HomeMy WebLinkAbout1998-11-03 Transcription#2a Page 1
#2a OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS
Lehman/Item 2 is the outstanding student citizenship awards. I'd like to ask Allison and
Ben to come forward. We have a procedure at these council meetings to do the
most important things first and there is nothing more important than what we're
about to do. I'd like to have you read your statement for your award.
Allison Smith/Citizenship. To me a good citizen is someone who cares about and
respects others. He or she displays good work habits and often does well in school
and other social activities. Good citizens volunteers to do all kinds of work like
bake sales, can food drives, toy drives and helping others who are in need. They
spend some of their time doing things they don't necessarily want to do. Good
citizens know right from wrong and choose right. When I grow up, I would like to
continue to be a good citizen and to help others. I am not sure what I want to be
when I grow up but I am thinking about becoming a teacher or a doctor. Both
careers require good citizenship. There are many people who have helped me
become a responsible citizen. My principle, Mrs. Werts; my teachers, Mrs.
Carlson and Mrs. Johnson. All of my teachers at Hoover have been good role
models. Last but not least I would like to thank my parents, Tim and Janet Smith;
my stepbrother, Gordon Tribey and my grandparents, Jean and Clarence Skog and
Bob and Harriet Smith for teaching me and showing me the importance of good
citizenship. Thank you.
Ben Evans/What a good citizen is. I think a good citizen is someone who helps other
people and peers. A good citizen is also one who follows the school rules and tries
to get work in on time. When grow up I would like to be a physical therapist
because that is helping other people. When I grow up I will try my hardest to be a
citizen or follow the rules and the laws. I would sincerely like to thank my morn
and my dad for all of their help in raising me and helping me with my school
work. A special thank you to my grandma and grandpa and their influence in my
life. I would like to thank my cousins on both side of the family for their support.
I would like to thank my principle, Mrs. Werts, for running a caring school. I
would also like to thank my teacher, Mrs. Johnson. Mrs. Johnson has helped me
so much because I have learned about other countries and its people and
govemment. I have leamed about other countries and cultures, too. Thank you,
again, goodbye.
Lehman/I want to read what the award say. For her outstanding qualities of leadership
within Hoover Elementary as well as the community and for her sense of
responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize Allison Smith as an
outstanding student citizen. Your community is proud of you. Presented by the
Iowa City Council. Ben, yours says exactly the same thing. You got to be really
really proud of those kids. That really- You know, we get into the stuff that is not
so fun from now on but this is really the fun part of the meeting.
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#3b. Bill Saekter Days - November 13 and 14
Lehman/Item #3 on the agenda is Proclamations. We have two this evening. (Reads
agenda item #3b-Bill Sackter Days).
Karr/Here to accept is Keith Ruff.
Keith Ruff/Thank you, Mayor. And on behalf of the Connor Center and the School of
Social Work and all disabled citizens of Johnson County and Iowa City, we thank
you for this honor. Thank you.
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#3a. Veteran's Day Observation - November 11
Lehman/Our second proclamation is for Veteran's Day. (Reads agenda item #3a-
Veteran's Day Observation).
Karr/Here to accept is Bud Louis.
Bud Louis/Thank you. Thank you on behalf of the veterans. I just want to mention that
next Wednesday, on November 11, is the annual Veteran's Day Banquet at the
Radisson and we are going to honor fist of all Mike Dunlap who is 103 years old.
Mike is our last WWI veteran and he is also a veteran of WWII and we will also
have the presentation of the Hayek Award to Bob Bums and we will honor six
students and four military people and Governor Brandstad is going to be our
speaker and we will have a lot of good food. And if you haven't gotten your ticket
yet, you could call- I think they are for sale at any of the banks and you could call
me if you need one. But it is at the Radisson at 6:00 next Wednesday night. When
I was little, well, I never was little. When I was young, it was Armistice Day and
when we were in school at 11:00 in the morning, we would all stand because that
is when the Armistice for the first world war was signed on the 11 th hour on the
11th day on the 11 month. Of course now it is called Veteran's Day. But I thank
you very much for this proclamation. Thank you.
Lehman/This isn't on the agenda but just a point of information. I have been to, I think,
almost every Veteran's Day Dinner since the event was started and it was started,
I think, back in the early '80s when a group of folks decided that the Chamber of
Commerce should have a military affairs committee. I was on the executive
committee at that point in time. We were worried in this community where we
make love and not war that we would have a real bad reaction to anything that had
to do with the military. Well the Military Affairs Banquet in Iowa City is the
premier event in the entire state of Iowa. We have had some of the greatest
speakers of any place in the state. I know that in some years and I suspect this
year may be the same, you couldn't even get a ticket if you didn't get it early. So
it is a wonderful event. Bud, see you there Wednesday night.
I should remind folks that it is 7:13 PM. They still have plenty of time to get to
the polls and you can get back home and see who won.
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#4 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED
OR AMENDED.
Lehman/Consider adoption of the Consent Calendar. Moved by Norton, seconded by
Thomberry. Discussion.
Champion/Mr. Mayor I have some problems with some of these bonds and I wonder if
we could pull them so I can vote on them separately from the rest of the Consent
items. For instance, there is $700,000 for the Civic Center and third floor and I
have problems voting for bonds that we haven't agreed to do yet and the other
thing is $700,000 for the second floor of the Police Department. Is that just for
design?
Atkins/No. Let me- Maybe I can help explain real quickly. This is a calling of a public
hearing for that date. This is not an authorization to sell bonds. What we do is that
we will package these in a fashion that also you to go to public hearing on them.
You certainly will hear public comment about any particular project. It does not
commit you to the project. It does not commit you to sell the bonds.
Kubby/But we will be, in two- On the 17th?
Atkins/The 17th.
Kubby/We will hold a public hearing. Will we then vote that night on authorization for
bonding whether or not we exercise that later is another issue?
Atkins/Absolutely. That is how you do it.
Kubby/But will it be on the 17th that we vote to authorize?
Atkins/Yeah, normally we put the resolution on the same evening, yes.
Kubby/It does create momentum for the project once we vote for authorization of it. I
think Connie is right on a couple of issues.
Atkins/It does not commit you.
Kubby/That we haven't gotten that far in our discussions.
Thomberry/Isn't this the authorization for the public heating?
Lehman/This is setting the public hearing and I think this discussion relative to the
project should be-
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Atkins/Those two particular projects are owed to you in the sense of having a more
detailed discussion. You do- This does not commit you financially.
Champion/Can I ask one more question? Why did we have a public hearing for
something we haven't discussed?
Atkins/We will.
Yucuis/Which item, Conhie?
Champion/The Civic Center, third floor for $700,000 and the Police second floor design
for $700,000. We haven't had any discussion about those.
Yucuis/The timing of all of this- We are setting the p.h. for two weeks from now. We
will have the p.h. to discuss whether or not- The city council will formally
authorize us to be able to sell bonds down the road. The actual time when we will
be selling bonds will be most likely in March for each one of those projects. We
will combine them into one bond issue in March. Prior to March, we anticipate we
will have discussions on each one of these projects whether they will go or they
WOn't gO.
Atkins/If you recall, we have had a general discussion about them. The actual issuance is
when you package all of the bonds together. Now, if you would choose as a
council to pull those projects off and then later on authorize them, we would go
back through the process. Of course we have to pay an extra bond issuance cost
because they would in effect be two separate issues.
Kubby/And on the 17th the resolution, as they are separate on the Consent Calendar, we
would vote on those separately as well. It is not going to be one vote?
Yucuis/No, they would not be on a Consent agenda. You will have a p.h. on each
separate item.
Atkins/You would have eight or nine separate votes, yeah.
Champion/I just need an answer to the Police second floor design. Is it $700,000 just to
design?
Atkins/No, that is the construction.
Champion/Okay, all right.
Kubby/There is also a mention in the memo about process for citizens to petition if they
don't like these projects. So will you explain about that.
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Yucuis/Items #4 - 9 on the agenda are setting p.h. for projects that normally would
require a referendum. If they were stand alone, they would require a referendum.
But under State of Iowa Code, section 384.26 entitled General Obligations for
General Purposes, it allows the city council in lieu of calling an election for a
referendum to institute proceedings for issuance of bonds for a general corporate
purpose which is what those are by causing of other proposal to issue the bonds in
the newspaper. And included in that statement is the amount and purpose of the
bonds, maximum rate of interest, the fight for petition for an election, and it must
be published in the paper at least ten days prior to the meeting. There is a
limitation on how much the city can authorize and that limitation for our
population size is up to $700,000. That is why you are seeing the $700,000 for an
individual project for each of those areas. It is not $700,000 totally, it is for each
individual project. And there is a process for that petition. If at any time before
the day fixed, not the day of the p.h., but the day before the p.h., for taking action
for the issuance of the bond, petition is filed with the Clerk and there is a
provision in the Code of how that is done. Asking the question of issuing the
bonds be submitted to the registered voters of the city, the council shall either by
resolution declare the proposal to issue the bonds to have been abandoned or
show directly request that there be a referendum for those projects. If no petition
is filed and the city council approves the resolution, then we will proceed with the
authorization. It doesn't mean we are selling the bonds yet. We will be coming
back again with the list of projects that will be included in the bond issue. Most
likely in March for the General Obligation bonds.
Norton/Would it be a good idea, Mr. Mayor, to identify the various projects that are
going to be coming up so people know?
Kubby/Let' s benefit the process thing.
Norton/Not the water and sewer ones but the ones that are in this category that you are
referring to.
Yucuis/Let me just finish just one part of it, if it is okay, Dee. The process for petitioning
is to the eligible electors. The petition of the voters authorized by the City Code,
which it is, the petition is valid if signed by eligible electors of the city equal in
number to 10% of the persons who voted at the last proceeding regular city
election. The petition shall include the signature of the petitioners, a statement of
their place of residence and the date on which they sign that petition. Based on
this information in the State of Iowa Code, the signed petition must be filed by the
end of the business day before the p.h. or action will be taken on the issuance of
the bonds. The petition can refer to any one of the items or all of the items listed
in the General Corporate Purpose section of the bond issues. So any one
individually of those resolutions or all of them. In this instance, the petition needs
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to be filed by the end of the business day on the 16th of November unless the p.h.
is carded forward to another specific date and therefore would allow additional
time period for a petition to be filed. The petition of eligible voters pertains to
those persons eligible to vote, not necessarily registered. 9200 persons voted at
the last preceding regular city election in November '97, 10% of that is 920
persons needed to file petition requesting the voters approve the issuance of the
bonds. And I spoke with Marian Karr, the City Clerk, and we would offer
assistance on making sure the language be proper on the petition and that the set
up would be proper.
Kubby/So the bottom line is if someone didn't like some or one or all of these projects
by November 16th at 5:00 PM they would need 920 signatures.
Yucuis/Correct.
Kubby/Thanks for outlining that. We have never really- I have never heard about this
before. We have a tradition of telling people how to protest and this continues it.
Yucuis/Would you like me to go over the projects?
Lehman/Yeah Don, why don't you? Give briefly what each of them are about.
Yucuis
Item #4 on the Consent Agenda is requesting a p.h. for $700,000 of General
Obligation (GO) bonds for general corporate purpose. That is to pay the cost of- a
portion of the cost of reconstructing improvement and equipment of the Civic
Center third floor.
Item #5 is $470,000 and this is to pay the cost of improving the equipment of the
public library including computer replacement and ICN room and that project is
in progress right now.
Champion/We had approved doing that project. We have already talked about it.
Yucuis/Item #6 is $700,000 for the improvements and equipment of the- That is not the
total cost. Improvement and equipment of the police station second floor.
Item #7 is $700,000 for paying a portion of the cost of acquisition and
improvement and equipping of a Public Works facility and building.
Item #8 is $700,000 for acquisition and equipment of the Recreation Building, the
Scanlon Gynmasium which is in progress right now.
Item #9 is $330,000 and that is to pay costs of improvement and equipment of the
Recreation grounds including the south soccer sites.
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Kubby/Thanks Don, for the process.
Lehman/Any other discussion of the Consent Calendar? Roll call- (yes; Champion-no).
Champion/I just have problems with that.
Lehman/You have a problem with setting a p.h.?
Champion/No.
Lehman/That is all we did.
Champion/All fight, can I change my vote?
Lehman/It was unanimous.
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#5 PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA) [UNTIL 8:00
P.M.].
Lehman/Public discussion. This is a time reserved from now until 8:00 PM for matters
that do not appear on the agenda. So, if you would like to speak to us, please sign
in, give us your name, limit your comments to five minutes or less.
Mary Kathryn Wallace/I am representing the Senior Center Commission and reporting to
you on activities that are happening at the Senior Center. As you well know, we
have submitted our budget and we are in the midst of compiling some statistics so
that we can submit a realistic request for parking spaces that we will request when
the new parking facility comes in. We are monitoring daily when our high times
are for parking. The installation of new doors that Washington entrance is being
delayed because of parts that have not arrived and perhaps we will delay it,
depending on the weather, until warm weather. So the Washington Street entrance
is being delayed. We have a new commission member appointed by Johnson
County Board of Supervisors to fill the term of Wilma Conner who died recently
and this gentleman is Larry Pugh from Solon who is newly retired as a hospital
administrator in Waterloo and he attended one meeting and his term will be
through 1999. And we welcome him. And that brings about change that we are
expecting two fine additions to our Senior Center Commission as appointed by
the city council and I am already thanking you for adding diversity and strength to
the Senior Center Commission by your appointees. In coordination with two
things that happened earlier this evening and beginning the program. You have a
proclamation, a Veterans Day as November 11. But we are having a very special
celebration at the Senior Center on Friday, the 6th of November and you are all
cordially invited and this is a tribute to America's veterans. We are having an
outstanding program honoring men and women who have served our nation. It is
going to be a patriotic program. It is free and open the public. So we hope many
citizens will attend but along with out special invitation to you, I am extending a
very special invitation to Johnson County veterans, their families and their
survivors. And so we hope many people will join us for this celebration. And to
the first item on your agenda in talking about being a good citizen. I would like to
inform you about our annual Holiday Bazaar and Cookie Walk which will be
taking place on Saturday the 5th of December. We utilize more than 300
volunteers, some throughout the years, throughout the entire year making hand
crafted items that are on sale from 25 cents to a maximum of $5.00. It will be
from 2:00 to 6:00 PM. There will be more publicity about this. Children are
between three and 12 years to participate in our bazaar and items come wrapped
and ready to be put under the tree. And we are needing volunteers. We are
needing more good citizens. So if you know of anyone who would like to
participate in this inter-generational community event. We invite that. So those
are the things that I have to report to you and I would be happy if you have any
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questions about the Senior Center to answer or to make it back to the
Commission. Whatever is appropriate.
Champion/What time was your celebration the 6th?
Wallace/On the 6th of November it begins at 2:00 in the afternoon until 3:30 PM.
Kubby/Will there be any guys dancing with coconuts on their chests?
Wallace/There will not. This will be dignified and we are having an Honor Guard and
having help from the American Legion and patriotic music. It will be something
to experience.
Kubby/Every year something new.
Wallace/Thank you.
Lehman/Any other public discussion?
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#6g 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). (Pass and adopt)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #6g). Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell.
Discussion. You know, there was no discussion but this- And this was basically a,
for the most part, a non-controversial downzoning but this is the final vote on this.
This is a pass and adopt vote on this. Roll call- (yes; Champion-abstain). Motion
carded with Champion abstaining.
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#7 PUBLIC DISCUSSION ON THE PROPOSED BALLOT LANGUAGE AND
POLICY STATEMENT REGARDING THE IMPOSITION OF A LOCAL SALES
TAX.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #7). This is a continuation of a public discussion that was
started last Thursday night. So anyone who would like to speak on the proposed
ballot language for the sales tax would be welcome at this point.
Tom Gelman/I'm sorry that I missed the meeting last Thursday. I was out of town on one
of those rare occasions that I'm out of town. Usually I don't get to go anywhere. I
would like to speak this evening. I also brought an overhead. I s there anyway we
could get that up? It might be helpful. Can that be done?
Norton/Technical assistance.
Gelman/I'm another member of the group Citizens Interested in Actively Supporting the
Passage of the Local Option Sales Tax. We are enthusiastic about the community
benefit that can result from this new source of revenue. My comments are
intended to support those that were made last Thursday by Jesse Singerman,
George Matheson, Alan Swanson, Paul Davis, and others. I would like to start
where Jesse left off in emphasizing that there's no perfect tax and there's no
perfect ballot. This may have been demonstrated in your discussions on the ballot
language thus far. These discussions have been thoughtful, but at times it seems
as if you were not making much progress. I wish to commend you for your efforts
to create a reasonable ballot responsive to community needs and I believe that the
difficulties that you confronted resulted from your desire to have a clearly crafted
ballot, to have as clearly crafted ballot as possible. Our group intends in
suggesting adjustments to supplement your prior efforts and to offer possible
solutions to your continuing concerns. One observation about your prior
deliberations is that it basically was concentrated on how the dollars would be
spent. This of course is quite critical. On the other hand before we can spend
dollars we must raise them and that is a political issue for this community.
Therefore the ballot must reflect appropriate community needs and the values to
gain the enthusiasm and support of the entire community or certainly at least a
majority of our citizens. This requires that the language of the ballot be straight
forward as straight forward as possible and as understandable as possible. It also
requires substantively that the ballot include tangible benefits for broad cross
section of the community. We also believe that the ballot must be progressive. It
must provide both direct and indirect benefit to those in our community with more
modest incomes. The ballot you've been working on essentially satisfies these
requirements but can be enhanced in the adjustment that we've submitted to you
on Thursday our possible solutions. I'd like to quickly review that ballot with you
and bring out and highlight some other points. One of the overall issues that I'd
like to highlight is that this ballot really addresses three areas of community need,
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community expenditures, very broad categories. And I think as such, it's a very
balanced ballot proposal. It addresses tax fee relief and I would say tax hyphen
fee relief. It addresses capital expenditures and it addresses operating
expenditures. I think that an honest ballot to the citizens needs to address all three
of those and I think this ballot does that. Let me talk about the first two items: the
notable zero and the 25%. Our group believes that those two items really equate
with one another. That in essence what you are doing here with a 25% set aside
for water rate stabilization is in essence back in the pockets of citizens not that
much different than you do under a property tax relief. It just so happens that our
choice or your choice has been to do it in the form of water rate relief but it is no
less significant as a return of money to citizens than what might be called a
property tax relief. It is a choice and I know that there has been concern expressed
about the zero on the ballot but I think that we can with a very straight face and
very honestly indicate that it was a choice between one or the other and we just
made a choice to the second alternative. In terms of the water rate stabilization
we've added the phrase or water rate relief. We were looking to the future after
the eight years of stabilization and we believe that it's a more responsive solution
to that issue. Also we believe that this is a way that dollars could be returned to
the community in a particular way that benefits all residents and not just some
residents. That in fact returning this 25% to the community in the form of water
rate stabilization and relief may in fact be a more equitable way than through a
property tax relief. Skipping now to the 40% item. We as a group are very
enthusiastic about at least the initial expenditures in this category. As you know
our group derived from supporters of the library supporters of a community
events center. And we feel very comfortable with the way that the ballot language
appears now to include those projects as well as including flexibility into the
future when those projects are paid for. We also believe that these projects have a
great opportunity for community benefit in maintaining a very heavily utilized
service now and the quality of that service namely the public library and also very
importantly, bringing new activity to the heart of our activity and in essence
helping to preserve our community center. In Iowa City, our downtown is in fact
more than a retail center, it has been a community center. And I was born and
raised in this community and I know very well that it has been the center of this
community for more than retail issues. For it to remain a center of our community
it has to have something of interest for a broad cross section of our community
not just for a small segment of our community. And the types of activities that
we're planning here and the improvements that we're planning here have the
potential for doing that. Also I think that these projects provide great regional
benefit not only within the Iowa City boundary but for the region. I think that's an
important element of the sales tax ballot that we're offering the broader Iowa City
area. The next item in terms of the 10% to support the operating expenses. I think
it's a very realistic very pragmatic expression and a very responsible expression
of realizing when you build capital items you also have to incur new expenses.
We have seen sales tax ballots in other communities where they did not focus on
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the reality of the operating expenses. This ballot I think is very balanced in that it
does both. It focuses on the reality of the need for capital improvements as well as
the reality that you have to pay for new expenditures associated with those. It
does it in a very responsible way. The next item I understand there was some
discussion on as to the changed language that we had suggested. It has to do with
the 10% that is allocated towards operating in capital improvements for the public
transit. We had included specifically the language to include fare reduction,
paratransit and enhanced service. The paratransit I think was in there before but
we've just moved it but the language that we added was to include fare reduction
and enhanced services. We believe that these are important additions. If these are
possible under your relationships with other the communities we think it makes
the ballot- gives the ballot a much more clear and tangible benefit to the
community from this specific allocation, provides a much more progressive use of
the new revenues in this particular area. Another item is the 10% to support the
hiring and equipping of police officers and fire fighters. Again this is an important
area for this community. It's responsive to federal cutbacks. It's also responsive to
the concerns that many citizens have safety in their community. It's responsive to
the issues that we believe the community is concerned about at this time. The last
item the 5%. We added the word increased and again we feel that if this can be
done and presented to the public it will result in a much stronger ballot. It's a
positive benefit that people can clearly see. It makes us stronger. I think it will be
a basis for stronger community support if we make sure that the money set aside
for human services is in fact increasing that benefit to the community rather than
just supplementing the present dollars. I am prepared to answer any other
questions that you may have. We've appreciated your discussions in the past. We
know you've struggled very hard in this issue both among yourselves, with other
communities. We're enthusiastic for what we feel to be growing support in the
community. That more and more they understand this ballot issue. The sales tax
issue. I might also mention that we think that there is a lot of education that needs
to be done in the community on this issue and we have not actively engaged in
that educational process yet. And the reason for that is we didn't quite know what
to educate people about. It was because we didn't know what the final ballot was
going to be and we don't know quite yet what the ballots may be in other
communities. But we're getting closer and closer. I think the momentum may be
shiffing. I sure hope that it is. We feel that with this type of a ballot and with the
types of adjustment that we are suggesting that it will be a reasonable sell to the
community to educate the community as to the benefits that can be derived from
this source of new revenue. Any questions I'd be happy to respond.
Champion/Well I really support your enthusiasm and I think we're really lucky to have a
group of people who are willing to step in and help us pass this ballot proposition.
Really appreciate it.
Lehman/Thank you Tom.
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Gelman/You bet.
Lehman/Shirley you want this on soon?
Shirley Wyrick/Yeah. Leave it on. I'm not going to speak directly to this ballot language
but I did want to lend my support to the ballot language that we had tweaked a
little bit for you and hope that your continuing attention to these things will help
us to come in with a understandable ballot and I'm Shirley Wyrick. I'm an artist,
a long time community member, and part of a broad based group of interested
citizens that as Tom has explained, we're actively supporting the ballot measure
that you're discussing. I've also been an active member for over ten years of the
CenterSpace committee which was the forerunner of the community events
center. And my and that committee's enthusiasm has not lessened. I've also been
a member of the downtown strategy and streetscape committees which were
charged by the city council to make recommendations in those areas. We want to
compliment the city council upon it's recognition of our community's priorities
and needs and proposing the least objectionable financing method to maintain its
fiscal responsibility in the face of increased state rollbacks and limitations
imposed on municipal funding. We also commend the council for continued
commitment to seeking public input. Our group is dedicated to continuing to
bring the information and encouraging discussion about all aspects of the ballot to
our citizens. I would like to emphasize again my agreement with Jesse Singerman
and Tom Gelman's suggestions for ballot language that will help us to inform and
involve our citizens in this important initiative. By your actions in creating this
ballot after years of public input and council actions and by choosing this method
of fimding I believe you stated our community's most important values. These
values all favorably reflect the quality of life that we desire. We want that life
blood of us all, water, to be clean accessible and economical. We want to
maintain and expand our library services which keep us informed and alive to our
potential. We want to create a community events center that will allow our
citizens to express themselves, to connect with one another, and along with the
library feed the heart and soul of Iowa City. We want to feel safe and protected
through an adequate amount of policing and fire protection. We want to allow our
transit system to flower and we want to provide more help to our county's human
services so that so many of our citizens need and use. Seems to me that the quality
of life that we desire in our county wide community does not include funding
such as those resorted to by several counties in the state through casinos, race
tracks, and riverboat gambling which to me would have an adverse effect on
almost every aspect of what our community has shown it wants. Instead we are
and can even more be known as a caring community of libraries, cultural centers,
historic sites, educational institutions, healthcare, sports and recreation, shopping,
and so on. And because we are this type of community we are magnets to a whole
region. With the funding model you've chosen our community's visitors also
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share in maintaining those community values. As an artist I deal in symbols and I
believe that what you are accomplishing in this ballot proposal is symbolic of our
community values serving the many facets of life that make up a community and
that serve us all. In addition when the ballot is passed we will have created
tangible symbols of our community and its values in its very heart and soul.
Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you Shi~ey.
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-124: SIDE 1
Jesse Singerman/Tonight I want to speak in support of the project on behalf of the
Library Board of Trustees. As you know we have been struggling with space
issues for many years and we have been actively working on how to expand our
public library for over six years and we have a great library. It is the busiest
public library in Iowa and one of the most productive and finest libraries in the
country by almost any measure. 70% of the people in our service area have library
cards. There are 56,000 regular borrowers. We circulate over 1 million items a
year. We answer almost 100,000 information and reference questions each year.
We hold programs attended by over 20,000 people, most of them children and we
had almost 700,000 visits to the library in the past year. This is a very very
heavily used facility. The current year is 47,000 square feet. And both the local
population and the per capita usage that the facility was designed to serve were
exceeded by 1990. By standard measures of library capacity and space utilization,
there was a shortfall in space at that time of 14,000 square feet. By the year 2010,
estimates are we will need an additional 28,000 square feet in order to meet the
needs of our citizens. And that is the future that you are so aware that we have
been trying to provide for. The project on the ballot that you are considering does
meet the needs of the library. And those needs have been identified by space
assessments done in 1993 and also updated in '96. We will have expanded space
for children programming and collections, I am now taking my granddaughter to
story hour and I can tell you we really need that. A lot of little ones crawling all
over each other. Expanded access to adult collections, increased seating, room for
more computer access, and room for the backroom aspects of the library which
don't get much attention but must be done such as processing the many many
returned books and other items. The library board of trustees has endorsed this
project and wishes to take it to the voters. We are very excited about the
possibilities for the library and for out whole community contained in the ballot
and finally we want to commend you, the city council, for your long hours of
work in developing these proposals and the ballot language. We have worked
with you in part and we know how many long discussions that you have had to
engage in to get to this point and we really thank you very sincerely for your hard
work in the area and for your interest in meeting the library needs of our citizens.
Any questions.
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Lehman/Thank you, Jesse. Any further public discussion?
Lisa Parker/I find myself in support of this project on several levels. As a library trustee I
am aware, as Jesse is, of the needs we have at the library. Previous to being a
trustee of course I was a library user and you know, I would only go get books on
Tuesdays and Wednesdays because it wasn't crowded and that is when you could
get the best books. So I was already sort of accommodating my reading based on
the needs there. As an artist I am aware of the needs in this community, the
community is fich with artistic people and opportunities but there is a premium on
good gallery space and opportunities to show work. It is wonderful to see all of
the work that is available and could be seen in coffee shops and shoe stores and
clothing stores and things like that. But it is also nice to be able to see the work on
space that is a little more open. As a business owner, I look forward to this
community being a place that people want to come and live and work. So that
when I am looking for employees I can find the right kind of employee so that I
have a broad range of people to choose from and the employment situation is
certainly tight fight now. So offering a lively and exciting community is an
important part of that. Additionally I think the cultural center will provide access
to the arts for more people in the community. And access to the arts gives people
the opportunity to learn to be creative and as an employer, I know that it is a little
bit hard to test for creativity and it is a little bit hard to interview for creativity.
But with my employees, I know when I have creativity. And that is an important
quality and access to the arts for more people will provide that kind of ability to
our children and to the people that will become employees for us in this town. I
think the sales tax is a good way to get the funds to put together these projects.
There is a lot people who come to this community to use our resources. They like
this town. There is a lot of fun things happening here and while they are here, they
drive on our roads. They need support from police and fire and they use the
resources that the city provides. So asking them for a little bit more in terms of
sales tax is appropriate thing to do. I think that there is a lot of communities- I
know, I just filled out my quarterly sales tax report and there are a lot of
communities that continue to add the local option sales tax and I think it is a very
viable option for us. This town is an exciting and lively place. When I go other
places, when I go back to my hometown in Cleveland and go to visit other places,
people know about Iowa City. They have heard about it and they know that it is
kind of a cool place. And it takes commitment, it takes vision and it takes a little
bit of dating to maintain that, to maintain that quality that we all find so important
and I think that this is an important step and I appreciate the work that you have
done to get us to this point. That is my support. You probably don't have any
questions.
Lehman/Thank you. Any further public discussion?
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Kubby/I have a timing question. When will we be voting on a resolution to put this on
the ballot? Will we be doing that on the 17th in two weeks?
Lehman/According to our plans, we would pass a resolution calling for the special
election at the next meeting.
Atkins/Unless I would hear differently, I would intend to put it on the work session for
the 16th so you can finalize the ballot-
Lehman/I have a question. When we place this on the- When we call for the special
election, it is necessary at that point to have the wording correct?
Atkins/Yes.
Lehman/In other words, the next meeting, the 17th, we will not only be calling for the
special election but at that point be presenting the working as we word expect it to
be on the ballot.
Atkins/Calling the special election as you declare it to be, that is correct.
Norton/Any further tweaking would have to be Monday night.
Lehman/Correct.
Kubby/Does that include a date?
Atkins/Yes.
Kubby/So we should probably have a light informal, if possible.
Lehman/There has never been a light informal.
Atkins/We will do our best.
Tom Gelman/I want to respond to that issue about the date if I could. I know the dates in
March have been discussed. Is that right? And we are a little concemed from a
reasonable campaign standpoint with a date immediately following spring break.
The problem with that is that we think the week prior to the election would be an
important week for getting the message out. And scheduling it immediately
following a vacation could be a lot of wasted effort during that week prior. So I
think from our group standpoint, if it could be scheduled maybe the following
week, which I think would put it the 30th of March, that that would probably be
preferable in scheduling it the Tuesday immediately following spring break.
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Thomberry/It will be one of the things we will be discussing on that-
Lehman/I think that is a very good point, Tom.
Vanderhoef/I agree with you on that one.
Lehman/Thank you. Other discussion. We will be talking about this on the work session
on the 16th and hopefully everything will be finalized on the 17th.
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#8 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, ENTITLED "POLICE
REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED "PET ANIMAL CONTROL," OF
THE CITY CODE TO PROVIDE NEW DEFINITIONS FOR CIRCUSES AND
RODEOS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #8) Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Kubby. Discussion.
Before discussion starts, I would like to relate a conversation that I had with our
Animal Control Officer this afternoon. She called me and I guess for some of you
folks who weren't on the council at the time and for those of us who were and
don't remember, during the discussion of the Exotic Animal Ordinance there was
a proposal to prohibit circuses and rodeos. That was not acceptable to the council
and at that time and I do not recall this, but at that time apparently we asked that
there be a new ordinance drafted controlling circuses and rodeos. Misha told me
today that she feels that she has the ability to do all of the things that she needs to
do with the present ordinance but is very interested, at least at my understanding
of the conversation, that we consider and pass the resolution, which is the next
item on the agenda, eliminating all references to professional cowboy rodeo
association and instead using the State and Department of Agriculture regulations
that pertain to rodeos. Now you know exactly as much as I do. Discussion.
Kubby/That means it doesn't limit who can put on a rodeo within the city limits. It opens
it up for many organizations to provide that.
Norton/My concern with the- Now let's talk about the ordinance. Basically it makes the
definition of circus and definition of rodeo and what I want to be sure is that
doesn't amount to eliminating all such events. Elephants are out, right. So is it a
circus without a elephant?
Thomberry/Elephants aren't out.
Kubby/Well, the ordinance as proposed- You said you wanted to talk about the
ordinance. So it does.
Norton/The ordinance as proposed, it shall not be allowed.
Thomberry/I don't know if the ordinance mentioned- You said-
Norton/Shall not be allowed as a part of any circus, prohibited in the city.
Thornberry/You can't have one without the other.
Lehman/Hold it. The ordinance as proposed in the packet that we are discussing does not
allow elephants. You would have to amend the ordinance to allow elephants.
Otherwise we will be an elephant flee zone.
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(All talking).
Vanderhoef/Or our other altemative is to vote down the ordinance which she says we do
not need.
Thornberry/That is correct.
Lehman/She said that she is able to enforce the concerns that she has with the safety of
animals which I think is one of her primary concems with the presence ordinance.
Kubby/I think the other safety thing is the safety of the community.
Lehman/I think she alluded to that as well.
Kubby/As well as the health of the elephants.
Norton/Let me follow up though. That issue of the elephants and the circus thing, I don't
know whether she is talking Asian elephants and the whole thing. I wasn't too
sure with that video we got the other night and you know, I think there is this all
around the world including flying airplanes, Dean, and so on. So I think- I would
keep the elephants in here if you are going to have a circus. And then there are
other large animals like hippos and rhinos. I see the hippo is now the star of
Ringling Brother Circus with dogs on the back.
Lehman/Oh, no.
Norton/Then the rodeo seems to be defined, no ordinary rodeos meet those conditions of
events and only other such events as the animal control person accepts.
And most- Or events that include at least bull fighting or you know, I mean, calf
wrestling and roping and so on. According to what I can see, it wouldn't be a
rodeo either. The definition looks to me like if there isn't anybody to offer a rodeo
like that.
Kubby/Misha told us that the latest rodeo that was around here, did not have the calf
roping and all these different activities evolve over time as well. As you say, that
there are hippos now and so, I mean, for me there are two big issues. One is
making sure that we outline our community expectations for people who come in.
We do it for Housing and Inspection. We do it for land use. We tell people this is
what our community expects. And even if it is saying these other state and federal
laws, we are doing them again so we can have some front line ability to make sure
that those are happening appropriately. So whether it is an ordinance and/or the
regs, it is fine. I am not really attached to it. Then on the other end it is important
to have these things written down so that we have accountability. So that if
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someone comes in and a permit is denied based on something that is not in the
regs, our Animal Control Division is accountable for that and if someone
complains that they weren't given a permit and it was based on something that
was written down, we understand why that permit was not given.
Norton/I understand that.
Kubby/I think it protects everybody and I guess I have a legal question as to in that,
putting out information on the front end and accountability on the back end, does
it make a legal difference whether we have the ordinance and the regs or we just
have the resolution with the regs?
Dilkes/These, as I see it, are your options. You can vote no on this ordinance and then
you will have to defer the resolution because we will then have to change the
resolution back in order to be consistent with the current ordinance and I do think
we need the rules and regs. First of all because I think the ordinance as it exists,
contemplates them and we need to provide parameters for the discretion of the
animal control officer. We can't just give her discretion with no parameters. That
is option #1. You can vote- The second one would be to vote yes on the ordinance
and then I still think you have to defer the resolution or I think that had been the
plan just because of the comments that came in late. I think those are the two.
Kubby/You said there were-
Dilkes/There were three. The other thing- Oh, there is a third one. The third one is that
you would decide you wanted no regulation of rodeos and circuses which would
require a different amendment to the current ordinance and then obviously no
rules and regulations.
O'Donnell/Which is what we have now.
Lehman/No.
Dilkes/No, our current ordinance provides definitions of rodeos and circuses and it
contemplates rules and regulations for permitting of those.
O'DonnelU Does passing this, does this ban elephants?
Lehman/It would if we passed this.
O'Donnell/And calf roping?
Dilkes/The proposed? The proposed one? Yes it does.
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Kubby/But you can amend it.
O'DonnelF We should ban eight cylinder cars then.
Thomberry/I think, perhaps, before we pass this ordinance we should more about what
we are passing or what we are not passing regarding the Animal Welfare council,
regarding the Intemational Professional Rodeo Association, the roles and
regulations fi'om Barnum and Bailey circus, these types of things and what is done
in the rest of the state. What is the state law regarding rodeos and circuses and I
don't think we should pass anything anymore stringent than state law or these
professional organizations that obviously care for their animals. That is there
business. And one other thing, Emie. I understand in a rodeo, you get points for
doing different things. It is like an 18 hole golf course but only being able to play
16 holes in Iowa City. You can't get to where you want to be if you don't do X
number of events. And if you start eliminating certain events you can't have the
rodeo here basically.
Lehman/Dean, you have lived here a long time and Dee Norton. You have lived here
long. Most of us have. We have an ordinance that currently regulates circuses and
rodeos. To my knowledge it is working. In 38 years I do not remember a rodeo in
the city limits. I do remember a circus down where you built your Burger King.
You mined it for the whole community when you built that. There is no place in
this community to have a circus. There is no place to have a rodeo. We are getting
along perfectly well with the present ordinance. I don't understand why we are
discussing this ordinance when even the animal control officer said she doesn't
need it.
Norton/I don't think that- I don't agree with you. I can think of half a dozen places
where you could have a circus. You could have one in City Park. You could have
one in Scott Park. You could have one at the soccer field.
O'Donnell/Name the last time we had one.
Norton/We could have one at the water plant site. There are a million places you could
have a circus or a rodeo.
O'Donnell/When is the last one we had though, Dee?
Norton/I don't want make a virtue of the fact that we don't have a place. I think that
would be a mistake. If we are going to permit rodeos and circuses, we need to
either define them or take the accepted definitions where ever they may be. I
don't know what the current ones are. We were saying one of the things we want
to see is what is the current definition of a rodeo if it exists. What is the current
definition of a circus? I would say that the best course is to defer both of these,
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clarify the de~nitional issues that are in the ordinance. Then take a hard look at
those rules and regulations. Some of them may be necessary. But many of them
seem to me to duplicate. They call out cage sizes for certain beasts and not for
others. I can't find any consistency for any of them.
Thornberry/The Animal Welfare Council should-
Norton/Well, we may be just call out those but I think we need to take a hard look at
those, maybe harder than we have and sit down with Misha and some of the other
people who have different views so that we get a balanced view here because
otherwise I think we are kind of stumbling onto something that we are not quite
sure about. So let's just defer them both.
O'Donnell/I think a couple of years ago the council had before it an opportunity to ban
circuses and rodeos and they turned it down at this time. I think passing this will
effectively ban circuses and rodeos.
Thornberry/What you're saying is either to defer or not pass it.
O'Donnell/I don't think we need it.
Norton/Just defer. I think you're going to have to have something. You've got to have
some rules.
O'Donnell/We have some.
Vanderhoef/We're going to have some.
Lehman/We have something now.
Norton/(Can't hear) what they are then.
Vanderhoef/We've got the ordinance now and I think we could very well vote down the
ordinance and then defer the rules and regulations until we have an opportunity to
review them and bring them back.
Norton/Good. If we need them we can always create them again.
Dilkes/I think that's the course. I think this has been confused by the fact that all we
needed on here really was the resolution and then I think when they were draining
the resolution then it lead to this supposed ordinance change so now the issue has
become very confused.
Norton/If we kill it we can still bring it up later.
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Vanderhoef/The ordinance as it presently states is it would not limit any animal that
would be coming in either with the circus or with a rodeo which is what I suspect
this council is wishing to have happen. So I am in favor right now of voting on the
ordinance and voting it down. I'll be voting no.
O'Donnell/I will be voting no.
Champion/I'm voting no.
Norton/Fine with me. We can vote it down.
Kubby/I'll be voting yes because in every city there are different animals at different
circuses. I mean and for example at the circuses they need a staging area where
they have sick animals or animals who are acting out and won't be performing
that night and that's where the elephants can be. And it will still be in an exciting
vibrant community event without the elephants because this is a public safety
issue. It's not in terms of banning of the elephants it's not so much an animal
welfare issue or neglect issue. It's a public safety issue. I've asked Misha if she
had heard of about the hippopotamus, about how do you control a hippopotamus.
Thornberry/You say please.
Kubby/There are some more issues, but the damage done by a hippo is a lot different
than from an adult elephant so I don't have a problem with that. And I don't have
a problem of banning the calf roping in Iowa City (can't hear). So I'll be voting
yes on the ordinance and hope that we can find a way to get the rules and regs so
that they're clear. They're consistent and easy for everybody to follow.
Norton/And don't duplicate an existing one. Right now I think they may.
Kubby/It doesn't matter. We do some things in our housing code believe that things, that
the national code should be the basis and then there's one or two little things that
we think should be done differently. I don't have a problem with that
philosophically but we need to look at it and I don't mind deferring that part of it
at all.
Champion/I have philosophically a problem voting to protect people from everything. I
mean if what you say is true, Karen, then we should drain the Iowa River because
people drown in it. A lot more people drown in the Iowa River every year then are
ever touched by an elephant. I think it's absurd to think that we have to have rules
that are beyond every other community for circuses and rodeos. And I'll be voting
no against this ordinance.
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Lehman/Why don't we give everybody an opportunity by having a roll call. Because
we're getting nowhere with this.
O'Donnell/I just want to comment. I'm just curious what are we going to do for all these
poor elephants we're putting out of work?
Thornberry/They've got their trunks packed already.
O'Donnell/Is there a work subsidy or something?
Kubby/This is (can't hear).
Dilkes/Can I just make one comment Mr. Mayor?
Lehman/Yes.
Dilkes/I'm looking at the current ordinance and the way it works is that a permit is
required for a circus and a rodeo so we're going to have to get some rules in place
down the road for that.
Thomberry/I think then that the International Professional Rodeo Association and the
Ringling Brothers' Bamum and Bailey, the people that are actually involved in
these events should be helping us with these with all of the literature that we
received on this. It's fantastic and magnificent. It's more than I've ever seen about
these before in my life or probably- I tell you what I am a rodeo person and I'm a
circus guy. And I'd always get up early in the morning and go down and watch
the elephants unload from the train depot and have the parade through Iowa City
and I never saw anybody trampled.
Lehman/Do you have a conflict of interest on this vote?
Thornberry/Absolutely not. I would be scared to death to get on some of those but I have
chased a grease pig.
Kubby/I would agree with you that it is important to have an industry that was wanting
to regulate part of the discussion but they should not be the sole discussion. That
is not how we do things here. That they are major players but they are not the only
players. We don't do that in any other sector that we regulate in this community.
Thornberry/I didn't say major player. I said- You got to take what they say because they
are the experts at it, Karen.
Champion/The State of Iowa has rules and regulations regarding circuses and rodeos.
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Dilkes/That is all you are- Whatever roles you want to use. Ours, theirs, whatever. They
need to be in writing so that Misha's discretion is not unlimited. That is all.
Lehman/Roll call- (No; Kubby-yes). Ordinance is defeated.
Karr/Could I have a motion to accept correspondence?
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Vanderhoef/All in favor- (ayes). Motion
carried.
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#9 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING PERMIT RULES AND
REGULATIONS FOR CIRCUSES AND RODEOS
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #9). Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell-
Thornberry/To a specific date?
Karr/Indefinitely or date specific, either one.
O'Donnell/Indefinitely.
Norton/Indefinitely.
Lehman/We got an indefinite?
Thornberry/Until we can get to it.
Lehman/We got a 'well' on that.
Dilkes/The only problem would be if there is a circus or rodeo that needed a permit and
we had no rules that govern the issuance of that and that would be a problem. I am
just-
Kubby/I mean indefinitely doesn't mean that this is a nowhere land. Indefinitely means
that we don't know when it is going to come back and it could be two weeks and
it is going to be up to Misha and her division to work on these and we can direct
her to do it in conjunction with these organizations and I have no problem with
that and it will come back as soon as she is done. She is going to realize that there
is this void and she is going to be motivated.
Norton/Emie, you might want-
Lehman/All in favor ofdeferral?
Karr/Can I go back? Is it Thornberry/O'Donnell to defer indefinitely?
Lehman/Yes. All in favor- (ayes). Motion carded.
Karr/Motion to accept correspondence?
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. All in favor- (ayes). Passed.
Sorry, Connie, go ahead.
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Champion/Can we use what Karen just said to move this forward in a proper manner. To
direct them to write a regulations for our ordinance that are consistent with rules
of rodeos, the state?
Kubby/No, that is not what I said. I had said with the expertise and the experience of the
professional organizations. I don't know that I want to direct that it be totally
consistent. I want those rules to be the foundation and the majority of them but
there may be one or two things that she would want to recommend to us and I
don't want to preclude her at this point in the process from recommending it. We
might blow it out of the water.
(All talking).
Norton/I think we ought not let her just spin her wheels and then knock it down again.
We ought to sit down with her, a couple of people from the council. I mean
obviously anybody can do that. I certainly plan to sit down with her to see what I
can help figure out so that she knows where I am coming from before she comes
back with a new draft. We could do that more formally if the mayor wants to. I
don't know whether it is necessary. I think we owe her some help in these. We did
that before and we gave her some comments but I still think it was not very
consistent and I would like to help straighten that out.
Thornberry/Well, she is basically against certain things that she said she was against the
other night. I think she is going to need more help than just one or two.
Norton/Right, fine.
Dilkes/Can I make- It seems to me that one of the things you need is a memo that
outlines what the existing regulations are at the state/federal level that tells you
what those things do.
Champion/That would be great.
Dilkes/Seems that is information that you don't have.
Lehman/I suggested to Misha today and I think you are exactly fight. If we could have a
memo indicating what our present ordinance does and does not do and what she
would propose that we make in the way of changes. That is going to be
something, I think, simple enough that it would not be terribly complicated for her
to put together and we could look at that and see how her recommendation
changes the present ordinance and how it would compare to the regulation that
you-
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Thomberry/Well, Ernie, she basically did that already. She said she didn't want any calf
roping, she didn't want any greased pigs and she didn't want any elephants.
Lehman/It didn't tell us what she changed from the present ordinance and it didn't tell us
which ones were inconsistent or not consistent with Bamum and Bailey and the
Rodeo Association. We can get those distinctions and go through and say yes, this
is okay and this one isn't and whatever. It would make it a lot simpler.
O'Donnell/Or we can turn them all down.
Lehman/That is up to us.
Vanderhoef/Mr. Mayor, I still would like to have this memo with the state and federal
guidelines.
Lehman/That is fine but I do think we also-
Vanderhoef/So I can compare.
Lehman/But I think she can do that for us by telling us how hers differs from theirs.
Dilkes/yeah, that is what I was- It seems to me that what you need, and we are talking
about the resolution now, not the ordinance because that is gone. Is what current
regulations do, what she is proposing in addition to those, why she thinks those
current regulations don't do enough.
Champion/Right, that would be great.
Thornberry/Vis-h-vis the organizations that have sent documentation.
Lehman/Fine, okay.
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#10 CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING THE CITY CODE OF THE
CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA, BY AMENDING SECTION 8-5-5, ENTITLED
"KEEPING DISORDERLY HOUSE," TO PROVIDE FOR POLICE INITIATED
COMPLAINTS AND TO PROVIDE FOR POLICE AUTHORITY TO RESTORE
ORDER AND DISPERSE PERSONS FROM VIOLATING PREMISES. (FIRST
CONSIDERATION)
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #10). Moved by Norton, seconded by O'Donnell.
Discussion.
Kubby/Well, I would like to move an amendment that we delete from Section A., the last
paragraph that states-
Thornberry/Just a minute, Karen.
Kubby/I will wait.
Thornberry/Where is that located?
Kubby/I don't think we have a copy of this in our-
Karr/You probably don't because it was the last time you had the p.h. We don't send it
again.
Thomberry/I can't comment then on Section A.
Kubby/I can read it to you.
Thornberry/What about other sections?
Lehman/I think Karen, I think she can make it pretty clear what your intentions.
Kubby/I will read the special language. To delete, "For the purposes of this section, "to
the disturbance of the general public" includes the disturbance of persons beyond
the subject premises and/or to the disturbance of the person upon public places
including police officers." This is the section that eliminates the need for a
neighborhood complaint.
Lehman/What you are suggesting is that we eliminate the provision where an officer can
do the complaining?
Kubby/Correct.
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Norton/You want to delete just the part at the very end, including police officers? Just
that phrase?
Kubby/Well, do we- I guess that would be a legal question. The values behind these-
Thornberry/I thought this was part of the regulations. The intent of the regulation is to
have the police officer, instead of a neighbor make the complaint.
Lehman/We have a motion to amend by Karen. Is there a second?
Norton/I am not clear where she is deleting.
Champion/I will second it.
Kubby/The value behind what I am proposing so legal can tell me if we need to delete
that whole thing or just after the comma, is so that we still need a neighborhood
complaint in order for the officer to use their discretion about whether or not there
is a disorderly house.
Dilkes/I am going to have to look at it for a minute here.
Kubby/I guess while Eleanor is thinking about that, maybe comment for a second about
why I am proposing this. For me there are three things that are happening with
this ordinance. One is we are putting some more defined definition around what it
means for to have a disorderly house. Something that Capt. Widmer said has
really stuck with me that when people are talking about increasing discretion, that
part of this new definition helps define the discretion a little bit more. I like that
part of it. I think that makes things more clear for folks even though there might
be some vague language within that, it helps puts some more definition around the
discretion. The second thing is that it removes the need for a neighborhood
complaint as written and the third thing is that it allows the police to order
disbursal.
Thornberry/I am sorry, it does what?
Kubby/It allows the need for a neighborhood complaint is the second one and the third
one is allowing the police to order the crowd to disperse and if they don't, they
can be cited under this ordinance.
Thornberry/When we heard from the public where houses were having fireworks shot at
their house because they were thought to be the complainant or they signed a
complaint, to have eggs thrown at their house, to have their cars vandalized, I can
see why some of the neighbors may not want to complain and I think this takes
them out of that loop that they would not need to complain or at least sign the
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complaint. And so I think this is an integral part of the ordinance is to have the
police officer be able to do this without a neighborhood complaint.
Kubby/And I hear that logic and I hear the frustration of the neighbors and the fear that
some people have about intimidation and retaliation but some of this is a
philosophy about government, too, in that we kind of see our citizens as
customers. We use that term a lot, customers friendly. And we are doing things
for them. I guess I want government to more of a partnership with the community
and in this instance, I feel like if it is not a problem for the community, part of
defining community standards. If it is not a problem for the community, then the
officer should not be allowed then to use their discretion.
Thomberry/Officers are part of the community.
Norton/Well, Karen, somebody has got to do- Somebody's discretion has got to be
involved. We have got things like quarreling, fighting, disorderly conduct, or any
other conduct or condition that threatens injury to person or damage to property or
loud raucous disagreeable noises. Now this has got to be troublesome to
somebody. Somebody's judgement has got to bring the case. Right now you say a
neighbor's judgement is okay but a police officer's is not?
Kubby/Right, I am saying this is the ultimate in defining community standards is having
a citizen call in and then the police can come in with their discretion and-
Thornberry/The ultimate in community standards would not have this type of behavior
going on, Karen. So it is not the ultimate of community standards. The standards
that I don't think that the normal run of the mill John Doe would care to have that
going on next door. This is not acceptable to the community and for fear of
retaliation to not register a complaint, as Osha Gray Davidson said, fireworks we
shot at his house.
Kubby/As a person who spoke against this ordinance.
Thornberry/That is correct but and he was against the ordinance and still had fireworks
shot at his house and other vandalism done to his house and to his vehicle. And he
is still against the ordinance but the normal run of the mill average person in Iowa
City living in a house that they own on their property with the disturbances being
made that caused this type of action that Dee Norton just got through reading, I
don't think that they should have to put their live and their property on the line
against a disorderly house. I think that is just giving the discretion to the officers
who is also a resident.
Vanderhoef/I guess I look at the partnership that you were talking about in a little
different light than you do, Karen. To me the partnership is what does the
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community expect of our police officers and in this case, when you have a police
officer or a citizen being able to make the complaint, that is partneting. They see
some sort of disturbance and if the one does not want to make the complaint, the
other can. Now that is partnefing. We both can share in responsibility of making a
complaint. To me, that is a partnership. The expectation of our police department,
I suspect we have a lot of citizens in this community who also have expectations
of our police department to shut down a noisy, disagreeable noise, raucous, loud
party. So we have different people with different standards and I find that this is
the best partnership kind of proposal that I have seen in a long time. So I will be
supporting this.
Norton/Emie, is there- Didn't we learn that when you went to a magistrate with a case,
that ordinarily if the police officer was the only person bringing the charges, that
they would prefer to have a neighbor bring the charge? Ordinarily they would like
to have somebody else besides themselves, right? As long-
Kubby/That is how the magistrate are interpreting our current ordinance, yeah.
Norton/In this case most of the time it is not going to be just the police officer. To make
a case stick, he probably is going to want to have somebody else if he can find
them as being disturbed as well as himself. It is not just this judgement or her
judgement. I am not sure whether this does what we want but I don't have any
trouble giving the police officer if nobody else is making the claim and there is a
manifested disturbance going on. Why he can't bring a charge then.
Thomberry/Like you said, a manifest disturbance and the neighbors see a police officer
drive by and see it and not stop, they are going to have complaints also.
Kubby/That is not how the police have stated that they deal with things. That when they
see something, many of them do stop and interact, whether or not there has been a
neighborhood complaint, that is what was stated at our public heating by the
police field operations.
Champion/But they have no authority to do anything.
Lehman/Seems to me that this is one of the main purposes for this entire ordinance is to
give the officers the authority to file charges. This is like- If everybody doesn't
object to people driving 90 mph down their street, let people drive 90 mph. We
don't do that. We say officers, the speed limit is 25, you got to give a ticket and
they do that because they are breaking the law. I don't really see a whole lot of
difference. We are enabling the police of enforce laws. I- To me that is the whole
purpose of the ordinance.
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Norton/Well, that is the first part of it, isn't. The second part is to allow them to ask for
restoring order.
Lehman/First, yeah.
Norton/Then if that doesn't happen, if they have issued an arrest, right, or a citation.
O'Donnell/We heard over and over again how people are afraid of retaliation if they call
the police. They are afraid of property damage, they are afraid of their cars being
bashed up and I think this is just a common sense issue. This is- Like the police
said, you are not even going to know this is enforced unless you are putting
mattresses in the front yard and flipping off the roof onto them.
Thornberry/Well, I think Karen has a motion.
Lehman/We have a motion for an amendment. Seconded by Conhie. Is that a roll call
vote on an amendment? All in favor of the amendment say aye- (aye: Kubby).
Opposed- (ayes). Defeated, 6-1. Is there further discussion on the ordinance?
Kubby/I would like to move another amendment that we delete in Section B in the
authority to restore order and disperse. To delete up to and including ordering the
dispersal of persons from the subject premises. So this- My amendment would
allow the police to restore order but not to disperse people.
Lehman/Is there a second to that amendment? The amendment fails for a lack of second.
Further discussion. We have a move for adoption. Further discussion?
Kubby/Well, I am going to be voting against the ordinance even though I like the new
definition and that I realize that parties, a small percentage of parties are a
problem and that there is a section of town that tends to have more than others
although that could change over time as well. So that is really not relevant. I am
still feeling very uncomfortable with having a police officer take over the role of
the community in defining what is a disturbance in this particular case. And I just
feel very uncomfortable about giving the police the power to disperse a crowd.
Champion/Well, as everybody knows, I have had some problems with this ordinance but
after hearing the public comment on it and heating the police last p.h., I am going
to support the ordinance and hope that I am right in doing it. But I feel like to
need to support the police department and the citizens. I am going to support it.
Norton/I want to make a point, Emie, about we have a discussion coming up with
students. I am going to support the ordinance as written although I am going to
listen. This is the first reading. I am going to listen to some student talk on the 9th,
Monday evening the 9th when we meet some representatives of students, anyhow.
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And it is conceivable that things will come up there that would change my mind
but at the moment, I think this has been looked at by people who have been
involved in Stepping Up and other programs and it seems to me a reasonable way
to try to give a few more options to try to keep these disturbances from disrupting
neighborhoods on a pretty consistent basis in a few cases, time after time.
Thornberry/I don't want to speak for the University staff but I think that we have gotten
the word pretty clearly from the University staff that they are really appreciate us
doing something like this sort.
Norton/One little nagging question would be that if the police can be the complainant,
will that mean the neighbors will be less likely to do that. I think it will be a
stronger case if both.
Thomberry/I hope that the neighbors still complain when they feel they are being
infringed upon. But maybe the police department does not or won't need their
signature to disperse them.
Kubby/We could go through neighborhood associations, encouraging them to continue
to call.
Thomberry/That is correct, you bet.
Lehman/My traderstanding from the p.h., from the police officers, they expect there will
be very little difference in the way they stop at parties. They probably are still
going to operate on a complaint basis but they will have a little more authority
once they get on the premises to disperse the party which makes their job, you
know, easier. Roll call-
Dilkes/Something that Dean said I just want to clarify. We don't presently need a
signature by a neighborhood. We just need a call by the-
Thomberry/Except that the judges look at it more favorably. Oh, I mean for the police
department.
Dilkes/Yeah, we don't- The actual complaint would be signed most likely by a police
officer and the magistrate have taken, you know, testimony by a police officer
that they were dispatched in response to a call.
Kubby/I guess one of the things I want to clarify is this is not a party ordinance. This is a
disorderly house ordinance. It may be that it is enforced mostly on parties. But
one of my problems with the dispersal thing is that if there is a group of people
who are gathering and have an argument or have some political discourse that
gets raucous, this can be used against those kinds of legal assemblies that now,
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because of an officer's discretion and may disperse the gathering and it is not an
alcohol related event. And so I just want to make sure that we are understanding
that this is not just about alcohol parties. And so that is one of the problems I have
with the dispersal.
Norton/I can't imagine that happening many times and the police officer still on the
force.
Lehman/I can't either.
Lehman/Roll call- (yes; Kubby-no). We are going to take a short break after this. But we
are meeting on Monday night at 6:00 with some University students and
discussing this with them.
Kubby/Right, November 9th at 6:00 PM in the Terrace Lobby and the format is not so
much a round table discussion. They have kind of just invited us to come and
listen. Some of them- I think Eleanor is going to be there and talk a little about
what the ordinance does and doesn't do. Captain Widmer and Hamey both would
like to be there to talk about how they currently enforce the current ordinance,
how they would enforce the new ordinance and then it is going to kind of be
students debating each other, the pros and cons.
Lehman/What is council's role going to be?
Kubby/Council' s role is to sit and listen to the debate and it may or may not persuade
you to continue to support the ordinance or to make changes in further readings or
to vote against or change your mind. So it is a listening thing and then there will
be cross discussions amongst everyone who is there. Just kind of a short
presentation, debate style, educational programming and then-
CHANGE TAPE TO REEL 98-124 SIDE 2
Lehman/In other words, the council is going to be an observer.
Kubby/Yeah except during the discussion students may have questions for council.
Lehman/Short break.
Karr/Could we have a motion to accept correspondence for this one?
Lehman/Moved by Norton, seconded by Thomberry. All in favor- (ayes). Motion
carried.
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#15 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST
CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF WATER MAIN PHASE 4, EMERALD
STREET TO THE PENINSULA PROJECT.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #15). We received six bids. The low bid was
$1,210,687.22. The estimate was $1,189,500. Very close. Moved by Norton,
seconded by Kubby. Discussion.
Kubby/And just as a FYI, Langrnan Construction, I talked with Chuck Langman. They
are a union company and they will be hiring from our local union halls and I
learned-
Thomberry/Who cares?
Kubby/I care.
Thornberry/I don't care. They got the lowest bid and I am sure they will do a good job.
Whether they are union or non-union, it doesn't make any difference.
Kubby/One of the things I learned about this particular company is that they have by
design limited their geographic range so they can be anywhere with big
equipment within three hours. So that if there is some kind of problem, they can
be there. So I feel like we will get really good service out of this company.
Lehman/Roll call- (yes).
Norton/One question before we leave- Is this the first time for this firm?
Schrnadeke/Yes, it is the first time they have worked in Iowa City but they have worked
in the area before.
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#16 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF
TEMPORARY CONSTRUCTION AND PERMANENT EASEMENTS FOR THE
CONSTRUCTION OF THE SUMMIT STREET BRIDGE RECONSTRUCTION
PROJECT [BRM - 3715(13) -- 8N -52].
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #16). Moved by Norton, seconded by Thornberry. This is
necessary for the reconstruction of Summit Street Bridge which I think will take
place probably in about a year. We have got to acquire property for the
approaches. Discussion.
Thornberry/We saw pictures of that bridge. It is safe enough to travel over with buses
and large trucks and so on? Is there a weight restriction on that bridge at this
time?
Denny Gannon/There is a weight restriction on it now.
Lehman/Is there really?
Gannon/Yes, there is. I can't recall what it is but there is.
Thornberry/We saw pictures of that bridge and it is-
Gannon/It is not good. It is restricted for certain- I am not sure- City buses don't go on it.
I don't believe school buses do either. And it is also restricted for a certain
tonnage for trucks.
Norton/It was built by elves, let me tell you.
Lehman/I don't think you should have said that. It might not have been politically
correct.
Norton/I might offend an elf someplace7
Lehman/It is getting close to the season. Roll call-
Champion/Wait a minute. I have a comment.
Lehman/Wait a minute, Connie can't vote.
Champion/Yes, I can. I can vote on the bridge. Just in case because this won't come back
to us again until probably a~er you start construction. I just want to say, talking to
the neighborhood that this bridge has been dreaded being built by the residents of
this neighborhood because they kept thinking it would not fit in and look terrible
and I think the neighborhood is really comfortable and very pleased with the way
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city staff handled this in working with the neighborhood to create a bridge that is,
of course not acceptable to everybody, but the neighborhood is very pleased with
the outcome and I think staff sometimes needs to be acknowledged for the good
job they do in the community and I am proud of that, especially since I am on the
city council and will be voting on it. Also that we are all looking forward to the
bridge being done so the street will be closed for awhile.
O'Donnell/Traffic calming.
Lehman/The ultimate traffic calming. Thank you, Connie. Roll call- (yes).
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#17 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN
AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY
OF IOWA CITY AND MERCY IOWA CITY TO USE A PORTION OF THE
JOHNSON STREET RIGHT-OF-WAY FOR THE INSTALLATION,
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE OF A FIBER OPTIC CABLE
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #17). Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thomberry.
Discussion.
Kubby/You know the nastiest little comer of me wants to say to Mercy that you
wouldn't give the community a little longer, a realistic amount of time to move
houses that are now not in existence anymore. That that is not how we do business
in Iowa City.
Lehman/And that would be nasty.
Kubby/It would be and it would be inappropriate but it has been nagging at me and I
guess I just want to acknowledge that in general I think we try to take the high
road.
Lehman/We just did. Roll call- (yes). Motion carried.
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#19 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING FUNDING FOR THE
AIRPORT COMMISSION TO PROCEED WITH CONSTRUCTION OF A 120'
BY 140' AIRCRAFT HANGAR BUILDING, INCLUDING 20' BY 60' OFFICE
AREA, AT THE IOWA CITY MUNICIPAL AIRPORT.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #19). Moved by Thomberry, seconded by O'Donnell. The
low bid for this is from Wendler Engineering and Construction for $681,000.
Discussion. I have a question and Ron you are here. We are funding this airport
hangar office facility with the expectation, am I not correct, that this will be
repaid to the city?
Ron O'Neil/That is correct. We have a signed lease with Iowa City Flying Service, 20
year lease, for this building.
Lehman/I think it is important that the council and public realize that this may be- We
are facilitating the building of this building but that this building will pay for
itself, including interest.
O'Neil/That is correct and Don crunched the numbers and put in with interest for the
monthly payments.
Lehman/Okay, I think that is important that we realize that. Thank you, Ron. Other
discussion? Roll call- (yes; No-Kubby).
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#20 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE INVESTMENT POLICY
FOR THE CITY OF IOWA CITY.
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #20). Changes are minor. Could we have a motion and a
second and we will ask Mr. Yucuis to explain it? Moved by Norton, seconded by
Thornberry and Don would you, in a thumbnail, tell us what we are-
Yucuis/Really just two minor changes. One is in language that coincides with the State
Code and the other section is we have changed our reporting to the city council to
quarterly and I think prior to that we had it every six months. We changed that to
quarterly: one to get it into policy officially.
Lehman/This isn't going to change our investments?
Yucuis/No, it does not.
Lehman/A housekeeping sort of thing?
Yucuis/Yes, it is.
Lehman/Thank you, Don.
Kubby/I have a question. It is not about the changes. When we- We have a lot of our
money in financial institutions and do we look at their Community Reinvestment
Act portfolio in deciding where to put our money? And I am not talking about a
situation that might reduce liquidity, retum or increase risk in anyway?
Yucuis/We do not look at that at all, Karen. We look at best rate at the time we have
money to reinvest. With the state law in what we can invest in, we are really
restricted on what we can invest in. Govemment securities, certificates of
deposits, those are the two areas that we look at fight now. Certificates of deposit
have been the better return for us rather than govemment securities but we don't
look at that. In fact recently we had a couple of institutions that called and said we
have too much money in our account, can we back off on that and at the time we
didn't want to because the interest rate was pretty good for us but we don't really
look at that.
Kubby/I mean looking at the Community Reinvestment Act portfolio helps us live out
some of our housing goals, for example, to make sure that financial institutions
have a good record of community involvement and investing on the board and are
providing affordable housing opportunities in the private sector and it is a way of
providing another form of incentive by directing our money without losing any of
the benefits that our policy outlines. So what we look for in investments. So I
actually would love to talk about that at some time.
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Norton/We can do that, legally we can do that in other words. Put some strings on where
we are going to go with our investments.
Kubby/Yeah, that is what the CRA is partially about. To use it as a tool for analyzing.
Lehman/Isn't our primary objective in investing the return, number one?
Yucuis/Risk.
Lehman/Well, return and risk.
Yucuis/Correct.
Kubby/And I am not suggesting that we should change any of that.
Lehman/All things being equal, what you are saying would be a factor. Thank you.
Kubby/Maybe I will put something in writing and send it to council to request we look at
that which might be a future change.
Champion/I think it is fine to consider but I also think then you have to have criteria.
What is community reinvestment? I mean, how are you going to guide? It may
not be housing, it may be something else they are doing for the community. I
don't think there are very many banks that don't put a huge amount of investment
in the community.
Kubby/The federal law outlines what constitutes things that would go into a Community
Reinvestment Act portfolio. So we wouldn't be inventing anything, although we
may need to analyze their portfolio which is something- Like Steve has them
stacked in his office somewhere, he looks at them.
O'Donnell/We can look at all of that but we are after the least amount of risk and the
most interest.
Kubby/I have never talked about sacrificing those things.
O'Donnell/Good.
Lehman/This is a discussion for another time. Roll call- (yes).
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#21 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING JOINT AGREEMENT
BETWEEN THE IOWA CITY LIBRARY BOARD OF TRUSTEES AND THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY TO COORDINATE
NEGOTIATING PROCEDURES FOR PURPOSES OF COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING
Lehman/(Reads agenda item #21). This is an arrangement that has been in place since
the inception of bargaining in 1975. Moved by Norton, seconded by Vanderhoef.
Discussion. Roll call- (yes).
Norton/Why does this have to come up every year? It can't be just a standing-
Kubby/We haven't done this negotiation for three years.
Lehman/It is not every year.
Norton/Oh, that is fight, every three. Why couldn't it be just a standing policy.
Dale Helling/It probably could except the Board has passed this traditionally each time
we bargain.
Norton/Oh, I see, the Library Board you mean?
Helling/Right.
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#24 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION
Lehman/City council information. Who would like to start?
Norton/I will start. I just got one item. You will like that. The question is do we have
something coming up with the PCRB? Steve, you have been having some
correspondence with them about time limits and I thought the council has some
issues they wanted to discuss with them. So I just wanted to get that in the hopper
that we don't forget to meet with them pretty soon to make sure we are on the
same page. We have their procedures too, don't we?
Lehman/Dee, that was an item I was going to bring up. No, no and Karen mentioned
when we talked about receiving their report, this being the first report after the
first full year. That probably should have some significance and I tend to agree. I
also think that at that point we should look at the ordinance and what we intended
for them to do and how it is working, if there are things we can do to make their
job easier. It would be nice to get a report from staff as to how things are working
so we can generally evaluate how the process has worked for the entire year and if
there is ways, something that we can do to make the process work smoother. And
I would like to see us do that at the same time. I think the last meeting we had
something on the agenda which we postponed until the 17th.
Karr/You deferred the standard operating procedures.
Lehman/Yes and I don't know it will be ready at that point. But at whatever point that is
ready, I would like for us to go ahead and evaluate where we are, where we are
going, what is happening.
Kubby/I would only ask that you wouldn't do then at that first meeting in December if it
does come up that quickly because there will be two of us gone at that meeting.
Lehman/No, no, I think we all should be- I have no problem with that.
Dilkes/It is our intention to make our recommendations on the standard operating
procedures on November 17 meeting. But I think that is going to be- I mean, just
that is going to be, you know, significant, I think. So you may want to do the rest
of it then after that point.
Lehman/Okay but I just think it would be well for us to look at it. Good point, Dee.
Norton/We have got to look at those procedures and we will discuss those presumably
on the 16th at our work session, Steve?
Atkins/I think that is how it is planned.
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Norton/Because I noticed they met 46 times or something. I am a little bit worded about
workloads on some of these commissions. I think we have to be careful.
Lehman/I think we need t make sure that what we expect from them is clearly defined.
We will talk about it.
Kubby/Well, the first year we would expect that because they were writing by-laws, they
were writing procedures and complaint forms and all of that.
Norton/It was heavier than usual. We heard that before that it is always the case the first
year. Remember in Berkley and other places.
Lehman/Okay.
Vanderhoef/Just a couple of announcements, basically and it follows right along with
PCRB in a fashion. We will be starting in Iowa City the Citizens Police Academy.
It will be starting in February and it runs through April and meets once a week on
Thursday nights. It is a three hour time commitment each of those nights. So it is
pretty intense. The cost on it is $20 and I would encourage citizens to apply. The
registration deadline is December 11 at 5:00 PM. So think about it. See if you
have that kind of time. We would appreciate people learning more about our
police department.
Second announcement is Wednesday night also at the time while we are meeting
with the students, I see. From 4:00 to 7:00 here in council chambers, they will be
receiving the citizen input for the Transit Study.
Lehman/That is what night?
Vanderhoef/Wednesday, November 4.
Lehman/Well, we don't have a meeting that night. Monday night.
Vanderhoef/Excuse me then. I thought it was doubling up there.
Norton/This is where they are asking the public to come talk about transit issues.
Lehman/Right.
Vanderhoef/The study has been done and as I understand it, they will get public input,
work on the study a little bit more and bring it back to us for future reference. So
if anyone has comments about our transit, please come on November 4th. That is
it.
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Thornberry/Last week TCI was instrumental in bringing to Iowa City C-Span Tube Bus.
They have two buses, they are bright yellow. I learned a lot about these buses. I
went through the program. They were at West High School and I went through
that. They can broadcast from those buses through satellite to the country. It is
just unbelievable. They had kids come in, a group at a time, went through a lot of
the news that had been going on, pictures of people, who are they and those kids
knew who those people were from- It doesn't matter who they were. Whoever
was on the news, they knew who they were and what they were about and the kids
are pretty sharp now. They are up on the national news, international news and the
C-Span bus was here for just a few hours on its way to the Quad Cities for
tonight' s election results.
O'Donnell/I just have a couple of things. The Woolf Avenue Bridge is about to open and
are we going to have a ribbon cutting ceremony?
Lehman/Yes.
Atkins/Apparently we are.
Lehman/Wednesday, the 18th, at 4:00 PM, there will be a ribbon cutting ceremony for
the Woolf Avenue Bridge. The 18th, 4:00 PM and the folks up there in Manville
Heights are so excited about that. They called and asked if we could have a ribbon
cutting and I said I would be more than happy to do it.
O'Donnell/At the same time we should recognize the workers up there because they
have done an outstanding job on that bridge.
Also I have had mm~y favorable comments on our downtown. However the
benches are taking somewhat of a beating by the skateboarders and we are trying
to come up with a solution to that fight now.
My final thing is that I just hope that everybody voted today. That is it.
Champion/I just want to encourage people to go to the public transit meeting. As I was
driving last week I had to stop because the bus was having trouble turning a
comer. And I just reflected a little bit on how our family has used the bus system
since I have been in Iowa City from the time it was free. And I still use it a lot and
I thought how lucky we are for this size of community to have this. It is a really
great transit system and I really hope people will come and give some more input
and I wish it was free again.
Thornberry/In the 40's I rode it for a nickel. It was before then that it was free.
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Champion/In '63 it was free.
Thornberry/'63 and '64. They charged me a nickel.
(All talking).
Norton/I rode the streetcar, come on.
Lehman/I suppose an elephant pulled it. All right.
Kubby/I had a couple of things. One is to invite people. November is really busy. On
Wednesday, November 11, 4:00 to 6:00, a Thousand Friends of Iowa which is
kind of a new citizens group who are kind of united to talk statewide about
responsible land use, to protect rural areas so that they can remain rural and urban
areas as they grow to not be too sprawling because that has affect on the urban
and rural residents. That is Wednesday, November 11, 4:00 to 6:00. And it is a
lecture called Growing Smart at the Public Library. Thank you. And what they
want to do is get feedback about some of these issues to just talk about what are
logical growth patterns for the State of Iowa. They are really facing that
challenge. The Legislature has a study committee on this issue and one of the
folks who was very instrumental in that is Ed Talon who is representative from
Des Moines who helps found this organization. So I hope people can go to that as
well. It is on Wednesday.
Everyone is encouraging people to vote and this is one of my constant things that
I say is that I think it is crazy that we meet on election night. For those of us up
here who want to get involved in partisan politics of whatever party you may
belong to. For the people who have business to conduct for city employees who
need to be here, it means that on election night one of the important parts of
participating in our system is encouraging other people to get out and vote and
that prevents all of the people who were here tonight from having that option. In
the future, again, would implore us, whether it is a city election or state or federal
national election, to not meet on election night.
I can't remember where I was reading this. It reminded me that we have never
gotten kind of a final report about TCI's rebuild and exactly how many days
passed the deadline they finished the rebuild and how much fine money that they
will be paying and if we could just get a half a page on that sometime.
Helling/We can do that. Right now we are in the process of looking at their technical
stuff to make sure the rebuild is complete. Once we confirm that, we will get you
a report.
Kubby/That would be great.
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Helling/And that should be in the near future.
Kubby/And a reminder about what we are doing with the money would be good, too.
Helling/Okay.
Kubby/Thank you.
Lehman/A big party.
Kubby/And lastly, lastly. The leaves are coming down. Be sure that you know when the
leaf vacuum is going to be coming down in your area of town and please make
sure that you rake the leaves to the curb, not over the curb. It is a safety issue. It
helps prevent leaves from stopping up storm drains. So if there are large rains,
your neighborhood is not flooded.
Thornberry/How do they find out when that truck is coming down? Is that put out in the
water bills?
Kubby/Yes, in the water bills there was a map but people could call the Streets Division
and tell them your address and they will tell you the dates and there are multiple
dates so you don't have to have it just in this tiny window. You get a couple of
window oppommities to get your leaves to the curbs. That is all I have.
Lehman/Did you have one more thing?
Thornberry/I would like to thank all of the people who were involved in the political
arena for this election. Win, lose or draw, you put just as much effort to lose as
you did to win and that is getting involved and I like people getting involved in
politics.
Lehman/Okay, I have got a couple of things. We have talked informally and at one work
session about the possibility that we would consider putting traffic signals on
Kirkwood. If there is interest in the part of council, I would like to see that
become a work session item, especially after the discussions we had relative to
Highland. Do we have folks interested in talking about that?
Norton/Can't hurt to discuss it.
Lehman/All fight. The meeting with the Board of Supervisors we talked about last night.
We had thought it was going to be on the 16th. It is not going to work. Is there an
alternative date, Madan?
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Karr/They called late this afternoon and came up with two dates, either December 1 or
December 7, perhaps at 4:30 but are willing to consider other dates if you have
some. 16th and 17th won't work. They mentioned a couple of other dates but their
desire is to have everyone there and a couple of other dates that they mentioned
council members were gone. So these are the two remaining ones.
Champion/1 st and 7th, what days of the week?
Norton/What is the 1st, a Monday?
Lehman/The 1st of December happens to be a council meeting night which means-
Karr/December 7th is an off Monday.
Norton/Let's do that. It is a good night.
Kubby/I am gone on the 1st but I don't have a problem with me not being here for that
particular discussion because-
Karr/Dee Vanderhoefis gone too, though.
Vanderhoef/I am gone also.
Karr/I feel like we are pretty united in this. So I don't feel a need to-
Karr/Connie, are you gone the 1st also?
Champion/No, I just asked what day of the week it is.
Karr/It is a Monday. We have two council members gone on the 1st. The 7th is the
following Monday.
Vanderhoef/And what date are we taking out?
Karr/We are taking off the early start time of the 16th at 5:00. We will have our regular
work session start time.
Norton/What did we find? Are there two people missing on the 7th?
Karr/On the 7th there is no one missing that I know of.
Lehman/All fight, the 7th at what time?
Karr/4:30.
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Lehman/The 7th at 4:30.
Karr/4:30 to 6:00.
Champion/It is not going to take an hour and a hale
Lehman/No, it may not.
Champion/I think we should allow enough time because I think it is going to take as
much time as we have available. I don't think it is worth an hour and a half.
Kubby/Actually the overall issue of making sure we are going to live up to our
agreement is definitely worth and hour and a half but I don't know if the specifics
are worth it.
Lehman/Connie, I don't know it is going to last that long but I do think this is an
important meeting to have.
Champion/I am not saying it is not important. I just think the amount of discussion will
fise to meet the time available.
Norton/That is true.
Karr/So start time at 4:30?
Lehman/All fight. The other thing that we are going to need to be doing rather soon is
before we get our own schedules together for the month of January, we need to be
talking about dates that we can meet and talk about budget issues. We don't have
to set those dates but we do have a deadline with the state and we have a p.h. for
budget and all that sort of thing.
Atkins/Think about January.
Lehman/We should think about January and really I believe that the next work session
we really should try to at least tentatively set some dates in January. So we should
check our calendars.
Atkins/Please do.
Lehman/Don't schedule anything until- We do need to get those meetings scheduled. I
think Madan said last year we met I think- Didn't you tell me, five times.
Karr/You met four times in January.
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Lehman/We are going to have an abbreviated budget this year which will be easier to
read but we will work on that on the 17th.
Thornberry/What we might have to do is a multi-budget. It might take a little more time
because whether the sales tax passes or whether it doesn't pass.
Lehman/That will all be part of the budget.
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#25 REPORT ON ITEMS FROM THE CITY MANAGER AND CITY
ATTORNEY
Lehman/Steve, do you have anything?
Atkins/Two items. Don't forget the 19th, the Employee Luncheon. Be there, 11:00 to
1:00, the Employee Luncheon.
Champion/I will be happy to work.
Atkins/We expect you to work.
(All talking).
Kubby/Someone can take over coffee pouting from me. Dee and I usually do- Actually
Dee, Dean and I usually do a lot of the drinks and I am out of town that day.
Norton/I will be there. I want to be close to the food though.
Atkins/11:00 to 1:00.
Lehman/It is really a fun dinner. I would encourage everybody to go.
Champion/I just thought I was coming to eat.
Atkins/The second item is something I am particularly proud of. For the third year a
group of city employees will be heading out this weekend on Saturday to rake
leaves for folks who cannot get it done themselves. This year is a little different
because of some scheduling, we have a number of employees that are going to
take off Friday afternoon, their own time, they are on vacation to do the same
service. For that they deserve 'atta boys' and 'atta girls.' That is all I have.
Lehman/Eleanor-
Dilkes/Nothing.
Karr/I
have one quick thing. I just wanted to bring you up to date. We will be reviewing,
as you know, for the first time an address review procedure for the 2000 Census.
And this is the first time that any municipality or jurisdiction has been asked to
vetify the addresses before the questionnaires go out. And we have 90 days to do
that. The information was sent to us, we crossed check it against our database
containing utilities, parcel numbers and case files and we found a discrepancy of
9,000 addresses. So what we will be doing we will be tiding with, we have
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discussed this with staff. We will be tiding with our refuse collectors each day for
a week, four different routes with clipboard in hand and verifying addresses.
Champion/What a great way of doing it.
Karr/It is a great way to deal with it. They are real excited about it. I think it is a good
way to do it and then we will, of course, on the multiple units we will have to do
that with a walker.
Norton/9,000. Is that an implication that we missed that many?
Karr/It certainly is an indication. We called other neighboring larger cities and they are
finding similar discrepancies. Until we checked them out we don't know what it
means. We just know that there is 9,000 that doesn't match.
Atkins/An important thing to point out. An important thing to point out, Marian, is that
when we invested in having the special census, realizing the information they
were working with- You know, it seemed like it was flawed.
Lehman/Can we call them back?
Atkins/Can't call them back, they don't do that.
Vanderhoef/I am correct, they only went to the addresses that the federal census sent out
to us?
Karr/In the Special Census, Dee? The Special Census, we didn't get the address list we
have now. We got maps. We updated those maps, sent them back, we assumed
those changes were made. We had no way of knowing that at this time unless we
had people say they didn't get counted. All we have is the totals and the maps.
Norton/Some heads ought to roll.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Dounell (to adjourn). All in favor-
(ayes). Meeting is adjourned.
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