because I think you as a council, and the
public, often times look at all the big issues and that's what makes the splashy
headlines. I want you to just write down for a minute, are there two or three what
you might consider small issues, small items, that you hope you can have a
chance to work with your colleagues on in the coming year? And I'll leave it to
you to define small but the best idea I can give is the opposite of the big issues,
and then we'll take a break again. I wanted to finish this before we took a break.
(several people talking, sharing ideas)
Swaim/Have you had a chance to write down a couple? Just real quick...
Elliott/Railroad crossings.
Vanderhoef/Does that go with potholes?
Swaim/Okay.
Champion/The art program, neighborhood art.
O'Donnell/Senior Center funding.
Champion/Neighborhood conservation.
Swaim/Neighborhood conservation?
Bailey/These are small issues? (laughter)
Vanderhoef/Okay, trail connections.
Vanderhoef/Traffic signals.
Elliott/Talk to someone whose waited twenty minutes at First Avenue railroad crossing
and see if they think it's a small issue.
Bailey/(can't hear) office on south Dubuque Street, and you think, I, the railroad
crossing there is not small issue.
Swaim/Somebody else said traffic..
Vanderhoef/Signal, uh-huh. Turn lanes.
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 76
Swaim/Turn lanes?
Champion/You can tell who (laughter and several talking).
Swaim/Any others?
O'Dormell/I would like to see something done about City Park pool.
Bailey/Yeah, I had that one too.
Lehman/I think we're scheduled to do that this year.
O'Donnell/I'd like to see that done. I'd like to see that be kind ora theme park.
Bailey/The downtown festivals...
(several people talking at once)
Bailey/The downtown festiuals and how we bring more people to the community.
Swaim/Downtown festivals, not pool.
Bailey/They're downtown festivals, Jim, there is no pool.
O'Donnell/I'd like to see a better Fourth of July next year...
Elliott/Holiday decorations up the wa-zoo this year.
Lehman/There is something else, and I don't know how we do it, we must really work at
this diligently, our staff does, I'm not sure if Council was as good at it as staffers,
but public pemeption of the services provided by the City, we need to address that
(can't hear) I think we do a remarkable job in most cases, and as Council folks,
we frequently get complaints about departments within the City, or whatever, and
in most cases they're misunderstandings, but, and the best thing people can
possibly do is call us because at least we have an opportunity to address their
concerns. It's the ones that don't call us, and tell all their friends, that create the
problem, and I think that publi~ relations is something that we do, we need to
constantly work on, and I think we do. Overall I think we do a tremendous job.
Wilburn/Excuse me, I'm laughing because there was someone who called (can't hear)
and just reamed me bad, and all the, about something that we did, or something
that we were supposed to do for this person, and didn't get a receipt to that
person, and told all of his or her friends, you know, we're not even the ones who
provide the service (several talking and laughing)
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January 8, 2004 Council Work Session Page 77
Bailey/Didn't somebody ream you because something didn't, a letter didn't contain the
information that they needed and they look back at it and they were wrong. That
happens to me all the time.
Lehman/Or it's not even the city that they're talking about. You know...
Wilburn/...we ended up directing them and getting their receipt for them but...
Elliott/Roseanne Roseannadana said never mind. (laughter)
Champion/I always said I'd never bring it up again, but litter is a constant problem.
Bailey/Litter?
Champion/...the streets and sidewalks, downtown.
Swaim/We've got lots of small issues. Traffic signals, railroad crossings, neighborhood
arts, senior center funding, turn lanes, neighborhood conservation, trail
connections, city park pool, downtown festivals, Fourth of July, holiday d6cor,
litter, public perception of it, I wasn't...city services. (several talking) Public
relations, and that covers it all.
Lehman/It's almost as if we had a lot of money in the budget, isn't it?
Swaim/Well, some of those things can be (several talking) again, I want to encourage
you based on my experience even like I said this morning or this afternoon, even
trying to set the room up. You have an incredible wealth of good-will
ambassadors in the city staff that you have. On the library board we did the
awards for longevity, and one of the guys who got an award is the guy (tape ends)
Swaim/...of why the book is lost, and he listens (tape goes in and out) that's one of the
most interesting (laughter) well, I encourage you to go out and tap into that, and
go as part of your inquiry of being informed, just make mindful note of how many
city staff you have out there doing these incredible jobs and figure out ways you
can acknowledge that, or celebrate that that don't take a lot of money. Just take
some sort of a minor recognition of that, like the library had for this guy. So,
we're going to take a ten-minute break. We're going to come back and I think
we'll be done by 3:30pm.
(TAPE OFF)
(several laughing and talking)
Swaim/The last thing I want to do today with you, there are two things I want to do.
We'll do little session at the very end of this, but you've talked a lot about
communication and respect. You've talked about in your principles how to get
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information, how to be informed, and so I want us to, I want to encourage you or I
want to try and facilitate just a little discussion about communication with each
other and ways that you can communicate, when you're outside of the meetings
especially. Now, let me just walk through what I know of some rules. Four of
you cannot be in the room at the same time discussing an issue, is that correct?
Can three of you be in a room discussing an issue?
Wilburn/As long as we're not Economic Development Committee (can't hear).
O'Donnell/Something about a quorum.
Swaim/Okay. Are you allowed to call one another?
Lehman/Sure.
Swaim/Are you allowed to email one another, individually?
Lehman/Not in the same message I think.
O'Dormell/Individually but you can't, four of us can't get the same...
Lehman/IfI emailed seven people the exact same message, I think that's a problem. I
don't think you can do that.
Elliott/But I could email you and say, Emie, what do you think about this?
Bailey/But not Economic Development.
Wilburn/IfI remember right fi'om Eleanor's suggestion was, is that it isn't necessarily
the same message or test. It's the facilitation of a discussion over email (can't
hear) deliberating over email, so that's the problem.
(several talking and laughing)
Swaim/Well let's just talk about these things. So there's telephone. You have
telephones that you can use. You have email. Conversation? You're allowed to
have conversations, one on one? What are some other ways that you
communicate? You're allowed to write? I'm sorry, Dee, you were about to say
something?
Vanderhoef/Put information and/or memos in the packet. Those become public.
Swaim/What are other public ones that you can do? You have public hearings.
O'Donnell/Work sessions are...
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Elliott/Even in meetings there are discussions.
O'Donnell/Formal meetings there are discussions, ho~vever limited to what's on the
agenda.
Elliott/Yes, yes.
Bailey/Right.
Swaim/What about staff?. Who do you talk with? How do...let's walk through the, who
was it that was waiting at the railroad crossing, one of you, oh and Ross. Okay,
you and Ross are waiting at the railroad, as a matter of fact you had lunch
together and you're waiting at the railroad crossing together. (several laughing
and talking) Who are City staffthat you would talk to about an issue? Is there a
protocol, a defined protocol? And I forgot to say this at the beginning, at this part
of the discussion I asked Steve to be a participant in the discussion.
Champion/Protocol - if it's a problem I call Steve and I expect him to deal with it. Ifa
question, I usually call Marian, but I try to avoid talking to her as little as
possible.
Atkins/And when you're in trouble you call Eleanor. (laughter)
Lehman/You know I think that most of us have found, there really are virtually no staff
people in the civic center who aren't extremely helpful to Council people. I think
historically Council has been very respectful of staff in taking their time. That
hasn't always been the case, but these are all busy people. But I never had a
question for staff folks that they weren't very gracious and quick with answers.
Elliott/But I think we need to, we talked about using cautious and judicious use of TIFs,
I think we have to realize that staff has to have a boss, and even when you just ask
them a quick question, if you're on the phone, you're still taking their time so I
think we need to be extremely cautious about taking their time, at any time.
Wilbum/I think too it's been, we try to be cognizant of that. We'll talk to Steve and
Steve will say why don't you go ahead and talk to Terry Trueblood, or on the flip
side, have a conversation with Karin Franklin and I'll mention by the way I talked
to (can't hear).
Swaim/There's probably some distinction between based on what it is you're talking
about. Using the railroad crossing thing, if you're just, if it so happens you
encounter somebody who (can't hear, cell phone ringing) By the way, I didn't put
cell phones. (laughter)
Elliott/I think, Jim, one thing that we're getting at is that whenever we talk to staff, or
when we ask staff to do something, it puts them in a rather delicate position.
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Swaim/Sure, that's what I was going to get to. So if you have a casual question and
you've encountered somebody on the City staff who knows about the railroad
crossings and the interaction between the local railroad and that, and you go
what's the normal crossing time down there? That's an okay question, but if
you're talking about what's the long term strategy we have for regulating the
railroad traffic, that would be something that you would ...... that's probably not
a good example.
Lehman/Jim, we have a policy which I think is a very good policy. Anything that is
requested from staff folks that is going to require an inordinate amount of time,
requires the request of four Council people. So if you ask for a report on the
number of homes in Iowa City that have between 1,200 and 3,700 square feet,
you're not going to get it unless three other Council people want the same
information. If it's an extraordinary amount of time, we aren't going to spend
City funds for staff time to do something for, on the whim of a Council person
unless there's general interest in it.
O'Donnell/(can't hear) staff is very, very approachable, and there's a lot of interaction
between the Councilors on a given day, but you know, what we tried to do on the
last Council, is stress that the staff goes in at 8 and they leave at 5 and it's really
inappropriate to come in at 5 of 5 and ask, and sit down and talk for 45 minutes.
They also have a life, but Steve has made it so all the staff is very approachable
when you just, you use good judgment when speaking to them.
Vanderhoef/One of the things that has worked for me is if it's a non-critical time piece, I
may save up five, six, seven issues and I keep a running list, and then I make an
appointment with Steve so that in a 30-minute time, he can block out when he's
available, and "work the list".
Swaim/Okay.
Atkins/Do you check that twice? (laughter)
Vanderhoef/And sometimes I still miss it.
Swaim/I want to get back to a little bit more about how you communicate with each
other. So you've learned a little bit about each other today. I'm sorry, Regenia,
you had...
Bailey/Just meet, have lunch together, anything interesting like that?
Swaim/I haven't gotten to that but that's...
Bailey/I guess conversations but that's one of the things.
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SwaimJ Meet for lunch. We heard an example of you went into a lunch thinking half an
hour tops and wound up in a two-hour conversation.
Bailey/...that I was charming. (laughter)
Swaim/Meet for lunch. All of that. And by the way, that's legal. Not violating open
meetings law.
Champion/For some of us it could be for breakfast.
Bailey/And obviously gin for some. (laughter)
Swaim/How about this one for a real wild one because I have done this for a couple
years with a couple of colleagues. Meet for a walk. (several laughing and
talking) Let me ask you what you think about, let me ask you to ponder for a
moment, if there were an issue. Now, in this new, healthier, respectful climate
that you're all working in, there's an issue that you feel strongly about and you
know enough, a little bit, but enough to know that a fellow Council member has
pretty strong views completely different than yours. Which of these things here
would you...
Elliott/Lunch.
Swaim/Lunch? And why would you use lunch?
Elliott/I do that all the time. I can't do that with the Council Members, but I call people
and say hey, if I buy you lunch can we chat about...(several talking at once).
Swaim/You can go to lunch.
Elliott/I think it's a way, almost everybody takes lunch, and you take 30 to 60 minutes,
so you might as well spend it productively.
Swairn/Okay. So if there's an item that you're....what if there's an item that you know
is a hot-button public item?
Champion/I think sometimes, and I disagree with Mike and I know he's never going to
agree with me on this particular subject. I might call him and say you know this
is how I feel about this and I know you're never going to agree with me, and just
let him know that we aren't going to agree on this.
Wilburn/That's your positive negatism.
Champion/Right, so he doesn't hit me at the meeting, (laughter) because he's bigger than
I am. But I think there are some times when you know them isn't going to be any
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agreement, and I think it's just important. Otherwise I tend to do all that
discussing at the meeting, not at lunch or over the phone.
Lehman/I think...we know each other very well, well enough to know who we would
maybe go and see and pick up the phone. I have absolutely no problem
whatsoever picking up the phone and talking to anybody. And if you don't like to
talk to me, hang up the phone, it's no big deal. But, I will say this, ifa Council
person has something they would like to see occur, the chances of that occurring
along with their wishes are far better if they run it past two or three other Council
people, rather than spring it up at a meeting, totally unannounced, and then expect
people to fall back in. Give them a chance to ruminate on it a little bit. In fact,
many times your ideas will get somewhat massaged and changed before you even
present them, but surprises are not fun at public meetings because you're asked to
respond to something without even thinking about it.
Champion/I mean when we have an agenda item that we're going to....you're right.
Lehman/But those things I think we all, and very soon we're going to know each other
well enough to know that I need to stop and see you, or pick up the telephone or
whatever. In most cases I don't think most of us have much conversation about
agenda items unless it's something, it's something that's particularly critical or
it's very important, there's a lot of controversy about it, it's probably a good idea
to get into each other's heads and figure out what we're individually thinking, but
by and large, I don't sense that there's a lot of conversation about every-day sort
of agenda items between Council people.
O'Donnell/And I don't think it's important that everybody agrees. I think it's really neat
to have that discussion and understand that occasionally you're going to disagree
with somebody, but I think that's all a part of that process.
Swaim/That's really good insight, Mike, you know, the importance for the community is
that you agree. As I said earlier this morning, you're elected in some ~vays to
disagree. The election reflects a diverse population with diverse ideas. You are
elected to represent that diversity, and so I don't think the public at all expects
you to agree. What I think the public is hopeful of is that as you disagree, that
you do it in a respectful way. A way that honors the diversity of ideas. You
know, in a way that makes everybody feel even if the decision didn't go the way I
wanted, I thought the process of the decision was a fair one, a respectful one, an
honorable one, but I will encourage you to think about these other forms of
communication, especially as you are in, in a sense you are a new group. There
are five of you who have been on the group, there are a few of you who have been
on the group a long time. There are two of you who are new to the group, and a
couple of you who may be leaving the group, and certainly in two years there may
be a couple more who are leaving the group. But I want to encourage you to think
of these other forms of communication, especially when you get back over to this
principle of trying to have information and be informed. It's helpful, Dee, if you
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know ahead of time what some of Regenia's views on a particular thing, whether
it relates to the issue or not. You do represent also a certain amount of expertise.
Each of you has some unique expertise, whether it's relative to you know business
practices, your own life's work, your college education, the neighborhoods that
you live in, and so you may want to consult with each other, not just to share your
view, but to probe and get information and tap the expertise, and the wisdom, that
you have represented in your group. Steve, is there anything else about
communication based on your view as the City Manager, or representing what
staff would encourage on... ?
Atkins/I think a couple things on, that are important, every Wednesday morning we have
a staff meeting whether we prepare an agenda or the directors and I get together
on any number of a variety of issues. One of the things, particularly when it
follows a Council meeting, is that you will hear the words what did the Council
do? Not what Ross did, or Regenia. These are bright people, and they know how
you voted and they all probably know why you voted that way, but they clearly,
what did the Council do? They look at you as a body, and say, okay, now we
have our direction, whether it's 4 to 3, or 7 to zero, they do look at you
collectively with respect to the decisions. Now they may individually, and during
discussions your ears may bum a little bit, you know, what was Bob thinking
when he...(laughter) but the real bottom line for you to know, is they look for the
direction from the collective. A second thing that I think is important is that the
staff watches you all and how you interact, and I'll be very candid with you, over
the last several years, certain initiatives were not taken or were not pursued,
simply because if it came up in from of the Council, we're going to get beat up,
bloodied, mocked, whatever it was, and that's, and when there isn't that
communication amongst yourselves, there isn't that initiative that I think that you
want to see in your organization. You want people to propose, you want people
to take an occasional risk, calculated, but a risk. And so they watch how you
work amongst yourselves. The third point is that they watch you and how you
interact with me, and I don't know how to say it. If you treat me respectfully, and
that doesn't mean we agree with everything, but if you treat me, their comfort
level goes up dramatically, and again, they're more likely to pursue matters and
take initiatives, if they see that's a, you know, and that's not everybody hugging
every (laughter) meeting, no hugging (several talking and laughing). And so it
helps motivate the staff, and folks, this will sound silly. I play on the City softball
team, as does Ross, occasionally, and these are folks working in the fields, I'll ask
what's going on, it finds its way throughout the organization, so it's really
important how you communicate and treat each other because that has a lot to do
with the effectiveness of your organization. You hired me to manage the
organization, to get done what you want done, but I think you also say this is
bright intelligent people who should be proposing, and giving us ideas, and I want
to be able to say to staff who proposes this, we don't like it, okay. We can work
with it, we just move on to the next thing. Not a bad idea, just not acceptable to
this group of folks.
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Elliott/Steve, just piggybacking on that, I think that if the staffdoes not propose
something that isn't accepted, occasionally, staff isn't doing its job. I think you
should be trying some things that don't succeed because if you don't ever have
anything fail, I don't think you're trying enough. There's one proposal before the
Council right now that I am very much against, but I think I'm glad the staff
brought it up. They should.
Atkins/And a final (can't hear) We have a unique circumstance where I know you
individually, and you all I hope continue to come to me and talk to me, I've got an
idea. I think most of you know, that's not a good one, and I'm going to be honest
with you about that. If you chose to pursue it, that's certainly very much up to
you, and you use the experience that I've had and the experience of the rest of the
staff, but I also know you collectively, and I can also say when we're meeting
individually, I don't think the group is going to buy this, or will or won't, it's
going to have to be modified. I can be a resource to you then, and I'm flattered by
that because I think that's trust. That you are saying I trust you, I trust your
opinions.
Wilburn/...correct me if I'm wrong, Steve, the point about something not being brought,
an initiative, disrespect can stifle creativity. I mean, I remember Ernie and I, we
used to do the radio show with (can't hear) and we were both on the Economic
Development Committee, and there was something Council voted on and they
were short a person and the gal at the radio station asked me, I need somebody
can you come so I sure and we're talking on the radio, and the former Council
Member called in and accused of being an illegal meeting of the Economic
Development Committee. I never did the radio show again. (laughter) Do you
remember that?
O'Donnell/You know what's really important, a couple of us old members of this
Council talked about our meeting Tuesday night, and we remember going home
and, you know, there were a lot of times you didn't sleep until 1 or 2, you were so
high on this that, you know, a lot of our problems, I think, have handled
themselves and in this Council, I just can't feel, we'll have some dissents and
disagreements, but I think it's always going to be respectful.
Swaim/Well and as I said, I hope part of the usefulness of the time that you've spent
together today, is that you have a little bit of the ground rules that you've
established. I didn't do enough of this earlier. Normally I would have, if my
sticky wall had worked better, I want to make sure that everybody is comfortable
with everything that's on this list, and we affirm that this morning. We'll let you
learn from your colleagues on that one. Anything else about communication in
general. A couple things I decided not to do that you might chose to do at some
future time, or maybe a year from now if you redo this. Understanding your
communication styles and your learning styles is a very useful thing. I just ran
out of time to try and do that, but understanding it's not even the formal (can't
hear) knowing a little bit about each other's styles, you're not going to learn a
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whole lot just in the public meeting so I do want to encourage you whenever you
can within the time constraints that you have, to pursue some of these things. So
before we wrap up, I want you to think back for a minute on the Whole day. Well,
some of us have been here since, when? 8:15. We've been together quite a few
hours today, and again I want to acknowledge this is a very, I don't think people
should take for granted the fact that you took one entire day to just talk to each
other as human beings so you can do effective teamwork, but we've taken that
whole day, and I want you to reflect on that. And, what are some of the things
that you remember that we've done today? What are some things that stand out
that we've done? Moments of the day that stick out in your mind?
Vanderhoef/We've done diads and triads.
Elliott/Is that anything like coke?
Vanderhoef/If it makes you high, huh? (laughter)
Swaim/What are some other things that stand out that we did? Just quick.
O'Donnell/I think we humanized each other.
Swaim/Humanized. What are some actual activities that you can remember?
Champion/I won at tic-tac-toe.
Swaim/Tic-tac-toe.
Elliott/She cheated. Any time a man has to compete with a woman, I'm at a
disadvantage. (laughter)
Vanderhoef/We'll work on your self-esteem next trip.
Wilburn/The ice breaking, the initial activity that you did just to...
Swaim/The icebreaker.
Elliott/I don't know if this is what you want, Jim, but it seemed like we have spent the
day confirming that we have a common feel for what we want to do and how we
want to do it. It seems that way to me.
Lehman/Confirmed what we already suspected.
Elliott/Yeah, I don't think anything shocking or new was up there, but it was a
confirmation. And we're more comfortable.
Swaim/Anything else? Other quick things, events of the day, moments of the day?
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Wilburn/(can't hear) where we all came from, and what was going on locally, and city
wide, nationally, culturally.
Atkins/Everybody sitting around lunch and everybody wanting to tell a story about a
non-City related issue.
Elliott/And I didn't get to tell my story. (laughter and several talking at once)
Swaim/Any surprises for you for the day? Anything you were kind of like, whoa?
O'Donnell/You know it wasn't a surprise but four years ago, if you remember we sat
down and we talked, and we had a facilitator, and we talked about three hours and
he said don't bother. This isn't going to work, and you know, I went into this
feeling that that wasn't going to happen, that everybody here was reasonable and
agreeable, but it just confirmed to me the group that we have here.
Swaim/And that's a little bit of a surprise?
O'Donnell/I expected it but I think it's even better than I thought.
Elliott/Are we going to have, before we tune out, are we going to have just a minute for a
Council minute, to reflect on the day. I think that would be kind of neat.
Anybody who wants to --- I want to.
Lehman/Good.
Champion/Because you didn't get to tell your story at lunch? (laughter)
Swaim/You mean a moment with just the Council Members?
Elliott/No, no, before we go, as we end a Council meeting, you get to comment, yeah.
Vanderhoef/I think today brought up the possibility, for myself I'll speak, to reassess
things that I do, things I don't do, how I do them, so they were reminders which
were positive.
Swaim/Okay.
Bailey/The map exercise reminded me, I have areas of Iowa City that I'm passionate
about, and it reminded me that other people have their areas that they're
passionate about, and to work with that and go to them for information, and
connect with them on issues like that, and to look more broadly at some of the
other areas in the community.
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Swaim/What do you think the significance of the day is going to be in terms of(laughter
and people talking). Is them anything about today's work that will be significant
to the coming year for you all?
Champion/Well I'm not sure about today's work but I think when Mike said we were all
kind of humanized today, because we will not be able to act this loose at a
Council meeting or a work session because people will talk, what do you call
that? But I think that's the most positive thing about a group like this, that you
really, I think we're all totally relaxed here and that's what (can't hear). No
rigidity here at all today, and I think that's, because as a group we really haven't
worked together at all except for two quick meetings, so I think that's a very
positive thing that we can just relax. Like I think we could actually play charades
(laughter and several talking at once) That's a very good part of the day.
Wilbum/Yeah I think that's reflective on Ernie's comment. (can't hear) regardless of
what we disagree on in the future, or agree on, we are the City government, we
are the City Council, experiencing the same things just different points of view.
O'Donnell/(can't hear) if you really want to see what Iowa City is about, look at the
names on that picture up there. That's about as diverse a group as you'd ever find
anywhere, but that's kind of what Iowa City's makeup is, so it's okay...
(several talking at once)
Atkins/The neat thing is that those diverse people came together to vote a $25 million
investment that you're sitting in. And in case you don't recall, this plant took
with the initiation of the idea to when we opened the door, just short of nine years.
Swaim/Anything that you can, as you reflect on the day, work, and the guiding
principles, anything that you think you will do as a result, and for this one I'm
going to go around to each of you. That you will do or will incorporate into
actual behavior either on the Council or with each other. And I'll ask for a
volunteer but I'm going to ask each of you.
Elliott/What was the question again?
Swaim/Is there anything as a result of today's work together, that you can think of as you
leave this meeting, you know as I approach my work on the Council, here's one
thing that I'm taking away from the day that I'm actually going to do as a result of
what I've learned today, or information that I've gotten from today? Anyone
want to volunteer to go first?
Vanderhoef/I'm going to work harder at making eye contact. I tend to work with my
pencil and paper much of the time, and getting my head up more.
Swaim/Okay.
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Wilburn/It's hard. Connie and I were talking about this earlier, because the supervisors
are more of a horseshoe, we're really sitting in a straight line. It's hard. You
have to make a conscience effort, I find myself leaning back and then forward
to...
Swaim/So, Dee, you're going to try and make eye contact. Somebody else want to
volunteer?
Elliott/The word that I put up there was timing, and with my personality, I tend to want
to comment on things that I have an interest, and I have an interest in almost
everything, and I think I have to learn to limit my comments so I will right now
tell my fellow Council Members that when you hear me commenting too much,
why don't you say, Bob, timing. That will let me know, Bob, you've already
spoken enough. You'll know. (several talking and laughing)
Swaim/That is a great offer, Bob.
Elliott/I'm so interested in so many things that just about everything that comes up I
want to comment on it. (laughter)
Swaim/Anyway, that is a great suggestion, and that's a great offer to your fellow Council
Members. Another volunteer, otherwise I have to start pointing at people.
Bailey/I like that positive negatism, whatever that is. It's not just listening to a person
and nodding I hear you, I hear you, I hear you, but giving them an assessment of
the lay of the land, and also offering them an opportunity to participate in a
different way, or engage their passions in a different way, and I think that that
could be a more constructive way to work with many people, given that some
things won't always go the way they would prefer them. I don't know. I thought
that was an interesting idea.
Swaim/Thanks, and that's going to be part of what you operate with. Ernie?
Lehman/I don't know about just from today, but I think we all need to appreciate that
none of us are sitting here for any reason other than trying to do what is best for
this community, and I think we sometimes lose sight of that over little differences.
Where it's what the hell is the matter with...no, no, there is nothing wrong with
this person. They are sitting here with the same interests we have, we just don't
view the solution as being the same. I think it's very important that we appreciate
each other for that, along with a number of things. Now I think that the
community, along with the council, has a great expectation for this council, partly
because of the five incumbents who have bitterly decried the behavior of the
council for the last four years. We've got no excuses any more. I think people
are looking for a very productive, good council, and I do think that people are
going to expect mom from us than from any council we've had in a long time. So
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I think it's our job to show them that we are the kind of council that they perceive
us to be, and that we perceive ourselves to be.
Swaim/So in thinking about your own interaction with this council and what you've
heard today, is there one thing you walk away from this meeting, thinking I'm
going to try this?
Lehman/One of the things, and this is probably sad in a way, but those of us who were
on the council before, to some sick degree, enjoyed the conversations lamenting
two of our compatriots. That's all over, and the time that we've spent making
excuses for what didn't happen, we're going to have to tell folks what is going to
happen. I mean this is a very positive sort of thing, and I think all of us who have
been on the council for four years, we were approached by all kinds of folks in the
community, and we were laughed at and joked about, and it was us when we had
council members who performed in public in a manner that wasn't particularly
professional, it was a reflection on all of us. We don't have that anymore. We
don't have any excuses, and I think that our comments about Council are going to
be remarkably different. They have to be.
Swaim/And yours will be?
Lehman/Absolutely.
Swaim/I was just looking for...Ross?
Wilbum/I think what I'm going to do is really take a look at our guidelines, and I've
been in a perspective mood anyway lately. Take a look at each one of the items
and think about my eye contact, think about, you know, because I sense that I've
developed some bad habits, I'm qualifying them as bad as they aren't generally
me, I find myself, there have been times where I find myself just counting what
somebody's saying, and not honoring their contribution when they come to the
podium and they're challenging and all that stuff, to go ahead and get myself to
go ahead and look at them because I've developed some habits that are in the way
of how I operate.
Swaim/So you're going to reexamine this and resume a better...okay. I think it's just
down to the two of you.
Champion/Well don't worry, it's not going to be profound. I've always been very fond
of Iowa City. It took me a couple years to get used to it. My favorite story about
Iowa City is that for two years I didn't go anywhere because I'd never driven on a
two-lane road in my life so I was scared to go anywhere, but I've grown very fond
of it, and I think it's an incredible jewel. I have a very diverse family, there are
73 of us that live all over the country, and they're all jealous of Iowa City when
they come here so we have something incredibly good to be proud of. So my
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contribution to this council is I'm going to try to not interrupt anymore. I'm
going to try. (laughter)
Swaim/Mike, do you have anything you take away from the day, that, an actual action or
just ....
O'Donnell/Just a real positive feeling toward this Council. We're all battered and we're
beat up, and we're talked about, and we're laughed at, and that's been going on
long enough, and Ernie, I think you're exactly right. It's up to this group right
here to change that perception in the connnunity. I'm probably going to conduct
myself in a more positive manner. But I'll tell you, I will enjoy going to council
meetings a lot more.
Swaim/Well again I want to thank you for the day. I want to give you the opportunity
that Bob talked about so I don't know how you normally conduct that so.
Elliott/Mike?
O'Dormell/I just finished, Bob. Timing.
Vanderhoef/I just want to say thank you to Jim for leading us through what could have
been a very difficult issue and turned into a very fun and enlightening, so thank
you.
O'Dounell/I want to second that, Jim. I, you know, I was the one that probably raised
the most Cain about sitting here as long as we did, and probably the one who
enjoyed it the most. (laughter) No, I have enjoyed the day and that's really good
news.
Elliott/Well I just want to say that I had never planned to mn for City Council. First of
all in my life, and it has only been in the last few years that I would have had
enough confidence to do that, but I had an inquiry from Karen Kubby maybe a
year ago or maybe more than that, where she said I hear you're running for
council, is that right. And I said yeah, and she said why? And I said well my
niece just asked me that and I hadn't thought of it and it made me pause for
thought, and what I came up with was serving on the council, or in a position like
this, is a chance to combine philosophy with pragmatism and reality, and you
don't really get a chance to do that anymore, and so I didn't know what to think.
The closer I got to the council starting I was looking forward to it, but with very
mixed emotions. One, I was enthused and appreciative that I was elected, but
very apprehensive. I have a very, very good friend who has skills and abilities
like this, he's close to a genius. My skills and abilities are like this, but I have a
great deal of confidence in those. My apprehension is I know there are going to
be things that come up before the council and I won't know what to do about it,
and so I'm apprehensive that I want to do a good job, but you have eased that
apprehensiveness. Monday night I enjoyed. Tuesday night I looked forward to it,
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and it was everything that I thought it might be, and today I was looking forward
immensely to this, and I don't think there's anything we discussed that we didn't
already know, but it reaffirmed and confirmed, and provided us with an optimism
and an objectivity that I think is going to be beneficial and will fuel us. I am
actually looking forward to the first time that we have a real difference of opinion
on the council. I think that's going to come up pretty soon. I'm actually looking
forward to that. (several talking and laughing) but I'm just so pleased to be here,
so appreciative, and so enjoying being in this position, and I look forward to
working with each of you, and Jim, thanks a lot.
Swaim/Thank you.
Bailey/Thank you, Jim. I would like to build on something that Emie said. There are no
more excuses. I think that we can work well together but I would like to
challenge this group, let's take on some tough issues. Let's be a little bit more
proactive, and not shy away from some of the tough things that are out there, that
we know are out there. Let's take some of them on, not all of them, it's a long
list, but I think it would be exciting to set a course for this community for the next
ten years, and I think this is just the group that can do it.
Lehman/Obviously I totally agree with that, but I really look forward to this year. Now,
there have been occasions in the last four years where I have made probably some
arbitrary decisions as mayor. If you folks at any time disagree with something
we're doing, the way the meetings are conducted, the rules or whatever, for
heaven's sake, I sense no one here is bashful, no, no, really. I think if there's any
way we conduct meetings, if you think we can do better, for heaven's sake, say
so. I mean, we have to put it on a work session but Marian's very good about
getting it on a work session, so please say anytime you have a concern. The other
thing I think is cool about his group is their sense of humor and it wouldn't hurt
one bit for that humor to be expressed occasionally on a Tuesday night at a
Council meeting. Let people know that we're enjoying ourselves. (tape ends)
Swaim/...it's an honor to be asked to work with you, and it's a great opportunity for me
to practice these skills. I do think these skills are useful, and I'm grateful for the
opportunity to contribute in some way to the good work that you are going to be
doing. You do face some challenging times. You know, as I leave the meeting,
I'm taking off my facilitator's hat, and I think about questions I would have
thrown at you, questions to ponder, you have an incredibly challenging time
coming down the road. We have tremendous national issues, state issues to
wrestle with, and at the same time you all talk in your vision about how exciting it
is to live in this community. So I'll close with this thought: I wish you all the
best, the very best, in your coming work and your coming two year together as a
group. So, thank you. (clapping)
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