HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-12-06 Transcription
December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page I
December 6, 2004
City Council Work Session
6:30 PM
Council: Bailey, Champion, Elliott, Lehman, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn
Staff: Atkins, Dilkes, Franklin, Helling, Karr, Severson, Davidson, McCafferty
TAPES: 04-68 & 04-69 (Side One)
Lehman: Tomorrow night.. .ah.. . Marian would you-
Karr: We've been asked by the public works engineering department to add to the
consent calendar resolution setting a public hearing on plans and specs for the
South Gilbert Street Improvements, Napoleon Lane to the City Limits. We're just
setting a public hearing on it for January 4th.
Lehman: Okay, is that alright with everybody? Alright, it is. Planning and Zoning, Karin.
A.) CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION FROM MEDIUM DENSITY
SINGLE F AMIL Y RESIDENTIAL (RS-8) AND NEIGHBORHOOD
CONSERVATION RESIDENTIAL (RNC-12), TO MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE
F AMIL Y RESIDENTIAL/HISTORIC\ PRESERVATION OVERLAY (RS-8/0HP)
AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERVATION RESIDENTIAL/HISTORIC
PRESERVATION OVERLAY (RNC-12/0HP) TO DESIGNATE THE GILBERT-
LINN STREET HISTORIC DISTRICT.
Franklin: Okay, first item is public hearing on changing the zoning designation from RNC-
12 and RS-8 to RS-8/0HP RNC-12/0HP. How's that for alphabet soup? This is
the historic district for the Gilbert Linn area. The boundaries of the area are
shown here. ..1 don't know that there's a lot to say about this. ..the planning and
zoning commission has recommended 6-0 approval of this district. The
commission looks at it in the context of whether it's in the compliance with the
comprehensive plan - which it is. Historic Preservation obviously has
recommended in favor of it, that's why it's before you. All the historic research
has been done on it. There is justification for designating this as a historic district
in terms of its integrity. Remember the distinction between the local district and
the national district. We're not talking about the national district here; we're just
talking about the local. It doesn't include any of the commercial properties.
Because of the number of protests that you have received, it will require six out of
seven for you to vote in favor of this, for it to pass. Questions? I think basically
it's a political decision.
O'Donnell: Karin, how many houses are in the designated area?
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Franklin: There are... .what did I tell you Mike? I told you 95. (Laughter)
O'Donnell: I was testing you. (Laughter) You told me 94...I was just checking.
Franklin: 95 I told you and there are protests from 41 owners that represent 54 properties.
Elliott: I have that to be 44 representing 64.
Franklin: Okay.
Elliott: Based on materials I have found in our council materials.
Franklin: Okay.
Karr: There have been some withdrawals.
Elliott: There have been two withdrawals.
Franklin: Regardless, it's going to require an extraordinary majority vote whether it's 41,
44, 54 or 64.
Lehman: Or 19.
Franklin: Yes. Connie?
Champion: You probably don't have the answer to this question but when I was -
Franklin: Oh, I might surprise you. (Laughter)
Champion: I didn't get through all of the letters. I didn't get through all of them to check
them off, but it seemed to me that a great majority of the people who have
objected this designation are people who do not live in the district. You don't
happen to know -
Franklin: Exactly the number? Do you have it Shelley?
Champion: It seemed to me -
McCafferty: 93%.
Champion: 93% - I thought it was even more than that. 93% of the people who object to this
are people who do not live there and so I hope the council will bear that in mind
that these are people who really don't care what happens in this neighborhood.
Elliott: Oh, these people -
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Lehman: Let's save this discussion for the public hearing.
Elliott: That's irrelevant.
Lehman: Okay.
Bailey: It's relevant.
Lehman: Let's move on to the next issue, please.
B.) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE CHANGING THE ZONING DESIGNATION
FROM MEDIUM DENSITY SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL (RS-8) AND
NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERVATION RESIDENTIAL (RNC-12) TO MEDIUM
DENSITY SINGLE-FAMILY RESIDENTIAL/HISTORIC PRESERVATION
OVERLAY (RS-8/0HP) AND NEIGHBORHOOD CONSERVATION
RESIDENTIAL/HISTORIC PRESERVATION OVERLAY (RNC-12/0HP) TO
DESIGNATE THE RONALDS STREET EXTENSION OF THE BROWN
STREET HISTORIC DISTRICT. (SECOND CONSIDERATION)
Franklin: The next item is second consideration on the Runnels Street Extension of the
Brown Street Historic District and there is no controversy associated with this
one.
O'Donnell: Karin, excuse me, one more question.
Franklin: Are we back to A?
O'Donnell: On the previous one. Planning and Zoning voted unanimously?
Franklin: Yes.
O'Donnell: And they were only asked to vote as to how this matched up with the
comprehensive plan?
Franklin: They do not deal with the politics of it. They are dealing with it's consistency
with the comprehensive plan. They also are not looking specifically at the
historic integrity. That has been taken care of by the historic preservation
commission when it gets to Planning and Zoning Commission.
O'Donnell: Thank you.
C.) CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE APPROVING AN AMENDED PLANNED
DEVELOPMENT HOUSING (OPDH-S) PLAN FOR VILLAGE GREEN PART
XX (REZ04-00014) (SECOND CONSIDERATION)
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Franklin: Okay, we did B. C is an ordinance approving amended PDH for Village Green
Part 20. This is in the Village Green area in Southeast Iowa City. It was before
you before and was deferred indefinitely at the request ofthe applicant, so you are
on second consideration. There have been some very minor changes which had to
do with the storm sewer and how the storm sewer is done in this project relative to
serving property to the immediate West and Southwest of Village Green. So,
some modifications were made to allow the storm sewer system from those other
projects to work in with this one and they're ready to go now. The other projects
are at Planning and Zoning.
Vanderhoef: The other projects... they're already completed?
Franklin: No. No. They are before Planning and Zoning right now. It's for an amendment
to an already approved PDH that is in this location here.
Champion: Would this still be second consideration?
Franklin: Yes.
Lehman: Karin, how did you find the color for that slide? (Laughter)
Franklin: Oh! It's white on my screen.
Lehman: Well it sure isn't here... unless I'm looking through rose colored glasses.
Franklin: Was it always pink?
Bailey: All of your slides have been pink.
Champion: Pink is the in color for the year, though.
Lehman: We're not wearing them, we're looking at them.
Franklin: I have absolutely no idea.
Lehman: We believe you. Fine, thanks. (Laughter)
Vanderhoef: Now, when it twinkles...
ITEM 6. AUTHORIZING CONVEYENCE OF A SINGLE FAMILY HOME
LOCATED AT 718 HIGHLAND A VENUE TO A PUBLIC HOUSING
PROGRAM TENANT.
ITEM 7. AUTHORIZING CONVEYENCE OF A SINGLE FAMILY HOME
LOCATED AT 1508 DOVER STREET TO A PUBLIC HOUSING
PROGRAM TENANT.
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ITEM 8. AUTHORIZING CONVEYENCE OF A SINGLE FAMILY HOME
LOCATED AT 2614 INDIGO COURT TO A PUBLIC HOUSING
PROGRAM TENANT.
Lehman: Agenda items. Let me ask, with council's permission, I would like to do item 6,
7, and 8 at the beginning ofthe meeting. These are tenant to ownership programs
where the families are going to be here and I'd like to do them before we do the
consent calendar. Sound okay? Okay.
Elliott: How long is the time period and what's the interest rate on these? This is
something like $84,000 in second mortgages.
Atkins: We're assuming its market-rate interest. Is Steve coming tonight?
Elliott: I can check with him tomorrow.
Franklin: Steve, no. This is Doug.
Atkins: Oh, this is Doug.
Elliott: I can check with you tomorrow.
Lehman: Okay.
ITEM 11. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING A REVISED SCHEDULE
OF FEES AND CHARGES FOR PARKS AND RECREATION SERVICES
AND PROGRAMS.
Bailey: I just had a general question about the schedule of these changes to the Parks and
Recreation. Is there a standard for non-property tax revenue support for Parks and
Recreation?
Atkins: Yes, we have a 55/45 policy that we've had for a number of years. That's our
goal. That's what the commission - when they're doing their fee setting - they
work toward that goal of 45%.
Vanderhoef: But for the last few years we've been -
Atkins: A little short.
Vanderhoef: A little short and each year it seems to be another percent or two down and it has
to do with setting those fees and what we think the citizens can handle for these
and they typically raise fees every other year on certain ones so they're not raising
all of them the same year.
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Lehman: They've done a tremendous job, tremendous job.
Item 3f(8). CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING OF A NOTICE OF USE
RESTRICTION FOR THE WATERWORKS PARK PRAIRIE
RESTORATION.
Elliott: I have a question about eight - the restriction on the water park. . . the water works
park.. . and it's talking about restrictions. What kinds of and how extensive are
those restrictions.
Lehman: Eight?
Atkins: Eight?
Bailey: On the consent calendar.
Lehman: Oh, the consent calendar.
Atkins: Oh, the consent calendar.
Dilkes: It's that grant restraint.
Lehman: Oh, that's the one that if we sell the property and it's no longer used as a park
then we have to pay the money back.
Elliott: Right... but there are restrictions to.. .isn't that what it said in here?
Atkins: In the event the property is ever sold.
Elliott: Oh, I thought there was. . . that it indicated restricted access.
Dilkes: No.
Elliott: Oh, okay.. .just restricted as far as selling.
Atkins: No, we took the grant, did the native prairie plantings... .we have to keep it that
way. That's what it says.
ITEM 12. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST TO AN AGREEMENT BY AND
BETWEEN THE CITY OF lOW A CITY AND EARTH TECH, INC. TO
PROVIDE ENGINEERING CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR THE
MCCOLLISTER BOULEVARD PROJECT, PHASE I.
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Vanderhoef: Is Rick or anybody here? Item 12... which is the agreement for the McCollister
Boulevard. My recollection is that we had Earth Tech, or someone, do a
preliminary study for the West side of-
Davidson: Yes, an alignment study. Yeah, actually it included some of this area and Ron
and I took that report and made sure that we weren't duplicating anything in this
contract and in fact they ended up reducing it by $5,000. The one before you is
reduced $5,000 because of some things that we found.
Vanderhoef: And they can use some of that previous study that we did?
Davidson: Yes. The previous study was very preliminary. This gets very much more
specific.
Vanderhoef: But it probably has ruled out some areas maybe for consideration for the -
Davidson: Yeah. Part of what you have to do in the environmental assessment is to show
that you looked at alternatives and that the environmental impact is lesser with the
preferred alternative.
Vanderhoef: Okay. Thank you.
Item 3g(9). CHESCA COLLOREDO-MANSFELD: CROSSWALK ON RIVER
Bailey: I have a crosswalk question.. .so you might as well just stay. This correspondence
that we've been getting from Chesca regarding the crosswalk issues. Is there
anything additional that we can do? Who hires the crossing guards? Is that a
school district responsibility?
Davidson: That's something that's done jointly between the police department - actually, the
police department, Regenia, used to hire them and then it got to be so difficult to
find people that I think that they now put some of that back on the parent-teacher
organization's to try to find somebody to be a crossing guard, but that's a program
that is through the police department. As you know, the issue of people not
yielding to pedestrians in crosswalks is one that we're trying to develop some
strategies. We've got the 'turning vehicles must yield to pedestrians' signs.
We're using selectively because they have been shown to do some good but we're
very, very nervous about these signs that she's talking about. Both Madison,
Wisconsin, and Cedar Rapids did install them and then pulled them out because of
some of the concerns, like we have. Plus, they get smashed into and pulverized.
(Laughter)
Bailey: Is there anything else that can be done on this route?
Davidson: Obviously, police enforcement is one that is very effective, but that is a matter of
putting your resources here and not someplace else.
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Item 3f(6). CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE DEDICATION OF
OUTLOT J TO THE CITY OF lOW A CITY AS PLATTED IN WINDSOR
RIDGE PART TWELVE, lOW A CITY, lOW A AND DECLARING THE
AREA OPEN FOR PUBLIC USE.
Vanderhoef: On the consent calendar....the Windsor Ridge...talking about accepting the
Outlot J. Where does this trail connect up or-
Davidson: What item is this, Dee?
Vanderhoef: It's on the consent calendar, number 6. The Subdivider's agreement for Windsor
Ridge Part Twelve.
Davidson: Do you remember what Outlot J was, Karin? There's a whole overall walkway
system and as parts of it get done then they dedicate parts that are added on to the
system, but I don't know specifically what this one is.
Dilkes: Karin, this is just on the consent calendar. It's just the acceptance of the
dedication, so I don't think we probably had any...
Davidson: I would say, Dee, that it's just the acceptance of the next piece of that overall
system that exists in Windsor Ridge.
Vanderhoef: Okay, so it isn't completed all the way through.
Davidson: No, as Windsor Ridge gets completed it would be eventually completed and
actually hook up to other trail systems in the City as well.
Vanderhoef: Okay.
COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS
Lehman: Any other agenda items? Okay, council appointments. We have one application
for the Airport Zoning Board of Adjustment. Dennis Keidel.
Champion: He's very-
Bailey: I think that's great.
Lehman: We have a very acceptable person and we're going to accept it. That's wonderful.
O'Donnell: We accept.
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Vanderhoef: He's not going back to Board of Adjustment, which we didn't get an application
for.
Lehman: The other board that we have applications for is the Human Rights Commission,
for which we have four applicants. One ofthem being Beverly Witwer, who was
unable to submit her application the last time we looked at this application.
Elliott: I am in favor of Beverly Witwer and Sara Baird.
Bailey: I have worked with Scott King and I would speak on his behalf and he is great.
Champion: Yes, he's great and he's new to the area.
Bailey: And his international- yeah, he's new to the area but I think he's really-
O'Donnell: Sounds like we have three.
Vanderhoef: That's quite a resume there.
Lehman: Beverly Witwer. Do we have consensus on her? Alright.
O'Donnell: Sarah?
Champion: Yes.
Bailey: She'll be good.
Karr: I'm sorry. The three appointments again were?
Lehman: We have two. Do I understand that Sara Baird is the second? Is that okay?
Vanderhoef: And Scott King, please.
Elliott: There are three openings.
O'Donnell: We have a third also.
Elliott: So it's those three.
Karr: Okay, thank you.
Lehman: We have no other applications. Pardon?
Champion: Public Art.
Lehman: Oh, for gosh sakes.
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Champion: Emily Walsh is serving part of a term... I think serving her first term and I think
she should continue as the professional.
Vanderhoef: Agreed.
Champion: And then I really liked Emily Martin also.
Vanderhoef: I sort of liked Bill Downing.
Bailey: The architect?
Vanderhoef: The architect. Where we're doing more and more with buildings and bridges and
those kind ofthings, I think this might be a good addition to the mix.
Lehman: Well, we have... .and not that it's governing in any way... but we have five men
and two women on the commission now. Emily would bring that...
Champion: We'd have two Emily's. Emily Carter and Emily Martin.
Lehman: Okay. Emily Carter Walsh. I sense that the... . okay ... who is the other one that
we would like to appoint?
Vanderhoef: I've said my piece.
Dilkes: We're having a really hard time hearing you up here.
Champion: We're quite tonight. (Laughter)
Elliott: Wait until tomorrow.
Karr: I can hear that.
Champion: Okay, I'll just put Emily Martin the table and we can just vote.
Wilburn: I'll agree with that. I think it's important to try to pay attention to the-
Lehman: Okay, Emily and Emily.
Dilkes: Which one are we on?
Karr: We're on Public Art.
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BROOKLAND PARK DRIVE
Lehman: Okay. Brookland Park Drive. We have tonight some information from the
neighbors who have met and there is a compromise that has been proposed to us
and tomorrow evening, Steve - oh, maybe you can tell us.
Davidson: I have seen it, just now.
Lehman: Is that something that -
Davidson: My impression is that this is something that would be acceptable ifit met with
council's approval. I would like to just go look at it in the field and make sure
and what we can do is if you want to vote down what's on there tomorrow -
Lehman: Then we can have it on the next one.
Davidson: Then we'll have it on the next one and by then we'll have checked it out and we'll
put it on just like a regular item.
Elliott: I just like especially that these people have gotten together and taken care of it.
O'Donnell: And that it's unanimous.
Lehman: We need to see...
Davidson: It's the first one under. ...it would be Item 3, G 1.
Lehman: Yeah, but that's just listed in correspondence.
Karr: It is. That's how we always do it.
Davidson: That's always how it is. There was correspondence from Anissa to you guys
saying 'we're going to do this unless you have a problem with it.'
Lehman: Alright. Would one of the council people tomorrow night ask that that be
removed, we act on it separately, and then we'll vote it down, and then on the
following meeting we'll have it on the consent calendar, as long as it meets with
your approval.
Davidson: Let's just assume right now that it will and we'll put it on there.
Lehman: Okay, that was quick. We now have a very 'deer' presentation.
Atkins: No, you don't.
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Lehman: We don't?
Atkins: I told people that it might take a little while. . . so. .. (Laughter)
Lehman: What might take a little while?
Atkins: The Deer Task Force people are due at seven. So you could probably do the
canine unit and vehicle for hire if you'd like to jump ahead.
CANINE UNIT
Lehman: Let's do the canine unit because that's going to be quick. As you know, our
police dog expired.
Bailey: Retired.
Lehman: Actually, they had to put him down. I talked to R.J. a couple of times. There is a
place in Indiana that RJ. has been talking to and I think he is in the process. He
has found an officer who will be the dog handler. The cost ofthat animal is about
$10,000. The last dog we got - I think the cost was quite a bit more than that.
Atkins: It was.
Lehman: I think it was around $15,000. There were a number of service clubs and
organizations in the community that participated in the cost of the animal and
what I'd like to do, with council's permission, is to send letters to the service
clubs and some of the groups that helped support the first dog and solicit their
support. I have received a commitment of $1 ,000 from one entity that was a part
of it last time. In this correspondence, I'd really like to indicate how important
that dog is to the police department and to the public. That dog protects police
officers and also protects the public and I think it's a really important asset to the
police department.
O'Donnell: I think it's a great idea. Send the letter.
Lehman: But I'd like to kind of... I really believe that this dog is important to them. I'd like
to make that clear in the letter.
Elliott: I think in our society that it is becoming increasingly important.
Lehman: Then we will do that.
Atkins: I'll get that prepared for you.
Vanderhoef: What did you say about the cost?
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Lehman: The estimate is $10,000.
O'Donnell: How long did we have Alpo?
Lehman: Gallo?
Atkins: Gallo.
Lehman: We fed him Alpo. (Laughter)
Atkins: He was five or six years. He was three when we got him and when he was put
down he was almost nine.
O'Donnell: He was a great dog.
Champion: He liked to bark.
Lehman: The last couple oftimes he came to a council meeting, he did. He wouldn't stop.
When he first came he was okay. Alright, we'll take care of that. And if you
know of any service clubs, or if you're a member of a service club, this I think is a
great opportunity to participate. Never mind. Vehicle-for-hire color schemes.
VEHICLE FOR HIRE
Champion: I like the idea that was in our packet about excluding the airport shuttles.
Elliott: Absolutely.
Champion: Because they're based out of Cedar Rapids, basically. Whatever had before is
fine.
Karr: Will we write the ordinance and have it before you with a definition for
shuttle.. . and that would include any vehicles that had a destination or origin at the
airport or one location.
Lehman: Good. That will prevent someone else from another community coming in and
not being subject to our regulations. Is that acceptable?
Elliott: For that one, yes.
Karr: I'm sorry, Ernie. It has nothing to do with their location. It has more to do with
their origin and destination. So anybody locally who wanted to start a similar
business would meet the rules. It has nothing to do with the location of the
business. It has to do with the origin and the destination being the same.
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Bailey: And the primary purpose is that location.
Vanderhoef: And they don't pick up other passengers other than those that will get off-
Karr: Or get on at the airport.
Elliott: They're not a taxi.
Lehman: You're going to prepare that and-
Karr: We're going to probably ask you to fast-track it because of the licensing time of
year.
Champion: I thought that was a brilliant idea. Who came up with it?
Lehman: Eleanor did it.
Karr: Eleanor did not. (Laughter) Hold it. This is my one brilliant idea, guys.
(Laughter)
Lehman: Mother Marian... Grandmother Marian came up with this. When will we next see
this?
Karr: You'll see it on your January 4th meeting, but we'll want it to collapse it after that.
Get it done in January.
Elliott: I'd also like to discuss alternative...I think was 3... so that a firm with multiple
units...I think one of the firms has a half a dozen...if they decide to go to another
color... they don't have to do it all at one time.
Champion: She had a phase-in thing in that.
Elliott: Yes, I think that was all.
Oilkes: That was an alternative that we...
Elliott: That was in alternative 3, I think.
Dilkes: You want to do that one as well as the shuttle thing...
Elliott: Well, I think we need to discuss that.
Champion: No one else even brought it up. We can always deal with it if it comes up.
Elliott: Well, I think there is one person who indicated that we wanted to do that.
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Champion: But he's the airport shuttle guy.
Elliott: Oh, is that the Silver Shuttle?
Lehman: I think we best leave that one alone.
Elliott: Never mind.
Bailey: I think its fine. And the airport shuttle gets at that issue.
Elliott: Okay, we'll deal with that if and when it arises.
Vanderhoef: I was hoping within the ordinance that we would talk about the printing on the
side of the vehicles so it's very clear what vehicle that is when it comes to a door.
Lehman: We've done that.
Vanderhoef: But in the new ordinance. Ifwe're doing a new ordinance...
Bailey: Won't the new ordinance substantially be the same?
Karr: The only suggestion we're getting, at your direction, would be the airport shuttle.
The current ordinance requires two-inch lettering on both sides of the vehicle.
We wouldn't be changing that. Are you not satisfied with that?
Vanderhoef: So you're making an addition to an ordinance rather than doing a totally separate
way?
Karr: Oh, absolutely.
Vanderhoef: If you were doing a separate one, I wanted to be sure that. . .
Dilkes: All the other requirements will apply to the shuttle; it will only be an exception to
the color scheme.
Karr: We'll work it in to the current one.
Lehman: Okay, good. That was easy. Now, I don't whether we're... we don't have any...
Champion: I thought we were going to be here all night.
Atkins: I'm so sorry.
COUNCIL TIME
Lehman: Okay, Council Time.
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Atkins: Yes, we can do that.
Bailey: I have two items.
Wilburn: I have one item.
Bailey: Go ahead, Ross. You haven't said much tonight.
Wilburn: Okay. My term on the East Central Iowa Council of Governments expires this
month and either someone will need to be appointed to start a term in January or I
would have to be reappointed.
Vanderhoef: Are you choosing to be reappointed?
Wilburn: If no one else is interested...I' d do it again. It wouldn't hurt my feelings if
someone else wanted to do it.
Elliott: I think that what you do is just a magnificent job. (Laughter)
Wilburn: Thank you very much.
O'Donnell: It's unanimous.
Lehman: One thing about it... we're not going to hurt your feelings but we're going to
reappoint you. (Laughter)
Karr: We'll put that on the January 4th meeting.
Lehman: Okay, put that on January 4th. Okay. Regenia.
Bailey: At, I think it was the November 23rd legislative forum that I talked to some people
about the possibility of this council developing some legislative priorities. We've
talked about writing some letters to the legislature regarding some of the concerns
that we have. So, what I'd like to propose is that we have a meeting to develop
those legislative priorities and then meet with our local legislators sometime in
early January, before they head off to Des Moines, to talk to them about those
concernS.
Elliott: Good idea, good idea.
O'Donnell : Or we can have one of our representatives meet with them.
Lehman: Regenia and I talked about this briefly and I think that it's important, if we meet
with them, to speak with one voice and we need that meeting prior to the meeting
with them to develop whatever our priorities are. Is that. ..
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Elliott: I think that's excellent.
Lehman: It's going to be interesting...
Bailey: I talked to Marian and she said that their timing in early January, before the lo1h,
is fairly flexible. I don't know about our time. It would be our timing that would
be the issue.
Lehman: Our timing will be the issue because of budget concerns.
Elliott: But we don't have any meetings after tomorrow for the rest of this month, do we?
Bailey: And I wouldn't assume that our priorities as council would be lengthy.
Lehman: I think that if we're going to have any hope of having influence with the
legislators, we need a short but strong list. Do we all agree that this is a good
idea? It's going to be pretty tough to set. Would it be okay with folks if we bring
our calendars tomorrow night and at council time tomorrow night, we try to select
a date, either later this month or the first part of January?
Wilburn: Sounds good.
Lehman: And then Steve, if you could coordinate a meeting with legislators. We'll set that
tomorrow night.
Bailey: I have one more thing. I talked to the Downtown Association about the alleys and
that's not going to move fast enough for any of our concerns. I'm interested in
taking that on again. It's been on our list for a while, we thought that something
would move them... but they're in membership drive and they have a part-time
staff member. ..so I think that Jill thinks that it should go a lot slower. ..and I've
noticed that it's been pretty messy in the alley's and I also got a complaint about
the sidewalks this weekend.
Atkins: Broken?
Bailey: Just messy. Cigarette butts, litter, trash, etc.
Lehman: Yesterday there was paper, there was trash, etc. Of course it was windy, but there
was stuff all over and it's coming out of dumpsters that are overflowing.
Bailey: So I think we need to address this issue. The Englert just opened and it's going to
be jewel in our downtown, among other jewels, and I think that people are coming
downtown. We need to clean our house a little bit.
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Atkins: We have a rough list of options. We'll clean that up, bring that back to you, and
we'll start work.
Bailey: Is anyone else interested?
Lehman: And if we have a work session, we can work it in.
Atkins: I'll just rework that and get it back to you.
Champion: There's chairs, there's garbage, trash, couches, paper cups...I don't care how
many ash trays we have, people just don't use them.
Elliott: I have one quick request. Is there any way we can fine Connie? I think she made
a blatant attempt to get on the front page. (Laughter) I was really embarrassed
and offended. (Laughter)
Lehman: Actually, I'm very proud of her because the Council is represented in this picture.
Connie, thank you so much.
Wilburn: Is that the Gazette?
Elliott: Press Citizen.
Champion: Isn't that funny?
Wilburn: The Press Citizen at the Englert.
O'Donnell: She's on the front page. She's always on the front page.
Champion: Let me tell you, that facility is absolutely beautiful.
O'Donnell: It's a great picture.
Elliott: Now Connie, go easy on me tomorrow night.
Champion: I promise. I promise not to hit you.
O'Donnell: Coming down Dubuque Street, right at the top of the hill, one back from
Church.. ..what is that, Brown? There is some graffiti painted on like a concrete
retaining wall on the left side. There's some blue graffiti painted all over it. It
looks terrible coming in. I know that it's one before Dubuque, but is there
anything we can do about the amount of stickers or posters that go on the
telephone poles or anything that is standing straight up?
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Atkins: We have a young person that goes through town periodically and cleans them up.
Unfortunately, you no sooner pull one down when someone is behind you putting
another one up.
O'Donnell: Could we send a letter to the bar owners?
Atkins: We've done that before and they simply say 'that's not our doing.. .it's the people
promoting the band.'
O'Donnell: It looks terrible.
Atkins: Yes, it looks terrible.
Champion: For my council time, I got a phone call from somebody who got a ticket in front
of the coop because they were backing out and I can't remember all the
details.. . but she got a ticket for being on the other person's lane and there's no
parking and she wanted to know how she could get a ticket for being in the other
lane when there isn't any markings.
Atkins: I'm assuming that you're supposed to stay to the right and they swung too far.
Champion: I just think it's a funny question. I didn't really expect an answer.
Elliott: Are you taking about over here? Some of the most bizarre driving in the world
takes place right there.
Bailey: It's the worst.
Champion: Can we go home now?
Lehman: No.
Bailey: The wall downtown got painted, it looks good. We'll see if we can get that mural
up there.
Lehman: Anything else for council time? You know, I've got to tell you this. It has
nothing to do with City business, but it's about Iowa City. I had a fellow come in
a buy a bunch of stuff and he came back about four minutes later and he said, '1
bought this umbrella and it wasn't in my sack.' It was in his sack, but he was
very genuine and I so I said, 'Here, take another one.' He came in this afternoon
and he said, 'I owe you some money.' I said, 'What for?' and he said 'I found the
umbrella under the seat of my car.' It was fallen out of his sack. Now that is
Iowa City. Okay, now let's do deer. I think I saw a couple of people walk in.
Atkins: Up front.
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ITEM 10. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE 2004-2005 DEER
MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR lOW A CITY. (DEFERRED FROM 11/16)
Farrant: Okay, we're all yours.
Lehman: You know what, Pat... why don't you give us a thumbnail description of how you
got where you are with your recommendation. I know this goes back to when the
deer committee was first started, which was a tremendously diverse group of folks
who had all kinds of opinions, who obviously came up with.. . and the first
recommendation from that committee to the council was unanimous. . . that the
only effective and human way of controlling the deer population was sharp
shooting. I believe that this is the conclusion that you've come to again. If you'll
just kind of walk us through this quickly because we have a couple of new
members.
Farrant: Okay. Were any of you on the council when this all. ...yeah, okay.. .so you know
part of this story. That's why I put this together.. .this retrospective. We started
in 1997 and it would not be an exaggeration to say that I have never seen a more
diverse bunch of people concerned about an issue than the deer committee and the
people that they invited to participate in the debate or discussion. It became very
clear that we were going to have something that extended polarities. We had a
continuum - the ends of which you could not see if you stood in the middle - in
the beginning. In good Iowa City practice, we decided that we would try to listen
to everybody. And so that's essentially what I did not want lost this year when
we have probably a slightly configuration of the deer committee than we've had
in the past. I don't want what it took to get where we are now to be lost. That's
not to say that times don't change and people aren't going to change their minds,
but a whole lot of work went into getting us where we are and before we sweep
that aside, I feel that everybody should step back and take a look. So, essentially
if you look at the retrospective, we listened to people. We seriously listened to
people. We had a lot of our meetings in this room because we had forty-to- fifty
people sitting back in the stands back there all with very closely-held opinions.
We had three public forums and I am remembering that there were well over 100
people at each one. They were cable-cast and rebroadcast on public television.
I'm remembering 150-200 people at each one of those. People ranged, again, in
their feelings from kill the deer any way you can to don't kill one deer without
thinking about it very carefully. We had a lot of coverage about it in the press.
There was even national coverage as our plans were developing. We had a
comment line on the deer committee section of the website, so the comments were
hardly printable and some of them were very passionate about thinking hard
before we start wholesale killing deer. Despite all of that, we did agree that the
deer population was high by any way you counted it. We concluded that deer had
to be killed, but even as the debate started to smooth out, there were only a few
people who wanted the deer killed any way possible. And I seriously mean any
way possible. We had animal rights activists, we had animal welfare people, we
had hunters, we had bow-hunters, we had gardeners, we had wildlife biologists,
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 21
and everybody had a different opinion as to how this should be addressed. As we
tried to come to consensus, we tried to look at where the common ground was and
the common ground seemed to be that nobody, almost nobody, could agree that
there weren't too many deer. We were passionately in disagreement about why
that had happened, but there were a lot of deer. The accident rate was going up,
near accidents were going up, there was definite depredation in some areas, and
people again varied in how willing they were to accept that. So, we agreed on the
fact that deer had to be killed. Then, a big fight started and that was how you do
it. Some people felt that we should look at every possible means of deer control,
lethal and non-lethal, and we did. In 1997, the non-lethal methods of control were
really nascent and there wasn't a lot out there and what was out there wasn't
practical for the size of the deer population that we were looking at so it looked
like lethal was going to be the option. There was no dearth of people who wanted
to help kill the deer and particularly we had.. .not very many... but for their
numbers they were very vocal and that were bow hunters who felt that would be
the way to go. That was probably the hot button for people who were willing to
consider killing deer but wanted it done right and right was another word that we
kicked around - what was the best way to do it. For purposes of that discussion
we agreed that killing deer ought to be done humanely. Then again, we wanted
an operational definition of humane and that was instant and painless to the extent
that that could be accomplished. So, in most people's minds and even some bow
hunters told me, that that ruled out bow hunting. Still, some people don't agree
with that but I had bow hunters tell me, 'If that it's your definition, we can't
guarantee instant death by bow.' Then we had people who were willing to
support killing deer but they didn't want to make it a recreational opportunity - so
there was that part of it to deal with. Some people said, 'Do it, but I don't want
any dying in my back yard.' The City was concerned about public safety and
about P.R. It isn't an appealing thought seeing wounded deer wandering through
downtown and at the time that the we started this project, I live on Woodlawn and
we have deer literally behind my house in the middle of town - still do actually.
So, we genuinely tried to gather every bit of information there was and I'm
talking months of work. This went on and on. We considered no action as a
response and dismissed that. We considered all the non-lethal. Trap, dart and
relocate, contraception, trap deer and kill them - that was probably the one that
people had, together with bow hunting, the least stomach for. About this time we
learned that there was the option of a controlled urban sharp shoot. That became
the method of choice and it's the method that we've used since then. The thought
I want to leave you with is that we did genuinely each year, with good faith,
reconsider all the means of controlling the deer population, but in the very
beginning we had established three parameters that all of the stakeholders felt
were important and that was public safety, effectiveness in maintaining the size of
the deer herd - because we didn't want to kill all deer, we wanted to kill a level of
deer to the carrying capacity of the city limits - and community acceptance. If
we're going to change it or look toward the future, I would argue strongly that
those three issues have got to be on the table. That's seven years in ten minutes.
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Lehman: Questions anyone?
Vanderhoef: Someplace in this process and I read the material and didn't see a letter back from
the DNR about killing only does...
Farrant: Antlerless.
Champion: Antlerless.
Vanderhoef: .. . and from different times that Tony De Nicola has spoken to us, and he talked
about when he used baited sites, that they did not shoot unless they could take all
of the deer that were at the site at that moment. I think that's part of the piece
where you end up getting some bucks in there that you're going to get. Each
hunter he said would take out two before they scattered - or could conceivably
take out two - so let's multiply that out by the number of shooters but if you get
that big of herd of deer coming around the salt lick why then to not take out that
one buck and are we really going to be in trouble with the DNR if we take out one
with antlers.
Farrant: This year they seem to be a bit more rigid than in the past and that's an issue that
has to be on the table. How that's going to be accomplished, I don't know.
Lehman: That's an issue for Tony to deal with. That's not our issue. Ifhe knows that he
can't shoot bucks then he best not do it.
Farrant: You're right, you're absolutely right.
Vanderhoef: The training of the animals.. ..they're smart.. ..they're learn.. .and I don't know
enough about the animals to know whether if the bucks stay away, do they keep
the does away too?
Champion: No.
Lehman: That's another one of Tony's problems. Tony has agreed to...is he interested in
coming again abiding by the DNR's guidelines?
Farrant: Yes. Steve, you've talked to him since, right?
Atkins: Yes.
Lehman: That's his issue. He's got to get the does in and harvest them and however he
does it - obviously he must be comfortable or he wouldn't contract to do it.
Farrant: You've spoken to him since, right?
Atkins: Yes.
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Elliott: It was my understanding that the idea of antlerless deer killed was not so much
not to do bucks but that the number killed should be antlerless. I didn't get the
idea - you obviously have talked with him and some of the others - I assume that
bucks would not be counted among the total that we have been approved to kill.
Is that incorrect or has that been clarified?
Atkins: What I understood was antlerless, period.
Elliott: No bucks.
Atkins: No bucks. If it has antlers it's not to be shot.
Farrant: You're right. It's still possible, as I understand it, that you may occasionally get a
button buck - which is hard to tell- but that's the understanding and I assume
that he's not going to take the job ifhe can't meet that stipulation.
Elliott: Well then I agree, that's his problem.
Atkins: He understands that, yes.
Bailey: I have some questions. I'm not really a fan of the deer kill and I'm new to this.
Are we getting ourselves into a self-perpetuating expense? Every year we have to
kill deer and every year it costs us to bring in sharp shooters and I know that
you've considered contraception, where is that?
Farrant: It's moving forward and we did build into our discussion with Tony this year that
we would like to do some experimental contraceptive practice here, but it's a very
slow developing area and the logistics are very challenging.
Bailey: Multiple exposures?
Farrant: It's very problematic to achieve it. It's been achieved in more constrained areas
than Iowa City offers.
Bailey: I noticed that you talked to the Humane Society as well. Are there other
organizations that provide that as a test site?
Farrant: I think HSUS has probably been in the forefront ofthe experiment.
Bailey: I've talked to some people about this because I've gotten calls, naturally. They're
asking me if a reduction in the population increases the number of multiple births
because there have been an increasing number of multiple births. Is that because
there is more food available for a smaller herd or is that just some kind of rumor?
Farrant: I'm not a deer biologist, but I've not heard that suggestion.
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Atkins: I asked that question of Tony.. . and he told me that the first foal is a single and
virtually its twins always thereafter.
04-68 (Side Two)
Bailey: So it's just some kind of rumor. Okay, thank you.
Atkins: There are occasionally triplets but it's almost always at least two in the second
pregnancy and beyond.
Champion: The DNR, when he came to talk to us before we approved the first deer kill, said
that a lot of our deer were so healthy that they were having twins during the first
delivery.
Bailey: So there is a health relation...
Champion: Yeah, our deer are all really healthy.
Vanderhoef: We feed them too well.
Bailey: Apparently Steve's hostas or something like that lately. (Laughter) I have one
more question - if! can read my own writing. Oh.. .I'm assuming that you talked
to the other jurisdictions that are also doing kills. How large is a deer's territory?
When they do a kill over in Coralville, do they all rush over here?
Farrant: Oh, they'll move.. . and that's a concern for timing. When there is pressure in one
area they'll move to another area until the pressure is off.
Bailey: So do we coordinate with other jurisdictions in the county and then its deer
hunting season now. . . .does that change the complexion of what our sharpshooters
are doing.
Farrant: That's one of the reasons why they're requiring us to do it after January 10.
Bailey: But we'll still take out the same targeted number of deer, right? Regardless of
what happens in other jurisdictions.
Farrant: Theoretically, yes. We're going on the extrapolated projection of what the
number of deer are now that we would need to take out now to get back to the
thirty per square mile.
Bailey: So we didn't...
Farrant: Willie Suchy, from the DNR, did a projection - a statistical projection - for us so
it's. . .282 sounds very specific. I don't think it's quite that specific.
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 25
Lehman: Wasn't that January 10th date because they anticipate a lot of deer might enter the
city from hunting in the rural areas and give them a chance to go back out so
we're not shooting rural deer. I think that's right.
Farrant: Yes.
Bailey: Yes, that's what I was wondering exactly about... what that movement was...
Farrant: I'm not a hunter myself. I don't follow all of this as closely... but that's my
understanding that they move and there was some concern to not have that
happen.
Bailey: I do apologize. I have one more question. I thought that was the last one. I'm
assuming that the DNR is testing for ways is (can't hear) before these go to
processing, right?
Farrant: Yes.
Lehman: Do you know what the processing is going to cost us this year?
Farrant: I think it was $30 per deer.
Lehman: No, it was $45, then $50.
Elliott: $55.
Farrant: It has been going up?
Lehman: It's been going up $5 per year.
Atkins: It goes up every year.
Lehman: Do you know what it is this year?
O'Donnell: I understand that it was $60 or $65.
Lehman: It was $55 the last time. But it went up $5. $45, $50, $55. That seems to be a
pretty hefty escalation for processing.
Farrant: It's a growth industry.
Atkins: Not many.
Lehman: No, I don't think there are many.
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Elliott: I figured out over a three year period that we've paid $47,000 for processing.
Atkins: Yes.
Vanderhoef: And this is acceptable and was acceptable to do with the CDBG monies because it
certainly benefits our community.. . especially the food.. .so that's out there if we
put in for a grant.
Farrant: It was also an issue that made the wholesale killing more palatable to a lot of
people.
Lehman: Oh yeah.
Farrant: That is wasn't just carnage, that it had some practical outcome.
Vanderhoef: Did we ever get a response from the University?
Atkins: Yes. The University indicated, and they have a number of processes to go
through, that we could shoot on their property from January loth to January 14th. I
wrote the fellow back and said 'Really thanks, but that's just too difficult to
comply with,' and I asked him if we could stretch the thing out a little bit. I don't
expect to get a favorable response.
Johansen: But we haven't heard yet?
Atkins: No, he has not answered. Kathi, when did we do it? Friday? Kathi and I sent it
out on Friday.
Vanderhoef: When do the students come back?
Bailey: That seems about the timing. Isn't that the end of the week and they'll be coming
for the weekend.
Vanderhoef: That's the first time the DNR will let us do it.
Atkins: I asked if maybe next year we could try something else, but right now it's just
such a tight window. He has to bait and do the whole thing and I can't imagine
how he can get that done. So, we may have to just forget that for this year.
Lehman: Any other questions?
Elliott: Pat, you and I were colleagues when you started this and I remembered telling
you that I not only appreciated and respected what you did. I admired your
patience because I saw some of those meetings on local television and I don't
know how you did it. What you have done, no matter what happens, and I think
I'm going to be in a minority because I oppose this, no matter what you have
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 27
done, all you have done has been very worthwhile and very beneficial. I just... the
way I figure it.. .over a three-year period we spent $345 per deer-
Atkins: That's not right.
Elliott: _ when most of the rest of the state is doing it for virtually nothing, I just can't see
how we can continue doing that when we need so much money for so many other
things. You will add to this, but with my colleagues I'd certainly like to have this
on the agenda to find different ways. I would like to have at least some bow
hunting. I don't see why we have to have someone come in from Connecticut to
do this. When we go to meetings, we always send people to meetings, we learn
from the meetings and then you come back and you share with your colleagues
'Why can not we develop our own crew ~ if we have to have sharp shooters.?'
We have as good as sharp shooters in Iowa as there are anywhere. Why can't we
develop those here? As a matter of fact, was there not at least one person from
Iowa on his crew?
Farrant: On Tony's crew? I think he had some local people. I don't know for sure.
Elliott: It just seems to me that we could find people who would do this for much less
than he would do. The idea that doing it for a sport...I mean.. .it's got to be
done.. . and we don't make them sign an affidavit saying that they will not enjoy
doing it, do we? I mean.. .I just can't understand that sort of thinking. I mean a
dead deer is a dead deer. I don't see why someone has to swear allegiance that
they detest doing it before they do it. I suspect that these people who come from
Connecticut, some of them are hunters and they're hunting and killing. I would
certainly like the council to take this up because I can not see spending $100,000
a year to do this.
Farrant: Just a piece of history .. . when.. .I never thought that when I went to the University
of Iowa that I would become a deer assassin, this has been - or participation in
assassination. The whole thing is extremely distasteful to me, period. But I feel
that it's really important to stay connected to it because it's not just killing deer.
It's a whole bunch of issues that circle around it. But anyway, the issue of
Connecticut, that's well taken. When we were looking at a way to do this that
turned into being this controlled sharp shoot, we actually, I think, led an RFP and
we got three responses.
Elliott: And we got a good one.
Farrant: Yes, if you're going to get one you might as well get the best. Everybody came
and gave a presentation. Tony De Nicola's group was so far and away more
professional, more references, a track record, etc. I felt that his choice was good.
I don't disagree with you. The time is probably right to open it up. There are
more people doing this. It's a growth industry.
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Elliott: As a matter of fact, I am not a hunter. The last time that I fired a weapon was an
M1 on the KD range in Fort Leonardwood in 1958. Ijust think that we need to
look at some alternatives. Start thinking other than the way we've always done
everything.
Farrant: Let me correct. We have looked at alternatives. We just simple rejected them.
The alternatives have always been on the table. If there are others that we haven't
look at, then we should. This is not a case of not looking at the alternatives. Not
everybody agrees with this, but I think you have to look at the process that got us
where we are. We came up with some parameters and we've looked at each
possibility in light of those parameters every year. Nobody has twisted the
committee's arm, it's always come up with is that the only way remains sharp
shooting. I don't disagree that you could possibly find... we got at least one local
inquiry. . . very vague at this point, but from someone who wants to be considered
for doing it and I think he should be.
Elliott: Just make no mistake, I really appreciate and respect what you've done. I'd like
to.. .there's got to be some way other than to spend $100,000. I don't know what
it is.
Wilburn: I think your comment about depending upon the parameters that you're willing to
accept as a community dictates that.
Elliott: I think we're misjudging our community. I don't think that our community would
be up in arms if we used other means other than sharp shooting.
Bailey: I would suggest that the people that I heard from would be.
Elliott: Yep, we'll hear from them. There are thousands and thousands of people who
bow hunt in the state ofIowa.
Lehman: But not in cities.
Farrant: Not in the cities.
Elliott: Oh yes. Coralville, Des Moines, Dubuque.
Champion: Weare not Coralville.
Elliott: We're the only ones in the state that does this.
Farrant: That's true, and I don't necessarily find that to be an objectionable condition,
personally.
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Elliott: That's not objectionable.. .but anyway.. .I'll take this up with the council and I
suspect that they're going to side more with you than with me.
Lehman: Thank you, Pat.
Farrant: Thank you. I'd be happy to talk privately with anybody. My opinion is clear but
you know I was very committed with getting us a compromise that we could live
with that's ended up in the slaughter of a thousand deer. We have a track record
even thought we don't like it. Thank you all.
Lehman: Are the Shelter House people here? We're going to take a ten-minute break.
(BREAK)
Human Service Ae:encv Presentation - Shelter House
Lehman: Welcome.
Elliott: Your timing is perfect.
Canganelli: Thank you. My students would say I could have left a lot sooner. (Laughter)
Lehman: Okay, the show is yours.
Canganelli: Okay. After all these years you guys still make me nervous. Tonight I brought
with me a handout that not only summarizes the programs of Shelter House,
which I know most of you, if not everyone here, is very familiar with by now.
The front talks about some results of our strategic planning that the board of
directors went through this summer and I think that's really important to share
this with you. Do I need to use the microphone?
Lehman: Yes.
Canganelli: First of all, I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows that we have
changed the name of the organization name legally. We did that almost two years
ago now to Shelter House Community Shelter and Transitional Services. We
think that it describes much better our purpose and what it is that we do every day
of the year. Emergency Housing Project didn't quite cover that any more for us.
This summer, in working with Dick Schwab and the board of the directors, we
retooled our mission statement. Shelter House provides shelter, basic and
transitional resources while encouraging self-sufficiency to any person in our
community who is homeless. We do realize that everyone that we work with is
not going to achieve and realize self-sufficiency, at least economic self-
sufficiency at the end of the program, but we do diligently work towards that.
Our vision... the key part of our vision, of course, is the new facility. That we
plan and operate a facility that provides shelter in a healthy and stable
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 30
environment, that we provide exemplary services and invest in the training of our
service providers, maintain a proactive, highly visible presence that articulates our
mission and engenders respect and support. We have the press to thank. They
have done a wonderful in covering us recently. . . over the past more than
year. . . and that we collaborate with other agencies in the community and be a
catalyst for change. We felt that these were the primary components of our
vision. Fundamental to that is again that we are able to move into a new facility
because in every which way the current facility compromises our ability to
achieve each one of these vision statements. I know that everybody can just read
through this. Our core values, respect, caring, responsibility, integrity, and
stewardship and our major goals. On the back is just a summary of each of our
programs. I can talk briefly about the programs and kind of highlight some of the
changes and the new components of our programs that we've seen most recently
over the past year. Primarily at the core of Shelter House is the fact that we
provide emergency and transitional shelter bed space. With those twenty-nine
beds that we're able to offer out of Shelter House at 331 North Gilbert Street, we
have consistently a bifurcation in the population. We've got about ten percent of
the folks that we work with are having a transient stay with us and about ninety-
percent are having a longer term or that short term transitional, meaning that
they're going to stay with us for up to ninety-days. We have, of course, as
everyone knows, we're a general use homeless shelter, which means that we'll
have men, women, and children with us and more and more we're seeing more
women and children. More than forty-percent of our residents last year were
women and children. About ten percent being veterans. I think that we have 461
unique clients last year. We're working with a web-based data collection system
so that we're trying to get everything up to speed and integrated with the state
providers and everything on all of our data reporting. We're going straight to just
unduplicated counts on our service provision. What we didn't count were the
number of people who were sheltered through the overflow project. Dee, did you
have a question?
Vanderhoef: You just gave one category that I didn't understand.
Canganelli: Unduplicated or. . . ?
Vanderhoef: No.
Elliott: Unique?
Lehman: Yeah.
Vanderhoef: The unique. . .
Canganelli: Meaning the same thing as unduplicated, meaning that I'm not counting over
somebody who would have stayed with us for two months and then later that
same year come back again for another stay.
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Vanderhoef: Because you had ten percent vets...
Canganelli: and about forty percent women and children. Please ask any questions so that this
is meeting your need for more information more than my need to talk.
Elliott: How many do you get from vets hospital?
Canganelli: Many more than we're going to provide shelter to, actually. Who it is that is
declined the most often are quite honestly the single men. Primarily because - do
you need to ask that question again so it's on record?
Elliott: You got it? I screw up all the time. That's okay.
Canganelli: When folks are coming to us - this is a really important dynamic of what's
happening right now at the shelter. When folks are coming to us for a bed space,
we're operating at capacity - we're full, or we've got the shelter that has many
children in it compared to the space. Oftentimes single men are going to either
decline to come in, most especially your vets who are dealing with post-traumatic
stress disorder, they're not used to being around young children. So they're either
being declined because we don't have enough bed space or they're not choosing
to come in because they just can't deal with the confined spaces and the fact that
we've got kids in the house and it's just a very confined space for them. Who is
being shut out, in addition to families, is very high percentage of those single
veterans.
Elliott: When you say high percentage, can you put any kind of a ball-park number figure
on that?
Canganelli: Well, we don't have a good number, but we do know that the majority.. .not the
majority...a good.. .see, I'm just going to talk in lose terms...a good number of
those chronically homeless, the single individuals who are out there on the street,
are veterans. That across the nation, here locally, and in the state, you're seeing
consistently that that's who's reflected in that chronically homeless.
Elliott: And they're brought here by the hospital?
Canganelli: Oftentimes you're going to have people who are pulled here from the University
of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, the V.A. - those are the kind of services that are
pulling people to our community. I think one ofthe things that we have really
struggled with for a long time is this notion that the shelter is pulling people here.
On the radar screen, as far as what is pulling people here, we're so incredibly
insignificant compared to resources and providers like the hospitals. The school
district, the fact that we have a safe community, the fact that we've got jobs to
offer people. The problem that comes in to play is when people come here
because they've heard that there are jobs. The jobs aren't paying enough to afford
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the housing that is available and there has not been... they don't have a safety net
or they didn't look at that and they're not making enough to make ends meet.
Elliott: I mention that because I think from your perspective I think that would be.
beneficial for more people to be aware of the fact that many of these people who
do either come to you or are there are as a result oftrips oftrips to vets hospital.
Canganelli: It's very important, yep.. . and it's not just one time. They're coming back and
they'll come back every -
Elliott: every three months or every six months.
Canganelli: Exactly. Exactly. Another thing that I think that many people in the community
don't really understand is our drop-in center services. It's hard to because it's just
that house and you just see this activity that's going on. People in the
neighborhood even, they're seeing the same people coming in every evening.
They think that those are our residents and that we've got the same people every
night. In fact, those are our drop-in center clients from five until ten, every night
ofthe week, all-year round, we have the drop-in center. Which is just that we
open up the house for the showering and laundry facilities. We have an evening
meal, folks use this as a mailing address, people use our phone number so we'll
have phone messages for people. If you're living outdoors and you don't have an
address and you don't have a phone, there is no way to get call-backs on jobs or to
pick your mail or anything, so we provide those basic services for folks, whether
they've stayed at the shelter or not. Additionally, there are outreach workers who
come in from the Community Mental Health Center and the V.A. Hospital and
our own STAR program, who has substance abuse background to meet with folks
during those hours. It's really important to get those connections and those hook-
ups going, all that outreach activity during that time. We'll have an additional up
to fifteen or twenty people who are coming through and we're consistently
serving dinner to over forty, anywhere from forty to forty-five people, again, in
that house. So, it's kind of crazy. We only have one staff person on during that
shift from five to ten and then they're relieved by a new staff person from ten p.m.
until eight a.m. the next morning, so it's a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.
We then rely very heavily on volunteers during those hours, of course, to just kind
of help things moving, help new residents find their bed space and get settled in
the house, and do all of those house-keeping kinds of things. Serve the dinner,
prep the dinner, whatever may be needed at that time. That's probably our
highest need for volunteers, at least over at the facility, is during those five to ten
p.m. hours.
Lehman: Do you have enough volunteers?
Canganelli: It's very difficult to keep volunteers. We have enough given the space that we've
got to use. There is just literally no where for people to go. Oftentimes we're not
offering a really satisfying volunteer experience because it is so chaotic and it is
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difficult for people just coming in to that.. .it's a very special person who wants to
continue to work in that. We're really appreciative of those folks. We really
hope that that's something that a new facility is going to be able to discover for us
is just a whole-new volunteer force, if you will, just by creating better work
spaces for them. The overflow project has just been phenomenal in the volunteer
efforts that have been involved in that. I don't even know how many people right
now have contributed to that effort across all ofthe different churches. That is a
good database of people who we know are going to support us in the future as we
go forward with that new facility.
Elliott: Do you know how many churches are involved in that? Are there more this year
than last year?
Canganelli: There are more this year, yes. The overflow program is operating from
November until the end of March. Last year is just went February and March, so
we've got a lot longer that we're working with and folks started early in the
summer starting to line up all the different churches. I know that there are at least
eight who are each contributing their building facility for the project and then
more churches who are contributing through volunteers.
Elliott: And two of those churches had to do some expenditures to meet the requirements,
as I understand it.
Canganelli: Exactly. To meet code. For residents who are staying with us longer than two-to-
three nights, we require that they participate in our in-house counseling program.
We now have two case managers who work with clients throughout the day. The
shelter is open twenty-four hours a day now, Monday through Friday. During the
winter months we're also open twenty-four hours a day on Saturdays and
Sundays. Those case managers and counselors - they work with the clients to
establish essentially their goal plan on working themselves out of the shelter into
their own apartment. I can't tell you the changes that I, you, this council, this
city, this community, this county have made in this organization's life and it's
existence. When I started six years ago, there were a total of three staff and no
one was there to run the facility during the day. I was running the facility during
the day and I was coming in sometimes working the evening and overnight shifts.
Today, with our case management program, again a federally-funded program
that's come in, we're up to seventeen people and there has been a huge
contribution by the community to make that happen. It has just been tremendous.
The organization is so completely different and so much more stable and
grounded. We just need a different building to move this all into so that we can
be truly efficient. The work that the counselors do... .they have a limited time-
frame that they've got to work with people as they're staying with us... we have
that maximum stay of ninety-days. . . and really it is to just focus on if you need
employment, help you look for employment and find employment. It may not be
the job that you want, but let's just get some income coming in. If you're not able
to work, what are the barriers? If you have a severe mental illness, have you have
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seen a psychiatrist, do you have a prescription, do we need to get that up and
running... because again, that's going to be a time-lag - up to six weeks - before
we can get you in to actually see somebody and get that prescription. So, the
plans are very individually driven and this isn't to be kind of slippery, it's just that
people present different needs. Goals and plans for a family may look very
different from an individual that has no serious health issues that they're dealing
with. They're just ready to go out and they need to find the job and start bringing
in some income. Families, there's going to be daycare, schools, getting records if
the kids are not currently in the district, working with the district that they were in
previously, getting those health records, getting transcripts and everything, and
helping that family in getting all that documentation and then lining up after-
school care, looking for jobs...I mean it's just a whole huge laundry list, again, all
focused on moving that family or that individual out ofthe shelter and into their
own housing. Significant barrier, I'll just be straight out right now is that there is
a very long waiting list for housing assistance and open-market rate apartments
are very expensive compared to what people are able to make given the service-
based jobs that everybody is pretty much walking into. We find that people, who
are working between two and three jobs at minimum, if there' s two adults in the
family, there may be five jobs across the two individuals, no benefits for anyone,
minimum wage jobs and just trying to piece-meal things together to get them out
and into their own apartment. When people do get to the point where they're
walking into their own apartment, oftentimes the upfront costs are in excess of
twelve-hundred dollars, sometimes as much as sixteen-hundred dollars - first
month's rent, last month's rent, and then the security deposit. It adds up very
quickly and making minimum wage - it's just a really steep hill for folks. It's a
real burden. To try to mitigate that somewhat, we started our security deposit
program - which was first capitalized by a former staff person of the shelter, who
died of cancer a few years ago, and also a matching gift from Community
Development Block Grant monies, which have consistently funded that program.
We offer $100, it doesn't sound like much, but it sure does make a difference in
helping a family or an individual move out sooner from the shelter. We also open
this up to folks at DVIP and referrals from other agencies who qualify. You have
to be homeless or have an eviction notice and it just really does make a difference.
Looking at it specifically rrom the shelter perspective, if we can get people out of
the shelter a week or two sooner, we think that it's a really good thing for that
household, that individual, that family. Again, given the very close, confined
spaces at the shelter. It's really difficult on families. We have.. . our final
program is the STAR program, which is a HUD-funded program. Primarily 80%
ofthat budget comes from HUD. STAR is an acronym that stands for Supported
Training and Access to Resources. So 80% of the funds come from HUD and
20% of the funds come from our local community private match to the program.
This is a longer-term, two-year case management program. This is where we've
been actually able to really add beef to the staff and to our services having case
managers who have background in law, housing, substance abuse, mental health -
actually we have two lawyers on staff now - so really good breadth of skills that
we're able to come in with this program and start working with and advocating
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for people on a longer-term basis, beyond that ninety-days. So, again you have to
be homeless to qualify, we've got folks who are residents in HACAP transitional
housing, MECCA transitional housing, folks who have been DVIP residents,
Shelter House residents.. .good coverage from across the community in providing
case management services focused on building employment skills, getting
employment placements, there's paid internship opportunities through the
program and then line-items that are funded through this program for education,
transportation, child-care, substance abuse, mental health, life-skills training,
employment training - very comprehensive. An example, most recently that
we're really proud of, is that we had six women who we were able to, by
providing transportation, get them to CNA training and paid for the training and
before they graduated from that program all six were employed. That's a
competitive living-salary wage-based employment situation for those women, so
we were just really, really proud of that. The missing pieces again were just
helping them with the fees.. . and the transportation is just a huge, huge issue. Out
of all the planning sessions that came out this summer through the consolidated
plan, transportation issues and vocational needs were some of the primary issues
that we heard consistently across the board from all of our providers. A
significant component ofthat STAR program is the outreach services that have
developed, that is probably not talked about very much in that information, but
we've started an outreach clinic, in partnership with the Wesley Foundation, so
we're working with Paul over the Wesley Center. We have a STAR case-
manager who is over there every morning of the week and is available to work
with folks. We have STAR case-management staff who go over to DVIP and
provide outreach and assistance, at the Salvation Army. ..and I just think that it's
been an incredible resource for the community. It really has stabilized the Wesley
Center and their services. In the morning, they didn't have anybody in and
around the space to kind of just maintain, but not only are we policing and
maintaining that space, we're also able to work with folks and help them and have
actually gotten a few people into permanent housing from it. There are some
people who are just very service-resistant and this is just a model, it's non-
threatening, they don't have to participate in a program, and they can get some
help and get their questions answered. So outreach has been a considerable
growth recently. Other projects that have kind of spun off is that we're partnering
with the Accounting Department over at the business school at The University of
Iowa. They're helping to work with clients on budgeting and money-
management. The College of Public Health - we've been partnering with them
for quite some time and last year we had our first graduating group from our
leadership project, where we had a group of fifteen folks who went through ten
weeks of classes. They met once a week, every week, and developed speaking
skills, presentation skills...I know that they made a presentation to the City
Council. We're just really proud oftheir efforts. They identified transportation
as an issue that they want to focus on and try to come up with some positive
solutions on that. The objective really being on developing a group of folks who
are able to serve on community boards, our board being be beginning one that we
need representation from, the population.. .and not just representation for it's sake
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 36
alone, but someone who is able to speak about issues and their concerns and feel
confident enough to talk about their experiences. We look forward to working
with the College of Public Health on that in the future. I probably exceeded my
time. Whose questions can I answer?
Vanderhoef: Just curious on some of the finance kind of things and the STAR program for
instance, the HUD. How much local match money has to go into that and how
much do you receive?
Canganelli: Currently the funding is.. . there is $448,000 that comes from HUD. It's a twenty-
percent match. We have to match.. . our minimum match is a little over $106,000.
The problem is that we can't say that we'll provide less match and just receive a
reduced-grant award. HUD will not do that. It's pretty much at this point, all or
nothing.. .so we're in quite a conundrum. It really does.. . that outweighs so
heavily just the operating budget ofthe shelter, which alone is just $300,000. If
you just look at basic operations ofthe shelter, that HUD-funded case
management program, it's expensive, but it also does show results in working
with people. Accessing main-stream resources.. .this is where folks also have
employment objectives but folks who may also qualify for SSI or SSDI, helping
them go through the process, walking with them through the appeals process,
keeping that going, and having an advocate. That makes a huge difference.
That's been really important on the state level and on the national level.
Lehman: How stable is that HUD funding?
Canganelli: It's a year-to-year renewal. So, that's kind of a loaded question.
Lehman: That's the part that's scary.
Canganelli: It's very scary....because...well, we will have nine-months notice. The renewal
information comes from us, we're in better standing than many organizations, we
will find out... this is some kind of Christmas present... .typically around
Christmas whether we will be renewed for the next year. Our next year starts, for
that program, in September. So, we have nine-months to get really busy and
figure out what's going to happen if we do not get it renewed. We've been
ranked very highly, we've been the number one project, for our local- what we
call our continuum of services - and then in the state we've ranked very
competitively as well. So, as long as the funding stays relatively stable that is
coming to the State ofIowa, we're in good standing. If that starts to shake up,
who knows? It is really scary.
Vanderhoef: How much assistance, if any, do you get from the V.A.?
Canganelli: Nothing at this time. . . but we are looking at, for the new facility, the V.A. funding
for the capital, for structural expenses, for the actual project and the building of
the new facility, and then as part of that there is a second phase that you can apply
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December 6, 2004 City Council Work Session Page 37
for that is per dium monies - that is monies that would be tied to bed-spaces as
they're occupied by veterans. In the last year, that money was only made
available to people or organizations who had already received V.A. funding - so
they're putting little tags on that - exclusionary kinds of things in there - so I
don't know if it's going to come up where we will actually be able to apply for
the money. It just depends on if they're going to release those grants again for
folks to apply for.
Vanderhoef: Does the V.A. house any of these chronic mental patients who are basically living
on the street?
Canganelli: Only if they're receiving in-treatment services... but no, just providing housing,
they're not going to do that.
Vanderhoef: It has always amazed me how many beds they have close over there for in-patient
care and not made some sort of facility that was lesser than an active nursing unit.
Canganelli: Right. These are the kind of things that we deal with daily and that the pulls - the
push and pulls - that people who are social workers and staff wanting to make
discharges from the public institutions and that's the jail, jail to the hospital, to the
V.A., everything and they're wanting to discharge directly to the shelter and
we've got some legal issues with that, that we need to look at.. . and also just
capacity issues and then this strain of, 'Well, why can't you shelter them? Can't
you reserve a bed space for them?' We can't do that. We'd be really happy to
look at in a new facility, people kind of sponsoring a number of beds from those
entities. I think it would be a very responsible thing to do. I don't know if others
share that thought but it's not that we don't want to serve, we just...I mean its
first come, first serve.
Elliott: There's been quite a bit of pressure nationally on the V.A. to do a better job and it
has seem to come to naught so I wouldn't anticipate a great deal.
Canganelli: In part they've done a really great job on their outreach efforts. This has been for
several years, but then they didn't look at what was going to be the result of those
outreach efforts. You know, pulling in people who were not necessarily
interested in services, getting them engaged and then what. There wasn't kind of
the continuum of planning, if you will.
Champion: Chrissy, do you have any follow-up on people who have gone through the STAR
program? Do you do any follow-up on what happens to them?
Canganelli: WelL.. we're in the sixth year of the program and we're personally, only in our
second year of actually staffing and managing. So, we're just now starting to
see. . . well, we've seen a number of people who have graduated who are stable,
who are maintaining stable housing. We've had a lot more success in following
up on at least a few people that we have directly worked with... because there has
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been a longer relationship established and they've got a permanent mailing
address.. .as opposed to the shelter... that's really difficult to follow up after folks
have moved out. But, really seeing people who are still struggling but moving on.
I've got a number of folks, and this is an informal connection, who have started
going to Kirkwood and are taking classes, and I'm teaching them. So that's been
a really neat thing for me to be a part of that. It's still going to be a struggle for
them. We haven't seen people come back... we haven't seen people come back
through the shelter. A few people have moved away, but a vast majority of folks
still around and just struggling to hold on to that housing. It's really expensive.
Vanderhoef: What's available in our surrounding communities for shelter?
Canganelli: Well, surrounding would be looking at Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, Davenport,
Muscatine. In-between there you're not going to have shelter services. You've
got some focused areas that have developed across the state. It would be different
if we could talk about.. .there's a 100 counties in the state ofIowa and each
county has their own shelter, but that's just not the case and it probably wouldn't
make very much sense, but given that, you've got localized centers and you've
got Des Moines - for our quadrant - Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque,
Davenport, Muscatine.
Vanderhoef: So what we have lesser expensive housing in our Johnson County community,
shall we say, and no transportation to come and get services
Canganelli: - or jobs or to be able to get people to jobs. Those are the primary barriers.
Vanderhoef: Have you gone. . . you talked about your conference and grounding some of the
other activities recently... .the transportation dollars that are coming to specifically
non-profit groups and how those dollars are being used....
Canganelli: You mean the local providers?
Vanderhoef: Different organizations, whether it be Red Cross or any of the other federal
programs that put transportation dollars into the program, and I can be all wet but
my sense is that the transportation dollars are not being collectively used in a real
positive way. That they are being used more in a one-on-one, very high case cost
per case, rather than trying to develop a transportation system that would allow
things like living in other communities and commuting to jobs. Do they talk
about that at all when some of these providers get together? Ross, you may have
some ideas on this, too?
Canganelli: Not that I'm aware of...in terms of being approached in that direction. We've
looked at resources, most recently, that are available to provide commuting... to
offset commuting costs between employment and child-care related trips and that
could be to other places other than like Iowa City. It doesn't have to be an
individual who we're providing shelter to.. .so there are other initiatives that we
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could look at, but locally I'm only familiar with bus tickets that the organizations
receive and then some emergency funds that organizations have primarily if they
need a bus ticket out of town and they're moving on somewhere.
Vanderhoef: But is there a piece in the STAR program that says transportation?
Canganelli: Yes, there is.
Vanderhoef: That's what I thought.
Canganelli: Transportation for those clients in the program, based primarily on going to any
appointments, employment primarily, and child-care.
Vanderhoef: Okay. There's a push in the state, through state DOT, to try and gather this kind
of information and put it together and see if something can be put together to
more effectively use those dollars like what you're using out of the STAR
program.
Canganelli: I think that's really important because we have a rural- we're not rural here - but
we have a rural state and longer commuting distances and employment is not
where housing is and we actually.. . that resource that I was talking about.. . would
call for a community-wide, county-wide planning study of exactly what you're
asking.. ..those resources and what's available.. . non-profit, public, all those
different things.. . and hopefully the planning department and the students at the
University are going to take on this project and help out with it. There are
resources.
Vanderhoef: I'd be interested in following that and I may be able to offer some information
later.
Canganelli: Great.
Vanderhoef: It gets started and then the DOT falls apart and doesn't do anything and doesn't
follow up. We're going to try one more time.
Canganelli: I'd be very interested. I don't know if you want to add anything on to this?
Wilburn: No, other than what you had said.. . the only.. ..as you're saying.. .I'd be surprised
to hear anything from DOT and then any. .. the efforts that I know of in some parts
of counties where there are not services, there's probably more money by
localities put in to shuffling folks on as opposed to assisting with transition to
more stable situations.
Vanderhoef: The DOT is mandated to do this by the State Legislature, so they get us together
at least once a year... but.. ..ah... there is a new director for this program.. ..so
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we'll see what comes out of it.. . but.. ..so far, there hasn't been any oversight from
the State Legislature to hold them accountable for the process.
Lehman: Well, thank you.
Canganelli: Thank you.
Lehman: Obviously you've got a very, very complicated life.
Canganelli: Well, it feels like some long days.
Lehman: I'm very impressed with the....
Canganelli: I just want to say thank you to all of you. I know I was pretty angry about six
years ago and felt very misunderstood and I just thank you for your patience and
for listening. You can not know how tremendously important it was to see many
of you at the meeting this past summer at the Board of Adjustments and what that
did for everyone at the organization knowing that you were their, either physically
or in spirit, and has made a phenomenal impact on all of us. We really, really,
really appreciate it. It means so very much. So thank you.
Elliott: That anger has either apparently dissipated or is well-masked.
Canganelli: Well, I'm just learning more.
Elliott: Thank you.
Champion: I think also, Chrissy, that you've made some major changes in the Shelter House
and you're also responsible for the positive feedback that it receives from this
town.
Canganelli: I've got a great group to work with.
Elliott: Bring calendars tomorrow night, right?
Lehman: Yes, calendars tomorrow night.
Council Time (continued)
Vanderhoef: Can I say one more thing on council time?
Lehman: What's that?
Vanderhoef: I just wanted to know whether there was any interest in following up on the
bobcat... but that's not the right one.
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Elliott: The cougar.
Vanderhoef: The cougar... to get a letter from the DNR to really educate our community on
what to expect from a cougar and what the habits are and so forth.
Lehman: I think that the less attention we draw to these creatures maybe the better offwe
are. I really don't want to draw any more attention to this.
O'Donnell: No, they travel up to seventy miles a day, I understand. This one could be a
thousand miles away.
Elliott: There are extremely good reasons why they can't jump every time someone sees
one, too. Because they have jumped before and found it to be house cats and
small dogs and things.
Lehman: I think if it turns into a problem... but 1...
Champion: Regenia, what's your solution?
Bailey: I think we should hire them to take care of this.
Lehman: I think we should use slingshots on the deer.
Bailey: There ya go.
(END)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the December 6, 2004 Iowa City Council Work Session.