HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-05-03 TranscriptionMay 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 1
May 3, 2004 Council Work Session 7:25 PM
Council: Bailey, Champion, Elliott, Lehman, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilbum
Staff: Atkins, Dilkes, Fosse, Franklin, Helling, Karr, Kopping, Nasby, Severson
TAPES: 04-34, S1DE TWO; 04-36, SIDE ONE
TAPE: 04-34, SIDE TWO
NEIGHBORItOOD CENTERS PRESENTATION
Lehman/A little late. With Council's permission, I would like to take the Neighborhood Centers
presentation first. Is that OK?
Karr/Correct.
Bailey/Yep.
Vanderhoef/Yep.
Champion/Good idea.
Lehman/Neighborhood Centers first.
Loring/Good evening. I'm Brian Loring.
Karr/You'll have to use the microphone.
Loring/Do I have to use the mic?
Lehman/Yes.
Atkins/Is that all fight?
Loring/I thought this was informal.
Vanderhoef/It is.
Lehman/But we still need to hear you.
Loring/I could talk really loud. I'm Brian Loring, executive director for Neighborhood Centers.
Thanks for inviting us out to do a brief presentation. I've got some overheads. I'm going
to kind of duck back and forth here.
Champion/You could keep that microphone with you.
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Loring/I'd like to kind of do a thousand-foot flyover, and I brought with me tonight Sue
Freeman, who's kind of programs director for Neighborhood Centers. In case the
Council has questions specific to programs, ! need backup because she's really into
more of the detail than I am. The Centers, we are, we've been around really since 1973.
We operate three centers, really three areas of service. Two of them are located in Iowa
City. We have our Pheasant Ridge Center, which is on the west side of Iowa City,
located in the Pheasant Ridge Apartment Complex. We started out in that neighborhood
in 1973 doing work out of a three-bedroom apartment. And then our Broadway Center,
which is located on the southeast side of Iowa City, you're all probably familiar with
that. We also do some work out in Tipton and Oxford with what we call Clear Creek,
and really service much of the Clear Creek Amana School District. We have staff that
work in the schools out there as well. We're primarily a prevention agency. We are
family-centered, neighborhood-based. What that really means--and how I'd like to talk
about the neighborhood centers is really talk about sort of what makes the, our agency
unique. And I think number one on the list is that we're really relationship-focused. As
you look at human services, one of the things that you're going to notice is that very
often agencies are created and driven by crisis. Ross is a good example, the Crisis
Center. A lot of times we---
(Laughter)
Loring/It's not that we don't deal with crisis but that's not the nature of the relationships that we
have with families. We're less focused on crisis, more focused on relationships, and the
stability and long-term commitment to families. And what I mean by that and what I say
to kind of condense that down is that you can come into the Neighborhood Centers on
the best day of your life or the worst day of your life, but we're open to you on both
days. And so, what happens is we build relationships, not around the crisis, but kind of
the natural exchange that happens in a neighborhood. Not to say that we don't deal with
crisis--we deal with a lot of crisis--but I think having that relationship that spans various
contexts allows for us to be more responsive when the crisis arrives because we already
have the relationship built with family or with kids. Does that make sense? I'll talk just
really briefly about programs. I'm going to kind of blaze through this and then want to
take questions if you have questions. We have four areas of programming. We call them
kind of development areas, and they are child development, youth development, family
development, and community development. And our child development really focuses
on early childhood programming, which means birth to 5, preschool, we do infant care,
we have toddler care at our centers. That's, I think, important; I think one of the other
things that's notable about the centers and is important to note about the centers is we
really try to be responsive to the neighborhoods, the needs of the neighbors, the
changing needs of the neighborhoods. This, I think, really was driven home when a
couple of years ago when we were looking at space needs, and it was difficult for us to
determine what kind of space we were going to need because we don't know what kind
of program we were going to be doing in five years. And child development is a good
example of that because in 1995, when I came to Neighborhood Centers, we had 12 slots
of child care, cooperative child care, at our Broadway Center. Which meant you worked
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 3
a little bit, you get a little child care in return. After some state and federal welfare
reform initiatives the push really was to put people into work. And when you go to
work, you need child care. And so people in our neighborhoods are saying, we've got to
have some help with child care. In 1996 and 1997, we completely retooled our agency
and went from doing 12 slots of cooperative child care to doing over 120 slots of
daycare. So, that was an incredibly painful time for our agency, let me tell you. It was
very painful, but we ended up at sort of the end of that tunnel looking at a child
development program that was, at this point I feel, is really very topnotch. We're an
accredited program. We're accredited by the National Association for the Education of
the Young Child, which is a fairly prestigious accreditation. We also are in collaboration
with--Lane's here tonight and maybe if he'd have a moment to share some things on
this--but ~ve also do a summer program called Prep, which is Preschoolers Reaching
their Educational Potential, which is really designed to get kindergartners ready for that
first year of school. And it's about a ten-week session, with kindergartners, very
intensive for kids that may be looking at some academic delays or maybe having some
behavioral issues in getting them ready to go into kindergarten. We also have infant
care, toddler care. Our preschools are really dual-language. Our Broadway Center does
Spanish, English, and our Pheasant Ridge Center is Arabic, English. We do a lot of kind
of drop-in play groups for young children. We also are a partner with Headstart and we
are in a number of different collaborations with Wendell Johnson. Also, we work very
closely with Breakthrough to Literacy, which is kind enough to provide us with a lot of
staff support and really the whole battery of services that they provide in classrooms
throughout the country, they provide with neighborhood centers. Youth development is
really the center of our program and youth development is really after-school programs.
We kind of subscribe to the notion that keeping kids busy is really important. But we
also try to make certain that kids are doing well in school. I think one of the things that
we understand about our work is that when, if we're successful, then the kids are
successful in school. And so we want to try to incorporate academic pieces into all of
our after-school programs. So we do tutoring both in school and some at the center. We
have dabbled in pre-employment programming .There is less funding for these kind of
things today than we've had in the past, but we continue to try to make referrals to the
program that the City funds through United Action for Youth and some other
opportunities. We've done a number of different enrichment classes and courses at the
center for youth, school-age youth. Family development really looks at, we do a lot of
parenting classes, both at the center and remotely in various locations. We do English as
a Second Language classes at our Broadway Center. We have adult basic ed that we're
hooked into through our Even Start Family Literacy program, which is a program that
works both with parents and children in terms of trying to facilitate reading and the love
of reading. We haven't done recently, but in the past we've done employment skills
classes for adults. We have a parent and neighborhood advisory group that meets at all
of our centers. In the past we've done New Mother support groups and Successful
Families Initiative which is a family support program for parents with children who are
school-age. And we continue to do a First Books program, which is designed for
preschoolers, and it's a program that we do with Iowa Public Television where kids get a
free book once a month. I'm kind of racing through this, but, and then community
development is also an area that we put some energy into. These overheads are a little
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bit dated, but in 2000 we had the Broadway Improvement Group, which is now, we've
kind of reinitiated that effort and we're in the process of doing some work with some of
the key stakeholders in the Broadway neighborhood, to look at some of the concerns,
look at some of the resources, and develop a work plan to make some improvements in
the Broadway neighborhood. We also do neighborhood councils, which are really folks
from the neighborhood who both inform programming at the center and also look at
issues that impact the entire neighborhoods. So they're looking at issues of crime and,
you know, who's going to put the shopping carts away, those kinds of things. They're
looking at all those issues in the neighborhood. We've done a number of community
events through the neighborhood councils as well as study circles. I won't get into that
right now. But we also do a summer lunch program which is part of our summer
program. And we last year implemented a very large kind of an initiative for summer
programming that includes day camp for about 150 kids, plus the summer lunch
program for how many neighborhoods?
Freeman/Five.
Loring/Five. Five areas in Iowa City and out in some of the rural parts of the county. We also
work pretty closely to try to coordinate resources, particularly resources that are going
into the neighborhoods that we serve. This is kind of a snapshot of what we look at in
terms of outcomes. And I included some specific outcomes on the handout that I gave
you, but we really are looking at preparing kids, I mean, our number one job is getting
kids ready for school, and when they're in school, keeping them in school and making
sure they're doing well. We also have worked pretty hard at trying to make sure families
are self-sufficient and employed. One of the reasons that we do so much child care is to
help facilitate that employment for families as well as enhance the development of the
child. And we also are pretty strongly involved in child abuse prevention in our
neighborhoods. There's a study that recently came out from the Harvard School of
Public Health. I don't know if anybody's read any of this, probably not. It's kind of for
the nerds that are into this stuff but there was basically a ten-year study done in some
neighborhoods in Chicago, really look at what are the (can't hear) of crime. Where does
crime, how does crime emerge in these neighborhoods. And you know there's this
theory that goes around about the broken window, you know, if there's a broken
window, that sends a message to the community that this is kind of a neighborhood in
decay, and that sort of thing, right? The study done by a professor by the name of Felton
Earles, who's actually--he's a professor but he's also a pediatrician and a neurosurgeon,
a very learned gentleman, unlike myself. But he talks a lot about how what the most
critical, what really is the biggest determinant of how crime-ridden neighborhood, or
how a prone a neighborhood will be to crime is how responsive people in the
neighborhood are to the needs of children. In other words, if you go into a neighborhood
and see adults looking out for kids, like ushering them away from the street or, you
know, correcting their behavior, he said that is probably the most important indicator
that will tell you whether or not there's going to a be a high crime, incidence of crime, in
that neighborhood. I just thought--I find that interesting, particularly in some of the
conversations that we've had in this community, that really what it comes down to is the
strength of the community and the natural networks of support that exist in the
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neighborhoods. That is really probably the biggest determinant as to whether or not
there's going to be crime and drugs and so forth in the neighborhood. Anyway, I just
throw that out because I find it interesting. Anyway, that's all I have. I'll take questions
if you have them.
Elliott/Brian, I have a question. Very, very briefly could you sketch how you interface with the
schools? You talk about that relationship.
Loring/Superintendent Plugge is here tonight. To talk about one of the partnerships that we're
involved in which is at Grant Wood Elementary School. This is just an example. You
know, we've been in discussion with them. We have a staff person right now who works
at Grant Wood Elementary School in the family resource center there.
Elliott/Excuse me. You relate with individual schools as opposed to a centralized relationship?
Loring/Well, I--maybe be more specific with your question. Maybe I'm not understanding.
Elliott/No, I was just want--you talked a great deal about how important it is that you're
preparing students for school and remediating them for school, and I was just wondering
how do you find out what the need is and you started to say, I think, that you relate more
or interrelate more with individual schools as opposed to working with someone at
central office as to what the needs are.
Loring/Well, I think we do both actually. But we do have staff on the ground in the schools at
both Grant Wood Elementary, South East Junior High, and City High. We have staff.
Champion/Do you have any programs dealing specifically with teenagers? I didn't see a lot--I
saw youth, does that mean teenagers?
Loring/Yeah, yeah, in fact, Sue, why don't you come up and talk about teen programs?
Freeman/Teen programs. Yes, teen programs are, the teen program is always around. Over just
the past few years, they're there. Over the past few years we've done everything from
pre-employment. We do intensive after-school programming with teens that we're
currently doing. In the summertime, there's a whole teen camp component where we
work with 12 to 24 teens five days a week, eight hours a day. We do evening programs,
teen groups, young black man's groups and women's groups. We try to involve teens as
much as possible into giving back to the neighborhood, so they're really involved in our
community service programs whenever possible. Teens are hard to motivate, you know,
so--you know they are, anybody with teens. You know, they're their own little birds, so-
-really, obviously looking at employment and pre-employment. So employment, pre-
employment is something that we really are working closely with, with UAY, with
Kirkwood's Work Force program, trying to get kids jobs.
Champion/Tell me a little bit about the background of people who work for you, like, does
anybody have counseling experience? What kind of criteria does it take to make that
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Neighborhood Center run?
Freeman/Wow. An eclectic group of people. Obviously, since we have everything from baby
room programs up to teen programs, we hire obviously educators. We have people with
certified teaching degrees in all of our child development programs. In our youth
programs, it's the same. Traditionally, in our education program, a mixture of social
workers or educators, somebody with a BA or an MA in teaching. We do have in our
family support development, I kind of call it our social workers. Most everyone has an
MSW, who does the actual one-on-one work with families or facilitating parent groups.
I call them our social workers and in fact they're social workers. So we tend to really
pull I think a lot from education and social work by nature.
(Can't hear)
Freeman/So, Brian didn't touch on summer but it's getting warm, so I would love to spend two
minutes and talk about summer camp because it's coming. Last year we did summer
camp and it was amazing. We were able to keep about, in our Broadway site, about 100
to 120 kids from 7:30 to 4:00 o'clock every day of the week, well Monday through
Friday.
Elliott/Ages?
Freeman/Kindergarten through 1 lth grade. Our 12th graders, we really were able to find
employment, and by then 12th graders really aren't big on joining any more. They're in
their own thing. So, we really, we had about 100 to 120 kids that we were able to, we
called it summer camp, 7:30 to 4:00 every day, where we have breakfast every day of
the week, we are partnered with the school district and did summer school. We did a free
summer lunch program every day. At the height of summer lunch, our summer lunch
staff were making close to 500 sack lunches, that we distributed throughout the county
to feed kids.
Loring/Only we don't call it free lunch.
Freeman/I'm sorry, yes. The no-cost lunch for family summer lunch. So we did summer lunch
and then when summer lunch was over, we broke up into age groups, kind of our lower
elementary, upper elementary, and teen, and we just did out, and half the time--we
worked with the City last year and had a bus pick kids up--and they swam at City Park
Pool. And the other half we worked with the Parks and Rec staff, and our staff along
with Parks and Rec staffput on camp activities at the local parks, and then our teens we
sent offon trips and things. But we did this five days a week all summer long. Staff
would take a couple hours' break and we'd come back in the evening, and we'd do
basketball programs in the neighborhood, teen programs. The idea was keeping
everybody busy and tired and it worked.
Vanderhoef/So what other facility, home-based, do you besides the Broadway Center?
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Freeman/We don't.
Vanderhoef/It's all out of the Broadway Center.
Freeman/Uh-huh. If you notice, camp, I mean, the one thing about camp is if it rains we did
need to cancel programs. So we did last year cancel one day. Because if you've been to
Broadway it does not hold 120 additional little people.
Vanderhoef/That's why I'm asking.
Freeman/Exactly. We have picnic tables in the parking lot, and we spread out in the building
every morning for breakfast, and the rest of camp was an outdoor camp experience. So.
Vanderhoef/That's pretty amazing.
Freeman/It is. You really need to come on over and see it. It's fun. You're welcome to join us
for summer lunch.
Bailey/So, talk about your staffing. I mean, it sounds like an incredible group of people, but how
many people are we talking?
Freeman/Well, traditionally, I think we're at about 50.
Loring/Yeah, we have about 50 staff. We also rely pretty heavily on--we have an AmeriCorps
program that has, we have an additional in the summer, we have what?
Freeman/We hire about 20 extra folks in the program just to do camp staff.
Loring/And a portion of those are AmeriCorps so we're able to use that. We also have worked
closely with the University and they have work-study, the America Reads program
which has allowed them to bring a few staffin. But paid staff we have about 50,
generally, well a few more in the summer.
Wilburn/Good.
Champion/Pretty incredible.
O'Donnell/Amazing. Yeah.
Bailey/Really.
Freeman/You're welcome to join us in the summer. Our staff wear bright green T shirts. You
can't miss them.
O'Donnell/You'd probably need more staff if you got all of us.
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(Laughter)
Freeman/No, we'd get you a T shirt. You don't need---
Vanderhoef/Put us to work.
Loring/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Vanderhoef/Thank you.
PLANNING AND ZONING ITEMS
Lehman/OK. Planning and zoning items.
a. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR MAY 18 ON AN
ORDINANCE REZONING APPROXIMATELY 35.05 ACRES OF PROPERTY
FROM RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PARK ZONE, RDP, TO OFFICE
COMMERCIAL ZONE, CO-l, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS, FOR PROPERTY
ALONG THE EASTERN PORTION OF NORTHGATE DRIVE IN
NORTHGATE CORPORATE PARK. (REZ04-00007)
Franklin/We'll try this without the AV and see how we do, OK? The first item is setting a public
hearing for May 18th on the rezoning from RDP to CO-1 of 35 acres, that's Northgate
Corporate Park off of Highway 1 North.
b. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE REZONING APPROXIMATELY 32,000 SQUARE
FEET FROM CENTRAL BUSINESS SERVICE ZONE (CB-2) TO HIGH
DENSITY MULTI-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL ZONE (RM-44) FOR PROPERTY
LOCATED AT 302 AND 308 SOUTH GILBERT STREET. (REZ04-00003)
(PASS AND ADOPT)
Franklin/Item b is pass and adopt on the rezoning from CB-2 to RM-44 of the property at
Burlington and Gilbert Street.
c. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE REZONING APPROXIMATELY 24.1 ACRES FROM
INTERIM DEVELOPMENT RESIDENTIAL ZONE (ID-RS) TO LOW
DENSITY SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL ZONE {RS-5), SUBJECT TO
CONDITIONS, FOR PROPERTY LOCATED ON SOUTH SYCAMORE
STREET, EAST OF SOUTHPOINT SUBDIVISION. (REZ04-00002) (SECOND
CONSIDERATION)
Franklin/Item c, second consideration on the rezoning from ID-RS to RS-5 of the subdivision on
the east side of Sycamore Street, across from Southpoint.
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d. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLAT OF WILD PRAIRIE
ESTATES PART FIVE, IOWA CITY, IOWA (SUB04-00008)
Franklin/Then Item d is a final plat on Wild Prairie Estates, part five. This is a 34-1ot, single-
family subdivision on the west side near Wickham School, north of the school.
Vanderhoef/Do you have your map tonight?
Franklin/Yep, I think so.
Vanderhoef/I'm trying to picture the outlot, and outlot A is for future expansion, but where does
the creek go? I'm trying to line it up with where it connects with Hunters Run.
Franklin/Where does the creek go?
Vanderhoef/Uh-huh.
Franklin/I think if you follow, thank you. It's right along in here.
Vanderhoef/Oh, that's--outlot A is on the north side of the creek.
Franklin/Yes.
Vanderhoef/Well, then the creek lines it up, then I know where it is connecting with Hunters
Run. That is what I needed for my landmark.
Franklin/OK.
Vanderhoef/So there's going to be a number of houses in A that will having facing, or at least
backyards, onto the park.
Franklin/Likely backyards.
Vanderhoef/OK. Thank you.
Franklin/Mm-hmm.
e. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE FINAL PLAT OF SANDItILL
ESTATES PART ONE, IOWA CITY, IOWA (SUB04-00009)
Franklin/OK, so since we've got this up here, then Item e is the final plat of Sandhill Estates,
part one. This is for the first part of Sandhill Estates. Remember, this is the subdivision
down off of Gilbert Street. This is recommended for approval by the Planning and
Zoning Commission 6 to 0. We have a sewer issue that we're working on. We're going
to work through some of that tomorrow in terms of how we handle it in the legal papers
and hopefully we'll have that all resolved by tomorrow night. If we don't, I will let you
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know and we'll just ask for a deferral. And that's all.
Lehman/Thank you.
AGENDA ITEMS
Lehman/OK, folks, Agenda items.
8. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 3 "CITY FINANCES, TAXATION
& FEES," CHAPTER 4, "SCHEDULE OF FEES, RATES, CHARGES, BONDS,
FINES AND PENALTIES" OF THE CITY CODE, TO DECREASE WATER
SERVICE CHARGES AND FEES IN IOWA CITY, IOWA. (SECOND
CONSIDERATION)
Atkins/Excuse me, one item, Ernie, is item number 8 on water rate reduction, the changes you'd
asked us to take a look at the return check policy, the $10. Kevin recommends that we
push that up to $15, because that much more closely covers our costs.
Lehman/OK. I'd like to expedite that tomorrow night, too, if no one has an objection.
Atkins/You can amend from $10 to $15, we would recommend that and expedition is fine as
well.
Lehman/OK.
Dilkes/Hold on a second. Yeah, you probably need to back up to first reading.
Atkins/Well.
Lehman/That's a significant change?
Dilkes/Well, it's a substantive change. It's not an issue of whether it's a significant change.
Lehman/Oh.
Dilkes/It's a substantive change and it probably is.
Lehman/That doesn't impact the implementation of the ordinance at the time that we wish to
implement it?
Atkins/No.
Lehman/All right. So we'll have an amendment presented tomorrow night to change the bad
check charge from $10 to $15; if that passes, we will then have first consideration. If
the amendment does not pass, we can go ahead with second consideration or expedite it
in that case. OK.
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Dilkes/Or you can collapse two tomorrow, too.
Champion/I don't think we're Coralville.
Dilkes/Pardon me?
(Laughter)
O'Donnell/Where you do a first and second reading. We can do a first and second---
Vanderhoef/Do you want to say that louder?
Lehman/No.
O'Donnell/Is that right then, we could do a first and second tomorrow?
Lehman/Yeah.
Atkins/We are not rushed. I mean, it's---
Lehman/It can just work here.
Atkins/OK, thank you.
O'Donnell/Emie was talking about---
Bailey/ I think (can't hear) cover our costs though, I mean---
Atkins/That's what it does.
Bailey/...I thought you heard me say that last time.
Atkins/Yes.
17. RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF A CONTRACT WITH THE
IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FOR FUNDING FROM THE
URBAN-STATE TRAFFIC ENGINEERING PROGRAM (USTEP) FOR
INSTALLATION OF VIDEO TRAFFIC SIGNAL DETECTION EQUIPMENT
ON BURLINGTON STREET
Elliott/I have a question about item 17, the video equipment?
Atkins/Mm-hmm.
Elliott/What is that intended to do? What does it do? How does it do it?
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Atkins/Do you want to go first?
Franklin/This is about the traffic video?
Elliott/Seventeen, yeah.
Franklin/Do you have it?
Atkins/I can answer it.
Lehman/Come on, guys, don't fight.
Atkins/No, we're not.
(Laughter)
Champion/We've already been here so long.
Atkins/Travel signal detection equipment has changed from the magnetic cuts in the street--
they're ten'ible to maintain, they're, they don't work as well--to a camera. You've seen
them mounted on a traffic? That's what this is. That camera then, if there's no room
somewhere where we're watching traffic, it views the traffic and makes decisions into
the controller on how traffic is going to move through that particular intersection.
We've been after this grant for some time. We believe in the long pull it will improve
the traffic flow through Burlington, in particular. That's why we've been doing that.
Elliott/OK.
Atkins/You'll see it looks truly like a camera pointing at the intersection.
Lehman/It trips the lights.
Elliott/Uh-huh. Yeah.
Atkins/The camera views the car. It sends a signal to the controller that trips the lights.
Lehman/Right.
Elliott/Good.
Lehman/OK.
3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR
AMENDED. L CORRESPONDENCE. (6) AMY KNIGHT: PARENT/BABY
PLAYTIME AT THE REC CENTER.
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3. L (19) NICK THOMPSON: LEISURE ACTIVITIES ['OR YOUTH AND COLLEGE-
AGED KIDS
Vanderhoef/Under correspondence, them were two--number 6 and number 19. Both have
references to Parks and Rec, and I would suggest they get sent back over to Parks and
Rec for---
Atkins/I thought we already followed up--hang on a second.
Helling/Yeah, on number 6, Terry Trueblood responded to that, and seriously invited her to
contact them and they would explore--they do something similar to that now.
Vanderhoef/They do it out at Mercer.
Bailey/Right.
Helling/Right.
Vanderhoef/I didn't see the response.
Helling/Do you want to see if we can dig that up? Yeah.
Atkins/I'm pretty sure it's---
Vanderhoef/It's probably there.
Atkins/Yes.
Vanderhoef/I leaned on the button or something and it whipped---
Atkins/We'll follow up for you. But I know Terry has already contacted those people.
Vanderhoef/But the 19 then, also I know it's a staffing problem, but certainly if they wanted a
late-night league kinds of thing in the gym, I don't know whether that's a possibility or
not.
Atkins/Well, there's a gymnasium proposal that's floating out there now that would fit well into
(can't hear)
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm.
Atkins/Yeah.
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. But these are specifically college kids that live in the neighborhood that
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 14
are asking for that possibility.
Atkins/Any chance of that.
3. £ (13) COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTIt CENTER FOR MID-EASTERN IOWA:
DELIVERY OF MENTAL HEALTIt SERVICES TO TItE COMMUNITY
Lehman/Steve, over on correspondence, that 13, there's a letter from---
Atkins/Steve Trefz.
Lehman/Yes.
Atkins/Yeah.
Lehman/We probably should just respond indicating we have written a letter to---
Atkins/I was going to say I made the assumption when you sent it to the county they would have
distributed it, but apparently it never went---
Lehman/Yeah.
Atkins/...further. I'll see that that letter goes to Steve.
Lehman/All right.
Atkins/Yeah.
3. £ (18) ORIANA KAUFMANN: BICYCLE SAFETY DAY
Lehman/Also, on 18, it's strange that Lane should be here. But the request asking the City to do
a bicycle safety day--this is primarily for kids in grade schools, I would certainly kind
of encourage us to for~vard that to school folks. They certainly have a captive audience.
Atkins/We help out with that, too.
3. £ (22) BOB WELSH: JC TASK FORCE REPRESENTATIVE.
Lehman/We're also asked to make an appointment to the Johnson County Task Force
representative--what's it on Committee on Aging?
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. That's number 12. Johnson County Task Force on Aging.
Lehman/That's the Senior Dining report; 22 is the one that we're asked to---
Vanderhoef/Yeah, send a response. And their meeting on the second Monday of the month, 1:30
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 15
to 3:00.
Champion/I think whoever's the oldest on the City Council---
Elliott/I knew it was going to come down to something like--that is, I'm in a protected category.
You forgot--I cannot be discriminated against on the basis of age.
Lehman/I don't think that's discriminating. I think that's probably recognizing---
Elliott/I was profiled into that.
(Laughter)
Vanderhoef/I'm actually going to volunteer Bob.
Atkins/Just volunteer and get it over with.
Elliott/OK.
Lehman/Thank you, Bob.
(Laughter)
Lehman/Other agenda items? This is going well.
O'Donnell/I think that's it.
3. £ (7) SItAWN KEELEY: HOMELAND SECURITY SUMMIT 2004
Vanderhoef/Oh, and Homeland Security Summit. I would presume that Andy Rocca and Tom
Hanson have received information on that Homeland Security Summit.
Atkins/We get Homeland--I can't speak for Tom, but I do know that R.J. and Andy get all that
information.
Vanderhoef/And Andy get that. The only one that may be but I'm sure that Tom will get it,
otherwise. But I'm sure that everyone knows about it.
Atkins/Yeah.
3. f. (11) CURT ELLIS: ACCIDENTS ON BURLINGTON STREET
Vanderhoef/What about the accidents on the comer of Burlington and Governor? There was a
letter in there.
Champion/I've never seen any.
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O'Dormell/Correspondence.
Bailey/Eleven.
Vanderhoef/Number 11.
Champion/Mm-hmm.
Kart/You have a response coming to you from staff tomorrow night. I just didn't put it out
tonight with all of your other stuff.
Vanderhoef/Oh, good. So it's---
Kart/You'll have it tomorrow night.
Atkins/OK.
Elliott/It appears there are a number of people who don't understand that you don't have the
right-of-way when you turn in front of someone.
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm.
ElliottJ I don't understand why that happens.
Atkins/It does.
Champion/That's a bad intersection from that standpoint.
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm.
11. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RESCINDING RESOLUTION NO. 79-462 AND
ADOPTING IN LIEU THEREOF A NEW RESOLUTION FOR THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF A SENIOR CENTER FUND FOR THE
MANAGEMENT OF GIFTS~ MEMORIALS, AND FUNDRA1SING REVENUE
TO THE IOWA CITY/JOHNSON COUNTY SENIOR CENTER. (DEFERRED
FROM APRIL 6)
Lehman/There's, is everyone on the Council comfortable with Item number 117
Bailey/I was going to ask a couple of questions about that since we have people here.
Lehman/OK.
Bailey/Thank you for making the changes in the bylaws, Jay. I think it looks good.
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Honohan/We did make all the changes that you requested.
Bailey/Yes, and I thank you. I think it looks good---
Honohan/You're welcome.
Bailey/I think it clarifies some of the rules and I think it makes the bylaws more clear. We had
talked--and this isn't necessarily in a resolution--about the amount of money and what's
going to happen.
Honohan/OK.
Bailey/Have you settled on that?
Honohan/Basically because of the initiation by some Council members, the Commission is now
requesting that the Council recognize that we would like to transfer all of the Gift Fund
except for designated funds to the Johnson, the Community Foundation of Johnson
County. And we would like to put it in--there are two funds--one would be the
Endowment and the other is a Charitable Giving Fund. And basically the Charitable
Giving Fund would be used for programs and that we now use the Gift Fund for. And
the income from the Endowment Fund would be used toward operations. And we
would budget at the beginning of the year for the programs and then in June when we
are always amending our budgets, we would then get a receipt from the Charitable
Giving Fund to pay for the programs, services that we have expended during the year.
We feel that this gives us greater income. It is a good way for accountability as far as
the Senior Center would be concerned. The Commission has unanimously
recommended this. We have not yet decided just what portion of the Gift Fund, the
approximately $140,000 to $150,000 would be put in the Endowment and what portion
would be put in the Charitable Giving. But we'll be working with the Community
Foundation on that and the Commission will be looking at that, assuming that we get a
favorable reaction from the City Council.
Vanderhoef/Jay, before you get off the transfer. The Iowa City Community Foundation or the
Senior Center Foundation has the ability to receive gifts other than cash. And I spoke
with Linda about it. But the intention is to pass all of those gift things, whether it be
stocks or bonds or real estate or anything like that, it still goes to the Community
Foundation of Johnson County for management.
Honohan/That is correct. I'm not sure about the mechanics of that. Again, we'd have to work
out that with the Community Foundation. One other point was the Iowa City Senior
Center Fund, Inc., would then--where we originally had envisioned it as probably only
a one- or a two-year corporation, we will now have to keep it alive. And the reason for
that is we have bequests sometimes in wills or trusts that are specifically designated
Senior Center and that's the Gift Fund. So we will need to have the ability then under
this resolution that legal has prepared to transfer any new funds that come in to Senior
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 18
Center Funding, then into the Community Foundation.
Bailey/So when we see the budget, the annual budget, we will see two revenue lines. One will
be for programs that will come from this Charitable Gift Fund---
Honohan/Mm-hmm.
Bailey/...for the Senior Center. And what are these programs? Just refresh my memory. We
probably talked about it.
Honohan/Well, all kinds of programs that we put on at the Senior Center.
Bailey/Like all the educational programming, but not the band because that's a designated.
Honohan/That's a designated fund.
Bailey/Right. So---
Honohan/Maybe Linda could help out on that.
Kopping/OK. The kind of programming it would be would be some of our larger events like the- -we're having a program in June that, our annual picnic, for instance.
Bailey/OK.
Kopping/Ordinary events where we have refreshments and we have a speaker and we anticipate
a pretty, you know, a larger crowd, we'll have refreshments and that gets paid out of the
Gift Fund. We buy exercise equipment out of the Gift Fund. But it would be those types
of expenses.
Bailey/And I guess why I have this question is so programs aren't typically out of the
Operations Budget, they're out of this program.
Kopping/That's correct.
Bailey/OK. So we'll see two lines. One is the earnings from the Endowment and one would be
from this Charitable Gifts Fund, whatever transfer. And that would be approved at the
annual budget, So that's sort of the check and balance oversight and check in.
Honohan/Right. That's correct.
Bailey/OK. Great. Thanks.
Lehman/Other questions for Jay?
Elliott/I've got a question. Jay, I notice in the bylaws you have identified the Community
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 19
Foundation of Johnson County, which the Council requested you to do.
Honohan/I corrected the title, the mistake that I made---
Elliott/No, no, but I think before it was not designated where the funds would go and in these
bylaws it was designated that it does go to the---
Honohan/Specifically, yes.
Elliott/I was kind of surprised in the articles of incorporation, it says what funds could be used
for, for things that involve people over 50 or the Senior Center, and I was kind of
surprised that you didn't say they go to the Senior Center.
Honohan/Well, as an attorney, I like to make things very broad. I'm not even sure how we
would use some of that money, but we define our class now as people over 50 and
that's why I put that in there.
Elliott/But since the boards will be--the same board manages both, one would assume it would
be approved obviously by the Senior Center.
Honohan/Yes.
Elliott/I guess I was just surprised because I would think that if the funds went to the Foundation
that they would all go back to the Senior Center, but it could go--as opposed to going to
the Senior Center--and then out, it could go directly to something else that involved
seniors.
Honohan/The senior population.
Elliott/Yeah.
Honohatff That is correct.
Elliott/OK.
Dilkes/Just a point of clarification. It's the resolution that gives the Council control over this as
to where the Gift Fund money goes. I mean, the articles of incorporation, the bylaws
can be changed, you know---
Bailey/ Mm-hmm.
Dilkes/...can be changed--if it wasn't a designated fund or it wasn't a gift to the Senior Center, it
was a gift directly to the Senior Center Fund, Inc., then this resolution doesn't govern
that.
Elliott/Thank you.
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Lehman/Thank you.
Dilkes/Oh, and I had one question then. Do you want me to change the resolution to provide that
all Gift Ftmd money with the exception of those restricted by donor intention shall go to
the Community Foundation?
Vanderhoeff Yes.
Wilbum/Yes.
Bailey/Mm-hmm.
Lehman/OK.
Elliott/Thank you.
Vanderhoef/Thank you for your time.
Lehman/OK. Other agenda items?
6. ADOPTING IOWA CITY'S FY05 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN, THAT IS A SUB-PART
OF IOWA CITY'S 2001-2006 CONSOLIDATED PLAN (CITY STEPS) AS
AMENDED, AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT SAID
PLAN AND ALL NECESSARY CERTIFICATIONS TO TItE U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND
DESIGNATING THE CITY MANAGER AS TItE AUTHORIZED CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER.
Champion/Will we have our discussion tomorrow night about the City Steps---
Lehman/Yes.
Champion/...after the public hearing?
Lehman/We can do this. Yeah, and if there's going to be, if there's issues that we, amendments
or whatever, it's certainly appropriate to talk about it tonight.
Champion/Well, I don't have any amendments, but I was wondering when we were going to
discuss the rest of the financing for the possibility of enlarging that gym.
Lehman/That's what we're talking about.
Champion/Tomorrow?
Vanderhoef/No, the gym isn't part of the CDBG money.
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Lehman/That is---
Champion/ Oh, it's part of what---
Vanderhoef/It's the Neighborhood Center piece is part of the CDBG.
Champion/OK.
Vanderhoef/There's two projects there, but I would like to offer an amendment and that's why I
asked last time if they wanted discussion about it before we had the public heating or
after. But I'm interested in fully funding the Neighborhood Center project at their
request amount, which is $350,000. Presently, they have the, the recommendation is for
$300,000, and so I've been looking at places to come up with the additional $50,000,
and I would like Council to consider---
Wilburn/Excuse me, Dee, I need to withdraw myself from this discussion since you're
discussing the amendment.
Vanderhoef/Certainly.
Wilbum/Yep.
(WILBURN LEAVES TABLE)
Vanderhoef/Sorry. Anyway, the, this year the economic development fund which takes a percent
off of the top will be larger than normal, and we have carryover yet from this past year
in the Economic Development fund so I feel that the normal size of the funding is
probably adequate for this next year, and with the sale of 641A, we have an additional,
some place between $25,000 and $30,000 that would be coming into Economic
Development. So for this one time, I would suggest that $25,000 of the Economic
Development money be used on the Neighborhood Center. The other $25,000 1 am
interested in making sure that that center gets the full square footage and with the cost
of construction and steel and so forth, I'm concerned that cuts might have to be made
and I want to get the footage. Outfitting it later can happen and with the 4C's
application for an elevator lift for their building out on Sycamore, both projects are to
benefit children, and I would choose to get the square footage built this year and we can
look at an elevator at another time, if Council is interested.
O'Donnell/This is like the second time they've been after a lift in the 4C's---
Vanderhoef/Well, I have a big question---
O'Donnell/...but I'm ready to take the group's recommendation to go ahead and do that.
Champion/Well, there are other ways we can fund that other $25,000. I'm sure Steve would help
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 22
us come up with a way.
Lehman/I've talked to Steve about this, and we do have, last year I believe we returned
somewhere in the neighborhood of $35,000 for administrative fees that we did not use,
that went into contingency. If we take the $25,000; we get $22,500 additional funds
from the sale of 641A, which is in addition to what we would have expected; if we
were to have an amendment taking $25,000 from the CDBG Economic Fund, my guess
is, and Steve has indicated, Steve Nasby, that probably an amount up to, in the
neighborhood of $20,000, may, if we had to have it, could probably be made from this
contingency. If we have to have more than that, we can always go back and request
more. We'd have to do some amendments. But we can always go back to the Economic
Development Fund and get the additional $5,000 or $10,000 or whatever. And we have,
as I recall, and Steve, if I'm not right, correct me, I think there's about a hundred and
some thousand from this year's fund that has not been spent, and---
Nasby/A little over $102,000.
Lehman/All right. And then $270,000, is that---
Nasby/We're going to get another $170,000.
Lehman/$170,000. So we have approximately $270,000---
Nasby/Correct.
Lehman/...with an excess as of the first of July of this year of $100,000 we haven't spent. So,
I'm not at all sure that we're going to be hurting our Economic Development fund if in
fact we take the $25,000 and we do have to go back later to fully fund this project, I
think we can do it.
O'Donnell/I agree.
TAPE 04-36, SIDE ONE
Lehman/...then if we can't come up and there is a need for more, and we have to do it, we can
go back and amend our plan, is that correct?
Nasby/Yeah, once you start the fiscal year we would have two options: one which would be take
it out of contingency, up to $20,000, we can do that administratively.
Lehman/Right.
Nasby/Anything more than that we would come back to you for an amendment.
Champion/OK.
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 23
Lehman/We can do that.
Champion/So we can do it without touching the elevator.
O'Donnell/Yeah, the elevator should remain in there.
Vanderhoef/Well, I have a question about that in that there are no children classes in the
building. And it's an office building, not a building where actual activity for children
happen.
O'Donnell/But there are children in the building-~-
Lehman/Well, let me---
O'Donnell/...on a regular basis, I understand, and this is the second time they've applied for it.
You know, I think our group got together and I think they researched this pretty well,
and I don't want to start critiquing them and making changes to what they thought was
appropriate. So, I'm ready to take that out of the Economic Development Fund and do
that, but I do want to fund that lift.
Elliott/I'd like to go back to the gym thing, either now, if you want to proceed with this. But I
have a couple questions about that.
Bailey/Well, I just wanted to comment about 4C's, regardless of how many children are in that
building, the impact that 4C's has on child care and child care provision in our
community, I mean, I have used them as a resource to provide on-site supervised
activities for kids during some of the Iowa Women's Foundation activities, so as a
resource and an impact for our community and improving quality of child care, I think
it's a very important organization. And I think that if this is the second time they've
identified this need, and our committee, and you have to read those minutes, they're
very thorough.
O'Donnell/Yeah.
Bailey/I have to concur with their conclusions about funding that but I'm excited about the
possibility of getting this gym more closely to fully funded.
O'Donnell/I think we can do both.
Champion/We can do it.
Bailey/And we can do both, that's what I think it should (can't hear) upon.
O'Donnell/OK.
Vanderhoef/Can we get a report from staff on the original zoning for that building and (can't
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 24
hear)
Atkins/On the 4C's building?
Vanderhoef/Yes, please.
Atkins/You got that, Steve?
Nasby/Yeah.
Atkins/Thank you.
Lehman/OK, I think we're on the same sheet of music when it comes to funding the Grant
Wood project.
Champion/Right.
Bailey/Yeah.
Elliott/How would that operate? Is that the City is going to be in partnership with the school on
the use of the gymnasium and the City could have X number of X percent of the hours?
Is that how it works?
Atkins/We have a long-established relationship with the schools, Bob, and in this case there
would be at least one new agreement--that's the 28-E agreement between the school
district and the City to determine the funding and all the financial aspects to seeing the
gym constructed. But we also have a longstanding agreement with them on the use of
facilities in the evenings, weekends, things such as that. And I think Lane and I feel
very confident we'll be able to take it from there and use that gym productively.
Elliott/Are the Neighborhood Centers involved in this?
Atkins/Well, the Family Resource--I think what you're calling Neighborhood Centers is the
Family Resource Center and---
Nasby/But the two projects are separate.
Champion/Oh, they are.
Atkins/Family Resource Center is a freestanding project. That will go ahead, depending upon
what you all decide. The other improvements to Grant Wood School were part of the
bond issue, and so what we were trying to do--we, Lane and I and the other staff folks
that were talking about this thing were trying to do is that--how could we get a bigger
bang for our buck and that was the recommendation of let's take the space they were
going to create with their bond issue, cooperate with them, provide some financing, get
more space. If you haven't toured Grant Wood, it will certainly be an asset to that for
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 25
the kids during the day, and it allows us to do our, you know, basketball leagues,
volleyball leagues, those things that we do---
Elliott/Can soccer be played in there?
Champion/No, it's---
Atkins/You know, I do know---
Elliott/When my grandson played soccer they did in some schools.
Atkins/Terry told me--I think I sent a memo to you. A couple of months ago there was this big
soccer deal out at Mercer.
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm.
Atkins/Eleanor (can't hear) knows about that. And the size of this gymnasium is such that I'm
particularly for the smaller kids, we can do some soccer.
Elliott/Two things I know that the soccer people had asked us about an indoor facility. At least
this wouldn't provide it, but it might alleviate their problems.
Atkins/Mm-hmm.
Elliott/Secondly, I think through some very worthwhile programs that the City has initiated and
conducted and continues, we have at least played a role in creating a problem for the
schools and the neighborhoods. And I think if this kind of partnership does, in fact,
provide substantive benefit, then I think it's a great idea.
Champion/Well, we're not---
Elliott/And you and Lane have talked---
Atkins/We believe--Lane's in the audience. He's nodding his head yes, we both believe it.
Champion/The schools have good experience with it. Coralville and North Liberty both---
Elliott/Yes.
Atkins/This is not new.
Champion/...have partnership with the schools to build a bigger gym.
O'Donnell/I think it's really important.
Lehman/I think we're all patting ourselves on the back for a really, really good idea which we're
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 26
going to make a reality tomorrow night.
O'Donnell/That's right.
Elliott/I just wanted to get a confirmation of what that was.
Lehman/Thank you very much.
Elliott/Thanks.
Lehman/All right.
O'Donnell/OK.
Lehman/Any other agenda items?
Elliott/One thing in the geographic distribution of resources for the CDBG, on page--mine is
page, section 4. It says, "Due to these factors the City has not discussed or adopted a
plan to allocate CDBG and HOME funds geographically." Is that accurate? I think have
we not discussed it quite a bit and is there not a committee now working on that?
Nasby/Well, what HUD is asking about there is do we have areas of disproportionately greater
need?
Elliott/Mm-hmm.
Nasby/And in the City STEPS plan, which is a five-year plan, we have areas that are identified
as low income or have a disproportionate number of low-income persons or minority
households. We have looked at that in the five-year plan City STEPS and (can't hear).
We really don't have areas of disproportionately greater needs in Iowa City, being
relatively small geographically, that we distribute our program citywide. We don't say,
well, if you're in this income tract, we can't fund that.
Elliott/OK.
Nasby/So they're allowed citywide.
Elliott/Good. Thank you.
Nasby/Sure.
Lehman/OK?
Elliott/Finally.
Lehman/We have been requested to take a short break before we continue.
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 27
O'Dormell/About 9:00?
Lehman/Well, I think it won't be quite that much.
(Laughter)
COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS
Elliott/These are the ones we have agreed on?
Champion/Yeah.
Elliott/OK.
Lehman/Will you pass those down? OK, the next item is---
Elliott/Six, seven, eight.
Male Voice/Wow.
Kan'/Total's at the top.
Elliott/Holy bananas.
O'Donnell/Holy bananas? Let's go home.
Lehman/Council appointments. Let's do the Charter Review Commission first as of the--from
those names that we turned there have been 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 people who are
appointed to the Charter Review Commission. We need two--we need one more.
Champion/Well, I'd like to speak out for Oscar, Oscar Beasley---
Bailey/We don't have Oscar. Oscar Johnson.
Elliott/That's out of left field.
Champion/John Beasley. I like him because they're very active in the community. He's had
experience in government. He was an assistant DA. His wife is on the Library Board,
and he's young, and I think we should have some younger people on this thing since
they'll be living here long after we're not.
Bailey/Isn't John also an attorney though?
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Lehman/Yes, he is.
Bailey/We've got two.
Vanderhoef/We've already got two.
Wilburn/I'd like to speak in favor of Steve Noach. He's been very active with the United Way,
very knowledgeable about issues affecting people in the community utilizing a lot of
United Services. He's intimately familiar with, you know, that funding stream process.
He's involved in the business community. He's not an attorney. He is probably my age
or a little younger. He's shown a very significant investment in the community, in my
opinion.
O'Donnell/I'd like to see Tim Brandt. You kno~v, I think we have an opportunity there for some
really good experience, past mayor, really familiar with the intricate parts of the City
and has been involved in some of them. I think he'd be very useful on that committee.
Bailey/I'd like to go the opposite direction in age and speak in support of Kevin Werner, the
banker.
Champion/Oh, I thought he was on there.
Elliott/No.
Bailey/He's not.
Champion/Oh, I could support him.
Bailey/And I was in Chamber leadership program with him. He's very active in the Chamber as
well as a lot of volunteer activities, and I just think he knows the commtmity very well
and would bring--you each spoke about getting younger. I think Kevin can do that.
Champion/I thought he was on there.
Bailey/OK.
Elliott/I would speak, having known Kevin, grew up across the street from me, such a neat
person, and really we do need some youth on here. And Kevin is early, I presume, early
to mid-thirties, as a young professional.
Champion/He's probably 37 or 38.
Elliott/Connie disagrees with everything I say. No--but Kevin would be a fine addition.
Champion/I agree.
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Elliott/I think that, boy, I hate to see Joe Pugh and Tim Brandt left off there, but there's going to
be some awfully good people left off of here.
O'Donnell/Have I mentioned how important I think Tim Brandt would be to this makeup? I
once again want to stress Tim's background and his experience on this. I think Tim
would be a--I think he's a vital part of it.
Lehman/You know, I think this is a committee that, whereas I guess I am very much impressed
with demographics and ages and gender balance and representation from different
areas, but this is one commission whose only charge is the smooth, efficient operation
of City government. It has nothing to do with the way you make your living and it has
nothing to do with your age. It has a great deal to do, I think, with wisdom and
experience. And I really do feel that Tim Brandt offers the kind of experience and
wisdom. He's been in the community for many, many years. He served on the Council
back in the early '80s. My guess is he's worked with almost everybody who's been
nominated. And I think we'd be making a mistake not to have Tim represented on the
committee.
O'Dormell/I couldn't agree more.
Vanderhoef/Well, I think we already have three Council previous, four previous Council people
on the committee, so that experience I think is well represented. I was going to support
Joe Pugh in that I was looking at finance and working with City finances. Joe was the
City finance director for a period of time and then finished out a career at ACT, also in
the nonprofit sector in a finance position. But if people are looking at age and finance, I
could accept Kevin Wemer.
Champion/Do we have four?
Lehman/Well, first of all, how many for John Beasley? I'm sorry, go ahead, please, yes.
Bailey/I just want to say--can I just say one more thing? The reason I'm looking at younger is
that I understand that we need older and wiser but I also think that we need to develop
the leadership and the connectivity to this community. Kevin has already demonstrated
that, but I think that that's an important thing that we should also be supporting. We not
only have to look to those who have experience; we have to look to the future and
engage those who are younger and want to make a life in Iowa City, and I think
engaging younger people in this process is a step in that direction.
Wilburn/And hopefully by doing so, that may, having a visible presence of someone younger
might encourage, invite others in the community who have an interest to provide these
folks some input. That might be inviting for the younger side of town.
Elliott/Is anybody interested in going with 11 instead of 9?
Lehman/I think we really should stick with the nine. It's so hard to get that many people
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 30
together anyway.
Wilburn/What I was going to ask though--I think we should stick with the nine--but would it be
wise to consider one or possibly two max alternates in case some life-changing event or
something comes up for one ofthese---
Elliott/That's why I thought of 1 I. There might be times when they could all be there. There
might be times when various percentage of them---
Champion/They all need to be there all the time.
Lehman/The only problem with that is if you have 10 meetings and somebody's called on to
attend a ninth one, not having not been to the first eight. I don't see where that's---
Elliott/That's why---
Lehman/They need--all they need is a quorum.
Elliott/That's why I thought I would rather have 11 people on there than 2 alternate.
Lehman/I'd rather have nine and let them have quorum and let them have their meetings.
(Laughter)
Lehman/All right. How many want Kevin? Let's, well, first of all, Beasley was the first one.
Champion/Yes, but I'll change.
Lehman/OK, he's been withdrawn.
ChampionJ (can't hear) support and will support Kevin Wemer.
Lehman/Kevin Werner?
Elliott/Yes.
Wilburn/~hat's fine.
Lehman/One, two--Kevin Wemer is appointed.
Elliott/I think several of us are going to go home a little disappointed, but we anticipated going
home a little disappointed.
O'Dormell/The thing is we had a really good group.
Champion/A really good group.
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Elliott/And, Ernie, I hope you do mention that, I'm sure you will--but please do tomorrow.
Lehman/Oh, this is a tremendous group of people.
Elliott/Yeah, just as Mike said, who has contributed more to this community than some (can't
hear)
Wilburn/Too many (can't hear)
Lehman/OK. The next one, the Human Rights Commission, has one vacancy, one appotntment.
Chris Bushman. Are we in agreement to appoint Chris?
O'Donnell/Sounds good.
Bailey/Yes.
Wilburn/Yes.
COUNCIL TIME
Lehman/All right, Council time.
Vanderhoef/I was just going to bring up recently I was at the Statewide Employers Guard and
Reserve and Cedar Rapids received an award for funding their City employees that
were called to military service in that they funded the difference between their military
pay and their City pay and continued to make up that difference while the people were
on active duty and kept their benefits going. And I think it's a tremendous program. I
know it costs the City some dollars, but I don't know that it costs that much, and I
wondered if anyone is interested in looking at a policy like that.
Elliott/Two people, Steve?
Atkins/Two so far.
Champion/What happens to their health insurance---
Bailey/ What are (can't hear)
Champion/...benefits when they come back? Are they automatically enrolled?
Vanderhoef/Well, their family, Cedar Rapids kept their benefits going for their family.
Champion/Well, the military will cover their family. You're covered when you're in the
military.
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Lehman/Right.
Helling/They have 30 days, up to 30 days a year with no loss of compensation. So we give them
the paid time. But after that then they're on, they're compensated by the military as
long as they're gone. And as far as benefits, the military picks up their insurance and so
forth, but they maintain their seniority and rights to benefits as soon as they come back.
Champion/OK. That's right--that was my question.
Helling/Yeah.
Champion/So, health insurance is not a factor because the military provides family insurance,
Dee, but I think the pay is something I'd certainly be willing to consider.
O'Donnell/I would, too.
ElliottJ Are these union people?
Champion/Not necessarily.
Helling/In the current case, one is, and one is not, the two that were in.
Elliott/The thing you said about seniority, which in the union is certainly very important. Do you
consider the time spent on military active duty as time that is involved for their
seniority?
Helling/Yes.
Elliotff OK. That's not time out of their seniority.
Helling/No, no.
ElliottJ Good, good. I think that's fair.
Lehman/Is this an issue we want to put on a work session?
O'Donnell/Do we have (can't hear)
Lehman/Well, I think that it would, I would assume, we could, our policy is to pay 30 days.
Helling/Right.
Lehman/And then the feds pick up their insurance.
Bailey/That's a (can't hear)
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Helling/That's a federal law, yeah. That we have to do.
Lehman/So if we're interested in doing anything different than we have, then I think it would
have to be a matter for a work session.
Dilkes/Yes---
Lehman/We can't decide that here.
Dilkes/That's right.
Lehman/How many would like to see that be on a work session?
O'Donnell/That's a good idea.
Lehman/All right, Steve.
Helling/OK. We'll get you more detail on exactly what---
Lehman/All right. Before, I'm sorry, I am remiss in the last--before we did Council time, we
need to appoint a chair of that Charter Review Commission.
Champion/Oh.
Vanderhoef/William Sueppel, please.
Lehman/All in favor of Bill Sueppel?
Elliott/Bill Sueppel.
Vanderhoef/Yes.
Lehman/Thank you right now. Council time continues.
O'Donnell/I just had one thing. Emie, you challenged me last Tuesday night on television. You
have thrown the golden spatula at my feet. I'm going to give you an opportunity to bow
out gracefully tomorrow night. I expect no apology for the battles on Sunday.
(Laughter)
Lehman/Battle's on. OK.
O'Donnell/Flapjack (can't hear)
Lehman/Fine. Good. Anything now--is there anything of any substance for Council time? One
of the things, Steve, the kiosks in the ped mall downtown and also on Iowa Avenue
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have some--there's some informational things in those, could we have somebody just
check and make sure those are kept up to date and when the papers turn yellow and curl
up and look like they were the Ten Commandments written on the back of them, we get
them changed?
Atkins/You mean those that are being leased to other people.
Lehman/I think---
Atkins/Those are not our responsibility, yeah.
Lehman/Yeah, but perhaps some of the information that we put in there looks like it was put in
before they built the ped mall. Just someone check them, keep them---
Atkins/Absolutely.
Lehman/Thank you.
Vanderhoef/How many of those are leased? What---
Atkins/A bunch.
(Laughter)
Kart/All of the newspaper slots are leased.
Lehman/No, we're talking about the part that's---
Karr/The up-above bulletin (can't hear) that's a different. Some are---
Vanderhoef/In the free-stand kiosks.
Lehman/Just check them, please. Just check on them.
O'Donnell/One more thing.
Atkins/Absolutely.
Lehman/Thank you.
O'Donnell/Is there anything we can do about the stick-ons to the poles all over town and
Dubuque Street, especially?
(several talk)
Bailey/Well, that's covered in Title 10, right?
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Champion/I doubt that.
(Laughter)
Vanderhoef/Technically.
Lehman/Is it possible to approach---
Dilkes/Take them off, but we never know who puts them up so we can't ever---
Atkins/Yeah.
Lehman/But could we approach the courts and ask them for some of these folks who have
violations that had community service, could they go out and take down?
Helling/We've done and they have frequently done that. Also, on the post-it boards downtown,
they're pulling the staples and stuff out. Whenever we can get somebody from
community service to do that, they do it.
Bailey/We could pull them down on Thursdays before the bands play and so they don't have
any advertisements for the weekend. That could begin to start---
Lehman/Very good.
O'Dounell/That's a good idea.
Helling/I think they would probably tell you that as quick as you do that, they fill right back up.
Dilkes/That sounds content-based to me.
O'Donnell/But could we send a letter to the bars and just tell them that this is not a legal practice
to do?
Lehman/They know it.
Atkins/We've done that and the bars will say, we had nothing to do with it. It was the band.
Lehman/Right.
Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. And then when you ad&ess somebody---
O'Donnell/Could we tell the bars that they must explain it to the bands that they hire?
(Laughter)
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Vanderhoef/Oh, well.
Champion/Get Ed to stop parking their beer trucks out there for four hours.
Vanderhoef/And you can---
O'Donnell/Are you in a band?
Champion/Which is a great big (can't hear)
Vanderhoef/Walk up to the people putting them up and telling them that it's illegal to do that,
and they say I'm just being paid to do that job. But they won't tell you who paid them.
O'Donnell/Well, the poles look really terrible.
Atkins/Utility poles look trashy.
Lehman/Right.
Vanderhoef/Well, all the time.
Champion/Yeah, there is. The person that's putting them up is the one who is creating the (can't
hear)
Lehman/You've got to catch them doing it.
Dilkes/Yes, that's the problem.
Lehman/And we have better things for police to do.
Dilkes/We can't assume that Band X on the sign that they're putting it up.
Champion/No, right.
Dilkes/Right.
Wilburn/Just a reminder to Council of I will not be at tomorrow night's meeting. I'll be at our--I
have a work commitment--I'll be at our volunteer banquet S0---
Lehman/You may rest assured that your event on Sunday morning will be represented tomorrow
night.
Wilburn/All right. Thank you.
Lehman/Anything else for Council time? Oh, by the way, this morning we had the kickoff of the
Herky--those of you who are enthused about this project and I'm sure you all are--it
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May 3, 2004 Council Work Session Page 37
would be nice if you wore black and gold tomorrow night and we can recognize what
we are a part of.
Champion/I don't have any black and gold.
O'Donnell/You can borrow one---
Dilkes/You've got plenty of black.
Bailey/I never wear gold---
Champion/ I have plenty of black.
Lehman/All right.
Dilkes/Find a gold scarf.
O'Donnell/Find a pin.
Lehman/Is there anything else for Council time?
Wilbum/No.
Lehman/All right.
O'Donnell/Let's, see you tomorrow night.
IDENTIFICATION OF PRIORITIES FOR DISCUSSION
Lehman/Wait a minute. The last item on the agenda is identification of priorities for discussion.
Now, I know it's getting later but one of the things I really would like us to do rather
quickly, if we could, is to schedule a meeting with the Airport Commission.
Champion/Right.
Bailey/Yay.
Champion/Do it.
O'Donnell/I like that, Ernie. Let's do that soon.
Vanderhoef/Next trip.
Atkins/Yep.
Lehman/Another issue that has been brought up a couple times is the whole issue of
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compensation, and, Steve, I think it would be best if you kind of look at that, give us
some sort of an indication of how you would like to see us address it. I mean, this is a
pretty sensitive area. It's really complicated. And if you can do that and get us a memo
of some sort and we can decide.
Atkins/We're very close to being ready. In fact, we haven't conferred with Eleanor yet, but we'd
like to do some of that in executive session because it does ultimately involve collective
bargaining strategies.
Lehman/That's the sort of thing that we need to---
Atkins/We can do that sooner than later.
Lehman/OK.
Atkins/And I'll talk to Eleanor about it, how we could do it.
Champion/OK. Terrific.
Atkins/OK.
Lehman/Are there other issues that we want to bring up tonight?
Champion/It's too late.
O'Donnell/I think that's good, Emie.
Vanderhoef/We started early.
Elliott/My only thought is I would like the City put forth a plan for when, what kind of
timeframe, what it will take to put a fire station on the north side.
Lehman/OK. No, I think that's another issue that we--and I think, Steve, you're probably in the
middle of doing that anyway. An update might---
Atkins/We're buying land, doing design. But I'll get that confirmed.
Lehman/I think a memo with an update may answer a lot of questions that we have.
Bailey/I'd like to get the alleys discussion scheduled.
Atkins/Sooner or later.
Bailey/We've got--75, half of the Herkys, downtown. We're going to have people poring
through Iowa City, and it's supposed to bring people to town. Let's move on that.
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Atkins/Makes sense.
O'Donnell/Are those going to be out all night? Are they going to---
Dilkes/Yep.
(several talk)
Lehman/What do you think we do, herd them in at night?
Bailey/Oh, no, Mike, who's going to pick them all up?
O'Donnell/People are going to be riding those.
Champion/Right. They're meant to be out---
O'Donnell/I mean at 12:00 o'clock in the morning and those things are going to be destroyed.
Elliott/Mike, you can't take them home with you.
O'Donnell/Come on, Bob.
(Laughter)
O'Dormell/Are they serious--they're going to leave them out and think that nobody's going to
touch them?
Bailey/They left out the cows in Chicago. They left out the overalls (can't hear)
Lehman/They got damaged.
Bailey/Yeah.
Lehman/And we're going to get (can't hear). Is there anything else we want to get into before
we leave?
Bailey/No.
(Laughter)
Lehman/Then we have.just left. Thank you very much. See you tomorrow.
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