HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-01-18 TranscriptionJanuary 18, 2011 City Council Work Session
Council Present: Hayek, Bailey, Dickens, Mims, Wilburn, Wright
Council Absent: Champion
Staff Present: Markus, Helling, Karr, Tharp, Craig, O'Malley, Moran, Kopping
January 18 Budget Presentations:
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Hayek/ Well, welcome everyone to our Board and Commissions Budget Meeting. Connie
Champion will not be here with us this evening, but we've got the rest of us here and
since we are on a tight schedule why don't we go ahead and launch in.
Riverside Theatre
Hayek/ And Riverside Theater is our first to throw to the wolves (chuckles).
Clark/ Good evening.
Hayek/ Welcome, Ron.
Clark/ Thanks, thank you for having us here. Uh, I'm Ron Clark and I'm here along with my
colleagues Jennifer Holan and Jody Hovland. Um, and we appreciate this opportunity to
request funding from, uh, for the Riverside Theater Shakespeare Festival from, from you,
so thank you. Um, we intend to show you how Riverside is a unique element of Iowa
City's cultural community and demonstrate that we are deserving of the city's support.
Because now it's a cold and snowy January day we thought it might be fun and hopefully
evocative and informative to transport us all down to the Festival stage -not literally, that
would not be pleasant on this evening -but imaginatively, let's all go on a nice, warm
tranquil June evening. There's a light breeze blowing, no worry about the temperature.
You have a comforting beverage in your hand. Dusk is fallen, the lights are making
magic on the stage. There are beautiful costumes. And we see Phebe from As You Like
It.
Panfilio/ Think not, I love him, though I ask for him. He's but a peevish boy. And he talks well,
but what care I for words? Yet, words do well when he that speaks them pleases those
that hear. But it is a pretty youth, not very pretty. In short, he's proud, yes, yet, he'll
make a proper man. The best thing in him is his complexion and faster than his tongue
did make offense his eye did heal it up. He's not very tall. Yet for his years he's tall. His
leg is but so-so and yet `tis well, there may some women, had they marked him in parcels
as I did would have gone near to fall in love with him. (Laughs.) But for my part, I love
him not, nor hate him not. Yet, yet, I have more cause to hate him than to love him for
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what has he to do to chide in me. He said my eyes were black and my hair black and now
I am remembered scorned at me. I marvel that I answered not again. That's all one.
What matters in my head. And in my heart. I will be bitter with him and passing short.
Go with me.
Thank you.
(Applause)
Hovland/ Cristina Panfilio is here with us for a production of All My Sons and has done the four
previous Shakespeare Festivals with us. She represents all of the first-rate professional
performers and other artists that makes up our festival company each year. Through the
years, the City of Iowa City has been our valued partner. However, you may not know
that we are the only professional outdoor theater festival in the state, or in a 200-mile
radius; or that we produce two classic plays each June and July, 18 performances at the
festival stage and City Park, which, of course, was launched by a unique partnership
between the City and Riverside Theater; or that this year is our twelfth annual festival.
Holan/ We work to ensure that our shows are economically accessible for all. We offer
discounts, including everyday reduced price tickets for students and seniors, rush tickets
for students and people of all ages, and Family Nights during which up to two adults
accompanying a youth can get into the festival for the youth price. And we provide free
green-show performances -the 20 minute versions of the evening's play.
Clark/ And we enlist corporate support for our, uh, Wi1lPower Tour. It's a free educational
outreach program that is tied to the festival. We bring a team of four actor/teachers into
eighth grade classrooms around this corner of the state, reaching roughly 1,400 to 1,500
students every year. Our festival patrons come from all over Iowa and neighboring
states, spending dollars in our community. Each year we employ roughly 40 festival
company members who, again, are spending salaries here in Iowa City. And a portion of
our ticket sales are paid back to the City for use of the facility.
Hovland/ You probably know that when local businesses are hiring and University departments
are recruiting, they talk about Iowa City's cultural community and the arts. And with 30
years and nearly 200 produced plays under our belts, Riverside Theater is an important
and lasting part of that community.
Holan/ During 2008, like most, many local businesses, we were affected by the flood. Since
that low point, we've seen gradual improvements in attendance, but we still haven't
returned to pre-flood levels. Patrons are booking tickets later and our recent rainy
summers have made ticket sales more difficult. Last year's festival revenue was $10,000
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short of our goal. The festival represents 40% of our annual earned income, and nearly
40% of our total marketing budget. So this shortfall is critical.
Clark/ Our staff and our board are working hard to sustain Riverside Theater while planning for
and securing our future, and we ask for the City's support too. Funds from the City will
help us as we continue to rebuild our audience; they' 11 help us continue to bring in
professional artists, like Cristina; they'll help us continue to produce the high quality
professional productions attended by local and non-local patrons; and, help us continue to
be a source of pride for all of Iowa City's residents. That concludes our presentation and
we are happy to take questions. Even Cristina.
(Laughter)
Hayek/ Who has questions for Riverside?
Dickens/ Where is most of your advertising and marketing budget going?
Holan/ It's, it's a combination of local, spending with local papers, the Press Citizen, the
Gazette, um, local TV stations, KCRG, uh, primarily, and also some, uh, some monthlies
that do reach outside of the immediate area. Um, we, we do a publication called
Vacationland and uh, um a magazine called Itineraries, which we try to attract group-
sales through. So it's a combination of those sorts of media.
Bailey/And you indicate that your patrons for the festival come from throughout the area, but do
you have a sense of the breakdown: local, corridor, 100-miles, 200-miles?
Holan/ You know, I, uh, I think, we work with tracking that is probably less than perfect-
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Holan/ --and I don't have a breakdown that can be tied back precisely to numbers. Um, we do
know that people come, we can tell from the postcards that we mail, we mail out of state,
we, people who have previously attended, so I, I can describe anecdotally that I see
addresses from all over the state and into the, the states that surround Iowa. But I can't
actually give you a, a hard breakdown of those numbers.
Bailey/Okay. Thanks.
Hayek/Any other questions for Riverside? Yes, thank you. Fantastic way to start your
presentation.
Hovland/ Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Wright/ It was terrific.
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Clark/ Thank you so much.
Hayek/Appreciate it. (Inaudible)
Community Supported Agricultural Fair
Hayek/ On to the next one, which is Community Supported Agricultural Fair.
Dowd/ Hi, I'm Laura Dowd, the founder and the executive director of Local Foods Connection,
um, to ask about funding for the Community Supported Agriculture Fair. Um, every year
since 2005, we have offered a CSA Fair to the Iowa City community. Um, the fair, um,
invites farmers to come into town and set up a table with information and photographs
about their farms. And people can come to the fair and talk with the farmer. These
farmers are, in particular, community-supported agriculture farmers. Community-
supported agriculture is a type of marketing technique for farmers where they sell directly
to consumers and the consumers pay for a season's worth of produce in advance in
January, February or March. And then, in exchange for that commitment the farmer, um,
prepares a box of produce for them every week for about four to five months starting
when the growing season starts. Farmers like to advertise, um, and recruit their members
at this time of year, so the fair would be, um, in February, March, April of 2012. We also
produce a CSA guide that lists all these farms with their description. The fair and the
guide are provided at no cost to the public or the farmers. And the fair, um, is probably
going to continue to be held at the Recreation Center. And we have anywhere from six to
ten farmers attend. Um, and the attendance has been anywhere from 40 to 150 people
from Iowa City and Cedar Rapids. Um, the CSA Fair is rather unique in this region of the
state and maybe in the state as a whole, so we have people come, I've even had people
come from the Quad Cities area. Um, some of our farms do serve multiple areas, they do
serve Cedar Rapids and, and those, and the other areas, um, east of, east of here. Um, we
are partnering with the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation Center and Development
Office now. We've inspired them and they held their first CSA Fair in Cedar Rapids last
year. Um, and this year they want to partner with us on the Iowa City fair, um, to help us
out like we helped them out. Um, the guide we give out at the fair, we also have it in
town, um, at food stores and restaurants, also at the Iowa City Public Library. Last year,
the library went through over 1,000 copies of the fair, of the guide. Um, we provided
about half of those for free, and then we got a grant from Eco Iowa City for the other
half. Okay, I'm ready to take questions.
Bailey/ Do you have a sense of how many of these farmers are also involved in our Farmers
Market?
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Dowd/ Um, all of the farmers, yeah, that come to the fair. There are CSA farmers that don't go to
the Farmers Market and they don't come to this fair either. Either they're social or they're
not, pretty much. (Chuckles)
Wright/ How did you fund this, uh, previously, if you hadn't made, if you hadn't got the Eco
Iowa City grant?
Dowd/ Mm-hm. Uh, that was for like, um, 500 or 600 CSA guides. Um, that all came out of our,
the Local Foods Connection, just general operating budget. So, and we're anon-profit
agency. We enroll low-income families in CSAs. Um, CSAs have a large up-front cost
because the farmers prefer that the payment be made in full at this time of year and so
that's, um, anywhere from $300 to $700, which excludes the low-income. So, we, we
pay that cost for them and then we provide them with education on nutrition and cooking.
Um, but we also, our mission also is to, we support the, um, earth-friendly, small family
farmer. So we do the CSA fair and the guide for the farmer's benefit. Of course, our
clientele are invited to the fair too.
Hayek/ Have the several, uh, that you've done so far all been held at the, at the-
Dowd/ No. It started out at the New Pioneer Co-op Coralville store mezzanine. Um, and it
moved to the Prairie Table, and then, um, the last three have been at the Rec Center. It
gets a little bigger every year.
Hayek/Do you, do you plan on doing one this March?
Dowd/ Um, yes, it's scheduled for Saturday, March 26th from 1:00 to 5:00.
Bailey/At the Rec Center?
Dowd/ Uh-huh. In the social hall.
Hayek/Any questions for Laura?
Dowd/ Okay, thank you for your time.
Hayek/ Thank you. We appreciate it. Landlocked? Landlocked here? Need to jump forward to
the airport.
Airport Commission
Hayek/ Airport guys want to jump ahead in line here?
Horan/ Sure.
Hayek/ Need to make sure our tech turns back on.
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Horan/ Hi, Howard Horan form the Airport Commission. Um, glad to, uh, work on it again. Um,
we have been successful in keeping our budget to the $100,000 target, and seem to have
been able to, uh, operate the airport quite effectively with that. Um, I think, uh, one of our
big challenges for the, uh, for the coming year is, uh, of our $100,000, $11,000 is
committed to the City's economic development efforts, so that money never really sees
the airport. I think one of our goals needs to be, uh, to develop ideas so that we can more
effectively partner with Economic Development and get some attention to the airport. Uh,
Minnette Gardinier is going to be the Chair for, uh, well, beginning in March, and she has
the really good news.
Gardinier/ So, I'm Minnetta Gardinier. I've been on the, uh, Airport Commission now for, I
guess this is my second, second year, third year maybe. Um, and as we've kind of eluded
to over the last several months, uh, Iowa City is going to host a national event come June
and it, this is the Air Race Classic. I've just got a, two-three, uh, four slides actually, uh,
just to introduce.
The Iowa 99s is a group of women pilots here in Iowa, the state of Iowa, we're a chapter
of the International 99s, uh, historically, which goes back to the days of Amelia Earhart
who formed the, the group, uh, back in 1929. The Air Race Classic is the outcome of the
first air derby that was held in 1929, so it's gone through, this is the granddaughter of the
Air Derby, if you will. Um, we'll be hosting the 35t" Annual Air Race Classic. And as
you can see, it starts up in Iowa City and it goes up through the Dakotas and, uh,
Wyoming, and down through the central part of the U.S. and it will end up in Mobile,
Alabama. It's about 2,700 miles that the, uh, racers, that the airplanes are on there, those
will be people descending on Iowa City starting around the 16t" of, uh, June. So, um, this
logo up here in the top left corner, um, I think is going to be the official logo, we're just,
uh, just gotten it from the graphic designer. And, uh, so that's how we'll be promoting
this over the next several months. Um, the racers are going to be arriving here on
Thursday, June 16t". They' 11 be here for that weekend, up through Tuesday, June 21St,
which is when they'll, they'll leave Iowa City en masse. Uh, the picture down in the
lower right corner is a picture from a previous air race. Uh, that number four is the plane
that I have hangared here in Iowa City. Um, I've raced in this, uh, participated in this
race, uh, starting in 2008 in Bozeman. Um, and I think that, that experience gave me the
idea to bring the race here to Iowa City. I just thought it would be a great place to start
the race, uh, because the planes, basically they're going to come in, they're going to
arrive, start arriving Thursday, um, up through Sunday morning. Uh, the racers are pretty
much here to enjoy their time, um, and so I hope, I'm going to have them down at the
Sheraton here in Iowa City, and, uh, I think you'll be seeing them wander around the ped
mall, and, um, take advantage of some of the, a lot of the businesses that we have here in
the, in the downtown area. Um, I'm looking forward to them, uh, maybe being able to
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partake of a Friday night Concert right out in front of the Sheraton too. Um, and then
Friday evening we'll have what's called a, what I'm calling an early arrivals party. All
the racers, they have to be here by, uh, noon on Saturday. Uh, most racers come in a day
or two early so that they can relax, and, uh, sort of unwind before the race begins. So, uh,
Friday evening we' 11 have sort of an unofficial voluntary, uh, optional, um, reception for
them and that's going to be out at the Iowa Children's Museum at the Take Flight exhibit
that's out there. And then, um, uh, Saturday evening, when all the racers will be in town
we'll have the, uh, what I'll call the, uh, it's just a hangar barbecue, uh, out at the Iowa
City Airport. Both of these events, we'll sell tickets, and it will be open to the public to
attend and be able to meet the racers.
Uh, what you see in the upper, uh, right, yeah right corner is, uh, a shot, obviously from
the Children's Museum, and what you see in the, um, lower left corner is a shot from a
previous air race with the Girl Scouts. They typically have a youth engagement, usually
trying to connect with the Girl Scouts. I've been trying to connect with Deb Dunkhase at
the Children's Museum, and I had lunch with leaders from the eastern Iowa and western
Illinois Girl Scouts group. Um, and they're going to work, putting together a package that
will be an overnight museum, and then probably Saturday girls will come out to the
airport and, uh, have a picnic lunch, in the viewing area we hope, and, uh, hopefully good
weather. But they'll also be able to go out to the ramp and, and, wander around the
planes, with racers, meeting racers, um, and then the EAA Chapter, which is the local
pilots group, the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area is going to offer Young Eagle flights,
which are free flights for the, uh, any of the girls that might be interested in going up in a
plane, obviously with a parent, parental permission. But anyway, that's, uh, a great event
that will include the public, and uh, we hope be able to get a lot of people out there. Um,
obviously, you'll be getting invitations, uh, we hope you'll come out and enjoy some of
the event.
Um, and lastly I just want to take a couple of minutes just to thank the sponsors for this.
Um, there's a start fee that's associated with this that (inaudible) has provided for this
event, um, as well as our lead sponsor which is Rockwell Collins at this point. Uh, the
Iowa Aviation Promotion group is a state group that supports and promotes aviation
across the state. Uh, the North Central Section is a group of about, uh, eight Midwest
states, and they've also made a contribution towards this, and then Jet Air, and then we
have many other sponsors and they're still coming up, so, um, I think this is going to be a
great event for the airport (inaudible). Thanks.
Hayek/ Thank you. Any other
Wright/ Mike's next.
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Tharp/ Thank you. Just a couple of final quick comments to wrap up the budget. Um, we have
alluded to, Dale and myself, a couple of times during budget discussions about having a
future work session, combined meeting where we discuss a commerce park and some of
the proceeds from sales going toward paying down or eliminating the airport debt. I know
the Airport Commission is, is certainly in favor of those conversations, and would like to
have them some time in the near future, when you, when it's convenient for Council.
Also in your packet was the 2010 Annual Report. Um, traffic numbers really are, are
picking back up at the airport. We've, uh, the last couple of years we've undergone a
number of reconstruction and, uh, runway improvement projects. Uh, those are
completed and the projection for 2011 are on pace to meet, uh, pre-20081evels, so we're
looking pretty good for activity at the airport again.
Hayek/ These, these, uh, numbers in your, in your report, um, the 25% reduction in fuel sales
and stuff like, stuff like that, are these, uh, complete numbers for all of 2010? Or is that-
Tharp/ Um, primarily it's for the fiscal years. Uh, so that would be fiscal year 2010, uh, since
we're half-way through FY11, uh, the projections are on pace to meet what we had in
2008. Um, on average, the airports sold about 200,000 gallons of fuel, um, and it was
split pretty evenly between, um, aviation gasoline and jet fuel. We're hoping not only to
meet, you know, go back to the 20081evels where we were at 200,000 gallons, but to, uh,
start seeing an increase in jet fuel as the biggest business, as jet traffic is utilizing the
airport more.
Hayek/ So, thus far in this fiscal year, how do we compare over the previous?
Tharp/ It's looking to be an increase back to about $20,000 off of, uh, fuel sale commissions.
Whereas last year I believe it was $18,000, maybe $17,000.
Hayek/ So, slight increase?
Tharp/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Any questions for the airport?
Bailey/ Well, I'm just really impressed that you've worked so hard to bring this event into Iowa
City, and I'm hoping that there are other opportunities like this, to do these kinds of
.things to feature our airport and feature our community because I think it lends itself
quite well to it, um, lots of good community partners.
Gardinier/ Yeah, I mean, it's a great facility that we have here. I know when I-
Hayek/ Can you get a little closer to the mike please? Sorry.
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Gardinier/ Oh. When I first pitched it to the, um, to the Air Race, it was just kind of verbally and
they didn't know Iowa City and then I had one of the racers and, uh, stop in on their way
to Oshkosh. I took them out to lunch at the Saloon up on the ped mall and we were sitting
outside on a nice summer day and her comment to me was, yeah---
Bailey/ Yeah, why not?
Gardinier/ ---this would be a great place to bring the race. So I think, I think it's really going to
be a good fit, and actually, um, the Girl Scout events that I've been to so far for this race
have only been maybe a couple of dozen Girl Scouts. Um, in my discussions with Deb
out at the Children's Museum and with the two leaders that I talked to this past
week, they're saying they're going to get 100 girls there. The goal is to get 99 girls there,
basically.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Gardinier/ And I think, I think they're going to make it happen. So, I mean the kids are getting
to camp out overnight at the museum, they'll do the activities at the flight exhibit, and
then they'll come out. I've already talked to the EAA; they're on board. So I think it'll be
a great youth event. And also, I think it's a lot of fun. Atlantic, Iowa hosted the terminus
two years ago in 2009, and, uh, that was kind of like a town party for them. Um, and a lot
of the public came out for things like the, you know, the hangar barbecue type stuff. So,
um, we're going to try to promote that and obviously get some of the public out there. So.
Bailey/ I think it'd be great to see other events like this out at the airport, um, bringing in some
people from across the country. I think it's just a great idea.
Hayek/ Do you know what these host communities get in terms of total numbers, uh, of people?
Gardinier/ Of people that come in?
Hayek/ Yeah, you know, soup to nuts: Girl Scouts, locals?
Gardinier/ Uh, it's a little hard to, every one is different. The first one I did, uh, the Bozeman
one, uh, not too many of the locals there, but in Mansfield, Massachusetts which is south
of, uh, Boston, um, they had every one of the racers go out to a home for dinner, um,
when we got in, and they actually had like a, a little ancillary air show, antique car show
out at the airport and so I would say there were probably several hundred that were
associated with that, that event. Um, and Atlantic was the same way. I mean that was a
really big deal for them and, so I would say it's you know, probably, it, it can be as many,
I would say, a few hundred, definitely, that are coming in specifically for the events and
it just kind of depends what you tie into it.
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Hayek/ Okay. Thank you. Any questions? Okay. Thank you for your presentation. Mary, you
want to join us? Yeah.
Landlocked Film Festival
Hayek/ Come back to Landlocked here.
Blackwood/ I'm sorry for, um, not being earlier.
Hayek/ Don't worry about it.
Blackwood/ I was at another meeting. I came here. And, and I don't have a slide presentation for
you this year because I've only got five minutes, so, I'll make it quick. Um, for those of
you who don't know, my name is Mary Blackwood. I'm the, um, president of
Landlocked Film Festival. And we're coming up on our, uh, our fifth year. We've had an
amazing four years up 'til now, um, but this year, this past year, August 2010, even we
who have been running Landlocked were stunned and really thrilled by how many film
professionals actually came from L.A. to come to Landlocked. Um, we figure we had
probably at least 20 people coming from L.A. or New York, uh, bringing family and
friends also. And we think there were about 80 film professionals, including the people
from the Midwest and Iowa also. Um, just to tell you some of the, some of the, who the
people are, and of course I love these people because they're the ones that make the
films, you know, they aren't names you'd know necessarily because they're not actors
and we're working on that too. But, um, Dave Crabtree is, uh, he's been the lead editor
for the TV show "Psych" since its inception, and he now directs episodes based on the
fact that he was able to make a small Indie film, he brought it to Landlocked; he's won
some awards and now the producers of that show let him direct. And, he is excited about
maybe coming back to give an editing workshop, uh, next year. Um, there's amulti-
ward winning Indie feature called Ashley's Ashes that we received, and it's full of well-
known faces, character actors you've seen over and over, including um, as usual, a
Baldwin brother. And it seems like every Indie movie has one of those in it, including a
few that we've had. But the star of that one, Googy Gress, another one you'd probably
know if I showed it to you, he came, his director Chris Hutson came at the last minute
one of the other actors who's really wonderful, Shahe Koulloukian, came from Chicago
because he was nearby, getting really excited about it. Um, David Story is a field
producer and has been for many years for non-fiction TV like "Ice Road Truckers" and
he made a great rugby film that was shot in Kansas City and Scotland. And a lot of the
actors from Kansas City and their families all came. Um, this year, In Vetro were able to
report to us this year that film-makers and their family members stayed in over 50 hotel
rooms, and those were just the people who signed up through the link on the Landlocked
website that went to the Sheraton and the In Vetro. There were a lot more people around.
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Um, we were talking to people who came for the whole festival from L.A., New York,
Kansas City, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Chicago, um, I think we had some
people from, from Texas also. And amazingly, two of our filmmakers came from
overseas: uh, one from South Korea and one from Australia. And they came just to come
to Landlocked, and to, to talk with our audiences about their films. Everybody had a great
time, um, we, we're, we keep making more friends in these places. And, um, again, this
is, this is a milestone for us. We feel great about having the fifth annual Landlocked. Um,
film festivals actually get started up all the time in the United States. They, they're started
up with great enthusiasm. There're a lot of them that don't necessarily make it through a
few years, so we feel lucky and we have to say that the financial support of Iowa City has
been absolutely incredible in helping to sustain us and to help us grow. And, so we're
asking again, for this year, for $3,000 in support from the City. Um, and, so I, because I
have some show and tell, you know about a month or two after the festival was over and
we'd all had a chance to breathe a bit, and, uh, basically my Moviemaker magazine
showed up in the mail, you know, and I, this is, this is one of the few magazines that is
really out there and it really caters to the film enthusiast, people who go to film festivals.
And I was just looking through it. In the "Festival Beat" section I found this: it says, "Of
Sea-side Cities and Landlocked Locales." And they're talking about our Landlocked!
They, they stole a picture of the Englert off our website; they did not call me; I didn't
know this was going to be in here. They, they contacted some of our film-makers and
talked to them. And so we're one of the festivals that got covered and, you know,
obviously they understand our name because they wrote, uh, "Landlocked Film Festival
located in downtown Iowa City proves that you don't need any pesky ocean views to put
on a great festival." So we feel really thrilled about this because this is national exposure
for us and we're really thrilled to bring the fifth annual Landlocked Film Festival to Iowa
City, and to all of Iowa, and the Midwest. So, thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks, Mary.
Blackwood/ Mm-hm.
Hayek/ Who has questions about this application? Do you know what your number was last
year? Total attendees?
Blackwood/ Again, you know we're-
Hayek/ I know it's probably hard to track---
Blackwood/ ---probably saying 4,500, as unique individuals, um, we, we don't, uh, we sell some
tickets, it's not even that though, some people go to more than one movie. We figure
about 9,000 movies are watched, so to speak. Like one person might see five, some
person might go to only one, so that's kind of what we're going with. We're trying as we
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go along to, you know, try and figure out better ways to get data. I guess it is, it is
anecdotal. Well, not totally anecdotal. When the Englert fills up with people we know
that they're there.
Hayek/ I think that's it. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.
Blackwood/ That's it? Well, thank you very much. And thank you for coming to the festival
because I've seen some of you guys there.
Wright/ Would you be willing for, would you be willing to, uh, submit that to a, to be put in a
Council packet?
Blackwood/ Um, this is my only---
Wright/ Just the, just the article itself?
Blackwood/ Yeah. It can-
Hayek/ Why don't you scan it and e-mail it to the Clerk?
Blackwood/ Yes. Yeah, that's what I'll do, yes. I'd love to---
Wright/ Yeah, I didn't mean for us to take it. (Inaudible)
Blackwood/ I'm not going to. (Laughter)
Hayek/ Thanks, Mary.
Parks & Recreation Commission
Hayek/ Okay, if the Parks and Rec Commission is ready, we're a couple minutes early but if
you're ready we can proceed.
Claussen/ I'd like to than the Council for inviting us here this evening. We're glad to be here.
Uh, I'd like to introduce our members. Uh, John Westefeld has been here before. He's a
former chair and current commission member. Uh, Lorin Ditzler is our current Vice
-Chair. And I am Clay Clausen and I am the current Commission chair. Also, in the
audience, I think you all know Mike Moran who is the Director of Parks and Recreation.
Uh, what is Parks and Recreation? Lorin is showing a chart. Most residents think of us as
the Robert Lee and Mercer Rec Center, uh, park areas and recreation and sports leagues
for youths and adults. We are those but we also have considerable additional duties and
responsibilities as displayed by the poster here. We do take care of the CBD, the Central
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Business District, maintain the area between Burlington and Iowa Streets and Clinton and
Gilbert Streets, also the cemetery, forestry, trees and landscaping on all city property
including public streets, as well as government buildings, so the Rec, the Parks and Rec
Department takes care of the Civic Center. So, we'll clean up when we're all done this
evening.
The Parks and Recreation Department has been very fortunate to have offered our
citizens the following new programs, uh, cooperative efforts, and continuing policies.
Number one, we've opened the Wetherby Park Splash Pad on the south-east side. And
that was a cooperative effort from CDBG funds, and neighborhood associations;
developing the Terry Trueblood Recreation Area with the cooperation of Johnson County
Board of Supervisors, state grants of $200,000 from REAP, and $1.6 million from
Vision Iowa, and the Council's support. We consider this an economic development
project for the Iowa City area and for our department, because it should generate revenue
over the long haul. Uh, maintaining the department's self-imposed constraint of bringing
in at least 40% of our budget in revenues and not asking for more than 60% in property
tax support. We're proud to continue that. We're developing many trail opportunities
around the city to enhance and expand the existing system, successfully operating and
enhancing two dog parks in the community through the assistance of DogPAC, Council,
and the Department; and working hand in hand with our affiliate groups through-out the
city to provide first class opportunities and services to our citizens.
Now, we greatly appreciate the support of the Council through your attendance at the
annual parks tour. And thanks to Susan for attending that this year as a representative of
Council. Uh, your commitment, continuing commitment to the Terry Trueblood
Recreation area, support of establishing a master plan to help guide the Department
through the next several years - we think that's very important, that we have a vision and
we can reach that vision. We'd like to share a live visual aid tonight for your education
and enjoyment. With her height, Lorin represents the acres of parkland maintained by
Parks and Recreation in 2001. So, Lorin is 881.8 acres. With his height, John represents
the acres that will be maintained in 2011, with an increase of 476.4 acres to a total of
1,358.2 acres. Now this workload, this increased workload has been absorbed by the
department with no additional, full-time staffing over that ten year period. So the, the
responsibilities have grown, but the staffing has stayed the same. And I think Mike and
the folks in the department have done a tremendous job there. Uh, we couldn't find any
24-inch heels for John, so we had to settle for the stepstool tonight. And I'd like the
Council to note that this was a gender and age neutral presentation this evening, so.
(Laughter) Knowing full well that the budget it tight, we will work with the Council in
exploring innovative alternatives to continue to provide quality services at the lowest,
regional cost. Possible options include: but are not limited to cost-sharing with other
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organizations and departments; researching contract services; decreasing select service
levels with minimal disruption. For example, uh, longer intervals between mowing, and
reduction in the, um, snow removal from trails or lessening what we do would be a cost
lessening, uh, potential cost savings. We continually seek assistance for staffing for the
care of existing facilities, for ongoing maintenance that takes place with other land areas,
for example the Iowa DOT areas, and additional mandatory parkland from new
development. There are some developments that have gotten to the point where they are
ready to have land, um, donated to the City for park development. And that will be
coming up soon. We are mindful of ever-changing budgets and are trying to walk that
fine line of challenging staff to stretch resources to do more with less without
compromising the quality of work and services delivered to the community. Uh, we
appreciate your time tonight. Do you have any questions for us?
Hayek/ The, uh, the uh, the increase in the last decade of parkland. Is that a 50% increase?
Claussen/ It's getting close. Yeah, it's, it's almost that much, yeah. I have a breakdown of what it
is. Yes, but that's been done without any increase in-
Hayek/ It's a 50% increase in, in parkland.
Claussen/ In acres -now, realize that not every single acre has to be maintained, but-
Hayek/ Right.
Claussen/ But, uh, it's out there, and then we're going to be, you know, the increase in activity,
uh, at Terry Trueblood, I know that Riverfront Crossings, I'm, uh, excited to come to that
presentation next week, uh, so there are some good things on, on the agenda in the future
too. It's a good place to be. Iowa City is a good place to live in.
Hayek/ Yes, it is.
Claussen/ Thank you. Any other questions for the Commission?
Hayek/ Any other questions? Thanks for your service. We really appreciate it.
Claussen/ Thank you.
Senior Center Commission
Hayek/ Mmm, I see Mr. Honahan is here from the Senior Center Commission.
Honohan/ Well, Ithought Iwould --- Oops, I broke the mike. Does that count against my time?
(Chuckles)
Hayek/ Seven seconds.
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Honohan/ My name is Jay Honohan. I'm a member of the Commission. I would first like to
thank the Council and the administration for the continued support of the Senior Center.
The participants, and I think the community at large, appreciate that very much. Uh, this
is a, one of the, this is the first year that I think I haven't come down here pleading for
extra staff. We would like an extra staff, but I know with the way the budget is that we're
not going to get it so I won't cry and whine and ask for another participant helper. I, I
would like to point out that we're, we're being somewhat successful lately in in getting
younger people into the Senior Center. We now have approximately 10% of the
participants at the Senior Center between the ages of 50 and 60, 26%, I think,
approximately 26% between the ages of 60 and 70. So we're real pleased that we've been
able to do that. A lot of that has been because of some of the, uh, facilities that we offer
and the exercise that we offer and the exercise equipment and things like that. A lot of it
is because of the, the dance programs that we have in the evening. The tango is still open,
Matt. Or if you like you could go Irish, Irish dancing too -- a little Bohemie like you, it
would be good for you. Um, we're very pleased in general with the cooperation and the
support, uh, if you look at the report to the committee there you'll see the City, uh,
contributed approximately 75% of our budget in 2010, and the County about, uh, a little
under 10%. And then the participants and some of the funds that we received from the,
our foundation, contributed about the balance, approximately 15%. I, I guess, uh, since
we're, we recognize that the budget is tight and that, and we're not asking for anything, I,
I guess what I'd like to do is if you have any questions, or anything you want to explore
with me, or Linda, because she's here to correct my mistakes, I'd like to do that. I know
you're busy and I don't want to take up a lot of your time unnecessarily.
Hayek/What questions do, uh, Councilors have?
Wright/ How many members of the center, er, uh, let me try it all over again. How many
members does the Center have this year?
Honohan/ Our best guess is about 1,300.
Wright/ Participants or members?
Honohan/ Uh, it's same thing. I call participants "members." People that pay uh, the, uh,
participant fee.
Wright/ Okay.
Kopping/ Uh, you don't have to be a member to participate in many activities---
Wright/ Right.
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Kopping/ ---so, the membership is not a complete picture of the community members who use
the Senior Center.
Bailey/ So how many members?
Kopping/ We have, Jay's right, we have about 1,300 members.
Bailey/ 1,300, then you have additional people who participate in the program .. .
Kopping/ That's correct.
Bailey/ Alright. Thank you.
Honohan/ They can participate, for instance, in the volunteer lawyers and things like that and not
be members. I know quite a few that I, that I counseled in that are not members, as such.
Bailey/ What are the hours right now of the Senior Center? Or does it just go with the
programming?
Kopping/ It's, it pretty much fluctuates with programming, but we've really expanded our nights
and weekend programming. We have dances or something going on there every weekend.
Um, and I'd say every night of the week we've got classes and stuff like that going on,
like tango practices, and we have a salsa practice, we have a band that meets there,
travelogues, uh, right now we're open to the community theater for, uh, um, they're
practicing for a play. Um, we try to make the building as best we can.
Bailey/ So, how, how, what would you call your hours that are generally available to the public,
the broader public?
Kopping/ We are open to our members from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM from Monday through Friday.
And then, um, when a community member calls and asks for, uh, the use, to use the
Center after hours we' 11 make a, make an agreement with them, make sure that because
we don't have any staff there, um, they, they have received the proper safety instruction
in use of the building and then because everything's programmed we'll open it up for
them.
Bailey/ And you, you still charge for your meeting room space, right? In those instances?
Kopping/ Um, yes, we do charge, yes.
Hayek/ Do I understand that your endowment kicks off about $19,000 or $20,000 a year in
income toward your operating and budget?
Kopping/ At least $20,000.
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Hayek/ At least. Okay.
Honohan/ That doesn't include, uh, funds that we have brought from the endowment in
approximately $120,000 - $125,000 over the past five years in which we have purchased,
uh, state of the art exercise equipment, uh, the, all the furniture in the assembly room has
been purchased with funds. That cost us about $60,000 that came from the foundation.
Hayek/ That's on top of the annual kitt---
Honohan/ That's correct. Yep.
Hayek/ ---funds into the kitty, basically.
Bailey/ And, and what does a membership cost? I know that you have some discounts.
Kopping/ It, it depends upon where you live because of our, the---
Bailey/ Iowa City residents.
Kopping/ Iowa City residents pay $25 per year. Low-income scholarships brings that down to
$10. Um, our policy is not to turn anyone away though, so, um, at times we'll go ahead
and provide memberships at no cost, just so people can access the facilities and the
classes.
Bailey/ And then county residents pay?
Kopping/ County residents pay $40 a year. There's also, they are also eligible for, um, the low
income discounts. Um, and then out of county residents pay $60 a year, um, we do
have, um, out of county members. And they would also be eligible for low-income
discount.
Dickens/ And then second person in the same household is---
Kopping/ That's a---
Dickens/ ---$15 isn't it?
Kopping/ Yeah, I think it's a 60% discount from the, um,---
Honohan/ No, it's $15.
Kopping/ Right, but it's .. .
Honohan/ Well, okay .. .
Kopping/ A 60% discount off the $25.
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Dickens/ I will say that the exercise equipment's incredible. I have been down to use it and my
wife goes on a regular basis. It's a very nice facility and it's, I know you have people
down there to help. So, it's a good, good project.
Kopping/ Thanks you. We're really happy to have it.
Wright/ One last question for you. How's the breakdown of your members between folks in Iowa
City and living in the county? You don't have to have the exact number... just, just .. .
good guesses.
Honohan/ Uh ... 10% .. .
Wright/ Is it in your manual?
Bailey/ Yeah, it's on page five.
Kopping/ Uh, Iowa City residents are about 83%.
Wright/ Okay (inaudible).
Kopping/ Um, we don't have a really refined method for tracking. We're looking at new
software right now. So, I can tell you that, um, outside of Johnson County, is 2%, and
Johnson County excluding Iowa City is 15%.
Wright/ Thank you.
Mims/ Has there been any discussion or thought on requiring membership for more participation
in activities at the center? I mean there's a lot of things that people can come in and
participate in and yet not pay a membership fee. And as we look at, you know, the issue
of budgets and, and raising funds, I mean, do you have any idea, you know, looking at the
total number of visits, and I realize, you know, you're double-counting people as they
come in for multiple kinds of activities, is, is there any, any idea of their percentage of
actual individuals who use the facility that are actually paying the membership fee versus
those who aren't?
Kopping/ No, I have no, no, I don't know that. I just had the duplicated counts and then the
individual memberships---
Mims/ Memberships.
Kopping/ And there of course would be other options for increasing fees. Um, we charge for
classes, uh, some classes, and there has been some thought to charging a, um, uh, fitness
room access fee.
Mims/ Mm-hm. Okay.
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Kopping/ But, we haven't really pursued that.
Mims/ Okay. Thank you.
Kopping/ Sorry. It's, it's a pretty reasonable deal, $25 a year for complete access to that is a, is a
bargain.
Dickens/ Be worth it.
Mims/ Reasonable, yes, very.
Hayek/ As you can tell, I think that's the trend we're going toward with municipal finances the
way they are. Any other questions? Linda and Jay, thank you very much.
Honohan/ Thank you.
Kopping/ Thank you.
Hayek/ Appreciate your time here tonight.
Library Board
Hayek/ A little ahead of schedule but if the Library Board's ready ...(Inaudible) Tom, you're
up.
Martin/ I didn't even have time to get nervous. Thank you for waiting, I guess. If I'm late, I'm
sorry.
Hayek/ No, no, you're eight minutes early.
Martin/ Okay.
Hayek/ Timing is perfect.
Martin/ Fast. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Tom Martin, president of the Iowa City
Public Library Board. I want to thank you, the Council, and the City officials, on behalf
of not only the Board of Directors, the managers, the director, the staff, but most
importantly, I want to thank you for the, from the patrons and the entire community for
supplying the resources that allow us to provide our community with an outstanding
library. We are able to provide not necessarily the best library in the state - I'm not
presumptuous enough to say it's the best-but I would say we're second to none.
(Laughter) But I will say, and brag, you know that great St. Louis baseball pitcher and
old philosopher said, "If you done it, it ain't braggin'." Well, it ain't braggin' when we
say we are still the busiest public library in the state of Iowa. And we done it, so we ain't
braggin'. The library had, from July, this is the last six months of July, uh, December,
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July through December of 2010, right at 750,000 people --- is that correct?--- go through
the door. That's about a million and a half for the year, so that'd be 750,000, go through
the door. That's a lot of people. To put that in perspective, that's ten sold-out football
games at Kinnick Stadium in six months, go through the door. I haven't got that
calculated down to the day, but it's a lot of people every day. And I'll come back to that
in just a moment or two.
In FY12, what we refer to as the new building will be, believe it or not, seven years old.
This was the first year of our three year strategic plan that calls for us to start addressing
several issues. I'd like to mention those issues tonight, uh, just, for a couple of reasons,
but the one issue, first issue is, with the changing environment and patrons needs, we are
in the process of hiring a facilities consultant for an overall review of what we might
have to do to continue providing excellent service in this changing environment. And we
could talk for another, for the next hour about that changing environment. All you folks
have read enough about libraries in the last couple years to know of the changing
environment libraries, and I'll mention two words and that's all I'm going to say and
you'll know what I'm taking about: libraries digital. Libraries digital. That's the huge
changing environment we're in right now. We have hired, or we're going to hire a, uh,
consultant to look at our facilities, after seven years they're not brand new anymore,
they're seven years old, to look at our facilities to see what we need to maybe do to bring
those facilities up to speed in this changing environment.
Another issue I'd like to mention is safety and security. And I don't have to say too much
about safety and security in a public venue. We're all aware of what the safety and
security issue is in public -anywhere as far as that's concerned - in public venues. It's an
increasing concern with us at the library. With that in mind, we would ask that you
reconsider our request of $20,000 for expanded security cameras. Again, today's modern
venue and conditions that's not a lot of money for safety and security.
Another thing I'd like to mention, and I've alluded, I'm going to allude back to, the
traffic that goes through that place in a year, in a day. We all know, if we, if we're
owners of facilities of any kind that have carpets on the floor and chairs to sit in and
tables to sit at, what happens when they get used as much as that facility gets used., they
wear out. So we are having to seriously look at our carpet and furniture, uh, situation, and
maybe some other things, but just, just to name a couple that jump out at us. We're going
to have to start addressing those issues. We can't let them just go on forever and then
have a huge problem. We need to, as anybody does, address those issues as they come up
year by year. So we're requesting that you, er, review again and give, give some thought
to our request fora $46,680 increase in our replacement fund. We're going to need those
funds sooner or later. And with 750,000 people every six months, it's going to be sooner
rather than later probably.
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And of course our last, my last thought tonight as we request, uh, it's almost an annual
request, I guess, for aquarter-time maintenance worker. And we'd like to have you
reconsider the $10,000 request for that, uh, I, I think that's all I've got for comments. Uh,
if you have any questions, we'd be happy to try to address them. We've got, um, quite a
few of my associates here, I'm sure somewhere in the crowd we can come up with some
answers, if you've got any questions for us tonight.
Bailey/ Just a comment. Um, I hear from a lot of libraries across the state, um, Vision Iowa funds
a lot of libraries across the state and I, I am always so proud to be from Iowa City
because our numbers are just incredible compared to the other libraries, and we really
show people the way, um, to go digital. I know that you're, you're pushing it, but to, to
really serve the citizens and, and I'm really very proud of our library.
Martin/ I, I thank you for that and I'll follow that up with a comment. I'm on that, as you may or
may not know, on the Iowa Library Commission. This library in Iowa City is extremely
well respected among the library community in the state of Iowa and the Midwest, and
our director is very well respected by that same group. And as Lisa can talk about things
and mention numbers, some of the numbers that I talk about, such as the one I just
mentioned, and I'm not going to get into the volunteer hours, which is unbelievable, that
go into this library from the community. But, uh, my associates around the state just, like
you, they can't believe the numbers, they can't believe it could possibly, how could you
have seven -ten Kinnick Stadium sell-outs go through that place in six months. So we
really do have, uh, when I first went on the Board one of your associates said, "Tom,
that's the crown jewel there, and you better take care of it." So, we're trying to take care
of it. Thank you very much again, not only from our, uh, staff that's here, and director
and board, but really from the patrons and the community for all the resources you
provide to the library to keep it what it is. Thank you very much. I'm sorry I'm late.
Craig/ I'm going to say one thing, Tom. You did exaggerate just a little. That 750,000 is more
like a year's worth, you were, 750,000 circulations in six months, between 750,000 and
800,000 people a year.
Martin/ I'm sorry---
Craig/ It's still more than anybody else.
Martin/--I get ...oh, we're first in that area. Second to none. (Laughter) I always get those
numbers mixed up. It's 1,500,000 in items go in and out the door, and 750,000 people.
I'm sorry for the mistake, but, okay. Thank you very much.
Hayek/ No problem. Congratulations on your, on your retirement, Tom.
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Martin/ Hey, it's everything it's cracked up to be too, Matt, I want you to know. (Laughter)
Summer Of The Arts
Hayek/ Alright, uh, we're a little ahead of schedule, but if SOTA wants to come up. Don? Don
and the gang?
Thompson/ Did the library use all their time? Because I'd like to say something about the library.
Martin/ Do we get more time? I didn't realize ... (Laughter)
Hayek/ Get out of here .. .
Thompson/ You know, and I have to confess, I served on the Friends Foundation Board, and I'm
an avid library user, but, I wandered in the other night with my iPad and I couldn't figure
out how to download a book on my iPad. And I walked up to the fiction desk and I said,
"How do I do this?: And she said, "Just a minute." And she got on the telephone and she
said, "I found somebody who can help you," directed me upstairs, where, a, a fellow
spent ahalf--hour with me, walking me through, step-by-step how to download books on
my iPad. Now I can do it. Now I can teach anyone to do it. I mean, there are a lot of
treasures in that building, but I, I think the staff that Susan has hired and maintained is
just phenomenal„ and it's just, it's just a great place. Um, so I'll talk about SOTA.
(Inaudible) (Laughter)
Barnes/ We love having you guys open late on Fridays.
Thompson/ We do. My name is Don Thompson, for those of you that don't know me. I'm an
attorney with Bradley and Riley PC. I've been a board member with Summer of the Arts
since its inception. Um, the other thing I want to really start with is the idea of investment
because I know many of you make investments every year and I just made, a few minutes
ago, what I know will be my best investment of 2011. I know that I'll have the greatest
return on that investment because I handed her a check to contribute to Summer of the
Arts 2011. And I mean that honestly. There's no dollar that I will spend this year that I
will get more back from than the dollars I gave today to summer of the Arts.
This city has been a phenomenal investor and supporter in Summer of the Arts. We
couldn't exist but for your support. We wouldn't exist but for your encouragement to
come into being and the incredible amount of support we get, not only financially, but
from your staff in making it possible for us to do the impossible every summer -and that
is to transform downtown Iowa City into an incredible festival site. Uh, we're very, very
pleased and thankful for that support, and again, we couldn't continue without you.
Last year when I appeared before you, I talked about three different things: SOTA's role
in economic development in this area, uh, that was the first thing; and then I talked about
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the direct economic impact we have on this community; and then the final thing was the
social impact that we had. And I felt really fortunate because as I talked about those
things I saw members of the Council shaking their head in affirmation, and I think that
people understand very well that SOTA contributes a great deal in those areas. But this
year I want to report or talk to you a little bit differently. I want to talk about some
different things. I want to talk about first, in terms of a report of where we are as an
organization. Second, I want to talk to you about the challenges that we face as an
organization. But third and most importantly I want to talk to you about what our vision
is for the future and how the City's investment in SOTA will help us, uh, achieve that
vision.
Where are we today? Five years - am I right? Five years into our existence? And
you,most of you know our history. We were, uh, a group of different festivals, different
organizations struggling mightily to survive in a very tough environment. Um, we have
established a very strong board of directors, uh, in those five years. Uh, especially this
past year, I am really pleased because this is my last year on the board; many of us who
were in that initial board of directors -we're all leaving, we're all passing on; we have
term limits. And, and I think that's a healthy thing---
Barnes/ But they're going to stay on the committees.
Thompson/ Yeah, we're going to stay on the committees. We're not disappearing completely.
But we really made an effort to go out into the community, as we do each year, uh, to
attract new board members, but this year we made an extra effort and attracted many,
many strong new board members. So we're very pleased where we are there. You've,
most of you know our, our talented and dedicated staff, we've never had the luxury we
have today, and that is the board knowing that we have a staff that can do the job and do
it with, uh, almost no guidance and prodding, although they do keep us in the loop
certainly with what they're doing. We have a great staff. Our volunteer, uh, pool in this
community has grown, and you've been to the festivals, you've seen the things that we
do, you know that you can't do that with a staff of two and apart-time person and a
board of 20-30 people. It's just not possible. We have great, great volunteers. We've also,
I think, established -and it hasn't been easy-but we've established a very strong culture
of fiscal responsibility. We are as, I think, disciplined as any for-profit business in
looking at our budget each year, developing it, sticking to it, and making sure that we
don't over-spend our income. And I'm very proud that we've made that transition. It's
taken us time to get to that point but I think we have a very strong fiscal discipline. We
also have a proven track record of successful events. Uh, you look at last year, the year
before, the year before, over the past five years we've done a, I think, a terrific job of
putting on great festivals, great entertainment opportunities in downtown Iowa City. Not
just one, two three times a summer, but week after week after week. And we also had, or
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experienced significant growth during this five year period in programming and, and
events. Uh, I'm 4sure last year you noticed e had music downtown on Saturday night. We
added Sand in the City. We've added events and will continue to do so as long as we're
financially able. So I think we're in really good shape right now, in terms of where we've
been and where we've arrived at.
Second, though, I want to talk to you about challenges, because there are challenges. I've
been involved in, uh, raising money for SOTA since it began, and before that raising
money for the Jazz Festival. And, I guess I'm a little bit slow because it finally just hit
me over the past couple of years, you know, this community has a very limited number of
for-profit businesses with local control or local ownership who can reach into their
pocket and write a check for anything over $10,000. And the ones who can write a check
for $10,000 are a limited number. We have called on all of them. We have received
support from almost all of them, Each year we see one or two investors drop out, two or
three investors come on. But that's just a reality. In other words, there was a time when I
thought, gosh, are we doing our job? Are we raising enough money? I think we are. I
think we're doing a really good job of raising money in the community, but because of
the makeup of this community it's not an easy task and you just sort of hit a ceiling at
times in terms of what you can raise in the, in the community. Now, that doesn't mean
that we won't continue to be successful in doing that. I think every year we're surprised
at our success and we have our eyes on a couple of businesses who have not contributed
in a significant way in the past, who we believe can and will in the, in the coming year.
But, uh, that is a challenge and it's something that, you know, we really have to talk
about. The reason for that is because without the City of Iowa City's significant
investment in this organization we wouldn't continue. We wouldn't exist. Um, so we not
only appreciate it. We want you to know that we are dedicated to doing what we can to
continue to justify and earn your investment. Third, is the vision and the City's role in
that vision. We've asked this year for the City to increase its contribution or investment
in Summer of the Arts. Um, let me get it right, from $60,000 to $75,000. And, and why
are we doing that? You know, again, it's because of that reality that I've spoken to you
about, in terms of our business community. Um, we won't give up -and we never will
give up, and I'm not suggesting to you that, that our private support is shrinking. It's not
shrinking. But it does reach a point where we know for the hours and effort we put in, our
return gets less and less, in terms of, uh, doing that. What do we think we can do to
justify your continued investment and your increased investment? Well, downtown Iowa
City, as you know, is in a state of transition. Um, everybody's scratching their head -
what's it going to be? What are we going to be in five years? In ten years? I don't have
the answer for that. I don't know. I do know that it's changing, and I do know that it will
continue to change. And I think that makes Summer of the Arts more important than
ever. Uh, we provide free programming and entertainment in downtown Iowa City,
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primarily in the summer, spring, summer, and early fall months. Um, we provide an
alternative to, and I don't want to step on anybody's toes, and I'm not talking about your
toes but other toes, we provide a real alternative to the bar-culture in downtown Iowa
City, which I have to tell you, I don't find very attractive. And I'm really happy that we
provide that kind of alternative to, to that culture. And we're going to do everything we
can to provide a return for the City for its investment in our programming in helping the
culture of downtown Iowa City to change from something that hasn't always been the
most attractive to something, anytime you walk downtown on a Friday night concert, or
Saturday night music, the Jazz Fest or the Arts Fest, that's something we can really be
proud of, in terms of what we're creating.
We hope to play a significant role, uh, with the help of members of the Council and the
staff, in working with the City and the University in making that transition happen -and
making it happen in a very positive way. That's what I have to say, and again, thank you
for your continued investment. Um, and, and for the support that you give vocally, and
the support that you're staff gives us. And I \'d be glad to answer any questions. Uh, Lisa
Barnes, our Executive Director is here, and has a little b it different perspective on things
that I think I'd like you to hear. But I'd be glad to answer any questions you may have.
Barnes/ Do you want me .. .
Hayek/ Why don't we, can we hear from Lisa, and then .. .
Barnes/ Um, a couple of things that I just wanted to add is, a Don mentioned, Summer of the
Arts has now been around for five years, and things have definitely changed since
Summer of the Arts was formed in 2006. I discovered this very quickly, a year ago when
I came back and realized how much was going on per staff person at that time. We went
from one full-time Executive Director to now we actually have two and a half people on
staff. Um, myself, Shane Schemmel who is our Assistant Executive Director and in
December we hired ahalf--time person to work on volunteer and sponsor relations. So,
our staff has expanded. That's not all that's expanded. In 2006, our first year, we had
four primary festivals that occurred during the summer of 2006. With those festivals we
offered over 125 hours of free, family-friendly entertainment. In 2010, we had expanded
to six large festivals that occurred over the summer, bringing our total hours up to 160
hours of free programming throughout the summer. But that's not all. As Don mentioned,
we started in 2008 expanding our programming to year-round programming. Last year
we brought The Big Read to Johnson County, and that program occurred from the end of
January into April, where we were able to collaborate with the Iowa City Public Library,
Coralville Library, libraries in Johnson County, Kirkwood Community College, City
High and West High. There were so many groups involved with that. We distributed over
2,000 copies of Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 to encourage leisure reading. So, we're
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expanding our programming. We also collaborate with other groups. We work with the
Downtown Association on Celebrate the Season. We're actually currently working with,
um, Coralville, on their Winter Fest, we've been involved with that for a couple years
doing a little bit of outreach there. Uh, we also helped bring Wayland Jennings to the
Englert Theater in October. So, we're broadening our presence within the community
throughout the year with the additional programming. And, also, in the five short years,
we have expanded the number of volunteers who get involved with our festivals. That
first year, it was about 300. This past year, it was over 400 volunteers contributing over
2,000 hours of service to Summer of the Arts. So we feel that that's very important
because part of our mission is to build community by bringing people together, and that's
one of the ways they do that, is by volunteering for Summer of the Arts. The support that
we receive from the City is essential to our growth, as Don mentioned, and we really do
appreciate everyone we work with. Marian, so much fun doing fireworks, you know,
especially the day after, but--- (Chuckles)
Barnes/ ---everybody is fantastic. We get so much support from all the different departments and
it's really a pleasure for our staff to work with the City staff in planning all of these
festivals. So, I just want to thank you for your continued support. And, I love my job. I
told Don that's why I came back. This is the best job I've ever had, and I love Iowa City,
and it's so much fun every year to be planning these events, seeing what new and
exciting things, and how we can expand arts and culture in the Iowa city area.
Hayek/ In terms of your outdoor, downtown programming, what are the calendar bookend dates?
When does it start and when do you conclude?
Barnes/ For 2011, we'll be starting on May 20t". We always start the third week of May, with the
City High/West High Jazz Ensembles as part of the Friday Night Concert Series, and we
have to avoid graduation, so that's why that is usually that weekend. We will be finishing
up this year, Labor Day weekend will be the last Friday Night Concert Series. So, we'll
still have 13 weeks. In the past, we've had 14, but from a staff point of view, it's going to
be much easier for us in planning our end of year recognitions, budgets for the next year,
all that has to occur in September.
Bailey/ When do you announce your line-ups?
Thompson/ Soon.
Barnes/ Usually, it's the end of March. I actually received an e-mail from Joyce Carroll saying,
"I need the info for the Summer Rec book," and I said, `I don't have it yet." So, I think
probably in February we'll have most of the information. And if I can do the
announcement sooner, I will.
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Bailey/ It would be fun to know.
Barnes/ Don may have some insights but he can't say .. .
Thompson/ Well, I can't say... (Laughter)
Barnes/ He knows more than I do.
Dickens/ Major sponsors for the Jazz Fest? Do you have .. .
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Thompson/ Well, I mean, that is obviously one of our challenges. We're very fortunate to have
Cedar Rapids Toyota as---
Barnes/ Iowa City.
Thompson/ Iowa City! Why did I say Cedar Rapids? Losing my mind. Well, you know I live in
both communities professionally, and sometimes I get confused. No, we were very
fortunate to have Iowa City Toyota, uh, Toyota of Iowa City as a sponsor, and they're
going to remain a supporter, but not at that level.
Barnes/ They are going to be the main stage sponsor at the Jazz Fest, so they're still having a
very significant presence.
Thompson/ And I think that really illustrates the challenge that I was talking about. Arts Fest to
me, is, is almost the easiest sale for sponsorship because it has such a broad appeal. In
the, in the five years we've been in existence we've never been able to attract at the
$25,000 to $30,000 level, and believe me we've tried. We've worked really hard at it.
Mims/ When I look at, let me talk in the mike here, when I look at your numbers, um, for last
year and this year just to make it, you know, as we look at it and, and for the community
looking at this, it appears that last year, uh, you came out with approximately $80,000
surplus.
Thompson/ We did.
Mims/ Okay. And your budget for this year is estimating about $15,000 surplus. I just want to
make sure I'm reading the numbers right and that's ...report ...okay .. .
Thompson/ You're correct. And, if I may follow-up on that a little bit---
Mims/ Mm-hm.
Thompson/ --that $80,000 surplus wasn't created without a great deal of pain.
Mims/ I'm sure.
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Thompson/ Um, I can tell you that in the years preceding that we had deficits. And I became
president of the board and I had two major goals, three major goals. One was to make
sure that we put on the stages, put in downtown Iowa City, maintained a certain level of
quality. That was number one. Number two was to recruit strong, new board members.
But number three was to guarantee that no matter what that we would operate at a
surplus.
Mims/ Okay.
Thompson/ And that meant we had to say no constantly to this woman who was working as hard
as she could. It meant we cut back on things. It meant we got very creative with, for
example, we're paying no rent, which is wonderful thing. I think I may have mentioned
that last year. We can't do that again because we, we disappointed a lot of people to
accomplish that. Um, if you're a, if you're a serious music fan, you may have noticed that
what you saw on the stage wasn't quite the same as you had seen in other years. But
instead of taking that surplus and saying we're going to immediately spend it, we're not
going to do that. We have a, a fiscal plan of raising our budget, our expenditures on a
gradual level to get back to where we want to be---
Barnes/ The entertainment portion.
Thompson/ The entertainment portion---
Mims/ Okay.
Thompson/ ---because we just simply can't afford to be in that position. And, and we see that in
the context of what we think is a desire by the community for us to grow, and to increase
what we're doing. And, and I'm really serious about the partnership with the City and the
University -- which will cost money, I mean, there's just no way around it. And we don't
yet know how or if the University can provide the kind of investment to make that
happen.
Barnes/ And the way that we generated that surplus was, as Don mentioned, you know, we were
very, very tight, uh, one of the first things I did was I was able to talk to Marc Moen and
get our office space donated. That saved us $7,000 right there in rent. Uh, we looked at
other ways to bring in income; we looked at ways that we could get more in-kind; we had
some golf carts donated this year, so, you know, any little thing that we could do that was
going to save us money, as well as other creative ways that we could bring in money
from selling Pepsi products, selling ice cream products, you know, we did a lot of
different things at the festivals to try to increase our receipts at the festivals.
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Mims/ You know, I appreciate it: I just think that as people looked at this and, and see that
you're here asking for more money, to really have an understanding of the history and the
fact that you were running some deficits and, and the effort that you're making to be as
efficient and frugal, yet quality, yet maintain the quality, I think it's important for people
to understand that as they're looking at what the City is investing here. Thank you.
Hayek/ Thanks to both of you.
Thompson/ Thank you very much.
Dickens/ Thank you, Don.
Hayek/ Congratulations on, on coming to an end on your Commission service. You've played a
huge role in the success of this organization.
Thompson/ Thank you. No, I, I really envy Tom.
Hayek/ Okay, do you guys want to take a quick one? Okay, we're going to take a quick two or
three minute break here.
(Break)
Backyard Abundance
Hayek/ Okay, Backyard Abundance, correct?
Meyer/ Okay, my name is Fred Meyer, Environmental Director of Backyard Abundance,
Environmental Education, anon-profit based here in Iowa City. Thank you so much for
supporting local events and local organizations. In the next few minutes I want to tell you
about Backyard Abundance and why it is we do what we do, and what exactly it is that
we've been doing in the past, and what we're going to be doing this year.
So, our mission is to improve the vibrancy of our community by creating
environmentally friendly landscapes that feed us and create habitat. So why do we do
this? Well, there's a lot of reasons, I'll go over a few of those, but one of the main
reasons a lot of our food is imported into Iowa, and of that it travels a long ways away,
and this wouldn't be such a big deal except we know that that is, that, uh, fossil fuels, oil
specifically is what brings that food to us. And that wouldn't be such a big deal except
statistics are showing, research is showing that last year was when we had actually
extracted half of all of our oil from the ground, and that means that oil prices are going to
start going up. Our entire food system is based upon having cheap oil. That means our
food supplies are going to start going up as well. And so that's a great concern to our
organization. So, that's one of the reasons we are, we exist. Another reason is just waste.
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We generate a ton of waste and we want to find ways to reuse that waste, reroute that
pollution in our community. And, of course, there's climate change as well. We're all
concerned about that, and our community is very concerned. When McKibben came here
in mid-October the line to see him stretched way pas the Jefferson building. But
McKibben isn't the only messenger that we have. Over the past few decades we've had a
lot of messengers. They all have basically had different messages, but if you listen very
closely to what they're saying there's a pattern that emerges. They're all saying we have
a set of priorities that we really need to focus on. And, uh, the top three priorities are
really food. We really need to focus on food, from what I was talking about before,
specifically local food. We need to learn how to grow a lot of our food locally, rather
than bringing it in from the outside. And obviously, energy is a concern. Our entire
infrastructure is built upon cheap fossil fuel energy. And communication is going to be
paramount as well. We need to be able to quickly learn from each other in the community
and outside the community. So that's what all these messages are saying, kind of the
same thing. So, a lot of folks, when they are presenting with these upcoming problems
that are on the horizon, they do a few things. They' 11 screw in the compact florescent
light-bulb, maybe use water a little bit less, maybe make fewer trips in the car. But after
that, people are left kind of scratching their heads, not really knowing what the next steps
are. That's where Backyard Abundance tries to help. We try to show them things that
they can do right in their own backyard, by showing them that their environment is their
backyard, and if we look a t the principles and patterns that are rooted in nature, those
principles and patterns that have been tested for billions of years, and apply them to the
ecosystem that is our economy, that is our community, we'll find new ways, new creative
ways to solve some of those problems.
But, we all know we have to change. Things have to change, and humans tend to follow,
we don't change readily, we actually have a process that we go through when we change,
and Backyard Abundance is emulating that process in our long-term strategy. So, the first
phase of our strategy is awareness. This is the first phase that we go through when we
want to change, is awareness that there is a problem and trying, then we, trying to figure
out how to solve that problem. The next phase, once we understand that there's a problem
we want to educate ourself to understand what that problem exactly is, and what we can
do about it. Once we understand that, our next phase in order to change is taking action,
doing something, and that's a big part of our strategy as well. And once we've taken that
action, made changes in our life, then we step back, evaluate, and see if additional
changes are needed, and the cycle stats over again. So this represents how people tend to
change, but it also represents our long-term strategy.
So I'm going to go through what we did in the past to raise awareness. We have found
folks in the community who have consciously designed their landscapes to benefit our
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environment, and then we open it up for yard tours. And this raises awareness with those
folks, or raises awareness in the community that it is possible to help our environment
right in your own backyard, wandering through neighbors' yards, seeing what they have
done, and inviting experts in to show what those environmentally, what those
environmentally friendly features are and what people can do in their own yards. So
that's the awareness phase. But, after a few years of doing yard tours, people started
asking the question, well that's great, now I'm aware, what's the next step, what do I
actually have to do? That's when we started entering our education phase, which took
place two or three years ago. So we do things like have film screenings, we have
workshops, and we, uh, we also, last year we, uh, launched a series of events that's called
"Seeds of Sustainability" at the Pomerantz Center. Over 200 people attended. We invited
an author, Dave Jacque, in; he's an ecological guru who's designed entire communities,
to help educate folks. And they went through a series of, of workshops. And then we
carried through those workshops with weekend workshops throughout the year, and we
called that Create an Abundant Landscape, and people just learned how to actually design
these landscapes, these beautiful landscapes that actually provide food and create habitat.
One of the, uh, one of the landscapes we designed was the New Pi administration
building. So one of the classes, a couple of classes, designed the landscape, and we not
only designed it, but we also learned how to plant it, uh, plant it with these plants. So,
here you can see at the New Pioneer administration building, which is just down the
street, they're planting an ecosystem that, that mimics, mimics a woodland. So, this type
of, um, landscape provides food, but in very low-maintenance ways; it's got very few
energy inputs, will require very little water, and this is the type of systems that we need to
start creating, and, inside and outside of our community. The rec Center asked us to come
up with a plan for their area to engage kids, help them learn how to connect to nature
specifically around food. The original idea was just kind of till up the area and plan an
annual garden bed, and we said, we can probably do better than that. So we came up with
a design for them as well, and then we helped oversee the implementation of that design,
worked with Jeff, Joyce Carol to find volunteers to do that. And, now, it's about half-way
planted. We'll finish the planting through workshops in the spring, but you can see we
took it from something that wasn't very functional --it didn't do a whole lot--- into
something that is very engaging for kids, helps connect them to nature, and hopefully, as
adults visit that space too it will help them engage in the space too. That is, uh, one
engaged kid.
(Laughter)
This isn't a new idea. Des Moines has launched a project called "Digging Deeper," and
they, uh, are implementing edible landscapes in public spaces for the exact same reasons
that I'm talking about. But it goes deeper than just trying to solve our environmental and
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social problems that are on the horizon. A lot of people see landscapes as a way to
express their personal values. We, uh, had a, met a, a couple that was thinking about
leaving Iowa City. They had this large acreage on the outside of town and they were
thinking about leaving Iowa City, but, uh, because they didn't really like where they
lived. They didn't really like their land; they had to mow it all the time, and so they asked
us to work with them to create a landscape on their two acre property and, uh, so we
came up with a landscape that would both feed themselves and their neighbors and also
create habitat for wildlife. And now they're in, they've decided to stay and they're in the
process of implementing that landscape.
So, we're all about local food, obviously, creating local food, but, uh, we're all about
local materials as well and sourcing that pollution that I was telling you about, sourcing
that waste and rerouting that to something that is useful. One of our, our members learned
this fall that the City got all these leaves, had all these leaves, well she asked them to
dump them on her property rather than taking them to the outskirts of town. So, that
saved the City money because it doesn't have to pay for fuel, it saves carbon from being
expended into the atmosphere. And she also let New Pioneer know about it as well and
they ended up rerouting six or seven truckloads out to Earthsource gardens, uh,
community gardens out there. And so, we're trying to do more things like that, to route
waste from going outside the community and use it as a resource within our community.
And really we're about local everything. We want to create a very resilient community
and the way we create resiliency, the best way to create resiliency in an eco-system is to
link it to its self, to link it to its self, and that's what we want to do with our local
economy and our local eco-system that is our community as well. We're teaching
community members how to think like that. So it gives us new ideas, or it gives them
new ideas for ways they can help our community. Last year we held over 50 events,
hosted over 50 events, and reached over 1,400 people through those events. This year,
2011, our strategy is action. Really focusing on transformational landscapes. One of the
landscapes we're thinking about working on is the Normandy drive area. We've been
working with mike Moran, Parks and Rec Director to, uh, look at public landscapes that
might be good candidates for transformations, and this one's rising to the top, so we're
going to start working with the, uh, neighbors there to see what they would like to have
implemented there. So we're going to have more hands-on workshops; we're working
with the, uh, the Farm to School program to implement edible schoolyards. We'll have
more presentations, of course, more yard tours, more connections between people, people
meeting other people and learning from, from them, and really we're just trying to create
solutions in our community that people actually come up with themselves. So rather than
looking to you or the government for those solutions, they'll look to themselves, their
community, for those solutions. And really it's about creating landscapes that enrich our
lives, not just turf-grass. With that, do you have any questions?
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Hayek/Any questions for Fred? Fantastic presentation. I do appreciate it.
Meyer/ Thank you.
Hayek/ I learned a lot. Thank you very much.
Iowa City Book Festival
Hayek/ Okay, the Iowa City Book Festival is next on the 1 ist.
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Greg/ You know, we debated putting a Power Point together. Decided not to, but I can see the,
the value of it now.
Bontrager/ Yeah (Laughter)
Greg/ I did write out my remarks, so that's something at least. Um, well my name is Greg
Prickman and I'm here with Kristi Bontrager, and we're the co-directors of the Iowa City
book Festival. Uh, we also both work in the University of Iowa Libraries. Um, the Iowa
City book Festival began in July 2009, uh, when the University of Iowa Libraries decided
to inaugurate a new event for the city and the state. Uh, at the time, that was in, uh, the
idea was to recognize, um, the acquisition of our five-millionth volume in the University
libraries, which is a notable achievement. Um, and at the time we also wanted to do
something, some kind of public community event to thank the community for all of the
assistance that we received during the flood, um, which was very important to us that
there was such a large volunteer effort to help us out, uh, in, in that situation. So, our first
festival, uh, it was held at the UI Libraries, and it was modest in size, uh, but it did
generate a great deal of interest. Last year, uh, was the second Iowa City Book Festival.
We managed to quadruple our attendance and we expanded the festival to include events
throughout Iowa City. Um, so the festival consists of author appearances and signings,
uh, book-sellers and other vendors, children's activities, uh, book arts demonstrations
and panel discussions on a whole range of literary topics. Um, and all of this is free and
easily accessible, um, and just this past year in 2010 the Convention and Visitor's Bureau
named us Attraction of the Year. Um, so we're, we're a new event in the city still. And,
and our goal is to create a new kind of festival that we hope will fit right alongside
existing Iowa city events without duplicating efforts. And, so we aim to this in two ways.
First, uh, we highlight the best of the University, which we do by hosting readings and
activities for all ages at the University of Iowa main library. Second, we highlight the
best of Iowa City by now adding a second day to the festival that talks place throughout
downtown Iowa City. And on that day we work with business owners to host readings
and other events inside their businesses, which we hope drives new traffic to them and,
uh, while also offering out of town visitors a convenient way to get a good feel for all of
the different stuff that the City of Literature has to offer. Each year, uh, so far, our, our
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authors form a dynamic mix. We have local writers and, of course, I think we can say
with some confidence that we have the best local writers of pretty much any city in the
country here. Uh, to that we then add nationally touring authors who satisfy a wide range
of tastes and topics. So, the Iowa City Book Festival has been growing rapidly, largely on
the strength of our programming. Um, and that has been supported by the university, by
Humanities Iowa, uh, and other partners. To build on this effort, we need the resources to
effectively market our programming. So, Kristi will now speak to how we plan to
accomplish this.
Bontrager/ Mm-hm. So, the Iowa city book Festival, as Greg mentioned, our primary goal is to
become a regional literary event. And, I think that here in Iowa City we have the
opportunity to do that. The kind of event I'm talking about is similar to the Decatur Book
Festival, which is in Atlanta, Georgia. I was, uh, I was happy enough to go there this year
and it was a wonderful program. Um, they, in their fifth year -they're only five years
old, we're coming up on three-in their fifth year they draw tens of thousands of people
to Decatur, Georgia. Now, granted, they do have a major metropolitan area to deal with,
uh, to draw from, but they don't have something that we have. We're the UNESCO City
of Literature. Authors want to come here. People want to come here to see authors and
writers in their natural habitats, and see, become a part of our literary culture. So, we
think that we really can grow this festival. Now, one way for us to do that is to get the
word out more. Um, our marketing efforts to this point have been largely grass roots
efforts. Uh, we, last, in the last two years we visited all of the libraries and bookstores in
Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, and the Quad Cities. You know, because we're a librarian, so
we go and we talk to librarians that we know. We pass out bookmarks. We pass out
posters. We have the librarians talk to their people. And that's worked out pretty well for
us. We've also, this last year, we were able to, like Greg mentioned, partner with
businesses in Iowa City and Coralville. And we had a great response from local
businesses. Our only printed advertisement, well our primary printed advertisement was
our program that was distributed through the Press Citizen. We didn't do any print
advertising in Cedar Rapids. We didn't do any print advertising in Des Moines, or in the
Quad Cities. And so, our exposure in Cedar Rapids, which is only 30 minutes away, not
that far for somebody to come down for the book Festival, I would say, was a little more
limited than it could be. The reason we did that is that we couldn't afford it. We had a
minimal marketing budget. We spent just under $10,0001ast year on our marketing
budget. Um, and so for the nominal amount that we are asking Iowa City for, $2,500, you
can see how that's going to make a huge difference in our marketing. It's going to be able
to allow us to help grow this festival into the kind of regional event that we think it can
be. So, we welcome any questions that you have. We have bookmarks, of course, with us,
if you all want one.
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Dickens/ Have we considered partnering with the Downtown Association by any chance?
Bontrager/ We worked with the Downtown Association a bit last year, yes. Um, Nick Arnold
has been tremendous to work with. He helped us secure, you know, our downtown
partners gave us all kinds of goodies for our author gift bags. Uh, he helped us connect
with other downtown businesses to have our events on Sunday.
Bailey/ So what's your marketing plan -besides to intensify it. Have you worked with
somebody? We have great experts here right at the University, and at other places.
Bontrager/ What we're doing in terms of our marketing plan is we are, basically we're taking
this grassroots thing and we're trying to build, to grow it outside. Um, you're right, we do
have experts here and so one of the things, and, and we're a teaching institution so we
have a couple of interns that are helping us with this, um, we're giving them a learning
opportunity, and we're, and also, you know, we've got some feet on the ground there
which is nice. Um, we'll be doing, we've been doing a lot more social networking. We're
building our, our website is much more elaborate, and, um, interactive than it had been in
the past. Um, and we will be doing more, I think that we're definitely going to have to do
some more print advertising and more connections with newspapers, and specifically
their online advertising as well.
Bailey/ Because, I mean, honestly, your marketing budget isn't growing that much. It's only
growing by $5,000, so that doesn't buy you a lot more print.
Bontrager/ It doesn't buy us a lot more print, so, but, I think that if we target our print in a couple
of places, that's going to help us a lot.
Bailey/ And who do you see as your target market?
Bontrager/ Our target, primary target market, uh, I mean I want to, this is going to sound
ridiculous but we really are, open it, we want, I mean we're librarians so we're about
access. We want people to come. We have programs for children. We are adding more
programming this year for teens. Because we looked at our programming last year and
realized that the teenagers weren't coming because they don't care that Clifford the big
Red Dog is there. Um, we have all kinds of readings for, um, adults and people in the
community, but it's a wide range of literary tastes. It's not, it's not just the literary elite
that are going to be coming to The Book Festival.
Bailey/ I mean, why, I mean why, I mean, I know that you featured some popular authors last
year, is that why you say it's not just the literary elite?
Bontrager/ Yeah. Because we want to have some mainstream---
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Prickman/ It, It's not meant to be an academic .. .
Bontrager/ Right.
Bailey/ Right.
Prickman/ ---with the association .. .
Bailey/ Which, I'm sure you face a challenge with the association with the university.
Bontrager/ Right. Yeah.
Prickman/ Exactly. Exactly.
Bailey/ Got it.
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Prickman/ I think part of the idea is that here in Iowa City, we're very familiar and comfortable
with the idea of, of the literary life and, and all the opportunities that come with that. And
the idea is to have an event that will appeal to people in other cities around the state and
ultimately our goal is to attract that same audience from the region network of big cities:
Minneapolis, Kansas City, St. Louis - to be a regional event where we can share what
that is like with people in those communities who don't have access to the literary culture
that we, in some cases almost take for granted every day around here.
Bailey/ Mm-hm. I thought the festival was fun last year and, um, and I think it has a great, great
potential for being something much bigger, and you can see that growth, for sure.
Bontrager/ Yes. Good. Well, thank you for coming.
Hayek/ You, you, uh, you list $20,000 in sponsorships, is that private sector sponsorships, is that
grant?
Bontrager: It's a little bit of both, um, we get significant sponsorship from Humanities Iowa,
um, but we also have been, we just received a modest sponsorship from the Community
Foundation of Johnson County; that one specifically was for our teen programming. We're doing
some---
Prickman: Iowa Arts Council---
Bontrager: Iowa Arts Council. Mm-hm.
Prickman: ---provided a grant. So we, we've gone out and tried to focus on specific grant
opportunities that, that will support various activities. So, um, one of the nice things
about having a variety of things going on at the festival is that people support different
things. So we got a grant, um, to support some of the book arts activity. We had a private
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donation from a company to support children's activities. So people can kind of pick and
choose some of those opportunities. Um, but it's been a mix of, uh, identifying specific
grants and then going out and trying to, uh, generate some of that support.
Hayek/ Any other questions? Thank you for being here tonight.
Prickman/ Thanks.
Bontrager/ Thank you so much.
Free Art School
Hayek/ Okay. Free Art School.
Engelbrecht/ Hi. Oh, I'm sorry. Hi, thanks for having us. We, uh, didn't prepare a slideshow
either, and we barely prepared our written ... (Laughter) ... as you might, uh, deduce
from, our, the name of ours, we're, we're quite a different than, than a lot of, uh, the
names on this list. Uh, I'll give you a little background about us. Uh, I'm, uh, my name is
John Engelbrecht, I'm director at Public Space One, this is Eric Asboe, he's art director at
our space. Um, about, uh, I guess it was a year ago, um, we received a grant from the
community Foundation of Johnson county to put on um, this wild, somewhat utopian idea
of a thing called, uh, Free Art School. And, um, we have kind of spent the last year trying
to figure out exactly what that was. We knew what we proposed and we knew that it was
a large, developing thing, um, and we've made a lot of discoveries over the year in, in
putting this on, um. Uh, I guess, uh, kind of what I'd like to do is just kind of read, kind
of re-read the firs, uh, line of the application because that kind of sums up, um, our
thoughts on it in, in a way. Uh, Free Art School is an initiative in egalitarian learning and
creative community building. Before you get misconceptions from the name we should
say we define the term "art" and "school" very loosely. "Art" in our case is defined as the
expression, the expressive extension of human skill and imagination in any endeavor, and
applies as much to painting as carving pumpkins or cleaning up a creek. "School" we
define more like a school of fish; a community traveling a certain path together. "Free"
we use literally, meaning there is no cost to attend our classes. The general idea of free
art school is defined by its emphasis on the social, creative, and collaborative community
as it looks towards a, new ways to excite people and get them involved in the community.
Um, and, and, a lot of those words, some of, some of the vents we had, we had, we had
kind of three types of events over the year of putting on Free Art School. Um, the first
was, was more of kind of a skill building session where we would have um, a project idea
and have people come in, uh, and, and work on this project together in kind of a, a fun
community, uh, meeting of sorts, a gathering of sorts. Um, the other events, uh, we had a
couple of events that were more socially based, which were about, um, kind of, uh, you
know getting people, uh, out and about, doing something that maybe they, uh, wouldn't
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normally think to do. Like, we had a, we had a, a large pumpkin carving, uh, session,
where we had a lot of, um, kind of, University age and kids age, some, uh, you know,
older people from the community, uh, joining us to all, uh, just carve, carve pumpkins
and kind of enjoy, enjoy the season. Um, the, the, the third part is kind of the direction
that we feel um, that we're more, where we'd like to head more in the future. And that is
more of a structured, um, uh, longer based, uh, curriculum, that's more about regular
meetings, um, and that's what I proposed for, um, the, for the City money, is, uh, an
evening alternatives, um, programming, which would be, uh, you know, keeping with the
same structure that anyone in the community could, could propose a class, but it would
be on, on longer terms and, and meet, um, more regularly than, than just doing these kind
of one-off events that we've done in the past. Um, a good example of that is, is that
we've started doing, uh, a Free Art School Opportunities class, um, about two months
ago, and that has kind of grown into this incubation group that's um, kind of following in
the footsteps of some other cities where, um, we're looking at, um, pop-up galleries and
using storefront galleries as, um, as, as another place for artist's expression. Um, and that
was, that was something that, um, is kid of ending its research phase and going into the
next step, but that started from just, um, having this meeting happening once a week. Um,
I've kind of rambled on now, um, I don't know if you have anything to add, Eric.
Asboe/ Uh. Yeah, the ide of free school, and specifically fee school within an art context is
nothing new, it happens all over the country and has been happening for a number of
years. Uh, one of the best benefits that we've been able to see directly is that not only are
we able to get new people to Public Space One, which has been a great alternative since,
um, the 21-ordinance has passed, and we've been able to have, all of our events are
alcohol free, and we do a number of events at night and we've been able to organize both
high school and college-aged kids to come down to the space to do a number of things -
whether it's a Free Art School or not. But it's a great way to encourage the local art
economy. Um, having the money from the Community foundation of Johnson County
was a great, um, resource to be able to, um, catalyze the energy that was already latent in
the community and be able to financially support the artists that live in town, both
through the University and local artists generally.
Engelbrecht/ Um, yeah, I guess we, if you have any questions.
Hayek/ Any questions for this group? Public Space One is a great downtown venue.
Engelbrecht/ Thanks.
Hayek/ And a lot goes on in that space as well. Well, if there are no further questions, we
appreciate your time.
Engelbrecht/ Yeah, thanks so much.
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Asboe/ Yeah, thank you.
Hayek/ Okay, thank you very much.
Youth Advisory Commission
Hayek/ Okay, Youth Advisory Commission, hello.
Tamerius/ Hi, I think I'm a little short. Okay, um, I'm Alexandria Tamerius, I'm currently a
junior at City High School and I've completed one year on the Youth Advisory
Commission. This year we decided to decrease our budget from $5,000 for the last fiscal
year to $3,250 this year. Last year we spent $1,000. We budgeted for $1,000 on forums
which was unused because we didn't feel that it was needed for any of the current issues.
So we decreased that number to $500, in case a forum was needed. Then website and
advertising we had also budgeted for $1,000 and not all of that was used either, and just
decided to cut that back to $250. The youth, the Empowerment Grants, which we give out
to encourage youth to get involved in projects that they might not be able to finance just
on their own, that money went all to projects, and that was all completely used so we
decided to keep that at the $2,000. Three of the, the three projects that were awarded
money were the Regina Present Projects for their, the needy families during the holidays;
the Summer of Solutions, which unfortunately was not very successful, and we were only
able to award them $100; the GLO Suicide Prevention Project which provides t-shirts in
order to spread awareness about gay and lesbian, transsexual, and bi-sexual students and
helping let everyone know that there are people there that support them and that they're
not alone. And that was awarded almost $900. The last thing on our budget was the
recognition grants, which we just recently were able to award them to two students and so
we've decided to keep that at its $500 mark. And that's for two junior high students that
live in Iowa City who have written an essay and gotten two recommendations and show
quite a bit of leadership. Any questions?
Bailey/ I really appreciate your attention to your budget and your adjustments based upon your
track record. I think that's really, um, show a lot of, um fiscal responsibility. So thank
you.
Tamerius/ The deficit's definitely been a concern for me. I don't know about the rest of the
Commission but it has been for me. Alright. Any other questions?
Hayek/ Very good presentation. You have fantastic poise to come before this group. I
congratulate you. You did a nice job.
Tamerius/ Thank you. Thanks for your time.
Hayek/ Thank you. Thanks for your service to the group.
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319 Music Fest
Hayek/ Okay, 319.
Freeman/ And how excited we are to be last and the greatest, I'm sure. (Laughter) Um, I'm Sue
Freeman. I'm with Neighborhood Centers and Ryan and Colette are joining me. They,
they are VISTA, um, members this year, and our, some of our co-planners here at 319.
We do have ahand-out we'd like to pass out, um, full of pictures and just the joy of 319.
Um, I think forme to describe why 319 and the importance of 319 I need to go back to
mother's Day 2009, when the headlines were "Mother's Day Riot Hits the southeast
Side." And it led Iowa City, it led discussion after discussion on a whole new course.
Um, we really had to step back and take a look at what are we, what are our values, what
do we want to do, what are we believing in, and it really motivated a lot of folks to make
change. Um, at Neighborhood Centers we worked closely with local, local adults,
AmeriCorps, um, school leaders; we did adoor-to-door survey that fall; we, um, hit about
250 households on the southeast side and really asked the questions, "What do you want
from your community? What do you want from your neighborhood? What will make you
feel safer?" And through that survey, we found that folks wanted more security. They
want more lighting. they want what most neighborhoods have, but they also wanted to get
to know their neighbors. They wanted to get to know the person next door. They wanted
avenues. They wanted parks benches. They wanted more barbecue pits. They wanted
very simple, basic, um, neighborhood building. And, um, we set out in February of 2010,
I think it was, we pulled together acommunity-wide planning. We had about 88 folks
come and, um, we had people from the neighborhood; we had, some of you were able to
attend, um, school leaders, uh, city planners, and so on. We pulled together groups4 and
said, uh, what are we going to do> We want to look a t safety. We want to look at
neighborhood building. We want to look at positive youth involvement. And out of this
strategic planning in February, there were eight strategic plans that were made. And one
of them was really looking at promoting connection building on the southeast side, and
promoting positive press on the southeast side; promoting ways to get folks together and
maybe dispel some of the myths. And, um, we did not jump into that thinking, "Great.
Let's do a music festival!" Um, that sort of rolled out and, and took a life of its own, but
a year after the Mother's Day Riot, that weekend, we held the 319 Music Fest. And, um,
it could not have been a colder day. It was frigid. I believe my children had hypothermia.
Um, but that aside, it was amazing. And, um, it brought folks from all over Iowa City to
the southeast side who said, "I didn't even know Wetherby Park was here. Oh, my gosh,
this is an amazing place." And our local musicians were, they were just fantastic. We,
um, auditioned local musicians, our professional musicians, and we also auditioned local
youth from City, West, and the junior highs. And so all of our professional musicians
agreed that they would mentor our local youth, and they brought them up on stage -
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there's some photos of some of the kids up on stage. Um, we had a young violinist who,
um, did a duet with Dave Zollo. We had, and this is a third grader, up on stage, so we
had, their agreement in participating is that they would mentor youth. Um, I think a really
good story of this, I, there's millions of stories but a couple that stand out, um, my, Dave
Zollo went to Preucil, and um, he was a Preucil graduate. And one of my neighbors up
the street, I didn't know she was a neighbor because I'm adog-walker and I'm out all the
time but she sees me crazy-dog walking, um, showed up and said,. "You're my
neighbor." And I said, "I didn't know that." And she said, "I, I teach at Preucil, and, um,
I'm here to see Dave Zollo, and, and, this is amazing, I think we need to give more kids
scholarships from this area and how can we do more to support this?" And she ended up
all summer long coming back to Wetherby with groups of students. I, I suppose my final
story, in saying why do we need to continue festivals like this; why do we have to go out
on Mother's Day year after year and keep saying let's have a good summer, let's kick off
the summer, is a young man who's in the photo, he, he was up on stage, he, um, was sort
of a local rapper, um, City high kid and he was brought up on stage by one of the -
Eunophonics? This is just, this bands out of my league, and um, he was at the Mother's
Day Riot. Not arrested, but there. And over the course of the year he had been working
with staff at the center on laying tracks and laying sound and he auditioned for and was
accepted as one of the youth performers. And the Unifonics brought him up on stage
where they performed together. And they've since worked together. And he's laid three
tracks now and has performed at the open mike night at the Yacht Club, and has really,
you know, sort of feeling like he's turned his life around. And so this music fest may be,
you know, the symbolism of holding it a year from mother's Day I think is also saying
there's a way that local musicians give back that are, we can foster the arts on the
southeast side; that the southeast side is an amazing place to go and be with your kids and
bring your kids and family. And so, we're looking for ongoing support. They get to, um,
piece together a budget again this year. Um, because it will be, mother's Day weekend
we'1 have, um, 319 again, but we would love to not have to be quite so , um, piece-meal
with, with our budget, so, that's what we're looking for. And we encourage you all to
come out.
Bailey/ It'll be warmer, right?
Freeman/ Oh, dear Lord. I, I do tell people it was very warm Mother's day 2009, which was why
all the kids were playing football. I like to remind everyone of that.
Hayek/ Without, uh, too much detail, how, where's your budget come from?
Freeman/ Um, these are the expenses from last year. Um, the stage is, uh, a stage that, um, city of
Iowa City and Coralville own together, and um, that was that rent, that's the cost of that.
Everything else is pretty much based on last year's budget.
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Hayek/ And where did the funding for that come last year?
Freeman/ Nickel and diming everybody in this community.
Hayek/ Okay.
Freeman/ Again and again.
Hayek/ Yeah. Understood.
Freeman/ Anything else? Okay. Thanks everyone.
Hayek/ Thanks to your VISTA volunteers .That's important community service.
Freeman/ They're great.
General Budget Discussion
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Hayek/ Okay, that opens us up into sort of a more general budget discussion. Um, before we take
up anything that goes beyond boards and commission issues, there was a request from,
uh, Connie, whether or not to .. .
Karr/ Connie was unable to be her this evening because of a family emergency. And she did
request that, um, she was very supportive of course of the, um, funding the pot of monies,
or the bottom line, but she would appreciate if she could participate in the individual
discussions of the actual allocations. So I was wondering if you couldn't perhaps tonight
decide on that pot but not divvy it up without her input. And I said I would pass that
request on. She suggesting adding it to, not do a special night just for it, but potentially
add it to another work session. Um, just noting that your next work session, um, Terry
won't be her on the 24th, and you would have to decide that lump sum for the budget so
that we could go ahead and set the public hearing the following week.
Hayek/ Well, uh, so we sort of rob Peter to pay Paul in terms of, uh, Council participation if we
do that. I, I don't, I don't think we should schedule a special meeting in a two month
period where we've got a ton of them already, to accomplish this specific goal. I'm open
to going on the 24th, but .. .
Karr/ But we gain Connie and lose Terry.
Hayek/ (Inaudible), yeah. What do you, what do you guys think we should do?
Bailey/ We're still scheduled for next Thursday, right?
Karr/ At this point you're still scheduled for the 27th
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Bailey/ Are you going to be there the 27t"~
Dickens/ If we do this tonight we don't, there might not be as much, or the need for the 27t". And
we've all been here.
Hayek/ Well, it's tonight, the 24t", or the 27t". And presently the 27t" is not something we may
need. Do you guys agree that the 27t" is .. .
Dickens/ We're never going to ask her. (Laughter)
Hayek/ I mean, we have the 27t", we've got it as a placeholder in case we need it, but it
appears that the direction we're taking thus far may make the 27t" unnecessary, but I
could be wrong.
Mims/ I'd rather just move ahead with it tonight, rather than... I mean if it means we can get
away without having the 27t" and going between now and Monday night is just trading
Connie for Terry. Otherwise, to get both of them we have to keep the 27t" on the
calendar. If that's the only thing, I mean if we're going to have everything else pretty
well resolved, I'd rather have it done than have that meeting just for this, personally.
Dickens/ Most of our notes are fresh in our minds right now.
Mims/ Yeah.
Dickens/ We've seen who's presented. We've got a good idea of how much money we're going
to be playing with and .. .
Hayek/ Then why don't we take it up... why don't we do it now, Connie, Connie will
understand, and Terry had the benefit of the presentations and she did not. Uh, which, is a
factor. Okay.
Bailey/ Can I just ask, if we're going to take this up now,---
Hayek/ Yeah.
Bailey/ Um, Marian, could you talk a little bit about fireworks because that wasn't, um, there
wasn't an amount in our, in our---
Karr/ Right. Fireworks, uh, in the revised page I handed out to you this evening is incorporated
in there. We budgeted, um, we're asking $27,500. Um, we, this has been budgeted
through the community events in the past. Uh, this is based on, uh, costs, ordering it early
and the discount price. Um, again we look to your direction. The fireworks is something
the JC's has not funded the last two years. Uh, we have done a partnership with the
Summer of the Arts, and last, the last couple of years were able to do it, uh, the, as a
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finale to their events. This year the fourth is a Monday, and their finale would be Sunday.
So that would be one issue. But right now we do have, um, the same vendor ion hold for
both nights. So the sooner that we can get back to him and order -we do get adiscount-
farther back we order, the bigger the discount. So, if it's something that you're so
inclined to fund, the sooner we have that information we can proceed.
Hayek/ If the $27,500 a quote or a bid? I mean is that the number it will take to secure
fireworks?
Karr/ No, it is not. It's a, uh, benchmark based on an increase --until you actually order the
specific fireworks and put them together and do a show, um. Last year we budgeted
$25,000 and actually spent $22,500, so we had a little bit of a savings. Sothis year was
just a, uh, a cost, just an inflation figure based on the same materials. It may fluctuate a
little bit. It may mean we'll have to cut back a little bit. It may mean if we order early
enough we can do the same type of show.
Bailey/ Does location make any difference in cost? I mean we've been doing it downtown, uh,
you know, years and years ago---
Karr/Not generally. I think the--
Bailey/ Yeah.
Karr/ ---same type of---
Bailey/ Is it a safety, uh, additional safety concern?
Karr/ ---the same type, there's some trade-offs to both locations, and for what we trade for some
we gain it in another. As long as we can count on the, the excellent cooperation we've
had in the past with the University, um, we'd be able to use the, uh, we have checked, the
orientation has been somewhat of a problem because we certainly use that Hubbard,
Hubbard Park a lot, but there is no orientation that week so either date would work with
them. And we have those on hold as well. So, no.
Bailey/ I've really liked it downtown. I know that this isn't a funding thing, but I've really liked
it downtown and I've really liked it in conjunction with the Jazz Fest. But, I mean< I
think it really, it really addresses some of the broader traffic issues and brings more
people downtown to hang out. I mean, they stayed longer, and I think that's beneficial.
But, okay, thanks .. .
Hayek/ Okay, well, the proposed budget is the same as last year's, $110,162.
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January 18, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 45
Karr/ Matt, may I just note one other thing. The Youth Advisory commission, the $4,000, it is
not budgeted, um, across, there is noted. I've incorporated that into my budget, into my
department budget. So whatever allocation you wish to do is in the budget, incorporated
in my department -rather than community events since it's an ongoing board or
commission.
Bailey/ Which I think makes sense.
Karr/ We've incorporated it like we do with all the other boards and commissions. That's why
there's not a line item there.
Hayek/ Okay. So that's not part of our decision process tonight?
Karr/ That's correct.
Dickens/ That's the best place for it.
Bailey/ Yeah, I think so too, since it's ongoing.
Hayek/ Well, the requests exceed the budgeted amount by about $25,000. This is where the ala
carte occurs.
Wright/ Well, should we just step through each request then?
Hayek/ Could. We've got some new requests. We've got some usual suspect requests that we
have a relationship, organizations that we have a relationship with. Are there any general
thoughts before we go to the list? ,
Mims/ I, I would take the Power up Your Preschool off entirely. One, they weren't here to
present, and two, there are a number of schools that are not even in Iowa City, as I recall
from that list. Not saying it's not a good program, but .. .
Bailey/ Well, and that's, I agree with you.
Hayek/ Yeah, I agree with you.
Bailey/ There are lots of good programs that come to us for funding. When I look at these, I
mean, just my perspective, I tend to look at things that sort of advance some of the things
that we're trying to advance, some economic development and some leverage, getting
people, for me, downtown, and then, um, community building activities, which they all
generally fall into, the what, what is more on the edge of that continuum, the higher edge
of that continuum. And so that's kind of the general approach that I try to take with this.
Those are my general thoughts.
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So, I'm interested din continuing some level of support for Summer of the Arts. I'll just
throw that out there.
Mims/ Mm-hm.
Dickens/ I think that that's probably .. .
Wright/ Absolutely.
Bailey/ And their request for an increase makes sense to me. I don't know if we're going to be
able to.
Mims/ Well, I guess first of all, I guess maybe where I would start at is, are we committed to
staying with what we've budgeted? I mean are we going to stay with that $110,162? So,
does that mean we're going to find, out of those funding requests we're going to find
roughly $25,500 to cut? I mean, to me that's the first question we need to ask ourselves.
Bailey/ Well, since we've made some dramatic cuts, or are headed in the direction of making
some, I think, serious cuts in the budget, I would be hard-pressed to increase this bottom-
line. Are you suggesting lowering it?
Mims/ No. I'm just throwing out the question. I'm comfortable with staying with what it was for
2011 and what's been budgeted for 2012.
Bailey/ And I have that expectation as well.
Wright/ Yeah, that's, that's what I was going to say.
Dickens/ Yeah.
Bailey/ I mean, it would be -these are great things---
Hayek/ Yeah, we can't.
Bailey/ ---without question.
Mims/ I just don't see that we can increase either. I just think that that's where we need to start,
is agreeing on what's going to be our---
Bailey/ Not with what we're looking at with the other budget areas. No way.
Hayek/ Well, conversely, is there interest in .. .
Bailey/ Reducing that to $100,000?
Hayek/ Reducing.
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Dickens/ I'm good with this figure.
Bailey/ I'm comfortable with $110,000. I think.
Hayek/ Consensus on that?
Mims/ Yeah. I mean, I went through just real quickly the numbers that are here and looked at,
looked at which ones were increase, either new or increases from last year and, um, you
know kind of, particularly some of the new ones, tried giving them like half of what they
asked, um, gave Summer of the Arts only $5,000 more. Gave Shakespeare Theater only
$2,500 more„ etc. So kind of, kind of spreading the pain so to speak.
Dickens/ Up to about right?
Mims/ Nah, I'm only about $16,000. I still got another $10,000 to cut.
Bailey/ I know. It's hard.
Mims/ Because I left, I did leave in 319 music. Oaky, I did not cut that one, I gave preliminarily
as I ran through it I gave them their whole $4,000.
Bailey/ I would like to try to support that to the degree as possible. I think I was there last year. It
was a, it's a great festival and it has a great potential and um, it---
Mims/ What I'd like to see in the future is can we get any economies by moving that under
Summer of the Arts. Are there something's that with, you know, just with volunteers, and
coordinating volunteers and then the other kinds of, moving that summer of the Arts out
into the community even more, and helping with some of those events, but that's a
discussion for the future.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Hayek/ I'd like to support 319 as well. I think it's been a success. Just starting out at $4,000 is a
little high relative to the others with whom we have a track record or who started at lower
levels.
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Hayek/ I could see going with $2,000 or $3,000.
Dickens/ I put $2,000 down for that.
Bailey/ $2,500?
Hayek/ I put $2,500.
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Wilburn/ I think also they have several in-kind contributions they did not include in their
presentation, the, the staff time from the Neighborhood Centers the VISTA volunteers
that, that you know, give them all that time, so.
Hayek/ Yeah. We can try, you know, just preliminarily $2,500 for that and see how, you know,
that stacks up.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Alright. Why don't we run through this list real quickly?
Bailey/ I think that's the only way you're going get the---
Hayek/ Backyard Abundance, request from $800. They had a request for us last year I believe,
and we did not fund.
Dickens/ We just didn't add anybody new last year.
Bailey/ Well, the advantage with Backyard Abundance, if they're doing some partnerships with
the City I think that that, that might be the area to, I don't know, expand.
Dickens/ Do more in-kind than actual dollars?
Bailey/ I can't find them. I can't find any of these.
Wright/ Could we give them 500 bucks?
Dickens/ Yeah, that's half of their ... $400 or $500.. .
Hayek/ Let's just put in there.
Mims/ I did four.
Dickens/ $400.
Bailey/ I didn't fund them again.
Mims/ Well, I'm not sure I will either, Regenia, like I say, I mean, I'm still nine grand short on
my cuts---
Bailey/ Yeah, exactly.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Mims/ ---from my first run through, and so, I gotta figure out where we're going to find another
nine grand.
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Hayek/ How about the CSA Fair? I think we are, we comped them the, uh, use of the facility.
Dickens/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Which is separate from their request.
Bailey/ And we would end up paying for what, printing, printing, they've got printing .. .
Wright/ Yeah, there's (inaudible)
Bailey/ Yeah.
Hayek/ CSA Fair.
Bailey/ The printing, the pay for farmer's samples.
Hayek/ Yeah, yeah the CSA guide and the samples.
Mims/ Mm-hm. That's fundamentally what we cover.
Wilburn/ Part of, part of what I, just throwing this out in the mix too, just kind of looking at
Regenia how you look at returning what we're getting, uh, whether it's economic
development, the connection with different, you know, I guess also another way to look
at it is kind of niche', niche', and I saying that right?
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Wilburn/ Niche', niche', however, however we say it, um, and while I can see some of the
differences between the, uh, the Ag Fair and then the, uh, what was the other one?
Several/ Backyard Abundance.
Wilburn/ I don't know that you're necessarily getting a different component there, uh, and then
trying to just separate out what we get by having the Farmer's Market here in general, I,
I...
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Mims/ Do they, do they do anything at the Farmer's Market in terms of advertising the CSAs? I
mean...
Wright/ Individual farmers do, but.. .
Bailey/ I think, I think they do but that gets to be like, I mean, Laura's right, a CSA wants a, I
mean, the whole premise is getting your money up-front so you can afford---
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Mims/ Mm-hm, right.
Bailey/ ---so, by the time we're starting Farmer's Market, that's, I don't, they might have their
people all lined up, basically.
Hayek/ For the season.
Bailey/ For the season.
Mims/ I'm just wondering if they're educating people, you know, like for the next year, in terms
of---
Bailey/ Oh, you know, I don't know.
Mims/ ---buying into a CSA for the following year.
Bailey/ I don't know. I mean, I think, I think like Ross said individual farmers do.
Mims/ Mm-hm.
Bailey/ And I know our, our farmer does, but.. .
Hayek/ Kind of with Ross on this.
Mims/ So what are you thinking? One, one of them, or like only half of one of them or neither of
them or .. .
Wilburn/ I'm actually thinking neither, neither of them.
Mims/ Okay.
Bailey/ I don't think we're going to get there, if we .. .
Mims/ Yeah, I, I don't know how we get there if you add new ones.
Hayek/ Well, let's, let's proceed just with that assumption.
Wilburn/ Yeah, and I think you're, even if you're, they're not, um, there's stuff that the Ag Fair
could be doing at the existing Farmer's Market to help themselves for the next year,
and...
Wright/ I think actually they've been doing pretty well on their own.
Wilburn/ On their own, yeah. And, the folks that participate in the Farmer's Market have a
interest in, I mean, there is access both, they do the farmer's market here, the one out at
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Sycamore Mall, so there is access in that type of environment separate from something
like the New Pioneer co-op type of thing, so.. .
Hayek/ Okay. Disability Awareness Month Kick-Off.
Mims/ I took that one off as well. I mean, again, you know looking at new ones and, I don't
know if there was a reason they weren't here to present tonight.
Bailey/ That's unusual.
Helling/ I, um, I don't know, only thing I can tell you is I got a phone message that I picked up
late in the day from somebody at Access, um, what is it?
Hayek/Independence?
Helling/ Yeah, Access to Independence, asking when this particular thing was. Um, to the
applicants we send out a notice that, of the hearing so they can come in if they want.
They, we didn't receive an application from them, um, that's anything that you see with a
zero there, there was no application received.
Wright/ They had asked for funding last year, as I recall. Did we, uh? I think they did and we
didn't.
Mims/ I think so too.
Bailey/ We funded---
Helling/ The ADA Celebration.
Bailey/ ---yeah, we funded the ADA Celebration, but not this new one.
Wright/ They're not requesting this year. I'd put them at a zero. Take this one out.
Hayek/ Okay. Uh, Extend the Dream Foundation, Ralston Creek Fair and Flea Market. They're a
repeat, uh, recipient and I can't remember if they showed up last year or not.
Bailey/ I don't remember them.
Mims/ I, yeah .. .
Hayek/ Tom Walz is usually the guy who ...the face .. .
Bailey/ Yeah, mm-hm ... I don't remember them .. .
Wilburn/ They did the year before. I don't remember about last year.
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Hayek/ Where the heck are they here?
Bailey/ Yeah, where are they?
Dickens/ I think they're the first one.
Mims/ Yeah, they're the first one, right after .. .
Bailey/ Oh good, thanks ...What's their budget?
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Wright/ Their, their only revenue is the vendor space rental and what the City ...plans on
kicking in.
Bailey/ Well .. .
Hayek/ I know Tom, they do, he does a great job of scraping together whatever can be found,
making ends meet, but, you raise a good point, they haven't sought other funding sources
either.
Bailey/ Yeah, and that's ...for as long as it's been occurring, it surprises me that they don't
have a few sponsorships.
Wright/ Right, and as small as the amount is that they're dealing with, I think they should be able
to space some of that out.
Bailey/ Mm-hm. I would think so too. Especially that weekend for that event, I mean .. .
Mims/ I guess ---
Bailey/ That's a large, I mean, I don't know what they're doing for advertising but certainly, it
just seems like a high percentage of their budget is advertising.
Mims/ I think it's print.
Wright/ Yeah, I think they go the Press Citizen.
Mims/ Yeah.
Bailey/ And, you know, you know once you do print, I mean, like I was saying to the Book Fair,
I mean, you don't buy a lot more, I mean, you can increase your budget by quite a lot and
not get, I mean, it's expensive.
Mims/ Yeah.
Bailey/ I, I would like to encourage them to find some other sponsors this year. I'm with you on,
on that Mike.
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Wilburn/ Well, with some of the businesses around that little area you would think they would be
able to get something with folks coming around.
Hayek/ Is there interest in, uh, dropping, but not cutting them out of this altogether?
Mims/ Cut them in half, or are you talking about taming them out entirely?
Hayek/ Cut them in half.
Bailey/ No, I took them out entirely. I mean, I was pretty harsh. We, we just have such a small
amount. I mean, that's where I started.
Hayek/ Are there four people who want to allocate zero?
Wright/ I was close to zero. I was saying $250.
Dickens/ I would just cut them out.
Hayek/ I hear one, two, three people to cut them out, all, to zero. We got a $500---
Mims/ I'm not, no, I'm not sure I'm cutting them to zero---
Hayek/ Oh, okay.
Mims/ I just, yeah, I mean .. .
Bailey/ Well, can we just come back and see what we have, if you're, if you're down to $250?
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Okay. Okay.
Wright/ (inaudible)
Dickens/ Uptown Bill's has moved down to that area now. It was on Gilbert Street before, so .. .
Bailey/ Well, and I wonder how that will effect this too.
Dickens/ Right.
Bailey/ Will it even .. .
Hayek/ Alright. Well, let's come back to it. Um, but it sounds like we'll either reduce, we
probably won't altogether zero it out but there will be a reduced number. Okay. Free Art
School Evening Alternatives.
Wright/ I love the idea but I, I took it out.
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Mims/ I wish they had something a little bit more concrete. I mean, a little, the idea of evening
alternatives, I really like.
Wright/ Yeah, I did too.
Mims/ Particularly with the 21-ordinance, but the lack of a real business plan is .. .
Wright/ It's a little loose.
Mims/ ... is concerning to me.
Hayek/ Are there four for zero?
Higgins/ Well, I just would like to say, I understand that concern, but I just, it feels to me like
that, that, that's the type of organization. It is kind of free-flowing, so I wouldn't, I mean,
I just encourage you guys not to get too caught up on the fact that they're not as business-
like as, you know, other, other people asking for funds.
Hayek/ That's a fair point.
Dickens/ I know he spends a lot of time there. He volunteers a lot of his personal time. I see him
there all the time.
Hayek/ Who does?
Dickens/ Uh, Engelbrecht.
Wright/ Oh, yeah. That's right.
Dickens/ He's right downstairs from us, so I do see him. I thought he was living there for a
while. (Laughter) It just appeared that way. You could put ablank---
Bailey/ You could reduce it and---
Mims/ Let's try him at a thousand and maybe start---
Bailey/ That would cover promotion and materials for example, I mean, we don't have to
designate but .. .
Wilburn/ Well, and they've been awarded funding for, from the Community Foundation, so .. .
Mims/ Try them at a thousand, see where we shake out, maybe come back to them?
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
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Hayek/ That's a little high for my liking, but I'll put it in there for, on my notes. See what, see
what it looks like.
Dickens/ Roughly 40% of their request.
Hayek/ Iowa City Book Festival.
Bailey/ 1 think this event has a real potential.
Dickens/ If we are the City of Literature... I don't see fully funding it but .. .
Bailey/ The challenge is I'm not sure that this is the absolute venue to partner with the University
on the event, because it is a funding of the University, because it's not a separate non-
profit. You know what I'm saying? Seems like there are other opportunities, or those
kinds of things. I don't know... but I do like the event. I think it has a lot of potential.
Dickens/ If they're going to, I think continue to grow---
Bailey/ I think so too.
Dickens/ The potential for more involvement in the downtown. You know it just started last year
with their first involvement---
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Dickens/ ---not everybody could do it. They think it will grow. They will get some more
sponsorships there.
Bailey/ Yeah, that's true.
Mims/ You know, that's a really good point, Regenia. It is a little funny for us to be giving
money to the university for this, I mean .. .
Bailey/ Well, and that's why I went back and looked to see if they had organized separately and I
thought, oh wow, that's an interesting, especially when we look at some of these other
organizations, um---
Mims/ Yeah.
Bailey/ ---but I do think we should be participating in some way.
Mims/ Mm-hm. Oh, I agree. I think it's a great event and has quite a lot of potential and to bring
more people and good publicity to the community, but .. .
Hayek/ Is the University's contribution essentially the staff time?
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Bailey/ ---staff time?
Wright/ It's just the staff ...and, well, to a certain extent the facilities, the facilities.
Dickens/ But I do think they could do a better job with their marketing using, using the, uh,
existing websites that are downtown---
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Dickens/ ---linking, linking to some of those---
Bailey/ Right, and I---
Dickens/ ---little or no cost.
Bailey/ ---and I meant to ask them if they've worked with the CBB? Matt, do you know if
they've worked on promotion, I mean, that seems a natural.
Hayek/ Oh, I don't know. They were recognized at the CVB (inaudible) .. .
Bailey/ I know they were, but I mean, what's that part, I mean .. .
Hayek/ So, I don't, I don't know.
Bailey/ The advantage of increasing their marketing is it increases the visibility of the
community, fundamentally. But .. .
Hayek/ So does someone want to throw a number out?
Bailey/ $2,000.
Mims/ I wouldn't go that high.
Wright/ I would say fifteen.
Bailey/ Okay ...okay.
Hayek/ Should we try $1,500 as a placeholder there?
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Hayek/ String Orchestra?
Bailey/ I love this organization. Okay, I really like this organization. I gave them their $400. That
Englert full of kids listening to orchestra is, it's too great. Feel free to argue me out of it,
but...
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Wright/ I'm not sure they need us.
Bailey/ They might not but .. .
Mims/ What page were they on?
Bailey/ They're like .. .
Hayek/ What's page one of three? (Laughter)
Bailey/ They're after Backyard Abundance in my book.
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Mims/ Okay. They didn't present so I didn't have a page number down. That's why. Okay.
Thanks.
Hayek/ I'd like to give them, I mean, I'd be comfortable with $400, but at least something. I
mean, they just, year after year .. .
Wright/ Their, their budget is coming in below their revenue. They have, they have a silent
auction fundraiser. They raised 400 bucks, and I, I think it's a good organization too,
but...
Bailey/ That's, that's predicated on if we give our full amount. You mean, you're looking at, are
you looking at last year's? Oh, I was looking at proposed. I'm sorry.
Dickens/ Yeah, $10 over.
Mims/ $10 over.
Hayek/ $200? $300?
Bailey/ $250? $200?
Mims/ Let's go two.
Hayek/ $200? Alright. Fireworks?
Bailey/ Oh, let's have fireworks.
Wright/ Can we say $25,000?
Bailey/ Yeah.
Wright/ Like last year?
Mims/ That's what I .. .
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Dickens/ Yeah.
Hayek/ That's what I would think. Can we do that?
Karr/ Yes.
Bailey/ So, we're staying at $25,000.
Wright/ Just one less spider.
Mims/ Oh, does it have to be one less spider?
Karr/ We'll work on it.
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Hayek/ We'll work on it. Dickens will bring down a couple of Roman candles (inaudible) .. .
Wright/ From Missouri .. .
Hayek/ Landlocked?
Wilburn/ Yes.
Dickens/ Definitely.
Bailey/ At their amount. At their requested.
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/ I think they're ---
Bailey/ It's amazing what they've done---
Wright/ Iwas surprised they didn't ask for more, but---
Bailey/ Iwas really surprised---
Dickens/ It's great. Just the people you see downtown and .. .
Bailey/ Yeah, they're, I mean they're really bringing in a lot of people from outside Iowa City.
Wright/ It's pretty amazing. What they do with what, with what their budget is.
Hayek/ Shakespeare?
Bailey/ Yes, let's have Shakespeare.
Wright/ I had $6,000. I had briefed it a little bit.
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Bailey/ I had seven ---$7, 750.
Wright/ Hm.
Bailey/ I split their increase.
Mims/ Yeah, I'd kind of split it but I'm not sure I'm, I mean as I keep adding up numbers .. .
Bailey/ Where are we?
Mims/ Well, I don't know. I'm not sure, I'm just trying to go back and figure out where we
were.
Bailey/ See, I hadn't funded some of these people, so I was okay .. .
Dickens/ Well, let's put, let's put $7,000 an earmark and see if we have to go back, we can---
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ That sounds good. Which brings us to the big enchilada.
Mims/ Kevin's over there with his calculator, so hopefully ... (Laughter)
Wright/ You got a pret' near number? (Inaudible from the audience)
Bailey/ Oh, so then we can fund Summer of the Arts at about 70,000?---
Karr/ I mean, can't, we can't. I'm sorry, just not hearing either one of you.
Bailey/ You can't do that Kevin, she hates that.
Karr/ So what did you come up with? $115,000?
Hayek/ You have to be in front of a mike or pass a smoke signal .. .
Karr/ Yeah, thanks. Even that's hard to record.
Bailey/ Not audible.
O'Malley/ I'm not sure if I caught all your recommendations but if you fully funded the
Riverside, I came up to a $115,600 with what I thought I heard.
Bailey/ We didn't fully fund them.
Karr/ River---, Riverside Theater was seven,
O'Malley/ Seven. I mean the, the Summer of the Arts.
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Wright/ Summer of the Arts.
O'Malley/ I just jumped ahead to ... I had, uh, $40,600 before you got to Summer of the Arts.
Bailey/ I got to $105,000. What did we.. .
Wright/ Can you call them up .. .
O'Malley/ I mean ... I may not have heard everything you said. I don't have a spreadsheet.
(Inaudible: several speaking at once.)
Karr/ I had $40,200, so we're close.
Hayek/ Okay. Could we, alright, let's just confirm our numbers here, where we were. Okay,
everybody want 319 Music Fest at $2,900?
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Wright/ Mm-hm.
Hayek/ Backyard Abundance at $400?
Wright/ Right.
Hayek/ Uh, CSA Fair zero?
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ Disability Awareness, I think that was a zero?
Wright/ Zero.
Bailey/ Yep.
Hayek/ Uh, Extend the Dream, uh, Fair and Flea Market, I'm not sure we decided on that---
Wright/ We didn't decide.
Karr/ You didn't.
Bailey/ Fine.
Hayek/ Free Art School, $1,000. Book Festival, $1,500. String Orchestra, $200. Fireworks, 25
grand. Landlocked, three grand. Riverside Theater, $7,000.
O'Malley/ Forty-four five?
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Wright/ What was the number, Kevin?
Bailey/ Forty-four five.
O'Malley/ Forty-four five.
Dickens/ Forty-four five.
O'Malley/ No, that can't be right.
Bailey/ No, I don't think so.
O'Malley/ Can't be right.
Hayek/ This guy's in charge of our budget.
Wright/ I was just thinking the same thing.
Mims/ I was getting real nervous there too. Thanks for saying that.
(Laughter)
Bailey/ I don't think he calculated---
Mims/ Thirty-nine six, I think. Oops.
Wright/ I was thinking if we put in the Summer of the Arts at seventy---
Bailey/ Yeah. Mm-hm.
Wright/ ---and then chose to plug something in for, uh---
Wilburn/ Ralston Creek, we haven't .. .
Wright/ Ralston Creek. We're there.
Bailey/ Mm-hm.
Dickens/ Yep. Do we want $500 for them?
Hayek/ Yeah, let's see what that looks like.
Bailey/ What is it?
Wright/ We have $621eft over.
Bailey/ Oh, let's not spend it.
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Dickens/ But it's a contingency.
Bailey/ That's right.
Hayek/ He, Dale, these guys raise a question, uh, didn't mean to but some (inaudible) is that, we
had some money left over from last year's event. Is that included in this $110,000?
Helling/ That was a contingency, and it was, ultimately it was given to the, uh, um, Mission
Creek Festival.
Bailey/ Oh, that's right.
Hayek/ But did they get it? Did they actually come in and fill out that stuff?
Helling/ Yeah.
Karr/ Well, it's, it's---
Helling/ Yeah. There was some indication that they had sent us an e-mail that day of the
deadline.
Karr/ No, he's talking about whether you allocated the contingency. He's, he's agreeing with
how you got there.
Helling/ Yeah, okay. Yes, and my understanding is it's been, um, paid out, or---
Hayek/ Okay.
Helling/ ---at least Kathy had the paperwork for that. There was a check request, it wasn't, it was
signed by me, and I can't remember the date, back in November, I think, right after
Council said go ahead and do it.
Hayek/ Okay, so they got that balance.
Helling/ They should have it, yes.
Hayek/ Alright.
Helling/ Now, their event comes up in April, so they're, they're one of the few whose event
hasn't happened yet for FY11.
Hayek/ Okay. Thank you.
Karr/ What did you come up with, Kevin?
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O'Malley/ Um, excuse me, I came up with $40,600. That's $2,500, $400, $1,000, $1,500, $200,
$25,000, $3,000, and $7,000.
Karr/ And then add $70,000 to it and you---
Bailey/ I got $109,950.
Karr/ And you come up with $110,600. Is that right?
O'Malley/ Sounds right.
Karr/ $77,000. Because you had, $40,600 included seven, Kevin, or did not?
O'Malley/Did not include, included the $7,000 of---
Karr/ Okay, so you had seventy.
O'Malley/ Okay.
Karr/ Which is the tentative Summer of the Arts, which brings it up to $110,600. If that's correct.
Right? Yes. And the budget is $110,162.
Bailey/ I added up numbers that got to $109,950, so I must have added something wrong.
Wright/ Well, these two have us at $110,000, so .. .
Bailey/ Yeah, but see, I had us below budget.
Hayek/ And you do not have $500 for the Ralston Creek included in that?
Karr/ No.
Bailey/ No.
Mims/ So if we go $70,000 for SOTA, we're over.
Bailey/ Yes.
Wright/ Then we have to take a little off of some place.
Bailey/ So if we go about $500.. .
Wright/ We could go---
Mims/ If we take, if we take them down to $69,000, then that gives us a little bit of wiggle room.
Wright/ Yeah.
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Bailey/ Let's go through again what we're funding. Backyard Abundance, oh wait, nine, 319.. .
Karr/ I'm sorry. Could we speak up?
Hayek/ Yeah, will you guys speak louder, we' 11 .. .
Bailey/ Oh, I'm sorry.
Dickens/ Start with 319.
Bailey/ What are we, what are we funding again?
Karr/ Thank you, Terry.
Hayek/ Okay, we're at $2,500, 319 Music Fest, $2,500.
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ Backyard Abundance, $400.
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ Then you drop down, uh, nothing for the CSA Fair; nothing for Disability Awareness
month kick-Off; we have not decided Ralston Creek yet; uh, Free Art School---
Bailey/ $1,000?
Hayek/ ---there's a proposal for $1,000; Iowa City Book Festival, $1,500. CS --uh, String
Orchestra, $200; $25,000 for Fireworks; $3,000 for Landlocked; $7,000 for Riverside;
and something just shy of $70,000 for Summer of the Arts.
Bailey/ Okay.
Hayek/ I'd like to see us give something to the Ralston Creek Fair, I just don't, they've been
consistent, they've, they've been consistent and I think they do need to get others
sponsorships and outside funding, but to go to zero would be a little steep I think.
Dickens/ Yeah.
Mims/ Well, if we go $69,000 on Summer of the Arts---
Hayek/ Yeah.
Mims/ ---that gives us about $500.
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Bailey/ Well, and, also we've always been involved with Disability Awareness Month, so, I'm a
little, I mean, I think this Access to Independence is switched to asking for money
specifically for that event.
Hayek/ They, uh, yeah, I couldn't tell. They swapping one for the other?
Bailey/ Well, that's kind of---
Hayek/ Dale?
Bailey/ Dale do you have a .. .
Helling/ My, my, in the phone message I got the ADA Celebration was mentioned, so I don't
know. I don't know.
Bailey/ Well, it is a different time though, because, isn't, ADA, ADA is usually in July, right?
Helling/ Right.
Bailey/That's the anniversary. This is in October. Okay. They aren't switching them out.
Helling/ They're, they're not the same.
Bailey/ Right. Okay.
Wright/ They didn't, they didn't ask for anything for that.
Bailey/ So they must be switching their event. Never mind.
Helling/ Well, either that or they just didn't get their application in on time.
Mims/ I think they alluded to that last year.
Helling/ Hm. Might.
Bailey/Yeah. That's right.
Wright/ Yeah, they didn't ask.
Mims/ They did allude to it.
Wright/ The Disability Awareness Month .. .
Helling/ Yeah.
Wright/ ...asked last year and we didn't fund them, and .. .
Bailey/Okay, that, never mind I withdraw everything I just said.
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Wright/ Okay.
Hayek/Can I get, can we get $500 for Ralston Creek?
Mims/ Yeah, if we go $69,000 on SOTA.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Wright/ Susan's got the, numbers there.
Karr/ So $500 for .. .
Wilburn/ Yes.
Wright/ Ralston
Dickens/ Ralston Creek.
Karr/ $500 or $1,000? $500.
Bailey (and several others)/ $500.
Mims/ And we're left with an extra $62, I think?
O'Malley/ That's correct.
Bailey/Then maybe if 319 needs it.
Wright/ We could buy sparklers for the Fourth of July fireworks.
Bailey/Actually, we did pretty well with keeping the budget flat.
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/ 62 bucks going to contingency, or Book Fest? How about the book Fest?
Bailey/ How about 319? I think 319 is going to take a little bit more.
Dickens/ I'd give it to 319.
Hayek/ Yep.
Mims/ That's fine.
Karr/ So it's $2,562?
Wright/ Yep.
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Bailey/Leave no dollar unspent (laughs).
Hayek/ Okay, does that zero out the dollars?
Bailey/ Think so.
Hayek/ That's it.
Dickens/ Spent it all.
Hayek/ Spent it all.
Mims/ But we didn't go a penny over.
Hayek/ Right.
Wright/ We're very good at that.
Hayek/ Okay.
Bailey/ We are.
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Hayek/ Anything else we need to do on these allocations? We all good with it? Alright. Thank
you.
Dickens/ Matt, will you call Connie and tell her?
Hayek/No, I'm going to have you do it, um (laughter) .. .
Bailey/Can we do rock, paper, scissors for that?
Dickens/ I' 11 call her from Phoenix.
Hayek/ What do we need to accomplish in other budget. areas tonight, if anything?
Dickens/ You good?
Hayek/ I'm good.
Mims/ What about all the commissions and stuff, where, I mean, this is only my second time
through. I'm sorry I forget where we're at on that. I mean, we had them present tonight,
so where are we at with those decisions and, I mean, that's already built into the budget
and so that's .. .
Wright/ They're pretty much (inaudible) at this point.
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Hayek/Yeah, I ...well, you take for example the airport, they've got their capital projects, and
then they've got the City subsidy of the operating, um, which is a perennial discussion
point.
Mims/ Right (several at once).
Wilburn/ I think traditionally those have been either reaffirming their request, or they come and
ask for additional---
Mims/ Additional stuff.
Wilburn/ ---things that they were denied. For example, the, the staffing request that came
through, so .. .
Mims/ Right.
Wilburn/ So, unless somebody wants to play with that then.
Hayek/I mean they really are, I mean, the commissions have gone through avetting---
Mims/ The same budgeting as everyone else?
Hayek/---the same process as everyone else. These events, they have not. They come directly to
us.
Dickens/ I think you ought to give the Youth Commission more money (chuckles).
Hayek/ Yeah, that was fantastic. That was very good.
Bailey/ She did a very good job.
Dickens/ I have to recuse myself. My nephew's on it (laughs).
Wright/ Although, the, the performance that Riverside did was .. .
Bailey/ I don't know if we're going to start doing based upon presentation -well, and then we
had, you know, the step stool.
Mims/ Yep.
Wright/ Very creative.
Bailey/The thing that I will say about the Library Commission's request is, I, I mean, the point
about the furnishings and, you know, the maintenance that we're going to have to attend
to at some point. You've, I know you've probably all been in the building but it gets
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incredible use and it is becoming apparent. And I don't think any of us want our City
facilities to look like, we want them to be used but not well-worn.
Wright/ We don't want them to look like the University Library is what you're saying.
Dickens/ You can say that (laughter).
Bailey/ (Laughing) I, I don't know. I, I don't think I can say that. So, that's something to think
about. I don't know if it, if we're going to think about it now, but it's something to, it's
coming up---
Wright/ It's going to have to, it's going to have to happen.
Bailey/ -- just as the, just as the Park and Rec. That's coming up.
Dickens/ As economic times improve.
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/Do we have, are the materials in our facility, uh, sufficiently durable? You know, for
example, the use of carpet versus a longer lasting floor surface. I throw that out there, you
know, just remembering that the old library, I think, had a hard floor (laughs).
Bailey/You mean the Carnegie Library?
Hayek/ Yeah.
Bailey/ Yeah (laughs).
Craig/ You want an answer to that?
Hayek/ Sure. I mean, you know, or is there---
Bailey/I think the Carnegie is (unintelligible)
Mims/ Well, certainly sound is one of the---
Hayek/ Yeah, you have sound issues---
Craig/ If I had hard-surface floor in the whole library I would be asking for more than aquarter-
time maintenance person. Carpet is the easiest thing to take care of.
Hayek/ Really?
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Craig/ Carpet is the easiest thing to take care of. Somebody has to mop that lobby, that black
lobby every day, and those stairs, this kind of weather. I'd need more maintenance people
without carpet.
Hayek/ Carpet's better. Wow.
Bailey/I guess I did notice .. .
Wilburn/ Then somebody will slip on the mopped surface even though the sign's out and hurt
themselves.
Bailey/ Yeah.
Dickens/ (Unintelligible)
Mims/ Yeah. They have some pretty incredible carpeting these days. It holds up really well.
Wilburn/ that's what the airports use.
Mims/ Yeah.
Dickens/ And it can replace squares as they go bad.
Hayek/ Yeah. Okay.
Bailey/Well, it's nothing I'm suggesting that we have to discuss tonight, but it is something that
I think we've all noticed.
Wright/ It's looming.
Hayek/Needs to be on the radar.
Bailey/It's definitely looming.
Hayek/ Okay. Anything else? Okay. Well done. Thanks for your time. Anything else, staff?
Karr/ I was just questioning, the 27th still on if needed?
Mims/ What time is that Riverfront Crossings thing?
Hayek/It's five.
Karr/ Five.
Mims/ Five?
Dickens/ Five to seven.
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Mims/ I just got that invitation, so (inaudible).
Dickens/ That came in the mail today?
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Karr/ We've just got the schedule going out, so this is would be .. .
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Hayek/ Well, we' 11 defer to you guys. Do we, do we, do you want to determine whether we need
the 27tn~
Markus/ I don't think we do at this point. Kevin?
O'Malley/ No.
Wright/ We can leave it there for the time being, but it doesn't sound like we're going to need it.
Mims1 But we cancel it on Tuesday night?
Karr/ Sure.
Bailey/ For Monday night. That would feel so good.
Karr/ Or you could cancel it Monday or Tuesday, it's just the schedule comes out Thursday.
Hayek/Alright. Let's keep it in place and then we can, we can cut it out at the next, at the next
meeting. In case something comes up and then we got to have a rigmarole getting it back
on.
Karr/ Getting it back on. Okay.
Hayek/ Okay. Thank you for your hard work tonight, and we' 11 see you soon.
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Budget Work Session of January 18, 2011.