HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-01-05 TranscriptionJanuary 5, 2011 City Council Special Budget Work Session ~ Page 1
Council Present: Bailey, Chalnpion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn (arrived 7:45), Wright
(arrived 7:55)
Staff Present: Markus, Dilkes, Karr, Helling, Lewis, O'Malley, Tharp, Knoche, Rocca,
Davidson, Moran, Mansfield, Fosse, O'Brien, Wyss, Goodman, Yapp,
Miklo
BUDGET OVERVIEW:
Hayek/ Well, why don't we get this show on the road here. (mumbled) fill in Ross and Mike
when they show up. Who's first?
Helling/ I...I've... (several talking). Tom wants to... (several talking)
Markus/ ...start this, uh, what we'd like to do is give you a little bit of an overview of the budget
itself. Um, then we're going to get into a discussion, uh, as to our (noises on mic)
policies. First up, I'd call this a status quo type budget. When your budget was presented
last year, um...you always do a 2- and 3-year extension and if you go back and look,
there are two year, uh, second year proposal, uh, was quite close to, uh, what you're
seeing in...in the document for fiscal year 12, and most of the status quo I'd say comes
about because we are maintaining the same level of staffing that we had, uh....projected
in that budget, and this proposed budget doesn't include any additions or decreases in
staffing. So operationally I'd say this is very, um...status quo budget. You would hope
that when you say status quo that the costs would be the same, but apparently status quo
nowadays has a...additional price to it so...we're going to talk about those types of
things as well. On the revenue side we expect property valuations to remain relatively
flat. Uh, interest income on fund balances is also expected to continue to remain
significantly below, uh, previous earnings, uh, to the tune of over a million dollars so
that's a significant drop in our...in our revenue. Our budget is adeficit-spending budget
meaning expenditures exceed revenues by approximately a million and a quarter, and the
difference is made up by a drawdown of our fund balance. The shortfall is almost .
entirely attributable to the 27t" payday, which falls in fiscal year 12. Everybody's
familiar with the 27t" payday and completely understands that? I see some nodding
heads. Some that are confused. I...I saw that issue and I had to go to the web site and
take a look at the 27t" payday discussions on the web. They're all kind of interesting.
Everything from, well, why don't we just cut out the 27t" payday and everybody can take
a pay cut. (laughter) Um...those were the more conservative perspectives on that issue.
Uh, the 27t" payday, if you...if you were to multiply the traditiona126 paydays times 14
days in the typical payday you'd come up with 364 days in a year, as compared to the
normal year of 365. So...about every 12 years you end up in a situation where you have
an extra, um, paycheck occurring in a particular fiscal year, and the way we've handled
that here is, at that 12t" year we plug in that 27t" paycheck and then that shows up, or
bubbles up in your budget. Um...in discussing it with staff, uh, particularly Kevin, there
is a way to avoid that, I think, going forward, and that would be to reserve an amount on
an annual basis so that your budget doesn't blow up in that l lt" or 12t" year that that
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occurs. Or you can get into a modified accrual approach on your budget document itself,
and then accrue that back, you know, to the appropriate years so you don't have that
bubble up. It's hard for me to project that I'm going to be here in 12 years, but (laughter)
um, if I am, I don't want to have to deal with that again and I don't want to leave that for
the next person in this succession, as well. So...the proposed tax rate is budgeted to
increase by 38 cents per $1,000 dollars of assessed valuation, and if you went back and
looked at last year's budget, we projected that to come in at about 64 cents per $1,000 of
assessed value projected, uh, in the fiscal year 11 budget. The tax rate increase occurs
because of three different things. First the need to raise employee benefits levy to cover
the full year benefit, uh, for newly hired police and firefighters in the, uh, as projected in
the fiscal year 11 budget. That amounts to about $800,000 between that and the second
item, which is the State mandated 25% increase in city's contribution to Municipal Fire
and Police Retirement System of Iowa. That's something that's occurring across the
country, and in fact, I was looking at a number of different articles and I pulled up an
article from the January/February, 2011, Public Management, just to let you know you're
not alone! Uh, the quote is: local governments also face serious challenges because of
funding losses in pension plan assets. The downturn in the stock market in 2008
dramatically reduced the value of equities in public and private retirement plans alike.
Aggregate funding of state and local pension funding levels has declined from a
respectable level of 84% in 2008 to 78% in 2009. Because public pensions typically
smooth, or phase in upturns and downturns over a period of three to five years, the full
impact of the 2008 equity losses will not be evident unti12013. The ratio of pension
assets will decline on average to between 66 and 76% of liabilities by 2003, depending on
stock prices. Some plans have no financial issues at all, while others have a major
unfunded liability. 11 % of the 126 pension plans that were studied were funded at a level
of 40 to 59%, and 10% of the plans were at 100%. Future funding levels will depend on
many factors, including increases in contributions and how well the stock market
performs. I tell you that because I want you to know you're not alone, and this is an issue
that is, uh, being faced by local governments across the country. The other impact, of
course, is the debt levy increase that is expected for fiscal year 11 bond sales. That is
a... an impact increased... impact of about 1-point, uh, almost $1.2 million, and as you
know, uh, with our General Fund levy limitation, we are being forced to move more and
more to, uh, bonded indebtedness. The way our state law is set up here, uh, you're
capped on your General Fund levy so you're being, you know, kind of pushed into
issuing more debt for things that you traditionally I believe were funded out of the
General Fund, and...I think this is a...a pretty typical, uh, reaction, and I think it's a
pretty typical situation across the country where your state legislatures decide that they're
going to...they're going to control the, uh, the cost of local government, and so they put
these caps in, and of course what we do then as local officials is we figure out our ways
around those caps and so what we've done is shifted over to debt, but when you think
about the net income of that, what we've done is we've taken away things that were
traditionally funded out of the General Fund levy and we've moved them into a debt
situation. So now you have debt issuance costs, and you have interest costs that you
weren't paying before. So, you know, the unintended consequence I think of what's
happened here is we've actually increased the cost of local government by making this
shift over, uh, away from, uh, the General Fund levy. Uh, this year's budget also
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includes a significant Capital Improvements program which we'll review in detail, uh,
later in today's meeting. The CIP continues the City's longstanding commitment to
investment and reinvestment in infrastructure, and when you get to the issue of...of what
you cut, we're going to have a discussion about, uh, if in fact you were to make cuts, uh,
the difference between cutting in infrastructure or having to cut in operations. My
contention always is is that when you cut from infrastructure, it's aone-time cut, and
what you've done is just avoided, uh, that improvement for a period of time. The
improvement will come back in face you, uh, later on in the, uh, subsequent budget years.
So all you've really done is delay it. A meaningful cut, uh, in terms of operations and to
get to a sustainable balance usually means you have to cut in operations. So...my history
is always been, you know, continue with your capital improvements. That's where you
need to make your investments, and if you're going to make cuts, you're going to have to
move into the operational end to make a meaningful cut, uh, for the long-term. So,
hopefully you'll keep that in mind. Uh, while the tax rate only increases by 2-point, uh,
2.15%, the actual impact on the residential taxpayer is closer to a 5.6% increase, or
approximately $47 increase on a property assessed at $100,000. The larger percentage of
taxes paid is the result of the combination of the tax rate increase, combined with an
increase in the taxable value. When you get into the discussion, and I think it gets a bit
confusing and it took me a while to make the transition into the language here, but you
call it a rollback, um, in terms of your residential values, and the rollback I guess the best
way for... for me to think about it is the rollback wasn't as significant, so in effect, the
result is a taxable value increase over the previous year, which means that as a taxable
value increase or goes up, your tax rate actually comes down. So that was the significant
difference between what we projected in the last fiscal year budget, fiscal year 11.
The...uh, major takeaways that I would, uh, take away from this budget are, number one,
the City's continuing to place more funding emphasis on debt, in part because we were
maxed out on our allowable General Purpose levy, um, and staff, uh, in discussions, we
determined that that's really not a sustainable position over the long-term. Item 2,
without additional revenue sources, our revenue side of the ledger is limited. You' 11
recall, for example, we had this discussion about, uh, special assessment, and in the grand
scheme of things, I think we're all looking for ways to come up with different revenue
sources, and... and actually that revenue source, special assessments, is identified in your
budget policy manual. Um...but hasn't been used. I think the number was 20 years, and
so we had that discussion and we talked about going back to using special assessments in
alleys, and in part that is because we do need to look at other alternative revenue sources
that don't burden that General Fund levy if we're going to try and maintain those General
Fund types of, uh, programs and expenses. Third, economic development, uh, for
purposes of growing our tax base is generally thought of as a desirable way to deal with
this structural, uh, imbalance. The problem is usually there's a lag time associated with
economic development efforts. This is particularly true if incentives are deployed in the
economic development program. One only has to consider the TIF process and what TIF
does to your growth and value. It takes it...that growth away and allocates it to the
improvements that were called for in the TIF document, so you're actually shelving some
of your growth for a period of time. So that if you think you're going to grow your way
out of this, uh, it may be a long-term strategy, but on the short-term it's a very difficult
thing to accomplish, in particular when you're using economic development incentives.
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So...I think we all want to...we all want to talk about economic development is our way
to grow ourselves out of, you know, structural imbalance, but I would caution you that
that lag time is going to have an impact, and it's not going to be, you know, the panacea
that maybe some of us think it could be. The final alternative, and one that most
governments find the least desirable is cutting costs. Having come from Michigan, I can
tell you that all governments have now moved into this realm of balancing budgets, and it
is my view that we will need to consider cost-cutting measures, as well. Uh, maybe in
the near future, but certainly in the long run we' 11 have to do that. And I have some
articles, uh, that I could quote from, but I'm not going to go there right now...that talk
about this very issue. Again, you're not alone. This is a...a nationwide phenomena, um,
that's occurring in...in local governments, and I would say the big difference between
Iowa maybe and some of the other states is we're probably in a little better, uh, position,
uh, than a lot of the other states that I am familiar with, uh, in particular and in general, so
I think we've sustained ourselves over a longer period of time. The pension costs are
projected to continue to increase, uh, for the foreseeable future, and even with the stock
market correction or pension fund portfolio increase, the increases as I said are usually
smoothed or phased in over a period of time, rather than all at once, just like declines are
smoothed in. In fact, the losses that we experienced in 2008 in the state portfolio, state
pension portfolios, are likely to be phased in over a period of time running through 2013.
So if your hope is is that the stock market is going to correct this situation, it will, but the,
again it will be phased in. So, any positive growth in our stock market portfolios that
would impact the actuarials will be impacted over a longer period of time, usually a 5-
year period. So, we're not going to just grow ourselves out of that issue, and if you look
at the numbers again in the budget, the budget, uh...um, talked about, I think a 33%
increase in 13 and a 35% increase in the amount of, uh, City contribution for the police
and fire pension funds, uh, in year 14. So those are pretty significant impacts on our
budget going forward, and that's without the additions of, uh, staff. That's maintaining
our current levels. It's likely that federal and state revenues to local governments will
decline, in some cases be eliminated. Uh, we've all heard, uh, our new Governor
Branstad's, uh, comments and recently you saw the Republican, uh, House agenda for
what they have in mind, uh, so all of those things are on the table and I think we have to
pay close attention to that. Again, here we sit in January talking about preparing a budget
for a fiscal year that starts in July. Uh, obviously a lot of things can change between now
and the start of the fiscal year, and so we're going to have to be adaptive and responsive
to what we hear coming out of Lansing, and Washington, as far as that goes as to the
revenues that are going to impact us. Property values, uh, may continue to flatline and
possibly decline. One of the things I'm learning of course is the, how property taxes are
calculated in this state, and I found the, um, the tie bar between residential properties and
ag land, uh, quite interesting and so started to pursue that a little bit, and the other story I
picked up on, and I, you know, I'm one of these people that when I read stories I try to
connect dots to see where all this stuff is going, and I found an article that talked about ag
land prices, uh, reaching all-time highs and a story about the ag land, uh, property, uh,
price `bubble burst' and then I started to think, well, what does that mean in terms of
local government? Well, if 50% of the, uh, ag land tie bar back to residential values is
based on ag land pricing, that's something we have to pay attention to because going
forward that could mean if that bubble does burst that that's going to have a negative
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impact on residential values. In Michigan, um, and...and Kevin and I had this
discussion, in Michigan our values have actually declined. Okay? They're on a negative.
They...they aren't returning to some base level. They're on a decline. So...uh, I think
this year in, uh, the community I just came from I think we're projecting a 6 '/z% total
value decline. That's after a decline last year and we're projecting another one next year.
You can only imagine what that will do to property tax revenue collections, if that
situation is repeated across the country and potentially here. So those are all things that
staff monitors and pays attention to. And I would tell you that one of the things that I
have been most impressed with is your budgeting process here. Um...Kevin and the
department heads, I think, do an excellent job of their projections. Um...I wished he was
a little...more liberal in the way he projected his expenses (laughter and coughing) but
he's not. Um, he doesn't leave much slop in those, uh, those budget numbers. Um, I
tend to be a, one of those people that...that, um...leaves the expenses a little higher
maybe than they need to be. Um...this guy uses a razor when he comes to defining what
expenses are, so...your budgets, uh, come very close to their projections, and I give you a
lot of credit for being that refined. Having said that, you know, if you run into problems
during the course of a year, uh, you don't have as much flexibility that way. The other
thing I would...I would always caution you about is you have to pay attention to your
fund balances. The bonding agencies pay particular attention to fund balances, and one
of the strengths we have is our triple-A bond rating, and there's differences in triple-A
bond ratings across the country, and I don't know if you realize this. You have the best
triple-A bond rating, because you have a rating from Moody's, which is traditionally
considered one of the more...the more conservative of the rating agencies. So, you have
the gold standard of triple-A bond ratings. A number of us can claim triple-A bond
ratings, but when you get it from Moody's, that's as good as it gets! You do not want to
lose that, and I can't over-stress that enough. Think about what we're doing here in terms
of just our budget approach. We've capped our General, uh, Fund tax levy at $8.10.
We're shifting more emphasis over to where we can actually get money, meaning debt
levy. The debt levy then is dependent on bond ratings to get your lowest possible interest
rate. So going forward, if we're going to continue to issue debt, we want to make sure
that we keep that triple-A bond rating to achieve the lowest interest rate we can to keep
our costs in check, especially in the current scenario we're working with. So at this
point, uh, Dale and Kevin. and I are going to go through your actual financial and fiscal
policies and we'll try and keep it brief, but we think, um, you know, from year to year it's
a good idea to kind of re-examine your policies, and we would ask that you...when we go
through these policies that if you see things that because of the change in the fiscal
environment going forward that we need to be cautious about, please point them out to us
so that we can consider them further. One of the things that in my review of the financial
and fiscal policies that I thought was something that we should consider is we should
develop an economic development policy, and we should put it right in our, uh, financial
and fiscal policies. It's tied into the budget, um, it, you know, there's a cost associated
with economic development, and I would like to have that help guide us. I think that
there is a tendency, um...to respond to each particular situation, uh, that we get an
opportunity for economic development, based on the circumstances. And...and I don't
disagree that we're going to have to do that, but I think it would be a good idea to have
some general principles for how we approach economic development. Um, simply, uh, it
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would be in my opinion better to attract a business from outside our region here. That
should be our goal. Something new. Something that creates valuable jobs for us in our
region. Something that adds to our tax base. Something that comes into this community,
um, that we haven't taken from another jurisdiction and just played musical chairs with.
I think all of those things can be rolled into a very positive economic policy and that we
can say affirmatively this is what we stand for when we issue, uh, TIF projects; when we
try to do, um...a tax deferrals; when we help out a business to either retain it here or to
bring it here or to grow an area; and I think...what I'd like us to be, and I think we have
been incredibly, um...prudent in the way that we've done economic development in this
city, and I think it's...it's to your credit that you've monitored that. You've had TIF
projects. You've um...you've achieved what you said you would achieve in those TIF
projects, and once it's accomplished you close out those TIF projects. And you're to be
commended for that. That in my opinion is the right approach. I can't always say that
happens everywhere in, uh, across this state, and I think that...knowing what, uh, Mr.
Branstad, Governor Branstad has said about, uh, commercial property value taxation and
about, uh, TIF projects, I think we want to be held up as the standard for doing it the right
way, and...hopefully, uh, being the standard can be shared with others, um...that maybe
Mr. Branstad is commenting about in his comments that, uh, he's not as, uh...he's not
thinking they're doing it quite the right way. So, I'll leave it at that, and so at this point,
uh, Dale, I'm going to turn it over to you and Kevin, and we can start going through these
policies.
Helling/ What I want to do is just kind of walk through, uh, maybe the first...30 pages of the
budget. Part of that is policy statements and the other part are some tables that I think
will reflect a lot of what Tom has said, as well as, uh, the policies we talked about. So I
think we can move through this rather quickly. Uh, we're on a...on a timeframe today in
terms of getting finished by 4:00, and we want to have plenty of time to get through
the...the CIP. So we'll move through this as quickly as we can, but also please, you
know, stop if you have any questions or if there's any issues that you want to point out
that you, as Tom said, that you have concerns about. What we're starting, and I
apologize, the, uh, the PowerPoint's very hard to read but the pages, uh, start on page 5 of
your budget and they follow...I think the pagination here should be the same. If it's not,
it's close. So I would suggest you walk through the budget...we did this for a couple
reasons. Number one, rather than give you a handout of the same thing that's in your
budget, we assumed that you'd want to make your notes right in your budget document,
work from that. So... so you don't have a handout. The only thing different is the
highlighting and, uh, so we'll point things out very quickly. Uh, on page 5, the first thing
we've highlighted is the...the preparation of an annual balanced budget. And Tom talked
a lot about that. L ..I think, the one thing I would point out is that, um, while the budget
is not balanced in terms of revenue and expenditures, uh, with the $1.1 million that is...is
the 27th payday, um, for State purposes that is a balanced budget, if the money is...is
moved from the fund balance. So...it's...in doing this, and I think I agree there's
probably a better way to do it in...in restricting that money and setting something up so
when that 27th payday rolls around the money is there in a restricted fund. But since it
hasn't been, I just want to assure you that this does not throw our budget out of balance in
terms of what the State requires. Um, and then down at the bottom, just, uh, the reference
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again to the triple-A bond rating. Uh, we get very positive, uh, reviews from Moody's.
Uh, the latest issue, which was last spring I guess...uh, again, gave us a lot of very
positive things, uh, but we want to make sure to maintain those practices so we don't
jeopardize that. On, uh, the next page...uh, very quickly, uh, just...Tom alluded to the 3-
year planning perspective. Basically we look at historical trends and also forecasting in
terms of trying to...to, uh, discern what...what certain things like, um, the...the required
payments into the pension systems and so forth, looking ahead and making the best
estimates we can, and we use those two things to prepare the 3-year plan, particularly the
second and third years, and as Tom said, we've generally been...been able to hit those
pretty close. Um...next highlighted is in the service level guidelines section. Uh, we
talked about base decisions to reduce service levels or eliminate programs on a citywide
basis, uh, and we look at citywide priorities, and...and in discussing this, again, I think
this goes back to the need to look at the strategic planning and really to have these
priorities, because at this point I don't think we really have established priorities that we
can look at and say, uh, this is, you know, this is where cuts would need to take place or
this is where we don't want to touch anything. So I just point that out to stress, again,
that the strategic planning, uh, initiative that we're...that we're looking at undertaking is,
I think is very important, um, and then...and terms of revenue policies, again, you can
read all of these at your leisure. Um, but I wanted to highlight just that we have a policy
of maintaining a diversified and stable revenue system, and uh, that's very consistent
with what we've done lobbying through the Metropolitan Coalition and the League over
the past few years to try to...try to get the Legislature to...to broaden the...the, our
revenue sources more diverse, and that's something that continues to be a priority
for...for the upcoming Legislature. Uh, next page on 7...again as you...the top line, it
just lists the things that we do that we...that our enterprise fund, or self-supporting. I just
want to call your attention to that. And then, um, also we...we talked a little bit about
the, uh, employee benefits. Our road use tax income, 5% of what we get in that goes to
fund employee benefits for Streets and Traffic Engineering employees. Now, these are
people that are paid, their salaries are paid out of the road use tax fund, as well. So what
we have done is we've set aside, uh, 5% to help, not totally cover, but help cover those
employee benefit costs for those employees. Uh, that's about $290,000 a year and I
believe it's somewhere around 50 to 60% of the...of the total that's needed to cover all
their benefits. Um...down in the middle of the page where you can see it's highlighted,
uh, that's just pointing out. what Tom had said earlier, where in your policies, uh, you
address special assessment as...as part of your, uh, ways to, uh, to raise funding for a
specific project. That's been in there for years, uh, so if you undertake that, for instance
in...in the alley, uh, reconstruction program that you're looking at, that's certainly
consistent with your policy, what it is now, and what it has been. Uh, reserve policies,
the continuing...operating contingency is 3/4ths of 1% of the budgeted amount. That's a
small amount. It's, again, that...that razor-sharp kind of thing that we look at. We
generally do hit that or even go over it a little bit. I think you've heard this in the past
that our fund balance for ~najor...we like to maintain a fund balance that's high enough
that if we have some major surprise or issue, uh, that we can address that. For instance,
once in a while we'll have land that we're looking at that maybe we would...we might
have to condemn down the road and suddenly if pops up on the market. And, uh, it's nice
to have the funds available to...to make those purchases. So, a...athree-quarter of 1%
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fund balance, or a... a contingency generally will not cover those kinds of purchases. So,
uh, just wanted to point...out again that that is a...that's a pretty tight contingency. Um,
and then finally the...the General Fund cash balances don't go below 15% and the ceiling
of 25%. That was 30, and a couple years ago, uh, you agreed to lower that to 25, with the
caveat that anything over 25 should be considered for some sort of tax relief measures.
Um, and as we get down here a little farther we'll look at what the current and projected
balances are, the percentages, and they're between 20 and 25%. Uh, next page...go the
other way all the time. Um...just under debt policies. Point out again that our total
general obligation debt cannot exceed 5% of the total assessed value. That's a State
requirement. The...uh, local requirement, or the local policy that you set is that the
property tax levy shall not exceed 30% or the debt service property tax levy won't exceed
30% of the total property tax levy in any given year. So one's a State requirement and
the other is your own limitation. The...on the last line, uh, just kind of reflecting the
policy to pay as you go for financing capital, or uh...to fund general capital improvement
projects, wherever feasible and practical, and that's something we've just...we've done a
little bit less and less of, but I think as Tom's comments reflected too, that in the long-
term, Ithink we should keep that policy in mind and that's a policy we should try to
move back to, uh, to the extent that we can, um...less debt and more funding from
current cash, assuming we at some point in time have the ability to raise that cash.
Um...on the next page, I've highlighted at the top, and you can...yeah. Yeah. You can
read that at your leisure. I just wanted to point out that is a discontinued benefit.
That's...that's abenefit that we discontinued about 25 years ago. But it still has an
impact for some of us oldsters who haven't left yet, um, that still have some...there's
some liability for a payout on accumulated sick leave, uh, although it becomes much less
and less. That was an unfunded balance when we negotiated out of all the agreements,
and...I...I can't even imagine...it would probably...we figured it was about a million
dollars, you know, it would probably be ten times that amount in today's dollars if we
still had that. Um...and then there's...there's another section that, uh, just below that,
and it's not highlighted. It just talks about an independent audit, uh, being performed
annually. You just should have gotten a copy of the...of the comprehensive, uh, annual
financial report, uh...
Karr/ It's coming this week, Dale.
Helling/ It comes out this week? Okay, so you'll have that and have a chance to see, uh,
basically the year-end results for the last fiscal year. On page...10? Uh, at the
bottom...insurance will be purchased where possible, uh, against all major exposures,
which might result in loss in excess of the City's insurance reserve through the purchase
of the following types of insurance. And then on the next page, what we show here is the
types of insurance...insurance that we purchase, and also our policy as far as, um,
judging risk. Basically, just to encapsulate, our risk management policies as far as
insurance, we do several things. We have budgeted losses. There are some places where
we know we're going to have to make small payouts for... uh, damage for sewer backups,
those kinds of things, and typically those are already budgeted. Um, we also have, uh,
like conventional insurance with deductibles, and that's some of the things you'll see on
the next page. Um, but vde also then make decisions to self-insure with limits and with
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those limits generally are then controlled by some sort of an umbrella or stop-loss policy.
So that's how we approach our insurance and our risk management, from that
perspective. So you can look at those at your leisure too if you'd like. Um...and then I
think we want to move on to page 13. And just a couple of things there very quickly,
um...property taxes are largest source of revenue. We were at 60% last year. We're at
62% this year. I'm told that in the long-term history that's ranged from the high SOs to
the low 60s so it's pretty consistent, but as we, um...as we, uh...lose funding
from...from State sources, federal sources, then that percentage inches up even more, and
I think it...just what it illustrates is how dependent we are on property tax as our principle
source of revenue. Under valuations, uh, the highlighted, since 1995, valuations within
Iowa City corporate limits have increased an average of 10% in revaluation years, and
2% in those off years, and revaluation years are every two years. I'd like you to look at
the, um...the handout that I gave you, and this is something that we couldn't get in the
PowerPoint and make it even as readable as what's up there now. So I wanted to give
you the handout to look at. It starts...it's got, in the upper left-hand corner it says
`property type.' Does everybody have that? What I'd like you to look at is just the last
line on there because that...that basically...conveys the message. Um, every other year,
and the bolded percent is the property, or the valuation increase for that year. So you can
see it's about, a little over 2% in the...04, or 03...02 for 04, and then it goes up to 8.53%,
and then the next year back down to 3.78, which is...pretty good for anoff--year, and then
18, 19 which is really good for a, even for a valuation year, back to 3, then back up to 10
in 07 for the...for the 09. Then you can see what happens the last few years, uh, it went
back down to 2.62, but instead of going back up to that 10% range, it stayed at 1.13, and
then it doesn't even quite make, um, 2% in the...that was, uh, valued in 2010 for the
2012 projects. So what's happened is that's flattened out. We're not seeing that growth.
And I think this illustrates it probably as well as anything we have. So I wanted to call
that to your attention. Um...the next one I just...it points out that the, uh, the Assessor's,
um, the valuation for January of 2010 are what serve as a basis for the 2012 budget. So
the valuations coming up that we will be using next year for the 2013 budget, I think it
illustrates...we've talked in the past about recovery and about how there's a lag.
And...that there probably was very similar lag...we didn't suffer quite as quickly as the
rest of the economy in terms of our valuations, but...I think this illustrates that lag and
the lag that we will see in terms of recovery and how when those valuations recovery...or
recover, how long it will take us to...to realize that in...in our revenues, uh, because
there's that...about a 2-year lag. Okay? Any...is that clear?
O'Malley/ Can I interject, uh...
Helling/ Certainly!
O'Malley/ I also...we, one of our major goals is to keep track of valuations cause it's quite an
important factor in taxes, and I get an email every month from the Iowa Board of
Realtors, and they do a very good job of all the sales in town, new home sales and...and
the existing home sales, and uh, as of November, we were...our sales prices were 6%
down. So that's kind of a. bell weather for me that we're going to be tight for another
year at least as far as valuation growth.
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Helling/ Okay. (mumbled) Um...and then under assessment limitation order or the rollback, uh,
you have another handout and I'd just like you to take a look at that. You've seen this
before, but it's just updated for this year. And it has the history of the rollback. If you
look at, um, basically you want to look primarily at the column that says residential. And
you can see that the percentages that rollback and where that's gone, and the trend is
clearly downward. We've had an uptick in the last few years. I think because of the
economy, um...but overall as long as that's in place, I think the long-term, uh, trend will
be downward. And I think that's illustrated here very clearly, but also has a column that
shows...the limit in our valuations because there's...there's really two things and that
goes back to...to, um...what we're looking at on page 13, uh, and if you look at that last
paragraph under number 2 that's highlighted. It says in other words the percentage
change of taxable valuations for urban residential property is limited to either 4% or
growth in agricultural property, whichever is lower, and those are the two...the two
criteria on which the rollback is established by the State. You can see what the limits
have been over those years, and we don't always even get 4%. So again, it just...we've
all talked about the rollback and questioned the relationship, uh, the coupling with ag
values and so forth. Um, but I think what this paragraph, and two, is probably...the
simplest yet illustrative, um, explanation of what the rollback does to us and just how it
works.
O'Malley/ In looking on the horizon, uh, as Tom had mentioned, I think we are in the midst of a
farm bubble, might...ready to pop one of these days, and it popped in...in 70, uh, 78, the
last time and it was pretty devastating for Iowa, and that's when they instituted the
rollback. So my guess is that when the bubble bursts, we won't see any growth in farm
values, and therefore our linkage will mean zero growth for us.
Helling/ Uh, the last thing on that page...in 2003, the rollback was (mumbled) three-quarters of a
billion dollars from our residential...uh, taxable value. In 2012 it'll be 1.6 billion, which
is more than twice the amount, even though the actual valuations, residential valuations,
have gone up less than...t}ian double. Uh, so the end result is a widening gap, and I think
that the, uh, the table at the bottom of the page illustrates that very clearly as you track
that. So, take a look at that because the gap is...is, for all practical purposes
as...approaching double what it was, uh, ten years ago. Okay? And then moving to the
next page, uh...now Tom talked about this. So I won't go into any more detail on it,
other than just to stress that the first highlighted area talks about how we handle our TIFs
and how we relief...release those TIFs when they're paid off. Um, and the second thing,
uh, Tom again had already talked...talked about what the, uh, increasing the, uh, tax bill
would be to that...to that $100,000 valued property. Um, I don't know how many
$100,000 homes we have left in Iowa City; not very many I suspect, but it's easy to work
with. You can double that and look at two times 47, so it's approaching $100 a year
for...for the $200,000 residential property. The next page, I think we might want to
spend a little...a little bit of time on. And the way this page is set up, I've got to find
the...okay. Anybody see it? (mumbling, several talking) Oh, okay, here we go! Yeah,
all right. Um, this really details where...where we are with our...our tax...tax levy
and...and how we got there. Um, if you look at the first box...where we talk about the
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General Fund, uh, tax levies (noise on mic) Transit, Tort Liability, which is uncapped,
but we determine it by...by setting an amount of money that we have to have in our
reserve, and...and then we attach the, uh, the rate in order to get that amount of money,
and then the Library, uh, Transit and General Funou canlsee pn the second column those
second column then...I keep losing that. Okay, y
amounts in terms of...of, uh, well, millage or the dollar amounts. And you can see
that...that in FY11, the rate for those...those particular levies total was 9.737 or $9.73.7
cents per thousand. If you look at the dollars raised there for 2012, which is the columns
to the right, you can see that, uh, in the total...or the subtotal, in order to...to raise those
amounts of money that the levy actually goes down a little bit, the percentage of levy,
down to 9.667. Um, so, you know, that stays pretty even. What we want to use this to
demonstrate where the...where the, uh, increases are and I think again, Tom mentioned
that it's, uh, down the next, uh, lines down, Employee Benefits and you can see how
that's gone, if you look again in that tax rate column for FY11 from 3.58 up to 3.76 or
about that $800,000 increase, um, that we talked about. And also then, Debt Service, if
you look down right above the shaded line, you can see where the debt service has gone
from 4.43, almost 4.44 to 4.71. So that's...that'styhere the increase is in...in the
overall...that's where it comes from, the overall increase we're talking about this year.
Those two levies. And, for a lot of the reasons that...that Tom talked about in terms of
employee benefits and also our...our, uh, capital program. If you look down...and 13,
FY13 and 14, you can (both talking)
Markus/Dale, maybe we should back up a second. Kevin, why don't you comment about the
debt levy in terms of if we were trying to make a cut, um, it... it isn't dollar for dollar on a
project that you cut because these things are funded over a period of time, so maybe we
can have Kevin...
O'Malley/ Yes. Of course in Finance we like to have rules of thumb for easy numbering, and the
operating budget, we look at, uh, our valuations and say a penny would raise about
$27,000. Well, that...that works fine for operations, but when it comes to the Debt
Service levy, every penny has to be stretched over 10 years, so essentially if we want to
cut in Debt Service, uh, if we wanted, for example, if we wanted to get back to the same
Debt Service levy has we had last year, we would have to reduce our $11 million bond
issue to about $7.5 million. That's quite a few projects to cut! And so that's kind of the
example we have to...if you...if that becomes part of your thought process, uh, it's
a...quite a large workload.
Markus/ Everybody track with that? (several responding)
Helling/ Okay, and then just briefly, again, if you'll go down to...and look at these columns at
the bottom for FY13 and 14...you can see that the increase for 13...oh, there it is! Okay!
Um, the increase for 13 is a little bit lower, it's about a 3.4% increase or about 1.4% on
the tax rate, but then it spikes again in 14 and I...this goes to what I think Tom was
talking about earlier about...the long-term having to make adjustments in the budget over
the long-term so we don't see those spikes and make a more sustainable, um, and so those
are the kinds of issues and targets we'll be addressing through...throughout this budget.
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Any questions...on here? It gives pretty good, uh, numbers in terms of actual dollars, as
well as the percentages, and I think it's important to look at, as we look beyond FY12 and
look at what some of the impact is going to be in the future, based on the decisions we
make during this budget cycle. Uh, then finally, uh...page 16...um just illustrates the
different levies and tells you the...the amounts, the maximum amounts. The Tort
Liability levy, as I said, has no maximum. Uh, nor does the Employee Benefits levy or
the Debt Service levy, um...the highlighted bullets, give you an idea what's...what's
included in the Employee Benefits levy, so it's not just retirement. The...health
insurance and retirement are the two primary, uh, sources of our expenses there, but there
are other things that are included as well, and it is a substantial portion of our...our
personnel costs are...are employee benefits. Um, there's a little more detail, down on
page 23, in terms of the, um, the increases that we're looking at in...in, for the Employee
Benefits levy, so we'll talk about that in a few minutes.
Hayek/ And, Dale, can you...can you clarify, just so we all understand, in terms of the increases
on, um, MFPRSI, um, that when we talk about setting the rate at, you know, 24.76 for 12
or 29.31 for 13, and 37.33 for 14 we're...those are percentages of...salary?
Helling/ Of wages.
Hayek/ Of wages.
Helling/ Yes.
Hayek/ Right, not an increase per se. It's the percent of salary (both talking)
Helling/ ...it went from...it will go from 19.8 or whatever it is to...to 24, about 5...5 percentage
points, and that's about a fourth of...of the...roughly from 20% to 25%, so that's where
we get the 25% increase. Next year, if it goes up another 5%, that'll be more like
a...what, 20...20% increase, I guess. Yeah.
O'Malley/ Right, and...being from Finance, we call them 500 bases points, versus 5%, so
(mumbled) differentiation. This year it's a 25% in pension costs for police and fire...
employees...based on wages.
Helling/ And, just as an aside, some tables that we've seen from the State...in order to really
make any meaningful reduction in...in the projections for how much the...the police and
fire pension would have to increase, um, to bring that down to some levels, significantly
lower...project they would have to earn about 10% a year interest on...on their, uh,
portfolio, and that's not going to happen, not, you know, maybe some time way in the
future, um, but most of the...the increases that we're talking here are based on an average
of 2 '/z% and I don't think they're even earning that at this point. We can't! Page 17,
again, um, I've highlighted a couple things there, uh, just...again, just stressing, uh, two
things. Number one, on...on other city taxes you'll see a significant drop in 2014, and
that's 10 through 13 include the local option sales tax that we levied for flood relief. Um,
that goes away in 14, and that's why that drops. Uh, also in use of money and property,
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January 5, 201 ] City Council Special Budget Work Session Page 13
most of that money for FY11, 12, 13, and 14, uh, most of that is, um, interest income
from our investments. It's about $87,500 I think we're projecting. That used to be about
a million six a year. So, again, just as an illustration, and then on the pie chart, you can
see the property...I mentioned before, property taxes for next year would be 62% of our,
uh, total revenue. Page 18, uh, just highlighted some things on there. You can take a
look at that, just...again, the other kinds of taxes besides property taxes, the local option
sales tax, as I said that goes away in FY14. The hotel/motel tax, I want to point that out,
uh, because we have lobbied for an increase from 7% to 9% there, uh, and that again is
on...I think it's on the League's agenda, and I don't think it's a priority this year for
the...for the Metro Coalition, but we are affiliated with the League, and if adopted, uh,
the City has adopted the League's and the Metropolitan Coalition's uh...uh, priorities, so
that is something that will continue to be lobbied. I don't know what the chances are of
any increase there this year, but, uh, it's something as a matter of policy that we have
lobbied for. And gas and electric excise tax, that's...that's the way we tax gas and
electric utilities, rather than through our standard, uh, property tax formulas. And
they're...they're close. Um, and then the last thing I've highlighted is of the, uh, the 1%
utility, uh, franchise fee that we get, uh, which is about $840,000, $565,000 of that goes
to the General Fund for maintenance of the right-of--way, and operational costs for the
fire station, $497,000 of that $565,000 goes to the fire station operations, and that's
primarily the wages and...and benefits for...well, it's wages for the firefighters and the
lieutenants that will be there. So about $500,000 of that $840,000 goes...to...to support
public safety. Okay? Uh, the next page then...uh, we talked about intergovernmental
revenue and I simply wanted to call your attention...this...this is a summary chart of all
the intergovern... intergovernmental revenue that we receive from... from state, feds,
whatever. Um, and I've highlighted just a few things that are...are the...the major
sources of revenue, um, and point out that, for instance, for the Library, we do get a
significant amount of money from the County, University Heights, and Hills, uh, toward
the Library, user fees, so that their citizens can use the Library, and that's....that's, uh,
well over $400,000 a year to help support the Library. The big one is...is, uh, fire
protection for the University, and that number is...is based on a formula that increases
every year, uh, based on, uh, square footage, and valuation, and so, you know, that's a
major source of revenue for the Fire Department. Uh, trans...State revenue, I highlighted
transit assistance. There is State transit assistance, uh, the next line, I just want to point
out that while that is shown as State revenue, it's money that's actual...fed...federal
dollars that are passed through the State, so it's not State money. Um, over the years
we've lost a lot of funding from the State and you can see what's left, and most of that is
in Transit, uh, even some of the public safety grants that come from the State are federal
money that are filtered through again. And then for our federal operating revenue, the
lion's share by...by far is the FTA, federal transit, uh, assistance money, so...just again
for your edification. Um, and let's go to 21...and I'm not going to go into a lot of detail.
This is the chart that you see, and you will see as we go through the budget, as
adjustments are made. This is the spreadsheet that we look at and...primarily to monitor
our receipts and expenditures, how those are related, and what that does to the fund
balance and those percentages at the bottom. Um, I've highlighted some of the areas
where there's, um, somewhat meaningful in terms of...of, uh, larger amounts, for
instance, uh, State 28e agreements, again, um, and uh, also interest revenues, which
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January 5, 2011 City Council Special Budget Work Session Page 14
is...is highlighted about midway down the list, uh, there's the $87,500 that we're now
projecting out, so we're not projecting through FY14 any increase in those revenues in
moving back up to anything like the million six that needs to be there. Any questions
about anything on there after you've looked at it, uh, sometimes there's kind of quirky
things, uh...lot of it has to do with our interfund loans and transfers that...that
are...brought into the General Fund and then transferred back out for major projects.
Um...
O'Malley/ Dale, I'd like to speak to that, cause going forward, uh, I'm always trying to look
down the road. Those loans end up, uh, being a, uh, obligation of the General Fund. So
we're using loans from the Landfill instead of debt, but it's another type of debt. So
essentially instead of paying for those loans out of Debt Service, we have to pay for them
out of Operations, and so in the...in the near future, those loans for, um, the $5 million
that's shown in there is for the, uh, industrial development park, and for the construction
of the fourth fire station, those will show up as operating costs for the next ten years.
Markus/ We could finance them though. We could take them out.
O'Malley/ You cannot finance the fire station because it would require a vote of, uh, the
electorate.
Helling/ And if you'll recall, the fire station was funded partially through I-Jobs and partially
through internal debt. Um, page 22...um, I highlighted other financial uses. There's a
couple pages down...there's just a, uh, a blurb there that talks about, uh, particularly in
2011 and 12 what...what that money's gone for so we'll talk about that. But the, uh, bar
chart below, I...I think it's worth looking at the trends there, and particularly the
personnel, which is the bottom tier of...shaded, uh, bars, um...you see a pretty, I think an
uptick in FY11 and 12 as we start to...to hire the firefighters and the police officers, uh,
that will...that will peak for FY12 in terms of new money. Uh, that's also the 27tH
payday, so it's relative...it goes up a little bit in 13 as you can see by the bar, but not a lot
because we only have 26 paydays back in FY13, which helps, uh, or at least, uh, levels
that out a little more, and then, um, probably the rest of that for the most of it would be
the increase in... in employee benefits that we' 11 have to absorb, and then uh, more
standard kind of rate in 14, but the trend generally is up. It's fairly flat, but if you look at
the next, uh, next one, which were services, and even the, uh, supplies, which is the one
right above that. Are you following me, those little spaces? (several responding) Uh,
those all stay pretty constant, as...as does capital outlay for the most part. Um, they will
vary, capital outlay will vary, even services will vary from year to year, depending
on... on, uh, individual departmental budget needs... some things are, you know, bi-
annual or biennial expenses rather than every year. So that changes a little bit. But then
the top part is the, uh, other financial uses and those are the major projects, and
particularly enhanced now by the, uh, um...stimulus money and flood relief money that
we've been getting. So...on page 23, uh, again, in our personnel costs it's kind of broken
down. Collective bargaining, we've talked, uh, a lot about that, uh, we have multi-year
contracts with some, uh, but we're...we also have, uh, negotiated some concessions
in...in, uh, health insurance and so those things are encapsulated a little bit there. Um,
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what I'd like to stress is, and I think it's important and...I...we know it, but I don't think
the citizens always know it, uh, we have...when we're talking about these expenses in
retirement and uh, other employee benefits, the retirement piece of that is not negotiated.
It's not something that...that uh...that we can look to the unions and say, you know, it's
their fault, their responsibility because they force us to do that. This is all State
mandated. This has been...all of our retirement programs, IPERS, MFPRSI, everything
is State mandated. And State administered by the way, so...all...all we can do is...write
the check when they tell us how much to pay. So I...I think it's important to stress that
because sometimes people want to turn to the employees and say, you know, they're
breaking the bank on these kinds of things, and it's not the employee at all. In fact it's
illegal in Iowa to bargain retirement benefits. Okay?
Markus/ But...but let's be clear. The...the employees' groups have the ability to lobby the
Legislature.. .
Helling/ Yes!
Markus/ ...the Legislature then can adjust benefit packages which, and pensions, which then
accrue back to the actuarial, which results in the State passing the actuarial costs back to
the cities.
Helling/ Now I'm not...I'm not suggesting (laughter) they don't have any influence because
they can! But it's not directly bargained, and I think that's an important distinction to
make.
Champion/ I think it's also important that they're (mumbled) about to make pay cuts to
themselves.
Helling/ Sorry?
Champion/ The legislators... government is not about to vote their benefits down.
Helling/ Okay, and then, um, and I said, there's a little more detail there about, um, the
uh...municipal police and fire system and where those, uh, um...numbers will...will go.
And the 37.33% probably is a little low. I've seen...I've seen estimates as high as a little
over 40%. So it just depends as...as Tom said earlier, that all depends on...on the
economy and...and interest rates and so forth. Um...the...other benefits, we talked about
health insurance, uh, negotiated in 2012, and then we looked at health insurance costs
projected to increase 3% in FY12. I would stress that's a very good year for us because
that doesn't take into account, um...we're projected to be 3% in FY...FY12. FY12 is the
first year where we have the, um...the insurance, that we realize benefits from the
insurance, uh, the changes in the insurance caps and so forth, the concessions that were
made by the unions. Um, because we...our insurance year is a calendar year, so even
though the fiscal year started last July, the insurance adjustments actually didn't start
until this January 1. So, we'll see that, and so hopefully these will be lower than the
increases, uh, particularly in...in 12 and 13 as we get into that, uh, realizing...um...the
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January 5, 2011 City Council Special Budget Work Session Page 16
concessions, which are phased over three years and athree-year contract. So we're going
to see a little bit of this each year and hopefully we'll see, uh, percentage increases a little
lower than what our premiums, uh, the increases in our premiums, and I don't anticipate
we'll get any decreases in our premiums. Okay? That make sense?
O'Malley/ Just as an aside, we had budgeted last year, um, for FY11 9.6% increase, and so when
we met with the Wellmark representatives they said our experience ratio was very good
and their BOCA business statewide is somewhere around 7 %2% increase, so this 3%
increase is, I thought, good news for us...without plan design changes, which'll come
next year.
Helling/ Okay, on page 24, I just mentioned that there was...there was sort of a synopsis of
FY11 and 12, what some of the major, uh, um...projects were that...that were included in
those other financial uses, and you can see what they are. Um, just want to call that to
your attention. Page 25, is a summary of our General Fund by divisions, um...and again,
it's just something I wanted to call your attention to, that you take a look at, um...just at a
very brief glance you can see where police, um, fire, transit are some of the larger
ones...public safety certainly together is big. Public works, as well, except that it's
broken down into several, uh, divisions, uh, engineering and public works administration,
and then of course the...lot of public works' functions are either enterprise funds or
they're paid for out of road use tax or whatever so...but, just give you an idea of where
the...where the largest expenses are and where we spend most of our money. Should
mention the Library too. That's about...about $5.5 million. Okay? Um, and then the .
next page...the next page, we always...when we talk about (several talking) our fund
balance.. .
Champion/ Can I just...when you put down the Library expenses, does that also include the levy
that was voter approved, is that money included in that?
O'Malley/ Yes it is.
Champion/ Okay. Thank you.
Helling/ Um, when we talked, on page 26, when we talked about our fund balances, we talked
about restricted dollars and this is...it's...Kevin could explain it, but I don't think he
needs to. This is part of our (both talking)
O'Malley/ It's a...a new, I think it's GASBY 55. It hasn't been adopted yet for our size city. I
think this year, FY11, it will be adopted. For FY10 it wasn't, but we...they have to
reformat it, so we are consistent with other governments, but essentially we had the same
type of information presented before, but maybe laid out a little different, and we needed
this new category names so that nationwide we're all similarly...addressing the same
subjects.
Helling/ Don't try to do the math, uh, because it...basically you start at the bottom and go to the
top, but I think if you look across the unassigned at the top, they'll be the same as on that
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January 5, 2011 City Council Special Budget Work Session Page 17
spreadsheet that you looked at a little bit ago, but what I really wanted to give you an
opportunity, just see what are those restricted funds, uh, they're either assigned or
committed or otherwise restricted. Uh, the money that we have set aside in the fund
balance that we can't touch for anything other than specific purposes that they're
restricted for and we would probably create another one in here and start feeding money
into that to hit that 27th payday again in 12 years from now. Okay? Uh, next page,
27...um, you've heard...we've said many times we don't get paid until October...for our
first, the City's first paycheck of the year. So, the fund balance is used to cover cash flow
during that shortfall period, usually about a quarter, about three months. Um, and I just
wanted to...if you look at the column under shortfall, you can see that the shortfall has
been as high as $7.3 million in 2009, uh, generally it's a little bit lower than that, but that
depends on...on expenditures for...for a whole variety of things, including capital
projects and so forth as the money goes out. We need...we have, at least in...as long as
I've been here, we've never borrowed money to meet our cash flow, our expenses, in, uh,
that first quarter. We've always had enough money to cover it. 15%, currently, is around
$8 million, maybe just a little bit under that. So if you look at the $7.3 million in 09, if
we had one of those years we...we'd cut it pretty close. And the only reason I put that in
is to illustrate that the 15% is...is certainly as low as you'd want to go, and if we start
seeing, um, these numbers...numbers creep up, for whatever reason, uh, we may...we
may need to look at... at, uh, maybe a little bit more money in that reserve to meet our
cash flow. So that...that floor, 15%, may need to go up a little bit, but at this point I
think we're good with that. Um, and then farther down the page, we talked about the
road use tax. Um, and again...a gas tax increase is what's...that'sbeen supported by the
League and by the Metropolitan Coalition as well, primarily by the League I think this
year in their... in their, uh, priorities, so... if that were to happen, obviously that would
ease some of the burden... if... if there were an increase in our... in our road use tax, um,
funds. Also, um, apparently there...if we have the...the 2010 Census data, uh, early
enough in this year that the road use tax formula, the distribution formula, would be
adjusted, and some of the projections for Iowa City are, you know, significant in terms of
our, uh, projected population increase, and this...the road use tax formula's on per capita
basis. So we could see, if that's a redistribution, uh, it's, you know, um...it's the same
amount of money unless there's a road use tax, or a gas tax increase, but even the same
amount of money, we know that there's population losses in other areas of the state and
so if we grow, we could get a little higher, uh, our...our share of that money
could...could be up a little higher. Um, I don't think it'd be terribly significant but it
could be several hundred thousand dollars...if we, one of the projections is 67,000
population roughly. If we could...if we could go that high it would probably be
meaningful. So we'll have to wait and see, but I just, again, wanted to point that out.
And then on the...on the...page 28, um...talk about the...talked earlier about the State
mandate that we can't go more...that we can't be indebted for more than 5% of our
valuation, um, the...the table illustrates where we are and I think illustrates it...we're
healthy in terms of our debt and our management of the debt. If you look at the
valuations in...in the first column total 100% property valuations, uh, you can see how
those have...have increased. The allowable debt margin of 5% is calculated in the next
column, and then the outstanding debt over those years, you can see...where we have
been with that. Um, and then the percentages of outstanding debt, um, 100% of
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allowable debt margin would be that 5% for us. Okay? So, um...is that clear? Okay. So
if you can see, we...we've been in less, with the exception probably of when we, um, we
had the referendum for the Library and built that, and that spiked for a couple of years.
Uh, we've been at, around 50% or below of our allowable debt margin. Now if you go to
the next page you'll see a bar chart that...that shows the same illustration. Basically
what's happened is we kept our debt...fairly constant across the years, maybe some
fluctuation, but you can see what's happened to the...to the overall valuation, and...and
our allowable debt margin, so again, it's just a matter that we're not...we're not going
crazy with debt. We talk about, uh, some of the things we used to use operating money
for that we had, uh, cash to buy that we're now using debt and, you know, one might
conclude that we're borrowing a lot more money. We're actually not, um, in terms of
raw dollars and...and...and this is something the bonding agencies look at as well is
where are we in terms of...of our debt margin. So, I think that's all good news. Um, and
then your policy that talks about...we can't, we don't exceed 30%, uh, or our debt levy
doesn't exceed 30% of the overall tax levy, and this is plotted out on this graph in terms
of where...where we are with that and where we've been. So it's bumped up a little bit
in...in, or it will bump up, uh, and part of that is, uh, not necessarily in response to your
policy, but it gives you a little more flexibility when you raise it to 30%, so the target is
still to keep it at or below that 25%, and I think by FY12, we're looking at 26 and then
dropping back down a little bit, so I think that's a good trend as well.
Hayek/ Dale, when you talk about shall not exceed 30% of the City levy, is the City levy the
combined tax levies under General Fund? So general transit (both talking)
O'Malley/ Yes, it's all the levies added together.
Hayek/ Okay.
Helling/ Okay. Yeah, so it's not just the General Fund levy. Not just the $8.10.
Hayek/ Right.
Helling/ And then lastly, the last two pages and... and basically highlighted on the last page, uh,
we are recommending two additional positions. Uh, these are not General Fund
positions. They're in Landfill and I think they're in direct response to, uh, to a
commitment we made to open the Eastside Recycling Center. Um, and so these two
positions would operate...would both be dedicated partially to staffing the Eastside
Recycling Center and also at the Landfill to handle the, uh, things that are...that are
transferred from the Landfill to the, or from the Recycling Center to the Landfill. So, I
think there's a commitment that we made that we have to, if we're going to open that
center now that we're...that's one of our capital projects, if we're going to open that
center, we have to have the, uh, have to have the staff to do that. And as I said, again,
that's not...that doesn't impact the General Fund. That's a...a, uh, enterprise fund that's
self-supported. Down below then you'll see that there are a number of positions that
were...were, uh, asked for through various departments, and none of those are
recommended, and on the next page, uh, again, the Fire Department actually over a three-
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year period had proposed to expand, uh, to staff a, uh, exclusively a particular piece of
apparatus and uh, none of that is approved. So, only two positions and both...both of
those positions are not, uh, don't impact the General Fund.
Markus/ I think that kind of wraps up our review of those, but I...wanted to back up to page 28,
um...Johnson County Council of Governments, um...I can hear people cringing already,
um...there's a comment in there, and I don't know if all of you caught it. It says a review
of JCCOG's funding allocation is recommended at this time, and we're currently drilling
down into how, uh, everybody participates in the cost of JCCOG, um...our initial
reaction is obviously that, um, Iowa City is the major funder of this organization, uh,
significantly so, and when you subtract out the University, uh, and IDOT, um, the
percentages really grow. Uh, in addition we provide office space for accounting services
that don't get reimbursed back out of the JCCOG budget, from what I can tell at this
point. So, we're looking into that. We haven't drawn any conclusions about that yet, but
because, as I understand its six members of the City serve on that board, we kind of want
to give you all aheads-up about that...that that's an issue at least from the City staff
position that we're evaluating, and we want to make sure that, um, you talk with us, um,
before we actually ratify the budget for JCCOG, um, so that we're all on the same page
on that issue. Again, we haven't drawn any, uh, conclusions yet, but the numbers tend to
stand right out in terms of...any kind of methodology that you would use, um...this issue
apparently came up last year and staff has been attempting to secure the information for
the foundation of how this agency is funded. Uh, we just recently received some of the
information. So we're still drilling down into that agency to try and figure that out.
Um...it's simply on a population basis or on a taxable value basis, uh, it's
significantly...uh, significantly disproportionate as to how much we pay. Um, comments
have been made that have been filtered back to me that, you know, maybe we don't
understand completely what the total benefit is that's accrued to the City of Iowa City.
I'd like to understand that. Um, I would guess that the benefit should be equally or
proportionately distributed on some basis, and that the cost should be appropriately
tagged into that. So, just so you folks know that that's a concern of ours, uh, when the
budget issue comes up. Hopefully the tie-bar back to us so we have that discussion.
Uh...the other issue that I bring up is the, uh, TIF special revenue funds, and I would
point out, um, that Iowa City's incremental TIF valuation for fiscal year 12 is $33
million. Um, to me that's a, uh, rather small, prudent number, uh, when you start to look
at other jurisdictions possibly across the state, uh, relative to their total assessed value. I
think you'll see significant fluctuations, and I think again this goes back to the issue of,
uh, the Governor's comments about TIF and how much, uh, it's being used and whether
it's being used in all cases appropriately. And so...I...in reading the Governor's agenda
this is one of the things that caught my eye and probably one of the things that I tended to
agree with what he was saying and talking about, and I...I think we need to start to, like I
said, develop our own policy for our budget and set the...the standard high for how we
use it, um, but I think we also need to...to talk about, uh, and pay attention to whatever
legislative agenda comes out of that issue. And, um, and discuss that. On the other hand,
I don't disagree...or I do disagree with the, uh, the proposals regarding our Amtrak
station and agenda that seems to be moving forward there, so I guess I'm on both sides of
the...the aisle or the issues that are coming forward. So...hopefully, um, we can look
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into those things and get to a level where we all feel comfortable about how different
tools are being used and um...and that we feel that there's equity in how they're being
used and what our proportionate share is. So with that, I guess we're going to move
into...are we ready to move into CIP?
Helling/ Into the CIP, um...we, my understanding is there's one or more of you have to leave at
4:00? So we're...we have to be finished by 4:00. Um...as you are probably aware, we
will have some time for...it'll be lunch on your own, and uh, so we'll have some time
when you can get away and grab something to eat, and I guess we'll just move along this
morning and see how we're doing and find a natural break somewhere and also, uh, just
ask you to keep in mind that we do have a number of projects to go through and so we
want you to ask your questions and so forth. Hopefully we can get through everything by
4:00, um...again, this isn't...we...we want your questions and concerns so we can start
looking at those, but this isn't the time for...for decision making on a lot of those things.
This is informational. We'll try to get you through them all at 4:0O...by 4:00, and um, I
don't know if (mumbled) determine when you want breaks and that sort of thing.
Hayek/ I'm getting the sense we might need a quick five minutes (several talking)
Dickens/ I just have a quick question on...we talked about economic development, and we only
have one person in that department right now. Where would, if we want to increase our
economic development, where and when would we talk about more personnel in that? Is
that part of this budget process or is that future?
Markus/ I...I think you'd talk about it as a part of this process, and I would suggest to you that,
um... maybe then, uh, maybe then moving in an area of... of additional full time personnel
that we look to, um, the private sector and see what consultants might be available to us,
um, persons with recruiting skill sets and um, which is kind of a specialty in terms of, uh,
people that do have background, and do have probably better access into, um,
corporations across the country and have those contacts. Uh, rather than necessarily
adding somebody on a, uh, full time basis, people that we can, uh, use as circumstances
change and...and direct them in those fashions. So, yes, this would be the place that we
could discuss those issues and maybe add some funding for contractual services in that
regard.
Hayek/ Why don't we just take a quick five minute break and then we'll launch into CIP.
(BREAK)
FYll -15 CAPITAL IMPROVEMENTS PROGRAM:
Hayek/ Okay, well, let's start back up and get into CIP. Rick.
Fosse/ Thank you, and good morning! Uh, welcome to the capital projects of your...of your
budget work session today. Uh, the process we're going to use today is very similar to
last year, and I'll refresh you on that so that we can make the most of our day today. Uh,
we're going to work primarily from two documents, uh, one is the budget that you all
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have in your hands, and then also our PowerPoint, and we've made a copy of the
PowerPoint and you all should have copies of that in front of you, and it tracks very
closely with the budget document so that you can keep notes in there and it's easy to
follow. Uh, specifically within the budget document, it's really two documents here; it's
the, uh, financial plan and the capital improvements plan. Uh, what we're focusing on
now, uh, begins on page C-1, which is behind the last yellow insert page in there. And,
uh, a quick outline of the information here begins with an overview of the projects by
category, and then in the pages C-2 through C-18 is where we'll spend the bulk of our
time today, and...and this is...this comprises the projects that staff is recommending for
the capital program and they are broken down by category, and we'll walk you through
each of those projects. Now following that in here, pages C-22 through C-62 is...is a
financial document, and that includes all projects that are currently active at the City right
now, including, uh, projects that were approved and are underway, uh, from past years.
This is a financial document. We won't spend much time there today, uh, they are listed
in order of account number and what we've done this year in that previous section we've
included account numbers. We've added those in there if you want to cross-reference
and jump back and forth between the two. It's easy to do that. And then finally, at...at
the back edge of this, beginning on page C-63 is the list of unfunded projects. That is
projects that have been considered, but have not been, uh, recommended for a part of the
program at this time. So what we'll do today is we'll...we'll step you through the
projects in each category, uh, and...and we'll just take those in alphabetical order, and
we'll answer your questions along the way and...but what we would prefer to do is that
discussion, a prioritization, and uh, what projects to add and...and which ones to take out,
save that for the end of the day and that discussion may spill over into the, uh, 13t" or the
27t", one of those two dates. You've got the 18t" is reserved for boards and commissions,
and events, um... so with that background, Marian, can we take the lights down? And,
uh...oh, I wanted to give you a little bit more, uh, things we'll be talking about. I'm
sorry. The, uh, we also have a section of projects that are on the radar. These are
projects that are not recommended for funding, but for one reason or another we want
you to be familiar with those. So, we'll...we'll tell you what those reasons are and...and
uh, a little bit about the projects. Uh, we'll also wrap up with a few, uh, slides of major
projects that are scheduled for, uh, to be completed in FY11, or in calendar year 11, and
then we'll begin that discussion of the projects and their priorities and that sort of thing.
And, uh, oh, let me lead off and...and talk about the, uh, the project categories, what's
represented on page C-1. What this does is it gives you a quick, um, feel for the...for the
relative magnitude of projects in each of the areas of our focus and...and you can see
where it's broken down, uh, by area focus here and fiscal year, and then we have the five-
year total in the right column and in the lower right-hand corner is the total for all
categories for the full five years, and...and here's an interesting thing that I wanted to
point out to you is...is to take this and then compare it to a pre-flood, um, chart of the
same thing, uh, the existing one is on the top of the page, the pre-flood is on the bottom
of the page. You might want to write these numbers down because I think they're too
small to read on your handouts, but the, uh, the post-flood five-year total is roughly $252
million, uh, program. Pre-flood is $112 million. So you can see that that's better than
doubled, uh, that's...that's asignificant change. It's both exciting and scary for staff in
that it...it's exciting because of the projects out there, but the scary part for us is...is one
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of the things that we pride ourselves on, and you've come to expect, is that we do a good
job with our projects, and when you double the amount of projects that we're working
with, that becomes a challenge, so that's...that'sthe scary part for us, and...and we'll
work hard at that. Uh, for those of you who think graphically, let's look at it from a pie
chart perspective, and what you see is this...this big old piece of the pie right here did not
exist before. Those are the Mood recovery projects. Those...those are new. And, uh,
that's a portion of the pie that's really kind of hard to eat. There's a lot of work involved
there because it's...it's good in that it's primarily external funding sources, but with that
comes a lot of, uh, reporting, uh, red tape and...and just a lot of extra effort that comes
with those external funds. So...before we drive...dive into the individual categories, are
there any questions about the day? Okay. Well, let's move in. I'll move off to the side
now and we'll begin a parade of people up here throughout the day to talk about the
individual projects, and we'll lead off with Mike and the Airport.
Air ort:
Tharp/ Well, good morning everyone! Uh, first I wanted to start off with a quick overview
of...of the Airport Capital Plan and where the funding comes from, um...the Airport
capital projects are funded primarily from two sources -the Federal Aviation
Administration and the Iowa Department of Transportation Office of Aviation. The
FAA, uh, grant program is a 95/5% split where the, uh, federal government is paying
95% of the project cost. The State grants vary based on the project, but prime...uh,
primarily the splits are 70 to 85%, uh, State share. And...as, because the...the fundings
are...are so skewed that way that if a federal grant or if a state grant doesn't come
through, that project essentially gets carried over to the next year. Uh, we're going to
start off with, uh, quickly an amend...amended project for the fiscal 11 year, and that is
the corporate hangar L. Uh, last year we came to you with, uh, a project that was going
to be an open-bay hangar, roughly 100 by 100. Uh, the market conditions were not able
to secure a renter for the full facility, so what we've gone back to the drawing board with
is essentially, uh, six smaller hangars, uh, roughly 60 by 60, 50 by 50, that would still
house the, uh, business class aircraft that are using the Airport more frequently and that
we don't have, uh, current capacity for, and I do actually have all six reserved at this
point in time, waiting for a design and...and more further progress so we can get leases,
um...um, executed. The...the project cost originally was, uh, estimated at a million
dollars, um, with 50/50 split. Through some sales of Airport Commerce Park land, that
figure has also been revised so now the project is a $900,000 project where, uh, $200,000
is...has come from state grant, and $400,000 has come from Airport Commerce Park
proceeds, which would leave a $300,000, um, essentially a City loan, uh, to the Airport.
Bailey/ I have a question.
Tharp/ Uh-huh?
Bailey/ If you got all six leased, um, do you feel like that that's maxing our local market, or
should we...I'm sure you've thought about building a tad bit larger.
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January 5, 2011 Y P
Tharp/ We have thought about larger, and I think right now the constraint is...is working
with...with a combination of loan value that we can realistically expect to pay back and
not have, um, issues that have been experienced in the past where those projections might
have been off. I feel comfortable with these six, um...but there may be a future area
where either through more proceeds from Commerce Park that we can, uh, look at other
hangar projects as well.
Bailey/ Okay.
Helling/ Could...could I, and I told Mike I would...when I interject it's just...um, based on...on
some conversations I've had with Michael and also with the, uh, the Chair of the Airport
Commission, we talked a little bit about this when the...when the project changed, uh,
and where the money would come from since the...instead of $500,000 there was only
$200,000 coming from...from, uh, State money (mumbled) it's about $190,000 or
something, isn't it? I can't remember exactly what the State grant is. Anyway, um, we
talked a little bit about it, and in terms of issues that have come up with the Council
before the...the proceeds from the sale of Airport, uh, the Aviation Commerce Park
money, uh, and how much of that might go to retire the debt on the existing, uh, hangars,
which is stretched pretty thin, um, and so we talked a little bit about that, and I think what
we came to is a....a concept of a combination of, uh, the Airport wants to set up a
maintenance reserve for the hangars and their buildings, and I think it makes a lot of
sense. But also to start, use some of those proceeds to...to buy down the debt on the
existing hangars, and so that's the concept we've been exploring, and I think their, you
know, they'll uh...that'll be addressed a little more, um, when the Airport Commission
representatives come to the Council on...I think it's the 18th? If I'm not mistaken, so
that's something we still want to pursue and, uh, that...ultimately that would be between
the Airport Commission and the City Council, given the set up of the...of the Airport
Commission as the administrator for the Airport. Okay?
Tharp/ The rest of the Airport Capital Program basically is a continuation of the FAA grant
process, or the State grant process, um...these past few years we...we've completed
essentially the reconstruction phase of the runway environment. Now we're working on,
uh, essentially capacity and safety enhancements, uh, that starts with the...parallel
taxiway for 7-25. Um, as part of the extension process, you can see on the left-hand side
a hammer head that starts the parallel taxiway, uh, we...for FY11 we've received the `go'
letter from the FAA to design the...the grading portion of the taxiway, and that'll
(mumbled) a full parallel for the runway, with uh, the hopes in FY12 that we'll be in a
position to have, uh, funding for the paving and lighting portion of it. Um, this increases
the safety for aircraft, you know, landing on this long runway that they don't have to
back-taxi, um, all the way through the active, um, back to either, um, runway, the
secondary runway, runway 12-30, or that the taxiway that leads to the ramp, uh, it'll also
provide for some lower weather minimums for, um, instrument traffic that flies in on 25
and lands because the safety margins increase by having the parallel taxiway. (mumbled)
The second part of that is following with the apron reconstruction and connecting
taxiway. We actually were able to reconstruct a couple of years ago the existing apron
through a, um, a land sale, but...as part of that, uh, release from the FAA, they said the
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money from the sale had to go back to a...a eligible project and that was where those
funds, uh, went towards, but you can see, uh, large events at the Airport draw, you know,
especially football season, they draw a significant amount of traffic. You can see in the
photos how, uh, the aircraft are spread out, even on the closed runway here. We've got a
number of...of airplanes, and you can see in the corner there's actually a couple of planes
way down here, um...brings up a little bit of security because the planes are so far away
that if anybody actually got onto the field, they could get to the planes probably before
we could. Um...and so it'll allow the planes to get more closely gathered to the terminal
building right there, and allow for the larger aircraft that are using the Airport now to
have more room, um, on a paved....paved area. The other projects on the, uh, the plan in
FY14, we've got scheduled with the FAA participation the flood mitigation of Willow
Creek. Uh, essentially the plan is...plan would pull, um, the Airport outside...out of the
flood plain so that the south area here is, uh, a little more palatable for development,
um...that is projected to be roughly a $2 million project with right now a...a 50/50 split
between the F...FAA and the, uh, local share. Then the...there's, with the State program
we tend to target smaller projects because the pot of money with the State, um, for the
whole state is...is about $750,000. We've been real...real lucky these last, uh, few years
to get on average about $180,000, $200,000 each year from the State. Um...traditionally
the smaller projects, for FY12 we're looking at, um, hangar maintenance, upkeep issues,
um, you know, some of the hangar buildings at the Airport were 1950s, 1960s era
buildings, and...because of the age, they need re-roofing, re-skinning, things like that,
and that's what we target the State program for. Um, other things on the list are...
essentially, again, just following the FAA plans, uh, runway 12-30 obstruction removals
- we did...in conjunction with the expansion of 7-25, uh, there was also some...some
work to clean up the approach pass to that set of runways. Um, the runway 12-30 was
accelerated with economic stimulus funds, so the obstruction mitigation portion of that
project, uh, was essentially delayed until, I believe we're in, uh, FY14 for that. And
that...concludes my list of projects.
Fosse/ Any questions for Mike before we move on to flood recovery and mitigation? Thank you,
Mike!
Hayek/ Thanks a lot, Mike! Appreciate it!
Flood Recovery and Mitigation:
Fosse/ Well, we'll change gears and move on to flood recovery and mitigation, and our first
project here is the Animal Shelter replacement, and I believe Misha and/or Rick are here
to visit with you about that.
Animal Shelter Replacement:
Wyss/ Good morning. I guess my presentations more of an update of currently where we're at
with the Animal Shelter relocation. We have tentatively selected a site, south...on the
southside of Iowa City, just south of the ballparks, off Gilbert Street, and we think it's
going to be a very suitable, um, location. We're currently waiting for FEMA, uh, for
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their final approval for the site. Uh, the current status is we're wait...we've completed
a...historical and archeological study of the property, and the results of that study were
that they recommended a phase one intensive study. That may result...that may delay the
project in that they need to have at least, uh, four to five inches, or no more than four to
five inches of frozen top soil, and as of yesterday they were trying to determine if they
were able to complete this phase one intensive study now or if they'll have to wait until
spring. Um...once...that is completed, then we're hopeful that FEMA will ultimately
rec...or approve this site, and then we can go forward with the design phase of the
project.
Fosse/ If...if I could, I'll just refresh you on the funding package for this. Uh, what FEMA is
committed to doing is replacing the...the facility that we had there, and then we can
supplement that for an expanded facility to meet our needs, and our future needs, with up
to $700,000 in GO bonds, and then beyond that we're looking at some fundraising
activities. Is that accurate, Misha?
Goodman/ That's correct. Friends of the Animal Shelter Foundation has hired a...a company,
uh, to do a capital campaign, but unfortunately they haven't been able to start it because a
location hasn't been set yet. So we're really waiting on that to...to occur.
Fosse/ Thank you, guys!
Champion/ (mumbled) So there's been no design done on this project at this point?
Goodman/ There was a...a...a company hired to do preliminary designs. Um, they specialize in
shelter buildings, so we do have preliminary designs or recommendations for a local
architect, but again, they'll have to...they'll have to formulate their own design.
Champion/ And the estimated cost is $4 million?
Goodman/ That's correct.
Champion/ And...I mean, the Shelter House didn't cost $4 million. What's going into this that
costs $4 million? I'd like to see a basic plan of it at some (mumbled)
Goodman/ I'm not familiar with the building of Shelter House, or what's involved in it, so
somebody else may have to speak to that, but I know that, uh...uh, an animal shelter
building portions of it are...are a specialized building, similar to, uh, certain areas, uh, as
you might have in a fire station, where you have a lot of air exchange, um, heating, air
conditioning, drainage issues that you wouldn't have in other buildings.
Champion/ Right. Yeah, okay.
Hayek/ Is the delay of the capital campaign because it's a tougher message to convey when you
don't have a... an identifiable design (several talking)
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Goodman/ Exactly!
Hayek/ (mumbled) Okay.
Bailey/ Have you done a feasibility study for the capital campaign?
Goodman/ Uh, they have started it, um...but again, the foundation is running that and...and
they've done all they can up to this point.
Bailey/ Okay. (several talking)
Dubuque Street and Park Road Bridge Elevation:
Knoche/ The Dubuque Street, Park Road elevation project, um, we are in the process of, we've
hired HNTB to do the design. Uh, we will be meeting, uh, kicking off the neighborhood
meetings and, uh, local group meetings here in January. Um, the project is, uh, at least
the design will be funded by, uh, EDA grant of $3 million, and then we'll also use the
local option sales tax to fill in for the share above that, uh, for our local share. Um, we
have also secured $1.5 million in fed money, um, which is a federal highway, um funds
to...to help with the construction of the project. Um, it'll be a tricky project due to all
the...the stakeholders that are in...in the corridor, um, particularly the University. Um,
we will be working with them with regards to some flood mitigation work that they're
doing at Mayflower, and then we'll also be working with them, uh, for the Hancher, um,
reconstruction, as that project continues. And, uh, the consultant that we've...that we've
hired, um, has done a very good job of...of meeting with both the consultants for the
Mayflower building and, uh...um, Hancher project to kind of get off on the right foot in
regards to having that, uh, working relationship for the project.
Fosse/ I might add that one of the things that's exciting about this project for us is the potential
for the aesthetic tie between the bridge and Hancher Auditorium. We'll have the
designers of the two projects working together on that so there'll be one visual package
when you come into town and look off in that direction, cause they'll both be designed
and constructed at about the same time.
Dickens/ How much longer do we have the local option sales tax? When is the sunset on that?
Fosse/ We have about two and a half years remaining. Is Kevin still here? That...that's
accurate, yeah, two and a half years. And...and our target is, lower target is about $30
million in income on that.
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Fosse/ Anything else?
Bailey/ Oh, can I...I have a question if...if, um, on C-14, we also have the Park Road bridge lane
improvement, and maybe this isn't the time to talk about that. Is that...are we rolling
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those projects together, and why wouldn't we, or why...why aren't we, or why wouldn't
we?
Fosse/ Yes we are! Uh...
Bailey/ So why do they appear...are they...they're separate, but...
Fosse/ We're being careful to keep them separate from an accounting basis because of the
federal money involved on Dubuque Street and the Park Road project, but from a design
perspective, HNTB is...is designing the Park Road third lane improvements as all part of
the design contract that you approved a few months ago, and probably from a
construction standpoint, we'll see if we can do it all as one project as well. The target
completion on all this is...is, uh, prior to the summer of 15 when, uh, Hancher
Auditorium opens.
Bailey/ And will there be a UI share? With the third-lane improvement it seems that it's
fundamentally for Hancher. Are they participating as they've discussed with the
Burlington Street median?
Fosse/ We're having those discussions now. As a minimum we're looking at...at some right-of-
way dedication for that. To help accommodate it. We've got two objectives to the Park
Road third lane, and one is the event traffic and then also to help with the turning traffic
up at the Riverside Drive intersection.
Bailey/ Which once again is primarily University traffic, I would say. But...I mean, to their
parking lot (several talking)
Davidson/ They...they've been very interested in the project historically. Most of those
conversations having occurred before the flood, but you know, with all of their facility
changes that'll be going on in the area as well, I'm sure they're interested from the
standpoint of having the traffic circulation system work well, as well.
Bailey/ So essentially with the Dubuque Street elevation and Park Road bridge we're really
looking at about a $32, $33 million project in total, different funding sources.
Fosse/ Actually closer to $34.
Bailey/ Okay.
Fosse/ Yep.
East Side Levee:
Knoche/ East side levee, um, will be built, uh, to protect the commercial areas along Gilbert
Street, on the east side of the Iowa River, um, from Highway 6 south to the Crandic
Railroad, um, grade crossing, uh, there at Gilbert Street. Um, this is a project that we
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have full funding from CDBG on, and we will be starting consultant selection, uh, here in
January or February, with the construction in, uh, 2012 is the planned construction year
for that project.
Flood Hazard Buyouts:
Davidson/ The, uh, flood hazard buyout project that you see, uh, with $500,000 in FY12 is one
that I'm sure you will want to have some discussion of, uh, during the discussion portion
of today's meeting. Uh, we've put this project in here because, uh, you've obviously
adopted as your number one priority in terms of a flood mitigation strategy the buyout of
properties, the most significant area, which is the Parkview Terrace neighborhood that
you see here. We know of at least two properties right now where we have willing
sellers, uh, that...that would like to work with us, but they are not eligible for either
the...the FEMA or CDBG buyout program, uh, because they, uh, are now owned by
people post-flood and so they're not eligible for the...the flood programs, federal flood
programs. Um, we also anticipate that there may be, once the FEMA and CDBG, uh,
programs end, that, I mean, we all know eventually there's going to be another flood, but
prior to that time, if we have a willing seller, in particular for a property that might be
perceived as really critical, for example, uh, we have...in this area here...uh, we have,
I'm sorry I can't control this thing any better, but...uh, we have all but about three of the
properties. So for example, those might be...if we had a chance to get one of...one or
two or those properties, and I will tell you that the two willing sellers that we have right
now are also in that area. Those are properties that are very logically, very easily added
to City Park as opposed to one that was more internal to the neighborhood. So, you
know, we would evaluate them on a case-by-case basis, but this would give us the ability,
uh, once the flood programs go offline, uh, to at least consider the purchase. You of
course, City Council, would ultimately approve that, but uh, would at least give us the
option of continuing our flood buyout strategy, um, one...once the flood programs go off.
So, uh, we're...we put this in for your consideration. We'll show you...we are sure
you'll want to have some discussion about it, as it relates to the entire budget, but that's
what it's here for.
Hayek/ If we got to that point, would we...would we be governed by the same value constraints,
um, that...that the federal dollars provided?
Davidson/ You...you would be able to determine those, in terms of (both talking) Right!
Exactly, which is what we do now of course, as well.
Hayek/ Yeah, I know, but you look at the pre-flood and (both talking)
Davidson/ Right, we've got this 112% of assessed value sort of general principle that we've been
using. You would not be limited to that with a locally funded program.
Fosse/ (mumbled)
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Davidson/ Oh yeah, I'm sorry. I had this one, I was just going to point out that...right there, and
right there, are two of the properties that I was just referring to. So you can see there.
I'm sorry, right there, and right there! Those two I pointed out are already bought out.
This one and this one are where we have, uh, some willing sellers that would like to work
with us, and as you can see, we've really done quite a job here...if I can find my arrow
again...all these properties and these two have already been bought out. So we've got a
real logical area here to, uh, eventually be added to City Park.
Wright/ What's the percentage of (mumbled) half of those homes being bought out or.. .
Davidson/ Uh, right now, the entire neighborhood is 137. We have 60. There's 61 bought out.
Another five will occur in January. We think we're going to be around 90 by the time all
is said and done with the federal programs.
Wright/ (mumbled)
Davidson/ Um, they come offline at different times, but I think it's some time during FY12,
Michael. Do you happen to know?
Knoche/ Yeah, 2012 is... is the deadline for the HMGP homes, and then the CDBG follows right
around that same timeline. And that shows the buyout along Taft Speedway that's
occurred.
Normandy/Manor Intersection Elevation:
Fosse/ Our next project is the...the elevation of the Normandy/Manor intersection, and to put
that in perspective, let me back up a couple slides. Uh, this is the neighborhood, and
here's the intersection of Normandy and Manor. Now, there are some homes in this area
that did not receive buyout offers, and uh, of course there are people that did not accept
the buyout offers, and what the objective of this project is is to elevate this intersection to
the extent that we can to help protect the access, the single means of access during the
low and moderate flood events, uh, but I want to emphasize that it's not feasible to
elevate this intersection to the point that it would maintain access during an event like we
had in...in 2008. So this...this would be for low to moderate, uh, flood protection, and
it...it's about a $1.1 million project. As it's presented in the Capital Program, it's
dependent on outside funding, of which we have not secured yet. We're still looking
there. Uh, what we are proposing in the program is...is to fund $80,000, uh, for
preliminary design so that we can have a good concept and we can move quickly, uh,
once a funding...funding opportunity is identified. So, any questions on that one? Okay.
We'll move on to the Riverside Drive, Arts Campus storm sewer improvements.
Riverside Drive/Arts Campus Storm Sewer Improvements:
Fosse/ This is an upgrade to a project that the University of Iowa and Iowa City did jointly after
the 1993 flood. Uh, the project is...is a storm sewer lift station, and what it does is it
helps keep the...the low point of, uh, Riverside Drive dry when the river level is higher
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than that, and it really worked pretty well in 2008, up to a point, and then when the water
began to overtop the flood control that the University had along the river, it spilled into
here, and there's no staying ahead of it at that point. Uh, since then the University has
designed, and they're prepared to implement a higher level of flood control for this area,
and in order for this lift station to work with that higher level of protection, it needs to be
able to pump against a larger head, hydraulic head. And, we...so there's a variety of
improvements we'll need to do there. Again, this is shaping up as a 50/50 joint project
with the University, cause we have the interest in the road and the access to the Manville
Heights area. They have the interest in the buildings that surround that. Um, so that
one...that one will evolve as we move forward.
South Wastewater Plant Expansion:
Fosse/ The next project is out south wastewater plant expansion, or it's also known as the
relocation of the north wastewater plant. That's the one that was flooded out in 93, or
excuse me, 2008 and that...we'll be moving that down to this location by expanding the
facilities down here. So you'll see a lot of facilities in this area, probably some out in this
area, uh, we hope at this time that it does not spill out into the soccer park, uh, but I think
it is safe to say that the next expansion, after this one, will most certainly, uh, spill out
into the soccer park, and if you think back 25 years ago, uh, when that whole area was
acquired, it was purchased as a waste water facility and... and with... and the soccer park
has been a use of the excess land, until it's...it's needed for the waste water. So
we're...we're starting to get to that point where we're bumping up against our fence lines
that we set aside back then! Uh, it's about a $47 million project. It includes the, uh,
design for capacity fora 30-year design life, and it'll be constructed in two phases. The
initial one and then one about 15 years out from now. It's one of the first projects to go
through the, uh, State since the, uh, the, uh, new implementation of the design standards.
The, um...uh, the anti-degradation requirements, so we're kind of working through that
process jointly with the State as they figure that out, cause that's kind of slowed down the
regulatory process a little bit, but they have been very good to work with, and uh, Friday
we have a meeting with the I-Jobs board on this project, uh, of course they're interested
in getting all the projects under contract within a year of the signed agreement. That's
not feasible with something like this because we simply can't get through the regulatory
process in that timeframe. Um, so with all the...the flux going on at the State right now,
they're wanting to meet and talk about those things. So we'll be...we'll be meeting with
them Friday morning, bright and early. I...we do have $22 million of EDA money on
this job, and $5 million in Community Development Block Grant funds, as well. And
somewhere between 5.5 and 12.5 million in I-Jobs.
Taft Speedway Levee:
Knoche/ Taft Speedway levee, uh, we'll construct a levee along the Taft Speedway alignment
and, uh, No Name Road alignment. Um, to protect, uh, Idyllwild and the Parkview
Church area. Um, also with this.project it'll protect access to the Peninsula, um, during a
flood event like we had in 2008. Um, this project is funded by $8 million in CDBG funds
and then the remainder is funded with GO bonds, uh, for this project. Uh, project will be,
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um, will be going out for, uh, qualifications for consultant in January or February, of this
year, with construction starting in 2012.
Water Main Crossings Flood Repairs:
Knoche/ Uh, we have two water main crossings of the Iowa River, uh, one at Highway 6 bridge,
and then the other one is at the old plant site, um, up by the Iowa Memorial Union, um,
these were two crossings that were washed out during the flood in 2008. Uh, we're in the
process of working through, um, the FEMA, uh, archeological process, similar to what
Animal Shelter's going through currently, um, we are looking at re...replacing these two
crossings. Um, they are in the process of doing the archeological study now, afull-blown
study at the old plant site, anal then we have to do a...um, a text review of some
environmental studies that were done with the Highway 6 project, um, at the Iowa River
bridge there, so...this one, uh, as soon, uh, we get the go-ahead from FEMA, uh, the
design is pretty much complete, so we'll be able to...to go right into design phases, or
I'm sorry, the construction phases, going through the letting process, and getting these
projects out to bid. Uh, so as soon as FEMA signs off on `em, we'll be...we'll be
moving forward on `em.
West Side Levee Proiect:
Knoche/ West side levee project, this is a project that we've already designed, um, with the
Community Disaster grant, uh, money that we had received last year. Um, this will build
a levee along the west side of the river, from the Crandic Railroad alignment, um, south
to the McCollister Boulevard alignment. Uh, the project will, um, obviously construct
the levee. We'll have two pump stations that we'll have to include for...uh, storm water,
uh, removal out of the commercial court area, and uh, Baculis and Thatcher Mobile
Home Parks, uh, will also provide us with access to our, um, siphon sewer structure that
is on the west side of the river. Um, during larger flood events, which is that building
right there. Uh, this one, we will be, uh, moving forward with property acquisition here
in January, uh, actually on the next Council agenda we' 11 have the authorization for that.
And then, uh, be going right into the bidding process, as soon as we get the property
acquisition taken care of. So this project could start this summer, uh, and move forward
with completion, uh, probably next year. I don't think we' 11 get it done in one
construction season.
Landfill and Public Utilities:
Fosse/ Any questions on flood mitigation and recovery before we move on? None? Okay.
We're moving on to page C-6 in the budget, and we're going to talk about Landfill
and...and public utilities.
Landfill Gas to Energy Proiect:
Fosse/ Uh, we really...we just have one project in this category, and...and again, it's a joint
project with the University of Iowa. Uh, we've found them to be very good partners to
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work with on a variety of fronts. This one involves our Landfill, and...and uh doing
something constructive with the Landfill gas that we collect off that...off of that, the
methane gas that we currently flare so that we control the greenhouse gas emissions. Uh,
what this project would be would be to capture that gas, condition it, compress it, and
then pump it through a pipeline to the Oakdale Campus, where it'll be used as a portion
of their fuel for energy production out there, for...to run that campus. Uh, this...this
project that the University of Iowa's taking the lead on, uh, what is in the Capital
Program here is a contribution on our part to the facility that'll be on-site at...at the
Landfill that will condition and compress the gas before it goes into the pipeline. And
then the University's working jointly with MidAmerican for the design and construction
of that gas pipeline, and then the, uh, what...what that gas then becomes for us is a
revenue stream, so that we can begin to recover our costs, the...the amount that we'll be
paid for will include the recovery of that $2 million up front, plus, uh, income beyond
that, so that we have in income stream for the Landfill there.
Dickens/ Any projections on that revenue yet?
Fosse/ It's too early! Too early to say on that one! Yep. Uh...what is interesting is looking at
the projections for Landfill gas production, and it's expected to increase over the next 10
to 20 years, so the stuff that's in there now will continue to cook and...and produce
more...more methane for us out there. So, I guess that's a good thing!
Hayek/ Would this, uh, facility allow us to...guess sell to other purchasers, beyond the
University?
Fosse/ Well, the University will have the capacity to use everything that we can send them. I
think that...that this will, um produce about 10% of their need out there, their energy
need. Um, so...
Hayek/ They'll capture everything that's drawn from this facility.
Fosse/ Yes. That's correct.
Bailey/ When would we have an idea of projections of the revenue stream, I mean...
Fosse/ Probably later this year. The...the, uh, what just came in this week is a preliminary
design, preliminary study on the...the compression and...and cleanup equipment.
They're working with MidAmerican to get prices for the pipeline and I believe they
already have their boilers in place out there, that the multi-fuel boilers. They're also
looking at being able to burn wood chips out there, and with the emerald ash bore on the
way, that might be a good, uh, source of fuel for them. Uh, we're also talking with them
about taking the leaves that, you know, currently we truck about 7001oads of leaves to
the Landfill every year, and we compost those, and they...they have a nice end use, but if
they can turn into a revenue stream for us, that's even better! So...lot of neat
opportunities here! Onto Parks and Recreation. Mike! (mumbling)
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Parks, Recreation and Trails:
Butler Bridge Pedestrian Trail:
Moran/ Good morning, everybody! (several responding) We're going to start with, uh, the
Butler bridge pedestrian trail. Um, that's uh over Dubuque Street, uh, past the water
plant. It'll make a connection into the...the county trail system along Dubuque Street,
and then it'll also make a connection into Waterworks Park and our trail system, uh, in
there. It'll be a stand-alone bridge, similar to what they're doing over the interstate at,
uh, Dodge Street and then Dubuque Street, as well. Uh, this is done with some, uh,
Coralville money, Johnson County money, and then, uh, federal STP grant money, as
well.
Knoche/ Just for clarification, the bridge is actually attached to the existing, um, county bridge is
what we'd be doing. They'll be extending the piers out and setting a structure right on
the...the piers for the bridge that's there.
Frauenholtz-Miller Park Development:
Moran/ Uh, Frauenholtz-Miller is, uh, our newest acquisition, or one of our newest ones, uh,
right south of St. Patrick's Church. Uh, we used some parkland acquisition funds and
went through a design process with the neighborhood and came up with a design
mechanism for this, and then we'll initiate the construction in a couple of years from this.
The area of, um, the neighborhood quite hasn't been developed on either side of this. It's
pretty well developed down in here, uh, but not in here. So we expect that that'll change
...the dynamics of the neighborhood'll change just a little bit and we'll want to take
another look at that, uh, at some point in time before we start the construction of that.
But we do have an initial design, uh, developed for that already.
Bailey/ Are these contributions and donations from the Park Foundation or from the
neighborhood, um...
Moran/ A combination of both.
Bailey/ Okay.
Highway 1 Sidewalk/Trail Riverside Drive to Sunset Street:
Moran/ Highway 1 side...sidewalk/trail Riverside to Sunset was a direct result of a change that
you made last year at this same meeting, uh, where you wanted to, uh, move this forward
on the agenda, and so we placed that on the agenda and uh, it's got a million dollar price
tag but we have not done any, uh, work with it yet, so I don't know whether that's going
to need some adjustment to it or not at this time.
Davidson/ I also wanted to just remind Council that the...the genesis of this project did come out
of the Miller Orchard neighborhood plan, uh, it was a priority of the neighborhood to just
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be a little bit, uh, better connected to, uh, some of the commercial, tlh, areas along
Highway 1, and make pedestrian accessibility better through there.
Iowa City Kicker's Soccer Park Improvements:
Moran/ Soccer park improvements, uh, will include mostly a...an intricate trail system inside the
park so that we can move people around the park. If you've been out there, uh, it's been
under development for several years and we've added concession stands to both ends,
and now what we need to do is we've brought in a trail on the north end of that through,
uh, Whispering Meadows and through the south Sycamore, uh, trail system, but once you
get to the...to the park, you really can't go anywhere with that. So what we want to do is
enhance the trail system and, uh, help movement between the north park and the south
park, and between the concession stands, the bathrooms, and make it a little bit more
consumer-friendly for the people to get there that have kids that play at both ends of the
park.
Kiwanis Park and Court Hill Restrooms:
Moran/ This'll be atwo-restroom, uh, facility. One we will do Court Hill restroom this year and
then in the future we'll do Kiwanis Park restroom, uh, we've entered into an agreement
with an architectural firm so that the design'll all be the same, and it'll be easy for us now
to put restrooms into our facilities where we won't have to go out and do the design over
and over and over again. We'll just use a boilerplate, similar to what we've done with
the concession stands that we've used at Napoleon Park, at the Kicker's Soccer complex,
and at Mercer Park, that's all very similar, so we save a little bit of money with that. So
you'll see two...two projects happen with this. Kiwanis will be in FY14 and Court Hill'll
be done yet this year.
Bailey/ Mike, um...in looking at last year's budget, Kiwanis was...was in FY11. Why
the...why the change?
Moran/ Uh, we didn't have a chance to go talk to the neighborhood, and...and get some input
from them and see where they wanted that and how they wanted that to appear and how
they wanted it to look.
Bailey/ Thanks.
Lower City Park Secondary Access Trail:
Moran/ Uh, this'll be a project that will bring, um, Normandy Drive down in the flood area that
you just got done talking through, and I've got another slide next to show you some
locations. It'll come across and hook into the existing City Park, uh, road. We're going
to do this for two or three different reasons. One is we desperately need a secondary
access. For those of you who've been stuck at the little league ball diamonds during a
tornado shelter warning or during a torrential rainstorm, and tried to get out of there with
one exit, it's...it's very difficult to do. Uh, two it's a safety concern and we think that we
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need to access it for police, fire, ambulance when we do have, uh, any emergencies there,
and then three, we want to time this so that we have a secondary access to the park. We
don't know what the Park Road bridge/Dubuque Street project's going to bring to the
access of...of Lower City Park yet, so we'd like to ensure that we'll at least have a little
bit of, uh, of process of...of getting in through Normandy Drive.
Dickens/ That'll just be a gravel...
Moran/ At this point in time, it will be, but it could be something more substantial later on.
Hayek/ You...you're not going to hook up the...the vehicular traffic across that stretch to the
north of where the fields are...
Moran/ Right here?
Hayek/ Well that...that's a...isn't that awalking/jogging trail?
Moran/ Right. What we' 11 do is we' 11 bring it (both talking) all the way across, yeah.
Hayek/ Okay.
Moran/ Yeah, we will hook it up to the Lower City Park road.
Normandy Drive Trail:
Moran/ Along Normandy Drive, um, what you just got done talking about, we'd like to bring in,
um, the trailhead here along Rocky Shore Drive, and...and make a connection into City
Park now. Uh, this has really been changed, and you'll see that the funding source
doesn't even start until 14, and we want to make sure that the expiration happens for all
the buyouts so that we really truly know what houses are going to be there and what
houses are not going to be there. Uh, so this is just a...an example of what we...what we
could do with this, and then here's the secondary access road we talked about earlier and
that format. The thing with this is that FEMA, of course, limits us a lot to what we can
and cannot do, and mostly what we cannot do. So it'll mostly be a trail system that walks
through here and then the kind of projects that we have, uh, in...in through here will
mostly depend on what we can fit in through FEMA and then talking to the
neighborhood. We went to the neighborhood to talk to them, uh, a year ago November
and uh, they had some very strong opinions and so we decided we' d let it sit for a while
and go back and...and a lot of the people have even left the neighborhood now. So we're
going to plan another neighborhood meeting with them sometime this spring, go back to
`em, let `em know what our plans are now, and see what's suggested with that and...and
what their feelings are with a lot of that. This area over in here, as Rick or Jeff alluded
to, is that' 11 really open that up, uh, to expand City Park a little bit and hopefully help the
use in here, maybe expand some of these areas in here for parking and...and help with
this secondary access in here. So some of this will be true parkland. The rest of it will
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just be trail land through there, uh, until we establish something after the buyouts all take
place.
Bailey/ When you say trail, you mean what, 8-foot asphalt?
Moran/ Uh, yeah, whatever FEMA will let us put in, uh, pervious, impervious, uh, we' 11 have to
work with them to see what's allowed...for most of that.
Bailey/ (mumbled) no fan of, you know, on-street sort of trails, per se, but...I mean, Normandy
Drive suffices pretty well as a connector. It's just that little, where it does that little turn,
so...why not just go on-street for that portion because it's...it's definitely manageable.
Moran/ Yeah, and that's something that we'll have to look at.
Bailey/ Okay.
Moran/ Uh, it'll just depend, again, you know, on how many properties we have, uh, we'd like to
make some connections into the (siren blaring, unable to hear) so we may follow
Normandy and then just do some side, uh, down to some portable docks or, uh, other
access areas onto the river.
Bailey/ Okay. Thanks.
Pedestrian Bridge Rocky Shore Drive to Peninsula:
Moran/ Uh, pedestrian bridge, uh, this remains the...the number one priority of the Parks and
Recreation Commission, as well as to make that connection over into the, uh, Peninsula
area. Uh, we have Thornberry Dog Park and the disc golf course there. Uh, as you can
see from this slide, the proposed location in here, one of the things that's nice about this
connection is then it also gives us the connection to our other trail systems over in there,
and...and we can go either way with that, uh, Coralville...this is the Iowa Light and
Power... somewhere down in here, Iowa Light and Power, um, as well, so it gets us into
the other side of...of our community, and then up in here is the underpass under I-80 that
takes us into Waterworks Park and north, so it really makes a nice good connection to get
into our other segments of trails that we haven't been able to get to, uh, for a while. But
with that being said of course, it's a very expensive project and a lot of this will depend
on outside source funding, and we' 11 be applying for grants and stuff to make sure that
that happens. So, if we don't get the outside source funding for that, uh, this project will
remain stagnant for a little while, until we find another way to do that.
Bailey/ You've noted federal grants. Do you have some thoughts about sources?
Moran/ I'm sorry?
Bailey/ It's noted that it's federal grants that you're pursuing, um, what pots of money do
you...do you have some thoughts or...
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Moran/ Um, federal trail grants is what we've put in for right now. Uh, same federal trail grant
that we've got for us from trail projects we've got coming up this year.
Davidson/ You would also have the opportunity of, at least evaluating funding this through
JCCOG through the STP or the Transportation Enhancements Program. That would be
an option.
Dickens/ This bridge will be wide enough for emergency vehicles to go across?
Moran/ That's the plan right now, based on the engineering and based on the cost estimate. I
think it would not be primarily...or it would be primarily for bike and...and uh, foot
traffic.
Hayek/ The...the area in question in the 2008 flood was under water, is that right?
Moran/ Right in there?
Hayek/ Well, yeah, once it hits the north side of the bank.
Fosse/ Yes.
Moran/ Yes.
Hayek/ Okay.
Fosse/ One of the nice things about this bridge is it could give us another means of access into a
couple of our well houses in that...that are in that area.
Hayek/ Right.
Fosse/ Um, that will be operating completely remotely during flooding situations.
Bailey/ Would that be a funding source?
Fosse/ That's up to you! (laughter)
Bailey/ Well, and you didn't write it down here as a suggestion so I didn't know.
Peninsula Park:
Moran/ Peninsula Park development, what we'd like to continue on with this is, uh, due to the
success of the dog park and the disc golf and the other many activities up there, we'd like
to go in and...and put this into a natural prairie state to do two things. One to preserve it,
and then one to protect the well-heads that we already have there, as well. So, most of its
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funding would be just to put that into a more natural state and not turn it into a lot more
of...more active park than what it already is.
Scott Park Development and Trail:
Moran/ Uh, Scott Park development and trail, this was the federal trail grant monies that we
received, uh, as well for this year and next. Uh, it's sort of a two-part project. One of it
will be a Public Works' project to look at the storm water retention water, which Ron or
Rick could...could talk to you briefly about, and then the second one would be the
extension of the Court Hill trail. We would pick that up where it currently ends at Scott
Boulevard, and take that along the creek, uh, we would put in a bridge or method to cross
the creek into the dog park, uh, Rita's Run there, and then go up further, uh, along Scott
Park until we hit into Windsor Ridge. So it would actually make Court Hill be
completely connected now from east to west, uh, the Court Hill extension project that we
did from Creekside Park to Scott Boulevard was the one that we finished last year. So
this would complete that loop for that.
Bailey/ And would $750,000 give us a nice park, or do we need GO bonding for it? You said the
federal grants have been secured, right?
Moran/ Right. That's correct.
Bailey/ So, I mean...do we get a nice park without that GO...bond?
Moran/ Could! (laughter)
Bailey/ Okay. (mumbled)
Moran/ Well, the local match money's in there too, is what you'll be directed to...
Bailey/ Okay. What is the...I mean, the local match (both talking)
Moran/ Three, uh, $360, 3,000...
Bailey/ No, but what...is it a 80/20 or...80/20?
Moran/ Yes. Yeah.
Bailey/ Thanks!
Fosse/ The Public Works' component of that project is related to the volume of the storm water
retention basin, this park sits within a storm water detention basin on the south branch of
Ralston Creek. It's performed very well for us over the past 30 years since it's been
built. What we want to do is identify whether or not significant volume has been lost to
sedimentation over those years, and if it has, what do we need to recover that volume
before we put park improvements on top of that. So potentially you could see some
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widespread grading out there, prior to these park improvements going in, while we
restore that volume.
Wilburn/ I'm just curious, Rick, how...any projection or idea on how far down it will have to be
dug, and what do we do with all that silt?
Fosse/ Well, there's...we have a number of projects that are going to need a lot of...of fill
material coming up in the next few years. I don't think getting rid of the material, it will
be difficult, and how far down we need to go is yet to be determined. We will be doing
some surveying and compare that against our best understanding of what was originally
constructed out there, uh, and some areas we know it's about 18 inches, and other areas
there's not much there at all.
Moran/ There's just a, where we come up with the Court Hill trail, uh, this is where it dead ends
right now, uh, we'll make a crossing, uh, either right here, or we'll go up and get people
to go at the light where it's probably a little bit safer because of the speeds. We'll hop,
uh, down and follow this creek line in here, uh, bridge over to Rita's Run Dog Park,
follow the creek side up, so that we can get into this trail system that we've started up in
Windsor Ridge.
Terry Trueblood Recreation Area:
Moran/ Terry Trueblood Recreation Area of course here, uh, this has been an on-going four-year
project. Phase one was the trail, the two-mile trail that went around the lake, uh, which is
completed. Phase two is the boat ramp, and marina building and parking area. That has
been let, and we'll have apre-con meeting, uh, next week with that, and that'll be ready
to go to get that developed. Phase three, uh, will be this big large educational, what I'm
calling an educational center. It'll be a rental space for weddings, picnics, uh, a large
building that hosts up to 150 people or so overlooking the lake, and then parking area in
there, and then phase four will be this beach component of this, as well, as well as the
development of this little area down in here, where we'll have another little shelter and
some access, south access off of Gilbert or Sand Road. Uh, we've secured $200,000 of
REAP grant, Resource Enhancement and Protection, and next...a week from today, uh,
we'll be attending the Vision Iowa meeting where we anticipate an announcement of
funding for that, as well. Uh, this is a...got a lot of funding components to that, and the
Parks and Recreation Foundation will be, uh, fairly significant in trying to do some
additional fundraising for this. They started some fundraising with this. The project sort
of got delayed a little bit. It got back onto track and then they'll need to get back on track
with some more fundraising to...to complete this project. But, uh, we should be able to
get it completed in the next two years. And we have acquired all this land now and all
this has been annexed into the City, uh, now as a result of McCollister and the Public
Works' complex up in there.
Wilburn/ Is the Commission had the philosophy that it would not be a , um, it would be a less
active in terms of watercraft and vehicles not...not, um, you know, jet skis and that type
of thing (both talking)
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Moran/ Right, right. It'll be anon-motorized lake.
Hayek /How deep is it anyway?
Moran/ Uh, the deepest spot there is 9 foot. Believe it or not! And it fluctuates a little bit with
the river, as the river goes up and down that goes up and down just a little bit, but, uh,
since it was a sand and gravel pit, a lot of the sand and stuff was backfilled into it, so it
isn't like an old stone quarry that's 45-foot deep or however scary those things are.
Fosse/ One thing to point out on this plan is the, uh, if you're thinking in the long-term, our next
river crossing, and we just built the McCollister bridge here, and long-term our next river
crossing will probably be down in this area, and the...the bottom 80 feet of this park has
been reserved for that right-of--way for that roadway. So this is being designed so we
don't put improvements in... in the path of that road where they' d need to be removed
later. Thinking long-term.
Davidson/ And that street that Rick's referring to is part of the adopted JCCOG arterial street
plan. It would connect the interchange to U.S. 218 that's down, uh, by the County
Fairgrounds to, uh, the rest of the Iowa City arterial street system.
Fosse/ Yep. That's...that's good point. Thanks for pointing that out. If you continue off to the
west here, that does line right up with that interchange down there by the Fairgrounds.
Waterworks Park Hospice Memorial:
Moran/ Waterworks Park Hospice memorial will be, uh, basically modeled a little bit after the
one that's in Willow Creek. It'll be in the south end of the wetlands in Waterworks Park,
up by the north water, uh, plant. Uh, and that'll be done with some assistance from the
Hospice folks and set in sort of a general seating like we have in Willow Creek Park with
the Hospice (mumbled) stone benches, some trees for shade, a place where people can go
and just relax and overlook...overlook the park.
Fosse/ Any questions for Mike before we move on to Public Safety? Is everybody doing good?
You want to take a break or keep going?
Hayek/ (several talking)
Fosse/ Public Safety's a short one. We can move...move right into that.
Hayek/ Okay, let's try it!
Public Safety
Moran/ And that begins on page C-10...begins and ends on C-10.
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Fire Apparatus:
Rocca/ Good morning, everyone! (several responding) Uh, a couple of quick projects to talk
about in terms of, uh, public safety at this point. Um, as we do routinely through the
course of our apparatus placement schedule, we replace fire trucks. Uh, just for your
recollection, uh, the life of the apparatus is about 14 or 15 years. They typically run in
front-line status about 7 years, and then reserve status an additional ?years. Uh, in the
last probably 5 to 8 years we...we've substantially turned over the entire fleet, and so it's
probably in as good a shape as it's been in a number of years. Uh, with the purchase of
the, uh, next pumper in FY12, um, that essentially takes the oldest one out of the fleet,
and you'll notice in FY11 there's some money appropriated there as well, and those are
apparatus for Fire Station 4, uh, which should come online in...in July of...of this year.
So it's pretty straightforward. You know, we...we project this schedule out over the life
of the apparatus and turn them over as they...they become high mileage or high
maintenance issues. Any questions about that?
Fire SCBA/Air System Replacement:
Rocca/ All right. Move on to our next one, and it's the self-contained breathing apparatus, uh,
air replacement, and essentially, uh, about, I think it was about 12 years ago, we
purchased a new SCBA system, uh, air system for our fire protection, and uh, it's getting
close to the end of its useful life. Some of the equipment's showing some wear and tear.
Um, we estimate the, uh, the replacement to that to be $550,000, um, what we're faced
with in the interim here leading up to that is about 120 of those air bottles that you see on
the back of the firefighter here, um, those are going to need to be hydrostatically tested.
We'll probably spend $120,000 just to retest or replace those, and so likely it makes more
sense to look at the entire system, uh, take advantage of some of the technology, some of
the firefighter safety devices that are incorporated into the SCBA units. Uh, so we are
looking in FY14 replacement of the SCBA units and...and air system. Any questions
about that? (several talking)
Streets, Brides and Traffic Engineering:
Alley Assessment Proiect:
Fosse/ Our next section is streets, bridges, and traffic engineering, and uh, it's fairly lengthy
section, so we'll just go ahead and dive right into that. Uh, the first project is...is alley
assessment project, or projects. We talked about this at a work session about a month
ago, and what we've proposed in the Capital Program here are two generic alley
assessment projects, that. is we don't have specific locations in mind. Those have yet to
be determined, uh, but we put one in FY13 and one in FY15, and uh, what we're going to
do is look for the good candidates out there and then also work with the Legal
Department to develop the...the best way that we can approach this assessment project
with...with the lowest amount of risk of false starts, if you will. And, one of the things
that Ron and I are interested in looking into, uh, we've seen some demonstrations in other
communities where, uh, if you recall, alleys have an inverted crown in them. That is the
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storm water runs down the center, and there's a technique where you can use pervious
pavement along that center of the alley and help deal with some of that storm water and
get that down into the ground, uh, so we're looking for good candidates there. Uh, but it
does need to be a good candidate because if you've got, um, a basement right adjacent to
it, maybe that's not a good place to do that, so all that needs to be looked at. Lot of fun
things out there on these projects. (several talking)
American Legion/Scott Boulevard Intersection Improvements:
Fosse/ Um, Connie, this is the intersection that you brought up at a work session a few weeks
ago, uh, this intersection of Scott...
Champion/ (mumbled)
Fosse/ ...and Muscatine, and uh, Ron will share with you a little bit about this project.
Knoche/ Um, this project is similar to the traffic signalization we did at Court and Scott, and then
also over at Melrose and Walden, um, area. It's...it's a large enough project where we
can't cover it within our...our annual traffic signalization projects that we do. Um, it's
uh...estimated about a $600,000 project. We'll add left turn lanes on all four legs of the
intersection, um, and then signalize it. With the development or lack of development on
to the north side of Muscatine, um, and American Legion Road, the improvements will
probably shift to the north, and uh, we actually have a preliminary plat in for the
redevelopment of the farmland here, um, so through the final platting process we'll be
able to extract some right-of--way, um, for the expansion there, and then this farm
property here is also for sale, so there'll be the potential if they need to have rezoning
done that we'd be able to get...extract some right-of--way there. So, it'll reduce some of
the costs of the project, but um, because of the size of it, that's why it's called out as a
specific project versus just being in the annual allocation for traffic signals.
Davidson/ And the traffic signal is warranted here, has been actually for a couple of years, but
it's not been a safety related issue. That's why we've kind of taken our time and, um, in
getting the improvements that Ron outlined for you ready, uh, safety related things we
tend to move much more quickly on than ones that are just delay related, which is the
situation at this intersection.
Bailey/ So it's warranted by volume?
Davidson/ Pardon me, Regenia?
Bailey/ Warranted by volume not by safety?
Davidson/ Yeah, by...by delay, the delay warrants...are what warrant the signal right now.
The...the crash history is not such. We move much more quickly on ones that are related
to crash history. This is delay related.
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American Le ion Road, Scott, Taft Avenue:
Davidson/ This is a project that we certainly intend to reconstruct this portion of American
Legion Road between Scott Boulevard and Taft Avenue at some point in the future, but
you can see from, uh, your budget document that it's, uh, out in FY15, uh, right now. We
do need to keep this project in the Capital Plan, uh, so...because of the development
that's occurring and that we anticipate to incur. Windsor West being the most recent
subdivision that came in and we do, uh, obtain developer exactions, uh, through that
process so that when we do come to reconstruct the street, uh, we have the right-of--way
that we need. We don't have to purchase that right-of--way. So, even though this is out in
FY15, we don't want you to completely remove it from the Capital Plan, uh, because that
would hinder us in getting the develop...developer exactions.
Brick Street Reconstruction:
Fosse/ Uh, brick streets are something that we talked about a couple weeks ago, as well, at a
work session, and what we have included in the...the program here are a, uh, again, a
couple of generic brick street projects, one block brick street projects, and we're going to
work with the Neighborhood Association, Historic Preservation Commission, and then
also our own, uh, condition assessment of the alleys to come up with the best, excuse me
- of the streets, not the alleys - uh, to come up with the best candidates for this, and bring
those forward to you. But they're two projects; as I said, generic in there at $290,000
each. Uh, Christina in the Planning Department has also been looking into perhaps some
alternative funding sources to assist with these projects, so that, uh, is going to be
something that we'll want to chase down; appreciate her for doing that.
Hayek/ I assume this is by design, but it looks like you've staggered the alley and brick funding
so that in each year we're doing one or the other?
Fosse/ That's right.
Burlin ton/Madison Intersection and Median:
Knoche/ Um, Burlington/ Madison intersection and median, uh, this is, uh, here currently now is
the new University of Iowa Rec Building, um...the goal originally was to have this
project done as the Rec Building opened up, uh, unfortunately, the University is working
on some steam tunnel, um, work that's flood related, potentially working on it. They're
trying to get, uh, FEMA to...to replace some of their steam tunnels, which runs about
under where the west bound lanes would have been for our improvements. So we've
held off on the project, um, this will start the median project, um, at the river bridge,
carry it up through the Madison Street intersection, um, shift the westbound lanes to the
north a little bit, and so they'll be in this area, and that's why you can see here that the
sidewalk has been shifted to the north, in anticipation of that project. So, what we're
currently waiting on is the University and FEMA to make a decision on whether or not
the steam tunnel project will move forward. Once we have the official word on that,
we'll be able to work this into the program. Um, this project is, um, a large funding
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source for this project is the University of Iowa, uh, paying for this section of the median
project.
Burlington/Clinton Intersection Improvements:
Knoche/ Uh, Burlington/ Clinton intersection project, um, obviously this is also University
related, um, with the Music Building project that'll be coming forward. This...this
improvement, um, is...is really looking at turn lanes on the Clinton Street section, and
not necessarily doing the median improvements or the median project, you know, all
along Burlington Street. Uh, so with this project we'll do the lane configurations, um,
probably end up having afive-lane section through here, um, and then we' 11 also
coordinate this with the construction of the Hieronymus Square project and the Music
Building, um, in the area. And, currently this is scheduled for FY13, but...but it would
be dependent on the University schedule and the Hieronymus Square schedule.
Hayek/ Is there any discussion of, uh, of pedestrian crossing either below or above vehicular
routes?
Davidson/ Yes, there has been, Matt, uh, I think, uh, all of you are aware that there will be a
connection, I'm losing the microphone here...there we go. Uh, there will be an overhead
connection between the Court Street Transportation Center, through the Hieronymus
Square building, over to the new Clapp Recital Halls. We are also...it's at least the
intention right now to preserve...we...we already have an opening in the north phase of
the Court Street Transportation Center that would allow an overhead connection across
Burlington Street. Now there will be of course a building now across the front of that,
uh, we'll work with the designer, you know, we're working with the designer of that
project, so that if there is a desire for anorth/south connection as well, we at least
preserve the option of doing that. There's...there's obviously not what is going to be the
ultimate building on the north side of Burlington Street there yet, but we do, you know,
we're also working some with the individual who owns most of that property right now
and what they're intentions are, and the intention at least in preserving the ability to do
that is to possibly have that structure extend clear through that area to the pedestrian mall,
where it would come down, uh, at...on the...on the pedestrian mall, uh, the old College
Street right-of--way. So, we're...we're at least preserving the ability to do that, Matt.
How it eventually comes to be remains to be seen.
Bailey/ There's a portion of the Iurlington Street median project in unfunded. Was that
something we did last year?
Davidson/ We're going to talk about that project in a little bit and just let you know where that's
at, both in the context of the median project and...and overall pedestrian accessibility
across Burlington Street. That's a little bit later on the...on the program here.
Bailey/ Thanks.
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Fosse/ So this project is...is really focused on the Clinton Street legs of this intersection,
and...and not so much on the Burlington component of it. So it's...as Jeff pointed out
that the median project is...is on the radar, and we'll be getting at that later.
Davidson/ Yeah, and I do want to emphasize to you as well that those improvements that Ron
outlined for you are related to the crash history, both vehicle/vehicle crash history and
vehicle/pedestrian crash history here and so we do hope to improve both of those with the
project that is proposed.
Dubuque Street/I-80 Pedestrian Bride:
Knoche/ The Burlington Street...um, I-80 pedestrian bridge, uh, this, uh, bridge will be basically
similar design to what we have going in along Dodge Street. Um, this...was made
possible at this location by some congress...congressionally designated funding that we
had received for pedestrian bridges across I-80, uh, then we also had some money that
was left over from the stimulus money that was authorized for the Dodge Street bridge,
and we've rolled that all into this project. Um, this will go in conjunction with the
interchange improvements that will occur as part of the I-80 project, um, some grading
will happen, um, with this project, uh, the...the interchange will be signalized similar to
what Dodge Street is today, um, so it will...it makes it a little bit more, uh...uh,
appeasing for pedestrian-friendly area, versus the way it is today. Um, this will connect,
uh, to the sidewalk system that's along Dubuque Street, uh, to the south, and then also
connect to the Butler Bridge project that we talked about earlier. So we'll have a trail
connection along Dubuque Street, um, from I-80 all the way up to the Iowa River, uh,
along Dubuque Street there. This project, um, will be...will, uh, we haven't started any
design on this yet, but we'll be moving forward with that in FY12.
First Avenue/IAIS Railroad Crossing:
Knoche/ The First Avenue, uh, Iowa Interstate Railroad, uh, crossing project, uh, we are
currently in the design process on this project. It's been, uh, unfortunately dragging a
little bit. This project, as far as construction wise, uh, we are looking to be, um, under
construction in 2012 on this project. Um, it will be a two-year construction process, um,
and we're trying to stagger so we're not in Lower Muscatine at the same time we're on
the First Avenue, um, in this area. Uh, so we have, uh, STP funds for the project and
then we have, um, a large share of...of local, um, local share there with the General
Obligation bonds for the project.
Gilbert Street Streetscape:
Knoche/ Uh, Gilbert Street Streetscape, this was a project that Brian Boelk presented to you, uh,
earlier, a couple months ago. We are back to the drawing board, um, reevaluating, uh,
what improvements will need to happen in this corridor, uh, to...to stay within the budget
that we have set aside for the project.
Bailey /And is that funding source state or GO?
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Knoche/ For Gilbert Street it's...it's actually GO, I believe (both talking)
Bailey/ ...later in the document but...okay. I was excited to see (mumbled)
Knoche/ Yeah!
Bailey/ Excited and surprised!
I-80 Aesthetic Improvements:
Knoche/ Uh, I-80 aesthetic improvements, this is a project that, uh, we did a feasibility study
with Coralville. The Iowa DOT and...and ourselves. Uh, this project is completely State
funding, um, we won't do this project unless we get outside funds for this one. Um, be it
through the Living Road Use Trust Fund or a similar project, or funding source that the
DNR would have, or DNR or the DOT has available, um, for, uh, improvements along
the highways in Iowa.
Fosse/ If you think back to the driving force for this project. It came about with the six-laning
project that's going on along the...the interstate there, and what we wanted to do is...is
develop plans to help soften that corridor, to offset the additional lanes that are going out
there, and as Ron pointed out, we hope to tap the...the, uh, Living Roadway Trust Fund
to implement those projects.
Lower Muscatine Avenue/Kirkwood to First Avenue:
Knoche/ Uh, Lower Muscatine, uh, project, this...this one is here. We're still finishing up the
final design on the project, uh, we, um...basically we're getting the final plats pulled
together, um, we are getting the appraisals done, and this project unfortunately
we're...we're going to be a little bit delayed on...on getting going on it, and it looks like
we'll be, um, June will be construction start on this in...this year, um, it works out a little
bit easier with Kirkwood being out at that point. So it...the delay of the construction
start, um, I don't think will affect this as much, but um, also give the opportunity for the
utilities to move forward and get their...their lines underground, uh, in the corridor. Um,
the...the project has multiple funding sources, as you can see, uh, throughout. We'll
have the utility franchise tax that we have $175,000 a year set aside for utility
undergrounding, uh, for...for two years of that will be used for this project. Uh, we have
STP funds, uh, we'll have, um, we're looking to Kirkwood to also participate in the
project with us. We're in negotiations with them currently, um, trying to figure out what
funding source they will...they will look at putting in. Uh, we have the house that we
purchased on the corner of Dower Muscatine and Sycamore that we' 11 be able to resell
after the project's over. TIF funding, we'll have water and waste water, um, components
in the project, and then we'll also have some General Obligation bonds and some storm
water funding in it. So it's a...amultrfaceted project. It'll be a...a great improvement to
the area, but uh, it'll be construction, majority will be this year, and then there'll be some
finish...some finish out in...in the next construction season in 12, which similar to what
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the Sycamore project was this year. We got the improvements done. Just a matter of
coming back and doing the grading work afterwards on the project.
Park Road Third Lane Improvements:
Knoche/ We've already discussed this, uh, project. Obviously the...the key here is going to be
the tight fit through the corridor with, you know, some of the University buildings that
will be here, or are going to be here, and then, uh, the...the trees in the park and...and
dealing with that. One of the...one of the things that we'll be having here the...we'll be
looking at undergrounding the overhead power and then we'll also be looking at, um, you
can see that there's some grass area there where they've been cleaning the sidewalk,
we'll be going to a wider sidewalk along City Park to, um, allow for pedestrians and also
for ease of, uh, maintenance in that area.
Rochester Avenue Bridge:
Knoche/ Uh, Rochester Avenue bridge, um, this one we'll start design on this year. Uh, we do
have, uh, State bridge funding, uh, for this project, and...federal or state, I'm not...I'm
not certain which one it is, but u h, that one is, uh, 80/20 cost share, uh, we'll be looking
at extending the sidewalks, uh, along Rochester Avenue, um, along...on both sides, and
then actually, uh, we'll extend this up to 7th Avenue, uh, where we have a gap on the...on
the east side of the bridge there. Um, obviously that bridge has seen some better days so,
uh, we'll move forward on this one and uh, and get this one replaced.
Sycamore Street/Highway 6 to City Limits:
Knoche/ Sycamore Street, uh, Highway 6, um, this...this project, you know, we...we've done
some pavement rehabilitation from Highway 6 to the south, uh, we have, um, then also
done the improvements down to the city limits. We do have, uh, STP funds. Not STP;
USTEP funding for the intersection improvements. We'll be doing some lane extensions
for the left-turn lanes, unl, adding alert-turn lane along Sycamore Street here, and...and
balancing this intersection. Uh, with that work we'll have to do some, um, additional
work with a retaining wall along the Sycamore Mall, and uh, and then with that, uh,
some...there'll be major safety improvements to this intersection. Um, this is one of the
top five in Iowa City as far as crash, uh, history that we're facing right now.
Fosse/ One thing to point out at this intersection as far as, uh, lane alignment as you go through
the intersection, it's probably the worst one we have in town, and you can see the lane
coming at you, uh, for through traffic on Sycamore and what that lines up with on the
other side of the intersection. So you need to make a significant correction to come over
and...and uh, hit the hole on the other side of the intersection there.
Knoche/ One thing that I want to point out, in...in the budget that you see here is the...is the
budget that is the whole budget for the whole corridor improvement. It's...this...this
portion of the work is...is just over a million dollars. So we...we already have it; it was
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in the budget, with this project. It just ended up being a delayed project due to the
complexity of this portion of the work.
U.S. 6 East Rehabilitation:
Knoche/ Um, this is a joint project with the DOT, uh, we'll be working on, um, doing a...an
asphalt overlay of Highway 6, um, starting in the Riverside Drive area, um, and
throughout the corridor. Uh, the DOT obviously is...is concerned with the...the surface,
um, of the roadway. We'll be dealing with, um, the drainage issues that we have in the
corridor, um, so the DOT will be from the shoulders basically to the medians and then
we'll be dealing with some of the work in the medians to clean up the...that corridor as
far as the commercial corridor goes. And this one will run in conjunction with our
overlay program. So, it...it allows for us to get a little bit better bidding environment on
our HMA project because adding a larger portion of work into it.
Fosse/ Can you back up that for just a second? We really hope for some nice improvements in
these corridors as part of this project. The overlay in itself is just really going to quiet
things down out there. You've got a pavement that `s in bad shape and... and the traffic
noise is pretty heavy out there. Uh, we hope to do...get some utilities underground,
along there as well, and uh, just clean up some things that, between the drainage and the
grading that have been eye sores over the years, so that we're going to have a... a
significantly upgraded corridor when we're finished.
Wilburn/ Just want to acknowledge your, uh, use of the, uh, utility franchise fee that the Council
had...approved, the 1%, in several of these projects and just putting that in context with
the, uh, um...I guess the strained reliance on property tax and...and our, uh, our, the
fallacy in the system with, uh, the limitations that are put on with the linkage with ag and
uh, and all that kind of rolls into the importance for these alternative (both talking)
Fosse/ And it comes...it comes at a particularly good time for us because we have...we have a
number of projects that will involve putting utilities underground. Ron just talked about
Park Road, uh, we've got Dubuque Street, uh, we have, uh, this one that I just visited
about and...and um...um, Lower Muscatine as well. So we're...we're going to gobble
that up pretty quickly in the first few years of that.
Wilburn /Yeah, and I think that'll be something that'll be important to highlight for the
community, because the pummeling that the Council took for implement of it, but it's
again, unless we're going to not do these sort of things or, um, severely cut
required...requested services from the public, I think it'd be important to highlight, uh,
you know, this is that tax money in use, in my opinion, if the Council agrees.
Hayek/ ...there's interest in having a juncture here between streets and everything (mumbled) so
why don't we take a five minute break. (mumbled)
Fosse/ Sounds good. Thank you.
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Hayek/ Okay. (BREAK)
Hayek/ All right, why don't we, uh, convene again here. Gentlemen.
Transportation Services:
Near Southside Multi-Use Parking Facility:
Davidson/ Uh, continuing with Transportation Services projects then, the first one is one I think
you're very well familiar with, uh, the near Southside multi-use parking facility. Uh,
which would be located on the site of the former St. Patrick's Church school, uh, you can
see Tower Place there in the upper-right hand of the slide. This is just to kind of indicate
the scope and scale of the facility that we're talking about. Um, I think you're aware, we
have three components to the project that's proposed. Uh, 500 to 600 parking spaces, uh,
there's a workforce housing, privately developed workforce housing component, uh, and
then what we anticipate, uh, around 25,000 to 35,000 square feet of commercial space.
Just to orient you, Tower Place has I think 27,000 square feet of commercial space. So
roughly, and what we're trying to make sure that the first floor, uh, facades, um...retain
kind of an urban building feel to them, and that's...that's one of our principle, uh, reasons
for having that as part of the design of the...the facility. Um...the project in your budget
looks significantly different this year because we finally decided that there is enough
speculation...we're commencing a process right now. You'll hopefully see the contracts
on your Council agenda, uh, late in January or else early in February, uh, for both our
design team and for our private sector partner, uh, we're negotiating those agreements
right now. Um, once...once those are set, we will begin in earnest the schematic design
and design development process. That's basically determining what we're going to build,
and estimating what it's going to cost and how we're going to finance it. Because of that,
we haven't included the actual construction portions in here, because...we could end up
with 30 workforce housing units. We could end up with 100 workforce housing units.
There's huge variation. 'There's huge range in the potential expense. So we just took that
out entirely and we'll be amending the budget when we know what those are. What you
see in here now are design fees. You can see that they're funded through the Parking
Division and those are fees that we will be using, both in the second half of FY11, well,
hopefully primarily in the second half of FY11. We do hope to have things pretty much
wrapped up by June 30 so that if we can get your concurrence to move forward, we
would move forward then in the first half of FY12, and hopefully get under construction,
uh, the earliest would be fall/winter, which with the deep foundation system that you
have with a building like this, you can actually get going, uh, in construction, um, during
a time of year where you. otherwise wouldn't be constructing things, or the worst case
scenario would hopefully be at the beginning of construction season, a year from this
spring. Um, so any...any questions about how we're...we're proceeding with the
project?
Markus/ (away from mic) talked about this to some...to some degree, um, how much impact is
the developer going to have on the actual design?
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Davidson/ That's part of what we're negotiating at this point. Um...our goal is to have the
developer essentially agree to work with us through the design development process, the
schematic design and design development process, in the...in determining what we're
going to build. There will be the opportunity for either side to walk away at a couple of
places in that process. The...the real financial partnership will begin when we have both
agreed to move forward with a specific project. We would at that point amend our
agreement to...to move forward from that point. Did I answer your question, Tom?
Markus/ Yeah, but I guess it begets another one. Are we completely done with the competitive
process in terms of who might develop this site?
Davidson/ We have had one entity express interest in working with us, and so we are moving
forward and negotiating with that entity.
Markus/ Okay.
Dilkes/ Under the terms of the compet...of the competition that were laid out in the RFP that we
did.
Markus/ Right.
Dilkes/ If those terms change, then it would open back up.
Markus/ And they're likely to change.
Davidson/ That remains to be seen.
Dilkes/ Remains to be seen.
Davidson/ That remains to be seen, I mean, the concept in the RFP is what got the developer
interested in working with us. So we're hoping to be...we're hoping to be fairly
consistent with that so that we don't have to reopen the RFP process, but if...if we...if
we need to we will...we will do that.
Markus/ So, did we learn anything in the competitive process...that would have altered the
design that may have attracted more developers?
Davidson/ When we...the initial RFP, we received no proposals for. I then went out, staff went
out, and talked to some specific people in the community that we thought had even
expressed interest in the project, and they simply said it was due to timing. Um, either
they had other projects they were involved with, or just the general downturn in the
economy and the tightening of the financial markets did not able them...enable them to
partner with us at this time. They loved the project, you know, depending on who we
were talking to and what other projects they had going on, um, they might like it more or
less, but...but there was overall positive reaction to the project. It was just that the timing
was not good.
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Markus/ Okay. So timing was the critical element, not our parameters...
Davidson/ Yes.
Markus/ ...for design. Okay.
Rock Island Railroad Depot Acquisition:
Yapp/ Uh, good morning. This next project is part of the State initiative for extending Amtrak
service from Chicago to the Quad Cities to Iowa City. Uh, and like several projects in
the CIP, it is dependent on federal funding. Uh, specifically the, uh, federal funding that
the State would receive and then work with Iowa City for purchase and subsequently
renovation of the depot for future Amtrak service. Um, you might recall the JCCOG
board did determine that the Amtrak depot should be, uh, in downtown Iowa City. Uh,
and this site also fits in well with the Riverfront Crossings planning initiative currently
underway.
Davidson/ We do want to reiterate that this is just an acquisition project. When we get to the on
the radar slides we'll have a slide for the renovation of the depot. That will be a
subsequent project. I think you're all aware that the...the City's, uh, commitment to the
Amtrak initiative is the local match funds for the depot, the platform, uh, which would
need to be constructed, and the parking facilities, um, which...will be developing more
further as well.
Dickens/ Is this something that needs to be delayed at all, because of the change (both talking)
Davidson/ Terry, we'll all be watching the Legislature this fall, that's where the commitment to
the operating funds portion of the project will either be made or not made, not be made in
the Iowa DOT budget. The project won't go forward without that commitment to the
operating funds cause obviously we're not going to enhance capital facilities for
something that...that would never happen. So, uh, we'll hopefully be involved. I've
been, had some contact with the Chamber of Commerce and, you know, they're kind of
coordinating, but we...we need to rr~ake a commitment to get with the new Governor's
administration and basically convince them...convince them of the worthwhileness of the
project.
Transit Facility Relocation:
O'Brien/ Uh, the next project for our department, the Transit facility relocation, uh, the current
facility which we have was completed in 1984, uh, with between a 20 and 25 year useful
life, which we've now...we've now surpassed. Um, this facility is also, and you'll see it
when we get to the on the 1•adar programs, or the on the radar portion of this, uh, is
located in an area that's...that's sited for potential redevelopment, uh, it's located on a
landfill, um, we've had a lot of settling issues in that facility, uh, capacity, uh, as we've
expanded the fleet. It's to the point now that we're, uh, we're pretty much at the
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maximum for the amount of vehicles that we can have, um...really what we're looking
for, um, is the study that we have to do for the feasibility and the needs assessment, um,
is all we're asking for now. We do have, uh, the actual project, uh, for $20 million in
FY15, uh, $16 million of which we assume would be FTA funding, uh, on an 80/20 split
with a $4 million local match. Um, and we have that in there because it's...in order to
get funding, you have to have it in a, uh, in one of your budgeted years for your CIP, um,
it is in our TIP as one of our projects, um...and like I said, one of...it is one of the main
components to an area of redevelopment. So really what we're looking for is a
$70,000...so we can do a study for a needs assessment as to what we'll need for a facility
out in 2015, um...and to determine potential sites for that facility.
Bailey/ Down the road is Brownfield funding an option, or have we already tried for that, or is
that a shrinking pool?
Yapp/ We have explored, uh, the Brownfield's grant for that old, uh, landfill and because
Brownfield grants cannot be granted to the entity that created the issue, um, those are not
a solution at this time.
Bailey/ So maybe a developer, but not...
Yapp/ Yes.
Bailey/ Okay. Thank you.
Yapp/ So we dug our own hole there! (several talking)
Miscellaneous Other Proiects:
Fosse/ Well now we're going to move on to miscellaneous other projects and...and uh, we'll
certainly be playing musical chairs here during this section, so bear with us. Uh, we have
a of different things going on. Camera upgrades.
City Hall Camera Upgrade:
Moran/ This, uh, camera upgrade will be mostly for here at the, uh, City Hall. Uh, it'll help staff
assist in monitoring storage and parking areas, uh, vandalism, safety, security, uh, we, uh,
started a camera system and it just needs to be enhanced. Uh, the second portion of this
is that we would also like to initiate the beginnings of trying to tie all the systems in
around, like over in Tower Place, over across the street, over at the Recreation Center, so
that we're all doing the same thing, and we can all monitor it the same way and sort of
reduce some of our costs so we don't have three separate systems in three separate
buildings, and then start to go from there, because uh, Transit wants to do stuff at Tower
Court. We've got cameras in the building at the Recreation Center, and cameras here.
So, we want to start bringing those all under so that we can monitor them and start
maintain...maintaining some, uh, reduced costs in what we're all doing individually right
now.
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Fosse/ And one of the good things about this project, it's...it's going to pre...create a
standardized way that we do our...our, uh, video and it'll be scalable, so that we can
extend that to some of our outlying facilities, like our Landfill for instance where we've
had some experience with break-ins out there. Uh, it'll just be a scalable system that can
go other places, as well. Thanks, Mike! Co-work space.
Downtown Co-Work Space:
Davidson/ The downtown co-work space, we had some discussion about, uh, when you heard the
economic development projects update, uh, a few weeks ago. Uh, the...the funding that
you see here in FY12, $150,000, is basically a placeholder amount. Uh, we completed
our study, our consultant study, on the feasibility of the downtown business incubator
concept for Iowa City, and you'll recall that the conclusion of that study was that there
was an unmet need that we should pursue, uh, significantly you will also, uh, recall that it
was determined that it should not be a stand-alone City initiative to do that. Uh, we
evaluated the partnerships that were reasonable for us to proceed forward and determined
that the Iowa City Area Development Group was the, uh, probably the best partner, uh,
that we could, uh, go forward with, and so that is the model that we are using. Uh, ICAD
is in the middle of their feasibility study, uh, they intend to report to their board in May, I
believe. You're going to have an update, uh, from ICAD, from the Executive Director at
the January 10, uh, City Council meeting, and so uh, you'll have the opportunity to ask
Joe questions about exactly where they are with their study. Um, the...like I say, the
placeholder amount here is not earmarked for anything. There will be subsequent City
Council decision making before those funds are used for anything specifically, but we've
identified the funds here so that we are able to move...so that we will be able to move
forward in a partnership, if there are...is funding, additional funding, required from the
City.
Geographic Information System Software:
Knoche/ Uh, geographical information system software, uh, this...this project will, um, be to
reevaluate. Some studies have been done in the past. I think the latest study was done in
the late 90s on GIS for Iowa City, and review those, see what, uh, portions of those
studies have been implemented, and then move forward with a...with a system of
citywide, um, which would be used for infrastructure, um, acid management, um, public
safety could use it as far as, uh, records, um, that they would have, um, trail, um,
infrastructure, um, just a lot of the...the planning pieces that are out there. Um, we...we
have pieces of it already in place, um, like in Public Works. We are using some of it for
mapping, um, and some of the zoning maps that we do, um...but a lot of that is using
what, uh, County has already developed and kind of piggybacking on that currently, uh,
they...they keep track of all the parcel data and all that information currently. So, um,
this project as...as we move forward with it, we'll be bringing a consultant in to...to help
us move forward, um, develop the platform, um, with this we will have, um, some
operational costs that' 11 be there that aren't identified in this budget, but uh, that we' 11
have to identify those as we move forward.
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Hayek/ Is this... go ahead.
Bailey/ Go ahead!
Hayek/ Was going to say, is this...is this what we...we talked about this a year ago.
Knoche/ Yep.
Fosse/ Yes.
Hayek/ Did it get bumped out a year... a year ago?
Fosse/ That's right. It...when compared to other communities our size, we're certainly behind
the curve on this, and...and what's likely to evolve is some sort of partnership with the
County on it, because they have a very robust GIS system and there's no need to
duplicate anything that they're doing, and uh, Jeff had been visiting with you during our
affordable housing, uh, discussions about ways to use information from the County and
from the School District, and using our staff to...to work with that data in a GIS format.
So it's...it's very much amulti-faceted approach. Uh, one of the reasons we're behind
the curve on this is...is that, as Ron pointed out, there's the capital investment up front,
the software and building the system and migrating your data into it, but once it's
established you need to commit to an operating expense after that, so that your data does
not go stale. You need to keep it current, and that has been the obstacle for us in the past.
Bailey/ Doesn't this have economic development...alnt of economic development applications
and what are we using now`?
Davidson/ Certainly, um, and you know, as Rick's indicated and I would certainly concur, we
are behind the curve on this, I mean, the County's been great in working with us with the
resources that they have. Uh, we have...at your direction, uh, or with your permission,
we have moved forward with the affordable housing model. We just met yesterday as
staff, and...and uh, we did purchase the software and have existing staff, uh, putting
together the model that we're going to review with you here at the end of the month and
into February. Um, the elements of that particular model could become part of the
layering of this system, uh, that would include, I mean, transit routes and public works,
you know, streets and water lines and sewer lines. It would all become part of the
layering that's possible with this system. So you know we're getting...we're getting
started slowly. This would obviously, this project would advance it significantly.
Riverfront Crossings:
Davidson/ Uh, Riverfront Crossings, of course you're also familiar with, uh, the funding that you
see identified in the budget., $200,000 a year is basically seed money, uh, for us to move
forward with initiatives, uh, right now it has been a lot of, uh, consultant work. Uh, we
are going to have a very exciting presentation, I believe it's tentatively set for the 27th, uh,
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of January, uh, where our phase two consultant is going to roll out the specific plan, the
concept drawing of which you see here for the public park, riverfront park, that would be,
uh, in the area where the sewage treatment plant is in the process of being relocated. And
then the private sector elements, which will have a significant impact on the growth of
the, uh, property tax base in this area. I mean, just...just tremendous potential, uh, in this
area for growth and redevelopment, and enhancement of the City's property tax base,
creating...you hear the buzz term `place making,' well, that's basically what we're trying
to do here is create a place that will attract investment, enhance the property tax base of
the City, and create a livable community adjacent to the downtown, that's complimentary
to the downtown, and can go forward in conjunction with downtown redevelopment, as
well. So, uh, a lot more to come on this one. The money that is...is budgeted basically
allows us to move the initiative forward.
Towncrest Redevelopment Plan:
Davidson/ And similarly, Towncrest, um, we are going to have a brief presentation with you on
the Towncrest design plan, some of the slides of which you see here. You also saw some
images when we had the economic development projects update a few weeks ago. Uh,
this one's actually moving probably as quickly as any of our ones are, where we've got
the financial incentive programs in place. The financial incentive programs are funded
through the...the money that you provide us, through this...through this project. That's
how we move forward. You approve, you know, depending on the scale any...any large-
scale project...project certainly would come to the City Council for approval through the
Economic Development Committee, but again, it allows this initiative to go forward. We
have received some project proposals already that we're working through with our
financial, uh, analysts, see if we can put some deals together for both some new buildings
and some enhancements...enhancement of existing buildings. So again, we're trying to
grow the commercial...we're trying to grow the commercial tax base in this area, and get
the area cleaned up and back what it was 30 years ago of really being a part of the
community that we're all proud of and attracts investment. So again, the funding here,
uh, that is called out in the four fiscal years allows us to continue the initiative moving
forward.
Recurring Proiects:
Fosse/ Any questions on miscellaneous projects, before we move forward? Okay. And now
we're moving into a category we've titled recurring projects, and...and this is where we
compartmentalize, uh, a number of annual projects that really fall into two categories.
One is dealing with the incremental growth of our community and our facilities, and the
other is to deal with preventative maintenance and repair. Uh, those expenses that on the
average we can expect to occur every year. Uh, if you look in the program that's roughly
$2.5 million per year when you total them all up. Uh, we'll lead off with the bicycle and
pedestrian trails.
Bike/Pedestrian Trails:
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Moran/ This, uh, small amount of money is put in on an annual stop, mostly to do a couple of
things for us. Uh, we work on connections with our bike trails and pedestrian trails,
small areas where we need to put in sidewalk connections, uh, and we also work on, uh,
minor repair projects, um, and signage has been a big issue for us. We've been working
with Chris Ackerson from JCCOG on trying to get the trails signed a little bit better too
so people know where they're at, especially with the onset of the Court Hill Trail. That
sort of snakes through a couple of residential areas. We've got to do a better job with
doing, so it's an ongoing effort to get that thing done, and uh, that's what the money's
used for on a year to year basis.
Brick Street Repair:
Knoche/ Uh, we have $20,000 set aside annually for brick street repairs. This is kind of spot
repairs as they come up, uh, throughout our brick street system, uh, and I know we just
discussed this with you earlier, uh, a month or so ago, but this money is set aside for that,
uh, in case we do have some issues that come up as far as frost boils or in the winter if we
have issues that come up with potholing.
Bridge Maintenance:
Fosse/ Sometimes they get to the point where they're starting to snag cars as they go by,
and...and that's when we need to get out and do some of these repairs. Uh, we also have
some money in there for annual bridge maintenance and repair. Uh, bridges are a... are a
structural element out there, and they do take preventative maintenance, uh, in order
to...to get sufficient life out of those, and occasionally we are out doing repairs when an
errant car will hit them. Often times we're able to recover those costs from their
insurance company, but sometimes we...we don't always find out who hit the bridge, um,
so that's...that's where a share of that money goes.
Cemetery Road Resurfacing:
Moran/ We have divided the cemetery into quadrants and we have to replace the trail system, uh,
for the vehicular traffic throughout the cemetery. We've pretty much caught up with
most of it now and so we're on an every other year pattern with that. Uh, we used to be
on an every year pattern, but we've done a pretty good job of getting caught up, so uh,
every other year we'll take a look and...and this is just for reasphalting and repairing, uh,
roads within the structure of the cemetery itself.
City Hall and Other Proiects:
Moran/ Uh, City Hall projects, uh, the...the one thing that is happening this year that we're
going to do is a fire alarm and notification system sort of going along with the camera
system that I talked about earlier. Uh, we...we don't specifically pinpoint projects for
City Hall. We try to keep a...a funding in there in case we need to do certain projects,
but this year, uh, we need to upgrade the fire alarm system and notification system. So,
that's specifically what t11e money this year will be done for here in this building.
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Curb Ramgs•
Knoche/ We have $50,000 set aside every other year for our curb ramp program. This is
upgrading, um, the intersections to ADA compliant ramps, uh, with the truncated domes.
The $50,000 is...is about enough to do ten intersections a year. That's doing all four
quadrants, um, so I mean, that's...that's unfortunately with the cost of...of the
improvements, and the cost of the domes, that...that's all that that $50,000 gets us.
Fosse/ One of the things I'll point out on this program is when it first came out back in, I think
it's late...late 1980s, early 1990s...we...we consistently spent $100,000 per year, uh,
implementing curb ramps, uh, throughout our community to meet the ADA
specifications. Then in around 2002 the truncated domes became a requirement,
and...and the unfortunate thing for us there is, is when we're doing work in areas where
we put new curb ramps in in the 1990s, we're required to replace those with new ones
that have the truncated domes in there. So we're kind of redoing some of the stuff that,
uh, we did back in the 90s, so that's...that's aregulatory frustration for us.
Champion/ How do we decide which ones to do (mumbled) or is there a specific pattern? Oh,
sorry. (mumbled) Um...how do you decide which ones to do? Is it by a phone call or
just a pattern in mind?
Knoche/ We keep a list of...of complaints that we do receive from...from individuals, and those
move to the top of the list. iJm but then as we do our sidewalk inspections, uh, on the
ten-year, you know, rotation that we do around the city, we also identify curb ramps
through that process also.
Fosse/ And then when we do our asphalt resurfacing program, we get those along those streets,
as well.
Over Width Paving and Sidewalks:
Knoche/ The over width paving and sidewalk, this is money that's set aside as developers...as
developments occur and...and we require additional pavement widths from a 28-foot to a
31-foot, for example, for a collector street, um, we pay for that over width, um, and... and
also if we have a...a 4-foot walk that...a 5-foot walk that was planned in development
and they put in an 8-foot walk per the development process, we also pay for the over
width on those sidewalks. So that's what this...that's what this set-aside is for.
Parks Recurring Proiects Maintenance and Improvements:
Moran/ This funding primarily serves us as two purposes. One is for, uh, do a series of
playground equipment replacement throughout the city, and then, uh, the second issue
that we do is replace existing shelters and those seem, those two projects keep us, uh,
fairly intact with this on a year-round basis. It also serves as, uh, when we do projects
like the splash pad, uh, projects that we can't roll into that funding then we have to do
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maybe some sidewalk adjustment or some sodding or something to that, so it
supplements existing projects that we have, but playgrounds and shelter replacements are
the main two functions of this...this, uh, account.
Pavement Rehabilitation:
Knoche/ The pavement rehabilitation program, this is paid for, um, $400,000 from road use tax,
and we have, uh, $100,000 that comes out of the franchise fee. And, uh,
this...historically we've gone on an every other year where we do a...a PC project, or
Portland cement, or concrete project, and we do an overlay project, in the off years
and...as the last couple years, we've just been doing overlay projects, and you'll see, uh,
in the FY 11 allocation (mumbled) $1.5 million, um, over the last two construction years,
we have had I-Jobs money, we've also received some, uh, stimulus money to kind of beef
up our overlay programs. We've also worked with the DOT on....on Dodge Street, for
example, to do that project. So, um, typically it'll be a $500,000 project, do overlays
around, or do diamond gl•inding on... on concrete streets.
Railroad Crossings:
Knoche/ The railroad crossings, this is, uh, $25,000 set aside, uh, out of road use tax, uh, we
work with the railroad companies to identify crossings that need to be upgraded, whether
it be just a, uh, a surface improvement or signalization improvements. Um, the...the
railroad companies then apply to the DOT for funding and it's a 90/10 match, 5% City,
5% railroad company, 90% DOT, um, so this...that's what this money is set aside for,
every year.
Sewer Main Replacement:
Fosse/ Our sewer main replacement and... and maintenance, uh, this certainly falls into the, uh,
the preventative maintenance and repair category, uh, for this...this area, and this one
specifically is...is a repair. We only average about four cave-ins of sanitary sewers per
year, uh, some of `em are pretty quiet, and others have more calamity, uh, associated with
`em, like this one. The good news in this industry is the technology is...is really
advanced in the last 25 years where we can view our sewers from the inside using remote
cameras and identify repairs before they turn into situations like this, and...and we have
done a number of sewer lining projects, uh, so that...we have no-dig solutions that are
available to us, in fact one's we...we have under construction right now at various
locations around town, uh, so we hope that in the long term our...our number of cave-ins
will go to close to zero per year, and we can enter...reduce the infiltration and inflow
of... of ground water that gets into our sewer system.
Sidewalk Infill:
Knoche/ Sidewalk infill program, uh, this is, uh, a program we've had, uh, funding available for
us for a few years, that we've actually completed our first sidewalk infill project this
year. Um, and it's actually this section up to Dodge Street which is on Dubuque Road,
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and we also did a piece along Rochester Avenue. Um, $100,000 a year that's been set
aside, um, from General Obligation debt, and we will, um, be looking at, uh, Friendship
area for this next year's project, which'll be to the west of First Avenue, um, in the A
Street, down in that area, trying to do some infills along that corridor.
Street Pavement Markings:
Knoche/ The street pavement markings, this is, uh, money that we have set aside, uh, $185,000 a
year from road use tax, um, to upgrade both the, um, crossings, um, with uh, continental
crossings that we do, and then also along-line, um...the (mumbled) um, has, um, come up
with some retro-reflectivity standards that are going to be required, uh, in the coming
years, which require us to maintain a standard of reflectivity on our...on our center lines.
Um, of course it's an unfunded mandate, so we'll have to do this locally. And, uh,
we've...we've kind of shifted this project a little bit. Uh, we're doing more of it with in-
house staff versus going out to contractors, just due to the...there's not a whole lot of
contractors out there doing this work anymore, um, but we're still looking at the...the
longer lasting products for the crosswalks, um, they're a little bit more difficult for in-
house staff to do, so that...that's kind of the process we go through on those.
Fosse/ I'll just comment on those retro-reflectivity standards that are coming up. They...they do
have us concerned because we...we have a hard time just keeping the lines visible in the
daytime on the street, let alone, uh, maintaining a degree of retro-reflectivity at night.
Uh, we are just...are in the process of implementing the retro-reflectivity standards that
have...have been required. for signs, and...and that was the basis of one of those staff
requests that Dale was talking about earlier, uh, to handle all of those, that work
associated with that. Uh, what was not approved because we simply don't have the
money in road use tax, uh, available to us. Um, but...that is going to get even more
complex for us when these regs come out for the...the centerline markings. Jeff, were
you going to add anything?
Davidson/ Uh, no. Retro-reflectivity is...is light from a source reflecting back to that source. So
it's basically your ability to see a sign, see a pavement marking...from a vehicle.
Traffic Calming:
Davidson/ Uh, the traffic calming program is part of our Neighborhood Services initiative, uh,
and a very important one. Uh, it's, uh, let's see, $30,000 a year, and I think most of you
know that there...there tends to be some fluctuation from year to year. Some years we've
hardly used any of this. The year certainly that we did all the speed humps on Kennedy
Parkway we, I think that was the only year we've ever exceeded the budget, but basically
it allows neighborhoods, of which we have 30-some neighborhood associations, to come
to the City with a... an actual program in place to evaluate requests that are generated
from neighborhoods for traffic calming initiatives. And, we...we do those on a case-by-
case basis. We work with the neighborhoods, and the important part of this is that it is
completely generated from within the neighborhoods. There...there's no aspect of this
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program of the City imposing something on a neighborhood. It's generated from within
the neighborhoods, and ultimately approved by you.
Markus/ Jeff, who pays for that?
Davidson/ The City pays 100%.
Markus/ Is there warrants that have to be met?
Davidson/ Yes. There's criteria that have to be met in the program.
Traffic Signals:
Knoche/ We have $120,000 a year set aside for traffic signal projects, um, these are, uh, areas
that meet the warrants and come to the forefront. Uh, over the next two funding cycles
would be looking at, uh, Old Highway 218 and McCollister intersection will be the first
project we'll be looking at doing. And then we're also going to look at Melrose, um, and
218 interchange, particularly the southbound off ramp at Melrose. Um, there's some
history there of...of the queue backing up into the...the through lanes on...on Highway
218. Um, so...uh, those are the two projects that we're...we're looking at over the next
two years, um, but it is $120,000 of it we do set aside for signalization projects as they
come up.
Underground Electrical:
Knoche/ The undergrounding electrical, um, this...$175,000 from the franchise fee is available
for undergrounding electrical, um, as you can see there's, uh, three-plus years that the
$175,000 or portions of it are identified in the Capital Plan, um, on various projects, um,
and then in FY15 there's $175,000 available, um, from the franchise fee.
Fosse/ We included this shot down on the corner. The pole-mounted transformers, to point out
that it's...it's a bigger issue than just putting the lines underground. Any time you have
these transformers that are on the pole, you need to find a home for `em on the ground
when that gets underground. So you end up with...with pad-mount transformers, usually
that are placed outside the right-of--way, and that can be...be one of the more difficult
aspects to an undergrounding project, is finding a home for these.
Knoche/ It's finding a home for the transformers and also actually hooking the homes up,
because, you know, most of them have the weatherheads and so now it's a matter of,
hopefully just a matter of rerouting it to the box, but then there's also some of the
services that need to be upgraded, and that's...we faced that with the Dodge Street
project when we were doing that one. So it...it does get a little complex at times, um,
it's...it's not as simple as just putting `em underground and hooking `em back up the way
they were, unfortunately.
Markus/ Who does this work, Ron?
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Knoche/ Um, the...we work...MidAmerican Energy does the undergrounding itself, as far as
the...the facility, and then because of their tariff, they require us to work with a private
contractor to do the service work. So they'll run the services to the homes. We have to
hire somebody to do the connections.
Markus/ Per unit cost?
Knoche/ Um, it...it does vary. Um, see here...for the, I don't want to quote a number to you.
I...we can do a memo on that. We...we do, we're going through this on the Lower
Muscatine project currently, so we can get those numbers for you.
Markus/ Pretty expensive though?
Knoche/ Yes, it can be very expensive.
Water Main Replacement:
Fosse/ Uh, water main replacement is another recurring project, uh, we have anywhere from 60
to 110 water main breaks, uh, per year. Last year was near the low end of that, so we're a
little worried that it'll make up for lost ground this year. Um, but unlike sanitary sewers,
we have no opportunity to get inside these water mains and...and look at them while
they're in service, and...and predict, uh, where we need to do repairs. So we rely on
records of where we've had water main breaks, and...and look for, uh, clusters of those
to...and that's a way that we schedule our water main replacements. Another clue is
when you dig up to...to fix a water main break and you find a patch right next to it. And,
Terry, this is about ten yards from your store, uh, this picture (laughter). That's one
that's...that's going to be on the list.
Hayek/ We can push that out though a few more years, can't we?
Fosse/ Okay, yeah! (several talking and laughing)
Markus/ Rick, you can televise water lines (mumbled) off line.
Fosse/ Yes. We've not...not gone there yet though. We have not. On to the radar section.
On The Radar•
Fosse/ As I said earlier, these are projects that are not proposed to be funded, but for one reason
or another we think it's a good idea that you be aware of them and...and be thinking
about them. So let's...let's lead off with, oops, gone the wrong direction here! There we
go! Burlington Street medians.
Burlington Street Median, Burlington Street Traffic Signal:
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Davidson/ Uh, I think a number of us may want to make a couple of comments about this
project. Ron, uh, outlined for you the phase one of Burlington Street median project,
which is between, uh, excuse me, the river and Madison Street, or through the Madison
Street, uh, intersection. Urn, and...and when...when we initially developed this project,
there were two...two goals in mind principally. One was to try and enhance the safe
travel of pedestrians north and south, across Burlington Street, and then secondly to
improve the aesthetics of the corridor, the two things that we wanted to do. And at the
same time we were doing that, we acknowledge this is a very significant vehicular traffic
corridor. It's a very significant emergency vehicle corridor, and so we needed to take
those into consideration as well. So we did, uh, capacity studies to show how large the
turn lanes needed to be, and that's why there is some variation, uh, in the size of the
median in any given block. The first phase that we're going to be doing is probably the
most significant, in terms of the largest portion of the actual median, uh, being
constructed. As you get into this, as you can see the, excuse me, the block between, uh,
Gilbert and Linn. Is that right, Ron...no, actually you can't see it. It's at the very low
end of the screen. Uh, I don't believe even has a median, because of the turn lane storage
needs. So, this...this project beyond Madison Street needs to be developed more fully.
Uh, we need to...do additional study of basically how to make that balance. You've got
Transit vehicles; you've got delivery vehicles; you've got automobiles; you've got
bicycles; you've got pedestrians -all have to fit into this corridor. And we all know that
major traffic corridors can be successful parts of...downtowns in urban areas. Uh, First
Avenue in Cedar Rapids, Grand Avenue in Des Moines, on another scale -Michigan
Avenue in...in Chicago. l: mean, you can do it. We need to give more thought to how
we're going to do it in this second phase portion of it. We do hope to have that far
enough along that when we work with the University at the Clinton Street intersection,
that if... if we feel like we have a concept that we're comfortable with, we can build part
of it when we've got, uh, that, uh, intersection all torn up. So, I guess we want to leave
you certainly with the thought that there's more to come in this, that there's no simple
solution, that it's a matter of determining what our priorities are and then balancing all of
the priorities, uh, in this corridor. There's a second project that follows this one, uh, that
makes sure that we can get emergency vehicles moving through this corridor, uh, with a,
uh, system that, um...pre-empts the traffic signals, basically turns `em to green so that the
traffic clears out and the emergency vehicles can get through, because right now those
emergency vehicles use that center lane, and if it's no longer available because there's
going to be a median there, we have to make sure that they can get through in a
reasonable response time.
Fosse/ Part of the balance that we've been discussing in-house is, uh, the...the project that's been
proposed really does a good job of addressing its primary design objectives, but we're
concerned about some of the unintended consequences. I think, Connie, you noted a few
weeks ago that you're seeing grid-lock more often on Burlington Street, and the
imposition of the medians, you know, what will be the impact? Will that become, uh,
more often and...and will it reach an intolerable level or...or a level that's...that we're
not comfortable with, and then you look at...at whether or not the consequences of that
can extend beyond this corridor and begin to affect things on the east side. Uh, the other
aspect of this is, how do we take care of it after it's built? Uh, those...those planted
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medians out there will require some attention or they'll...they'll quickly become an
eyesore, uh, Fleur Drive in...in Des Moines has a similar project. Granted it's longer
than this one, uh, but we checked with them. They spend about $150,000 a year, uh, on
the maintenance of those medians out there. Uh, we haven't been able to break that down
per block yet, uh, but we do want to get those...those costs. Um, the component of the
median project that's related to the Madison Street intersection, that is from Madison to
the railroad, or excuse me, to the river, um, does not risk those unintended consequences
of capacity and that sort of thing because we don't need to narrow the lane widths there.
We've got enough room where we can actually widen the road, and...and make that all
fit, and make it work. So that's one we can implement without concern of unintended
consequences, but we do need to be, uh, aware of the maintenance expenses that we'll be
taking on with that planted median. So...might be a good work session item.
Davidson/ Yeah, and just to...to slightly expand the discussion even further, with our significant
growth area to the south, we've got to make sure that there's not a barrier here in
Burlington Street that really separates the two sides. I mean, we want to keep the...we
want to keep movement as seamless as possible, uh, between downtown and the
Riverfront Crossings area. "That's critical, and you know, some of that may end up
occurring overhead. There are some consequences to doing that. Uh, I don't think any of
us are in favor of a significant skywalk system. Possibly some selected connections, you
know, between a parking facility and a... and a performance hall or something like that,
but we need to make sure that on the ground, which is where the action is happening in
Iowa City, we can try and get something that is tolerable and works as well as it can, uh,
for those north-south movement of traffic.
Markus/ Obviously staff has been engaged in this discussion to a great extent, and I think Jeff's
comments are right on target, in terms of what we have to balance this. It's critical for
north-south, uh, pedestrian :movement, and I think you do get into the hierarchy of what's
most important, pedestrian traffic or the vehicular traffic, and I think it's going to end up
in some sort of balance but it's a critical issue for us.
Bailey/ Well, isn't this the linchpin now, to really being successful developing south of
Burlington Street, I mean, we've gotta do it right!
Markus/ Absolutely! I agree with that.
Davidson/ Yeah, if you...unless you make it isolated, south of Burlington Street, and none of us
want to do that.
Bailey/ Well, and that's not the intent, nor is that the vision...nor will that be successful. I
think.. .
Markus/ It can't be an obstacle!
Bailey/ Right.
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Markus/ It has to...it has to be knit together to make it work.
Hayek/ Could do sort of a Lower Wacker Drive approach to the entirety of it!
Davidson/ Right, or Michigan Avenue, you know, I mean, it does work, you know, and they're
dealing with 10 or 20 times as many pedestrians, and 10 or 20 times the vehicular traffic,
so you know, there's...we can do better!
Bailey/ (mumbled)
Champion/ I think a lot of it has to do with enforcement of traffic rules, too. In Chicago you
would never block an intersection. And you would never turn right on red where you
shouldn't. Because they will get you, and it's expensive, and here people don't care.
Bailey/ That's a very, very good point, I mean, it...the adjustment of attitudes I think (mumbled)
Champion/ And they wouldn't run through a yellow light.
Bailey/ Oh! Yeah! (mumbled)
Dodge Street Reconstruction and Storm Sewer Improvements:
Fosse/ Our next project is the reconstruction of Dodge Street, and this is something that the DOT
has proposed, and, uh, we have reconstructed it from Governor Street out to I-80, and the
DOT is...is wanting to reconstruct it from...from Governor Street to Burlington. Now
this is a long ways out. We just put an asphalt overlay on this last summer, but it's...this
is a big project that's going to take a lot of advanced planning. That asphalt overlay's
probably got a life between 8 and 12 years. So we just put this on the radar to get you
thinking about it. Our interest in this corridor is that this...this whole corridor is flanked
by drainage issues that, you know, that was developed back in the 1800s. Storm sewers
were minimal to none, and uh, we'll want to get a better storm sewer system up through
this corridor when that is reconstructed. Big project, it's a ways out, but we should be
thinking about it.
Wright/ What...what type of reconstruction are they...are they proposing? Do we have any
idea?
Fosse/ Just a removal and replacement in kind of...of what's there. I don't...I'm not aware of
any capacity improvements that they intend, but the, uh, that the substructure of the
pavement is to the point where it's just requiring asphalt resurfacing more and more
often.
Bailey/ I think that's really important to use that language as we talk about this, because of
course that's very residential, and nobody would want to assume that we're trying to
increase capacity or...or to destroy the nature of that area. So...
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Fosse/ That's right!
Bailey/ ...when we're talking about fundamental infrastructure.
Fosse/ Okay. Thank you.
Wright/ That's why I asked! (laughter)
Gilbert Street/U.S. 6 Intersection Left Turn Lane:
Davidson/ This is a project that, uh, should be familiar to a few of you, uh, several years ago we
had planned on implementing this project to install left turn lanes on the Gilbert Street
approaches to this intersection. Uh, this is a very high-volume intersection in terms of all
of the approaches, among the highest in the...in the community. Uh, a determination was
made to not go ahead with the project at that time. Uh, conditions have...have not
changed radically, uh, in the area. I mean, there's still a certain amount of left turn, uh,
movement delay, in particular the northbound to westbound movement, uh, also the
eastbound to northbound movement. Um, frequently cycles of the traffic signal where,
uh, it takes more than one cycle to get through and make that left turn movement. Um,
interestingly, the, uh, north-east and north-west quadrants, uh, with some regularity we're
contacted by individuals who are speculating about those properties, uh, and have
obviously been told by the property owners you might want to check with the City. They
have some plans for this intersection, and so they do at least come and talk to us and find
out, you know, what our needs would be, uh, in terms of the additional left turn lane
storage, uh, the dual-left turn lanes that would be installed on Gilbert Street. So once
again, this is...we wanted. to keep this on the radar because we do believe, uh, the
conditions are not going to improve, and that at some point in the future, uh, you're going
to want to go ahead and do this project.
Gilbert Street Railroad Underpass:
Knoche/ Uh, Gilbert Street railroad underpass, this is a project that we've talked about, uh, a
number of times. Um, this one, uh, we would look at, uh, moving the...moving the
sidewalk behind the...the piers that are here for the railroad bridge on both sides, um,
and...figuring out how we'd deal with that embankment on both sides. Uh, this is one
that as we look at redevelopment, um, of the Riverfront Crossings project, it'll become
more of the forefront, uh, in the future.
Mormon Trek Left Turn Lanes:
Davidson/ Uh, the Mormon Trek left turn lane project is again one you've heard us, uh, speak on
over the last few years. Um, we've...we wanted to bring this one to your attention again
because this is the highest traffic collision corridor, uh, in Iowa City. Now, fortunately
the severity of the collisions is not terribly significant. It's fender... it's low...lower
speed, fender-bender type, uh, crashes, principally related to yielding left turning vehicles
being rear ended, that's the principle crash type in this corridor. Uh, the project that
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would be proposed would be of significant expense, and either be intersection
improvements. It may very well be that by the time we got done looking at all the
individual intersections, you just would want to do the entire center lane through the
entire corridor. That would be a design feature that we would evaluate at the time we
decided to go ahead with the project, but um, this was in a funded year a few years ago.
Because of budget constraints we took it out, uh, we just want to keep bringing it to your
attention because again of the crash history that's associated with it.
Bailey/ Do we need to move it to a funded year to...to begin to pursue, uh, grant opportunities
and those sorts of things?
Davidson/ The State's safety programs, as of a few years ago, are almost entirely, well, they're
very much, um, oriented to ]sigh-severity crashes, which means that most of the money
goes to rural locations because that's where the higher speeds are. Higher speeds means
higher severity, people getting seriously hurt or killed. Uh, because of the lower speeds
in urban areas, you don't have those type of crashes. So, the...the outside funding of a
project like this is likely to come through JCCOG and the STP or Transportation
Enhancement Programs.
Riverside Drive Streetscape:
Davidson/ Sorry! Uh, this is a project that, uh, Regenia and Ron and I, uh, did make a
presentation in front of the Iowa DOT Commission, uh, a few years ago. A few years
ago...a few months ago, uh, in Dubuque, and just wanted to put it on their radar. Um,
and in particular because of the Riverfront Crossings initiative right across the river, uh,
this is a corridor that, uh, it has been a little bit neglected, a little bit of sort of bailing
wire and duct tape in terms of what we've been able to do to, uh, to keep things together.
Uh, there's...there's aneed for just a general sprucing up of this, uh, corridor. Um,
something you might do just to put it into perspective is what Coralville's been able to do
with Highway 6, uh, in their community of going in and doing some significant, uh,
aesthetic improvements, doing some significant, uh, sidewalk and pedestrian lighting
improvements, center turn lane, which would bring the crash rate down, um, some things
like that, and what we'd like to do is go in in between the railroad overpass and Highway
1, uh, the Gateway Shopping Center area, is just...look at that whole corridor. Have
DOT partner with us, hopefully, uh, and make some significant improvements.
Depot Improvements:
Davidson/ Uh, this is a project we referred to earlier when John was making the presentation on
the acquisition of the depot. Uh, the...the second phase of that project will be
improvements to the depot, uh, principally for handicapped accessibility, uh, you know,
we do think we have a structure here that will work very, very well for us in terms of a
station facility for the proposed, uh, Amtrak service, but there will be some
improvements that need to be made, and again, we just want to keep that on the radar.
U-Smash'm/Old Bus Depot:
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Fosse/Next is the, uh, U-Smash'm/Old Bus Depot area, and this is on the radar for a couple of
reasons. One is because of the structural condition of the building. This is the old U-
Smash 'm structure. That's from an old car, uh, repair place. You smash `m, we fix `em.
Uh, it's just kept the name! Uh, it's in tough shape structurally. We inspect it annually
and at any point we could make the determination that it's no longer suitable for its
present use, and we'd need to, uh, stop using it for parking and perhaps tear it down.
Ideally, uh, since it is attached to the old Wilson's Sports building...there's apicture of
the, uh, east face of the Wilson building, since they are attached, it would be best to take
down both structures at the same time when we...when we do something eventually with
that lot. Uh, the other reason we have it on the radar is because there's off and on we
receive redevelopment interest in that lot, and one of the things that we want to do is...is
look at how that fits in with our...our long-term needs as a city. We essentially have this
three-block campus here, between here and the Rec Center and the intervening block, and
we have a space needs' study that's underway now and it'll be finished in about June, and
that might help to answer those questions for us, whether or not this is something we
want to hold long term, perhaps condo some of the space there. There's a variety of
options.
Davidson/ I would just add to Rick's comments that the...the contact has been fairly regular in
terms of people contacting either our office or the City Manager's office, interested in
this property. I would say in the last two years, I've had six, uh, either individuals or
groups contact me, uh, about redevelopment of this site. You know, it...it's a great site.
It's adjacent to downtown. It's right next door to 500 parking spaces, I mean, it's got a
lot of really positive aspects to it, and so uh, if and when the City wants to go ahead and,
uh, market it for redevelopment, either as a private project or a public/private project, uh,
I think there'd be a lot of interest.
Champion/ I can't believe anybody'd want it now that the little bus station's gone. (laughter)
Demolition of the North Wastewater Plant:
Fosse/ Our next project is the demolition of the old north wastewater plant. We of course can't
tear this down until we have the south plant expanded and up and running, but we hope to
be there in about three years, uh, currently there's no money in the budget for that and
it's...it could be a sizeable chunk. The early estimate, uh, from Stanley Consultants on
that was about $17 million to...to demolish, remove everything, and then also provide for
some redevelopment of the site. That is, you know, making it into a park. So in the next
few years we're going to be beating the bushes and looking around for funding
opportunities for this.
Davidson/ And I think this is one, um, obviously this is tied closely to the Riverfront Crossings
redevelopment initiative. I think this is one that if we continue to, uh, try and lobby our
folks in Washington for a congressionally designated, uh, projects, this is one that...that
would really nicely, be a nice fit in a lot of respects to...to that program.
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Landfill Groundwater:
Fosse/ Our next one is out at the Landfill, and this is a potential continuation of a project that
started back in the 1980s, if you'll recall. And the, along the north edge and the north-
east edge of our Landfill our oldest cells and they do not have a liner in them. They did
not have a leachate collection system. They were just holes in the ground, and what we
found back in the 80s was the leachate wasn't staying put within those cells. It was
traveling places that we didn't want it to, uh, so we retrofitted a leachate collection
system out there and since then we've been doing groundwater monitoring and testing,
and we are at a point now where it may be time to take additional action. We don't know
if we're there yet. We're working with the DNR on that right now. Uh, we put it on the
radar because if it is at a point where we need to do something additional, because of the
way the State administrative code is laid out, we need to move rather quickly, once
they...once they tell us to do something. So if this goes, it'll happen fairly fast.
So...have that on your radar. ~
Fire Training Facility:
Rocca/ Obviously implicated by flood and uh, north wastewater demolition and Riverfront
Crossings development, uh, we're going to have to replace and...and relocate our fire
training center. It's currently used locally by...by all public safety agencies, um, more
routinely by the Fire Department for um, all classroom and hands-on activities. Been
working with John Yapp and Kent Ralston on looking at potential sites for the relocation
of the training facility, but there again, we probably have a window of what, Rick, three
to five years, uh, so we are trying to plan accordingly so we can relocate the training
center. It does articulate with Kirkwood Community College and the Fire Service
Training Bureau out of the Iowa State campus in terms of providing training for
firefighters and EMS personnel across the state.
Iowa Riverbank Stabilization Proiect:
Fosse/ Thank you. One of the impacts of the flood of 08 that's becoming painfully evident this
year is its impact on our riverbanks and it was really aone-two punch that contributed to
this. First was the flood in 08 inundated these areas for such a period of time that most of
the vegetation died, and then in the two years since then we've seen some pretty active
management of the reservoir levels, which means river levels through our community
have been going up and down quickly, and that is contributed to the...the sloughing of
the riverbanks as we're seeing in a number of locations. Uh, so what we're beginning to
do is explore opportunities for funding to begin to protect these areas before they become
more problematic than they are. Uh, we just finished a little...it's FEMA-funded, right,
Ron? FEMA-funded project here that protects a storm sewer outlet, but that's the limits
of the scope that were improved under that...under that FEMA project. Uh, we, of
course, we'd like to do something of a...of a larger scope, uh, in...in other areas.
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Mims/ Rick, what...what's the, just south on the east side of the river, just south of Park Road
bridge (mumbled) across there the other day and there's a bunch of rock that's been put
in there.
Fosse/ Yes.
Mims/ Is that in preparation for the moving of the bridge or what?
Fosse/ That's a Corp of Engineers' project that...that we were party to, and that, uh, is
controlling some erosion that was going on in that area, and Ron, if...
Knoche/ It was a project that we'd actually been working on with the Corps for, I don't know,
probably ten years and...and uh, with the flood, um, they looked at it (mumbled)
emergency to stream bank stabilization, uh, and it was to protect Dubuque Street and the
Park Road bridge. Um, that was stimulus funding...it actually got funded, and so timing
of it probably wasn't the best, but uh, it did protect an area that...that was at risk,
especially with the MidAmerican overhead power there. Their pole was, uh, on the
teetering edge of falling into the river, so it did stabilize an area that needed it.
Mims/ Okay. Thank you.
Fosse/ We also have water and sanitary sewer utilities right under there, and our fiber optic link
out to the water plant.
Mims/ Okay.
Fosse/ That's one where the, uh, because it was a Corps' project, they armored up to roughly the
100-year flood elevation. Typically we would not go that high, uh, with our (mumbled)
take it up to somewhere around 10,000 CFS range and then work with vegetative means
beyond that. I think this design evolved that way because of the steep slope that there
was to work with, and also the critical infrastructure that it's protecting. So it...it's a
little more obvious than our typical (mumbled) project.
Hayek/ Does our Dubuque Street work, uh, have potential to mitigate that visual impact a little
bit?
Fosse/ Yes. The bridge is going to move over a portion of that, a good portion of it.
Police Firing Ran;;e:
Wyss/ Good morning! Uh, Police firing range is still on the radar. It's one of those projects that
it's an unnecessary evil that, uh, we truly need. We are still continuing to use the Cedar
Rapids' Police range. We are limited in our ability to access this range. It's, uh, another
agency owns it, and dictates when, uh, we can go up and train and recertify. The officers
need to train at least, or certify at least twice a year. Uh, the special, uh, positions such as
(mumbled) operators, as well as special response team members must qualify even more
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frequently. Uh, the main challenge that we are having is trying to identify a suitable
location, uh, for the range. Certainly we want to be a good neighbor and try to find a
range, or an area or location that would be suitable for the environment, but uh, again
that's been a challenge but we'll continue to look for that.
Riverside Drive Redevelopment:
Davidson/ This next project's been. hanging around a while, and is...is a bit undefined at this
time, but it does relate to the project that Chris went through with you earlier, uh, in
eventually relocating the Iowa City Transit facility, which is the dark building you see
there right along the river. Uh, as well as the project to eventually relocate the remainder
of Public Works' facilities over to the Napoleon Park era...area. That project has begun
already, of course. Uh, what...what it would leave us is a redevelopment site here that is
attractive to the private sector, uh, primarily because of Highway 6 and the fact that, uh,
in this vicinity there's slightly over 30,000, uh, vehicles a day, and that...that gets into
a...that level of traffic gets into an area where national franchise businesses, uh, sit up
and take notice. They have generally higher standards in terms of traffic count, and that
being the principle thing that they evaluate when they're locating a business, uh,
and...and so consequently we've had some expressions of interest in this property. Uh,
we do feel like it does have some redevelopment potential. Obviously there are the soil
conditions that have to be dealt with, that we've been dealing with here as well. Uh, but
we don't think those are insurmountable, and that, uh, there...there might eventually be
a...a possibility here where some filling of the site, uh, could occur. There would likely
be a right-in, right-out access opposite, uh, Sturgis Ferry Park would not be... Sturgis
Ferry Drive, it would not be a full access. It would be a right-in, right access. There
would be a full access somewhere along, uh, Old Highway 218 in the vicinity here.
Certainly an attractive as...aspect of this is taking what is currently non-taxable property
and putting it back on the tax roll, uh, and that would be a big advantage for the City.
Fosse/ One of the interesting things down here is, as Chris pointed out earlier, uh, he noted that
this is old city dump. I think landfill's too generous a word (laughter). It was the dump!
And...and right about this line right in here is where the operation of the dump changed,
and from there north, everything was burned as it was placed in there, and as a result, it's
really very stable ground, both structurally and environmentally. As you go south, uh,
you just have buried garbage, and so you have some subsidence, you have methane
production, you have all those problems that go along with that. Uh, so we have
potentially a, uh, pretty good building site...let me get my mouse...there we go. Up in
this area, these buildings are...are quite stable. Uh, this building is, the Transit facility
itself is stable. It's just the ground around it and underneath it is not. So that...that's
what we're dealing with there. The reason we have it on the radar is like this site just
across the street over here, and we do have people coming in almost every year interested
in looking at that. So that is our last radar project. We have a few projects to share with
you that will be finished up in 2011. It'll probably take us 10 minutes to do that, and then
that might be a good break point for...for lunch. Let's do that, let's dive in. Ron, you
want to lead off?
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Proiects Scheduled for Completion in 2011:
Sandusky Storm Sewer:
Knoche/ Uh, the Sandusky storm sewer project, this...this area was one of the first, uh, detention
basins that was put in in Iowa City. Um, a lot of street storage, a lot of backyard storage,
uh, the project that we did this summer ran a storm sewer down Sandusky, um, and tied it
into an existing basin behind K-Mart. Um, we had a major storm event happen at the
beginning of construction, but we haven't had one since, so we don't know if it works,
but, uh, it'll be exciting to see that it does work, uh, when we do get our next storm event.
So...
Fosse/ And...and something I do remember is that when I...when I started with the City in 1984,
uh, one of the first complaint calls I took was related to the storm water basins, so
it's...it's pleasing to see that completed 27 years later!
420t" Street Industrial Park:
Knoche/ Uh, the 420t" Street project...uh, we currently have the sanitary sewer put in, uh, up to
420t" Street. The road improvement is done, uh, about to here currently. This next, uh,
construction season will finish the roadway over to, uh, just almost...it was the current
city limits at the time, uh, when we were doing the plans. Um...and so with that, uh,
we'll have everything in place for the development to occur around. Um, with the...the
project that we'll be working on after the final platting and the subdivision work, we will
(mumbled) uh, we will have infrastructure put in place for the 46 acres south of 420t"
Street, the 54 acres north of 420t" Street to the railroad tracks, and then have, uh, the
north-south roadway put in to this corner of the...of the outlot that we're putting in. Um,
so that will open up this area for development, um, hopefully at the end of this
construction season.
Davidson/ And you'll remember that we have the grant for the railroad infrastructure, as well,
which, John, has that been...is John still here? I don't know if that's been announced yet
for sure, but we do know that we are...we are going to be getting that grant. Um, it has
been announced? (someone talking away from mic) Okay, great. Um...oh, and the
other thing I just wanted to mention to you, there's currently an urban renewal district in
place for the Scott Six Industrial Park directly to the west, right there, and um, in January
we will be bringing to you, uh, ordinance to expand that to include the new industrial area
so that we will have the ability to, uh, use TIF for projects, to incept projects, either our
own projects or private sector, uh, projects in the new industrial park. So, that'll be
coming to you in January and February. Probably be February by the time it gets to
Council cause it has to go through the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Northside Marketplace Streetscape:
Davidson/ Uh, the Northside Marketplace Streetscape, uh, is under design, actually the design of
the Streetscape project is pretty well finalized. The expansion of the Literary Walk has
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been incorporated into that project. You'll recar...recall that we received a $70,000
Great Places grant for that. We're in the process...that we had a subcommittee select the
literary passages and authors to...to be in the expanded area. We're in the process right
now of getting the permissions from the publishers, uh, to use those works, uh, and then
we've got our castors all set up to begin casting the artwork that' 11 go into place, uh,
when it's constructed. We...we have a goal to have this project done by June 30th. Uh,
not probably out of the question that we'll be asking for an extension of that, but certainly
this construction season, uh, hopefully by fall, uh, we'll have the project all finished.
Knoche/ And...and this project will include not only the streetscape portions, uh, you know,
fixing the areas, um, in the parking area, but will also replace all the curb and gutter in
the two blocks from Bloomington down to Jefferson, and do an overlay project in that
area to really clean things up. Uh, along with this project the Water, uh, Division has
identified water main replacement for these two blocks also, so it...it started off as a
small project, but it's...it's kind of become a little bit larger than...than the original plan,
so...
Bailey/ But it's still small enough that the utilities are above, right?
Knoche/ Yes.
Bailey/ Okay.
Fire Station Number 4:
Fosse/ Fire Station Number 4.
Rocca/ Well, if you've been by the site you've seen the building come up out of the ground, uh,
over the past several months, and we're all excited about that. Uh, brief update, I believe
the apparatus bay floor has been poured. Uh, window, uh, windows and doors are soon
to be ordered and installed. Uh, the contractor tells us the structure's essentially bagged
so they can keep it warm and work inside throughout the balance of winter. Um, as you
noticed earlier we've hire...or purchased some fire apparatus that are on order, and uh,
we've hired three of the nine personnel, and we fully intend to, uh, hire the six additional
personnel between now and...and June and July so we're ready and operational about
July 1, so looking very forward to this project being completed. Thank you.
East Side Recycling Center:
Fosse/ Our final project, uh, in this section is the East Side Recycling Center. We're looking at
wrapping that up in July of this summer, um, yesterday the vendor was in that will be
supplying the green roof, uh, for this component of the education center, and it's really a
very neat thing to look at. I'm excited about that, and it will be interesting to see how
that performs in the long-term. Uh, but this project's coming together well and it'll be
finished middle of the summer. So, I...probably after lunch we'll come back for
questions and discussions. Does that sound good?
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Hayek/ Sounds good. What did we budget for (mumbled)
Karr/ We didn't budget any time for lunch at all because it was dependent on far into the
presentations you got, and what the logical breaking time was. Um, you've...you've
planned out to 4:00 today. I guess the question becomes of you and of staff, how much
time you want to set aside f:or questions and discussions if the presentations are done.
Hayek/ So we're well ahead of schedule or somewhat ahead of schedule. Um, why don't we just
take a full hour (several talking) report back at 1:00 and start off again. Okay? All right,
thanks everyone! (LUNGE[ BREAK)
Discussion•
Hayek/ Okay, we'll reconvene the meeting now. Rick.
Fosse/ Thank you. Well, I think the easy part of the day is behind us, uh, this morning. Now
we're at the part of the day where we begin to look at the program and assess whether or
not the projects that were presented to you align with your priorities, or does the scope of
the program align with your...with your expectations. Are there projects you want to add
to the program or are there projects you want to delete, and...or push back. Uh, keeping
in mind that it's...it's somewhat easy financially to delete or push back projects, uh,
without adding additional ones, but it is tough to add additional ones without deleting
others. So just keep that in mind, and with that we'll open it up to discussion.
Champion/ One of the questions I'd like to know is what the Airport's indebtedness...
indebtedness, is that the right word (mumbled) and what's the payback plan.
Tharp/ I don't have the exact figures with me, but uh, there are three hangar buildings, um,
actually three hangar buildings and the University Extension project that are currently,
uh, the debt status of the Airport. Um, altogether I believe it's around $1 million.
Champion/ I'm just going to go down the list.
Fosse/ Yeah.
Champion/ I am concerned about the price of the Animal Shelter replacement.
Bailey/ Connie, I'm having a hard time hearing you.
Champion/ Oh!
Bailey/ I mean, you're probably mica, but I just can't hear you.
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Champion/ Am I on? (several responding) Um, I was just...I'm a little concerned about the cost
of the Animal Shelter replacement. It seems like a lot of money and that does not include
land.
Wyss/ Actually the land's already been purchased.
Champion/ Okay. Oh, that's right. I knew that, but that does not include the land.
Wyss/ No, that's just the facility itself, and certainly, uh, this was initial, preliminary design, and
it can be scaled back to a certain extent, it's just that it's difficult to come up with a
specific design scheme without a site that's been designated for certain.
Champion/ I'll just wait on that.
Wyss/ Okay.
Wright/ That's not designated until...
Bailey/ It's now.
Wright/ It is now, yeah.
Hayek/ How are we...there's $700,000 in FY11 GO bonds on this project. What have or have
we not done on that? I assume that's just an advance right now until we (both talking)
Fosse/ That's right...that's right!
Mansfield/ Um, the money in FY11, nothing has been done on it, until we have the approval
from FEMA, and FEMA rules are that you have to build with like materials as to what
was there before, and the Animal Shelter was not built out of materials that you'd
possibly want to rebuild with, because it was like a garage and something else. So, I
believe the assumption has been throughout that, um, materials will have to change and
FEMA doesn't necessarily...they don't have any basis to share in the cost of increased
materials. So that becomes a local cost, which is why we have GO bonds in there. Um,
that's part of that, and then...and we'll all know more as they get to a design phase.
Hayek/ But if Connie's concern was shared by enough Members of the Council that we want to
scale it back, does that conversation occur before we issue the bonds?
Fosse/ We'll get Kevin in to help with that one (both talking) yeah!
Hayek/ ...we put it in FY11 already (several responding) and we would have probably already
issued those, had we not had this FEMA holdup.
O'Malley/ I usually wait and see how close we are before I issue the bonds, every spring to see if
we have done the design. If we haven't done the design, I automatically kick those, that
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project to the next year, cause I don't want to be sitting there with atwo-year limitation
on using the bond money.
Bailey/ I think what would help me understand this project a little bit more, maybe all of us, is,
um, the specific requirements that an animal shelter has, that are above and beyond
building a, you know, a concrete block building, and...and what we're looking at, and I
think it would be helpful to have a presentation or discussion about that, and also talk to
the Friends of the Animal Shelter Foundation about the feasibility of raising $1.5 million.
Could that be increased? What are they seeing out there? Those kinds of things, and I
think a further discussion I think would help us all.
Wright/ I'd be curious too just to find out what animal shelters may have cost in other
communities, that have built a new one. (several responding)
Fosse/ So you'd like this on a work session, where we could dive a little deeper and...
Champion/ Well, I would!
Bailey/ I...I think that would (several talking) make sense...it's hard to make a decision about
should we scale this back until we know what's possible and what implications that
would have. From my perspective...
Wilburn/ Yeah, I think we understand that we're the game in town, and the county, with animal
shelters. Just, um...as Regenia was saying, what's...what's required, um...um...what
standard, what's required for a facility and...and where to go from there. It...it may just
be a point of just seeing that presentation and saying, swallowing, and saying okay. We
have to go (both talking)
Bailey/ (mumbled)
Fosse/ It is a complicated project because of the FEMA funds and...and the private capital
campaign. You know, the ultimate scope of this project will probably depend a lot on
how successful the capital campaign is, and that'll determine whether we built the
ultimate facility or a scalable facility that can be expanded upon later.
Bailey/ Well, yes, but we wouldn't want to (mumbled) the ultimate facility to the community and
have to scale that back because...I mean, we could make that very clear, but once you get
that far down the road, it's not clear to the community and we would end up in some way,
um, supporting that, and I think we need to be really clear about broad direction, and the
possibility. I...I think the Friends can probably raise this, but I...I'd like to hear from
them. It's a big task.
Champion/ I think they can raise it too. I think it's easier to raise money for animals than it is for
people (both talking)
Bailey/ I agree! I...I think...I think things would bear that out, but...
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Fosse/ Okay. So we'll get this on a work session, and we'll look at both the...the details of the
structure, as well as hearing from the Friends on their feelings about the, uh, potential for
fundraising.
Hayek/ So that I have it clear, before we...Kevin, you don't issue the bonds until the design is
(both talking) approved or, okay, so...
O'Malley/ This project has enough. question marks that, uh, I'd be very hesitate to issue the
bonds, and the reason we're issuing 700 is that's the limit we can issue, uh, for...without
going to an election.
Hayek/ Right. Okay.
Markus/ Would you issue the bonds based on design and a construction estimate, or actually
bids?
O'Malley/ Uh, usually I try to wait. `til the bids, if possible.
Champion/ Um, and then, uh, on the brick street reconstruction...
Bailey/ What page are you on?
Champion/ ...refresh my memory, oh, I'm sorry! Uh, we're talking about replacement of whole
blocks here and not just patch work?
Fosse/ We have both in the budget. We have the small patches (both talking) projects, and then
we have the block at a time, two-block at a time projects, that are proposed in the Capital
Program.
Champion/ Thank you.
Fosse/ Where this discussion this afternoon is going to be a little more difficult than last year is
that we did the presentation on one day and then we had this discussion, uh, a week or so
later so you had some time to cogitate on it all, so... we' 11 be patient while you're
thinking through here. .
Dilkes/ While you're thinking, can I back up to the Animal Shelter for a minute? I...I just want
to be clear what the Council decision point is here. Are...yeah, are we talking about that
decision point then will be the, um...uh, approval of the...construction? Before you
would.. .
O'Malley/ Approval of the design. (mumbled) it's a timing situation. I usually bundle the
whole, all the projects for the summertime. If the design isn't even done, I won't issue
them. If the design was done in March, which I doubt if it's going to happen, then...and
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probably would put it on the agenda...I can always pull it off if we don't have the bid... if
it's not bid yet. But from where I look at it, it's going to be a minimum $700,000.
Dilkes/ Okay.
O'Malley/ In order to replace (both talking)
Dilkes/ So regardless of the fact that the $700,000 is in the CIP, there will be several decision
points coming up (both talking) for the Council.
O'Malley/ Right, correct.
Bailey/ Um...I'm always reluctant to move something into this year, but regarding the GIS, I
think that there is some...some reason to move that up or to split that or to accelerate that
project. Just because of its implications for the community, or for the city, and how we
can use that. I don't know what others think, but...
Wilburn/ My question would be, is that a... is that a timing issue, the reason that staff put that off
a year, you know, just because of other things going on, and negotiating with the County
and all that, that wouldn't be able to be done then or is it a perception of where, when
staff, uh, Council would want it to happen?
Fosse/ I think it was primarily, uh, a matter where it fit into the workload. Uh, a lot of our focus
in the coming years, getting the flood recovery projects, flood mitigation projects, up and
running; however, there's certain aspects of the GIS that we probably could move into,
uh, a sooner than not later category as far as, um, getting consultant to help us design a
framework for how we're going to do this and make the transition into that technology.
Wilburn/ Cause I think for me it was...I mean, I understand if...because of other, uh, other
projects and things like that, if we're just not ready then we're just not ready, but I think,
at least my impression with Council is that we...a majority wanted to proceed forward
with this, so it...I'm...if that's what works best for the schedule, then I'm okay with that
timing, but if...
Bailey/ Well, or if there are things that can be tiered in. I mean, there are some things happening
with downtown, the potential (mumbled) SMID opportunity or those kinds of things
where a GIS, uh, would be...the software would be very helpful. We didn't have it last
time, um, there's some economic development property...property ownership
implications that I think would be very beneficial. So if there are parts of this that we
could tier in, I think that that would probably be, um, I...I would think that that would be
a good way to approach it, myself. I mean, we can't...we...we need the tools to do the
work that we need to do, and if...if staff sees this would be useful earlier...I would
respect that.
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Fosse/ Okay. Well, between now and the next work session, we can...we can work internally to
see if we can get it into our workload, and then also to find out what it would take
financially and check with Kevin to see if that financial capacity exists.
Bailey/ Well, I don't know how others feel about this. Just me and Ross, I mean...
Champion/ No, I agree!
Bailey/ Okay.
Mims/ Depends on what you're trading.
O'Malley/ Yes. (several talking)
Bailey/ I'm not putting any...I mean...I'm prioritizing. I'll let other people trade or put other
things on the chopping block, but this is a...this is a priority. I come at CIP with, I mean,
obviously we need to do flood recovery, um, but I come at it with an economic
development lens always and this for me is important.
Mims/ Yeah, but I'm saying, you...you are trading, cause the minute we move that up we've got
to move something else back. And so...
Bailey/ Perhaps!
Mims/ ... in how we prioritize, we've got to change what's there.
O'Malley/ There is also an O and M component. You will have to hire somebody. Besides the
capital component.
Mims/ Yeah.
Bailey/ Hire, or contract!
O'Malley/ Yeah, either way. I assume at some point would be a permanent hire (several talking)
I'm sorry. I didn't hear your comment!
Bailey/ I think it's easier to get a portion of a person than it is to (both talking)
Mims/ Kevin, did...I thought I had seen in here, and I can't find it now, is there... somewhere in
here that shows, with the projects that are laid out as of right now, what we're looking at
in terms of GO bonding by year?
O'Malley/ It's in your yellow book.
Bailey/ In the back.
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O'Malley/ It should be like page C...begins on page C-55. And...the FY11 bonds, projects that
are funded by FY11 bonds are on page C-61.
Mims/ Okay. Okay, that's what I was looking for. Thank you!
O'Malley/ You're welcome!
Mims/ And what...what are you comfortable with as a maximum that we should be looking at?
O'Malley/ (laughter)
Mims/ I'm going to put you on the spot!
O'Malley/ I'm the conservative person and (both talking)
Mims/ I know, that's fine but I just, I mean...
O'Malley/ I'm the taxpayer who...who looks at it from a taxpayer point of view, not from how
good these projects are.
Mims/ No, I agree! And that's why...that's what I'm asking is from a, not how good the projects
are, but from a financial perspective of (both talking) $7.5?
O'Malley/ Yeah.
Mims/ Okay.
Bailey/ That's where we're at.
Hayek/ $7.5 million being what exactly?
O'Malley/ Instead of a 11, which is what this... l 1 GO amounts to. The only thing that's not
shown on 11 GO is $200,0000 for GRIP. So if you take the 10,175, on page C-62 the
totals, the 10,175 and the 376, plus $200,000 for GRIP, and you add about 2% for
issuance costs, gets you about $11 million issue.
Wright/ And the GIS is another 975.
O'Malley/ That's right.
Wright/ I'd like to leave that one out for another year. Honestly, I know we can use it.
Bailey/ I'd like to look at it in pieces. I mean, I just think that it's foolish not to give yourself the
tools to succeed.
Hayek/ Let's go back to your 7.5 comment (both talking)
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O'Malley/ $7.5 million.
Hayek/ Okay, maybe I wasn't hearing you. I thought I heard $7.5.
O'Malley/ Yes! $7...$7,500,000 af...is what I would safely issue, which would keep your tax
rate pretty flat, which I think is very difficult with this, cause I do think a lot of these
projects are important.
Mims/ Uh-huh.
Hayek/ We'd have to find $3.5 million of CIP work, drop it, to get to what you're talking (both
talking)
O'Malley/ ...push it, yeah, push it to 12 (both talking)
Markus/ But...but let's be clear, that...the $3.5 million to cut is to get you back to a tax rate.
You could cut operationally, significantly less than that, to get to the same tax rate.
O'Malley/ That's correct.
Hayek/ Yeah, and that's where I...I think the (both talking) understand what the implications of
cutting here, versus elsewhere are, to the ultimate tax bill.
O'Malley/ (mumbled) left my calculator back there, let's see...about $600,000 or $700,000, I
think. Or do we...we calculated that yesterday. It's a million dollars! Out of operations.
A million...a million and fifty thousand.
Markus/ I have it here somewhere, hold on.
O'Malley/ It'd be a million...it'd be like $27,000 times 38 cents.
Markus/ Well...
O'Malley/ About 27 (mumbled) times 38 cents would be roughly a million and fifty-two
thousand dollars.
Mims/ So you're saying cutting a million operationally would be equivalent (both talking)
O'Malley/ Would be the equivalent, correct.
Mims/ ...about $3.5 million capital, I mean CIP.
O'Malley/ Right. Yes, that's correct.
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Hayek/ I guess this question goes to Tom, and I guess anyone else on the economic development
side. Earlier this morning he talked about the time lag between an economic
development investment and that actually paying dividends in terms of an expansion of
the tax base, um, and that's amulti-year thing. Um, and are...should we be giving more
thought to...some of those things that will clearly pay dividends, albeit years out, sooner
rather than later? You know, one example, and I just caught this on the radar thing, you
know, that...the possible commercial redevelopment of the...the old dump down there. I
mean, I know that's a huge ticket and...and there may be a lot of things that have to
occur before we get to that, but that's one area where we've got a clearly identifiable and
potential expansion of the commercial tax base...that won't pay dividends until we tackle
it. It may not be something we can now, but is that the kind of thing that Council should
be thinking more closely about?
Markus/ I'd say yes. I, you know, I pointed the lag time issue out because every time you do a
TIF project, um, you're...you're taking that growth and diverting to the retirement of the
debt that you issue to do the TIF project, and so there's a lag before that gets paid off and
then gets rolled back onto your, uh, tax rolls for distribution to the various taxing
jurisdictions. Um...that wasn't a comment that you don't need to still do that. In fact, I
think you, you know, you need to look at a lot of those projects. Jeff mentioned, uh, this
project over here, I don't (both talking) yeah, this, yeah...
Bailey/ It's a lower ticket item.
Markus/ ...yeah, the U-Smash'Em one, I mean, it...Jeff s right. I've been called, I mean, and if
they're calling me, they've obviously been calling staff long before they've been calling
me. They know you got a place right across the street that's ready to go, wants the
property, wants to do something and I believe in competitive process so you need to
figure that in, but...that seems to be one that potentially could get things back on the
books fairly quickly.
Bailey/ Uh-huh.
Markus/ Depends on what we negotiate. Ultimately. You know, it...unfortunately some of the
competition that I see in the area has set the incentivizing bar awfully high, and um
(laughter) and I'm not always sure that that's the wisest, um, approach to...to economic
development, but that's the reality that we have to deal with, to some degree. So, I think
we would negotiate as best we could to minimize that incentivizing, which then results
in...a shorter lag time to get those things back on the tax rolls, and I...that's part of why I
think we should have some sort of policy about how we pursue those things. Um...each
one will have its own, you know, nuances as we consider them. Yeah, I do think that we
need to be more aggressive in seeing where we have ones that are short lags and get `em
on the tax rolls.
Hayek/ Right. And I think that begs the question then, you know, is now the time to do that, or
do we get through this process, do our...prioritization, and then the policy setting you're
talking about, and then act. swiftly once that's in place. (both talking)
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Markus/ I think we could develop a policy very quickly for you. That...that shouldn't hold
anything up.
Champion/ And I do, oops (mumbled) I do think we've talked a lot about that corner lot where
the old dump was, cause I've been on the Council (mumbled) forever, and it seems to me
that that would be a good thing to address as rapidly as possible. The building is not, uh,
sufficient for the storage because the, I think the floor moves up and down, doesn't it?
Or something, the building or something?
Fosse/ It's the ground around the building.
Champion/ Oh, it's the ground, okay! (laughter)
Fosse/ Yes.
Champion/ Uh, but (mumbled) valuable piece of property. That's very valuable. It's prime
retail space. And I would like to see us...I don't know what they're going to do with all
those buses. I don't know what the plans are, but that seems to be a logical place to start
with a very quick turnaround. I don't think you'd have to give any incentives to have
somebody build on that space.
Bailey/ (mumbled) feasibility study and needs assessment study take, the $70,000 that we're
looking at budgeting?
O'Brien/ We don't have a consultant online yet, but that's something we can even move on this
fiscal year, potentially, rather than waiting `til...'til next to get it started.
Bailey/ We have the funding, $70,000...
O'Brien/ Yeah, we have about $2.5 million in reserve right now.
Bailey/ (mumbled)
Markus/ This site that you're talking about though, it would...I just...I don't...I know of this
site. I don't know all the parameters, but if there's a dump on that site, it seems to me
that you're going to have some reclamation issues and potential disposal to, uh,
hazardous landfill, uh, possibilities, uh, to make some of that work.
Champion/ (mumbled) not supposed to say that! You're supposed to (laughter)
Markus/ Trust me! They'll figure it out! (laughter)
Davidson/ No, Tom's...Tom's points are...are exactly right. When we're contacted by people,
you know, they're very interested in the site because of the access to, uh, a highway with
30,000 vehicles a day, um, and you know, in a successful growing community, but as part
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of their due diligence, obviously the site issues are a big concern, and...and I certainly
wouldn't minimize in addition to Chris' project, uh, you've got the Public Works'
facilities that are there and Rick and Ron can talk more to the cost of relocating those
over to Napoleon. That's ultimately the plan, but there's certainly an expense to doing
that.
Bailey/ So, if we started the clock ticking, you know, next month on getting that site ready to go,
the reclamation and that, I mean, what are we talking in terms of timeline? You know...I
mean, `til the time we are all (both talking)
Davidson/ There have...there has been some work done when my predecessor was here. We did
a little bit of work, uh, on what would have to be done to prepare that site, and there were
a couple of different alternatives. You know, the other thing that I certainly don't want
Council to forget about is, as part of the Riverfront Crossings initiative, and this will be
part of what's going to be rolled out on the 27th of January, there's a very significant
commercial redevelopment corridor for Gilbert Street, between Benton and Highway' 6.
Over half of the businesses in that corridor are interested in redeveloping their property.
Um, they're very, very cooperative with us, and...and we're talking about a substantial
commercial redevelopment corridor that doesn't have all the issues that this site does
have. So, I guess I'd...I'd want you to have the benefit of knowing what the plans were
there when you make your decision on...on this site, and that'll be happening very
quickly, a matter of two or three weeks.
Markus/ I think maybe along Jeff's point, when we come back with that, maybe what we could
do is update you on potential sites and it sounds to me like what you're really more
interested in is turnaround, getting things moving, getting tax base increased, obviously
with the standards that you expect, but I would think that the staff could identify sites that
kind of meet that criteria, uh, rather than try and sit here and figure out which ones, uh,
are likely candidates. It's even possible this one down at the, uh, highway location that
you're talking about could be segmented so that a portion of it could be developed, and
then the balance could be recla... uh, reclaimed and... and developed at a later date too. I
mean, there...there's all those things that can play into these discussions, uh, but I think
they have a pretty good handle on what potential sites are there for redevelopment, and if
your gauge is quick-turnaround and knocking down the lag, we can look at those types of
criteria.
Bailey/ I think we need to look at these kinds of projects as...instead of this, this, this, is how are
we tiering them in, what's rolling off, what's coming on, um...and so we know we have
sort of a plan and...and some opportunity stretching out in front of us, because we know
that some projects are going to take longer than others, um, some take longer to get
traction, um, than we even expect sometimes, but knowing that we have this line-up of
projects I think would make sense, and then going over to this corner here, we'll have the
space needs study soon, so we'll begin to have a sense of what do we want to do there
next too, I'm assuming.
Markus/ Right. Jeff, how do you react to that?
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Davidson/ No, I think that's fine. You know, the...the U-Smash'Em building, Wilson building
site and the...the transit building site, were very deliberately not included on your recent
economic development projects update because we really aren't actively doing anything
on those sites. Those are more on the radar type projects, but you know, a policy action
by the City Council is all it takes for us to...to get cranking on those sites, and certainly
the one right over here, there's a lot of interest in. You know, I would...I would say that
the interest has dropped ofl~ on the transit building site, uh, it would be a matter of us
cranking up the marketing of that in order to see if we've, uh, would be able to get people
interested. You know, for substantial development projects, with the economic lull and
the tightness of the financial markets, there's not like there's anything poised right now to
happen, but it would be a matter of getting the site prepared and getting it ready, which
would be a multi-year project with all the relocation of things. By the way, we did
determine in the preliminary work that we did that you could leave Transit there, uh, and
take the Public Works' functions out, and begin redevelopment of the site, but the Transit
building's really on a very, not very visible portion of the site anyway and with the
masonry construction, it's a relatively attractive building, so that it would be possible to
do it in a phased manner that...that Tom alluded to.
Hayek/ Jeff, your points are well taken, though, that a lot of effort and time is going into the
south of Burlington planning, which will result in massive opportunity, uh, for... for
redevelopment and expansion of the largely commercial tax base, but it just seems to me,
we know what the future is. The future is, uh...heavy demands on the municipalities
on...on funding pensions. The future is, uh, continued erosion of road use tax support,
and I think the future, uh, involves, uh, a period of austerity, both on the state and federal
level, um, none of which, uh, helps municipalities, and um, so we know where things are
headed, and...and decisions we can make now to maximize, uh, our potential tax base
wise, and uh, start the clock ticking as soon as possible on those lag times, uh, I think the
better.
Bailey/ I mean, we...we can see that lesson from one of our neighbors. I mean, some of the
largest economic development projects in the region have been 20, 25 years in the works,
and so I think we need to start some clocks ticking, even if it's down the road and we
need to put them off, you know, as things come up. I think we need to start looking
ahead. We need to stop doing these things piecemeal.
Markus/ I'd offer another comment, and that is that, I'm kind of a free enterprise person, uh, to
begin with, so a lot of times I think we would be better served by reacting to opportunity,
and by that I mean...people present themselves to us, um, that are interested in these
projects. As Jeff indicates, we've had a number of people inquire about the
Smash'Em...U-Smash'Em (several talking) U-Smash'Em, we fix `em, okay! I'll forget
that (mumbled and laughter) um...but, but that one, uh, there's...you have a local
business person, apparently who has persons that have the ability to try and do something
there. They're interested in doing that. Uh, if we can start to put those things together,
and...and just think about it for a second. When somebody comes to us with those ideas
instead of us going to them, the leverage is shifted, right? The leverage is now, I think,
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more in our favor in terms of what incentives, if any, we have to provide when they're
coming our direction, cause they've already stated an interest at that point. Instead of us
going and trying to generate an idea or create an idea. I don't mean we shouldn't be
doing that, cause I think you have to go there too, but we can't pass up opportunities that
come around and you lose `em and it's very seldom that they circle back again, so...I
think we have to look at some of these as they evolve and come... and we' 11 let you know
when they do...they do present themselves so you can at least consider `em, but...um, we
have a few that, you know, people keep kind of knocking on the door on and I think
maybe those are telling us something that we need to pursue. So...
Hayek/ That particular site ties in to a space needs study that has been discussed and I...there's
that angle too, for...but that, you know, we'll need to reach some decisions on that at
some point, as well.
Markus/ But I would also say that there's creative ways to react to that sort of thing too. There's
ways, you know, all of these buildings now are going mixed use, uh, that's kind of the
new model for development, and the potential to reserve space, uh, to reserve air rights,
uh, you know, to build in foundations that can support upper stories, you know, all those
things...we just have to be a lot more flexible than we were before, but that's the nature
of mixed use zoning to begin with, so...
Champion/ The other thing I wanted to just ask about, um, cause I was too cold to really react
this morning is the Police firing range, um...right now we're using Cedar Rapids, and
I...where are we at with trying to find a place for this? I keep thinking of police time,
going up to Cedar Rapids. How often did you say?
Wyss/ I'm sorry, I could hardly hear your question.
Champion/ Oh! (mumbled)
Wright/ Your lapel is kind of masking the microphone.
Champion/ Okay. Um, my concern is that we're sending police officers to Cedar Rapids, um, for
firing practice or testing or whatever you want to call it. How often is that done again?
Wyss/ All officers have to qualify two times a year, and it is about a 40-minute drive so that
takes about an hour and a half, or just under an hour and a half, of the training time each
day we have to go up there. In addition to the two times a year that each officer has to
qualify, we have some specialty positions, patrol rifle operators have to qualify an
additional four times a year, as our special response team members qualify four times a
year. Now the...the time is, um, the travel time is a problem in and of itself, but the
reality is, we are going to have to travel at least a short distance way cause you know
we're in the middle of town, but that is one of the considerations we're trying to...to
alleviate or one of the problems we're trying to alleviate by getting a closer range, as well
as having a lot more control as to when we can go to the range and qualify.
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Champion/ And at one time there was a location that for some reason, I can't remember, it didn't
pan out, but do you have any idea how close you are to finding a location?
Wyss/ We are, uh, looking at another location at this point, but we're not certain that it's going to
work out either, um...actually we've looked at three different sites that I'm aware of, and
none of `em have...there's not going to be an ideal location, but uh, in the initial
negotiations with the landowners, we've been unsuccessful to...to reach what we think is
going to be a good outcome.
Champion/ Thanks!
Wilburn/ The only other issues that were around that, um, were that, um...you know, it's their
range in Cedar Rapids, and so, uh, we're one of several customers that come there and
they obviously get first priority, and it's not just a matter of qualification time. If the
only time you're going to fire your weapon, to qualify, uh, that you...you need to practice
time to do that and...and uh...and that's (both talking)
Wyss/ That's correct, it does not include any remedial training time, if somebody has problems
or needs to have some additional training, or uh, if there's certain weapons that, uh,
malfunction we need to test them.
Mims/ Approximately how many acres are you looking for?
Wyss/ Uh, it depends on...the location, but I...I would say 7 to 10 is usually what we're looking
for. And again, we're working in conjunction with the other agencies in the area. I know
Johnson County and Coralville also have an interest in...in the success of this project.
And we've even jointly applied for a grant, uh, which we did receive. Uh, that grant
expires in September of 2012. We have to spend that funding prior to that time, and
that's specifically for equipment for the range, not for the land purchase itself. Uh, now
having said that, there's other options that we can probably try to change the focus of that
funding, should we run out. of time, but of course this...it just emphasizes what type of a
priority that the local law enforcement agencies have put into this.
Markus/ So is this...is it a joint process, will there be joint ownership, or are you the lead agency
as Iowa City?
Wyss/ I think it would be a joint ownership.
Helling/ I'm not sure that's been established yet. I mean, there's...there's kind of a hesitancy on
some of the other folks to make commitments until we at least identify a site, we have
something tangible, and the site identification has really been the issue, uh, it's...it's like
siting a landfill or something that's very difficult because, as Rick said, 7 to 10 acres
for...for a firing range, but uh, if you talk about the distance you need to be from, you
know, civilization, then it's quite a bit bigger than that. It's really finding a suitable
location has been the problem that we've had. There's...there's, uh, a substantial amount
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of money available for the purchase of the property. That's, uh, I think money that we've
gotten back through the State for, uh, seizures and that sort of thing.
Wyss/ There's, uh, seizure fund is basically where we're trying to use the funding for, or trying
to get the funding to make this purchase. (mumbled)
Helling/ Right.
Champion/ Is there such a thing as an indoor facility, or not be big enough?
Wyss/ There is, and uh, that's something we've even discussed in the last few days. Uh, the
problem with that is, you do not have the distance to, you know, we would need. That
may eliminate some of the travel, but that wouldn't eliminate all of it. An ideal situation
would be if we would have a range large enough that we could facilitate all of our
training and it be in close proximity to the city. I...that said, and getting back to the
question on how much size we would need, a lot of it also depends on the, um, the layout
or the demographics of the land itself. You need some safety berms and one of the things
that we're looking for in these lands are, uh, lands that are already, um, situated so that
we don't have to do a lot of excavating and changing of the landscape itself.
Champion/ Thank you.
Wilburn/ One of the...benefits and advantages that we have because we do take the multi-year
approach with this, is uh, you know, there's really not any surprises in there, in the plan
here, uh, 45% of what we're doing is because of something we couldn't control, a flood,
but there's policy decisions that we made up early on and, you know, staff reflected that
in here. Uh, the other projects, uh, you know, we've had several, uh, economic
development issues and ideas. There's certain things, again, that we can't control, uh,
maintenance on bridges, um...certain things that, uh...um, unless you want to get
yourself in trouble later on in terms of maintenance and replacement costs, uh, you
know, we've got a great professional fire, uh, department and you know the equipment
that comes along with that so...um...it's kind of been laid out for us in conversations that
we've been having the last couple of years, um, and presented to us in that fashion. Uh,
even though we don't have the...haven't had the benefit of strategic planning, but some
critical decision points have been made along the way over the last, uh, two, three, four
years, and so...you know, occasionally something will, you know, um...the camera
upgrade, but uh, that could have come in handy when somebody vandalized my bike to
have the camera in place to identify that person, but, you know, otherwise, um, even the
um...even the Animal Shelter, you know, there's some unknowns with that. Again, we
are the, uh, we're the game in town, in the county, and unless the, uh, some other entity in
the county wants to take over, um, Animal Shelter, then we're it. Kind of like with, uh,
Landfill, although that's a little different (mumbled) enterprise fund. So in other words,
I'm...I'm...the only other question for me is just that the timing, you know, the timing
related to the GIS and, again, that's something if that's...um...to be able to roll it out,
and to roll it out robustly and to support it whether that's contractual or hiring someone,
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if that's the time and staff's going to get back to us on that. It's just a general comment
about what's been presented to us...overall.
Fosse/ The thing to keep in mind on the GIS system is it's not like a new car. We won't drive it
out and say there it is. It's the type of thing that'll be incrementally implemented.
There's so many different facets of it and then we'll take that on, but...but the key is that
we do it in an organized manner so that all the parts are talking to each other in the right
ways.
Wilburn/ And so the GO, uh, recommendation for that, I mean, in your conversation, even if
we're rolling something out, is that all going to be a lump sum that has to be done at one
time or, uh, in terms, you know, in terms of which year, fiscal year, that goes under or...I
mean, I imagine the bulk of that is just the software itself and...
Fosse/ Well the...I think the bulk of it is the data migration. It's taking the data from our
existing databases and getting them into the GIS system. So the...the cost components
are the, uh, the consulting on the architecture of the system, how is this all going to work
together, uh, then there's the acquisition of the hardware and software necessary. Then
you migrate the data over, either all at once or in...in bits and pieces. You might do, you
know, different parts at different times, and then there's the ongoing...uh, data
maintenance, keeping all your data current. Those are the ongoing expenses that we're
talking about that are not in the...in the Capital Program.
Wilburn/ Right. So some of those things that you mentioned though, is...can those be done
without moving the fiscal year as it's presented or not or...
Fosse/ That's what we...I want to look deeper at before our next (several talking) work session.
Hayek/ Kevin, do you have your calculator there?
O'Malley/ Yes I do!
Hayek/ What I'd like to know is what, you know, on page I S the...the proposed levy (mumbled)
increases, what the, uh, percentage...percent increase is in the debt service...levy, you
know, 4.43 8 up to 4.709.
O'Malley/ 6% increase.
Hayek/ And, did somebody throw out the number earlier this morning of, in terms of the actual
increase, the percent increase in...in the ultimate tax bill, how much...how many extra
dollars, uh...
O'Malley/ Well, it's $47 on the $100,000 home.
Hayek/ Did I hear 5.6% (several talking)
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O'Malley/ That's correct (several talking) residential home.
Hayek/ To a residential home...
O'Malley/ Yeah, cause (several talking) the, uh, a bit less.
Markus/ It's a little less if you spread it over the, all the properties, but that's a residential
calculation.
Hayek/ Okay. But, okay, so if I own a residence, that's my increase?
O'Malley/ Right.
Hayek/ Okay.
Wilburn/ From the City.
Hayek/ From the City. (several talking) Good point, Ross!
Bailey/ Well speaking of increases, I mean, since it's a little quiet up here on capital stuff, can
we talk about the storm water management annual fee, um, increase recommendation? I
mean, it's going to come up at some point. We might as well use our time. I mean...
Fosse/ The storm water management fee has been fixed since its inception, how many years ago,
Ron, do you recall? (several talking) Seven or eight years ago, uh, so we...we've not,
uh, done incremental increases over the years, and...certainly we have more storm sewer
expense demands than we have fees to cover that. So we are looking at...at ways
to...ways besides property taxes to cover some of these costs. Um, one thing you can
look at in...in virtually every paving project, for instance, there's a storm sewer
component that can be paid for with storm water fees versus GO bonds. That's...that's
one of the ways that it can be spent, as well as the ongoing maintenance and repair of the
storm sewer system.
Bailey/ Well, and I anticipate like the franchise fee and I think when we first put this in place, I
mean, we do have some, um, commercial properties that will be concerned about this fee
increase.
Fosse/ Yes!
Bailey/ So I think that's something...it would be interesting to see potentially what those impacts
are going to be, so we have some idea when they come to us, at the podium, as they did
with the franchise fee, because I'm sure we'll...either before the budget public hearing or
after we pass it, I'm sure we'll be hearing from them, so it would be good to know the
range of what we're seeing, and what we're proposing.
Fosse/ Yes! We can do that.
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Bailey/ Thank you.
Champion/ Kevin, what...about how much bond indebtedness do we get, is gone every year?
O'Malley/ Uh, we roll off about $6 to $7 million a year.
Champion/ Okay, $6 to $7 million, so anything above that we're adding to our debt load?
O'Malley/ Correct. We...we incrementally have some valuation growth, so we can add...so that
valuation growth helps us, uh, issue a little bit more debt each year. Regenia, somewhat
in answer to your question on storm water management in the, on page 31, we have a
25% rate increase, uh, is what we calculated out to the best (mumbled)
Bailey/ Okay. I just don't have a sense of, you know, if I'm a commercial property owner and I
have...this...Irnean, it's figured on a...(both talking) ERU and so I don't have a sense of
what those ranges might, I guess is...um...that would I guess help make it real, but
thanks, Kevin.
Fosse/ Yeah, just like we...we did when we rolled out that utility originally, we can give you
some...some example rates that apply to different places.
Bailey/ That...that might be helpful, I mean, I...I remember passing that. I remember that initial
discussion, but it's been a while (several commenting) hasn't it? Yeah. So that would be
good.
Fosse/ Okay!
Hayek/ At some point we...we've got to have a macro versus the micro discussion. The micro
discussion is do we...do we make adjustments to the proposed CIP budget? Do we, you
know, inject some new projects or...or forward, you know, bring...bring forward some
projects that are in the out years, you know, and if we do that, do we move some stuff
that's going to be taken up sooner, you know, out into later years, that sort of thing. Um,
but...but the macro discussion is, you know, what the ultimate impact is and...and uh,
you know, this, uh, 5.6% increase, um, that's what the message will be, uh, ultimately.
Um, and I don't know if today is the day to do that or...uh, at some other decision point.
Markus/ We weren't expecting necessarily that you would conclude that. You certainly have the
time and, if you want to go to that discussion...I would point out in the 5.64% increase,
that, uh, 3-point, according to my calculations, Kevin'll correct me if I'm wrong, 3.46%
of that is from the taxable valuation, the rollback, and then 2.16% of that is, 2-point
something, is, um...from the City tax levy increase.
Champion/ Well, it doesn't make any difference to the taxpayer where the increase comes from.
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Markus/ No, but one's based on value, and values go up and down, and so...you know, usually
when it goes down, um, nobody's talking about it at that point. But...in this particular
case it actually rolled up, and I guess what I would say to you is you can expect in the
long-run it's going to go down. It goes up, it goes down!
Wilburn/ Well I think the other thing too that we, I mean, decisions that we have to make
and...and what we have to describe to, um, Mr. O'Malley the taxpayer is what services
are you getting for, uh, the dollar that you're putting in, and in terms of this portion of the
budget, the capital improvements, um, as related to our debt you're, you know, almost
half of it is going to a catastrophic event...we're making some investments in
infrastructure, I mean, you have to...rather than focusing on the number, tell people what
you're getting for your money! And then it's for you, you know, do you...okay, uh, Mr.
O'Malley, um...do you want us to not be quite so aggressive, do you want us to modify,
you know, I guess maybe a year ago, do you want us to modify our, our um, our...our
flood recovery plan. Do you want us to scale back and not do the, uh, you know, the land
buyouts. We just had the argument related to the levees, and when you do that, you
know, at some point, uh, well, with the levees, I mean, we had put out to folks early on
that, um, this is a possibility, a strong possibility, it's something that we're looking at, so,
um...um...if we...if we buy into and stick to the argument that's put out that there should
be no taxes, or there should be no tax increase, or there should be a tax decrease, that's
too easy and...and that's not...that's not our job. Our job is to be accountable, but also to
make sure that the...that, uh, we're doing that balance between, um, services that the
public is, um, is wanting and to try and do the education piece. That's the education...the
education piece as opposed to just sticking to, uh, a number, whether it's, uh, flat increase
or decrease, to say here's what you're going to get; here's what you're going to do
without, and are you...is that something that you're...and so I think that's the piece, the
educational, that's important for us as a Council to continue to put out, uh, rather than
making flat statements that, uh, taxes are too high; taxes are too low; uh, the people
across the street or the town down the road that theirs are higher or lower, you know,
that's the other piece that we have to educate is that, um, you know, uh...yeah, there are
communities that have gambling money so they're able to do, uh, a lower tax rate. That's
part of the dialogue with the community, as opposed to buying into the simple answers
and simple solutions, so I would just encourage us to continue to do that.
Champion/ Well, I agree with you to some extent, except uh, mortgage rates are falling even
more now, which means that other interest rates are also going to fall, and this is a time
when people's incomes are not totally reliable, especially if they're dependent on, um,
trust funds or retirement funds, uh, the...what do you call that growth every year?
CI...not (several talking)
Mims/ Inflation (several talking) CPI? (several talking)
Wilburn/ Consumer Price Index.
Champion/ I mean, that hasn't been addressed, and so when I look at this property tax increase, I
look at what other...what people are dealing with on a daily basis now, and I'm...I don't
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want us to get to the point where people can't afford to live here, and they choose not to
live here because their property taxes are so high, and I know we're not the only ones
responsible for the high property taxes. A lot of it is voter-approved, and there are other
entities who are also charging property tax. But I would like to see us stabilize the rate
the City is doing, whether we do it through, um...projects, or whether we do it through a,
uh, services or whatever, to stabilize our property tax. At this time in history I just don't
think it's a good idea to start raising peoples' property taxes even more than they are
now!
Wilburn/ And I'm not saying (both talking) I'm sorry, were you...were you done?
Champion/ I'm done. I'm just rambling!
Wilburn/ And I'm not saying that, uh, in the argument I was putting forward that we're not
trying to be mindful of, uh, the challenge and economic times that...it's...it's our
neighbors and has a real impact. However, I'm just suggesting that we need to make
apples to apples comparisons if we're going to say that Iowa City has the highest
property tax rate, um, then we need to explain to the public why it maybe higher than a
town that has other alternatives, and chooses to use other alternatives. One...a couple
examples that I gave out earlier today, as I complimented staff and, um, taking advantage
of the alternatives that we, uh, worked hard and there was dialogue in the community
with about some hard choices, one of those being the, uh, the franchise. The other being
the local 1% sales tax, um, if we don't have those, then we're using property tax, and so I
just think it's important to have apples to apples comparisons, if we `re going to make
statements like, you know, we have the higher property...highest property tax in the state,
uh, one is that true, and two, why is that true, relative to what some of the other towns
choose to use as a revenue source.
Hayek/ I agree with that, but...but I would say this that, you know, we do have the local option
sales tax, so everybody's paying an extra penny for...for flood recovery, um, we do have
the utility franchise fee. Everybody who uses electricity or gas is paying for that, and we
have, you know, our levies, our property tax levies, and you know as...as proposed,
we're, you know, we're asking, uh, residents to pay upwards of 6% more, uh, next year
than last, or this year than last, and um, and...and I...we can certainly explain why that
is. Why, you know, these pension costs, which we can't directly control except through
Des Moines go up, etc., etc., um, but I...I do want us to be comfortable with a budget, uh,
to the extent that we can say we've done everything we can, mindful of the fact that
we're in this period of heavy expenditures as a result of the 2008 floods, um, to...to push
out everything that we can push out and...and, uh...minimize the...the increases, and
there will always be increases, quite frankly, given the way operations always, uh, cost
more each year, but...but minimize that, and that's where I want to get to.
Wilburn/ Well, ab...absolutely! tlh, and...as part of the education to the public, um, if the
increase is unacceptable, then we need you to tell us, um, not you just figure that out -
it's too high. We're willing to do without, x, y and z. We think we need...we think, uh,
relative to your debt levy, ~we think you need to slow down on, uh, on replacement of
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bridge, or, um, maybe we don't need to be quite as aggressive with certain economic
development projects. It's a...it's a opportunity to try and engage the public in that type
of dialogue, rather than, uh, fanning the fire that taxes are too high and not getting people
to understand to...you know, we do what we can to mitigate, but also to tap into, um, and
educate about the, the pressures that we have with, um, fed and state, if the tendency is
less there and pushing more responsibility back onto local level, to get them to use their
grassroots efforts to...to lobby and educate, uh, at the state and the federal level. That's
all...that's all I'm saying. We can...we can choose to have, um, the simple conversations
and finger pointing and people getting angry and the chamber filling up, well, it usually
doesn't at budget time, but uh, throughout the rest of the year, or we can try and, um,
energize, tap into that to...to get, um, the public's assistance with, um, you know, some
of our struggles at looking for those alternatives and managing...the pres...budgetary
pressures that we have.
Mims/ I would agree that it's really important to educate the public as much as we can.
However, the reality of it is, in my opinion, that when you start looking at a municipal
budget, and you start looking at the different funding streams, and you start looking at the
different requirements and restrictions, and you know, people don't understand enterprise
funds, you know, all these different things. They're not...most people in this community,
and we have a very educated community, are not going to take the time and effort to get
the level of knowledge that they can give us any real significant meaningful input, other
than my taxes are too high, um, I think you're spending too much on police, I think
you're spending too much on social services, whatever their issue might be, and yet in
most cases, they are not going to take the time and effort, or have the knowledge to
necessarily have a whole lot of basis of fact behind what those opinions are. It's what
they care about, it's what's important to them, and that's fine, and we have to listen to
that, but I think...I think we're being a little unrealistic if we think we're going to get a
lot of significant input from the public, other than we have to be out talking to people and
getting a sense of where the community is at in terms of balancing what they're willing to
pay in taxes, um, and in general where they are on...on the values, and I think that's
really hard in Iowa City because the values in this community are very, very diverse. I
mean, I'll have people come up to me and...and Mike got the same phone call I did the
other day from an individual who's, you know, why do you have this program, why are
these...well, a lot of the programs they didn't want were federal programs. They don't
even understand it's not City money. Well, why are we spending money here, why are
we spending money there. Um, to the flip side of people who, you know, want to do
everything for everybody they possibly can, so I mean, I think it's important, obviously
to always listen to our constituents, but to get significant detailed input from people, I
don't think is going to happen. I think that's what we were elected to do, uh, to take the
time and effort to look through these documents and educate yourself, and understand
the...kind of the tone or the...the, of this community and the people in it, and I think a lot
of us have a good idea of that, and we're going t have to make those hard decisions, and
I'm in that camp, if you will, or on that line that I...I'd like to see us really try to hold the
tax increases down as much as we can, and yet at the same time, I certainly look at the
CIP list, there's not much on there that I can easily say let's throw it out, I mean,
it's...it's going to be challenging!
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Wright/ I think you hit a couple things right on the head there. I think...the CIP list has a lot of
stuff in there...that really needs or ought to be done, um...balancing that with the
increase that we're looking at this year, it may be doable. My longer concern is, is this
going to be, are these types of increases that are forecast sustainable going into the
future? Um...you know, I...probably nobody in this room is going to have their income
go up 6% this year.
Champion/ I don't think so!
Wright/ I'll be lucky if I get anything, you know I work for the State. Um...that's my concern.
How sustainable are...is this going to be in the future?
Mims/ I don't think it is!
Wright/ Yeah, I don't think it is either!
Mims/ So at some point we're going to have to start making some really tough decisions.
Markus/ Well, and if you look at page 15, 15 gives you kind of...one of the advantages of the
way your city budgets here is you're looking out into the future for couple of years,
beyond your actual budget, and you know, last year, starting in 11, the change from the
prior year was actually a drop of a half a percent, in terms of your...your millage. This
year it's...it's, uh, 2.15%, uh, next year the prediction, uh, is what, 1.4, and the year after
that it's 3.9. So you're going to face this issue, you know, and...one thing I've learned is
to have a lot of confidence in Mr. O'Malley's numbers. He...he has a good handle on the
numbers.
Wright/ That's why he's never allowed to retire! (laughter)
Markus/ So, you know, you are going to deal with this over and over again, and...this is that
unusual year because of this, you know, 30...27th paycheck issue, um...but...you know,
there's...there's costs that are rolling up there. You've got costs next year that, the
prediction for the...the pension fund increase is going to what, 30%, is it next year, and
35? Yeah (several talking) and then it goes to almost 35 the year after that. And you
know, this is what everybody across this country is facing right now. I can tell you, and
I...I probably told you back in the interview process, is you're way better off than
Michigan was because Michigan had what was called retiree healthcare, and they were
trying to pay for that on an actuarial basis too, and it's just...it's off the charts. They'll
never get there. So...
Mims/ One thing I would like to... see from staff, if other people agree, is we talked about the
difference in, you know, how it affects the tax rate, whether we cut money from the
operational budget, or whether we cut from CIP. There's...there's asignificant
difference, and while you know for today I just...I really focused on the CIP part for
today's discussion. I've skimmed some of the other stuff. Really... start hearing from the
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staff some ideas, maybe not even recommendations, but ideas and pros and cons of how
we might start looking at cutting our operational budget, and the impact. Because I
think...you know, we need...we need to be able to look at both of those and say, you
know, where...where do we think the priorities are for this community, and where the
CIP stuff is typically one-time expenditures, um, yet we always have more that need to be
done, obviously, you know, those operating expenses are recurring, and if we can find
some ways of cutting some things back there, then maybe we do some out of CIP, some
out of operational, that, um...that we can find a way to live with and keep that tax
increase, um, where we want it. And, you know, how much we can do in this budget
cycle versus starting that process for the future I don't know, but I think it's something
we need to really start looking at for down the road.
Champion/ I totally agree, and we haven't wanted to deal with it (mumbled)
Hayek/ Is that $3.5 million number on...on the CIP side, is that to not result in any increase?
O'Malley/ Right.
Hayek/ Okay.
Mims/ I mean, I would just throw out one on the CIP list for me the, you know, probably hit the
bottom of my priority list would be that $500,000 for...flood purchasing homes, I mean,
people have had opportunities and I know we...evidently people who bought after the
flood, um, but it wouldn't be at this point the opportunities that the original owners had,
that would not be one of my highest priorities. I know it's not a lot of money, but...it's
one.
Champion/ That might not even be spent. (mumbled)
Mims/ Sounds like they're interested so...
Champion/ Yeah.
Bailey/ But once again, you know, that goes back to a planning issue, and if we talk about
strategic planning and setting plans in place, I mean, that is part of the comprehensive
plan to address flood mitigation, and that was a direction we went, and so...it...it's, um,
difficult to set something in direction and say this is our approach and that yet down the
road when we get into these difficult situations not stick to that broader overall strategy.
And so I think it might be, um...I would have concerns about removing that completely.
Because it is part of an approach, it's part of a strategy. We don't, I mean, it doesn't
make sense to me.
Wright/ Just to play devil's advocate. Of course we can always change our strategy.
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Bailey/ Well of course you can, but then you get a lot of zig-zagging. You never really hit a goal
if you're always changing the strategy. Um, and I...I tend to be a little bit more...less
zig-zaggy, I guess.
Wright/ Stay the course.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Markus/ But isn't the strategy based on a source of revenue, and the source of revenue dries up,
and the suggestion is...is to move that to our property tax supported GO's, which is
different. The next, and you know, these are folks that had the opportunity to sell, chose
not to, so the next time you run into the same disaster situation again, and if FEMA still
exists in some form and the same program exists, maybe they take advantage of it that
time.
Bailey/ Well, the challenge is, and...and that's...that works but the next time we run into a
disaster situation like that, we still have the overtime costs to address the issues of the
people who are still there, so we're going...I mean...
Markus/ Which is the case with all. capital improvements.
Bailey/ Right. It seems like a small investment for a long time...term, um, operational cost. I
mean, I wouldn't want to eliminate it completely is what I'm saying.
Markus/ Is it just for those few homes?
Bailey/ I don't know specifically...
Markus/ Is that what you were referring to, Jeff?
Davidson/ (mumbled) clarify. The $500,000, uh, staff developed that project because of two
homes we know of that are not eligible, excuse me, not eligible for flood buyout funds
because they were...their current owners purchased the properties after the flood.
Mims/ See, I'm not...I'm sorry. I'm personally not interested in buying out somebody who
bought this property after the flood.
Markus/ I think that clarification may have added a new wrinkle to what you were thinking too
though.
Bailey/ Only that you can't (several talking)
Wright/ Our strategy was to just try and buy out, eventually try and buy out everything.
Bailey/ Right!
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Wright/ And regardless of where that money (both talking)
Bailey/ And we did talk about...we did talk about, you know, annually looking at...getting
property that became available. So that's what I'm referring to.
Dickens/ Part of it is the location of these two homes, butts up right next to the park already.
And...it's kind of a progression of continuing that buyout area.
Hayek/ Yeah but...but, I mean, nothing is...is absolute. We...we can, you know, we set goals
and we should try to largely follow them, unless something occurs that makes it
impossible to do so, but that doesn't mean that every single, uh, decision point has to be
consistent with that overall goal, when you've got, uh, other budgetary (both talking)
Bailey/ Right, but $500,000 doesn't enable you to achieve another goal. If you can package it
with some other things (both talking) but I mean, I mean.. .
Hayek/ But if $3.5 million's your magic number and maybe it's $1.5 million or $2 million, you
know, a half million is a significant step in that direction.
Bailey/ Well...
Mims/ Yeah, I mean, especially if you say okay, let's try and get $2 million out of the CIP and
$250,000 out of operations or something.
Bailey/ Well, I prioritize my CIP and flood recovery, mitigation was one and so that...that meets
one of my objectives, and...
Hayek/ And that's (both talking)
Bailey/ ...that's where I'm speaking from.
Hayek/ And that's okay, I mean, I...we should (both talking) we have to prioritize CIP, I mean,
that's how we arrive at our... our decision points, but I...I mean... if we don't... if we
proceed on this course, we're going to...we're going to be passing along a...upwards of
6% increase on the tax bill, and...and maybe we can't do all of those things at once on
the...on the flood side. Maybe we can't do all the flood work that we've determined is a
priority for obvious reasons, and do everything else. I mean, something's got to give,
unless we are willing to pass it along, um, at...at that percentage increase on top of...you
know, the franchise fee and the...and the sales tax.
Markus/ I don't wish to cut your conversation short (laughter) but...no, an alternative for you to
consider is to give us direction to go back into the budget and come up with items for you
to consider, and...I mean, you have a very competent staff. They...they're hearing your
conversation, they're hearing your angst over passing on that kind of a tax increase, if
you could give us some sort of indication of what you're looking for, uh, we could at
least have that discussion. I mean, and I don't intend to have you stop your conversation,
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but if you want to go that direction...these folks can tell you where things may be less
impactful than what you may know about.
Champion/ Yeah, that would be great if they can come up with some suggestions. I'm...I'm just
looking at the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, which I love, don't misunderstand me,
but we have $2, 750,000 of GO bonds in that project.
Wright/ And there are things like that...they're infrastructure things where...I basically
prioritized as my (mumbled) Rochester bridge cause it seems like it's going to cave in
with the next car that goes over it.
Champion/ And we've got a Parks and Rec department...I don't see how they take care of the
property they have. I really don't. It's amazing to me what gets done around that Parks
and Rec, but um, but I'm not saying we should cut that out. I'm just saying, that's a lot
of bonding money in there. $2,750,000 in GO bonds.
Markus/ Again...
Bailey/ ...potentially brings the exact same in state.
Champion/ $2 million, $2,750,000.
Markus/ But I...the point you have to understand is, and again, staff, correct me if I'm wrong,
we're out pursuing grant fiends and the grant funds are based on a percentage of the total
package price for this, and then that number gets put in there, and therefore, you know,
you...if you're going to pursue the grant funds and have success with those, you can't
back away from (both talking)
Bailey/ Which is why we had to back away before.
Champion/ I know. It's actually (mumbled) another $684,000, $685,000. I'm just saying, can
we afford any more grants`? Can we afford any more matching monies, uh, you know,
there's an old saying if I have a cow, the cow milks me, and I'm wondering if we're not
getting into some of that. I'm not saying that's what we should eliminate, but I'm saying
how many grants can we afford to cover? It's still going to be about, a little over
$3,400,000 of GO bonds, even with the grants. Unless there's other grants that are
coming in. That's a lot of money. I mean, I just...no never mind. I've already...
Hayek/ No, no, your point is well taken, Connie. We...we understand (several talking)
Bailey/ ...we have for, I mean, I hate to always be arguing with this, but I mean, we have for so
long not tried to attract outside money. It's refreshing to actually see the pursuit of
grants, and...you're right, it does take some match...internal matching, but you know, for
years and years and years we weren't pursuing them, probably for these kinds of reasons,
but um...I think that that's...that's going to be the way of the future is figuring out how
we can get increased private donations for Parks and Rec activities, increased private
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donations for the Animal Shelter sort of, um, activities, and pursue the grants that are
available out there, whether they're state or federal, or whether they're private. I would
like to give direction to staff. Myself, I don't feel compelled to keep, um, a flat...a flat
levy at all, I mean, and you. know, I have to acknowledge that I'm a taxpayer as well and
this probably impacts my household, you know, as dramatically as any, but I would be
more comfortable having staff bring us back some suggestions. Otherwise we're just
going to pick this...and get. nowhere for two hours, I think.
Hayek/ No, I, you know, the ala carte approach never really works for...for a group in this
situation.. .
Dickens/ ...do a blended, where we're looking at, I mean, there's got to be a little give and take,
both from the CIP and from the...(several talking). I don't think it should be one or the
other. I think there's got to be some type of compromise between the two that we do
blended. We may not get all the way down where we don't have any tax increase, but if
we can minimize it. I think that would be more effective.
Bailey/ And I think staff did a nice job of maintaining, um, the levy increase. I mean, we've got
to realize that it's a...it's an unusual year when the rollback actually did increase. I
mean, a 2.15 in...in typical, more typical yeas, is not out of the question, as Matt pointed
out. Operations always seem to continue to grow and that's... seems like a reasonable
growth figure in a typical situation. The rollback unusually is exacerbating that increase.
So...
Hayek/ To be sure, you know, just...we don't have any staffing increases, except out at the
Landfill, uh, on two projects we've...we've committed to. Um, we got a lot of projects
in the out years or on the unfunded list, which are fantastic projects, and in...this is my
third...is this our third budget? You know, I've seen a lot ofpre-presentation trimming,
you know, in the last two or three years, so I...I know a lot of work has gone in just to get
us to this point. But I...I (both talking)
Wright/ Yeah, I do think Tom's suggestion is probably one that's well taken.
Hayek /Okay, um...
Wilburn/ On the other end, uh...I...Mike would call this playing the advocate, um...my
recommendation to...Council, um, in years past when the Council's given staff direction
to come back with a set of proposals that, um...we don't set the staff up for a position to,
um, catch the negative feedback from certain sectors of the public, that we remind the
public that it's a Council decision, um...and I'm not saying that that is intentionally done.
I just think, you know, it's...people say, staff come back to us and then, um, just a
reminder to the public that's a decision that we ultimately make, that there are options
that the Council would be considering. That's a concern that I have with, um, not giving
some general direction, uh, although I appreciate the suggestions you're throwing out
there.
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Markus/ I've been the bad guy most of my life! (laughter)
Wilburn/ There you go! Um...um...but otherwise, uh, just in terms of some projects that I
would like to...see go forward, that uh, I continue to get asked about from the public, uh,
sure would be nice to see that First Avenue, Interstate Railroad crossing come...come
through after (several talking)
Champion/ ...small percentage of GO funds on that project; most of it's federal funds.
Wilburn/ But it still involves, um...(both talking) significant GO bonding, but it would be,
uh...very well received by the public.
Wright/ That one's been a long time coming!
Wilburn/ Yes it has!
Champion/ Not that long in city time! (laughter)
Hayek/ Do you believe you've got enough direction from us? Clear as mud?
Markus/ Well we'll do the best we can.
Hayek/ Yeah. I don't think we're looking for an absolute, hold the line, but...
Markus/ Staff s here, they've heard this conversation, and I have a lot of confidence in them,
together we'll figure out some recommendations for you to consider. Ultimately it is
your decision and I think it's been a healthy discussion. You know, going around the
entire...360 I guess (mumbled).
Wilburn/ One...one quick question, uh, and there may not be an answer, or may be, uh, if a staff
member wants to follow up with me, I'm curious, the...circumstances to which, uh, a
couple individuals chose to purchase in the mosquito flats area after the flood. I'm just
curious about that, uh, that choice. If you want to follow up with me later or.. .
Davidson/ I think they planned on making money on the properties when they sold them.
(several commenting)
Wilburn/ The folks who bought them. (several talking) Okay. All right. Well (laughter)...I'm
falling into your camp no~~, Susan! (laughter)
Mims/,I'm sorry, and I mean, I'll say it publicly, if they bought after the flood, they knew what
can happen. I'm not interested in spending taxpayer money to buy them out when they
purchased those houses after the flood.
Bailey/ Well, there's always an after the flood down there.
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Hayek/ Well, do we need...
Davidson/ Mr. Mayor, can I just make one...
Hayek/ Absolutely!
Davidson/ ...clarification. Just in, to try and present this as accurately as possible. I think they
intended to make money on those properties by either rehabilitating them, and then either
selling or renting them, or being bought out with non-federal money.
Champion/ Either way!
Hayek/ Is...is there any...is there any discussion on the specifics CIP items that we still want to
have? Or do we want to wait until...
Mims/ I would have one question, I would guess I know the answer...on the Butler bridge
pedestrian trail, is our commitment to there, to that, um, is what we have to have
committed to do the match? We've got...there's state grants and...Coralville and
Johnson County are putting in money, so I'm assuming we're committed to that
difference?
Davidson/ At least when that project was developed, Susan, and it was a while ago. It was when
I was still at JCCOG, the notion was that Coralville, the County, and Iowa City would
split the local match with some estimation made of who eventually is going to end up,
you know, when annexations are done, there's an annexation agreement that Johnson
County, Coralville, and Iowa City are party to in that area, and that basically on...on who
was going to end up with what. That's how the local match was split up, between the
entities.
Mims/ Okay. Thank you.
Wilburn/ I think that all too was consistent with conversation, in terms of pursuing funding for
that, that that's been...that all was a progression after that, and those initial conversations
too.
Hayek/ Rick?
Fosse/ Can I review what I have heard, is it four follow up items that you'd like, make sure I've
heard accurately. Uh, the first issue, you want more information about the Animal
Shelter. Uh, both about the proposed structure, as well as hearing from the Friends about
their...their feelings for the potential for the capital campaign. Uh, second, you want us
to take a look at the GIS project and how that money will be spent over the lifecycle of
the project, and if there are opportunities to, uh, if there are financially feasible
alternatives for beginning that sooner than later. Uh...third, is to...
Bailey/ I'm sorry. Would you repeat that, did you also talk about tiering it in?
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Fosse/ Yes, yes!
Bailey/ Okay. All right. I didn't...
Fosse/ I didn't say that, but that's...that's what I was...(both talking) planning on.
Bailey/ Okay.
Fosse/ And then the, uh, third would be give you some examples of potential changes for storm
water fees, so you would have an existing fee, and then a proposed fee for different size
properties, residential up through large commercial. And then the fourth of course is the
big one that you talked about, some staff recommendations for, uh, ways to keep the tax
rates as low as possible. Did I miss anything?
Hayek/ I don't believe... so.
Wilburn/ I think the only other thing that came with questions, that...may come up in a follow up
meeting that we're apparently having with the Airport Commission?
Champion/ Oh, right, right! Um...
Bailey/ The bonding... (several talking) their debt, right?
Champion/ How much debt they owe right now, and how (both talking)
Wilburn/ That was your question, right?
Champion/ Yes.
Wilburn/ Yeah, that's what I thought.
Fosse/ Okay. Thank you.
Hayek/ Okay. Well, what else...
Champion/ Can I ask one more question...before we quit? When we do inter-departmental
loans, which I totally agree with. It's better to borrow money from ourselves. Do we pay
interest on that back with the...
O'Malley/ Yes, we do pay interest back to the Landfill. So far we have anyway!
Champion/ Okay.
O'Malley/ We're not obligated by law, but we do.
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Markus/ As much as the banks are paying, I hope?
O'Malley/ No, we try to stay around prime. We're a good customer! (laughter)
Bailey/ We're good for it! (several talking)
Dickens/ Is there any other projects that can be split between public and private, in the CIP? I
know we're talking some of the new economic development pieces, is there anything
that...
Davidson/ Excuse me, Kevin, um...I, yeah, that's a difficult question to answer, Terry. Um, you
know, we're always looking for those partnerships, and I think I stated to you when
Wendy and I made the presentation on all the economic development projects that I think
every single one of them has a private sector component, either we're partners or we're
trying to incent projects or we're trying to set up a situation where the private sector
wants to come and invest because it's such an attractive area now. Um... so there's a
private sector investment angle in every single one of our economic development
projects, but they manifest themselves differently.
Bailey/ Kevin, I may not be understanding this correctly, but you said when we pay back
ourselves, we pay back to t:he General Fund.
O'Malley/ If the loan is through the General Fund.
Bailey/ If the loan is through the General Fund.
O'Malley/ Most of `em are. Most of `em have been, uh, Fire Station #2, Fire Station, uh, #4,
uh...the 420th Street, uh, whereas Airport loans were direct loans from the Landfill. So
the Airport pays those back, those vertical hangars that they built in the 90s.
Bailey/ So if we were...if we were to look at that, and if you were...what is that debt amount
right...in the upcoming budget, that we're paying back to ourselves?
O'Malley/ Oh, let's see, I think about...I have to look at each page. I think the Fire
Department's about $60,000, Senior Center owes I think on one more loan. I'd have to
get you a schedule. There's several loans out, the Rec Center actually has...I think
Scanlon's paid off. Several of our operations have borrowed money from the Landfill,
uh, to uh, to accomplish what they wanted to do, cheaper than...than debt at the time, or
because we couldn't issue the debt. But the Airport is the only one that non General
Fund has borrowed money from the Landfill. But I'll get you a schedule.
Bailey/ If it's easy to get. I'm just curious about...what we're shuttling off of debt service to...to
do those kinds of projects. Not that I necessarily disagree that if it makes sense, but
it's...I don't know. It would be good information to have. What we're costing ourselves.
(several talking)
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O'Malley/ ...transfer page.
Bailey/ Oh, is it there? (several talking)
O'Malley/ I think it's on the transfer page actually.
Bailey/ Oh, of course! I did look at that page. I guess I should have...
O'Malley/ And on page 32, there's a Landfill repayment, um...
Bailey/ Right, I did, no, I have a note here too!
O'Malley/ It's listed there.
Bailey/ Thanks. I...I had made notes here.
O'Malley/ Looks like, yeah, Transit, Court Street Daycare.
Bailey/ All right. Thank you.
O'Malley/ Now the one...there's a half million dollars. That's Landfill to itself. They have a
reserve that...they're just transferring that to a reserve fund to pay for capital
improvement projects. So it's not a loan. The rest are all loans.
Hayekl Just wanted to keep that away from the other departments! (laughter)
O'Malley/ Yeah!
Bailey/ I like how we track that though! (laughter)
Hayek/ Other specific, uh, items as they relate to CIP projects? Anything else you need from us,
decision wise or input wise today? Okay. Do we want to conclude the meeting then? Is
there anything else you guys want to discuss? Okay, well thanks, everyone. Uh...kudos
to staff for excellent presentations this morning, and this afternoon...
Mims/ Thank you!
Hayek/ Thank you for your guidance! This concludes the meeting.
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Budget Work Session of January 5, 2011.