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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2011-06-20 TranscriptionJune 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page I Council Present: Staff Present: Others Present: Bailey, Champion, Dickens, Hayek, Mims, Wilburn (arrived 5:35), Wright Markus, Karr, Dilkes, Boothroy, Helling, Davidson, Fosse, Dyson, Bentley, Jordan, Craig, Havel Patel, UISG Planning and Zoning: ITEM 4. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS d) AMENDING CITY CODE TITLE 14, CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED USE REGULATIONS, ARTICLE D, TEMPORARY USES, ADDING PROVISIONS TO ALLOW FOOTBALL GAME DAY COMMERCIAL USES AS A TEMPORARY USE ALONG MELROSE AVENUE AND AMENDING CHAPTER 9, ENTITLED DEFINITIONS, TO ADD THE DEFINITION OF TAILGATING. Hayek/ Why don't we go ahead and get started, uh, with the work session this evening. Welcome, everyone! A lot on our agenda tonight. Why don't we start off with Melrose Avenue (mumbled) Boothroy/ Sure! Tomorrow night you have a public hearing on an ordinance to amend the zoning code to establish, uh, temporary use, a specific temporary use permit for football game day commercial uses. Uh, this is recommended by the Planning and Zoning Commission and ... and (mumbled) your public hearing and first consideration, uh, tomorrow night. I want to put this in context a little bit because it's been a while since we talked about this so kind of give some background. Uh, some things to remember about the ordinance. Number one, uh, this ordinance establishes foot, uh, football game day commercial activities as a legal use, uh, in the area of Melrose Avenue. It ... it ... we have done this in part because currently there is some ambiguity as to whether it's ... it could be a permitted by a temporary use permit. This basically puts that question to rest. It establishes it as a legal use along Melrose Avenue, uh, only. So I think that's a really important thing to remember. Uh, number two, uh, as ... we talked about the last time we had a meeting, it limits the location of commercial, uh, retail uses to the Melrose Avenue area, and remember as part of our discussion it was to protect the neighborhood from the growth of commercial uses, uh, to penetrating further into the neighborhood. So this... this regulates it between the railroad and Melrose Circle, and this is where all the commercial uses, uh ... uh, when we did a survey last fall, we ... we found to be located. Uh, we've not really had any ... we've not had any objections to that. Uh ... second, uh, thirdly, uh, this temporary use clearly states you cannot sell commercially sell alcohol, uh, but that's something to remember as a restriction, uh, fourth, uh, it does address one of the issues that the neighborhood, uh, raised with regard to trash, uh, it does require all vendors to provide a trash container with ... on their setup site, uh, and to have that trash container available to, uh, to be used (mumbled) dumping it, and it also makes a comment about cleanup. We've had problems over there with people dumping grease in This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 2 the storm sewer and stuff like that. So, cooking grease, so, uh, that's just a couple things that ... that are in there. Uh ... fifth, it ... in the past the setup time for commercial vending game day activities has been at the discretion of myself and it was at noon the day before, uh, football. The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended that be moved to 10:00 A.M. the day before, and now it's specifically stated. It's no longer discretionary. They would be allowed to set up at 10:00 A.M. so that ... that is a change. Uh, and we also ... in this ordinance, uh, put the vendors on notice that there is some accountability if they ... if they are repeat offenders or fail ... excuse me, fail to comply, uh, they could be subject to, uh, losing the privilege to, uh, engage in their commercial activity on the site. Uh, in addition, I should also mention, uh, that, uh, last time we talked I didn't know what the fee structure would be. Uh, the fee structure will be $75.00. That's the current, uh, fee for temporary uses, uh, that you adopted by resolution several years ago. That is a $75.00 fee for the season. Uh ... I ... I believe that that $75 fee plus ... there's 25... approximately 25 vendors, will come very close to covering our costs, within $200 or $300. We will track our costs, uh, and our time this season and I can give you an update, uh, after the football season is over, but I ... I'm pretty confident that's going to be, uh, a... a good fee, that we may be able to maintain, uh, for, uh, vending in the area. Uh, also, I want to mention that most of the other approval criteria that are listed here are in here for notification as to what some of the things that people need to provide, so it's sort of a one -stop check for a vendor. When they look at the regulations they can see, well they've got to display the permit. They've got to get a health permit. They've got to have a sales tax current. All these are current laws. Uh, they've got to get approval from the Fire Department. All of those provisions in here, about a 400 square foot tent; about the propane over 100 pounds, uh, the cook tents, all of those are in the fire code, uh ... uh, the, you know, the restriction of the right -of -way is ... is a current requirement. We're allowing them to be in the right -of -way, but uh, the tent stakes have to be at least 2 foot off the, uh, sidewalk so that they're... they're not (mumbled) excuse me, impinging on that ... on that walkway. Uh, the ... issue, one of the issues that brought it to our attention was, of course, the tent stake going into the gas main, uh, anybody that ... that pounds, uh, a stake will need to do one call or ... it's very specifically required, even though it is a requirement under Iowa law, uh, we're going to require it as part of this temporary use permit, so that we will check that they have the ground striped, uh, if they're... if they're driving stakes, uh, in the ground. And ... uh ... let's see, um ... like I said, the fire extinguishers, uh, the indemnification. These are all pretty much standard, uh, regulations that are found in other parts of the code. Uh, I would point out that at the Planning and Zoning Commission, uh, we really had pretty broad acceptance by the vendors that were in attendance, uh, and there was probably 10 or 12 vendors at those, in terms of these requirements. We did some wordsmithing and some changing of language and stuff to address some of the issues. Urn ... moving the setup to 10:00 A.M. but in general I think there was good support. I met, uh, prior to P &Z, with the vendors and worked through the regulations and got their input, revised that, sent it to P &Z, then we had more ... minor changes at P &Z and then it finally has, uh, come to you as a recommendation, uh, for adoption. So, um ... one last thing I guess I would mention, one of the things P &Z did recommend was this issue of trash and, uh, public urination, that there should be, uh, some attention addressed to that. I should mention that ... that last Thursday I did meet with the University and uh, got an email back from them that they This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 3 are in the process of considering deployment of more, uh, Porta -Johns along Melrose Avenue and more trash receptacles in strategic areas that were pointed out by the vendors as a matter of fact that based on their observations of coming and going of foot traffic, since they were there for the last decade or more, uh, that they felt that these are areas that ... that the University could help the situation in terms of redeploying or moving stuff around and, urn ... I'm pleased that, uh, they were open to that idea and, uh, and are moving forward and doing something along those lines. So ... with that, any questions? Bailey/ Did they think that that would happen this season? Boothroy/ I think they ... they thought that it would work. Uh, I think that the trash issue is ... is more, it's much more complex than just Melrose Avenue, and so, you know, we need probably trash receptacles within the neighborhood, as well, uh ... but you know the, uh, one location they're looking at is... is, uh, on the east side of Hawkins Drive and Melrose Avenue, in there by the Children's Hospital and the vendors had indicated that the traffic to and from the game, a lot of people pass through that area, and they felt that that would be a good area for Porta - Johns, as well as trash. The other location is that, uh, when you come across the railroad bridge, uh, from Melrose, or from University Heights on Melrose, uh, people tend to dump right there at the corner, uh, stuff and uh, Ron Christensen of Game Day had indicated specifically that ... that he gets a huge amount of...of trash from people coming in from tailgating, and they're just throwing their stuff away, sometimes it's open containers. They're throwing their stuff away before they come onto, uh, University property. So I think that if they ... if they deploy in these areas, uh, it will help, but it will not solve the problem along, uh, but it will help. It's a step in the right direction and I think they should be commended for that. Bailey/ The U Heights neighborhood, I mean, a friend of mine's on council there and ... and also lives really close, and they have a whole plan for trash deploy, or trash can deployment (mumbled) Boothroy/ Seems to work very well. Bailey/ Yeah, that's what he said. Boothroy/ Doug Moore, uh, has organized that neighborhood... Bailey/ Yeah! Boothroy/ ...uh, he does a lot of parking in that area, and he's got this all organized, and I think he would be a good resource person for the Melrose, uh, Avenue neighborhood because, and he has called me directly and has said that he'd be willing to help out if there was anything he ... but he ... he knows his trash business there, and so, uh... Bailey/ He knows trash! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 4 Boothroy/ ...you know, I'm not ... I'm not an expert in trash, but I ... I do know that it's quite a problem (both talking) quite a problem in this area. Any other questions? Champion/ The, uh, permits are site - specific, are they? Boothroy/ Yes. Champion/ Okay, and so when they have the people come out to line the things for electrical and gas, they only have to do that once? It doesn't have to be done for every game, does it? Boothroy/ It ... it depends on what happens to the markings and stuff like that. If...it all depends on ... no, I don't think it would be done every game, but it may have to be done more than once a season, because if you get a lot of rain or you get a lot of foot traffic and everything is erased, everything has to come down, has to be removed so when they repitch, you know, they're driving stakes in in a new location possibly and we'd have to verify that so, uh, my experience is that, you know, when they paint that striping and stuff like that, it could stay visible for several weeks, uh, but, uh ... if you had a lot of rain and ... and foot traffic, it could get ... get erased. Dickens/ They could flag it themselves too. Boothroy/ They could flag it. They could, uh, I did talk to one vendor and they ... they are already, uh, put stuff, markers, in the ground so they know exactly where they need to be so they don't have to flag every time, but not everybody's prepared to that ... to that level. Uh, but it is a free service. It ... it's available to everybody. Champion/ I know. Boothroy/ And ... and everybody should take advantage of it. We're just ... we're just telling people that ... that we're going to check for it. Markus/ How responsive is that service? Boothroy/ Very ... very responsive. You give two days, 48 hours (several talking) yeah, and (several talking) Hayek/ ...have to do it and... Boothroy/ 48 hours. Hayek/ Yeah, and I think there's also some statutory detail on ... on how long the stripings or flaggings are good for. Bailey/ They seem to last a really long time, but I don't have (both talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 5 Boothroy/ ...yeah, I think you could probably get by, maybe once or twice a season. It all depends on circumstances in the environment and stuff like that and... and there's a lot of foot traffic over there, and so for putting it on dirt, for example, uh... it could get erased pretty quickly, unless they've marked it with flags. Markus/ Are they going to still use stakes all the time or can they put in permanent anchors? Boothroy/ Um... Markus/ That they could just tie off onto. Boothroy/ My understanding is, uh, in talking to Ron Christensen, I believe he has put in some permanent anchors in the ... they're at flush with the ground, with hooks or something, that he can just, uh, put his tents up, and he has the tents that are the largest. They're over 400 square feet, uh, the rest of them are using, um, various smaller tents that, uh, may or may not have tent stakes. In the ... in one case I know that one guy ties two or three tents together with lashing and stuff, and so it's not quite as sophisticated as ... as Game Day's tent. Uh, so there's a lot of variation on how that works. One of the things that we will be doing is once I get a feel for, uh, the ordinance being adopted, uh, is that we plan to meet with the vendors in late July, uh, to go over, uh, again, uh, the ... the regulations. We're going to call a meeting with the property owners and the vendors, and the reason the property owners are going to be involved is that we don't necessarily know if they've changed a vendor on their site. Uh, so it's ... it's the foolproof way of finding out who their, uh, fall vendors are going to be. We're going to ... try to walk everybody through it. We don't want to have any surprises, if possible, on game day. We want to make sure that we get everybody on the same page. It should go fairly smoothly. We want to make sure that we can agree to an inspection time on Saturday morning. We think 7:00 A.M. will work. I've had some preliminary discussions. If people can all be set up by then that would be great, and then ... then we can, I'll have two inspectors over there. We'll ... uh, we'll be there, uh, at least till noon on game day, just to make sure everything is going right and proper and if there's, you know, uh, any other problems that might come up. There are some out of town vendors who have not participated in this process, and so um ... contacting the property owners will help in that ... in that situation because they're all leasing space from local, uh, property owners, so ... uh, we should be able to get that message to everybody. The ones that come in and bootleg unusual t- shirts, um, some of which you've seen, uh ... we probably will have some issues with that and one of the things about posting the ... the, uh, permit, uh, on the site, it will help the Police Department identify those who are legal and those who are ... are just there, uh, and maybe don't have a permit. So they can help out in the enforcement. What I would expect is that ... that we would be contacted on Monday by the Police Department, or you know whatever, and then we would follow up the next week to find out, you know, what the enforcement action. There is a provision in here about accountability ... let me assure you that this is the first year, and in terms of accountability, people will make mistakes. If they're honest mistakes, they're not going to be an issue. Uh, we're ... we intend to make this work, and make it as smooth as possible, uh, the vendors are very positive about moving forward with this, uh, and uh ... uh, I think that it's important to have some This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 6 consequences where you have people that choose to flagrantly disobey, uh, the regulations. Uh, none of the people I've talked to have any problem with ... with complying, but uh, in my experience there's always somebody, at some time, that chooses to ... to, uh, call the question and so uh, we need to be in a position to be able to follow through, and so it's there for notification that, uh, if you're going to, you know, not play by the rules, the ultimate sacrifice would be to lose your ability to market. Other questions? Wright/ Yeah, just going back to the trash issue for a couple of minutes. The University is going to put some additional, uh, receptacles out? Boothroy/ On their property. Wright/ On their property. Is there going to be anything done in the neighborhood proper, or is that going to be up to the neighborhood itself? Boothroy/ Well I ... at the meeting it was also, uh, Ryan O'Leary, he was there to talk about doing some, uh, doing some kind of private, uh .... uh, effort to, uh, deploy additional trash receptacles in the neighborhood. I think the thinking was that ... that, um, he was looking at getting something from ... from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, that, you know, says "Keep Iowa Clean." They're a different color of can, or plastic container, or whatever, and using some volunteers to keep them open and available, and having them deployed, uh, multiple times, uh, across the block so as people walk through some of the corridors, they have a place to drop their stuff. Um ... I can tell you that the University said that they would provide PR for that. Uh, and uh... so it's kind of up to him to get that going with the neighborhood, and I'm not sure, you know, I'm not involved in that follow through so I can't address whether that's going to happen or not. But I think it's a great idea, and I think that ... I think what ... what he was saying, and I agree with what he was saying, is that if you ... if you have that opportunity there, then people are going to respect it. Uh, what happens now is that ... is that a lot of people are discarding trash because there's no place to put it and it becomes sort of acceptable. But it, you know, that's on game day only. Every other day of the week nobody would drop trash. It just ... the way they do it, you know... cause it's not acceptable, but for somehow that environment, with everybody else doing it, it makes it acceptable, sort of like a herd, you know, type of thing so, um ... so we'll see if that goes forward. That would be good if it could. And I would hope ... I hope it does. Mims/ Doug, on the cleanup, what ... what's your take on ... it's number five, talks about the vendors must keep any area where they vend litter free and shall remove litter from any adjacent public property /right -of -way, I mean, exactly how are you interpreting that from the standpoint, I mean, I looked at that and say, and we've discussed, there's a lot of people that walk through there who've been tailgating a block or two away, and don't even stop at the vendors, and they drop their beer can before they hit Melrose or whatever it might be, and so ... you know, what kind of responsibility or ... in your mind, are we putting on the vendors? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 7 Boothroy/ Well, actually that responsibility is put on them by the property owners now because whether, uh ... uh ... in talking to the property owners, uh, they have a responsibility to keep their property litter -free, just as you do in your neighborhood if somebody drops trash on your front lawn... Mims/ So basically you're saying to the curb? Boothroy/ To the curb, right. Mims/ Okay. Boothroy/ And ... and uh, nobody, uh, they're all obligated by the property owners through their lease to maintain, uh, that property. So, urn ... this is ... I think important to spell out in case there's any problem with property owners in doing this, but I don't think it's ... from what I'm getting back from the vendors, it's not an additional obligation or ... or responsibility. Mims/ Okay. Boothroy/ They're already stepping up on this. Mims/ Okay, I just wasn't sure how that (both talking) Boothroy/ One of the things that I did add here was that we did have some problem with ... with, uh, cooking grease being dumped in the gutter, and uh ... uh, that's just not acceptable. Mims/ And then on 9 and 10, the insurance indem ... and indemnification and also the fire extinguishers, are those requirements that are basically identical to any other temporary use permits? And if not, why are these different? Boothroy/ Well, in the, uh ... the insurance piece, because of the width of the right -of -way there, almost all of them are using part of the right -of -ways so it's important to have that indem ... the City being indemnified, uh, because they're using the right -of -way. They're only ... they're allowed to be back 2 -feet from the sidewalk, but they still may be using 10 feet of our right -of -way, and so that's important... Mims/ But like when we have people set up for like Jazz Fest or Arts Fest, they're using our right -of -way as well. Boothroy/ We do have some indemnification requirements... Mims/ Are they the same? Boothroy/ Um... (both talking) Mims/ ...more of these vendors? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 8 Boothroy/ I, well I actually had Legal draft that for me. I assume that it is, but I can't answer ... I can check. I'll check for tomorrow night. Dilkes/ The limits probably came from Risk Management. Um, in terms of other temporary use permits, um, we are typically talking about private property, not right -of -way. So Jazz ... Jazz Fest doesn't get a temporary use permit. They get a use of the public right - of -way permit. They may given the extent of their use of the right -of -way be required to have more insurance. Mims/ More, okay. Dilkes/ So the situations are different. Mims/ Okay. Boothroy/ And I talked specifically, uh, at my vendor meeting with the vendors, and no one had an objection to this. Mims/ Okay. Boothroy/ In fact, if it's ... I was told by one vendor at the meeting, if it's required by the City, then it doesn't cost them any additional. If it's not required by the City, it does cost them additional. So I don't understand that, but that's what I was told. Whether it's, you know, maybe that's his insurance. The (mumbled) fire extinguisher's an all- purpose fire extinguisher that we require, uh, and nobody really had any issues with that. There have been times in the past where there've been small incidents and this has come in very handy. Uh, we had a situation, uh, reported by one of the clothing or t -shirt salesperson that the person cooking next got his tent flap on fire and so, you know, fire extinguisher was very helpful in that ... in that situation. Wright/ I had one other question. I'm sorry (several talking) Mims/ No, go ahead! Wright/ Under, for setup and teardown ... um, must tear down and remove all equipment and materials after each game, and I just want to (mumbled) after each game. Boothroy/ We inspect that on Monday. Wright/ So it has to ... everything has to be gone by Monday? Boothroy/ Monday morning at 8:00 A.M. and I've talked to the ... I've mentioned that to the vendors and nobody had a problem with that. Dickens/ Does that have to be spelled out in here? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 9 Boothroy/ It's the current policy, and we've been enforcing it for years. So this is nothing new. The 10:00 A.M. is the new part. Dickens/ Okay. Cause they used to, some of them started on Thursday. Boothroy/ Well, we got to the noon because we had one vendor that was setting up Thursday morning and then ... we did have some problems with him selling Thursday night. That was getting a little ahead of the game, if you will. Uh, so we had a ... we had to be a little bit ... we had to have a conversation. But, he was fine and we got that worked out. Hayek/ Other questions for Doug? Champion/ Sounds good! Mims/ Looks good! Hayek/ Thanks for your work on this (both talking) appreciate it! Boothroy/ Okay! Hayek/ Okay. Agenda items. Agenda Items: ITEM 2. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. d) Public Hearings: 1. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION SETTING A PUBLIC HEARING ON JULY 5, 2011 ON AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 3, ENTITLES "FINANCES, TAXATION AND FEES" AND TITLE 9, ENTITLED "MOTOR VEHICLES AND TRAFFIC" OF THE IOWA CITY CODE OF ORDINANCES TO ESTABLISH DOWNTOWN MOPED PARKING PERMIT REQUIREMENTS AND FEES. Patel/ Um, I would just like to speak on agenda item 2.d.1. I think it's safe to say that most, if not all of us, are in favor of moped usage. Mopeds are economical; they're green friendly; and they keep cars off the road. Uh, I think this resolution could poss ... could potentially have a positive effect on the promotion of moped ... moped usage, if done right. And it can also provide revenue for the City. Um, I would like to see the proposed areas for the designated moped parking, how many stalls the areas provide, and the price of the permit system. I also believe that this is a project that we could team up with the University on. They currently have a motorcycle /moped parking permit system set up with numerous lots throughout campus. Um, I ... I had a few questions for Chris O'Brien, if he's here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 10 Markus/ I don't think Chris is here. Patel/ Okay. Markus/ Go ahead with your questions anyway. Patel/ My questions were just the price of the permit, um, where the, uh, designated moped lots would be, if they'd be in the pedestrian mall, if they'd be in parking ramps throughout downtown, and also if...if, uh, so would students and residents have to pay two separate permits, one for the University if they would like to park in the University motorcycle lots, and also one for the City if they would like to park in the City lots. I think if we could team up with the University, and I would really like to see students and residents only have to pay, uh, one ... one parking permit for both the City and the University lots. Markus/ Do you know what the University charges right now? Patel/ Uh, I believe they charge $54.00 for a 9 -month permit. So the school year, $54.00. Markus/ (mumbled) Patel/ For motorcycle and scooter area, and they have numerous lots. They probably have about 15 motorcycle lots throughout campus. Wright/ They've also got ... the University also has (mumbled) scooter only lots. Patel/ Yeah. Wright/ They're very small spaces. You can pile in a bunch of scooters, but you really couldn't fit any motorcycles. Dilkes/ Uh, Raj, just for your information, the actual ordinance is on file in the Clerk's office. We're just setting the public hearing, um ... tomorrow, and the public hearing will be held the next time, so the ordinance, which will have more detail in it, is ... is available in the Clerk's office now. Patel/ Okay. All right. Dilkes/ And it'll be in the next packet! Patel/ All right, thank you. Hayek/ Those are good questions, um ... and we really haven't had a conversation about this topic yet, you know, whether... whether anything is warranted, and if so ... what would the details be, etc., how much of a problem do we really face with ... with this downtown, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 11 um ... but this ... green factor I think is compelling, that ... that there may be some problems with ... with congestion on the sidewalk, uh ... but ... by the same (both talking) Bailey/ ...are problems around bicycle racks, for sure! Wright/ ...get too carried away with the green aspect of this because they don't use a lot of fuel, but they pollute like mad! Hayek/ Well, but these are things to ... to take up, and um ... I think your questions are well founded. You might want to talk to Chris in advance of July 5. Get some answers to that (mumbled) discussion at that point. So ... okay. Other... agenda? ITEM 11. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 6, ENTITLED "PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY, CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED, "NOISE CONTROL," AND TITLE 10 OF THE CITY CODE, ENTITLED "PUBLIC WAYS AND PROPERTY," CHAPTERS 1 AND 5, TO ESTABLISH A PERMIT SYSTEM FOR AMPLIFIED SOUND ON CITY PLAZA, TO ESTABLISH A PERMIT SYSTEM FOR INFORMATION TABLES ON CITY PLAZA, AND TO ALLOW CERTAIN PUBLIC ASSEMBLY/PARADE PERMITTEES TO SELL GOODS AND SERVICES AND USE AMPLIFIED SOUND. (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Helling/ I would, uh, just on Item 11, the (mumbled) instructed us to go back and allow for tables along the retaining wall by the outdoor service area on the Sheraton. Champion/ Uh -huh. Bailey/ Uh -huh. Helling/ Um, that is a long retaining wall. There's probably room for about... anywhere from 12 to 15 tables along there, probably more than we'll ever need, uh, we do have some concern that as you get farther to the west, closer to the fountain area, it can become more congested there, particularly like during the Friday Night Concert Series, the kind of events where people will want to have more tables down there. Uh, I think we have some flexibility in the ordinance, but we may want to move that back and only allow for a... along a portion of there, maybe room for 6, 8 tables along there. Uh, we'll have to see what the demand is and then... and then work from there, but I think the farther we keep them back from the fountain and the stage when there's an event going on, the better off for pedestrian traffic, so we'll just ... we'll see how it works out. Champion/ Well, that's a good point. I was concerned about the amount of space available, but I had gone over there and looked and there is ... there is enough space for tables, there's no question about it. Helling /There's a lot of space, yeah. Plus, we've got room for 5 or 6, and then (mumbled) park as well. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 12 Bailey/ While we're on 11 I had a question this weekend, and I'm assuming that, like the Pride Festival would fall under, um, a ... an event that occupies a substantial area within City Plaza. So there could be commercial activity. Some people... some of the organizers were asking specifically how this might impact that festival. Dilkes/ I'm not involved in the permitting of that festival, so I don't... Helling/ Yeah, I think ... I'm not sure what their attendance is, how many people are involved or exactly what area they take up, but ... it sounds like it probably would be. Um... Dickens/ (mumbled) pretty wide section, all the way from Washington Street (several talking) Bailey/ ...would call it a substantial area. But, I mean... Wright/ Basically from Dubuque Street all the way down to the College Street (several talking) Bailey/ Right. But I mean ... I told... Wright/ ...the commercial activity would be allowed? Helling/ Probably so. I, again, uh, there are some specifics as far as the numbers of people and so forth, and we'd have to take a look at it. Bailey/ Yeah, because I told the organizers I'd get back to them, because if ... if there's concern, they'll want to come speak, you know, to this, urn... how... how is the number 500 come up, I mean, how do you ... I mean, that seems to be the number, and I would say that they do occupy a substantial area, but how do you determine that in advance, I guess. Helling/ Generally when they submit an application they will estimate how many people are involved, and that's generally based historically on how many people participated in the past. Bailey/ Okay. Helling/ And, uh, we probably have that; I just don't have it with me. Bailey/ Okay. Dilkes/ That's an "or" too. A substantial area "or" 500 people. So... Bailey/ Right, okay. Dilkes/ And as long ... I think the discussions we've had at staff, as long as it appears.... that the estimate made by the applicant appears reasonable, and is consistent with our past experience, it's going to be fine. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 13 Bailey/ I have no idea about numbers, but I would say substantial area, would be met. Okay. Thanks. Champion/ (mumbled) Bailey/ Well, but they want to make sure, and then that makes sense. Helling/ We'll check tomorrow. Bailey/ Okay, thanks. ITEM 16. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE FY2012 AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND THE CITY OF UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS FOR THE PROVISION OF TRANSIT SERVICE WITHIN THE CORPORATE LIMITS OF UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS. Mims/ I had a question on number 16, the, urn ... the agreement with University Heights on the bus ... bussing service, as the busses go through. Urn ... how often, I mean, how long is this agreement and it looks like we're just doing, you know, it's updated on ... I don't know if this is annually, based on the National Consumer Price Index, and I guess part of my question is that a reasonable index to be using, given that bus costs like oil and gas and diesel and all of that might be going up a lot faster than the CPI and... Davidson/ In the interest of full disclosure, Susan, I did not prepare this agreement, but I used to! (laughter) So Chris asked me if I would cover the item tonight. Um, we spent years trying to work out an arrangement with University Heights. This was worked out probably, oh what would you say, Dale, 6 or 7, maybe 8 years ago, something like that, and I mean, it was a lot of, you know, threats to not operate through University Heights and everything, so ever since that time we've used this and I have to say, Susan, probably the ... the greatest factor was that both sides were able to agree that it was an appropriate thing to use. There could very well be some ... more important, if a majority of Council would like us to reopen it with University Heights, we can, um, but it was, I just will tell you, very contentious the last time we discussed it. Champion/ I don't want to go through that again! Let's don't do it! Davidson/ Yeah, you probably remember (laugher) Mims/ No, I just ... my thought is, any time we're looking at these agreements and we're looking at all the budgetary issues, it's ... I mean ... I'm willing to take a fresh look at things, if it's warranted, in terms of are we getting paid what we ... to cover our costs to serve people who don't pay their Iowa City tax ... pay Iowa City taxes? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 14 Davidson/ Yeah, the other ... the other factor that I think at least staff has used in their evaluation of this is, this is very much a, uh, a revenue - positive contract for Iowa City, because we will be operating on these public streets anyway, whether or not we stop and open the doors for University Heights or not, so in ... in terms of the incremental expense, there's very, very little additional expense to stop the bus and open and the doors in University Heights. Mims/ Okay. Markus/ But what do we use as the base, I think Chris indicated we use (both talking) Davidson/ It's a percentage. It's a percentage of the total expenses of the system, and I believe it's a factor, Tom, that has the University Heights' percentage of revenue, excuse me, University Heights' percentage of population as a percentage of Iowa City and University Heights together, that factor is applied. Markus/ I got the impression it was ridership, and that's why I thought we (both talking) Davidson/ Unless it's changed, that's the way it was done in the past. Markus/ Population.... Davidson/ Population- based, yeah. Hayek/ You may be right that this particular contract for historical or ... or, you know, logistical reasons is ... is, uh, worth sticking with, but I think as a general matter your ... your point is very well taken, that ... uh, we need to ensure that our agreement is to provide services to jurisdictions outside of Iowa City are commensurate with the cost. Mims/ Uh -huh. Hayek/ Um, and ... and what factors into that is the ... that's the $64,000 question, right? Mims/ Yeah. Dickens/ How much is federal ... are we bound by the federal... Davidson/ Again, you guys, this is back when I used to do it, took the total expenses for the system, subtracted out the state and federal revenue, so we were just left with the local portion of...the locally funded portion of expenses, and then it was population based; University Heights paid their share; Iowa City paid their share. So you know it works out to like 97% and 3 %, I mean, it's a very low percentage applied to University Heights. Markus/ How did we get to just having it for a single year? Never migrated to multi - years... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 201 1. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 15 Davidson/ Again, Tom, I think it was a matter of all the political, urn ... difficulties that we had with it. It was like oh, all right, we'll do this for a year. (laughter) It was that kind of a thing. You could easily go back to a multi -year contract, again, if every... if both sides agreed on it. Champion/ And isn't it actually we're just making stops there? Davidson/ Oh, yeah! Yeah, the... Champion/ I mean, that's all there is (several talking) Davidson/ The routes are all ... go beyond... there's no route oriented just to University Heights. That's all ... they all go beyond University Heights into west Iowa City. ITEM 8. APPROVING PLANS, SPECIFICATIONS, FORM OF CONTRACT, AND ESTIMATE OF COST FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NORTH MARKET SQUARE PARK IMPROVEMENT PROJECT, ESTABLISHING AMOUNT OF BID SECURITY TO ACCOMPANY EACH BID, DIRECTING CITY CLERK TO PUBLISH NOTICE TO BIDDERS, AND FIXING TIME AND PLACE FOR RECEIPT OF BIDS. Bailey/ So, Tom, tomorrow on Item 8, we'll see the diagram as part of the public, the presentation from staff or... Markus/ Yeah... Bailey/ The park diagram. Hayek/ This is the North Market Square ... (several talking) Bailey/ I mean, I'm on one page... Markus/ Yeah. We have (several talking) Karr/ ... Chad and Rick. Bailey/ Are you kidding? (laughter) Markus/ Might as well look at `em now! (laughter) Bailey/ I guess so! (laughter) Hayek/ I'll just put (mumbled) Wright/ You do have to be careful what you ask for (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 16 Dickens/ Tomorrow at the meeting, everybody hold `em up and then (several talking and laughing) Markus/ For the benefit of the rest of the Council, we had this question raised earlier today and the resolution talks about, uh, specifications, the contract, all of that, and whether that's something that you normally want to see, um ... we suspect this is all you really want to see about a plan, and maybe having it reduced so that it fits into an agenda packet a little easier (several talking) Bailey/ (several talking) somebody says I don't like this, at least I'll know what they're talking about. Wright/ But it is easy to read! Champion/ Yes. Bailey/ Yes, I do actually... Markus/ This plan went through a number of iterations before it was finalized, uh, the neighborhood was very involved in helping design this. Hayek/ I'm glad to see, urn ... the space in the northeast quadrant, essentially left alone. (several talking) The reason is that this ... some of us have been pushing this for a while, that ... to the extent we could partner it with the School District on repurposing the ... or remodeling essentially of Mann, urn ... the option to make available some additional space in the park. Might make sense. Bailey/ Well, and additionally I think it's very reflective of the use of a park. Any time I'm through there it's Frisbee or soccer in that corner. I mean, whether it's school kids or whether it's neighborhood (several talking) residents, yeah. (mumbled) Hayek/ We don't have a design standard for, uh ... like hard surfaces in a park like this, do we? Markus/ It's my understanding... Hayek/ Uniformities and... Markus/ Yeah, it's my understanding that what happens, uh, as these things, the architect is deployed to design these things that you get a unique design in a lot of these, urn ... parks and even streetscapes, um ... and that's ... that is something that you might want to consider, uh, gravitating or migrating to ... to develop a standardization. Mims/ (mumbled) Bailey/ I don't think that (several talking and laughing) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 17 Mims/ I know there's not! We were ... we were, no, we were having a little discussion earlier about, uh ... different perception or opinion, and I have to say, uh ... Linn Street looks beautiful. It is ... the street looks great, the sidewalks look great. There's just a difference of opinion on how many different colors there are on the ground now and how many colors some of us would think there should be. (laughter) Markus/ Well, from an outsider's reaction, a bit of an outsider, a 7 -month outsider, um ... one of the things I think we should look at is some level of standardization. You go one block in either direction and there's been improvements made that are very different. So you're getting a different design for each project that you're implementing. Um ... I think the big challenge there is when you enter a walkable surfaces, I ... you know, that's not a real solid approach in my opinion. Bailey/ Well, wouldn't we ... wouldn't we have to, or wouldn't it be easier to do that if we phased projects? Markus/ I think so. Bailey/ Yeah. Markus/ I think there's a lot of ways to consider implementing that kind of approach. Bailey/ Or setting up those expectations as projects roll in. On this one ... I mean, not to change the subject... but... these, if I'm reading these correctly, these are 8 -foot sidewalks, correct? Markus/ Yes, these are .... yes, that's right. Bailey/ Good! Because... which will make them easy, which will make them easy to maintain, insofar as plowing and those sorts of things. Markus/ Right. Bailey/ Okay. But ... okay, so now you can go back and talk about the other... Mims/ No, I just... Wright/ I'm sorry. Mims/ I think it just came, because of Matt's comment about design standards and that's where I brought up, you know, we just had a discussion about Linn Street and ... got about three or four different colors of concrete and stone and stuff and... Markus/ And you can't really be critical, look. People are excited about (both talking) Mims/ I agree! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 18 Markus/ ...that it's been upgraded. I think though from a total community standpoint, you really want to look at maybe some level of standardization, um, at some point we get back into maintaining all of these things, and now when you go back and maintain it, you're talking about multiple different surface types throughout the entire downtown area. And so you're going to have to approach that and figure out how to pay for that. I just think it's a lot more expensive when you go back in and you have different surfaces that you used in different areas. So... Bailey/ Well, and I think that that then, if that's the approach, I think it would merit then a public discussion, because all ... that project particularly had a lot of really good business input, and so I think as people have these expectations just with this, as well, with lots of neighborhood input. They like a design, but if we're going to standardize it, you know, letting them know sort of what the bottom line is and what they can have input on and what they can't. Champion/ (both talking) I ... I somewhat disagree, I mean, I understand the point. To me the standardization would be the width of the sidewalk and ... not the colors. I think you'd want the same width meeting another sidewalk. What I like about the near Northside or downtown or the Benton Street park is that it has ... it's an individual thing. It's not a carbon copy of another part. Bailey/ Well, and I think that's what they wanted. Champion/ Yeah! I like that. Bailey/ They wanted to signify you're now in north ... the Northside Market. Champion/ It doesn't all have to be twins or triplets or quadruplets. But I think the standardization should be like on the width of the sidewalks. That's just my personal opinion. Um ... I'd hate to see us all do cookie - cutter things everywhere. Mims/ No, and... and I would be the first to agree that everybody has a different opinion, and no one person's opinion is necessarily right, or better than somebody else's in terms of what they like, you know, in terms of the look of something. But, I think Tom made a point that I hadn't thought about from looking at that is, when you start talking about a number of different surfaces and not just the look of it, but what does that cost us in terms of long -term maintenance. You know, are there some issues that we need to look at in terms of some of that standardization, and the surfaces that we use, so that we're not setting ourselves up for extra maintenance costs down the road. Bailey/ And I made some assumptions about ... we're getting off the topic? 1p� Dilkes/ Yeah, we're ... we're off topic. I think we better get back on ... I think we're at north Market Square Park is what (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 19 pL Bailey/ Well, we're talking about north Market Square Park, I mean, making assumptions about what surfaces we use. I assume that some of those surface considerations, um, and standardizations are for safety. That some surfaces are rougher, you know, some are required for play structures, um, some are easier to run on, that sort of thing. So I assume that that holds through streetscapes, as well. Dickens/ There's no restroom facilities in this, and there's no ... sewer and water that runs through this that it could be added later, or is that... Markus/ Actually there is some underground utilities (both talking) part of the design, right, Chad? Dilkes/ Chad or Rick, why don't one of you come to the table so we can get you on the... Dickens/ I just know that there's ... the Parks Department has talked about standardizing the... the bathrooms and trying to get them somewhat alike so that they can use the same (mumbled) but there's nothing here. Bailey/ Yeah, this wasn't one of the ones on the list. (noise on mic) Dickens/ That was the west side (both talking) Hickory Hill. Hayek/ So, are uh ... the projects that the City does, don't ... come before Council as a standard practice, uh ... unless there's a specific request. So for example, this Item 8, um ... at least what's in the main packet, just has the one page resolution, contract specs, etc., without delving into design issues. Bailey/ At this level. Hayek/ Yeah, at this level. Is that ... I guess, as I was reading this, um, it occurred to me that we go through a fair amount of, urn ... Council-level design review when it's a third - party's project, you know, a rezoning or something like that where we're actually... where we get a presentation on what it will look like aesthetically, but when it ... when it's our own project, we don't follow that same practice, and I don't know why that is historically. Um, but it was something that struck me today as I was reading this stuff. Fosse/ Yeah. Typically on ... on the streetscape projects, if you think back to when we redid the downtown, uh, we did have some ... some presentations to Council, uh, most of our paving, sewer, and those types of projects, they're on file in the City Clerk's office and (laughter) go take a look at those. But, uh, on other projects we ... we usually try and use judgment on ... on when we need to get it in front of you, and a good recent example of that is that ... that Gilbert Street streetscape. You know, we got a design in front of us and we're thinking, `Is this really what the Council wants," and we brought it to you. It wasn't what you wanted, and we went back and redesigned, so it's ... that was ... that was a good example there. Um ... that help? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 20 Hayek/ Yeah, and I'm just wondering if we should ... I mean, I ... just today as I walked in I read this, uh, letter from someone who was involved in this north Market Place, uh, process who, uh, suggests, says, "I would suggest to Council that capital projects with a high degree of public interest such as north Market Square, should be subject to approval by the Council or an appropriate commission, uh, at the conceptual design, development, and 100% complete phase," is what (several talking) Bailey/ ... something up similar at Council time, as well (mumbled) Hayek/ So, anyway ... um ... I just throw that out for discussion, whether it's, you know, when we're doing something, uh, on our property and it's not underground. It's ... it's above ground and visible for all to see, you know, what the process should be. Markus/ Is this the letter from John Thomas? Hayek/ Um, yeah. Eleanor? Dilkes/ I think ... the way I read, read his letter, is that he's talking about, uh, Council... systematic Council approval at the conceptual design stage. I mean, you have to approve all our projects at the, or the plans and specs stage, and we often have discussions about the design of a project as it's going on. Um ... but I think he's talking more about earlier on in the pro ... in the project. That's how I read (both talking) Hayek/ Yeah, I don't know what the balance is. I mean, we don't want to be involved in every minute, you know, minute detail ... by ... by any stretch. Fosse/ Well one, uh, one way that we do some of that is in our annual CIP presentation, and ... and we usually and get some images up of what we anticipate a project to be, and... and make sure that we're all aligned on that. And to go back to that south Gilbert example, that's one where the product that was shaping up was different than what we had talked about at the CIP, and that was one of the triggers for us to come back to you and get your input on that. Hayek/ Okay. Markus/ I think finances played an issue in that one, on a regular basis too. We kept bumping up against the, uh, the dollars that we had available for that project, which kept changing the design as well. Hayek/ Okay. Bailey/ But I think, I mean, I think Matt has a point about ... and like I said, I'll bring something up at Council time about this, is there's an expectation of dialogue for these kinds of things with citizens in the community to their elected officials, even if they've had input at these phases, when it's coming for final approval there's an expectation... that we This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 21 know what it is and ... it has some sign -off to people that they can really effect and influence. So ... I don't know. And I don't know what the balance is either. Hayek/ (mumbled) think about that. Thanks for the explanation. Fosse/ You bet! We're ... we're happy to provide as much or as little information as you'd like. Hayek/ We need to decide! Fosse/ Yes! (laughter) ITEM 23. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING, AUTHORIZING, AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND FOTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENT, LLC TO PROVIDE ENGINEERING CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR THE FIRST AVENUE STORM SEWER IMPROVEMENTS PROJECT. Bailey/ I have a ... an agenda item while Rick's up there. Hayek/ Sure! Bailey/ It's 23. Um... Fosse/ I didn't bring my agenda with me. Karr/ I'm sorry. Could you ... what item is it? Hayek/ 23. Bailey/ 23...I think. I just want to make sure. Dickens/ First item is storm sewer improvements. Bailey/ Yeah! So ... how does this connect, relate, impact to the First Avenue grade separation? Is it going to make it better; are we going to do something that will lead into it, or later have to be changed because of it, or is that ... does that question even make sense? Fosse/ This ... this project actually dovetails with the ... the Lower Muscatine improvements. Bailey/ Right. Fosse/ And, the First Avenue, uh, railroad grade separation. Bailey/ Right. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 22 Fosse/ And what we have between the two projects is a ... a drainage situation that... Bailey/ Right. Fosse/ ...has not performed well over the years. And...it...it has no perfect solution. What we're hoping to do is ... is make the best of a bad situation there. So we will ... we'll improve on things, but as far as project, or the problems going away forever, um, that would be an unreasonable expectation. Bailey/ So down the road when we do the grade separation project ... this may make the situation in the area ... I mean, we heard from people in the area. They are concerned about storm water, and particularly in that Mall Drive (several talking) yeah! And so ... this will help. Fosse/ Yes! Yes, this is ... this is necessary prior to (both talking) Bailey/ Okay, that's... Fosse/ ...the First Avenue grade separation. Bailey/ ...that's what I wanted ... and it won't be anything that we'll have to redo as a result of the First Avenue grade; it leads up to. Fosse/ Correct. Bailey/ Okay. That's... that's what I wanted to clarify. Fosse/ Okay. Wilburn/ What I think, um, you know, your department has done a good job historically in ... in some meetings with the public to make that distinction. Sandusky comes to mind. To say, you know, we're going to take a difficult situation to make it better, but there is no perfect solution in this (mumbled) Fosse/ Yeah, and that's... that's pretty much universally true with storm water problems, you know, you can improve it, but there ... there will always be something that Mother Nature will throw at you that's beyond the design limits of the project. ITEM 22. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING, AUTHORIZING AND DIRECTING THE MAYOR TO EXECUTE AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AMENDMENT #1 TO THE NOVEMBER 2, 2009 AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND FOTH INFRASTRUCTURE AND ENVIRONMENT, LLC TO PROVIDE ENGINEERING CONSULTANT SERVICES FOR THE LOWER MUSCATINE ROAD RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT (KIRKWOOD AVE. TO 1ST AVE). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 23 Hayek/ While you're on 23, uh, let me just ask you quickly about 22 and 23, both of which, um, award contract, um... in one case an amendment, in one case it appears like a new contract to Foth. Both, yeah. What... walk me through the bidding on... on that. What's the process we follow? One's an amendment, so ... working with the outfit that won the contract, but now you're amending it. Do we do ... does that... Fosse/ Yes, and that situation, um ... what we're looking at are changes in scope that weren't a part of the original contract. In this case, it, uh, it has to do ... I'm trying to recall. Wish Ron was here tonight. Uh... Hayek/ It's the Lower Muscatine and ... and expanding a little bit beyond it it looks like. Fosse/ Oh! Jason is here tonight. Jason is one of our Civil Engineers, and he's got, uh, those details on the changes in scope. Hayek/ Welcome, Jason! Markus/ But starting before that... Fosse/ Uh -huh. Markus/ ...did we actually seek an RFP and ... and have competition... Fosse/ On ... on this one? Markus/ For... for these engineers to be selected, I think that's where you have to start the question. Fosse/ Okay. Uh, on a project of this size, I don't believe we did that on it, and typically we do a qualification -based selection process, and on our ... and that involves, um, picking the firm that's right for that job. And that has the right skill set; is ... is able to complete the project; and has a good history with us. Um, on our larger scale projects, we do a request of...for qualifications, an RFQ, and that's where, uh, various firms submit to us their qualification ... qualifications and why they believe they're the best firm for that. We typically reserve that process for our larger scale projects because it ... it's a lot of work for the firms to go through that. They have a lot of up -front expense, and only one of `em gets chosen. Uh, they really don't want to go through that process for a $50,000 contract, for instance, because of what they're spending. Um... Hayek/ But ... so like on 22, it starts out, and I don't have any reason to ... to disagree or dispute or question. It's more just a general question about the process we follow. That started as a ... as a quarter million dollar project, and then we amended it to add about a hundred grand of additional fees. Was that initial quarter million project as originally conceived, um, bid or does that ... follow what the process you just described? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 24 Fosse/ It would not have been bid. But ... what I don't recall, cause it's been so long now is whether or not we went through the ... the RFQ process on this particular process. Dilkes/ Matt, I think you're getting... they're not ... the consultant contracts, we don't bid, i.e., we're not looking at lowest responsible bidder in terms of a number. So we're developing a scope of services. We're saying to the engineer, `This is what we want you to do, and what's the price for which we can do it.' Now, you might do some ... some comparison there, but if we then go into that and ... and see, oh, we need something else done as an addition to the contract, then we negotiate another contract price. Hayek/ That ... that second part makes sense to me. I hadn't ... I hadn't thought of the distinction between nuts and bolts construction work versus consulting services. Fosse/ Uh -huh. Yeah, the nuts and bolts construction is ... is very well defined, you know, we have a ... a set of plans; we have line items that you pay for. Your design is ... is much fuzzier. You know, we need to put a road here. And it needs to drain well. And that's... that's where it's hard to take bids on that sort of thing. Tom, were you going to say... Markus/ Yeah, I ... after you determine the qualifications of any of the engineering bids, if you can refine your scope, um, far enough then you can actually go out and seek competitive proposals. I presume, uh, what Eleanor's talking about is that we don't have a legal requirement to seek bids, uh, for, um ... consulting services, professional services. Is that ... that the case in this state? Dilkes/ That's the case. I think it's also a practical issue in terms of...of the bidding of... Markus/ I can just tell you, we have used competitive pricing, and I ... you know, from my standpoint, after you determine that a firm is qualified to do the work, you can interject qualifi ... uh, or uh, bidding. And I think, you know, in this day and age, and I don't know how many qualified bidders you have in our vicinity right here to do this kind of work, but you might be surprised about how competitive they can be. I mean, there has to be cities across the state that are doing some ... they're forcing some competition. Are they all doing it the same way we do? Fosse/ The majority are. But I have not seen a survey, uh, of practice. Hayek/ You answer my question. Thanks, Rick. Appreciate it. Fosse/ Okay. ITEM 20. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AWARDING CONTRACT AND AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONTRACT FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE IOWA CITY INDUSTRIAL CAMPUS PROJECT. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 25 Hayek/ Other agenda items? Um, I've ... I'll just continue to chime along here. Um, one is a minor thing. I ... I will, uh, I think abstain tomorrow night from the, um, Item 20, which is an award to Maxwell Construction. My firm does work for Maxwell. It didn't have anything to do with this project, but I think it's appropriate for me to not vote on #20 tomorrow night, so I'll turn the gavel over. Um... Wilburn/ And I'll still have the, uh, the final reading on the, uh, old Press - Citizen building. Hayek/ Right. Sounds good. And then, Tom, in terms of your changes, within your office, 25, do you want to just walk us through that. Champion/ Right. ITEM 25. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AMENDING THE BUDGETED POSITIONS IN THE CITY MANAGER'S OFFICE AND THE EXECUTIVE AND ADMINISTRATIVE PAY PLANS BY DELETING THE ASSISTANT CITY MANAGER POSITION (EXECUTIVE GRADE 34) AND ADDING AN ASSISTANT TO THE CITY MANAGER POSITION (ADMINISTRATIVE GRADE 31). Markus/ The major change in here is just the, uh, title change on the Assistant Manager to Assistant to, and there's a corresponding, uh, pay grade, uh, decline associated with that. There's some minor, uh, responsibility changes that occur with that, as well, but that's the most significant change in it. Questions? Hayek/ Yeah ... (mumbled) two things, you're doing ... you're making those changes to the Assistant position, and then we're also ... you've posted for the Administrative Assistant. Markus/ Right, and there's just minor changes there. Hayek/ Okay. Any other questions for Tom on that? Markus/ I think the ... the change that is occurring is assembly of the agenda, uh, will occur in the City Clerk's office. They'll still be run through the Manager's office but... Bailey/ So you're assuming more direct reports then? Markus/ Yes, I am assuming more direct (both talking) Bailey/ Those would go to you? Markus/ Right. Bailey/ Okay. Markus/ My intention is... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 26 Bailey/ You want more work? Markus/ No, actually what I hope to accomplish over time is to flatten that part of the organization out a little bit. Um ... and then... there'll still be direct reports from those same individuals. My hope is to reduce the frequency of...of the actual, uh, reporting and the time spent on the reports. Bailey/ And then flatten... Markus/ If that makes sense. Bailey/ Flatten... what? What was flattened? Markus/ Well, what I hope to accomplish is for the HR Director for the, uh, Human Rights Coordinator, um, who else is involved in that group? The Cable, urn ... for them to take on a more independent role, thus flattening out that part of it. Champion/ Tom, I'm urn ... I'm not questioning your idea. I think it's a great idea. But ... the salary seems quite low to me! Markus/ I don't think we'll have any problem attracting... Hayek/ ...Administrative Assistant. Are you looking at the right thing? You're not looking at the Assistant to position. Champion/ No, you're right. Thank you. (laughter) Markus/ Now we're okay? Champion/ Now we're okay! I'm sorry! Markus/ All right. Bailey/ And so what is that (several talking) Champion/ I know. Thank goodness you could ... you could clarify (both talking) Markus/ The other point I'd make is, and Dale can chime in on this, this is very similar, um, to what occurred I think when Dale actually started, and then there was an internal progression that occurred as ... as Dale matured in the position and gained more expertise; then they changed -up the position to actually increase the responsibilities. Bailey/ So ... pay grade 31, what ... what is that comparable to now in our organization? I'm sorry to put... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 27 Markus/ It's department heads, uh, some of the department heads, chiefs. It's in here, isn't it? Helling /It would be, um... Bailey/ We don't have this part. Helling/ No, I don't have ... I can get that, and we can tell you tomorrow... Bailey/ Is it coordinator levels or... Helling /Uh, it would probably be ... urn ... probably about a step below most of the division heads. Bailey/ Oh! Okay. Markus/ You're saying the new... Bailey/ Yeah, yeah, the new (both talking) the 31 ... I'm just trying to ... trying to get a sense of that, because that's a person... Helling/ Yeah, I'd have to go back and check. Bailey/ ...other department heads, but actually would be ... below them. Interesting. Okay. Helling/ Yeah, that's definitely below the department... all the department heads are in the executive plan. And this is the administrative. Bailey/ Okay. Thanks! Markus/ But, I would also say to you that, uh, during my absence, the possibility of a department head assuming the role is a possibility too. Bailey/ Oh, so it's not necessarily the same sort of... Markus/ I retain that discretion. Bailey/ Okay. Hayek/ Any other questions on that? Champion/ No. Thanks for explaining that. Hayek/ All right, unless there's anything else on the agenda, let's move on to the next bullet point. Okay, solid waste management plan. Ms. Jordan. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 28 Solid Waste Management Plan: ITEM 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST THE ADOPTION OF THE EAST CENTRAL IOWA COUNCIL OF GOVERNMENTS' UPDATED REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN 2011 -2017. Jordan/ Good evening, Council. See if I can do two things here at once. Okay, I am here this evening to address Item ... #21 on tomorrow night's agenda. Uh, to consider a resolution to adopt the ECICOG Comprehensive Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, and I promise I won't try and repeat that too many more times. Um, basically we have to adopt this in order to receive our Landfill permit. That's the ... pretty much the bottom line of it. I'll walk through what it all entails and um, just to give a brief overview of the goals themselves. Okay, so Comprehensive Plan was set up in the, uh, 1987 Iowa Ground Water Protection Act, uh, it requires cities and counties to develop waste management plans, and basically we do that through ECICOG. Um, we do provide assistance for that, but they do the plan itself, and update the plan every, uh, five years, as you'll see in the last bullet point here. That is a recent change from every three years. Uh, we just did it in 2008. After this, we won't be required to do it again, uh, for five years, so we're set for a while on this. Um, back to the middle bullet, the plan requires, or the Ground Water Protection Act requires cities and counties to provide for final disposal. So the Iowa City Landfill provides that for all of the, uh, communities in Johnson County, the rural areas as well, as well as the cities of Kalona and Riverside. Um, because we do not have a 28E agreement like other landfills and service areas do for solid waste, each community, individually, has to adopt the plan, as well as the Board of Supervisors by resolution. So, the plan itself, uh, basically does two major things. It, uh, well, it does one, but there's kind of two sub -parts to it. It basically satisfies ECICOG's reporting requirements for the plan to DNR, including the waste reduction activities that have occurred since the last plan update, as well as the goals for the service area, which of course is the fun part. Um, the stakeholder input for this update of the plan was done, um, was received in August of 2010, the previous year, um, we had a series of meetings at the Landfill from various stakeholders, and we had actually some pretty good participation in that. Uh, some University students, a private waste haulers, a Board of Supervisors, err, supervisor, um, do we have ... Regenia, were you at this one, or was that in 2008? I don't know that we had Council input on this one, but we have the opportunity for that yet as well. Okay, so jumping ahead to the goals, and the ... in the staff memo you received all of these with much more detail, but these are just kind of the ... the very basic goals. Um, I can read through these if you want; if you want to discuss them individually; or I can just let you read through them and I can talk about the examples in more detail. How would you prefer? Hayek/ I'd say just sort of hit the highlights and... Jordan/ Okay. Um, well, number one, the basic one is basically the ... it was set up, I should say, some of these goals have been in almost every comp plan that we've done, and have just This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 29 been updated and recycled, if you will. Uh, this one has been in since the beginning. We are right now at about 36 %. So we're right at the state average, we're almost exactly at the state average of 36% waste reduction, which is a really complicated formula I've talked about a little bit before, um... so we're looking to improve that significantly by 2017, which as I mention in the memo, these goals are lofty, but they're very much accomplishable for the City and for our whole planning area. Um ... I'll skip down to the third one, I'll talk a little bit more about this one later to promote and expand waste reduction, recycling, educational activities, um ... skip down to number five just cause it's a reg ... very much a regional one. That basically sets up the regional approach to recycling and what that means is, we work with the other five landfills in the service area to get better pricing for disposal of appliances, hazardous waste, tires, and uh, electronic waste. So that's basically using bulk. The opposite of bulk purchasing power, so that's kind of what we're thinking about here with the regional approach to recycling. Any questions on those before I flip through... Hayek/ Who are the other, uh, landfills? Jordan/ Cedar Rapids is the main other one, of course, and then there's Benton, Iowa, uh, Tama, and... Hayek/ The catchment area is that... Jordan/ Right, it's six counties. So it's the four ... who am I forgetting? Jones! Thank you. Jones County. So it's the four in the tier above us and then Iowa to the west. Okay, so ... I'm going to jump down to number seven here, so I'll talk more about seven and eight. Seven develop strategies to increase recycling among multi - family households, and eight, review or evaluate, uh, waste and rec ... recycling collection programs. Um, and I'll just mention number ten kind of in passing too ... just because we're working on a lot of these things now, if you've seen in the paper recently that, um, Johnson County Refuse and New Pioneer Co -Op, uh, and University are expanding their waste composting program, so these are all things that very much direct what we do at the Landfill and the goals that we work on for waste reduction recycling. So this isn't necessarily a plan that's ... we may not pick it up as much as we should, but it is something that has definitely has guidance over what we do. Okay, so a little more detail on the examples. Um ... number three and number eight tie together really well regarding waste reduction recycling, and evaluating the collection programs themselves, and this is going directly back to the conversations that we've had in the past 18, 24 months about single - stream and dual - stream recycling. So that change was implemented in part in looking at the planning part also and looking at, um, the ... the participation rates in the community and looking at improving those. So the change was made in April, uh, of this year. That ... so that looks at number eight and how ... it tied in how we evaluated those programs and how people were using them, how they could be better, and then it also in moving forward will tie in the ... the education activities that obviously... we're already working on that to improve the program that we have new flyers out to all 15 ... roughly 15,000 customers that receive curbside service. Uh, we worked with Channel 4 to put out a video. We've done some programming at the Public Library, always a great resource. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 30 We're working with Johnson County, uh, Social Services to start this... actually this week with the "Yes" program. We're going to have some students going door to door with a bin, helping people understand how to sort and why we do it the way we do it now, and then we also have some social media in progress, as well. So that's kind of an example that hits a couple of the goals that we're working on. Does anybody have any questions about that one? All right, here's the slide you're waiting for — what have we seen from that. Um, since the last time I was here we have seen a slight increase in recycling rates curbside. So it's just been in the first couple months, um, I wouldn't say it ... I'm optimistic about it, but I don't necessarily think it's something that we can really be too excited about yet. So, I'll ... six months! Give me six months and we'll see how it's going, but we have seen a little bit of an increase from May of this year from May last year. Hayek/ Which is dual - stream versus the old way. Jordan/ Right, from the six -sort to the dual - stream sort, so ... and that's partially attributable to... I would say that it's easier. It's also because of the education that we've done. We'll continue hopefully to see an increase in that, and hopefully next time I'm here there'll be a significant increase. Okay, so that's one of two examples I wanted to cover. Um, the other is the development of strategies to increase recycling, multi- family households again, ties directly back to the plan. Um, as you know, working with the City Attorney's office to, um, draft the code amendment, which hopefully will be ready in July for Council to consider and then I'm also working on developing a recycling pilot project for, uh, to look at beginning October 1St. We were talking about August 1 and then realized, uh, the lease changeover is going to wreak havoc on that, so we're going to give people a little bit of time to get settled in and try and get something started after that. Mims/ With... question on the multi - family and the ... the zoning code changes. Urn ... I recall reading through here, looking at those affecting only units that are larger than five - plexes. Reason why ... we're going all the way to six-plex ... six-plex and up instead of including like four- and five - plexes? Jordan/ The ... the code amendment itself that we're looking at would actually only be for new buildings of any size. So the City currently serves single - family homes through four - plexes. So this would be five and up for new buildings. So that's where we go back to the pilot project. We have that gap of about 12,000 apartments that don't have recycling, and wouldn't because they're not new apartments. So that's where we go back to the pilot project and try and figure out what the best (mumbled) are for those. Mims/ Okay, but the new ones would be five and up. Jordan/ Would be five and up. Mims/ Okay. I read it at least to say larger than five. Okay. Jordan/ I'll double check that, that wording, as well. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 31 Mims/ Thanks! Jordan/ Any other questions on that? Okay, so in summary, the comp plan basically sets up the goals for waste reduction recycling and education, and the resolution will be before you tomorrow night for consideration, and we have of the, I think 13 or 14 resolutions that we have to get in the County (mumbled) Board of Supervisors, we have I think four done, uh, we have three or four more on agendas, and we have three or four more communities that we're working on getting scheduled. So we're about a third complete. Any questions? I will be here tomorrow night if there's questions then, or if there are questions from the public. Bailey/ With, um... goal number one, you know, promote a significant unifying, um (mumbled) 50% waste reduction. One of the things that I noticed about our own buildings is the Library's done something fabulous recently. Are we planning to roll out something similar in our other facilities, because that makes recycling at the Library very easy. Jordan/ Yeah, and it's pretty ... Eco Iowa City was actually part of funding for those containers. Uh, we haven't talked about something similar, but I think it's fair to say we've received really good feedback (mumbled) (both talking) Bailey/ ...hard to recycle in our buildings, and it seems ironic that we have a waste reduction goal like this, and yet ... I mean, I guess it's ... maybe it's easier within the offices, but it's hard for the public, I guess, is my ... is my point. And... Fosse/ That's... that's exactly right! Bailey/ Yeah! So ... can we think about something like that? I mean, I know that they take up a lot of room, but... Fosse/ Yeah. We'll work with ... with Parks on that and see ... see what can be done. Bailey/ I mean, I think the Library, you know, I think it's a great thing, and I've heard a lot of really positive comments about the Library moving in that direction, especially in that entry, I mean, you can just pass through and actually do recycling there. Champion/ You can't miss `em either! Bailey/ Right, but they're not... Champion/ They're not intrusive, just ... they're obvious. Bailey/ So, I think that would be a good idea, lead by example maybe? Fosse/ Is this the week of the waste characterization study? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Jordan/ It is! Fosse/ Did they all receive invitations (several talking)? Do not miss this opportunity! (laughter) See what's in a cubic yard of waste out at the Landfill! Champion/ Ooh! Wright/ Unfortunately I'm going to be out of town. I'd like to do it! (several talking) Jordan/ ...any day this week! It was ... the official invitation was for Thursday afternoon. Bailey/ Oh! Page 32 Jordan/ So there will be sorting from about 8:30 to about 3:30, 4:00 every day this week, and they've taken eleven 200 -pound samples already today and found some very interesting things, so (mumbled) Hayek/ How deep down do they, uh, go? Jordan/ The process is, it's very, um, statistically driven. What they do is basically we ... we send them information ahead of time to who the haulers in the area are, and they've picked out different loads that they want from different haulers, whether they be commercial or residential from Johnson County Refuse, or from the City itself, or whoever, and then, um, we have a list of what we need to send to them in the building that they're in, and we basically follow that truck down with the endloader and scoop up right off the top. So it's ... it's pretty, come out and check it out! This is my first experience with waste services, well, on this scale so it's really interesting! Champion/ (mumbled) (laughter) Mims/ I had another question. In ... in reading through ... that part of the packet, which was ... there was a lot there, but it was very interesting... it wasn't completely clear to me how much we coordinate and how much the School District and the University, um ... impact the Landfill, and what kind of coordination we have done or maybe could or should be dreaming about doing with, um, those other public entities. Jordan/ The last time I checked the numbers for the University, they were contributing to the Landfill about 5 to 6% of our total waste going out there. That was probably a couple of years ago, and ... I would say that the coordination in the past two years, since the Office of Sustainability has really gotten their feet on the ground and gotten moving has been really, really positive. If they're still 5 to 6% of our total waste I'd be surprised. Um ... the School District is a little bit different. It's more ... much more piece -meal I would say than the University. Um ... we are next on the list for ECICOG to do a school grant program, which could have significant response, and do more things like recycling bins, uniform recycling bins in all the schools. Um, we haven't ... I don't think we've done a great job of that in the past, definitely room for improvement there. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 33 Fosse/ Well, one of the things that we've done in the past there is we've had competitions between grade schools to see who could recycle the most, and the school that recycled the most got a tree, and uh, that ... that was kind of a fun competition (several talking in the background). Mims/ Good way to teach them at the same time. Fosse/ Uh -huh! Hayek/ Thanks, guys! (several talking) We'll take a quick break and then come back and do Library. (BREAK) Iowa City Public Library Facility Plan OP11 of 6/6): Hayek/ (mumbled) Susan and Tom can walk us through the Library Facility Plan. Welcome! Craig/ Thank you! Not something... not on your agenda tomorrow night, um ... just have a ... a brief walk through here, and then we're here to answer questions and just to keep you updated on what's happening over at the Library. Um ... the Library, uh, part of our strategic planning process, which we adopted a new strategic plan last year, was to do a facility's assessment and a community assessment about the need for, um, whether Iowa City needed, uh, branch libraries. Urn ... and we went through a process and hired consultants, urn ... they conducted a ... a building tour, had interviews with Library and City staff. They interviewed 21 community leaders, and did a lot of data analysis of cardholder use. They were working this winter. They took the month of February 2011, and we'll see maps later and you have maps in ... in the copy of the report. They also then took our data and compared it to similar libraries in Iowa and across the country, and um, did a web survey of all the staff that work at the Library, of the current building and how it's working for people. Um, and they put all that together and came to some conclusions, um ... one, which I thought was true, but it's always nice to have independent confirmation is that the Iowa City Public Library is a library leader. We rank very high in circulation per capita, uh ... rank high in the percentage of registered borrowers and turnover rate, when compared both to Iowa similar libraries and to our national peer libraries. Typically peer libraries for us are libraries in college communities of... medium -sized college communities. So Boulder, Colorado for instance is always a peer library for Iowa City Public. Um, and another key finding was that, uh, geographically library use is very well distributed throughout the city. Um ... this is a sample of...they... they used a GPS -kind of graphing data. We gave them a file with all of the address of cardholders, so no names, just addresses of cards that were used during February of 2011. And they put those on a map and said, well, it looks like you're serving your community well geographically. There are not, um, gapping places where there are streets that we don't see, urn ... cardholder use during a month of February. We did, they did similar kinds of data, and in fact, uh, did analysis for people who use public access computes at the Library. Public access computers are becoming, um, very important in public libraries. Um, I don't know if you've followed the cutbacks at the State level in places This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 34 like Work Force Development offices, and you know, one of the things that they're closing 30 -some Work Force Development offices in Iowa, and one of the reasons they give is people can just go to their public library and, uh, apply for jobs, apply for unemployment, um... so those public access computers in public libraries are becoming increasingly important as an information resource, particularly for low- income citizens. Uh, this... sampling and mapping is the first time that this consultant has ever done this, and he ... it was at our suggestion and he was thrilled to have the idea and to get the data, uh, and we're able to do it because people do log in to the public access computers using a library card, so again, we could give a list of the addresses of all of those cards. And... Mims/ Can I ask a quick question? When I looked at the maps, I was having a little difficulty... what's the difference between the green dots and the yellow circles? Craig/ The yellow circles are where there's a single street address that has a lot of people at it. Mims/ Okay. Craig/ So ... um, an apartment building, for instance, that has a lot of cards at a single address. Mims/ Okay. Craig/ I think, for instance, t his ... this large dot in southeast Iowa City, I think that's a mobile home ... urn ... facility where there's a street address. The street address is the same for each unit there. Mims/ Okay. Craig/ Jeff started nodding his head. So I think I'm right in saying that. Uh ... at the end, the recommendations that the consultant gave were, urn ... the full service branch is not needed at this time. Um, they feel the downtown facility is adequately, geographically adequate... adequately serving, um, folks. That people are getting to the downtown area to use the public library. Um, so you know some day down the road, after I'm gone, yes! (laughter) Uh, we may need ... Iowa City may need to consider a full service branch, um, it's very interesting to me how different communities, um ... respond to the need or not for branch libraries. For instance, you look at a community like Davenport, which has, what? 100,000 people in Davenport? Um, and they basically have three equal -size buildings. Everyone of their buildings is 40,000 -some square feet, full service buildings, um ... you know, none of them are open every night of the week. So they sort of split hours between the three of them. Um, but it's ... that's what works in Davenport. In Iowa City, we have a downtown that people can get to and um... so one building is working for US. Champion/ It may be the only thing that works in Davenport, Susan. Craig/ It took them a long time to get those two branches built. Um ... they do recommend looking at a limited - purpose facility with computer access in southeast Iowa City This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 35 (mumbled) again the use of the public access computers was not as geographically disbursed as was the circulation data, and that low- income citizens have less access to computers in their home, generally speaking, um, than others. Champion/ Do the neighborhood centers have computers? Craig/ They ... the neighborhood centers do not have like computer classrooms. And in fact, um, something that's come up just since we got this, and uh, we started talking to the IT folks at the City about, um... some, the internet service out at the Police substation at Pepperwood, and um, we've gone out there and looked at that. I don't how many... if you've all been there, but the room that you walk into at the Police substation is just, uh, a bunch of tables all put together and um ... we're trying to put together a proposal to see what it would take to get some laptops out there, a few times a week, and the neighborhood center out there would be very interested in partnering and knowing that they could come there, use that equipment, and uh ... teach computer classes and things like that. The other thing we asked the consultants to look at was, uh, changes... if we needed any changes in the current building. I know this makes people gasp, because "that new Library!" Um, everything has to be just fine, cause it's only been open seven years! It has been open seven years, 6.4 million people have been in and back out, A ... the building was designed, well, the referendum was in 2000, so the building was designed in 98, 99, and the building program was written in 1993, and didn't have the word `internet' in it. So the planning for facilities takes so long that by the time you get them built, they're already out of date! Um ... the consultants looked at the current building, uh, made some recommendations to consolidate service points, which will let us consolidate some staff. Um, redesign the desks, which are not, again, I think this is something that has really changed, service wise in libraries in the last decade. Um, there's much more... interaction between, uh, staff person and your customer, and you need to be together at a computer when you're doing it. You don't just come up to a reference desk and ask a question and get an answer. You ask a question about how to do something, what web site, whatever, and we need to have desks that you can sit with a computer, um ... with ... with the person that you're trying to help. So, redesign the desks, um, the teen area has never worked very well for us. It's a small space on the first floor. We tried to cram too many things onto the first floor, and we divided the teen books and space from technology, and what teens want is technology. Um... so their recommendation is to create a new teen, specific teen space on the second floor, um, also to take listening and viewing stations, which are there on the first floor, um, con ... you can... listening and viewing has a lot more options now than it did... 12 years ago when the building was designed. Um, lots of things are online. You can watch a DVD on any computer. Um, so we could reorganize that; move it upstairs. It won't take up as much space. And it'll free up some more space on the... on that critical first floor area, and spread out those collections on the first floor, rearrange the south checks a little bit so they're ... it's more intuitive what line you get in, um ... make that whole first floor area a little more inviting. That's part of the... improving the attractiveness and the way - finding. Um, you know, when you ... when you use a building all the time, and you know where everything is, uh, you sort of lose track of the fact that it's a very, it's quite large, complicated building that a lot of people walk in and say, "Where do I go next," and um, This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 36 they think we could improve that, what they call way - finding, uh, add another south check station. We started the building... the, when the building opened we had three south checks, um, we added a fourth two years ago, and this year ... this spring we just added one in the children's room for the busy summer season, and it's, um, being used, uh, at a heavy pace. So, they're saying let's put one on the second floor too. Um, more promotional shelving for materials, uh, more parent -child seating in the children's room. Um, and improve the signage. And that's the end of the presentation itself. Questions? Comments? Dickens/ Crystal ball! What do you see as a future, as far as ... moving forward, less hard cover books or... are people going to go more to electronic or... Craig/ I think people will continue to go more to the electronic, and that creates another service issue for us, because we have to, um ... interface everyone's device with our electronic collections, and so you know they have to, typically there's a license agreement that allows you to download electronic information. Typically it goes on to a computer, and then on to a mobile device. Sometimes it can go directly to the mobile device, depending on all of the license agreements. I think electronic will continue to grow, but I do not think ... in the area particular for popular reading, children's books that the printed book is going to go away any time soon. Martin/ One of the things about that, last year after Christmas, in the first month, our staff helped 587 people learn how to use the device they got for Christmas that year! Mims/ Maybe you should have a class and charge (both talking) Martin/ ...next year... Mims/ ... some revenues, I mean (laughter) Martin/ By the next year or two, all 587 of those will be outdated, and they'll have new ones. So that's part of the what's coming in the library world and how it, those things impact us and our staff. Champion/ Approximately how many books have been downloaded from the Library? Do you have any idea? Craig/ Downloaded this year? We ... the, electronic books, we ... we have had downloadable audio books, spoken word books, for several years. This year was the first year we added electronic, the print version, for the readers. Um ... I don't have those numbers with me. (several talking) Thousands! Champion/ I'm just curious. Craig/ Yeah. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 37 Bailey/ You mentioned something, when it talked about consolidating service points ... the ability to consolidate staff. Would any of this enable you to ... I mean, would it change staffing needs in any way, as you rearrange, I mean (both talking) that's one thing I've heard from other libraries that as you rearrange a facility it changes staffing needs. Craig/ It changes staffing needs in that, uh, what we hope to do at some of the desks, what we're looking at to proceed with some of the ideas in this recom ... that are recommended here, is combining the circulation desk where you get a library card and those people who don't go through self - check, get checked out, and that first floor, what we call the `fiction desk.' Bailey/ Uh -huh. Craig/ Combining... those, what happens at those two desks, so there's one service point that you go to, but at the same time we're doing that, we would like to take answering the phone, which is now done, um, people do still call us. We get thousands of calls, um ... at the circulation desk, and have someone .... so ... so we don't have to tie people, right now people are tied to desks because the phone might ring, and we would like to get people on the floor more, sort of the retail kind of model of, you know, approach someone and see if they need ... help, assistance, at their point of need. They're struggling at a computer, a staff person can walk by and see that and say, "Can I help you do something ?" So, we'd like to assign someone off a desk to answer the phone. So ... just rework things. And we're always struggling to find people, the time for people to help with that technology support, because we need more and more of it. As people... Bailey/ How many, I mean, to go to Susan's point, um, how many classes are you doing on technology (both talking) Craig/ We have ... I can't remember how many are on our schedule in any given week. We schedule them for a month at a time. We also have something called, um, "Tech Tuesdays" where people drop in and get assistance with a variety of technical informational needs, certainly not with everything, you know, we can't fix your computer if it has a virus on it, but if you want to, uh, download library materials, um, we will show you how to do that. Hayek/ Do you have ... of the ... the recommendations or wish list or how, you know, however you want, uh, to describe it, have you guys determined, you know, what you're going to come to the Council with and when and ... can we anticipate, I guess. Craig/ We need to get a plan, um, I think the ... the biggest thing will be that teen space, and rearranging those things on the first floor. Um, we have some money in this year's budget for some new furniture, and we can look at some of the furnishing things they recommend with that money. Um, you know, I am not thinking about ... the building is only seven years old. I'm not ... no tearing down walls or, uh, just basically moving things around and um ... the service desk replacement, that's probably a fairly substantial This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 38 cost, but I hope to have some cost estimates for those projects to include in next year's budget. Champion/ Susan, are you doing, um ... the summer reading program, the bussing again this year? (mumbled) Craig/ Yes ... we are. This is the fourth year for that. Champion/ That's great! Good! Craig/ We have over 2,000 kids signed up for summer reading program, 2,1001 think as of this morning, 2,100 and something. 400, um ... teenagers. So... Wright/ I'd just like to commend the Library administration and the Library Board for undertaking this study because so often you need an outside eye to look at things, as you say, you see it every day. You're used to it. Uh, there's really some, I thought some pretty valuable recommendations in here. Craig/ I ... I was very pleased with the work that they did, and thought that it was a good investment. Wright/ I would agree! Champion/ I think it was a good investment too, and it makes me even more impressed with our Library! Craig/ Thank you, Connie! Bailey/ (mumbled) Hayek/ Other questions for either Tom or Susan? Martin/ We're ... we're not alone in this. Last Friday at the Commission meeting our ... the Chairman of the Commission's from Council Bluffs. It's interesting — their library is newer than ours, and they're just gotten back their report from one of the consultants that we interviewed to do ours, and they're going through changes, and they've got a beautiful new facility over there, but with the ... with the rapid changes we've seen in the last two or three years, especially electronics, their building's outdated, and they're going to make some major changes, similar to what we're doing. So it's just a fast moving, as everybody's business is today. Craig/ They just, uh, they used gambling money, Council Bluffs has a lot of gambling money. Last... a big grant from their gambling foundation. They... spent a lot of money redoing their, and making bigger their teen area and hiring a full time teen librarian and a part- time assistant for that space. All ... paid for by... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 39 Martin/ But they're now going to redo some of it. Craig/ Yep! Martin/ So... Hayek/ Thank you, both, for the presentation. Martin/ Thank you to the Council for your continued support of the Library. We appreciate it! Information Packets: Hayek/ Okay! Uh ... (several talking) You bet. Thanks, Tom! Info Packets, first one's June 9th. Anything on that? Champion/ I have something, but I can't remember what (mumbled). I can't remember where I read it actually, but it was about, um ... the speed humps (mumbled) low riding cars still hits bottom out on those speed humps... Markus/ Somebody's Corvette kept hitting the, uh... Champion/ Yes! So when we talk about... (several talking) so when we talk about... speed control (mumbled) work session on it. I'd like to have that just discussed a little bit, and what other cars are affected by that. I mean, maybe (both talking) Hayek/ We can `vet' that issue, if you know what I mean! (laughter) Come on, it's 7:15! (laughter) Champion/ If we didn't talk so much we'd be out of here! Markus/ Get the undercarriage spec for the Corvette (several talking and laughing) Hayek/ Anything, uh, on June 9? Mims/ Nope! Hayek/ Anything on June 16? (several talking) Oh, yeah, we need to talk radio, don't we? Karr/ You can do that on, if you want to go through the rest we can do meeting schedules last if you'd like. It's up to you! Hayek/ Let's just, uh, do it right now. So IP3 of the June 16, uh, packet. Uh ... we need takers! Wright/ I can do July 6 th Karr/ Mike Wright, July 6 th This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Wright/ Yep! Karr/ Thank you. Dickens/ June 291h, Mr. Dickens. Karr/ Thank you. Champion/ I'm flexible so ... I'm just not ... I'm waiting to chime in (mumbled) Hayek/ I can do, uh, I think July 13tH Karr/ Thanks, Matt. Mims/ (mumbled) I'll do August 3rd Page 40 Karr/ Okay, thank you, Susan. So we only have two, according to my notes: June 22nd, July 20t', July 27th. Champion/ I can do this Wednesday. Karr/ Okay, thank you. Hayek/ Any interesting staff items which would, uh... Karr/ Well, I was going to say, if nothing ... if nothing, certainly we can talk at staff meeting about upcoming projects is something we may be able to plug in the July 201h or July 27th on ... if you'd like. Follow up that way. Hayek/ When's our, uh ... Council meeting in July again? Karr/ July 5. (several talking) Champion/ July 51n Karr/ Why don't I do this, why don't I talk at staff meeting on Wednesday and then mock up something and put something in your Thursday packet. Mims/ I might be able to do the 20 or 27th, I just don't know that far out right now. Karr/ Well, I was going to say, we're .... we're pretty well covered, at least we'd get to the July 5th meeting, if nothing else, and I can come back to you at that time. We can talk about the next two. Hayek/ Great! Thanks, everyone! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 41 Karr/ Thank you. Hayek/ Anything else on the June 16th packet? Okay. Um ... Council time. Council Time: Bailey/ I received a call from somebody, and perhaps others did as well, in the Parkview Terrace neighborhood, about the plan that they were presented for the green space area. Um, they had a neighborhood meeting a couple of weeks ago, and um, this particular resident, and it goes to what Matt was saying about Council review at some point of these kinds of plans, um, just had some questions about the process and ... and what would be, you know, finalized and how that process would happen, and I told ... the more I thought about it the more I thought it would be good for us to see the final sort of plan, and have some discussion at this level about it, so those neighbors, even though they're having input all along the way, would have some kind of dialogue with their elected representatives because ... part of it is, it's, you know, this is a result of the flood, and these are decisions that we've made and I think that it's really important for citizens to have access to those who have been elected to represent them. So, I would like to see that plan whenever it's done for that green space so we can have a public hearing and a resolution. I don't know (several talking) Hayek/ Yeah. Bailey/ Thank you. I'll ... I'll call this resident back and indicate that that's... that's the direction that we're going to go, but I... Tom, do you know... do we have any idea of timeline? For that green space plan. I don't even know what we're calling it. Markus/ Well, Rick is here. As I understand what's occurring, let me back up ... um, as I understand what is occurring is that engineering takes the property upon acquisition, makes the arrangements for the demo, uh, the clearing of this site, the leveling of the property, and then is going to be turning over those sites to Mike Moran, uh, through the Parks Department. Mike has initiated, uh, conversations with the neighborhood to get into the concept of what the ... the plan'll actually be, but I think with this added element that can help give him some direction as to how he proceeds going forward so that we include the Council in that process. Bailey/ And it might be good just ... to be, to let us know the timeline so if we get calls and then also, um, when Mike is communicating with the neighborhood. They kind of know the process as well, because that was fundamentally what it was about is what is the process, when will this be decided, who makes the decision. Markus/ Right. Bailey/ And so... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 42 Markus/ I, uh, I indicated I think to this same person that I thought we should do a comprehensive plan for that park, and the extension. The problem is the timing. I think ultimately additional properties will be acquired, and ... and then when you look at some of those riverfront properties, uh, some of those folks have made substantial improvements, which indicate that they're going to be there for the long haul. So, you're going to plan around some of those properties, in any plan that we do for that area. Um... so, in thinking about the whole process of, you know, you're going to have a park and you're going to have individual residences in very scattered locations throughout a park, that's going to be a challenge. Bailey/ Yeah. Well, and that links to another question that I have, or comment more about how, do we have a plan or a policy of how we, um, maintain our riverfront areas that we own? For example, in City Park. I know that we reseed that green space every year. I've talked with some people about, um, you know, what we're doing. Urban hydrology, some ... some interest that they would have in working with the City on doing some concepts and some more policy -level sorts of things so we're not actually rip- rapping the whole, you know, lining the river with that and we're actually doing some wetland -sorts of things, that we don't always have to ... put back into place after there are floods. I mean, what is our policy? Fosse/ Well, I can tell you that after the ... the 93 flood, we had a lot of erosion along the... Bailey/ Right. Fosse/ ...upstream end of City Park, and ... and we did a rip -rap project that ... that concealed the rip -rap mostly from the waterline down, and then used vegetation from there up, and... and that's working very well over time, but we were not able to take that all the way around the corner and down to the bridge. Bailey/ Good! You know I hate that stuff! (laughter) Fosse/ But, um, but that doesn't get at the seeding issue that you were talking about. Bailey/ Well, and I'm talking more of...of sort of conceptual, you know, sustainability, environmental, how we live with a river in the middle of the ... of the city, and, I mean, this seems to be more of a question since we're acquiring this property ... in Parkview Terrace, and what do we want to see, and how do we manage that? I mean, do we have such a policy? Do cities have policies like that? I think it might be something to explore. Fosse/ We should get Mike in and visit on that. Bailey/ Well, and I think that there are people in our community who work throughout the state who are very interested in, you know, sitting down and helping us do this. I think it's a nice opportunity for us to ... sort of lead in a sustainable water management way. I don't know what others think, but it just makes sense as we're getting more property along the This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 43 river ... figure out how we're going to deal with it in a sustainable, financially and environmentally sustainable way. Champion/ I think it's a very valid point, as ... a lot of the town is built right up to the river, which creates erosion problems and all that, and sometimes (mumbled) stop the erosion (mumbled) (both talking) but, and yet how much, I mean, we should have a policy. How close can you build to the river, so on, so on, so on. Bailey/ Well, and what is our approach to management along the river? I mean, do we reseed every year? Do you expect at the Park to be a lawn up to the river? That's not ... and I don't know what... Wilburn/ It sounds like a work session item since this (several talking) Bailey/ ...and I don't know what the University does, but they obviously have some... something. Hayek/ Maybe we cover that topic when we touch base with Mike and company on... Bailey/ Yeah! Hayek/ ...on (both talking) for that area. Uh, and I have to imagine there's substantial parameters within we have to operate, using the funds we received to acquire those properties. I mean, it's wetland, you know, it's flood mitigation. Bailey/ Well, and that's exactly ... I'm not talking about (mumbled) Hayek/ Right. But I mean, that would come into play. So that'd be an appropriate time to... Markus/ (several talking) heads up, so... Fosse/ Back on the timing of that project, if you recall it's not currently in the Capital Program. Bailey/ Right. Fosse/ And I think what Mike is doing is trying to assemble enough information so that when we enter the budget process, this season, we'll have a ballpark that we can talk about, what would be needed. Bailey/ (both talking) figured I was suggesting a process that I probably wouldn't be a part of, but I think it's a good process. The Council should involve, you know, itself in it. So citizens know where to go to talk about it. Thanks! Hayek/ Other Council time? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 44 Champion/ Well, I just wanted to let everybody know ... that one of the few meetings I missed with the jail people, they finally made a decision when I wasn't there (laughter) Mims/ Should have missed one ten years ago! (laughter and several talking) Champion/ You're right! I thought of all the meetings to miss, they announce the decision, so maybe ... after 14 years they will move forward. They actually did make a decision. The only decision they've made before was that we need a new jail, and now they've actually come up with an amount of money. There is no design yet though, but ... it's promising! I'm hoping a new Council Member would like to take over the jail meetings. Hayek/ (mumbled) discuss that! (laughter) Other Council time? Any budget issues? Pending work session issues? Coming events, Council invites? Council Invitations: Wilburn/ The, um, local (mumbled) chapter of, uh, Phi Kappa (mumbled) um ... is having their, uh, participating in the national Journey of Hope that they do every year, fundraising for persons with mental and physical disabilities. They'll be coming through the area, uh, July 19th and uh, they've asked me to speak at 11:00 at Old Capitol. Um, I've done it for them in the past, um ... so unless you have objections, Mr. Mayor. I counter offered to ride with them from Cedar Rapids, they come from Cedar Rapids that day. They go from... San Francisco to D.C., and so um ... they're probably going to let me ride along with them, so, again, unless you (both talking) hop on the bike too! Hayek/ I've seen you on two wheels and uh, no one's faster! Wilburn/ All right! Hayek/ That'd be great if you'd do that! Wilburn/ Okay. Hayek/ Anything else on invitations? Markus/ (mumbled) another issue. Meetinjz Schedules: Hayek/ Okay. Uh ... well, let's just quickly discuss meeting schedules. Um ... gone over that recently? Okay. Tom (mumbled) Markus/ Mr. Bentley's here, our, um, management intern. I just wanted to introduce Adam Bentley. Hayek/ Oh, yeah! (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 201 1. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 45 Wilburn/ ...he's got a microphone. Hayek/ We'll give him my... Dickens/ So they can hear ya! Bentley/ Hi, my name's Adam. I'm actually a native Iowa Citian, Iowacitonian! Uh, went to the University of Northern Iowa, uh, for my undergraduate and graduate degree, and then spent some time in Wichita, uh, working for a city manager, Bob Leighton, who was the Urbandale City Manager for 26 years. So, back in town. I look forward to lending a hand to-to Tom and Dale. So, nice to meet you all. (several talking) Hayek/ Welcome to you. Okay. Karr/ Meeting schedule. Hayek/ Oh, you want to talk meeting schedule. Karr/ Yes! Hayek/ There are meetings beyond KXIC interviews? Karr/ Yeah, there are! Hayek/ Whatever! Karr/ Just two things, uh, very quickly. Uh, number one is we've been asked, uh, by KXIC, Clear Channel, if anyone would like to and would be available to do an upcoming ascertainment meeting, various communities are coming together for city government day. Iowa City's component is Tuesday, June 21St. Um, and it's at KMRY radio, which is in Cedar Rapids, and it's ten or fifteen minutes on city government day, in and about Iowa City. Hayek/ Tomorrow? Karr/ That's what it is! Hayek/ And what are they calling this? So... Karr/ (several talking) Hayek/ What is it? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Page 46 Karr/ Yep, and the City Manager has a conflict. We just found out about it. The time slot is 1:15 to 1:30. I told them I wouldn't know until tonight. Would notify them tomorrow morning. Champion/ What about Dale? Do you have a conflict too? (laughter) Hayek/ Uh, I'll talk to you in the morning, Marian, I don't know if I can do this or not. I probably cannot, but uh... Karr/ Okay. Um, the other thing is a rescheduling that we will need to make in November. Um, Council Member Bailey has been, urn ... asked to join the delegation, um, going to Korea, and because of that we'll need to take a look at the November schedule, and I have ... it will involve our second meeting in November, and will also involve our strategic plan, which is scheduled that Friday afternoon, the 18th. I've contacted Jeff Sh regarding his schedule, and the question is ... whether we can move that ... right now we're meeting November 1St. We do not have a meeting election day, which is a week later. We were due for our second meeting that 15/16. So, um, Jeff is available to reschedule. We are available, uh, to reschedule the meeting, as well. Seems to me the best way to do it would be take a look, excuse me, on a Monday- Tuesday, either the 21 st or 22nd, before Thanksgiving for a meeting, or the 28th /29th, after Thanksgiving for the meeting. Whatever week we don't take, we'll take a look at strategic plan; Jeff is available. The advantage of doing the meeting before Thanksgiving is the fact it's a short week, and there would be no packet then. You know, because if it's a ... if it's a packet week, then we get the packet out on Wednesday for the following Monday- Tuesday, but I wasn't sure about your travel plans for Thanksgiving, as far as being in ... available. Wright/ Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving (mumbled) Karr/ Does not work well? Wright/ Would work well. Karr/ Would work well! Champion/ What are those dates? Karr/ 21, 22. Bailey/ 21, 22. Karr/ And then we'd like to get back to Jeff as soon as possible to take a look at rescheduling the strategic plan. Champion/ And we'd be cancelling what meeting? Karr/ 15 ... we'd be cancelling 14, 15. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 2011. June 20, 2011 City Council Work Session Champion/ Okay. Yeah, that's ... that will work for me. Karr/ 21, 22 works? Mims/ Works for me. Dickens/ Works for me. Hayek/ Sure. Karr/ Okay! And then I'll prepare another schedule; we'll take a look at it. Page 47 Hayek/ Okay. Okay! Anything else for the good of the order? If not, we'll see you tomorrow evening. Good meeting! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council work session of June 20, 201 1.