HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-02-02 Transcription
February 2,2006
City Council Budget Wark Session
Page 1
February 2, 2006
City Council Budget Work Session
7:00 P.M.
Council:
Bailey, Champion, Correia, Elliott, O'Donnell, Vanderhoef, Wilburn
Staff:
Atkins, Karr, Helling, Mansfield, O'Malley
Tapes:
06-18, SIDE 2; 06-19, SIDE 1 AND SIDE 2
BUDGET:
Wilburn! Mr. Atkins?
Atkins/ I'm ready. Rest of you? Slight departure but relevant to budget. I assume we've
all read in this morning's paper the University's purchase ofa substantial portion
of Old Capitol Town Center. And I need to give you the (several talking at
once)...everybody just kick back a minute and I'll tell you what I know. (several
talking at once) Sorry, this is relevant. I read in the paper, their University
Facilities Corporation, which is the methodology that they use for the purchase of
their office space, capital assets, has purchased 170,000 square feet of the Old
Capitol Town Center. They intend to close on 68,000 square feet yet this year,
and the remaining 102,000, it will be either later this year or early next year. The
number that 1.. .I've not done a detailed analysis, so a lot of these are estimates.
Vanderhoef/ And this.. . excluding the previous purchase....
Atkins/ We're going to get there. That's right, this is all new. The, so you know, the
estimate used in the paper was $8.5 million, the value of the purchase. I used $8
to do some quick arithmetic so I can explain to you what I think the consequences
are of that purchase. I don't think there's any doubt that the University will
conclude with the purchase of everything that's there. Gazette has a long-term
lease; I'm assuming they'll work around them, and a couple of the other folks, but
that's neither here nor there.
Elliott! The key is they are now a majority owner.
Atkins/ They are a 60% owner of the Old Capitol Town Center. Now, they are buying a
substantial portion of this building, virtually all of the second floor, and they
bought, as you know, the Younker's space on the first floor. Some of the uses,
and I'll go with the upside, they anticipate 700 people working in these new
offices now. Many of them... International Program, English as a Second
Language, the Hospital's billing units, their Word Processing center, the public
health... the School of Public Health has certain offices, their ITS, the State Health
Registry, the Iowa Center for Enterprise, which is their economic development
which is moving down from Oakdale. In the basement will be their key shop - I
never realized but a big place like that probably makes a lot of keys, and their
Public Safety operation will move there. At the current time, the theatre will
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remain. My understanding is I think they're interested in having it remain. These
uses, as you know, a number of them are coming from across the river - I don't
know how else to describe it - into the downtown so we will have a new, rather
large employer. The downside is about $8 million worth of tax base. There is
two ways to look at this. It's a rather big hit on our downtown taxing from a
financing district to the tune of about $240,000 a year capturable property tax
revenues. Ifwe did not use it for TIF and were to use it just for financing routine
services, the City portion of that is about $140,000. So next year you will look at
those kind of losses in the General Fund.
Vanderhoef/ And the $140,000 includes the Younker's purchase and...
Atkins/ That's everything. Dee, I haven't done a real detailed analysis and I will.
Vanderhoef/ I'm not writing anything down.
Atkins/ Please don't! Because I need to write you a memo when I've got all the details of
the thing. That's sort of the bottom line. I spoke with the University folks. They
are anticipating putting in a like amount of money into renovations, but the Old
Capitol Town Center is now substantially University-owned. I called Denny
Baldridge and asked him how he would treat this and he said pretty much like a
condominium, that these units are being sold offin that fashion, and so the others,
the peripheral uses may increase in, not value in the sense for tax purposes, but
value that could have an effect upon the other properties.
O'Donnell! Steve, what...the existing units, is that downstairs, they're going to be sold as
separate units, is that what you meant?
Atkins/ I don't know what they're going to do. I do know that they'll be purchasing...I
think we can all anticipate eventually them owning the whole place.
Bailey/ Is there any way we can insulate ourselves from that kind of property buy-out?
Atkins/ No.
Bailey/ No way?
Atkins/ No. State has the authority. All the years that I've been involved in this...
Champion! Then the County's buying that whole block.
Bailey/ I know! I know! It's ridiculous. I mean, the tax implications. I mean, I liked the
property tax reform with non-profits coming off of property tax exemption and
having to certify, because I think that that gives us a better idea of the impact.
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Atkins! Well, I thought you wouldn't need to know this. As of this year, no direct affect
upon us, taxes are due and payable.
Champion! But the University's not like TIF and they don't pay any taxes, right?
Atkins! No. (several talking) We have a fire contract with them, yeah. The square
footage will go up, which will increase revenue to the fire service, but that's
independent of everything, everything else. Because it's just one specific service
that they receive.
Bailey! And have we ever pursued a public safety contract with them? I know that they
have their own...
Atkins! With the University?
Bailey! Yes.
Atkins! We have a University fire contract with them.
Bailey! Fire. Police?
Atkins! No. There's never been interest in all the years I've been here. They want their
own.
Wilburn! Campus Security has officers. . .
Bailey! Right, but we also do a lot of traffic support when they have events.
Atkins! We do, there are billable times when we do things for them, but generally
speaking, we provide the support to the University.
Bailey! And those times are billed to the University?
Atkins! Yes; they're very rare.
Bailey! So, for example...
Atkins! Two years ago, if you'll recall, (can't hear) got himself in ajam by saying they
had to pay the bill and we promptly reversed ourselves and we paid the bill.
Elliott! Well, I think those things though, we keep looking at the downside. Topside is
any city in the state of Iowa would gladly take the University of Iowa, and you
golla take the upside with the downside with the upside, and also the traffic
control, I think we need to take a part of that. Certainly, when we bring people in
here for football games and basketball games, the City benefits from that. So...
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Bailey/ But there are small non-profits that pay tax, or pay a fee in lieu oftaxes for both
fire and police, and I'm just wondering generally if a police contract wouldn't be
appropriate? I mean...
Elliott! They have their own police, though.
Atkins/ They have to agree to it.
Bailey/ Right, I understand that. A contract is a meeting of the minds, after all.
(laughter) I took my Business Law's class.
Atkins/ I'm sorry, I apologize. (laughter)
O'Donnell/ Steve, University Police is now going to be in the basement, did I hear that?
Atkins/ Yes, at...
Bailey/ I'm just saying, increasingly we're going to lose more property off the tax roles to
the University and there does come a point where it...
Elliott! Well, you start looking at what's going to happen eventually with the Jail and the
amount of property that j ail will take and the trades between the County and the
State and the City and. . .
Champion! I don't care if the University buys up a lot of the town, I mean, I'm glad to
have them here!
Bailey/ Well, I am glad to have them here, but...
Champion! The problem is, they shouldn't be encroaching in that business district.
That's the thing that I don't like. If it's a block away even, it's okay.
Atkins/ They will argue that it's right adjacent to the main part of their campus.
Champion! Well sure it is!
Bailey/ And I will argue that their campus is adjacent to our retail district.
Atkins/ Okay. (laughter)
Wilburn! I think, you're right, Bob, there's pluses with this, but as with anything, it just
makes it more challenging with our planning time to be able to know as much as
possible going in, because conditions change and...
Bailey/ How do we broach that subject with them?
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Atkins/ Off and on over the years, there's been any number of occasions.
Bailey/ I think it's worth another discussion, I mean, we're struggling...
Atkins/ The City Council, ljust think, needs as a body to say, 'We gotta have some relief
from this.'
O'Donnell/ Steve, approximately...
Bailey/ I would say that.
O'Donnell/ .. .30% figure's bantered about property in Iowa City, in non-taxable?
Atkins/ The third, I don't have trouble with the third, Mike, yeah. It's off the tax roles,
right.
O'Donnell/ It goes up?
Atkins/ Yep.
Bailey/ It's a great employer; I don't argue with that, but, I mean, we don't make our
revenue from income tax.
VanderhoeJJ In many university cities, they have a sit-down and do land planning, and
they designate which way the town is going to grow, which way the university is
going to grow, those kinds of things, and at this point in time, it has been put out
over all the years that I've been on the Council that we would like to sit and do
this land planning with them, rather than be surprised. We can always make lots
of guesses, but we don't know their land use planning until they chose to tell us.
Bailey/ Right, and I...
Vanderhoef/ ...and they've already made their plan for it. So, I don't see it any different
than us having to sit down at JCCOG with the County and saying, 'Okay, we've
got to plan this; we've got to look at the transportation system and the transit
system, and make sure that we're covering all our bases,' and define where things
are going to happen.
Bailey/ Well, the only difference is it has a revenue impact.
V anderhoef/ Well, this one has a.. .
Bailey/ Right, but the only difference in not sitting down with the University, is it has a
revenue impact, so...
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Wilburn! Well, and that's the ideal thing, but given that, and that's not the case here, but
given that at any given time, someone can say, 'Here's a couple million dollars,
University ofIowa, I would like...'
Bailey/ Or "here's my house." (laughter)
Vanderhoef/ But when they have a land use planning, urban development department that
works in their university and it's good land use planning, provides services, and
all of these other amenities that have to go with it, whether it be parking ramps or
streets or the sewer, those kinds ofthings. The sewer use, ifthere's 700 people
regularly in that building, the demand on the sewer system in that area - I don't
know what the implication is. You know, whether we've got big enough pipes
even to haul it all away.
Wilburn! Well, again, in the ideal sense, we would know a little bit more.
Correia! Any renovations they do they'll have to get building permits.
Atkins/ No they don't.
Correia! No? (several talking)
Bailey/ They're exempt in every sense of the word.
Atkins/ They are not subject to any of our ordinances.
Correia! Really?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Elliott! The, while I'm not as disappointed as some of you appear to be on this move, my
main disappointment with this is it was my understanding they were going to
lease that space. I knew it was going to the University. My understanding they
were going to lease, and we are now surprised by the fact that they now own 60%.
That's where my disappointment is, that there has not been that level of
communication.
O'Donnelll I don't.. .Bob, I certainly wasn't surprised. I heard they were going to
purchase it months and months ago.
Elliott! I may have been mistaken, but I thought it was lease. (several talking)
Atkins/ .. . several years ago I was approached, saying, you know, we're looking for office
buildings in downtown. That may be a spot. Okay? But I learned about it
yesterday morning just like you.
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Elliott/ That's my disappointment.
Wilburn! (several talking) new owner...
Atkins/ Well, the thing got bought and sold in the meantime.
O'Donnelll I guess my disappointment would be that it's an opportunity lost for retail
downtown.
Bailey/ I agree. That's probably my huge disappointment, as well.
Atkins/ Well, it is what it is. (several talking) .. . heads up.
Vanderhoef/ Okay, so, most definitely, we've talked about it earlier, but sooner rather
than later, we need to look at the near southside, planning district.
Atkins/ Well, we have the southeast district you wanted to...
Vanderhoef/ I know we do.
Bailey/ Well, I mean, we can plan all we want, but if entities want to purchase, I mean, I
think I said this a couple weeks ago to a group of citizens, there's nothing to
prevent the legal transfer of property to a public entity. I mean, and Steve just
said, there's nothing we can do, although I would encourage us to consider
continually sitting down and looking at some police service contracts. I do think
they bring a lot of people to town, but we have to provide services and this is a cut
to our revenue stream.
Elliott! I.. .
Wilburn! I did get a call, or I had a message, and I haven't returned the call yet. It came
at about, I got the message at about 5:30 from someone who works with Doug
True, Denny...
Atkins/ Denny? Denny Domsic, he's an Associate V.P.
Wilburn! Yeah, okay. I'll give a call.
Atkins/ I think they're making the rounds.
Wilburn! Yeah. I'll certainly reflect the mood of the.. .
Elliott! I don't see anything wrong with us saying we're really disappointed that we were
surprised. (several talking)
Vanderhoef/ So, implications of$140,000...
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Atkins! General Fund revenue next - not the budget we're working on now, the next one.
Vanderhoef! ...however, it has, that's what, what we've got there, that $140,000 that
we've got this year, has to be considered as soft money going away next year?
Atkins! It's on the soft money list.
Vanderhoef! It's on the soft money list. So, any of the things that were looked at the
other day and the budget issues, if we add anything...
Atkins! Well, we're going to go over that injust a minute. You have to keep that,
because remember, we were only dealing with those seven. What I'm going to
show you in tax rates and so forth does what you wanted to do in 07 and 08. We
return to our circumstances...
Wilburn! Let's just proceed with this and we'll keep that in the back of our minds.
Atkins! Anyway, heads up, keep it in mind, the University as always was very courteous
and explained to me in excruciating detail all the things they want to do. I
understand their position. They need the space. They need their operations
housed. Let's hope 700 folks getting introduced into downtown will have some
interesting economic stimulus. Lunchtime might be a lot busier. (laughter)
Elliott! Thanks for being the bearer of such great news.
Vanderhoef! I'm glad I didn't wake up to that this morning. (several talking)
Atkins! Okay. The issue of dealing with the revaluation increase of 16%. You asked that
we lessen the impact. You wanted to lower the tax rate. You wanted to use our
cash reserves, and our case, we're going to apply them against capital projects,
and chose to add two police officers. Here's the consequences of those decisions.
You'll recall our current circumstance, this is the budget that you have in front of
you. Notably the increase in values. I gave you a proposal, when were we last
here? (several talking) Tuesday of a tax rate of 17.238 with a variety of
circumstances to get us there, changed that per $100,000 to. What we chose to
do, and we're proposing an amended tax rate of 17.297. What that, what we did
was we substantially went back and re-ran all the numbers. We've had a labor
contract settled since the budget came to you. You have adopted new fees and
charges for the Recreation. Those numbers, excuse me, were calculated in, and
that comes up with this new tax rate proposal of 17.297, compared to 17.863. It's
about $3 per 100,000 higher than we had before. What we do is we reduce the
benefit's levy, but it didn't go down quite as much because we had to add two
people in, calculate theirs, and then refigure it based upon our experience related.
Debt service is substantially unchanged, that is the use of cash in the reduction of
the tax rate. We have a small piece of the emergency levy, 3 cents, 3.8 cents, and
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the policy on the cash reserves is close to 30%. It's 29.2, thereabouts. That's the
tax rate issue that I thought you wanted me to bring back to you for tonight.
(several talking)
Elliott! Much more of a compromise in favor of taxpayers than I had even anticipated
Tuesday night. (several talking) Good news.
Wilbuml Excuse me, the current emergency levy is at .27?
Atkins/ 27 cents is the maximum, Ross. You can levy anything up to that. Now, keep in
mind that in the 08 budget as proposed, the emergency levy bumps back up again,
and so we'll be having this discussion again. A lot of it we'll just...in fact,
annually you can decide on.. .ifyour cash position looks good, you can draw
down debt service. But it's sort of you know, you golla go through the whole
cycle of things, but again, we just re-ran everything and it just, it was just a lot
easier to do that way. And that's what we've come up with.
Correia! Steve, what's the sort of the range of cash reserves, that's the amount you'd
want to have to continue to get your triple A bond rating?
Atkins/ There's really not a range. Let me tell you what the State Legislature, about eight
or ten years ago, they were unhappy with a number of cities who had
extraordinarily high cash reserve positions, 40, 50% was no uncommon. And the
Legislature, and I think in some ways I don't like them interfering with our, the
way we manage our money. They came down with some proposed legislation of
a 25% policy. I think that's a little skinny. We're going to settle in around 30, or
in the case based on our projections, it's about 29.3. I think that's a reasonably
comfortable number. You now know going into 08 that you already got a
problem. We are, our working capitol position is still good. I don't really have a
specific (can't hear).. . quite frankly, Amy, what the folks who rate us, they look at
how do we use it, and we will argue back to them that we used it to draw down a
tax rate because of an unusual spike. We're using cash on a pay-as-you-go basis
for certain capital assets. Those are all positive things. Now, we can't continue
doing that forever, but for this year and maybe even for the next couple years, if
you're drawing down that reserve, I wouldn't go much lower and I quite frankly
would encourage you, if you want to have a cash reserve debate a year from now
to just do that again. We'll work through that.
Wilbuml Would you say that another piece of the factor to the bond rating are our own
fiscal policies and do we adhere to them, and if we make adjustments, do...
Atkins/ The most important thing; one, do you have a policy, and two, do you follow it.
It's really quite simple. And if you can show a history of a number at a certain
level and you stay that, and you discipline your spending, they're going to look
very favorably upon that.
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Wilburn! In the case of the Library, if you modify or don't obey your rules, if you have a
plan for getting back to those tools, then that's (can't hear).
Atkins/ When the public approved an $18 million bond issue for the Library, that spiked
our 25% policy, which is a self-imposed policy. We flagged that for our credit
rating houses, explained to them how we were going to work our way out of it,
they checked it every year, and we were doing exactly what we said, but again,
the biggest thing is have a policy and do you discipline yourselves to stay within
that policy. And our history has been the best we can do.
Vanderhoef/ Walk me through, please, what, how you're reducing the benefit's levy?
Atkins/ The benefit's levy is a certain number. I'm sorry, I don't have it in front of me,
Dee, but say $3...
Elliott! Excuse me, Steve, are We talking about the benefit's for the.. . yeah, but for all
employees or just fire and police, the State-mandated?
Atkins/ No, all, all. Fire, police, public works, other than those that are financed by
utility funds, their benefits - Social Security, pension, health insurance, life
insurance, so forth - are charged against that levy. What we did was when We
presented the budget originally to you, we had a 13% increase in our benefits, cost
of benefits, to us. We calculated a tax rate based upon that 13%. In the
meantime, Kevin got back with Wellmark, the folks who administer our program,
asked for questions, you know, began pursuing how, what's our experience been?
Well, quite frankly, we had a good year last year, and for experience purposes, We
were able to change that 13 to about 7. So, I mean, now a lot of it's luck. When
We evaluate our health insurance, for example, and pensions quite frankly,
whatever the State sends us a bill for we pay, but when we do our health
insurance, you know, we usually assume one or two catastrophic illnesses to an
employee or employee's family during the course of the year. You know, folks, if
you only have one of those, you're talking hundreds ofthousands of dollars that
We might save, and that gets figured in. So then, what we had to do was We took
the two police officers, put their pension, health insurance, and so forth in, and
then recalculated it, and so instead of it going down to 7% it's going to go down
6.9 or something like that.
Vanderhoef/ So the only thing that really made the change was the medical part of...
Atkins/ That was the biggie, that was the biggie, yeah, because I think if you check
around town to most employers, they're all talking 10% or more in their health
msurance.
Elliott! And this involves everything that is involved in compensation. In other words,
the pension, obviously you... that will go up as you have more people making
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more money, therefore, more money going into pension and more money paid
when they take vacation, because that's figured in there too.
Atkins/ No, we do not do that.
Elliott! That would be in the annual salary, that's correct, but in the pension...
Atkins/ You could.. .some cities not many will actually have an account where vacation
accrual by employees is set aside, it's like a bank. We chose not to do that. It's...
Elliott! And you don't do sick leave then either?
Atkins/ No, and we don't do sick leave. And we have caps on sick leave, and we have
rather stringent policies on the use of sick leave, but no, the employee benefits are
truly employee benefits, Social Security, pension, health insurance, life
msurance.. .
Elliott! We'll get into that later, but apparently that does not, you do not, you are not able
to transfer unused sick leave into putting it into pension or. . .
Atkins/ No, you carmot do that, and your sick leave is capped.
Elliott! Okay.
Atkins/ You get 1,440 hours; once you've reached that level, that's it, and then you, you
can if you're ill, you could draw against that. If you return to work, you can work
it back up again.
Wilburn! I was just thinking, in terms of the insurance, a good year being (can't hear),
even just being small things like having the workout facility here for (can't hear)
and I was just thinking, well, and the Senior Center, those staff that are doing the
fitness classes. I mean, I hadn't really thought of that about (can't hear).
Atkins/ We try to encourage as much of that as you can.. . employees hurt on the job or
worker's comp, that's a different set of funding, but remember, we cover an
employee and their family, and you know, you could have a child with a
catastrophic illness... we have a cap, is it 450, Kevin, on.. . yeah, we have a
$450,000 expenditure cap and then another set of insurance kicks in to cover us.
That we, we are self-insured.
Elliott! If a.. .do we have a wellness program?
Atkins/ Yes we do, yeah.
Elliott! Great, that helps.
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Champion! I think wellness programs are great because they prevent a lot of things (can't
hear).
Vanderhoef/ So (several talking) the way I read this, the way I read this and the way I
hear the explanation, if for some reason we would have a couple of these. ..
Atkins/ Catastrophic.
Vanderhoef/ Catastrophics this corning year, we could be right back up to the 7%.
Atkins/ Sure. That's a risk.
Vanderhoefi' So, in a way, this is soft also.
Atkins/ Well, yeah, it is, Dee, and I think the important thing is, a catastrophic illness
could happen to anybody, I mean, I don't know how you... we assume, and of
course you usually have at least one, maybe two of those, so that just happens.
It's always, you're always facing that.
Vanderhoef/ You're covered to handle it.
Atkins/ Yes.
Vanderhoef/ If you get that three or four, that's when you.. .
Atkins/ We do have the stop laws, so it reaches a certain point and we have another set of
insurance that kicks in to cover us for that. Okay. (several talking) That could be
a hard, tough road to hoe. Okay, with that tax rate, the rest of the discussion that
I'm going to provide you, is based upon that number. Okay, and you've got a
handout. I do want to take, before we get into (can't hear), we decided to go
check the assessor's valuations. We're still checking those (laughter). Well,
it's...we are one of few cities who have a city assessor, as you know,just
concentrates on that. I know you're quite well aware ofthat and (several talking).
But here's some interesting - these also have, these are cities, and I'll show you
some of...because I want to show you the rest of the surrounding counties.
Interesting numbers. I'll go from the bottom up. Residential values in Sioux
City, Iowa, up I %. Mason City, virtually nothing. Dubuque, Clinton, Ames, and
Cedar Rapids you expect to see a little, you know, little more prosperous
communities. I found it interesting that this one, Clinton, all of which have local
option taxes, and I can see why because their growth in their residential property
values is virtually zilch. We did some further checking, just give you some of
those numbers. If you'd like this, I have a chart on it. I took the surrounding
counties, around Iowa City, because if you have a county assessor there's an
abstract on all the property. You can't pull out Coralville, you can't pull out
without a lot of work, is that correct? Vinton County's residential property values
went up .2%. Cedar County went up 6 \1,; Iowa County 6; yes; Johnson County,
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8.8. So ifI'm seeing all of Johnson County up 8.8, I'm looking at ours at 16, I
mean, one, we're prosperous. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And
Johnson County is one ofthe, ofthe urban counties, one of the higher ones with
respect to its growth in residential value. Linn County 5.7; Washington County
6%. All ofthem growing at that rate that we talked about. Except those three,
and they've had to revert to other sources of income.
Correia! I was just going to ask that. What about Dallas?
Atkins! Dallas County. Dallas is up 6%, commercial in Dallas is up 8. We have
commercial as well. What was the other one you wanted to know? Polk is up
9%.
Champion! What's Dallas County? (several talking)
Atkins! Dallas is up 6 \1,. Story County is up 7 \1,.
Wilburn! Would you mind putting the chart up at the table like you had it before? Ijust
wanted to see the (can't hear). .
Elliott! And those counties where you gave just the county average, they don't have a
separate urban...
Atkins! That's their county assessor provides those numbers. Johnson County increase of
8.8%, we're not figured into that because we have our own.
Vanderhoef! Ames is not in that one either.
Atkins! Ames is not in there either. Right.
Vanderhoef! Cedar Rapids?
Atkins! Linn County was up 5.7, City of Cedar Rapids was up 6.9. Yeah.
Vanderhoef! Mason City has their own assessor, also, so the City of Mason City is not in
that.
Atkins! I don't know what Mason City's county is. Cerro Gordo? Thank you. Cerro
Gordo is up 8.3.
Elliott! Shut that lady off; she knows too much! (laughter)
Atkins! Okay?
Wilburn! Thank you.
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Atkins/ So, our numbers are right.
Elliott! Ifwe're doing so well, why are we having so many problems? (laughter)
Atkins/ Well, you can have the growth and value...two years ago, we had another million
dollars in the General Fund. Our whole General Fund dropped and creates a
whole new base, and then when you add in all those regulations that the State, the
State controls your spending by saying you got $8.10. You're not allowed $12.
That's what you can do. And then while property values grow, you gotta start
piling on all the exemptions, and that's why this whole big argument over
commercial, really gets whacked. (can't hear) twice the rate that residential pays.
Now, our commercial is healthy. Our commercial went up 10%. So all in all,
we've done pretty well.
Elliott/ So the commercial property in Iowa City, I was going to ask that tonight, the
assessed value grew 10%, while residential grew 18%, I believe you said. Overall
18, yes.
Atkins/ This is the revaluation only. Overall, and that has new construction in it too,
Bob, as does this, but those are pretty hefty numbers. (several talking) .. . Cedar
Rapids, lost in theirs.. . surprised at.
Elliott! The answer man.
Bailey/ I like this. It's like having Google without typing. (laughter)
Atkins/ Now, wait a minute, I haven't moved from here.
Elliott! While you're doing this, I was going to, this is kind of a roller coaster night for
us, isn't it?
Atkins/ Where was the one you wanted again, Regenia? I'm sorry.
Bailey/ Our county, commercial.
Atkins/ 7.3, so that's a very health growth in commercial in Johnson County. This is the
revalue year. Next year, I... the one that floored me was Dubuque, and everything
that's going on, and that's the revalue year, it doesn't even approach 1%.
Vanderhoef/ Revalue on residential, but not revalue...
Atkins/ Everything. Every two, right, Kev, every two years everything gets revalued.
Vanderhoeti' I thought they alternated so that the office only did residential one year and
commercial the next year. (several talking)
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Atkins! Okay? Okay...
O'Donnell! Our percentage ofresidential versus commercial, is it...
Atkins! Our budget for assessed value purposes, we usually figure two-thirds, one-third,
approximately. 62-3%, and the rest, and that's residential, commercial, industrial.
When you add the rollback in, it becomes 50!50, or pretty close. Okay. Next I
want to do is I want to get you up to speed. As I told you, we went through the
budget and just redid the numbers. And in the conversations that we've had,
before you make any sort of final decisions, I was trying to draw some certain
conclusions. I know (can't hear) It got said enough times, our current policy on
our contingency is I %. It appeared that some were lusting after the contingency
(laughter), and quite frankly folks, our history has been we have lived on a % of
I %. I can see you adopting that, as policy, that's what I'd like to have you do,
that that's our policy. If you were to change that policy, you're 115,000 to the
good in the General Fund. Okay? I'd like to, in some fashion we'll have you
make that policy.
Champion! Are we all in favor of doing that?
Atkins! Can I do them all first and then we can decide it? (several talking) Then the
Airport issue is that if the Wal-Mart sale goes through, and if we take their
money, and if we take that money and apply it to the Airport and pay off their
debts, payoff what they owe us for Aviation Commerce Park, it'll also payoff a
number oftheir hangars, the subsidy to the Airport would be $40,000 less, or you
have $40,000 to the good in the General Fund budget.
Correia! Is that after you took off that 15,000?
Atkins! Yes, it's remained the same. Our subsidy in the proposed budget was 120. You
drop it to 105 and then what this simply does is reduce the subsidy, instead of 80
it would be down to 60 something like that.
Bailey! Did we figure in the Master Plan somehow, or what are we doing with that?
Atkins! I'm assuming you're going to approve that out of the current budget. Because
they need to do that like right now. (several talking)
Vanderhoef! That's cash reserve?
Atkins! Yes. That's how we paid for that Master Plan.
Elliott! And I, this is probably obvious to everyone else, but 1 have to keep reminding
myself, but as opposed to the cash balance, which is a one-time thing if we take
out of it, these are the kinds of things that would be repetitive every year we
would be paying $40,000 less, every year we would be getting another 150.
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Atkins/ The effect of it, Bob, is just what you said, that's correct. And as I told you, we
ran the numbers. We had, we concluded some labor agreements, we adopted new
fees and charges, we incorporated all of those. That's 75,000 then to the good on
our revenue side. That totals $235,000, but there is some flexibility in the budget
now. Each of you will look at it.. .do I want to support some programs? Do I
want to take more, less risk? I mean those are things up to you, but this is about
as close as it's going to get for us right now. Those numbers look, I mean,
75,000's a lot of dough, and you've got some decisions to make. It's really about
less than two-tenths of 1% of the budget, but it's there and it looks like a lot of
money. Okay? So, I gave you that just as sort of a working document. I do not
have on here, and I should put it on...
ElIiott/ Is this something you had previously.. .oh yes, it is.
Atkins/ I've got a couple so you don't have to hunt. There you go. Okay, those are for
budget balancing purposes, decision points that you have to make. This one
should read $17,000 - that's what Josh actually asked for instead of $15,000.
Vanderhoef/ $17,000?
Atkins/ Instead of$15,000. What he's proposing to do, instead ofa 25% contribution to
the CVB, we go to 27.5. Is that.. . yeah, that's what he wanted. Okay. Please
ignore the tax rate because you decided that, or at least gave us direction on that.
Vanderhoef/ If that one came up then that would be another 2.5 that had to be made up
out of the General Fund...
Atkins/ Yes.
Vanderhoef/ '" for the Police Department.
Atkins/ You're talking about the CVB?
Vanderhoefj' Db-huh.
Atkins/ Yeah, the net effect is that I think you can just view it as $17,000 in additional
funding they want, which I'm assuming we would take from the hotel/motel tax.
Now...
Bailey/ Did we figure hotel, they throw into...
Atkins/ She's reading my mind! (laughter)
Bailey/ Well, there's a lot of stuff in there! (laughter)
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Atkins! The answer is no. And we're hearing 40 to 50...through Josh who talked to,
yeah...
Bailey! .. . Jay, yeah, Lovisor, yeah, he's the manager.
Atkins! ... that there will be additional revenue. At the time I prepared this, I didn't know
that. Now I do.
Elliott! Can you tell me how that's taxed? Are the condos taxed as commercial or
residential?
Atkins! The condos would be residential. Those are owner-occupied.
Elliott! The apartments would be... commercial, yeah, and the hotel ? Yeah.
Atkins! And the additional money is the room tax. Yeah.
O'Donnell! Steve, what does that make our total contribution to the Convention?
Bailey! I'm looking for that.
Atkins! Oh, it's... would you guys look it up for me? Our budget is about 550. We
would assume it would go to about 600. The policy breakout is 25% of 600.
That's 150, and then you want to add another 17 on top of that.
Correia! So it could go, so their 25% of what, so we've in this budget, we've calculated
what that 25% might be, based on what they were last year? Or sort of, or
whatever.
Bailey! It's a projection.
Correia! A projection, right, so, because it's not a number, it's a percentage, if over the
year the revenues for hotel/motel tax go up because of Hotel Vetro, they will get,
they possibly will get that increase.
Elliott! And a lot ofthat has to do with how well the football and basketball teams
perform.
Champion! I think the football crowd would come anyway.
Correia! They'll corne, and then we've got graduation.
Bailey! But it doesn't allow them to budget that money for, I mean, if we're assuming
that they would have it if they worked it, I mean, it's better to be really clear so
they can project as well.
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Elliott! Are you going to tell us what that 50 grand is for?
Atkins/ The 50 grand is (TAPE ENDS) Vetro is indicating that they will generated about
$50,000 worth of hotel/motel tax. That comes to us. Total it up, take your
percentages, that's how it's calculated.
Elliott/ And that's at a reduced TIF rate?
Champion! No. (several talking)
Elliott! Oh, we're talking about the hotel/motel tax, not the property tax.
Atkins/ Right. Yes. They pay commercial property taxes on their buildings. Okay. And
that's TIF, that's correct. I just saw those as decisions we're going to have to
have. I'm not wedded to this order, Ijust wrote them down.
Correia! Can I start, I want to start at the top.
Vanderhoef/ 17,000 more?
Atkins/ New money, for the Sports Authority, that's correct.
Vanderhoef/ Above and beyond 27.5?
Atkins/ No, no, I'm sorry, the 27.5 arithmetically has the effect of the $17,000.
Vanderhoef/ Which gets them what they. . .
Atkins/ Gets them what they want.
Vanderhoef/ Okay, I'm lost here because.. .I'm on 93.. .you're estimating 100. We
budgeted for 140, .5 for 06.
Correia! The estimated for 07 is 161,170.
Vanderhoef/ And you're saying we're going to come in about 50,000 more than this?
Correia! No, no.
Atkins/ No, what I'm saying is Vetro has indicated that you can boost your estimates by
about $50,000.
Correia! That's just their 25%.
Vanderhoef/ I know.
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Correia! Okay.
Atkins/ Whatever that number is.
Vanderhoef/ But the 27.5 is what's...
Correia! Oh, you want that number?
Vanderhoef/ I want that pulled out of there until. . . I can look at the. . .
Atkins/ You have a policy on hotel/motel tax. I'm going to try torepeat it. 50% for
public safety, 25% for CVB, and then the remaining 25% is broken down into
Parks and Rec and a couple of other.. . (several talking).. .so what you could do,
Dee, if you were trying to protect the public safety component of that, you'd have
to take it away from say Parks and Rec.
Vanderhoef/No, no! (laughter) Ifwe are...
Atkins/ It is a percentage of the amount of funds that we receive. There's nothing, there's
nothing wrong with you saying we'll give you $17,000. Period, end of debate,
and leave the policy the way it is.
Vanderhoef/ We took an extra 2% or something out of police last year, to boost CVB up
to 25.
Atkins/ Yes you did, that's correct. So whatever that number is.
Vanderhoef/ So we've already taken away from police and fire. Now we're.. . (several
talking).. .you'll have to excuse me tonight. I am sort of fried. So, we've given
up public safety dollars once to CVB.
Atkins/ Right.
Vanderhoef/ And we budgeted 140, but they're coming in with some higher numbers
even for this current year. So their numbers are going to move up from that 140
by whatever new monies come in before the first of July.
Atkins/ That's right, that's correct.
Vanderhoef! Okay.
Correia! So what you're saying is they're going to get even more than what...
Bailey/ I would suggest we just treat this as a one-time expense and not mess with the
percentages as Steve suggested.
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Atkins/ Personally, I'd leave the policy alone.
Vanderhoef/ Just leave the policy at 25.
Bailey/ I feel the...the Sports Authority's really important and I think that we need to
contribute to it because I believe that Iowa City will benefit from it, and...
Vanderhoef/ I'm not disagreeing with that...
Bailey/ Right, so to do it as a one-time expense, I think, makes a lot of sense.
Vanderhoefi' (several talking) one-time expense, I want to look at the whole list of things
before I say that they're going to get 17 versus 14 or 15 or whatever.
Atkins/ Yeah, everybody generally okay on that one? Always get a chance to go back
and take another cut at it (can't hear).
Champion! ...additional hours at the Library.
Correia! I was wanting to talk about that, just looking at the two, just as a way of having
conversation, about the two different requests for additional hours. Because I
don't think we can do both and I was listening to the presentation, it seemed like
the Library had done a survey. They had done, I mean, they had done a lot of
research to suggest that this is what people wanted, and the Senior Center, I felt
like while they maybe had a feeling that it would be beneficial, there really was
no, I didn't hear them say they had surveyed the membership, this is what the
membership was asking that they have specific plan to do these sorts of things.
They were, well, if we got the money we would be able to do this and we think
this is something that would be beneficial, but I like the way the Library had done
a survey. They could document the desire and need, so if! were to chose between
two, those two because of their similar. . .
Vanderhoef/ If I were to add FTE for any department, the last new hires have all been for
the Library, and after my conversation with Library Foundation folk, I would like
to see if they will step forward and do it. If I'm adding that amount ofFTE, I
would like to put it into Parks and Recreation for, if they need to raise from $6.50
to $7.00 an hour, or whatever their part-time is, so that we get the summer kinds
of activities done in our Park maintenance, I think that's where $38,000 is more
important at this point in time, and it's not adding permanent, it's one-time money
that if we can't do it the following year, we can pull it back out. We know we've
got some soft money, we know we're losing some money, to add another FTE
piece there, uh-huh.
Correia! Well, $38,000 wouldn't get us an FTE and Parks and Rec didn't request that,
and the Library isn't requesting FTE's. They're requesting additional...
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Vanderhoef! What do you think the $38,000 is going for?
Bailey! Towards salaries; they're not going to hire anybody.
Champion! That'll be increased salary because (can't hear).
Vanderhoef! But they'll have to hire at least part-time for some hours.
Bailey! I didn't get that impression, and I'm not going to micro-manage how they do it,
but I agree with Amy, but I'm looking at these two that are on our sheet. I'm not
going to pay any attention to Parks and Rec because they didn't ask for it right
now.
Vanderhoef! No, they asked for FTE's.
Bailey! They didn't ask for anything.
Vanderhoef! Look on the unfunded FTE's.
Bailey! No, when they came and did their presentation, Dee. That's, I'm just working
from this list.
Vanderhoef! Well, I suspect that they thought they could get it and it hadn't already been
turned down. . . (several talking) and make that request.
Bailey! Okay, can Ijust go on? Ijust wanted to agree with what Amy said. I got the
sense from the Senior Center that they had the sense that if they build it, people
will come. I would suggest that, I mean, once again not to micro-manage, but
what would be helpful perhaps is they do a trial. Maybe put one of their
employees on a 12 to 8 shift and see if they have some evening hours, if people do
indeed use the Senior Center. I'm not sure, given the population, that that will
work. I don't know. (several talking)
Champion! ... they could alternate every week. Somebody could work a different shift.
O'Donnelll Jay has told us that usership is up at the Senior Center. I don't have any
trouble with the Senior Center or Library. I think their both very important.
Elliott! My thought on the, on both of them. Now, the Library they have, I presume, a lot
of part-time people and I would assume the $38,000 is simply the same people
working additional hours, therefore, more money. I, for the Senior Center, they
have three full time, and it seems to me that I don't see why the Senior Center
couldn't, and I'd like to be informed why the Library can't, have some of their
full time people working staggered hours at the Senior Center, take three because
it's easy. You have two people working from let's say 9 to 5...5? So why can't
one or two of those work from 12 to 87 If...thatjust seems like...
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Bailey! I'd just like some more information. I mean, I'd like to see a trial.
Correia! Yeah.
O'Donnell! Well, that's what this is.
Correia! No, well...
O'Donnell! .. .do this for a year and see if it works. That's what they specifically were
asking for.
Correia! But I feel like the Library has already gone out and done their, found out from
people that this is what they want, and given the Summer ofthe Arts, mean
it.. .the hours that they want make sense. And with the Plaza Towers and with
what's going to be going on, I mean, you could see Friday night and that whole
area really meshing nicely together and being a...
O'Donnelll Like I said, I'm going to support 'em both and...
Correia! I just don't feel like the Senior Center is warranted at this time, the increased
hours. I would like some more information about the likelihood for success.
We're talking about such dramatically different numbers, I mean, 2,004 hours
versus 1,000 numbers in this year, it's hard.
Elliottl Well, I don't see why the full-time people can't work sufficiently staggered hours
to handle any additional hours.
O'Donnell! But see that's it, we don't know how they stagger or what's (can't hear).
Wilburn! I'm in favor of the Library, and I'm thinking of the link with the Friday night
concert and all that activity and people and access to restrooms (laughter). I'm
trying to, I'm trying to think what's the best to go about this. Do we want to
make a decision about this one or two items right now, or do we want to.. .get a
list going on what. . .
Correia! Dee wanted to look at the overall (can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ Yeah...
Champion! ...then ifit doesn't turn out on paper, Steve can let us know.
Atkinsl Well, I can do that, but you're making decisions now so that at the very least
when we have our public hearing folks that come to the microphone can say I
prefer this over that. Until you adopt the budget, your final blessing, you can
really do anything you want, and also keep in mind, this is the budget that you
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approve and if you want some hooks on some of these, you tell the operating
department, such as the Library, here's the deal, here's what, we will approve it at
this level, but we need these circumstances, and that will (can't hear).
Elliott! And what we decide here is being decided informally... to give Steve a working,
but, and I would like to hear from the Library why they can't adjust staggered
hours to cover that particularly if it is for a summer to see how it goes and then
get back to us and tell us...
Champion! Because we don't have any extra people there. The Library is always busy.
Elliott! That's what I say, I'd like to hear from 'em as to why...
Correia! All of their staff work alL.at the Senior Center you could see where, there's not
2,000 people coming in.
Bailey! Well, you have for example, full time, I'll take Maeve Clark as an example
because I know her. She's a salaried employee and I might see her on the
weekends there, or I might see her in the evening, so I think that it's my
impression that they're already doing that. So, from, you know, from my
impression and from what they said, the other night, this is going to be something
they'll evaluate and certainly one of my hooks would be 'let's see what the
outcomes are,' let's have specific data on usage for these increased hours, and the
feedback.
Elliott! I would just say to both entities convince me why you can't achieve that with
staggered hours, at least for this time, to see how it goes.
Bailey! I thought their presentations were really clear.
Champion! I think they made it clear. And this may only cover extra overtime, the
weekend hours. It covers everything - utilities and everything.
Bailey! I'm assuming it's also extra janitorial with the anticipated use of rest rooms.
(several talking)
Elliott! I'm hoping it would not include overtime because...
Bailey! Sunday's are overtime. (several talking) One of these hours is a Sunday hour.
Elliott! The additional hours, oh I thought the additional hours were for Friday night.
Correia! Three hours on Friday and one hour on Sunday, that's right.
Elliott! Then the Friday night hours shouldn't be overtime. You can get temporary
people to work those hours.
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Correia! Only til 8:00 on Friday night. That's why I clarified with....
Atkins! Library contract requires overtime on Sundays. (several talking) Decide
something?
Wilburn! Library.
Atkins! Okay.
Champion! The Airport...
O'Donnelll Wait a minute, we haven't made a decision on the Senior Center yet.
Elliott! I think that was pretty clear.
O'Donnell! To do or not to do?
Elliott! To not, to not.. .my thought is, I don't see why they can't stagger their hours to
accomplish that, and I think.. . (several talking)
O'Donnell! So, the...
Bailey! I would like more data. If there's a call for it...
Wilburn! Could you ask the Senior Center to at least address that? (can't hear; several
talking)
Champion! Airport (can't hear) we decided to that, right? (several talking)
O'Donnell! Third one. (several talking)
Atkins! It was a late-add.
Elliott! Now, we have to assume there's at least a possibility for a significant swing there.
I don't think it's a strong possibility, but a strong possibility.
Atkins! Swing, help me out, Bob, what do you...
Elliott! Wal-Mart.
Atkins/No, here's the way I read this $15,000 is that they need, it's called, it's really
called the "layout plan" and they must do this amendment to the lay-out plan to
satisfy the F .A.A. F .A.A. like independent consultants, so that's one point.
Secondly, whenever we're spending any money on the Aviation Commerce Park
South, we're keeping tabs, and when we sell a piece of property, we will get
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ourselves, we will get somewhere in this (can't hear). We will reimburse
ourselves for any expenses directly associated with Aviation Commerce Park.
I've told Randy that and he's okay with that. His thing is, he needs the
authorization to spend, which means (can't hear).
Bai]ey! So this would, we went down to 105 with the Genera] Fund, Genera] Levy. This
would bounce it back to 120.
Atkins! Yes.
Bailey! Okay. And this has economic development implications cause the lay-out plan
will help us look at Aviation Commerce Park South?
Atkins! That's correct.
Bai]ey! Okay.
Elliott! Steve, I wasn't talking about, I was talking about this is the master plan, and I was
talking in the long run, we have to wait to see how things shake out. Okay.
Atkins! They have to do this. Randy came in to see me, and I told him that if you brought
it up tonight that I would be encouraging you to give me the nod to do it.
Champion! You could do it anyway, couldn't you?
Atkins! I have the authority to do it, but when I'm dealing with the Airport Commission
which is an independent body.. . (several talking).. .I'm always a little more
careful.
Vanderhoef! How do you put that on the tape?
Atkins! The fact that you said something! (laughter)
Bailey! Do we anticipate, I mean, I thought. . . when I first saw this budget I thought
$120,000 from General Fund was a little high for the Airport, so do we anticipate
that this 2008 projection of going back, going down to $100,000 is something we
can actually do?
Atkins/ I...yeah, I intend, assuming the deal comes together with Wal-Mart and all these
other things.
Bailey/ Do we have to assume that?
Atkins! Yes you do.
Bailey/ To get down to $]OO,OOO?
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Atkins! Yes, because they have no other source of income. Their only source of income
is selling that land. And getting themselves out of debt. I understand (several
talking) .
Correia! Shouldn't they be more self-supporting? Are other municipal airports more
self.. .
Atkins! Say that to the rest of them and (can't hear).
Correia! Are other municipal airports more self-supporting, and how do they. . .
Champion! Ames is very much, but they have agricultural land and (can't hear).
O'Donnelll Farm the ground.
Vanderhoef! And Public Works is in charge of the Airport up there. Always has been, so
they never dug the hole of having a full-time FTE with...
Correia! Can we do that?
Atkins! What's that?
Correia! Have Public Works...
Bailey! I think you missed that vote. (laughter and several talking)
Elliott! Well, I really think we need to do this now, to set things...
Atkins! Yes, (can't hear) heads up, I said (can't hear; several talking) If everything
comes together on the sale of the land on Commerce Park North and we do
reasonably well on the sale of the land on the south, there should be no reason
why the Airport cannot be self-sustaining, through their own income.
Correia! What did you say about 80!20?
Vanderhoef! I thought Randy said something the other night about 80120 on...
Atkins! He said that he may be able to get some money out ofthis, and he was talking
80120. I said you pursue that, so...
Vanderhoef! Well, that's typical with aviation funding.
Atkins! Right. Capital funding is 95!5.
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Vanderhoef! ... F .A.A. pays on general aviation... for plans and for runway extensions,
and (several talking).
Wilburn! That's part of the deal with all the questions about selling the Airport (can't
hear) how much of that 80 and 80 would have to be paid back.
Atkins! Yes.
Wilburn! 'Cause there were questions, why doesn't the City just sell the Airport, and one
of the answers was there'd be lots of Federal (can't hear).
Atkins! We also assume there'd be (several talking)
Correia! Oh, sure, yeah, I'm not asking that we should sell it, I was just wondering.
Bailey! Okay, I'm willing to do this, and I anticipate that Randy will get an F.A.A.
(several talking).
Atkins! The idea is, I mean, you've got a written policy, and Randy and I go over that
every now and then, just to point out, remember, this also increases our tax base,
the City's tax base. We advance the money, pay ourselves back, any sale ofland
above and beyond paying the bills goes into reserve to support the Airport, but the
actual construction, the value of the buildings, the brick and mortar, that accrues
to...goes to the City. Oh yeah, they...that was part of the deal when we made the
deal. (several talking) There are distinct advantages to both parties.
Champion! I see, I thought they were going to. . . .
Atkins! No, off the sale ofthe land. (several talking)
Correia! The $15,000 is the total, so ifhe gets the 80120 then we only have to pay 20 of
the 15,000. Oh(several talking)...wehaveto...
Vanderhoef! We always have to front the F.A.A., and when it comes our turn within the
Regional Plan, they divvy out to all the (several talking).
Elliott! Are we ready for the next item. Ifwe are, I have a request. I don't know if
anybody else would like it, but I would, I'd like a chart. Everything City oriented
on local TV channels. I'd like to know what we have in the Personnel chart for
that. (several talking)
Atkins! You want the staff for cable TV?
Elliott! Yeah, how many entities are there?
Atkins! Make a note ofthat?
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Elliott! 'Cause I keep wondering, is there some...
Atkins! Now, PATV, you know, is not ours. We pay for it, but it's...
Elliott! .. .some latitude for some reorganization and some combining things.
Atkins! PATV? PATV is....what, Dale, $200,000 a year?
Helling! Just a little under that for the current year.
Atkins/ P A TV and they have their own staff, their own board, their own everything. We
just simply provide them funding as part of our agreement.
Correia! .. . franchise agreement? $200,000?
Bailey! They have six employees.. .is that what you're asking?
Elliott! I just, I'd just like to know the structure. I'd like to know the structure. Is there
one umbrella entities, how many different individualized entities are there? How
many employees do they have in each one? What are their budgets? I'd like to
see that.
O'Donnell! Are you talking specifically P ATV?
Correia! No, no.
Bailey! Talking about (several talking)
Helling! We'll include PATV even though it's a separate sort of funding, just so you'll
have the picture.
Vanderhoefi' Follow the money line ofthe franchise fee and where it goes, and then go
out to those budgets because I think it'll make the most sense to you, Bob, when
you get it that way.
Atkins! We'll prepare a report (can't hear).
Wilburn! (can't hear; several talking)
Vanderhoefi' Well, everybody wants a piece of the franchise fee. (several talking;
laughter)
Atkins! Now, here's how Summer of the Arts, their budget proposal. It's a little
confusing but I think I've got it clear. We budget $18,000 a year for those,
rounding it off, those various programs. They want $50,000. So, they would
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need $32,000 more. I did hear them say that they were willing to seed it, which
I'm assuming means three, four years, three years of funding. (several talking) If
you were to do what they asked you to do, you would need an additional $32,000
in the budget, for this upcoming fiscal year.
Elliott! When you said they're willing to seed it...
Atkins/ Oh, my impression, Bob, is that you get us started; after a number of years we'll
take it off on our own. That's how I read that.
Elliott! But are they wanting $50,000?
Atkins/ $32,000.. . our projections are based upon $32,000, $32,000, $32,000. That's how
you would do that.
Vanderhoef/ Plus the $18,000 that's already in the budget.
Atkins/ You mean you're not going to get rid of, assuming you're not going to get rid of
the (can't hear).
Elliott/ Yeah, they want $50,000 for each of the next three years? Yes, okay.
Vanderhoef/ And my proposal that I handed out the other night doesn't get them quite
there. I have talked to a couple of the Board people, and... yes, they want the
$50,000, but $43,000 is better than $18,000.
O'Donnell/ I think anything that, any event like this that brings in people who spend
money in our community and the massive amounts of people who corne in to
enjoy it, I think is money well spent. (several talking)
Correia! .. .the Friday night concerts, the Saturday movies...
Bailey/ Well, if I understand your memo correctly, I mean, you're suggesting we take this
from Public Art Fund.
Vanderhoef/ I'm suggesting that this is a Public Art; it happens to be the listening arts,
performing arts, versus visual arts, and that for two years, since we'll all be here
for two years, that we commit half of the Arts Fund to the performing arts.
Correia! But the Public Art Fund doesn't corne from the General Fund.
Vanderhoef/ Well, it's all bonded, because we don't even have money in the General
Fund to do it.
Bailey/ Well, I'm willing to cut our Public Visual Arts, I mean, I think that that's, you
know, despite what others might say, a good enhancement, quality oflife issue,
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and I like some of the things that they're doing in getting these to parks that...!
don't know, might not otherwise have opportunities really to have art.
Elliott! I was asked the other day, I had a couple callers on this, and I said I can't speak
for the remainder ofthe Council, but when it comes to arts that the City supports,
I'm much more in favor of putting more money into arts that represent destination
events than for arts that would be enjoyed visually by a few people, not to
diminish the value of those, but I think the money we spend on art for destination
events is beneficial, not only for arts' sake, but for economic development and as
you put it, community cohesion. (several talking) So I'm not disagreeing. I just
hadn't put it in any kind of a process or form. But I'm in favor of this for the...
Bailey/ I'm in favor of this, but I don't want to take it from the Public Art budget.
Wilburn! I'd like to do something for ICAD. I don't know.. . (several talking at once)
Correia! Do you have a memo about that? (laughter)
Vanderhoef/ Well, I...that's why I wanted to talk about a different funding source, for
two years in this, that wouldn't affect General FllI1d and would not affect bonding.
O'DonnelV I can either look at the direct benefits ofICAD, you need to look at, Josh
created it, tax base created, payroll created, I think they're incredibly valuable
took that the City should take advantage of.
Correia! Can any TIF money go to them?
Atkins/ I'm sorry, what was the question?
Correia! Can any TIF, any of our.. .ICAD.. .no? Not all all?
Atkins/ No.
Correia! Can other money go to.. . can we replace...
Atkins/ Quick history, ICAD, which used to be First Capitol...
Correia! I met with Joe, so I got the whole...very supportive, Ijust wondered how...
Atkins/ They were funded by Federal monies, passed through us. They went away. We
then funded it with Federal Revenue Sharing for a while. That went away. Now
it's a (several talking). It used to be about 40,000. We went up to 50,000, 55,000,
back down to 45,000, back up to 55,000.
Correia! Okay.
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Bailey/ Well, what did we budget? 55,000, so we need another 45,000.
O'Donnell! That's money well spent.
Correia! It is.
Elliott! Your Honor, soon can we have a break?
Wilburn! Sure.
Correia! Ifwe sold that land at the Airport (several talking)
Atkins/ No, can't do that. (can't hear) Airport...
Correia! No, no, if that happened, there's $40,000 out of the Airport.
Atkins/ Oh, yeah. Yeah.
O'Donnell/ You know, with the news that we all started offwith this evening, this is a
wonderful tool to use to replenish that.
Bailey/ I think we get good return on our investment for ICAD, and I don't have any
doubt, 100,000 (several talking)
Wilburn! Let's go tiI8:30. (TAPE OFF)
Atkins/ Where are we?
Wilburn! 147,000, that's where we're at.
Atkins/ 147,000 you got here, and ICAD's been decided. (several talking)
Champion! How much do we have?
Bailey/ We spent $147,000.
Champion! I know.
Atkins/ (can't hear)
Bailey/ Well, I don't think we can give $100,000 back to telecommunications.
Atkins/ Amen. (laughter)
Elliott! However, do we need to change the policy?
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Atkins! However.. . (laughter). No.
Bailey! Is it a resolution, it's not?
Elliott! No, not that we legally have to, but are we planning to revert back to that some
time? Ifwe aren't, then I think we need to change the policy.
Atkins! I'm not going to recommend it. I'm not going to recommend.
Wilburn! .. .not coming into the General Fund?
Atkins! That's (several talking).
Elliott! That's what I say, if we aren't going to, if we aren't going to do that, I think we
need to change the policy to reflect that.
Atkins! I don't know if, I don't think we have a formal policy, do we....
Correia! It's a practice.
Atkins! Thank you, that's probably a better way of looking at it.
Correia! We change the practice.
Helling! I'd have to check.
Atkins! We'll check it for you.
Elliott! I'm not in favor of it either, but I just...
V anderhoef! We have a policy that says, we will, or we will take a certain...
Helling! It goes back to 1979 roughly, but I think there's... .we'll dig that out.
Correia! Okay.
Vanderhoef! Can I answer one thing from the last two days? Franchise fee that's being
moved on up to the Supreme Court, what that, (several talking). Des Moines is
going ahead and budgeting as those dollars are there, as are probably those other
cities, sitting there wondering what they can do. (several talking) There's
fourteen cities, I don't have it with me, but there are fourteen cities who have
been doing this for years. (several talking)
Bailey! Thank you to Eleanor for passing that along, 'cause that really helped. Because a
lot of citizens were also. . .
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Atkins! It'll show up on the bill, as... 'cause the power company's not going to take the
heat for our franchise (can't hear).
Correia! What will show up on the bill?
Elliott! ... there's unanimity isn't there?
Atkins! On your bill, okay. Okay, what else?
Champion! Aids to Agencies...
Correia! You budgeted at 3%.
Atkins! We budgeted a 3% increase.
Champion! We don't get to discuss where we going to allocate to?
Bailey! Well, Dee and I will bring a recommendation, if you want to do like we did last
year.
O'Donnell! Aid to Agencies?
Atkins! Just wanted you to know that I think we have sufficient funding to (can't hear)
latitude to decide some things, yeah.
Elliott! This is in addition to CDBG?
Atkins! Yes, unrelated to CDBG.
Vanderhoef! The 105 will be in...
Atkins! That is from CDBG, right.
Vanderhoef! ...but the 350 roughly, is General Fund money, and it always has been.
Atkins! Yeah.
O'Donnelll Steve, what's the.. . are we moving on to another one now? What's a transit
route amendments?
Correia! That's in the transit discussion, right?
Atkins! I wanted to ask you about that. We have, you have a tentative meeting set up for
the 9th. I've given both chiefs the heads up to be here on the 9th, if you're going to
have that meeting. The other alternative would be the 13th which is your work
session, but we'd have to start earlier. I was going to have Andy, Sam, and Joe
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available that night to talk you through Fire, Police, as well as Transit. The transit
thing, we just need some guidance o~, here's what we're thinking about, before
we...
Correia! But I thought we were going to have a comprehensive transit discussion? Are
we having that on the 9th?
Atkins/ No, I was going to bring it to you to show you where we are, to make sure that
we're putting it together in the fashion that you want. You do not have to
conclude everything on the 9th
Correia! We have a tentative meeting on the 9th, is that right?
Bailey/ I don't think that thing's working. (laughter and several talking)
Atkins/ So you know, transit is not, you do not have to have it done tomorrow.
O'Donnelll Okay.
Atkins/ There's new Federal monies, it's a five-year commitment. If you're going to
amend routes and do those things, you have sufficient time to do that, and (several
talking) .
Bailey/ So, the transit though, we will budget for that and it'll be at the highest budget
level and we'll be fine for budget...
Atkins/ We have transit budgeted at both expense and revenues, we're okay on that.
Bailey/ Okay.
Atkins/ You don't have to feel rushed on that.
Elliott! I share Regenia's view. My anticipation is that we will have a comprehensive
look at the transit system.
Atkins/ It'll be as comprehensive as you want it to be. Yeah.
Wilburn! Any other items?
Atkins/ Did we ever settle on Senior Center? (several talking)
O'Donnell/ All I remember, I was in favor of it.
Wilburn! There were not, there were not four.
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Atkins! Okay, so I'm going to put no down for that. (several talking) I will talk to them
about is there any other options but for right now, you're not interested in putting
it in at $33,000, okay?
O'Donnelll Is anybody interested in hearing more from them? Before we make that
decision?
Elliott! I'm interested at some point this summer, having some Senior Center
Commission members, a couple Council persons, and maybe a Board person, sit
down at a table and talk about the Senior Center.
Atkins! We need a 28E agreement with the County. I don't know what....(several
talking).
O'Donnelll I think people forget they cut like $75,000.
Atkins! Yeah.
Bailey! .. . from members, I think that that's their justification. I'm not necessarily
defending it, and a lot of these small communities have their own senior activities.
People aren't coming to the Senior Center.
O'Donnelll Well, usage at the Senior Center is up, though.
Bailey! Right, I think that's Iowa City though.
Correia! Down from the county, you mean, down from the county.
Elliott! If I were on the County, I would be very sensitive to the fact that people in Solon
and other places are saying, 'What are you doing for us?' So, I, they have some
concerns.
Champion! The other thing is, and I'd really like to see the Commission explore this, and
actually insist on it, is at that dinner thing they do, I don't mean that negatively...
Atkins! You mean the Volunteer's Dinner?
Champion! No, the dinner, the.. . senior dining. I mean, they don't even pay for water.
The price of water and utilities, that's probably $33,000 right there.
Correia! Oh, you mean their contract with Elder Services?
Champion! Yes, I mean, I think that's crazy. That (can't hear) tax payers indirectly are
paying for all that food that's being fixed there that goes to all the other cites in
the County. It seems to me if they want $33,000, that's where they should go and
get it.
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Bailey/ Well, we did have on our goal, I had suggested comprehensively looking at the
Senior Center programming, and I brought it up in September that I think we can,
the programming is what they do. There are other departments in the City that do
really good programming. We might look at that.
Champion! Possibility, but I don't see why I as an Iowa City tax payer should be
supporting, well, I don't (can't hear), I do (laughter)...
Bailey/ How often does that contract with Elder Services, how often is that negotiated?
Atkins/ I really don't know, Regenia, you know, that's been sort of...a County thing for
so long.
Bailey/ It's not the County, it's Elder Services that we are...
Atkins/ I'm sorry, went from County to Elder Services, yeah.
Elliott! That's why we need to sit down and talk about what goes on, where's there
expenses, where's the revenue... .what kinds of programs, how're they doing to do
it?
Champion! ... Senior Center now, well, the people from Iowa City use it, but they're
going to go together to do some repairs to the kitchen. I think that's costing the
Senior Center a fortune (can't hear).
Vanderhoef/ Say that again.
Champion! I think the Senior dining program is costing the Senior Center a fortune. And
water and utilities and clean up...
Wilburn! Sounds like we need to have a conversation (can't hear).
Bailey/ Well, that was on our goal.. .discuss the Senior Center, right?
Correia! Well, I say yes to the water rate decrease, yes to sewer rate, yes to refuse
collection.
Bailey/ Yes, please pick up my garbage.
O'Donnell/ I do too.
Atkins/ It's a minimal amount of.. . (several talking at once).
O'Donnelll .. .include refuse collection in that also?
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Correia! I think I did, didn't I?
O'Donnell/ You have all three of them, okay.
Bailey/ I'm just going to skip to the bottom. I'd like to move forward with discussions
about the Joint Communications Center and get a better idea of what...
Atkins/ Did I share with you that I'm rounding up the chiefs and...
Bailey/ So that'll be on the 9th?
Atkins/ Hopefully by next week I'll be able to get you... I think you could get one of the
questions you may want to ask them is how their views on that... by, if you go
ahead with the ninth meeting and meet with those folks on Monday, we'll have a
little better idea of where to go. I think that should be something you ought to
talk about.
Bailey/ I think so too, and have, I'm assuming people have talked to the County at this
point, right?
Atkins/ Oh, yeah, I talked to...I did have a conversation with Sally and Larmy about it
just the other day, saying 'let me get through this,' that was this week.
Bailey/ What's their, I mean, what's...
Atkins/ My take on it was, I thought it was pretty fair. They know they have some
shortcomings in their system and they need to get it fixed. Well, they're
responsible for an unserved area, well, that's all County. And those rural
volunteer fire departments.. . are going to, are going to have some difficulties.
Elliott! Do you have a sufficient sense of the Council?
Atkins/ I have sensed that, you know, from day one that you think a Joint
Communication Center, if it's financially and feasible, go ahead and do it. It only
makes good sense, it only makes good sense.
Wilburn! I hadn't had a sense of the County, hadn't even had the discussion...
Atkins/ I don't think they really have, and I think that some of their concerns, I mean, we
saw that in the report. That 2013 Federal date on the use of that bandwidth, I
don't know how that works, but that's going to go away. They really don't even
have a sufficient inventory of all their radios, that, all throughout the County.
Their system is not completely adaptable with ours. I mean, even if we
maintained two separate systems, it would be really nice when it's all said and
done, somebody can slip a switch and it all works.
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O'Donnell/ You know, I attended that meeting too, and I think anybody who went left
with the notion that this is not going to save anybody any money. If it does, it's
going to save very little, but it's about coverage.. . (several talking).
Bailey! It's about being able to respond, public safety, and I think that's critical.
O'Donnell! But I also left with the opinion that Homeland Security could come in and
dictate coverage, almost at any time. So...
Atkins! Well, I have a good feel about it. I like the guy's report. It was simple and pretty
straightforward stuff, and I didn't know gigahertz, megahertz, I mean, (can't hear)
you knew it either, so (laughter and several talking)
Champion! .. .said there had to be other people there who did not know what that meant.
Elliott! And you're going to get some details?
Atkins! Yes, that's being prepared.
Elliott! Okay, good.
Wilburn! We talked about putting the franchise agreement on a work session. So, I know
that's on here.
Atkins! It's just a heads up. You got that to discuss, it could potentially be a source of
income. I can't imagine how you'd get it put together yet this year. The
legislation, or the litigation that's going on in Des Moines could have some effect
upon the thing, but you had said, we need to at least talk about it.
Elliott! Are we just, franchise agreements in general? Or...(several talking)...Mid
American? Oh, okay.
Vanderhoef! And they've moved up the hearing date for Supreme Court to like the 6th or
7'h, and then the...
Atkins! That's right, we're going to get the speedy review.
Vanderhoef! ...ofthe issue in Des Moines, and then the Court has 30 days after they've
heard the case.
Bailey! So it makes sense to maybe discuss it after.
Vanderhoef! Right, until after that court case is completed, I don't think there's any, and
certainly remember, that this is (several talking) those cities are using on both
electric and on gas.
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Champion! Boy, you know, I'd really have to be willing (can't hear) heating bills right
now, I would have great difficulty with that
Vanderhoef! Well, which one are you not going to put it on?
Atkins/ Remember, Connie, when you think.. ..and I understand that point, that's been
debated. The fee is for the use of the public right-of-way. See, you know, you
put a fee on, it's a consumptive tax and those are.. .the folks who don't like
consumption taxes would argue, you're putting 2 cents or 2% or whatever the
number might be, on your utility bill, but the purpose of the money, and that's
where the Des Moines thing - they put it directly into the General Fund. We've
understood that it's substantially right-of-way maintenance cause they use our
right-of-way to put their pipes in. (several talking)
Champion! I thought we were automatically paid for that right-of-way.
Atkins! No.
Champion! I thought they paid taxes on it, property taxes?
Atkins/ Well, they used to pay a property tax. Remember they did away with the
property tax and went to a consumptive tax because all the border communities,
where Illinois doesn't have one, we have a property tax, they couldn't compete,
and there's just a whole bunch of...
Elliott! But, Connie is right, it doesn't make any difference what it (TAPE ENDS)
Wilburn! .. . certainly logic to wait until after that case (several talking) and then, you
know, proceeding with getting information, and if we go that route, how we might
go about it.. . (several talking).. .as opposed to making statements and then...
Atkins/ ... pros and cons on a franchise agreement, just tell me what you think. And we'll
share those thoughts with you. Oh, I think (several talking). You pay sales tax on
water. State put the sales tax on water. I don't know.
Correia! .. .sales tax on telephone, and I think there's sales tax on.. . (several talking)
Bailey/ We need to be able to have some of these taxes.
Wilburn! Were there items outside of this. . .
Correia! CDBG.
Atkins/ You did ask me for one number. The program income from CDBG, varies
dramatically. It could be zero one year. It could be $300,000 or $400,000.
Generally speaking, it runs between $150,000 and about $250,000 a year.
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Bailey/ And what are we doing with that?
Atkins/ That gets figured back into program income and we use it.
Bailey/ The housing and community development, that goes back into.. . okay.
Atkins/ Some examples, we may have an elderly person that has an outstanding housing
rehab loan. If they die, we get all the money back. If they live and continue using
it, we don't get a dime. I mean, not that we're rushing around.. .you know what I
mean. (several talking and laughing)
Champion! (can't hear) revenues can we have? What happens with PAULA money?
Atkins/ We expect, because we doubled the fines, that you'll see some increase in court,
but we really don't know yet. It's a little too soon to tell. We're trying to track it.
The problem is, wasn't there something with the courts.. ..Deb, explain that to
them a little, about that?
Mansfield! I believe there's something about community service option?
Atkins/ No, I'm sorry, don't mean to put you on the spot, but there was, it was not that
easy for the courts to cull that number out and say Iowa City your PAULA arrests
are "X;" here's the amount of income and for being able to project it reasonably.
We do expect it to be up, and it's not a huge number. $50,000 to $60,000 a year,
maybe.
Champion! Well, ifthose two policemen did nothing but PAULA's (laughter).
Atkins/ That is truly a policy question. (laughter)
Wilburn! I had... .actually, I think it was three years ago, I had talked about the cigarette
butt tax which meant all the PAULA's you'd hire somebody to supervise people
who get picked up for PAULA picking up all the cigarette butts in the Ped Mall.
Atkins/ When we use, when we do community service, however, that's no money.
O'Donnell/ I think the gum far out...
Bailey/ Gum is getting really bad!
Wilburn! Yeah.
Elliott! Is that what all the stains on the sidewalk, those, that's gum?
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Atkins/ And we power wash at least twice a year, and it simply won't come off. So that's
the stain, yeah.
Bailey/ SO, with that CDBG and the housing community development requests, I mean...
Wilburn! If you're going to have a discussion, do you want to have a discussion about
that so I know to back out for the discussion or not?
Bailey/ Well, it's on the list, right?
Wilburn! Okay, I will not discuss CDBG, and I will back away from the table.
Atkins/ No, it's not on my list.
Bailey/ You added it, didn't you? (laughter) I didn't eat that much sugar!
Atkins/ Well, Dee said she was fried and so (several talking).
Bailey/ It's contagious? Scrambled brain is contagious? (laughter)
Vanderhoef/ Scrambled whatever.
Bailey/ I thought that that could be part of the broad housing discussion that we intend to
have this year. Ijust thought that that would be, once again, I like comprehensive
discussions, not pulling one string. It's just me.
Atkins/ I had understood that as soon as you have your budget adopted you wanted to
discuss scattered site, and we're going to bring that to you. It's on our list of
things to do. It's just a matter of doing it. Give me a time schedule before you
do.
Bailey/ Well, that's not going to be...
Correia! And part of, some of the recommendations for scattered site on that report was
recommending that the City was going to adopt some type of scattered site policy,
that would restrict the HCDC allocations to that. There would be a need for
increased funding, because that could increase the costs.
Atkins/ Yeah, and I've shared with staff, that if, you know, you got into real serious, we
wanted some additional capital money for housing related projects where we have
actually, we can do that. I mean, our capital position is good. It's the operating.
Bailey/ Is there a consensus that we look at this request and keep that in mind as Federal
dollars go down that we may have to look at some option of supplementing these
dollars?
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Champion! It could be part of our discussion.
O'Donnell/ I don't think it would hurt to talk about it at all.
Bailey/ Right, did you have a comment?
Vanderhoef/ I was just re-reading. I had pulled this T ARP memo out, and was looking
back down through the numbers because I didn't remember all of them.
Correia! Well, there's some, it seems like there's a lot of money being swept off the
CDBG, money when it comes into the City, because you have money sweeping to
tarp, right?
Atkins/ T ARP is a separate, we have...
Correia! .. .that's the 80 to llO, so there is money swept to rehab though for 80 and
below. Then there's the money aide to agencies.
Bailey/ Economic development.
Correia! Swept to economic development, and so that...
Atkins/ One ofthe easier programs we could run is a rehab program because you can put
liens on the property, you can raise the capital, and we have the staff to administer
it. We have substantially on demand, you know, folks come in, tarp is kind of on
demand.
Correia! Right.
Atkins/ And those are mostly folks that are low-moderate income who own their own
homes and they simply want to upgrade them. You put like a light, or a lien on it,
they sell, we get our money back, increases the property values in the
neighborhood, right.
Correia! But it doesn't respond to the range of needs that comes in to CDBG, and so
that's just...
Bailey/ ...right, and facilities and those kind of things.
Elliott/ Was your question, are you asking whether the Council is anticipating an increase
of General Fund, City's General Fund money going into housing assistance, as we
anticipate CDBG funds will decrease?
Bailey/ No. My question was, should we include that on the discussion when we talk
about scattered site.
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Elliott! Oh yeah.
Bailey/ And include this, what Jerry brought forward, as part of that larger discussion
about how we support agencies in housing.
Elliottl But, I'm just saying, I certainly don't see money corning out of the City's General
Fund for that.
Correia! But it seems like what Steve was saying, too, is that there could be some creative
ways that there could...
Atkins/ You can borrow money at a very low interest rate, because of our credit position.
We can turn around and loan those monies out to low-moderate income families.
They can have a lien on their property. As long as they're there they can enjoy
the benefit of that investment. When the house is sold or goes to an estate, we're
paid back.
Correia! So let's just say, so some of the, I think there's two different issues with the
housing, the HCDC, is that the HOME money is pretty, you can only use it for
housing. You can't use it for any other things.
Atkins/ Substantially, that's correct.
Correia! And the CDBG can be used for housing and services and community facilities.
So, some ofthat CDBG does go to housing. You're saying. ..no, I'm just going to
talk about the housing for a second. So you're saying if some of the housing that
CDBG is funding, using all the HOME funds because they're getting more
requests than...if some of that could be target, or funneled to these other avenues,
and a lot ofthose are still loans, low-interest loans, zero percent loans, then that
could free up some of that housing, what would have gone t housing from CDBG
to some other, so that could be a way that...
Atkins/ You know. ..
Vanderhoef/ We could have a policy that says for instance, we're not going to fund any
new facilities. We're going to take "X" percent of the CDBG monies and use it
into housing.
Correia! No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm not, I'm saying the opposite.
Vanderhoef/ You've already go the HUD money for housing, and if you want to take
more of the money from CDBG...
Correia! That wasn't what I was saying. That's not what I was saying at all. What I was
saying was, that CDBG is used for housing, also because there's more housing
than even the HOME funds, so then to free up some CDBG for other things that it
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can be used for and to make the HOME money go farther, we could use some of
these innovative, or other options for loans, so we could do more and still have
that. . .
Bailey/ So then that impact would be increased CDBG funds?
Correia! For those other, but there....
Vanderhoef/ ... some restrictions by the F eds on how much can be used and the various
categories of CDBG.
Correia! It's mostly public services.
Atkins/ We need to research all that.
Correia! It's the services, and...
Atkins/ Big thing now is the Feds are hell bent on cutting it.
Correia! Yeah.
Atkins/ They haven't really changed the policies, and they're going to have to do that
because the very circumstances you've identified, but a lot of folks are saying my
real need here is I've got to address issues related to housing. And I've been
spending some of my CDBG money to do that. As that declines, the demand gets
greater for other services.. ..what was that term you used?
Bailey/ What I hear from this group is we want to move that discussion, we're not
interested in funding it, we want to move that discussion to the broader discussion
of housing? (several talking)
Vanderhoef/ Broader discussion, and, I would like at the same time to have a presentation
from the Housing Authority, their funding streams, and what is and isn't
available, because they get money back...
Bailey/ Right, and I think what we should do is make a list of what that comprehensive
scattered site housing discussion looks like with those kinds of things, what kinds
of information we need, what kinds of presentations we need, who would be at the
table, because I'm interested in working with the School Board on further
discussion with this. So, I think that would be, perhaps we almost need a work
session to prep that discussion.
Atkins/ Crafting the agenda.
Bailey/ Crafting the agenda of that discussion, okay.
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Correia! Then the Housing Trust Fund of Johnson County's in the process of putting
together a housing forum and their, for the whole county, which would be, I know
that the Director is working with the United Way, with Chamber of Commerce,
and some other entity, to create a. . .
Atkins/ Greater Iowa City?
Correia! No.. .it's not, no I think it's another....
Bailey/ And Dee brought this up with JCCOG, to look at it comprehensively as a (can't
hear) and I know that the Chamber is indeed interested in looking at housing
issues, because it's a business issue. I mean...
Correia! (several talking) I know they're in the planning stages of that, of what's the
agenda going to look like, how they're you know, who they're going to reach out
to to bring together, so...
Vanderhoef/ We need to have our discussion before that, and.. . (several talking).
Elliott! Can we talk about that tonight?
Atkins/ It's a budget related issue.
Elliott! My understanding is the commissions are able to have people with conflict of
interest abstain only from the vote, not from the discussion. There are discussions
when I think either Amy or Ross might have a conflict of interest, 1'd like to have
them participate in the discussion, if that's legal.
Atkins/ Our problem is. . .
Bailey/ I bet Ross can explain that because I bet he's talked to Eleanor about those...
Atkins/ Our problem is the HUD rules.
Correia! The HUD rules. . .
Wilburn! My, the issue with me as opposed to some of the Commissioners, is that due to
the Administrative Rules related to this source of funding, they're very clear,
anything under the title that both CDBG and HUD fall, and the HOME funds fall,
because of my relationship with the agency, that's where the conflict falls.
Elliott! So, you're doing what is prescribed, not by City policy or State, Federal legality,
it has to do with specific HUD regulations? Okay.
Wilbum! .. . regulations related to the legislation, and...
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Elliott! 1 think that's unfortunate. We could benefit...
Wilburn! 1 can have conversations about policy until you start identifying this particular
source offunds, and then 1 have to.. .
Bailey! So the scattered site housing discussion, you can participate in until we talk abut
funding sources?
Wilburn! Until you talk about CDBG and HOME funds.
Correia! Ifwe don't talk about CDBG or HOME?
Wilburn! Then 1 can....
Vanderhoef! . ..Housing Authority...you're not exempt on that one. So, we can have a
full discussion about Housing Authority.
Wilburn! Yes.
Vanderhoef! Start the meeting out with that.
Elliott! Good.
Atkins! What you need to do is develop an agenda. (several talking)
Bailey! 1 think we all have to acknowledge, this is going to take a period of time. This is
not going to be a two hour meeting.
Elliott! And 1 like the, I'm sorry....1 like the idea of we have mentioned having the
School Board. 1 think that there are times when, at our work session, 1 would
really like to have input from persons involved, whether pro or con, about what
we're discussing. 1 think that would be very helpful.
Wilburn! And the Administrative Rules, they're very restrictive and the part where I'm
conflicted really is because of the Crisis Center and being a recipient. It's not the
City's conflict, it's the Crisis Center and my conflict, and if! were to do
something to, 1 could potentially jeopardize the Crisis Center's funding and
possibly be looking at paying (can't hear) so that's where, and, it's up until, if!
were to quit today, I'm conflicted by one year after leaving the....
Elliott! But my last comments didn't have to do with that. That anything on which we
have significant discussion, 1 would really like to have input at our table from
people who are involved, both pro and con. 1 think we would benefit from that.
Vanderhoef! Another piece of information that 1 would like. Since our housing authority
goes down to Highway 14 in Washington County, 1 would like to have some sort
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of a survey to know the numbers of houses that are being utilized in that area with
voucher program.
Correia! Just call (can't hear).
Vanderhoef! No, but I want it separated out because this goes into a bigger conversation
about Riverside Casino opening and $7.00 an hour jobs and folks moving into
communities in the vicinity, and looking for additional services.
Elliott! Did you say all of Washington County?
Vanderhoef! Down to Highway 14, which is on the north edge...
Elliott! Where's Highway 14?
Vanderhoef! .. .it's on the north edge of the city of Washington.
Elliott! I lived in Washington for years. I've never heard of Highway 14. (several
talking) It goes down to Washington then, it goes down to the north edge?
Vanderhoefl As I understand it. (several talking)
Wilburn! Yes. Okay.
Correia! Did we talk about the parks and.. .oh, that's just telling us. That was CIP.
Atkins! CIP project. Terry's estimating, you wanted 420th Street and the bathrooms off
the unfunded list, and come up with new numbers. We just haven't finished those
yet. We're doing that.
Elliott! Ijust wanted to say, in addition to you know how I feel about the public safety
needs. I think that I see needs on maintenance in some areas - not buildings, but
grounds. The monstrosity of a thing that we put in the middle of the street on east
College, which most of you like and I hate, it just drives me up the wall when I
see it. Not only there, but overgrown with weeds. And I just, I would like to
think that we could increase the maintenance in Parks and Rec to take care of
those things.
Champion! ... good point.. . so I think we write them a letter and tell them to either take
care of them or we take them out.
Elliott! I'm for that. I want things to be kept up.
Champion! They said they would maintain those. (several talking)
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Atkins! So, we'll go for the 9th. Police chief will be here, 7:00, transit, anything else you
want to put on that agenda? (several talking)
Elliott! You said.. . fire, police chief, transit.
Atkins! Thank you, everyone.
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City
Council budget work session meeting of February 2, 2006.