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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-02-14 TranscriptionFebruary 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Council Present: Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn, Wright Staff Present: Markus, Helling, O'Malley, Dilkes, Karr, Clark, Davidson, Long, Yapp, Ackerson, Dulek, Goers, Fosse Others Present: Higgins, UISG Council Appointments: Page i Hayek/ First agenda item is Council appointments. A couple for consideration. One for the Board of Adjustment...Adam Plagge. Champion/ (mumbled) (several talking) Oh, right, yes! Yes. Hayek/ (noises on mic, several talking) for Adam? Bailey/ Yeah. Champion/ Uh-huh. Hayek/ Okay. Champion/ (mumbled) ...like to see him get involved. Hayek/ Yeah. Wright/ Board of Adjustment, very interesting! (several talking) Hayek/ And then the other is, uh, Board of Appeals, uh, the licensed electrician position. Champion/ Matt Neumiller, who's serving an unexpired term. Hayek/ Okay? (several responding) Yes on both, uh, Marian. Okay, next item is agenda items. And keep in mind that several of them are actually on tonight's work session. Anything on the agenda...you want to discuss under this bullet? Okay, going once, going twice. Okay. Location of affordable housing. Agenda Items: Karr/ Elliot, did you want to talk about your issue now, it's an agenda item? Higgins/ Sure. Oh... Hayek/ Why don't we...yeah. We'll ratchet this back and uh...Elliot, if you wanted to cover your point, we can certainly do so. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2 ITEM 5. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. e) Correspondence Elliot Higgins: Landlord-tenant relations Higgins/ Certainly. I submitted a letter to the Council in the correspondence, uh, about landlord/ tenant relations. I had suggested that for a, um, pending work session and I'd still like to hopefully discuss that in the future, um, in my proposal I suggested two additions to the informational and acknowledgement disclosure form, which is a form that, uh, the landlords are given and they have to sign along with the tenant when they're signing the lease. So, um...they're two informational things. I wanted...initially I wanted to have the City kind of review leases and stuff, but I was told that that's probably not...it can't really be done. So this is something that I can't...that I think can be done, um, a lot of tenants have problems with security deposits and getting the security deposits back. So hopefully this will alleviate that concern. Um, so I...I mean, I'd be glad to have any input or questions that you guys may have about that. Mims/ I know the one that you had on there, in terms of, um, the tenant and the landlord signing at the same time of an inspection. That is State law in the State of Kansas. And let me tell you, I've had two kids go to the University of Kansas, and it was really nice to have that, um, if they...if the landlord did not go through with the tenant, and do an inspection and sign off on it at the beginning, they could not, under law, keep their deposit, regardless of what happened. One of my kids lost out (mumbled) Champion/ Well I think that's a very valuable tool! Mims/ There's, I mean, I've encouraged my kids in the past to videotape when they go in and (several talking) because, I mean, I've had four kids in college. They've all run into the same issues at various times. Wright/ (noises on mic) suggestion. Bailey/ I do too! Yeah, I think they are. Champion/ (both talking) Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I actually didn't have any of my kids have problems with landlords. Mims/ (mumbled) couple that did. Champion\ (mumbled)...cause Iwas the landlord! (laughter) Hayek/ (laughter) ...living with you, but uh...well, uh, I think a question is what can the City, uh, require on that form and uh, as it starts...you know, with the condition of the property? Can (noises on mic) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 3 Dilkes/ Let...let me just say first of all that I appreciate Elliot's, um, talking to me about a lot of his ideas. Um...a lot of his ideas seem like good ideas, but the State Code, um, has a lot of law about tenant/landlord relations, and um, we're pre-empted in most of the areas that we've talked about. Um...basically what I told, um, Elliot is that...that I thought that we could provide information, and we could...we already had this information disclosure form and that we could...if we wanted to, um, include additional information on that form. It could require an amendment to the City Code, I think, but we can do that. Um...the proposed, the specific proposals he's made, I have not...I had not looked at until, um, last week. With respect to the first one, um, and I don't know if you guys want to talk about this now or just want to have staff give you a memo on this or... Bailey/ I'm interested in pursuing that; if we can talk about it now that's fine with me, but if it takes a staff memo, whatever... Hayek/ Are you ready, is staff ready to talk about (several talking) Dilkes/ I mean, I can talk briefly about it. I think as long as we limit it to the providing of information, that...that we can do that, um, legally. I think we can note, say that the checklist might be a good idea on the form. I don't think that we can require that it be filled in. I don't think that that...we have the authority to regulate that relationship. Um, and secondly, I think we can provide a forwarding address, um...a place for the tenant to put a forwarding address, although I think there are some...practical concerns about that. Um...and that involves the...how that would interact with the State law. The State law says that a landlord must pro...must refund the, uh, deposit within 30 days of the termination of the tenancy, and the tenant providing, uh, the landlord with forwarding instructions, which is why, um, Elliot I think is concerned about that, cause it doesn't happen sometimes. But when I started thinking about this, I'm concerned about what if that forwarding address that's provided at the beginning of the, um, tenancy changes, um...what if a judge decides that that's not sufficient forwarding instructions, and have we created an expectation that it is. Um, when does that 30-day period start to run, if a forwarding address is provided at the time the ten...the, uh, at the beginning of the lease, um...and a different address is provided, uh, at the end of the lease, and I think there are a lot of issues there that are going to make that from a practical perspective maybe not...not wise. So... Champion/ But now you do, I mean, the law was passed (mumbled) money has to be refunded within 30 days. I don't know if that's important to have a forwarding address on the lease, cause I would think anybody renting an apartment would make sure the landlord knew where to send their refund! Higgins/ Well, Connie, I think a lot of the problem is, you know, these tenants don't really understand that they have to provide it. They don't really think about it. They don't know, um, I mean (mumbled) they're not well versed. Often times it's their first time (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 4 Champion/ It's probably, yeah, especially the freshmen, I mean, the sophomores. I don't know how you handle that. Wright/ Do we know if Ames or Cedar Falls have anything along these lines? Bailey/ Have you talked to anybody at...on those campuses? Higgins/ I have not. Bailey/ That might be something that would help, I mean, if they've been able to do something in those communities. (several talking) Champion/ ...that's a big problem! Mims/ Yeah, I mean, they have a very good state law down there, because we had a major issue and I ended up dealing with representatives who kind of work between landlords and tenants, and they filled me in on exactly what we needed to do and what the process was and, you know...and it worked very well! Hayek/ Well, it sounds like, uh, we can't require the first one, and... could maybe require the second one, but that's fraught with... Dilkes/ Well I think you can require the...the first part of the first one, which is to provide information about the...the desirability of a checklist on the disclosure form. I don't think we can require that they...the tenant and landlord fill it out. Hayek/ And...and that's what I'm going to, so, uh, we're really looking at this in terms of an information.. . Dilkes/ Yes! Hayek/ ...providing opportunity. Dilkes/ Yes! Higgins/ So as opposed to like having a spot for the tenant to...to put a forwarding address, could we have like just the information that in order to have...get it returned, you need to provide a forwarding address? Dilkes/ Sure. Champion/ That'd be good. Dilkes/ I don't think that's a problem (several talking) Champion/ That's great! That eliminates the problem with the wrong address. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page s Wright/ Still have to read it! Hayek/ It at least brings it to the tenant's attention, um... Dilkes/ It's another way...it's another way to bring it to the tenant's attention, you know, that's brought...we include that in our little in...intro packet for students that Marsha does and I think it's provided in a variety of ways, but this would certainly be another way to provide that information. Hayek/ Could, you know, could we go about this as follows...would, if Elliot could check with, uh, Ames and Cedar Falls to see what if anything they do on this, and then coordinate with staff to come up with a proposed change to that disclosure form, and bring it to our attention, go that way? That way we've vetted the linkage issues before we take it up for a vote, or for consideration. Champion/ I think the idea of, um, protection of tenants as far as damage to property (mumbled) bring up with our legislators next year. Or, you should! Higgins/ I plan on it! Champion/ I mean, that's how this student one... Bailey/ ...wait though (both talking) Champion/ ...got done at the state level. (mumbled) Hayek/ Okay. Thanks, Elliot. This is a...good work! Okay, let's go to housing. Location of Affordable Housing (Agenda #11): Davidson/ Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council. I'm Jeff Davidson, the Director of Planning. With me are Steve Long, uh, Community Development Director, and Kris Ackerson, Associate Planner, with the MPO of Johnson County. (mumbled) to saying that! And I did want to let everyone know that Mike and Dale and Tom and I will be appearing at the Hampton Inn later out in Coralville. I don't know how we all ended up in blue blazers here, but (laughter)...um, at your last work session, uh, we had a good discussion of the proposed affordable housing location model, and we took that opportunity to step through all of the factors that are proposed to go into that model and...demonstrate how they are tied to the goals that you gave us, um...and ultimately the weighting of the criteria in the model are...basically is to address those concerns that Council had, to try and avoid concentrations of affordable housing, to have diversity in our neighborhoods in terms of socioeconomic, uh, status of the individuals who live there. And the impact of affordable housing on elementary schools. Those being the principle factors that we're trying, uh, to get at, and you seemed, uh, we had a good discussion and Council, uh, basically seemed satisfied, uh, with the model in terms of This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 6 using it to go forward and use it as adecision-making tool, and that will be happening rather quickly. Long/ (mumbled) Thursday. Davidson/ Okay, Thursday the...the HCDC will start their, uh, discussions of projects for the upcoming year, so we, uh, if...if you decide to adopt it, it is on your formal meeting agenda tomorrow. If you choose to adopt it, um, we will then use it as a tool from this point forward; um... Steve did want to announce that, uh, I think we told you that we were going to update the model every year in December. We're now going to do that in November (several talking) ...just to tie it to the timing of everything a little bit better. Um, when...when staff was discussing, um, basically what to prepare tonight, uh, you know, we're here to answer any questions you have, uh, either about the...the model specifically or our thoughts of how the model was constructed. Um, the...the only issue really that we could recall from the discussion last time was, uh, the notion of basically what the model's going to be used for and not used for, and I guess specifically, that we are not proposing that it would be used for locations of the rehabilitation of existing rental properties, and that really seemed to be the only thing that Council, uh, had much discussion of, uh, and we're happy to have additional discussion, if you'd like. If it's something that you feel like as been resolved in your minds, uh, we certainly don't need to, but that was the only thing we could really think of that...that was a matter of contention at all last week. So, um, with that, Mr. Mayor, we can open it up for discussion again. Hayek/ Wou1d...Jeff accurately identified what I think was the one sticking point in last week's discussion, which was on rehab. I've had conversations with staff since then that, uh, answered that for me, but I'm not sure everybody else has, so maybe we should just talk about that briefly, um...and...and, if you could explain for us, what that carve out means and what it does not mean. Davidson/ Where we're coming from with the proposal that we would not...I mean, you can see the little tag here on the...on the map model. The...the notion of housing for elderly and persons with disabilities, or the rehabilitation of existing rental properties, we feel...does not impact Council's goals listed in the memo you received of, basically, having diversity of income levels in our neighborhoods, and not further burdening elementary schools. That the rehabilitation of existing rental units does not contribute to those things that Council has identified as concerns. And that's basically staff's philosophy with it. Champion/ Well, my concern was that people could rehab a structure that was not rental, low- income rental, and turn it into low-income rental, but however, I think you pointed out they could not use, uh, public monies to buy that building, so I decided that was probably pretty unlikely. Long/ That's correct, yes. Mims/ I'm comfortable with it. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page ~ Wright/ Yeah, so am I (several talking) Champion/ Well, I'm going to support it. Mims/ And I think (mumbled) kind of look at this, I mean, it's going to be redone every year and...with the numbers, and... Champion/ It's a start! Mims/ It's a place to start, I agree! Davidson/ I...I would imagine Eleanor wants us to point out that we're...we're not planning on bringing the model back to you to decide if you still want to use it or if you want to change anything every year. What we're going to do is update the data set (several talking) every year, and I guess it would be a matter of four Members of the City Council deciding they wanted to make any changes (several responding) but otherwise we'll just update the data set every year. Wright/ Right, it'd be up to the Council to determine if this is actually doing what we wanted it to do. Davidson/ And ultimately when you see the projects that are proposed for you, hopefully they will be consistent with this model, they will be consistent with this model, but you'll have to determine at that point if it's...if it's doing what you wanted it to do. Wright/ Exactly! Bailey/ Uh-huh. Hayek/ And...and I think the...the likelihood of that carve-out creating an unexpected outcome or...or some sort of loophole, uh, we weren't intending is small, and that we should just take a wait and see approach and see how this plays out. Champion/ Right! Bailey/ Well, the Council goals are clearly outlined here so that loophole, combined with the Council goals, I think, will move in that direction and I think that's a significant part of the model is understanding the philosophy that underpins it. Wright/ (mumbled) very good job of reflecting Council's conversation and intent. Bailey/ Yeah. (mumbled) Hayek/ Okay. Um, so that issue seems resolved, that sub-issue. Are there others relating to the proposed model? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page s Mims/ The only thing I guess I'd like to clarify, and I know I had talked to Eleanor maybe after the meeting the other...last time, just in the wording here, and I...and I believe the weight, it's worded in the resolution, my concern was, um, in not applying this to...to housing projects for the elderly or persons with disabilities, were we in any way leaving kind of a loophole open where somebody could say that's what it was going to be for, so they could put it in that area, and then change it around later, and I just want to raise that publicly because I mean I felt comfortable with her explanation that they feel, staff feels the wording is such that that cannot happen. I think... so I think the public needs to, you know, understand that we've looked at that and addressed it and...and feel like we don't have a loophole there. Dilkes/ I think that's right. I think the language, we specifically talked about that language, and used language that...that we thought addressed the types of projects we were talking about. Hayek/ All right. Anything else on this issue? Mims/ I think it's quite an accomplishment, and again, want to say thanks to staff, the number of people who've been involved and put in a lot of hard work, cause I think...I think we've come out with a great model that's...it'd be interesting to see how it works and hopefully, uh, works well, and hopefully the providers in the community feel good about it too. Davidson/ Yes, we've had some comments already that, uh, you know, not surprisingly, they just...they like knowing what the ground rules are (several talking) that point, uh, and I will also say that we're getting a lot of interest from, uh, other places. Nothing like having a Gannett newspaper in your community, all the (several talking and laughing) close communities are contacting us wanting to know more about it, so... Bailey/ Good! Hayek/ I think the front-end work that you guys did before this even got to Council... Bailey/ Oh, yeah! Hayek/ Made all the difference, because our, you know, our deliberation was considerably shorter than...we expected, and it's because the product was so good. So... Davidson/ We appreciate that. Mims/ Maybe you should talk to Eleanor about patenting this and (several talking and laughing) Bailey/ ...can we make any money from that interest (several talking and laughing) Mims/ Patenting this model? (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 9 Long/ Have had interest from Florida, Texas, cities around the country are struggling with these same issues. Wright/ Maybe a copyright (mumbled) (several talking) Davidson/ Thank you! Hayek/ All right, thanks! (noises on mic) Next item, firearms on City property and facilities. Firearms on City Property/Facilities (A~enda #16): Dilkes/ Eric's been, um, doing...primarily the one doing the work on this, so I'm going to have him run through it with you. Goers/ Good evening! Uh, hopefully you've all received the memo I wrote, which I'll apologize for (mumbled) which sided to another opinion. Um, the last two from the City, or the Attorney General's office. Uh, the only two things I really wanted to kind of call to your attention, uh, tonight are...are one, about the City's ability to act here. That was, uh, the greatest part of my memorandum. Uh, we really see ourselves as like any other property owner, uh, in that we can control, um, firearms or who comes onto the property, uh, and that's been a support that's, or a view that's been shared by the Attorney General's office and presumably a number of others, uh, city attorneys, uh, based on the fact that other cities have passed similar restrictions. Um, the resolution that we put together in this instance was the product of speaking with all the department heads, particularly the ones who have some control over property, be it parks or transportation services, um, the library, those kind of things, and then, um, Eleanor and I got with Tom, and we talked about what he would like to see, uh, and that resulted in us carving out, uh, a number of exceptions, uh, for...from, I guess I should say, just more or less a blanket ban on property owned by the City, and I should clarify, we're not talking about anywhere within the City limits. We're talking about property that's, you know, typically owned by the City, uh, with the exception of course of the right-of--way, the roads. We're not going to be banning you know on the roads. So, uh, a couple of the ones that, uh, I wanted to call out were, uh, in the parking lots and...and parking ramps. We felt like it's more or less, I think to use Tom's expression, it's more or less an extension of the roadway. Maybe not legally, but that's the way people would probably think of it as, and if we have the, uh, firearms in a trunk or outside the passenger compartment unloaded, and you know, either properly cased or in another container, then that's probably not something that we're very concerned about. We of course don't want them walking around with them on their person, um, and that's where we drew the line anyway, subject to your approval, um, and that also leads me to another point, um, we revised the resolution briefly, um, we revised two parts. The last `whereas' in paragraph four, just changing it from properly cased, that is a requirement that the weapons be properly cased in, uh, the lots, uh, to inside a closed and fastened container, uh, to match the State Code provision and to lend a little bit of....little bit more clarity so we didn't have to answer questions about what does properly cased mean. Um, we've also carved out exceptions for, uh, those with professional permits, such as armored car drivers. We...I see them This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page to walking in the revenue about every day. Um, so folks like those, and uh, of course for military funerals, um, law enforcement of course is one. Uh, that's about all the comments I have, but I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. Wilburn/ In paragraph, uh, four, on the... Goers/ Of the resolution? Wilburn/ ...uh, yeah. Um...you know, firearms may be possessed in an area designated as a Farmer's Market, whether in a vehicle or not. Is that during the hours or in the area... Goers/ Sorry, I wanted to let you finish. Uh, yeah, during hours when the Farmer's Market is present. Wilburn/ Okay, all right. And does that need to be spelled out or not? Goers/ Well, we would probably do so in the signing. Uh, that's one of the other components of this, is that we of course would sign everything, because this is all enforceable really only through trespass, which is a State Code, uh, crime. It would be prosecuted by the County Attorney's office, so it's important for us that we produce for them a prosecutable case, uh, which would fall on proper posting. This isn't the kind (both talking) Wilburn/ So during the hours of... Goers/ Yeah, much like there are already parking signs in Chauncey Swan ramp where we have Farmer's Market that say no parking here after 1:00 on these days, you know. Wilburn/ Right. Goers/ Similar kind of idea there. Wilburn/ Got it. Champion/ We're going to have to sign every public building? Goers/ Yes, if we want to enforce it, yes. Bailey/ Just like the Library's signed now. Hayek/ What's that? Bailey/ The Library's signed now. Goers/ Right, the Library Board of Trustees already passed their resolution and their signs are already up. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Paget t Hayek/ Seems straightforward. Is there something we're missing, any element of this that... Goers/ Well, I don't think so, I mean, I don't want to suggest that it would be impossible for us to be challenged in this. The NRA, among other groups, has indicated that they're planning on, you know, challenging any, uh, cities that, um, put forth these kinds of things. We are not the first city to do so; there have been a number already, including in Iowa, who have already done something like this, um, I think we...have a good legal standing. Certainly not (mumbled) guarantee victory in the courts. I would be a fool to do that in any kind of case, but uh, we feel confident about our...our standing to do so here. Wright/ Well, and it's good that this has been already, uh, vetted by the State Attorney General's office. Goers/ Not this resolution specifically, but (both talking) Wright/ The concept. Goers/ Yes, that's exactly right. Wright/ That we are following a recommendation (mumbled) Hayek/ Is there...have other cities approached this, uh, to a lesser or a greater extent? Goers/ Well, let's see...um, many of the cities, uh, include an exemption for the military, uh, we did not. Um, because the Chief Hargadine didn't think it was necessary. Um, but to offer up some protection I included a clause to the effect of, `except with the permission of the Chief of Police,' just figuring that that would be kind of a catch-all, save-all, and of course the reality is that if the National Guard let's say for example were called in to support and uh, and we welcomed their presence to Iowa City, obviously we wouldn't prosecute them. Uh, so, you know, there's no requirement that we would need to of course. Um, I'm trying to think of any other...I mean, I suppose there...I don't know that other cities have allowed in their ramps. Of course a lot of cities don't have as many ramps as...(mumbled) just small things like that. I haven't seen any that call out an exception for the cemetery, but we think that since the cemetery directory indicates we do have 21-gun salutes occasionally, we thought it'd be best to go ahead and include that. Again, with the written permission of the cemetery director I think is how I phrased it. Wright/ (mumbled) Hayek/ Okay. Bailey/ Very clear. Hayek/ Other questions for Eric? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page t2 Champion/ I'm trying to think if...the military formal attire is a firearm, like a police formal attire, I mean, part of their formal attire is a firearm. If the military is in formal dress, like for a wedding or something, are they required to carry a firearm? Goers/ I was told that...in my discussions with Chief Hargadine, I asked whether, you know, recruiters, for example, came on, and he said yes, they're in uniform and they do not bear arms. Champion/ No, they don't. Goers/ Uh, he indicated that basically there would be no reason for the member of the military to be armed here. Hayek/ And we really don't have City facilities for...I mean, we don't have a hotel, for example. I...I think the scenario you're thinking of is unlikely on City property. Champion/ Oh, right. Oh, right, of course. You're right! Wright/ There's always the (several talking) chief of police. Champion/ Never mind, I'm (several talking) Wilburn/ ...the Guard is on...on, uh, drills, uh, and they have their, um, their weapons, they're on the roadway, uh, or the right-of--way, in transit, um...and I don't...I don't recall them doing maneuvers in City Park or anything like that, but...and even in those situations, they may have the, um, I'm thinking of Davenport. When I was in we had our weapons, but not, um, not (mumbled) so... Hayek/ I think the Police Chief permission catch-all addresses a lot (several talking) Mims/ I agree. Hayek/ Okay. Goers/ Thank you (several talking) Higgins/ ...this doesn't really apply to your memo, but do you know if guns allowed on University property? Goers/ I don't (know). Wright/ Actually, I don't believe they are, um...with the exception of...hunting rifles, which have to be disassembled and kept in a vehicle. I...I think that's right. Higgins/ I was just curious. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page ~3 Wright/ I know they're not allowed in any of the (several talking) Hayek/ County...the County's doing this or looking at it... Goers/ Yeah, they're looking at it. Of course it's a more complicated issue for them because they have property where hunting's allowed. Hayek/ Sure! Goers/ So I had asked that question of our Parks and Rec, you know, no, we don't have any of that here, so...it's perhaps simpler for us. Wright/ (mumbled) sharpshooting of the deer, that could (both talking) Goers/ ...we could do that with the Chief of Police permission, if we wish to do that. Hayek/ Okay, thank you, Eric. Champion/ Yeah, thanks, Eric. Sounds like common sense to me! Hayek/ Next item is, uh, gifts and our naming policy proposal. Gifts/Naming Policy Recommendations (A~enda #15): Fosse/ I'm just here to wake up the computer! Champion/ Oh! (several talking) Bailey/ Thought we were going to name a waste water treatment plant! Fosse/ Yeah! (laughter) Bailey/ I'm sure we would, for the right amount! (laughter) Wright/ If somebody wants to give that much money! Bailey/ That's exactly right! Dilkes/ Gifts and name, Tom...have you resolved what we're doing with the gifts and naming policy? Markus/ I think we're going to kick it over. Dilkes/ Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page ~4 Hayek/ That's right. I got copied on that email. Um...as I understand it, the...the ad hoc policy can't have someone in attendance, either tonight or tomorrow night. Markus/ It cannot. Hayek/ It cannot, so they could like us to defer this. Champion/ Okay. Dilkes/ That's my understanding (several talking) Hayek/ Sorry about that. It slipped my mind. So, short shrift of that item tonight! That takes us to wastewater! Wastewater Facilities Plan (A~enda #13): Wilburn/ You don't look too excited there, Rick! Fosse/ Oh, this is fun stuff here! (laughter) Bailey/ Found a cure for insomnia! Dickens/ It was interesting reading! (several talking) Bailey/ Yeah, (several talking) Champion/ I gotta honestly tell you that I didn't find it interesting at all! (laughter) But I do think it's very important! (laughter) Fosse/ Well, good evening and happy Valentine's Day! (laughter) Let me begin by introducing the folks with me here tonight. Uh, first of all I'll start with Ben Clark. He's our Special Projects Manager on this project. He is in-house staff, and some of you may recall a number of years ago, Ben was our survey party chief, and then he went back to engineering school and got a BS and a MS degree and picked up some experience in the private sector, and we are very happy to have him back on our staff and managing this project. So that's...that's great news for us! Uh, to my left is...is Jay Brady, and Jay's with Stanley Consultants and he's the principle environmental engineer on this project, and to my right is Bennett Reishchauer, who is the...also with Stanley Consultants and is our project manager. So, uh, this subject is very deep so I thought I'd bring these guys along to answer questions, if...if they get to that level, and with that let's...let's dive in. Uh, what we're (coughing, unable to hear) tonight is, uh, tomorrow night on your agenda is a...a resolution to approve, uh, this...or to consider this document, which is our facilities plans, the expansion of the south wastewater treatment plant, and this...this document is a part of the regulatory process, uh, that's...that's put forth by the DNR. And, it...it pretty much represents, uh, a transition from the planning phase to the preliminary design phase. Once we lock in on these things that are...that are put out This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page is here. Um...what I'll do tonight is...is just go through this document pretty much in the order in which it's presented, and uh, we'll go through it at an upper-level view, and then we can dig deeper anywhere that you want to dig deeper on it, uh, but let me begin by reminding you why we're doing this project, and it's because of the flooding that we experienced at the north wastewater treatment plant. Uh, we do have some flood plain at the south wastewater treatment plant, as well, but it's a much more manageable flood plain. It's on a local creek, not the Iowa River. So it doesn't interfere hydraulically with the plant. There are things that we can design for, and factor that in on...on this project. Um, we'll be moving down to this site, uh, down to the south wastewater treatment facility, and um, let's see...let me just dive right into the first section of the...of the report then, and that is, uh, flow and loads, and an easy way to put that is how much sewage do we expect to get and how dirty do we expect it to be. Uh, we really need to estimate those things before we can begin to design and expansion of this plant to replace the north plant, and also to provide for growth over the next, uh, 30 years, and what we've done is we're considering a 30-year design horizon. Uh, what we found is...is we need to break that up into two phases, and we'll talk more about that later, but we're looking down the road 30 years here, cause you really need to do that with the projects of this magnitude. Um, what...we've worked with the Planning Department, Jeff and his staff, to determine what sort of growth should we be planning for, and what we landed on is...is a growth rate of approximately 1.1% and that reflects the past long-term growth for our community, and this is a map that goes along with it. Let me explain this map cause there's a lot of things going on here. Uh, the yellow in the map is, uh, areas that are already developed, gray is undeveloped; the blue lines that you see are our major arterial roadway projects that are, uh, on the books but are not built yet. We have Oakdale Boulevard, Highway 965, uh, we've got McCollister, we've got the east-west arterial that...that takes off from the interchange there by the...by the Fairgrounds, and goes over and connects to McCollister, and then we have 420th Street. So that'll help get your bearings with those major roads around our perimeter, and then there are also three lines on here, uh, the first one is a white line, and that represents our best estimate, based on that 1.1 % growth rate of the approximate boundaries, uh, in 2025 and then in pink is 2040, and then in black is the long-term. Now, one of the ways that this map is easier to develop than the map that's in the Comp Plan is exactly where the growth occurs is not as important to us as how much growth. So think of this perimeter like a balloon, you can push in in one area and it goes out in another area. What's important to us is the area inside that line, and that's really what determines how much sewage we're going to get and what size of...kind of loads that we need to design for. That make sense? (several responding) Okay. Um...next we look at...at the effluent requirements. That is, we...first we estimate how dirty the water is, or will be, and...and then we need to ask ourselves how clean do we need to make it before we put it back in the Iowa River, and that's what this is all about. Uh, the answer that's shaping up, and we don't have the complete answer yet, but this is our best estimate at this time, is...is the, uh, effluent requirements for the new combined plant will be more stringent than our existing effluent requirements, and that's primarily for a couple reasons. Uh, the first has to do with the anti-degradation analysis, which is a new design approach that...that is in place now that was not in place at the time we did our last expansion. The other, and I find this interesting, is that we are taking two outlets into the river that are a couple miles apart, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page ~6 and we're combining them into one, and by...by having two outlets that are separated, we're taking advantage of the river's ability to deal with the waste that we put in it. When you concentrate them all in one spot, then...then it needs to be cleaner before it's discharged there. Uh, so that's...what we've done here is highlighted in yellow, uh, some of those parameters that are more stringent, uh, than we're already experiencing. Uh, the next slide I want to show you is not in the report, but I found it fascinating, and that is, uh, comparing our drinking water standards to wastewater effluent standards, and...and those that are highlighted in yellow are actually more stringent for wastewater than they are for drinking water. Our wastewater plant will be held to a higher standard for total residue chlorine, uh, copper, cyanide, mercury, uh, finals, actually not finals. Silver, zinc, and toluene. So it's...it's fascinating. I think it has to do with the way the aquatic life metabolizes these things, uh, but that's...that's the regulatory environment that we're working in right now. Champion/ Uh. Fosse/ I find that interesting. Um... Champion/ So we should all be drinking at the hose that goes into the river. Fosse/ No! Don't do that! (laughter) Cause I will point out that our...that our drinking water, uh, does not approach these limits of any of these constituents that are showing on this page. It's much cleaner than that. It's just the standards to which we are held to. Um... so the next step is assessing the existing facilities and developing alternatives and...and looking at those alternatives and seeing what's going to work best for us. And one of the things that I want to point out here, and...and this is a tribute to Smadakey, the Public Works' Director before...before Iwas here is that...that many of the features in this plant that you see here anticipated this eventual migration of the north plant down here. Uh, those things were thought about back in the 90s, and...and around 2000 and designed for it to make it more feasible and less expensive, and that's why that long view design horizon is so important. I'll always be thinking out in advance there. Um, this is an aerial view of the south plant site and let me show you, uh, what's anticipated down there. You see both red and blue improvements showing, uh, red is the phase one improvements, and those...those are what we're contemplating in the next couple of years, building them, and then the blue is, uh, the improvements that will be constructed roughly around 2025. Now if that growth rate is faster than 1.1%, then we'll be building the blue stuff sooner. If it's slower than 1.1%, we'll be doing it later. Uh, but the reason it's split into a couple projects, into two phases, is a few reasons. One is it...we can't afford to do it all right now, and even if we could, if...if, uh, wastewater treatment plant is...is over-sized significantly, it's difficult to operate. It's hard to make the...manage the microbes and all the other things that make them work well. So we need to have a long-design horizon but build it in segments that are manageable for us. So let's just go through the process. In the upper corner here in the first phase, in red, will be expanding the...the equalization basins so that, uh, that provides storage when the water is coming in faster than we can treat it. We need to have a greater capacity there. Uh, once...once we're in the facility, and 2025 we'll need to improve our ability to screen the waste water This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page t~ that's coming in there. Our grid chambers will, uh, we'll add two grid chambers initially, and then another one in 2025. Uh, we are reserving some space over here so that if we choose at some later date to do on-site pretreatment for industrial waste, uh, we have a space to do that. We're not that far from the industrial park here, and if... if we have industrial users with specific wastes, we're better off treating those separately before they go into the rest of our waste stream, rather than mixing them all in, dealing with those specific constituents at that... Dickens/ Is there any...plan if, like the EPA or whoever is involved, changes their rules as we go along? Fosse/ Yeah, we're going to talk about that! Dickens/ Okay (laughter) Fosse/ We've been there before, and I want to show you (both talking) uh, working our way through the...through the plan here, uh, we'll be expanding the blowers some now, and then again in 2025. Uh, for our aeration basins, we'll be extending the chambers now, and then in 2025 we'll...we'll parallel them with some additional runs. Uh, we may just break the fence line at that point, and we'll talk more about that in a little bit. Um, we are looking at going to UV disinfection and that'll get us away from chlorination and de- chlorination, so we'll not be working with one-ton cylinders compressed chlorine gas or um...what's the chemical that we use to de-chlorinate? Sulfur dioxide also is in compressed one-ton cylinders. You get away from all those chemicals and it's just a good move...move for us down there. And...and the UV disinfection should work very well for us. Uh, we'll also be putting in some gravity sludge thickeners, uh, we'll be adding some...some digestive storage in the long-term, and then we'll be adding in some secondary clarifiers, two now and then another one in the long-term. And then roughly in about 2025 we will need to add a parallel outfall sewer, and that's something that's been anticipated from when we originally built the plant. We got adequate easement for both pipes. We built the first pipe off to one side and we'll build the other one parallel to that. So those are the...the, both the short and...and long-term improvements within the design frame of this project, and let's...let's step back a little bit and look at the entire site now. Uh, if you go back to the 80s, we bought this entire site, uh, for waste water treatment plant usage, and we've been able to limit our use of this site to this...this north- east corner, and if things go well we'll continue to be able to limit our use to that north- east corner through 2040. We can squeeze everything in there, and we won't need to go out into the soccer fields. Uh, but in 2040 there' 11 be some additional improvements required and that's when we really need to be thinking about, uh, you know, planning ahead for finding another spot for most of the soccer facilities there. Um, now back...back to your point, is that if...if there are changes in the federal regulations prior to 2040, that could force us out there sooner than later, and...and I'll show you an example of that, and (coughing, unable to hear) back when we built the...originally back in...in 1989, we built this plant for $12 million. It's very cheap to start from scratch. You're not working around anything. $12 million, and we were barely done with the project and the ammonia standards changed. And, uh, we had ten years to come in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page ~s compliance with those ammonia standards, uh, but it cost us about $25 million to get there, and you can see the difference in the two facilities. So you can imagine if other things, if other regs changed in the future how quickly we could spill out onto the soccer site. Hayek/ So how do we hedge against that, other than reserving space? Fosse/ Well, we are...designing in, we have an idea of some of the changes that are out there, and one of them has to do with phosphorous. And we're designing in ability to alter this process through better treat phosphorous in the future, and we do that by chemical means, by chemical feed, so we're putting a spot in for that. We're not going to build the equipment now. We don't want it just sitting there waiting, but we're designing in for that to go in there. Uh, can you think of any other examples, Jay, where we're doing that? Brady/ Uh, the process that's being used to treat the waste water has an ability to remove some nitrogen now, and that's another standard that's potentially looming before you is total nitrogen requirements, uh, so we'll, uh...design the process to...to maximize that to the extent, uh, feasible, um, but if the requirements get too stringent, that's when you would have to go with a different, uh, add-on process that then would spill over onto the soccer complex. Champion/ Nitrogen gets into the waste water how, from lawns? From fertilizers? Brady/ Uh, no, uh, nitrogen comes from you and me and everybody else. That's part of our excretions. (Wlburn)/ How about the chlorine, that's why you're going to ultraviolet? So you don't have to treat that downstream then too? Brady/ Right, uh...uh, the reason to get away from chlorine gas, which is currently used there now, is...is multiple, uh, it's a security risk in this day and age with all the terrorist activity. It's a health and safety hazard for the plant staff, and it's also a health and, uh, potential health and safety, um, hazard for, uh, people down at the soccer complex, if there was an uncontrolled release, uh, that would blossom out. So, uh, the idea is to...to get away from chlorine gas to the extent possible and... and UV was the disinfection process that, um, that was preferred. Fosse/ Thank you, Jay! Dickens/ Has this been discussed, now you're taking soccer fields eventually in 30 years, and you know, they keep talking improvements down there. Would that... is this plan going to be kind of (coughing, unable to hear) with Parks and Rec's... Fosse/ Yes, yes, we've already been talking with Mike (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page i 9 Dickens/ Okay, before they put too much more money down there, if we're talking 30 years. Fosse/ Speaking of money, let's take a look at that (laughter). Construction cost estimate, uh, again, I...I mentioned that we can't afford to build this all at once, so it's broken into two phases, uh, the first phase our initial project would be about $46.7 million, uh, second phase that we can expect...expect in roughly 15 years is...is another $44 million. So we need to keep moving on all this. Uh, the good news is that the $46.7 million is less than the $47.9 million that's in our budget, and which you're going to have the public hearing on tomorrow night. Uh, it's too early to start, uh, carving this down. That's very little factor of safety built within the budget for this, but I'm pleased to see that our projected improvements, right now, are less than...than our budgeted amount, but we're not through everything with the DNR yet. A lot can happen. Market conditions can change, you know, if the economy turns around and things really boom, construction gets more expensive, so there's all sorts of factors that can enter into this. Um, schedule. We are up at this point right now, we're preparing to consider the facility's plan tomorrow night. The other end of all this is April 1 of 2014, in which we hope to be operational. I know it's...it's not good etiquette to have April Fool's Day as the completion date, but it does give us some wiggle room, uh, in the schedule that way. Um, what I want to point out is...is that a number of these steps along the way are outside of our control, and the ones that I've highlighted in red all involve, uh, the regulatory process, that's when we ship things off to the DNR and...and we work with them and await the approvals. So...these are unknowns. We can pretty well control the things that we are doing, that...uh, those are the steps that we will be working with the DNR on, uh, there may be, uh, situations where we...we overlap a little bit, we gamble on how they're going to respond to get started on the next phase of design, just to keep stuff moving along, cause we really want to get this project complete by April 1 of 14, and that would be consistent with our, our, um, funding agreement with the EDA. Let me back up a step and...and just show you the...the funding package for this. We have $22 million in federal EDA grants. We have $5 million from Community Development Block Grants. We have $5.5 million of I-Jobs that potentially could go up to $12 million, depending on what if any is returned from other I-Jobs projects that either come in under budget or don't materialize at all, and then we have roughly $13.5 million of local option sales tax in this, and then we have about $1.9 million in, uh, waste water revenues invested in this. So, if we are...are more successful with the I-Jobs, what that can do is help shift some of the money over to Dubuque Street, some of that, uh, some of the local option sales tax, or...and/or reduce the amount of waste water user fees that we're putting into this. So with that, we'll open it up to questions and...and find out what's on your mind. Dickens/ If the opposite happens, would we have to extend the option tax longer than the period that it's set up for? (several talking)...go to re-vote then. Fosse/ Yeah, yeah. That's one possibility, uh, the other possibility is that we sell more revenue bonds on the waste water end of things. That's independent from the GO bonds, but what that begins to do is bump up the rates that we charge for waste water. Uh, the funding package that we have put together right now, um, does not have a... a significant increase to the waste water rates. Now the opposite side of that is, on the Dubuque Street project, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 20 we're still chasing some outside money on that. And if we're unsuccessful at finding that money, that might shift some of the road use tax, or excuse me, the local option sales tax over there, and then we're looking to backfill it on this project. So they're all...they're all interconnected. Hayek/ Well you're talking to a guy who built outhouses in the Peace Corps (laughter) and believe it or not, there is a science to that, but obviously pales in comparison to this. Um, back to the changing standards, is...is there...I know you guys have given thought to this. I just need to hear it. Have we done the planning and thinking to avoid a situation where something we do becomes obsolete or has to be reversed? I mean, I understand having to expand to take on a new technology or a requirement, but undoing something we've just heavily invested in, or... are we doing what we can to avoid that scenario? Reischauer/ I think we're doing everything we can to avoid that. It's something we've talked about a lot and thought about a lot, and...and it kind of gets back to the things we mentioned earlier about being able to use chemical addition to remove phosphorous to a lower level and...and uh, have other processes that are add-on, so we've tried real hard not to have anything that would become obsolete, we'd have to discontinue using it. I think another thing that prompts us to want to get this going as quickly as we can, part of it's the funding, but part of it also is...my personal opinion is, we'll probably have better bid prices the sooner we can get it on the market in the current economy; the longer it slides the more likely the prices are going to go up, and that the cost estimates we have here, they're all based on December 2010 dollars so as time goes on, escalation could increase these prices also. Champion/ Bennett, does your...and I'm sure your firm does this cause it's certainly a large, respect...respected firm, um, how does this compare with other state requirements in other states? Reischauer/ Um, I think I'd like to let Jay answer that (laughter). Brady/ Um, right now we're...where we're at in Iowa is that we...we're not, um, we're not ahead of the curve in implementing nutrient requirements. So like for phosphorous, there really is no phosphorous requirement in the state currently. Um, the phosphorous limits like in Wisconsin, Illinois, uh, Minnesota are all being implemented or have been implemented, a lot of the Great Lakes states have had phosphorous limits for quite some time. Illinois just went to a phosphorous limit of, uh, 1 milligram per liter last year, um, as a...as a best technology standard, uh, until they come up with more stringent standards, probably down the line. Kansas just implemented a, uh, a 1 milligram per liter, uh, standard, um, also. So phosphorous is coming our direction, and part of the, uh, idea behind, um, the way we're approaching it with the ability to add, uh, chemicals to remove phosphorous is that, um, phosphorous is kind of an interesting, uh, removal technique from the perspective that 1 milligram per liter's fairly easy to meet, um, but then uh, if they get down into lower levels, the cost go up exponentially, it becomes much more difficult to remove, and hopefully we don't get there, but if... if we do, um, you know, we have some of the things that you saw over on the soccer complex are the "what This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page zt ifs." If it gets real low we might have to add this process or that process. On the nitrogen side, uh, again, Iowa doesn't have total nitrogen requirements, uh, in fact a lot of the Midwestern states don't have nitrogen requirements because we grow corn here, and nitrogen is our friend in the agricultural world (several talking) um...but, uh, like out west where they do a lot of effluent reuse, uh, ground water recharge, they've had total nitrogen standards for quite some time, and the process that you have will remove nitrogen down to a pretty good level, but again, if, um, if they require down to like 4 or 5 milligrams per liter total nitrogen, then we would be looking at adding a denitrifying filters they call `em, uh, which are more efficient at removing total nitrogen. The other thing that's uh, of concern and...and you saw a big green blob on...on the future facilities, uh, the soccer complex one, when Rick flashed that up there, and that's for a whole bunch of flow equalization or off-spec, uh, water storage, and...and the concern going forward is what happens with the ammonia requirements? Ammonia requirements are getting more stringent, um, from previously to now, and uh, EPA is looking at...at perhaps reducing those ammonia limits once again. And so those are some concerns there that, uh, we're planning for, um, as we go forward. Um, and all these facilities are, uh, with the exception of the activated sludge process, all the other processes that are being used at the plant site are...are um, mainstream type treatment systems that are not going to go away. So they're not going to become obsolete. It's really that activated sludge process that's really, uh, doing all the work for you, as far as getting to these low levels. So hopefully that answers your questions. Champion/ Thank you! Fosse/ One of the things I wanted to point out is...this is our City's biggest energy user, as far as from municipal operations. Second, uh, Mercer Park comes in second, but this is our largest energy user, so we're looking at... at processes that are energy efficient, and we are also looking at alternative energies down here. Uh, one of the...things that looked most promising was wind energy, and if you've ever been down there for a soccer game, you know that the wind does blow down there (laughter) uh, unfortunately, the..the Airport overlay zone truncates our air space before we can get up high enough to capture that wind. Uh, so that...that gets away from us. Uh, but what we're going to look at is...is better ways to utilize the...the methane gas that we produce on site. We currently capture that and use it for heat in the winter time for heating our sludge. We're looking at...at other ways to use that. We currently use some electric vehicles down there for on- site, uh, work, and uh, so we're looking at opportunities for recharge of those, as well. Uh, right now the pay back is not very good for solar panels, compared with just plugging it in, but if we can find the right grant, L .. it might be a good thing for us. Hayek/ What about the capacity of the infrastructure bringing the stuff down there? Um, and if our growth pattern exceeds what we've calculated? Fosse/ That, uh, that's what we met about earlier this afternoon, and that's another study that's going on. It's looking at our entire trunk sewer system and...and we are in good shape for the pipes that are coming to the plant right now, and again, the credit goes back to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2z Chuck Schmadeke and...and his vision, uh, that goes back 20 and 30 years on...on this site. Dickens/ What's the significance of this 5-mile buffer? Fosse/ Five miles? Uh, Jay, I'll let you handle that. Dickens/ (mumbled) in there and I didn't... Brady/ Yeah, that's just a...(several talking and laughing) that's just a requirement of the State. They want that 5-mile zone shown and um...so we show it to `em. Dickens/ ...doesn't cover all the areas that we're currently...once we go across the interstate (mumbled) Brady/ Right, yeah. It's just their requirement. They want a 5-mile radius, uh, shown so they can see what's around, uh, the neighborhood, so to speak. Fosse/ Part of that has to do too with the, uh, many waste water plants still use chlorine as the, uh, disinfection product, and if you have a chlorine spill, that...you begin to look in miles of the effects on that, want to see what's around it. Anything else? Champion/ Good! Fosse/ Thank you very much! Hayek/ Appreciate your time here, guys! (several talking) (noises on mic) Okay. If we just keep this up, we can get to the end without a break probably! (several talking) Uh, info packets. Information Packets: Hayek/ February 3 and February 10. Anything from those? Are you still going to the...the, um, Justice Coordinating Committee meeting? Champion/ I didn't go to the last meeting cause it was, um, five hours long after an all-day meeting, and then the one last week was cancelled. Hayek/ I noticed that. It was a four or five-hour meeting. Champion/ Yeah, I did not go to that. I left here, and I thought, that's it. Hayek/ Twenty-five pages of single-spaced minutes (several talking). Champion/ And they still haven't made any decisions! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 23 Wright/ I noticed that. Champion/ And I'm really getting tired of this. I'm going to have to quit. (several talking) Bailey/ ..doing a great job, Connie! (laughter) Champion/ I would just tell them to call me back when they made a decision. That's what I did the last time. It's really frustrating! Hayek/ Any other, uh, points from these two info packets? Mims/ Well, uh, I know that the press certainly picked up on it, um...the automated traffic enforcement article, um, that was in the February 3rd packet. (several talking) I mean... Markus/ Terry's giving me the evil eye! (laughter) Dickens/ Only got a few calls on that one! Mims/ Um...I mean, I don't know if there's a majority of people who want to put that on a work session and talk about it at all or... Hayek/ I say why not. Wright/ I'd like to get it on a work session. Hayek/ Okay. Champion/ Well, I wasn't willing to talk about it until I read the Police Chief's comments and the Cedar Rapid's police comments. I am willing to talk about it. Mims/ Okay. Markus/ Our Chief is supportive, as well. Champion/ I know. He made that clear. I have some problems with it, but... Mims/ Well, I think it's something that'll be very, uh, controversial in this community, but I think it's at least worth discussing. Champion/ Oh, sure! I'm willing to discuss it. I'll discuss anything. Markus/ We'll get it in the queue. Mims/ Okay. Thank you. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 24 Wilburn/ A lot of that, uh, concern was expressed before when we put the traffic control devices in, and uh... Wright/ What are you referring to? Champion/ The ones that control the stoplights. People thought they were cameras. Wilburn/ A lot of people still do. They see the camera and presume (mumbled) at the time, um, I...this is just an FYI, I mean, I can see how people are interested in that. I...I don't recall what our accident, I don't recall the statistics, um (mumbled) but at the time, as part of addressing some of the concerns, I had stated that I would not be at the point where, uh, the community might consider or be willing to have that type of enforcement. I just said, uh, someone else will have to do that. So I...I...won`t be supporting that, but I'll just be doing what I said I would do years ago. Bailey/ (mumbled) ...for me to support it, for sure, but willing to listen to the discussion. Wright/ (mumbled) Bailey/ Huh? Wright/ It's just cause you run red lights! (laughter) Bailey/ No, I've almost gotten killed so many times at this intersection, it seems like...uh, it's not much of a deterrent. Being right by the Police Station. Hayek/ Okay, anything else on the info packets? Mims/ You know, I did on...the February l Ot" one, on the...correspondence regarding the proposed Scott Park trail connection. Champion/ Oh, right, right! Mims/ You know, that just brought up to me a whole different perspective on looking at that particular thing, and I have to commend the people involved, that it seems like they've done a lot of research and really try to look at the big picture of this, and some of the numbers that they put forth in terms of, you know, the cost and maintenance of the trails, how many trails are going to be so close together, um, the number of bridges, the number of trees being taken out, I...I don't know where we go with it, but I would really like that to be relooked at. I mean, if we're looking at a real financial, getting it more and more into a financial crisis, uh, in terms of our expenditures and...and ongoing maintenance, and the idea that there being basically three trails within 200-yards of each other, I guess I'd like a second look at that, before it goes forward. Hayek/ Where are we in this process? I know there was a meeting last week. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2s Markus/ I can tell you before Jeff starts, uh, I sat down and spoke with these folks as well, and they did give some pretty good alternatives, uh, for discussion, and staff has had further discussions since then, so... Davidson/ Yeah, they did have the meeting last week. I was not there. Kris Ackerson was there, and uh, filled me in, uh, the, you know, I think the issue, in addition to what Tom has said is that...the folks who are complaining about the trail behind the houses are the folks who live in those houses. There are other people who live in the neighborhood who actually like the idea of the connections behind the houses over to the park. Now I think there is, um...you know, maybe a...a solution that would, um, eliminate one of the connections and eliminate the trail behind the homes of the three or four people that seem to be, you know, and...and...you know, you can understand how they feel, you know, a couple of them claim they weren't apprised of it, you know, because it's on City property. It's not an easement on their property. It's on City property, and they claim they weren't, you know, and I have to say there may be a real estate agent that might not disclose something like that if they felt like it would help them make the sale. So, um, you know, I...I think there is...last I heard, the Parks, uh, and Recreation Director was going to consider the evidence that had presented at the meeting, um, and...and I think we have a concern that we want to make sure that the whole neighborhood is apprised of anything that's going to be a change, but that I...I think it sounded like there might be a solution, uh, ultimately I think it would have to come to the City Council for decision. This is part of the plat of the Windsor West property, so it would have to come to you for the ultimate decision, but I think Mike is considering it right now. Um...mulling over the evidence that was presented at the meeting. Mims/ Thank you. Hayek/ We will wait until it comes (both talking) Markus/ ..the trail actually kind of traverses an area that I think is going to actually...these aren't... and I think the neighbors admit this too, these aren't specimen trees. These are typical wild growth trees, and so...but they're trees all the same. So...the trail would probably take a lot of those out and so I think that they're interested in trying to save those, as well. Whether they live there or not. Hayek/ What else from the info packets? All right. Let's move onto Council time. Council Time: Hayek/ Anybody have anything? There's going to be a Metro Coalition meeting in Des Moines in a few weeks with the Governor, um, Tom and Dale I think, and Ross, are...okay. We'll be doing that, so we'll be, um (mumbled) Metro Coalition's agenda, at that opportunity. Anybody have anything? Budget? Budget Priorities: This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 26 Hayek/ We got that sort of update or summary of where we are, but it's... story we've been talking about for a while so nothing real new there. Okay. Pending work session issues? Pending Work Session Issues: Hayek/ Got Sanctuary City later this week and Farmers Market in March, and then a slew of other things you can see on the list. Helling/ We'll try and get the naming policy back on the next time, and also it's looking like maybe you'll be able to meet with the Airport Commission on the 28th, uh, to talk about the, uh, the new project and, uh, revenues from the sale of the Aviation Commerce Park, North, and how those will relate to their debt and so forth. Hayek/ Okay. By the way, there was a letter in the packet from a young person about our curbside recycling. (several talking) Could we just make sure that staff just sends her a letter... Markus/ It's already been referred. Hayek/ Great! Champion/ You know, I thought of an interesting thing too about recycling, cause I do a lot of recycling, and I don't like Pizza, but a couple weeks ago I had a bunch of grandchildren over and we had pizza, and all those boxes are contaminated and not recyclable, but if the pizza people would just put a piece of parchment paper or plain paper on the bottom of those pizza boxes, they'd be totally recyclable! Higgins/ Are those not recyclable, I mean, I... Wright/ Once they're contaminated with the grease it's not recyclable (several talking) Champion/ It's really sad. I had like eight pizzas. (mumbled) Anyway, that's my recycling tip for today! Hayek/ Are you suggesting a pizza box work session item? Champion/ Yes! (laughter) Well I'm just wondering if we could put it in the hands of the recycling people to see if there is (mumbled) how much can it cost for a round circle of...wax paper? (mumbled) Hayek/ Anything else on the work session, uh, list? Okay, upcoming events? Upcoming Events: Hayek/ We've got the Chamber, or the, yeah, the Chamber dinner this Thursday. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2~ Wright/ The 24tH Karr/ The banquet is a week from Thursday. Mims/ Yeah. Wright/ You're distracted! (several talking) Hayek/ Yeah, I'm just gonna leave! All right. Anybody have any other invitations? And then last is discussion of meeting schedules, and I think Marian wants to talk to us about that. Meeting Schedules: Karr/ Just two things on that. Number one, we've got the agenda coming up on the joint meeting with the County, which is next week. If there's any agenda items the Council would like on it, I need to have `em this week. There was a little reminder in your packet, uh, the County is hosting the meeting. They've asked everyone for agenda items. If there's anything.. . Dickens/ Where is that at? Karr/ It's at the County. Dickens/ The Courthouse or... Karr/ No, it'll be the County Administration Building (several talking) Bailey/ The new building. Karr/ We'll provide the agenda items. They'll provide us an agenda for this Thursday's packet, so you'll get it a week ahead and we'll have (mumbled) at that time. Bailey/ And I won't be there. I don't know... Wilburn/ I won't know until that afternoon if I can be there, as that's the week of our, the School District's uh, compliance (mumbled) so... Hayek/ (mumbled) If we have less than an Iowa City quorum there, does it impact that meeting? Karr/ No, it doesn't affect that meeting. It would affect, um...obviously just the fact there wouldn't be a quorum of Iowa City, but no. The meeting will go on because there's several jurisdictions there. If there is...if there is a majority of you who are not able to attend, I probably would notify the County sooner than later because they may have heard from other jurisdictions and if it's not a good time to meet, they may take that into consideration, as well. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2s Wright/ I should know later this week. Champion/ I can go. Mims/ I can. Dickens/ I don't have a life. I'll be there. Karr/ So it looks like (mumbled) Hayek/ I think I'm okay too. Karr/ Okay. So is there any agenda items that you'd like on it at all? Hayek/ Are they...are they...just going to be, uh, a time when they discuss JEC issues? (mumbled) for that? Karr/ They may choose to put it on. We don't know yet. We won't know that until their agenda's posted. Champion/ I think (several talking) Wright/ ...with the JEC is that (mumbled) future work session; we haven't really discussed those issues yet. So... Champion/ Now it's just...remind me who goes to this meeting. Johnson County, Iowa City, and Coralville? Karr/ Johnson County, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, the School District, and (both talking) Champion/ I would like to present them with our economic development policy. Bailey/ It will not have been voted on yet. Oh, you mean the one that we're looking at tomorrow? Champion/ Yeah! Markus/ I think there's some other discussions that may be (mumbled) Bailey/ Economic Development Committee has looked...oh, you mean, okay! Champion/ (mumbled) Hayek/ I agree. L ..I don't think it's (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 29 Bailey/ Not yet! (several talking and laughing) Hayek/ We'll add pizza boxes to the joint agenda! Bailey/ You can ask about the wax paper, I think! Champion/ I could ask about the schools not (mumbled) (laughter) Karr/ Well, if anyone thinks of it before, uh, even tomorrow evening is fine. You could give the items to me; that'd be great. And then we've got the April through June schedule. I'd like to nail tonight if we could. And ideally talk about July and August if you're ready. Um, in your packet, I've prepared an agenda based on the first and third Tuesdays. Is there any discussion for...or any adjustments for April, May, or June? (several talking) Now often in the summer schedule...you also take a look at a reduced schedule for July and August. Uh, depending on holidays, um, absences that you may be aware of. This is a tentative schedule, but it is one that we as a staff take a look at and plan our projects and back into the calendar with (mumbled) Champion/ It seems to me, Marian, that my, uh, August vacation was not (mumbled). It's always the first Sunday in August, and I think the first Sunday in August is after the first week. Karr/ The first meeting is 1 and 2. Hayek/ The first Sunday's the 7tH of August. Karr/ But the first Sundays the 7tH Champion/ Oh (mumbled) Karr/ Okay. Bailey/ I like how that works out though! (laughter) We get a break. Hayek/ This looks good from my perspective. Karr/ For April through August? Just as is? Dickens/ I have a couple in July and August. Our annual buying show is the 12tH through the 16tH of August. Karr/ Of August? Dickens/ So I will be gone then, and July I'll probably be at Pebble Beach on the 18tH and 19tH Karr/ I'm sorry. The week of the 18tn~ This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011. February 14, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 30 Dickens/ Yeah. Retirement party for a friend. Karr/ Well, if any of you know of any absences or anything, we can certainly make adjustments accordingly if we knew, and we can always have special meetings if we need to. So... Dickens/ Those are the only two (mumbled) Karr/ Thank you. Hayek/ Okay. Anything else...for that, Marian? Karr/ No. Thank you. Hayek/ All right. Guess that's it! Good meeting, and we'll see ya'll tomorrow night! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of February 14, 2011.