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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-02-09 Transcription#1 Page I Lehman/We're going to done one thing out of order tonight and it's something I've been looking forward to for a long time so bear with me just a sec. You know a lot of good things take a while to happen and we've been talking as a council for a number of years about adding a new officer to our police department, and we decided to do that last summer and tonight we have to introduce to you our newest officer Gallo. Officer Gist would you bring Gallo up here? He is the only dog named Gallo I know that's a "licker." I mean most Gallo's are wines. Now as you.. Audience/OH, Oh, Oh, Lehman/I'm sorry. Champion/Not a standup. Lehman/I yea right, I'll never make TV. I guess I did. As you know, when we decided to get a K-9 officer the council had some offers for folks in the community to help support the cost of the animal and also the maintenance of the animal. And were very very fortunate to have some support from the community but in particular we've received some outstanding support from the independent insurance agents. And I'd like to ask Don Flack to come up tonight and OK, he has a presentation to make, and RJ, as the chief of the new officer why don't you come on up here too. Don Flack/I'm Don Flack, I'm here as President Independent Insurance Agents in Johnson County. When we read about the idea of Gallo it just seemed like it made a lot of sense there's a lot of cities out there that have dogs like him. Can I call him a dog? Officer Gallo, he's looking at me out the comer of his eye. O'Donnell/Arrested. Flack/I want to say that as soon as we read about it we knew it was a good thing, it's, it provide, you know it promotes safety for the city but it also promotes safety for our police professionals. It seemed like the fight thing to do, therefore, Mayor Lehman, please accept $10,000 on behalf of our organization to support Gallo. Lehman/Thank you very much, on behalf of the council and the folks of Iowa City, I certainly want to express our sincere appreciation, this is you know a really a generous contribution to what obviously what we both believe a really tremendous project. RJ I'll let you hang on to that, I know it's in good hands there. And I would invite the council to come down and meet Gallo. And he really is a licker, he's a great dog. He's a little shy. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #1 Page 2 Norton/Does he shake hands? Lehman/It isn't, shaking he does. (People talking) ????/see there, start licking. Lehman/Yea. The officer whose in charge of this animal, and this really is his constant companion, is Ronny Gist. Ronny, Congratulations, glad to have you and your partner aboard. We think it's a great addition to the police department, we're looking forward to the dog meeting a lot of kids in the schools, and whatever, hoping walking the ped mall downtown and meeting some folks, I think it's just a great addition to, great addition to the police department so thank you again. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #2 Page 3 ITEM NO. 2. OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARD (Mark Twain Elementary) Lehman/And this, tonight they go to the citizens of Mark Twain Elementary School, if those folks would come up please. Carolaanna, Nicholas and Chang. I'm gonna have you folks read what you have written. Give your name first so folks know whose talking OK. Chang Chen/My teacher picked me for this award because I am nice to everyone I meet, I am polite to all the dots???? in the school building, I can't do much in the schools last fall. Having moved from New York I went as schools had tried to help me and I am happy to all. Being helpful and kind to others and brother in Mark Twain School, I am all fight, I am also ready each day to have for class. I clean my instructors with a smiles and a (cant hear). I come (can't hear) and work hard to do my class. I am happy to be chosen for outstanding citizen. Thank you very much. Carolanna Artz/I'm Lanna Artz and I was chosen for (can't hear) for work because I do a lot to help my school and I'm part of concept managers, safety patrol, I've done work with people who have disabilities, and thank you very much. Nicholas Alt/Hello, my name' s Nick Alt and I help my school by being a patrol guard, media center helper and a student ambassador. I also play my clarinet. When I'm a patrol guard I help younger kids cross the street. And at the end of the year I teach kids that who want to be patrol guard. In the media center helper program I put away library books and I also do different jobs in the media center. When I'm a student ambassador I show new kids around the school and greet them to teachers. When I play my clarinet, I learn to practice and so that kids at Mark Twain like to play music. I also learn to be on time for my lessons. Lastly, I would like to thank some great people, and they are my principal, Mr. Allen, and my sixth grade teacher, (can't hear) for giving this honor. Lehman/The award reads "For his outstanding qualities of Leadership with Mark Twain Elementary as well as the community and for a sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others we recognize these students as Outstanding Student Citizens, your community is proud of you, presented by the Iowa City City Council. Let's give them a hand. That's one of the really fun parts of being mayor, I have to admit it's more fun since I became a grampa. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #3 Page 4 ITEM NO. 3. MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS. Lehman/The next one is Proclamations for the Special Olympians, and I think we're gathering up front. (reads proclamation) Marian Karr/Mr. Mayor, here to accept is Joyce Rossie and the Iowa City Special Olympians. Joyce Rossie/Hi, I'm Joyce Rossie with the Las Vegas Live Steering Committee and a member of the Board of Directors for Special Olympics Iowa. Our fund raiser, Las Vegas Live, enables us to hold the midwinter toumament for over 1,000 special Olympians from across the state of Iowa. They compete in basketball, cheerleading, gymnastics, and power-lifting at the University of Iowa Fieldhouse, on March 20. The funds we raise cover meals and accommodations while the athletes attend their midwinter tournament here in Iowa City. Our committee thanks this council who has once again declared the month of March, Special Olympics Month. Without the support of the community, volunteers, metal???? sponsors, area businessmen who have donated prizes and the merchants of Eastdale Plaza who've allowed us the use of their facilities we would not have to be able to enjoy the success we've had. We hope you will join us Saturday, March 6, at Eastdale Plaza for a truly enjoyable evening and fun enjoyment. On behalf of Las Vegas Live committee and Special Olympics Iowa, we would like to thank our corporate sponsors, KGAN, General Mills, David Beachy of LL Pelling, Tom Scott and Deb Tisor of River Products, and at this time I'd like to introduce Sheri McMichael of Special Olympics Iowa and she will introduce our world gain athletes. Sheri McMichael/Thank you, we too would like to thank the city council for declaring Special Olympics Iowa as the month, or the month of March as Special Olympics Month, that means a great deal to us and it shows the support that this city has for our athletes. On June 25, we have a team of 53 athletes and 16 coaches who will be traveling to Raleigh, North Carolina to participate in our 1999 world games, and to say that it is an honor for us be a part of this is an understatement, this will be the largest sporting event in 1999, it will consist of about 7,000 athletes from 150 countries. As they converge on Raleigh at 3 campuses. And we have the privilege of having four of our athletes and one of our coaches here this evening, Chuck Nylin, is a member of our softball team, Tanna Rowe, is a member of our swimming team, Aaron Gillespie is a power-lif~er, and Rachel Vilhauer?? is a member of our bowling team. And leading our power-lifters is John Meskimen and we hope that you will wish them good luck. You hopefully you'll be seeing some articles in the paper about their upcoming events. They have the privilege of flying out on corporate jets out of Des Moines that are being donated by various corporations from around the state and they'll be flying out there and back This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #3 Page 5 on those. And as the competition goes on we'll be sending information back to let you know the results and how their doing out there but most importantly when they go out there they'll have a chance to meet athletes from all around the world, form friendships and experience the competition ofworldwide sports. So again, on behalf of Special Olympics Iowa I want to thank the city council for declaring March Special Olympics month, it means a great deal to us and I know it means a great deal to our athletes. Lehman/Well thanks again. You know at this ceremony last year there was a picture taken and it now is in the mayor's office, accompanied by only one other picture, and that's a picture of my grandkids, so, this is a very very special event for the entire city and especially the city council, you are to be congratulated. John, I know you have worked with these young folks for forever. I know, this guy is really really dedicated to kids and not to slight any of the rest of the coaches John, but you've done a magnificent job and we're proud of you too. Vanderhoet7 Thank you. Lehman/The next proclamation is Community Fitness Awareness Week, (reads proclamation) Karr/Here to accept is Jim Thomas. Thank you Mayor. Thank you very much. Lehman/Thank you. Jim Thomas/(Reads prepared statement) It is now my pleasure to present this to the council and (can't hear). Lehman/Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 6 ITEM NO. 4. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Thornberry/Move adoption to the calendar as amended to exclude #15 which I would move to defer indefinitely, this is the parking from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday, on the south side of Tower Court. Karr/Do you mean to defer that indefinitely or to defer for separate consideration later this evening? Defer Item 4e(1) perhaps indefinitely. ????/That sounds real good. Lehman/Could we have a second on the motion to adopt? O'Donnell/Second. Lehman/Oh we got a second. Now we have a motion to amend it. Thornberry/It was moved as amended. Norton/Oh no, wait a minute, you can't do it all at once. Karr/Yes you can. Norton/I hope we haven't voted yet. ????/No, no, no we haven't. Lehman/You can still vote on it. Norton/Noting we are getting irregular here. Unless we're gonna consider that item on Tower Court separately I just. Karr/We are, that was part of the motion. Thornberry/We're gonna deal with that separately. Norton/Later this evening. Lehman/Right as soon as (can't hear). Norton/OK, right away. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. Page 7 Thornberry/37 seconds or something good. Lehman/OK, we have a motion and a second to delete or to defer indefinitely number 4e(1) and to remove for separate consideration 4f(15) right. I might point out that this consent calendar does set some public hearing dates, at the least of which is the public hearing for the night of the 23rd which will be on the proposed operating budget for the city of Iowa City, this is a incredibly complex sort of document with a tremendous amount of time spent by city staff and council and it will be available for public discussion on the 23rd and there are several other things that you might want to look through but are there other comments from council. Norton/Well I think we ought to call attention to the one of the hearings has to do with the reconstruction of River Street and part of Woolf Avenue, it' s gonna be quite a project, I was just curious what, how long is that gonna be tom up, does anybody know. Lehman/Gonna be a full season. Atkins/I'm assuming it's a full construction season, Jeff is not (can't hear) that. Norton/Wow, well I. Thornberry/It's gotta be done. Norton/It's gotta be done, I just want people to be well aware that they may want to come here to the heating. Lehman/Well, they lost last summer with the bridge, and they'll lose this summer with the street, but it's gonna be brand new when they're done. Thomberry/Yea. Kubby/I would like to make a comment on page 5, #4e(4) about the name of depositories, and I know that some of this is just changing names because banks are merging and they have different names but some of them are increasing the maximum amount of deposits by the city and I notice and this is probably the second time in a row that we've made these changes that that financial institutions were increasing our deposits are not locally owned banks and I've talked to Don a little bit, I've talked to Iowa State Banks folks and Hills Bank today and I hope that in the future whether or not we actually make deposits there that we increase the max. that we can make deposits there so that if we can get the same kind of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 8 interest from local banks that if we have choices where the risk is the same, and the interest rates are the same or better locally that we chose the local financial institution. Norton/Wouldn't that be something we could (can't hear) as a policy. I mean I would think we should. Kubby/Well I think that our staff does a good job of checking in with them I think that we could just, I think the local, that Hills and Iowa State are specifically are interested and ready to do some more, to be able to take more money. Now the thing that I always thought is if we invest more in local banks, banks can make more long-term local loans for homes and for businesses and that's not always the case cause our money by state law is very short term money. So, maybe there are some creative things that we could do to make longer-term arrangements with them so that that money can translate into longer-term loan. Lehman/I don't disagree with you Karin, I guess I'd like to have Don, would you, no, not tonight, this is only consent calendar, but I'd assume there are reasons why there are larger (can't hear) with larger banks, maybe that correlation I just made, but. Don Yucius/Really the limits are based on the banks ability to be competitive whenever we come to them for bids on investments. So if there, if there investing and wanting to get our money to be invested and their rates are highest at that time when we invest, they need to have that margin to be able to get that money in. Lehman/Right. Yucius/So, it in the case, it may look like high limits but not all of these are up at that limit cause we don't have that kind of money sitting around. Lehman/Yea, we know that. Champion/We try to spend it as fast as we find it. Lehman/All right. Any other comments. Roll Call. Motion carried. Do we now want to discuss the item that we removed for separate discussion Item 157 Is that appropriate? Is there a motion to I suspect the appropriate way and I need to accept the engineers report and then we could discuss and move by Norton. Norton/I move (can't hear) the report. Thomberry/Second. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 9 Lehman/Second by Thornberry. Discussion. Norton/Well, I made that motion, I traderstand there's been a lot of confusion about this and everyone all of us have heard from a lot of folks out there. I talked with Doug Ripley today and I'm sure Jeff can confirm this ifI he they did the survey at our request, out of 32 surveys that were sent out that's all the residences, 24 were returned, 15 were wanting to go with no parking on both sides with the engineers request. And I want to leave it as it is with parking on only on one side. Now there was a recent petition I understand that we've had I think 9 residences represented whether there are more names than that but 7 of those 9 in this petition, 7 of those residences were among the original 9 and one person did was added to the what I call the column for keeping as it is, and one person kind of changed their mind and went for the permis? or something of that kind. But we still have at least 14 to 10 or 15 to 9 so ifit's a majority situation I see no reason not to go along with the majority position which is 15 to 10 is out of the people who responded or 14 to, 15 to 9, or 14 to 10 depending on which set of figures you want to look at but certainly it's (can't hear) majority. So, that's my feeling. I think they would like to get it cleaned up one way or the other. We've been sitting on it. Lehman/So, are you saying you would vote to prohibit parking between. Norton/There would be no parking 8-5 as recommended by the engineer. Lehman/All right. All right. Norton/Cause there is a majority for that and I don't see any other option?... reason to go back and survey (can't hear) again. Lehman/Other discussion. Champion/Emie, somebody in the audience wants to. Thornberry/Well I think that this was brought up to us by a few people. Not the majority, I don't know what percentage of the people that live there were interviewed or sent back their recommendation. Norton/24 out of 32. Thornberry/But, I'm not ready to to eliminate parking on Tower Court at this time. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 10 Lehman/There appears to be a fair amount of interest in this particular recommendation more so than most of the ones that we've had. I also think there's been a fair amount of confusion at least from the information that I've received as a council persons, and my personal preference is I would rather for us not to act on this and to ask if there still exists a an interest in prohibit parking, re-survey, and we've done it before, this wouldn't be the first time we've taken a second survey, whether than prohibit the parking I would leave it personally the way it is and ask for if the people on that street are still interested in a parking prohibition direct Doug Rippley to again do a survey and based on that survey make a decision. Norton/I guess I don't, I don't understand the logic of that, let Jeff answer that maybe he. Jeff Davidson/We will be happy to do whatever majority of council wishes to have us do. Just to clarify about, I've heard the term "recommendation" a couple of times here. We investigated the request, it was a request that came from the neighborhood, we determined that there was not a safety related matter here and in an issue with on-street parking on a street where we do not believe there is a safety related issue present our recommendation is based solely on the desire of the majority of the neighborhood and so it doesn't really matter to city staff whether or not this is implemented or not, our recommendation so to speak what was on the consent calendar is based on the majority wishes of the surveys that were returned. Just to also echo what Dee indicated, based on the responses or the correspondence that we have received either by telephone or by mail the initial 15 in favor, 9 oppose, Doug's been keeping a tally and it now appears it would be 14 in favor, 11 opposed. So and Dee referred to this, it's changed slightly but there does still appear to be a slight majority in favor and that is why our recommendation is what it was. Kubby/You know there seems to be a difference depending where on Tower Court (can't hear). Thornberry/Yea. Kubby/And because there are some competing interests I think that there's at least one strategy where we could make it livable for everybody, and that would be to leave it as it is, but during leaf pickup time, or street cleanup time, or snowplow time, if there' s a problem, like we do on any other street. For example, Washington Street, we post it saying there's going to be street cleaning, or leaf pickup, you have to remove your cars by 8:00 Monday morning or you'll get towed. And that's something we could do on Tower Court to make sure that people receive the city services that they deserve to receive without creating a hardship for the people who want to have people come to their home and park on the street during the day to deliver things or visit or for people who live there who don't have This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 11 enough off-street parking. Another strategy that some of the neighbors have been trying is to talk to with each other which I think is a wonderful strategy to say we're expecting a big delivery, could you make sure you park your car further down the street, for people who live there who don't have enough off-street parking, and that's not always honored and I hope the neighbors can figure out a way to have those kinds of neighborly requests honored so I prefer to leave it as it is, do that signing during certain times of the year, if it's not satisfactory, I would certainly entertain another request for a survey at that time. Thornberry/What we just recently enacted an ordinance regarding the storage of cars on streets and they need to be moved 20 feet per (can't hear) and so on. And so I don't think it's going to be a storage issue so I'd like to see how that works before we just completely eliminate parking on Tower Court. Norton/I guess I just don't see any reason in this case to go against the judgment of the majority. We have done that as Doug reminded me in Manville Heights, was plagued by this same problem of a lot of street parking and people parking there and walking to the hospital and so forth. They ultimately went to no street parking, so it's not a precedent were setting, it's something that's been experienced elsewhere in town and so if unless you think another survey's gonna come up with a change of heart, I guess I don't see any reason let the staff go to all that effort but, that's my position. Kubby/Yea, I'm not interested in a survey now. I'd rather change how we deal with the main issue of receiving city services adequately and then see how people feel. Vanderhoef/How many places are we using this strategy of posting no parking because of cleaning? Davidson/The process that's been followed this far is the process we've always followed with respect on street parking, as I said basically leaving it up to the neighborhood if there's no safety related issue. I'm not aware, Steve, are you aware that there's any place where we during special times of year, other than street cleaning. Atkins/Street cleaning, snow removal and it's there a number of particular major thoroughfares it's fairly conanon practice. Vanderhoef/But out in. Atkins/Mike brought one up the other day on Davis, all we really needed were those folks to say tell us what you know if your having problems with snow removal, we will go out and post it and come back the next day and we'll clear the streets. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 12 Vanderhoef/I guess my my question really is, how big a effort is this on the city' s part to get out and to put all the signs up and do all this to make this happen and are we doing it in many areas or. Atkins/It's not an overwhelming effort, it's a course of action that I think receives most everybody in this room we've been doing it for that long and the intent is we've try to avoid this snow route novelty that we would just as soon do it our way by way of posting and it has worked reasonably effectively. Lehman/Although realistically, we really don't post, we really don't post residential streets, arterials and collectors. But other than that I mean we would not post this street unless we were specifically asked to do that, which mean we probably wouldn't be posting it period. Atkins/If we're requested by the neighborhood and particularly if someone in the field would say the snow removal isn't as good as it should be on this street we would go out, post it and we always give people a couple days notice and go back and clean it up. Lehman/Further discussion. We're gonna vote on this, a yes vote means that we will prohibit parking on the street as has been proposed by the city staff, I'm sorry. O'Donnell/Ifthere's anybody in the audience who would like to speak to this issue please come up. Lehman/Yea, we're only gonna take a couple minutes of it though. Ian Smith/It is my impression that part of the street isn't University Heights and part is in Iowa City, the University Heights people want no parking, and the Iowa City people want parking, is that correct. Lehman/I don't know. Karr/Excuse me, could I have your name sir. Thank you. Jeff Davidson/To the best of my knowledge, Tower Court is completely within the city of Iowa City. I think most people are aware that the situation of no parking during the day in University Heights has exasperated the problem on Tower Court with commuter parking. Jan Smith/For those of us. Lehman/Your name please. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. Page 13 Jan Smith/Jan Smith. For those of us who are a little older and have out of town children who come and stay for a few days now and again this is a terrible nuisance, we only have single garages in this area, and we also have a university student who lives with us just because we like somebody to be there when we are away. And there is no place for her to park and it really, it really a crisis situation for several of us here. I think the whole first row. Thornberry/Jeff jogs to work. Audrey Knox/My name is Audrey Knox and I live toward the dead end of Tower Court which means that we can't just drive our car around the comer and park on a side street, so if there is no parking allowed on the south side of Tower Court, we would not be able to park a car in the street within about 4 blocks of our house. And that would be very inconvenient for any of our guests or children also who come, therefore I would propose that we keep Tower Court parking on the south side of the street. Thomberry/What you gonna do? Norton/I'm gonna go with the majority. Kathleen Renquist/Kathleen Renquist, 1000 Tower Court, and I've been there since 1982. We have six individuals living in our duplex. Now we have six vehicles, and our landlord has been very gracious and has made room for our 6 vehicles, but when we have guests there is not room. Also if someone comes to service our homes, like roofing, or plumbing or something those vehicles need to have a place to park as well. I guess I want to address one thing. And it's a little touchy, part of this came about kind of as a surprise to all of us, to some of us. And I have a sneaky suspension that it is a conflict that was started on the west side, because there is one rental property who now has, it was a single family home, now has 4 individuals who live there and each of them has a vehicle. And I think that there should have been provision made for these people who rented, cause all the other duplexes and rental places on that street do have adequate parking for the individuals. So, I hate to see too much more time spent on this, it probably should have been a neighborhood meeting that took place a long time ago to resolve some conflict that might have arisen. So I just want to say thank you very much for all the time and that the city staff has taken on our little one block street, it's a special street and if you ever want to come to a football game, you ought to see the parking. Kubby/Kathleen, it's not too late for that neighborhood meeting. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #4 Page 14 Norton/Well, they have somebody, there's at least some people in the audience on the other side folks but we'd belabor the obvious too long I don't know. Champion/Well I'm not gonna support the parking ban because although I think sometimes majority rules sometimes it produces such an inconvenience for other people, that it simply isn't worth it, it's not really a super majority that wants to eliminate the parking and I'm gonna leave it the way it is for now. Lehman/Roll call. Do we have a motion? Champion/How do we? Tell me. Lehman/If you vote yes on this motion, that will be to prohibit the parking between 8 in the morning and 5 in the evening. Champion/OK. Lehman/If you vote no, it will remain the way it is. Champion/Thanks dad???? Dilkes/You don't need a roll call, it's a motion (can't hear). Lehman/We don't, all right, all in favor of the motion say aye, opposed. Motion is defeated. But I might add it would be who the folks on street who don't want this prohibition to have the little neighborhood meeting because if we re-survey and we come up with, I'm confused as far as the count, I think Mr. Norton, probably does have the count right and obviously Jeff has kept track and if that comes back to us with another majority the way it is based on what we've done historically I think we're although not bound to do it, it would be certainly a deviation from what we normally do so it would be really nice if you had the meeting and we keep the parking the way it is if that's the way you want it. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 15 ITEM NO. 5. PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). Lehman/If you wish to address the council please sign in, give your name and limit your comments to 5 minutes. John Jones/My name is John Jones. Just as a point of clarification, did everyone receive a copy of my letter that I sent. Yes. OK. Is it a matter of public record then? Karr/Yes. Jones/ Then I'll just make a few comments regarding the Police Citizen Review Board. I'd like to start off by giving a little credit where credit's due, who ever wants to get up and look at this, this is the Daily Iowa, which a few years ago never even covered city council, but they do now. And they have a story about the proposed changes about putting in police officers names or identifying police officers. I obviously I think police officers (can't hear) identified and I want to give another little visual aid here it's a picture of Desmond Tutu and the point to be quite clear if anyone heard Desmond Tutu speak last night as most of you should know he lead the Truth and Reconciliation commission, South Africa, the point was to talk about atrocities committed by the police against people, obviously, rape, murder, just horrible things that no one can imagine even seeing much less doing. But in Iowa City we don't even want to know the name of the police officer that's been accused of harassing somebody. I think it's a little bit ridiculous to say on one hand the society's gonna move forward when they say let's get it out in the open, let's get on with life, let's hear about the most horrible things imaginable in Iowa City, the idea is no, no, no, keep it quite. I can't, I can understand a little bit I guess of people who say we don't want police officers named, obviously if this article is correct by Mr. Trustee?? unless we says we still said that the identification of an officer could result in prejudice and bias against officers. Well, I don't know about you but I read the paper all the time and it says people get arrested for drunken driving, possession of control one substance, having a party that's too loud, all kinds of offenses, their discharged. It seems to me it's a little bit bias against them, I mean their names out in the public. God forbid that we actually know the name of a police officer who stops somebody who happen to be black for handing their mother a crucifix, claiming it was a crack fight. I mean god for bid we learn about these kind of actions. I think if any of you listened, and I hope you did last night and you could probably get a recording of Desmond Tutu, it is so obvious, when you put things out in the open and make things a public record and you hold people accountable, you can improve the community in large and improve community police relations. You know I don't know if we have a big problem, obviously we have a minor problem, sometimes to some people it's a major problem, if you happen to be shot, as what happened to one individual as we all know. But just saying that if people really complained This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 16 we don't want to hear about it and we don't want a lot of other people know whose name it is, that's wrong. That's not helping at all. I have, I wanted to close with two particular comments about to the city manager and I'll give you a copy of this letter and (can't hear) I'll give your own. From my prospective, the city manager's responsible for at least the physical integrity of the city and/or and another important job would be police community relations. It should be a pretty important priority for the city manager considering that' s the way the city government is designed. How much more of a snafu do you have to make than to have a water project cost $240 million dollars when you said it cost a $100 million? What does it take to not do your job correctly, I don't know. What does it take after someone gets killed by a police officer and then we have this idea of having a police citizen review board and then you turn around and say no, no, no, we don't want to identify officers they shouldn't be identified for allegedly alleged misdeeds. I don't know how that's helping police community relations, it's helping people who obviously who either harass people or do misconduct that we don't appreciate, but then again if that's the city managers job if you appreciate that then I guess he's doing his job well. For Ms. Dilkes, I went and found the Iowa Code for Professional Responsibility for Lawyers, because I thought your comments were hypocritical at best to say that we should be worried about potential prejudice and bias as police officers who are known or to be alleged to harass someone and much less that they actually anyone a police that's (can't hear) that they actually did something wrong. In Cannon #1 of the Professional Responsibility Code it says a lawyer, excuse me, ethical consideration 15, a lawyer should maintain high standards of professional conduct, Lehman/John look. Jones/I have one more comment to make. Lehman/Yea, you make the comments that are not appropriate. First of all it's not the city managers decision whether or not names are released. That's a council decision. Jones/I understand that. Lehman/(can't hear) 140,000 million for a water plant and if you'd probably look at that you'd probably know that too. And I don't think the city attorney needs a lesson on ethics. Jones/Excuse me. These comments were made by people who are employees of the city. My understanding, I could be completely wrong, is that you as city council actually have some control over the employees of the city. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 17 Lehman/Absolutely. Jones/OK. Lehman/Were going to discuss this with the PCRB. Jones/Well, I would like to make one final comment. Lehman/OK. Jones/The candidates as ???? ???? in improving the legal system. Imperfections and human institutions make necessary constant efforts to maintain and improve our legal system I think that's what the police citizens review board is about. Lawyers are especially qualified to recognize deficiencies and legal system and initiate corrective measures therefore they should participate in proposing and supporting legislation and programs to improve the system without regard to general interest or desires of the clients or former clients. I would understand that the police in a sense are a client of the city attorney, city police, at least if not parmer. I would understand that it would improve the system greatly if we change the system as it is now and actually brought into the light accusations of police misconduct. Candidate 9 says lawyers should encourage and aid in making needed changes and improvements in the in providing for the rule of law. And I think your comment about we're worded or we don't want to prejudice or bias people against police officers named for supposedly misconduct is just inappropriate at best. And I am going to make a recommendation to the bar association of Iowa that you be disciplined for your comments. Thank you. Elijah McNeish/Mr. Mayor, council members and fellow citizens of Iowa City. I would like to speak to you tonight on what I think should be done about the deer problem. Karr/Elijah, excuse me, would you like to introduce yourself so everybody knows who you are. McNeish/I'm Elijah McNeish. Karr/OK. McNeish/OK. I think that this problem calls for some sort of action. The city wants to do it in a totally inhumane manner. They want to solve the problem easily by killing. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 18 But that is not the solution. There are much better altematives, these include more reflectors along roadways, a campaign by the city to advise homeowners how to keep deer off their property, live trapping followed by relocation and sterilization. These are all effective methods, killing innocent creatures is wrong. We can do better and we should. Thank you. Kubby/Now that man deserves a citizenship award. Thomberry/I don't know... right. Caroline Dieterie/People who know me know that I've been a longtime supporter of the library always. I helped pass the. Lehman/Would you just state your name. Dieterie/Oh, I'm sorry, Caroline Dieterle I wrote it down and forgot. Lehman/Thank you Caroline. Dieterie/I helped pass the bond issue that helped build or built the current library and was gratified at the amount of support that there is in the community for the library. It really wasn't that hard to pass it actually when you get right to it. And I don't think that support has over the years weaned, I thought it was a back mistake for the council not to put a referendum for the library expansion on the ballot by itself, and I was dismayed when it was used as the Trojan horse to hope hopefully sell the sales tax. It's mentioned first in all of the publicity for the sales tax, under the 40% allocation. But in nowhere is it said in there what portion of this 40% is allocated definitely to the library nor over how many years which I find quite distressing. And I don't know either whether this has been firmly decided or written down in any document that any voter can rely upon. The estimated receipts the first year from the sales tax I read somewhere was approximately 8.7 million dollars, and 40% of that would be about 3.5 million dollars. Now if the library and cultural center are tied together irrevocably in this project and are going to cost 22 million dollars, it doesn't take a lot of higher math to figure out that it's going to take several years to pay it off. Paying off the principle alone would take at least 8 years, but of course theirs going to be interest if you sell bonds in order to do this, which I assume you probably would, I can't see you sitting on the money for 8 years and then building the library. So nowhere does it, have I heard either what term of bonds you would plan to sell, what type of bonds, or what type of interest you would anticipate having to pay on that. Now in the event that the receipts that we have from the sales tax, if it should pass, actually were greater than the amount needed for the library, that is the payments on the bonds that you issued. I would like to know where the surplus would then first be This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 19 allocated. Would we pay off our indebtedness on the library and cultural center first as a priority or would we be locked into the time schedule that we originally signed into with the bonds? And it would be used instead for something else and if it were in the long latindry list of possible allocation recipients what has priority, no where have I found that either. For example, would it be the nature trails, or would it possibly be the widening of Benton Street. I think that unless the voters are informed of this people could unwillingly vote for the sales tax and vote for the funding of a project that they actually did not favor, such as the widening of Benton Street, or First Avenue, or possibly the Summit Street bridge. The list goes on. I also have never seen anywhere that there is any sunset date for this tax. That essentially if it's voted in by the populus here it will go into the sunset without any end. There will be no sunset, unless if course the council should decide to repeal that which doesn't seem very likely. I've been harping upon the costs of growth for the last 30 years and insisting that the cost of growth outweigh the benefits of growth and finally people are beginning to see that. So that we means that we need revenue and it seems doubtful that you would repeal a tax. But what if the future council did repeal the tax, because for example, the local businesses felt that they were losing even more business because Coralville did not pass the tax and people were shopping in Coralville and not shopping in Iowa City, there might be a considerable pressure on the future council to repeal the tax. How then would the bonds be paid off?. Now supposing the sales tax doesn't pass. The library is the biggest draw for non-students, towns people, fellow citizens, that there is downtown and has been for a long time. It would be sure craziness not to expand the library so my question is has the council thought ahead as to what they will do if the tax does not pass and may we all know what they decide to do, and what you think your going to do even about that, or what the substance of your discussions has been. I don't expect that your going to answer all of my questions that I've posed right now, it would probably take far too long but I'm hoping that you will consider them very carefully and make sure that future news releases will contain some answers to these things. And on a completely different subject returning to the unfortunate topic of our water supply. I just happened to read in a issue of the Wo~d Earth Island Joumal, which is a has an article in it that was reprinted from Rachel's Environment and Health Weekly which is a reputable well-known environmental publication. New evidence 0fthe problems that were going to expect with our water so regardless of whether the report in the Press Citizen was accurate in all respects about the water plant I think we have other things we have to worry about that may well mean that we have to do serious changes in our water processing. Kubby/You can only part of our design of the new water treatment plant to try to anticipate and build on some flexibility with our system to accommodate things that we maybe aware and things that we may not be aware. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #5 Page 20 Dieterie/But when you read this article, bear in mind that we have (can't hear) research facility of the University and it's true that were not going to have our water take intake be taken in below where those places discharge from our sewage treatment plant but there are a lot of people who live downstream from us who will be taking in water from the river and I think we have to be cognize??? of that. There is a saying that is popular amongst environmentalist that everybody lives downstream and we have to you know figure on that. How much does the city subsidize the airport right now in case you decide that you've got to do something about the library and the sales tax doesn't pass? Have you looked at that at all? Norton/Yea, it's about. Karr/Can we have a motion to accept correspondence? Kubby/So moved. Vanderhoef/Second. Lehman/Moved and seconded to accept correspondence, all in favor. Motion carries. Kubby/Actually the answer for this fiscal year is 64,000 in the current budget but next year 80, and then the year after that 84. Thornberry/I believe there was a bond, a plan passed for the airport Karen if that's what your asking. Norton/No they should (can't hear) about 80. Kubby/I know that's the general fund levy that goes to the airport above and beyond the airport master plan and the up fronting of money for living it out. Thornberry/For what, for living out the master plan? Kubby/Right, above and beyond. Thornberry/There is also money at that's expended to the airport that has been repaid. Kubby/Right. Norton/Yea, these are operating expenses. Lehman/These are operational expense that were talking about. Any other public discussion. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #6a Page 21 ITEM NO. 6a. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. Consider an ordinance changing the zoning designation of 21.26 acres located on the east side of Naples Avenue from Intensive Commercial (CI-1) to Sensitive Areas Overlay Zone-Intensive Commercial (OSA-CI-1). (Second consideration) Vanderhoef/Moved second consideration. Norton/Second. Lehman/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton. Discussion. Kubby/Oh, I'm going to be voting no again because there are 3 areas that the sensitive areas (can't hear) focuses on, we're all agreed about 2 of them and I disagree about the middle area which the sensitive areas ordinance gives us some judgment about how we should behave and I disagree with including it in the plan and the form that it is that allows the hill to be cut into. ????/OK. Lehman/And I might add that I think this Karen is exactly fight, this is a judgment call, the planning and zoning commission voted 6-1 to pass it obviously one person there also questioned that judgment. Roll call. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #6b Page 22 ITEM 6b. Consider a resolution approving a final plat of Boyd's Fashionable Acres an 11.51 acres, 16-Lot residential subdivision located at the south side of Rochester Avenue, east of Post road, and west of Mt. Vernon Road. (SUB98- 0030) Thornberry/Move adoption of resolution. Champion/We're going to defer that, am I wrong? Thomberry/Deferred on January 26. Lehman/It has been deferred. Dilkes/It has been deferred, you can go ahead and act on it tonight. Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion. Everything is in order for this to be act upon. Norton/This is the one our little committee worked with them and got a decent solution there. Kubby/No, next item. Lehman/No, that's the next one. Thornberry/That's Fashionable acres. Norton/Oh, this isn't Fashionable, I'm sorry, it's the next one I want. O'Donnell/It's not even the next item, it's the item after that. Norton/It's the next one the Unfashionable one. Lehman/All fight. Roll call. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #6c Page 23 ITEM 6c. Consider a response to the Johnson County Board of Supervisors regarding a request by the Board to resolve a rezoning issue in Area B of the Johnson County/Iowa City Fringe Area Agreement. Lehman/This is a letter to the Board of Supervisors after a meeting between representatives of the Board, City council, city staff and county planning staff where we have come to appears to be a mutual agreement for an issue that would have otherwise been a I guess a just a plain infraction of the fringe area agreement and this letter indicates our agreement with the process that we've agreed to. Thomberry/(can't hear). Lehman/Pardon. The letter is in the packet, I suggest a motion to send a letter. Thornberry/So moved, I did move, what I said I moved. Lehman/Oh, I'm sorry. Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Norton. Further Discussion. Does this take a roll call? Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #7b Page 24 ITEM NO. 7b. PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY DOWNTOWN STREETSCAPE, PHASE II IMPROVEMENTS, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS. Lehman/Do we have a motion? Vanderhoef/Move adoption. Norton/Second. Lehman/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Norton. Discussion. Kubby/Mayor will you outline what we kind of talked about last. Lehman/Yea, this project is more money than we had anticipated. We looked at the possibility of doing this as it has been proposed which is one fairly large project and we looked at the possibility of spinning off two smaller pieces of that project, one being Clinton street, one being Linn street. So that when we take these bids we will look at the total project as oppose to the cost of doing one, two or three sections so we will have the ability if you will to do a lesser version if we wish. We also talked about changing the design and the components of the downtown screetscape and the feeling seemed to be that it would be a mistake for us now to change the direction that we've taken in the first portion of the improvements downtown, those are now completed, complete with the limestone, and the planters, and the benches lights. So the theme will be the same, it is costing us more than we had anticipated costing us but we will be able if we choose to bid this in more than just one one bid. Is that accurate? Winstead/Yea, that's fight. Thornberry/And this is Phase 2 of three phases and there's a possibility that we might need to go to more than three phases down the road. Champion/Well I also think we need to point out that if the bids come back even more above what we think it's gonna be above then I think we're gonna have to look at cutting something out. Vanderhoef/I agree with that. I had a little discussion with Rob today after I visited with Ernie just about this possibility of of moving either Linn or Clinton street out. I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #7b Page 25 kept going back to the conversation we had last night and about the entry way into downtown and I asked Rob to bring some information, were you able to catch that on the additional lights? I asked because I'm specifically wanting to make sure that if we extend only Clinton or Linn street out that we maybe just bend it around the comer so it makes it and extra light post or whatever it is so that it really looks like an entry into downtown that will expand this time period while we're still in progress. Thank you. Rob Winstead/Yea, I looked at that after we talked and we can certainly do that some of the issues that we'll address at the time are, how do we get the electrical to those lights and I guess I'm not sure if putting those lights in those areas will achieve the effect you want but I think we can do that. There are lights proposed at all of the intersecting streets, their set back a little bit from the comer of the intersection because the parameter streets such as Gilbert, and Burlington that are part of the Phase III project will have a different lighting scheme extended in that area so both lighting schemes are set back just a little bit from the intersection so that they don't conflict with each other. Vanderhoef/OK. And we can put that into this bid that we're talking about for tonight that (can't hear). Winstead/Yes, I think we can do that, I think the existing electrical system may be extended to these one or two lights in the interim, but eventually of course we'll have to mn that new system that's adequate for the whole picture. Vanderhoef/But that new electrical system doesn't come in until Phase III as I understood it, is that right? Winstead/It would come in when you do the bulk of the improvements on the street your talking, there are several sources for the lighting system, it just doesn't all come from one place. Lehman/I would assume that this would be like an add-on sort of thing, not necessarily done as part of a major contract but as an option as if we wish to do it we could do it. Winstead/Yea, we'll have unit prices for all the things that we would want to investigate doing. Thornberry/This is going to be an interesting bid, due to the fact due to the, it's gonna have to be shop and lift type, I heard Connie say gee we're gonna have to look at cutting something out, and I heard Dee said, gee I add something to it. And I say This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #7b Page 26 gee this is phase II of three phases and it might be phase II of five phases. This is going to be an interesting bid. Lehman/Well, the thing is I think until we get the bid, until we know what we're talking about, and we really don't fight now, we know the estimate was significantly higher than we had anticipated. And I think the way we've broken this down into possibly three different things gives us those options, and we'll know a lot more when those bids come back. Winstead/That's right. Vanderhoef/Thank you. Lehman/Further discussion. Roll call. Motion carded. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #9 Page 27 ITEM NO. 9. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 9, CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED "PARKING REGULATIONS," ARTICLE 4, ENTITLED "GENERAL PARKING RESTRICTIONS," SECTION H, ENTITLED "IN EXCESS OF FORTY-EIGHT HOURS" REGARDING THE STORAGE OF VEHICLES ON STREETS, ALLEYS AND PUBLIC PROPERTY. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Norton/Move the second consideration. Thornberry/Second. Lehman/Moved by Norton, seconded by Thomberry. This is ordinance that would unless a car is moved at minimum of 20 feet in a 48 hour period, it will be considered as street storage. Discussion. Champion/Well I'm gonna vote against this because I think it's, I don't see any reason for it, I can't imagine, I know you can't have cars park on the street permanently, that I totally understand. But 20 feet, 10 feet, 5 feet, I don't know, I, it doesn't, it seems just a rule made because somebody wants somebody to move their car. O'Donnell/That' s the purpose. Lehman/Well Connie you got that one fight. ????man/That's right. Norton/They've been moving them a foot. Champion/And so, that' s then their not storing their car, that means their just parking their car. Norton/Definition of storage. Lehman/Well we have just changed the definition of storage if we pass it, is there further discussion? Roll call. Motion carried, Kubby and Champion voting no. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #11-16 Page 28 ITEM NOS. 11-16 ORDINANCES ADOPTING: (ITEM 11) THE 1997 EDITION OF THE UNIFORM BUILDING CODE; (ITEM 12) 1997 UNIFORM FIRE CODE; (ITEM 13) 1997 UNIFORM PLUMBING CODE; (ITEM 14) 1997 EDITION OF THE UNIFORM CODE FOR THE ABATEMENT OF DANGEROUS BULDING CODE; (ITEM 15) 1997 EDITION OF THE UNIFORM CODE OF BUILDING CONSERVATION, (ITEM 16) 1997 EDITION OF THE UNIFORM MECHNAICAL CODE. Kubby/Mr. Mayor. Lehman/I'm sorry. Kubby/I'd like to move that we combine items 11-16 (can't hear). Lehman/Thank you. I was just looking to see which one. We have a motion to include items 11 - 16. Vanderhoef/Good job. I'll second that. Champion/I'll second that. Thomberry/Everybody seconds that. Lehman/You've got 5 seconds, all in favor. All ayes. Now to effectively handle this do we only read the first one? Champion/You don't have to read any of them do you? Dilkes/Well I think you move to combine them. Lehman/We just did. Dilkes/But you didn't move to adopt them. Lehman/No we did, but it is not necessary to read them all. Dilkes/No. No. I would sort of summarize them all, I mean I guess. Norton/Yea. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #11-16 Pag~ 29 Lehman/I would like to be able to summarize them all. I believe that these are all modifications to. Dilkes/You need to move adoption. Kubby/I move final adoption on items 11-16. Lehman/Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton. Adoption, these are all ordinances and changes in the building codes and in everyone of them it says to protect the health, welfare and safety of the citizens of Iowa City, but they deal with electrical, plumbing, they deal with some other problems that were previously associated with development or changes in historical preservation district. But there are a number of changes most of which would probably not mean a great deal except to contractors or builders. Now, I've said almost nothing. Does anybody want to add (can't hear). Thornberry/Done real well. Lehman/Good. Any further discussion. Roll call. Motion carries. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #18 Page 30 ITEM NO. 18. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY RIGBTS FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE RIVER STREET / WOOLF AVENUE RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT. Norton/Move adoption of resolution. He's playing songs. Kubby/Second. Lehman/Moved by Norton, seconded by Kubby. Discussion. Kubby/You know I'm not sure that I'm clear on what we'll need to acquire, how, I mean were not, no that' s not the right question. We're not doing anything to the configurations of the street are we? Lehman/I don't believe so. Kubby/We're just redoing what their. Lehman/Probably construction easements, my traderstanding is, I don't know if we're doing this for sure. Are we putting some electrical underground? Vanderhoef/Mr. Gannon's here he can answer that. Denny Gannon/This is a paving project, but reconstruction project, but it's also new water main, sanitary sewer, storm sewer. Lehman/Right. Gannon/We need to buy one small piece of ground property for the, there's a storm sewer plumbing station we need to put in, then there's I believe there' s two other small partials for construction easements. And that's about it. Lehman/These are just purchases or easements that are necessary for the construction of reconstruction of the street and utilities. Gannon/That's correct. Kubby/And it's current width and all that.'? Gannon/That's correct. Kubby/Same as is. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #18 Page 31 Norton/You were out there last summer for the bridge now you've probably get another T. Gannon/That's fight. Lehman/Well you've got a lot of friends in that neighborhood. Gannon/Yea. Their good people out there. Lehman/You folks did a great job. Other discussion. Motion carded. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #23 Page 32 ITEM NO. 23. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION REGARDING THE STATUS OF THE CITY OF TIFFIN AS A "NONCONTIGUOUS" CITY ON NOVEMBER 17, 1998, THE DATE OF THE IOWA CITY CITY COUNCIL'S RESOLUTION REQUESTING SUBMISSION OF THE QUESTION OF THE IMPOSITION OF THE LOCAL SALES TAX AND SERVICES TAX TO THE QUALIFIED ELECTORS OF THE INCORPORATED AND UNINCORPORATED AREAS OF JOHNSON COUNTY. Thomberry/Move adoption of resolution. Lehman/Moved by Thomberry. Vanderhoef/Second. Lehman/Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion. Kubby/I'm sure Tiffin will be very happy to have us pass this. Lehman/Roll call. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 33 ITEM NO. 26. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION Lehman/City council information. Dee. Norton/Well I, I'm just looking and I think I'm gonna pass. Lehman/OK. Norton/Can you believe that? Champion/Nope. Norton/I'm gonna pass. Lehman/Dee. Vanderhoef/OK. Just remind people President's day observance will be Monday February 15, and the offices will be closed. A meeting that's coming up from the consumer advocate division of the Iowa Attomey General's office is gonna hold a public information meeting to discuss the lively impact of the electric restructuring on Iowa consumers and to also look into their concerns, this will be at our public library, Thursday February 18 at 7:00 PM, so please get out and listen and ask your questions at that time. Sunday is national salute to Hospitalized veterans and we're all invited to go out and wish them well on Valentine's day. And just one other thing, we'd like to note that we have good employees that do special things in our city and who have good ideas and we were alerted to an article in the World of Waste, this past January issue and our Iowa City civil engineer Dan Scott's idea which is to begin being implemented in our cities newest 6-acre landfill, and his idea was to use shredded used old tires to replace the bed of sand that usually in the bottom of landfill cells he was able to get a grant for $42,000 to help with this project, which came from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources whose looking for ways to recycle our tires, and just in this one project they are estimating that they are going to use 1/3 of the used tires in Iowa for this one landfill so it is reuse in a good way and we're real pleased that Iowa City's gonna do this and thank you Dan Scott. That's it. Lehman/Dean. Thornberry/We've got 2 meetings coming up on Thursday, February 11, and one of them is at 1: 15 in the chambers here and we're gonna be talking about the budget, these are open meetings and this is an odd time so I just wanted to let people know about that. The other one is at 5-7 PM a meeting with the PCRB, again which is This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 34 an open meeting, and people are welcome to come and listen. This is from 5-7 on Thursday, February 11. Lehman/Mike. O'Donnell/I have nothing to say tonight. Lehman/Connie. Champion/I'll pass. Lehman/Karen. Kubby/I'll make up for all of you. Lehman/OK. Kubby/I'll try to be brief. Thomberry/Move to adjoum. (all laughs) Lehman/Can't do that. Kubby/I'm gonna, rude, I'm fine. No. Because the mayor hasn't had his time so you can't do that. One is that last weekend some of us were at Chambers legislative, the legislative committee was at the chambers legislative breakfast and one of the, we got (can't hear) on the railroad's plans for passenger service. It's very exciting and I noticed that Dee Norton, Dee Vanderhoef and myself each individually went up to the railroad people and talked to them. And cause I know that many of us are very excited about the possibility of passenger rail from Omaha to Chicago and coming through Iowa City. And so one of the things I talked to them about was wanting to express some interest in having a station in downtown Iowa City so people could go from downtown Iowa City to downtown Omaha, or to downtown Chicago. And, but I knew that Coralville was also interested and so wanted to know how the choices were going to be made and he said you don't want to make those kinds of choices, you want to have stations in both places. And so even though we've all talked to I think they know of our interest, I think it would be good to send a letter from the mayor just expressing formally our interest in seeing that passenger service happen and having us stop in downtown Iowa City. Now, I'm requesting that we have Ernie write such a letter and send it off to I've got his card I'll give you. Norton/Doug Christy. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 35 Kubby/Yea. Norton/Incidentally Karen, in that regard I, one of the staff members, I think Don (can't hear) and I are going over to Rock Island on the 17th to discuss rail issues. I was a railroad designee for JCCOG I think wasn't I? Somebody from Coralville and somebody from our staff and myself will be going over there the 17th to Rock Island to pursue both the short-term proposal that Doug Christy mentioned which would involve, cause if we wait for Amtrak to do this, the whole thing, and the longer term which would might be 4-5 or years down the road so we'll let you know how that proceeds. Kubby/You (can't hear) Amtrak will be pressured to do their job sooner, although it's a difference between 45 miles and hour and 59 or something. Norton/Yea, one of them your hooked on a freight train and kind of a casual ride. Champion/It would be good. Vanderhoef/It's gonna take a lot of dollars to to come up with upgrading the tracks and the point where this is gonna happen. Norton/Yea, but this one isn't gonna go 79 miles an hour. Kubby/My second issue was a letter we got from DJ Schubert, the wildlife biologist whose been doing a lot of correspondence with us and there were two things that specifically caught my eye about this latest letter and one of them was the offer of assistance in our non-lethal section of our deer management plan, which I want to make sure people know that we have a pamphlet out that's available here at the civic center and at the Iowa City Public library about deer management that outlines all the different aspects of our deer management plan, the lethal and the non-lethal. And actually has some good tips on species that you can plant that are deer resistant. But I think no matter what happens this year or next year with the lethal portion of it that I know I've seen some things on channel 4 but I think we need to spend more attention on the non-lethal parts even if we end up continuing with the lethal aspect of our deer management plan so I think we should take them up, it's a way to take people who are in an adversarily position and they've offered help I think we should take it. Champion/Right. I think your fight, I think it helps to get people who are really interested one way or the other involved. Kubby/Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 36 Champion/Tempers everybody, those who are totally for it and those who are totally against it. Kubby/Well, and their gonna have, their very motivated to have some ideas on that will be helpful no matter where you stand on the issue? Lehman/Just a question on that. Will our deer committee, I presume, will is getting all the correspondence that we get relative to the deer issue? Atkins/To the best of my knowledge, I know that Lisa (can't hear) gather. Lehman/I would (vote) that they do. Kubby/Are they still active? Atkins/Oh yea. She intends to reconvene them again, yea. And I know she's spoken with this gentleman and had asked him a number of questions about providing some further information. Kubby/Well especially the local folks cause their gonna be the most to be able to come to the meetings and face the fate to be able to. Atkins/We also currently have a freedom of information request from this person to that's gonna be responded to shortly. Kubby/Another thing was in this letter was talking about the lack of site specific information and the assessment and that's something that I was kind of surprised about as well and wondered if the deer committee did have some sights specific information above and beyond the count, I know that that's very very sight specific. So if there is some, if we could have some information about that cause that's something that I think was very much repeated in the comments from citizens about the USDA environmental assessment the lack of site specific. So if we have any I'd like to see it. Norton/I noticed that same sentence appears in every one, it makes you wonder. O'Donnell/It does. Lehman/Yea, your right it does. Kubby/Well it doesn't make it any less truer or not because it was repeated and so I guess I want information cause I think it's true about the assessment it may or This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 37 may not be true about the information our deer committee has. I also wanted to highlight a local business that received, I want to make sure I get the name of the award correctly, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Micro Enterprise Development and that business is called the Institute for Social and Economic Development is head quartered in Iowa City and the thing that they do in their business is they help alleviate poverty by having lower income people who have an idea for starting a business come in and learn about creating a business plan, getting financing, making a business work well. So I congratulate ISED for that, ISED's one of the oldest and most successful programs in the country for getting people off welfare through entrepreneurship and they have a very high success rate and I just want to congratulate a homespun business ISED. And lastly, I want to tell people about a fund-raiser going on for ICARE and it's called "Have a night out on ICARE raffle" and you can buy tickets at the Precision's Design buzz, the Hair Headquarters, Norma Jeans, Twin Image, Titos, Red's World 2, and Europa by Rich's Salon. The drawing will be held on Sunday the 14th, you don't have much time to get these raffle tickets but what you can get raffled for is 4 tickets to the opening performance of Rent at Hancher Auditorium, a $100.00 gift certificate for Linn Street Cafe, and overnight accommodations for 4 at the Highlander/Radisson Hotel so buy your tickets and support ICARE. And that's all I have thank you. Lehman/If I'm not mistaken most of the council will be bowling on the 261h of February. O'Donnell/271h. Norton/Saturday the 271h. O'Donnell/All those who've collected money. Lehman/Right. So if you don't buy raffle tickets, save your money and sign up with a council person to bowl for kids sake. The money that's raised by, we're gonna have a great time doing this. The money really really goes to a great cause so. Norton/We're bowling at 3:45 at Colonial. Lehman/3:45, but get there early or it'll be standing room only so watch Dee Norton' s famous curve ball. I have nothing else. Steve. Atkins/Karen I think has something else. Lehman/Karen, I'm sorry. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 38 Kubby/I'm sorry I forgot something, I've been getting a lot of e-mail and phone calls about the transit memo that may or may not be out but people are talking about the contents of the transit rerouting memo, if it's available can we have it sooner than the weekend, the Friday before we would talk about it on Monday. So if it's available now I'd love it in our Friday packet. Kind of hard. Atkins/It's a route study memo, were surveying passengers and yea sure. Lehman/Steve. Atkins/I may be getting crusty in my old age. Lehman/That's OK. Atkins/But often times things are said if it's not responded to becomes truth. And I try to respect citizens fights to comment and I'm not so sure I want to even dignify the comment that Mr. Jones made but on behalf of the staff and that' s lots of people, Eleanor' s legal leadership and ethical standards are without question or compromise. And I want the record to show that. Thornberry/I concur. Lehman/I think we all do. Champion/We all do. O'Donnell/Absolutely. Champion/I don't think people should be allowed to do that at a public meeting, but I don't know how you stop it. I mean they just ground those accusations. Lehman/A lot of it's just a matter of good taste and I think some of it may be our good taste and not dignifying it. Thank you Steve. Atkins/That's all I have. Lehman/Eleanor anything. Dilkes/Nothing. Lehman/Do we have a motion to adjourn7 Thornberry/So moved. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999. #26 Page 39 O'Donnell/Second. Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, second by O'Donnell. All in favor. Meeting is adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of February 9, 1999.