HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-12-07 Transcription#2 Page 1
ITEM NO. 2. OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS -
GRANTWOOD ELEMENTARY
Lehman/Item 2 is Outstanding Citizenship awards so if the students would come
forward. If you guys think this is fun for you you don't know how much fun it is
for us. This is one of the neatest parts of our council meeting and we love doing
it, fight up front these are very very special young people. I would like you to
read your comments and give your name first so people know who is talking.
Elissa Allen-Holbrook/My name is Elissa Allen-Holbrook, I am in 6th grade and go to
Grantwood Elementary. At school I am involved in band, orchestra, jazz jumpers
and safety patrol. I also help with kindergartners and ECSE, ECSE is a program
for young kids that are physically and mentally challenged. I like working with
younger kids and the older ones. I want to thank the people that gave me the
opportunity to do this.
Cissy Huang/My name is Cissy Huang and I'm a 6th grader at Grant Wood Elementary.
I am involved in Extended Leaming Program. I also help with the Early
Childhood Special Education, and I also help with Kindergarmers. I would like to
thank all the people that helped me receive this award and I am very honored.
Thank you.
Matt Noel/My name is Matt Noel and I'm a 6th grade student at Grant Wood Elementary
school. I am a safety patrol officer, I am in ELP, Extended Learning Program, I
help with Early Childhood Special Education and with the Kindergartners. I tutor
a first grade student that has a speech disability.
David Ray/Hello my name is David Ray, I've been in ELP for three years, helped with
Kindergarten buddies and I'm in band. But I'm most proud of receiving
nominations from my classmates and I thank them too.
Lehman/Give these folks a hand. I've got certificates for each of you and they read.
(Reads award). Now I've got a question for you guys. Do you know a gal named
Jan Grenko? You do. She's your PE teacher. Ask her if she knows the mayor's
son when you see her next. Let's give them a hand guys.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#3 Page 2
ITEM NO. 3. MAYOR'S PROCLAMATIONS.
a. ELLEN BUCHANAN DAY - DECEMBER 15
Lehman/We have one proclamation tonight. (Reads proclamation, now Therefore, I
Ernest W. Lehman, Mayor of the City of Iowa City, Iowa hereby proclaim
Wednesday December 15, 1999 to be Ellen Buchanan Day in the City of Iowa
City. And encourage all Iowa City residents to watch Ellen's programs when they
are cable cast on the library channel Channel 10.
Madan Karr/Here to accept is Ellen Buchanan.
Ellen Buchanan/I'm overwhelmed, (can't hear). I accept this in behalf of the 100 people
in this community, and there are so many more that stories need to be recorded,
they are unique, and they're special and this is for them and for the library that has
been supporting in this project and thank you very very much.
Lehman/Thank you. You know I think that.
Champion/I think that.
Lehman/I'm sorry go ahead.
Champion/I was just going to say that I think it's also appropriate that pointing out that
Ellen is also a very wonderful Iowa City resident and has done a lot for this
community in other ways and we really appreciate that Ellen.
Lehman/Ellen's just one of the many reasons why Iowa City is such a great place to live.
Thanks again.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#4 Page 3
ITEM NO. 4. SPECIAL PRESENTATION.
Lehman/We've got a couple special presentations today. I went to Des Moines with the
part of the Iowa City Airport Commission and with the Airport Manager. We bid
on a really exciting event, we were successful in that bid and I'd like to present to
Rick what you gave me this morning before we left for Des Moines. We bid on
the 21 st Century Aviation Expo Fly Iowa, I want you to keep this in case we have
to go back and we'll just change the number and we'll get it again. So if you'd
take that and explain to the Council just what it is we are going to do.
Rick Mascari/I sure will. We are really really excited because the City of Iowa City got
awarded the Fly Iowa Convention in the year 2001. We were narrowed down to
three contestants and we were chosen to be the one to receive this. This is a big
deal, we expect to have over 10,000 people there at this convention. It's going to
be an actual air show, we'll have aerobatics and live music and dancing and just a
real real fun time, it's going to be held during the annual pancake breakfast that
we usually have which will be in August 24-25 of 2001. Part of the reasons why
we feel that we got selected was because of all of the improvements that have
been done to the Iowa City Airport, and they looked at all these pictures and all
the aggressive improvements that were made and they picked us. And so we're
really really happy and we just can't wait, we're really excited. Thank you very
much Ernie for coming with us.
Lehman/Thank you Rick.
Thornberry/Thank you Rick.
Lehman/I have another presentation, it's a special presentation, I have mixed emotion
about it but as all of us are aware many of you, three of our council people are
serving their last meeting tonight, Karen Kubby, Dean Thornberry and Dee
Norton. And I along with I'm sure the rest of the Council would like to thank you
very very much for your efforts as Mayor I have to tell you it's been an absolute
pleasure working with all of you. I think this group has, we don't always agree
with each other but I think we work well with each other and it's certainly been a
pleasure working with you and I think the rest of the Council certainly agrees and
I certainly hope the public does. In recognition of your years of dedicated service
to the residents of Iowa City, City Council was honored to present you a framed
print, a local artist will soon create a print of Iowa City's newly renovated
downtown area. Marian will contact you when it's ready, you can keep that and
we'll get it for you, Dee, Karen.
Karen Kubby/Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
Page 4
Dee Norton/Thank you.
Lehman/Then there's (can't hear) plaquered that you can put with that. To give folks an
idea of what it is your going to be getting, this is a painting of the ped mall before
it was renovated, the painting you will be receiving will be the same size and
whatever but it will be the newly reconstructed downtown ped mall so thank you
very very much and our sincere thanks both from the rest of the council and the
people of the community.
Dean Thornberry/Thank you.
Kubby/So this is like an IOU?
Norton/Will the green machine be in it Ernie?
Lehman/Only if you want it to be.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 5
ITEM NO. 5. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS
PRESENTED OR AMENDED.
Thornberry/So moved.
Champion/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Champion. Discussion.
Norton/I just want to call particular attention to that public hearing about the South
Sycamore Regional Storm Water project that I think that's a really important
project and I hope people will take the opportunity to come and get involved in
that hearing. It's going to be an important aspect to Storm water management in
that section of town.
Thornberry/That' s true.
Norton/And an experiment of considerable consequence not only to this community but
for other communities.
Lehman/Other comments. Roll call.
(Somebody talking in background, can't hear)
Millie Flynn/I wanted to speak about the.
Lehman/OK. Which item?
Flynn/Pardon me.
Lehman/Which item in the?
Flynn/I'm speaking about, I understand that Gabe's owner is expecting is going to apply
for renewal of his license.
Lehman/It's on here, it's on discussion.
Flynn/Pardon me.
Lehman/That's on the consent calendar.
Karr/That's correct.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 6
Lehman/That's on there.
Flytin/
OK. I decided to, I've written, my name is Millie Flytin and I have written quite a
few letters to the council and to the newspaper regarding what I've (can't hear)
the noise in the streets but there's a lot more than that to it so I decided to start by
reading a kind of a summary of letters I have written and I hope it won't be too
long. I moved to Ecumenical Towers on Washington Street in Iowa City in
November of '92, I have been calling the police department, writing letters to the
City Council and to the newspaper quite regularly to protest the noise in the
streets anytime from 11:30 PM to 4:30 and 5:00 AM, that was from an October of
'95 letter. From I letter I submitted in October of '93 I spoke at the monthly
meeting of residents of the Towers, we need to protest, call the police, we must
not write ourselves off as those old people, we are citizens whose rights to peace
and reasonable quite are being violated. Then from a letter of September '94 there
has been whooping, yelling, screaming, shouting, cursing, harsh and very
disturbing, it seems to come from all directions promenading in a giant crescendo
at the pedestrian mall. Can nothing be done about this situation? And then a few
lines from another plea. About 1:30 1 called the police, after what seemed a long
time a patrol car made it's way slowly and without threat to the crowd of
Washington Street. And lines yet from another communication. Why does the
City of Iowa City think it has to put up with drunken obscene behavior on the
streets every night of the week? Are you out there police when the bars close?
Are you monitoring the screaming, bellowing mass of humanity, surging toward
their vehicles and places they call home? I wish the City Council could be
uptown to experience this unique Iowa City happening. Recently a cartoon
appeared on the construction fence in the alley behind Ecumenical Towers. It
advertises the first vomit contest ever. This fits in with something else I was
inspired to write some time ago not upon seeing that, it was before that. Perhaps
these rebelers at bar closing time could be locked inside instead of being released
into the streets. They could scream profanities at one another until they drop from
weariness into their own vomit and urine. Quote from yet another communication
one subject leads to another the streets of downtown Iowa City are a disgrace.
I've walked them the morning after, stepping over vomit and urine. I am
dismayed at the litter swirling into the comers and gutters after some shop owners
effort with hose or bucket and broom. This is the youth that is made of our lovely
pedestrian mall, we are all guilty of allowing it to happen. I want to make note of
a response that I received from Susan Horowitz when she was mayor of Iowa
City. Dated November 10, 1994 she wrote "I can only encourage you to continue
to call our police when you hear these disturbances. With the completion of
construction of the Press Citizen building apartments possibly we will see these
noise makers move away from your immediate neighborhood." I have yet to
understand her logic. In closing she reassured me that there will be only one bar
in the 300 block of Washington Street, maybe so but bar hoppers are very
ambulatory people even under the influence and with over 60 bars to choose from
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 7
in the city I can't help but make use of a statement from one of my very first
letters, "there is no scarcity of watering holes, there is though a great lack of
respect for citizens and properties along the way." I feel there's no serious
intervention in these goings on if you will by the police. Some residents of
Ecumenical Towers have from the safety of their apartments witnessed rape and
they have seen drugs being dealt with outside their windows. This in addition to
the litter and the noise and the vomit and the urine in the streets. It is my belief
that those who own or man establishments such as Gabe's are not responsible
citizens. How can you night after night serve your customers until they are too
drunk, too obnoxious, to far gone to care about themselves or anyone else? I'm
not familiar, I'm not sure if Mr. Gabe's owner's name, I think it's Mr. Willert
anyway, perhaps the owner of Gabe's should have a temporary provisional license
based upon several conditions such as that the beer garden be closed at 11:00 PM
with no one entering or leaving by that exit. And that part of that expense running
such an establishment and not only Gabe's but all of the drinking holes the 60
plus bars in Iowa City a part of the owners expense will include policing before
things get out of hand. Thank you.
Champion/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you. Steve I think it would be well for us to get a memo telling us just
what the regulations are regarding noise and times and whatever and I think, are
our noise ordinance governed by zones? The different requirements in different
zones.
Dilkes/I'd have to look at it to see the applicability that's, there' s a number of crimes that
were identified by I mean public urination, public intox, disorderly conduct those
kinds of things, it's not just the noise ordinance but I would have to take a look at
it.
Kubby/But the police, this, when things get to us they've been through an inspection,
haven't they?
Dilkes/Yes.
Kubby/To make sure that there's a whole series of things an inspection, a look at
violations and if the police had concems they would, it would either it wouldn't
get to us.
Lehman/Right.
Kubby/Or things would have been taken care of but and it's not just I don't think Ms.
Flynn's comments are I think they apply to more than just one establishment and
that I know at one point we had sent out a letter and really had some concerted
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 8
effort about doing better carding, having better lighting and better training for
looking at ID's from us kind of initiating and pushing establishments that serve
alcohol and that I'm not quite sure what we could encourage pub owners to do but
that's something the council could certainly brainstorm and initiate some kind of
encouragement.
Norton/We could always banning underage (can't hear).
Champion/I think your assuming that the noisemakers are underage and I don't think
there's a way to prove that.
Norton/Well I know but that's a component.
Lehman/Well I think it's something to look into but I think Karen I think your right we
have encouraged all of that and I think there is a concertive effort on a part of a lot
of bar owners to do the best they can but we'll get some sort of.
Atkins/I'll prepare that OK.
Lehman/Other comments.
Champion/I can agree with Millie because my I think I mentioned at a city council
meeting that when my window at my store was broken about 1:00 AM on a
Saturday night and it was a beautiful night and the noise level was unbelievable
until 2:30, it was amazing.
Flynn/There is some noise even after 2:30 (can't hear) until 5:00 and some of it is very
frightening it's like.
Lehman/If your going to speak you have to speak into the microphone and I think we're
about through with this.
Fly, /
I said there is noise that goes on after 2:30 in the morning, it goes on often until
5:00. Some of the boys that you hear on the street sound like teenagers you know
and you wonder why are they out there? You know do their parents know they're
out there? But mostly it's like these adult voices and some of them even sound
like they're in agony but that goes along with drinking so much that you are not
any longer in control of yourself, it's very disturbing to hear. It doesn't seem fair
really, there ought to be something that can be done about it.
Thornberry/I owned a restaurant downtown that I started 15 years ago and lived with that
commotion that you're mentioning and it's been going on for a long time. I
opened that restaurant when the drinking age was 18 and.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 9
Champion/19.
Thornberry/And it's been considerable and the urination, defecation everything else
especially else with the playground when it was sand, it was like a sand box, like
a castle, like a sand box down there and I would send my people out and we were
open until 2:00 in the morning every morning except Sunday and I would send
my people out for an hour after we closed to clean up the walking plaza up and
down Dubuque Street and also down to the library and it's been that way for a
long long time and it's time people took responsibility for their own acts.
Lawrence/I would like to speak on this when I get a chance.
Lehman/On the liquor license?
Lawrence/Yes. I live at 320 E. Washington Street.
Lehman/Don't start till you get to the microphone please.
Lawrence/OK sir. I live at 320 E. Washington Street, Ecumenical Towers.
Lehman/And your name please.
Lawrence See/Lawrence See
Lehman/Very good.
See/My concem is when all hell breaks loose which time they don't call the police will
someone get killed out there. I've had the police up in the last six months to
arrest several people who were fighting right in our private property right next to
Gabe's, and take several people off in handcuffs, that's documented. It's just like
a zoo downtown and it's not conducive to any residential rest or life. My doctors
have advised me at the VA to move. And I don't think that you want to have this
kind of organization selling minor drinks. I don't care how they're getting in or
how they're getting served. My son moved to town when he was a minor and he
was getting drinks, they let him in some places for a few dollars more but he
would come home sick. He lived with me for about a month when he first moved
down here and I'd ask him how he was getting it and it's the same story all over.
You guys are bootlegging in this town and you don't care. You obviously don't
care because three-fourths of these students are underage and they get into
establishments and are served in one way or another and in any other town that I
know of in Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, they deal with this by not renewing
liquor licenses when you have raid after raid and tum up all these kids underage
drinking and you have this lawlessness. I moved down here right across the street
in the first parking place when you took our parking away for your city ramp,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#5 Page 10
guess what happened? Immediately I had two tires slashed, then they stole the
hood ornament off my car, I never had that problem before this was down here
and this is right across from where your sitting and 50 feet, right behind you on
Washington Street. And this is the kind of mess you've got with the lawlessness
and people drinking and not having any respect for people' s property or peace.
And I'm fed up with it I really am, you can take that to the bank. I guess I don't
think people should have to live under this kind of duress and we don't need
another bar downtown in urban renewal as far as the brewery I'm not against
drinking. I think people should drink and not carry on beyond their control, if
they can't drink responsibly then they shouldn't be drinking. Thank you.
Kubby/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you. Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 11
ITEM NO. 6. PUBLIC DISCUSSION (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). [UNTIL
8 PMI
Tom Carsner/Good evening my name is Tom Carsner and I'm here tonight on behalf of
the Friends of Hickory Hill Park.
Lehman/Before you start are you aware that this is going to be up for discussion at the
first meeting in January?
Carsner/We're very aware of that.
Lehman/And then your also aware the fact that three of the Council people who are
sitting here tonight will not be sitting here then.
Carsner/We're aware of that.
Lehman/Then may I ask why you choose to use this forum rather than a forum that can
make a decision?
Carsner/We'd like to thank you for your consideration of this resolution.
Lehman/OK then we'll do that.
Norton/As long as your (can't hear).
Kubby/Then you won't hear you.
(All laughing).
Carsner/I'm here tonight on behalf of the Friends of Hickory Hill Park the 100 park users
who signed our petition last weekend, remember it was cold and rainy. The
dozens of people that have supported our efforts over the last six months. About
the 25 people who attended last nights meeting and those who are here tonight
supporting Hickory Hill Park. We do wish to thank the council to it's recent
attention to Hickory Hill Park, a place of consistent refreshment for many, and we
specifically are glad that you are taking up the issue of whether to dedicate as park
land the remaining 36 acres of the city owned Gallagher property between
Hickory Hill Park and Oakland Cemetery. We're glad this question will be given
time for public input and for the discussion before you (can't hear) vote on
January 18th. We seek to give this 36 acres adjoining Hickory Hill Park the
strongest possible protection in these days of diminishing woodlands Hickory Hill
Park is an especially prized oasis of natural beauty exactly because it is within our
city limits. As a city attorney reiterated last night there' s a distinct difference
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 12
between the terms designation and dedication for use as city property. Dedication
provides greater protection that designation and we ask that you give these 36
acres the security it needs to be preserved as the unique treasure it is. We ask you
to dedicate all 36 acres to park land. We look forward to answering your
questions on this issue over the next month. The invitation remains open for you
or other concerned citizens to contact us for a guided tour of the park and as
another part of our education effort we've created this year 2000 calendar, it's a
wall calendar with 12 colored pictures of Hickory Hill Park and it's available at
20 local businesses. In closing I want to note that over 30 years ago I myself first
discovered Hickory Hill Park, and it's gratifying to know that many other people
have also received much of the same joy, peace and fulfillment that it's
woodlands, prairie and wildlife have given me. Our group seeks to pass this
opportunity on to others who have yet to discover it's wonders. We thank you for
your role in making that happen. Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you.
Kubby/So Ernie on the 18th will there be an item for public discussion?
Lehman/There will be a resolution, and any resolution is available for public discussion
SO.
Kubby/OK.
Terri Miller Chiat/Good evening, I'm Terry Miller Chiat and I'm here on behalf of the
Senior Center Commission tonight. I just wanted to update you a little bit on the
progress that we have made within our sky walk committee. We've met a couple
of times and we've met with the Community Development Coordinator. We're
working on a grant proposal and working on writing up an application. We are
also taking some first steps to solicit some private donations, drafting a letter and
working on some different ways to raise some fundraising for the sky walk. As
the commission moves forward on this project we want to thank the City Council
and the City for supporting this project. As we believe that it is vital to many
participants at the Center. We are delighted that the new ramp will put an end to
many of the parking shortages that we have battled for a long time at the Center.
However, we realize that an abundance of parking is not a good trade0ff if
accessibility prohibits the use of them. Probably everyone here tonight can agree
that downtown is the heart of the city and I know that the City Council believes
that and is committed to the downtown. One active and alive proponent of
downtown certainly is the Senior Center. I believe it's important for the
community to do whatever it can to ensure that the programs at the Center are
accessible to the senior population because the center must have accessibility in
order to flourish in that downtown location. Because the world's population is
continuing to age we're going to have this problem of accessibility increasing
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 13
over the next few years and I believe that the Senior Center must be committed to
encourage participation of all self-sufficient seniors not just those that are strong
enough to battle the alleys and the ice and snow and other pedestrians. But we
must also encourage the frail and disabled seniors to participate at the center. The
commission is very grateful for your support, we are committed to doing whatever
it takes to bring the sky walk into fruition and hope the community will back us
on this as well.
O'Donnell/Thank you.
Champion/Thanks Terry.
Lehman/Thank you.
Florence Boos/My name is Florence Boos, I live at 1427 Davenport Street and I'm I'd
like to speak to the council again urging you to desist??? from the sharp shooting
campaign. I want to remind you of some things, some of which I haven't said
before and some of which I've known to you. First I'd like to review for people
the history of the issue of whether deer should be shot in great numbers, murdered
in our parks. They've lived peacefully for many years here, it was only when talk
began of raking up Hickory Hill and putting more houses on the peninsula that
anybody ever realized that we had or invented a supposed deer over population
problem. Deer are harmless animals, many of us love them, they add a great deal
to the wildlife of our region. At this point as you know a deer commission was
set up, this was filled with people who already believed in killing the deer. They
also advocated an addition to lethal methods and non-lethal methods. These were
inexpensive and most of them have not been implemented since the deer
commission met. I'd like to argue against sharp shooting for many reasons in
addition to the desirability of retaining the deer where important natural assets.
First of all it's expensive, it will be almost $100,000 dollars even in the scaled
down plan, not only do they have to be killed for about $70,000 but in addition
they have to be processed, it's about $250.00 to kill each deer and processing is
about $45.00. And in addition you have the problem of deer wasting disease. I
noticed in the paper that supposedly deer meat is to be given to charity, one ought
to be careful about that, each deer should be tested, deer wasting disease is fatal,
it's like mad cow disease. In addition there's always the chance of error if there
are people are creeping through our parks or coming in with guns in the past it
hasn't been possible to sharp shoot within city limits in Iowa for a good reason
and as our population increases it's all the more dangerous. Even hunting wasn't
legal in this state until 1953. As you know the parks are used by all sorts of
people who don't read the papers and who won't know the deer are being killed,
they could be children, they could be old people, they could be retarded people,
they could be lovers in Hickory Hill at night, there are all sorts of reasons why it's
unsafe in the dark and in the light, also it's been said by the council secretary in
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 14
the paper your going to be very careful when when they are killed and so people
won't know and can't protest, that means all the more that there might be a chance
of accident. Citizens deserve access to the park and it's a horrible thing to k now
that you can't walk past certain sections, although no money has been spent on
these educational pamphlets, there are as you know leaflets around that try to
convince the citizens that it is necessary to kill, money has been spent on this and
preventing access to the parks. What's more this isn't a one year problem as you
know, it's been suggested that it will take many years to kill the deer so each year
the parks have to be corded off, the parts of the peninsula corded off, people can't
walk freely. And one should consider the other causes of these supposed access
of deer accidents, hunting is one of the main ones, you probably have read the
reports in the paper on the times of year when there are accidents. These are out
in in part according to people even who favor the sharp shooting centered around
the hunting season because the deer are frightened, if I were being killed I would
run to the street too. Then I think also the destruction of parks as the peninsula is
gradually being taken away and Hickory Hill has the ugly new road in it and the
center is being cut, the deer are frightened and they're running out so if we could
just halt the process of destroying our wilder spaces they wouldn't feel the need to
be in places humans inhabit, it's obvious the deer would rather live in the parks
than forge on lawns. And in addition the sharp shooting causes a problem
because when they're shot they run into the street. I noticed a Press Citizen article
favoring sharp shooting which made the interesting and I thought highly ironic
point that if one town in northern Iowa that had engaged in sharp shooting was
going to have to continue to do it again and again because they said accidents
have increased after we have sharp shot, obviously they thought that the increase
in accidents was unrelated to the sharp shooting but it seems to be very obvious
that if they had a sharp shooting program it did not work, it was very expensive.
The only people who benefit are the developers and the people who are profiting
from this hideous occupation. OK it violates civil liberties if there isn't full
notification, we can't walk freely.
Lehman/Florence you're going to have to wrap this up if you will.
Boos/Sure, OK, there are other alternatives, other cities have faced this problem, there
have been in other localities disputes between people who wish the animals and
they've used non-lethal methods with success. It would a lot cheaper than
$100,000 to use additional education to preserve the parks to use targeted signs,
there are no targeted signs and I know the city's used reflector's and should use
more of them but when you look at the actual three or four places where they do
cross and where there are accidents, I'm still looking for signs that have October
to November caution because the signs we have are very inaccurate and there are
only a few places where these accidents occur. We could enforce speeding limits
within the city everywhere but 80, we could put signs on 80, we could make an
intelligent attempt to adapt and live with the deer and of course we should
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 15
cooperate with the efforts toward contraception to become a part of a study would
be cheaper to try a long range solution, eventually the FDA will approve
contraception and perhaps there can be a non-lethal solution to the matter even
while we have some of our deer remaining among us. Thank you.
Lehman/Steve, we are not shooting any deer in parks are we?
Boos/Well according to the plan it's Hickory Hill.
Lehman/No I asked Steve, just a minute, are we shooting deer in parks?
Atkins/The plan is to begin the kill in the peninsula, we're not going to Hickory Hill,
that's not the plan.
Lehman/Not, we're not hunting that I'm aware of in any parks at all, no plan to hunt this
fall in any park anywhere in the city.
Boos/Well I'd be glad, but your original plan was to have that two park program, first the
peninsula and Hickory Hill.
Lehman/(can't hear) I don't know what for this fall, but we've never intended to hunt in
the park.
Boos/Even though the peninsula is like a park in that is corded off and it's a place where
people walk.
Lehman/OK, thank you.
O'Dounell/And it should be said also that this deer committee, this group of fine people,
and they struggled with this decision and I believe they investigated every aspect
of it and did wrestle before they came with this conclusion so I've got a great deal
of faith that they did all they could do.
Daryl Woodson/Hi, my name is Daryl Woodson, I've been asked to come here tonight to
represent an ad hoe group called the Englert Theater Coalition that's been
investigating a possibility of purchasing the Englert in order to establish a
nonprofit community performance center featuring a broader range of music,
dance, theater from commtmity and commercial presenters than is currently
available in the downtown area. Excuse me, the winter cold. Since this project
would require substantial city support we're bringing you up to date on our efforts
up to this point. Central States Theaters now has a binding purchase agreement to
sell the Englert to Mr. Kip Pohl of LaGrange Illinois, Mr. Pohl and his family
have purchased a number of commercial properties in Iowa City, they are the
operators of the Union Bar, and the Malones Bar and Restaurant. The sale
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 16
contract prohibits the use of the Englert as a commercial first run movie theater,
closing date for this sale is January 9, 2000. Our group had a cordial meeting
with the new owners and Mr. Pohl expressed his support for our idea. We are
currently negotiating with him for the purchase of the Englert, the price is
currently pegged at about 1 million dollars, Mr. Pohl has pledged to donate a
substantial portion of the proceeds of the sale approximately $100,000 towards
the equipping and refurbishing of the building. Our early estimate for
rehabilitation of facility and furnishing basic stage lighting, projecting, and sound
equipment is around $50,000, I'm sorry, $500,000, 50 would be nice. Putting the
total estimating cost at a million and a half dollars for a performance facility that
would seat approximately 1,000. For comparison the proposed center space
auditorium was estimated between 3 and 4 million dollars for 500 seats. Given
this comparison the Englert's a bargain. The need for such a facility and the
community organizations that would use it have been well documented and the
Camiro's consultant feasibility study for center space and our group has been
looking at that report adapting it, trying to update it, talking to a number of
community groups about their needs and looking to comparable facilities that are
already established. One is the Regent Theater is Cedar Falls, using those as
models for operational costs and revenues. The Regent has been operating I
believe about 5 or 6 years and they are operating at a break even or in the black.
Our preliminary budget estimates support our confidence that the Englert would
be a self-sustaining center. Given the (can't hear) and local support for
community control of the Englert Theater our group is certain that given the time
for a comprehensive campaign the citizens and businesses of Iowa City would
contribute well over half the ~mds necessary to save the Englert. Time however
is our big problem, the Englert changes owners January 9, while it appears we
could raise funds for a substantial down payment on the building, we have no
legally established entity to sign a purchase contract. It can get several months to
get a nonprofit corporation established and approved by the IRS. Mr. Pohl is
understandably unwilling to the building for a long period. We hope he will
continue to be reasonable and cooperative as we continue discussions on costs and
timing of any potential purchase. We have a commitment for the short time
financing for the acquisition of the property if we can find a company, an
individual, group of individuals or public agency with the essence to support such
a loan. This financing commitment is for 100 percent of the purchase price and
would require no up front cash from the companies or individuals involved, it
would of course require potential for loss if the project didn't go through. This
scenario would buy us time to complete the project, and it's the only way we see
to meet the deadline if the deadline holds. In theater lingo the back row of a show
is called an angel, what we need right now is an angel to save the theater. There' s
a tremendous amount of passion in Iowa City for the Englert as you probably well
know, the project would preserve a piece of our history and I believe the city
Historic Preservation Commission is going to pursue landmark status which
would protect the exterior of the building but not the interior. The Englert would
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 17
be a major asset in drawing a greater diversity of people to downtown Iowa City,
you've already made a sizable investment in new streetscapes, refurbished ped
mall and expanded parking facilities in the downtown. As you intend your
holiday parties with friends think about what makes those gatherings special, it's
not so much their beautiful home and fumiture it's their charm, graciousness, their
wit and companionship, the entertainment of their hosts and other guests provide.
Well we've remodeled the downtown, we've bought new fumiture, the Englert
could bring charm, music, theater, companionship and a piece of history back to
downtown Iowa City. However at this point in time we're not optimistic that that
can happen. That's where we stand, we'd like to thank a lot of people who have
been involved in this, Dick Summerwill, Jim Harris, Mark Ginzberg, Larry Acolt,
John Shaw, Tom Gilman, Stan Miller, Karin Franklin, the mayor was at a couple
of the meetings, folks from community theater, many other organizations, and a
lot of people who have been calling us. We're pretty much at the end of things
unless we find that angel or unless Mr. Pohl changes his deal so that's where we
are right now if there's any questions I'll try and answer.
Kubby/Daryl is it possible to have co-angels?
Woodson/Sure. Now part of the problem is that setting up the nonprofit corporation
requires a lot of paper work and IRS approval, setting up a partnership, a simple
real estate partnership is apparently a pretty perfunctory thing so the lawyers say,
that can be done with very little paperwork and a small filing fee with the
Secretary of State so that can be done quite quickly, the nonprofit status
organization takes a long time.
Kubby/In terms of that date is there a chance to have some negotiation to change that
date since there seems to be good communication and good relations?
Woodson/So far we've been unsuccessful in changing the timeline.
Norton/What's the date that he acquires it?
Woodson/January 9.
Champion/We don't have a.
Norton/And he's not willing to hold beyond that?
Woodson/Yep, well (can't hear).
Norton/Your just trying to meet the January 9.
Woodson/For a substantial amount of time beyond that, I mean if.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 18
Norton/You'd like to get in right around that time then?
Woodson/Yea you know, if it was a matter of a few weeks or a couple of weeks I'm sure
we could negotiate that but apparently it can take a couple of months to get
nonprofit status corporations established because you've got to get IRS approval.
O'Donnell/It takes up to a year, we just went through that, and it's a lengthy period, we
waited over a year to get ours.
Woodson/Yea and that' s the unfortunate thing if we, if this project had that timeline
we'd feel there would be no problem but fight now it's.
Champion/We have a problem being able to discuss this among ourselves because we
don't even have another meeting until January 18.
Woodson/You know it's unfortunate the timing was this short and of course falling with
the holidays, it's been very difficult to even get (can't hear).
Champion/So what' s going to happen if you don't have this completed by January 9 did
you say?
Woodson/Now it's his building.
Kubby/So I mean I'm not prepared to suggest that we be that angel because we haven't
talked about, we haven't seen that business plan but what role could the city play
in helping negotiate a different date to just say we need some time to decide what
kind ofpartnering we want to have with this community coalition to have a fair
chance to discuss it and have a fair chance for them to create a business plan to
say that we're open to hearing their business plan and the possibility of being a
partner so would you do another 3 months, I mean this is a big project.
Champion/It is and it isn't.
Kubby/Like 3 months doesn't seem like a lot.
Woodson/Yea I mean center space planning was what six years.
Champion/It's certainly a wonderful idea and I'm glad your pursuing it.
Kubby/Well I guess I'd like to suggest that Council direct staff to see if we can play a
role in helping negotiate a three month change in that date if it's agreeable to the
property owner and the person who holds the contract.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 19
Norton/That may as well cost money too.
O'Donnell/I don't think it will (can't hear).
Thornberry/I bought a piece of property from Central States Theater Corporation and
found them to be a very very admirable organization and all of the people
throughout Central States I've got nothing but the highest regard for and if they
have in fact a contract they will adhere to that contract.
Woodson/Yes.
Thornberry/And that would be fair to that contract and I think that they are very very fair
individuals and I don't just think there's the time to do it.
Woodson/No I mean we're not talking about negotiating with Central States it's with Mr.
Pohl.
Thornberry/I understand that but his contract Central States contract that they've got
already I think they will adhere to.
Woodson/Yes.
Kubby/Right and I'm not suggesting that there's anything dishonorable here.
Thornberry/That won't, no that.
(END OF TAPE 99-113)
Thornberry/Delayed if, in fact that.
Norton/We could have another meeting.
Lehman/I visited with Mr. Pohl on three occasions, now I think when you invest that
kind of money your not going to sit around for 2 or 3 months to wait for you to
decide if your going to buy it.
Thomberry/Somebody else yea.
Lehman/And I understand that and I appreciate that. My take and this is strictly a guess
on my part, I believe if it could be shown that there were a substantial interest
within the community and a substantial commitment of money so that he
believed and we believed that we could put this thing together that he would
cooperate with us, I don't think January 9 deadline is a deadline that would be
absolute. But I do think in the absence of putting something together that shows a
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 20
significant amount of money that has been raised and pledged at least towards the
project that he won't be amenable to extending any times. I think the onnes??? is
on us as a community to show that our interest is more than just casual that if we
have a pledges, commitments from the community for a significant amount of
money it appears that the balance of that is doable I believe that could be
negotiated but I think it's going to require that.
Woodson/He has asked for a substantial down payment and a signed purchase contract
by the end of the year.
Thornberry/Yea.
Woodson/And there would need to be an entity to sign that purchase contract obviously.
Norton/Would there be enough information for the council, this council to do any
consideration of this at a special session?
Lehman/We can always call a special meeting, that's that's always possible.
Norton/And I think we might very well want to do that if there's some information that
we could consider.
Lehman/I think if something comes up.
Woodson/We're still working, we haven't given up yet so.
Kubby/So your in, I mean, is there a potential that you could be done with the business
plan and a plan of action and have a list of.
Woodson/We're working on a business plan, a case statements, there are a couple
meetings happening this week that we hope to have some substantial pledges
coming in yea, we're still working on it but that's.
Lehman/Well if you get something call us because I think the council would be
amenable to a special meeting.
Kubby/Now remember we need 24 hours notice.
Woodson/Right, just wanted to let you know where we are at this time.
Lehman/Very good, thank you.
Champion/Call us.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 2 1
Norton/We'll try Daryl.
Steven Kanner/Steven Kanner and I just wanted to make a quick announcement about
one of Iowa City's I'd consider great community assets the Women's Resource
Action Center and their part of the University of Iowa but they interact with the
community on a many different levels and they're going to be having a tribute for
one of Iowa City's other great assets for Karen Kubby and it's going to be this
Thursday December 9 and it's going to be a benefit for the social change training
program which is a program that's been going on now for three years now I
believe and that is open to the community and then I took part in a number of
these social change workshops and it helped me to fine tune my organizing and
social change skills and I dare say that some of the skills I leamed that at past
social change seminars were put to use at my past council campaign so I would
like to solute Karen and urge people to give a call to the Women's Resource
Action Center if their interested in attending the dinner on Thursday night.
Lehman/At the Union?
Kanner/There's a telephone number 335-1486, there are still tickets available, still tickets
available.
Champion/Great.
Kanner/Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you Steve.
Kubby/Wow that means the program's doing what it's suppose to do, great.
Jim Throgmorton/Hi my name is Jim Throgmorton, 715 North Liun Street. First I want
to support everything that Tom Carsner said about Hickory Hill Park and I really
hope you can work with Woody about the Englert. More important though, I
want to thank Dean Thornberry, Dee Norton and Karen Kubby for their service to
this Council and to the city. Dean, though I disagree with you about many of the
kind of votes and issues and so on over the last four years I want to thank you for
your efforts as you would put it to give something back to the city, particularly
under very different personal circumstances. Dee, thanks for your gruff, graveled
voiced charm that you've brought to your task, your deep caring and commitment
to the city and it's people is quite apparent and I hope you and Kari have a great
time once you get off the council and that you pursue your interest in regional
issues like I know that you and I have talked about before. Karen, in my
experience and judgment there's never been a better city councilor than you at
least in this city. I deeply admire your tenacious effort to speak on behalf of those
who have the least power and influence in the city to give voice to those who have
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#6 Page 22
little voice. And I deeply admire your willingness to take politically difficult
stands when you think that's necessary and I can recall several particular instances
of that. I could go on and on but since Steve has announced your event Thursday
night I think I will leave the remainder to that particular event. So oh yea, I want
to tell you I like your jacket too.
Lehman/Thank you Jim. Any other public discussion?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#7 Page 23
ITEM NO. 7. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS.
d. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING A FINAL PLAT OF
WINDSOR RIDGE, PART TEN, A 19.40 ACRE, 32-LOT RESIDENTIAL
SUBDIVISION WITH THREE OUTLOTS LOCATED AT THE NORTH
TERMINUS OF ARLINGTON DRIVE.
Lehman/All conditions have been addressed, it was approved by a 6-0 vote by Planning
and Zoning.
Thomberry/So moved.
Champion/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Champion. Discussion.
Kubby/I'm going to support all, I can't remember which part in here has the pond so I'm
just going to say it now and it's relevant to whatever part that I am going to
support all of these but I do have concerns about the pond that's going to be
constructed here and even though that's an administrative decision I think that if
the pond is not being used for storm water detention as a major part of those
responsibilities that we shouldn't disturb the water wave that' s there and I know
that part of this came from residents wanting to connect the southern part with the
northern part because there was already a pond in the other part to have some
visual connection between the two sections of this neighborhood and so I just
have concems about kind of taking this natural water way although over the years
it has changed too with agricultural uses but when it doesn't serve a particular
purpose and that it might have some environmental consequences that I'm not
quite sure if we understand if it really does or not, I'm hesitant to do and hope that
we learn more about these things as they come up and that our staff has taken time
to help us understand this a little better but I just wanted to express concems about
the decision that staff has to make about the pond.
Lehman/Other comments. Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#7i Page 24
ITEM NO. 7i. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING A FINAL PLAT OF
WESTCOTT HEIGHTS PART TWO, A 24.99 ACRE, FOUR-LOT
RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION LOCATED IN JOHNSON COUNTY AT
THE WEST END OF WESTCOTT DRIVE NE AND ROSE BLUFF
CIRCLE NE (SUB99-0024).
Lehman/This was approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission by a vote of 7-0
and this is a subdivision in the county.
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Vanderhoef/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion.
Norton/I just have one quick question that. This is one that violates the fringe but it was
the rezoning was done earlier I take it, the RS because it doesn't leave as much
open space as would be required now fight?
Lehman/I have an indication that that's correct.
Norton/Is that the way it is?
Kubby/Right, so it's since the compliance of the preliminary plat?
Norton/OK so.
Lehman/Roll call.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#7j Page 25
ITEM NO. 7j. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING A FINAL PLAT OF
WILD PRAIRIE ESTATES PART 3, A 49.31 ACRES, 30-LOT
RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION WITH ONE OUTLOT FOR PROPERTY
LOCATED AT THE NORTH ENDS OF GOLDENROD DRIVE AND
WILD PRAIRIE DRIVE. (SUB99-0026)
Lehman/Item J is that one we're going to proceed with?
Dilkes/This is ready to go, there's a letter in front of you from the developer signed off
on by the property owner at the drainage problem.
Lehman/(Reads Item j. This was approved by Planning and Zoning Commission on
December 2.
Thornberry/Move adoption.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion.
Norton/Is there any other property that I notice the City for example is proposing is that
we absorb the cost of that ex-oversized creek because it's no longer an out of
sequence development. I take it that will also apply to other developments in that
noah of there when Lot A is developed and other anything in that area is now
going to be?
Karin Franklin/Yes.
Norton/At the situation. They're no longer out of sequence?
Franklin/Well there' s development now on both sides, Southwest Estates and Hunters
Run.
Norton/And going north the same way?
Franklin/Going north north is to Melrose Avenue, yes and I think it's very difficult to say
at this point in time that it's out of sequence, in fact it's more infill.
Norton/Yea it's more and more in~ll than out.
Franklin/Yea.
Lehman/Further discussion. Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#8 Page 26
ITEM NO. 8. PUBLIC HEARING ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14,
CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "CITY UTILITIES" OF THE CITY CODE OF
IOWA CITY, IOWA, BY ADOPTING A NEW SECTION 14-3B-5
ENTITLED "PROJECT SPECIFIC TAP-ON FEE FOR THE
NORTHWEST SANITARY SEWER PROJECT, PHASE II."
Lehman/Public hearing is open. I know there's no comment but we have I believe the
next several items are all of the same nature to, I get Rick or Chuck just to tell us
or Karin, did she escape?
Kubby/Yes.
Norton/She did, she went to her office.
Atkins/We could quick get her.
Lehman/Well I just think it would be well for the public to know what we're doing
because.
Kubby/We're doing so much of it.
Lehman/Well yea we're doing quite a bit. Just briefly Chuck.
Chuck Schmadeke/Yea these are sewers that have been constructed and they serve
various areas of the city. There are four sewer projects, first one was constructed
and completed in 1991, the last one I believe was completed in 1998, and these
tap-on fees are for so the city can recover the costs of the construction of the
sewers and the fees are assessed against sub dividers and builders that construct
facilities within the drainage area of these various sewer systems.
Lehman/What have we been doing up to now, for example in this one that was
constructed in 1991 ?
Schmadeke/We've been collecting an estimated fee.
Lehman/This just.
Schmadeke/It finalizes those costs.
Lehman/It makes Eleanor happy right?
Schmadeke/Right.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#8 Page 27
Lehman/Well it's important.
Norton/Well the fees have been collected all along fight?
Lehman/It's got to be legal, it just formalizes it and makes it legal. OK.
Dilkes/That's fight.
Vanderhoef/It isn't this item but while your there Chuck, when I was looking through
that there are some exclusion of some properties particular in the Highlander area.
Schmadeke/Right.
Vanderhoef/And are those because they help pay for the original lift station?
Schmadeke/Right, that lift station was put in under a special assessment project and that
paid the cost of that.
Vanderhoef/OK. Thank you.
Norton/One more, I assume that tap-on fees, there would not be this lag normally now
that is tap-on fees would be assessed more or less at the time the development
happens not 8 years later right?
Schmadeke/Well at the time, yea, at the time the sewer is constructed we hope to get
those costs within an ordinance fight.
Norton/So everybody will know fight?
Lehman/Thank you Chuck. Public heating is closed.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#12b Page 28
ITEM NO. 12b. THE CITY'S INTENT TO CONTINUE WITH AND
AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS FOR
THE LONGFELLOW-TWAIN PEDESTRIAN TUNNEL PROJECT.
Lehman/It's a public hearing, public hearing is open. Public hearing is closed.
Kubby/Move to adopt this resolution.
Norton/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Kubby, seconded by Norton, discussion.
Vanderhoef/I'm just real pleased to have this go forward, this has been a long needed
safety measure for getting folks to and from busy corridor and connect
neighborhoods and it's part of our master plan for trails and I'm glad we're going
forward with it at this point.
Norton/When will this work get under way, do you have any idea?
Lehman/I think we're about to find out.
O'Donnell/Soon.
Rick Fosse/We're hoping to get it built this construction season but there are two things
that could interfere with that. One is there are some federal funds involved and
that lengthens the process for bidding it and also with the new states easement and
property acquisition regs., that's a bit of a new process for us and that could
lengthen the process as well.
Norton/Well there are several properties still involved right?
Fosse/There are a few properties that we need to get easements from and we may do a
land swap with one of them.
Thornberry/When you say this construction season, it's the middle of December.
Fosse/I'm sorry, I'm in 2000 already, next summer.
Lehman/I was wondering which season you were talking about.
Thornberry/See I listen to you.
Lehman/Other questions? Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#13 Page 29
ITEM NO. 13. PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FOR OF CONTRACT, AND
ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE 2000
PARKING RAMP MAINTENANCE AND REPAIR PROJECT,
ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY
EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH
ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR
RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Lehman/This is estimated cost of $356,000. Public hearing is open. Public hearing is
closed.
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Vanderhoef/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion.
Norton/I thought we did a lot of work on these ramps last year. We got to do it every
year?
Lehman/I don't no, we don't do it.
Atkins/Joe's back there.
Norton/Every other year?
Lehman/Well I think some of these are, there's major maintenance done every three
years isn't it Joe?
O'Donnell/We're about to find out.
Joe Fowler/We set a program up usually to do a project every two years, we used to do a
project every year and we started making them larger projects and going every
other year.
Lehman/Has it been two years on the Dubuque Street ramp?
Fowler/On which one?
Lehman/Dubuque Street?
Fowler/I think it's been actually longer since we did anything major there, it's a.
Norton/Time flies when you (can't hear).
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#13 Page 30
Fowler/Shive Hattery goes through an evaluates all of our facilities for us, they set up a
plan, and the plans broken out into two years of work so it may be two to three
different times we'll work in one facility and not work in the other ones.
Norton/Now does this involve new lighting?
Fowler/No that' s a separate, that would be the next item.
Norton/That's the next item OK.
Fowler/Yes.
Champion/Well I want to commend the city for having a plan maintenance program for
major buildings because it save a tremendous amount of money in the end if
things are kept in really good repair.
Norton/It would be a good time to put the signs up Joe.
Fowler/We're working on those.
Norton/I won't hold my breath.
Lehman/OK Joe, thank you, don't walk away because we'll need you for the next one.
Roll call.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#14 Page 31
ITEM
NO. 14. PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND
ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CAPITOL
STREET PARKING RAMP LIGHTING IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT,
ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY
EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH
ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR
RECEIPT OF BIDS.
Lehman/This is an estimated cost of $187,000. Public heating is open. What are we
doing Joe?
Champion/Yea.
Fowler/This is broken into, this will bid in two phases, an original bid and an alternate
bid. The original bid will include lighting for the basement levels and levels one
and two. The alternate bid will be to increase the lighting throughout the whole
facility. Our original plan was to upgrade the lower levels with the lighting at this
time, and then expand the lighting program in the future. It was recommended by
the engineers that we bid it phased with an alternate to light the entire facility
because they thought there would be significant cost savings that could be
achieved on the cost of the light fixtures by buying all of them at once so we're
bidding the entire ramp but it's going to come in as two separate phases, we're
increasing the foot candles up to the industry standards.
Lehman/All fight, thank you. Other public discussion or questions for Joe?
O'Donnell/Thanks Joe.
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion. Roll call.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#17 Page 32
ITEM NO. 17. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING ACQUISITION OF
A SINGLE FAMILY LOT UNDER THE AFFORDABLE DREAM HOME
PROGRAM.
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Kubby/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Kubby. Discussion.
Kubby/Besides kind of sustaining this program and the city being involved in
construction or buying homes and then selling them to people who might not
otherwise have an opportunity at home ownership. We're also going to be
building this as a "Green Building" and I think that's a really important thing to
do because for a couple of reasons. On a micro level it helps the family who
moves in there have lower living costs every month by having lower water costs
and lower energy costs and secondly on a larger level it becomes a role model for
the commtmity to see that homes that are green friendly are affordable, are
aesthetically pleasing and are very functional and can be, and are definitely part of
the neighborhood and I think a part of the future. So some of the definition of
"Green Building" is that it saves natural resources by using less material to
receive the same or better performance. It substitutes abundant material for less
abundant material. Renewable material for nonrenewable material or recyclable
material for non-recyclable material. It reduces accumulative environmental
impacts including air and water pollution, loss of habitat and bio-diversity. And
reduces the amount of operating energy that the building requires so I think this is
very laudable, not just the general program that we're doing but how we're going
about it and I like the way this is evolving.
Thornberry/This is not being used with local taxpayer?
Lehman/No.
Vanderhoef/I'd like to just thank Doug Boothroy and Maggie Grosvenor for researching
a bit on this and bringing this project to us, it was something that I think several of
us were interested in and they went out and made it happen for us, brought it to
us, I'm delighted that it's here and it should be a good demonstration model for
our community and for our local developers and I hope perhaps we will sell this
idea to more developers.
O'Donnell/It is a great plan and I'm glad you recognized Maggie because she doesn't get
recognized enough and she does a great job.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#17 Page 33
Thomberry/Got a recognize her wherever she is.
Lehman/Maggie we love you.
O'Donnell/We do indeed.
Lehman/We really do. Roll call.
Thornberry/And boy can she play the piano.
Lehman/Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 34
ITEM
NO. 18. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, ENTITLED
"POLICE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 5, ENTITLED
"MISCELLANEOUS OFFENSES," OF THE CITY CODE TO ADD A
NEW SECTION PROHIBITING THE USE OF VEHICLES FOR
LODGING ON PUBLIC STREETS, RIGHTS-OF-WAY, PARKING LOTS,
OR OTHER PUBLIC PROPERTY WITHIN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY.
(FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Thornberry/Move first consideration.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry.
Vanderhoef/Second.
Lehman/Seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion. It's been brought about, I think most of
us aware by.
Amanda Coyne/Can I discuss this with you all? My name is Amanda Coyne and I
represent the Hawkeye Chapter of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, why they sent
me is anybody's guess. I have a statement here prepared by a lawyer that's as
lawyer's statements can be a little long-winded but can I ask you first what this
entails? I mean I understand that there' s been a little bit of media coverage about
this and I don't know if I've quite, if we have, the public has gotten the full story
behind this code.
Lehman/Would you like to brief her briefly as to what the ordinance says, it arose
because of a person was apparently living in a van on a public street.
Coyne/OK, and the citizens were.
Lehman/Citizens were concerned about privacy issues, safety issues, whatever their
concerns where but there was a fair amount of concern.
Thornberry/And for the safety of the individual involved in it. In a night such as this
where it might get very very cold, or even colder than this when it gets below zero
and he would, for example, start his vehicle to keep warm, there's a very very
good potential that he would harm himself.
Champion/Well I think there's more to it than that too.
Thomberry/There' s a lot of things involved.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 35
Champion/The person had been parked for over a year in the neighborhood, the
neighborhood had tried to approach this person to make him part of the
neighborhood so it wasn't that they just wanted to get rid of this person living in
their car, that really wasn't true, they made all kinds of overtures to know this
person and make him part of the neighborhood. And this person would not have
anything to do with the neighborhood, it was an out-of-town license plate and the
man had a criminal record and I think because of his kind of hermit like existence
that people in the neighborhood got frightened.
Coyne/I've heard that story too and that's a little, that concems me a little bit too because
there's Iowa Civil Liberties Union a little bit that the fact that you know
somebody who basically is a hermit and does not come to socialize with his
neighbors.
Thornberry/Well he was notified, there were other housing options available to him.
Coyne/Yea but he's a hermit and I used to live across from that homeless shelter and
that' s I mean bless their hearts but if you want to live kind of a quiet existence
that's not necessarily the place to be.
Champion/Well I don't think they objected the fact that he didn't want to socialize but
there was absolutely no contact like they would rap on his door and he would not
even respond to them so they could just introduce them self.
Coyne/Yea.
Champion/I mean he created a very fraying experience for people living in the
neighborhood with young children and walking by this van to school, it was very
unusual circumstances and I probably will never happen again.
Coyne/Yea I know, well that's one of the reasons why I'm here because the more
pragmatic of you know, why pass an ordinance, when this has actually happened
once before I understand.
Norton/It's the precedence that's all.
Coyne/Pardon me.
Norton/It's the precedence, there could be 15 of them you know.
Coyne/Well OK.
Norton/You make laws all the time for that kind of situation and we have ordinances of
all kinds.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 36
Coyne/Yea but those laws could be made at some other point right, I mean we could
make those laws at another point.
Norton/But there to head off problems.
Coyne/OK well I just, I wanted, there's a constitutional issue actually here that the Iowa
Civil Liberties Union would like to bring up here and I'm going to read this like I
said it's a little bit long and a little boring so please.
OK the proposed ordinance before the City of Iowa City is an attempt to bring
back the vagrancy laws of long ago. We fell, the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, the
proposal will undoubtedly be used to punish the poor and homeless for innocent
and otherwise innocuous behavior, sleeping in your car, it seems on the face of it
fairly innocent. Until 25 years ago it was a crime in most states and localities for
a poor person to stay and wander the streets and in 1972 the United States
Supreme Court invalidated a Florida vagrancy statute that imposed criminal
penalties on "persons wandering or strolling around from place to place." Among
it's constitutional failings, the court explained, the laws prohibition of activities
that compromised a "part of the immunities of life as we know them." OK and
another additional problem with the law was that it was vague and that a person of
reasonable intelligence could not know that his or her behavior was illegal so if
somebody came to Iowa City, decided to park out in the car, in the van, may not
know that this activity was illegal. Moreover the statute gave the police (can't
hear) discretion to stop and arrest individuals who are doing no more than
lingering on the streets. For all these reasons the court found that the law created
the constitutional impermissible situation in which the poor and the unpopular are
permitted to stand on a public sidewalk or sleep in a public car. Only at the whim
of any police officer. OK and it goes on to say that Iowa City is not the first
community in the nation that has responded to the issue of homelessness by
banning it and possibly even possibly criminalizing sleeping or camping in the
streets. Most omen vagrancy and other such laws are vague over broad and most
notably impose cruel and unusual punishment on the status of being poor. There
have been challenges in Florida that the homeless people won this suit, the
homeless people living in Miami successfully sued the city to stop a policy of
arresting, harassing, and the homeless people for engaging in basic activities of
daily life including sleeping and eating in the public places they are forced to live.
The district court in Miami found that the city's policy was a form of banishment
violating a homeless person's fundamental right to travel and to equal protection
of the law. The United States Supreme Court has yet to consider a ban on
sleeping as applied to homeless people who have no other place, no other public
places to do so. Iowa City as a most aggressive community in Iowa if not in the
midwest should not place itself in a position where the law in this area is tested.
To best avoid any future legal challenges the Hawked Chapter of the Iowa Civil
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 37
Liberties Union urges City Council members to vote against this proposed
ordinance.
Vanderhoef/Excuse me, I didn't catch your name.
Amanda Coyne/Amanda Coyne. I'm sorry I don't think you heard that?
Vanderhoef/Have you read the ordinance that there' s the 24 hour notification?
Coyne/Yes.
Vanderhoef/And also the assistance or the offer of assistance in finding a place to stay.
Coyne/Yea I mean I can envision a situation where there was a domestic abuse situation
in where somebody would not necessarily would not want to go to a shelter and
maybe want to stay in the car and live in their car for a few weeks and there's all
sorts of situations where I could envision where people would not necessarily
want to go to the public places that were available for them for sleeping. I just
don't see what's, I mean this person, from what I understand this person was
living in his van, he was harming nobody, the neighbors in this area got really
upset about it for no other reason, I mean they were suspicious of him because he
was poor, and I just don't see this is the kind of community where we want we
want to validate those suspicions.
Lehman/I don't know that we even know that he was poor, he could be a very rich
person.
Coyne/Or homeless I mean, he was obviously homeless.
Lehman/I think Eleanor would you, I think that this was written as a matter of public
(can't hear).
Dilkes/And it was just to provide some context for people who haven't seen the
ordinance, can I just go through it?
Lehman/Please do.
Champion/Please.
Dilkes/We had a lengthy discussion as you know at one of your work sessions about the
concerns of the neighbors, and you directed me to draft an ordinance which I've
done. It prohibits lodging in a vehicle, it does not prohibit sleeping in a vehicle.
The case law that has specifically addressed ordinances that prohibit lodging or
sleeping in a vehicle have struck down the sleeping portion of that. So we limit it,
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 38
limited it to lodging. It also, there, I have reviewed other ordinances from other
communities and there are a number of restrictions in those ordinances, I've
included two in here, one is that came out of Jacksonville Florida's ordinance, one
is that there has to be notification to the occupant of the vehicle that it is contrary
to city ordinance to lodge in a vehicle, and two there has to be a reference to a
shelter. And then finally there is a provision that states what notification is, I
think the cases that Ms. Coyne is referring to although I think the law is not at all
clear as indicated by Ms. Coyne. There is a Florida case in particular that was
cited in my memo to you, I think we talked about the homelessness issue, those
types of challenges have been as applied challenges, not challenges that
ordinances on it's face is invalid but rather that as applied to homeless persons
along with a number of other ordinances in that community. It raises
constitutional issues and the basis of the courts decision, the finding by the court
based on empirical evidence that was presented to the court that the number of
homeless people in the community far exceeded the number of shelter beds. So as
we discussed when we originally talked about this ordinance it is not invulnerable
to as applied challenges by homeless people, but the cases that we have found that
have addressed specifically this issue would uphold it but it's not, it certainly, I
recognize the issues that Ms. Coyne has raised and it's not without some (can't
hear).
Norton/Well I want to comment a minute on this, I used to be a member of the Ac,
Hawked Chapter.
Coyne/Pardon me.
Norton/I'm very familiar with the Hawked Chapter. But we impose housing codes all
the time, we worry about head room stair width, e-gress windows, sanitation,
many things and this kind of flies in the face of housing codes that are enforced
throughout the community.
Coyne/Yea but.
Norton/And I think it is and it is an upset to the community, there may be only one but
there could be more if the precedent is accepted then my and I do think the notice
requirement and everything makes it plausible and I would be willing to risk a
court challenge if that's what's coming to it. My only concern is this, could you,
try to extend, suppose your living not in an automobile in the street but living
under the bridge. Now presumably that' s not illegal, is that right?
Dilkes/Not currently.
Norton/You could live under a bridge in a box couldn't you?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 39
Lehman/Probably.
Norton/And we have 37 living that way.
Thornberry/I think people do.
Norton/Something like that so that's not so just in a street where it was meant for travel
and car storage and so on period not for sleep, not for lodging.
Dilkes/Although I think what you see those kinds of things have been outlawed in some
communities, I think people, communities have struggled with the homelessness
issue and have enacted a number of ordinances outlying sleeping in public places,
etc. etc. so there's are all sort of a (can't hear).
Coyne/I'm just, I'm not sure why (can't hear).
Dilkes/Our community no, it would not.
Coyne/I'm just not sure why Iowa City would prefer it's citizens living in a box under a
bridge than in a car on the side of the road I mean it does seem a little bit
ridiculous that you would ban somebody from living in a car and not under, I'm
not suggesting you ban somebody from (can't hear) of course we can't do that.
Thomberry/(can't hear)
Coyne/We can't do that, you know then that would be horrible. But do you understand
what I'm saying here the discrepancy in that seems a little bit.
Norton/You do what you can and we may get into other issues.
Coyne/So you'll send them to the box underneath the bridge?
Norton/Well no we'll send them to, we have other options in emergency housing
incidentally too.
Coyne/Yea I do understand.
O'Donnell/There are other options available and to me this was a matter of what right do
you have as a property owner and a tax payer to feel secure in your own home?
People had made I believe reasonable attempts and as a single person living in a
house I think your entitled to feel secure in your own house, and we had, we had
examples here where that wasn't true.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 40
Coyne/Yea, I understand that but there are a lot of issues in society, I mean there a lot of
things we can ban, we continue progressively to ban more and more things that
will make us feel safe in our homes, there are some civil liberty issues here, that I,
I just want the City Council to be aware of that, that we are concerned, the ACLU
is interested in this case, the ICLU is very interested in this case and we are
concemed about these issues, thank you very much.
Lehman/Thank you.
Champion/Eleanor what happens if my friends from Kentucky have a 15 foot trailer that
their lodging in and they park it on Court Street?
Dilkes/We already have a provision that prohibits vehicles of certain sizes from being on
the street so and I don't know the length and width off the top of my head, but that
could be a problem for that vehicle. But it would also violate this ordinance.
Champion/Yea, and that's what I mean, and what about the people who are visiting,
staying with people at the hospitals who frequently drive campers, and are living
in their campers while their family member is in the hospital.
Thornberry/There is a local campground available for that.
Lehman/Private parking lots too, they're not public.
Dilkes/This applies to streets, public parking lots, public places that aren't otherwise
posted for.
Champion/OK are we going to provide a place we talked about this where people would
be directed that they could park and sleep in their car, or lodge in their car?
Thornberry/No.
Norton/No.
Champion/Then I'm not going to support the ordinance.
Dilkes/Steve and I have talked about that and this gets to be a little bit circular but this
allows for that, it says unless otherwise temporarily or permanently posted. But,
it, we've have two instances, I mean we don't have a lot of people wanting to do
this.
Champion/Right, or course not.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 41
Dilkes/Which get, but so, that didn't seem appropriate at this time and I think that was
raised by one of the people from Brown Street who said that that had happened in
Eugene Oregon, and I don't think we necessarily have comparable situation so.
Champion/Well I know a couple people who choose to live in their cars and although
they don't ordinarily park them on city streets, I don't think it's always a matter of
being poor by the way, these people are not poor. And like I said there's a new
book out on how to live in your car and it's not meant for poor people. And so I
have a little problem with this ordinance when we don't provide alternatives that
are outside of shelters. I think it would become a problem for the university and I
think it would become a problem for other medical facilities.
Lehman/It wouldn't apply to University property.
Kubby/Unless there's a public streets.
Lehman/It's only city property.
Champion/Unless it's a public street.
Kubby/Right, and there are a lot of public streets within the university system.
Dilkes/I should tell you just, there are, in looking at ordinances from other cities there,
some will limit them by area, residential areas opposed to other areas. Some limit
them by time, time of day so there are other possibilities.
Jim Walters/I'm Jim Walters, I live at 1033 E. Washington. I just want to say that it's
hard to resist commenting on the irony of talking about people feeling and secure
in their homes and your addressing a problem when you've had a number of
citizens earlier in the evening who said, who live a block from here who said they
don't feel safe and secure in their homes, they look outside their windows and
they see crimes are being committed a block from the police department and you
don't seem moved to address their concerns but yet your moved to address the
concern about one man living in a car by legal recourse, and that seems really
ironic.
O'Donnell/I don't believe that's correct, we are, we are, I'm interested in addressing
those concerns, and those people are not sleeping on the steps, and I'm interested
in addressing everyone of those concerns.
Lehman/Other discussion.
Steven Kanne~ Steven Kanner, and I think it's bad.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 42
(END OF 99-113 SIDE 2)
Kanner/Overwriting problems and I would vote against this measure and I would urge
you the current City Council to vote against it. There are a number of reasons I
think that it's not a good law.
Lehman/Steve and if we do vote tonight and pass it you will have a chance to vote
against it (can't hear).
Kanner/Right and I will be voting against it in the next two readings.
Kubby/And I'll be voting against it in the first reading, I hope along with Connie.
O'Donnell/I will be voting for it on all three readings.
Kubby/The reasons I'm going to be voting against it are because I agree with Steven
Kauner that it's not good public policy when your talking about civil liberties
issues to create an ordinance like this that' s on the edge of fairness from my point
of view when there have been so few incidences and I guess I want our
community to deal with those issues of fear because of lack of communication in
a different way. And to deal with why people are living in their cars or why
people might want to live in their cars which I think is a very small section of the
community of people across the country who might be living in their cars. I don't
think very many of them, although after that book.
Champion/Yea.
Kubby/It might be more, you'd have to have a nice car to want to live in your car. But I
just don't think this is a good thing for our community and that we need to find
other ways of dealing with these issues. And I think that even though it may not
be the explicit intent of this community through it's City Council but I think what
we end of doing is criminalizing poverty in some way and I think this is a very
poor way for us to deal with issues of people living in poverty. Most, there are
people, we've known that, I've known that there have been people living in their
cars, sometimes these are female headed households with children and I do not
want to make those people criminals for doing what they have to do to survive in
the short term until they can move on to another strategy for getting their lives in
a different light. So I'll be voting no viatnemtly.????
Thornberry/You say you don't want to harm human rights by criminalizing this act is
that, is that what your saying?
Kubby/Civil Liberties.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 43
Thornberry/Civil liberties, but your some are willing to try to take the civil liberties then
of those that are apparently trying to voice their first amendment rights by yelling
and shouting and so on at 2 or 3 or 4 o'clock in the morning. You draw, you
make that distinction between those who are causing problems with their vocal
cords as oppose, and other parts of their body, to those that prefer to live
abnormally or whatever.
Kubby/I've never, I've never talked against the noise ordinance Dean.
Thornberry/And I don't think that the people who have come to us with this problem I
think they should be given all the considerations that the City can give them in
making them feel safe in their home, I agree entirely with Mike O'Donnell.
Kubby/I think there's a balancing of issues here, because I do believe that, I'm not
saying at all that people's concerns, that their feelings are not valid, I guess I want
to help bring our community to a different place in how we deal with those
feelings and that when we're balancing these different kinds of things I tend to
want to preserve those civil liberties and not to criminal, make more things more
criminal.
Thornberry/But you see criminalize means poor.
Kubby/Especially things of substance.
Thornberry/And it, they don't have to submit a balance statement. We don't know how
much money anybody has, and I don't see how your saying that their, just because
they're living in a car their poor, I don't understand how you can say that.
Kubby/I'm saying that it's my feeling that the end result of this is to be criminalizing
poverty, you can disagree.
Lehman/John.
John Shaw/I'm John Shaw, I live at 437 S. Summit. I wonder if perhaps the reason that
we are pursuing an ordinance against living in your car and not pursuing an
ordinance against living under the bridge is because the people under the bridge
are out of sight.
Norton/Yea.
Thornberry/The guy in his car is out of sight too, you can't see him.
Shaw/Well no the neighbors are aware that he's there, but the people under the bridge are
out o f sight.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 44
Norton/Yea their not in your face.
Thornberry/Should we add to this then John?
Shaw/No I'm not suggesting that at all, no.
Thornberry/Some places have.
Kubby/So I have a question for Eleanor. There are times when Emergency Housing is
full, and the fire marshall does not like them to say yes when they should be
saying no, it's overcrowding. If someone is living in their car, and we've
established that, and we've done the notification, and we've talked to them, and
they've even attempted to go to the shelter within that 24 hour period but they
don't have the ability to get in because of overcrowding, what do we do?
Dilkes/Under this ordinance you'd still have a valid charge.
Norton/They could get a voucher from several places I can suggest, they can get a
voucher for a motel room for a night or two.
Thornberry/Yea.
Norton/Several different places, Salvation Army I think for one and others, there are
options.
Kubby/Well it says here that the police need to.
Norton/Well there we should.
Kubby/To provide shelter and support services to homeless persons, they may suggest
the shelter, they go there, they might get referral to other places and they might
not, I'm just saying that there are.
Norton/Well that could certainly be arranged.
Dilkes/I think in terms.
Kubby/Nothing is as simple as it may appear.
Amanda Coyne/Excuse me, I just want to say sometimes that shelter is booked as they
say for weeks, I've known some people who have not been able to get in there for
weeks.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 45
Norton/But I say there are other options, just like there are options just like there are
vouchers for bus tickets.
Coyne/For vouchers, I don't think that the homeless shelter would give a voucher for
two weeks though.
Norton/Get them for a night or two.
Coyne/Yea I know but I am saying that sometimes it is full for 2 weeks (can't hear).
Dilkes/Karen in elaborating on the response to your question. I thought about that in
drafting it, to get, at least for purposes of this ordinance to go beyond and say
require additional proof of, there were places available at the shelter, I mean it just
doesn't seem to be a workable ordinance. I mean I think you could do it but I
think it gets to be a very difficult thing to start to be criminalizing I.
Kubby/I just know that the, I don't want to say that it happens all the time and I don't
know the specifics, statistics, but I know it's not uncommon for the emergency
housing project to be full. If your a women and are in your car because of
domestic violence you might have a few more options but I just think this could
come up more than we might think.
Sally Murray/Hi I'm Sally Murray and I've worked in social services in this community
for many years and interestingly enough spent my first night in Iowa City sleeping
in a van on Brown Street, it was a long time ago. Anyway I haven't read the
ordinance, what would be the penalty be for someone who was charged, what
would happen to them?
Dilkes/It's a simple misdemeanor which is a fine of $100.00 or 30 days.
Murray/So if they were destitute and did not have $100.00 they would be housed in the
jail for 30 days?
Dilkes/No, no, your not.
Murray/OK I'm not understanding.
Dilkes/Going to jail because you can't pay your fine.
Murray/OK.
Dilkes/Typically I mean.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 46
Murray/So they owe a $100.00 and if they don't move they can be recharged, I'm just
trying to understand what.
Dilkes/They would probably be recharged yes.
Thomberry/Well I think that's a maximum too, I mean it could be less.
Dilkes/Yea it's up to, it would be up too $100.00 per charge.
Murray/So that would, be an expensive nights rest in your vehicle.
Thomberry/They can be released on their own cognizance?
Murray/It just, I remember in the old days when I first worked with general assistance
here in the early 70' s and at that time we use to call the jail when people needed a
place to spend the night, and they were allowed to spend the night in an unlocked
cell so it's just kind of ironic how you know what began as a favor could
conceivably end up being the consequence of sleeping in your car. I just am
concerned that people do run out of options, it's nice to talk about vouchers, and
other things, but I have know a number of individuals through the years that have
exhausted all of their options in this community. And we don't usually indulge in
Greyhound therapy but that sometimes becomes the only answer especially if they
don't have gas for their car. So I'm just concemed about the criminalization of
poverty and of, unusual behavior, people who for whatever reason do not behave
the way most people in our community do. That's just.
Lehman/Eleanor my guess is that this would be enforced on a complaint basis.
Thornberry/Not necessarily.
Dilkes/I don't know.
Lehman/Well no.
Dilkes/I mean I have not, we haven't talk about that.
Lehman/No we haven't but I do know we do have a number of ordinances for example
storing your car on the street, we don't go around and chalk tires of every car in
town to see if it's been there 48 hours. So I would suspect this would be on a,
pretty much enforced on a complaint basis, which means that most people who
choose to spend one night in a car nobody would know it anyway.
Dilkes/I would assume it might because it's dealing with a situation where there isn't
external evidence of other crimes, I mean public urination, assault, that kind of
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#18 Page 47
thing so in order to know what's going on your likely going to have to have a
complaint.
Lehman/Right. Other discussion. Are we ready to vote on this?
Thornberry/Yea, it's been.
Lehman/Roll call. Motion carries first consideration, Kubby and Champion voting no.
We are going to take 5 minutes folks. Thank you.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#21 Page48
ITEM NO. 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGN OF
THE EXTERIOR AWNING TO THE COLLEGE STREET BILLIARDS
CLUB & DELl AT 114-116 E. COLLEGE STREET.
Thornberry/Move adoption of resolution.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by O'Donnell. Discussion. It's been
reviewed by the Design and Review Committee and they recommend approval.
Kubby/It seems like the building will be rehabbed really beautifully and fit in well with
surrounding buildings.
O'Donnell/It will look nice.
Lehman/Very little change to that building if you look at it, they've changed the awning
but other than the building's made almost the same.
Thornberry/Good looking awning.
Lehman/It is good looking.
Norton/I thought they were changing.
Vanderhoef/They're changing the front of it.
Norton/I thought they were changing the front.
Lehman/Up and close in the window.
Vanderhoef/And the door.
Lehman/And the door.
Thornberry/Pretty awning.
Lehman/Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#22 Page 49
ITEM NO. 22. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGN OF
THE EXTERIOR SIGNAGE TO THE BOOK MARKET IN THE OLD
CAPITOL MALL.
Thomberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Vanderhoef/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. This also has been approved
by the Design and Review Committee. Discussion.
Kubby/I will be voting no on this because I think the letters are ugly. Actually I thought
the application was minimal in that we had a kind of a box drawn on a picture of
where this signage was going to be instead of kind of imposing the letters so we
could see what it would look like on the building. I think that the application
should require that the letters be put on the picture instead of us having to
transpose what we have in our own minds.
Lehman/I agree with you Karen except this is a temporary sign that will be there for no
more than 6 months.
Kubby/I realize 6 months.
Norton/Yea.
Vanderhoef/Yes, bright red is not real popular for me on the side of that building, I think
we could have something quite a bit more attractive.
Thornberry/HyVee has bright red signs all over the place.
Champion/Well we didn't say we liked their signs either.
Lehman/Roll call.
Kubby/Well did someone want to, did you want to speak?
Man/I'm just a representative of the company, it's just (can't hear) it's just temporary,
(can't hear).
Lehman/Right. Roll call. Motion carries
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 50
ITEM NO. 23. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE DESIGN OF
THE EXTERIOR SIGNAGE TO THE SHERATON HOTEL AT 210
DUBUQUE STREET.
Thornberry/Move adoption of the resolution.
Champion/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Thornberry, seconded by Champion to approve. This was not
approved by the Design and Review Committee by a vote of 2-3. Discussion.
Norton/Well I'd like to hear from the Design Review Committee because I can't get a
handle on the logic from paperwork I've seen or from the pictures, I can't quite
get the logic of their objection.
Lehman/Does that tell you something?
Norton/Well it may?
Arkins/Jim is on the committee.
Jim Schoenfelder/I don't think another member of the committee is here so.
Norton/Looking for help.
Schoenfelder/For the majority here. I think the feeling was that the sign as presented
being 6 foot for the capital letters and internally luminated on the noah side, on
the plaza side would be too imposing for what was trying to be done on the plaza,
that it would be too much of a very large sign at the end of Dubuque Street, or at
the end of the plaza there.
Norton/Is that still the same, I thought there was some reduction in the size.
Schoenfelder/Since the application was given to us it's been reduced to 4 foot for the.
Norton/It came in at 6.
Schoenfelder/It came in at 6.
Norton/And you, is that the one you denied the 67
Schoenfelder/Yes.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 51
Norton/It's been approved in some sense by going to 47
Schoenfelder/Yes it is going to 4.
Lehman/So we're voting on 47
Schoenfelder/Well we only had the application for the 6 foot but they had, there's a
representative here from the Sheraton that, it will be a 4 foot sign.
Lehman/OK.
Kubby/But does that mean?
Charlie Novel/(can't hear). No we've superimposed that size on the building and
thought aesthetically it fit more proportionately. The architect disagreed with me
and had changed it to 4 feet during the time the applications were being made so
that has been changed to 4 feet.
Champion/So if we vote for this it will be 4 foot?
Novel/Yes it will.
Kubby/Jim what were, will you explain a little bit more about the concerns about intemal
illumination. Just that your eye would go to it.
Schoenfelder/I believe the feeling was that with the red lettering and then the red neon
that it would be very brilliant red and that it would be a dominating thing on the
plaza.
Kubby/OK, thank you.
Thornberry/I think that that was the reason for the sign, to see it.
Novel/
The Sheraton does use a back lit sign that which gives a silhouette lighting affect
but only for application under 30 feet. This particular sign is going up to the 100
foot level and as a result light that comes out the back is only shines on the wall
and so the letters in front of it then only have a silhouette affect and you really
can't see it very well at that height so that's the reason that it was proposed to be
a internally illuminated sign. It has an acrylic paste on it now a lot of the sign on
the mall have exposed neon, this is not like that. This has neon but it has a plastic
face over the front of it to block out that brilliant light.
Thornberry/Kind of like the Burger King sign.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 52
Novel/Hopefully a little nicer.
Lehman/Do we have other questions.
Thornberry/I kind of like the Burger King.
Lehman/No, no, we're not going there.
Karr/Excuse me, for the record could we have the gentleman state his name.
Lehman/Oh yes please do.
Charlie Novel/My name is Charles Novel, I'm with Sanlyn and Associates and we are
the consultant manufacturer for Corporate Sheraton which is Starwood Hotels
Corporation the franchise, or the Sheraton Brand.
Norton/When you started your process of developing the sign, were you aware there was
a Design Review?
Novel/(can't hear) When we started the process, we asked for a copy of Iowa City' s sign
ordinance and the signs that we proposed for the building are in accordance with
the ordinance that was provided to us. When we got, in fact as a result of the
signs being in performance, we have manufactured signs, they were to have been
installed this week and when we went to pick up permits a week or so ago that's
when we learned that Design & Review did not like what we had proposed.
Lehman/I believe Design & Review is required in that zone, it is not required to other
zones without having notify public, they would have not known that the regular
sign ordinance would normally apply.
Novel/The signs by the way from a square footage standpoint are smaller than the
current Holiday Inn sign.
Norton/Yea. Have you already met? Oh pardon me, you go ahead Dee.
Vanderhoef/I was just going to say I appreciate making your effort to make them
smaller, I was concerned with the size of them just because we don't have any
other large tall buildings near there and it would seem a little disproportionate and
a little extra bright to have that large of letters.
Novel/I think that high in the air, most of the pedestrian traffic will never even see it,
they'll tend to have their eye maybe go up 30-40 feet but not up to the 100 foot
level.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 53
Vanderhoef/It hits the skyline that I'm thinking of, that you know when your in a large.
Champion/A skyline.
Vanderhoef/Yes we have a skyline.
Norton/Crosswalk. When your on the sidewalk.
Vanderhoef/In a large city where you have lots of tall buildings and your using them for
locating where your going, having just coming from LA why it's real helpful to
get your bearings where all of these are but when you have only one building
standing up that tall and an overlarge sign on it, I really appreciate you making the
letters smaller.
Novel/(can't hear).
Norton/Did you have to have your 6 foot signs redone, I mean, go back and do a 47
Novel/Yes sir.
Champion/Good.
Lehman/Let me ask you a question, you're in the sign business. Tell me the relative
difference between a 6 foot letter at a 100 feet and a one foot tall letter at eight
feet.
Novel/Ask me that again.
Lehman/We walk around downtown every day and see signs in store windows that are a
foot tall or taller, that is considerably larger than six feet is 100 feet at the air.
Novel/Well that, I think that probably is true, particularly.
O'Donnell/(can't hear).
Lehman/I don't understand what.
Norton/He's a geometry student.
Lehman/No, that's just common sense.
Novel/No many of the signs I saw on the mall tonight when I walked arotmd have
exposed neon so there is no nothing to diffuse that light and it's going to be much
brighter than the than those that have something over the face of it.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 54
Champion/I am going to support the 4 foot sign.
Vanderhoef/I am too.
O'Donnell/I am too.
Norton/Let's go for it.
Lehman/That's what your proposal is for?
Novel/Yes sir, my understanding that there's a sign, two signs to go on the front of the
building that were not at issue, and it's only the sign on the back which was
reduced to four feet.
Norton/We don't know which is the back sorry.
Lehman/Oh yes, the back.
(All talking).
Novel/The side that phases the pedestrian mall.
Vanderhoef/Do we need to modify this?
Dilkes/Your motion should reflect that it should be at four feet.
Vanderhoef/A motion.
Lehman/Do we, would the maker of the motion like to change that to include the
mention of four foot.
Thornberry/I would, I would.
Kubby/It's (can't hear).
Dilkes/No it's not, the resolution approves the application which is for six feet.
Thornberry/I move that the resolution be approved using the four foot sign.
O'Donnell/I'll second, that's pretty clear.
Lehman/All fight, now we've got a motion and a second for four foot. Is there
discussion?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#23 Page 55
Kubby/So are we voting on the change or the resolution with the change?
Norton/With the change.
Lehman/Resolution with the change which would be authorizing the four foot sign.
Thornberry/Is that OK Marian?
Karr/Did the original maker of the motion, you got a different second though than the
original, does the original motion and seconded agree to amend it to four feet?
Thornberry/Yes.
Karr/And if that's the case then you'll be voting on the resolution as amended.
Thornberry/OK.
O'Donnell/OK.
Lehman/Let's do that. Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#25 Page 56
ITEM NO. 25. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND
AUTHORIZING MAYOR TO SIGN AND CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A
CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY WATER
FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS, DIVISION 1: WATER TREATMENT
PLANT; DIVISION 2: WELL HOUSES.
Lehman/We have in front of us somewhere the bids that have been received. Mr.
Schmadeke come up and accept the envelope.
Thornberry/The envelope please.
Lehman/The estimate on this project I believe was $32.8 million dollars.
Thomberry/Carnex says.
Charles Schmadeke/This is a letter from Howard R. Green to the city making a
recommendation on the bids that were received this afternoon at 2:00 and the
recommendation reads "The bid opening for the above reference project was held
today at 2:00 PM with Knutson Construction Services Midwest Inc. of Iowa City
as the low bidder of seven bids received. We have reviewed background
information provided by Knutson on their qualifications, personnel, past project
experience and general financial status. We and city staff have discussed this
background information as well as other details from the bid form with the
representatives of Knutson this afternoon. As a result of these discussions and
information, we recommend the award of the contract in the lump sum amount of
$25,875,200.00 to Knutson Construction Services Midwest Incorporated.
Sincerely Howard R. Green."
Lehman/Thank you Chuck about 6 million dollars less than the estimate.
Champion/That's so terrific.
Schmadeke/There's probably (can't hear).
Lehman/Beg your pardon.
Schmadeke/It's probably no longer our largest contract, I think maybe the wastewater
contract in 1989 is the largest.
Lehman/It's wonderful.
Vanderhoef/Good competitive bidding there.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#25 Page 57
Lehman/Moved by Thomberry, seconded by Vanderhoef. Discussion.
Vanderhoef/This was great competitive (can't hear).
Emmett Wilson/Emmett Wilson, US Filter Controls Systems. I was curious who was
listed under Section 13-450 as assistant integrator in this bid?
Lehman/Your going to have to check that with the city engineering staff, there's no way
we would know that. Chuck are you familiar with what he's asking?
Schmadeke/As far as the integrator?
Lehman/Yea.
Schmadeke/There was a mistake on their bid, we had them list who their suppliers were
and they had an integrator which was not an approved integrator but we also have
in the contract documents that they can make substitutions and then upon review
we may or may not those accept those. They made a mistake on their integrator,
and the ones that they have a bid from is one of those listed.
Lehman/Does that answer your question sir?
Wilson/Not emirely, it was our understanding that under addendure for the bids
specification, there were four approved integrators and that there were suppose to
be no substitutions so did I understand the gentleman correctly that they have an
improved integrator listed now? Thank you.
Lehman/Thank you. Other discussion.
Kubby/This is kind of a side bar discussion.
Norton/Go ahead.
Kubby/And it's about housing, and it's related in that, I know that this isn't going to go
all up at once so we don't need hundreds of thousands of people to do this all at
once but when we do this and the wastewater treatment plant in the same there's
an overlap in the time frame for construction that there' s probably very little way
that our local job market can produce all the labor for this. And so there are going
to be people coming in, some maybe commuting, we might have some people
living in their cars who are working on this project that I just want to. Like what
can we do to prepare for an influx of people? Some of it's very very positive and
that it's a big economic development boom for food vendors and housing but we
don't have lots of available housing here so I just, it's just something we should
be thinking about and how do we deal with that, temporary influx of many people.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#25 Page 58
Lehman/How does that happen? For example the university fight now has probably
close to $200 million dollars worth of work under construction, is that a problem
now in the community?
Kubby/I don't know, but I think it's a question I think we should ask.
Lehman/This one is local which would help.
Thornberry/I know that there are apartments available in several of the motels in town
that are rented by the month.
Kubby/Right.
Thornberry/For construction purposes and while they were here doing the construction
for the mall in our next door neighbors mall, there were very little problems
getting housing for all those workers so I don't think that this project would be
affected by housing.
Lehman/(can't hear).
Richard Struve/Oh yes, I'm Richard Struve with US Filter Controls again. Two
questions, I would like to know when the amendment was altered to allow
additional vendors to be allowed, and which integrator was listed as in that bid.
Schmadeke/I don't have that information available, they could list their suppliers that
they wanted to use, they did not necessarily have to be, all of them has to be as or
indicated in the contract documents, that there is a provision for us to review the
suppliers that they listed and either accept or reject them after the signing of the
contract.
Kubby/Is that the same thing as not having it be an approved entity?
Schmadeke/Well if.
Kubby/I mean I know if they're not approved that we wouldn't approve it so they could
substitute but still it seems like it might be.
Schmadeke/There are still provisions for substitutions.
Struve/Again I point out that the amendment 4 specifically listed no substitutions.
Kubby/Can we just double check that, make sure we're doing everything correctly?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#25 Page 59
Thornberry/May I take it to understand that you were a bidder that was not approved or?
Lehman/Microphone please.
Struve/We are representing US Filter which is one of the approved contractors,
integrators, and we understand that a non-approved integrator is part of this
proposal.
Norton/Oh I see.
Schmadeke/That has been corrected, they made a mistake on their list of suppliers and
they have corrected that and I'm not sure who they have indicated to us this
afternoon who it is but it is one of those that's on the approved list.
Atkins/Chuck, with Green sending the letter I'm assuming they have confirmed that all
components of the bid specifications are satisfied.
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Atkins/Or we wouldn't have the letter from Green.
Schmadeke/That's fight.
Atkins/OK.
Kubby/Could we just communicate with these folks who the approved integrator is who
was elected by the winning bidder?
Schmadeke/Right.
Norton/I don't understand, is there another integrator in the bid that we've gotten here, a
different system?
Schmadeke/In the bid they had to list who their suppliers were for various pieces of
equipment. They listed an integrator that was not an approved integrator, they
listed them by mistake, they corrected that this afternoon when we called them.
And the integrator they have got a bid from who is actually going to do the work
is one of the approved integrators.
Lehman/And this is something that the Howard Green Company has approved and
recommended obviously you've got the letter there.
Schmadeke/That's fight.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#25 Page 60
Lehman/OK.
Thornberry/But was there a statement on there saying that they couldn't substitute from
their original supplier list? I guess that's the question, is that right Chuck?
Schmadeke/No, no, they have, evidently that addendum 4 indicates that there is no
substitutions other than those that are listed.
Thornberry/Oh I see, of the approved.
Schmadeke/That's right.
Thornberry/OK.
Dilkes/And the correction of that mistake is perfectly proper.
Champion/OK.
Lehman/OK.
Strove/And my last question that still hasn't been answered. Who is the person (can't
hear).
Champion/He's going to let you know.
Thornberry/He's going to, he'll.
Kubby/He doesn't know off the top of his head.
Lehman/I'm sure we can find that out for you, you can find that out. But apparently he
is one of the one's who are listed as approval, that's what was indicated by Mr.
Schmadeke.
Strove/One of the original four that were listed?
Lehman/OK. R011 call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#26 Page 61
ITEM
NO. 26. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ADOPTING IOWA CITY'S
CONSOLIDATED PLAN, KNOWN AS CITY STEPS, FOR 2001-2006,
AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT SAID PLAN,
TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS AND ALL NECESSARY
CERTIFICATIONS TO THE U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND
URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND DESIGNATING THE CITY MANAGER
AS THE AUTHORIZED CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER FOR THE
CONSOLIDATED PLAN.
Vanderhoef/Move adoption of the resolution.
Thornberry/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Vanderhoef, seconded by Thornberry. Discussion.
Kubby/This is really an important plan and I hope that we will continue to use it as a
guide not just for planning issues, throughout the planning department or for our
community development block grant funding but for other city services and
community issues as well.
Lehman/Roll call. Motion carries.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 62
ITEM NO. 28. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO
SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONSENT
ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER BETWEEN THE IOWA DEPARTMENT OF
NATURAL RESOURCES AND THE CITY OF IOWA CITY.
Champion/Move adoption of the resolution.
Thornberry/Second.
Lehman/Moved by Champion, seconded by Thomberry. Discussion. This is a result of.
I'm sorry go ahead.
David Riley/Hi I'm David Riley with the Environmental Advocates. I have a very brief
comment. First of all these violations have been ongoing for many years. During
this time the Iowa DNR had the worst and weakest environmental records and
enforcement records of any state in the country. Iowa City's violations were the
worst in the state or one of three worst. I think this is embarrassing, many of you
campaigned on communicating and openness in government. As an example of
this openness and communication on your city staff, Chuck Schmadeke has
refused to speak to me since these were brought to his attention. He referred all of
my inquiries through the city attomey's office. On two occasions environmental
advocates and myself have specifically asked Andy Matthew's to keep EA
informed and part of this process and part of this solution. We've been met by
silence from the city attomey's office. Before you sign this number one I would
like some questions answered. First of all can you tell me will this specifically
address the problems that we brought or are we going to be back here in three or
four years when this runs out with the DNR? Next will this consent order be
business as usual both by the city, public works department, and the DNR which
in the last year' s a little better but I think is still a weak DNR. And lastly are we
going to continue to dump mercury and cyanide into the river from our plants?
Thanks.
Lehman/Eleanor.
Dilkes/I have Andy Matthew is here from my office and I'd like him to respond.
Lehman/OK.
Andy Matthew/With respect to the proposed consented administrative decree that
consent decree was not finally negotiated until late Thursday afternoon with the
representative of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. We had ongoing
discussions back and forth with them. We had no final proposal that we could
submit to anyone until late Thursday afternoon when the representative of the
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 63
Department of Natural Resources and I met. When we finally resolved those
remaining issues we prepared the administrative consent decree that very next
morning with a cover letter both to Environmental Advocates and Mississippi
River Revival, a copy of that consent decree went out to them. At the same time a
copy went out to the council. That was the very earliest we had a final consent
decree that we could circulate for public comment.
Lehman/Well I guess.
Kubby/A couple other questions.
Lehman/Go ahead.
Kubby/There just seemed like there were a couple other questions.
Lehman/Does this address the questions that were raised by the?
Matthew/Well the administrative consent decree establishes interim limits during period
of time that the wastewater treatment facilities are upgraded and the construction
project is ongoing through it's completion. It's interim limits establish
appropriate affluent limits violations of those interim affluent limits would impose
penalties as for the requirements of the consented administrative order. I'm not
sure that it would be fair to characterize those efforts as business as usual. They
take into accotmt problems that we've had with our aging wastewater facilities
problems that have been and are being addressed by the wastewater management
by the appropriate upgrade efforts upon completion on it wastewater facilities
should and are designed and intended to meet the strict permit requirements that
would be provided for under a new permit. Once those wastewater facilities are
up and nmning a new permit will be issued by the IBNR and those requirements
will be far more strict than the interim limits that are currently being proposed and
contemplated with this administrative consent decree.
Kubby/So I understand the limits will be more strict and that our new plant design is
designed to meet those standards, I don't have any doubt that we're working
towards that and we'll implement that. What I, I share some of the David's
concerns and that when I asked the question last night what will we be doing
different in our treatment now compared to two months ago to meet this decree in
terms of treatment.
Matthew/Two months ago there weren't violations.
Kubby/Well in the past when we have had violations.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 64
Matthew/In the past we've had violations because of aging wastewater facilities because
of extraneous events over which the wastewater facilities had no control over
problems you'd encounter in any facility in the country when exposed to the type
of problems they encountered particularly with the facilities they had available.
Their have been ongoing improvements made at the wastewater facilities as Dave
Elias noted last night within the last year he could document three events three
times when affluent limits exceeded the applicable permit requirements. Vast
improvement over years past their continuing tinketing with their wastewater
plant facilities to provide the best affluent quality requirements committed given
the facilities they currently have and I think their record within the past year
reflects that.
Kubby/So how will those kinds of things work like say that those three incidences are
repeated after this is implemented. We do, we record to the state, they see we've
gone above a limit, so do they automatically assess those (can't hear)?
Matthews/They would have the tight to automatically assess those limits, ideally one
would hope that they would inquire into the causes of that. For example there are
a lot of times the facility is not designed to correct a problem that it is faced it, for
example, Mr. Riley indicated Mercury problems, these aren't problems that the
wastewater treatment plant caused, these are problems received by the wastewater
treatment plant, problems wastewater treatment was not designed nor intended to
correct. In the administrative consent order we've agreed to continually continue
to study and identify what those sources are, there are extraneous sources that
come into the wastewater treatment facilities, we have a good idea as to where
some of those problems are and the perpetrator so to speak but it's very
problematic how you go around go about correcting that to the point where it
might even require wholesale tipping up of sewer facilities and replacements of
them.
Norton/We have a better handle on the mercury than we had earlier?
Matthews/Most definitely and we're continuing and the administrative consent order
requires further study.
Norton/(can't hear) Same true about copper, we have a better handle on where that's
coming from?
Matthew/We're getting a better handle, we're continuing to study that and will be
submitting a plan under the administrative consent order through the year 2000
and 2001 I believe to come up with mediation plans to identify and correct that,
it's part of an ongoing study tight now.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 65
Kubby/I want to be sure that I understand what interim limits mean. So there, when we
get the new plant on line there are more, there are higher standard meaning less
stuff is acceptable coming out.
Matthew/A new permit will be issued far more restrictive than the interim limits that the
plant will be operating under.
Kubby/So are the interim limits in-between, are new limits once the new plant is on line
and old standards, or is it somewhere in-between there?
Matthews/I think it's fair to say it's a little bit higher than the older limits, I think there's
a 10 percent fluctuation. I'm not the technical person to talk about that obviously
but I think they reflect a practical realization that problems we have with our
wastewater treatment facilities both due to their age and design and to events that
facility had no control over required some adjustment as to what those permit
requirements would allow.
Kubby/I guess I wanted just to ensure the public that we are not doing just business as
usual and that the decree comes down to some lower standard, that we are making
some interim improvements as we are made an interim studies and investigation
while we are needing the interim standards.
Matthews/Well I think as Dave Elias, the Superintendent of the Wastewater Treatment
Plant facilities last night indicated our record over the past year has vastly
improved over the past years. Despite our present wastewater plant facilities
partially due to continual upgrades, also partly due to continually tinkering with it
and trying to resolve and identify problems in dealing with them on a more timely
basis, anticipating more problems occur in dealing with them as they've indicated.
There were only three documented cases within the last year where we exceeded
those limits and of course you know those were not purposeful affluent excess
limits they were certain instances that were beyond the plants control. But even
so it's a vast improvement over past years and Dave was rather confident that that
practice would continue that we would demonstrate that we would be able to meet
and continue to meet the interim limits during the period of construction and
upgrade.
Kubby/I think I might have misunderstood the timing of when Dave was talking about
we're not going to be doing anything different, because when I heard him say that
it brought, it made me want to go back and read the decree again to make.
Matthews/We're not going to be doing anything different than we have been doing over
the past year.
(END OF 99-114 SIDE 1)
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 66
Matthews/I mean.
Kubby/Right, right and I guess I'd like to just, well now I've lost my thought. But I
think because this is an important environmental and public health issue that
because it's I think it's important for us to get for Council to get period updates
that just shows where we have met, that we have met standards, these interim
standards like you know maybe on a quarterly basis to get a report from
wastewater to make sure that we know on a periodic basis that we have met this
agreement.
Matthews/Well we, they keep those records, they share them with IDNR and
environmental advocates review those records as well, I'm sure they can be made
available to Council on a quarterly basis if Rick requested.
Kubby/Right, I think it would be a good idea because we're voting on this to be kept
(cant' hear) that we're fulfilling our agreement with the IDNR.
Vanderhoef/More appropriate no problem with that and if I understood correctly last
night the two or three times that we weren't meeting the standard it had to do with
a lack of rain and the low level of the river and those are the conditions that we
couldn't change in that case for having the mix.
Kubby/But it does bring up kind of a question about even though it wasn't something of
our doing that we weren't running the plant correctly or we were evil, I don't
believe either of those things, and that's not you know what's happening. We still
have, I'm worded much more about the metals.
Norton/Your fight.
Kubby/Than three instances of the ammonia although I want us to keep track of that, and
it sounds like we're on top of that and that I'm glad to hear we found a few more
possible sources of that mercury but I guess I want us to be really aggressive
about that and that even though it's not of our making we still have standards to
meet and I don't know, I don't understand it all to be able to say I know what we
should be doing but I think we need.
Matthews/It's (can't hear) specifically provided for in the decree that we will study, we
will aggressively pursue, studying that, planning for it and remediating that
problem as well.
Champion/Good.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 67
Thornberry/And if I remember right when Dave Elias told us last night that even though
these instances were higher than was permitted it was not so large as to the over
the amount of that it was permitted in drinking water.
Lehman/Yea right.
Thomberry/So we're not talking you know hundreds of pounds or anything like that it's
a very minute amount and even as permitted, those amounts were permitted even
in drinking water so we're not talking, you know they shouldn't be there and
we're going to do all we can to eliminate that but it's not necessarily a health
hazard to people. Perhaps the fish wouldn't like it too well but it is, those levels
were (can't hear) in drinking water so.
Norton/It was also discouraging to hear Dave say last night that some of the mercury
comes just deposited in the water for example Des Moines also taken water out of
their river has some mercury problems too. I guess I felt a little bit like it was the
same, almost the same letter we had written some time earlier and I'm pleased to
hear that something is happening in the meantime to try to move before we wait
for the whole plant to be renewed.
Matthews/Both Iowa City and the University of Iowa which is involved in the ongoing
study and review of some of the metals problems are reviewing it, are pursuing it,
are planning making remedial plans to deal with it and we'll be submitting reports
to the IDNR regarding that.
Lehman/Well I think our concern is that we're doing everything within our power to
have the affluence of our water treatment plant be as clean as it possibly can be.
Now my understanding for this consent order is that we will hopefully that's what
we're doing until and until we get the new equipment in place we're doing the
best that we can and at that point we'll have new standards that we'll have to
comply with, is that correct?
Matthews/Correct.
Lehman/Other discussion.
Riley/Can I do a real general comment?
Lehman/Sure.
Champion/Sure.
Riley/Thank you. Just a real couple quick things. First of all as far as all these decrees
are concerned past decrees in which the DNR and the city agreed the city did not
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#28 Page 68
act very quick on them. I believe when we began discussing with the city last
year on some of these years we were on the 3rd, 4th, and maybe 5th year of some
of these things they were supposedly to study through a five year period. Only
until this year did they began to study, that concems me. Secondly again DNR has
had a history of not following up on permit violations, the permit violations were
in their department, EPA from Region 7 in Kansas City requires them to contact
the city to let them know they're in violation, that never happened. Perhaps this
DNR won't behave that way I don't know. And finally I'll say EA will continue
to watch this, we will help you. I know Dave Elias, I've worked on many
environmental programs with him, he's a great guy, we're here to help, I know
this isn't always the best way to do it but hopefully we did get some action and I
do commend the staff the city staff and public works for moving forward on this.
Norton/It sounds like you ought to work on DNR too.
Riley/What's that?
Norton/You ought to work on DNR too.
Kubby/Yea that's important role to play as a watchdog and citizen action with local
govemment and state regulators I appreciate that.
Lehman/Roll call.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#33 Page 69
1TEM NO. 33. CITY APPOINTMENTS.
Lehman/Board of Appeals has one appointment to fill a five year term ending December
31 st for a building professional~ we have received in our packet tonight if we
choose to act on it an application. What' s your pleasure?
Kubby/I'd rather wait because we just got it and it's the building professional person I
think we just need to, I don't feel very comfortable not that there's anything
wrong but just getting it so soon I really haven't had any time to read it or call and
ask some questions. I would prefer to refer to January 18. I so move.
Lehman/l understand this came with a recommendation from, whose our chief building
inspector?
Thornberry/(can't hear).
Atkins/(cant' hear)
Kubby/Tim.
Lehman/Hennes, Tim Hennes. And I don't have a problem with this because it's going
to be the 18th before we have an opportunity to act on it.
Norton/Yea we need to get somebody on there.
Lehman/Yea I think we should but then I, did you make a motion to defer Karen?
Kubby/I did but it was not seconded.
Vanderhoef/Could we defer to whatever special meeting might be coming up so we.
Lehman/We don't know.
Kubby/We may or may not.
Vanderhoef/We don't know but instead of putting a date on it Karen.
Kubby/Oh to defer inde~nitely then.
Vanderhoef/Does that work?
O'Donnell/Did we say this person has been nominated by Tim?
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#33 Page 70
Lehman/Tim.
Kubby/We nominate people.
Lehman/It was a recommendation.
O'Donnell/He recommended him.
Thomberry/I have a lot of confidence in him.
O'Donnell/Yea.
Champion/I move we accept the application of Douglas J. DuCharme.
O'Donnell/Second.
Lehman/Discussion.
Champion/Charme.
Lehman/All in favor. Opposed.
Kubby/Abstain.
Lehman/Passed with Karen abstaining. Douglas DuCharme is going to (can't hear).
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#34 Page 71
ITEM NO. 34. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION
Lehman/Karen we'll start with you.
Kubby/Thanks. Well I don't have any specific issues I wanted to bring up although I
think it, I was kind of laughing over here because we were doing all these sewer
tap-on fees and I frequently described myself as a sewer socialist over the years
and dealing with the nitty gritty things of local government. And I guess I just
wanted to thank everybody, the citizens of Iowa City, and the people who have
taught me things and challenged me and you know just goaded me to think harder
or act differently or supported a direction I was headed. And that this has really
been a character building experience so. In thinking about 11 years of appointed
officialdom or elected officialdom that's a really big percentage of my life. I'm
grateful that isn't the only part of my life because I think leaving would be much
more difficult and I really encourage new council members to stay involved in the
community in some level because it's very easy to get isolated in your duties in
local government and I'm glad that a lot of City Council member involved in
many aspects of the community, that makes us a better body for doing so. So I
wish new people well, and I wish the new group well and hope that you offer
them the respect and the welcome that they deserve and know that you will do so.
So thank you.
Lehman/Thank you. Connie.
Champion/Well I think the people who are leaving ought to have a priority, I'm going to
miss all of you a lot and our group will really change.
O'Donnell/Well Dee, Dean and Karen it's been a leaming experience, it's been an
absolute pleasure, I've enjoyed each and everyone of you. We haven't always
agreed but I believe, I believe we've always been civil to each other, I admire
anybody who serves this community and you three truly are a step above and I
will miss you. My second thing, I've gotten several calls, dogs running loose in
Hickory Hill park, we need to address that. My third point is there's been a lot of
discussion in the community about Hickory Hill Park and Oakland Cemetery. We
need to address one thing that is very important and that's how much of the credit
is Oakland Cemetery to our heritage. Cemetery was founded in, or started in
1938, or 1838, and I believe that you have to protect something like that and I
think it's a very important part of this community, it's the only public cemetery
we have. It certainly was never my intention to create a fire storm, by suggesting
we dedicate 30 acres to Hickory Hill Park because I thought that was a very
adequate compromise. We'll have to wait and see what happens, but once again
something that's been around since 1838 is certainly worth preserving. So once
again, Karen, Dee, and Dean I wish you well. You too Connie.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#34 Page 72
Champion/Oh thanks.
Thornberry/Thank you Ernie and the rest of the Council for making this a very
memorable experience for me and I'd like to thank the voting public and the
people who have supported me and got me on this Council to begin with. And
Steve and Eleanor and Marian thank you very much for your enlightenment on
almost every subject. You've never denied me your expertise and it's been well
worth listening to and I hope the rest do also. Even though some people may not
have agreed with some of my stands on some items that have come up I've had
reasons that I voted a certain way on each and every item. And I don't believe
anybody is been in doubt as to where I stood on any item, right or wrong, and I'm
not always right I'm very seldom wrong however. I have a viewpoint on every
item and it's a well thought out viewpoint, it may not be the majority viewpoint
but I do have for me logical reasons for my stand on these issues. But it's been
very interesting, starting well I won't go into all of the things or we'll be here
forever. But I reflect on these very often and after the council meetings I don't go
home and go right to bed as I'm sure the rest of you don't either. I sit around and
mull things over and look things over but two years from now, four years from
now things may change and I'll give you the opportunity of voting again and I
hope you do. Thank you very much to all of you on the Council and Ernie thank
you.
Norton/Am I up?
Champion/Yep.
Vanderhoef/No I get to go first.
Norton/Go ahead.
Vanderhoef/I'm rather sad, these two fellows came on at the same time that I did, and
their part of my group, and I'm the only one that's staying on. I'll say for all three
of you Karen and Dean and Dee you all have done your homework, you have all
challenged me, you have all offered something to this Council that was special.
You have offered it to the City and you have given graciously. And I'm going to
miss all of you. Good luck in whatever your doing.
Thomberry/Thank you Dee.
Norton/Thank you. Well before I do my spiel I want to raise a couple of questions. I've
heard a lot of good comments about the Willow Creek Trail I hope you'll all take
an opportunity to ride it, people say it's really getting a lot of action. I also hope
that the new Council if not this one now will do something with this underage
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#34 Page 73
drinking thing, I still think we've ~nessed that problem long enough and there are
a number of letters in our packet from distressed parents to say the least, it's
certainly not the first and I know anything you do may force the problem
somewhere else but we've got to some way to deal with it more effectively than
we're doing at the moment as we heard tonight again. Now I'm I'm winding
down an exciting and challenging four years. I served four earlier 30 years earlier
on the Park and Recreation so I put in eight total in servitude to the public. I've
enjoyed the experience most of the time. I've learned a lot contrary to what they
say you can teach an old dog new tricks because I'm an old dog. I intend to stay
involved in city affairs, possibly regional affairs in ways which are perhaps a little
less demanding in time and energy than I put into this particular effort. A couple
pieces of wisdom I want to pass out to you but you probably don't need. But I do
want to remind the Council the new and old and the citizens that you've got to
maintain our focus on solving problems, we don't need to scrap, we need to solve
problems, we've got plenty of them and that's the name of this game is to find
reasonable solutions to problems. We need to avoid the personal attacks whether
on the Council or with members of the citizens and vice versa for the citizens.
We need to maintain a spirit of civility and that's the only way discussion
proceeds and the only way consensus arises, it's not unanimity we're seeking but
reasonable consent and we must accept compromises, that's the genius of this
political system. And I want to express at least a considerable concern about an
air of negativity I want to, I hope we can get away from that whether on the part
of the public or sometimes part our part and certainly sometimes in the press,
things aren't perfect but there not all rotten either. And I say constructive
criticism is one thing, gratuitous negativism is quite another and it's, and I think it
saps the energy of the staff and the and elected officials as well. Now with that I
want to thank the voters who gave us the opportunity to be here. I want to thank
the city staff which I think it absolutely excellent, extremely cooperative even
though we're always in a kind of challenging position with respect to the staff.
That' s the nature of this beast and for them to accept that in good spirit is not
always easy but they do a terrific job at it from top to bottom. I want to thank my
Councilor's and one's past Emie and Naomi with whom I served earlier, I mean
with Larry and Naomi who I served earlier, they've been fine. I want to wish to
new council the very best so there so be it, isn't that what they say.
Lehman/Very eloquent Dee and certainly reiterate what the folks have said that your
going to be missed. A couple things I would like to bring up first of all we talked
last night very briefly about this appointment to the Iowa Earth 2000 and I've
talked to you Dee you're going to get back on me.
Norton/I shall.
Lehman/And with the permission of the Council I will sometime between now and the
15th of December those two appointments have to be made.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#34 Page 74
Norton/Yea, we'll, I'11.
Lehman/If you guys have suggestions call me, but I do have to do it before we have
another meeting.
Norton/If you don't, Emie or let me know I have a few (can't hear).
Lehman/Or let Dee Norton know.
Kubby/Or talk to David Riley who your current chair of Environmental Advocates who
we talked about last night seeking some input from that organization.
Lehman/But we do need to make those two appointments.
Norton/Let us know.
Lehman/I've received a number of complaints which I'm sure most Council has from
time to time about the problem we have in this community which probably is not
a lot different than other communities but I think the problem is becoming worse
and that is people running stop lights and stop signs. And I've talked to Steve
about this, I've talked to RJ, I believe it's time that we make a little better effort to
enforce the stop, we're going to kill somebody, running through a stop light.
Champion/Well we have so many stop signs.
Lehman/I know that, I'm not suggesting that we put our entire police force, but I do
think it would be well to warn the public that we are going to be a little more
aggressive and getting a ticket for running a stop sign is a little bit worse than just
paying the fine you could have a significant affect on your insurance, moving
violations are not the sort of thing that insurance companies are very amenable to
and so it may be far more than just paying the fine for running a stop sign, it
could be a big increase in your insurance payments. Anyway I've talked to you
Steve, RJ's meeting with police chief from Coralville next week. I believe that
this effort is going to be not just an Iowa City effort but, and that becomes a really
increasing problem. And finally I want to reiterate just a little bit about what you
said Mr. Norton.
Norton/Please.
Lehman/There was an article in the paper not too long ago about, and I think most people
in this community are really really beautiful people. Sometimes we forget that the
people who and I want to pick on the park, the people who like the park don't hate
the cemetery, and the people who like the cemetery don't hate the park. And I
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.
#34 Page 75
think sometimes we forget that these are really really good people and they forget
sometimes that the folks who don't necessarily agree with them are not
necessarily mean spirited folks so at this time of the year, this is the last meeting
of this year. And this is the time where we have peace and good will toward men
I would like to wish everybody in this community as well as the Council a Happy
Holidays.
Kubby/I want some good will too.
Lehman/And certainly. Pardon.
Kubby/I want some good will to as a woman please.
Norton/Oh there you go.
Lehman/I didn't know you were being (can't hear) oh I'm sorry, people of good will.
Norton/There you go.
Lehman/And Karen. Any ways thanks a lot, Happy New Year to everybody, we'll see
you next 4th of January. Can we have a motion to adjourn?
Champion/So moved.
Lehman/Second. All in favor. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you. 9:50.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council
meeting of December 7, 1999.