HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-10-06 Transcription#1 page 1
ITEM NO. 1 CALL TO ORDER
Lehman/Before we do item 2, two things. We'd like to welcome Iris Frost's Journalism
class to the meeting tonight. Welcome. Hope you enjoy yourselves. The parking
ramp, or the parking lot outside the civic center, a portion of that is reserved for
skateboarders. And there are a number of cars that are parked in that spot. I
think it's signed, so if your car's there, we're not going to wait for you, but you
might want to move your car.
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ITEM NO. 2 OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS. (Grant Wood
Elementary).
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #2). I hope we have four young folks from Grant Wood
here, or rm going to feel real silly standing up here all by myself. This is the best
part of the program, if you call it a program.
Marian Karr/Why don't we have two on each side.
Lehman/Yeah, makes me feel better if I don't -- Okay, would you like to read yours?
Chavel Aron/My name is Chavel Aron. I go to Grant Wood School. I'm on Patrol and I
have fun watching the kids so they are safe. I also volunteer in a classroom with
younger children. I have tim doing this, too. I want to thank all the people who
voted for me. I appreciate it very much. So if you are watching, thank you very
much. Also, I want to thank the City Council for this award.
Erin Austin/Hello. My name is Erin Austin. rm a sixth-grader at Grant Wood
Elementary. I'm involved in school and out-of-school activities. I'm a captain for
Safety Patrol. I've been a Conflict Manager for three years. I've been involved
with our school bank for four years, serving two years on the Board of Directors.
I've been in Girl Scouts for five years. I also take dance, piano, and flute lessons.
Thank you very much for this award.
Brent Jenn/Hi. My name is Brent Jenn. I go to Grant Wood Elementary. I'm in School
Patrol, Band, Conflict Managers, and sports. I want to thank the nomination
committee for this award.
Kelsie
Austin/Hi. My name is Kelsie Austin. rm a sixth-grader at Grant Wood
Elementary. I'm involved in before- and after-school activities. I've been
involved with (can't understand) Jumpers for three years. I'm a captain in the
Safety Patrol, and I play the violin in Orchestra. I've been involved with Girl
Scouts for five years, and I have taken sign language for two years. I have also
signed for the choir at my church. I would like to thank the sixth graders who
nominated me. Thank you.
Lehman/I've got awards for each of you on behalf of the Council. I'd like to read one of
the awards. This is really kind of a special thing for Council. We go through all
kinds of important things like parking ramps and sewer plants and water plants
and all those things that cost millions and millions of dollars. Probably the most
important thing that we, that we really do is recognize these kids, because they're
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going to be sitting up here someday doing what we do. And we're very, very
proud of you folks, and I'm sure your parents are, too. And let me read the award.
"For his outstanding qualities of leadership within Grant Wood Elementary, as
well as the community, and for his sense of responsibility and helpfulness to
others, we recognize Brent Jenn as an Outstanding Student Citizen. Your
community is proud of you. Presented by the Iowa City City Council." And
Chavel, Erin, and Kelsie. Thank you.
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ITEM NO. 5 PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). (UNTIL 8:00
P.M.)
Lehman/This is the time reserved on our agenda for items that do not otherwise appear.
The public is invited to comment. If you'd like to speak, please sign your name
and limit your comments to five minutes or less. This time will be open until
8:00. Is there any public discussion?
Clayton Foley/Good evening. My name is Clayton Foley, and I'm a resident of Iowa
City. You may remember I came to the last City Council meeting two weeks ago,
and I expressed some concerns about the Deer Management Plan. And I inquired
about the educational aspects of the Plan in particular. Specifically, pamphlets,
fliers, educational seminars, etc. You directed me to the City Ordinance Meeting.
And as of two weeks ago, there hadn't been a date set for that. And I guess I'm
just inquiring again, has there been a date set for the City Ordinance Meeting?
Norton/You mean for the Deer Management Committee to meet?
Lehman/Yeah.
Steve Atkins/Wednesday, October 21, 5:30, this room.
Foley/Wednesday, October 1 st?
Atkins/21 st. 5:30, this room. The Deer Management Committee.
Foley/
Okay. 21 st. Okay. Well. Okay, I have another question. Has the surveying for
the sharpshooting begun already? I understood that was supposed to begin
September 1 st. Has that, have the USDA officials come into the area and are they
surveying fight now?
Lehman/I think that's a question you'll have to find out at that Committee meeting.
Atkins/I think I can answer it. Yes, Clay, to the best of my knowledge, they have been
here and they have done some preliminary work.
Foley/
Okay, thank you. What I'm getting at, I guess is, according to my knowledge, the
Deer Management Plan focuses mainly upon the education of the public with just
a small percentage devoted to the actual sharpshooting and surveying process.
Now, the main focus seemed to be educating the public about living with the deer.
How to avoid accidents on the roads and what to do to prevent damage to
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ornamental foliage in people's yards. Now, I don't know if you can answer this or
not, but I'm just wondering why is it that even though education is so stressed in
the Deer Management Plan, why is it that nothing concrete has been done yet, and
this meeting is two and a half weeks away I suppose? And, but the USDA
officials are already in the area and they are here and they're surveying in
preparation for the sharp shooting, and sharpshooting is such a small aspect of the
plan. And that's what I'm inquiring about. Would anyone like to answer that?
Atkins/Maybe I can answer it for you. I think that the Committee is intended to review
the educational aspects at the meeting of the 21st. And as far as the
sharpshooting, that's a component of the Plan requiring far greater lead-time, at
least that appears to be the judgments of the USDA officials. They came to town,
asked us for our permission to review sites. I think you're going to find out a
whole lot more if you go to the meeting on the 21 st.
Kubby/But on the agenda of that meeting, the educational materials are a big portion of
the agenda?
Atkins/Yes. Well, it's a meeting of the Deer Management Committee. They will review
the Plan. To the best of my knowledge, they will confirm every element of the
plan at that meeting. That's what I understand.
gubby/Okay.
Foley/
Okay. Well, I just have to say that I believe that October 21st is a little bit too late.
I think that the education should have been, should have begun far ahead of the
actual time when these people came into the area. And I don't know when exactly
they're going to start sharpshooting, but I believe that will be later in the year.
Atkins/January, to the best of my knowledge.
Foley/In January? Okay. But I really do believe that this, it's a little bit too late, and to
tell you the truth, I've been out in the public talking to the citizens, and I believe
right now I've done more to educate the public than the City, I suppose. I don't
know exactly who. But so, I guess that's all I have to say.
Kubby/Well, Clayton, I hope you will go to the meeting, you will offer your services to
the Committee to help develop the materials, distribute them, talk about them, the
parts that you agree with, that you would be willing to help us in that. Because
obviously you really care about this issue, and you're willing to talk to people.
And so we'd like to hook you in.
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Foley/Okay, I'll be there.
Kubby/That'd be great.
Norton/I've got to add something. I don't think that their educational effort is focused
necessarily on this single year. That is, they intend to produce materials and carry
on some educational activities continuously over the period of several years, I'm
sure. Because we have to look at this issue again every year. So this is, we're just
doing a first round. So, you can ask them at that time when they're going to start,
but I'm sure it'll be pretty soon.
Foley/Okay. Thank you.
Kubby/Thanks for your interest.
Lehman/Thank you.
B.B. Ballantyne/Hi. I'm Bebe Ballantyne, and I represent the Commission of the Senior
Center. And I just want to report on some of the things that have been taking
place there. You probably are aware that we, on September 1 lth, honored all of
the over 800 volunteers at the Senior Center with an afternoon tea. And it was
quite well-attended, and we thought that the program and everything was quite
satisfactory. I hope some of you were there to see what went on. I just thought I
would let you know that that did take place. We have had a number of alterations
and changes in our building. One of the things that is to be done soon is a
replacement of the doors at the Washington Street entrance. The new entrance
will be made of anodized aluminum and feature a large, centrally-placed door.
The Engineering Department is coordinating this project. And the contract has
been awarded to McComas-Lacina, and as soon as the necessary parts arrive, the
project will begin. The reason this is necessary is that the metal framework
around those doors has rusted, and it's in, it won't be safe for too much longer, I
understand. This same company has also installed center railings on the Linn
Street entrances. The steps there are quite wide, and some of the older people felt
rather insecure going up and down the stairs without an additional railing in the
center. And so that has been done. Also, installation of door-timers and the ADA-
compliant hardware is now complete. Another rather sad thing that has happened,
and some of you may know about that, Wilma Conner who was co-chair of the
Senior Center Commission, died in September, the 2nd of September. And we
have made a nomination and voted to replace Deborah Schoenfelder as co-chair
for the Senior Center Commission. There was a letter from Tom Muller and a
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copy of this was sent to you, as I understand, requesting, or making a suggestion
that the Senior Center be moved to Sycamore Mall, to the old Randall's store. I
would just like to say that the Senior Center Commission did discuss this quite
thoroughly, and our feeling was that we're much better off where we are for a
number of reasons. I think the letter delineates those reasons quite well. I don't
know if you have any questions, or ifI could answer any further questions, but I
would be happy to try if there are questions.
Lehman/That was a well-written letter. I think it did address a lot of concerns that we
would have had with that other location.
Ballantyne/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Kubby/Thank you.
Betty Kelly/Hi, I'm Betty Kelly. I'm vice-chair of the Historic Preservation
Commission. I'm on a pleasant mission tonight. In your packet, you should have
received an invitation to our October 17th workshop. We are presenting a
workshop from 9:00 to noon on Saturday moming in the Masonic Temple, and we
are proposing to answer some questions and provide for experts in this field. We
get lots of questions from people, not only in historic districts, but throughout
Iowa City. We're going to discuss the exterior of the house, starting with how to
identify your house's style. Then we'll take the road, possible road of an architect,
and then Steve Vanderwoude is going to talk about the nuts and bolts of doing
some repair to your house. And end up by what is the appropriate paint color for
a historic house. We hope you'll be able to attend. We're encouraging everybody
within this district to come.
Kubby/Great. Thanks for all that flee information.
Kelly/What?
Kubby/Thanks for all the free information you're going to provide.
Kelly/We thought this is a nice project for the Historic Commission to engage in.
Thank you. We look forward to seeing you.
Lehman/I think it's --
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Kelly/Yes?
Lehman/I think it's an excellent project, and your timing couldn't be better.
Kelly/We try, we try. Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Champion/Thank you.
Bob Welsh/My name is Bob Welsh. I live at 84 Penfro. I come to first of all thank you
for the work that's being done on Dubuque Street between Iowa Avenue and
Washington, the beautification. But to also tell you, unfortunately, I believe that
your money is being wasted because it's not being beautified, or will it be
beautified, as long as you allow continued occupancy of that area with delivery
trucks. I trust you will look at your ordinance which is 943, concerning parking
not to obstruct traffic, the section on commercial vehicles. (a) talks about a
vehicle being able to park in a lane, not two lanes, as long as there is ten feet of
width existing for the free movement. Another section of that, number (c), sets a
time limit. And the time limit now set forth in your ordinance is fifteen minutes.
And I think any of you who have lived in that area or been around that area know
that those vehicles are there for a much longer period of time than that. So I come
to say thank you for the work that you're doing. You will help to create a better
area if you address that area. Let me point out to you that when the street system
as it now is was designed, and I'm glad you're looking at redesigning it, but the
thought was that by making the entire south side of the 100-block of Iowa Avenue
and a large section adjacent to Dubuque Street in the 200-block of Iowa Avenue,
that that parking space was sufficient to serve the businesses on Dubuque, south
of Iowa Avenue. So, I ask you to revisit that, to reinforce it. I think that there are
three basic issues. One is the whole area ofbeautification. The other is an area of
safety. If you come out of the alley between Iowa and Washington, you take your
life into your own hands if you want to try and go south. Because you can't see
cars coming on the other side. Often times, trucks are parked right across the
intersection of the alley, so you have to make what I think are several almost
inappropriate maneuvers to get to where you want to be. And the other is the
whole matter of safety. Look at it on most days, and if there was a fire, I think it
would be, it would be very difficult if not impossible for your firetrucks to get
into that area the way it is now. So I hope that one, you'll accept my
congratulations, but number two, you'll recognize that there's more work to be
done, and that you will look at the enforcement of your ordinance.
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Lehman/Thank you, Bob.
Champion/Steve, I wonder if we could even send a letter to the businesses around there
to remind their drivers that there is a fifteen-minute time limit? Because I don't
think they really know that. And they do park a lot longer than fifteen minutes.
Sometimes I think they park for lunch. I don't know. Is that difficult to do?
Atkins/Beg your pardon?
Champion/To send a letter to those businesses.
Atkins/No, I'd be happy to do that.
Kubby/They're communicating with their vendors all the time, so they could.
Atkins/Yeah, if I don't hear any objections from the Council, I'll communicate it to all
of them.
Lehman/It's probably something that we should bring up with Joe Fowler, too.
Norton/Yeah, we'd need to think about it.
Lehman/Okay.
Atkins/I'll take care of that.
Norton/Well I would be interested in thinking about somewhat restricted hours for
delivery as well.
Lehman/We can --
Kubby/Well, we talked about that with the Iowa Avenue Streetscape, didn't we? Saying
that commercial parking only in the early morning, and then the rest of the time it
was anybody's.
Norton/They're not allowed to go downtown in Los Angeles, I think, after 6:00 a.m. or
something like that, you know. Not that this is Los Angeles, but it's possible to
restrict it.
Champion/Are you saying that I'm going to have to get up at 5:00 to go down to get my
stock?
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Norton/Oh, you have to be there to get your stuff?. Oh, sorry. Maybe we'll give you till
8:00, Connie.
Champion/Okay, thanks.
Lehman/It's called executive privilege.
Shannon Nelson/Hi. My name is Shannon Nelson. I'm a resident of Iowa City. A few
meetings ago, I was here, asking a couple questions about the Deer Management
Plan. And one of my questions was, what has been done to educate the public on
issues and what's going on to keep the public informed on the deer issue. And
your response to me was that there were extensive publications in our newspapers
about the issue and all that. And I just wanted to point out to you today that since
September 1, 1998, the official beginning of the Deer Management Plan, the
Cedar Rapids Gazette has printed two articles about what's going on in Iowa City
and keeping the citizens there updated. To my knowledge, Iowa City has
published nothing about the issue. And my question now is why? I think Iowa
City residents need to keep informed on this issue. I think it's really important,
and I think we need to keep it in the press. Also, in one of the articles, it came to
my knowledge that the price estimate of the Plan is now up to about $30,000.
That's a drastic difference from what you told me last time of $15,000. I guess,
under the initial plan it was to have our local police officers shoot the deer at $50
per deer. And now what's changed is that the USDA is going to come in and
shoot the deer, charging of course a much larger price of $175 per deer. This, I
think, is a really important issue. I think that as citizens, that are taxpayers, I
think we need to keep letting them know about this issue. $30,000 is much larger
than $15,000. So, I guess I would just like to request that Iowa City keep
educating the public and informing them on the latest issues, what's going on,
because there are lots of different changes in the Plan. I don't think it's quite
finalized yet. Thank you.
Lehman/You did note the time of the next Deer Management meeting?
Nelson/Yes, I did. Thank you.
Lehman/And I think we'll all know more after that meeting. And I agree, the papers
print what they choose to print. We can't tell them what's news and what isn't.
But I would strongly imagine that there will be something in the paper following
that meeting as to what their proposed actions are.
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Nelson/Okay.
Kubby/And I hope you'll connect with Clayton, and I'm sorry, I can't remember your
name, this other person who has come. But you three should talk.
Thornberry/Ernie, I was under the impression that it wasn't a dollar per deer charge, it
was by the hour.
Lehman/I don't know.
Thornberry/And rendering was by the deer.
Lehman/I don't know.
Thornberry/Where did the figures come from?
Lehman/That's something we'll all get more information on from that meeting.
Nelson/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Chad Gonnerman/Well, good evening. My name is Chad, and I'd like to say thank you
for giving us the information about the upcoming meeting, and I really appreciate
that. And as you know, I have been researching and thinking a lot about this deer
issue that's confronted Iowa City and Coralville. And recently, I have come to the
conclusion about what seems to me to be the real issues in relation to deer and
their alleged overpopulation. In particular, I think that the real issues can be
reduced down to three things. One, being deer-auto collisions. Two, browse-
damage to ornamental plantings, and three, potential ecological damage. And in
my opinion, these are the real difficulties, and that these are the intricacies that are
to be solved. Because in all honesty, a deer in and of itself doesn't cause any
problems, a deer just standing there causes no problems. In fact, if anything, it is
quite pleasurable. Instead, we must confront the real issues on an individual basis
rather than resorting to killing, which is clearly, clearly a message of violence.
And moreover, the alternatives do exist. First, concerning deer-auto collisions,
killing one deer simply does not stop other deer from crossing the road. In fact,
the shooting of a deer only increases the likelihood of deer-auto collisions because
gunshots are quite loud, and this scares deer, causes them to run and act in
abnormal ways. The result is they impulsively flee into such areas as roadways,
increasing the likelihood of deer-auto collisions. Fortunately, this money that is
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being spent on the lethal removal of deer can be spent effectively in terms of deer-
auto collisions on such things as the (can't understand) reflector system, which cut
down deer-auto collisions by 98% alone on the streets of Dodge and Dubuque.
Second, concerning browse-damage. This can be addressed through non-lethal
methods as well: fencing, netting, repellents and deer-resistant ornamentals are
all effective tools to battle browse-damage. In particular, education, letting people
know about these alternatives is especially important. Finally, concerning
ecological damage. Nature is amazingly effective in responding to its inhabitants.
In fact, to the point where if one speaks of deer causing ecological damage, it
almost becomes a joke. Generally speaking, deer simply do not reduce plant
biodiversity. But instead, reduce what is called plant biomass. Moreover, as
ecologist Dr. Graham Crawley points out, decrease in plant biomass is temporary.
And it's remission-spontaneous. So, in conclusion, the altematives to lethal
controls do exist. And when the citizens of Iowa City and Coralville are made
aware of these, they are often surprised that a supposedly progressive community
such as Iowa City would simply resort to such an archaic method of deer control.
Moreover, they are shocked that the local government lacks the proof to back up
their claims, which I mentioned at the last meeting I was at. That is, there are no
records of complaints. There has not been a deer count in two birthing seasons.
Simply there exists no proof. But I have proof that people do feel the same way
as I do. And in a short few weeks, we've gathered over 400 petition signatures of
residents who oppose sharpshooting, and more are being gathered as we speak.
And so I have these here. And I would like to have at least a copy of these
petitions, it would be wonderful.
Kubby/Steve, I read, I don't know if it was in the Gazette, or the Press-Citizen even
today, that Cedar Rapids' Deer Management Team has decided not to do a deer
kill. Could we just, I don't know, the article just stated that and then it didn't
explain why. They had originally said they wanted to do bow-hunting, and they
had bow-hunting for awhile.
Atkins/Yes, they did.
Kubby/And now that Committee in Cedar Rapids has decided that they will not do a
deer kill, either sharpshooting or bow-hunting. Could we just find out, for the
Committee and for us?
Atkins/Yes.
Kubby/Their rationale. That'd be great.
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Karr/Could we have a motion to accept correspondence?
Kubby/So moved.
Norton/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton. All in favor- (ayes). Motion carried.
Any other public discussion?
Holly Berkowitz/I'm Holly Berkowitz, 612 Granada Court. I have three issues. One is
that the Summit Street issue about apartments in a historical green district need
clarification because an urban area, a growing urban area needs a central
greenspace. That is a marvelous green space. You need to expand the green space
characteristic of it instead of lessening it. This seems to be, the open space versus
closed space seems to be sort of a political theme. The deer population is
something that was brought up that was left out is that the real issue is that the
reason that we are having trouble with deer is that urbanization is omitting deer
habitat. And this doesn't happen just with deer. It happens with many types of
species of plants and animals that are decimated and forced to evacuate when a
subdivision is put out in a rural area without thinking about the consequences.
Consequences. Urbanization of habitat. Secrecy. What is happening? We have
the secrecy behind the deer issue. I'm glad the Summit Street is coming up. We
have the secrecy of the Hickory Hill/First Avenue proposal. Can someone fill me
in on what is happening with the First Avenue Extension? There's construction
going on to the north of that.
Lehman/Irish, Captain Irish Parkway is being constructed. But First Avenue, there's
nothing being done on.
Berkowitz/Okay. What's Captain Irish going to connect to?
Lehman/Eventually it will hook up to Scott Boulevard.
Berkowitz/Great. Great. It's not that far between Captain Irish and the and First
Avenue.
Lehman/1,200 feet.
O'Donnell/Bingo.
Berkowitz/No, no, it's only a couple of blocks.
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Lehman/I know.
Berkowitz/And so you need to find, you need to focus your effoas on that parkway
because it's a marvelous resource. And I have not seen any attempts at the City
level or the County level or even the State level to try to consolidate our resources
so that we're not so dependent on over-dependence. So that we're not so over-
dependent on driving, every family driving down to the soccer field and having to
drive everywhere. When I lived out in Coralville, I had to drive wherever I went.
And I resented it. So I moved away from Coralville. I moved into Iowa City.
Second, I have a declaration of interdependence here. I want each of you to sign
it. The declaration of interdependence says that life and democracy depends on
critical nodes, links, strands, and flows between each critical part. That is, each
part is critical to the whole. So you can't divide the whole into a bunch of parts
and try to isolate each part, and try to investigate each pan. You get what I'm
going at? John Stuart Mill said over himself, over his own body and mind, the
individual is sovereign. This is the news that didn't make the news and why.
Okay? There's an undercurrent of secrecy that's destroying our govemment's
base. We cannot have a democracy - if you value democracy, you will sign this
declaration of interdependence that says that everyone has the same rights,
especially the President. The President has a right to privacy. And I think that the
City of Iowa City needs to draw up a declaration of independence that says that
we need to stop this partisan division, and we need to get together and staa
working on the problems that really count. Come on, guys. Do you understand
what I'm saying? It's that from the local level, the local level is as impoaant as
the state level and the federal level, because we have access to microphones like
this. I can't drive over to Washington DC. It's too expensive for me, okay? So
you guys have to carry the ball. Okay? And I want you to sign the declaration of
interdependence that says that everybody is equal and everybody has the equal
rights to equal opportunities and equal access to affordable access to access
affordable resources. And the way to keep the resources affordable is to protect
them and keep them from, protect them from destruction. Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you, Holly.
Terry Hale/Hi, my name is Terry Hale. I'm here before you in sympathy with these
other folks who are trying to preserve neighborhoods. I have a related issue. I've
addressed this Council twice on this matter which is apparently coming to a
destructive end. I'm speaking of a house I lived in for 24 years at 230 Noah
Gilbert Street, and the one next to it at 411 East Bloomington. Mercy Hospital
obtained these propeaies from the estate of my departed landlord. They insisted I
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leave after a few months, and have claimed they're unsure of their plans, but
recently put demolition notices on both of these houses. I'm having a rough time
with this. It's Homecoming Week. I lost my home a few months ago. A couple
of weeks ago I lost my mom, everybody's original concept of home. And now my
adopted hometown is supposed to absorb the loss of another chunk that makes this
community feel like home, like something you want to retum to, to see the old
landmarks and feel the connected energy to the history of the City and the region.
I've spoken to Scott Kugler, works with the City Planning Department and has
been involved with the negotiations with Mercy to somehow preserve these
historic properties on the Near Noahside. He says the houses qualify for Historic
Preservation, but the red tape process takes two years. So, Mercy can have its
way. After weeks of supposed negotiations with Mercy, Mercy has chosen to
resolve this, their end of the deal by putting an anonymous notice in the "House
for Sale" section of the want-ads in the Press-Citizen offering to donate these
houses to anyone interested in moving them. The only problem with this is that
they ran the notice for scarcely a week with an artificial deadline of the Friday of
that week to present a written plan for the house-moving. An additional deadline
of October 8th to actually move the places, which is all totally impossible and
unfair conditions. Mercy speaks of their healthcare mission for the community
that justifies whatever real estate destruction they care to undertake. There's a
mental health of the community that involves our surroundings, our environment,
our link with our past, our ancestors, through the very structures they built with an
idea they would last a long time. Whether it's some trees and bushes or historic
homes or sturdy commercial buildings downtown, there's a need to preserve and
maintain these roots of the community. Iowa City's charm and drawing power
involves the University and its traditions, and employment and surrounding city
that supports it with like minds and a traditional historic feeling. You don't get
that with apartments, duplexes and new parking ramps and hospital additions. As
a long-term Iowa Citian, I'm tired of the mentality that has helped displace me
from a home of 24 years that is now threatened with stupid destruction. Iowa City
really can't compete with Coralville by building malls. We've got to preserve our
own unique quality of life with different methods than "newer and bigger is
better". I call for some kind of intervention from the City to help stop this useless
destruction of historic properties and some progressive leadership that is looking
into the new millennium where some heavy changes are inevitable. Where
dependence on petroleum products will be coming to a very, coming to an end.
It'll be a very short chapter in the whole history of the world. And the malls and
tertiary hospitals, our whole society will have to adjust to this. And in fact, we're
not going to have this cheap mobility that we've had for a long time. And I think
the City needs to address this issue and I hope these places don't get destroyed.
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Thornberry/Sir, I have a question.
Hale/Yes?
Thornberry/I remember you coming before us before, and it's my understanding that
Mercy Hospital bought a couple of houses not too far from Mercy Hospital and
you lived in one of them. Is that correct?
Hale/Yes.
Thornberry/And we're unsure of what Mercy Hospital is going to do with those, with
that property, but we both know fight now that they're going to, the houses won't
be there. Instead of demolishing them, they wanted them to be moved and used
elsewhere. What would you have the City do?
Hale/Well,--
Thornberry/I mean what, you're before us saying, telling us this. What would you have
the City do?
Hale/
Well, I don't know. Scott was indicating that the City didn't really want to get
behind trying to move the houses themselves because their position was to
maintain them there, maintain the streetscape and whatever. But that's just been
kind of a tug-of-war with Mercy. And supposedly the City's losing on that one.
So, you know, the City's either going to take part in moving them, or I mean, I
don't understand why, if it is a historic district but it takes two years to get it
together, it doesn't make sense to me that it's going to be destroyed, and then two
years later someone's going to say oh well, we could've, should've done this.
Thornberry/No, what my question is, is if Mercy Hospital bought those properties and
they decide that they want to expand Mercy Hospital into that area or something,
what is it that you want the City to do? I mean, Mercy Hospital bought the
property. It's Mercy Hospital's property. We really don't have anything to do
with it as far as I know.
Hale/Well, I guess, on a business sense, but again, I'm trying to appeal to some other
sensibilities here within our community. And you guys represent the whole
community. And I realize, you know, Mercy can do what they want to. But
again, I don't understand, if it can be a historic district, it should be a historic
district. You know?
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Thornberry/Is that a historic district?
Kubby/No, but our Historic Preservation folks think that if the assessment was done,
that those two properties, especially because not a lot has been done to change
those properties from their original architectural plans, that they would probably
qualify. And I guess, you know, when, I know that --
Thomberry/But it's not in a historical district now.
Norton/No.
Kubby/No. And they're not on the Register as individual properties at this point. But
there is, I mean, there is some stake here for the whole community in that, I mean
there had been a lot of talk about Mercy wanting that whole block, to demolish
the homes and to build outward. I mean, they claim that they're not interested in a
parking facility, but there's a lot of talk about them wanting a parking facility
there. And that if that whole block goes, I mean, that is a special little place down
in there where you've got old residential, close-in to town next to where you've
got old commercial, and we do have something at stake here. I understand that
they have property rights. But there are lots of ways that the City can intervene to
talk about, since they claim they don't have any plans, then why are they in such a
hurry to demolish? And couldn't they stay there until we can figure out and
negotiate something with them to either preserve the streetscape so it could still be
used for Mercy Hospital uses, so that, because another form of historic
preservation is re-adaptive use that maybe they become clinic centers instead of
residential uses, but the structure is preserved. Or that, I think the City does have
something at stake. And to me, it wouldn't be the best solution, but maybe
another solution in the past we have, when developers have wanted to tear down
older homes that are worth preserving, we have moved them and found a lot and
had a program where a lower-income family who meets income guidelines, that
they have enough income to support themselves and the house, but not too high an
income that we want to help them out in this way, can have an ownership
opportunity. So I think that there are some possibilities there.
Thornberry/Thank you, Sir. I didn't mean to --
Hale/I just, one further thing, I just, the main thing that got me to come down here is to
see how Mercy did resolve it, to talk to Scott and to hear him say that well, the
City's been trying to negotiate with Mercy in good faith and then Mercy, kind of
sneakily I feel, putting this little thing in the paper, anonymously, that they're
going to donate the houses, but with a totally artificial deadline so it's impossible
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for anybody to come forth and really do that other than the City.
Kubby/Do you mean that, when you say artificial deadline, do you mean it was so close
to when the ad appeared that you functionally couldn't do it?
Hale/Within a week you were supposed to respond to this and have a written, and then
move it in three weeks. So, you guys are the experts, so, thank you.
Kubby/Thank you, Terry.
Lehman/Thank you.
Kubby/I mean, I guess I would like us to discuss if there's any way that we would like to
try to intervene. It may not, we may not have any legal rights, but there could be,
you ka~ow, some discussions.
Norton/In principal, you could buy the houses and move them. I mean, I don't suppose
you could leave them there, but you might be able to buy them and put them
somewhere else.
Van/They're being offered free.
Norton/Well, you'd have to move them, then.
Van/You have to pay the cost of the moving.
Norton/There's the question of whether it's worth renovating them and all that. But we
can see if it is.
Van/And the historic value, I don't know what happens once they're moved off their
original site, but I suspect that it loses some of that historic value once it's moved.
Kubby/It decreases.
Joni Kinsey/I'm Joni Kinsey. I'm the president of the Friends of Historic Preservation.
And I'm pleased to follow on Mr. Hale, because I can maybe add a little bit to his
discussion. In regard to the Mercy Hospital houses, there was a concerned group
of citizens who met with Mercy at the citizens' request several times this summer
and attempted to approach them as to what their plans were as to those properties,
and also to help them if possible save the properties, keep the properties where
they are, and perhaps provide some suggestions, ideas, and even help with
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whatever it would take to keep those properties there. And at the very least, keep
the comer house there, Mr. Hale's house. It was hoped that even if the wooden
house, the one on Bloomington, had to be moved, it could perhaps be moved next
door to the brick house and really fill in that streetscape on Gilbert. Mercy could
even build fight up to the back of those houses, maybe even incorporate them into
their plans. We came up with an entire page-ful of suggestions, none of which
they were interested in, and although they were at first quite interested, or at least
said they were interested in working with us, as it turns out, they really didn't end
up even conceding anything except perhaps a little bit of time. And there were
interested parties in moving the houses. One in particular that was very, very
close to actually determining to do so. A property was available. The contractors
for moving the house were, you know, in progress of planning the move. All of
the things of moving the wires and everything else that it would take to do that
would, were also underway in terms of plans. The problem, of course, came
down to money. And the Friends of Historic Preservation wanted to financially
support this project. It turns out we were legally unable to do so, because the
person in question who was trying to move the house was one of our Board
members. There's been a bit of misunderstanding as to why we couldn't help out
on that project. But I just kind of want it on the record that we weren't unwilling.
It was that we were legally unable.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-111, SIDE B
Kinsey/Know about is that Mercy Hospital was not even willing to provide the money
to the movement project that it is going to cost them to tear the house down. And
I think that that is really, really poor. Particularly in regard to their new banners
that say "Cherishing the past, and celebrating the future." It's rather ironic. The
other thing that I really have to say, in regards to the commercial buildings
downtown, the Harmon Building, and Eastlawn. If anything can be done to
incorporate those buildings into the new parking structure plans, it would be
extremely gratifying to see those buildings preserved. Thank you.
Lehman/Thankyou.
Kubby/Is there any interest on the part of Council to put a minimum, ask Mercy maybe
to slow down on their legal fights in terms of the demolition so the City could
even assess the feasibility, you know, just the physical aspects of the two
structures or even one of them, and the possibility of obtaining a lot to move it to
that would be appropriate? I mean, I would be interested in exploring that as a
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minimum.
Champion/Well, I think we should explore the possibility. I mean, I can tell you, I sat in
on a few of those meetings, and Mercy was very polite, but they, it was clear from
the beginning that they weren't willing to accommodate those houses.
Kinsey/Can I add one more thing? In regards to the question of what can the City do? I
would suggest that the city could maybe delay the permission for the demolition
so that a historical survey could be taken if in fact in this case there is the potential
for a historic district. I don't think that's too much out of the bounds of reason.
The other is the possibility, as has been done in the past, to create a coalition with
private citizens, with groups such as mine, the Friends of Historic Preservation, to
move a house. We've actually done that in partnership with you, with the City in
the past. And as I understand it, that project which was an affordable income
property, some kind of grant money, I'm not sure how it happened, it was before
my time, but there was such a program before, and there was a wonderful
collaboration in which a house was moved from Bowery Street to Rundell Street.
It's now a wonderful house. It probably was a wonderful house before, but it's no
less wonderful in its new location. In regards to the historic significance of a
house once it's been moved. Of course it doesn't have the integrity that it had in
its original site. But nevertheless, the structure has been saved, and that's not a
little thing.
Kubby/And actually, in the past, our demolition permits were, you could go down and
get the permit and walk out and go and demolish. And we had this, I can't
remember if it's seven or ten working days time period where it was posted so
people could see what was going to happen in their neighborhood. So they had
some adjustment and not come home and have a building be gone. But also so
that people could come to us with some information and with some ideas. And I
don't know what the legal aspects are, that there have to be certain conditions met
in order to either request or stop the flow of the permit so that something, a
movement assessment could be done.
Kinsey/Yeah. As a group, we're very interested in continuing these kinds of projects,
and while we do have, shall we say a nice fund to work with, it's not enough to
buy a house, move it, and restore it. So a partnership would be greatly welcomed.
Thanks.
Kubby/So--
Eleanor Dilkes/We don't have the authority to delay a permit for demolition under these
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circumstances.
Kubby/But we certainly could request that it be delayed, that Mercy request the delay if
we wanted to assess and move the home.
Van/Has there been a request?
Dilkes/I have no idea.
Norton/Well this has been kicking around for some time. I guess I'm surprised that, and
the Historic Preservation Commission has looked at this neighborhood, I take it.
I'm surprised that some suggestion didn't come to us from them about action
before it's down to the wire here. I'm just a little surprised at that.
Kubby/Well, what is --
Norton/You know, hey, this is happening here. It's been going on for six months, hasn't
it, this threat to move them?
Kubby/I would be interested in talking with Mercy. They may say no. But if we never
ask, they never have the opportunity to say if you want to assess the homes to see
if they're movable. Another entity has determined, you know, the private entity
has said that at least one of them is movable, and for other reasons decided not to.
Norton/I have no problem in talking with them. I'm just surprised that we didn't do it
sooner is all.
Kubby/Well it seems that there are at least three people who are interested in us
exploring this.
Champion/Well, I think six months is not a very long time when you have a committee
that's meeting with a big organization like Mercy Hospital. You can't meet with
them at any time.
Kubby/That's their own business.
Champion/Six months goes by very, very quickly. And I think it's a small amount of
time. There has been some assessment of the commercial area as a historic
district over there by the Historic Preservation Commission. But I don't think it's
totally done. And so it isn't that it's been ignored. It's been dealt with and they
actually started dealing with it long before Mercy Hospital bought those
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buildings. But it just takes a lot of time. And six months is not very much time.
Kubby/Is there a fourth person that would be interested in speaking with Mercy about
not demolishing when they have a legal fight to, so the City could have some time
to assess whether or not the houses are in movable shape and to find a place to
move them to?
Lehman/I would have no problem asking Mercy if they're interested, as long as we make
it very, very clear to them that we are not in a position, nor should we be in a
position to change the rules after they've purchased property and intend to do with
it whatever they purchased the property to do.
Champion/I'm not suggesting that.
Lehman/No.
Kubby/We're asking them as a community member to postpone what they have rights to
do so that we can do some exploration. So that we can do something.
Lehman/If they would like to do that, I think that's wonderful. I do believe that if we
wish to prevent this sort of thing in the future, we need to address it before
somebody buys property and wants to either remove or demolish homes. I mean,
this is really coming in after the horse is gone.
Kubby/I agree.
Kinsey/Only one more thing to add.
Lehman/Sure.
Kinsey/There was a woman who approached the Friends of Historic Preservation last
week with another proposal to move the house. She was not optimistic about, in
fact, she wants to move both of them, and she thinks she's found property to do
that on. She does have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, so I do think it's
a serious proposal. She knows she's up against an impossible deadline and she
also doesn't have the funding it would take. However, I didn't bring it up because
I didn't think it was worth even, you know, blowing in the wind, what shall I say?
But if there is any hope of a delay, that is a promising candidate who could
perhaps save the properties. She does have a lot of experience with affordable
housing, both here and in Boston. So, if you're at all to be encouraged, that's a
possibility.
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Kubby/Well it seems there are at least four people who want us to approach Mercy
about that deadline. It seems like the partnership is more solidified than we
thought. Let's try to make something happen positive here.
Lehman/Steve, I think we could ask Mercy if they are interested, that there's definitely a
public interest.
Atkins/I'll do my best to contact them tomorrow.
Lehman/Right. And I, obviously they know full well that they can choose to ignore or to
Atkins/I understand.
Kubby/But if they know there's Council interest in working on this partnership with the
Friends, and this private entity and their part of the partnership would be not
demolishing when they have a legal right to as being a community, a member of
the community, to try to accommodate our lateness. That'd be nice.
Atkins/I'll check it out tomorrow.
Lehman/Holly, you've got to be quick. We're just about done with Public Discussion.
Berkowitz/Where's the Declaration of Independence? All living things, all hidden
genetic potentials need safe, private, protected space to grow, develop, thrive,
flourish, mature genetically, and produce economically through time. All need
life-sustaining flows that cannot be divided to count through cash registers. Life-
sustains balancing flows, life-sustaining and balancing flows for paradise need to
flow without blinding obstruction, desperate want, and paralyzing fear of assault.
Iowa City residents request that state, that local, state, and federal levels turn away
from destructive division tactics, H1 add secretive --
Kubby/Actually, Holly, it seems like you're kind of writing it here --
Norton/Yeah.
Kubby/And if I want to take this seriously, I want to make sure it's thoughtful, coming
from you, and that I have it in writing so I can be thoughtful about reading it.
Berkowitz/Okay. This is going to be it. From secretive, destructive division and focus
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instead on protecting, valuing, and defending positive hidden values, quantitative
and qualitative, the strands, nodes, links, flows, values that hold fragile,
vulnerable, hidden life and democracy intact. We have no fight to lead other
nations if our leaders focus only on negative, myopic obsessions and sex, intent
on evading competition, to crush competition for elections and profits.
Champion/Will you leave us a copy of it?
Berkowitz/Okay.
Lehman/Thank you, Holly. We're going to suspend Public Discussion until the end of
the agenda.
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ITEM NO. 6b PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS - Consider an ordinance
changing the zoning designation of approximately 22 acres from medium Density
Single-Family Residential (RS-8) to Low Density Single-Family Residential (RS-
5) for property located in the Summit Street Historic District. (REZ98-0010).
(First consideration)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #6b). Do we have a motion?
Thornberry/Move adoption of the ordinance.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion?
Champion/Mr. Mayor, I do, I've been legally advised to leave the room when you're
discussing this. Will you please remember to come and get me this time?
Lehman/We will try to remember to come and get you, Connie.
Champion/Don't go to the next item without me.
Lehman/Okay.
Dilkes/Connie, for conflict of interest, correct?
Lehman/Right.
Thornberry/Where're you going, Connie? Is there any discussion?
Lehman/Discussion relative to this from Council?
Kubby/Well, as we've all been talking about, that the Historic Preservation Ordinance
itself is not enough to protect areas. So underlying zoning is an important
component of a historic preservation, because the historic preservation is an
overlay on top of the underlying zoning. And for this particular area of town, I
have no problem, and am happy, would be happy if we voted to down-zone this
property from RS-8 to RS-5.
Lehman/This was also recommended by the P/Z Commission unanimously, also by the
City staff. It appears not to be a particularly controversial down-zoning.
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Norton/I just want to be clear that each historic district, when it's established, and
presumably the question of down-zoning may arise and should be considered on
the merits of that particular situation. I just don't want to imply by this move that
there's a precedent, necessarily, for downsizing, or down-zoning each time we
establish a district. It might sometimes be desirable, but it might not always be.
O'Donnell/Well I think each one will be looked at for its own worth.
Norton/Individually, yeah.
Kubby/Some may be higher density.
Van/
They're both, they're both to be discussed independently, and they truly are
independent. But sometimes we have this problem that there's a political
expectation from other areas that if it was done in one area that it will happen in
another area. And I have been wrestling with this one for several days. I talked
with a lot of people from the neighborhood, and I understand their concerns. I
have still some concems. I think I said two weeks ago that I still would like to
have the opportunity to meet with Historic Preservation and get a little better
handle on how some of this might be handled in a different area when it comes
up, and make sure that precedence is not expected, shall we say, by the citizens.
And I'll have to admit, I have gone this way and I've gone that way on this whole
issue because of that. And to be sure that we remain affordable in all of our areas,
that this does not get lost in other neighborhoods in affecting prices and keeping
the housing stock well-preserved. And I know this is two different issues, but for
me, they still are inter-related. I will support this issue at this time, and I certainly
will take a hard look at the next one.
Kubby/And I think your comment saying that this isn't a precedent, that we will look at
each one helps clarify that point very well. Thank you for making it.
Norton/Well, I think she's making the point, too, that you want to see, we've been
talking about neighborhoods being mixed, right? And we've been trying to do
that in some new neighborhoods, and it's mixed in this neighborhood already.
And the question is, it won't get any more mixed, I guess, under this down-zoning.
But there may be cases in which more mixture might be desirable.
Van/
Well in this case, there's at least one property that I've spoken with the owner again
this afternoon, and the owner appears okay with this down-zoning, but it is a
conforming historical property that happens to be a duplex. And for those of you
that have not followed this issue that well, his property becomes non-conforming,
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even though it's historically supporting the district. And what that means is that
he cannot have the same legal rights to put an addition onto his house that a
single-family dwelling would have in this neighborhood, if I understand this
correctly. I appreciated his comments because it made me feel a bit better,
because we had talked about, as a Council last night, whether we wanted to
address this particular issue anytime we came to down-zoning when it might
come to another district, and what we would try to write as an ordinance with this
body would be to cover the entire city, not just this one person. And that gave me
a little more peace, shall we say, about doing the down-zoning. But down-zoning
is very difficult in my view, to take away possibilities from someone who
purchased their property and have maintained it in good faith.
Lehman/One of the things I found rather significant about this is how non-controversial
it is from the view of the residents. That neighborhood seems to be very solidly
behind this rezoning. There has been almost no objection whatsoever to it. And if
those folks who live there own that property are comfortable with the down-
zoning, I have no problem personally with it at all.
Thornberry/I don't, either.
Lehman/Any further discussion? Roll call- (yes; Champion absent). Motion carried,
6/1 abstention, actually one not voting.
Thornberry/We've got to go find Connie.
Lehman/We've got to go find Connie.
Thornberry/Should we take a break?
O'Donnell/Check the roof.
Lehman/All right. We're going to take four minutes.
Thornberry/We'll send up a crew to find Connie.
Lehman/Four minutes for Connie.
Van/A search party.
BREAK
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ITEM NO. 6c Consider an ordinance changing the zoning designation of approximately
9.27 acres from low Density Single-Family Residential (RS-5) to Sensitive Areas
Overlay/Medium Density Residential (OSA-8) to allow a 72-unit residential
development on property located on the south side of Taft Speedway west of
Dubuque Street. (REZ98-0009). (First consideration)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #6c). I think we've been asked to defer this indefinitely. Is
that correct?
Kubby/So moved.
Thornberry/Before we --
Lehman/ Wait.
Thornberry/Before we do this --
Karr/You have to have the motion on the floor to even talk about this.
Lehman/Moved by Kubby.
Van/Second.
Lehman/Seconded by Thomberry.
Thornberry/No, no, I didn't second it.
Van/I'll second it.
Thornberry/She did.
Lehman/Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Thornberry/All right, I do have a couple of questions of the City Attorney. If we defer
this, can the developer bring it back at any time without notification?
Lehman/Put it back on the agenda in other words?
Dilkes/I believe so.
Thornberry/Now, do the neighbors, can the neighbors bring this up, --
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Lehman/No.
Thornberry/They can't.
Karin Franklin/If this were to come back up again, we would provide notice to the
neighbors, particularly those people living on Taft Speedway who've had an
interest in this. What I expect to obtain from the developer is a letter withdrawing
this application.
Champion/Okay.
Franklin/But it has not arrived yet.
Thornberry/If we vote on this as opposed to defer, would they have to reapply?
Lehman/Yes.
Franklin/Yes.
Van/If we voted it down.
Franklin/If you vote denial, yes.
Kubby/If the developer withdraws the application, what kind of public notification, I
mean we could certainly announce it. It's not something we would vote on, but
we could certainly announce it so people knew that. But what other kind of
notification would be made if the developer withdrew the application?
Franklin/If they withdraw, well technically we wouldn't have any, any set notification.
But since there's been some interest in this, I think it would be prudent to let the
people on Tat~ Speedway know.
Kubby/I agree.
Dilkes/Karin, would it make any sense to defer it to the next meeting and not
indefinitely, so then you can dispose of it at that meeting or, I mean, you'll have a
date certain when the people here tonight will know that it'll be on the agenda or -
O'Donnell/I think that's a good idea.
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Thornberry/That's what I think, I would rather do that --
Kubby/I will change my motion to be October 20th.
Van/I agree.
Lehman/Okay, the motion and second have been changed to October 20th.
Van/That's fine.
Lehman/Further discussion?
Thornberry/I think that would be appropriate to the neighbors.
Kubby/Hopefully, I mean, is it realistic to have an answer in two weeks?
Franklin/Yes.
Thornberry/Okay. Thank you.
Lehman/All in favor of deferring- (ayes), opposed- (none). Deferred to the October 20th
meeting.
Karr/Could we have a motion to accept correspondence?
Thomberry/So moved.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. All in favor- (ayes), opposed-
(none). Correspondence is accepted.
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ITEM NO. 6e Consider an ordinance conditionally changing the zoning designation on a
1 O-acre tract located on the south side of Melrose Avenue and west of West High
School from Low Density Single-Family (RS-5) to Planned Development
Housing (OPDH~8) to permit an 80 dwelling unit retirement community.
(REZ98-0002) (Pass and adopt)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #6e).
Thomberry/Move adoption of the ordinance.
Norton/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Norton. Discussion? This is one that we
voted on back in March, I think the second consideration, and it was held up
because of difficulties in securing sewerage. That has been done, and I think
everything is in order. Roll call- (yes). Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 6f Consider a resolution approving a final plat of Windsor Ridge - Part 9, a
20.33 acre, 46 lot residential subdivision located in the Low Density Single-
Family Residential (RS-5) zone for property located north of Arlington Drive and
Barrington Road. (SUB98-0023)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #6f).
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Norton/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Norton. Discussion?
Kubby/I assume the papers that weren't here yesterday are here today, so we can go
ahead?
Dilkes/Yes.
Lehman/Everything's in order? Roll call- (yes).
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ITEM NO. 7 PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE
OF COST FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE WATER MAIN PHASE 4,
EMERALD STREET TO THE PENINSULA PROJECT, ESTABLISHING
AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING
CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING
TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS.
a. PUBLIC HEARING
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #7). This is a 24-inch (can't hear) from the peninsula water
supply, which will be the new water plant, to the Emerald Street basin, I suppose
we'd call it.
Van/Storage tank.
Lehman/Storage facility. P.h. is open. P.h. is closed.
b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry.
Van/Second.
Lehman/Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion?
Norton/Is this work supposed to happen this fall, or start this fall?
Lehman/Well, Chuck is here. He can tell us.
Charles Schmadeke/Yes, the work adjacent to the golf course will start this fall and has
to be completed before golf starts in the spring. So wintertime construction.
Norton/You're going to go under the railroad, too?
Schmadeke/That'll be in the spring, right.
Lehman/And it doesn't make any difference on the river crossing, whether that's
summer, winter, as long as it's not flooding.
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Schmadeke/As long as the flows are low, that's fight.
Lehman/Okay. Further discussion? Roll call- (yes). Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 9 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ENTITLED
"UNIFIED DEVELOPMENT CODE," CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "CITY
UTILITIES," ARTICLE H ENTITLED "SOLID WASTE," SUBSECTION 2,
ENTITLED "DEFINITIONS" OF THE CITY CODE TO AMEND SEVERAL
DEFINITIONS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #9).
Norton/Move adoption of the ordinance.
Thornberry/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Norton, seconded by Thornberry. Now, Mr. Thornberry, would you
like to tell me why you just moved the adoption up?
Norton/We're going to change some words, fight?
Schmadeke/Yes. We'd like to make a correction on "Residential Refuse". It should say,
or it should read "Refuse, excluding appliances, tires, hazardous waste, yard
waste, bulky solid waste, and construction/demolition waste".
Lehman/Has that been made in the copy that we're voting on tonight?
Schmadeke/No, it hasn't.
Karr/No, but you can vote it as amended and we'll take care of it.
Lehman/Did I understand you to include that amendment, Mr. Norton?
Norton/Yes, that's fine.
Thomberry/And I --
Lehman/ And you did in your second?
Thornberry/Absolutely.
Lehman/We just missed that.
Thornberry/One question. What's the difference between bulky waste and --
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Norton/Bulky solid waste.
Thornberry/And bulky solid waste?
Kubby/They're not both in there anymore.
Schmadeke/That's fight. There's no difference.
Thornberry/No difference.
Kubby/It will only be mentioned once in the final version.
Norton/He's fixed the, yeah.
Thomberry/Okay. Loose bulky and solid bulky, the same thing.
Norton/Thank you, Chuck.
Kubby/Okay, and now because, in the vote we just took, it includes a new fee for
asbestos-containing materials, and so that's why we have the new definition of
that special kind of waste, because there's a special fee for that special kind of
waste. Okay.
Lehman/Roll call- (yes). Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 11 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN
THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND NEUMANN MONSON PC OF IOWA CITY,
IOWA FOR PHASE II ARCHITECTURAL AND ENGINEERING SERVICES.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #11 ).
Van/Move adoption of the resolution.
Norton/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton. Discussion?
Kubby/Mr. Mayor, I think there's some audience discussion.
Lloyd Wanveer/Hi. My name is Lloyd Wanveer, and I'm here to discuss this particular
item. I've talked to about 50 people in the last few days about the Iowa Avenue
parking ramp. And the paper, I'm ateaid mistakenly announced this as protest. I
hope you're all relieved that I'm it.
Kubby/Could you speak up just a little?
Wanveer/What we really would like to request is sort of a stay of execution on this item
number 11. And what we would really like to have, and feel that we need, is a
formal presentation of the Iowa Avenue beautification project and the Iowa
Avenue parking ramp. And I think it makes sense to include the proposed cultural
center and the library expansion. Because all of those items together appeared to
be a grand plan for the revitalization of the downtown area. And of course I am
here to express and reflect some skepticism and a lot of concern about this project.
Basically, I would say there's more anxiety than real focused objections. And I
would say that that anxiety translates into three areas. First, there's the
recognition that it's very important and that it's significant. There's a feeling by
many people that it makes no sense on its face, and there's various reasons that
people have given, all of which are reasonable objections on their face.
Lehman/Are you talking about all of the projects that you alluded to earlier?
Wanveer/Well, specifically this item on the agenda. So I'll try to restrict it to that and
the related Iowa Avenue project. And then the fourth thing, the fourth concern
that I would say is my own, certainly, though also others, is that what we see as
this grand plan for the downtown Iowa area, Iowa City area, though it's very
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impressive, we don't feel that it's necessarily responsive to very legitimate
concerns about the vitality of the downtown area, considering the Coralville
Ridge competition that we have now. So, ifI could give some clearer focus to
those three ideas, I would say the significance, I've thought about and done some
investigating, and yes, it truly is the Iowa Avenue project, a very significant,
important project. And if only in the sense that with a price tag of $12,000,000,
compared to annual tax receipts of only $22,000,000, its' a big investment, a big
step. Now I feel that looking a little further, I find that this importance is
magnified by the debt position, the burden of debt that Iowa City currently carries,
$161,000,000, which is nine times our annual tax receipts. And I find that 57% of
that, $57,000,000 of that debt is interest on pervious bond issues, sixteen previous
bond issues. So we are carrying a huge burden of debt. And we're paying over
50% interest. Now, I find this --
Thornberry/I'm sorry, what was the percentage of interest?
Wanveer/Over 50% interest.
Thornberry/50% interest?
Norton/No, no, no.
Wanveer/Interest on this of $161,000,000 in debt, $57,000,000 is interest, and
$104,000,000 is principal. So, this translates into the equivalent, of if I were to
borrow $104,000,000, I would be paying 50% of that in interest, though there's, I
understand that this isn't a direct analogy. It isn't an equivalent. So our economic
profile is an issue that I think really needs to be the context for assessing this Iowa
Avenue parking ramp project. And I do know that under state law, I was truly
shocked to find, that we are currently, without that project, only at about the 50%
mark under state law for how much debt we can carry. But, what's really
interesting is that if you add the Iowa Avenue project and the proposed cultural
center and the library expansion, those three will push us up to the maximum. We
will be up to the ceiling. We will have reached 100% of the debt.
Atkins/That's incorrect.
Wanveer/This kind of debt.
Atkins/That's incorrect.
Lehman/That's incorrect.
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Wanveer/This is from your director of finance, Don Yucuis.
Atkins/He's in the audience.
Thornberry/He's going to --
Atkins/Yeah, that's him there.
Wanveer/Okay, okay. Well if he wants to correct me, I believe that I understand him
correctly. Now, I know that there are other kinds of debt that we can carry. My
concem is that this is sort of giving the need our all with these three projects. And
if this doesn't do it, if this doesn't revitalize the downtown area, lure people in
from Coralville and compete with the Coral Ridge Mall, then we will have kind of
used up our capital, literally, for addressing this kind of issue. And I know that
everybody, I'm not saying that this won't do it. I'm not persuaded that it will. But
I feel that considering the economic view, whether I have it absolutely accurately
or not, it's sufficiently significant a step that I think we're warranted and hope you
will agree that we be involved at the front end and understand more fully where
the City Council is going with this.
Champion/I think it's important that you know that we're not trying to revitalize the
downtown. The downtown is very vital. And I can tell you as a businessperson
down there, that Coral Ridge Mall has not affected my business at all.
Wanveer/Oh, well that's good.
Champion/In fact I've had steady increases. So I don't think we're trying to take a dead
horse and bring it back alive.
Wanveer/Oh no, I don't mean dead horse. I'm expressing what is a big concern. And
I'm a little surprised to see that it's not shared by the Council, because it was sort
of stated as a given by almost every person I talked to. People are worried that the
downtown will decline. There have been businesses that have left in the last year,
and not-comparable businesses have taken their place. I think it's a legitimate
concern. But I'm glad to hear, you know, certainly I don't think it's a dead horse.
And I agree that whether this is even a real need as well as a perceived need, is
something that could also be addressed.
Kubby/It almost sounds like you're requesting we defer this and have a town meeting to
discuss all of the downtown projects, how they interrelate and what we hope that
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they will do, and get some feedback about it before we --
Wanveer/Well, I think it would, it would certainly settle the issue in the minds of many
people who share my concems, and there are many. And I think it, more
importantly, it would address the concerns of this other group of people who say
this makes no sense at all. We're demolishing three buildings, two with historic
significance, and one a thriving, well-liked business and we're putting in a parking
lot. And why is the City going into the commercial property development
business? Don't we have developers who take those risks? Why would we
demolish these buildings and then give them space in this very expensive
structure?
Lehman/I don't think that, "giving them" is the wrong word.
Wanveer/Well, compensating them by --
Lehman/Well, we need to compensate people if we take their property.
Wanveer/You need to compensate them. You're compensating what you would
demolish by giving them comparable space in what would replace it. So you can
see that this, on its face, could raise some people's blood pressure a little bit.
Lehman/Let me just make a couple of comments. Okay?
Wanveer/Sure.
Lehman/First of all, in regard to debt, and Don, we're going to have you tell us in a few
minutes. But we're talking about revenue bonds in the case of a parking ramp.
Now that is a situation where the revenue from the parking system pays for the
ramp.
Wanveer/Right.
Lehman/If I'm not mistaken, having visited with Mr. Fowler, who's the parking director,
the estimate on occupancy on that ramp, I think I heard the word 80%, but I'd be
happy with 60% or 70% occupancy when it's done.
Wanveer/Right. I understand that it pays for itself. That's not an issue in my mind.
Lehman/Well then what is your concem about debt if you've got the capability of paying
for it out of revenue?
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Wanveer/Well, I don't think that debt ultimately has to be paid, for the City is not really
in a terribly different position than any individual that takes on debt. Now I know
that there's a difference in scale, certainly. But I would say that our position, and
I'm very familiar with the trend towards what I call municipal bondage in various
municipalities, and the consequences I would say in Madison, Wisconsin are
startling and ominous.
Lehman/I'm not familiar with them. But I do know that, for example, General
Obligation debt is significantly different than revenue bonds.
Wanveer/I understand that.
Lehman/There the population through taxation may not be in their rates and levies, but
there is a debt levy paid with property taxes every year. And that is or can be a
very onersome burden on the population. Revenue debt, on the other hand, is paid
by the users of whatever it is that you're using. For example, the library cultural
center is not even a possibility at this point unless the sales tax is passed to pay for
that.
Wanveer/But at the same time, if you use up what the State allows in that type of
capital, you foreclose on any new capital expenditures that may come down the
road. For instance, one of the big complaints, and this is, it goes directly to the
point, is do we really need a parking garage where you're talking about putting
one, when our expansion of our tax base if it's to come from the downtown area
has to be on the south side. But if we were to go forward with all of these
projects, then we would not be able to build a parking garage or any other kind of
structure.
Lehman/With parking ramp money.
Wanveer/And I don't know what else we would be foreclosing on. So I'm not here to
dictate what the problem is. I can hint at some of my concerns and the
information I've gathered. But I think our concerns are legitimate and sincere and
we're not coming banging you on the head. We would like to know. We would
like to have it clear. I see a shaking head, thank you.
Thornberry/I think you're absolutely right. What you need is accurate information.
Wanveer/Accurate information. We'd like to ask questions. We'd like to know why
you're doing this. There's a lot of little questions. Why isn't the University of
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Iowa paying for student parking? Why are we doing this for them?
Thornberry/You know, I think we can tell you in these meetings that we can hold and
have held at the Senior Center and other places regarding this parking facility.
And there is a logical progression to these decisions. And what you need is more
information, and accurate information.
Wanveer/Well, I don't think that I'm the only one.
Thornberry/Right, right.
Wanveer/Now did we miss the vote? That's possible. But I read the paper daily, and I
don't read the agenda, and you know these things, I note them, and I sort of wait
to be told that we're going to tell you now, and so I'm sure that there's some fault
on our side. But still, the decision is significant. The concern is very significant.
And I think that a short delay to present these ideas could benefit the Council on
getting by. And it may be we actually have something to contribute, some real
concerns to voice and can persuade you that there might be a less-expensive
approach or a better approach to bringing people into the downtown area. I know
that I've heard several ideas that are very compelling. They're not as dramatic, I
think, as the, you know, the beautiful Iowa Avenue with the vista of the capitol at
the end. It's, I mean it's all very compelling in a way, but it's a little awesome
given that we're not really persuaded that we won't end up a bedroom community
to Coralville, and a patio for the University of Iowa.
Norton/Well, we'll need to see an alternative vision, because something needs to be
done, and Iowa Avenue is a giant parking lot at the moment.
Wanveer/I agree with you.
Norton/And that does not seem to many of us a good way to go.
Wanveer/I agree with you. I agree with you absolutely. And I, and I, you know, in
thinking about it, my personal thoughts which I'll take thirty seconds on is that a
multi-pronged approach that would include beautification of the Iowa Avenue
area and some very aggressive and creative new business development in the
interior of the downtown area around the Pedestrian Mall an ongoing and I think
probably you have the talent and the energy in the community to drive this kind
of, I don't want to say gentrification, but a deliberate creation of a shopping area
with personality that will seduce people away from the consumer warehouses, and
have them come and spend the day in Iowa, and I think there's also opportunity.
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I've talked to Marty Kelly at the, what is it, the Economic Development Company
associated with the Chamber of Commerce. And I know that he doesn't have time
to vote, to devote much time to new business development in Iowa City. But, and
I know that there's nothing really being done about expanding the downtown area
onto the Burlington Street, but I think there's tremendous potential on Burlington
if there were some energy into, you know, making the dreamscape and then
putting a little muscle in and going and finding the developers and the
entrepreneurs and the fight kind of businesses. And there would be those of us
who would be delighted if we never had to leave Iowa City and shop. I have, you
know, I haven't been to Coral Ridge yet.
Norton/We're trying to do the public part of some of the public initiative to get that
going. We cannot control all the business enterprises. So this is our effort that
we've been working on for a long time to try to show our commitment.
Wanveer/I see that. I really do see that. And I think other people see that, too. And I
think there could be some, either buy-in where we could share your enthusiasm
and that maybe you would pick up on some of our ideas. Maybe we could reduce
the cost of this, and our risk, and our exposure. And you know, create what you
want and what we want. I haven't lived in Iowa City that long, but what I'm
picking up is that the normal course of events is that Council makes a decision
and if the citizens don't like it, they have a referendum. So there's a lot of energy
that's being put at the wrong end of the stick here.
Lehman/That's happened one time in my memory.
Wanveer/Oh, really?
Lehman/And I've lived here 32 years.
Wanveer/I talked to neighborhood associations, and I got the impression that everyone
was embroiled in controversy. So I don't know the details. I did certainly hear
about that one issue. But what I did see is that there's a lot of energy and a lot of
civic commitment that if it was put in the front end, I think there could be just
fantastic results.
Lehman/I would like Don Yucuis to address just a couple of the things that you
mentioned, because if what you say is true, then I share a lot of the same concerns
that you do as far as bonding capacity and what this does to our abilities for
finance. And I think Don, you should bring us up to speed.
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Don Yucuis/We covered a lot of information, Lloyd and I, over the phone and in person
in a very, very short period of time. General Obligation Bonds, Revenue Bonds,
water, sewer, parking, debt capacity, City policies on how much debt rate or debt
capacity we'd like to have as an internal policy --
Kubby/Sounds like she's ready to be a Council candidate to me.
Yucuis/As far as our, and in covering all that, there's a lot of confusion between what's
included in debt capacity and what's not. And when we were talking about the
50%, at our 50% limit, that's if we go ahead with the library referendum. If that
bond issue would go ahead at the $17,000,000 to $20,000,000, we would increase
up to a 50% debt capacity.
Lehman/That would put us at 50%?
Yucuis/Correct. We're currently around 30-33% on General Obligation debt capacity.
We do have a significant amount of debt outstanding. When Lloyd was talking
about the amount of interest we pay, it's not uncommon if we borrow $10,000,000
for a sewer project, or bonding for any project, we pay it off over 20 years, you're
going to pay close to $10,000,000 in interest over those 20 years. And --
Lehman/At a 5% or 6% rate.
Yucuis/At a 5% or 6% interest rate, which if you can pay less over 20 years, if you can
pay less than the amount in principal in interest --
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-112, SIDE A
Yucuis/The issue of the $12,000,000 on the parking project, we have not resolved how
that's going to be financed completely. We have not talked to you and presented a
complete plan. But part of that would be financed by parking revenue bonds. A
commercial retail would most likely not be a bond issue, so that would not hit the
debt capacity. It would not hit the parking fund as far as a repayment, directly.
The $12,000,000 versus the $22,000,000 in taxes, the $12,000,000 is paid for
from fees. The $22,000,000 is various tax levies that we have, our general levy,
our transit levy, our library levy, our debt service levy, and our employee benefits
levy. And amongst all of those, that generates the $22,000,000 we're talking
about in property taxes, with the majority of it being the $8.10 General Fund
Levy.
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Lehman/On what basis is our legal debt determined? In other words you say with the
library cultural center we would be at 50% of our - now does that refer only to
General Obligation bonds?
Yucuis/It only refers to General Obligation debt, but it doesn't matter if it's General
Obligation debt used for water or sewer, it's included in it.
Lehman/No.
Yucuis/So we have, we may have $40,000,000 outstanding in General Obligation debt,
but only $17,000,000 or $18,000,000 is property tax related. The balance is paid
for from water and sewer fees. So we do have a significant amount of General
Obligation debt at the 30-34% level of our debt capacity, but not all of that is
property tax related. But you have to show it as part of the legal requirement.
Atkins/I think one of the important things, Don, to mention is that all debt issues are
reviewed by an independent body, Moody's or Standard and Poor's, to rank them.
And we have traditionally had the highest credit rating possible for both Revenue
as well as General Obligation. I think that speaks to how we manage debt in the
community.
Kubby/But the request really is about a deferral, and maybe this discussion kind of
shows some need for that to clarify what is our current financial position. And if
we do all these things, what will our financial position be there. And this idea of
getting more people to buy in to support these projects or for us to do some
maneuvering if there isn't support, but there are other good ideas, is one I think
that has merit.
Thornberry/I didn't know if there was, well we weren't talking about doing the library
cultural center without having the one-cent city sales tax. Is that not correct?
Atkins/That's correct.
Thornberry/So that wouldn't, you can't put that into the equation of debt it we decided
not to do it. And I think the decision has been made not to do it unless the one-
cent city sales tax passes by referendum of the people.
Kubby/But we still have to have a bond.
Thornberry/Pardon me?
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Kubby/You still have to have a bond.
Thornberry/That's correct.
Kubby/That we sell. And we repay it. But it's the same thing as a G.O. bond that's paid
for by sewer/water fees. It's still part of that legal definition.
Thornberry/Right. But we wouldn't go into that debt without knowing where the money
was going to come from the repay it. And that would be the one-cent city sales
tax.
Kubby/Right. But I think the issue here is that there are all these projects and we have
gone out to the community to talk about the individual projects. One of the things
we really haven't done is to talk about how they're all connected and how all the
financing is connected, and kind of say this is the big plan. Let's get support for
the big plan.
Thornberry/In the current downtown re-urban renewal, that is ongoing now with the
walking plaza and the rest of the downtown area, that's a cost also there that is
part of that puzzle that you have to put together and explain how, how we're
paying for it all, and what our intention are. I think it's only fair.
Kubby/I mean, the other part is that Lloyd did mention is our south of Burlington, our
Southside plan. And how, I mean I think the majority of Council has made a
determination that moving forward with the public aspects of that is slowing
down to revitalize the core of the downtown because of circumstances in other
communities and that may or may not be the right reaction for us to have, is
something I'm hearing that there's talk about there about.
Norton/I want to add that on the Iowa Avenue redevelopment, we did have a very
substantial citizens' committee that advised us on a general plan there and looked
at that, and also thought about how that related to what we're doing in the central
business district currently, and of course if you're going to clean up Iowa Avenue,
then the parking structure comes along as a necessary adjunct of that, so that that's
how the package puts together. And in my judgment, we call it, the whole
package, a downtown investment initiative. That is, it is investment. It is
something that is not there just for fun and games, but to stimulate downtown, and
re-stimulate it. I agree, it's viable.
Thornberry/Well, to replace the parking that we would lose on Iowa Avenue, which is a
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parking lot, basically, and putting those cars into a parking facility, if we took all
of the cars off of Iowa Avenue, we've got to put them somewhere. They've got to
park someplace. And if we don't build a facility for them, they'll either, number
one, --
Lehman/They won't come downtown.
Thornberry/Either not come downtown, or they'll park out in the noah part of Iowa City
in the residential areas where we have problems already. And I don't think, I
think that the Iowa Avenue revitalization of Iowa Avenue and the parking facility
are married. If we were not thinking about doing the Iowa Avenue Streetscape
thing, we wouldn't need a parking facility. Well, we might need it, but it wouldn't
have to be of that magnitude, perhaps. But I think those two things, before we
redo Iowa Avenue, we've got to have a place to put those cars. But I think it we
didn't do anything with Iowa Avenue, just left it the way it is, there is still a need
for some parking, if you talk to the Noahside residents. Because they're parking
in their, amongst the houses and places all around the Noahside anyway. But it
wouldn't have to be of the magnitude that we're talking about.
Wanveer/There's a sense that --
Kubby/You need to come to the mic.
Thornberry/Come and talk into the microphone.
Wanveer/There was a sense that it's the tail wagging the dog. That we had a $2,000,000
beautification project that suddenly required a $12,000,000 parking garage to
make it possible. So there's a sense of this house-that-Jack-built, this evolving
mountain of expense that started with a desire to make Iowa Avenue more
attractive. So--
Champion/Well it definitely is not attractive.
Wanveer/It isn't attractive.
Norton/There'd been a commitment to another parking, there'd been a commitment to
another parking, I don't know whether it was noah or south, there'd been a
commitment for a long time to another parking structure, whether noah or south,
quite independent.
Wanveer/Whether it to be noah or south, yeah.
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Norton/And it came up to the noah because of the Iowa Avenue thing.
Wanveer/Right.
Norton/We had talked about one south, and this has been a, and I think Ernie pointed
out to me the other day with this, this policy of trying to get some of the cars off
the street parking and get them into structures which is the ordinary thing, you
don't have surface parking in most downtowns. That has been a policy for many
years, I think.
Thornberry/Yeah.
Wanveer/There's a lot of curiosity why University of Iowa isn't addressing this problem.
Norton/They are.
Thornberry/They are going to participate.
Norton/In the Iowa Avenue Streetscape project.
Wanveer/They're going to participate, yeah.
Thornberry/Financially. In other words, they're going to give us some money to redo
Iowa Avenue.
Wanveer/Yeah, give you some money.
Kubby/In the streetscape, not the parking facility.
Wanveer/But not the parking facility. See, it, I assume, and it must be true, that this
facility will serve the convenience of students attending classes on the north side
of Iowa Avenue.
Norton/What's the matter with students?
Lehman/Anybody can park in it.
O'Donnell/(Can't understand).
Wanveer/Oh, nothing. Nothing. But we're not the University of Iowa. And I know that
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we have a very close relationship with them, but it seems like we kind of came out
on the downside on this one.
Norton/We literally live with, off of them, you might say.
Wanveer/Right. And I understand that it must be a very delicate dance that we do there.
Van/Well some of the conversation that has gone on is that it's a very expansive Iowa
Avenue project, and so in proportion then, the amount of parking that you take off
of that street determines the size that you need to make your ramp. So if you were
choosing and the interest was there to beautify Iowa Avenue without removing all
that parking but only part of it, then the size of the ramp could probably be
smaller.
Wanveer/Right. And I heard other ideas, too, of how the City and the University might
work together to discourage students from parking in those spaces on Iowa
Avenue while they attend classes.
Thomberry/Why?
O'Donnell/Good luck.
Wanveer/Why? To free them for those who feel that they are in need of better parking
in order to go to City News or to Bruegger's or you know, if, we're already paying
I believe over $80,000 to shuttle students --
Thornberry/The people that, the students that park on Iowa Avenue do go to Bruegger's.
They do. They are our customers downtown.
Wanveer/Yeah, fight. I understand that. I go to Bruegger's too, but I walk.
Thornberry/So I don't understand why you don't want the students to park on Iowa
Avenue?
Wanveer/Only if the reason that we need this facility is because we expect more parking
problems than we can handle because students use those for longer petiods of
time while they attend classes. And I'm thinking of course of the new Biology
Building, and there's probably going to be greater activity. And I've heard many
complaints that students who don't need to drive are, you know, the ones that are
requiting us to incur this enormous expense.
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Thornberry/We make money off the ramps though.
Wanveer/Maybe these are all imaginary, I don't know. I mean I talked to 50 people. I
could probably sit here and complain vicariously for --
O'Donnell/I think a lot of this is we're going to redo Iowa Avenue. If we redo Iowa
Avenue, we're going to displace 144 parking spots, is that right?
Wanveer/That must be all of them. All of them in the center.
O'Donnell/And we have to replace that. And parking numbers are up in two of our
parking garages, so I believe the bedroom theory is out the window.
Wanveer/Well that's another thing I heard was that occupancy was down 10% in the last
two months.
O'Donnell/We have our parking guy fight back here, our Director of Transit.
Lehman/Well, I think your point is well taken. And I don't think there's any question
that - -
Wanveer/There's a lot of--
Lehman/That there's a lot of folks who --
Thomberry/Need more information.
Lehman/Are using University facilities that use our parking ramps. And I also would
agree 100% it would be really, really nice to get folks to fide buses or fide
bicycles or whatever. Unfortunately, most of the things that I've seen that we
have done or we've talked about doing to deter people from driving automobiles
does, it will in fact deter them from driving automobiles in Iowa City, but it will
not necessarily deter them, I don't think, from driving automobiles elsewhere. So
if we do something that is going, if it's designed specifically to deter students
from driving, you probably at the same time are deterring the townsfolk who want
to come downtown and shop.
Wanveer/That may be.
Lehman/Very difficult, difficult situation. But I've lived here 38 years. I've not seen the
University do much in the way of providing parking in the downtown area ever.
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And one of the things that the City gets, by default I suppose if you will,
whenever people who live here complain because they cannot find a place to park
when they want to go shopping, they come to us. They never go to the University.
They say you are not providing parking. And we say but we just built new ramps.
You know, we've got hundreds of parking spaces. Yes, but they're basically full,
or they're 90% full. The perception of a ramp as 90% full is that it is full. So
yeah, you're fight. We do provide as the City, we are providing parking for a lot
of University-related functions. They pay the same price per hour that you pay or
that I do or anybody else, and there's nothing on those, I mean, Joe Fowler, bless
you Joe, doesn't care who owns the cars that park in the ramp. You know, there's
nothing about a student car that's any different from anybody else's car.
Wanveer/So we don't want to discriminate.
Lehman/They all pay the same $.50/hour. And I --
Kubby/It's going to be more.
Lehman/I appreciate the problem, and I, believe me I do, because it costs us money.
Wanveer/Right, no, I understand that this is a big problem. It's also controversial. I 'm
from San Francisco. If all the cars stopped at once, you know, they'd be piled ten
stories high.
O'Donnell/Well I (can't hear) another 25,000 students, we certainly wouldn't need
another parking ramp.
Wanveer/We walk.
O'Donnell/And I think most of the businesspeople in town are very thankful they're
here.
Wanveer/Right. Oh, I think I don't want to dispute that, heaven forbid.
Lehman/This process really has been going for like a year and a half.
Wanveer/Right.
Lehman/And I think, you know, Mr. Norton pointed out, the Iowa Avenue, we started
out with the Downtown Streetscape, saying it needs to be spruced up a little bit,
and I think we're doing a beautiful job in what we've done. The same citizens
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committee, one of whom is standing there, did a, looked at the Iowa Avenue
project and said look, Iowa Avenue has become a parking lot. University of Iowa
says, you know, we're spending $30,000,000 in your community to build this
beautiful facility, it'd be kind of nice if the street in front of it weren't a parking
lot. And we thought, yeah, you know, that's probably fight. It would look much
better. Now, if it's desirable to improve Iowa Avenue to make this a more
pleasant place to be, to be a better entrance to the University of Iowa as well as to
the downtown, if that's true and we want to do that, we have to replace that
parking places that are coming off that street. Now what you, if you, and our
position was, and is, we will not redo Iowa Avenue until we provide for those
parkers. Which means we build a ramp. It also means that that ramp is 60-80%
full because we have moved folks off the street into the ramp. So, the revenue to
pay for that ramp automatically is coming in. But it's predicated on whether or
not we want to do Iowa Avenue, and this Council I think, in agreement with the
University, and with the citizen committee, and over a year and a half of having
presented it to the public at various stages during its development, has said yes,
we do want Iowa Avenue. We know that if we do Iowa Avenue, we will have to
build a facility to handle those cars.
Wanveer/Right. Well, I think there's a whole lot of people who don't feel that they have
had all their questions answered. I think that the --
Lehman/I appreciate that.
Wanveer/The business aspect of it, can we afford to do all this, is are we going to get a
return on all of this investment. I think these are very good questions that need to
be answered. And so I will reiterate my request for a stay of execution, please,
and a time to hear what you have done and what you think and --
Thornberry/What I'd like to propose is to go ahead with this but have some meetings to
explain what we're doing and how we're doing it. Because I don't want to delay
the process any longer than it has been.
Wanveer/I think that, well, --
Kubby/As long as no one can have an effect on what we're doing.
Wanveer/Well, yeah. Because then why is anybody going to come, because we don't
want an information, there are people who have not just that. There are people
who have legitimate concerns about our economic position, the wisdom of this as
a business decision in the greater context of all possible needs in Iowa City, a lot
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of questions about new business development. I think we need a City business
meeting and that if it were to follow a decision, and irrevocable decision, I don't
think frankly that people would attend. Nor would it allow the second, the other
half of the reason which is to make a contribution possibly persuade you that
there're some alternatives that might cost us a lot less money and give us a much
bigger bang for our buck. So --
Thornberry/Believe me, most of us on the City Council are businesspeople, and
relatively successful.
Wanveer/I don't dispute that.
Thomberry/And if it were not a good business decision to do this project, believe you
me, I would be the first, or maybe the second or maybe the third against it. But I
surely would be against it if it were not a good business decision for the City.
There are too many businesspeople on this Council not to really question it if it
were not a good business decision.
Wanveer/It would be easy to make this adversarial, and I don't think that's the spirit of it
at all.
Thornberry/You need more information I think.
Wanveer/Yeah, we need more information and we would like to have input into so
significant a decision. And I think everyone would be happy if we were to delay
this a couple weeks.
Kubby/It seemed like there was another member of the public that wanted to say
something.
Lehman/Yeah. John?
Kubby/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
John Gross/Thank you. I'll try to keep my comments within five minutes or less.
Lehman/Thankyou.
Gross/I'd like to thank the Council for the commitment to maintaining the vitality of our
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downtown. It's healthy. You look around for vacancies and there are dam few to
be found. I'd like to also remind you that two years ago, approximately, you set
up a study committee to envision downtown, to see what we can do to develop
various alternatives, and various strategies. We met many, many times over the
past two years, re-formed into other committees to look at ways to carry out these
projects. We continue to meet and work on projects. Now we're looking at the
fountain and options there. I'm sad that the interest is only really gotten a bit
more intense now, because we've been working and talking, a broad cross-section
of the community. We've had old people, we've had young people. We've had
handicapped people that work downtown, people that don't work downtown. A
very broad-based community group that all of you appointed. And we've worked
a long time getting it this far. And I would urge you to continue moving and not
stop for any more town meetings. I think we've done that already. Thank you.
Thomberry/Thanks, John.
Lehman/Thank you, John.
Kubby/Well, I would move to defer this item to 1 month.
Lehman/Is there a second for the motion to defer?
Kubby/Oh, I'm sorry, Bob. I didn't know that there was more discussion from the
public.
Welsh/That's okay.
Lehman/Bob?
Welsh/My name is Bob Welsh, 84 Penfro Drive.
Kubby/It died for lack of a second.
Welsh/Let me say that I appreciate the spirit of the lady that spoke to you. Let me say as
one citizen, I feel that you have been responsive at least to me as an individual.
When you discussed the Iowa Avenue Streetscape project, I expressed some real
concerns and reservations about the plan that you had before you. I felt that you
listened. I attended meetings where you discussed the parking facility. And
again, felt that at least I as an individual was listened to. I've been in this
community since 1965. All the early parking studies that were done in the late
'60s, early '70s, indicated that there was a need for a parking ramp on Iowa
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Avenue. This is now '98. That's, boy, 30 years have passed. I think there is a
need. I think, Dean, you're correct if you did not remove any of the parking
spaces on Iowa Avenue that the parking facility could be less than that which is
projected. I do feel that one of the real advantages of a parking ramp would be the
increased accessibility of people to park for the Senior Center. I, you know, I
cannot comment about the commercial spaces and all of that, just form the
standpoint of the parking facility and that need. I appreciate your responsiveness
to at least one citizen who felt that. So I guess although I have a great deal of
respect for Karen, I hope not too many of you will vote for her motion to defer,
because I think that it's important to continue with this. I do think that it's
important for you to address three issues as you proceed with this project, though.
And that is to make sure that you've included adequate space for Senior Center
expansion in that parking facility. And I think that means more than just above
the Cottage area. Number two, I think it's important that at sometime in the near
future, you address the whole arrangement for parking permits for Senior Center
participants, realizing that the fee might need to be increased, but that some kind
of parking permit arrangement such as that which exists at the present time is
imperative. And number three, I trust that in your plans you recognize that there
will be a need for a shuttle system from where, I don't know, but to the Senior
Center and back for the participants of the Senior Center, because, you know, I've
heard that one possibility is to have those reserved parking spaces for Senior
Center participants on Iowa Avenue. I hate to tell you but that will not work.
People will not walk up or have the physical capacity to walk up Iowa Avenue
from Gilbert up to Linn around the construction period into the Senior Center.
You are going to need to --
Champion/You mean while it's under construction?
Welsh/Yes.
Van/Under construction, right.
Champion/Oh.
Welsh/Yes. A shuttle. I'm sorry if I did not say that, to be established during the
construction period. I'm sorry.
Champion/I think that's something to be considered, absolutely.
Welsh/But again, I just wanted to say as one citizen, I appreciate your listening to some
of the concerns that I have personally mentioned. And I, if I can transgress, the
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thing that I think the lady which spoke to you said and this ties into your sales tax
issue and your other, is that I think she is 100% right, that you have a heck of a lot
of people who have questions about that whole package, and that you have one
heck of a job of informing people about all of the interest, the financing of that,
what your goals and objectives are. But in relation to this particular issue, I want
to say thank you for listening to me as an individual. And I trust that you will,
without too much delay, address those other three issues that I mentioned to you.
Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Kubby/Well, I assume that my motion is dead for lack of a second, so I wanted to make
a few comments about why I --
Richard Carlson/Excuse me. Hello?
Kubby/Oh, I'm sorry.
Carlson/Just one more.
Lehman/Okay.
Carlson/I'm here, like Lloyd, to ask for a delay in the vote tonight.
Lehman/Could you state your name, please?
Carlson/Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Richard Carlson.
Lehman/Thank you, Richard.
Carlson/And my main concern is the appearance of Iowa Avenue, which everyone here
seems to agree is not very good. And that sort of puzzles me because I agree that
that the parking in the median, in the middle of Iowa Avenue is not very
attractive. But the buildings along, particularly along the south side of the street
that the City is planning to demolish three of for the garage are attractive and are
historic. Or at least one of them, the Harmon Building, stands a good chance of
being locally designated as a local landmark. And I put, this week I'm submitting
a nomination to the local landmarks committee to the Historic Preservation
Commission for a local landmark designation of the Harmon Building. And I just
think that when you're considering what makes the Iowa Avenue Streetscape
attractive, you should be paying attention to the buildings as well as just to the
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median strip. And I would ask a delay. I would like to see a delay until a larger
public hearing on some of the broader issues is held, but minimally, until you get
a recommendation from their Historic Preservation Commission regarding the
landmark status of the Harmon Building. Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Norton/Karen, I have a lot of, before we talk about, you know, I would be interested in a
delay, it's always nice to put things off in some ways, you know. But we've
already made some moves here, and started talking to people, and it seems to me
extremely difficult to string this on forever. We've been, even if we had a giant
town meeting and tried to explain all the funding, I don't know what we're going
to do, take everybody's pulse to find out where agreement lies? And in some
ways, we have been elected to try to deal with these very difficult issues. And if
we're as, you know, we can't predict the future, but most of us think that some
investment in downtown is a worthwhile one. And we have Revenue Bonds to
protect us on the parking one. And the library and associated facilities, depends
on how the public responds to that. But the Iowa Avenue and the parking ramp
seem to me to a reasonably identifiable package that can proceed and should
proceed in good judgment of this group backed by history of groups before us
who have thought that that ought to be the case, the surface parking in that area
was not appropriate on a major vista in the community. Historically, those who
were sensitive to historic issues certainly feel that. And we're, I like the Harmon
building, but I don't like the chain-link fence in that vista. So there's, it's hard to
have everything. And we've looked seriously at Eastlawn, and renovation of
Eastlawn, and its infrastructure is shot. There's just now way that you can, the
project got larger when Eastlawn became available. And that raised the cost over
what most of us had hoped when we started talking about a parking structure. We
were talking something more manageable. And it bulged because of the
availability of a larger space. So that is the reason for talking the numbers that we
are for that particular parking structure. But it seems to me the logic ties together
pretty well, and it has been checked, in my judgment, by a great many citizens.
Now I'm sure that not everybody is satisfied, but I'm, I think we're doing the fight
thing, and I hate to just keep delaying, delaying, delaying while we have more
input. We'll do what we can about the Harmon Building. I understand that facade
could be protected if we so chose. The inside of that doesn't come to much,
apparently.
Lehman/You know, there's a couple things. And I concur with you, Dee, there's a couple
things that have occurred in the last, well, during this process, that I think may get
incumbent on us to make a decision. We are talking to folks who now either do
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business or reside in the couple properties that will be affected by this building.
They've been told by their landlord or by the City folks or by the grapevine, that
they are going to be displaced. We don't know exactly when. I think we owe
some of these folks some answers. We have been working with the University as
far as being able to use the Eastlawn building which dramatically has increased,
improved the appearance of the building and the scope of the project. It bothers
me a great deal personally, and I'm sure it does the rest of the Council, when we
do something where there are a lot of questions. And I think this has been a long
process. It's been a process well in excess of a year. We've seen preliminary
plans. We've seen farther plans. We've worked our way to the point at public
meetings, addressing most of these questions, to I believe the satisfaction of, at
least to my satisfaction that we are not putting ourselves into a financial difficulty.
That we are not bonding ourselves to capacity, nor even close to it. And I think
we could meet at a dozen public meetings and never answer all the questions.
There are also questions here that are probably questions of philosophy as much
as they are figures. You know, is this number a legitimate number to be bonded
for as opposed to this one? That's a matter of opinion. The whole project, and
part of the tenor of the whole thing is a matter of opinion. Is the downtown worth
investing money in? It's a very vibrant and vital downtown. I think the reaction
we've gotten to our first projects on Dubuque Street have been extremely positive.
People love downtown Iowa City. We feel it's an extremely tremendous asset for
this community. As one Councilperson, I guess I am willing to invest in
downtown Iowa City. And I think that is, I think that's forward looking. You
know, you can't predict the future, but I think we can influence the future. And I
guess for that reason, I really will support doing this. And I do believe that we
need to move forward now.
Thornberry/Has there been a motion to, on this number 11 ?
Kubby/Yeah, it's on --
Thornberry/I will move --
Karr/There's one on the floor.
Thornberry/I think there is already a motion on the floor.
Lehman/There's a motion to defer.
Karr/No, Vanderhoef and Norton moved it a long time ago.
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Lehman/All fight.
Thornberry/That was to begin the discussion.
Lehman/That's what we're discussing.
Thornberry/I think maybe we can go ahead.
Champion/I think we --
Kubby/Well, I have --
Champion/Go ahead.
Kubby/I mean Connie has things to say. I have things to say.
Champion/No, I just want to say I view it as an economic investment in a part of our
City that is an incredibly large tax-reducing part of the town. It's an economic
investment. It's economic development to invest money in the downtown and to
keep it vital and valuable and beautiful just like it is. And the amount of people
who go down there, and from out of town, it's pretty incredible. And I think it's
the fight thing to do.
Kubby/All the comments about the investment in downtown, I agree with the concept
there. And I'm willing to make investments in the Iowa Avenue streetscape. And
I'm willing to vote for investments for the Ped Mall revitalization. And I'm
willing to make investments in the library and community events center, although
I do not like the way we're talking about paying for them. I have a different
vision about the parking ramp though. I live and come from a different
philosophy with different assumptions and a different vision about how people
can move around now and in the future. And you know, when we talked about
this, well I have a commitment. Well, I have a commitment to downtown too. It
is where I do my business. It is where I have most of my pleasure. It's where I live
most of my non-home life. And most of my political life is downtown. I've
usually, most of my adult life, lived very close to downtown. So downtown is
really important to me as well. But I know that when I talk about it that there are
other ways for people to get around than a private vehicle. That people say well,
that's just pie in the sky and that's not realistic, Karen. But then I start thinking
about who in this community, more than the seven of us up here, have more to do
with what tomorrow's reality is for this community than us. And if we chose to
go down a different path, then saying that the only way we can keep downtown
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viable, and the only way we can commit to an Iowa Avenue Streetscape and
removing that parking is by building a parking ramp, I disagree. And I think that
there are many avenues, and some of the things that we have done that have been
very low-level, although annual investments of $74,000 for the shuttle. We have
seen that there are more short-term parking spaces on the street, which is the
preferred parking place, than lots or ramps, have been freed up. Our statistics
show that, that that one item made a big difference in availability of parking on
the street. If we would choose in our policy statement about the sales tax to say
that 10% went to new funding for public transit, we could have no-fare transit in
this town all over town. And that would create a whole different mind-space
about how you get around. We've seen the wonderful success of the shuttle in the
downtown area. I think we would see that replicated if it was done all over town.
So I think, I have the same kind of commitment. I have a different vision and a
different path to get there on this particular issue. I was kind of, I voted against
all the parking ramps that have come up in my tenure for City Council, because of
this philosophy. And there's a chance that I may have actually voted for a parking
ramp, if we ever got to the south of Burlington parking ramp, if it's on the Federal
lot. Not if it was on the St. Paddy's lot, but on the Federal lot. We won't get to
that in my lifetime probably. So I'm going to be voting "no" on this particular
resolution that gives $700,000 to do architectural and engineering services
because of this different vision. And I think that it doesn't mean, I think that if we
used our resources and creativity differently, we could figure out how to make
downtown just as viable as people see the vision of having this ramp create that
additional viability. So, I'll be saying "no".
Champion/But I understand you are committed to downtown.
Kubby/Yeah.
Champion/Yeah, you are.
Kubby/I love it.
Lehman/Is there further discussion? I think we need to make it very clear, at least from
my perspective that if we approve of this contract to design this facility, that we
are tacitly approving the facility. In other words, I don't think that we're about to
spend $700,000 designing something that we're not going to build. Now I realize
there'll be another vote at sometime in the future, but to me, this is really, we're
saying this is a done deal.
O'Donnell/I think that'd be a good assumption.
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Kubby/I mean, you know, well, the other point I guess I want to make is that when we
see the pictures of it, I agree that it looks like a beautiful building. But that's a big
chunk of space. And you know, when people were talking about the beauty of the
buildings there and how Eastlawn and the Harmon building do contribute to the
streetscape, part of the streetscape that people like, as beautiful as that building is,
I think that it's a massive structure being a full city block, actually half a city
block, all in one structure. As much as the architects have done a good job to
break up that space.
Thornberry/Look at University Hospitals.
Kubby/That it's different seeing it on paper and having the mass on the street. And we're
going to, you know, it's a theme tonight, progress means tearing down the old
when it maybe doesn't have to. Maybe it can be a readaption of the old, that
houses up in front of Mercy are getting tom down. That we're doing this
destruction. It's just, I think there are other ways to do business.
Lehman/Roll call- (Yes; Kubby, no). Motion carried 6/1.
Karr/Could I have a motion to accept correspondence?
Thornberry/So moved.
Van/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. All in favor- (ayes). Motion
passed.
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ITEM NO. 12 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AMENDMENT NUMBER 3 TO THE
AGREEMENT DATED NOVEMBER 23, 1993, BETWEEN HOWARD R.
GREEN COMPANY AND THE CITY OF IOWA CITY TO PROVIDE
CONSULTING SERVICES FOR IMPROVEMENTS TO THE IOWA CITY
WATER SLIPPLY AND TREATMENT FACILITIES.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #12).
Thomberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry.
Van/Second.
Lehman/Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion? If I'm not mistaken, this is to design a
generator facility so that if we experience what we experienced last, the end of
this last June, that we will be able to provide power to see to it that we have water.
Atkins/Standby generation capacity is the underlying concept of this.
Kubby/Non-electrical.
Norton/I have '-
Thornberry/ Chuck says yes.
Norton/I have some questions. I want to, I want to find out, is this standard? First of
all, was this in our original plans for the water plant?
Kubby/No.
Norton/This is strictly an add-on?
Schmadeke/Right.
Lehman/That's right.
Norton/Now, we saw some standby facilities at the wastewater plant, right?
Schmadeke/That's right.
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Norton/Generator about the size of this room as I remember, not quite. But --
Lehman/ Pretty good-sized.
Norton/Yeah, well I thought it might pump a little for the water, too. But you have your
emergency power at each of those stations, don't you, at the pump station, the
noah plant and the south plant.
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Norton/Now, do most --
Schmadeke/We don't have standby at the south plant.
Norton/Only standby?
Schmadeke/We don't have standby.
Norton/Don't have it. Only at the --
Schmadeke/North plant.
Norton/Will that generator at Napoleon lift station support only that lift station?
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Norton/It's only those pumps?
Schmadeke/Right.
Lehman/Those are big pumps.
Kubby/(Can't understand).
Norton/Yeah, well you don't have to run all of 'era at once.
Kubby/So the natural question is, will we be designing this kind of emergency
generation of power for the wastewater treatment plant as well in the future?
Schmadeke/No, not in this next expansion. The way that system is wired down there,
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it'd be difficult to provide standby generation.
Kubby/So if what happens that happened June 291h, then we will hope that we can find
some generators to plug in and kind of fly by the seat of our pants for our sewer
plant?
Schmadeke/Right. We'll have portable generators that will be available.
Atkins/Chuck, we have a dual-feed at the south plant?
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Atkins/And, if the south plant goes down, we still have certain ability at the north plant.
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Atkins/Okay.
Lehman/We also --
Atkins/So we do have some backup in that sense, Karen.
Kubby/Although when it's a storm like that, you usually have lots of rain, I mean, wait, I
mean I'm saying that, what do I know? But what happened on June 291h, there
was a lot of rain.
Thornberry/It was a lot of rain.
Kubby/And the north plant's not going to be able to handle those kinds of storms, and so
we're going to need that south plant so that people's basements aren't being filled
with sewage and that we're not putting sewage out to the River so it becomes and
environmental and a public health issue. So I mean, are there ways for us, instead
of having to hope that those portable generators are available, that we can have
portable generators for the south plant? Maybe it's not you know, connected into
the system and integrated, but it can be plugged into it?
Schmadeke/Right, fight. We're looking into that. And we're looking at other uses for
those, too. Maybe the same generator can be used at the Civic Center, can be
used on the Peninsula.
Thornberry/The portable generators?
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Schmadeke/Yeah.
Atkins/So you understand following that, that storm, yeah, we are in the market to
purchase a portable generator.
Kubby/Okay, that's the big issue.
Atkins/Okay.
Thornberry/So we don't have to go out of state to acquire one temporarily.
Atkins/Absolutely.
Norton/Well, I would like to ask a few more questions about this. Does the University
have standby power?
Schmadeke/They do there.
Norton/At their water plant?
Schmadeke/Yes.
Norton/That standby power's only sufficient for that plant? Can we pipe any of that to
us? Could they be a resource?
Schmadeke/You'd have to have a power lien to do it, and then the potential would be for
that power line to be down.
Norton/Does that mean you'll have to have a power line to each of the ground-storage
reservoirs?
Schmadeke/No, we'll just have, well for the ground-storage reservoirs, yes. We have
standby at each one of those facilities.
Norton/There's local standby there?
Schmadeke/Right.
Norton/So the standby you're talking about is the one at the center of the water plant.
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Schmadeke/That's right.
Norton/How about from the well on the campus?
Schmadeke/The wells on the water plant site would be part of that water plant standby
generation.
Norton/What about the well over by Currier?
Schmadeke/Those, we would use one of these portable generators.
Norton/Is this standard in most water plants having standby power, this kind, built in? I
mean you've got dual-feed already. You're really taking the worst-case scenario
here and getting ready for it.
Kubby/But, it seems like, and maybe we need a meteorologist or a historical
meteorologist, it seems like these weather systems are getting more frequent and
more intense all the time. I mean it's part of that environmental destruction issue.
Schmadeke/Yeah, we've been down twice in the last five years, and I can't remember
prior to that when we were down.
Lehman/On June 291h, with the electrical storms associated with that, that minor
disaster that we had, if we had had major fires, we'd have been in big trouble. We
had no way of providing water pressure. No way.
Schmadeke/That's right.
Lehman/And I --
Norton/ What I'm getting at is that this is, this is going to grow like topsy, because, now,
is space designed in the water plant for this?
Schmadeke/This would be outside the water plant on a separate site.
Norton/It'd be outside? So that's a new structure?
Schmadeke/Right.
Norton/You're talking big bucks here, folks.
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Lehman/I don't know that we can afford not to.
Norton/Well I'm, boy, I'm '-
Thornberry/ You were on the disaster committee --
Norton/ I was. I was on Emergency Management. I'm trying to figure if I can beg,
borrow, or steal from somebody else or share. These are huge investments.
Kubby/I share your concern in terms that if we try to have every city facility. I'm fine if
the Rec Center goes down in an emergency.
Norton/Yeah.
Kubby/But when we're talking about sewer and water plant, those are the two basic
public health systems that we are in charge of. And so I don't like this mount for
the consultant fee.
Norton/This is just starters.
Kubby/Or, I just feel like for these things, for the sewer and water issues, that I'm
willing to do it.
Atkins/And also, --
Van/ There's expectation.
Atkins/We want to make sure that we do our best to try and keep almost all of our
public facilities. I mean, in the time of a real disaster, the Rec Center is the
perfect location for a shelter.
Champion/Right.
Atkins/So, you can't completely just wipe them all off the books. And I think the
possibility of the portable generators, it's not cheap. They're $75,000 to $100,000
to buy one of those things.
Lehman/Don't we have a couple of those, didn't I see one of them down at the
maintenance shed?
Schrnadeke/Small ones.
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Atkins/They're small ones, yeah.
Lehman/Okay.
Thornberry/Did you say twice in five years we've had that problem?
Van/What's the capacity of this one?
Schmadeke/Yes.
Thornberry/And had we had, like Ernie said, a large fire of any proportion, there would
be no way to put that fire out. No way. We've got to '-
Norton/ Well, I am, it's just worrying me. I've been trying to keep track of water project
costs.
Van/Yes, you have.
Norton/And here goes another little blip into that system.
Thornberry/Well, do you think it's needed or not?
Norton/I guess so. But why couldn't we have built it into the original south plant, for
example, when we built the south plant? We didn't plan it.
Thomberry/Ask him.
Norton/So now we add it, right? I feel like I'm at the Pentagon. There's always gold
plating as they call it.
Atkins/There are so many changes in the south plant '-
Thornberry/ We're not buying toilet seats.
Atkins/You'll recall, well you won't recall, this group won't recall, but we originally
were going to connect the two plants, and that went away. I mean, we were going
to do that ten years ago. And we started pecking away at the projects, and
chipping away, and we got the price down, but we didn't get the same product that
we had.
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Kubby/That's another pattern we have.
Champion/Do you know, in think when the big rains came, and I was without electricity
for five days, --
Thornberry/ You were on the ark.
Champion/It was not even intolerable because I had water.
Lehman/Water. That's fight.
Champion/There were people who did not have water in the country, or power.
Lehman/That's fight.
Champion/And I think it's crucial that in times of any stress that you can at least take a
hot bath.
Kubby/Pfiofities.
Champion/Wash your hands. You know, wash your hands and clean up people as they
come in from outside.
Atkins/What about flush your toilet?
Lehman/There you go.
Norton/Will we be in a position to sell some power to people that are not well-provided?
Now that, energy's been decontrolled. We can, deregulated, we can sell power.
At big rates.
Kubby/Yeah.
Van/Stay off your generator.
Lehman/Dee, I don't think you want to build a generator the size at which we could sell
power from.
Van/We're going to have to put up some of the windmills and --
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CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-112, SIDE B
Schmadeke/We're looking at shaving the peak demand using standby power to cut our
electrical costs down.
Lehman/Oh, this would be used for more, or could be used for more than just
emergency?
Schmadeke/That's fight.
O'Donnell/Oh, excellent.
Lehman/Well now you're making it sound better.
Norton/Well that's kind of what I'm looking for, those efficiencies, yeah.
Lehman/Yeah, no, I think that's a good point. Any further questions? Roll call- (yes).
Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 13 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE 1996 MASTER PLAN
FOR THE IOWA CITY MUNICIPAL AIRPORT.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #13). This is the plan that we have looked over, I guess,
pretty much in the last two years, but we've never officially adopted it. Do we
have a motion?
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion?
Bob Welsh/Mr. Chairman, excuse me for speaking again. I noticed on the agenda it
says the Master Plan articulates that safety is the top priority. And I apologize for
not being more familiar with the Master Plan. But I hope that the Master Plan
diverts the traffic away from a lot of the homes that is now having traffic upon it.
And I was amazed when the most recent plane that went down not far from my
house, by the way, I mean I'm very sensitive to this and the distance that is
required above homes. And so I hope that the Master Plan does address that, and
if not, I hope you will not approve it.
Thomberry/The Airport Manager is in the audience. Maybe he can address some of that
on the Master Plan? I'm supposed to keep you talking for awhile.
Norton/Well, they're closing one runway for example, yeah.
Atkins/And remember --
Thornberry/And the clear-zones, etc., etc.
Atkins/Yeah. There's two, Ron, there's two projects here. One is the general plan --
Ron O'Neil/Okay.
Atkins/And then 14 is the runway protection zones, which I think is probably the most
critical element for Bob. What you're going to clear through those to make sure
they are safe.
O'Neil/The Master Plan does call, we now have three runways. The Master Plan does
call for eventually closing or at least the FAA will no longer sponsor three
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runways. So unless we sponsor it locally, the north-south runway will more than
likely be closed in whatever time period that we feel that it can no longer be safely
maintained.
Thornberry/And in the Master Plan, doesn't it call for clear-zones and expanding those
zones?
O'Neil/The runway protection, they used to be called clear-zones, the runway protection
zones are part of the Master Plan. The airport's biggest problem is the same thing
that it's one of the best things about it, in that it is extremely convenient. But
since the town has grown to the airport, obviously people will build as close as
they can, and residential and airports don't mix anywhere. We are doing the best
we can to make it as safe as we can.
Champion/Okay.
Thornberry/Thankyou.
Kubby/Well I'm going to be voting "no" on the Master Plan. And it's not because I don't
think that our airport should be safe, but because I'm not convinced that Iowa City
needs an airport. And I know that we're the third busiest airport, and that it's part
of a state system. And it's probably the only City service that I would support
privatizing, off the top of my head anyway. That I know that there is argument
that in terms of economic development, the vitality of the community, that the
airport is an important component of that. But, I think that I'd rather broaden my
scope and look at the region in terms of economic development and that Cedar
Rapids is not very far away. That if people go into a larger city where there are,
you know, 20 general aviation airports that are not providing commercial service
to the average person, that you've got to drive at least half an hour to get to your
business destination. And that I understand that time is money, and so when
people are driving from Cedar Rapids, they can be on their cell phones and on
their portable faxes and on their laptops and talking business in the car and
preparing for their meetings. And I just cannot support all the energy and money
and resources going into a facility that I think really benefits directly and
indirectly very few people in this community. It is, in my mind, it's kind of, to
say it very simplistically, it's kind of socialism for the rich. And that is not for me
a function of city government. And I've not been convinced of the economic
development importance of the airport.
Champion/I think it's interesting, and maybe somebody knows for sure, how many
flights there are in and out of that airport every year?
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Kubby/There's lots.
Champion/Dean, do you know?
Thomberry/I believe it's the second-busiest airport in the state that does not have
commercial service. Maybe the Airport Manager?
Champion/I think it might be good for the public to know that.
O'Neil/At the last count that the State DOT did, I believe it's been four years ago, they're
currently doing another count, it was 26,400 some operations per year. Now an
operation is a take-off or a landing. That does not count the student practices.
Those are flight operations, pleasure and business.
Champion/So I think it's important that people know that that airport is used.
Kubby/(Yes). And then we '-
Champion/ Because a lot of people think it isn't.
Kubby/And I don't, I can see, you know, it's used. But then I look at who's using it.
And for what purpose. And is that something that we should be investing this
kind of energy and resources in? I just happen to disagree.
Thornberry/The University uses it quite often for their transplants, a lot of transplants.
Kubby/The only thing with transplants, that I agree that we need an airport for, is heart
transplants. Everything else, technology --
Thornberry/ The rest of them can (can't hear).
Kubby/No. Well, because the rest of the transplant technology has changed the
packaging of these organs so that there is a lot longer viability time between when
they're removed from one body and put into another. The heart muscle is not at
that stage of technology. We're still at that four-hour time flame. And so, I need
to balance all that out, and I say no and you say yes. It's okay.
Lehman/There is a physiological, there's a philosophical disagreement obviously among
us as far as the airport is concerned. Roll call--
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Norton/No, wait a minute.
Lehman/I'm sorry.
Norton/I just want to comment that this airport issue has been before us in various
guises and forms ever since I came on the Council well almost three years ago.
And when I came on, there already seemed to be a tacit commitment of
considerable duration by previous Councils to maintain the airport. I know they
did a big study in '92, and I, subsequently, I think in '94, a revision of that study,
and none of the data is fully convincing in the sense that I think Karen would like
to see in terms of the demand for the airport. So I'm looking more at its promise in
some ways, in supporting the Master Plan it has promise of picking up the pace
and becoming more useful to more, to more people. And more self-supporting in
the sense of the new jet service that's being offered, and the possibility of the
north commercial area being developed. So I think I'm supporting this mainly on
promise, not on actual data. It's, here's a leap of faith that the airport being there
is going to be a help to us economically in the future.
Kubby/Well, and I hope you're fight. But again, you know, here's another example,
we're going to tear down a whole hill, a natural hillside to do this Master Plan.
We're throwing people living on lower-incomes out of mobile home parks. Not to
say that their living conditions, especially at the one mobile home park, is
acceptable. But we find, you know, we do all these improvements and who gets
affected and who benefits most directly? Lower-income people are being out and
people --
Champion/We're not throwing them out.
Kubby/They're getting relocated. They're getting a better deal than they would get with
any other (can't hear). But I'm just saying that there are all sorts of things that
have happened over the past ten years in this town that benefit people that already
have resources, and that the people who are paying for it with big changes in their
lives are people who have lower incomes. It's just a fact of what we're doing.
And I'm just making that observation.
O'Donnell/I think every one of them is in favor of this relocation. I think --
Kubby/I'm just talking about a bigger patterns. It's another one in the list. You know,
they're getting a good deal. You know, doing it this way is better than the City
relocating them.
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O'Donnell/Let's vote for the good deal.
Lehman/Karen, I don't really share your perception of what occurs, because I think
there's a lot more people who benefit than you see. But roll call- (yes; Kubby, no).
Motion carried.
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ITEM NO. 15 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION RATIFYING SETTLEMENT OF
PENDING LITIGATION.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #15). This, I believe, is a resolution that confirms an
Executive Session held last night. Is that correct?
Dilkes/Right.
Karr/You have the resolution before you.
Lehman/Yeah, I've got it somewhere in this stack. You didn't get time to put it in my
computer, Marian.
Karr/No, I didn't. I'm sorry.
Kubby/Here, I've got one.
Norton/It's all in your system, Ernie.
Thornberry/Pitch it.
Lehman/This is a matter settling a lawsuit against the City of Iowa City, and out-of-court
settlement which we have been advised by our legal staff is probably in the City's
best interest, and I would entertain a motion to --
Kubby/So moved.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Kubby, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion? Roll call- (yes).
Motion carded.
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ITEM NO. 16 ANNOUNCEMENT OF VACANCIES.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #16). There's a lot of opportunity here for folks to help
serve this community and the folks who live here. These are eight different
Boards and Commissions with vacancies, all of which have a significant impact
on what happens in this community. And I would wholeheartedly urge anyone
who has any interest on these Boards and Commissions to contact our City Clerk
and get an application. I mean, this is so important to this community.
Norton/I think we ought to warn people in that regard, don't take them lightly. If you get
on here, you're going to do some work. You've got to be devoted.
Lehman/They're jobs, some of them requiting a great deal of work.
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ITEM NO. 19 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION
Lehman/We're now at City Council Information.
Kubby/Mike said he had something.
Lehman/Go ahead, Mike.
O'Donnell/I've noticed around the community, around each bus stop, newspaper boxes
are appearing. All sorts and sizes. And if you look around these boxes, there are
fliers and papers blowing all over the neighborhood. And I think we discussed
this last night. And Steve, are we going to send a letter to the publishers of the
newspapers to caution them about that?
Atkins/I'm not sure how exactly you left that last night. That was discussed, but I didn't
hear any confirming. But I could, Marian's nodding. I'll check my notes, but I
will communicate with all of those folks, reminding them of their responsibility to
keep it tidy.
O'Donnell/Okay. If it's daily delivery, there should be no problem. And the weekly ones
need to police the area. That's really all I had.
Atkins/I'll take care of that.
Norton/Are they responsible to come back? In other words, to check the box
periodically during the day, or only when they-- ?
O'Donnell/I think they deliver once a day. It's a small thing to ask.
Atkins/It's their property. It happens to be in the public fight-of-way, but basically
unregulated. And I would assume it's their responsibility. We go to the shelters
once a week. That's our, the City, we routinely go once a week just for pick-up
and doing any necessary repair.
Norton/I would find it kind of hard to think that a delivery person who's dropping the
papers for a box would find trash around and not pick it up. Their own paper?
They probably don't pick up the other guy's paper.
Thornberry/You've got to be kidding.
O'Donnell/You could do that in your spare time.
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Norton/I may have to.
Atkins/Let's write a letter first.
Thornberry/Can't tum those papers in for a nickel though.
Kubby/You don't have anything? We're going this way? Okay. I have a bunch of little
stuff. One is we in the past have gotten some surveys from the Housing and
Inspection Department of people who have been using that system to have their
property inspected. And we've been getting feedback. And you know, for the
kind of verbal comments that Council Member get, it seemed like the Housing
Inspection Office is horrid. And from the last set of comments and this set of
comments, the consistent kind of comments are that people are polite. People are
firm. People are fair. People are prompt, and flexible. But there's one set of
comments that we talked about in this ad hoc committee of property owners and
the inspectors to try to make us more consumer-friendly, is looking for a checklist
to be sent. Like what we do is, our Housing Inspection Office sends out a letter to
property-owners saying this is the time and date of your inspection. If this won't
work for you, call us and we'll rearrange things. And I thought that we were
going to put together a checklist to go out with that letter so that people knew
what was expected.
Atkins/So did I.
Kubby/And it may be that those few people who commented missed that, but let's
double-check that that happened and that it's going out regularly.
Atkins/I'll have an answer back for you.
Kubby/I don't want to assume that it's not happening, but we should check on it. We got
a letter, and some of us got some phone calls this week from someone whose
family lives on Kimball, on the Kimball curve, and that there's just been a
problem there with some property destruction because of the narrowness of the
road and the speeding of people, and the curves of the road all put together. And
so I assume that we will look into --
Atkins/I didn't have time to read the letter, but I've heard about it.
Kubby/So I'm not quite sure what we do in terms of looking at how to mitigate or sign
or barricade?
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Atkins/Dee brought it to my attention. I have not gone to visit the thing, and I've not
asked the City Attorney who probably has firsthand knowledge --
Dilkes/I have to tell you, it was something to get up that moming and see a car on top of
the car across the street.
Atkins/Okay.
Kubby/Well I now that barricades and signs wouldn't have worked for this particular
instance, but maybe some of the three or four that have happened in the last
couple of years.
Atkins/Well, I'm going to send --
Kubby/Could've--
Atkins/Some of our folks up in there who can make some observations. But it is very
narrow. I think we all know that. Very, very narrow. Yeah.
Kubby/And I'm not interested in widening. But I don't know what other kind of safety
issues could be had. The volume of traffic doesn't warrant widening, I don't think.
Atkins/We'll comment to Joe and then bring it back to you all.
Kubby/Thank you. I also wanted to make sure people know, and I know there are signs
up here at the railroad crossing at Highway 6, in-between Gilbert and Boyrum,
waming people that the road will be closed October 12th through the 19th, is that
correct? Is that right? Yeah, 12th through the 19th. That the whole road is going
to be closed. And so there is a detour using South Gilbert and Southgate and
Keokuk, but it's going to be congested. And so if you can find another route to
use, that would be great for that week. And I know that suggesting all of this puts
pressure on other side streets and neighborhood streets. But it's only for a week.
And then Highway 6 will be better and we can go back to normal. So, just be
conscious of that as you're traveling. October's a really busy month. And all this
stuff, I just kind of collected all this stuff recently of things that are happening in
October, so I'm going to go through some community events that are happening
real quickly. One is on October 14th, that's Wednesday. It's a wonderful
opportunity for some cultural exchange. COGS, which is the Union that
represents the Graduate Students is hosting the Authentic Workers in Mexico.
They'll be visiting Iowa City and coming and talking about working conditions in
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Mexico, their community-organizing there, and other solidarity efforts that they're
involved in internationally. And so that is happening Wednesday, October 14th
from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m., which will be a public reception at 15 Schaeffer Hall. So
the whole community is invited to attend that. This coming Saturday, October
10th, and I didn't realize that this was National AIDS awareness month, and
Lesbian and Gay History Month. Usually we have proclamations that highlight
these things, and I will be encouraging people to make sure that we get those
proclamations. But one of the things that's going to happen is a party. And I'm
always interested in people having fun. And so on Saturday, October 10th from
8:00 to 9:00, there's a pre-dance social for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered,
and queer youth who are under 21, there'll be free pizza and non-alcoholic
beverages. At that point, they will be asked to leave, because the alcohol may
flow, at 10 S. Gilbert Street, and from 9:00 to 1:00 a.m., there'll be a dance for the
legal drinking age community. Two more items for the calendar. One is October
15th, which is a Thursday, from 4:00 to 6:00, there'll be a celebration of the
Community Development Block Grant fund program. And that is a program
where federal money is passed down to communities to use under certain
guidelines as they see fit. And a lot of social service agencies and other
organizations that work and serve lower- and moderate-income citizens have
received money from this. And some of those accomplishments will be
highlighted at the celebration, which again will be Thursday, October 15th from
4:00 to 6:00 at the Crisis Center, which is a recent recipient of some of this Block
Grant money, which is located at 1121 Gilbert Court. This is a Thursday from
4:00 to 6:00, and for the last ten years, I've had office hours at this time, and since
I used to be chair of this commission, and I never get to go to the celebrations, but
this time I'm going to blow off my office hours this year to go to this celebration.
So if you're looking for me --
Norton/This Thursday, this coming Thursday?
Kubby/A week from Thursday, I'm sorry, October 15th. So if you're looking for me at
my office hours on October 15th, you're going to find a sign on the window of the
Senior Center on the Washington Street entrance saying call me at home as you
always can, but you can't talk to me at the Senior Center. So, and lastly, the
Green Party has been working with members of the community to promote a local
currency which would be like Johnson County money. It's a concept that's gone
on in 30-40 other communities around the country that helps build and stabilize
local economies. Where people who can't participate as fully with money with
US dollars, can participate by trading time for Johnson County dollars. And
there's going to be a potluck to talk more about how the system can work, and you
can get in on the ground floor of this wonderful, local economic system on
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Saturday, October 17th from 4:30 to 6:30 at Faith United Church of Christ at
1609 Deforest Avenue. And that is the end of my October calendar. I'll be quiet
now. Thanks.
Norton/A few items. One, I want to report that on the Wednesday after last Council
meeting, that is on the 23rd, I went to the Poverty Simulation that was sponsored
by the Johnson County Extension, and using a program developed at Ames, I
think. And it was really quite an experience. There were, I think about 60 of us
there. But, and you were given scenarios, you were a certain kind of family with
perhaps a teenage child, or perhaps you were two elderly persons on a, and you
were told all about your income and your assets, and then around the room there
were Welfare offices and a Bank, and a Loanshark and so on, and then you had to
pay your rent, you had to pay your utilities, and all these things and keep the kids
in school, and let me tell you, it was really quite an experience. First of all you
stood in line a lot. And they made sure that that was going to work out that way.
The people running the offices were people who themselves had previously been
in the system, as they say, had been the recipients, so they were kind of surly on
purpose, and it was extremely interesting, the frustration you feel. But filling out
a million forms, waiting, not having time to, or money first of all, transportation
money, it was, transportation got to be a big issue. It was really a very eye-
opening kind of experience. I would recommend it if you get an opportunity to do
it. It was, and there were constantly emergencies, they'd run around and give you,
you suddenly got a dental bill, you know, you didn't know you were having, and it
really conveyed the idea. I want to comment again about a question I've brought
up a lot of times, Steve, and I'm still thinking about something to help the Police.
I had some very good friends who were panhandled and verbally harassed, I
would say, just walking through the Ped Mall. And no matter what we do to
physically upgrade the downtown, as long as that continues, we're going to have
trouble. And we're going to have trouble making it viable. And I'm very serious
about trying to figure some way to do that without maybe using regular Police,
and I still have not heard any plan. And I would sure like to do so. I just think it's
a crucial aspect of downtown. A crucial aspect. I wanted to ask, for a report, if
we could sometime, about sidewalk repair, Steve, given facts that we all are aware
of. I think it's important that we make progress on our sidewalk program. I guess
we're, we've broken the City into ten units, and --
Atkins/Ten districts.
Norton/And (can't understand) in each one and --
Atkins/Usually Rick would prepare us an end-of-the-year summary, but I'll check with
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him.
Norton/Okay.
Atkins/I'll get back to you.
Norton/The reason I bring it up now is because we were trying to say the people who
have sidewalk problems, fight, are supposed to be notified in the fall now so that
they will have all winter and early next spring to try to find some way to do the
work. If you notify them in the spring, they can't get anybody, any crews to
come, and they're supposed to have them fixed by next September, so we're trying
to move it from spring notice to a fall notice. But it's, it's a serious --
Atkins/And I want to, Dee brought up the idea. It's a really good idea. It stretches it out.
It sure gives folks one, a lot more notice, and a lot more time, and it also knocks
out the excuses real quick.
Kubby/Do we, is it like there's a lot of sidewalks in a certain area, or especially on the
same block that need repaired, do, in our notification, do we encourage them to
collaborate so that they get a better price?
Atkins/Yes. Got to get them all together.
Kubby/Good.
Norton/Because it's extremely hard to get a crew. I, --
Champion/It's almost impossible.
Norton/Particularly, almost impossible, right.
Atkins/One or two slabs of concrete, they just don't want to fool with it.
Van/Is any of this being taken through the neighborhood centers?
Atkins/I couldn't tell you. But the whole idea, we're just beginning to kind of bring it to
fruition.
Norton/That might be a good point for Marcia to bring up with the Neighborhood
Associations for them to put in there that if they have a problem, they might want
to start looking into getting it fixed now rather than waiting. I'm also, I assume
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that we're going to be heating pretty soon about stormwater rules?
Atkins/Yes.
Norton/Is that true or false?
Atkins/That is true.
Norton/I understand they're to issue new regulations in March?
Atkins/Stormwater permitting will be one of your Capital Projects you're going to deal
with.
Norton/I can't believe we're going to have to deal with stormwater.
Atkins/You are.
Norton/In a more systematic fashion. All fight. I'll worry about that. The last one,
storm water, there goes more money.
Van/You just didn't need your sleep.
Norton/I didn't need my sleep. We got a grant, the Housing Department got a grant, a
Comprehensive Improvement Grant and it was only limited, it was limited to --
Atkins/Office space.
Norton/Improving the offices. But what does that mean?
Atkins/The bottom line is that HUD has seen the office space they have, and they don't
find it particularly satisfactory. We applied for it. They provided this grant. We
have a year to commit the monies, and we can use it for office space construct it.
Norton/Well can it go into renovating in this building?
Atkins/Oh yes, oh yeah. That's one of the ideas.
Kubby/Yeah.
Norton/So that's where it may go?
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Atkins/Yeah. I owe you the Civic Center project third floor, all that business, yet. And
we'll try to incorporate all that into it so that you guys have something to decide.
But that's, yeah, you can do that.
Kubby/And we can do that that way, even though we might move Engineering up and
put Housing where there's currently space that wouldn't cost very much, we're
still okay.
Atkins/Oh yeah. There're things we can work out, yeah.
Norton/So it fits into our program. Just it's just extra funds.
Atkins/Yeah. It was, we were very fortunate.
Norton/And the other thing I'd like to hear about is where we are on our Geographic
Information System. Has that, is the GIS, is that just in pattern and holding? I'd
heard the County talking about ~-
Atkins/I haven't the foggiest.
Council/(All talking).
Champion/For so long.
Norton/Well, the County has been interested in trying perhaps to collaborate. We were
talking with the County about collaboration. And maybe our maps and the
County maps and --
Atkins/I'll get you back on that.
Norton/I guess the School District doesn't have maps. They know where everything is.
But, and they're trying to be consistent with Linn County, too. So I don't know
what we're doing on GIS, but I would like to see this coordinated.
Atkins/I'll get you a better answer. I don't really know.
Norton/Thank you.
Kubby/But we, we had a Capital Improvement Money --
Atkins/Yes, we did.
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Kubby/For that each year. It's kind of an ongoing thing.
Atkins/Yes.
Norton/But it kind of gets on the back shelf and maybe --
Atkins/We appropriated money, and it's there. It just never has come together.
Kubby/I mean our Engineer has stated, he can only do so many projects a year.
Atkins/Okay, I owe you that one.
Norton/Okay.
Van/
I guess I'll go up next. I would just like to announce that the Iowa Department of
Economic Development has granted NCS their Iowa New Jobs and Income
Program, and we welcome them into the community for their added jobs that
they're putting in at NCS. It's important to have growth in the businesses that we
have presently in the City. Then we also, last night I had the opportunity to be
downtown with the Motor Ioway people who are traveling around the State this
week. And they were having a wonderful time. It wasn't raining on them. They
thought it was great. It was interesting because I stayed in one place, and met
these people as they came by with their travel books, and they were getting
stickers and stamps from the City so that they could document that they had been
on this entire tour. But it gave me the opportunity to talk to them, and I was
pleased with the comments I heard, number one about the hospitality in Iowa
City. It was refreshing to hear them say how well organized our CVB was to plan
this event. This was not an event that they planned. It was done by our local
people in putting it all together for these folks to come. The cars were great.
Some of you young folks here may have seen some of the teal colored and the
orange and salmon colored cars. I thought those were really cool. I could give
you the date for those colors. Yes, I could do that. They were neat cars. And I'll
just make one more plug for them, because they will be retuming to the Coral
Ridge Mall on Thursday, and be staying ovemight in Coralville this Thursday.
And if you didn't have an opportunity to see them, please go see them. The other
thing that I would like to just say to Council, this was an experiment on the part of
Parking in Iowa City to see about closing our street for an event like this, which it
was closed roughly from 2:00 to 8:00 or something like that. And for the energy
and the interest and the number of local people that I saw that came down
wandering past, looking at this, I thought it was well worth it to close off the
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parking and do this project.
Atkins/Joe Fowler represented us there. He organized it.
Van/I saw Joe down there working on it and checking it out. I'd be interested to hear
form business people what they saw in customer and traffic counts during this
time period, if it made any difference, if anyone would like to let us know.
Kubby/If we do Iowa Avenue one day in the future, that would be a place for that kind
of an event as well. To close off Iowa Avenue as well.
Van/It was. One block was.
Kubby/But I mean when the parking is out from the center, there's a lot more room to
circulate and even set up food things and --
Van/They had it filled with cars and trucks. So there wasn't any space for that. Then just
one more thing. And I'll look at my Mayor and tell him he as done a marvelous
job. And I think everyone should understand what he's got sitting in front of him.
This is the first week of the Mayor having the entire packet, we call it, online.
Lehman/Is that what it's called?
Van/And he's - don't ask me the technical part, I'm a techno-peasant. I'm sorry, but it is
the new way we're going to try and do business, and so it isn't that he's playing
games up here. He truly has his --
Champion/He's actually playing games.
Van/I just thought I'd offer that.
Thornberry/You can't see the screen.
Kubby/Tetris for hours.
Van/Shortly, they tell us that we're all going to have this opportunity to play with our
screens and do away with all our hardcopy and have retrieval systems.
Lehman/Well, I was given this last Friday, and two hours with Marian and a computer
expert, I think, and I was told that I could not have a hard copy. I left with this
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and I came back with this, and it does work.
tremendous benefit for Council.
Van/Wellgoodjob.
I believe it's going to be a
Lehman/And one disk, Marian tells me, holds 12,000 pages of information. And our
average packet is what, 300 pages, 400 pages? We'll literally carry a year's
information around on that disk. It should make us a better Council, folks. And it
appears to be, if I can run it, and by the way it tells me I can't get out, because it
says "invalid date; error", I can't shut it off.
Karr/The meeting went too long.
Lehman/Right now - it's been doing it since we started the meeting.
Karr/I like that function. I designed it that way.
Lehman/I think Marian programmed this. Mafian, would you program all the rest of
them that way? Thank you. All fight, Dee.
Van/I'm finished.
Thornberry/Yeah, I've got just one thing. I had occasion to park in the Holiday Inn
parking facility today, and a young lady that was there that took your money, I
gave her the card and she takes your money --
Lehman/A cashier?
Thomberry/I didn't want to just speak at the --
Atkins/Cashier is acceptable.
Thomberry/Cash person? Whatever the fight terminology is. But her name was Loft, I
didn't get her last name, didn't get her phone number. Just Loft. Very, very
pleasant lady that more City employees could emulate.
Atkins/What time was that?
Thornberry/Very pleasant lady.
Atkins/What time, approximately?
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Thornberry/5:15, 5:20.
Atkins/Okay. And that was today?
Thornberry/Oh that was, yeah. Very, very nice young lady.
Atkins/I'll be sure Lori hears about that.
Lehman/Okay. I've only got a couple things. We discussed earlier this year and said
that we were going to go into mixed paper recycling. And we hoped to do it in
September. Do you know how close we are to doing that?
Atkins/It's going to be after the first of the year. We have just about concluded our
recruitment for our refuse superintendent. Remember we lost a person.
Lehman/Yeah. So if the public is waiting for September, we're looking after the first of
the year to be able to have mixed paper.
Atkins/We're planning a big promotion.
Van/My garage will be full by then.
Atkins/Hang in there.
Lehman/Okay. October 14th, which is next Wednesday, is City Hall Day in Coralville.
Is anyone else from the Council planning to attend?
Kubby/I can't go that day.
Champion/I'm working.
Norton/Well, I would --
O'Donnell/What time is it?
Lehman/I think it's at 7:00 in the evening.
Karr/It's 7:00.
Lehman/The only reason I ask is if we have more than three of us, Marian will have to
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join us.
Van/I plan to go.
Norton/Elie Wiesel is on campus that night. That's the competing feature. I'll let you
know.
Karr/Why don't you let me know.
Lehman/Well, let's put it this way. If you're going to go, let Madan know so that if
there's going to be more than three of us, we don't break the law.
Champion/Well, you don't break the law with that. You're not discussing Iowa City
business.
Lehman/We might.
Norton/No.
Atkins/If they conduct themselves --
Kubby/If we talk about things we want, yeah.
Thomberry/I'm sorry, what date?
Dilkes/If you want to do anything but go there and sit and say nothing, and not
participate.
Champion/I don't think that would happen.
Dilkes/That's always my conclusion.
Lehman/And Steve, I know that Mr. Norton has brought to the attention of Council and
Staff on numerous occasions the conditions of railroad crossings. He has also on
numerous occasions mentioned the Green Machine.
Atkins/Yes.
Lehman/I'm going to mention those parking islands on Linn Street until we get rid of
those damn things. Now Dean and I have offered to get an end-loader and go
down and take them off. We'd be glad to do it.
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Norton/Cut 'em back.
Kubby/But you know, we're not taking them off until we do the downtown streetscape,
and we're not doing that area.
Lehman/If we're going to take them off, Karen, they lay on top of the concrete. They're
not in the concrete. They lay there.
Thornberry/Just sit there.
Atkins/It's not that --
Lehman/ If we're going to take them off and they're a pain in the neck, why wait a year?
Norton/Cut 'em back is all you need to do.
Atkins/I've had two complaints about them.
Lehman/Both of them from me?
Kubby/No, I've heard some. I agree in principle.
Norton/Cut 'em back.
Atkins/Now we're up to three.
Lehman/No, don't cut 'em back. Take 'em out.
Kubby/No.
Norton/No.
Kubby/We made a decision to keep them in, but they need to be scaled back.
Atkins/I think they, I would not take them out. I can scale them back. I would strongly
urge - -
Champion/They're just too far out.
Thornberry/We'll scale them back.
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Lehman/All fight. Fine, fine. If we're going to just spend money scaling them back, I
don't really, I don't favor spending money on those things.
Thomberry/Like scaling a fish.
Lehman/They're temporary. If we're going to go out and spend money to scale them
back, I'd leave them alone. I mean, I think I'd take them clear out. They're just --
Kubby/But we're going to replace them.
Champion/I had an opportunity, I cut her off last night, so I thought I'd let her go before
me tonight.
Lehman/Oh, I'm sorry, Connie.
Champion/Are you done?
Lehman/Yes, Connie. Please.
Champion/Are you sure?
Lehman/Yep.
Champion/It's just, I was with my large family, you know, which is rude. The student
meeting we had with the students, I thought was really productive. And the thing
I think we ought to put on there next year, whoever's representing the Council, we
ought to talk about some combined litter program. With the University, the
students, and the public. I think it'd be a really good way, they might help us
come up with an idea to get the litter off the streets of Iowa City.
Kubby/Okay, we will note that. I would hope that it won't be a year and a half before
we do it again.
Champion/It was really a good --
Lehman/ That's fight.
Kubby/It's difficult scheduling with 72 student senators and this group of seven very
business, you know, politically involved professional people up here. It's really
difficult. But we will try to do it more quickly than 18 months again.
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Norton/We will certainly take that into advisement, Connie. Karen and I, recycling
would be another one, because I see some action in the paper, the DI today about
some interest in recycling in the dorms and so forth, and that coincides with our
interests. So--
Champion/ And Steve, what did, I can't remember when we talked about the new
maintenance storage building. I know it was hung up for some reason. What was
it?
Atkins/Parks Maintenance Building?
Champion/Yeah.
Atkins/There needed to be fill brought in that was not in the original project.
Champion/Okay. And how is that coming along?
Atkins/And we have postponed it till springtime. I will get you a report. I couldn't tell
you.
Champion/Oh, I don't need a report. That's all I need.
Lehman/You just got the report.
Champion/That was it.
Atkins/Okay.
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ITEM NO. 20a REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER.
Lehman/Steve?
Atkins/I have nothing, sir, other than I promised those folks that you'd all hang around
for a few minutes so that they could ask you some questions.
Lehman/We've already hung around for about 2 hours, 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Dilkes/Nothing.
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