HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-03-19 TranscriptionMarch 19, 2013 Iowa City City Council Work Session Page 1
Council Present: Champion, Dickens, Dobyns, Hayek, Mims, Payne, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Davidson, Dulek, Fosse, Bockenstedt, Moran, O'Brien,
Karr, Boothroy, Laverman
Others Present: Bramel (UISG)
Ouestions From Council Re: Agenda Items:
Hayek/ ...to the March 19th work session. First bullet item is questions concerning agenda items.
Anything for the good of the order?
ITEM 2d(4) IOWA CITY FIRE STATION NO.4 - RESOLUTION TO RESCIND
RESOLUTION 12 -522 AND ACCEPTING WORK FOR THE IOWA CITY
FIRE STATION NO.4 PROJECT.
Payne/ Well, I ... I have, let's see. Let me find it here. I have two things. Item 2d(4) ... that's
Iowa City Fire Station #4. Was like $550,000 over the estimate? Is that ... did I read that
right?
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Payne/ The estimate was $3 ... (both talking)
Dickens/ ... and the actual cost was (both talking)
Markus/ But the estimate isn't the bid.
Dickens/ The bid was $200 (several talking)
Payne/ So did we...
Markus/ ...was a preliminary estimate.
Payne/ Did we do something different than was originally designed or ... do you know?
Markus / Rick? Can you answer that part?
Fosse/ You're talking about accepting the Fire Station (several talking)
Payne/ Yep!
Markus/ ...the construction.
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Fosse/ Yeah, the construction, the actual cost was about $200,000 over the bids, uh, in that. I ... I
don't know the specific change orders off the top of my head but one of the things that
you'll note on this project... actually it's not listed here in the item, but the project overall
came in lower than initially estimated (noises on mic) about $600,000 of I -Jobs' money
(noises) which we are (noises on mic) reallocated to the south waste water plant.
(mumbled)
Payne / And... and the reason it was under the estimate was because we changed something in the
plans or we just estimated high or...
Fosse/ Good bids!
Payne/ Good (laughs)
Fosse/ Yeah!
Payne/ Okay! Okay.
Fosse/ That, if you recall, that ... that was bid sometime ago and that's when ... when contractors
were quite hungry, and we did find out last week that we got LEED Gold certification on
this project.
Payne/ Cool! (several commenting) Thank you!
Fosse/ Uh huh.
ITEM 2d(5) POLICE CITIZENS REVIEW BOARD EXTENSION - MOTION
GRANTING A 45 -DAY EXTENSION TO THE POLICE CITIZENS
REVIEW BOARD FOR THE FILING OF THE PUBLIC REPORT WITH
THE CITY COUNCIL ON COMPLAINT #12 -06.
Payne / And then Item 2d(5), which is the very next item. Again, the politic... Police Citizens
Review Board is asking for a 45 -day extension. I ... I just have a problem with them
doing this all the time, and then in our ... other information in our packet, they don't want
to change the ... the days from 45 to ... more. So, it just seems silly to me that they're
always asking for an extension. I don't understand why.
Karr/ Um, Michelle, I can answer that a little bit. The Police Citizens Review Board did
recommend the change from 45 to 90. It's the Diversity Committee that did not
recommend it, and you'll be hearing from them next week on that, and as soon as we
have your direction, we can proceed with an ordinance.
Payne/ Okay. Thank you.
Karr/ Uh huh.
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Payne/ That's all I had.
Champion/ You mean the next meeting we ... we're not ... I'm not missing a meeting next week,
am I?
Karr/ I'm sorry, the next meeting. On April 9a' you'll have your presentation from the Diversity
Committee and provide some direction.
Champion/ Okay, great. Thanks!
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) every week now, Connie! (several talking and laughing)
Karr/ You didn't get the memo? (laughter)
Champion/ I'm resigning right now! (laughs)
Dickens/ (mumbled) (laughs)
ITEM 2d(8) SETTING OF PLANNING & ZONING PUBLIC HEARINGS -
RESOLUTION REPEALING RESOLUTION NO. 00-102 OF THE CITY
COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF IOWA CITY AND APPROVING A NEW
RESOLUTION ESTABLISHING THE ORDER OF BUSINESS FOR
FORMAL COUNCIL MEETINGS.
Throgmorton/ I guess I have three short items, but I don't want to jump in before somebody else.
Hayek/ Fire away!
Throgmorton/ Uh, on Item 2d(8) ... about moving resolution setting public ... uh, Planning and
Zoning public hearings to the Consent Calendar. Uh, I'm a little leery about doing that so
I'd like to understand why, other than saving time, because I'm concerned that the public
will be less notified. So...
Markus/ I think it is a matter of, uh, procedure and ... and expediting the process. There really
isn't a whole lot of discussion or debate that you can have on setting the hearing. So
that's why we suggested moving it to Consent.
Throgmorton/ My concern, Tom, or anybody else is that ... the public will not be sufficiently
informed that a public hearing is coming up. Now if I'm wrong about that, then it
doesn't matter and I'm eager to support it.
Mims/ I tend to agree with you, Jim. I ... I think when it shows up as a specific agenda item, it's
more visible to the public. I think if it's ... in the Consent Calendar, it's ... tends to be
more buried. I know it does take us a little longer, I mean, we have to vote on each one
separately, but...
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Dickens/ Two or three minutes.
Mims/ I think, I mean, I think in this community, that transparency, which we just got an award
for as a matter of fact, uh ... (several talking and laughing) You know, I think ... having it
as a specific item on the agenda makes it a little more obvious to the public, and certainly
in this community, people are very concerned with zoning issues.
Dobyns/ Now these are all ordinances, or do they...
Mims/ Just setting public hearing (several responding)
Dobyns/ Well the public hearing is for something that will be voted on once or three times?
Champion/ Three times (several responding)
Dobyns/ So this is like we're getting rid of, I guess, one out of currently four times it's heralded
for the public.
Throgmorton/ Yeah but it's the ... the first one is when you hold a public hearing on it. You don't
typically hold a public hearing later on, though people can weigh in.
Champion/ Should we...
Hayek/ Well I think you do.
Markus/ Yeah you do!
Dickens/ This is just setting the...
Markus/ This is just the setting of the hearing (several talking)
Throgmorton/ No, no, I ... I'm sorry.
Dobyns/ You're just talking about foreshadowing the public.
Throgmorton/ When you do the three...
Hayek/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ ...you have a public hearing at the first meeting, and then typically not after that,
but people can weigh... continue to weigh in, but there's typically not a second public
hearing and a third public hearing... as we go through a rezoning process.
Champion/ But we've allowed people to speak, like it is a public hearing.
Throgmorton/ For (both talking)
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Champion/ ...as long as I've been on the Council.
Throgmorton/ Oh sure! Yeah, we definitely allow people to speak.
Dobyns/ For my part, many times um ... if we begin talking, it's putting ... it sort of, it feels a little
bit premature to me because we don't have the P &Z comments on the item, that I like to
read. Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't, uh, sometimes it's just merely preliminary,
which is not bad, uh...
Mims/ But at this point with setting the public hearing we're not talking about it at all. All we
are doing is entertaining a motion to set the public hearing, a second and voting on it.
Dobyns/ Oh, it's sort of like waving your hands, here we are?
Mims/ Yeah! There's absolutely no discussion at that point. That's why I think staff is saying
we could just put it in the Consent Calendar.
Markus / And you do set certain public hearings already (several talking) under the Consent
Calendar (several talking)
Hayek/ Let me ... let me make the argument for embedding it. I ... I ... it saves us a little bit of
time, and I know it's short, um, but I think anything we can do to streamline it is
generally a good idea if the other aspects don't outweigh it, but what I think we avoid by
embedding it is I have seen ... I think confusion occurs from time to time, where people
show up ready to argue this thing, and we're merely setting the public hearing, and we
can't talk about it.
Champion/ That happens a lot actually. (several talking)
Dobyns/ ... annoys people, I would think.
Champion/ And I think people ... who are interested in a point, they know when those public
hearings are going to be, cause they make sure they know! Like the Dewey Street
people. They're always here when that comes up, I mean ... what I'm saying is, people
make themselves aware of it, if they're interested in it.
Throgmorton/ If...if they're directly affected, that's clearly true...
Champion/ Yeah, that's true!
Throgmorton/ ...but then there are other decisions we make that involve P &Z public hearings
where people are generally affected and ... and if they don't know that the public
hearing's coming up, I..I tell ya, I hear people getting really upset because they just found
out that some action was taken. They didn't know there ... a hearing had been scheduled
for it and things like that. Now in part it's their own responsibility, but you know...
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Champion/ They're not going to know anyway then. They're not going to know anyway,
whether it's in the Consent Calendar or whether it's in the ... in the agenda. They're not
going to know anyway, cause they didn't know, so there's... that's not going to make any
difference whether they know that or not. They're not going to know.
Mims/ Well cause it will be on the agenda for the meeting when you do have the public hearing.
Champion/ Right (both talking)
Mims /...first consideration.
Markus/ Plus, you can remove the item from the Consent agenda if you chose to discuss a
particular item.
Throgmorton/ True!
Dobyns/ Yeah, if we think it needs extra heralding, we have to...
Dickens/ Or two seconds at the beginning of the Consent Calendar, saying there is a public
hearing... if you want more information (both talking)
Champion/ Yeah, I think we used to do that a lot!
Dobyns/ It just makes us be active about it, rather than passive, so...
Champion/ I think it's up to the Mayor. He can say there are public hear... hearings listed in the
Consent Calendar.
Karr/ If I could, a couple observations. My office often gets called from citizens who are
looking for those public hearings, and it's confusing to them that they're in two spots.
That we set `em on the Consent Calendar and then there's some set under Planning and
Zoning. So, I think... and then they... want to know how come these are more important
or these aren't, and we explain to them that Planning and Zo ... Zoning, versus everything
else, and so I think there is something to be said about looking in one spot to see all the
public hearings being set, and secondly we are making a, uh, concerted effort to put those
titles into, uh, layperson's language and single out when it affects a certain area, and I
think that has helped tremendously, whatever you decide on placement on the, uh, for the
public hearings, but I think that's been the confusion is they didn't know what they were
looking for. In their mind they were looking for a certain item and the title of it just
didn't...
Mims/ Didn't click.
Karr/ ...didn't click. I think that's much more of a problem.
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Mims/ I think your point, Matt, though is ... is a good one. I hadn't thought about is the
confusion that people have of the setting the public hearing versus having the public
hearing. So ... I, yeah, I'd be willing to try the change and see what reaction we get, I
guess.
Hayek/ Jim, is this conversation changed your thinking at all or do you still...
Throgmorton/ To be honest I'm not sure. I ... I am very concerned, I ... I think it's tremendously
important for people to be fully informed about forthcoming hearings having to do with
rezoning. And ... and I'm concerned that many people would not be fully informed. I
don't know if that's true or not, I mean, I don't know if it's true that they would not be,
uh, as well informed or not, but ... that's my concern anyhow.
Mims/ Maybe another ... part going with this is looking at (mumbled) we've been redoing the
...the web site is thinking about how we post those public hearings on the web site. And,
I mean, I don't tend to look for them there, because I have the agenda and I'll always
look at it through the agenda, but maybe we need to be ... if we aren't already, and maybe
we are. I don't mean to be critical — look at how prominently we display upcoming
public hearings on the front of the web site.
Markus/ I think the, uh, other issue is the ... the posting of the sign and then the notices that get
sent out. I think that's where we hear, uh, the comments more about not getting notice is
the distance from the subject property that actually gets the written notice. Uh, they've
made issue of that in the past.
Hayek/ May ... maybe that's somewhere where we could look for a better way to do things.
Markus/ Well and I think it's ... isn't it the landowner that gets the notice, not the tenant? (several
responding)
Champion/ Yes!
Throgmorton/ ...would not necessarily...
Markus/ So we get ... we get some confusion there sometimes cause the tenant didn't get the
iss ... get the notice and they have, in some respects, as mus ... as much interest as the
landowner does, as well, so...
Champion/ Well I think we could send things to the landlord and also one just to the address.
Whoever... occupant! Cause I think a lot of the renters are much more interested than
landlords are, especially if they're out -of -town landlords.
Throgmorton/ Well I ... I'm sure we'll move ahead on this. I just wanted to raise a concern and
I'll ... I'll do whatever I'm ... think I need to do.
Champion/ Sure!
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Hayek/ Why don't we watch this? See ... see, try it! If it's not ... and we can always pull things
out if we want to highlight, but um ... maybe just try it and see how it's working (several
responding) revisit it, and then if, you know, if there's something we can do in terms of
getting out the message about public hearings that we aren't ... we're not considering, let's
look at that too. So...
Throgmorton/ Uh, two other short things, Matt.
Hayek/ Sure!
ITEM 2e(2) Amanda Owen Van Horne: Definition of Workforce Housing.
Throgmorton/ Uh, one has to do with Item 2e(2) which is an email from Amanda Van Horne
about workforce housing. And then there's another item somewhere in one of our
packets about workforce housing as well. Last meeting we discussed shifting the criteria
for using workforce housing as a designation from ... 80 to ... 80 to 150, 80% to 150% of
median household income, down to 80 to 120 (several talking)
Markus/ Sixty to 120 (several talking)
Throgmorton/ I thought it was... initially proposed 60 and then there was a discussion about it
being changed to 80, and then Steve and Jeff were nodding and saying, okay, we're going
with 80. That's what I heard.
Davidson/ Uh, what we heard was 60 to 120.
Throgmorton/ Excellent, okay. Never mind! Thanks!
Hayek/ And that's consistent with the Trinity letter.
ITEM 6. APPEAL MOBILE VENDING CART - APPEAL OF DENIAL OF
APPLICATION FOR PERMIT TO OPERATE A MOBILE VENDING
CART ON CITY PLAZA OR IOWA AVENUE.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Okay, and the last thing is ... is really just, I just need to know what the staff
would intend to do with regard to Item 6. And that has to do with a (mumbled) appeal
concerning a mobile vending cart on the ped mall. I'm just ignorant. What would
happen, what would the staff do if we chose to sustain the appeal or go along with the
appeal? I don't know what the process would be.
Dulek/ I think the purpose of the appeal is just to make sure that staff is acting, uh ... not
arbitrarily and capriciously. Let's take a ... an easy example. Let's say we issued one
permit, two applicants, one of whom was a staff's brother, and the staff member gave the
permit to the brother, and so the person who lost out on the permit could come to tell the
City Council going, well, gosh this is what's going on at City staff. You need to be
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aware of this. So I think the ... other than that, some of the oversight is more just to
making sure that staff is following the rules and following the City Manager's, um ... uh,
rules. Uh, with that said, at any point in time Council can increase the number of
permits.
Hayek/ I think your question is what happens ... if the... essentially the decision is reversed.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Then ... then what?
Throgmorton/ Right, then what?
Hayek/ Well as I would understand it, unless and until we increase the cap on vendors, staff
would have to bump someone from the chosen six to make room for this. So...
Throgmorton/ I ... I would guess so. I don't know...
Dulek/ Right!
Throgmorton/ ...that would...
Hayek/ (mumbled) (several talking)
Champion/ It would not be a good situation!
Hayek/ Well, we'll have to hear, I mean, we have a hearing tonight and they have a right of
appeal so...
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay. I sense some ambiguity there and I'm ... (mumbled)
ITEM 2e(2) Amanda Owen Van Horne: Definition of Workforce Housing.
Markus/ If you're, uh, done with that issue could we back up to workforce housing for a second?
Throgmorton/ Sure.
Markus/ Jeff, would you come up and describe the conversation that we had a little bit about, uh,
the understanding, uh, when we schedule, or we say that there's going to be workforce
housing what that expectation is. You remember the conversation that...
Davidson/ Yeah, I believe I do, Tom, um ... maybe Council can just provide some clarification
because we had some, uh, staff discussions where there ... there was some ambiguity. We
had a... a developer approach us and... and ask if Council had decided that similar to
when we have projects funded with federal programs, there was a question raised, I
believe, by Jim where you asked, and Steve Long responded to how we guaranteed
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affordability, and Steve said that when we have typically CDBG and Home projects that
require affordability to be maintained for, you know, a 7 -year period, a 10 -year period,
um, how we do that, how we monitor that, that we require people to meet in ... income
guidelines for a certain number of units and then that has to be maintained for a certain
period of time, and we, uh, and we ... we basically check that out. Um ... his question was
when we have local projects, for example the Park at 201 project, um, would Council be
making similar requirements, because he felt that was going to be a problem when he
went to the bank, uh, to get his conventional financing to be used along with the
financing that he received from the City, and... and there was some discrepancy we
weren't... City Manager heard it one way, I heard it another way, uh, what I heard you
say though was that you would not necessarily .... you ... you could decide to do on a
project -by- project basis, but that you would not necessarily mak ... be making those kinds
of requirements as we have with our federal programs, urn ... there was some thought that
maybe you had said you were going to require those types of affordability guidelines for
when we had, for example, a TIF- funded project for which workforce housing was being
provided.
Markus/ And I'll ... and I'll make a further distinction. It wasn't necessarily that I thought you
said that, but I was concerned that you may have thought that, that that was your
understanding.
Champion/ No!
Dobyns/ My understanding is that you can price something for a workforce, um, population, but
that doesn't necessarily mean that that will be the purchaser, I mean, it could be someone
who makes more money who could buy it. That was my ... that's what I came away with.
Davidson/ Way we've done our projects so far, which is I think what you're alluding to, Rick, is
that we require things to be priced either on a rental basis or on a sales basis, within the
parameters of people within those income levels being able to afford either purchase or
rental of those units. In the case of Park at 201, a certain number of units are being
required to be sold, uh, at a ... at a price point or less, and the developer is living up to
that, or similarly with rental... units.
Payne/ (both talking)
Mims/ ...income checking (both talking)
Davidson/ But we're not verifying income. We're not anything like that! Right.
Markus / And so now let me add another dimension. You ... you issue TIF financing to induce
certain qualifications or qualities that you're trying to achieve, and one of them is
workforce housing, and then we turn around and we don't income - verify, even though we
offer those units at a certain price.
Payne/ So in other words, somebody could make (several talking) 300% of...
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Markus/ Yes!
Payne/ Three hundred percent and still purchase it.
Markus / And, the unit would have been in... and it would have been reduced in price, based on
the inducement.
Throgmorton/ So you're suggesting we should (several talking)
Payne/ ...giving a subsidy to the ... that person that makes the $300,000! (laughs) (several
talking and laughing)
Markus/ I just want you to understand what's going on.
Mims/ No I agree (several talking) I agree entirely because as you were starting to say, and I
was trying to figure out which direction you were coming from and where Jeff was
coming from, and ... and...
Markus/ We ... we're not ... we're not on different pages. We're just trying to make sure we're
pushing this in the right direction.
Mims/ I mean ... to me from ... as a City Councilor, whether it's federal money, state money, or
city money, if we are giving some kind of incentive for workforce housing, then... it
would seem to me that our parameters, and our procedures, should be similar in all those
cases, regardless of the source of the incentive... incentive money.
Dobyns/ Isn't there a difference between an incentive and a requirement? I mean, an incentive...
Mims/ Well ... yeah, maybe I'm not phrasing it very well but I mean if...if we're ... if we are
incenting with TIF money or with Home money or CD ... CGDB ... CBDG money,
whichever, and we're saying "X" percent have to be workforce housing, then it would
seem to me regardless of the source of that money to the developer, we should be doing
income verification.
Champion/ I agree with...
Mims/ Why should ... why should we be allow ... why should we be giving them money to put
units on the market for lower than fair market price and have somebody making $300 or
$400,000 or a million dollars buying those (several talking) properties.
Dobyns/ ... federal subsidization for housing?
Hayek/ Well the distinction is that ... it's a federal requirement for that money.
Dobyns/ Yeah!
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Hayek/ So I don't think we have a choice, if we accept those Home or CDBG funds. Those are
the parameters HUD gives us. This would be a locally -grown policy.
Dobyns/ So if we choose to be uniform, then we would have that requirement for things that are
under TIF but ... how difficult is it to do that? How ... is ... are there cons to that?
Davidson/ Well, this ... in this particular case, the developer indicated that it would make it
difficult for him, or more difficult for him to get his conventional financing, cause
basically you're putting constraints on his ability to sell or rent certain units, which is
going to make the bankers nervous. That's how it was expressed to us.
Throgmorton/ I agree with what Susan said, the way she phrased it. I think if we're providing,
uh, financial incentives for some kind of construction and it's tied to workforce housing,
then we gotta make sure that it's actually going to people whose incomes fit within the
workforce housing, um, parameters.
Markus / And see we, you know, there ... there have been projects that we have not done that with.
Okay? So ... I, you know, we wanted to get this conversation out there because we don't
(several responding) want to just perceive what you folks are thinking, and we want you
to face the challenge that's kind of out there by inducing some of these things to happen.
Dobyns/ I'm a little bit sheepish about doing this retroactively. I can see doing it (several
talking)
Champion/ I'm not going to do it retroactively!
Dobyns/ Okay! (several talking) Yeah, I mean for things that are (several talking)
Champion/ The other thing about making those kind of demands is we ... we've done it in the
past. For instance, part ... I can't remember the exact circumstance, but part of some
apartment building had to be handicap accessible in elderly housing. It was done with
federal money or something, and after five years they've not been able to rent that. Do
you remember that situation?
Davidson/ I don't.
Champion/ And so we let `em out of it, I mean, there's gotta be some kind of way to get out, if it
doesn't work. I mean, this obviously didn't work. So ... cause you know nobody elderly
wanted to live in this apartment that had almost all students.
Mims/ But it would seem to me you could always... negotiate and put, urn ... clauses in a contract
with a developer, where you know, you have to do the income verification, and if under
certain criteria, they still can't sell it or rent it to people who meet the income criteria,
then we would have procedures for which we could give them (both talking)
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Champion/ ...have some way to get out of that if it doesn't work, cause what we think might
work, like that situation I told you about, it might not always work and then you do have,
I mean, look at all the empty first -floor retail we have because we demand that people put
it in there. So there's gotta be some way for `em to use that property.
Dobyns/ And the downside with TIF is that they might not be able to pay it off as quickly if they
don't ... I'm not sure. I'm trying to think of the various downsides to (both talking)
Champion/ Well I don't know about that! They ... (mumbled) workforce housing probably aren't
going to be as ... elegant or expensive as the more expensive things above it or below it or
wherever.
Markus/ I think ... I think one of the arguments that was made is that if you incentivize a lower
price, and then the assessment or the... assessment from the County Assessor comes in,
and the assessment's higher than what the individual paid as a result of the inducement,
the tax rate's going to be ... the tax levy's going to be higher. It's ... it's a ... we're trying to
think our way through this whole process too. Sue, you know, on UniverCity, um ... uh,
housing, what we do is we, I think the number's $40,000 in terms of...that's our ... kind of
our limit for making improvements. And we usually ... we usually bite that. Now
previously those were, I think we had some federal dollars involved in all of that.
Davidson/ State dollars.
Markus/ State dollars, and then we ... we, this ... this upcoming year, which we've already started
buying houses for, we've, um ... we've shifted to General Fund money. But you're using
the same parameters and you're placing restrictions or covenants on the title so that that
house has to remain, uh, income eligible or means tested, um... for a certain period of
time. What is it, 20...
Dulek/ No, it's seven years for, but it's ... it has to remain owner occupied for 20 years, and so we
take out a mortgage so we can literally foreclose on the property if they, for example,
start leasing it. So...
Markus/ But it has to be means tested for...
Dulek/ Seven years.
Markus/ Seven years.
Dulek/ Right.
Hayek/ I mean, seem ... seems to me, yeah, there ... there are probably some issues here, if...if tax
assessment goes up, because they (several responding) incorporate the, I mean, we'll
have to figure that out, and I don't ... I don't know how that plays out, but we ... we ... we
regularly require metrics of projects we do or developments we ... we partner in. Um, and
I think you can make the case, you know, the ... the TIF, at least on projects like these,
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um, is ... is acceptable to us because it fulfills a public good and we ... I would ... I would
think we would want in the out -years to ensure that that public good is met.
Payne/ And... and I agree with that, but I want to know if the reason why he's worried about
getting his conventional loan is because that banker knows that somebody that makes
$64,000 is not going to afford a $2,000... $100,000... unit to purchase. So there's nobody
going to be able to buy them because a bank isn't going to give a loan to somebody that
makes $64,000 to purchase something for $200,000!
Davidson/ Yeah, you brought that up when Steve and I ... that you had some skepticism about
that. You know, Steve assures me that he talked to all the bankers at all the banks and
that they will, you know, if you have good credit and you don't have a load of other debt
and ... you meet all those requirements, that they will in fact loan money at those...
Champion/ Yes! I ... my daughter is in that very situation. She has a house.
Payne/ For $200,000? And she makes $64,000?
Champion/ (mumbled)
Payne/ I mean, that just seems out of whack to me.
Champion/ (both talking) ...downpayment though, I mean, that probably makes a big (several
talking)
Mims/ I don't think so. Three times what you're making in this low- interest rate environment?
Payne/ But the interest rates may not be low for the next five years. I mean, what if in five years
interest rates are 9 or 10 %?
Davidson/ Every so often we update the ... the parameters. You know, we update those as things
like that change. Right.
Hayek/ So what do we want to do?
Champion/ Well I don't think we're going to retroactive, but I think we certainly need to do it in
the future.
Mims/ Yeah, I think we need to look at future projects (both talking)
Davidson/ ...do want to be more stringent, basically requiring not just that the units be made
available at certain price points, but that they in fact be sold or rented to people...
Throgmorton/ Yes.
Davidson/ ...but basically you're taking away a portion of the market for those units.
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Mims/ I think (several talking)
Dobyns/ ...mean going forward, which projects? The projects that we (both talking)
Davidson/ ...it'll come up next on The Chauncey. The one we're negotiating right now.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Markus/ I think that ... I think in the ... in the case of, urn ... uh, is it 201? (several responding)
That one's already rolling. I think ... this question came up as a result of College and
Gilbert, and that's ... that was the question I had for you — do you consider them retro or
do you consider them prospectively? (several responding)
Champion/ I don't consider (several talking)
Mims/ ...haven't negotiated the contract yet is the way I would look at it.
Dickens/ They could still ... be somebody different going in so...
Hayek/ I don't know. I would ... I would want maybe some legal input on that. I don't know if
the issuance of an RFP means that doing anything now is retroactive.
Davidson/ Yeah, but we ... we don't have a contract yet, Sue, so I would think it'd still be wide
open (both talking)
Champion/ ...haven't granted a TIF.
Markus/ Right!
Davidson/ Uh huh.
Champion/ I mean, we ... I think he's probably negotiating for one, but we haven't granted it. If
he doesn't want a TIF, I don't care what he puts in there.
Markus/ It ... the bigger picture here is ... is I think we have a concept of workforce housing...
Champion/ Right.
Markus/ ...and I think what we're trying to refine it to is a definition of how workforce housing
is supposed to operate; what, you know, what price ranges it's going to be in; are we
going to hold it in place for a period of time. We have some other projects that we're
talking to developers about, and we're trying to use kind of the UniverCity model in a
condominium ki ... type of development. So it would be means - tested for seven years and
then it would be reserved for an occupant in that particu... even in a condo -type building,
so that you have both owner occupancy and rental occupancy, in a condo building.
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Hayek/ Wouldn't this approach have an impact on valuation? Long -term?
Mims/ I would think it would if you're means testing for... a period of years.
Davidson/ That's a question for the Assessor. Hang on!
Markus/ Yeah, that ... that's the one thing that we haven't, you know, because if you ... if your...
if you're building a unit and then somebody comes ... the assessor comes in and says, I
don't care what the finish is, the basic square footage dollar -wise is equivalent to, uh, the
...the unit upstairs that's not a workforce housing unit. It's much larger and all this. You
know, I wonder if finish can make that much difference.
Champion/ I don't know.
Throgmorton/ This sounds to me like a technical detail that's important and you guys are going
to have to work on...
Markus/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ ... cause ... cause I...I think our intent, y'all tell me if I'm wrong, is to target a
certain number of units for the workforce... the downtown area workforce that needs
housing.
Markus/ Which means income.
Throgmorton/ Within a certain, yeah, within a certain income range.
Dobyns/ I ... I'm a little ... maybe I don't quite understand this as much as the rest of you, but I'm
a little bit nervous about Council making some decisions in the midst of a negotiation
process.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Dobyns/ I think we can make some ... there are several concerns about the Gilbert-Court. This is
one of them. It's in the midst of negotiation. I... before I put the cart (mumbled) horse
here, I guess ... I guess a conversation would be ... informing the negotiation process, but I
wouldn't want Council discussion to drive the negotiation too far about this. I mean, is
this an absolute, is this something we absolutely want (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Without clarity from us about what we mean, then wha ... whatever is used kind of
determines things. So, you know, it ... and ... and if we're ... if we are ambiguous about
what we mean, and Tom goes in to the negotiations, he's got to invent some things there.
And... and that's not so good. (several talking and laughing)
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Dobyns/ I ... I don't know if ambiguity is ... in this stage, for this project, is a bad idea ... at this
point. There's a lot of `hot' items about the Gilbert-Court that I could bring up. I don't
wish to do it, but ... this is important. That's important, and I don't want to tie the hands
of our negotiating team in the midst of this project. Um...
Markus/ Well let ... I ... I hear your comment, equally as concerning to us, Rick, was the thought
that it was out in the public perception that we're going to have so many workforce units
and then the public later finds out, well, wait a minute! (several talking) It ... they
weren't means - tested. People with, you know, significantly higher income capacity than
what we described the workforce to be own those units, and that to me, I think, was a
disconnect from what we may have been conveying to the public. That was my concern
about it.
Dobyns/ I'm just (several talking)
Mims/ Well and I would say al...
Markus/ ...and I don't have the solution at this point. I just...
Mims/ Well I think part of what happened too, and maybe I'm not completely correct in this, but
I think with Plaza Towers, a lot of those units got flipped. I mean, they were bought be
people who, you know, had a fair amount of money and bought because they were in that
restricted price range, and they turned around within a year or two and made booco bucks
on some of those units.
Champion/ We didn't have workforce housing in Plaza Towers!
Mims/ Wasn't there any?
Champion/ Uh -huh, uh -huh.
Mims/ Okay.
Champion/ No, that's not true. That did not happen (several talking)
Hayek/ We're not going to solve this tonight. We've identified some salient issues that need
further investigation by staff.
Davidson/ Yeah. We might want to schedule this for work session.
Hayek/ Urn ... but I mean I ... I...
Markus/ ... come up with some ideas (several talking)
Hayek/ I do think ... you know, I think it ... if I were an economist or an appraiser or somebody
like that, it ... to go this route, which I may be supportive of. I ... I probably am, but I think
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it ... I think it would have potential dampening effect on... on the long -term value because
you're essentially cutting out a portion of the perspective market for a given (both
talking)
Payne/ ...and also couldn't... couldn't you also have the taxes end up so high that somebody in
that price range couldn't afford it anymore, cause now the taxes are too high? I mean,
that could happen (several talking)
Mims/ I think that's where a discussion with the Assessor's important.
Payne/ But the very first time, yeah, the very first time they appraised it, it could...
Hayek/ Well let's ... let's keep moving. I think ... you guys...
Davidson/ We'll frame a ... future discussion.
Board and Commission Appointments:
Hayek/ Yeah. Okay! We gotta make some ... we gotta make up ... (mumbled) time here. Any
other agenda items? Okay. Next item is board and commission appointments. Marian, I
got an email from you mid-afternoon ... on uh ... on our commissions. Can we ... we can
appoint the Airport, can't we?
Champion/ Yes!
Karr/ Cause we're two and two.
Champion/ Uh huh.
Karr/ You can go ahead on that one.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Karr/ Oh I'm sorry. Yes, you can!
Hayek/ Yeah, it's the other (both talking)
Karr/ All the rest (both talking) only the ... yes. That's correct. (several talking)
Hayek/ Yeah, so let's ... let's appoint for the Airport Commission (several talking)
Dickens/ He's a pilot and sounds like (several talking)
Hayek/ One down, 77 Airport Commission- related things to fill!
Throgmorton/ There ya go! We'll get there some day! (laughs)
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Champion/ I don't think so!
Throgmorton/ So, I ... I'd like to raise a more general question, uh, with regard to appointments.
totally understand why we have a gender balance requirement. Why don't we have some
other balance requirements? Our ... the demography of this city has changed dramatically
in the last ten years. Why don't we take that into account?
Mims/ Well, I guess my answer to that would be ... I think we try to look at that, as we look at,
um ... who's applied and secondly we have so many that we can't even fill, that I can't see
putting more restrictions on it than the State has already imposed with the gender
requirement. I mean that's ... I mean I ... as I look at them I try and look at, you know,
how long people have been in town, if...where they live in town is applicable to that
particular board or commission, and what we have for balance in age and... and
University versus non - University employed people, and ... and those kinds of things, and
so ... I just think we have so many we can't even fill that I wouldn't be comfortable in
putting more restrictions.
Throgmorton/ In that case we should not have a gender balance requirement.
Mims/ That's State! We can't do anything about it.
Hayek/ State law.
Champion/ We started doing it before the State law came out.
Hayek/ Well...
Throgmorton/ I think I probably helped vote for it.
Karr/ We did start it before them, because we knew it was going to be effective mid -year, and
now it is State law so...
Dulek/ It's for State - mandated commissions, such as P &Z and BOA. We've just made it for all
of our boards and commissions.
Hayek/ Okay. Uh, next is discuss RFP for alternative technologies for solid waste.
Discuss RFP for Alternate Technologies for Solid Waste Disposal (IC Landfill):
Fosse/ Yes!
Hayek/ Mr. Fosse!
Fosse/ Thank you, and I'll endeavor to be brief (laughter) Did want to catch you up here! Um,
what we want to do is visit with you about these alternative technologies and ... and this is
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all related to that Fiberight discussion that we've had earlier, and our objective tonight is
to simply ascertain your interest in proceeding with an RFP for, uh, Fiberight, or a
company like Fiberight, and ... we got one yes already (several talking and laughing) I...
I want to give you some background though, and ... and let you know what you're getting
into with your next step, and uh, two - minute background. You know, we ... we take in
about 400 tons of solid waste at the landfill per day, on the average, knowing full well
that's not the best long -term solution for that. Uh, so we put in place a variety of means
to ... to divert, to recycle, to reuse, uh, waste. Our most recent being the, uh, the prom
dress project, and as you can see by the date down here in the corner, this ... this is an idea
that's about 140 years ahead of its time (laughter) Jennifer Jordan is (several talking)
Hayek/ I see fashion comes around (laughter)
Fosse/ Yes!
Throgmorton/ That Jenn Jordan!
Fosse/ But even with all these in place, we're ... we're stalled out at about 34% diversion, and
that's... that's about average for a community of our size, and you know the prom dress
thing is not the technology break - through that we need to ... to make significant impact on
our... on our waste stream. Uh, but a lot of people are, and companies are studying what
that technology break - through might be, and last summer we were visited by, uh, Steve
Gerber from Fiberight, and I've got a couple slides here from Steve's presentation that he
gave to you all on... on August 21 st to talk about the concept that they're developing.
And uh, just by virtue of our proximity to Blairstown where they're doing this work,
where they would like us to be a feedstock supplier of municipal solid waste for them.
And, that would entail some sort of facility out at our landfill where a certain amount of
the waste would be separated out and transferred directly into our landfill, and then the
rest would go on to Fiberight for either processing or recycling, and really what they're
after for their process is this blue piece of the pie here. That's the organic component of
the solid waste stream, and they also have some interest in this part of the pie, as well, as
far as plastics and rubber, metals and glass, all for separating out for recycling. So what
doesn't get diverted and recycled curbside, they want to separate out and ... and use that as
an income stream as well. We'll talk more about that later. And then this stuff up here is
what ends up in our landfill. Uh, that is we've ... we've got the durables. That's things
like couches, uh, washing machines, stuff like that, um... C &D or construction and
demolition debris would (mumbled) non - processables, that's just oddball things, swing
set or whatever, and then also we've got the ... the textiles and leathers here. That's
...that's where the prom dresses go (laughter) uh, and ... and interestingly those don't
separate out easy ... easily, but they don't work sell through the Fiberight process. So they
have to pull that kind of stuff out by hand. Um... in December Dave Elias and I went out
to the demonstration plant in Virginia to ... to verify, uh, just what it is that they're talking
about, and the USDA who is a funding partner in this, to the tune of $25 million loan,
insisted on this demonstration plant, which is a full -scale demonstration to show that this
...this technology transfers from the lab to a commercial -scale production and uh, allow
them to work out the bugs, if you will, at that point and ... and Dave and I were able to
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observe that and ... and this is, uh, the vessel where a lot of that conversion occurs, where
they put in the ... the solid waste feedstock; it goes under pressure and temperature that
turns for about an hour; and out dumps this stuff, and that ... that blue piece of the pie that I
showed you is now this ... this gray ... grayish-brown, thick oatmeal consistency stuff, and
that's the feedstock that they're looking for for the ethanol process, and then what you...
what else you see in here are all the recyclables that didn't get separated out at curbside,
and they're really pretty clean at this point, and they'll go through a MRF ... a material
recovery facility. You separate it out and it's sold. That's why I like that part of the
concept, where ... you get at recyclables that aren't already (both talking)
Dobyns/ Rick, could you go back two slides to the pie chart?
Fosse/ Sure!
Dobyns/ Um, and so the, uh, on the ... from the 10:00 to the 11:00, those ... go into the landfill.
Fosse/ Yes.
Dobyns/ Where do those get separated out in the process? They don't go into the... conversion
machine. They're just...
Fosse/ They'll... they'll get separated out at...at two places. One when the waste first comes to
the scale house. If... if we know it's a load of construction debris, it goes straight down
to the landfill. If it's just a load of mixed waste, then it goes over to their facility. It's
dumped on the floor and if a couch comes out, it's pulled out of there.
Dobyns/ Oh, okay.
Fosse/ Or you know if something comes out that they don't want, that's... that's where that is
separated out. And then also the ... the first in their sorting process, uh, separates out
some of these, uh ... uh, non - processables, especially the small ones. The cat litter, the
...the dirt, the rocks and stuff like that that gets in the garbage, and then that will go
directly into the landfill (both talking)
Dobyns/ So about 75% then goes into this Virginia converter thing -a -ma -bob (laughter)
Fosse/ Yeah!
Dobyns/ And then...
Hayek/ I think you just named it! (laughter)
Dobyns/ I went to school! Um ... and then it comes out and then they ... go back and they ... they
pick through it before it goes through it, and they...
Fosse/ Yes!
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Dobyns/ ... and they pick through it after it goes through it?
Fosse/ Yep, and when they ... when they picked through it before, what they're pulling out are the
fabrics. That's the main thing they want to get out of there and... and some of the film
plastics, like the bags, and stuff like that. And then from there it goes into, uh, some of
their processes. Now I won't go into a lot of detail on this cause we are short on time, but
it ... pre-treatment, the hydrolysis, the ... and then you're into your typical ethanol plant,
where you have the fermentation, distillation, and you produce the ethanol as ... as the
final product there. So ... we ... we observed all of that in, uh, in December. Then in
January when we talked about the capital program I shared with you two projects that are
specific to the landfill. One is extending the water main out there, and the other's
improving the access road. Uh, both those projects serve our existing operations and then
they also will serve a Fiberight or some similar company, and ... and at that time I got
smiles and nods from you all, indicating you seem... still... still be on board with the
process there. Um, so as you can imagine, before any company's going to enter into an
agreement with us, or if they're going to enter into an agreement, uh, with the type of
capital investment and operational commitment, they're going to need to make, they're
going to want a long -term contract, and because it is a long -term contract, and we're
talking about large sums over a long period of time, uh, we want to make sure that this
goes through an open process, like we were talking about earlier with the public hearings.
Open process is important, and also the RFP process can provide you all with the best
information you need to make an informed decision on a contract (mumbled) if
ultimately, uh, we go that direction. So ... the reason we want to make sure that you're on
board at this point is our ... our next step would be to engage a consultant to as ... to assist
us with that RFP process. Uh, they'd, uh, write and issue a request for proposals,
including a draft form of agreement, cause we want to lay out the terms by which we do
this. Uh, they would facilitate a pre - proposal meeting, evaluate proposals, uh, prepare
recommendations, assist with negotiations and ... and then ultimately make
recommendations to you all, and we want to make sure that we get a firm on board that
has good experience in the solid waste industry, has done t his sort of thing before, cause
it is ... it is an industry that is unique upon itself. So we expect when we ... when we go
through this, we're going to spend in the neighborhood ... our best estimate is $40,000 to
$50,000 on consultant services, and a whole bunch of staff time. So there's a
commitment there and we ... we don't want to make that commitment, uh, without just
checking in with you and make sure we're all on the right track here.
Dobyns/ Can you go back one slide?
Fosse/ Yes!
Dobyns/ I'm slow! (laughter)
Fosse/ That's okay!
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Dobyns/ That looks like a chemist reaction so it excites me, uh, so (laughter) at the end, the
bioethanol, bioelectricity, let's say that the economy of those two things fell out, and
maybe they weren't as important in the future.
Fosse/ Uh huh.
Dobyns/ What would happen? (coughing, unable to hear speaker) ...invest all this time and the
money into it, and all of a sudden the end product isn't as valuable any more, what could
happen?
Fosse/ That's... that's a good question, and ... and that's something they've thought a lot about,
because, you know, it's their money that's wrapped up in this. And ... and the key is back
here, and that is converting the biomass to sugars, and once they've broken it down to
sugars, you can go to a var ... you can manufacture a variety of products from that, uh, the
most promising (several talking) right now is ... (laughter) May not be in the food
industry (laughter) uh, ethanol (several talking) the other one (several talking and
laughing) that they're... they're looking, the industry segment is looking hard at is jet
fuel, which is basically kerosene. Uh, but there are all sorts of alternatives for... for travel
on the ground, you know, there's hybrid, there's electricity, all sorts of things, but ... but
for air travel, jet fuel's about it, and uh, so the... the... the defense industry's very...
looking very heavily at this process, as well.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Mims/ But the key, I would assume, is getting a contract... that, to the best ... way possible holds
us harmless even if ..they've got no use for the (several talking) It's their problem, not
ours, I mean ... I would assume that's...
Fosse / Right. You know, we've got two risks that we want to make sure are covered, minimum
of two risks. One is the ... the financial thing.
Mims / Right.
Fosse/ So that, you know, what kind of financial investment are we willing to make. At this
point, we've not talked about making any. They're going to make all the financial, uh,
investment, and the other part is, you know, any time our waste leaves our site, uh, we
need to make sure that it's being dealt with responsibly, wherever it goes, so that we
don't end up on the hook for an off -site clean-up somewhere. So that's... that's another
area that we want to (both talking)
Dobyns/ But this building would be on City property, this conversion?
Fosse/ Part of the process would be on City property but the ... the rest of it happens at the
Blairstown plant.
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Dobyns/ So worst -case scenario, there's a small building that will sit and it just goes into the
landfill, I guess (several talking)
Payne/ You have a picture of what it would look like, right? One of those pictures, the one with
the truck under it?
Fosse/ Yeah, that's...
Payne/ Is what would be on our property?
Fosse/ That's just a real rough...
Markus/ That's changed.
Fosse/ Yeah.
Payne/ Okay, but something similar.
Dobyns/ Not that big, not huge, no! No.
Champion/ Well I certainly think it's worth investigating. Definitely!
Hayek/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton /I have a couple questions for you.
Fosse/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ Uh, one has to do with environmental effects at the other production site, you
know, where ... where the bio -gas, etc., is being produced.
Fosse/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ So I'd want to make sure that we're not, um ... diverting various kinds of
environmental afflictions to somebody else, somewhere else.
Fosse/ Uh huh, yep.
Throgmorton/ All right. So for me that'd be important, as a part of a...
Dickens/ Hasn't the State approved that (several talking)
Fosse/ Yeah, that is ... that's part of the State permitting process which will help look out for
those interests, but you're right. We need to ... need to be cautious there.
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Throgmorton/ A second, uh, question, or a concern I have is whether, um, moving in this
direction would result in a economic incentive not to reduce or recycle waste.
Fosse/ You know, that ... that's a good question, Jim, because I've ... I've been taking this concept
out on my ... my, uh ... um, service club circuit that I do, you know, and just floating this
out and getting reaction from the public, and by and large there's... there's a lot of
excitement about this, but ... but there's some clear concerns out there, and one of `em is
along the lines, uh, that you've just brought up. Is this waste diversion or is it recycling?
You know, that ... that depends on what state you're in. In Iowa it's called recycling by
the State. In Maryland it's called waste diversion. But getting more specifically at... at
your point, is that what ... what will this do ... do to the broader issue of resource
conservation, and one of the incentors for all of us to recycle now and to reduce what we
consume is ... is we all know where this goes — to the landfill, and ... and we don't like
that, and once we become comfortable with how our solid waste is dealt with, will that
reduce our incentive to conserve resources? Is that ... that basically what you're getting
at, Jim?
Mims/ Good point!
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Fosse/ And ... and that's... that's something that (several talking) that we're going to need to
address, that, you know, this gets at the waste aspect of it, but there's... there's still the
conservation of resources, which is at the front end, not at the tail end.
Dickens/ Is there a requirement that we have to provide `em with so much trash? Do we have to
create trash to (laughter) meet obligations? (several talking)
Fosse/ Well, that ... that's part of the thing that'll be in the agreement, and one of the things that I
want to point out for you that ... that the ... the amount of waste going into our landfill
peaked three years ago. Last two years has been declining, and that mirrors a national
trend. Uh, and it's not a big decline, but ... but it represents a change, and nobody's quite
certain whether that's because of the economy or if people are just getting better about
conserving resources and recycling. But it's ... it's a good sign! We don't see it tailing
off to the point at which we wouldn't be able to fulfill waste obligations.
Dobyns/ You know it's a ... it's probably not a good thing to de- emphasize primary direct
recycling, but we also don't want to fill up our landfill, I mean, it's sort of one
environmental concern ... against another.
Hayek/ Okay. (several talking)
Mims/ I have one quick question going... and you don't need to go back, but one of the pieces of
the pie was the construction and demolition / wood and you said all of that just
immediately goes into the landfill.
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Fosse/ Uh huh.
Mims/ Is it because there's just such a mixture of materials that you can't effectively do anything
with it, I mean, because immediately I'm thinking wood, why can't that be ground up
and, you know, end up as either wood chips or mulch. I know you may have, I don't
know if you have concrete, if you got fiber board, if you got... sheetrock, I mean, is that
why, because you just got such a mixture of stuff that you can't do anything with it or...
Fosse/ We do some sort of separation there. If we get loads that are foundations, for instance,
that goes in a separate pile and then we crush that into rock that we use out at the landfill.
If...if we get a load that's just wood, and we're certain of that, we'll convert that into
wood chips or mulch, uh, but if we're concerned that there's treated wood in there, or you
know tubes of caulk or whatever, we don't want that in the compost that's going to go out
to people's gardens. So we're ... we're fairly careful there.
Mims/ Okay. All right! Thanks.
Payne/ And, my one last question, sorry! This would, if...if we did do something like this, it
would put an end to the project with the University.
Fosse/ Not necessarily.
Payne/ Okay.
Fosse/ Um, what it would do in the long -term is reduce the methane production at our landfill,
because the methane is produced by the organics, and they're taking the organics out of
that waste stream, which is a good thing. We're not only reducing volume, but we're
putting the right stuff in the landfill. Uh, but we project that we have roughly 20 years of
methane production remaining out there.
Payne/ Okay.
Bramel/ I ... I think, um, when you... Terry, when you were saying that, uh, do we have to create
waste (laughter) urn ... I don't know, I just had kind of a... a... forgive me here, um,
so ... we have this massive student (mumbled) population here in the city and I think that
that'll always create waste. That is another thing, uh, when it comes to, like you were
saying, um, you know, are we pushing recycling, are we pushing just throw your stuff
away and let it be sorted, um, we have a big problem, uh, with high- density housing, um,
trash bins in the back. There's not a very ... we don't have ... we don't have a city system,
um, set up that ... we don't have like recycling bins given to high density houses like,
say ... put the apartments... the apartment buildings around me. There is a dumpster.
There's not a recycling dumpster or anything ... it's like put your recyclables in here. You
have to take that down yourself to one of the recycling centers in order to do that. Well,
tell you right now, that... (several talking) I do it. No, I do it, don't get me wrong! It
piles up and then when I get sick of looking at it in my apartment building I take it out
(laughs) the point. Um, point is that we have a lot of recyclables going into that garbage.
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Um, a lot, like a lot, you'd be surprised how much we'd see, and a lot of it gets picked up
from, you know, people who are looking for cans and will ... and what have you, but
...um, that's... that's a big deal. That happens a lot, uh, in our ... in this kind of housing,
at least the high density, the student housing. I think this, you know, I'm not going to say
we're going to make trash, but it sure as heck we're going ... it's going to be a little bit
more ... I mean, if we ... bring, uh, Fiberight in with this, or if this kind of process, you
know, is utilized, I think we're going to ... I think we're going to get a lot more, um, I
think this would be a lot better than just, as we're doing it now, just throwing it right in.
(several talking and noises on mic)
Dobyns/ Oh your mic (several talking)
Bramel/ Oh, yeah, yeah! Did I make my point (several responding) Okay, all right.
Fosse/ Would you like to move forward with this? (several responding) Okay!
Throgmorton/ Uh, I gotta ask you a quick question. Are ... are, um, are there other companies
like Fiberight?
Fosse/ That's what we're going to find out. You know, it may be such that we only get one
proposal. Uh, but ... but I think that process is important because of the long -term
commitment here (noises on mic)
Markus/ Other companies have approached us; um ... we're actually going to RFP for the
consultant to begin with...
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ ...and then likely RFP for the proposers of how they would, uh, respond to our RFP that
comes out of the consultant review process.
Fosse/ That it?
Hayek/ Sounds good, yeah!
Fosse/ Thank you! (several talking)
Hayek/ Great! Thanks, Rick! Next up (several talking) Mr. Fruin. Strategically update us!
(laughs)
Payne/ In 10 minutes! Or less.
Strategic Plan Update — Neighborhood Stabilization:
Fruin/ In 10 or 15 minutes. (laughter) Just give me that look, uh, when it's ... when it's time to
move on, and I've got plenty of help back here. Um ... pri ... previously when we've done
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our updates I've just kind of gone off the report here. We're ... we're at about 50 pages,
um ... on this report, so I wanted to try to break it down into a little bit more manageable,
um, chunk of information for 15 minutes. And ... just bear with me here ... um ... (several
talking and laughing) I swear it worked good during rehearsals! (laughter)
Markus/ This is some new technology Geoff s been working with, and he's refining it as we go
along.
Fruin/ Um...
Markus/ It's pretty impressive.
Mims/ (mumbled) presentations can be very cool. Can be very cool!
Markus/ Yeah, yeah, this is!
Fruin/ Okay! So I'm ... I'm trying to learn this new presentation tool because Rick Fosse shows
us all up, all the time (laughter) and so I need some practice with this, but hopefully it'll
go ... it'll go off without a hitch. Um, as we've talked about in the ... in the report there's
six areas of neighborhood stabilization that we're focusing on, so I'm going to try to take
you through these, um, we'll go slow. There's ... with this presentation tool there's a lot
of movements, so if you get motion sick, you know, look away during the slide
transitions (laughter) So the first one we're going to talk about is our land use regulations
and ... and each of these slides are going to be broken up, uh, into what we've
accomplished to date and what's on the radar. So accomplished to date, um, we had three
significant zoning changes, uh, about a year ago where we, uh ... um, restricted future
development of four and five - bedroom units and established some, uh, graduated density
formulas, uh, for one, two, and three- bedroom apartments. Essentially, as you'll recall, it
made the ... it provided some incentives for ... for one - bedroom units and some dis-
incentives for three bedroom units. Uh, we had some parking requirements, uh ... uh,
changes, the one -to -one ratio in the, uh, University impact area, and then the bottom two
more recently — the Jefferson Street Historic District and the North Governor properties
that, urn ... the Comp Plan's been amended but the zoning, uh, is ... is still under
consideration. Moving forward, we want to give you a glimpse of what we're looking at
right now, and um, jump in and give us more direction at any time. Don't ... don't wait til
the end. We're still working on, um, some concepts for private, uh, dorm zoning
provisions. Uh, Jim, at the last meeting I believe you mentioned the neighborhood open
space ordinance.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I want to try to be a little bit clear ... more clear than I was last time. I think
we need to, uh, impose a fee on any new apartments built in the core neighborhoods, an
open space fee, on ... well, you know, to ... to have them, uh, include open space within
their development, or contribute to an open space fee.
Dobyns/ Or buy out? (both talking)
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Throgmorton/ ... for the core neighborhood. And it would be dedicated, the fee would be
dedicated for the core neighborhood.
Fruin/ We have ... we do have an existing ordinance in place, but its applicability is pretty
limited. So what we're doing is, um, Jeff and his staff are looking at, through the code
changes for Riverfront Crossings district to incorporate an expanded version of...of that
ordinance into that code, and then, uh, you could look to move that to the downtown area,
as well. And I think that would cover the core areas that you're looking at. So...
Throgmorton/ Not ... not just downtown and Riverfront, I mean...
Fruin/ Understand! Yep (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...Northside, College Green.
Fruin/ All the core areas. Yeah. So that'll come back to you at a future date. Uh, we expect
that, uh, the Melrose Neighborhood will, uh, be considered for a historic district in the
coming year. That's gotta work its way through the process, um, there. Uh, we're also
looking at, uh, the zoning code as they pertain to fraternity and sorority houses and, as
well as, uh, co- housing. We think that there needs to be some updates there, um, and
...and those'll be coming back to you.
Mims / What do you mean by co- housing?
Fruin/ Co- housing... Jeff, do you want to ... jump in and explain what...
Davidson/ Yeah, there... there's a couple different things. It ... it's basically some ways of
providing... residential dwellings that aren't currently allowed under our zoning
ordinance that we believe are innovative techniques that deserve consideration. Uh,
there's a couple of groups actually we're working with. There's a ... there's a specific co-
housing group that has identified a property and we're trying to work through the... the
details of...of how something like that might be structured, and also the River City
Housing Cooperative, uh, have asked us for some changes to the zoning ordinance that
we're... we'll be bringing to you shortly.
Mims/ Okay! Thanks!
Fruin/ And uh ... lately a lot of our attention's been focused on what ... we refer to as House File
184, but that would pre -empt cities from, uh, regulating based on the unrelated status,
and, uh, obviously we see that as being very problematic and we're spending a lot of time
and energy, uh, communicating with our delegation and working with League of Cities
and Metro Coalition to ... to oppose that, uh, bill. So moving on from our land use
regulations, uh, open stakeholder communication was a ... another area of emphasis. Just
a few quick highlights here. Um ... we continue to try to reach out to the neighborhood
associations to ... to the best that we can. Um, recently there was a ... a new neighborhood
association created, um, and ... and Marcia, I believe, and Jenn Jordan had a ... a major role
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in that. That's the East Side Neighborhood Association. So we're going to work with
them to get the ... uh, get their feet on the ground and get them in the loop of what's
happening in those areas. And then the bottom bullet point I want to bring to your
attention too, the good neighbor policy, uh, internally we're having some discussions on
the effectiveness of that policy and we think that, uh, there's some changes that will help,
uh, clarify the communications that are going out to the neighborhoods, prior to them
reaching the legislative phase. So, you can probably expect that in the next 30 days.
We'll lay out those recommendations. Again, Jeff and his staff surveyed, uh, a number
of other communities that have similar policies and we're going to borrow some ideas
that seem to be working elsewhere. Any questions on ... on that one? Um, public
infrastra ... infrastructure and open space, just some of the projects that we've hit, uh,
already to date. A lot of park investments, um, that you see noted there, and then, uh,
some of the infrastructure projects that you're familiar with — Dewey Street. Uh ... um, I
added Lower Muscatine on here, uh, that may seem maybe outside of the neighborhood
stabilization realm, but if you recall from the budget hearing, um, at our last meeting
there was, uh, some discussions about the pedestrian transitions between the Twain
neighborhood and the Sycamore Mall area, and um, after ... after that hearing, uh, Rick
Fosse came down and talked with us and explained some of the accommodations that are
being made through the, uh, Sycamore, I'm sorry, through the Lower Muscatine project.
There's a number of sidewalk enhancements and roadway enhancements that we think
will, um, have good ... good strong benefits to pedestrian, bicycle traffic. So, wanted to
highlight that. Or we can, if anybody's interested, share those plans with you, where a
new sidewalk will be installed, where, um, existing sidewalk will be upgraded, where the
road's going to narrow...
Dickens/ Did you share that with the Mark Twain... people?
Fruin/ I ... uh, right now Jeff I believe is in the process of setting up a neighborhood meeting with
those, uh, with that neighborhood and uh, that'll be part of the discussion. Uh, in the ... in
the coming year we've, uh, a few things of note here. Um ... the bottom bullet point refers
to the, uh, Twain, uh, proposal, again, uh, that we heard, uh, Jason Lewis talk about at
your budget hearing, and we do have a neighborhood meeting set up with that. We have
touched base with the School District, and we want to talk about potentially what we can
do with that neighborhood, but ... but more broadly too, especially considering, um, the
new east side elementary schools that have been talked about. We want to make sure
we're communicating with the School District and exploring some collaborations there.
So that's... that's definitely on our radar screen.
Throgmorton/ Geoff, if I could add one particular point. I ... I had the opportunity to go to the
listening post that Marla Swayze, uh, and Sally Hostler held, um, I don't know, a week
and a half ago, uh, and (coughing, unable to hear speaker) Lewis was there too, and...
Marla and ... and Sally seemed to respond with considerable interest and enthusiasm when
Jason talked to them about the details contained in the recommendations that he
presented to us. So I ... I thought there was, you know, some, oh, I don't... sort of
simpatico synergy there.
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Fruin/ Yeah! Clearly... clearly the proposal that was ... was laid out, there was a lot of thought
that went into that and uh ... um, a lot of effort on the, uh, on behalf of that neighborhood
association so we're definitely interested in having that conversation with not only the
neighborhood, but the school and trying to see if there's some common ground. There
was also a comment about the brick sidewalks and ... and the state of repair that they're in,
and one of the things we want to do, um, particularly as we look at the road
improvements there is ... is take a good look at the inventory there and ... and understand
the condition they're in and ... and cost, um, the cost associated with keeping those up. So
that'll be ... that'll be on our radar screen. And then of course moving... moving through I
won't spend any time on the ... on the capital improvement plan. We went through that
with the budget, but there's a number of good projects in there. Uh, the private building
stock, um, again, one of our areas of emphasis is to make sure the existing building stock
remains viable. Um, very excited with the new budget proposal for the Phase 3 of the
UniverCity program. If you recall, Phase 2 only had four houses, and we bumped that up
to 12. We've already started, um ... um, purchasing, uh, on ... for those 12 so we can get
those renovations, uh, underway immediately and get as many accomplished, uh, by the
end of the year as possible. The GRIP program will continue with, and then the, uh, one
of the things that, uh, that certainly we want to note, uh, was the creation of the targeted
neighborhood improvement program. That was the first year, uh, last year, incredibly
successful, and as we come over to coming soon, the third bullet point there. Uh, we do
want to expand that program. That's gone through the, uh, the Housing Commission, and
there'll be a recommendation coming to you, uh, either at your April 23rd meeting or your
May 14th meeting. That'll come with all the CDBG recommendations, including the Aid
to Agencies, uh, recommendations, but um, what you'll be seeing on that particular item
is expanded geographic boundaries to the Twain neighborhood, uh, which was requested
in some of the correspondence that you had, uh, that you have in your packet. Um...
Champion/ Do you have any idea why that wasn't included in the first place, since Grant Wood
was?
Fruin/ Well, I ... I think we knew as we were putting it together and putting the feelers out there,
we knew how popular it was going to be and we knew, you know, it was a matter of days
before those funds were committed. So we tried to ... to keep it as tight as possible, but
um ... we definitely see merit in expanding that. And I believe the recommendation that'll
be coming to you from the Commission is to increase the amount in that program from
$200,000, uh, which it was this past year, to $300,000. So ... uh ... updated planning
documents, uh, going... the... the Planning and Zoning Commission right now is
considering the Comp Plan, the IC2030 update. Uh, this is, um, year's worth of work,
uh, by our Planning staff and, uh, through public meetings, uh, the good ideas campaign
that we went through. So we're excited to bring this forward and get some community
input on this draft plan and... and get that, uh, moving forward. Then we're going to
finish up with the nuisance mitigation and some of the things that we've done there. Uh,
there's been a number of things internally that haven't necessarily come before you, but,
uh, in terms of policy, but um, certainly have an impact. Uh, Stan and Doug are here to,
uh, chime in if...if need be, but uh, looking at what those triggers are that would require
annual inspections. Um, right now there can be, you know, you have two years. Uh,
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every two years you're inspected, but if there are issues, um, that are, uh, causing some
nuisances, then we can, um, trigger annual inspections. So we're being a little bit, uh...
um, I guess we're more cognizant of...of the impacts these properties are having, and
certainly moving to annual inspections provides some incentives for, uh, the owners to,
uh, mitigate those nuisances. The leasing of duplex units, um, we ... we were
experiencing some issues where, um, duplexes were being rented out, the entire duplex
was being rented out to single, uh, groups of people and they were just, uh, sharing that,
and of course that, um, caused some problems. So now we're requiring that those be
leased as they're licensed. And we're being a little bit more proactive with our over -
occupancy checks. Not necessarily waiting for the complaints to come in but actively
looking for, you know, if it's rental advertisements that are, you know, advertising over -
occupancy, um, then ... then we can address those before they become a problem.
Champion/ Can I ... I have a question about the duplex, I mean, why was that a problem? I don't
understand. I .... when I read it in the ... packet and I couldn't quite see what the problem
was.
Laverman/ Best way to describe it is you have a duplex that would have two bedrooms on each
side.
Champion/ Uh huh.
Laverman/ And pretty much college kids aren't doubling up in ... bedrooms now, but what you
could do is if it had an occupancy of three on each side, but with two bedrooms. So if
you convert one of those living rooms into a bedroom and one of those kitchens on the
other side into a bedroom...
Champion/ Oh, I see.
Laverman/ ...all of a sudden you have six people living there where ... in a theoretical occupancy
of six, but if it's a duplex, it's probably going to be occupied by four.
Champion/ Great! Got it! Thank you.
Fruin/ Uh ... one policy that did come before you is the disorderly house, uh, policy. The code
changes there, and um ... uh, Stan and Doug can talk more about that if you have any
questions. And uh ... moving forward to under consideration, the waste container.
There's been some, uh, Council discussion on the waste container storage ordinance.
That was something that was important, uh, an important topic for the neighborhood
associations. So we're gonna continue that discussion. There's a neighborhood survey,
uh, that we've put out to, I guess a survey to some neighborhood associations. We're
waitin' for that feedback and then we'll present those findings to you. Uh, and then what
I wanted to wrap up with is ... um ... a review of our mobile application, uh, that we've
been developing, uh, for... for several months now. And, uh, Stan is actually going to
plug in his phone up here and walk you through what that looks like. It's ... it's being
piloted right now with a few people and I think in a matter of a couple weeks we'll take
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that, uh, to the public, but the idea there is to ... to give them a tool to, uh, to better
communicate their concerns with us. So they can, you know, uh, 24/7, no matter where
they're at, they can convey their concerns and we can address them in a more timely
manner. So I'll have Stan come up and describe... that process.
Laverman/ (speaking away from mic) All right so ... um, there's actually three parts to this. Uh,
the first part we're going to talk about is the ... the web - based, um, portion of it. Make
sure I get the right name in here. So, what you're looking at is the portion that will, uh,
replace the citizens' service center. Uh, so right now where people have to enter in all
the text of why they're ... why they have an issue, um, will populate itself off of that drop -
down menu, just off the web. Um ... and along with it, it kind of gives... the... the citizen
an idea of ..of what we look for, uh, and when you can, you know, ask that an issue be
looked at. Um... so that's a little ... little easier to ... to navigate. Um ... key points to this —
yes, it is 24 -hours accessible on the web, uh, on your phone. Um, you can even call into
City staff still, uh, and the City staff will enter it into here, uh, and if it's someone that we
know, it'll be put into their account and they can track it that way. Um ... obviously the
web site. Uh, key benefits to (mumbled) it is traceable ... in that, um ... it'll give you a
code, it'll give you a number that said, `Hey, what happened to, you know, issue number
101' uh and you can go back and uh, we can tell you exactly what happened there. Uh,
also another ... nice thing about it is that, um ... you know ... see, there's some of my... my
complaints there, looking at snow and all of that. Um ... (laughs) ... new issue here, hold
on a second.
Payne/ I like the junked vehicle at 410 E. Washington.
Champion/ Yeah! (laughter)
Fruin/ Oh, you saw that one? (laughter)
Hayek/ Tom, is that your truck?
Fruin/ It is Tom's truck! I think it's going to be towed during the Council meeting
so ... (laughter) We'll get it taken care of
Markus/ It was hit today. (several talking)
Fruin/ Wasn't me! Uh, another nice thing is we can ... can translate this into whatever language,
uh, you'd happen to be looking for through Google Translate. So it's not perfect, but it
... it gives people the opportunity to get the gist of what they're looking for, uh, and if
you go through this, you can get down into the applications and all that. It'll ... it'll
translate it into ... (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...can you do it from the get -go? Let's say you're a Spanish - speaking person or
whatever and ... and you go to the web site (both talking)
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Fruin/' For the FAQs, you can get into that. So ... uh, there's going to have to be a little bit of
...little bit of education to that. Um ... so this is kind of...this is kind of like a by- product
of...of why we did this.
Dobyns/ (mumbled) Google Translator.
Fruin/ ...the main thing ... worked today, right, Jeff? (several talking) There we go! Um ... so
this is the new mobile request app. Um, so if you're walking down the street and
something happens, you have a new issue, um... you select your issue, uh, looks like
there's a lot of people in here. So over - occupancy. (laughter) Add a picture. (laughter)
Throgmorton/ You're right!
Champion/ That's right!
Fruin/ use that.
Dobyns/ He's got the main problem pictured.
Hayek/ Who's that professor - looking kind of guy?
Throgmorton/Yeah, really!
Fruin/ Too many people! (laughter)
Champion/ This is great! (several talking)
Fruin/ Too many peeps? All right. (several talking) And we're going to... so if you look at that,
um ... right off of my GPS, it tagged it to the building. Uh, and it's actually working
really well in here, which is good. A lot of times it works better outside. It gets within
three to 16 feet, so depending on the phone you're using.
Throgmorton/ Are you going to tweak that right now?
FruinP And I'm going to submit that to the City (laughter) and that's Issue 124. So, couple, you
know, next day I can go, hey, what's going on with Issue 124. So I can go there. Um...
there we are. And if it's not getting taken care of, I can ... you know, add some follow -up
conversations of, you know, it's been an hour, what's going on?
Dickens/ You've had 30 seconds (several talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, um ... but what's nice for us is ... take this when I closed it out. Um, there's a bike
on the porch was the complaint. I did this one. Um, but I'm allowed to communicate
with the citizen right away. Hey, you're... you're allowed to have bikes on the porch.
Uh, which saves us ... we have that picture. We can have that communication. Uh, and
they have the option of submitting these anonymously, and when I close them out,
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they're still going to get that feedback of why we closed it out. So there's sometimes that
we get complaints about things, time and time again anonymously, that we're not able to,
uh, respond back to the complainant, so that's kind of nice. We did have that inoperable
vehicle which will get taken care of, but uh, I'll have to follow -up on that. (laughter and
several talking) Uh, right now, um, Housing Inspection Services is the pilot program for
this, so it is just Housing Inspection Service items. Um, it can be expanded. There's
some interest in using it for trail issues, that if you're out on a trail and there's an issue,
you know, you could take a picture of it, send it in. Streetlight out, uh, pothole repair, uh,
I've talked to Marian about some taxicab issues. Uh, right now we have two to three of
citizens out there using it. We're getting good reports from it. Um, and good use of
technology, both on the Apple and the Android side, so...
Hayek/ Great!
Payne/ That's cool!
Champion/ Yeah, that is! That's really... that's good.
Fruin/ Right! April I sc
Champion/ ...get a lot of complaints now. It's going to be way too easy!
Fruin/ Well, actually that's interesting because there's someone you might know, uh, that was on
Council that has made a lot of complaints in the past and has access to it, and I think
we're ... we're not getting any more, you know.
Champion/ Okay!
Fruin/ Um, but at the speed it works we're able to take care of `em. It's kind of nice.
Champion/ Yeah, that is nice, and sometimes you don't have to drive out and look at it, if
they've got a picture.
Fruin/ Right, yeah, if we got a picture (several talking) and we've got, you know, documented,
you know, good GPS coordinates on it, we can, you know, call that landlord, we can call
that citizen and say, hey, we have a complaint on your property and get it taken care of
quite quickly.
Champion/ No, I think that's great. Looks really ... looks kinda fun, actually (several talking)
Dobyns/ Connie, you going to buy an i -phone now?
Champion/ No! (several talking and laughing) (mumbled) right to the neighbor.
Fruin/ A couple quick things. Um ... on the, Jim, to your question on the web, the translation of
the entire web site. This is ... this is a, kind of a third -party application that we've bought
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that's built into their system. We are getting ready to do a complete redesign of our web
site. There's an RFP that's being reviewed internally. That process takes a good 12
months, but that'll be one of the things we look for, is to be able to translate the entire
site, uh, in similar fashion to what you just saw.
Hayek/ I ... uh, I ... the, I assume like the Spanish translation was just a Google thing. Yeah,
you're going to want to get that vetted before it goes live.
Throgmorton/ What'd it ... what'd it really say? (several talking and laughing)
Hayek/ It said Canada's about to invade us, but uh (laughter) No, uh, it, um ... it was ... it was
good. I mean, if that ... if that was software - based, that's pretty incredible. I mean, but
it'll need a little clean-up, just noticed. ,
Fruin/ Yeah, and then as, uh, Stan mentioned, this is the ... the mobile app is just a pilot for HIS,
but from the user point of view — correct me if I'm wrong — they can report on any... if
they see a pothole for instance or a street light out, they can still report with the mobile
app. It's just the integration into our work order system isn't city -wide yet. So there's
some extra steps internally we have to do it, but...
Champion/ It's great!
Fruin/ ...um, as Stan said, the ... the beta testing, if you will, has been real positive.
Mims/ Good!
Hayek/ Thank you for doing this! (several talking) Okay. Hit the two Info Packets here.
Information Packets:
Payne/ (several talking) Yeah, are we going to discuss that Diversity thing?
Dickens/ Well we have them (several talking)
Hayek/ ... schedule. They wanted to get it out here so we (both talking)
Payne/ ... so we could read it and think about it. Okay.
Hayek/ So, yeah, that's not...
Throgmorton/ Matt, I'd like to make a suggestion (several talking) with regard to the ... uh ... the
April 91h, uh ... work session when we discuss the Ad Hoc Diversity Committee's
recommendation, and that is ... well, first of all, the Committee's done a great job, a really
outstanding job it seems tome. So ... why don't we invite them to come ... so that you can
praise them, and more over, why don't we, uh, as we invite them to come, one of them
could very briefly, I guess the Chair — Kingsley — could very, very briefly just intr...
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introduce the ... the recommendations. Not going into great detail, but just say, you know,
I'm here to answer, we are here to answer any questions you might have. (several
talking) Moreover, Tom and Eleanor and Marian have done, did a superb job as well, at
least as ... as best I can tell from reading the minutes, I mean, I was really impressed with
the interaction and the way you... gave them, uh, useful information when they needed it
and so on. So bravo to you!
Hayek/ Have you folks talked to them about April 9th. What ... what the process...
Markus/ Well, Marian and I have. Marian, you want to jump in? Go ahead!
Karr/ Yeah, I ... I have talked to `em, uh, briefly about that, and the fact that there is a couple
presentations that evening. So time is of the essence. Um, we talked a little bit about
...they had subcommittees and that the Chairman would make some introductory
remarks, both subcommittees may give some brief remarks, but to allow ample time then
for exchange.
Hayek/ So like the leaders of each sub ... leader of each sub (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, there's two subcommittees.
Karr/ There's two subcommittees — transportation and law enforcement. And they would
highlight their report, knowing that you have had ample time to look at it. And then have
that exchange occur.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, great.
Hayek/ Great!
Payne/ So it will be a work session where we're ... where we have an exchange and it will be the
only thing on the agenda?
Markus/ No. (several talking) No, there's also a report from the State on Johnson County and
it's ... it's related, um, it's disproportionate contact (several talking) so that'll be the first
report, and then we'll go into the, uh, Diversity Committee report.
Hayek/ Who will present the County study?
Markus/ We're trying to get a representative of the State to, uh, that heads up that agency to
come in and ... and give that report. Um ... one of the ... I think our recommendation would
be that, um, you ... after you're done, unless you have specific, um, issues with, uh, some
of the recommendations, uh, that you refer it, uh, to staff so that I can vet it more
thoroughly with each department, and then give us a chance to come back and tell you
how we will go about implementing most of it. Um ... my initial reaction is that we can,
um, accomplish, uh, most if not all of the recommendations. I think sometimes the, um,
the verbiage could be a little clearer about what we're going to be doing and that relates
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more to the reporting mechanism. Um, we'd like to set up a report on the specific
recommendations so that it's similar to our, uh, strategic planning report process, and
then we would have that located on the web site so people could follow what's going on.
A number of the recommendations are already in progress, uh, not the least of which is
the training video, uh, which you ... received an email on, and there's some other things
that we're currently working on, as well. The ... I guess the only concern I have is... I
thought the, um, suggestion regarding, urn ... the reporting, uh, both uh, I think Marian
and Eleanor and I had some specific concerns, and then I have a, uh, probably a more
general concern that I thought we were maybe over - vetting that process. Um, before we
actually filed the reports, and I think I have the intent of what they want the reports to be,
but I would like to be able to structure that report and then share it with, uh, Human
Rights and others, um, and the City Council at the same time, and then get feedback on
that as we ... as we evolve that reporting mechanism.
Hayek/ Great! (several commenting) Other items on the, uh, Info Packet from the 7th? Okay.
How about the 14th9
Throgmorton/ Uh ... IP9, the March 13th memo from Ron about the Gateway project. Uh, I ... I
understand that there's going to be a public hearing at the Park ... Parkview Church, uh, a
drop -in and that kind of thing on April 4th. That's great! I'm glad ... glad to know that,
but I just want to make ... be clear about what my understanding is, uh, based on prior
conversations. It's my understanding that the ... this, um, report has been produced. It
was focused on sort of the maximum, uh, project we might build, and then subsequent
decisions could be made that would be smaller than that, without having to go through all
sorts of new environmental review (coughing, unable to hear speaker) processes.
Fosse/ That is correct.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Just want to be ... I ... I'm not saying we're going to do that, but I just want
to make sure that that's the understanding.
Fosse/ Yes!
Throgmorton/ Yeah, good!
Meeting Schedule:
Hayek/ Anything else? Okay! Meeting schedule. Any concerns about that? Um ... Connie, did
you hear from Mar ... do we need to talk to Connie today? I need to switch that again so
I'm doing tomorrow morning...
Champion/ Okay!
Hayek/ ... you're taking mine (both talking)
Karr/ March 27th Matt has a conflict with the KXIC show.
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Champion/ That's fine. I'll do the 271h
Karr/ You'll do the 27th (several talking)
Hayek/ I will. You're the following week.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Karr / Rick is the 20th. Mims is April P
Champion/ Okay, I'm doing the 27th of March?
Payne/ Tomorrow is the 20th
Dobyns/ Tomorrow's the 20th (both talking)
Karr/ March is the 20th, yeah.
Dobyns/ I thought I was the 201h
Karr/ You are the 20th. 27th Matt has a problem with.
Dickens/ But Connie's doing the 27th
Dobyns/ I'm tomorrow.
Dickens/ Yes, you're tomorrow (several talking and laughing)
Karr/ You flipped that the last time.
Champion/ I was originally the 27th (several talking and laughing)
Karr/ Can you do the 27th?
Hayek/ No!
Karr/ That's right. So Connie will do the (both talking)
Champion/ That was originally my day to begin with.
Karr/ That's right, and you switched.
Champion/ And you switched (several talking)
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Hayek/ I'm just squeezed out of this. That's great (several talking) You gave us your dates
before you ran for Council, so those are locked in! (laughter) All right. (several talking)
You're tomorrow, you're 27th, you're the P. Anything else on...
Karr/ Uh, one thing ... that was in your packet that was distributed late. That's the request from
the County for a joint meeting. (clears throat) There were possibly four dates, and they
would like an answer if we possibly could give them one (both talking)
Champion/ ... saw that, I couldn't figure out what they were talking about!
Karr/ Uh, the joint meeting (several talking) if possible, um, they suggest (both talking)
Hayek/ ...next joint meeting.
Karr/ The next joint meeting (several talking) This is the joint meeting of the ... we haven't had
one in some time.
Champion/ I know it. I ... I forgot what they were talking about.
Karr/ Wednesday the 24th, Monday the 29th, Tuesday the 30th
Payne/ What month are we in?
Karr/ We're in April (several talking)
Payne/ Okay, the 24th. What else?
Karr/ Wednesday the 24th, Monday the 29th, Tuesday the 30th.
Hayek/ Hold on (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...you went too fast for me ... Wednesday the 24th (laughter)
Karr/ April... Wednesday, April 24th; Monday, April 29th; Tuesday, April 30th
Payne/ The only day I can do it is Monday the 29th
Dobyns/ That would work for me.
Karr/ Okay. I'll respond ... I'll respond back if the 29th
Hayek/ The 24th or the 29th or the 30th9
Karr/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ What time of day?
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Karr/ I ... typically is around 4:30. 4:00 or 4:30. It did not ... they did not indicate a time on this
one. (several talking) ... depends on the agenda. (several talking)
Hayek/ Okay. I ... I think I can do the 291H
Karr/ I'll respond back tentatively then for the 20 at 4:00 or 4:30.
Payne/ Here?
Karr/ No, they'll be hosting it. It probably will be at the County. We ... the location was yet to
be determined.
Mims/ (several talking)
Karr/ No, this is ... no, no. This is the one (several talking) (clears throat) This is the one that...
that, uh, University Heights, uh, North Liberty, uh, Coralville, and we rotate the location.
Champion/ The School District.
Karr / And the School District, uh huh, and the County. That's correct.
Mims/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ What will we do in this meeting, other than say hi?
Champion/ That's about it!
Throgmorton/ Yeah...
Karr/ There are already...
Champion/ ...issues, but nothing ever gets accomplished at it, but at least it gets `em out!
Hayek/ Well we'll ... we'll meet as a Council before that though...
Karr/ I will put it on the ... we'll put it on the, uh...
Hayek/ And so we'll take up agenda items that we want to take up at the joint meeting.
Champion/ I thought maybe we could discuss how all of a sudden all the schools are
overcrowded now. How convenient! (unable to hear person away from mic) Sorry!
Throgmorton/ Yeah! That's...
Dobyns/ Thank you for that, Connie. (laughter)
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Payne/ So you will confirm that with us?
Karr/ Yes, I will confirm that. I may be able to know for this packet. I'll have to see. Depends
on everyone else responding in a timely fashion, as well.
Hayek/ Okay. Council time? (several responding) 6:30!
Council Time:
Throgmorton/ I ... I have several things, three or four things actually. I just want you all to know
I'm going to ... I've scheduled a listening post at Panera's this coming Friday morning at
8:30 and if anybody'd like to join me, that'd be great. The one at Sycamore Mall.
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ 8:30.
Mims/ I would consider it, but I'll be in Des Moines, but thank you for the invitation.
Throgmorton/ Second thing is, I noticed that Ann Bovbjerg died?
Champion/ Yes!
Throgmorton/ That's really sad. Connie, I'm guessing you knew her best. Did you want to say
something about her tonight?
Champion/ No, I don't think so. I don't think she'd like that actually.
Throgmorton/ Okay, you would know best.
Hayek/ She was my mother's, just about my mother's closest friend.
Champion/ Yes.
Hayek/ (mumbled) 45 years and uh ... I ... I ... I'm sympathetic to that. I ... I think you may be
right.
Champion/ I am right!
Hayek/ She's very, uh...
Champion/ Very private.
Hayek/ Um...
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Mims / Who are you talking about?
Hayek/ A woman ... she was on Planning and Zoning.
Champion/ Oh, for a long time. (several talking)
Hayek/ Um, she was a retired professor.
Mims / What's her name?
Hayek/ Ann Boverg. Uh, died...
Karr/ She also was part of the first team that did, uh, the cable cast of, um, the Council meetings.
Champion/ Yeah!
Karr/ (clears throat) ... as well.
Hayek/ Yeah, it's a real shock.
Champion/ I'm sure the paper will have a good write -up on her, but you know, I don't think she
would like it. I really don't.
Throgmorton/ You would know. Last thing, I noticed that West High won the State High School
Basketball Championship, at least men, and Jeremy Morgan and Wyatt Lohaus got all
sorts of praise and maybe Rick wants to say something about that.
Dobyns/ (mumbled) basketball! (laughter)
Hayek/ You do that. I'm going to mention, uh, a ... a senior who got a ... a Siemens Foundation,
uh, scholarship for AP, so I was going to mention that tonight. I'll do that; you do the
basketball team.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Hayek/ As athletic as you (several talking and laughing)
Payne/ Do you have a basketball, like you know, to have a prop?
Dobyns/ Uh, I can get one! I'd have to glue it to my finger though, Michelle! (laughter)
Hayek/ Okay, uh, anything else on Council time? Upcoming events? Okay! Take a break and
come back at 7:00!
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