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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-07-05 Transcription#3 Page 1 ITEM 3 CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED Champion: Move adoption. Bailey: Second. Lehman: Moved by Champion; seconded by Bailey. Discussion? Roll call. Motion carries. Wilburn: Excuse me, Mr. Mayor. Lehman: Yes. Wilburn: Who was the group who asked for the Right to Vote Act Proclamation? Karr: I don't have that information. I don't know. Vanderhoef: That was one that I brought back from one of my national meetings. Alderman from Chicago was working with the National League of Cities, trying to get people aware that this was not an automatic or minority groups, and requested that we put this on the agenda. Wilburn: Oh, could we, could we have that read then? Would you mind? I know that's not... Lehman: No, no, I don't mind reading it. We don't routinely read proclamations when there is no one interested... Wilburn: I would be glad to accept it on behalf of somebody. Lehman: I would be pleased to give it to you. Vanderhoef: Good. Wilburn: All right. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #2 ITEM 2 PROCLAMATION a. The Right to Vote Act of 1965 — August 6, 2005 Lehman: (reads proclamation) Elliott: Thanks, Ross. Bailey: Thank you, Ross. Wilburn: Thank you for your flexibility. (laughter) Lehman: My pleasure. Page 2 Wilburn: I know in Iowa City and Johnson County we all take voting very seriously and the right to vote, and go to what lengths we can to make sure that voting is seen as a right and that it's accessible for all. That's not always, hasn't always been the case, and it isn't always the case in certain parts of the country, so, thank you again for reading this. I think it was important to remind us. Vanderhoef: And I would like to go one step further. I ... now that we have read the proclamation, I would like to se this proclamation forwarded to our Congressional Delegation so that they are equally aware and can take action on this at the appropriate time. Wilburn: That'd be great. Lehman: Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. rm ITEM 4 COMMUNITY COMMENT Page 3 Lehman: This is the time reserved on the agenda for folks to address the Council on items that do not otherwise appear on the agenda. If you wish to address the Council, please sign; give your name, and limit your comments to five minutes or less. Spaziani: Hi, my name is Carol Spaziani. I'm the Co -Chair of Citizens for Public Power. It's a grassroots citizen group which petitioned to place the question of a City -owned electric utility on the City election ballot for November 8`h. Having spent most of my adult life as a librarian, devoted to helping people find the information they need, I'm here in hopes of clarifying some misinformation being circulated by Mid -American Electric about the meaning of the two questions on the November 81h ballot. Citizens will be asked to vote on them, and I feel that they need this information. We place this question on the ballot to preserve the City Council's options as it deliberates on whether a municipal electric utility would be in the best interest of the City. By Iowa law, the Council could not proceed with any formal steps in this direction without a "yes" vote on this question. The question on the ballot, taken from 388.2 of the Iowa Code, is: "Shall the City of Iowa City in the County of Johnson, Iowa, be authorized to establish as a City utility, an electric light and power plant and system." Should November 8th bring support from the voters, the Council would be authorized to proceed. Authorized is not the same as required. The intent of the law is clear: to preserve the Council's options as it continues to develop its plans. Steps after a "yes" vote could include appointment of a knowledgeable board of trustees; development of a sound business plan, building on the work already done in the Latham "Feasibility Study" which you commissioned; (can't hear) support; preparation of a case and submission of a request to the Iowa Utilities Board, which would determine a reasonable price for system acquisition; and decide if the change is in the public interest. At every step, the Council may reconsider. A "yes" vote is by no means a done deal, which is what this brochure, mailed to 30,000 Iowa City residents, would lead people to believe. On the other hand, a "no" vote November 8th, would preclude the Council from taking any further formal action and the question could not be placed on the ballot again for another four years. Contrary to the statements being made by Mid -American Energy, that the horse is out of the barn and this would be a blank check for you all to race ahead as you wished, I do not believe that any Iowa City Council, this one or the one that would be elected in November, would charge ahead to spend money on something that is not in the best interest of Iowa City. Thank you. Lehman: Thank you, Carol. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #4 Page 4 Givens: Good evening. My name is Robert Givens. I'm here as President of the Hawkeye Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. And I ... although we already distributed to the Council the following resolution, I would like to read it. It was passed at our last meeting by unanimous vote. Whereas... this is about the hiring of a new Iowa City police chief... whereas a police chief plays a central role in protecting the citizens of a community, including their civil and constitutional freedoms; whereas, effective and positive community interaction is a key function of a police chief, whereas, it would be n the best interests of the Iowa City community that the city council should seek input from citizens in the filling of exceptionally important positions that require extensive public contact; whereas, any process in choosing a police chief should be fair, transparent, and democratic; be it resolved, by the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, Hawkeye Area Chapter that: we support and encourage the Iowa City Council to make its hiring decision in an open session subject to debate and public commentary; the resumes of finalist candidates should be readily available for public review; as is practical and feasible, that finalists should be encouraged to meet with the public and/or groups expressing a desire to meet with them prior to the Council's hiring decision. This was approved at our meeting in late June. Thank you. Lehman: Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #5 Page 5 ITEM 5 PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS g. Consider an ordinance conditionally changing the zoning designation of approximately 54 acres from public/intensive commercial (P/CI-1) zone to community commercial (CC -2) zone for Aviation Commerce Park (REZ05-00004) (Pass and Adopt) Vanderhoe£ Move to adopt. Wilburn: Second. Lehman: Moved by Vanderhoef; seconded by Wilburn. Discussion? Elliott: I'm in favor of the rezoning, but I do not like, I very much dislike some of the requirements that are here. For one thing, people have talked about the buildings on the north end of town, when people come to town and see NCS Pearson, A.C.T. — those buildings would not be allowed here. I just, I just think the City has no business getting into things like whether or not there are three slopes on a roof or how large the overhang must be. I just, I just think it's totally out of line. Lehman: Well, let me ... if I'm not mistaken, and I think this is correct, the developers of this project have agreed to the conditions requested by the City, so they do not object. Elliott: Correct, correct. Lehman: Other discussion? Roll call. The motion carries 4 to 3; Elliott, Champion, and Bailey voting in the negative. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. Page 6 ITEM 9 CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A FRANCHISE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY, IOWA AND MCC IOWA LLC (MEDIACOM) TO OPERATE A CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM IN IOWA CITY Champion: Move adoption. Vanderhoef: Second. Lehman: Moved by Champion; seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion? O'Donnell: You know, this is going to pass, but I do have problems with the 13 years; I have a problem with the lower tier and a higher tier, without a medium tier, but I believe that our Commission has negotiated a contract as well as can be negotiated, so I'm going to end up supporting this. Champion: Thirteen years is not very long in a city's life. (laughter) O'Donnell: Thirteen years is long in anybody's life. (laughter) Lehman: Is there any other discussion? Bailey: I'm not going to be voting in favor of this. I think Bret outlined four reasons that we could not support this, and I'm not supporting it because I believe the company does not provide a reasonable quality of service, in light of community needs. That was, I think, his point number one, and I'm also questioning if the agreement meets the future cable related needs of our community. If you read the Customer Survey from 2004, it's evenly split — satisfaction and dissatisfaction — it's like 49.5% are satisfied with Mediacom and 49.3% are dissatisfied with Mediacom's service, so I would suggest that the service is not very well received, the quality of service is not benefiting our citizens, and when I talk about quality of service, I understand that the franchise agreement has negotiated some fine benefits to telecommunications within Iowa City, but I'm talking about value to consumers, and it seems to me that that ... it hasn't been clearly understood by some people when I talk about direct citizen value and what I'm saying is, give them a little bit of what they want, and since we can't really negotiate price in a franchise agreement, even though all of these franchise fees are passed through directly to the customer, I mean, they're essentially there for, or part of the price there, then let's give them a little value, and what they want with value are some options, and this franchise agreement didn't even speak to provide options for customers, and so I don't see how we can support something that doesn't provide value to our citizens. Citizens are clearly not that satisfied with the quality of service from this company. So I can't support the Franchise Agreement This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #9 Page 7 — 13 years or 1 year or whatever, I just don't think it gets to what we need to be getting to with an agreement with a company that's providing a very essential service to our citizens. So I won't be supporting this. Elliott: Neither will I be supporting this. I initially was planning to at least only consider voting against it because I think that 13 years is simply too long in a high-tech field such as this, which can change drastically, virtually over night. Since that, and I watch Mediacom, especially late at night and especially on certain items, but I think one of my concerns also is that the initial, or the primary tier of channels that we get, has neither a weather station nor news station, and I think one of the things that should be required is that the initial tier, the basic product that you get if you pay Mediacom to provide your TV picture, should be 24 hour a day weather, 24 hour a day news. Whatever news channel that might be, I think it should be there. Kind of piggybacking on what Regenia said, I think that Mediacom, and I've talked with some friends of mine who are very strongly appreciative of the local TV channeling that we have, and the service that it does for local agencies, but I think that while they provide therefore exceptionally good service to maybe a small percentage of the people, they have done nothing to provide quality service to the strong majority of the people, and for that reason I would like to see us try to get more from Mediacom, and I would be voting against this. Bailey: I'd also like to add something that you just said. If the Telecommunication Commission believes that the value in this, in this agreement, is with our local programming, then I would challenge them to make sure that our local programming is of quality, technical quality, and good hour programming quality, because a lot of those stations aren't consistently presenting programming, and I think that we should have a minimum standard, if that's the value we perceive we're providing. I think that we should have some criteria for that. Lehman: Other discussion? Roll call. Motion carries 5 to 2; Elliott and Bailey voting in the negative. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #15 ITEM 15 CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION Page 8 Elliott: Three little items; first is to point out how persuasive Regenia and I are with our votes; secondly, this week, or a couple weeks ago maybe, Integrated DNA Technology provided just a significant cash gift to Iowa City for Iowa City's special events, not just Iowa City, but Iowa City and Coralville libraries. I have said before that I think we are past a time when citizens should look to the government to provide all of these things. I think people and businesses need to step up, take a look at what DNA Technologies ... my understanding is the main force behind this is a person who lives in Chicago, but still has a soft spot in his heart for Iowa City and I am so appreciative of this, and those thousands of people who were at the Jazz Fest and overeating the way I was, and listening to good sounds, I am just so tickled and so pleased. One more good item, I was at the Senior Center this afternoon and one of the things that happened, the room was filled with seniors and we sang some patriotic songs, and it was really kind of an emotional event because that is not to coin a phrase, the greatest generation. That's the generation that made it possible, I think to a large extent, for all of us to sit up here and be free, and say our peace. Thought it was great. Lehman: Thank you, Robert. Connie? Champion: It was a great 4`h of July weekend in Iowa City. Lehman: Mike? O'Donnell: Just a thank you to the Jaycees for the fireworks display; it was fantastic. I'd like to know how many people attended, if that's possible, but I know everybody had a good time. I truly enjoyed it, and once again, thanks to the Jaycees. Lehman: Dee? Vanderhoef: Two things; I'll echo what Bob said about the Jazz Fest, but I wanted the community to know that we have a couple of people in the community that were very responsible for starting the Jazz Fest, and have stayed with it for all these years, and they announced Saturday night that Steve Grismore is retiring from heading up the Jazz Fest, and I want him to know how important he has been and what a contribution he has made to this community. Elliott: Dee, quickly, I talked with Steve this afternoon. He said he is retiring as the head of it, but he will remain active with it, so I am pleased about that. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #15 Page 9 Vanderhoef: Well good, because I know Mark has stayed with it. Early on he was very instrumental and he still continues to work in the background, but not as the head of it. So thank you, fellas, and keep up the good work. The other one was that the fireworks gave me an opportunity last night. I can watch the fireworks from the corner of Tudor and First Avenue. You can see them up over the top of the trees up there, and it gave me an opportunity to meet a mother and daughter who live about a block and a half away that I had never met, and we stood up there and visited and thoroughly enjoyed the fireworks, and I had the fun of having a P grade girl go "ooh and ahh" with me, so thank you. Wilburn: In addition to the great music that happened at the Jazz Fest, I want to thank the citizens visiting town who did use the recycling bins; a lot of plastic; looked like it was being used pretty well. So, just good to see those things not going in the landfill. Also, on Sunday at ... from 1:00 until 4:00 at the Iowa City Landfill, recycling center area, the Iowa City Aerohawks will be having their radio controlled air show. It's always a good time. The price of admission is a can good donation for the Crisis Center, but it's always just a fun show to go see. They have dogfights... Lehman: With airplanes? Wilburn: With airplanes (laughter) need to get that! There's always a limbo competition they do to see how low they can fly the, but it's a really fun event for kids of all ages. Bailey: I just want to echo what people have said about the fireworks and the Jazz Fest and thank all the volunteers that made that possible for all of us, because it takes a lot of volunteer hours to make those events happen, and they were fantastic. The Jazz Fest did a great job with the weather. It rained a little bit. (several talking at once) Lehman: Well, I'll echo what was said previously, and I don't know that the rest of the Council remembers this, but Mr. Atkins is going to celebrate a big day in his life this week. I think it ends in a zero, and I think it's a birthday, so Happy Birthday, Steve, from all of us. Would you care to expound any... Atkins: Oh no! Lehman: I didn't think you would. Atkins: No, no, no. Lehman: Well, happy birthday, and do you have any comments? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005. #15 Page 10 Atkins: Just tell me I'm aging well. (laughter and several talking at once) Thank you. Lehman: Eleanor? Marian? Do we have a motion to adjourn? Vanderhoef: So moved. O'Donnell: Second. Lehman: All in favor? Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council meeting of July 5, 2005.