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Home My WebLink About2012-10-23 Bd Comm minutesAd Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 MINUTES APPROVED CITY COUNCIL AD HOC DIVERSITY COMMITTEE SEPTEMBER 24, 2012 HARVAT HALL /CITY HALL, 4:00 P.M. Members Present: Bakhit Bakhit, Cindy Roberts, Joe Dan Coulter, Orville Townsend, Sr., Kingsley Botchway II (4:15), Joan Vanden Berg, LaTasha Massey Staff Present: Eleanor Dilkes, Marian Karr, Tom Markus, Sam Hargadine, Rick Wyss, Jim Steffen Others Present: Charlie Eastham WELCOME AND INTRODUCTIONS: 1 3b(1) Karr noted that Chairperson Botchway would be late to the meeting this evening and that Roberts should go ahead and begin the meeting. She then introduced the new Committee Member, LaTasha Massey, who will be filling Donna Henry's unexpired term. Roberts then asked that everyone present introduce themselves, and also welcomed Massey to the Committee. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: Coulter moved to approve the minutes of the 9/17/12 meeting minutes as submitted; seconded by Townsend. Motion carried 6 -0; Botchway absent. PRESENTATION BY POLICE CHIEF: Roberts welcomed the Police Chief and his staff back for a continuation of their presentation and interaction with the Committee. Hargadine started off by saying he would like to answer some of the questions posed last week. One question raised was whether or not there had been a meeting between the Police Department and minority taxi cab drivers. Hargadine stated that no such meeting has taken place. Another question centered around what type of mechanism is in place for citizens to provide input to the Police Department. Hargadine responded that the Department receives input and comments from the public in several ways — email, phone, web page — and that the Department is very open about communicating with the public. A third question that Hargadine responded to asked if the Police Department ever holds public meetings or forums, to which he gave several examples of the Department's involvement to invitations offered. Roberts then asked the Chief if the Department's complaint form and process are reviewed as part of their accreditation process or if it is reviewed separately. Hargadine responded that it would be the policy governing the whole complaint process that would be reviewed. Coulter asked what other data is reviewed during the accreditation process, specifically statistical demographic data. Hargadine stated that their recruiting is scrutinized by doing a racial and male /female breakdown which is then compared to the Iowa City workforce. The review process really looks at whether the Department is doing what they say they are doing. Massey asked how often the accreditation is done and whether any upcoming public hearings in the future could be at a better time, to hopefully allow public participation. Chief Hargadine responded that the review process Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 2 is on a three -year cycle and that this is typically always done in late December, when unfortunately the weather can be questionable. He added that they advertise at least a month in advance about these public hearings but that other things seem to hold more interest for people. Members asked if this accreditation process could take place at a different time of the year. The response was that the CALEA organization has always set the time, but that the Department could ask for a change. Hargadine then shared a handout with Members which showed a list of the various community outreach programs they are involved with. He then noted that Coulter had asked several times at the last meeting for data. He invited Coulter to come to his office where they could sit down and look at the Excel spreadsheet together and decide just what data Coulter is looking for. Coulter responded that he was under the impression that the Department would already have some type of reporting done at least annually where certain data would be made available to the Council, for example. Coulter continued, stating that the way the Department is collecting data is not how the federal government does it. He shared a handout with Members, further clarifying how this demographic data is to be collected per federal requirements. The issue of requesting race and ethnicity was discussed, with Coulter stating that he does not understand how the City cannot be conforming to state and federal requirements for this type of data. Dilkes responded that the Census information in the Committee's packet came from the Community Development Department, not the Police Department. She suggested that the Committee pose these types of questions to that department instead. Hargadine responded further to Coulter's questions and concerns about not collecting race and ethnicity data on their forms. Karr clarified that now that staff knows what data the Members are looking for, Community Development staff can supply by the next meeting. The discussion continued, with Bakhit asking the Chief to clarify what 'total stops' refers to (handout distributed 9/17 by Police). Steffen explained that whenever an officer with the ICPD initiates a traffic stop, they are required to fill out a form, including race and ethnicity, registration, address, and the sex of the individual, as well as the reason for the stop itself. I n 2011, Steffen noted that there were 13,177 traffic stops made by the ICPD. Call -based traffic stops, where someone would call in to report a speeding car in their neighborhood, for example, are not part of this stop information. A question was raised about multi - racial individuals, and Chief Hargadine stated that it would be up to the officer's judgment on this. Townsend asked if there is a mechanism that would show if a particular officer was making more stops of a certain race. Hargadine stated that there is a monthly report prepared for both traffic and arrests, and that, as he stated previously, the on -dash camera videos are also reviewed to help eliminate this type of bias. Steffen then spoke about the Department's 'early warning system.' He added that there are a number of things that are monitored regarding officer behavior, things that if left unchecked over time could become a problem. Performance evaluations and activity reports are reviewed regularly to look for increases or decreases in particular areas, such as citizen complaints, absenteeism, and even excessive force instances. Massey asked for further clarification on this, specifically how a situation would be handled if indeed an officer was found to have race and ethnicity issues. The Chief addressed this question, giving the Members an example of an actual incident in town involving a car stopped numerous times and the officer knew the driver was not the owner and the license suspended. He explained how he was able to delve into this issue, only to discover that it was the car's owner who was in fact in the wrong. Massey followed up this question with another one, asking how the Chief would handle such a Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 situation if indeed the officer was using racial profiling. Besides an investigation of the incident, she asked if there is a system set up for training or some type of education for the officer. Hargadine stated that to date they have not had a founded complaint of racial profiling. He added that the ICPD does have a policy prohibiting this. There is also continuing legal education for officers on this topic, letting them know what they could expect if found guilty of this. The topic of race and ethnicity reporting was brought up by both Roberts and Coulter, with Coulter further clarifying why he believes this is important to do in the same manner across the board. Roberts stated that due to there not being consistent race and ethnicity reporting, she believes they don't really have a good mechanism for determining whether racial profiling is actually occurring or not. Hargadine reiterated that, again, this is a very subjective thing for the officer to determine. Botchway asked about the Department's database, if when a stop is made and a person's name is put in the system, if it doesn't already note their race and ethnicity. Hargadine responded that he knows there is on a warrant, but that he is unsure on traffic stops. Botchway added that if this were already available it would eliminate that subjectivity on the officer's part. Botchway then brought the discussion around to the survey done on the ICPD and whether the CALEA review brought any further insight into the results. Hargadine and his staff responded to this, with Wyss stating that somewhere on there it stated that due to the low return rate the results were probably not valid. He also offered to get a copy of this survey for the Members, if they would like to see what is asked. Every 100th call for service receives this survey, according to Wyss. The discussion then turned to the requirements for continuing education that each officer must meet. Hargadine noted that many of these requirements, such as CPR, are mandated yearly for the ICPD. There is also a continuing ed class on legal issues, such as race -based stops, according to Hargadine, that must be met. Townsend brought up the issue of the individual who complained about constantly being stopped, due to expired registration, and how perhaps this is a financial situation. He suggested that officers talk to people in such situations to see what is happening in their life and that perhaps the person could be given a deadline in which to complete the registration, instead of stopping them daily over the same issue. Hargadine responded that this is a good point. Steffen asked how this could be verified, that officers don't know the people they stop well enough to know if it is true or not. Townsend noted that the long -term benefit of having this attitude would go a long way toward better relationships between police and the community. Hargadine attempted to clarify the totality of such a situation and how officers typically would react. Townsend followed up by saying the point he is attempting to make is community involvement between the police and the citizens, and how this can be improved. Steffen noted that each officer has their own idea of discretion. He added that some officers may feel that if they stop you, they will ticket you, whereas others may not feel that way. He added that they cannot dictate what each officer does at a stop, but that being consistent is the key. Wyss stated that they do encourage officers to use discretion, and that quite a few warnings are given to citizens when warranted. Botchway then asked about the PCRB and how the Police feel about its effectiveness. He added that at the last public forum there was a lot of discussion about the PCRB not having much 'power.' The Chief explained how the investigative process gets started, Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 4 with both Steffen and Wyss addressing the mediation issue as it relates to the Police Union. As for the power that PCRB has, or lack of, Hargadine stated that the PCRB is a board compiled by the City Council that reports directly to the City Council. The Chief stated that he believes that this does give the PCRB power, that the ICPD would not want an unfavorable report given to the Council. In other words, the Department works to accommodate any requests the PCRB may have and works with them to investigate complaints. Townsend noted that public opinion shows a lack of trust in this arrangement, and he asked if there isn't a way to increase the public trust. Hargadine responded to these comments, stating that the ICPD does police themselves and that it is his job as Chief to make sure this is done. He further clarified the investigative process, noting the role of the PCRB. Townsend stated that perception is still at play here that the public believes things are being done that should not be done. He would like to see this perception changed. The conversation continued on the topic of perceptions versus facts, and how this gap could be filled. Botchway stated that the public tends to have more trust in the PCRB than they do the Department. Hargadine attempted to further explain how the PCRB receives complaints, and how the Department handles internal complaints. Internal complaints are summarized for PCRB informational purposes. No internal complaints go to the PCRB unless filed by the complainant separately. Townsend stated that although he himself would back the ICPD, he feels he needs to know what process is in place to handle complaints or large events — something that he could share with the community to prove the ICPD is doing what it should be doing in handling such situations. Attorney Dilkes added that the PCRB does have the ability to do further investigating of a situation, beyond what the ICPD has done. Roberts asked for an example of something that could be changed that would actually improve the PCRB's process. Botchway gave some examples, noting ways to educate the public on the complaint process. Karr added that another suggestion mentioned was when ICPD is doing the investigative interview with the complainant that a member of the PCRB be present. This would allow the PCRB to substantiate that the ICPD is following through. Hargadine gave several examples of how during his investigations the PCRB does request things like videos and numbers of participants, so they can follow up on the ICPD's investigation. Coulter then reiterated what the process involves — that the PCRB receives quarterly reports from the ICPD on all complaints and how they have been resolved. The PCRB has subpoena power if they should decide to further pursue one of these complaints, but Dilkes added that they have not used this power to date. Karr shared that at the last public forum of the PCRB, statistics showed that since 1997, there have been 80 complaints filed. Of the 177 allegations, only six were sustained. Dilkes reminded the Committee of the memo received in their first information packet regarding some of the legal obstacles that come into play when talking about changing the structure of the PCRB. She briefly reviewed the issue and what it would take to do this. Dilkes suggested the group continue to discuss whether or not they think the current system is broken; and if they believe it is, she would be happy to discuss with them what can and cannot be implemented. Chief Hargadine noted that PCRB meetings are open to the public, except when they convene to Executive Session to discuss specifics of a complaint. He asked if this is one of the things the public does not like. Townsend responded that what he is hearing is that by the time the complaint information gets to the PCRB, the Police Department has already done the investigation. He stated that he is asking for more involvement in Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 the investigation, done by the ICPD, by someone outside of the Department. The Chief explained that all of these investigations are videotaped, and that the PCRB can see them at any time. Dilkes added that the current ordinance provides for a complainant to be accompanied to the investigative interview. Coulter stated that in light of the conversation centering on the PCRB and perceptions there, he wonders where their focus needs to be in this process. He added that he is not hearing concrete information that could be parlayed into recommendations from this Committee, and questions what is it exactly that is 'not working' in the system. Botchway interjected, stating that he sees from the information reviewed that there is a great distrust of the ICPD. He added that it appears the public needs to be educated on what the PCRB can do. As for the PCRB, the issue becomes what they are willing to do when investigating a complaint. Roberts followed up by asking if this is a communication issue. The Chief stated that the best way to explain the entire process would be for the Members to see an investigation, beginning to end. Vanden Berg asked what their exact charge is, adding that it appears the Committee wants to change perception, yet the ICPD works on facts. She stated that they could go around and around for a long time and not get anywhere, until they know what it is they are attempting to do. Massey then addressed the group, stating that educating the public on the entire process of how they can register a complaint needs to be done, as she herself does not even know how to start such a process. She suggested that being able to go to a place such as the substation in the Broadway neighborhood to file a complaint might be a good way to educate the public on the process. Coulter spoke next, stating that this Committee needs to make a list of the things they believe need to be done. Coulter made a motion that public education about the PCRB process be developed, and that this be part of the list that he expects this Committee will develop. BOARD DISCUSSION: After the Chief and his officers left the meeting, the conversation turned to Coulter's motion to develop a public education piece. Townsend asked if a motion was truly necessary, and receiving no second, the motion died. Karr stated that she will start a list for the Members, adding this public education component to it. Botchway stated that they should probably share their thoughts on all that they have read and heard the last two meetings, perhaps doing this at the beginning of the next meeting. They could then move on to preparing for the Transportation presentation. Vanden Berg stated that she believes they are at somewhat of an impasse that the ICPD doesn't seem to see anything they need to work on. Townsend asked that they all look at this from the ICPD's point of view for a minute. He reminded Members that their job is to make recommendations to the City Council. Coulter stated that another item on the list, in his opinion, is the data that he originally requested. Botchway noted that the Chief said this information is available, but that it would need to be compiled. Dilkes suggested this group decide exactly what data they want to see, and what form they want to see this data presented in. Dilkes asked for clarification on the information being requested — race, ethnicity, etc. — and Coulter attempted to state what he is requesting. He added that he would like to also see what CALEA requires, and the state and federal entities, as well. Members continued to share their thoughts on the ICPD's presentation, giving their opinions on information they have heard thus far and what they hope to hear in other presentations. Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 6 Coulter again stated that he needs to see real data — that until then it is difficult to move forward on these issues. Vanden Berg stated that she believes this needs to be a collaborative effort and others agreed. Roberts shared with Members some history of past programs used for community outreach and which ones seemed to work well. Coulter stated that he feels the Committee is making progress and he thanked the others for their input during this difficult process. Chairperson Botchway asked that Members give some thought to questions for the next presentation — Transportation. He stated that he would like to do this in a more structured manner this time around. Townsend asked what transportation issues there are, other than the complaints about the bus stop area by Old Capitol Mall. He asked if they could have a list of transportation issues to prepare for the next meeting. Karr added that in addition to what's already been received, she will check to see if anything new has arisen. Townsend threw out the suggestion that they invite the City Manager to a meeting and get his take on this issue. City Manager Markus stated he attends all meeting and is available as needed. TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE: Roberts stated that she may be late to the next meeting due to travel, but hopes to still make the meeting. Members agreed to retain the 4:00 PM start time for the meeting Monday, October 1, 20121. PUBLIC INPUT: Markus stated that he thought it was unfortunate that the ICPD left the meeting when they did, missing the discussion by the Committee. He added that he believes the Committee should be candid with the ICPD when they are present, that they need to hear what Members are saying. He stated that staff will definitely obtain the data that Members have requested. ADJOURNMENT: Coulter moved to adjourn the meeting at 6:30 P.M.; seconded by Bakhit. Motion carried 7 -0. Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, September 24, 2012 Ad Hoc Diversity Committee ATTENDANCE RECORD 2012 Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused -- = Not a Member TERM o 0 m 0 0 0 m o 0 NAME EXP. 00 N -' N OD f0 O -4 Donna 03110/13 O/ X -- -- Henry E Cindy 03/10113 X X X X Roberts Joan 03/10/13 X —X —X X Vanden Berg Bakhit 03/10/13 X X X X Bakhit Kingsley 03/10/13 X X X X Botchway Orville 03/10113 X X X X Townsend Joe Dan 03/10/13 X X X X Coulter LaTasha -- -- -- X Massey Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused -- = Not a Member Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 1 3b(2) MINUTES FINAL CITY COUNCIL AD HOC DIVERSITY COMMITTEE OCTOBER 8, 2012 HELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, 8:00 A.M. Members Present: Bakhit Bakhit, Cindy Roberts, Joe Dan Coulter, Orville Townsend, Sr., Kingsley Botchway II, Joan Vanden Berg, LaTasha Massey Staff Present: Eleanor Dilkes, Marian Karr, Tom Markus Others Present: Charlie Eastham, Rick Wyss, Jim Steffen, Sam Hargadine RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: None CALL MEETING TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Botchway at 4:05 P.M. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Coulter moved to approve the minutes of the September 24, 2012, meeting as submitted. Vanden Berg seconded the motion. Motion carried 7 -0. WRAP -UP OF POLICE DISCUSSION: Roberts began the discussion by stating that she had a question to pose and that she would like the Committee's advice, as well. She explained that when she joined this committee, she did not assume that there are some systemic and pervasive problems with racial profiling within the ICPD. She noted that after hearing other's viewpoints, she realized that some do in fact hold that opinion. Roberts continued, stating that she wants to develop her opinion based on facts and not other's opinions. She asked the other Members if she is missing anything from the data they have received thus far. Botchway responded that he believes Massey can speak to this best. Massey stated that the only thing she can reference is the disproportionality piece. According to statistics, especially with African American youth aged 10 to 17, there is a high rate of disproportionality when it comes to arrests. Massey continued, further explaining what these statistics show. Even with improvement, Massey noted that Iowa City is still five to six times more likely to arrest an African American youth over a Caucasian youth. Coulter stated that he believes they need to know what these youth are being charged with. He added that they need to know more information, that they cannot just form an opinion without more detailed data. He stated that the biggest disproportionality he has found in all of the arrest records was on the five -year arrest summary broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, and juvenile /adult. Coulter then shared with Members what he came up with from this data. He stated that according to his review of the data, a white male in his 20s is three times more likely to be arrested in Iowa City than any other Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 2 population. Coulter added that they still need to dig deeper, that they cannot just take this type of disproportionality information and assume racial / ethnic discrimination. Massey further explained her stand, stating that she has seen disproportionality in the actual charges against African American youth. Coulter asked if people are calling the police on these youth, or if the police are actually out looking for this population. Massey responded that some of it is community members and businesses calling the police. She added that over the last year, the schools in Iowa City have made some changes to their policies and have not been calling the ICPD as often. Townsend stated that he believes they need to be careful when dealing with numbers and statistics. He added that more and more he is hearing African Americans in the community refer to the ICPD as a 'racist' police force. He then asked the other Members to explain to him what a racist looks like. Townsend continued, stating that he joined this committee with the attitude that if there are some issues to be dealt with, then they need to identify those issues; they need to see if they can come up with solutions for these issues; and they need to make recommendations on how to solve these issues. Roberts asked for clarification on some of the declining numbers and what others attribute this to. Massey stated that she believes there is more press on the issue, as well as community knowledge of this disproportionality. She further clarified for Roberts where the numbers are and how this age group is being disproportionality arrested. Botchway added that he believes they need to be concerned with not only the facts but also the perceptions that abound in the community. Coulter again stated that they should be careful in drawing conclusions until they have dug deeper into the data. Botchway responded that they need to look at the entire community, and not just the student population when drawing these conclusions. Townsend added that since they are a college community, this information can be somewhat skewed with certain age groups. Bakhit added that numbers can be interpreted differently by each of them, that what each of them encounters in their daily lives can make a difference in how they see things. Vanden Berg spoke to how the schools have been trying to deal with issues, such as disrespect and insubordination. She added that when looking at these issues, they need to remember that depending on their background, youth will respond differently to situations and that this needs to be considered. Chief Hargadine spoke to Massey's statistics, adding that these are Johnson County statistics. He asked what agencies supplied the information and whether or not there is countywide representation from law enforcement. Massey responded that the numbers came from the (JC) Sheriff's office, Coralville, North Liberty, and also Iowa City. This information was then submitted to the federal government, according to Massey. Hargadine then stated that when it comes to juvenile cases, the police are called to the scene 93% of the time, versus 7% of the time when an officer happens to be out in the community and sees something amiss. The conversation continued, with Botchway asking if anyone had further questions for the Chief and his officers before they wrap up this discussion. Coulter stated that he did, at the Chief's invitation, meet with the Chief and his staff recently. He shared what he took away from this meeting, adding that he was impressed and somewhat reassured that the ICPD's approach to this data is very professional and thorough. The Chief spoke briefly about the steps the ICPD has taken and is taking to combat these issues. Townsend stated that in his recent meeting with the City Manager he learned quite a bit about the hiring of minority candidates, and he asked if there is any way that the City can Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 get around some of the civil services requirements in order to look at some of these minority candidates. The Chief noted that he agrees with Townsend 100 %, but that it is not just the civil service rules that tie their hands. Sometimes it is the labor agreements that are in place. Attorney Dilkes stated that the civil service laws are not federal but rather state codes. She added that there is not much flexibility in how the City can deal with these codes. This also applies to the labor contracts that are currently in place. Dilkes stated that areas the Committee can focus their efforts would be recruitment and barriers to the ability to test. Townsend spoke again about perceptions, using this type of barrier as an example. He stated that there needs to be a better job done in letting the public know what the constraints are — such as labor contracts. Having a focus on perception could help the citizens understand better what the City can and cannot do. Through education — brochures, pamphlets, ads — the public can see why the City does what it does and help them to understand state and federal regulations, as well. TRANSPORTATION DISCUSSION: Botchway began the discussion, speaking first to changes in transit routes, such as the east side loop. The goal was to help eliminate the long wait time that youth were having by the Old Capitol Mall stop. Roberts added that one of the biggest reasons behind the east side loop changes was to make it much more useable for the students. Students at City High and Southeast Jr. High having to wait for extended periods of time to catch a bus. Roberts gave Members a brief history on this transit route and what the overall goal has been in making the most recent changes to it. She suggested they get feedback from students who are riding the bus to see if it is making things easier for them to get around. Vanden Berg stated that she has not heard any feedback yet. Bakhit stated that he believes they need a breakdown of the transit routes, showing where they travel, how often, and the times. This will help them to have a clearer picture of the issues at hand. Vanden Berg asked about ridership and whether some routes are overcrowded while others may have very few riders. Roberts added that the weather makes a huge difference in ridership. She stated that the first real cold snap always brings an increase in ridership. Botchway asked if there is anything in place to educate people who live outside of the community, such as students, as to what the transit system offers and what routes might be of use to them. He also spoke to peak time usage and whether more should be done here. Another issue he brought up is the policy for how the bus drivers speak to students. Bakhit then spoke to Sunday bus service and the possible need to cover those who work second shift jobs. He suggested more direct routes between the east and west side, as well. Vanden Berg spoke to the fact that Coralville has a separate transit system, and the possibility of collaborating on some of these routes. Roberts spoke to how the downtown area has for years been the 'hub' of the transit system, and she questioned if this is still the best way to have the system set up. Botchway noted that he wanted to add that in his experience the transit system and the police department both work very well in this community, and he wanted to make sure that the Chief knows this — that the Committee is not out to make huge changes and state these things don't work well. Coulter stated that he sees three populations of riders — public school students, college students, and working adults. There are five different bus systems — Iowa City Transit, Cambus, public school buses, private school buses, and Coralville Transit. He believes that it would be beneficial to have all five of these groups come together to make sure Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 that their respective populations are being served well. He added that by doing this the entities would be able to tell if adjustments were needed or if collaboration could help to ease the pressure. Townsend stated that another suggestion he would make is they look at the reality of each situation, such as an issue of culture for example, that it be looked at from not only a cost standpoint but also the total impact that such an issue can have on a community. He gave an example from a trip to St. Louis, stating that when there is a cultural issue they need to look at the whole picture. Botchway asked what factors the City considers when preparing the budget for issues such as adding a bus route to a specific area of town. Vanden Berg asked if there was a way for the School District to perhaps partner with the City on transit issues. Massey brought up the issue of Transit's protocol for kicking youth off the bus when the weather is an issue, such as snowing and extremely cold outside. Townsend stated that the belief that 'doing business as usual' should be rethought and that transportation is a good place to start with this. He spoke to the ever - changing environment in Iowa City, adding that he believes they need public input in order to get a real handle on the issues. Coulter then asked if rider surveys are done very often by any of these transportation entities. He added that he believes this information would be important for them to have. Massey added another question for Transit, asking what the City's plans are for cultural training of their employees. Botchway wrapped up the Transit discussion by telling Members to email the City Clerk with any other questions for the Transit Director by tomorrow at 5:00 P.M. GENERAL BOARD DISCUSSION: None. TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE: Botchway noted the tentative meeting schedule for October — 15, 22, and 29. He added that the Transit Director is schedule to give his presentation on October 15. He asked if this was still okay with other Members, and all agreed. He then addressed their meetings thus far, stating that he is suggesting they put time constraints on their discussions. Botchway also asked that at future meetings the general discussion be moved up in the agenda to follow the approval of meeting minutes. He gave some examples of how discussions so far have gone on for longer than expected times. He asked that Members let him or the City Clerk know if assigned times are too short on upcoming agendas so appropriate corrections can be made. Other Members agreed, with Vanden Berg adding that they may want to set some benchmarks of things they want to accomplish, so they have deadlines to work toward. Botchway asked that they move the timeline schedule to the October 22 meeting agenda so they can discuss it in greater depth. Karr asked if Members would let her know about any upcoming meetings that they will miss due to holiday plans, travel, etc. Botchway stated that he knows he will not be available on November 5. Vanden Berg stated that she will be out of town on October 29. Coulter spoke next to another area he believes they should look into — the media. He stated that he has noticed the local paper reporting crime at a much higher rate than previously, when in fact the crime rate numbers have gone down. Coulter stated that he believes the media could be adding to people's perceptions about crime, due to this increase in reporting. He believes this is an area they should look at, as well. Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 SCHEDULE PUBLIC FORUM: The issue of perception was again discussed by Members, with the importance of holding a public forum being foremost. Members briefly discussed some dates for such a public forum, with the City Clerk noting holidays, weather, and winter school breaks. November 8 and 15, or December 3 will be looked at for this public forum and the City Clerk will let Members know which date and time would work, with the Library being the preferred location. Massey asked if they should have a survey done after this public forum. Karr suggested use of the City's web site for responses, as well. Vanden Berg added that she would also like to know how the Human Rights division and their work fits into the bigger picture. Botchway suggested they add this to their general board discussion on the agenda for October 22. PUBLIC INPUT: None. ADJOURNMENT: Coulter made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 5:30 P.M. Seconded by Vanden Berg. Motion carried 7 -0. [The attached summary of questions was prepared by City staff present.] Ad Hoc Diversity Committee, October 8, 2012 6 Ad Hoc Diversity Committee ATTENDANCE RECORD 2012 Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member TERM o 0 0 0 NAME EXP. N c\o N co a 00 cD o - Donna 03/10/13 O/ X N N N Henry E M M M Cindy 03/10/13 X X X X X Roberts Joan 03/10/13 X X X X X Vanden Berg Bakhit 03/10/13 X X X X X Bakhit Kingsley 03/10/13 X X X X X Botchway Orville 03/10/13 X X X X X Townsend Joe Dan 03/10/13 X X X X X Coulter LaTasha N N N X X Massey M M M Key: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member Airport Commission July 19, 2012 Page 1 MINUTES FINAL IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION JULY 19, 2012 — 6:00 P.M. AIRPORT TERMINAL BUILDING Members Present: Jose Assouline, Minnetta Gardinier, Howard Horan, Rick Mascari Staff Present: Sue Dulek, Michael Tharp Others Present: Matt Wolford, Jeff Edberg, Eric Scott, David Hughes RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (to become effective only after separate Council action): none CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Assouline called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: 7U-7y-,TT- 3b(3) Minutes of the June 21, 2012, meeting were reviewed. Horan moved to approve the minutes of the June 21, 2012, meeting as submitted; seconded by Mascari. Motion carried 4 -0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION /ACTION: a. Airport Commerce Park — Jeff Edberg spoke to Members regarding the marketing plan for the Commerce Park lots. He shared several handouts with them while reviewing the plan. Edberg clarified how these lots are listed in both the Iowa City area MLS and the Cedar Rapids MLS, and are also listed on internet websites. The conversation continued, with Edberg further sharing how his various contacts in the commercial real estate business are beneficial in marketing the Airport Commerce Park lots. He also responded to Members' questions and concerns regarding the marketing plan. Edberg noted that the recession has affected the amount of interest in such lots, but that he believes things will pick up again. As the conversation continued, Edberg noted the various tools that he uses to market these lots. Signage is the most important tool, andthe MLS listing is also very important. Mascari suggested they share some of Edberg's handouts with the Council. Horan then suggested they have some type of presentation in order to share this information with the Council. Others noted that the minutes themselves will reflect the efforts being made to sell these lots. b. FAA/IDOT Projects: AECOM — i. Obstruction Mitigation — David Hughes addressed the Members next, noting that he has no update on the obstruction mitigation issue. ii. 7/25 Parallel Taxiway Grading & Drainage — A pre -final inspection was done last week, according to Hughes. The contractor is working on the punchlist this week and is close to being done on this project. Airport Commission July 19, 2012 Page 2 iii. 7/25 Parallel Taxiway Paving & Lighting — Hughes noted that they have put this project out for bid. There were four bids received, and these were shared with the FAA, according to Hughes. The low bid was from Metro Paving at $2.5 million. Members briefly discussed the four bids and the noted difference in costs. Hughes noted that the FAA has concurred with his recommendation to award the contract to the low bidder. Tharp noted that as an alternate bid item they added the 75 -foot wide connections for north and south, where the closed runway was. That alternate came in around $48,000, and would need to be funded locally, according to Tharp. He briefly explained how they could cover this expense. Tharp then briefly explained what the task order entails. 1. Horan moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -23 to Accept Bids and Award the Contract, With the Alternate Bid Item, to Metro Paving; seconded by Mascari. Motion carried 4 -0. 2. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -24 to Authorize the Chair to Sign the FAA Grant; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 4 -0. 3. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -25 to Authorize the Chair to Sign Task Order #10 With AECOM for Construction Observation Services; seconded by Gardinier. Motion carried 4 -0. iv. Airport Electrical Rehab — Hughes noted that they had a pre - construction conference last week with the contractor on this project. The contractor is basically ready to go, and once contracts are executed work can begin. c. Iowa DOT — Tharp noted that these are the two grant awards the Airport applied for earlier this year. The first one is for funding to do roof rehabs on the terminal building and also on building D, where Care Ambulance has its office. This is a roughly $100,000 project, according to Tharp. Tharp then responded to Members' questions regarding these projects and the accompanying grants. i. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -26 Accepting IDOT Grant for Terminal and Building D Roof Rehabilitation; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 4 -0. ii. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -27 Accepting IDOT Grant for Hangar L taxiway and Utility Construction; seconded by Gardinier. Motion carried 4 -0. d. Hangar L Taxiway — Tharp noted that now that the grants have been accepted they have money to fund the projects. Tharp noted that these next contracts were necessary to start the taxiway project. He briefly explained the three resolutions needing the Commission's approval. I. Horan moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -28 Approving Contract With MidAmerican Energy for Placement of Electrical Transformer; seconded by Mascari. Motion carried 4 -0. ii. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -29 Approving Contract With MidAmerican Energy for Placement of Gas Main Utility Service; seconded by Gardinier. Motion carried 4 -0. iii. Mascari moved to consider Resolution #Al2 -30 Approving Contract With Foth for Consulting Services Related to Hangar L Taxiway Construction Design and Observation; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 4 -0. e. Airport Operations — i. Strategic Plan - Implementation Airport Commission July 19, 2012 Page 3 1. Review of Strategic Plan — Tharp began the discussion by stating that he had hoped to have the fifth Member of the Airport Commission present for this review. He stated that he would like to walk through the goals and strategies with the Commission. Tharp noted that he and Assouline need to make a visit to a Council meeting to bring them up -to -date on what the Airport is doing. Tharp continued to review the plan, noting how the Annual Report is prepared each year. Gardinier suggested they invite the Councilors to important events at the Airport, giving them ample time to plan to attend such events. Tharp continued through the goals and strategies, noting how the Airport is meeting their objectives. Gardinier asked if anything has been done with the Airport's emergency operations plan. Tharp responded, noting that he does keep it updated with current contact information, that type of thing, but that there has not been a thorough review done in some time. Gardinier asked that they look into the process for updating this plan. She added that she believes they should review this plan annually. Tharp continued to review the Strategic Plan with Members, emphasizing those issues that he will be working on now that his position is full time. Gardinier noted the issue of tracking flights. She stated that she emailed Tharp earlier this week regarding the fuel pump and whether the 'N' number could be made part of this process. She briefly explained how this is done at other airports and how it could assist in tracking flights. The topic of where privately - built hangars could be located was touched on next. Tharp continued his review, noting that the goal is to give visitors to the Airport a good experience so they return. He reviewed the improvements and upgrades that have already been completed, as well as those issues that still need to be addressed. The discussion turned to upkeep and cleaning of the plane by Riverside Drive. Members discussed the various groups in the area that might be willing to help in this endeavor. ii. Budget — Tharp noted that the new fiscal year began on July 1. iii. Management — 1. Purchasing Policy Review — Tharp shared what the City's new purchasing policy is now, noting that the Airport should follow this, as well. Members briefly discussed the existing policy regarding Tharp's spending authority that has a $2,000 limit and whether they need to amend this or not. After some discussion, Members agreed to keep the limit at $2,000. A resolution adopting the purchase manual will be on the agenda next month. f. FBO / Flight Training Reports — i. Jet Air — Matt Wolford of Jet Air spoke to Members next. He shared the monthly maintenance report with the Commission, noting that everything has been pretty standard. Of course the mowing has dropped off dramatically due to the dry weather. Members reviewed the maintenance items listed and asked questions of Wolford on a couple of items. Gardinier brought up a couple of problems with the fuel pump that need to be addressed. Wolford continued, noting that Jet Air is still doing well. Their building is coming along with some delays. ii. Iowa Flight Training - Airport Commission July 19, 2012 Page 4 g. Subcommittee Report — i. For July — No Report ii. For August — Budget — Members of this subcommittee will make plans to meet. h. Commission Members' Reports — Gardinier spoke first. She stated that the Air Race Classic was a `blast' this year. She came in 30th out of 49 planes. Gardinier stated that she was speaking with someone at the University today who asked why there are so many planes landing in the middle of the night, adding that the person claims it wakes her up. She added that she looked into the issue of noise abatement, specifically what Ames has done. Members began to discuss this issue, with Gardinier stating that she would like to review this issue. Tharp will put something together for Members' review. Gardinier also shared upcoming events — July 31St, pilot and author, Carol Ann Garrett will be giving a talk for EA33. She added that they would like to use the meeting room at the Airport for this event. The Fishbaughs are hosting this event and are planning to do a cookout, as well, that evening. Gardinier also shared that on August 28th the Barnstormers will be coming in for the night. Mascari shared that he is now settled into his 'new' hangar. He also shared that he will be heading to Oshkosh this week. Horan shared that he has two hours of dual instruction left to do. I. Staff Report — Tharp noted that he will be out of the office the week of the 30th for vacation. He shared that there was one applicant for the Commission opening and the person should be appointed at the next Council meeting. SET NEXT REGULAR MEETING FOR: The next regular meeting will be Thursday, August 16, 2012, at 6:00 P.M. at the Airport Terminal building. ADJOURN: The meeting adjourned at 8:01 P.M. Assouline made the motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:01 P.M.; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 4 -0. CHAIRPERSON DATE Airport Commission July 19, 2012 Page 5 Airport Commission ATTENDANCE RECORD 2012 Key: X = Present X/E = Present for Part of Meeting O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member at this time TERM 0 0 N 0 W 0 � 0 � 0 0 -4 NAME EXP. \ to N N N N N N N 03101113 X X X X X X X X Rick Mascari 03/01/14 X X X X X X X X Howard Horan Minnetta 03101/15 X X X X X X O/E X Gardinier Jose 03/02/12 O/E X X X X X X X Assouline Key: X = Present X/E = Present for Part of Meeting O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member at this time mm-Im Airport Commission 3b(4) August 16, 2012 Page 1 MINUTES FINAL IOWA CITY AIRPORT COMMISSION AUGUST 16, 2012 — 6:00 P.M. AIRPORT TERMINAL BUILDING Members Present: Jose Assouline, Minnetta Gardinier, Howard Horan, Rick Mascari, Chris Ogren Staff Present: Sue Dulek, Michael Tharp Others Present: Matt Wolford, Jeff Edberg, Eric Scott RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (to become effective only after separate Council action): recommend acceptance of purchase offer on Airport Commerce Park lots 14 and 15 and option to purchase on lot 13 CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Assouline called the meeting to order at 6:00 P.M. APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES: Minutes of the July 19, 2012, meeting were reviewed. Gardinier moved to approve the minutes of the July 19, 2012, meeting as submitted; seconded by Mascari. Motion carried 5 -0. PUBLIC DISCUSSION: None. ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION /ACTION: a. Airport Commerce Park — Jeff Edberg with Skogman Realty addressed the Members. He noted that they currently have an offer on two lots, with an option to purchase a third lot, similar to the Deery Brothers' recent offer. He gave Members a brief history on lot sales to date and responded to questions. Edberg shared that this recent offer, from Carousel Motors, will involve an automobile -based activity. The discussion continued, with Edberg noting the timeframe involved with this sale. Members then discussed the current offer, agreeing that they would like to proceed as discussed with a sale price of $336,936 for Lots 14 and 15, with an option to purchase Lot 13 for $166,617. Horan moved to recommend approval of a purchase agreement for Lots 14 and 15, with an option to purchase Lot 13; seconded by Gardinier. Motion carried 4 -0; Mascari recused himself due to conflict of interest. Edberg noted that other than the above offer, there has been little interest recently. The possible bakery project has not come together, but he believes there may be renewed interest next year. b. FAA/IDOT Projects: AECOM — Airport Commission August 16, 2012 Page 2 i. Obstruction Mitigation — Tharp noted that David Hughes was unable to attend this evening's meeting. He noted that currently they are in a holding pattern on most of the projects, with not much happening at this point in time. ii. 7/25 Parallel Taxiway Grading & Drainage — Tharp stated that on this project they are waiting for the contractor to provide closing documents. iii. 7/25 Parallel Taxiway Paving & Lighting — On this project, Tharp noted that they are waiting for the FAA grant before they can move forward. iv. Airport Electrical Rehab — Tharp continued, noting that the electrical rehab project is slated to begin this coming Monday. Tharp then responded to Members' questions regarding the delays during this construction season. He explained further how these delays have occurred, noting that without the FAA grant money they would be unable to move forward. c. Hangar L Taxiway — Tharp noted that quotes were opened up yesterday and three were received. He added that Eric Scott has a recommendation letter for the Commission's approval. Scott then addressed the Members, noting that they were good bids. Tharp then responded to Members' questions, noting that they do have past experience with the recommended contractor. i. Consider a resolution approving contract for construction of the Hangar L taxiway — Mascari recommended Resolution #Al2 -31 for approval of a construction contract as discussed; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 5- 0. d. T- Hangar Rates and Fees — Tharp began the conversation by noting that T- hangar leases expire the end of September. Mascari and Gardinier both recused themselves due to conflict of interest. Tharp noted that he did do a survey of other airport's rates, and that given that they raised rates last year, he is recommending that they keep lease rates the same for another year. Ogren moved to keep lease rates the same; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 3 -0; Gardinier and Mascari recused themselves due to a conflict of interest (they are hangar tenants). e. Airport "Operations ": i. Strategic Plan- Implementation — ii. Budget — Tharp noted that countertops in the restrooms have been replaced. He then stated that they had an air conditioner unit go down recently and were able to get this replaced for about $4,400. Other items that will need attention soon, according to Tharp, include several hangar door motors and opening fixtures. He then responded to Members' concerns and questions regarding these types of maintenance issues. iii. Management — Tharp gave Members a brief update on this topic. He noted that he is authorized to spend up to $2,000 and the Chairperson is authorized up to $10,000. As for the purchasing manual, Tharp explained the bid and quote processes and how they deal with these. Dulek then responded to Members' questions, further explaining the purchasing issue and the need for the resolution. 1. Consider a resolution approving purchasing manual and authorized purchasing levels as discussed — Mascari recommended Resolution #Al2 -32 for approval of a purchasing manual and authorized purchasing levels; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 5- 0. Airport Commission August 16, 2012 Page 3 f. Consider a motion to adjourn to Executive Session — Mascari moved to adjourn to Executive Session; Horan seconded. Motion carried 5 -0. (Commission adjourned to Executive Session at 6:47 P.M.; reconvened regular meeting at 7:28 P.M.) g. FBO / Flight Training Reports — i. Jet Air / Air Care — Matt Wolford with Jet Air addressed the Members next. He shared the latest maintenance /monthly report, noting some of the more important tasks, such as brushing the taxiways, repairing the fuel pump hose leak, replacing the fuel pump screen, and weed abatement. Wolford then responded to Members' questions as they reviewed the July and August reports. Wolford then noted that Jet Air has received their hangar, albeit in pieces at this time. They plan to start putting it together in the next week, with a contractor from Tipton doing the work. He also shared that Jet Air recently hired another pilot and has plans to hire another mechanic. Sales of planes are up for Jet Air, according to Wolford. ii. Iowa Flight Training — Tharp stated that he received an email update recently from IFT. They currently have three full -time instructors. h. Subcommittee Reports — i. For August: Budget — Mascari noted that the subcommittee was unable to meet, but that Tharp has a report. Looking ahead at FY14, Tharp shared some budget numbers, adding that they will have a substantial amount of money to use for maintenance and other high priority items. Gardinier then asked for some clarification on the land sales and the percentage that will be available to the Airport after meeting their loan obligations. ii. For September: Community Liaison - i. Commission Members' Reports — Mascari asked if during the recent heavy storm they had problems with water coming in the windows. He asked if this could be due to the recent tuckpointing they had done. Tharp noted that it is possible and that he has been looking into this. Mascari also welcomed the new Commission Member, Chris Ogren. Gardinier noted that on Tuesday, August 28, is when the Barnstormers will be making a stop in Iowa City. Plans are in the works for a bar -b -que or some other type of event. Horan added that he will be making some more student flights in the next week. Ogren shared that they have been receiving various parts for their airplane, with the propeller arriving this past week. Mascari then added that he will be unable to attend the Sertoma breakfast due to other obligations. Assouline encouraged others to attend the breakfast if possible. j. Staff Report — None. SET NEXT REGULAR MEETING FOR: The next regular meeting will be Thursday, September 20, 2012, at 6:00 P.M. at the Airport Terminal building. ADJOURN: Mascari made a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:05 P.M.; seconded by Horan. Motion carried 5 -0. CHAIRPERSON DATE Airport Commission August 16, 2012 Page 4 Airport Commission ATTENDANCE RECORD 2012 Key: X = Present X/E = Present for Part of Meeting O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member at this time TERM o ro �o o� o 00 EXP. C) - N C° NAME N N N N N N N N N 03/01/13 X X X X X X X X X Rick Mascari 03/01/14 X X X X X X X X X Howard Horan 03/01/16- X X X X X X O/E X X Minnetta Gardinier 03/01/16 O/E X X X X X X X X Jose Assouline 03101114 NM NM NM NM NM NM NM NM X Chris Ogren Key: X = Present X/E = Present for Part of Meeting O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = Not a Member at this time MT Tf� 3b(5) MINUTES APPROVED BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT SEPTEMBER 12, 2012 — 5:15 PM CITY HALL, EMMA HARVAT HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: T. Gene Crischilles, Brock Grenis, Will Jennings, Caroline Sheerin MEMBERS ABSENT: Larry Baker STAFF PRESENT: Sarah Walz, Sarah Holecek OTHERS PRESENT: Ginalie Swaim, Justin Mulford, Lucie Laurian, Martha Wicherts, Judith Pascoe RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: None. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM. ROLL CALL: All were present. A brief opening statement was read by the Chair outlining the role and purpose of the Board and the procedures that would be followed in the meeting. CONSIDERATION OF THE JULY 11TH MEETING MINUTES: Crischilles moved to approve the minutes with minor corrections for July 11th, 2012. Grenis seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 40. APPEAL ITEM APL12- 00002: Discussion of an appeal submitted by Justin Mulford to overturn a decision made by Iowa City's Historic Preservation Commission that denied a Certificate of Appropriateness for the demolition of 111 & 115 S. Governor Street in the College Hill Conservation District. Walz explained that there is a three prong test to determine whether it is appropriate to remove structures. She said the building must be found structurally unsound and irretrievable, and if the building is found to be both, the replacement building must meet historic design guidelines. She said a consulting home inspector and architect were brought in and said while their were defects in the clay tile foundations, this is not uncommon in older homes, they were not irreparable. She Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 2 of 8 said these findings did not meet the irretrievable standard and so the application was denied by the Historic Preservation Commission. Walz said the applicant, now the appellant, did not provide any evidence or dispute that the buildings were retrievable. She said his argument was that a new building would last longer than the current buildings. She said what the Board of Adjustment is deciding is whether the Historic Preservation Commission applied their guidelines incorrectly and were they arbitrary or capricious in the way they applied them. Sheerin asked if she was correct in assuming that the Board is not doing its own independent assessment of the properties. Walz explained that the Board is reviewing whether the Historic Preservation Commission followed their guidelines. Jennings asked if the assertions in the engineer's report are indications that the buildings are unsound. Walz said the question is whether the buildings are irretrievable. She said the report indicated that the foundations are failing. Ginalie Swaim, the chair of the Historic Preservation Commission, said the engineering report from VJ Engineering that Jennings referred to is the one the appellant brought to the Historic Preservation Commission. She said the home and building inspection report is from Steven Burns, who the City hired. She said the Commission also based their decision on the consultant Chery Peterson, who is a trained architect with expertise in structural engineering, and on the two Commission members who are an architect and a building contractor. She said that while the Commission said there were some structural issues, it never said that the building was unsound, although the VJ Engineering report may say that. Jennings said there is a slight difference in language in the two reports, and he wonders if the reports are filed with intent to assert a certain thing. He said that the VJ Engineering report does not address the issue of whether the buildings are irretrievable. He asked if it is in the Board's purview to examine the way in which the decision was made. He wants to know if both reports are saying that there are structural issues but that the buildings are not irretrievable. Walz said VJ Engineering never addressed the irretrievable aspect but everyone acknowledged that there were problems with the foundations. Jennings said it was not his job to reconcile these different reports in rendering a decision but it is his purview to understand how those were reconciled. Holecek said if he would look at the denial of the Certificate of Appropriateness and read the language that was crafted by the Historic Preservation Commission it says "there are some features of the buildings that need to be repaired however, based on a report by City staff and a visit to the buildings and a consulting house inspection, the buildings are repairable." Grenis asked if the guidelines stated in the staff memo "A Certificate of Appropriateness for the demolition of any primary building on a contributing property within a conservation or historic district, or any landmark, will be denied unless the applicant can demonstrate that the building is structurally unsound and irretrievable." and "Before a Certificate of Appropriateness for demolition will be approved for a primary building, the Iowa City Historic Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 3 of 8 Preservation Commission must approve a Certificate of Appropriateness for the building that will replace the one being demolished." are the only guidelines for which that determination was made in the three prong test. Walz said that is correct. Sheerin opened public hearing. Justin Mulford, the appellant, said the first prong of the test is if the buildings are structurally unsound, and he said everyone has determined in one way or the other that they are. He said what he is appealing is the second prong of the test, which is the irretrievability of the buildings. He said he has a lot of experience in the construction industry. He said when you get into foundation work and clay tile ultimately the best repair for that is to jack the houses up and put new foundations in. He said to do that would be a complete gut of the lower level. He said there are other ways to put bandages on the foundation but that only lasts for so long and would cost $5,000 each time you had to repair it. He said regarding the irretrievable aspect, he agreed that everything can be fixed but to what cost and to what gain until the next time the foundation fails. He said in the meeting with the Historic Preservation Commission, one member had started to make a notion to pass his application pending the third prong of the test, He said that member was interrupted by another member who stated that the application didn't meet the second prong of the test because the buildings are repairable and retrievable. Sheerin asked if his argument is that it's repairable but the expense would outweigh anyone ever repairing it. Mulford said that everything is repairable but there comes the time when the repairs outweigh the cost of the building or making it fiscally possible to keep them as rentals and keep them functioning in a profitable or break -even manner. He said the costs would continue to accrue with the repairing of the foundations and keeping them structurally sound. He the word irretrievable is open to interpretation and the way that some people view irretrievable is different. Grenis asked if Mulford owned the buildings. Mulford said he did. Grenis asked if he was saying that he's not going to repair them because of the cost involved. Mulford said that continually putting bandages on the foundations becomes a huge cost. He said elevating the buildings would require a huge amount of money and time and then there would be the lost rent. He said either solution would not make them profitable as rental properties. Grenis asked if he had submitted any plans for the design of the fraternity house. Mulford said he had. Walz said those had not been submitted to the Historic Preservation Commission. She said if the Board feels that an error has been made, she recommends that the appellant send those plans back to the Historic Preservation Commission. Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 4 of 8 Sheerin asked if there was any case law in what irretrievable means. Holecek said the question is whether or not the definition as reached by the Historic Preservation Commission is in error. Sheerin said it seems to her that this whole case turns on what irretrievable means. She asked if it means it can never be repaired or if it can only be repaired at such great cost that it's not worth it. Jennings said that the evidence Board has to work with are the reports that were submitted to the Historic Preservation Commission. He said all agreed that there are problems with structural instability, and in some cases the buildings were referred to as unsound. He said there is not a report that says clearly and definitively that the structures are beyond the point of repair or irretrievable. He said in the report from Steven R. Burns it says that, "Nevertheless, a clay tile foundation is not inherently deficient and can serve indefinitely with proper care and maintenance." He said there seems to be adequate notifications where there are faults in the structure and places where the building is structurally problematic but there is no conclusion anywhere saying that it's irretrievable. Holecek said the Board's charge is to determine whether the Historic Preservation Commission acted arbitrarily and capriciously. She said she had not researched the definition of irretrievable. Sheerin said in order to determine whether they acted arbitrarily and capriciously it would be helpful to know what irretrievable means. Walz said that with applications to the Historic Preservation Commission, similar to applications to the Board of Adjustment, the burden of proof is that of the applicant. Sheerin said that what the appellant has said in his appeal is that his interpretation of irretrievable is different. Holecek said that irretrievability is a regulation, and it could be a taking if it so diminishes the property value of the appellant by virtue of applying this regulation then that in itself lends itself to what irretrievable means. Jennings asked if when the appellant had referred in his previous statements to an interaction that had occurred at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting did he mean that a formal motion was underway and the motion was interrupted. Mulford said that's what he meant. Jennings asked where that is reflected in the minutes. Mulford said the Commissioner had started talking and after about 20 seconds was interrupted by the person who did make the motion for denial. None of the Board members could find anything in the minutes about this interruption. Mulford asked that based on the definition of irretrievability, could someone have acted arbitrarily not knowing the full definition of irretrievability and irretrievable, but at what cost. Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 5 of 8 Swaim said the appellant said that everyone more or less agreed that it was unsound in some way. She said that was not correct. She said that Steven Burns said the buildings are generally stable, functional and overall repairable and that foundations in both houses are generally intact and stable. She said Esther Baker began her comments regarding whether the buildings are unsound and said there are clearly some things that need to be repaired. Lucie Laurian, 918 E. Washington Street, said she was the Historic Preservation Commission meeting, and she doesn't remember any interruptions. She said she's not hearing that the buildings are unsound, because if they are, the buildings should not be occupied. She said at the meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission, someone said there were nine tenants and were over - rented because the buildings were grandfathered in at a higher occupancy rate than would be currently allowed. She said if they were unsound, you wouldn't want even more individuals renting than would be normally allowed. She said she had previously lived in a building from 1916 with mud tile, so it's not the case that repairs using this kind of material would be short term. She said she doesn't think that the $5,000 that the appellant had said it would cost to fix the foundations doesn't seem unreasonable, especially when you have a rooming house with maximum tenants and are probably getting a high return on these properties. She said she doesn't think they are unsound or irretrievable, even when money comes into the picture. She said she is actually worried about demolition by abandonment because she hearing a landlord who is hesitant to make repairs because he thinks they cost too much. She said she doesn't want to see the properties get so run down that in five years they have to be demolished. Walz said the Historic Preservation Commission did address that issue, and demolition by neglect is not allowed. Martha Wicherts of 816 E. College Street said she grew up on College Street and owned one next door. She said everything goes back to the definition of the word irretrievable. She said it's hard not to get into whether we want it demolished or not. She said if someone acted arbitrarily it's only because there is not a definition. She said she thinks they need a cost analysis to decide whether it is cost effective to demolish the houses and build new ones or to repair them. She asked if that wouldn't decide the definition of irretrievable in this case. Holecek said what they had discussed before was the touchstone for a regulatory taking is if the value is so diminished as a result of the regulation that it eviscerates the value of the building. She said it was incumbent on the applicant to present evidence to show that it would be irretrievable. Wicherts said she is all for historic, and she has two historic homes. She said those two houses are awful where they are. She said for her to make a good decision, being completely neutral, she needs to know if the numbers do come out, if it is more expensive to repair those homes than it would be to build a new home that fits the architecture of that neighborhood. She asked if those numbers are ever going to come out. Sheerin stated that the Board is only reviewing the record before them. Judith Pascoe of 317 Fairchild Street said she would be very sorry if the sole determination of how the Board made their decision was on cost effectiveness. She said anybody who had lived in an old house knows there is nothing cost effective about them, and in her mind, these houses Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 6 of 8 don't owe anyone a living. She said owners of old houses know they are money pits, and she doesn't think it's any City board's responsibility to ensure someone a maximum profit on their rental property. She said she was at the original meeting of the Historic Preservation Commission, and she doesn't remember any member leaning toward asking for blue prints and wanting to discuss a plan for a new building. She said she has lived in houses with foundation problems, and there are things you can do that aren't the same as lifting up the entire house and doing a major repair. She said if you buy a house in a conservation district, you know it's the City's priority to try and maintain the look of the neighborhood and try to maintain these old houses. She said she thinks these houses are quite beautiful and with care could be show pieces. Sheerin closed public hearing. Grenis moved to approve the appeal submitted by Justin Mulford to overturn a decision made by Iowa City's Historic Preservation Commission that denied a Certificate of Appropriateness for the demolition of 111 and 115 South Governor Street in the College Hill Conservation District. Jennings seconded. Sheerin invited discussion on the motion. Crischilles said he thinks it's pretty clear that Mr. Mulford himself admitted in his application that the damage to the buildings was fixable, and they are retrievable, so that fails the second prong of the test. He said the fact that weren't any plans submitted at the Historic Preservation Commission meeting fails the third prong of the test. He said he thinks the decision was appropriate and was not capricious and was by the book. Grenis said he thought the decision was sound. He said from what the Board could review there was some disagreement as to the overall soundness of the building, but he said there was enough evidence to show that their decision was justified. Jennings said that working with the materials in front of the Board, which are the same materials that the Historic Preservation Commission had to work from he is in concurrence with the opinions of the other members of the Board. He said he doesn't see capriciousness or arbitrariness reflected in the minutes and because he wasn't at the meeting, he can't judge whether someone was interrupted or interrupted a motion. He said as to the larger issue of the where and how irretrievability is a function of available construction methods or cost benefit analysis he thinks that they would likely run into the same situation of people giving cost estimates or the best practices to deal with this vary widely. He said a dollar figure or ratio is not represented in their materials, and he said to address it would be to buy into a either or fallacy, and what seems to be in the ruling of the Historic Preservation Commission is that it is not an either or situation in terms of conditions of the homes but that the application does fail to meet the three prong test. Sheerin concurred with what has been said. She said the bottom line is even if there was a question about what irretrievability means, there is no evidence in the record that this would be fiscally impossible to fix the homes. She said there is nothing in the record saying that it's impossible or irretrievable or that the cost does outweigh the benefit of having an historic home or that it would be a taking. She said she sees nothing in the record to indicate that the Historic Board of Adjustment September 13, 2012 Page 7 of 8 Preservation Commission was acting capriciously or arbitrarily. A vote was taken and the appeal failed 0 -4. Sheerin declared the motion denied, noting that anyone wishing to appeal the decision to a court of record may do so within 30 days after the decision is filed with the City Clerk's Office. BOARD OF ADJUSTMENT INFORMATION: There was none. ADJOURNMENT: Jennings moved to adjourn. Grenis seconded. The meeting was adjourned on a 4 -0 vote. W � 1.-0 W LQLQN 00 pZ W Q � mQ E O vd 0 cn z x LLIE C � N N C CD n o N Q Z O a Q II II Z II II W 11 x 0 o z W Y OXXXX XXX -- X ti XXXOX co Q XXXXX X X O X N x i x M co LU G x i X� N r XX --X N W r, (o InM �� T- 00OOo .- T- .- wa N �� N N N N t—X W ��V� o 0 0 0 0 N R o ' i to Y C L CoUa) ra) W m L) c a) . -C 2 L (� Q O M Z J m 1l E O vd 0 cn z x LLIE C � N N C CD n o N Q Z O a Q II II Z II II W 11 x 0 o z W Y MINUTES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 9, 2012 EMMA HARVAT HALL ""T_ _ 31�i N*= APPROVED MEMBERS PRESENT: Thomas Baldridge, William Downing, Shannon Gassman, Andrew Litton, Pam Michaud, Ginalie Swaim, Dana Thomann, Frank Wagner MEMBERS ABSENT: Kent Ackerson, Esther Baker, David McMahon STAFF PRESENT: Chery Peterson, Bob Miklo OTHERS PRESENT: Alan Smart, Dave Edwards, Mark Kennedy, Gloria Escarza, Mary Bennett, Michelle Wiegand, Jean Walker RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action) None. CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Swaim called the meeting to order at 5:20 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. CERTIFICATES OF APPROPRIATENESS: 648 S. Lucas Street Peterson said this property is in the Governor -Lucas St Conservation District. The project consists of the relocation of the rear door. Peterson presented the Staff Report, which was included in the Commission packet, and recommended approval of the project. There was a question about this house being a UniverCity project, and Peterson confirmed that yes it was, and now it is a single - family owner - occupied home. MOTION: Litton moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for an application for 648 S. Lucas Street as presented in the application, Baldridge seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 ( Ackerson, Baker, and McMahon absent). 222 Brown Street. Peterson said this property is in the Brown Street Historic District. The project consists of improvements to an existing rear addition, and construction of a new attached garage and small back entry with covered stoop. Peterson presented the Staff Report, which was included in the Commission packet, and recommended approval of the project on conditions that the applicant provide additional information and final design plans for review and approval by Chair and staff. The Commission discussed the project. The owner, Alan Smart, and the contractor, Dave Edwards, answered questions about the house and site, and the proposed work. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 9, 2012 Page 2 of 4 MOTION: Wagner moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for an application for 222 Brown Street, as presented in the application, with the following conditions: Provide product information for garage doors and new windows, provide product information for siding materials, including trim and gable shingles, and provide plan and elevation drawings of final design. Thomann seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 (Ackerson, Baker, and McMahon absent). 727 Grant Street. Peterson said this property is in the Longfellow Historic District. The projects consist of an addition to the rear of the house, and remodeling of the existing detached garage. Peterson presented the Staff Report, included in the Commission packet, and noted that the original proposal also included plans for a new freestanding studio. Peterson said the studio plans have changed and would be presented at a later date. Peterson recommended approval of the project for the house and garage, on conditions that the applicant provide additional information and final design plans for review and approval by Chair and staff. The Commission discussed the project. The contractor, Mark Kennedy, answered questions about the proposed work. MOTION: Michaud moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for an application for 727 Grant Street, as presented in the application, with the following conditions: Provide product information for new doors and windows, provide product information for new exterior materials, and provide plan and elevation drawings of final design. Downing seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 (Ackerson, Baker, and McMahon absent). 1120 Burlington Street. Peterson said this property is in the College Hill Conservation District. The project consists of a new deck on the back side of the house. Peterson presented the Staff Report, which was included in the Commission packet, and recommended approval of the project on condition that the material and details of the deck railings follow the Guidelines in the Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook. The Commission discussed the project. The owner, Gloria Escarza, answered questions about the proposed work. MOTION: Wagner moved to approve a certificate of appropriateness for an application for 1120 Burlington Street as presented in the application with the following conditions: detailing of the new deck to be consistent with guidelines in the Iowa City Historic Preservation Handbook, specifically, new balustrades with top and bottom rails, with square wood spindles appropriately sized and spaced, and handrails to match, and all new wood to be painted or stained. Baldridge seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 ( Ackerson, Baker, and McMahon absent). REPORT ON CERTIFICATES ISSUED BY CHAIR AND STAFF: Peterson said there were two certificates of no material affect approved by the chair and staff, and they are documented in the Commission packet. Commission members had no comments or questions. HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 9, 2012 Page 3 of 4 DISCUSS LANDMARK DESIGNATION FOR 518 BOWERY STREET: Miklo said the owner, Michelle Wiegand, has requested that her property at 518 Bowery Street be designated as an Iowa City Historic Landmark. Miklo referred to the Iowa Site Inventory Form included with the Commission packet, and the National Register Eligibility Review, also in the packet. Mary Bennett spoke about the history of the building. Bennett said the property is important because it is associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our local history. Miklo said that designation as an Iowa City Historic Landmark means the property will require Commission approval for any significant changes to the exterior of the building. Landmark status will also make the property eligible for special exceptions that would allow the Board of Adjustment to waive or modify certain zoning requirements. MOTION: Gassman moved to approve the designation of 518 Bowery Street as an Iowa City Historic Landmark, based on National Register Criteria W. Thomann seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 (Ackerson Baker, and McMahon absent). SUBCOMMITTEE REPORT ON POTENTIAL LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICTS: Swaim said the subcommittee has been meeting and is making progress, but she did not have a report at this time. DISCUSSION OF ANNUAL HISTORIC PRESERVATION AWARDS: Peterson said the annual awards ceremony will be in November. Peterson asked all of the Commissioners to think about properties worthy of nomination for this year's awards. Peterson said the categories for last year's awards included Residential Paint and Exterior Finishes, Residential Rehabilitation, Residential Additions and New Construction, and Residential Stewardship. The same categories for commercial and public properties will also be considered. CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES FOR JULY 12,2012: MOTION: Baldridge moved to approve the minutes of the Historic Preservation Commission's July 12, 2012 meeting, as written. Downing seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 (Ackerson Baker, and McMahon absent). ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:55 p.m. Minutes submitted by Chery Peterson Z 0 N N 00 VV Z Ow Q W N W Q N W ° NZ W W w F- a va a O z O (1) U) O U z O Q w (n N W �o N Uow c =¢a M r N r Go r r r r O r M r x x x 0 x X X ; X co 0 X x X X 0 x x X 0 X 0; ti X x x X x x x x ca CD W X ; 0 0 X X ; x X x ,� O X 0 X X X X X x x 0 X; d co ; X X X X 0 X O x x X 0 M X o X o x X X X O 0 X; x x x X X 0 X X x x d N M m � '�' N N � M N X M � .- W 0) 0) CD C) C) C 0) 4m N N N N N N N N N N N N M M M M M M M M M M M M W H Z W J Z W Z V ZQ J Y ° a Z ° LL Q w Z U) N Z ° Z W W Q W oe Z Z Q Q J W p Z m Z 0 U Y Y O N 3: 0 Q 00 0 L O O Z Im _ m as E O Z u Z .O a� N K W C m to 11 W 0 d Q u 0 O d V a 11 X W 1� 3b(7) APPROVED MINUTES HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION AUGUST 29, 2012 EMMA HARVAT HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Kent Ackerson, Esther Baker, Thomas Baldridge, William Downing, Shannon Gassman, Andrew Litton, Pam Michaud, Ginalie Swaim, Frank Wagner MEMBERS ABSENT: David McMahon, Dana Thomann STAFF PRESENT: Melissa Clow, Bob Miklo OTHERS PRESENT: RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (become effective only after separate Council action) None. CALL TO ORDER: Chairperson Swaim called the meeting to order at 5:15 p.m. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANYTHING NOT ON THE AGENDA: DISCUSSION OF THE IOWA CITY GATEWAY PROJECT THE ELEVATION OF DUBUQUE STREET AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW PARK ROAD BRIDGE) RELATIONSHIP TO ADJACENT HISTORIC PROPERTIES: Miklo introduced Clow, the Special Projects Administrator who has been working on this project for the past two years. He said Clow would give an overview of the project and some details about the historic properties adjacent to this that might be affected, although no actual historic building will be touched as part of the project. He said the goal was to get a comment from the Commission regarding the impact of this project that would then be forwarded to the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). Clow said this project involves the elevation of Dubuque Street and the construction of a new Park Road Bridge. She showed that the project study area includes Dubuque Street from the 1 -80 interchange at the north all the way to Church Street at the south and Park Road from Dubuque Street west to Holt Avenue. Clow said the study area goes over to Holt, because this construction would include a third lane improvement to Park Road west of the bridge that would go all the way to Riverside Drive. Clow stated that this project was brought on by the 2008 flood. She said the project has been in the planning stage now since November 2010. Clow said this process is called a NEPA study which was supposed to be completed right about now to begin final design after Labor Day. Clow said that NEPA stands for the National Environmental Policy Act and is required for projects seeking federal funds or permits. There are currently 3 federal grants that will help fund this project. Currently, the NEPA review is being held up by SHPO given the historic properties and districts that are adjacent to the project corridor. Clow said that Phase II will be the design. She said staff is hoping that design will take 18 to 20 months, and the project will be on track to begin construction in the spring of 2014 with a completion date in the fall of 2015. Clow stated that this will take two construction seasons. She said it could be done in one, but it will take two because the City will maintain two lanes of traffic during construction. Clow said there will be a few times that intersections and different areas will have to be shut down completely to match the raised elevation and shift traffic over. Clow said this whole process started after hiring a design consultant (HNTB Corporation, Kansas City, MO) in November of 2010. She said that in February 2011, the first public meeting was held, and this Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 2 of 8 process was introduced. Clow said staff looked at a lot of different options for this project, including improving different roads and not Dubuque Street. She said a number of initial alternatives were introduced, evaluated internally and stakeholder meetings were held with City staff, University staff, utility companies, public safety officials, the public and more. Clow said staff took all of that input and evaluated the many alternatives. She said that from there, they came up with three reasonable alternatives. Clow said that a public open house was held to share the three alternatives and receive public comment. She said the three alternatives were again evaluated and a preferred alternative was developed. Clow said the alternative has not been made public yet, because it needed to go through the NEPA process and be reviewed and approved by the Federal Highway Administration before the final public meeting. She said that after the final public meeting, staff will take any recommendations, make any required changes, and submit the final Environmental Assessment (EA) document, which will be reviewed by the 3 agencies administering funds, the Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Economic Development Administration (EDA). Clow said she anticipates a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), allowing the project to move to final design from there. Clow said the NEPA process has taken this entire time and was on track prior to SHPO review. She said this Commission will probably have a lot of questions about exactly what impact the project has to each of the adjacent properties. Clow said SHPO has requested more information, because it wants answers, but staff cannot move to final design until approval is received. Clow said the first part of the EA document is known as the Purpose & Need — why do this project. She said the reason for doing the project is to provide a reliable, multi -modal transportation corridor to reduce the impact of flooding on local transportation systems and the Iowa River Corridor. Clow said staff wants to maximize the reliability of both Dubuque Street and Park Road Bridge. Clow said one of the biggest concerns is to minimize the backwater created by Park Road Bridge. She said there was up to 14 inches of backwater created by the bridge in 2008. Clow said that impacted properties and businesses were located upstream all the way to the Iowa Power River Dam. She said this is the only flood mitigation project being done through the Iowa River Corridor that will reduce the surface water elevation. Clow said staff also wanted to address existing roadway deficiencies on Dubuque Street and Park Road. She stated that the Park Road Bridge is not safe for pedestrians since it is not up to current code with barriers. The entire bridge deck is in need of replacement as well. Clow said the pavement on Dubuque Street was from the early to mid- 1980s. She said that the winter before last, the City was constantly patching it. Clow stated that even if this project doesn't go forward, the City is looking at a lot of construction activity throughout the corridor. Clow showed a slide of the NEPA Tasks to complete this phase of the project. She said that one can see on the left -hand side what has been completed. Clow said that the flood model of the Iowa River and that staff is using is one of the most complete in the State. She said it is being held by the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) at the University of Iowa. Clow said staff used LIDAR, or laser surveys to get the actual cross section of the river bed. This ensures that staff is using what is actually out there, not an estimate. Clow said the consultant for Dubuque Street, the consultant for Taft Speedway, HR Green, and the initial consultant for the University have looked at this model. Clow said there have been a lot of hands on it, and everyone has come to the same conclusion. Clow said staff needs to keep talking with the stakeholders and property owners. She said there needs to be resource agency coordination with the DNR, SHPO, the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Iowa DOT and everyone else involved. After FHWA approval, Clow said the document will be released for public review. There will be the public hearing and then final approval will need to be received before the final design can begin. Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 3 of 8 Clow referred to the staff's preferred alternative shown on the screen. She said that right now the plan is to elevate the roadway one foot above the 500 -year floodplain, which would put it approximately two and one -half feet above the 2008 flood elevation. Clow said that, based on costs and a final design, the impact to the properties, this has the ability to change. Clow said staff has previously discussed using the 2008 flood elevation plus one foot or even the 100 -year flood elevation plus one foot on Dubuque Street. She said that would not maximize the reliability of the roadway and getting people from the interstate to downtown Iowa City. The Park Road Bridge was designed to pass the 100 -year flood event under it, so it will be raised such that the bottom steel structure of the bridge will be at the 500 -year flood elevation plus one foot in order to reduce the backwater that occurred in 2008. Clow stated that more bike /pedestrian trail connections will be provided. She said staff wants to maintain the parkway feel. Clow said that one of the most important aspects of this project in that this corridor is different than any other coming into town. She said that one comes into town amid parks and historic properties, and staff wants to maintain that feel and does not want it to become an urban feel. Clow said bridge l provide til lanes said there ' be two lanes headed wes and three eastbound lanes with two that be left-hand turn north anda dedicated right turn lane to go south. Clow showed a map of the impact areas for the preferred alternative. She said there will be 0.9 acres of wetlands that will be impacted. Clow said those will be mitigated either south of Parkview Church or offsite in designated areas. She said there will be 5.2 acres of grading and paths to public parks and open space, 1.4 acres to historic sites or districts, with no buildings or resources being taken, most of which will be temporary grading and construction easements. Clow said 15.2 acres will be impacted in the 100 -year flood plain and 17.9 in the 500 -year flood plain. She said that there will be minimal right -of -way acquired; approximately 0.8 acres and staff will work to restrict the amount of area that will be taken during final design. Clow referred to the exhibits that were included in the packet. She said that 1818 North Dubuque Street is the stone house with a stone garage that sits directly on Dubuque Street. Clow said the garage is the main focus point. She said staff initially tried to maintain the Foster intersection as it is and with little impact from construction. Clow said that at the same time, staff determined that design will end up getting into the intersection in order to pull the road away from this property. She pointed out that the garage on Dubuque Street is used for storage and there is another garage that the owner actually uses for parking. Clow referred to the light gray on the map and said staff wants to pull the roadway as far as reasonably possible away from the garage to still provide an eight -foot, multi -use pedestrian path. She said what they want to do is connect Foster to Brown on the east side of Dubuque Street, with the sidewalk, and that doesn't exist now. Clow said the plan at the stone garage is to build a retaining wall immediately behind the sidewalk. She said that driveway access would be provided a little bit to the south to match into the grade that the roadway will be. Clow said there is a pretty significant grade on that driveway right now. Downing asked if the garage will be well below the roadway. Clow showed a view of that. She showed where the drive will pull in and have access and maintain driveway access and enough area to turn around. Clow stated that the orange shading on the diagram refers to temporary grading. She said grading impacts do result in a potential area of tree removal. Clow said the trees have been looked at, and throughout the corridor, the trees are largely volunteer trees. She said there are a few that are nice oaks or sycamores, but mostly they are volunteer trees that have grown up. Clow said they are going to maintain the turnaround at Taft Speedway but will move it a little bit to the north to provide some more separation from Ridge Road. She said they will take a little bit of property down below from 1818 North Dubuque (Joe Coulter) to make that happen. Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 4 of 8 Swaim asked if the sidewalks are elevated on the east side. Clow confirmed that sidewalks will be typical — from the roadway curb and gutter, the median will slope up at a 2% cross slope to the walk. She said the west path will be elevated as well. Clow showed a graphic of the cross section for Commission members with questions about specific properties. She stated that red line depicts the existing grade and blue showed the new roadway, the sidewalk, the barrier rail, or a decorative rail of some sort, and the retaining wall. Clow showed the existing face of the garage. Clow said one can see the existing edge of Dubuque Street and is pretty close to the garage. She said they have moved the roadway west enough to get the sidewalk and retaining wall in and maintain a turnaround area. Clow showed what the area looks like right now and what it will look like when it's elevated. Clow said that the drive pretty much comes right out to Dubuque Street now. She said she is hoping this will give some space to be able to see traffic and improve visibility. Clow said the next property is the Englert House at 1501 Ridge. She said that Dubuque Street will end up at an elevation similar to that of the house. Clow said the grading impact is .015 acres. She said there will be a little bit more of a temporary impact for grading. She said construction will be done on the property to reconstruct the driveway and bring it up to grade. Clow showed where Ridge Road currently comes down. She said they want to give cars an opportunity to come out and stop and have visibility. Clow showed where Ridge Road would turn into the driveway. She said staff will talk to the owners about the grade they would like to have the drive elevated to. Clow said they will discuss if they want the drive to come down and match existing, or if they want to have it graded and raised so that if there is another flood event, they will have access to their property. Clow said there is no impact to the house with this plan. She said the owners will actually have the benefit of Ridge Road being moved away from the house. Clow showed a cross section, with the red representing the existing grade. She showed where the proposed roadway is represented moved up to the elevated grade. Clow said the proposed east side of Dubuque Street in this location would have a grass median, sidewalk, and would drop down a bit to the driveway and match existing grade. Clow said the edge of pavement lines are drawn a little bit closer to the center line of Ridge Road, depicting that that drive will be a little bit narrower. Clow stated that 1032 North Dubuque is a fraternity house. She said they have already cleared the east slope of trees and growth last fall. Clow said there would be a small grading impact. She said this would not impact the structure at all. Clow said Dubuque Street would be shifted away from the property. She said there will be sidewalk activity that is not there right now, and the driveway would be raised to match proposed grade. Clow showed the cross section, demonstrating that Dubuque Street would be moved away a little bit. She showed the sidewalks and how it would match existing grade using a 4:1 slope (something easily mowed). Clow said that the 4:1 slope, as it is shown, could go up or down to match existing grade. She said it will depend on drainage, grading and where storm sewers and low points are located. Clow referred to the Brown Street District. She said that at the north end of Bella Vista, Dubuque Street will be raised approximately ten feet. She said the figure is approximate because Park Road Bridge is going to be raised to the 500 -year flood elevation plus one, and that is to the bottom steel structure of the bridge. Clow said the roadway (bridge deck) will be located at a higher elevation, depending on the deck thickness, which is typically between 7 & 10'. Clow said therefore Park Road Bridge is going to be raised higher than Dubuque Street. She said this portion of Dubuque Street near Bella Vista is going to be above the 500 -year flood elevation plus one foot in order to meet the pavement elevation of Park Road Bridge. Clow said, regarding the grading impact to Bella Vista, staff combined all the properties and summarized .36 acres of impact between Kimball and Park Roads. She said it will likely impact the trees in this area. Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 5 of 8 Clow said the plan shifts Dubuque Street away from the properties as much as possible. She said that it is a tight section of the corridor, so staff will have to do what it can when this gets into final design, specifically with retaining walls to determine the elevation of the bike path along the river & separation from the roadway. Clow said the Dubuque Street and Park Road intersection has been shifted south. She said that right now it lines up directly with 5 Bella Vista Place. Swaim said the orange shading depicts the temporary impacts but is where the grading will change permanently. Clow agreed that through there the grade will change. Swaim asked if, when it is all finished, it will be flat and then to a stone wall and then existing. Clow responded that right now, there is just a gentle slope down to existing shown in the cross section. She said that, depending on where the storm sewer is and how grading is developed, it might be more flat than that. Clow said it is possible during final design, if it comes to having to mitigate impact and not impact these properties as much, a retaining wall could be added to maintain existing grade. She said that would impact cost for construction of the retaining wall. Clow added that the biggest worry then is maintenance in that area. She said that areas that are low and behind walls tend to go un- maintained and collect trash. Clow said that is initially why staff is proposing grading up to existing and trying to keep it clean. Clow said staff is working with Project Green for the entire corridor to landscape it. She said staff is also working with the property owners. Baldridge asked how many lanes Dubuque Street would have after construction. Clow replied that it would remain the same — four lanes with two in each direction. She showed where there would be an extra turn lane at the intersection, a right hand turn lane from Dubuque Street to the west onto Park Road. Ackerson asked if moving Dubuque Street west would be pushing the bank of the Iowa River west. Clow showed where the retaining wall that is being proposed is located. She showed where there would possibly be retaining barrier wall, and then the sidewalk located closer to the roadway. Swaim asked how big the retaining wall would be. Clow said it will be 15 feet. She said staff has discussed moving the retaining wall closer to the roadway and doing a type of river walk with the trail along there and having the Iowa River Trail bike path go closer to the river bank. Clow said that when it floods, the trail would flood, but we would have the sidewalk on the east side of the roadway to provide pedestrian access. She said staff is working on that cross section. Swaim asked how high the retaining wall would be from the level of Dubuque Street. Clow said it would be three and one -half to four feet. She said one reason for having it close to the river and not putting the trail down is that it would be far enough away from the roadway that code wouldn't require a traffic barrier. Clow said it could be more of an open fence. She said staff would like to maintain the views of the river. Michaud asked if the river itself will be dredged out. Clow responded that they cannot dredge it. She said the section of the river is actually starved for silt, because all the silt drops off in the reservoir. Clow said as the river flows into the reservoir and is slowed by the dam, it settles out. Swaim said Clow talked of this being more of a buffer than a levee. She asked if the retaining wall would keep the water in the River. Clow replied that with the retaining wall's location, the river would rise against the wall. She said it would be designed to hold the roadway on one side and withstand the River against it, but not to hold back water. Clow said the City is not constructing a levee and pump station, so if the water did come up, and there was a little ditch on the east side, there could be standing water there that would match the level of the river. She said they would be raising Kimball and all the other intersections so that access is maintained. Downing asked about how high Dubuque Street would go up at Mayflower. Clow replied that it is going up approximately three and one -half feet above the first floor of Mayflower. Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 6 of 8 Clow showed what the property looks like now and what it would be raised to on a graphic. She said if one looks at the overhead lines on the east side of the road, one can see that elevation change occur. Clow pointed out the Park Road intersection and how it has been shifted south in the graphic. She showed the approximate location, if one goes straight up the hill, to 5 Bella Vista and then all the way down would be the Kimball Road intersection. She showed the driveway up to the fraternity house. Clow referred to 816 Dubuque Street. She said this would impact the parking lot, so the parking lot will be elevated, and the drive will be lined up with the Park Road intersection. Clow said the temporary impact along here is .04 acres, and again the structure will not be impacted. Clow said staff is proposing a possible retaining wall along here to eliminate grading impacts close to the structure, because the existing sidewalk will be widened. Clow showed the cross section of the area. She showed where they are already up a little bit, so Dubuque Street won't be raised as much, perhaps five feet in that area. Clow said the grade right now is steeper than four to one in front of the structure; so that is where they will be working with property owners and will likely introduce retaining walls to help the current steep slope. Clow said the last one of the houses is 804 Dubuque. She said there would be minor construction impact, but the structure itself would not be impacted. Clow stated that, as seen on the aerial, staff will be shifting the Dubuque Street edge of the pavement away from the property and adding the sidewalk. Clow showed a cross section of what will be done there. She said the property is right on the edge of the Dubuque Street improvement where the street will not be raised much at all, so the biggest impact will be adding the sidewalk. Ackerson asked what the width is of the sidewalks on the east and west sides of Dubuque Street would be. Clow responded that on the east side, the sidewalks are currently four or five feet; they are pretty narrow. She said they are not continuous at all. Clow said the plan calls for an eight -foot sidewalk, and on the west side there would be a ten -foot bike trail. Michaud asked about the lamps that would be put in and if there would be a more historic look. Clow answered that that is something that can be discussed during final design. She said that right now, the plan includes just standard street lamps out there. Clow said the last property to be impacted is just south the Park Road Bridge. She said the structure will not be impacted. Clow said that a limited amount of area will be needed for right -of -way acquisition. She said that is because a left -hand turn lane is needed from Dubuque Street onto Park Road left bound. Clow said that since Park Road Bridge is moving south, that whole lane and that storage has to move south. Clow said the grading impact would be to the parking lot and access drive. She said a large area is shown on the plan, and is due to a very steep existing drive. Clow said the City would like to propose to the owner that the parking lot be re- graded to potentially grade the driveway to make it longer and flatten it out to make it more accessible. She said the parking lot would have the same number of parking stalls that it has now, and the situation would be improved. Baldridge asked if the new parking lot would be above /higher than the existing parking lot. Clow said it would not. She said if it is it would be the north portion of it. Clow said accessibility has to be maintained to the structure as is there now. She showed a diagram and how the parking lot would still be pretty much where it is now. Swaim asked about the Kimball Street turnoff where there is a little green space. She said it is right at the intersection if one is going north on Dubuque and turns off. Swaim asked if that area will be impacted. Clow said staff would like to clean it up and has also talked about cleaning up a bluff covered in growth just south of Mayflower and doing something similar to what was done along Riverside. Historic Preservation Commission August 29, 2012 Page 7 of 8 Gassman asked if there was any discussion in the early planning stages about the difference between grading and actually building up the bridge structure through the area. Clow said that was discussed, and that it was brought up right away by the consultant. She said if an elevated road on the bridge would be done, the long -term maintenance would be very expensive. Clow said staff is also concerned about homeless people living under there and maintaining that area under the roadway. Swaim said that right now there is a median between the two sets of lanes. Clow said that would be maintained. She said for one thing, Cambus needs the width to turn around on its route. Clow said there is discussion about leaving the roadway section as it is now but kind of curving also to drain into there and then landscaping it. She said it lends itself to that park feeling and not an urbanized roadway. Ackerson asked about the funding for the project. Clow said the City has a three million dollar grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) to pay for design and engineering. She said there are also several Federal Highway Administration / DOT grants. Clow said the project is still about nine to ten million dollars short. She said the estimated cost is $32 million. She said staff is still working with the DOT on funding. Clow said that a lot of the grants they have been available in the past two years require spending the money within one year of receiving it. She said as the project gets closer, more opportunities should present themselves. Ackerson asked if the plans will include accommodating the traffic to the Hancher parking lot for Hancher events. Clow confirmed this and said that with the expanded lanes on Park Road Bridge, they have talked about increasing the number of inbound lanes and switching it to increase the number of outbound lanes during events. She said staff is working with the Hancher relocation team so that they are on board with the improvement and so that staff is getting them what they need. Swaim said she is pleased that there will be a continuous sidewalk on the east side and the efforts to keep the area looking park -like. Clow said staff has met with all the property owners along that area and continues to have conversations with them. She said property owners have some concerns that there will be an increased noise level. Clow said the noise level that exists on Dubuque Street already exceeds the level that is set by the federal standards. She said staff did do a noise analysis that will be included in the document and discussed with the property owners. Michaud asked if the loops on the west side of the bridge represented the bike trails off the bridge. Clow confirmed this. She said the trail will go under the bridge on the west side, although there is not enough room on the east side. Clow said staff wants to design this so that in the future, there will be a possibility of cantilevering a trail out over the river or doing something creative. She said there are plans with the University to continue the trail on the east side of the river, behind the fraternity houses. Michaud said this has addressed a lot of the issues, and there have obviously been a lot of meetings about this. Ackerson said, as a long -term Iowa City resident who has seen Dubuque Street be closed far too often, this project looks like it will mitigate the impacts on the neighborhoods. MOTION: Ackerson moved that the Historic Preservation Commission send a letter to the State Historic Preservation Office finding that the proposed Gateway Project is a needed community improvement. The Commission further found that efforts have been made to avoid and mitigate impacts on historic properties. The Commission found that no historic structures would be directly affected and that the amount of grading on historic properties is acceptable. The Commission is in favor of approval of the project as presented. Downing seconded the motion. The motion carried on a vote of 8 -0 (McMahon Thomann, and Wagner absent). Clow said there will certainly be more opportunities to comment on the project. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned at 6:05 p.m. Z O U) cn �p 00 V U O� Q W N T Q N Wp N Z W W a va O I- N c 0 (N N E E 0 U c 0 ZN 0 o N co a N O 0 . 00 =¢a T T T T 0 T M T N 0 co N T ti T O T N T LU w X X X 0 ; x x X X X p M cam) x I wo I U0, x CM CMILUXIXIXI.iXIXIXiXI0IXix d W WM r N T N M T N M T N M M T O! N M d T O> N M eT T Q1 N M N Q1 N M N N M N M m N M N cp N M X X x X X 0 X X W O X x oX X o 0 X x x x x x o 0 x X x 0 X 0 i X x x X X x X x x x TLU X W O X X x 0 X x ; uj O X LU O 0 x x x X p x ; X x X x LU w X X X 0 ; x x X X X p M cam) x I wo I U0, x CM CMILUXIXIXI.iXIXIXiXI0IXix d W WM r N T N M T N M T N M M T O! N M d T O> N M eT T Q1 N M N Q1 N M N N M N M m N M N cp N M Y Z W J Z W 7 J Z V Z W O Z w Q Q Q Q J Z III LLj W O N Q Z O Z W Q N O IY ? Z Z 2 Q Q m Z Z w p W z O Q v a O Y p Q O N r _ Q E 0 m3 3C 0 CL CD x0a E j: W Z Y Oil Z - 10 -23 -12 3b(8) APPROVED MINUTES HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION AUGUST 16, 2012 — 6:30 PM DALE HELLING CONFERENCE ROOM, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Michelle Bacon Curry, Andrew Chappell, Cheryll Clamon, Charlie Drum, Jarrod Gatlin, Jim Jacobson MEMBERS ABSENT: Scott Dragoo, Holly Hart, Rachel Zimmermann Smith STAFF PRESENT: Tracy Hightshoe, Jeff Vanatter OTHERS PRESENT: None RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CITY COUNCIL: The Commission voted 6 -0 to recommend to City Council approval of the proposed amendments to the Iowa City Housing Authority's Housing Choice Voucher (HCV) Administrative Plan and Admissions and Continued Occupancy (ACOP) Plan. CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order by Chappell at 6:30 p.m. APPROVAL OF THE MAY 17 2012 MINUTES: Jacobson moved to approve the minutes. Gatlin seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. PUBLIC COMMENT FOR ITEMS NOT ON THE AGENDA: None. STAFF /COMMISSION COMMENT: City is encouraging paperless packets. Committee agreed to view packets online, but staff will continue to mail larger reports and applications to commission members. City Council completed its Strategic Plan, which identifies economic and community development goals and objectives such as neighborhood stabilization. HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION August 16, 2012 PAGE 2 of 5 o Staff encourages commission members to review the Strategic Plan (in next packet) and will discuss at a later date common goals, strategies, etc. Will discuss when the commission reviews the annual goals in CITY STEPS. Consolidate Annual Performance and Evaluation Report comes out in mid September. Will need to review our progress in meeting CITY STEPS goals. New Business Discuss Requiring Davis Bacon Requirements for all CDBG /HOME Assisted Projects o Policy to ensure contractors pay decent wages to workers ■ Q: Does this include health insurance? ■ A: Jacobson: No, but if the contractor does not pay benefits, they must pay cash fringe benefits to workers if they are union members. ■ Q: Is this for CDGB and HOME projects only? ■ A: Jacobson: Yes. This is a gap filling measure. o Housing Rehab memo stated they estimated contractors spend between 40 %- 50% of their budgets on labor costs. ■ Vanatter: So, depending on the company, total project cost might go up from 18 % -38% on average, depending on company if prevailing wages required. • Hightshoe: Projects currently exempt from Davis Bacon are usually CDBG and HOME projects for housing rehabilitation. Davis Bacon not required for residential construction if not more than 8 homes for CDBG or 11 homes for HOME. ■ These workers might not be union workers. • This proposal targets workers with the lowest wages • Q. Do we pay higher wages at the expense of building /assisting fewer projects? o Jacobson: The proposal should be narrowly applied to withstand council review /approval. o Comment: This proposal is premature and a divergence from HCDC's scope. • Small businesses might be priced out of the market. • Some of these workers might not merit a higher pay rate based on type of work performed. • Hesitation about advocating for this proposal as City Council has not directed HCDC to research this issue. If the Council asks the Commission to look into this then the Commission should take up the charge. o Response: ■ Jacobson: Contractors should improve efficiency to meet wage goals and could accept less profit to ensure adequate wages. Encourages a wage floor, not necessarily the prevailing wage requirements per Davis Bacon but possibly $16- 18$ /hr. State grant programs /incentives look for wages at 130% of the county's median wage o Comment: Will the City adopt a policy to only hire Johnson County workers or that the City should pay all their employees above a certain minimum threshold? o Comment: This might be creating problems rather than solving a problem. There was a consensus by the commission not to proceed with researching /advocating this issue to City Council. Chappell encouraged interested individuals to advocate directly to City Council. If Council directs HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION August 16, 2012 PAGE 3 of 5 HCDC to review or research minimum wage thresholds for CDBG /HOME assisted construction work, the committee would do so at that time. CDBG/ HOME Allocation Process Committee Update o Survey outcomes ■ 30 questionnaires were sent out, 7 were returned. ■ Focused on overall application. ■ Few received, over summer so could have been a busy time ■ Vanatter: The survey was awkward to respond to from the perspective of a homeowner applicant. The application and evaluation criteria focus on renters. • Entities that have received a tax exemption from the city attorney, which is an interesting way to put it because they receive exemptions from the city assessor, acknowledges some benefit to someone paying property taxes to the city, which is why we still give credit to payments in lieu of taxes. • Site Visits o Chappell: Though some say they are critical, he finds them very unhelpful. He relies more on an application because everyone is able to provide the same information. Thinks commission should decide whether visits are wanted or not and not make them optional. Decide on a way to deal with entities that don't have anything to show. o Comment. Think visits should not be mandatory. Some people process information differently. Drum benefits from the visits but does not want them to be mandatory because not everyone needs to go to get all the information needed. • Another problem with mandatory visits is that many of the commissioners have visited many times already and don't need to go back again. • Chappell: Said that he respects the applicants enough to do visits again but wants to know what the expectation is from having a visit. o Comment: You can see better from a visit how much impact the problem is going to have, such as where a hole in the ground is located, condition of a building, etc. o Current process is good- always trying to make things more streamlined but nothing from the survey leads us to change the process. • Didn't hear a lot of anger from the respondents • Said that the survey validates everything they are doing • Process question o Encourage the use of Survey Monkey for future surveys. ■ Can get anonymity with survey monkey by locking out IP address Monitoring Reports ■ Emma Goldman Clinic Funding: $25,000 was allocated, but only $14,000 was spent/reimbursed as the software was not purchased as early as they had liked. The project was more expensive than expected, HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION August 16, 2012 PAGE 4 of 5 vendor quotes took too long, and they could not make a decision in time and only incurred $14,000 in expenses by June 30. CDBG requires that funds be incurred to receive the funds. VNA A lot has been purchased. About $230,000 was spent out of $300,000 allocated for lot costs. A capital campaign to build the project is being launched. An office building is being built to reduce their overhead costs. A 6 -month building permit was just obtained. IC Parks and Rec Money moved from parks acquisition to Splash Pad at Fairmeadows Park. The RFP is going out in September. Bids will be accepted at the end of September /early October and construction will begin in October. They added a parking lot, which will not cut into the soccer field. ED Fund • Molly's Cupcake franchise opened. • There was $77,000 left in ED fund and another $67,000 was added. This should assist another 4 -5 businesses. NDC does not provide a financial review unless there is no lender is involved. They can technically still apply for CDBG funds without a private lender involved but, if not, NDC does need to review their projections. Housing Rehab Memo Best year they have had in a while because the allocation of funds from the HCDC went very quick due to the number of applications submitted. ADJOURNMENT: Clamon moved to adjourn. Jacobson seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. Z O Fn T) O U F- Z w a O J w w O Z O U Q N LO o cc o ? U') Lu OQa Z O V F- Z W a O J W W 0 Z O v Z a c� Z 2 ix O V W ix W N V � Z O a N D Z W F- r U _ W C C N N� 0 aQZ u n u w_ J(D x 0 z X X X o X X o X o X X X X - X X X w O X O O O X X X X X N X LU X X X X X X X O M o X X - X X X X X X M X X LU X X X X i X N X X - X X X X X CL N w It N T rn N N T rn 1* N T rn M N T 0) co N T rn N N T 0 m N T rn � N T 0) N N T rn H J w LU J 2 Q W w Z u W Z a, Q v w O a CQO 0 J W V z 0 O N o D LU J Q Q v �' Z D V' w J _ 2 Z U m v � 2 to Q Lu N U _ W C C N N� 0 aQZ u n u w_ J(D x 0 z Page 1 of 23 3b(9) .mm� Minutes APPROVED Human Rights Commission September 18, 2012 — 6 P.M. Helling Conference Room Members Present: Harry Olmstead, Connie Goeb, Orville Townsend Sr., Dan Tallon, Kim Hanrahan, Shams Ghoneim. Members Excused: Diane Finnerty, Jessie Harper, Howard Cowen. Staff Present: Stefanie Bowers. Others Present: Gregory Hamot. This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Human. Rights Commission meeting of September 18, 2012. Recommendations to Council: None. Call to Order: Chair Olmstead called the meeting to order at 18:00. Consideration of the Minutes of the August 21, 2012 Meeting: Townsend moved to approve minutes, seconded by Ghoneim. Motion passed. 6 -0. New Business: a. University of Iowa Center for Human Rights GH: What am I exactly here to do for you today Harry and Stefanie? HO: Well we'd like some more information on what's going with the center and its future. GH: There will be an article tomorrow in the Press Citizen that describes a lot of this, which is serendipitous that it's going to be tomorrow after the meeting today because they just started to interview people two days ago. I was the last person to interview this afternoon. KH: I'm sorry I don't know who you are. GH: My name is Greg Hamot and I'm the Professor of Education at the University of Iowa and I'm the Director of the Center for Human Rights, at least at this point. A very brief overview of the history of the center might be helpful to start with because it will help you to understand where we are today. The center is an outgrowth of an event that took in 1998, actually 98 -99, which was what was called Global Focus `98 headed up by Bums Weston. I was on that committee with people from all over the University, all the colleges and all the schools had members on that committee. That committee was put together by Provost John Whitmore in order to celebrate the 50'h anniversary of the signing on December 10, 1948 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. If you were around in 1998 you might remember that we brought in Lech Walesa, we brought in and Desmond Tutu as speakers. We brought in Page 2 of 23 many scholars from around the world who did small seminars with our students and community members and so on. It was a yearlong event. At the end of that yearlong event the four people who were very instrumental in the town gown combination of all of these ideas. Burns Weston, Gina K , which wasn't her name at the time. She got married since then to George and I can't remember what it used to be. She is in sponsored programs at the University, the grant office. Rex Honey from the Department of Geography, and Dorothy Paul who was a member of this Commission for a long time. Dorothy and these four decided well what are we going to do now? We've done this wonderful thing and what are we going to do now. They were adventurous enough and visionary enough to then decide to create a center, which literally was one desk in Rex's old office in the international programs building, which was the old law school that is now where the public health college is. We had a phone and a desk and we started the center. Burns wrote up the by -laws and we had a committee or an executive board, which we still do and Harry is a member of that board. A member from this Commission has been on that board for years, probably forever, is one of the standing seats on the board. We did a lot of tremendous things over the 13 years we were in existence, including a huge contract with the Department of Labor. It was called Child Labor Research Initiative. We helped subvent scholarly books and articles. We had book readings and article readings that were offered to the university community for the last ten or eleven years now. We've done One Community One Book, which used to be called all Johnson County Reads. One Community One Book is a book that centers on a human rights issue. We try to shoot for a non - fiction, and this Sunday the author of this year's book will be presenting at 5:00. The name of the book is Late Homecomer, and she is from Minneapolis but she is Hmong. It's about the Hmong community and their diaspora. It's a pretty good book. We now have a certificate program for undergraduates that we design, this is the third year and we have about 75 students enrolled. Harry has the flyer if you want to come and see her talk. It's in the packet and if you want to come Sunday. It's usually about an hour long and you can ask questions afterwards. We usually have a nice crowd. If you're not familiar with One Community One Book it's done throughout Johnson County, so we have libraries in North Liberty and Hills, and all the librarians participate. They have about 21 discussion groups during the course of the fall and then we bring the author in. We have the Cmiel Internship Program, Ken Cmiel Professor of History at the University of Iowa who passed suddenly and unfortunately for us about six years ago, was a director of the center and a scholar in human rights history. We named an award after him for an internship program in the summer where we send students, both undergraduate and graduate to all parts of the world to work with _ on human rights issues. There is the Weston Internship, which is sponsored by Burns Weston and it's always a law student who will work with an advocacy group like Amnesty International or Human Rights Watch. So we send them to London, New York and places like that over the summer. We have our own internal internship program for undergraduates and graduates, about ten interns a year who help run our Careers for Change Program which brings in people from all over the country to talk about different careers in human rights, or human rights related activities. We have always brought in for instance the world food prize recipient from Des Moines the week that they are here to give a talk, and have a sponsored lunch for them. I'm probably leaving some things out Harry. The Burns Weston Essay Contest, which is for all three Regent's Universities on both the undergraduate and graduate level. There are monetary prizes and we put together peer review boards from our board members and faculty members to read these papers and decide the winners. There are lots of other things we do that are ad hoc such as, maybe a better way to say it as spur of the moment such as community forums on for instance two years ago we did the right to health care during the great health care debate in Congress. We did Islamaphobia a few years ago. So we do things of that nature. All of this will be coming to an end at the end of this fiscal year on June 30, 2013 as the university has deemed that unworthy of financial support. Consequently as you probably well know being involved in human rights as much as you are our only option was to become self - supporting, and in order to be self- supporting you need to be able Page 3 of 23 to get grants and find people with lots of money who want to endow your center. There aren't a lot of people who want to do either of those two things because human rights is not unfortunately a big ticket item for the United States government right now, as far as funding is concerned, nor does it appeal to anyone in the universities wider community of donors. One would think with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State that we would have had a fighting chance, but it's just a monetary issue. If we were to do human rights activities that are funded there are things like creating schools in Ghana and we don't do that kind of work being a university. I mean literally you put in the proposal how many planks of wood you need and how many PVC pipes you'll need, you build the school. We just can't do those kinds of things. The Child Labor Research Initiative was something that we got from the Department of Labor almost at the dawn of the center, and we're using the last of that million plus dollar contract this year to pay salaries. That was designed for us to develop the first ever digital database on child labor laws and abuses in key nations across the world that Congress was giving foreign aid to. So that when a foreign aid to a certain country would come up they'd be able to go to our database and say here's what your laws are and here is what you're doing. You need to straighten these things out before the American public gets their large _, give you their tax dollars to improve your condition. That's what generated that project, but there was, I was editor of a curriculum for middle school and high school students that went online worldwide as part of that project. We wrote a book as part of that project. There were many seminars that shot off of that as part of that project. That kind of money is not available anymore. DT: What was your budget prior to or? GH: The center does everything I just mentioned and more that I haven't mentioned because I just can't remember it all with three half -time staff members and a graduate assistant. The budget is between programing monies to do all this and salaries are $150,000 a year. HO: I don't think you mentioned Human Rights Certificate Programing. GH: I did mention that, but I didn't mention the Human Rights Index that we publish in the Iowa Review every edition. It's kind of like the one what is it the Atlantic Monthly. It's modeled after one of the other big named journals or magazines in the country where they have an index in the front cover, where you read what is the update on that particular concept. So it's about $130,000 for salaries and benefits and about $20,000 to support the activities. DT: What is the fixture of some of your programs? GH: Well here is what happened. When we started it and we never did have huge financial backing from anything other than the grant, the contracts that we had in grants. The provost on three year increments agreed to support the center if we could find self - funding, and about four years ago that was stopped. So through fund raising efforts and donations I was able to keep the place open to pay the salaries and international programs, which is part of the Provost Office subvented in part the program monies, but we just don't have anything left after this year. DT: What programs do you do now will continue? GH: The Certificate Program will continue in the College of Education where I reside with my appointment and I'll be directing it. Our dean has been gracious enough to take it in. The College of Law will take the Cmiel Internship. I'm sure the Weston Internship because that's from the College of Law. That's all that has been taken. Page 4 of 23 DT: Will the One Community One Book continue? GH: That will die yeah unless someone picks it up. As Harry knows from being on the board we had a suggestion from one of the Associate Provosts, not the one in charge of International Programs, to come up for a vision for the center, kind of a five year prospectus and to present it to key deans at the University who would be involved in issues of human rights like the College of Law, the College of Public Health, the College of Education, the Associate Vice President for Diversity Georgina Dodge, who I'm sure you are all familiar with. The Associate Provost for Continuing Education, and the Associate Provost for International Programs. Burns and I presented this to them and they were just not interested in supporting the center. So we did the best we could internally to get some kind of support, but at this point we are going to close on June 30"'. OT: That that you mentioned about child laws and things like that, that seems like a real of something to have access to. Is anybody going to pick that up and take it over? GH: Do you remember the tornado a few years ago? That actually destroyed the server on which all that data were contained, and if you remember that was about six or seven years ago, and we didn't have the kind of security for these things we have today. We had no backups and it got lost as a result, so no one will pick that up. Quite frankly you know it's a decision the University has to make based on its own finances. We are not like most centers in the country. They are attached mainly to law colleges, but they are very focused on just human rights law. We didn't want that and Burns didn't want that and the others who started it. We wanted something that was more cross collegiate and cross disciplinary because you deal with human rights in medicine and dentistry, in pharmacology and education and all the liberal arts. It's not something that is a concept that fits in a discipline, all the disciplines fit in a concept you see. That's how we envisioned it, but it never was able to become self - generating. SG: Since regrettably the University vision has been altered, is there any possibility that the center become like others in the country under the law school? GH: Burns has requested from Dean A has sent a proposal to do so. Her response has been at this point and time they can't afford it is basically her response. SG: Do you really feel and maybe that's not a good question to ask. But do you feel that $150,000 is such a hardship for the University or the law school? I have to ask that question because to me it's just like... GH: You're recording this aren't you. SG: That's fine. GH: It's a drop in the bucket. It's the north end zone for one football game. DT: How does the Certificate Program compare with other Certificate Programs in terms of like enrollment and things like that? GH: It's smaller, on campus or nationwide? DT: The Human Rights Certificate Program compared with like the philanthropy certificate program or the non - profit certificate program. Page 5 of 23 GH: We're going to be bigger than most of those because students are attracted, I mean they have 75 students in less than three years, two years plus _. It's pretty popular and that's why it's worth maintaining as best we can. There was an idea at one time of trying to put as much of it online as possible if not make the whole version of it online because then you can accrue revenue from those courses. But it's very hard to get people to do that at our university and most universities. The professors are set in their ways and so we never were able to get enough, large enough and fast enough to beat this rush to close it down. Maybe in the future that's something, I mean I know my dean wants to explore doing it because we were looking for worldwide audience. We weren't just looking for Iowa students or people from Iowa. We were looking for people from all over the world to be a part of this, and down the road in that five year prospectus that we wrote, we included things like you know having particular areas where if you were a nurse in Switzerland in Lucerne you can get a Human Rights Certificate with a nursing focus. If you're a doctor in Bali you can get one with a medical focus, and we would have this menu that would be constructed, but that takes time to develop that. It takes a commitment to vision as Reverend Al Sharpen wants to quote from scripture, "without a vision people the people perish." I think this goes back to your question to be honest with you other than the bottom line. SG: But really to me I'm trying to be optimistic here and grasp at anything because I'm so for the center to keep going. If say the College of Education under the current leadership, which apparently quite supportive, has the opportunity or the time or the resources, how long would -it take them to have sort of like that virtual center? There are a lot of now issues about how there's virtual medicine, there's virtual courses all over the... GH: What do you mean by virtual? SG: Sort of remote courses, online courses as well. GH: Really if we could... SG: I mean how long it takes I guess. GH: This is a great question and I'll give you an answer and a dollar figure. I would really like, see I'm gonna have to let all the staff go. Liz Crooks our secretary is leaving on Thursday, day after tomorrow. She's gotten a job at the Graduate College and I wrote her a recommendation. Part of the reason I fought so hard to keep it open when I didn't have any money was to, people have families to feed. I wanted to make sure the staff who did such a great job had the opportunity to find other places to work. Liz has found one over at the Graduate College and Joan _, who runs One Community One Book, she does work part-time from home and I think she's going to concentrate on that. She is a medical record archivist for the University of Missouri and a few other places. But if I could keep Amy Weismann because her dedication to the certificate program is really important. If I could somehow, and this is we're talking between $30- 40,000 a year. My dean has committed to paying for the graduate assistant Kelsey Kramer and whoever succeeds her to continue to work on the certificate program. I really need someone like Amy who has a broader and more mature view of things. I can't do it all myself. I mean I have my own, I'm Professor of Social Studies Education and I've got my own work to do. I can't do all the course teaching. I teach an overload of six course and you're supposed to teach four. I direct the center, run this new program on living with floods to educate kids across Iowa about the 2008 and 2011 floods out of the College of Education in conjunction with Hancher and the College of Engineering. I run the convocation for the college. I'm the program coordinator for Secondary and Elementary Social Studies. If I could have Amy supported somehow to keep the certificate Page 6 of 23 program going and we build up over time this revenue from the online courses we could reinvent the center in a decade maybe. SG: The other thing too is if you partner with say the Health Science Colleges. GH: We would do all that if I had someone like Amy who could get rid of all of her other duties as Deputy Director of the center because it's gonna end, and just concentrate on that until its full blown. She would do that yeah. See I can't get away enough to do that from what I have to do. It would be terrific if I could somehow come up with the revenue stream that would commit to paying her. She's half -time because she has a child at home, that would be great, but off this record I'm very tired. I'm tired of knocking on doors with hat in hand because it's the only way we've been able to make it survive for the last couple of years. SG: We're very grateful that it has. GH: It's the only way we could do it and there are really nice people in town who have given $5,000 or $1,000 or $100. The faculty gave a $1,000 each. They challenged each other two years ago on the board, the faculty members all pitched in. Bums has done a tremendous amount of financial contribution. He's very upset about the decision. SG: It needs institutional commitment. GH: You can't get a grant to support yourself unless you have institutional commitment. How could you go to the United States Department of State and say we want to do a human rights project or we want to do one of your projects that you have on your menu, and they say write a proposal. What do you write in the proposal? We have no staff unless you give us the money. They are gonna say well then you have no foundation to build on. It's a catch -22 and the administration of the University feels that there are too many centers, and feels that there is no room for something like us at this point and time. HO: One of the large losses I see coming from this is One Community One Book project, and I was wondering if this Commission were to decide at some point to pick it up, what sort of price tag is involved in that program? GH: Well what Joan does if you wanted Joan to do it I think you should hire her to do it. What she does is she solicits funds and raises some money, and I think this year we're going to do the whole thing for less than $3,000, not counting her salary. But as far as you know we create based on the book, I don't have it here, but it's based on that poster you have in your packet. There are bookmarks we hand out to the students and the members of the community that come to the readings and the discussions. We do a lot of promotion of it in these communities so people know where to go and what time, which library is hosting that one that day. Pat Schnack who is a long time Iowa Citian. You might know Pat and she's the co- director of it with Joan. You'd have to talk to Joan, Harry but I think that she'd probably be amenable to keeping it going. It would be great if the community did pick up a little chunk of the center and like the College of Education is picking up, and the Law School is picking up, and we maintain some of these things. The big losers here are students. The careers for changes, the internship programs, and all the things we did for the different human rights clubs and organizations on campus. Just through promoting their interests through our e- digest, our little newsletter that you get for instance electronically every week or so. It was tremendously helpful to the students on campus. They won't have that anymore, that advocacy. The One Community One Book you'd have to sit down with Joan, but I think we didn't have more than $3,000 this year to spend on it, and she's bringing Page 7 of 23 the author in from Minneapolis and has done all the posters. I don't know if we put them on the busses anymore, but we used to. The buses and the cambuses, on the walls that curve like that you could put them in frames. I think that's something if you're interested email Joan and have her come to the Commission and have her talk a little bit about what it would take. I don't know what your wherewithal is so I can't even imagine how you would do it, but that's up to you. SG: Some thought ah was in the Iowa City Press Citizen editorial today and they were talking about some of these issues. GH: Well I asked Jeff if he would delay this and Tara, because we have a board meeting November 2'd and you got an email from me this evening about announcing this article tomorrow. I didn't want the board to be the last to know. They knew already it was on, it was going to close. The reason I asked Jeff and Tara to delay the story is because we don't want, I mean I didn't say it this way to them. But I don't want the article to antagonize the administration into not wanting to do anything, and what I really would like to see is if they would wait until at least maybe Bums is back in a couple of weeks. They did interview Burns in the article, but to see if there are other entities on campus who will pick up some of the stuff still. I don't know yet. SG: I don't know what tomorrow's article is gonna be specifically word for word, but what I was saying that some of the information that they were sharing today was that the One Book specifically, that there are other options maybe through the , Iowa City GH: What do we call the city of literature. Joan has been talking with them. SG: Right so there are I think other possibilities. Maybe through the Iowa City Public Library. I'm hoping that that article is going to do so. GH: I think One Community One Book is really one of the less expensive things we do considering how many people it touches. You have to realize that One Community One Book in Iowa City is very unique. It's a program all over the country, it's not just here. I think we're the only one that has the book always have a human rights theme. In other communities it's not that way, it's whatever the committee decides on, non - fiction or fiction or whatever. It could be Alice in Wonderland, it doesn't have to be a human rights issue. DT: Was the book a couple years ago about child soldiers? GH: Yes we brought Ismael Baya here. This was an idea that other universities had tried and again they weren't interested in keeping it going. There has always been this urge at Iowa to try to get the students retained better, more retention percentage and they are doing better now. One of the things that they thought might help is if all the freshman read the same book, and it was taught in the rhetoric classes because every freshman has to take rhetoric. It's part of the general education requirements. The rhetoric department was on board, but their policies are they don't tell their graduate assistants who teach courses because there are 4,000 freshman. They don't tell them what to teach so not all of them taught it, but those who taught it they were successful results. We did do an evaluation of analysis of the project and there was positive response. It's a $70,000 a year price tag and they weren't interested in it, and that's not bad. That's counting buying every kid the book. That book, the publisher of his book because of the deal that we had if you opened the book the first thing you saw was a letter from the President of the University to the students on University letterhead on that little page about this program. I told the Associate Provost and I told the President this is something that during your capital campaign would be, I can't imagine you can't find someone who will endow this. For a million bucks, I mean half a million bucks or Page 8 of 23 less than that. What's twenty times seventy? Ah $140,000, well we'd be 1.4 million then actually. For 1.4 million in endowment they can have their name on every book read by every freshman until they are dead and long be composed. That's a hell of a tribute to a donor. SG: It's a living legacy. GH: Exactly, you know the Harry Olmstead all freshman read's program. It will go on until you're long gone Harry. My point simply being that no interest because if you're gonna do that you've got to go through the foundation and it is the University that tells the foundation what they need and then they go out and look for it, and we're not on their radar. HO: Greg I want to thank you so very much for coming. Hopefully something in the future will happen. GH: I mean there are miracles, whether they're man made or not, and we have until June 300i for manna to fall from heaven or for someone to say this is a worthy enterprise for the University of Iowa and the State of Iowa. The endowment would have to be about, what is 20 times $150,000? Three million? Three million dollars would keep the center open forever, but that's a lot of money but it would named after whoever gave that three million dollars. Then that would include One Community One Book, that would be part of that. That would be for staff and for programming so. HO: Thank you so much. SB: One question, do you think the article tomorrow may help keep the center open? GH: I've been around and teaching for 37 years, and I've been 15 years as a high school teacher, over 20 years now as a University Professor. When administrations make up their minds it's over, it's over. There is nothing that they are going to do. That's why I say if someone showed up with three million bucks they'd be more than happy to take it. They probably convinced them first to see if they could build another scoreboard, but if they didn't say that they said no we want it for the center of human rights they'd take it. They're not gonna turn it down. SG: But maybe the article will give other people from the community food for thought. GH: It will to maybe think about investing yes. It won't budge the University and nor will public sentiment, nothing will budge the University. SG: No I mean to donate directly to the program under the auspice of the education. GH: We could do it through donations to the foundation account that the College of Education has. In a way I don't blame the Provost, I mean his point is centers need to have collegiate homes or self - supporting, collegiate home meaning the college that it's in pays for it or self - supporting. Well we just don't do something that people are willing to give money for, but they all want it. They all want the human rights, but they just don't see it as something worth supporting so. It's kind of a conundrum but true. Thank you for your time and thank you for listening. Harry we have a meeting November 2nd and you'll be getting a briefing on it soon. b. Iowa Latino Conference Page 9 of 23 HO: We sponsored this last year SB: Yes the Commission gave $100 last year. It looks like its October 12 -13'b and the various activities of the conference will be held on campus at the University, and then also it looks like some of the activities are at the Iowa City Public Library. One of the reasons just to summarize the letter is that they're asking for donations is to assist with keeping the registration fees low for participants or people who would register. Also it helps them advertise so it increases their visibility. That is the primary reasons why they are asking for supplemental funds. OT: I move that the donate $100 to fulfill the request. HO: There is a motion on the floor, any further discussion? SG: What is our budget? SB: I mean this is how, my answer really never changes because generally the Commission co- sponsorships is between $1,000 41200 a year, but you know everyone's budget is getting smaller so what Professor Hamot was talking about I mean that's everywhere. I say that today but in January it could be less than that. SG: How much did we spend or what is our present balance? SB: To date I think you're only at $250 or maybe $300 because it would have started July I'`, so pretty low. SG: That's all we have right now. SB: That's all that has been spent. SG: What do you think is our projection until the next fiscal year? SB: It would probably still be that $1,000 41,200 range, but I mean if there are budget cuts or something like that generally we wouldn't take from the Commission, but I can't... KH: As a new Commissioner I'm not clear what we've sponsored in the past. SB: When everybody joined they should have gotten, I send out what I call a brag book, and it has all the flyers of events. Look at the packet it has the annual reports, it has flyers of activities, the annual reports would give you what the Commission has done and the case resolution numbers and all that information. In fact I've kind of wondered with Dan and Jesse if it's worth sending out because I'm not real clear that people are responsive to the packet. DT: I was interested in the case resolution portion more, but I did read it. SB: I think now we have a better copier now so it may be easier to do it electronically in the future too, which would be a pretty good sized file to send. I'll have to talk to ITS to see if we can condense it down. I didn't know if anybody read them. SG: So this time of the year you think if we give the $100 we're okay for whatever is presented for the rest? Thank you. Page 10 of 23 Townsend moved, seconded by Tallon. Motion passed. 6 -0. Old Business: a. Human Rights Breakfast SB: The nominations and the press release went out today, well I should say the press release soliciting nominations went out today, and I sent it via email to all the Commissioners too. I'm still working on the flyer for the actual breakfast that would advertise the speaker, which would hopefully garner some ticket sales as well as nominations. The speaker this year will be Chad Simmons, who is Executive Director of Diversity Focus. The breakfast will be held on October 30'h, which is a Tuesday. The date was changed, and the day. Usually since I've been here for whatever reason just out of tradition I guess it was always held on a Thursday, but this year Tuesday just works out better so. SG: What time is it Tuesday? SB: I advertise it as the program starting at 7:30 sharp which it does, and it will be held at the Sheridan again. I advertise on the ticket and the press releases 7:15 because the breakfast is ready usually around 7:00. So some people may show up right at 7:30 kind of thinking there's more of a window there and there's really not. At 7:30 somebody is at the podium speaking, and so I think most people who attend are regulars and so they know that, but for those new folks getting there before 7:30 is probably best. SG: And for us the Commissioners what time do you want us? SB: What time have you guys shown up in the past? It's like 6:45 is the earliest time, and that primarily depends on the roles people are playing too. We'll get that figured out at the next meeting I think we'll be fine there, but you always need two Commissioners at the table in front of the ballroom to collect tickets. Then you have the Commissioner who would be doing the introduction of the speaker, and then you would have the Commissioner who was introducing the honorees, and then you have the Commissioner who wraps it up and says have a good day. If anybody has a role in mind just send me an email, but I think we can probably get that worked out at the next meeting. In the past I think we've always given preference seniority wise if there is somebody who has been on the Commission longer who would want a specific role. I mean people have never fought over the various positions. I would say Jerry and I show up at like 5:30 and Jerry is the person who records it each year for us from City Cable. We'll get that figured out, but if anybody has a specific role in mind let me know. Ticket sales at the door you know I really discourage that even in advertising because you have to give a number. I usually cut off the ticket sales three days before, but of course you always have people who may show up. It's primarily collecting tickets and if somebody is paying at the door, you know making sure you get their name and how they paid. If they paid in cash particularly because I need to know who made the cash payment. HO: The city pays for the Commissioners. SB: Correct thank you and the cost is $25 this year and each Commissioner gets a ticket on behalf of the city so. DT: What does the money support? Page 11 of 23 SB: Well there is no money; the money goes to pay for the event. There is no profit and we get plaques for the winners, and if anybody would like to I can certainly send you the DVD of last years. I mean it's literally an hour so if you just wanted to take a look at it to kind of get a feel for how it goes, or when we meet up I can give you a copy too. If I forget just remind me. HO: Any other discussion on the Human Rights breakfast? SB: I do have one more thing to add. Burns Weston who you heard Greg Hamot speak of just a few moments ago expressed interest in speaking at the breakfast for 2013. I told him it was kind of early, but that I would let each of you know and that I would get back to him as far as whether you wanted to wait until it was closer in time next year to make that decision before making a commitment this early. OT: So what would most likely his topic be? SB: Human rights and any more specific than that I really don't know. He didn't expand and I didn't inquire. HO: I personally don't feel comfortable making that decision this year when we have a new Commission board coming in January. I'd rather postpone that decision until next year. CG: You never know what issues are gonna come up in the meantime also, more pressing or more relevant or something specific that's going on. I agree with Harry and I wouldn't want to make the decision now. SB: If that's what the Commission is wanting me to do I can just send him a short email or even, right now he's out of the country. He comes back I want to say in late October. SG: Maybe how we can present it or respond to him is say that each year we have a pool of potential candidates to be speakers, and we would have your name on the list. I think this is just the way to do it since he was one of several and he wasn't available this year, we can say well we're gonna transfer your name to next year's list again. KH: Stefanie how are the tickets working for the breakfast? Are we responsible for any of the sales? SB: That has always been encouraged. Some Commissions were better at that than others. Some felt more comfortable with it than others, but I mean any sale a Commissioner can make is terrific. KH: What is the capacity for the breakfast? SB: I mean really they could do up to 200 in the Sheridan. They could do more, I mean they do the I Club there, it's huge. They could accommodate quite a large number so. It would be great, but I'm not fearful of that. CG: We have an average of about how many? SB: It's changed over time you know the ticket prices have gone up, and so that takes away from the number of people who would buy. Speakers sometimes influences the number of tickets you sell or honorees sometimes influence the number of ticket sales. I would say anywhere I've seen as Page 12 of 23 high as 165 to maybe kind of 125 or 130. If anybody wants tickets to sell I would more than happy to put those tickets in your hand and have you sell them. That would be terrific. HO: Stefanie don't we need to get a committee together for the nominees to make decisions? SB: Yes and I think the next meeting date will still be okay because the due date for the nominations is not until the 15t" which is a Monday at 4:30 just so that there are not some that may be in the mail postmarked. The next meeting is October 166', so if you want to set up a sub - committee tonight that would probably be good so that we would know who would be doing that. It can be anywhere from, I mean obviously more than one Commissioner but no more than four. KH: Is there a scoring sheet or is it just informal discussion? SB: It's an informal discussion. Certainly you can create a scoring sheet. That hasn't been done in the past, but that is certainly permissible if that's more of the comfort level of that group who is making the decisions. DT: Would it be appropriate at the breakfast to not ask anyone for support of the University Center for Human Rights, but at least let them know that its closing and if they're interested in more information to contact them? SB: I certainly think that's fine and I think that can be written into the opening. DT: I know I've heard that the center is closing and I've gone to some of their events HO: Do I hear some volunteers to serve on the sub - committee? KH: Is that a one meeting to review? SB: Correct. HO: Stefanie usually sends out the emails over the applicant's scores and it's a matter of reviewing those and then getting together as a committee to make decisions. Connie and I served on it last year along with David Brown. KH: I would volunteer. SG: I would but I'll be overseas from the 3'" to the 10. HO: Do I hear someone who is going to be the convener to get the meeting together? SG: When would be the deadline for the sub - committee to give to you? SB: I would say if they could meet that 15"' that would be terrific, if not the first thing on the 16" of October because I have to get letters or emails. I have to notify the folks and get plaques made, and ads made with the winners announced so it's a pretty short turnaround. HO: Okay we have two people, anybody interested to be on that committee? DT: I actually plan on nominating somebody so. Page 13 of 23 SB: Well you could probably just um for that particular yeah. DT: Okay I'll do it. HO: Okay Dan. KH: Can we tentatively look at the morning of October 16`x. SB: Sure and if you want I can try to reserve a room here or you can meet at, I mean in the past at people's homes too. Discussion was ongoing on when and where to meet - SB: It would really be great if it could be so I would have that day to kind of get going on that stuff. That would be preferred but I realize schedules don't always permit that. KH: So what would you prefer? SB: The earlier the better would be best. SG: So what time are we talking about? OT: October 1601 . KH: At around 9:00. SB: You want me to reserve a room here? KH: Yes please. SB: To answer Kim's question about advertisements. The advertisements ran in the Press Citizen and there's a city -wide press release, which goes out to virtually any media in the area. In addition it goes out to all subscribers. It also goes out via email, postcards and usually there are advertisements put up at city facilities on the buses and an ad is ran on city channel four. So quite a lot of different ways. b. Letter in Support of Center for Human Rights HO: Draft letter for University Iowa Center for Hunan Rights. It's in your packet Item 5 -b. It's addressed to President Sally Mason. I think in light of what we've heard tonight I think we should go ahead and send a letter of our support. I think it's very important. DT: I like that it asks for an update too so. HO: Okay do I hear a motion to accept this letter of support or are there any changes? Ghoneim moved, seconded by Tallon. HO: Are there any changes to the letter that anybody wants to make? Page 14 of 23 CG: Should we copy our visitor tonight as well? SB: Sure. Motion passed. 6 -0. SB: I should mention that the Press Citizen made contact with the office concerning this matter and they probably tried calling you. SG: They did already. SB: So they are familiar with the draft letter and whether they would incorporate that into the article I don't know, but it's a possibility. I made clear it was a draft. I mean it's definitely not a final copy. HO: I did not have time to call them back yesterday, but I would have just told them it's a draft letter. SG: She never mentioned even the letter when she called me. She wanted to know my experience with the center. OT: One of the things just from listening to Greg is we might consider two options of the letter. The first option is we would send the letter you know expressing concern in support of the center and asking for them to reconsider, which will be at one level. Or we could take a look at what he was saying and basically come to what would be a secondary because what I hear him saying is it would be ideal to get that to keep the whole thing . I thought I heard him saying that to keep it from dying they could have a secondary plan that would have certain people doing certain things, and basically that would keep it going. If we're gonna send a letter you know do we want to just ask for the whole bundle or do we want to give them an option? DT: Could we ask what would they be willing to support? SG: I don't think we're really in a position to do that. I mean we are trying in my humble opinion anyway. We are trying to, I mean what's in the letter think in my opinion kind of covers we're first saying we are supportive and why, and then we're asking what is the feasibility of keeping it open and to keep us abreast of what's gonna happen next. So I think that covers it. DT: I like the feasibility part because I think that if they come back and say well we just don't have $150,00 we can say like do you like this One Community One Book? Why don't you continue that or... SG: Yes because right now, this is our first response. They obviously will have to respond back. Then when they respond back we can think about how or if even we want to address these issues. OT: The reason I made my suggestions is because I'm pretty sure I already know what the response is going to be, and they don't have to justify it. They're going to say that due to budget restraints, but I think that they're gonna be getting pressure from every side, and basically if they get enough pressure they might just want to throw a bone to get us to shut the hell up. So if we could indicate some things that give them another option. SG: I don't know, I think it should be left that way. Page 15 of 23 HO: I guess I'm just going to say as chair that we forward and pass the motion to accept the draft letter in support for the center, and I think we should at this time move along. Okay draft of World Human Rights Day Proclamation, December 10"' and packet item 5C. c. World Human Rights Day Proclamation SB: The only things when I read through it that I noticed if the Commission chooses to move forward with this is number one that starts with all people are equal before the law. I went through and highlighted the ones that they mentioned that would not be covered here locally, and then I put down the ones that they don't have that are covered here. I don't know if I need to go over that list for purposes of this meeting, but just to make a note that the political, other opinion, social origin, property or birth or that of their parents. Those would not be things that would be covered here under the Human Rights Ordinance. HO: So we'd probably be best off proclamation at this time. SB: And then adding age, marital status, sexual orientation, creed, familiar status, presence or absence of dependents, public assistance source of income and gender identity, and those would be the ones that they didn't mention that are covered. Then number eight that starts with all residents are entitled to the protection. I would just suggest that for the utilities, that second sentence first page. The last sentence on the first page I should say utilities _ building departments into unfettered access to the municipal court of the City of Iowa City. The county really runs the court system here, and so I would probably just omit that just because it may, for people who aren't familiar with the judicial system in town it may cause more confusion. OT: So what are you omitting? DT: All of number eight? SB: No I think you can put all residents are entitled to the protection by the city's police, fire, housing, health, utilities and building departments and then period, thank you. OT: And then get rid of the rest? SB: Correct. HO: Okay we have some changes to the document before you that was presented. Do I hear a motion to accept the proclamation with the changes mentioned? Tallon moved, Ghoneim seconded. HO: Any further discussion or any change that you see? Motion passed. 6 -0. SB: I will get it edited and I can even put it in the next packet just for one more review to make sure it's the way you absolutely want it before I submit it to the City Clerk. It's not until December anyway so we have a pretty good opportunity to really look it over for a few months up until that time if you so desire. HO: Draft the Youth Awards Letter advertisement and that's item 5d right after the proclamation. Page 16 of 23 d. Youth Awards Letter DT: Who do you send this letter to? SB: Well when the Commission initially proposed it it was meant to go, my understanding was to guidance counselors and people within the school system who worked directly with kids. I think over time it's expanded to kind of include any community person who would interact or have activities, programs with children that they could get the word out about this award, and encourage them to nominate an adult that they think has gone above and beyond as far as encouraging and promoting human rights. DT: When will SB: The awards are in May and I think the hope was to get this out at least sometime in the fall so that it was kind of on the radar. The nomination forms at earliest probably would not be available until January 2013. DT: Is this something that or do they talk youth, is it Youth Commission? SB: No it's actually separate from that, but the city does have a youth commission. At one time there was a pretty good relationship with the Youth Commission and the Human Rights Commission, but this actually was an award that was established just last year by three Commission members. The youth awards have, that program or ceremony has, I think it started in 2003 I think, but this was an addition to that. So that the youth awards is what it sounds like, its where kids are honored similar to the breakfast, but it's for kids and it's a lot bigger event because we're trying to encourage the youth to perform or to do good acts for others and to promote human rights. So this was just a sub - committee last year came up with this suggestion that they thought an adult who often times has helped or assisted the children who are receiving the awards also be recognized. HO: We have two nominees for the breakfast awards and that's where it came out of that we came up with the idea and maybe we need to have a youth leader, and not just at the breakfast awards be nominated, but at the youth awards and be properly recognized. SB: There were two adults who were nominated for their outstanding work with children. DT: Could it be an opportunity to engage the Youth Commission with like some _ target demographic anyway and to get them to...? SB: Sure I think that's a great idea. HO: Okay we have before us a draft of the letter of advertisement for the Youth Awards letter. Do I hear a motion to accept it? Goeb moved, seconded by Hanrahan. HO: Any further discussion or any change that you see? Motion passed. 6 -0 Page 17 of 23 6. Updates/Reports: a. Immigration Subcommittee KH: So I'm happy to report that there's been some activity since the last time we spoke. There was a lull during the summer when the co -chair of the sub - committee had a lot of scheduling conflicts. Since that time we've met one time a couple weeks back, and this morning we were able to tour city hall, the rec center and the library. Stefanie actually led that tour and took notes, and also took pictures recommendation portion of what we're doing. We are attempting to schedule another to ask more people to join and get more input. I thought this morning went really well, and I thought that they felt listened to and I thought that they had some really good comments. SG: What were their comments? KH: It was Maria and Gloria came. I had a group of five cancelled this morning at around 8:00. They worked part-time and they got called in. They are janitors at the school district and if they're gonna have a chance to work then that's what they are going to do. You can't fault them for that, but that's why we're scheduled again for the 4`i' of next month at 10:00 in the morning and we were hoping to get at least that group of folks. I also contacted Karla at the First Mennonite Church to see if she had anyone that she would be interested in inviting to come. So the one interesting idea that I thought came from that is that in several states or at least one state they actually have a city or a community ID, that once you're gotten that ID you can use that to access any city services that need an ID. So it's not that you have to get a different one from different departments, but once you actually have that city ID then you can use it at the library or the rec center or anyplace that requires an ID. We'll meet again on October 4"'. DT: Are there city services where you need an ID besides the library? SB: Well for water, for housing authority, for the rec center you need some, I think he said you need something to check out a basketball or something. There are probably others I'm forgetting, did we mention a bus pass? I'm not sure what is required for a bus pass. SG: Do you have any idea then Kim what would be the possibility of our city to give such IDs? KH: I think Stefanie can better answer that. There's a history that the Commission has had and moving with city council and the city to do a number of things. Now what we're prioritized for the sub - committee is signage for city services, and the second would be the IDs and trying to uniform IDs HO: expanding where? KH: Well the next meeting will be the 4h at 10:00 during the tour. I know there was a discussion from the minutes of last meeting, that there was a thought that maybe another Commissioner could step forward and I really appreciate that. Now that Gloria is back on board who is the co -chair who we really need, and she's one of the leaders and we really are trying to promote more immigration representation on the committee. I'm feeling like we're moving more forward at this point so I can certainly let you all know when the next meetings are, and if you can join us that's fine. The other person who is also on board is Diane _, who is really strong in the movement last year. She wasn't able to come this week, but she plans on coming to the next one and she actually I Page 18 of 23 think is feeling more comfortable being more involved and attending every meeting that we have so. It feels a lot better. HO: Thank you for your time. b. Ad Hoc Diversity Committee OT: Well we had two meetings. The first meeting we just kind of had introductions and got to know each other and talked about our perception of things as a committee, individuals and what it is that we want to maybe focus on. The two charges that the city council gave the committee is to come back with a recommendation on law enforcement and transportation. So we basically decided that we would have law enforcement to meet with the committee first, and we started out with one meeting, but then the more we talked we decided that we would have two meetings with law enforcement. The first meeting was yesterday. The chief of police and two of his captains came in and met with the committee. The captain talked about all the certification and how the police officers are prepared and things like that. Then you know the committee members began to ask questions and basically started asking for specifics because we want to meet again with law enforcement next Monday. One thing that kind of stood out is one of the individuals on the committee asked could they come up with statistics. A breakdown of arrests by race and things like that, and so we're supposed to get that information before the next meeting. We asked the chief of police what is his vision for bringing the committee together pointing out that obviously when police officers are called to a situation they have to arrive and they have a relationship with the individuals on that level: But you know we're wanting to know what type of contacts or what type of things are going to be done or are being done or will be done in the future. Contact with the minority community that aren't related to negative situations. We just kinda threw that out and basically giving him a chance to get his thoughts together. So our next meeting next week with him will be getting some specifics based upon the request that we gave yesterday. I had to leave early because I had a commitment with my wife, so some of the things went on after I left. I thought number one I think the committee is really well rounded. I think it's nice that nobody appears to be coming in with a set agenda or vindictive so. Basically you know hoping that we can not only get the police department and law enforcement to look at what we feel they need to do, but also what do they feel that we as citizens, the community can do to assist them in making things happen. At this point I'm feeling fairly positive. SG: I know you said you had to leave a bit early, but did you feel from what the captain and the other police officers that they are receptive to sort of pointed questions regarding race or lack of it in their perspective? OT: I could be misreading, but personally I felt that they were somewhat . I think basically they want to come in right off the bat and show exactly that they're qualified. No one brought it up you know, but it's like you can take all the training, all the courses in the world and be the most qualified on the face of this earth, but there are just certain things when you have to deal with people. That training is not going to get you through. It's your ability to adjust, issue compassion, it's your desire to be fair. There are a lot of things that come into play that creates a positive environment. Training helps you know. We asked you know all this training that your officers go through, but how much diversity training have they had? Of the training they had once you get it when you have staff meetings are you following up on it. Well their response to that is that's a very difficult thing to do, and I have to agree that it is somewhat difficult because they're not like the average staff where everybody is there from nine to five. You've got your day shift and night shift, and you have captains that run the shift that meet with everybody before the shift to let them know what's going on and give them updates, and then send them out to take Page 19 of 23 care of business. So you know diversity training, but I still feel that that's not I mean that's not an excuse, that's reality. The question is how do we get each individual to the point that they're getting some exposure to diversity training that will help them to be more knowledgeable of how to deal with the minority populations. That's a conversation we're going to have next week. I accepted his explanation of that in terms of the reality that we have, but I think a bigger reality is okay, okay with that now. How do we get these individuals so that we are comfortable that they are getting diversity training, and if you can't get everybody together, then what mechanism can you put in place to see that somebody is going to be doing follow -up with them. SG: Do you know Orville the percentage of minority police in Iowa City, Coralville force? OT: I asked the question and I think there are three. I asked them how many black police officers were there and I think the response was three. HO: Do any of those have rank? OT: I didn't ask that. I just asked how many officers, but I would say probably not because I feel, and I'm cynic because if you had a black officer that had any rank he probably would have had him there . This is a unique situation and it's a very sensitive situation. I feel that there definitely needs to be change, but where we're making change we need to make sure that we're making change in a manner that's going to not only take care of the public needs, but it's going to give assurances that our police officers are safe. We got some work to do, but you know I'm hoping that at the next meeting we'll get a little more information. KH: One of the things that stood out for me for the Iowa City Police Review Board, presentation that they did was that's there is no tracking mechanism to identify if one officer is getting more complaints than others. Do you recall that? I know there's something in the logistics with how you track, but it seems if they could at least try and figure out if one officer has more complaints. OT: I asked that question and basically it was one of those things where probably could have answered it, but it's a thing that you probably want to stop and think about it and say I'll have to get back to you with that. I know for a fact from talking to the black community that there are some officers that KH: You talk to people on the streets and they know. OT: But at the same time we don't want to get into he said, she said. We want to ask them to give us facts and then I'm hoping that that's gonna be that the committee is gonna be meeting with the public to get their perception of what's going on, and able to get specifics. It's easy to complain about something, but I personally feel that if you, if it's important to you and you really want change, then to be fair to the person who is being accused. You really need to step up and be willing to put it on the line and come to a meeting or talk to the right people, give your concerns and put it in writing. HO: Thank you so very much for that report. C. Commission HO: Reports of the Commission. Sham do you have anything? SG: No thanks Page 20 of 23 HO: Dan? Connie? CG: No HO: Kim? KH: No. HO: Orville? OT: Well I've got our community committee. We were supposed to meet last week and there were only three of us, myself, Stefanie and one other committee member. So I've sent out another email stressing the importance of attending meetings because everybody had agreed at the previous meeting that that was an acceptable date and then didn't show up. I've sent out an email stressing the importance keeping meetings and then scheduled a meeting for September 20. We'll see if we can get people to attend. Frankly I think it's a committee that, we're looking at some things you know especially getting the community involved. I see that as being very important. I asked the question do we want to keep the community going, the committee going. If people are not giving input or participating, and the answer is yes. We feel that it's an important committee so we're gonna keep going. If there are three of us or if there are five of us, but basically we're gonna keep on trying to get the community involved because I think we all agree that that's essential and making some things happen in our community. CG: I have one question to Orville that goes back to the other committee that you are on. I read recently about changes in the bus system in terms of how they're picking up kids and dropping off kids. That there are more direct or a more non -stop routes or something. Does that ease that question or is this you're just gonna go and address that for transportation...? OT: That basically has taken care of itself. I mean the issue there was that instead of getting a bus that goes directly to take the black kids directly to the communities that they live in because of economics of whatever. They decided that hey you know they're on their own due to transportation. That works for the school district and saves them money, but it takes all of these kids who _ class all day and are hyper, and it puts them down in one spot together. But again it goes to show you about how cultural things happen. What they were doing is there was a bus stop, an identical bus stop in St. Louis or Detroit or Chicago there wouldn't have been a problem, but because its Iowa City and we are so used to having it quiet where you can sit down at the bus stop and listen to opera. You know read a novel and play chess, that's what we are accustomed to from the good ole days. The good ole days are gone. When it comes to diversity we are a community that is in transition, and that's a good example. Because it was a problem and it was impacting people negatively, it was corrected I think when they changed the route if I'm not mistaken. There's a bus going directly taking these kids directly home. In all fairness to them I really don't think it was fair to expect a bunch of kids to be together like that you know another 45 minutes or an hour onto their day and something not to happen. I'm not saying that what they were doing was right, but I'm saying that we did have other options. I think basically that's been corrected with the routes. I'm not sure about that but I haven't heard anything. CG: I was just wondering if that would just go off your agenda or if you're still gonna look at the transportation issues. Page 21 of 23 OT: I'm hoping we'll look at it in terms of can we learn, did we learn from the reality of what happened. It's not necessarily the . People made decisions based on what they felt was advantageous for them, but I think if we're going to be looking at being a diverse community we've got to look at all of the pros and cons. It can't be like business as usual. I think that's one of the things where we talked to the transportation people that I know I will bring it up and say in hindsight would you do the same thing or would you do it differently. KH: I think what they're finding is that you said was underutilized because they underestimated the socialization aspect with all these youth hanging out in downtown after school. HO: I have one Commission thing to report. I was contacted by Jeff Cox about the new Jim Crow comes to Iowa City. You have a copy of the article he wrote in your packet. He was invited to attend tonight's meeting as well as the October meeting. I don't know if we want to put it on the agenda for October under new business, but of particular concern is the courthouse which goes up for a referendum on the November ballot. SG: You mean the justice center? HO: Right. I don't know how you feel about putting it on the agenda, but that's the only way if we're gonna do it we have to do it for the October meeting to talk about it, and then whatever action we may want to take whether it be a letter to the editor or an open letter to the public in some form to take a stand. OT: What type of stand do you feel would be appropriate for us to take? HO: I don't know that's why I invited Jeff to attend the meeting and talk to us tonight about what his concern is and how he sees us addressing the concern. KH: Who is he? HO: Jeff Cox is a Professor of History at the University. CG: And he approached you Harry? HO: Yes. SG: He actually wrote a letter to the editor regarding that a few weeks ago. I think he was against it if I remember correctly. He was against the justice center. I'm biased. I've taken a tour of the jail. I've taken a tour of the courthouse. We really need one desperately. OT: I have some concerns about that, but as a compromise I feel more comfortable if you request Mr. Cox that he sends us a written statement outlining what his concerns are, or what he would like for us to address so that we can look at it before we met with him. SG: Yes some time to talk it over and so close to the elections. OT: But this is a political thing, it's not just building a building. There are so many pros and cons involved in it, and I guess my thing I'm always willing to acquire new knowledge. If he's got something that I feel that I could benefit from, then I'd like to have it. I think I'd like to have it before I sit down to talk to him. Page 22 of 23 HO: Well like I said he was invited to tonight's meeting. He was aware of the time and the place and everything, and he did not show up. I just wanted to bring it to your attention that I was contacted by him. Staff reports? d. Staff SB: I just have a very light list here. I have three vacancies for the Human Rights Commission I believe were just posted with the city council tonight. Of course every year we gain three and lose three. The deadline for those applications to be into the city clerk's office will be Wednesday November 7`h at 5 pm. HO: We're losing Howard, Connie and myself SB: Correct. The reports of the complaints are I believe it's the last item in the packet. We were able to clear out a lot of cases over the last few months, so we're back to fewer complaints than what you've seen in the past. I do want to mention that the city recently closed their document services department, and so as a result of that I am learning to become a document specialist. So I do apologize for this. If you have it discarded it, and I will provide an updated and correct one in the October packet. Orville was left off the bottom of the sheet and I didn't list Harry as the chair. I'm learning and I'm getting good at this stuff, but obviously I still have a lot of room for improvement. SG: Can I ask a question to everybody? It's kind of off the radar here. SB: If it's not a Commission related question then he can end the meeting and then you can ask. Adiournment: Motion to adjourn at 19:31. 7. Next Regular Meeting — October 16"' at 18:00. Page 23 of 23 Human Rights Commission ATTENDANCE RECORD 2012 7/17 TERM 9/18 10/16 11/20 12/18 O/E X NAME EXP. 1/17 2/21 3/20 4/17 5/15 6/19 Dr. Howard 1/1/13 X X O/E X O/E X Cowen R R R R R R R Constance R R O/E X X O/E O/E Goeb X X X X O/E X Shams Ghoneim Harry O/E X X X X X X Olmstead 941414A^10 Jessie Harper (Appointed 6 -5 -12 ) 1/1/15 - TFFFj (8 -1 -2010) O/ E X X O/E Dan Tallon (Appointed 7- 31 -12) 1/1/14 - David BO/E O/E O/E R R Brown Diane 7/17 8/21 9/18 10/16 11/20 12/18 O/E X O/E X O/E Orville Townsend, Sr. X X X X X X X X X X X R R R R R R Finnerty X X X X X O/E X O/E Orville Townsend, Sr. 1/1/14 X X X X X X X X X Henri Harper 1/1/15 O/E X O/E R R R R R R Kim Hanrahan 1/1/15 X X X X X X X O/E X Shams Ghoneim 1/1/15 O/E X X X X X X X X Jessie Harper (Appointed 6 -5 -12 ) 1/1/15 - TFFFj O/ E X X O/E Dan Tallon (Appointed 7- 31 -12) 1/1/14 - _ - - X X KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting /No Quorum R'= Resigned - = Not a Member R I R I R 3b(10) MINUTES APPROVED PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION JULY 11, 2012 UNIVERSITY OF IOWA BECKWITH BOATHOUSE Members Present: David Bourgeois, Clay Claussen, Allie Gnade, Cara Hamann, Joe Younker Members Absent: Maggie Elliott, Lucie Laurian, John Westefeld Staff Present: Mike Moran, Chad Dyson, Terry Robinson Others Present: Gregg Geerdes, Mary Murphy CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Chairman Claussen. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL: (to become effective only after separate Council action): None OTHER FORMAL ACTION TAKEN: It was noted by Gnade that there was an omission in the June 2012 minutes. The word "not" was excluded on page 1 under the Other Formal Actions Taken section. Third sentence should read "Krohmer has not informed staff of his absence from meetings." Moved by Bourgeois, seconded by Hamann, to approve the June 12 2012 minutes as amended. Motion passed 6 -0 with Elliott, Laurian and Westefeld being absent. Moved by Krohmer, seconded by Younker, to accept land in lieu of fees in the Peninsula Neighborhood. Passed 6 -0 with Elliott, Laurian and Westefeld being absent. PUBLIC DISCUSSION: Mary Murphy and Gregg Geerdes were in attendance to talk to the Commission regarding their concerns about the flood mitigation being proposed for the Taft Speedway area. Murphy mentioned her concern for bikers, walkers and runners in this area stating that there is nothing in the proposed plans that consider these people. She also has a great deal of concern regarding the view that will be damaged by a flood wall. She said that this wall would impact the space all along Dubuque Street. She stated that a flood wall would be a large concrete structure and according to the consultant, landscaping is not an option as it can undermine the structure. Murphy would like the Commission, as an independent body, or at least the individual members, to take a stance against this proposal. She would rather see the City embrace the river and appreciate what it means for those who live nearby. While the consultant did not emphasize such, she stated that there will be one or more pumps associated with the flood mitigation which will periodically be quite noisy. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 2 of 8 Geerdes thanked the Commission for giving them a chance to speak. Geerdes stated that a flood wall would basically be a 15' wall that will eventually be covered in graffiti and that this will be blight on City Park. He said he would like to see the Commission do more than they have done to date. He stated it is the job of the Commission to be stewards of Iowa City parks and that they should exercise their duty to take a stand on this mitigation proposal. He feels it will be detrimental to the park and to the community and that it is counterproductive for the City to spend money on the Parkview Terrace improvements while sitting idly by as this flood wall goes up. Murphy stated that the park improvement plan is fabulous and will expand on the beautiful view around the park. She encouraged the Commission to explore other possibilities of this nature around City Park. She gave the example of Parkview Church stating that the church will not stand forever. She would like to see the City present a plan to use this property to expand upon City Park rather than it being used for other types of development. Moran stated that he thought there was going to be another public hearing sometime in August or September to review the proposals for flood mitigation. He stated that Commission is waiting to see what kind of recommendation is made by the consultant. He reminded Commission that when Jason from Public Works gave his presentation a few months ago, there were seven options presented. Moran said it is difficult for Commission to take a stand at this point without knowing what direction the consultant will propose. Murphy noted that the consultant told them at the last meeting that they were not going to make a recommendation and would leave that up to City Council. She noted that the City has received $84,000 in CDBG funds and that the City will be responsible for covering any additional costs. This money will have to be paid back through home owners property taxes, Murphy said, and feels this is an extreme measure when it will only benefit one condominium development where half of the owners have changed since 2008. Moran noted that some kind of report will have to come from the consultant following the next public hearing. His understanding is that they agreed not to bring this back to Council in August. Krohmer stated that if no flood mitigation is done in this area, it is the tax payer who will have to pay for the flood clean up. Either way, tax payers will be responsible for the cost. Murphy said that condo owners would have to pay for flood insurance and that the condo association could easily set up a reserve to cover the cost of any loss that would not be covered by flood insurance. She also noted that less than 50% of the condos were damaged in the 2008 flood. She reiterated that this seems to be an extreme measure to only protect one upper - middle class condo development. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 3 of 8 Younker stated that he feels from the Commissions perspective, they need to see how this mitigation proposal will affect the public space of Iowa City that is in their jurisdiction. He feels that without knowing what the report suggests, it is difficult for the Commission to gauge what they are dealing with. He suggests that the Commission see the report before taking a stand. Claussen mentioned that he would also like Commission member Lucie Laurian, who is absent tonight, to have the opportunity to weigh in as she has a special interest in preserving green space and wetlands. He also agrees that it is necessary for the Commission to have a full picture before taking a stand. Moran offered to have a staff member from Public Works return to the Commission to give a presentation. He asked Murphy when the next public meeting is planned. She stated that has already occurred. She said that the consultant now has to give their report to Council who will vote on it. She is afraid that if Commission waits, Council will have already voted. At the very least, she encouraged Commission members to study and discuss the alternatives which are available on line. She said that very preliminary costs are also posted on -line; however, there is no consideration of the impact on the environment or the cost of doing an assessment. She also encouraged members to go on a boat out on the river and take a look at the view of the riverbank as it is now. She noted that a flood wall is going to last far beyond the Idyllwild Condominiums. Claussen confirmed that at the very least, Murphy and Geerdes are asking Commission to ask Council to delay their vote until Commission has had a presentation or feedback on how this may impact the park and trails. Haman feels that the conversation tonight addresses only how this affects City Park. She would like to have more information Murphy encouraged all to walk the trail to see how beautiful the view is and imagine how it will look when the view is cut off if any kind of flood mitigation is put in place. DISCUSS STATUS OF COMMISSION MEMBER AARON KROHMER: Claussen welcomed Krohmer back to the Commission. Claussen informed him that the agenda item regarding his attendance was placed on the agenda prior to anyone knowing of his accident and that it was addressing his absences prior to this. Aaron stated that previous absences were due to his work schedule. Although he had been assured that he would not be put on the schedule during Commission meetings, he was indeed scheduled due to other employee absences. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 4 of 8 Claussen reminded Krohmer to call Tammy Neumann, Parks and Recreation Administrative Secretary, prior to the meetings to inform her of his absence. Claussen noted how important attendance is of all members as without a quorum they cannot meet. Krohmer assured Claussen he would notify staff if he was going to be absent in the future. POSTING OF AGENDA PACKETS: Moran shared a memo from the Clerk's Office. He explained that the commission meeting packets that members receive via email are posted on the City web site. The Clerk's office is asking that when there is anything added to the packet once it has been posted, that the packet again be scanned and re- posted. Therefore, Moran is encouraging staff and commission members to attempt to get everything to Tammy for packets prior to the packets being sent. Packets are sent out the Friday prior to the monthly Commission meeting. PARKS TOUR DISCUSSION Moran noted that he could schedule the annual parks tour in either September or October, leaning towards September due to the loss of light in October. Some areas that were suggested for the tour were Terry Trueblood Recreation Area, North Market Square, the Ashton House and Normandy Drive area, and Napoleon Ball Fields. Claussen stated that he would like to visit the west side of Iowa City as well. Krohmer also said that he would like the group to visit the Willow Creek Trail under Highway 1. He stated that the proposal to connect Riverside to this area along Highway 1 will increase access to Terry Trueblood Recreation Area and that this would give Commission members a visual of what this project will provide. NEIGHBORHOOD OPEN SPACE REVIEW: Moran referred the Commission to a copy of the plat for the Peninsula Neighborhood. He directed them to Outlot O on the plat as the land that is being offered to the city in lieu of funds. Moran reported that while it is a much wooded lot and will not accommodate anything such as a ball field or a shelter; it would be a great addition to the property already owned by the City. Krohmer noted that this plat is really not a true representation of what this area will look like. He said in the final design there will be multiple access points to Peninsula Park and to the trail. Moran agreed that while some will change, the land being offered for park use will remain the same. He also noted that Commission will have a chance to review the final plat when it is available. Moved by Krohmer, seconded by Younker, to accept land in lieu of fees in the Peninsula Neighborhood. Passed 6 -0 with Elliott, Laurian and Westefeld being absent. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 5 of 8 RECREATION DIVISION REPORT: Dyson reported that the bids came in for the east entry remodel project of the Robert A. Lee Recreation Center. The project was awarded to North Construction and will begin on August 13. Krohmer asked if there were going to be additional bike racks put in place and Dyson confirmed that there will be. Dyson noted that the extreme heat has kept City Park Pool very busy with an increase of about $10,000 in revenue and an increase of about 30% in attendance when compared to last year at this same time. Dyson noted that there is a local athlete that participated in the Hershey Track and Field event that will be competing in the state softball throw. Dyson said that staff will be putting together the first draft of the fall activity guide. The guide will be available to the public on August 13 with registration beginning on August 29. PARKS DIVISION REPORT: Robinson reported on Napoleon Ball Field renovation plans. He explained that there is a 6' drop from fields 3 & 4 (along the roadway) to fields 1 & 2 (on the west edge). Because of this slope, when it rains the water ends up at the first and third dugouts on fields 3 & 4. Therefore the outfields will be re- grated lowering the area by about 2.5'. The dirt will be moved to other parts of the outfield leaving a 1 % slope. New drainage the will also be installed on fields 1 & 2. The bid opening for this project is scheduled for July 27 and will go before Council for approval on July 31. Robinson reported that this project will take approximately 30 -45 days. Robinson noted that they have built a new ramp at City Park leading to what is called "red brick." This is a building south of the Riverside Stage. Boys Baseball club has added batting cages to City Park. Claussen asked how Robinson plans on re- establishing grass at Napoleon. Robinson reported that while they would rather seed the area, because it is so late in the season, they will be replacing it with sod. DIRECTORS REPORT: TTRA Update: Brian Mildenstein with Fin and Feather, who will be contracting to manage the boat rentals and concessions at TTRA, has received a revised copy of the concession contract between he and the City. Because of the very low water levels at the lake, it is likely that these concession PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 6 of 8 services will be delayed until September. Moran also reported that there will be dredging of the lake on August 6. This will take place from the boat ramp to a just past the middle of the lake. Krohmer asked if there have been any fish kills at TTRA. Moran reported not so far, however, there a lot of algae build -up. Neighborhood Meetings: Moran spoke with Marcia Bollinger, Neighborhood Services Coordinator, who said that many of the neighborhoods do not have regularly scheduled meetings but will schedule when necessary. Moran said he will put together a list of those neighborhoods that Commission Members may visit and present to members at next month's meeting. Commission Orientation: Moran referred to a memo regarding what to include in new commission member orientation packets. Members are asked to review and let him know of anything else that should be included. Review of Johnson County Conservation Board Long -Range Planning Priorities 2010 -2015: Moran presented Commission with a copy of this plan for their review. Ashton House: Moran will be meeting with the State on Friday regarding the FEMA update and an adaptive re -use plan for the Ashton House. He noted that some of the money designated for Normandy Drive restoration will be used for this project. He hopes to start any necessary changes to the house by this fall. Dog Park Access Road: The road to the Thornberry Off -Leash Dog Park is underway. While it is inconvenient during the construction, it will be a huge improvement when done. He also noted that there is trail work beginning at the Scott Park Trail into Rita's Ranch Dog Park. CIP Review: Commission will review the department CIP list at the September meeting as the City Manager wants these back to him by October 1. The Commission will review the list and prioritize the projects. Staff will present them with their prioritization list at this meeting as well. August Meeting: Moran asked to reschedule the August meeting from August 8 to August 15 as he will be out of town. Commission members were in agreement. CHAIRS REPORT: Claussen will email Commission member Lucie Laurian to get her input on the proposed flood mitigation plan discussed earlier in the evening. Claussen also asked when the Farmers Market strategic plan would go before Council. Moran reported that the City Manager asked that the request for a possible full -time Market Coordinator, be removed from the plan. Neumann has PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 7 of 8 attempted to schedule a meeting with the planning group but has not had any luck in getting something scheduled that the majority could attend. COMMISSION TIME /SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS: Hamann asked about the status of the Chadek property. Krohmer reported that a developer put in a bid that was much lower than what they were asking. Moran and City Attorney Dilkes met with Joan Jehle, Friends of Hickory Hill and David Minehart, relative of the Chadeks. They are setting up a 501 (c)(3) for donations to purchase this property. They asked Moran if he thought the City would be willing to contribute the CDBG funds of $280,000 that were initially approved for this project. Moran stated that the deadline to do so has expired and the money has since been earmarked for another project (Splash Pad at Fairmeadows Park). If this grant was not reallocated, the department would have lost this funding. Krohmer noted that he has received very positive feedback regarding a Fairmeadows Splash Pad. Krohmer commended the Parks Staff for the great job they did cleaning up Creekside Park after it was under water recently due to a heavy rain. Krohmer noted that the pedestrian access from Sycamore to Highway 6 is going to bid once again. He said that this would greatly improve pedestrian access to Highway 6. Krohmer made note that his parents live in Idyllwild Condominiums and asked if that would be considered a conflict of interest in any future discussions about this area. Moran said he didn't think so, however, Krohmer will check with City Attorney Dilkes to confirm. Krohmer noted that the City has $600,000 in the budget for streetscapes and improvement in the downtown area. He said he would like to see some bike safety changes made in the downtown district. Moran referred him to Kris Ackerson with MPO for more information. Hamann noted that since this is a roadway improvement, it would likely go to Streets and not to this commission. Gnade thanked the Parks and Recreation Department for their support of the Children's Gardens on the pedestrian mall. Bourgeois stated that he considers Krohmer a very good member of this Commission with a great deal of knowledge and he hopes he will be able to continue on the Commission. ADJOURNMENT: Moved by Krohmer, seconded by Bourgeois, to adjourn the meeting at 6:35 p.m. Motion passed 6 -0 with Elliott, Laurian and Westefeld being absent. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION July 11, 2012 Page 8 of 8 PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION ATTENDANCE RECORD YEAR 2011 NAME N N r rC r r r r TERM w M o w n ao 04 EXPIRES David 1/1/15 X X O/E X X X X Bourgeois Clay 1/1/14 X X X X X X X Claussen Maggie 1/1/13 X O/E X X X X O/E Elliott Allison 1/1/14 X X X O/E X X X Gnade Cara 1/1/16 X X X X X X X Hamann Aaron 1/1/13 O O O O O O ** X Krohmer Lucie 1/1/15 X X X X X X O/E Laurian John 1/1/14 X X X X O/E X X Westefeld Joe 1/1/16 X X X X O/E -X -X Younker KEY: X = Present O = Absent O/E = Absent/Excused NM = No meeting LQ = No meeting due to lack of quorum * = Not a member at this time * *= Member was listed as absent/excused status January through May. These have been changed to absent status. 10 3b(11) uwmwm.� PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION APPROVED SEPTEMBER 6, 2012 — 7:00 PM — FORMAL EMMA J. HARVAT HALL, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Carolyn Stewart Dyer, Charlie Eastham, Anne Freerks, Phoebe Martin, Paula Swygard, John Thomas MEMBERS ABSENT: Tim Weitzel STAFF PRESENT: Robert Miklo, Karen Howard, Sarah Greenwood - Hektoen, John Yapp OTHERS PRESENT: Brett Bosworth, Steve Moss RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITY COUNCIL: The Commission voted 6 -0 to recommend approval of REZ12 -00005 and REZ12 -00006 and to defer SUB12 -00003 until the Planning and Zoning Committee's meeting of September 20 with the conditions and stipulations as set forth in the staff memo dated August 31, 2012 CALL TO ORDER: The meeting was called to order at 7:00 PM. PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF ANY ITEM NOT ON THE AGENDA: There was none. REZONING ITEM REZ12- 00005 /REZ12- 00006 /SUB12- 00003: Discussion of an application submitted by Steve Moss for a rezoning of approximately 172 acres of land from Interim Development — Research Park (ID -RP), Planned Development — Mixed Use (OPD -MU), Planned Development — Research Development Park (OPD -RDP), and Planned Development — Office Research Park (OPD -ORP) to approximately 15.8 acres of Planned Development — Highway Commercial (OPD- CH -1), 27.97 acres of Research Development Park, and 129.12 acres to Interim Development — Research Park (ID -RP) and a 172 acre commercial subdivision consisting of nine commercial lots and one out lot reserved for future development for property located west of Highway 1 and north of Interstate 80 Howard said the Comprehensive Plan for this area calls for Office Research Park. She said this is one of the few areas in the city that has interstate location, and this is an ideal location for Office Research Park uses. She said the plat currently submitted is similar to the plat that was approved in 2010. She noted that the lot configurations, lot sizes and additional roadway access to Highway 1 are the major changes from the previous approved preliminary plat. She said as the last time, the applicant would like to complete this development in phases, with the Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 2 of 10 southeast corner being developed first. She showed the Commission the rezoning pattern the applicant is requesting. She said with the possibility of a new connection to Highway 1 they want to move the support retail from up near Oakdale Boulevard further south so there is visibility from the interstate. Howard said the remainder of the property would remain an outlot reserved for future development and would be zoned Interim Development, which gives the applicant time to complete the necessary environmental assessment and design work for the remainder of the office park. Howard said the City Engineer has had the opportunity to review the plat and feels that with the exception of a few minor changes that need to be made, the overall engineering of the plat meets City standards. She said since the last meeting of the Commission, City Council and the City Manager have had discussions with Pearson, and Pearson does not agree to have the south road connection, which was shown on the proposed plat at the Commission's last meeting. She said Pearson has agreed to negotiate an agreement regarding a new street that would extend across the northern portion of the Pearson property from Highway 1 to the Moss property. The City is now working on an agreement to allow access to that site for environmental assessment, surveying and engineering of the road. Howard said that the previous preliminary plat from 2010 has now expired. She said in that the Llewellyn /Hills Bank Trust property was included in the previously approved preliminary plat, which allowed for the extension of Oakdale Boulevard from Highway 1 to the proposed Moss development. While it is not imperative to include this property with the current preliminary plat, given that Oakdale Boulevard will eventually need to be extended to serve the development, staff recommends that the Llewellyn / Hills Bank Trust property be included in this new preliminary plat. She said it would be in the best interest of the developer to get permission from Hills Bank and Dr. Llewellyn to include their properties as part of the plat. She reiterated that staff finds that the plat meets City standards with the condition that the off -site improvements are agreed on before the City Council approves the plat. Staff recommends deferral of the plat tonight so the developer can seek permission to include the Llewellyn/ Hills Bank Trust properties. Howard said the rezoning requests are for Research Development Park (RDP), Planned Development Highway Commercial (OPD- CH -1), and Interim Development Research Park (ID- RP). She said the applicant has submitted a concept plan for the commercial portion of the development, which would consist of four lots in the southeast corner of the property. She said they intend to market these lots for retail and support services for the larger office park, such as a hotel, restaurants, retail and personal services. She said that OPD -CH -1 also allows any kind of office. Now that there will be no street along the south boundary of the Pearson property which would provide street access that is more proximate to the Interstate, it may mean that the support retail area will be slower to develop and office uses may be an suitable alternative uses on the commercial property. She said a commercial business that might locate in the planned development may have different ideas about how exactly they want to build their building and design their site, but the concept plan demonstrates the type of landscaping and building placement and general character of what that commercial area would be. Howard explained that the reason they have requested OPD -CH -1 is that there is not a good commercial zoning designation that would support an office park. She said the purpose of OPD- CH-1 zoning is to permit development of service uses related to the expressways or arterial streets. She said the added purpose in this case would be to provide support retail services for the office park, and the planned development part of that process would be intended to provide the flexibility in these types of situations where the conventional development may be inappropriate and where modifications are necessary to meet the needs of the development. She said the applicant has requested several modifications to the underlying zoning. She said Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 3 of 10 the OPD -CH -1 does not allow for extensive retail development but it does allow gas stations and other services that support an interchange. She said in this case, they want the ability to provide the possibility for sales- oriented and personal service- oriented retail uses up to 50,000 square feet, general animal - related commercial uses, and specialized educational facilities. These types of uses would be complementary to both the office park and to the interstate location. Howard said they also want allowances for larger monument signs scaled for the larger lots of an office park and entranceway features and signage for the park according to a master plan that would be submitted to and approved by the City. Howard explained that the City has the ability to ask for a conditional zoning agreement if there are additional restrictions that staff feels are appropriate because of the zoning and the unique characteristics of this location. She said the applicant has agreed to these restrictions: There will be no more than two drive - through facilities. • Outdoor storage and display will be restricted to what is allowed in the CC -2 Zone. The buildings will be constructed of similar quality materials as approved for use in the larger office park. The building and entrances will be oriented toward the street, the parking lots will be screened, and there are pedestrian connections and cross access drives between the lots. There will be some additional setbacks of twenty feet. as opposed to the City standard of ten feet setback from the street right of way, and a fifty foot setback from the interstate right of way. There will be no freestanding pole signs. Howard said that staff recommends approval of REZ12 -00005 and REZ12 -00006 subject to these conditions: 1. Permission from adjacent property owners allowing construction of a new collector street that would extend from Highway 1 across property owned by Neal Llewellyn and Pearson and other necessary infrastructure, such as storm water facilities, water and sewer lines. Agreement regarding this new street must be resolved prior to City Council approval of the rezoning and the preliminary plat; 2. Submittal and approval of a sensitive areas development plan (Level 1 or Level 2, as applicable) addressing any disturbance of sensitive areas in off -site locations on the Pearson or Llewellyn properties. Said sensitive areas development plan must be approved prior to any grading or disturbance of this area; 3. Any on -site or off -site areas that will be disturbed that have not already been investigated for the presence of wetlands will need to be investigated and the absence of wetlands will need to be verified prior to any development activity, including grading or clearing; 4. Approval of a conditional zoning agreement that addresses the following requirements and allowances: a. Submittal of a master landscape and sign plan for the entire office park prior to approval of the final plat; b. Site plans for the development of individual lots within the development shall be reviewed and approved by City staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission; c. Standards to ensure that buildings and sites are developed in a manner that is consistent with a Class A office park; d. In the area zoned Highway Commercial (CH -1), the following additional allowances, standards, and restrictions shall apply: i. No more than two drive through facilities will be allowed according to the standards in the CC -2 Zone; ii. Outdoor display and storage is restricted to what is allowed in the CC -2 Zone; iii. Conditions that address expected quality building materials, building location and design, and parking area setbacks; Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 4 of 10 iv. The following additional uses are allowed in the planned development: 1. Sales- oriented and Personal Service - Oriented Retail Uses up to a maximum of 50,000 square feet per lot; 2. General Animal - Related Commercial Uses; 3. Specialized Educational Facilities. Howard stated that staff recommends deferral of SUB12 -00003 until September 20 to allow time to seek agreement from Dr. Llewellyn and Hills Bank to include their properties as part of the preliminary plat. Howard asked if there were any questions. Freerks asked if a bank's ATM machine would be considered one of the two allowable drive - throughs. Howard said if it is part of a larger bank's drive through facilities that it would be considered one of the two drive - throughs. Eastham asked Howard to explain why one of the additional uses is animal - related commercial use. Howard said the applicant wanted to reserve the option to allow for an animal grooming business or veterinary clinic. Eastham asked if the Commission will have some flexibility in looking at the parking lot site plans. Howard said yes that flexibility in design of the commercial development will be needed depending on the type and size of the business that locates on any given lot. However, the planned development concept plan is intended to indicate the expected quality of the development and how it will be complementary to the larger office park. She said the concept plan is intended to show the general character of what would be allowed. Any development will have to meet the underlying zoning requirements and any additional standards adopted as part of the planned development plan and conditional zoning agreement. Eastham said that in other rezonings for larger retail outlet areas where there are larger parking lots the Commission wanted wider aisles and more plantings, things not required by the Code but which added aesthetically to the development. Howard explained that this site is not intended for big box retail stores, which is why the restriction is for buildings fifty thousand square feet or less. She said that buildings over that size, such as Wal -Mart and Menards, have to meet big box retailing standards in the zoning code for their building design and parking areas, which are typically much larger than what is indicated on this plan. Eastham asked if they have enough control over how the storm water facilities on site will look. Howard said the applicant wanted to get permission for the plat and the rezoning before they went to the expense of designing the whole park with a master landscape plan. She said staff and the development team both feel that there does need to be a master landscape and sign plan to guarantee consistency. She said the storm water facilities will have to be designed at the final plat stage. Miklo added that as noted in the staff recommendations, one of the conditions would be site plan review by the Commission, so the Commission would have a chance to weigh in on the design of the storm water facilities. Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 5 of 10 Howard said they expect to get a master plan before final plat, and one of the conditions would be that the storm water facilities be integrated into that master landscaping plan. Eastham asked that if FEMA updates the flood plain elevations for this area, would that be incorporated in the future for planning purposes here. Howard said that anyone applying for a building permit has to abide by whatever the current flood plain regulations are at the time of application. Eastham asked if staff has any feelings about whether this single access point is adequate for public safety over the next several years as the area is developed and traffic increases. Howard said in the traffic study that was completed by HR Green, they looked at how the intersections would function in the Highway 1 corridor and the traffic circulation would occur if there were two roads. She said staff is going to request that the same company re -run the numbers to show what happens if there is just one road. She said clearly it is not as good as having two connections but the traffic study shows that some development can occur here without secondary access, just like in Northgate Corporate Park. Howard said the traffic study will look at the trigger points that will indicate when the City will need to extend Oakdale Boulevard to provide secondary access. John Yapp, transportation planner for the City, said that retail uses can have a higher volume of traffic than a typical office use. He said their preliminary analysis is that much of this first phase of development as shown on the plat can likely be developed on a single means of access, but they want to review a subsequent traffic study to confirm that and to confirm at what point Oakdale Boulevard would need to be extended before additional development would be permitted. Eastham asked if there was a street on the south of Pearson property would Oakdale Boulevard need to be extended. Yapp said in that case, the extension would not need to occur as soon, as that would provide a second point of access. He said the need for a second means of access for a development this size is typically for emergency response purposes and for traffic distribution. However, eventually Oakdale Boulevard would be needed for development of future phases of the office park. Howard said that office traffic tends to have concentrated traffic at certain times of the day whereas for retail uses there would be a more general traffic flow, so the traffic consultant will provide more detailed analysis regarding how one street would work versus two. Eastham asked if the City has options for obtaining an access to the south. Howard said the City has the power of eminent domain, but Council has indicated that they are not willing to use that power at this time and wish to work out an agreement with Pearson for the street on the north side of their property. Freerks opened public hearing. Brett Bosworth from R &R Realty Group and on behalf of Steve Moss said he had heard concerns at the last meeting about what they would put from an image perspective along the interstate. He said about half the property that would front on the interstate would be office and the other half is dedicated to retail services. He showed the Commission examples of their inventory in Des Moines and the product type they have placed along major arteries and the interstate, the majority of which are single story office buildings constructed in brick and glass. Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 6 of 10 He showed examples of signage used on their properties in which they dedicate one monument sign per lot but don't allow much signage on the buildings. He said they also provide for monument signs for buildings that don't front onto the interstate and limit the colors that can be used. For those properties that have frontage along the interstate, they would like to have a couple of larger monument signs that are visible to passing traffic that would announce the location of the office park and some of the major businesses in the park. For retailers, the signage is similar in design quality, but they allow some additional color variation to respond to their marketing logos. Bosworth said they will be spending a lot of money on the entrance -way features to the park and that will set the tone for the quality of what is to come and will dictate who won't come if it isn't high enough quality. He said that they will be diligent about making sure that from a distance and as you drive in the park there aren't any inconsistencies in the area that would negate the investment they would make to set the tone of image and quality. He mentioned concern about the possibility of a wind turbine on the Pearson property and said it's important that there aren't any inconsistencies in tone around the entrance -way feature because it will be seen from such a distance. Bosworth said because the property is situated higher than the interstate, parking areas will not be very visible from the interstate and showed examples of how they have handled parking lot screening on their other properties. Bosworth said in all their properties they have built ponds with walking trails and keep them immaculate. He said about 35% of this project is natural green space, with woodlands and the stream corridor and most likely those areas will stay natural. He said the areas that aren't currently green areas would be converted to manmade green areas. He said in their discussions with Pearson, R &R is made the point that without a south street, the north access point should be reserved for the Moss development rather than allowing driveway connections to the Pearson parking lot. Since the Moss office park will have only one access point until Oakdale Boulevard comes into play it's going to be more difficult to market and they will need to ensure that the road capacity is reserved for the businesses that would locate in the new office park. Dyer explained that her meaning of green space and Bosworth's are different. She said on all his examples there is a large amount of manicured grass, which is not the most sustainable kind of vegetation to have in Iowa. She said more and more areas are now given over to native plants or allowed to be natural in order to reduce the amount of chemicals and water needed to maintain the vegetation. She asked if R &R had considered those types of more natural landscaping in terms of the future should agricultural chemicals be found to be harmful to the waterway. Bosworth said there's not another park in the state that has as much natural area as the 35% in this development, and as a consequence it will require less mowing and fertilization than other similar office parks. Freerks asked if he is referring to wooded areas. Bosworth said their intention is not to encroach into these areas because they provide a natural setting which is unique to this park, and also it would be expensive to do so. He said many businesses want a manicured lawn, so there will still be mowing but there will be more natural space than in any other office park that he knows of. Eastham asked who will own and maintain the grounds around all the buildings. Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 7 of 10 Bosworth said the idea is to create a development that has a consistent management plan. Similar to all of R &R's other office developments, this one will be managed by them. Thomas said that the intersection of Moss Farm Road and Pearson Road should be viewed as providing a sense of arrival since there is a half -mile to drive to get there after turning in off Highway 1. Bosworth said that given that this property line is so far inside Highway 1 they will have to look into that as most of their other developments have had the entrance near the property line. Thomas said it could be a long, pleasing drive with nice features, or it could seem like it takes a very long time to reach the destination. Bosworth said they haven't figured out where to put the entranceway feature, but it does need to be significant. Steve Moss indicated that the names of the roads on the plat may be changed. Bosworth agreed that there has been some sensitivity to the naming of the streets and that they would need to review the street names again. Howard said if the plat is deferred the development team can think about what the road names should be. Eastham asked if Bosworth would comment on deferring action on the plat. Bosworth said the project has an estimated start date that has to be this fall to get it completed by next November. He said approval of the rezoning at this meeting is important, but pushing out the plat to the last Council meeting doesn't affect their schedule. Howard reminded the Commission that the rezoning takes three votes of the City Council because it is done by ordinance so the plat is always held until the final reading of the ordinance for the rezoning, so there is plenty of time to get the plat to the City Council, even if it's deferred to the Commission's next meeting. Freerks said they don't usually have a list quite so long of things that need to be cleared up before they move forward, but this is complicated, and sometimes waiting for pieces to fall into place is important. Freerks closed public hearing. Eastham moved to approve REZ12 -00005 and REZ12 -00006 and to defer SUB12 -00003 until the Planning and Zoning Committee's meeting of September 20 with the conditions and stipulations as set forth in the staff memo dated August 31, 2012. Thomas seconded. Freerks invited discussion. Eastham said that the Comprehensive Plan clearly calls for the land use that is proposed. He said he thinks that the uses here of primarily office research park with some support retail and commercial uses are an important and vital addition to Iowa City's economic development. He said the staff and the applicants have done an adequate job of addressing the sensitive area features in these parcels. He said developing this entire area in phases makes a lot of sense so he is very supportive of the overall plan as well as the particular development sequences that Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 8 of 10 are proposed. Eastham said that both the staff and the developer see the current access as adequate but less than ideal for the proposed uses. He said he believes that an access from the south part of the Pearson property would probably increase the economic viability of the area, which he thinks is a legitimate consideration when looking at both the proposed land use as well a way to get to the proposed land use. However, he said he is willing to support the access that is immediately available. Freerks agreed that it's unfortunate not to see an additional road, and noted that it would be nice to see a road develop there in the future. She said she agrees that this use is supported in the Comprehensive Plan and as there is very little highway commercial in that area it will grow quickly there. She said she looks forward to how the developer will integrate the green spaces in some of these lovely areas and try to maintain its unique characteristics. She said she thinks doing that will draw people to this park to work. Martin said she thinks the developer's presentation is very appealing and that leaving the natural land areas makes this property unique. She said the only concern she has is the use of chemicals inundating the sensitive areas, but it seems that the developers have already thought about that and about keeping the natural resources so they don't have to go that route. She said this unique landscape could make this very desirable, particularly in Iowa City where we like our trees. Thomas said he is supportive of the project and is interested in the challenge of how losing that one entry point can be viewed as an opportunity. He said he thinks it's an opportunity for the developer to create a real sense of entry onto the development so that when you do arrive, you will be in a different place. Swygard said she supports this project because it fits in well with the Comprehensive Plan. She said her main concern is the traffic flow, not only for the Moss project but also for the workers at Pearson who may want to use the retail services that might locate on the Moss property. She noted that the Pearson employees will have to go back out onto the highway and around in order to do so. She said that another connecting street would have been ideal, but she at least would like to see some cooperation in the future for some walking trails between the retail services in the Moss development and the Pearson property. Eastham said he supports Swygard's comments about the ability of Pearson workers to get to and use the retail services in the Moss development, which in the staff report was part of the rationale for this development. He said trails may be the best thing available at this point. Dyer said she supports this and is also thinking how the workers in Northgate might also support the retail services of the proposed development. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN AMENDMENT ITEMS CPA12 -00003 Consider setting a public hearing for September 20 on an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan to change the land use designation from Office Research to Residential 8 -16 Dwelling Units per Acre for approximately 28 acres located between Camp Cardinal Boulevard and Camp Cardinal Road south of Ryan Court. Miklo said the Commission considered a rezoning request on this same property several weeks ago. He said in order for that rezoning to proceed there will need to be a Comprehensive Plan amendment, and staff is reviewing the questions raised by that amendment. He said staff will Planning and Zoning Commission September 6, 2012 - Formal Page 9 of 10 have a report for the Commission at the September 20 meeting, and the rezoning will also be back on that agenda. Eastham moved to set public hearing for September 20 on CPA12- 00003. Dyer seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. CPA12 -00004 Consider setting a public hearing for September 20 on an amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, Central District Plan, to change the land use designation from Low to Medium Density Multi- family to Single- family & Duplex Residential for property located at 905, 909 and 911 N. Governor Street and vacant property located between 906 and 908 N. Dodge Street. Eastham said he is on the board of an organization that owns property within 200 feet of this area so he will abstain from voting on this item. Miklo said last year a rezoning was considered for the Commercial Office (CO -1) aspect of this property, which went on to City Council with a recommendation from the Commission to approve the rezoning to Low Density Multi- family (RM -12). He said Council denied that rezoning and asked staff to look at the Comprehensive Plan for this area, which currently indicates that it's appropriate for multi - family development. He said staff is examining the Plan for CO -1 area which was subject to the previous zoning. He said the amendment would also consider an adjacent RS -8 area, which was not subject to that rezoning but indicated on the Plan as appropriate for low density multi - family and a vacant property to the west that is also currently in the Plan as appropriate for multi - family. The Commission is being asked to look at the Comprehensive Plan for this area to possibly change it from multi - family to single family and duplex. He said there will possibly be a City- initiated rezoning application on these same properties to implement the Comprehensive Plan if the Commission chooses to make that change. Thomas moved to set public hearing for September 20 on CPA12- 00004. Martin seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 5 -0 with Eastham abstaining. CONSIDERATION OF MEETING MINUTES: August 13 and August 16,2012: Eastham moved to approve the minutes with minor corrections. Swygard seconded. A vote was taken and the motion carried 6 -0. OTHER: There was none. ADJOURNMENT: Swygard moved to adjourn. Eastham seconded. The meeting was adjourned on a 6 -0 vote. z N N 0 20 OU U L � W zV Z Na ad z Ve W z� za z IL a Z H w W O J N a OTC O LL Z H w w J m O LL Z E N j j N -00 �Z �Z co U p) ro X C w� x C W C O C(D E N (D C' E N a) 0 u) y O E Z 2.0 aQ �� n aQ n ii a) u n w g u u w a XOOZ XOOZ a oXXxxxxx O Y Y Y LU 0 °xxx ; xxxo LU co 1 cooxx ; xoxo 01 ,XXX X X x x XXXX i xxxo CDXxX XX0 XXXX co r ,XXX i � XXXX XXX W) CD - X X X XXX X X X CDXX�X XXX T-xxxo X X X x i xxx X X M QXXXX XXX M COCOMNtl- Loom c0 ;Xxxx i xxx N N -Qxxxx ; xxx N W J w J r X X X X i X x X N 0U< w =a0� �wCOCDMNI��AM w U = — ' 'Lo —Lo 'Lo 'Lo wa�u, �-X00000000 u, u, N w -<Wo<a U W N W a w 2w zaLULLX2 a mao�� C) =�WZQaW w N 2 uj Lout CL O - Q> -0 oa =w Z H w w J m O LL Z E E N j j N -00 �Z �Z co U p) ro X C w� x C W C O C(D E N (D C' E N a) 0 u) y O E Z 2.0 aQ �� n aQ n ii a) u n w g u u w a XOOZ XOOZ a O Y Y Y ti 50xx XXOO QXXXi XXXX CD XX0 XXXX MXXX- 1 XXX ti V- X X x X i X X x N M X X X x i X X X N == COCOMNtl- Loom �Xo0oo0000 w W J w J }4Z =W4Z 0U< w =a0� w U = w W Z Q a W U~ N -<Wo<a U W N W a w 2w zaLULLX2 /)H� E E N j j N -00 �Z �Z co U p) ro X C w� x C W C O C(D E N (D C' E N a) 0 u) y O E Z 2.0 aQ �� n aQ n ii a) u n w g u u w a XOOZ XOOZ a O Y Y Y CALL TO ORDER: MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: STAFF ABSENT: OTHERS PRESENT: FINAL /APPROVED POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD MINUTES — September 11, 2012 Chair Donald King called the meeting to order at 5:31 P.M. Melissa Jensen, Royceann Porter and Joseph Treloar Kingsley Botchway Staff Marian Karr and Catherine Pugh None Captain Jim Steffen and Officer David Schwindt of the ICPD. RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL None EXECUTIVE 3b(12) SESSION Motion by Porter and seconded by Jensen to adjourn into Executive Session based on Section 21.5(1)(a) of the Code of Iowa to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that government body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds, and 22.7(11) personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including but not limited to cities, boards of supervisors and school districts, and 22 -7(5) police officer investigative reports, except where disclosure is authorized elsewhere in the Code; and 22.7(18) Communications not required by law, rule or procedure that are made to a government body or to any of its employees by identified persons outside of government, to the extent that the government body receiving those communications from such persons outside of government could reasonably believe that those persons would be discouraged from making them to that government body if they were available for general public examination. Motion carried, 4/0, Botchway absent. Open session adjourned at 5:32 P.M. REGULAR SESSION Returned to open session at 6:13 P.M. Motion by Treloar and seconded by Jensen to set the level of review for PCRB Complaint #12 -01 to 8 -8 -7 (13)(1)(d), Request additional investigation by the Police Chief or City Manager, or request police assistance in the Board's own investigation. Motion carried, 410, Botchway absent. 0011R September 11, 2012 Page 2 CONSENT CALENDAR Motion by Porter and seconded by Treloar to adopt the consent calendar as presented or amended. • Minutes of the meeting on 08/14/12 • ICPD Department Memo #12 -27 (March -April 2012 Use of Force Review) • ICPD Use of Force Report — March 2012 • ICPD Use of Force Report — April 2012 Motion carried, 4/0, Botchway absent. The Board discussed the draft minutes and made a change. Motion by Treloar and seconded by Jensen to change the minutes to reflect that Schwindt did not question but asked for additional information regarding the level of review on the annual report. Motion carried, 4/0, Botchway absent. NEW BUSINESS Select Nominating Committee — Porter and Jensen volunteered to be on the nominating committee and will meet and report back to the Board at the next meeting. BOARD INFORMATION When the Board receives the Chief's report on a complaint the officer's names are not identified. King asked if the Board could request the length of employment for an officer involved in a complaint. Pugh stated that she believed that regardless of whether an officer is new or a veteran, they should all being following the same rules and regulations and length of employment should not have any bearing on the decision of the Board. STAFF INFORMATION Pugh stated she was changing her e-mail address. Tuttle informed the Board that at the August 21St Council meeting, one Council member asked if the PCRB needed to extend their 45 -day reporting period to respond to the Chief's report, since they had requested an extension on the Council agenda. The Board agreed to put the item on the next meeting agenda to discuss. Pugh also stated that the Ad Hoc Diversity Committee has requested that she do a presentation similar to the one given at the forum, but it would probably be in October. PUBLIC DISCUSSION None. FOUR September 11, 2012 Page 3 TENTATIVE MEETING SCHEDULE and FUTURE AGENDAS (subject to change) • October 9, 2012, 5:30 PM, Helling Conference Rm • November 13, 2012, 5:30 PM, Helling Conference Rm • December 11, 2012, 5:30 PM, Helling Conference Rm Motion by Treloar, seconded by Jensen to hold a special executive session only meeting on Tuesday, September 18th at 5:30 subject to room availability. Motion carried, 4/0, Botchway absent. ADJOURNMENT Motion for adjournment by Porter, seconded by Jensen. Motion carried, 4/0, Botchway absent. Meeting adjourned at 6:26 P.M. y �QrQ a b r �I H � H f� r-1 �H �yCNlJ NtrJr� N C n C1i-i 0 t:l LJ A � H QQ w Ul i b r �I H � H f� r-1 �H �yCNlJ NtrJr� N C n C1i-i 0 t:l LJ CALL TO ORDER: MEMBERS PRESENT: MEMBERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: STAFF ABSENT: OTHERS PRESENT: FINAL /APPROVED POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD MINUTES — September 19, 2012 Chair Donald King called the meeting to order at 5:33 P.M. Kingsley Botchway, Melissa Jensen, Royceann Porter and Joseph Treloar None Staff Marian Karr and Catherine Pugh (5:35 P.M.) None None RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL Accept PCRB Report on Complaint #12 -01 10 -23 -12 3b(13) EXECUTIVE SESSION Motion by Treloar and seconded by Kingsley to adjourn into Executive Session based on Section 21.5(1)(a) of the Code of Iowa to review or discuss records which are required or authorized by state or federal law to be kept confidential or to be kept confidential as a condition for that government body's possession or continued receipt of federal funds, and 22.7(11) personal information in confidential personnel records of public bodies including but not limited to cities, boards of supervisors and school districts, and 22 -7(5) police officer investigative reports, except where disclosure is authorized elsewhere in the Code; and 22.7(18) Communications not required by law, rule or procedure that are made to a government body or to any of its employees by identified persons outside of government, to the extent that the government body receiving those communications from such persons outside of government could reasonably believe that those persons would be discouraged from making them to that government body if they were available for general public examination. Motion carried, 5/0. Open session adjourned at 5:34 P.M. REGULAR SESSION Returned to open session at 7:56 P.M. Motion by Jensen, seconded by Treloar to forward the Public Report as amended for PCRB Complaint #12 -01 to City Council. Motion carried, 5/0. Motion by Treloar, seconded by Botchway to request a 60 -day extension for PCRB Complaint #12 -03, due to timelines and scheduling. Motion carried, 5/0. ADJOURNMENT Motion for adjournment by Porter, seconded by Jensen. Motion carried, 5/0. Meeting adjourned at 7:58 P.M. zz��b o A J d fD b 0 r FBI n y n �3 � n � NrrJ�O � C N � � 0 o 0 0 C. 1 g� ICI QQ N i� IN W i A D'C DC yC yC � N � DC yC yC yC J d fD b 0 r FBI n y n �3 � n � NrrJ�O � C N � � 0 POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD A Board of the City of Iowa City 410 East Washington Street Iowa City, IA 52240 -1826 (319) 356 -5041 September 19, 2012 r--, To: City Council ' Complainant - -- City Manager Sam Hargadine, Chief of Police Officer(s) involved in complaint From: Police Citizen's Review Board Re: Investigation of PCRB Complaint #12 -01 This is the Report of the Police Citizens Review Board's (the "Board ") review of the investigation of Complaint PCRB #12 -01 (the "Complaint "). BOARD'S RESPONSIBILITY Under the City Code of the City of Iowa City, Section 8 -8 -76 (2), the Board's job is to review the Police Chiefs Report ( "Report") of his investigation of a complaint. The City Code requires the Board to apply a "reasonable basis" standard of review to the Report and to "give deference" to the Report because of the Police Chiefs professional expertise ", Section 8 -8 -7 B (2). While the City Code directs the Board to make "Findings of Fact ", it also requires that the Board recommend that the Police Chief reverse or modify his findings only if these findings are "unsupported by substantial evidence', are "unreasonable, arbitrary or capricious" or are "contrary to a Police Department policy or practice, or any Federal, State or local law ", Section 8 -8 -7 B (2) a, b, c. BOARD'S PROCEDURE The Complaint was initiated by the Complainant on April 9, 2012. As required by Section 8 -8 -5 (B) of the City Code, the Complaint was referred to the Chief of Police for investigation. The Chief's Report was filed with the City Clerk on 7/9/2012. The Board voted to review the Chiefs Report in accordance with Section 8 -8 -7 (13)(1)(b), "Interview /meet with complainant" and Section 8 -8 -7 (13)(1)(d), Request additional investigation by the Police Chief or City Manager, or request police assistance in the Board's own investigation. The Board met to consider the Report on July 10, 2012, August 14, 2012, September 11, 2012, and September 19, 2012. At the September 11th meeting the Complainant appeared before the Board. The Complainant was asked if she had reviewed the Chief's investigation /audio and she stated yes she had. The Complainant was asked for any additional information that she felt needed to be added to the investigation. It was determined by the Board that further follow -up investigation may be needed, and it would be undertaken by the Board itself. On September 19th the Board listened to one hour and forty -five minutes of audio from the incident. FINDINGS OF FACT On March 18, 2012 at 23:58:47 hours, Officer A was traveling east on Davis St when the officer stopped to investigate a disturbance at the residence of the complainant. At approximately the same time Officer A stopped to investigate the disturbance, another call was received by Johnson County Joint Communications Center from a neighbor regarding noise coming from the Complainant's residence. The officer asked 3 -4 individuals in the yard if there was a problem and received no response. An individual standing on the front porch of the residence that was later identified as the Complainant, stated there was no problem and the officer could leave. The complainant failed to respond appropriately to the officer's basic questions, including providing identification or the complainant's name. The officer directed the individual to remain on the porch and not enter the residence. When the complainant began to enter the residence with the assistance of family, disregarding the officer's direction, Officer A took ahold of the complaintent's wrist. The complainant struggled, and the officer advised if the complainant would stay on the porch he would let go. The complainant agreed and the officer let go, at which point the complainant entered the residence and attempted to shut the door, striking the officers foot. The complainant was subsequently arrested and charged with Interference with Official Acts and Assault on a Police Officer. ALLEGATION #1 - Excessive Force A review of the transcripts as well as the officer use of force report show the Complainant failed to cooperate with Officer A's direction and attempted to enter the residence after being advised not to. There was sufficient reason for the officer to believe a problem existed based on the noise, the lack of cooperation, and the officer observing an individual leave the yard and enter the residence upon the officer's arrival. The noise concern was also supported by a separate complaint from a neighbor. Had the complainant followed the officer's direction and remained on the porch, the officer would not have taken ahold of the complainant's wrist; this action was within the department's use of force policy. The complainant struggled to get away from the officer. Family also attempted to pull the complainant away from the residence and into the house. The medical records from Mercy Hospital indicate a complaint of wrist and thumb sprain but the medical records find no physical abnormalities. There is no indication excessive force was used by Officer A. Allegation 1: Not sustained r -.. i ALLEGATION #2 - Harassment A review of the transcripts indicates the Complainant being uncooperative with Officer A while the officer responds in a professional manner. As stated in Allegation #1, there was sufficient reason for the officer to believe a problem existed. There is no evidence to support the allegation. Allegation #2: Not Sustained ALLEGATION #3 — Violation of Civil Rights A review of the transcripts indicates the Complainant being uncooperative with Officer A while the officer responds in a professional manner. As stated in Allegation #1, there was sufficient reason for the officer to believe a problem existed. There is no evidence to indicate the complainant's civil rights were violated. Allegation #3 — Not sustained ALLEGATION #4 — False Arrest By her own admission, in the Complainant's written statement, she admits to refusing to talk to Officer A. This is also supported by the audio transcript and the officer statement. The officer directs the complainant not to enter the house, which she disregards. When the officer stops the complainant, she again disregards the officer direction as soon as he lets go of her wrist. The complainant shuts the door on the officer's foot which is supported by the dispatch log entry dated 3 -18 -2012 at 23:18:22. There is sufficient evidence to support the charges of Interference with Official Acts and Assault on a Police Officer. Allegation #4 — Not sustained COMMENTS The Board sees the need for more education on an individual's rights and responsibilities when responding to police officers' directions.