HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-01-21 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Dickens, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Staff Present: Markus, Fruin, Dilkes, Karr, Bockenstedt, Korpel, Andrew, Craig
Environmental Sustainability (Flip Chart #1 (from #6) continued SP):
Throgmorton/ All right. Think we're pretty much ready to go. So this is January 21 ", uh,
strategic plan work session. So last Thursday night we made a lot of progress. Really
pretty impressive progress of trying to identify the ... key elements of our ... five of our
focus areas in the strategic plan and tonight we're going to pick up where we left off. So
we're going to focus initially on sustainability and then we're gonna turn to social justice
and racial equity. I think Simon's probably going to bring those tear -off sheets over. Uh,
it's my understanding that after we go through this, the staff will transform all this
material into a clean copy...
Markus/ Right!
Throgmorton/ ...for us to review at our next work session I guess. I'm not sure. We haven't
talked about that but...
Markus/ Yeah, we haven't really talked about the schedule, but we'll wordsmith it, clean up the
language and grammar for you, and then, uh, return it in the typical format that ... that you
would see it, you know, in previous documents. Urn ... so as you said, Mayor, we will,
um, start with sustainability and I think kind of the protocol we used last time is we'd
walk through the different items that are currently listed and then start to ... kind of fly
speck those and then add, uh, or delete, um, as the Council majority determines
appropriate, based on attempts to gain consensus and I'll have you facilitate that,
obviously, but, um ... so the first item is to raise Iowa City's bike -friendly status from
silver to gold, and um ... I would guess that resonates with the full Council. That is one
that came out of the, urn ... the process that we previously had, and urn ... if there's
something that you'd like to add or subtract from that language, let's go at it.
Throgmorton/ Anybody want to add or subtract anything on that particular element? It's a good
goal.
Cole/ Well this may be a separate part of our document, um, and this may be too specific, but is
it too specific to talk about encourage and support the use of road ... road diets in, um, in
our core neighborhoods and downtown, or is that ... too specific?
Throgmorton/ I thought we had incorporated (both talking) one of our earlier (several talking)
Cole/ Okay! So I withdraw that.
Thomas/ (several talking) ...could fall under (both talking)
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Cole/ That's what I recalled.
Thomas/ Environmental (several talking)
Markus/ ...and you'll find that's the case with a lot of these, that they do kind of cross over into
different categories. (several talking) Um, but that one seemed to ... seemed to have some
emphasis and there's a fairly large constituency in the community that I think would like
to see this individually identified, so ... I think it's probably a good thing to (several
talking)
Thomas/ It could go under ... under one of our other (several talking) items but this is fine.
Throgmorton/ So ... so Tom, before you move on, I'd like to suggest the possibility of being a little
more precise with this.
Markus/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ Uh, and that is to go from silver to gold by 2017, and to platinum by 2021. Now
that may be too much of a stretch — I don't know — but uh, that's a possibility cause
platinum's the next step and...
Markus/ So when ... when was the second stage you wanted to get to platinum?
Throgmorton/ 17 (several talking) Oh, the second one — 2021 (several talking)
Markus/ 21?
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ See you'll be revisiting the strategic plan in 18, okay, and if you're trying to get to gold
by 17...
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ You know, you'll be...at the end of that year, you'll be, you know, just like we did this
year, so ... in 17, the fall of 17, you'll be revisiting this plan. I ... again, I want you to kind
of keep your focus, you know, we've got this two-year envelope on this one. You can
then plug in the ... the platinum, after you see how you do on this one. (both talking)
Throgmorton/ The only reason I mention the ... the latter part of it is because we'll be preparing a
new master bike plan, right? So I ... I was thinking maybe it would be helpful for whoever
prepares that to have that longer term (both talking)
Thomas/ I don't think it's a bad idea actually because I think it helps ... those who are interested in
these things see that we're actually, you know, it's kind of incrementally we're getting to
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platinum. That's our ... longer term or medium term goal, but we're getting there through
going to gold and then ... but you know...
Throgmorton/ Do you think it's better to stick with just the gold part (both talking)
Thomas/ No, I was ... I think it actually helps to have both, because it (both talking)'
Mims/ I would say no, and ... and my reason is, one, I think ... I think our strategic plan is supposed
to focus on what we're trying to do in the next two years. And that you're talking, you
know, another four years out there, plus we're gonna be further into the ramifications of
the property tax changes. And what that's doing to our budget. Now, hopefully we can
still do this, but we're gonna have a much better idea of ..how -hard we're being hit and
what that means to our overall budget, and so I think ... I mean, I don't think the bicycle
community in Iowa City is going to let us forget that they want to get to platinum. Okay?
I mean I think that's just a matter of fact and so I think keeping it focused on going silver
to gold, but putting the platinum in in a specific date when we really at this point don't
have a clue what our finances are going to look like that far out, I prefer to leave it out.
Cole/ I guess I'm thinking of the capital improvement project process, I mean, you know one of
the things in becoming a new Councilor, do we, you know, and the City's very prudent in
terms of looking five years out on the horizon. So the way I'm seeing it is that one of the
things that we do over two years as we look at the four-year plan is that we're sort of
shooting for what that capital improvement project will look like off in 2021. So that's
why I'm ... I'm supporting of the platinum.
Thomas/ Well I guess ... I guess what I would say is ... and I ... I kind of, I'm glad you brought up the
timeframe aspect, but, urn ... (clears throat) it's something that I think might be helpful to
get staff s confirmation that our timeframe is reasonable and that that could, you know, in
terms of the ... the 2021 for platinum could also be evaluated in terms of its reasonability.
Markus/ I think there's a compromise position for kind of the both polar sides I hear here
and ... and I would suggest that you leave the goal by 2017 in, but that you, urn ... (several
talking) use some School District language, which ... which (laughter) say the aspirational
long-term goal is to achieve platinum. (several talking) So .... so, but don't ... don't plug
the date (several talking)
Thomas/ That's fine!
Markus/ Because I think ... once you hit the gold, you'll... you'll have a sense about whether you
can actually get there, and I think, you know, I think to Susan's point on the other, uh,
comment here was that ... you know, what are the financial implications. You know, so
many of these things, you know, the last 10% is the most expensive 10%. Okay? The
initial 10% ... probably doesn't cost ya anything, but ... you know, when you start going on
these, you know, these ... these metrics for organizations to achieve certain things, it's that
last piece that gets to be the expensive parts of it, and I'm not suggesting that that's the
case here. I'm just saying, as a compromise (both talking)
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Thomas/ Yeah, I think (both talking)
Markus/ ...stated in there and say that your aspirational long-term goal is platinum. (several
talking)
Taylor/ I think that would be good, because I think that still shows the bicycle community
that ... that we're invested in ... in reaching that goal at some point in time, but I do like
having the first measure in there, that we will achieve this level by 2017, the goal
(mumbled) but we ... have aspirations of reaching, and then they still know that, yes, that's
our intent.
Botchway/ Tom, to that point, um ... you know, this kind of goes back to the LEED discussion,
and I'm not saying they're the same but ... (noises on mic) LEED is usually talked about as
being very expensive as you, you know, move into different levels, and we've talked
about it, and I don't know if we've had it in our language. I feel like we have. Yeah, I
definitely feel like we have, where we've had, um, not ... (mumbled) LEED gold or
equivalent to.
Markus/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Is that something from ... and I don't know this (both talking)
Markus/ I wouldn't do that with this (both talking)
Botchway/ Okay!
Markus/ ...I would not do that with this. Um, I think it's a very different thing when you get to
LEED, and I think part of the argument with LEED is ... is I think that you can ... and I
wonder how long LEEDs gonna ... LEEDs gonna let people put up (laughs) you know put
up with that kind of language, but ... but I think LEED is being challenged to some degree
on their costs for some of these items, as well, and I ... but I would say ... I think that's a
kinda of a different... you know, uh, equivalent to a metric that we ... that you're looking at,
and I think you have some items that you can do that. I think that there's some value
associated with, um, this particular one. I ... I'm not sure that ... you know, the process costs
as much. It's the improvements associated with getting to, you know, from gold to LEED
in the ... in the bike category. That's... that's gonna cost you. The actual process of
certification in the case of LEED is ... is an expensive thing.
Throgmorton/ Seems to me we clearly have at least four people in favor of makin' this little
modification, uh... um ... so let's ... let's just say that's what we're gonna do and move on
from there. So, uh, the next one, Tom, is...
Markus/ Is to evaluate a plastic bag policy. Now the, um ... uh, the 100 Grannies just submitted a
fairly extensive list of different items. Um, and this was just one of them and there's
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probably a dozen different items on there and ... and they kind of vary around. Um, you
know, evaluate a plastic bag policy is ... is ... is not a tough thing to do.
Botchway/ Well and I guess .... I believe that might have been mine, and so it really wasn't
around evaluate. 1 think I used that language just to get it on the floor, so to speak, um,
but it was more ... you know, implement a plastic bag policy is what, you know, I would
have liked to see from that perspective. And you know there's different ... I guess the
evaluation piece of it comes from there's different variations of whether or not
you .... whether or not businesses charge for, um ... um, for plastic bags or whether or not
we ban it, um, all the way. I think that's where I was thinking that there's some type of
evaluation we probably needed to do, in ... in conjunction with the businesses, to ask, you
know, how they want to do ... how do they want to deal with that.
Mims/ Yeah, and Jen Jordan's done quite a bit of that for us already.
Botchway/ (both talking) Yes!
Mims/ ....a year or two or three ago and we had quite a bit of that information.
Cole/ Do we want to say evaluate and assess possible implementation of an ordinance, on a
plastic bag policy, or is that too specific?
Botchway/ No, I mean I think that's exactly (several talking)
Markus/ I wouldn't mind saying evaluate and consider, you know, the implementation of a
plastic bag policy. You don't have to say ordinance.
Cole/ Okay. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Any objection?
Cole/ No!
Mims/ Nope, I'm in agreement.
Throgmorton/ All right, we're good. And the third (several talking)
Markus/ And then the third ... I think they'll be ecstatic! You know? Um ... the third is to create an
ad hoc climate change response task force, establish a 2030 carbon emission reduction
goal, and determine the most cost-effective ways of achieving the goal. This ... this is a lot
more global kind of comment here and probably needs... whoever put that down, Jim...
Throgmorton/ Oh, yeah (both talking)
Markus/ You need to expound.
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Throgmorton/ I ... I'd flip it a little bit. The key thing, I think, is to define a substantive and
achievable goal for carbon emission reduction, at least in my view about all this. So, the
date, the amount of reduction that would be called for — those would have to be
determined. Then the next part of it would be to create an ad hoc committee on climate
change or whatever we actually call it ... to work with staff and stakeholders to devise an
efficient means, or most effective means, of achieving that goal. So, those are the key
things as far as I'm concerned. But this ... it's the goal part that's, uh, most important, I
think, because then that says, okay, this is what we intend to accomplish by a certain date,
and we've gotta figure out how to do it.
Dickens/ And where's the biggest area? Is it the... University using coal still, is that a (both
talking) or is there a certain area that we could focus on that ... get it started.
Throgmorton/ I ... I ... it's my understanding that the power plant's the major emitter of carbon in
our city. Otherwise, forget the power plant, just for a second. It's basically buildings and
transportation. So... and all that'd have to be figured out and, um ... Brenda's already
developed a huge amount of information about this and has considerable insight into
steps to take.
Mims/ Where does this fit in the STAR...
Markus/ Yeah, I ... I think this is a good area to start talking about STAR and um, maybe rather
than the, uh, ad hoc climate change response task force what we say is something to the
effect that, um ... we develop a STAR, uh, unity rating, um ... system committee, um,
whose, uh... whose goals are, uh, to be established by resolution or something. We come
back and create that committee, but I think ... that gets you there and then we put some
sub -items under that, um ... that ... that we talk about specifically. But I think this is where
you want to kind of roll in this whole STAR community, cause I think it gets you there
too, but Jim ... in our conversations, you seemed pretty set on ... trying to get a project, um,
in place this next year, right?
Throgmorton/ Right and I ... I haven't had a ... that's the next thing I was going to say about this
pro ... probably one project.
Markus/ Yeah and so those, you know, I think those could be other things that we list kind of in
this general area as well, um ... and determine a placeholder and all that sort of thing that
we talked about.
Cole/ The only thing in terms of the number, didn't Iowa City have some sort of mayor's
initiative on ... well when was that? That was...
Throgmorton/ That was in seven I think.
Cole/ 2007, I mean, so I think back to Jim's point about really setting a (several talking)
Markus/ ...it has been renewed.
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Fruin/ I think we renewed that, um ... a ... a year or two ago. There... there's a number of...of
municipal association, mayor association, League of City type associations that have
these pledges that ... that cities can or, um, have made. We...
Markus/ (both talking) ...survey result too.
Fruin/ Yeah, we have to look at all those and ... and determine if one would fit where you want to
go, um...
Throgmorton/ I ... I think it's right that we should connect this to the STAR communities
endeavor, but I'm a little concerned about putting this under the, entirely under the rubric
of a STAR communities committee, cause that ... that's a very big umbrella, and ... this has a
more focused challenge, which is to figure out how to reduce carbon emissions. So, but
I ... but I see the connection between this, what I just described, and the STAR
communities endeavor.
Markus/ Maybe it could be a (both talking)
Thomas/ One of the objectives under the STAR... system is mitigate greenhouse gases (several
talking) so it...it is in there. We ... we can define what we want the action to be. You
know, we don't need to follow the ... the STAR community, you know, word for word, but
that ... it is in there and then we could list that as an action (mumbled)
Markus/ That's how I'd go about it.
Throgmorton /Right.
Mims/ I agree. There's a lot in that STAR that (mumbled) done at once obviously but ... it's a lot
of different areas that... that... figure out how we start approaching.
Markus/ Yeah, but I think maybe what ... we'll come .... we'll parse the words a little bit better, but
let's ... let's, as as item, let's say establish a STAR community committee, but then under
that, let's get to your issue and ... and, um ... and all that that encompasses
but.... specifically, um, we ask that this committee focus or make a priority a specific, uh,
carbon emissions, uh, goal for the community. That ... that's what you're trying to get at.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Botchway/ You know, so I guess for me ... STAR community I'm assuming as we're talking about
this is something that's going to be ... far reaching. So longer than two years. So I guess
for simplis... purposes, I mean, when we talked about, you know, making sure that we had
language in our strategic plan that somewhat makes sense, I mean if we put STAR
communities on there, we're gonna need people to research what STAR community is. I
actually like us putting exactly what Jim says and that the mechanism that we use to do it,
the STAR communities, then that's what we do.
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Mims/ Because STAR is bigger. You're putting... you're putting the small thing on top and the
big thing underneath. Instead of the big thing on top.
Botchway/ Well if that's the case, then we can say literally everything up there we can put under
STAR communities.
Cole/ Yeah (both talking)
Botchway/ And so ... we ... (several talking)
Thomas/ Some of it isn't in STAR communities.
Botchway/ But a good part of that, what we talked about, is and so we really have been, you
know, kind of spinnin' our wheels to that extent, and so I guess for me, it's just a
particular focus point to say that, you know, we can ... from a staff standpoint, we can
think about how we want to use the STAR communities system and implement whatever
we're talking about right here, but I think for, you know, kind of going back to Susan's
point about specificity as far as what we want to see done in the next two years, this
provides the (several talking) talking about (both talking)
Cole/ Can I bring up one point too, back to Kingsley's point. That's a really good point, and let
me just bring up and, um, indulge my pride of my alma mater, Luther College. Um, they
have a very specific goal in terms of carbon reduction, and so in all of their, um, planning
documents, in all of their literature that they send out, they say 'we will have this target
by this particular date.' All of their planning from their buildings to the transportation
connects specifically to that goal, and then they say'here's where we are,' um, you know,
like the United Way has the fundraising goals? I want to ... I want us to have sort of very
specific carbon ded ... reduction targets, and so I (mumbled) actually talked to my friend
Jeff Biggers of the, um, Climate Fellows, to the extent this is good or bad. If it's bad I'll
take the blame. If it's good, Jeff gets the credit. Um, but he talks about adopting a 2030
challenge requirement for all new buildings and existing innovation, uh, projects to be
designed and built to meet energy efficient standards of 70% below the regional
average ... for that building type. UI uses that acronym. Is that ... is that too specific?
Cause I ... cause I think Jeff has thought about this a lot and um ... you know, placed it in
context of what is achievable, and he had mentioned, for example, Vancouver that did
make these specific goals. Um, and it's ... and it's a goal! I mean so it's not as if we're
creating a statue here that if we don't do it we have to, you know, uh...
Markus/ Maybe ... maybe we can take a pause for a second.
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ And ... and walk through ... how the STAR communities, um ... application and rating, um,
and then what the steps are following that will happen...
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Throgmorton/ Okay.
Markus/ ...and if it's all right I'd like to have Geoff walk you through that, so that you folks have
kind of a general understanding of what we're talking about in terms of STAR. I think I
agree with John — not everything that we're talking about here is going to fall under
STAR, but a lot of it is, and ... and I would tell you that you can focus your priorities under
there, even to the extent of what you just said (both talking)
Cole/ ...target (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, so I think that that's... that's all doable. I don't have a problem if you have a
particular... you know, like goal or something like that that you want to emphasize, that
that be included into our committee. I think we can do those things, but let Geoff walk
you through what's going to happen, once we get our rating and then the possibility of
how we can ... would construct a committee.
Fruin/ So we have submitted, uh, all of our material to the STAR, so we're ... we're being
evaluated at this moment. There's a couple month period where there's a back and forth.
They're going to give us an initial rating and then we're going to be able to fight for any
points that they took away from us. There's a little back and forth there. Uh, once we
receive the rating, we decide the course from there. Um ... so what we've seen and talked
about at the staff level, what we've seen in other cities is we ... we can invite the STAR
staff that actually rated, uh, our community and other communities to come in and hold a
community workshop. Um, that community workshop can be Council focused, uh,
like ... like we're sitting here tonight or it can be a much bigger event, uh, like ... like you
would think of a planning charet, where the entire community's, uh, can be engaged.
Now, you all know that STAR is this, as someone put it, this huge umbrella; um, it's not
realistic that everywhere we fell short we can improve upon in two years. So there has to
be a prior... prioritization process, but what they will come in and do is they'll say
here's... here's your strengths, here's your weaknesses, um ... and I think will help us
through a ... a process where we say, okay, these are the ones we want to focus on in the
next couple of years. These are the areas, and it might be improving a strength, it might
be, urn ... um ... you know, um, picking out just certain things that ... that this Council cares
about, like carbon emission reduction. Um, but I think we can go through that process,
get some community buy -in, get some specific direction from the Council on these are
the focus areas, and then, you know, give staff the ... the marching orders to proceed.
The ... the other nice thing about STAR, which I don't think that we've, um, shared with
you before is that they have a leading indicator system, and this has been talked about,
um, a couple of times through these work sessions. Uh, they have a list of 21 indicators
from that big umbrella that they have, um, and those are the 21 indicators that they feel
are most relevant, um ... for annual, um, tracking and benchmarking. And so what we've
envisioned at the staff level is not only do we env ... we identify the priorities after the
rating system is complete and after we've had some public meetings, um, but we evaluate
their leading indicators too, and I assume we'll take all 21 of their indicators, but then
we'll go back through your strategic plan, and for those areas of your plan that don't, uh,
that ... that those indicators don't really measure, we'll have to develop our own indicators,
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and so we'll have the STAR indicators. Then we'll have our own custom Iowa City
indicators. We'll meld those two together, and then we'll fold those into the, uh, quarterly
reports that we issue, uh... um, back to you on our ... on our strategic plan (coughing,
difficult to hear speaker) That's kind of what we have in mind at staff, and I think from
the discussion that you just had, we can just identify... carbon, um, emissions reduction as
a primary focus area for this... committee, however that looks going forward.
Throgmorton/ Well ... I'm completely on board with everything you said about the STAR
communities process, and using ... a thing ourselves within it. In this instance, uh, I have a
concern and it has to do with who would be on the committee, so I'll explain why. If
we're gonna have a committee that's focusing on carbon emission reductions, my sense is
that committee needs to involve experts who know a lot about how to reduce carbon
emissions, and key stakeholders, who would be affected by that process, and if we do that
through this rubric of the STAR communities only, then the committee will be much
more diverse than that and so on.
Markus/ I think that's a valid point. (several talking) ...cause I don't really, you know, you know
Brenda would be our typical staff liaison to that committee and while she has a depth of
knowledge, I think that there are people in the community that you could involve in this
committee. So, you know, I'm kind of changing my view, but maybe, you know, maybe
there is a committee of that sort that starts down this process, but I think ... most of the
other things, and maybe they, you know, maybe that gets funneled eventually into the
whole STAR committee that we're talking about, but I think there's some ... there's some
merit in the experts that would be on this, and the stakeholders who we would try to
influence, which would have the greatest chance to reduce carbon emissions. I think
there's some ... there's some validity to that.
Taylor/ I think, Jim, I think originally you had even talked about partnering with other groups
even, talk about stakeholders, like ... even Mid American Energy and the School District
since they've got a lot of buildings and a lot invested in this.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Taylor/ Those kinds of other (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...key stakeholders (both talking) only want to have it an achievable goal (both
talking)
Taylor/ Right. Right.
Throgmorton/ Those folks have to be involved.
Taylor/ Right.
Markus/ So maybe, Jim, maybe what you call it is a subcommittee of the STAR, with a specific,
uh...
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Dickens/ Charge.
Markus/ A charge, and that when we compose the committee, we talk about the level of. ... uh,
qualification to serve on that committee.
Mims/ That's the direction I was going to go, in that if we take this ... you know, with ... do the
STAR program and we're looking at and ... like Geoff was saying, adding our own ... our
own indicators, and making sure that the carbon emissions is one of those, some of
these ... that we have to im... you know, that we want to improve on in terms of these
leading indicators, some of them will probably be fairly "easy and assignable" to staff,
um, you know, or with policy changes or whatever...
Markus/ Right.
Mims/ And others I assume will be much more complex, such as this one, and require much
more cooperation and ... and interaction with stakeholders, etc. So to me, I would ... I
would put this underneath the STAR, and then as we go through all of these indicators,
we're gonna have to figure out how we work towards achieving those, and this would be
one where I would totally agree with you, Jim, that if you're going to be successful on it,
you need people who have knowledge and are experts and ... again, you know ... who's
running these businesses, you know, who's ... who's managing these buildings, what kinds
of changes, what kind of retrofitting can they do or not do, and what's the expense, etc.
Um, as we're looking at new building design, how ... how's that implicated, what can Mid
American tell us, etc., but ... that would be one of those indicators, which would probably
need a much more comprehensive, much more, um, expert set of members on that
committee, versus some of the others that might be much more easily achieved.
Markus/ Actually the STAR committee could be in part a subcommittee of the Council, plus
some staff liaisons when we get into the specific... areas, so that the Council has a comfort
level with all the different activities that are going on and then the reports could funnel up
through that committee that way. I would think that that would help give you some
confidence that you know that those things are ... are occurring, beyond just the quarterly
reports that we would be issuing to you.
Thomas/ I wouldn't be surprised if STAR has an action very similar to your task force actually.
Markus/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and surely we would get points for simply creating a ... a subcommittee, or
committee, that moves in this direction.
Markus/ And look, you know, we're ... we're gonna say this now in this plan. It's like ordinances.
You know? The environment changes and so you adjust your ordinance to fit, you know,
what the ... what the majority view of the Council is at the particular time, and so once we,
you know, we're saying this now. We can create this language so that it looks like that
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now. Once we get into it, we can ... we can adjust this, you know, to fit the circumstance
to make it work. But ... you know, we're still kind of feeling our way through this. You'll
get a full-blown presentation at some point on STAR... committees and ... and bring this,
you know, their staff in here to talk to you about these things, and I think you'll find that
is going to achieve a lot of the things that you really talked about, from benchmarks to,
you know, to (both talking)
Thomas/ ...another objective in the STAR systems is reduce solid waste, which covers, you
know, what we want to do with the multi -family units.
Markus/ Exactly!
Thomas/ ...and um, the plastic bags. So there is ... there is, I suspect, some overlap here.
Markus/ And I think you may find that that takes up a bigger part of...how we define our
strategic plan going forward. You know, you ... it may start to be all the STAR committee
type activities, and then other things that you get into that the STAR committees weren't
really originally set up to take care of. I think it...it could become...
Thomas/ ...the STAR system is like, uh, a master specification, and then you... you... you plug in
the specifics of your locality as necessary.
Markus/ Right.
Cole/ I'm just worried about it, that it doesn't get buried in committee. Um, and that, you know,
Kingsley, one of the things you've talked about a lot in other contexts is measurable
results. Um, so would ... I think maybe we should talk about measurable greenhouse gas
reductions. We don't have to set a target necessarily, but I want to make sure that we ... we
have specific standards that we're ... that we're holding ourselves to.
Throgmorton/ Rockne, on that point I'm looking at what Simon just wrote, uh... I, yeah, I think
that bottom paragraph is definitely right, except that that... subcommittee would
iden... identify ways to get to the goal basically. I mean, that's... that's really crucial. You
get a goal, you figure out how to get there, and you involve other people in that process,
and ... and then ya... you do the ... what ya need to do.
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ While Simon's writing I guess I would want to say about the kinds of people that
could be involved in this subcommittee, at least for this particular thing, could well
involve, um, labor unions in one way or another, like I was talking with Jesse Case and
Bill Garhart last night. Uh, and ... uh, about this point, but also ICAD, also the Chamber,
uh, you know, as an economic development elemen... I mean this is part of economic
development when you start thinking about, okay, how are we goin' transfer the carbon
basis of our economy, which is what I'm really talking about here. So ... we're talkin'
economic development here too.
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Markus/ And ... and in that regard, you know, you can see that this could evolve into part of our
application for ... funding consideration is how the, you know, how the company proposes,
if a company comes in in our industrial area, how a company proposes to deal with the
emission issue and if there's alternatives and, you know, if we derive that those are of the
public benefit, which you would think carbon emissions would be, you know, that could
be part of any funding model we use for, you know, incentives or anything else. So it all
kind of...rolls there and fits into that kinda... of going forward.
Throgmorton/ Right. Okay, so uh... I ... I'm comfortable with Simon has written up on the tear
sheet. Uh, how bout the rest of y'all? (several responding)
Cole/ But continue engagement with the STAR (several talking) Okay, yeah (both talking)
Andrew/ (away from mic)
Cole/ So I like that and all below.
Throgmorton/ You can read the ... bottom of, yeah, okay. Good deal!
Cole/ I got my glasses on so ... (laughter)
Throgmorton/ All right! Uh...
Markus/ Other things that should be listed under sustainability.
Throgmorton/ Well there was one ... you alluded to one other one that I wanted to suggest and see
if there's support for. And that is, within the forthcoming fiscal year, complete at least
one major project, symbolizing Iowa City's commitment to reducing carbon emissions.
Markus/ Now, when we talked about that, Jim ... we went back and forth trying to understand each
other about ... what that would actually mean and I think I got the impression that you
thought that that could be a project that would be the private sector, or that could be a
project in the public sector that we actually influenced. That could be a project that we
could, you know, create a placeholder for in terms of our budget. Um ... not knowing
exactly what that particular project's going to be. Initially, you know, there was some
discussion about whether that should be a solar array or something like that, and my
point, my counterpoint to you at that point was, well, look! You know, if you go in and
do a....an energy audit at some point, and this is the point Susan will tell you. We've had
this discussion at JECC because ... um, there was a suggestion I think by the County that
we put up a solar array. And ... my point was, well, if you're goal is to reduce carbon
emissions, there may be a much more, uh, cost-efficient, um ... improvement that could be
made, and Jim and I said, yeah, just the replacement of bad windows around a building.
It's not as sexy as a solar array, I get that, but the carbon emission reduction could
actually be greater because your place isn't leaking all that, you know, whatever the fuel
source is, um, through it ... you know, lost heat. So, we kind of talked about that. I
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suggested that what you do is you put a placeholder in of about $100,000 into your
budget. You don't say that in the strategic plan, but um ... we und... I think what this would
say is we undertake a specific project, which um ... would achieve measurable carbon
emissions and that we evaluate alternatives as to what that might be. But $100,000 isn't
necessary a bad thing, and I'll tell ya this ... the other part of it is (laughs) if you found an
improvement to make like that, you might actually be able to show it amortization, but
that's the way I would approach those types of things is ... what's the cost benefit? Don't
just go out and pick wind power or solar power or ... or whatever. Pick a project that has
a defined reduction in carbon emission and, you know, and the cost benefit ratio is
successful as well, and I think those are out there. Clearly in ... in our operation, you
know, look at the age of the buildings we're operating.
Throgmorton/ Tom is right. He and I have had this conversation. He's ... he's described the
conversation pretty accurately. So I ... I would agree — we don't wanna say exactly what
must be done to achieve some significant carbon emission reduction, but we do a ... a
project that achieves efficient, substantive reduction.
Markus/ Yeah, so that's what I would say is undertake a project in the next ... you know, whatever
time period that achieves a measurable, a significant measurable carbon, urn ... emission
reduction, and that we put a placeholder in the budget of $100,000 to achieve that. And
like I said, I think that you're going to find a project like that will probably give you a
return on your investment as well. I mean a lot of times Mid Am will come back in and
help you, you know, will subsidize some of that as a part of that investment, whether that
be solar or ... and I'm not discounting solar or wind or something like that. I'm just saying,
let's make 'em compete. The other thing Jim had talk ... Jim and I had talked about was we
wanted to talk about a power purchase agreement, and ... um ... as staff talked about that
idea and we said, power purchase agreement? Well, here we have a....we're the .... we're
the top, you know, we had the top debt rate in the country. You know, we can do our
own power purchase agreement. We can ... we can calculate those things and basically
what a power purchase agreement is is a lot of assumptions on what may or may not
happen. And that is very variable going forward, but the big part of it is the interest rates
that get rolled in there. I, you know...
Throgmorton/ Right.
Markus/ ...on behalf of the City, the management of the City can ... can fund that a lot cheaper
than anybody else can! So ... I ... I wouldn't necessarily even pursue the idea of a power
purchase agreement. I think some people get caught into that because it's kind of a way
to phase your costs, but ... we can phase our own costs, and we can do it with a lot less
expense, which means ... quite frankly, that the ... that the cost benefit ratio's better for you.
And that's what I would sell if I were elected officials! Not only did we reduce our
carbon emissions, we got a great, you know, investment return on this thing.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Markus/ That's smart!
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Throgmorton/ Uh, whatda y'all think? Does it sound okay?
Cole/ Well I think we should do a request for proposal on this. I know that the School District
has done ... had a conversation with a lot of community stakeholders on this too and I think
that their point is is what does it cost us to get a request for proposal from various entities
to do a solar project on City Hall or, um, somewhere else in the city, cause I think part of
the issue is is a lot of the economics of solar are still developing, (mumbled) going to
presentations by solar providers, which of course they have an interest in a particular
point of view, um, you know, they say that once you get the numbers in, then we can
have the conversation. Does having the request for proposal bind us to engage in any
particular transaction, cause that's what the School Board's about ready to do, and I think
to your point, Tom, about lowest cost procedure, totally get that, but by that logic we
could say, well, maybe we should buy, you know, 10,000 acres in the Amazon rain forest
to soak up as much carbon as we can and that may be more cost effective, but I think part
of what we're trying to do is to have to some degree a showcase for the leadership that we
want to provide for Iowa City but for the community, and for the region. So I think that's
why having, to Jim's point, having the visible sign of what we're actually doing has its
own relevance in my view, so I think we should do the request for proposal on a solar
project. Um....
Markus/ And I ... and I want to respond to that when you finish. I don't mean to butt in at this
point.
Cole/ Yeah. Yeah. So that's my point. I'd like to see it and I agree with Jim.
Markus/ Here's what I would say. Take a look at the East Side Recycling Center. Okay?
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ That was all done with that display concept in mind. And to just go out and do an RFP
— yeah, we can do that, and ... and you can get a response, but ... to me ... that's not doin' your
homework. We should do our homework first. We should find out how we can actually,
you know, evaluate one of our facilities. How can we actually achieve ... the largest
carbon, you know, emission reduction at the lowest cost per unit of carbon reduction.
And to me, you get a lot more credit for that kind of argument! To me, I mean, it's ... that's
what I would want, I mean, I'd want to go out ... I mean, how ... how is it going to be? You
know, people... people are pretty smart around here. How is it going to be when you just
go out and stick a car ... or a solar array out there and tout it as this great thing that we did,
and somebody does the calculation on that thing? And says, first off ...here's what the
actual carbon reduction is. It's all an assumption, and here's what this cost you, and here's
the alternative that you could have done, which would have rechieved ... again, I get the
fact that ... some of the stuff isn't as sexy, but ... I think you want to have a honest, reliable,
you know, project that you can tout, and I think people are jumping on this bandwagon. I
actually looked at solar for a cabin we own because it's out in the middle of the hinter
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lands, and by the time I figured it all out, I stayed with my old system on it. You know,
it ... there's some expense to these things.
Cole/ Like Kevin Hanick, I mean, for his solar array on that particular building, he said that he
looked at the raw economic numbers, and of course he was able to get the tax deduction,
so I think it's a healthy debate. I'd like to see it.
Markus/ Well and see that's not what we're going to get though. You're not going to get a tax
deduction (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...hear some other voices (several talking)
Mims/ See I don't, because I think, Rockne, what you're doing is you're trying to get too specific
too soon.
Cole/ (mumbled)
Mims/ I mean, I think in ... in the strategic plan, to say that we're going to do an RFP for solar is
getting way too specific. If what our goal is is to really try to achieve carbon emission
reduction, and hopefully do it as cost-effectively as possible, then ... I think we need to do
research first. To make the assumption that ... that solar is something that we should do by
taking the time and effort and having companies respond to an RF ... having staff write an
RFP and then having companies respond...
Cole/ Isn't that the research?
Mims/ No!
Cole/ We get their data, their proposal in terms of what it costs? (both talking)
Mims/ No, I don't think so, cause you've narrowed it ... immediately you've narrowed it just to
solar. What about wind? What about replacing windows? I mean, all the other things.
Dilkes/ I really think the most effective RFPs that you do and the best responses you get is when
you know exactly what you're asking for, and you know the details of what you're asking
for and you know .... I mean, just getting ... if you just get proposals and you haven't
identified any ... um, parameters as to how you're going to judge those proposals, and you
can't really do that unless you're educated and ... and informed. That ... I don't think the two
are mutually exclusive — RFP versus doing your homework. I think you just ... (both
talking)
Mims/ ...the RFP would come after and it may or may not be solar.
Dilkes/ Yeah.
Mims/ But I think we need to do the homework first.
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Thomas/ It seems a little premature to me to ... be thinking (clears throat) and I'm not exactly
sure ... the RFP would relate to a solar application? Um ... that does seem to me sort of...too
specific at this time for my understanding of how we might approach this, to ... to put it in
that language. It does seem that the whole question of carbon emission reduction is a
very ... that's a very big topic. I mean there are lots of things, in fact I'm hoping, you
know, the transportation choice, right? I mean that ... that should have a major impact on
green ...if we're successful, if I hope we are, I mean that's part of going after ... you know,
the uh, what is it we're going, platinum? I forget now (laughs) (several talking)
Markus/ We aspire! (several talking and laughing)
Thomas/ Uh (clear throat) so I'm hoping this is a multi -faceted effort here that we're pursuing
under different headings, all pointing toward a greener Iowa City, but it's ... it's hard for me
to ... I ... I do kind of prefer thinking of it in a more generic way at this point.
Throgmorton/ Here's what I would hope we would be able to do. That we would be able to say,
to the public, we have set into process ... set into motion the process of clearly identifying
a goal, figuring out how to achieve that goal, and to signal it, to symbolize it, we are
gonna in ... in, undertake this one initial project and that we'll be able to stand next to
it ... and say, look, this is what we mean. We're going to reduce carbon emissions and
we're gonna do it in as cost-effective a way as we can do it.
Mims/ And you might be standing next to new windows (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Well, that's exactly right! I mean, any ... anybody that knows anything about
energy knows you ... you gotta do the energy efficiency thing first. So I don't know,
whatda y'all think? (several talking) ...off my soapbox now!
Markus/ And you can vet it through that committee as a matter of fact.
Cole/ Well, but I look at like for example down on social justice and racial equity, we talk about
work closely with Kirkwood to explore the feasibility of an industrial arts craft facility.
That's pretty specific. So for that specific there, and maybe we don't want to do that, here
I think we can be specific enough to say we want to evaluate and assess the possibility of
a solar project for the City of Iowa City. I guess I don't see why that's such a problem.
Throgmorton/ Whatda ... what do the rest of you think?
Mims/ I don't want it. I think it's too specific.
Throgmorton/ So, we had this broader language here. Do you prefer the broader language, or
should we insert something more (both talking)
Dickens/ ...so much wider than.. just picking (both talking)
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Andrew/ (away from mic)
Throgmorton/ Can you read it? Undertake a project during the...
Andrew/ ...undertake a project during the next X that achieves a substantive and measurable goal
for carbon emission reduction.
Markus/ And I'd say fiscal year.
Andrew/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, during the coming fiscal year.
Andrew/ Okay!
Thomas/ I mean, Jim, I would defer to you on this. This was sort of your ... your baby, um, are
you comfortable with it?
Throgmorton/ Yep!
Mims/ I think it gets us where we want to go, and we may end up, I mean, we may end up
with ... with an RFP (several talking) for solar (several talking) Rockne, but I think we
needed the analysis first (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Y'all know I'm a big fan of, uh, photovoltaics. We got'em on the shed in the back
of our house. So I'm a big fan of 'em, but I don't know that they are the smartest thing to
do to achieve what we want to achieve.
Andrew/ If it does end up being windows, that's something that residents can more easily
replicate in their own homes and in their own practices.
Throgmorton/ Okay, other topics for ... the sustainability ... focus area? I'm not hearing any.
Thomas/ Do you have any more .... I mean (both talking)
Throgmorton/ No! I mean these ... I think these are important.
Thomas/ I mean I had just briefly, you know, when I was preparing some of my lists gone
through the STAR. I thought the STAR was pretty good, just in terms of their objectives.
You know, they have reduce solid waste, build energy and resource efficient buildings,
green the energy supply, uh, so ... so the items that I was pulling were kind of just under
those categories. So it seemed to me our STAR rating program will really help us (both
talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, we're probably really going to see the potential as we go through the next
year.
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Taylor/ Somewhere else in the STAR it mentioned something about just being good stewards of
natural resources. I don't know how we could include that in there, but that was one of
their measurable things too. I don't know if they mean like maintaining the trees when
you can, rather than, uh, with construction, not ... how can we incorporate that in there.
Mims/ But if it's in the STAR and we've got the STAR as our third bullet (both talking) then as
we start getting into the details of the STAR (both talking) should be able to get to that,
hopefully.
Cole/ What about reduction of solid waste as an independent goal, and if that doesn't seem like
it's part of the current...
Mims/ (several talking) It's in STAR.
Cole/ ...STAR...
Mims/ Yeah.
Thomas/ Yep.
Botchway/ I will say this, I mean ... and I guess I'm not gonna speak too much on this topic
because we have a lot more homework to do as far as to our rating system is. I feel like
we're saying this is the shangri la and answer to a lot of our questions and a lot of our
problems, and so I just don't want us to keep our eye off the, you know, the ball here on
this particular thing, because I was actually waiting till we got to the racial equity piece
because I have a ... not a litany of questions, but a major concern about how STAR
evaluates certain things, and beyond that, I think that, um, even in looking at some of the
communities that have adopted the STAR system and some of the communities that we
are, I don't know, I think of Mark Nolte's presentations as far, you know, Austin, Texas
and some of the progressive cities, um, I read an article and for some reason I did not
have it in my pocket app, uh, where it was talking about, you know, Austin, Texas, you
know, not doing well from a racial, um, equity standpoint, as it applied to economic
development and you know, bringing, um ... uh, diversity of business ownership, um, to
the particular community. And you know that's another thing it's not necessary I don't
believe in the sys... in the rating system, and so ... I just don't want us to ... it's just a concern
of mine. I mean, and maybe it's just mine, but it's just something that (several talking)
worried as we're talking about it.
Throgmorton/ You're not alone. Yeah, you're not alone.
Mims/ No, I mean I would agree that STAR is not the end-all, be-all. I mean ... as we said, some
of these that are up here now (both talking)
Botchway/ Right.
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Mims/ ...don't fall under STAR at all. Some of the stuff that we're gonna do in sustainability
may not fall under there. So, no, I...
Botchway/ I just wanted to put that out there, just.. just so I...
Mims/ No, I would totally agree!
Dickens/ ...road maps (both talking)
Botchway/ I agree! I agree, that's why I'm, you know...
Fruin/ One thing to keep in mind, I think it's important to remind Council is that just because it's
not on this list does not mean that staff won't, by ourselves, put this ... put some things
forward. So when you talk about waste minimization, I can tell you that we're ... we're,
you know, studying a ... a compost, curbside compost program pretty hard. We're havin'
discussions about cardboard bans at the landfill. There's a number of things that
we're... already in the works, and those will eventually filter into the plan. I think what
we're going through right now are just those really Council ... um, specific focus areas, but
please understand, there'll be plenty more that supplements this plan.
Thomas/ And we can also revise, can we not, the strategic plan?
Markus/ (several talking) Of course you can!
Thomas/ I mean (mumbled) six months from now say?
Markus/ Absolutely!
Throgmorton/ Okay! Why don't we move on. Otherwise we ... we'll be here forever (laughter)
Uh... so ... a brief orientation here about this next topic. This is the one I think got the
shortest shrift during our, uh, strategic plan discussion back in late November. Seems to
me we went through this pretty darn quickly. Uh, so ... we need to focus real attention on
this one. So ... Tom!
Advance Social Justice and Racial Equity (Flip Chart #2 (re #7):
Markus/ All right. So the first one says evaluate use of a racial, socioeconomic equity review
toolkit; and because I won't be here, I would suggest that this word ... is worded 'develop'
a, uh, a racial, socioeconomic equity review toolkit and ... um attempt to, uh, I don't want
to say'impose, 'but attemp ... and ... and use it in at least two applications. Here's, to me,
the big challenge is after you get a toolkit put together, is how you're going to use it, and
it's ... it can be used in all sorts of applications within a municipal government. I mean,
you can use it in the police department; economic development; zoning issues; building
permits. I mean it could be used, you know, new public building projects so ... personally
I think 'evaluate.' Why don't you develop it?
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Botchway/ Well you know (both talking)
Markus/ And maybe that's the first year. Develop it and then actually implement in at least two
applications or something to that effect.
Botchway/ Well and I think that was, you know, one that I brought forward, and evaluate was
one of those trick words cause I didn't want to put it out on the floor, so to speak, and
then talk about it later, but ... um, you know, Tom, I think I'm going to go a little further
than that, and ... and basically say, you know, implement through every department, um, a
policy around, I mean, and the reason I say that, and hear me out, is that we use the gap
analysis when we are vetting economic development projects. I see this as a similar type
of analysis from that particular perspective, that we use some, uh, Mr. Jackson in that
way to make sure that our, you know, when we're providing any type of TIF policy, um,
has that type of gap analysis where we don't feel like we're getting more money than we
should due to a particular project. This piece, um, and again, the reason why I'm a little
worried about saying develop is one we already have the training, and I know that one of
our, um, one of our departments are already working towards, um, you know, using it to
some extent, and it's ... while it is somewhat complex, it's really just simply asking
questions. I mean going through a particular process in which to ask those questions that
you still make sure that you're identifying and talking about race. And so you set the
outcomes basing race into ... putting race first into the ... what you want to see the project
have at the end, and then you go through analysis to make sure you build those structures
in, to allow for that to happen. So an ... an example that ... was at the, um ... um, the training,
um, with, um, Julie Nelson was around when they use this analysis toolkit, around, um...
um, light, whatever the case may have been and they used that analysis to look at, you
know, how do we make sure that we are not disadvantaging people, um, by, um, putting
up LED lights, and so because they had a particular focus on race and socioeconomics,
they looked at the calls and they noticed that the fact that the calls were a reason why,
um ... um, some people, you know, in a particular section didn't know that that was a way
that you needed to, you know, get something done from a city light standpoint because
something changed from a city light standpoint, and you know, the outcome was was that
they developed a process that spoke more to a more fair process on how to deal with
those particular things. You know my issue with it, you know, being in one or two
applications, and I guess maybe I should have let you talk that out a little bit more too, is
that I don't want it to be around.. just, um, you know, economic development. I wanted
to make sure it's around, you know, a lot of our city services because that's a question.
As far as, you know, you know ... we talked about police calls and JECC and, you know,
my next call is to the County as far as whether or not, you know, JECC can implement
some toolkit around how they call our police officers to particular, um, particular places.
And so ... when you said two, I just feel some type of way because it's not something that
takes long to ... to get done. I mean as far as just putting it in the process of what we're
doing. Cause it's ... we already have a ... we already have (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Let me toss one ... two -cents worth in here. Uh, when I first heard about the racial
equity toolkit, I thought, oh no! An abominable impact assessment!
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Markus/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ And ... and I don't know what y'all know about those things, but they're incredibly
complicated and they ... they're all about informing the decision maker, who then does
whatever the heck he or she wants to do, and I ... but then, Kingsley and I have talked
about that, and ... and I remember you saying, no, well that's not what we're talking about.
We were just talking about.. just getting people to think ahead of time about the affect...
how .... African-Americans or Hispanics or ... would, might be affected by a proposed
course of action. Just think about it!
Botchway/ (both talking) Right, the..the issue here is, from a structural standpoint, is that
whether or not we think about race, race plays into everything that we do. When we don't
have it a part of a particular proposal or initiative, we then continue to go past our, you
know, continue to go along on current practice and then we miss out on another
opportunity to introduce race into the discussion, and then 10 years later we have a
problem down the road where we should have considered a particular, um, marginalized
group.
Markus/ Yeah, I would just say to you, you know, you're saying across all departments and ... and
...look, the new Council's comin' in. The new Council has a lot of new initiatives.
You've gotta consider the pace. You've gotta consider about ... who all's gonna put this all
together for you, you know? It's great for me to be sittin' here, knowing I'm gonna be
gone in March and say yeah, you can do that. You know, but ... when I tell you... I mean,
I took it from this kind of weak statement that you created to begin with, Kingsley...
Botchway/ Right!
Markus/ ...and said... develop, you know, an actual tool and then implement it into applications.
Actually that's a, to me, that's a pretty significant deal because ... you think about
everything we're doing in terms of ad hoc and, uh, roundtable. They're ... it takes a lot of
vetting to create a comfort level and to communicate to people why we are doing these
things. And ... you know, we're gonna have to reach out to a lot of parts of the community
to make sure they understand this sort of thing, and I think there has to be a test period to
see is this really addressing what we were trying to address with this sort of thing. So it's
one thing to develop the tool. I view using two applications as a test of the tool, before
you then start to kind of...but to ... to talk about doing it across all departments? I gotta tell
ya, I'm confident the School District couldn't get that done.
Botchway/ (mumbled) in a two year... well... because I'm heading this particular project up, I
mean, there's... there's a, the only reason that I see it as a barrier to not getting done in the
School District is because of the, you know, maybe School Board support, and they've
given that support towards a particular issue, and again, I ... I don't, you know, and this is
where I would, you know, want to enlist the source ... the resources of Julie Nelson, who I
think gave a really good presentation and could provide us with the leadership and the
guidance, since we're paying her to do so, um, to implement, you know, what we can do
across the departments. Now, maybe this is, you know, assess our .... not assess, but
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have ... I don't ... know how we want to word this, but, you know, use Julie as a resource in
doing this because, you know, she's had experience making sure that this is ... developed
through multiple, uh, part... departments.
Markus/ You know, your analogy using the gap, the gap is used in very ... in a very limited,
refined area. It's not ... it's not this expansive as I see this equity toolkit.
Botchway/ And I ... and I don't disagree with you. I guess my issue is is that what I'm trying to
get to the point is, and again, this is my particular (mumbled) all the Council's is that
when a proposal comes before Council, my question is going to be have we done this
analysis? And so the answer would then be, you know, yes. In a similar way that you
don't ... we don't necessarily need to prompt in any particular way about the gap analysis,
because that's embedded into the, um, the proposal once we see it from Tom or (speaking
away from mic) bring it to the table or (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Let's hear from some other Councilpeople in terms of questions or reactions, and
Eleanor, you (both talking)
Dilkes/ I just wanted to say, I don't think it makes sense to say either across all departments or to
applications. Develop an equity toolkit, part of what the equity toolkit presumably will
do is say how and when it will be applied. I mean I don't ... I don't get the ... adding on at
the end here. That's just my...
Throgmorton/ Okay, what do the rest of you, what do you think about (several talking)
Thomas/ I don't ... I'm not able to ... evaluate ... the, whether to do it across the board or to, I mean,
I ... would .... would come to my mind would be to say ... I'd like to have a conversation with
Julie Nelson, someone who has experience with the application of this toolkit in terms of
what seems reasonable, in terms of the implementation of it, but ... it's impos... impossible
for me to ... I would certainly like to do all the departments if it's a reasonable goal, but... I
don't know that it is. Um ... so I'm not comfortable saying that's ... let's do that.
Mims/ I would agree.
Dickens/ Not knowing enough about the toolkit, I know it was brought up just this fall
was ... didn't you bring it up this fall for the first ... and I guess I wasn't really familiar with
it until it was brought up there and we really didn't go into depth how the toolkit actually
works, uh, gotta rough idea but ... I ... I have to agree with John that ... not knowing enough
about it ... seeing it go across the board would be, I think, it'd be a great goal but ... I don't
know ... until we see how it would work, whether it can be done.
Taylor/ (mumbled) unsure too as far as what the toolkit includes, what ... what the measurability
of that is, so I guess I...
Cole/ The only thing I was thinking of is the City of Madison, like for example employment,
jobs. I mean it's something very tangible. I know the City of Madison has done great
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work. As I understand it, in increasing the number of minority staff people across the
board, and so I think to me that's one of the most important things, and we've identified a
lot of barriers, but ... I want to make sure that we're not too vague either. So at this stage
it's always a balance between how broad and how specific. Um, but I think in terms of
the toolkit, I would like to see that connected to (clears throat) increasing greater numbers
of divert... diverse staff members in the City of Iowa City. Uh... that'd be my thought.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so ... I'm ... I'm pretty much on board with what the rest of you have said. I...
completely support the idea of having a tool that enables us to get a sense of how
various... actions of City government affect populations differentially. So a racial equity
toolkit may well be precisely the right thing, but obviously we don't ... feel comfortable
enough in our own knowledge about it to say let's ... initi... implement it throughout City
government full bore. So we ... we need to ... have s ... some steps between developing a
toolkit and ... following through on it (several talking)
Markus/ ...implementing its use (several talking)
Dickens/ ...talking to Miss Nelson (several talking) and finding out...
Botchway/ I think we even go a little bit further than that, because we did have the training. And
so I mean that, you know, if we're going to come back to her in some type of way, maybe
it's a staff presentation or work session on exactly maybe how it can be implemented,
how it can be used (coughing, difficult to hear speaker)
Cole/ But I think that's a really good idea, and that streetlight example resonated with me
(coughing, difficult to hear speaker) one of those disproportionate minority impacts you
wouldn't intuitively think of, but you'd get that level of expertise.
Throgmorton/ Tom, would you mind if I ask Geoff if he has any thoughts about this?
Markus/ Yes! (laughter) No. Depends on his answer! (laughter)
Fruin/ Well we've had a number of, you know, follow-up conversations with Julie, I'm going to
say 'we.' I mean Stefanie Bowers primarily, uh, about the toolkit. I know Julie has sent
Stefanie examples of work plans from different departments in different communities
across the, um, across the country. So I ... I feel like ... we know what those frameworks
look like, um, at least in other communities and we can, um ... figure out what the best
applications are, uh, I ... I share Tom's concern when you say'implement it,' you know,
throughout the entire operation, um, I ... I just don't have a good handle on, um, how
that ... how that looks, but I think we can find the most impactful areas, um, and it seems
to me in looking at this, it tends to come back to ... to ... to Planning, you know, Housing
Authority, Police, Transit, um, even Public Works, and we can ... we can find those most
impactful areas and then have staff come back to you and say we've looked ... we've
looked at every department and we've looked at the feasibility of doing a toolkit in every
department, and here's the ones we suggest we focus on, and ... and if you want to question
us as to why we're not suggesting that we do it in ... um, the Finance department, we can
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have that discussion and ultimately you can determine if, you know, you understand our
position or if you'd like us to, urn ... go ahead and implement it in that department at
whatever costs we're tellin' you it's gonna be. So, I think we need ... we need time as staff.
Yes, we've had the training, we've had the exposure, but ... um, that's a very high level.
We need to figure out how to operationalize and internalize some of those, uh, inner -
workings. So I ... I don't have a suggestion for the language right now, but I guess what
I'm sayin' is, we ... I know that you want to implement a toolkit. Let us figure out how best
to do that and then present that case to you.
Throgmorton/ Simon, can you translate that into just a few words?
Fruin/ We ... we can work on it.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. I ... yeah I think, uh... uh, I think that makes a lot of sense, Geoff, uh, and I ... I
think it's, I would say from what people have said, it's pretty clear we need to feel
comfort... comfortable that we understand what a racial equity toolkit is, how it would
work within specific departments, and ... and at the same time, being clear that we want to
a ... adopt something along these lines, right, that accomplishes the general purpose.
Okay. Next one, Tom.
Markus/ I think this one was yours — work closely with ICSD, um ... Kirkwood Community
College, Iowa Works, and others to explore the feasibility of an industrial arts, craft
facility in southeast Iowa City. Urn ... actually, um, Lawrence has done a really nice job
with this and so once I get down there and get established, maybe we can get you guys on
a bus and bring you down and show you what they're doing. Seriously. Um, they have
developed a real nice program to ... to start getting young people, um, acclimated to the
work world and then training in very specific areas, and once I get a better understanding
of exactly what that is, and Jim, I'll talk to you about that once I get there, um, I think,
you know, some of those field trips prove to be pretty beneficial, like the one we're taking
to San Antonio, an alternative to the... alternatives to the judicial system. So .... I thought
that was one area they were particularly ahead of us in the curve of...of how they're trying
to go about that. So, I think that'd be kind of nice to do some of that sharing back and
forth. There's some things I want to bring 'em up here to see too, so ... uh, maybe we can
do an exchange of some sort and you can see how that works, but ... actually I ... I kind of
like this idea and I think the starting point is that we start to engage these other public
agencies who have a focus in that regard. You know, there's the STEM project, as well.
Um, that tends to be, you know, a little different than what you talked about. Um, you
know, the unions quite frankly, and the trades unions in particular, I think they would be
supportive of working in—in this kind of area (several talking) and that's what we were ... I
think that's some of the things they're trying to do in Lawrence, as well. So, I think that
there's some real ... I ... I like this. Personally I thought this country's made a big mistake
turning away from, um, this ... that whole kind of trade, um, skilled area in terms of
focusing everybody on an advanced education, and I think that this really makes a lot of
sense. Um, and you can kind of see it, you know, across the country and ... I think that
this .... this obviously isn't just Iowa City, and that's why we've named these larger entities
that cover more territory. But I think we do want to have that engagement. So, maybe
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that's where it starts, with you know the heads of the different programs, and the chief
administrators of these different operations, and you ... you set up some meetings and have
those discussions, but ... I ... I don't have a problem even with the way it's worded right
now. So...
Throgmorton/ What do the rest of you think?
Cole/ (several talking) ...get rid of SE, southeast Iowa City? (both talking) Do we want to get
rid of southeast Iowa City? The only thing I was just thinking of, cause Menard's is ... is a
building that I think could come open relatively soon, right, with the University or have
they decided what they're going to do with that yet?
Markus/ Uh, the University owns (both talking)
Cole/ ...that's sort of maybe too technical, but...
Dickens/ Do they own it or (several talking)
Thomas/ ...the southeast Iowa City. I mean, I ... we were having an informal conversation the
other night and we were talking about the possibility of it going ... in at City High on the,
you know, current Hoover site. You know, I ... that might be a possibility. Um, so ... sol
don't know if it's necessary to say southeast Iowa City in the, uh...
Markus/ But this is a conversation too, you know, that I don't know if ICAD was in here but
this'd... this'd be, this wouldn't be a bad thing for ICAD to be involved in too and ... in
recruiting and having this kind of talent being ... coming out of it, you know, this kind of
program. That would help our recruiting, cause we have a huge unemployment...
problem. It's too low! (laughs)
Throgmorton /Right!
Markus/ Right?
Throgmorton/ So I ... I ... I don't see any reason to keep ... well, tell me if there's a good reason to
keep the southeast... part of it in there, I mean (several talking)
Mims/ No, I think it's too specific.
Markus/ Yeah, I do too!
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Thomas/ I would only want to say'convenient.' (laughs) I mean, you know ... if I were to say
anything...
Mims/ Right!
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Thomas/ But, um ... cause that STEM frustrates me in that sense. It seems to be (both talking)
convenient to get too!
Mims/ Yeah, but it's not just the Iowa City School District (several talking)
Thomas/ Yeah, but for Iowa City it seems (both talking)
Mims/ It's inconvenient for Cedar Rapids, but more convenient (several talking)
Dickens/ The new merge area downtown ... in some effects is going to be a little bit like that, that
hopefully it'll open up. A lot of different areas there that technology and other uses there.
Throgmorton/ Okay so (several talking)
Taylor/ ...I was thinking it might've stemmed from just the demographics of that area, with the
Broadway neighborhood and ... and Pheasant Ridge kind of is close to that area, uh, those
kinds of young folks, youth encouraging them to get more into the trades and not like
giving up and thinking there's nothing for them to do, because uh, the trades is hurtin'
now! They ... they need folks and it ... it, they can, um, have very good jobs.
Throgmorton/ That ... that's certainly part of my thinking.
Taylor/ I think ... yeah (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...folks to (mumbled) or enable them to be on a pathway to good jobs. (several
talking)
Markus/ Like I said, Jim, I think it's worded pretty well right now. Cause I think you have to
have the discussions before you really can set up a specific goal to achieve something.
Throgmorton/ Okay (both talking)
Mims/ I would just add one thing. That ... I like this! I think it's important. But I also think the
language that we use in discussing this .... is incredibly important, okay? You talk about
the language is in here — southeast Iowa City.
Markus/ Strike that (both talking)
Mims/ ....and I know we're going to strike it, but ... the whole point of being accessible to lower
income minority community, you've gotta be incredibly important that people aren't
taking this the other way, that you are then saying they are not capable of going to
college. That you are ... making these opportunities to them, you are pushing them in a
certain direction. So you ... we have to be incredibly careful as we move forward on this
that this is not turned around the other way. I think we need to make it clear to all
students, regardless of socioeconomic background, educational background, etc., that
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there are alternatives to a four-year college. I don't care how much money they come
from, I don't care what their grades are. Some kids don't want to go to a four-year school,
aren't cut out for it. But we have to be careful that we're not looking at this or making it
appear that we are trying to channel certain sub -group of our community only into the
trades.
Botchway/ Yeah I mean I guess to respond to that, I wholeheartedly agree. Um, I also ... to be
honest with you, I don't like this particular point. Um, but I mean I know that we have a
majority kind of going forward, cause I know this is a specific School District led point
that they could talk with us about, but I mean since we ... we already have it on here, I'm
fine going forward with it cause there's some other things that I think ... may, to me, are
more important than this particular issue, but I'm not saying it's not an important issue, I
guess that's my point, and I guess I ... I do understand the relevancy. I just don't know if
we should be, you know, carrying the water on this particular issue. I think (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Could well be. (several talking)
Markus/ ...hope we're not. By the time it's done I hope somebody else picks it up and runs with
it.
Mims/ Yeah, but if we can be a catalyst to bring people together.
Botchway/ Right, that's fair, and that's...
Fruin/ To ... to Susan's point that she just talked about, do you want to consider moving this out of
the social justice category and into economic development?
Markus/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Yep!
Cole/ Good idea!
Throgmorton/ I'm fine with that.
Markus/ Yeah. That makes sense.
Dickens/ Shoot it ... quick! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Cut and paste, that's right!
Mims/ I think that's a really good suggestion.
Botchway/ That's why we have you here, Geoff!
Dickens/ Cause that's probably where ... it's going to do the most good.
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Mims/ Well because it ... Tom or Geoff said earlier, it is an economic development issue. We've
got companies who ... don't want to come here because they can't find skilled workers
(several talking) You know, and so this is, you know, the idea of trying to get those skills
(several talking)
Dickens/ ...600 welders in the state and (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay, how bout the next item, Tom?
Markus/ Yeah, I ... this one's a ... this one's a little tricky cause I have some of the same... thoughts
about, um ... how this is worded. Consider permanent location for a winter homeless
shelter and support the Housing First. Well there are two distinct issues. But, when you
talk about permanent location for a winter homeless shelter, what kind of strikes me first
is that .... this is a population that is described as 'service resistant.' So then you're talking
about permanence and the fact of the matter is, this population will leave this winter
shelter the moment they feel the temperature is suffice for them to leave any institutional
type place, and so while I think it's desirable to try and have a location, um ... you know, of
permanence, I think it's going to be really difficult to pull that off economically because
you're really talking about a limited period of time for this type of use. It would be nice
if we could figure out a building that ... quite frankly, and here's what I'm thinking about,
maybe a fairgrounds building or ... but maybe that's too far out. Um, but maybe a building
that has kind of a, um ... spring/summer/fall use (laughs) that we can concert to a ... a winter
use and I think that would be a very economical way of going about that, and maybe what
we do is we ... you know, maybe we look at some sort of bus transport, you know, for
persons that want to use the winter shelter, if it's in a more distant location. We just had
this conversa... I just came over from the strategic planning meeting at the United Way
and one of the things that they're insisting on from Shelter House is that they submit
through the normal review process, because what they've been doing is coming in at the
last minute, on an ad hoc basis, and asking for funding. So, that's the only ... that's the
only concern I really have about that. It ... to make a permanent investment, you know, I'd
rather make a permanent investment in an additional homeless shelter first, um, this is an
interim use. It's what, three to..three and a half months, maybe. So to make an
investment, you know, you're talking about a lot of money to do that. We need to figure
out some combined uses that make sense for this.
Throgmorton/ So who ... whose idea was this, who wanted .... is there a champion really for this?
Somebody proposed it (several talking)
Markus/ Maybe staff (both talking)
Mims/ It might have been mine; I'm not sure. But ... I mean I agree with everything that Tom has
said.
Fruin/ One of the things, just so you know, the ... one of the paths that this group is exploring is a
combined facility. Um, where the temporary shelter also serves as a rec room, uh, in the
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Housing First, uh, building. Uh, there's obviously a lot of ....I think a long way to go, but
um, that's one option, uh, that ... that might solve your ... your point there, Tom. But, I
agree with the (both talking)
Taylor/ ...come from me too. I think I had an idea on this (mumbled) just because it seemed like
two years ago there was sort of a scramble to find a place for these folks cause the
temperature was going to drop and it was kind of at the last minute like mid-December,
thinking 'oh we've got to find a place for these folks.' So, I think, um, I was kind of
thinking on that lines, that not necessarily a permanent one but I think his idea of finding
a seasonal kind of place, so that there is a place so you're not scrambling to actually find a
place for them at the last minute.
Botchway/ Question, is this a strategic planning point?
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) what do you think?
Botchway/ I don't think so. I mean I think we need to do it and I think we need, you know, to
support Housing First. I think we need to have all the other community support Housing
First as well, but I don't necessarily think it's a strategic (both talking)
Fruin/ I think it'll be something that comes to your .... table, eventually. It'll be money and
legislative approvals. Um, there's really ... I don't think, a strategic involvement of staff,
um, cause there's already a good group that's working on this. So, um, I ... I just see it as a
policy decision and a funding decision that you're going to have to make in the next year
or two.
Botchway/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ Do I hear a suggestion to remove this item?
Botchway/ Yes ... for me. Yep.
Throgmorton/ I see two people nodding. What are you thinkin' there, Rock?
Cole/ I don't want it to be construed as....I think we need to leave something in to addressing the
homeless population, and ... and I don't want to think .... I mean, this is a strategic goal for
us is to try to get, you know, um, ensure that they're not out there in the cold and that
we're doing everything we can do in a compassionate way. ... sol ....I would like ... I
like the language the way it is. Um, I mean, with sort of some of Tom's caveats in terms
of, you know, permanent, what type of homeless shelter, um .... so I...I like it the way it is.
Botchway/ I ... I disagree. I ... like I said, I think we, you know, I ... I get what you're gettin' at,
Rockne, and I'm not, you know, I guess I'm not disagreeing with the thought that we need
to do something. I just won't see it as a strategic point. I think we already are doing
something. Should we look at more things to do? (several talking) Most definitely,
but ... I mean, if...if that's what our strategic point is, you know, develop more initiatives
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for the homeless population ... I could see something like that, but I don't necessarily think
of...just from what Tom talked about, you know, designating a permanent winter shelter.
Cole/ Might be too specific.
Throgmorton/ I think supporting the Housing First initiative would be a strategic...
Cole/ Yeah I think so.
Throgmorton/ ...objective. The other is....
Cole/ More specific.
Throgmorton/ ...seems like, you know, something we just are gonna routinely do, make sure that
there's a temporary shelter for...
Markus/ So do you want to strike it down to support the, uh, Housing First initiative and
urn ... and maybe just generally say something about homeless issues and...
Throgmorton/ Yeah (several talking) ...respond effectively to (both talking)
Botchway/ The only issue I have with that, you know, not saying I won't support the Housing
First initiative, because I think it's a great proposal, but ... I remember when I campaigned
for Council, that was something that was talked about at that time, and so ... you know, are
we ... are we putting it in here to just kind of support in general or is something actionable
going to happen in the next two years?
Fruin/ I think it's coming. They've actually... there's an application through out CDBG funding
round that's open right now to support the project, so ... that gets vetted through the HCDC
Commission and will come back to you. So there'll least be one item for consideration.
That'll be funding.
Throgmorton/ I'd say something like this — support the Housing First initiative and ... adequate,
uh, s ... support for homeless people, adequate shelter for homeless people during the
winter. (laughs) That's what I would say. (several talking)
Dickens/ That's general enough that it can ... move in several directions.
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) has a good memory (mumbled) keep track of this staff. Good man!
(several talking)
Botchway/ ...restricted to just winter?
Cole/ That's what I was thinking. Don't we want to promote homeless independence in terms of
housing? I mean isn't that sort of what our goal is, that we want to (several talking)
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Mims/ That's what the Housing First initiative does.
Cole/ I know, um, that's one initiative, right? I don't know.
Taylor/ (mumbled) (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...some other language (both talking)
Botchway/ ....support the Housing First initiative and then to Rockne's point, um, other, um,
homeless (several talking)
Cole/ ...or something like that.
Botchway/ I was going to say other homeless initiatives.
Cole/ Okay. That's good. I like that (mumbled)
Botchway/ Because there's other pieces of this that I'm thinking about in my head as we ... I think
there's conversations that the homeless, um, task force was having around, you know,
how folks were going to move from place to place in order to get, you know, breakfast,
lunch, and dinner, that we may need support in some particular way, and so there's
multiple elements of this (mumbled) outside of the winter that we may (both talking)
Cole/ I just don't want 'em to think that we're only focused on the winter.
Taylor/ Right.
Throgmorton/ I'm comfortable with that (several talking) All right, um, the last item, uh, I'll
have to take responsibility for so ... you know, evaluate making significant changes in the
City Council committee structure, including the possibility of new committees to review
policies related to sus ... to sustainability and social justice. I think, uh, last Thursday
didn't we discuss this in relation to ... sustainable built environment? Or am I kin of
dreaming that we had that conversation? In any event, I ... I have really a ... a ... more
particular suggestion having to do with the part that pertains to social justice and racial
equity. So .... this particular topic, I think, I mean this particular element that I just read, I
don't think really belongs in this social justice, racial equity section.
Botchway/ I mean I'm interested in (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ... yeah ... (both talking)
Botchway/ ...cause I'm not necessarily .... (both talking)
Throgmorton/ So we haven't thrown it away but ... but I think it'll come up in this other way.
So ... um, which gets us to, remember how I started our discussion by saying I ... I think this
is the element that got the least attention, the shortest shrift when we were doing our,
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uh... strategic plan discussion in November. So, do you have particular.... additions to this
category?
Thomas/ One that I ... one that I had ... was um ... and this would be consider the formation of a
youth commission, which I know I've talked to you and I've talked to Kingsley about.
Botchway/ Well and (several talking)
Mims/ ...had one and got rid of it.
Botchway/ Yeah (several talking)
Mims/ ...participation (several talking)
Thomas/ When did you get rid of it? (several talking)
Karr/ Marian said two years ago.
Thomas/ That's why I said 'consider' (laughter and several talking)
Mims/ I think we tried really hard and ... trying to, I mean, Marian, you could give a better answer
probably because you staffed that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, it existed for several years too, right?
Karr/ We had a youth advisory commission. It was, um, I was going to say we had a City
Council liaison that attended all the meetings and I recall going through three different
liaisons, so potentially two years each time, so you know, five or six years. And it was a
scheduling, first and foremost, it was a scheduling matter. So many of the youth were
active ... in so many different things, to find an appropriate to meet ... um, with the diverse
make-up of the committee became difficult. Um, then we, um, switched from a
nomination process from ... similar at that time to boards and commissions, um, where the
young people themselves applied, to going to the schools to get... individuals. Um, that
didn't seem to help as much (mumbled) don't believe it ... created the goal we wanted. So
it was, um ... uh (mumbled) was Council Member Dobyns, and it was abolished during his
four-year term and it's been a couple years. We have ... um, we do maintain a, um, we
have contacts with each of the schools and do maintain, um, a list of youth events or use,
uh, issues arise that we certainly can go to them for resources and for input. But not an
organized committee.
Thomas/ One ... one reason, you know, I had referenced it in the campaign, I'm intrigued and
drawn to the idea where youth are actually engaged in ... the, you know, determining their
own lives and ... and through that ran across a youth commission that has been quite
successful in North Carolina, so you know it's ... I think it's been in existence for 20 years.
So it...it may have been that, you know, this ... the structure of the one that was developed
here ... um.. .
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Karr/ One thing that ... John, also I'm familiar with the North Carolina model. One thing that we
discussed briefly, um ... but did not go forward with was, um, asking the youth for
particular, um, activities or existing structure they were interested in getting involved in.
For instance, Parks and Rec, Transportation, um, sustainability, and rather than having
one committee that ... was citywide that waited for an assignment, per se, that really we
had a youth liaison ... to, um ... a specific committee, that they were specifically interested
in. We did explore that as a possibility as well, thinking that if it was a specific spot with
a specific interest, that might be, um, and that reminded me, that model reminded me of
that.
Throgmorton/ One of...one of the challenges with, um, youth commission is that young people
go ... grow older, so there's a lot of turnover (several talking and laughing) Yeah! Um, but
you know, when you're ... when you're an adult, you know, you're an adult for 40 or 50
years, if you're lucky, or something. But when you're a teenager, you know, you're only a
teenager for .... (laughter)
Botchway/ So ... you know, I actually like the particular model and I think that it's, you know, and
Susan's actually brought two pieces of things that, you know, um, I wouldn't say ... or kind
of support in certain ways and that's My Brother's Keeper and then the other, um...
Dilkes/ Kingsley....
Botchway/ (both talking) Sorry! My Brother's Keeper (several talking and laughing) um, I was
talking about Susan bringing up two points, was My Brother's Keeper and there's another
one ... that you brought up as well. It was about City government and I can't remember it
for the life of me right now. Um ... it was a particular initiative that focused on youth
becoming a part of, um, kind of job shadowing within City government.
Mims/ Well there was the one that I brought that was in the packet, probably a year and a half or
almost two years ago (both talking)
Botchway/ Yes!
Mims/ ...now, um, it was just on ... black males in general (both talking)
Botchway/ Yes (both talking)
Mims/ ...and um, cities interacting... I'd have to go back and look at the packets. Probably
February or May of.. (both talking)
Botchway/ Yeah, it was really early.
Mims/ ... of...we're in 16, probably February or May, somewhere February to May of 14, um, that
was in there, just talking about a lot of those kinds of things, but the thing I really like
about My Brother's Keeper is ... it's ... it's already and established program. I don't believe
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in re -inventing the wheel if you don't have to, if there's a good program out there.
Um....and I ... I know that we, at our last meeting in December, had voted to go ahead and
have, um, the ... the City Manager's, um, diversity roundtable kind of vet that and then
hopefully — I hope — bring that back to Council for, um, consideration, because one thing
about that it's .... they kind of talk about this cradle to career, and doesn't say cradle to
college. It doesn't say cradle to trades. It says cradle to career, whatever that career
might be and so it kind of keeps all of that open for people. Um ... but yeah, I think ... I'd
have to go back and look at the packet because I remember that first one I submitted
(several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...it's pretty compelling.
Botchway/ So to my point, I ... I guess what I'm trying to get at is, you know, there's... there's
multiple I think ways of looking at this, but I am very interested in the youth commission
because I think it's, you know, and as we were talking about how, you know, it's kinda
failed. I mean, there's... there's the ability to kind of have, you know, liaison ... and this is
just in the world we live in now, you know, youth liaisons within different buildings that
we only ... email or ask particular questions about and get their survey feedback. I mean I
know that's a different model than what was in North Carolina, but I think that when I
was, um, thinking about kind of the Rec Center activities and how I think, Geoff, you're
talking about (mumbled) doing some other things, it'd be good to — again — get some
youth involvement as far as what particular programs or stuff that the youth want to
participate in, you know ... after school or whatever the case may be, so we can have ... and
we might do that some of that, but having some type of youth commission around other
city related things I think would be important. I just ... I'm not sure how to develop it and
so that's where I'm interested in putting it on the (several talking) standpoint and then
kind of hashing out from that pers ... perspective.
Dickens/ Maybe look back at some of the members we had. We had Zach Walls I think was on
there, which I think (several talking) He did a lot of things and maybe just reaching out
to him and see ... cause he went through that process and maybe he could give us some
insight on ... what he views.
Cole/ Well I was just thinking too, I'm just so amazed you know there's so many awesome
community leaders, you know like with Fred Knowles and obviously you were part of
that. I would love to be able to in three months, you know, what are the three ways in
which we can most effectively partner and collaborate with your youth initiative, or
Henry Harper or you know the ... the people that have been real community mentors, um,
and I think ... I feel like I'm sort of trying to discern what we think is necessary as opposed
to like the track record that both of those two ... and of course many others, not limited to
them, um, I'd like to get that concrete specific feedback from them, that we can then
articulate, you know, whether it be an internship program or ... or whatever. Um, cause
there may be something we're just totally missing and um, Geoffs right. It doesn't mean
that we can't bring that up at a later time, um, but it'd be nice to have the overarching
vision on the front end, but then we wouldn't be spinning our wheels on the back end.
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Botchway/ So I like what you wrote, Simon.
Mims/ I do too.
Botchway/ Yeah, that's perfect cause I think I'm kind of over .... all over the place as far as what
I'm thinking about (several talking)
Throgmorton/ I like that too!
Cole/ I do too!
Andrew/ (unable to hear, away from mic) ....we're eliminating that from this.
Throgmorton/ Well it's a ... we're ... temporarily we're just pulling it out.
Andrew/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. (several talking)
Taylor/ By engaging the youth you mean like in city government as such or the city .... cause I,
there was a young man at the meeting, I didn't .... was he from high school? He had you
sign something to prove that he was here. I didn't know if that was like a government
class. I think that's one way we can engage too is work more closely with maybe the
government teachers in the school (both talking) - - - -
Throgmorton/ ...student at a class, yeah, proving that he had been here (both talking)
Taylor/ ...encouraging that and I ... I think it's wonderful (both talking)
Karr/ ...work with the teachers (both talking)
Taylor/ Yeah, when I found out we had the University liaisons to the Council I thought
that's... that's really wonderful and that's... that's one way to engage the (both talking)
Dickens/ ...schools and the scouting program too. That's part of their government (both talking)
Taylor/ Right!
Throgmorton/ Okay, other ideas?
Mims/ Yes, um, last night I went to ... uh, a function at the University, um, I forget the exact name
of it, but it was related to diversity at the University. And Georgina Dodge who is the
Chief Officer, and I forget Georgina's title, but related to diversity and inclusivity, etc.
She ... she was actually introduced by President Harreld and she spoke for about an hour
and talking about various things that they are doing at the University. She talked about,
um, a lot of new initiatives. She talked a lot of various programs, but she also talked
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about a lot of the, um, challenges and problems that exist, um, not only within the
University but, uh, within the community. And they've done some ... some surveys and
sessions with a lot of their minority students, particularly she was talking at this point
particularly about African-American students, and some of their experiences, um, with
the city, um, and not so much city government, per se, um, actually one of them was quite
interesting was with a particular business that she named that, um ... where students more
than one have indicated they've really felt, um, they've ex ... experienced discrimination,
etc. We have ... we have a large population at the University, um, not only of international
students, um, but ... of...our own domestic minority students, and that was the term that she
really used was 'domestic minority students.' Um, and you can ... she was kind of funny
(mumbled) the terms you use depends sometimes where you come from and she was
talking about the difference between using Latino or Hispanic and, you know, some
people are offended by one and not the other, and certain term is used in government
documents, etc. I ... I don't know how to word it, but I think, um ... the University... as well
as our community, as well as Cedar Rapids, this whole area, finds it very difficult to
recruit and to retain people of color. And that is from students at the University. It is
from maybe particularly students in education where we would like to get more people in
the pipeline, uh, for the School District, as Kingsley notes. Um, whether it is companies
trying to ... we've talked about, trying to diversify even the City staff. I remember talking
to Tom one day and I said, okay, so how many students do you ever know (mumbled)
who are going into, uh, like getting a master's in public administration? And he was like,
well, just about zero. And so you ... you talk about, you know, trying to ... whether the City
or whether it's Rockwell Collins or Procter and Gamble, whoever it is, um, trying to
diversify their staff and often times when they do have the opportunity to do it, one of the
things that fails them is ... the spouse can't get a job, okay, in an area that they're interested
in, and/or they get here and they're here for two or three years and they are not
comfortable in this community, okay? People talk about this being a very diverse
community in many ways, and I can't remember who said this to me. Actually I think it's
my oldest son said really the problem is this community is not diverse enough. And so in
other words, people of color come here from larger cities and they can't find a place that
they are really comfortable. There is not a large enough, uh, population say of other
African-Americans that are professional, that, you know, are people they want to hang
out with and socialize with, etc. Um, it may be a place to get their hair done. I used to
drive my girls all the way to Galesburg, Illinois, where my husband's from to get their
hair done when they were little. Um, you know, just ... just things like that, and so I think
it's important, and I don't know how to write it, but that we somehow include something
on here of really trying to, um ... develop some sort of, uh ... interaction, cooperation,
cohesiveness with the efforts that the University is making, um, in terms of...helping
students of color and faculty and staff of color in terms of recruiting and making them
more comfortable here and keeping them here.
Botchway/ I would wholeheartedly agree. Um, it kind of, um ... that kind of overarching theme
from a broad sense, kind of comes down to what Rockne I think has brought up a couple
of times in relation to the police department. I think you changed it this time to ... across
city government to develop some type of plan, and it can be in conjunction with all the
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entities you talked about, of how we can recruit, retain, um ... uh, you know, um,
candidates of color, um ... just diverse candidates from all (both talking)
Mims/ Diversity Focus has been trying to do some of the stuff from Cedar Rapids, and I don't
know if they've been particularly successful, and there's some ... been some (both talking)
Botchway/ Yeah....
Mims/ ...different organizations that have tried it, but I think we need to...
Botchway/ I think the wording you used, and Simon, I guess I messed it up by talking and not
allowing you to write down, but ... it's perfect from that standpoint, I mean, to just put on
and think about it from a strategic planning standpoint and then, you know, look at
different ways, because again, you know, if we don't have any plan toward recruitment,
um, of all departments, and this kind of gets into the civil service discussion that, you
know, I kind of want to have, under that umbrella as well, um, we're gonna have some
real issues and you know I think that, you know, without us being strategic about it, we're
gonna have real problems, and I think the University, you know, is working on different
things. (mumbled) had some great ideas that we're talking about from an educational
standpoint, but if the City can help in any particular way, um, with what the University's
going through, and one of the pieces I think Dr. Hill brought up, um, and I think your
hus... um, or Mr. Mims brought up in a recent discussion when there was some, um, talk
about what's happening at the University in relation to diversity after the, um, after the
KKK statue was on the, um, the Pentacrest...
Mims/ Right.
Botchway/ ...was that the University's done a great job, you know, um, diversifying from an
international standpoint at times. It has lost or has not developed as much, um, you
know, focusing on African-Americans in ... domestic African-Americans from maybe a
national context, and so...
Mims/ Very true!
Botchway/ ...I like ... this, whatever that phrase is that Simon's writing down, kind of figuring out
the pieces of that later on. Recruit, retain, and um...
Cole/ Well and I think so too, like Susan was talking about, what I really want to try to do is is
identify the hidden structural racism that we have. So I think in other words, if we were
aware of some of the things that we were doing that were unintentionally, um, leading to
some of these outcomes we don't like, we wouldn't do it, right? You know ... well (several
talking) I'm assuming the people at this table wouldn't. Um, but I think then how do we
compensate for that? We bring in consultants. We ... we engage in a process where we try
to eliminate hidden structural barriers, um, and so I don't know how we go about doing
that, but I think that is a real issue. Um, but a lot of these things we're just not even
aware of We're just blind to.
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Throgmorton/ I don't know but I'd like to say I ... I like the language that Simon is, um, conjured
up there. (several talking) Yeah, and I ... I didn't (several talking) work with, uh, the
University and other key stakeholders.
Mims/ Yeah, I would agree.
Botchway/ And just to be clear, we do do things. You know obviously that's part of our
(mumbled) other things and I know that El ... Eleanor, correct me if I'm wrong, we
do ... we've employed the Ban the Box, so to speak, and so that's something that, you
know, has ... hasn't really, you know, got a lot of legs (mumbled) other communities, and
we did that a year ago...
Dilkes/ Uh huh.
Botchway/ ...something like that and ... you know... something to be proud of.
Mims/I was looking at that. I'm trying to think, um...
Botchway/ (mumbled) talking about how to be ... how to live almost. I mean, incl ... feel inclusive
in this particular community (both talking)
Mims/ I'll think about it and maybe we can wordsmith that a little bit, but I think that gets ... and
part of that I think we need to really ... start a dialogue with, um, some key people over
there. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay! Uh, ideas down here?
Cole/ I just gave my idea. Terry? I mean I don't want to (laughter) self -edit.
Botchway/ I have another particular thing and that kind of focuses (several talking and laughing)
so around, and I understand that we're getting a little long but there's a substantial amount
of work I think we need to do. Um, around what Jim was proposing as far as different
committees, and this is kind of something that I want to hash out, Tom, cause I ... I know
we talk about the diversity roundtable, but as we talked about, um, and I ... and I don't
know the members and I forgot to email you before I got to this meeting to make sure I
knew, but I know there's some members ... I know of some members. I'm not saying we
should do anything with that committee (mumbled) all those disclaimers being said, um,
I'm interested in, uh, developing what Jim had talked about around another racial equity
commission, with the Councilors, maybe key people as ... Susan had kind of alluded to
with the University and other folks, you know, that could be a Georgina Dodge, um, and
some other folks, to look at, um, that particular fund, Tom, that you created. So I guess I
can say this another way. So the ... the $50,000 that you allocated towards (mumbled)
around, um, racial equity initiatives, is that .... is that right? Am I remembering that
correctly? (several talking and laughing; loudspeaker announcement in background)
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Andrew/ (away from mic) The Community Foundation Fund I think was intended to fund social
service (several talking) ...I don't know that it was specific to, uh, social justice
necessarily (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, actually... actually that program is to ... a three-year commitment from the City of
$50,000 each. It's setting up a trust fund and it's actually set up ... not just for social
justice, but for ... social service types of initiatives that we're involved in, which would
include social justice issues.
Botchway/ Ah, okay.
Markus/ And ... and the idea is to create a large enough host that it spins off interest earnings, like
a typical trust fund, and that you don't take the principle. You use the interest in the long
run. It's kind of a long-range strategy, um, that will also secure a lot of donations. Lot of
people make donations to the Johnson County Trust Fund, and this'll be specific to Iowa
City. So that we create this host that spins off revenue that ... you know, maybe, you know
the future you're not going to have the funds there and ... and those typical expenses
become very vulnerable and with this designated you'd have a pot of money to use.
Botchway/ Okay, so ... knowing that...
Markus/ But they are... but... social justice issues would be incorporated in (both talking)
Botchway/ So knowing that, I mean, Seattle has a model, um, that they have designated, um, I
don't know if they designate the Councils, they designate a committee around a particular
fund which is, um ... um ... designated to, um, dollars around structural inequality, and so
people bring proposals as far as how they're going to develop programs in that particular
way, and then, you know, that ... that committee then, you know, designates how ever
many dollars to that particular fund, and I can share that information. I couldn't pull it up
in my pocket thing again .... I'm not sure why, but....that's actually what I (both talking)
Cole/ Great idea
Botchway/ ....thought out fund was for, and so I was actually going to ask increasing the amount
at least initially to $100,000, um, but then, you know, you kind of told me it was
something different.
Markus/ It's very long-term.
Botchway/ Okay. So ... that's kinda where I want to go.
Throgmorton/ I'd like to spin off of that, because you're talking about committee stuff, which
goes back to that missing item on the other page. So ... here's what I would like to suggest
as, uh, one of three contributions to this discussion, but anyhow ... I'm going to use
language that, um, I used with regard to the carbon emission reduction thing too. So,
identify a substantive and achievable goal for reducing race -related disparities in
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education, employment, household income, youth arrest, traffic stops, and, uh, and for
increasing the diversity of City staff and ... and uh, on ... and ... for, diversity of City staff and
City commissions. So, but the key words there are ... develop a ... a substantive and
achievable goal toward ... for reducing race -related disparities.
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ And ... and uh, in my own way of thinking, that's kind of like an umbrella for
several of these other items ... cause they're all in one way or another would be seeking to
do that. Uh, and then with regard to the committee part, what I was originally thinking is
that we could create a new Council committee, three-member Council committee, uh,
with a title like something like Social Justice and Racial Equity Committee, and that it
would work with staff and other folks to figure out how to work toward that goal. But,
uh, Tom's, uh, you know, asked me to sit in on the racial, uh... uh, the roundtable last
week and ... and, uh, found that pretty enlightening. It seems to me we could transform
that roundtable in ways that would do kind of what you suggested, Susan, about
connecting with the University. Uh, maybe some other employers, I don't know, but I
don't want to go too far astray here, but uh, tra... transform the committee idea so that ... it
would still seek to reduce race -related disparities as I just described, but involve other
people, not just ... not just a three-person Council committee with staff assistance. So, um,
that's my idea with regard to, um ... this ... this particular... this particular part of our
discussion.
Mims/ I think it sounds all great. I think it is ... racial issues are not easy. If they were they would
have been solved a long time ago.
Throgmorton/ Right!
Mims/ Okay? Um ... (sighs) that doesn't mean we don't try to make progress, but when I listen to
what you say and ... and excuse my cheating of kind of reading, cause I can't remember all
of it, um (laughter) I ... I find it so ... so broad and so ex ... so expansive, um ... when we're
looking at a two-year strategic plan, um, I mean you talk about race -related disparities in
education. My first reaction would be yes, I totally agree with that. You know what,
that's Kingley ... Kingsley and his staffs and the School Board's responsibility.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Mims/ Okay? I mean ... you know if there's certain things outside the scope of the, you know, I'll
say 8:00 to 3:00 school day that we can have an impact on, um, from the City
perspective, then yes I would say, you know, we ... we try to do some of those things. You
know what, employment, the only employment we can control is our own employment.
And with as many of our positions that we have in the City that are subject to civil
service, to me that's where we start. Kingsley kind of mentioned earlier and this is
something I've talked to Tom about periodically over the years. I mean, I would like to
see us do more outreach ... (laughter) um, you know, do more outreach with people in the
community in terms of educating them on the civil service project ... or on the civil service
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process and even maybe working with Kirkwood to set up courses for people to take,
maybe free of charge even, uh, to help them prepare to take the civil service exams. You
know, maybe that's a way of...more effectively helping, uh, get a more diverse pool of
applicants for City jobs. Um, you know, the household income, that comes back to both
the education and employment, which again, I think we have some real limitations
realistically on what we can do. Um ... so ... you know, the verbiage sounds great. I ... I can't
see the practicality of that whole piece.
Botchway/ Well, I would agree, in part. So a lot of the things you said, Susan, I actually agree
and I think the one you left off was (both talking and laughing) around ... um...
Mims/ I just didn't want to take the whole thing, so .... bu, yeah, yeah!
Botchway/ ...was around the traffic stops and arrests.
Mims/ Yeah!
Botchway/ So, and I know we're coming back around with, um, some of that data, but I guess
from a strategic planning standpoint, I would like to see an actionable goal or achievable
goal, excuse me, around, um, you know, reducing, uh, disproportionality in relation to
arrests, by 50%. That's... that's a number (several talking) arrests. Well stops cause, you
know, other issues from a recruitment retention standpoint, but just arrests.
Mims/ See ... see and I have a bit of a problem with that, because ... how do you implement that?
Does that mean if officers are called ... and there's justifiable reason for a stop and/or for
an arrest, that they don't do it because they've been told you have to cut these numbers by
50%? I ... I think we've gotta be really, really careful with that.
Botchway/ Well, that's part of it. I mean ... the other, oh, I didn't mean to cut you off!
Mims/ No, no, go ahead!
Botchway/ That ... that's a part of it. The other part is, you know, around ... I mean what Sam had
talked about during our conversation on our hot spot policy or whatever our policy is.
You know, I think that's a policy decision where we can simply state, you know, when
you're in a hot spot area, you know, you can't ... if you're looking ... if you're trying to
reduce shootings, you're not looking for .... and this is a terrible example, jaywalkers to be
picked up. The reason why I mention that is because, you know, obviously for police
officers to be there, they're looking at other things, and I'm not saying they're not doing
their job, but my ... but my issue with that is that that increases the disproportionality as we
looked at that data rather heavily skewing it, you know, for our African-American, um,
individuals compared to our white, um, individuals, and .... I feel like that's a policy
decision that we could possibly change to make that, you know, goal more achievable.
Mims/ And I'm wondering, and maybe, Tom, you've got some input on this, you know, is a ... is a
way to look at that ... in terms of strategic plan is not setting a specific number goal. I
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mean maybe this is where we need to sit down and have more interaction with our top
level police, you know, Captain Hart, Chief Hargadine, whatever... what are they doing,
how are they doing it, if these are things we want to see happen. What suggestions do
they have in terms of...you know ... what are ... what are their officers actually seeing out
there on the street? What is driving these numbers and what kinds of ideas do they (both
talking)
Markus/ You know you're... you're gonna have Dr. Barnum in here.
Mims/ Right.
Markus/ And he's a, you know, he has a police background himself, but he's talked to all these
officers. He's presented to our officers. He's kept the stats on the officers. Urn ... you
know, there's... there's probably some ... stats that cause him concern and I think before you
just pick a number, which I'd be really careful about (several talking) I think you want to
engage him. He's very forthright. Um, the team'll be in here. It'll be a public
conversation. You know, ask him what he thinks, you know, should be a goal if in fact,
you know, he would respond to that and indicate whether or not he would think that is an
appropriate thing. I think the hope ... was that when we kept these charts, the fact
that ... that we were keeping the charts caused a very conscious kind of interaction to
occur, and that the numbers would be ... um, in decline. I'm not sure that's the result we
got. And so ... I think you need to have that conversation with him about what the stats
mean and about ... about what we can achieve, and ... you know, maybe ... maybe it's a very
different kind of...problem that needs a very different kind of solution. Maybe it isn't
just ... that interaction on the street. Maybe there's something else that needs to be
considered. I think where he talked about Davenport, they actually had a decline in their
numbers. Uh, but ... wait till you see the report and ... and understand what he's trying to
convey to you and what those statistics mean. I think only then can you have a
meaningful conversation about what's achievable.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, my ... my thinking was going the same direction, Tom. I ... I think we ... we
should have ... we should define a clear and achievable goal with regard to stops arrests,
but ... I mean I completely agree, we should have insight from Dr. Barnum and from the
Chief, and from anybody else who is knowledge (mumbled) bunch of people do that
(mumbled) knowledge about this, and ... and then (noises in background) get their
recommendations about what a ... such a goal would be. Uh, and then ... move toward that
goal. I ... I don't feel comfortable with saying 50% reduction (noises in background)
because I don't feel knowledgeable enough about the practicalities of...of the day-to-day,
uh, interaction. But I am fully on board with the idea of adopting a clearer goal.
Botchway/ So .... so how bout this. Identify and ... implement an achievable goal at reducing
disproportionality in arrests.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Okay. (several talking) That's what I'm here for (laughter)
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Cole/ (mumbled) gets back to the question too is, I just want to make sure that I'm not an expert
in, you know, use of force or law enforcement practices, but that we're using the best
possible practices imaginable, cause there are ... there have been situations where
departments have this sort of view, well, we're doing the best we can and nothing can be
done. It's just sort of in the nature of things and you've had new leadership that's come in
that's said 'oh, there actually are a lot of different things you can do.' So I just want to
make sure that we're ... that we're leading the way as far as ... cause again there is this
hidden structural racism that we just don't even think abut.
Botchway/ Well and to that point, I mean, not to, you know, I guess throw the School District
under the bus...
Cole/ Yeah!
Botchway/ ... there's ... that's a ... that's a conversation around, you know (both talking)
Cole/ ...discipline, cultural expectations, yeah.
Botchway/ ...there's different things that we could possibly do and try to have a different result.
(noises in background)
Throgmorton/ I think it makes a huge difference that we're sittin' up here and we're saying we
think this is an important challenge, problem that needs to be changed.
Cole/ I agree!
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
Markus/ But I would say to you that just in the last five years there's been a real culture change
amongst city managers, um, police chiefs, police... police administrations, and police
employees (noises in background) This ... you know, the number of incidents, um,
involving ... uh, disproportionate minority contact that have resulted in violent results...
and those conflicts have caused me ... and I ... and I look at ... fellow managers and say...
you know, if managers aren't involved in the operation, way more than they've ever been,
and managers are not asking tough questions of the police department. They're not going
to be managers for very long. I mean, the whole dynamic in my opinion has changed.
How that ends up remains to be seen, but ... just assuming you can turn the keys over
doesn't work anymore. Having said that, you know ... I made a comment about an incident
we had here in town in writing, right? I didn't necessarily just side with, you know, met
all the rules and regulations. I made a comment about in effect we could do better and ... I
can tell you that ... that created some consternation in the department, but more and
more ... and the Chief was there with me on that, and I think the command staff was too
but .... and that caused a lot of consternation. That's not the norm, you know, for the
reaction, and I think ... more and more that's going to happen, but ... you can't go ... to a
position that is not fair, okay, in your dealing with the officers and create a situation
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where you're not creating a safe environment because there's pushback on the other end
that, you know, they don't feel like they're being supported. But on the other hand,
they ... they shouldn't expect they're just going to have blanket support in every situation,
and people have to ... and that's a ... kind of a, that's a ... that's a transition that's going on, I
think, in this country right now. You're seeing a lot more of that, the judicial decisions,
uh, some major, you know, departments administrators saying things. Some of the ugly
scenes we've seen and the ... and the disturbing, you know, lack of being forthright and
candid about what did or didn't happen, I mean, all those things are playing out, and just
because they happen in some remote location doesn't mean they aren't impacting all of
our departments. So ... how it actually ends up is going to be interesting. I hope it doesn't
just return to the mean. Hope the mean moves!
Cole/ Well and I think of what the City has achieved in terms of the homeless population, what
Officer Schwent has done down on the ped mall has been amazing, um, and so I think,
you know, to look at what we've already done really well, um, I think gives us a lot of
hope too that it can be done, cause another approach couldn't have been taken with some
of the challenges that we had and that was not taken, and I think that that's, uh, a tribute
to him.
Markus/ Actually your department is pretty culturally in tune with your community.
Throgmorton/ We need to move on (several talking) so ... I ... I'll just observe that my original
suggestion got winnowed or narrowed a little bit (laughs) That's okay, I mean, I can live
with it. So (several talking)
Botchway/ What about my original suggestion (both talking) which was the racial, uh,
committee around, uh, the funding.
Throgmorton/ Well a committee around ... $50,000 and this community... community foundation.
Botchway/ I mean I wanted to .... I mean if that's (several talking)
Markus/ ...he was talking about something else.
Fruin/ You're looking for a short-term program. I ... I (mumbled) like to our community events or
our Aid to Agencies program, where people apply. There's a review process and a
granting process, or a, like our PIN grants.
Botchway/ Right (both talking)
Fruin/ I think that's more of a ... well, it can be strategic planning, but (several talking) budget
item.
Botchway/ Right, as far as the, yeah, as far as the particular monies that are, you know,
designated that but we ... we'd have to, um, put together a committee or a goal could be,
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you know, we would work towards, um, ending, um ... I don't know. We would work
towards ending structural racism and that could be one of the mechanisms to do it, but...
Throgmorton/ Not enough money to do that. So ... but I mean I translate what you said into ... we
should create a....a special pot of money to allocate for particular purposes that would be
identified by ... a ... a particular kind of committee. I mean I ... I'm not sure who would be
involved on the committee. I don't know what to call it. And ... and I doubt that we could
create some really large pot of money, but I get the point. Is that ... pretty much (both
talking)
Botchway/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ I see puzzlement so ... um ... (several talking and laughing) Yeah, a little bit of
fatigue (laughter)
Mims/ I'm ... I guess I'm not ready to do that without more... specificity with what we really ... I
mean, I ... I think, I mean if we develop, you know, we develop this ... and implement, try to
develop and implement this toolkit, um, you know, if we're trying to do things to support
the homeless. I realize that's not necessarily the racial issue; I get that. Um, you know,
working with the University, um ... working on the achiev ... achievable, measurable goals
on disproportionate minority contact ... I hear what ... I think I hear what you're saying,
Kingsley, in terms of trying to ... have something specific related towards ... uh... institu... let
me just put it this way — institutional racism (both talking)
Botchway/ ...institutional racism, yeah.
Mims/ Okay, and ... I kind of come back to that with the same reaction I had to Jim's. I ... we need
something more specific than that, I mean, institutional racism is so ... that's why we still
have racism, a lot of it, is because so much of it is institutionalized and it's harder to
identify, it's harder to call out, um ... I don't ... I guess I can't figure out off the top of my
head what would we do with a pot of money in terms of trying to get rid of institutional
racism.
Botchway/ Well I mean to that particular point, I don't want to take too much more time, I mean
it's ... it's kind of around the theme that, you know, Tom and I have talked about this a little
bit, you know, out of, you know, all the things we're talking about, there's some funding
that needs to be provided. There's some funding (noises in background) eventually, um,
that we'll have to do (people talking in background) so the particular way Seattle does it
is they do it from this model where, you know, they've, you know ... some of the steps
we're taking is similar to the kind of multi -faceted approach that they're trying to do to
end, you know, structural inequality, um, institutional racism. This is another addition
where they receive proposals, um, and ... um, you know, they vet those proposals for
programmatic change, and so that programmatic change could be, you know, you pay for
a speaker to come in and talk with folks about a particular, um, I'm trying to give a good
example, I apologize for not ... I should ... I was ready to have it up and ready to go, um,
around a particular focus point, whatever the case may be. Um ... in regards to how to end,
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um, institutional racism. And so, or it could be a programmatic change in another area
that the City supports because we believe or we are committed to ending structural
inequality. And so ... I mean I can provide more specificity to it, but it is putting, you
know, for lack of a better word, our money where our mouth is in relation to actually
putting dollars towards, you know, this particular issue. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...I was going to make one too but (both talking)
Markus/ Go ahead! You're the Mayor! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Let's see if we're thinkin' along the same lines. I don't know. We have the
neighborhood (several talking) we have a neighborhood PIN grant program.
Markus/ I was going to go to Aid to Agencies.
Throgmorton/ Well why not have an aid, uh, racial equity grant program, that would have a
small pot of money to begin with and I don't know how ... like I don't know, $25,000 in
a .... in a racial equity grant program and have, uh, the roundtable, or some equivalent
group, uh, identify... year to year or something like that, uh, how ... how those funds could
be allocated in ways that they think would really enhance racial equity. I mean, so there's
something on the table anyhow for you .... for y'all to think about.
Markus/ I'll give you another one. Um, why don't you just designate either the Aid to Agencies
or the roundtable with an allocation and that ... you give them the specific goals that you're
trying to achieve with a budget allocation. Why create a whole other committee? I
mean, you've got Aid to Agencies that vet these things. If you tell 'em what your
specifically looking for, they can match that up.
Botchway/ So to that point, Tom, cause I think it gets to it in an interest of time, is that a budget
discussion or is that...
Markus/ Yeah. Yeah.
Botchway/ So I can drop it now.
Markus/ Well...
Throgmorton/ But no, we should have the topic there. So ... create a small grant program, a small
racial equity grant program.
Cole/ I think that's great cause that sort of dovetails in ... so my early budget discussions where I
wanted to have ... you know, sort of a social justice accelerative for partner non -profits,
which isn't exactly what you're talking about but it could be, yeah, so...
Taylor/ Would the goals of...of that... committee be some of that long list you had in there, as far
as (several talking) disparities?
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Botchway/ (mumbled) kind of to use Susan's, cause I think Susan's is more adequately accepted
as, you know, ending institutional racism. And that's the language that Seattle uses.
Maybe we can, you know, use something different.
Throgmorton/ Clearly we're going to have to revisit this, but ... but...
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ ...I think we get the general idea, right? I have, uh... two other ideas and
they're ... and they're not trivial. Uh, at least one of 'em's not trivial, but .... I ... I want to
make sure that, John, you and Pauline, Terry, I don't know ... each have an opportunity to
contribute ideas.
Thomas/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Pauline? Terry? Susan, do you (both talking)
Mims/ No!
Throgmorton/ Okay, so ... here are two ideas. I'll start with the easy one. Uh...just read what I
have. I'll ... I'll cheat like, uh, like Susan was doin'! Explore innovative means of
providing lower income residents with off -hour transportation access to employment
centers and increase the availabilit... oh, never mind that part! Explore innovative means
of providing lower income residents with off -hour transportation access to employment
centers. So there's that..(mumbled) (both talking)
Mims/ There's a transportation committee that's meeting now. I've met with'em once and I
(several talking) hasn't allowed it since then.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, me too, and I was trying to build on that, uh...
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ But maybe that would fit into the ... the small grant, uh, allocation. I'm not sure,
but ... uh... that was one idea I had.
Mims/ I guess there's ... I guess part of the way I look at it ... there's always something going on
in ... in that vein and, you know, and some of us have been involved and I think if they get
to a certain point of...you know wanting say financial assistance from the City to
implement something, then I think they certainly will come forward. I don't know... I
don't want to put on ... anything on here that would make it appear that we're gonna start
something new and different than a process that is already ... in place.
Botchway/ I would actually agree because I think after our ... I don't know if we spoke after our
last, after that discussion where somebody presented in front of City Council or maybe it
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was a work session, where they were talking about different modes of transportation
throughout the corridor network (mumbled) I was able to send an email to whoever's
behind the Community Transportation meeting group (mumbled)
Mims/ Jeremy Endsley's the one that sends out the emails (both talking)
Botchway/ ...and they were working together and have a planned proposal and so I think some of
those things are working. I think it comes back in their proposal to us whether or not we
need to, you know, allocate actual dollars or what we can do from a City standpoint to,
you know, move that forward.
Throgmorton/ All right, so...
Taylor/ I know that's a concern, Jim. I know during the campaign that came up several times...
Throgmorton/ Right!
Taylor/ ...and I hadn't even given it any thought as far as, uh, so many of these, especially
industrial areas in town that have odd shifts, like 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. The city buses
aren't running or you know they might be able to catch the bus to get to work, but then
there's no bus to get them home. So is that something this committee's looking at (several
talking) ...like the transit hours (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...for lower income workers in Iowa City. I think that's pretty clear. Uh, but
(several talking)
Mims/ They're actually looking at it from a much broader standpoint than just Iowa City, cause
you've got people living in North Liberty, etc., who might be working at Procter and
Gamble for example.
Taylor/ Right!
Mims/ And if they don't have a car, how are they getting back and forth from North Liberty,
maybe where they've got cheaper rent, to their job in southeast Iowa City.
Dickens/ Spending two hours of their day to get there.
Mims/ Right!
Taylor/ Well it's good to know that someone or some committee (both talking)
Mims/ Yeah, there's a committee that's working on it now (both talking)
Botchway/ .... addressed ... the other way it's being addressed is around the, um, the survey.
Cause I talked with Chris, you know, not extensively but I mentioned to the fact that that
was something that was really of importance as we talked about it at the Ad Hoc
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Diversity Committee, of making sure that we talked about additional options. I think he
threw out maybe at the last meeting, and correct me if I'm wrong, he threw out, you know
(coughing, difficult to hear speaker) choice program or some other things that were
(mumbled) that particular thing that you're talking about.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so I don't know. I'm not sensing strong support for including this as a
strategic plan element, but we recognize that work's being done, so (both talking)
Mims/ Yeah, I think it's ... I think it's important. I don't see it as needing to go in here because
things are being done, and also from the standpoint ... I just have an overarching concern
that we have so much stuff in this strategic plan already that I find that worrisome that the
ability of Council and staff to really focus and achieve... major progress on these things
over the next two years is ... very concerning to me.
Taylor/ Would you ... or could you include it by saying continue to ... to monitor, uh, the
Transportation Committee's (both talking)
Mims/ ...working on it. They've got ... I think they've got a good group of people. I think they'll
be before us if they want, you know, assistance or support ... is my feeling.
Thomas/ Did it ... did it lead to an action item, John ... Jim? In terms of the budget?
Throgmorton/ Uh, one that I would recommend for the budget? No.
Thomas/ Cause if it doesn't...
Throgmorton/ Cause I don't know what's comin' out of that committee. I'm fully aware that it
exists and they're doing the work.
Fruin/ We are looking at this very issue internally too, um, so I ... I imagine, whether it's in or not,
it'll be back in front of you.
Throgmorton/ Okay. All right, so I ... I recommend that we not do this. Okay, but and ... here's the
bigger thing that I think is actually considerably more important, and it's the last thing I'm
gonna mention, and I guess the last thing on this topic. So, uh, you'll hear some similar
language to what I said before. Identify a substantive and achievable goal for addressing
the critical shortage of affordable housing in Iowa City. And, instruct the Housing and
Community Development Commission to work with the staff and affected stakeholders
to recommend how that goal can best be achieved. And... here... here's an example of
what such a goal might consist of and I'm not pushing this because there's ... we don't
know enough to know whether this is a good idea or not. One possible goal would be to
use subsidies, incentives, and regulations to create almost 200 units per year for 10 years,
each of 10 years, with at least 80 of those units being dedicated to extremely low income
households. That's just an example. I'm not ... I'm not advocating it, but what I am
advocating is ... setting a clear and achievable goal for either reducing the, uh, shortage
of...of, um, affordable housing or increasing the supply. I don't know which way to put
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it. Uh, and ... and assigning the task to the Housing and Community Development
Commission, working with the staff. I ... I ... put differently, I want to see us ... uh... indicate
what (coughing, unable to hear speaker) specifically we are going to do with regard to
affordable... the shortage of affordable housing in Iowa City.
Cole/ I couldn't agree with ya more, Jim, cause it seems like affordable housing is sort of one of
those mantras, you know, people say affordable housing, affordable housing, who's
against affordable... well, some people are, but ... um ... but I ... I agree with you that we need
to say'here's what we mean by that,' and I think we need to set very clear goals to do that.
So I support that.
Botchway/ The only thing that I would say ... is that, urn ... you know, it kind of goes back to the
identify and implement piece. I just ... wordsmithing, because you know I think that,
um... sorry I'm losing names right now. The, uh... the Johnson County Affordable
Housing, uh, Coalition (several talking) Affordable Homes Coalition, sorry, brought us,
um, brought us a pretty, you know, in-depth document as far as ... the amount of affordable
housing we have and what we need, so to speak. Um, and so, you know, I ... you know, I
would just say that we need to implement, you know, whatever we identify as a goal we
need to implement, or whatever (mumbled) is identify and ... do something with in some
type of way. I guess I ... I agree with you. I just wanted to make sure that we do it as well,
cause I think that's been the ... that, you know, 20 years ago there was a similar or 15 years
or 10 years there was a similar, you know, report that went out that we didn't do anything
with, and so I want to make sure (both talking)
Throgmorton/ That's why I refer to the Housing and Community Development Commission. I
think those folks have longed for ... for years, have longed to have a ... a clear task that ... that
really, that will ... would make them feel that they're doin' something really important.
And ... this is important! And .... to ... to give them that task, knowing that Tracy and
whoever from the staff would be working with them on it, and ... and so on, but I think
would be a pretty powerful signal.
Dickens/ (mumbled) think you gotta look at the regional too. I mean we've been really pushing
regional and we're getting nothing from 'em (both talking) 1 know we can only control
what we do.
Throgmorton/ I ... I know, I mean, we've been involved in these conversations for a long time. I
understand we're in a ... housing is a regional market. I believe we need to do what we can
do in Iowa City.
Dickens/ The fact that our land values are so expensive makes it ... except for certain areas. That's
what's happened over the years. I mean, we've got avoid that as well. I don't know how
you word that, but ... you know, it has to be spread throughout the city.
Botchway/ But I think that's, you know, what Simon put ... I think kind of (several talking)
Cole/ I really like that.
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Andrew/ (unable to hear; away from mic)
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ I personally think it's important, but I haven't heard from Tom or Geoff yet, and
I ... I see, you know, a lot of thought processing going on over there.
Mims/ Dollar signs are what's going through my mind. Again, I'm concerned like Terry says,
I ... I think it's regional. Uh, I realize, you know, how long can you sit back and do
nothing because your neighbors won't do it, I mean ... I ... I understand that concern. I'm
worried about the dollars. I thought Tom had an interesting idea the other day. You do it
with TIF and you kind of force everybody to at least (laughs) contribute some because of
the effects of TIF. Um ... (several talking) you know, I know at this point it's identify, you
know, a substantive and achievable goal and that's something then that we would have to
agree upon later.
Throgmorton/ Correct.
Mims/ Um ... I...
Thomas/ I think it's good. I like the language. I mean I have some (clears throat) when we come
to the budgets and proposals, that I would hope would be, urn ... you know, pointing
toward our housing zoning ... our zoning code. Uh, because I too ... I'm always inclined to
try to find ways of st ... structuring our zoning code to generate the affordable housing,
such as through incentives, right? You know, you allow a little bit more density and for
that you get ... a certain percentage of affordable housing. So ... um, you know, some of my
budget... budget proposals speak to that, uh, and ... and I think it's ... it's pretty good and I
don't think it necessarily ends up with, um, throwing a lot of money at the problem. I'm
really hoping we can, as I said, restructure our land use regulations to generate what we
want land use to be rather than having to supplement... with, um, you know, some kind of
cash in -flow.
Throgmorton/ What do the rest of you think?
Cole/ Well I want to start seeing affordable housing as an asset. You know one of the things in
talking with Dick Causner about this is he said, you know, a lot of the people that live in
Washington and some of the surrounding communities, some live there because they
want to live in a small town, but some feel that they're really locked out of the housing
market here. So I think back to the regional issue, um, the reason why I don't like that
discussion is it sort of makes affordable housing like it's some burden, and I think it's an
asset. I think we're looking at being (mumbled) for employers, that if we can connect the
jobs close by to the people, that's really good, and I think as a Council, we need to start
identifying language that ... that suggests that, and I think that this is is like why wouldn't
we want to make investments to make us more receptive and productive place for
employers and for a healthier community? Um, whereas I think if we have the, well,
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we'd love to do it but only if you do it first, the implicit message is it's something that,
well, it's sort of a shared burden that we all have to do. So I think we need to do it, and
we need to do it in a way that's tangible, and I think that gets to Jim's point. So I support
Jim's, uh, message on that.
Taylor/ I agree with that too and I ... and I think somehow we need to present it in a positive way,
cause there's still so much of that not in my backyard mentality and ... and we have to get
over that and ... uh, and that's ... that would be a major thing to accomplish.
Dickens/ And you have to get the people that own the land, that are going to build the buildings
(both talking)
Taylor/ Right!
Dickens/ ....the whole program (several talking)
Cole/ ...what about assessing inclusionary zoning citywide? Um, as a strategic plan goal, uh,
because I think one of the things that that does, and it's related to Jim's comment, is that it
takes away these discussions from an ad hoc discussion in terms of this particular project
or that, and then normalizes it so it's just part of the development process. (several
talking)
Botchway/ I actually maybe agree with you.
Cole/ Yeah.
Botchway/ I just don't think it should be up there. Cause I don't know ... we need to talk about
that particular point.
Throgmorton/ I ... I think that's the kind of thing that ... would be considered by the...
Cole/ As a part of implementation (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...if they're the ones looking carefully at (both talking) All right, I mean I
definitely heard at least four in favor of doing that and ... no real strong opposition, but you
know, we all have ... (several talking) comments.
Fruin/ One (clears throat) excuse me, one caution I just want to make. I ... I don't have a problem
with that language, but when you are identifying a ... a substantive, uh, and achievable
goal, and Jim, you talked about the supply side and whether that number's 200 or 20, we,
you know, I understand that we don't know that, but urn .... we also don't always have a lot
of control over that, and so, um, you can make substantial progress towards affordable
housing through zoning code modif...modifications like John mentioned or through
inclusionary zoning, like Rockne mentioned, but if...if you hang your hat on an
achievable goal, we could have a down year and there's no subdivisions coming, you
know, the houses aren't being built. Uh, we don't have the flurry of economic
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development projects where we can, um, incentivize, um, through TIF a ... affordable
housing units, you may not achieve that goal, yet ... from a long-term perspective, you
would have done a lot of good, so...just a word of caution with that language and, you
know, if you...if you say you're going to set a goal, you're going to be held accountable to
that goal and ... and sometimes it's out of your control.
Markus/ I mean, you know, if you look at development over ... over a period of time, development
typically is not an even line. It's peaks, valleys, peaks, valleys, peak, valleys and so to
just say, you know, you might be able to achieve, you know (mumbled) The other thing
is, and ... and I know the frustration is ... has been expressed by the apparent, um ... lack of
any kind of substantive support, especially from our immediate neighbor, um, who
doesn't even seem to want to have a discussion about it, and ... when we went into
Riverfront Crossings we did that with the idea that we were showing, you know, how this
could work. I, um ... I just don't see them stepping up and part of the problem I have with
them is that they've created... innumerable jobs in the service sector that do not pay
enough for people to live in this area, and the fact of the matter is ... a lot of the people that
live in Iowa ... those stores wouldn't exist but for Iowa City, so they want the best of all
worlds. They want that development. They don't want to provide affordable housing,
and they have leaders who at the State level, you know, talk about all these great things,
but don't seem to have any influence on that issue, even though they have so much
influence on protecting that community to begin with, and I ... I hope you guys understand
what you're dealin' with! Because they've not come to the table, in my opinion, in a fair
and equitable way to deal with those issues, and... just... just think that through, you know.
You guys are gonna have to press that issue if you're ever going to get regional equity
about distribution, I mean look at the numbers! You now have 40,000 people, about
40,000 people between the two jurisdictions, okay? North Liberty and Coralville, okay?
There's what, 72,000 people here, 30,000 of 'em are, what, students or .... graduate
students or persons at the ... the medical facility. To me that's.... 40,000 people and
growing? You know, they may match your population at some point, and we're going to
be the only provider of affordable housing? That's just wrong! And ... when you could do
this as those areas are growing, they're not imposing any of those ordinances right now.
You can make nicey-nice with these folks, but ... and I'm off topic here a little bit but ... you
got a real challenge there.
Throgmorton/ Think the point is very well taken and ... it's part of the world we're in for sure.
Bockenstedt/ I just had a question about the affordable housing. Just because ... just from my
perspective, I think it would be helpful to ... define what that is, and what it means. Um,
does it mean like a per square foot cost? A ... a run-up cost? A cost of the property?
Affordable housing for middle class? For low income? I think the term is used very
broadly and ... and when you get into community development, that's not my area of
expertise, don't get me wrong (laughs) um ... but do clearly define the target audiences that
are ... that you're trying to create that housing for, and ... the middle income, lot of times
when I hear about affordable housing, it's because there's no middle income housing that
you could ... that middle income can afford, so they're forced out of the city to get that
same level house at the same price, versus someone who is at a low income level to find
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an affordable place to live and so ... um, just as far as defining it, but also defines the way
you can use for different, uh, income tax credits or lo ... uh, federal and state credits, uh,
either TIF programs like is how you define it, of what affordable housing is and just as
far as we're developing programs, uh, grants, funding, uh, creating a definition, I think,
would be helpful.
Throgmorton/ Clearly true, Dennis. Thanks for saying that. Uh, if we're going to have a ... a
clearer goal or whatever concerning affordable housing, we have to understand clearly
what we mean by affordable housing. So, yeah! Agreed!
Cole/ That's an implementation thing, right?
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Yeah.
Botchway/ And to be honest with you, there was a committee tasked to look at that definition,
and so I think they're coming back with us ... coming back to us, not with us.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so I think we've worked out way through, uh, our ... our two key topics that,
you know, here at the end of the strategic plan process. So, the idea was to move to
discussion about budgetary implications. (noises in background) I'm conscious that it's
7:30. I don't know how ... people are feeling about staying for another half hour or hour
and ... or an hour, um, we stopped around 8:30 last time.
Cole/ I could do that.
Throgmorton/ I think 8:30's a reasonable, I mean ... going beyond 8:30's not reasonable, but ... all
right, uh, but we should take a break I think, uh, for all sorts of reasons, so ... (noises in
background)
Dickens/ Three minutes!
Throgmorton/ Three minutes! Okay, Terry says three minutes so there we have it! (several
talking)
(BREAK)
Throgmorton/ Okay, back in session. Simon, uh, is returning to the ... to the arena (several talking
and laughing) Good to go!
Markus/ So what we thought we'd do once we started talking about other items is start adding
them up, showing them. I call on Dennis for his math (laughter and several talking)
Bockenstedt/ I forgot my calculator! (several talking and laughing)
Throgmorton/ So I ... I wanted to say a few words to ... to frame this discussion just a little bit
and ... and, by that I mean I want to begin by acknowledging the fact that Tom and staff
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inserted into the draft budget ... many items that already move in the direction that is ... is
expressed by our draft strategic plan. So I just want to be clear about that and, um, I'm
going to mention some of the items so if I make a mistake, please correct me on this. So,
for example, uh, I think there's money in the budget for the development of a carbon
emission reduction plan. Is that correct?
Fruin/ There's, uh, facilitation dollars. So (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Facilitation dollars.
Fruin/ Yeah, if you need a facilitator, um, to ... to work with a committee or develop a....a.... a
community plan, there's money for that. It's 25,000 I think.
Throgmorton/ Thank you for the clarification.
Markus/ But we talked about some other things too.
Throgmorton/ Revision of our master bike plan. I, uh, roadway resurfacing, and other additional
complete streets... money.
Markus/ Right.
Throgmorton/ Uh, additional UniverCity rehabs. Additional needs -based financial assistance for
improvement of owner -occupied residential buildings. Increase funding for bus shelters,
curb ramps, uh, and for accessibility improvements in parks. And additional... and the
addition of one full-time community service officer in the Police department.
There ... there are others but those are ones that come to mind or are on the list I have in
front of me. So .... we have other ideas. Let's get'em out on the table.
Markus/ I suggest you get'em all out and then we have the discussion and maybe group the
discussion by, kind of area of similarity.
Cole/ Are we talking only capital improvement, the regular budget, or ... are we, those can be
separate (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Do you have a preference, Tom?
Markus/ Um, actually it'd be kind of good to do operational items there and CIP here if...if
(several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay, so this is gonna be (both talking)
Markus/ ...operational first.
Throgmorton/ Operational stuff over here.
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Markus/ Yeah. (both talking) And we'll tell you, in case you don't know which one they are,
but...
Thomas/ So operational and what? What was the other (both talking)
Markus/ Operational versus capital (several talking and laughing)
Thomas/ Well the book mobile program? Um...
Cole/ I'm supportive of that.
Thomas/ ...short on the operational side on that?
Markus/ Yeah, I think it's the operational dollars. I think we plugged in for the vehicle itself. So
it's operational and what's the cost of that?
Bockenstedt/ It was about $100,000 I think. Just under.
Throgmorton/ That's per year? City incurs costs, right? And there'd be something else, if I
understand correctly, Foundation that would be additional to that?
Fruin/ Yeah, the ... the (both talking)
Craig/ (unable to hear; away from mic)
Throgmorton/ Is that Foundation money a share of the total cost or, you know, how...
Karr/ Jim, if we're gonna have dialogue, could I have...
Throgmorton/ Sure, she's comin' up.
Craig/ So right now the Foundation is committed to the capital, half or more of the capital costs
and for the operational costs, the Library Board has committed gift dollars that they get
from the Foundation to supporting 16 hours a week of additional staff time for the
operational side of it.
Throgmorton/ So here's where I'm really wondering. Is that 16 hours out of a total of 40, or is it
40 plus another 16?
Craig/ No, it's... it's ... 40 ... we ... we asked in our operating budget to have one new 40 -hour a week
person. One FTE funded from the City. And we ... the Board has said they would direct
gift dollars to fund additional staff. So that's a total of 56 hours.
Throgmorton/ That ... that's what I thought. I just wanted to be clear about that.
Markus/ So our cost is, operationally about $100K per year.
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Craig/ Right. Quite a bit less next year cause it wouldn't operate all of next year, but the annual
outlay is about that.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Okay, so ... other items? I, well all right, I mentioned uh... in our previous
discussion, uh... putting 100,000...I don't know if this is capital or operating, 100,000 into
a ... carbon emission reduction project. I guess that'd be capital, wouldn't it? Yeah. Sorry.
Markus/ You have really nice printing.
Botchway/ (mumbled) say as well. I...
Throgmorton/ Good thing I'm not writing, I'll tell ya! (laughs)
Botchway/ And it seems like to get progressively better as the night continues. Look at these
over here and then (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, how do we explain that, Simon? (laughter and several talking)
Cole/ So right now we're just talking about increases or decreases, cause...
Throgmorton/ Could be either one ... could be either one.
Markus/ Yeah.
Cole/ Okay.
Markus/ Get a red ... get a red pen out! (laughter)
Cole/ Well in terms of the capital improvement project, I want to look at where we are on the
Blackhawk Mini Park 017 and the East-West Pedestrian Mall Reconstruction. Um, I'm
not against those at this particular point, but I want to discuss, uh, withdrawing from ... the
capital improvement project list at this time for ... pending for the consideration, cause I'd
like to more fully flesh out the need for that, and I don't think there's enough time, uh,
within the ... we have to submit the budget by when?
Markus/ Oh, March 15th. But ... but you'll have to approve it like ... one, March 1. That's when it's
scheduled.
Cole/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ You're referring to the art project, is that ... am I being (both talking)
Cole/ No, I'm talking about the ... the Blackhawk Mini Park pedestrian mall, the $2.2 million and
the $4.7 for 017, 08...019, and I think the numbers are 4339 and R4340.
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Mims/ What page are you on, Rockne?
Cole/ Um, 488.
Mims/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Are you thinking that we need just to lo ... look more carefully at each of those or
are you saying pull 'em out?
Cole/ Well, I think that we don't have time until our deadline to fully vet whether we should fund
those, I think I like where the ped mall is at this particular point, so um ... what I'd like to
do is ... to withdraw them from this current budget and then have more ... do a work session
during the summer or something like that, cause it ... with Washington we did the actual
hearing to authorize construction just last week. And I'm assuming that same process
occurred before, um, but I just think we need to be a lot more thoughtful because I'm
cognizant of Tom's view on where we are in terms of the budget. So I think when we
talk about these sorts of dollar figures, we need to clearly telegraph to the community
why this is necs... necesary because I see it as gold plating. Existing, functional
infrastructure.
Throgmorton/ Okay, I have a suggestion on this...
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ ....and this suggestion's going to end up with a question mark. Maybe you can put
upon, over there, uh, delete ... the two ped mall projects. Is that close, uh, sufficient...
Cole/ Yeah. Yeah.
Throgmorton/ ...question mark so that we don't debate it right ... right at this moment (both
talking)
Cole/ Yes! Yes!
Throgmorton/ So we've not committing to it exactly (both talking)
Mims/ So, Rockne, you're taking out ... you're suggesting the Black Hawk Mini Park for $2.2
roughly in 2017 and then what else?
Cole/ And then the $4.17 million for 2019 for the east -west pedestrian mall reconsideration.
Question mark, and then for the summer we'd be able to have a work session and to more
fully vet that. Cause we can always put 'em back in, correct?
Throgmorton/I'm seeing noddings, so that is correct.
Markus/ That is correct.
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Throgmorton/ (several talking) ...effectively a year delay (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah it would ... this time next year we could reinsert them. I think the, um ... uh, you
know, as far as the east -west wing reconstruction, we don't have any plan to move that
forward in terms of design this year. That would be something we'd finish design with in
2018. So there's really no impact to taking that out. If you take out the Blackhawk Mini
Park pedestrian mall improvement, we do have a work plan for that this year. That's to
develop the construction documents and it's also involves the fundraising for the art,
which of course you discussed at your last meeting. So if you delete that... then... the
fundraising would not take place and we would not advance to construction drawings.
Throgmorton/ Uh huh. Okay so we'll have to revisit that topic.
Cole/ Yep!
Throgmorton/ All right. Other proposals?
Markus/ The only thing I want to tell you when you talk about cutting out capital improvements,
a lot of times capital improvements are funded with debt or some other long-term
instrument, and so you're not getting from an annual budget standpoint a dollar -by -dollar
reduction. I just want to make sure you understand. (several talking) And not just you
though.
Cole/ Yep, know exactly.
Thomas/ Well we had talked earlier about, since we're on the deducts, uh, of deleting, and I did
go look at Fairchild and Davenport, um .... Davenport is in unbelievably bad shape.
Markus/ Yes it is!
Thomas/ Uh, Fair... Fairchild looked to me like it could be done through spot repair.
So ... my ... my request would be to delete Davenport from the two brick street
reconstruction projects.
Throgmorton/ And so that'd be ... how (several talking)
Thomas/ Oh, I'm sorry! I got, uh, delete...
Throgmorton/ Don't delete Davenport!
Thomas/ Yeah, do not delete Davenport, and um, delete Fairchild. It ... it could be done through
the brick repair line item.
Throgmorton/ I ... I'd like to get Tom, uh, to clarify this. Oh, sorry.
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Dickens/ Do you want to continue bricks though? Rather than doing a paving?
Thomas/ Right. It was ... it was just simply an observation that Fairchild, unlike Davenport,
which is really in a class of its own from what I've seen of the brick streets, uh, Fairchild
isn't really that much different than Brown Street where I'm located and ... and um, there
are a number of brick streets, which are bumpy and have their, you know, undulations,
but they're still drivable. Davenport looked like it was almost non -drivable.
Throgmorton/ So this would be what, 500K? (several responding) Yeah. All right, so ... clarify
something for me. Am I correct in thinking this is road use tax money? And therefore
this (several talking)
Markus/ ....this would be coming (both talking)
Throgmorton/ And would have to go to some other road use ... eligible project I guess if it was
going to be spent. Right?
Markus/ If it's designated that, yeah.
Fruin/ It could go to resurfacing our..another brick street or any number of projects, or ... it could
just go to the fund balance and get carried over for a future year.
Markus/ Or ... you could not do brick and you could pave the whole thing with a brand new
surface pavement prob... for probably about a third of that cost. Brick is expensive.
Throgmorton/ It is. It's also incredibly durable.
Markus/ I think the ... the numbers still suggest that it's cheaper. To go ... to go pavement.
Throgmorton/ Okay. So we might ... we might come back to this, but I ... we'll see. So, other
ideas?
Thomas/ Um ... I would like to see ... there are a number of, um, consultant related services that
I ... that I'm interested in. One would be, um, and this kind of falls under the residential,
commercial urban core... component. Um, consultant services for advising on the street,
complete streets policy, and parking policies — both on and off street, with the idea being
that this would in a sense complement the bike master plan that is currently (both talking)
Cole/ On the plus side, yeah.
Thomas/ ...currently under way. Um...
Throgmorton/ So, can you give Simon some specific language?
Thomas/ So this would be a consultant service on the complete streets policy and parking
policies.
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Markus/ You're adding or subtracting, John (several talking)
Thomas/ Adding.
Andrew/ (mumbled) (away from mic)
Dickens/ That would be for like the neighborhoods doing permit parking in the neighborhoods...
Thomas/ I think it would apply, Terry, to urn ... could apply to the Riverfront Crossings area. Um,
as well as the central neighborhoods. Um...
Dickens/ Cause I know you did bring up about working on getting permit parking.
Thomas/ It ... it could even apply, you know, with respect to the off-street, looking at our zoning
code in terms of what we require, in terms of off-street parking. Some cities are now
eliminating any minimum requirements and just leaving it to the developer to
determine ... and I'm not advocating one way or the other. I'm just saying that that's
something that ... is being, um, considered in other cities.
Throgmorton/ Okay, I think we see the general topic, uh, we'll have to come back to it, uh, flesh
it out first with staff s help anyhow. Other topics?
Cole/ I guess for the Senior Center, I wanted to see, um the fundraising position raised to a three-
quarter position. Um, I'm not convinced ... and it seemed like, although she didn't quite
confirm it to me, that it was a subject of discussion as to whether the half-time would be
sufficient. I don't think it's .... I'm sorry. I'm hallucinating. (mumbled) mention at this
point, so I'd like to consider three-quarters FTE for the Senior Center.
Throgmorton/ What does the current draft budget call for? (several talking) Okay, all right.
So ... (mumbled) right?
Andrew/ (away from mic) ...that the salary was fundraised?
Cole/ Yep. Yep. Uh huh.
Fruin/ Well, it'll be our cost and our risk if it's not fundraised. So we would include the full cost
in the budget.
Cole/ Yep, I still (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....maybe reimbursed as...
Fruin/ Maybe reimbursed, yeah.
Throgmorton/ Okay, others?
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Fruin/ 20,000 on that, Simon.
Thomas/ Other, uh, consultant service ... uh, this is following up on a staff memo from August,
um .... it was related to a memo on providing affordable housing, and one of the
recommendations was going with a form -based code for, I think the memo said the entire
city. I don't know that that wouldn't be necessary, but um ... uh, it seems to me that the
form -based code would .... would open up opportunities that we don't have now in terms
of affordable housing, and diverse housing.
Mims/ So you're saying adding a consultant (both talking)
Thomas/ Yeah, cause you know I think staff even in the memo said that, you know, that would
require consultant services.
Throgmorton/ Yeah so ... for which parts of the city?
Thomas/ Well I mean ... certainly it would pertain to new development. I think it would pertain to
the central neighborhoods ... with ... it would basically, I would think, apply to where we
want to create more walkable, urban environments. You know, so in terms of our
existing subdivisions, I don't see it having any, you know, if they're driveable
subdivisions, having any relevance.
Throgmorton/ Uh huh.
Thomas/ And I think it would ... it would start with a conversation with respective consultants in
terms of what ... what would be the exact scope.
Throgmorton/ Simon, I have a capital suggestion. It ... it's a capital suggestion (mumbled)
Cole/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Yeah so ... I'd ... I'd like to see us, I would suggest that we put $1 million into an
emergency affordable housing fund. And to be a little bit more specific while you're
writing, uh.... this .... the staff would have to recommend where these funds would be ... I
don't know, extracted from, but I was imagining, uh, defer to people that know this stuff
better than I do, I was imagining that the funds would come from our emergency
fund... because.... people, there are too many people in our city who are experiencing an
emergency associated with the cost of housing. That said, I think if we do go this route,
we'd also have to have a big caveat saying that if other more extreme emergencies occur,
that the City Manager would be authorized to use those funds to address that more
extreme emergency. So that's the general idea, you know. So we can come back to it.
Are there other particular...
Markus/ But it's not an emergency affordable housing fund. It's an affordable housing (both
talking)
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Throgmorton/ Yeah, you can re ... remove the word emergency.
Bockenstedt/ Did you say that was capital or operating, Jim?
Throgmorton/ Capital. $1 million into that ... into the, uh, a new line item I guess.
Bockenstedt/ It sounds the way you described it as it'd be more of an operating in nature, um
coming out of, um, we're ... unless you're talking about capital construction, like the
construction of housing.
Markus/ That's what we're talking about.
Bockenstedt/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Or ... different way to putting it is, you know, I've already argued that we should
authorize the Housing and Community Development Commission help us figure out how
to make progress toward increasing the supply or whatever of affordable housing. This
fund would be ... I don't know if this is the right language, but kind of like a downpayment,
uh, in that direction. Knowing that there might be some more extreme emergency that
trumps it. That's the idea. I mean we can process it in a few minutes, but ... I just want to
(both talking)
Markus/ I have some more ideas since our conversation.
Throgmorton/ Okay, good! Okay, other ideas?
Cole/ And this might dovetail a little bit with what Kingsley was saying, and I don't know if it's
true, you know I had mentioned of the contest, and I hate to use too many cliches, but I'm
going to. Sort of a ... a social justice, non-profit accelerator, where we help match funds
that people are trying to raise, seed funding, for their entity. So ... um, and I would like it
to particularly focus on employment opportunities for youth or uh, local foods initiatives.
And it would be $50,000 and there would be increments of 5,000, up to 5,000 that they'd
be able to seek. Now that may dovetail an existing initiative, so when we try to make
that work, um ... it may be duplicative, in which case I can withdraw it.
Throgmorton/ What do you call it, an accelerator...
Cole/ Yeah!
Throgmorton/ What's the language again?
Cole/ Like a social justice non-profit accelerator.
Throgmorton/ Oh, just ... you mentioned local foods, uh, Rockne. This reminds me that ... uh,
I ... I've had some, along with Kingsley, I've had some exploratory conversations with
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people in the County and I've talked with Tom and Geoff about this as well, about
working with them... concerning local foods. And ... and collaborating with them, and with
them probably taking the lead for all sorts of good reasons and us being supportive in
various ways. So all that would have to be fleshed out, but...
Thomas/ I have another deletion. Um (clears throat) it would be deleting the I-80 ... and I forget.
I have down aesthetic improvements as ... I can't remember if that's the exact title, but...
Throgmorton/ Was $80,000, is that (several talking) It's 200,000 (several talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, it's in the CIP. It's, uh, on page 489 (several talking) under street operations. The
75,000 would be our expense for the design of the improvements, and then the 225, I
believe, is the match, uh, for a State grant that would actually construct those
improvements.
Thomas/ Is that grant (several talking) is that specific to ... freeway?
Fruin/ Yes it is. The ... focusing on the, uh, areas around the, uh, the ramps, the interchanges.
Thomas/ Okay. I guess we ... if it's tied to the grant (both talking)
Fruin/ The grant is not secured.
Thomas/ Oh, it is not.
Fruin/ No, it ... this would only be pursued if we were awarded the grant. So the risk is that if we
spent the $75,000 this year to design it, there's a risk that we wouldn't be awarded the
grant and the project would never move forward. But if you were to take this out now,
we'd just simply wouldn't spend the 75 on the design.
Cole/ (mumbled) ...aesthetic improvements are you talking about?
Fruin/ Uh, landscape improvements.
Thomas/ You know what ... what I'm more interested in is, um ... would be ... uh, and this gets back
into the expenditure side, but uh, a street -tree planting program, uh, within Iowa City.
I'm ... I'm, you know, I feel our ... there's an insufficiency there in Iowa City. We have
many streets, major streets, that are not planted, and I ... I feel that's a greater priority than
improving the inter, you know, the interchange.
Throgmorton/ So ... so you're makin' a specific suggestion and both with ... with regard to deleting
this and adding something else, right?
Thomas/ Right. (several talking)
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Throgmorton/ Tom, I don't remember, are there funds in the budget now for street .... for tree
planting?
Markus/ That's the Forestry provisions, so what you're talkin' about is bumping it up. I, you
know, at this point ... leave it the way you've described it. You want to go back and add,
um ... a street -tree enhancement, and just plus in number for 75. Let us go back and talk to
Forestry and see what they actually have planned (mumbled)
Thomas/ Part of the concern I have is we're gonna be ... we're looking at losing ... (laughs) it's kinda
like the ... the change in the property tax and we're ... we're facing a big deficit.
We're ... we're facing a huge deficit in our urban forest canopy with (both talking)
Markus/ Yeah, let me ... let me find out from our Parks Forester that, you know, what they've
contemplated in terms of the ... of the, uh... ash bore problem.
Cole/ The only thing (mumbled) on the ... I don't know if it's a capital improvement project,
probably would be, the aesthetic enhancements to the parking ramps, um ... I don't know if
you remember a dollar amount for that, Geoff.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, the ... the side of the parking ramps.
Cole/ The side of the parking ramps.
Throgmorton/ The Clinton Street (both talking) the ... the Burlington Street side (both talking)
Cole/ ...those.
Markus/ You understand that that comes exclusively out of the Parking fund.
Cole/ Okay. Well, I mean, then there may be other things we can put (mumbled) And these are
just proposals at this point.
Throgmorton/ Right. It's interesting thing though (both talking) you know, we don't know this
anywhere near as well as Dennis and Tom and everybody else do but...
Cole/ We may still keep it on!
Dickens/ I don't wanna get too micro -managing, because that's why we have a very good staff
here, but there's... there's one project that I ... that I've been looking at, the ... for several
years. It keeps getting pushed back. The Fraunholtz-Miller Park. It's one of the few
parks that doesn't have anything other than trash can and we keep doing improvements to
a lot of the other parks and still doing nothing with this one. (noises in background)
Keeps getting pushed farther and farther back.
Throgmorton/ It's not in the five-year CIP at all?
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Markus/ It's 19.
Fruin/ 2019.
Dickens/ Finally got into 19 (mumbled) first time.
Botchway/ You talking about accelerating it?
Dickens/ I would like to see at least something done there, because the neighbors have
been ... have had lot of contact from 'em over the years, and they continually say, well, we
keep putting more and more money doing more improvements in these other, like ... uh,
the Kiwanis Park, uh, Willow Creek. We've got $300,000 over the next two years, doing
improvements there and ... this is still got zero. I mean I got a trash can out there, was as
much as I could do.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Dickens/ ...over the last...
Throgmorton/ So there'd be no cost associated with this, but it would shift the balance of things
in (both talking)
Fruin/ We could move it up to ... 2016 and try to get the improvement done late this year, late fall,
but... realistically probably the earliest would be spring of 17, and we'd spend this year
(both talking)
Markus/ ...a plan for it?
Fruin/ We do have a plan, but it...it was not well accepted or ... or, there wasn't universal
acceptance by the neighborhood, which is why we initially backed away. So we're gonna
need to revisit that plan with the neighborhood, which we could focus on in 16 and...
Dickens/ ...don't know if there's any other park in Iowa City that has nothing. I mean we
just ... we're putting more and more money and ... and you got upkeep, I realize that (several
talking) but when you start doing improvements and you still have one that has nothing,
then ... it's (both talking)
Fruin/ I understand that.
Cole/ ...good point.
Dickens/ And there's a lot of...lot of condos in that area. I mean, there .... I think most of 'em are
95 to 100,000, so they're (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...has potential to be a lovely park, I know that (several talking)
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Dickens/ There's... and there seems to be a lot of kids in that neighborhood too, so ... I mean, yes
you do have the other park further...
Markus/ (both talking) ....more dogs.
Throgmorton/ Okay, we have the category there so ... uh, other ideas?
Botchway/ Back to operational, um, $50,000 for the committee I was talking about that we
removed off that list. So for the ... sorry, so for the, um .... the, kind of equivalent to the
diversity roundtable (several talking) racial equity, yeah.
Throgmorton/ The racial equity (both talking) program.
Botchway/ The other one, Simon, while you're sittin' there is, um, $100,000 (people talking in
background) towards, um, small business, um ... uh, improvements or aesthetics around
construction. I know we're... thinking about it in relation to what was proposed by the
Downtown District, but, um ... I was thinking about it across Iowa City. I mean if we're
gonna, you know, possibly think about doing for the Downtown District, um, if there's
any, um, particular things that are happening over, um, on the southeast side or ... or
wherever, I want to make sure that we have dollars available to look at those particular
things.
Throgmorton/ What's the label again?
Botchway/ I said small business, urn ... aesthetic improvements around construction.
Throgmorton/ I don't know what you mean. (several talking)
Botchway/ The Downtown District (both talking)
Fruin/ Construction mitigation?
Botchway/ Sure, construction mitigation.
Cole/ You're talkin' like improving facades. I get it, like they do that downtown don't they,
where they improve the business facades (several talking)
Throgmorton/ No, that's not what he's talking (several talking)
Dickens/ This one the project affects businesses in certain areas, is that what you're talking
about? (several talking)
Throgmorton/ All right, so we ... (several talking) I think we understand, so it's got a category
there. Are there others?
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Cole/ One more plus. I would like us to ... in one of the, um, plans that I looked at, there was a ... a
re -envisioning of Gilbert Street and I think it was to the tune of about $2.2 million. So, I
want to look at that possibly as something for the plus side of the capital improvement
project.
Markus/ Are you talking about the plan?
Cole/ Yeah, just the plan. I understand it could be cheaper than that, but that was sort of a ... full
reimagining of it.
Fruin/ This ... this was part of the downtown master plan that Council adopted in 2014 and it's ... it's
not even designed. It's just rough conceptual... um, improvements, uh... and the bulk of
the cost is ... is burying the utility lines. I think that's what really drives that number up.
Cole/ It could even be lower.
Fruin/ It ... it could, um ... yeah, there wasn't, you know, major changes to the curb lines or
anything like that.
Markus/ He's just talking about doing the plan for it.
Cole/ Oh, the whole thing was 2.2, wasn't it, in the (both talking)
Fruin/ That was for the built product (both talking)
Cole/ ...yeah.
Thomas/ So we're... we're... we can point to anything in the five-year CIP then? Is that ... not just
the...
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ (several talking) Yeah. Yeah.
Taylor/ I had some concerns about ... under the Public Works administration. The Riverside
Drive pedestrian tunnel. I'm not a fan of tunnels, but I know there are a few in town and,
uh, I don't want to bring this up, but Iowa City has always been known as the 'rape capital
of the world' and .... and some of the areas, key areas were tunnels, and I live near that
area and bicycles and pedestrians have been crossing there for years, going over to
McDonald's or going back and forth, and over to the, uh, Benton bridge, and I ... I just
don't see the need. That's a hefty amount of money, and I know the new construction
with the Kum n' Go there and that corner and thinking of the Riverfront Crossings area, I
just don't see the need for a tunnel.
Markus/ You know that ... that's not, that's not an underground tunnel. That's an at -
grade... walkway that connects under that rail bridge ... is what...
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Throgmorton/ So there's not going to be a tunnel carved out (several talking)
Fruin/ We did a similar improvement on Gilbert Street, uh, it ... before my time, um ... but the
railroad embankment really stretched all the way out to the road. So it forced pedestrians
to go on the road (several talking) so it's really shaving (several talking) Yeah, it's really
shaving off that railroad embankment, tunnel may not be the best descriptive word, um...
Taylor/ Okay, so it's...
Fruin/ It's shaving that out so that pedestrians can ... can go without having to ... to walk along the
street.
Taylor/ So alongside the road, not crossing the road, but along the road.
Fruin/ That's correct. (several talking)
Taylor/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ So, Pauline, should we scratch that? Since it's not a tunnel.
Taylor/ Scratch the word tunnel maybe. Pedestrian walkway or something (several talking)
Throgmorton/ What ... what I mean is ... since ... since we're not talking about a tunnel...
Taylor/ Right.
Throgmorton/ ...should we delete that item from our list of -changes? Or do you want to keep it,
I mean, you ... you tell me.
Taylor/ I ... (mumbled) not scratch then if the ... with that explanation...
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Taylor/ ...cause that was a little unclear to me what exactly that ... seemed like a lot of money, a
million something dollars, uh...
Fruin/ It's very expensive cause you're gettin' into the railroad embankment, um ... and uh... yeah,
it's ... uh, in the grand scheme of things (several talking) it's a very small, uh, footprint of a
project and very expensive, but (several talking)
Dickens/ ..rebuilding there (both talking)
Cole/ Yes. That's where (several talking)
Dickens/ ...lot of money into that area (several talking)
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Taylor/ ...exactly.
Cole/ Yeah.
Taylor/ Yeah, it is, exactly!
Throgmorton/ Okay, are there any other additions or deletions?
Thomas/ I have, um, kind of in the consultant category again, uh, preparing a housing market
analysis for the ... (clears throat) University Impact Zone.
Throgmorton/ Are you imagining this cost would be shared with the University?
Thomas/ I would actually love it if the University paid for it (laughter) since their, you know, the
issue is ... so intimate to their operation.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, what ... what's a reasonable number to put on that, like 50? I don't know. I
have no (several talking) 50K?
Markus/ I think that's a little high.
Throgmorton/ Little high? 40K? (several talking) 35. Do I hear 30? (laughter)
Markus/ Depends on who's negotiating (laughter)
Botchway/ Can you flip it back to the previous (mumbled) (noises in background) So ... actually,
well, go back ... sorry! (mumbled) So the other thing I was, um, kind of along the lines of
our strategic plan was, urn ... if $50,000 towards your (mumbled) I just read it and then I
forgot about it, um ... developing, you know, local programs around, um ... small business
economic development opportunities for people of color. (several talking)
Cole/ And I have one final one. I would really like to see us double the, um, UniverCity program
budget. I know that it's had some hiccups. I know that there's been some problems with
some projects, but I'd really like to see that doubled cause I think it's been a great
program.
Throgmorton/ What do we have in the current, uh, forthcoming fiscal year, four? Yeah, four
new ones, right? So doubling to eight, and what's the dollar amount in there? Dennis, do
you remember?
Bockenstedt/ 50,000 per house. So 200,000.
Throgmorton/ So ... it'd be adding another 200.
Dickens/ ...take more staff (mumbled)
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Markus/ That's the problem. I don't know if we have the capacity to handle that.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Kingsley, do you have anything else?
Botchway/ That was it.
Throgmorton/ Susan, do you have anything? Tom? John? Tom ... (laughs) Thomas (laughter)
Thomas/ I'm not sure if...if this...
Cole/ Yeah (mumbled)
Thomas/ I'll just throw it out there. If it has a cost I ... I am interested in having a series of
townhall meetings at the Library, um ... (clears throat) that... possibly could be tied
to ... if...if some of the, you know, my ... my recommendations or suggestions regarding the
City's plans for form -based coding, um, you know, that plus supplementing perhaps some
of the ... our strategic goals, uh, and ... and having a public townhall meeting regarding
them, bringing in some experts to those meetings, you know, to ... make .... make it kind of
more public discussion of what it is we're hoping to accomplish. So I don't ... I don't know
if that fits exactly with what we're talking about here. I mean there would be some cost
associated with... organizing that event and...
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and bringing speakers (both talking)
Thomas/ ...speakers and so forth.
Throgmorton/ 10...1 OK? I don't...
Thomas/ Yeah, maybe. (several talking)
Fruin/ Depends on the speakers you want to bring in (several talking) Honestly if you're thinkin'
you're gonna bring in Jeff Speck, uh, 10,000 is not ... I don't know what (several talking)
his fee is, but I imagine (several talking) um, if you're lookin' at a ... a different level of
speaker, then 10,000 probably should be fine.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Fruin/ Um, Charles Marohn when he came in, you were involved in the planning of that, was that
a 4 or 5 grand, uh, that ... a different, bunch of different agencies chipped in? So that ... that
should give you a flavor of what a speaker costs.
Throgmorton/ (several talking) ...placeholder might be 40K or something like that. (several
talking) You have any (both talking)
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Markus/ ....hear there's a hell of a speaker down in Lawrence that's (laughter) I think you can
get him for like 7500 a pop (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Pauline, do you have anything else?
Taylor/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ I don't. John, do you have anything else?
Thomas/ I think I'm good. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ All right. So we have an array of things. I'm going to channel my inner Susan
Mims and say we probably can't do all these. And... and.... so, and there's some I ... I'm
guessing that there's not majority support for anyhow. I ... I don't know which ones. We'll
find out. Uh, so ... we ... we could either stop now or try ... try to, uh, winnow these (several
talking)
Cole/ These are big issues though, aren't they? I mean...
Dickens/ Actually I would like to stop here because I think ... we need to let the staff formulate
these... because there's some things that we did a week ago Thursday, which seems like...
three months ago (laughter) that we may not be looking at here because we're looking at
what we did tonight mainly to do these.
Cole/ (mumbled)
Botchway/ Well I guess to my point (both talking)
Dickens/ But I want to get .... I want to keep moving, but...
Botchway/ I ... I guess my point I don't want to just unnecessarily do work, because there's some
of these I have problems with. And so I mean I kinda want to (both talking)
Dickens/ Let's take 10 or 15 minutes here and...
Throgmorton/ I ... I think we could delete ... (several talking) some of them, in ... in the next 15
minutes. Let's see if we can do this.
Markus/ (several talking) You could ... (several talking) ...you guys have to get some consensus.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. All right. So (several talking) um ... (several talking and laughing) Okay,
so we're gonna try to winnow these, but to be clear ... uh, we still will ... we'll probably still
have to do some additional winnowing, in ... in relation to the budget, okay? So...
Mims/ I've got a question before we start winnowing.
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Throgmorton/ Sure!
Mims/ Do we have a commitment... from this Council ... one, to stay with the 10 -cent reduction in
the tax levy. Number two, to stay with the fund balances ... as presented in the budget.
And three, to stay with ... the additional money going into the emergency fund ... as
presented. I think those are essential before we even start through these because ... you
know, if we're going to start adding things and we are committed to staying with that 10 -
cent reduction in the levy, we have to, each of us has to be realistically thinking about
where we're willing to take money from for every dollar we add.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Reasonable question (several talking) So ... what ... how do you ... choose to
respond to that?
Mims/ As you might guess, my answer's yes to all three (laughter) That goes without saying!
(several talking and laughing)
Cole/ Once we winnow it down, I mean, won't ... the staffll be able to give us the analysis as to
where we can find the money or not, and give a possible proposal as to where else we'd
want to cut. (several talking)
Mims/ Not necessarily! (several talking) I mean...
Throgmorton/ Yeah ... here's my answer to Susan's question. Again, this is only my answer. The
answer's no, no, no. I ... take ... to ... to say yes, yes, yes is to say those three items trump
everything else, and I'm not prepared to say that. What I am prepared to do is delete
some items that I favor, if in the end it looks like the budgetary impact will be too severe.
That's what I would say.
Cole/ I agree with Jim.
Dickens/ Cause, Dennis, you told us what ... I -cent on the levy is.
Throgmorton/ 33.
Dickens/ 30...
Bockenstedt/ 33,000.
Dickens/ 33,000.
Thomas/ So we're talking about 330,000....
Bockenstedt/ (both talking)
Thomas/ The 10 -cents is worth 330,000.
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Bockenstedt/ Right. So that would be the same tax levy as last year. If you raise that back up to
prior years level, it would generate an additional $330,000 to use.
Botchway/ So I guess my answer is in a different way. I ... I think we've got ... I don't (mumbled)
well, let me start with this. I ... I'm actually kind of opposed to this particular process as
what we put forth. Um, I actually am more in line, or more in fav ... more in favor of, you
know, putting together the strategic plan, having the staff go back and put dollar amounts
or dollar items to that, and then come forth to us to talk about these particular things. I
mean having some type of budget experience, I know other folks may have it as well, um,
this is ... very ad hoc like and (several talking) I mean, if I had done this in my previous
jobs or in this current job too, I'd be fired. Um, with that being said, I'm okay with where
we're going because, I mean, I ... I appreciate (both talking)
Cole/ I don't think so. This is exactly the way Johnson County Board of Supervisors does it.
They go through the budget and look whether (several talking)
Botchway/ They do it at the... the... the, an elected official level, but not at the staffing level, and
so I guess I want to be clear about how we are talking about these things and adding and
reducing these things from that level. Cause I don't know if we know the ... the entire
implications of each of these different things. That's my point. We haven't ... I mean,
to ... to whoever said it as well, you know, we haven't even had, given staff the time to
look through all these different items, but I mean again, I was just putting that thought out
there first before I continued further. My next point, to kind of answer Susan's question
is, you know, yes, um, I am ... in agreement with making sure that we maintain the 10 -
cent, urn ... uh, reduction for this year, but I still feel like there's some wiggle room within
these different things that, I mean, we could do and still get that done, and if I'm wrong,
I'd want staff to tell me that.
Thomas/ I would also add (clears throat) you know there ... there are a lot of budget items that I
really ... in terms of adjusting or deleting or ... making any ... any modification, I w ... I would
not be able to have made any comment, but I ... I would want to ask, you know, the City
Manager if there was anything in terms of...you know... projects that were on the CIP, I
mean maybe ... maybe you would just simply say no, we truly felt these had to go right
now, um ... but you know we're proposing some projects... operational costs and ... you
know I guess I would want to ask you, is there any ... any wiggle room on ... on the CIP and
the ... and the budget that you developed in terms of well, you know, we could ... you know,
we could look ... take another look and see if...if...if there's ways of reducing ... you know,
what the budget is now. You know, the brick streets were one example. That's an area
that I'm familiar with, you know, and ... I could actually go out there and look at the
condition of the streets. You haven't responded to the proposal, but ... my observation
visually was that, um ... you know, Fairchild is okay. Um ... but there are a lot of items in
there that I just, you know, there's no way I could evaluate the urgency of having
them ... done or scoped in the way you had done them.
Markus You know, I can ... I can skinny up a budget as well as anybody can. The reality is, the...
(laughs) some of these projects, whether it's this year or next year, they gotta be done,
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and so a lot of what you look at in terms of a budget document is about pace. And
so ... you don't want this kind of...you know, approach to either CIP or to operational.
where it's up/down, up/down. You want, in my opinion, a tax rate ... you know, I could
have taken the tax rate down ... two years ago a lot more. My ... my whole approach is
to ... to ... to do a nice, even kind of adjustment. Not this herky jerky stuff. To try and get
the improvements done that I think, you know, it's time to get at them. I think we have a
lot of deferred maintenance in this town.
Thomas/ Well, I'm not even been asking for certain things that I would like to see (laughs)
Markus/ Yeah! And ... and so my ... my point to you is ... I think what I'd do is, in terms of the
budget document, is try and ... is give you kind of a, you know, stay on an even keel, get
these projects done, things that we've heard about. The problem is, of course, we would
have interpreted and probably included more things if we had been working with you for
a year. So I suspect ... that part of this rub occurs because ... we didn't really know what this
majority (mumbled) to anticipate some ideas, but ... you know, some of the stuff up in
here, I would have never guessed that ... that's something I should plug in. Um ... I'd still
like ... before, you know, to continue this conversation, I ... I think we should walk through
each item. I'll give you my reaction right now, and ... what Susan asked was ... if you're
going to add something, subtract something. That's... that's the essence of what Susan
really asked you to do. Um ... the fact of the matter is, we maintain a fairly substantial
fund balance, and we do that in part because it's good for our bond rating. It's, you know,
it's one of the things that the scorecard, you know, takes into consideration in your bond
rating, which allows lower interest rates, which allows you to issue ... you know, debt and
not pay as much. So, you know, you can ... you can adjust up and down, you know, if
there's consensus, but before you just send this off to us, why have us evaluate this if
there isn't even consensus on (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ...that's what I thought we'd do is just go through them one at a time and say, okay,
do we have enough support to (both talking)
Markus/ And I'll comment on each of these items, and I'll give you some suggestions. For
example, let's take the biggest ticket item in there, the million dollar item. Okay? Now
at first blush, you would say ... what's wrong with Jim? (laughs) How'd he come up with
a million bucks here?
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) (laughter)
Markus/ But the reality is ... you actually have a million dollars coming in. Okay? From the
Linn/Court project. You could allocate that million dollars there. That doesn't belong to
the Affordable Housing Coalition. That doesn't belong to anybody. It belongs to this
group in terms of how you intend to spend it. You could ... you could say that's where that
money goes for. Takes care of Susan's issue. Okay? It's subject to that money coming
in. You can use it for that project. The other thing I'd say, and Eleanor and I had this
conversation right after ... Jim and I discussed this. Um ... I actually do think affordable
housing is an emergency in this country, okay? So ... you know, we had that conversation.
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I won't ... I won't deny that. But ... the more Eleanor and I talked about that, there's another
way to approach this, and you know I'm an advocate for using TIF dollars to do this.
And you heard Geoff s comment that, well, if you used, you know, is this going to
happen? Can I get 200 units? Cause you have to wait on development. Actually you
don't have to wait on development. Affordable housing was one of those things that was
contemplated in the law, specifically for slum and blight, and so you could take for
example money, and Jim and I got into a ... a debate (laughter) some time ago about ... you
know, using ... using money to buy a piece of property and develop it. And I'll go half
way with you, Jim. And including Eleanor's comments. The other way you could
approach this is you could ... you could go back and amend your urban renewal plan, say
that you're going to use a million dollars to acquire a piece of property in Riverfront
Crossings, and do another Court/Linn project. Put it out on the market; RFP it; and say
that you want a project to come in and you want 30% affordable housing in this project. I
don't think you want to ... I picked that number because I think you don't want to put
100% in there because of the stigma issue that I talk about. So you do it 30...30%!
Okay? You ask 'em, you know, to submit a price and here's what you're getting, and you
go through that whole Court/Linn process again. Where would I do that? Well, you need
to buy the property from City Carton. To finish the park on both the north side and south
side of Benton, right, yeah. Yeah. And ... you need to run the extension of Capitol ... or
the, of, um ... Capitol Street, right? Buy the whole piece. Buy the ... buy the flood plain
piece. Buy the road piece, and buy the stuff that's still developable, clear that site as a
part of an urban renewal project, um, do a Court/Linn on the remainder, and uh, get a
project in there and put 30%. It ... it might meet, you know, close to half of Jim's goal in
the first year! If you did that kind of a project. Um, you know, you roll the price of that
land into that deal. The advantage to using TIF is what? Those recalcitrant
neighborhood ...neighbors that I always talk about would actually help pay for this.
Because School... you know, levy gets used. The County levy gets used to support a TIF
project. And so ... that has a bearing on the people that are in the County, in the other
jurisdictions, and it has some bearing on the people in the other jurisdictions that pay the
School. You know, it's ... it's about-face, but it's clearly for a ... you know, a higher calling
kind of purpose in my opinion, right? So, that's a way you could get at this, and
accomplish a lot of things at the same time.
Cole/ But that's a detail, not a discussion about whether we're gonna do it, right? I mean (both
talking)
Markus/ Well, but ... no, but ... but the conversation you have to have is about where ... what's the
revenue stream that's going to support this?
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ That's critical! You can't just package all this stuff up here and say ... and put it in the
budget. You ... you've gotta figure out what your revenue streams are and link those
things up, Rockne. That's critical!
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Cole/ No, no. I get that, but you're talkin' about a specific project. I'm not talking about the
revenue stream.
Markus/ I'm just showing that as an example.
Cole/ (both talking) ....yeah....
Markus/ That gets to where Jim needs to go. And I, you know, you don't have to amend the
budget to do that. You can... that's... that's an example of how to do it without...
accomplishing exactly what he wants without... without amending (several talking) '
Throgmorton/ That ... that's helpful, Tom. Thanks! So let's see if we can go through these, uh...
uh, we can't spend a ... much more time with this cause I know some of us are fading.
Markus/ I'm just gettin' started! (laughter and several talking)
Throgmorton/Only kidding! I didn't say that! (laughter) Okay, so book mobile staffing. Are
there four in favor of that?
Cole/I'm 100% in favor of it. Yes.
Thomas/ Yeah, I support it. I think it's, um, very much in line with ... with my ... strategic, and I
think the Council's strategic goal of strengthening the neighborhoods, um ... you know,
this would be a way of taking the ... the value of the Library and its ... its system and getting
some distribution out into the city as a whole.
Throgmorton/ All right we have at least four. Uh...
Markus/ I just want to add that I think ... in the evening hours it could be used as a transportation
route ... (mumbled) double duty (both talking)
Cole/ Yeah, exactly!
Markus/ ...deliver employees (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Just to be clear, we're winnowing here, right? We're not ... we're not making final
decisions. All right, consultant services for complete streets and parking issues. It
doesn't cost anything. That's pretty remarkable (laughter and several talking)
Botchway/ So I have a question about that. I mean ... that to me ... isn't necessarily an issue
for ... this particular, what we're doing right here, I guess. I mean I would assume that if
we're going to look ... I guess I don't know what you're talking about. And I guess that's
where, you know, for me if we're going to consult on doing complete streets and parking
issues, staff would then, you know...
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Thomas/ Well what I ... what I would like to do, uh, Kingsley, is ... something similar to what
Cedar Rapids has done. You know, bringing in a consultant, uh... to ... to help ... develop
the concepts as we move forward on these complete streets, you know, look ... look at how
they're being done, so that they're done ... in a manner which is consistent with the best
practices of...of the, um, you know, our current thinking with respect to street design.
Street design has really gone through a ... an evolution in the, I'd say the last 10 years, and
so ... you know, I think the work that Jeff Speck is doing in ... in downtown Cedar Rapids
is ... right on the forefront in terms of really getting good, productive use of our public
right-of-way. And I think too ... you know, the issue of the parking, on -street and off-
street. That's also an area where there's been a lot of discussion in the urban design world
in terms of how do we manage the supply of parking? And it...it seems to me that Iowa
City... curiously enough in ... in the downtown core, a good portion of it has free parking.
Sol...I think it's a valuable...
Throgmorton/ Okay. Question, there's... there's not money in the current draft budget for
something like this, is that correct?
(male)/ I'd say yeah, that's correct.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Uh... uh, do we have a dollar amount in mind?
Thomas/ You know I wouldn't ... I wouldn't know what the dollar amount (both talking)
Cole/ Probably 40, I would bet. (several talking)
Markus/ ...more than that, if you're talkin' about a comprehensive review of (mumbled) even the
downtown area.
Thomas/ Well I mean it ... I guess we could maybe break it out into two pieces, you know, we
have the...the complete streets component and then we have the parking analysis. And
I ... I want to make sure that when we do these complete streets, that it's done ... with a
strong advocacy toward biking and pedestrian safety, and (clears throat) I ... I think that's
helpful based on my ... would be helpful based on my experience.
Botchway/ So again, two questions, I mean on top of that. One, are we now ... are we stating that
our ... our City staff can't currently provide that to us, um, so that we need a consultant to
come in?
Throgmorton/ Think that's the implication.
Botchway/ I ... I just want to be clear! Cause I'm not sure (both talking)
Mims/ ...does staff agree with that, I mean ... (several talking)
Fruin/ Well, for example, we're preparing the plans for the road diets on First Avenue and
Mormon Trek right now. We've hired a consultant to do that. The consultant isn't
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necessarily, um ... uh... I think the same type of consultant that John has in mind. We're
hiring an engineering firm, in this case Stanley, to come and design those. You're talking
about bringing in a national expert on complete streets.
Thomas/ It doesn't have to be Jeff Speck, but I .... but it would be someone who is ... you know,
what I would say an advocate for ... strong, the strong, the walkable city concept that we
were talking about (both talking)
Markus/ You know, John, as a suggestion to you, do you ... do you have a street in mind? Do you
have a (several taking) Yeah. Particular corridor in mind?
Thomas/ Uh... no, I mean, there are certain streets we've already talked about, right, I mean
there's the Market/Jefferson, Gilbert ... uh... are all ... projects that I think have road diet
potential. Um...
Markus/ If I were doing it, I'd pick a ... a corridor or even like the Market/Jefferson. You and I
have had that conversation. I'd pick one and I'd say ... you know, you ... you want them to
come up with a design for that particular (both talking)
Thomas/ Well that's what I'm talking about. I'm not, you know, I'm not asking for anyone to do a
streetscape plan (several talking) It would be (several talking) kind of an as -needed
contract, so when we're looking at a specific project (several talking in background)
Markus/ And you're not talking about doing all the engineering or (both talking) You're talkin'
about really a site configura... or a road configuration.
Thomas/ Right. Not ... not the detailed design, but the conceptual design, uh, on a project -specific
basis.
Throgmorton/ So for the fourth, for this strategic plan period, we could have Market and
Jefferson Street, those two streets in mind for this kind of project.
Thomas/ I mean it .... what do we have, what are we anticipating in terms of projects where
this ... this service would come into play? And I ... it is..it is project -driven. I'm ... you
know, it's not something where we're doing ... you know, as we did say with the
downtown, a streetscape master plan. It's more ... here's something we're planning to do.
Bring in the consultant (both talking)
Markus/ I'll tell you what, why don't you leave this one alone for the time being and let us come
back with something for ya on it. We'll talk to our staff about this.
Throgmorton/ Okay. Increasing Senior Center ... one-third time?
Taylor/ One-half time.
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Throgmorton/ Half time to ... three-quarter time. I ... I'm not a big fan of that. (several talking)
I ... I, yeah, for a variety of reasons. I'd ... did we hear four that are not in favor (several
talking) Yeah.
Botchway/ I guess I feel the same way about this one (mumbled) so I mean if you can come back
to us with specific (coughing, difficult to hear speaker) I don't ... I don't disagree with, I
mean I don't disagree with either of the statements that you're making. I guess I just ... the
one I was thinking that you meant an overhaul, I mean ... sorry, overhaul. An over city
plan, so to speak, and I was, you know, I wasn't (mumbled) clear about that, so...
Throgmorton/ ...complete streets (both talking)
Botchway/ Complete streets, and so to this particular point, I think I'm interested in as well. I
just ... I just, I'm ... I just don't know if we need a consultant. That'...I mean, that's my point.
Thomas/ I think we do. It's ... (several talking)
Markus/ John, why don't between now and tomorrow afternoon when we meet, you think about
these and think about maybe ... an area that you'd like us to consider. That will help us...
Thomas/ With the form -based code?
Markus/ Yeah.
Thomas/ Well it ... I mean the two that I have in mind would be the ... this, the, and I you know,
Council got the handout on the missing middle. So the missing middle ... would be a
form -based code a ... applying primarily to the, I would say the University, you know, the
University impact zone, minus where we already have the form -based code. So those
areas, and then new development (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...and the other part would be new ... new (both talking)
Thomas/ ...new development, uh, where, you know, wherever that occurs.
Markus/ Which one's the priority?
Thomas/ Well both are a priority.
Markus/ Which one's more priority? (laughter)
Thomas/ Uh, I ... I don't know if I can, A ... (laughter and several talking) Well let's....let's give
the priority then to the... the... the missing middle.
Markus/ (several talking) ...middle! Yeah.
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Throgmorton/ All right, so we understand the idea at least, even though we may not fully
understand the form -based code notion. I support the idea, just in terms of movin' this
process along.
Markus/ But if we come back to ya and say it's going to cost this much (both talking)
recommend that the middle, you'd be okay with that?
Cole/ Yeah, I'd join John. I'd support that.
Throgmorton/ We'd have to make choices if, um, you know, I understand that situation. So we
got three at least. Are there ... is there...
Botchway/ Well I'm confused, and so I mean, if it comes back and it says it's $250,000, I'm
going to have a problem with that.
Taylor/ Yeah, I would too.
Throgmorton/ Got it. So it could come back. Then we might say something like, okay, do one
of 'em at a hundred and a quarter or somethin' like that. But are there four for moving the
concept along, or do we want to delete it from our ... any further discussion?
Cole/ I want to move the concept along, and I think to Kingsley's point, um, it does help to bring
in an outside vision, because I think for ... for staff, um, it is sometimes hard to sort of
articulate exactly what that's going to look like, and so to bring in that outside voice, to
get that outside opinion, that's done all the time. So ... I support that.
Botchway/ Yeah, I'm not disagreeing with that. I guess I'm ... I'm just saying do we know exactly
what that vision is. Have we as a Council actually decided what that vision will be? And
so that's kind of along the lines of why I'm asking the question first because ... you know,
it sounds like we're putting money towards something that we don't necessarily... you
know, I don't know. I mean, I understand what you're saying. I think I agree with the
form -based code, cause I think we've had prior discussions about this (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah (both talking)
Botchway/ ...even last Council. I just don't ... you know, I just ... I, basically I'm just not sure.
That's all.
Throgmorton/ Fair enough. I ... I think right now we have one, two, three. One, two, three, which
leaves... Pauline. So would ... what would...
Taylor/ I just said .... with the cost limitations, I mean, I'm not necessarily a fan of bringing
consultants in when, especially in our community. We've got a lot of highly educated
people and knowledgeable people. Um, so the cost would be a problem with me and I
think you said like if it's $250,000 that's not ... I ... but 120...100, 125,000 then (several
talking)
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Thomas/ It may be that staff could do ... a form -based code for the, you know, the central
neighborhoods. I don't know. I'm just sort of. ... based on my....
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...I think to get to four here we'd have to say something like
consultant review .... one of two ... parts of the city, uh, I mean, to review the form -based
code possibility, for one of two parts of the city. Pauline, is that acceptable to you?
Taylor/ Right.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so we ... we can move ahead with that. So, I guess not more than 125,000
(mumbled) we were talking ... is that too much? Kind of just tossing numbers out.
Fruin/ We'll have to talk with staff.
Markus/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Next, matching grants, uh, for non-profit, uh... help me out.
Andrew/ (away from mic) accelerator focused on youth employment and local foods.
Botchway/ So to Jim's point earlier, I think we can delete the local foods part of that.
Cole/ Yeah.
Botchway/ Urn ... but to ... but to state it in a different way ... I don't necessarily know if we need this
50K if what we're committing to the community fund is going to be that 50K, cause I
think that it could actually act as this particular thing.
Fruin/ The community fund contribution is an endowment. So those funds won't be touched for
years.
Botchway/ Never mind!
Cole/ Well, let me just advocate for it, because that's for mine. I think it's really important that
we assist (mumbled) seed funding for organizations to provide, and to implement, some
of the social justice initiatives we'd like to have happen. One specific example, there's a
Kresge Foundation grant right now that's a planning grant. I think this sort of seed
funding for 5,000 bucks could transform that into a $75,000 grant, um, so I think we need
to do it. It's tangible, but then it's matched with responsibility on the part of the
individual non-profit. It builds upon something, urn ... Tom has talked about in the past.
So that's what I would like to do, and it's a relatively modest sum of money.
Throgmorton/ We have a ... a couple similar items on the next page, I think, Simon, but I don't
know if they're close enough. Uh, the, uh, grants for small businesses (mumbled) that's
different, urn ... program (coughing, unable to hear speaker) small business development
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(coughing, unable to hear speaker) persons of color. That's I guess the key one I was
thinking of. Is there...
Botchway/ As being ... as being similar?
Throgmorton/ That, yeah, that's what I was thinking. Are they .... I .... I don't know (several
talking) similar enough.
Botchway/ They could be, yeah, I mean...
Taylor/ Could they be grouped together as far as the youth employment under that same thing?
Cause that's different, youth employment versus business development.
Throgmorton/ Into one $50,000 thing instead of two separate $50,000.
Cole/ I'd be fine with that.
Taylor/ Right.
Andrew/ So add youth employment here (several talking)
Botchway/ I think the non-profit accelerator piece is (several talking) Yeah.
Throgmorton/ All right, tree enhancement is the next one. Additional street tree
enhancement... funds.
Markus/ I think that ... that's one that we said you'd have to have staff kinda... let us talk to our
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay, let's leave it in temporarily then. Social justice, racial equity grant fund. I
like the idea.
Botchway/ I think you said 25K originally (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Botchway/ ...but I'd be willing to reduce it back to 25K.
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ Are there ... is there support for 25K on that? (several talking) Okay.
Botchway/ Or would you support 50K? (laughter and several talking)
Markus/ (mumbled) say that Kingsley gave away 25 on this one (laughter)
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Throgmorton/ Okay, grants for small businesses impacted by construction projects and by ... if I
understood correctly, you mean kind of like we just did with regard to the
Wash... Washington Street (several talking) Okay. I don't like the idea. (several talking)
Dilkes/ ...really uncomfortable.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, it just....
Botchway/ Okay, I just want to be clear so that I guess this is an opportunity for me to express
my point of view. Um, it's ... if we decide to walk down this road with existing downtown
development, um, in this particular area, I may be opposed, just simply for the fact that
we're not necessarily considering all the other, um (several talking)
Markus/ I don't think you should! Absolutely not!
Botchway/ That's my point. So we can delete it. I just want ... that's kinda why...
Markus/ You're opening up Pandora's box.
Throgmorton/ Tom, Geoff, and I had a conversation about this, I don't know, two days ago, uh,
about limited ... a limited amount of response, but not construction money and not ... not tax
support or whatever.
Cole/ ...some mitigation. Yeah.
Dilkes/ And we do those kind of things on projects all the time. The kind ... the non -monetary
payment stuff.
Throgmorton/ Okay! Housing market analysis for... University impact area.
Thomas/ Want me to just say a few words on that?
Throgmorton/ Sure.
Thomas/ That is that, um (clears throat) you know the student housing market in the center of
town ... uh... has enormous impact on the availability of housing to the non -student
population, and I ... I view, you know, this as we went through our strategic plan that
the ... the urban core of Iowa City is one of its great strengths, and um ... that unfortunately
the housing opportunities for the non -student population, uh, are ... are very minimal, and
so it seems to me the first step in trying to assess how we develop a strategy to try to ... to
better balance student and non -student housing. We need to have an understanding of
what the conditions are. We know that, you know, the University is planning to build
another 2,000 units, something like that, and my feeling is we all have a theory. As long
as I've been here, everyone has a theory about, you know, Tom, you want to build south
of Burlington (both talking)
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Markus/ Mine's the right theory! (laughter)
Thomas/ Uh, you know, lot ... we have lots of ideas about what to do and what the problem is and
how things will go, but I feel all of that needs to be based on an understanding of what
the market is and how we project it ... what we project it to be, and it's ... it's a key issue in
my view in terms of...I think it's the overriding issue in terms of (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I think it's important, but I would be willing to support it only if the University
pays half. (several talking)
Markus/ Actually I think they should pay more than that.
Throgmorton/ Okay! (laughter and several talking) Yeah, at least half!
Dickens/ But I think we .... if you do it on that basis, we pay 10, they pay 40. (several talking)
Cole/ ...that concept though because ... I think of this big controversy over on the east side, or the
west side in terms of the University housing for the graduate students. It strikes me they
need to look at some of these neighborhoods too in terms of the housing issues.
Markus/ I just kind of...along that line, I just got an email from Tom Rocklin and Tom, um, and
you saw it, Jim, uh, they're setting up this whole committee right now to study affordable
housing for graduate students.
Cole/ Oh that's huge, Tom! Yeah!
Markus/ And I think it came out of this whole (several talking) and I think they're kind of
vulnerable to negotiating better than a 50/50 deal right now. I already ... I already told
Rod Lenards no way, that that's their problem. You need to pay for that. There's a lot of
information out there and I ... I'm really concerned about what the scope of work would
look like. You're going to really have to pay attention to that before you go down this
path. There's a lot of information that you can extract that has no relevance to this
conversation. You gotta ... you gotta really think this through to extract the kind of
information you want, and ... you have a lot of...you got a lot of players in this game here
in town and quite frankly I ... I ... there's going to need to be some judgment about the
information that gets extracted. I'll tell you what I mean later.
Throgmorton/ So we need language, Simon, kind of like, uh, if the University pays at least half.
No, not there.
Dilkes/ Why don't you just say contingent (several talking) Why don't you just say contingent on
a Univer... on University contributions. (several talking) ...that it's half (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay. Contingent on University, uh, contributions. (several talking) Okay, next
one, program to support ... oh, we did that! (several talking) Uh... so ... double the
UniverCity program budget.
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Dickens/ I would throw that one out.
Botchway/ I disagree as well. (several talking) Not because I don't...
Mims/ Wait a minute! Have you asked for support on these?
Cole/ (mumbled) got the votes, don't we?
Mims/ Right, but then ... Jim just skipped the next one, I think.
Throgmorton/ I'm sorry (several talking) I didn't mean to (several talking) We combined, we
got rid of another one on the previous.
Mims/ Okay. Okay. My apologies! Okay.
Dickens/ The UniverCity program, just looking at what our staff can do and ... and the number of
houses that we can obtain ... I ... I just, I don't see doubling it just to ... to ... to try to do it.
Cole/ But you know I think we need to make it happen because I look at...it is one of the most
successful programs the City of Iowa City has done, and ... providing access to ... to
families in these neighborhoods, I think, is critical. Um, and what ... why not build upon a
successful program? There might be staffing limitations, but I think we need to find a
way to do it. Um ... I think we need, you know, we need to build upon those (several
talking)
Dickens/ What's our inventory (both talking)
Throgmorton/ We have 55 or something like that.
Markus/ Yeah, we've cut our inventory down pretty well.
Fruin/ We're down to four or five.
Markus/ We got ourselves built up to almost 20 at one point. It was ridiculous!
Cole/ That's a manageable number.
Markus/ Hear me out ... from the inception of the program, we used to have outside funding. You
know, we had State funding. We had University funding. Many of these houses go to
people that work at the University. Your Board of Regents quietly told the
administration, we don't want to support that program any more. And ... that went away,
and ... and ... so we don't have this ... this is on our back now. Okay? So ... that ... that, all that
other f ending's gone. I love the program, okay? But I think it needs a breather, and if it's
stalled for one year at this amount, I don't have a problem with that. I, you want to come
back next year and pick it up again (mumbled) I wouldn't do it this year. We've been
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through a lot with this program and we're still dealing with shedding some of these
properties at this point.
Throgmorton/ What do you folks think?
Mims/ No. I won't ... don't pull it!
Cole/ I think it's critical.
Taylor/ I think it's an important program, but ... (mumbled) does seem like that's a lot of money.
Thomas/ That was the simplest way of putting it, I mean, we could ... go from 4 to 6. I mean, it's
all negotiable, right? (laughs) (several talking)
Cole/ Would you agree to 6?
Taylor/ Six would be good from what Tom is saying.
Markus/ Don't hook me on that, Pauline! (laughter and several talking)
Taylor/ As opposed to doubling it! (laughter) Five, five! (several talking)
Cole/ And I won't name these particular people, but ... I ... I look at some of the people that have
been able to utilize this program are downtown leaders. They're stakeholders. The
amount of value that they bring to the community is enormous.
Throgmorton/ Rockne, you got a lot of support for the idea. I mean everybody at this table is a
fan. It's just...
Dickens/ That's a lot of money to ... do something that we've got inventory and ... it could take a
breather and ... and we decide to bump it up in two years, there ... you never know what's
going to come up, but...
Throgmorton/ So if we increased it to ... to, uh, by ... not doubling it, but urn .... (several talking)
100,000 ... put 100,000 instead of 200. I think you got ... (several talking)
Botchway/ I still disagree.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Botchway/ I think we should leave it at the current place where it is.
Cole/ So we have four at least at that point?
Throgmorton /That's four and (several talking) At least for moving along, yeah.
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Botchway/ Well and just so I ... one quick caveat. (several talking) As we've been talking about
the UniverCity program, it's also been (several talking) that have not been affordable, and
so I'm actually not ... I'm excited about the program, but I'm not excited about the program
in the same sense of that, cause there's been a couple houses (several talking) she was
very adamant because a couple houses (several talking) that really kind of goes against
how I feel about affordable housing.
Throgmorton/ That's true. Okay. Townhall meetings, uh... I think that's not really what you
mean, cause the cost is ... has to do with inviting speakers. So like visiting speakers'
program. Whatda y'all think about that? I see, uh, one no, two nos, three nos...
Cole/ I'm supportive of it.
Taylor/ I like the townhall meetings concept and .... I'm just not sure, I mean if we put out that
amount of money, how many people will attend, I mean, if you get a handful of people,
only 10 or 12 people, is that worth ... that much (both talking)
Thomas/ ...what I might suggest is, um, you know, if we move forward on the form -based code,
I ... what I've often had in mind with this is that whoever that person might be who would
be consulting would have a public speaking component included in the contract so maybe
we ... we, I'll pull that.
Taylor/ It could double. It could double (both talking)
Thomas/ One of those other items could have another piece to the contract, but not nearly near
$40,000.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Taylor/ Could be an educational component. He could be a consultant/educational...
Throgmorton/ Okay. I think we're on the other chart now. Is ... is there another sheet underneath
that, Simon?
Andrew/ Under this one? No.
Throgmorton/ Okay. All right. We can do this!
Dickens/ Throw the first one out! Trying to get (several talking and laughing) How'd I do?
Throgmorton/ Pretty good! All right, are there four, uh, for moving that carbon emission
reduction project along in this winnowing process?
Cole/ I support it.
Throgmorton/ That's two. I don't know...
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Markus/ Think I may have found your project, by the way. You take that book mobile and make
it pedal -driven (laughter)
Dickens/ Uh oh! (laughter and several talking)
Thomas/ I'll support it, certainly, for now.
Throgmorton/ That's three. Yeah, that's a total of three. Terry? (several talking) Okay, so
that ... we'll keep that in there for now. Delete ped mall projects.
Botchway/ So I disagree with this particular one. Um, I don't necessarily mind the (clears throat)
the 2019 one, that (mumbled) talking about cause I think there's a potential to put it back
in later on. But....for this one, coming up, I ... I just don't like it. I mean I feel like, you
know, we've ... we've talked about it. We've discussed it. Um, you know, and I (laughs) is
that it's putting money downtown and I'm actually (laughs) you know kind of opposed to
that, but then as we talk about the urban core, and making sure that we do what we can do
to make the city more ... you know... walkable, you know, enjoyable for different families,
I feel like I have to support this project.
Dickens/ Second.
Mims/ Geoff, can you elaborate what this first part will be?
Botchway/ Blackhawk Mini Park (several talking)
Fruin/ Blackhawk Mini Park pedestrian mall project is really from the, uh, alley that runs behind
the Park at 201 building, up to Washington Street. Um, so it's, uh, there's some utility
work. It's not a huge amount of utility work. It's mostly brick, um ... uh, reconstruction,
planter reconstruction, um ... trees, benches...
Dickens/ There are some pipes that are really bad cause when Rick Fosse showed some of 'em,
many years (both talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, there's some sewer work that needs to be done, yeah. But it's not driving the large
part of the expense.
Thomas/ So is it the, the whole Dubuque, that ... what would have been Dubuque if it had been
continued to College?
Fruin/ Only ... only to the alley though.
Thomas/ Oh, only to the alley.
Fruin/ Yeah.
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Markus/ The other part's (both talking)
Fruin/The east/west captures not only the east/west leg, but the rest from the alley down to the
stage.
Cole/ Well, and what I'm talking about is withdrawing it for further discussions this summer. I
think the worst case scenario would be a year delay, um ... but my view is is that we're
gold plating already existing infrastructure. When was the last time we did the ped mall?
Uh, I think it was in the early 2000's, wasn't it? (several talking) I mean we're talking
about (both talking)
Fruin/ Late 90s.
Cole/ We're talking about a budget crisis and we're putting an additional $2 million on top of five
million we've just authorized, on top of $7 million that's already gone to downtown
projects. I think we really need to seriously look at whether we're equitably investing,
uh, our city bonding authority, and I don't think we are with this particular project.
Fruin/ The only thing I'd mention about the late 90s pedestrian mall, uh, improvement is that it
wasn't comprehensive in this ... in the sense that it addressed all the, um, utility needs and
it didn't address the fundamental, um ... brick, uh, and sub -surface underneath the brick,
and ... and so it focused a lot on the planter areas, you know, going from the old rail ties to
the ... to the limestone planters, um, the fountain area, uh, as well. So there were some
things that ... that project missed, probably due to budget constraints, and this project
addresses a lot of those.
Mims/ So, Geoff, would this ... will they do something similar to what they're doing on the brick
streets, in terms of putting a much more substantial sub -layer down? Or, I mean...
Fruin/ The black, yeah, the Blackhawk Mini Park is, urn ... uh, more or less taken out all the bricks
and puttin' 'em back, puttin' 'em back in. Um, and the other ares of the ped mall, we think
it's more spot repairs. Um, you know, if you look out between the Library and the ... and
the Hotel Vetro, you can see the ruts from the vehicles that drive on ... the sub -surface just
hasn't, um, kept up, and then throughout the rest of the ped mall, you ... you can ... you don't
notice it on a day-to-day basis, but if you stop and look you'll see it. We have problems
all the time with bricks gettin' kicked up, urn ... you know, they ... they just don't stay afixed
to the ground very well anymore. That's... that's ... 1970s brick work that's... that's down
there right now. And it's a high traffic area.
Mims/ No I ... (both talking)
Dickens/ ...high dollar area for tax revenues too so...
Mims/ No, I support the project and ... and I'm a little concerned with ... I'm going to pick on your
for a minute, Kingsley. (laughs) The ... (laughs) no, I mean, the... we've... we've heard a lot
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of comments about spending too much money downtown, but I haven't seen anybody...
show any facts to go with those comments.
Botchway/ Well I mean the only information that I've had has been, you know, kind of what the
paper has shown, and I think, you know, beyond that I think we asked for an equitable
analysis as far as (mumbled) hopefully that would change (both talking)
Mims/ But my point, and I think either Geoff or Tom mentioned this in one of our last couple
meetings, when you look at a lot of the infrastructure that we do, you know, or that now
developers do when they build a development, you know, we may not need to go back
into some neighborhoods for 20 or 30 years, to do much of anything. And so ... you know,
you can't look at two years, five years, maybe even 10 years in terms of how our capital
improvement money has been spent and say it's been equitable or inequitable. My only
point is ... and I'm not saying it's been equitable or inequitable, my only point is ... I have
heard repeatedly from various people, and not just you, Kingsley, through campaigns and
public comments how we spend too much of our money downtown, and I have not seen a
single person ... put any facts with that statement to justify it, but it keeps getting repeated
and then starts getting believed. I think John's comment the other day of asking can we
start getting some GIS data (mumbled) think you better be pretty careful, because I think
you ... my guess is, you're going to see that the tax revenues that we're pulling off from
downtown Iowa City, those property owners are going to come back and say, we're not
getting enough money ... from the tax revenues we're paying. So...
Cole/ (both talking) ...defer this discussion, because we have a budget deadline coming up and so
(both talking)
Mims/ I don't want to defer. I want to keep it in.
Markus/ Yeah, it ... (several talking) You know the reality is you can still have that deferred
conversation, without taking it out of the document.
Cole/ But didn't Geoff say there's some operational work that needs to be done this summer. So
if we were to change our mind this summer then all of a sudden we're then wasting the
work.
Fruin/ The ... the east/west ped mall project nothin's happened. You can defer conversation
and ... frankly it doesn't... other than the public message you're sending, it doesn't make a
difference whether it's in this CIP or not, cause you'll get another crack at it next year.
Um, but you will be sending a public message by stripping it out of the CIP. Urn ... the
Blackhawk Mini Park, we need a go, no-go on that. If you want to ... if that construction is
going to take place in 2017, we can't wait till the summer to ... to have the discussion,
because the...the fundraising needs to be completed and ... and the construction documents
need to be completed.
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Mims/ I want to keep both of them in, because again, if we do want to defer the east/west ped
mall, we could do it next year. So I don't want to send that message... at this point that
we're not going to do the east/west ped mall.
Throgmorton/ So ... so here's my sense about it personally. Uh, I don't want to delete them at this
moment, but I think there's, uh, majority support for looking carefully at both projects,
especially the east/west one. Uh...
Mims/ Where are you getting the majority support for looking carefully at the east/west when I
haven't seen us take the temperatures?
Throgmorton/ (mumbled)
Mims/ Well maybe you've had conversations outside the meeting that are telling you that; I don't
know.
Throglnorton/ No, no, just ... um, not ... not really, so but I could test this, you know, that's a good
point. I understand. Uh, let me just continue the thought and we'll find out. Um ... I ... I
don't want to delete them now, but I do think it's very likely, it's a better way to put it,
that, um ... that, uh, a ... a majority of the Council would want to revisit, especially the
east/west project, to see if there are ways to reduce the capital costs. That's my bottom
line. And I ... I base that, Susan, on ... really on the discussion about the Washington Street
project and hearing other conversations, uh, from various people saying things like, you
know, this is coming to us so late; there's no way we can think about whether we think
it's ... these are reasonable investments we ... you know, planning so far along, we ... we
really need to stick with what's already in motion. And that... what... what am I not saying
clearly?
Mims/ Either you're not saying it or I'm not understanding. The east/west ped mall is 19, so
we've got plenty of time to hear about that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Yeah, uh, I think that's what I'm saying. So I'm not saying delete this.
Thomas/ The ... the point I tried to make the other night, or was it at the work session, was ... was
having a meeting, um ... regarding the downtown street master plan in terms of not only
the scope for projects in the current five-year CIP, especially you know the ... Blackhawk
Mini Plaza up to the alley, but also just in terms of, um, you know, the intersection
designs on Burlington and..and what ... what is our overall strategy and policy with respect
to the improvements that we're making down there. And, you know, we've talked about
Geoff making a presentation about that. So having an overall discussion in terms of how
we're... what... what are we ... what are we doing down there? What's the problem we're
trying to solve? And ... and then looking more carefully at the projects, you know, that are
in the CIP.
Throgmorton/ Okay. So in the interest of, uh, time, etc., I know that there are three votes right
now ... uh... against deleting those ped mall projects from the CIP. So ... what ... what do the
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rest of you think? So I know what you think, Rockne. So, Terry, you're... you're opposed
to deleting, right? I'm opposed to deleting. Susan's opposed to deleting. (both talking)
There ya go. Okay. Um ... remove Fairchild.
Dickens/ Just one quick question. Is there ... on this one that you're talking about, is there an
advantage to doing both streets at the same time as far as cost?
Markus/ I would think there's some economies of scale in doing that together, but you don't
know that till you bid it, and you either bid it as a total and a ... and an alternate and see
what that looks like, but ... I would have to think that there's got to be some. Some
advantage.
Dickens/ ...down the road. That's (both talking)
Fruin/ And I'm unclear, I think we'll have to get back to you. I know there's, uh, utility, um,
issues that need to be addressed along Davenport, but I'm uncertain on Fairchild. So, I
think you'll want that information before making a decision.
Botchway/ The other question I have is, you know, you said if we ... remove this from the budget,
it's not a transfer. I mean there's not a transfer maybe to the operationalized size ... side of
the budget, right? (several talking) Specifically still in that particular....
Markus/ Yeah, it stays in there.
Botchway/Okay. I just wanted to make sure I'm clear on that.
Markus/ Can't use it for something else. This doesn't diminish something else that you ... you've
added.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I ... I support removing Fairchild, but I ... I guess you're gonna have to come
back to us.
Cole/ I do too.
Throgmorton/ Uh, can we move on to the next one? Okay, the affordable housing fund.
Botchway/ I'm okay with that. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ There's four. But the others can speak, please.
Mims/ Depends on how we do it.
Fruin/ Is this the Court/Linn money or is this ... a different source? (several talking)
Markus/ ...talking about.
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Mims/ Court/Linn money.
Throgmorton/Oh, I'm sorry! Well it's, this is the one that... affordable housing fund that we had
already talked about, and then you said, well you know, Court/Linn money could be put
into that. I .... I (both talking)
Mims/ As long as it's subject to getting the Court/Linn money (both talking)
Dickens/ ...the Court/Linn money (several talking)
Markus/ In fact, you can think about it, it's a good thing we're doing this, because otherwise
you're gonna have people lined up trying to get to that money.
Throgmorton/ Okay, uh, delete the I-80 aesthetic improvements basically, right? But it's a ... it's
(both talking)
Andrew/ (away from mic; unable to hear)
Botchway/ So the only question I have for this one is, what is ... where does that money then go?
Bockenstedt/ That ... that is funded from our road use tax fund bonding. So it'd be applied
towards other street improvements.
Botchway/ Is that what you're trying to get at, John?
Thomas/ Well I mean we have the .... the, um ... complete streets would fall under gas tax, correct?
Dickens/ Is this a grant though?
Taylor/ A grant match.
Fruin/ The dollars here reflect local dollars. There would be an additional grant.
Markus/ And I think John's point was, he'd rather see the money (noises, difficult to hear
speaker) landscaping I-80. He'd rather see more street trees and street improvements in
our (both talking)
Thomas/ I think our streets, you know, streetscapes within town need some help.
Botchway/ That's why I wasn't sure about the overarching theme.
Markus/ I don't think that's a bad trade-off. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, okay, so I'm hearing a lot of support for that.
Taylor/ First I thought it had something to do with the safety over the interchange, but...
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Botchway/ Well and I was worried that you just hated (mumbled) so (laughter and several
talking)
Throgmorton/ Okay. So, uh... third from last. Delete parking ramp facade... improvements.
Andrew/ (away from mic)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, so that ... which parking, it's just two parking facilities, isn't it? One's
on ... that face onto Burlington Street?
Markus/ I think they were trying to make the street faces on those things look a lot more
attractive than they do. I think (both talking)
Throgmorton/ Especially in relation to the music building (several talking)
Fruin/ Yeah, it's really just addressing the blank facades of those ... of those decks. Dennis, I don't
know if you know ... I'm not sure we have money in the budget for this.
Bockenstedt/ I think this ... it's from the parking fund, and I think this one was just to do a study to
determine what (mumbled) look like. I don't know if there was an actual dollar amount
put on improvements themselves yet.
Fruin/ The RFP's been done. I ... I know the RFP's issued for the design.
Bockenstedt/ For the design, yeah.
Fruin/ I'll have to dig deeper into the budget (several talking)
Bockenstedt/ I think this was just for the design and not for the actual improvements, and I think
it was in that area facing the School of Music, to dress up that parking ramp, so that when
they do those intersections and those two buildings, that the parking ramp matches those
improvements and it's ... uh, apparent.
Markus/ If you've been around the country, a lot of these old decks have been dressed up. And
they ... I'll tell ya what, it ... it's a nice improvement. Yeah, I don't think it detracts from the
safety of the operation from the inside. Uh, but it certainly ... I was in Sarasota a year ago
and they did one and it's just ... it's a much better impression of your streetscape than just a
typical concrete (noises, unable to hear speaker) The Music Building, the Museum
potential across the street, that whole corridor could (both talking)
Thomas/ I mean this is again, not that I don't want to talk too long on this but Bur ... the problem
is Burlington, and you know, it's not even showing up in our five-year plan. We don't
even have a strong street tree presence on Burlington, which would help... with... with the
fact of these blank walls on the parking structures. (several talking)
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Botchway/ (mumbled) well I agree and disagree. I mean for me as well, and kind of going back
to Tom's comment on (mumbled) brought up that particular point cause it was in my mnd
first, but basically I mean you see a lot of the art work that is in a lot of the urban cities
and I want that, I mean, I want that for parking ramps. I actually think that when we
build a parking ramp, it has to incorporate those particular things because I hate to just
see those (several talking) those... whatever structures, yeah, and I, you know, regardless
of whether or not we put trees or not, I still think, you know, when you're looking at Iowa
City from whatever view point, um, you know, I still want to see that type of design or
that type of design work.
Throgmorton/ Okay, are there four in favor of deleting the parking ramp facade improvements?
Rock, where are you?
Cole/ (several talking) (mumbled) Deleting.
Throgmorton/ Terry?
Dickens/ (mumbled)
Taylor/ I've never thought of a parking ramp as being a beautiful structure. I mean when I think
parking ramp, I think of...of concrete, but I ... think just because of the location, as he's
saying, across from the music building and (mumbled) will be a lot of University traffic
and public traffic coming there, uh...it...it would be nice to ... to have a more attractive
looking facility.
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...four votes for that, uh... but I ... could I ask a ... that's decided. Can I
ask a clarifying question (several talking) No, no, wait a minute, not for (several talking)
Gettin' a little confused! Got ahead of myself. You ever try getting ahead of yourself?
Um, here's the question I'd like to ask, uh, the parking fund ... is it possible to use parking
fund... reserves or revenues to ... to fund a parking consultant's study of parking in the city?
Markus/ Probably.
Throgmorton/ So there's a source of funding, John, for a ... I don't know if it's still there. Did we
delete that?
Thomas/ ...on/off street parking policies?
Throgmorton/ Yeah (both talking)
Botchway/ It's there.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. So, if there's a way (both talking)
Markus/ Think I could figure out a nexus to do that.
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Throgmorton/ All right. All right, move, uh (several talking) Fraunholtz, uh, thanks, Miller Park
development up. If there's no budget ... if there's no significant budgetary impact, I'm all
for that. I think that would really enhance that ... that neighborhood a lot. (several talking)
Fruin/ I'll just need to .... to talk with the Parks staff. I mean, it can be done. It might be at the
expense of another project, um, cause we have three or four neighborhood park projects,
and that's okay, um ... but I ... I want to talk with them, just to get the workload (several
talking)
Throgmorton/All right, last one — Gilbert Street streetscape. I don't remember exactly.
Cole/ There's no budget ... I'll, for this one I'd just like to get staff s feedback in terms of where
we're ... where we are at this point. Part of my concerns about the ped mall dollars is that I
don't think that really enhances or addresses the connectivity issues that we need to get to
the downtown, and I think a lot of work (mumbled) on Gilbert, uh, to evaluate that, so I
think we need to evaluate, uh... possibly redoing Gilbert.
Fruin/ So, uh, under pending work session list, there is the review... there's an item called review
the downtown traffic model study. Um ... after we did the downtown streetscape plan, and
we envisioned this concept of a Gilbert streetscape improvement, we said we need to get
a better understanding of what the traffic implications of a road diet are. We are done
with that. That is ready to come to you when you're ready for it. Um, and I think at that
time, it's going to be a decision for you on whether you want to pursue the road diet, and
if you do, we would either work that into the complete street line that we have, um, or
figure out some other implementation plan with your input. So, it'll come to you pretty
soon. It's when you're ready.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so ... Rock, we could delete that item because of that understanding?
Dickens/ Hallelujah!
Throgmorton Okay! Bravo, well done, people. Well done. Tom, how ... how's this now? You
got (both talking)
Markus/ ...we do is we bring the document back to all of these, and uh, a lot of times what we do
is just add a sheet that shows where these amendments are, where you needed
clarification. We'll plug that in there. We'll plug a number in there. You know, our best
estimate. The thing I want you to understand is that even if...even if we plug a number,
it's just a ... it's a ... it's a best estimate, okay? So, if it's high/low later on, you know, we
can ... we can adjust to accommodate that. So you'll get that document. Tonight what I
sense that you've taken, or we're taking away, is that we now have a strategic plan. I
mean we'll refine that; we'll bring that back; you'll adopt that. We now have a budget.
We'll .... we'll put that whole document together. We'll summarize that. We'll interact
with staff about some of the items and the numbers, but ... I think we can plug that in so
that we can give you some numbers for approval consideration. So...
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Botchway/ And discussion of the applications that Susan was talking about tonight.
Markus/ Which? (several talking)
Mims/ Levy and fund balances and stuff.
Markus/ Yeah, yeah, we'll show ya all that.
Throgmorton/ All right! Well done, everybody. Thank you very much. Thanks to our staff for
helping out so ... skillfully, and uh, we're done!
This represents only a reasonably accurate transcription of the Iowa City City Council budget
work session of January 21, 2016.