HomeMy WebLinkAbout2012-11-13 TranscriptionNovember 13, 2012 Iowa City City Council Work Session Page I
Council Present: Champion, Dickens, Dobyns, Hayek, Mims, Payne, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Bentley, Dilkes, Karr, O'Malley, Rocca, Moran, Davidson,
Havel, Fosse, Boothroy, Goodman, Dulek, Long
Others Present: Uttermark, UISG
Agenda Items•
Hayek/ Okay, uh, we'll get the work session started. I want to welcome everyone to our
meeting. Uh, the first bullet point for consideration is questions from Council regarding
agenda items.
ITEM 4f(6) Hany Hamza x2 (Red Line owner); David Tiet (Big Ten - Aardvark owner);
Mark Paterno (Marco's owner); Roger Bradley (Yellow Cab manager);
Mohamed Hassanein (Five Stars owner): Taxicab Issues. [Staff response
included]
Dobyns/ Marian, I had just one, uh, the taxicab issue. I noticed that was sort of embedded in
some of the correspondence.
Karr/ Yeah, we've got it later on in a work session. Uh -huh.
Dobyns/ Okay, oh (mumbled) discussion going to be today?
Karr/ Yep.
Dobyns/ Um, okay. (mumbled) all right.
Karr/ Okay?
Hayek/ Yeah, it's a ... the fifth bullet point.
Dobyns/ Okay. (mumbled)
ITEM 4d(16) CONSIDER A RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING POLICY FOR
MICROFILMING AND ELECTRONIC IMAGING; AND DESTRUCTION
OF RECORDS AND DOCUMENTS IN THE CITY CLERK'S OFFICE.
Throgmorton/ Matt, I have one quick question with regard to Item 4d(16) uh, which I think, uh,
if I... if I typed correctly has to do with microfilming and digital imagining of City
documents. That's the one I'm referring to anyhow. I just wanted to ask a question
which has I think an obvious answer — what kind of digital backup do we have for stuff
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that we copy, um, you know, how do we make sure we don't accidentally lose records
and things.
Karr/ We have, um, our City, uh, IT Department backs up our, um ... database multiple times
during the day and then, uh, a massive backup, um, periodically. I certainly can get that
information to you, but we ... this has been ... we've been doing this type of procedure now
for almost ten years. Um, we simply have our ... are amending it to include cemetery
records, but I certainly do a memo and put that in the packet the next time on the backup,
but it's very ... it's something very sensitive obviously to all of us because many of us are
required by law to keep it permanently. So we certainly don't take it lightly, um,
archiving it.
Throgmorton/ Okay, good. I ... I'm not asking for anything special, I just (both talking) hadn't
seen reference to it yet on the ... in my eleven months on Council. I just wanted to ask.
Karr/ Sure! Okay, I'll get it for you!
Payne/ I have a question on the same topic. Where it says in that little table it says destroy after
random check. I assume that means destroy the paper copy. You're not destroying the
electronic copy.
Karr/ No, no, that's... that's referring to the hard -copy storage. That's correct. We keep it, do a
random check, see if there's any problems. The quality of it often there's pictures or
diagrams or things that we need to take, uh, some special, uh, requirements to scan them
rather than just through the feeder. So that's why we take a look at all of them, page by
page, before we destroy the whole thing.
ITEM 4f(9) Christina Canganelli and Carrie Norton: Appreciation for City Channel 4's
Community Programming Division and Ty Coleman.
Mims/ On, uh, 4f(9), it was the memo about the, uh, we are Shelter House video that was done.
Is that available on cable or on the internet anywhere? Does anybody know? (unable to
hear person away from mic) Okay.
Karr/ I'm sorry. I can't .... I can't pick ... I didn't hear it.
Mims/ Said they could get a copy. I mean if it's not ... I think that would be something good if
we could get on the table TV, I mean, I'm sure a lot of people couldn't make it that night
and to have that available for the community, um (noises on mic) quote owns it, but if
that could be...
Markus/ Todd produced it; he's with the cable channel, so we should be able to load it on cable.
That shouldn't be a big challenge. (several talking)
Karr/ ...very possible it's on, uh, it's on there now by demand.
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Mims/ Yeah, I just ... saw that and thought if it's not, that would be, um, nice for the public to be
able to view that.
ITEM 9. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, ENTITLED
"POLICE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED "ANIMAL
CONTROL," TO ESTABLISH A PERMIT PROCESS FOR URBAN
CHICKENS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Dobyns/ Regarding Paula Swygard sent in a letter regarding the proposed chicken ordinance.
Just want to let everybody know, she's a member of our Planning and Zoning
Commission. Um, I think I can talk about this because this isn't the Planning and Zoning
part. She wrote a letter as a citizen.
Dilkes/ ...doesn't matter cause it's not a ... it's a text amendment (several talking)
Hayek/ We can talk about it now.
Dobyns/ Yeah, and I just wanted to let you know (mumbled) chatted with her about the ... I'm not
going to ... based on her concerns and if the concerns were theoretical, um, I'm not going
to make any changes or anything like that but I did give her a call and chat with her.
ITEM 12. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 10 OF THE CITY
CODE, ENTITLED "USE OF PUBLIC WAYS AND PROPERTY,"
CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "COMMERCIAL USE OF SIDEWALKS,"
SECTION 5, ENTITLED, "USE BY MOBILE VENDORS," TO CHANGE
THE DURATION OF A MOBILE VENDING PERMIT FROM ONE YEAR
TO THREE YEARS AND TO LIMIT THE OWNERSHIP INTEREST TO
THREE CARTS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Payne/ I have a couple questions on, uh, Item 12. Um ... this is the changing the way the vending
carts are permitted, I guess is the way I want to say it. Urn ... there's an item, length of
permit and approval criteria. Item b, the appearance and maintenance of the vending cart;
carts must maintain the same appearance for the three years as submitted at the time of
application. Why?
Bentley/ Well I think not just generally appearance but kind of upkeep, maintenance and upkeep,
so I don't think we'll get signage, for instance, might not necessarily be the same, but just
generally that the cart is kept up well and is maintained.
Payne/ So, I mean, if somebody has their colors red and blue and they change `em to yellow and
black, it doesn't... okay.
Bentley/ No.
Champion/ (laughing)
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Payne/ Um...
Bentley/ Maybe red and gold would be an issue! (laughter)
Champion/ Or any color!
Payne/ Um ... also Item, letter 3 in that same section says in efforts to retain flexibility for the
City, the ordinance will allow the City to terminate the permit upon a 120 -day notice if
changes to the program are needed. What does `the program' mean in that context?
Bentley/ So the vending program, in general. So if for some reason we had to suspend the mo
...the vending program or ... or the Downtown Association, or District, came down and
requested that we suspend it for some reason — if there was construction going on — that
the City has a way to ... to, uh, stop the program if we need to have that flexibility to do
SO.
Champion/ And could you stop like just one cart for instance where Marc Moen's construction
is, if there had been a cart there? You would have the authority...
Bentley/ ...have the flexibility to do that.
Champion/ Okay, great.
Mims/ Has there been any, when this was revamped and have made more of an effort to include
the North Market Place as part of downtown, as part of the downtown district, has any
thought been given to kind of calling that out as a potential special area for a mobile
vendor? I mean, we've got the ones on the ped mall. There's Iowa Avenue. (both
talking)
Bentley/ It was Iowa, yeah, we've had `em on Iowa Avenue before.
Mims/ Okay. Um ... just to note that if...if you'd had any interest from people potentially for
vending over there or...
Bentley/ No, we haven't had anyone ask us so ... with any interest about that over there. I know
we ... we, the Iowa Avenue, specifically to Iowa Avenue, that ... that was kind of an
experiment and we found that there wasn't a lot of demand on Iowa Avenue and we were
getting a lot of vendors who weren't really, um ... uh, essentially make enough money
over there so they've requested to go back to the ped mall, and so that ... the number of
permits in the ped mall versus Iowa Avenue have changed over time. Um, I certainly... I
think it's an interesting, it might be an interesting experiment to try and see if there would
be any interest in doing something over there, but we ... we haven't discussed that as part
of this ... this discussion, but I think it's a good idea!
Mims/ Well, I guess I'd like to see, you know, if somebody came forward with that, you know,
maybe then staff would come back and make some more changes to this.
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Bentley/ Sure, absolutely.
Mims/ Keep that open as a possibility if... if the interest is there.
Bentley/ (mumbled) that's great.
(continued discussion later in work session)
ITEM 6f AMENDING TITLE 14, ZONING CODE, ARTICLE 4C, ACCESSORY
USES AND BUILDINGS, TO ALLOW FOR THE KEEPING OF
CHICKENS AS AN ACCESSORY USE TO SINGLE FAMILY
DETACHED USES AND TO REFERENCE STANDARDS FOR
STRUCTURES FOR THE KEEPING OF CHICKENS.
ITEM 9. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 8, ENTITLED
"POLICE REGULATIONS," CHAPTER 4, ENTITLED "ANIMAL
CONTROL," TO ESTABLISH A PERMIT PROCESS FOR URBAN
CHICKENS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Hayek/ Uh, circling back to the chicken issue, if people want to discuss it now, that's fine, um,
my question has to do with ... we've got two separate items on this. One the zoning, one
the permit. Got a public hearing during the zoning item, which is the first item. Uh,
unless I get a ... an objection from our legal counsel or ... or you folks, my plan is to let
people comment on basically everything related to this issue during the public hearing.
Uh, I think if we try to control it so they're... they're solely talking about the zoning item
and saving their comments for the second ... I ... I think we'll just run into problems. So,
that's my plan. And... and I suppose when we get to the second item, to decide whether
to allow public comment during that, it probably... will. Um...
Dobyns/ But if people want to get up and speak a second time to the second part?
Hayek/ Well ... I'll, uh, encourage them to give us new information. (laughter)
Dobyns/ Good luck with that! (laughter) (noises on mic)
Mims/ Yeah, while we're back on that one, my only thought on that, and I don't know if this was
related to the memo that was in there that we had the ... the distance from the back, from
the property line, being inconsistent like a dog house or whatever, and I guess my thought
would be why should a chicken coop be able to be closer to the property line than a dog
house can? If that comment was correct. So I'd...
Hayek/ Can we get some input on that?
Mims/ ...be curious from staff why...
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Markus/ Is Doug here? This is one of the emails we received (both talking)
Boothroy/ ...my lifeline (laughter) I ... I think one of the emails referred to dog runs, and dog
runs are ... are restricted, uh, in, uh, to be set back from the property line, farther than 5-
feet. Um...
Dobyns/ I think (both talking)
Boothroy/ ...good observation. I guess what our thinking was, uh, it's limited to four chickens.
That's, uh, that reduces a lot of those concerns in terms of the activity that only four
chickens were going to produce, as far as noise and nuisance and all that kind of stuff. If
they're going to use, uh, the yard as a larger run for the chickens, then it has to be solid
fencing, so that it doesn't become a problem for the neighbors' dogs or, uh, well,
seriously...
Mims/ Oh, no ... I know, I know!
Boothroy/ ...and so, uh, we thought that that works, urn ... it's, you know, I've seen it restricted n
other ordinances too not being that close. I think it, uh, the 5 -foot is ... is, uh, deals with
the, uh ... the, uh, house or the chicken coop or whatever you want to call it, and that's
consistent with the accessory use, uh, of.. of standards for accessory buildings, so that's
consistent with the zoning code in that respect. Uh, the 20% occupancy of the rear yard
is consistent, as well, with ... with structures. Uh, if the structure's over a certain size, it
would require a building permit. So all those things are being regulated. So, uh, you
know, we did have a conversation about that and we decided that with four chickens it
shouldn't be an issue, but ... you know, everybody's going to have a different opinion.
Mims/ Sure. Okay.
Boothroy/ And, uh, and I thought that, uh, the comment about having a patio next door and the
chickens that close might be ... is a good point, but you know, something to talk about.
Mims/ Thank you.
Boothroy/ You understand the policies aren't on for consideration tonight? I mean, they'll be
talked about, but they won't be voted on tonight.
Mims / Right, right, cause we've gotta get the zoning and everything done first.
Boothroy/ Right, right.
Payne/ I still have two more questions about the, uh, vending cart.
Mims/ Oh, I'm sorry!
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ITEM 12. CONSIDER AN ORDINANCE AMENDING TITLE 10 OF THE CITY
CODE, ENTITLED "USE OF PUBLIC WAYS AND PROPERTY,"
CHAPTER 3, ENTITLED "COMMERCIAL USE OF SIDEWALKS,"
SECTION 5, ENTITLED, "USE BY MOBILE VENDORS," TO CHANGE
THE DURATION OF A MOBILE VENDING PERMIT FROM ONE YEAR
TO THREE YEARS AND TO LIMIT THE OWNERSHIP INTEREST TO
THREE CARTS. (FIRST CONSIDERATION)
Payne/ That's okay! I just didn't want to forget them. The ownership limit, the second
ordinance change is that no individual or entity may have an ownership interest in more
than three vending carts.
Bentley/ Uh -huh.
Payne / Why three?
Bentley/ Cause we only have six permits. And so ... we ... it kind of came to a ... there is a
scenario where one vendor or one owner of those carts could own all six permits and all
six carts. And I think the question that we had was whether that's competitive or not.
Payne/ Okay.
Bentley/ And that... that's... that's kind of why we put that in there.
Payne/ So it's just random. It wasn't selected for any specific reason. It's not like somebody
owns three today so that's why you picked three.
Bentley/ There are ... there is someone who owns three. (laughter)
Payne/ Okay!
Markus/ They've bought out other businesses (both talking) that were out there already.
Payne/ Okay.
Bentley/ We just want to make sure it stays competitive.
Payne/ Okay, and I ... I totally agree with that. Um, the last question that I have is ... and I totally
understand what this means, but I think it's worded kinda funny. Mobile vending permit
fee of $1,000 per year, and the entire amount must be paid by May 1 of each year of the
permit. It sounds like they have to pay $3,000, cause it's for three years, rather than
$1,000 per year.
Bentley/ Sure, sure, it would be $1,000 (both talking)
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Payne/ I ... I ... that's what I figured but it just sounds like the year that they're granted the permit
they have to pay 3 ... all $3,000 so...
Bentley/ Nope, it's just for that particular year.
Payne/ Okay. Okay, thank you!
Bentley/ Yep! Any other questions?
Hayek/ Thanks, Adam (several talking) Other agenda items? Going once ... well, we gotta do
Council, uh, commission appointments. Why don't we take that up.
ITEM 19. COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS. Applicants MUST reside in Iowa City and be
18 years of age unless specific qualifications are stated.
ITEM 19a Board of Appeals.
Hayek/ Uh, we have several commissions to fill. One is, uh, 19a which is the Board of Appeals.
Two vacancies.
Mims/ On ... looks like Andrea French is on there and kind of fills the plumber's spot.
Champion/ And she's a female! (both talking) But up top it says that there aren't any females
on the ... did I misread that?
Hayek/ The gender balance requirement is two females at this point on that commission.
Dobyns/ So we can appoint her, but the other two have to wait?
Champion/ Right.
Dobyns/ Yeah.
Champion/ Right. But she's currently serving.
Karr/ We don't ... we put the current, the number who are on not affected by these appointments.
There are three males left, not counting these two.
Champion `Okay, okay ... all right.
Payne/ So she really... she's the only one that we can select tonight because (both talking)
Karr/ ...correct or you could readvertise all of them. That's correct.
Champion/ And December 12th is the cut -off?
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Hayek/ Seventeenth.
Karr/ No, the cut-off ...after the 17th, that's correct.
Champion/ Okay.
Karr/ So you could appoint ... you could appoint them at your December 18th meeting.
Champion/ Okay.
Hayek/ Will you inform, uh, the other individuals of this (both talking)
Karr/ Yes, yes.
Hayek/ ... and encourage them to stick around (both talking)
Karr/ So do you want to do ... do you want to reappoint Andrea and announce the other one for
the 18th then? Or do you want to defer all of them?
Hayek/ Why don't we just appoint Andrea. (several talking) Bring the other two back in
December. And anyone else who would apply. So, um, okay, Human Rights
Commission is the next one, well, so there's support for Andrea (several responding)
Okay. Uh, 19c, Human Rights Commission is the next one.
ITEM 19c Human Rights Commission.
Champion/ We always have great applicants for that commission. There's just ... it's always
really, really difficult. Um ... Joe Co ... Coulter?
Mims/ Uh -huh.
Champion/ ...is an obvious one to me. He's a native, uh ... (several talking)
Payne / And he's on ... is he on the, um ... the Ad Hoc?
Karr/ Yes.
Champion/ Yes.
Payne/ Okay. And Katie Anthony, I went to ... I was in COP this year with her, so I know her
and I think ... she seems very personable and....
Champion/ I like her a lot!
Payne/ ... and would put ... I think she would be effort into it.
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Champion/ Yeah, I do too. I really like her a lot.
Hayek/ I think Harry Olmstead has done a fine job...
Champion/ Yes, and I always check the attendance and he has never missed a meeting.
Mims/ And we typically reappoint... somebody if they've (several talking)
Dickens/ ...he's always very ... very vocal and very informative on that ... group,so...
Mims/ Yeah, I don't know Katie or Alexis, and I think either one of `em would do a good job. I
think, uh, having somebody younger from the University could be a real positive in terms
of Alexis since she's working on Human Rights Certificate, um, at the same time, you
know, sometimes you just don't know how long they're going to be in town either, but,
um, but if there's people who know Katie I'm, you know, that's fine with me too. So...
Throgmorton/ yeah, I don't know her.
Hayek/ Um, I just want to point out — I'm not sure it's an issue (mumbled) at...at all but ... but
um, and I know and respect dr. Coulter greatly, but we are ... we do have one member of
HRC who's on the Ad Hoc Diversity Committee and appointing him would add to a
second. It's ... I ... I think we resolved that because the Ad Hoc is just that, an ad hoc. It's
not a standing committee.
Dobyns/ (mumbled)
Hayek/ But... just ... just so that we're aware of that, if...if we appoint...
Champion/ Well, I think if you're going to have two on that this would be the commission you'd
want two from.
Hayek/ Okay, sounds like there's support for, uh, Mr. Olmstead. Fair? (several responding) On
Miss Anthony? (several responding) And Dr. Coulter? (several responding) Okay!
And then, uh, 19e, Senior Center Commission.
ITEM 19e Senior Center Commission
Mims/ Got three openings and just two applicants, didn't we? Both look good to me. (several
talking) Charles Felling and Kathy Mitchell.
Champion/ Uh -huh.
Hayek/ Consensus for those?
Champion/ Yes. (several responding)
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Hayek/ Okay. And then, um ... 19f is City Council Economic Development Committee. We
need to appoint an alternate to that group.
Karr/ No, we're deferring that, weren't we? (several talking)
Hayek/ Oh, are we? All right.
Karr/ You'd requested... we're just putting it on there to (both talking) permanently defer it.
Hayek/ Oh, you're right, you're right! Too much paperwork (laughter) Any other agenda items
before we move on? Okay, why don't we move on to, uh, our State Legislative update.
Tom Stanberry's here from Davis Brown Law Firm.
State Legislative Update From the Davis Brown Law Firm (IP3) (Consent Calendar 4d(17):
Stanberry/ My guess is I don't want to close this computer (mumbled) put it to sleep so
I'll ... crowd over here. Is this on? Can you hear me? Uh, Mayor, Members of the City
Council, thanks for the invitation to come back over and talk about what's going on in the
...in the legislature. Um, Des Moines has reclaimed itself from the President and his
opponent's campaigns, so it's, uh, business as usual, until the legislature comes into
session in January and then it will slide back a little bit, kind of like it was. Not quite as
...not quite as crazy as it was! Um, you've all seen the results of the election and know
at this point the, um, House is still in control of the Republican Party, although the
majority that they had last year was 60/40 majority has narrowed down to 53/47 at this
point. There's one recount going on, uh, I think it's real doubtful that's going to flip, uh,
to the Democrat challenger to the incumbent, uh, the last word I had yesterday was that
they're ... it started out as a, um, 22 vote difference. It's now down to 20 vote difference,
and they're still counting provisional ballots, but they're all in so it ... I would be shocked
if that changes. The Senate still is in control of the Democrat Party. Still it looks like
what will be the same majority they had last year. Right now it's 26/23, um, Senator
Ward's seat, uh, is still open, and there's a special election on December 11" that'll fill
that seat. That's a very, uh, heavily registered Republican district, um, by about a 15%
Republican majority in that district with a lot of unregistered voters, but it would take
almost all of the unregistered voters to flip that over to a ... a Democratic seat. So I think
we can assume for now that it's going to be 26/24 in the Senate; 53/47 in the House. Um,
the House is, uh ... put it politely, is going to be in a bit of chaos. They had a number of
committee chairs retire. They had, uh, a couple committee chairs that... or people that
would have acceded to those committee chairs defeated, and so at this point, all of the
key chairs from ... the City's standpoint are likely going to be open, and be decided
sometime in the next couple weeks. The House Republicans are caucusing tomorrow, uh,
the initial, uh, decision they have to make is who will be Speaker of the House and who
will be Majority Leader. I think, uh, it's fair to assume that it's still going to be
Representative Paulsen as the Speaker and Rep... Representative Upmeyer will be
Majority Leader, and then they have to go about, uh, making decisions on who will be the
Assistant Majority Leaders and who will be the Whip. The Whip was defeated. Two of
the majority leaders were defeated. The, uh, Chair of the Appropriation Committee, very
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key chair, uh, re ... retired, and uh, his successor was defeated. Um, so you can see that
there's a lot of openings at this point. By my count, they're going to have to appoint
about six key committees, um, from your perspective the key committees would be Local
Government, Ways and Means, um, Commerce, and Appropriations. And I think,
urn ... uh we're likely going to see a new chair in both Local Government, and in, um,
well we'll definitely see a new one in Appropriations, but likely see a new chair in Local
Government. Ways and Means will continue to be Tom Sands, uh, we'll talk about
commercial property taxes in a minutes, but he was the architect of last year's, uh,
property tax reform bill. Um, and um ... Commerce will continue to be Representative
Sodeberg, who was the architect of the tax increment reform bill last year. Um, so lot
...lot of moving parts going on right now in... in the House. The Senate, a little more
stable. At least we know who all the players are, and most of the players are the same in
the majority party, although with the retirement of, um, Senator Kibbie who was
President of the Senate, that opens up a key leadership position. It's, uh, almost a
foregone conclusion that Senator Gronstal will be the Majority Leader again, and a lot of
people are jockeying for the president's position. A president is one of those positions
that you kind of scratch your head and wonder why someone would want that, because
essentially you sit in the well and you make decisions on whether or not a bill is germane
and you make decisions on who gets to talk, but beyond that it's no different really than
...than any other, um, senator sitting out in the, uh, sitting out in the normal seats. But
there ... at this point there are at least four people who have said they would like to be
president of the Senate, and if any of those four, uh, pick up that spot, it's going to start a
shuffle among committees and some of the key committees that, again, impact the City.
Uh, Local Government's chaired by the, um, President Pro Tem. He would like the
position; uh, Appropriations is ... is chaired by, uh, a senior Democrat who said that he
might like the position. Commerce is chaired by a senior Democrat that said, well, he
might like the position! (laughter) So we're going to see a little, uh, musical chairs
going on when they caucus, and they have not announced when they're going to caucus.
We all thought they would try to do that before the Thanksgiving holiday. Looks now
like they're... they're probably going to wait, even though they know they're going to
have a majority. They're probably going to wait out of respect to, uh, Senator Ward,
until that decision's made on the l It and then come back and caucus. The minority party
is almost as interesting. Um, even though there really weren't many changes, uh, there
looks like there's going to be a little in- fighting among the Democrats in the Senate about
who's going to be minority leader. Um, and uh, for those of us who watch the
Legislature, um, whatever happens there, it's going to be very interesting because right
now the last year's minority leader who's indicated he wants to be minority leader again,
uh, has hired as his chief staff member the former majority leader from several years ago
in the Senate, when the ... when the Republicans held the majority — Stew Iverson —who,
um, was removed from that office in a... internal battle, was in the House for two terms,
decided he didn't want to run again, but he's now been hired as a staff member. Uh,
likewise the ... the senior staff member for the speaker of the house, assuming it's still
going to be Representative Paulsen, uh, is ... is also a former legislator, so the two, uh, key
Republicans in both chambers are ... are being staffed by former legislators, um, you
begin to think up there that no one ever actually retires and goes away. They just come
back in a different role, and if they don't come back as a staffer, well eventually they
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come back as a lobbyist, so (laughter) there's almost a perpetual motion machine. Um,
the agenda looks like it's going to be ... looked very similar to last year. Uh, going into
the .... into the election, the Governor had announced that he had a 3 -point agenda, two
major issues, education reform and tax reform, and tax reform to him at that point was
commercial property tax reform, more of the same that we've seen for the last two
sessions. Um, corporate income tax reform, um ... which he's been a big champion of.
And um ... uh, gas tax, and he had announced going into the election that he would... he
would support, um, a gas tax increase. Uh, he told a group of advisory... advisory
members to the Department of Revenue just in the last couple, uh, days, and these are all
tax professionals, so they're tax attorneys, tax accountants that the Department of
Revenue uses, uh, on an advisory basis that, uh, at this point, he's going to continue with
his education reform bill, which was outlined in Sunday's Des Moines Register. He
likely will not introduce his own commercial property tax reform bill. Uh, he will push
on corporate income taxes and gas taxes off the table. He'll support it if it's introduced,
but he's not going to push it. Uh, so it's kind of a complete flip at that point. We've
heard that, uh, Representative Sands, who chairs Ways and Means in the, uh, the House
and who was the author of what ultimately became the compromise between the
Governor and the House property tax reform bill last year, uh, will bring his bill back and
the Senate has been virtually silent, uh, all fall with the exception of (coughing) Hatch
who has announced on a couple of occasions that he has a bill, that it's very unique, uh,
but he doesn't want to discuss it with anybody yet, except in small, uh, small private
settings. He's not talked to the League. He's not talked to the Metro Coalition, uh, he's
not talked to any of the other city lobbyists, even though we've approached him on
several occasions. So we don't know what the bill's going to look like. Uh, we have
...we have to assume that there's going to be more attempts at property tax reform. It's
interesting though if you look at the major cities, um, chambers, Greater Des Moines
Partnership, um, all ... the Quad Cities Chamber, your Chamber, all of the major
Chambers. They have ... they have changed their approach slightly and the State Alliance
has changed its approach slightly, to continue to push for property tax reform, but add as
a second point of that that the budget shouldn't be balanced on the burden of cities. So, if
there's going to be property tax reform, some of the historical proponents of it have now
shifted a little bit to say we need property tax reform if we want to continue to have, uh, a
vibrant economy and economic development, but we shouldn't push all the burden of this
back on the cities, which um, then will come back in the form of, uh, we think, if there's
a bill, in the form of back -fill for the cities' budget. We don't know what the rollback's
going to look like, if it is a rollback. We don't know what the credit's going to look like,
if it's a credit. We don't know how much the, um, long list of we- don't - knows. We
don't know what the backfills going to look like. Um, one thing we do hear from both
chambers and people that are talking, um, is that there will be an attempt at
reclassification and the reclassification areas will be multi -unit housing, um, and utilities.
And they'll ... they will be, uh, in case of multi -unit housing, they would attempt to
reclassify it from commercial to residential. We have, um, talked, uh, to a... a few folks
in the House about what I've generically called the "Wisconsin Plan" which was a
reclassification of... of multi -unit or multi - family housing from, um, commercial to
residential, but in the form of a credit so that the tenant actually saw the benefit as
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opposed to the landlord, and uh, a few of us have bounced that idea off of some ... some
people.
Champion/ Explain that to me.
Stanberry/ Well, the way ... last year what came out in the House version, uh, was a change in the
classification for assessment purposes...
Champion/ Right.
Stanberry/ ...so we're going to take what's now commercial property and we're going to change
it into residential property. And the argument for that has always been that, uh, why
should a tenant in an apartment pay more in property taxes, as part of their rent, than you
or I do living in a house, uh, that's assessed as residential. So the argument's always
been an equality argument. Let's make it equal so that living units are all taxed the same.
The counterargument to that, and ... and Iowa City's a perfect example where you have
virtually 100% occupancy in Iowa City is that it's very unlikely ... now maybe some
landlords will pass that benefit on, but the landlord certainly doesn't have to pass that
benefit on in ... in order to fill up units that are vacant.
Champion/ Right.
Stanberry/ ...vacant units.
Champion/ And they won't. (laughter)
Stanberry/ I ... I won't go there, but (laughter) take that for your word. What ... what Wisconsin
did because they have, you know, they have kind of the same situation in both
Milwaukee and Madison that you would have in Iowa City. Virtually 100% occupancy;
was pretty clear that the swing of the pendulum was going to be to take that argument
that we need to have... ownership equality and we need to have user equality, let's put it
that way, uh, and they put a credit, a tax credit, in the hands of the tenant. So I'm a tenant
and I would actually receive a credit against my Wisconsin, uh, personal income taxes.
So that they made sure that the tenant actually saw the benefit of this, as opposed to the
landlord, and I ... you know, you can argue ... you can argue back and forth on both sides
of that. Uh, it impacts Iowa City disproportionately to have that reclassification because
of the number of living units that you have and apartments in Iowa City. Ames is
impacted disproportionately. Des Moines is impacted disproportionately but not as a big,
uh, a percentage of your general budget. I mean, your ... your percentage was the biggest
of any of the cities in the state because of the, uh, quantity of apartments you have... in...
inhere. So we ... that's going to be, uh, a big part of the agenda. Um ... economic
development is also going to be a big issue and as they ... as the, uh, various economic
development groups have been meeting, uh, looks like there's going to be a strong push
by some of the external groups, not necessarily by the Department of Economic
Development or Cultural Affairs, to increase the amount of gray field, brown field,
historic, and enterprise zone tax credits, uh, in a, uh, in a desire to promote development.
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As you know now, gray field, brown field, and historic all have caps on them. Uh, the
brown field and gray field cap is usually blown through very early in ... as ... as soon as the
session ends, and right now the allocation of state historic tax credits, if you put your
application in today, you're probably a couple of years out, at least a year out, maybe a
couple years out before you see, uh, credits awarded. So that's going to be in the
economic development agenda for folks. Um, some other ... it's kind of some other key
areas I think that we're going to see, um ... uh ... uh pushes on, urn ... mental health reform.
If you remember two years ago mental health reform was on the agenda. They spent a
summer in interim studies; came back with a design for consolidation from a county -
based mental health delivery system into a cooperative multi - county system. Um, that
part moved along the track but the funding was delayed. Uh, we think this year we're
going to see more of a push because we now have a budget surplus, to see some funding.
Um, rail transportation will clearly be at the top of the agenda. I know that's a key issue
for ... for you all. It's a ... right now it's a key issue for ... for most of the cities along the,
uh, I -80 corridor, stretching from Council Bluffs to the Quad Cities. So, um ... the, uh, the
long- awaited study is still being waiting... waited on. Uh, nothing's happened yet. Um,
but we anticipate that when that study comes out that there'll be a quick scramble to try
to budget the app ... the amount of money that we need for the state match to, uh, continue
with the federal appropriations.
Hayek/ Tom, can I interrupt you on that. Does the shift on the House side with those seven seats
(sneezing, noises on mic) What is the impact of that in your opinion on the rail issue?
Stanberry/ I think it's positive. I mean, I ... I clearly think it's positive. One thing you have to
keep in mind, um, is that the majority leader... establishes the daily debate agenda. So
even if it got to 51/49, um, whoever's in the majority and whoever's the actual majority
leader sets the debate calendar every day. So if he or she doesn't want something
discussed, it doesn't see the light of day. Now, the interesting thing though as the two
parties get a little closer together in the mix, is that, uh, and this is try I think of both
parties, but ... but they're not, those caucuses aren't rock solid 53 votes /47 votes. So there
may be issues in which there has to be a little crossing of the aisles to get a majority in
order to vote, and there may be some horse - trading. I would think rail though, rail
continues to be one of those issues that if you understand the economic development
consequences of passenger and freight rail in this state, and you look at the examples that,
um, the ... the Passenger Coalition has brought into the state, you know, the Mississippi
mayor that was up here talking about what it did for... for his city. It doesn't... it doesn't
take much to understand what, you know, the benefit that we could have in this state if
we had rail transportation. So I ... I think that shift is positive. I don't ... um ... a number of
the Democrats in the House said, you know, the Republicans will have to pay attention to
us now because we're not that distant a minority, and that's true. There ... there will be
times when they need a coalition and they will have to pay attention to them, but again,
um ... you know, the Senate has operated now. This'll be the third year where they've had
a 26/24 slim majority if Senator Gronstal does not want an issue debated, it'll never show
up on the debate calendar. And that ... that's the same thing that'll happen in the ... in the
House. Um, I think we'll see some development... as soon as we know who the
committee chairs are, we'll start to see more development on the key issues. Um, and
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that's going to be, what was it I said — probably within the next couple weeks that we'll
start seeing those names pop up. Um, I think a ... a lot of the issues that you had on your
initiatives last year, probably carry over again into ... into this session. Um, but that in a
quick summary, that's what we think this session's going to look like and the key issues,
um ... it's ... it's going to be another interesting year up there with, uh, split chambers and a
Republican governor. Questions ... any more questions?
Hayek/ Questions for Tom? We appreciate your on -going close collaboration with us and good
counsel.
Stanberry/ Well we appreciate, uh, working with you and look forward to another, or as I said,
kind of interesting year and (laughter) we'll report back as frequently as you want us to
report.
Hayek/ (mumbled) (several talking) All right, thanks! (several talking)
Stanberry/ Thanks a lot.
Hayek/ ... safe drive back to Des Moines.
Stanberry/ Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Matt, uh, I'd like to ask an indirectly related question. Um, yesterday I got a
phone call from a DI reporter about the 1-80,1-380 Coalition, and there was an article in
the day ... the Daily Iowan today about the Urban Coalition. Do you know anything about
this, Tom? I mean, I ... I've never heard of...
Markus/ I ... I didn't catch the second part of what you said. The other coali ... the...
Throgmorton/ There ... there was a ... an article in the DI today by the same person who phoned
me yesterday, uh, that referred to the I -380 Coalition but said it had been renamed as the
Urban Coalition. And it apparently involves Linn County, Johnson County, and I don't
know who else.
Dickens / Anybody that wants to put $20,000 (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...to do with lobbying in ... in Des Moines.
Markus/ Do not know anything about it!
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I mean, it just caught me completely off guard, so I didn't know.
Hayek/ Is that the county -based thing that Ben Rogers is pushing?
Stanberry/ I think that's exactly what it is. Uh, that's what the I- 380 ... so at one point it was,
um ... Johnson, Linn and Blackhawk, and they ... they were working more at the county
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level. Um, there's been some discussion about whether they would try ... if...if that's the
group that it was, and that was the old I -380 group, uh, whether they would try to bring
the, uh, the cities, you know, at least bring maybe the, um, county seats into that. Uh,
there's ... uh ... the relationship between clients and lobbyists starts to become a little bit
like, um, children and candy. Um, well, he has one of those; I should have one too! So
we're getting ... it's interesting, we're getting calls from other cities that in the past were
staunch, uh, League of City members, but as they've grown, they now are dominant cities
in their locale, and they want to be part of the Metro Coalition, and the Metro Coalition
said, "No," you know. "We're full, and this is our cut - off." So we've been ... we've been
fielding calls from some people that have said, well you know we see that Iowa City and
Cedar Rapids and West Des Moines and Des Moines and Dubuque have lobbyists.
Maybe we should have one of those. And we'll say, well what are your issues?
Why should you have ... why do you want one? We're happy to represent you, but why...
why'd you want one? We're not sure, but those other folks must know something so, uh,
we've ... we've heard about the Coalition you're talking about. There's a, I would
describe it as a medium -sized city coalition that's now said, you know, the ... the League
does a great job but it tries to represent interests from Des Moines down to Lost Nation,
uh, so maybe we should do something like the Metro... Metropolitan Coalition did, uh,
and they're talking about, and these are the, oh, like, um ... uh ... Mason City's... cities of
that size, still, you know, county seats dominant in their area, but not big enough that they
cross the threshold. I think you're going to see more of this coalition start to pop up.
They have, you know, they have common economic interests, they have something that
binds them together, and they feel like that the, uh ... um, the League or the Association of
Counties can't represent them because they have, in their opinion, they have some unique
interests. But I think that's the one you're talking about.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, good. Thanks!
Hayek/ Thanks, Tom!
Stanberry/ Okay.
Champion/ Yeah, they (mumbled) talking about.
Hayek/ Okay, let's, uh, keep moving here (both talking) hazmat presentation next.
Hazmat Presentation (IP4):
Rocca/ Good evening, Mr. Mayor, Members of the City Council. Uh, last week in your packet
you received a memorandum regarding the hazmat per capita funding, and what we have,
uh, we have Dave Wilson with us tonight. Dave is the Emergency Management Agency
Coordinator. He also, uh, has some oversight and responsibility with, uh, Johnson
County Hazardous Response Team through the Emergency Management Commission.
Dave's identified a couple issues, operational funding shortages, as well as a lack of a
vehicle replacement funding shortage, and so he's going to be addressing that with you
tonight, and so without further ado I'll call Dave Wilson up. (several talking)
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Wilson/ Mayor, uh, Council Members, and members of City staff, thanks for, uh, having me out
to talk to you tonight. I'd like to first brief you on a, kind of the history and background
of Johnson County Hazardous Materials (mumbled) As you see in front of you, uh,
presently it's made up of 30 members. It's a combination team of volunteers from
departments throughout Johnson County, as well as career members of Iowa City Fire
Department. Uh, those various members also come from private industry. We've got
some Proctor and Gamble folks that are part of the team, and one of the key issues we
wanted to address is, uh, the operational costs and the vehicle replacement costs for... for
that response agency. It serves the whole county. Uh, the primary newest vehicle is
Hazmat 1. It was purchased for $385,000, uh, approximately nine years ago. It's due for
replacement historically in about 20 years. That's generally about the lifecycle of those
types of vehicles. Um, you can go about that replacement in a number of ways. One
being retrofit or refurb. One being entire replacement of a vehicle, but when I took over
the position five years ago, I was kind of shocked to find there was no vehicle
replacement fund at all for any of the vehicles, uh, Emergency Management oversees,
and how it had been handled in the past was essentially the commission directed a bill to
go out by the coordinator to the municipalities saying here you go. In four years we're
replacing this vehicle. Here's the sticker shock, uh, you need to come up with the money
for it, and then people saw a large blip on their radar that was, you know, I can imagine
unpopular that day, and will be unpopular now. So what I presented to `em was, uh, let's
come up with more of a succinct plan on how to deal with these; let's set aside a vehicle
replacement plan, and the committee, uh, directed me to move forward with that. So
predominantly that's what I'm here to talk to you about tonight. That vehicle carries
about $50,000 worth of equipment and supplies. Like I said, it's normally has about a
20 -year life expectancy, similar to what you'd see on a fire apparatus. The cost to replace
it varies again, depending on which method you chose, uh, what you chose to do with the
vehicle. But there's presently no money set aside at all to replace it, and I think that's,
uh, a situation we don't want to be in, uh, 18 years from now when in two years we have
to replace it. Additionally there's costs to maintain (mumbled) to increase. Nothing's the
same as it was in 1988 when the team was established. Uh, vehicle, diesel fuel as you see
has gone up staggering amounts recently. Maintenance costs continue to rise as well, and
the operating costs have continued to rise. Um, little bit about the team though. It's one
of only 19 teams statewide. This shows you a map of the 19 teams, uh, that's their
coverage area. Many of `em contract. These teams are quite expensive to operate.
That's why most ... most teams do not just serve one municipality. They generally serve
in... an area or a region. The two blacked out at the bottom are covered by a private
contractor, uh, Kim Dry ... I believe it is Kim Team, I'm sorry, covers those two counties.
They're... they're not really a municipal team so there's 19 that are covering the area. As
you can see, Johnson County covers the southern tier of Cedar County under contract.
Uh, we'll probably continue to do that, and there're a number, uh, looks like five, six of
`em, I'm sorry, six counties that have no hazmat coverage whatsoever and essentially
chose to roll the dice when there's a hazmat incident and contract in municipal, uh,
services or private contractors, which is a ... a huge risk. So that's what the vehicle looks
like. Presently it resides at, uh, the Melrose Avenue station, Station #2. Uh, like I said,
due to be replaced in 11 years. The other assets that the team operates and maintains are
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November 13, 2012 Iowa City City Council Work Session Page 19
the trailer on the right which was purchased out of a grant. Uh, we got that, uh, post -
2008 flood. Purchased that; it carries a fair amount of bulk supply for a larger incidents.
Some absorbent sock, etc. The one on the left was provided through a public /private
partnership through what's now Magellan Pipe Lines. Contains a large quantity of river
booms, used for river responses should we have a, uh, a large leak in a ... in a pipeline
transversing the river. And then the last one is a two -lane closed decon trailer that
provides (mumbled) of folks in a contained environment. It was actually purchased by
the VA Health System. Uh, they weren't able to adequately staff or maintain it on a day -
to -day basis so they (mumbled) with the team that we'll maintain it, uh, operate it, and
then when they need it, we'll come over and bring it back to `em. It's the only one in the
state of Iowa, uh, you don't want to know what they paid for it, but uh, to us — no cost.
Just a cost to get it back up to speed. It'd been sittin' dormant for a few years. So the
risk here in Johnson County, we've got 71 tier -two facilities throughout the county.
Those are considered extremely hazardous substance facilities. There's nine major
pipelines and numerous spurs throughout the county, at least three large bulk storage
facilities throughout the county — two in Coralville and one just north of North Liberty.
Those being Magellan, um, Buckeye Transport and those types. Uh, the team back in 88
when it was established underneath the Commission was a partnership of just what you
see today — volunteers department, public /private partnership, Iowa City Fire, and uh, the
Emergency Management entity. They averaged back then about two calls a year, and the
new average since those (mumbled) the numbers historically have been up to about six
calls per year. I can tell you right now this year we've already, uh, exceeded six calls
year for this year. The likelihood of a hazmat incident, obviously in these metro areas,
uh, is expediential. We have a num. ... large number of hazardous shippers that come
through on 80,380. We've done a number of environmental impact studies and uh,
transportation studies over the last few years to see just what ... what transverses the area
and what that would cause for a problems for us. So they looked at interstate 80, 218,
Highway 1 and 6, and 380, and they also did rail. Rail has, uh, seen an exponential, uh,
growth in alcohol and ethanol that runs down the rail. Um, that's, uh, a large risk to us in
the county. As you know, it's very hard to suppress... we've taken a number of
mitigation activities over the years to control that, but that's one of our larger risks. And
then again, I talked about the, um, pipeline, bulk tank farms, and then of course ag
storage. You know, we have facilities such as Stutsman's and co -ops and ag services, a
number of those throughout the county, as well.
Throgmorton/ Could I interrupt for just a second?
Wilson/ Sure, go ahead.
Throgmorton/ So ... so not all hazardous incidents are equivalent, uh, given what you know, what
are ... what are the most likely, worst -case kind of accidents that could happen around
here?
Wilson/ Uh, well ... to ... to play the doomsday scenario, ethanol behind Kinnick Stadium. Uh,
large train derailment full of ethanol by Kinnick Stadium on a, you know, any day of the
week really. It doesn't have to be a football Saturday, cause generally they don't
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November 13, 2012 Iowa City City Council Work Session Page 20
transverse that area. It's used for the, uh, for the shuttle back and forth, but the hospitals
right there. Uh, there's a large amount of residential that runs through that area. Uh...
Throgmorton/ uh -huh.
Wilson/ ...that was one of the catastrophic incident that we had studied and mocked up, uh,
would be an ethanol derailment back there.
Throgmorton/ Sounds like it could be pretty severe? Yeah.
Wilson/ It would be a bad day! For a lot of folks! So, yeah. Uh, the other thing you see in front
of you now is the pipelines that run through, um, the county. As you can see
predominantly we have a fair amount of liquid going through that liquid changes on a
regular basis. It's hard to say today that's it a diesel and tomorrow it could be whatever.
Cause that does change. Uh, there's also gas and as Michelle well knows, that some of
that varies. Um, the ... the incidents of pipeline, uh, incidents here in Johnson County, we
haven't had significant one in a number of years, knock on wood. Um, the last large
scale one was the Mapco incident, uh, out kind of east of town. I forget what year that
was, but that burned for several days. And actually several weeks, as I recall. Um, but
those do happen, and generally there seems to be more and more frequent with people
putting in drainage tile in farm fields, and not doing the 811 calls and locates, and they
had a couple large ones this year throughout Iowa. Um, and occasionally, uh, those
involve fatalities. So ... so why have a hazmat team? Why even take this risk? Why
don't we be one of the six that just says, uh, we'll just contract it in or ... or take that, uh,
risk. Well, it just doesn't make a lot of sense in a metro area such as this, with you know,
28 to 30,000 people coming through the doors of University Hospital on any given day,
uh, 70,000 coming to a football game on a Saturday, um, all the risks we've got. It just
seemed to be the most sensible back in 1988 to form a multi- agency team and do that
geographically to cover the whole county. So we're all (noises on mic) uh, and fiscally
it's the most feasible to operate that way. Um, for us, uh, really the things we try and
focus on are we want to decrease injuries and fatalities. Obviously we do it to decrease
economic loss and disruption of services, uh, to build public trust in ... and maintain
morale. Uh, we also want to decrease the cost of cleanup, uh, as you can imagine it's a
lot quicker to get our team out there and ... and get to repairing this now as opposed to 12
hours from now when a private contractor comes in from Davenport or another metro
area. And then there's the litigation costs, as well. So, just looking at this globally and
nationally, you can see this was a study done back in 83 to 1990. Here's kind of the
number of incidents, and this is true here in Johnson County. The majority of what we
see is highway related. Uh, we have a number of incidents out on the interstate, and
that's where the majority of those occur for us. Large scale incidents, why we've seen it
kind of go from rail based to uh highway based, and we've seen the number of call -outs
increase because they're trying to hedge their bets. You know, they don't try and haul as
much bulk hazardous material, chemical over rail in one shipment, uh, they try and break
it up a little bit more and put it in smaller, uh, quantity vehicles going over the interstate,
but that sees an increase in accidents. So this is just one of the, uh, snapshots that I found
on line. So as you can see there, Norfolk Southern, 30 to 40 million uh, Abendale Mills,
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215 million; pretty large, substantial, uh, incidents that occurred, so ... so a few facts on
the team. The average response time for a team call -out is about two hours. Obviously
there are longer incidents — the Seashore Hall incident on the University of Iowa went on
for nearly a week and involved federal teams as well as the County team. Um, oftentimes
these are longer incidents, just depends on the amount of product that's spilled. Cost to
train one tech, just one of those 30- member techs on the team, is $545 just for his tuition,
not including travel costs. Ongoing, continuing education's handled generally locally
here. Uh, there's competency testing that re ... that's required to be done on a regular
basis. Fit testing for their mass annually. Maintenance and monitors, which varies
greatly and we saw a great deal of monitor use with the Landfill fire this year, as well.
Uh, and then the most recent cost of the monitors, just most recently here in April we
purchased a new monitor. It was $4,122.04 just for that one monitor, but was used a few
months later at the Landfill fire. So ... good investment. Uh, cost of a suit, just one level
A is approximately $1,100. So you can see you take this venture on as anyone
municipality would be a very daunting financial cost. So, uh, just some other costs that
we ... we realize on a regular basis for maintenance, you know, 605 just for gaskets and
seals for chlorine kits and we have chlorine incidents throughout the county. OSHA
mandated physicals — we negotiate that on a regular basis, but it's still $500, you know,
healthcare's expensive. Um... approximately we do half the team each year, so we spread
that out. You're required to have a physical every two -year cycle. Does not include
work exposure. So if we would go out on a call -out and an employee or a volunteer
member of the team would be exposed, uh, that cost of that exposure is billed to the
spiller, as well as any disposables. Covers the liability insurance (mumbled) (coughing)
So what we're looking for, uh, in the commission... the Emergency Management
Commission had me go out and talk to municipalities about is a way to rectify this and
solve this problem long -term. So there's no large sticker shock at three and four years
before it comes up, and we also, uh, can take care of some of the operational costs that
have really been kind of ignored (coughing) years. So since 2007 we've really focused
on making sure we get 100% collection from our spillers, and we've been successful.
The County Attorney's office has taken up any claims that we've had that, uh, have been
unwilling to pay and we've had 100% success rate in collecting from spillers. However,
that doesn't pay for readiness and the maintenance of the team. That can only be
attributed to what they are responsible for, which is that spill and that incident. So the
25 -cent per capita rate is .... is levied, uh, per municipality, based on the most current
census that's in their ... in their, uh, municipality. That was set at 25 -cents back in 1988.
Well, back in 1988 you could probably buy a can of pop for 25- cents. Uh, you can't
anymore. So I don't know anything that's really kept up with that. Um, population
growth is not kept up. Uh, inflation, etc. We commonly, uh, prior to 2007 when I was
hired, the team looking back would go over budget by $3,000 to $9,000 a year, and that
was just absorbed and just written off through EMA's general budget. Well, we can't
really do that. (mumbled) funds and oversees a lot of projects. There's a metro dive
team that's multi- agency. There's a bomb squad that's multi- agency. There's rural
sirens, I mean, there's ... a number of programs that EMA oversees. So to say we're just
going to let it overrun and we'll pull it out of the Emergency Management Association's
general budget doesn't make any sense. So, the challenges to operating the team have
been its inability to fund any substantial capital improvements. I mean, even when they
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set aside money for that month or this year, you know, there had to be some planning in
that. Uh, air packs are the next thing that are coming around the horizon. Uh, inability
fund the truck, which is due in 11 years. That's not a long period of time. The increased
call volume and length of responses. The decon supplies, etc. So the EMA Commission
has ... has agreed that the sensible route to take this is to increase that to 50 -cent per
capita, uh .... move it up, start setting aside some of that money, maintain that until 2024.
The revenue generated would be $378,698.54 over those 11 years. Of that we'd set aside
$8,606.78 to operating fund to increase the, uh, shortfalls that they've seen. We'd set
aside $25,820.35 each year for 11 years to, uh, a vehicle replacement fund. So over the
time ... over the 11 year period, we'd have about $284,231.91. Now that's not enough to
replace the truck lock, stock, and barrel, but with that truck we should be able to go out,
uh, for a number of different routes. Number one being put a new chassis under it,
refurbish the box. That's done more and more nowadays. Um, there's a number of
different venues we can take and ... where that money would reach (coughing).
$94,674.64 would be set aside over the 11 years towards the operating fund, and that
would get us back to a more state -of -the -art playing field so that they're not running over
budget. (mumbled) meters. We're able to keep up with the suits and the training that we
need to ... so ... what does that mean locally? Well, from a long -term standpoint, it became
apparent that in talking to the cities they didn't want to stay at 50- cents. So we talked to
the Commission and they said, well, what if we dropped it down, uh, about 10- cents, in
...in 2025. So, presently the EMA Commission would propose that in year 2025 we take
10...10 -cents per capita back off, drop if from 50 -cents per capita to 40 -cents per capita.
You're seeing a little bit of a break, and a decrease there. So it's not staying high. We
can continue a set -aside money for replacement of the truck (mumbled) playing catch -up
anymore and we can take care of the operating piece of it. So what does it mean to Iowa
City? Well, presently you're looking at 67,862 for a population. Uh, you're paying
$16,965.50 a year. That would go up to $33,931. So essentially you'd double your
payment there. And Iowa City, obviously, sees the largest impact because they've got
the largest per capita share in it. Also the ... that's where the majority of our calls come
from. Just because of the risk. Most of the incidents we have ... handle, uh, are in the
Iowa City jurisdiction or they're on 80, right out here within the corporate limits. So...
any questions about the overall package? It just made a lot more sense to us to go out,
talk to the municipalities, talk to the locals, and say here's what's planned. Get their buy -
in, as opposed to doing what they did back previously, which was we send ya a letter and
say, hey, guess what? Your costs per capita is going up. That doesn't seem very sensible
or palatable any more. Uh, so I chose to go out and talk to all the municipalities and
answer any questions and get buy -in. Um, is there any questions about the plan or...
Dickens/ Is there a reason why you're going all the way out to ... uh, 2024, is there a reason that
it's not a shorter ... where it could go up in increments or is there a reason for doing that?
Wilson/ Well there's only 11 years till we've got a real problem. So what was going to get us to
a cost - effective solution on this vehicle within 11 years, and... and that was a (mumbled)
Dickens / Right.
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Wilson/ Had we had more time to (mumbled) I'd have preferred to do it that way.
Hayek/ I have two quick questions, and we've gotta ... we gotta move on on our agenda. First, do
we have confirmation on the use of the rural levy, for the unincorporated part, or is that
still a question?
Wilson/ (mumbled) City Manager Markus has been working with the Board on. (mumbled)
Hayek/ And then second...
Markus/ Well I haven't worked with the whole Board, but I did talk to Mr. Sullivan, and uh, it's
my understanding it will be the rural levy this year.
Hayek/ And then secondly, do ... is there a cost, um ... collection for the Cedar County portion of
this?
Wilson/ Yeah. Yep! Cedar County's is the bottom line, presently (both talking)
Hayek/ Oh, there ya go! Okay, great.
Wilson/ Yep.
Hayek/ Thank you.
Wilson/ Other questions? Thank you for your time!
Hayek/ Thanks for the information (several talking)
Wilson/ Appreciate it!
Hayek/ Okay, uh, let's keep moving here. Next item is separation, uh, requirements for drinking
establishments.
Separation Requirements for Drinking Establishments (IP5):
Dilkes/ I'll do that.
Hayek/ Eleanor!
Dilkes/ Um ... you have the memo from me. Uh, this came ... came about because of Terry's
question about Short's on, uh, far east side. Um, just very briefly cause I think most of
the information you need is in the memo. Um, back in 2009 as part of Council's
initiative to address over - consumption and under... underage consumption of alcohol, um,
we amended the zoning ordinance to define what a drinking establishment is, and require
that there be a 500 -foot separation between, uh, drinking establishments. And so what
happened at the time we passed the ordinance is each existing restaurant or bar was
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classified as either a drinking establishment or an eating establishment, based on a
verified statement that was presented by each business. Um, and the way we chose to
define drinking establishments, in order to avoid the, um, game playing that you get when
you have, um, when you do it based on percentage of alcohol and food sales, as well as
looking at the hours of operation of what ... we understood to be bars in our downtown
area. We defined it as those that were open, um, after midnight. Um, it's ... it's important
to remember a couple things that we're not talking about here. We're talking about bars
and restaurants. We're talking about establishments whose primary purpose, uh, is the
sale of food and beverages. Okay? So we are not talking about, uh, bowling alleys,
hotels, those have other use classifications, um ... we have a classification for, um,
commercial /recreational uses that includes theaters, uh ... uh, bowling alleys, that ... that
kind of thing. So there's no separation requirements that apply to those uses. Um... so at
the time ... I went back and I looked at the transcript of...of when this went into effect and
basically staff went down this road, um, at Council's initiative, and um, when it came
back to Council for a vote after it went through P &Z there was discussion about whether
that separation requirement should apply throughout the city, as it had been proposed,
and had gone through P &Z, or it... it should only apply in the areas where we had an
identified problem or we had, um, a concentration of alcohol uses, uh ... that ... not only
was dangerous from a personal level, but also was harming the economy of the
downtown. Um, at that time the majority of the Council decided to make it applicable
citywide, out of a concern that the problem would move elsewhere, if it didn't. Um...
and so now it's back to you to talk about it and ... I think I said in the memo that I've
talked to the City Manager's office, uh, as well as the Planning staff, and if Council
wishes staff to look at the issue of, um, narrowing it to more downtown and near-
downtown areas, um, staff, um, thinks that's a reasonable thing to do and is ... would need
to look at how we would define those areas. I mean, I think you not only would want to
look at where you have your problems right now but what areas have the potential for
problems. Um... and uh... so, we're just looking for your direction on that.
Dickens/ I guess I ... when I was looking at it, since we have designated the University impact
area, and talking to most of the, uh, not most of `em — several of the, uh, bar and
restaurant owners, they really don't want a change in the downtown area. They like the
fact that it's limited there. It has helped. The out ... outlying areas where's there's a lot of
room for economic development, it's being stymied by ... if there's one place there you
can't put another one within so many feet so that was the reason I brought it up is that we
have an area that's being controlled. The rest of the area on the outside, if it can be done
with certain controls, you want an even playing field out there, if you're going to have
another competition with the, you know, another bar or restaurant in that same area, that
they can ... they can, uh, at least have the same hours and ... and ... (mumbled)
Champion/ Well I didn't agree with you at all on that, but after I read Brian Flynn's letter, it
makes perfect sense, that we ... we should look at areas where this has not been a problem
and probably won't become a problem. So I'm not ... I'm willing to look at that, but not
within the University impact area.
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Dickens/ No, I don't want ... I wouldn't touch that whole area there. It's fine the way it is. It's
working, and most of those people don't want it to be touched.
Champion/ Well, if I owned a bar I wouldn't want another one downtown either! (laughter)
Dickens/ There's so many there (several talking)
Hayek/ ...taxicab medallion in New York!
Dickens/ But it's mainly the outlying areas that are commercial, zoned commercial, that there's
...if there's residential property close to those, they ... there's rules in place for those, I
believe, or you know, if you have ... if you're living that close to a commercial zone, you
know there's the potential of that being developed some day so...
Champion/ Yeah, I hope it is developed!
Hayek/ I ... I think, uh ... I think I voted against the 2009 measure... based on this concern that it
unnecessarily went throughout the city, as opposed to being, uh, limited to the areas
where we were addressing challenges. Um, so I ... I'd be willing to look at something
again.
Mims/ Yeah, I'm willing to look at it. One suggestion that I would have is that rather than just
say, you know, the ordinance is going to apply to the University impact area, and then
there's basically no regulation anywhere else that maybe it's not a 500 -foot rule but
maybe it's a density formula of some sort that... so that we don't down the road end up
with another problem area because we don't have any limitations on how many
establishments can be within certain proximity.
Dickens/ Yeah, I wasn't suggesting no limit.
Mims/ Right, and I don't... yeah...
Champion/ ...have a strip mall bars! (laughter)
Mims/ Well that's it, and I think, you know, I think we need to give some thought, and staff
needs to give some thought, of how ... how you would define that, but some sort of a
density type formula of some sort, maybe, that you know if you get two or three or four
within a certain proximity, then that is going to prevent more within a certain distance,
and I ... I don't know exactly what that looks like but ... I don't think we want to open
things up that potentially we have...
Dickens/ Have to come back (both talking)
Mims/ ...come back and we've got a problem somewhere that we can't stop. So...
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Hayek/ Yeah, the ... the devil's in the details. That'll... because you know the ... the example is
Blackstone's which is very popular. It's a restaurant, but it's open until 2:00 and so it's
classified as a drinking establishment, gets caught, you know ... a ... a replica of that gets
caught up in the existing limitation. Um ... I'd ... I'd be willing to consider that. I .... I could
see staff getting kind of frustrated with the exercise, um...
Champion/ That's why we pay `em the big bucks! (laughter)
Dobyns/ I just want to, uh, not being part of the discussion three years ago, um, there was a
concern that, uh, external parts of the city might develop more of a high - density drinking
establishment. I'm trying to get a sense of what's different now than from now.
Champion/ Well, that was before the 21- ordinance also.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Champion/ I think that...
Dobyns/ Okay, so that would ... okay.
Dilkes/ I ... I don't think at the time there was a lot, you know, the majority of Council was not
interested in going that route and so it really wasn't looked at, in terms of, um, whether...
what, if you were going to make it apply to the downtown and not further out, what
would be the reasonable way to do that. I mean, it just wasn't ... that effort wasn't made,
cause Council was not looking (both talking)
Mims/ ...trying to make such ... some fairly drastic changes that we wanted to have consistency
across the community, and I think now that things have kind of been in place for a while
and we're seeing some businesses who are saying this is really restricting their
opportunity, and they are areas that are not a problem, then I think it makes sense to look
at it.
Champion/ But they could be a problem eventually, so I like your idea of some kind of restraint.
Mims/ Yeah, that's why I think somehow figuring a density issue that could somehow (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ You know, I ... I personally would be o ... open to looking at that, but um, it seems
to me we ... we don't ... we don't need to be thinking about prohibiting something just
because we ... we might imagine that conceivably at some point in the future there could
possibly be a problem. You know? That's just too contingent to ... to iffy. I'd much
rather be thinking in terms of places where we see a problem emerging, uh, and then
doing something about that, uh, rather than having it sort of a (both talking)
Mims/ Sometimes it's too late though (several talking)
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Throgmorton/ Well, yeah, but .... you know, that ... that kind of makes it sound as if there'd be
like three or four or five suddenly pop up in one place and I ... I think that's pretty
unlikely here, though if there are parts of the city where we think that really might
happen, we ... we should be aware of that and talk about it and think it through.
Hayek/ Eleanor?
Dilkes/ Well, I think you can approach it by looking at the factors that, uh, essentially have to be
present to create the situation that we have downtown or in the near - downtown area, and
where is there a likelihood that those factors are all going to come together ... to create
another problem area. That's kind of how I think it would be approached.
Champion/ I mean, this ... we're talking a specific place now. There's a lot of other places in
town and I think there should be some kind of limit. I'm ... I'm not sure what it would be,
but that is kind of in the middle of a big residential area, and I think you'll want some
kind of a guarantee to those people that it's not going to become Calumet City over there.
Dickens/ But there's potential like in the north .... north, going up north Dodge Street with the
Hy -Vee, you know, looking at a new Hy -Vee there. You're going to have that building.
I don't know if they're tearing it down or...
Champion/ I thought they were building on the same site!
Dickens/ No, it's actually where Roberts Dairy (several talking)
Champion/ Oh, okay!
Dickens/ So ... that's a tentative, but you've got that corner across from it. You've got the corner
down from the fire station. You've got some areas there that are close to residential, but
potentially they could be businesses, especially if the Moss Green, whatever it's called
now (laughs) that area starts taking off, you know, there's more potential for... further
restaurants, bars, that type of thing.
Champion/ (both talking) not against restaurants and bars.
Hayek/ Well let's...
Throgmorton/ I bet you've been to one! (laughter)
Champion/ Never! (laughter)
Hayek/ Let's wrap this up and move on, only because we've got a lot to do.
Champion/ Okay!
Hayek/ Eleanor, do you have enough direction from us...
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Dilkes/ Yep!
Hayek/ ...to explore this?
Dilkes/ Yep!
Hayek/ ... at the staff level? Okay. Thank you.
Dilkes/ Yep.
Hayek/ Okay, taxicabs.
Taxicab Ordinance Changes (Item 4f(6):
Karr/ Um, this is, um, you've got that information on your Consent Calendar, 4f(6). This is the
time of year we hear from a number of cab companies, uh, prior to the renewal time of
year, um, this time it's been especially active with the increased number of vehicles we
have licensed within the city. So the staff called a meeting of the, uh, companies and as
the memo outlines, um, this was their meeting. Staff did not have anything on the table.
There was no suggestions before them. Um, it was simply a time to come, talk about
what they wanted done, and um, see if we could reach a consensus. The quasi - summary
or minutes of that meeting is attached to, um, my memo contained in your packet, and
staff is ready to proceed as outlined at their direction, urn ... if, uh, the Council is so
inclined to pursue it. In addition to that, we do need some direction on, urn ... uh., Item 8,
uh, that was still outstanding, um, I will be happy to answer any questions. Basically in
summary, there was unanimous agreement to reinstate the color scheme. Unanimous
agreement for dispatched offices to be located in Iowa City, or Coralville. Unanimously,
uh, requested clarification of the, um, dispatch office and allowing some degree of
flexibility when it's a slow time, um, to allow again that dispatching to occur from
another location, but not from the vehicle, and with the understanding it'd still be 24/7
service. Um ... from then on we had consensus rather than unanimous uniformity. One of
`em was, uh, to change the renewal time. Staff has no problem with that and sees
potentially an advantage in doing so. Um, changing it from March to, um, June or July. I
think June was mentioned. Um, unanimously agreed the vehicle lettering outside the
vehicle. A number of vehicles are putting, um, cell phone numbers rather than the
official company number on it, so there's a lot of confusion on, um, on that. Uh,
unanimously agreed on the driver identification rather than a small badge where they
wear it. Something that can be displayed, that would be visible from the backseat. That
is no problem for staff, as well. Um ... the only thing, again, that's the first seven. Is
there any questions on those, and any problems with proceeding with those?
Mims/ I thought they looked great.
Champion/ No, I don't have any problems.
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Hayek/ Obvious buy -in for them and...
Karr/ I'm sorry?
Hayek/ There's obvious buy -in for those and that's important.
Throgmorton/ Makes it easier.
Karr/ Um, and again, to clarify, the color scheme does not preclude anyone from using the same
colors of another company, but the distinctive pattern or, uh ... um, use of them, um, must
be distinctive in the pattern, not be repeated, so that one company is red and white with
stars, and another one could be red and white with stripes, but they must all be ... all the
vehicles must be the same for that company. Um, the other one is whether there is any
agreement to limit the number of vehicles that can be added to a company each year. Uh,
again, this goes back to a concern that ... that companies that are licensed and plan their
business for the year, uh, feel that they .... the City is not committed to them when another
company can add up to 30 cars, uh, seasonally for football games and then drop down the
rest of the year. So the suggestions that were ... were added was letting a company add no
new vehicles until the next licensing year, or, uh, perhaps considering an increase by
percentage of 50 %. For instance, if you're licensed for six, you can add three more the
rest of the year to get up to nine. The following year you could add then proportionately
50% more. Again, the first seven can proceed as outlined, regardless of eight, but we
need some direction from you if you're interested in eight.
Dobyns/ (mumbled) trying to avoid the seasonality of it, where during the football season they
might buy a whole bunch of cars and then in December sell them, is that (both talking)
Karr/ That's exact ... it isn't quite buying. It's the independent, the company will hire
independent drivers and their vehicles for that time of year, yes.
Hayek/ I mean, it...it seems to me that items 1 through 7 are ... are either items of convenience, in
terms of the timing of the renewal or administrative things like that...
Karr/ There will be an investment in costs for the companies.
Hayek/ Right, but ... or safety related...
Karr/ Yes.
Hayek/ Um ... I'm not sure we want to get in to limiting how many cars a company has if it
chooses to make that investment. That's almost a market decision.
Mims/ Well, and I wonder also if the rule that they have to have the same color scheme on all of
their vehicles might have some impact on them just adding...
Karr/ I believe there will be (both talking)
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Mims/ ...for a short period of time, because they've got to invest in painting those cars.
Dobyns/ I'd let the others go and just see how that goes (both talking)
Karr/ Okay. And then again, we can do that. I think Susan is right. I think we do anticipate with
that investment in their vehicles, we may not see the ease in adding the cars seasonally or
for a shorter period of time, like we did in the past.
Champion/ Right. That's right, cause there were ... the rules were much more lenient.
Karr/ We had ... no color scheme before so it was...
Champion/ Right.
Karr/ ... so it was simply a matter of lettering and inspection.
Throgmorton/ So we can see how it goes this coming year?
Karr/ Okay. Go 1 through (several talking)
Hayek/ So 1 through 7.
Karr/ 1 through 7, 8 we'll hold on, and 9 and 10 are staff - driven and we'll continue to monitor
those.
Hayek/ Okay.
Champion/ Can you tell me just off ..I'm sure you know off the top of your head, what, um,
what the rule now was with meters.
Karr/ Every... every taxicab must have a (both talking) the exceptions are airport shuttles, pedi-
cabs.
Champion/. What's a pedi -cab, oh...
Karr/ Bike.
Champion/ Okay.
Karr/ Or a horse -drawn carriage.
Champion/ Okay, because this is really ... I got a call at 2:00 A.M. Sunday morning.
Karr/ I think everybody did! And I'm working with the individual on that.
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Hayek/ You must ... he called me at 12:39 A.M. so...
Karr/ As I understand it, it wasn't that the taxi meter wasn't working. It was the route the driver
chose to take him to his destination, so the meter kept running.
Champion/ I can't believe they kept calling everybody! I mean...
Hayek/ Yeah.
Champion/ Scared the hell out of me (mumbled) (laughter)
Karr/ So we are taking a look at that and following up on that. (several talking)
Information Packets:
Hayek/ Okay. Thanks, Marian, and thanks for collaborating with the ... with the industry, so to
speak (several talking). It seems to be an effective relationship. Let's get through the
info packets, uh, the first is October 25th. Not much there but any questions or
comments? The Iowa City /Court Street traffic calming (several talking) Anything else
on that?
Dobyns/ Court Street traffic calming, is there going to be a sufficient vote. Where are we on that
in terms of the resident buy -in?
Davidson/ I have not heard the results of the... we'll... we'll let you know.
Dobyns/ Okay, all right.
Hayek/ Uh, November 1St
Throgmorton/ Anybody want to say anything about Kevin O'Malley's retirement?
Dobyns/ Well I was sorry my first year here. Is he gone?
Markus/ He'll be back! (several talking)
Dickens/ He's gone already! (laughter) He can't go until...
Champion/ Oh my gosh, that's horrible!
Karr/ January 31St
Champion/ That's really horrible!
Throgmorton/ Yeah, he's done a superb job.
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Champion/ It's going to take three people to replace him!
Mims/ Well, when we get to the public ... I think at the, at sometime there we should mention the
Diversity Committee's public input meeting on Thursday.
Champion/ Uh -huh.
Mims / When we're on TV so ... (several responding)
Hayek/ Okay. November, uh, 8 .
Mims/ We just hit most of that! (laughs)
Karr/ November 8th, we've got a ... we've got a couple of scheduling things if you ... if there's
anything else we can talk about before we get to that, but we do have some scheduling
(mumbled)
Hayek/ (mumbled) jump into the scheduling.
Karr/ Okay. Um ... additional meeting requests, IP7. We contacted a number of you regarding
special meetings. A possible date for the area legislative meeting would be January 3rd at
7:30 A.M. Uh, I was unable to secure another time that would work, and I'm ready to
proceed and offer that to area legislators if that's okay with everyone.
Champion/ Fine with me.
Karr/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Sorry, what was the date?
Champion/ January 3rd
Karr/ January 3rd, Thursday, 7:30 A.M.
Throgmorton/ Yep, fine.
Karr/ I had heard from all of you earlier, and I just...
Champion/ That's also the day of a radio show. (several talking)
Karr/ At 9:00. (several talking) Usually it runs about an hour.
Champion/ Oh, I have it down January (both talking)
Karr/ Wednesday... Wednesday...
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Payne/ Then it's the 2nd, right? (several talking)
Karr/ I'm sorry, is it the 2 ,d? .
Payne/ Cause the 3rd on my calendar shows Thursday.
Champion/ I had the 3rd down too.
Karr/ I'm sorry, the 3rd is what?
Payne/ Thursday.
Karr/ That's what I have, January 3rd, Thursday, 7:30 A.M.
Payne/ Okay!
Karr/ Yeah, the radio shows are Wednesday.
Champion/ I think I'm getting dyslexic! I wrote down the 3rd for the radio show (several talking)
Dickens/ ...as a Wednesday (mumbled)
Karr/ Okay, that's what it is.
Champion/ Okay, it wasn't I (several talking) I was ... I wasn't dyslexic!
Karr/ No. (several talking) Okay, and then the Council ... the Council appointees evaluation,
1:00 P.M. Friday, December 7th seem to work for everyone? We can firm that up?
Okay?
Hayek/ Okay.
Karr/ And then, uh....
Champion/ What time?
Karr/ 1:00.
Champion/ In the morning? (laughter)
Karr/ We, um, also then wanted to confirm the packet and meeting time for 11/26, which is your
Gilbert/College meeting. Um, I had ... we had tentatively reserved ... we committed to
Monday the 26th. We have not set a time. I put 5:00 as your beginning time. Do you
wish it to be 5:00? Do you want to go earlier at 4:00? Or do you want to retain 5:00?
This is your special work session to hear the proposals.
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Hayek/ (several talking)
Karr/ There'll be five proposals. I'm sorry?
Throgmorton/ 5:00 is fine with me, but I don't care really.
Karr/ 5:00? Okay. We'll ... we'll do that, and we'll get that packet out separately because it will
be a large packet, so we're going t try and get that out earlier in the week, and a ... a
separate packet than your 27th packet next week, and finally (both talking)
Champion/ What ... what is that date, again, Marian?
Dickens/ 26tH
Karr/ Monday the 261H
Payne/ And I will not be at that meeting.
Karr / Right.
Payne/ Do I need to show up and say I have to recuse myself?
Champion/ November?
Karr/ No, I think you're ... it's a work session so (several talking)
Dickens/ 5:00. I'll come getcha!
Champion/ Come get me, will ya?
Karr/ Okay, and then finally the KXIC radio show...
Throgmorton/ I want to volunteer for my birthday.
Champion/ Oh, when is it?
Karr/ When is it?
Throgmorton/ November 28tH
Karr/ November 28tH, got it.
Hayek/ I want to not volunteer for mine, um (laughter) so I will take, uh ... the 21St
Payne/ Hang on, hang on, hang on!
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Champion/ Of November?
Hayek/ Uh -huh, and I can take that, um, January date. I assume it's the...
Karr/ The 2 °d
Hayek/ That's fine.
Dickens/ I'll do December 5th, as well as tomorrow.
Payne/ Did somebody take the 28th
Karr/ 28th is Jim.
Champion/ Jim Throgmorton.
Karr/ December 5th is Dickens, December 12th is Dobyns, 19th and 26th. On the 26th we may be
able to fudge on it cause it is the day after Christmas, unless someone's really interested.
Payne/ I'll take the 19th. (both talking)
Mims/ I'll take the 19th (laughter)
Champion/ And I'm not going to do the 26th
Karr/ If nobody is interested in the 26th, they offer to rerun it or reschedule for another time,
so ... I'll alert them. So we've rt the 14th, Dickens; 21St, Hayek; the 28th, Throgmorton;
5th, Dickens; 12th, Dobyns; 19t , Mims; January 2 °d, Hayek; and I'll put a (both talking)
Mims/ Payne did it. Payne's got the 19th. She wanted it.
Karr/ Payne's is the 19th? (several talking)
Dickens/ They arm wrestle.
Hayek/ Yeah, you can take one of mine if you want. Take, uh.. .
Mims/ I'll take January 2 °a.
Champion/ Oh my gosh, you are so brave!
Karr/ Okay, I'll put a revised schedule in the packet Thursday. (several talking)
Champion/ So ... so there isn't a day open for me. That's great!
Karr/ Not this time.
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Dickens/ No, you have all of January. (several talking)
Champion/ We are expecting our 20th grandchild! (laugher and several talking)
Council Time:
Hayek/ Alrighty! Uh, I think that's it for the Info Packets. Council time?
Uttermark/ I guess I have something if no one else does. (several responding) Um, I've been
accepted for the Des Moines' internship program through my department, so I will be
spending the spring semester in Des Moines, hobnobbing around there. (several
responding)
Champion/ That's great!
Uttermark/ So my counterpart Alec will be taking over officially starting in January, but we'll
start phasing him in the last two meetings that school's in session.
Champion/ Congratulations! That's great!
Karr / And then, Matt, will there be an alternate named or not until the next school year then.
Alec is solo.
Uttermark, Alec will be in through the rest of the semester solo, but next semester they should
have a new (mumbled)
Hayek/ I want to thank Susan and Rick and staff for their work thus far on the Gilbert/College
project and vetting all of that material. So....
Champion/ Yeah, that is a lot to undertake.
Mims/ Very interesting!
Dobyns/ Uh -huh.
Mims/ I think we've got some great proposals that we'll see on the 261H
Dobyns/ ... interesting afternoon and evening.
Pending Work Session Topics:
Hayek/ Okay, pending work session topics?
Throgmorton/ I have one. Uh, tonight, Matt, you're going to read a proclamation concerning
hunger and homelessness awareness. And... and that made me realize I don't know too
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much about the homeless in Iowa City. So I would like to suggest that we have a work
session discussion about, uh, the homeless population in our city, who they are, uh, why
they're homeless, what's being done to help them, you know, find homes, jobs, shelter,
whatever, I mean the whole range of things like that, and I'm ... I'm not thinking, at least
my proposal is not to have staff present us with something, but to invite Christy
Canganelli and probably one or two other people to come in and do something kind of
like the hazmat presentation, but in lightness about homeless and homelessness in our
town.
Champion/ Joan Vanden Berg would be another good one. Along with Christy.
Dobyns/ I'd recommend that the, uh, the University contacting the impact program too. They're
the psychiatry program that, uh, serves, um, our homeless and others, um, sort of an
outreach psychiatric program. I think they have some ... a different perspective that
would aug ... enhance what Christy would be able to give.
Mims/ I think watching that video before them would be really good too (several talking) We
are the Shelter.
Hayek/ So it looks like there's support for that, that'd be all right. I would suggest that...
Champion/ Information only, I think it'd be good.
Hayek/ And I wouldn't mind a memo from staff relating to the funding we engage in, uh, with
groups that address homelessness, just so that we have a better understanding of what our
role presently is.
Throgmorton/ I just went to...
Hayek/ ...a presentation, but just some factual information.
Throgmorton/ I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Hayek/ Go ahead!
Throgmorton/ Uh, over the last couple days I've gone to a couple veterans meetings, you know,
having to do with Veterans Day. Uh, and in both meetings the ... people discussed the
incidents of homeless among vets and okay? So I know that's only a component of the
total homeless population but there's a connection and it matters.
Champion/ There is ... well, we won't discuss it now but there's several alternatives for veterans,
but a lot of veterans don't want to be in the shelter, and although there are beds
(mumbled) reserved for them, and there's also a house, but I think the problem is a lot of
homeless vets have alcohol problems and they wouldn't be allowed in a shelter anyway.
Throgmorton/ yeah, but I'm just hopin'...we can be enlightened.
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Dickens/ Yeah, find out why.
Hayek/ Okay! All right, why don't we ... meeting schedule, I guess we've already addressed your
issues there, Marian. Uh, upcoming events, Council invites? Today the Blue Zones
group was in Iowa City and met with a ton of people. I thought City staff did a really
good job of answering their questions, especially, uh, Rick and, uh, Rick Fosse and John
Yapp and, uh, Jeff Davidson, and others. Marcia! Okay, and the... there... one of the
proclamations tonight is ... is the Veterans Day. I'm not going to read it cause I read it
Sunday evening at the, uh, Johnson County Military Affairs Association dinner. The
Johnson County went ... it's always held in Washington County, which is ironic, although
they do a bang -up job (both talking)
Champion/ They do it at the casino, right? (several talking)
Hayek/ They do a very good job, uh, but that was a good event so ... okay, unless there's anything
else ... why don't we disband and come back at 7:00.
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