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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-05-15 TranscriptionPage 1 ITEM lb. SPECIAL PRESENTATION. Hayek: Item lb is an addition. It's a, uh, special presentation for shovel -ready certification of Iowa City's wind energy supply chain campus. Would our guests please come forward. Karr: Here to make the presentation is Eric Hanson with ICAD who'll also make other introductions. You'll need to turn it on, Eric. There you go! Hanson: Is that on? There we go. Uh, Mayor, City Council, and audience. I work for the Iowa City Area Development Group. I'm the Communications Director. Also with me is DaLayne Williamson, our Workforce Services Director. We've been working with the City for this particular industrial campus for the past two years to attract, uh, industrial and commercial property to the campus. We've also been working on a certification program, uh, to help market the campus, and to make that presentation for the certification we have Jonathon Gemmen from Austin Consulting out of Cleveland. Gemmen: Thank you! Um, lot of work goes into certification. I don't know if, uh, everyone here knows exactly what it is, but uh, today's, uh, environment to compete for industry is very, very, very competitive. Um, it's a real challenge. A lot of states, um, that are not as fiscally conservative Iowa are willing to throw oodles and oodles of money at, uh, at projects, um, just to get jobs cause they're desperate for jobs. Um, and when you ... you got a community like Iowa City, uh, well educated, uh, good school system, uh, well planned, urn ... and just a great quality of life, um, but the desire to grow industry is ... is very, very, uh, appealing, um, and uh, again, you have to grow industry, uh, to continue to, uh, you know, develop your middle class and we're ... we're excited to see that a community, um, you know, who could go after the ... just the creative class, uh, you know, kind of high -tech, virtual jobs, uh, really is willing to invest in really blue collar jobs so, um, we haven't seen the ... the full fruits of our labor, but uh, we really have a wonderful site, um .... our there and I don't think it'll be long before, uh, someone from corporate America or global corporate corporation inc chooses to come to, uh, to Iowa City and uh, make capital investment and create some jobs. So thank you! Yeah, it's basically the letter, uh, letter talking about our certification and uh, the key details. I just want to thank, uh, a handful of folks, um, I don't want to go into too many names, but for the City of Iowa City, um, and ... and ICAD, they stepped up a few years ago and... and decided to make, um, make an investment in this program. They hired our group, uh, with, uh, a partnership with the State to, uh, to bring us in and uh, and identify the best sites in the, uh, in the community so they can be marketed at a high level, and uh, now they're getting the exposure that, uh, that ... that they need, and uh, now the State is finally jumping on board and, uh, making a State program, but uh, the impatience of the ICAD group which I was very much impressed with. They, uh, they couldn't wait for the State. The State's been talking about this for years and uh, they said, hey, we're going to do it without you, and they ... they went ahead and did it and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 2 now, uh, the balls rolling and it's moving all across Iowa. So, thank you! (applause) Hayek: Jonathon, I want to thank you for ... for coming tonight and also our ... our ICAD partners. ICAD has been a real leader on the .... on the development of this wind energy campus and uh, they plus... critical members of our staff have... have... moved the ball down the field considerably, but this shovel -ready certification is ... is a major milestone for us. Uh, along with the other amenities — the rail spur and the infrastructure and what not, and we're excited to see, uh, the ... the attraction of private industry to ... to this former cornfield. So ... thanks, uh, for making the trip and we appreciate your work. (mumbled response) Take care! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 3 ITEM 2. OUTSTANDING STUDENT CITIZENSHIP AWARDS — Grant Wood Elementary Hayek: While I'm up here, let's move on to the next item which is, uh, Outstanding Student Citizenship Awards. Would our students from Grant Wood Elementary come up please? Hi, guys! Well hello, everyone! I'm Matt Hayek, I'm the Mayor, and sitting behin ... behind you here is the City Council of Iowa City. Have you ever been to a meeting before here? Yeah, well ... this is an exciting place to be (laughter) let me tell you! So, we're ... we're really glad to have you here and what we do, uh, throughout the school year is invite leaders of the various elementary schools in Iowa City, uh, to come and talk to us just a little bit about what they're doing at their schools and uh, we've got an award we want to read to you, um, and I understand that... at least one of you has a... some sort of band concert to get to so we'll try to cut this shorter and ... and cut to the chase here. So why don't we do this. I will, uh, pass the microphone to you and if you wanted to read your ... your piece to us, that'd be great! Thanks! Garcia: Hello! I am Korrin Garcia. I am a sixth grader at Grant Wood Elementary. My homeroom teacher is Miss Grigsby. My jobs in school are conflict managers and clipboard pickup and returns. I read and help the kindergartners and watch the kindergarten and first grade recess. I also have the privilege of playing the flute in band. I also like going to the after school band on Wednesdays. Outside of school I babysit and do volleyball. I believe I received this award because I like to go to school and get to see my friends and teachers. I believe I am responsible and respectful to my peers and my wonderful teachers. I'd like to thank my teachers, Miss Grigsby, Miss Brock, and Mr. Glenn. Thank you, Miss Grigsby, for nominating me for the leadership award. Also Miss Grigsby helped me with questions and problems I had. Thank you sixth grade teachers for nominating me. Thank you everyone who helped me, like my mom and neighbors. (applause) Momberg: Hello. My name is James Momberg. I am a sixth grader in Mr. Glenn's class at Grant Wood Elementary. Thank you for giving me this award. Some activities I am involved in at school include conflict managers. I am a bank officer and I was leader of the classroom for about half the year. As conflict manager, I go to kindergartner ... kindergarten and help them read and fill out worksheets. As bank officer, I pay the people in our class for doing work and jobs with classroom cash. As leader of the classroom I decided rules and fines for not getting your work done. I also kept track of how much money people had and other things. Some activities I am involved in out of school include soccer, basketball, and orchestra, and I play the viola in the fifth and sixth grade orchestra. Again, thank you for giving me this award. It is an honor. (applause) Lui: Hi, my name is Winston Lui. I'm a sixth grader at Grant Wood Elementary. My homeroom teacher is Miss Brock. Grant Wood teachers are very nice and kind. Each morning I look forward to coming ... to come to school to, uh, come to school early ... to raise both our nation's and our state's flag. It's been an honor This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 4 and a privilege to do what I believe is an important job. In school I enjoy math and helping others in need. Outside of school I enjoy soccer and baseball. I also enjoy playing the piano and violin. Both sports and music have kept me motivated to help me stay organized. I look forward to go ... I look forward to go to Southeast Junior High, but I will also miss my teachers and peers. My future plans are to continue to be active in various activities and to do well academically. Lastly I would like to thank Miss Brock, Miss Grigsby, and Mr. Glenn for teaching me, and Miss Brock for nominating me for this award. (applause) Hayek: Well those were beautifully written and beautifully spoken pieces, and, uh, it's just wonderful. I don't know how you get all of these things done, uh, during the week but ... because you must be so busy. Well it's great for us to see, uh, young people in Iowa City doing such amazing things, and one of the reasons we bring you here to give you this award is to recognize what you do in your school because you set an example for everybody else in your school and around the community. And we also want to thank your teachers and your parents and the people in your lives who, uh, help you, uh, do everything that you do. Obviously they have a big, big role in ... in what you do, uh, every day of the week. So, with that in mind ... we have what's called a Citizenship Award, and there's one for each of you and I'll read it. It ... it reads as follows: for his or her outstanding qualities of leadership within Grant Wood Elementary, as well as the community, and for his or her sense of responsibility and helpfulness to others, we recognize you as an Outstanding Student Citizen. Your community is proud of you. Presented by the Iowa City City Council, May 2012. (mumbled) Here's yours, and Winston ... let me just shake your hands here. Congratulations and keep up the great work! (applause) Thanks so much! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 5 ITEM 3. CONSIDER ADOPTION OF THE CONSENT CALENDAR AS PRESENTED OR AMENDED. Champion: Move adoption by, uh, pulling out 3e(1). Dobyns: Second. Hayek: Okay, uh, that's 3e(1). Moved by Champion, seconded by Dobyns. Discussion? Are we permitted to do this this way? Karr: So we're adopting it minus 3e(1) only? Hayek: Exactly, and we'll take up 3d(l) under (both talking) Mims: But wait a minute, isn't (both talking) Karr: What about 3, yeah, 3d(5) too? Mims: (both talking) Hayek: Do we need to do that? Karr: Well if you're... you're going to be adopting the rest of the agenda... Hayek: Right. All right, let's take both out. So, Connie, why don't you amend your... Champion: I did! Dobyns: Yeah, I seconded the amendment. Hayek: Okay. The motion is to, uh, to, uh, adopt the Consent Calendar, pulling out 3e(1) and 3d(5). Karr: (both talking) (5) okay. So we'll have adoption of the Consent Calendar minus those two. Hayek: Yes. Seconded by Dobyns. Discussion? Roll call, please. Okay, uh, passes, uh, 6 -0, Council Member Dickens will not be here this evening. Okay, why don't we take up the other two and we'll start with, uh, 3e(1). Payne: On 3e(1) I'll need to recuse myself for. Hayek: Okay. Mims: Move adoption of 3e(1). This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 6 Champion: Second. Throgmorton: And what is it? Hayek: This ... this is, uh, conveyance of utility easements, uh, on Lower Muscatine, uh, in connection with (several talking) Mid American on the infrastructure work down there. So, moved by Mims, seconded by ... who was that? Karr: Champion. Hayek: Champion. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 5 -0, Council Member Payne abstaining. Which brings us to M(5). Karr: d(5)? Hayek: Or 3d(5), pardon me. Why don't we key that up as a ... as a motion. Champion: Okay, shall we, oh ... we do it now? Hayek: Yeah. Champion: Okay. I'd like to pass 3d(5) on the Consent Calendar. Payne: Second. Hayek: Motion from Champion, seconded by Payne. Uh, discussion, and I will read that so the public knows what we're talking about. This is, uh, consider a resolution authorizing an agreement between the City of Iowa City and the, uh, Eliezer Rodriguez and Marc Moen for installation of a mural on City owned property at 220 S. Dubuque Street, and authorizing the Mayor to execute and the City Clerk to attest the same. Throgmorton: Matt, I wonder if you'd be willing to say some of the comments, uh, you made during our work session. They were, uh, really right on target and, uh, pretty reasonable to repeat. Hayek: Yeah, uh, so this ... this relates to a proposal for private funding of a mural on City owned property, specifically a parking ramp, um, and as I understand it, the process went through the normal Public Art Advisory Committee, uh, process, uh, where it...it was vetted with a recommendation to, um, to the Council to ... to support this and enter into an agreement with the artist and the, um, sponsor, um ... the .... the difference that caused what I think is a minor flap in the scheme of things, uh, will be forgotten was there was a request to, um, not forward the, uh, the details of the mural were to the Council because the artist wanted to unveil the work, um, essentially live so the public could see this come together, um, as the artwork unfolds. Um, this is a little bit not in keeping with, uh, at least past This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 7 practice, and so what we discussed at a ... at our work session earlier this evening was that the Council wanted to see, um, those details, which is consistent with what we do for other public art, uh, projects, and uh ... uh, we have since then in the last couple of hours, seen the design sketch for that. Um, so this is before us now to, uh, take a vote on, uh, have discussion on ... if people would like to. Dobyns: And the Public Arts Commission is a group that's taken a look at it recently, um, the finished product so it's actually been vetted by, um, multiple groups. Champion: I think this'll be a really positive thing, uh, our new parking ramps are actually quite good looking for a parking ramp. Our older ones are pretty ugly so I think this is going to be an incredible improvement. Thank you, Marc! Throgmorton: Yeah, I'd like to repeat something I said during the work session too. I really like the idea of, uh, public art on the sides of, uh, these large public structures, uh, that ...that we in particular own. Uh, and I think it's tremendously generous of.. of Marc Moen to volunteer to, uh, contribute funds for this. I expressed some concerns about, uh, not knowing in advance what the ... what the art, or what the design might look like, and now ... now that's been clarified, and also it was, uh, entirely unclear to me how much of the north wall of the parking structure would actually be covered by the mural. Marc addressed that very clearly. Uh, I feel comfortable with what he said, uh, so I ... I'm happy to support this, uh, and ... and am confident it will serve the City well. Hayek: Yeah, I think this is a ... a remarkable act of generosity, um, and I think it's an important and significant investment in our downtown artistic landscape, um, and it's ... it's just fantastic to ... to see this kind of, uh, commitment, uh, to a public piece of property. So ... further discussion of this? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 8 ITEM 4. COMMUNITY COMMENT (ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA). Hayek: Okay, this brings us to Item 4 which is community comment. This is the opportunity at each City Council meeting for members of the public to address the City Council, uh, regarding items that are not on the agenda. So if there's something you'd like to bring to our attention, I invite you to step forward. Ask you that you sign in, and also give us your name over the microphone and uh, we need people to keep their comments to five minutes or less, please. So... Holbrook: I'm Mark Holbrook. I'm with the Senior Center Commission and I just want to, uh, make a few brief, uh, announcements. One is the summer program guide for the Senior Center will be available on Monday. So look for that all throughout town. The classes will start on the 4th of June, and registration for those courses start on the 29th of May. Uh, the Senior Center recently hosted on, uh, Friday, April 27th, a very successful event. It was an art exhibit called "Stir Fry" and also a Sudanese festival, and over 250 members of the community came during that evening event, and also that the Senior Center is participating in the June Ist gallery walk. So, we appreciate, uh, our participation and hope that others will attend as well. Thank you! Hayek: Thanks for the update, Mark! Would anyone else like to address the Council during community comment? Whiston: My name's Dorothy Whiston and I'm with the Coalition for Racial Justice and, um, hearing the discussion earlier in the work session about the possibility of selling public housing units and um, transferring some of the funds from those sales into the UniverCity program, um, raises concerns for me, and I would hope that before that's done or really any action is taken by the Council that there will be a systematic, uh, racial equity assessment done. Uh, I think that those two programs are very different populations in our community. I know at the state level now the legislation is required to go through a racial equity, uh, impact assessment, and I think that that's something that we need to be doing at the local level, as well. So particularly when it has to do with public housing, which I think does disproportionately affect people of color in our community. I hope you will do that kind of an assessment before moving forward on that. Hayek: Thank you, uh, for your comments. Simmons: Good afternoon. My name is Chadd Simmons. I'm the Executive Director of Diversity Focus. Diversity Focus was started around six years ago, uh, by corporations and organizations, uh, such as Rockwell Collins, ACT, University of Iowa, University of Iowa, uh, Healthcare, um, Alliant Energy, um, and many other organizations. It was designed in order to help the community with the challenges that it has, um, around, uh, issues of diversity. Uh, our organization is an organization that wants to help you and help the community get better, and the reason why it's important to corporations is because they found that they were This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 9 bringing in talent, um, but they were leaving after two to three years. So they would come here for a job, but they would leave because they couldn't build a life, and it's costing organizations, um, a lot of, uh, money, uh, thousands of dollars, um, and so, uh, the ... the simple two things that I wanted to bring up. One was, is that I really appreciate the work and the effort and the due diligence that you've put together as it relates to, uh, taking a look at the document and making some assessments. I would ask you to consider that, um, it's not only about your vote of whether you support it or not. It's about the discussion that you have, and whether people believe that you believe in them as a community. And so I would ask you in your actions versus just your words what it means to people as they're listening to you and whether they believe that you believe in them. The second thing that I just would ask is, is that I know there will be a committee that would be created, and was curious on what the process is for that committee and how much involvement, um, would, um, the community have in, um, recommending or suggesting people for the committee. Hayek: Well we, uh, Mr. Simmons, we don't ... we don't do a back and forth during community comment. I can tell you though that on this particular issue we're going to have that conversation probably at our next meeting, in terms of the ...the composition of the ad hoc committee and then the ... the tasks we assign to it. Simmons: Thank you very much. Hayek: You bet! Would anyone else like to address, uh, the Council? Okay, we'll move on to Planning and Zoning items. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 10 ITEM 5. PLANNING AND ZONING MATTERS. b. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE VACATING .27 -ACRES OF STREET RIGHT -OF -WAY ADJACENT TO LOTS 1 -8 MELROSE PLACE. (VAC12- 00001) (SECOND CONSIDERATION) Hayek: This is second consideration. Expedited action is requested by staff. Why don't we do ex parte before we get into this? Does anyone have any conversations since our last meeting? (several responding) Okay. (several talking) ... do the honors? Mims: I move that the rule requiring that ordinances must be considered and voted on for passage at two Council meetings prior to the meeting at which it is to be finally passed be suspended, that the second consideration and vote be waived, and that the ordinance be voted on for final passage at this time. Champion: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Champion. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 5 -1, uh, Council Member Dobyns in the negative. Mims: I move that the ordinance be finally adopted at this time. Payne: Second. Hayek: Pass and adopt... Dilkes: Hold on one second! I'm ... we're going to ... because we've got one missing, and we've got a no, I'm going to have to check the requirements on (mumbled) Hayek: Oh! (mumbled) Dilkes: Yeah, I know it's three - quarters of (mumbled) Do we have five of you? Okay, we're good then. Mims: I move that the ordinance be finally adopted at this time. Payne: Second. Champion: I mean second! (laughter) Hayek: Pass and adopt moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Throgmorton: I'm going to oppose this for the same reasons, uh, I opposed it last time. Hayek: Okay. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 11 Throgmorton: Last ... last meeting that is. Hayek: Roll call, please. Uh, passes 3 — 2, Council Members Dobyns and Throgmorton (several talking). Oh, yes, 4 -2! My math is terrible tonight! Okay. So 4 -2, Council Members Dobyns and Throgmorton on the negative. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 12 ITEM 5c CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE REZONING APPROXIMATELY 2.43 ACRES OF LAND FROM INTENSIVE COMMERCIAL (CI -1) TO COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL (CC -2) FOR PROPERTIES LOCATED EAST OF WEST SIDE DRIVE AND NORTH OF MORMON TREK BOULEVARD NEAR ITS INTERSECTION WITH HIGHWAY 1 WEST (REZ12- 00003). (PASS AND ADOPT) Champion: Move adoption. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Champion, seconded by Payne. This has to do with the, uh, corner of, uh, Mormon Trek and ... and Highway, I guess 1. Uh, 2440 Mormon Trek Boulevard where the McDonald's is. Um, and allows expansion of that restaurant, and acknowledges that general retail, commercial is appropriate at this intersection. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 13 ITEM 5e CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 14, ZONING, ARTICLE 5A, OFF - STREET PARKING AND LOADING STANDARDS, TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF REQUIRED PARKING SPACES FOR CERTAIN MULTI - FAMILY DWELLING UNITS WHEN LOCATED WITHIN A DESIGNATED UNIVERSITY IMPACT AREA (UTA). (PASS AND ADOPT) Mims: Move adoption. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Throgmorton: Uh, I'm going to vote against this, uh, again for reasons that I articulated during our last meeting, having to do with how the parking ordinance does nothing to reduce our dependence on automobiles, which is problematic in the face of fiscal, uh, uncertainties and so on. I won't, uh, don't need to elaborate, and also because it does nothing to ensure that the streetscape will remain urbane and lively and so on. I'd be happy to elaborate on that with anybody at any time, but I guess this is not the appropriate moment. Dobyns: I'd let the public know uh, earlier in our work session we discussed with City staff, uh, various options, specifically a... sort of a zip car, rent car, uh, methodology used in other cities to try and look at operational ways that we can decrease the parking burden on the downtown areas. Hayek: Further discussion on 5e? Roll call, please. Item passes 5 -1, Council Member Throgmorton in the negative. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 14 ITEM 7. AMENDING THE FY2012 OPERATING BUDGET. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) The public hearing is open. We have a presentation on ... this I believe. Mr. O'Malley! O'Malley: Mr. Mayor, City Council, uh, I am here to support ... recommend the adoption of this, um, resolution and I wanted to call your attention to, uh, our public hearing on this. Uh, we have ... I'm sorry, I just came out from the hallway! (laughter) Our current estimates are another $8 million in revenue, and ... another $14 million in expenditures, which would be a reduction of $6 million. Urn ... $4 million of that's going to come out of our General Fund. $2 million out of Debt Service and uh, Water funds. And remainder out of Landfill. For, uh, cost overruns. Are there any questions? Mims: Kevin, that's still going to keep our reserve at the end of the year within our... O'Malley: Yes, within our 25% policy. Mims: Okay. O'Malley: We, uh, decided uh ... staff decided that instead of borrowing money from the Landfill, paying it back over 20 years, uh, that we would just invest in the industrial park the $4 million this year, and get it shovel- ready. Mims: Okay. Thank you. Hayek: And that's what these dollars stem from, is that investment. O'Malley: That's correct. Mims: Okay. O'Malley: I know that ... the forms are a bit arcane, uh, based on State, uh, prescription. So we had a memo in there and we had also like a spreadsheet, and if there was any questions about any of those amendments, I'd be happy to try to clarify that. There's about 60 amendments, about 300 journal entries. So I ... I'm trying to pick up on the large dollar ones. Oh, the other thing that is throughout the budget amendment process this time is we don't amend for, um, or we don't budget for retirements and we had several retirements. Uh, obviously Dale Helling, as you know, and several police officers and firemen. So, those always end up in this second round of amendments. And fuel costs were higher this year, so that ...that amendment was in here. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 15 Hayek: For the benefit of the newer Council Members, roughly how many amendments to the budget do we do throughout the course of the year? O'Malley: Oh, about 170 amendments, uh, the ... actually it used to be about 170. To, uh, Tom Markus' credit, he's been, uh, not allowing, uh, some of the smaller amendments to go through and uh, that's helped my office quite a bit. And so we're only looking at ma ... major ones that really had appropriation authority to begin with, uh, and so we expect that we'll be in good financial shape, even with these ... with this $6 million. Uh, that service ones are going to save us money in the next two years, and the uh, capital improvement one was just a capital, uh, cost overrun in our Landfill. Hayek: Yep. And then of those, let's say 170 amendments throughout the course of the year, those get bundled (both talking) into a couple of action items for the Council. (both talking) It's not 170 votes. (laughter) Don't worry about that! O'Malley: Right, and uh ... what ... governmental accounting's different than, um, business accounting. When I was in... in private practice, we did 18 -month budget with a three -month review and sales changed every three months. Here you're revenues, your property taxes are fixed and your utilities are fixed, so your revenues don't change too much. So our focus is really what's happening in the expenditure side of the books. And, then of course the state law requires us not to go over by a dollar, so we have ... these formal meetings. So if there's no other questions I'll let any members of the public who want to speak. Hayek: Would anyone from the public like to weigh in during the public hearing here? O'Malley: Thank you. Hayek: Okay. Thanks, Kevin! I will close the public hearing at this time. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Champion: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Champion, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 16 ITEM 9. CONVEYING VACATED PORTION OF MELROSE PLACE RIGHT -OF- WAY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. The public hearing is open. (bangs gavel) For the public's information, this relates to the earlier vote, uh, we ... we took and ... and this action will facilitate construction of the, uh, hospital surface parking lot, uh, just south of Melrose. Walker: Hi, I'm Jean Walker, 335 Lucon Drive. Um, concerning this item, we feel that we shouldn't be at this point at all, having a 285 -car parking lot in the Melrose neighborhood, which involves demolition of the house at 711 Melrose Avenue. This house is an integral part of the historic district of the Melrose Neighborhood. Um, this planning came about in a way that we think is unfortunate in that there was no time ... not enough time for the neighborhood to respond to the initial thought of having the parking lot there. Um, we would have investigated where else the parking lot could have been, like we did for the Hope Lodge, with good success. Um, and then, I mean ... to have a parking lot in that area, it didn't have a... a good enough entrance and exit. It was problematic because of the situation of the, urn ... the Melrose Place, and so that meant that there had to be a ... an exit that involved demolition of the house and I think that even though the University had said to the Regents initially that there would be no demolition of any historic structures. So, that's... that's the past ... that being said, I'd like to say that two members of the neighborhood, myself being one, has been sitting in on the planning, um, meetings for this parking lot, and I must say that the University has listened to the neighbors in many respects and we're delighted that the barn, the historic 100 - year -old barn, is being saved and relocated, and that there is, um, they've taken note of having enough trees there to ... in effect replace the ones that were removed and to have landscaping. We would have liked a little more, but they have in essence, uh, listened to the neighborhoods so we're pleased with that. However, it doesn't negate the ... my original, uh, thought of...that we ... we shouldn't be having a parking lot here. To us it was ill- advised planning, and so in our view it points to a few things. One, that the City has not followed the sentiments in its previous documents for the need to preserve the Melrose Neighborhood and I'm talking going back to the 1992 Historic Preservation Plan and the 97 Comprehensive Plan, and the 2002 Southwest District Plan, and the 2007, uh, Historic Preservation Plan that was updated. And so it ... the work for preservation of the neighborhood has fell on ... has fallen on the neighborhood itself and they've worked hard on it for the last ten years. So, uh, and delineated a ... a historic district with the architectural historian. The ... another thing that this points out is that we feel there needs to be a closer connection between the City and the University to achieve appropriate planning that benefits all of Iowa City, that it's not just, um, perhaps the University, but that everything is ... is kept in mind. So there needs to be timely, closer connection and that the neighborhood in this instance, um, anything to do with the neighborhood, we are the people who This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 17 know the most about our neighborhood. We've worked very hard on it and we should be included and our thoughts should be taken, uh, under advisement. Thank you very much. Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Would anyone... Kieft: Good evening, uh, my name's David Kieft. I'm here on behalf of the University and the Board of Regents. I just wanted to note that this is a very important project for, uh, the University and ... and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. This will facilitate part of the, uh, very large, um, Children's Hospital construction plan that will commence, uh, early next year. Um, as Ms. Walker made, um, note of, not only has the University consulted with the neighbors, but we've invited them to be part of, uh, the design team. They've been .... been at all of our meetings, including um, the person whose property is adjacent to this and uh, he's been all... at all of our design meetings. They've been instrumental in selecting the lighting, the landscaping, the fencing, and ... and boundaries that will be used. The lighting and landscaping standards are going to be used on this lot, uh, far exceed University standards and we've tried to be good neighbors in every way we can, and also just to note that none of the homes that are being razed as part of this are... are themselves, uh, historic structures and um, even the Planning and Zoning Commission also noted that there were no, um, homes on here that were, um, on the Historic Register. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Hayek: Thank you, David. Would anyone else from the public like to address the Council? Carlson: My name is Nancy Carlson. I live at 1002 E. Jefferson. Uh, and I've lived here in Iowa City since 1965 for better or worse. And I say for better or worse because I'm one of the people who remembered that the University said that they would not cross Melrose, and I have listened to this neighborhood fight for its existence for as long as I can remember. And I feel very sad that the University has not lived up to its word and that these neighbors are once again being, uh, put upon because University is larger than they are. Thank you. Hayek: Anyone else from the public before I close the hearing? Okay. Public hearing is closed. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Payne: Move the resolution. Hayek: We need a second. Mims: Second. Hayek: Moved by Payne, seconded by Mims. Discussion? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 18 Throgmorton: Yeah, I want to say something. Uh, I'll vote against this for the same reason I ... I articulated last week, but um ... with due respect to the University, which I worked at for 25 years and ... and admire tremendously, it's really good that the, uh, neighborhood is being involved in the current discussions about how to design the parking lot and so on, but apparently they were not involved in the ... the deliberation about whether to build a parking lot in the neighborhood. Um ... I don't think that's a good way to be a good neighbor. Hayek: I'll uh ... I ... I won't reiterate all my comments from ... from the last vote, or from the last time this came up, um, but you know, it seems to me the University has acquired the property in this area, is going to do this project whether we assist or not with this essentially minor portion of it, um, and ... I think it is important that there has been, uh... a fair amount, um, of engagement between the University, City staff, and the neighborhood, uh, not to everyone's satisfaction, obviously, uh, but more than ... than I think we've seen historically. I think that is important, um ... the end result is a remarkable investment, uh, in ... in the Children's Hospital and everything that comes from that and um, I think will solve more problems when we engage, um, the University in a positive fashion on things like this, and I ... I ... I want to pick up on Miss Walker's comments about ... about essentially a more robust, shared planning of... of the area, and I think that would be a good idea. Um ... this is a ... this is an expansion south of Melrose. Uh, the University is far and away the dominant player, uh, in this section of the community, um, and there are other neighborhoods in the vicinity of...of this project and uh, I think it would be good for this institution and ... and the University to ... to consult going forward on... on future planning. Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 4 -2, uh, Throgmorton and Dobyns in the negative. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 19 ITEM 10. ADOPTING IOWA CITY'S FY13 ANNUAL ACTION PLAN WHICH IS A SUB -PART OF IOWA CITY'S 2011 -2015 CONSOLIDATED PLAN (CITY STEPS) AND AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SUBMIT SAID PLAN AND AMENDMENTS AND ALL NECESSARY CERTIFICATIONS TO THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, AND DESIGNATING THE CITY MANAGER AS THE AUTHORIZED CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. Public hearing is open. (bangs gavel) Tracy. Hightshoe: Hi, I'm Tracy Hightshoe with the City's Community Development staff. Earlier at the work session you had requested a brief summary of what City STEPS and our annual action plan is. Um, as we are a community over 50,000, we are considered a HUD - entitlement community, and as such we do not have to apply for Community Development Block Grant or Home Investment Partnership funds, but because we get those funds, we do have to do what's considered our consolidated plan for housing, jobs, and services for low-income ... low- to moderate - income residents. That's what City STEPS is. It's a five -year plan of how we will spend those CDBG and Home funds in our community. Every five years we go through a process with community engagement and we declare what we consider high priorities for funding, low priorities, medium priorities, and then we have our process of how we fund those. The annual action plan is the individual one -year plan for that year of how we will spend the money, um, exactly in that upcoming year. So the fiscal year 13 annual action plan is how we will spend those funds starting July 1St of this year. Um, we do go through a process, the Housing and Community Development Commission reviews the projects that apply, um, they come up with a formal recommendation, and that's the plan that you see in front of you. Um, we've had this through a public... 30- day public comment period. There are times every year ... not every year, but we do get requests of, um ... the Council has the authority to accept the HCDC recommendation or you can make changes tonight. If you decide to make changes tonight, if you allocate money to one project, additional money, then you have to take money away from a different project. Um, we do have Andy Chappell here. He's our, head of our Housing ... he's the Chair of the Housing and Community Development Commission, and I think he was going to have a few words just about how HCDC came up with those allocations. In your May 3`d Council Packet, there was a request from the Habitat for Humanity, um, they applied for two projects. They requested. They didn't get funded for one, so they sent a letter to Council for reconsideration to fund theirs, and you got a letter from Crisis Center requesting additional information, or additional funds. Hayek: Mr. Chappell! This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 20 Chappell: Good evening. As Tracy indicated I'm Andy Chappell, 911 Rider Street, Iowa City. I'm the current Chair of the Housing and Community Development Commission and I'm glad you asked Tracy to describe City STEPS and the annual action plan cause I would have been a little lost, even though I pretty much know what it ... what it all entails. Staff asked me to basically talk about the process, how we went about going and reaching... reaching the recommendations we did. We start out, of course, with the written applications that everyone submits. Those are sort of tweaked, adjusted from year to year to try to ferret out the information that it seems the Commission is most likely to need based on our question answering... question/answer periods, based also on City STEPS. There'll be some changes from year to year. We then hold a question/answer sessions with all of the applications. It's all open, uh, I suspect it may be a little painful at times because there's some pretty pointed questions often. The ... the topics that are touched on are things like, uh, who's benefitting from the project, why is there a public subsidy necessary, why don't you have or what sort of capital improvement plan does your organization have, instead of just asking for City dollars, um, what other funding streams have you looked at, hopefully exhausted before you came to the City, just ... any questions that come to Commission Members' minds as they sit there and after they've reviewed all those applications. After that session the members rank the applications, individually, and the ranking forms are actually very recently, uh, this past year revised. We try to reflect mainly five things in each of the ranking forms. One the priority that the project has in our City STEPS plan. Two, the ... the budget, how well does it explain, how well are those resources leveraged, are you able to get some private dollars with the public dollars, that sort of thing. Three, we want to know about the project's feasibility. We want to try to rank that. We want to know about the need for the public subsidy. Can we try to put some ... some value on that. And four, what's the likely impact to the community, uh, not just to the low and moderate income, uh, portion of the community, though certainly significantly that's something we're interested in. We also want to know, is this a project that's going to ... going to be tax exempt or is going to ... is going to have, uh, a real ... pay full real estate taxes. Number of things go into that category. And then finally, what's the applicant's ability to ... frankly navigate all of the regulations that they're going to have to accept in connection with the ... the Home and CDBG funds. After we get those rankings, uh, we sort of all come together, everyone makes their allocation proposal, shows their cards, if you will, and then it's really consensus building. Uh, have a couple meetings where we ... first meeting where we sort of discuss everything, discuss our initial rankings. Folks can go back and make changes to those, based on ... maybe someone has a different perspective than you, someone has, oh, I hadn't thought of it this way or maybe a question gets answered that was lingering in your head, and then finally we try to reach some consensus. The ... the recommendations you have in front of you are the direct result of that consensus building and some folks got recommendations for full funding, some folks got recommendations for no funding, and then of course there are some folks in between. And that's basically This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 21 the process we went through. Otherwise I'm here to try to answer any questions you may have. Hayek: Thanks, Andy. Throgmorton: Andy, uh, have you had a chance to read the letter from Crisis Center? Chappell: I did read the letter from Crisis Center. Throgmorton: Was there any new information there from the Commission's point of view? That ...that might have affected the Commission's decision? Chappell: I ... I can't say. I mean, clearly there was some discussion... my first reaction to the letter from Crisis Center was I thought it was a pretty good description of how the discussion went down at the time, I mean, how it...it sort of played out. Um, as far as who had what concerns about their ability to ... to secure the property, staff had ... had it certainly made clear that if ..and I can tell you that initially that was a concern of mine but it was taken care of once staff said, well, but if they don't get the property, we'll just have to reallocate it to someone else. So it's not as though there was any real risk that the money was going to go away, that the ... it was going to go to a project that we wouldn't have supported. It was just at that point we sort of took it on faith, I think, that they were going to be able to secure the property. Um, I can't speak for individual members as to whether knowing what we know today, what Crisis Center knows today would have... adjusted them closer to the funding they really... they'd really asked for. Hayek: Any other questions for Andy? Okay. We may ... if we get into further discussion, Andy, we may ask you to come back up. Would anyone else from the public like to address the Council before I close the hearing? Okay. I'll close the hearing at this time. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Karr: Motion to accept correspondence. Mims: So moved. Throgmorton: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Throgmorton. Discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries 6 -0. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 22 Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Mims: I guess from my perspective in doing this, um, the ... the Commission does a lot of work and gathers a lot of information, um, spends a lot of time analyzing these proposals and the pros and cons and ... you know, who's being served and additional funding and those sorts of things. And, I think you can come at these from a lot of different directions in terms of what your personal priorities are, um, but my tendency tends to be that unless I can see something that..and I just think they really messed up on for some reason, and I don't think I ever have, we ask them to put in an awful lot of time and effort to analyze these, and my inclination is to go along with their funding recommendations. Payne: And I think they make their decision based on the best information they have at the time. Mims: I do too. Payne: As the year goes on you could always change a decision based upon something that happens, and second -guess what you decided six months ago. Throgmorton: Susan point... Susan's point, uh, goes directly to the reason I asked my question, you know, whether there was any new information contained in that letter that might have influenced the Commission's judgment. Uh, I gather from Andy's response that, uh, there really wasn't, uh, I ... I like Susan, uh, am completely inclined to defer to the Commission because they've put the time and energy into it. I don't know if any of you have any, uh, any other interpretations of the Crisis Center's um, letter and how we should respond to it. Mims: There's just never enough money! Hayek: Yeah, I ... I served on HCDC for four or five years before I joined the Council and so, um, I understand the process. It's a tough one, because there's considerable need and ... and never enough, uh, funding to ... to meet very, you know, the wealth of...of promising projects that come before the Commission, and uh, the area we'd be talking about as it relates to Crisis Center is the public facilities bucket if you will of money and the request, the ration of requests to, uh, allocated funds is roughly 2 to 1, and I spoke to the Crisis Center relating to the letter they sent and um, they're, you know, they're getting roughly half of their requests, little over half of what they requested for, um, their rehabilitation work of... of the facility that's... that's being acquired. Um, and while I'm sympathetic to, uh, the ... the fact that the ... the recommended award is not quite, uh, what ... what they're hoping for, um, I'm reluctant to pull from the other, uh, allocations or recommended allocations, um, it'd necessarily come from, well, any one of the others and I ... I think one of the ... one of the intents of, one of the intentions of HCDC with this, um, funding round was to support some of the reinvestment, uh, along Broadway, um ... we see what ... what Southgate is doing and ... and it seems This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 23 that, uh, the HACAP, uh, applications, both up in the housing projects bucket and then down in the public facilities, uh, bucket for... for the playground work would be consistent with that reinvestment, and I think reading the minutes, um, that was among the intentions of HCDC. So again, I ... I'm inclined to defer to what they do. I think a lot of thought and deliberation goes into this process, um, and absent some... something that's, you know, inconsistent with where we're hoping to go or with, you know, what we've been discussing, I ... I don't want to change it. So... Champion: I can't change it cause I couldn't tell you where ... who to take that money from. That would be way too painful! Throgmorton: I do have a question, Matt. Um, which doesn't really need to be answered here tonight, but I'm wondering if...if Tom our City Manager has any thoughts about the ... the process and whether there are particular ways in which the AC... HDCD's process, deliberative process, could be improved, uh, from the point of view of, uh, city administration and so on, and if... if there are ideas that Tom might have, I'd certainly love to hear them, but ... but I'm not kind of looking for an elaboration right here and right now. Markus: Well I'm kind of in the same position I think as others. I think they put the work in and go through the reviews, so this at this point I don't have any strong suggestions for changing it. Throgmorton: I was kind of looking ahead. Hayek: You know, speaking from experience, I ... it seems to me that the process is a long one. It's a very public one. Uh, and there are multiple... bites at the apple, for lack of a better word, I mean, the ... the applications are before the Commission I think maybe twice, uh, and so it's a very public, open, deliberative process and, uh, absent adding to that already long process, which is a burden on the applicants themselves and the Commission members are there until the late hours of the night. I'm not sure what we'd do. Chappell: (mumbled) ...I would just indicate that, uh, we ... we welcome that review, either from Council Members and certainly from City administration. We have, uh, on our agenda too many meetings this week, Thursday ... did we move back to June? Okay, in June we have ... we'll have an agenda item starting to review that process and try to take a look at whether there are things that we as a commission can ... can do better and we certainly are going to try to find ways to ... to ... solicit information and ... and constructive criticism, frankly, from the applicants themselves so we can make sure that the process... we're getting not just the information we need but ... but they're able to convey it in a way that's useful for everyone. Yeah, it is on the agenda for two days from now. We'll get started and then kind of see where we're going to go. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 24 Champion: Well I thank all of you for all that hard work. Throgmorton: Yeah, for sure. Chappell: It's a fun process really! For us! I can't speak for the applicants. Hayek: Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. And again, we thank the HCDC commission members for their work. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 25 ITEM 11. ADOPTING THE IOWA CITY HOUSING AUTHORITY'S ANNUAL PLAN FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) Public hearing is open. Rackis: Somewhere in the distant past of the informal meeting, somebody mentioned HUD and complexity in the same ... same sentence (laughter) um, can't remember who, but that's very appropriate. So ... just a warning, I'm not here to take the complexity out because you can't. I just want to try to bring some clarity to HUD's complexity and how they do things. Our actual planning document coincides with City STEPS and it's the same fiscal years, and uh, so that was 2010 to 2015. Even though this is called an annual plan, it's actually an annual report and it's a report on, uh, who we serve, how we serve those families, uh, who makes up the participants and tenants in our programs. So, uh, just would like to highlight a few things as I walk through this. And uh, HUD requires the Housing Authority to, um, submit, um... submit annual exams every year. So when a family first comes on the program, they go through an eligibility review process. Every year that eligibility review process is repeated, and all of that data is reported electronically to HUD and that's how HUD, uh, tracks and monitors performance of housing authorities. So, this is an 18 -month time frame that HUD is looking at all of the annual reviews that we submitted to them in both public housing and the housing choice voucher program. Not all of these numbers are going to add up to 100% because some families can be counted in multiple categories. Uh, again, you know, the complexity of HUD, the categories that they're looking at, for example, elderly disabled. They have eight categories. Elderly no children non - disabled, elderly with children non - disabled, non - elderly no children non - disabled, uh, I don't ... I don't think it's necessary to try to put that in any type of report. So when I go through is I take the data reported to HUD and try to look at, you know, the different groupings. So in other words, we can have an elderly disabled family that is working with kids or we can have an elderly family that's a single individual, or an elderly family that has two adults in the household. Because when we look at head of household, uh, we're looking at the definition of the head of household here. So elderly is 62 or older. A disabled family is a family where the head of household is disabled, and then obviously, uh, you have, um, and HUD has a discrete category, female head of household with children. So, one of the things mostly I get a lot of calls from people, and the assumption is that everybody that we serve is a single female household and the family's on welfare. And if you look at the numbers, uh, really when you put it all together, uh, the ... the majority of families that we serve are elderly or disabled, or working families, and again, we have elderly, disabled, heads of household who are working. So, if you do take a look at some numbers that will add up to 100 %, households without minor children is 58% of the program. Households with minor children is ... is 42% of the program. So again, these numbers can, uh, have some double counting and ... and again, what I'm trying to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 26 do is break it down so you can look at, you know, what is the count for elderly, what is the count for disabled, what is the count for minor children and ... and so on. Uh, regarding the welfare aspect of it, again, supporting the elderly and disabled. Uh, nature of the participants, the income sources reported to HUD, uh, 62% of our families are reporting either Social Security or supplemental security income. And this status coming from all family members. Uh, we're ... heads of household are required to report the income of any family member, whether it's counted in the rental calculation is up to the HUD regulations. So for an example, an 18- year -old that's a full -time student and working, their income will not be counted in the rent calculation. But if you're 18 and working and not a full -time student, it will. Employment, we had 47% of the families. Certainly, again, supporting, uh, that we are serving working families and then you can see here, you know, the ... the idea that, you know, everybody's, uh, you know, has this entitlement that we're serving families that are not incentivized to work. Only 7% of the families are reporting income from, uh, the Department of Human Services, Family Investment Program, and that's the cash assistance portion of the welfare. In other words, where the family is getting money because they have kids in the household, and one of the things that's not reported to HUD but um, something that I found interesting and continued to dig into our data and count that when I first started putting this data together on February 1st of 2012 only 23 of the 1,365 assisted households reported FIP as their sole source of household income. So that was roughly 1.7% of all the households we served, uh, were solely on welfare without any other type of income. Uh, the other aspect of this, you know, sense of entitlement that low- income families are not incented to work, um, 61 % of all the participants exit the program within five years. And that ... that's a combination of both our public housing and the housing choice voucher program. Uh, most of the people that are not elderly disabled will eventually work themselves to the point that their income causes them to be paying full rent. When somebody pays full rent for six months, we then exit them from the program on... on the notion that the income that put them at full rent after six months is steady enough so that we can exit them from the program. Obviously some other people are exiting the program, uh, because of the program integrity, not following the guidelines and not following the rules, but uh, I have a statistic on that later. So again, roughly about two - thirds of all the families stay five years or less. Obviously, families staying longer when we have elderly disabled populations, uh, they're going to be on the program for a long time because Social Security and supplemental security are not going to ever put a family at, um, at full rent, and we do ... we do shared housing, which is an option for HUD, and so we have a lot of, uh, clients that are also with Reach for Your Potential, Successful Living so they're pretty much going to be on the program. Uh, until ... well, they die actually. Uh, we also have a self - sufficiency program and this is the current, uh, well current based in February of the data, and I try to do February every year so that each subsequent report gives points of ref...reference for comparison. Uh, roughly about 10% of all of our families are enrolled in the, uh, FSS program. 73% have an escrow savings account, and uh, that's a particularly neat feature of this program where typically if somebody's income This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 27 goes up, their portion of the rent goes up, our housing assistance payment goes down. Now when our payment goes down, that money just goes back into our housing assistance payment pot of money. If somebody's participating in this program, and this has to be income from employment. This can't be, you know, that they had another kid and their FIP went up. They only get an escrow deposit if that increases in income is from employment. So instead of that money going into our housing assistance pot, that money gets diverted into an escrow savings account for that family. And while they're working on their goals, they can use that, uh, to have interim withdrawals. For example, somebody may work in Iowa, or live in Iowa City but they're working at the Super Walmart in Coralville. Obviously they need their car. So if the ... the car's in need of repair, they can tap into their escrow savings account to repair that car and maintain their employment. So again the ... right now the ... the deposit average is 151, average escrow savings 1,800, and the highest balance right now is 1,105 and that's because we had a ... about two or three families that graduated before I did this whose savings accounts were in excess of $20,000. Um, one of the other things I hear quite a bit is that, um, how we're impacting the Iowa City Community School District that as, you know, the free and reduced lum ... lunch numbers, uh, the ... the rising of those numbers over the course of the year are a direct result of, um, people coming on to our housing program, so I started doing an analysis comparing the total enrollment for the, uh, 2011 -2012 cal... or calendar year for the School. It's 12,159. They report 29.4% are families eligible for free and reduced lunch. That's just the families that are eligible. That's not necessarily the families that actually are participating in ... in that. Uh, then I did a count of all of the school aged children that are currently being assisted on the program, and that number was 861. I then compared the household income to the free and reduced lunch guidelines and the end result is that, uh, 778 children who are on our program are eligible for free and reduced lunch, whether they're participating in that program, again, like the School District, I don't ... I don't know. So that leaves 2,840 eligible children that are not being assisted by us, whether they're being assisted by Pheasant Ridge, the project -based facility, I don't know, but again with 248 units, I don't ... I don't think that that would support 2,840 kids. So again, we ... we hear that quite a bit that, um, free and reduced lunch is going up because of the number of people coming here to get a... get a voucher. Again... Mims: Excuse me, some of those kids probably are living outside of Iowa City but going to the Iowa City Community Schools? Rackis: Um, our jurisdiction is all of Johnson County. Mims: Okay. Rackis: Uh, we have, um, Iowa County because nobody else is there, and we have Washington County. So this would be kids living in, uh, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty, unless they're living in the, um ... um, Clear Creek Amana. Uh, I This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 28 think we do have some families that are in the Solon School District, uh, but again the majority of these kids are in the Iowa City Community School District. Mims: I think that's an important clarification, that the housing voucher portion of this goes beyond the Iowa City city borders, that a lot of people probably don't realize that. Rackis: Uh, no, actually I ... I do put the ... I didn't make a chart of that, but those statistics are in the book and when you look at it from the large picture, the vouchers really tend to follow the general population. Majority in Iowa City, the same percentage in Coralville as the general population. Same in North Liberty. Uh, same in ... in Johnson County. Something else to look at, I think I mentioned this before, 58% of our households do not have any minor children. 53% are one - person households. And again, 42% do have children in ... in their household. So, again, I think, you know, not quite the impact on the Community School District that people who call me or I meet in public, uh, tend to think. Um, don't want my property taxes used to support these programs. Certainly can understand that. But, none of their property taxes is ... is supporting the program. It's all federal dollars so it's, you know, payroll tax and ... and that sort of thing. Uh, we do, uh, payment in lieu of taxes for our 81 public housing units. That is optional. Uh, HUD does not require that we do that. If we do that then we have to follow HUD's formula and the amount of, uh, taxes that we pay is based upon the amount of rent that we take in. And we have the ability in public housing to try to target families with ... with incomes because if we're putting somebody in a three and four - bedroom house, and they have to take care of the yard, they have to take care of the snow on the sidewalk, they certainly need income to have a lawn mower and put gas in the lawn mower. So, um, actually as ... as, we had the discussion before about selling public housing units, we actually have seen in recent years where even though we've reduced down to 81, that our payment in lieu of taxes have actually spiked up the last couple of years because we're... we're getting more in rent. We have more people paying full rent. Um, also in terms of property taxes, since 1998, and ... and this is in conjunction with our three home ownership programs and families that use their escrow savings accounts as downpayment assistance, we ... we've helped 161 families, uh, realize the dream of home ownership. Uh, the other thing I ... I think that ... that we like to focus on, um ... not all the landlords are local, but the majority of the landlords that we pay out housing assistance payments to are local. All of the contractors that we use in, uh, public housing are all private contractors. Uh, the only public housing employees are public housing coordinator. The public housing program through cost allocation also supports other staff, but I was reading on the internet, uh, these buy local campaigns and I think the Chamber of Commerce has, uh, has its own buy local campaign, and most of the web sites I went to claim that for every dollar spent at a local business, that 68 -cents will remain in the community. So based on that ratio, we paid $5.8 million out last calendar year to landlords, which means about 3.9 million would have stayed in the community, and public housing we paid out $334,000 and change and about $227 stayed in the community. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 29 Again, I don't know if that dollar to 68- cents, uh, but that seemed to be the common theme of all the buy local campaigns I ... researched on the internet. Crime. Uh, we're the only housing authority in the State of Iowa that conducts a national criminal background check. Every housing authority in the country has the ability to enter into a contract with the FBI and to get data through an intermediary, which in our case is the Iowa Department of Criminal Investigation and ultimately get, um, the crime statistics from the FBI. There are seven housing authorities that enter ... have entered into agreements with, uh, the FBI to do this. To date, we're the only housing authority that is actually doing it, because it does cost money. Um ... and we've been doing that since, uh, 2005 on the recommendation of the Iowa City, Coralville, and North Liberty police departments because we were using Iowa Courts Online and we were using, um, other law enforcement, like for example the Illinois State Police. We had a contract with them, but the law enforcement agencies in ... in Johnson County told us, we're ... we weren't getting federal crimes through that source. So they recommended we do this and ... and we took their recommendation, and I think when we started that we were spending about $4,000 a month. Our costs have gone down, uh, but um ... we, uh, had ... last year 235 families exited the program. 117 in good standing; 118 were terminated for cause. Um, because we put a lot of investment of time, energy, and dollars into program integrity. We ... we believe that, you know, our job is the money. We're not ... we're not social workers, I mean, housing is sort of a social program. It ... to have a safe, decent, and affordable housing is a social program, but our responsibility is the money. Our responsibility is to make sure that we're doing eligibility determination under HUD's guidelines and regulations, and that we're paying the correct dollar amount to that landlord on behalf of the family. So we ... we take that very seriously, and we also, uh, enforce our public housing leases to the greatest extent allowed by federal and state law. Conclusion, well, we've got 73 other housing authorities in the State of Iowa. When you compare the HUD data that everybody's reporting, uh, we have higher average annual incomes, uh, we assist more working families, we assist fewer families receiving welfare by a significant amount, and our families pay a higher average monthly amount of the contract rent. Part of that might be just the cost of rents here, but the Des Moines Housing Authority is included in here. Dubuque. Council Bluffs. Cedar Rapids. Sioux City. So certainly there's other larger housing authorities included in the entire state total. So, with that, that's the attempt to bring some clarity to the complexity of dealing with the HUD program. Hayek: Thank you, Steve. Any questions for Steve? Throgmorton: Yeah, I do have one. I... Steve, you know I think, uh, we have a terrific housing program and I admire the work that you and others and the staff are doing with regard to it, uh, but I do want to ask you one question having to do with, uh, criminal background checks. When you do that, do you distinguish between arrests and convictions? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 30 Rackis: Uh, HUD allows us to, um, look at the preponderance of the evidence. So, we look at charges, not necessarily convictions. Uh, we don't have to wait for a family to go through the legal process, because again, HUD's test is preponderance of evidence. The court system is beyond reasonable doubt. Uh, as a matter of fact we also have the ability when drugs are involved, it is drug use. Not necessarily a charge. So if somebody admits to a police officer that they were using drugs, we will terminate their ... their assistance. Unless there's some mitigating circumstances not to do that. The other distinction that people get hung up on, it's not felonies versus misdemeanors. It is the charge. And what we're primarily looking at, and... and HUD allows us a greater latitude in terms of our application eligibility process, where, um ... we're not confined to just what the regs state, because HUD has certain instances where you must deny assistance. If somebody has been evicted from federally- assisted housing for cooking methamphetamine, HUD tells you you can't ... you can't assist them. If anybody's on the lifetime sex offender registry, you can't. They also give you the latitude of you may, and that's where we get into the drug related criminal activity, violent criminal activity, and our program is based on ... I told you program integrity ... of people providing us with true and complete information. So we expanded our eligibility criteria a few years back to include, um, crimes like fraud, forgery, um, I think it was theft in the third degree or higher. We're going to be coming back to you, um, in ... in the next month or so, we're going to be adding burglary in the second degree or higher, and ... so we're looking at in terms of denying a family, uh, looking at broader ranges of criminal background, or criminal charges, and we have a five -year look -back for that. When somebody's on the program, the regs are pretty clear as to what you can and cannot terminate assistance. Throgmorton: Okay, I might want to follow up with you, uh, at some other point in time. My question really has to ... I don't want you to answer this. I'll just tell ... I just want to explain why I'm asking the question. I'm curious about people who may be arrested, evicted, and never convicted, and ... and about what happens to them along the way as a result of that sequence of steps. I don't want you to ... I don't want you to address it right now, but I'm just curious about it. Like to talk with you about it in some other moment. Rackis: Well the ... just real quick, there ... there is a distinction. In public housing, we are the landlord and we hold the lease. We cannot convict the family unless it's allowed by federal and state law. Housing choice voucher program, the landlord is the leaseholder. We're only, you know, paying a portion of the rent on behalf of the, uh, participant. If a landlord evicts under the ... under their lease, if they evict the family for a crime, that ... that is a contract ... the lease is a contract between the landlord and their tenant. We have a housing assistance payment contract between us and the landlord, and then there's the voucher family responsibility's between us and the participant. So there's sort of this triangle relationship in the housing choice voucher program. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 31 Hayek: Jim, you could follow up with Steve later on that. Throgmorton: Right. Hayek: Are there any other questions for Steve? Okay. Thank you. Anyone else, uh, during this public hearing before I close it? Okay, I'll close the public hearing at this time. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 32 ITEM 13. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION DIRECTING SALE OF WATER REVENUE REFUNDING BONDS, SERIES 2012C. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Think we've got some comments from Kevin O'Malley on this. Throgmorton: (mumbled) O'Malley: Yes, uh ... today at 10:00 Marian and I looked at bids for this water revenue, uh, refunding of $5 million and ... uh, Marian won the bid. We always take a little bet as to who's closer to the interest rate (laughter). I, uh, I was very surprised at the rate we got. We got actually like a triple -A rate. It was 1.67, uh, int...net interest cost. There was plenty of bidders. There was five bidders, and it was kind of tight. There was only 30 point basis spread between `em. Um, we estimated when we went into this, uh, proposal that we might save 7.5 %, um, which would amount to about $430,000. It ended up being 14% savings, uh, about $800... $833,000 in debt service, and that present value about $633,000. So I'm recommending, uh, awarding the sale. (several commenting) Any questions? Hayek: Any, yeah, any questions for Kevin? (laughter) O'Malley: Thank you. Hayek: All right. Any Council discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 33 ITEM 15. INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $700,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, SERIES 2012. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) Public hearing is open. This has to do with funding for, uh, police station, the fire station, City Hall, and miscellaneous other improvements. Anyone from the public? I will close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Dobyns: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Dobyns, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 34 ITEM 16. INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL ACTION FOR THE AUTHORIZATION AND ISSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $700,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, SERIES 2012. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) The public hearing is open. This has to do with a number of things, including, uh, funding to, uh, equip City facilities, er I'm sorry... including construction of an animal shelter. Anyone for this public hearing? If not I will close it. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Mims: Move the resolution. Dobyns: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Dobyns. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 35 ITEM 17. INSTITUTING PROCEEDINGS TO TAKE ADDITIONAL ACTION FOR THE ISSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $650,000 TAXABLE GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, SERIES 2012. a. PUBLIC HEARING Hayek: This is a public hearing. (bangs gavel) The public hearing is open. This has to do with various, uh, projects, uh, regarding urban renewal out at Towncrest, as well as, uh, development of the Riverfront Crossings area, south of Burlington. Close the public hearing. (bangs gavel) b. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION Payne: Move the resolution. Throgmorton: Second. Hayek: Moved by Payne, seconded by Throgmorton. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 36 ITEM 18. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION DIRECTING SALE OF $9,070,000 GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, SERIES 2012A. Payne: Move resolution. Mims: Second. Hayek: Moved by Payne, seconded by Mims. Discussion? Mr. O'Malley! O'Malley: (mumbled) Council, I am also recommending approval of this sale. We had four bidders, a lot of interest. Uh, was only 20 point basis spread between the top ...the high and the low. Um, the interest rate was 1.68 which, uh, I checked last year's. It was 2.47. So we had a 78 basis point drop in ... in net interest costs. Again lost the bid with Marian (laughter) (mumbled) ...we thought it would be, um, and so I would recommend, um, directing the sale of these bonds. Awarding the sale of these bonds. Any questions? Throgmorton: Since you lost, uh, the bet, does this mean the two of you should switch positions? (laughter) O'Malley: Sometimes I think so! (laughter) Actually, Jim, I'm not a betting man (laughter). My job is not to speculate. So I always, uh, get ... estimate high! Mims: That's why we're in such good shape! O'Malley: Thank you! Hayek: Thanks, Kevin! Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 37 ITEM 19. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION DIRECTING SALE OF $620,000 TAXABLE GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS, SERIES 2012B. Payne: Move resolution. Dobyns: Second. Hayek: Moved by Payne, seconded by Dobyns. Discussion? I don't know why you sit down (laughter). O'Malley: Should have stayed here. Uh, this also was well received, and I'm surprised cause it's just a small issue. We had three bidders and only 2 basis point spread. Uh, it is a ... only a short-term, so it's .76% int ... uh, interest costs. I recommend awarding, uh, this ... bonds. Any questions? Thank you. Hayek: Thanks, Kevin. Discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 38 ITEM 21. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST AN AGREEMENT BY AND BETWEEN SHIVE- HATTERY, INC. AND THE CITY OF IOWA CITY FOR MATERIAL TESTING AND INSPECTION SERVICES DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITIES CONSOLIDATION PROJECT. Throgmorton: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Throgmorton, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Uh, by the way, this contract will be awarded to Shive- Hattery for $199,000 roughly, and is included in the budget, uh, we've already gone over for this. Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 39 ITEM 22. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE MAYOR TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A TWO -YEAR CONTRACT EXTENSION WITH CITY CARTON COMPANY, INC. TO CONTINUE EXISTING RECYCLING PROCESSING SERVICES. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? For the public's knowledge, there's a ... we have a current contract with City Carton which has a roll -over option, and by exercising this we will be extending it for another two years, uh, into June of 2014. Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 40 ITEM 23. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE BENCHMARK PROJECT. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Champion: This is a fun art project! Hayek: Yeah, for the public, this has to do with a pilot program to, um, paint, uh, and otherwise decorate downtown, uh, public benches. Um, we've done several of them. The SSMID, now known as the Downtown District, has taken the lead on this, and this will, uh, launch this into a broader coverage of downtown, uh, with the Downtown District working with Public Art to, uh, collaborate this. Further discussion? Payne: I was going to say that at my community leadership meeting on Friday we, um, did (mumbled) actually toured some of (mumbled) Hayek: You know, I think you're not being picked up. Payne: Really? (noise on mic) I have it on. Sorry, Marian! I'll move it up. How's that? Sorry. I just wanted to say, during my community leadership program on, um, Friday, uh, we did, uh, culture and art in the community, and we did a tour of some of the benches that have been painted already and people were quite impressed! Hayek: Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 41 ITEM 24. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE AWARD OF A CONTRACT TO COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING CORPORATION (CEC) FOR A CITY -WIDE SOLUTION FOR NON - PUBLIC SAFETY RADIOS. Mims: Move the resolution. Champion: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Champion. Discussion? Mr. Fosse. Fosse: Thank you! Um, what we have in front of us for tonight's item is the award of the contract and the staff is recommending to CEC, uh, for the non - public safety radio system. Uh, this is roughly a 20 -year decision and uh, it involves a substantial capital investment. So it's something that we're very deliberate about and ... and thoughtful on it. Um, so what we want to do tonight is ... is recap the presentation that we did at the work session a couple weeks ago, uh, with a little bit of additional information based on some of the questions that we received in the meantime, and then, uh, field any questions that you have before you take action on that. And, uh, with me tonight to help me with this is Jeff Thorsteinson. He's our, uh, radio system consultant. Uh, next to Jeff is Mary Niichel - Hegwood who is with our purchasing division, uh, then Gary Cohn our IT coordinator. He's our in -house technical advisor, and then Tom Hanson who's our equipment superintendent and project manager on this. So with that, let's begin, and what we'll do is go through this in the same order as last time. We'll look at some background, what ... what's public safety, what's not public safety, and how is inner- operability important there. Uh, we'll look at our request for proposal evaluation process, compare the costs and capabilities of the ... of the proposals that we received, and then discuss our recommendations. And our next steps. So, leading off of that background, our public safety radio users are the ... the police departments, fire departments, sheriff's office, uh, Department of Public Safety at the University of Iowa. Their police department. Uh, ambulance service and some miscellaneous others that include the Corps of Engineers and Iowa Department of Natural Resources, because some of the lands that they manage have ... have law enforcement, uh, responsibilities there. Uh, these systems are currently operating on the JECC radio system. Um, then we have the non - public radio, or excuse me, non - public safety radio users, and that consists of Public Works, uh, Parks and Recreation, Housing and Inspection Services, uh, Transportation Services, and ... and some outside agencies, and right now Cambus is one of those outside agencies that ... that shares our non - public safety radio, uh, system with us, and ... and has expressed an interest in continuing with us, uh, regardless of whatever option we ... we go with. Uh, all of these uses are currently operating on the City's legacy system, which is about 21, 22 years old, and is, uh, reached a point in its ... in its technical life in which it's obsolete and we can no longer get replacement parts, uh, for the system and that's what is precipitating This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 42 departments is certainly important because we work together, we ... we share things and ... and we help each other out. So being able to communicate with each other is important, and that also extends to inner- operability with the public safety folks, as well, and I've got three examples here. One is ... is a car that's knocked down a ... a light pole and let's get a hold of Public Works regarding, uh, de- energizing it and ... and dealing with that. Uh, the other is a towing operation where they interact with Parking, and then the third is ... is a, the tornado that we had back in 06 and ... and we have a lot of people working, uh, side -by -side on that and ... and the inner- operability is important in all these situations. So that's ...that's a key component for us on this. So let's look at the evaluation process that ... that we used here. Uh, we go back to April of 2010 is when we originally issued the request for proposals, and ... and at that time we were ... we were reaching a point where we were having difficulty getting replacement parts. We were in somewhat of a hurry at that point and ... and that hurry subsided, and I'll talk more about that in a moment. Uh, in June of 2010, uh, we received two proposals and let me back up for just a second and note that in our request for proposals we had two options in there. One is to provide the radios to allow us to migrate to the JECC system, or the second option is to provide, uh, basically an upgrade to our existing City infrastructure and new radios for the non - public safety system. So they continue to run independently or become a part of the JECC system. Uh, in June of 2010 we received one proposal for each of those options. Uh, and we reviewed those following the City's defined process, uh, for scoring. We compared the technology. We evaluated and tested the results. Testing was an important component of that. Uh, we developed a cost model that looked both at initial costs as well as 10 -year costs and then we evaluated the governance factors. Um, one of the things that happened during this review process that bought us some more time is police and fire migrated to the JECC system and that freed up a lot of the hold radio systems that we ... old radios that we were able to use in ... in Public Works and Housing. So that bought us some additional time to ... to methodically, uh, check this out, and also allow some things to gel up at JECC, as well, because they were in their infancy, uh, during that time frame. Um, by December of 2011 ... we've had a little over a year pass, and in the technology industry things change fast so we wanted to make sure that we went back out for a best and final offer, uh, that would include any ... any price reductions, or changes in technology. In January of 2012 we received those offers, evaluated those, and in April of 2012 we ... we issued a conditional award to CEC, contingent upon your approval, uh, which we're ... we're talking about tonight. And the reason that ... that contingent award was a necessary step in there, so we could allow the ... the presentation that the figures that we received and ... and discuss those publicly, and that's what we'll do right now is look at the cost and capabilities, comparisons. Uh, we have the two proposals that we received side -by -side. On your left there is the CEC proposal that basically, uh, replaces the existing City infrastructure for non - public safety radio system and provides new radios for ... for their use, and on the right is the Racom proposal, which provides the radios necessary for migration to the JECC system. And ... and we're looking both at initial cost, as well as the 10 -year cost. And This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 43 what I've done here is ... is provided a little bit additional breakdown on those initial costs, based on some of your questions after the ... the work session. Uh, you look at the CEC proposal. It's roughly $622,000. Included in that is $227,648 for the upgrade to the City infrastructure. That is replacing our... our base stations and upgrading our ... our antennas and all the hardware that's necessary to get that up and running. In contrast, if we went with the ... with the Racom and JECC proposal, all of that is provided by the JECC system, all that infrastructure is in place. Um, then we move on to radio costs, and that's where the ... the two proposals really come ... stand apart from each other. The radio costs for the CEC proposal are as outlined there, and the radio costs for... for, uh, the Racom proposal are on... on the right side, and there is a contrast in price, primarily because these are fundamentally two different types of radios, and... and that is that the ... the JECC system, uh, was designed around P -25 compliant radios, which is a federal requirement. They had ... they had no choice but to design around that fea ... uh, P -25 standard, and with that comes a higher price tag for those radios. And ... and one of the things that I'll point out is when you operate on... on the scale of operation that we do for our non - public safety, we have over 330 radios, every dollar difference between those two is ... is taken times a factor of...of 330. So that ... that spreads the field quite a bit at that point. Uh, then we move on to the 10 -year total cost, and we have about $775,000 versus $1.179 million and that includes looking at ... at, uh, 10% replacement on the radios; we just assume 10% of those are going to wear out over that period of 10 years, and it also looks at the ability to push data over the radio system. Um, the CEC proposal has built into it the ability to push, uh, small amounts of data over the radio system, without the use of...of additional monthly fees or additional hardware, uh, that is the typical solution for large data users, uh, that use the cell cards. Um ... the ... so having that capability is ... is certainly an attractive option for us. There are ... we do have some uses where we're already using data cards. Uh, but ... to have that available for all the rest of the fleet is a good thing, uh, for ... for, uh, AVL, GPS, and that sort of thing. Uh, and then also we looked at the system maintenance costs, and uh, one of the things that's included in the Racom/JECC proposal is the ongoing costs of $75 per radio per year to be a part of that JECC system, because it's ... uh, their costs to provide that infrastructure and other things. Um, any questions on that before we move on there? Okay. Hayek: As I understand it, that ... that last point with ... with the JECC fee... Fosse: Yes! Hayek: ...was raised and my understanding is that ... that there's not interest in waiving or modifying that for the City ... for this purpose. Is that... Fosse: We ... we actually had that discussion with the JECC policy board, um, last Monday. So after the work session, and before tonight, we did meet with the JECC policy board, uh, and essentially gave them the same presentation and ... and This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 44 answered their questions; and one of the things that was discussed at that meeting was ... was perhaps waiving those fees as an incentive for the City to go on to this system. Uh, two things, uh, came out of that conversation, and one is ... is there's not unanimous support on the JECC ... existing JECC board to waive those fees or to reduce them. Uh, the other thing that became clear is that because that is a policy decision, the ... any ... any discount or wavering of the fees is subject to the ...the approval of the board. Mims: Could change! Fosse: So, yeah, it could start out as ... as a waiver of fees but turn into basically an introductory offer that ... where we would have fees after a short period of time, or a long period of time! Uh, but it was discussed! Hayek: Anyway ... so... Fosse: Yep! Throgmorton: Rick, let me make sure I understand the math of this correctly, because... Fosse: Okay! Throgmorton: ... because I don't know, I'm challenged mathematically in a way like Matt was earlier. The upfront costs is $622,000 you say and ... but the additional costs over the following nine or so years is like $150,000? Am I doing the math correctly? Fosse: (both talking) ...well, let... Throgmorton: ... total 10 -year costs $775,000. Fosse: Yes. In fact I've got that on my next slide. If we ... let's just advance there for a moment, and ... and look at the difference in the initial costs and the additional, uh, difference in the ... the 10 -year costs. About $100,000 initially; about $404,000 over that 10 -year period. Throgmorton: Yeah, that's not what I'm asking. Fosse: Oh, okay! Throgmorton: If you'll go back to the other slide please. Just want to make sure I understand what's up there. Are ... are you saying that the total 10 -year costs is operating costs over 10 years, or are you saying that's operating costs plus the initial cost of $622,000? Fosse: Oh, I see ... I understand your question now. That is the ... the operating cost, plus the initial cost. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 45 Throgmorton: Okay, that's what I needed to know. Fosse: Yep! Um ... so as... Payne: The 775 includes the 621? Fosse: Yes! That's correct. Mary, is that right? Okay. Just wanted to make sure of that. Throgmorton: It seems to matter! (laughter) Fosse: Uh -huh! Payne: So that means the $1.1 includes the 722. Fosse: That's correct. Mims: Your huge... Hayek: (both talking) Mims: Your huge costs are your upfront costs of one for us to set up our own system; that 621 which is the 227 infrastructure, but then a huge radio cost, and they're only considering a 10% turnover in radios in the 10 years, so it's that initial upfront cost that's the biggest part of this thing. Payne: Well, I understand that, but I didn't understand that 775 minus 621, so we're only having a $10,000 a year cost over the 10 years? Because 775 minus 621 leaves 100,000 divided by 10 is $10,000. Hayek: If you look at the two bullet points on the lower left slide, $28,000 plus $125,000, I think those added together equal the difference between the 622 and the 775. Fosse: Yes. Hayek: Does that ... make sense? Mims: It's about $150,000 (both talking) Hayek: ...the answer to your question is yes, it's... it's... the ongoing costs are minor. Payne: Cause that's not the way I originally interpreted it. Fosse: Okay. Payne: I think this is exactly what Jim was saying. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 46 Fosse: Okay, sorry I didn't make that more clear. So as ... as you're seeing with this side - by -side comparison, uh, the ... the outcome that we had from the ... the request for proposal process really wasn't the outcome that we expected going into it. We thought we'd simply be migrating to the ... to the JECC system, uh, but instead our preferred alternative is to, uh, award to CEC and maintain that separate, um ... non-public safety radio system with an interface built in so that we do have that inner - operability, and... and I want to touch on that for a moment. Uh, that's something that we wanted to be absolutely sure about, so as part of that evaluation process we actually built that interface, physically installed it, and tested it to make sure that it works. So... Mims: So that means, Rick, that ... going with our own system, there will be somehow a way for our Public Works' people to communicate with the Police. Fosse: That's correct. Mims: Okay. I don't need to understand how, just ... (laughter) Fosse: Okay! We actually have a couple options there, but ... one has been tested and complete. So, our staff recommendation is to utilize the CEC MotoTrbo system on a City of Iowa City infrastructure, with both a primary and a backup tower system. Um, as ... as I pointed out, the coverage and inner- operability have been tested. They've passed. Uh, the cost differences are about $100,000 upfront, about $404,000 over the initial 10 -year period, and we have some functionality advantages, that is that ability to transmit data over the ... over the radio system without the need for any monthly fees, or for, uh, additional hardware there. And ... and also the platform that we're recommending, uh, permits the development and use of third party applications, which may or may not be a good thing for us in the future, but we have that ... that possibility. So, what I want to do is ... is, uh, back up for just a second and ... and make sure that I ... I, being clear that ... that our recommendation in ... in no way is a disrespect to JECC's decisions that they've made so far for the public safety system. We believe that they made a good decision for their public safety systems, uh, that is the P -25 radios are required and the ability, uh, their techniques for moving data is appropriate for the types of data that they transmit and the volumes that they transmit. So the right decisions have been made there. Uh, what this comparison really points out is that ... that different jobs, uh, can use different tools, and ... and that's what we're hear... seeing here, and the difference in those tools when applied over a 330 radios is significant enough that we feel compelled to ... to recommend approval to CEC. So if we move forward tonight, uh, we'll close out the RFP, uh, notify the vendors. We'll do some detailed project planning, and execute the ... the project and be operational hopefully by winter. So with that, I'll open it up to questions and... This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 47 Markus: Rick, uh, one of the questions that came up at the JECC meeting was the issue of licensing, and whether we had, uh, appropriate authority to use our licensing in this ... this fashion. I think that was the question that was raised. Fosse: Yes! Jeff... Markus: Have you had a chance to look into that issue, so that you can update the Council on that? Fosse: Yes, our consultant Jeff Thorsteinson has done that; I'll let him address that. Thorsteinson: I'm Jeff Thorsteinson. The question regards the use of the... continued use of the Iowa City licenses. They've been used for the last year and a half in this manner, and we would expect that it would be routine to update them to digital. And uh, the class of activities allowed in that band include, uh, safety of life, land transportation, business industrial, and specialized mobile radio. So, um ... we (both talking) Markus: ...under those categories. Thorsteinson: ... a routine thing. Mims: So the fact that public safety, I think that was kind of the ... the focus of the question from the JECC meeting. The fact that public safety is no longer going to be used on there doesn't impact our continued use for these other purposes. Thorsteinson: We don't expect it would be anything but routine and public safety has been rebanded to another area, but this is still, uh, a use of public safety. Our actual licenses are safety of life, so for instance, Mr. Hanson has things where he has to provide for safety of life, as well. Mims: Okay. Hayek: Great. Thorsteinson: Anything else? Hayek: Thanks for the clarification. Thorsteinson: Thank you. Mims: I would just add from being on the JECC board and ... and Tom and I were there, that I want to, uh, commend staff for, uh, the way that this was handled. I think bringing it to the Council at the work session, um, allowing it to then go to the JECC board before we acted on it, uh, worked out very well. There were definitely some concerns on the JECC board's part, um, of why we would want to This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 48 start our own system, and I think... or continue our own system, and I think Rick made it very clear that we didn't want to, but when you started crunching numbers and 330 -plus radios, um, and Rick gave them the same presentation, every one of the naysayers there who initially had thought we were crazy, um, just sat there and nodded their heads and said, we wish you weren't doing it, but we sure get it. It just ... it doesn't make any sense to come to JECC when the differences in cost are as considerable as they could be, and as Rick explained, the difference between their requirements for the P -25 radios versus ours for a lower cost radio, so ... I just want to commend staff for the process. I think it worked out very well for us and um, I've sat through this two or three times now and... and am very comfortable with what staff is recommending. Hayek: Further questions for Jeff ...or for Rick? Throgmorton: No. Payne: I guess I have one question. You mentioned that Cambus has some radios. How many do they have? Do you know? (male): (away from mic; unable to hear) Fosse: About 75. Payne: And then, so the purchase of those radios will be by the University, not by the City? Fosse: That's correct. Payne: So that 75 times 700, or well 700 was the hand -held; 600 was the mounted. Fosse: Yes. They ... they have the opportunity to experience some savings, as well, and they will need to put in place their own interface between their Public Safety and the Cambus. And probably use... Hayek: Are they going this route as well? Fosse: Uh ... we ... we believe that they are. We've had discussions This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 48 definitely some concerns on the JECC board's part, um, of why we would want to start our own system, and I think ... or continue our own system, and I think Rick made it very clear that we didn't want to, but when you started crunching numbers and 330 -plus radios, um, and Rick gave them the same presentation, every one of the naysayers there who initially had thought we were crazy, um, just sat there and nodded their heads and said, we wish you weren't doing it, but we sure get it. It just ... it doesn't make any sense to come to JECC when the differences in cost are as considerable as they could be, and as Rick explained, the difference between their requirements for the P -25 radios versus ours for a lower cost radio, so ... I just want to commend staff for the process. I think it worked out very well for us and um, I've sat through this two or three times now and... and am very comfortable with what staff is recommending. Hayek: Further questions for Jeff... or for Rick? Throgmorton: No. Payne: I guess I have one question. You mentioned that Cambus has some radios. How many do they have? Do you know? (male): (away from mic; unable to hear) Fosse: About 75. Payne: And then, so the purchase of those radios will be by the University, not by the City? Fosse: That's correct. Payne: So that 75 times 700, or well 700 was the hand -held; 600 was the mounted. Fosse: Yes. They ... they have the opportunity to experience some savings, as well, and they will need to put in place their own interface between their Public Safety and the ... the Cambus. And probably use... Hayek: Are they going this route as well? Fosse: Uh ... we ... we believe that they are. We've had discussions with them. Uh, they've indicated a strong interest, but I think they're waiting to see the ... the outcome here. Hayek: Okay. Fosse: Thank you! Throgmorton: Thanks, Rick. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 49 Hayek: Well I ... I think, uh, your comments are ... are appropriate, Susan, and ... and uh, you know, this in no way should be interpreted as inconsistent with our commitment to JECC. Mims: No! Hayek: I mean, Iowa City has been a strong supporter of it and continues to be, but these cost savings are something we cannot ignore. So, further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. Should we take a quick five minute break? How's everyone... Champion: (mumbled) ...need to walk for a minute. Hayek: Okay. Let's, uh, adjourn for five minutes and we'll come back. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 50 ITEM 25. CONSIDER A RESOLUTION REGARDING DIVERSITY ISSUES. Hayek: I'm going to read it. I don't normally read resolutions but what we're going to be, uh, voting on tonight is not part of... it's not on the internet because it went through some changes at our work session. I don't even think it's available to the public so I think it's appropriate, uh ... uh, to read. Reads as follows: Whereas periodically events occur around the nation or world that cause wide spread concern, and whereas these events and their aftermaths serve as a reminder of the need to focus on issues of cultural and racial awareness and acceptance in our own community, and whereas Iowa City's population is becoming more racially and eth... ethnically diverse. Between 2000 and 2010, the percent of Iowa Citians who are African American increased from 3.8 to 5.6 %. The percent who are Hispanic increased from 2.9 to 5.3 %, and the percent who are Asian increased from 5.6 to 6.9 %. And whereas these demographic shifts have contributed to increased social tensions, and whereas it is vital for Iowa City's long -term prosperity to create a stronger and more inclusive sense of community, now therefore we, the City Council of Iowa City, do hereby intend to establish an ad hoc committee to study city operations as they relate to minority populations, with a view toward promoting just and harmonious interaction between local government and minority segments of the community. We further direct the City Attorney to prepare an appropriate resolution recommending the composition of the committee and appropriate charge and the date by which the committee would report its findings to the Council. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? Champion: Do we, um... Hayek: You know, before we ... take this up for ... at the Council level, are there ... are there members of the public who wish to address the Council on this? You've been waiting and I ... I just want to give that opportunity if there's interest. If not... (mumbled) the Council. Champion: I... Throgmorton: I think they do, Connie. Champion: Oh! Hayek: Please come forward! (laughter) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 51 McKinstre: My name is John McKinstre and I'm pastor at First Christian Church. I live in the northside neighborhood at 308 Ronalds, and uh, I just want to speak in favor of the resolution. I think it's a wonderful idea. I'm not always comfortable talking about, uh, racial justice myself. I confess that! But I think it's, uh ... a conversation that this community badly needs to have in an open and forthright manner, and uh, I'm here representing the Consultation of Religious Communities, which is an interfaith organization. It includes about 25, uh, congregations, including the local mosque and a local synagogue and uh, you know, diversity's a very important thing and uh, talking amongst ourselves and uh... striving for a more inclusive and a more open community is always a good thing. So I'm just here in favor of that, so ... God bless you all. Mims: Thank you. Hayek: Thank you for your comments. Throgmorton: Thanks, John. Hayek: Okay, uh, Council discussion? Champion: Oh, I just wanted to bring up something, um, that I'm confused about, for the third time tonight! Uh, I'm going to vote for this; I support it totally. Uh, but were we going to talk next ... work session about the composition of the committee and an appropriate charge, and ... but this says that Eleanor should do that. Do we... Dilkes: No, I assumed that you were going to talk about that and ... and give me some direction about what you wanted the charge to be (both talking) who you wanted to be on the committee. Champion: ...next time then. I thought this was (both talking) Dilkes: You're going to have to have a discussion about that before I can draft the next resolution. Dobyns: Will it be on the work session agenda for the first June meeting? (several talking) Throgmorton: Yeah, and that's completely consistent with what Rick and I had, uh, had in mind when we drafted the resolution. Hayek: Yeah, we have to have that conversation. Champion: Okay. Thank you. Hayek: Further discussion? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 52 Throgmorton: Yeah, well I do want to say some things. Um, I want ... I want to thank the people that Rick and I met with, uh, while we were in the process of crafting, uh, a resolution, A ... I could name many people; I'll just mention a few. Ken ... Kenya, Henry, Latasha, Orville, Donna, Marian, and many others. Uh, they committed time and energy, uh, insights based on their own knowledge and experience. They spoke from their hearts. We, I believe, learned a lot by listening to them, uh, their insights went into the draft resolution. They clearly appear in the, uh, in the now therefore part of the resolution. I'm very pleased about that, and ... and I look forward to, uh, making further progress on this. Hayek: Well I want to thank you and ... and Rick for your work on this, um, and the Council earlier this evening for ... for reaching consensus on something that everyone (both talking) Dobyns: Yeah, I've been on the Council, you know, long enough I suppose to see that this could have been buried within the agenda and the operations of Council, um, I think it's a very impressive that Council's discussing this. This is not easy. Um, the discussions that we're going to have, um, open because they need to be open, are going to be really difficult ones. Um, having said that, the real merit of the statement is, um, and its intent will be what the, um, committee recommends to us, how we deliberate it, and the operational changes that we, um, actually make, uh, at the end of it. So the proof is in the pudding! Hayek: Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 53 ITEM 25B CONSIDER A RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY MANAGER TO SIGN AND THE CITY CLERK TO ATTEST A CONCESSION AGREEMENT WITH FIN AND FEATHER FOR THE PROVISION OF RECREATIONAL RENTAL EQUIPMENT AND FOOD SERVICES AT TERRY TRUEBLOOD RECREATION AREA. Mims: Move the resolution. Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by Mims, seconded by Payne. Mr. Moran! Brian! Moran: Mayor... Members of City Council, uh, I've got Brian Mildenstein with me who is, um, working with us for this, and I want to just go through a real quick, short slide s how. Uh, it's got pictures on it so it won't be quite as boring as Rick's but (laughter) Um, in fact that ... that's a picture that I was going to accuse Brian of being the ... the canoer, but that's not him. So ... he's, or kayaker, sorry! (laughter) Already (both talking) Hayek: ...Parks and Rec Director to make! Markus: Now you know why we're privatizing that! (laughter) Moran: If you haven't been out there yet, uh, the marina building, uh, that was completed and accepted, uh, last month, uh, and it looks very similar to that. That's a pretty good rendering of that. Uh, this is a ... a view from where the park lodge will be, and then this is a view from the parking area, uh, as it exists now. Uh, when we built this in mind we really didn't know how we were going to function with this, but uh, Fin and Feather has been a great partner of ours over the many years. Uh, Brian's dad, uh, has sponsored us for our National Gold Medal awards that we won in previous years. He's provided us equipment for our special Olympics program, and... and truly they're a... sort of a sole source provider for this type of thing for what I'm going to show you with. They're a local, uh, company that we've done business with for a long time and they can truly bring all this stuff to the table without having to buy it individually and I don't want to be the marketing manager of all this and to buy all the equipment and ... and do that, and ...and Brian has ... has graciously offered to do some of that stuff. So, uh, what we see in this is we see canoe rentals and paddle boat rentals occurring on the lake. Uh, and we also see kayaks and uh, these are actual pictures that were taken of an event that Brian did ... Thursday night? Last Thursday? Mildenstein: Yes, some are from Thursday, but we ... we had about 25 paddlers out there on Thursday night, uh... (mumbled) boats and (mumbled) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 54 Moran: And then, uh, we would also then become a seasonal operator and we would do skating, cross country skiing and snowshoes, and it'd be real difficult to see that in... in action because we didn't have a great winter last year (laughter). In fact we had very little ice with that. Uh, we did make the commitment that we would not clean snow from that trail, around that facility, just for this very same reason. Uh, of course last year we didn't have any snow to clear. The year before that, uh, it wasn't as popular as it has been. So we've already initiated that for a couple of years. Uh, the concession, uh, types that we are looking at, uh, that Brian and ... and myself have been talking about are ... are fishing concessions and it's a little hard to ... to figure out how you're going to do food and worms, but I think that we'll, you know, we'll work through that (laughter) Hayek: As long as you don't do worms and food (laughter) Moran: I don't know, it makes pretty good mud cake or whatever... Dobyns: Now I'm really worried about the food! (laughter) Moran: Um ... the ... the limits for the concessions will be handled contractually with ... with Brian and myself, and with the contract, so it won't be a ... if he wants to do a sole source provider or if he wants to provide certain things, uh, he'll run it by us so that we can say yeah that's a go, or that isn't a go, and ... and those would really only be objectionable things that we might not want to consider, and that's alcohol and ... and you know cigarette sales and stuff like that. Uh, so we'll have a little bit of control on that so that, uh, they'll know what we expect out of that to do. Uh, non -food items could be anything from clothing to uh, sales of water bottles to things that, you know, just sort of transpire over the next couple of years because the great unknown about this is that, uh, when we get this started this year, we don't have the park lodge amenity. We don't have all the shelters. So we don't ... we really don't know what the ... the business is going to be like, and then next year once the park lodge is there and all the shelters are in place, uh, I certainly incr ... uh, think that the traffic will increase greatly and I think Brian's uh, business will change drastically, depending on what the wants and needs are of the people that visit the park. So it's really a great unknown for us, and so we're trying to keep it open ended but we want to try to keep it focused and scoped a little bit with that too. Uh, it will be a seasonal thing. Uh, we will run a winter season and a summer /spring/fall season if you will, so I wouldn't anticipate, uh, a closure of any kind, of any great extension. I think that we'll just roll into seasonal stuff, uh, but like I said, who knows! If we have a winter like we did last year, uh, there's not going to be much business out there, and I don't think Brian's going to want to stick staff out there to ... to sell ice skates or to rent ice skates. Um, the contract itself, the resolution before you tonight authorizes the City Manager to sign that. We don't have a bonafide contract right now. We're still working out the details with that, but we wanted to give Brian the opportunity and... and them to get started as soon as we could get that, uh, put together, so we didn't want to hinge that dependent on your Council schedule, uh, we will have an This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 55 agreement with renewable terms. Uh, we want to give them an opportunity to recover costs for providing canoes, kayaks, fishing, bicycles, and all those kinds of things, so we don't want to go year by year, uh, we want to give them a longer extended term contract so that they can recover their ... their equipment costs for that. Markus: So, Mike, in that regard there was a discussion that there was some complications with entering into an agreement beyond three years. Moran: Correct. Markus: You should ... in terms of full disclosure, we should tell the Council what is to be expected. Moran: Sure. The ... the three -year agreement, and why we're here tonight, is ... is the initial agreement that we'll do is three years, and that's because it only requires one Council meeting. If we were to do a four year or larger, longer agreement, then what that would take is, uh, two Council meetings, which would put us into June 5t' or June 19th, which means that we couldn't operate the ... the concessions at that point in time. So we wanted to do a shorter contractual thing of three years or less, with the guarantee to ... to Brian that we will look at an extension for that after that, so that he gets a longer contract of four or five years, which he wants to recover his ... his equipment with. Markus: And ... and that's really the basis for the longer term agreement, to get a vendor to come in and invest you have to give `em enough term for them to amortize the cost of the investment that they're making in this regard, but if this comes back next fall, you're going to be scratching your head. You thought we just entered into an agreement. So it was best that we just tell you that right up front. Moran: Uh, the percentage of sales back to City, uh, will not be great. In fact, we're proposing 4% and uh, in looking around, other agencies around the state that do that, for example, Gray's Lake in Des Moines. If you've seen their rental operation, they only get ... get back 4 %, uh, Scott County, off of 225, over in the Davenport area, uh, they do a I% return. So the range ... I think the highest that Brian said that he saw when he was doing his search was 7% and the lowest was 1%. So we both sort of settled in at a 4% figure for contractual sales of kick -back for that. Uh, we would ... we would like to negotiate that percentage every year because of the change of people that will attend the parking every year. We know that this year might be a little rough, but next year might be a real boom because we're going to have more activities and events. So the contract extension length will be set, but every year we'd like to go back and look at the percentage that's given to us, based on that. Payne: And how are you going to determine that percentage? I mean, it's based on last year's sales then? This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 56 Moran: It'll be a percentage of...profits of what Brian makes on a monthly basis. Mildenstein: I think the way it's worded is not profits but rather on ... on gross sales. So ... uh, the City doesn't have to worry about whether or not we make a profit, but uh, just what the overall gross revenue is. Payne: But it will be based on last year? Because you can't base it on the current year cause you don't know what it's going to be! Moran: It'll be based on the current month of operation. Payne: Oh, just the current month! Moran: Correct, right. We'll got on a month-to-month ... month-to-month basis. Yeah, and ... and when you see the actual contract, Brian has to come up with the corporation name, but it won't be under Fin and Feather, uh, because he doesn't want to tie it to the store per se but he wants to come up with Fin and Feather East or whatever he wanted to come up with, uh, so we'll have it under another corporation name, uh, so that we can keep the books separate. We don't want to get into the Fin and Feather corporate books. We just want to get into the books of our facility. Dilkes: Michelle, I'm not sure you and Mike were connecting on that question. Um, you were talking about when you renegotiate the ... the percentage what are you going to base it on, was that your question? Okay. I ... I don't know that that's... Markus: We have determined (several talking) Dilkes: ...talked about that yet. We're still in the ... we're still coming to terms on the details, and we have to work within this three -year limit that we've got and ... so... we'll get there. Hayek: So we're ... we're authorizing the City Manager... Dilkes: You're authorizing the City Manager to... Hayek: ...negotiate and complete this. Dilkes: With these basic terms. Dobyns: Did you mention, is sidewalk going to be cleared? You're talking about the one around the lake. Is that... Moran: Two mile trail around the lake. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 57 Dobyns: But it's not going to be cleared during the winter? Moran: That's correct. Dobyns: Okay, and that's because... Moran: Of the winter, uh, cross country skiing, snow shoeing, and all the events that'll take place in there. We want people to participate in that manner at that park. Dobyns: Okay. Well people will walk on it anyway and there'll be little doggie gifts along the way, as well (several talking and laughing) Moran: ...we've had this discussion, yeah. We've had that discussion, and we haven't had a good trial run for that because we haven't had a good case of snow for that. Dobyns: Will it be (several talking) Moran: Yes. That's our intent is to do it for cross country skiing. Dobyns: Okay. Champion: You could make snow. Hayek: Okay, any other questions for, uh, Brian or Mike? Moran: Last picture....the coolest thing to rent out there will be a surf board with long pole, like a little gondola ... I don't know what you call `em (several talking) standup paddle boards. Mildenstein: We were out, actually, on these the other night, again, and uh, they're... they're gaining in a lot of popularity. Some people actually fish from them, um ... which can be kind of interesting. Uh, you need a little bit of balance, uh, and there're also yoga classes that are ... that are being offered on standup paddle boards now. Once again, balance key. Dobyns: I think our Parks and Rec Director should demonstrate it for the public before we go live with this! (laughter) Markus: Especially the yoga on the paddle boat! (laughter) Mildenstein: That ... that's me, and I promise you I can't ride a ... a skate board or anything else that way, so... Throgmorton: The guy standing on the board, it looks to me like a ... I'm sorry, I'm from a University, you know, a post -modern voyager. So ... wonder ... wonder if maybe that's... that's what it is really. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 58 Moran: It's an actual picture! Mildenstein: Surfing in the Midwest, you know, for us ... kids who grew up here. (several taking) Hayek: Marquette, Joliet! (laughter) Okay, other questions for these, uh, these guys? And any discussion on... Champion: Looks great! Mims: Yes! It's exciting! Throgmorton: (mumbled) Hayek: Yep, I think this ... this, uh, has the potential to be a very good partnership. Further discussion? Roll call, please. Item passes 6 -0. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 59 ITEM 28. CITY COUNCIL INFORMATION. Hayek: Start down with you, Jim. Throgmorton: Yeah, I'd like to mention a few things. Uh, I ... during our meetings two weeks ago I mentioned a couple suggested changes to our TIF policy, and Matt, you suggested that I look at our Economic Development, uh, policy, and I ... I've done that. So, uh, I will be sending to you, and I guess to the Economic Development Committee, um, suggested changes and where they fit into the policy. Does that sound reasonable? Hayek: Okay. Throgmorton: Uh, I guess, um, I'd like to also say that, uh, with the help of Karen Howard, uh, I ... I conducted that Jane Jacobs' Walk, uh, roughly a week or so ago, uh, it was, uh, it went beautifully. We had maybe 40 or so, uh, people walking with us. And Karen did a great job, uh, assisting at certain points. I really appreciate her help, but the...the surprise to me is that, uh, there was a little televised excerpt on KWWL TV and that was picked up by, uh, the Bluefield, West Virginia TV station and ... I went to Notre Dame, the University of Nortre Dame, the South Bend Indiana TV station as part of the Fox, you know, news ... not news network but the Fox Network. So ... there we were walking around (laughter) talking in ...in our town and it was appearing in Bluefield and South Bend (laughter) Dobyns: You were on Fox, Jim? Throgmorton: Huh? Dobyns: You were on Fox TV? Throgmorton: Well, you know the ... the Fox Network. Hayek: You joining Fox and Friends? (laughter) How this spirals! (laughter) Well thanks for doing that. That's... anything else, uh, Jim? Throgmorton: No. Hayek: Connie? Susan? Mims: No! Payne: Are we going to finish our Council time from the work session also, or this is it? Hayek: I ... this is it, unless you need us to go back (several talking) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 60 Payne: No, I just had two things that really... weren't that important. I'll just talk to Marian about `em later. They don't need to be public stuff. Hayek: Okay. Dobyns: No. Hayek: Uh, I have a couple of things. First you might have seen today, um, the National Association of Realtors announced its list of top turnaround towns, which is a listing of, uh, area, um, economies that have weathered the downturn in the real estate market nationally, and Iowa City ranks 21St. Um, which is essentially a recognition that we have escaped, as they say — escaped from the recent national housing bust, relatively unscathed! And they, uh, give credit to, uh, the strength of the housing market, the University, some of our private sector employers, and then our arts and culture. So I thought that was a nice, uh, recognition... Champion: ... commend the City Council? They didn't say (both talking) Hayek: No, they ... they put it on a web site! (laughter) Uh, and the second thing is I want to, uh, remind the public of an exciting event this Sunday, uh, May 20th, uh, Friends of Historic Preservation is putting a ... putting on a walking tour in Iowa City through the civil war era, uh, and it starts at Old Brick at 1:00. Goes until 5:00. All sorts of stuff going on there. A tour of the building. A civil war ball. Uh, re- enactors, uh, and then a bunch of activities for children, uh, you can build Lincoln's... Abraham Lincoln's boyhood home out of Lincoln logs, and do other things. Uh, there's also a pop -up museum scheduled for the Congregational Church between 2:00 and 4:00, and then open houses at various places around, uh, the, looks like the near northside. Um, so encourage the public to go to that, and for more information contact Friends of Historic Preservation. Throgmorton: Super! Matt, could I mention one other thing, I forgot to mention? Hayek: Yeah. Throgmorton: Today, this is Bike to Work Week, so I don't know, I'm sure all of you rode your bikes down here today but ... but uh, tomorrow I'll be on the New Pi to Old Pi, no ...Old Pi to New Pi. I'd better make it ... make sure I've got it right. Um, it starts at 5:30, from Chauncey Swan I think, and then ends up at New Pi out in Coralville. So bravo to the bicyclists around town. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 61 ITEM 29. REPORT ON ITEMS FROM CITY STAFF. Hayek: City Manager? Markus: Nothing. Hayek: City Attorney? City Clerk? Karr: Yes! (several talking and laughing) I know! Um, distributed this evening is an email from Andy Johnson reminding us that the joint cities meeting is scheduled for June 20th, and they're asking each entity to let them know if they'd be interested in taking a tour of the court house and jail, um, in place of the usual business meeting, and they'll finalized logistics, but didn't want to wait until the next, our next meeting to do that. And again, that's looking at June 20th. They're anticipating the tour starting at the court house at 4:00, which would be our normal starting time, and then ending up in the large court room, um, and there would then be agenda items or anything that you would like to add. Is there interest on the part of the Council to do such a tour and structure it that way? Champion: If you haven't been on a tour of the jail, I would recommend highly that you go. Um, it's ... it doesn't take long cause it's very small (laughter) but it is really... you'll understand why we really need a new jail. So I think it'd be a good idea for people to go. Mims: Well, and I think given that they're also planning on doing a brief presentation about the plan for the justice center (both talking) this could be, you know, the referendum this fall for the bond, I think it'd be a good idea for people if they can go. Hayek: Yeah. They really ought to do it at about 9:00 in the morning when the place is just bursting at the seams, and then put us in one of the broom closets that they use for hearings. Uh, that's how bad it is over there. Champion: It's terrible. Hayek: So, I think it's a good idea. Karr: So, please check your schedules and let ... let me know if there's any conflict and I'll respond back. Thanks. Throgmorton: No conflict! Hayek: Anything else, Marian? Okay, we need a motion. Mims: So moved. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012. Page 62 Payne: Second. Hayek: Moved by, uh, Mims, seconded by Payne. Discussion? All those in favor say aye. Opposed say nay. Motion carries. We are adjourned. (bangs gavel) This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council formal meeting of May 15, 2012.