HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-01-04 TranscriptionJanuary 4, 2014 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session Page 1
Council Present: Botchway, Dickens, Dobyns, Hayek, Mims, Payne, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Bockenstedt, Schaul, Dilkes, Karr, Andrew, Adhikari
Budget Overview:
Markus/ So, just to review our schedule, uh, we're going to be reviewing the operating budget
today. On Monday (clears throat) we'll be getting into the Capital Improvement
Program. As you know, that starts at about 1:00. Uh, March 4th we've scheduled the
public hearing for the budget, and then, uh, formal adoption. We're supposed to certify
our budget, uh, by March 15th. Um... so this schedule should allow us to take care of
those issues. Uh, as we go through the budget today, if there's initiatives that the Council
would still like us to address, they can add those to the, uh ... discussion, and if the, you
know, the Council gives an indication that that's where they'd like to head, we'll revisit
those things and recalculate and then present, uh, at the public hearing on the 4th. In
terms of the agenda today, we'll go through the budget overview, the highlights. Uh,
we'll go through the different sections of the General Fund, which, uh, (mumbled)
general government (clears throat) public safety, culture and leisure, community and
economic development, and we'll get into the enterprise funds ... (clears throat) Excuse
me! Uh, and the Public Works' budget, uh, and then towards the end we'll have a
question and answer, general Council discussion. I would tell you that I'm just as, uh,
comfortable as we go through the different items, rather than trying to get you to
remember at the end of the day what the issue was that came up — go ahead and pose the
question, uh, at the time the issue comes up, so ... uh, we can get to it. I think the other
thing that that does, it allows us if we have to do a little research, we can go back into the
offices and pull some numbers if we need to and, uh, respond to any questions that you
might have in that regard. So ... obviously you've had a chance to look at the document.
The, uh, one of the things that we've really tried to, uh, emphasize in the document itself
is the transmittal letter, and the transmittal letter, I think, really tries to give you a general
overview of the entire document. Um, are... are you okay seeing this, Jim?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I was just telling Kingsley that if he needs to, because of the angle, he can
always walk over there (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and I think we've (both talking)
Karr/ ...all of these Power Points are in the handouts this morning, as well.
Markus/ So you have `em in front of you, as well, if that makes it easier for you to take a look at
those. So the transmittal letter is trying to give you the, kind of the global view of...of
our budget. I would say to you that in general the overarching kind of concern that I have
is with property tax reform. Uh, exactly how we, you know, kind of anticipate that, how
we prepare for that, and there's a number of strategies that we've developed, uh,
throughout the document, uh, that we'll get into explanations of as we go through it. Uh,
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to respond to that, uh, anticipated changes, I think the big question is, is how long is the
backfill going to go on, um ... I can tell you Matt and I had, um, we have a ... a meeting
scheduled with all of our legislators and ... and the initial meetings, um, the, uh, only
confidence I got was that it's ... it's good for one year. Beyond one year they're not sure
what's going to happen in terms of the backfill. So ... we've actually developed a strategy
to kind of deal with that, uh, which we refer to as our emergency fund. But, the
document itself, uh, the transmittal letter and then we go into our finan... financial and
fiscal policies, and what we do is we prepare an addition to the budget — what we refer to
as a financial plan. So we look at, you know, finishing out the balance of this year in
terms of what those projections are, but then we have the budget for fiscal 15 which starts
July 1St of 14 and runs through June 30 of 2015. Uh, and then we create a third year in
the document, which kind of projects. The nice thing about, uh, a longer horizon in terms
of figuring out your budgets, if you want to slip a project, a major capital project over
two fiscal years, you can kind of contemplate that when you do a longer term budget
document. The other thing we're creating is an emergency fund, and I'll get into a, uh,
description of what that is and what we're trying to accomplish with that emergency
fund. And then, um ... typically in the past we've kind of gone two years beyond. What
we're doing this year is we're using the current year and trying to project for the
remaining six months, then the budget year, and then the following year after that. Uh,
we have, uh ... uh, summary information which you received in a separate packet, uh, and
then we'll go through fund overviews. Today is largely spent kind of going through the
General Fund and the operating, um, expenses that are included in the General Fund. Uh,
we also do some supplemental information and what I try to do with the supplement...
supplemental information is kind of give you a comparison — what are the other
jurisdictions in the Metro Coalition doing, what are our neighbors doing. I kind of view
the neighbors, um ... Coralville and North Liberty, as kind of the competing environment
that we deal with, especially for economic development purposes and so I've put those in
the mix and I've shown a lot of their information in the comparative analysis so that you
can see what's going on in those areas. Lot of times you'll hear criticism about, um, you
know, different tax rates for different jurisdictions, and I think you need to drill down
beyond just the tax rate to understand what's behind some of those numbers. So we've
done a lot of that kind of information in the comparative analysis.
Throgmorton/ Tom, can I interrupt, uh, very briefly?
Markus/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ W ... with regard to the backfill part, when I was reading through the document, I
...I could not see how you were dealing with that, other ... there was like one sentence or
thereabouts where you basically said it was hard to tell whether they really will backfill
over time.
Markus/ Right.
Throgmorton/ But in the department summaries, the financial department has, I don't know, a
sentence a ... about that and it quantifies some of the effects. So how ... how much money
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are you anticipating will be backfilled this coming budget year, and wh ... is it in the
budget, you know (both talking)
Markus/ ...show up in the revenue and we'll point that out to you. Um ... there's a couple
strategies there. It's ... to the number, I think it's just shy of a million dollars that we
expect in terms of backfill. Um ... but we're creating this emergency fund, and the whole
idea behind the emergency fund is not just ... whether we're going to have the backfill in
years to come, there's a couple other things in play going on right now. The accounting
industry ... is now requiring, uh, or having a very serious discussion about having the
unfunded, accrued liability that shows up on the State books in the pension systems now
show up in the books of city governments, and so we're expecting that that's going to
shift over to us, and so we're trying to accommodate for some of that liability shift to our
books through what we call an emergency fund so that if that does happen, and then
there's some other things we're going to try to build into the emergency fund, and I'll get
into that. That's our strategy for dealing with it, beyond the assurance of the one year,
um, that we know right now is going to be backfilled, and the other thing you should
understand is, the adjustments in terms of multiple family, that's not backfilled, okay, by
the State. Um, and another kind of nuance that's kind of worth keeping in mind is while
the... the... the value increase is capped at 3 %. In discussions with Dennis, that's a
statewide average cap and that's based on residential. So, our number can actually be
higher than 3% because you can also roll in there new growth and other issues, you
know, that ... that play into that so we could be higher as long as the statewide average is
adjusted that way, and then that gets played out in the rollback or rollup, depending on
the year, um, that the State then issues to us in terms of what the values are. So you
could actually see an amount higher than 3% in your value increase. So...
Dobyns/ Is that accounting shift, uh, from the State for all municipalities or only those beyond
50,000 population?
Markus/ No, I think it's intended to show up on all books, and it's more of an accounting
industry shift I think, as I understand it. (unable to hear person speaking away from mic)
Karr/ Um, Dennis, we ... we can't ... I'm sorry! Thank you!
Bockenstedt/ Um, it's coming down from the Governmental Accounting Standards Board, um, a
lot of this is coming from the problems a lot of governments had in their pension funding,
but they're going to now require that those unfunded liabilities that are actually pushed
down to the local level. So this'll be a new requirement for us to demonstrate and how
that's going to play out with Moody's once those liabilities start to show up on your
books, um, we'll just have to see how they're going to ... how they're going to tackle that.
Markus/ So we're going to get into that a little bit more. I ... does that address your question?
Throgmorton/ Yeah! Thanks!
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Hayek/ Can ... while we're on the subject of allowable growth though, who ... who calculates the
actual number that will apply to Iowa City?
Markus/ The ... the rollback, I think, is established through the State.
Hayek/ Right, but this ... this 3% or average (both talking)
Markus/ Well it depends on... it depends on your growth, okay, because that's rolled into, you
know, that number can be shown up in your increased taxable value, uh, but the rollback
number is a ... a big factor in that, and that's a State (both talking)
Hayek/ All right.
Markus/ So next page... one of the changes that's kind of occurred since then, you know that, uh,
ever since I was hired the discussion was how do you handle compression of economics
and the way, um, I talked about it way back in the interviews was through an attrition
process. So every time we have a position that opens up in the City operation, we take a
serious look at is there a better way to do it, do we have to fill that position at this point.
Uh, one that's, uh, come up since the, uh ... uh, document was prepared is the
administrative secretary position in the Fire Department, and uh, we do not intend to, uh,
fill that at this time. So the ... the next reduction will be about 7.5 employees attrited
through this budget. Now, I don't intend to ... to get our tax rate to an average just on the
expense side. When you manage these situations as to taxes, as to other sources of
revenues, you have to look at both the revenue side and the expense side, uh, of...of the
books to...to accommodate that, and so what you'll see as I progress through this
message is a couple of strategies that we can take a look at, and I'll show you what other
jurisdictions have done to deal with that. The one thing that stands out to me here is our
property tax rate itself is ... is at the high end, and I'd like to position our city into a tax
rate that falls more into the middle of the range of the tax rates of the other metro
communities, and of our neighbors. So that I think that that makes a ... a more compelling
argument in terms of economic development, that it's a more balanced tax rate. So I look
at both the expense side and the revenue side in strategizing how to deal with that, and
I'm going to show you some of those strategies as we go through this. So in preparing
this document, our budget goals were to prepare for the property tax shortfall resulting
from the 2013 legislative changes, to maintain (noises in background) the City's Moody's
triple -A bond rating, and just a note about our bond rating at this particular time. And
that is that ... when you look into, when you drill down into the analysis of our triple -A
bond rating, one of the comments that Moody's makes is that the profile of our
community isn't the normal or typical profile of the other triple -A bond communities
across the country when they do triple -As. And they're talking about demographic
profile, a number of the triple -As are, you know, uh, probably higher per capita income
types of communities. So one of the strategies that... that... in order for us to maintain
this triple -A bond rating is we have to maintain good solid fund balances, good solid
reserves because that takes some of the risk out of the vagaries of what can happen from
our State legislature, what can happen to growth, uh, you know, what can happen to the
general and local economies (mumbled) over time and so that takes some of that pressure
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off, and that's what keeps us, in my opinion, in that triple -A category. So we ... we're
very conscientious about our fund balances and maintaining those throughout the process.
The other, uh, goals are to maintain a competitive tax and fee environment for economic
development, continue to follow industry -best financial management practices. One of
the things we've done, urn ... uh, it started under Kevin O'Malley and it's continuing with
Dennis is that we're pursuing the GFOA Distinguished Budget Award, and as I've said in
the past, this isn't to get another plague on the wall. This is to have a document that
compares with industry -best practices throughout the country, and it causes us to
compare ourselves to how other documents are prepared and the types of information that
go into that document that make it much more readable for the public, much more
understandable for the public, and really com ... you know, gives you some good data for
Council Members, the Governing Board, to make decisions, and again, uh, for a long
time we've, uh, achieved, uh, excellence in the financial reporting. Both of those are
industry -best practice types of awards, and I think those are significant for us. And then I
think one of the more critical parts of what we're trying to do with the budget, in terms of
our goals, is to match it up with our strategic plan. So, when we look at initiatives, when
we look at requests from the departments, we try to match back as to how does this fit
into the goals that the Council's established for the strategic plan. That is critical in what
we're trying to do. Now some of the, you know, some of the things that you'll see in the
document are carryovers from prior years, obviously, that maybe don't fit that exact
alignment, but more and more, as time goes on, you'll she us ... see us emphasize pushing
those things to the strategic plan. When we have choices, if it's a strategic plan initiative,
that's going to get the nod over something that isn't. Uh, in terms of the, uh, budget
highlights, urn ... uh, we're preparing for the impact of the property tax reform. We've
created this emergency fund and, um. ... and ... and not only does it help with the Moody's
equation, but it also provides additional stability, protects against the sudden loss of
revenue or increase in unfunded mandates, and make the community more resilient
through disaster relief and mitigation funding. Uh, we also, um, in terms of property tax
reform on the expense side, we've taken a measured look, uh, at reducing our operational
costs and minimal, uh, service level impacts. One of the ... one of the really strong stories
that you're going to hear today is from Doug Boothroy in the HIS Department and the
deployment of technology and the amount of growth. One of the stories that probably
hasn't been written this year is the significant amount of economic development that's
occurred in this community, right under our noses, and nobody's really figured out how
significant it is, but we're going to tell you about that today.
Throgmorton/ Tom, just to be clear about the emergency fund.
Markus/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ Uh, if I understand correctly, you're saying that there's approximately a million
dollars in, uh, backfill (both talking)
Markus/ ...backfill funding... that's correct.
Throgmorton/ For the coming ... for the coming year.
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Markus/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ That you're putting... recommending be put into an emergency fund, which means
we have a policy choice that we could make if we wanted to.
Markus/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ About how to allocate that money (both talking)
Markus/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ ... either differently or in part differently.
Markus/ That is correct, and it's not just ... and it's not just the backfill. We're talking about by
the end of 2000 ... 2015, it would actually be higher than just the backfill. It'd be more
significant than that. And it, yeah... all of these things in terms of the budget, there's
policy implications against administrative recommendations. I get that, and ... and that's
fair for ... for that ... that discussion. Um, continued reduction in the overall property tax
rate, while it's minor, urn ... the... there's been a 3.1% growth in taxable valuation, uh,
primarily due to the rollback. Uh, we're recommending a, uh, minor, uh, tax rate, uh,
reduction. In fact it's about a 6.4% reduction since fiscal year 14. Or, fiscal year 12. It
went from, uh, $17.84 down to $16.70, and that basically is the lowest rate we've, uh,
experienced since 2002. Um, and I'll get into the impacts on residential property and
commercial property as we go on. Um ... even though, even with those cuts, um, our tax
rate is still considerably higher than our ... our, uh, Metro, uh, Coalition, uh, community
members and our two adjacent communities. And there's... there's explanations for all of
that, as well. Terms of budget highlights, um ... we're trying to make sure we have strong
reserves and uh, a contingency spending plan. Uh, we, um... selected, uh, different rate
increases, uh, proposed to reduce the reliance on property taxes, to make sure that those
enterprise funds are supporting themselves, uh, and to address infrastructure needs,
especially in the case of the water fund. Uh, Parks and Rec, we have a number of
different program fee increases and facility rental increases; and in terms of Refuse,
we're talking about a, uh, 40 -cent per month increase, which comes to what? $4.80 per
year. Uh, and then Water, we're talking about a 5% increase, and I'll get into a further
explanation of that. Uh, we continue to have an aggressive Capital Improvement
Program, in part for flood mitigation, but also for critical infrastructure improvements
and um ... again, we're trying to link these things to our strategic plan priorities. Now
we're going to move into a little bit of comparative analysis and this is where it shows, if
you look at the chart, um, the different tax rates and um, in our comparable communities,
and right now in 14 the rate is $16.81. We're proposing to drop that, uh, down to $16.71.
If all other things, uh, stayed the same, uh, we'd ... we'd drop into the number five
position. It's likely there'll be some adjustments. Uh, one of the things, uh, that I'll talk
about in a little while is, um, is the potential to use either, um ... uh, local option sales tax
for property tax relief and some other issues, or um ... uh, the uh ... oh, what's it referred
to? It's the, uh, electric utility, urn ... uh, franchise, the franchise fee charge that others
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use to help offset, uh, property tax rates. It's interesting that the median, uh, tax rate
when you compare and look at all those rates comes down to about $15.73. If you were
to look at the mean, it drops another whole dollar. The mean of all of these is $14.64.
Each penny of tax rate generates about $30,000, uh, is equivalent to about $30,000. So if
you wanted to drop your tax rate by a dollar, you'd have to find either $3 million in cuts,
or $3 million in additional revenue. So, if you wanted to, for example, go to a LOST, an
additional penny maximum, and you said that, `I want to use some of it for property tax
relief,' to get yourself down to the mean, you'd have to use about 66% of that penny for
property tax relief. That would generate about six uh .... $6 million, which would equate
to about $2.00, and that would drop you into a, you know, a ... a rate that's closer to your
mean. So, it's a ... it's a big number. I can't cut our way to the mean tax rate. That's not
going to happen. So, that's why I say you have to look at both the expense side and the
revenue side, um, to get ... to get to a, um ... a rate that's more in the middle of the pack.
In terms of utility rates, uh, what this, uh, shows you is just a comparison of all the other
jurisdictions, again, that we kind of compared to and kind of where we rank. Um... our
water rate, obviously, we're recommending, uh, a 5% increase, uh, for this year and the
following year, and there's a, uh, waste rate that we're also increasing, um, to about
$15.90. Uh, these are monthly charges. Now, the ... the thing about all of these charts
when you do comparative analysis, when you start to drill down into these numbers, you
find that there's some vagaries on how different operations do their business, and just a
couple that I would point out to make that point, if you, um, let me just find my notes on
this. (noises on mic) If you look at the Ames trash collection rate on the chart, it shows
that it's zero. Well, that's privatized. Okay? So it isn't going to show up on the
municipal side, but the reality is they're paying somebody for that rate. So if you were to
throw in the private sector charges on these, that would change how they ... they fall on
this chart, and then North Liberty, for example. North Liberty has some programs that
they charge for, but then they have kind of a, what I refer to as kind of a `bag and tag'
charge, and they charge, uh, they have stickers that they use for every 35- gallons. That's
another $1.20. So that would probably actually increase them and push them out even
higher. So you gotta remember that when you're looking at all these... there's vagaries to
all of how they compute, not only the revenue charges but the expenses as well.
Dickens/ Will the sewer rate change when the new plant is opening ... up or down or...
Markus/ I think we're pretty comfortable with the sewer facilities. That's the other thing that I
want you to keep in mind. You have a brand -new water plant, for all intents and
purposes. You're going to have a brand -new sewer plant. So you're going to, you know,
you've... you've made those investments, and ... and those are things, you know, that you
now have in your arsenal of economic development, urn ... assets to attract. The one thing
I would say in terms of the water system is you have some distribution challenges. You
have some water main issues, okay? You probably have some distribution challenges for
the ... the sewer facilities as well. So that's where our challenges would come from in
terms of making sure that we have adequate funds for those. Uh, the water fund, actually
the water fund ... we were recommended for rate increases I think four, five years ago and
we passed on `em, okay? We chose not to do `em. In fact the last two changes to the
water system rates were declined to 5% per year. So, you know, now we're finally
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catching up and we're recognizing that that study that was done, you know, had some
validity. We probably should have bumped it ... maybe not the full 5 %, maybe a gradual
amount. But, now we're catching up to that. Next, uh, let's take a look at the utility
franchise tax, uh, that's what I was referring to. And, a number of places do use this for
property tax relief. In our case, you know, we went to 1% and I think that occurred just
about the time I started, and originally it was 2 %, if I recall the history correctly. It ... and
then it got cut back, kind of at the last minute, down to 1 %. This I% generates about
$895,000 for the City, but I want you to take a roll down and look when they start at 2 %.
So what's happening in those others, a lot of that money's being used for property tax
relief. That's another option on that revenue side to deal with how you could, you know,
impact your property tax rate. In the case of Dubuque, for example, they have a 3% rate.
That's $2.4 million. That $2.4 million is going right into, um, property tax relief, and
again, in our case, $3 million (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) additional revenue
would drop our tax rate by a dollar. So you can see the significance of how they're doing
that. The ... City of Des Moines, whose tax rate is ... way up there because of all sorts of
issues that Des Moines has had to deal with, they have about a 5 %, uh, utility franchise
tax rate. That generates $12.4 million for `em.
Dickens/ Would that affect economic development though?
Markus/ It, you know, I think it has that potential.
Dickens/ That was the concern when we went back (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, and ... and you know, Terry, what I would say to you is, every time you look at
any revenue source, it has a different, uh, impact on your constituents, on your
businesses, every one of `em has that kind of impact, and that's a policy kind of
discussion — how do you, you know, how do you balance that equation in terms of what
sources of revenue do that. I always used to argue in my younger years that the broadest
number of, um, different tax forms probably creates the most equity in terms of
everybody gets nicked, you know, a little differently and therefore probably more equally
at the end of the day (both talking)
Dobyns/ Diversification! Okay.
Markus/ Yeah, the diversification of revenue sources. (several talking) So ... urn ... then the, uh,
local option sales tax, which I do have some recommendations on later for you, as well.
Um, ours expired in, uh, June, um, 30 of 2013. Um, when that ended, we were collecting
about $9 million, uh, per year, uh, in terms of... of that revenue source. But I want you to
just take a look up and down the line, especially go to the fiscal 13 receipts column and
just take a look at the amount of money some of these places are generating in terms of
local option sales tax, and then look at the purpose, and you know, one of the primary
purposes actually in ... when you read the rules and regs for how to operate LOST is
property tax relief. So, uh, for example, just take a look at, um... Sioux City. 60% of that
is going to property tax relief, so that would be ... what? $7.2 million in property tax
relief is coming out of that penny of sales tax that generated there. So that has a, you
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know, a sizeable impact on what their tax rate has to be because they're shifting that over
to offset the ... the property tax, and you can look up and down those columns, and it isn't
just property tax relief a lot of times that will offset the property tax rate. There's other
things in those categories of how they use their money that actually reduce the impact on
property tax as well. So, again, that's... that's on the revenue side. That's one of those
things that you folks can take a look at, in terms of if you want to change that property
tax rate. We'll now shift into revenue. Um ... and ... this is just a comparison between 14
and 15, and I'll just point out the ... the significant differences. If you look at other City
taxes, there's a drop of about 37 %. That's basically because LOST, local option sales
tax, expired in 14. So that's what causes that drop. When you look at, um, use of...of
money in property, there's a drop of about 67 %. That's... and.... and that one then is
corresponding to an increase in charges for services, and basically what happened there is
our parking revenue, uh, get moved to charges for services, if you recall the history on
that. And then the other big one is un, uh, other financial, um ... uh, sources, and that's
just a decrease in bond sales, uh, from 14 to 15. So that kind of explains the major
differences in ... in those numbers. Uh, in terms of just taking a big look at where the
money comes from, uh, for all of our different, uh, funds and revenues, um, clearly the
...the significant source is property taxes, uh, inter-gov ... inter-governmental revenues is
about 25 %. This includes things like the 28E agreements, uh, like for fire protection with
the University, uh, Library 28E agreements, Univer -City funding, uh, public safety
grants, uh, and FEMA. Uh, then under charges for services, this would be like your
water, sewer, uh, waste collection fees, uh ... miscellaneous, uh, income sources would be
parking fines and library fines. Um ... terms of other financial sources, that's bas...
basically debt sales, uh, that generates about 9 %, and then, uh, under other City taxes,
that's the hotel /motel, utility franchise, uh, fees. Terms of General Fund, now the shift,
when you go over specifically from all funds to ... to the General Fund, um, you can see
how property taxes plays a much more significant role in the funding of the General
Fund, and this is what makes it complicated in terms of being on the expense side, um,
in... in terms of trying to deal with how you would cut that property tax rate, because so
much of the General Fund is supported by property taxes. Well, the General Fund is
Police and Fire, a number of Public Works' functions, the Manager's office, the Clerk's
office, the, uh, the Finance Department, you know, a number of the Planning functions.
So it's heavily personnel- dominated in the General Fund. So, you can only cut personnel
to some degree, and it's going to start to affect services. So you have to be cognizant
that, you know, if you're going to try and deal with this property tax rate, you ... you have
to ... there's only so far you're going to be able to go on expenses. Then you're going to
have to start looking at that revenue side, and the alternatives for revenues. Um, in terms
of other major sources, there ... the miscellaneous is basically parking fines, uh, library
fines, and the other financing, uh, sources in terms of the General Fund is mainly the
funding, uh, proceeds for the sale of Univer ... Univer-City houses. You want more
details that ... you'll see that on page 78 of your budget document. Um, this is kind of a
chart just to give you the impression of, uh, what happens in terms of your property
assessment is the blue line and you can see then obviously that taxable valuations are,
you know, significantly lower than that. The taxable valuations is ... are the numbers that
are used times the tax rate to calculate how much actual revenue we're going to see...
receive from property taxes, and as a percent, I think it's kind of fun to watch that bottom
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line, the taxable percent of the total, and it kind of runs in that 60% range, um, in terms of
...of where the taxable is, uh, compared to the assessed, uh, and I'll throw this out, um...
without knowing the answer, but my suspicion is, is that that, urn ... that difference is
going to, um, the red line's going either start to flatline a little bit more because of the
drop in commercial property values, Dennis. I would think. Yeah, because now you've
got commercial property ba ... values dropping at 5 %, you know, per year as a part of that
property tax reform. So I think that you're going to see that kind of flatline, I think, for a
while.
Hayek/ And the multi- family conversions.
Markus / And the multi - family, all of those impacts. So ... this is, urn .... um, kind of the graphical,
urn ... uh, pie chart representation of ..of the full versus the taxable valuations by sector,
and again, uh, I'm going to share some other numbers with you from last year to let you
see that the property tax reform is really starting to have an impact. If you go over to the
chart on the right, the taxable value shows that, um, taxable value, uh, 35% of it comes
from commercial, and 62% of it comes from residential. So, when we multiply our tax
rates, that's... that's who's getting the impact of, uh, the taxes in the community. Now
last year, um, the numbers that we showed you in this very same chart, commercial was
37 %, okay? And residential was 60 %. So you ... can you tell the ... the burden shift now
that's occurring? So, in just one year, commercial properties, um, are, uh ... are dropping
by 2% and residential properties are increasing by 2 %. So ... that was one of the
arguments we made when we'd go to the legislature and talk to them about the
commercial property tax reform, is that it tends to be a burden shift on taxes from
commercial properties to residential properties, even when you cut your tax rate. If you
don't cut your tax rate, equivalent to the impact of the, urn ... of the, um, drop in value,
then you're gonna see an experience where residential taxes are actually still going to go
up. Then in terms of property tax receipts, this is just an indication of the ... the funds that
go in. For actual dollars you can go down to the ... to the bottom box, uh, and just look
across the line, and you can see that at least over the last few years, it's been ... it's been a
pretty moderate, uh, amount of adjustment in terms of the receipts that the City actually
receives from property taxes. Next is the property tax rate and uh ... the, um ... it's been a
fairly gradual and steady decline over the last, uh, three years from fiscal, uh, 12. Um, I
suspect that as this goes forward, at best we'll be able to ... to flatline that, unless we
really get into some alternative sources of revenue. Other major sources of revenue, um,
the one thing I want to note here and staff, uh, and I have had a lot of discussions about,
um, the one kind of...that stands out as being kind of the outlier is the hotel /motel tax,
and I think what happened here is we got fairly, uh, aggressive on, uh, a ... our projection,
based on the addition of the Hampton Hotel, and I think I ... I ... I think that that projection
probably initially was for a longer period of time than when the ... it was actually online,
uh, and how much it was coming in, and I think we're getting a little more realistic in the
2015 year. I think, um, in recent discussions we're kind of hopeful that it ends up some
place between the over - exuberant projection of 14 and the more consuber ... uh,
conservative estimate of 2015. But this gives you an idea of what these different, um...
taxes generate as well. Now I'll move into expenditures. And, uh, just a couple of notes.
Um, in terms of community and economic development, there's an increase there. That's
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mainly, uh, due to the State grand ... grant funded residential construction, uh, which
amounted to about $3 million, um ... that shows that increase, and then, um ... under
capital projects, um, you're seeing some significant swings there, about 45 %. This
decrease is due to the budget being carried forward year to year for large projects like the
South Waste Water and the Gateway. So the point is, if you look at 2014, you'll see a
number of $92 million. What happened there is the ... the real number for that budget was
probably in the $50 million range, but we ... we had those capital projects carried over the
fiscal year to the tune of about $20 million for both the Gateway and for the South Waste
Water Treatment Plant, so that carries that over. So then the $50 million under 2015, uh,
what we did there is we just took the original budget in 14, which is about $48 million,
and applied about a 4.4% increase, but if you look at the two, it looks like something
really drastic is happening there. It's the way we have to account for and ... and move
from one fiscal year to the next. And it's likely by the time we're done with, um, this
fiscal year that we'll have some carryover as well. I ... I would guess, especially for like
the Gateway Project. Once we get that decided and how much we can get done. This
next chart is just a more graphic presentation of the previous information I just talked
about. So I think we can kick through that. (noises in background) Uh, in terms of, uh,
the General Fund expenditures, uh, I'll just talk a little bit about some of the changes
there that are more significant. The supplies change is the result of a decrease, uh, that
we pretty much have spread across all General Fund departments. As we went through
the departments, we kind of looked at the history to determine how they were spending
money and then adjusted, um ... for what we actually saw as expenditures, so that resulted
in the, uh, reduction. The biggest reduction, of course, is in 14 we got into the project
docs, uh, software license which is the tool we're using in the Building Department that
Doug'll talk about a little bit later. Under capital outlay there's a decrease that's spread
across, uh, multiple, uh, departments, the largest reduction was about $35,000. We had a
Library software upgrade in 14 that doesn't, uh, repeat itself, obviously, in 15. And the
next ... next largest reduction, uh, was, uh, for a Fire Department vehicle purchased in 14.
Terms of debt service, all loan, uh, repayments, uh, for UniverCity homes are there. And
in 14 the original budget was $2 million. Homes were added during the year as other
sources became available. So that kind of explains that. You'll recall that originally we
had a set number of UniverCity homes we were going to do. We found some additional
funding, and that's the result of...of that. In terms of contingency, um, the amended
budget is reduced from the original as contingency funds are used. Uh, actual
expenditures moved into the appropriate, uh, category. The original budget for both
years, uh, was about .75% of expenditures and transfers, so the contingency account by
po ... by budget policy is usually about .75% of the General Fund. So, we adjust that as
we draw that down during the year so it looks like there's a change there, but it's... it's
more an accounting process than anything else. Again, uh ... uh, obviously you know for
you that have been around long enough you know that as a service delivery organization
our primary expenditures are in the area of personnel, and that's a reflection of that.
Almost 70% of our costs in terms of the General Fund are related to people. Uh, whether
it's actual salary or benefits, and so this, you know, this is what makes it so difficult when
you look at dealing with property tax. You saw what a big percentage of that is of the
General Fund, and then you realize that the bulk of the expenses are for personnel. So
you have to be ... you're ... you're just not going to wring enough out of that to ... to deal
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with that property tax issue. All right, urn ... one of the things, uh, that's on the Council's,
uh, legislative agenda is the whole public safety pension contribution issue, and as we
meet with our legislators, we are talking to them about, you know, the cost of this system,
and one of the things I want to sh ... want to just draw your attention to, if you look at the
bottom line of this particular chart, and you look at fiscal year 2011. The cost in 2011
was $1,653,588. Now roll yourself up to 2015 and look at the same number. The
number in 2015 is $3,049,000. Okay? That's that dollar, okay? When you think about
tax rates, there's a dollar of it right there! Okay, that's the $3 million. Urn ... obviously
we have an obligation to pay for pension systems, and that is a normal part of our
package. Um, the issue, uh, I would make, and we'll take ... we'll turn, uh, go to the next
slide ... is the comparison in pension systems, okay? And so when you start to look at our
IPERS system, which the larger number of employees that are employed by the City are
in, uh, and then compare that to the, uh, Municipal Fire Police Retirement System, uh,
System, or what we refer to as the 411 System, uh, you can start to see the differences.
And if you just drop over there to the right side of this chart, and you look at kind of the
orange color, IPERS is at 16.58 %. That means 16.58% of payroll goes into the IPERS
system for retirement.
Hayek/ Well, on top of payroll.
Markus/ Yes.
Mims/ Yeah. (several talking)
Markus/ Yeah, on top ... yes. Yes, this is in addition to...
Mims/ ... addition to payroll. Yeah.
Markus/ But ... but that's a ... that number relates to a percent of the salary, okay? Then if you
look at the Fire, Police System, 31.57% is going on ... off of the ... the salaries for that
system. So you can see the significant difference. Now a couple of points I would make
is that ... you all know I spent 22 years in Michigan. And you all know that I dealt with
pensions on a regular basis. And one of the other things that they did in Michigan was
they had retiree healthcare, which they never pre- funded like they do pension systems.
Um... so we have that going for us here in Iowa, that we haven't gone down that path,
but ... I would say to you that ... that you really have to pay attention to these things. The
State really needs to pay attention to these things. Um, Illinois is ... is right in there in the
mix with Michigan in terms of these pension programs and the lack of funding for them.
When you start to think about the dollars that we're contributing towards pension, um, I
can tell you all sorts of stories of what happened in Michigan that pensions started to eat
up so much the cost of your operations that it started to have an impact on the number of
police officers, the number of firefighters you could put on the street, because it was so
significant. Now the other thing I would talk to you about a little bit is equity. Kingsley,
the Sheriff s Department, they're not in that system. They're in an IPERS system.
Okay? Coralville. North Liberty. They're not in the 411 System. They're in the IPERS
system. Now it's a little more generous, I think, than the rank and file people that are in,
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meaning us, you know, that are in general government are in is IPERS, but it's
significantly less than the 411 System. So ... I understand that you're not going to go back
in and ... and necessarily break the deal with our existing employees. And so the strategy
that has been used across the country is to do what's called tiering of the benefits. And
that's t- i -e -r. Some would have a tearing experience as a result of tiering but ... um, they
tier the benefits and so that future employees would be brought in under a different
system, which obviously would have a different benefit package.
Dobyns/ You used the word `they.' Who are you referring to?
Markus/ In... in terms of (both talking)
Dobyns/ When you say `they are beginning to tier,' who's they?
Markus/ Um, that would be the ... what we need to do is talk to the State to get the State to work
with the pension administration to ... to look at changing the new employee criteria for the
411 System.
Dobyns/ Is there a current jurisdiction in the country that is actually doing tiering operationally
currently?
Markus/ The town I left is! Almost the entire country is (both talking)
Payne/ In some way, shape or form.
Dobyns/ Is it really? Okay, all right.
Markus/ And tiering... tiering is not going to DC entirely. Okay? DC, defined contribution. As
opposed to defined benefit. I ... I've been in pension business for so long that... actually I
was a ... in Michigan a lot of the pension systems are municipal. So I actually served on a
pension board when I was in Michigan. And had some experience with it in Illinois.
Um, so ... in terms of tiering, it doesn't mean you have to shift to a defined contribution
system. You can go to a different defined benefit system that in my opinion would be
more sustainable. The other argument I would make to you is that if you give employees
a benefit that in the long -run isn't sustainable, you haven't given the employees anything.
Because there's going to be a world of hurt at some point if you have to make an
adjustment at some point because you can't afford it ... because you get to that point
where you can't put the services that the public wants out there without, you know, huge
dramatic cost increases. So it's something that has to be dealt with. I'm convinced that a
compelling argument can be made to the `they,' the rank and file, members of fire and
police departments across this state, that will understand this, okay? And that will... be
able to negotiate a reasonable way of doing this. I'm convinced of that! So...
Mims/ Tom, to ... (coughing) for ... for all of our information, and maybe also Kingsley's too, how
many cities in the state are under the 411 plan?
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Hayek/ Good question.
Mims/ Because it's only...
Markus/ Is it 40? (several talking) Yeah.
Mims/ Yeah.
Markus/ Maybe just south of 50.
Mims/ Yeah. So the vast majority across the state are not in this program.
Markus/ Yeah.
Mims/ And ... we can't ever get out of it under current legislation. So...
Markus/ The irony, of course, is that it's all of the major core cities.
Mims/ Yeah.
Markus/ And so ... you know, it's one of the ... it's one of those, um ... mandate kind of situations,
you know, that ... that has occurred that has just, and of course 2008 didn't help any of
this (both talking)
Mims/ No.
Markus/ ...right? I mean, we had a huge implosion in the markets where our money was
invested for these ... these benefits, and so that's, you know, created a ... a significant less
level of funding.
Dickens/ Will the current change in the markets getting better, will that affect this at all or not?
Markus/ Yeah, it's ... it improves the level of unfunded accrued liability, but at the end of the day,
you're still going to have a ... you know, the assumptions, you know, when you do an
actuary, it's all based on assumptions. It's based on the rate of return. Most of these
pension systems use a rate of return of 7.5 %. Well ... think about that! Are you all
getting 7.5% on your money?
Dickens/ Oh, sure! (laughter)
Markus/ Yeah! I mean, it's just...
Dickens/ Negative 7! (laughs)
Markus/ ...you know, so it ... it's challenged in that regard. The ... the issue with DB systems is,
usually on the employee side that's a fixed contribution. There's no variable there, okay?
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The variables are on interest earnings or ... or investment earnings, rather, and on
employer contribution. And so what happens is, the risk shifts to the employer. I don't
propose to shift the rift ... risk entirely to the employee, but I think that there has to be
some sort of balance here in terms of this benefit cost. And I ... and I also understand that
you've created somewhat of a contract and an obligation to the employee. I get those
things, but at the end of the day, if this isn't sustainable, and it starts to really impact the
ability of cities to deliver services, I think we have an obligation, you know, from a
governance standpoint to take a look at those issues and make the compelling argument.
I ... you know, the people I deal with and talk to in our Police Department, our Fire
Department, they're very rational people. We have to make rational arguments to them
and get them on board, and in my discussions with them, I think that there is
understanding of the issue and they're trying to figure out ways to do it. Both Geoff and
I, uh, watched as they discussions occurred, him in Illinois, me in Michigan, um, about
the tiering and about different ways to go about this. That seems to be the more palatable
way to deal with this issue but ... you know, in the private sector, private sector's run
away from DB systems for years, so...
Mims/ Yep.
Hayek/ Well when you ... when you consider how much of our General Fund Police and Fire take
up, I mean, it's a ... it's a very expensive operation, both of `em. You know, we're the
only community in Johnson County with a paid fire program. Coralville does theirs
volunteer. North Liberty the same. Um ... that ... that's a huge expense, and then when
you look at the ... and police and fire are the only ones under the 411, urn ... the cost to us
to ... to provide the personnel for those two departments puts us at a serious... competitive
disadvantage (both talking)
Markus/ (mumbled)
Hayek/ ...visa vie our ... our neighbors, urn ... and ... I mean, even just looking at the ... at the
increase in the 411 contribution F, you know, FYI 2, uh, or ... or 11 through... through 15
Mims/ Four years!
Hayek/ ...doubling that, I mean, that ... that's about a $1.5 million increase, which would fund
almost two fire stations, just the ... one and a half fire stations of personnel cost, of
operational costs. Those are just huge, huge numbers!
Markus/ Some of that I would say, you know, you'd have to drill back into the numbers. Some
of that is because of additional staffing too.
Hayek/ Right, in both departments (both talking)
Markus/ ...transparent about that!
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Hayek/ Yep! Absolutely, but it's ... it's amazing!
Markus/ All right. Next um ... and this is kind of an interesting issue too and ... and it, this kind of
goes to the ... to the issues of mandates. Um, under the, uh, Iowa Code 411, Chapter 6, it
mandates the City to pay for the medical costs for retired employees in the, uh, 411
System. It spells out the diseases of heart, lungs, and respiratory tract, including cancer
or other infectious diseases, are presumed. Big, big language, are presumed to have been
contracted while on active duty for police and fire. And so I want to show you from a
medical expense standpoint, 77% of our employees are in the IPERS system, red; 23%
are in the 411 System. Now look at the medical expenses related to the two. So, you can
see that this is having, you know, an impact on our operations, um, because of a ... of a
decision like that. Did they do an actuary when they passed this? Um ... I mean, is there
an understanding and compassion for police and fire that work in public safety and the
conditions that ... yes there is! Um, I would argue that there's a lot of people that work for
the city that put themselves in a lot of peril in terms of, uh, the types of work they do.
Um, not that ... not to go into detail, but remember all those people that were out in the
middle of that raging landfill fire that, uh, work in Public Works that put themselves in a
great deal of peril, not only from the toxic fumes but from the fire situation itself. So
there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of people that ... that work for this city that, you
know, I think that they also have those kinds of issues but ... again, we've distinguished
one group of employees that way and there's a cost associated with that.
Mims/ Tom, on those medical expenses, is the City liable for those as long as the individual is
alive or only until they get to Medicaid eligibility at age 65 or...
Markus/ I, you know, I'd ... go ahead!
Bockenstedt/ Yeah, we are. We're responsible for the retirees medical benefits as well. If it's
deemed to have occurred, um, as work related.
Mims/ So we would pay before Medicare would pay?
Bockenstedt/ That's correct. We pay, right now we're paying medical benefits for retirees right
now.
Payne/ Because it's workers ... (both talking) It's work comp.
Bockenstedt/ That's correct.
Dobyns/ Is there any ... there's no other health insurance that does that. Medicare pays, then
everything else supplements but this goes the other way. This pays first.
Bockenstedt/ That's correct. We (both talking) they bring in their bills to us; we process them
and pay their medical bills.
Payne/ Because it's work comp!
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Mims / And then they file with Medicare if there's anything left to be paid?
Bockenstedt/ We pay 100 %.
Markus/ Does that answer the question? (laughter)
Mims/ Unfortunately I'm just stunned (several talking and laughing) No, I ... I am, I mean I
am ... I am absolutely stunned that people over the age of 65 ... well, let me back up. The
people of the 411...411 System don't pay Social Security, correct?
Markus/ That's right. That's correct.
Mims/ Do they pay Medicare taxes?
Bockenstedt/ They do pay Medicare now. They ... they did not, uh, I'm not sure what date that
that started. Um, and... in 96? Yeah, prior to 96 they did not pay the Medicare tax. After
96 the Police and Fire ... the firefighters at that time started paying the Medicare tax.
Mims/ So our employees now, Fire and Police, are paying Medicare tax but for these particular
illnesses or diseases, they ... or all illnesses, they will never collect from Medicare? We
will pay it all?
Bockenstedt/ Not ... not all illnesses.
Mims/ Just these.
Bockenstedt/ I mean if they were to break a leg...
Mims/ Okay.
Bockenstedt/ ...they would go to Medicare to pay for that, but if it's deemed work related, and in
this instance where (both talking)
Markus/ (mumbled)
Bockenstedt/ ...or cancer or heart related or something, then it comes back to the City as part of
our expense.
Dobyns/ (both talking) ...work related.
Mims/ And this is ... and this is state legislative language?
Markus/ Yeah. Now, I... what I would say to you though, um, based on my experience, this is
not unique. Okay?
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Mims/ Oh, yeah, I'm not saying it is. I just...
Markus/ You know, just so you understand, the Police and Fire are very effective at representing
themselves. Okay? They ... it's legendary, and it's consistent across the country, so...
Mims/ I would just prefer if they're paying Medicare tax, let's have Medicare pay first and we
pay second. At least! (laughter) (both talking)
Markus/ ...and...
Payne/ Because it's work comp you can't, I mean, work comp is your work has to pay for it, I
mean...
Mims/ I know. (both talking) ...these are all related to work.
Markus/ But it ... but it, yeah, but it ... I think it does drive a higher cost back to us. I mean, the
fact of the matter is, not everybody, I mean, these presumptions aren't true. I mean... it's
just a presumption! The ... the reality is, some of these things are ... are caught. They're
affliction is that, you know, extracted from other sources rather than our employment, but
that's the way it is. (several talking and laughing)
Dobyns/ As the baby boomer generation ages into retirement, you're starting to see a lot of
indirect changes in legislation that is trying to encounter that thing that we are really not
prepared for and you're seeing a lot of different areas, um, I'm seeing it in healthcare,
um, at the forefront, but you're going to start seeing it, I think, I'm starting to think ... I
think in Detroit now we're starting to see some changes in pensioning and how that's
being done. Um, because...
Markus/ And San Jose.
Dobyns/ Cause we can't really handle the graying of the baby boomer generation, uh,
financially. It's not sustainable. But my sense is that in terms of pensions, I don't think
that's (mumbled) see some significant, um, trickle -down federal and state legislation
that'll affect municipalities for another five to ten years, I would think, um, at best, and so
when we get into further discussions later about local option sales tax, I mean, that's
usually the length of time that a (mumbled) LST lasts. Um, you know, if we want any
kind of recovery from these sorts of problems in anticipation of this legislation changing,
we're going to have to think about things a little bit more of a stop -gap measure. That's
why I'm looking forward to that discussion later.
Markus/ All right. Debt service. Um, and... and I'll try and speed some of this up. Uh, in the
state of Iowa you cannot, uh, issue 5% of your total assessed property value, although ...
we know some neighbors that have managed to go beyond that for lots of different
reasons.
Hayek/ They call it something else.
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Markus/ Yeah. Iowa City's at about 1.3 %. Um, our limitation is that our tax, uh ... levy should
not exceed for debt service, uh, 30% of the total tax levy. That actually was increased
about ... oh, three or four years ago (several responding) yeah, it was just before I came
because I remember reading about it, and ... and what was happening is there ... we were
approaching, I think, our... our cap in terms of our tax levy, and so we were shifting some
costs typically that were paid for under operational into the ... into debt service. And so
we increased the amount to 30 %. Since then I think we've been pretty good about
staying right around 25% anyway so I think all we really did is just build some ... some
room in case we flipped over the 25. Um ... we've been taking a very hard look at our
debt, uh, issuance and uh ... how much of it we do, what kind of projects we do, not
overburdening our capacity to build some of these things, and uh ... uh ... with the ... the
thought in mind that some of this (mumbled) actually can, uh, reduce our property tax
rate as well. Uh ... the next chart just gives you an indication of how much debt we have
and how much capacity we have under the State law. So you have tremendous amount of
capacity. I don't show you that to encourage you to start issuing all sorts of debt
(laughter) I just tell you that because I think it shows a fairly conservative, um, use of our
debt here in the City. The next thing I want to talk to you about is our ... our bond rating,
and despite what you've read, I will say publicly and repeatedly that this, uh, when you
do a bond analysis, when you do a bond report on a city, to me it is the most objective
analysis. It's the most objective survey that you will find about fiscal operations of a
city. So, despite what you've heard about, you know, they got this wrong or they got that
wrong or they didn't understand or all that, I want to tell you something. I've been there!
I've been grilled by their analysts. Their analysts are about as knowledgeable a people as
you will find when they look at this. And their whole purpose in life is to measure risk.
Because who they really represent is the bond buyer. They don't work for the cities
technically. They work for the bond buyer. They're evaluating (coughing, difficult to
hear speaker) and establishing what the risk is, and all of those different ratings that you
look at when they look at bonds, those are assignments of risk. Those are assignments
saying, this community has this kind of risk. So, when you look at Iowa City, pointed
right there, you should be very proud of this, okay, and this is something that long
precedes me. I don't get credit for this, okay? At best, this administration gets credit for
not losing that triple -A bond rating (laughs) and that's something that I do lose sleep over
because, you know, I know how, you know, things can happen. But, that puts us in the
top 6 %, top 6 %, of bond rated communities in this country. That's... that's really
significant. And when you understand that we're not the ... hoity, toity community that
some of these triple -A bond rating communities are, that we're a real community with
diversity, with all sorts of income levels, with all sorts of challenges, for us to have that —
that is really a... a very strong statement about how well things have been managed for a
longtime here. Um ... the next thing I would tell you is that if you slide down the slide, or
the scale here, and you look at BAA2, and below, okay? That's just over the bottom 1%
of cities in this country. Now, I'm not saying who's in that category. I'm just saying
(laughter) that's the bottom 1 %. (several talking)
Dickens/ Now does having a city like that in your area affect your bond rating (both talking)
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Markus/ Well I can tell you the opposite works, and I can tell you that probably it does have
some impact. I mean, it attracts a lot of attention that you probably don't need, okay,
quite frankly. Um, the next chart is for the cities in Iowa. And I think when you add up
all the numbers across the bottom, there's about 66 cities in Iowa, okay? And Iowa City
is right there at the top again, that ... that by the way is about the same number. We're in
the top 6 %. But if you go all the way over to the lowest rated communities in the state of
Iowa, there's two of `em. In the BAA2 category. That's the bottom 3 %. Okay? Of
bond ratings. That's a measure of a lot of things going on in the City, and I think that's
something that you folks want to keep in mind. You know, you should be very proud of
what your city is and how your city is managed from a financial standpoint. That speaks
very well of you, and it's not, again, it's not us! This has been going on for a long time,
so ... uh, again, I think that's... that's great news for us. And it's ... it's like something we
worry about because we do take such pride in it. (noises in background) Um ... financial
and fiscal policies, um, again, our General Fund contingency's about three- quarter
percent. That's $387,000. The General Fund (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
operating cash balance is, uh, about 15 to 25 %. That ... that covers you for about 1.8
months to about 3 months, uh, and you know, basically you hold these for cash flow
purposes. There's periods of time, uh, when cash receipts aren't coming in just the way
they should and you gotta carry yourself through some fund balance. So that's... that's
kind of a ... a ... an accepted norm as to how much you want to keep. Uh, excess General
Fund reserves should be used for debt retirement, property tax relief measures, and/or
transferred to this new city emergency fund that we're going to talk about. Other funds,
uh, reserve levels vary based on the nature of the business, bond covenants, and actuarial
studies. When you go to issue bonds for example in an enterprise fund, a lot of times
what will be required is, um, they will require some, uh, coverage factors in those bonds.
They'll say that, you know, you've gotta have this much percentage of your revenues,
um, they want, you know, in... in terms of your reserves so that their bond buyers are
protected, and... and we're clearly within those categories and protect ourselves pretty
well. In terms of debt financing, again, we can't issue more than 30 %. When it's
possible, I like to go to a pay -as- you -go basis, especially for those lower ones, to take
care of some of those issues. Um, keep going ... this is an indication of how, um, our...
our fund balances look across all of our different funds, and obviously, um, that shows in
my opinion a very healthy picture. Uh, some you might look at and say, gosh, why are
we holding that much. Um, some there's some capital, uh, items that we have scheduled
in there that will be spent. When you get into solid waste, solid waste is one of those
things that everybody kinda looks at once in a while and say, why do we have that much
money? The EPA and the State EPA require closure and post - closure, um, types of
coverages so that at some point in the future when you do close that, uh, and there's no
revenue coming in, they want a substantial reserve to make sure that if there's some
leakage through the liner or some major pollution problem, the money's there to take care
of it. So...
Payne/ So, is the cost of the Landfill fire taken out of the Landfill?
Markus/ Yes it was!
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Payne/ So, that's after that's paid for?
Markus/ Um, I think we're pretty much done, aren't we? Yeah, yeah. And then, remember...
(several talking) remember despite the, all of the commentary that we didn't have
insurance coverage. We, um, through the great work of some City staffers here,
developed an argument and actually recovered almost half of it through insurance.
So ... again, I ... I can't say enough about Rick and, um, Eric and, um, Melissa, and others
in the operation. They developed a really great argument. It was fun being in there
arguing with, uh, the insurance company. We, you know, it just ... it really all came
together. It was great! And that, I mean, you remember we had a law professor arguing
that we weren't covered and we had some attorney that the paper had consulted with up
in Cedar Rapids. I wish they were still here cause I'd ask `em to revisit the story and
(laughs) apologize, but I don't think that'll happen. So (several talking) property tax...
uh, property tax impact, um ... one of the things, again, uh, when ... what I try to do is,
when we prepare these budgets, I try to relate it back to what's... what's going to happen
to the homeowner, what's going to happen to the commercial enterprise. And you can
see that the property taxes are going up from 2014 to 2015. So ... you ... you look at me
and you go, well, Tom, you're... you're saying you're going to have a tax rate decline,
and yet you're saying that our property taxes are going up. You gotta remember, there's
two sides to this equation. There's the tax rate side and there's the taxable valuation side.
And essentially what's happening is the taxable valuation side is going up higher than the
tax rate decline side, so that's the differential, that's what causes it. The net effect from
property taxes on a home valued at ... taxable value at, uh, or assessed value at $100,000
is about a $21,000 difference. We use the $100,000 home, not that it's really an average,
but it's easy then for people to look at that and then extrapolate what that would be based
on their property tax bill. They can go look at that and say, well, this equates to me this
way.
Throgmorton/ Tom, somewhere in the text of the ... of the budget document, I read that, uh, a
typical residential household, you know, $100,000 valuation will pay $42 more in taxes,
but this says 21. So...
Markus/ No, it's $42 in all costs. What I want to do when I (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Taxes and fees together (both talking)
Markus/ Taxes and fees together, that's the difference! All right, and then so under property tax
impact for a commercial property. Now you gotta remember, you know, I'm not doing
anything magical to benefit commercial versus residential. What's happening is,
commercial always paid at 100% and now this year it's the first year it's going to drop by
5 %, right? And plus the ... the tax rate cut. That actually results then in a decline in
property taxes for the commercial because the property tax reform basically is shifting
the emphasis, and that's why I showed you the pie chart, that shows the tax burden shift
from commercial to residential. So ... that's why that's happening. We're not
deliberating benefitting anybody. My view is if you drop the tax rate, that's a uniform
benefit to everybody and ... and residential, by the way, okay, is still substantially reduced
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from assessed to taxable over what commercial is from assessed to taxable to begin with.
So, projected, uh, reduction over, uh, four years is about $986. All right, next is the
proposed, uh, rate increases that we're talking about. In terms of refuse we're talking
about 40 -cents per month, uh, which, uh... in... increases on the regular customer about
$4.80 per year. Uh, in terms of the water fund, um ... we ... we really believe that we have
to get into this because of infrastructure more than anything. Uh, so we're proposing a
5% rate increase in 15 and then we'll come back in the following budget with another 5%
increase. In 2008 there was a water study done and in that water study, uh, it was
recommended that 8% increase over fiscal year 10 and 11 be imposed. We never
imposed `em. And ... in 2003, 4, and 6, we actually reduced the ... the water rates 5% per
year. So ... you know, coming back now and dealing with it, um ... to deal with the
infrastructure, I think, is the right thing to do. And again, we have a number of...of small
fee adjustments and facility adjustments, uh, for the Parks and Rec, and I think our
objective there is to try and cover about 50% of the, uh, costs in those areas, and then the
rest is subsidized, other fees, including property tax. Yes, Rick.
Dobyns/ Um, if we were to put money into, um, below - ground infrastructure...
Markus/ Yes.
Dobyns/ ...which I assume a lot of that is water...
Markus/ Yes.
Dobyns/ ...would, in ... traditionally, what does the City do? Do they increase the water service
rates or...
Markus/ Yeah, I ... actually, um, when you get into issuing revenue bonds, revenue bonds
typically carry a higher interest rate and they also require some coverage factors on
revenue bonds which suggest that, um, the financing costs takes a bigger nick out of your
abilities. So what we're trying to do is use the rate structure to build up enough funds to
pay for the infrastructure on a pay -as- you -go basis, rather than borrowing the money. So
that's how we approach it. Trying to. Which is why ... we probably should have adjusted
the rates to some level some time ago, cause we're running into issues like Washington
Street where we had a major blowout of that water main. That water main probably
realistically should have been replaced a while ago but ... it wasn't. Financial impact to
the average household, and this is what you were talking about, Jim. Um, is about $42,
uh, per year to houses in that $100,000. Again, you can calculate. Um, that's comprised
of a $21 tax increase, about a $5 refuse increase, and about a $16.40 water rate increase.
That's where you get the $42. Uh, in terms of the budget summary, uh, we're going to be
proposing the creation of an emergency fund to provide additional stability, protect
against a sudden loss of revenue, or increase in unfunded mandates, uh, make the
community more resilient through disaster relief and mitigation funding, and um ... the
lack of property tax backfill potential that's coming forward. Um ... I don't know if you
read the story but uh, out of uh, Des Moines, the amount of, uh, receipts on various
sources of income was actually down, uh, for this first six months and I think last year it
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was actually on a decline as well, according to the news article. So ... I think you got to
watch what's going on at Des Moines. I think there's been all this discussion about all
these significant surpluses. Um, they've made some pretty significant commitments to
use state, uh, government revenues for a lot of other reasons. The big one, of course, is
the flood mitigation program that we're getting $8 million for, but $250 million is going
up to Cedar Rapids for the flood walls. $100 million's going over to Dubuque. Um,
some other money in different ... so that's all coming out of what would traditionally go to
state government. So ... I hope they're keeping an eye on their own ball over there
because I'm thinking their ... their reserves are going to start to really be hit. So we gotta
pay attention to that. Um ... continue progress in making the community more affordable
and economically competitive with our tax rate. Status quo service levels. And one new
engineer position, and a net reduction of seven and a half positions with this fiscal year,
and building fiscal integrity to ensure our triple -A bond rating, uh, using strong reserves,
ample contingency funds, and measured rate (noises on mic) Um, in terms of the
summary, again, the continued emphasis will be on flood mitigation, critical
infrastructure, and strategic plan initiatives and we listed them all. You can read `em. I
don't need to repeat those for you. Uh, looking ahead, in terms of streamlined
operations, one of the things, uh, that's... that's not really shown in the document, but...
but is budget neutral so we didn't feel it had to be, and I wanted to at least explain it to
you before I pushed it into the actual document, and that's the merger, and I've been
talking about this for two years, uh, of the Planning and Community Development
department for some time. We believe it'll enhance our efforts towards strategic plan
goals, facilitate more comprehensive healthy neighborhood strategies, bolster our
economic development activities, and heighten sustainability efforts. Uh, one of the
things, Jim, you talked about was our whole sustainability thing seems to be kind of, just
not moving, and I believe that by pushing it over into Community Development and
elevating it to ... and when you see our charts, it will have more direct relationship to the
Manager's office in terms of those things, but I think having it in Community
Development, we can start to impose more sustainability features on new growth issues,
and that's where I think we have our greatest potential to start making an impact. Both
on Housing Authority properties, on private sector development, and on public sector
development types of issues. Uh, we have an excellent person, uh, leading up that charge
in Brenda Nations. She's very knowledgeable. She's widely respected across the
country in her circles, so I think ... I think this is a better place for that position. Improve
the internal communications, create a more seamless transition in the development. At
times I sense there's not friction, but I think that like so many things, the coordination
takes an effort, and it's not seamless at this point, and by moving Housing and HIS and
Planning into a one department operation, I think we'll end up with a much better, uh,
flow of information and coordinated responses to the issues that we need to address. Uh,
and I think, quite frankly, it also addresses the succession issue. I know we have
leadership issue changes coming up, and so what I'm trying to do is position this
department so that we can take advantage of what are likely to be some succession moves
coming up and get people in the right position. The net result will be, you know, and
when I ... when I cut and attrit, you know, rank and file employees, the push back I get is,
what about management employees? Well, that's what this'll do, okay? You will see
some attrition of some management type staff in this area. Again, I believe in flattening
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January 4, 2014 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session Page 24
out these organizations, getting more of these decisions made at the ground level, and
that's what this effort will try to achieve, as well. Um, the merger will involve shifting
the personnel reporting and division structures. I'll show you that. The aim is a budget -
neutral department merger with no employee layoffs. Uh, minor expenses associated
with position reclassifications or office space reconfigurations will come from the
existing budget authority, and I may have to come back with some position changes like I
do, um, through ordinances we'll ... we'll bring those back. We'll clear `em through
Legal and we'll come back and ... and show you those and ask for your support. Uh, the
changes to the positions that require Council approval will begin in 14, and we expect to
be, uh, implemented early 15. Increasingly, this is a very common approach to
community development efforts and uh, housing issues. So if you look at the next slide,
you can kind of see the way it's currently laid out, okay? And how this ... this, um,
division of responsibilities lays out, and then the next slide will show you how we intend
to, uh, merge these two functions together. Um... so you're going to see, uh, you can see
where we've added the sustainability coordinator and you can see where we've added the
economic development staff. There's been somewhat of a ... kind of a ... you know, I ... a,
not a real clear line of authority with economic development staff, and so what this will
do will make it a much, uh, better connection back to the Manager's office. I can tell you
probably of all the departments that I spend time in, um, it's planning issues and
economic development issues, in terms of specific departments. I'd say, uh, that's where,
and I think Eleanor would agree, we spend a... a lot of time negotiating agreements,
developer agreements, interpretations of zoning, what we can do, what we can't do. It
...it, there's a ... it's a real cross - departmental effort. Then when we get down into the
actual alignment of the departments. Our emphasis is going to be on neighborhood
services, and so we're going to move the Housing Authority staff, the Housing Inspection
staff, and some of the Community Development staff into that operation. Uh, the Police
Department staff person, you'll recall, when we got the, uh, Department of Justice
funding, one of the persons was allocated to Neighborhood Services and so you'll see this
hashed line there because that person will be coordinating with that operation. So there'll
be a Director of Neighborhood Services, and then there'll be a director under Community
Development Services and what I really think is a significant initiative is to move our
Planning staff and our Inspection staff together, and getting them talking and on the same
page. I think you're going to hear some really, what I consider exciting news, out of
Doug Boothroy when he gets into his operational budget today, uh, talking about the
amount of growth that's occurred, and about the success of our new computer application
for applying for building permits and eventually for facilitating plan submissions to the
City, making it much more seamless and a lot easier, and a lot less expensive, which has
resulted in some streamlining of that operation. Um, next is what we call `pardon our
dust.' Um, we are going to be in a major construction area, and when you hear the
numbers from Doug, we're already in a major construction area, and this kind of talks
about all the different agencies that we deal with. Um, the University and if you looked
at the chart, this is a chart that Geoff co -opted out of one of the local newspapers, and that
kind of lists some of the City projects and some of the University projects, and when
Doug talks this afternoon, or whenever he's up, he's not going to be talking about the
University's projects! He's going to be talking about private sector projects that we're
dealing with. Um, the School District, obviously, has a major initiative on. Lucas,
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January 4, 2014 Iowa City City Council Budget Work Session Page 25
Twain, Sycamore, American Legion, City High work are scheduled to actually begin
before the 17 GO issue. So we're trying to make sure we coordinate that. The City has a
number of projects. We have the Gateway, the South Waste Water Treatment Plant, the
demo of the North Waste Water Treatment Plant, the conversion of that property to a
park, the need to deal with the training — the fire training facility — how do we do that.
Do we link up with Coralville, who has a regional training facility? Is there something
we do? How do we build that together? All those things are in discussion. The First
Avenue grade separation project's coming. Uh, the Moss Ridge Road project's coming.
Um, and a number of projects that I'd like to see get going, uh ... down in Riverfront
Crossings, um, to make sure that that's ... we start to generate some activity in there. Um,
the impact on the bidding environment we think is going to ... to really cause us to be very
cautious about looking at bids, compared to our engineer's estimates. My fear is is that
cost to construction could go up, and we're going to have to be strategic. We're going to
have to have the courage to say maybe this is not the right time; let's pull the plug; let's
delay a particular project cause the bids are just too high for this. I think that's a real
possibility because of the level of competition. It's a supply /demand situation. And then
staff resources will be stretched to manage our projects and accommodate needs. I can
tell you, one of the few places that I've added a staff person is in engineering. It's clear
that they need the help, uh, they are going to be very busy with these projects, and it's
likely we're going to have some, uh, senior transition occur, uh, through, um, retirements
and elsewise in ... in the Public Works' area, which is a ... which is going, you know,
really lose a lot of our institutional memory, which is really critical when you're...
especially in the capital improvements area, so ... we have our challenges ahead of us in
terms of taking care of those issues. Uh, looking ahead, the fate ... federal and state
environment, um ... we have tightening revenue sources impacting Community
Development Block Grant and the Home Funding. The Housing Authority, obviously we
went through a very painful experience there. Transit issues, Airport, and Capital
Improvements. Um ... we're trying to make those all ... those programs stand on their
own, recognizing that their revenue sources are very specific to those programs, and try
to make sure that, you know, we get those to a pay -as- you -go kind of basis. State of
Iowa, uh, obviously the property tax relief. You refer to as rollback taxes. The public
(mumbled) the public pension issue, and uncertain changes in road use tax. You hear a
lot of, uh, discussion going into this legislative session about the potential for road use
tax increases. I'm not confident that that's necessarily going to get dealt with. I think
you're going to see an abbreviated session, and I think people are going to avoid, uh,
putting themselves, any kind of legislative position that postures them in a negative way
for the upcoming election. So I think it's ... it's anybody's, you know, guess as to how
this session is going to go, but all of the pundits and all of the leaders in the legislature
say it's going to be a short session with, you know, a reduced agenda. Uh, in terms of the
utility franchise tax, um, in terms of diversification of revenues, a number of
communities, and I showed you those, uh, they charge all the way up to 5 %, uh ... um, for
the franchise tax. Iowa City's tax is about 1 %. That generates $895,000. That's an
opportunity for you. Uh, $602,000, uh, current ... in the current one. We use $602,000 of
that money for Fire Station #4, and right -of -way maintenance and $293,000 for right -of-
way projects. Uh ... we can designate specific uses of the revenue. I think that those are
probably offsetting property taxes anyway cause they're handling the operation. Six of
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I I comparable communities to Iowa City are higher than 2 %. Ours is 1 %. So you could
generate about another $900,000 if you wanted to go that direction. Again, Terry, I think
you made a point that... a previous discussion, drop it back to I% was that it was an
economic development issue. Now let me just for a moment talk about the local option
sales tax, and um, just to give you an idea of how this works, it's a countywide election.
It can be initiated by the governing bodies representing half of the population, or by
petition of residents. So that means that Iowa City and North Liberty would probably
equate the 50 %. Uh, we might equate to 50% on our own. Uh, we can pass a resolution
at the Council table and initiate the process, at least for the vote. I think it, you know,
when you go into these types of things, you better have an agenda, you better have a
campaign, um, of information at least to get out and deal with it. All cities contiguous to
each other are treated as one large incorporated area. Meaning at a minimum, Iowa City
Coralville, North Liberty are all contiguous.
Hayek/ And Hills.
Markus / And I think Hills is contiguous, based on the old bank decision to run up the right -of-
way so that they could, uh, Hills Bank could move into the Iowa City area. The
distribution formula. This is something I want you to think about. The distribution
formula is based on 75% population and on 25% of the tax effort is the way I'll describe
it. Um, the prop ... the property tax levy. So now I want you to think about something.
Iowa City and Coralville, okay, generate about the same amount of sales tax from each
jurisdictions. So, if 75% is based on population, okay, we should benefit, okay, because
our population is what? Approaching 70,000 and Coralville's population is approaching
20,000. So, if 75% is based on that, we're going to pick up a portion of that, as is North
Liberty. Now the other part of that is, if it's based on tax effort or, you know, um, tax
levy, our tax levy's higher, so we'll pick up on that part of it too. So ... this is kind of one
of those arguments that I would make is that, it's kind of a ... fair play kind of deal. I
mean, they've used TIF to relocate business from our jurisdiction. But, that TIF cost
Iowa City, Johnson County, and the School District money. So this is a method for us to
get back some of the loss, no pun intended, um, for that difference. Um, I recognize that
sales tax is generally considered an aggressive kind of tax, but I would say that it depends
on how we chose to use that money. If we use some of it to offset for property tax relief,
which is one of the primary purposes of LOST built in to the statute; if we use some of it
to ... um, I think I had a list of issues in the management letter, uh, for providing public
housing, and one of the strategies I have in terms of pri ... providing low, moderate -
income housing is that when we negotiate this deal with our neighboring communities,
we should get all of the communities on board with taking a percentage of the LOST
revenue and contributing it for affordable housing, okay? If we could do that and we
could actually use that money for public housing throughout the three major
communities, I think we could get to a point where we could assure that we've provided
real public housing on a scattered site basis. I think you ... the problem with using, and
...and developing public, um, housing, affordable housing, is when you over - concentrate
it. When you diversify it, or scatter -site it, which is a, you know, a federal name for
dispersal, I think it fits in better, it creates a better environment, it has less impact on
schools and other public facilities, and I think it... it's a better environment for the folks
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benefitting from the housing, and from the neighborhoods experience in terms of
diversity. So ... my approach to this would be, you know, I know that there's people that
want to talk about what do we call it, um ... in the neighborhoods, um ... what's the
terminology for requiring develop (several talking) Inclusionary zoning! The problem I
have with diversionary zoning, it's a burden shift, okay? We're going to push the burden
on the private sector, okay? When you push the burden on the private sector, what's the
private sector going to do? The private sector's going to go to the place that doesn't have
the burden. That's my problem with it. I think it has to be a public side issue. That's my
belief, and I think you need a revenue stream to support that, and if you want to do this, I
think if we could have a conversation with our neighbors and say, here's a way to do this.
This is a fair thing to do and it returns money, if it's a regressionary tax. It returns money
to those that pay that tax from a regressionary standpoint, and creates an environment
with a scattered site affordable housing program across the metropolitan area. At least
that's ... least that's my big thinking and my kind of my vision for how we could do
something on an equitable basis that has a revenue stream, that guarantees that these
houses would be available from an affordable standpoint. For us to think that you can go
out in the marketplace right now ... and build housing, okay, that's affordable and think
that we're just going to lay that on the private sector without any public support? I think
we're fooling ourselves! And, so ... my view is, if we're serious about this, we're going to
have to step up to it, and if you're going to step up to it, you better find a revenue stream
to deal with it. And, this is one of the logical revenue streams. I was accused of creating
a Christmas tree kind of approach to this, giving everybody a little piece of the action,
and I won't say who told me that, um (laughter) but ... there is, you know, when you...
when you go about these programs, you do have to have kind of an agenda that appeals to
a broad spectrum of people to get the support to do this. But if I don't have the revenue
stream, I can't do these things. Okay? So then it ma ... it comes down to a matter of what
are the percentages. Well I can tell you, if I can get all three jurisdictions to go this way,
you know, that would create a significant amount of money! We are the Housing
Authority right now for the Iowa City, all of Johnson County, right? We are the Housing
Authority! So, if we could drive that revenue in there, it creates the equity of the regional
participation. I know that's not consistent with, you know, maybe moving away from
public housing, but ... public housing is the truest form of affordable housing. And, the
advantage is, it's insured. You don't have to have covenants that say, you know, it's
going to be used this way for 20 years and then you can sell it. It provides that. It gives
those people an opportunity to find housing stock in this town, you know, to build some
worth so that they can move on to their own house and to me, that's ... if you're serious
about it, I think that's a way to go. So...
Throgmorton/ Tom, I'd like ... like to react a little bit, and I'm really intrigued by your suggested
possible use of local option sales tax funds. It's really creative idea, so I'm very (laughs)
interested in it. But I disagree with what you said about inclusionary zoning, because
inclusionary zoning applies to the market as a whole, not just to formally defined public
housing units, which is a very small fraction of the total housing market, even for low to
moderate - income households.
Markus/ But it doesn't have to be if you have the funding source.
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Throgmorton/ Well, I ... I think there's a lot to talk about there. I just...
Markus/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ ...want to make sure we understand there's discussion that needs to take place,
rather than just moving ahead, you know.
Markus/ Yeah!
Dobyns/ So, if 20% say of a potential LOST tax was going toward affordable housing, does that
mean each participating municipality would have to spend 20% of their LOST revenue
on affordable housing within their jurisdiction?
Markus/ I think what we would do is we'd have to have some sort of inter - governmental
agreement that provided a contribution to our Housing Authority and we would work
with the jurisdictions. Yes, I would like to see that money reinvested in the community
of origin. That's the way I would (both talking)
Dobyns/ Cause the School District would need that sort of divers ... you know, scattering. Yeah.
Markus/ I think that's... that's a healthy way of doing it!
Dobyns/ Yeah.
Hayek/ Well I think, I mean, I ... I suspect we will look at this. I think there are a lot of exciting
ideas here. You know what always concerns me is that formula, cause... cause if... if... if
that changes ... and I assume that would be a State legislative change, if it ever happened.
Markus/ Oh, yeah! You're... you're talking about how and where the sales tax comes from.
(both talking) And when I started the conversation, what Matt's talking about is that it's
... it ... Illinois for example where both Geoff and I worked, the ... penny of sales tax goes
back to the community of origin. I always thought that was a horrendous way of revenue
distribution.
Hayek/ I.E., where the sales tax was generated.
Mims/ Right.
Markus/ Yes, so... so Schaumburg, Illinois. Schaumburg had Woodfield Mall. It had all the car
dealerships, back when car dealerships paid sales tax. And it had all sorts of other
commercial. They generated so much sales tax, just in that city, that they didn't have a
property tax for the longest time. I mean, they ... their biggest challenge was how to
spend money, okay, they had so much money coming in. And in fact, one of my
predecessors was the manager there, Steve Atkins. And, you know, I always looked at
Steve when I left and I said, man, what the hell's wrong with that guy? He's leaving this
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place that has all this money, and you know, he wanted more out of life and he came to
Iowa City and later on as I matured I understood why he moved (laughter) but (laughs)
you know, they ... they just, it...it was just a crazy way of doing things, and when you
think about it, it's kind of a goofy way of doing it because ... the County has to pay for
more roads, the State has to pay for more roads. That comes from the rest of us. So my
argument is, sales tax is not paid by businesses. It's paid by people! So, population is a
better way to distribute sales tax than, um ... business of, you know, the origin of the
business or the location of the business. So I think ... I think there's an opportunity there
for us to do some things, but it's going to take some cooperation, and I think Coralville's
in a position, I think, where they could listen. Okay? Um ... you know, they ... they've got
their own financial challenges and so they might be interested in this, even though the
distribution is on a per capita type basis.
Dobyns/ (mumbled) the formula change, Matt, you alluded to there might be a change at the state
level of the equation?
Hayek/ If, well, anything's subject to change and ... and I can tell you if...if it were based on
point of origin, it'd be a much less compelling topic for us to examine.
Markus / Right. But you know there's kind of this sense of equity from my (both talking)
Hayek/ I agree! I agree!
Markus/ You know, because all of this stuff got moved, and it did cost us to move these things,
these businesses, right? And so now we're getting a piece of the action, you know, back
over and above that, based ... I mean, those businesses can't exist ... if Iowa City wasn't
here, those business... that many businesses couldn't exist there. They depend on our
people to support those businesses.
Hayek/ Anyway...
Botchway/ Yeah, Tom, I had a question about, um ... just some of the new things that we're
talking about, um, based on I guess the letter that you put in the budget packet. So, a lot
of the initiatives you're talking about as far as sustainability, as far as inclusivity, um,
those things we're looking at it from a LOST aspect as far as ... like that, LOST
generating the revenue and us possibly using, or finding initiatives or funding initiatives
from that part. Is there any, has there been any thought of...finding creative solutions in
our current budget structure for, you know, for example transportation infrastructure
with, um, you know, multi - purpose roads. Um, and where is that in the budget?
Markus/ Yeah, what I would say to you is for example we just recently, um, had a, you know,
kind of a gift check presented to us and, uh, the sustainability efforts aren't going away.
They're not dependent on creating another form of revenue. Um ... the sustainability
efforts are going to go forward, and I think those can be imposed through ordinances for
development purposes. I think they, you know, like ... what our ... our plan was, and it is
in the budget, is to convert all of our streetlights to LED. That will save us 30 %. The
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payback is three years to three and a half years; I'll have recovered all of my investment.
So, those types of issues and there's a fund that we've created in this budget so that when
we do save that money we roll it back to create more sustainable issues going forward.
But I think in terms of sustainability, we want Brenda involved in design of ordinances,
looking at those things as we move forward. So those things are going to happen. Um...
if I can't for example ... if I can't get to, um, LOST and get to some regional approach on
LOST, I'm going to have to return to more traditional forms of financing. What I look at
is ... matching resources, right? I ... I get what the Council wants to do, but I have to have
a resource to pay for it. So I'm always looking at, you know, different opportunities to
make these things work. I buy into the regional approach for... for affordable housing. In
fact, I'd buy into the regional approach on all sorts of levels that haven't been talked
about in this area. I think that there's, um, JECC, now that we finally have turned the
corner and I think people realize the benefits of that. I think that that can be the model
for all sorts of cooperative efforts in service delivery here, and so ... you know, they...
they don't all, you know, necessarily are identified in this document. Some of these will
evolve, but we got the strategic plan mission, you know, and ... and initiatives, and they
do drive a lot of what we do. So not everything is spelled out, uh, because some of it's
still evolving, but we are trying to get some big ideas out there and start to address some
of these issues. I just don't have the money to go out and start building hundreds of
houses for affordable housing. So I have to figure out where my revenue's coming to do
that sort of thing. So...
Fruin/ Can I chime in real quick?
Markus/ Sure!
Fruin/ Um, a... a couple of examples where we have sustainability and um... inclusivity, uh,
funds in the budget. So where we saw some opportunities we put some new funds in.
Um, and you'll hear about some of these more today and then on Monday. We have a
sustainability revolving loan fund that we've created and that will be proposed, um ... as
part of this budget. Uh, there was discussion at the Council strategic plan session about
enhancements to the micro -loan program at the CDBG level. We've included some
funding to do that. We don't know what that looks like right now but we expect that
there'll be some sustainability or inclusivity values injected into that based on your
discussions. Um, we have some additional funds to support, uh ... the Ad Hoc Diversity
Committee recommendations and support some community organizations. So we'll
touch on those as ... as departments present, and ... and as we talk about on Monday. The
other thing that we've talked about is how do you infuse existing programs with those
values, and ... and Tom's alluded to a couple of those with UniverCity, for example. If
sustainability is a ... is a key value for you, which it is now, how do we ... do we approach
UniverCity different, and do we invest more funds in ... in, uh, some of the elements that
may make those homes more sustainable. Um, we look at programs like our fayade
program, our building change, uh, programs. How can we inject, um, energy audits and
other components into those existing programs. So that's how we're approaching that.
There's some new, and then there's some modification of existing and we'll ... we'll try to
cover as much of it as we can.
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Throgmorton/ Geoff, the revolving loan fund, that you just referred to, does that apply only to
City operations? Yeah, that's what I thought. Okay.
Hayek/ Probably take a break pretty soon here. Um, I (several talking) That's okay! Did you
want ... should we do that now or do you want...
Markus/ Yeah, let's do it now.
Hayek/ (several talking) Before you ... I want to commend you, Tom, and everybody who was
part of this process, especially with respect to the transmittal letter, which I think is ... uh,
does an exceptional job of...of...of explaining the budget and explaining the broader
context in ... within which the budget's generated (noises in background) and ... and you
and Geoff and Dennis and Asha and Simon and the others who were involved in it
should... should be commended.
Markus/ Thank you. Lot of work that went into it. I ... I would just point out that we all hope to
have a ... a ... a more comprehensive document (noises in background) but there's some
...there were some pretty significant personnel changes that occurred throughout the
year, brand -new finance director, brand -new administrative analyst, and we had, uh, one
of our employees, uh, who's traditionally very involved in the budget, uh, suffer some
very serious health consequences. So ... I appreciate your understanding of those issues in
...in preparing this but uh, with Dennis moving forward, this will become more and more
refined and (mumbled) (coughing)
Hayek/ Let's take a break! (BREAK)
General Government Program Budgets (cont. later in mtg.):
Karr/ In order to play catch -up a little bit with the agenda, I think what we'll do is we'll have the
City Attorney, um, do her presentation and the other departments — the City Manager,
City Clerk, Finance are all here the rest of the day. So we can play catch -up as needed, or
at the end of the day, so as not to keep everyone backlogged the rest of the day.
Hayek/ Absolutely! That sounds great.
City Attorney.
Dilkes/ But I unfortunately have to leave. Um (several talking and laughing) um ... there's just
not a whole lot to my budget. You have to actually look at not only the City Attorney,
um, activity budget but also the tort liability budget because one of my assistants is
funded out of the tort levy. Um, so really there ... there are 6.6 full -time equivalents in
my, um... office of four City... Assistant City Attorneys.
Mims/ I was running through names and I'm like, wait a minute, there's not enough positions for
the number of names (laughs) so that...
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Dilkes/ Oh, right, right, it's in the tort liability section! (laughs) So ... and probably the only
other thing maybe of note is that, um ... that you'll note that the charge- backs, the amount
we charge out to other departments has gone down, and that's because , um, because
Eric's funded out of tort levy. He doesn't charge -back the, um, that litigation. So...
Hayek/ Right.
Dilkes/ And I can answer any other questions that you've got.
Dobyns/ So the rest of you do ... the rest of you do billable hours, is that sort of what you, when
you work for other departments (mumbled) in terms of...
Dilkes/ (clears throat) If it's a ... if it's a client that we can charge -back, then we bill them, and
...and those essentially are the enterprise funds — water, sewer, waste water, Airport —
um, they have their own sources of revenue and so we bill those departments. We also
charge -back urban renewal projects, so it's paid out of TIF ... if, if we've got a TIF
project, it's paid out of the TIF revenue, and we charge -back, um, capital improvement
projects, property acquisition. It's not ... it's just at our hourly, you know, our combined
salary and benefit rate.
Dobyns/ Yeah, no, I figured. I'm just ... but so eventually it passes (several talking and laughing)
So it's passed through, uh, from the enterprise zones like ... like, you know, the water...
Dilkes/ Yeah, the money comes (both talking) Right.
Dobyns/ ...Park and Rec fee, it's just included in that (mumbled)
Hayek/ Any questions for Eleanor? All right. Well, thanks, Eleanor. Your office always does
outstanding work and you know that.
Markus/ Next is the Police Department.
Police Department:
Hayek/ That's page 29 of the department summaries.
Hargadine/ Morning, Mr. Mayor, Council, and Happy New Year! (several responding) My, uh
...our 2014 budget request is for $12,819,000, and what that is, urn ... made up of is 105
total full -time employees. Our present authorized sworn officer strength is 82, and last
year at this time we had four attending the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy. In contrast
this year, we will be swearing in our newest officer on the 9th, and he'll be attending
ILEA on the 13th. So we've got, uh, of the four that attended last year, all are out of
training and on the street. We are at, uh, 81 as of today. In a couple days we'll be back
to full at 82. (clears throat) Out of the 82 sworn positions, 66 are officers (noise on mic)
16 are of rank. They ... the ranking officers are one chief, nine sergeants, four lieutenants,
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and two captains. Just as a side note, of those two cabinet... captains, um, I was just, um,
informed by one of `em that he intends to retire in the ... in the next couple of months, so
that will be, um, that will be a ... a change. Uh, we've ... we've enjoyed very low turnover,
uh, both, uh, at all ranks within the department, especially administration. So, that's
something that will be, uh, changing in the near future. Sixty -three are assigned to patrol,
and ten are assigned to investigations. Of those ten, uh, one is a domestic violence
investigator, and one is assigned to the Johnson County Drug Task Force. We have five
sworn in administration, one in records, and three in crime prevention. (mumbled) the
82. The PD has 17 total civilians and ... the Animal Shelter has six. The Animal Shelter
is in our budget, as well. Four of our positions are partially grant funded. Historically we
have sought after federal domestic violence grant funding, and presently the feds pay
41 % of one investigative position. We also have a history of applying for and receiving a
grant funded drug and narcotics task force officer. This position is presently funded 53%
by the federal and state government. Two brand new positions are in the works, we
asked for last year. Uh, both funded partially by the federal government and one partially
funded by the Iowa City Downtown District. The downtown foot patrol officer was
funded in this ... in this first year, 75% by the federal government, 7% funded by the
Downtown District, and 18% funded by the City. The second new officer is also funded
by the 75% federal formula and 25% by the City. This officer will be in response to the
neighborhood stabilization strategic plan, and will work specifically with and for the
neighborhoods. Uh, the officer is based out of the Pepperwood substation, along with the
crime prevention officer. (clears throat) We are in the third year of fully funding the
Pepperwood Plaza substation. I hear anecdotal information regularly about how positive
that program and the presence is received. The downtown officer has been very
successful at ... uh, it's been a successful exercise in community policing. In partnership
with the Downtown Associa ... Association, I think we've met and exceeded all
expectations with that particular officer. Likewise the neighborhood response officer has
been successful. And then the next year should be even more so. We had 130 civil
citations issued, either by the PD or by Housing Inspection, which is average. We're not
up or down. This past year, the Council was asked to tweak the ordinance regarding
rental housing were ... where the occupants refuse to come to the door. Three cases
actually made it to court. Two pled at the last minute, and one went to full trial, and the
City prevailed. The ordinance was challenged and upheld. Lastly, I wanted to highlight
the recent success of our cold case investigator. In 1997, Francis Bloomfield was
murdered in her own home and found bound and strangled in an Illinois ditch. The case
was investigated thoroughly by numerous agencies back in 1997, but a case could not be
made. I need to insert the caveat that everyone is innocent until proven guilty. Through
the relentless efforts, uh, which spanned about four years, an arrest warrant was obtained,
an arrest made, and a person is being held to answer for that particular crime. Um, those
are the highlights of our ... of our year and our, um, some of our challenges for next. And
at this point I would be willing to entertain any questions!
Dobyns/ Sam, you said the technology challenge, is that primarily the, uh, the FBI requirement?
Hargadine/ That's one of `em.
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Dobyns/ (mumbled) ... software?
Hargadine/ They are going to a system of redundant security, um ... so that is one of `em. So that
...that is one of `em. We also have, urn ... challenges as far as getting our information
out, uh, tweeting the whole, you know, Facebook. Is Facebook really a thing of the past,
um, these are issues that we're working with the City Communications and urn ... there...
there are some things ... what is ... what is the best way to get, you know, information out
and one of our challenges there is we can be fast but we're not always accurate. Uh, you
know, do we slow things down. And uh ... uh, we've got some room for improvement
there but, uh ... those are the things that we have in mind.
Hayek/ What's your sense of, uh ... of crime rates ... tr ... trending, I mean, are we ... are we...
seeing about what we've seen in recent years. Is it going up, going down? Population's
Increasing.
Hargadine/ I think compared to the rest of the nation we've always had a phenomenal, uh,
success rate, even when we ... we almost have a non - existent homicide rate, um... but that
changes from time -to -time. It ... it cycles. Um ... compared to Iowa, compared to the rest
of the nation, I think we stand well above, um, but that's, uh, we ... we will always have
some of the nuisance crimes, um ... at any given time there's someone breaking into a car
and stealing things out of it. Um, but I think of our most serious crimes, the ones that
make the front page, I think we're down.
Hayek/ Down.
Dobyns/ Speaking of infra... infrastructure (mumbled) I mean, how well are we doing at keeping
up the fleet of cars? I mean, how many ... like what percentage of the cars are we ... do we
have to replace on a yearly basis and...
Hargadine/ We have a, uh, we don't do it quite that way. Uh, we predict, um ... right now we
hold on to a car for 70,000 miles. And the service building is pretty good at predicting
ahead of schedule when a vehicle's going to hit ... hit that ... that mark. And so, they may
predict five cars one year and maybe ten cars, whatever, uh, cause they're able to track
how much that particular vehicle is driven. They also track, um ... is this getting the
appropriate gas mileage, all of that stuff is fed into the computer.
Dobyns/ So we do a good job of budgeting that and paying as we go?
Hargadine/ I really do like the way Iowa City does it (both talking)
Markus/ Actually what we have is what's referred to as an `equipment replacement fund.' Its
category is referred to as an internal service fund, and so what happens is, we have a
complete inventory of the fleet vehicles, and so the moment we buy a vehicle, we assign
an amortization cost. What's the expected life, and then we charge rent for that vehicle
back to the department, so the department, as we're going forward, is paying for the use
of that vehicle every year, based on the expected life of that equipment, and so by the
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time it's ready to be replaced, we have enough money in that fund to purchase the
vehicle. That's how our system is set up. So it's ... the advantage of that system, and it's
...and it's a system that most sophisticated cities use, is that it smoothes out the cost,
okay? It runs that cost so it's even. So you don't blip up and buy 20 vehicles in one year
and the next year you drop down and buy five. The fund actually stabilizes all of your
costs so ... um, it's ... and you know, that ... and that takes into consideration, um, the sale
price of the used vehicle and we roll that back in there and so it's a pretty sophisticated
system, but it's a very ... it's a ... it's a system that like I say, most sophisticated cities are
on.
Dobyns/ Well I saw there was (mumbled) so I just wondered if there was a blip, but it sounds
like we've taken care of it.
Hargadine/ We have, uh...
Dobyns/ Okay.
Hargadine/ ...as most are aware, the Ford ... quit making the Crown Victoria police interceptor
that was by far the best car ever made for ... for this particular use (laughter) um...
Markus/ We'll sell you one when we're done! (laughter)
Hargadine/ A lot of ours are, uh, it's gotta be a four -door sedan, you know, usually rear -wheel
drive and a V -8 and that's what ... why the Crown Vic was such a good car. But, they've
quit making them so, um, we've ... we experimented. We bought two Tahoes, um, they're
fine year -round with the exception of when the weather's like this; they are awful on
snow. And um ... Ford makes two different police package vehicles, one's an SUV. The
other one's a ... a smaller vehicle, and you'll start seeing a lot more of the ... the Ford
SUVs. And I think it's consistent with what our neighbors are all doing as well.
Everybody's sort of...we've gone through the testing phase and the, uh, Ford SUV is
going to be the winner.
Dobyns/ An SUV?
Markus/ Actually they make, um, police pursuit SUV vehicles. Some are 4 -by and some are 2-
by, and they're... they're designed as police vehicles. So...
Hayek/ Other questions for the Chief? Okay! Thank you, sir.
Hargadine/ Thank you! (several responding)
Fire Department:
Hayek/ Next up is Fire, I believe. Welcome, Chief!
Grier/ Morning!
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Markus/ Morning, John.
Grier/ How's everybody doing? (several responding) Oh, better than the last time I stood before
you (laughter) If I could take ten seconds and thank my wife Hillary for getting me
where I was cause I don't know if anybody else noticed, but I did forget to mention her!
(laughter) And I've heard about it for four months! (laughter) And, wouldn't have
gotten here without her assistance.
Karr/ (both talking) ...four years is not going to make (laughter and several talking)
Grier/ I looked at her a lot, but I just never said her name so ... (laughter)
Dobyns/ Yeah, welcome out of the dog house... (laughter)
Hayek/ Let us know when that happens! (laugher)
Grier/ I don't anticipate it any time soon! Uh...
Karr/ Fire Department's on page 36!
Grier/ Pleasure to be here, uh, thank you for the opportunity. (mumbled) was certainly helpful as
to what I'm supposed to do, but uh, certainly the Fire Department is happy to serve the
citizens from our four fire stations. Hopefully you've been around to, uh, visit them.
Sixty -four full -time equivalent positions. Uh, a fire chief, a deputy chief, four battalion
chiefs, one of those battalion chiefs is assigned as the fire marshal. Three battalion chiefs
on duty, three captains, a training officer is a lieutenant — 12 lieutenants and 42 fire...
firefighters. Minimum shift is 20. Minimum on -duty at any one time is 16 firefighters.
Uh ... we've got the divisions of fire administration, emergency operations, fire
prevention, and fire training, and that's how our budget is kind of broken out. So that's
why you ... you see a, one of the BCs is stuck under Administration and that's just how
our budget works out, but I can kind of highlight our areas for you as to what we've done
over the last, uh, year, so we did get reaccredited from the, uh, Commission on Fire
Accreditation International, so we're reaccredited for another five years. What the
reaccred ... reaccreditation process does for us, it gives us an opportunity to really
examine what we do, how we do it, compared to what other fire departments across the
nation do — across the world actually. So we're one of, I think, 178 fire departments that
are accredited. And to our credit, a number of our staff serve as assessors and go out to
see how other fire departments are doing it. I was just in Toledo and we're doing great,
you know! It's nice to see a different way of doing it and bring back some ideas, and I
did come up with some things from that. Uh ... as far as our administrative staff, we have
two recent graduates of the Executive Fire Officer Program and then we have two more
that are currently enrolled and moving through that. Something that we're struggling
with is succession planning. We have a battalion chief that's due to retire here in a few
months, so we've, uh, instituted some officer training and succession planning in the Fire
Department, but we will continue to work on that and tweak that as we go forward. Uh,
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emergency operations, we're busy, uh, over the past ... 24% raise over the last five years
of responses. Uh, we're over 5,500. We're tweaking the final numbers. These are kind
of, uh, numbers that the computer spits out, but sometimes things get double- booked or
get changed so we're at 5,500 at least. Two hundred and four of those would be
considered fire emergencies. Our biggest loss was a secondary roads fire. Uh ... we're
continuing to have simultaneous calls, but it has decreased from 25% to 22 %. And part
of that I think is from our response methodologies that we've looked at. How do we
better serve our citizens? Instead of running four apparatus on a false alarm, we will run
one engine to that alarm. Looking at our numbers, we found that false alarms, .004 %, is
when we actually had something. So if multiple devices are activated or somebody calls
and says, `I smell smoke,' something like that, we would send a regular structure
response, but we're just looking at ways to streamline what we're doing. EMS, we're
continuing to, uh, train our, uh, professionals. We are now carrying glucometers that
you'd be surprised at how much paperwork it takes to carry a glucometer on a fire
engine, uh (laughter) but now we can do a blood sugar check before the ambulance gets
there. We do have 12 paramedics on staff. We don't function as paramedics at the
present, but we do have 12 paramedics on staff, and I think as we continue to move
forward with our firefighter testing, I think we're going to find people applying or having
training that we're desiring before they even get here. Uh ... we're developing and
continuing to foster relationships. We work with West Branch and Coralville on I -80
responses with the lack of crossovers now. We get dually dispatched by the JECC, and
that ... that's working out really well. Uh, we are working with the County Emergency
Management. We have some personnel on the dive team. And now we're examining the
opportunity to put somebody on the urban search and rescue team in Cedar Rapids, so...
that's how we're continuing to, uh, I guess work with partnerships and get the best bang
for our buck. Those opportunities ... these provide us the opportunity to get training that
is often funded by another source, so that ... that helps us. Fire prevention, we continue to
reach out and get in the community as much as possible. After doing that job for seven
years, I certainly will not see any changes in that. I will make sure that that continues.
Uh, we have a great relationship with the School District. We have a great relationship
with the University. We have pretty much a great relationship with all community
groups that like to see the firefighters come out. We did purchase that inflatable fire
safety house and that allows us to go inside in the winter. We can inflate that inside of a
school gym, uh, just take it just about anywhere. It's ... it's very popular! Fire training
continues to be, uh, an issue for us, just the amount of training required to keep up all the
levels of certification, but we have a, uh, a battalion chief that's in charge of training, and
a training officer who's dedicated to making sure that happens, and that's what ... that's
what we're doing. Our training officer is also looking forward to retirement here in the
near future, so that'll be something that we're concerned about, making sure that we get
the right fit of person to make sure that we continue to have a sustainable training
program. We are working with the local groups with our fire cadet program. We are
partnering with the School District. We will be starting that in the spring ... we're looking
at kind of a trial run this first time through. Working with, uh, guidance counselors to
help select the group of students that would come. It's going to be a minimum of 12
weeks programming and it ... I think it has the potential to really, really help us get our
name out in the community, help us with diversity, uh ... just kind of put a good spin on
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what we do and let somebody go back and talk about ... what the City and the Fire
Department are doing. A long -term planning issue for us obviously is the training center
relocation with the, uh, relocation of the ... the development down in the north waste
water. Something that's on our radar. We're looking at, uh, ways to, uh, do some
training locally, but also utilize the regional ... the training center that the City Manager
talked about. We can use that training center to do burning and uh ... any type of training
that involves more chemical type things, but we wouldn't do that in a residential or a
rental area in town. We'll kind of have to figure that out as we go but ... uh, the regional
training center was developed for that purpose, and I think we can ... we can make it work
for that. Some of the things that we did to help with our costs, we've revamped our
replacement schedule also for our vehicles. We went from a seven frontline, seven
reserve to a nine frontline, seven reserve. So that's kind of pushed things out a little bit
for us and uh ... I think we'll ... we've developed a good evaluation tool to ... if the vehicles
are okay, we'll probably push `em out a little further, but ... that's kind of what's on our
radar right now, and if you had any questions, I'd be happy to answer `em!
Dobyns/ John, you're anticipating a senior management retire. Uh, where is that on the, uh, grid
up there?
Grier/ The training equipment battalion chief is due to retire at the end of February.
Dobyns/ Now, um, and I think Sam also had a senior retirement, uh, coming up. And I'm just
thinking in terms of what Tom mentioned before about flattening at administrative levels.
And I'm not sure if you ... if that was within safety as well, but is the anticipation that we
would allow these to attrit, um, and flatten the administrative capacity of the safety
departments or not?
Markus/ Well, um ... actually this is a question that's been brought up at the Council table before
and there seems to be, um ... more contemporary management of departments is to flatten
the organizations and the people closest to the people delivering the services are
empowered to make more of the decisions, and get rid of some of the verticality in that.
Um...
Dobyns/ So...
Markus/ ...there are ... to get to the specific answer, we look at every position, um, and whether
we would keep that in that particular position or shift that to another category has not
been decided yet. Um, in fact, John and Geoff and I have had this conversation, and John
is currently evaluating that. What I try to do is get the departments to buy into this
concept and have them look at their organization and see how it fits. Um, police
departments, fire departments, um, are sometimes burdened with traditional, um,
organizations and behavior patterns, and so to try and get them to move to another level,
you know, I present the issue to `em and let them think it through and then we have the
discussion. So, without telling you specifically where we're going with these positions,
all of these positions are subject to that kind of scrutiny before they'll either get filled or
they get changed.
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Dobyns/ And to be clear, you know, I mean, if we had considered a sales tax, um, where are the
people who sell that to the community? And I think there's an obligation to ask these,
you know, I guess tough questions...
Mims/ Sure.
Dobyns/ ... is that before we ask for tax money, we have to say, well, what have you done to, you
know, lower the services that may not need to be provided. And I just think we need to
be ... pay attention to these things. These are new things I think we need to ... we need to
ask these questions a little bit harder than we have in the past. So... (several talking)
Markus/ ...and I think that's why, for example, more specific to that training issue and the
training tower, uh, Coralville built a facility under the guise of a regional facility some
time ago. And (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) we continue to maintain these
separations and, you know, just like the connect five decision that this Council had to
make, this is another one of those decisions that ... maybe we have to show leadership in
saying, okay, they're the smaller community, but you know if...if we're going to really
move towards a more regional model of service delivery, maybe we need to take a chance
and work with that system and see if we can't make it work before we run down the path
of creating a huge capital improvement (mumbled). Maybe we build something that's
more specific to the need in terms of training classroom, but not a burn facility or not a
drafting pit, um, that you would have in a traditional training center so ... I've asked John
all those things and I ... and I'm very pleased with the way John responds to these things.
He's very open to `em. Um, and he, you know, he has the ear of his people and so we're
trying to evolve that conversation without a confrontation kind of approach. Uh, I don't
dictate to him. I ... I challenge them to think a little differently than what they might of
traditionally. So ... I think we are moving in those directions. The ... the, you know, the
problem is ... when you get into these discussions, um, you either wait for the crisis and
the crisis is not the time to be dealing with reorganization, streamlining and sophistication
of the system. The time is before the crisis happens, because it gives you more flexibility
and the organization can adjust outside of a crisis mode and so that's the challenge to
John, that's the challenge to Sam, and Sam and I have had this conversation about some
future changes in their operation, as well, so ... every one of these jobs get looked at. Ask
any of the staff. They've all been up in the office. We've had these conversations
(laughs) every time. So ... where that turns out hasn't been decided yet.
Hayek/ You know, John, uh, a question I have asked in ... in previous budget sessions when the
Fire Department comes up has to do with, and I'll ask again (laughs) um, has to do with
volunteers, uh, and urn ... and you know, I've just noticed on my time on Council you
know, for example, Coralville has, uh, almost an entirely volunteer based system, um,
and ...and it's a smaller community but, you know, their commercial sector is big enough
to ... to create a sales tax equal to Iowa City's, and they've got an ISO rating, I think,
equal to ours.
Grier/ They do.
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Hayek/ Um ... and ... and I know there are challenges in ... in incorporating some, you know, of
volunteer regiment or auxiliary or whatever but ... you know, is this at the kind of
conversation that ... that happens, or that is happening where we ... where we're thinking
about something like that, as a cost - saving measure, um, going forward. It's always
peaked my interest I guess...
Grier/ I think that's always out there and I know part of the hiring process that was one of the
questions, and certainly open to looking at all different aspects of fire service. I think the
issue that we run into with, uh, kind of trying to mesh and make ... make it work for Iowa
City is the dedication of those people to shift, you know, signing up for times and those
sorts of things. With our accreditation process, we're out ... we're certainly into ... we
have to have so many people on the fire ground within so many minutes. And that's the
national standard, and it's ... comes down to, what's the safety level or what's the risk
level that you want to assume, so I think that's kind of the starting point and then we take
our marching orders, say, okay what can we do to make that work. I think it does work in
some communities across the nation and it works horribly in some communities across
the nation. So ... given the mandate it ... I examine everything and try to come up with the
best plan for what we have here in Iowa City, so I don't think that it's ever totally gone. I
think it's something to continue to look at and consider, but there'd have to be some
major buy -in, I think, in the whole corridor, and I think we work really well with the
corridor. You know, we have people with the, uh, hazardous materials team. We kind of
head that up (mumbled) but that's a whole coalition of people and uh, just working
together with all the public safety, I mean, it's out there and I'd certainly look at whatever
you'd ask me to look at.
Markus/ Let me lay just ... add a little commentary here. I think the numbers approach 70% of
the firefighters that work for the City of Iowa City do not live in the City of Iowa City.
And ... and I say that for a couple reasons. I don't say that to ... to diminish the department
or the personnel that works there, but I say that because a lot of times when I deal with
public employee issues in this community, I get push -back that these are (coughing,
unable to hear speaker) jobs and we have to be very careful about maintaining these jobs.
Well, I would say to you that ... I buy into that but I would like to see a better residency of
our employees in our jurisdiction. Now I'll expand on that a little bit. And it goes to this
volunteer issue. A number of our firefighters serve, John, as volunteers on volunteer
departments.
Grier/ In their... communities.
Markus/ In their place of residence (several talking) Okay, and they're elevated. So they've
taken a lot of the training that we've provided and utilized that in these other
jurisdictions. The next point I would make to you is that when we have a mutual aid
situation, they're likely to come back on a call -back. They're not likely to come back on
a mutual aid volunteer. Is that right, John?
Grier/ Uh, I ... I could see it happening both ways. Yes.
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Hayek/ So what does that mean?
Markus/ What that means is I'm paying ... our people to come back when he has a call -back,
okay?
Mims/ So in other words Coralville is short a volunteer fire department person because instead of
volunteering for Coralville when they're not on duty Iowa City, if we have a mutual aid,
they're coming back here and getting paid. So now, theoretically, Coralville needs even
more of our services because their volunteers are coming back here to work?
Markus/ That's a perspective. Here's my perspective. When I go out for mutual aid and I try to
bring people back into our community, there's probably as much likelihood that I'm
bringing back an officer that I'm paying on a call -back basis, rather than having that
department send that very person back on a mutual aid basis. Is that right, John?
Grier/ I tell ya, we've seen it happen both ways over the years, yes.
Markus/ He's ... he's being very PC about (laughter)
Grier/ It is my first time! (laughter)
Markus/ And ... and, John, I...I'm a believer that if you can get to 95% facts, most people can
understand the issue, and most people kind of agree once you know what the facts are.
So, the ... the point I would make is having the sole full -time department in Johnson
County is of great benefit to our neighbors, at great cost to us! Because we provide
significant amounts of training, okay? We provide a mutual aid situation where we're
sending in full -time professional firefighters into that environment, which allows them to
some degree, to continue to be volunteer, okay? Because they do have us as the backup,
and ... and that's the point I try to make. To me I look at try to being equitable when I get
into the competition argument, and I think we're as a community being very generous to
our neighbors by providing that service and the equipment, through the mutual aid
process, and the reciprocation is not at the same level, and at times it's our people coming
back on call -back that I'm paying for! That's the point I'm trying to make to you. So,
you have to think about those things in the grand mix of how we provide our services. I
don't know any easy way out of it, but I think it's something we all want to know in
terms of the factual relationship of service delivery in that area. The other thing John and
I have talked about, John's a paramedic. Um, John's worked for, uh, the Johnson County
EMS, and one of the things that John and I talked about in the interview process when we
selected John was, what's the relationship between EMS and the fire service? Where I
come from, paramedics, EMS are a part of the fire service. Right? EMS is now
approaching John and saying is there some way to use the stations. My reaction to that is
I want to see more of that collaboration rather than less. I think that's healthy. You
know, you get into the argument through Coralville where they were charging `em rent to
be housed there, and you know, that gets kind of argumentable but the reality is...
however we can enhance services through collaboration and reduce our costs, I'm all
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about that. I'm supportive of that. Regardless of the politics, regardless of the snipping
back and forth, that doesn't bother me. The ... the bigger point is, how do we make this
stuff work better, and control our costs, and I think we have those opportunities. It's
again about this whole regional collaboration. JECC is going to become the model of
excellence for cooperation, and I think that we can spin that off into other areas. Law
enforcement's a natural. Fire and ambulance service is a natural, as well.
Dickens/ That was my question, that we built ... when we built Station #4, they were to house
EMS services, and that never happened. That seems like a really good way, a regional
...especially I live on north Dodge Street and I see the number of EMS vehicles that are
coming from central downtown that have to go by.
Grier/ Sure!
Dickens/ ...to go out to the interstate, that it just seems like time and money and everything
could be saved by ... working that into the system.
Grier/ I think more EMS into our services has to be the future. If we have a paramedic on the
east side of town that can be there four minutes before the ambulance can, why shouldn't
I be able to start an IV and give you the drugs you need. (several responding) And I
think that's the conversation that we'll continue to have as we go forward, and
collaborating with Johnson County Ambulance to make it a better service is, you know,
my desire, you know. I know that service, I know those people, and I think we'd work
well together.
Markus/ And ... and in the case of our fire service, we have a lot of paramedics already there. I
can tell you... (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) where you see paramedic fire service,
well over 60% of their calls tend to be paramedic responses. And you know, we've...
we've constantly heard in this community about every time there's a call, there's a parade
it seems like cause we had the fire and the police and the fire trucks all showing up. With
this kind of approach, with this kind of collaboration, we can get to the point where it's a
much more efficient response in terms of those things, and I think sometimes it takes
baby steps. You've gotta crawl before you walk. And maybe what we do is interject
some of these uses into our facilities. We develop the relationship. We build the
relationship. And that manifests something into more like a JECC type of program, but
we do it through relationship building, by sharing facilities, equipment, personnel on
occasion, and I think we'll get there.
Botchway/ Well speaking about some of those efficiencies, like for... and maybe this has
happened prior to me coming here, for JECC as being such a successful program, is there
any, you know, uh, way of looking at it in a numerical sense of cost savings that has
happened because of it. You talked about some of the streamlining that's been going on
as far as, you know, not having those crossed calls, but is it kind of quantified anywhere
that I can see or the public can see that this is, you know, reducing costs on a 2 %, 3%
level, you know, as the years go by, as JECC is becoming more and more successful, um,
with, you know, the different cities that coordinating.
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Grier/ I think that part of the things that the JECC has done is really getting the right people at
the right place. That's why I think that's going to help with the cost savings, and I think
some of the things that we've done, you know, I talked about the ... the false alarm issue,
to kind of build on that thinking. If I send the least amount of people I have to, then I
have more people to do other things, to get my simultaneous calls down, that percent
down; less miles on all the, on the apparatus, all those different things. I think the
collaborative effort that the JECC group has come up with has really opened the door to
at least talking about the things that I think you're talking about.
Markus/ But I ... but I would tell you, Kingsley, when, and I've studied the history, when they
went to JECC, cost savings wasn't... wasn't one of the priorities to come out of JECC.
Botchway/ Okay.
Markus/ It was, you know, recognizing the equipment purchases and the ability to cross -
communicate, cause we have all of these different departments working together. So cost
savings wasn't the issue, but I would tell you is, I think that cost avoidance has become
one of the hallmarks of the organization, because, you know, the equipment turns over
every five to ten years. You gotta have new transmission equipment. So instead of
buying five, six base stations, now we're buying one. And so ... and I think what we've
done is we've avoided increases that would have gone on, so in effect that is a cost
savings, but I can tell you historically that wasn't one of the objectives. And ... usually
when you get into these issues like in the case of here in Iowa City, you know, you get rid
of the radio operations. Well, that doesn't mean you get to get rid of all of the personnel
in the local facility, because what you have is what's typically referred to as a `safe
harbor.' You have to have people in that building so that if somebody, you know, is
distraught and has a problem, comes in, you have to have a face there! You have to have
somebody there that can communicate with the police officers to get `em in, um, so that
still happens. This is a safe harbor, and so you're not necessarily just taking five radio
operators that used to be in Iowa City, moving `em over to JECC and getting that cost off
our books. We shifted personnel and they call 'em ... what's the name for the people that
we have in here? Uh, something masters...
(male)/ Station masters.
Markus/ Station masters. So the station masters are at a lower level of pay, but you still need to
backfill that because of that safe harbor situation. Lot of places, you know, if they're
small enough, they have the blue light. So they go in and you know they can pick up a
phone and they can call, and they call dispatch. Dispatch calls an officer, and the officer
comes in. We have the volume where I think you do need the station master... master
approach. So that diminishes the cost savings, but I would tell you, Kingsley, it's still a
much more efficient and it's a better service at the end of the day, cause we can talk to all
of the people and keep it all coordinated.
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Botchway/ I think it goes ... I mean, one of the reasons I brought it up as well is kind of going
back to Rick's point that in order to sell, you know, something like LOST, it would be
important to have those type of numbers to say, you know, hey, here are the cost savings
that we're doing on a regular basis, um, just so you know ... type of thing, and then know
we talked about ... I know Susan brought it up during the strategic planning session, as
well, of I understand Iowa, you know, doesn't have the mentality of bragging; however,
you know, as we continue to have questions, as we continually, you know, seek to do
more things, I think it's necessary for people to understand the services that they're
getting with living in Iowa City, as a way of attracting more people here and, you know,
better people here, so (several talking)
Hayek/ Good point!
Markus/ Thanks, John!
Hayek/ Okay. John appreciate it!
Mims/ Thank you (several talking)
Hayek/ Get out of that dog house! (laughter)
Karr/ Page 45. (several talking)
Housing & Inspection Services (pg. 45):
Hayek/ Morning, Doug!
Boothroy/ Good morning.
Markus/ I've given you a big build -up; now don't let me down! (laughter)
Boothroy/ I caught that! (laughter) Sorry to disappoint! Let me start with just a ... a brief
explanation of the organization of Housing Inspection Services, the department. Uh, we
have three divisions as you noticed, uh, I guess it's up there, uh, the Housing Authority,
Building Inspection, um, and Rental Housing Inspection. Uh, the Building Inspection
Division's, uh, function is to review all new construction plans, site plans, building plans,
uh, and to enforce life safety codes in new construction, as well as any zoning
requirements that come with the site plan review process. The rental housing inspection
program, uh, is, uh ... uh .... a two -year regular inspection, systematic inspection of all non -
owner- occupied or what we call rental property in Iowa City. They're all required to be
licensed. They all have a permit. Uh, and primarily they ... it's a maintenance as well as,
uh, life safety. And it's on existing construction — it's not on new construction. And then
the Housing Authority, uh, is, uh ... as we talked earlier, is a program that, uh, administers
the Section 8 voucher, as well as public housing. Uh, and we do have some other types
of affordable housing initiatives like FSS. Uh, we have ... we've done some, um,
affordable housing, homeownership programs as well with the ... under that particular
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division. One of the things that I want to, uh, highlight before I get into the specifics of
each division, is that over the years, uh, the department of Housing Inspection Services
has, uh, the goal and has maintained the capability of being, uh, supported, uh, entirely by
our permitting fees, or in the case of the Housing Authority, uh, through the federal
dollars that we receive for the administration of the Section 8 program, uh, or the
operating subsidy in the rents that we receive from public housing. So, we ... we basically
are ... are self - sustaining with regard to, um, the income that we bring in to ... to meet the
expenditures of primarily staffing, and in the case of inspections, au ... automobiles and
other kinds of things that ... that we have, that we needed for our ... our, uh, operations.
One of the things I would give you a heads -up on is that it's been three or four years now
since we've raised the, uh, rental permit inspection fees. So, we'll be looking at that very
carefully next year. Uh, it's quite likely that, uh, this time next year in the budget there
may be approximately a 5% increase in our rental inspection fees, uh, in order for us to
keep ... keep pace with our ... our costs. Um, I ... we've tried to keep that at about 5% or
less over the last few times. Uh, we got behind a few years ago and we were looking at
one time it was a 50 %; one time it was a 20 %. I can tell you by experience, uh, in
working with apartment owners, it's a very difficult amount to, uh, accept, and so, you
know, I strongly recommend if we get into this situation next year that we try to keep
those fees in balance and that we're looking at something like a 5% or less than
something that ... much greater. Any questions about the fees ... before I move on? So,
let's talk about the Building Inspection Division and some... some things, uh, that Tom,
uh, kind of touched upon in his presentation. One of the things that I wanted to mention
is that this is, uh, we're going to have very positive news about, uh, the type of ..of, uh,
construction activity that we've had in this community. Uh, this year, uh, the value of
construction that we reviewed for permits, uh, was at its highest level ever, uh, it was at
$184.8 million. Um, that is a significant accomplishment. We've never got to that level.
Last year it was around $169 million, uh, and, uh ... um, I don't know that we can meet
that level next year, but it...it says a lot about the community and what's happening. Of
course we have Park 201. Uh, we've got Oaknoll. We've got, uh, number of other
projects going on, um, even Hawkeye, um ... Ridge or Hawkeye Court that's going on...
on Melrose Avenue. All of these things, uh ... uh, we're ... we're involved with inspecting,
uh, and so not only do we have ... a great more value, uh, and a lot more economic
development, uh ... uh, happening in the community and we should all pat ourselves on
the back for us. Uh, we also have a great deal more, uh, work that the inspectors are...
are ... are doing. Um, last year, uh ... uh, through attrition we reduced the number of
inspectors, uh, in the Building Division by one and a half positions and there was some
concern raised at that time that... reducing those... those... the number of inspectors would
result in a lower, um, customer service response with regard to plan reviews, with regard
to getting out in the field to do the inspections, and so forth. Uh, in tandem with that
reduction, uh, we also introduced last year, uh, a, uh, software to, uh, automate and
streamline our operations, uh, with regard to plan review and uh, building permits
submission. That ... that software's called Project Docs. They both went into effect, uh,
late last spring, uh, and uh, what I'm here to tell you is that, uh, through Project Docs we
were successful in handling the higher level of workload. Uh, we are now getting to a
point where we ... since July anyway, we've processed about 140, uh, projects, totally
electronically and what that means is that, uh, it's a more paperless environment than we
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had before. It's also more convenient environment for contractors to work with us, and it
also has made the inspectors' jobs easier in the field, uh, as well as the plan review
process to be more accurate and to happen more quickly. So currently, uh, when you
submit building plans, whether it's a single - family house, uh, or a Park 201, which is a
very ... a high -rise project. You can chose to submit it electronically online, uh, all the
documentation come into the City. Uh, we review it electronically. We can ... we can
send our inspection notes back to you. You can make corrections electronically and
resubmit those to us. We can ... we can approve the plans electronically and then you can
pay for all of that online. You don't have to come down to the City. You don't have to
make trips to the City, unless for some reason there's something that you need to talk to
us about. The ... the traffic to our front counter has ... has been reduced significantly. We
don't have people dropping off plans. We don't have people picking up plans. Uh, that
...that has helped our, uh, workload within the office, uh, the plans are all electronic.
They're stored in laserfiche. They're in a .pdf format. Uh, they're available now, uh, the
complete set of plans, uh, are available now in the field to the building inspectors. For
example, at Park 201, the set of plans was about this round. Uh, it's a lot different when
it's on a laptop and you can ... you can go right to the page that you need for that
inspection. So, all of that stuff has helped us, uh, maintain our current service level with,
uh, actually it ... we grew our current service level cause our workload grew, and we still,
uh, were able to do it with one and a half less building inspectors and then there's the
environmental impact of that, as well. We are looking at, uh, if you were down in our file
room, we have one wall that we have just all tubes for ... for large plans. We're ... we're
going to be getting rid of two of those stacks immediately. The other two should
disappear next year, and we have about, uh, 20 file ... eh, I don't remember how many,
about ... close to 20 filing cabinets in there and we're going to be having a conversation
about getting rid of most of those in the next year or two. Uh, so it's paperless, we're
saving trees, we're saving transportation to and from the Civic Center, and the mess used
to make to, uh, half a dozen trips to our office on a daily basis, uh, almost felt that they
worked for the City at one point because they were always in the office. I haven't seen
them for a long time now. (laughter) Uh, and ... and so ... we have that benefit of...of...
of having a... a... access to our services 24/7, uh, and... and they can do this, uh .... uh, in a
way that is cheaper because they don't have ... they were ... they were developing those
plans electronically and then they were reducing them to paper and then they were
collating them, then they were bringing them down to us, then we were marking them up
and then we were handing them back and then they were reproducing them again and...
we don't have any of that stuff going on, and every time you handle paper and every time
you move it around and every time you file it and every time you do something with it,
uh, it takes time. And so we've gained in that ... in that sense. Now ... uh, next year, uh,
the fact that we're actually.... this is 2014, excuse me (laughter) For a moment, uh, I was
still in 2013. Uh, in 2014, uh, in February of this year, uh, we're going to be training two
more people in IT, uh, on our workflow processes for Project Docs and the purpose of
that training is, uh, to allow us to begin to develop some additional workflows. Right
now we do building and site plan review through the electronic plan, uh, review and
submittal process. We're going to be developing a workflow for subdivision review and
rezoning, uh, and we'll do that in- house. We have that ... and we'll have that capability of
doing that, uh, and purpose of...of Project Docs was not just, uh, increasing the
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convenience to the public and making it cheaper for them to do business with us and
making it easier for us to do our jobs, as well, uh, it was also a ... a platform for intra-
departmental collaboration because we all use the same system and it's ... and we review
from the same, uh, source and so, uh, we've had some of that occur now because with
site plan review we have planning and engineering, uh, access to Project Docs and
they've already learned how that works, and they've began to use it. Uh, clearly with I
think the unification of both departments, uh, that collaboration will be just, uh, enhanced
and facilitated more because, uh, it will all be within one department and we will all be
looking at that system, uh, with one lens and accepting it in the same way. So ... that's....
that part of...of that expansion of Project Docs will occur in the summer probably, uh, by
the time we get, um, you know, get the training done and get the ... and get started. Uh, I
don't think the ramp up on that (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) take as long because,
uh, consulting firms like MMS are already doing site plan reviews. They know how the
system works. They know how to use it. They know how to submit, and they know how
to manipulate the tools. So ... and when we moved to this next level since they do almost
all of the subdivision work or ... or 90% of it, we've got them, A ... uh, trained already,
uh, what we'll need to do is train staff, uh, City staff, in terms of how that ... that works
with a different type of workflow process. Uh, any questions about ... about that, uh ... uh
what we're doing in that area? (several talking) I ... it's going to expand. It's not just
going to stop with subdivision review but we, you know, we have to roll it out slowly and
get people to buy into it, uh, and I think the unification of the departments will help that
buy -in, uh, make that go even more smoothly as we go forward.
Botchway/ Quick question, Doug. You said that, um...
Boothroy/ Oh, I'm sorry! (noises on mic)
Botchway/ ...said there was like a huge stack, is that going to be scanned and put into the Project
Docs system? Is that what (both talking)
Boothroy/ ...we've been using laptops and scanning for a number of years, about five years ago
we went in and, uh, all of the rental inspection files, for example, we get into on a regular
basis. I went back and took all of the rental properties and scanned them in. We
budgeted for that. We're through that process. That was ... that's been done. Uh, we're
not going to go back and scan in, uh, some of the old building permit stuff for single -
family homes because we don't have anybody accessing them, and uh, and so we don't
think there's a need to expend that money to do that. So we're just going forward on that
kind of stuff. Any major projects, uh, major public buildings and stuff like that, um, I
think most of that has been scanned already, um, but what we haven't done is the smaller
projects — decks, remodeling — we're just not gonna do that ... that, cause I don't think it's
cost effective. Um ... one of the other things I wanted to mention about Project Docs
before move on is that, couple things I guess, is that we are building a skill base for future
software, uh, and streamlining enhancement. Uh, on Monday we'll be talking about CIP
and I have a slide in there about moving to a software upgrade in about three to four
years, which will put us, uh, using a cloud -type environment for... for our operations. But
what we have done with ... with keeping up, trying to keep up with technology is we build
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that, uh, mindset that, uh, that comfort level in terms of how the workflows work so that
when we get ready to move to the next level or to a different level, uh, people are willing
to experiment, take that risk and it becomes a springboard for additional improvements
and enhans ... enhancements. Technology is changing, uh, you know, so quickly and even
...even in the plan review process, they're talking about with the international codes at
some point getting to a situation where we could do, uh, 3 -D plan reviews and uh, some
automated plan reviews where we don't even have to have staff, uh, involved. So we
need to be getting there, uh, because it's coming and ... and this will help. The other thing
I should mention is that, uh, for our customers, automation and being able to get this stuff
and have this stuff available, uh, sort of begets wanting more. Uh, they get the taste and
they want to have more, and so, uh, there are some things we've ... we've asked IT to do
that we can modify our existing software to be more responsive. One of the things that's
on their work list, uh, this spring is to have an automatic, uh, automation, er, excuse me,
have automation of our, uh, inspection activity results, so when a ... an inspector —
plumbing, building, whatever — goes out to the site, does their notes on laptop, which gets
then ... gets assigned to the property file. When they hit save, it'll automatically send that
inspection report directly to the contractors, uh, as opposed for them having to ... find it,
either going to our website, or as we have traditionally had the plastic pouch where we've
had the paper in, uh, which sometimes gets lost. So they... contractors are now working
from their vehicles. They've working electronically, and they ... they really don't want to
come to the City, necessarily, and they don't necessarily want to go to the site if they
don't have to, if they have to be someplace else. So getting it electronically is ... is a high
priority, uh, for many of the people that we work with.
Hayek/ You know, Doug, just on a personal anecdote, I have one rental property and it came up
for inspection a month or so ago, and Loren met me at...at the place and ... and it was a
quick inspection, and by the time I had returned back to my office, seven minutes later,
there was an email waiting for me with a .pdf of the inspection report and what needed to
be done to comply with new standards.
Boothroy/ And with our (both talking) and we've done that with rental housing, uh, we, uh,
about 85% of our inspection activity reports in the rental housing area, they use a
different software than building, uh, are emailed to, uh landlords. The reason it's only
85% is believe it or not, there's about 15% of people out there that don't have emails, but
(laughter) I think that's going to change over the next few years. I just ... it, you know,
it's happening. It ... some of these smaller operations, uh, just don't have that access at
this point. Uh, Housing Inspection, uh, want to move on to that. Uh, remember that's,
uh, rental inspections. Uh, it's every two years. The number of rental units continue to
go up. Remember we have $184.8 million worth of work last year, a large portion of that
was residential. Uh, so we will be seeing, uh ... over 18,000 rental units being inspected
by, I'm sure by ... by the start of next fiscal year in July. We're at almost 17,400 now, and
I know on the books we've got another 500 or 600 coming, so ... uh ... uh, that part of it
continues to grow. So, again, automation, having laptops in the field, having the abil...
ability with ... we rolled out about a year and a half ago inspector (mumbled) It fills in
text as you go through and put in numbers, so that they can go faster and do their
inspections faster in terms of doing their notes. Um ... uh, is critical to maintaining the
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existing staffing level, the existing level of service, uh, and uh, get those reports like, uh,
Matt was mentioning, uh, quickly, uh, to our customers. One of the things that ... that, uh,
this division, because they are in residential areas, uh, they are also tasked with doing a
lot of our neighborhood, uh, code enforcement activity. Um ... uh, some of the things that
we do as a matter of routine, just to remind you maybe, is that, uh, every spring and every
fall we do a neighborhood, um, sweep of the inter -city, or ... close-in downtown
neighborhoods, northside, and ... and College Hill areas and so forth, uh ... uh, we do that
in the spring. That's kind of a clean -up type of situation where we're looking for, uh, not
only furniture but, uh, other kinds of debris that seems to collect under snow. I'm not
sure how that happens, but it (laughter) seems like snow happens and then there's
nothing, and then all of a sudden there's all this stuff that pops up. Uh, and then, uh, we
do it again in the fall after the students settle in, uh, because there seems to be a lot of
stuff that just kind of comes out of houses, uh ... uh, after they've had a chance to s ... to
...to get everything sorted out and you would think you could get on top of that at some
point, but we get a fresh group of people that have never lived in Iowa City every year,
and so we're constantly retraining every fall. Uh, and that also includes our code
compliance process, you know, the, uh ... um, Sam mentioned a little bit about, uh, his
citations for people not opening the doors. Uh, we've been very successful that we...
since it went into effect; we've had 27 of those. Uh, we've ... we've successfully resolved
all of those and some of `em have gone to the court ... through court and we've won, but
those code compliance meetings continue to be very effective. We usually do about, and
what that is, Kingsley, is ... is that if we have a ... a disorderly house event in a
neighborhood, uh, they get a letter from the City saying that if you have a second offense,
uh, with disorderly house, then you have to come to the City, the tenants have to come to
the City, sit down with City staff, the Police Department, uh, and possibly there could be
neighbors there. The landlord's there. And we ... we get around the table and we come
up with a, what we call a code compliance settlement that they sign, which has
performance standards that ... that they're supposed to adhere to. What we have found is,
is that face -to -face contact, that signing of a document that pledges that you're going to
be better, uh, and that the Police are looking at you and know who you are, and have been
...and that you know that your house is known to them as being a nuisance house, uh, has
a significant impact on the ... future behavior. So, we start ... it seems like every year it's
about the same. Last year, 2013 ... um, 2012 to 2013, was we had about 248 first
offenses, second offenses which resulted in code compliance meetings. We've dropped
down to 29 and, uh, the third offense is where you can be, uh ... uh, the property can be
declared a nuisance property, which has certain ramifications or the landlord can evict,
and uh, last year we had, uh, one uh third offense meeting. So, you can see, you start
about 250 down to ... down to 30, down to 1, and some years, and we've had several years
in a row where we've never even had a third meeting. So it is ... it is effective in getting
the attention of those involved and my experience is that you have to get their attention.
If you don't get their attention, and they don't know you know and that... and you don't
follow through, then you have a higher... higher, uh, degree of...of, uh, failure. Having
extra police in the neighborhoods has helped this immensely, as well. So I can't
understate the fact that now that we have more emphasis by police in the neighborhood
has really helped, uh, this particular process. For ... for, um, overoccupancy, uh, when
you have a 1% occupancy rate ... overoccupancy becomes a bigger issue. Because...
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people just need to find places, they need to share places because of the cost of renting
and stuff like that, so, uh, we are finding most of our over ... overoccupancies not so much
through inspections because sometimes there's collusion, uh, between the landlord and
tenants. What we're ... what we're finding is that, uh, for some reason they don't think
the City is sophisticated enough to ... to look at Craig's List. And so the ... the vast
majority of our finds are on Craig's List because landlords and tenants will ac ... actually
openly advertise overoccupancy issues on Craig's List, uh, while they'll... they'll disguise
it when we inspect. When we have overoccupancy, uh, we're much more aggressive
with it than we used to be. In 2005, we ... we clearly marked on every rental permit, uh,
and for every property in Iowa City what the maximum occupancy was. So after 2005,
there's not this excuse that you don't know. Uh, in ... cause if you have a rental permit,
and you've looked at it, you should know. And the other thing is, is that everybody is
supposed to sign an information disclosure form, so there's a process in place where the
landlord is supposed to think that through when they sign the information disclosure form
and share it with the tenants. They don't always do that. And we catch `em not doing
that, but it also goes to how we treat overoccupancy. So when we find overoccupancy
now, uh, we generally start with a civil citation and then work it through the courts and
get a court order to reduce that occupancy, and uh, it usually takes a few months, uh, for
that to happen, uh, but uh, it works. Uh, we continue to do, uh, every year we always
have a standing, uh, invitation to neighborhood associations that we'll come and meet
with them and talk about what their issues are. Northside is ... is ... is one of the better
neighborhoods to invite us back, uh, but the, uh, but we also met ... have met with the
Southeast Side and the Mercer area, uh, from time to time. We also rolled out
icgovexpress last year, which is scheduled to expand citywide. It's primarily within HIS.
Um ... uh, this allows neighbors to ... to use, um, a cell phone type of apparatus to report,
uh, on the spot, in the moment, uh, code violations and uh, last year, uh, 15% of our code
violations that came into HIS were actually used by a cell phone type device. So... and
finally, the Housing Authority, we've talked about that before. Let me just tell you that,
urn ... uh, we don't know what the budget, uh ... uh, deal means for the Housing Authority.
I don't think we'll find out, uh, probably for a week or so, or two weeks maybe at best,
and so we'll just have to respond to whatever comes out of...at the federal level. So
we're still waiting. I don't think they start meeting really again until next week. Uh, we
did get our FSS, family self - sufficiency funding. It was down 1.7 %, which is about
$2,000, and we did get January's, uh, Housing Choice voucher administrative fees, and it
was down ... down at the amount of the sequestration, which is down about 30 %. So they
gave it to us on a month, uh, monthly increment, which tells me that they're... they're
looking at that what's happening, uh, and uh, and if...if we get more money, they'll
adjust it in the future. So I'm expecting February to be the same as January, uh, but after
that, uh, we may have some adjustments to make, depending on ... on what comes out of
that, uh ... uh, particular process. I've met with the, uh (mumbled) layoffs I've had three
meetings to date with staff, looking at all the workflows and assignments and stuff. We
have a fourth meeting coming up next week. Um ... it's unfortunate that ... that we had the
layoffs, but I can tell you that, uh, looking at ... how the operation works and going
through all those, uh, workflows, uh, has been a productive process. Uh, and uh... and
uh, staff is ... is saying that they can meet the expectations, and ... and can do, uh, what's
necessary to keep, uh, keep our service level the same. Any questions?
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Markus/ Thanks, Doug!
Boothroy/ Thank you!
Hayek/ Appreciate it!
Boothroy/ Uh huh.
Karr/ Library is page 66.
Library (pg. 66):
Markus/ You get points for being shorter than Doug! (laughter)
Craig/ Um, I think I can handle that! (laughter) Okay!
Markus/ Thanks, Doug! (laughs)
Craig/ Start with points! (laughter) Just a few brief highlights of, uh, FY 13. We continue to see
really strong numbers of people into the building. Uh, with over 721,000 visits. We are
a destination point for downtown. It gives people a reason to come downtown, both
residents and people from outside our community. Those people come downtown and
support businesses. So that's a good cycle to have. For the fird ... third year in a row, we
checked out more than one and a half million items. We hosted 1,700 meetings in our
five meeting rooms. Over 110,000 public access computer sessions, and 125,000
wireless internet connections. So lots of use, uh, in our downtown Library! We do a
comparison in Iowa, there's a very loose organization called IUPLA, Iowa Urban Public
Libraries, um, not a lot of really what some large cities would all urban areas in Iowa, but
the ten largest libraries in Iowa do some peer comparisons and I pulled those out this
year, comparing the ten largest public libraries in Iowa, we have the highest overall
circulation so more circulation from Iowa City Public Library than any of the ten large
...other nine largest public libraries in Iowa, and that includes the highest circulation per
capita. We ranked second only to Des Moines in the number of reference questions
answered and the number attending children's programs. So again, that shows the high
use and the community does fund that and pay for that. We have the strongest per capita
city General Levy tax support at about $56.00, which is a little bit higher. The other two
cities that are closest to us in that per capita support are Ames and Dubuque. We do also
bring in the highest amount of revenue on our own, other than that General Levy, um...
among those libraries, we rank the highest for library - generated income from
endowments and gifts, fines and fees, and service contracts, and the second highest in
income from special levies. This year we completed the second year of our building
upgrades with significant support from generous donors. I've had nothing but really
positive reactions from the community and the staff, uh, and I feel our goals that... which
were to provide better customer service and a sal ... safe and welcoming environment
were really met with that project and I thank you for your support of it. Um, one space
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I'm really excited about is our new teen area, which is ... teen's are a hard nut to crack,
but we're gradually getting them in there as they feel comfortable in that space and it's
allowed us to seek some new partners for teen programming, um, one of them is the
University of Iowa College of Education where we're working with them to provide
weekly teen homework help in that space. Um, we have lots of ongoing and very
productive partnerships, uh, certainly one of the most significant is with the non - profit
Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature, where we've collaborated with them, uh, on the
upcoming Children's Book Festival — I Book 2 Book, which'll be in a couple of weeks at
the Sheraton and the Library, and this fall's Iowa City Book Festival which is now, um,
completely run by the, uh, City of Literature. We work with the new Downtown District
to both promote and contribute to their programs, and efforts to share information about
the downtown and we use our strong social media presence to share information from
both the District and the City, and get it out to a wider audience. Um, we have
continuing partnerships for youth - related programming; uh, couple examples is our work
with the Summer of the Arts to produce Children's Day for the Iowa Arts Festival. Um,
we're working with a local grant - funded empowerment program, um, wo ... working with
girls at Grant Wood Elementary School, and the name of the program is "Strong Girls
Read Strong Books." Isn't that a great name? Um, we have a new relationship with
enrichment therapy and the... Enrichment Therapy and Learning Center and the
Children's Center for Therapy, um, to raise awareness and help identify speech problems
in preschool children. We have them coming and doing, uh ... part of our programming at
story times and we have a program coming up where they will give special screening to
preschool children, so speech issues can be identified before kids go to school. Uh,
quickly I want to talk about three trends that we're seeing. The first is a decline in
overall circulation figures. This is balanced a little bit by increases in electronic, uh,
format uses, which was up 46% last year. It reflects, uh, really a national trend. A recent
study with the Pew Research, uh, Center certainly reflected that ... that this is happening
across the country. That same poll also showed that 54% of Americans used a public
library in the last year, and comparatively, the recent Iowa City Citizens' Survey showed
that 81 % of the residents of Iowa City use the Iowa City Public Library in the last year.
Well above the participation rate for library use in comparison jurisdictions. In the same
survey, 59% of the respondents rated public library services as excellent and another 35%
as good, so we take a lot of pride in that, um, but there's always room for improvement.
Uh, you are familiar with state and federal government switching workloads down to
cities. Well, the same thing happens with them shifting workloads to libraries. Uh, when
the recent cuts came to job centers across Iowa, uh, people were told `just go to your
public library and use those public access computers.' While our local office was not
closed, they no longer have any evening hours, and they are not open any weekend hours.
So, those people end up ... understandably so and rightly so at the Iowa City Public
Library, um, using our public access internet computers. Uh, nowadays it's very difficult
in many situations to apply for a job if you can't get online and you don't have an email
account, and we've helped numerous people as ... you know, when Doug said 15% don't
have an email account, you know, if you're ... if you're one of those 15% and you need to
apply for a job and you're going to get a response, um, via email and it's the only way
you can get it and you've never had an email account, um, we have the folks to help you
do that, and we do. The role the Library plays in providing free public internet access is
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really essential to a quality access to information in our society. And the final trend I
want to talk about involves children and reading, and the vital role the good public library
plays in making those great connections. The first key is to get them when they're
young, uh, study after study shows that literacy skills start at the earliest stages of
development, early literacy is what children know about reading and writing before they
actually read or write. They know how to hold a book. They know that those are letters.
They know that they are words. They understand sounds and that the letters are helping
them make those sounds. This year we have expanded our Book Babies program. Book
Babies, if you don't know, is aimed at the 6- to 18 -month set so if you don't have one of
those in your family, you may not have been to a Book Babies program. It's great! We
now have two sessions a week, typically attended by 10 to 20 babies and their caregivers.
They had a snowball fight a couple weeks ago. It was really fun! Uh ... our preschool
story times and Book Babies frequently hit the road when staff is at daycares, preschools,
and programs like the Nest of Johnson County to share programming for our youngest
residents who may not be able to get to the Library. The summer reading slump is also a
problem we're working hard to turn into a summer reading bump. Instead of children
losing reading proficiency over the summer, we hope to sustain or even improve reading
skills for area children through our summer reading program. For the first time this year,
we were able because we moved to an online registration form, we asked kids what, not
only what grade they were in, but what school they were from. We were able to track
which elementary schools our summer reading program participants were coming from,
and then track the participation completion rate and now we're working with the School
District to try and... and focus for next year and see if we can improve some of those, um,
percentages. I ... I want to thank Iowa City Transit who really helps us in the summer
time. Transportation is an issue, um, but because we're downtown, which is the
transportation hub of Iowa City, we work with the buses and they ... kids and their
caregivers can show a Library card, uh, Monday through Friday during non -peak hours,
get on the bus for free. They come to the Library. They go ... they get books, they go to
summer reading program activities, and then we give them a bus pass that gets them
home again, and uh, that is really a transportation issue that ... that helps a lot of kids get
downtown in the summer time. Um, I wanted to let you know that we are embarking on
a new strategic planning process for the Library. We're... towards the end of a, our
current plan, and um, I'm very glad that the ... you are doing such a good job with your
strategic planning, and it gives us a framework that we can, uh, fit into. Our work, I think
you'll all be contacted sometime in the next few months about various surveys and focus
groups that our consultant will be setting up, and I hope you can all participate in that.
Um, we're very well supported, uh, with a combined effort of General and special levy
tax support, contract income from the County, Hills, University Heights, and soon Lone
Tree and very generous private donations. We've tried to be frugal with new programs
and staffing requests, and were even able to downsize a half -time position last year. Not
having to support substantial increases in circulation each year means our materials'
budget goes further and certainly we have and can reduce, um, what used to be in the 5%
range of, uh, requests for increased materials, uh, is much lower than that now. But in
other areas, especially building and furnishing repair and maintenance, and in the areas of
technology, we require more attention. Uh, the proposed budget that you have for the
Library isn't the request that was submitted by the Library Board. Adjustments were
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made, um, as the City staff put the budget together, particularly in the areas of building
and furniture maintenance and repair, where requests were cut by about $25,000.
Equipment purchases in supplies as capital expenditures and through the equipment
replacement fund where the amount requested was cut by about $33,000. $15,000 was
taken out of our printing request and another $13,000 from general supplies. Overall,
you're seeing an FY 15 proposed budget that's about $100,000 in non - personnel areas
that's less than requested. Um, similar smaller adjustments were made last year. I
certainly understand that funding is tight and that there are many competing priorities, but
you need to know that if these relatively small cutbacks even in these modest areas
continue year after year, there are consequences. Ten years ago we started out with a
new building full of new furniture and new equipment. Seven million people take a toll.
Technology becomes obsolete at an alarming rate. And through the recent building
improvements we upgraded some technology and replaced some furniture, but we do
need to keep to a regular cycle of repair and replacement. Goals such as expanding our
summer reading program, especially to families who are not highly mov ... motivated
already or don't have easy access to the Library requires additional costs in areas of
printing, advertising, and programming. The Board and the staff take great pride in the
excellent services that we hope the 81 % of the residents who came in the building last
year receive, and we hope to continue that level of excellent service. Questions?
Dickens/ I just have one question. I was reading the financial highlights and you have a $35,000
reduction from the State 28E from the University. What ... was the cause of that, or is
there any way to get that back or...
Craig/ The ... that was a reduction in, the University approached us several years ago as they, the
Department of Education was closing its curriculum lab, which was, uh, a collection of
children's literature and asked us if we would be willing on a contract basis to provide
access to children's literature to students and faculty in the Department of Education, the
School of Library Science, and we said yes, and this was the contract. It amount ... uh,
they did that for two years, felt it was not meeting their needs, um, and they have now
...they are now supporting that curriculum need through access of...to materials at the
main library at the University of Iowa. We've gotten a little bit of it back. We'll end up
with, uh, I think ongoing about $10,000 from Lone Tree, so ... that brought a little of it
back so...
Dobyns/ Susan, I'm looking for real pretty Christmas ornaments to put on my sales tax
Christmas tree.
Craig/ Yes!
Dobyns/ So ... coming to the Library, is there something that, uh, looking for in terms of perhaps
infrastructure and you alluded to some things. That you think that the Library really
might need going forward over the next few years that's not currently in the budget, and
that, um, Iowa Citians would find particularly, um... scintillating. Can you think of
anything?
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Craig/ Well ... what I think of is the level of excellence that we have. We are ... one of what has
been referred to as a premiere public library for a... communities our size in the Midwest.
And, we receive compliments and thank yous from many people in Iowa City, people
who move away and write us letters, I mean, I think we are ... a point of pride for the City
of Iowa City, and ... my concern as I've tried to express here is that incrementally over
time, you know, straight... straightened financial circumstances can eat away, uh, at that
level of accomplishment and service, and so...
Dobyns/ What's the ask, Susan?
Craig/ The ask is ... I don't have ... I don't want to build a branch library. I don't want to, um,
recreate the building that we have any place else. But, what want to be able to do is in a
timely way provide the citizens of Iowa City with the library services that they want, and
that includes keeping up to date, I mean, technology is a huge thing! And if you just said
technology for the library, we have a, you know, we were talking about, uh, car
replacement funds. Our equipment replacement fund is funded at $62,000 a year. It's,
you can see it in the budget. And for the last few years we've asked to have that
increased, um, this year I asked for a 15% increase, which frankly it could be double
what it is! Uh, we could spend $100,000 a year replacing technology of the Library.
That's software and hardware, and right now we're looking at major expenses related to
replacing the 10- year -old equipment in our meeting rooms. Um, and I'm not sure when
we're going to be able to cycle that through. So...
Dobyns/ Uh huh, okay. Thank you.
Craig/ Uh huh.
Markus/ Susan, I have a question for you.
Craig/ Uh huh.
Markus/ You didn't mention your Foundation. You recently added staff to the Foundation.
How's that working out?
Craig/ We had ... we have now two full -time people, um, that are allocated to the Foundation.
We hired, uh, a second full -time assistant to the Development Director, and that
individual is with us for about six months. They were not raising as much money as we
needed them to make ... raise, and so they are gone now, and we will be ready in the
spring to readvertise that job and ... and hope, I mean, it is ... they pay their own salaries,
and so that's the first thing they have to do, but the Foundation... through a very
successful, uh, campaign to help fund this building project has made some new
connections in the community and raised the profile of the Library and I believe that
ongoing we will continue to have a very strong small Foundation and somewhat unique,
um, for libraries and institutions like ours, certainly in Iowa. I don't know if other states
have similar kinds of things but...
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Markus/ But, Susan, the, you know, I serve on a couple non - profits here in town and one of the
things we're always challenged about is cost of administration to return...
Craig / Right!
Markus/ ...and I would guess that your cost of administration to return is pretty significant...
Craig/ It is!
Markus/ ...at this stage and ... we talked initially about that. One of the issues, uh, that I think
your Board and you and I, uh, reached understanding on is that you would try this for a
period of time, um, do you have any idea what the cost of the administration to the return
is?
Craig/ I can't tell you that off the top of my head. I'll ... I'll get it to you. I mean, I know what
we spent on personnel costs last year, which was in the $100,000 range. So...
Markus / And the ... and the other thing is I know you're highly service delivery oriented, but it
seems to me that with your emphasis on the provision of technology that technology also
can impact, um, the personnel costs of your operation as well. How ... have you looked at
that? I mean, with technology, you know, streamlining as a result, and one of the things
that I have found throughout my career is that people deploy technology, but they never
get to the point where it impacts their personnel costs.
Craig/ The way we're been able to very successfully employ technology is for instance through
our self -check system, which we started when the new building opened 10 years ago, and
we have gradually increased the number of terminals, as more people have been
accepting of the use of that kind of technology and we're now looking at two - thirds to
70% of all the items checked out are going through those self -check stations. On the
other side of it though the technology burden that the Library has as part of its service
mission is that we help people use technology, and so ... the staff that may have previous
...the clerical staff that may have previously been standing at a desk checking out books
is now in the computer lab teaching people how to get email addresses and to use that, the
electronic collections, and so ... that service component of assisting people with
technology, the digital immigrants like me who have barely figured out how to get into
Munic, uh (laughs) is a burden.
Markus/ So you ... you'd say that there's a generational transition occurring?
Craig/ I hope so! (laughs)
Markus/ That might eventually result in (both talking)
Craig/ ...might eventually! Yeah, but you know, the ... the people who are 30 now and ... know
today's technology, when they're 60, there's going... they're going to be four generations
...there's always going to be the new technology. I mean, I know how to use some
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things really well. They just aren't things that people use any more! (laughter) You
know, uh, I ... a whiz on a fax machine! But ... so the generations are always going
to ... the 60 -year -olds are always going to need to be re-educated ... in technology.
Markus/ Don't get rid of those eight tracks!
Craig/ Yet! (laughter)
Hayek/ So, Tom, are you referring to, I'm looking on the ... on the budget side, which I think is
page 135. Is that ... is that the Library Foundation office? Uh, category or...
Craig/ Yes!
Hayek/ Looks like the...
Craig/ That's the staff.
Hayek/ ...2015 budget's the 190?
Craig / Right.
Hayek/ Okay.
Craig / And that's with two full -time staff and all the (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
Markus / And ... and what is it generating? How much you raising?
Craig/ Well, last year it raised ... um ... about $450,000.
Hayek/ Okay, so maybe that's the return then if...
Craig / Right.
Hayek/ ... if you look at the staff.. .
Craig/ Right.
Hayek/ ...expenditure as the numerator and the...
Craig/ Right.
Hayek/ ...or maybe not the numerator. Turn to Susan for any math things I've screwed up yet
again (laughter) but ... but then the 450 is your return.
Craig/ Yes, yes.
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Mims / What's the standard goal, I mean, in terms of a rate of return of non - profits for foundation
(both talking)
Markus/ Well, part of the problem is, is the economies of scale of a size of this operation, you
know, you probably should be down 20% to 25 %, um, for this size of an operation, you
know, when you get to United Way standards, they're... they're looking at significant,
you know, single digit...
Mims / Right.
Markus / And... and don't get me wrong, I don't think that's the only measure that should be
applied. I think sometimes that administration probably does a lot more than just raise
funds. They're part of the ... the response to deal with the issue that they're... they're
formed for, but ... you know, this was one of the things that we talked about when they
decided to deploy staff to this. Would you generate the same net amount by not staffing
it versus, you know, staffing it and then subtracting that net amount, so...
Mims / Right.
Markus/ And that's ... and I think ... we're all ... (several talking)
Craig/ It's a work in progress! And it ... and when we started our Foundation, for instance, the
Community Foundation wasn't out there, and um, and now that's a ... that's a real
competition for smaller foundations like ours, as it is I think for some other foundations
in town.
Markus/ `But, Susan, let me ask you something about that. Is ... is it possible for the Library
Foundation to be cloaked under the Johnson County Foundation?
Craig/ The Community Foundation.
Markus/ Yes.
Craig/ Well ... I don't ... I'm not sure about all of the legal. Certainly we could, but we would pay
then overhead to them.
Markus/ Yeah, I underst...
Craig/ ...and they would take a significant proportion of...understandably, because they have
expenses too.
Markus/ But ... but you're not eligible for the income tax credit.
Craig/ Correct.
Markus/ And see...
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Craig/ And that's the competition that the State has given them that we don't have.
Markus/ Yeah, and ... but that's a ... that's a huge driver for the ... the (both talking)
Craig/ And we have talked about at least setting up a fund there, so people who wanted to take
advantage of...
Markus/ Yeah, there you go!
Craig/ ...that income tax credit could do so. Again ... it costs us (both talking)
Markus/ Huge selling point!
Craig/ Huh?
Markus/ It's a huge selling point.
Craig/ It is! It is! It's a very successful... the whole Community Foundation effort in Iowa has...
night and day what it was before they passed that law. So...
Mims / What do you ... what do you see as the future mission of libraries? I mean, and I ask that
from the standpoint that ... you talked about technology and teaching people, you know,
how to set up email addresses or this or that, and as ... as people have gone to, you know,
the e- readers and stuff and ... and I guess I can understand the e- readers more because,
again, it's reading and I think of libraries historically as, you know, that reading source,
whether it's hard books or ... or e- books, etc. What do you see as the mission of the
libraries?
Craig/ I think the mission of the library is very much what our mission statement says, which is
that we support life -long learning, literacy, and access to the world of ideas. And that
happens in all kinds of ways. And I also see, you know, we use the word community
center in our mission, and I do believe that that in the modern era of everyone with their
nose in a device, is a critical factor to the mission of the public library. If you went in our
library right now, there are people in there of all income levels, all races, all ages, and...
they may not be talking with each other, but I would guess some of them are in a meeting
room doing that, that it's a place that brings a community together, that's really lacking
somewhat in today's society where we communicate so rapidly electronically and other
ways. So the physical space of the library remains critical to a community, I believe.
Mims/ Thank you.
Botchway/ I had a couple things to add. Um, one — phenomenal! I ... I want to say as far as
libraries are concerned, just in the places I've lived, this is by far the best! Um, from, uh,
being a recent student, is there any possible way of outreaching to students, and the
reason why I say that is being a recent graduate student, um, you know, and Matt knows
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this as well, you know, lawyers or doctors, whatever the case may be, as they leave, you
know, might feel some reason to give back for the space that they've used or to study,
whatever the case may be. Has there ... cause when I was in school I didn't know
anything about the Iowa City Public Library.
Craig/ Sure!
Botchway/ I might have walked by it numerous times, and even when talking to people, um, you
know, that I play basketball with or whatever the case may be, they still don't know what
the Iowa City Public Library is from a student perspective...
Craig/ Right.
Botchway/ ...has there been any communication with the University, um, as far as, you know,
you do what you do as far as the University, but hey, we have this wonderful tool,
wonderful community resource that we want, um, students on a broader level to use, as
well.
Craig/ Well, we do not promote ourselves as a... a place to support the curriculum needs of
students. What we want to promote ourselves as supporting students in is in their
recreational needs, their family needs — if they're young families and they have young
children and often very modest incomes, we are an activity center for them. Um,
certainly we are a ... a study space for students, in formal and non - formal education. Um,
but we don't actively promote ourselves as part of our mission that we support the
curriculum of needs of students at the University of Iowa cause we would just be
overwhelmed if we had ... if we did that. Um ... but we realize that they ... create the
vitality of our community, help create the vitality of our community, both the students
and uh, the faculty at the University of Iowa are ... you know, help keep the Library active
and, you know, they ask for things all the time and ... and so we're always trying to stay
one step ahead of `em!
Botchway/ And then from a ... again, from a revenue generating situation, for looking at, um,
what the current Foundation does, has there been ... I mean, obviously there's been looks
at grants and stuff like that, but is there a way of, and this is a finance question as well, is
there a way of doing crowd funding to help as far as... from a... a large community
perspective, hey, can everybody give $3.00 to then support the Library in that way.
Craig/ The Foundation actually has that in their goals this year...
Botchway/ Okay!
Craig/ ...to look at options for that. You know, one of the downsides is ... um ... there are a lot of
fees associated with that. So...um...it...it costs, the overhead for getting $3.00 from
10,000 is, uh, is high.
Botchway/ Okay.
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Craig / Right, Dennis? (laughter) Thank you!
Hayek/ Thanks so much! (several talking)
Markus/ If we can get to Parks and Rec before lunch break and uh, that'll kind of start to move
us back, and then we'll break for lunch, gre... get lunch, come back in and do a working
lunch. We'll work through (both talking)
Hayek/ That'd be fine.
Dickens/ ...cause we have the Senior Center here. (several talking)
Markus / What's that?
Botchway/ ...I said I plan on playing basketball at lunch but (laughter) I guess that's fine!
Dobyns/ I'd like to have Parks and Rec for lunch! (laughter and several talking)
Parks & Recreation (pg. 54):
Moran/ Happy New Year, everybody!
Dickens/ See you added more employees again this year, like every other year for the last 25
years.
Moran/ Really? I must have missed that page! (laughter) I just wanted to, uh, go through, uh,
our divisions real quick and let you know where we're at with, uh, everything, and I'll
first go through Park and Rec administration. Uh, in Park and Rec administration, there
really no changes. We oversee several programs that all go through, uh, one of them is
the neighborhood open space funds and you will see that we'll be doing a lot of
neighborhood stabilization projects with the neighborhood open space funds. If you
know that formula, and you'll get that education after lunch, how that works. We have
numerous amount of monies in different areas and we'll start rejuvenating some of the
parks and, um, start doing a facelift on ... on some of `em, if you will. Um, we have also
been doing a ... an outreach of new signage in the parks. We have four new signs out the
south Sycamore Greenway, south Hickory Hill Park, Mercer Park, uh, just to sort of
spruce things up. We've got four more on order that ought to be in in the next month or
so. That'll be at the dog parks and at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. Uh, so if you've
had a chance to see those, you'll see where we're going with that. Uh, the other thing is
the master plan that was done in 2008. Uh, we're having Tom Pickering update that, uh,
for us. Uh, he is planning to bring it to the Parks and Recreation Commission in
February, and then it will come to you all to take a chance to review it and see it. Uh,
Farmers Market, the addition of Farmers Market was to increase the fees so that we were
completely sustainable by paying all fees, part-time and full -time for the staff and my
office that also works with that. And then we've also opened the new Winter Market, uh,
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in the Iowa City Marketplace, which is formerly known as the Sycamore Mall. That's
their new mall and, or their new name. Uh, and we've been doing that on Saturdays, and
it's been fairly successful. Uh, we hope to continue that on through, uh, April.
Government buildings, which is the ... the care of this facility here, uh, we will be, uh,
moving, uh, a five- eighths custodial position to our Parks Division for some assistance
there, and then we used our four full -time people that we have, uh, in... in government
buildings to maintain this building. So it'll be just a minor tweak with that, uh, within
the, uh, the department. Uh, Cemetery Division, I know it's before lunch but you know
all those people are dying to get in and you know all those jokes that you hear about that.
I thought I'd (laughter) just throw `em on the table and get `em out of there. Uh, the
Cemetery Division, uh, we've ... uh, drastically reduced the amount of temp hours that we
use for that and ... and we're taxing our three full -time staff, uh, but we're also doing
some things like taking care of parks around the cemetery, so Renal Street, Happy
Hollow, North Market Square — it just makes sense to have them just expand out a little
bit from the cemetery and take that burden off the Parks Division so that they can mow
and uh, remove snow and do those kind of things, and so far it's been successful, and
we've had a ... a rather nasty winter already and ... and it worked well. We started it last
summer, so that worked. Uh, with assistance from the City Clerk's office, uh, we also
went computerized, the cemeteries, so now we have all official records on the ... on-site so
if you want to go see where somebody's buried or look up some genealogy requests or
see what lots are available for purchase, you can do that all online now. Uh, which is
something that we've been trying to get to for... for quite some time. The cemetery has
about 15 to 20 years of useful life left ... as far as space. The one transition that we're
trying to figure into is that we are getting, uh, requests for more column bariums than we
are for full -body graves. Uh, we put in a children's column barium last year for 64
spaces, which I think will adequately address that need. Uh, we have an existing column
barium out there and we'll probably have to add on to that because the greater need is...
is going to column bariums than it is in body burials. So ... I think that 15 to 20 years is
still pretty safe because I don't see that that's going to be a big, uh, a big advance. In
Recreation, uh, the transformation of the ... of the Recreation Center, we have two older
buildings now. The Recreation Center will be 50 years old this year in 2014, and the
Mercer Park Aquatic Center is ... will be ... is past 25. It'll be 27 years old. So the
transformation of the Recreation Center as you will see, uh, I've been here for over 30
years and as long as I've been there you walk in and you see pool tables and ping pong
tables. It's been that way for a long time. And I understand that's a lifetime leisure skill
and we will still have those there, but it makes some sense now with the Blue Zones
initiative and with fitness initiative, that we start moving the fitness equipment out so
people can see it there and take advantage of...of using that and overlooking the pool and
doing some nice things. I know when you drive by the ... the Recreation building that the
University of Iowa campus, they're all in the windows because that's the place to be,
so ... we've always hidden our fitness equipment back into the old archery range, for those
of you that have been around for a long time, and uh, we're going to bring those out and
redesign the front entrance, if you will, to uh, the Recreation Center so people will get the
...the feel that it's actually there for a purpose and that they can utilize that.
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Hayek/ And, Mike, as ... as the guy who won both the singles and doubles foosball tourma
...tournament of 19...80, uh, I hope we at least keep that equipment, even if it's in a
windowless room.
Moran/ Yeah, we will (laughter)
Hayek/ It was a great life skill and (both talking)
Moran/ It's still a lifetime leisure skill and ... and...
Hayek/ At the Rec Center!
Moran/ That's right!
Hayek/ That's where I want it! (laughs)
Moran/ Yep! (several talking and laughing) Um, the other thing with ... with Recreation is that it
... it has gone entirely web -based as well. You can now make park shelter reservations
online. You can now make, uh, building room reservations online. You can get access to
that. You can see what's available and what isn't available. And that is tremendously
helped our traffic as well. Uh, when we have recreation programming registration, we
used to have two, three hours worth of... of people that were waiting to get on, and now
we have about 20 minutes because they all sit online and do it at home. And it's been
able to per ... to provide a lot of relief to our staff, as well.
Dobyns/ What's this for, Mike, I misheard...
Moran/ Recreation programs, brochure... when the brochure comes out for swim lessons and
(both talking) and everything that we do. Uh, the other thing that you'll see, uh, probably
at your second January meeting this year will be the recreational fees. The Commission
looked at it in December and then we'll bring it to you in January. They always have to
be, uh, brought to you every year on an annual basis, and you will see, uh, quite ... quite a
bit of increase. It won't be a mone ... a huge increase, but you will see increases. Uh, we
are still striving to get to our 50% self - supporting, uh, mechanism in Recreation, and we
aren't quite there yet, so we need to really stride to get there, uh, with that. And then the
service expansion with the Iowa City Community School District will be talked a lot,
probably at the CIP on Monday, as well, uh, but we will continue to work with them as
they build new elementary schools in our area of town, and what we can do to ... to
facilitate that for programming and for bo ... before and after school programs and no-
school day programs. So ... that will be a rather large initiative that we'll take on as the
...as the new schools come on board, uh, within our city. Uh, the Parks Division, we still
have over 1,600 acres of parkland that we have to maintain and now our trails have gone
up to 28 miles. Last time when I told you I think we were at 22.7. We're now at 28
miles of trails. So that goes without saying that they're very busy with that, as well. Uh,
the two most recent, or the three most recent additions that we've had are the Terry
Trueblood Recreation Area and the Park Lodge and now the Ned Ashton House, which
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hopefully will come online February 1St, and then the retransformation of the Normandy
Drive project. We've contracted all the services for those three entities, and it's worked
well because it's been ongoing since, uh, their inception, so that's been a good
partnership for us as it relieves some of the burden for our staff so that they aren't, uh,
weighted down with any of that, as well. Uh, dog parks have been highly successful and
very self - sustainable. We started a dog park attendant program so that we could monitor
people that bought passes to and from. Before we started that program we figured out we
had about 75% of the people that weren't licensed that attended the dog parks. So we felt
that we really had to get ... and jump on that. We don't have ongoing schedules. I can't
tell you when they're there. We sort of play tricks with `em and say, well, we may be
there on Monday, we may be there on Wednesday, and uh, it's really helped a lot, as you
can tell, because all the projects that we've done for all the dog parks comes entirely out
of the revenue that we've generated out of new tag sales. So it's been a ... a good program
for us. Forestry, uh, forestry will be concentrating in the next 12 or 18 months to the
Emerald Ash Bore. Uh, it is not in ... in this community yet, that we know of, but it's very
far south along Highway 34. If you look at the map of where EAB has been seen,
apparently somebody had a load of fire wood, that just sort of dropped it off of all the
cities on Highway 34, Ottumwa and Oskaloosa and all those so, uh, we have an
infestation down there and we have one up at Macgregor and up in the Northeast, uh,
section of...of the state, as well. We ... we have approximately 1,400 ash trees on the
street right -of -ways in Iowa City. And compared to the overall number of all the trees
that we take care of, that's only really about 10% of our forestation. So that's really
pretty good, but we are going to start taking those out, like I said, between the next 12
and 18 months. So, uh, you may receive a lot of irate calls from people that think we're
taking down perfectly good trees and we may be taking down perfectly good trees, but
they are ash trees. Uh, within the park system we don't have a count of how many ash
trees we have. Uh, cause we've never had to really care about that, uh, but I would
imagine that most of `em would be in Hickory Hill Park and Ryerson's Woods. Those'd
be the highest concentration of ash trees we'd have to take out. We anticipate some
confusion. We're going to have to do a good education program, from people that call us
that have ash trees in their town, or in their yard, and they want us to come take `em out,
and so we have to go through the definition of what a street tree is and what a street tree
isn't and what you're responsible for and what we're responsible for. So, uh, that's ... that
will be coming as soon as EAB sneaks into this community at some point in time.
(several talking)
Markus/ Explain how you dispose of `em.
Moran/ Oh, well, we shred `em all up and then we have to, uh, burn `em. So uh, we can't put
`em in the chip pile like we do with our other trees that go away. It's sort of like a
quarantine effort, if you will. So we chip `em separately and then we have to put `em in a
burn pile.
Markus/ But you don't get rid of the bug just by chipping `em. (several responding)
Moran/ So ... it will be different.
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Payne/ Do we know approximately how many there ... ash trees there are on private property?
Moran/ We do not. We have not ever taken an inventory of that. So we ... we have about, to be
precise, 1,328 trees that are in the street right -of -ways, and then we didn't even keep
track of it in the park system. So ... there are heavier concentrations in some ... some parts
of town.
Payne/ I was just curious how many trees overall we were going to lose throughout... throughout
the town.
Moran/ Yeah, I don't ... I don't have an answer to that.
Dobyns/ So, Mike, I was wondering, um ... the, there's more ash trees in Ryerson's Woods than
Hickory Hill, but how many ash trees like on ... you know, places that are highly visible,
like on major boulevards or something like that? Is that a...
Moran/ Not ... not as many, in ... in parkland. City Park has some ash trees and ... and most of the
bigger parks but the little pocket parks or the entranceways into town, we don't ... we
didn't plant ash at that time.
Dobyns/ Okay.
Moran/ We planted more ornamentals.
Dobyns/ All right.
Moran/ So I don't think we'll really see a noticeable effect with that.
Dickens/ Will you be going through Hickory Hill and marking the trees or...
Moran/ Yeah, we're going to have to do that but we want to take care of the street trees first.
And then we'll go through the parks and start...
Dickens/ ... something that you can get volunteers to help with?
Moran/ Oh, absolutely, Friends of Hickory Hill will be ... will help us with that, yeah.
Hayek/ Mike, one question about, um, existing parks, you know, we have added considerable
demands on your department over the year, I mean, between Terry Trueblood and the
new trails and more parkland and all these other things, um ... and, you know, it's my
sense we're getting, you know, we ... you guys get stretched thinner and thinner and one
thing we don't want to lose sight of, especially in terms of our strategic objective about
... with ... with regard to ... to, uh, older neighborhoods, existing neighborhoods, um, is
... are ... are those pocket parks you describe and ... and ensuring that they are as high
quality as inviting as possible and ... and I think a number of our parks are, you know,
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they're maintained but sort of with a, just you know, mow the grass and ... and we gotta
move...
Moran/ They need to be refreshed!
Hayek/ Yeah, and you know the shining example, of course, is the Northside Marketplace, which
was a fantastic example of community, city partnering, but you've got a neighborhood
that's particularly engaged and volunteers, probably a rate of volunteerism that's higher
than a lot of other places. But is... is that model gonna get replicated... in... in other areas
of town and ... what's the plan (both talking)
Moran/ We'll see that Monday in the CIP plan. Uh, we've got several projects where, one, we're
going to go out for an RFP for Willow Creek Kiwanis and do some westside work over
on that park, and then we need to do an RFP for lower City Park. We currently have a
...a plan going up in upper City Park that also includes some of the pool remodeling, and
then we've got a pocket of money that ... that we can do just exactly that — go to a certain
neighborhood and ... and say we want to rejuvenate this, go to the neighborhood
associations and work with `em hand -in -hand for that. So I think we've addressed that as
much as we can right now with the limited resources that we have.
Hayek/ Okay.
Moran/ And then the neighborhood open space, uh, monies that I talked about earlier is available
to us to do some of that, as well.
Hayek/ Okay.
Moran/ And then just the last thing was the central business district. Uh, used to be underneath
the parks, uh, department and because of the new ped mall transformation and
everything, I pulled that out and put that underneath, uh, myself and the park
administration, and of course the big thing for that was the start of the ambassador
program. We started that earlier in March and then, uh, parking division came on in July,
so we didn't really work out well together, I mean, I thought it was a great program but
we didn't ... we had a lot of bugs to work out so I really anticipate the next spring we'll
have all that ironed out and we'll .... and we'll have a much better looking program and
it'll meet the needs. We've had some good relationships with the University of Iowa
Hospital for people when they bus over we'll meet `em there and show `em where to go
or, uh, you know, escort `em to a restaurant or something so that they don't have that fear
factor of... of not wanting to leave the hospital, if they've been stuck there for five or six
days. Questions? Enjoy your lunch!
Hayek/ Thanks, Mike!
Markus/ Thanks, Mike!
Hayek/ Should we break? And then ... or do we want to go through Senior Center?
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Markus/ Well...
Hayek/ It's up to...
Markus/ How much time do you need? (laughter) Why don't we break for lunch and
have ... have her present during lunch? Cause others are going to do that anyway. Is that
all right?
Hayek/ Work through it? Okay (several talking)
Mims/ Bring our lunch out here!
Markus/ So join us! (noises on mic; several talking)
Hayek/ ...you're the next one! To be thrown to the lions! (laughs) Welcome!
Senior Center (per 72):
Kopping/ Okay, well ... uh, good afternoon! Um ... I'm here to talk about the Senior Center,
obviously. Um, the Senior Center has as it notes up there on the, uh, organizational chart,
six and a half full -time equivalents. Uh, we also have a half -time senior employee
funded through AARP who works as a receptionist, a part-time temporary employee who,
um, works in Senior Center television. Uh, at the moment we have a couple work -study
students. That's down. We've had as many as four, uh, just depends on availability.
Um, in the spring we'll have two practicum students, um ... uh, they gen ... generally we
do host practicum students and that again will vary according to availability, and in FYI
we had 648 volunteers and uh, without this variety of employees, uh, volunteers and um,
other workers, we wouldn't be able to, uh, accomplish what we do accomplish.
Everybody's pretty essential here. Um, currently we have about 1,600 members and in
FY13 we hosted 126,000 visits to our facility. We offered 360 classes and most of those
met multiple times. In fact, some of those are ongoing. Uh, 50 special events, seven...
we hosted seven active performance groups, 24 groups and clubs. We had 18 different
volunteer opportunities, and uh, 26 professional services. And as far as our finances are
concerned, in FY 13 we did have a decrease in our repair and, uh, maintenance costs.
Um, I believe this is probably related to, uh, new HVAC and roof that we had done a few
years ago. Uh, it took us a while to get the kinks out of.. worked out of that, but I ... now
that they are, our, uh, maintenance staff is doing more of the, um, preventative
maintenance on those systems and um, I think that, uh, that has reduced, uh, repair and
maintenance expenses associated with that. Um, there also has been a slight reduction in
outside printing. I think there's two reasons for that. One is the, uh, staff worked really
hard on cleaning up our mailing list of our program guide, and the other thing is we have
just started to move towards, uh, online mailings, and I think this is a trend that will
increase in, uh, the future. Um ... but this is going to be a gradual change, as I've
suggested before when I've talked to the Council. Uh, we've found that most of our
senior participants have internet access, but they're not really using the internet to access
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the kind of information we offer, like the program guide and ... and such. In February we
will be starting to offer online communications, so this will... er, not communications.
Registration ... so this will be another step in the direction of, uh, cutting back on printing
costs, but it's going to be gradual. Um ... in FYI we just reached our goal of raising
25% of our operational expenses. Uh, we accomplished this through increased fees and
fundraising, and through the growth of our endowment, which this year, uh, contributed
over $30,000 to our operational expenses and that's the most in the history of the
endowment (mumbled) which we just started in 2003. Um, in FY13, um, Friends of the
Center purchased the signs, uh, the outside sign on Linn Street, which seemed like it took
us 20 years to get put up out there, and um, in FYI they're going to refurbish the
computer lab, um, for us. In FYI 5, um, there's not a lot that's really remarkable in the
budget. Overall it's less than our budget for this year. Um, we have...I have submitted a
grant request to the County, uh, asking for 20% of the operational expenses, or $128,700.
Um, the 20% comes from, uh, the fact that 20% of our participants come from areas in
Johnson County, outside of Iowa City. Um, we'll continue with fundraising, uh, securing
cor... corporate sponsors, and we will continue to, uh, attempt to increase the proportion
of operational expenses that we, um, provide. Um, we are planning some changes to
rooms to make them more user - friendly and rentable. Um, we have in the budget some
tables that will be purchased by Friends. Um, these are, uh, quite a few tables that will be
purchased for the second floor. Uh, it's a pretty big expense actually. And we continue
to work to increase the endowment and therefore increase the amount of money that we
receive from the endowment to support operational expenses. One of the, uh, big things
we accomplished in, uh, FY2013 was a survey that I worked with a student from the
College of Social Work and one of the faculty members from the College of Social Work
to complete in June of 2013. Uh, the survey included members, non - members, and
former members, and we had a 35% return rate, which isn't bad. Uh, so we had, um,
1,092 surveys returned. Uh, responses from the survey demonstrate a very high level of
satisfaction with programming. Um, it ... they identified benefits of participation that sup
... support overall wellness or optimal aging, and demonstrate that for some people the
presence of the Center makes Iowa City an attractive place to live. The survey also
highlights some problems related to our hours of operation and a lack of diversity. And
of course I'm going to talk about the good things before I get to the bad things. Um...
participants' satisfaction, uh, with current programming ranged between 94 and 98 %.
Uh, the most popular program areas were classes, uh, special events, uh, information
resources that we provide, special membership programs, and performance groups. In
the area of classes, the three most common, uh, classes recited was anything in the liberal
arts, um, fitness programs, and anything in computers and technology, ranging from how
do you turn on a computer to web design. Uh, there's a huge range, uh, of need. Um, the
top five minutes... benefits of participation identified were learning new things, keeping
an active mind, attaining information, making friends, and gaining a sense of belonging.
Uh, these five averaged an 89% agreement rating and they're all, uh... factors that are
associated with optimal aging. They really fit in with what ... what the Senior Center
really strives to do. Uh, social interaction, personal contact, and meeting new people
were common themes in written comments. As one person stated, participation improved
my self - esteem, connected me to the community, improved my mental health, and
relieved the sense of isolation I sometimes have. There was also quite a bit of
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information related to cognitive improvements. People said they were learning new
skills, sharing personal talents, and had regained skills set aside many years ago.
Volunteers enjoyed sharing their knowledge with others as teachers and engaging in
conversations with interested persons. Others remarked that volunteering has given my
time and life more structure. The most frequently mentioned resource or service
employed by the responses was the Senior Health Insurance Information Program, or
SHIIP. This program offers free insurance counseling to help seniors select prescription
insurance plans, resolve insurance issues, and deal with other insurance related matters.
Um, this is a really incredibly, um, popular program and these volunteers work really,
really long hours, especially in the open insurance enrollment period. Um, this ... the
SHIIP program, along with a lot of our other programs like the tax assistance program
and other professional services we offer, like free legal counseling, all these programs,
um, are open to all adult members of the community. Um, quite a few of the respondents
felt that the Center enriched the city as a whole. Um, they said things like the Center is a
great asset to Iowa City; it's a great place to learn about available services; an
outstanding community organization; and one of the highlights of Iowa City for retired
people. It was reported to be one of the reasons we stayed in Iowa City after retirement.
The presence of the Center made one person feel positive as a newcomer to Iowa City
that the community values seniors. Others mentioned its role in becoming integrated into
the community by saying a new... as a new participant, it enabled me to immediately
meet new men and women with whom I have a common ... with whom I have common
interests. Finally someone said, I'm new to the area and the Center has made a
significant positive difference in my integration here. I think these are all really excellent
points, uh, to keep in mind, and we all know that, um, there's a growing older population
and ... we also I hope know that we have a ... an excellent and accredited Senior Center in
the community, and there is an opportunity to use it as a marketing tool to attract
growing, uh, this growing population of retirees who can, uh, move to this area, making it
a retirement destination and bringing their resources here to, uh, relocate. Um, we've
had, uh, visitors from all over the country and comment about a great facility we have.
Uh, we've had experts in the field, including Rick Moody who used to be the Director of
the AARP, who toured our facility, who was extremely impressed with what we had to
offer. Uh, we've had recently visitors from the Iowa, uh, Department on Aging who
came through out facilities and spent a couple hours here. They were also very impressed
and ... and uh, remarked on the quality of services that we are providing. Um, we have a
... a great facility and I think it could be, um, marketed to the benefit of our community.
Obviously some people are already seeing it as a... as, um, something that pulled them to
the community. So ... moving ... moving on to some of the other findings of the survey,
um ... a major barrier to participation that was uncovered was a lack of free time due to
work, family, or other obligations. Um, and-one of the most, uh, frequent
recommendations to address this issue was to expand the Center's hours of operations to
... on evenings and weekends. And expanding operational hours is likely to increase the
availability of the Center to community members, but according to the survey results,
expanded hours of operation will be of little avail without making quality classes,
programs, activities, or events of personal interest available during these hours. In fact,
having a program of interest was identified as the primary attraction to the Center, and
the absence of a program of interest was the third most frequently cited barrier to
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participation. So, these things go hand -in -hand. You can have open hours, but if you
don't have anything of interest to bring the person there, you have open hours and an
empty building. So, currently our staff organizes, uh, dayti ... uh, daytime and a limited
amount of evening and weekend programs, and we use, uh, a system of volunteer
building attendants to maintain building security after regular work hours, with a
maintenance worker, one, who is available as a backup person four days a week. And
given our current resources, I think it's unlikely that we could develop quality
programming of interest to fill additional hours or provide a secure - enough environment
to expand operational hours any further at this time. Uh, of course we're open to creative
solutions and we'll always work with our available resources to address this request.
Um, in fact we do ... the staff will very often, uh, work to, you know, host evening events
like the Art Gallery Walks and ... um, other concerts that happen in the evening, and
dances, so it does happen periodically, but it's just not, um, on a standardized basis that
we're open in the evenings, and ... on a regular basis. Um, perhaps the most concerning
finding, uh, result of the survey, uh, has to do with diversity. Um, the demographic
information shows that males, individuals with an annual income less than $30,000 a
year, ethnic minorities and people with less than a four -year college degree are under-
represented among the partici ... respondents. Expanding diversity among the participants
has been a goal of the Center for the past three years. Culturally diverse programming
and contact with minority groups within the community have taken place. In addition,
efforts have been undertaken to offer SHIIP counseling and Honoring Your Wishes
counseling services in Spanish. Uh, this year, uh, a staff member with a degree in
Spanish plans to hone her skills in order to facilitate bi- lingual communication at the
Senior Center. In fiscal year 15, um, $10,000 has been recommended to identify and
initiate an investigation into the needs and interests of low income and minority older
adults in our community. A needs assessment is an essential first step in the provision of
opportunities that provide optimal aging. In the meantime, we will continue with our past
efforts and this spring we plan to use our practicum students to ... to conduct surveys in
elder housing units in order to identify programming, uh, interests. Uh, we know that,
uh, the residents in elder housing units are not well represented among our participation
groups and we would like to explore the reasons why that might be and hopefully expand
our participant base to include those folks. Um, we also have a diversity committee that
will be working on this issue, um, that will be made up, uh, of staff and, um, participants
and perhaps, uh, community members. This group is just forming, and we have another
committee that ... with representatives from the Commission, staff, and each of our
participant -base working committees that is going to be looking at the findings of the
survey and uh, trying to develop strategies to, um, resolve the issues that were identified
there. So using available resources, volunteers, and creativity, I hope that we can make
inroads into solving this problem in, uh, FYI 5, but it's a pretty complicated problem, and
I ... and I doubt if we'll have the situation resolved within one year. Are there questions?
Mims/ I would just like to say thank you, one for all you do, and number two, glad to see that
you're making, uh, a grant request to the County that, you know, is in line with the
percentage of usage of the facility and the ... at the Senior Center, based on residence. So,
I'll be (coughing, unable to hear speaker) see their response to that, but certainly it
sounds like there's good rationale for... for the request that was made.
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Payne/ Is that how you made your request last year too?
Kopping/ The request last year, um, was based upon the number of individuals in Johnson
County that lived in unincorporated areas, and we asked that the funding be drawn from
the rural fund because that way, um, we could then approach other, um, area,
governmental areas and ask them to fund the participants that come from those areas.
And it would prevent the double taxation of Iowa City residents. So ... uh, what happened
though was that they gave us the amount we asked for, which was like $56,000 but they
drew that money from their general fund and that double -taxed Iowa City residents, and
um...it...it didn't work out ... out well at all. So this year we went back to asking, uh, for
20% to cover the participation of all Johnson County residents living outside of Iowa
City.
Hayek/ And is there a source ... are you requesting that that be drawn from the rural?
Kopping/ No, we did not ask any...
Hayek/ Okay, so it's still an issue.
Markus/ Kingsley, are you following this issue?
Botchway/ Yes! (laughter)
Markus/ Maybe you can help facilitate this discussion to some degree. Part of the ... part of the
challenge for us, I think, from Iowa City is we're providing this service and when the
County funds it out of the general fund, and I get that that's the County's money to do as
they wish, but what it does is it extracts money from Iowa City, that goes into the
County's general fund, and we've already contributed the amount that pays for our
residents. Out of the City's general funds. So I think we gave them the option last year,
didn't we give them a...
Kopping/ No, we didn't give `em two choices. We simply asked for the ... that...
Markus/ The unincorporated area.
Kopping/ Unincorporated ... to pay for the participation of residents from unincorporated areas
and to draw it from the rural fund.
Markus/ Because the rural fund is representative of just that population. And so ... if in fact they
make the, uh, give this year based on residents outside of Iowa City, meaning Coralville,
North Liberty, Oxford, whoever else are out there that might be incorporated, plus the
... and then they use the general fund levy, they're extracting it again from us when we've
already paid for us through the general fund, and I've had that conversation with certain
of the Members of the County Board of Supervisors, and I know they ... they understand
the issue. Um, so it must be a policy concern that they have in trying to make the levy
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against just the rural community. But ... it's, to me it's a matter of equity, fairness, and
proportionality, and when I talk to you about all these other issues that are incorporated
into the ... the budget concerns, I'm trying to get Iowa City to a point where we pay for
the services that we provide our residents, but that we're not providing the services
beyond our borders without a proportionate reimbursement from the jurisdictions that are
receiving those benefits on behalf of their residents, and it seems like a fairly
straightforward argument, but I have a little trouble with traction and I'm just hoping that
maybe you can help me with that traction (mumbled)
Botchway/ See what I can do!
Mims/ Well and I ... my concern too is ... is, as we look at our budget concerns with property tax
reform and having to tighten our budget and... and be more efficient, that if we can't get
cooperation from some of these other jurisdictions on a number of these different issues,
we are going to find ourselves, I think, in the situation of saying we will no longer offer
these services to anybody other than Iowa City residents. And I think that in many cases
would be very unfortunate because I think there's people who want and need these
services, and I'm not sure that the other jurisdictions, uh, will do it, and if they did do it,
probably couldn't do it as efficiently as having one regional service, what... whatever the
service might be.
Markus/ And it's contrary to the whole regional approach to these things.
Mims/ Exactly! Exactly! So...
Markus/ We want to get there!
Mims/ So, I hope ... (both talking) Yeah, I hope we can get some traction.
Throgmorton/ I think this is another example of why it would be very helpful for us to meet with
the Board of Supervisors. And we ... we chose in our strategic planning session not to do
that. If we don't have a meeting with them, all we will end up doing is talking with
ourselves, being bothered by some decisions they make. They'll be bothered by some
decisions we make, and we'll be stuck in that situation from now to doom's day. Let's
meet with `em!
Markus/ I will tell you this, Jim, there's been a... effort here recently, uh, two County
Supervisors, with the blessing of the full Board have, um, invited the three city
administrators of the three communities to talk about, um ... funding of social services and
those issues, and there was a suggestion that we would keep the discussion going. We
also, by the way, discussed, um. ... the jail and how in fact the three communities could
participate in, you know, facilitating a ... a resolution of that issue so ... it's not that we're
not meeting, um, in that regard. I think sometimes the challenge of having two public
boards meet entirely is that you probably don't cut to the chase as easy because of the
public process versus a very direct process when there's people that are just expressing
their real feelings and then trying to figure out how to get those resolved. So, you may
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just want to think about that in terms of whether we have full - blown, across the board
delegations versus ... maybe a sub - majority representation from this Council, to a sub -
majority representation to the (several responding) Board of Supervisors.
Mims/ I ... personally think that's a much better way to go. I think there's too much posturing
that gets done when it's a formal meeting and (several talking)
Markus/ ...I don't think anybody's fooling anybody. It's tougher to have a conversation
sometimes in the public venue that, you know, the public conversation is not necessarily
the same as a face -to -face conversation.
Dobyns/ Right, and I agree with that, but back to the Senior Center, Linda! (laughter) Um ... the,
uh, (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) two years I've been hearing some of these
concerns about, um, you know, looking at the County to help, you know, support some of
the Senior Center activities, and I've been patient, and I think after a couple of years, um,
I need to express some concerns, some of which have been, you know, shown up with the
survey. Um, and you know, I think you had a chance ... you came in here early, which I
appreciate, and I think you've heard of Council's, you know, asking all the, uh,
departmental, uh, leadership to kind of say how can you help us meet the challenges of
some, uh, state level changes that are occurring, um, with property taxes. Um, and I think
it's time to kind of take a look at the Senior Center activities, as well. As you know, I'm
no stranger to the well being of elderly citizens in Johnson County. Um, and I've had
some concerns, many of which were, uh, very clearly replicated in this survey. Um, you
know, one of the concerns I had with the survey is it was only a 35% respondent rate, and
my sense is those who failed to respond are people who truly need the services.
Remember, this is tax money that we bring to the Senior Center. There is a demographic
that uses the Senior Center that I think could be using other services, um, that, uh, are
available in the city, in the community, and perhaps, you know, they're not the people
who the Senior Center activities, uh, should be applied toward. Um, I think the fact that
(mumbled) the survey also talked about the demographic. The demog ... demographic in
terms of income level, and you mentioned, uh, they tend ... that the people used the Senior
Center tend to be white, uh, tend to be fairly financially doing quite well, and this is a
demographic, and uh, in my history that could use many other, urn ... uh, services within
the community, in the Downtown District, around the, uh, the whole county, and we're
not appealing to the group that we need to appeal to, and I've been waiting patiently to,
um, see that happen and I've not seen it happen in, frankly, decades. So, what I was
going to recommend is that, uh, and also in terms of gender equity as well, the fact that
6% of our, uh, population in Iowa City is African American, but only 1% African
American currently uses the Senior Center. You know, there's an ethnic divers ... you
know, disparity as well as a financial one. So because of these concerns, I recall that two
years ... about two years ago I guess, Jim, you were very concerned about some of the
issues regarding, um, ethnic diversity, and you and I worked on bringing to the Council
what eventually became the Ad Hoc, uh, Diversity Committee. And it would be my
recommendation that we do that again. Um ... is that, I would appeal to the staff and I
will work with staff much in the way that Jim and I did a couple years ago to (mumbled)
together some, you know, specific concerns, um, that, um, and ... that Ad Hoc Committee
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could take a look at, in similar fashion to what, uh, the committee you were on, Kingsley,
that you chaired. Um, and that's something I think it would be very helpful. I'm just
wondering what the rest of you think about that.
Botchway /' Well, what are you talking about as far as ... just for the (both talking)
Dobyns/ The Senior Center. For the Senior Center, taking a look at, um, issues towards senior
citizens in Iowa City and (mumbled) also applies somewhat in Johnson County. Some of
the stakeholders in this, um, would be bringing in people on this very specific issue from
the County, regarding, um, what could we participate in that would help them. Now this
is issues of, uh, you know, Ely and Solon and Lone Tree, as well, at the county level.
They might have a different answer to this than by having something that's always
centered in Iowa City. And they would be brought to this discussion because you know it
would apply to them, as well. But yes, Kingsley, that's what I'm thinking of is an Ad
Hoc Committee to take a look at, uh, senior issues, uh, specifically in Iowa City, and it
would also affect the majority of the jurisdictions, as well.
Throgmorton/ I'd think it'd be important to try to be clear about what the focus would be, and
heard you use the phrase `senior issues,' uh, that would be quite different from focusing
on the Senior Center and ... what services the Senior Center provides.
Dobyns/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ Right? So I think, uh, some more discussion and thought would need to be put
into how the topic should be framed, if... if a...
Dobyns/ Right.
Throgmorton/ ... if such a... an Ad Hoc Committee would be created.
Dobyns/ In a past life, I worked with the Johnson County, uh, you know, Senior Consortium that
worked for several years, and so I'm very aware of these issues at that level, as well. So I
would ... I have a sense of how it would have to focus down, um, you know, toward Iowa
City in particular.
Markus/ Maybe the way to address it is to move it to a work session and have this discussion in
greater detail (several responding)
Kopping/ I think, uh, I think, excuse me, go ahead.
Botchway/ Well, y question for you is what currently, I mean, you mentioned some of the
shortfalls as far as diversity. What currently are you doing to ... help that?
Kopping/ Well, we've done a lot of, uh, multi - cultural programming. We have a diversity
committee, uh, that has gone out and contacted minority, uh, communities, uh, we're
trying to organize a survey that will, um, go out and actually identify, uh, population
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groups so that we know where they're at, and uh, identify their interests. Uh, we don't
think it would be appropriate for us to decide what people want and take it in. We need
to work with them to find out what we can provide. Um ... and uh ... the ... the survey was
...is a key factor in ... in that. Um ... and in A ... our hope is that at some point in the
future that we would have an employee who could take programming out into the
neighborhoods where, uh, they could offer it to these, uh, individuals, say... say like at a,
uh, a church or a school or, uh, some place that's comfortable for people to come to and
um ... uh ... they could participate in those areas.
Dobyns/ In recognition that this is a larger issue, um, and wanting to, you know, move along,
what I'm looking for is that to bring something to work session we need three of us
(mumbled) so I'm looking for two others I guess is to be clear (laughs)
Throgmorton/ I think we should discuss it in a work session. (several responding)
Dobyns/ Okay, all right. Thank you.
Markus/ All right.
Botchway/ The other question I quickly had is, currently when you're talking about services, um,
we don't have like a check -mark box that says if you're a North Liberty resident and
you're using the Senior Center, you pay a particular fee. Anybody who wants to use the
Center ... or for anything in Johnson County, could just use the Center for anything, and
would pay the same fees as an Iowa City resident would pay.
Kopping/ That's not true. Um, Iowa City residents pay a lower fee.
Botchway/ Okay!
Kopping/ Um ... we also have a scholarship program, uh, so uh, lower income people pay, uh, a
much smaller fee, no matter where they're from. And if that is a hardship they... we
generally waive the fee entirely.
Markus/ But let's be clear, the fee differential does not make up the differential in the property
tax differential (several talking)
Hayek/ It's less expensive for an Iowa City resident but... but... visa vie the budget impact it's
not that ... not that much. (clears throat) Okay, other questions for, uh, for Linda? All
right. It's interesting to hear the results of that, uh, survey and... stay tuned! (several
talking)
Karr/ Planning and Community Development is page 77.
Planning and Community Development (pg. 77):
Hayek/ Jeffrey!
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Davidson/ Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome, Kingsley!
Botchway/ (several talking) Hey, how you doing?
Davidson/ Uh, no break or anything? Boy!
Hayek/ Keep on keepin' on!
Davidson/ You guys are beasts! (laughter) All right! Uh...
Dickens/ Of abuse!
Davidson/ ... (laughter) ... change the slide here. (several talking) There we go! Um, Planning
and Community Development Department, urn ... you know we work very extensively
with you, um, I believe we are 17.5 people from top to bottom in our department, and
probably at least two - thirds of those people you know directly from working with them
directly. So I think we're a little bit unique among City departments in that respect. We
also work obviously extensively with the public and uh, extensively with other, well,
virtually all of the other City departments. So, um, certainly a ... a very diverse, uh, set of
services that we provide and let's very briefly go through those. Uh, if there are any
questions about the organizational chart, I'd certainly be happy to answer those, um,
obviously I'm at the top there as the, uh, Director and then the three people directly
below me would basically constitute the administrative services portion of Planning. Uh,
that's 2.5 people, uh, that essentially try and provide the ... the tools and resources that
everyone else needs to, uh, to do their jobs, and then you can see we have the five ... five
divisions. Uh, and ... and I, one thing that has been a real strategy, uh, for us, certainly
since Tom came, uh, has been to sort of eliminate a lot of the divisional structure of the
department. Uh, we ... I mean, our biggest motivation is we simply have too much to do,
uh, and we have very talented people and we need to be able to pull, uh, people from
wherever we can to ... address whatever specific project or problem is before us, and so
we've really tried to do that, really tried to eliminate a lot of the verticality of the
department, uh, and I think you've seen that, uh, particularly in the Econo ... excuse me,
the Economic Development area which we'll talk about, uh, in just a little bit but um,
that's too great of a priority for the City and we have way too much to do in that division
for ... if you actually look at that division that will say 1.0 FTE, which is the biggest joke
(laughs) there is because, um, Tom had not been here long and... and we were discussing
things and he said, "Jeff, you need to let everyone in your department know that they're
in the Economic Development divi ... uh, business." And, uh, I think we've been very
successful in incorporating that into our department structure, and so although we're
going to take this division by division, I do want to emphasize that, uh ... uh, we very
much function as ... as one department and draw resources where they are needed. Okay,
um, taking off then from the administrative, uh, portion, let's talk a little about the
Community Development division. Uh, this is the division that administers our federal
programs, uh, specifically CDBG and Home, uh, and I know ... well, Matt for example,
came from, uh, the Housing and Community Development department, so has some
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specific knowledge there. Um, right now we're at about just slightly under a$ 1,000,000.
Uh, since 2011 that has been declining, between CDBG and Home, roughly one - third,
two - thirds. Uh, CDBG, uh, is for a variety of things but the ... the main things we use
them for is to acquire property, uh, and build housing, uh, affordable housing. Uh, we...
we have focused on rental because that has been deemed to be a particular need in our
community, although we do work plenty with, um, Habitat and groups like that that
provide owner- occupied housing. Uh, we also provide funding through the Aid to
Agencies process for various, uh, service agencies, uh, in Johnson County and you have a
summary of those, uh, in your budget. The other thing that we focus on is micro -
enterprise development, uh, for people who meet the income, uh, guidelines, uh, and we
are suggesting a program be added this year to augment that so that we'll have both a
program for people who meet the income guidelines, people who don't meet the income
guidelines, but basically try to, uh, foster businesses, help existing businesses grow. One
of the ... one of the things when we get to Economic Development that has really become
a focus is, although we're still trying to, you know, attract those Fortune 500 companies
to come and set up here, like Procter and Gamble did in the late 50s, um ... that is getting
to be more and more difficult, and a much better model is to try and grow businesses
from people who are already here in the community, perhaps even already have
businesses in the community, that that is ... that can really be a much more successful
strategy for us, uh, in terms of our bang for our buck, uh, and how we invest our funds,
and how we invest our funds, and the micro - enterprise program that we have operating
with CDBG funds is ... is one of the ways that we do that.
Markus/ Jeff, be ... before you go on, Jim, this is the program that you brought up and we kind of
discussed how to facilitate this, replicating a current program. So that's what that relates
to.
Davidson/ Right. And we'll obviously have to develop the, you know, the program rules and...
and the strategies to address exactly what it is that Council was ... was getting at, but
certainly it's ... it's great for us to have it appear to the public that there's one program,
and then we'll ... we'll find out where you fit, uh, in terms of whether or not we use
federal funds or the ... or the local funds, but it's a ... it's a great strategy and one that's
perfectly appropriate in this, uh, day and age. Um, we're particularly proud in the
Community Development division of our rehab programs — our housing rehab programs,
and we have actually a total of about seven, but again, that's one of those things that to
the public, it appears as one program, and we'll ... we ... we actually have one program
that's completely locally funded, uh, so that we don't have to be limited by the income
guidelines of CDBG, uh, the GRIP program, but the housing rehab programs are great.
They ... they directly address, um, any number of the strategic plan priorities, but certainly
the Healthy Neighborhoods, uh, priority, um ... uh, is one that we can address with that.
So ...so, uh, very successful and one that ... that draws from a number of, uh, funding
sources but is ... is one that's really popular. Uh, it also generates program income, um,
typically they are loans that are repaid, uh, some of them are forgivable, but typically
there's program income that then comes back and feeds back into the department, and we
have ... we have one FTE that exclusively deals with the rehab programs. Um, the
UniverCity Neighborhood Partnership, uh, started, well, this will be the third year in
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FYI 5. Uh, we've done 31 homes so far, 16 are being renovated right now. Uh, and we
hope to do 10 more in FYI 5. I know they just took tours on Friday of two more homes.
Uh, we have five neighborhoods that we focus on. Uh, the issue there being the balance
between rental and owner- occupied, but we have distinct areas — five neighborhoods, uh,
we try and have a distribution among all the neighborhoods and ... and these come ... these
come through the City Council every time we do one, so ... so you get to see exactly
where they are located and very, very successful program. Uh, one that's been a model
for other people, as well. I don't know how many times we get contacted by other
communities, uh, certainly in the state of Iowa and ... and ... and very, very good program.
Um, the other thing that's really been a focus in this division that is ... is tapering off and
almost finished but has been the flood recovery program, since 2008. Uh, we ended up
with, um ... uh, 93 residential buyouts, um and 106 residential rehabilitations through
various funding that came through the flood, uh, recovery programs. Uh, and there were
79 businesses assisted. Uh, that was fairly early on through the Jumpstart Program that
the State had. Um, but I will tell you that even ... even with those programs, some of the
administrative requirements we're still not quite through with, uh, dotting `I's and
crossing `T's. We have two more big, um, audits that will occur this late winter and
spring, uh, that we're gearing up for and ... and I can stand here and tell you I have grat
confidence that you're not going to see any headlines in the newspaper like some of the
headlines you've seen in other communities. Uh, our folks have done a great job. We
actually had one, uh, individual — Doug Ongie — his last day was Friday. He's taken
another position in Boulder, Colorado, knowing that those two positions will cease at the
end of the fiscal year. Uh, we wish Doug well. David Purdy'll be handling everything
the rest of the way. Uh, we also have several CDBG public infrastructure projects. This
was the CDBG funds that came from Washington, to the State, and then allocated to us.
Uh, a couple of things ongoing — the Rocky Shore lift station, which is just now getting
ready to be implemented. Uh, the west side levee, uh, flood proofing of the well heads at
the ... the water treatment plant is ... is already completed, but there's a lot of
administrative work still to go, and David, uh, will be helping with that for the remainder
of the fiscal year, and then hopefully leaving, uh, the Public Works' department, you
know, once it gets into the implementation stage, Public Works, Engineering takes over,
but he'll make sure that everything is, uh, looking good with those. Uh, so that's pretty
much it for Community Development. Uh, let's move on then to Economic Development
and I mentioned already that the 1.0 FTE, uh, certainly does not, uh, tell the story. When
...when I'm asked, uh, what our strategies are for economic development, the ... probably
the simplest summary is to say to grow the property tax base and create new jobs. And to
do that in a manner that fits into our community objectives that ... that ultimately
you ... you decide. Uh, that's... that's certainly an oversimplification, but I think it does
sum up ultimately what we're trying to do in the Economic Development Division. As I
said, I ... I would dare say virtually every person in our department, uh, certainly myself,
probably 60 to 70% of my time is spent with economic development. Uh, and... and so
we devote a lot of time, a lot of energy. I mean, it's right there at the top of the strategic
plan priorities and so, uh, we need to make sure we're bringing the, uh, devoting the
right, uh, amount of effort to it. Um, you know, the ... the economy is coming out of the
doldrums of 2007, 2008. I mean I think it's probably fair to say it's ... it's virtually out of
where it was and certainly, uh, in ... in the deep recesses of it, uh, right after the flood.
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Uh, we have been, you know, we're ... we're very fortunate here that we have a
community that has a dynamic to it that is enabling us to really get ahead of some of the
other places, uh, certainly in the state of Iowa, but in the whole country in terms of, uh,
how we can move strategically into the (coughing, unable to hear speaker) whatever you
want to call it, uh, but ... but the next iteration of...of what this community is going to be,
and we're trying to take ... take advantage of that, position ourselves, uh, in a competitive
environment to, you know, really, uh, do everything that we can. Um, the Economic
Development Division does have some specific things, um, just real quickly to highlight.
The hotel /motel tax funds come through this division and are distributed to, uh, a number
of things, uh, including the, uh, well the most significant one is the Convention and
Visitors Bureau, uh, pass - through, but then also some other local programs that we fund.
Uh, the funding for the City of Literature, $60,000; the Englert Theater, $70,000 — which
is a $20,000 a year increase; uh, the Riverside Theater — we're in three three of three, the
third year of three, uh, for that 20 and that was a sliding scale. It's $20,000, uh, this year.
Uh, you'll see that there's a $100,000 fund, uh, which is labeled Economic Development
Assistance. You'll sometimes hear myself or Wendy refer to it as our `economic
development opportunities fund' and this is a fund that's discretionary under the City
Manager's control, at least up to I believe it's $50,000. We then always apprise the
Economic Development Committee, uh, which is three of you, um, of...of any decisions
that have been made with those funds, but again that's... that's all here. Um ... let's see,
oh, there's also $100,000 budgeted under Other Professional Services. Uh, which is
ICAD. That's actually down from $125,000. $125,000 reflected getting the Co -Lab
started, and so we're back down to where we were with ICAD. Um, and that's a ... that's
another thing I wanted to emphasize is that, you know, we do have a couple of real
important partners, uh, that work with us in the economic development projects. You
know, we are trying to be an ... and it's been a ... a big initiative and priority of Tom's to
be, um ... have specific criteria that we use for making determinations of City financial
assistance on projects, and I think we're doing a great job with that. Um, you know, in
particular with the TIF projects. Obviously those are the high - profile type projects. Uh,
we even have some further, uh, stratification of that in the works that we're going to be
bringing to the Economic Development Committee. Again, we're trying to ... to reflect
the objectives for the community that you have for use of those funds, and we realize
there's (laughs) not going to be complete consensus among the seven individuals that are
before me here, but we do want to come up ... it's to our advantage, certainly makes our
jobs easier, if people who come to us for that assistance realize it's not just free money
that's laying out there — come and get some of it. That there are things they are going to
need to be prepared to bring to the table in order to, uh, receive that funding. I started to
talk about a couple of our partners. ICAD is certainly one, uh, with the inter -state
commerce type businesses, uh, and even though that is still slow to come back from the
post -2007 environment, I will tell you that we do get contacted and are in competitions
for industrial location decisions, that if we did not have the industrial park with the
shovel -ready status, we wouldn't even be contacted about. Uh, we are right now in the
process of hiring a broker service to represent us and get a little more aggressive with the
marketing of that, uh, of that park out there, so that we are ready for the, uh, the ones that
do come along. Typically they contact the State. They say we're only interested in a
shovel -ready site, needs to have rail access, also needs to have a, b, c, d, e. We get
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contacted then and we're basically in a ... in a competition and A ... um, again, I just want
to say that ... that is something that occurs on a regular basis. Uh, in addition to ICAD, we
also have a contract with the National Development Corporation, uh, Raquel Favela is a
name that should be familiar to you; uh, her predecessor was Tom Jackson. They provide
a very ... we ... we have right now three people, two ... two people for sure and a third one
that's sort of a ... a project that ... that's in process to get trained up on doing the very, uh,
detailed financial analysis. But there's even an order of magnitude beyond that of
expertise that National Development Council, I think I said corporation, National
Development Council helps us with. Um, and... and whenever we have requests for TIF
assistance, part of our analysis of those projects is for the National Development Council
to do a gap analysis. They work directly with the applicant so that things that are
proprietary or ... or confidential can be disclosed to NDC; doesn't have to be public
information disclosed with us. We then get a report which goes to you and part of your
decision - making of...determining whether a project is going to go forward or not. So the
relationship with NDC is definitely money well spent, uh, and ... and something we hope
to continue. Urn ... let's see, I went through the annual commitments. Uh, you know, in
terms of TIF, again, I don't know if there's specific questions that you have, um, you
know, a statistic that I like to, uh, give out when appropriate is that 3% of Johnson
County's valuation that's being used for TIF projects is in Iowa City. Uh, 3 %; uh, 85%
in two of our neighboring communities. So I think that's a statistic that we can be proud
of and shows our careful use, um, of that tool. Uh, let's move on then to Urban Planning.
Uh, which I would like to add the label Urban Planning and Historic Preservation,
because historic preservation, uh, is all done through that division and is an important
aspect of that division. Urban planning is sort of the traditional planning department
functions, uh, short, uh, short-range and long -range planning. Current planning you
could call it, uh, and long -range planning. Uh, certainly don't need to tell you because,
uh, they're on your agenda every week but the ... the rezonings and the subdivisions have
really picked up in the last couple of years, uh, much ... much more activity now, which
we're ... we're pleased to see in terms of people platting property, uh, rezoning property,
and planning, uh, platting it. Obviously the platting is important because that's the
exercise when separates a piece of property into individual building lots that can then be
sold, and either, uh, businesses or homes built on it. So that's something that we like to
make sure. Um, we, uh, I meant to mention, we have in the Planning Department some
of the very visible ... uh, boards and commissions, the Planning and Zoning Commission,
the Zoning Board of Adjustment, Historic Preservation Commission all are staffed by the
Urban Planning Division. Um ... we also, obviously, Housing and Community
Development has HCDC, um, in the Community Development Division, and then there's
the Public Art Advisory Committee, the City Council Economic Development
Committee, all staffed, uh, through the Planning Department. Um ... uh, long -range
planning, uh, I do want to emphasize, you know, long -range planning sometimes gets a
little lost in the mix, you know, the focus is always on current planning, somebody
applies for a rezoning, brings in a plat. There are then statutory requirements in terms of
the amount of time we take to review that. Uh, we have a process that's undergone a lot
of, uh, scrutiny and evaluation in the last couple of years, and I think we've really got
things operating much better. We hope to even do some things, uh, in the upcoming year
to further streamline that process, but I think we're in a much better place than we were,
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uh, a few years ago. But I think it's really important for us not to neglect the long -range
planning, uh, portion of it. Our district plans, the Comprehensive Planning efforts, like
the Riverfront Crossings District. Uh, I mean, the amount of property speculation and
increased property values that have ... has resulted just from you adopting that plan and
the very first project starting, like the Midwest One Building and that sort of thing. I
mean, it's phenomenal, and we just really, I think, need to continue to be diligent in our
long -range planning efforts, uh, and ... and make sure that we have the appropriate
resources there for that. Another thing that has really ratcheted up that ... that I just want
to make sure is not for... forgotten, uh, is our zoning text amendments. I mean, these are
the things, uh, even though that doesn't sound terribly glamorous and exciting, but we
basically use to resolve things that are in crisis. Or, people that are in crisis. Uh,
examples would be, um ... payday lending restrictions, uh, wind energy systems. We had
a major corporation that wanted to put up a wind turbine. They weren't able to do it
because the zoning ordinance didn't allow it. Now they can. Um ... the keeping of
chickens in neighborhoods, um, bringing conforming property into compliance with the
zoning code when that needs to occur; when it doesn't need to occur. Um, flexibility in
the woodland provisions of the sensitive areas ordinance. We had a developer who was
simply unable to develop a piece of property; we made some modifications and... and that
was able to be resolved, and that's the kind of thing that we try and do with these. Um,
we tried to put, um ... um ... density bonuses into the zoning code so that we could encor...
encourage elder housing. Uh, we put bonuses into the zoning code to allow taller
buildings downtown, uh, for additional office floors. There's trying to create additional
employment opportunities. You do that by making, uh, office space available so the
people can come and look at it. Uh, ICAD kept telling us and telling us and telling us, we
...people come to us and we don't have anything to show `em, so that we're really trying
to get some spec space, uh, out on the market. Uh, the City has helped with almost every
effort because developers tell us they go to the banks and the banks will not finance spec
office space right now. Uh, we hope that that changes, but in the meantime, we think it's
appropriate for us to be involved and we think we're going to have some exciting
employment, uh, decisions, um ... uh, hopefully because of that. Uh, we ... we went, uh,
into some, uh, easing of regulations between the commercial intensive and community
commercial zone. Um ... and ... and I guess what I want to emphasize is that the, oh, I
know the thing I ... I wanted to mention is that when the, uh, dental lab burned down in
the Longfellow Neighborhood we had to make a zoning code text amendment to allow
them to rebuild in the neighborhood, and again, resolved a crisis for a specific citizen,
business, uh, that was a great thing. When we do these, however, we have to take every
possible circumstance that could then result from that text amendment change, and
scrutinize it very, very carefully, not just resolve the problem that's right in front of us,
but make sure that we've got something that's going to result in ... a community that we
want to see built up, and so these take a great deal of time. We have done ... 24 of these in
the last two years. Uh, and I think we probably did 24 in the preceding 10 years before
that. So, this is something that's a priority, and again, we need to make sure that we have
the resources devoted to it. In terms of historic preservation, uh, through your action we
added the Jefferson Street Historic District last year. So we now have 12 historic districts
and conservation districts in Iowa City, and certainly, uh, Councilor Champion, uh, was a
great, uh, well, a great champion (laughter) of, uh, the benefits of historic districts. She
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lived in one and I think a couple of you live in them, as well. Uh, but in terms of
addressing that healthy neighborhoods strategic plan, uh, initiative, I can't emphasize
enough how important this is. Uh, we now have 1,235 properties and 56 landmarked
buildings that are in ... either in these districts, some of the landmarked buildings are not
in the districts, but they are landmarked buildings, and whenever there is building permit
activity result, uh, with any of those properties, we have to review, uh, what is proposed
under the, uh, Federal Secretary of the Interior's standards for, uh, historic preservation.
Uh, we have one person on staff and a contract employee who worked with us to do that.
The contract employee works basically one day a week. So you know we went from
having a permanent staff person that could address people coming in, uh, five days a
week to one day a week, but you know we're making it work and in the meantime, we try
and answer as many questions as we can. One thing I would emphasize is, you know, the
people that come in with the historic preservation issues are typically not developers.
They may not even be contractors. They may be people just like us who just want to be
able to do something to their home, and so I will say that our people are very, very good
at, you know, sitting down, working it out, trying to figure out a compromise. It takes a
certain amount of time to do that with each one of these, but I ... I think we ... we've gotten
a pretty good system in place for doing that, and I think are ... are meeting that good
compromise of, okay, this may cost a little bit more but it's going to result in the kind of
neighborhoods that you see, uh, in the historic, uh, districts. And I'm certainly pleased,
in some communities historic districts I think are associated with gentrification or uh,
places that are solely for upper income people, and that's not that way in Iowa City. I
mean, we have neighborhoods that are very modest, middle income neighborhoods,
maybe even middle -lower income neighborhoods, uh, that are also historic districts, and I
think that's particularly, uh, important because it...it results in great neighborhoods for
everyone, uh, in the community. Um... finally then, in terms of, uh, in terms of, uh, I ... I
noted that with your strategic plan work this year you've added sustainability, uh, as one
of your priorities to ... to basically permeate everything, uh, in the strategic plan and we
think that's particularly appropriate and something that we are trying to address, as well,
uh, in the work that we do in the Planning Department and the uh, Urban Planning
Division specifically. You know, we're ... we're trying to, you know, keep the
community in a place. You know, it's a no accident that every livability index that comes
out now in ... in whatever media source, Iowa City's on it. Um, you know, I like to think
it's because of the things that we all have done in terms of how we implement building in
this community that's resulted in that place that is considered so desirable now. Um,
finally then to wrap up, Neighborhood Services and Public Art. Uh, Neighborhood
Services, uh, Division began in the mid -90s. Uh, with the 1997 Comp Plan we ... we
made a real order of magnitude change of basically having the Comp Plan be a collection
of esoteric planning principles to instead seeing it as `the city,' as a `collection of
neighborhoods,' and this was phenomenally successful because there's nothing for
getting people interested in something as to say it impacts their neighborhood, and so uh,
this was a really great way to approach comprehensive planning, uh, and... and really
kind of made our Neighborhood Services Division, uh, take off. Uh, Marcia Bollinger
staffs that division. Uh, we have 33 neighborhood, uh, association... associations. Uh,
Marcia's position is to keep the two -way communication going. Um, you know, of the
33 associations, some are very active, some are I'd have to say pretty much inactive, um,
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excuse me, others become active when there's an issue, uh, and ... and you know, that's to
be expected, uh, but Marcia works with them. She ... we ... we also have some specific
neighborhoods that, you know, for one reason or another I think could be labeled `at risk'
neighborhoods that we try and focus on. Miller Orchard was one that ... that you all
helped us with, uh, spectacularly in the last couple of years, uh, and we want to keep that
going, but Grant Wood and Twain, um, and ... and most recently the ... the Gilbert Court,
Highland neighborhood, which is more of a commercial neighborhood, but we're trying
to address some specific issues, uh, there, and Marcia focuses on those basically as ... as
the, as is appropriate. Uh, the PIN grant program, the program for improving
neighborhoods, $15,000 a year, uh, annual projects. Uh, that's funded through, uh, this
division. Um, Public Art was started in 1997 as a joint venture between the City and the
Chamber of Commerce. Uh, originally we had $100,000 a year. Then it was cut to
$50,000 a year, and then it was cut pretty much entirely, uh, to basically a maintenance-
type budget that we've been operating with, uh, lately. I'm really proud of the projects
that we, with a very, very minimal amount of funding, we've still been able to
accomplish. Basically what we try and do is take, I believe there's $12,000 budgeted for
FYI 5, and we'll use that for maintenance of our existing public art inventory, taking
advantage of partnerships, for example the Dubuque Street ramp mural that was done in
partnership with a locer ... local developer and also matching, uh, grants that we're able
to, uh .... uh, receive. Uh, most recently the Northside Marketplace, uh, public art
expansion of the ... the literary walk into the Northside Marketplace was an example of
that, and if you haven't had a chance to see our most recent pri ... uh, public art project,
there's now a trail portal to the Sycamore Greenway on Lakeside Drive. Definitely get
down and see it. The same artist that did the, um ... Pheasant Hill Park, uh, mosaic, uh,
sculptures up there did the trail portal down there and it just ... we just got that wrapped
up. We're going to wait til spring to have a ... uh ... um, a ceremony there, but uh,
something that worked with, uh, City High art teacher, some City High students, and
some Grant Wood, uh, neighborhood kids to get implemented and it looks beautiful,
so ... um, that ... oh, and how could I forget? MPOJC, Metropolitan Planning
Organization, um ... uh, exists because of basically a federal requirement for any
community over 50,000. Uh, all of you have participated, uh, in ... in, uh, well, JCCOG
and then MPOJC, so, uh, I won't elaborate too much. Uh, I'm trying to look here ... um,
there is a $20,000 line for consultant services. This is related to traffic engineering,
specifically, um, several years ago a determination was made by the Public Works
Department to eliminate the traffic engineer position, um, from the City staff and then
basically the functions of that went to MPOJC in terms of doing the reports, uh, and the
studies that are required, uh, for traffic engineering. We occasionally get into some areas
where we require a level of expertise, chiefly with traffic signals, uh, and ... and
optimizing traffic signal systems that we use, uh, this funding for here. Uh, we have the
traffic count program, which has a regular replacement schedule for the traffic counters.
Uh, that's a piece of equipment that gets run over all day long, so they tend to wear out
quickly, but it's real ... it's really critical for the data that we, uh, collect. Um, you know,
I've always been very pleased as someone who was, you know, with JCCOG from the
very beginning, that it has expanded into a venue for discussion of any community -wide
issue. Most recently we've had affordable housing and then I guess a plastic bag
committee, subcommittee, that's formed now. Susan's nodding; I believe you're the
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representative on that. Um, and I think that's a great function. You know, you guys were
earlier talking about something with the Board of Supervisors, and ... and I do think that
having MPOJC there as venue, where everybody's sitting down and looking each other in
the eye — even though it is a public meeting — um, I think that's clearly beneficial, and
Iowa City's support is roughly 50 %. You get the benefit of that organization. The
employees are City employees in the same manner as all of us are City employees, but
then by 28E agreement they provide some of their services to the other communities, of
JCCOG, but ... Iowa City pays roughly 50% (noises on mic) of that organization. So
that's a quick review. Any questions?
Hayek/ You know, this ... this is as much a CIP comment as a ... as an organizational comment.
To ... earlier today Tom made clear that one of the things that keeps him up at night is the
prospect of losing our triple -A Moody's rating. As it should. Um, there are a lot of
things that, uh, keep me up at night related to the City, one of which is, um ... uh, is our
neighborhoods, and I ... I just want to use this opportunity to remind all of us, I think we
need to keep careful watch on, um, on our neigh ... on our aging neighborhoods, um,
especially the ones that ... that came up in the ... that were constructed in the 50s, 60s, and
70s, an era of less architectural, uh, quality or ... or attractiveness, urn ... those are the ones
that worry me a lot. The Northside had its dark years, but because those homes had an
architectural quality that made them attractive for reinvestment, you see a great
resurgence of that area. But there are a lot of neighborhoods that don't have that, and...
and they're ... it's primarily on the east and southeast end, um, but I've ... I also see it on
the south side. I see it on the near ... near west side, in the vicinity of Oaknoll. It's on the
northside in certain places, like on Prairie du Chien. There are areas of Iowa City where I
see, based on my 40 -some years in this community, a ... a slow sometimes imperceptible
but nevertheless clear, uh, decline I would say in maintenance of those homes. It's one of
the reasons why our rehab program is so important, um, but I ... but these areas encompass
such a footprint as a... as a percentage of the overall footprint of Iowa City, um,
that ... that I worry that ... that a lack of attention, and I'm not saying we are inattentive to
those areas! But I think we ought to be really careful to continue watching them
because... because a continued slide of some of these areas would, I think, really have an
impact on the city and on our efforts to focus a portion of our strategic planning, uh, on
... on... on neighborhood, uh, you know, strong neighborhoods and that sort of thing. So I
...I just want to comment that it's one of the things I ... I notice the most as I drive around.
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd like to reinforce that just a little bit, Matt, cause another of the prime, uh,
features of those particular neighborhoods is that a large proportion of the buildings of
the residential buildings in `em are very affordable.
Hayek/ Yeah, they're modest!
Throgmorton/ They tend to be of modest scale and so on. So we can't let them decline. If we
do, we're really harming ourselves in the long run.
Hayek/ And I don't know what the trick is. It's, you know, you can get somebody to go into the
northside and ... and refurbish a Queen Anne, you know, gem that ... that spent 40 years as
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a rental unit but has good bones. It's hard to do that with ... with some of this more
modest housing stock. Especially when... residential standards have changed and ... and
...and people expect different things and they don't have ... you don't ... you don't get that
same return, but anyway, enough said about that.
Davidson/ Point well taken. I mean, there's an ebb and flow with all neighborhoods. Uh ... you
know, a lot of us can remember what Brown Street was 20, 25 years ago. Even Summit
Street. And it ... to see them come back is just an example.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Davidson/ And ... and I agree completely, Matt, that all neighborhoods in the city deserve the
attention.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Mims/ I think attracting, finding ways to attract young people to some of those older
neighborhoods is essential, um ... my daughter was just talking yesterday about the fact
... she lives on Spruce Street, property backs up to MidAmerican down there near
Kirkwood, and she'd gone across the street to help her neighbor shovel his driveway, and
he's an older gentleman, Vietnam vet, partially disabled, his wife disabled, and so they
were visiting and stuff and he says, why ... why would a young person like you want to
live in this neighborhood? You know, so quiet and she said, oh that's why I love it. It's
just quiet, I mean, everybody in the neighborhood, other than her, and ... and her newer
neighbors is probably retired, you know, and she's 29 years old. Um ... but you know,
she's got a nice little starter house. She loves it. Um, I don't know, built back in the 50s
or 60s, whatever, but you got a lot of young people who like this gentleman said wouldn't
want to live in a neighborhood like that. And so I think we've got to find ways to, um,
entice younger people to see the attractiveness of these neighborhoods, and to understand
that there is a lot of affordable housing in this community available for purchase. A lot of
affordable housing. It ... it's not the glamour stuff! But that's not affordable, and so you
know, and it may not be what they grew up in, you know, as their parents got older and
could afford more ... better housing, but it's great. A lot of it's solid, well- built,
structurally sound, uh, great starter homes for five to ten years and we've just ... we've got
to make people aware of that.
Hayek/ And, you know, the ... in terms of the ... to make that a competitive, um, and attractive
option for young people, you gotta... the... the contrast of course is ... is sort of the track
housing you see out in the suburbs, which may be in the same price range. It's farther
out.
Mims/ Uh huh.
Hayek/ But it's got the bells and whistles people want, two -plus stall garages and finished
basements and all these other things, whereas this older stuff, you know, maybe doesn't
even have any garage, or if it does maybe has one small one and... something for us to
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think about. Because, you know, the neighborhoods I ... I remember, uh, lot of great
families living in on the east and south side and on the north side growing up, um, I don't
see that as much now. Um, because they've got these suburban options that draw them
out there, and so it'll be a trick for us to figure out how to ... how to target those
neighborhoods, I think.
Mims/ Yeah.
Davidson/ Yeah, and a huge challenge for us is we all know the wonderful neighborhoods that
there are in Iowa City. Okay, how can we create new neighborhoods that are just as
wonderful as those, and that's one of the things, you know, we've been grappling with
specifically in terms of the two new elementary schools, and we're going to have
additional discussion, uh, at the Coun ... the next Council meeting...
Hayek/ Yeah.
Davidson/ ...er, the, not the upcoming Council meeting, but the second one in January, and how
we bring that quality to the new neighborhoods is a really, really critical issue for us.
Dobyns/ You know, Jeff, I lose sleep thinking that Matt loses sleep (both talking)
Davidson/ ... are any of you sleeping? (several talking and laughing)
Dobyns/ ...they get cranky, Tom gets cranky when he loses sleep, urn ... and Jeff, uh, this applies
sort of periodically, what, three times a year you talk about the strategic plan, but we go
over, um, neighborhood stabilization, and I know that I've talked with you several times,
Jeff, about other, um, certain neighborhoods — Miller Orchard for instance — um,
UniverCity, uh, planning on plic ... putting a local park there, perhaps, uh, soon. Um, the
fact that Riverfront Crossings is going to be building up — these are positive things that
are going to enhance at -risk neighborhoods. There are several at -risk neighborhoods, and
I was wondering, uh, Geoff Fruin, when we get to the next time we talk about strategic
planning, if we could perhaps as part of your discussion focus on some of these at -risk
neighborhoods that keep Matt awake at night (laughter) and talk about what we're
specifically looking at going forward strategically, in terms of preserving the stabilization
of those particular neighborhoods, cause I can think of conversations I've had, but I don't
think we've ever looked at it in terms of a, sort of a neighborhood -by- neighborhood type
of a style, and just for consideration ... at future discussions.
Markus/ But you know I ... I hear conversations around this table and from Jeff, you're all kind of
talking about the same thing, and I think we're all close to having the same kind of desire
to achieve something, it's just that we haven't fit the pieces together in terms of a
program to make it work. While I was sitting here listening to this conversation, I'm
thinking, well I wonder if we provided a downpayment assistance program like we do
with the UniverCity program. We call it something different. We get some pioneers
moving into these neighborhoods. They become popular again. They start to repopulate
with kids again. There's schools in those areas. We're rebuilding the schools in those
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areas (several talking) you know ... the first ... you know, and you've made this comment,
you know, we ... we've heard this groundswell of commentary in the community. We
need to provide more affordable housing. And ... and you go, I drive around and I see a
lot of affordable housing.
Mims/ There is!
Markus/ But we haven't figured out how to transition that housing stock into what's called
affordable housing, because we don't have a program associated with it to help people to
get into their own houses. So ... I think we're touching on all the same things here. We
just have to kind of hone in on what's the program that makes this work. This
UniverCity program that the Planning Department came up with is about as good a
program as you'll find around the country, and again, it's like when ... when Jim asked
about a program for getting, you know, investment in small business. We got a program
in place. All we gotta do is kind of replicate what we (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
...program that works. It's called UniverCity. How do we take that program and morph
that into something that works in these neighborhoods that Matt's concerned about and
addresses Jim concern about affordable housing and makes that all work. It's there! We
just have to kind of...we gotta, you know, cross -hatch this thing so that it all lines up and
makes it work. And I think that can happen!
Throgmorton/ Tom, this is making me think of, uh, a... a new program or a tool that, uh, Housing
and Urban Development and I think the DOT have come up with called Housing Locator,
no not... house ... (laughs) ... Housing Affordability Model. Steve Long told me about it.
I ... I'm going to get the title wrong, I'm sure, but what it does is look at the combination
of housing affordability and transportation affordability, cause you know, you have to
move from where you live to where you work, where you go to school and all that kind
of stuff. You put the two together; you can find ... you can discover that certain locations
are much more affordable when you combine those two factors, than other locations
where the housing appears to be more affordable by itself. (several talking)
Markus/ It's all very consistent with what we're talking about in the same regard about economic
development with commercial and industrial development. And Terry likes to quote me
on this, but I used to say, or what I'd ... when I was first here I would say, it's a lot easier
to invest where the infrastructure already is, rather than trying to take it out someplace
else and reinvent the infrastructure to support the affordable housing. The same thing
applies with the housing stock here. I ... I know the neighborhoods that Matt's talking
about. I get that. We just need to figure out how we get people moving in to those areas
and with a little assistance, we know, we're done with it. We've started to get families
back in there. We've created a better environment.
Throgmorton/ There's another linkage here and that's to what, uh, Mike Moran was talking
about earlier with regard to neighborhood parks.
Hayek/ Absolutely!
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Mims/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ You know, find a few parks that can really be revitalized, as he said `refreshed,'
and then suddenly makes the neighborhood as a whole seem more lively, more attractive,
more appealing, and so on.
Hayek/ And that's why we jump on him for, you know, the park side. That's why we've jumped
on the School District, and fortunately we're starting to see major reinvestments in Twain
and you know Mann and those places.
Mims/ Yeah, Twain was ... actually what I just started thinking about when you mentioned that,
because we had that presentation that time about Twain. (several responding) Has
anything... gone anywhere?
Hayek/ I don't know about the exterior, but the ... the building itself (several talking) is getting a
major facelift.
Davidson/ Yeah, the gentleman who was kind of behind that, you know, ran for School District
and (several talking) didn't get on and I think has just kind of getting his energy back a
little bit, so we're ... we're in contact with that group, but it's slowed down a little bit.
Mims/ Okay!
Davidson/ Yeah.
Mims/ Good!
Hayek/ So ... okay.
Mims/ All right. Great.
Hayek/ Thanks, Jeff!
Davidson/ Thank you!
Parking (Pg. 114):
Karr/ Parking is page 114.
Dobyns/ You have one hour and then we charge you!
O'Brien/ (laughter) I'll keep it under (laughter)
Markus/ No you don't have an hour, Chris! (several talking and laughing)
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O'Brien/ So back in 1972 ... no, I'm just (laughter) Urn ... Chris O'Brien, Director of
Transportation Services. I'm going to start with the parking summary. Um, I always like
to start off just kind of talking about the ... the department itself. Uh, parking is an
enterprise fund. Um, not a part of the General Fund, meaning it's self - sufficient. Um,
we have four parking facilities that are in the parking fund. Now keep in mind we have
five overall, one of which is funded out of the ... the transit fund, uh, the Court Street
Transportation Center. That was an FTA funded facility. Uh, we operate seven days a
week, urn ... we also have seven parking lots, um, we're responsible for, uh, operations of
parking facilities, parking lots, uh, the enforcement and maintenance facilities, uh, ZipCar
is something that we brought on a couple years ago. Um, we joined ... we had a joint
agreement with the University to bring ZipCar on. Uh, we started to get into the bicycle
facility piece as part of our transportation services model, uh, and then also we do a lot of
assistance over the last few years with snow removal downtown. Um, as far as the ... the
parking stalls, the streets downtown is something that we ... we also address. Um... you
know some trending that we've had over the last few years is ... is we've automated a lot
of our processes and so as people have, through attrition as people have left our
department, we've ... we've continued to ... uh, reduce the number of...of staff people that
we have due to the equipment that we've put in place. Um, so we've had some one -time
costs that have helped our operating budget then, um, over the ... over the coming years.
So, and we're right in the middle ... we're probably actually towards the latter quarter of
some of those investments. Um, some highlights and ... and, Matt, you talked about
things that keep you up at night, uh, one thing that keeps me up at night, or did, was first
hour free ... when we brought that on (laughter) Um, knots in my stomach! And it went
so ... it went so well through the ... it went through quickly, along with the ... the rate
increases that, uh, I didn't know when the other shoe was going to drop, but that's been I
think one of those programs that you put it in place and you really have no idea, cause
you haven't done a model like that before. Um, even ... even though it was successful...
in other places, um, it's been extremely successful here. Uh, there've been a lot of... a lot
of positives that have come out of that. Um, we've seen an increase in the number of
vehicles within our facilities, uh, we've seen turnover. We have a... a study in spring
that'll verify this but anecdotally I can tell you that, uh, you're seeing more open spaces
in the center of downtown, uh, not to the point that it looks odd, but that cars are turning
over. Businesses, uh, have made several comments to us about how great it's been. A lot
of positive feedback. Um, and from a financial standpoint which is where I was talking
about the knots in my stomach, it ... it's actually... it's actually worked. Um, we've been
able to kind of balance out, um ... the increases with on- street revenues with the decreases
we anticipated in the facilities, um, and we're actually seeing an increase in the amount
of time in our facilities, urn ... which has resulted in, in not quite as big a loss as we
anticipated in those facilities because people are staying longer once they get in, um, and
we're anticipating that it's because of the first hour free.
Markus/ It's one of those counter - intuitive things that people do, and when you lay it out on
paper, it just doesn't make sense, but it works. And ... Chris and I had this conversation
before he went ahead with this, and I've seen it at work, I've seen it work in other places,
and it is so counter - intuitive to think that you can give things away and end up at the end
of the day making more money, but we did! And it...it did work.
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Dickens/ Just education basically in ... I think that's what we've found...
Markus / Whole marketing program.
Dickens/ ... some of the people, oh, those meters are so expensive. First hour's free in the ramp.
Once you tell `em that, they're fine! (laughs)
O'Brien/ No, and I... (mumbled) obviously the way we were set up prior was having on- street
and off - street rates the same, and I ... I've for years, those of you who have been on the
Council, I've preached that that can't work, and it...it didn't, you know, and now that
we're ... the on- streets, uh, the high -demand spaces are ... are certainly higher than
the ... the off - street spaces, uh, the model worked out exactly how it should. Uh, we're to
the point we're almost... compared to FYI 3, almost even in the facilities and substantially
higher off - street. So we're ... that balance is working out well for us.
Dickens/ Is there any ... been any consideration for handicap? The handicap, uh, parking meters
being less?
O'Brien/ Uh, that came up once we had ... I think that's something we'll look at in year two and
three (both talking)
Dickens/ ...people stop...
O'Brien/ ...and make comments about that? That's something we can certainly look at. Um,
we've only had, I think, one comment that I recall since we've ... we've implemented it,
but that's something we can look at. Um ... you know, I think one of the things for
parking for this coming budget, the FYI 5, is ... is ... it's kind of a year of transition where
we don't have any huge projects to implement. We've, uh, you know, we had the first
hour free and then the new meter technology that we implemented last year, um, with the
credit card functionality, um, that also has been great. Um, we're seeing, um, let me
make sure I get the numbers right. Um, overall since July we're at 36% of our transact...
or 36% of our revenues are from credit card.
Mims/ Huh!
O'Brien/ But if you look at October, it was 42 %, and December was 44 %. So we're ... we're
creeping up to that, half of our revenues are coming in from the credit cards. So, um,
which has also been ... that was ... that was part of the, when we first implemented it, and
working with the Downtown District, they wanted more convenient and additional
options for people to pay for their parking. So...
Throgmorton/ Chris, I ... I want to follow up on that. (several talking) Do you have any sense of
what the malfunction rate is on those new meters? I ... I ask, you know, simply because
I've encountered some that haven't worked and yesterday, uh, I was trying to put some
money in the lot across from El Banditos and saw scribbled on the meter, uh, this thing
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sucks (laughter) you know, and I think the ... the malfunction rate's pretty small, I mean,
very small but I don't know. Do you have any measure of it?
O'Brien/ Yeah, and our concern right now is the ... when you get to this type of cold, we're
starting to see some of the batteries start to waiver, and ... and so we're in the process of
changing those out, which has led to some of the failures, but as far as coin misreads,
things like that, the ... the auto - reports we're getting, it ... it's a very small percentage
of...of coin misreads compared to the actual takes. So I ... I don't know that there's...
um, a huge failure rate with that. It's the battery turnover that we're going through right
now, that is leading to some of that.
Dickens/ Operator error! (laughs)
O'Brien/ No, you know, that's ... those are pretty simple. The credit card functionality, we had
some issues at the beginning because, uh, when you put the credit card in, the interior
mo ... it has a modem that would wake up ... wake up ... when the card went in (laughter)
and that was leaving the huge delays and people were getting frustrated with that (both
talking)
Mims/ ... first time I used it (both talking)
O'Brien/ ...so we went and we changed that to where we have that modem running all the time,
which also impacts the battery. So we're... there's some ... a new software update that'll
take care of a lot of that, um, as far as the battery, uh, expenditure that happens from that.
Dobyns/ So if you force a credit card in the wrong way (laughter) pushing it real hard, does it
break the machine?
O'Brien/ No!
Mims/ It breaks the credit card (laughs)
O'Brien/ No the issue is (laughter) we've had ... we've had people shove dimes in the credit card
(several talking) which then leads to some issues with the credit card functionality but...
Payne/ Can't you read the picture? (several talking)
Dobyns/ ...my glasses...
Botchway/ Has there been any thought to like, um, more of...like the Google wallet approach or
just like tapping your credit card against something and deducting it automatically?
O'Brien/ Yeah, for the ... for the single -space technology, which, you know, some of you
remember that were on Council, we ... we went through a two -week trial where we put
out, um, multi -space meters versus single- space, and 95% of the feedback we got was
stay away from the multi -space units. (noises on mic) That's something you might see
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more ... more apt to be there. The single -space technology doesn't have that. You
haven't seen that come out yet. I would assume that, um, I'll talk about it when we get to
our fare box project on our ... on our transit routes, a smart card that you tap. That's
something that we just implemented for University employees. That technology's there,
but it hasn't made it to the parking side yet.
Mims/ Chris, what does the credit card usage cost us?
O'Brien/ Uh, that's something that I was going to highlight in the budget. No, that's fine.
Now's as good a time as any to answer that. Um, we saw an additional, roughly about
$80,000 to $90,000 for the credit card functionality. Um, which is what we ... we
anticipated fees would go up. Um, but we're also seeing, you know, such high usage in
our facilities, um, the overall costs, including facilities, is roughly about $200,000 for
... for credit card charges, for finance charges. Urn...
Mims/ That's what it's costing the City to have those processed?
O'Brien/ Yes.
Mims/ Wow!
O'Brien/ Which is why we increased our rates to cover ... I mean, that ... there was some of that
that was anticipated...
Mims/ Right.
O'Brien/ ...and so our rates led to some of those charges being covered with ... rather than adding
that convenience fee.
Mims/ Yeah.
O'Brien/ It's ... it's easier just to ... add that to the rates and pull that out (both talking)
Markus/ ...so it's just a cost of operation plugged into the rate like anything else. The
maintenance of the meters or anything else. It's rolled in there, so it's part of the cost.
Mims/ Yeah, I know. It's just amazing how much these credit card companies are making.
Markus/ (both talking) ...making.
O'Brien/ Yeah, because you have to pay a per transaction fee and then a percentage of whatever
the cost was of the ... and that's where ... it starts to add up. Uh, and our facilities were
over 60% of our ... of our revenues come from credit cards. Um ... and that's up 10% from
last year. So every year it just keeps ... keeps climbing up there.
Mims/ Yeah! Nobody carries cash!
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O'Brien/ Urn ... Ambassador Program was another program that we implemented. Um, we kind
of rolled it out a little bit slower than Mike and his group. Um, so they're out a little bit
ahead of us as we're transitioning some of our operations from ... from staff to automated.
So you'll see us, I think, in year two, there'll be a lot more parking involvement in that
than there was in year one. Um, but our enforcement staff has ... has been one who's
gotten a lot of positive feedback and ... and I mean even simple things as being visible
with the shirts that say, "How can help you ?" Uh, we've gotten a lot of good comments
on that. Um, another highlight obviously is we have a potential facility planned, uh, over
in the Harrison, Dubuque, Clinton area. That's something that'll be coming up. Probably
won't see any parking... charges or any parking, urn ... costs until 16, but the ... but the
plans and the development of that is ... is in the works. Um, as far as from... couple... we
have a really small capital outlay, not capital improvement, and we'll talk about that next
week, but as far as capital outlay we only have three projects. Um, electronic vehicle
stations, we're looking to put a couple... couple places in, possibly some downtown,
some over at Chauncey Swan. Just kind of see what the demand is for that, urn ... and
then we also have, uh, money to replace or expand bicycle parking, both through adding,
uh, bicycle racks and a potential grant that's out there for a bike - sharing program jointly
with the University. So, um, and it's only like $64,000 combined for all three of those
projects. Um, unless there's questions about Parking I can move to Transit but, um...
Hayek/ I have, uh, a question on Parking and it has to do with...
O'Brien/ Sure!
Hayek/ ...our current on- street rates and the CBD, our highest rates.
O'Brien/ Right.
Hayek/ Um, you know, I ... I was supportive of the changes, still am, and I'm glad to see the
behavior modification play out the way we an ... we hoped, but my sense is that we are
with respect to the on- street meter rates, pretty, uh, up there toward the ceiling of what
we can ... can or should do, is just my ... and ... and that's mostly based on anecdotal
feedback I get from people. And I ... I want us to move people into the ramps, uh, but I
also want people to come downtown, and I do hear that refrain that `it's just too
expensive to come downtown' from people and I know it's psychological. A dollar, a
dollar fifty, two dollars really isn't much for somebody who's looking to do a $30 lunch
but ... but I do hear that from people and so I just ... I guess my question is, do you
anticipate any new ... any near -term recommended increase in the on- street rates?
O'Brien/ No, I ... I think what we're trying to do is get it out there. I mean, we hadn't raised them
probably since 20061 want to say.
Hayek/ Yeah.
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O'Brien/ As far as ... so we try not to do the incremental increases because every time you come
and you keep hitting at that, so you do it once and then you let it ride for a while with the
parking rates. Uh, we've done that with permit fees. We've done that with ... with off -
street, so I don't ... I don't (both talking)
Hayek/ ...yeah.
O'Brien/ ... it's not even really in... sitting in our (mumbled) should... should things change, with
demand for additional structures, demand for additional facilities, we obviously have to
look at our structure, or our fee structures during those times, but at this point we don't
have any plans for an increase.
Hayek/ No, and I ... you gotta hit the sweet spot...
O'Brien/ Uh huh.
Hayek/ ...you want to encourage people to come downtown, you want to make it ... you want to
give an incentive to go into the ramps...
O'Brien/ Right.
Hayek/ ...you don't want the students parking there for six hours and going to class, and (both
talking)
O'Brien/ ...no, and I can...
Hayek/ ...it's so many...
O'Brien/ ...and I can give you anecdotal information all day, but I can tell you from as far as
hard numbers if you're ... you know, we pulled numbers from October for occupancies,
and during those peak times we're looking at an extra, just in the Capitol Street facility
alone, extra 140 cars per hour, in that facility. Now that's a 875 -space facility. That's a
...that's a large, that's a 16 %, 17% increase in that facility during peak times. So that's
...I mean, it's ... it's working.
Hayek/ Good!
O'Brien/ As far as getting people off the... and yet I don't think downtown looks barren as far as
of the on- street spaces. I think it's just the right amount of spaces open for turnover, uh,
as people are coming downtown, say, `hey there's a spot right here ... (both talking)
Hayek/ Definitely better!
O'Brien/ ...um, and we've heard ... and I know occasionally you'll hear the ... but we've really
heard little comment outside of you know week one, maybe 15 people that we heard
comments from, uh, that had come in, so...
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Hayek/ Yep.
Fruin/ One thing I'll add to that real quick, and Chris mentioned it in the decks, but it applies to
the streets too, and it's the sweet spot that you mentioned, and what, what we typically
look for is about 85 to 90% occupancy on street. I think that's what really the ... the
parking industry and the planning industry say, in your urban areas that's what you need
to hit — that 85, 90 %. Prior to making this change, we were closer ... up against that 100%
where it was very difficult (both talking)
O'Brien/ ...right around 98, 99% is where we were sitting.
Fruin/ ...so, so Chris is going to do another occupancy study in the spring and ... and that's really
what will drive, you know, rate discussions.
Dickens/ (several talking) ...take out the construction vehicles too that are (several talking)
O'Brien/ ...yeah, and we've actually limited the amount that we allow in certain blocks. That
was part of the ... part of the changes that we made was to limit how man we allow.
Hayek/ Well, and there are a lot of things that go to that sense of congestion and ... and deterrent
factor. I mean, the ... the beer trucks, which continue to drive me nuts, they ... they park
...they parallel park on our, uh, not your beer trucks but the ones (laughter) you know,
and they... and they throw their blinkers on and they... and they block a full lane of traffic
for half an hour.
O'Brien/ Yep. Through the streetscape plan (both talking) ...part of the streetscape, we're doing
a traffic model, and I ... I think one of the things that we talked about when we met
yesterday was, or I'm sorry. Yeah, it was yesterday with, uh ... um, John Yapp and ... and
Ron and Rick was to ... to look at, um ... how loading's done in the downtown and the
areas surrounding. So that's... that's certainly ... and I know Nancy at the ICDD is
interested in that, as well.
Hayek/ Yeah.
Markus/ Surveys suggest though that 90% of the people are okay with the beer trucks parking
parallel (laughter and several talking)
Hayek/ Surveys handed out in (several talking and laughing) bars!
Karr/ Economic Development.
O'Brien/ Um, as far as the operational budget, I mean, there's not a lot of...you take other credit
card fees, there's some software fees for some projects that we had, so the majority of the
change that you see in our budget, um, moving from 14 to 15. So unless there's... there's
any questions, I can move on to Transit.
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Karr/ Transit's page 118.
Transit (pg. 118):
O'Brien/ Um, one thing I always start off when we talk about Transit is ... because sometimes it's
difficult to understand unless you get a constant reminder so ... um, I hope I don't bore
anybody with this, is the way Transit's funded, um ... it's kind of a hodge -podge of...
there's no, like Parking is hugely user fees. Transit's kind of, well, the opposite of that
where about basically one - third, just below one -third of our revenues, uh, come from user
fees, about $1.3 million roughly. Urn ... we also... the... the largest is the Transit Levy,
which is at 95 -cent per $1,000 in valuation tax. Um, property tax that's transferred from
the General Fund to the Transit operations for Transit... Transit use, and that's about $2.9
million. Um, so obviously one of the concerns we have moving forward is, um, as
property tax reform hits, what's the impact going to be on that fund? So ... so that's
something we want to keep an eye on. Uh, federal and state assistance, that's about $2
million total, about $1.4 federal, uh, just over half a million state, and one thing different
about that this year, it looks like it's a big jump, but what they did is they took the JARC
and New Freedoms funding that used to come to us separately, combined it into
operating, uh, and split it up amongst our jurisdiction again. So ... so even though it was
a ... it looks like a big increase, you'll see that the JARC and New Freedoms fund are
gone now. They're part of the operation program, so ... uh, we also get about $700,000...
just under $750,000 out of the Court Street Transportation Center, which is in rent and in,
um, the parking fees that come out of that facility. Um, and then we get really modest
amounts from ... we have a contract with University Heights for about $33,000 for
providing service to University Heights for transit services. Um, and then depending on
how grant funding goes, uh, we also receive capital expense funding. So for bus
replacement, uh, light -duty bus, heavy -duty bus, any big projects. We had a joint project
with Coralville for fare box replacement that we just completed. Um, that ... that was
funding through a grant process so ... um ... so that's how we're funded, and ... and I think
in the budget document it does a good job of pointing that out, but I just wanted to
reiterate, uh, those funds. Some highlights, um ... the BONGO application that we have,
originates as the next bus goes to BONGO, which is something that we ... we jointly work
with with the University and Coralville. Uh, we ask ... the trip maker application, which
is something we kind of briefly discussed last year is actually in the works and think
we're going to have a test, uh, be able to test it in March. I think they'll have everything
in in March where you can enter in, hey, I would like to go from ... point A to point B, and
whether it's in Coralville, on the University campus, or Iowa City, it'll give you that
information, much like a Google transit-type ... type functionality. So you don't have to
go to three separate entities to get that data like you do now. Um, and right now we're
the only one who'll provide it. If somebody sends us an email, we'll send `em back
information everyone else you kind of have to call and get a hold of. This you'll be able
to enter right off our site, um, I would like to go from here to here, and it'll tell you what
bus routes. Um, we're hoping it'll give you some walking information too. That's...
that's the piece we're still walking ... or still working on. Um, but all that transit data'11
be, even transfers, things like that, it'll ... it'll hookup. So ... (several responding)
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Mims/ See, Chris, if you had developed this software earlier, and ... and put in the big city data,
you could have sold that software, I think it was to Apple, for a billion dollars.
O'Brien/ Just a little late on this one I guess! (laughter and several talking)
Markus/ ...nice impact on bus fares!
O'Brien/ Yeah, that would have helped fares a little bit, right? (laughter)
Payne/ So Denver has a system kind of like that, you just go on line and you say I'm ... I'm
starting at this address...
O'Brien/ Yep!
Payne/ ...I want to go to this address. It'll tell you how long it takes to walk to the closest bus
stop, which bus to get on, how long when you get off that bus it'll take to walk to where
you're going.
O'Brien/ Yep. Walk or bicycle, yep (both talking) ...is kind of what we're modeling ours after.
They have a really good model, as well.
Payne/ It's cool!
Botchway/ This will be, you know, you could use it on your smart phone.
O'Brien/ Use it on your smart phone. You can do it at your pc.
Botchway/ Like through an app. Not just online.
O'Brien/ Correct! It'll be an application through our BONGO app that'll... you'll enter your...
uh, origin destination... much like our BONGO app. We have the app and we have the
web site. It'll ... it'll be similar to that. Uh, we have the joint project with Coralville to
replace our fare boxes. That was about half a million, just our ... our part of it. Um and
that's for the technology that ... smart card technology where, uh, we just implemented
our first smart cards to the University. We call it the U pass, um ... actually turned out
really nice. It was really good artwork that, uh, our communications' staff put together
for that. Um...
Dickens/ (both talking) ...MPO funds for that at all or...
O'Brien/ No. We got, uh, 50% grant funding for that project. Um, so $243,000 some odd
dollars was the pay request I just put in, and then Coralville also got half ...50% funding
on that, as well. Uh, but the smart card technology, you just walk on, tap, it beeps, you
board. The process before was enter your pass, drops down, reads, kicks out. So we're
speeding the process of boarding, as well, which is helping our on -time performance, is
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what we're hoping, which is one of the reasons we implemented that. Plus then that pass
is good for multiple years, so the, uh, the folks that have those long -term passes don't
have to come in every year and exchange. It could be a two, three -year pass for
employees who are ... who are long -term employees. Um, we've got funding for five...
five new buses. Uh, this is grant funding, and I think it's ... I think they're all 80 %, four
of which are light -duty buses to replace four of our SEATS vehicles. Uh, one of which is
a heavy -duty bus. Um, and then we're also purchasing an additional two light -duty
buses, uh, to expand our paratransit fleet due to usage. Um, we're up once again,
creeping well over $100,000 in anticipated rides, uh, for our paratransit services. Uh, we
completed a SEATS contract. A five -year contract. We're half -way through year one,
um, and the budget projection that we put in is almost spot on with what we thought it
...it was about 1.1 is where we're going to land, between 1 and 1.1 million for that. Uh,
we just ... we completed just after July 1St our access and (mumbled) projects at Court
Street Transportation Center so that it's ... uh, it also has the first hour free piece to it, uh,
but once again, that's a ... a Transit - funded facility, so that's why we're mentioning it here
and not in the Parking. Um, and we've discussed maintenance. Um, some of the ... the
spikes you see in ... in the budget for Transit ... um, our paratransit maintenance costs, we
anticipated about... between labor and, uh, labor and materials, about, between $80 and
$90,000 total. Uh, we're already at $80,000 after six months for those vehicles, so... um,
that one kind of caught us by surprise. Um, other highlights of the budget, um, we had a
rate increase that we implemented in 13 for the first time in ... I think it was 15 years.
Um, we ... as of right now we don't have any ... any for this budget, uh, I think next year
we may have to look at and the 16 budget as far as what our transit rates are, um, and
what our fee structure is. That's something we'll have to keep an eye on. Um ... but at
this time we haven't mapped that out yet. Um ... eastside loop ridership was another
change that we made and we're up about 80 %. Eighty, 8 -0 percent in ... in rides on that
since we expanded it and changed the direction, um, to where people are getting to and
from school quicker. Um, so that...
Mims/ Fantastic!
O'Brien/ ...worked out well. Um ... think as far as budget, once again, it's a pretty stagnate
budget because we didn't have any ... we're not making any substantial changes to
Transit. Operating hours and ... and miles are almost identical to what they were in prior
years. No ... no significant changes to the route structure. Uh, however, we are in the ... in
the midst, um ... we've got two teams within our own department that are putting together
two separate transit models to show demand -based modeling versus city ... all
encompassing (several talking) to come to you guys and present and discuss what those
options would look like.
Mims/ When will we see that, Chris?
O'Brien/ What's that?
Mims/ When will we see (both talking)
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O'Brien/ Well there's... we're trying to talk to the University and Coralville about are there ways
to ... if I can get some information from them as far as their capacities, um, that's
something that'll allow us to change ... how many buses we have following their buses
through different areas of town and... and trying to work on some tran ... different transfer
points, but I think that's something we're hoping for this spring. Spring of this year to
come.
Mims/ Thank you.
O'Brien/ Uh, we have our initial mapping done, but we're working on some ... how many hours
and miles of service are we looking at because that's... that's how we'll base our ... our
budget off that.
Dickens/ You don't have any Iowa City buses that go into Coralville, do we?
O'Brien/ No.
Dickens/ So can we charge them for bringing their buses (laughter)
O'Brien/ I think with the delays we have in transfers and capacity issues we have (laughter) I'm
not sure that that's a model we'd (laughter)
Markus/ We can get those i -pass cards!
Dickens/ Yeah, that's what I was thinking! (laughter and several talking) Just a little extra
revenue! Cause, you know, they're driving on our streets! (laughs) Okay!
Throgmorton/ Chris, the ... the, Chris, the eastside loop sounds like a great success. Bravo!
O'Brien/ Thanks!
Throgmorton/ Uh, but I'm wondering also about the, uh, the five new buses. Have ... have you
thought about, uh, moving towards hybrid buses and if not why not, you know, what can
you tell us?
O'Brien/ Yes. Yes, we have. There's (mumbled) break it up into light -duty and heavy -duty.
The reason heavy -duty buses are difficult is the tanks are mounted on the top, which the
way we're run now, would take Iowa Avenue between Madison and Riverside out of...
you can't ... you can't do it. Um, because it would just pull ... peel `em right off the top of
your vehicle. Um, but with the big buses what you see is ... from a ... value perspective,
you never get those dollars back. What you save in fuel costs, there's several studies out
there, um, how much extra they charge for that technology, you can't recoup those costs.
Um, over the life of the buses. So, um, as the prices start to come down (coughing,
difficult to hear speaker) multiple grant applications, jointly as, um, and ... and each time
the funding's gone to Ames, uh, rather than to Iowa City, Coralville, and Cambus. So,
every time we have an opportunity to ... to, uh, apply for grant funding for that we do.
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Um, as far as the light -duty buses, um, you know, I think that ... we haven't done that, but
this is the first go -round we've had with replacement. So just ... it's a State contract that
we are a part of, so, um, it just depends on what those options are, but it...it could be
there. Um, the contract, I think, is ... uh, will be awarded within the next 45 days and so
we'll know after that what ... what buses are available.
Mims/ Is there much out there ... (several talking) piggybacking on ... on Jim's question, you see
the ads on TV of like L.A. and their buses running on natural gas.
O'Brien/ CNG? Yep, that's ... I think that might be something when we look at our next facility,
once ... if and when we get funded for that.
Mims/ Okay.
O'Brien/ Um, where CNG maybe, something... but once again, you'd have to restructure your
routes because once again those tanks are on the top.
Mims/ Okay.
O'Brien/ But I ... I think that model, the CNG, is a little bit better than your hybrid model due...
from the cost standpoint, so...
Mims/ Okay.
O'Brien/ ...um, but that is something we would look at as well when ... but you have to have the,
uh, they looked at it several years ago where I think the feds came in and said we'll pay
for X- percentage of your buses to transfer `em over, but it was a $6.5 million upgrade to
a facility that it was built on. So they ... it just wasn't worth the funding...
Mims/ Okay.
O'Brien/ ...to do that. Invest that in that property out there on top of that landfill. So...
Mims/ Okay. Thanks!
Botchway/ What about ... you said Ames get ... usually gets the...
O'Brien/ They did on the two applications that we ... we filed.
Botchway/ Do you know why that is?
O'Brien/ No.
Botchway/ Okay. I didn't know if there was (both talking)
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O'Brien/ ...there was no ... there was no...it just, both those cases that we applied, they went to
Ames, instead of (both talking)
Hayek/ Is that DOT money?
O'Brien/ It was DOT money (laughter)
Botchway/ I think the DOT offices are in Ames.
O'Brien/ (laughter) I believe, in case you're wondering, the address is 800 Lincoln Way, Ames,
Iowa 50010 (laughter and several talking) Hypothetically it's on Lincoln Way, 800
(laughter)
Hayek/ That's why I asked!
O'Brien/ No, it's ... it was a competitive bidding project and corn ... competitively bidded project
and we didn't compete that time, apparently. So ... (laughter) Um...
Dickens/ Had the wrong zip code! (laughter)
O'Brien/ I ... I will withhold my statement there! (laughter) Urn ... but once again, there's no big
projects planned for Transit. We have minimal capital outlay for bus shelter replacement
and expansion. We have about $50,000 in this budget for capital outlay. Um, there are a
couple CIP projects that we'll address on ... on Monday with you, but...
Markus/ Did you get that shelter taken care of down there by the new Aldi?
O'Brien/ Um, the Aldi one we ... yeah, we ... we can't get it installed because by the time they got
the ground ready to put the concrete down... it was below freezing and we couldn't get in
there and put it in. So it's ... it's set and ready to go for when spring hits, and we get that
first thaw and we can get in there and ... and dig it out and put our concrete down.
Markus/ (several talking) ...just want to make sure Mary knows (several talking)
O'Brien/ ...nope, and I let Geoff know before the last Council meeting (laughter)
Payne/ Is that a capital... improvement, did you say? A bus shelter?
O'Brien/ No, but ten of `em would be!
Payne/ Okay. Yeah.
O'Brien/ No, that's a capital outlay.
Payne/ Okay.
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O'Brien/ Not capital improvement.
Payne/ Okay. (several talking and laughing)
O'Brien/ And we put out $50,000 then which... depending on ... on your design, could be
anywhere from four to ten shelters, depending on what you get.
Dickens/ Can ... can we get your figures for paratransit? We have our meeting; it's in February,
just what our expenses have been...
O'Brien/ Yeah, and I'll be there actually.
Dickens / Are you going to be there for this one? All right.
Dobyns/ Is he going to present the new application form?
O'Brien/ We're hoping to have that wrapped up. There was some substantial changes requested
on that form, from an individual. (several talking and laughing)
Dickens/ Doctors! (laughter)
Hayek/ You... you guys ought to sit down before that meeting and...
O'Brien/ No, he'll see it before ... he'll see it before it goes in. Oh, as far as the costs?
Hayek/ No, cauc ... you guys oughta caucus before you go to that.
Dobyns/ Yeah, that's what I'm kinda sayin'! (laughter)
O'Brien/ Yeah, it'll be ready before that meeting!
Hayek/ Good! (several talking)
Dickens/ My little comment took an hour to get through. For you! (laughter)
Hayek/ All right, Chris, is anything else?
O'Brien/ No, not unless you guys have any questions about ... thank you for your time!
Throgmorton/ Thank you!
Hayek/ Appreciate it!
Markus/ Thanks!
Hayek/ Have a good one!
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Karr/ Airport's page 121.
Airport (pa. 121):
Hayek/ Welcome, Michael!
Tharp/ Good afternoon! My name's Mike Tharp. I'm the Airport Operations Specialist. Um...
in terms of the Airport budget, uh, it's pretty status quo. Uh, couple of good things going
on. The ... the general levy is still going down, uh, we're at about $68,000 and change
this year, which is a 5% decrease from last year. Uh, the year before that it was
$100,000. So it's ... it's, uh, going down quite a bit. We're also closing a land sale in the
next couple of weeks, which'll, uh, bring our outstanding debt balance to about $600,000.
Um ... but in terms of that, uh, the operating budget, uh, we typically stay at about
$600,000 or $400,000 — sorry! Um, that covers, uh, personnel services, uh, maintenance
of the Airport and the buildings. One of the biggest challenges we have right now is ... is
our building upkeep. Uh, we've got, if you look back at the Airport buildings, about once
a decade there's been a major construction project on ... on some type of building, and
that's gone back for the last, uh, about 70 years. We've actually got buildings bordering
on 70 years old. Uh, the terminal building itself was built in 1951 and that, uh ... uh, just
being where the people gather, we want to make sure that's, uh, you know, the best -kept
facility for everybody to see for those first impressions and ... and that's, uh, a huge
contribution in the upkeep expense. Um... outside of that... one of the... couple of other
things to ... to note going on in 2014, uh, we are going to be hosting Fly Iowa again at the
Iowa City Airport. The last time it was in Iowa City was 2001, I believe. Um, Fly Iowa,
if you're not familiar with it, is a statewide aviation event. Uh, it's partnered with the
local airport that's hosting it and it ... through the years it travels around the state. Uh, last
year it was in Perry. Couple of years ago it was in Atlantic, Iowa, urn ... but it partners
with the Iowa Aviation Promotion group and the ... the local host community, and uh, it's
going to be a great event, uh, June 28th and 29th is when that's planned. Um, we also are
going to be a stop site for the Air Race Classic again. Uh, couple of years ago we were a
start site. We actually hosted, uh, about 50 aircraft and ... and teams of female pilots, and
uh, had a great weekend of...of activities and things. This time around we're ... we're just
a stop - through. So they'll come, uh, do a fly -bys, a timing run, um, and then go off to
their next destination point. Um ... uh, another big thing that we're going to be
undertaking over the next 12 to 18 months is the Airport Master Plan. We'll talk a little
bit more about that in the CIP budget, but the ... the Airport Master Plan, much like the
strategic plan for the City and ... and any other, you know, planning tool. Uh, it's a 20-
year document and for the next 20 years that master plan is essentially going to look at
aviation forecast, traffic forecast, and ... and plan out essentially our next, uh, 20 years
worth of projects and ... and ideas for what the Airport should look like at the end of that
time.
Markus/ So, Mike, um ... why don't you explain when we sell property, we had the ... the north,
uh, industrial area, Airport property, so when we sell property, we take the proceeds from
the sale of the property, what do we do with it?
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Tharp/ Yeah, right now there's a standing agreement with, uh ... um, City Council and the Airport
Commission, as a... a land sale happens out of the Airport Commerce Park area, uh, 70%
of that is taken and used immediately to pay down the ... the outstanding debt. Uh, that
other 30% is withheld for additional Airport projects, um ... uh, occasionally we run into
points just like the City Council does where projects might come in over bid or over
expected costs. That gives us a little bit of a cushion for, uh, scenarios like that where we
can ... we have some funding that we can go back onto and ... and uh, assuming the bids
are ... are reasonable but maybe just over our estimated budget, um, we're still able to
complete those projects.
Markus/ And so how much have we reduced the debt over the last couple years?
Tharp/ Uh ... uh, fairly substantially. Uh, the... the... the debt capped at about $3 million. Over
the last few years, urn ... and we've been a little above a million, so we ... we've
substantially reduced the ... the Airport debt.
Markus/ So you're down to...
Tharp/ With this next land sale, uh, closing in a couple of weeks, we'll be at $600,000.
Markus/ So within a matter of two, three years, we've dropped our debt on this airport from
about $3 down to about $6 with this next sale, and the advantage of that, of course, is you
reduce your payments, which was coming out of the operations at the same time, which
then allows our contribution to be reduced to some degree. We always figure we'll have
some level of contribution, you know, to ... to backfill grants and things like that. In the
long run what this has done is reduced our contribution, uh, through this arrangement
(noises in background, difficult to hear speaker) with the Airport Commission. So it's
...it's worked out, uh, probably better than we hoped for.
Hayek/ What kind of impact are you seeing from fuel sales?
Tharp/ Fuel sales are spiking. Um, the rehabilitation projects and the runway extension that...
that was done over the last five years has impacted our jet fuel sales, and those have
...have, uh, really increased, and we're doing more in jet fuel sales than we have in total
fuel sales over the last few years. Um ... but our ... our, um, low -lead fuel sales, which are
primarily your four -seat, six -seat, single- engine, um, aircraft are pretty flat. Um, the
...the average price of low -lead is about $5.00 a gallon, and your airplane'll burn
anywhere from 12 to 20 gallons an hour, um ... and the jet fuel has been anywhere from
about $4.00 to $5.00 a gallon, so um, you know, the pricing is a factor and ... and travel,
as well as, uh, just the ... overall economy, urn ... but...
Hayek/ Yeah, but what ... so you're seeing a spike in the jet fuel sales.
Tharp/ Yeah. Our ... our jet fuel sales, and you'll see that ... we'll have an annual report coming to
you probably in the next few weeks, um, you're going to see the ... the fuel sales graph,
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which is broken down from jet to low -lead, uh, you'll see that where the ... the jet is still
climbing, but the ... the low -lead sales have been relatively flat. Uh...
Hayek/ Is that ... is that because jet usage of the Airport is on the increase?
Tharp/ We have seen more jet traffic. Again, uh, that's... that's a product of what everybody
anticipated with the rehabs and the extension project. Um, we are able to ... to get a little
bit bigger traffic in, but the ... the biggest thing is the jets that were using the Airport,
where previously they weren't able to take on fuel cause of the runway lengths, now they
can buy fuel and... and get to their next destination.
Markus/ So the Ruppert property, which is 30 -plus acres that we just purchased, are we barred
from building anything on that property?
Tharp/ At this point I would say yes, only because the FAA is still rewriting the rules on what
can be done in the run ... runway protection zone areas. Um, and the reason we bought
that property was to control that protection zone. Um, that's been something that's been
on the ... had been on the Airport's radar for the last 20 years, and a combination of FAA
funding and willingness of the buyers, we were able to get everything worked out to ... to
make that transaction happen. Um...at...at some point in time in the future I expect that
the rules will be written so that something could happen. I just don't know what that
would be at this point in time.
Markus/ But from ... just speculating, from a standpoint if we could build something, it was
below the trajectory for the clear zone area, we could provide maybe some cold storage
or warm storage in there, uh, instead of using high priced land area for storage purposes
(both talking)
Tharp/ Possibly! Yeah, the ... the rules used to allow for things like parking lots and some other
... other type of ventures like that where you don't have the cluster of... of people and /or a
large amount of property. Uh, the runway protection zone, the primary purpose is to
protect... protect the property on their ground close to the Airport because if something
happens to an airplane, that's going to be the ... the high ... risk area of something
impacting the ground. Right at the end of the runway.
Markus/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Mi ... Mike, to spin off Tom's question there, uh ... I'm thinking about the master
plan you referred to, and I'm kind of looking downstream a ways ... uh, and I'm
wondering about, uh, whether it's, uh, technically or ... or administratively possible to
install solar cells, photovoltaic panels, arrays of photovoltaic panels, in the ... in that kind
of property that Tom was just referring to. I don't know if it would be because it would
be reflected light, I mean, I think that's the main thing I think about but...
Tharp/ There ... there are some concerns, uh, with that scenario, but there are also airports that
have been able to do it. I can ... I, uh, Denver has been able to use a ... a chunk of area for
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essentially energy generation and urn ... you know, there's example of that out there. The
issue becomes making it something that can translate and be, you know, a financial,
viable, um, project for the airport here.
Markus/ I was actually thinking of greenhouses. (several talking) Greenhouses. (laughter)
Hayek/ Okay. (several talking)
Markus/ Pardon?
Throgmorton/ They could be combined.
Hayek/ Well, Mike, when I started, I think the subsidy was more like $125, $140 a year,
something like that with $3 -plus million in outstanding debt and we've really made...
come a long ... long way, and I think that just helps cement the long -term viability of this
operation.
Tharp/ It does. It does, and (both talking)
Hayek/ ...and that's on top of the investments and ... and enlarging the infra... the... the runway...
Mims/ Right.
Hayek/ ...and some of those capital improvements, so...
Tharp/ It does. The ... the outstanding debt and the debt payments that the Airport was making
based on that was probably one of the biggest restrictions on ... on the Airport being able
to maintain effectively and... and upkeep of the facility, and have a good maintenance
plan for the facilities, especially for some of the high - dollar items like, you know,
building roofing or fuel tank maintenance. Um ... used to be a storage system
maintenance, things like that, where you know it was just really hard to program into a
annual budget, where now ... and we've got that flexibility and we've been able to, like
you said, decrease the levy that ... that we used to essentially balance the budget, uh, quite
dramatically.
Markus/ You know the ... I'm not telling any secrets here but the reality is you can't build a
hangar and expect that it'll amortize itself with revenues from hangar rentals. It's just not
...it's just not in the marketplace at this point. So you really have to pay attention to that,
not that Mike would ever promote that, but there's others that will promote the idea of
building more hangars. They don't support themselves. And ... until we figure out some
method of construction that is substantially cheaper per square foot, you're not going to
find, you know, a viable economic model that supports additional hangar construction.
So, you just have to pay attention to that if that issue comes up again, and there's...
there's people on the list that want more hangars ... but they don't pay for themselves
based on the rental.
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Mims/ Mike, do you have any idea what percentage of the traffic at the Airport is directly, or
even indirectly, related to the University?
Tharp/ Not off the top of my head. I don't have any real ... real decent studies that have ... have
depicted that. I can tell you that, you know, the medical traffic is ... is quite substantial.
Um, whether it's helicopter traffic, whether it's, uh, you know, aircraft dropping off
patients or transferring patients via fixed wing, um, airplanes, urn ... we do get a
substantial amount of traffic that is related to that aspect, but in terms of percentages, I
don't really have that number.
Dobyns/ And they pay their way, that's... that's all paid through services?
Tharp/ Uh, we do collect a fuel flowage fee so, you know, everybody that's buying fuel at the
... at the Airport is essentially supporting the Airport. Um... and, so I would say for the
most part, yes, they are paying their own way. Um...
Dobyns/ For the most part?
Tharp/ Well, you know, there may be some more controversial ways to ... to raise revenue that
have been brought up, uh, throughout the course of the years and, um...
Dobyns/ You're leading me, Mike, like ... like what? (laughter)
Tharp/ More landing fees, user fees, uh, you know, we've ... we've talked administratively about
those and ... and uh, in general aviation airports what you see is ... is a user fee will really
scare away gen ... the general aviation pilots. There's anti - government, uh, you know,
aspects like that where they just don't like it and they'll... they'll find a closer, or airport
along the route that can do the same thing that, uh, you ...you essentially lose business
trying to increase... increase your revenues...
Dobyns/ Okay.
Tharp/ ...through a mechanism like that. Um...
Dobyns/ Got it! (laughs) Thank you.
Markus/ Thanks, Mike!
Tharp/ Thank you!
Hayek/ Thanks a lot! Have a good weekend!
Karr/ You're scheduled for a break now, or would you like to do me or both?
Dickens/ What kind of question was that? (laughter)
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Karr/ No, I'm just saying...
Hayek/ (both talking) ...you talk and then we'll come back.
Karr/ You guys can go break. I'll just wrap up! (laughter)
Payne/ Are you the end?
Dickens/ No, we have...
Karr/ No, I'm a filler! I'm the warm -up act!
Hayek/ We have the Clerk, Manager, and Finance, uh...
Payne/ Why would we put Rick last? (laughter)
Karr/ If Rick... if Rick...
Markus/ Because then he's got a deadline! (laughter)
Payne/ He could talk all night! (laughter)
Markus/ No! He had a deadline!
Karr/ (several talking and laughing) ...was done because of personal scheduling.
Dickens/ You wanna do ... Marian first and...
Hayek/ Let's do Marian (several talking) Perfect!
City Clerk (pg. 6):
Karr/ Uh, first of all, my apologies, um, the Police Citizens Review Board renaming got in half
of the documents, not in the other half, so that will be changed in the final. It's on page 6
of the summaries. So the Police Citizens Review Board, which is now called Citizens
Police Review Board, will be changed consistently throughout the document. Uh...
secondly, uh, there's not a substantial changes. There are, uh, a couple different, uh...
um, approaches than in the past. Uh, first of all, I always love off - election years because
my budget drops about 44 %. So I always feel like should stabilize it out. It doesn't work
that way.
Throgmorton/ Also not quite so crazy making for you!
Karr/ No, not so much! (laughs) So, um, the biggest change in the budget is it's an off - election
year. So there are no, uh ... uh ... regular elections planned, uh, in 15. Of course if there
are any special elections, then those'd be through the General Fund. Um, on that note
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we'll also be talking, um, about, um, some new opportunities, um, that individual
communities may have to save some election costs, and with every discussion when we
go through it, there are trade -offs to that. In order to save, what are you sacrifice, or is
there a sacrifice that is worth the trade -off. So that'll be coming back to you, um,
hopefully in the next year prior to, uh, the next general municipal election. Um... over
the years, uh, we've plugged in roughly $2,000 a year to scan hard -copy documents, um,
that are hand - written, not typed, into the computer system, both for archiving purposes
but also for retrieval purposes. Um, we ... uh, in order to do that, that is maintained a nice,
steady way of converting those documents, but it's also utilized the same equipment to
read the documents. And that equipment is a dinosaur and is not cheap to replace. So,
um, what we looked at this year is instead of putting in $2,000 in a standard way to do a
few more documents, and budget $8,000 to replace the equipment, we've combined that
$8,000 into scanning and hope to just scan a much larger volume of documents, utilize
the existing, um, equipment we have, and not replace the reader - printer. So that's one of
the major, um, shifts in the budget and expenditures that you'll see. Um, in addition to
that, um, we will experience for the first year the upgrades to the cemetery software
package. We went online, uh, last year with it. Um ... now it's time to ... to take a look at
some annual upgrades and changes, um ... to the system, since the data has been entered.
So we'll be able to keep that up -to -date, and that's roughly $3,300. It's not that much.
Uh, I ... on a final note, I was just interested in ... think it was Doug that made the remark
that he wasn't going to convert some of the files (clears throat) because they were five
years old and they didn't use `em that often. (laughter) And in my world...
Mims/ You keep `em all!
Karr/ ...we're required by law to keep them all. We don't have a choice. Um, and again,
whether you use them often or not, you are required to keep them. But we just spent
roughly four hours of time just yesterday looking up a 1910 retrieval that was all, was not
indexed at all, but literally had to go through just the hard ... hard copy files to find it. So,
I just think it's a different approach each department has and a different, um ... uh,
responsibility, so that's basically what we'll be doing. Questions?
Botchway/ Is there ... I don't know the mechanism that we currently have to talk to legislature but
I don't know what your thoughts are on as far as storage is concerned, um, because it's
something that work with in my job, um, and know it's a County issue. I know they're
pushing that forward, uh, as well, but is that something that, one, you'd be interested,
two, whether or not we could make that push or pitch, based on what you're saying, to
legislature.
Karr/ To ... to, what's...
Botchway/ To move, um, all these paper files, get them scanned in and do away with all the
paper, um, to, you know, for you better retrieve your information, um, more space, blah,
blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Karr/ Um, the clerks and finance officers in the state — probably for the last 30 years — have been
trying very, very hard and diligently to reduce that. Um, storage is a huge problem.
Proper storage is just as huge a problem. It isn't a matter of putting them in a box and
putting them on a top shelf of a garage and hope the ink doesn't disappear. Um, no,
definitely... personally I'd be interested but I ... certainly professionally the organization
would be as well.
Botchway/ Okay.
Karr/ Yes! It's taken us ... I've been here long enough, I can recall when they didn't recognize
microfilm. It took us a while to get the State to recognize microfilm. Now we've gotta
move from microfilm into other means, but now we've got to get beyond that and realize
that there are other ways of safely securing history, urn ... and archiving it for easier
retrieval on a 24/7 basis than individuals having to come in and spend hours looking
through stuff.
Botchway/ Yeah.
Mims/ Marian, what's this...
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...long have you been here?
Karr/ Uh (laughs) little longer than microfilm! (laughter)
Mims/ What are ... what are... regulations are you under in terms of maintaining really historic
records? I mean like the books from the early 1900s or the late 1800s, do those have to
be maintained in their form?
Karr/ The contents of them are required to be maintained. How they're maintained I think is
what Kingsley and I are discussing.
Mims/ Okay.
Karr/ There's a historical significance of course in hand - written, original documents.
Mims/ Well, that's a business my sister works in. They... (both talking)
Karr/ ...there is historical significance. What we have done in the past as we converted
documents, especially the ... the wonderful old, hand - written books...
Mims/ Uh huh.
Karr/ ...where the penmanship, even Sister Mary Ann Anastasia would have loved!
Mims/ Yes!
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Karr/ Um ... they (laughs) urn ... we ... what we do is when we are finished with those and have
checked them, we donate them to the Historical Society because we think there is a
significance. Unfortunately, the Historical Society has been cut two and three times, and
they're just stacking `em down in their basement because they don't even have the, uh...
Mims / And they're going to deteriorate.
Karr/ ...and they're going to deteriorate there. Uh, it...it's...it isn't just a matter of what we do
and ... and the right thing to do it, but it's the follow through that occurs because those
hand-written ... we preserve and we will have electronically the means...
Mims / Right.
Karr/ ...to look at the hand - written.
Mims/ Okay.
Karr/ But the original documents themselves... we had one book that ... when you turned the
page, a little piece of it broke off each time. The paper was so brittle. Um, when they're
gone they're gone!
Mims/ ...the business my sister works for, that's what they do. I mean, they go around to
municipalities (both talking)
Karr/ ...they restore...
Mims/ They restore them, yep. They take `em apart. They unsew them. They (both talking)
Karr/ ...that's kind of (both talking) on a related note, also, um, going back to Kingsley's
question, there are a number of cities rather than convert them...
Mims/ Uh huh.
Karr/ ... into electronic means, they are preserving them.
Mims/ Yeah. That's what this company does.
Karr / And ... um, those ... those are, in addition, are trade -offs. It ... it, again, it's a matter of space.
It's a matter of retrieval time. It's a matter of...
Mims/ Yeah.
Karr ... if... if you don't have a lot of retrievals, and you aren't that old of a community, and you
really want to preserve the original, you would archive `em that way and the few times
you use them...
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Mims/ Yeah.
Karr/ ...and you're using the original. On the ... on the flip side, if there's a lot of `em, and ... and
(both talking)
Mims/ ...and easy access, yeah.
Karr/ Then it's a different issue.
Mims/ Yeah.
Hayek/ What's the next taxi -cab crisis?
Karr/ You'll be getting that in a few weeks.
Hayek/ I ask in jest, and you answer (laughter) in all seriousness (laughter and several talking)
Karr/ You got it! (laughs)
Hayek/ Thank you (several talking and laughing) All right, thanks, Marian. Uh, should we take
a quick break and then... go back to Public Works? All right. (BREAK)
Public Works Program Budgets
Administrative, Streets, Solid Waste, Water (pg 9
Hayek/ Urn ... we're... we're all gonna leave at 4:00 (laughter) If that's okay! (laughter)
Karr/ Is there more to this or (several talking and laughing)
Hayek/ Well, whether Rick's done or not, we still have City Manager and Finance, but ... but
Tom has suggested that maybe that be taken up on Monday.
Markus/ We can just do that the first part on Monday. How's that?
Hayek/ Unless people want to stay beyond 4:00 today.
Dobyns/ No!
Karr/ Well, wait a second. (laughter)
Hayek/ Put it back on you! (laughter and several talking)
Karr/ No, by saying that, that means Rick's going to go from 3:00 to 4:00? (several responding)
Markus/ No! (laughter)
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Karr/ I just wanted to clarify that for you, Rick! (laughter)
Hayek/ (several talking) All right! Well ... let's see where we get, but uh ... let's leave at 4:00.
Mims/ Or sooner!
Hayek/ Proceed, Sir!
Fosse/ I will ... I will endeavor (both talking)
Markus/ ...respond to applause? (applause and laughter)
Fosse/ I'll endeavor to be concise here. Uh, the Public Works Department consists of five
divisions.
Karr/ Page 94.
Hayek/ Thanks!
Fosse/ Yep! If you're following along in ... in what went out in the Info Packet on the 2 "d, it
begins on 94. Uh, we have 154.6 employees and we have nine operational areas that are
housed within five divisions. So we have more operational areas than we have divisions,
because of some consolidations that we did back in the 90s, and also the emergence of a
new division, that being, uh, storm water, excuse me — a new operational area. That
being storm water within the last few years. Uh, we utilize a wide variety of funding
sources. General Funds, special revenues funds, enterprise, and internal service funds,
so...it...it is somewhat complicated and ... and what we'll do, we'll just begin with
administration and then work our way, uh, across this org chart from left to right. And
we'll lead off, as I said, with administration, and... and there's really not much to report
there. It only consists of two people. Doesn't even warrant a org chart of its own. Uh,
it's myself and Kim Sandberg, who you met a couple weeks ago when we talked about
sidewalks. Uh, there are no changes proposed here. Uh, so with that, we'll move on to
Streets and Solid Waste, and here this ... this is somewhat of a triple division now. It's...
it's originally Streets and then it also has a part of Traffic Engineering that was split up,
uh, back in the 90s, and then also Solid Waste and Recycling, which was split off from
Landfill back in the 90s, as well. So we'll begin with this first half here, and uh, look
at...at that organizational part of it. Um, that includes the ... the pavement maintenance,
snow plowing, leaf program, uh, street sweeping, traffic signals and signs. Uh, it's a
special revenue fund and it survives off of road -use tax. Uh, certainly our new challenge
in this division is replacing Bud Stockman, uh, who retired at the end of last year, and to
put Bud's tenure in perspective, I'll turn 55 next week. Bud started when I was 11.
(laughter) So that's... that's how long Bud was with us. Um ... I would like you to go to
the bar graph on page 161 in your budget and take a look at the, uh, the cash balances
there for the road -use tax fund. And it has a welcome curve to it. That is, it's inclining
now instead of declining, uh, which we have been talking about for the past few years,
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uh, that declining fund balance and road -use tax. It has been ... the trend has been
reversed because of the outcome of the 2010 Census, and the distribution of road -use tax
in Iowa for cities is based on per capita, so that's... that's very important for us so we're
on the good end of the decade for road -use tax income. Um ... toward the end of the
decade we'll be back in the ... in that more, uh, dire position. Um...it...it is a good thing
that we've reversed that ... that downward trend because we have been deferring
maintenance, and we knew that and it is showing. And if you look at the, uh,
the ... citizens survey. You all remember the citizens survey that was done earlier this
year. One of the things you'll note in there as ... is that the lowest rankings for the Public
Works Department were in street repair and snow removal. And we ranked below
national benchmarks in that area. So it was showing, whereas the results for all the other
services in the Public Works Department were above nat ... national benchmarks. So,
we're looking forward to beginning to ... to rededicate and get caught up a little bit on that
deferred maintenance. It's not something we'll get out of overnight. It's going to take
sometime there. Uh ... next, we'll move on to the other half of the Streets Division and
that's the Solid Waste and ... and Recycling folks, and ... that operation, uh, provides, uh,
refuse, recycling, and yard waste services. Iowa City's single - family and multi - family,
up to four units. So we have about 15,177 accounts out there, customers, and uh,
the ... the water ... in ... in contrast, our Water and Sewer customers total about 26,000. So,
uh, that difference is the multi - family component of it. Uh, this is an enterprise fund.
Uh, we are proposing a 3.5% rate increase here to help keep the cash balance from falling
below 15% of our expenditures. So, next we're going to look at, uh, Waste Water and
Landfill, and we'll begin with the Waste Water component of it. And, here we have ... it
serves all of Iowa City, University of Heights, and all of the University of Iowa. It's an
enterprise fund, uh, and the staff, uh, that you see listed here includes one quarter time,
which is a share of a project support assistant that's going to be housed in the
Engineering (coughing, unable to hear speaker) So one quarter of that position shows up
here as ... as new. Uh, we have a lot going on here because we are ... we are going to be
closing down the North Waste Water Treatment Plant in about two months, and uh,
everything'll be treated at the South Plant. Uh, the rates are holding steady. If you look
at the bar graph on page 242, urn ... what you'll see is our fund balance is declining at a
... at a slight rate there, and that is..that's an intentional draw down, and what we're doing
is using our ... some of our cash reserves to pay for projects rather than selling bonds. We
have enough cash reserves in this particular fund that we can do that, uh, most
specifically we'll be using that, or a portion of it, for the north river corridor trunk sewer
that will be constructed as part of the, uh, Gateway Project. Um, I do want to point out
that the South Plant, when it goes fully operational and we shut down the North Plant,
will have higher energy demands. And, uh, off -set from that will have lower chemical
demands, and so let me explain the background on it and I'll ... I'll be brief here with that.
The ... the trickling filters at the North Plant are ... have a very low energy demand, but
they don't work well in cold weather, you know, like we have right now. Uh, they're...
they're so bad in cold weather that the DNR had given us a... a more lenient fluent limit
during the winter months, or we'd be in constant violation. So ... when you cannot build
new processes like that anymore, and we use an aeration process down at the South Plant,
uh, instead of trickling filters today. So what is built today is more energy intensive, but
it functions well year round. Urn ... the other change that we have that affects the energy
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balance is our disinfection process. We're going to UV disinfection rather than
chlorination, and then dechlorination. Um, so that's ... that draws more energy, but that
does allow us to get rid of some chemical costs for the ... for the chlorine and sulfur
dioxide, and it also creates a safer environment down there because both the chlorine and
sulfur dioxide come in one -ton cylinders in compressed gas form, and it's good, uh, to
not to have those around anymore cause if one were to get away and ... and break, then we
have a bad situation on our hands. So our best estimate right now is that our ... our energy
costs are going to go up by about $235,000. Our chemical costs are going to go down by
about $108,000. So our net will be an increase of about $127,000 in operating costs
there.
Markus/ While you're drinking that, Rick, um, there's also a push by the EPA for dechlorination
(several talking)
Fosse/ Yes!
Markus/ So, we may have avoided a cost there by going UV versus (several talking)
Fosse/ We were actually already doing that. That's what the sulfur dioxide is for. Yep.
Dickens/ Is there a cost to decommissioning the ... the North Plant?
Fosse/ Yes there is, and we'll talk about that tomorrow at the, uh, or Monday, excuse me (several
talking) at the CIP.
Markus/ Susan's taking care of that for ya (several talking and laughing)
Mims/ I told Terry that was his job (laughs) Rick, has there ... to piggyback on a comment that
Jim made earlier, with these increased energy costs, has there been any consideration
given with the space that we have down there to like any solar panels or anything that
might help us with any of that energy (mumbled)
Fosse/ We have. We ... we looked at solar. We look at wind, uh, we looked at expanding our use
of bio -gas down there. Uh, solar... because of the price of the electricity, solar did not
have a ... a payback that was reasonable for us. Uh, the most promising from a payback
standpoint was wind. And if you've ever been down to a soccer game down there you
know it's windy, but our problem is we're in an approach zone for the Airport. So, that
...that truncates the ... the height that we can put a ... a wind generator down there, so that
...that cuts that one off, and that leaves bio -gas.
Mims/ Okay.
Fosse/ And that leaves bio -gas and the expensive component of bio -gas is getting the soloczanes
out of there. So we're ... we're still examining that to see if we can make better use of
that.
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Throgmorton/ That's one of the problems of thinking purely in terms of payback, financial
payback, is that .... one forgets about negative externalities. One forgets about, uh, carbon
emissions, for example. One forgets about all the other things that are not priced in the
market. So, the ... this always puzzles me how we immediately do a financial analysis,
but apparently don't go beyond that to ask some further questions about, you know,
whether we ought to take these other things into account. I know you and I talked about
that at length in your office, you know, two years ago so...
Fosse/ Uh huh. And ... and I will tell you that ... that our evaluation for the waste water plant was
pretty much a financial analysis.
Markus/ But I think you also have to consider what the power company is using to generate their
power too. That might be off -set by some of the alternative (mumbled) that they're using
as well.
Throgmorton/ Well sure. Uh, Michelle, what ... what is it, I don't know, 40 or more percent.
Payne/ That's not Mid American down there though. That's ... that plant's not fed by Mid
American.
Fosse/ Eastern Iowa Light ... Light and Power.
Dobyns/ And how much do they use of wind renewables ... to their (several talking and laughing)
So let's say that we decided that, um, a carbon footprint was an unmeasured value that we
need to consider in the financial analysis. Which of the renewable sources you
mentioned, uh, squatty little wind turbine (laughter) um, a bio -fuel, which I'm always
willing to contribute more (laughter), um... and a... or (several talking and laughing) or...
you know (several talking and laughing) (mumbled and laughing) Um, so which...
which is closer to, um, providing a more renewable source, other than just purchase of
straight electricity from...
Fosse/ Probably the gas. And then (several talking and laughing) Then solar!
Dobyns/ Okay.
Fosse/ We do have some large surface area on the roof of the ... of the sludge storage area now
that we've put up out there. So that's a good thing for us.
Payne/ And, Jim, as to your ... I mean, power companies now, when they use coal, they only
can ... only certain emissions are allowed before they have to, um...
Throgmorton/ For new plants you mean?
Payne/ And retrofitting of existing plants.
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Throgmorton/ But not... not... they're not compelled right now to retrofit carbon emission control
devices (both talking)
Payne/ If they don't, they're fined. There are ... there are fines if they have emissions greater than
something. I don't know what the something is, but there are fines if they don't comply.
Throgmorton/ So ... so to piggyback on, uh, on Rick's question. Thank you for, uh, clarifying
that, but, uh, Rick, pick up on your question, so with regard to alternative sources of
power generation down at the South Treatment Plant, uh, I don't know about squatty
wind turbines, but you know there are the ones that we see all over the countryside...
Dobyns/ Sure!
Throgmorton/ ...now that, uh, conceivably at least, one or more of them could be put down
there. And just today...or yesterday in the New York Times I read a lengthy article
about, uh, how, um, solar power companies are now, uh, trading at much higher values,
you know, the prices are ... going, really shooting up now because buyers are seeing that
there's a... a good return associated with `em now. I think... solar cells, photovoltaic stuff
has turned a corner there and it's, you know, kind of worth looking at, but you know, the
question then really al... always comes down to what's best in terms of avoided
environmental damage, or avoided negative externalities.
Dobyns/ Well that's why I asked the question. (both talking) ...have both, and I guess (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ ...not easy to answer!
Dobyns/ ...maybe what I'm saying it'd be nice to look for next year's budget as a possibility
of.. .
Markus/ Yeah, but Geoff and I are talking about this while you're speaking, and I think ... I think
the tax credits go to the private sector (mumbled) tax credits towards the public, they
don't exist. So I think that there's a benefit for the private sector to go in that direction.
can tell you I've looked at this as an individual, and supplying, um, wind generation, uh,
myself, and... (laughter) you start generating or using wind generators and then having to
store it with batteries and ... all the other materials that go along with it, your ... your cost
is getting way up there.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
Mims/ Well, and I ... and I think the other thing, it goes beyond the scope of our budget
discussion here but is looking at what is the real environmental ... what's the real
environmental impact of even some of these other things like ... the chemicals and the
materials, etc., that go into these photovoltaic cells. I mean, what ... what really is the
environmental cost of those products, um, it's just like people will talk about, you know,
the ... you know, the cars and stuff. I mean, okay, yeah, I've got a Prius so it runs on a
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battery and so I use less gas, but what is the real environmental cost of that car and the
battery that is in that car? Yeah, it's cut down on gas usage, but when you look at the
whole environmental picture, is it really better for the environment, and so I think, you
know, as we look at these things, we (several talking) yeah, we've gotta look more than
just the money, but we've gotta look at more than just, okay, we're not burning coal
because there still are environmental costs to those other (several talking) energy sources.
So...
Throgmorton/ I think about carbon emissions mainly. (several talking)
Botchway/ My comment kind of, Jim and Susan's point as well is, um, so you've already made a
financial assessment as far as, um, you know, when usage, um, possible solar and you're
saying something about bio -gas might being a possibility, that's your initial assessment.
Is there going to be an annual or whatever the case may be, assessment again, to see
whether or not those costs have changed to where, um, it could be more helpful, I mean,
later on down the road?
Fosse/ That's... that's something we do with all of our operations, uh, on a ... not necessarily on
an annual basis, but over time, and ... we changed out (hearing others speaking off mic) as
technol ... excuse me, as technologies change, we get ... we get better options available to
us. So that's ... that is something that we do.
Markus/ The pro ... the problem is you'll have made the capital investment and it would difficult
(hearing others speaking off mic) to turn around and go to an alternative after you've
made the initial investment, one to five years later.
Botchway/ Well, my thinking from that is, is if there's any way, and I know this is somewhat
conjecture, of...thinking in the future and being like, we're making this initial
investment; however, we're separating this amount of funding to possibility... or to
possibilities of adding additional, um, environmental resources to supplement that energy
that we ... that we really want to use.
Fosse/ Let me share with you our experience over the years with the energy payback fund, uh,
within Iowa City. Is we had that, uh, in the 80s and I think we phased it out in the early
90s because ... the good projects were done. And the incremental, uh, improvement in the
...incremental improvements getting smaller; the payback was getting longer; and we...
we tabled that program for about 10 years, and then when we ... when we brought it
forward again, there was new low- hanging fruit because of changes in technologies.
Botchway/ Okay.
Fosse / And then we could ... we could make some really good investments again, and ... and pretty
soon we'll start to hit those rates of diminishing returns and you need to wait for
technology to get out ahead of you there (hearing others speaking off mic)
Botchway/ Right. Okay.
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Fosse/ That's been our experience. (hearing others speaking off mic) Anything else before I
move on?
Hayek/ Let's keep going here!
Fosse/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Wait a minute, I do! (laughter) Yeah, you guys are jumpin' way ahead of me
(laughs) Can you go back ... no, there's the slide I want to look at. Uh, so my question's
...has nothing to do with, uh, environmental stuff, whatever. Just organization. Why is
Waste Water lumped with Landfill instead of with Water? It would seem that Water and
Waste Water's a natural fit and Landfill is not. So...
Fosse/ Okay! That's a good question, and that goes back to the 90s when we disassembled the
...the Landfill and Solid Waste Division. We took the Solid Waste collection and we put
that in Streets, cause that's a good fit together and ... and over the past few weeks we've
been using, uh, refuse workers to drive plows and end - loaders and stuff like that, and then
we took the Landfill component and we put it in the Waste Water, uh, for a couple
reasons. Uh, the main reason was that they have very of this... similar lab processes. We
have a lab at Waste Water that can do some of the tests for the Landfill. Similar
regulatory requirements, and we have very good, uh, Waste Water Superintendent that...
that has a good mind for this sort of thing. So that's... that's where the fit occurred.
Dickens/ Don't you have to take some things from the Landfill to the ... or process or vice versa,
isn't there...
Fosse/ We go from the Waste Water out to the Landfill, with the solids, the grit, not the solids.
We'll talk about that on Monday. Uh, and then the leachate from the Landfill goes back
to the Waste Water.
Markus/ Well but let me explain something, and I think, Jim, you ask a very good question
because as you look at these organizational charts, and as management looks at these
organizational charts, we're constantly looking at fit, okay? And that fit sometimes is
driven by the staff that you have and the expertise of the staff you have, and then the
cross -over for function. So, we have ... some major succession coming forward,
especially in Rick's department. I mean, we're gonna have ... we're gonna lose some
incredible institutional memory in just the next couple years.
Throgmorton/ Dave (mumbled)
Markus/ Dave and ... and we just lost Bud. Bud's retired. So we're looking at all of this post the
community development kind of look, where then we're also looking at this operation, as
well. Where does that all fit? And who are the personalities in key positions now?
Where do they fit? How does this stuff align in terms of the organization? That's
something that evolves in most of these municipal organizations on a regular basis. So,
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you may see within ... three months a proposal for some reconfigurations in these, as well.
So ... I didn't want you to ... look back three months from now and go, why didn't he say
something about (laughter) because we are looking at all of these things. Go ahead.
Fosse/ Keep going? Okay! So now we are on to the, uh, the Landfill component. And, uh, our
Landfill, uh, and Recycling Center serves all of Johnson County, plus Riverside and
Kalona. We take in on the average about 400 tons of waste per day. And we also
provide composting, household hazardous waste services, and a variety of recycling
opportunities out there. Uh, one of the things that I'm happy to report at our Landfill is
our reconstruction from the Landfill fire is complete, and the entire drainage layer of the
tire- derived aggregate is covered with garbage, so we do not have the vulnerability today
that we had, uh, back when the fire started. So that's done! Um, and then on Monday
you're going to see a couple capital expenditures related to our operations out at the
Landfill. Just replacing things as they wear out. So we'll move on to ... the Water
Division. That's one that's pretty straightforward. Just got the one component to it, and
uh, we produce and distribute water for all of Iowa City, all of University Heights, and a
portion of the University of Iowa. We have about 26,000 utility customers for water, and
waste water. Uh, it is an enterprise fund, and the staff for this section also includes one-
quarter time, uh, of the project support assistant that we'll talk more about in the
Engineering, uh, section. Um, I also want you to go to page 256 to take a look at the bar
graph there, and you'll see the declining balance, at a more substantial rate than we have
for Waste Water, declining, uh, cash balance. And what is proposed in this budget is a
5% increase in water rates this year and a 5% increase in water rates next year. And to
put those rate increases in perspective, I want to take you back over the last 13, 14 years.
And that is that, um, our last water rate increase was 13 years ago in August of... of 2000,
and that was the ... the year that our water rates peaked, August of 2000. Sub...
subsequent to that, we did a 5% decrease in 2003, a 5% decrease in 2004, and a 5%
decrease in 2006, and the for the past seven years we have held steady where we're at.
So, even after the ... the two proposed 5% increases, in 15 and 16, we'll still be lower than
we were in 2000. So I hope that frames it up for you. And what is driving the ... the
decrease in fund balance, uh, is the investment, reinvestment, that we're needing to make
in our water distribution system. We're in the century club. Our, you know, some of our
system is over 100 years old and... and, you know, we see the water main breaks in our
daily lives out there. We have, last few years we're been averaging anywhere between
60 and 100 water main breaks per year. Uh, last New Year's Day... not... two back now,
uh, we had a big one on First Avenue that we ... we still need to complete the ... the
reconstruction on that one, and then we all remember the Washington Street one last
summer, just an example...
Dickens/ Wait till Monday! When it gets down to 25 below and see what happens!
Fosse/ Yeah! (laughs) Now that is one of the good things with our new water plant, when that
went online, our... our water main breaks dropped significantly, uh, for two reasons. One
is, we ... we were better able to manage the pressures in our system, and the other is that
now that we draw from the sands and gravels below the Iowa River, our water's more
uniform in temperature and we don't have those daily fluctuations that you were just
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talking about with the ... with the really cold snaps. And when that cold water would hit
the system, it was hard on the pipes. So that's ... we are better than we were pre -2000 in
that regard.
Throgmorton/ Hey, Rick, um, my recollection from 20 years ago when we were debating
whether to build the new water plant was that we lost, I don't know, 10 to 20% of the
water through leaks in the distribution system.
Fosse/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ Does that sound right, and you know...
Fosse/ Ballpark, yeah!
Throgmorton/ Ballpark, yeah, I mean ... (mumbled) no real way to quantify it I suppose, but...
but uh, that would seem to me to am ... amply justify... investing capital to replace aged,
uh, distribution lines...
Fosse/ Yes! We call that non - revenue water, and it's used within the plant for process, and also
just leaks that are out there, and you don't need to have a ... a spectacular water main
break for it to be leaking. There's... there's a number of leaks out there in the system that
we find using, uh, a specialty contractor that has listening devices and they hitch up to
fire hydrants and are able to tell us where leaks are, and we dig `em up and ... there they
are! And so we ... we plug away at that every year. That's.... that's a good point. Okay,
see if there's anything else on water I need to cover ... I think we're good there!
Dobyns/ Rick, I have a general question. Uh, we sort of did this with Chris last year when we
talked about, uh, transportation issues and um, you know, increasing costs and as we
contemplate this increase in water rates, I'm thinking the city has maintained a triple -A
bond for the last 10 or 15 years, um, and I'm trying to figure out, oh, you know, Chris
said last year and you're saying now, you know, for 13 or 15 years we haven't increased
rates. And I'm going, okay! Well, um, the ... the City Council was, uh, contemplative
then about the same things we are. Why didn't that happen five or 10 years ago? Um...
cause I'm thinking what did the City Council, who were as smart as we were eight years
ago, maybe miss that we should be paying attention to now. And, so why now are we
thinking about this and we haven't like ... in so many years?
Fosse/ Oh, why haven't we raised rates (both talking)
Dobyns/ Yeah, I mean...
Fosse/ Dennis and I were talking about that last week, and that ... that after these 5% increases, it
would probably be wise to have some sort of cost of living adjustment in there, uh, in
subsequent years. And ... and we should look at all of our utilities from that perspective.
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Dobyns/ (mumbled) old Rick, how come you didn't think of this 10 years ago? (laughter) I
mean, it's just ... uh, I mean, it just wasn't...
Fosse/ Older and wiser!
Bockenstedt/ Rick, and a lot of that depends on cash flow. Especially when a community is
growing, they may be .... okay in a cash situation, but they're not putting money aside to
replace the infrastructure down the road. So at some point as you're not setting aside the
cash for that future capital need, you may be fine on an operating basis on a cash flow
basis, but you're not covering your depreciation expense, and at some point down the
road, that's going to come back on you. And it happens to a lot of communities, and
that's where you see these large 15, 20, 30% rate increases is because they were fine on a
cash flow basis going year to year, but they were never setting funds aside for the
depreciation of that infrastructure over time. And so that's why sometimes you can go
long periods of time without rate increases because you don't see the problems, you're
not banking for those problems down the road.
Markus / And I don't know what kind of advice they were getting (away from mic) ... said before
though, you issue debt for a public utility, there's coverage factors that are built in so you
end up, you know, it costs you more money than a GO (away from mic) ...to begin with,
but then the coverage factors (noises on mic) require you to put up reserves that ... that,
you know, you can't use, because they're set up to cover the bond debt retirement, and so
it's ... it's typically better in public utilities, especially for transmission line types of
improvements to do those on a pay -as- you -go basis rather than on a revenue bond issue.
Bockenstedt/ Yeah, and ... and those coverage requirements, not only are you paying back the
cost of the capital, then you're paying back the interest on it (both talking)
Markus/ ...paying the interest on the coverage!
Bockenstedt/ ...but then they usually have a coverage factor of 115, 125% of your ... of your
expenditures so then you gotta cover that, as well. So ultimately your rates are actually
higher by having to borrow that revenue debt because you have to pay the interest, and
you have to pay the coverage on that debt.
Markus/ I'd have to go back and look, but I ... I, you know, sometimes and I ... and I know a
number of jurisdictions that think this way, that the default is, well you can always go out
and issue debt. But in the case of revenue and enterprises, that debt gets very expensive
because of those coverage factors.
Hayek/ So ... one of the things we did this morning was look at our tax structure, relative to other
Metro Coalition communities, including Coralville, North Liberty for comparison
purposes, and that includes utility, uh, fees we charge customers. I mean ... I mean you
look at this chart, I mean, I have no doubt the Council's gonna go along with the
recommended 5% increases for the reasons stated, that ... does nudge us up, but you
know, you see this big disparity in water rates. I mean, Coralville's down toward the
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bottom at...at....at under 18 bucks. We're at almost 29 bucks before the increases.
North Liberty is upwards of 38 bucks. Um, is ... is part of that ... to understand it, would
you have to look at what those respective cities are doing to shore up their systems and
make investments and (both talking)
Markus/ Absolutely! You have ... you have in Iowa City a most recent investment in a totally
upgraded water plant, water ... water system. You have a major investment in your sewer
treatment facility. Um, so you've created an additional capacity. These are kind of
point -in -time kind of situations because typically utilities are close to being pay- as -you-
go kinda operations. They're all based on supply and demand. You know, your demand
goes down, your rates go up. You know, if... if you're producing more water, the
potential is you can hold the rate or it can decline. You know, the ... the very thing we
tried to do is create (noises on mic, unable to hear speaker) in the use of water, and what
happens when that happens? The demand goes down, your rates go back up! So...
Hayek/ Yeah.
Markus/ ...it's kind of a tricky process but I think we have a relatively new system that we're
paying for, compared to some of those other communities. I won't tell you the name of
the community, but I understand one community in the vicinity, when they went to build
a new restaurant facility, they had to put a major filtration plant in for that facility
because the water quality, uh, was such that it couldn't be used to brew, um, beer that
didn't have a foul taste to it. So, our history in Iowa City was, you couldn't drink the
water here! At least that's what I've been told. (several responding) It was horrendous!
Okay? And so ... you know, that's one of the things that they did here in terms of
investment, and I think those investment then translate into the rates.
Bockenstedt/ And ... and a lot of growing communities, the developers build the infrastructure
and give it to the city. So they experience cash flow because they get the rate - paying
customers, but that infrastructure is given to them for free, but they're not collecting the
revenue that it's going to take to replace that infrastructure some day. So, what that does
is for a lot of these growing communities is they get a lot of good cash flow from more
customers, but it's not enough to cover the expense of replacing that infrastructure some
day.
Hayek/ So they're kicking the can down the road (several talking)
Bockenstedt/ ... and... and you know, and see it because your cash flow was fine, but some point
down the road, 10, 20 years, when that infrastructure starts to fail, they will not have the
funds in place to replace it and then ... then the rate ... the rate structure will change on `em
and ... and that's why you're better off looking at what your depreciation is on the
infrastructure, setting your rates accordingly, and ... and keeping up pace with that
because by ... by not doing that, what they're doing is ... is they're waiting 10 years, 20
years and ... and pushing that off on everybody at that time.
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Fosse/ There's two things I'd like to add to this ... this conversation. One is if you take a step
further back and look at statewide and you go back to that point in time that ... that Tom
was talking about of 2000, we were the state leader, if you will, in water rates. We were
at...at the top of the scale. In the 13 years since then a number of other communities
have passed us. We're drifting down and we're now near more of the mid - point, when
you look at it from a statewide perspective and the City of Ames does a, uh, a water rate
study every year too. The other thing to look at is our water source. And the water
source that we chose is more expensive to treat than the water source that's chosen by our
surrounding communities (noises on mic) They are drawing on ... on the Jordan and
Solarian aquifers which ... which we believe is ... is a limited resource. And ... and uh,
many years it's being depleted faster than it is recharging itself and ... and we were not
going to engage in... in a full -scale depletion of that... of that aquifer down there. So we
looked at the sands and gravels that are below the Iowa River as our primary source of
water that are constantly being recharged by the river. The ... the cost associated with that
is you're starting with a ... a dirtier source. So it costs more ... more money to get it to a
point that you send it out to your customers. Goes to that sustainability thing that we
were talking about earlier with regard to energy. We're taking a harder look at that on
our water area.
Hayek/ Okay.
Payne/ So, we built a new water plant and lowered our water rates at the same time?
Fosse/ No! We ... we, uh, went through a number of water rate increases through the 90s, and our
last increase was in 2000, and, um...
Markus/ In anticipation of the construction of the plant.
Fosse/ Yes! So the, and then the water plant was completed in 2003, and ... and what we found is
we overshot those rates a little bit, were able to back down, and ... and uh, the ... we did
those subsequent three 5% reductions, uh, to get down there, and then we've held at that
for seven years.
Payne/ Thanks!
Fosse/ Uh huh.
Throgmorton/ We had quite a public hearing here the ... uh, and Marian will remember. Rick,
you probably remember. There were well over 100 people here. It went on till 1:30 in
the morning. Deciding whether or not to build a new water plant, or maybe that was the
rate...
Karr/ ... rate (mumbled)
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Throgmorton/ It was quite the thing! It was the ... easily the most, well, other than Eric Shaw's
shooting, it was easily the most (several talking) intense experience I've ... I'm aware of
here in 25 years. (several talking)
Markus/ But the water was pretty bad before that, wasn't it? (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Well, it had a really bad reputation, that's for sure! (several talking)
Mims/ The spring especially!
Fosse/ Yeah.
Mims/ With the run -off.
Fosse/ It was an acquired taste! (laughter)
Dobyns/ So ... Jim, I ... cause I ... cause I wonder what the barriers of our, you know, Coralville's
only a half -mile from my house, and I ... I smell and I'm aware of it every day in terms of
like, you know, its utilities (laughter) um ... (several talking) Um, so what was the ... what
was the push -back back ... cause I'm wondering why they don't change, um ... what was
the pushback back then? Was it just the rate increase... that people were ... why was the
room filled?
Throgmorton/ Well, there were two big debates, right, Rick? Uh, one had to do with whether to
build a new water plant in the first place because it was going to be a big expense thing.
Dobyns/ So, money, okay.
Throgmorton/ And the second was who should pay for it.
Dobyns/ Okay. So it was just money, it was all money. Okay. (several talking) All right.
Fosse/ Yep. Move on?
Dobyns/ Which they don't have.
Dickens/ Yeah, you're down to 12 minutes!
Fosse/ Oh oh! Am I really? (laughter)
Dickens/ No, I'm just kidding (laughs)
Markus/ (several talking and laughing) Ten!
Fosse/ Okay, on to the City Engineer. Uh, the first one, again, is such a small operational area,
storm water. We don't have a separate org chart for that. That's our newest operational
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area, and it's evolved to comply with various state and federal regulations and mandates
that have come to be since, uh, 1990 is when that first started, and is now cranked up to
the point where we have, uh, 2.6 FTEs dedicated to this, including an additional one -half
time, so one -half of this ... this, um, project support assistant that I'll talk about in just a
minute, um, is ... is included there. Uh, our challenge that ... that we're facing in storm
water right now is ... is that Brian Belk, our first and only storm water engineer, has... has
moved on. He's in the private sector now, and we need to fill that position, and we have
...we have filled the position with, uh, Ben Clark, who is managing the construction of
our expansion of the South Waste Water Treatment Plant. So when that is done, he will
move up and ... and take over that position and the right ... in the meantime, we're just
filling in as best we can. Urn ... so next, uh, we'll move on to Engineering Services. And.
they provide (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) general engineering services, uh,
engineering support for other departments and divisions, uh, right -of -way management,
capital project planning, um, development review, and mapping of City streets and
utilities. This is a General Fund operation, uh, but they do have a fairly significant or
substantial portion of their time is billed back to capital projects, or to development
activities that are occurring, so they can ... bill back a portion of their time. Um, this is
where the ... the project support assistant will be housed, but it does not show up in ... in
the budget for Engineering. Uh, I pointed out, a quarter of it will come from Water; one-
quarter from Waste Water; and one -half from Storm Water, and this position is required
just to deal with the sheer volume of the support for those other divisions, and the
projects that they do, and things that we're doing there. And that ... will have no impact
on the General Fund because it's funded by those three enterprise funds ... that I just
talked about.
Payne/ So why is it housed in Engineering Services? Just because it's part of three other groups
and you didn't want to put it in one of those groups?
Fosse / And it's ... it's where it needs to be to get the work done. Because a ... a good share of
what Engineering does is ... is provide engineering support, project support and
management for those outlying divisions. And, this will assist them in getting that done.
Yep. So with that we'll move on to our last division, that being the Equipment Division.
And ... here it ... we provide the repair, preventative maintenance, and equipment
management for all the major City -owned vehicles, except for Transit. You know,
Transit is ... is operated separately, and that ... most cities have evolved that way because
of the federal funding that comes with Transit operations really needs to be tracked and
accounted for distinctly and separately, so that's... that's where those operations, um,
deviate a little bit, and ... and also the ... the bus, working on the buses is somewhat
specialized, as well. Uh, all total we have 525 pieces of major equipment or vehicles that
are served by the ... the Equipment Division. Uh, the Equipment Division also operates
our fuel facility and uh, in the past year we provided 585,000 gallons of fuel, uh, for Iowa
City's fleet, uh, as well as the School system, much of the County's fleet, Johnson
County ambulance, and then all of University Heights. And uh, I do make a point within
these enterprise operations to point out that the multiple jurisdictions that we do serve,
because we ... we do, and it's ... it's good inter - governmental cooperation, and it's good to
acknowledge that. Uh, it's an internal service fund is how this ... this one is ... is funded.
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Items of note in the past year is we have fully implemented the radio system that we
talked about little over a year ago. Uh, the non - emergency radio system, and it works
very well and the inner- operability with police and fire has been put to the test during the
past year with the April 17th rain event that we had and then the flood that we had during
May and June. So, we're ... we're happy with the new system. The inner- operability
works well. We're very pleased there. Also our new fuel facility is in service, and that's
down at...at the South Gilbert Street site. And, we're taking the old one off -line. We're
glad to do that before it ... something major went wrong with that. We're happy to (both
talking)
Dickens/ ...very well lit. I almost pulled in and got gas (laughter)
Fosse/ It is! Uh, we're ... we're looking at ways to calm that down a little bit, and then also when
spring rolls around we'll get some of our screening planted.
Throgmorton/ Spring? Did you say spring? (laughter)
Fosse/ Yes! (laughter) We're anxious for that! Uh, this is going to be a big year for
expenditures and ... and vehicle replacement, because we literally have some big
equipment that needs to be replaced. A street sweeper, a bulldozer, some dump trucks,
and other large pieces of equipment. So we have somewhat of a blip on there. The
bulldozer will (coughing, unable to hear speaker) push out a year until the ... the Fiberight
thing comes in focus and we know what size dozer we need to replace it with, uh, but
we'll probably move forward with the other acquisitions. So with that, open it up to
questions. Or additional questions! None?
Hayek/ Well done!
Fosse/ Thank you for listening!
Mims/ Thank you (several talking)
Payne/ You gotta sing! (laughter)
Fosse/ No on that!
Markus/ So do you want to knock out these ... the, uh, City Manager, City Council, those?
Payne/ Twenty minutes?
Markus/ Yeah, it's 20 minutes. We can do it.
Hayek/ Okay.
Mims/ Sure!
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Markus/ All right. Uh, Simon, uh, is going to address, uh, City Council. (several talking) You
can tell he's got a long career in front of him! (laughs)
General Government Program Budgets (cont.)
City Council:
Andrew/ Well, I get the easy one! Very short one here this afternoon. Um, the budget for City
Council includes salary as well as miscellaneous expenses for travel, dues, software, um,
printing, and other supplies. Um, the budget did add a couple years ago approximately
$4,000 for, uh, welcome letters to University students, which are distributed by the
University of Iowa (clears throat) Excuse me! So that continues, uh, status quo from the
last couple of years. And the FYI 4, um, budget amendment, proposed budget
amendment, includes a one -time expense of $15,000 for participation in the Herky on
Parade initiative. Um, so those are the only changes from previous years. In fact the
$4,000 is just an annual appropriation that we plan on continuing going forward, so... uh,
if you have any questions about Council's budget, that's all I have!
Dobyns/ What's the welcome letter say?
Andrew/ The welcome letter, um, introduces new students to Iowa City, highlights some of our
local attractions, businesses, um, trying to get, uh, University students acclimated to
coming downtown, um, experiencing Iowa City and not necessarily, um, spending the
first semester kind of holed up in the dorm and trying to figure things out, so...
Markus/ So we saw this, uh, in Ames and in ... I think... Cedar Falls might be doing it too, and so
we, you know, in terms of improving upon the student/city relationship, this letter was
developed as a welcoming letter, introducing them to the community, you know,
encouraging them to utilize our services, just developing that kind of relationship, rather
than just having kids come in stark and not...
Andrew/ Yeah, it's actually mailed to their, um, their home address in the springtime before they
come so it's addressed to the family, and I ... I'd say it's as much for the parents as it is
the kids, just to extend that, a welcome feeling, uh, before the student comes to campus.
Mims/ Is there anything included in there, or what kind of outreach do we do to get their email
addresses and get them to sign up for any of the City emails? Um, I'm just thinking
about like weather advisories, snow emergencies, um...
Markus/ Police rules and regs.
Mims/ (both talking) ...police rules and regulations... rental, yeah, I mean, you need help in
terms of rental...
Markus/ Here's our website.
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Mims/ Yeah, just... anything...
Andrew/ We ... last year was actually the first year that we did the letter, um, I think that it'll
evolve, uh, closer to ... to where you're going with that. We've talked with the ... the
Downtown District about perhaps including some general information about the ... the
offerings that they have. So I think we'll get there. This ... I think last year we ... we, um,
included links to...
Karr/ We do.
Andrew/ ...uh, to Facebook and...
Karr/ We include links so that there's an education process, but we also have an ... another
initiative that we do through, um, Communications and through our Neighborhood
Services.
Andrew/ Yeah. It's a balance. We don't want to send a packet that'll get thrown in the recycle
bin but...
Mims/ Well but ... now, but I think another thing that we ought to investigate is ... uh, in the realm
of cooperating with our neighbors, is see if we could work with the University to do a
mass emailing to all their students, um ... just one or two a year, because they can do that!
I mean, all we have to do is say here's an email; we can let them vet the content even if
they're concerned about that.
Karr/ Might work with UISG.
Andrew/ Yeah, we've done that with UISG and I think we do that on snow emergencies, but
on... on just a... a different level (both talking)
Mims/ Yeah, I'm just thinking, you know a...
Markus/ ...type of information you thinking about? (several talking)
Mims/ Well I ... I can see a beginning of the year one, just ... you know, sign ... you know, sign up
to get information from the City. I mean, are you coming to Iowa City with a car?
Here's information about parking. Here's, you know, here's how you can sign up to get
an email or a text alert...
Markus/ Okay.
Mims/ ... if we have a snow emergency so you don't get towed and have to pay $200.
Dickens/ (mumbled) ... your car when it is towed.
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Mims/ Yeah (laughs) where to pick it up if it is towed. Yeah, I mean, here and maybe for all,
you know, for all students, here's, you know, here's our policies. You're not 21 yet, you
know, here's our ... here's our 21- ordinance. Here's .... in layman's language, um, you
know, avoid that... whatever it is, $500, $600 PAULA ticket and that, you know, record
that is going to follow you for life. Um...
Markus/ We get it!
Mims/ That kind of stuff!
Markus/ Yeah.
(male)/ Totally agree!
Mims/ And I would think that if we presented it to ... to University that way, that ... I mean, I
know these kids get a ton of emails, but I would think...
Markus/ We can talk to Tom Rocklin.
Hayek/ Yeah, he's the guy on that.
Markus/ (both talking) ... supportive of that.
Mims/ Yeah (several talking)
Andrew/ We're having those conversations. Uh, PAS has been a good forum for us to, um,
connect the right people. So ... we can ... we can probably actually come back to you at
some point with just a summary memo...
Mims/ Okay!
Andrew/ ...on how we're doing things and...
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...has to do with President Mason's annual party for incoming
students. Uh, which she holds at her ... at her house. Uh ... maybe we could connect into
that somehow. I don't really know exactly how. It wouldn't do any good to just go up
there and walk around with the students. So I'm not sure (laughs) how to do it but...
Markus/ (several talking) We could have like a dunk tank for the Mayor! (laughter)
Hayek/ No problem! No problem! (laughter and several talking) No problem, as long as Sally
Mason's throwing the water balloons! (laughter)
Mims/ I just think the ... the more we could try to get them to sign up for the emails ... so that
we're not, and the University won't let us just keep sending them emails, because they
get badgered with too much stuff. But if we can get them to see that there (both talking)
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Markus/ ... make the offer.
Mims/ Pardon?
Markus/ Make the offer.
Mims/ Yeah, if...if we can get them to see that there's a benefit to sign up to these when there's
certain kinds of things happening that might impact them.
Hayek/ Yeah (several talking) and there's no ... there's no limit to it. I mean, landlord /tenant
issues and recycling and...
Mims/ Yeah!
Fruin/ Real quick, one of the ... one of the I think fun kind of initiatives that HIS is working on
related to this — every year they go door -to -door in some of the ... the problem areas that
they have, and just to introduce themselves to ... to the new tenants. Um, we ... we stole
this idea from Colorado State, I believe, um, but ... this year they're going around with a
...a deck of cards that we're custom printing on, and on each card there's a fact about the
City.
Mims/ Oh!
Fruin/ And it's ... you know, it's exactly what you're talking about — a PAULA ticket is this,
um... and they're... they're fun and they're kind of quirky and it's ... it's something
hopefully that they'll keep around, as opposed to a letter or something. So, I think we
can put a nice summary together of what we're doing and then get your feedback on on
some other opportunities that you think we might be missing out on.
Mims/ Okay.
Markus/ Thanks for your comments; good comments (several talking) Thanks!
Hayek/ Thanks, Simon!
City Manager:
Markus/ Um, next is the City Manager. Uh, it consists of three full -time, uh, employees and a
management intern. Uh, all of our, uh, folks in the management staff, uh, have advanced
degrees, uh, Masters in Public Administration. Uh, we're proposing a position
reclassification for the Assistant, uh, to the City Manager to the ... to Assistant City
Manager.
Mims/ Yes!
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Markus/ Uh, in 15. You know, we talked about this when we changed that designation initially.
So ... um ... previously changed the title of Administrative Assistant to Administrative
Analyst, and that's about it for the changes.
Mims/ Think they look great!
Communications (pg. 12-13):
Fruin/ I'm going to jump into the Communications budget, which is still a ... uh, a relatively new
division of the City Manager's office. Uh, we started that in July of 2012. Uh, we com
...we took some employees from a Finance division that has since been, um ... uh,
terminated. And then we added a, uh, employee from the IT, um ... division, as well. So
if you look at the, um, the ... um ... summary info that you got in the Info Packet and then
the Communications division, it actually shows that we gained an employee, and that's
really...
Karr/ It's pages 12 and 13.
Fruin/ Thank you, uh, Marian. It's actually just an ... an accounting, um, there wasn't really a
new position added. We took one from IT so if you looked at IT, there'd... you'd see a
decrease there. Um ... there, I think the division is coming together, uh, very well. It took
them a while to, um ... uh, get acclimated to the City Manager's office and ... and learn the
organization, but we've since, uh, made some great strides in a number of areas,
including, um, greatly expanded social media efforts. Uh, certainly with the Council's
strategic plan discussions about enhanced marketing and communications, we'll look to
take another step forward, some things on the, uh, horizon for 2014. Uh, in 2015 include
a completely redesigned website. Um, expanded social media offerings. You heard
Chief Hargadine, uh, talk about that today. You know, it's just one example of, uh,
where our ... our staff in the City Manager's office is ... is working with some departments
that traditionally have not used social media but can and ... and should be to ... to their
benefit. Uh ... the continued modernization of communication methods, uh, enhance
promotion of the positive things that are going on in the community. So you'll see their
presence at ribbon cuttings and other, uh... events in the community. Uh, Doug
mentioned earlier the expansion of our mobile app from a pilot project in HIS throughout
the entire city. That'll be something that they oversee this year, and uh, we're going to
look at, uh... some sort of marketing plan. That was articulated in your strategic plan
sessions, something that we haven't, uh, done or at least done well in the past as a city is
marketed ourselves so ... they're actively looking at that and ... and how we can, uh, move
forward with that and uh, in a smart, uh, message or in a smart manner. So the budget,
uh, it does contain funds for all of those initiatives. There's about $60,000 in there in
FY14 for the website redesign. Um, we are exploring two different methods right now.
One is just to go out, uh, as a traditional web, uh, RFP with the private sector and see
what we can get. The other method we're exploring is a 28E agreement, uh, with the
University to have them develop the site for us, and uh, we'll eventually bring that back
to Council when we have a recommendation. There's also $50,000 in the FYI budget,
uh, for the marketing efforts that are yet to be determined and we'll have future
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discussions with the Council on ... on what that looks like. Uh, yeah, the last, uh, last
thing I want to mention... thanks for the reminder, is ... uh, with the cable TV changes that
are coming up that you're all aware of, uh, and we'll get into ... Simon's going to go over
the cable budget, but we do, uh, plan to reduce a ... a position, a management position, in
the cable TV division, and we see these two, uh, operations becoming one, uh, in the
future, when that ... when that takes place. So you'll see Cable and Communications
come together, and ... and they're starting to work on that relationship right now. Frankly,
uh, the folks in our Cable division are incredibly talented, um, in the areas of, you know,
video and graphic design, and I ... I think we can use them a lot better, um, than we do
now. Right now they're... they're really just focused on what you see on the cable TV
channel and they've got the skills that can translate into web and social media use too, so
we're working on that. It'll be formalized probably spring or summer, um, but it's in the
works.
Markus/ Just seemed like a natural mesh to pull Cable into the whole Communications network,
and ... so that the message is common, that we're not cross - messaging on occasion. It just
flows better. And ... and ... and he's right, there's a lot of skills that go way beyond the
cable, um, responsibilities that those staff have that could fit into the Communications
quite well.
Fruin/ Okay, uh, our Management Intern, Asha, is going to take you through, uh, Human
Resources and Human Rights.
Human Resources (pgs. 14 -15, 96 -97):
Adhikari/ Good afternoon, everyone! (clears throat)
Karr/ Pages 14 and 15.
Adhikari/ Page 96 and 97.
Fruin/ 14 and 15 in your...
Karr /Summary.
Fruin/ ... summary packet and then, uh.
Markus/ 96 and 97...
Fruin/ (both talking) ...in your budget.
Markus/ ... document itself.
Adhikari/ Um, good afternoon, everyone. I'll just be walking you through the proposed budget
for Human Resour ... Human Resources and Human Rights. Uh, starting with Human
Resources, uh, which is pretty consistent with last year's, um, budget. The only major
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changes are ... you'll probably find is in the personnel and uh, services. There's $15,000,
uh, reduction (clears throat) in the personal, which is reflective of the decrease in full -
time, uh, HR Assistant position. Currently there are three full -time employees in the de
... in the department and one student worker. Um, and the other change you probably see
is the approximate... approximately $20,000 increase in services, and that is for, uh,
Police and Fire promotional consultants fee. So those are the promotion... promotion
tests that are conducted for Police and Fire's promotions, um ... continuing on ... do you
have any questions?
Human Rights:
Adhikari/ And for Human Rights, um, the two major changes for (clears throat) (mumbles)
There are two permanent, full -time employees in the, uh, department and the two major
changes in the, um, budget request are for, uh, Aid to Agencies and um, increase in
marketing expenses. The Aid to Agencies, as you all are familiar with, is for Fastrack
funding, um, $15,000 is separated towards their operations, and there's a little bit of a
cushion set aside for any, um, possible, uh, requests from Diversity Focus in terms of
such arrangements. Um, the increase in marketing... expenses is focusing at, um, the
department's objective to promote diversity and uh, and anti - discrimination awareness in
the community, uh, through various media and publication outlets. Uh... and different
ethnic, uh, publishing or media outlets as well. So ... those are the two, um, increases
(clears throat) in the budget. Any questions regarding that? (laughter and several
talking) Losing my voice! (laughs)
Hayek/ Okay! Thanks so much.
Mims/ Thanks!
Markus/ If...(mumbled) Simon's coming up, I would just mention in terms of Diversity Focus,
I've been talking to Chad all along and encouraging him to get his request in. I don't
know that we have a formal request at this point but my point is is that it's an
organization that I think we should participate in. I've looked at the Cedar Rapids'
contribution and I ... you know, I pegged ours around $50,000. They're twice our size,
uh, Cedar Rapids is, uh, their offices are there but I'm trying to pull Chad down into our
area more. His emphasis is to try and, uh, not only recruit minority candidates into our
labor force, but develop environments, uh, in both Iowa City and in Cedar Rapids that
makes it desirable for, uh, minority employees that move into our area to want to stay
here. So we're working with them in terms of how that all plays out. I also talked to
Chad about, um ... DMC, disproportionate minority contact, and that's what kind of led to
the whole Fastrack discussion and others, and I'm trying to get him, you know, to work
with us on that particular issue and to develop some programming in that regard. So
we've had those conversations. I think once we become a formal member, we can
expand that, and the point I made before when we talked about DMC (coughing, difficult
to hear speaker) I'm looking at organizations, um, like his that have more of a regional
kind of connection because I think they will be, uh, much more sustainable. They have
the ability to go in and attract resources from a larger area, and when you get up into
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Cedar Rapids, what you're really looking at is ... is extracting or getting funds from some
of the industries to support some of these, uh, initiatives, as well. So, I think between the
two of us, I think this makes sense. It's on a quarter -type of basis, and I hope to develop
more programs with Chad in this process. So ... that's why we're promoting (mumbled)
this (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...he had an extensive conversation with Fastrack's board, uh, and ... and uh, it
seemed to me, I was in on the meeting, so it would seem to me it was a very productive
conversation that's going to lead to really good results.
Mims / Another conversation as you're looking at some of those programming efforts, um, I
would encourage you to, if you haven't gotten in contact with, uh, CCIA, Community
Corrections Improvement Association.
Markus / Right!
Mims/ Which is basically a foundation that came out of the Sixth Judicial District, um, headed
up by Gary Hinzman. He's retired from the Sixth Judic... Sixth Judicial District, but I
think he still heads up the Foundation. Um... if you need contact information let me
know, cause Fred's on their board, but their whole emphasis is fundraising and grant
money for, um, they do the Children of Promise, kids who have a parent that's
incarcerated, um, they do youth leadership program, they do just lots of those same kinds
of things. Um, so think they would be another good agency to get connected with. And
they are trying to be regional. They're Sixth Judicial District, and we're included in that,
so...
Markus/ Perfect! We'll reach out to them.
Cable Television Operations:
Andrew/ Uh, Cable TV, the last division of the City Manager's office. Uh, the division supports
cable sob... subscribers in resolution of service problems, uh, and provides audio /visual
support to the City and facilitates other local channels' efforts to provide community
programs to Iowa City residents. Um, the budget's organized into two divisions, into two
activities — administration and reserves, equipment replacement reserves. There isn't
anything budgeted in the, uh, equipment replacement reserves for FYI 5, so all, um, we'll
be discussing is administration. Uh, Geoff touched on it a little bit, but the Cable TV
administrator, um, position is expected to become vacant during the current fiscal year,
and we are not budgeting for a replacement for that, um, position, as we look at
organizational structures. Um, that knocks about 20% off of the FYI personnel budget,
uh, for the division. Um, just under 20 %. A little more than $100,000 a year with salary
and benefits all... all told. Um, the total expenditures for the division are down about
15 %. Again, mostly driven by the decrease in personnel expenditures. Um ... the revenue
side, um, is what drove a lot of these, uh, organizational changes. Uh, Mediacom has
agreed to honor their funding commitment for public access television under the current
municipal franchise agreement, which would go through 2018. Um, after that the
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revenue side, um, becomes a little more uncertain and some of these organizational
changes are meant to prepare for, uh, that uncertainty. So those are the major changes for
FYI 5, but uh, if you have any questions.
Markus/ There's... couple other things I'd add to that. You'll see a resolution coming up on,
probably the second meeting in January, and that resolution is basically to allow, um,
Public Access TV to go out and raise funds, okay, independent. This is something we've
encouraged them to do, as well, because we want them to get ready for 2018. We've...
we've kind of suggested to them, start carving off some of this money, setting it up in a
reserve, and then also taking the money. Now one of the things in the agreement that we
did as well is we ... the money that came through Mediacom, through the City to Public
Access TV paid for certain things, so one of the things we're doing is identifying the
equipment that was paid for through essentially these public funds, so that that doesn't
get confused with other funds later on that might be raised independently so we don't get
into that debate. So, I gave, uh, the Cable staff and the Legal staff a lot of credit for
separating those out and making sure that that was protected. The other thing you're
going to see this spring is, we'll be going automated here. Rather than having people
sitting behind cameras in here, we'll be like most, uh, City Hall chambers are. These'll
be remote and for you that don't know, that's a, um, window right back there that you're
being monitored through most of the time on cable, and those folks can sit in there and
remote - control the cameras and zoom in and zoom out, depending on who's speaking,
so ... we'll be going to that this spring. Part of that ... we might even add a splash of color
to the walls in here! (laughter and several talking) Beyond industrial gray!
Payne/ How bout... a screen over there too, so the PowerPoint can be over there and over there.
Markus/ Maybe up there?
Payne/ Yeah, so that... (laughs) Our new guy (laughter and several talking)
Botchway/ I didn't know it would be right here, so yeah, that would ... (several talking)
Dobyns/ That was very sensitive of you! (laughter)
Markus/ Actually we have Councilors sit over there for two years, and then we have to bring `em
over here for two years to get the kink out of the (laughter)
Payne/ I mean, I have thought about that for the two years that I've been here, why isn't (both
talking) why isn't there a screen over there too?
Markus/ Yeah! (both talking) It shouldn't be a big ... big issue.
Payne/ It would also help the audience.
Hayek/ (several talking) Thanks, Simon. Appreciate it. (several talking)
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Markus/ We're done!
Hayek/ Why don't we knock off. So I guess we'll take your part up on Monday? (several
talking)
Markus/ He'll be here (both talking)
Hayek/ He'll be here anyway! (laughter) Okay! Well, congratulations! We've made a lot of
progress today, and have a good rest of the week and we'll see you Monday at (recording
stops)
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