The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink About2004-05-17 TranscriptionMay 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 1 May 17, 2004 Council Work Session 6:30 PM Council: Bailey, Champion, Elliott, Lehman, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilbum Staff: Atkins, Dilkes, Fowler, Franklin, Helling, Karr, Klingaman, Logsden, Severson, Trueblood TAPES: 04-36, SIDE TWO; 04-39, SIDE ONE TAPE: 04-36, SIDE TWO Lehman/Before we do Planning and Zoning. This is just a moment-you might not even want to sit down. We have in our packet an addition to tomorrow night's agenda if it meets with Council's approval, which is the resolution confirming the salary discussions of last Friday morning. Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. Champion/Good. Lehman/Add it. I'm sorry? Elliott/Fine, fine. Lehman/OK. Planning and Zoning. PLANNING AND ZONING ITEMS Franklin/OK. Very quick. a. CONSIDER A MOTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING FOR JUNE 1 ON AN ORDINANCE REZONING APPROXIMATELY 8.07 ACRES FROM MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RS-8) TO PLANNED DEVELOPMENT HOUSING OVERLAY MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE- FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (OPDH-8) FOR PROPERTY LOCATED SOUTH OF WHISPERING MEADOWS AND WEST OF SADDLEBROOK. (REZ04-00008) Franklin/First is to set a public hearing for June 1 st on a rezoning of eight acres from RS-A to OPDH-A. This is property that's just ,,vest of the paddock in Saddlebrook. b. REZONING APPROXIMATELY 35.05 ACRES OF PROPERTY FROM RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT PARK ZONE, RDP, TO OFFICE COMMERCIAL ZONE, CO-l, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS, SUBJECT TO CONDITIONS, FOR PROPERTY ALONG THE EASTERN PORTION OF NORTHGATE DRIVE IN NORTHGATE CORPORATE PARK. (REZ04-00007) 1) PUBLIC HEARING This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 2 2) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE (FIRST CONSIDERATION) Franklin/Item b is a public hearing and first consideration on the rezoning of 35 acres from RDP to CO-1. This is for Northgate Corporate Park. Elliott/Where is that located? Franklin/It's located just north of the Highlander. Elliott/Just north, OK. Franklin/On Dodge Street, north of Interstate 80. This was previously zoned CO-1. We zoned it to RDP in the '90s with the intention of it being a light manufacturing opportunity. None of that has panned out over time and has developed as an office complex. So the request has come back in to go back to the CO-1. It reflects the existing uses and the owners of the property feel that it's a more appropriate zoning, and we would concur with that given how things have transpired. There's two conditions in the Conditional Zoning Agreement. One is that the one acre minimum lot size be retained, and the other is that the bermed parkway/walkway be retained throughout the development, and they have agreed to that. We do not have signatures on the CZA yet--but expecting them by tomorrow night? Glenn Siders/One signature we need is still in Florida, Karin. I don't know if he'll make it back or not. Franklin/Oh, OK. Well, we may need to continue the public hearing tomorrow night if the signature is not in. Lehman/You'll let me know tomorrow night or Marian, OK? Franklin/Yes, we'll definitely let you know tomorrow night. Are there any questions on that? Lehman/Now, could we have--- Vanderhoef/Yeah, I have one. Franklin/OK. Vanderhoef/Not specific but related to it. Franklin/Mm-hmm. Vanderhoef/In reviewing the CO-1 and that's what we have a lot of that we have housing up above. Franklin/Yes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 3 Vanderhoef/And--- Franklin/Well, we have some with housing above, yeah. Vanderhoef/It just made me think that, you know, maybe that isn't a place where we would want housing up above--- Franklin/Mm-hmm. Vanderhoef/...in that office park. So, is this--I know we can't do anything about it now--but it's something that maybe we should take a look at when we're redoing the Code? Franklin/Well, I think there are a number of commercial zones where we would want that opportunity. Vanderhoef/Right. Franklin/Now, it is a provisional use, according to the staff report. Dwelling units are permitted above or below the ground floor, and child and adult day cares are allowed as provisional uses, which means that if certain provisions are met--that is the density is met--that that would be allowable by fight as opposed to going through a special exception process. That I would think, if we were going to look at it, that that would be the way to look at it--more as a special exception. But I don't think we want to take the opportunity away totally. Vanderhoef/No, no. Franklin/Because there's a lot of CO zones in which it's perfectly appropriately to have housing above. Vanderhoef/Right. I agree with that. Elliott/l'm interested in why you think it wouldn't be appropriate for apartments or something out there. There's a lot of people in a motel. Vanderhoef/It just seemed like that in large lots, large business kinds of commercial office that maybe it wouldn't be appropriate to have it in there. Franklin/Mm-hmm. Elliott/I suppose. Franklin/Yeah, I know what you're saying. And it was the same reason that we kept the one acre minimum lot size, and that was so that small commercial office uses, such as you find in the Towncrest area in the smaller scale, not Towncrest Medical Complex, or areas This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 4 around Bloomington Street and so forth, that there's a smaller scale that you want that CO-1. I think it's probably unlikely that we're going to get that kind of request, but that's something we could look at with the Code, just--did you want to provide some input, Mr. Siders? You'll need to come up to the microphone. Lehman/Yeah, if you're going to speak, please speak in a microphone so that Marian can--- Franklin/ Even though we probably could hear you. Lehman/But Marian's taping it. Siders/I was just going to say in this particular zone, we are putting in the covenants not to allow residential uses. Franklin/Oh. Siders/We think it's appropriate in Northgate Park and we're going to add that as part--- Franklin/In your private covenant. Siders/...of our private covenants that goes with the property. Franklin/Mm-hmm. Vanderhoef/Thank you. Franklin/That would deal with that situation. Vanderhoef/That would deal with that situation. It was just in the park kind of thing that--- Franklin/Mm-hmm. Yeah, understood. Anything else on it? Elliott/I just figure if somebody wants to live there, they ought to be able to live there, but if they don't want them to, that's fine too. Franklin/OK. Lehman/OK. 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) (PASS AND ADOPT) This represents only a reasonably accurate t~anscription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 5 d. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE PRELIMINARY PLAT OF GENERAL QUARTERS, IOWA CITY, IOWA (SUB04-00005) Franklin/Item c is the pass and adopt on the rezuning from ID-RS to RS-5 for the single-family subdivision on the south side of Sycamore Street. Franklin/And then Item d is the preliminary plat for General Quarters, which is the first 29 lots of that area. Lehman/OK. Franklin/OK. And I'm done. Lehman/That's the way I like. O'Donnell/Whoa. Lehman/You're quick. Thank you. Franklin/What's that comment, Mr. O'Donnell? O'Donnell/I'm sorry. Lehman/OK. The next item is a presentation by the Free Medical Clinic, and I think Maureen--- O'Donnell/See, being efficient does throw us off. Lehman/Well, we could go to--all right. Then let's go to the PIN grant. AGENDA ITEMS ITEM 11. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING DISTRIBUTION OF THE "PROGRAM FOR IMPROVING NEIGHBORHOODS" (PIN) GRANT FUNDS. Klingaman/I am here as I have been for the past 10 years to run through the PIN grant recommendations that the Neighborhood Council has come up with with the $I5,000 annual appropriation that you have made to them. And basically, particularly for the new members, I run through the applications briefly. Tomorrow night you're going to hear from the Neighborhood representatives that haven't made the application. They'll go into a little bit more detail, but if you have questions, you have concerns, I'll attempt to answer them tonight. If not, I can refer them on to the folks tomorrow and they can give a little bit more detail. And hopefully, everything you need to know is in your packet. The first application comes from the Weatherby Neighborhood Association. They have taken back their original "Take Back the Night" application, which you've approved for the last two years, which is basically a party for an expansion or allowing for expansion of police patrol, within their neighborhood. And turned it into what I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 6 think and others think to be a more proactive approach and that is to have police officers in both the Scanlon Gymnasium, Mark Twain School and South East Junior High to do some one-on-one game playing, for lack of a better term, in terms of the Scanlon Gymnasium. And then just some tutoring, just some talking with the kids, getting to know the kids, allowing the kids to get to know them. So the idea is as the kids have a better appreciation for the police officers, know them more personally, and hopefully have a more positive attitude toward them. And so they applied originally for $5,000 because of the discussion that occurs after, they've been ranking the applications, the amount was reduced to $4,860. Vanderhoef/Marcia? Klingaman/Yes. Vanderhoef/Is there any way that the "Take Back the Night" kind of thing is continuing or this is a substitute? Or--- Klingaman/This is taking their place. And actually last year they went ahead and implemented this program with the approval of the Neighborhood Council rather than doing the "Take Back the Night." So they did not have additional police patrol last year. They just implemented this program. It's actually been going on since January, I believe, of this year and has proven to be very successful, I think, by all the orders of recommendation, you can see everybody's very supportive of it. Vanderhoef/Yeah--- Klingaman/And actually I'm hearing through word-of-mouth and through meetings that they're wanting to extend it into--I'm sorry, did I say Mark Twain? I meant Grant Wood was the elementary school they're using now. But Mark Twain has expressed interest and possibly some other elementary schools that have children that may benefit from this. Vanderhoef/Benefit in? Klingaman/In establishing a relationship with some of the police officers. And it's usually at the elementary school It's at the after-school program and they line the kids up with, you know, various officers that are interested in participating. Vanderhoef/So, how is that different than what they're doing at Mercer then? Klingaman/Well, it's--Mercer is, the way I understand it, it's more game playing. They have challenge a cop. Yeah. And there's actually ping pong games and pool and swimming type things. And there's incentives and there's prizes, such as, you know, a free swim pass or pop or whatever. So, it's a little bit later. But that's for older--- Elliott/Kind of a variation on a theme, isn't it? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 7 KlingamanJ Right. Yeah. Elliott/I know, R. J. is very strong on this, thinks it's very good. And Jerry Hansen apparently is in favor of it. I think it sounds like a real good deal to me. Klingaman/It seems to be very successful, very popular with the schools. Vanderhoef/Yeah, it's just, if this is to be expanded, you know, we've got a successful model, shall we say? Klingaman/Mm-hmm. Vanderhoef/And other schools want to start up the same thing, then Council, it leads me to want some discussion about--- Klingaman/Yeah, and I don't know how far it's going to go in that direction, but I think we've got a winner here. It's just a matter of how the funding all works. And the police department has actually thrown in some funding, I think, which you'll see with the memo from Captain Widmore is that they have most of the hours are overtime hours that they're paying, but some officers are actually using their standard hours simply because it depends on where they lie within--most officers get off at 3:00 o'clock, but the after-school programs start at 3:00 so they'll stay until 4:00 or 5:00, and then extend their hours that way. OK. The second application is the Creekside Neighborhood Association tree inventory. This is a three-phase program and the first phase, which is basically just the tree inventory, recruiting volunteers, training them with the trained arborist as well as getting materials for the survey and then creating a walking brochure is what they plan on accomplishing with this first phase. Second and third phases then would be hopefully more implementation of planting the trees that need to be replaced and working with the forestry division and comparing their records and working through that process. OK. Northside Parkland beautification. Pretty simple one. They just want to plant lots of bulbs in the North Market Square Park and Happy Hollow. They have not really invested much--in terms of volunteer time, they put a playground or a piece of playground equipment in, probably about three or four years ago in North Market Square, but now they want to do some beautification. This is very similar to what (can't hear) Longfellow has done in their neighborhood. OK. Longfellow Neighborhood--originally they had three applications for playground equipment that would go into the Longfellow School grounds. They removed one of them through the negotiations and have focused in on applying for a sandbox and a track glide. The PTA at Longfellow is contributing about $3,000 to this project and then the P1N grant would make up the balance. And then the Melrose Neighborhood Association, they're applying for a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places for their neighborhood. They're in the process right now of working with Marlys Svenson, who is the consultant for the work and has done a number of nomination processes for the City, and they're doing the research in terms of the properties in the neighborhood and the neighborhood is making a fairly substantial investment in the process since the total original cost was about $15,500 and some dollars. They've written it down to $11,983 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Io~va City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 8 with volunteer time and they're going to make up the difference between the $5,000 and that close to $12,000 figure on their own. Vanderhoef/Do we have any update on say last year's PIN grants, whether they were all spent out, how successful they were, or anything? Klingaman/You don't yet, and I need to do that. Boy, off the top of my head, I can't come up with all of the ones that were approved. The Weatherby's "Take Back the Night," which was then turned into the success after school, at least half of that has been spent and they're planning on continuing that on, and increasing the number of hours. But I don't have a doubt that that money's going to get spent. Boy, ifI had my notes, Dee, I would--did anybody else remember? Champion/The sign for Goosetown, the street signs? Klingaman/That's actually part of the Neighborhood Art Program. Champion/Oh, that's right. Klingaman/That's a whole separate one, yeah, because, why you ask, those are probably going to go up in the next month or so. They're working on those. Vanderhoeff Wasn't there a sidewalk? Klingaman/The Northside. Thank you. They've committed almost all of the funds to that. They've hired a contractor to install all the sidewalks. Most of them have an extended deadline through September 15th to get them done. A few of them had already actually gotten the work done, and so there's some reimbursement to the contractors that are going on. But they don't see any problem with having those funds expended. Elliott/Has the University at all been involved in the Melrose project? Klingaman/They've--- Champion/I'm sure they aren't. (Laughter) Klingaman/They have or will be contacted as of to the status of this application. And I think as the application points out, 12 out of 82 properties are owned currently by the University so they'll obviously have a say as to whether or not they want to support such a process of which--I'm assuming if it, when it gets to that point. 85 out of 12. I mean, 12 out of 85 are currently owned by the University. How will they support it? I guess we don't know until the fund comes. The whole focus of the process primarily is to stabilize a neighborhood through establishment of the Historic District and making everybody aware of the historic significance of the homes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 9 Vanderhoef/Would it be too hard to get just a little status report tomorrow night ofthe--- Klingaman/Of the current (can't hear) Vanderhoef/...so that we can hear about the projects that were done or are in process. Klingaman/OK. Did you want it verbally or in writing or---? Vanderhoef/Verbally is fine. O'Donnell/Quick verbal will be fine. Klingaman/OK. I can run through them. Lehman/OK. Vanderhoef/That'd be nice. Klingaman/No problem. Vanderhoef/I think people need to know--- Klingaman/Yeah, it's, actually years ago we did even, you know, slide presentations to show everybody what the end results were. But there just hasn't been the time to do anything that formal. So, it is going to be expended. Bailey/OK. Thanks. Lehman/OK. Wilburn/Marcia, their timeline doesn't refer to when they will notify all the property owners. Klingaman/For Melrose? Wilbumd Yeah. If they could just give us an idea when they plan on doing it? Kllngamard Well, they had to do it as part of the public hearing process around the nation, I'm assuming, and that's scheduled for as soon as October, possibly into 2005. I don't know that--there hasn't been any discussion of making that notification any earlier. I don't know that there's necessarily a problem with that. They'll certainly be notified once any correspondence goes out to the property owners. Elliott/In other parts of the city, the State Society has informed the property owners, have they not? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcriphon of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 10 Champion/Well, they've got the (can't hear) Klingaman/I don't know. Jean Walker is here and she's a much better expert. Walker/(can't hear) part of the process. Elliott/That's what I thought, the state does that? Walker/Yes. Elliott/Mm-hmm. OK. Lehman/OK. Vanderhoef/Done? Lehman/Thank you. Klingaman/Sure. OK. FREE MEDICAL CLINIC Lehman/OK, are we ready for the Free Medical Clinic? Champion/Mm-hmm. Lehman/Maureen? Connolly/Good evening. Thanks for having us. My name is Maureen Connolly, and I'm the medical director of the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic. And we're here, well, I'm here with Sandy to just talk a little bit about what we do. You can stop me at any time because I'll probably go over 10 minutes if you don't. And we want to tell you what we've done since you've so generously given us some money to help us along, especially this year's Community Development Block Grant. The free clinic has been here in Iowa City since 1971, serving patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or for whatever reason just don't have any health care. We've seen a lot of changes over those 33 years. I think most people who remember the clinic from back in the '70s and '80s would recall that while always busy, in general, what the clinic would see were people maybe for just a sporadic illness, a cold, a small injury, sexually transmitted infection, all problems that we still see; but the great change that's happened within the past five to eight years is the huge explosion in the number of chronically ill patients who come to us for their only source of health care. And it really is a terrible indictment on how health care is dealt with in our society, but we are glad that we are able to provide these services. We saw this year--we had 5,073 visits, which comprise 2,357 clients. The vast majority were from Johnson County although we do see people from contiguous counties, particularly Muscatine and Jefferson and Cedar counties. About 25 pement of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Io~va City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 11 our population were Hispanic, about 20 percent African American, about--there's a larger percentage of Hispanics who are in our chronically ill population. We do see people generally who are uninsured or underinsured; however, I think, often the idea of the average person who goes to a free clinic may be someone who is not employed or someone who is homeless--we certainly see those people--but the overwhelming majority of our clients do work, some two or three jobs to support themselves and their family. They simply do not have health insurance or their insurance is inadequate to cover what they need. We've had a tremendous growth in the number of visits, particularly for chronic illnesses over the past four years. When I star--well, about 10 years ago, we saw 31 people regularly for diabetes. Now we're seeing 500. We saw 137 people for hypertension; now we're seeing close to 600. And these are people who need daily medications. Most of our medications are obtained through donations or we purchase in bulk. But the majority are obtained by the staff applying to the many pharmaceutical companies on behalf of each patient for each medication every three months, which is a huge amount of labor expended to get these medications. We dispensed close to $3 million worth of medications last year to people who would otherwise not have had them for their chronic conditions. Our services have also continued to grow in that we have, as we see the need, we try to grow while using the very limited resources, and we rely heavily upon the wonderful volunteers from the community, both medical and non-medical. We're able to offer gynecologic care because we have two retired gynecologists who come in periodically. We have a retired pediatrician. In the evenings on some occasions we can provide podiatry, dermatology, orthopedics, so we do really rely heavily upon volunteers since there are just six paid staff at the clinic. As far as the chronic conditions that we see, I'd like to say we try to approximate what's done in a physician's office, but we really can't because our hours are so limited; staff is limited. We're not available on the weekends or at nights, so surely someone who has diabetes, high cholesterol, arthritis, asthma, whatever condition they have, would be better served somewhere else. But frankly there really isn't anywhere else for them to go. So we try to provide as close an approximation as someone could get at another office where we are by providing the medications. And also what we've been able to do through the generous donations we've received from the City and other agencies is have a very strong and solid case management system. We have a case manager who works closely with me following all the people with chronic illnesses, helping them keep up with their appointments, make sure they get their medications, their blood tests on time, and things that really need to be done. Also, realizing that our population often has chaotic and rather disorganized lives, the case manager tries to keep on top of who needs help with transportation and we try to be very flexible in allowing for people's very difficult lives, realizing that health care is only one of the very many things that they're fighting to maintain. I'd be glad to entertain any questions. Champion/What hours are you open at? Connolly/Well, we can give you brochures. Business hours we have Monday through Thursday 9:00 to 3:00 and Friday morning 9:00 to 11:00. But those--the only hours we see patients are Tuesdays 9:00 to 3:00, Monday and Thursday evening about 6:00 to 9:00 This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 12 or 9:30, Thursday morning 9:00 to noon. And then once a month we have Memy Hospital, Mercy Night on a Wednesday evening, provides another session for us once a month. I would point out that even though our numbers are significantly growing, I don't think it really reflects the need because every time we have another provider or physician volunteer who can see another 10 patient per week in one day those visits are taken and the appointments are filled. I think if we were open to patients five days a week, we'd be filled. There is such a tremendous need out there, it really is quite frightening. Now, as I think we're seeing the problem encroach on even what you'd call higher lower class or lower middle class, many working people who are being laid off from jobs and not getting jobs. People who never in their dreams imagined that they would be without health care for themselves or their family. And it's really a burgeoning problem, and I don't see that it's going to get any easier. So we really appreciate that the community supports us. Vanderhoef/How many veterans do you see? Connolly/Oh, we don't see veterans. We refer them to the Veterans Administration. Vanderhoef/I wondered if you did any kind of triage with them or--- Connolly/Well, we just try to get them over there because we have--our appointments are so limited that we really try to offer them to people we know have no other place to go. There are some, there's the rare person we will see because they refuse to go to the VA, but we really try to get them where they can get their services paid for. Elliott/I presume your negative observation on the health care system did not include the professional providers. Connolly/Well, I don't think ! said anything negative about the medical system, but health care, yes. Elliott/The health care system. Connolly/Yes. Elliott/Because you are pleased with the volunteers that you get? Connolly/Well, I'm pleased. Yes, I'm very happy the people who select themselves to be there are extremely helpful. Yes. And I also would have to point out that I know there are many primary care physicians in town and across the country who see people for free in their offices and who try to deal with the problem as best they can, and we ask a lot of favors of people. So, no, it's not a disparaging comment upon providers, but upon the lack of system. Bailey/And I'm assuming that similar to veterans that if you get students in, you send them to Student Health? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 13 Connolly/Yes. Bailey/And so--- Connolly/Yes. We will, we see some students certainly, mostly from Kirkwood though, because if they can go to University Student Health, we strongly advise they do that. Thank you. Lehman/You guys do more with less than anybody. Connolly/Thank you. Vanderhoef/What is your total budget? Lehman/It's in the blue here. Vanderhoef/OK. I'll look at it later. Thank you. Elliott/Thank you. Lehman/Thank you very much. Bailey/Thank you. DOG PARK RECOMMENDATIONS Lehman/OK, the dog park recommendations. There you go. Trueblood/Sorry I didn't order an easel and some of that high-tech capability that I don't have. (Laughter) Trueblood/I believe it was about eight or nine months ago, some members of the Dog Pack Board of Directors came before you to discuss the possibility of a dog park or an off- leash recreation area being developed on City property. At that time, you directed the City Manager to appoint someone on City staff to work with them to see if we can find an appropriate parcel of City-owned property and I drew the lucky number, so I was that appointee. We held some meetings. We, meaning myself and the Dog Pack Board of directors, discussed various possibilities for potential sites, and ultimately narrowed our choices down to three locations that we felt had possibilities. There was 40-acre parcel of City-owned land out by the landfill, west of the landfill on Kansas Avenue to be exact. A portion of Scott Park, down off of Scott Boulevard. And a portion of the Peninsula parkland. Wanting this to be an open process, the first thing we did was we held a public meeting on December 8th with regard to the landfill site. We sent letters to 33 households in that area. Six residents attended along with two members of the County Board of Supervisors. None of the residents were receptive to the idea, to put it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 14 mildly. Some of the concerns expressed included their neighboring livestock, dogs barking, the possibility of dogs getting loose, that sort of thing, added traffic on Kansas Avenue, which is a gravel road. Site security in general, their own dogs, which are typically off-leash, being attracted to the dog park. And even though we said we wouldn't charge them if they came there without an owner, that didn't seem to satisfy them. And just they had the general feeling that the City is encroaching on them out there and this would be one more item of encroachment, if you will. Then on January 21 st--I should say we didn't eliminate that as a possibility--but we did go on to the second possibility, that being Scott Park. And on January 21st we held that meeting and here we were suggesting to use maybe 10 to 15 acres of the park, which is about 43 acres in size. Letters were sent to 37 households in that area; five neighborhood residents attended. While none voiced opposition to a dog park being created there, the general tone, with the exception of one person, was that they would definitely prefer that it be elsewhere. Now, again, we didn't eliminate that from consideration but then we focused on the third site which was the Peninsula parkland. First of all, with regard to Scott Park, some of their concerns were just taking away from other uses of the park and since the surrounding area is being developed, they didn't think a large portion of the park should be developed for a single use, and they had some environmental concerns with the creek running through it and the fact that it is a stormwater management area as well. Then on February 27th, a group of us met at the Peninsula parkland location, including Ed Moreno, who is the water division superintendent. We did not hold a neighborhood meeting, frankly, because of the lack of residents in the area. And there's nothing definite, but we were looking at two potential sites within the Peninsula area which is about 100 acres in size, the whole area is. Over here, ifI can get around to it, we're looking essentially, we're looking at an area right in here or the area down in here. Up here is a residential area, the eventual access road would come right down in this area right here, with a small parking area right over here. Now, it's even meant, we mentioned the possibility of using both of those areas, possibly one for large dogs, one for smaller dogs. But right now we're just focusing on the area itself. As a matter of fact, the Dog Pack Board of Directors has voted on this as their preferred site. The Parks and Recreation Commission endorsed this choice just last week with the caveat that the planning process provide the opportunity for public input. Now, ifa dog park is to be developed on the Peninsula area, there is a significant upfront cost that you need to be aware of, which is a park access road and a small parking lot. Now, our preliminary rough estimate as to the cost of this would be $150,000 to $200,000, which is not currently budgeted. Our feeling or at least my feeling is that this initial cost should be City expense--and I say this because ever since this property has been acquired, the intent has been to open it up as a park some day. So, to do this will require that park access road and a small parking lot, regardless of whether a dog park goes there or not. Yes? Lehman/Say that again. We're going to build the road and put in the parking lot whether or not we have a dog park? Trueblood/If it's ever to be opened up as parkland. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 15 Lehman/OK. So, that really is not a cost associated with the dog park. Trueblood/That's right. Lehman/Thank you. Vanderhoef/Shared cost at least. Bailey/Well, it's a park cost. Champion/In the sense that the road--would that just open up the park or would it open up the dog park? Trueblood/Park. Champion/I mean, are people going to let their kids nm through there with dogs running around? I mean, I think it's a road to the dog park. Trueblood/Well, it--- Champion/ Unless you move the dog park eventually. Trueblood/Let's say if the dog park went to Scott Boulevard or to the landfill site, we still need to build this access road and the parking lot if this area is to ever be used as a park, no matter what kind of park it is. OK. Elliott/But that's not quite as simplistic as initially said that it's a road to, because if it does become a park, the dog park would have to move, and also instead of putting in a road at some point in the future, it needs to be very soon. Trueblood/It needs to be very soon if you're going to develop the dog park soon. Elliott/Yeah. Trueblood/Yeah. Elliott/So, there is a significant difference. Trueblood/There could be. Bailey/But a dog park and a park can be in the same place. Lelunan/Right. Bailey/The dog park would be the fenced portion, I mean, granted you're going to let your kids run and disturb the dogs. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page I6 Elliott/No. And the fence for it--who puts in the fence? Trueblood/That would be a cost incurred by the dog park organization as would the remainder of the development costs for the dog park. We're suggesting that the road and the parking lot is needed regardless of what kind of park it is. So that we, the City, should pay for that. But it isn't in the budget right now. The rest of the development costs for the dog park we're saying should be incurred by the dog park organization. Vanderhoeff Where is the rest of the road then? You showed us the little short piece, the red lines are what? Trueblood/These red lines down through here with one exception where I made a mistake--- (Laughter) Trueblood/...are showing where the trails slash service roads already exist. OK. Vanderhoef/OK. Trueblood/The one right here does not even though I got a little carried away. OK. So, the road into the--this is the housing development up here--the road would essentially come down through, right through here and then connect into the park access roadway. Vanderhoef/So that would be in front of the houses that face the golf course? Could that--- Trueblood/I'm not sure which direction the houses face. Vanderhoef/Well, the single-load road with houses on it. Atkins/That's correct (can't hear) Lehman/But in any case, access to that park will be through that neighborhood. Trueblood/Vehicular access, certainly, yes. Vanderhoef/OK. And approximately how many acres in the two different parcels there? Trueblood/They say this one down here is about 11 or 12 acres and this one up here is a little bit smaller. O'Donnell/OK, align me here--where are the golf holes down there? Lehman/Inside that turquoise--- Vanderhoef/Green. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 17 Tmeblood/Inside the green area, that's the two new golf holes. Vanderhoef/OK. So, you've got a green down there at the bottom that is shooting directly at where you've located a parking--- Lehman/I think that's a ways away, Dee. Tmeblood/Right here, you talking about? Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. Tmeblood/Yeah, this was--the parking area would be just a short distance from the golf course fence, if you will. That's already fenced right there and right along there. Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. Elliott/And where's the green? Lehman/Inside the fence. Elliott/No, no, but I mean, how close to the parking lot? Tmeblood/Not very close at all. Elliott/Oh, OK. Trueblood/This is actually, for this hole is a par 5 going that direction; this one's a par 3 that's way at the top of the hill so it's probably 100 yards or more away. Wilbum/So, separating the proposed parking area and the golf and the upper proposed dog park and the neighborhood--is it both wooded and hill-cliffed embankment? Trueblood/The entire neighborhood is separated from the lower level parkland, if you will, by a heavily wooded hillside. Vanderhoef/And would the parking be in the same place no matter which of the two sites were used? Trueblood/That's our proposal, yeah. Bailey/How large a parking are we talking? Trueblood Twenty-five cars, give or take. Champion/Would that be paved or gravel? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 18 Trueblood/Paved is what we prefer. Elliott/You're going to get into the operation. Is there personnel involved in the operation of that? Trueblood/Personnel would be involved in that we would likely have to mow it. I don't think that we could expect the dog park organization to take on mowing the area. We would also most likely have to be doing the trash hauling. Beyond that, the dog park organization--and by the way, there are several members here from Dog PAC Board, if you want to ask them any questions, have them come up. I'd be happy to relinquish the mike. (Laughter) Trueblood/At any rate, they have indicated their willingness to help in the sense of monitoring the site, picking up litter, picking up dog waste, you know--all those kinds of things of daily maintenance. But I don't think we can expect them to haul the trash cans to the landfill, for example, and I don't think we can expect them mow the area. So we would have those operational costs. Lehman/What's the timeframe for--I mean, when could that road and parking lot be constructed? We're not even close to that area in the subdivision yet. Tmeblood/Right. It could begin as quickly as we could get $200,000, but--- Lehman/No, no, well, no--it wouldn't do you any good to build the road if you don't have a road that connects to it. I assume the road you're talking about and the parking lot--the road would mn from the subdivision, edge of the subdivision, down to and include the parking lot. Which means them would then have to be a road--the subdivision road would have to be built to connect to the one we're talking about. Trueblood/If you've been out there, you'd know that the road is hard surfaced to a point and then it's gravel. My assumption has been that it would follow essentially that gravel or gravel and dirt road where it is right now. But to be honest with you, we'd have to work with our planning folks to determine, OK, is this going to be the plan and can we go ahead and follow this, if it was going to be developed prior to the time that the roadway system throughout the neighborhood was developed. Elliott/My question to Eleanor would be how does the City avoid all liability for this? When there are dogs, there are problems. Dilkes/Well, I don't know that we can avoid all liability. I don't think--- Elliott/How can the City do this then? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 19 Dilkes/Well, I mean, I think we always have--we have liability issues in all our parks, and it's always dependent on the circumstances. Elliott/Yes, but if the City allows dogs to run free, then the City is liable when the dog runs up and knocks somebody down or bites somebody or chews another dog. Dilkes/I don't think you can say that. I mean, any negligence case--- Elliott/It happens. Dilkes/Well, yes, certainly it happens--but I don't think you can, without knowing what the facts of a situation are, decide that the City would be liable in any particular event. Negligence has to be shown. This is a fenced-in area where people bring their dogs, presumably at their own risk. I mean there are certain things that we would do to put people on notice of what the risks are at the park. So--- Wilburn/Similar to like at the Skateboard Park, where it's posted. Bailey/Mm-hmm. Dilkes/Now there is a specific exclusion in the State Code for skateboard parks. I don't believe there's one for dog parks that I'm aware of. Elliott/Unless the City can be excluded from liability, I don't see how the City can do this. Lehman/Well, we're not excluded from liability at City Park--kids playing on the playground equipment. Bailey/Right. Elliott/No, but we do not say you can come there and allow your dog to run free. Lehman/No, but we let your kid run free and your kid does something stupid and gets hurt and sues the City. Elliott/Kids do not have the possibility of chomping on you and doing so at--- Bailey/ You've never had a 3-year-old. (Laughter) Elliott/I just--dogs are too dangerous. Trueblood/Well, Bob, maybe--I'm sure Eleanor could address this better than me--but I suppose you could look at the other side of the coin and say that like right now, there's a lot of people that let their dogs run loose in Hickory Hill Park. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 20 Elliott/Mm-hmm. Trueblood/We can't possibly enforce that all the time. So our liability might even be greater there that we're allowing that, quote "allowing that to happen," rather than sending people up there to enforce the ordinance. Bailey/! have a question about that because I do hear about that a lot regarding Hickory Hill Park. Do we anticipate that that will help alleviate that problem to a degree? Trueblood/We anticipate that. Will it cure it? No, it won't cure it. Lehman/It's kind of like the Skateboard Park--it doesn't take all the skateboards off the streets downtown. Elliott/I think this is--my concerns would be a matter for another discussion, but they are certainly significant because in this litigious society you know somebody's going to be bitten, some dog is going to be damaged. My daughter has a 95-pound lab who is just the friendliest, happiest dog in the world. But if you aren't careful that dog will knock you down and lick you to death. Trneblood/Well, two quick things. First of all, you know, we cooperated with Dog Pack. We have that doggy paddle they called it last year at City Park swimming pool. We had 320 some dogs--356 dogs there--and no incidents. They did have waiver forms for them to sign and they required that they be licensed and vaccinated. Pardon me? O'Donnell/We can do that now. Female Voice/We'll have waiver forms. O'Donnell/We can have a waiver form in the park. Trueblood/Yeah, but--- Dilkes/I don't think it's a given at all that the City would be liable in that situation. I think you have a number of defenses to that action. I think the primary party you would look to and certainly I think the City would look to if we were sued would be the owner of the dog so---' Elliott/That's fine. Dilkes/But I just, I don't think that you can say that's a given at all. Certainly it's a risk, but I think it's a risk in all our parks. Wilburn/Quick question. Just remind me, refresh my memory, Terry, about the rest of essentially you're talking about the lower peninsula. I know that the red--except for you This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 21 mistake--is the existing fine-surfaces roads slash trail through there. Is the brown, is that part of a future or existing trail, or what is the brown? Trueblood/The rest of the, the brown trails, if you will, are what are proposed conceptually for future nature trails. Wilburn/That's right. I guess at what the entire lower peninsula, when this was talked about originally, wasn't it that that's a passive use type area--- Trueblood/Right. Wilburn/...nature trails, nature walk, multipurpose trail--- Trueblood/Right. And we still anticipate that with the exception, if you approve it, of maybe cutting out 12 acres plus or minus for a fenced-in dog park. Bailey/So with those trails in the proposed areas, are they in the fence or out of the fence? Trueblood/All the trails would be outside the fence. Bailey/Outside the fence and far--- Tmeblood/At least 3 or 4 inches, yeah. (Laughter) Tmeblood/Several feet. Bailey/OK. Give me feet. Vanderhoef/I foresee if we went ahead sooner rather than later that that packed dirt road down to the park would all at once become the preference for the homeowners up above, and we certainly can't keep two going or improve the dirt one. Trueblood/We don't--if this goes forth, we don't think that we can open the dog park until the roadway improvement is taken care of because right now it is not wide enough to allow for two-way traffic. Lehman/Well, isn't this--the location of that road is to the, adjacent to the golf course, that is not the road that you take through the center of that development and down below. That's quite a ways to the north and west of it. Vanderhoef/But there's the street that parallels that. Lehman/Well, yeah, but I don't know--- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 22 Trueblood/Well, it is north and west of it, yes--- TAPE 04-39, SIDE ONE Lehman/OK. Vanderhoef/It took out a window at a house this past week, I heard. Wilburn/Oh, yes. Lehman/Well, so, what is it you would like--- Trueblood/I wasn't out there last week. Lehman/Well, what would you like from us at this point? Trueblood/Just direction, basically, on where we go from here. Your direction before was for somebody to work with them to try to come up with a location. We've come up with a recommended location, and now we need direction as to where to go. Atkins/Careful, Ross, on that. VanderhoefJ Well, having not budgeted for it, I think we certainly can put it in the discussion with improvements, capital projects, with the next budget time. But at this point, I don't see, unless you make money someplace in Parks and Rec. Lehman/You're not asking us to move ahead with this now, are you? You're just asking whether or not the concept is acceptable. Trueblood/Well, we--I'd love for you to move ahead with it now. Champion/I think the concept is good. Trueblood/But, yeah--basically we need to know a couple of things. One is if you think this site is OK. And two if we can begin discussions as to when we might be able to proceed. Champion/I think the location is fine, and I think we should proceed as soon as we can finance it. I think it's best to have it in place before all that land's developed, and then you don't get all the objections from neighbors about the fear of wild dogs. Bailey/Or it's an attraction as well. Champion/Or it's an attraction--yeah, and I think we can ask Steve to keep us informed of where we're at in our capital projects. Our bids have come in pretty good. Atkins/The thing that I wanted to point out is that we really don't need some (can't hear) dog This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 23 park folks (can't hear) start a fundraiser. Champion/Right. Atkins/Yeah, they've got to get their act together. It's much easier to raise money when they know exactly where this thing is going to be. Bailey/I have a Dog Pack question. So, this is a smaller parcel than you were originally talking about, but I'm assuming that it will be sufficient and actually work well. Beth Shields/It's been with--- Lehman/You need to talk into the mic. (Laughter) Shields/Sorry. I'm Beth Shields with the Dog PAC group and I spoke with some of you last September. This, our 12 acres would be fairly similar ih size, a touch smaller than the park that's existing and has been existing for about four years now in Cedar Rapids. Bailey/OK. Shields/And I would, if you know, anybody who has questions about the feasibility of a dog park, check with Cedar Rapids. They've had no problems. They've had no incidents that have come in front of the city about liability or negligence or anything so. But size- wise, it would be certainly a feasible size. Bailey/Great. Thanks. Lehman/One other things I think we, Terry--I think we need to talk to the people on the, the developers on the Peninsula and just see how far away we are from that road being resurfaced, because my guess is that that probably is going to have a bigger impact on the timing of this than anything else. I mean, we can build a parking lot and the road, the road to nowhere. The other end of that road needs to be built--didn't he just say that, prior to us putting in our road or at the same time? Trueblood/Well, as far as the developers' end of the road, if you will, as long as we have it in the right location, it wouldn't absolutely, that wouldn't absolutely have to be built before we get down to where it's a park access road because that's where the problems are with regard to the width, and there's a bank in there that makes kind of a blind curve in it. So that's the more important portion as it gets down closer to the park. So it, ideally--you're absolutely right. But it could happen, you know, I mean, if we just, you know, brought in a few loads of gravel, compacted it in the upper end and then did what we need to do down closer to the park where it actually becomes City property. It could be done that way. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 24 Lehman/Thank you. Atkins/But we still need to have some indication that if you think this is OK, because at the very least we need to write a memorandum for file, because I'm sure they want to start their fundraiser before too long. And we need to talk to the developer and then we need to give you some sort of recommendation on the availabilities of money to do that. Trueblood/Yeah. Atkins/Terry, can you point out for me which road--we're talking the single-loaded road right on the edge of the golf course is the one you're talking about extending down.to the park? Yeah. OK, we're on that further up, that's what we're talking about--up and around. Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. Atkins/All right. Lehman/But see that is--- Atkins/The difficulty in doing this and that's where we need to talk to the developer, that's probably stage 4 or 5 and it's not going to move at speeds. The other issue is that if we're going to put a roadway in there, I'm sure we could probably consider a gravel road being--boy, is my leg cramping up. (Laughter) O'Donnell/You're a lot of fun tonight. Lehman/Probably from walking on gravel. Vanderhoef/That'll teach you to play softball. Atkins/I guess. Now, now, I do have to admit to that pain. Thank you. Champion/But you wouldn't be able to get up. Atkins/I wouldn't be able to get up. Anyway, we sort of have an unwritten rule that when we do our City developments, we apply our own codes to ourselves and--- Lehman/ Right. Atkins/...gravel roads are not something that we encourage. But I do believe that, you know, if there is a majority support, we have to give these folks some indication that this is an acceptable site so that they can begin thinking about their fundraising. Champion/The only problem I have with paving the road is because that stage of that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 25 development could be a long way off, and they may change the roads (can't hear) if it doesn't take off and we end up selling that land to somebody, that may not be where they want that road at all. So that's my objection of paving it. However, ifI, I think we have a group of citizens here who are willing to put money, time and energy into something that they want and the town really could use and probably other people would use it besides the people who are working for it. And if we can find the money, then I'd have to (can't hear) Atkins/No, we'll have to work--no, we've got budgets to put together in a number of things. I very much agree with you, that if we're going to put any pathway through there; all right, it would make it a minimal investment in gravel, but you, I mean, just understand that someone will probably give you a jab that, well,--- Champion/ It won't be the only jab. Lehman/We've got calluses. Atkins/I figure my job is to advise you on these things. Lehman/Mm-hmm. Well, I just, I see no problems. I mean I think that that, from a location standpoint conceptually is a great place for it. Bailey/Yes. Lehman/I really don't want to raise people's hopes that that's going to out there operational next summer unless we get some understanding with that developer. Atkins/No, we have to do that. Lehman/That part of the development is a long, long, long ways away, and that road adjacent to the golf course, my guess is probably isn't scheduled to be built for a couple three years. Atkins/Yeah, those are--that's the best lot. Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. Lehman/Right. Vanderhoef/Because--- Lehman/Can we--- O'Donnell/I'd feel better seeing it. Atkins/Well, another thing to keep in mind is that we will be able to use the bridge, our dam, we This represents only a reasonably accurate h~anscription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 26 can get into the backdoor. Bailey/Oh, nice. Atkins/And I mean there are other--you can park somewhere and walk your dog across--- Lehman/By the time you walk your dog across the bridge and got to the dog park you'd have to have a place to take a nap. (Laughter) Trueblood/That's what the park benches will be for. Lehman/I think I hear, is a majority of the Council interested in at least moving forward? Champion/I am. Bailey/Yeah, absolutely. Elliott/I have, I had obviously very serious reservations about the liability but the young lady up there knows much more about that than I do, so I'm willing to follow your advice on that. I'm very, very surprised, but you know more about that. My concern would be the finances and if the City can finance it. I think it would be wonderful to have a dog park. I think it'd be great. And, Regenia, since you and I have been on the Council I bet the City Manager has not come before the Council on bended knee before. (Laughter) Lehman/I can say that after 10 years, too. I really think we need to have some discussion with the developer though. This is more--- Atkins/Now, we, Ernie, there lots of folks to be talked to. Lehman/But that one I think is really key. Atkins/If there's an indication of your policy position is supportive of this idea of the dog park at that location, that's a big step for these organizers. Lehman/You just got it. Champion/You got it. Go for it. Wilbum/Ryan, when is the bridge supposed to be done? Trueblood/Later this summer. Yeah. I would tell you, Emie, too, I have had discussions with Karin Franklin about it, but not the developer himself but about the neighborhood This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 27 support. Lehman/Obviously, Karin--- Atkins/She knows that agreement. Lehman/Right. All right. Trueblood/Thank you. Shields/Thank you. Trueblood/Where do I pick up the check? (Laughter) Bailey/I asked that already. Lehman/We've had a request for a short recess. (BREAK) AGENDA ITEMS Item 2 e (2). Correspondence from JCCOG Traffic Engineering Planner: Relocation of Iowa City Transit bus stop from the west side of intersection of ACT Circle/Iowa Highway 1 to the west side of the intersection of Iowa Highway 1/Scott Boulevard. Lehman/Agenda items. One of the things that's on the agenda in the Consent Calendar was the bus stop where I see--- Atkins/Yeah, Joe and Ron are here for that. Lehman/Yeah, I see the transportation moguls here. Joe or somebody wants explained, I think what, the recommendation is the same as it was originally if I'm not mistaken. Atkins/Yes, substantially the same. Fowler/Yeah, Ron came tonight because he's the one who had the actual discussion with ACT, which started this and then I kind of would like to push the safety issues. So, Ron, go right ahead. Logsden/I'm, the process got started at ACT's request. They were opening some new buildings on their campus, closing off I think as part of the widening of Dodge Street, they closed off the entrance closest to the Lindquist building on their property and when they did that they wanted, originally when we were looking at widening North Dodge, we were This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 28 going to have a bus pull-offthere. They said they did not want to have a bus pull-off there. Their plan was to landscape, to do away with that road, put a circle in there and they did not want the bus pull-off. So we talked to the engineers and the planners and that was eliminated from the plan at that point, and we still had a bus stop there at the driveway. Since the delay of the widening of North Dodge, they decided to go ahead, eliminate that entrance, tear out the roadway, and there would be no sidewalk, nothing going up there so they wanted to take out the bus stop. I met with them about changing the bus stops on the campus itself to accommodate the new buildings, things they were changing. They wanted to eliminate that bus stop. I said if, in doing so what will probably happen is people will start using the ACT Circle bus stop, which is an unsafe- -it's not a very good, but very little usage prior. So we've kind of overlooked that a little bit in the short run, thinking the road's going to widen, there will be a bus puli-off at ACT Circle, but I told them at that time that we're probably going to have to end up eliminating the ACT Circle's bus stop also because everyone who is getting off on the other side of the road by the Lindquist building would then start using that stop. It's going to increase the usage and it's just going to be an unsafe situation, which is exactly what happened. They said they realized that, that everyone who works on their campus, that works their normal hours comes to work and leaves work at the times that we go into their campus, they wouldn't be using that bus stop anyway. They said that anyone who uses the bus stop on North Dodge is doing that at their own freewill, flexing their hours, they had broad shoulders, they were willing to accept that--was exactly the terminology that was used. And so they wanted to go ahead and eliminate the bus stop so they didn't have people walking through their newly landscaped area when there's no sidewalk there. We eliminated it and now exactly what we thought would happen happened at the usage at the ACT Circle bus stop has increased to the extent that we just don't feel it's safe to use. We've got sight distance problems from behind, we've got traffic backing up onto 80, so the police are monitoring and letting traffic flow continuously so there's break in the traffic for us to pull back out. Our bus stop is in the right turn only lane when we're not actually turning right. The driver's looking behind them to see a break in the traffic. They've got traffic turning left in front of them that they don't see until after they start pulling out. So it has created a real unsafe situation. It's--we looked at all the different alternatives and there's really not a good alternative besides moving the bus stop up and making people walk. I think in the summer months, it's not a bad walk along the highway. In the winter months it's not a good walk along the highway. Lehman/I read, did I read correctly in the packet that when North Dodge has been redone, this may change? Logsden/Yes, there will be a bus pull-offinstalled at ACT Circle, not one across the street, but there will be one at ACT Circle. Lehman/So, this will be a temporary sort of thing until such time as those improvements are done. Logsden/That improvement, according to DOT, is supposed to happen at least at this time is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 29 planned for next summer. Lehman/OK. Vanderhoef/But ACT Circle is--- Logsden/It's by Minerva's, where Friday's, Sinclair. Bailey/Right and if they're not allow--I mean, ACT employs temp workers hand over fist, so those people who are using ACT Cimle bus stop at their own risk are actually using it because they're temp workers at ACT, not because they're flexing their hours. So, if they can't walk, if there's no sidewalk to walk through the campus, I mean, ACT is not making any provision for people to access their campus from Dodge Street. Is that what I heat- you saying, that they're landscaping, they're not making any sidewalk access back to the--- Logsden/There's none where the old drive used to be. Bailey/Right. Logsden/What they want are their employees to walk up Scott Boulevard and take the sidewalk in. Bailey/And Scott Boulevard has a sidewalk all the way from Dodge Street to--- Lehman/ Right. It does. Vanderhoef/But that's a fair hoof. Lehman/Half a mile. Fowler/Well, Dubuque Road is or whatever the road is does not--- Elliott/What are the bus stops on the ACT campus? Bailey/8:15, 12:15, and 5:15. Elliott/And anybody who works hours other than those are at their own preference, is that what you were told? Logsden/That is what I was told by Dave Pate from ACT. Elliott/They have chosen to flex and not take advantage of the bus stops on campus. Bailey/But I don't think that that's exactly true because temp workers, I mean, don't flex necessarily, and they don't necessarily get called to work at 8:15, 12:15, and 5:15. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 30 Temp workers leave when there is no longer any work to do during the day and they may come in from training at 10:30 training time. I mean, I can only say this because I live with a person who's doing temp work out there now. Vanderhoef/When are we going to be at the point that we need to go onto Scott Boulevard over to the other entrance of ACT? The new entrance? Logsden/We do that three times a day now. Vanderhoef/You go over to that--- Logsden/We go up Scott Boulevard and actually pull and go through the ACT campus. Vanderhoef/You go around and make that your turnaround? Logsden/Yes. Vanderhoef/So those three times a day you can go right up to campus. Logsden/Yes, we pull in front of each one of ACT's buildings on campus. Lehman/ACT, excuse me, Dee--- Vanderhoef/That's all right. Lehman/ACT has removed that road--it has been graded. Vanderhoef/Yes, it has. Lehman/So folks who get off at ACT Circle, the only way they're going to get to ACT now is to walk across the sod or the dirt or go down to Scott Boulevard. Vanderhoef/Go down the hill and then back up the hill--that's a long hoof. Lehman/Well, they're not going to do that. Obviously, they're going to--- Bailey/ They're going to cut across mud. Lehman/Right. Champion/They need to put a sidewalk for people--- Lehman/Well, they will except that what I think I'm hearing is that for safety reasons, you really do not want the bus stopping at ACT Circle. You want it stopping at Scott Boulevard for sight distance reasons. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 31 Bailey/So is there access--there is access to the campus from Dubuque Road, right? This is the map that Matt gave (can't hear) when he spoke, right? Elliott/Yes. Bailey/But there are no sidewalks along there. Fowler/Right. O'Donnell/Well, is that road not closed from Dubuque Road going up? I thought you could do Scott Boulevard but you can't go up from--- Elliott/No--- Fowler/ Dubuque Road is still open going up to the Lindquist building. O'Donnell/(can't hear) put barricades up. Fowler/No, it's the other north entrance that they closed off at this point. Elliott/I agree that I think for safety reasons the bus should not stop when it is southbound; therefore, on the west side. I think for safety reasons that's so the only alternative would be to disregard ACT's wishes and drop the, continue dropping people off when they're northbound or you drop them off on either side of the interchange with the traffic lights. Is that right? Fowler/Right. Elliott/OK. Vanderhoef/But there's no way for them to go through ACT--- Fowler/If you decide that you would like a bus stop at ACT Cimle, for safety reasons, our preference would be to reinstall the one on the east side because of the sight and the speed that we have coming the other way. Elliott/To me, it seems a given that the southbound stop is just for safety reasons shouldn't happen any more. Bailey/Well, and I agree with you. I don't argue that there--but I just think that it's making it very, very difficult for bus riders to actually to get to their place of employment. Elliott/For people who fall outside of the normal working hours, yeah. Bailey/Right, and I think that there are a lot oftemp workers who are taking buses, and once again this whole issue of pedestrian and bicycling. I think those are our temp worker This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 32 class. And that's a lot of Iowa City. Elliott/I don't know that there's a lot of them, but there would be a few of them anyway. Fowler/There's people that use North Dodge Athletic Club, there's people that work at the hotel, work at the restaurant that do ride the bus, too, so it's not just ACT people. And there are people that work at ACT Circle at their ACT complex there that are affected by this also. Elliott/Yes. Lehman/But the recommendation here is to move the stop to Scott Boulevard intersection with Dubuque Road, is it--- Fowler/ We want to remove that southbound stop. Lehman/Right. Fowler/Right. Vanderhoef/Is there any way--well I know you're really tight on your time schedule, aren't you- -getting all the way out and back in in your 30 minutes. We had that discussion one other time. But when I hear that you're doing the circle up onto the campus of ACT, then it's a matter of is there any possibility of a circle for the southbound going into the hotel area and so you can head back out? Fowler/We've gone up there and looked at that and we would have to drive onto the private property of the Minerva's to be able to make a turn. And so we would have problems with snow removal, congestion of vehicles parked in there, and you know, additional liability of any damage the bus did because it's so much heavier than a lot of vehicles to the parking lot. Now, just to make sure that we're open with you here, when the lodge opens down by Carousel Motors, we're going to propose a bus stop in the turn lane there. But the difference is there'll be a traffic light right in front of it and a traffic light right behind it to break it, and it's a four-lane road instead of a two-lane road. But I didn't want you to think that we would come back later and do it without you being informed at this point. Elliott/I think dropping off people from either the northbound or southbound bus there, there would be times there where unless there's a stoplight, which there isn't, it's pretty dangerous because the number of people who are going to be crossing the street either way almost. Bailey/Right. Elliott/It's a rock and a hard place, I think. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 33 Vanderhoef/But you say you are planning a bus pull-off for the southbound bus at ACT Circle when the road is redone? Logsden/Yes, that is in the plan for the widening. It hasn't been approved. It is my understanding--I thought it was approved--in talking to the planners, but in talking to the DOT recently, they said that hasn't been approved, but they don't foresee any problem with that. So I can't stand hem and say it's the DOT's right-of-way and their prerogative, I guess, to approve or disapprove of that plan. As it's drawn right now, it does have, that's been submitted to--- Vanderhoef/Two lanes plus--- Logsden/Yes. Vanderhoeff ...the three lanes plus the bus pull-off. Lehman/So, basically this would be for a period of from now until probably late, late next year at the earliest. Logsden/Yes, until that road's widened, I don't know how long that project's going to take or what, if they're starting at which end of it. But we're looking at a year, a year and a half before that's--- Lehman/Minimum. Right. OK. Other questions? Vanderhoef/I guess I agree that we have to put safety ahead, but perhaps a memo somehow or another for those riders to let them know what the concern is, similar to the memo that you wrote to us that if anybody wants to read it, they can read it--- Lehman/ Steve? Vanderhoef/...and a little bit about hope to alleviate this with the redesign and that may be a year and a half to two years. Atkins/Yes, Bob? Elliott/Do you meet with Dick Ferguson very often at all? Atkins/Not often. Elliott/The City Council is wrestling with this and I just think it would be nice to check with them and see if they have any thoughts on what they might be able to do because it's a very difficult situation for a number of people. Atkins/I certainly know Dick well enough I can call him. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 34 Bailey/I think that would be really helpful because that, I mean, although there are other users of the bus, I would bet the primary users are ACT employees. Atkins/Yeah. Lehman/But I think if you figure that, if the bus stops on the east side, you still have whoever goes to the North Dodge Athletic Club, to Minerva's to the hotel, all those people still have to cross traffic, cross the road, so I mean, it's a dangerous situation--- Bailey/ Right. Elliott/Yes. Lehman/...regardless of which side of the road the bus stops on. Bailey/But if you stop on the east side now and they don't want people crossing that, ACT wants to just simply landscape without any kind of pedestrian access, that creates, I think, also a difficult challenge for their employees. Lehman/Right and they've done that. They're done with it. Bailey/I know. Lehman/The road's gone and it's all seeded. Elliott/Oh, yeah. Bailey/Yeah. Elliott/I just think--- Bailey/ Put up a cow path. Elliott/...a conversation would be interesting to see--- Atkins/I'd be happy to call him. That's fine. I'll get Ron and Joe and I'll talk all day. Lehman/OK, guys. Thank you. Fowler/Thank you. O'Donnell/I agree with the cow path. Lehman/Other agenda items, guys? Vanderhoef/Yes, I've got something. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 35 Elliott/Eleanor, I have a question. Dilkes/Mm-hmm. ITEM 6. ASSESSING A $300.00 CIVIL PENALTY AGAINST PETRO & PROVISIONS, PURSUANT TO IOWA CODE SECTION 453A.22(2) (2003) Elliott/Item 6. We have a heating on selling, what is it, tobacco? Dilkes/Mm-hmm. ElliottJ What are the Council's options? Dilkes/Very limited. Elliott/I thought it'd be good for us to know before we--- Dilkes/The statute provides that the civil penalty shall be assessed upon the conviction, the criminal conviction, so the position I've taken is that if you are provided with proof that there was indeed a conviction, then you shall assess the penalty. Bailey/And how does that civil penalty affect a sort of ongoing or future applications to sell tobacco? Does it? Dilkes/No, it's a graduated penalty. It's $300 the first time, and then it's more the second time and more the third. Bailey/And we're limited in our ability to do anything about that as well. Dilkes/Right. That's all set by statute. Atkins/State Code. Yeah, Eleanor, isn't it--- Dilkes/It's all set by State Code, right. Atkins/Isn't it after so many times though they can lose their license? Dilkes/Yeah. We've given you a number of memos showing you that the graduated penalty, we can recycle that if you--- Bailey/ Oh, that would be good. Dilkes/OK. Elliott/In other words, then we can either say yes, we agree it did happen, you do what you have This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 36 to do. Or we might say we don't agree. We think there is not sufficient proof. Dilkes/Well, the problem is you're presented with a criminal conviction and that's a beyond a reasonable doubt standard. O'Donnell/They've been convicted. Karr/They go on the agenda after conviction. Elliott/OK. And so we don't have that option. Why are we doing this? Dilkes/Because you, but it has to be assessed by you. Elliott/In other words, we have to have a hearing but we have to say guilty. Lehman/Right. Dilkes/Well, the purpose of the hearing is to prove up the conviction. That's basically it. Elliott/Another incidence of great common sense. Bailey/Where does the money for the fines go? Karr/Why don't we pull, we can pull that memo--it was all in the memo. Dilkes/I think that memo is all in there, too. Elliott/That's fine. Bailey/OK, great. Dilkes/I can bring you a copy of that tomorrow as a matter of fact. Bailey/I'm sorry. I didn't know. Karr/May I just say that I suspect, we heard late this aftemoon that this will be paid and a waiver signed so you'll be accepting payment probably and not holding the hearing tomorrow night as well. O'Donnell/OK. Thanks. Lehman/Good. Other agenda items? ITEM 5. APPROVING AMENDMENTS TO THE FY2004 OPERATING BUDGET. a) PUBLIC HEARING b) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 37 Vanderhoef/Item 5, the budget amendment. I was a little concerned when I read the bottom line today and saw a $10 million discrepancy between what was budgeted for carryover and what was actual. So, I ended up talking with Deb Mansfield, and it has to do with the Transportation Center. But I ask that either she or Kevin be able to come and speak to that because I think the public will have a question or two about that bottom line also because the impact it might be on our debt limit, our self-imposed debt limit and so forth. Atkins/It was a good catch on your part, and there's nothing wrong with this, folks. Dee's initial concern, I think, rightfully so, was whoops, there goes the General Fund cash balance. And that's not the case. This is a form we have to fill out for the state, filling out their categories. We use our cash position as working capital. Many businesses will go out and have a line of credit and they would borrow on a short-term basis. Well, we use our own internal financing. And so there's periods of times when you actually draw that down. When you record these big capital projects, as Dee just pointed out, and our use of these monies, you're going to, you have the potential to see what you see right here. I can as much as assure you as the sun's coming up tomorrow that your cash balance in the General Fund at the end of the year will be as projected. Vanderhoef/That's good. (Several talk) Lehman/I think it's supposed to rain tomorrow. Atkins/I was going to say, yeah, if you hear a 40-day, 40-night rain thing, all bets are off. Lehman/All right. Vanderhoef/And then, ifI might continue on this, this is an unusual year in that we have this earmarked for the Transportation Center and so forth. So, I would like to have an update on the 2004 grants--- Atkins/Good idea. Vanderhoef/...and compare them to previous years so we know what kinds of changes, real specifically about the state and federal grants because I think we're seeing a decline in the transportation, which is a federal grant. We're seeing a decline in some other things out of the state. Atkins/Yep. Vanderhoef/And for comparison. Atkins/That's a good idea. We'll probably want to, I think, if I hear what you're saying, you'd This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 38 also like a little history? Vanderhoef/Mm-hmm. To compare it with the last two or three years. Atkins/Yeah. Interestingly enough, there have been some very interesting subtle changes. A state grant that used to cover wages and benefits, for example, for a particular position, now they only cover wages. So very subtly, if you're going to continue the program, we do end up picking up a share of the cost. And I think we can show those things. We'll prepare something--give us a little time but we'll get that for you. ITEM 12. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE AGREEMENT FOR PRIVATE REDEVELOPMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND DEVELOPER MGD, L.C. FOR THE REDEVELOPMENT OF SYCAMORE MALL Elliott/Eleanor and Steve, is there anything troublesome about Item 12? That's the change in corporate. Dilkes/No. O'Donnell/That's a good question. Elliott/OK, good. Bailey/Pretty standard, right? Lehman/Yeah. Atkins/Excuse me, but I'm not there yet. Oh, Sycamore. Everything's in order. Yeah, that's in order. Lehman/OK. ITEM 2. d. RESOLUTIONS (11) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT FOR RECYCLING SERVICES WITH CITY CARTON COMPANY, INC., OF IOWA CITY, IOWA. Wilburn/I've got a question for Steve. I'm starting to see with the City Carton contract--- Atkins/Mm-hmm. Wilburn/...they're going to be picking up and accepting plastic 1 through 7. Atkins/We will take 1 through 7 at the curb. We will not--and we'll promote this--take This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 39 Styrofoam and oil containers, but really most other plastics now. It's a nice deal. The yogurt cup lobby has really, really pushed this thing. Elliott/Can we have a clarification on that tomorrow as to what 1 through 7 is.'? I put my milk cartons out there. What are the other things that people can put out? Bailey/Cottage cheese. Some yogurt is number 5. Elliott/OK. Atkins/You can just take a, take the liter bottles, the green liter, those are 2. Elliott/Good. Dilkes/You know, they're all marked on the bottom. Wilburn/Yeah. Atkins/Yeah. Dilkes/Just turn it over and look. Atkins/Every bottle has a mark--- Lehmarff Empty it first. Elliott/I get joy in my retirement. (Laughter) Atkins/You know, flip it around. Vanderhoef/Stick your finger on the hole. Wilburn/There's still some sort of orange juice gallon jugs that are like number, I think they're like number 7, and so--- Atkins/If they're number 7, they're OK. Wilburn/Yeah. Atkins/1 through 7. Wilburn/My question was it mentioned there's some neighborhoods because of, width the street, that they'll use a smaller truck and they will actually accept commingled recycling, just in that neighborhood? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 40 Atkins/What was negotiated was that they will accept up to 10 percent of its volume. If we separate it we get a better price. Wilburn/Right. Atkins/And so it's easy for us to just require citizens to separate it right at the curb and it's taken care of. We can take this 10 percent and I'm sure just exactly how we're going to do that. The Peninsula would be a good example where you have alley, we'll be picking up in alleys, we won't take our 9-yard packer down there, we'll use the smaller truck. Those folks will get a special notice--here's how you'll present--- Wilburn/My concern is that the neighborhood get a special notice. Atkins/And we will promote this. Wilbum/OK. Atkins/Assuming you approve this tomorrow night. Wilburn/Right. Atkins/And then we also had to clean up the language for--we're subject to the Chicago market on the values of things. It's a good agreement. It cleans up, it expands our recycling, should not be financially onerous to us at all, and gives us a little bit more flexibility. City Carton's been very good to work with. Yeah. Wilburn/Right. Lehman/Good. O'Donnell/Great. ITEM 8. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING TItE BUDGETED POSITIONS IN THE WATER DIVISION OF TItE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT BY DELETING THE POSITION OF ELECTRONICS TECH--WATER AND ADDING A POSITION OF MAINTENANCE OPERATOR--WATER. Vanderhoef/I am presuming on Item 8 that we'll reflect a savings on the change of the two positions. Atkins/Yes. The electronic tech was a pay grade 12; the water operator's a pay grade 10. That's about $4,000 a year. Vanderhoef/OK. And the outsourcing, what's the estimate for--- This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 41 Atkins/Tough to say until--we had always intended to have an electronics technician at the water plant. Our experience was it did not work as well as we would like. We've been able to do most of what we've been able to do with our own force account work. I'm not real sure, Dee, and we won't know until we actually get into it. Vanderhoef/Give it a year and--- Atkins/Yeah, give it a year or so and--- Vanderhoef/...and see what happens. Elliott/I like the idea of looking closely at things like that and making that determination. Atkins/Yeah. Elliott/I think that's important. Atkins/Well, all along we've, it's all we'd need, because of the complexity of running the plant, and we just found that the group of folks we have working out there picked up on it right away. We don't need that level of employee. And we had a (can't hear) Dilkes/Ernie, I've got a couple comments when you're done. Lehman/Yes. ITEM 14b. RESOLUTION ON UNCLASSIFIED SALARY COMPENSATION FOR FISCAL YEAR 2005 FOR THE CITY MANAGER, CITY ATTORNEY, AND CITY CLERK AND AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING TItE MAYOR AND CITY CLERK TO EXECUTE AMENDMENTS TO THE CONTRACTS OF THE CITY MANAGER~ CITY ATTORNEY, AND CITY CLERK TO DELETE THE PROVISION ENTITLED "HOURS OF WORK." Dilkes/First on the resolution on salaries. We have eliminated the hours of work provision which apparently caused some consternation. I have made it clear, however, in the resolution that, you know, that provision simply I think recognized the flexibility that professional employees have when they work hours outside the normal workday. It certainly wasn't intended nor has it been implemented to provide compensatory time to any of us. None of us take it. None of us keep track of it. So, it has been eliminated, but it shouldn't have caused a lot of consternation. Lehman/Well, I think--- Bailey/ We locked on to some language--- (Laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 42 Lehman/Well, we didn't read it as closely as we should have. Dilkes/In any event, that's--- Lehman/Thank you, Eleanor. ITEM 9. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND TItE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO AN AGREEMENT WITIt RIVERSIDE THEATRE THAT ALLOWS TItE SALE OF WINE AND BEER UNDER LIMITED CIRCUMSTANCES IN CITY PARK FROM JUNE 8, 2004, TO JULY 15, 2004. ITEM 10. CONSIDER A MOTION APPROVING TRANSFER OF LICENSE FOR RIVERSIDE THEATRE FROM 213 N. GILBERT STREET TO RIVERSIDE FESTIVAL STAGE, LOWER CITY PARK. Dilkes/Secondly, Ron Clark from Riverside is here, but I just wanted--if you have any questions about the Riverside contract or agreement for allowing sale of alcohol in City Park, that is something that we've worked with Parks and Rec and Riverside Theatre on. Just, I wanted to know that there's a period of time during which they're allowed to sell beer and wine June 8 through July 15th. It won't be just at their performances. It could also include fundraisers that they might have, that kind of thing. It is limited to their patrons and their volunteers and that kind of thing. But it is not open to the general public. But it is, I think, a little more expansive than we have originally talked about. Vanderhoef/And it's talking about transfer of license so I'm presuming they already have a liquor license? Lehman/Right. Dilkes/Yes. Karr/You approved that last meeting for the North Gilbert Street (can't hear) O'Donnell/Let's transfer it. Vanderhoef/Then we will have to transfer it back to the main theater in July? Karr/We've not done a transfer, Dee, but this is for a limited time. My guess is that they're transferring it from June 8 through July 15th and on July 15th it goes back to the regular location. It's not necessarily to transfer back. Bailey/So, there won't be an action required? Kart/Not to my understanding, no. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 43 O'Donnell/Good. Elliott/And if need be, any of this can be altered or negated at any time by the Council if there are some unforeseen problems that might arise? Dilkes/Let me see what we did with the term. The City may terminate this agreement upon written notice for violation of any of its provisions. O'Donnell/OK. Lehman/OK. Karr/Also, just to note the typo in Item 10--Riverside Festival stage, not state. Wilburrd I had a question about if we're--I guess it's a logistical question about the temporary fencing. Clark/Sure. Wilburn/I'm looking at the map that you have. In the agreement you say that you'll control and make sure that it's just patrons that are in the area or someone who works or whatever. Clark/Right. Wilburn/But your fenced area comes in away from the box office. Can you talk--are you stationing someone at that temporary fence or can you walk me through that.'? Clark/Sure. We're still developing our plan, to be perfectly candid, on how to deal this. Box office will control all sales. Obviously, they're the sellers and we're working with John's Grocery actually to have one of their people to help with the training of our employees and so on--- Wilburn/OK. Clark/...to control it. We've gotten mixed signals just in terms of what the state really wants, where they want a gate, where they want access, where they don't want access. We're trying to keep it pretty clearly, well, not pretty--absolutely clearly defined--as to where you may or may not take alcoholic beverages. Wilbum/I guess I would encourage you all, too, to maybe try and have a conversation with Lynn Walding at the state, administrator for the what's the name of the commission? Lehman/Alcoholic Beverage Division. Clark/Sure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 44 Wilbum/Alcoholic Beverage Division. It's good that you're working with John's about training your staff. He's, I know he's working--I'm trying to figure out another way to get a grant to have the Tips training for the Iowa City Johnson County area, so you might want to--- Clark/ Tell me his name again. Wilbum/Lynn Walding. Clark/Lynn Walding? Wilburn/Lynn Walding. Clark/And is he in Des Moines? Wilburn/Des Moines/ Clark/Great. Wilburn/(can't hear) Lehman/Ankeny, I think. Wilburn/Or even contacting, you know, law enfomement here to see if they can help facilitate and if there are any other--- Clark/We are in touch with them. Wilburn/OK. Good. Lehman/If you would call Andy Mathews, City Attorney's office, he'll give you Lynn's phone number. Clark/All right. We'll do that. Elliott/Isn't working with governments interesting? Clark/Yep. It's been a process. Karr/Mr. Mayor, just for the record, Mr. Clark and Ron and Jody and everybody, they've been working with Sue Dulek and Eleanor and my office and HIS, and I think that's why there's some mixed signals is there's a lot of people already involved. So I think he's talking to the right people. We just need to combine the effort. Clark/And the staff has been very helpful. I don't want to indicate to the contrary of that. There's just, we're breaking new ground here. This is new stuff. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 45 Champion/(can't hear) Clark/We'll see what the revenue is like. No, we're not disappointed. We're not sad at all. It think it's going to be great for the festival and other organizations, I hope. Elliott/This is new for us and somewhat difficult for us--- Clark/ Sure. Elliott/...and we appreciate your patience and your cooperation. Clark/Well. Wilburn/I wasn't implying that you weren't working with the--- Clark/Oh, no, I know. Wilburn/It's just that the last year they provided their grant specific training to all the liquor license holders, so--- Clark/ That's great to know. We might as well take advantage of--- Wilburn/More for future years they're able to get another grant to do it. Clark/We should take advantage of that then. Yeah, great. Wilburn/Especially if it's free. Clark/Free's the best. Lehman/Thank you. Clark/Thank you. Bailey/Thanks, Ron. Lehman/OK, we do not have any appointments, do we? Elliott/I don't believe so. COUNCIL TIME Vanderhoef/I have one thing. I'll be working on the State League of Cities' Legislative Committee again this year and will be meeting on June 30th, so you can either write me a memo or give me a call. There's an opportunity to go on line at the website and put in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004. May 17, 2004 Council Work Session Page 46 your own request for legislation policy. Champion/(can't hear) Vanderhoef/I heard it and my understanding of that, Connie, is that that falls into this whole big conglomerate tax committee thing and that's on the list that we've had there. So if we can get them to do anything on the tax issues, that's certainly what the cities want. Lehman/Don't hold your breath. I was down to Des Moines twice and talked about the (can't hear) Champion/Isn't that crazy? Lehman/Yeah. OK, any other Council time? EIliott/I was just reading an article in the Press-Citizen and it talks about the house that was shut down and the person involved said "leaked a series of false allegations" and later said "the lies and accusations." And I think that we have pictures indicate that was not such and this has been meticulously documented, I assume? Atkins/Meticulously. O'Donnell/You're talking about that great big house that young people live in? (Laughter) Elliott/Something like that. Lehman/With the baggy wallpaper? OK. Pardon? Vanderhoef/Modem art. PRIORITIES FOR DISCUSSION Lehman/I think we have identified some. Are there others we want to bring up tonight? O'Donnell/No. Lehman/All right, we're out of here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session May 17, 2004.