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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-01-23 Transcription January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 1 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session 6:30 PM Council: Lehman, Champion, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn, Pfab, Kanner Staff: Atkins, Helling, Karr, Dilkes, O'Malley, O'Neal, Craig, Kopping, Trueblood, Goodman-Herbst TAPES: 00-11, BOTH SIDES; 00-12, BOTH SIDES AirDort Commission Rick Mascari/Am I wired? Karr/ You' re on, go for it. Mascari/Okay, sounds good, hello everybody, Rick Mascari from the Airport Commission, how are you all tonight? Lehman/It depends on how long you talk. Mascari/15 minutes, right. (All talking) Vanderhoef/What are you asking for? Mascari/I'm ready to go 15 minutes. Vanderhoef/What are you asking for? Mascari/Nothing. Vanderhoef/Oh okay. Mascari/How about that? Lehman/You got it. Mascari/Actually we're asking for 2.5 percent less than we had last year, how about that. O'Donnell/Good start. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 2 Mascari/Yes it is. Just a couple of side notes that we just received about 2 hours ago a letter from the FAA that' s given us another $500,000 towards the repayment, so we're about 75 percent repaid. How about that? We only have one parcel left and other than we're in pretty good shape. Let's see here. Are there any? Since we don't need anything is there any questions I might be able to answer? Champion/Oh my gosh you are so wonderful, I hope your reapplying for the Commission. Mascari/Yes I did today. Thank you very much for your support. Lehman/But everything from the Commission' s perspective everything' s copasetic as far as airport goes, (can't hear) you've got a new hanger that' s is it almost complete? Mascari/It's a wonderful hanger. Lehman/Is it about, is it done yet? Mascari/Yes it's all done, 100 percent occupied. Lehman/The building looks great, the terminal building. Mascari/The terminal is magnificent. Champion/Oh it is, it's wonderful. Mascari/Isn't it gorgeous? Champion/It' s just wonderful. Kanner/Is this the big year for the air show or is that next year? Mascari/This is the year for the big air show, yes, in August, end of August, 20, help me, 261h, 251h, 251h, 261h, the big air show. We expect over 10,000 people there, it's going to be a big deal, big deal. Vanderhoef/And I hear there' s going to be a dance. Mascari/Excuse me. Vanderhoef/I hear there' s going to be a hanger dance. Mascari/There's going to be a dance, everything is free to the public, it's just wonderful, north commercial area is going along real fine as you all know, we fully expect that This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 3 once that' s completed that the airport will be self-sufficient. According to early estimates that when it is 100 percent occupied we should see an annual income of about nearly $500,000 so we'll be completely off the subsidy (can't hear). Vanderhoef/Off the roll. Mascari/Yea. Vanderhoef/Tell me do you have (can't hear) for hangers, above and beyond what has been (can't hear). Mascari/Well see we just erected this, it just took occupancy three weeks ago so I would say probably not at this time but we hope to soon, we fully expect so, and we still have room for 2 more sets of T-hangers but at this time we don't have anything so we won't be coming up to you for any requests. Vanderhoef/Okay. O'Donnell/If everything' s this smooth, we'll be out of here at 7:00. Lehman/I've got one suggestion, just a question. Mascari/Sure. Lehman/And I've mentioned it to you before and I think I've mentioned to Ron. One of the things I'd love to see down at that airport and I don't if the Airport Commission is the proper place to start but you've got some really nice property in front of the terminal building. Mascari/Yes. Lehman/That' s an area that' s probably the shortest of any area in the city for park land. Mascari/From what now? Lehman/Park land, your front yard is a park. Mascari/It is. Lehman/And the folks in Thatcher and Wolfe' s Trailer Park and, those folks could really use some park land, have you ever thought of, I mean you mow it, you maintain it, and it just sits there. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 4 Mascari/Well it is open at this time to the public if they'd like to use it as a park they certainly can, however. Lehman/Picnic tables and a couple of grills. Mascari/You want some picnic tables. Lehman/Well talk about it. Mascari/We'll talk about it, it might be on next year's budget you never know. Lehman/It would also make the airport far more visible to a lot of people. Mascari/Yes it would, yes it would. Vanderhoef/Where are you on getting the FAA to approve the electric, electronic gear for the other runway? Mascari/Thank you, good question. They did approve it, as you know you were there, they did give us the okay to do it, see for years it was pretty much accepted that we couldn't have the ILS, Instrument Landing System, the instrument approach that' s the most precision approach that' s available on runway 24 because of obstructions and such. However, what was it a few months ago we went down to Kansas City and talked to them and this was after we had contacted the manufacturer of the ILS equipment and they came out and analyzed the situation and such and we even had a representative from the FAA come down and give us the okay to do it and so we went down to Kansas City and Kansas City said yep we certainly can install an Instrument Landing System which iwll open our airport up tremendously, several reasons, lower minimums and all of that, I won't get into all of that. But one thing you have to keep in mind is that we are actually about 100 feet in elevation lower than Cedar Rapids which means that when Cedar Rapids airport is closed due to the fact that the ceilings are lower people can still get into Iowa City so that is a big big plus. However the cost of putting this in is nearly $700,000 and we just don't have that. O'Donnell/Get the property rented. Mascari/We're thinking noah commercial area and we'll be ready to rock and roll. Kanner/Rick I've got a couple questions for you. Mascari/Sure. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 5 Kanner/First what' s the status of negotiations for Science Museum? Mascari/You know we haven't heard, we're obligated by the FAA to least out that property on fair market value, we can't give any of that property to anybody and so notified the Science Center, the people who represent the Science Center regarding that, and ever since that notification we haven't heard a thing. Kanner/Okay. And here' s another question from out of the past. My understanding is E. K. Jones used to be the FBO fixed based operator and. Mascari/That's correct. Kanner/And had a dual position as the manager of the airport plus the fix base operator. Mascari/Steve that' s going way back now. Lehman/30 years ago. Mascari/That' s in the 70' s. Kanner/Well this is preface to the main question, the question is there was some deals made about hanger rental money that still might be carried on today with the fixed base operator about how controls some of that money and I was wondering how that money was being split. Mascari/Oh sure I can answer that. Kanner/And is the fixed base operated today getting any of that money or is it all coming to the Airport Commission and the City? Mascari/Well the current fixed base operator purchased the his lease from him three years ago, and the way that lease was set up was there are three T-hangers on the noah side of the airport that' s been there forever and when they were initially built the E. K. Jones negotiated with the Airport Commission at that time and guaranteed he would lease all those hangers at the 100 percent rent. So in other words if they were renting for $50.00 a month say he would rent all 10 in that one particular building at $50.00 per month each. So what happened was is that he would then turn around and release them to individuals which would pay him back so he was able to cash flow that way. Over the years the value of those T-hangers have escalated but his contract was still $50.00 per month, so as it stands right now the FBO which is still operating under his current is actually collecting 50 percent and paying the Airport Commission the other 50 percent. However that lease ends at This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 6 the end of this year which at this time we have no intentions of offering that type of an arrangement ever. Kanner/So this has been in affect for 20 or 30. Mascari/That's correct. Kanner/And it's finally ending this year. And you're also in the middle of putting out a call for a fixed base operator, what' s the status of that, where are you in the process? Mascari/We had a meeting, as a matter of fact yesterday at noon and authorized the Airport Manager to go out and start advertising for replacement fixed base operators. If I could use Ames as a reference, about 5 years ago they had a similar situation and what they did is they went ahead and advertised and got 10 or 12 responses of people interested as becoming the fixed base operator but when they narrowed it down they got it down to about 5 that were qualified and they got in there now about 5 years ago that' s doing extremely well so we expect to have this same type of result. Kanner/Are there any special things you are looking for as far as what you would offer them or what you would expect from them? Mascari/Well. Kanner/Hopefully we're not going to give out something similar to this E. K. Jones thing. Mascari/We think we learned a pretty valuable lesson there, no, we don't expect to have anything like that there again. Specifics, I have no specifics. Kanner/No specifics on that and that will. Mascari/Well it would take more than my 15 minutes. Kanner/Okay, and is that, that public meeting space, is there any way to open that up to more than just city connected organization, community groups that aren't connected to the city that might be able to pay a small rental price for that very nice meeting space? Mascari/Well this is getting a little off the budget thing but I can tell you this that we just acquired that from the FBO because that was under the old lease and such and we negotiated with them and acquired the rights to that room. And because we just did it we really didn't know how to arrange what type of qualifications they would This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 7 have to have or whatever so we did was go ahead and set it up to reflect all the type of arrangement that current meeting rooms have around the City such as the one that' s right outside the door or the one at the library. However the arrangements they have is what we've done here but we're open for suggestions. Kanner/Well actually the library from here is quite different. The library is open to any general group. Mascari/I see. Kanner/I bring it up now because this is something that was funded through our budget a couple years ago. So the library anybody can sign up to use that where as here not anyone is eligible to use that. Mascari/See we pretty much set it up pretty much in lined of what we had it here, but again we're open for suggestions and if you could give some to us we'll be happy to go ahead and give it consideration. We're not opposed at all. Kanner/Yea I'd like you to take a look at it and see how you could open it up more to the community. Mascari/Sure. Kanner/And one final thing is as far as budget and implications the City is general put millions and millions over the years into the airport there's about 65,000 takeoffs or landings a year and my thoughts are and there might be some other support I don't know from the rest of the Council about not only paying the bonds that are going to be issued for the north commercial but to go beyond that. Right now we're subsidizing not only the $80,000 but also some possible for past capital purchases and future possible land purchases and so I'd like to see us perhaps get repaid beyond the bond cost and let' s say this $80,000 so if the bond is going to be let's say $200,000 repayment and your going to be bringing in $500,000 to me it seems reasonable to think about $200,000 coming back to the City, you keeping $80,000 that you would lose from our subsidy, that leaves $220,000 and I'd like to see the bulk of that come back and then perhaps if you do need additional funds that you could think about raising rental rates for those who are making use of the airport. Mascari/However Steve see there' s a big problem with that and that is we are mandated by FAA, it is clearly specified in their regulations that any revenues generated at the airport have to remain there. All of the payments that you talked about that were in the past are regarded by the FAA as improvements within a City entity, we can't, we can't go ahead and pay those back. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 8 Lehman/Well this is a discussion for another time. Mascari/Yes, this is a budget meeting. Lehman/And part of this are legal questions. Kanner/Well I think Ernie that we, I mean this is noah commercial's, we're told is probably going to start renting pretty soon and hopefully people will start building in this fiscal year if not now when is the time to talk about it? Lehman/Well probably we are in the process of preparing a contract to for the approval to the Airport Commission and the Council regarding the payment for the City's share of the noah commercial and that time is probably going to be a time for discussion these things as well and I share some of your same concerns but obviously tonight is not the time to go into that. There are legal questions there that we'd have to have Eleanor' s opinion and maybe even some things from FAA but I have some of the same interests that you do. Kanner/So the question is how does that figure in with budget that we're talking about for the airport operation? Lehman/Probably nothing for this year. Kanner/But we're talking about possible income coming in. Lehman/Not this year, until we get a contract, until we get a contract there's nothing we can talk about, we know we're completing the infrastructure, we know we're going to enter into a contract with the Airport Commission for the repayment of the cost of the infrastructure, until the contract gets negotiated and gets in place we're not even going to know what that is. All we know is we intend to get repaid, we've said that. Mascari/And the Airport Commission has every intention to do that. Kanner/The question is other land that might be purchased to finish the surrounding land purchases and my feeling is that. Mascari/Now you lost me Steve are you talking about? Champion/These are management questions and I don't think this is what we're doing with what we're doing tonight. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 9 Kanner/Well I think we're talking about City budget money Connie that we're talking about the total budget and how it affects the airport I think it's very apprapoe that we see if there can, if this is something that the Council wants to continue to support at the level it's supporting. If you take those 65,000 1 ~A people or so per plane that's 20,000 or 30,000 people and a lot of those are the same people and the question is it worth it to subsidizing at the rate we're doing, we're still subsidizing with capital costs and. Mascari/Just to answer your question Steve, we can't charge airplanes to land, there could be a landing fee surely but we have an obligation to the FAA and we need to adhere to their requirements very very rigidly. They too have invested a ton of money over the years and because of that we need to make sure we follow their rules. Lehman/Well these are policy questions that I think are probably going to be addressed at some point. Mascari/Absolutely, right. Are there any other questions I can answer? Five minutes to spare. Lehman/No you don't, you're two minutes past. Mascari/Oh, thank you very much. Vanderhoef/Nice try, thank you. Lehman/Library Board. Library Board of Trustees Mark Martin/Good evening, Mark Martin, President of the Library Board of Trustees. I'm here to answer any questions you may have about the library budget situation. I don't suppose it's any surprise to you that the Library Board has been smiling at most of it's meetings of late, even though I understand you might not have. But we are very excited about the potentials ofwhat's going on in the process of working on the design ramifications and finalization's and looking forward to having a joint meeting with you the end of February or the beginning of March to look at all those details and make sure we're still all in agreement and on the same page with what needs to happen. The library continues to function very well, it seems to be well used, no real surprises that I think we need to share with you at this point. Most of our energy and efforts has been directed to this point at working with the architectural firm to finalize contracts and we've had two public meetings that were well attended to give public input on issues regarding the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 10 expansion plan so that if citizens had concerns they could be presented prior to the time we finalized those plans and because of the need for some speed in getting that done, we wanted to make sure the public meetings were held early on. And we still are open to people approaching us with ideas or suggestions but we are getting to that time when we will bring to you which will be more a finalized plan we hope. Lehman/What' s your time flame? Martin/Well our time flame is hoping to have all of the necessary design work done so that we might enter a bidding process by late summer early fall and that we might have the bids completed, the most optimistic projection that I've heard would have beginning some phase of the construction process by November/December. But it's conceivable that that may not begin until the beginning of next year. Lehman/We're about a year away. Martin/Yea. Champion/Are you keeping that same plan, that light, all the windows, you haven't altered the outside of that or are you much? Martin/No, no, we've had strikes against our lives if we make any big changes to that so. Champion/Well I (can't hear). Martin/Yea, we felt very good about that and the responses we've had flom the public were very positive in terms of the exterior design and most of their concerns related to the functionality of the interior and location of various services. Wilburn/Mark before one of your meetings I caught one of the designer guys and he had, I'll talk more when we have our joint meeting but I had asked him to go take a look at the mural on the building next door. Do you know if he ever got a chance to do that? Or had you gotten any public input about preserving for the (can't hear)? Had the trustees had an opportunity to discuss that. (can't hear) Martin/He did look at it. Wilburn/Had the trustees had an opportunity to discuss that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 11 Martin/We really have not, we will actually have a chance to discuss it with the architectural firm this Thursday as part of our regular Board meeting. The Board is committed to doing whatever is necessary to reaching a conclusion with regard to the mural that' s satisfactory to the community, to the Council and to the library and so we haven't raised up any alternatives or shut out any alternatives at this point, we're just seeing what might in fact be possible, I think there's an overwhelming sense of community support for preserving the mural in some way that makes sense and we certainly don't have any opposition to that but we haven't had any suggestions from the architect on how that might be done in the expansion either. Wilburn/Do you mind if I put in my plug now, if it's possible and if it can be done. Martin/Oh yea, I think we're committed to that, we listen carefully and the word we've heard very clearly is the community is interested in preservation of the mural and so I think that would be our intention, I don't know any reason why it would not be. O'Donnell/Mark I had some photographs taken of that by a photographer, and he would donate all time if we pay for materials, but the pictures really turned out nice and I thought of even getting one and blowing it up and framing it and maybe telling him it's a fund raising project for the library, but I realize how difficult that would be to remove that but I agree with Ross I would like to see efforts made to salvage that some way. Champion/Well I think a lot of people have suggested photographing it and making a framed photograph of it including (can't hear) right now. Martin/Apparently, I was not at the second meeting but Jim Swaim was and he. Jim Swaim/I was just going to say, I'm Jim Swaim from the Library Board and (can't hear) was at our second hearing and at that point we made pretty clear that we wanted to preserve it especially in a way though that respects what the families and the folks involved might want to do and so that's the part we're going to be exploring in the next several weeks, probably the next couple months. But I just wanted to make clear that we're willing to preserve that and do it in a way that is respectful of the people that created the mural and also preserve the community' s interest in. Lehman/Very good. Martin/One other important thing, I think it's important to say that I don't believe the Board will make a decision about that preservation on it's own, that is to say it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 12 would need to be a joint decision with all the involved parties so if you know if rumor comes out that we've made that decision just know it's not going to be true because we will be talking with you about that. Vanderhoef/Rumors. Lehman/Okay. Kanner/A couple questions. Do you speak? The first one is you have requested a network data base administrator and the City Manager recommends that that position be put in the budget can you speak to the need for that? Martin/Sure, since the expansion of the computer system at the library and the movement to using the computer and the web for many more functions the increased use of our equipment and the increased public interest has made it necessary for us to try to avoid down time as much as possible. Our current staffing situation requires that we place our technical people who are capable of dealing with emergencies on hold so to speak on weekends, at other times where they're guaranteed overtime paid simply for being available. It did not seem to the Library Board or the Director continuing that process was either good for those staff persons or helpful to keeping all of our functions up and running and the combination of that increase pressure and the more technology you have going the easier it is to have things not work. Combined with the fact that we are moving toward even a greater expansion of those facilities with the expansion of the library we felt this position was extremely important, it was not solely driven by the expansion but it was certainly one that we've been keeping a close eye on. So it's primarily, the primary purpose is to have a qualified person who can not only help and train the other people who are working in this area but so that we have sufficient coverage at all times. Kanner/Do you plan to offer word processing at the new library for the public? Martin/We have not discussed that I think it's an option that we may very well be able to do but I, we have not discussed that in detail Steve. But I don't see any reason why we couldn't consider it, I think the primary concerns that surround that kind of offering are what kind of staff time to monitor and to carry it out. What' s the cost effectiveness of it, and is it a kind of service that there' s enough demand for that it's worth putting that together, those are all things we need to look at. Kanner/And the next question Mark is how' s the fundraising by the foundation going? There was a commitment for part of the cost of the new library to come from the foundation fundraising. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 13 Martin/The word that we have back to the Library Board is it's going very well. You may know that in fundraising operations there' s a great deal of effort given to early behind the scenes fundraising before the whole program is brought to the public and many of those fundraising details are being handled directly by the Foundation Board and we don't receive, I wouldn't say we don't receive total reports on it but we have indicators from our Director of Development of how things are moving ahead and he's very pleased with the response we're getting from the community right now. Kanner/They've hired a new person in the last few months right? Martin/They hired, we hired Barbara Curtain as an administrative assistant for the campaign, and we're real excited about having Barbara she' s very qualified and is doing a great job for us. Kanner/And one last question from me. The idea of temporary workers was brought up in the community, it was brought up for us and also for you and I was wondering if you could comment on that and what your position is as a Board and how you feel about dealing with that issue. Martin/I think the Board is committed to dealing with it, what needs to be understood I guess and what' s difficult to discuss publicly is the fact that the Library Director and the Board are not really in a position to open up a discussion of internal personnel situations. But I can say to you that a majority of the new positions that have been filled in the library have been filled by promotions from temporary workers who have applied for those positions. And we continue to use that as the trained and talent of people when we do have openings for those who are qualified. There are also those individuals who are temporary workers who want to maintain that status and understand that that status gives them the freedom that they don't have otherwise. How we may work with the City and you know with the contract negotiations regarding things such as benefits, I'm not, it's not clear to me now, I think we have a number of significant problems that aspect of temporary workers but the library has had excellent temporary workers, we intend to keep using them as necessary to give them every opportunity to move forward in the library structure and be as supportive to them as we can with the context as we're given. So I'm not sure how much more I can say, I don't believe that the library has the freedom to simply develop policies regard temporary workers beyond what your doing you know through the council and with the union so we simply try to be good players in that. Kanner/Well without commenting on agreeing or disagreeing I think you did make a decision to negotiate with your management team with the City to negotiate it This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 14 once so I do believe you would have the power to do something separate if you wished it as a Board. Am I correct in that? Helling/There are two separate bargaining units, so yes if the library wanted to negotiate individually and not be part of the rest of the City negotiations they could certainly do that. Kanner/So they could do that, that's for your future. Martin/Gosh, you know power' s a word that I haven't heard the last five years I've been on this Board, you've stung me Steve. Kanner/Folks are taking over the City, you're the entity now, place to be, library. Lehman/I think the fact of the matter is the library has asked to be, for us to do the negotiating for them and obviously there interest lies in us working the negotiations out. Kanner/Yea, sure. Lehman/Which we've done in the past. Martin/Yea that' s. Lehman/Thank you sir. Martin/Your very welcome. Champion/We're looking forward to the joint meeting. Senior Center Commission Jay Honohan/I'm Jay Honohan the Chair of the Commission. I guess I'd start by saying we didn't get what we wanted but the way things are going right now what I read in the paper I guess we're going to be satisfied with what we got. Lehman/Thank you. Honohan/I can say with the counting the carryovers with the last years budget why we're a little under this year. We are of course as part of our $685,000 we're repaying $79, 23 1 in capital improvement project loans that we got and I recognize it's the same funds, or different funds but the same City money but we're of course as I said last year at this time, we're disappointed that we didn't get the extra staff This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 15 person, and we'll be back asking for that next year. I'm here to answer any questions that anybody has on anything that we've got in our budget. If you don't have any questions I'll get out of here. Lehman/Questions. All right. Thank you. That's the best report so far, not that the others weren't good. Parks and Recreation, are we? Atkins/I think they're out in the hall. Bruce Mauer/Are you ready for me? Lehman/We certainly are. Mauer/All right. Parks and Recreation Bruce Maurer/I think I know most of your, my name is Bruce Maurer. I am the Vice Chair of the Parks and Recreation Commission, our chairman Matt Pacha wanted to be here but is out of town this evening so I'm here to offer our input to you and to try and be as concise as possible, I've prepared some comments so I don't wander off the subject here to much. I'm not here this evening to request or argue for more money, I'm sure you're happy to hear that statement, although we certainly could use it. We have a number of means that have not been addressed currently, we do within our Commission have some disappointment with respect to some of our budget requests that are not included in the city manager' s recommended budget that' s come to you. Namely our request for a half time custodian at the Mercer Park Aquatic Center/Scanlon Gymnasium and an additional full time maintenance worker for the Parks Division and Natural Areas Specialist also for the Parks Division. Having made those comments I would add that we know how difficult for the City Manager and his staff to put together a balanced operating budget especially when it involves finding money for additional employees which will be compounded to the coming years due to the library expansion and a new fire station. We do want you to know however that we continue to grow and continue to struggle with the growth that is occurring, you've probably heard this before but if you'll bare with me I'd like to highlight some of these areas of growth. In the past 15 years or so our park land acreage has increased from 625 acres to 1,322 acres, which is 112 percent increase in area. Our trails have increased from an estimated 7 miles to an estimated 20 miles, not including wide sidewalks and on street bike lanes. Park land sites have increased from 27 to 50, during the same time frame our full time park maintenance staff has increased by just two employees, percentage increase of 22 percent. The citizens want and even demand high quality parks and recreation services and facilities and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 16 we will continue to do our best to provide them. And even though I'm not here tonight to ask for more money, I do want to let you know that behalf of the Commission that we will not be able to continue the level of our service if we don't get more staff in the future. Particularly people to help us develop and maintain our parks and trails. We have been doing some things to help counteract our shortage of staff, such as contracting for some services, purchasing more effective equipment and reorganizing operations. However as we grow nothing can replace the need for more workers in order to do the job which seems to be expected of us. Now for some positives that I'd like to highlight, with your help we have made some great strides in recent years. To name just a few of these, we have constructed the new Scanlon Gymnasium and added operational staff in that facility. We have opened a new 17 field soccer park, which we continue to develop. We have now completed the development of the 14 acre Kiwanis park, we have completed construction Phase I and Phase II of the Willow Creek trail system. Expanded and redeveloped Weatherby Park, obtained two acres of land for a badly needed park in the Miller Orchard Neighborhood. Expanded Oakland cemetery, constructed a new park maintenance facility, assisted with the completion of the newest segment of the Iowa River Corridor Trail from Burlington Street to Napoleon Park. Constructed the Riverside Festival Stage in City Park, obtained the amusement rides in City Park, renovated Napoleon Park creating a much nicer youth softball complex for the young girls within our community. Completed the Ned Ashton park trail head near Riverside and Benton Streets, rebuilt the tennis courts at both Mercer Park and City Park, and installed a number of new playgrounds, most notably the very popular playground in downtown Iowa City. Projects to look forward to in the next one to two years include construction of Iowa City' s first permanent skate park, development of a new park in Hunter' s Run area, development of a new park in the Miller Orchard neighborhood. Improvements to the amusement ride area in City Park, opening of a new indoor shelter at City Park and other improvements to the area around the old maintenance shop. Complete renovation of the City Park Trail system, opening a new concession/restroom/storage building at the Mercer Park Baseball/Softball complex. Continued development at the soccer complex, a new accessible trail system in Hickory Hill Park, a new trail along Highway 6, new lighting for all the tennis courts and a general dressing up of Stergis Ferry Park. The examples I have cited are all facility oriented, but our mission is certainly more than just facility, it's about people, our recreation programs and offerings continue to grow and we constantly look for ways to improve our level of service and meet citizen demands, hopefully within a fee structure affordable to all of our citizens. In closing I would just like to say that when we request additional employees we don't do so lightly, we could easily justify the need for 3 or 4 new park maintenance workers but we requested only one knowing the difficulty of the budget situation. With regard to the natural areas specialist, we truly believe this is critical to correctly develop and maintain our natural areas which continue to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 17 grow. The additional custodial help is needed at the Aquatic center ScanIon complex due not only to the expansion but also to the very heavy use that facility is receiving. Again I'm not here to request additional funding although if you happen to find any extra money laying around we could certainly put it to good use within our budget. I'm here to emphasize that we do need more help and I ask you to keep us in mind, thank you for your time, if you have any questions I'd be happy to address those and if there aren't any I can't handle I'm sure that Terry probably can. Champion/Bruce would you give me your run down of what the natural areas specialist would do? What that person would do. Maurer/That is probably one that Terry could better handle than I. Champion/We talked about it last year but I can't remember for sure. Terry Trueblood/Our idea for a natural areas specialist if you will would be as you know we've acquired and developed a number of natural areas, there' s more and more demand in it even in the neighborhood parks, like the Weatherby Park redevelopment the neighborhood wanted a natural areas component and in the Kiwanis Park they wanted a natural areas component. We've got Whispering Meadows wetlands, the Waterworks Park and the Peninsula Park will be largely natural areas. Ryerson's Woods, Hickory Hill Park, on and on but the specialist, what the specialist would do would be to help develop those areas that are not yet developed, help continue develop the areas that are and basically watch over them because contrary to popular belief natural areas do require quite a bit of maintenance and they require a lot of monitoring to make sure that they're not overtaking by weeds and other undesirable plants. Eventually we would like the person to do an educational component as well so that when there' s school outings or other groups whatever that want to go to these one of these areas that he or she could instruct them about the prairie grasses and that kind of thing, but initially it would help develop the areas and to actually be hands on maintenance person for natural areas. Champion/So this could be really an administrator position with a lot of skill, probably a degree of some kind, I don't know what it would be in but. Trueblood/Well I look for it to be an administrative position in the sense that it would not be in my opinion anyway it would not be a union position. Champion/Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 18 Trueblood/But would be more of a maintenance person and that he or she would be very much hands on, be out there, you know out there on a tractor, with pick and shovel whatever it takes to do the job. Champion/Well I can see why you'd want that. Pfab/I have a question. Do the natural areas, are they more vulnerable as they are getting started, do they become more vulnerable or more stable as they, over time they get more permanently developed? Trueblood/They do become more stable, but an important component that I left out as well Connie would be that this person would be somebody qualified to conduct and supervise prairie burns and that kind of thing which is needed on an ongoing basis, not every year but every three to five years. And in those areas where burns wouldn't be permitted to do the mowing and the you know whatever is required to help make it a healthy prairie. But yea, they do become more stable so after they, after they've matured for several years they don't require as much daily monitoring but they do still require constant monitoring. Pfab/But they're most vulnerable as they're getting started, is that correct? Trueblood/That's correct. Kanner/Terry along the lines of natural areas, how many acres of all those area that were mentioned, how many acres do we have right now and you've also hired a consultant in the past year to help with some of the trail planning, I think has some expertise in, some of that component is natural areas, what have you paid for the consultant this fiscal year, the previous fiscal year, what do you anticipate paying the consultant, any consulting for next year? Trueblood/First with regard to the acreage, I don't have that right with me but I know that including Peninsula and Waterworks which aren't developed as yet would be over 600 acres of natural areas. The consultant we've hired for trail work is not a naturalist, it would be a landscape architect kind of position who has some degree of expertise in natural areas certainly but we have been doing some small contracts with Russ Bennett who owns his own business now, he used to work for the County and is very well respected naturalist in Johnson County. We've entered some small contracts with him to help us with the development of Weatherby and Kiwanis, he's going to help us with the Hickory Hill project and we also hired him just to monitor some of these areas and report back to us on what we need to do with them. So we haven't spent a great deal, I think we spent about $4,000 with Russ in this last year, we do have a budget line item of I think it's about $7,500 give or take for his or someone like him their services for their next fiscal year. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 19 Now all this does is really is get us maybe a two or three times a look see at certain areas and then telling us what we need to do. Kanner/So a natural areas manager could theoretically do the work that the consultant is doing if we had that in place? Trueblood/There are some other things to, to go back to Connie's question that I can't quote this right now, it's in the information that we submitted in the budget but this person would also be a benefit to the Public Works Department, Planning and Community Department because there are certain monitoring and reporting requirements for wetlands wetland mitigation, and some of those kinds of things that they're faced with all the time that this person could also handle. Kanner/So their time could also be charged to other departments internal charges to other departments? Trueblood/Well it certainly could be handled that way, it' s, our idea was just having it budgeted in our department, his or her salary would be paid out of our department but would certainly be available for other departments use. We could do it on a charge back basis. Kanner/Don't we do that with both things on how we put out our budget Steve? Trueblood/We do it with a number of things, a number of chargebacks, but not everything. Like for example when we help out with other departments we don't generally charge back to those departments, in some cases we do, but as a rule we don't. There' s most of them who have the charge backs I believe, Steve would know this better than I that are more, or several of them anyway are enterprised funds, some are, that' s the way their budgets have been set up many years so they need to do it that way in order to make their bottom line balance but ours has not been set up that way. And like when we go to City Attorney' s services we don't get chargebacks for their services for example, or the City Manager' s office, he doesn't charge us for his advise. Lehman/Yet. Trueblood/Yet. Kanner/(can't hear). Trueblood/I don't know what that tells you but. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 20 Wilburn/Mr. Bennett did some, Mr. Bennett did some educational stuff too as part of working with the Weatherby Prairie planting, didn't he do some community meetings or? Trueblood/Yes. Wilburn/And that' s the type of activity, hands on/education (can't hear) in the future. Trueblood/Yes, and somebody like Russ is very good at working with volunteers, like there were some Wetherby folks that helped with the prairie plantings out there and at Kiwanis Park and but yea that' s one of the better examples. Champion/Well there's no doubt in my mind that you need a natural areas specialist but it may not be this year. Trueblood/We understand. Kanner/Is (can't hear) as popular as it used to be? Trueblood/Is tennis as popular as it used to be? Kanner/Yes, that we, I guess if we have these facilities we have to keep them up, but it seems to me it's not, people are not playing like they were 20 years ago perhaps. Trueblood/The popularity of tennis probably peaked out a number of years ago but it's still extremely popular, it's one of those that's considered a lifetime sport so I mean you can play it forever virtually, so yea it's popularity like many things peaked out a number of years ago but now it's over the past number. (END OF 01-11 SIDE ONE) Trueblood/We've had the same number of tennis courts well for longer than I can remember, we haven't added any tennis courts since I've been in Iowa City and as I recall both City Park and Mercer Park were built in the 70' s. Dee you might know, does that sound right? Vanderhoef/That's close. Trueblood/Okay, and we haven't added any, we're just trying to keep the ones up that we do have. We're not requesting any new ones tonight. Lehman/Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 21 Kanner/How' s the comprehensive plan going? We talked about that 6 or 8 months ago. Trueblood/The Parks and Recreation master plan, it hasn't started yet, that' s on my desk as I'm trying to draft an RFP to get out so that we can hire the consultant and get started with it, we haven't selected anyone to do it yet. Kanner/So we should look forward to that in the next 6-8 months or so. Trueblood/I'm not sure how long it will take once its started but you can look forward to it getting started within the next couple of months. Kanner/Thank you. Lehman/Thank you. Trueblood/Thank you for your time. Lehman/Historic Preservation Commission. Audience/I think they're in the hallway. Vanderhoef/They've got a schedule so I'm not sure that they're here. Lehman/Hallway, they're going to meet in the hallway, that' s good, brainstorming. Vanderhoef/That's a possibility. (All talking) Lehman/Is Historic Preservation ready or here? Karr/Historic Preservation is here, they're waiting for copies, they're making copies at the present time. Lehman/Oh making copies. Wilburn/He's taller than I am. Michael Gunn/Jim went to make some copies. Champion/We'll wait a few minutes. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 22 Lehman/I'll get you some coffee, do you want some coffee? O'Donnell/Good idea. Lehman/It's right over there. Vanderhoef/Yes please. O'Donnell/Do you want me to help you over there? Lehman/Regular or decaf. O'Donnell/Regular. Michael Gunn/Do you want me to go ahead? Karr/Yea if you're comfortable starting that would be great, your not, or you'd whether wait. Gunn/Well if you're all just sitting. Champion/Does it make you uncomfortable to have silence? (All talking) Gunn/I could start and probably answer a lot of questions while we wait. Karr/Okay that' s great. Gunn/So does this get a sign in thing? Kanner/How many years until this building becomes a historic building? Gunn/I don't know the answer to that one. What year was it built? Kanner/It's 40 years old. Gunn/It's 40 years old. Kanner/(can't hear). Gunn/Yes it does, it, at least for historic districts after 50 years they're eligible, so now whether individual buildings. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 23 Champion/I'm eligible. Vanderhoef/Are we spaces? Lehman/We have a historic council. Vanderhoef/I think we have two in our district Gunn/I think we were planning on 7:30 but I'll get going. Historic Preservation Commission Michael Gunn/I'm Michael Gunn, with the Iowa City Historic Preservation Commission, there are, will be other members here I think shortly and some copies I want to give you but basically we're here to ask that the staffing be increased from quarter time to half time. Currently it's a quarter time, it's about .7 percent of the budget and now going from memory, no not from memory, currently there are 278 properties that are under review by the commission, those are in the historic districts, Summit Street, Brown Street, College Green, East College Street, Woodlawn, and did I say Brown street? Anyway currently there' s 278 properties, in the past oh about over the last several years there have been survey' s done in the Longfellow Neighborhood and on the noahside. And there are in these in what' s been recommended there are, and there' s where the copies would be. Karr/Michael is he upstairs? Gunn/No he went somewhere. Karr/Oh, I can't help you then. Gunn/I couldn't find anybody that I thought had access to a copier, I probably should have asked here but, he went to get them around the corner. But anyway there' s about I think there are 1,116 properties recommended here for historic or conservation districts, there are 278 currently. We have held off going forward with the anymore nominations until we could a guidelines in order which we now have done and we have sent the Governor Lucas Bowery conservation district to the Planning and Zoning Commission, I think if they don't have it already they'll have it soon we, at our last, at the open hearing, at the public hearing we had to discuss this, hearing no objections or alterations suggested we went ahead and decided to send it to Planning & Zoning. I believe there are 148 properties in here, so far we've heard, we did get one phone call from someone who was unhappy about it, other than that the support, everyone has been in favor of it. So I suspect This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 24 this will pass, it may not but I suspect it will. What' s following it will be further east in the Longfellow Neighborhood and I think those areas have been waiting a long time and they're anxious so all together in that whole Longfellow Neighborhood it's 616 properties that will very possibly all be nominated this year. And the figures that you will get soon and I don't even have one copy of it will show if the value of historic, if property values in historic districts increases relatively small amount it does bring in a fair amount of money and we have information from Georgia and South Carolina and the State Historic Society sent a number of studies that show historic districts increase property values rather substantially, some of these claims are rather dramatic. The one we based the figures on that you'll get is one done on Summit Street a few years ago and I don't know why this study was done. But it shows Summit Street increased in property value 15 percent beyond what would be expected based on city wide averages and based upon the most comparable properties that could be found and that was Kirkwood. So if you take a 15 percent increase in property value and you know take the rollbacks and the levies and the percent to the City and all that, I think Summit Street generates about $14,000 a year due to historic preservation, if all of the districts currently under review which is 270 properties, if they were in mature districts it could claim the 15 percent increase in value then the total is somewhere I think close to $100,000 revenue generated due to historic preservation. It's hard to prove those numbers, it's equally hard to disapprove those numbers so I think that we're looking at multiple increase in property value, or in numbers of properties to review and we really do need the staff time to make it work well. If we increased the number of certificate of appropriateness by 3 or 4 times the workload has to go up and it needs to be done effectively in order to work well, and it needs to be done efficiently and by staff to make it work so. Vanderhoef/What do you ask for when you go in to a district and you suspect a lot of it will be eligible and you want to do three streets like Grant, and the one across there, Oakland, Grant, do you engage the numbers into any kind of monetary support in making this happen in their area? Gunn/No we never have to my knowledge, I have not been on the Commission during any time that a district was named. Thank you. But as far as I know we certainly have never asked anyone in the neighborhood to put any money into it in any way. Vanderhoef/Or to do any probono or in-kind kind of activity to assist the Commission. Gunn/Well I think there are people who are willing to write the nominations and to generate support. The biggest cost in the future will be in administering the Certificates of Appropriateness which deal with construction projects. That is where the staff time is needed and that' s not something the average person can do, it's hard, even on the Commission there are only a few of us who have the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 25 expertise in the building architecturally so that's a very specialized thing, so that's done by a few members of the commission and by the staff. Vanderhoef/I recognize and appreciate the work that you folks do, I know it's very time consuming and you are volunteering a lot of hours I just was wondering if there was any way you could spread any of the tasks from the technical experts that are on the Commission and the staff person who assists you and whether you could get support from the districts you're working in? Gunn/Well again what staff will do the majority of time in the future is look at, is talk to people who are going. Lehman/Could you speak up just a little bit please? Gunn/Sure. The staff in the future will devote most, the majority of the time to talking to people who are going to do some sort of construction project, helping them understand the guidelines, helping direct their planning and then getting things ready for the Commission to look at the plans, to approve the plans, checking on things for the Commission. At the same time there are members of the commission who are involved in that process as well, not the entire Commission because it's difficult with you know 10 people to try to discuss details of a project so I don't know how you get volunteers to do that. It's hard to get volunteers to serve on the commission and then do what we do and now when you add something that has to be done timely you know in response to what the public needs, it's really hard to do it with volunteer so I have numbers. Champion/Did we increase the staff time for Historic Preservation for last year? Gunn/No. Champion/I think they must have requested it last year too. Thanks. Kanner/Bruce I had a question on another area, one of the things that we're thinking of perhaps delaying under construction.. Karr/Excuse me Steven would you. Kanner/Sorry. Karr/Thank you. Kanner/One of the things we're considering delaying from the budget is the Noah Marketplace improvements and is that area under any kind of consideration for This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 26 historical district at all? You know what I'm talking about Linn and Market Street, that area. (Can't hear) the improvements I'm talking about that are being planned. Gunn/Yea, I know more what your talking about. What we have is a survey and a proposal and that is really about as far as it goes, let me show you a map (can't hear). Lehman/You have to speak at the mic. Karr/Michael, I'm not picking up any of this. Gunn/This map is of the noah side and it shows a number of districts that have been recommended by consultants to be either historic or conservation district, mostly historic district and this is the first step in taking, in making all the nomination. This, the difference between Governor, Lucas, Bowery which is now submitted to planning and this is that we have the written the nomination document and had a neighborhood meeting and held a public hearing. This is where it staaed before that has gone, now that that whole definition of conservation district is pretty well ironed out the nomination should go pretty quickly. There's a lot of, there's almost a format to it now where it's just changing information, customizing. Kanner/People have come forward from the noahside commercial. Lehman/Steven you need to pull the mic forward to be able to record it. Kanner/Sorry. People have come forward from the noahside commercial conservation district wanting to have some son of district there. Gunn/No not here that I'm aware of, we've had interest from Goosetown, we've had interest mostly from Goosetown, recent interest. I was at a neighborhood meeting three weeks ago where they were asking the time table, and I said probably a long ways, but there is some interest. This is pretty new, this is September 2000, this is the date on this repoa. Kanner/So who' s putting out this proposal for this area the conservation district, the noahside commercial conservation district which is around Linn and Market? Gunn/This is strictly a consultam who did a survey, this is a result of a survey in the area. So there is no neighborhood effoa in this area that I'm aware of. Lehman/It's consultant recommendation. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 27 Gunn/Right. Vanderhoef/It would possibly qualify, probably qualify. Gunn/No, yes, definitely qualify Vanderhoef/That might be an interesting map just for us to have in our packet. Gunn/Okay, yea it's like a 5 page report and we can send copies to you. Vanderhoef/If you just send one copy to Marian she can distribute for us and put it in our packet. Gunn/Okay, okay. Pfab/There's severe problem, we can't pick up, you're not speaking into that, she's not picking up the sound. Kanner/So I guess back to my question is there any connection between this consultant' s proposal's or what might be eligible and the Noah Marketplace, what are we calling that the Noah Marketplace? Lehman/Noah Marketplace. Kanner/What's the project called Noah Marketplace? Lehman/Streetscape. Kanner/Oh streetscape, is there any connection in any way that you see from a Historic Preservation Commission member point of view? Gunn/I read summaries of what was discussed in that, I didn't attend any meetings, I realize there' s one to present the final project soon, I have it on my calendar but I forget when it is, but I thought it was, I didn't there was any, I didn't think there wasn't much about overlap in what I read, I think there' s a lot of talk about signage, and sidewalks, and furniture on the sidewalks. Lehman/Lights. Gunn/Lights, and to some degree we may become involved in that a little bit but we would be more in historic districts we are concerned primarily with the things already built and preserving their character so I mean there certainly could be a This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 28 time when we would be consulted about street lights or signage or something but I don't know, I don't think we're doing, what we do is overlapping a lot. Lehman/Okay any other questions? Gunn/Thank you. Champion/No we just appreciate the good job your commission does, you must all work really hard. Gunn/Thank you. I think the numbers are pretty clear, I've just based the 15 percent, everything I did here was based on the history of Summit Street and that' s certainly can be adjusted easily depending on what your view of the value is. Thank you. Lehman/Thank you. Okay guys, we've got a break. BREAK Iowa Arts Festival Lehman/Iowa Arts Festival. Vicki Jennings/Me, I always see this on television, I always watch the city council meetings and I've never done this before it's my first time so. My name is Vicki Jennings and I'm Executive Director of the Iowa Arts Festival and for you that maybe don't know I'm going to give you just a brief description of the Iowa Arts Festival. I feel like the Iowa Arts Festival is eastern Iowa' s signature cultural event, it's an energetic festival of colorful public events dedicated to showcasing the best of the country' s performing and visual artists plus the culinary arts bringing to Iowa exceptional examples of artistic achievement. The Iowa Arts Festival is an independent not for profit organization committed to the growth and vitality of Iowan's rich cultural heritage through the development and presentation of the arts. I want to thank all of you for giving the Iowa Arts Festival Board of Directors this opportunity to submit a request of $10,000 for the festival hopefully. More than 40,000 people attended last years festival, the 2000 festival, making it one of the largest tourism events in the region. The University of Iowa chose to collaborate with the festival by moving it's alumni weekend of the year to coincide with this event. Also the Center for Aides Resources and Education has it's major fund raiser, the pancake breakfast on the same weekend plus the Shakespeare festival which as you know started last year was the same weekend as well. This energy from all of these events made our event much more successful and I might add it was impossible to get a hotel room in Iowa City that weekend. For the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 29 2001 Iowa Arts Festival we have a theme this year which has made it very easy for us to plan this festival 2001. The theme is World Art and Music, this years 2001 festival takes place June 7, 8, 9, and 10th in downtown Iowa City. For the 2001 Arts Festival we have these goals that we would like to reach, we want to increase the visual art fair from 85 artists to 100 artists. We want to increase the ethnic culinary row from 17 to 20, we want to increase the performing venues with high quality artists on both the main stage and the family stage throughout the festival. We want to increase the children' s activities to be more interactive and focused on art and music. And this year we are having two days of children' s area for just art activities, plus we are going to be having a VIP tent. We want to grow the festival into a great city celebration but become a regional attraction being a record number of people to downtown Iowa City. With the expansion of the festival comes the increased cost of security, sanitation, cleanup, equipment and rental which none of this is covered by our traditional sponsors. The caliber of the 2000 Iowa Arts Festival was the highest it's ever been, the crowds were huge, the performers and artists were top notch and I felt like the organization and execution of the festival was excellent, the food, fun and art all combined in one weekend made the 2000 Iowa Arts Festival one of the best yet. This past October the festival was honored with the tourism and arts award, this was awarded by the Department of Tourism and also the Tourism Federation for the State of Iowa. With this that is my story and so I thank you very much for this opportunity and do you have any questions? Wilburn/Vicki can you paint a picture of your fundraising plan, funding plan, what are you piecing together? Jennings/Yes I can, this year the market, I report to a Board of 25 people and from this Board all of them have to serve on different committees within the Festival Board. One of the committees of course is a marketing committee and we put together this year for the first time sponsorship packets. And those were completed the beginning of January and I have been sending them out to large businesses with follow-up calls from them and I feel real positive about the sponsorship packets we have put together. We have made in those five levels of giving that I think will make the businesses in the community and in Cedar Rapids, I think they will want to give to the festival, I really do. So we are working on that right now. Kanner/What is your total budget? Jennings/$135,000. Kanner/And what was the figure for the amount of participants for last year? Jennings/40,000. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 30 Kanner/40 and could you break that down to an estimate of how many from outside of Iowa City and how many inside? Jennings/Well it's really hard to tell one thing with this festival it's completely free and it's hard to gauge because we have no way of people coming into the gate so it's very hard to know. But I do know I got many calls from the Chicago area and also in Omaha just to give you, just to tell you that, it was across the state that' s for sure but I don't have an estimate of how many out of state people were attended. Lehman/But the hotels were full. Jennings/The hotels were full, yes they definitely were full. And also one of the marketing ideas that myself and Amy Estes who' s the Acting Director for the Riverside Theater, we have talked to the Convention and Visitors Bureau and we are putting together a festival package that the hotels and motels and bed and breakfasts in the Iowa City area are going to sell to their clients for a special weekend festival package to stay in Iowa City and so we're excited about that. And the Convention and Visitors Bureau is going to be selling that package as well and they're behind it 100 percent and so it's going to be another way to bring people to our community. Vanderhoef/So it will be on their web site. Jennings/It will be yea. Vanderhoef/As a button type event that you can get all the things. Jennings/Yes, right, and we have a web site also that was developed to that you can pull up so, we're there. As the entertainment is booked it is up on our web site, if people want to volunteer the forms are on the web site, if an artist wants to have some art in the festival that also is on the web site, just about everything you'd want is right there. Vanderhoef/Is it juried to get into the art fair? Jennings/It is juried, it's a juried art fair. Kanner/Want to give us a hint on that big name performer? Jennings/No, no, we've got Thursday night and Friday night and we're still working on Saturday night. Last year it was Shawn Colben and that brought a lot of people, you know that's something you have to think about is how many people, you don't This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 31 too big a name because where would we put them all. There may not be room downtown Iowa City so. Kanner/Are you looking into using the University's space again at all? Jennings/Well last year we were turned down with that so you know we haven't, I do have a meeting with the city on Thursday regarding the street usage for the festival so because Iowa Avenue is closed I think we're, it's going to be a little bit harder this year, we'll have to see what happens. Kanner/It was nice up there on the grass. Jennings/Yea a lot of people did like that. Lehman/Other questions. Pfab/(Can't hear). Champion/It won't be open. Lehman/Thank you Vicki. Champion/When Iowa Avenue is open that will be a beautiful place to do that. Jennings/Thank you. Yes, it will be, we're excited about that. Thank you. Arts Iowa City Nancy Purington/Good evening, my name is Nancy Purington and I'm representing Arts Iowa City. Do I need to sign in? I have been in correspondence or at least written to you all over the past few months concerning projects that we've been involved in and I believe most of you are pretty familiar with Arts Iowa City. We have requested funds in the amount of $7,500 to help with general operating costs and program responsibilities for the visual arts in Iowa City, and unlike the Iowa Arts Fair we are open all year long, every day, free to the public. It's very different venue than the sort of big high event that Fairs and Festivals can experience for the city. We're very quite, we're the nonverbal entity of the arts in town so at this time I've been wondering if there were any questions that you have had or would like to ask about our organization at this time. Lehman/This funding is just operating expense right? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 32 Purington/Yes because that's, we show one to six artists a month and we have expenses with putting on those exhibitions. And that' s pretty much what we do, we have exhibitions. I will say that in the 25 years that Arts Iowa City has existed here in this community we have as a group of visionaries created and promoted many entities which have gone off and become independent. The Arts Fair is one of them, the Iowa Arts Festival was a variation of that, that was sort of the stars in the bars on top of the arts fair that we started. And lately the most recent one growing out of the culture district discussion group is the epicenter group and they're still tied to Arts Iowa City, we did apply for an Arts Reach grant from the NEA and received a grant we will have all together $17,000 little over $17,000 in which we will promote the cultural treasures of this community but after all of those concepts spin off from our little group we are basically the quite and still invisible visual arts group for 25 years. Champion/Nancy when you had your wonderful location. Purington/Yes. Champion/Did that increase your membership? Do you know? Or didn't it make a difference? Purington/It has actually increased our membership as far as we have many people who weren't aware of our organization before have become members so being visible did increase an awareness of our organization. We're still seeking to be visible within the downtown streetscape and I think that being visible is an important contribution to the downtown for revitalizing the economy. I haven't asked the two new business owners on Washington Street was partially an inspiration for them to put in a new upscale cafe and clothing store on Washington Street but that was kind of what we saw as part of our promise was to incite and excite people to reinvest in the downtown because we would have a presence that signaled creative activity an so I think it helped but it was short lived. And as you know with the center space idea which was something that people were concerned about and tried to make happen for 15 years the performing arts now will have a home in the Englert and we're still looking for our part of that concept which so many people in this community invested in time and money and I think the city also invested in higher consultants to investigate that so we're still part of that energy, we're still trying to find our visible home. Kanner/Nancy, so how many people that you have at Arts Iowa City, as artists that display, and people visiting, what' s your total count for how many people in a year that are involved in Arts Iowa City? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 33 Purington/Well at this time I think we have about 400 members and of course the although, during the openings on Friday evenings every month when we have a reception, the attendance is still up to close to what we had upstairs and that was 6 times the amount we had when we were downstairs before so I would say we probably about 500 visitors a month in the downstairs location, we probably had 1,000 or more when we were upstairs. Kanner/So downstairs it would be about 7,000 people for the year? Purington/Yes, well it's invisible people don't see it, but w hen they see it from the street they are just drawn to it. Kanner/There had been talk I heard of looking to buy some space for their organization, are you working on that? Purington/Yes, well we're always looking for a viable location which we could afford to purchase. I don't think we're going to have good luck raising high rent money to through our memberships or through any kind of fundraising activity, that was something we learned when we had that place, it was very high rent. But like the Englert if we had a destination which we could say this is where we're going to be and what we're going to purchase and your money goes to purchase this, that' s an investment. That seems to be what you know people respond to so yes we were interested in doing that however, at the time that we were visible and we had the momentum to go forward with that initiative the Englert experience occurred and we were hearing from the arts community in general that Arts Iowa City should wait because of the fundraising and people were so afraid that there' s just so many pockets and there' s just so much money. I don't actually believe that, I believe that it can all happen at once to some degree. But we did wait and we are really happy that the Englert has their little location the community theater has that but we would like to purchase a space, it's just hard to find a space that's for sale downtown unless you want to buy a whole building. And we were hoping that the library would have condominiumized space but it doesn't appear that. We are interested though what kind of spaces we might be able to rent and what those rents might be when that occurs so we could possibly piggy back with some kind of cultural destination point in the library space but again that' s rental so that' s the kind of things we're working on. I believe the Tower Place space we were interested in is sold so that, we'll moving forward on some other location. (Can't hear). Purington/Yep, John Loomis is our Treasurer and Marcia Wegman is our exhibition coordinator and they're both here tonight if you have questions. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 34 John Loomis/I'm John Loomis and I'm the Treasurer of Arts Iowa City. I joined the organization last March after I saw, I was drawn to the art gallery that was up in the Paul Helen Building and it just like as many of us do we walk around downtown the last few years and figure out what to do with downtown and how I can help and when I saw the Arts Iowa City emerge from the basement into the Paul Helen building and I just couldn't believe my eyes, I saw that as the visual center of the streetscape that the downtown needed. And I joined the organization trying to do something to get them back up on the street and so I thought the gallery or the organization represented themselves very well by being extremely glamorous I thought, it looked really good there. It proved to be a good destination for anybody who comes downtown and the reason I think the city should partner with us or contribute or help us with the organization is that I think we could be part of the cityscape that we contribute to the ultimate increase and development of the downtown cityscape and the vibrancy of the place down there. And the $7,500 though it's listed as operating costs, I do know that if you have seed money available you can use it to promote the fact that there's something going on here, the City of Iowa City is behind this group, we would remain as an association of artists who do art shows, openings, lectures and those kinds of things but we could possibly this impetus as a fundraising tool to tell people that there's more coming and more on the way. Wilburn/John are you all planning this year doing any type of long term planning to focus your efforts what it is, if you were to use this as seed money is it would you be gearing towards permanent space or is it more (can't hear). Loomis/Well we all have our dreams. Excuse me, I'm sorry I interrupted you. Wilburn/(Can't hear). Loomis/The vision that I personally see, I saw the Paul Helen building as a really good example of vision that I wanted to see in downtown Iowa City, I saw and so that vision kind of holds my interest, although the Paul Helen building we sort of got sent back downstairs that vision remains and I have focused my interest and the three of us have talked, we went to the architects meetings at the library about the library building and we saw those space and your probably familiar with the design there that building near College and Dubuque as being rental space and there' s an upstairs space. It would be nice to have that become the gallery space, one of those stores downstairs or possibly the upstairs so that would be the vision and if we had a long range plan and if we could establish that as such I think that would be a good fundraising tool. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 35 Kanner/Take you back to what Ross was saying, I think that' s one of the things I would look for is that long range plan and see that there' s a board commitment to following through on that, I think that would help. Loomis/Well I would say we're in the incipient stages of that I'll admit but that' s the vision we have and that' s the vision that I joined for is the visual presence, this rather stunning visual presence and I think that fundraising with this organization because it is quiet, they're non-aggressive, and they do depend on members and donations and those kind of things and I think if we want to expand we would have to have some shining thing out there and I think a gallery on the street is it and so if we were, so like you said I understand what your saying we need to have a concrete vision. Vanderhoef/What is the NEA grant and how much or is there any funding that you have to provide to match that grant? Loomis/I don't know Nancy can. Purington/The NEA grant for the Epicenter project is a matching grant and we do have all of those matches committed, we have all the commitments for that. Vanderhoef/Okay but what is the grant? What is it to be used for? Purington/Well it will be used to design promotional materials for the cultural assets of the downtown, we will have banners made that will be centered around the beginning of the Epicenter which has been identified as the point of departure where the spiral from weather dance occurs so the banners will be around the four posts around that. Benson and Hepker is donating the design of that and also the design of a map with the cultural destination points in the Epicenter identified and located which can be used by the Visitor and Convention Bureau to promote the cultural district aspect of downtown Iowa City. Iowa City you know has a long reputation of being cultural mecha for Iowa and that' s what we focused on with the cultural district discussion group, how can we organize and design a promotional package to help with the identification and reconstruction of the downtown that sets it apart makes it unique from the mall on the highway. And, for instance, we were, when we were on the street, and this idea really occurred when we were on the street level, an architect from Chicago stopped in and said boy. (END OF 01-11 SIDE TWO) Purington/List of things that I knew about and she said that they had spent the weekend in Amana and just decided to drift off the highway and come into town and come This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 36 and see what Iowa City was like. But they didn't have a plan and they hadn't read anything so I had done some research on cultural districts and how that can be used and so that's when I started having the meetings at Arts Iowa City in visual cultural center locations. So we outlined those kinds of promotional materials and banners and signage and that kind of thing to organize that so when people want to know, what is it that you have, where are these places, it begins to have a piece of information organized for them. Vanderhoef/Thank you. Purington/I would like to just say the long range plan, it has been part of our long range plan for 25 years, I first was involved with the organization in the late 70's, 79, and it had always been in our long range plan in our long range plan and I have a list of all of the presidents who have, and I'll leave this with you, I should have made copies, who have identified our goal as being visible in the street level of downtown. One of the problems with visual artists is they're used to making do and we turned that basement you know into a beautiful underground location for a visual arts gallery through making do and doing a lot of it ourselves. That is just an inherent aspect of visual artists and it hasn't served us well, it's served us but it doesn't get us in the mainstream and that' s just a hurdle we still need to cross but I believe that the center space concept which was also a long range plan which was it's point of departure with Arts Iowa City 15 or 20 years ago when members of the organization thought we needed to do it then, so this has been a long range plan for a very long time and so I don't know when you say you want to see another long range plan I don't know what you want us to do because it's been part of an investigation for a very long time and it's been documented. Lehman/Nancy I don't think it's a matter of what we want you to do, I think it's a matter of you do have a plan, a long range plan. Purington/We do have a long range plan. Lehman/But if it's a plan that identifies for example your talking about the library folks about the potential of locating in that spot but I think it's for now your asking us for funding for operating expenses. Purington/Exactly, exactly. Lehman/At some point in time you may have a long range plan that would ask for funding for a property but at this point you are asking money for operating expenses. Is that correct? Purington/That is correct. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 37 Lehman/Okay. Purington/Because we did attend the meeting at the library and we did attend the meeting at the library and we did make it known that we are interested in initiating those discussions and that' s about where it is with that kind of project so we can't be much further than that in a long range plan because they're just beginning to so. Lehman/Right, very good, thank you. Purington/Thank you all. Champion/You've done a good job in your dungeon. Lehman/Are the Jaycee's here? Karr/I don't think the Jaycee's are here but I think the Historical Society is. Margaret would you want to go, are you ready? Great. Johnson County Historical Society Margaret Wieting/It said quarter till 9:00 I'm glad I didn't come at 8:30. My name is Margaret Wieting, I'm Executive Director of the Johnson County Historical Society. One of the things that was very apparent to me last year when I became director was that we really did not have a visible presence and Nancy talked about visibility it was very apparent we didn't have a visible presence in Iowa City, we have three other sites but we really didn't have a way of having the exposure here and we were thrilled last summer in mid August that we had an opportunity to get the old J. Riggins store in Old Capital Mall in Iowa City and this has allowed us as I think to help with community building which is one of our goals and also I think gives back to the community because you have supported us. We are free, it has not come without costs, we do employ work study students and it's been a wonderful opportunity for them to get engaged in museum and gallery work and it's also allowed us to meet our obligations to have this site open. It's been a chance to welcome partnership, we've partnered with Old Capital Museum, we've partnered with a Natural History Museum, with the Iowa Women' s Archives, I've been involved in the Emma Harvat committee, we were in the Irving Weber committee and we're active in that and so it's opened up a lot of opportunities to work with other groups. It's been a chance to welcome over 1,300 to the site, a lot of people who passed through, a lot people from around the world visiting the University, many many people respond to how exciting it is that something like our what we call a history learning center is in a mall and that's one question that a lot of visitors from out of town ask is wow this is just a really neat addition to this This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 38 kind of setting. We've been able to have school groups come into our settlement center, we've had a chance to share exhibits and programs that we really had no space for at our other site. This is now our fourth site that we're managing and we're thrilled that we found out just as Christmas time that leasing people in Pittsburgh have allowed, will allow us to stay there in 2001, so we feel that this really exciting. Some of the things that we're looking forward to doing because of that commitment, during February which is Black History Month we have invited Joe McGill who is Executive Director of the African American of the Heritage Foundation which is building the museum in Cedar Rapids to come and share the vision for that museum which will serve the history of African American' s in Iowa so it isn't just Cedar Rapids and so he will be coming February 20th and we will be inviting all of you to come and hear about that dream. Also he is lending us an exhibit, we do not have a long history of African American' s in our county, I think it's at 2 percent now and so we will be borrowing one of their exhibits which we will welcome, we will partner with the Iowa Women' s Archives with an exhibit and a program. Also in February we will be recognizing local businesses, we will be looking at ones that had a history and then kind of the evolution, for instance, University Camera, Roger Christensen has a big array of camera' s over time and so he's going to, we're going to pick out some of those to exhibit and bring it up to exhibiting like a digital camera. We also have Gladys Colter's permanent wave machine from the early 1940' s, and when I first saw it I literally had just been at the Johnson County Asylum and Poor Farm, and I walked in and said oh my gosh it's an electric shock machine, but you'll have to come see it, it's pretty amazing. And then we'll feature True Value because they're moving, or going to be giving us some things to exhibit. We'll have some of our artifacts, like a wonderful early 1920's National brass plated cash register, will be free hops harness shop that used to be at University Camera' s we have some of those items. And then tomorrow I plan to visit the owner of the Enzler's to see if perhaps there's some new leather things that we could also put next to that to help show the (can't hear) position of those items. And then what this will lead to then is that we're probably going to look because we are free, we do have expenses, we hadn't planned on having this site when we went into our budget making for this year, we will look to invite different businesses who perhaps have a long history space that they could exhibit and tell their story and then they would be the sponsor for that month at the site. We're also looking at in March one of the things and he wrote a wonderful article about it Professor Boyd on Museum' s (can't hear) center of controversy and that we should really get engaged in issues, and we have tried to do that, we searched the newspaper for instance last year when the Englert became a hot topic, we took our artifacts and we set up an exhibit at the public library to help be a part of, not taking sides but just to present the story. And so what we're going to do in March is a long term exhibit on Alcohol and Society, that' s something that appears each day, I know it's something your grappling with. We think it will be a wonderful opportunity to present the historical context, in fact we have a musician historian This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 39 story teller who's coming and she does a program on the saloon as a historical institution and we'll do a program on that, we have some artifacts, Ken Donnelly is going to give some things to display from, I'm sorry, O'Donnell, yea Donnelly's Bar which was the site for years for English Faculty to go every Friday night to discuss things. Many famous writers would go there, we will touch on temperance and prohibition presenting legal issues and then to open it up perhaps as a neutral site where people can come and discuss both sides. It seems like many many times those discussions might be here in this chamber which isn't neutral and so we will be looking to invite groups so they can discuss this. It will be interesting, we're building a team now and discussing that. Kanner/These exhibits will be in the Iowa City or the other? Wieting/All of these exhibits will, no, all of these that I'm talking about right now will be at the Old Capital site. Lehman/What is your budget? Wieting/Our budget is around $120,000 and it's thanks to the appropriation we receive from you, from Coralville and very heavily from Johnson County. We manage. Pardon? Lehman/What are you requesting from the Council this year? Wieting/From Iowa City it' s it would be a 10 percent increase so I think it comes to just over $5,000 and it would be for operating expenses. And with our new site it would be very very important to us to help offset some of the increased expenses of Old Capital. The last thing we're doing in Iowa City, not the last thing but one thing that we are building upon is the very very successful Time Machine Camp, it's full every summer, with waiting lists, it's held at City Park at the cabins, this summer what we plan to do because we already are getting requests from lower elementary school parents, about registering and is there something for older children. So we are going to introduce the two day program throughout the summer on the Tuesday's and Thursday's for upper elementary so they can continue on with that kind of experience but we thank you for your support and hope that you will look favorably on us. Do you have any questions? Vanderhoef/Sounds like you have an exciting and a busy summer coming up. Wieting/Yes. We're doing things with Plum Grove and also the Johnson County Asylum and Poor Farm and we're, right now we're just starting renovation of the first floor of the school house in Coralville thanks to a generous gift of one of our members. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 40 Champion/Good. Kanner/Will Joe McGill's talk be at Old Capital Mall? Wieting/I'm sorry what? Kanner/Will Joe McGill's talk be at Old Capital Mall? Wieting/Yes and we'll be sending out invitations but he'll be speaking there. Yea all of the things I talked about will be at Old Capital. Wilburn/And we'll be getting a list (can't hear) of the University? Wieting/Right, we'll be going through all the appropriate departments and sending all of you an invitation and all the downtown, we've started marketing, you know sending out notices to all the Downtown Association members so yea we'll put out a lot of information. Thank you. Lehman/Thank you. Jaycee' s. Iowa Citv/Coralville Javcees Jim Heims/Hi my name is Jim Heims and I'm going to be chairing the Iowa City/ Coralville Jaycees fireworks this year along with my wife Cynthia Heims, she' s here. I want to thank all of you for allowing us to speak this evening and want to give you a little bit of brief history on the project itself and if you do have questions on the Jaycee's, I'll certainly answer those too. I have talked with different City people, the fire department, Roger Jensen, and with Captain Johnson with the police department. I've also talked with Johnson County Ambulance, we've also talked with the Parks and Rec. Department, both Terry Trueblood and Terry Robinson who is a past Jaycee. I know in the past we've also spoken with traffic engineering, and the University of Iowa also because we do have overflow into Hancher and into those areas. And this again is a project that the Jaycees have been a part of, for this will be our 42nd year I believe here in Iowa City. It's something we have done, I've been a member for 10 years now in the Iowa City/Coralville Jaycees and it's a project that we I think we do pretty well and like anything else we learn and do try to do things a little bit better each year. I know as far as the other events that are taking place this year, I know the City of Coralville is having a festival and I have spoken with those people and so we do have some communication there and so I did talk with the Director of the Jazz Festival and had a good conservation with him and I guess the date we're looking at doing the celebration this year knowing the Jazz Festival is going to be the first weekend of July and with the City of Coralville events and the other events taking This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 41 place in our community we have chosen July 7 which is a Saturday following the fourth. The reason that we have done that is because of those reasons that I have mentioned also with that Saturday we feel that that will work very well for the people who would be willing to go to the fireworks and I think everyone enjoys fireworks and I'm sure there's a few that don't and that's fine but that will also our allow people to get the activities and get the different events that we've got planned, entertainment, etc. we'll have time for set up on Saturday, we'll be able to manage all those things in a timely fashion versus you know on the 4th, and then with clean up because that' s something we do, and then in turn return to the park the next day and clean up the area of debris so. Lehman/Is Coralville doing there' s on the 4th? Heims/Yea, they will have fireworks on the 4th and they do have, with talking with them they do have Three Dog Night will be playing on the 3rd and that' s their big attraction. Lehman/And Jazz Fest is what days? Heims/Is the 29, which is Friday, 30th and Sunday the 1st. Lehman/Okay. Heims/And in talking with the gentleman who' s the Director of the Jazz Fest, they're going to be finishing I believe at 9:00 each night this year and you may be familiar with the different times and so on, so they'll be finishing at 9:00 and that will be true on Sunday night too that' s one thing we didn't want to come in conflict with so and also with the City of Coralville and their activities because I think that will allow many more people to come and enjoy City Park and come to Iowa City and enjoy the show that we do each and every year. Vanderhoef/Tell me about the show, you said entertainment, do you have an idea what' s happening? Heims/Yea we have contacted 7 bands and what we're hoping to do also besides having some local people perform bands having different local comedians, we'll be talking with and have spoken with Lee Iben and Duder and activities for the children to enjoy also, and I know that's something that we didn't maybe have as many of those type of activities as far as the one on one type of exchange with another person so we're looking at those types of things too. Along with different rides, the bubble that the kids can jump around in, and the activities that we've had the previous years also. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 42 Lehman/What are you asking of the City from the City this year? Heims/The letter that was sent to each of you we asked in the letter $12,500 and this year's budget is $35,000. O'Donnell/Were the fireworks with Coralville were they on the same day last year? Heims/We did our show last year on the 3rd and they had their fireworks display on the 4th, and then it rained on the 4th last year so we were lucky to get our show in. Kanner/Do you have to give up anything if you, well you have budget $7,500 at this point (can't hear) for your request. Would you have to give up anything for that $5,000 or would you try to get funds from other sources? Heims/Yea we would have to work that much harder to get funding from other sources and each and every year we review the other programs that we do, this is one of the events that we provide in the community, our Haunted House unfortunately did not do as well last year and that' s something that we're looking at and as you people know you always try to find what will work and we try to get a few more dollars to provide the different the services and we try to do the same thing so we would have to work a little bit harder and probably not provide some of the other things we do in the community but we'd kind of have to look and see what those would be. We do a senior' s dinner during the holidays, we do a hospital Christmas party at the University of Iowa Hospital for the children and the people that are in the hospital either just having surgery or had surgery that can't go home so. That' s probably a very neat event that we do, a project that we do and makes you think, appreciate. Lehman/Any questions? Heims/Thank you very much. Lehman/Thank you very much. Karr/Mr. Mayor I don't think Animal Control Advisory Board is here yet, Downtown Association is. Lehman/Downtown Association is. Downtown Association Cathy Weingeist/I'm Cathy Weingeist I'm the Executive Director of the Downtown Association, and I'm here to ask you for help with the Friday Night Concert Series This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 43 as you've helped us for so many years. And I don't want to take a lot of time because I know all of you have been to the Friday Night Concert Series, but I do want to remind you that it's every Friday from the middle of May and this past year we went three weeks into September which is the longest we've gone because we raised quite a bit of money ourselves, more than we ever had before and we don't have one during the Friday night, we're not going to have one this year during the Friday night of the Jazz Festival and we've given up our Friday for the Arts Festival too in the past too. I think this series, for one thing it isn't a one day thing, this is all summer long, is a great thing for our community because if you've been to it you know there are brand new Iowa Citians down there in strollers and there are some of our older citizens down there, and there' s special citizens and there' s every race and there' s just such a freedom down there, I really feel sense of community when I'm down there for the Friday nights. But it's also a great way to present ourselves to people who are presenting, I know for a fact that people bring new residents at the hospital down there as their introduction to what goes on in Iowa City. People use it as a recruiting tool, the Convention and Visitors Bureau often have people call me to find out what' s going on the weekend that people are going to be in town. For the second time this coming summer I've had a request from a group that' s having a high school reunion that this summer they want to have a joint City/West High School Reunion and have it downtown for the Friday Night Concert Series and then move into the hotel after the series. And so I think people are seeing this as something that' s really an important part of our community and says a lot to the people from outside. And I just really like to ask you to continue to support us as you have so faithfully in the past. Any questions? Vanderhoef/What is your budget for the whole series? Weingeist/Well the budget kind of takes shape over the spring, it depends on what kind of money we bring in, we spent almost $15,000 last year, and I think you gave us $6,500. O'Donnell/(can't hear). Lehman/Yea, 6,500. Champion/You get a lot done for $6,500. Weingeist/Yea and that' s what' s kind of nice too, and actually one of the bands that we had, I negotiated a contract with them and I think they were going to have six people play and they wound up having 10 or 12 and I said you know I don't have money to just give you more, you know I can't, our contract said this I'm really sorry. And they said we are having so much fun give us whatever you can and some of us will take money and the ones that don't need won't take it. And I've This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 44 also had band members give me checks as a contribution to the concert series because they feel funny getting paid for something that' s so much fun. But of course most of them get paid, that was a volunteer sort of thing, so we do get a long of bang for the buck I'll say and then we have Joe Murphy do the sound, he's fair in what he charges us but he's there every single week to which is wonderful. Also I did want to mention that another thing that has happened over the last couple years is some collaboration's we've had that's also made the (can't hear) go a little further we've, for the third year this summer we'll be working with the Week of Welcome Committee from the University and our concert is sort of the centerpiece of that evening but a lot of University students put on a lot of side shows which makes it a bigger event and it's a great way to get new students downtown to get acquainted with, what we have besides bars that it' s just a fun place to be. Last year we invited restaurants to have booths so the kids could get acquainted with the variety of foods available down there and that' s going to be bigger, that went over really well. There's a Latina/Latino convention conference that' s going to be held in Iowa City I believe in July and I've talked to them they want to have the Friday Night Series as the center piece for their conference so we're going to have a Latino group perform that night or Latin flavored music, we haven't decided who yet. But we're working with them so that' s another population that will become closer to our community. So I think it's just a really really positive series. Pfab/I would make a comment, I have spent time in the crowd and have appeared at these and one of the things that just absolutely fascinated me was where the different people came from all over the world. They were there, and I mean I don't know, what projected them to that but I was just absolutely amazed the different countries in Europe, the different states, I mean different cities in Iowa, it just absolutely amazing where they come from. Weingeist/Well if you have guests visiting Iowa City and it's a Friday night that' s where you want to go so. Pfab/So I guess whatever you're doing keep doing it. Weingeist/And in fact I know a couple of Ireland who have been here the last two years and they never miss a Friday night so. Kanner/Is that Saturday night, does that $15,000 include Saturday night concerts? Weingeist/No that Saturday night is separate. Kanner/Separate okay. And do you have an estimate on how many people have come to the concerts? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 45 Weingeist/No, you always see these numbers about how many, yea, and how many people come to concerts, I mean I could inflate it, I really don't, several hundred, when the salsa band is playing. Kanner/I've seen concerts where there have been a few and I've seen a few where there have been hundreds and I think it's good to, it's not that hard to gather an estimate, and I can put together one in my mind, but I think it's a good idea to get some counts and figures and put them out. Weingeist/Well I think it's hard to say because a lot of people come for a short time, they go off to dinner, they come back, it's slower at the beginning, ifit's the salsa band I could spend all night counting and I couldn't get to the end of it. If it's some of the other bands when it's the City High/West High, obviously the crowd changes a bit, you can feel it shift when City High finished and West High comes in. I think it's such, one of the things that' s really neat about it and unlike the Jazz Festival they come and they stay for the evening to watch all the bands, this concert people feel really comfortable coming, listening for a while, going off and eating dinner, I know I do, my husband meets me downtown, we go off and have dinner someplace downtown and then we come back and listen to some more. Some people come for certain bands and not other ones, it's, I really wouldn't want to put a number on it because it's not a sit down listen to the music all night long necessarily kind of thing, it's creating an atmosphere as much as it is being a concert. O'Donnell/But it would be safe to say it's a very successful (can't hear). Weingeist/Oh yea, I'm down there almost every Friday night and. Pfab/You took the words out of my mouth. Weingeist/And it just excites me every single Friday, I know Ross is there almost every Friday too. And you it' s just, and you see everybody, they may only be there for a short time. Wilburn/Just a little off track but having the refurbished play equipment there is real nice to so all the parents let the kids run and they go sit and listen to music and I'm right there with them so. Weingeist/And I understand because it's quieter music there are people who fuss about the fountain but I love the Friday on Friday' s the kids are there splashing away and you know the parents can be comfortable about it, because there's so many people around, it's just such a community feel, I really, in fact one of my professors from This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 46 graduate school came up to me once and said this is what I meant by "communitoss," I thought with high complement. Lehman/Good job. Thank you. Champion/You know Cathy if the fountain gets in the way of those (can't hear) concerts, that' s not a big deal to have that shut off early is it? Lehman/That' s part of the ambiance. Champion/Well Friday night' s would be. Weingeist/Well I actually asked Lisa because on Saturday when the music' s quieter is when it's more of a problem and there' s people coming for different reasons for the jazz, some of them are real affectionato who they sit there for the whole evening and they don't like people talking, it's like they're in a lounge. And I asked Lisa and she said it's too much, it can't be something that you turn it off on Saturday' s and then turn it back on so we've just decided they'll just have to live with it, and if they don't like it they can find out where the band is and go there the next weekend. Lehman/Thank you. Animal Control. Karr/You know Diana Lundell is going to be coming from a neighboring City Council meeting. Lehman/I see how about Riverfest, Jazz Fest. O'Donnell/How about a break? Lehman/10 minutes. BREAK Lehman/Okay let' s get started again. Animal Control Advisory Board Lehman/Animal Control Advisory Board. Don't everybody speak at once. Tammara Meester/Hi my name is Tammara Meester, I'm on the Animal Control Advisory Board, and we've been talking today about the budget and what the Animal Shelter would like to add to their current lineup of employees. Currently they have This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 47 a half time kennel assistant, the kennel assistant is responsible for a myriad of responsibilities including cleaning kennels, taking care of, helping take care of medications for the animals, doing lots of hands of care also working with some of the people who come in and ask questions about the animals when they're looking to adopt. These are things that cannot be pushed aside until later, if an animal needs to be fed it needs to be fed now, so what happens is the control officer's who are normally, are normally there to deal with the people who are out on the streets dealing with problems with stray's or dealing with the public get sucked into helping with some of the responsibilities that they normally would not be dealing with because there is a lack of time to do those things in. This is one of the few departments in the city that the community has a lot of interaction with, people coming in there for animals and what is happening is there is no one to help them. I've seen it myself because I do volunteer work as far as fostering for the shelter and I know many times someone will come in to look at a dog or cat and the employees of the shelter are up front are dealing with the phone calls, with the walk ins with the hands on immediate care of the animals that are out on the field so people are walking around and they can't get answers to their questions. And we feel that' s something that hurts the city because long time with the budget because each day the animal is in the shelter the costs between depending whether it's a dog or a cat three day dollars, so three day dollars per day that animal is in the shelter. The faster the animals can get placed the less money your spending in the long run and sometimes what people need to feel comfortable in their adoption is information and right now they don't have the resources to provide that information to the public on an ongoing basis hands on with the animals. Thank you. Lehman/Thank you. Diana Lundell/Are you taking more than one member from a Commission? Lehman/It certainly looks like we are. Diana Lundell/Okay well I, I am, I would like to thank you first of all letting me come into Iowa City without the usual surcharge from Coralville residents so. Lehman/I think we checked your background you passed. Lundell/And. (Can't hear). Lundell/I'm here as a member of the Animal Control Advisory Board, I'm not representing the City of Coralville however as you know the City of Coralville This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 48 also share' s an interest in the Animal Shelter and also expense of the Animal Shelter and what we wanted to do tonight, we recognize it would be half time, well we actually have three requests for personnel but had agreed to that our most critical need was half time kennel assistant and we recognize that that has not made it onto the slate of proposed positions and at least wanted to get on record with you at this time for if not this year it's kind of a next year, we kind of have a history, I asked Misha to run down the our requests from the past and then what we've been able to achieve in terms of incremental position increases at the shelter and in 1994 we had a 22.5 hour kennel position and but then in 1995 was increased the 22.5 hours to a half time and so then we kept every other year adding a half time assistant request and then the following year and so we seem to be on that sort of path with the increase in the number of animals cared for and the need for that sort of incremental increase. O'Donnell/What is the increase of animals cared for do you know Misha? Lehman/You need to speak in the mic. Misha. Misha Goodman-Herbst/300 to 500 a year, it's going up because Coralville has grown and the County now we're having a lot more animals coming in from them. Lehman/So 300 to 500 is the total? Goodman-Herbst/That it's grown each year. Lehman/It grows by that much per year? Goodman-Herbst/It does. Lehman/Holy dogs. Champion/Oh my gosh. Goodman-Herbst/My people run a lot. Lundell/Well there are some other amazing statistics, this year we'll see an increase of approximately 800 animals impounded into the shelter, last year the shelter received 66,243 phone calls for information and service from the public, over 40,000 citizens visited the shelter for services, in addition more than, it says 2,000 students Misha or is it 200? 2,000 came and visited the shelter for tours and educational programs. Lehman/How many animals were adopted, do you know that? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 49 Lundell/We do and we get reports and it's an amazing number. Lehman/Roughly. Lundell/And we've really increased the adoption rate. Goodman-Herbst/Roughly if we're just talking dogs and cats and not the little animals. Lehman/Right. Goodman-Herbst/Last year I think we had about 1,300 to 1,400 adopted. Champion/How many animals go through there in a year? Goodman-Herbst/On the average, we're averaging now without wildlife about 2,500 animals. O'Donnell/You said you feel that we could adopt out more pets, or more you know we have, I'm sure one of the pets named Peaches and it's quite a famous dog in the area now. Goodman-Herbst/Yea. O'Donnell/But you feel we could adopt out more pets if we had more help? Goodman-Herbst/Well I do, I think we could do a lot more things but one of the problems is as Steve knows I asked for both increasing my half time kennel person to a full time kennel person and in addition I had asked for a clerical person, half time or full time I didn't care I'd take anything. I have a temporary clerk right now who works under 20 hours a week right now, it is very very difficult to maintain that office, it's an extremely busy office. We have public coming through the door like crazy, if you remember we put in a voice mail system a year and a half ago, we still get complaints about not answering the phone because we can't get to them quick enough. There' s just too much to be done for the amount of people that are there, and my staff are great and I mean I give them a lot of credit because they run, they work overtime when I need them to and they work very hard at what they do but they're also very stressed. I'll give you a perfect example, I had an employee who was in the hospital recently and we were short staffed, that immediately made us short staffed, and we then had to I had to be there longer hours, other employees had to be there longer hours to cover maintaining the animals and maintaining the facility open during the hours that we're open including Saturday. Then unfortunately my father fell ill and I had to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 50 go and see him, we were two people short at that point, that' s craziness at that facility. So we run into an issue, a person can't go on vacation even without us running into problems with staffing and maintaining the shelter properly. So yea, I think we would increase adoptions, it's difficult when we're doing adoptions, Ernie may remember he had to wait because we wanted to bathe his dog, he didn't care, but. O'Donnell/He's trying not to hold that against you. Lehman/Oh and they did a background check, that' s what the problem was. Goodman-Herbst/We'll do an average 3 to 7 maybe 10 adoptions a day and every single one of those animals have to be bathed, certain animals have to be groomed, they have to be given vaccinations, microchips, that doesn't take too long because I know you didn't want to do it if it took too long. No extra staffing hours there, but all these things have to be done to that animal by that kennel person who in addition have to assist the public in the back with the animals, clean and maintain the animals all day long and do whatever else needs to be maintained on the building because we don't have a janitor, we don't have a custodian, so we maintain our own building and all the grounds so that person is running and of course they get assistance from the other staff but it brings officers in to cover the kennels and assist the public, it brings officers in from the field to be clerks, and that's what they do all day, that's a lot of what I do all day, and my work gets behind so lots of people are covering peoples job that otherwise they'd be doing their own job but they don't have the time to do that so in answer to your question yes. O'Donnell/I had one more question, is the microchipping working out well? Goodman-Herbst/It's working out great, we are having animals coming in, I would say on a weekly basis, we probably are finding 3 to 5 microchips now and reclaiming those animals and that number's going to grow. O'Donnell/Great. Goodman-Herbst/With our new software we can track how many microchips were actually reclaiming and what percentage. Lehman/Actually Misha I don't think there' s anybody sitting up here who voted against the microchips. O'Donnell/No. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 51 Vanderhoef/No. Champion/No. Goodman-Herbst/You know if you want to get one for your dog (can't hear). Lehman/I got one. Goodman-Herbst/You put a microchip in Peaches before I ever took her home. Yea. Kanner/Do you feel that safety is an issue because people because of under staffing and they're rushing and they have to get all this accomplished? I know there' s a lot of scratches that go on. Goodman-Herbst/Safety is an issue, I know one of my volunteers sent you guys a letter, I don't know if you've gotten it yet but I got it when I got back from seeing my father. And one of the things that happened to her was she got stuck in a cage when she was walking one of the dogs and there wasn't a staff member available. Wilburn/To get her out. Goodman-Herbst/To hear her, because someone was on the phone, and somebody was in the cat room which is pretty far away from the kennels and she was stuck there for about 15 minutes and got a little worried as to how she was going to get out. There are some safety issues not only with volunteers but with the public and not being able to be in certain areas of the facility that the public is in with animals or access to animals. And yea with the staff also you know I do have staff, I try and, we have safety protocols and there' s something that has to be done with an animal and there' s no one available to help you they have to do it and so yea, they run into some safety issues. A lot of procedures with animals need two people at least, if your putting a micro chip in an animal, you need somebody to hold it and somebody to inject, if your doing a vaccination the same thing. If your you know clipping a dogs nails the same thing, a bath for a cat could usually be done by one person, a dog sometimes you need two so a lot of those different types of things they run into. O'Donnell/I think the most important thing to me is help with you can adopt out more pets and that' s very important. Lehman/Other questions. Kanner/Yea a question for Misha and/or Steve. On receipts it lists Animal Control Services at a flat rate for the next couple years at $99,000 actual for fiscal year This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 52 2000 was $106,000 how come we don't anticipate that growing at all or staying at the $106,0007 Goodman-Herbst/Steve you've got to help me here, do all of those receipts include all of our revenues? Atkins/Yes. Goodman-Herbst/Including donations? Atkins/No. Goodman-Herbst/Revenues. I don't know why we don't expect it to, it's licenses primarily, adoption fees. Atkins/(can't hear) 99,200 and simply carry that forward and we can go historically it runs around 100, 000 and your going to have slight variations. Goodman-Herbst/Now those revenues increased if the officers were out in the field more, they can't increase licensing without contacting citizens within the field and doing the general contacts with people who have animals, in the parks, in a variety of places in the city, that' s our license revenues are taken in beside from people walking in the door saying I want to get a license for my animal which some people do but an awful lot don't. Now we don't do license canvassing in this city, meaning we don't knock on people' s doors, and demand that they pay their license, lots of cities do that they have canvassers and they do well maintain. (END OF 01-12 SIDE ONE) Goodman-Herbst/We've chosen not to do that in this City but we do take in decent amount of revenue through licensing. Kanner/And the new non profit organization set up to support the shelter, they're looking at a capital improvement campaign? Goodman-Herbst/They're looking at that, they're looking at some equipment that would assistant us with adoptions, mobile adoption units that are vehicles that animals are put in and you go to different places to do mobile adoptions, they're looking at that. What else are we looking at? We're looking at Training. Obedience training for dogs within the facility to make them more adoptable. (Can't hear). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 53 Goodman-Herbst/You might want to step, do you want to step? Jean Walker/No. Champion/You can repeat it. Goodman-Herbst/Then we should repeat, improving some of the current conditions with within the facilities for the animals within the caging systems or in the different rooms, educational programs for the public. Kanner/Well are you going to have the staff to be able to accept these things that your planning? Goodman-Herbst/It depends, I mean mobile adoption units are commonly staffed by volunteers, and one staff member and they run usually one time a month, advertise very heavily that we're going to be at a particular site so it really depends on what your talking about. Lundell/And part of the groups effort too from my understanding is friend raising in addition to fund raising so volunteers as well. Goodman-Herbst/It is possible the facility needed to grow or expand or relocate and be rebuilt yea that more staff would be necessary. A lot of that will depend on what Johnson County does, if they actually ask us for a contract or not and what you guys do with that. Lehman/But for now you're asking for a half time person is that correct? Goodman-Herbst/Yes it's an addition to an already half time person that I have. Lundell/So it would make it a full time. Goodman-Herbst/It would make that person full time. Lehman/An additional half time person is what your asking for. Pfab/I want to ask a question here. Is that, will that additional half time person really solve your needs? Champion/That's not a good question. Goodman-Herbst/Not totally no but it certainly won't hurt. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 54 Lundell/It's the most critical need, I think when Steve asked Misha what' s the most critical, that was the one. Even though sure the clerical assistant would be. Goodman-Herbst/The clerk is very critical but I'm able to have this temporary person, hopefully I can come in and get that temporary budget, but as long as that exists yes, I have some form of a clerk for at least on average 20 hours a week and then yea adding to the kennels would really assist and alleviating some of the pressure on the officers that are covering the area. Pfab/So the increase in your budget is how much then? Goodman-Herbst/The increase is 17. Kanner/5, 17.5. Pfab/Let me ask you this, if you had that additional half time person could you give me your best guess on how much you could increase revenue by having officers out more time? I mean a guess, I'm not. Goodman-Herbst/Best guess, well what I could tell you is I could have an officer out on the field four additional hours that they're not out in the field currently because they're assisting with the cleaning prior to us opening to the public. Those four additional hours particularly in the summer months, you know it really depends on contacts but your going to increase the license revenues through those contacts. There' s no way not to because every person we contact who has an animal has to obtain a license. Pfab/And that' s accumulative right? Goodman-Herbst/Right. Pfab/After you have a license and you get, Goodman-Herbst/As soon as you get it they're in the system. Pfab/It's a multiplier effect. Goodman-Herbst/Exactly. Pfab/I'm really questioning and I don't question very many organizations but I'm wondering if we are being penny wise and pound foolish here. Goodman-Herbst/Excuse me if you're what? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 55 Pfab/If we're being penny wise and pound foolish by not helping you with more staff. O'Donnell/That' s why they're asking for more staff Pfab/Right, I mean I even question ifthat's adequate. Champion/Well you do one heck of a job, tell you that. O'Donnell/You really do, and welcome to Iowa City. Lehman/Do we have anyone here from River Fest? Okay front and center. Do we have anyone, it looks like we've got an army. Andy Budish/We've got a couple. River Fest Kristin Uniowski/My name is Kristin Uniowski and I'm the Marketing Director and we'd like to thank you for your consideration in sponsoring the University' s River Fest, we thought we'd give you a summary of the event and provide you with reasons for why you should sponsor it. This year will be the 23rd annual River Fest Celebration and every year it kicks off spring in Iowa City for both Iowa City Community and the University of Iowa students. Our average attendance is 17,000 but we have the goal of 20,000. At River Fest we provide entertainment through music, carnival rides, children' s activities and other things such as the River Run and (can't hear) taste of Iowa City. This year we're hoping to expand and strengthen the relationship with the community, we're doing this by expanding our kid Fest program to include more junior high and high school programs. We're also working with a group called 14/40, it's the West High service group they're going to be having their 4th annual ball room dance in conjunction with River Fest this year, the Johnson County Landmark Band will play there from 8-11 on Friday night with the goal of raising money for the Englert. So River Fest is pleased to be able to work with this group and hopefully with many other community groups. John Branham/Good evening I'm John Branham, I'm the Public Relations Director for River Fest, one of the group Kristin was just talking about is the Stepping Up program, River Fest is currently trying to get the Stepping Up program to help sponsor us for our event. To make River Fest and to continue River Fest to be an alternative to alcohol, as you know we've had the problem with the downtown bar area and this provides a weekend full, not just at night but all weekend long, day and night for students junior high through college to participate in things that do This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 56 not involve alcohol. We're trying to work on late night programming this year, usually River Fest is usually ended by 10:00 because of the noise ordinance ending with the band on Friday night. But this year we're going to try to work on getting some programs for junior high, senior high and college kids alike to get together inside, down at the student union, there they would have open mike, and talent shows and games and activities that anybody could participate in. And that' s a definitely strong advantage to River Fest is providing with one of the first spring weekends where kids are out to be a nonalcoholic weekend and with your help hopefully we can do that. Lehman/Are you getting any help from Stepping Up? Emily Hajek/That' s what we're working on. Branhan/We're working on that right now. Emily Hajek/My name' s Emily Hajek and I'm the Media Relations Director for River Fest and each year River Fest takes about $75,000 to run, and it's run solely by 14 students including ourselves, and our volunteer committees. Student government provides us with only $20,000 of these dollars, the rest we make from t-shin sales and sponsorships from businesses and that kind of thing from the community. We really thing River Fest is a good investment for this city, for a couple reasons, like John said with the alcohol free event this would really help in attracting students to something different which I know is something definitely you've been working on. And also we think it will be a good investment because it will attract business to the downtown area. It's four days that people from the community and students who live out further will be coming down to campus and undoubtedly shop in the stores and eat in the restaurants and that kind of thing to attract business. One of the main reasons we need funding is so that we can get a really good main stage act for our Friday night show, this is something we work on every year, because this is what gets the students down there, this is what will be the main thing that draws them and it will be the main alcohol free alternative and it takes a lot of money and a lot of money early to be able to get a show that students will really want to come see. Andy Budish/Hi I'm Andy, I'm the Executive Director, that' s all we have we'd like to field questions now from you, I'm sure that haven't been brought up. Vanderhoef/Did I understand you to say that there were only 14 folks really working on putting this whole thing together? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 57 Budish/Well there are 14 on the Executive Council, and then we all have committees of about 15-20 people and then beyond that there' s going to be about 150 volunteers for the actual weekend so total up it's about 200 people, I'd say. Vanderhoef/And these are all students? Budish/Yes all students. Vanderhoef/That is great organization. Wilburn/I don't have their letter, how much are you asking from the city, I missed it earlier. Budish/$2,500 1 believe. Atkins/It's not on your list because the request arrived after the budget had already gone out to you. Wilburn/Afterwards okay. Karr/In the interim could I just ask you to sign your names so we have that for the record please. Not to hurry questions but since your standing there. Kanner/And this is the first time you've asked the city for money? Hajek/Yes, I believe so. Wilburn/Steve refresh my memory, the Weeks of Welcome that you have is that in the fall was that with what we did last fall with them? Atkins/Yes last year, first time. Wilburn/And that was around the first week of school right? Atkins/Yes. Lehman/Anyone have any questions for these folks? Champion/No. Lehman/Thank you very much. River Fest Presenters/Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 58 Vanderhoef/Nice presentation. Lehman/Yes. River Fest Presenters/Thank you. Lehman/Jazz Fest. Jazz Fest Steve Grismore/Trying to do work while I'm. Champion/Just working all the time. Grismore/Yea I'm just doing some stuff. Do you all have a copy of my original request? Atkins/They may not have it (can't hear). Lehman/Remind us, refresh our memory. Kanner/It's been a while. Grismore/Okay I'll just read this to you, well here, my name is Steve Grismore, I'm Director of the Iowa City Jazz Festival, I apologize for holding you here so late. I called and got on the list, I've been gone a lot over break, I was in New York for a week and Chicago last weekend and my mind was in other places. I'll just read you the letter [11/7 packet #4f(11)] and then you can look through it, it says: Dear City Council: All of the Board Members of the Iowa City Jazz Festival are already hard at work making plans for Jazz Fest 2001, next year is our 10th anniversary, it's the 1 lth festival but 10 calendar year. Pfab/Counting right for a change. Grismore/What' s that? Pfab/You're counting correctly. Grismore/Well I was told that's the correct way to do it so I followed the directions. Pfab/Good for you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 59 Grismore/Making it a special year for the Iowa City Jazz Festival, I would like to thank all you and former Council Members as well for supporting this great even over the past 10 years. Last year the City of Iowa City gave the Jazz Festival $7,500, I would like to formally request this amount once again from the city but with a twist which means I'm not asking for that amount. As part of our 10th anniversary campaign we are asking all sponsors to consider contributing 10 percent more than last year. That would mean we are asking an additional from the City $750.00, I'm not trying to ask for huge amounts of money but it's just a thought, just since we've been here for 10 years, it's not just you I'll be asking that that for which comes to an additional $750.00. I would also ask all of you to at least consider all of the facts in your final decision, it's our 10th anniversary, the year 2001, and for the first time in a long time we are adding a day, actually an evening to the festival and with your blessing we'd like to present two bands on Friday before the festival at the fountain stage at the normal Friday night concert series times. Now I've talked to Dan Brown and also Cathy Weingeist regarding the relationship, and I know the Friday Night concert series is something you, the City sponsors, the DTA, and the Press Citizen. Lehman/She told us that this night your going to do it, she already told us that tonight. Grismore/She did, she already told you about that. Lehman/Yes. Grismore/And I've talked to Dan Brown and of course there is the Iowa City Gazette is a sponsor of the Jazz Festival but I've negotiated a way, what we're going to do is keep the way Dan Brown expressed it the franchise name the Friday Night Concert series on the poster when we're talking about the Friday Night Concert series will kick off the Iowa City Jazz Festival on Friday evening, so you'll get credit for that plus we will give people regular credit in the program as usual and announce from the stage in addition. But it was in negotiation point to try to do that. The reason I wanted to do that too just so you understand is last year, and we've been seeing this more and more, there are more people coming into town from out of town and they are coming in on Friday. And just so you understand everything about our schedule is the same except we would be doing the fountain stage and they would put the main stage up as usual you know so the main stage so the blocks of streets wouldn't be used until Saturday and Sunday per normal, but we would go to fountain stage on Friday evening and it' s just to help encourage activity in town that evening downtown because a lot of people are coming in early. We would have two bands that evening and we would have four bands on the main stage on Saturday and four bands on Sunday, normally on Sunday we started at noon and went until 10, we also area realizing that people like to get home, it's a Sunday evening, it's not a day off the next day so we're going to be stopping closer to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 60 between 8:00 and 9:00 on Sunday evening which gives us more time to tear down and get the city back in shape for Monday morning and people can go back to work. Champion/I think that' s a good idea. Grismore/Yea and so these are things we're coming to, trying to figure out how to do it, but nothing else is really changing, the set up and all the logistics are the same. We also have the side stages where the local bands playing like we always do and the venders where they would be and everything else is the same. Do you have any questions you'd like to ask I'm happy to answer. Kanner/Steve what are the attendance figures that you have estimates of?. Grismore/Well you know the festival, let me put it to you this way, people told us when the year the Neville Brothers were here which was 97 that we had 35,000 people downtown and I actually believe that because there were, it was scary downtown, I mean there were a lot of people. And I think last year was the best year since that time, I don't know how many of you attended the festival, so we estimated 25,000 but if the Arts Fest had 40,000 then we had 25,000, that's the way I look at it. You know it's hard to judge those numbers quite honestly, we try to make a count, we try to judge it from past years and what we've known, but bare minimum 20,000 to 25,000 because I can't tell how many people come and go exactly. Champion/They come and go a lot. Grismore/Yea and so that' s why I say that, I don't really know but I think that' s a fair estimate. Kanner/And what' s your total budget? Grismore/Well it varies from year to year, now last year let me just, last year our cash budget, that isn't including in kind contributions was at $78,000, now that was because we also had National Public Radio which by the way has been broadcast on National Public Radio this year. But that cost us $5,000 and we normally don't do that, that was the 4th time it's happened in 10 years. So this year that' s not part of the budget, I'm trying to hold the budget under $70,000, right now it's looking at it's sitting at $68,000. Pfab/I have a question. National Public Radio is starting to use more sponsorship, does that, starting to see that more. Is there a way that that could be worked in some way, I mean as a possibility, I mean I'm not saying that you should. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23, 2001 Budget Work Session Page 61 Grismore/You mean you want them every year, that would be great. It's a little tricky, how did that work? Pfab/Because I've seen them go to more even local sponsorships. Grismore/You pay for it, you know, I mean they will give you credit, I mean Ginsberg got credit. Pfab/Yea but the credits are (can't hear). Grismore/Directed at that, yea. Pfab/I mean is there any marketing area with you have to do the marketing for National Public Radio to do they have any marketing of their own to help get the cost down or (can't hear). Grismore/To help get the cost down, the costs come from the fact that they have to come out here, there are two people that came from National Public Radio, there was the sound technician and then (can't hear) who' s the actual head of the program at WGBO in New York and it's their cost to come out, fly out, plus equipment that we had to use in rent plus they pay, there is a, what happens is the festival by paying them the $5,000 ends up paying the bands the extra stipend but legally they have to pay a leaders fee and then side people's fee which it's not a huge amount but all those things add up together so there' s a certain amount and it usually runs about $5,000 for them to come to an event, it depends on how much you ask them to do. Pfab/But isn't this $5,000 investment a very good national investment, investments bring exposure. Grismore/I think so I mean we just can't afford to do it all the time, and I mean you don't want to kind of get greedy with that, you start to look, you don't want the Iowa City Jazz Festival on there every year, I mean you do but there' s so many festivals, they probably wouldn't come every year even if we could afford to have them but it's something every couple of years we can approach them and they like to come. And they have a great time here, and it's been great for the Jazz Festival, honest to god I was in New York City at a International Association of Jazz Educators Conference for five days two weeks ago. And I met a lot of people and a lot of them know about the Iowa City Jazz Festival and it's getting worse and worse every year as far as people calling me and trying to get here to play, it' s, my answer machine and e-mail is just a mess, I mean I have tons of stuff. So it's a very positive thing to do and I think we've gotten our name out and the other This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 62 think I also warn to remind you from a marketing standpoim we are running national adds now in Jazz Time Magazine as part of our marketing budget, that was a 2 year coreract at $3,600 so we have another $1,800 roughly to spend this year on our second half of the coreract that we committed to and that runs in a national primed magazine that' s all over the coumry and in Europe actually. And we've got some great educational things going on, I'm working a program with Phil Jones, just had a meeting this morning, it's called Key Holding we're combining imercity, this year in particular we're going to try to get this to work, imercity kids with rural kids and we're housing them on campus and then we have all these workshops worked out for them to attend plus they will all perform at the festival as part of the youth part of what we're doing to so that' s a program we're working hard at to develop. Kanner/That' s for the whole weekend of the Jazz Festival? Grismore/Yes. Kanner/How many about? Grismore/We are reserving 50 rooms, it includes chapcrones, now there are more kids involved than that but these are the ones specifically brought in from out of town I mean because we have our own City High and West High students and Junior High students involved but these kids will be coming for instance maybe as far as Sioux City and then kids from Chicago or St. Louis and then we bring them together and are trying to do this an then they attend various workshops and clinics and I'm trying to develop a little more on that end this year as well so. Wilburn/Are you bringing that Junior High band what was that from Dubuque? Grismore/Yea they were here last year. Wilburn/Are you bringing them again this year? Grismore/I don't know, but they are great yea, yea, Caboose, yea they're fun so you know but we're trying to do a little bit of all that stuff. But no major changes, the only thing that I would throw at you is when and I told Connie that when Iowa Avenue is redone I'm thinking about moving the stage and sticking it not under the bridge but a little bit in front of it between the two buildings on what is that Dubuque Street facing the Sheraton, opening south, and then opening up the festival on Iowa Avenue, that' s my thought, I thought it might be a little nicer, and less congested, and it might be easier to keep the buses running. Champion/That would be great. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 63 Grismore/Because then we'd just block off Iowa Avenue for two blocks and that one block of Dubuque. Champion/That would be gorgeous. Grismore/Yea so I mean that' s the only thing in the future you might know we're thinking about but at it this point it's the same as this year. Champion/Well you don't have any choice, you wouldn't have that choice this year. Grismore/No, no, not yet. Champion/But that was part of our intentions of opening up that. Grismore/And that' s going to really nice, you know and if the numbers grow a little bit. But as far as numbers you know I assume roughly about the same, it might be a little bigger, but I'm trying to make it attractive for people coming in out of town. We're working, you know I talk to Wendy Ford a lot and we're trying to do things to encourage people to stay here in town and get that out of town thing going as well as our regional and local people's as well. Champion/You know your the last presenter tonight but I will tell you that I am totally amazed at the quality of people we have putting on things in town, it is amazing how you all stuck to it, persevered and it really is. Grismore/Well thank you. O'Donnell/(cam hear). Champion/It's great. Grismore/We've got some people coming in. What's that? Champion/I know you're not over paid? Grismore/Yea well you know it's a labor of love, although I'm working hard at the Festival, we had some bylaws rewritten, we're trying to, I'm trying to upgrade the whole thing and get it in a functional way and actually write how we function so someone else can take over at some point because I can't keep doing this between my teaching and playing and everything. O'Donnell/Good job. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 64 Lehman/Good job. Vanderhoef/We appreciate you very much. Grismore/Sorry it's a long night for you too. Vanderhoef/We're done. Lehman/I would suggest that we as individuals look these things over and the next time we we're going to be discussing these at some point but at least have some ideas in mind. Atkins/And I'll try to do as like I told you, I'll give you a list of what I think ifthere's a series of decisions you have to make. Lehman/Okay. Atkins/You just work your way through them and. Lehman/You fill in the blanks. Atkins/Yea sort of. Lehman/There you go. Vanderhoef/I've got just one thing if we might two minutes worth. Lehman/I don't know if we can do that. (All talking) Lehman/If it's to do with something that was presented tonight we can do it if not Eleanor would probably skin us. Vanderhoef/All right. Pfab/It's illegal to even show up. Kanner/I do have a question on the figure for the City sponsored community events. You said the requested, there' s a difference, requested FY2002 for City sponsored community events. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 65 Atkins/City sponsored community events, under Irving Weber Day they've requested $5,150, a decision we had made to carry the number over the previous year. Vanderhoef/$5,150. Atkins/Instead of $6,862 under budget, it should read $5,150 thereby there's $1,700 good in that account. Kanner/No. Champion/I like that. Kanner/Start with budget fiscal year 2001 we have $6,862. Atkins/Leave it alone, go to the next one. Kanner/We have $5,150 it went down. Atkins/Leave it alone, go to the next one, make it $5,150. What they decided to do was they wanted to back off on some of the programs for Irving Weber and thereby they're not going to need quite as large a budget they want to make it a little smaller a little more intimate. Kanner/Okay And everything else? Atkins/Everything else is fine. Kanner/Correct then. Champion/I think that' s a good choice, I think they need to start those things out smaller and then they need to grow instead of starting out with a bang. Atkins/Yep, well in this case I think they want to make it at the park, simple, one day, and they simply just don't need as large a budget. Okay folks we're done. O'Donnell/Yep. Lehman/Okay. Atkins/Your pointing at me that means stay put. Lehman/Well this is for afterwards. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301 January 23,2001 Budget Work Session Page 66 Vanderhoef/Don't run. Karr/But we're adjourned. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City council meeting of January 23, 2001. WS012301