HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-24 Transcription
January 24, 2006
City Council Goal Setting Wark Session
Page 1
January 24, 2006
City Council Goal Setting Work Session
9:00 A.M.
Council:
Bailey, Champion, Correia, Elliott, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn
Staff:
Karr, Dilkes, Atkins, Helling
Facilitator:
Jim Swaim
Tapes:
06-06, SIDE 2; 06-11, SIDE I and SIDE 2; 06-12, SIDE I and SIDE 2; 06-13,
SIDE I
GOAL SETTING:
Swaim/ Good morning, everybody. I'm going to introduce myself. My name is Jim Swaim, and
I am a long-time resident ofIowa City. I live at 1054 Woodlawn, and I will be your
facilitator today for your opening help with the (can't hear). This is the second time I've
done it and I (can't hear) second time, and I can bet the first time I did it, when Steve
talked to me about it, [said, 'I'm nervous about doing it because (can't hear).' Really I
enjoyed doing it in other communities (can't hear) and when I'm all done with my job
today, you will all know where [ live and maybe some of the things I'm associated with,
but hopefully ['11 do a good job. [do want to say, however, at the beginning is, [will do
my best to wear my usual facilitator hat, but for benefit of the public, I do playa number
of different roles (can't hear) I'm involved in the Youth Development Cooperation
project and do a number ofthings on behalf of the City. [will try very hard to be neutral
on those things and ifI am speaking at any point from a different perspective than the
facilitator, I'll (can't hear). So, real quickly, if you would just, for the benefit of the
public, identify who you are and for my benefit, when you first (can't hear) starting with
the Mayor, why not?
Wilburn/ (can't hear)
Bailey/ I'm Regenia Bailey. [was (can't hear) [must have been elected in 2004 (can't hear).
O'Donnell/ Mike O'Donnell, [ was elected around the turn of the century (laughter). This is the
first year of my third term.
Champion/ (can't hear)
Correia! Amy Correia. [was elected (can't hear).
Swaim/ Congratulations. Congratulations to all of the (can't hear).
Elliott/ I'm Bob Elliott. [am halfway through a four-year term.
Vanderhoef/ And I'm Dee Vanderhoef (can't hear)
Karr/ Jim, we do need mikes on for everybody.
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Swaim! Everybody has to have your mikes on, sorry. And, for the benefit again of all of our
participants, staff would also just introduce yourselves and how long you've been serving
in City government. In the Iowa City (can't hear).
Atkins/ Steve Atkins, City Manager. I was appointed in July of 1986.
Dilkes/ Eleanor Dilkes, City Attorney, and I was appointed in the fall of 97.
Karr/ Marian Karr, City Clerk, and I was appointed May of 79.
(cable TV div.)/ (can't hear) cable TV division. I've been here since 2000, beginning of2000.
Swaim/ I'd like to thank everybody for introducing themselves. Ijust want to give you, review
our agenda real quick. I want to start with the overview of the day. We're going to do a
couple of things. First of all, I want to share with you that I tried to talk with several of
you ~ I wasn't able to get to everybody (can't hear) .. .some of your expectations. We're
going to do an exercise called "getting to know you." We're going to have a focused
conversation about some of the issues that you're facing. We're going to do a small little
vision exercise for you. We're going to revisit an exercise two years ago at your retreat
called "unconditional positive regard." We're going to do an exercise called "lunch
box," which is a lead-in for a discussion about Economic Development. Depending on
how we're doing for the day, we'll have a break somewhere in here. We'll probably have
lunch over this economic development discussion, and then in the afternoon we're going
to do second vision, quick exercise, about your thoughts and views ofIowa City, and then
the remainder of the day will be a goal workshop for you all, and at the very end of the
day we'll, I'll ask you to just review the day and share your insights about the day. Any
question about the day? I will try and keep us moving. It's your day, and if, my job as
facilitator is, if we start to get off track, is to just check with you and see where you want
to go. For the Senior Center retreat, they kept talking about me being in charge of the
rules. Facilitator's really more like a Border collie, if you've ever seen a Border collie at
a shepherding thing, and so that's what I'll try and do, and they brought a great cartoon
and I forgot to bring it with me. I meant to have it posted up on the wall, but anyone
that's what I'll be trying to do today. Hopefully at the end of the day you'll have some
common goals identified. You'll have some guidelines and expectations of each other,
and you may even have some agreements on some of the key steps that you want to try
and take in the next year to achieve your goals, and within that there may be some
guidelines and direction for staff. Those are what I hope are the objectives of the day. In
terms of how you experience the day, hopefully you'll gain some understanding of each
other, build some rapport with each other, enjoy hearing from each other, and hopefully
at the end of the day you'll look back and say, 'Well, that was an enjoyable way to spend
a day.' I have to tell you too, injust trying to prepare for this day, I had, I am a licensed
foster parent and two weekends, the last two weekends in a row, we have fostered kids,
and so I was trying to squeeze this work in and as I did that, I think it was a useful
experience for me because I admire, and I want to say this again in a nonobjective way, I
just admire your commitment to public service. I can't imagine what it must be like to
prepare all the time. You have family obligations, you have work obligations, you have
personal lives that you attend to, and so I commend you for that. So, our first thing is,
and this does not require sound so you don't have to bring your (can't understand) with
you. We're going to do an exercise called "postcards from the edge." So, I'd like
everybody to stand up and come over here, including the staff. Marian, if you, you're
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welcome to join us. I don't know if you have to take notes about when we're walking
around or not. If you do, feel free to stay over there, and gather around this table. And,
I'm going to ask you to look at the postcards that are on the table and you're going to
pick three. Now listen carefully before you start picking anything out. I want you to pick
one that you think represents an image of something early in your life that represents
either something or an idea, a moment, a memory, an event, or a person that has led you
to public service. Okay? So everybody look at me for a minute, don't look at the cards.
(laughter) So the first thing is an image that represents something in your early life that
led you to public service, okay? The second card, as you think about your service as a
City Councilor, pick a card that is a visual image of what you want that service to be. It
can be about your role, it can be about how you view the Council as you know it, it can
be something about Iowa City, but something that represents your vision of your service
as a Council member. The third card, as you think about how the City Council is
perceived by the public. That can include your constituents or your colleagues. I want
you to pick an image that captures how you think others perceive you or the Council, not
how you want it to be, but how you think the public perceives it. Now, this part of it, this
part can be friendly, it can be unflattering, it can be humorous, it can be serious. I'll give
you about five minutes; so sort through the cards and remember, everybody got the
assignment? One is from your early life; two is what you want people, what you think
your role as a Councilor should look like, and three is how the public perceives it. No
talking. We're not lavaliered! The second one is, as you think about your service as a
City Councilor, a visual image of that service, either of your role or how you see, how
you view the Council as you know it, or your idea of public service as a City Councilor.
About one more minute here. An early influence that led you to public service; as you
think about your service as a Councilor, something that represents your image of that
role; and lastly, how you think the public perceives you. The public, or your constituents,
or you're welcome to think about how your colleagues might perceive you. What's that?
(can't hear) Already the Border collie is running up and down. (laughter) Now one of
the things I noticed, Eleanor, correct me if I'm wrong. I know you're not miked so I'll
stand close to you, but when Council's going to vote on certain issues, you have sort of a
random rotation. Is that correct? They don't, you don't always go in the same order, is
that right? We all switch. Now, I'm going to try and follow that as part of this exercise.
We're still waiting on Connie. So, in the same fashion that Eleanor does, and Eleanor,
I'll just call on you to do this part of it. And again, you can just yell it out. Just name an
order. You have your cards? (laughter) Well, I'll just, you just help me by pointing, or
help me point to someone. We're going to do this at random. I want you to go through
the ones first, okay? So you're going to pick up your one postcard if you can remember
what that number one assignment was, that is the image of something in your early life
that led you to public service, and you have to have your mikes on, and I'm, we're going
to go at random and we'll start...Mike.
O'Donnell/ Okay, now...
Swaim/ You hold the image up and you show it to all of your colleagues, and I'll come out and
kind of describe it. It's a Van Gogh and it's, and tell us why you picked that card.
O'Donnell/ I picked this because I truly believe that the public should relax and let their elected
officials make the decisions.
Swaim! Okay.
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O'Donnell/ And they ought to have peace and serenity in knowing that all the research is done in
making those decisions and be comforted by their elected officials.
Swaim! Okay, and so that picture is of somebody in a hayfield? In a haystack relaxing. Ones.
Influence from early life. Hold the card up, describe it real briefly.
Correia! Okay, so it's just a little girl, writing on the chalkboard at school "your friend," and then
her name. So, in early life and it turns out being very studious in school, committed to
learning, and wanting to provide service and friendship.
Swaim/ Okay, so that's something that helped lead you to public service. Dee?
Vanderhoef/ Okay. Mine is a couple of...
Swaim! Yours is Frankie and Annette. And Ying and Yang.
Vanderhoef/ Dh-huh, and it was the picture as much as anything. My first paid job actually was
working for the superintendent of my little tiny school, and they had to find something to
give me a credit course because I refused to take another course and there were no
electives in this school. The second part of it was that my second paid job was as a
lifeguard and I was hired by the City Council in the little town next to mine. So, I
worked with City Council at that point.
Swaim! And so you are represented by Annette Funicello in this card?
Vanderhoef/ You betcha! (laughter)
Swaim! Ross?
Wilburn! Mine is a picture of a young girl smiling. Looks like might be from another country,
France. The reason I picked this card, when I was in 5th, 6th. . . 5th grade, my first
awareness of something related to civic government type stuff was, there was a law
enforcement officer, here we go back, I was a police cadet in 5th grade, and he came to
our middle school and we got together once a week, and I was a sergeant and my job was
to go buy the candy bars for all of us, but again, it was just kind of that realization that
other than what you saw on TV, that there was something positive that law enforcement,
the city, does with a community.
Swaim! And so the image represents just the...
Wilburn! Just the possibilities of, the joy of involvement. The, I guess what most people view as
a positive outreach that the city can give.
Swaim! Connie?
Champion/ Well, I was policed, I wasn't a police cadet, and I was not a great student. I was
always in trouble. It's an elephant stepping on a mouse. Not that I want to eliminate all
mice, but I grew up in a house that made you feel like you were an elephant stepping on a
mouse in the sense that you could do anything you wanted to do and everything was
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yours if you wanted to do it, and I think that gave me the courage and fortitude to do
many, many things that I've done all of my life.
Swaim! Now, you describe this as an elephant stepping on a mice. It's actually an elephant not
stepping on a mouse.
Champion! Oh, I wouldn't have stepped on it either (can't hear) shoes. (laughter)
Swaim! Bob?
Elliott! You saved the best for last. This, as best I can see, this must be an enlarged, it appears to
be a dog leaping into a calm pond, and reminded me that as I grew up, if I were going to
be involved with something, I wanted to be deeply and directly involved in it and also the
pond represents the fact that life around you is good and interesting, whether the waters
are rippling and rough, or whether the pond is calm.
Swaim! Thank you. A dog leaping into a calm pond. No, we're going to do you and then we'll
wind up with staff.
Bailey! This is a picture of somebody sleeping, but I picked it up mostly for the caption. It says,
"Dream time. Imagination precedes are events." So, when I was probably in 4th and 5th
grade, at that library over there, I used to go and check out stacks and stacks of books and
biographies on women, and Clara Barton, Abigail Adams, all these women I really
admired, or women I hadn't heard of, but learned to really admire and respect, and so I
think when I was young that motivated me to consider how you can make a difference in
the world, even if you are just a woman, which is kind of the environment in which I was
raised, of course, the culture.
Swaim! All right, thank you, and I'm not sure how I can get the staff to share because you're not
miked, so if you could come to the front. I think you have to talk into a microphone
somewhere. Yeah, just pass that, that'll work. We hope. And I won't ask the staff to
share their second two cards - how the public perceives the Councilor (laughter). Oh, is
that the best part? Well, maybe I'll do that. Which one of you wants to share your
personal card?
Atkins! Well, I can share my, my personal card is a woman apparently with her son and a dog,
sitting in a beauty parlor. Apparently, and first thing I figured was 1950's growing up;
secondly, it reminded me of my mother and her ability to do everything. The woman was
remarkable and I can just see, she washed the dog, take her to the beauty parlor, get the
dog dried, get her hair done, read to me, everything would happen at once (laughter), and
I view this as somewhat the nature of my work is that I'm a generalist, and I always enjoy
the tremendous diversity of work that I get in my career in city government, and I give a
lot of credit my mother who was the most remarkable woman I ever met.
Swaim! Pretty impressive. Eleanor, are you... whichever one you're comfortable sharing.
Dilkes! Any of these cards?
Swaim! You can do the personal one if you like. If you'd like to share one about the view of the
Council, that would be brave. (laughter) And...
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Dilkes! Okay, I'll do my second one, which was how we...
Swaim! ...how you think of your service to the City.
Dilkes! Oh, okay. (laughter) And I think it speaks for itself. (laughter)
Swaim! This is a person driving 8" spikes into his head and it's called the "torture chamber."
(laughter) Thank you. Dale, we'll come back to you at the end. We'll use that as a great
segway. Let me at random have you do your twos, and for this one, I want you to go
pretty quick. So, hold up your two card, just explain really quickly the image that it
represents and I'll try and hold the cards around, unless.. .let's see I gotta go in a different
order. Connie?
Champion! What was number two?
Swaim! Two is as you think about your service as City Councilor, something that's a visual
representation of your view of that service, and this is an image of a bathroom sink.
Champion! That's a bathroom and it's very sterile and unadomed, and I think that's, I'm very
viewed as being straightforward.
Swaim! Now this is how you view yourself.
Champion! Well, I think that's how the public views me.
Swaim! Okay, that's a good answer for number three. So this your number three card.
Champion! Number two, it's just a person with multi hats.
Swaim! All right. Thank you. In fact, let's do that to speed it up. I'll ask you to share both of
them. Regenia?
Bailey! Okay, I cheated, I picked two because I can change the rules. On the second one, is on a
good day, it's sort of watching out for the little guy, right? It's the same card that Connie
had, and on a bad day, this says, 'Other people ruin everything.' (laughter) So I thought
this, it's my Ying and Yang.
Swaim! And how does the public view you?
Bailey! Instead of looking at what is possible, making sure that.. . creating barriers.
Swaim! Okay. And you didn't...
Bailey! Not viewing me, but viewing the Council.
Swaim! Oh, okay. Let's see, Dee?
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Vanderhoef/ Okay, my public is that reaching out, it's two hands reaching towards each other,
and I think I am out there constantly meeting new people and offering the new
possibilities.
Swaim! Ijust had a quick question. Was it intentional, did you intentionally see that, or did you
just not see....
Vanderhoef/ I ignored that.
Elliott/ She thinks she's God.
Swaim/ That's putting spackle in the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Elliott! Yes.
Vanderhoef/ But I'm looking at reaching out.
Swaim! And your other one?
Vanderhoef/ Okay, this is where I took liberty. How the public views me. Number one, probably
with my glasses on, sorting through a lot of paper and scratching my head a lot; and the
second part of it is lot of dollar signs because I think they see me as a watchdog on
dollars, and the rest of you guys know what the clock is all about. (laughter)
Swaim! They know what the clock is about?
Vanderhoef/ I'm always coming in at the stroke of, or maybe the five minutes late.
Swaim! At five minutes after...let's see, I can't remember what order ['m in. Amy?
Correia! Okay, I have for how I view my service, it's I'm working on it, working hard at
something. Just somebody working on an airplane, and so for how I think the public
views the Council, I've picked this, which is the leg's up in the air in the fog (laughter).
So I took something that I heard on the campaign trail, people feel like the Council's a bit
out of touch or can't be, has their head in the sand (can't hear).
Swaim! Ross?
Wilburn/ In terms of me viewing, or hope for my service, I've got a picture - it's in Washington
D.C. - I believe it's the Aids Quilt, the name quilts, and it's surrounded by just multiple
folks of the people. There's many dimensions to this. One is, just a reminder to me that
there's policy and dollars behind a particular issue, but also the more successful ones or
the more visible ones are when, you know, the public gets involved so there's both
activity at the policy level, but also at the grass root's level and people discussing and
talking about values.
Swaim! All right.
Wilburn! In terms of the how the public may view the Council, I guess I looked at this two ways.
Sometimes.. . it's a picture of a Godzilla-type...
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Swaim/ It's not Barney?
Wilburn/ No, it's, it looks meaner than Barney, but it looks like Barney with dreadlocks, actually.
And there's a human being inside the mouth, and so sometimes I think people view
coming with a particular issue in front of the Council is like that. Sometimes, I don't
know I guess as a Council member and ifthere's a particular issue that's brought forth,
whether that's us inside being swallowed by the Godzilla-type person.
Swaim! Mike?
0' Donnell/ My first one is decisions, can either go forward or backward.
Swaim! Two opposite facing footprints?
O'Donnell/ And how the people perceive the Council, I have a sometimes you won't hear us,
speak to us, or listen to us. (laughter)
Swaim! And I would point out that there's a child, a human child in the middle, and not human
children on both ends. All right. And, Bob?
Elliott/ Right here I have a picture of a little boy bending over a pond and the dog grabbing hold
of the seat of his pants to keep him from falling in. So, I have always been rather service-
oriented. It's just fun helping people, and I thought that by being on the Council, I could
be of help to someone perhaps. Secondly, three hound dogs standing in a garden because
quite often in the summer when I see my neighbor, he'll.. . after a meeting, he'll say,
'What stupid thing did you folks do tonight?' So, there we go.
Swaim/ And from staff, Dale, you don't have to do this, but do you want to share the card that
you picked about how the public perceives? The Council?
Helling! (can't hear) just government in general, people often perceive government as having all
the money and not doing anything worthwhile.
Swaim! All right, thank you very much for sharing that information and being brave enough to
show those.. .ifyou'll keep the cards handy at your tables, we'll do something later on
with those, as well. Just really quickly, tell me what images that you saw chosen, really
stand out to you. What was an image, what cards stood out to one of you? Yeah, other
people's cards.
Correia! Well, I liked the aids quilt card, the thinking about the policy, and also the real people,
the effects, I mean, with the aids quilt is things that were happening to real people. Other
people that were trying to show support, and then even (can't hear) is the policy and how
their trying to (can't hear).
Swaim/ What was the oldest, is there any image there that you thought, 'Boy, that's a, that takes
me way back in time.' Any image?
Elliott/ Sistine Chapel.
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Swaim! The Sistine Chapel, okay. What about most clear? Was there One image in there that you
thought really, 'Boy, that really...'
Elliott! Mike's footprints.
Swaim! His footprints?
Elliott! Every situation there are almost always two sides and you can, or you can go forward or
backward. Several different meanings for that.
Swaim! Okay.
O'Donnell/ I liked Ross' dinosaur. Because it perceives government as so big and it just
swallows you and overpowers you.
Swaim/ And we all loved Eleanor's, pretty.. .how did you react to picking? Tell me your
reactions when you were over there and you were trying to pick, how was that
experientially for you?
Vanderhoef/ It brought to mind, lots of different cards brought something to my mind, but trying
to pick the top one was the effort.
Swaim! Okay. Anybody else? How about differences between your two cards and your three
cards, when you were looking at each others two cards and three cards, anything stand
out about differences between the twos and threes? Two was how you perceived, threes
were how the public perceives. Anything stand out?
Wilburn/ r think that within several of the cards that, there's an element of humor. r mean, as
challenging sometimes and as hopeful positive sometimes is how we view the public
perceiving the Council, talking about the three card. It seems like many times we're able
to keep it in perspective and poke fun at the situation within ourselves. Maybe that's a
coping mechanism for us, r don't know.
Elliott! r also think that the whole table of cards is kind of like the way the public, usually the
public has one or two pet issues, and if you can just focus on one or two things, it is much
more clean and much less complex, but the Council has to focus on multiple things. It
becomes complex, it becomes difficult, it is not as easy as everyone thinks.
Swaim! Okay. Did this exercise give you any insights about each other and how you work
together? Or how you might work together in the coming year? Any insights about that
from looking at especially those first cards?
O'Donnell/ You certainly don't want to mess with Eleanor. (laughter)
Swaim/ Don't mess with Eleanor! (laughter) Or God! What else? Any other insights that you
might be able to apply to your work as a team?
Elliott! r think in answer to that, not necessarily...r have such a good, such good thoughts about
the Council over the past two years that r don't think anything changed my mind. We
have worked together so well over the past two years.
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Swaim! All right.
Wilburn! I think also that we're surrounded by a group of thoughtful people and we may disagree
on particular policies, but there's no question that there's concern and compassion for
what we do and what this is all about.
Swaim! Okay.
Bailey! It would be nice if we could bring some of the humor though that we had picking these
cards to some of our work. I mean, we don't, I haven't heard this group laugh that much
for a long time, so that was kind of fun.
Champion! You laugh (can't hear).
Bailey! Oh true! Okay, so you, you've gotta keep that up, we need to laugh more.
Swaim! I'm sorry, just as I was getting ready to load the next (can't hear), the power shut off on
the.. . well, again, thank you for sharing that information about, and I hope this gives you
some insights about each other in your work during the day. I'm going to do another
exercise for you here and this one's going to take a few minutes, but I want you to think
about your role as a City Councilor for a few minutes. Now, if you ask any of us as
citizens or ask each other about your role, people are clear about a couple things. You do
meetings, you have dialogue, you listen to constituents, you read reports, you read stuff
from the staff. A clear thing that you do is you vote, you vote on stuff, to do things, and
when you vote, majority rules. So, I want to do an exercise for you that gets you to think
about Iowa City and your role as a Councilor, and if! can get this to work, I'll be quite
happy. And it's looking like it's going to take a minute to warm up. Is the projector
going to come on in a minute? All right. Sorry about that, it's perfect timing. So, I'm
going to run a show that I want you to just kind of look at the images that are there. I
want to apologize in advance. The slides that came from the west side of town didn't
transfer, so there are several images that were supposed to happen. Okay. It's still
warming up. So, I'll go ahead and give you the instructions now. I want you to be
thinking about this year in these images, and I want you to think about next year, kind of
as a distinct thought, and 10 years and 20 years. I want you to take the sheets - there's
half sheets at your table and there's pens at your table - and I want you to as you go
through this exercises, I want you to make some notes to yourself. I want you to think
about some of the challenges that you face as a Council, and those challenges can be in
the form of people that you have to deal with, attitudes that you might have to deal with,
and feel free to take notes on this part, but I'll repeat it again if you need to, but it can
include people, attitudes, state or federal policy, the will of the people. It's inevitable
when you guys think, and when I was talking with you all about some of the challenges
you face, money is a big thing that you are all wrestling with. For this exercise, I do not
want you to think too much about the money part. That's not to say, you know, that
money is completely offlimits, but as you're visualizing this stuff and as you're making
notes to yourself, I don't want you to worry about the money, and.. . hang on.. . and [want
you to think about the new images that you might, might come to mind. I want you to
think about enhanced images, and I want you to think about stuff that might be, things
that you want to not see anymore. And I can't remember how to turn this.. ..state and
federal policy, will of the people. So I want you to make lists for yourself, what you
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want to see happening, as you think about the next year. So again, I want you to be
making lists of things, and you're going to be sharing these with your colleagues in small
settings for starters. So what do you want to see happening as you look at this, what kind
of an image do you want to see this year, next year, 10 years out, 20 years out. And if
there are challenges or obstructions to those images, jot them down, whether it's people
or attitudes or policy or.. .and we all know that money is a limitation, but you're not
thinking about that for now. And any new images or enhanced images, any images there
that you'd like to touch up. Any images that you'd like to not have up here. Try and
have at least eight to ten things on your list that you can share. More if you've got 'em.
Okay, I'm going to have you work, I need a quick refresher. Are they allowed to meet in,
three at a table? And not have it, just have discussion? Okay, so I think what we're
going to do is, Ross, Mike, and Regenia, I'll have you do a triad discussion. The rest of
you do diads. And want I want you to do very quickly, just share with each other the
images that you heard. Now, I want, here's an important part ofthe assignment and most
of the time I won't be asking you to do this. For this report out, you're going to report on
what you heard the other people say. So, you're not going to report on your own
information. So, listen carefully in your diads and triads, and we're going to spend about
five or six, seven, eight minutes doing this, so you have a couple minutes apiece to do it,
so just run through pretty quick - the images that reflect what you see happening in the
next year, couple years, nope - diads, two and three. Go to it. (TAPE ENDS) Anybody
want to go first? And in the triad group, discuss among yourselves who wants to report
who's (can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ I'll start while they're doing that. Bob and I had a nice visit. He put his more in a
personal tone of challenges. He was talking about getting enough knowledge to make an
informed decision, and that was very personal to him. Attitude, he really wants to be
open so he can get this information. When he, talking about state and federal policies,
pretty much said it can't be done, to change them, that is. Will of the people, Bob's very
philosophical and it's like, you never can please everybody. So you have to make the
best decision that you can.
Swaim! All right. Any image that Dee described to you, or any image that you thought that you
wanted to change or...
Vanderhoef/ His future image is to have an orderly, clean, and safe city.
Swaim/ He didn't happen to describe how that would look, did he?
Vanderhoef/No. Well...
Elliott/ ... it'll look orderly, clean, and safe. (laughter)
Swaim! All right. Thank you. (several talking) Thanks for sharing that, Dee. Who else wants
to, who wants to volunteer next?
Elliott! Why don't I go and give you the other half ofthat.
Swaim! All right.
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Elliott! While I was more introspective, Dee was talking about the Council's relationship to the
City, challenge, maintenance of infrastructure, basic services versus amenities...
Swaim! Hang on, let me write as fast as I can. Say that last, that second one again.
El1iott! Basic services versus amenities.
Swaim! Okay.
El1iottJ Educated work force.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott! Attitude. Talking about the attitude of the City, a welcoming environment. Now, I was
more fatalistic about the state and federal. Dee thinks you can do a lot with it. Too many
mandates.. .
Swaim! .. .Iet me, I want to listen carefully. (laughter) Go ahead.
Elliott! Okay. We need to work toward informing the State and Federal governments that they're
providing with us too many mandates. Imminent domain is a dangerous situation. We
need to make Home Rule a reality. Those were some of the major points.
Swaim! Okay.
El1iott! Will of the people can be summed up in simply diversity; diversity in appearance,
diversity of thought, diversity of need, diversity of desires.
Swaim! AI1 right.
Elliott! Her view of the future is balance. The best balance you can provide with a budget you
have.
Swaim! Any particular image that she described to you?
El1iott! I think that incorporated her thoughts that had been expressed previously. Do all of that
and have the best balance with that, that you can do with the budget you have to work
with.
Swaim! AI1 right. Thanks.
Elliott! Oh. (laughter)
Swaim! Who wants to go next?
Champion! Well, we can go next.
Swaim! Okay, do you want to go together as a pair, is that...?
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Champion! Yeah, we're a pair, cause we were almost totally alike. (laughter) We had a lot of
similar things. We were both interested in housing diversity and one of the problems
about that is the attitude of people in the housing, whether they're people in very
expensive housing, or people in low-income housing.
Swaim! Tell me. ..so there's.. . sort of challenge...
Champion! .. .the challenge is the attitude of the, people (can't hear) mix, I guess.
Swaim! Can you expand on that just a minute for me. Do you mean the attitudes of the people
who are seeking housing? And the people who are trying to foster housing?
Champion! Right, both. We think, we think there's the "not in my back yard" kind of philosophy
and also people like to live in their own little ghetto, whether it's Walnut Ridge or
Lakeside. And getting people to change their attitude is very, very difficult.
Swaim! So a lot of stuff in, related to housing, and housing needs and the diverse housing needs.
Champion! Parks and Rec, we'd like to have the best Parks and Recs. Amy was very interested in
neighborhood preservation, and better education, thriving local businesses.
Swaim! Hang on, I'm not writing fast enough. Neighborhood preservation.
Champion! Quality education.
Swaim! Quality, okay.
Champion! Thriving local businesses. And then another interesting thing that I thought she
mentioned was coordinate all thegovemments, and one of the challenges to that was
we're really in competition with each other. And there's not a really good way to
communicate. I think you can cover the rest. (laughter)
Swaim! So, competing and also communication. There went our agenda. I have two challenges
with that. Any other, any, did she share any image that she had?
Champion! No, we didn't talk about images, but Amy has some other things.
Swaim! All right.
Correia! Connie talked about wanting more art in the parks.
Swaim! Okay.
Correia! And (can't hear) about was redoing the old parking ramps. (several talking)
Swaim! Redoing the old ones?
Correia! Right, you know the (can't hear) Tower Place and the Chauncey Swan and the...
Champion! The (can't hear) fa,ade.
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Swaim/ I'll just step out of my facilitator... I have to tell you how many people have looked at
(can't hear) and said, 'Wow, that's a really cool building. What is that?' (laughter) And
you go, that's a parking ramp! Somebody did a good job on that.
Correia! It's future things, the need for a new jail, in the future wondering where that might be.
Swaim! Any other.. .so, you guys were joined at the hip for several of these things? (several
talking) Okay.
Correia! .. . Historic Preservation. The one thing that we, you know, in your photos, there were no
people. We talked about festivals and people interacting.
Champion/ Reminded me of Sioux City. (laughter)
Swaim/ That was on ly the. . .
Correia! Function of the weather.
Swaim! That was the shortfall of the, actually that was two things. It was a conscious part on me
as a photographer. There were lots of people that I actually had to get to move out of the
picture because this is a public meeting, I didn't want their images necessarily (can't
hear). There's one playground where, you don't see them, but there are two kids on one
of the slides, completely out of view, and but anyway, but so lots of people would be an
image that you want.
Correia! Right, right. Some of the other challenges we talked about were conflicting values in, or
in communicating between, you know, talking about thriving locarbusinesses and
supporting diverse housing, that that can be a challenge of trying to communicate shared
values.
Swaim/ All right. Thank you. (can't hear) One of you want to volunteer to report on one of the
other of you?
O'Donnell/ You know, there wasn't a lot of difference here either, and I, we were not to think
about money, but virtually everything I saw there involved money. I don't think Regenia
was as fatalistic on the ability to work with local governments and state governments. I
think more positive on there.
Swaim! Optimism about cooperation?
O'Donnell/ Yeah. Was very interested in the positive things, the slides showed - the new houses
being built, spoke about the - it's very difficult, it's been quite a while - talk about parks
and recreation and quality parks and...a good relationship with the University ofIowa.
Swaim! Good relationship with the University of Iowa?
O'Donnell/ Strong relationship.
Swaim! Okay.
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Wilburn! Was going to add that Mike spoke a lot about relationships, not only with the
University, but the School District and he pulled upon the images of business and schools
and parks in its ability to draw people to this area.
Swaim/ Okay, drawing...so those partnerships are drawing, part of the image is that effective
partnerships with all those folks are going to draw people to the area? Is that...
O'Donnell/ That's fair.
Wilburn! And Regenia spoke to some of the images that she reacted to was the contrast between
our inner-city and the fringe areas of the community and a discussion about connections,
and more attention is seemingly paid to within the core of the city, as opposed to some of
the surrounding areas and how we can get our arms around, put more attention to some of
the things on the exterior, in terms of connect, you know, highlighting them, showcasing
them, and connecting them to the rest of the city, whether it's through parks or trails or
festivals, activities - that type of thing.
Swaim/Okay. And...
Bailey/ And, Ross said a lot of similar things, but the one thing that really struck me was the
images of the churches emphasize the values that we have in our community, and some
of the issues that we face connecting with those values and those people within those
faith communities to address some of the issues and challenges that we face in our
community.
Swaim! So connecting the diverse values, or?
Bailey/ I don't know if we used the word conflicting or diverse values.
Swaim! Connecting the values.
Bailey/ Right. I think that there was some affirmation that there are values driving a lot of the
approaches that we're taking to some of the issues that we're facing in our community
and a stronger connection could help us address those more thoroughly.
Swaim/ Okay. Two of the slides that didn't get in, there was West High School, obviously, but
also the mosque, the new mosque on Benton Street, was one of the photos I had taken
and it didn't get in. Sorry. Anything else? Any others stand out? So, kind of looking at
this, these couple of lists. Anything stand out in terms of some key issues that you face
as a Council? Can you, if I have this stuff this far forward, can you see that from,
Regenia?
Bailey/ No, I think I need an eye exam. It's better with, nO...yes, I can kind of see it. Can you
see it, Connie? Okay. (can't hear)
Swaim/ Let me see if I...
Champion! One of the other things that Amy mentioned was redoing, updating the Recreation
Center. So, I think one of the strings through here is, what do you call all this stuff?
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Infrastructure, I think Dee also mentioned it, or basic.. .keeping it up to date. And, so it's
not so dated. And I think the Rec Center, the little cute bus station, the parking ramps, all
show their age.
Swaim! You know, the Robert Lee Center, that was state-of-the-art when? 1960, so that's 40
years old. Image, I thought about that the other day, I thought about when I first moved
to Iowa City was whatever, 1971. So thinking about moving to Iowa City in 1971 and
seeing a facility that was built say around 1930, how would I react? In fact, there was the
old armory, you know, was a large structure. Imaging how other people are reacting to
those facilities now, I tried to take myself back to a time when I was young and I thought,
'Boy, I mean time is kind of whip ping by me as I...'. (laughter)
Champion! On the other hand, there are communities that would love to have that old structure.
Swaim! Oh, absolutely!
Champion! I mean, so it's all, all depends on what perspective you look at. But we do have to
update some of our infrastructure.
Vanderhoef/ The diversity of interests of our community, whether it be Historic Preservation or
whether it is recreation facilities, or whether there are more parks and a nature kind of
person, or if they are driven in appreciating all the various aspects of the arts, and this is
where I think everybody has touched on it in some way or another. We're recognizing
that the (can't understand) image is to have some of all these things, and make it
interesting at least something will peak the interest of anyone who comes into the
community.
Swaim/ And that's challenging. You're as a Council, you know, that's what's hard. You're, as I
said, one of the things to try and do in this exercise and I realize that it's unrealistic, is to
sort of put money out of the equation because when you try and work this afternoon on
your goals, it is deciding priorities between competing interests. I mean, clearly, all
seven of you would vote to do a new Rec Center, a wonderful looking additional parking
ramp for the library. (laughter) You know, you would do wonderful things if you had
the resources to do them. There would be a new fire station. There would be several
more highly qualified police officers, and we'd have an additional fire squad. We'd have
everything that we want, if we didn't have to prioritize resources. But it is, I think one of
the things that I heard from the sampling of you that I was able to talk with, is that you
are trying to sort through, well, what are the key things that you're going to be trying to
focus on, and that's not easy to do. And I think part of the reason it's not easy for you to
do is because you do want, you want the best for our community. That's clear in your
service to date and your life's work to date, but any other, any.. .so diversity is the thing
and the competing interests is something that's showing up in a couple of issues. Any
other, is there another issue up there that stands out as...let me ask you this. Is there
something on, in all of this that when you look at it, you go, 'Boy, you know, we're
getting close to that. We're not too far away from being able to work on that.'
Champion/ We're really close to "can't please everybody." (laughter)
Swaim! All right. (laughter) And, getting better at it every day, I might add. (laughter)
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Elliott! 1 think what it comes down to, Connie just said something about that. We talked about
the diversity and the conflicting interests and needs and thoughts, and as we put this
together, if you're talking about modes of transportation, what we're trying to do is meld
all this, but to keep the end product from looking like a camel and more like a beautiful
race horse. So, put it together, but have the end product do something that's acceptable
to at least a wide range of people, cause democracy is not a very pretty thing.
Bailey/ One of the things that struck me, and 1 hate to be the nay-sayer, but when 1 looked at the
churches and Ross made his comment about the values, 1 think that there are some
community values that aren't conflicting. It'sjust the implementation of how we live out
those values and then the money comes into it. 1 mean, I think when it comes to some of
the issues we're discussing, we have a community-shared values about them. We just
don't know what the heck to do about it. And so I don't see all the conflicting values. I
just see the (can't hear) what do we do next.
Vanderhoef/ I think the only conflict that I see, the values are there, and we have these dedicated
citizens that have one value that is extremely important to them, and we keep looking at
how to meld these into that money situation. There are people who are big on Historic
Preservation; there are others that say, 'Yes, that's important, but...1 think we need fire
station first.' So, it isn't that they don't have that same vision, it's just that their priority
of how to get there is different.
Swaim/ Well, again...
Bailey/ That's exactly what I said. I think that if we could acknowledge that there are shared
community values, that would move us a little bit forward in that discussion of how we
prioritize and balance.
Swaim/ But, your point is that perhaps compared to some other communities, where there's a lot
of clashes of values and that's what's immobilizing them. Is it your comment that we're
a little further along in that we have some shared respect for each other's values? Her
point is though that even with that respect, we still have to figure out what's next to do.
Bailey/ Right, and I think of it, it's the next that becomes the barrier. I mean, I think that along a
normal bell curve, we have some shared community values. Yes, there are people who
take on one issue as theirs, and that's how it should be, but it's the "what next" or the
"how do we balance" or the money is hard question that I think causes us to...
Swaim! Anything else up here though that in terms oflooking at some of the ideas that were
talked about, any, is there one other thing up there that, if you think about the next year,
you look at it and go, 'You know, we're close, or with just a little bit of some focus, we
might move that one thing along pretty well,' or that you've, six of you've been working
together for the last two years. Maybe there's one thing that you've worked on in the
past Council that you think is moving, you know, you still have some work to do, but
you're moving along. Anything up there? Or is there anything like that that's not up
there?
Vanderhoef/ I think we're moving along in getting close to completing a trail system that works
for the entire city. We aren't quite there, but we're making great strides to get all the
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areas of town connected to the basic trail along the river, and I think we could commend
ourself on that.
Swaim/ So you're making some progress on one aspect of better parks.
Vanderhoef/ And transportation system.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott/ See, but even with that, I think that you have conflicting, I'm not sure if you'd call them
values, but certainly conflicting priorities that are joined perhaps Dee's identification of
the trails, I was talking with another Council person the other day. I am for completing
the trail system, but for an entirely different reason than another Council person is
interested in completing the trail system. If it were up to completing it just for those who
don't use it, I think that's not cost-effective at all. I would have that on a very low
priority, but as far as making it for economic development, it becomes a high priority.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott/ So sometimes we share a goal, but for different reasons.
Swaim! But for different reasons, sure, and that's true of a lot of issues, and...
Elliott! And that's what we try to get.
Swaim/ And, and sometimes it's useful and hopefully maybe as part of your dialogue today, and
certainly as part of your dialogue over the course of the year, its sometimes useful to
know what your unique reasons are, so that if you're talking to Ross and your reason is,
'You know, I don't ride a bike, I don't walk the trails, it's good and don't get me wrong
but my main reason is economic development,' and Ross is over here going, 'Yeah, well,
economic development's fine, but you know I've got my kids. I want my, I want them
riding a bike. I'm not always going to be driven by the economic development part. I
just like to enjoy the system.' Knowing that about each other may help you move some
of that stuff along, and so that's part ofthe reason to get at some of this stuff today and
again, I want to encourage you to be working on that, but there's nothing wrong with
that, Bob. There's, you know, having very different reasons for working on the same
goal is almost the core element of political discourse. Anything, and I don't want to talk
much longer about this. Is there one thing up there, outside of the money (laughter) that
when you look at it, you've got some serious work lying ahead for you. Just one.
Wilburn! I think the housing diversity, and this ties into some of those values, you know, I
reflected to the Council that I was at that last meeting that was at the synagogue but there
were 150, easy, people there and that, you know, it'll be interesting to see they're going
to continue those conversations. In fact, I think they've invited the city managers in the
area to come, and they're going to be planning to invite kind of the same. They'll have a
panel discussion and I think the city manager will be part of that, but that's an issue
where, you know, they were, they - the church, the synagogue -I'm not sure if the
mosque is going to get involved or not, were at, they stepped forward to help with the
overflow at the shelters and now they're at the, I think the message is, that I walked away
with from their conversation there was, 'This issue is bigger than us and we're not going
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to be able to handle this all by ourselves,' and so, and there was some disagreement
amongst themselves so it'lljust be interesting to see how that involves and, cause they're
going to come up with some policy recommendations. It's just a matter of how long it
takes them to get there, and. . .
Swaim! But, and so a lot of stuff stemming out of this and it ties into a lot of different challenges
for the community and ties into a lot of issues, but that, this is a big...
Wilburn/ And we've had a recommendation related to this area with the Scattered Site Housing
Taskforce, but it's a bigger issue and it's starting to get at some of those folks where their
values are going to struggle amongst themselves, and that's probably a good thing, I
think.
Swaim! Okay. All right.
Elliott! That's also an illustration oftwo other, two others things, is people ~ one would be
individual rights versus greater good of the community, where do you meet in between
there. The other is the housing needs. The city has a responsibility for providing
assistance to those people who really need it, but the city also has a responsibility to
maintain the integrity of the city. So, quite often we come at these things and we differ in
where that appropriate middle ground is.
Swaim/ And that's what some ofthe people share with the larger group, in terms of challenging
attitudes and...
ElIiott/ Right, that's quite often, where is that middle ground?
Swaim! Okay. All right.
Champion/ On the other hand, because money is a problem when we're dealing with some of
these issues, money is probably the reason we have some of these issues, because
(laughter) we're allowed things to develop differently than they did when there wasn't a
lot of money around to put in sewers and roads and water and we had diversity in housing
before we had things like zoning and money.
Swaim! Okay. Well, again, thanks for sharing that information again. Later this afternoon we're
going to try and do some additional work on that and see where you're at and whether
there's some clear goals that you want to set for yourselves, so we'll try and get to that
this afternoon, and I'll get this put back up, the agenda, so you'll know where you are on
your agenda in a minute. The next part of our agenda is, actually I have to put the agenda
up, don't I? The notion of unconditional positive regard, and two years ago, you all spent
a lot oftime, as a group, talking about how you want to work with each other, how you
want to engage each other in your process, and a couple of you had suggested that it's
probably just worth spending a little bit oftime on today to revisit for just a brief period.
So, what I've done is I have, I tried to recapture what you did, from Marian, and excellent
job that she and her staff do at recording all of your work, which by the way is not an
easy task to do. I have to just share this story, I went in and I said, 'I've got my summary
of what occurred two years ago, but I'm not sure of the accurate final summary,' and
within three minutes she had a printout of this, so she should always be commended for
her work, but (applause)...
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Elliott! I didn't think anything we did was worth recording. (laughter)
Swaim! Well, you may feel that way. You organized some stuff into four categories, can you see
that, Regenia? You really discussed four things and they weren't ranked order. This was
just how they appeared on the columns, and Amy, for your benefit, as I said, they spent
oh, three hours, at least, doing this and getting feedback from people they, the majority of
the folks didn't really want to spend that much time, but thought it would be useful to
revisit. So, they had informed decision making, use of effective communication,
respectful interaction, and play well with others, and let me get one of you to read
everything in this column, read the things that are in this column, please. Any volunteer.
Vanderhoef/ Be informed, allow exploration, I want them to...
Swaim! Hear why.
Vanderhoef/ Hear why. Okay.
Swaim/ And...
Vanderhoef/ Yeah, teach.
Swaim! Somebody else?
Correia! Eye contact when disagrees, take the time, positive negatism, timing, allow silent
affirmative, be positive in message, be clear in request, eye contact with speaker.
Swaim! Thank you. Somebody else?
Wilburn! Sensitive in openness, listen thoughtfully and be respectful, listen...
Swaim/ Thou shalt...
Wilburn! Thou shalt not interrupt, respect assures success, acknowledge/respect others, listen
first, be honest, thou shalt...oh, it just comes back to that God thing, Dee. Thou shalt not
condescend. Thou shalt not name call.
Swaim! Okay, thanks, Ross. And one other volunteer to read these? Connie, give it a shot.
Champion/ All right. (laughter) I can't read that green!
Swaim/ Sorry, that was bad mistake on my part. I'll read the green ones.
Champion! Okay.
Swaim/ Team has no letter "I."
Champion! Respect Council decisions.
Swaim! Let person speak before.
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Champion! Don't take the public seriously.
Swaim! Vote your conscience.
Champion! Take each other personally. Don't take each other personally.
Swaim! No, that was take each other personally.
Champion! Oh, take each other personally. Oh, wow.
Swaim! Don't hold a grudge.
Champion! Be positive.
Swaim! Achievement is collective.
Champion! Don't take it personally. Empathy.
Swaim! Empathy. Now, you know, it was interesting to go through this because then I can recall,
or I can recall quite a bit of the conversation. I don't claim to have a great recall, but I
remember a lot of the dialogue and there was...several things that stood out. I'mjust
going to highlight one or two, and then I'll ask you if there's some things that you
remember from your discussion. Well, obviously, this one got me nervous because I
know it's public (can't hear) and don't take the public seriously. Does anybody really
remember what that really was about though? It wasn't about 'don't take the feedback
seriously.' Does anybody remember the context of that?
O'Donnell! (can't hear) emotions seriously.
Swaim! Or don't take it so personally. That wasn't to denigrate the public input, but it was
cautioning yourself to not get caught up in the emotional part of it, so that was one that
stood out to me when I read it. Is there one up there? Well, let me ask Amy, as the new
member who wasn't there, is there anything up there that you look at and go, 'Well, now,
what the heck does that one mean?'
Correia! What is positive negatism?
Swaim! I knew she was going do it!
Correia! Negativism.
Swaim! I...I was almost going to star and say, 'I bet she picks that!' Bob? Do you remember
the....you led a lengthy part of the discussion about positive negativism, as I recall.
Elliott! I often talk too much (laughter). But I think this whole, all of those four areas, you have
to put it in context. I think we were reacting two years ago. We were reacting to the
unfortunate circumstances that had preceded us, and so we were focusing on getting
along better. Positive negativism meaning that you can disagree without being
disagreeable.
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Swaim/ Okay. So that's, that was that comment, and again, I can recall that, because it's almost
contradictory. There are several things up here that are sort ofa Ying and Yang.
Anybody see a Ying and Yang, does everybody know what I mean by Ying and Yang,
opposite end of the spectrum kind of stuff.
Champion! Well, if I could read the green (laughter).
Swaim! Bad mistake on my part.
Vanderhoef/ Well, certainly the "don't take the public seriously" is sort ofYing and Yang with
"don't take it personally."
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott/ But pay attention.
Swaim! But pay attention.
Vanderhoef/ Vh-huh.
Swaim! What else? These two are related. This is take each other personally, and again, you
spend a lot oftime, you wanted to operated - you suggested at the time that you do want
to understand each other personally, even when you disagree, and that you want to
understand that context, those contexts of each other. So, on the one hand you had "take
each other personally," but don't take it personally. And that the little bit of a
contradiction, or a little bit of a Ying and Yang, but the positive part of this one was, that
you want to understand each other as people and at the same time if you're disagreeing,
understand that that doesn't mean that you disrespect each other. Any, any, just a quick
look. Any common, something that stands out that you're proud of as part of this, you
know, Ross... we were going to maybe call this rules of engagement, but I was trying to
avoid...
Wilbum/ Military.
Swaim/ Military, yeah. I'm (can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ Something I would like to emphasize again is be positive in the message. For me, I
can...
Swaim! Dee, hold that thought.
Vanderhoefi' Okay.
Swaim! Because I want to get to things that we want to emphasize.
Elliott! You talked about pride.
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Swaim! Before we get to it though, is there anything in there that you're proud of as part of your,
that when you look at the list, you go, 'I'm glad that we as a group were committed to
that.' (can't hear) Okay.
Bailey/ That was really helpful, for me, as a new Council member, to hear that and to affirm that,
and then to remind myself of that throughout the last couple of years.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott! I think I'm proud of what we put up there, but more than that, I think over the past two
years we've walked the walk. I, as a matter of fact, several times people have said, 'I
think this is a really good Council,' and I said, 'Well, it's up to other people to determine
whether or not we're a good Council,' but I have great pride in the fact that we have
worked very well together. Now, the outcome has been good (can't hear), but I'm very
proudful, prideful, of how we have worked together.
Swaim! All right. So that working together part is something that you think you walk the walk
and that you're proud of. Now, Dee, go back to your thought about what you want to...
Vanderhoef/ In the positive message, and two years ago...
Swaim! Just remind me where that is.
Vanderhoef/ It's under effective communication. Uh-huh... two years ago, city was in a different
position with having had some cuts from the State Legislature so we were struggling with
a budget that had been certified and then we had to work our way out, and we were
working our way out at that point. What I have to remind myself is don't always get
caught up in "the bad things" that might be happening to the city that are from outside
control, but where we go with being positive about all the good things that we are already
doing.
Swaim! All right.
Vanderhoef/ Given the circumstances, I think this city has moved forward remarkably in the last
ten years.
Swaim/ And that's an area that you want to make sure stays as part of your.. .
Vanderhoef! Absolutely.
Swaim! And maybe even has even more emphasis in terms of how you operate. You know, for
part of this discussion, I want you to be especially mindful of your own, how you will
abide by these. It would be useful, but I don't think we have time today, if we want to
get to the goals. It would be useful for you to critique your colleagues about it, and I
think if we were to take a lot of time to do that, we may have different views about how
well you've walked the walk, or the other. That's less important for today's discussion.
What's more important is what you are committed to in your rules of how you're going to
treat your colleagues. And, as I said, at some point it may be useful for you. Maybe,
maybe a month from now you want to post these at a work session and just take ten
minutes and say, 'How are we doing? How are we doing on some ofthese?'
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Wilbum/ Just continue these thoughts there about the positive given the circumstances. In our
conversation, we had also talked about really putting out there and affirming what we do
and, we don't do that well enough. We don't, you know, the headlines always read...
Vanderhoef/ The negative.
Wilburn! ...the negative. We need to put out there, promote ourselves a little better than we have.
Vanderhoef/ I agree, and sometimes it's a case of what gets put in the headlines so unless we
speak at Council meetings, and I'll make this commitment to my fellow Councilors, that
if you can put out a bragging statement, even though all of us buy into the statement, if
you happen to be the person who puts it out, or Connie puts it out or Amy puts it out, this
is the one way - we've got a lot of people who view our Council meetings, and whether it
ever hits the paper to have us reinforce one another on what is positive about our city.
Swaim/ Okay. Is there a suggestion about that aspect of it? So, Dee, if you're asked by the
Press-Citizen reporter who just left, whose name was Hugh, if Hugh asked you to make a
comment and you're making an affirmative statement about something that the Council's
done, but you're the one who's being quoted, so the next day it says, 'Dee says.. .and Dee
has done.. .and Dee believes.' Is there some element of that group affirmation that you
want as part of a guideline or...
Vanderhoef/ I'm not looking for a guideline, I don't think, Jim. I'm looking to, what I'm saying
is, permission to go ahead and speak for the Council.
Swaim! Okay.
Vanderhoefi' That we all are committed to the trails at some level, and our budgets have reflected
that. That speaks for the Council and it also can be added on to, which a lot of times does
not get quoted, so the place to have these kinds ofthings, and as an issue comes along,
when it comes discussion time on an issue, it may be the opportunity to make that
positive statement, and it isn't that you're trying to change anyone's vote, because it will
probably be a 7-0, but getting one positive statement in there and just pass them around, I
think, will look, will reflect well on the City.
Swaim! Okay.
O'Donnell/ I have taken a lot of caution not to speak for the Council, and I've always made it
very clear, I certainly do not speak for the Council, however, I feel this way. I think
that's heading down a path that we shouldn't go because there may be two people on this
Council that disagree with that.
Swaim! Sure, and that's a really good point, Mike, because there are, on the 7-0 issues, this is
kind of a no-brainer. Anyone of you speaking, you know, everybody's in agreement.
The hard ones are the 4 to 3 issues, the 5 to 2, and even when it's 6 to 1, not wanting to
dismiss. Dee, if you're the one, or if Bob, you're the one person who's strong on a
particular view and the other six aren't. You don't want to dismiss that. But that's a
good point, Mike, that you, you have to be careful in speaking for the Council, and your
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suggestion is there are certain issues that you try and make clear, 'I'm representing my
view as one vote on this Council.'
O'Donnell/ That's the way I think it should be.
Bailey/ Well, and I think you can affirm though in statements like, "It was clear from the support
that this is a Council that generally values trails.' That's not necessarily speaking for the
Council. It's making an observation that I believe that that support for that vote or
whatever reflects our support, and I am a little uncomfortable with people speaking for
me. 1. ..okay, it just annoys the heck out of me. Let'sjust put it out there. (laughter) It
doesn't matter ifit's a colleague or a family member, it just doesn't work far me.
Elliott! We've gone from uncomfortable to annoyed.
Swaim! Well, I would try and paraphrase that to the rest of the group at this moment, but I don't
really want (can't hear; laughter).
Bailey/ I think there are ways to do, where it's I'm observing that many spoke in support of this
or I'm observing what happened and reflecting that to you to send a positive message
about our support for this, but I also don't want to presume why you may have voted for
that, because we all vote for things... we have different motivations, even...
Swaim! Right, spoken to earlier, he may have voted for something for a completely different
reason.
Elliott! I think one of the things that I keep thinking of is a former Council person used to talk
about what... 'The Council majority did this, and the Council majority did that,' and I
think ifI'm On the tail end of a 6 to I vote, I still feel that that's what the Council did.
That isn't what the Council majority did. That's what the Council did, and if I lose 6 to 1
On a vote, I still feel strongly that that's what the Council did, and I support it.
Swaim! And that came to, came to bear when we had that discussion two years ago about this,
because that. . .
Elliott/ That's the heart of the democratic process; you have your say, you take the vote, you
move On, and you support what has been done.
Wilburn! And even within, either speaking for the Councilor not speaking, to not speak for the
Council, there's ways, techniques for doing that. For example, several times the, one of
the newspapers, particularly the Daily Iowan will come and say, "Tell me where the
Council is On the 2 I-ordinance,' and I just say, 'There is nO 21-ordinance,' and they, and
I come back, 'There is no 2 I-ordinance,' and so they stopped, they just stopped quoting
me On that. (laughter) I mean, there's ways to not, you know (TAPE ENDS) ...ifwe
made a decision or not, I mean, you know, there's ways to...
Swaim! Well, and you are starting to get into just tactics and styles. You all have very different
styles. You have very different personalities. You clearly have different issues that are
burning for you, and so some of this stuff is going to be influenced by your different
styles.
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Elliott/ What...the important thing we've accomplished, Jim, excuse me, is we found out how we
can annoy Regenia.
Swaim! Yes. (laughter)
O'Donnell/ There is...1 think it's perfectly acceptable to say that Council majority voted this way,
and I think you step beyond when you say, 'Well, Ross and Regenia didn't vote this way.
I didn't have any idea. They didn't follow the subject.' I mean, that's what we lived
through about...a number of years back. And that's why, ljust use a lot of caution on
that.
Swaim! Well, let me go back. Again, ljust want you to look at, again, for the moment. Dwell on
these four broad areas, and again, what you committed to was that you would use, that
you would try to aspire to having informed decision making. That you would use
effective communication. That you would be respectful in your interaction, and then you
would play well with others. Those were the four broad categories, and by the way,
Amy, for your benefit, prior to doing this part, they talked, you all talked, about different
ways to communicate - email, telephone, one-on-one, diads, triads, at Council meetings,
during the break - there's a whole variety and the point was, in all of it, try and make it
effective communication. Is there anything up there that anybody sees that you go, 'You
know, let's not even have that up there anymore.' And I want to be quick on this. I'm
not going to dwell on this for a lot more time. But is there anything up there that
somebody looks at and goes, 'Yeah, you know what? That was just a reaction and we
don't need that.'
Champion/ We really don't ever call each other names.
Bailey/ I know, but if you took it down, would that just open up a flood gate? (laughter)
Swaim/ I'm not taking it down because.. .you've never had to actually apply the rule, but Ijust
mean, you know, that you really don't, and they're guidelines.. .all right. (can't hear)
And is there one or two, based on this discussion, is there anything that's not, that's
reflected here that you think isn't at least somewhat captured by what's up here? All
right. Well, good work, and we're close to being on time, at least relative to what.. .Iet's
take one more quick break. Just a five minute break, and right about five after eleven.
Let's do a IO-minute break...(TAPE OFF) Remember, I grew up in the Army, so I'm
that odd character of a pacifist that grew up in the Army and know all the lingo. And I
actually used to know the alpha-beta, alpha-bravo-Charlie-delta-tango alphabet, but I, it
got replaced when I went to Iowa State and I had to learn the Greek alphabet and recite it
over a match. (laughter) I digress. We're going to do an exercise now, I'm going
to.. .again, first of all, I want to make sure, please don't lose the postcards. Keep them in
front of you and we'll do something with them here in a, a little bit later. We're going to
do an activity that is intended to get to the next topic that you're going to be talking
about, which is economic development and, or growing the tax base, or how you promote
growth in Iowa City. But before we do that, I'm going to ask you to indulge me, these
silly methods that I have, in an exercise. This is an exercise you're going to do on your
own. You'll be able to move around. You will not need to be lavaliered into your
microphone. If you want to go off. We're going to spend about 15 minutes, and here's
the exercise. As a result of new federal legislation, there's a massive campaign so that all
economic development happens at once by all communities, and it's mandated by
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Congress that the trick is you're limited to doing your presentation using a lunch box, and
you're allowed to put some things in this lunch box that are your communities way of
selling Iowa City. You're going to sell Iowa City, but you're only allowed to use what's
in this lunch box. And you can put whatever you want in the lunch box. You are free to
put whatever you want that's going to sell Iowa City. You need to be mindful of the fact
that there are groups who are in the habit of using a variety of economic tools. There
may be tax incentives. The people down in Dallas are going to have a little tax credit
thing that says, 'We're going to give you, or you won't pay taxes for 100 years if you
often up here. ' You have all kinds of other economic tools that you can do. You have
incentives you can put in. You can put, oh let's just talk for a minute about the rain
forest. You can say, 'We will fund the operational budget and pay all the utilities of the
rain forest.' You can use whatever incentives you want. You can use whatever P.R.
campaigns you want. You could get Paul McCartney to do a multi-media show about
Iowa City and why this is "Strawberry Fields Forever." You can do anything you want,
and it is, it's a kick. Now, here's the trick. Congress in its benevolent wisdom has said
that they're doing this all simultaneously and this is what's happening. There's going to
be a meeting in Washington, D.C. and it's going to have a lot of politicians. That's a
separate group. Simultaneously there's going to be an international expo. People from
all over the world. In addition to that, Bon Jovi has agreed to do a concert because
they're trying to get a lot of young people, high school age and college age young people,
and maybe some old-timers too, that are part ofthis larger gathering. They're all going to
be in one other different place. There's a council of Fortune-500 execs. They're also
meeting simultaneously. They have their own part of the Ped Mall in Washington, D.C.
They've got a beautiful tent there that they're doing. And there's also the National
Spelling Bee group of youth, and a thing that they call the "playground assembly."
They've invited every community to send at least a dozen kids that are kindergarten
through 3,d grade, and in keeping with positive youth development philosophy, these kids
are going to be a special targeted audience for economic development. They're really at
a point where they're saying, 'Let's let the kids decide,' what we're going to do. So,
here's your activity. You need to decide what you're going to put in your lunch box and
this is an individual activity. Please, you can overhear and you can have some dialogue,
but you need to do your own lunch box. Regenia. The Border collie is sitting here going,
don't be, don't be looking at Mike, don't be looking at Ross' s. You need to think of a
couple quick things. You need to decide your strategy. Are you going to, is your lunch
box going to be focused on sort of a broad strategy that reaches all these audiences? Are
you going to tailor make some of your strategy? Are you going to have like one item for
the politicians? You know, you're going to give them this one and you're going to give
the international expo one. You're going to have to; you need to think for a minute
before you start to do this. So, I don't just want you to plunge in and start writing. Think
about your strategy. Whether, like I said, whether you're going to do one strategy, tailor
make it. Whether you're going to particularly focus on one type of incentive, what
you're going to do. The trick is, you're only allowed eight things in your lunch box.
Eight. That would be eight. All right? So, I'm going to turn you loose for about 10, 10
to 15 minutes. Now, here's one other thing. You can draw images of what you want. I
want you to put one item on one of these half sheets. So when you're done, you're going
to have no more than eight half sheets, and you're only going to have one item, listen
carefully again, only one thing that's in your lunch box on one sheet. So, if you're doing
two things, you'll have two sheets. If you're doing, if you're paying the utilities for the
rain forest and Paul McCartney is producing the video, that's two separate things.
Everybody got that?
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Elliott! I thought you said we were going to do eight things.
Swaim/ You're going to do eight, only one on a page. So, when you have eight things, you'll
have eight pages.
Elliott! We need eight of those. Are you going to provide us with that?
Swaim/ I...there were a whole bunch of them.. .let me get some more for your table. If you don't
use an image, and you're using words, again, listen very carefully to this. You can only
use about five or eight words. If you're writing a (can't understand) economic
development, that's not going to work. You're allowed five or eight words because it
just isn't going to fit in the lunch box otherwise. So, if.. .just try and use five to eight
words if you're describing a particular tool. Is everybody clear on the assignment? How
to make it an item is the question from Steve. You're just going to have to...
Atkins/ I can create a circ... .ask for a circumstance to be created, but it's not an item.
Swaim! Good point. It can be a circumstance that you want to create. And, but when I'm
referring to an item, you're only allowed to describe one circumstance then, Steve, on a
piece of paper. All right? So, again, think over what your strategy, you know, something
that appeals to all of these audiences. Are you doing one thing that appeals to one
audience; another thing that appeals to another audience? (unable to hear Council
person) There's several groups. There's the politicians, the international expo, the Bon
Jovi group, the council of Fortune 500, and the National Spelling Bee, and they're
working because of good kids, they're partnered with Playground Assembly. (unable to
hear person) It's one group, but there's two different ages. There's the kids who are
the.. .you know, have you ever seen the National Spelling Bee? They're a different group
than the group that's out on the playground. I don't know if you've ever been to
Washington, D.C., but if you're on the Pedestrian Mall, or the Mall in Washington, D.C.,
you see kids, they make toys out ofthe park benches. They're just running crazy, so
you've got (can't hear). All right?
Bailey/ And we're trying to come up with a presentation...
Swaim! In a lunch box.
Bailey/ In a lunch box, that might identify which one of these groups we're going to target to try
and sell Iowa City.
Swaim! You have your option. You can try and sell Iowa City, you can have a lunch box that you
think appeals to everybody.
Bailey/ Right (can't hear).
Swaim! Or you could have a lunch box that has one thing in it for one audience and one thing in it
for another audience. You can have a lunch box, if you want, you can just go, 'You
know what? To heck with all these groups. I'm going to put.. .my.. .I'm going for the
playground kids.' That's all.. .I'm going to put eight things. I'm going to put Pop-Tarts
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for kids. I'm going to put free merry-go-round rides, a trip to Disney World, Game Boys.
(can't hear person) Is it too confusing stilI?
Dilkes/ Ijust have one clarification. What, do they have to assume they have to satisfy all of
those groups, somehow? Who's their...what's their audience?
Swaim/ You're deciding. You get to decide who your audience is. You're making decisions
about what you're putting in your lunch box, and that's part of, Eleanor, that is exactly
one of the things you need to think over. Are you going to try and sell it to everybody?
Do... are you going to try and sell it to a particular group? And if you are trying to sell it
to a particular group, are you going to pick a particular strategy, a particular economic
incentive, some kind of a...
Dilkes/ Doesn't it depend on who the decision maker is? I mean, who's the decision maker?
Swaim/ Well, you don't know that right there, do you?
Dilkes/ Well, I don't know why you'd (can't hear).
Swaim/ This is what, I'm forcing you to think over. You don't know exactly how this is going to
work. Congress just passed this. They've just told you that there's going to be this
assembly of different groups, all economic development, it's happening simultaneously
on this day, and all of these groups are meeting and you get one lunch box to bring.
Those are the rules. You don't know if you're going to be able to get to all ofthe groups.
Go. Some of you writing notes to yourself - write your ideas with these big markers
when you put them on the sheets you're going to use, so that your colleagues can see
them if we put them up on the board. You can have a list for now, but just copy your
ideas onto the single pages. And write big. So now, as the Border collie, you're going to
get really frustrated, because I want you to take what you've done, stack 'em up, nice and
neatly, and put them with your postcards. So, you should have no more than eight sheets
of paper, well, and most of you will have no more than three postcards in your stack.
Andjust set it aside. So, I want to have, and we're going to come back to this. But it was
done as a way to get you to start thinking about economic development and what you
have to do as a Council, what our City needs to do in terms of 'how do we attract
growth,' 'how do we make Iowa City a thriving place,' 'what are out thoughts and ideas
about it.' And, so, I wanted to get you thinking hard with parts of your brain that, so that
when we get to this part it might come easier. I want to start with just a conversation, and
I'm going to certainly ask Steve and Dale and City staff, Eleanor and others, to
participate as they would like to, but I want to have a discussion about economic
development and growing the tax base. So, one of the questions I want to hear some
response from you all is kind of what is the state of the arts for cities right now, in
attracting economic development? Urn, you know, what are some of the schools used,
what strategies are you aware of, in terms of economic development? How do you attract
economic development?
O'Donnell/ (can't hear)
Swaim/ What's that?
O'Donnell/ Your strengths. You talk about recreation.
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Swaim/ Well, so you would...
O'Donnell/ TIF's.
Swaim! You would talk and you would, especially talk about strengths. Okay.
Bailey/ So something that we have is ICAD, organization out there promoting Iowa City in the
area of.. .
Swaim/ So, part ofICAD is that you're not just, you're partnering. What are some of the
elements of ICAD that are good about it as a strategy?
Elliott! I'm thinking as you do this, you have proactive and reactive, and within those you have
two, you have proactive - you go out and look for it with firms like ICAD and reactive
you have web sites that provide the information. Within that, I think you talk about two
things. The business.. .considerations.
Swaim! Let me keep up with you. You mentioned web site.
Elliott! Uh-huh.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott! And the people, but within that structure, I think you talk about two main things. The
community, quality of life - community, and the business considerations, taxes, things
like that.
Swaim! You're getting into some of the content, and that's good, and we need to have part of
that, but for a moment, tell me a little bit more just about the different kinds of techniques
for this stuff. I think it's a given that you're going, that obviously you're going to
promote yourself some way, but I'm looking at some ofthe other kinds of things, and
Steve, maybe you can.. .
Bailey/ Values Fund, Iowa Values Fund?
Champion/ (can't hear) ever hear about it.
Swaim/ I'm sorry, the first step is what?
Champion/ It's already happened before it comes to us, so maybe Steve might have a better (can't
hear).
Vanderhoef/ I would go, the face-to-face, one-to-one contacts.
Swaim! Okay.
Atkins/ I may be calling it something different, but the Values Fund is one element of the State. I
think if you're going to, you need to first of all talk about "the State" has an economic
development policy, and then they play it out in a variety of ways. One of which is the
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Values Fund. The second point is, ICAD, I think, is reflective of what you see nationally,
and that's economic development is approached by cities regionally. That's the
instrument that we see there.
Swaim/ Okay. And actually, you know, relative to the Values Fund, it's a State incentive and
then what happens with it? You all have to compete.
Atkins/ This is up and down, right, it can be good or bad?
Swaim! Yes.
Atkins/ Federal government has virtually no local economic development policies.
Swaim/ Steve, if you want to come up there's an extra lavaliere up in front. Sure.
Wilburn/ Another...this gets into the (can't hear) work force and all the work that's been done,
related to the quality of our work force.
Swaim/ Surely there's an initiative that 1 think is being announced tomorrow on the work
readiness and work ready certificate, and being able to talk about not only do we have a
good work force, we can demonstrate it because the young people are going to have a
work ready certificate and not only is that certificate just, you know, a bunch of us
saying, 'Oh these kids are good,' but we're assessing their skills, using work keys, and so
it's not just highlighting the work force, but additional tools that you use to highlight
some ofthese things, and that's. ..I'm trying to help you probe a little bit, not only sort of
the broad category, but real specific tools. So...
O'Donnell! (can't hear)
Swaim! Educated work force.
Vanderhoef/ Could we please expand that to education opportunities.
Swaim! Oh, absolutely.
Correia! And include research opportunities, or access to research.. . centers.
Swaim/ Have any of you ever.. .I'm sure many of you have been to like the, that part of North
Carolina, the research... what do they call it? The Research Triangle...
Elliott! Research Triangle.
V anderhoef/ Yes, I have been there.
Swaim! So, for that it requires a couple of things. Again, one is that you have some niche. Ifwe
become the bio-med research center of the universe, or if we are the solar wind capital of
the world, that's one aspect of it, but then secondly related to that is how do you market
that? How do you sustainthat? How do you keep the... the bio-tech people or the solar
wind people here? How do you compete so that their research needs are met? Other
ones?
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Bailey/ So, another on the downside is limited venture capital, limited investor opportunities, so it
limits entrepreneurship in, and I think we see that in the state - we're pretty low for
entrepreneurship in the state.
Swaim/ I'm not even going to try and spell it now.
Elliott! We're talking about the businesss-related things right now, because...
Swaim! Any strategies you're aware of...
Elliott/ ... because we haven't talked much quality, but business-related I think a multiple
employment opportunities because you rarely any more recruit just one person. You
usually are recruiting partners or spouses.
Bailey/ So in that same vein, if you're recruiting partners and spouses and they also have family
considerations. The education system K -12 here is also a strength.
Wilburn! Which also gets at you have to invest in and put, and also put out there your
infrastructure, whether that's schools, parks, that we have water available, that we have
streets, that we have. . .
V anderhoef/ Well, sites was one of the first things that a company might be looking for. We have
land that is relatively cheap as compared to many parts of the United States.
Bailey/ We also have a great transportation structure, not just the City's, but State, Federal access
very close to an airport, although getting out is still a challenge.
Vanderhoef/ Well, we're crossroads of180, 380, Avenue of the Saints, and we still have rail
opportunities.
Swaim/ Boy, every time I drive to Des Moines, I think of (can't understand) and her effort, you
know, she was so close to getting that train, that would run across Iowa (laughter) and
1... sorry, I stepped out of my hole there a minute, but transportation infrastructure, and
you mentioned the airport situation. So, part of it is beefing up that transportation
infrastructure with, if we had four additional competing airlines at the Cedar Rapids
Airport, we wouldn't all be driving to Moline every time we want to fly anywhere, or for
those of you who are like me, drive all the way down to Mt. Pleasant to pick up the train,
but...one, what are some of the other key elements?
Vanderhoef/ We have the cultural diversity in our international flavor within the city.
Champion/ (can't hear) compared to the rest ofIowa, but consider the rest of the country.
Swaim/ For a moment, ('m not dwelling totally on what we necessarily have, but just what things,
and but, we can talk about that again this afternoon, but one of the things is being able to
promote cultural diversity is one of the things that communities are doing to attract
business. This is a good place, bring your family here, they will enjoy it.
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Elliott/ I think so many things are relative, compared to say Los Angeles, we are not diverse, but
compared to perceptions, we are very diverse, both in topography and in people.
Swaim! Okay.
Correia! We have a variety of entertainment options.
O'Donnell/ How about health care?
Swaim/ Oh, geez. Again, I'll step out of my hat for a minute, but you know, I've always had this
dream of going up to Lansing, Iowa, and just being, you know, just up on the Mississippi
somewhere and it's finally occurred to me at my age with a few health issues that I deal
with, it's like well, maybe ljust want a cabin up in Lansing, and I really like living on the
end of Iowa Avenue because I can go to Mercy Hospital. I can go to University
Hospitals, get whatever I need, and there's growing, growing numbers of healthcare
facilities and supportive living housing and a variety of things like that that make us,
what are we now? Iowa's like the number one, what did Iowa City win? We were like
one of the best places to come to retire? (several talking) What.. . (laughter). . . okay. Let
me ask, in looking at some of these, which kinds of things in here are things that, and I'm
going to use green but you don't have to read. You only have to see where there's a
check mark. What are, in looking at that stuff, what items up there are things that city
councils and deliberative bodies like yourselves really have an impact on, more so than
say city staff or a chamber of commerce, or an external organization. Look at that list for
a minute. Is there one or two things up there that you look at and you go, 'You know,
that piece there, that's right within the hands of a city council.'
Elliott! Everything that makes up the quality of life, or virtually everything that makes up the
quality of life. Safety, appearances, parks, recs, trails, attractive residential
neighborhoods, infrastructure. Pardon? That, to me, I think of water as being part of the
infrastructure.
Swaim/ Let's just focus on infrastructure. Tell me how a city council impacts that. In real
practical terms.
Elliott! We have streets that you can get around on. You are not grid locked when you, I'm not
saying we have it, but that's what would be good to have. Streets should be made so that
you can move traffic safely and efficiently, and not grid locked.
Swaim/ And you'd do that how?
Elliott! By building streets and having a plan for streets.
Swaim! And you build the streets by doing what as a council? What is it.. .you don't go out and
build the street. I don't see you and Ross out there building the street. What do you do?
(several talking) You vote on allocating funds. So...
Elliott! Well, you have to...everything goes into it. You can't just throw money at it. You have
to have a plan. And you have to have a consensus of what you want your. .. what purpose
you want your streets to serve, which is some of the problems I have with Iowa City's
streets.
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Swaim/ And again, I'm not disagreeing with, I'm not at all disagreeing with this, I'm just trying
to get down to the level, what is it that you as a council will be doing? You will allocate
funds. You do.. .let me just finish one other thought. You do some planning yourselves
as Council members, but in general, don't you also defer to a lot of citizen groups that
you ask or professional groups or your professional staff for input about plans. Is that an
accurate.. . (several talking).
Elliott/ No, but the Council is responsible for the tone and the philosophy behind the planning,
supposedly.
Swaim! Supposedly, depending on the group, yes. So approve and disapprove. What are, what
are. . . what are things that really a staff, that a city staff or other groups are really the more
driving force behind in terms of economic development, on this list?
Wilburn! Well, in terms of some of the relationships with some of those groups out there selling
the area, ICAD, we have staff that works with, we have planning staff... works with that
particular group.
Swaim! So staff contribute to that and there are paid staff. Joe, Joe Rizzo, okay?
Vanderhoef/ Staff maintains web sites for us.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott/ When people come to town, they probably are not, they don't know who is on the Council
so they go to City Hall and talk to staff. That's the source of information.
Swaim! So, sometimes staff are the front line, the first point of contact? And again, I don't want
to talk a whole lot more on this part of it, but what role do citizens play in all this? How
do you partner with your citizens on these things?
Vanderhoef/ Citizens bring to us their visions. How the Council melds those visions into a policy
is a difficult, but an important step...
Swaim! Okay.
Vanderhoef/ .. .and to communicate that vision after the policy has been set.
Swaim! Okay.
Elliott! But prior to that, citizens elect the Council.
Bailey/ Well, the citizens really do provide the quality oflife, I think. I mean, there are
independent groups out there working to develop entertainment options and all kinds of
different things. (can't hear) support but the quality of life really comes from the
citizens.
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Swaim! They keep you on your toes too, don't they? I mean, at least in this community, they,
they're keeping you honest about what's going on. [fthere's an issue, there's no shortage
of folks corning here and saying, 'Hey, we need to address some things here.'
Champion! A lot of our decisions are influenced by our commissions, who really do all the work.
Swaim! All right. Let me ask you, in looking at some of these items up on the list, or even
thinking for a minute, are there things that you're learning, or that in the last four or five
years, people are starting to go, 'You know, that's not really a great economic strategy.'
In terms of the state of the art, if any of you have gone, who represents the City at the
League of Municipalities? You know, if you're at a conference of them, are there any
workshops that you're going to in which people are going, 'You know, here's an
economic development strategy that we tried for a few years, it's not working.' Or in city
management seminars, are you hearing things about, 'Geez, you know, this looked pretty
pie-in-the-sky at the time it started, but it's not working.' Is there any of that stuff going
on right now?
Vanderhoef! What I would say in Iowa is that given the roll back, every community is looking to
"economic development," perhaps without the rest ofthe infrastructure, but they're trying
to entice people to come to their communities. What the question is, is if there were a
different tax policy, then could some of these communities enjoy the benefit of their
property tax, which is primarily residential, and still provide that wonderful place to live,
and workers for the economic centers.
Champion! That' 5 a complicated question.
Vanderhoef! It really is, but the question is, should the state be offering economic incentives to
every little community...
Swaim! Or should they get strategic, or what?
Vanderhoef! ...or should they get strategic with that and say, 'Here we have the opportunity for
great education, great quality of life, in a small town setting,' if that's what you choose,
and we will support you in the laws that we make for property tax, that makes them able
to do this.
Swaim! All right. Steve, again, just in terms of what you hear or your dialogue as a professional
city manager, are there any things, again, that people are talking about that they're, that at
least lead you to say, 'Gee, that's not a direction that I would favor.' And again, I'm
more talking about just tools and different gimmicks that communities use and...I don't
mean gimmick in a negative way, but I just mean...
Atkins! I think over the last several decades, most of the gimmicky things are beginning to sort
themselves out. Those that work and those that don't. And I think that list is going to
narrow, specifically that list is going to narrow with respect to those that we can exercise
as a local government because the State is playing a greater and greater role all the time
in making economic development decisions. A long-term concern that I have and in
following up with what Dee just said is that the State has regulated, mediated, moderated
local government so much, that they are virtually on the edge of control. They're going
to control what goes on in local government, and they're going to fix this commerce and
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industry tax base problem real quick, some day, and we're going to get burned big time.
Because we don't have a fall-back position, as a city.
Swaim! So the commerce, what did you call it?
Atkins/ The commerce and industry component of our economy. . . is being taxed
disproportionately to their demand for public services. And that's going to get fixed.
Couldn't tell you when, but it will get fixed.
Swaim/ Well, they... what did Ijust read? They're having a serious Committee discussion about
it this week.
Vanderhoef/ There's another thing that's happening out there that is different in larger economic
centers versus the small town, and it is the use of the tools, like TIF, and the State law
allows TIF for both housing and for commerce activities, and what has happened in many
small towns is that they have TIF'd a whole lot of land on housing to the point that then
they loose their tax base to provide their services. What is very interesting is that as I
speak to people at the state level on TIF's and so forth, and I describe how Iowa City
legislates for results so we say when we give a TIF, you must, we do it individual case,
but we say, 'You must increase the tax base by "x" number of dollars. You must create
"x" number of jobs, and you must maintain those jobs over a period of time, , otherwise
you lose the TIF for that year, if you have not met the goals.
Swaim! So you have result expectations for your TIF, and you have consequences for not meeting
those results?
Vanderhoeti' Right.
Swaim/ And that's an effective tool, for making TIF's something other thanjust...oh, let's lower
our overall taxes. Let's move on for a minutes. I want to come back to one thing,
because you said something at the end of that. I started to capture and 1 didn't, which
was something to the effect that we're not positioned very well if this changes, ifthe
commerce and industry tax rules change that could have a dramatic impact on Iowa City.
Is thaI...
Atkins/ Yes.
Swaim! Can you just elaborate for one minute on that.
Atkins/ The underlying foundation for the financing oflowa City is the property tax. And that's
why when we say grow the tax base, what we're saying is invest in property and grow the
value of that property. But in doing so, there are two distinct components of that policy.
Residential, which we don't have any trouble with in growth. We do quite well
comparatively speaking. Commerce and industry, we also have done very well, but the
bottom line with them is that they are paying a disproportionate share of their particular
investment in a community is going to those property taxes. State doesn't like property
tax. The State's got two very good reasons - one we don't like property taxes, and
second, our commerce and industry is reaching a point that-they, they the State, will
measure in some fashion that this can't continue, and they will fix it very quickly as they
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often do, freeze, cut, slash some, and the long-term consequences to us could be quite
profound.
Wilburn! Our portfolio isn't diversified so we're not (can't hear).
Atkins/ That's right. We end up being the center of industry in the greater Iowa City area. Most
of the heavy-duty stuff. The retail component of our economy is switched over, where a
good piece of that is in Coralville. Coralville is not in a whole heck of a lot better
position because they don't have either income tax or sales tax available to them. And
it's going to whack both of us. Yeah.
Elliott! Steve, this is a little off base from talking about planning and what have you, but it seems
to, one of my worries on this is my over the last 50 years, I think I've discovered that
Iowa City is not particularly popular with many of the people in the rest of the state.
They think that we have been favored, and just what you're talking about is going to have
the rest of the state will not be worried about what happens to Iowa City.
Atkins/ ... gets it as well (can't hear) considered so fat and happy, and the policy will be made
probably virtually without consultation with us.
Elliott/ Absolutely.
Vanderhoef/ However, if you look at our non-taxable land within the City of Iowa City, it's well
over, what, two billion? It's huge, and we are providing much of the infrastructure and
some services to all of that so it does... we have (several talking) we have trade offs, uh-
huh.
Swaim/ But it's a key element that you really need to be attentive to the partnership, and...
Atkins/ ... talk about the diversity in our housing and our people, but we don't talk about the
diversity in the very underlying foundation. We can't have anything of quality or
quantity unless we have the financial resources. And, we don't believe in diversity when
it comes to that.
Swaim/ Meaning, you don't believe in diversifying the portfolio?
Atkins/ I believe the portfolio should be diversified. The citizens of this community have rejected
that.
Elliott! Would you explain that a little more? (several talking at once)
Atkins/ ... variety of tax policies, such as sales, income, franchise, property - all of which could
be a balance. Then you have a bump in the economy, you can ride out that bump.
Elliott/ I thought that's what you meant.
Bailey/ (can't hear)...workshop on Saturday, it was clear to me that citizens don't even
fundamentally understand what supports the city, so, I mean, that continues to be a
concern - the level of understanding of citizens has to be increased about, I mean, this
whole issue, and I think if we discuss this more publicly, more frequently, perhaps people
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would begin to see that that might be an approach, a viable solution to diversify the
portfolio,
Swaim! Hang on, So, one of the" ,the implications for that is that you look at your dependence
and how citizens playa role in this, it's important that the citizens be educated and
informed, and that is something that a council does in your public discourse, and I
recognize that people aren't tuning in to every meeting, but they are reading about what
you're talking about, and if you're talking about the need to diversify the portfolio,
citizens are at least going to pay attention to that being a concern,
Bailey! (can't hear) ",informed citizens as we are, we don't spend, I mean, we do spend more
time than maybe some communities. We televise our meetings, we make a concerted
effort in that regard, but we really need to be spending a lot more time, because we are
absolutely dependent on well informed citizenry to do our work and to move forward
with any kind of vision. Otherwise we'll just be stuck, I think.
Swaim! Well, the other thing, you talked a minute ago about partners that you have. I mean,
don't you think at some level that it's probably more important that ICAD is talking
about some of these issues, rather than you as Council members.
Bailey! I disagree, because I think the citizens need to vote on the local option sales tax if they
hear it from ICAD, whereas those people are respected, they're probably viewed with
having to do with one area of our community, whereas I think you can look up at
Councilors and people represent...(TAPE ENDS)
Vanderhoef! ".have turned down where it is very commonplace throughout the State ofIowa and
that is the one-cent sales tax for schools and the one-cent sales tax for cities, which would
give us more diversity in our portfolio.
Elliott! I just want to, I don't particularly disagree with Regenia and Steve, but I think that a point
not to be overlooked is the perception. There's still a very widespread perception that if
you give city government more money, city government will eat up all the money we
give them and so I think we have to have support on our message from places outside of
city government, because people have become very negative when it comes to any form
of city, state, federal- the feeling is, 'Those damn people just want more of my money.
They're going to spend it on more stupid things,' and so we need to have other people""
Atkins! Then how does the schools, which is a greater local taxing entity than we are, how do
they get away with it?
Elliott! Because people don't think, they think the City...I don't think the people think about the
schools getting the taxes. They think, whenever anybody talks about the taxes, they think
of City Council. That's the story I've heard for years and years. Taxes, city.
Bailey! But the schools also represent and acknowledge shared community values.
Elliott! Oh, yeah.
Bailey! And that's one of the other gaps in Council is we need to begin to acknowledge shared
community values, and if quality of service, or quality of life, is a shared community
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value, beginning to develop that message, because education is a shared community
value. We will, I bet a person on the street will spend what it takes, to have quality
education in this community. Well, we need to start finding the issue (can't hear) we will
spend well what it takes to have quality oflife and good infrastructure so we can
whatever. I mean, we need (can't hear) messages.
Swaim/ I don't think they're disagreeing with that. I just think they're saying that there's a public
perception that, that... there's a body, or a body citizenry group that just looks at anything
that you might do and says, 'Well, you know, I'm not going to...'
Bailey/ (can't hear)...how it reflects shared community values, whereas the school, the schools
do, by the very nature of doing their work, they every day articulate a shared community
value.
Swaim/ Well, and I don't take for granted that, how easy or hard it's going to be for some of the
school districts here to move forward, because they are not, you know, I used as an
example in a workshop the other day when I do my state income tax, I look at what Iowa
City's, you know, the surcharge that we're doing and it's miniscule compared to a lot of
the other groups on there, and I'm like, 'Hmmm,' and we keep talking about what we can
and can't do in the schools because we're short of resources and with new buildings
opening and a growing community and a more diverse community, you know. The
notion that English has a second language is only on one side of the river is, those days
are going to have to be gone here pretty soon because we can't...
ElIiott/ .. .excuse me.
Wilburn! I was going to say, well certainly the need to be informed is something that we need to
figure out how to tap into because included within that, the example of the shared
community value, is that people can feel the impact if there's large classroom sizes and
there's different people, you know.. .you can see that kids are jam packed into this
schooL.. until something dramatic happens, like.. .no garbage pickup, people
don't.. .that's fine, they don't make the link to property tax pays for this.. .it'sjust not
there. Because even, you know, when that is felt and whether it's us making the link or
that information's out there, even someone in the community who would disagree with
the one-cent school tax or sales tax, they're, they would come back with, well... there
needs to be a local income tax. Well, we can't do that and so it gives an avenue... if they
start feeling it, then they're, well, be perhaps more pressured for someone who is of that
belief to talk to the State Legislature, that dictates how we can tax since...
Vanderhoef/ I think what we're getting at, really, is the fact that as we've done in TlFs, we've
legislated for the results. Schools are being legislated into results, whether it be test
scores or class sizes and so forth. We as a City Council are not starting with the results
we choose to have at the end, so that we can then spend our dollars accordingly.
Swaim/ I want to get.. .Amy's had her hand up.
Correia! No, I didn't.
Swaim/ Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you...
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Champion/ I wanted to say this one thing though, I don't think people are going to support a
portfolio diversity until like you say there's a need for it We have never built a school
before we needed it, even though you can project that you're going to need it It isn't
until the facts are there that people support any kind of taxation, and even then it's not
necessarily so,
Vanderhoef/ And the results they're seeing is, my kid's classroom has 26 3,d graders in it Then
they get real upset and then they want to change that result,
Champion! Being reactive rather than proactive,
VanderhoeV Vh-huh,
Elliott/ You think ofthe taxes go to city, the two most sacred entities in Iowa City - the Library
and the schools, They think of referendum when you think of library and the schools.
They think oftaxes, they think of the city. We, you're right, we have to do a better job of
telling our story.
Bailey/ (can't hear) budget teach and there were loads and loads of light bulbs going off. You
know, people indicated that they had no idea where revenues came from (can't hear) for
these kinds of things and the motivation that the properly, or the tax law, makes for (can't
hear) certain ways.
O'Donnell/ How many people showed up, Regenia?
Bailey/ Twenty.
Elliott/ Oh, I bet there were more than 20 there! Yeah. But, the thing that got me.. .(several
talking) One of the people who was...
Swaim! Good thing the press isn't here reporting this as you...
Elliott! Right, that's why we're saying this, but one of the people who was there, who many
people think of as being one of the most well informed, knowledgeable people about all
aspects of so many different things, whether it's national, state, local, seemed to be very,
had no concept of the importance of commercial taxes to what keeps Iowa City going.
Isn't that what you got? .
Bailey/ No, that wasn't exactly what I thought (can't hear).
Swaim! Well, let me, I want to try and bring this conversation to a little bit of a close. I just want
to ask, you've identified a couple things that are scary (laughter), and Ijust wondered if
there's anything up there, you talked a little bit about some things that were pretty
encouragmg. Anything up there that stands out as really exciting? In terms of Iowa City,
now.
Bailey/ We're in such better position than the rest of the cities in the state, I mean, that's what...1
don't know if everybody doesn't like us, but (laughter) they have good reason, I mean, to
be jealous, I suppose. We have a lot going for us. Give it up.
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Vanderhoef/ (can't hear) takes me back to, should we be competing with every single city of
every single size, or should we be recognizing them for their strengths, and making sure
that they have the dollars to provide their livable community.
Bailey/ Although they might not say it's a livable community iftheir people have to leave every
morning at 7:00 and they don't get back until 6:00, how do you build community in that
way?
Vanderhoef/ That's possible.
Champion/ I think there are also people who don't think Iowa City is livable.
Bailey/ Right, I agree, it's...
Swaim! Me going up to Lansing. (laughter)
Elliott! Well, we're not only competing with the rest of the state, we're competing with the rest of
the nation, and now the world. We just recently are having some economy moving up
here from Mexico.
Swaim/ But, the underlying current that I'm hearing expressed is that you're in pretty good shape,
and that's pretty exciting. You've got some challenges related to diversity of your
portfolio, and... I just wonder, is there any, as you look at this, is there any new strategy
or partnership or cautions that you have about this? About economic development, just
listening to each other talk...
Bailey/ We need a better partnership with our citizens.
Swaim! Okay.
Bailey/ ...greater understanding of the importance of this, I mean, Bob's example of the person
who didn't understand the importance of commercial, I'm not sure that that's what I got,
but I think there are people who don't fully understand that, and don't understand how
we're approaching that, or why we're motivated to pursue that.
Elliott! I have a friend who is a doctorate, has been successful in business, who doesn't
understand, 'What's wrong with just staying like we are? Why do we need to grow?' he
says, and he was serious.
Champion/ I think a tool that we haven't talked about, but it's certainly there, and that is our
relationship with the University, and although I think we have a good relationship with
the University, our economic relationship could probably be improved greatly. As we get
to, because we're kind of fussy about what kind of economic development we have here,
except for Wal-Mart, that we (laughter) that we.. . (several talking at once).
Swaim! I would have lost the bet (laughter). I had a bet on whether Wal-Mart would come up
before noon! (laughter) And I would have lost, but not by much. I'm sorry, go ahead,
Connie.
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Champion/ But, you know, if we wanted to bring in some "high tech industry," the University
would be a great tool, as far as research availability, and places to write grants for
industrial research, and I don't know if we're really gotten into that with the University,
but the business school certainly provides entrepreneurship type of relationships, but I'm
thinking of even more things beyond business, I'm thinking about research and
development.
Swaim/ I.. .let me just ask you on that specific.. .I'm wearing both hats at the moment. Do you all
ever evaluate how you do to Iowa University, relative to how Ames does relative to ISU"
I mean, do you ever do a comparison that, gee, they're.. .especially on something like
these partnerships. Is that. . . or do you all ever get together with Ames and talk about
'how do we do this'?
Champion/ It's difficult because they're dealing with more of an agricultural...
Bailey/ Highly technical, highly specialized sector, and I think that they do very, very well. It's
been my impression.
Vanderhoef/ One of the things that comes to mind is for the start up, the research company, we
have sort of a unique position here in Iowa City in that there is a research park that is
non-taxable in the same way that our private property for startup buildings and locations
and so forth, so it's yes, we need to keep the partnership and the lines of communication
open with those people who startup in the research park, but factually a couple three of
them, have been able to go out and build their own building in the research park, which
keeps it off of the tax roles and that's a competition kind of thing. So how do we keep in
touch with those startup companies and make it attractive for them to come into the City
developments, where we realize some ofthe tax base?
Elliott! Dee, following up on that is I have some friends who are in a local Angel investment
group and the disappointing thing that has come out of that, disappointing for them and
disappointing for me to hear about it, is they're finding more reasonably startup
investment opportunities coming out of, say, Cedar Rapids than Iowa City. Cedar Rapids
is more technologically advanced when it comes to communication infrastructure than
Iowa City. Cedar Rapids has more technically advanced startup entrepreneurial activities
that are appropriate for investment than does Iowa City, and that blows my mind. Why in
the world should that ever happen?
Swaim/ That's a good question to probe and I'm going to leave it at that, in terms of this
discussion. I appreciate what you all are talking about, and again, this is all, the whole
morning is trying to set a little bit of a context, where's my... over here. (laughter) You
know, all of this stuff has been trying to provide you with a little bit of a context to some
of the goals that you might want to set for yourself this afternoon, and again, trying to get
you to have some understanding of each other, understanding of some of the issues that
you're facing, some of the challenges that you have in terms of direction to the staff. So,
we're going to get to those things this afternoon. Lunch is here, and we're going to
take...we'll take at least 25 minutes for lunch, and when we come back, you're going to
get a chance to do your lunch box presentation when we come back from lunch. And
that's how we'll kick off our vision. Twenty-five minutes, quarter of. Quarter to one?
(TAPE OFF) Ross and I were just comparing notes about not having a co-facilitator,
because he.. .do they know that you went through this same class that I went...
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Elliott! I didn'l know.
Swaim! He's a Masters. He's like me, he can do this stuff. (laughter and several talking at once)
But, if you, you know, you learn in this thing that having two facilitators, even in a small
group, is really helpful, and part ofthe reason is, you get to this stage in the afternoon and
it's just, I start to tire, and I am a member of, by the say, I'm a member of the Senior
Center, and... but anyway, hopefully I will have some renewed energy without coffee this
afternoon. So, let me get us started. Had to let the.. . all right. First of all, Regenia could
you stand up.
Bailey! Oh, no, you're going to make me do this!
Swaim! We're just going to try it.
Bailey! All right.
Swaim! I can poke her with a mike. She dared me. I was telling her about an
activity.. . everybody has to stand up, even Steve has to stand up, although Steve doesn't
have to participate. Everybody has to stand up. So, the double-dare was, double-dog-
dare, was whether or not I would utilize dancing as part of this workshop, and I talked to
her about ballroom dancing and she was like 'oh yeah, why don't you do...'. Well,
tango, but we're going to demonstrate a polka step. Okay, hands back up. So, the polka
step, and it's this intricate turn and you go one, two, three, one, two, three, and then they
have this turn, and here's how it works. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three,
and you come out and you're like this. The first time my wife and I did it, it was just
amazing. So, you're running around a room. So, I want everybody to just practice the
polka step, but individually. You're not going to have to join anybody. One, two, three,
one, two, three, Mike! All right, just stand up. You don't have to polka! (laughter)
One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three, one,
two, three. All right. Let me double-dip. (laughter and several talking at once) I have to
tell you again, in dance class, the first time that he showed this step, I went, 'There is
absolutely no way that we are...'. My wife and I were like, you know, they just spun
around and they come back out, and we started doing it, and we came around, and there
we were. It was like, 'Wow!' From that point on, polka became a little more popular.
Elliott! Jim, Regenia mentioned Ginger Rogers, and they pointed out to me that Ginger Rogers
did everything Fred Astaire did, but she did it in high heels and backwards.
Swaim! That's right! (laughter) Well, in any event, I wanted to get you up and moving for a little
bit, but we're going to start with a quick part of an exercise here, and again, I apologize I
forgot about having to be lavaliered. Actually, no.. . let me have you, I want you to share
your lunch boxes, if! do it that way and they're just at their tables, we don't have to have
everybody recorded? Oh, never mind. (can't hear person talking) I'll do it that way. I
want you to pull out your lunch box with your stuff and with your postcards also, and...1
want you to be ready to explain to your colleagues what you've included in your lunch
box, and what your strategy is. And I'll look for volunteers. And, I'm going to try and
do this quickly, so I may encourage you to pick up the pace a little bit, if we start to
linger.
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Wilburn! My overall strategy was a youth community, a community youth development strategy,
because I was going to have both young and old putting together to talk to those different
groups, and we were going to have, okay, we were going to develop a theme related to
our business, education, arts and technology, and I was trying to think of some acronyms,
but all it comes out to is "eat" or "tea" but anyway, so at this event we're going to, I
mean, we'll have the overall theme. We're going to have a diverse event, so we're going
to have, whether it's a concert or something - either our Youth Advisory Commission
working with the James Gang, and someone like June Braverman who's really kind of
out there with the seniors to promote this event attracting people, so that we can have, I
guess, like a quasi-information fair while the music is going on, where we talk about
some of the specific tools that are available. We talk about our work force, we highlight
the infrastructure that we.. .and talk about specific tools like TlF, and we'll do it through
the use of Power Point. We'll have one of our local Fortune-5's, someone from P & G or
something like that, just be an emcee of the event and I had mentioned that it was going
to be a concert. So, if! were to put it up, I would have put the triangles in like a pyramid,
and then the words kind of tying those things together, but that's okay. (laughter)
Swaim! You would have hired an additional consultant to work on the visuals.
Wilburn! Yes, I would have!
Swaim! All right. Thanks, Ross. Another volunteer?
Champion/ I'll volunteer. Ijust kind of cut the pie. This is a pie slice - I'm not a very good
artist, and was just going to talk about the things that would add to our economic
package. I've pointed out some good things about Iowa City - big city entertainment,
recreational diversity, tax incentives used discretionarily (laughter) - discretionary
incentives!
Elliott/ That's an adverbial phrase.
Champion/ I know... educated public, young population, and then to really get the ice on the cake,
free love (laughter), a free trip to a rain forest, and you could become a University
President for two years! (laughter)
Swaim! All right.
Bailey/ I like that! We could build a whole campaign around that!
Swaim/ What was, what's the cut the pie again?
Champion/ The things that...
Swaim! Oh, I get it! Those are slices of the pie. Next person?
Champion! I tried to put it on one thing but you said it had to be on eight different things.
Swaim! I did, thank you. Mike?
O'Donnell/ Okay, I just, I tried to get everybody, I emphasized the University of Iowa.
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Swaim! Okay.
O'Donnell/ Emphasize health care, hospitals; spoke about judicious use ofTlFs (laughter). I talk
about the environment a little bit, the new water plant - we care about it (can't
hear)... new home construction the last five or six years. Emphasize parks and trails;
emphasize local schools and the quality; and then for some reason I put the Ped Mall in
here.
Swaim! Just put it on there?
0' Donnell/ Put it on there.
Swaim/ ...taking it out as part of the lunch box?
O'Donnell! Absolutely.
Swaim! All right.
O'Donnell/ It's part of our entertainment.
Swaim/ All right. Who's next?
Vanderhoef/ I'll go. My strategy is to sell my community, so I'm putting out there that I have
available sites that are comparatively inexpensive. We have research orientation through
the University and our citizenry. We have a blend of the old, meaning historic, the senior
citizens, and the new - the research and the young student population. We have
education for both youth and work force. We have international culture with diversity.
We have the arts, both visual and performing, with music, theater, sports. We have a
transportation system for all, both in the large and small, meaning our location on
interstates. We have internal roads; we have rail; we have local bus transportation for
seniors and for Cambus young, and my very last is the cookies, and that is the monetary
incentives ofTIFs and so forth.
Swaim! Baked into cookies. All right, thank you. Who would like to go next?
Correia! I can go next.
Swaim! Go ahead.
Correia! Okay. I did a similar strategy to Dee, selling the community, so I have great people and
tried to show neighborhoods that they're different (can't understand) for folks, businesses
are about the people that are working there. So, what would attract workers. I have other
amenities of the community, some of the arts and then athletics The Avenue of the
Saints, the Cedar Rapids Airport, the information highway, the University, that we're a
bigger - we have bigger city opportunities, but not all the hassles with traffic congestion
and what not. Then I put down that all the people sitting around the table that would be
available to help some company, so I put Iowa City, ICAD, Chamber, Priority One, the
regional approach, IDEO, and then down at the table, I have representation ofUI,
Kirkwood, and our schools, thinking about work force, trails, pools, sports complexes for
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youth. I was going to go to the Spelling Bee, and then the Library and the Ped Mall for
quality of life.
Swaim/ So that's the Ped Mall (laughter). No, we like it, it's very good. (laughter) All right,
who's next? Regenia?
Bailey/ Sure. I went a little bit with selling the community, but part of the presentation has to be
its process and so what I envision for this large group on the Washington Mall was sort of
a happening, a concert, multi-media sort of thing, talking about Iowa City, and Iowa City
can really be your creative blank slate. You can create yourself here. Flannery
O'Connor did, Frank Conroy did, John Irving did, and we have many artists who have
done that. Iowa City insofar is supporting, and then I incentivized to attract. We have
over 20,000 square feet of City-supported recording studio space, the Bon Jovi crowd, the
air guitar players, and for multiple performance venues, we have writer's clubs, we have
artists in the schools positions to support you as you write your great American novel,
access to literary agents and writing space throughout the community, and some of the
best writers in the world, so here is where you would want to be and start. It's easy to
live here. We have the most educated work force in the country (can't understand) trying
to appeal to the Fortune-SOO's. A strong Midwestern work ethic. Where you might get
the slackers on the coast, we don't work that way - we work a full 8-hour day in the
Midwest, and it's a place that employees like to live. It's very easy to live here. We're
also easy-in, easy-out, and we recently improved the transportation system. That we have
160 flights in and out of the Eastern Iowa Airport daily. That'sjust a dream of mine,
easy-in, easy-out. For the kids, because I really like the idea of getting those playground
builders, we have miles of bike trails, all of our schools are air conditioned. That's really
important, and we have the best playgrounds in the country. No, they're not, yet. We're
building (can't understand) fields, and we have a computer for every student.
Elliott! What field?
Bailey/
, you have to be able to fly, to play
Vanderhoef/ He hasn't read Harry Potter.
Bailey/Nah, that's okay. You're not the demographic; I don't care if you don't know! (laughter)
Elliott! You mean, this wasn't for a 70-year-old, huh?
Bailey/ It was not, unless you've been reading those out loud to somebody. We have the
University ofIowa and it's a great environment for entrepreneurs. I, technical expertise,
and I hope before we make this pitch, that we've developed more venture capital groups.
Not only can you create yourself and be creative here, we have the infrastructure to
support it. We have good city supported services. The infrastructure is here - the streets,
the roads, the land, and we have a supportive and smart city for business and for creative
life. That was my Richard Florida pitch.
Swaim! Thank you.
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Bailey/ Oh, and, I just made a note that I should have mentioned that I thought that we should get
Rick Fosse to pitch it and help us with the video because he does such a great job. Yeah,
we should send him out. . .
Swaim/ Put that on a card...
Bailey/ Here, it is. Flannery O'Connor, Frank Conroy, John Irving - and Rick Fosse! (laughter)
Swaim! Okay, and one last one, is that right?
Elliott! Last and least. Other people talked about process of how do we do it. All I did was the
items to be placed in the lunch box, and I had five quality of life items and tbree business
factors. Quality of life - safety, k-12 education, diverse population,
recreation/entertainment/arts, and attractive residential neighborhoods. Business factors
- a sound or business-friendly tax structure; a sound, business-friendly commercial
zoning; and sound, vibrant economy.
Swaim/ Great, all right. Thank you very much. Now, there's just a couple questions, and again I
won't spend lots of time on this, but I do want to probe your minds a little bit. First of
all, and I have all of them, correct? Except I don't have the staffs, and I was going to
leave those off...
Bailey/ But you said Steve had a great thing! I was really curious. (laughter)
Swaim/ You can share; we won't put it up on the board. Share your three brilliant thoughts.
Outside of the box thinking...
Bailey/ We could direct you to share. (laughter) Just pick it up, grab it like Bon Jovi and wail
away.
Atkins/ I was going to sell Iowa City and I was going to have three things done that I felt would
have a profound effect on the country, not just Iowa City, and this is all done without you
people wasting all this money that you're planning to (laughter). We are a community
highly vested in higher education. It is virtually a fixed asset to us, and therefore, I
propose three things we would need to do. They may not seem to, but think (can't hear).
Everyone in America will go to college for free. Everyone must serve their country for
two years, and we will nationalize the production of energy.
Swaim! Wow! (several talking at once) We like it! Are you going to the Chamber meeting in
Washington, D.C.? Should we take those with us and (laughter and several talking)
Elliott/ I don't think the Vice President would particularly like that. (laughter)
Swaim! Well, the questions I have for you. You know, in keeping with this whole metaphor, that
this was all mandated by Congress and they had this nifty idea. Well, guess what?
You're out there now, and guess what Congress did. They changed the rules. By the
time you got there (laughter and talking) so what else is new? So guess what? It turns
out that, who knows why they did this, but they decided that it's the actual playground
assembly group that's making the decisions. Given that, which one of these lunch boxes
do you want to make sure you use. You can only pick one lunch box. Which lunch box
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are you going to make sure you use? Remember, this is just the playground kids. These
are five to eight year olds. Quick, just quick. Don't think. This isn't probing too deep!
Which one? Does anyone of them stand out?
Elliott! I would pick the ones that.. .
Swaim! No, only one. Only one lunch box.
Elliott! .. . because some people talked about process. It's the process that will change. I don't
think you change the specific items. You're going to pitch...
Swaim! Which one do you pick?
Elliott! I pick mine.
Swaim! You pick yours?
Elliott! Yeah. (laughter)
Bailey! To 6th graders?
Swaim! No, no, five year olds and. ..(several talking at once). So, Bob, that's what you pick?
Elliott! You just pitch it entirely different than you would to someone else.
Swaim! Okay. Does anybody else have a different choice?
Champion! I don't think they're interested in free love. (laughter)
Swaim! Any others? (several talking at once) Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
Congress changed the rules again, sorry! They decided, you know what, these kids are
all out there just playing, they're messing around, they're not paying attention. We
switched back. We're going to the international expo, and you know, in a spirit of
international cooperation, they're going to defer to an international expo decisions about
how America's going to do economic development. Tell me which one you pick then?
Anyone of them?
Wilburn! Well, Ross had the diversity focus, if I can read that correctly. So, maybe we could spin
that lunch box.
Swaim! Okay, so that one might work. Anybody else have a different one? So in all seriousness
now, what if you were going to make a presentation to a group of Fortune-500 experts?
What would you, and you can use the lunch boxes or not, but what would be the one or
two things that you would want to pitch to Fortune 500?
Vanderhoef! I like my own list on that.
Swaim! Okay.
Bailey! But it's not a homogenous group. It depends upon who we're talking to, which CEO.
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Swaim! So you want to know a little bit about it - to start to make some choices. Okay.
Elliott! I think you keep the same basic values and assets. It's how you pitch it. The only thing
that changes is the process.
Swaim/ Okay. So different audiences for you don't really change what it is you're pitching. It's
just the techniques that you use to make the pitch?
Elliott/ Yeah.
Swaim! And, what if you could only pick one or two techniques, you think is the safest, most
strategic use of your resources, in terms of picking a particular pitch, style?
Vanderhoef/ I think you have to listen to what their original request is and then develop your
pitch to go to be sure that you've answered their request.
Swaim! Okay. Well, again, part of the insight that I'm hoping to draw you to in this is that
economic development does include a lot of thinking about what you're going to try and
do. Some of the things that you covered already in the discussion were depending on the
audience that you're pitching it to, and that sometimes, there's very different audiences
you're pitching to - whether it's a group of youths or a group of decision makers in
Washington or a group of decision makers in Des Moines. Even within industry,
depending on what type of industry, you're trying to effect their choices, and sometimes
you're going to what, have a different nuance to your pitch, or... what would you be
doing?
Bailey/ Well, I wouldn't try to use PowerPoint in front of Bill Gates. Let me just assure you.
Yeah, you would just do a different approach.
Swaim! Okay, all right. All right. So, I hope that was useful to you, and it is intended, though, to
get you back to thinking about the goals, and that is what the rest of the afternoon's
workshop is going to be about. I want you to think back, and I'll put the images back up
that we had while you're doing this. You're going to work, let me tell you a little bit
about the process. You're going to work individually for starters. I'm going to ask you
to think individually on your own for several minutes, and you can make notes on a
single piece of paper. After you have had a chance to think and reflect on some things,
I'm going to be asking you to write some ideas down in bigger writing, using the bigger
markers, putting one idea per paper. And so, and then we're going to start to share that
information and put these ideas back up on the board. So, I want you to take a few
moments to write down tangible goals that you as a Councilor, or you as a Council, or
you in partnership with staff, would like to make progress on, and 1.. ..careful to choose
my words. There's some of you, you can choose schools...it can be your goal, Bob. It
can be, Mike, you can pick a goal that you really think this Council is going to work on,
or that you'd like to see the Council work on, or Ross, you can think of a goal, a tangible
goal that you think that you as a Council and the staff sort of working in harmonious
partnership can work on.
Elliott! How much reality.. .can these be...
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Swaim! These need to be tangible.
Elliott! Okay.
Swaim! And these need to be real. This is the part where you're trying to zero in on what you can
really expect of each other. And you know a lot about each other. The six of you who've
served together for two years certainly know a lot about how you work together. You
have a lot of history. Amy, even though she's new to the Council, has followed a lot of
the dialogue that you've been engaged in.
Elliott/ And these are goals that we want for our city.
Swaim! Goals that you want either for the City, for you as a Council, for you as a Councilor, or
for you in partnership with the staff. All right. Is everybody clear on this?
Elliott/ How many?
Swaim/ Well, let's at least start...! want to make sure you get at least five, and before youjust
start quickly writing, I want you to take a moment and look around the room, look at
some ofthe stuff we talked about with economic development. We talked about some of
the strengths that you have and ways that you're marketing your community. What you
need to do over there, you have your rules as how you're going to operate, you know, as
a group of folks, and you have these lunch boxes that you dreamed about. So I want you
to look before you start writing too fast, and then bear those things in mind. .. . get your
list of ideas, I want you to take just a step to the side for a minute from big ideas, I want
to make sure that you have one or two small goals, very small tangible ones. I want to
make sure you have at least a chance to jot those down. We may not talk a lot about
them today, but if you could, remember to add just one or two very small goals that you
have, either as a council, or that you want to suggest to your colleagues as a council. So
at least five. ...understand the rules in a little bit. If you're going to write a goal down, I
need you to try and use five to seven words, all right? No more than that. Here's another
one, and Regenia, I know that this might.. .one idea per page. That is only one idea. I
know that some goals are inner-related, and you can have if you want, if you have
something like that, you can have two distinct goals, but make sure each distinct idea is
on one page. And the last thing, is write big enough so that when I put it up here, you can
read it. All right? So, I'll give you about five more minutes, to write your ideas down.
(TAPE ENDS) ...to number offfor me, count one, two, three. We'll start with you, Dee.
Vanderhoef/ One.
ElIiott/ Two.
Correia! Three.
Champion/ One.
O'Donnell/ Two.
Bailey/ Three.
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Wilburn! One. (can't hear)
Swaim/ Okay, I'll have the ones stand up, people who were numbered one. And if you guys
would.. .you're going to come back to your original table so you can take your mikes off.
And ones, why don't you gather around Ross's table. Twos, who are the twos? Mike,
you want to come over and join Bob. And, Amy and Regenia are the threes. All right,
here's your assignment then. (several talking at once) With your partner, I want you to
very quickly, now this is, I'm trying to learn better how to give this instruction. So I'm
going to try it again. First, I want you to just read what you wrote. I don't want you to
elaborate. If you wrote "do things," I don't want you to say "do things, by that I mean we
want to do this, this, and this.' Ijust want you to read your card to your partner. After
you're read all your cards, you can then start to have dialogue about what you might have
meant by them. All right? So, are we clear on this? So what I want you to do is, start by
sharing what you wrote down, and I'll tell you where we're eventually trying to head
with this. We're trying to answer this question ~ what are the major goals that we as a
Council want to work to achieve in the coming year? That's the direction that we're
headed. But for starters, I want you to just read to each other what you wrote, and then
after you've gotten that done, start to have a discussion about it. We've got about five
minutes forthis part of it. (can't hear) and make sure you have a clear statement that
your colleagues will be able to read.
Elliott! Oh, we were supposed to put these on a card? We've got ten cards.
Swaim/ No, that's good. You have that many cards, just make sure each card is clear. ".at your
table, I want you to pick (can't hear) ". the three, at your table, pick the three clearest
cards that you think are really clear. They don't have to be innovative, they don't have to
be (can't hear), but the three that are very clear. That when I put up there nobody's going
to go, "What does that mean?"
Bailey/ This is very unclear. This is unclear.
Swaim/ There's just a one minute, let me tell you one other thing here. All ideas (can't hear) so
don't get too carried away with (can't hear). For now, pick the three clearest ideas that
you've got. And when you've got three, would you hold them up for me, please.
(several talking at once) You have to pick out three. Only three.
Elliott! Jim?
Swaim! Yes?
Elliott! (can't hear)
Swaim/ Again, ['11 just, I'll let you know that, as part of this activity, all ideas are eventually
coming up here, so I'm, when I'm asking you to select ideas, don't be worried that some
idea that you have, some powerfully, great idea that's not responsive to the question that
I'm asking, is not going to get up there. Okay?
. Elliott! I have a powerful idea.
Swaim/ What's that?
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Elliott! Been drinking enough Pepsi. I need a break pretty soon. (laughter)
Swaim/ That's a great idea. I've got your cards and we'll start to put them up. Let's take a five
minute break? (TAPE OFF) Is my mike back in... no... before we, before I have
everybody, actually, don't put your microphones back on or anything for the moment. I
want you to take your three, go back to your table, grab your three postcards. This is
only going to take five seconds. I want you to corne over to this table, and I want you to
put your postcards in order. That is, from top to bottom. At the top of the table would be
your number one postcard. That's the one that motivated you to get into service. Put
your number two card by the, and put them on your lunch box, by the way. (several
talking) And for staff, if you would just use the end of the table and the piano. So, one,
two, and three. Two was the, how you want to be perceived and the third one was how
you think you're perceived by the public. Okay, for the remaining time that we've got,
we're going to try and see what, how close you can all get to seeing if there are some
major goals that you as a Council want to work to achieve in the coming year. And I'm
going to just put these ideas up and read them out loud. Additional police and
firefighters; recycling at youth sports' parks; Jake brake ordinance for Scott Boulevard;
little goal ~ support, enhance, nurture...
Bailey/ Summer of the Arts.
Swaim! Summer of the Arts, SOTA. Neighborhood preservation, including historic; develop
Iowa City promotion campaign; lobby state and federal officials on behalf of cities; more
user-friendly, business-friendly community; northside fire station; continue to grow tax
base. Are any of those ideas not clear to somebody? Do we need any elaboration on
what, clarification of what is (can't hear)? Okay. So, looking up there... well, let me ask
you this. Hand me one more clear goal. Is that what your table wants? (can't hear;
laughter) Yeah, I want.. .no, just yours. No, he didn't mess up. He did it fine. Here are
three more: sponsor board and commission on.. .sponsor board and commission info fair;
general...something on infrastructure...appearance. What is this word?
Elliott! General consensus.
Swaim/ General consensus on infrastructure...I got it, okay, and metro agenda, really do one. All
right, so looking at those and again, this is general consensus on infrastructure,
appearance goals, and Bob is rewriting it so that everyone can read it, and more user
friendly, business-friendly community. So, looking at those, do you see any pairs that are
related, in terms of an intent of what the goal is about?
Wilburn! Well, the northside fire station and the additional police and firefighters are related to
public safety concerns (can't hear).
Swaim/ Okay. For the moment, I.. .one of the things that I'll warn you about is, lots of times
you'll start to see that there's five that might be related or there's three, but for the
moment just look and see if you have any pairs.
Correia! Continue to grow the tax base and more user-friendly, business-friendly community, that
goes together.
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Swaim! Okay. Thank you very much, Bob. Any other pairs?
Champion/ Well, I think the board, commission info and the Iowa City (can't hear) are all about
public information and promoting ourselves.
Swaim! This one and which one?
Champion/ The boards and commissions...
Wilburn! The one that was above it, directly above it.
Swaim/ It that...
Champion! Do you think they go together?
Swaim/ Do I? Well, I do, but I'mjust a Border collie. (laughter) (can't hear) No, I do, and the
important thing is do your colleagues?
Champion! Public relations, really.
Swaim/ Any other pairs within this remaining group? If not, what I'd like you to do now is look
at what you have at your table, and I want you to pick out at least two that are very
different from anything that you see up there. Okay? Any two ideas that you have that
are very different from anything that you see up there. Who wrote this neighborhood
preservation one?
Champion/ I did.
Swami Can you write it just a tiny bit bigger, or actually, Dale...can I get your help? This'll
speed it along. The pink one says (can't hear). Okay, we've got two from here. Three
from this table. That's okay. Two that are very different from what you've heard so far.
Okay, we have some new ones that are coming up. We have emphasis on volunteering
and contribution; clean and beautify river banks; Burlington to Benton; create zoning or
incentives to establish scattered housing; hsg. developed rental and homeowner
affordable to 80% AMI and below (can't hear). What's that? (can't hear) What...
Wilburn! It's short for the word, it's short for housing development.
Bailey/ Up at the top, hsg. said housing.
Swaim/ Oh, housing. (laughter) I get it, I'm sorry. You all understood it though, that's the
important thing. Accountability; understanding; begin messaging about where the
actions speak louder; goes dollars - is that?
Bailey/ Where the money goes.
Swaim/ Begin messaging about where the...money goes, the action... tell me what you mean.
Bailey/ We talked a little bit about showing the community where the budget goes and where the
money goes, just like education and...
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Swaim! So show the community where the budget goes?
Bailey/ Yeah the accountability.
Swaim! Can you write show the community where the budget goes?
Bailey/ Yeah, I can do that.
Swaim! Transit; work with builders regarding housing prices. So, looking at those, are there any
new or additional pairs that you see with what is up here? Now, will people understand
that? (can't hear) Okay. You see any new pairs? Which ones? Is it paired with
anything up there? (several talking, hard to hear) Name which ones you want me to pair.
This is the housing developed, rental affordable, blah, blah, blah, and this one? Any
other pairs?
Vanderhoef/ Follow the money actually goes on up with other information, sponsor board,
commission and develop Iowa City promotion campaign.
Swaim/ All right, let's hold that thought. I'll put that over there, but right now l'mjust looking
for any new pairs with what's over here. We've got Jake brake ordinance; recycling at
youth sports; support, nurture - what is it again? Summer of the Arts; consensus on
infrastructure appearance; metro agenda, really do one; neighborhood preservation;
transit; clean and beautify river bank; emphasis on volunteering and contribution; zoning
incentives for scattered housing. Any other pairs? That aren't already represented in
these?
Vanderhoef/ The infrastructure (can't hear) and so forth, and clean, beautify rivers and river
banks and so forth.
Swaim! Okay, does that work?
Wilburn/ What's the...
Swaim/ What's the connection?
Wilburn/ What's the connection?
Vanderhoef/ The connection is still beautifying the city.
Wilburn! Oh, okay. Yes, sure.
Swaim! And anything on for these remaining that start to go with one existing set of pairs?
Bailey/ Well, the zoning and (can't hear)
Swaim! This one here?
Bailey/ Yes.
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Swaim! Goes with this one here? Okay.
Bailey/ Dee said, where were you (can't hear)
Swaim! You suggested this going over here?
Bailey/ No, the info, to the far left, develop Iowa City.
Swaim! Oh, to this one.
Bailey/ Yep.
Swaim/ Oh, okay, I'm sorry, Dee. I was misunderstanding.
Vanderhoef/ And lobbying state and federal officials probably goes over there with public
information, also.
Swaim/ That's one place it can go.
Vanderhoef/ It can go lots of places actually, but it's...
Swaim/ Well, let's check with your colleagues.
Wilburn! The board and commission info fair and the promotional campaign, for me, were ways
to essentially do some outreach and promotion about the community, to bring, to bring
people either volunteering for us, or bringing resources and people to the area. So...
Champion/ (can't hear)
Vanderhoef/ Well, follow the money, if we want to take it in the broad picture could go with the
lobbying because the (can't hear).
Bailey/ Well, the following the money though, the first part of that was accountability, so
developing some measures of accountability so we can explain, I mean, maybe follow the
money doesn't really capture it, but the sense of accountability within our goals of
departments and our goals of the City in communicating that. So, it is an outreach, but
first and foremost, it has to be something internal. At least, that's my long explanation
for that very unclear card.
Swaim! Can you put that in five words?
Bailey/ Nope. I could try.
Swaim! All right, give that a shot.
Wilburn/ (can't hear) different intent though. The intent being education about, about the budget
piece to it.
Bailey/ Okay, so (can't hear). I think in clumps of thoughts.
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Swaim! Do any of these in any form, either paired together ar work as a some kind of a cluster,
these ones that are left? Does supporting Summer of the Arts...
Wilburn! That puts us on volunteering contribution, gets closer to what I was talking about with
the boards and commission, and somewhat with the, yeah, those.
Swaim! So that would go over there maybe, okay?
Bailey/ Can transit be part of infrastructure?
Wilburn! What is it about transit?
Swaim/ Yeah, what is...! should have asked that. Thank you, Ross, trained facilitator. What is
this (can't hear).
Bailey/ Once again it was a clump of thoughts and that was the best! could do.
Swaim/ It's a clump of thoughts. Tell us a little bit more about this clump. (laughter)
Bailey/ Really?
Swaim! What about transit?
Bailey/ Make it, ! mean, we're going to look at transit, but we have to make it more
comprehensive to reach and better serve the needs of the community. So, looking at late
night, looking at routes, the whole comprehensive look.
Swaim/ So, why don't you write comprehensive look at transit.
Wilburn! I got ya.
Swaim! And, anything else on here? Neighborhood preservation; Jake brake ordinance; recycling
at youth sports' parks - any of those either pair up together in a way or...
Wilburn! The recycling is sort of related to the clean and beautify and consensus on the
appearance. ! mean, part of it isjust getting (can't hear) recycling aspect, but you see all
those bottles and stuff down at the, so it's...
Swaim! Does that work? (several talking)
Elliott/ The neighborhood preservation, in my mind, is what! had when! talked about
infrastructure on the far right column.
Swaim! This one?
Elliott/ Wanting a consensus on infrastructure and appearance has to do with preservation
concerns.
Champion/ I don't think so.
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Swaim! Okay.
Elliott! Yeah, because a consensus on infrastructure and appearance has to do with that
continuing conflict between greater good of the community and individual rights.
Swaim! And I think I can see that point, but if a colleague thinks that it's not working with how
they're currently paired, I'm just going to leave it off here for a few minutes. It may end
up coming back under there, after you have a little more time to talk about it.
Correia! Could transit go under the comprehensive, or consensus on infrastructure?
Bailey! Thinking of transit as infrastructure?
Swaim! Well, it depends. You've got this part that's related to the appearance stuff, and you've
got the part that relates to infrastructure. Maybe if you separated these two ideas, that is,
a consensus about the infrastructure and then a separate thing about. . . did you mean by
the appearance, I should have asked this, did you mean the, was that a distinct thought
that how we appear as a city when you're first coming in, or how. . .
Elliott! I mean, there's a significant difference of opinion in our community of what planning for
Iowa City, what direction, what goal we should be achieving. There are many who
disagree with the current direction and goal of the planning process.
Swaim! Okay. And tell me what, tell me the distinct part about appearance, what is the...
Elliott! Well, we're back to the...
Swaim! Were you referring to the appearance of[owa City?
Elliott! Appearance of neighborhoods. As I mentioned before, you're back to the conflict
between greater good and individual rights, when you talk about appearances, and with
the infrastructure, I'm talking about the concept of where our planning is intended to take
us.
Swaim! I'm going to pull that out ofhere for just a minute, until we can get some more
conversation about it, and, so, when you pull that out in terms of infrastructure,
neighborhood preservation, clean and beautifY, recycling...now, is that, does that work,
or do you still want it someplace else?
Champion! I think neighborhood preservation is more about housing and our housing stock and
diversity of housing. (several talking)
Swaim! Okay, I see a lot of heads nodding. We'll put it there.
Elliott! There's always going to be some overlap on all of those.
Swaim! Absolutely, you've gotten right to the next part, or part of what we end up in this
discussion is to talk about some of the overlap. Okay, really quickly then, we've got Jake
brake ordinance.
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Champion/ That can go with clean and beautify (can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ Noise.
Swaim/ All right. Lobby state and fed officials? We'll keep that over here. Comprehensive look
at transit and metro agenda. Do those go together in some way? (can't hear)
Elliott! To me, that goes with what I was discussing for what I put up there.
Swaim! This one?
Elliott/ Yeah, that's a better, that's a better way of putting what I put down. I don't...
Swaim! This is that COnsensus on infrastructure and appearance goals; metro agenda, really do
one; and comprehensive look at transit?
Elliott/ Yeah, I think that's what I'm getting to.
Vanderhoef/ Metro agenda, I'm not clean on that.
Swaim! Who wrote metro agenda?
Bailey/ I just live in my own really nice universe. (laughter) Everybody understands everybody
in my head.
Swaim/ It's the Border collie's favorite (can't hear). So what did...
Bailey/ We have a list of metro agenda items...
Swaim/ Let me ask just a...
Bailey/ Border collie question?
Swaim/ Not a Border...a citizen question. Is there such a thing as the metro agenda?
Bailey/ There is! It's a memo. An infamous memo.
Swaim/ There is a metro agenda, and when you say "really do one," if you've got a metro agenda,
what does this mean then?
Bailey/ ...actually do it, instead of just talking about it.
Wilburn/ ... take two items to promote and highlight multi-jurisdictional.
Bailey/ Thank you, there you go.
Swaim! And I guess put that up here?
Vanderhoef/ (can't hear) memo, then I know which one you've gone back to. It didn't trigger my
mind at all under that name.
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Champion/ (can't hear) put the lobby state and federal officials with that because that's kind of a
metro thing, and transit doesn't belong there. Transit is the thing (can't hear).
Swaim/ Tell you what? I'm going to put these three puppies over here.
Elliott! We have some more things at our tables...
Swaim/ I absolutely know that. And so... no, I don't want you to hand them to me. I want you to
look at your table, and... for the moment, look at your existing cards and find four cards
and if you think it belongs on one ofthese columns, draw this symbol.. .on the card. And
if it doesn't have an existing relationship with something up here, put a question mark on
the card. If you can use the different color ink to draw your symbol, that'll help me just
know which ones are new instead of just going up there. Yep, put them up under the
column that you think they should. Summer Arts is over by, it's under the question mark.
You can put them at an angle. All right, have you had the chance to bring up quite a few
more? I'm going to start to pick up the pace a little bit. I'm noticing the time. I'm going
to try and go through really quickly the new ones that are up here. We have a city slogan;
youth input to Council, under this category that we have yet to name; change perception
of doing business; increase city revenue diversity; economic develop is about jobs that
pay a healthy wage; how can we versus we can't; good jobs; increase industrial,
commercial tax base; support DI economic development; shared values discussion;
housing homeless; snow emergency route signage; connect bike trails and update rec
facilities; update reccenter parking ramps; remember the airport terminal; recycling
comprehensive not just lip service; improve appearance, flowers, litter pickup, more
trees; under this category we've got partnership with ICCSD; pick two items to promote
and highlight multi-jurisdiction; and the new question marks, develop internal
accountability to support external messaging about where the dollars are, is spent; relook
at Senior Center; completion of eastside trail to Creekside Park onto DT and river,
downtown and river, via wide sidewalk on Muscatine and Burlington; phew, maintain
quality of rec activities; serve brie cheese and fruit at meetings (laughter); cultural and
entertainment available to all; strengthen Summer of the Arts; info strategy about
diversifying portfolio; keep taxes low; Eastern Iowa Airport; expansion of industrial
park; completion of trail from Scott Boulevard to river; loop trail.. .excuse me... to river
via Rochester and Jefferson or Market sidewalk; loop trail around Sand Lake; upgrade
Benton Street.
Elliott/ Did you miss Connie's, or did she not put up the one on free love? (laughter)
Swaim/ She did not put up the one on free love. Here's the hard part, we're moving well beyond
five to seven words and that's fine, that's fine, but part of the thing is that if you move
forward with this process, you want to, what we're trying to get to yet this afternoon is a
couple of clear goals that you've got. So, in the, in the spirit of trying to speedup towards
that conclusion, do any of these over here go with some existing one here, or are they a
new, a new pair? We've got increased destination events? Let me back up a second; let
me ask you this. If we were to just pick a word for the moment, and this isn't exactly the
word that you might use later on today, but if there was one word that connects these
ideas, what word would that be? (several talking at once) Engagement? Is engagement
the word that you would use? All right. (several talking) City slogan! (laughter) What
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the heck, let's just go to 4:00, what the heck. What one word or two words, one word,
would you use to connect these?
Champion/ Development, economic development.
Swaim! Development? Development?
Elliott! Well, it has to do with commercial or economic development.
Swaim! Economic development? Economic development. Okay.
Vanderhoef/ If you do that, then your (can't hear).
Elliott! Destination events?
Swaim! Hang on, slow down for just a minute. If we do this, what goes over here?
Champion! All those things.
Swaim! Tell me.
Vanderhoef/ The cultural...( can't hear). ..and entertainment for all, which is down at the bottom,
next to the bottom there.
Bailey/ Destination events, to your... there.
Swaim! So these three things all go under here then.
Vanderhoef/ Yeah, move that third one over because I have a title for it over there.
Swaim! Move this one over somewhere?
Vanderhoef/ We put a whole bunch over on the right hand side that are basically capital
improvement projects, which the fire (can't hear).
Swaim/ Well, one of... part of it is, this part is not capital.
O'Donnell/ It's public safety.
Swaim! You want to call this public safety?
Bailey/ Well, that's what it is.
Elliott! Yes.
Swaim! All right, public safety. Well, you could combine and say department improvements.
Wilburn! I think what Dee was getting at with the CIP is those are tangible, those are tangible
items that are on our capital improvements, so...
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Bailey! The department improvements could involve the capital, as well as she staffing, so we
could group a whole bunch more in there.
Elliott! So what's the next line?
Wilburn! Well, I guess maybe just a suggestion. If we call it, I mean, a lot of those items are on
our capital improvement budget projections, so, and these other items aren't necessarily
related to that, so maybe one of the goals is just, I mean, the goal would be... we know we
have to do a capital improvement project, or program, so then these would be items under
that and then at some point we would need to prioritize. Well, we'll be doing that
naturally anyway, so the suggestion is instead of calling it public safety, just go ahead
and call it CIP, we all know those are items on the capital improvement budget, and
throw the rest of those that are under question marks under there, so CIP. . . that's a
suggestion.
Elliott! Except the fire station is not nearly so much capital improvement as it isjust a part, it's
public safety, because the stumbling block is hiring the staff, not (can't hear).
Swaim! Is it, are you comfortable with it being lumped in with these other things, or do you just
want it to stand alone? I mean, that's kind of in the end what...
Wilburn! My suggestion, and again, it's just a suggestion, we're going to be, these are all
budgetary items, whether you want to call it capital improvement or some impact on the
budget, we're going to be deciding that within the next month. So, these other items are,
just looking at t hem, are things that we're going to be addressing throughout the course
of the rest of the year.
Elliott! I guess I would, but I would put the fire slation and the police and fire all in one category.
Because they're contingent on hiring staff. I think we're both probably right, it's just six
of one, half dozen of the other.
Swaim! Well, let's see if we have a compromise worked out, and tell me what other one, if you
use that category, all the trail stuff...
Champion! That's a capital improvement.
Bailey! Just look (can't hear).
Swaim! Completion of eastside trail; upgrade Benton Street?
Bailey! Well, they were, they were very specific.
Swaim! (several talking at once) Okay? Before you get to there, what's this one about?
Housing? Just housing? Affordable housing, housing in general, diverse housing?
Housing. And this one?
Champion! Beautification.
Swaim! Okay. Beautification.
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Wilbum! I was just thinking environmental beautification, that includes the noise, the
environment.
Swaim! Environmental beautification.
ElIiott/ Dale, you're doing a heck of ajob. (laughter)
Swaim! This last one, emphasis on infrastructure, partnership with Iowa City schools, metro
agenda - really do one, pick two items to promote and highlight multi-jurisdiction.
What, what's the word that's connecting those?
Correia! Well, the bottom three all seem to be inter-governmental.
Swaim! Okay.
Correia! But that top one doesn't go with that title.
Swaim/ So this one still...people are struggling to understand this a little bit. Is that...
Elliott! I'd put it all under planning.
Swaim/ But she's suggesting it's related to inter-governmental though.
Elliott! Metro agenda is planning.
Bailey/ No, what we've done is planning, doing one is something other than planning.
Swaim! Planning, inter-governmental- any other suggestions? (several talking) Inter-
governmental, can you live with that? Looking at what's left over here, relook at Senior
Center. Does that go under capital improvemerits? Does it go under inter-governmental?
Is it all by itse1f'?
Vanderhoef/ It goes with engagement, maybe. (several talking)
Swaim/ This is again one of these where... we may need a little clarification because relooking at
the Senior Center means that I ask you all to stand out here and look at it. (several
talking)
Bailey/ Programmatically, can I just add that?
Swaim/ I'll add that right here, but it's not just, you want to look at the programming at the
Senior Center, is that.. .you're not talking about the building, is what I'm getting at?
Bailey/ I might be.
Swaim! All right. Then is it a capital improvement, part ofrelooking at the Senior Center, or is it
something else?
Elliott! I would think the building would follow the program. You look at the concept, you look
at the program, then you determine what kind of building you need to house that.
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Swaim! Now, I did their retreat and I know some of the stuffthey're dealing with in terms of
inter-governmental cooperation. Just play devil's advocate for a moment, you know,
they're talking about, you know, the 28E agreement you have and a bunch of stuff like
that. That's not really what you meant by this. So, do you want to put it over here by
that or do you want it to stand alone?
Bailey! Are you asking...
Swaim! I'm asking the group.
Bailey! I wouldn't put it under capital improvements.
Swaim! All right, I'll leave it over here. Consensus on infrastructure, we're still not sure what
that is. Maintain quality ofrec activities, does that go anywhere?
Champion! Those are just little goals.
Bailey! Yeah, but the rec activities could go with the Senior Center if you're talking programs,
right?
Swaim! All right.
Bailey! Departmental.
Swaim! Programs.
Correia! Jim, could that expansion of industrial, it's to your right. Expansion of industrial parks,
could that go under economic development?
Bailey! Oh, yeah, it should.
Swaim! Okay. Where did the follow the money finally end up? Under engagement or under
economic development?
Bailey! That's that info of strategy of diversifYing portfolio goes with that other red one and the
follow the money.
Swaim! And where does it go?
Bailey! I don't know, I don't do categories.
Swaim! Well, these are about engaging the public. In your discussion this afternoon you were
talking about, you need to bring the public along as part of this discussion, so one
possibility is that it can go there. It is related to economic development, so it's a
possibility that you keep it there, and again, when we're done with today you'll have, all
of these items do start to interweave together. But the important part is you begin to have
a fair idea of a couple of common goals that as a Council you're working on. This is the
question we're trying to answer.
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Wilburn/ I guess there is a threat of engagement (can't hear) with those. The outcomes may be
different, but the, engaging the public in some way.
Swaim! Strengthen Summer of the Arts, is that (TAPE ENDS) Okay. Economic development.
Comprehensive look at transit? (several talking) Develop internal accountability.
Bailey/ That's the follow the money.
Swaim! Follow the money?
Bailey/ Yeah, just put it over there. I don't want to talk about that one anymore.
Swaim! Eastern Iowa Airport, big idea?
Bailey/ My idea was something with economic development, is to get more flights in and out, to
make it more attractive, easier to live here and easier to do your work from this base.
Swaim! Okay. Lobby state officials? Consensus on infrastructure and appearance goals?
Bailey/ What does that mean?
Elliott! Well, one of the things that comes out ofthis,just because we use the same words doesn't
mean we mean the same thing when different people use the same words.
Bailey/ What did you mean?
Elliott! Well, as I said before, there is not now a consensus of what our infrastructure should be
and what the appearance of our town should be.
Bailey/ Isn't that the (can't hear)?
Elliott/ Yes, and there's a significant diversity of opinion on what is happening with planning.
Swaim/ Well, do you want to.. .Iet me ask you this. If the Council were to undertake, gain an
understanding of what the citizens view of the infrastructure and appearance should be...
Elliott! That's more than five words.
Swaim/ [know. (laughter) But is that what the Council would work on then. I'm trying to get at
what it is that you would work on.
Bailey/ If we were to work on that, what would that look like? If we would work on this project,
what would we do?
Elliott/ What would we do?
Bailey/ Yeah, what would working on that, because I don't understand what that is...
Elliott! It would have more to do with the planning process than any other single thing that we do.
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Wilburn/ Walk us through this part of what I'm hearing, it potentially could be related to
engagement, but we're trying to, I think there's a couple of us thinking that is the zoning
code and we just adopted that. So what beyond...
Elliott! To be very blunt, I think that the Planning and Zoning Conunission and the Planning staff
have a goal and are on a mission to accomplish the goal that is not shared by many, many
people in this city.
Bailey/ They're wanting to accomplish a goal that's beyond what the (can't hear)?
Elliott/ I hear them talking about they want a street to drive down so you can see the vista. Most
people want a street you can drive a car down efficiently and safely, and...
Swaim/ You're starting to get into the actual discussion of some of these items which you clearly
need to do as a Council, but in terms of a goal, is the goal that you want to, for
example.. .
Wilburn/ .. . revisit the zoning code? Have a community discussion about, opening up the, what's
our.. . comprehensive plan again. That's what we're trying to get is what your intent is.
Elliott/ There's too much of a diversity, there's too much of a difference of opinion on what
appears to be the goal. And just what you said would be a way to approach that.
Swaim/ Okay, well, I'm going to go ahead and leave that over here under engagement for the
moment, knowing that there's a.. .there's some... variety of views of what is meant by
that and what strategies you might undertake, and when we're trying to answer this
question, it may be that that's not one of the things that the whole Council is working to
achieve. It might be something that one of you is working to achieve. We've got
meetings, we're just going to leave that over here, and keep taxes low, which I think goes
together because if you're serving brie cheese and fruit (laughter). You want keep taxes
low under economic development, or where was.. . (several talking).. . all right. So, let's,
let me step back for a minute. You've got seven different areas besides the brie that
you're talking about working on as a Council. You're talking about some form of
engaging the public in a variety of things, and I'm going to be posing, I'm stating them
but I'm posing them a little bit of (can't hear). You've got a whole bunch of stuff related
to economic development strategies and economic development work, as a Council.
You've got stuff that is on your capital improvement list, some of which, or at least one
of which, relates to additional personnel, but is all part of the.. . okay. You've got
housing. You've got environmental beautification. You've got inter-governmental
cooperation. And you've got a couple things related to programs. Now, if we were in
English class and we were trying to write a three to five word goal for each of these,
looking at the stuffthat's underneath, and again, what will be captured for you in the
public record, will be these items, and this is not by any means a comprehensive list of
everything that you're going to be potentially looking at in these. But in looking at this
stuff, is there a... well, let me first start with, which one of those has the most things
under it? That would be economic development has a lot of stuff under it. What would
you say, how would you state the goal? As a major goal, as a Council, we want to work
to achieve what related to economic development? What do you want to do, if you were
to try and write that as a goal, three to five words, simple goal?
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Elliott/ Well, economic development in and of itself is a goal, but if you want to go more broadly
than that, you would improve the overall vitality of the city.
Swaim! So improve the vitality of the city, is the goal ofthe Council? That's pretty
straightforward already. Well, look at the activities for a minute. What is it about
economic development that several of those have in common?
Vanderhoef! Engagement with the public.
Swaim/ Well, that's this stuff.
Vanderhoef/ But it's a different (can't hear) in terms of activities (can't hear).
Swaim/ Let me ask this question. Again, this is kind of a naIve citizen question, is there a stated
or even an implied economic development strategy? Does the Iowa City Council have an
economic development strategy?
Vanderhoef/ The goal really is to build the tax base, and...
Swaim! But is there a strategy to do that? (several talking) So, within that strategy, what does
this stuff represent then that you're going to work on? You already have an economic
development strategy? [s it simply stated, is there a way to say it in a minute? (can't
hear) Okay.
Champion/ What we're really trying to do is make Iowa City conducive to an economic
development.
Bailey/ . ..accessibility of those statements, like (can't hear). Change the perception of doing
business, which is some... we hear that a lot, but if we really undertook that, what would
that mean exactly?
Swaim/ Well, again, for the moment, I'm just trying to ...
Bailey/ That's what I'm saying is accessibility and conducive environment. (can't hear)
Swaim! What do you think"
Bailey/ So enticement?
Swaim/ Can you write that on a piece of paper? We'll let her write that for a minute and we'll
come back to this.
O'Donnell/ I think it's all about being receptive to creative ideas. You know, that's (can't hear).
Swaim! Well, following that a little bit, what is this engagement part, I mean, is that also related
to creating a receptive citizenry, or what is this goal about?
Wilburn! !t's involved and informed about the city, involved, engaged with the city, there's a
knowledge piece and there's the involvement piece.
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Swaim! Teaching the citizens about city government and engaging them?
Bailey/ But it's a dialogue, a two-way, I think. A promotion campaign, but also sponsoring a
board and commissions to get their energy working on commissions and those kinds of
things.
Vanderhoef/ Educating the citizens.
Bailey/ But that's not a (can't hear).
Swaim! Well, the education is capturing part of it, but you want it to be an interactive...
Bailey/ Right, because we're also sort of recruiting the talent for our boards and commissions at
this info fair.
Swaim! Is there a way that you can incorporate the word "interactive" into the part of the
education that.. ..all right.
Vanderhoef/ (can't hear) and engagement of the citizens.
Swaim! Educate and engage. Does that work for you?
O'Donnell/ It really depends on how you interpret city "slogon."
Swaim/ We're getting close to the end here, but...
Elliott! I'm leaving at any minute, Jim. (laughter)
Swaim! Does that work?
Elliott/ Looks good.
Swaim/ And how would you word, let's try the housing one.
Champion/ Well, I think we're talking about housing diversity in all these things.
Vanderhoef/ Inclusive housing? (several talking)
Swaim! Tell me a little bit though about how you would word the goal for the Council. What is
the Council's goal?
Wilburn! Deciding housing strategy, deciding affordable housing strategy.
Swaim! Deciding affordable housing strategy.
Elliott! Yeah, but to me that housing has more to do than affordable housing. Because we're
loosing housing, that housing that provides more taxes for us, is consistently going out of
the city because you get more housing for $300,000 and $400,000 out of the city.
Swaim! So, if we drop just affordable housing and include housing, develop a housing strategy.
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Elliott! Yes.
Bailey/ Could we add develop a comprehensive housing strategy?
Elliott! Develop a housing strategy. That Eleanor's on top of things.
Swaim/ That's because she's got those stakes being driven right into her skull. (laughter) What's
this one?
Elliott! Beautification, is that what it is?
Swaim! Promote a couple of beautification projects? Okay, what... (several talking at once). You
don't like the word beautification?
Bailey/ No.
Swaim! Oh, all right.
Elliott! Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Swaim/ Again, what will the Council do? What's the goal for the Council on this one?
Champion/ It's visual appeal.
Bailey/ (can't hear) which is sort of a (can't hear). It's an enviromnental.. . (several talking).
Swaim! What about it?
Elliott! Well, that has connotation that I think we need to be much more broad than that, I think,
because we are talking about how our city appears in the summer, in the winter, in the
streets, in the lawns, the houses.
Bailey/ Well, it's a quality of environment. Right?
Swaim! So promote a quality environment? (several talking) No?
Elliott! I could live with that, Regenia. (can't hear)
Swaim/ I know you're struggling here, so, just tell me again if you don't have words for it, we
can leave this one word description and it really means you haven't identified it
necessarily as a major goal, and that doesn't mean you're not going to look at it, and it
doesn't mean that this dialogue hasn't been worthwhile, but if you know how to say it as
a goal, it allows you to then hold each other accountable for that, use it as a common
reference point in your discussions at your meetings.
Wilburn! Promoting a clean environment.
Swaim! Promoting a clean environment?
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O'Donnell/ How about quality of life?
Swaim! Promoting a quality environment?
Elliott! See, to me, quality of life you could almost put that over the whole thing.
Swaim! Right.
Vanderhoef/ Quality environment will (can't hear) not only (can't hear) and...
Swaim/ How about promote a quality environment.. .(several talking)...
Wilburn/ .. .activities to create a quality environment, yeah. Promote activities to create a quality
environment.
Swaim/ That's a clear goal. Promote activity.. .is there a quick easy way to say the capital
improvements one? Just leave it there. Follow through on the capital improvements
plan? (several talking) All right.
Wilburn/ So we'll adopt our capital improvements program.
Swaim/ Adopt capital improvement program. Programs one.. .you've got relook at the Senior
Center, maintain quality ofrec activities, comprehensive look at transit.
Elliott! Just evaluate programs.
Swaim/ Evaluate City....
Bailey/ Yeah, evaluate identified programs (can't hear).
Swaim/ Evaluate... City programs? And intergovernmental? And again, this is one where
there's, there's a lot going on, but what do you as a Council have as the goal for that?
Elliott! (can't hear) relationships or intergovernmental activities, or intergovernmental
effectiveness?
Vanderhoef/ Relationship and projects are both there for me.
Champion! Intergovernmental effectiveness.
Elliott! Okay, promote intergovernmental effectiveness.
Champion! That would include everything.
Swaim/ Promote intergovernmental effectiveness? It's late in the day. You've got, I mean, Ross
articulated a fairly clear thing which is pick two items to promote and highlight regarding
multi-jurisdiction. That's an activity that fits then pretty easily under that goal.
Intergovernmental effectiveness.
Elliott/ And Eleanor, none of these have been arbitrary or capricious either?
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Swaim! All right, real quickly, I would like somebody to read across. What might be, four, five,
six, seven? Seven goals that you may have agreed to. How long is your term? (several
talking) I'll come back to it in a minute. For now ljust want somebody to read across.
Your goals.
Correia! Educate and engage the public.
Swaim! Okay.
Correia! Make Iowa City an enticing place to live, work, and do business and recreate. Adopt
capital improvement program. Develop a comprehensive housing strategy. Promote
activities to create a quality environment. Promote intergovernmental effectiveness.
Evaluate City programs.
Elliott! See what young eyes can do! (laughter)
Swaim! What do you think?
Wilburn! (can't hear) comments aboutthere being too many, I mean, in terms of a major goal, I
mean, a lot of those categories (can't hear) whether we do...
Swaim! Which one is that?
Wilburn! That's this capital improvement. We adopt capital improvement, we have to do that,
and that's going to happen within the next month.
Swaim! Right.
Wilburn! So I guess I'm looking beyond...
Swaim! Sure.
Wilburn! .. .the next month.
Swaim! But there's a couple things in it that are noteworthy...
Wilburn! We will be voting and coming to agreement.
Swaim! We know that you will do this.
Wilburn! We know that we will do that. It might not look like all of those, but we know that we
will do that.
Champion! But when you look at these goals, a lot of them are old goals that we're constantly
working on, so it isn't really something new.
Swaim! Well, let me ask you this. Looking at, excuse me, go ahead.
Bailey! .. . sort of on the burners, but with this process we sort of honed in on it.
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Swaim! In looking at those...
Champion/ (can't hear) engagement and housing, those are two... those two things (can't hear).
Capital improvements we're going to do anyway; economic development, constantly
working on; and it's a constant thing, but some of those things under engagement and
some of the housing we've not tackled before.
Swaim! Okay, so those would be new things for you.
Vanderhoef/ (can't hear) ifit's becoming more important, [would say it's thinking (can't hear)
Regenia is right when she says pick one and we're at that point.
Swaim! Well, and you've got some things that are going to be presented to you. I mean, you've
got the joint communication system. You're always looking at stuff relative to the
transit. You've got a number of things, that like it or not, the rest of the
intergovernmental (can't hear) are looking for you to cooperate on. I'm not trying to get
a consensus on this, okay? I just want to get a quick reaction. Which goal up here is the
scariest for you individually? And I'm going to ask each of you individually. I'm not
looking for consensus on it.
Elliott! You mean scariest to do, or scariest.. .(can't hear)
Swaim! Scariest to you as a City Council member.
Elliott! But, I mean, scariest what? Being scariest so it becomes more important?
Swaim/ I'm not going to do anything with it, I'm not looking for any consensus, here's the
questions.
Elliott! Nothing is scary up there.
Swaim! Nothing is scary? Phew!
Wilburn! I will pick one.
Swaim/ Okay, but I'm going to go around to everybody. Okay, so none of it's scary? Mike?
Capital improvements? Housing? Housing? (several talking at once)
Elliott! I guess I don't know what you mean by scary. (several talking)
Swaim! Challenging, maybe challenging is the word.
Elliott! Challenging, there you go.
Swaim! Hosing is the most challenging one up there? (several talking) Uh-huh?
Vanderhoef/ ...we will be hearing lots of conflicting (can't hear).
Wilburn/ And there's an expectation out there that's something's going to happen.
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Bailey/ That's the scariest part because we have to address it this year. This can't continue to just
sort of float on.
Swaim/ All right. You're all in pretty good agreement on that, in terms of it being the most
challenging. Which one up there is...I don't want to say easiest, but generally warm
enthusiasm. Is there one of those more warmly, enthusiastically embraced? And again,
I'm not looking for consensus, I'm just looking for your individual reactions.
Champion/ I think (can't hear).
Swaim! Slogon Iowa City! (laughter and several talking) All right.
Wilburn! For me, there are parts, elements of the educate and engage the public that it seems to
me could be exciting. It wouldn't take much to pull some of those things off, and it,
they're visible, there are some things that are real visible that there could be some media
press about, whether it's the slogon or the board information fair, to get people knowing
about it so that's kind of exciting for me.
Swaim/ How about...
Bailey/ ...sometimes the follow through can also be daunting. You know, if you engage the
public, there's a lot of public (can't hear).
Swaim/ They're at the budget hearings, sure. Well, again, we're running out of time. I want to
double check with you then, in terms of final thoughts on this, are you comfortable with
this? Okay. (several talking) Yeah, these are being saved. You'll each have a copy of
this. (several talking) Yes, yes, you'll have that.
Wilburn/ I think too, Bob, that we'll have it, and also there are items on here that are easily
brought up at a work session... broughtupable!
Bailey/ You were going to say something about intergovernmental. (several talking)
Vanderhoef/ ...1 think the (can't hear) whole idea and I think there's real possibilities (can't hear)
so I'm really excited about it. Doesn't mean it's going to be real easy...
Swaim/ Well, we're living in an exciting community, and as we draw to a close, again, I want to
close with this notion that I hope you don't take for granted how much you are
appreciated by citizens. You know, you people are, you're the visible targets when
anything's going wrong, so it's like ahhh, what did you guys do to us this week? But at
the same time, anybody who studies the process that you're going through, I don't think
anybody who studies the process that you go through would at all diminish how hard you
all work at this, so I want to take this opportunity to just say on behalf of citizens, keep
up the good work, even if! don't agree with this, I admire the amount of time that you
devote to it. I want to take just a moment to reflect on the day and as I said, we'll have
all of this stuff captured, but for the moment, I want you to just stand up and take your,
actually, don't take your microphones off yet, but just stand up. And I want you to just
think back over the whole day, look around the room at all the stuff that we've got up,
we've got the postcards, we've got the snacks, we've got a lot of stuff up. What do you
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remember from our different activities of the day? Some of the scenes or images or
events? Just fire them off quick.
Wilburn! Postcards.
Swaim! Postcards.
Correia! Lunch box.
Swaim! Lunch box.
Elliott/ Discussion this morning about different thoughts on what we need to do.
Swaim! Okay.
Champion! How much alike we all are. (laughter)
Elliott/ I don't like brie! (laughter)
Swaim! How about any word that stands out?
Wilburn! Slogon! (laughter)
Swaim! All right, any other words that stand out? Again, looking around, anything, any words
that stand out or any unique phrases, separate from the slogon one. I saw citizens.
Wilburn! Engagement.
Swaim! Engagement.
Vanderhoef/ Diversity.
Swaim! Diversity.
Correia! Values.
Swaim! Values, okay.
Vanderhoef/ Results.
Swaim! All right. What got done today? Goals! Had fun, good! Back in this corner I have all of
the unconditional positive regard. Anything else got done? Again, you had a pretty deep
dialogue on some levels about your different views on economic development.
Elliott! I thought, Jim, I referred to our discussion of this morning, that we need to have more
time to just discuss things in depth. I think we just don't have enough time to do that.
don't know if others agree.
Swaim/ Okay, so that's an insight he's got. What image captures the emotional tone of the day?
If you were to pick an image that captures the emotional tone of the day? Pogo? Okay.
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Elliott! The enemy is us.
Swaim! All right.
V anderhoef! (can 't hear)
Swaim! (laughter) then I thought...
Elliott! No, that's Tigger.
Swaim! Any other image comes to mind that captures the emotional tone for you? How about a
high point? What was a high point for you?
Vanderhoef! That economic development section.
Swaim! Okay. Amy, not to single you out, but was there a high point for you, you're the rookie
in the group?
Correia! I think your slide show and that got us thinking, but also (can't hear) different images of
the city.
Swaim! Okay. What about a low point?
Elliott! Giving up early. (laughter)
O'Donnell! I think it was the polka. (laughter)
Swaim! The polka! Oh, darn, I'm crushed! [fyou'd be willing to just share a couple quick
comments. What did you learn about each other today? If anything?
Bailey! [didn't know Dale was in law enforcement. [didn't know that about him. [didn't know
that. I learned a lot of background about people.
Swaim! What else? What else did you learn?
Correia! I learned that Bob doesn't like Brie.
Elliott! Or vegetables.
Swaim! Learned how to really upset Regenia.
Bailey! In many ways.
Swaim! I'm speaking for her at the next meeting.
Wilburn! .. .just a reminder there's a lot of stuff out there that we, given infinite resources, we all
would probably have (can't hear) a lot of items, just a reminder that that's out there.
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Elliott! I think every time this group sits down and has some free discussion, I think my respect
goes up, because every person in here, though they differ, their sincerity is obvious.
Their sincerity and interest in doing the right thing.
Swaim! All right.
Vanderhoef/ Along that line, is the honesty and the willingness to participate and throw out ideas,
not because they were married to them but because it was keeping other people thinking
about what was happening here in the room.
Swaim/ Okay. Any other key insights about the day? We had Bob's insight about meeting, if
there's additional way to have deeper conversation. Any other insights about the day?
Wilburn/ It's nice just to get these initial conversations to take a little time to walk through them,
because typically I mean even though there was media here at one point, typically we're
busy with what we have to do throughout the rest of the year. Somebody brings up an
idea or it's brought to us, and right away after the meeting the mike's in your face, yes or
no, and you don't really get a chance to even speculate on any other items, so it's nice to
just take the time.
Vanderhoef/ (can't hear) without reportability.
Bailey/ Yeah, it's nice to look at an idea and not have to take a position and polarizing the entire
room, which is what happens when.. .
Vanderhoef/ Or it gets picked up that you are married to that idea, which is all you're doing is
throwing it out to see ifit can be adjusted, expanded, diminished, or it's like, 'Oops, I
hadn't though about that.'
Swaim! Let me ask you this. What would be, I want you to think about this before answering so
think carefully, or just think for the moment, and I won't necessarily ask you all to share,
but I want you to think about what the next step for you as a Council member might be,
based on today, based on what you learned today. What might a next step be for you?
And I'll ask just one or two of you to share, if you're willing.
Champion/ (can't hear) housing.
Swaim! So for you a next step is getting ready to step into the housing?
Champion/ (can't hear)
Swaim! Okay, one other one.
Vanderhoef/ I personally will be stepping into state and federal lobbying because this is the
season. It isn't that I will be (can't hear).
Elliott! I think this, in conjunction with the session that Regenia and Amy did last Saturday?
Points out the need to do more of these kinds of things before we get deeply into the
budget. I think the session that Regenia and Amy had should be a couple of those every
year, well before we even start to work on the budget.
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Swaim/ So, Bob, a next step for you might be how you can do one of those sessions? Or...
Elliott! Well, I think we just need to.. .up there they talk about interacting with the public. I often
think we get too close to a situation, and it takes someone to come in from the outside
and say, 'Why did you do that?' and we might say oh we did.
Swaim/ Okay, one last question, what was, if we're going to put this day in a time capsule, what
might you title this day? I've got some (can't hear). Any titles for the day? Council
building?
O'Donnell/ Discovery.
Swaim! Discovery?
Champions/ Thought pooling, pooling of thoughts.
Elliott! Thought pooling with a subtitle of (can't hear).
Swaim! Pooling, not pulling? All right. Again, I want to thank you for the time that you've put
in today. And this was a great way to bring together a close and as you're exiting out, [
just want to remind you you might want to (can't hear) postcards. You don't get to take
them with you, but just look at who you are as you're on your way out. Thanks very
much. Thank you.
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