HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-02-02 TranscriptionPage 1
Council Present: Botchway, Cole, Mims, Taylor, Thomas, Throgmorton
Council Absent: Dickens
Staff Present: Markus, Frain, Dilkes, Karr, Ford, Yapp, Laverman, Bowers, Schaul,
Bockenstedt, Havel, Knoche, O'Brien, Boothroy, Hightshoe, Korpel,
Rackis, Seydel-Johnson, Bollinger
Others Present: Neal, Simpson (UISG)
Questions from Council re Agenda Items:
Throgmorton/ Questions from Council about re ... agenda items.
Botchway/ Item 7e. Oops! Never mind! Not that one. Go back to the packet (noises in
background)
ITEM 8. ICDD FUNDRAISING - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY
MANAGER TO EXECUTE AN AGREEMENT WITH THE IOWA CITY
DOWNTOWN DISTRICT FOR FUNDRAISING EXPENSES ASSOCIATED
WITH THE ART WORK PORTION OF THE NORTH PEDESTRIAN MALL
IMPROVEMENT PROJECT AT A NOT TO EXCEED COST OF $50,000
Throgmorton/ Let me say something about Item 8, the fundraising for the ped mall art project.
(mumbled) proper place here, um ... uh, sorry, misplacing something here. Uh, just .... just
so you all know, I've asked Marcia Bollinger to make, uh, Marcia, I'm sorry! I keep
getting confused. Marcia Klingaman or Marcia Ballinger? Bollinger!
Bollinger/ Ballinger, Bollinger (laughs)
Throgmorton/ Which do you prefer? Remind me, please!
Bollinger/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ Which, uh, Bollinger or Ballinger? (unable to hear response) Thank you! I ... I
mean I should know but you know... All right, so I've asked Marcia Bollinger to make a
very brief statement at the start of the public discussion, uh, concern ... when we get in the
formal meeting, about the steps leading to this particular project and fundraising, uh,
proposal. I've all ... also asked her to show some images of, uh, of Cecil ... of Balmond's
proposed project, followed by some renderings of, uh... uh, people occupying the space,
and you're gonna show an animated ... sort of walk through as well, right? (unable to hear
response) And then after Marcia finishes, I'll invite public comment, and then we'll get
into the ... uh... the discussion about things.
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Karr/ We will put the motion on the floor first.
Throgmorton/ Motion first.
Karr/ Right? Right, motion first so we have the item on the floor and then we can do that.
Throgmorton/ Okay.
Thomas/ Jim, I also asked Marian ... to have available the, um ... the plan that was included in the
street ... streetscape master plan.
Karr/ And we incorporated that into it as well.
Thomas/ Okay.
Throgmorton/ All right.
ITEM 3d(3) MOSS RIDGE ROAD - RESOLUTION ACCEPTING THE WORK
FOR THE MOSS RIDGE ROAD PROJECT
Mims/ On 3d(3), just like to comment, uh, it's Moss Ridge Road project estimated cost 4.2,
project actual cost 3.5 million. Nice to see!
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
ITEM 3d(1) AMENDMENT TO SABIN TOWNHOMES AGREEMENT -
RESOLUTION APPROVING AMENDMENT NO.2 TO AN AGREEMENT FOR
PRIVATE DEVELOPMENT BY AND BETWEEN THE CITY OF IOWA CITY,
IOWA AND A&M DEVELOPMENT II, L.L.C. FOR THE SABIN TOWNHOMES
Thomas/ I did have a ... a question on the, um ... 3d(1), where the ... there was a change to the Sabin
Townhomes. My understanding is there's an open space requirement on development in
Riverfront Crossings, and um, my question would be ... how has this change affected that
open space requirement?
Markus/ John, can you answer that?
Yapp/ Uh, good evening. Wendy Ford actually, uh... has been working on that project, but yes.
There is an open space requirement and I believe it's 40 -square -feet ... or 4 -square -feet per
unit. Uh, and that requirement does not change.
Thomas/ So are we still meeting that requirement, with the reduction (both speaking) space?
Ford/ The, uh, I believe we are, because the patio space had been 47 -square -feet. That's reduced
by approximately half, leaving a little less than, uh, whatever that would be ... 22, 23, uh,
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square feet in the outdoor area. And there's still the stoop, uh, the garden next to the
stoop.
Thomas/ Okay.
Dilkes/ I'd also say, John, that ... that Design Review.... reviewed this new, uh, plan and
presumably they're in touch with any of those requirements.
Thomas/ Yeah, I ... I just wanted to confirm that.
Dilkes/ Yeah. And ... and even if it was ... contrary to it, which I agree it shouldn't be, a
development agreement would not insulate someone from a ... a zoning requirement.
Throgmorton/ Okay, other questions regarding agenda items?
ITEM 3d(6) DOUGLASS STREET AND DOUGLASS COURT WATER MAIN
REPLACEMENT — RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE ACQUISITION OF
PROPERTY INTERESTS NECESSARY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF THE
DOUGLASS STREET AND DOUGLASS COURT WATER MAIN
REPLACEMENT PROJECT.
Taylor/ I just had a question about, um, Item 3d(6), the Douglass Street and Douglass Court
water main replacement. Uh, because the cost for that has, as well as the description also
included adding sidewalks in that area, and I just had some concerns about that and I
didn't know if Tom could clear that up, uh, cause I'd heard some comments that, uh, the
residents perhaps didn't want sidewalks in that area cause they didn't want to, uh, perhaps
take care of them, but they ... they haven't had sidewalks in that area before, uh, so
anybody that can...
Markus/ Yeah, I think Jason is looking like Ron's giving him the nod (laughter)
Havel/ Sorry I didn't get all that. What was the question?
Taylor/ As far as adding the sidewalks to the sewer main project. It just seemed, uh, I just was
kind of confused about the need for the sidewalks if there have not been sidewalks in that
neighborhood for many, many years and ... and now ... I know we've got, uh, the City has
some of the UniverCity houses there and.. .
Havel/ Yep!
Taylor/ ...and perhaps that's the rush now for it now, but (both talking) residents weren't happy.
Havel/ Well the original project was the water main replacement project...
Taylor/ Right.
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Havel/ ...um, in the area. And the sidewalk, uh, addition really came out of the complete streets,
uh, policy and really expanding that into the neighborhood and looking at adding
connectivity to the surrounding trail and ... and sidewalk network. And we've been
working with, uh, we've had a public meeting, got some feedback from residents, and had
kind of tweaked things to, uh, allow for sidewalk in the area, but also, uh... I guess ... be
more mindful of...of some of those responses.
Taylor/ More mindful of the, uh, residents' responses.
Havel/ Yeah, so we had looked at reducing it from a 5 -foot sidewalk to a 4 -foot sidewalk, and
working with spacing as far as within the right-of-way where that would be located.
Taylor/ Thank you.
Throgmorton/ Thanks, Jason. Uh, any other questions about agenda items? Uh, not hearing any,
let's turn to Council appointments.
ITEM 12. COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS
ITEM 12a Airport Commission
Karr/ Mr. Mayor, I'd like to note that, uh, staff will be requesting that we, uh, defer and
readvertise Item 12a, under your board and commission appointments. The Airport
Commission. Due to some confusion with that appointment. We can clear that up by the
next time.
Throgmorton/ Right. I don't need to make a note to myself about that.
Karr/ We will ... we will readvertise that for an appointment at the March 23`d
Council Appointments [Agenda item #121:
Throgmorton/ Board of Adjustment, we have one applicant for one vacancy for a five-year term.
Tim Weitzel. Any objection to appointing Tim? (several responding) All right, got that.
Historic Preservation Commission, we have two applications for one vacancy, uh... for the
Brown Street position. Kent Ackerson and Sharon DeGraw. Kent is currently serving
his second term, as I understand it. So ... what's your pleasure?
Mims/ For that very reason I thought we should appoint Sharon.
Botchway/ Agreed.
Mims/ We keep talking about turnover and giving other people opportunities and her application
seemed fine, so...
Thomas/ I think they're both great candidates, so...
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Taylor/ Probably... familiar with'em, in the neighborhood.
Thomas/ I didn't want to have to make a decision (laughter)
Taylor/ Susan made it for you! (laughs)
Throgmorton/ Right! Okay, another, uh... uh, Historic Preservation Position, let's see now, which
one is this? Uh...
Mims/ At -large.
Throgmorton/ For at -large. Uh, we have two applicants for that at -large position — Kate
Corcoran, who's currently serving her first term, and Zachariah Builta. Well what do you
choose to do?
Thomas/ I think Kate has done a outstanding job, um ... I would ... I was most impressed with her
resume in terms of this position.
Taylor/ Although we didn't want to, uh, have people serving as many terms, it'd only be her
second term. It looked like she had, uh, only missed two meetings, so obviously she's,
um ... uh, attends the meetings and she's 57 years in the Iowa City and the young man was
only like six years, so ... uh, I ... I would go with Kate.
Botchway/ I would, well I actually was going to go with Zach (both talking)
Mims/ So was I!
Botchway/ ...because (laughter) for the opposite point, because um, to get further student
engagement, um, you know, just to get more folks involved (both talking)
Taylor/ ....get younger people, yeah.
Botchway/ ...yeah, um ... I know there isn't as much from, you know, her application compared to
the other. I just thought it was ... yeah, that's fine. That's my point.
Mims/ Yeah, I mean we..we've had a discussion, you know, of not feeling that we have to
reappoint people and ... um, I think we have to be mindful of that. I would agree that I
think ... I think her application probably is a little stronger — I would agree with that, but I
think he had a good application as well and would be very capable. The other thing I
looked at too was ... how many people are on that board, in terms of the idea of having two
new people, cause that concerned me, but you got 11 people on there, and I think the
attendance for most of those people is very, very good. So I don't think two new
individuals would be detrimental to the performance of that board, and so ... um ... and
again, as we keep talking about trying to, you know, get new blood, so to speak, in these
— that's why I was, uh, supportive of Zach.
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Thomas/ I ... I certainly would agree on a ... if someone had served his second term. I think just
having served a first term, I think they are three-year appointments.
Throgmorton/ I believe that's correct. Yeah.
Thomas/ Didn't, um, you know it's one of those things where just being on the commission can
take some time in terms of...getting up to speed with respect to what it is you're doing.
Taylor/ Didn't he have an application in for ... another board? (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, for the Parks and Rec, uh, Commission.
Taylor/ Parks and Rec.
Throgmorton/ Three applicants for one position.
Mims/ Marian, if...for the pleasure of the Council, it might not be a bad idea with the new
Council to maybe put in our next packet the ... kind of the history of our discussion. I can't
remember if we actually did a vote on the new... appointments to boards and commissions
in terms of related to, um, rep... reappointing people?
Karr/ I certainly can, but that is what is in red on the cover sheet...
Mims/ Was it? Okay! (several talking and laughing)
Karr/ ...Resolution 15-300 (both talking)
Mims/ Okay, it's already there. Sorry!
Karr/ Um, but no that ... that is exactly why we ... we did include that. I certainly can include the
resolution.
Mims/ No, no, that's okay! That's okay. I just...
Karr/ But this will also come into play as we talk about the new procedure for boards and
commissions moving forward...
Mims/ Right ... right.
Karr/ ...cause it is..it is confusing, and especially when individuals do apply for more than one
board or commission.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think we need some clarification about that, not ... not right now, but for
future decisions, especially with regard to the length of terms, because we had that
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conversation as well, and I ... I frankly don't remember what we decided to do and when it
takes effect.
Mims/ Well, what we did decide and it's right here (laughter) It is ... cause she told me it's here! I
didn't read it. Um, it is hereby established as a formal policy of the City Council of Iowa
City that each application for reappointment to a City board or commission will be
considered without regard to incumbency.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Mims/ If reappointed, an individual would be limited to one reappointment to a full term in order
to increase the opportunities for new applicants to serve. So ... if our appointment is to be
without regard to incumbency, okay, incumbency. Did I say that right? Um ... I would
vote for Zach on this one.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, true enough, but what I was trying to draw attention to is whether there'll...
they would all be three-year terms, four-year terms, five-year terms — remember, we went
through that...
Mims/ Right! (both talking) ...be coming back to us.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Botchway/ Yeah, I mean ... you know, I understand your point, John. I'm ... I'm pretty, you know,
set on, um, this person just because I feel like, you know, as a student the opportunity,
um, even, you know, for myself from ... from an Ad Hoc Diversity standpoint, having an
opportunity to, you know, be engaged. I would not have had the opportunity if we
had ... if Council at the time had not considered somebody who had not served on the
committee at all. Um, so I feel pretty strongly about this, but you know, again...
Mims/ The other thing I would just ... kind of piggyback on what Kingsley is saying is Zach is
obviously interested in participating. He applied for two different ones and just kind of
moving on to the Parks and Rec, there's three applicants there, two of whom who have
very strong backgrounds in parks and/or rec experience. I mean in some cases decades of
experience.
Throgmorton/ Right.
Mims/ Zach does not bring that kind of background to the Parks and Rec, so I was not as
comfortable appointing him there, but wanted to try and give him an opportunity if there
was one, and so I felt the distinction, again, with 11 people on that Historic Preservation
board, you know, even if he didn't have quite as much experience as Kate, would not be
detrimental to the board or the commission, and would give him an opportunity to serve.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
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Mims/ So that's where I was coming from.
Cole/ Well I'm going to support Zach. I think those are very good points. We need to encourage
new voices and when we have that opportunity we need to seize that opportunity. Kate
sounds like a great, fantastic, and it's not impugning her in any way...
Mims/ Right!
Cole/ ...but I think Zach, uh, really represents what we want to get moving with, so I'm going to
support Zach.
Throgmorton/ Okay, so ... we have three versus two at the moment, and uh, Terry is not here.
I'll ... I'll support Zach for, uh, in order to appoint someone to the commission. Uh, I ... I do
think it's ... it would be very helpful for us to have ... some personal, um, connection... not
connection. Personal, uh, knowl ... knowledge in the sense of having met applicants and
having had some kind of conversation with 'em, uh, before a ... appointing. So I always
feel some discomfort about that.
Cole/ Marian, have we ever done that, where we actually called someone to the podium and sort
of do an interview or (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...(mumbled)
Karr/ I think what ... what we do do, to ... to answer Mayor Throgmorton and ... and you is that as
part of the application we attach a list of your phone numbers and your addresses, and
encourage individuals applying to call you, introduce themselves, and talk to you one-on-
one.
Cole/ Okay.
Karr/ And that is part of the application process, and we do that, we encourage that both verbally
and when we get any applications in.
Cole/ Okay.
Mims/ And we do have people that do that.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and I ... and though we're making this decision, I would hope that Kate
Corcoran understands that we have a great deal of respect for the work she's done
and ... this is not a personal critique. (several talking) Okay, with regard to Parks and Re
Commission, we have three applicants to fill one unexpired three-year term. The
applicants are Wayne Fett, Joseph Dixon, and Zacharia Builta and we just appointed
Zacharia, so we have two applicants. Uh, I don't know either one of 'em. So I ... I have no
knowl... no real knowledge other than what's in their forms.
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Mims/ I certainly know of Wayne. Have, you know, for a long time with the University
affiliation, um...
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) way back when.
Mims/ Yeah, and ... but Joseph certainly has ... good credentials, so I ... really am comfortable with
either one.
Thomas/ I thought they were both good candidates. I ... I leaned a little bit toward Wayne.
Mims/ That's fine with me!
Cole/ I support Wayne.
Botchway/ I lean toward Joseph (laughter) but ... (several talking)
Taylor/ ...sounded good to me also.
Botchway/ ...people know, I mean, you have a relationship. It's ... it was more just from kind of a,
yeah.. .
Throgmorton/ All right, Wayne Fett. Okay. Moving on. Let's see ... Housing Choice Voucher.
It's my understanding staff will be, uh, speaking to us, correct? So who's gonna do it,
Tom?
Housing Choice Voucher 1Agenda item #101:
Markus/ Stefanie's here.
Bowers/ I'll speak first and then Doug Boothroy will speak after me. So this is a ... a
recommendation from the Human Rights Commission, and it is to include Housing
Choice Voucher and other rental subsidies in the definition of public assistance, source of
income, under the City's, uh, Fair Housing laws. And what this, um..amendment would
do is it would, um, prohibit advertisements that either directly or indirectly, um, indicate
that persons who, um, use a Housing Choice Voucher are not welcome or not solicited.
Um, it would also prohibit, uh... policies that automatically reject a housing applicant
because they have a Housing Choice Voucher. So what this ... and there's been a ... I think,
um, some misunderstanding as to what this does and what it doesn't do. So, this
amendment does not mandate that a landlord rent to an applicant just because they have a
Housing Choice Voucher. A landlord can still use, um ... their si... their selection criteria in
determining who to rent to, and when we look at the, uh, Fair Housing laws that we
already have on the books here in Iowa City, things like race, religion, national origin —
we know that those are characteristics that are not supposed to be taken into consideration
when making decisions on who to rent to. And this amendment is no different. Uh, we
feel it's a Fair Housing, um, issue here in Iowa City and we have a 2014 survey that was
done as part of the 'impediments to fair housing choice,' and of the 210, uh, voucher
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holders who responded to this survey, 31 % of them felt that the reason they were
discriminated against, um, in housing was because they had vouchers, landlords refuse to
consider them because they, um, were using rental subsidies. And ... I would also like to
point out, and Doug Boothroy will talk more about the Housing Choice Voucher
Program, but the purpose of that program is to remove barriers for ... for persons who are
low income persons, who have disabilities, persons who are elderly. And so staff does
support this recommendation from the Human Rights Commission. Um, we feel that,
um, policies that reject an otherwise qualified applicant, um, from ... for being considered
for a ... an available unit, uh, go against the purpose of Fair Housing laws, um, it goes
against, you know, the reason why we have a ... a Housing Choice Voucher Program, and I
think as we move forward as a community, trying to be more welcoming, more inclusive,
more just, I ... I just don't think policies like that are moving us in the right direction.
Urn ... I would also like to add that we prefer education over complaints, and so if this
amendment is passed, we are asking that it not start or go into effect until June 1St of this
year so that, um, staff can have opportunity to reach out to, uh, to landlords, to Housing
Choice, um, Voucher participants, and just the community at large on what this, uh,
amendment is and how it works. So ... that's all I have.
Boothroy/ Good evening, Doug Boothroy, Director of Department of Housing Inspection
Services. The Iowa City Housing Authority is the agency that ... uh, administers the, uh,
Housing Choice Voucher Program, as well as public housing. Uh, and I'm here on behalf
of the Housing Authority to, uh, indicate that the Housing Authority strongly supports
this change. Uh, as Stefanie, uh, pointed out, it promotes fair housing. Uh, the other
thing that I want to emphasize from the Housing Authority's perspective, uh, because it
comes up, uh... uh, in some of the landlord correspondence that you receive is that, uh,
this of course is not a mandatory requirement that the landlords have to participate with
Housing Choice Vouchers. Uh,this is not a requirement that's being done because our
utilization rate, uh, needs to be bumped up, uh, we're at 100%. Uh, I've been with the
Housing Authority for a good number of years and we've always had a very high
utilization rate in Iowa City, uh, and even with the concern expressed by the landlords
about the rules and regulations which have changed over the years, and are a lot easier to
use today, uh, we have, uh, always had high participation by landlords. Uh, currently we
have over 400 landlords that are participating in the program. Uh, I think it's a ... it's ... it's a
very positive thing about the ... the landlords of this community and other communities
that, uh... choose to use vouchers in their program. Unfortunately, there are some
landlords that have choo... uh, chosen to, uh, advertise, uh, that they don't accept
vouchers, that no vouchers are accepted in their particular projects, and uh, that's a
message that's, uh... uh, contrary to fair housing. It's a message that's contrary to, uh,
diverse neighborhoods and inclusion. Uh, and you know, we're in the process, or I'm in
the process of putting together an inclusionary housing ordinance to mandate
inclusionary housing, and this is ... this is a message that, um..is contrary, I think, to the
values of this community, and so, uh, we urge you to amend the, urn ... uh... uh, Human
Rights ordinance. Uh... this discussion tonight is about fair housing. It's not about the
rules and regulations of the Housing Authority.
Throgmorton/ I ... I wonder if anybody has questions for either Doug or Stefanie.
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Botchway/ I had a question for Stefanie. Um, you talked about education to landlords by June
0. Will there be any education to tenants, outside of, you know, just the fact that this
will be going into effect?
Bowers/ We'll do outreach, um, to the community, to landlords, and to participants in the
Housing Choice Voucher Program. Yeah.
Botchway/ Okay.
Boothroy/ Excuse me, I can't see without these (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Y'all are disappearing too quickly. There might be other questions. So I ... I
certainly have one, but .... uh, I think you do, Rock.
Cole/ Well I ... this ... this, Stefanie, if you could just step up. Um ... you know, I ... essentially I saw
sort of the competing, um, sort of proposals from the landlord association, as well as from
staff, and I think there was sort of the correspondence back and forth. Um, and you ... and
I really appreciate that, uh, we're trying to essentially educate the community, you know,
from now until its implementation on June I". I'm just wondering has there been a ... an
effort to explore the opportunity of a task force to address the underlying problem here,
which is that we ... we do have some people that have been denied access to certain parts
of the community, um, but it would be interesting to explore if there's a ... if the landlords,
uh, could work together with staff to have a set of joint recommendations. Is that
something that was explored at all, in terms of...cause I saw number of proposals that
they had given to us. Some of which seemed, uh, not super -helpful; others seemed a little
bit more helpful. To what extent, uh, have you, uh, explored the possibility of coming
together with a set of joint recommendations?
Bowers/ Well I ... I, we spoke with the landlords at their May, 2015 meeting and then we received
the correspondence in, um, in July, and then again in January of this year. As far as, um,
explicit conversations, no. I mean as far as some of their suggestions that they made
throughout the correspondence, I think staff notes the ones that, you know, we feel are
doable and workable, but, um ... you know, some of their comments were that they'll stop
and encourage other people from, you know, advertising...
Cole/ Yeah.
Bowers/ ...that no Section 8 (both talking)
Cole/ ...that was the one recommendation (both talking) jumped out at me as serious, yeah.
Bowers/ ...yeah, I mean so I don't think staff feels, I mean, it's more than just the appearance. It's
the treatment too.
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Cole/ Well, and Doug had mentioned the inclusionary zoning, um, I know that there was the
inclusionary zoning task force for Riverfront Crossings. I was wondering whether, um, a
similar approach could be applied in this particular case if we had several stakeholders
that were brought together to come up with a set of recommendations or is that ... uh, sort
of a different process?
Bowers/ Well like I said, I don't (several talking) I don't necessarily think that we've ... talked
specifically about that.
Cole/ Okay.
Bowers/ We try to address the areas where we overlapped and agreed, you know, with some of
the suggestions. Um ... but ... but again, I think when you're looking at discrimination and
you have individual situations where people are discriminated against, then you have
discrimination that is affecting a broad class of persons. You know, this ... this is
something that affects, uh, persons, uh, who are low income, persons who elderly,
persons who have disabilities, regardless of their race, regardless of their national origin,
so I mean this ... this is a very, uh, this .... these prohibitions have very large impacts
throughout the ... the community when people, you know, are denied even though they
would qualify. Um ... so....
Throgmorton/ Are there other questions for Stefanie or Doug? Okay. I don't see any! I don't
hear any, that is (laughter) All right, movin' along here, uh... discussion of, uh, interim
City Manager and City Manager search. Uh, Tom, were you thinkin' you'd give us a
quick overview of the memo you, um (both talking)
Discussion of Interim City Manager and City Manager Search UP #3 Info Packet of 1/281:
Markus/ I don't know how quick it'll be but ... (laughter) Yeah, I was going to give you an
overview. Um, so I'll just pick out some, uh, what I think are kind of important points
that were included in the ... uh, memo that I submitted to the City Council. Uh... one of the
things I want to tell you right up front is that ... it seems to me that you have a couple of
very competent individuals who've been down this path before in both, uh, Marian and
Eleanor, and you have the advantage of them being both direct appointees of the City
Council, but that they do not oversee any part of the City Manager's operations. So I
think it creates an appropriate, um, separation of responsibility and authority, uh, to have
them handle it and quite frankly, I can recall when I was interviewed here and, uh, both
Eleanor and ... and Marian were in that process, and I think they kept it, uh, to a point
where, um, the ... the communication was good between the Council and them, and then
any information that needed to go out to the employees could be funneled back through
them as well. So I ... I think that is a strong recommendation on my part that you do that.
There's really two issues in front of you. One is the, uh, interim appointment of a, uh,
city manager, and that's something that I think you, um, need to move with some dispatch
on at this point. My personal recommendation to you is to ... um, direct staff to, uh,
starting tomorrow potentially at the staff meeting, uh, indicate that we would invite, um,
members of the, uh, City employment that have an interest in being considered to submit
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their name and their credentials for serving as the interim. The reason I say that to you is
that...um...it...it...it's somewhat of a defensive move, but it...it then, uh, precludes
somebody saying that, well, I was interested in that and I never gave a chance. The
opposite ... uh, perspective being if you just plucked somebody out and say this is who it's
going to be, and quite frankly, you know, there's a name that's been ... been out there in the
public. That doesn't preclude that person from, um, this at all. I just think it's a, probably
be a more appropriate part of the process to make sure that you fee ... that people feel that
it was, if they really wanted to they could have submitted their name and they
could ... they could have had their credentials considered. So, that's kind of where I come
from on that. So I intend to start, um, the week of March 21St, um, in Lawrence and so I
think, um, I would recommend that you move with some, um, expediency in getting that
interim named. There's a number of things, I serve on a number of boards and
commissions as a ... uh, as a part of being the city manager of Iowa City, and so ... with the
designation of interim manager, that person would automatically assume those
responsibilities, so that kind of cleans up some of that, and I think you need to signal to
your employees that you've put somebody in charge and that there's an expectation there.
The other thing I suggested to you is that if so directed I would come back with a
recommendation as to some level of compensation. I want to point out a couple things.
There is a cost, uh, ultimately to get to the search, and there is a cost to adjust the pay for,
uh, the ... the manager's, uh, pay, but remember that you're going to have one less person
on the payroll in the manager's office during that period of time. So it should come
relatively close to, you know, not ... not, urn ... costing any additional, uh, funds during that
particular period of...there ... there, it ... there will be some slippage, but it's not dollar -for -
dollar. Um, so any questions about the interim process? Okay. The next, um, which is a
much more complex process is the permanent city manager position, and um, what I've
said is that, urn ... unless you intend to make a direct appointment, um ... urn ... without a
process, urn .... then I would strongly encourage you to, um, have urn ... Marian and
Eleanor develop an RFP and actually interview executive search firms. And those search
firms, urn ... have an advantage, I think, over us just doing a cold call kind of
advertisement. Um, they ... they know who's out there, they know who may be interested,
they know, urn ... they know how to go about, um, soliciting and recruiting people and not
just advertising for a position. And so I think there's some value. They also know, uh,
what kind of the current practices are in terms of vetting candidates in a very public way,
and quite frankly, um ... there's a fair amount of public process that's involved in this, and I
think they can help shepherd you through that in a very professional way. So unless you
intend to just make an outright appointment, uh, without a process, I strongly encourage
you to consider a search firm, after you've gone through an RFP and ... and made that
selection, and that doesn't have to take a lot of time. I've estimated the cost of a search
firm to be in the 20 to 30,000 range. That might be modest, but I think, um, I think it's
probably doable. Um, that does not include the cost of bringing in candidates and I've
indicated in my memo that it's likely that you'd have kind of a two-step process where
you'd bring in a larger number of people, you would interview them on a shortened kind
of process, and then refine that down to a finalist group, and then bring them back at a
subsequent meeting, and that's where you would do more public vetting. That's where,
uh, more extensive background searches, um, take place. I've been through these
processes now twice in the last five -plus years and ... urn ... you ... you'd be surprised about
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how intense the background search gets on some of this stuff, ... ... sol ...I've made a
number of suggestions in terms of what you should do on the interim city manager, invite
the senior staff to submit a letter of interest if they're interested, determine an interview
process, and make an interim manager selection. I think you should do that within the
next month. Um, ask the City Clerk and City Attorney to prepare a resolution of
appointing an interim manager, uh, approve the resolution, name the interim manager,
and if you would like, um, you could ask me to come back with some recommendations
on salary. I can tell you that, uh, eastern Iowa is a exceptionally, um, strong payer for
city managers. Um, you'll find that that's not necessarily the case with your incumbent
city manager because I chose other things rather than necessarily pay as something that I
wanted. That was my doing, but I would say to you that you may be surprised to find out
what competitive salaries look like in eastern Iowa. There's some pretty exceptional
salaries out there. So just be aware of that. And I ... and so I think on an interim basis
there's some ... there's some reason for you to, um ... you know, have some information and
I'd be glad to provide that, uh, to you as to a recommendation. Ultimately all these
decisions are you. Are ... are yours. Uh, ask the City Clerk and Attorney to recommend
any additional processes they would advise you follow, and the interim manager. That's
the interim management, uh, recommendations. On the permanent manager, my
recommendation to you is that you do run a process. But I want to ... but I want to make
very clear to you, don't run a process if all you're going to do is pick an interim ... or a, not
just the interim but a ... internal candidate. Don't do that! Um ... and you have to know in
your heart that you're going to give every candidate a fair chance that you bring in here.
And that you're going to make a decision which in your individual opinion is the best
decision for this community as a city manager. So if you're gonna go through the
process, be sincere about it and ... and quite frankly, that's a big ... big issue out in the
business right now. The other thing I would say to you is a lot of times what happens is
the, um ... profile that you will help create about the manager that you're trying to find for
this city, one of the things that will likely be said in there is that it's expected that internal
candidates will apply as well, and I think that's helpful for the external candidates to
know that there's that kind of competition and that this Council may, you know, consider
internal candidates very highly. That doesn't mean that you've got a foregone conclusion
that you're going to select somebody, uh, from the inside and that they won't be given a
fair chance, but I want you to think about any processes that you may have observed and
how unfair I think it is to bring in an outside candidate, expose them through this whole
public process, and potentially hurt the relationship with their existing employer when
there was really never a chance that that person was going to be considered. And quite
frankly, that's happened around the country. So I would ... I would just ask you to think
that through before you make that decision. Um ... (sighs) ... like I said, the final stages are
usually much more intense. Um,Iowa City is one of those communities like Lawrence
that there is a expectation that there will be a public process, that your public will get to
engage with these individuals. I remember being over at the Library and, um, we each
gave a three or four -minute introduction of ourselves, and then the Council just turned the
public loose on us. They sent us to our respective corners and ... the public ki... came up
and had the opportunity to engage with us. I think it was, what, an hour, hour and a half
period of time. Um, there was teams of department heads that interviewed us. There
were teams of former mayors that interviewed us. Um, there was some outside, you
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know, uh, you know, citizens that had a chance to interview us. All of that feedback was
funneled back into the Council so the Council was privy to all that, plus the Council's
own interviews and the Council, I think, interviewed maybe on the final interview
process twice they had, uh, interviewed us, um ... as candidates. So ... it's a ... it's a fairly
intense process, but ... I tell you that it's probably one of the more critical decisions you
make in terms of, um, somebody being selected to carry out the policies that ... that you
want to see carried out, and so ... I just ... I think that you want to be very transparent in
your process, and again, I would encourage you to use Marian and Eleanor to keep the
separation away from the Manager's office and presumably then the Manager office...
Manager's office is not consumed with all of the, you know, the extra-curriculars of the
process, while they're trying to administer the affairs of the city. Any questions I'd be
glad to answer 'em.
Throgmorton/ I'd first like to say that, uh, I want to thank you for this very thoughtful and
helpful, uh, set of recommendations, and also all the attachments assoc ... associated with
it, and Marian, I'm imagining you had a hand in that because you and I communicated
ahead of time. Uh, but it's all very, very helpful. So, uh... be..want to hear what you folks
had to say. Susan, I know you and Terry were involved in the search five years ago.
Wondered if you had some thoughts you want to contribute?
Mims/ I would strongly encourage that we follow all of Tom's recommendations. Um, and
starting with the first, on the interim, I was just looking at the calendar. Um, because of
spring break in March, we have a meeting, a regularly scheduled meeting, on March 1St
We don't have another regularly scheduled meeting until March 23`d, which is after Tom
is already gone. So we're sitting here on February 2nd ... so .... depending on the interest in
scheduling special meetings, if we're going to interview internal candidates for the
interim position, um, if we direct staff beginning tomorrow to make it known to people to
put in their name and credentials, I guess I would ask Tom what do you think is a
reasonable timeframe to ask them to get those in, so that we can review them and then
decide, you know, in terms of trying to schedule (coughing, unable to hear speaker)
Markus/ So your next meeting is ... February...
Mims/ 16th, it's two weeks from tonight.
Markus/ I ... personally I think that you can ask people to have those back before that date, and...
so that you can actually consider 'em at that meeting. I don't think that's... that's, I mean,
people... people that have that interest (both talking)
Mims/ Sure!
Markus/ ...going to be ready to submit. So...
Throgmorton/ Other thoughts?
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Botchway/ So I actually disagree with, um ... Tom's recommendation in part. Uh, I feel like, um,
you know, and this ... I've not talked with, um, Geoff at all,um, regards to this but I feel
like, um, for me, um ... he should be appointed the interim city manager. So ... um, you
know, I ... I think that it really ... puts an awkward process, and I ... again I wasn't in the
process beforehand, so I'm just speaking totally from my own thought process. I think it
really makes an awkward process to ... have us conduct an interim search process within
our own ranks, um...it...it just seems convoluted from a .... internal politics, internal
mechanism standpoint. I'm not sure how it worked before, um, and I have full
confidence in, you know, what Geoff has provided, not only, you know, in the last two
years that I've been here, but just also from other community folks who have, you know,
solicited my ear, so to speak, about you know their confidence in Geoff, and so I feel... if
he is wanting of the interim position, perfectly comfortable in moving forward. If he
does not feel comfortable with the interim position, then I would state then ... I would be
interested in going through the interim process.
Dilkes/ Let me just make one clarification. There was ... we did not do a search in the past, or a
competitive... anything with the interim city manager. There was simply an appointment
of the ... the assistant.
Botchway/ Okay! Never mind.
Dilkes/ We did, of course, with the city manager, but not with the interim.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Be ... before we continue, I think it would be helpful to ... for the moment, to
separate the discussion about the interim position from the one about the permanent
position. So right now let's focus on the interim position (several talking) Yeah. So...
Thomas/ Was there an interim when ... Iowa City was faced with this situation before. Was there
an assistant city manager (several talking)
Markus/ Dale Helling was ... served in both (both talking)
Thomas/ ...serve as the interim? (several responding) I ... I think Kingsley has a point. I mean,
I ... I personally think, um, Geoff...would serve as the, well as the interim city manager.
Um, and it sort of follows the same argument Tom was making about the permanent one.
If we kind of felt we were leaning toward Geoff and then went through a request for
applications from staff as a whole, um, are we really being fair to those applicants who...
we're soliciting applications from.
Cole/ How long is the search process going to take for the permanent manager? Do we have a
sense of that? In te... how long did it take last time?
Markus/ Well, part ... part of it's driven by publication dates.
Cole/ Okay.
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Markus/ For... professional journals and when that information comes out. So, I think you can
figure on ... you know, 90 to 180 days for a process and that's probably fairly quick
timing... you... remember, if you bring in eight candidates, for example, in a full-blown
process...
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ ...you got coordinate all their schedules...
Cole/ Yeah.
Markus/ ... and ... and so you're gonna be running into spring, potentially summer time periods. So
it's ... it gets pushed around quite a bit. I can tell you ... the manager in Lawrence left in the
spring of 15 and they just concluded the negotiation with me in, um ... January of this year.
So...
Throgmorton/ (both talking) ...is that the ... the whole process, last time, took eight to nine months
(both talking)
Karr/ That's correct.
Throgmorton/ ...from the moment where we started looking for a search firm to the moment
where Tom was hired.
Karr/ If you take the ... the package timeline to be doing an RFQ for search firms. They
responding. Then you interviewing them. Hiring them. They then providing you a
timeline of...that they would suggest, along with additional conflicts in their schedule,
and yours, then advertising for the city manager, conducting interviews, and then the city
manager giving notice. I think the last time I think Tom's hire date was, um, November
and um...
Markus/ December lsti
Karr/ It was at a November Council meeting for a December 1St start, and um, we interviewed in
the..in the summer.
Cole/ Well and the reason why I bring that up in the context of the interim, back to Kingsley's
point, I think we just need to go ahead and make a decision. Um ... uh, I'm a big fan of
Geoff as well. I do support the public search process, and I will independently evaluate
all of the other ones, but I think we just need to make a decision. So ... um ... it's sort of
(both talking)
Throgmorton/ Pauline, do you have a view?
Taylor/ Well it seems like, uh, it would be a fair process. Part of his job description, most likely,
is to fill in when Tom is not available, and he has even in the short time I've been on ... on
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the Council, he's filled in and done a remarkable job and he seems on top of things. Uh,
un ... unless there's a sense that there would be someone out there, another employee that
would be interested in the position, then they might feel that they were slighted and not
given the opportunity.
Cole/ But they could also apply too for the full-time position (both talking)
Taylor/ That's true!
Cole/ (both talking) Um...
Throgmorton/ Well, um, I ... I....I had not even thought about the possibility of asking other
senior staff, uh, to fill this position on an interim basis. So I'm glad you drew our
attention to that. Uh... I personally think that Geoff is fully prepared to act as interim. I
think it would be wise to go ahead and move in that direction. But I sure would hate to
insult any of our senior staff, you know, so that .... that's a concern (both talking)
Botchway/ Actually (several talking) so, um, my thoughts on this matter was if we were to
recommend Geoff for appointment at this time, if we were .... and, Tom, help me out with
this cause you're, you know, the City Manager and you've gone through these processes
before, um, you know .... do an internal process, at least initially first as far as, you know,
if there are interested individuals within the ranks that we currently have, and..as well
with, uh, the Assistant City Manager Geoff Fruin, decide whether or not we
had ... anything here to make a decision on. If we did, if we feel like we didn't, then we'd
open it up to an external process and go forward. I know that's maybe (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Not for the interim.
Mims/ (both talking) ...external for the internal? (several talking)
Throgmorton/ We're not gonna do an external search for the interim position.
Botchway/ I'm sorry! I....my point was, and maybe (mumbled) that clear. We would
recommend Geoff for the position. So for the external position ... we would...
Cole/ You were talking about the permanent (several talking)
Botchway/ Yeah, permanent, sorry ... (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...separate topic. We're not talkin' about that right at the moment. We're talkin'
about the interim position, the appointment to the interim position.
Botchway/ Okay, I guess ... cause you men ... you made the mention that ... um, not to slight senior
staff, and so I was building into the external position a way of handling that particular
slight.
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Cole/ Yeah.
Botchway/ That was my point. (several talking)
Throgmorton/ ..so the external staff could apply at that moment, with regard to the permanent
position. Is that what you're saying?
Botchway/ Internal staff ...could apply at that moment, as we're talking about the external
position.
Mims/ There's no external position! (several talking)
Botchway/ The perm... sorry! The permanent position, yeah. The permanent position! (several
talking) I ... I apologize (both talking)
Cole/ No, I see what you're saying on that. I think basically what you're saying is we want to get
a sense of whether there are internal candidates for the interim position.
Botchway/ I guess let me be frank. I mean, in my job and in previous jobs, you know, you ... if
you have a position open, you can first look internally, and that's where you were talking
about a possible slight, and then if you didn't feel like you had candidates internally for
the position, you would then open it up externally. For the open position.
Throgmorton/ Yeah (noises, several talking) but in this context we're talkin' about the interim
position, and the only question is .... should we ... ask other senior staff who might
potentially be interested, to have an opportunity to submit... applications for the interim
position and to be ... interviewed as ... as applicants. That ... that's the only real question
(both talking)
Cole/ I guess (both talking) I don't think we should. I think we should, because it's an interim
position now, I think we should, uh, appoint Geoff and then we're talking about only six
months, uh, six to nine months at most.
Taylor/ And you have a staff meeting tomorrow you said? Perhaps if we decide on that
(mumbled) announce that and you get a sense of the group (both talking)
Dilkes/ I think if that's your inclination, probably the Mayor wants to have a conversation with
Geoff and ... go from there.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, all right ... so that's what we will do. We will proceed under the assumption
that there'll be ... that we will ask Geoff. We'll suggest the appointment of Geoff as
interim, and then discuss the details with him.
Cole/ Yeah (several talking)
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Throgmorton/ All right. With regard to the ... to the permanent position, my own personal sense is
that we need to give ourselves, especially the three new Members, time to get our sea
legs, to have a better sense of how the Council functions, how the Council functions in
relationship to the staff, what's at stake in making an appointment of someone to a
permanent position, and my own gut feeling, and I'm just going to throw out a number
here, is that we need to wait about three months... before we decide whether or not to
engage in a full-time, uh, search for a permanent, um ... to do an external search for a
permanent city manager. That's my gut feeling. So I don't know what you all think. So,
I'd be curious to know.
Cole/ With the thought process that if...we were pleased with Geoff s performance in the first
three months, we possibly wouldn't engage in the external review process, is that sort of
what you're...
Throgmorton/ I ... I'm attentive to what Tom said near the end of his presentation.
Cole/ Yeah.
Throgmorton/ A ... about how we should be careful not to initiate an external search if we know
ahead of time that we already have a candidate in mind. I mean you know a preferred
candidate in mind. So we can't know that! One way or the other. We can't know that
with having... without having ... some time to, um ... see how things go. That's the way it
seems to me.
Cole/ Well setting aside that particular question, I think that this question of, uh, "sea legs," and
really figuring out how the process is going to work. Among other things like in terms of
the search firm, I ... I want to get more information, cause that strikes me as a fairly
significant question. We've already gotten a couple solicitations on search firms. Um,
and I think that is really going to guide the ... the selection of candidates that we're gonna
have. So I think in terms of the timing part of it, Jim, I ... I would agree with you on that.
I'd like a little more time, uh, especially since we do have a very good interim candidate,
um ... and I think three months does seem to be a good timeframe so we can gather more
information, cause I want to get more information about the search firm process, as well.
Markus/ The only thing I would .... if I could interject, the only thing I would say to you is, don't
let that process drag on too long, because you're running short and quite frankly if you
look around, we run fairly lean in the Manager's office to begin with, so don't ... don't, I
mean if you want ... if you want to get your sea legs, I think that's fine. If you want to get
an experience with how, um, if you're going to go with Geoff, how he relates to you and
how you ... you feel about how that works out, I think your timing about three months is
pretty reasonable. Don't just let that linger.
Cole/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ So we should have, you know, a time -certain basically with regard to come...
revisiting this particular topic.
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Thomas/ I think we're saving a little bit of time, in a sense, with ... if we move forward with
selecting Geoff as the interim, in terms of not having to be distracted by that or having
just to ... (noise on mic, unable to hear speaker) certainty that we're dealing with. And
maybe we don't need three months. Maybe it's sometime shorter than that. Um ... you
know, maybe ... maybe it's a couple of months. I don't know. Um ... but I like the idea.
do like the idea of...of not immediately initiating that process.
Markus/ The ... the other thing I want to point out to you is you ... you've laid out a fairly
aggressive, um, list of things to do in terms of budget and strategic plan. And so ... I
don't ... I don't want it to go much longer because I can tell you, there'll be some stress on
your administrative staff, and your ... your management staff in the departments to get
some of these things moving. Um ... if we're ... we're short and there's this ... until the
permanent selection is made, you know, sometimes the ... the direction is not, you know, is
not bought into, so you ... you need to move with some dispatch in terms of how you're
gonna get this resolved.
Throgmorton/ Kingsley? Susan, do you have thoughts about this?
Mims/ That's fine!
Botchway/ I wouldn't ... I wouldn't disagree. I mean I guess my only ... I wouldn't disagree.
Throgmorton/ Pauline?
Taylor/ (mumbled)
Throgmorton/ All right, so our..our, is our intent clear, Marian? Three months (mumbled) and
we revisit this particular topic.
Karr/ And that you will follow up, um, with negotiations and discussions with the current
assistant?
Throgmorton/ Yes.
Markus/ Okay, so let me just wrap up a few loose ends, if that's the direction you want to go.
So ... there's going to be ... looking at my ink all over my (laughter) There's going to be
some terms and conditions that you have to be ... and if...and if the Council is of a mind,
um, I can work with Jim on giving him the information that he'll need in terms of that
kind of discussion in terms of what, you know, a pay adjustment would be for the inter
...the added interim duties. Um, I think at the same time you would want to give
direction to Marian and Eleanor to have an interim resolution prepared so that you can
bring that back and actually... make a recommendation at...at your 16th, is that the date?
Uh, Council meeting and get that put in place.
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Throgmorton/ Makes sense to me (several talking) Sound good to the two of you? I know I
talked with Marian earlier, but when you and I were conversing (mumbled) Okay, good!
Thanks to all! You know, I ... I want to mention something else before we go to our next
topic. I'm very conscious that our student liaison is sitting out there, in ... instead of up
here, so this is an artifact of the way we restructured our work sessions and it doesn't
make me feel all that comfortable. I think our student liaison should have presence... with
(several talking) so (both talking)
Markus/ Why don't you let us work on that and make that arrangement.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, great! So, Nicki, if uh...
Mims/ We'll get ya up here!
Throgrnorton/ Yeah, and if...you know, please just stand up if you want to say something as
we're going through any of these topics, okay? Until we make that adjustment.
Markus/ There's actually two (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Oh, right! Yeah, sorry! Yeah. (several talking)
Markus/ There was no intention at a slight! (several talking and laughing)
Information Packet Discussion [January 21, 281 Strategic Planning [IP # 4 Info Packet of
1/281 Budget [IP # 5 Info Packet of 1/ 281
Throgmorton/ Okay, we can turn to our Info Packet, but it is now ... 21 till. We could conceivably
go for another 10 minutes cause we don't have to move things all around. Uh, is ... is that
all right with you folks? (several responding) And at some point we're going to have to
stop and then we'll come back to the work session, we'll reconvene the work session after
the formal meeting. Okay, with regard to the Info Packet, what I would like to do is go
immediately to ... the budget, which is IP #5 in the January 28ih Info Packet. Primarily
because of the timing involved. It's my understanding that staff will be producing a ... a
document for -for the State budget requirement on ... on February the 9t' and then there's a
whole series of time tables that follow hard on the heels of that. So I think we need to get
the budget part of this done. All right. So if you would, um ... let's, um, consider... I'll... I'll
just read particular items and you tell me if you want to do anything differently with any
of these particular items.
Markus/ Be ... before you do that, Jim, just let me lay out for the public kind of the context of
what we're working with here.
Throgmorton/ Sure!
Markus/ Is that fair? Um, so March 15t' the budget is cer.... is the certification date, um, that we
have to get this budget, um, through the State. Um, so we'll be setting a hearing at the
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February 16t' City, uh, Council meeting, uh, according to State forms, uh, we ... we need
to have those all pretty much prepared by February 9t'. Staff intends to proceed with
these revisions unless further specific direction from Council is given at the February 2nd
meeting, which is where we are right now. We want to know if these are kind of where
you want to go. If there's changes, give 'em to us now. We can roll those in and we can
get this done and ... and again, in my opinion, both the budget and your strategic plan and
uh, Geoff can go through that part of it with you a little bit later, um, both of those would
be very helpful to have those in place, even though the... subsequent modifications can be
made, both to the budget and to the strategic plan, but if you have specific items as you
walk through 'em, tell 'em to the Mayor and get consensus and we'll incorporate 'em.
Throgmorton/ Okay. So I'll just move the ... through these slowly, item by item. So, first,
a...$113,000 expenditure for a new book mobile, no ... for staff, staffing a new book
mobile.
Markus/ These are the operational costs.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, operational (both talking)
Markus/ ....maintenance, gas, you know, all of those types of things to keep that running.
Throgmorton/ All right, so .... are there any objections to ... retaining that suggested amendment?
Cole/ No.
Mims/ I had kind of hoped that we would look at this in ... but there seemed to be majority
approval at the time. I had hoped we would look at this more as, um, maybe delaying it a
year and looking at potential partnerships with... existing non -profits that are doing some
of the same kind of thing. If you look how this is impacting the budget, the initial budget
recommendation from staff was to reduce our tax levy by 10 -cents. This is costing us
three -cents in our tax levy. So instead of going down by 10 -cents, we're only going to go
down by seven. Am I interpreting that right, Tom?
Markus/ That's correct.
Mims/ Okay. That concerns me, um, it concerns me from the standpoint that we've got ... we still
have major, major adjustments that we're gonna have to make as the 2013 State property
tax changes get rolled in over the next few years and I think staff has been doing a really
good job at trying to keep moving our tax levy down to give us some cushion as that
really hits us. It is not to say that I am against the book mobile. That's not the case!
Very, very supportive of the idea, but what I would prefer that we do is take a year on
this. There's already a non-profit out there working, doing this. I know the Library staff
has some concerns about maybe their capabilities and this and that. I would like to take a
year and ask them to do ... more research and looking at possible public/private
partnerships. I think as our budget gets tighter and tighter, we have to work more and
more on public/private partnerships and non-profit partnerships. We can't do all these
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services with taxpayer dollars. We just can't, and this is one that ... this is a recurring item.
That's why it's coming from the tax levy. That's why I would like to delay it a year and
ask for more research.
Botchway/ So, um ... I agree! I actually had something prepared to say as well as you did and
now I don't have to (laughter) so I actually.... would.... say exactly what Susan said!
Taylor/ I also ... I'm totally in favor of the book mobile idea because I think it does give access to,
uh, folks in the community that perhaps don't get downtown. Uh... but I'm ... I'm, I agree
with Susan that, uh, we should perhaps wait a year because (mumbled) made the
presentation there were a lot of questions, a lot of unanswered things as far as where they
would actually have the bookmobile, how they would stock it with materials, and those
kinds of things. Seemed like there were a lot of questions out there yet.
Cole/ Well, and back to Susan's point about the public/non-profit partnership, I ... I 100% agree.
In fact I was one of the persons that actually brought that up, um, but in ... in talking with
Susan about this, I really feel that, uh, we're talking about the full operational capability
of the Library throughout the community, um, which (both talking)
Markus/ Which Susan are you talking about? (several talking and laughing)
Cole/ Sorry! Yeah (several talking) Sorry, Miss Craig, I misspoke! (laughter) Um, when we
talk about the full operational capability of the Library, I do want us to explore the non-
profits, uh, solution as well. Um, but I think we should support this. I think it is a critical
infrastructure, and it would allow us to serve throughout the community, and I think we
can find the resources in the budget for it, and I'm hoping that the Library though will
continue to work with the non -profits, uh, to, you know, to .... to partner. So, that's where
I am at this point.
Botchway/ And that's where I disagree, Rockne. I feel like if we .... if we go ahead and state
simply that we're going to do this ... I ... I feel like there's some collaboration that can occur
within this next year, as far as deferring. Um ... you know, I think it was kind of discussed
a little bit from that standpoint, as far as, you know, there being some collaboration, some
talks, but you know, now knowing that it'll be deferred a year, I would then state that, you
know, those collaboration talks be, you know, looked at in earnest to make sure that they
can, you know, come to some type of, um ... discussion or resolution as far as how to
proceed. I worry that if we say $100,000 and then there's some ... there's some pieces that,
um, you know, the other, uh, organization wants to provide, how do we fund that? I
mean that doesn't... that's... too much of a cost toward something that I ... I ... I enjoy, I feel
some type of way, but I think we need to do, but I just don't necessarily think we should
go ahead and do it.
Throgmorton/ John, do you have an opinion?
Thomas/ Well I, you know, I've read through the ... that material that we got when we were going
through the budget item and it .... you know, initially the idea of trying to integrate, you
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know, the private/public partnership, uh, appealed to me, but as I began to think about it,
I was not ... I was having trouble seeing how on this particular item ... it would actually
work. And, you know, Rockne's phrase 'the full operational capability of the Library,'
um, you know, that's very .... it's a very powerful organization. It's serving a very
powerful mission. I ... it's ... completely supports my ... my belief that we need to get better
distribution of our services throughout the city, and I just could not see any feasible way
in which that could be integrated with the non -profits. So, um, you know, I ... I continue
to support it, you know, I ... I thought (laughs) actually had come through this whole
process with the seven -cent minus three -cents off was, I thought, pretty darn good,
um ... but, um ... obviously (laughs)
Mims/ Not for me! (laughter)
Thomas/ ....she drew the line at 10 -cents, but um ... you know, I ... I do think this is a very
powerful element in what we're moving forward this year. So (both talking)
Cole/ Well it's also moving the service really into new neighborhoods, cause I think they've been
very receptive to the (mumbled) hard for people to get downtown. ... sol ...I really
strongly support this.
Throgmorton/ One thing I'm conscious of is that ... many other departments also have staffing
requests that we did not hear anything about, because they'd already been filtered through
the City Manager's office. The Library is managed differently, and, you know, somebody
else could describe the differn ... the difference better than I could, but as a result of that,
Susan had the capacity, the capability, to come before us and make a request for an
additional staff person. No other staff department had ... had that opportunity. So ... uh,
I ... we ... we should have that in mind as we're thinking about this. You emphasized the,
uh... uh, the increase of three, uh, three -cents basically, and well there's also the seven -
cent reduction. So ... shouldn't lose sight of that. But we're gonna be stuck at 3-3 unless
we make a decision, cause Terry is not here and I don't think we want to be in that
position. Uh, I'm going to say let's drop this from the item. I will vote against it
and ... and that will .... that's a 4-2 vote about removing this from the budget.
Markus/ With the invitation to have them come back (several talking)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, and I want to emphasize that too (several talking) pursue that (several
talking)
Mims/ I do too, because I'm totally supportive of the concept and ... and the service that needs to
be out there, but I think... and... and I'm not convinced job ... John, they can't work together.
I think .... I think there'll be a lot more incentive for our staff to work together when
they're told that they're not all of a sudden (laughs) getting the money and ... to do this
service they've got to hopefully find a way to work with other organizations, so ... and
we'll revisit in a year!
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Throgmorton/ Okay, the next item is 50,000 for residential/commercial on-off street parking
study. I'm supportive of it, get that right out there.
Markus/ I think these are the items that you indicated from the last meeting, so maybe the ... the
more expedient way, is there any objection to this or a suggested alteration.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. All right, good idea. So I ... I have one suggestion to make, but do you...
does anybody else have particular suggestions about changes to make in the amendments
we already proposed?
Botchway/ Yes.
Throgmorton/ Go ahead!
Botchway/ As far as the (several talking) budgetary implications, I just have a question as far as
why ... we had a separate line item, or separate budgetary item, and maybe I was reading
this wrong, for the... affordable housing form -based code missing middle and the housing
market analysis for University impact zone. I felt like we could use the money that we
had for the affordable housing ... as it was lined out here, construction project, and put the
money there. I just don't want it to be separate thing, and I didn't necessarily agree that it
should be a construction project.
Markus/ Well one was ... one was to promote a form -based code design for, you know, kind of a
gap area in ... in the town, and then the other is, urn ... to, urn ... do a market analysis of, um,
the rental market to determine, um, first off ...all the elements of the rental market in the
downtown and what, urn ... gap needs to be filled with new development. That's more of a
market analysis study, um, versus an actual, uh, zoning amendment, code amendment to
get closer to a, uh, a model of how we want to see that area developed. Very different
things.
Botchway/ I think that has a .... I mean but my ... my point is I think it has a direct effect on
affordable housing. I mean, when we do the study, it will encompass our kind of greater
discussion as far as affordable housing, and maybe I'm wrong and maybe I'm thinking too
far in the future on this. So if other Councilors aren't interested in continuing that way,
but I just didn't think it should be a separate line item.
Markus/ You want to draw a distinction, John?
Thomas/ Well I think you ... you covered it. I think, you know, they do complement one another,
you know, part of the argument.... you know, that I was making with the market analysis
is we need a better understanding of what .... what the market is, uh... the ... the affordable
housing form -based code then in a sense will begin to respond to that.
Botchway/ Right.
Thomas/ Urn ... but they're two different exercises, completely different (both talking)
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Botchway/ I'm not disagreeing going away. I'm just putting it in a different place. That's all,
but ... I mean...
Thomas/ Different place?
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Botchway/ My point was was not taking away what you were talking about. It was just taking
that $100,000 together and taking it out of the affordable housing money that we already
have earmarked (both talking)
Thomas/ Oh! Oh, the million dollars (both talking)
Botchway/ (both talking) Yeah, that was my point. (mumbled) taking anything away. I'm just
moving it (both talking)
Thomas/ Okay.
Botchway/ ...or shifting it (both talking)
Throgmorton/ I ... I don't want to do that.
Cole/ No!
Throgmorton/ So...
Botchway/ Not interested? Move forward!
Throgmorton/ All right.
Mims/ I would take out the addition of the two UniverCity homes. We already have, uh... four
and they've talked about staff capability, um, in doing stuff and .... I just think ... we're
talking about, uh, decreasing fund balances by what $260,000, um ... I know staff has said
we can handle that, but again, that's been a huge thing in terms of building up our fund
balances to make sure we maintain our triple-A bond rating. We're only two in the state
of Iowa left that have triple-A bond ratings. Um ... those UniverCity homes are not always
necessarily "affordable," depending on what you're looking at. If Michelle Payne were
still sitting up here she'd (laughs) emphasize that. So I would take out the two extra. I ... I
love the program! I think it's fantastic, but for this year I would take out the two extra.
Throgmorton/ I have a different suggestion, Susan. Uh, I would recommend deleting one of the
UniverCity homes, houses, and shifting 25,000 of the residual of the saved $50,000 to an
as -yet unidentified local foods project, and the other 25,000 toward producing, helping to
produce a form -based code for new developments on the periphery. So it, uh, it's the
same expenditure but .... but the... the... half the UniverCity money would go to...
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Mims/ I would (both talking) and I would say no, and here's part of the reason I say no, Jim. Is
the changes we've got coming in the Manager's office and the short staffed, over this next
six ... to nine months to a year, whatever, and already and ... and we haven't even gotten into
the strategic plan yet. I'm going to have a number of things in the strategic plan that I
think we need to pull out, not because I don't think they are very important, great things
to do, but I think ... we are incredibly, incredibly overburdening our staff with the, um, I
can't think of the right word I want. Just, well just with the volume of stuff that's in that
strategic plan, and so I think what you're suggesting with that inclusionary zoning, form -
based code for periphery is one more task that we're throwing on staff that I don't think
we can do in this next year. I think we have so many tran....such a huge transition going
on and so much stuff already in that strategic plan that I ... I'm not willing to support that.
Throgmorton/ What do the rest of ya think?
Botchway/ So two points; one, I would agree with, um ... the local foods discussion because I
thought we are ... not doing, not necessarily funding local foods because I thought we had
the discussion that we were waiting to work through the County. Um...
Throgmorton/ The idea is that this would be money that would be available for... collaborative
effort with the County.
Botchway/ I would still (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...we'd have to stop, yeah. We're gonna have to revisit this.
Cole/ Yeah, I agree (several talking)
Taylor/ ...excellent program and I think (mumbled) at least one in the ... in the budget plans would
be an excellent idea.
Mims/ Keep in mind there's four in there already!
Throgmorton/ Let's not try to finish this particular discussion.
Karr/ We'll recess (several talking) ...recess until after the formal.
Throgmorton/ Yeah. Thank you.
RECESS TO FORMAL MEETING
Throgmorton/ Okay, so, uh, we're going to return to the work session of February the 2nd. When
we ended our conversation previously, we were just involved in discussing, uh, a
recommendation I had made with regard to ... deleting one of the Univer... UniverCity
homes and shifting ... $25,000 of the, if you will saved funds, to an as -yet unidentified
local foo ... foods project that hopefully would be done in collaboration with the County,
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and the other 25,000 toward producing a form -based code ... to help produce a form -based
code for new developments on the periphery. So I just introduced that, I mean, it's what
I'm remembering anyhow, and we were deeply into conversation.
Mims/ Yeah, and I had basically started to say I disagreed, and then you and I kind of looked at
each other and looked at the clock and said (laughter) we can't go any further.
Throgmorton/ Right!
Mims/ Here ... here was my rationale for disagreeing. I think they're both good projects. Okay?
Not against the projects. Again, I am ... I'm concerned about the budget. I ... my proposal,
just before yours, was to take out both of those. We still have four University
homes... Univers ... UniverCity houses in the budget. So was to take out the two additional
and ... not just the one, and the reason again is money, Jim, and secondly, I think these are
just adding to the workload of staff, which when you start looking at our strategic
planning document, which we haven't even gotten to, I think we have ... I think we've
already overloaded staff with the strategic planning document and I'm not willing to add
more here at this point in time.
Throgmorton/ I understand. All right, so other views?
Cole/ I ... I'm supportive of this. I mean one of the things that I ran on was neighborhood
stabilization and supporting our historic neighborhoods. Uh, UniverCity has been a very
good program. I'm not sitting here saying that it's not, Susan, but ... as I've had this budget
discussion, it seems like we find the money for the things that we want to, and I think we
had that discussion earlier tonight. (mumbled) then all of a sudden there's disagreement,
well we don't have any money, and ... and I ... that just seems to be a continuing narrative,
um, and to the extent with staff, um, I have not heard any feedback from the City
Manager or anybody that we're taxing staff, and to the extent that we are, um, then we
can look at other ways that we can rearrange what our priorities are. Um, so I ... I would
have liked to have the two UniverCity homes added. I think that's been a critical part to
stabilizing and the fact that, you know, middle class folks can qualify for it doesn't
necessarily mean we shouldn't support it. Um, and so I'm supportive of this. We ... we've
subsidized all income types throughout the community in the last several years. I think,
Jim, uh, represents a really thoughtful compromise on that. So although I'd like two, I
think he has a nice proposal to sort of make both of those approaches work.
Botchway/ I guess for me I would disagree, um ... with, uh, Jim's proposal. I mean I'm ... to be
honest with ya, I'm more interested in the local foods project than I am as far as doing
the, um ... uh, the 25,000, I think you said (mumbled) for the UniverCity program, and so,
um, you know if it ... I'm against both. Period. But if we're going to talk about it from a
compromise perspective, then I'd be more inclined to still be against both, but put, you
know, maybe additional dollars toward a local foods project, um, in that particular way,
but ... um, you know, I feel like we're ... we .... being a staff member, it's tough for us to, you
know, ask staff whether or not we have the capacity, because it does speak to the will of
what Council asks or requests, and so if you say we ... if we state that we have to do it,
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then..staff s going to have to do it, and so I ... I don't think we .... not to say that Tom
wouldn't be very honest. He's been very frank about the capacity, um, of staff s work
before, but I just don't want to put anybody in that particular situation, and again, I think
we have a good program, um, that does well and, um, can continue.
Throgmorton/ Could I follow up on that very briefly. Geoff, you and I communicated about that
by email, but Tom, I see you're ... maybe you want to respond to that as well. The point
about .... how we will need to work with the staff to prioritize...
Markus/ Yeah, I think that's a ... that's an issue that's coming and think about it, in particular
you're going to have, you know, no matter how you cut it, you're going to have one of the
three staffers in the City Manager's office that's likely to be ... without a whole lot of
experience in the ... in that office at all, when it all shakes out after however you decide
what the permanent (mumbled) going to be. But, I would say to you that there's... there's
a lot of issues that you're movin' (mumbled) the staff into that are ... that take some work,
um, take some serious work in ... in moving in those directions, and ... I think we counted, I
don't know, 36 different initiatives that we're looking at trying to implement over this
period of time. Now what I would say about local foods though ... if the understanding is
that ... the bulk of the work is being handled by the new person that's been hired at the
County, then maybe that makes some sense, that that doesn't have to be a big burden on
staff. That we can back them up, uh, cause $25,000 is ... we're gonna have to take that on
ourselves, if it's going to be done at our level, but ... the County's... which is us, you know,
what is it? 60% of the revenue out of the County ... or more than that, comes out of the
City of Iowa City. So ... if you ... if you take the position that the 25, um, is to supplement
that position for projects here in Iowa City, I think that makes some sense. I just don't
want to get into ... for $25,000 to do an RFP, to have somebody monitor the person, to run
that program — it's hardly worth (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...that in mind, yeah (both talking)
Markus/ ...yeah, that makes sense.
Throgmorton/ With that caveat, that's... that's what I meant. Okay, uh, other thoughts? John?
Pauline?
Thomas/ Well ... what I, urn ... what I'm concerned about is .... is trying to, um, you know we
initially... did not include on this list the idea of...of trying to develop, you know,
budgeting for a form -based code for peripheral development. Uh, which ... you know, if
we're to have a form -based code to apply to the new development which will .... be, you
know, occurring around the new elementary schools, it seems to me that that's
something... that has some sensitivity in terms of when we implement it. So my thought
at this point is ... can we agree to have some flexibility with some of these items related to
housing (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ....get too complicated (laughter)
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Thomas/ But I mean we have certain items here ... I don't know how hard these figures are, you
know, the 125,000 for the ... you know, the affordable housing missing middle form -based
code, if that's a .... a really .... what you think that will actually come in at.
Fruin/ We haven't really had an opportunity to engage with you on the scope of that. You know,
both in terms of the geography, but what is the consultant providing, so ... we tried to put a
conservative number in there that'll give us some flexibility.
Thomas/ Uh huh. So I guess my .... you know, I just would like to put on the table the idea that
how can we, without dramatically ... cause we don't even have a figure for the peripheral
urban form -based code, um, I don't know if you have any thoughts on what that might be,
but.... how .... I would ... I would really like to see that included, because I think it has, you
know, we were hearing comments tonight about, you know, our affordable housing, you
know, the ... the crisis we have in affordable housing. I strongly believe that a form -based
code is a ... is a more effective code to generate affordable housing, which will be ... not as
stigmatized as ... at least some of the multi -family that we often see. So ... uh, I feel it's an
important... important, um, initiative that we need to take and ... unfortu... you know, I'd be
willing to put it off but I don't ... I don't really see putting it off as being (both talking)
Markus/ John ... John, I'm trying to understand kinda your scope, because as I view a form -based
code, I mean, you're... you're usually talking about very specific, like if...if you're talking
about Riverfront Crossing, cause you're talking about kinda specific ... you know, specific
kind of design elements, building configurations, all of that — are you talking about that
level of specificity for form -based, on the periphery, cause periphery means a big area!
Thomas/ Well what I'm ... yeah ... basically referring to is the ... where we expect development to
occur around the two new elementary schools.
Markus/ Okay, that's what you're referring to?
Thomas/ Yeah.
Markus/ So what kind of radius?
Thomas/ You know I don't know what ... where those schools are with respect to the .... the
existing edge of peripheral development, but .... I don't know, is it maybe a mile? I don't
know.
Markus/ So ... so typically what would happen is a developer, property owner would enter into an
arrangement with a developer of those properties. In the case of, um (several talking)
Alexander, the property owners are the (several talking) Lehman's. So ... maybe the
approach should be rather than have them ... um ... pay for all the planning that they would
have to do and submit it and go through a review, is talk to them... okay... about
us ... subsidizing a portion of their planning costs if we could convince them to go to a
form -based approach, and that way you wouldn't be paying, you know, the whole freight
and they would have some buy -in from the beginning to go down that path. So then the
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staff would work, you know, between a consultant and the land owner, and maybe we do
a 50/50 deal or something like that in terms of a planning.
Thomas/ So in other words, ne... negotiate with the land owner...
Markus/ Yeah!
Thomas/ ....and advocate for form -based code over our current code (both talking)
Markus/ You know, look... developers... by their nature are profit -driven. If you can develop a
product that makes sense at the end of the day that they can see will derive a return on
their investment, you'll... you'll get by it.
Thomas/ One of, you know, one of the advantages that I've ... heard mention with respect to form -
based codes is ... as opposed to say a ... our planned development overlay, which ... you
know, I don't know if that's what you're pointing this toward.
Markus/ No! I'm not!
Thomas/ It would ... okay.
Markus/ But ... but maybe some sort of variant of a form -based code that's very specific, you
know, we have some sort of written agreement about how we share in that and ... and the
area that we cover for that.
Thomas/ I mean, conceptually that seems like a .... you know ... a possibility. It certainly sounds,
you know, if it ... if it was appealing and we could convince the property owners ... that
that's a ... a reasonable thing to do, and ... and profitable for them to do...
Markus/ Before I leave I'll sit down with the Lehmans and talk to 'em.
Botchway/ So I guess I am a little bit confused cause we're talking about the two elementary
schools as far as Alexander and probably Hoover (both talking)
Markus/ Hoover's a way out, so ... the critical one is to deal with Alexander and see if we can't get
some sort of model set up and ... and, there's a learning cur ... curve to all this stuff, right?
So we learn from Alexander and move to Hoover as a result of that, if and when Hoover
gets going.
Botchway/ No, I agree. I guess my question was more around the ... along the lines of we're
inputting this dollar amount, but I thought we had prior discussions about whether or not
we were even willing to support infrastructure out that far. (mumbled) during our
strategic planning (both talking)
Cole/ ...capital improvement, but right now we're just dealing with two UniverCity programs and
a compromised proposal that Jim had brought up, aren't we?
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Botchway/ We ... (several talking) we are but ... we talked about the ... I guess I'm confused! We're
talking about projec...
Mims/ We're not talking about putting more infrastructure in. We're talking (several talking)
we're talking about form -based codes and how would that land around Alexander
develop.
Botchway/ I agree, but.... eventually we'll talk about (both talking)
Markus/ Oh, there's infrastructure ready to ... to be pushed into those areas. When we pushed, uh,
Sycamore down there...
Mims/ Yeah.
Markus/ You've got trunk lines (both talking)
Botchway/ I feel like we skipped (mumbled) but never mind. If nobody else feels that way
(mumbled) Okay.
Markus/ I think ... I think the other school ... we did talk about Hoover extended. We did talk about
not necessarily going in with a full urban cross section on, uh... American Legion Road.
We did talk about that. We're talking about some interim steps to ... to serve that school
eventually, but ... that wouldn't necessarily preclude doing what we're talking about with
(both talking) form -based code around there either (several talking)
Mims/ With the changes ... or the more detail added to it with the discussion of the City Manager,
I'll agree with what you're suggesting. We're getting rid of one of the extra UniverCity
homes, so it's reducing by 50,000, okay? And then the other .... wait a minute.
(mumbled) reducing both of them?
Thomas/ No, just one.
Markus/ So then it's going to be 25/25, right, local food (several talking) 25 would go to local
foods, which would buy the (both talking)
Mims/ So we're not saving any money. (several talking)
Markus/ No, you're directing it to different issues (several talking)
Mims/ I still want to get rid of one. (laughter) I don't want to (laughter and several talking)
Botchway/ So over the course of a year ... or a budget year, whatever the case may be, how many
homes can we do?
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Markus/ Over the course of a year? Um, it -well, first off it depends a lot on the complexity of
the homes. What we've done ... I would guess that we've done nine, 10 homes. But ... but
quite frankly (laughs) what happened was the inventory grew too much and the problem
when you don't get to'em and turn'em around quick, you've got carrying costs. When
you're got carrying costs, we cap at 50. So now you've escalated the price of the house,
so you're kind of defeating your purpose. And some of this, you know, we have to go out
to bid to rehab. First you gotta go out and inspect. You gotta scope out what needs to be
done. You gotta develop a contract, take bids, break 'em in, do the work, um, and a lot of
times, I always say that construction is the last true frontier in this country, and rehab is
like outer space, okay? I mean, you go into these rehab projects and you just don't know
what you're going to run into when you open those walls up. So ... I mean we've found
buried gas tanks. We've, I mean, you find all sorts of (several talking)
Throgmorton/ This is why I suggested eliminating one of the UniverCity houses.
Markus/ Yeah, I think that's fine!
Mims/ I still want to eliminate both.
Throgmorton/ Pauline, uh ... (several talking) I haven't heard what you think about this yet.
Taylor/ I ... say, I want to keep it at one, the one home, and whether ... to save money for Susan's
(both talking)
Mims/ It's not saving money!
Taylor/ Well, no, but not to ... not to do the shifting, the 25,000 of the 50,000 saved. Just cut it
down by one house and have it just 50,000 and one UniverCity home.
Botchway/ I guess (several talking)
Taylor/ ...that's different than Jim's proposal.
Botchway/ I guess I have a technicality thing. So I guess I'll just be in agreement with this. My
only thing is that what are we saying, are we directing staff that we need to complete five
homes in the budget, um, timeframe, or are we just directing staff that, you know (both
talking)
Markus/ You're putting five homes in there. There's always complications that could come up
that would preclude us from getting five homes done (several talking) or not making an
acquisition. You've gotta have a willing buyer, willing seller.
Botchway/ Agreed!
Markus/ We don't just go out and take these homes. So, and they gotta make sense for our
program.
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Throgmorton/ Okay, so let's cut to the quick. I favor the motion I made, or the suggestion I
made, so that ... and I heard two other people favoring it as well, so that means a 3-3 split.
I don't want to leave it at that because we need to, uh, get our budget underway. So...
um ... so we need a modification that's going to get four votes. But remember, we already
approved... six. You know, six UniverCity houses. So ... I'm proposing to get one of 'ern
out of there to, uh, address Tom's problem, staff s problem about carrying costs, etc.
Mims/ And I'm proposing to take two out...
Throgmorton/ Right.
Mims/ ...and agreed that 50,000 would be reallocated to your local foods and your ... for
(mumbled) form -based code. So we'd still have four UniverCity houses. We'd have the
local foods money. We'd have the fringe form -based code money, and we'd save 50,000.
Cole/ (several talking) compromised position, and I ... I guess I'd want it too, so let's just try to
make a compromise and say one house and then the 25,000 for local foods and the 25,000
for form based code. Think we should be able to compromise on that.
Taylor/ Pauline just liked what I said.
Throgmorton/Yeah, problem is, Rockne (both talking)
Taylor/ Well I didn't realize we had the ... four others (several talking) so ... I mean if we've got
(both talking)
Mims/ We still got four in there, yep!
Throgmorton/ So do we still have a 3-3 split, or am I misunderstanding something?
Botchway/ I don't know ... John?
Thomas/ I support what you're doing, Jim.
Throgmorton/ Yes and what are you doing, Pauline (both talking)
Taylor/ ...Susan, Kingsley. (both talking)
Throgmorton/ So it's a 3-3 split, okay? So ... that's the result of the compromise. So ... so we have
to figure out somethin' else.
Cole/ (mumbled) five houses?
Thomas/ Well I would support that. Then that gets into that question I was raising earlier — can
we find that $50,000 somewhere else? From our current...
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Throgmorton/ Oh, for the ... is that for these other things? I don't wanna go there. You know,
um ... I apologize to everybody. I'm getting tired. (several responding) Yeah! So...
Mims/ (mumbled) ...agree with me! (laughter)
Throgmorton/ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah (laughs)
Mims/ Saves us some time! (laughs)
Thomas/ Could go the other way, Susan! (laughter and several talking)
Mims/ We still have four UniverCity houses in the program! (laughs)
Taylor/ (mumbled) ...local foods project and (both talking)
Mims/ I like that and particularly with the idea of kind of piggybacking what the County's doing
and with Alexander up, I think the idea of moving forward on some kind of form -based
code in that area could really help us in terms of affordable housing, diversification of
housing down there, before it all gets developed. So I ... I like that idea.
Fruin/ We can, you know, we can push this $125,000 more and really drill in with staff to see
exactly what we think we can get out of that scope. My guess is the 125, if there's a
particular emphasis on that (mumbled) suburban growth areas around the schools, I'm
guessing we can accomplish that and, um, it may be possible that we can do some of the
missing middle stuff too. The reality is that we're unlikely to do the central core form -
based code and the suburban form -based code at the same time. It's the same staff that
would be running those. So, um, my guess is that we're gonna start one, whatever you
designate as your top priority, and we're gonna be sittin' here next year with an
opportunity to talk about the second one because that'll be a year or two project. So... I
would suggest you just leave the 125. If you want to do a local foods for 25 and barter
on, you know, a zero increase or a one increase to UniverCity, that's fine, but there
should at least be 25,000 of savings if you want (both talking)
Throgmorton/ How bout this, um ... five UniverCity houses, and 25K going to ... um, the local
foods, a local foods initiative, and the other 25K...
Mims/ Gets saved?
Throgmorton/ Yeah, it doesn't get spent.
Mims/ Okay!
Taylor/ Okay.
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Throgmorton/ All right. Looks like that ... that is, uh, meets with approval. So ... are there any
other changes anybody wants to recommend for this, uh, for our budget amendments?
Mims/ I'm concerned about the carbon emission reduction project. It's not that I disagree with
the importance of moving forward on that... but... it's so nebulous. I mean...
Markus/ By design.
Mims/ (mumbled) Would we start with an inventory, I mean, is that...
Markus/ Yeah, well, that's what I talked about...
Mims/ Right!
Markus/ ...and Jim and I had this conversation. Jim kind of had a specific idea in mind, and I
said, Jim, I said, you know, let's... that's... let's look at an audit...
Mims/ Okay.
Markus/ ...and then look at the projects that come out of the audit and pick one of those projects
to ... to go down that path.
Mims/ Okay.
Markus/ I thought that was the conversation that we had agreed on.
Mims/ Yeah. Okay.
Throgmorton/ That's what I understood.
Mims/ Okay.
Markus/ And so, you know, if you really ... if you think about this, there's... there should be an
income component to this too.
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ Carbon emissions project should reduce (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...save some money somewhere (both talking)
Markus/ Right?
Throgmorton/ Yeah.
Markus/ Okay, so...
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Thomas/ It is a reduction! We're burning less!
Throgmorton/ Okay. Uh... are there any other particular suggestions?
Botchway/ Last thing (mumbled) I guess I ... I didn't understand why in the part of the discussion
the racial equity grant program was under the Human Rights Commission. Um (several
talking)
Fruin/ We, um ... we thought that would be the likely landing spot for the group that reviews it,
and aw... and awards the grants. Staff would still, you know, shepherd the process,
but ... we ... we didn't think that that would be a staff -driven decision, or necessarily that
you wanted to be involved in that decision making process. So Human Rights seemed
like the logical choice.
Markus/ And they ... and they kind of Aook for things more to do.
Botchway/ Yeah, I mean I was more thinking it was diversity, the roundtable, and then adding, I
mean, using the current construction that we had, putting it in the diversity roundtable
and then adding Council Members to that particular committee.
Markus/ Well it doesn't hurt for the roundtable to make recommendations to the Human Rights
Commission. There is some crossover there. Stefanie's staffin' both.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, I think for allocating funds, we should not ... call upon ... (several talking)
Fruin/ We can decide that later. I think what's important is that you liked the amount. What we
would do is come back with the framework of what the grant program would look like
and at that point we can discuss process.
Throgmorton/ Okey doke! Sounds to me like we have agreement on our budget amendments.
You have enough to go with? Okay, good deal! Uh, we might be able to cover a few
other topics very quickly.
Markus/ Strategic plan?
Throgmorton/ We can't do that.
Markus/ You don't think so.
Mims/ No.
Throgmorton/ I don't think so. No. We're gonna have to schedule a separate work session for
that. So maybe we should just focus on that right now. Can we set up a time for next
week?
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Markus/ You can if you don't want me there.
Throgmorton/ Yeah (both talking)
Markus/ ...I don't think you need me there.
Throgmorton/ My guess is for strategic plan we're talking about an hour. Just to clean it up.
Markus/ Geoff is our (both talking)
Throgmorton/ ...pressured by time and tiredness and things like that.
Fruin/ We can look for next week, or we don't have anything scheduled for work session item on
the 16th, as well. We have Conference Board (several talking) pretty quick. (several
talking) I think what's important between now and then is you look at the document, look
at the seven focus areas and the 36 action items and make sure you're comfortable with
the verbiage (noises in background)
Botchway/ Should we come together about ... some consensus on ... maybe not consensus but come
prepared to talk about prioritization?
Throgmorton/ No.
Fruin/ I would just focus on gettin' it in there. We've got a couple years to work on that. Yep.
Information Packet(s):
Throgmorton/ Okay, so the six ... uh, on the 16th we'll have a work session focus (several talking)
Okay, uh, let me skip down some things here. Um ... does anybody have anything really
important they need to bring up with regard to the 20 ... er, packet for the 21St? (several
responding) 28th, I'm sorry, yeah, okay! Um, we could schedule our next listening post.
That would, uh, please Marian and get us movin'!
Listening Post:
Neal/ And then I have a request, um, that we could have a listening post at the Old Capitol Mall.
I think that would be a nice location.
Botchway/ Sounds like a plan!
Throgmorton/ Well, it's a thought. I think it ought to be on the list. What do the rest of you
think, I mean, we did one in the Library. We did one in the Library, that was our first
one.
Karr/ It was our first one.
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Botchway/ The only reason that I ... I agree with what you're sayin', Jim, but Old Capitol Mall and
the Library are two different things to students (several talking)
Throgmorton/ But there are other parts of the community. Well, does anybody have a preferred,
different (both talking)
Cole/ ...neighborhood centers. Broadway (several talking)
Throgmorton/ I personally would prefer a neighborhood center. I would prefer a neighborhood
center for the next one.
Mims/ Well we have time to get two in before the end of the school year, so if we did one in the
neighborhood center as our first one of this year, and then did the second one on campus,
uh, in April.
Karr/ We could do a tentative one on that.
Throgmorton/ So I'd like to suggest Pheasant Ridge.
Karr/ Pheasant Ridge.
Cole/ Yeah, that sounds good to me.
Botchway/ I totally agree; I'm not necessarily disagreeing with neighborhood center but I mean
I'm thinking about the fact if we do it that way, is April closer to exams? And we're
gonna have issues as far as that's concerned.
Mims/ That's why I said April and not May.
Neal/ I think April's good cause then it gives students time before finals and ... after spring break.
Throgmorton/ And we'll have to get two volunteers to participate in that. When ... Marian, can
you kind of recruit two volunteers?
Karr/ Why don't I send out an email and you can check your calendars and we can take ... take a
look. And again, there's no magic in time or ... time of day, or, um, day of the week.
Correct?
Thomas/ Depends where it's being held, I think.
Karr/ Well I think that's the whole package, and your availability. Correct. Okay! Yes.
Botchway/ Well I think if we're able to ask the Pheasant Ridge neighborhood center, what would
be the best time. I know that I was just recently over there for a (coughing, unable to
hear) community event and Fridays, late at night, was a good time so I'm not sure
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whether or not they may have some different timeframes. But it was pretty ... it was pretty
well attended.
Throgmorton/ Yeah, we ... we have to be flexible.
Karr/ Okay! I'll get something out.
Council Time:
Throgmorton/ Good deal. Thank you, Uh, Council time. If, uh, I would want to bring up one
particular topic, uh, for sure cause I mentioned it in our joint cities meeting and I want to
bring it up here, so (laughs) um ... uh, the ... the City of Iowa City and the University of
Iowa School of Urban and Regional Planning have invited a man named Robin
Hambleton who Geoff knows from, uh UI, uh, University of Illinois Chicago campus to
visit in mid-March. Uh, he'll make a public presentation pertaining to his recent book,
Leading the Inclusive City, on the night of Monday, March 21. Uh, we'll probably set up
a roundtable discussion involving ... uh, a few key staff, at least ... but not more than three
Council Members. Can't violate open meetings law, uh, and probably invite some other
people — mayors, etc., from nearby jurisdictions, and that'll take place I think from noon
to 1:30 probably on that same Monday. It hasn't been set up yet, but that's... things have
kind of been put in motion, along those lines. So wanted you to know about that.
Anybody else need to bring up anything with regard to Council time? Okay, meeting
schedule. Does anybody need to bring up anything on that? I do. I have one thing,
but ... okay, the one thing I needed to bring up is that the University of Iowa's Faculty
Government Relations Committee has asked to meet with some of us, so I would
like ... ask for two of you to volunteer to join me in meeting with them, at 5:00 P.M. on
Thursday, February the l Vh
Cole/ I'd be happy to, Jim
Mims/ I think I can do that.
Throgmorton/ Well there ya go, so Rockne and Susan.
Mims/ Okay!
Throgmorton/ (mumbled) in here so (mumbled)
Cole/ (mumbled) I'm sorry, at what time?
Throgmorton/ 5:00 P.M. I don't know where yet (coughing, unable to hear) Great, thank you!
Thomas/ And the inclusive city was on the 21 st? Of March?
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Throgmorton/ Yes. All right, let's see ... uh....does anybody need to bring up anything else on
that topic? Okay. I don't have anything else. Any other topics anybody needs to hit off?
Okay! We're done! Thank you.
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